explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2581: Health Stats

2022-03-17T22:22:39Z

JamesCurran: American will measure with anything except the metric system.

Pretty late comic! [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 06:26, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

It's positive feedback, not negative. Negative feedback is when the response is in the opposite direction of the stimulus (e.g. Cueball becoming more relaxed as blood pressure goes up) and often results in an equilibrium state. A vicious circle (positive feedback) by contrast is when the response ends up increasing the stimulus further, as is the case in this comic.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.29|162.158.233.29]] 11:19, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
https://www.albert.io/blog/positive-negative-feedback-loops-biology/#:~:text=Positive%20feedback%20occurs%20to%20increase,back%20to%20a%20stable%20state.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 11:50, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

I feel Cueball's pain. My employer has a checklist where we are supposed to take our temperature every day before coming to work. My problem is, I run hot. My "normal" temperature is usually 99.6ish, not 98.6ish. I knew this for years prior to the pandemic - I used to be a frequent blood donor and would get turned away about a third of the time because they won't take anyone above 99.5. Even though I knew all this, the paranoia induced by daily monitoring and a value that would be abnormal for others but totally typical for me got so bad that I don't do it. No one is enforcing it at the door - it is basically the honor system, and it was causing me more anxiety than actually solving anything. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.69|172.70.114.69]] 18:54, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
:A simple "solution" to this, at least for forehead thermometers, would be to engage in some moderate exercise shortly before having your temperature taken, such that you get some perspiration on your forehead. Then you can discontinue the exercise, and the sweat will evaporate soon afterwards, resulting in a particularly low skin temperature for a short while. [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 21:30, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
:: No one is taking my temperature - like I said, it is the honor system and they are expecting you to do it before you show up. My point is that doing so was creating anxiety much like Cueball's, with not a lot of utility to the acquired data. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.14|162.158.79.14]] 18:27, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
:'Google: 99.6 f to c' -> '37.56' Hmm, that seems very close to average. Why are those people so concerned about such a small difference compared to average body temperature? [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 20:11, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

I see this as mainly a joke on how consumer devices often provide more precision than is actually needed, and users don't understand that the extra precision is usually not significant. The only reason "normal" human temperature is 98.6F, to the 10th of a degree, is because average temperature was first measured in Celsius then this was convered to Fahrenheit. But 37C was originally rounded off from an average, so it wasn't precise enough to warrant using an extra decimal place in the conversion. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
:Also a saultory lesson in the misunderstanding of the relationship (i.e. that there really isnt one, at least reliably) between precision and accuracy. Without proper calibration, even moment-to-moment consistency of measurement can be sullied by it being (consistently) wrong, or wrongly read out. Adding more decimals may seem to give a more persuasive estimate, but doesn't do a thing to stop inaccuracy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.225|141.101.98.225]] 19:51, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

I think we can assume that customer devices have a significant inaccuracy but have build-in time consistency to increase the trust in the device. Thus, I don't think the inconsistency between two measurements can explain the variation. Since the hand is moved around on the comic strip positioning is a more likely cause. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.243|172.70.38.243]] 20:10, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

Saw an article a few weeks ago on the nocebo effect of fitness gadgets ... could be related. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-15/wrist-size-fitness-gadgets-make-for-great-gifts-but-beware-of-the-nocebo-effect [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 00:02, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

Just a side note: 72.961% of all readers trusts fictional data more if it has lots of decimals. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.121|162.158.134.121]] 11:26, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
:True fact: When the height of Mount Everest was first accurately calculated, the result was 29,000 ft. That was within a precision of one foot, but ''looked'' like it was rounded to the nearest 1,000, so they announced it to be 29,002 ft instead to actually look as accurate as it was (or had been!) precise.
:Incidentally, that figure was established from measurements taken from no closer than 100 ''miles'' from the mountain (due to local politics and other difficulties) that had to account for atmospheric refraction, as well as the curvature of the Earth, etc. The current official measure, with 'hands on' access, is 29,031.7 ft. The difference (of 9.66m, to put it into modern units) is slight. If you assume it is changing directly in line with the average rise of the Himalayas, over the intervening 170 years, that's around 8.91m off. It's not possible to assess seasonal (snow-depth) changes, but that might cut another good fraction off again. Not bad for 1850s capabilities. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 22:47, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

The explanation says that it is a new smartwatch, but the comic immediately made me think it was a new feature added by a software update. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.203|172.70.54.203]] 15:55, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

how close is the volume of blood in a hand to a typical adult human? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 20:16, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

This comic has me wondering if there is a fitness device that measures blood volume "down there"? That would introduce a hilarious new esports contest. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 06:37, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

For the record, .28ml is approx 1/17th of a teaspoon [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 22:22, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2405: Flash Gatsby

2021-05-25T20:53:49Z

JamesCurran: Copyrights are hard.

I think this link should be referenced (and something added about how the copyright for this particular work is specifically extended), but not sure how to : https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/595567/why-the-great-gatsby-isnt-public-domain#:~:text=Copyright%20laws%20in%20America%20are,domain%20until%20January%201%2C%202021.&text=In%201976%2C%20Congress%20passed%20the,revised%20copyright%20laws%20from%201909. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.121|162.158.62.121]] 02:30, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

I have one day to figure out how to do this in real life. Anybody have some tips?
[[User:HostnameNotCaroline|HostnameNotCaroline]] ([[User talk:HostnameNotCaroline|talk]]) 12:49, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

I do have tips for a plan, though I don't have a full-fledged plan. Presenting the book, sourcing the book, and fixing problems after publishing are all going to be separate steps. Keep in mind that it is ''only'' the text of the book that is copyright free, don't go taking something from the movie. I also don't know if later versions and revisions are covered or not- or if there were any. (What about forewords? They might be covered by copyright still.) I also recommend uploading it to a site that supports updating-in-place so that you can publish the new version without destroying all links to it.

Here's how I imagine it. You load the book and are faced with an introduction on what it is. Then the reader is either ploped into the start of the book with a table of contents accessible somewhere or into the table of contents directly. There needs to be some way of moving to a particular page or chapter without crowdsourced guesswork or a thousand clicks/page-swipes. You're going to want to format chapter starts (and titles if applicable). Give the chapters clear spacing and centered headers as a book would. Don't forget about how the text will be presented. It needs to be legible, people won't want to use it if it's not. If you can't vary the size, font, and color I recommend a 12pt-20pt serif font that's black on white. Honestly though, I think that the quality of the presentation itself will be what people judge your work by. That's kind of what separates publishers when multiple people publish the same work.

I hope at least some of that was applicable. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.155|172.68.132.155]] 13:34, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Won't it stay up for longer if you publish it in correct timezone, making it available for those still in 2020? How does copyright law interact with timezones? How does flash's killswitch? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.25|162.158.203.25]] 14:16, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
:I'm still able to use Flash in Google Chrome, and it's after noon in my timezone (EST). Maybe it will actually stop with the next update? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:43, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

The copyright law in question states that a work becomes public domain at the '''end''' of the year, a certain number of years after the author (or last author in the case of a collaboration) died. In Canada, that time frame is 50 years. In the U.S., I believe it is 75 years, but copyright renewals were a thing in the States for a time. Because F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940 (80 years ago), his work ''finally'' goes into public domain at the end of this year after the 75 year term and the renewal expire.
[[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 15:53, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
: That is not true. Well, it's correct in general, but irrelevant in regards to ''The Great Gadsby''. In the US, Life+70 applies to all worked first published '''after''' the US joined the Berne Convention on copyrights (1980, I believe). For works published '''before''' then, it gets complicated. Copyright was for 28 years but could be renewed for another 28 years, for a total of 56. After that, it became Public Domain (PD). When we join the Berne Conv, it was decided that everything already PD would remain so (those being works published before 1922, plus those published before 1950 where someone forgot to renew the copyright -- The movie ''It's a Wonderful Life'' actually fell into this category), and those works still under copyright would have it extended to 75 years. So, in 1998, everything published in 1922 became PD. But then people realized, soon it wouldn't just be old books becoming PD, but now silent films (including early Mickey Mouse shorts), and soon classic talkies would soon be PD, so something had to be done. Enter the ''Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act'', (Yes, he was a congressman for a while) which added another 20 years to copyright protection to those pre-Berne works. So then, works published in 1923 finally became PD 1-Jan-2019, with works from 1924 and 1925 following in 2020 & 2021. (And that's the simplified version; it's really even more complicated than that!) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:53, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

Great Gatsby seems to be the work everyone is waiting to plagiarize legally. It's been mentioned in several reports on NPR today. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:43, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

"It was obviously delayed one day to come out on new year." Or another comic will come out today (Friday), and this was an extra comic and not a delayed one. I'm removing this sentence until we know. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 17:58, 1 January 2021 (UTC)
: per https://xkcd.com/archive/, this is not true. The publish date is 2020-12-30.

Talk:2254: JPEG2000

2020-01-30T21:44:14Z

JamesCurran:

Cubeball's keyboard has disappeared in the third panel. 22:24, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Pretty sure the woman in this comic should be called Hairbun. Updating transcript... [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 01:31, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Jpeg2000 is widely used on archive.org (scans are stored as .jp2 there). For example, the image of this page [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.215730/2015.215730.The-Theory#page/n99/mode/1up] is internally from a jp2.zip file:
https://ia601604.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/16/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.215730/2015.215730.The-Theory_jp2.zip&file=2015.215730.The-Theory_jp2/2015.215730.The-Theory_0099.jp2
where BookReaderImages.php seems to be able to read .jp2 in zip and send it to you as a legacy format your browser can handle. [[User:Yosei|Yosei]] ([[User talk:Yosei|talk]]) 01:48, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if as a result of this comic, xkcd fans will cause rapid adoption. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:11, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

:Looks like [https://pdf-aktuell.ch/pa/language/en/is-jpeg2000-compression-suitable-for-pdf-files-for-prepress/ it just isn't worth it].

GIMP seems to be able to load JPEG2000 images. To export as JPEG2000, you need an external plugin. [[User:Fabben|Fabben]] ([[User talk:Fabben|talk]]) 12:02, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
:That’s correct, I changed the text. --17:06, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall is deliberately referencing Valve's Artifact's [https://steamcommunity.com/games/583950/announcements/detail/1712958942366879379 long haul]. Even has a loose connection with image artifacts. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.102|172.68.47.102]] 12:20, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Would a brief description of the .png format (more typically used for comic images) be appropriate? {{unsigned|162.158.78.70}}

I was pretty sure that patents were the main problem with adoption, at least in time when .gif patents were a problem. However, it seems the patent status is getting better and it isn't helping ... meanwhile, WEBP, which is using similar technology, is gaining traction.
... which would also answer the question of the previous commenter: while brief mention of PNG might be worth it, mention of WEBP and similar alternatives would be more important -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:46, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
: In the US, patents are issued for 20 years, counting from when the application was submitted, which means it should be coming off patent any day now. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 21:44, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

It's also used for [http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Image_System textures in Second Life]. In fact, that page also states that decompressing JPEG2000 is much more processor-intensive than other image compression methods, so I guess that might be another reason for the lack of general adoption? [[User:EddyM|EddyM]] ([[User talk:EddyM|talk]]) 00:50, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

JPEG2000 is not at all unknown in the geospatial community. Both USGS and NASA offer various aerial and satellite imagery products in JPEG2000 format only. I assume it is one of the most versatile non-proprietary photographic imaging formats out there. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.184|162.158.167.184]] 06:30, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

When I clicked on th3 .jp2 as ljnked in the Trivia, my tablet wanted to open it only in my (pre-installed bog-standard) ebook reader ''or'' GPS Essentials (perhaps confirming 162.158.167.184's comment, just above). But mention of JPEG2000 takes me back (25 years or so!) to a time a similar scare to the GIF patent issue had motivated alternatives to the 'public' common picture standard. And reminds me also of the "masking" technique used on (regular?) JPEGs, based upon keyword-hash shuffling/deshuffling of selected 8x8-pixel DCT units of a JPEG image (and of the hues apllied to the curves) to reversibly censor images, IIRC driven largely by Japanese censorship rules. Somewhere on an old hard disk I must still have the reverse-engineered 'solver' I wrote for that, written in Delphi... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.144|141.101.107.144]] 18:14, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

Odd that Randall would use a lossy JPEG2000 image for a cartoon rather than a lossless one. A friendly reminder that JPEG is best for photography and is not intended for line drawings. [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 08:04, 16 January 2020 (UTC)
: That's his loss, then! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.196|141.101.98.196]] 17:15, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

I was browsing a series of 70+ page PDFs that was a very high quality image scan, and the PDF browser would regularly grind to a halt for a second or two when trying to move forward a few pages. I eventually discovered that the images were embedded in JPEG2000. They were definitely small file sizes and definitely high quality, but it was just too much. I decoded the entire 500+ pages and re-encoded them as jpeg. Bigger file size, lower resolution, but scrolling was smooth as butter again.

Randall is correct to not really care about the standard's failure, per se, except insofar as he feels sorry for it. The difference between the technical impressiveness of these improvements and their unimportance to reality reminds me of the VHS vs [[Wikipedia:Betamax|Beta]] issue. Yes, Beta had the ability to reproduce sound and video of a higher fidelity, but only in a trivial sense indistinguishable to most people under normal conditions, whereas VHS was better at things that were indeed important, like being able to record a full two hour movie when Beta could handle less than one hour. The same thing happened with [[Wikipedia:OS/2|OS/2]] vs Windows...OS/2 was purely object-oriented, a technical distinction that was completely irrelevant to real life, but required four times as much RAM as the typical brand-new computer came with, so it failed. Being able to save 32 bit color profiles and choose whether the compression is lossless is important to me as a graphic artist, but doesn't matter one whit to the typical user, who wouldn't even notice the difference. —[[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 17:55, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2215: Faculty:Student Ratio

2019-10-18T16:49:49Z

JamesCurran:

Hi

That student from the title text would have just barely made a cent, two if they were generous and rounded up. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.18|172.68.65.18]] 00:21, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Really? My calculations have him at about 16 cents ((5 trillion x 100) divided by (10^6 x 3600 x 24 x 365.25))

Regarding above average students not getting in, the scenario described is oversimplified. I used to work in admissions for a “highly selective” university and while applicants with perfect SATs and higher than 4.0 GPAs were routinely put on the wait list (not rejected) because we assumed that they viewed us as merely a “safety school”, if the applicant showed any interest at all in actually attending, such as having come on campus for an in person interview, campus tour, or had an alumni connection, or letter(s) of recommendation, or athletic scholarship, then of course we would make an offer, and similarly if they showed any interest as cited above after being put on the wait list then they would be top of the list to get an offer from the wait list. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.48|162.158.63.48]] 03:39, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it should be [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50+trillion+dollars%2Fyear+*+10+microseconds $15.85] and [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50+trillion+dollars+%2F+%2850*40+hours%29+*+10+microseconds $69.44]. Although I'm not so sure now that there's 3 other answers on this page. If someone can confirm one of these and find inaccuracies in the others, go ahead and update the page. --[[User:Seaish|Seaish]] ([[User talk:Seaish|talk]]) 07:49, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
:For a constant salary across the whole year, I got $15.85 as well. For paid working time it depends on the assumptions of working days per year and working hours per working day. I got 220 working days(250 official in my state-30 days of holiday, even though technically it is considered payed holiday....) and 39hours per week (8 per day, and 7 on friday), I get to $80.94. But, as stated that depends on the assumptions. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:48, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

;"Hi!" x 5'000'000'000

Hi!

I think it's a reference to "Hello, World!" test program.

It is also possible to print 5 billions of unique "Hi!" using different color (provided you have 32 bit color map for CMYK and maybe 2 differend colors of paper) {{unsigned ip|172.68.10.172}}

;Unsigned Comment from Community Portal moved here:
HI,

I disagree with the calculation for the amount of 50 trillion over 10 microseconds, its a lot more than the amount give,.

Wage = 50000000000000000000

Divide by 260 days for an average work year is a daily rate of = 192307692307692000.00

Divide that by 7.5, the average working day is an hourly rate of = 25641025641025600.00

Divide that by 60 for minutes in the hour to give a minutes rate of = 427350427350427.00

Divide that by 60 for seconds in the minute to give a seconds rate of = 7122507122507.12

Divide that by 1000 to give a millisecond rate of = 7122507122.51

Divide that by 1000 to give a microsecond rate of = 7122507.12

Times that by 10 = 71,225,071.23 for 10 microseconds of work, not bad.

You are starting with the wage too high by a factor of a million, 50 quintillions instead of 50 trillion. (I guess you're using the British terminology instead of the US amounts) Divide all you figures by a million and you get the more reasonable $71.23, which is about what others are getting. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:49, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

From an ADP Payroll Specialist {{unsigned ip|162.158.234.82}}
:50 trillion (in english use of the word trillion) is 5E13, not 5E19 (as you used it), so instead of $71,225,071.23 it is only $71.22 for the 10 microseconds, using your assumptions on average work days and working time. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:35, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
::Trillion could be 1E18 in long scale, commonly referred to as Brittish, or in short scale, commonly referred to as American, it is 1E12. So the "english" use of the word trillion is ambiguous (but adding the English modifier suggests British, i.e., long scale.) I added a note to article to mention the different possible interpretations. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.113|172.69.33.113]] 19:58, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
:::According to your wikipedia link, nearly all English speaking countries (including the UK and therefore England) use the short scale. Therefore, in contrast to my native language (German), which uses the short scale, the long scale is the "English" meaning, even though the term (English) is not scientifically correct in this context, it helps when trying to make it clear to the many people on this wiki who natively speak a language in which the long scale is the usual one. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:08, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Is the date incorrect? The archive on xkcd says it was released on 10/14, but here it says it was released on the 15th, which would make it a tuesday comic. [[User:Landfind|Landfind]] ([[User talk:Landfind|talk]]) 14:17, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
:The date was set incorrectly by the BOT that generated this page - not sure why but likely because the time of release was just past midnight GMT. I fixed it though because it is clearly the Monday comic for 10/14. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:47, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
:Here, a Monday the 14th seven or eight pm refresh did the trick. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.64|172.68.38.64]] 17:37, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

um, "10e-6 / 3600 / 24 / 365 * 50e12)" does not mean what you think it means. are we geeks here or not? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.235|162.158.158.235]] 08:58, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
:I changed the formula. It was not actually wrong (it worked out), but the way it was displayed does not show clearly why it is applied. Also the unit $ was missing. Feel free to further edit, if this is not correct or could be done better. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:22, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Where can I enlist? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.171|162.158.158.171]] 14:56, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

=== Effect sizes by forms of instruction ===

Computer-aided instruction can act as a "force multiplier" increasing the effective class size ratio depending on the type of instruction used. See [https://www.docdroid.net/DZH8EoK/is-31-05-education.pdf tables 1 and 2 here.] Too tangential or ok? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.19|172.68.189.19]] 12:38, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2156: Ufo

2019-05-29T18:27:19Z

JamesCurran:

Am I the only one now hearing the iconic opening music of the series in my head? :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:41, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
:I wasn't until you mentioned it :-( [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.131|141.101.99.131]] 13:57, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

May be related to this news released yesterday:[https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1133031/Aliens-news-UFO-Pentagon-US-Navy-pilot-footage-video] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:41, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
:Yep, slow news day.[[User:OhFFS|OhFFS]] ([[User talk:OhFFS|talk]]) 15:19, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

The title text is probably a reference to US government restrictions placed on their departments (such as NOAA), preventing them from releasing details which might support the idea of climate change. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 18:27, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2119: Video Orientation

