explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T16:59:28Z

Jimbob:

I am confused by the insect line. This seems to be true only if s=t.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.209|141.101.96.209]] 19:03, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
:I added a note regarding how similar it sounds to 'sinsec'. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.154|172.68.51.154]] 01:47, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

:That one and the `cas` aren't making any sense to me. [[User:GreatBigDot|GreatBigDot]] ([[User talk:GreatBigDot|talk]]) 20:02, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
::Oh, the casinus is much important to... What was it? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:15, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
::cas is realtively easy... it is cos(theta)=a/c -> cs(theta)=ao/c -> cas(theta)=o/c; when you realise that the top one isn't zero but o it clicks [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.209|141.101.96.209]] 23:35, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
:::You made the same error Randall did: you divided by 'o' on the left and multiplied on the right. I think the theme of the page is expanding significantly upon common math errors that were already humorous, like the common proof of 5=3 by dividing and multiplying by zero. The error here is in line with the theme of casual beginner errors. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.154|172.68.51.154]]
:: You can see cin is derived from sin by swapping the positions of c and s. Likewise, Switching the a and o in cos(theta) = a/c gives cas(theta) = o/c i.e. no need for multiplicative consistency. The rule of treating things as a product of terms is implemented fully in the following lines.
::: <math> sin \theta = b/c</math> leading to <math>cin \theta = b/s</math> is algebraically valid if you interpret sin as the product of s, i, n by multiplying both sides by c/s. It is not valid to just "swap" two letters in one equation that is part of a system of equations. You could do the same trick and get <math>cas \theta = a^2/oc</math> from <math>cos \theta = a/c</math> or start with <math>sec \theta = c/a</math> and get <math>cas \theta = c/e</math>. Note for all equations except <math>cas \theta = o/c</math> and switching an <math>s</math> to a <math>t</math> to find <math>tan \theta = insect \theta^2</math>, the equations can be correctly derived by treating trig functions as product of single letter variables and algebraically manipulating them. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 16:59, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

:I think insect is.. a bug.. ;) [[User:Smerriman|Smerriman]] ([[User talk:Smerriman|talk]]) 20:18, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

Is Enchant at target a magic:the gathering reference? [[User:AncientSwordRage|AncientSwordRage]] ([[User talk:AncientSwordRage|talk]]) 20:55, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
:I think it is a Magic: The Gathering reference. Although it is phrased oddly. You'd think it would be "at target enchantment", rather than "target at enchantment". --[[User:Dryhamm|Dryhamm]] ([[User talk:Dryhamm|talk]]) 21:04, 9 November 2018 (UTC)
:: Likely, it refers to the bigbox retailer, Target.

:Voila - s=t.
::That was incredible! (assuming previous poster discovered the extrapolated proof in the description) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.154|172.68.51.154]] 01:47, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
::Combining <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> and <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> allows you to conclude <math>a^2 = o^2</math>, not <math>a=o</math>.

Somebody added a comment on puns, e.g. that "cin sucks". More explanation is needed. It looks like some kind of a meta-joke. If you ask why, and start interpreting, you see that "b/c" == "because". It might be the answer to why the puns line should be removed, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.154|172.68.51.154]]

For the Bot->Boat->Stoat line, this comes from the word game where you add/change letters to make a new word. Start with bot=a/c, multiply by a on both sides gets boat=a^2/c. Multiply by st on both sides and divide b on both sides gets Stoat=a^2/c*St/b.

Uh... people... THE NAME GAME? Hello?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_Game

Checking through the math, just working from the real trig identities, without considering Randall's at-first-glance questionable identities like cas theta = o/c, basically everything that does not have a factor of d or 2 in it is equal to 1, and d is equal to 1/2, which then establishes the more questionable identities as tautological, 1=1. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.100|162.158.142.100]] 04:09, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

<math>\sec\theta = sect \eta</math> [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.71|141.101.104.71]] 13:36, 10 November 2018 (UTC) AndreasH

Am I the only one who saw t²n²a⁴ as "tuna"? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.233|172.68.58.233]] 14:17, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
:Yes.

<math>\frac{d}{dx}\sec x=\sec x\tan x=</math> sex tanks. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 21:36, 11 November 2018 (UTC)

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T08:22:06Z

Jimbob: /* Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic */

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.

* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\mathrm{cas} \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^2}{o^2}</math>.
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t", however this may be reached by 'phonetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together being similar to the sound of the word "insect".

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic==

Some have tried to argue there are mathematical justifications for the errors in some of the formulas, by stating (without proof) that you could prove that valid solutions to the original six trig identities (where letters are taken to be variables multiplied together) can be manipulated to show that solutions must have <math>a=o</math> and <math>s=t</math>. These proofs are incorrect and can be shown easily with a counterexample. If you make the following assignments of variables like <math>o=s=\frac{1}{2}</math> and set <math>c=e=2</math> while leaving the other variables set to 1 (<math>a=b=i=n=t=\theta=1</math>). This variable assignment will simultaneously satisfy all six original trig identities: <math>sin \theta = \frac{1}{2} = \frac{b}{c}</math>; <math>cos \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})\frac{1}{2}=\frac{a}{c}</math>; <math>tan \theta = 1 = \frac{b}{a}</math>; <math>cot \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2}) = \frac{a}{b}</math>; <math>sec \theta = (\frac{1}{2})(2)(2) = \frac{c}{a}=2</math>; <math>csc \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})(2) = \frac{c}{b} = 2</math>. However in this valid assignment, we have <math>a\neq o</math> since <math>1 \neq \frac{1}{2}</math> and we have <math>s \neq t</math> as <math>\frac{1}{2} \neq 1</math>. This demonstrates that you can not make a valid algebraic derivation of <math>cas \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^{2}}{o^2} = \frac{o}{c}</math> or <math>sin \theta sec \theta = insect \theta^{2}</math> without additional assumptions beyond the six given trigonometric identities.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T08:20:01Z

Jimbob: /* Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic */

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.

* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\mathrm{cas} \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^2}{o^2}</math>.
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t", however this may be reached by 'phonetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together being similar to the sound of the word "insect".

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic==

Some have tried to argue there are mathematical justifications for the errors in some of the formulas, by stating (without proof) that you could prove that valid solutions to the original six trig identities (where letters are taken to be variables multiplied together) can be manipulated to show that solutions must have <math>a=o</math> and <math>s=t</math>. These proofs are incorrect and can be shown easily with a counterexample. If you make the following assignments of variables like <math>o=s=\frac{1}{2}</math> and set <math>c=e=2</math> while leaving the other variables set to 1 (<math>a=b=i=n=t=\theta=1</math>). This variable assignment will simultaneously satisfy all six original trig identities: <math>sin \theta = \frac{1}{2} = \frac{b}{c}</math>; <math>cos \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})\frac{1}{2}=\frac{a}{c}</math>; <math>tan \theta = 1 = \frac{b}{a}</math>; <math>cot \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2}) = \frac{a}{b}</math>; <math>sec \theta = (\frac{1}{2})(2)(2) = \frac{c}{a}=2</math>; <math>csc \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})(2) = \frac{c}{b} = 2</math>. However in this valid assignment, we have <math>a\neq o</math> since <math>1 \neq \frac{1}{2}</math> and we have <math>s \neq t</math> as <math>\frac{1}{2} \neq 1</math>. This demonstrates that you can not make a valid algebraic derivation of <math>cas \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^{2}}{o^2} = \frac{o}{c}</math> or <math>sin \theta sec \theta = insect \theta^{2}</math>) without additional assumptions beyond the six given trigonometric identities.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T08:13:44Z

Jimbob: /* Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic */

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.

* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\mathrm{cas} \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^2}{o^2}</math>.
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t", however this may be reached by 'phonetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together being similar to the sound of the word "insect".

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic==

Some have tried to argue there are mathematical justifications for the errors in some of the formulas, by stating (without proof) that you could prove that valid solutions must have <math>a=o</math> and <math>s=t</math>. These proofs are incorrect, and can be shown easily with a counterexample. If you make the following assignments of variables like <math>o=s=\frac{1}{2}</math> and set <math>c=e=2</math> while leaving the other variables set to 1 (<math>a=b=i=n=t=\theta=1</math>). This variable assignment will simultaneously satisfy all six original trig identities: <math>sin \theta = \frac{1}{2} = \frac{b}{c}</math>; <math>cos \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})\frac{1}{2}=\frac{a}{c}</math>; <math>tan \theta = 1 = \frac{b}{a}</math>; <math>cot \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2}) = \frac{a}{b}</math>; <math>sec \theta = (\frac{1}{2})(2)(2) = \frac{c}{a}=2</math>; <math>csc \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})(2) = \frac{c}{b} = 2</math>. However in this valid assignment, we have <math>a\neq o</math> since <math>1 \neq \frac{1}{2}</math> and we have <math>s \neq t</math> as <math>\frac{1}{2} \neq 1</math>. This demonstrates that you can not make a valid algebraic derivation of <math>cas \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^{2}}{o^2} = \frac{o}{c}</math> or <math>sin \theta sec \theta = insect \theta^{2}</math>) without additional assumptions beyond the six given trigonometric identities.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T08:11:37Z

Jimbob: /* Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic */

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.

* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\mathrm{cas} \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^2}{o^2}</math>.
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t", however this may be reached by 'phonetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together being similar to the sound of the word "insect".

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic==

Some have tried to argue there are mathematical justifications for the errors in some of the formulas, by stating (without proof) that you could prove that valid solutions must have <math>a=o</math> and <math>s=t</math>. These proofs are incorrect, and can be shown easily with a counterexample. If you make the following assignments of variables like <math>o=s=\frac{1}{2}</math> and set <math>c=e=2</math> while leaving the other variables set to 1 (<math>a=b=i=n=t=\theta=1</math>). This variable assignment will simultaneously satisfy all six original trig identities: <math>sin \theta = \frac{1}{2} = \frac{b}{c}</math>, <math>cos \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})\frac{1}{2}=\frac{a}{c}</math>, <math>tan \theta = 1 = \frac{b}{a}</math>, <math>cot \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2}) = \frac{a}{b}</math>, <math>sec \theta = (\frac{1}{2})(2)(2) = \frac{c}{a}=2</math>, <math>csc \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})(2) = \frac{c}{b} = 2</math>. However in this valid assignment, we do not have <math>a=o</math> since <math>1 \neq \frac{1}{2}</math> and we do not have <math>s=t</math> as <math>\frac{1}{2} \neq 1</math>. This demonstrates that you can not make a valid algebraic derivation of <math>cas \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^{2}}{o^2} = \frac{o}{c}</math> or <math>sin \theta sec \theta = insect \theta^{2}</math>) without additional assumptions beyond the six given trigonometric identities.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T08:10:41Z

Jimbob:

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.

* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\mathrm{cas} \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^2}{o^2}</math>.
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t", however this may be reached by 'phonetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together being similar to the sound of the word "insect".

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Proof Of Algebraic Mistakes in the Comic==

Some have tried to argue there are mathematical justifications for the errors in some of the formulas, by stating (without proof) that you could prove that valid solutions must have <math>a=o</math> and <math>s=t</math>. These proofs are incorrect, and can be shown easily with a counterexample. If you make the following assignments of variables like <math>o=s=\frac{1}{2}</math>, <math>c=e=2</math> and the other variables set to 1 (<math>a=b=i=n=t=\theta=1</math>). This variable assignment will simultaneously satisfy all six original trig identities: <math>sin \theta = \frac{1}{2} = \frac{b}{c}</math>, <math>cos \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})\frac{1}{2}=\frac{a}{c}</math>, <math>tan \theta = 1 = \frac{b}{a}</math>, <math>cot \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2}) = \frac{a}{b}</math>, <math>sec \theta = (\frac{1}{2})(2)(2) = \frac{c}{a}=2</math>, <math>csc \theta = (2)(\frac{1}{2})(2) = \frac{c}{b} = 2</math>. However in this valid assignment, we do not have <math>a=o</math> since <math>1 \neq \frac{1}{2}</math> and we do not have <math>s=t</math> as <math>\frac{1}{2} \neq 1</math>. This demonstrates that you can not make a valid algebraic derivation of <math>cas \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^{2}}{o^2} = \frac{o}{c}</math> or <math>sin \theta sec \theta = insect \theta^{2}</math>) without additional assumptions beyond the six given trigonometric identities.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T07:52:23Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */ Fix bad assumption errors.

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that have mistakes if you simply make algebraic manipulations to the six standard trigonometric functions.

* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\mathrm{cas} \theta = \frac{o}{c} \frac{a^2}{o^2}</math>.
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t", however this may be reached by 'phonetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together being similar to the sound of the word "insect".