2019-03-11T21:59:26Z

JamesCurran: Family Circus

[IMG]http://i64.tinypic.com/2co1zio.png[/IMG]
More readable:I think this could be done with text too.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.154.64|172.68.154.64]] 13:41, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Obligatory prior art in this commentary space: [https://vimeo.com/313458699 Glove and Boots: Vertical Video Syndrome] (apparently they decamped from Youtube to Vimeo last month, the original c. 2013 video was Bt9zSfinwFA). [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 14:21, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

The title text seems to be a reference to AL, the A.I in ''2001 : A Space Odyssey'' which cause a few problems to the crew and mainly communicate through a round lens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.171|172.69.226.171]] 14:27, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Or 2002 movie The Ring [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.221|141.101.96.221]] 14:32, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::I presumed it was a reference to summoning circles. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.160|172.69.62.160]] 15:28, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:::My first thought was a reference to Matt Parker of standupmaths and his spherical camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgyI8aPctaI [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.67|162.158.62.67]] 18:17, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:::I think the same... Isn't it some Terry Pratchett quote? or may be from other fantasy? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.2|162.158.94.2]] 18:32, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:It was HAL, not AL in Space Odyssey. Move the letters forward one, and it's IBM. Deliberate Easter egg. {{unsigned ip|162.158.38.94}}
::I thought it was something that wasn't planned by the author? But yeah, still makes for an interesting Easter egg. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:09, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
:::You are correct. Clarke has always insisted that the letter-shift from IBM was coincidence and that he would've picked a different name had they known at the time. HAL has always stood for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer". ({{w|HAL 9000#Origin of name|source}}). [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:37, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
:Nonsense. The title text is clearly stating that Randall sees Family Circus [http://familycircus.com/] as his nemesis. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 21:59, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

A circular screen is great for that retro-look, like a [https://picclick.com/1950s-ZENITH-PORTHOLE-Television-18-Circular-TV-Screen-113317154719.html 1950's Zenith Porthole TV]. I seem to remember seeing circular screens on some really old sci-fi shows as well. As well as one use of a [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/ThisIslandEarth triangular screen]. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:37, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I thought the circular format was a reference to SnapChat's camera glasses and people's mistrust of "surveillance glasses". I am probably wrong. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:57, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Fails in the obvious- Horizontal is better because you can send the video in to the TV news for your 15 seconds of fame without looking like a douche who doesn't know how to rotate their phone. And why isn't there a setting for "always landscape" anyway?[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:48, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

:I have to agree... the fact that most non-mobile screens are oriented horizontally being left out was kind of a big miss. A vertical video looks like crap on a TV or Computer Monitor (Ironically unless it's an old 3:4 one, where the difference is a lot more minor.) -Graptor [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.220|172.69.62.220]] 15:34, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

:I assume that inside your phone camera there's a "retina" chip in the same dimensions as your screen, so if your phone is upright (portrait) then the picture is portrait shape too. But, sure, they could make the camera rotate inside the phone... that would work for switching between selfie / other people modes, too. But no, then your selfies would be upside down... or... can I get back to you? :-) Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.200|162.158.155.200]] 11:14, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Ironically, when I first read the comic on my phone (portrait), I did not realise there was a third "CONS" column. [[User:ColinHogben|ColinHogben]] ([[User talk:ColinHogben|talk]]) 15:20, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:that never would have happened with a circular screen ~ ocæon 01:44, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Not that good of an explanation, even if I wrote some of it. Actually, especially since I wrote some of it. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:54, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Thanks 90.10 [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:08, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I have never had problems holding my smartphone in landscape, or my camera in portrait. I just can't understand the use of portrait to film anything but one for two people's faces just because you hold the device that way to make a phone call (on the v rare occasion they do). Hey but I was born in the 50's [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:57, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I don't think the 50x150 view comment is right. I'd suggest removing it or backing it up with a source. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.16|162.158.146.16]] 23:14, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I feel like there's an awesome joke to be made about Battlefield Earth here...
[[User:Glassvein|Glassvein]] ([[User talk:Glassvein|talk]]) 02:44, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

== Anti-Semitic trolling ==
Edited to remove the anti-Semitic tag and content. {{unsigned|Elusis}}
:Dealing with the same thing. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:30, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::Maybe we should replace the Google CAPTCHA with an IQ test? That should get rid of the 5-year old troll.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.171|172.69.226.171]] 18:33, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:::But then they’d say IQ was rigged by the communistic jewish theocracy. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:48, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::::This replies aren't helpful. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:00, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Thanks for removing that content, but please do not remove the entire incomplete tag that soon. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:00, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
My advice for now: Just revert that content silently, that unregistered user always has to solve a captcha while a registered user easily can revert it. Without any discussion that IP will get tired sooner or later. Nonetheless many thanks to everybody keeping an eye on this destructive edits. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:00, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Yes, just '''revert''', do not try to edit it out or you'll miss some little bit stuffed here or there - but look at the revision history before to check out if someone haven't added useful stuff in between troll's edits. In this case you need to edit it out, just be careful. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.150|162.158.90.150]] 17:28, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Can you do me a favour and stop censoring my edits? If your position has any merit (it doesn't), you could defeat me in debate (you can't). {{unsigned ip|162.158.106.6}}
:There is no censorship here. And please do us a favor and sign your comments. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:19, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::::Fuck you, shill. Soon the truth will be revealed, whether you want it to be or not. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.240|162.158.106.240]] 21:32, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
Please no censorship on comments like this in a talk page unless it's really vandalism. I have reverted the two "deleted troll stuff" remarks back to the original. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:59, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
:With the language being used, the comments were, indeed, vandalism. Re-removed them. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.82}}
::Bad language isn't vandalism - but your action editing comments written by others is vandalism. This is a talk page and everybody can say anything, but some nonsense like this require a proper reply. This is not the explanation page. And further more deleting comments gives the writer an argument about censorship which in this case would be correct. Do you want that writer having a correct argument?
::BTW: Please do not forget to sign your comments. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:21, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
::: Off-topic rants (my characterization) and vulgar personal attacks on other commentators (including against you, Dgbrt) is OK, because this is a 'talk' section? If it entertains me to post "The NFL is rigged to let New England win" in every comic I should go ahead? [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 04:05, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

but guys, the stuff he's saying is '''bold and dynamic''' @_@[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.23|172.69.33.23]] 00:51, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

==Table==
may the pro con table be replicated and expanded upon? the realworld aplications of horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and circular screens would be comparable the same way. ocæon 01:54, 5 March 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Ocæon}}
: so my first contibution and i screwed up formatting, heh, i have no clues to fixing that.. anyway angular filming with cameras goes well beyond dutchy, nobody else remember early handheld rap music videos? and circular screens also gave a pro which is not yet noted at all please don't make me add it! ocæon 18:34, 5 March 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Ocæon}}
::You did start your first line with a space which formats the text as a quote. And please sign your comments with at least <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> or use the sign button at the top of the editor. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:52, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

"I'm not turning my phone sideways" -- seems like someone never plays any games on his phone. Heck, even docs and sheets are better in horizontal orientation than vertical orientation. As for the "don't trust anyone speaking from inside a circle," it made me think of (1) the little peepholes on doorways to see who's out there and (2) The Oval Office. While that's not technically a circle, it's somewhat related... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.153|162.158.74.153]] 08:28, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

"The title text quip about circular video would be a reference to having a demon trapped inside a summoning circle" Oh really? You know this how? Google certainly didn't show anything like that; indeed, there was a lot about "circle of trust" and I don't trust this comment. I'd say [citation needed] or change it to "circle of trust". ( DON'T CENSOR ME, MAN! ;^) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.70|162.158.214.70]] 11:00, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
:Circle of trust seems to be a clothing brand? I do not see any relevance on that. Nevertheless I think the demon thing should, if at all, be one of few alternative explanations. It might just be a nonsense statement, or could be related to a fisheye objective, binoculars, or to the looking holes in appartment doors. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:07, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

wow this circle is sure disliked alot considering randall says it solves the aspect ratio problem. if it's a trust issue then what happens in the case that two people hold a conversation via circular televideophones? ocæon 22:14, 6 March 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Ocæon}}

Maybe Randal and someone he knows have those Alexa video things that are circular and people talk out of... [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 22:32, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

== Randalls favorite video orientation ==

What makes people think he likes the horizontal orientation more? Looking at the comic it seems to me he likes the vertical orientation more. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.87|172.69.54.87]] 10:05, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

:the pro for vertical suggests it has reached a tipping point for widespread social acceptance, but whether it's pro status is an assertion or a path of least resistance remains unclear. it leaves us free to project on the issue. ocæon 22:28, 6 March 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Ocæon}}

== Pro/Contra Vertical Video ==

The explanation so far seems to suggest that he thinks vertical video is obviously bad, and even compares it to the "Norm" type file comic. "claiming that an obviously bad idea keeps being done by accident 'so we might as well just accept it'". However, I think this is not true at all, and the comic aligns much more to the comics which talked about common misconceptions (Frankenstein) or commonly used bad grammar ("could care less"). On many of these comics, he seems to have the opinion that the people who insist on the "correct" way should stop insisting and just accept the change. I think this one relates much more to those, and he is pro vertical video [which I'm not, so this is not an interpretation based on personal preference], instead of relating to the "Norm" comic where he obviously is just joking. The point of the comic is "stop fighting it". And nowhere in the comic he claims that horizontal video is obviously better, like the explanation says so far. {{unsigned ip|162.158.89.223}}

Talk:2098: Magnetic Pole

2019-01-14T23:02:02Z

JamesCurran: I had assumed you used MarkDown

GPS relies on satellites not the magnetic pole, so it wouldn't be affected.

So, GPS ''receivers'' don't need magnetic poles... but what about the GPS ''satellites''? GPS works being them transmitting their exact location, so they need so way of knowing what that is. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 22:58, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I was wondering about that. Just added {{Citation needed}} to that and a couple of other alleged facts that should really be cited if true, and removed if not. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 20:35, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

It was speculated that reversals were linked to mass extinctions. This would make the alt-text appear to be a bit blase - but " Statistical analysis shows no evidence for a correlation between reversals and extinctions." so it seems we will probably be OK.
It does seem odd that GPS wouldn't be calibrated against fixed ground positions. [[User:Baldrickk|Baldrickk]] ([[User talk:Baldrickk|talk]]) 22:06, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I don't believe any "location systems" depend on magnetic field for their accuracy, other than a magnetic compass. As noted above, GPS is calculated numerically from signals received from satellites, so the only effect the magnetic field could have on that is if it somehow disrupts the broadcast of the satellite radio signals. Similarly, LORAN calculates location based on radio signal, from towers on land. There are others as well, and I'm pretty sure none that depend on the location of the magnetic pole. GPS in general is not calibrated to fixed ground positions, but there are enhancements to GPS that do. But those still use radio broadcasts from towers whose locations are known, and don't need to take into account the location of magnetic north.
[[User:Lnthomp|Lnthomp]] ([[User talk:Lnthomp|talk]]) 22:28, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2098: Magnetic Pole

2019-01-14T22:58:27Z

JamesCurran:

GPS relies on satellites not the magnetic pole, so it wouldn't be affected.

So, GPS *receivers* don't need magnetic poles... but what about the GPS *satellites*? GPS works being them transmitting their exact location, so they need so way of knowing what that is. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 22:58, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I was wondering about that. Just added {{Citation needed}} to that and a couple of other alleged facts that should really be cited if true, and removed if not. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 20:35, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

It was speculated that reversals were linked to mass extinctions. This would make the alt-text appear to be a bit blase - but " Statistical analysis shows no evidence for a correlation between reversals and extinctions." so it seems we will probably be OK.
It does seem odd that GPS wouldn't be calibrated against fixed ground positions. [[User:Baldrickk|Baldrickk]] ([[User talk:Baldrickk|talk]]) 22:06, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

I don't believe any "location systems" depend on magnetic field for their accuracy, other than a magnetic compass. As noted above, GPS is calculated numerically from signals received from satellites, so the only effect the magnetic field could have on that is if it somehow disrupts the broadcast of the satellite radio signals. Similarly, LORAN calculates location based on radio signal, from towers on land. There are others as well, and I'm pretty sure none that depend on the location of the magnetic pole. GPS in general is not calibrated to fixed ground positions, but there are enhancements to GPS that do. But those still use radio broadcasts from towers whose locations are known, and don't need to take into account the location of magnetic north.
[[User:Lnthomp|Lnthomp]] ([[User talk:Lnthomp|talk]]) 22:28, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2097: Thor Tools

2019-01-11T19:48:52Z

JamesCurran:

I think the comment about the axis direction is based on how you interpret the terms Best and Worst - either for Thor or those who encounter him. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:15, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Many nail-guns use cartridges filled with a combustible material (gunpowder or similar) rather than a supply of compressed air. A blank load of a .22 rimfire pistol cartridge is typical. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder-actuated_tool [[Special:Contributions/50.202.80.200|50.202.80.200]] 18:35, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Is there a possibility that the reversed axis suggests an (aero)plane as the worst weapon? Bad taste rules it out I suppose. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.179|108.162.212.179]] 18:46, 11 January 2019 (UTC) Nic

I think a lightning staple/nail gun would be pretty dope...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:52, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

I've been hit or otherwise injured by most of these, but I do not know of anyone who has been planed, that's how dangerous planes are, everyone knows to be careful. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:17, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

It's a pity he didn't add "Screwdriver (sonic)" to the chart. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:48, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2084: FDR

2018-12-13T16:25:45Z

JamesCurran:

I didn't know about the Guy Fawkes date. I thought the title text might have been referring to the song {{w|Try to Remember}}, but it refers to September and December, but not November.
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:02, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:You clearly aren't from the UK, still a pretty big thing here. Known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night and is a part of everyone's primary (elementary?) education
:[[User:Zbrown|Zbrown]] ([[User talk:Zbrown|talk]]) 16:50, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::I'm not from UK and I know about that from english lessons in primary school, but I didn't know about the Pearl Harbor date. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.220|188.114.102.220]] 16:55, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:::Then you're probably not from the US [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.174|172.68.143.174]] 17:19, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::::I'm from the US, but I couldn't tell you right now without scrolling up what date Pearl Harbor day was. Then again, I have trouble remembering the dates of anything but Christmas, New Year's, & 4th of July. Measurements of time are really weird & arbitrary perceptual artifacts, for me. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:08, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:::::I always found it weird that they celebrate the 4th of July on the 7th of April. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.145|162.158.111.145]] 13:17, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
The Crete earthquake raise the island by 3 to 9 meters. You go out on a beach in Crete, it is obvious, especially if there are ruins of an ancient city nearby where the docks are well inland [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.174|172.68.143.174]] 17:32, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Incidental, this month I made the weird mistake of writing a date as "2016" ... I really have no idea why that happened, or that I didn't catch it to correct it in time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.135|162.158.74.135]] 17:52, 12 December 2018 (UTC) Sam
:Me too! For some reason I've recently written the date as a couple years ago a few times over the last month or so, and I normally never do! Also in response to the above discussion, I've never heard of Guy Fawkes day, and don't particularly remember the date of Pearl Harbor other than by comic [[821]] [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:09, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

FYI, the hovertext appears to be wrong. The Med quake was July 21, AD365 -- not June 21. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.13|173.245.54.13]] 20:25, 12 December 2018 (UTC)Andrew K[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.13|173.245.54.13]] 20:25, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::I don't think it's deliberate; he didn't get the other date in the title-text / alt-text wrong. I think the alt-text contains an unintentional error. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:00, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

So he's not using THE date format: https://xkcd.com/1179/
:'''''Thank''''' '''you.''' Writing it the correct way (yyyy-mm-dd) would probably confuse most people though, & I think ISO-8601 does allow provision for dates written long-hand (MMM d, yyyy). I'm just glad someone else remembers that the ''proper'' way to numerically specify a date is year first, then two-digit month (01 thru 12, not 1 thru 12), & ''then'' day. This keeps the numbers in correct left-to-right sequence & will sort alphabetically too. m-d-yy is just '''''wrong''''' on so many levels. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:00, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:: Don't worry, month, day then year is pretty much only found in one country, like spelling colour without the u. It should die out eventually. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.238|162.158.165.238]] 22:32, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::Personally, when it's not for archival purposes I write dates d/m-yy. I don't care if it's wrong, it's how I say them in daily speech. The slash should make it clear which one is day and which one is month and the dash should make it clear that the last part is the year. I don't see myself signing any contracts that last longer than the average human lifespan, so including the century and millennia feels unnecessary. [[User:Kapten-N|Kapten-N]] ([[User talk:Kapten-N|talk]]) 12:03, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't see any explanation for the "19" in the comic. Could that be a reference to 7:19 (the time of the Mexico City earthquake and the name of the movie about it)? [[User:Madfrog768|Madfrog768]] ([[User talk:Madfrog768|talk]]) 21:26, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:It's the year, 1941. Time would not appear in a '''Date:''' field. In the comic, Randall got all the way to writing the 4 before he realized he was putting the wrong date in. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:00, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

I work for a bus company and work on the schedules for the next service change which usually takes place in december. Since I have this job, from the end of summer on I regularly miswrite dates a year ''ahead''. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.55|162.158.111.55]] 21:31, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Any Hardcore History fans with Dan Carlin? [[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 07:28, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

As for catchy date mnemonics, you can't beat "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" for the armistice of The Great War. Note it wasn't called World War 1 until there was a second world war 35 years later. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:29, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
:I'm trying to work out where you got the 35 for your 35 years later. WW2 started 20(-ish) years after WW1 ended, WW2 ended 31 years after WW1 started. Not sure... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.145|162.158.111.145]] 14:49, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I'm still writing "1987" on my checks. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:25, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2042: Rolle's Theorem

2018-09-06T20:13:32Z

JamesCurran: added snark

Now we wait for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munroes_theorem. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.165|172.69.54.165]] 15:51, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
:Can't wait to see how long it takes to remove the article. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:05, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

:Proposed ideas for Munroe's Law:
::- Any seemingly simple idea will be difficult to prove; the simpler it seems, the harder the proof.
::- Any proof which is discovered by a layperson will have been previously discovered by an expert (or an "expert") in the field.
:[[User:Rajakiit|Raj-a-Kiit]] ([[User talk:Rajakiit|talk]]) 17:57, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
:I do not have the time to do it good, so here a suggestion: Would someone go to the wikipedia page of Rolle's theorem and add a "in popular culture" section? may be a first? Not even "Nash equilibrum" has that :-) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.16|162.158.234.16]] 08:13, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

I feel like Euclid beat Randall to the punch here, a couple millennia. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.146|162.158.155.146]] 16:54, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

I don't see that Thales has proven Randall's theorem. Do not to be confused with {{w|Thales's theorem}}, that's about right angles. Maybe I'm blind or just dumb, but if so it has to be explained with more traceable background. I just believe that this diagonal is so trivial that even the ancient Greeks weren't engaged on a proof. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:38, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
* From {{w|Thales|Wikipedia}}: Other quotes from Proclus list more of Thales' mathematical achievements: "They say that Thales was the first to demonstrate that the circle is bisected by the diameter, the cause of the bisection being the unimpeded passage of the straight line through the centre." [[User:Alexei Kopylov|Alexei Kopylov]] ([[User talk:Alexei Kopylov|talk]]) 05:39, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
* On the other hand not all historian believe Proclus. But van der Waerden does: [https://books.google.com/books?id=HK3vCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA88#v=onepage&q&f=false]. [[User:Alexei Kopylov|Alexei Kopylov]] ([[User talk:Alexei Kopylov|talk]]) 05:49, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