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

2070: Trig Identities

2018-11-12T07:33:17Z

Jimbob: /* Value of Variables */ This section was wrong. It's easy to show there are solutions without all variables equal to 1. E.g., assign 2 to each {a,b,c,e,i,n,o} and assign 1/2 to {s,t,θ}. Then sinθ=cosθ=tanθ=cotθ=secθ=cscθ=1

{{comic
| number = 2070
| date = November 9, 2018
| title = Trig Identities
| image = trig_identities.png
| titletext = ARCTANGENT THETA = ENCHANT AT TARGET
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please only mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows several real and fictitious {{w|List_of_trigonometric_identities#Trigonometric_functions|trigonometric identities}}. Most of the identities past the second line are "derived" by applying algebraic methods to the letters in the trig functions, which violates the rules of math, since the trig functions are operators and not variables.

The first line are well known trigonometric functions. The second line contains the lesser known reciprocals of the trigonometric functions in the first line.

The following identities are made up and are increasing in absurdity. The comic reflects on the confusion one gets when working more intensely with these identities, since there are a lot of hidden dependencies between them.

The third and fourth line is made by treating the trigonometric function as a product of variables rather than a function and then using the above identities to create words. e.g. sin = b/c -> cin = b/s (this could also be a reference to the C++ cin).

The second to last line performs some algebra on the individual letters of <math>(\mathrm{tan}\ \theta)^2=\frac{b^2}{a^2}</math> as a setup to the last line. The last line takes the formula <math>distance=\frac{1}{2}at^2</math> "from physics" and plugs it into the equation of the previous line, doing some algebra to replace <math>at^2</math> with <math>distance2</math> and expanding <math>(na)^2</math> into <math>nana</math> to get the final equation, <math>distance2banana=\frac{b^3}{\theta^2}</math> . This is valid algebra only if the trigonometric operators are taken as variable products rather than operators, but this is a common misconception encountered when people first learn trigonometry. The distance equation is the distance a constantly accelerating object initially at rest moves in a given length of time t, most often used to find how far an object dropped from rest will fall under the influence of gravity in a given amount of time (or how long it will take to fall a given distance).

There are a few formulas that may seem to have a mistake, but are in fact correct, just requiring more than one step:
* <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math> seems to be derived from <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math> but to reach "cas" from "cos" one has to divide by "o" and multiply by "a". This would lead to <math>\frac{a^2}{co}</math> on the right hand side. However, this is still valid as it can be "proved" that both "a" and "o" are equal to 1, thus making <math>\frac{a^2}{co}=\frac{o}{c}</math>
* In the identity <math>\sin\theta\sec\theta=\mathrm{insect}\theta^2</math> one of the "s"'s has turned into a "t". This can be found by combining <math>\cos\theta=\frac{a}{c}</math>, <math>\mathrm{cas}\ \theta=\frac{o}{c}</math>, which show <math>o=a</math>, and <math>s=\frac{1}{c^2\theta}</math>. Using this with <math>\csc\theta=\frac{c}{b}</math> you can "prove" <math>c=b</math> and then with with <math>\cot\theta=\frac{a}{b}</math> you can find <math>t=\frac{1}{c^2\theta}=s</math>. The casual reader is more likely to see a 'poetic stretch' from the sound of saying 'sin sec' together.

The title-text is an anagram. Due to the commutative property of multiplication (which states that order does not affect the product), these equations are equivalent if treated as individual variables as earlier. Another layer of absurdity is added in that the variable Theta is spelled out and broken into its letters, which are then treated as individual variables. (The {{w|arctangent}} referred to here is the inverse tangent, a one-sided inverse to the tangent function. You would not normally write <math>\arctan\theta</math>, since the theta in the comic refers to an angle, and the arctangent has an angle as its ''value'' rather than as its ''argument''; however, using theta here is merely unconventional, not forbidden.) The arctangent generally produces theta, the meaning of it being taken on theta being poorly understood. Randall here elucidates, via tongue-in-cheek algebraic proof, that taking a second arctangent of theta produces magical effects.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Inside a single frame comic a right-angled triangle is shown. The shorter sides are labeled "a" and "b" and the hypotenuse has a "c". All angles are marked: the right angle by a square and the two others by arcs. One arc (enclosed by "a" and "c") is labeled by the Greek symbol theta (θ).]

:[Supposed trigonometric functions of the marked angle θ are shown:]

:sin θ = b/c
:cos θ = a/c
:tan θ = b/a

:cot θ = a/b
:sec θ = c/a
:csc θ = c/b

:cin θ = b/s
:cas θ = o/c
:tab θ = b²/na

:bot θ = a/c → boat θ = a²/c → stoat θ = a²/c · st/b

:tan θ ( = b/a = b/a · c/c = b/c · c/a = sin θ sec θ ) = insect θ²

:(tan θ)² = b²/a² ( → t²n²a⁴ = b²/θ² → at²ba(na)² = b³/θ²
:from physics: distance = 1/2 at² → ) distance2banana = b³/θ²

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Key trigonometric identities

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:33:19Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine a non-right angle of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
| {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon|Lunar orbital plane}}
| The plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth that is tilted about 5.1 degrees from the Earth

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

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| {{w|Belt of Venus}}
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Equinox}}
| Equinox is the point in the year where the length of day and night are roughly equal that is the first day of spring and the first day of autumn. This is due to the rotation axis of the Earth (tilted at 23.5 degrees) is midway between pointing towards or away from the Sun.
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| {{w|Perihelion}}
| Point in a solar orbit where the body is closest to the Sun

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| {{w|Ecliptic plane}}
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

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

|-
| {{w|Solistice}}
| Equinox is the point in the year where the length of day or night is longest (depending on which hemisphere), due to the 23.5 degree axial tilt of the Earth's rotation pointing directly towards/away from the Sun. This marks the first day of summer and winter.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with increasing elevation.
|
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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 by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

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

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, 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 angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:30:40Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine a non-right angle of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Astral plane}}
| A plane of existence in various esoteric theories. Also used in fictional fantasy context.
| {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon|Lunar orbital plane}}
| The plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth that is tilted about 5.1 degrees from the Earth

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

|-
| {{w|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Equinox}}
| Equinox is the point in the year where the length of day and night are roughly equal that is the first day of spring and the first day of autumn.
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

|-
| Perihelix
| Portmanteau of helix and perihelion
| {{w|Perihelion}}
| Point in a solar orbit where the body is closest to the Sun

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

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

|-
| {{w|Solistice}}
| Equinox is the point in the year where the length of day or night is longest (depending on which hemisphere), due to the 23.5 degree axial tilt of the Earth's rotation pointing directly towards/away from the Sun. This marks the first day of summer and winter.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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 by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

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

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, 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 angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:23:36Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{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|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Equinox}}
| Equinox is the point in the year where the length of day and night are roughly equal that is the first day of spring and the first day of autumn.
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

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

|-
| {{w|Solistice}}
| Equinox is the point in the year where the length of day or night is longest (depending on which hemisphere), due to the 23.5 degree axial tilt of the Earth's rotation pointing directly towards/away from the Sun. This marks the first day of summer and winter.
|
|

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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 by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

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

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, 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 angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:19:51Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{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|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere
|

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Errata}}
| Errata are a list of errors and corrections to published texts.
|
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

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

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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 by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

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

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, 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 angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:19:23Z

Jimbob:

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{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|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere
|

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Errata}}
| Errata are a list of errors and corrections to published texts.
|
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The quality of being fawningly attentive
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

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

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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 by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

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

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, 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 angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T16:18:34Z

Jimbob:

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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|Arctangent}}
| The inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine the non-right of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
|
|

|-
| {{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|Dimples of Venus}}
| Indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back
| Belt of Venus
| Shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere
|

|-
| {{w|Enceliopsis}}
| Small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays"
| Ecliptic
| The plane in which the Sun appears to orbit around the Earth - and, accordingly, the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun

|-
| {{w|Errata}}
| Errata are a list of errors and corrections to published texts.
|
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Obsequity}}
| The state of being obsequious (showing a willingness to obey or serve)
|
|

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

|-
| {{w|Prolapse}}
| A medical condition where an internal organ to move out of place
|
|

|-
| {{w|Sagittal plane}}
| Anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
| Ecliptic plane
| The plane in of the Earth's orbit about the Sun

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

|-
| {{w|Tropopause}}
| The boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere. It is defined the boundary where air ceases to cool with elevation.
|
|

}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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 by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

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

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, 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 angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angel is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines.]
:[The labels at the Moon's 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:54:08Z

Jimbob:

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 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
|
|
|}

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

==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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:53:09Z

Jimbob: /* Real Explanation for why there isn't a solar eclipse every month */

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon (once every [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods 29.5 days]) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

{| 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:47:57Z

Jimbob:

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

==Real Explanation for why there isn't a solar eclipse every month==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon and a lunar eclipse at every full moon.

However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

{| 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:46:24Z

Jimbob: /* Real Explanation for why there isn't one solar and one lunar eclipse every two weeks */

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

==Real Explanation for why there isn't one solar and one lunar eclipse every two weeks==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon and a lunar eclipse at every full moon.

However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

{| 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]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-18T15:44:25Z

Jimbob:

{{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 {{w|Orbital elements|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 title text refers to 'orbit' being also the anatomical term for the eyesocket.

==Real Explanation for why there isn't one solar and one lunar eclipse every two weeks==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every New Moon and a lunar eclipse at every full moon.

However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but 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.

{| 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]]

File:Eclipse Diagram.jpg

2017-08-18T15:40:50Z

Jimbob: Jimbob uploaded a new version of "File:Eclipse Diagram.jpg"

Diagram showing eclipse seasons at the two points in the Earth's yearly orbit around the Sun when the points where the moon crossing the ecliptic are roughly in line with the line to the Sun.

File:Eclipse Diagram.jpg

2017-08-18T15:33:36Z

Jimbob: Diagram showing eclipse seasons at the two points in the Earth's yearly orbit around the Sun when the points where the moon crossing the ecliptic are roughly in line with the line to the Sun.

Diagram showing eclipse seasons at the two points in the Earth's yearly orbit around the Sun when the points where the moon crossing the ecliptic are roughly in line with the line to the Sun.

1728: Cron Mail

2016-09-06T18:55:55Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1728
| date = September 2, 2016
| title = Cron Mail
| image = cron_mail.png
| titletext = Take THAT, piece of 1980s-era infrastructure I've inexplicably maintained on my systems for 15 years despite never really learning how it works.
}}

==Explanation==
On {{W|Unix}}-like systems, {{W|Cron|cron}} is a system utility that runs tasks on a schedule. This program has been around since the early days of Unix and has not changed much - it is still one of the most widely used functions in modern operating systems. Many administrative tasks on servers are automated using cron, including monitoring and updates.

When a cron job produces output, cron's default behavior is to send an email to the user account under which the job ran. However, in most situations, an email address has not been set up for that user, so the email is instead written to a mailbox file. Most Unix shells will notify the user with a message like "You have new mail" when this mailbox file is updated, but if the user doesn't know how to check this mail file, they will likely just ignore the message.

In this case, Cueball has been ignoring his mailbox for fifteen years. When he finally learns where to look, he discovers more than a gigabyte worth of messages from the cron program, the vast majority of which are likely meaningless. Ponytail suggests that Cueball "fix your cron" (likely meaning to fix the task that's generating the output so that it doesn't do so), then set a parameter that tells cron to send email to an address he actually checks. (He could also opt to direct the mails to <code>/dev/null</code>, which would discard them, or simply disable the mail in the crontab.) Cueball, however, interprets the tremendous amount of email as spam and decides to redirect the emails to <code>/etc/crontab</code>, the main configuration file that contains all of cron's scheduling information. He apparently believes that this will either stop the emails or cause cron to spam itself instead.

In reality, this will not cause significant problems as the <code>MAILTO</code> environmental variable in cron takes an email address or usernames on the local system and attempts to send emails to them. It will not write or append output to a local file like <code>/etc/crontab</code>. Thus when cron attempts to email <code>/etc/crontab</code> the mail program cron uses will generate an error saying it can't find the user <code>/etc/crontab</code>.

For example, if you create the following crontab:

<pre>
MAILTO=/etc/crontab

* * * * * echo "Some output from a cronjob"
</pre>

installed on a user named <code>me</code> on a system called <code>mycomputer</code> then you will see a new error messages email to you (located in <code>/var/mail/me</code>) stating it can't send email to a user named <code>/etc/crontab</code> and the undelivered email is being returned to the sender. The error email will look like the following:

<pre>
From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Sep 6 14:47:01 2016
Return-Path: <>
X-Original-To: me@mycomputer.local
Delivered-To: me@mycomputer.local
Received: by mycomputer.local (Postfix)
id 5341C64EE516; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: MAILER-DAEMON@mycomputer.local (Mail Delivery System)
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
To: me@mycomputer.local
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status;
boundary="33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local"
Message-Id: <20160906184701.5341C64EE516@mycomputer.local>

This is a MIME-encapsulated message.