:''Rolle's Theorem counterexample?''
Isn't the TAN(x) function a counterexample to this? Starting at a given point, it rises to infinity, then returns from negative infinity to the same point without ever having a slope of zero. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.89|172.68.58.89]] 06:58, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
:TAN(x) isn't differentiable at pi/2, hence the theorem doesn't apply--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.40|162.158.92.40]] 07:48, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
::And tan(x) has a slope of 0 at pi, so even if it applied, it wouldn't prove it wrong. A better example would be 1/x, but still invalid. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:01, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
:::Nope: tan(x) has a slope of 1 at pi, and its slope is never less than 1. Of course, that doesn't make it a counterexample. Zetfr 09:17, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

The math in the comic is well explained, but shouldn't there be something about the "math equivalent of the clueless art museum visitor..." part? Zetfr 09:17, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Just so we're on the same page, while the proof of Rolle's theorem is not completely trivial, neither is it difficult by any means. Proving it seems to be a pretty common homework assignment in undergrad math classes, for example, so one might legitimately ask why it deserved to be named. Perhaps it's simply that it's old enough that the methods at the time were crappy, and so modern proofs are much easier. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]]
: It is named because it's a very important theorem in calculus, used to prove many other theorems or results. So when you need to prove something using this property, instead of re-demonstrating it or merely saying "it is well known that..." (which often raises alarm bells in the mind of the reader/corrector), all you have to do is reference Rolle's theorem.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.158|162.158.155.158]] 11:08, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
:: It could almost be called "Rolle's lemma". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.103|162.158.154.103]] 12:28, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Has anyone else noted the irony of having a wiki page to explain a comic whose subject is how some things are self-evident? [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:13, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2040: Sibling-in-Law

2018-08-31T21:22:10Z

JamesCurran:

Unless you want to go completely nuts on this topic, avoid reading Jane Austen, where the the term "X-in-law" is used to mean, roughly, "someone to whom you are related for legal reasons". It can be used to refer to, for example, what we today might refer to as step/half-siblings, adopted siblings, etc. [[User:Arcanechili|Arcanechili]] ([[User talk:Arcanechili|talk]]) 15:51, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

> The title text refers to incestual relationships, which are generally frowned upon in Western culture.
How on earth this refers to incest if persons are only legally, not genetically related??? It's just that Randall doesn't know how to call new relatives but cannot stop their arrival. {{unsigned ip|162.158.91.251}}

Yes, I also don't think it refers to incest. {{unsigned ip|172.68.94.40}}

:I'm not sure if that is right or not, but that was my interpretation of that text, based on the "a reason why these two should not be wed." Unless there is a different issue with this, also involving marriage? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.190|162.158.59.190]] 16:44, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

::I read the title text as... the reason he is objecting has nothing to do with the couple getting married, it's simply the selfish reason that Randall doesn't want the confusion of having to figure out what to call the new extended-family members. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 17:37, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Somehow I don't have this problem whatsoever...as I'm a single child who married a single child. I have zero siblings-in-law. In fact, my future kids won't even have (regular) cousins... {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.231}}

Am I the only one that thinks there's an error in this comic? Shouldn't spouse's sibling be the sibling-in-law of Cueball's *sibling*? But then, maybe I'm also making Randall's point... [[User:Sspenser|Sspenser]] ([[User talk:Sspenser|talk]]) 18:28, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

The Russian language actually has different words for both "types" of brothers in-law (spouse's brother vs. sister's husband), also for parents and children in-law on either side: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Свойство_(родство) .
But all these in-law distinctions are based on the respective spouse's sex, so it won't work for same-sex marriages. {{unsigned ip|162.158.234.58}}

The way this is defined, you and your spouse both have the same set of siblings and siblings-in-law. In other words, if someone is your spouse's sibling or sibling in law then that person is your sibling in law if that person is not your sibling. The relationship chains across a maximum of one sibling relationship. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 18:56, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Off topic but I can't resist:
:DARK HELMET: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former room-mate.
:LONE STARR: What's that make us?
:DARK HELMET: Absolutely nothing....
Spaceballs (1987) parody Star Wars --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Anyone else think this comic is a form of "Wedding Gift" Randal is giving to a sibling who's getting married (presumably today)?

Talk:2029: Disaster Movie

2018-08-07T18:30:04Z

JamesCurran: more on Data( )?sets.

DATASETS is one word. {{unsigned ip| 172.68.59.24}}
:And ''data sets'' are two ;) (BTW: Please sign your posts) --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:52, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
:[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/data_set oxford] says it's data set(s) --[[User:Gusser93|Gusser93]] ([[User talk:Gusser93|talk]]) 21:36, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
::Sorry for my sarcasm, both is possible as can be seen here at Wikipedia: {{w|Data set|A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data...}}. Oxford doesn't cover the US. And on the other hand {{w|Shapefile|shapefile}} is really a single valid term belonging to the geographical information system (GIS). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:08, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
::On a modem, there is a pin signal called "DSR" for "Data Set Ready," which would suggest that IBM (I think the terminology started with them) thought it should be two words (sometime back in the 1960's). (Side note: The "data set" in this case was the modem itself; "set" being used in the context of "a bunch of components in a box", as in "TV set") (side note, part II: Grammerly is marking all the "data set"s here and suggesting they be written as "dataset") [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 18:30, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Not by any means an expert, so I don't want to remove it without commenting, but I don't think the section on why "GIS survey team" is unrealistic holds up - I know the ShoreZone project (http://www.shorezone.org/) on the US and Canadian west coast uses almost exactly that kind of scientists-in-helicopters methodology. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.100|172.68.174.100]] 01:54, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
:That project sounds like it's collecting much more fine-grained data than simply coastal geometry - especially high resolution imagery, which does need to be taken from an aircraft. [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 02:54, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Cowboy Bebop, episode 24: "Hard Luck Woman." This is exactly what Radical Edward's father did. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.100|162.158.63.100]] 02:27, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

376: Bug

2018-07-24T16:30:30Z

JamesCurran: Restored text that was deleted 5 years ago, which actually EXPLAINED the comic, and put a random fact into context.

{{comic
| number = 376
| date = January 28, 2008
| title = Bug
| image = bug.png
| titletext = The universe started in 1970. Anyone claiming to be over 38 is lying about their age.
}}

==Explanation==
In computer systems, time is measured starting from some arbitrarily chosen point. That particular time is known as the "{{w|Unix time|epoch}}" for that system. The {{w|UNIX}} operating system internally uses an epoch of January 1, 1970, and measures the time as a number of seconds from then. Since this was intended only for things internal to the OS (File last modified times and the like), using 1-Jan-1970 was safe as no UNIX systems existed before that date.

However, since UNIX included a number of system functions to manipulate these dates, some developers mistook them for a general purpose date object, and misused them in applications requiring dates before the epoch, by using negative values. Such usage would inevitably fail; for example, since the value isn't specified to be signed or unsigned, the date might be considered to be far in the future, instead of in the past.

[[Cueball]] has clearly misused the system date in some way (probably by using an unsigned data type to store the timestamp, which cannot store negative values (in this case dates before 1970) or doing some other operation that doesn’t support negative values), his friend makes a pun by combining "Epoch" with "Epic Fail" - a colloquial term meaning "a very big mistake was made".

Another problem using the UNIX system date as a general purpose date object is commonly known as the {{w|year 2038 problem}}. At 03:14:08 on 19 January 2038, the 32-bit versions of the Unix time stamp will cease to work, as it will overflow the largest value that can be held in a signed 32-bit number. The 64-bit version "will" expire at 15:30:08 on 4 December 292,277,026,596.

The title text takes the joke to the next level, claiming that the entire universe began when Unix did, and therefore no one could have been older than 38 at the time when the comic was released in 2008. The formula is 'x - 1970', where x is the current year, which would explain the bug since no earlier dates are possible. This is also similar to {{w|Last Thursdayism}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a computer, staring at the screen and rubbing his chin in thought. A friend stands behind him.]
:Cueball: Weird — My code's crashing when given pre-1970 dates.
:Friend [pointing at Cueball and his computer]: Epoch fail!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:2016: OEIS Submissions

2018-07-11T16:27:24Z

JamesCurran:

"All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence" there is no paradox: it's pecified *another* sequence
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.133|162.158.154.133]] 17:52, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

I am so sorry that this comment is not related to the strip, but is the scaling for the explanation way off? Previously the scaling of the whole website was stretched, but now it is a bit too cramped for me. It happens to the previous strips too.Boeing-787lover 18:10, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

Is it too much of a stretch to mention that Chris Hemsworth stars in the movie ''Blackhat'', which is also a nickname for an XKCD character? [[User:John at work|John at work]] ([[User talk:John at work|talk]]) 19:31, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

The Sub 59 one is also a paradox, it specifies that it should include all of the author's accepted submissions, so it would have to be on it's own list itself in order to be accurate? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.233|172.68.58.233]] 19:47, 6 July 2018 (UTC)
:No, it would not be paradoxical. If it is accepted, then the sequence contains its identification number. If it is not accepted, that number is not in the sequence. The sequence changes depending on its own status, but there is no contradiction. This is different from e.g. the set of sets that don't contain themselves. If that set contained itself, it shouldn't contain itself, and if it didn't contain itself, it should contain itself. Both alternatives are logically impossible, so the set itself is impossible. There is nothing impossible about submission 59. [[User:Howtonotwin|Howtonotwin]] ([[User talk:Howtonotwin|talk]]) 20:15, 6 July 2018 (UTC)
:If OEIS would bend their own rule and allow a sequence of one number, they could accept SUB[59] , and it will never be out of date as long as they never accept another RM submittal.[[User:GODZILLA|GODZILLA]] ([[User talk:GODZILLA|talk]]) 00:49, 8 July 2018 (UTC)
:Do the OEIS rules specify that a finite set of numbers can not be expanded later? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.112|172.68.50.112]] 14:42, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
::Finite sequences are permitted. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 15:26, 10 July 2018 (UTC)''
:::But would they need to be complete at the time of submission/approval or can they be modified at a later stage? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.112|172.68.50.112]] 09:23, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

The Westside IRT stops sequence is a wonderful piece of trivia. I found [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/27/science/in-a-random-world-he-collects-patterns.html the NYT article], which gives as its reason that at that time only infinite sequences were included. I have failed to find the necessary third-party reference to the inclusion of the sequence in OEIS (this, being an open wiki, is unacceptable) to include the point in {{w|IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line|the Wikipedia article on the West Side IRT}}. Can anybody supply one? [[User:Yngvadottir|Yngvadottir]] ([[User talk:Yngvadottir|talk]]) 20:35, 6 July 2018 (UTC)
: http://web.mta.info/nyct/service/pdf/t1cur.pdf Scroll down to page 3, which has a chart showing all the stops on the 1 line. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:27, 11 July 2018 (UTC)
: The Manhattan stops of the IRT line (specifically they normal use the #2 express rather than the #1 local) are a classic "What is the next number in this sequence?" puzzle : 14, 34, 42, 72 .... [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:27, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

I'm wondering about the comment "In UTF-16, a 9 takes up 2 bytes," about the 2 TB of 9s. Does OEIS store numbers in UTF-16 format? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.94|172.68.174.94]] 21:01, 6 July 2018 (UTC) nprz
: It seems unrelated to me, the comic says 2 terabytes of 9s not 2 terabytes of 9s in a string (UTF-16 or otherwise). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.33|162.158.158.33]] 12:49, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

Helvetica seems to be one of the fonts where all digits have the same width (so that columns of numbers line up). Strangely, there seems to be a kerning pair for "11" that some Software uses. "Helvetica Neue" does not seem to have that kerning pair. (Tested using the simple HTML page in https://gist.github.com/hn3000/bec217afe666b0ee0a0430e976df4d22#file-numbers-by-width-in-font-html ).
[[User:Hn3000|Hn3000]] ([[User talk:Hn3000|talk]]) 11:04, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

Such a coincidence! I've been working on my first submission all week and wrote an Emacs Lisp program that discovered the third integer pair the day this came out! You get to see it now that I have a number allocated ([https://oeis.org/draft/A316587 A316587]): 12, 34, 56, 78, 6162, 7879. Can you find the next number in the sequence? Hint: my sequence is a proper subset of A001704. Still editing before I submit for approval. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:11, 7 July 2018 (UTC)''
: I withdrew my sequence. I learned from the OEIS editors that my sequence is "the juxtaposition of terms from [https://oeis.org/A116163 A116163] and [https://oeis.org/A116294 A116294]." The next pair after 6162, 7879 is 6547965480, 8091980920. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 15:26, 10 July 2018 (UTC)''

Digits do not have the same width in Helvetica, at least not in the version of Helvetica I have. Using the PHP function [http://php.net/imagettfbbox imagettfbbox] (part of the GD library), here is the bounding box width of single digits in 12pt size:
5 points: '1'. 8 points: '4', '7'. 9 points: '0', '2', '3', '5', '6', '8', '9'.
With a very large size (480pt) the differences ar more notable:
166 points: '1'. 302 points: '9'. 307 points: '6'. 308 points: '2', '8'. 309 points: '0', '5'. 311 points: '7'. 313 points: '3'. 318 points: '4'.

For 2-digit numbers in 480pt size I find: 522 points: '11'. 559 points: '61', '71'. 560 points: '91'. 562 points: '21'. 563 points: '51', '81'. 566 points: '41'. 568 points: '31'. 620 points: '19'. 623 points: '13'. 624 points: '10', '15', '18'. 625 points: '12'. 626 points: '16'. 629 points: '14', '17'. The rest range from 657 to 675 points.

In short, sub[44] makes sense, with all the caveats mentioned in the explanation. The phrases `1 to 9 in no particular order, 11, 10 and 12 to 19 in no particular order and so on' are exaggerated IMHO, the order within these subsets is not completely arbitrary.
Zetfr 10:22, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

I think that all nines sequence can be reference to Dilbert strip about random number generator which always returns 9 http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.77|141.101.104.77]] 19:41, 8 July 2018 (UTC)qbolec

Talk:2005: Attention Span

2018-06-13T20:06:28Z

JamesCurran:

Do you think the book being referenced is a Dragon Lance book?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 04:33, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I think with the "thicker than its wide" comment, it does sound like Dragonlance Chronicles. Also, it IS a classic [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.104|162.158.155.104]] 07:40, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Also, hasn’t Randall expressed interest in the works of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in the past. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 17:50, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Btw I hopped over to the forums to see if they had any good ideas, it didn’t yield much but one person suggested one of the Deathgate Cycle books, another suggested a Brandon Sanderson book, though none to my knowledge have Dragons on the cover, and someone else suggested it might be a D&D rulebook, though I don’t know of any of those that meet the thickness described[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 18:32, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
: Sounds like a Wheel of Time omnibus, if such a thing actually exists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 16:29, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:: If you're talking about omnibus editions of a series, there are many that could easily get this thick. But I'm at a loss to think of a single book that is thicker than it is wide. Although my mass-market paperback edition of ''Les Misérables'' comes pretty close (but has nothing to do with fantasy). [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 15:09, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
:Or it could be one of the alternate art covers of one of the Dark Sword books, or is that too deep a cut even for Randall? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 22:46, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

The comic contains a hyperlink to what appears to be exactly the kind of article Cueball apparently "''just'' finished reading", or at least my mobile reader is picking up a hyperlink. I've added a small note about this; I'm not linking the article directly for personal reasons. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.227|108.162.221.227]] 05:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I linked it. If it's linked in the original then it should be here, too. Maybe it belongs more to the trivia section, I don't know, but it definitely has to be shown here somewhere. On a side node: did Randall ever do something like that before? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:53, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Linking other content behind the image? Yes, I think he did it several times before. The only actual comic I remember, however, is [[351: Trolling]]. --[[User:YMS|YMS]] ([[User talk:YMS|talk]]) 09:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:Considering that the link contains a link to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jltKnDlH_OA I believe that omission is no an option [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.58|162.158.234.58]] 09:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:::[[1723: Meteorite Identification]], [[1506: xkcloud]], [[1572: xkcd Survey]]... just to name a few more. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 09:55, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: Ah, very well :) The difference between those three and this one and 351 is that in the latter the link is "hidden". The others say "Click here" either directly or in alt-text. And in xkcloud it isn't an external link. Whatever. Maybe we should consider making a category of them? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:04, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

I must admit to never having watch the seminal movie Surf ninjas but wikipedia tells me there is not only a novelisation, by A L Singer (Peter Lerangis) but also the screenplay. {{unsigned|Arachrah}}

I once advanced the theory that Sodor is the future of Mordor after the machines won and evolved into trains. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 12:46, 11 June 2018 (UTC) Jedman67
: Sounds like Mieville's Railsea. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 16:29, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Dragonsbane isn't nearly long enough to meet the thickness requirement --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.196|162.158.75.196]] 17:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)RyanR

Does anyone feel like the punchline is misplaced? Start with claim that he has no attn span any more, then she lists various overly long works he clearly does read while he protests and defends, then he concludes with punchline "no attn span for anything good." In fact, she should probably deliver the line, after discovering what he has on his bookshelf. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.42|162.158.122.42]] 20:25, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:The key here was diminishing attention span with age, so he indicated "...for anything good ANYMORE." The joke is that this isn't something that changed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.112|108.162.216.112]] 22:13, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

What bumps me about this comic is that the book Megan describes to make her point sounds like it would be an excellent well-structured book, very high quality reading, akin to Lord Of The Rings (Cueball even specifies it's a classic). REALLY doesn't fit with the theme of low quality crap reading this comic is going for. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:51, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

I've read all of the books mentioned as possible matches. And none of them have dragons holding a sword in their mouth. And since the book cover sounds EXACTLY like something I would enjoy reading, I really must insist that we demand that Randall admit which book he was referring to. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.22|172.68.90.22]] SiliconWolf

I wonder if the book Megan spots on the bookshelf is a sly reference to the classic (but rather staid) computer-science textbook "''Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools''" by Aho, et al, AKA "The Dragon book". The cover of the first edition ''does'' has both a dragon & a sword on it, althought the sword isn't in the dragon's mouth, and it is a bit thinner than it is wide. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:05, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

"Thicker than it's wide - It's a classic" is probably referencing the "If it's longer than it's wide, it's a phallus" joke poem.