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Notification
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

This is the mail system at host mycomputer.local.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

</etc/crontab@mycomputer.local> (expanded from </etc/crontab>): unknown user:
"/etc/crontab"

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Delivery report
Content-Type: message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns; mycomputer.local
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 33AF864EE514
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; me@mycomputer.local
Arrival-Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; /etc/crontab@mycomputer.local
Original-Recipient: rfc822; /etc/crontab
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; unknown user: "/etc/crontab"

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Undelivered Message
Content-Type: message/rfc822

Return-Path: <me@mycomputer.local>
Received: by mycomputer.local (Postfix, from userid 501)
id 33AF864EE514; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: me@mycomputer.local (Cron Daemon)
To: /etc/crontab@mycomputer.local
Subject: Cron <me@mycomputer> echo "Some output from a cronjob"
X-Cron-Env: <MAILTO=/etc/crontab>
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=me>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=me>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/Users/me>
Message-Id: <20160906184701.33AF864EE514@mycomputer.local>
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)

Some output from a cronjob

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local--
</pre>

The title text shows that Cueball is somewhat aware of what cron does, including the fact that it's existed pretty much unchanged for several decades, but he hasn't bothered to really get into understanding it, treating it more as a foe to vanquish rather than as a tool to understand and use.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a table in an office chair working on his laptop. Ponytail walks up to him.]
:Cueball: I've been getting these "You have new mail" UNIX notifications for like 15 years, but I've never bothered to figure out what it's talking about.

:[Ponytail has stopped behind Cueball who is typing on his laptop. When Ponytail (and later Cueball) mentions code, the text uses both small and capital letters (as opposed to only capital letters in all other text).]
:Ponytail: Look in /var/mail?
:Cueball: OK...
:Cueball: Oh, wow, there's like a gigabyte of stuff from Cron in here.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is facepalming. Cueball is replying from off-panel with a starburst indicating his position.]
:Ponytail: *Sigh*
:Ponytail: You should fix your Cron, then point "MAILTO=" somewhere you actually see-
:Cueball (off-panel): Better idea:

:[Same setting as panel 2 but Cueball is visibly typing on the laptop as shown with three small curved lines over his hands on the keyboard.]
:Cueball: export MAILTO=/etc/crontab
:Cueball: There. Your move, Cron.
:Ponytail: Wow. Hardball.
:Cueball: Let's see how important it thinks that mail really is.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1728: Cron Mail

2016-09-06T18:54:40Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */ fix backticks markdown notation to <code>.

{{comic
| number = 1728
| date = September 2, 2016
| title = Cron Mail
| image = cron_mail.png
| titletext = Take THAT, piece of 1980s-era infrastructure I've inexplicably maintained on my systems for 15 years despite never really learning how it works.
}}

==Explanation==
On {{W|Unix}}-like systems, {{W|Cron|cron}} is a system utility that runs tasks on a schedule. This program has been around since the early days of Unix and has not changed much - it is still one of the most widely used functions in modern operating systems. Many administrative tasks on servers are automated using cron, including monitoring and updates.

When a cron job produces output, cron's default behavior is to send an email to the user account under which the job ran. However, in most situations, an email address has not been set up for that user, so the email is instead written to a mailbox file. Most Unix shells will notify the user with a message like "You have new mail" when this mailbox file is updated, but if the user doesn't know how to check this mail file, they will likely just ignore the message.

In this case, Cueball has been ignoring his mailbox for fifteen years. When he finally learns where to look, he discovers more than a gigabyte worth of messages from the cron program, the vast majority of which are likely meaningless. Ponytail suggests that Cueball "fix your cron" (likely meaning to fix the task that's generating the output so that it doesn't do so), then set a parameter that tells cron to send email to an address he actually checks. (He could also opt to direct the mails to <code>/dev/null</code>, which would discard them, or simply disable the mail in the crontab.) Cueball, however, interprets the tremendous amount of email as spam and decides to redirect the emails to <code>/etc/crontab</code>, the main configuration file that contains all of cron's scheduling information. He apparently believes that this will either stop the emails or cause cron to spam itself instead.

In reality, this will not cause significant problems as the <code>MAILTO</code> environmental variable in cron takes an email address or usernames on the local system and attempts to send emails to them. It will not write or append output to a local file like <code>/etc/crontab</code>. Thus when cron attempts to email <code>/etc/crontab</code> the mail program cron uses will generate an error saying it can't find the user <code>/etc/crontab</code>.

For example, if you create the following crontab:

<pre>
MAILTO=/etc/crontab

* * * * * echo "Some output from a cronjob"
</pre>

installed on a user named `me` on a system called `mycomputer` then you will see a new error messages email to you (located in `/var/mail/me`) stating it can't send email to a user named `/etc/crontab` and the undelivered email is being returned to the sender. The error email will look like the following:

<pre>
From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Sep 6 14:47:01 2016
Return-Path: <>
X-Original-To: me@mycomputer.local
Delivered-To: me@mycomputer.local
Received: by mycomputer.local (Postfix)
id 5341C64EE516; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: MAILER-DAEMON@mycomputer.local (Mail Delivery System)
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
To: me@mycomputer.local
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status;
boundary="33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local"
Message-Id: <20160906184701.5341C64EE516@mycomputer.local>

This is a MIME-encapsulated message.

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Notification
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

This is the mail system at host mycomputer.local.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

</etc/crontab@mycomputer.local> (expanded from </etc/crontab>): unknown user:
"/etc/crontab"

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Delivery report
Content-Type: message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns; mycomputer.local
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 33AF864EE514
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; me@mycomputer.local
Arrival-Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; /etc/crontab@mycomputer.local
Original-Recipient: rfc822; /etc/crontab
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; unknown user: "/etc/crontab"

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Undelivered Message
Content-Type: message/rfc822

Return-Path: <me@mycomputer.local>
Received: by mycomputer.local (Postfix, from userid 501)
id 33AF864EE514; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: me@mycomputer.local (Cron Daemon)
To: /etc/crontab@mycomputer.local
Subject: Cron <me@mycomputer> echo "Some output from a cronjob"
X-Cron-Env: <MAILTO=/etc/crontab>
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=me>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=me>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/Users/me>
Message-Id: <20160906184701.33AF864EE514@mycomputer.local>
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)

Some output from a cronjob

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local--
</pre>

The title text shows that Cueball is somewhat aware of what cron does, including the fact that it's existed pretty much unchanged for several decades, but he hasn't bothered to really get into understanding it, treating it more as a foe to vanquish rather than as a tool to understand and use.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a table in an office chair working on his laptop. Ponytail walks up to him.]
:Cueball: I've been getting these "You have new mail" UNIX notifications for like 15 years, but I've never bothered to figure out what it's talking about.

:[Ponytail has stopped behind Cueball who is typing on his laptop. When Ponytail (and later Cueball) mentions code, the text uses both small and capital letters (as opposed to only capital letters in all other text).]
:Ponytail: Look in /var/mail?
:Cueball: OK...
:Cueball: Oh, wow, there's like a gigabyte of stuff from Cron in here.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is facepalming. Cueball is replying from off-panel with a starburst indicating his position.]
:Ponytail: *Sigh*
:Ponytail: You should fix your Cron, then point "MAILTO=" somewhere you actually see-
:Cueball (off-panel): Better idea:

:[Same setting as panel 2 but Cueball is visibly typing on the laptop as shown with three small curved lines over his hands on the keyboard.]
:Cueball: export MAILTO=/etc/crontab
:Cueball: There. Your move, Cron.
:Ponytail: Wow. Hardball.
:Cueball: Let's see how important it thinks that mail really is.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1728: Cron Mail

2016-09-06T18:51:44Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1728
| date = September 2, 2016
| title = Cron Mail
| image = cron_mail.png
| titletext = Take THAT, piece of 1980s-era infrastructure I've inexplicably maintained on my systems for 15 years despite never really learning how it works.
}}

==Explanation==
On {{W|Unix}}-like systems, {{W|Cron|cron}} is a system utility that runs tasks on a schedule. This program has been around since the early days of Unix and has not changed much - it is still one of the most widely used functions in modern operating systems. Many administrative tasks on servers are automated using cron, including monitoring and updates.

When a cron job produces output, cron's default behavior is to send an email to the user account under which the job ran. However, in most situations, an email address has not been set up for that user, so the email is instead written to a mailbox file. Most Unix shells will notify the user with a message like "You have new mail" when this mailbox file is updated, but if the user doesn't know how to check this mail file, they will likely just ignore the message.

In this case, Cueball has been ignoring his mailbox for fifteen years. When he finally learns where to look, he discovers more than a gigabyte worth of messages from the cron program, the vast majority of which are likely meaningless. Ponytail suggests that Cueball "fix your cron" (likely meaning to fix the task that's generating the output so that it doesn't do so), then set a parameter that tells cron to send email to an address he actually checks. (He could also opt to direct the mails to <code>/dev/null</code>, which would discard them, or simply disable the mail in the crontab.) Cueball, however, interprets the tremendous amount of email as spam and decides to redirect the emails to <code>/etc/crontab</code>, the main configuration file that contains all of cron's scheduling information. He apparently believes that this will either stop the emails or cause cron to spam itself instead.

In reality, this will not cause significant problems as the `MAILTO` environmental variable in cron takes an email address or usernames on the local system and attempts to send emails to them. It will not write or append output to a local file like `/etc/crontab`. Thus when cron attempts to email `/etc/crontab` the mail program cron uses will generate an error saying it can't find the user `/etc/crontab`.

For example, if you create the following crontab:

<pre>
MAILTO=/etc/crontab

* * * * * echo "Some output from a cronjob"
</pre>

installed on a user named `me` on a system called `mycomputer` then you will see a new error messages email to you (located in `/var/mail/me`) stating it can't send email to a user named `/etc/crontab` and the undelivered email is being returned to the sender. The error email will look like the following:

<pre>
From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Sep 6 14:47:01 2016
Return-Path: <>
X-Original-To: me@mycomputer.local
Delivered-To: me@mycomputer.local
Received: by mycomputer.local (Postfix)
id 5341C64EE516; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: MAILER-DAEMON@mycomputer.local (Mail Delivery System)
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
To: me@mycomputer.local
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status;
boundary="33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local"
Message-Id: <20160906184701.5341C64EE516@mycomputer.local>

This is a MIME-encapsulated message.

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Notification
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

This is the mail system at host mycomputer.local.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

</etc/crontab@mycomputer.local> (expanded from </etc/crontab>): unknown user:
"/etc/crontab"

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Delivery report
Content-Type: message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns; mycomputer.local
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 33AF864EE514
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; me@mycomputer.local
Arrival-Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; /etc/crontab@mycomputer.local
Original-Recipient: rfc822; /etc/crontab
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; unknown user: "/etc/crontab"

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local
Content-Description: Undelivered Message
Content-Type: message/rfc822

Return-Path: <me@mycomputer.local>
Received: by mycomputer.local (Postfix, from userid 501)
id 33AF864EE514; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: me@mycomputer.local (Cron Daemon)
To: /etc/crontab@mycomputer.local
Subject: Cron <me@mycomputer> echo "Some output from a cronjob"
X-Cron-Env: <MAILTO=/etc/crontab>
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=me>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=me>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/Users/me>
Message-Id: <20160906184701.33AF864EE514@mycomputer.local>
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 14:47:00 -0400 (EDT)

Some output from a cronjob

--33AF864EE514.1473187621/mycomputer.local--
</pre>

The title text shows that Cueball is somewhat aware of what cron does, including the fact that it's existed pretty much unchanged for several decades, but he hasn't bothered to really get into understanding it, treating it more as a foe to vanquish rather than as a tool to understand and use.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a table in an office chair working on his laptop. Ponytail walks up to him.]
:Cueball: I've been getting these "You have new mail" UNIX notifications for like 15 years, but I've never bothered to figure out what it's talking about.

:[Ponytail has stopped behind Cueball who is typing on his laptop. When Ponytail (and later Cueball) mentions code, the text uses both small and capital letters (as opposed to only capital letters in all other text).]
:Ponytail: Look in /var/mail?
:Cueball: OK...
:Cueball: Oh, wow, there's like a gigabyte of stuff from Cron in here.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is facepalming. Cueball is replying from off-panel with a starburst indicating his position.]
:Ponytail: *Sigh*
:Ponytail: You should fix your Cron, then point "MAILTO=" somewhere you actually see-
:Cueball (off-panel): Better idea:

:[Same setting as panel 2 but Cueball is visibly typing on the laptop as shown with three small curved lines over his hands on the keyboard.]
:Cueball: export MAILTO=/etc/crontab
:Cueball: There. Your move, Cron.
:Ponytail: Wow. Hardball.
:Cueball: Let's see how important it thinks that mail really is.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-08T19:38:51Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1574
| date = September 7, 2015
| title = Trouble for Science
| image = trouble_for_science.png
| titletext = Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More details in each article, especially the one about antibodies and rodents.}}
The comic highlights the fact that several well-publicized scientific critiques have recently been published that raise questions about some commonly accepted scientific methods. For scientists, these critiques serve as reminders of the dangers of overconfidence in any method, hopefully leading those who have naively accepted results to remember that any scientific conclusion is by its very nature tentative and limited by methodological reliability. However, popular-press reporting of these papers may lead a general public of modest scientific literacy to the impression that science might be in trouble, as implicated by the title. Some of these methodological issues and shortcomings are well-known in the scientific community, but are – for better or worse – the best toolkit science has at its disposal today. This is however greatly exaggerated by the last (fictional) headline, which suggests that Bunsen burners in fact have a cooling effect, which is of course absolutely ridiculous, but would nevertheless change one more fundamental scientific belief drastically. Additionally, each headline contains irony or a double meaning for comical effect.

The title of five scientific articles are shown:

;Many commercial antibody-based immunoassays are unreliable
This sentence is true. See Kebaneilwe Lebani, [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:352531 Antibody Discovery for Development of a Serotyping Dengue Virus NS1 Capture Assay], 2014. In this PhD thesis, 11 references are given.

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance
p-value is the probability that an event is observed just by chance. If p-value is under a threshold level (''α'', usually <5%, or <1% for being more conservative) one can assume that the event observed "exists".
The value used for ''α'' has been proposed by [http://web.lru.dk/sites/lru.dk/files/lru/docs/kap9/kapitel_9_126_On_the_origins.pdf Fisher] and is completely arbitrary.

The use of p-values as a measure of statistical significance is frequently criticized, for example in [http://wiki.bio.dtu.dk/~agpe/papers/pval_notuseful.pdf Hubbard and Lindsay]. Randall has demonstrated this problem in the past in [[882: Significant]].
;Overfeeding of laboratory rodents compromises animal models

[http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/24/6/757.full.pdf Keenan et al.] makes this case. Additionally, the word model takes on two meanings. In one sense, a model can refer to a scientific description that makes sense of a phenomenon; in another sense, model can refer to one that demonstrates fashion. Models are notorious for being exceptionally thin.

;Replication study fails to reproduce many published results
A [https://explorable.com/replication-study Replication Study] is a study designed to replicate the results of a previous study by using the same methods for a different set of subjects and experimenters. It aims to recreate the results to gain confidence in the results of the previous study as well as ensuring that the findings of the previous study are transferable to other similar areas of study.

Randall is probably referring to this recent study: http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder
This is a joke, but possible in high temperature cases. There is probably some methodological error if putting something over the Bunsen burner flame (which is between 1000K and 2000K) makes it colder. If that thing were already much hotter than the flame (more than 2000 Kelvin), the Bunsen Burner's flame would equalize the temperature between the flame and thing resulting in cooling.

;Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution

This is another joke of a premise that is obviously untrue. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function Gaussian distribution] is a mathematical construct that is generally known as the bell curve or the Normal distribution. As it is an ideal mathematical construction, by definition, it cannot have any irregularities -- similar to how the equation y = 2x + 1 cannot have small-scale irregularities. The joke probably alludes to the fact that many types of observations are frequently initially modeled as a Gaussian distribution, though on careful observation the actual distribution of outcomes will often deviate from a pure Gaussian distribution.

==Transcript==
:[Five panels, each with the top part of a scientific article, where only the title is readable. Below is the list of authors and subheading and text in unreadable wiggles.]

:Many Commercial Antibody-Based Immunoassays Are Unreliable

:Problems With the p-Value as an Indicator of Significance

:Overfeeding of Laboratory Rodents Compromises Animal Models

:Replication Study Fails to Reproduce Many Published Results

:Controlled Trials Show Bunsen Burners Make Things Colder

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-08T19:38:04Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1574
| date = September 7, 2015
| title = Trouble for Science
| image = trouble_for_science.png
| titletext = Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More details in each article, especially the one about antibodies and rodents.}}
The comic highlights the fact that several well-publicized scientific critiques have recently been published that raise questions about some commonly accepted scientific methods. For scientists, these critiques serve as reminders of the dangers of overconfidence in any method, hopefully leading those who have naively accepted results to remember that any scientific conclusion is by its very nature tentative and limited by methodological reliability. However, popular-press reporting of these papers may lead a general public of modest scientific literacy to the impression that science might be in trouble, as implicated by the title. Some of these methodological issues and shortcomings are well-known in the scientific community, but are – for better or worse – the best toolkit science has at its disposal today. This is however greatly exaggerated by the last (fictional) headline, which suggests that Bunsen burners in fact have a cooling effect, which is of course absolutely ridiculous, but would nevertheless change one more fundamental scientific belief drastically. Additionally, each headline contains irony or a double meaning for comical effect.

The title of five scientific articles are shown:

;Many commercial antibody-based immunoassays are unreliable
This sentence is true. See Kebaneilwe Lebani, [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:352531 Antibody Discovery for Development of a Serotyping Dengue Virus NS1 Capture Assay], 2014. In this PhD thesis, 11 references are given.

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance
p-value is the probability that an event is observed just by chance. If p-value is under a threshold level (''α'', usually <5%, or <1% for being more conservative) one can assume that the event observed "exists".
The value used for ''α'' has been proposed by [http://web.lru.dk/sites/lru.dk/files/lru/docs/kap9/kapitel_9_126_On_the_origins.pdf Fisher] and is completely arbitrary.

The use of p-values as a measure of statistical significance is frequently criticized, for example in [http://wiki.bio.dtu.dk/~agpe/papers/pval_notuseful.pdf Hubbard and Lindsay]. Randall has demonstrated this problem in the past in [[882: Significant]].
;Overfeeding of laboratory rodents compromises animal models

[http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/24/6/757.full.pdf Keenan et al.] makes this case. Additionally, the word model takes on two meanings. In one sense, a model can refer to a scientific description that makes sense of a phenomenon; in another sense, model can refer to one that demonstrates fashion. Models are notorious for being exceptionally thin.

;Replication study fails to reproduce many published results
A [https://explorable.com/replication-study Replication Study] is a study designed to replicate the results of a previous study by using the same methods for a different set of subjects and experimenters. It aims to recreate the results to gain confidence in the results of the previous study as well as ensuring that the findings of the previous study are transferable to other similar areas of study.

Randall is probably referring to this recent study: http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder
This is a joke, but possible in high temperature cases. There is probably some methodological error if putting something over the Bunsen burner flame (which is between 1000K and 2000K) makes it colder. If that thing were already much hotter than the flame (more than 2000 Kelvin), the Bunsen Burner's flame would equalize the temperature between the flame and thing resulting in cooling.

;Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution

This is another joke of a premise that is obviously untrue. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function Gaussian distribution] is a mathematical construct that is generally known as the bell curve or the Normal distribution. As it is an ideal mathematical construction, by definition, it cannot have any irregularities -- similar to how the equation y = 2x + 1 cannot have small-scale irregularities. The joke probably alludes to the fact that many types of observations are frequently initially modeled as a Gaussian distribution, though on careful observation the actual distribution of outcomes will often differ from a pure Gaussian distribution.

==Transcript==
:[Five panels, each with the top part of a scientific article, where only the title is readable. Below is the list of authors and subheading and text in unreadable wiggles.]

:Many Commercial Antibody-Based Immunoassays Are Unreliable

:Problems With the p-Value as an Indicator of Significance

:Overfeeding of Laboratory Rodents Compromises Animal Models

:Replication Study Fails to Reproduce Many Published Results

:Controlled Trials Show Bunsen Burners Make Things Colder

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-08T19:35:07Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */ fix link

{{comic
| number = 1574
| date = September 7, 2015
| title = Trouble for Science
| image = trouble_for_science.png
| titletext = Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More details in each article, especially the one about antibodies and rodents.}}
The comic highlights the fact that several well-publicized scientific critiques have recently been published that raise questions about some commonly accepted scientific methods. For scientists, these critiques serve as reminders of the dangers of overconfidence in any method, hopefully leading those who have naively accepted results to remember that any scientific conclusion is by its very nature tentative and limited by methodological reliability. However, popular-press reporting of these papers may lead a general public of modest scientific literacy to the impression that science might be in trouble, as implicated by the title. Some of these methodological issues and shortcomings are well-known in the scientific community, but are – for better or worse – the best toolkit science has at its disposal today. This is however greatly exaggerated by the last (fictional) headline, which suggests that Bunsen burners in fact have a cooling effect, which is of course absolutely ridiculous, but would nevertheless change one more fundamental scientific belief drastically. Additionally, each headline contains irony or a double meaning for comical effect.

The title of five scientific articles are shown:

;Many commercial antibody-based immunoassays are unreliable
This sentence is true. See Kebaneilwe Lebani, [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:352531 Antibody Discovery for Development of a Serotyping Dengue Virus NS1 Capture Assay], 2014. In this PhD thesis, 11 references are given.

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance
p-value is the probability that an event is observed just by chance. If p-value is under a threshold level (''α'', usually <5%, or <1% for being more conservative) one can assume that the event observed "exists".
The value used for ''α'' has been proposed by [http://web.lru.dk/sites/lru.dk/files/lru/docs/kap9/kapitel_9_126_On_the_origins.pdf Fisher] and is completely arbitrary.

The use of p-values as a measure of statistical significance is frequently criticized, for example in [http://wiki.bio.dtu.dk/~agpe/papers/pval_notuseful.pdf Hubbard and Lindsay]. Randall has demonstrated this problem in the past in [[882: Significant]].
;Overfeeding of laboratory rodents compromises animal models

[http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/24/6/757.full.pdf Keenan et al.] makes this case. Additionally, the word model takes on two meanings. In one sense, a model can refer to a scientific description that makes sense of a phenomenon; in another sense, model can refer to one that demonstrates fashion. Models are notorious for being exceptionally thin.

;Replication study fails to reproduce many published results
A [https://explorable.com/replication-study Replication Study] is a study designed to replicate the results of a previous study by using the same methods for a different set of subjects and experimenters. It aims to recreate the results to gain confidence in the results of the previous study as well as ensuring that the findings of the previous study are transferable to other similar areas of study.

Randall is probably referring to this recent study: http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder
This is a joke, but possible in high temperature cases. There is probably some methodological error if putting something over the Bunsen burner flame (which is between 1000K and 2000K) makes it colder. If that thing were already much hotter than the flame (more than 2000 Kelvin), the Bunsen Burner's flame would equalize the temperature between the flame and thing resulting in cooling.

;Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution

This is another joke of a premise that is obviously untrue. The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function Gaussian distribution] is a mathematical construct that is generally known as the bell curve or the Normal distribution. As being an ideal mathematical construct, by definition it cannot have irregularities -- similar to how the equation y = 2x + 1 cannot have small-scale irregularities.

==Transcript==
:[Five panels, each with the top part of a scientific article, where only the title is readable. Below is the list of authors and subheading and text in unreadable wiggles.]

:Many Commercial Antibody-Based Immunoassays Are Unreliable

:Problems With the p-Value as an Indicator of Significance

:Overfeeding of Laboratory Rodents Compromises Animal Models

:Replication Study Fails to Reproduce Many Published Results

:Controlled Trials Show Bunsen Burners Make Things Colder

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1574: Trouble for Science

2015-09-08T19:34:28Z

Jimbob: The explanation involving Fourier transforms was meaningless gibberish; the Fourier transform of a Gaussian is a Gaussian and doesn't explain why Gaussians do not have irregularities.

{{comic
| number = 1574
| date = September 7, 2015
| title = Trouble for Science
| image = trouble_for_science.png
| titletext = Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More details in each article, especially the one about antibodies and rodents.}}
The comic highlights the fact that several well-publicized scientific critiques have recently been published that raise questions about some commonly accepted scientific methods. For scientists, these critiques serve as reminders of the dangers of overconfidence in any method, hopefully leading those who have naively accepted results to remember that any scientific conclusion is by its very nature tentative and limited by methodological reliability. However, popular-press reporting of these papers may lead a general public of modest scientific literacy to the impression that science might be in trouble, as implicated by the title. Some of these methodological issues and shortcomings are well-known in the scientific community, but are – for better or worse – the best toolkit science has at its disposal today. This is however greatly exaggerated by the last (fictional) headline, which suggests that Bunsen burners in fact have a cooling effect, which is of course absolutely ridiculous, but would nevertheless change one more fundamental scientific belief drastically. Additionally, each headline contains irony or a double meaning for comical effect.