Talk:2005: Attention Span

2018-06-13T20:05:03Z

JamesCurran: Added another "Dragon book"

Do you think the book being referenced is a Dragon Lance book?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 04:33, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I think with the "thicker than its wide" comment, it does sound like Dragonlance Chronicles. Also, it IS a classic [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.104|162.158.155.104]] 07:40, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Also, hasn’t Randall expressed interest in the works of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in the past. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 17:50, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Btw I hopped over to the forums to see if they had any good ideas, it didn’t yield much but one person suggested one of the Deathgate Cycle books, another suggested a Brandon Sanderson book, though none to my knowledge have Dragons on the cover, and someone else suggested it might be a D&D rulebook, though I don’t know of any of those that meet the thickness described[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.118|108.162.245.118]] 18:32, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
: Sounds like a Wheel of Time omnibus, if such a thing actually exists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 16:29, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:: If you're talking about omnibus editions of a series, there are many that could easily get this thick. But I'm at a loss to think of a single book that is thicker than it is wide. Although my mass-market paperback edition of ''Les Misérables'' comes pretty close (but has nothing to do with fantasy). [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 15:09, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
:Or it could be one of the alternate art covers of one of the Dark Sword books, or is that too deep a cut even for Randall? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.24|162.158.106.24]] 22:46, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

The comic contains a hyperlink to what appears to be exactly the kind of article Cueball apparently "''just'' finished reading", or at least my mobile reader is picking up a hyperlink. I've added a small note about this; I'm not linking the article directly for personal reasons. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.227|108.162.221.227]] 05:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
: I linked it. If it's linked in the original then it should be here, too. Maybe it belongs more to the trivia section, I don't know, but it definitely has to be shown here somewhere. On a side node: did Randall ever do something like that before? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:53, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:: Linking other content behind the image? Yes, I think he did it several times before. The only actual comic I remember, however, is [[351: Trolling]]. --[[User:YMS|YMS]] ([[User talk:YMS|talk]]) 09:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:Considering that the link contains a link to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jltKnDlH_OA I believe that omission is no an option [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.58|162.158.234.58]] 09:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:::[[1723: Meteorite Identification]], [[1506: xkcloud]], [[1572: xkcd Survey]]... just to name a few more. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 09:55, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: Ah, very well :) The difference between those three and this one and 351 is that in the latter the link is "hidden". The others say "Click here" either directly or in alt-text. And in xkcloud it isn't an external link. Whatever. Maybe we should consider making a category of them? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:04, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

I must admit to never having watch the seminal movie Surf ninjas but wikipedia tells me there is not only a novelisation, by A L Singer (Peter Lerangis) but also the screenplay. {{unsigned|Arachrah}}

I once advanced the theory that Sodor is the future of Mordor after the machines won and evolved into trains. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 12:46, 11 June 2018 (UTC) Jedman67
: Sounds like Mieville's Railsea. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.148|108.162.216.148]] 16:29, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Dragonsbane isn't nearly long enough to meet the thickness requirement --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.196|162.158.75.196]] 17:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)RyanR

Does anyone feel like the punchline is misplaced? Start with claim that he has no attn span any more, then she lists various overly long works he clearly does read while he protests and defends, then he concludes with punchline "no attn span for anything good." In fact, she should probably deliver the line, after discovering what he has on his bookshelf. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.42|162.158.122.42]] 20:25, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
:The key here was diminishing attention span with age, so he indicated "...for anything good ANYMORE." The joke is that this isn't something that changed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.112|108.162.216.112]] 22:13, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

What bumps me about this comic is that the book Megan describes to make her point sounds like it would be an excellent well-structured book, very high quality reading, akin to Lord Of The Rings (Cueball even specifies it's a classic). REALLY doesn't fit with the theme of low quality crap reading this comic is going for. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:51, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

I've read all of the books mentioned as possible matches. And none of them have dragons holding a sword in their mouth. And since the book cover sounds EXACTLY like something I would enjoy reading, I really must insist that we demand that Randall admit which book he was referring to. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.22|172.68.90.22]] SiliconWolf

I wonder if the book Megan spots on the bookshelf is a sly reference to the (rather staid, non-fiction) computer-science textbook "''Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools''" by Aho, et al, AKA "The Dragon book". The cover of the first edition ''does'' has both a dragon & a sword on it, althought the sword isn't in the dragon's mouth, and it is a bit thinner than it is wide. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:05, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

"Thicker than it's wide - It's a classic" is probably referencing the "If it's longer than it's wide, it's a phallus" joke poem.

Talk:2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry

2018-06-04T19:24:26Z

JamesCurran:

I have no idea what this is about, but wondered if Stephen Curry was related to the Curry twins Tom and Ben, who are both over 6' - or to Tim, who isn't except in heels.
[[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 07:53, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
: Both LeBron James and Stephen Curry are famous NBA players. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.190.4|172.69.190.4]] 08:46, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
::How would you not know that? And even if you don't know who they are, you must have at least heard about them before, right? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 09:21, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
::: Not everyone is from USA. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.190.4|172.69.190.4]] 09:41, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: That excuse could work, except your IP address is based in the USA :) [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 12:01, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
::::: So is mine right now, but that doesn't mean I'm '''from''' here, and they didn't make us memorise every NBA player on the plane. (Hey cool, this IP has edited here before too) -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.60|162.158.186.60]] 15:36, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

::: I like Curry. You know, the dish. And the actor. Tim, that is. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:58, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
Not everyone in the USA follows sports. I've heard of LeBron James, but only in passing. The only Curry I know of is a fictional one from some old movie. {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.147}}
;Nate Silver

Nate Silver is famous for his numerical approach and extensive use of statistics and simulations.
He foresaw a probability of 28.6% for Donald to win the electoral college just before the election. That is a greater chance than most political commentators would have granted Donald. Typical betting sites saw Hillary 5:1 ahead at the evening of the election.
So I would not at all say that he got everything wrong in 2016. He predicted that Hillary would be a formidable number of votes ahead as most probable outcome, but also that many states would be very tight.
[[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/]]. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.106|172.68.110.106]] 09:21, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;Definitions needed
Hi! Could definitions be added for some of the terms used, such as "bleachers"? Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.200|162.158.155.200]] 11:30, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;Magnetic North
I would have liked the "magnetic north" thing to be due to the geographical orientation of the teams home courts (if the Cavaliers are the only team to have a court that happens to be roughly north-south oriented, it would explain the higher points value). Looking at the Stupid Name Arena, however, it appears that the court inside is probably about NW-SE. Too bad. [[User:Chrullrich|Chrullrich]] ([[User talk:Chrullrich|talk]]) 14:15, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

I was thinking that might be a reference to the Cleveland Cavaliers playing their home games at a slightly high latitude than the (San Fransico-based) Golden State Warriors. (However, they are nearly at the same latitude, and neither is anywhere near 75 degrees North) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:24, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;SSN to Free Throw%
Would it be too much of a stretch to add in the fact that Stephen Curry's point is highlighted on the chart, as a nod to the fact that (the majority of) one's SSN can actually be determined if one knows details about personal information such as where one was born? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.130|108.162.219.130]] 16:08, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:Not anymore. My three kids were all born in the same hospital -- same wing; rooms only meters apart -- but have TOTALLY different SSN's. (No, I'm not sharing them as proof!) We even asked the local SS office what happened and they said they're starting to reuse numbers at random. I think it's not "reuse" as much as "reallocate", but either way the strict geographical basis is no longer valid. --'''BigMal''' // [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.209|172.69.70.209]] 16:31, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:Originally, the first three digits indicated the office where the person requested an SSN. It didn't really signify anything. It was just that each office was given on a block of numbers to assign, and that block all started with the same three digits. Since in the early days of Social Security, a person got theirs, not at birth, but when they first got a job, it was more of an indication of where they happened to be living then, rather than where they were born. By the 60s, SSN assignment had been centralized, but they still tried to maintain the regional number, based on the zip code of the person requesting an SSN. Apparently, they have more recently realized that's just a waste of time and just started issuing them sequentially. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:17, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone know what the "sandwiches" graph is a reference to? I don't believe I have heard anything about the Warriors and a love for sandwiches. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.101|172.68.46.101]] 17:03, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:Maybe this? [[https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/04/10/warriors-stephen-curry-45-point-game-sandwich]] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.39|162.158.62.39]] 17:23, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;More on SSN to Free Throw%
I did a quick digitization of the SSN /FT% graph, and the Steph Curry point is at about FT% = 92.5% and SSN ~ 300-XX-XXXX, which corresponds to his 2018 ft% of 92.1% (from wikipedia) and his birthplace of Ohio having a SSN in the range of 268-302 https://www.ssofficelocation.com/social-security-number-prefix . Even if SSN prefixes are random now, they probably weren't when he was born 30 years ago, so it is probably safe to conclude that the location of the point is deliberate. [[User:Acflip|Acflip]] ([[User talk:Acflip|talk]]) 19:01, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry

2018-06-04T19:17:18Z

JamesCurran: Too mush info about SSNs

I have no idea what this is about, but wondered if Stephen Curry was related to the Curry twins Tom and Ben, who are both over 6' - or to Tim, who isn't except in heels.
[[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 07:53, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
: Both LeBron James and Stephen Curry are famous NBA players. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.190.4|172.69.190.4]] 08:46, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
::How would you not know that? And even if you don't know who they are, you must have at least heard about them before, right? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 09:21, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
::: Not everyone is from USA. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.190.4|172.69.190.4]] 09:41, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:::: That excuse could work, except your IP address is based in the USA :) [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 12:01, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
::::: So is mine right now, but that doesn't mean I'm '''from''' here, and they didn't make us memorise every NBA player on the plane. (Hey cool, this IP has edited here before too) -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.60|162.158.186.60]] 15:36, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

::: I like Curry. You know, the dish. And the actor. Tim, that is. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:58, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
Not everyone in the USA follows sports. I've heard of LeBron James, but only in passing. The only Curry I know of is a fictional one from some old movie. {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.147}}
;Nate Silver

Nate Silver is famous for his numerical approach and extensive use of statistics and simulations.
He foresaw a probability of 28.6% for Donald to win the electoral college just before the election. That is a greater chance than most political commentators would have granted Donald. Typical betting sites saw Hillary 5:1 ahead at the evening of the election.
So I would not at all say that he got everything wrong in 2016. He predicted that Hillary would be a formidable number of votes ahead as most probable outcome, but also that many states would be very tight.
[[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/]]. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.106|172.68.110.106]] 09:21, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;Definitions needed
Hi! Could definitions be added for some of the terms used, such as "bleachers"? Thanks! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.200|162.158.155.200]] 11:30, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;Magnetic North
I would have liked the "magnetic north" thing to be due to the geographical orientation of the teams home courts (if the Cavaliers are the only team to have a court that happens to be roughly north-south oriented, it would explain the higher points value). Looking at the Stupid Name Arena, however, it appears that the court inside is probably about NW-SE. Too bad. [[User:Chrullrich|Chrullrich]] ([[User talk:Chrullrich|talk]]) 14:15, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;SSN to Free Throw%
Would it be too much of a stretch to add in the fact that Stephen Curry's point is highlighted on the chart, as a nod to the fact that (the majority of) one's SSN can actually be determined if one knows details about personal information such as where one was born? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.130|108.162.219.130]] 16:08, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:Not anymore. My three kids were all born in the same hospital -- same wing; rooms only meters apart -- but have TOTALLY different SSN's. (No, I'm not sharing them as proof!) We even asked the local SS office what happened and they said they're starting to reuse numbers at random. I think it's not "reuse" as much as "reallocate", but either way the strict geographical basis is no longer valid. --'''BigMal''' // [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.209|172.69.70.209]] 16:31, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:Originally, the first three digits indicated the office where the person requested an SSN. It didn't really signify anything. It was just that each office was given on a block of numbers to assign, and that block all started with the same three digits. Since in the early days of Social Security, a person got theirs, not at birth, but when they first got a job, it was more of an indication of where they happened to be living then, rather than where they were born. By the 60s, SSN assignment had been centralized, but they still tried to maintain the regional number, based on the zip code of the person requesting an SSN. Apparently, they have more recently realized that's just a waste of time and just started issuing them sequentially. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:17, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone know what the "sandwiches" graph is a reference to? I don't believe I have heard anything about the Warriors and a love for sandwiches. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.101|172.68.46.101]] 17:03, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
:Maybe this? [[https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/04/10/warriors-stephen-curry-45-point-game-sandwich]] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.39|162.158.62.39]] 17:23, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

;More on SSN to Free Throw%
I did a quick digitization of the SSN /FT% graph, and the Steph Curry point is at about FT% = 92.5% and SSN ~ 300-XX-XXXX, which corresponds to his 2018 ft% of 92.1% (from wikipedia) and his birthplace of Ohio having a SSN in the range of 268-302 https://www.ssofficelocation.com/social-security-number-prefix . Even if SSN prefixes are random now, they probably weren't when he was born 30 years ago, so it is probably safe to conclude that the location of the point is deliberate. [[User:Acflip|Acflip]] ([[User talk:Acflip|talk]]) 19:01, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1970: Name Dominoes

2018-03-23T22:12:15Z

JamesCurran:

This comic is a long list of names overlayed onto black domino tiles, arranged so that each touching side corresponds with the first or last name of another person. This will be difficult to transcribe. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.53}}
:Would it be possible to use a fixed width format and try and transcribe like an actual scrabble board? I think there are unicode characters for upside-down and rotated text that we could use for the flipped names. But yes, definitely will be difficult.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 18:21, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
::The transcript doesn't need upside-down and rotated text. It should be enough to mention that some tiles are. A first draft with all names would be good, but even mentioning all the connections would be to complex to read. Think about the reader... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:39, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
::How about using a fixed-width font and then representing each domino with an alphanumeric character, and then put a list below of what each character corresponds to? Even though there are more dominoes than characters, duplicate uses of a character (but referring to different names) can be easily disambiguated if we assign each character in order, left to right and top to bottom. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.71|172.69.70.71]] 20:04, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
:::I have made an image where each tile is numbered from left to right. See this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1970-_Name_Dominoes_-_The_large_image_with_numbers.jpg picture] and [[1970: Name Dominoes/Numbered images|Explanation]] here. I have created a transcript from this list. And the table --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:01, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
:::Do you think that maybe Randall created this comic just to screw with this wiki? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.53|108.162.221.53]] 14:51, 22 March 2018 (UTC)Martin
::::Certainly, a real explanation to Randall's ''Name Dominoes'' doesn't need a numbered list or one of these overwhelming tables. A short overview (a small bullet list would be the best) to the rules implied by the image and shown in the title text would be a proper explanation. Everything else is trivia at maximum. And I can't resist: This table, whenever it will be completely filled, tops them all...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:30, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
::The purpose of the transcript is so someone can search the site for a phrase (or in this case, a name) used in a strip, and find the page for it. Encode the words using upside-down UNICODE letters would defeat that purpose. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 22:12, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

I see alternative names or nicknames sometimes matches together. But is the Chris Pratt/Chris Evans match with Topher Grace a bit of a stretch? I see that Topher is a variation of Chris'''topher''' and Chis is a shortening of the same. But I guess it must be an acceptable move if Randle put it in the comic. Maybe it’s worth special points or something. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.70|162.158.38.70]] 18:14, 21 March 2018 (UTC)TheStewart

Walter White/Walt Whitman is a reference to Breaking Bad. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.101|172.68.58.101]] 18:20, 21 March 2018 (UTC)Pat

And Garnet being used to join Ruby and Saffire is clever...
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.64|141.101.98.64]] 18:23, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
This is a reference to Steven Universe where there is a character, Garnet, who is a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire.

"The title text spells out a rule that a player may only place a tile if they know who that person is" is mention as a reason for it not to be a fixed set of dominos, But I took it to mean you can't use "Jim Jones" unless you know of Jim Jones; as in, I could challenge your use of it by asking "okay who is he?". Maybe saying "oh, he went to school with me" or something wouldn't count, anymore than "crft is too a word!" works in Scrabble [[User:Afbach|Afbach]] ([[User talk:Afbach|talk]]) 19:36, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Harrison Ford is from Blade Runner I believe. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.124|162.158.2.124]] 23:07, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Ma Bell is interesting... is it the only one that not an actual person? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System

Alistair Cooke's name is misspelt "Alistiar"; it'll be interesting to see if this gets corrected (as errors sometimes do). Not to be confused with Alistair Cookie, a short distance away! -- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 08:45, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

I think maybe Chris Isaac (Canadian football quarterback) was intended to be Chris Isaak (American rock musician, singer, and actor). Can we just assume that was a mistake?
[[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 14:29, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

== Maybe a table? ==

I think a table would be a useful and user-friendly way of capturing everything that's going on here. Forgive this feeble attempt. I am not an html coder. I know enough to go steal something somewhere and see if it works:

{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:15%"|Domino
!style="width:35%"|Notability
!style="width:15%"|Connections
!style="width:35%"|Mode
|-
|Alistair Cookie
|A parody of Alistair Cooke "played" by Cookie Monster in the Sesame Street sketch "Monsterpiece Theatre" in the 1980s, a parody of the PBS series "Masterpiece Theatre".
|James Cook 
Alastair Reynolds
|Last-Last (approximate) 
First-First (approximate)
|-
|James Cook
|18th century British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy.
|Alistair Cooke 
Cokie Roberts 
Alistair Cookie 
James Fenimore Cooper
|Last-Last (approximate) 
Last-First (approximate) 
Last-Last (approximate) 
First-First
|-
|Chris Columbus
|Film director and screenwriter.
|Columbo 
Christopher Columbus 
Chris Hughes
|Last-Only (approximate) 
First-First (approximate) and Last-Last 
First-First

|}

[[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 23:27, 21 March 2018 (UTC)
: I like that idea. Especially because it would mean that all those links are removed from the transcript. As far as I understand transcripts (at least in this wiki) they don't inlcude any meta information (e.g. nothing that is not shown in the comic). [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:48, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
::Yes great example of a table, and yes no wiki links in transcript. I will put this in the explanation now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:42, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
:::I have now made an image where each tile is numbered from left to right. See this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1970-_Name_Dominoes_-_The_large_image_with_numbers.jpg picture] and [[1970: Name Dominoes/Numbered images|Explanation]] here. I have created a transcript from this list. And the table --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:01, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
::::Great job, thanks for the effort :) Should the table be moved to a separate page? Beacuse it's really massive... And another thing: I think the name list in the transcript as it was before (excluding links, of course) was better. At least for someone who is not visually impaired [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 14:52, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

And I thought Alistair Cookie was a reference to the fact Alistair Cook is batting like a muppet.
BTW I have WG Grace and Grace Darling in my hand - but i cannot seem to fit them in.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.204|141.101.107.204]] 17:16, 22 March 2018 (UT

I've created a table/spreadsheet of all the numbers, with a,b,c meaning first, second, and third part of name, respectively, [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tcxq1Hp3-AcGFrfkv3xRD1wNg9OO12gpN05D1H42-sU/edit?usp=sharing here]. Also, Van Jones is missing in both the numbered image and all text on this page. [[User:Ad1217|Ad1217]] ([[User talk:Ad1217|talk]]) 04:40, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
::::Cool. Thanks for pointing out that I failed to number the tile after 249. I'm now correcting the image adding this as number 250 and correcting the numbers after that. Ad1217 could you update your spreadsheet, and would it be OK to add a picture of this to the explanation? (I spotted an error in your spreadsheet as well, as you have used 286b rather than 268b at the bottom, but correctly used 268a --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:55, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Does anyone else see the connection between "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" and the fact that this picture is basically a network/graph? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.136|108.162.249.136]] 05:25, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
: I was disappointed that Kevin Bacon isn't a clear node of some sort. The joke could have been extended by adding a [[wikipedia:Erdős_number|Paul Erdős]] tile. --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:41, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall used an algorithm to build this. It would be interesting to generate dense domino packings automatically. Does he have an official github account or similar? --[[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:42, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1948: Campaign Fundraising Emails

2018-01-29T17:20:51Z

JamesCurran:

can someone make a table with all the emails and an explanation column? I'm shit at formatting. [[User:DPS2004|DPS2004'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:DPS2004|talk]]) 16:38, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

ActBlue is a political action committee aimed at helping people on the internet raise money for the Democratic party - there is no Jennifer ActBlue Heir to the ActBlue fortune. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.40|172.68.174.40]] 17:14, 29 January 2018 (UTC)Daniel Macintyre

It's interesting to note that for three of the emails, the subject isn't bolded, indicating that those emails were read. All three refer to female candidates [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:20, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1933: Santa Facts

2017-12-29T19:08:19Z

JamesCurran:

I added a Taxonomy Note as I wanted to raise the difference between Santa and Father Christmas. The latter wears a hooded, ermine trimmed robe (red in Britain, green or white in other domains) with full sleeves and a simple tie cord for a belt. Probably shoes and gloves - if not bare hands. It's easy to spot the difference when you know.
He probably walked at the head of a procession, despensing good advice and the good news that the days were not getting any shorter. Latterly he fell on hard times and was the chief reveller and drunkard. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 20:19, 26 December 2017 (UTC)
:I don't think this should be in the table --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.106|172.68.54.106]] 15:35, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
::A BIG THANKS!!! I'm fighting against windmills, ehh... tables in explanations like this since a long time. Tables are meant to provide a brief overview, but when a cell is exploding to many sentences that's a really bad layout. Please check my changes and let me know.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:22, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm fairly certain Santa would only be charged with trespassing (rather than breaking and entering) in many states. Someone should try to find the 5 states where entering a house through a chimney would result in a warrant. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.238.172|172.68.238.172]] 09:53, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

A vertical leap of 14 miles (~23 km), i''gnoring air resistance'' would require an initial launch velocity of slightly more than 2180 feet per second (665 m/s), somewhat over twice the speed of sound.
Is there something clever to be observed here about sonic booms (or lack thereof)? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 13:46, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

I'm not going to bother to update the page, but the comic was updated to fix the arthropod error (the original wording implied that insects were not arthropods). Also, "RIIW - Ponder it", your description of Father Christmas is indistinguishable from that of Santa. Could you provide a source for whatever distinction might exist? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.22|108.162.216.22]] 07:00, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

Special: Contributions - apart from 60 years in Britain, just Wiki Father Christmas. You say FC is indistinguishable from SC? Hooded robe, tie cord , shoes and bare hands vs Cap, jacket, trousers, wide buckle belt, boots and mittens. Walking or horse, using door, blessing, feasting and drinking vs flying sleigh and tundra fauna (reindeer), chimney, presents (possibly originally red and white mushrooms). The gown vs jacket et al makes identification easy at 1000 yards! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:19, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
:(Side note: The words "Special: Contributions" is a wiki note, not part of his name, which means not only is it generic, but this text is only visible when writing, so it makes for a poor nickname). Sorry, I must agree with ol' 216 22. Everything you've specified are standard and common accepted variences of Santa Claus, including the name Father Christmas. People (writers, directors, costumists) tend to use such aspects when they want an old time classic and/or more wholesome feel to the depiction. And the name "Father Christmas" is seen as an alternate name for Santa - like St. Nick and St. Nicholas - with a mild implication towards including these concepts. Plus, the gloves are the worst example of all, because even the more common jacket-and-belt version will often use fine gloves rather than mittens or bare hands. At least here in North America. Maybe in Britain they're treated as two different characters (though why????!?), but in North America this is one character. When it comes to cultural differences, unless specified otherwise the comics are referring to how things are in the U.S.A. simply because that's where Randall lives. Combine this with the fact that nowhere is "Father Christmas" even mentioned, trying to define such a distinction isn't suitable. Besides, if they're separate characters, the one has no place being mentioned in a comic about the other, right? :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 09:00, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

;14 mile vertical leap
Could the 14 mile vertical leap be connected to the flying/psychic type, allowing for a longer duration of vertical thrust than the duration for which Santa's feet are touching ground? If one of Santa's vampiric abilities allows him to alter his mass without changing volume (many legends allow vampires to turn into bats, which chiropteric forms at least have less mass than their humanoid forms), that could explain the vertical leap stat as primarily deriving from bouyancy, with the limit having to do with the minimum mass he can attain. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.45|162.158.58.45]] 08:27, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

My assumption was that "14 mile vertical leap" refered to the ''cumualative'' distance travel going up & down chimneys over the course of Christmas. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:08, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

;Arthropods
Is it worth mentioning that humans are "arthropods" if you treat that as a word rather than a taxon? "Arthropod" is Latin for "jointed legs." We do have joints in our legs. {{unsigned ip| 108.162.219.214}}

Works with Alexa -- Starting this year (2017) owners of Alexa devices could use the "NORAD tracks Santa" Alexa Skill. This was mentioned several times in the news, and I even set it up on my Amazon Echo so the little cousins could use it. Might this also be related? [[User:Bpendragon|Bpendragon]] ([[User talk:Bpendragon|talk]]) 16:51, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

;Plural
This can also be a Pokémon reference, because all Pokémon have identical plural forms, e.g. "I caught two Pidgey today.", not "two Pidgeys". {{unsigned ip| 108.162.219.10}}

;Lubricated
This could also be a reference to Santa being Intoxicated (also described as "Lubricated") a popular Meme on Holiday Cards. Its purpose here being connected either the belief that being drunk helps you survive injury (in this case, possible repeated falls down a chimney) [https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html]. This would also potentially add DUI to the list of possible charges. [[User:DaoFerret|DaoFerret]] ([[User talk:DaoFerret|talk]]) 19:59, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

The perception of Santa as a lobster may be a reference to the Danny Elfman song "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" from movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. The lyrics include "Wait! I've got a better plan / To catch this big red lobster man / Let's pop him in a boiling pot / And when he's done we'll butter him up" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.214|162.158.59.214]] 23:58, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

Re: Vampires. Current explanation talks about most versions of vampires needing to be invited in by the owner. I've actually never seen a vampire story with that rule, that it specifically has to be the owner. I've seen it where anyone LIVING THERE can invite them in, I think it's been more often that I've seen that any non-vampire who is inside the house can invite them in, and I'm pretty sure I've seen at least once where it's ANYBODY currently inside the house, including a vampire who has been invited in themselves. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 09:09, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1921: The Moon and the Great Wall

2017-11-29T17:26:28Z

JamesCurran:

https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/great_wall.html

gives something like an authoritative explanation togeter with photos taken from the ISS.

Summary: the great wall can't really be seen from space. But you may be able to spot its shape if the conditions are right. Such as light from the right direction (see the shadow), or snow accumulating on one side of the wall but not the other.

Jyrki Lahtonen

"The statement in the comic, however, is actually true." - It might be, but the part about the Great Wall in it is somewhat irrelevant - it is equally true also from anywhere else in the world. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.88|162.158.210.88]] 09:49, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
Yeah it's simply a reversal of the myth. "The Great Wall of China" could be replaced with "anywhere on Earth". But that would be less funny. [[User:Jdluk|Jdluk]] ([[User talk:Jdluk|talk]]) 10:27, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

The Great Wall is 13,000+ miles long, but only 35 feet wide. It's the narrowness that make it impossible to see from space. If we use thread (approx 1/100th of an inch wide) as an analogue, the GWC can be represent by a piece of thread 732 ft long (1.5 inches equals one mile), viewed from 5.5 feet away (equivalent to the 100 miles "edge of space"), or 1222 ft (22,000 miles geosynchronious orbit) or 2.5 miles (238,855 miles orbit of the moon) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:07, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

: 732 feet long viewed from 5.5 feet away doesn't sound credible. And the "edge of space" is 100 kilometres up, not 100 miles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.40|198.41.238.40]] 03:50, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
:: What part of that don't you find credible? Are you questioning my math? And I guess, the definition of "Edge of Space" has been revised since I first did the calculations when I was in college. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:26, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

: "The wall is a maximum 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) wide ... The apparent width of the Great Wall from the Moon is the same as that of a human hair viewed from 3 km (2 mi) away." - Wikipedia. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.40|198.41.238.40]] 03:59, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

That's simply false. The Great Wall of China is another structure on the surface of a celestial body that can be seen with the naked eye from the Great Wall of China. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.34|172.68.54.34]] 19:05, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

: definition of celestial body: "A natural object which is located OUTSIDE OF EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE, such as the Moon, the Sun, an asteroid, planet, or star."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/celestial_body
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/celestial?s=t [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.168|172.68.65.168]] 21:04, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

:: As opposed to terrestrial body, which is, well, the earth XD [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.22|172.68.2.22]]
::: Actually, there are four terrestrial bodies in our solar system alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_planet https://www.space.com/17028-terrestrial-planets.html [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 15:27, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Those merlons are way too small. They are not going to protect Megan & Ponytail from incoming arrows. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.34|172.68.54.34]] 19:08, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
: Depends how high the wall is... Perhaps in order to reach the top of the wall archers might need to be so close that the merlons are actually sufficient. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:19, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1921: The Moon and the Great Wall

2017-11-27T15:07:34Z

JamesCurran: Added thread comparison

Talk:1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:28:02Z

JamesCurran:

I guess first off, we should note the "solstice" is *not* the Bristish equivalent of "equinox" -- they are actually opposites. The equinoxes occur in April and September, when the day & night are equal length, and the solstices occur in June and December, when the length of daylight and nightime, respectively, are at their longest. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:30, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

"Determinant of the date of Easter" refers to the fact that in the Catholic Church (and possibly other Christian denomiations) the date of Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring, which means it is an astronomical calculation, but completely unrelated to the indicated angle. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:28, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:35:43Z

JamesCurran: /* Explanation */ Dimples of Venus

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels which make it far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based astronomical definitions all the labels are nonsense in this context.

All these labels are complicated words, some are somewhat related to orbital mechanics ("equinox", "perihelion") while some are just latin sounding nouns. Moreover, many of the labels provided are kludged, obfuscated, or simply made up. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram. Most easily recognizable are the "Dimples of Venus," referring to axis-intersection points in the diagram on Earth.

The reason why eclipses do not occur every month is because the Moon and Earth do not orbit on a single plane; the moon's orbit has an angle, or ''inclination'' of about 5.145 degrees relative to the ''ecliptic plane'' and therefore only rarely passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. This fact is evident from this diagram and is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform the reader.

The title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

{| class=wikitable
! Word used in the comics
! Meaning of word used
! Actual astronomical term
! Meaning of actual term

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Declension}}
| Inflection of nouns in a language.
| Inclination
| The "tilt" of an orbit

|-
| {{w|Hypothecate}}
| A legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage"
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| Perihelion
| Lowest point in a solar orbit

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Orbital plane
| The plane in which heavy object and orbiting object (in this case earth and sun) lie.

|-
| Sagittal plane
| A vertical plane that divides the human body into left and right sides
| Ecliptic plane
| Plane in of the Earth's orbit

|-
| {{w|Solar plexus}}
| Network of nerves located in the abdomen.
| Sun
| Star in our solar system.

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
|
|
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear b a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counter clockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsip, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angel to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between to lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and named by a fictional character similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moons path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

Talk:1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:30:35Z

JamesCurran: equinox/solstice

Talk:1861: Quantum

2017-07-10T18:34:26Z

JamesCurran:

The final paragraph probably should note that Magnets are directly on the ICP "Miracles" axis. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 18:34, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1742: Will It Work

2016-10-05T15:06:16Z

JamesCurran:

I think original poster, while did a great job transcribing, missed the point somewhat. While it is true that package managers make installation process more robust for average users (they sometimes also [http://www.cyberciti.biz/howto/debian-linux/ubuntu-linux-rollback-an-apt-get-upgrade/ screw things royally]), Randall probably wanted to point that projects that reached package state are most mature, tested and debugged. Using public git repository also speaks well about the coding practices and hence product quality. On the other hand, code that requires manual tweaking in order to be installed most likely have only been seriously used by author (if at all) and very likely to contain fatal bugs.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.85|172.68.11.85]] 08:06, 5 October 2016 (UTC) qm2k

Also, I believe this misses the joke about Geocities. I don't believe he is referring to code that was downloaded from Geocities at some distant past date, but code for which you are today given a link on Geocities to get it. The joke here is despite that fact that the chance of installing that code is zero, it's still better that code needing to be tweaked. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:06, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1575: Footprints

2015-09-09T16:17:19Z

JamesCurran: Answered a posed question.

I know a lot about the poem this is referencing as it was my deceased grandmothers favourite. However I am omitting myself from making any changes other than putting in the poem it is referencing and the most brief of explanations to begin so someone with less emotional bias can fix formatting and improve wording. The poem can be found here: http://www.onlythebible.com/Poems/Footprints-in-the-Sand-Poem.html [[User:Squirrel killer-|Squirrel killer-]] ([[User talk:Squirrel killer-|talk]]) 06:01, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Should we address that AT-ST' nickname is "chicken Walker"? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.249|198.41.243.249]] 08:46, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

The title text is not in textese (which you be "theres 1 set of fps bcs I carried U".) I'm not sure what it is exactly (not being American) the closest I can get is "Valley girl" (which is not right) and "that one dialect the frat-boys speak in the movies", which can't be it's name. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 09:43, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

"Going home == death" Are we certain that this is meant? I feel it could also poke fun at the whole "walk of life" concept, and going home simply means going home... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.10|162.158.92.10]] 09:55, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I've removed the definite implication that "Going home == death", and instead made it a possible interpretation. I agree that the title text is "frat-boy speak", but I'm not sure what you would call it -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.55|141.101.99.55]] 10:08, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I think the quicksand is a reference to Lawrence of Arabia, in the movie(spoiler alert?) Lawrence walks across the Sinai Desert only to see one of his men caught in quicksand and die immediately before reaching their destination.
[[User:Joar|Joar]] ([[User talk:Joar|talk]]) 10:15, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I'd call the title text dialect "bro talk" or something similar. Also, the quicksand bit is definitely in reference to Jesus' ability to walk on water: since quicksand is a mixture of water and sand, presumably it would be easier to walk on than regular water. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.153|173.245.54.153]] 13:52, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

The presumed reference to "Winnie the Pooh" is very far fetched. The joke of following its own footprint is used in many other works. Same for drawing in a quicksand. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.23|141.101.66.23]] 14:03, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
:Ha! Edit conflict, for exactly the same subject. What I was about to say was: The 'following our own footprints' bit reminded me, initially, of Tintin (In The Land Of The Black Gold?), with Thomson and Thompson's jeep, although that was two, four, six, etc tyre-tracks. I think the Pooh example is the more likely archetype.
:(i.e., in light of what I'm now replying to, more likely than the Tintin version. Whether or not Pooh was ''the'' inspiration.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.114|141.101.99.114]] 14:11, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

: I've noticed that problem quite a bit around here - generic comments being explained as specific references. But I'm too lazy to change them myself. Anyone up for it? [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 14:35, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Can someone translate "There's one set of foot-p's cause I was totes carrying you, bro!" into normal english? {{User:17jiangz1/signature|15:45, 09 September 2015}}
: "There is one set of footprints because I was totally carrying you, my brother"
: "There is one set of footprints because I was fully-committed to carrying you, my good friend whom I consider like a brother" [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:17, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

So, given the width of the "1-night" disappearances of Jesus on the chart, I think we can infer that the length of time between the quicksand incident and "going home" was a pretty long time. My sources tell me that Jesus has an affinity for resurrecting 3-days after death, and that his angels get him out of whatever place he's stuck (rolling away the tomb-stone, etc). Because of this, we might assume that the narrator had cleared enough distance away from the quicksand that he didn't notice Jesus resurrecting and being pulled out by angels... but in that case the vertical axis was being recorded "as the narrator walked", as opposed to someone else coming back and recording them after the events had taken place. (This is my first contribution to explainxkcd, so I'm keeping it in the comments unless someone else publishes it.)

Talk:1457: Feedback

2015-01-08T16:45:50Z

JamesCurran:

Could the pineapple here have any relation to the [http://wiki.wifipineapple.com/index.php/WiFi_Pineapple wi-fi pineapple]? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.103|173.245.52.103]] 05:27, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

: Oh, it might as well be an obscure Psych reference. Please stop looking for extraobscure references.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.34|108.162.254.34]] 17:57, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
::I agree, in the context I really don't see how the Wi-Fi pineapple has any relevance. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 18:52, 8 December 2014
(UTC)
::: Cueball could be acting on being told that he could access an unknown Wifi using a pineapple. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:45, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm3_qEMTdc4 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.39|141.101.104.39]] 06:35, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.39|141.101.104.39]] 06:37, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

I think the comic also refers to another experiment where pigeons received a snack from a dispenser at totally random times. The pigeons, thinking that whatever it is they did last helped trigger the release of food would develop a complex ritual dance to receive food. (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/) {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.123}}
: The intro to Mr. Nobody references this. It's what I immediately thought of when I saw this comic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGcEy_W48Kc (the explanation starts around 1 minute in){{unsigned ip|108.162.221.170}}

The title text may also be a reminder that despite signal strength being important enough to some humans to act in an insanity-suggesting manner, it is not an essential need of a living organism, as the rats visibly demonstrate. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 08:47, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

I thought 'reception' and 'wireless signal' referred to the cellular signal. That caused a lot of issues with the iphone and others. {{unsigned ip|173.245.62.89}}
: Agreed. I don't think the comic has anything to do with wifi. The alt text seems to bolster this view. [[User:SeanAhern|SeanAhern]] ([[User talk:SeanAhern|talk]]) 15:09, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Was it Mythbusters who tin-foiled an entire room to see whether it acted as a make-shift antenna? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:23, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

What if the pineapple is actually where the signal is coming from, but it's a directional pineapple... {{User:Grep/signature|18:32, 08 December 2014}}
:Don't be silly. Everyone knows pineapples are omnidirectional... Of course, given the decreasing power away from the plane, if the pineapple is being held high up due to you being on a chair, if you're holding your phone up ''as well'' you probably also need to ''not'' be on the chair for your phone to get the very best signal from it... Obviously. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 19:48, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

The first thing this comic made me think of was the belief in some people that if you hold a car key fob up to your chin and press a button, the signal from the fob will be more strongly focused (presumably by your skull) and thus able to reach your car from a greater distance. I wonder if there's any relationship? [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 07:24, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
:It's not really a believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uqf71muwWc --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.148|108.162.254.148]] 12:07, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
:: I have a few issues with that video, even though it SEEMs to be an established video series with mostly competent people doing the stuff in them. The experiment shown was far from exhaustive and there were several things I would have challenged the demonstrator to try, especially given the claims made as to how the range was increased... if you're interested, hit me up on my talk page and I'll try to explain. -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 13:33, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
:::As he says in the video, don't prejudge, simply do the experiment yourself. I have, and it very clearly works. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 22:25, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

I bet The Woz loved this strip. He did a similar trick in college:
http://archive.woz.org/letters/pirates/24.html
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.170|108.162.237.170]] 22:07, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1403: Thesis Defense

2014-08-04T23:16:56Z

JamesCurran: fixed spelling of my previous comment

Sorry, but if your best defense is frightening counter attack a good offense will destroy you. The best defense is a good offense because a weakened or destroyed opponent can mount no offense.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.132|173.245.48.132]] 05:58, 4 August 2014 (UTC)BluDgeons

:Depends on type of counter attack. For example, the best defense against missiles is to fire anti-missile missiles, which may be seen as type of attack. Of course, the phrase is older than missiles, but I believe similar principles applied: not retaliation nor first strike, but attacking the enemy units which are trying to attack you. Alternatively, attacking enemy army supply lines may also force it to interrupt her attack on you. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:22, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

::No. Anti-missile missiles are an absolutely dreadful defense agaisnt missiles. Their success rate is well below 100% and has only recently risen above 0%. The actual best defense against missiles is to blow them up on the ground, before they are launched, i.e. An offensive attack. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:12, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

The expression is based on a concept that is military and ancient, but I wonder if the expression itself, in English, originated with American football, sometime since the game's birth in the 1860s. It is so specifically applicable to this game, where a team's defense and offense are completely separate units, run separately and spoken of separately and yet an extremely effective way to keep the opponent from scoring is to maintain possession of the ball while the game clock ticks down. [[User:Wrybred|Wrybred]] ([[User talk:Wrybred|talk]]) 13:18, 4 August 2014 (UTC)wrybred

: While it is applicable in most attacking sports, then I seriously doubt that it originated in American Football -- I has been some time since I read {{w|Sun Tzu}}'s {{w|The Art of War}} which is one of the oldest texts in existence, but I suspect it may already be in there predating anything else [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:05, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

May or may not also be inspired by Studio C: Thesis Defense http://youtu.be/Lrlro3YJ15o Teagan N {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.134}}

Can anyone make out what's written on the board? {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.220}}
: No, probably not -- [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 21:57, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

: My best guess after resizing the image a few times is
:: [The|To] [F|Falcons?] [at|of] [T|Times?]
:: [D|Displays?] [a|is|its] [M|Moods?]
:: [by?] {illegible first name (short maybe Meg)} {illegible surname (long)
:: [C|{illegible}] [the] {illegible 1 short word 1 long word or only 1 long word}
:: {illegible mid size word} {illegible short word maybe is} {illegible short word a} {illegible} {illegible} {{unsigned|Meerkat}}

: Looks to me like "The Evolution of [Thesis/Turtle] Displays & Moods" something illegible, probably her name, followed by "Candidate for [illegible]"[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.52|141.101.98.52]]

: I read "The Evolution of Threat Displays in Murder" as the topic after lots of enlargement.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.207|173.245.54.207]] 14:30, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Came here today for this, created account to say thanks :) [[User:Mathiastck|Mathiastck]] ([[User talk:Mathiastck|talk]]) 18:18, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
: You'r welcome [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 21:59, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

== Incomplete? ==

looks to me that this pretty complete -- remove the incomplete tag? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:50, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1403: Thesis Defense

2014-08-04T20:12:49Z

JamesCurran: Commentary on missile defense.