The title of five scientific articles are shown:

;Many commercial antibody-based immunoassays are unreliable
This sentence is true. See Kebaneilwe Lebani, [http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:352531 Antibody Discovery for Development of a Serotyping Dengue Virus NS1 Capture Assay], 2014. In this PhD thesis, 11 references are given.

;Problems with the p-value as an indicator of significance
p-value is the probability that an event is observed just by chance. If p-value is under a threshold level (''α'', usually <5%, or <1% for being more conservative) one can assume that the event observed "exists".
The value used for ''α'' has been proposed by [http://web.lru.dk/sites/lru.dk/files/lru/docs/kap9/kapitel_9_126_On_the_origins.pdf Fisher] and is completely arbitrary.

The use of p-values as a measure of statistical significance is frequently criticized, for example in [http://wiki.bio.dtu.dk/~agpe/papers/pval_notuseful.pdf Hubbard and Lindsay]. Randall has demonstrated this problem in the past in [[882: Significant]].
;Overfeeding of laboratory rodents compromises animal models

[http://tpx.sagepub.com/content/24/6/757.full.pdf Keenan et al.] makes this case. Additionally, the word model takes on two meanings. In one sense, a model can refer to a scientific description that makes sense of a phenomenon; in another sense, model can refer to one that demonstrates fashion. Models are notorious for being exceptionally thin.

;Replication study fails to reproduce many published results
A [https://explorable.com/replication-study Replication Study] is a study designed to replicate the results of a previous study by using the same methods for a different set of subjects and experimenters. It aims to recreate the results to gain confidence in the results of the previous study as well as ensuring that the findings of the previous study are transferable to other similar areas of study.

Randall is probably referring to this recent study: http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

;Controlled trials show Bunsen burners make things colder
This is a joke, but possible in high temperature cases. There is probably some methodological error if putting something over the Bunsen burner flame (which is between 1000K and 2000K) makes it colder. If that thing were already much hotter than the flame (more than 2000 Kelvin), the Bunsen Burner's flame would equalize the temperature between the flame and thing resulting in cooling.

;Careful mathematical analysis demonstrates small-scale irregularities in Gaussian distribution

This is another joke of a premise that is obviously untrue. The [Gaussian distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function] is a mathematical construct that is generally known as the bell curve or the Normal distribution. As being an ideal mathematical construct, by definition it cannot have irregularities -- similar to how the equation y = 2x + 1 cannot have small-scale irregularities.

==Transcript==
:[Five panels, each with the top part of a scientific article, where only the title is readable. Below is the list of authors and subheading and text in unreadable wiggles.]

:Many Commercial Antibody-Based Immunoassays Are Unreliable

:Problems With the p-Value as an Indicator of Significance

:Overfeeding of Laboratory Rodents Compromises Animal Models

:Replication Study Fails to Reproduce Many Published Results

:Controlled Trials Show Bunsen Burners Make Things Colder

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1414: Writing Skills

2014-08-29T19:12:02Z

Jimbob: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 1414
| date = August 29, 2014
| title = Writing Skills
| image = writing_skills.png
| titletext = I'd like to find a corpus of writing writing from children in a non-self-selected sample (e.g. handwritten letters to the president from everyone in the same teacher's 7th grade class every year)--and score the kids today versus the kids 20 years ago on various objective measures of writing quality. I've heard the idea that exposure to all this amateur peer practice is hurting us, but I'd bet on the generation that conducts the bulk of their social lives via the written word over the generation that occasionally wrote book reports and letters to grandma once a year, any day.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Much more is needed on the reason why the use of SMS should enhance the writing skills. The title text is also not mentioned.}}
[[Cueball]] and [[White Hat]] are discussing the positive and negative effects of young people writing on mobile phones in the vernacular of the day, {{w|Short Message Service}} (SMS) with lots of abbreviations.

SMS messages are one of the primary means of text communication on mobile devices, and are typically limited to 160 characters. Due to the limited space available on this and other messaging platforms, and also to decrease the time taken to write a message, {{w|SMS language}} (aka textese) developed as a form of short-hand writing. This involves the abbreviation and deliberate misspelling of words, and the use of acronyms.

Naturally, the use of this style of language has expanded into other areas, including those where brevity is not an issue, and this expansion and evolution of language is a subject of intense debate.
The main viewpoints on the subject are:

*Language is being negatively degraded by the use of text speak
*The use of text speak is a natural evolution of language

Cueball's point is that "practice makes perfect". Ability to form good grammar comes from practice through a lot of writing even when that writing is informal and hence the SMS generation get a lot of practice compared to the previous generations who communicated much more with speech, over the phone and in person, and may have written only a few letters a year. To foster talent for a major literary work we should encourage more practice even when that practice is through informal writing such as SMS.

{{w|James Joyce}} was an celebrated Irish novelist and poet, and his novel {{w|Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses}} is considered to be one of the most important works of modernist literature. It was criticized in some quarters for the frequent lack of punctuation and ungrammatical {{w|Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream of consciousness}} narrative mode. In addition to his well known work, he wrote a number of love letters with extremely explicit content.

In the title text Randall wishes to prove Cueball's point by analyzing and comparing bulk volumes of texts (= a {{w|Text corpus|corpus}}) written by children today and 20 years ago. Randall favors todays children's writings for their everyday use of written word over situation in the past when children wrote only if forced to do so.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are walking together, White Hat is holding a newspaper or report.]
:White Hat: Weird- Another study found that kids who use SMS abbreviations actually score ''higher'' on grammar and spelling tests.
:Cueball: Why on ''earth'' is that a suprise?

:[Cueball turns to White hat (who is now out side the frame. Inserted in the frame is a panel showing several kids throwing balls.]
:Cueball: Imagine kids suddenly start playing catch literally ''all the time''. Everywhere they go, they throw balls back and forth, toss them in the air, and hurl them at trees and signs- Nearly every waking hour of their lives.

:[Cueball talks on while White Hat begins to walk.]
:Cueball: Do you think their generation will suck at baseball because they learned sloppy skills?
:White Hat: ...So you think someone will become a great writer while ''sexting?''

:[They walk together.]
:Cueball: Have you ''read'' James Joyce's love letters? The phrases "My little fuckbird" and "Arse full of farts" appear. If we want to write ''Ulysses'', our generation may not be sexting ''enough''.
:White Hat: Eww.

==Trivia==

Randall originally misspelled surprise as "suprise" in the first panel and also wrote "writing writing" in the beginning of the title text in stead of just "writing". It was initially conjectured here that the errors may have been deliberately introduced as they are relevant to the subject. However, both of these errors were corrected on the same day the comic was released and currently are not present in the live version.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T22:38:10Z

Jimbob:

I added a transcript, if I messed up on anything, I'm sorry! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 06:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
:Thanks for the transcript! (nothing seems messed up) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.206|141.101.88.206]] 06:41, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
::But wait! You forgot a comma! (It's okay, I fixed it :) ) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.67|108.162.216.67]] 06:47, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

The alt-text contains a reference to the scene "Tears in the rain" of Blade Runner [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 06:19, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Is Explainxkcd using Open SSL? [[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 06:56, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I'd just like to take this moment to say that even though you probably don't have anything of value stored here, Explain xkcd is good on the Heartbleed front. Not using any of the affected software because the data we handle isn't private at all probably helps with that. And yes, Mediawiki hashes your passwords before they're sent. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

: Davidy22 - While your first point was correct (explainxkcd isn't vulnerable to heartbleed as explainxkcd doesn't any encryption -- everything starts being sent in plaintext over the net), your second point is wrong. As anyone with wireshark can verify (or using your web browsers' developer tools), when you login to explainxkcd from `http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Main+Page`, you make a POST request to `/wiki/index.php` that contains as a POST variable your user name (in the POST variable wpName), and your password (in the POST variable wpPassword), both sent in plaintext. Granted it probably is stored in the database hashed (hopefully with a unique salt and a good hash algorithm), it is readable by any network eavesdropper. Not really a problem though, if you don't reuse passwords or mind if your account here was compromised. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 22:38, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Have the following from [http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt OpenSSL Bug Report]
Should this be incorperated into the main explanation, and how should it be formated
[[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 08:07, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
----

OpenSSL Security Advisory [07 Apr 2014]
========================================

TLS heartbeat read overrun (CVE-2014-0160)
==========================================

A missing bounds check in the handling of the TLS heartbeat extension can be
used to reveal up to 64k of memory to a connected client or server.

Only 1.0.1 and 1.0.2-beta releases of OpenSSL are affected including
1.0.1f and 1.0.2-beta1.

Thanks for Neel Mehta of Google Security for discovering this bug and to
Adam Langley <agl@chromium.org> and Bodo Moeller <bmoeller@acm.org> for
preparing the fix.

Affected users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g. Users unable to immediately
upgrade can alternatively recompile OpenSSL with -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.

1.0.2 will be fixed in 1.0.2-beta2.

----

:Actually, attack is limited to data in memory of the webserver PROCESS. Even on affected computers, other applications are safe and most of disk content is safe. Not speaking about the fact that in many cases, the public-facing webserver is just proxy cache before the real ones. The real problem is if someone immediately used the revealed data - either to impersonate the server or for example found the admin password and used it to copy the database ... which DOES leave traces. I agree with Cueball: there can be worse kind of bug. In fact, I'm sure that what Edward Snowden revealed is worse, although not technically bug. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

: Hkmaly -- Completely agree. Posted a [http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/55270/does-xkcd-com-1353-overstate-heartbleeds-capability similar discussion] at security.stackexchange.com and altered the text here to describe heartbleed in more detail. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 21:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T21:47:44Z

Jimbob: /* Heartbleed */

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} refers to a critical bug in the {{w|OpenSSL}} cryptographic library. This bug was publicly revealed on Monday, April 7th, 2014. Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f — meaning the bug had existed for two years — attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared HeartbeatRequest messages to an affected server.

OpenSSL is a very commonly used library to implement {{w|SSL/TLS}}, a cryptographic protocol not only used to secure web traffic but also for mail clients and much more. Only the user and the server can read the communication. On the the web the protocol is ''https://'' (HTTP Secure), instead of the open ''http://'' standard. SSL is often used to protect sensitive web traffic, such as login requests, which contains the user names and passwords in the requests. The server sends a certificate to the browser before the secure connection is established. If the certificate is registered the browser accepts it automatically, otherwise the the user gets a popup to accept or reject this insecure certificate.

A vulnerability that lets an attacker read random clumps of memory on the server would possibly let an attacker find recent username/password requests, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to user accounts. Even worse, this vulnerability could read the server's private key, enabling anyone to impersonate the server and/or decrypt any future traffic that relies on that key, and any previously-obtained prior traffic also, unless a "perfect forward secrecy" ciphers is used, which is currently rare. Furthermore, the hearbleed exploit occurs during the handshake phase of setting up a connection, so no traces of it are logged, i.e. you can be attacked and never be the wiser.

More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com] or under CVE-2014-0160, [https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0160 CVE-2014-0160 at nvd.nist.gov]

The title text cites the {{w|Tears in rain soliloquy}}, the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by {{w|Rutger Hauer}}) in the 1982 film ''{{w|Blade Runner}}'', implying that the 64Kb HeartBleed buffer is so complete it includes memories from replicant brains.

===Heartbleed===

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security Transport Layer Security] (TLS), the successor to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer SSL] is a protocol that provides end-to-end encryption for data transmitted over the internet (described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5246 RFC 5246]). The Heartbeat extension to TLS introduced in 2012 (described in [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6520 RFC 6520]) provides a protocol for keeping an encrypted TLS session alive between the client and the server, so you do not have to do a costly TLS handshake with the server for subsequent transfer of information.

The Heartbeat protocol involves the client sending a packet with an arbitrary payload (often a random 16 to 32 byte number) that the server periodically sends back to the client to tell the client that the TLS session is still alive. When the client sends the packet to a vulnerable version of OpenSSL, the OpenSSL server reads a payload_size from the header sent by the client. This is a 2-byte number (0 to 0xffff=65535) that is supposed to describe the size of the payload. The OpenSSL library writes the payload to memory, but it does not check that the size of the payload written to memory matches the payload_size taken from the client's header. When the vulnerable server sends back the Heartbeat KeepAlive response to the client, it will readout payload_size number of bytes and send them back to the server. If you send a payload that is actually 16 bytes, but claims it is 0xffff bytes you will read the next 64KiB of memory of the vulnerable process starting from whereever the payload was written. An attacker can repeat this attack many times and can do this attack early in the TLS handshake, so the attack will not in any way be logged (unless they are logging every incoming packet which is not typical and would result in many passwords being logged). As private keys often have a specific form, it is often possible for an attacker to find the private TLS key, so if they eavesdrop on network traffic they can decrypt and/or alter it. For more detailed information see: [http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/04/attack-of-week-openssl-heartbleed.html 1], [http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55117/2568 2], [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7549943 3].