Sorry, but if your best defense is frightening counter attack a good offense will destroy you. The best defense is a good offense because a weakened or destroyed opponent can mount no offense.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.132|173.245.48.132]] 05:58, 4 August 2014 (UTC)BluDgeons

:Depends on type of counter attack. For example, the best defense against missiles is to fire anti-missile missiles, which may be seen as type of attack. Of course, the phrase is older than missiles, but I believe similar principles applied: not retaliation nor first strike, but attacking the enemy units which are trying to attack you. Alternatively, attacking enemy army supply lines may also force it to interrupt her attack on you. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:22, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

::No. Anti-missile missiles are an absolutely dreadful defense agaisnt missiles. Their success rate is well below 100% and has only recently risen about 0%. The actual best defense against missiles is to blow them up on the ground, before they are launched, i.e. An offensive attack. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 20:12, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

The expression is based on a concept that is military and ancient, but I wonder if the expression itself, in English, originated with American football, sometime since the game's birth in the 1860s. It is so specifically applicable to this game, where a team's defense and offense are completely separate units, run separately and spoken of separately and yet an extremely effective way to keep the opponent from scoring is to maintain possession of the ball while the game clock ticks down. [[User:Wrybred|Wrybred]] ([[User talk:Wrybred|talk]]) 13:18, 4 August 2014 (UTC)wrybred

May or may not also be inspired by Studio C: Thesis Defense
http://youtu.be/Lrlro3YJ15o
Teagan N {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.134}}

Can anyone make out what's written on the board? {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.220}}

My best guess after resizing the image a few times is
[The|To] [F|Falcons?] [at|of] [T|Times?]
[D|Displays?] [a|is|its] [M|Moods?]
[by?] {illegible first name (short maybe Meg)} {illegible surname (long)
[C|{illegible}] [the] {illegible 1 short word 1 long word or only 1 long word}
{illegible mid size word} {illegible short word maybe is} {illegible short word a} {illegible} {illegible} {{unsigned|Meerkat}}

Looks to me like "The Evolution of [Thesis/Turtle] Displays & Moods" something illegible, probably her name, followed by "Candidate for [illegible]" [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.52|141.101.98.52]]

I read "The Evolution of Threat Displays in Murder" as the topic after lots of enlargement.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.207|173.245.54.207]] 14:30, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
: Thanks! Came here today for this, created account to say thanks :) [[User:Mathiastck|Mathiastck]] ([[User talk:Mathiastck|talk]]) 18:18, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1323: Protocol

2014-01-29T17:06:00Z

JamesCurran: explaining the title

This is funny. I was really drawn into the conversation due to the names. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 07:05, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
:Me too! And I'm even more drawn to the meta-conversation!! :) [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 13:30, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
::But what about me? Alice and Bob get way too much time already.... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob Carol (whisper) 13:30 29 January 2014 (UTC)]
Eve appears in [[177: Alice and Bob]] --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 08:14, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Heh. I was immediately reminded of the movie, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064100/ I wonder if that movie influenced the encryption names, or vice versa, or mere coincidence?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.72|108.162.216.72]] 12:31, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

I think the explanation looks complete to me. I vote to remove the tag. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:04, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Removed then. There was someone who asked for more [[Cryptography]] comic references. I found 14 and have thus made a new category (see link below). Feel free to add more if I have not found them all by searching on Cryptography and Encryption (I have only included those where there were some direct mention of these issues in the commic - or title text) and not just because there was mention of it in the explanation. However, the words does not have to appear in the commic before I included them. i.e. [[PGP]]. But also feel free to delete one from the list if I was too quick to include it [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:45, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

The description misses a key aspect of the comic. The conversation follows the pattern of a message being sent from Cueball to the Computer Scientist, with the CS sending an acknowledgement back and Cueball continuing --- much in the matter of an internet communication protocol, as referenced in the title. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:06, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1286: Encryptic

2013-11-04T16:51:50Z

JamesCurran: SOme guesses

It is unclear to me if these are actual hashes from Adobe file? That would be very cool... but actual file seems to have passwords in slightly different format. http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/how-an-epic-blunder-by-adobe-could-strengthen-hand-of-password-crackers/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.211|108.162.229.211]] 09:05, 4 November 2013 (UTC) pavel

:I wouldn't call 3DES secure ... but yes, in this situation the real problem is not using per-user salt. Note that I would expect that at least some of those examples would be solvable ...any idea? Hmmm ... sword of weather vane and one of apostles might be Martin ([http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_of_Martin]) ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:00, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

::It's Jonathon (for John). Not sure what it has to do with weather vane swords though... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.18|108.162.240.18]] 12:42, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:Umm. "Peter" does not seem to have 8 characters, does it? Encryption method suggests it should be 8 characters, as do 8 character boxes on the right... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.211|108.162.229.211]] 10:43, 4 November 2013 (UTC) pavel

::I'd say "weather vane sword", "name1" and "favorite of 12 apostles" is (Saint) Peter. "Weather vane" as symbol for the rooster in the denial, and the sword Peter used when Jesus was arrested. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.177|108.162.254.177]] 10:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

::: ... interesting that google search didn't mentioned it :-) Seems bible have too low pagerank. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:32, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

::: The 'favourite' apostle was John the Evangelist though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciple_whom_Jesus_loved . The other biblical clue here is 'with your own hand you have done all this' - Judith 15:10. If that's Judith1510 then the 'name and shirt number' is 'Judith15'. The TOS/earlobes clue seems to be "Spock's brain" and "Spock's (ears?)". And the Michael Jackson one is (obviously) ABC123. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 11:14, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: Perhaps "favorite" in this case refer's to the user's favorite, not Jesus's. [[User:Yomikoma|Yomikoma]] ([[User talk:Yomikoma|talk]]) 16:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Given that name1 is two blocks long, I would guess that the apostle's name is going to be eight characters long, with the second hash block being 1+seven spaces (or nulls if Adobe pads it with nulls and not spaces). But then again, as the only disciple with a name eight letters long is Thaddeus maybe not {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.214}}

:::: "St.Peter" is 8 characters, and having a "special" character (the period) makes it a good choice for passwords that might require 1 non-alphanumeric character (and ban spaces). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.223|141.101.99.223]] 11:47, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Another article about using passwords hints from multiple users to find the passwords from the breach. http://7habitsofhighlyeffectivehackers.blogspot.com/2013/11/can-someone-be-targeted-using-adobe.html [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 11:06, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

"Sexy earlobes" makes me think of [http://misswiu.livejournal.com/5385.html "The ABC of Aerobics"], but that would make that Shirley Clarke, and nothing in Star Trek has anything to do with Shirley that I am aware of, except possible [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ruth Shirley Bonne as Ruth]. I skimmed a list of episode titles, but nothing jumps out at me as particularly earlobish. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.187|108.162.219.187]] 11:20, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:Sexy earlobes might have something to do with Ferengi, but they didn't appeared in TOS. 141.101.99.214's idea is better. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:42, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:OK, we know that "sexy earlobes" and "best TOS Episode" are the same for the first eight character, but differ after that, while "best TOS" and "sugarland" are the same after the first 8 characters. So, my guesses are : Best TOS episode: "Charlie X"; "Sexy Earlobes": Someone with the first name of "Charlie"; "Sugarland": some city in Texas (perhaps "HoustonTX") [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:51, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Note that you should not ever use cipher in {{w|Block_cipher_mode_of_operation#Electronic_codebook_.28ECB.29|ECB (electronic codebook)}} mode, i.e. encrypt each block separately and independently, but use chaining. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 12:15, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Hmm, i'm rather confused about the last few on the list though. Assumedly the password for "he did the mash, he did the" would be "monster mash", but that would leave "purloined" with a password of either "monsterm" or "monster ". which doesn't make much sense. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.18|108.162.240.18]] 13:47, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

(charlie sheen) a1f9b2b6299e7a2b eadec1e6ab797397 sexy earlobes - He did a 2 and a half men episode on sexy earlobes
:(charlie x) a1f9b2b6299e7a2b 617ab0277727ad85 best tos episode - Star Trek has so many good episodes...
::(houstontx) 39738b7adb0b8af7 617ab0277727ad85 sugarland - Sugarland is in Houston, TX

I don't know about anyone else, but the "hints" column incidentally reminded me of {{w|Darwinian poetry|Darwinian Poetry}}... Not intentionally, I'm sure. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 14:46, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Somehow I've missed out on this issue until this comic alerted me to it, but: once a few passwords are correctly guessed, does that make it straightforward to recover the encryption key, and then be able to decrypt '''all''' of them? —[[User:Scs|scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 14:50, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

: Answering my own question: not really straightforward, no. 3DES is still pretty strong, and what knowing a few passwords gives you is a known-plaintext attack, which helps a little, but is by no means a giveaway. —[[User:Scs|scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 15:00, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:: Note that if blackhat used this service, he would know at least one plaintext - his own password--[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:05, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

:No, for calculating the encryption key of Triple DES, there is no real benefit in knowing million passwords, you would still need to brute force it. You would need to know at least 232 different passwords to make it easier but you can't do that with the leaked file (there are about 30 times less of them and moreover many of them are not unique). [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 16:08, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Okay, so the first column is the encrypted password, the second one is the hint chosen by user. What do rectangles mean? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.151|173.245.53.151]] 15:28, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:That are the fields to fill the characters in just as you do in a crossword puzzle. There are small fields at the beginning that take one character each and one large field at the end that takes one to eight characters. [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 15:32, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Water 3 is an egg group: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Water_3_(Egg_Group) . Given the length of the key, it will probably be 9-16 characters. (Crawdaunt, tentacool, and tentacruel are most likely) [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.139|199.27.128.139]] 15:43, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:-- which means 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 is either L, EL, or T, but I can't find a way for that to match up with any variation of "monster mash." [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.209|173.245.55.209]] 16:15, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

It seems to me there are two puzzles here, if folks are right that this is not actual data from the hack. 1) Figure out Adobe's master 3DES encryption password, for the big prize. 2) figure out Randall's 3DES encryption password for this puzzle based on these hints, and knowing it will be something clever. [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 16:12, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1283: Headlines

2013-10-28T15:55:41Z

JamesCurran: Crash Facts!

"1912 is, of course, the year of the the sinking of the RMS Titanic."
I don't think this is such a given fact that people know when the Titanic sank. I'm removing the "of course". And someone should add an explanation for how these titles are supposed to get more clicks, and what "getting more clicks" even means or worth.
I'd do it myself, but I'm on my phone... on second thought, let me boot my laptop... [[Special:Contributions/95.35.58.162|95.35.58.162]] 06:31, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
: Okay, I added a short explanation for now. Someone should fix it, add mentions to NSFW photo articles and list articles (5 easy ways to add 10 years to your life expectancy!). I'm out. [[Special:Contributions/95.35.58.162|95.35.58.162]] 07:10, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Don’t you think the 1916 headline is a reference to the fatness of someone’s mom? [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 07:28, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Surely "1916 :'PHYSICIST DAD' TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO GRAVITY" is a second reference to Einstein?[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity:_The_Special_and_the_General_Theory]
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 07:47, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

"1986 - This video of a terminally ill child watching the Challenger launch will break your heart" - Probably has something to do with the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown as well? {{unsigned ip|212.123.0.8}}
:I don't think so. The child is probably American. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 12:38, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

"Jan 1st 1990: 500 signs you're a 90s kid" - Can somebody explain this one? This is the only one I, and so far explainxkcd, cannot link to a specific historical event. Or is this supposed to be an example of an attention grabbing headline on a day nothing happened?--[[Special:Contributions/108.17.2.71|108.17.2.71]] 13:05, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
: I think it is making fun of sensational news - making news out of nothing. Here, on the very first day of the 90's, the newspapers already have 500 signs that you are a 90's kid. But nothing has actually happened so far. [[User:Sayno2quat|Sayno2quat]] ([[User talk:Sayno2quat|talk]]) 13:16, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

I changed the line about the 1929 crash being "the largest stock market crash in history" to "the most devastating stock market crash", as it wasn't the largest. By points, it's not even worth mentioning. By percentage (which is more important anyway), it ranks second to the 1987 crash. In 1929, the crash was 13% in one day, and 24% over two days. The 1987 crash was 22% in one day, and 30% over five days. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:55, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

1283: Headlines

2013-10-28T15:50:50Z

JamesCurran: The 1929 crash wasn't the largest.

{{comic
| number = 1283
| date = October 28, 2013
| title = Headlines
| image = headlines.png
| titletext = 1916: 'PHYSICIST DAD' TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO GRAVITY, AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HE FINDS. [PICS] [NSFW]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
"Getting more clicks", i.e. having more viewers click on a headline to see the full article, is a natural goal for news and blog sites, where more web traffic shows greater popularity, and provides more opportunities to show advertisements which in turn bring more revenue.

To achieve that aim some unscrupulous editors break the accepted social contract with readers, that a headline should summarise its article (sometimes with relatively witty wordplay) to help the reader decide what to read and what to ignore. Instead, they seek to manipulate the reader into clicking on every story through the use of tantalising yet formulaic and crass headlines.

They obscure (or even omit) the primary topic, using sensationalistic language to give irrelevant and/or inaccurate details greater or equal weight, with familial relationships providing a sinecure of human interest, a spurious count of items giving some semblance of reliability or breadth of coverage, and with unwarranted appeals to laziness ('quick-win'), to prurience (nudity/disability), to fear, to novelty, to outrage, and/or to incredulity.

By failing to give a useful summary of the story, whilst attempting to force the reader to click on every story on the off-chance that it's interesting, they are intentionally deceptive and can be viewed as a form of spam.

Randall parodies the formula in this comic with such trivialising headlines for important historical events:

*1905 - How a shocking new theory, discovered by a dad, proves scientists are wrong about ''everything!''
:Albert Einstein published his {{w|Annus Mirabilis papers}}, which changed views on space, time, mass, and energy, and laid the groundwork for much of modern physics. They included his papers on {{w|special relativity}} and on {{w|mass–energy equivalence}} ("E = mc2"). He had an infant son in 1905 (born May 1904).
*1912 - 6 ''Titanic'' survivors who should have died
:{{w|Sinking of the RMS Titanic}}.
*1916: 'Physicist dad' turns his attention to gravity, and you won't believe what he finds. [PICS] [NSFW]
:Einstein published his theory of {{w|General relativity}}, which is a vast generalization of the theory of {{w|Special relativity}} from 1905 and provides a model for gravity. In 1916 Einstein had two sons who lived in Zurich while he lived in Berlin.
:[NSFW] is "Not Safe for Work" - a tag to identify that there are (usually) images that you don't want to have on your screen when somebody at work might glance at it over your shoulder, most frequently because they depict nudity. In this case it is used in an attempt to make the reader click the link by appealing to his primitive instincts.
:[PICS] tells the potential viewer that there are images embedded
*1920 - 17 things that will be outlawed now that women can vote
:The {{w|Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution}} was passed, guaranteeing voting rights for women in all US states.
*1928 - This one weird mold kills all germs
:{{w|Penicillin}} was discovered.
*1929 - Most embarrassing reactions to the stock market crash [GIFS]
:This is a reference to the {{w|Wall Street Crash of 1929}}, the most devastating stock market crash in history and the beginning of the Great Depression.
:[GIFS] indicates that the post will contain an animated GIF image - a crude form of short video
*1945 - These 9 Nazi atrocities will make you lose faith in humanity
:1945 is the year that World War 2 ended. It's also the year that many war crimes committed by Nazi Germany were discovered or declassified.
*1948 - 5 insane plans for feeding West Berlin you won't believe are real
:1948 is when the Soviet Union established the {{w|Berlin Blockade}}, preventing food and other critical supplies from reaching occupied Berlin. In response, Western forces organized the {{w|Berlin Airlift}}.
*1955 - Avoid polio with this one weird trick
:The {{w|polio vaccine}} was developed. See [http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/how_one_weird_trick_conquered_the_internet_what_happens_when_you_click_on.html ''Prepare to Be Shocked! What happens when you actually click on one of those “One Weird Trick” ads?'']
*1957 - 12 nip slips potentially visible to Sputnik
:The Soviet Union launched {{w|Sputnik 1}}, the world's first artificial satellite. A ''nip slip'' is a picture of a woman where one of her nipples can be partially seen.
*1968 - This year's assassinations ranked from most to least tragic
:{{w|Martin Luther King Jr.}} and {{w|Robert F. Kennedy}} were both assassinated in 1968.
*1969 - This is the most important photo of an astronaut you'll see all day
:{{w|Apollo 11}} performed the first manned lunar landing. During this historic trip newspapers printed as many pictures of astronauts as they could.
*1986 - This video of a terminally ill child watching the ''Challenger'' launch will break your heart
:Space Shuttle Challenger exploded one minute into its launch. See {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger disaster}} for details. This was the first shuttle mission that included a teacher on board as part of the crew ({{w|Christa McAuliffe}}, {{w|Teacher in Space Project}}), so there were a LOT of children watching this particular launch as teachers around the country (and world?) had TV sets in their classrooms showing the fated launch to their classrooms in real time. Of course, what better child to focus on for sensationalist purposes than a terminally ill one?
*1989 - You won't ''believe'' what these people did to the Berlin wall! [video]
:{{w|Fall of the Berlin Wall}}.
:[video] indicates a link to a video
*Jan 1, 1990 - 500 signs you're a 90s kid
:On the very first day of the 90's, the newspapers already have 500 signs that you are a 90's kid. But nothing has actually happened so far.

==Transcript==
:20th Century Headlines
:Rewritten to get more clicks

:1905 - How a shocking new theory, discovered by a dad, proves scientists are wrong about ''everything!''
:1912 - 6 ''Titanic'' survivors who should have died
:1920 - 17 things that will be outlawed now that women can vote
:1928 - This one weird mold kills all germs
:1929 - Most embarrassing reactions to the stock market crash [GIFS]
:1945 - These 9 Nazi atrocities will make you lose faith in humanity
:1948 - 5 insane plans for feeding West Berlin you won't believe are real
:1955 - Avoid Polio with this one weird trick
:1957 - 12 nip slips potentially visible to Sputnik
:1968 - This year's assassinations ranked from most to least tragic
:1969 - This is the most important photo of an astronaut you'll see all day
:1986 - This video of a terminally ill child watching the ''Challenger'' launch will break your heart
:1989 - You won't ''believe'' what these people did to the Berlin wall! [video]
:Jan 1, 1990 - 500 signs you're a 90s kid

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

Talk:1282: Monty Hall

2013-10-25T15:21:09Z

JamesCurran:

This has absolutely nothing to do with "The Monty Hall Problem". It's strictly about the TV game show ''Let's Make a Deal''. In the game, contestants are often given a choice of several options (Curtains, boxes, envelopes etc). Generally, one has a valuable prize (such as a car), and the others either have a lesser prize or nothing. The "nothing" prizes are often given a colorful name, such as "A pig in a poke". Colloquially, such losing prizes are known as "winning the goat". The joke here is that the contestant, having lost the car, is happy to get a goat as a pet. (In fact, the fine print of the rules make it clear that contestant do not really get such "losing" prizes) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:21, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Monty hall. Is this a Monty Python reference? Or something related to a skit of theirs'?
--[[User:Commarchinin|Commarchinin]] ([[User talk:Commarchinin|talk]]) 04:18, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
: [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Monty+Hall Not a Monthy Python] -- {{w|Monty Hall}} is a game host famous for Let's Make a Deal which gave birth to the {{w|Monty Hall Problem}} [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])

I don't understand "It is known that door 3 has a goat, but nothing else." What do you mean by that? At the beginning in the Monty Hall problem, a contestant knows nothing. --[[Special:Contributions/209.51.184.11|209.51.184.11]] 04:27, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
: See {{w|Monty Hall Problem}} [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])
It goes like this: Player chooses door A, Monty then opens a door he knows there is a goat behind. Player is then offered a chance to switch.

If you do not switch you get a 1/3rd chance of winning because it was a 1 in 3 guess and nothing changed. But if you take into account that Monty will ALWAYS open a goat door and never a car door you can recalculate the odds. So you have a 1/3rd chance that you initially chose the car which means you will lose if you switch 1/3rd of the time, but you had a 2/3rd chance of not selecting the car initially meaning you have a 2/3rds chance if you switch at winning the car. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 04:58, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

:Reminds me a bit of [[1134]]: ''Goats make sense. Goats are fine.'' --[[Special:Contributions/132.230.1.28|132.230.1.28]] 08:39, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

[[User:Goldstein-Izayoi|Goldstein-Izayoi]] ([[User talk:Goldstein-Izayoi|talk]]) 14:53, 25 October 2013 (UTC) Umm, I think there's no telling if the Beret Guy chose A or C in the beginning~
:It's either A or C. Then the player should choose again between A or C. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 14:56, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

; Sequence of the events (assuming Beret Guy initially selects door A)
:''Monty:'' Pick a door.
:''Beret Guy:'' I choose A.
:''Monty:'' I will open another door. It is B. ''(He opens it and they see a goat).'' Do you want to switch doors? ''(Meaning if he will switch from A to C.)''
:''Beret Guy:'' I choose door B.
:''Beret Guy (to the goat):'' ...And my yard has so much grass, and I'll teach you tricks, and...
:''A few minutes later, the goat from behind door C drives away in the car that was behind door A.''

Talk:1282: Monty Hall

2013-10-25T15:20:17Z

JamesCurran:

This has absolutely nothing to do with "The Monty Hall Problem". It's strictly about the TV game show *Let's Make a Deal*. In the game, contestants are often given a choice of several options (Curtains, boxes, envelopes etc). Generally, one has a valuable prize (such as a car), and the others either have a lesser prize or nothing. The "nothing" prizes are often given a colorful name, such as "A pig in a poke". Colloquially, such losing prizes are known as "winning the goat". The joke here is that the contestant, having lost the car, is happy to get a goat as a pet. (In fact, the fine print of the rules make it clear that contestant do not really get such "losing" prizes) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:20, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Monty hall. Is this a Monty Python reference? Or something related to a skit of theirs'?
--[[User:Commarchinin|Commarchinin]] ([[User talk:Commarchinin|talk]]) 04:18, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
: [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Monty+Hall Not a Monthy Python] -- {{w|Monty Hall}} is a game host famous for Let's Make a Deal which gave birth to the {{w|Monty Hall Problem}} [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])

I don't understand "It is known that door 3 has a goat, but nothing else." What do you mean by that? At the beginning in the Monty Hall problem, a contestant knows nothing. --[[Special:Contributions/209.51.184.11|209.51.184.11]] 04:27, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
: See {{w|Monty Hall Problem}} [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])
It goes like this: Player chooses door A, Monty then opens a door he knows there is a goat behind. Player is then offered a chance to switch.

If you do not switch you get a 1/3rd chance of winning because it was a 1 in 3 guess and nothing changed. But if you take into account that Monty will ALWAYS open a goat door and never a car door you can recalculate the odds. So you have a 1/3rd chance that you initially chose the car which means you will lose if you switch 1/3rd of the time, but you had a 2/3rd chance of not selecting the car initially meaning you have a 2/3rds chance if you switch at winning the car. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 04:58, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

:Reminds me a bit of [[1134]]: ''Goats make sense. Goats are fine.'' --[[Special:Contributions/132.230.1.28|132.230.1.28]] 08:39, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

[[User:Goldstein-Izayoi|Goldstein-Izayoi]] ([[User talk:Goldstein-Izayoi|talk]]) 14:53, 25 October 2013 (UTC) Umm, I think there's no telling if the Beret Guy chose A or C in the beginning~
:It's either A or C. Then the player should choose again between A or C. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 14:56, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

; Sequence of the events (assuming Beret Guy initially selects door A)
:''Monty:'' Pick a door.
:''Beret Guy:'' I choose A.
:''Monty:'' I will open another door. It is B. ''(He opens it and they see a goat).'' Do you want to switch doors? ''(Meaning if he will switch from A to C.)''
:''Beret Guy:'' I choose door B.
:''Beret Guy (to the goat):'' ...And my yard has so much grass, and I'll teach you tricks, and...
:''A few minutes later, the goat from behind door C drives away in the car that was behind door A.''

Talk:1277: Ayn Random

2013-10-17T21:58:16Z

JamesCurran: Added xkcd 221

I think that should be /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i.

[[Special:Contributions/173.66.108.213|173.66.108.213]] 05:12, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

I agree. I was confused for a while about what the b's were doing.

[[Special:Contributions/99.126.178.56|99.126.178.56]] 06:57, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Maybe it's time to have an Ayn Rand category? --[[Special:Contributions/141.89.226.146|141.89.226.146]] 07:34, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Can someone explain to the mathematically challenged *how* the list of names fits the regular expression? [[Special:Contributions/141.2.75.23|141.2.75.23]] 09:14, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
: Agreed, I would like to understand what the hell is going on with that. --[[User:Zagorath|Zagorath]] ([[User talk:Zagorath|talk]]) 09:20, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
: How specific do you want it? Basically it matches two words consisting of the letters plurandy. The list of names is just a random selection of two part names that only consists of these letters. More specifically it matches: Two groups ({2}), each consisting of a word boundary (\b), followed by a non-empty sequence of the letters plurandy ([plurandy]+), followed by a word boundary (\b), finally followed by an optional space ( ?). [[User:Pmakholm|Pmakholm]] ([[User talk:Pmakholm|talk]]) 09:33, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
::Also, the /'s on the end delimit the regex proper, and the `i` on the end denotes case insensitivity. --[[Special:Contributions/75.66.178.177|75.66.178.177]] 09:39, 14 October
2013 (UTC)
:::In the explanation of how the regex works after the explanation "'''the {2} on the end means to repeat the pattern, so it must match exactly twice'''" I think you need an explanation of how the optional space in the middle interacts with the word boundaries. I.e.
::::(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}
:::Expanding:
::::\b[plurandy]+\b ?\b[plurandy]+\b ?
:::Now the optional space at the end is redundant, and the space in the center is not optional, since if there is no space the word boundaries do not exist. If the space is present the word boundaries are redundent because letter space letter sequence always matches them.
::::\b[plurandy]+ [plurandy]+\b ?
:::And this now closely matches the text description "'''Overall, it matches two words separated by a space, composed entirely of the letters in [plurandy], which is what all the names listed have in common.'''" --[[Special:Contributions/108.17.2.71|108.17.2.71]] 17:26, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
:Some examples
:* "Ru Paul" would match, because it is two sequences, each containing only capital or lowercase versions of the listed letters.
:* "Randall Flagg" would not match, because the letters F and G are not in the bracketed list.
:* "Aura Anaya Adlar" would not match; even though the letters are all in the list, there are more than two sequences.
:Hope this helps!
:[[User:Swartzer|Swartzer]] ([[User talk:Swartzer|talk]]) 20:24, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/209.132.186.34|209.132.186.34]] 09:26, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

I do not think Randal would make such mistake, he would probably use \< \> anyway... unless, he wants us
to think he did mistake, or that backslash was eliminated in html/javascript... thus poining ut to
source code of the page... is there something interesting?
: I skimmed over the source and didn't see anything unusual. The '\'s are absent from the source too. I think it's just that Randall (or a tool he's using) was so affraid of [[327|Bobby Tables]] that he stripped all backslashes from the alt text. {{unsigned|Jahvascriptmaniac}}
::The title text at xkcd.com now has the missing backslashes. Do you normally update the comic here to reflect updates?--[[Special:Contributions/108.17.2.71|108.17.2.71]] 16:14, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
:::Already updated. You were saying?

Can someone explain to me where "In their view, if some humans are born more capable of satisfying their desires than other people, they deserve to reap greater rewards from life than others" comes from? I'm somewhat familiar with objectivist philosophy and I've never heard this put forward as an actual principle. [[Special:Contributions/50.90.39.56|50.90.39.56]] 14:14, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
:Objectivism is the target for much scorn and ridicule in the intellectual world, for its being an inconsistent philosophy that has the sole objective of justifying selfishness and elevating it towards moral righteousness. It's used as the basis for libertarian thought and other radical capitalist economical theories and political stances which promote shameless exploitation (and this attracts further hatred). Randall is no exception to this trend of detractors, and I'd say rightfully so. Ayn Rand's writings are particularly awful, both aesthetically and content-wise, yet in the US a relatively large group of philosophers still adhere to her maxims and the debate continues.{{unsigned ip|37.221.160.203}}

Most people would write the regexp as /(\b[adlnpruy]+\b ?){2}/i. Using "plurandy" makes it look like a word, which is more confusing than using the letters' natural order. --[[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 15:58, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Would it be better to identify Alan Alda not for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in MASH, but for his role in The West Wing as Arnold Vinick, a fiscally-conservative Republican presidential candidate? [[Special:Contributions/193.67.17.36|193.67.17.36]] 16:03, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

:Depends, are we trying to remind him to general audience (I think MASH is more known) or find out why he was included in list? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:50, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

There is probably an additional joke or three in that the regex is the minimum needed to capture the first three names together (hinted at by "plurandy" eg plural rand) , but also captures the others. on top of which all of the listed people are considered "intrinsically better" (by virtue of fame if nothing else)[[Special:Contributions/74.213.201.51|74.213.201.51]] 03:14, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Alan Ladd may have been a founding member of the Secret Council of /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i. [[Special:Contributions/71.190.237.117|71.190.237.117]] 07:15, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

It's probably obvious to most programmers, but is it worth pointing out that part of the pun is that the random number generator function is called rand() in most C-family languages? [[Special:Contributions/130.60.156.183|130.60.156.183]] 14:07, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Another member of this secret society is Randall P [[Special:Contributions/79.182.178.53|79.182.178.53]] 16:45, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

From above: "Objectivism is the target for much scorn and ridicule in the intellectual world, for its being an inconsistent philosophy that has the sole objective of justifying selfishness and elevating it towards moral righteousness. It's used as the basis for libertarian thought and other radical capitalist economical theories and political stances which promote shameless exploitation (and this attracts further hatred). Randall is no exception to this trend of detractors, and I'd say rightfully so. Ayn Rand's writings are particularly awful, both aesthetically and content-wise, yet in the US a relatively large group of philosophers still adhere to her maxims and the debate continues." OK, but a few comments: All philosophies are inconsistent when looked at closely enough, refer Godel and others. Others do not see the inconsistency in Objectivism quite so plainly as in the quoted comment. Ayn Rand and Objectivism are not "the" basis of libertarian thought, there are far more highly thought of libertarian thinkers, a list of whom should come readily to mind to any of those occupying "the intellectual world" (sic), whether or not they have sympathy with libertarian ideas. It is also unfair to characterise Objectivism as having as its "sole" objective that as stated. Further, as a general principle, one ought not to take someone poking fun at a concept as *proof* that they are quite as opposed to it as you are. Now, whereas I would not categorise myself quite as a fellow traveller, a much fairer view of Objectivism is found at WP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand) [[Special:Contributions/81.135.136.159|81.135.136.159]] 11:22, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

:Other philosophies are no more consistent, agreed. But other philosophies do not claim perfect "objective" consistency as their fundamental principle. Attacking Objectivism/Objectivists for lack of internal consistency--or for not recognizing that at some, very fundamental, level it is all stacked on top of some assumptions (just like every other philosophy, and even the scientific method)--is the equivalent of attacking Christianity/Christians for lacking compassion and forgiveness. [[Special:Contributions/129.176.151.14|129.176.151.14]] 14:04, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

:Poking fun can indeed fall into the categories of self-irony or goodwill, but in this case Randall quite explicitly accuses the recipient of bias, making his disapproval pretty unequivocal. [[Special:Contributions/199.48.147.40|199.48.147.40]] 16:51, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

I have added a line about the rational numbers joke; it's definitely there, though I'm not sure if Randall intended it (probably did?). {{unsigned ip|76.124.119.161}}
:Don't think it makes much sense, because a random number generator algorithm of any kind couldn't possibly generate irrational numbers in finite time. [[Special:Contributions/77.244.254.228|77.244.254.228]] 16:34, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

And somehow, no one's mentioned the classic cartoon ''[[221]]:Random Number'', which presents a random number generator which is heavily biased towards one number. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 21:58, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

1277: Ayn Random

2013-10-17T21:51:13Z

JamesCurran: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1277
| date = October 14, 2013
| title = Ayn Random
| image = ayn random.png
| titletext = In a cavern deep below the Earth, Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ann Druyan, Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, and Duran Duran meet together in the Secret Council of /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}

[[White Hat]] is explaining to [[Cueball]] a program he wrote, the "Ayn Random Number Generator", which is a pun on {{w|Ayn Rand}}, the name of a writer who created a philosophical system known as {{w|Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|Objectivism}}. Objectivists believe that the primary aim of life is to maximise personal happiness. In their view, if some humans are born more capable of satisfying their desires than other people, they deserve to reap greater rewards from life than others. In the comic, White Hat uses a similar line of reason to justify some numbers appearing more often than others in a {{w|Random number generation|"random" number generator}}. Since the primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality, and since rationality is highlighted extensively in Rand's writings, the implication may be that the random number generator favors rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction, i.e. a quotient p/q where p and q have no common factor).

The title text identifies a group of people whose names match the {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}} {{w|regular expression}} <code>/(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i</code>. A step-by-step explanation of the expression:
*\b is a word boundary, matching anywhere there is a 'word character' next to a non-word character—punctuation, digit, spacing, etc.
*[plurandy] is a character class, and will match any single character from the set inside the square brackets; [adlnpruy] means exactly the same
*the plus sign means ''one or more'' of the previous thing, so [plurandy]+ matches one or many of the characters in that class, one after the other
*" ?" - a space followed by a question mark: "?" means "0 or 1 of the previous thing", so a space is optional
*the whole section in parentheses (\b[plurandy]+\b ?) translates to "a word containing one or more letters, all of which are in the set [plurandy], followed by an optional space"
*the {2} on the end means to repeat the pattern, so it must match exactly twice
*The slashes at each end mark out the pattern, and the "i" at the end is an expression qualifier means it is "case insensitive" (uppercase and lowercase match interchangeably)

Overall, it matches two words separated by a space, composed entirely of the letters in [plurandy], which is what all the names listed have in common.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Person !! Brief Description
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Ayn Rand}} || Author, best known for her novels {{w|The Fountainhead}} and {{w|Atlas Shrugged}}.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Paul Ryan}} || US Politician known to have been influenced by the writings of Ayn Rand.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Rand Paul}} || US Politician, also influenced by Ayn Rand's writings.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Ann Druyan}} || Author, widow of {{w|Carl Sagan}}
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Paul Rudd}} || Actor, screenwriter, comedian
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Alan Alda}} || Actor, best known for the role of Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. Played Arnold Vinick, a fiscally-conservative Republican presidential candidate, in {{w|The West Wing}}.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Duran Duran}} || New Wave/Rock band
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sitting at a laptop, White Hat behind him.]
:Cueball: This Ayn Random number generator you wrote '''''claims''''' to be fair, but the output is biased toward certain numbers.
:White Hat: '''''WELL, MAYBE THOSE NUMBERS ARE JUST INTRINSICALLY BETTER!'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:1253: Exoplanet Names

2013-08-20T03:24:33Z

JamesCurran:

One of the planets is similar to the child in Exploits of a Mom (http://xkcd.com/327/)
Robert Drop Tables
[[Special:Contributions/90.200.204.77|90.200.204.77]] 12:12, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
:Yes, they've seemed to have learned to sanitize their data inputs or just stick to parameters. [[Special:Contributions/69.14.148.254|69.14.148.254]] 12:33, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
Hair covered planet might be a reference to the book The Carpet Makers{{unsigned ip|41.221.193.211}}

The Blogosphere and Blogodrome planets are cited as synonyms of "blog." I believe this is an error, in that blogosphere is synonymous with "the collection of all posted communication." I would change it myself, but I don't feel like I'm sufficiently expert to state with conviction.~Anthingy{{unsigned ip|76.105.133.220}}

I'm still missing the ''New Netherlands''... Lorenz [[Special:Contributions/142.244.63.246|142.244.63.246]] 15:34, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Along with no ''New Netherlands'', I'm also disappointed to see ''Planet #14'' but no ''Planet 9 from Outer Space''. [[User:Ccurtis|Ccurtis]] ([[User talk:Ccurtis|talk]]) 16:04, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
:I'm sure my explain does cover this very well.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:04, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

If memory serves, Stampy is the name of Bart Simpson's elephant. [[Special:Contributions/99.108.140.97|99.108.140.97]] 17:59, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

A* ("a star") is also a pathfinding algorithm taught in introductory Artificial Intelligence classes. I don't see the connection to the planet yet. [[User:Lastorset|Lastorset]] ([[User talk:Lastorset|talk]]) 22:19, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
:For the first, I did remove the corrupt wiki link. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:23, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

I just wonder where New Jerseys II through V are .... [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 03:24, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

1253: Exoplanet Names

2013-08-19T14:50:50Z

JamesCurran: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1253
| date = August 19, 2013
| title = Exoplanet Names
| image = exoplanet names.png
| titletext = If you have any ideas, I hear you can send them to [mailto:iaupublic@iap.fr iaupublic@iap.fr].
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|1253: Exoplanet Names}}

On the 14th of August, the {{w|International Astronomical Union}} [http://www.iau.org/science/news/179/ issued a document] which contained, amongst other things, guidelines that suggested names should meet. These include stipulations such as "16 characters or less", "preferably one word", "not too similar to an existing name of an astronomical object" and "be respectful of intellectual property". If we go down the list, we can see that many or Randall's suggestions do indeed violate the guidelines. Which is probably part of the joke.