It is worth noting that modern operating systems use a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Memory#Usage virtual memory] abstraction above physical memory. This means every process can only access memory assigned to it, so it would be impossible for a vulnerable web server to read memory assigned to another process (like a text editor that has erotic fan fiction stored to memory) on the same computer. For more info, see: [http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55271/2568 4].

It also should be noted that this heartbleed bug only affects TLS, and does not affect OpenSSH which does not use the TLS protocol, but uses the SSH-2 protocol (described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4251 RFC 4251] a distinct protocol. SSH is used for remote logins on unix and linux computers.

Vulnerable sysadmins need to update to a patched version of OpenSSL or one with the Heartbeats disabled, revoke their old TLS keys, and generate new TLS keys (as their old key may have been compromised).

Users of vulnerable systems should change their passwords after the sysadmins have revoked their old key and issued new ones (as their passwords may have been compromised).

The [https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/bd6941cfaa31ee8a3f8661cb98227a5cbcc0f9f3 vulnerable commit] was introduced Dec 31st, 2011 by Robin Seggelmann, the first co-author of the heartbeats RFC and went live when OpenSSL version 1.0.1 was released on 2012-03-14 and the vulnerability was widely announced 2014-04-07.

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.

:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.

:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic fanfiction.
:Cueball: Is '''''everything''''' compromised?

:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations, too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}

1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T21:42:40Z

Jimbob: /* Heartbleed */ updated language.

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} refers to a critical bug in the {{w|OpenSSL}} cryptographic library. This bug was publicly revealed on Monday, April 7th, 2014. Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f — meaning the bug had existed for two years — attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared HeartbeatRequest messages to an affected server.

OpenSSL is a very commonly used library to implement {{w|SSL/TLS}}, a cryptographic protocol not only used to secure web traffic but also for mail clients and much more. Only the user and the server can read the communication. On the the web the protocol is ''https://'' (HTTP Secure), instead of the open ''http://'' standard. SSL is often used to protect sensitive web traffic, such as login requests, which contains the user names and passwords in the requests. The server sends a certificate to the browser before the secure connection is established. If the certificate is registered the browser accepts it automatically, otherwise the the user gets a popup to accept or reject this insecure certificate.

A vulnerability that lets an attacker read random clumps of memory on the server would possibly let an attacker find recent username/password requests, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to user accounts. Even worse, this vulnerability could read the server's private key, enabling anyone to impersonate the server and/or decrypt any future traffic that relies on that key, and any previously-obtained prior traffic also, unless a "perfect forward secrecy" ciphers is used, which is currently rare. Furthermore, the hearbleed exploit occurs during the handshake phase of setting up a connection, so no traces of it are logged, i.e. you can be attacked and never be the wiser.

More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com] or under CVE-2014-0160, [https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0160 CVE-2014-0160 at nvd.nist.gov]

The title text cites the {{w|Tears in rain soliloquy}}, the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by {{w|Rutger Hauer}}) in the 1982 film ''{{w|Blade Runner}}'', implying that the 64Kb HeartBleed buffer is so complete it includes memories from replicant brains.

===Heartbleed===

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security Transport Layer Security] (TLS), the successor to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer SSL] is a protocol that provides end-to-end encryption for data transmitted over the internet (described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5246 RFC 5246]). The Heartbeat extension to TLS introduced in 2012 (described in [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6520 RFC 6520]) provides a protocol for keeping an encrypted TLS session alive between the client and the server, so you do not have to do a costly TLS handshake with the server for subsequent transfer of information.

The Heartbeat protocol involves the client sending a packet with an arbitrary payload (often a random 16 to 32 byte number) that the server periodically sends back to the client to tell the client that the TLS session is still alive. When the client sends the packet to a vulnerable version of OpenSSL, the OpenSSL server reads a payload_size from the header sent by the client. This is a 2-byte number (0 to 0xffff=65535) that is supposed to describe the size of the payload. The OpenSSL library writes the payload to memory, but it does not check that the size of the payload written to memory matches the payload_size taken from the client's header. When the vulnerable server sends back the Heartbeat KeepAlive response to the client, it will readout payload_size number of bytes and send them back to the server. If you send a payload that is actually 16 bytes, but claims it is 0xffff bytes you will read the next 64KiB of memory of the vulnerable process starting from whereever the payload was written. An attacker can repeat this attack many times and can do this attack early in the TLS handshake, so the attack will not in any way be logged (unless they are logging every incoming packet which is not typical and would result in many passwords being logged). As private keys often have a specific form, it is often possible for an attacker to find the private TLS key, so if they eavesdrop on network traffic they can decrypt and/or alter it. For more detailed information see: [http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/04/attack-of-week-openssl-heartbleed.html 1], [http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55117/2568 2], [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7549943 3].

It is worth noting that modern operating systems use a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Memory#Usage virtual memory] abstraction above physical memory. This means every process can only access memory assigned to it, so it would be impossible for a vulnerable web server to read memory assigned to another process (like a text editor that has erotic fan fiction stored to memory) on the same computer. For more info, see: [http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55271/2568 4].

It also should be noted that this heartbleed bug only affects TLS, and does not affect OpenSSH which does not use the TLS protocol, but uses the SSH-2 protocol (described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4251 RFC 4251] a distinct protocol. SSH is used for remote logins on unix and linux computers.

Vulnerable sysadmins need to update to a patched version of OpenSSL or one with the Heartbeats disabled, revoke their old TLS keys, and generate new TLS keys (as their old key may have been compromised).

Users of vulnerable systems should change their passwords after the sysadmins have revoked their old key and issued new ones (as their passwords may have been compromised).

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.

:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.

:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic fanfiction.
:Cueball: Is '''''everything''''' compromised?

:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations, too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T21:34:44Z

Jimbob: /* == */

I added a transcript, if I messed up on anything, I'm sorry! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 06:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
:Thanks for the transcript! (nothing seems messed up) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.206|141.101.88.206]] 06:41, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
::But wait! You forgot a comma! (It's okay, I fixed it :) ) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.67|108.162.216.67]] 06:47, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

The alt-text contains a reference to the scene "Tears in the rain" of Blade Runner [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 06:19, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Is Explainxkcd using Open SSL? [[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 06:56, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I'd just like to take this moment to say that even though you probably don't have anything of value stored here, Explain xkcd is good on the Heartbleed front. Not using any of the affected software because the data we handle isn't private at all probably helps with that. And yes, Mediawiki hashes your passwords before they're sent. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Have the following from [http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt OpenSSL Bug Report]
Should this be incorperated into the main explanation, and how should it be formated
[[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 08:07, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
----

OpenSSL Security Advisory [07 Apr 2014]
========================================

TLS heartbeat read overrun (CVE-2014-0160)
==========================================

A missing bounds check in the handling of the TLS heartbeat extension can be
used to reveal up to 64k of memory to a connected client or server.

Only 1.0.1 and 1.0.2-beta releases of OpenSSL are affected including
1.0.1f and 1.0.2-beta1.

Thanks for Neel Mehta of Google Security for discovering this bug and to
Adam Langley <agl@chromium.org> and Bodo Moeller <bmoeller@acm.org> for
preparing the fix.

Affected users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g. Users unable to immediately
upgrade can alternatively recompile OpenSSL with -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.

1.0.2 will be fixed in 1.0.2-beta2.

----

:Actually, attack is limited to data in memory of the webserver PROCESS. Even on affected computers, other applications are safe and most of disk content is safe. Not speaking about the fact that in many cases, the public-facing webserver is just proxy cache before the real ones. The real problem is if someone immediately used the revealed data - either to impersonate the server or for example found the admin password and used it to copy the database ... which DOES leave traces. I agree with Cueball: there can be worse kind of bug. In fact, I'm sure that what Edward Snowden revealed is worse, although not technically bug. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

: Hkmaly -- Completely agree. Posted a [http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/55270/does-xkcd-com-1353-overstate-heartbleeds-capability similar discussion] at security.stackexchange.com and altered the text here to describe heartbleed in more detail. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 21:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T21:33:48Z

Jimbob:

I added a transcript, if I messed up on anything, I'm sorry! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 06:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
:Thanks for the transcript! (nothing seems messed up) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.206|141.101.88.206]] 06:41, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
::But wait! You forgot a comma! (It's okay, I fixed it :) ) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.67|108.162.216.67]] 06:47, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

The alt-text contains a reference to the scene "Tears in the rain" of Blade Runner [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 06:19, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Is Explainxkcd using Open SSL? [[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 06:56, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I'd just like to take this moment to say that even though you probably don't have anything of value stored here, Explain xkcd is good on the Heartbleed front. Not using any of the affected software because the data we handle isn't private at all probably helps with that. And yes, Mediawiki hashes your passwords before they're sent. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Have the following from [http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt OpenSSL Bug Report]
Should this be incorperated into the main explanation, and how should it be formated
[[User:Jonv4n|Jonv4n]] ([[User talk:Jonv4n|talk]]) 08:07, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
----

OpenSSL Security Advisory [07 Apr 2014]
========================================

TLS heartbeat read overrun (CVE-2014-0160)
==========================================

A missing bounds check in the handling of the TLS heartbeat extension can be
used to reveal up to 64k of memory to a connected client or server.

Only 1.0.1 and 1.0.2-beta releases of OpenSSL are affected including
1.0.1f and 1.0.2-beta1.

Thanks for Neel Mehta of Google Security for discovering this bug and to
Adam Langley <agl@chromium.org> and Bodo Moeller <bmoeller@acm.org> for
preparing the fix.

Affected users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g. Users unable to immediately
upgrade can alternatively recompile OpenSSL with -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.

1.0.2 will be fixed in 1.0.2-beta2.

----

:Actually, attack is limited to data in memory of the webserver PROCESS. Even on affected computers, other applications are safe and most of disk content is safe. Not speaking about the fact that in many cases, the public-facing webserver is just proxy cache before the real ones. The real problem is if someone immediately used the revealed data - either to impersonate the server or for example found the admin password and used it to copy the database ... which DOES leave traces. I agree with Cueball: there can be worse kind of bug. In fact, I'm sure that what Edward Snowden revealed is worse, although not technically bug. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

: Hkmaly -- Completely agree. Posted a [security.stackexchange.com/questions/55270/does-xkcd-com-1353-overstate-heartbleeds-capability similar discussion at security.stackexchange.com] and altered the text here to describe heartbleed in more detail. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 21:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T21:21:07Z

Jimbob: Add longer section on Heartbleed

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} refers to a critical bug in the {{w|OpenSSL}} cryptographic library. This bug was publicly revealed on Monday, April 7th, 2014. Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f — meaning the bug had existed for two years — attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared HeartbeatRequest messages to an affected server.

OpenSSL is a very commonly used library to implement {{w|SSL/TLS}}, a cryptographic protocol not only used to secure web traffic but also for mail clients and much more. Only the user and the server can read the communication. On the the web the protocol is ''https://'' (HTTP Secure), instead of the open ''http://'' standard. SSL is often used to protect sensitive web traffic, such as login requests, which contains the user names and passwords in the requests. The server sends a certificate to the browser before the secure connection is established. If the certificate is registered the browser accepts it automatically, otherwise the the user gets a popup to accept or reject this insecure certificate.

A vulnerability that lets an attacker read random clumps of memory on the server would possibly let an attacker find recent username/password requests, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to user accounts. Even worse, this vulnerability could read the server's private key, enabling anyone to impersonate the server and/or decrypt any future traffic that relies on that key, and any previously-obtained prior traffic also, unless a "perfect forward secrecy" ciphers is used, which is currently rare. Furthermore, the hearbleed exploit occurs during the handshake phase of setting up a connection, so no traces of it are logged, i.e. you can be attacked and never be the wiser.

More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com] or under CVE-2014-0160, [https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0160 CVE-2014-0160 at nvd.nist.gov]

The title text cites the {{w|Tears in rain soliloquy}}, the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by {{w|Rutger Hauer}}) in the 1982 film ''{{w|Blade Runner}}'', implying that the 64Kb HeartBleed buffer is so complete it includes memories from replicant brains.