And yes, the document also states that suggestions may be sent to the email mentioned in the title text.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Star !! Planet !! Suggested Name !! Explanation
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667C}} || {{w|Gliese 667 Ce|e}} || e'); DROP TABLE PLANETS;-- || A reference to {{w|SQL injection}}, riffing off of [[327|comic 327]], which featured a boy named <code>[[Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--]]</code>. The idea here is that the IAU would enter the name into their system and promptly lose all of their data pertaining to planets.. Note that Planet e is located in the habitable zone of the star system.
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667C}} || {{w|Gliese 667 Cf|f}} || Blogosphere || rowspan = 2 | Weird synonyms for the word ''{{w|blog}}'' are recurring theme in xkcd. See, for instance, [[181|comic 181]].
|-
| {{w|Gliese 667C}} || {{w|Gliese 667 Cg|g}} || Blogodrome ||
|-
| {{w|Tau Ceti}} || {{w|Tau Ceti b|b}} || Sid Meier's Tau Ceti b || Reference to the game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
|-
| {{w|Tau Ceti}} || {{w|Tau Ceti f|f}} || Unicode Snowman || The Unicode character [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2603/index.htm ☃]
|-
| {{w|Gliese 581}} || {{w|Gliese 581d|d}} || Ballderaan || Both an {{w|anagram}} of the star {{w|Aldebaran}}, and a {{w|wikt:balls|crude pun}} on the planet {{w|Alderaan}} from the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.
|-
| {{w|Gliese 581}} || {{w|Gliese 581 e|e}} || Eternia Prime || Reference to the main planet of Masters of the Universe (http://he-man.wikia.com/wiki/Eternia).
|-
| {{w|Gliese 176}} || {{w|Gliesee 176 b|b}} || {{w|Fictional universe of Avatar|Pandora}} || The fiction planet in James Cameron's ''{{w|Avatar (film)|Avatar}}''.
|-
| style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans';" | {{w|HD 20794}} || style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans';" | b || style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans';" | Cosmic Sands || style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS', 'Comic Sans';" | A {{w|pun}} on the name of the font {{w|Comic Sans}}. (See also: [[590: Papyrus]].)
|-
| {{w|Kepler 22}} || {{w|Kepler 22 b|b}} || Blue Ivy|| Daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
|}

==Transcript==
:August 2013:
:The International Astronomical Union decides to start naming exoplanets, and—for the first time ever—asks for suggestions from the general public.
:They immediately regret this deicision.
:Cueball‏‎: Can't you filter out the worst ones?
:''The rightmost person'': This is '''''after''''' the filter!

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1248: Sphere

2013-08-07T19:43:33Z

JamesCurran:

More specifically,a geoid.--[[User:Guru-45|Guru-45]] ([[User talk:Guru-45|talk]]) 08:51, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:Astronomers observe objects in the sky, not the Earth.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:19, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::Astronomers live on the surface of the Earth, not on the surface of the sky (celestial sphere). [[Special:Contributions/167.107.191.217|167.107.191.217]] 13:25, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure “Sphere” refers to “hemisphere” and not simply to earth? After all, she’s trapped on earth and not on the celestial sphere. [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 11:24, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:It's the hemisphere, see my comment above.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:46, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:: I'm assuming you're referring to the "light-sphere" whose origin lies at the astronomer's location, and thus the universe always being bigger than the places he can physically visit. Still though, the statement "They can't travel to the places they observe" isn't accurate. We've been to the moon for instance. And then of course, there are always the unknown unknowns of the universe and interstellar travel. [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 12:19, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::: The fact that we, the human race, have been to the moon is no comfort to anyone who's seen the wonders revealed by the HST (which isn't even suitable for inspecting the moon). We are, indeed, "trapped" here on Earth, into the foreseeable future. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 13:22, 7 August 2013 (UTC)''
: I read it as earth. It's a sphere and we're all trapped on its surface and astronomy classes make you aware of this fact more than your everyday experiences. Also, doesn't "hemisphere" mean "half sphere"? like northern and southern hemisphere of the earth? [[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 12:48, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Do we maybe have a reference to [[1246]]? [[Special:Contributions/217.81.31.20|217.81.31.20]] 11:37, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:That comic belongs more to space science than to astronomers.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:46, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm sure the sphere is Earth. We don't live on the '''surface''' of the universe. Everybody in http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=104172 agrees. [[Special:Contributions/167.107.191.217|167.107.191.217]] 13:12, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

"This totally occupies her mind, and she feels frustrated that she can only learn about those mind-boggling places, and not visit them herself." Wow. She must have been in a class? She's "totally" occupied? She's frustrated? (Not wistful, or resigned, or just aware of a fact mind you.) She isn't just thinking about the size of space, but apparently really, really wants to actually travel there. (To where, exactly? What "mind boggling" places? "Space"? Seems rather general.) You got all that deep and specific feeling from just her using the word "trapped"? Looks like reading a lot into things, to me. [[User:CFoxx|CFoxx]] ([[User talk:CFoxx|talk]]) 15:53, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:I try to not to make the explanations too dry; they are and should often be interpretations to some extent. On the other hand yeah, you are probably right that I read too much emotion into it. I changed the things you commented on. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 18:29, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:@CFoxx - Absolutely. In XKCD, there are no shades of grey. (really, look for yourself) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:43, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Hey, what the hell are you doing? "The sphere she mentions..." is absolutely wrong, the word ''Sphere'' appears only at the title and the title text! Megan is just impressed by the vast size of the universe.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:21, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:And to all you ''Earth'' theorists, tell me why Randall mentions astronomers and NOT the entire mankind? And that, after Megan talks about a big universe. Astronomers do not observe the Earth but objects in that big universe, which is from a viewpoint on Earth just a sphere.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:21, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::One more: Astronomers are not trapped to the surface of the Earth because they use many space telescopes even beyond of earth's orbit. They are also using probes at many planets and more all over the solar system.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:02, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:::Would you please look at the first panel … And just using space telescopes doesn’t mean you’re no longer trapped. Imagine yourself being trapped in a cage with a satellite dish to communicate with a space telescope (well … just imagine that). You’re not going anywhere by using that telescope. I think you confuse “being trapped” with “being limited”. Being trapped somewhere doesn’t mean your observation is limited to that place too. [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 17:54, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::::Ok, I did ignore the first panel, sorry about that. But the Earth is a {{w|geoid}} and absolutely doesn't match the criteria for a {{w|sphere}}. So, like in democracy the mass does win, but I'm still sure I'm right.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:13, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:She does mention a sphere, so I changed it back. No hard feelings (I hope). –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 18:29, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::I don't mind, but it seems I'm the only astronomer and physicist here.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:13, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1233: Relativity

2013-07-03T15:30:49Z

JamesCurran:

Should be "Gedankengang" (Plural, it's "Gedanke" + "n"). Means: chain/train/line of thought(s)
[[Special:Contributions/91.66.205.94|91.66.205.94]] 05:52, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
:Interesting idea, because it matches the text more closely, but he really wasn't that famous for his "chain of thought" - more famous for his Gedankenexperimente, for example, chasing a light beam (leading to Special Relativity) or the thought experiments that lead to the EPR paradox. --[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 09:52, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
::Anyway, "Gedankedank" does not really make sense, it's not a word. [[Special:Contributions/130.60.152.125|130.60.152.125]]
:::Might be refering to "Badonkadonk", even though "Gedankedank" isnt a german word. [[Special:Contributions/178.26.88.31|178.26.88.31]]
::That's what I think: He's taken "Gedankenexperiment", which sounds funny in English, and taken the "Gedanken" part and reduplicated it to match the sound of "badonkadonk", without worrying about whether it makes sense in German. --[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 12:22, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Also, from reading http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=103423, in last week's "what if" there was:
::20 meters per second is about how fast an average person with a good arm could throw a bouncy ball. Therefore, to determine the result of an impact, we can make use of what Einstein called a gedankenexperiment, or "thought experiment"

[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 10:02, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the "Lorentz contraction" in the title text is referring to, should this be added to the description? [[Special:Contributions/96.228.23.74|96.228.23.74]] 14:06, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Side note: Logical conclusion -- Shakira's hips must like big butts. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:30, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1232: Realistic Criteria

2013-07-01T16:10:20Z

JamesCurran:

I'm not sure I want NASA (or other space agencies) to solve all problems on earth. And what constitutes a problem? My laptop crashed this morning? Fighting in Afghanistan? Flooding in Germany and Poland? [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 07:28, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Hence the title: "Realistic Criteria" ;-) [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 07:29, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

:I'm sure there is more that enough problems for 15 years in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ alone. Also, exploring other planets can help solving problems on our one. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
::Earth should have a Bugzilla. [[Special:Contributions/80.195.213.223|80.195.213.223]] 13:43, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

''"The argument between exploring space vs saving resources and solving problems on Earth is a pretty common modern one, both in theory, and in practice."''

Actually, we shouldn't have started expanding our species out of Africa before predicting (and allowing for) the development of Religious Hatred, Mechanised Warfare and Oppressive Copyright Practices...{{unsigned ip|86.10.119.75}}

This attacks a rather typical conservative attitude that we shouldn't "waste" resources on "minor" problems when there are bigger problems to deal with. (e.g., "Why are you giving me a ticket for speeding when there are murderers out there you should be catching?") The title text pinpoints the fallacy of it (if you only ever work on the biggest problems, you will never solve that problem and also never accomplish anything else) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:10, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1230: Polar/Cartesian

2013-06-26T19:23:29Z

JamesCurran:

Heh. Schroedinger's graph. Simultaneously 100% certainty of being Cartesian and 100% certainty of being Polar. [[Special:Contributions/12.117.213.34|12.117.213.34]] 09:03, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Isn't this a Polar graph? If it's a Cartesian, doesn't it end at 0%? As the line goes farther to the right, more time has passed instead of the "certainty" changing. --Clayton [[Special:Contributions/12.202.74.87|12.202.74.87]] 14:18, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

If you take into account [[833]], this graph shows certainty that you are interpreting it correctly. --[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 09:48, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

The ambiguity is due to the unlabelled x-axis. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 10:48, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

The title text protip is really only applicable to 2 axes continuous graphes, unless you count ants being added or flicked away by the user as discontinuities. [[Special:Contributions/24.247.120.53|24.247.120.53]] 13:07, 26 June 2013 (UTC)ProfKrueger

The shape of the graph appears to be (in polar form) r(t)=100/(1+sin(t)), which I solved for using the constraint that r + y = 100, or rather (polar-observer's certainty that the graph is polar) + (cartesian-observer's certainty that the graph is polar) = 100%. The two observers become further entrenched in their own ideologies as time goes on, and at equivalent rates of entrenchment. [[Special:Contributions/98.197.196.242|98.197.196.242]] 16:25, 26 June 2013 (UTC) DAF

The title text is, well, wrong. To plot coordinates "as a function of time" you would need THREE-axes. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:23, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1196: Subways

2013-04-08T22:21:21Z

JamesCurran: /* NYC geography */

I think the comic is making fun of the ridiculous scale-inaccuracies found in public transport plans, including subway plans, which make it hard to estimate actual distances and travel times. {{unsigned|‎130.60.152.125}}

I think it's deffently a factor. <that one editor who always forgets to login>

: (Let's try again, dodgy internet link, here, and someone's editing in parallel it seems.) I don't personally find the scale-inaccuracies ridiculous. Take a scale-consistent map of a "city-and-its-suburbs" and it's way too busy/cramped in the centre and very sparse at the fringes. Personally I like the way that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moscow_metro_map_en_sb.svg Moscow] treated this problem. But my favourite is of course the classic London Underground maps. Or, for fun, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Bear_%28lithograph%29 this variant] (image link available there, but I've already got a copy on my wall anyway). In fact, what ''I'' take from Randall's Subways image is something akin to what I like about this latter. Instead of playing with identity, playing with connectivity. Anyone want to add the Tube/Paris Metro/Berlin U&S-Bahn, etc, onto the edges of Randall's effort? ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.99.244.212|178.99.244.212]]

Evocative (perhaps far too?) of the frontispiece of [http://www.amazon.com/Transit-Maps-World-Mark-Ovenden/dp/0143112651 "Transit Maps of the World"]. A stylized representation of all of the world's subway maps connected together.
[[Special:Contributions/199.167.121.226|199.167.121.226]] 18:38, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

== General Geography ==

What does it mean "(with respect to geography)"? As a non US citizen I don't know what is odd about this map. Is this actually how the lines connect up? Are these real stations/lines? Can you really go from san fransisco to new york on subway? {{unsigned|31.221.13.140}}
:Of course not. These are all different subway systems, only connected on this map because their official individual maps use the same colors for different lines. I expect this explanation will be updated to list all the different systems seen here, including Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the New York Subway. [[Special:Contributions/75.37.205.50|75.37.205.50]] 09:30, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
::"I expect this explanation will be updated to list all the different systems seen here" As a New Yorker, I can say that while most of the map is quite accurate, some lines cannot be named because each color belongs to multiple lines (with some exceptions) and Randall has taken some serious liberties at the connections to other systems. (E.g. there is no blue line with one end in Hoboken and the other end at 34th Street, as shown on this map) [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 12:17, 8 April 2013 (UTC) EDIT: That blue line might be part of the NJ Transit, but including a New Jersey line in with the Subway is quite heretical. [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 12:25, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
:::That blue line is part of PATH, a subway between NJ and NYC. It's not part of NJ Transit; it's run by the Port Authority, an agency created by a bi-state compact between NY and NJ. And its official map does indeed use blue for the line from hoboken to 33rd street. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 13:57, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
:Also, the comic is using an extremely loose definition of "subway". (Chicago and Cleveland, for example, do not have anything that would fit a normal, dictionary definition of the word. And no, what they do have is certainly not connected in any case -- unless you count highways, in which case the map is ridiculously incomplete.) [[User:Jonadab|Jonadab]] ([[User talk:Jonadab|talk]]) 11:17, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

:It's often hard to realize the distances involved when one is talking about a country or region one is unfamiliar with. In the case of North America, and this semi-fictitious subway system, the distances between the furthest points is about 3,000 miles (about 5,000km); it would generally take about 2 days of highway driving, with no stops, to get from any one end to the opposite other. Randall took real subway maps from different cities, already not to scale, and fictitiously joined them together as if the cities were right next door to each other and really connected. They are not. In most cases, you have to fly, drive, take a bus, or take a regular (non-subway) train if you wanted to go from one city's subway system to another's. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:47, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

== Canada geography ==

Hmmm, there is no mention of the 7 or so underground stations in Edmonton, Canada. It is classified as light rail as opposed to heavy rail but still meets the "pedantic rail enthusiasts" definition included under the comic.
Quote: For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city.[[Special:Contributions/220.239.66.60|220.239.66.60]] 10:10, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
:I suspect the Edmonton, Alberta system got left out for the same reason as the (similarly sized) Buffalo, NY system got left out. The Buffalo system consists of a single line connecting a dozen or so stations below ground and about 5-6 above ground. It fits the "pedantic rail enthusiasts" definition, with the possible exception of being a "network". But more importantly, since it is a single line, I don't think they color-coded it. Without a color-code, where would it hook into Randal's map? [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 14:14, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

In Montreal, the Longueuil station is misspelled as "Longueil". --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 15:32, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

== NYC geography ==

I don't know the other cities' subway maps well enough, but the NYC map has several jokes in it. The "G" line is listed as having "Random service", which is pretty accurate (it's extremely unreliable). The blue and orange lines in Jamaica (a former independent city now part of the boro of Queens) are listed as coming together in "Kingston", which not in NYC, it's the capital of the island nation of Jamaica. There is a fictional "Puerto Rico Submarine" listed as a complement to the real Staten Island Ferry. The (non-existent) connection from Staten Island NY to DC is listed as the "Robert Moses High speed line", in other words, a freeway such as Robert Moses was known for (presumably I-95, although Moses had nothing to do with that). [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 13:57, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Looks like Randall goofed with one of his jokes. West Trenton is one of the final stops on one of Philadelphia's passenger rail lines (SEPTA). SEPTA isn't really a subway as it's only underground in the city center. But he happened to draw it in the "Cleveland" area of the map, and ended up connecting it to Boston's Cleveland Circle. That doesn't make sense since there's no west Trenton in Cleveland. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 13:57, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

== Newark, NJ missing ==
The comic leaves out the Newark Light Rail (formerly known as the Newark Subway). It's only one line with about 15 stops, but it does connect with the PATH system (which is in the comic)

== Boston geography ==

Good couple of jokes in the Boston area: 1) The real station of Braintree is accompanied by the fictional stations of Bonevine and Skinflower; 2) Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line has conveniently become Ashmont-Manhattan High Speed Line; 3) The Green Line extension currently under development has been rerouted to Canada; 4) The Cleveland Circle Station has become the departure point for the shuttle to Cleveland. [[Special:Contributions/209.6.46.147|209.6.46.147]] 14:26, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

== Miami geography ==
The downtown area has the Caribbean Metromover. It's not visible on this map because by scale, the Metromover system's tiny; the stops are only a couple blocks apart. Its actual shape is similar to the icon on weather maps for a hurricane but mirrored horizontally. There is no mention of the unused ghost station at Government Center, surprisingly. [[Special:Contributions/75.95.79.214|75.95.79.214]] 20:32, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

== Sunnydale geography ==

I wasn't aware of a town called Sunnydale in the USA.
However, whilst researching whether this was a pun to the Buffy Television series it turned out the metro station named Sunnydale actually exists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunnydale_Avenue_Station ...
[[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 15:44, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

The map shown in this comic is the BART system (Bay Area Regional Transit), not the San Francisco Muni. So, I suspect this is meant as a Buffy reference. Also, Sunnyvale (note the V) is a real town in the SF Bay Area, but it does not have BART service.

== St. Louis not making the cut ==

I'm not sure what prevented the St. Louis MetroLink from making the cut. There are 2 lines (Red and Blue - yes, it's only two, but isn't that still a network?). It's got grade separation in the urban core and other high-traffic areas, it's high-traffic, runs frequently (every 10-20 minutes) and is underground in downtown St. Louis. The only reason I can think of is insufficient grade-separation, but Randall doesn't define a threshold for that.

== Pittsburgh doesn't either ==
Pittsburgh Light Rail, or "The T", currently has only 2 lines as well, and parts of it are above ground, but I still would have liked to see it make the cut. It gets heavy usage in downtown Pittsburgh.

1196: Subways

2013-04-08T22:13:56Z

JamesCurran: Added PATH for NYC

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}

The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>

==Explanation==
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series "{{w|The Simpsons}}" (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail]. And the San Francisco line to Sunnydale is the setting for {{w|Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)}}.

The networks on the map are displayed in (relatively) geographic position, with {{w|Vancouver}} being the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – East/West and North/South order are correct, but distances are not (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example).

The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}. The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected. The 'Robert Moses High-Speed Line' refers to the NYC urban planner Robert Moses, who was one of the most influential planners in choosing cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependant New York.

Here are some official subway maps:
* Boston - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
* Chicago - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
* Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
* Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
* New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
* New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
* Toronto - http://tourbytransit.com/toronto/images/Toronto-Subway-Map.png
* Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
* San Francisco - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
* Mexico city - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf

==Transcript==
:

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

Talk:1183: Rose Petals

2013-03-08T17:18:36Z

JamesCurran:

Can anyone explain what Roomba is? {{unsigned|194.105.120.80}}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba
[[Special:Contributions/131.251.254.81|131.251.254.81]] 09:14, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

: "... but out onto the street."
Is it really? It looks to me like it's going down the hallway seen in the background of the 3rd panel. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 16:28, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

It is, really. When you look at the door in the 3rd panel, you can see another house across the street, then closer a sidewalk, then closer the street, then closer another sidewalk and a walkway leading up to the door. There is then a mat in front of the door (presumably a welcome mat, or at least a mat for wiping your feet). In the 4th panel you can see the the sidewalk expansion joints. [[User:Haruspex|Haruspex]] ([[User talk:Haruspex|talk]])

I don't think that's a mailbox. It think it's a shredder. Either way, I think what happening is that Cueball sent a woman some roses, and this is her way of rejecting his advances (which puts the image text into context) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:18, 8 March 2013 (UTC)