===Heartbleed===

TLS (Transport Layer Security, the successor to SSL - Secure Sockets Layer, described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5246 RFC 5246]) provides end-to-end encryption for data transmitted over the internet. The Heartbeat extension to TLS introduced in 2012 (described in [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6520 RFC 6520]) provides a protocol for keeping an encrypted TLS session alive with the server, so you do not have to do a costly TLS handshake with the server. The Heartbeat protocol involves the client sending a packet with an arbitrary payload (e.g., a random 16-byte number) that the server periodically sends back to the client to tell the client that the TLS session is still alive. When the client sends the packet to a vulnerable version of OpenSSL, the OpenSSL server reads a payload_size, a 2-byte number (0 to 0xffff=65535) that is supposed to describe the size of the payload. Then the OpenSSL library writes the payload to memory, but it does not check that the size of the payload matches the payload_size taken from the client's header. Then when the vulnerable server sends back the Heartbeat KeepAlive response to the client, it will readout however payload_size number of bytes and send them back to the server. So if you send a payload that is actually 16 bytes, but claims it is 0xffff bytes you will read the next 64KiB of memory from the vulnerable process (typically a web server, but could also be a database, email, other server). An attacker can repeat this attack many times and can do this attack early in the TLS handshake, so the attack will not in any way be logged (unless they are logging every incoming packet which is not typical and would result in many passwords being logged).

It is worth noting that [modern operating systems use a virtual memory abstraction above physical memory](http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55271/2568). This means every process can only access memory assigned to it, so it would be impossible for a vulnerable web server to read memory assigned to another process (like a text editor that has erotic fan fiction stored to memory) on the same computer.

It also should be noted that this heartbleed bug only affects TLS, and does not affect OpenSSH which does not use the TLS protocol, but uses the SSH-2 protocol (described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4251 RFC 4251] a distinct protocol.

Vulnerable sysadmins need to update to a patched version of OpenSSL or one with the Heartbeats disabled, revoke their old TLS keys, and generate new TLS keys (as their old key may have been compromised).

Users of vulnerable systems should change their passwords after the sysadmins have revoked their old key and issued new ones (as their passwords may have been compromised).

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.

:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.

:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic fanfiction.
:Cueball: Is '''''everything''''' compromised?

:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations, too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1227: The Pace of Modern Life

2013-06-20T16:25:33Z

Jimbob:

Is it sad that after reading the first few, I thought "TL; DR" and found myself skim reading most of them since I'm meant to be working right now and not reading xkcd? {{unsigned ip|‎90.152.3.226}}

That's obviously what's intended [[Special:Contributions/155.56.68.216|155.56.68.216]] 09:53, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree that this point was possibly intended and added text to the analysis, explicitly pointing it out. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 16:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I don't think it's sad. According to my 11th Grade Literary Analysis, the propensity to take shortcuts is a fundamental flaw in human nature, but introductory Psychology lauded our use of heuristics. I say you should find meaning in your humanity and ability to set your own priorities and allocate just enough resources to various aspects of your life in order to succeed in life where the objectives are unclear.[[Special:Contributions/98.166.43.28|98.166.43.28]] 12:06, 19 June 2013 (UTC)DBrak

The topic made me slow down, read, and understand. Perhaps the point was lost on me, but the expressions from a century ago seem much like those made today. One can't help but wonder if that means they were wrong then and wrong now or if our society was in a century long devolutionary spiral, terminating with Twitter or whatever is coming next. --[[Special:Contributions/108.34.230.242|108.34.230.242]] 10:02, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Had this continued to present day the most recent entry would be something like this:
:lol didnt read '''#tldr #boredalready #yawn'''
:::- Most of 'Civilisation', ''Social Media''
::::::::::2013
[[Special:Contributions/77.86.53.65|77.86.53.65]] 12:11, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Just added an explanation. Unfortunately, there's no transcript provided in the source code and I don't have time to type all that out (who does?). Also, I have no idea what to use for categories. Any suggestions? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 12:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
:Not a suggestion, but does anyone know if Randall types or writes it out, or copies and pastes? --[[User:Luckymustard|Luckymustard]] ([[User talk:Luckymustard|talk]]) 13:04, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
::Looks like the letterforms are identical -- my guess is a custom font. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 14:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

If this comic was meant to say that we should give up on these types of arguments, this comic did the opposite effect: I actually AGREE with all of this!

I mean, I tend to write long private messages, while the longest replies I get are also the most satisfying, since they tell me quite a bit of the recipient. Relatedly, I prefer to write long responses to pieces of artwork when I comment on art sites, telling people exactly why I like the art... what shines... what needs to be polished. (Of course, I am going to need to find a way to simply stay at a work and truly take in what is presented.) In fact, letter restrictions sometimes restrict me too much. I DO need to be more social, not having any reading material at hand (whether the material be a newspaper or a video game). I dislike people PUSHING me to look around myself; this is something I do automatically. In fact, while I like staying inside and exploring the wonders of the Internet hours on end, I also like going outside alone and looking around myself, seeing the wonders that other people ignore (probably because other people are too busy talking to yet other people). There really is a mental degeneration (You can see this for yourself in the comments other people leave in websites.) and addiction to stimulants. In fact, stress (and DIStress) is one of the main reasons why we have cancer far more often that the non-developed parts of the world, since stress compromises the body severely. Play, while easily abused, is never the less a necessary part of development, even while an adult. I wish I could keep up pace with the world, but I also hope, for the sake of the world and myself, that the world slows down to me. You can see for yourself how newspapers are being scandalous. I myself suffer from eating foods too quickly (yet there is the problem of ants and spoilage if I take TOO long when eating, a sad possibility due to me preferring to eat at the computer.) Rebellion (a problem that even I suffer) does cause people to want their own way, not knowing that they are just being a slave to impulses, their authorities having the experience to liberate them for the things that their subordinates really do want and shall really want. (The rebels do not want others to 'cramp their style,' but they fail to learn basic anatomy and lighting, much less on making a pleasing style!) There is an entropy in displayed morals, yet that is something that requires changing the hearts of people, though we can control this by 'starving' the problematic media (another bit of advice with which even I also struggle, my curiosity provoking me to see things that should not be seen), since they only proliferate if there are people to feed them. People all around us know that marriage feel into disarray. While legally-backed homosexuality (and, soon, polygamy), and, to an extent, abortion (regardless of the reason) have been causing their problems, marriage already fell in disarray when divorce (that is, breaking a lifetime vow), pornography (that is, selling the private bodies of people for your selfish desires), promiscuity, and birth control (that is, using a reproductive function for non-reproductive reasons and otherwise abusing the reproductive function) already led themselves to an array of evils.

Again, people would probably just skip my wall of text here, but I feel that I need to make my old-fashioned (whether for worse or better) opinion heard here. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 15:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

--
So, the argument has been going on for a long time. Does this comic imply that (1) we perceive that the pace of life was slower in the old days, but has always been as fast as it is today, or (2) that the pace of life has actually been speeding up for a very long time now? [[Special:Contributions/194.176.105.141|194.176.105.141]] 15:31, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
: I think that the pace of life has been speeding up for a long time now. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:59, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Added to the explanation, please correct any grammar, composition, or repetition mistakes, thank you. -- [[Special:Contributions/186.124.46.183|186.124.46.183]] 16:40, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Did anyone else notices that you can get the gist by only reading the bolded text? It's probably a just me. Anyone want to take the time to compile the bold text only and place it in the explination? [[User:Crsoccerfreak19|Crsoccerfreak19]] ([[User talk:Crsoccerfreak19|talk]]) 18:47, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:I didn't see this before, but I think that work is a great idea. So my next job here is to work on that an checking if this does make sense. Thanks for your hint.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

------

I did an full update to the transcript. I used the existing parts here, many thanks to the contributors, the free web site [http://www.ocronline.com/ OCR Online] (the only one did work, in fact it did work as a hell) and {{w|LibreOffice Writer}} for changing the case to lower case. After that it was just some manual work without typing all that text.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:13, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

The meaning I took from this comic was very much [[wikt:plus_%C3%A7a_change,_plus_c'est_la_m%C3%AAme_chose|Plus ca change]]. There are translated Roman messages that say very similar things about the current state of Latin, and I bet even ''that'' was merely an inadvertent echo of prior ages. As one who can be very verbose with (at least ''intended'') correct spelling, grammar and vocabulary, I ''could'' go on at great length about how this works for the current day, but on this occasion shall restrain myself. Yours faithfully  [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 20:56, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Adding 'the sub text':
----
The art of letter-writing is fast dying out. We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk oer a real sheet of paper.

In olden times it was different.

Men now live think and work at express speed. Sulkily read as they travel ... leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them.

The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.

A craving for literary nips. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.

The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate.

Nothing is left to the imagination. And human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary. Thirty pages is now too much. Fifteen pages. Further condensed. A summary of the summary. Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works. Hurried reading can never be good reading.

Mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people. Brain incapable of normal working... in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life. Almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe.

Teach the children how to play. Instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms.

Increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain. We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean. We take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play.

The managers of sensational newspapers. Create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.

To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible.

May I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.

People talk as they ride bicycles - at a rush - without pausing to consider their surroundings. The profession of letters is so little understood.

There is a tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint.

Our modern family gathering, silent. Each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine.

Deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago. Nude men and women in the daily journals.

Fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking.

A hundred years ago it took sol long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. A brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week - a "line" now by another to-morrow.
[[unsigned|209.217.94.93]] 21:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
:Thanks [209.217.94.93], I will put in my version here and I am happy if you can correct possible mistakes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:58, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Can anyone validate these are true quotes? I tried searching for the one in Google Books for Morley: Ancient and Modern and it came up with no results. They're great quotes, but is it possible they're made up?--[[Special:Contributions/119.224.37.9|119.224.37.9]] 07:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

1227: The Pace of Modern Life

2013-06-20T16:22:49Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1227
| date = June 19, 2013
| title = The Pace of Modern Life
| image = the pace of modern life.png
| titletext = 'Unfortunately, the notion of marriage which prevails ... at the present time ... regards the institution as simply a convenient arrangement or formal contract ... This disregard of the sanctity of marriage and contempt for its restrictions is one of the most alarming tendencies of the present age.' --John Harvey Kellogg, Ladies' guide in health and disease (1883)
}}

==Explanation==
The debate as to whether or not the pace of modern life is detrimental to society, culture, and the human experience in general has been going on for longer than we may realize. Presently, the debate has focused on technology such as smartphones, tablets, and other portable electronics; however, many of the same arguments were made against newspapers, magazines, telegraphs, telephones, and even written correspondence 100 years ago.

People often tend to think of older times as better. The people complaining compare their present time to the time they lived in before, that is, a couple of decades ago, and this has been happening for over a century (at least). This comic makes a point that the older times people refer to, were also criticised in the exact same fashion. Since the same criticism is applied to each generation by the generation before that one, every generation thinks that the one they were born in is the good one. This is presentism as explained by Randall in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey|comic 24]].

The comic begins and ends with very similar arguments, perhaps emphasizing how these debates cycle and repeat over time.

On reading all of these quotes, one may find these quotes redundant and tiresome to read. Readers may find themselves skimming the text and skipping several quotes once they get the overall idea. This could be a self-referential point demonstrating that the writing style of older times was less convenient than the oft-criticized brief modern style.

Some parts of all that long texts are in bold, others not. Here is the summary for only this bold text, picturing just our ''Modern World'':

:The art of letter-writing is fast dying out. We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.
:In olden times it was different. Men now live think and work at express speed. Sulkily read as they travel leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them.
:The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying. A craving for literary nips. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.
:The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate nothing is left to the imagination and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.
:Thirty pages is now too much. Fifteen pages further condensed a summary of the summary.
:Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.
:Hurried reading can never be good reading. Mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people, a brain incapable of normal working in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life, almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe.
:Teach the children how to play instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms, increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain.
:We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean, we take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play.
:The managers of sensational newspapers create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.
:To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible, may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.
:People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings the profession of letters is so little understood, tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint. Our modern family gathering, silent, each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine, deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago.
:Nude men and women in the daily journals fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking a hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. A brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.

The title text shows that the meaning of the institute of marriage debate has likewise been going on for quite some time.

==Transcript==
:'''The art of letter-writing is fast dying out.''' When a letter cost nine pence, it seemed but fair to try to make it worth nine pence ... Now, however, we think we are too busy for such old-fashioned correspondence. '''We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.'''
::''The Sunday Magazine''
:::1871

:It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to be always in a hurry. '''In olden times it was different.'''
::''The Medical Record''
:::1884

:With the advent of cheap newspapers and superior means of locomotion... The dreamy quiet old days are over... '''For men now live think and work at express speed.''' They have their ''Mercury'' or ''Post'' laid on their breakfast table in the early morning, and if they are too hurried to snatch from it the news during that meal, they carry it off, to be '''sulkily read as they travel ... leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them'''... The hurry and bustle of modern life ... lacks the quiet and repose of the period when our forefathers, the day's work done, took their ease...
::William Smith, Morley: ''Ancient and Modern''
:::1886

:Conversation is said to be a lost art ... Good talk presupposes leisure, both for preparation and enjoyment. '''The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.'''
::''Frank Leslie's popular Monthly'', Volume 29
:::1890

:Intellectual laziness and the hurry of the age have produced '''a craving for literary nips.''' The torpid brain ... has grown too weak for sustained thought.
:'''There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.'''
::Israel Zangwill, ''The Bachelors' Club''
:::1891

:'''The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate to allow for the preparation of such plates as our fathers appreciated.''' If a picture catches the public fancy, the public must have an etched or a photogravured copy of it within a month or two of its appearance, the days when engravers were wont to spend two or three years over a single plate are for ever gone.
::''Journal of the Institute of Jamaica'', Volume 1
:::1892

:So much is exhibited to the eye that '''nothing is left to the imagination'''. It sometimes seems almost possible that the modern world might be choked by its own riches, '''and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.'''
:The articles in the ''Quarterlies'' extend to thirty or more pages, but '''thirty pages is now too much''' so we witness a further condensing process and, we have the ''Fortnightly'' and the ''Contemporary'' which reduce thirty pages to '''fifteen pages''' so that you may read a larger number of articles in a shorter time and in a shorter form. As if this last condensing process were not enough the condensed articles of these periodicals are '''further condensed''' by the daily papers, which will give you a '''summary of the summary''' of all that has been written about everything.
:'''Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.'''
:Ephemeral literature is driving out the great classics of the present and the past ... '''hurried reading can never be good reading.'''
::G. J. Goschen, ''First Annual Address to the Students'', Toynbee Hall. London
:::1894

:The existence of '''mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people''', especially in large cities, is an obvious phenomenon ... the mania for stimulants ... diseases of the mind are almost as numerous as the diseases of the body... This intellectual condition is characterized by '''a brain incapable of normal working ... in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life''', with its facilities for rapid locomotion and '''almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe'''...
::''The Churchman'', Volume 71
:::1895

:If we '''teach the children how to play''' and encourage them in their sports ... '''instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms''', the next generation will be more joyous and will be healthier than the present one.
::''Public Opinion: A Comprehensive Summary of the Press Throughout the World'', Volume 18
:::1895

:The cause of the ... increase in nervous disease is '''increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain'''. Everything is done in a hurry. '''We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean''', take a trip to Chicago for an hour's talk... '''We take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play''' ... what wonder if the pressure is almost more than our nerves can bear.
::G. Shrady (from P.C. Knapp)
::"Are nervous diseases increasing?" ''Medical Record''
:::1896

:'''The managers of sensational newspapers''' ... do not try to educate their readers and make them better, but tend to '''create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.''' The owners of these papers seem to have but one purpose, and that is to increase their circulation.
::''Medical Brief'', Volume 26
:::1898

:'''To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible''' on account of the demands on our time made by our business... We act on the apparent belief that all of our business is so pressing that we must jump on the quickest car home, eat our dinner in the most hurried way, make the closest connection for a car returning ...
::Louis John Rettger. ''Studies in Advanced Physiology''
:::1898

:In these days of increasing rapid artificial locomotion, '''may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk?'''
:'''I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.''' We live in days of water trips and land trips, excursions by sea, road and rail-bicycles and tricycles, tram cars and motor cars .... but in my humble opinion, good honest walking exercise for health beats all other kinds of locomotion into a cocked hat.
::T. Thatcher, "A plea for a long walk",
::''The Publishers Circular''
:::1902

:The art of conversation is almost a lost one. '''People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings''' ... what has been generally understood as cultured society is rapidly deteriorating into baseness and voluntary ignorance. '''The profession of letters is so little understood''', and so far from being seriously appreciated, that ... Newspapers are full, not of thoughtful honestly expressed public opinion on the affairs of the nation, but of vapid personalities interesting to none save gossips and busy bodies.
::Marie Corelli,
::''Free opinions, freely expressed''
:::1905

:There is a great '''tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint''', not only that placed upon them by the will of the parent. But against any restraint or limitation of what they consider their rights ... this fact has filled well minded people with great apprehensions for the future.
::Rev. Henry Hussmann,
::''The authority of parents''
:::1906

:'''Our modern family gathering, silent''' around the fire, '''each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine''', is the somewhat natural outcome of the banishment of colloquy from the school ...
::''The Journal of Education'', Volume 29
:::1907

:Plays in theatres at the present time present spectacles and '''deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago'''... The current representations of '''nude men and women in the daily journals''' and the illustrated magazines would have excluded such periodicals from all respectable families two decades ago... Those who have been divorced ... forty and fifty years ago lost at once and irrevocably their standing in society, while to-day they continue in all their social relationships, hardly changed...
::Editorial, ''The Watchman'', Boston
:::1908

:We write millions more letters than did our grandfathers, but the increase in volume has brought with it an automatic artificial machine-like ring ... an examination of a file of old letters reveals not only a remarkable grasp of details. But a '''fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking''' in the mechanical curt cut and dried letters of to-day.
::Forrest Crissey, ''Handbook of Modern Business Correspondence''
:::1908

:'''A hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it.''' Now the quickness and the cheapness of the post seem to justify the feeling that '''a brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.'''
::Percy Holmes Boynton, ''Principles of Composition''
:::1915

{{comic discussion}}

1227: The Pace of Modern Life

2013-06-20T16:22:15Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1227
| date = June 19, 2013
| title = The Pace of Modern Life
| image = the pace of modern life.png
| titletext = 'Unfortunately, the notion of marriage which prevails ... at the present time ... regards the institution as simply a convenient arrangement or formal contract ... This disregard of the sanctity of marriage and contempt for its restrictions is one of the most alarming tendencies of the present age.' --John Harvey Kellogg, Ladies' guide in health and disease (1883)
}}

==Explanation==
The debate as to whether or not the pace of modern life is detrimental to society, culture, and the human experience in general has been going on for longer than we may realize. Presently, the debate has focused on technology such as smartphones, tablets, and other portable electronics; however, many of the same arguments were made against newspapers, magazines, telegraphs, telephones, and even written correspondence 100 years ago.

People often tend to think of older times as better. The people complaining compare their present time to the time they lived in before, that is, a couple of decades ago, and this has been happening for over a century (at least). This comic makes a point that the older times people refer to, were also criticised in the exact same fashion. Since the same criticism is applied to each generation by the generation before that one, every generation thinks that the one they were born in is the good one. This is presentism as explained by Randall in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey|comic 24]].

The comic begins and ends with very similar arguments, perhaps emphasizing how these debates cycle and repeat over time.

On reading all of these quotes, one may find these quotes redundant and tiresome to read. Readers may find themselves skimming the text and skipping several quotes once they get the overall idea. This could be a self-referential point demonstrate that the writing style of older times was less convenient than the oft-criticized brief modern style.

Some parts of all that long texts are in bold, others not. Here is the summary for only this bold text, picturing just our ''Modern World'':

:The art of letter-writing is fast dying out. We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.
:In olden times it was different. Men now live think and work at express speed. Sulkily read as they travel leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them.
:The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying. A craving for literary nips. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.
:The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate nothing is left to the imagination and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.
:Thirty pages is now too much. Fifteen pages further condensed a summary of the summary.
:Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.
:Hurried reading can never be good reading. Mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people, a brain incapable of normal working in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life, almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe.
:Teach the children how to play instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms, increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain.
:We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean, we take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play.
:The managers of sensational newspapers create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.
:To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible, may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.
:People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings the profession of letters is so little understood, tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint. Our modern family gathering, silent, each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine, deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago.
:Nude men and women in the daily journals fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking a hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. A brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.

The title text shows that the meaning of the institute of marriage debate has likewise been going on for quite some time.

==Transcript==
:'''The art of letter-writing is fast dying out.''' When a letter cost nine pence, it seemed but fair to try to make it worth nine pence ... Now, however, we think we are too busy for such old-fashioned correspondence. '''We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.'''
::''The Sunday Magazine''
:::1871

:It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to be always in a hurry. '''In olden times it was different.'''
::''The Medical Record''
:::1884

:With the advent of cheap newspapers and superior means of locomotion... The dreamy quiet old days are over... '''For men now live think and work at express speed.''' They have their ''Mercury'' or ''Post'' laid on their breakfast table in the early morning, and if they are too hurried to snatch from it the news during that meal, they carry it off, to be '''sulkily read as they travel ... leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them'''... The hurry and bustle of modern life ... lacks the quiet and repose of the period when our forefathers, the day's work done, took their ease...
::William Smith, Morley: ''Ancient and Modern''
:::1886

:Conversation is said to be a lost art ... Good talk presupposes leisure, both for preparation and enjoyment. '''The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.'''
::''Frank Leslie's popular Monthly'', Volume 29
:::1890

:Intellectual laziness and the hurry of the age have produced '''a craving for literary nips.''' The torpid brain ... has grown too weak for sustained thought.
:'''There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.'''
::Israel Zangwill, ''The Bachelors' Club''
:::1891

:'''The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate to allow for the preparation of such plates as our fathers appreciated.''' If a picture catches the public fancy, the public must have an etched or a photogravured copy of it within a month or two of its appearance, the days when engravers were wont to spend two or three years over a single plate are for ever gone.
::''Journal of the Institute of Jamaica'', Volume 1
:::1892

:So much is exhibited to the eye that '''nothing is left to the imagination'''. It sometimes seems almost possible that the modern world might be choked by its own riches, '''and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.'''
:The articles in the ''Quarterlies'' extend to thirty or more pages, but '''thirty pages is now too much''' so we witness a further condensing process and, we have the ''Fortnightly'' and the ''Contemporary'' which reduce thirty pages to '''fifteen pages''' so that you may read a larger number of articles in a shorter time and in a shorter form. As if this last condensing process were not enough the condensed articles of these periodicals are '''further condensed''' by the daily papers, which will give you a '''summary of the summary''' of all that has been written about everything.
:'''Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.'''
:Ephemeral literature is driving out the great classics of the present and the past ... '''hurried reading can never be good reading.'''
::G. J. Goschen, ''First Annual Address to the Students'', Toynbee Hall. London
:::1894

:The existence of '''mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people''', especially in large cities, is an obvious phenomenon ... the mania for stimulants ... diseases of the mind are almost as numerous as the diseases of the body... This intellectual condition is characterized by '''a brain incapable of normal working ... in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life''', with its facilities for rapid locomotion and '''almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe'''...
::''The Churchman'', Volume 71
:::1895

:If we '''teach the children how to play''' and encourage them in their sports ... '''instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms''', the next generation will be more joyous and will be healthier than the present one.
::''Public Opinion: A Comprehensive Summary of the Press Throughout the World'', Volume 18
:::1895

:The cause of the ... increase in nervous disease is '''increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain'''. Everything is done in a hurry. '''We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean''', take a trip to Chicago for an hour's talk... '''We take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play''' ... what wonder if the pressure is almost more than our nerves can bear.
::G. Shrady (from P.C. Knapp)
::"Are nervous diseases increasing?" ''Medical Record''
:::1896

:'''The managers of sensational newspapers''' ... do not try to educate their readers and make them better, but tend to '''create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.''' The owners of these papers seem to have but one purpose, and that is to increase their circulation.
::''Medical Brief'', Volume 26
:::1898

:'''To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible''' on account of the demands on our time made by our business... We act on the apparent belief that all of our business is so pressing that we must jump on the quickest car home, eat our dinner in the most hurried way, make the closest connection for a car returning ...
::Louis John Rettger. ''Studies in Advanced Physiology''
:::1898

:In these days of increasing rapid artificial locomotion, '''may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk?'''
:'''I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.''' We live in days of water trips and land trips, excursions by sea, road and rail-bicycles and tricycles, tram cars and motor cars .... but in my humble opinion, good honest walking exercise for health beats all other kinds of locomotion into a cocked hat.
::T. Thatcher, "A plea for a long walk",
::''The Publishers Circular''
:::1902

:The art of conversation is almost a lost one. '''People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings''' ... what has been generally understood as cultured society is rapidly deteriorating into baseness and voluntary ignorance. '''The profession of letters is so little understood''', and so far from being seriously appreciated, that ... Newspapers are full, not of thoughtful honestly expressed public opinion on the affairs of the nation, but of vapid personalities interesting to none save gossips and busy bodies.
::Marie Corelli,
::''Free opinions, freely expressed''
:::1905

:There is a great '''tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint''', not only that placed upon them by the will of the parent. But against any restraint or limitation of what they consider their rights ... this fact has filled well minded people with great apprehensions for the future.
::Rev. Henry Hussmann,
::''The authority of parents''
:::1906

:'''Our modern family gathering, silent''' around the fire, '''each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine''', is the somewhat natural outcome of the banishment of colloquy from the school ...
::''The Journal of Education'', Volume 29
:::1907

:Plays in theatres at the present time present spectacles and '''deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago'''... The current representations of '''nude men and women in the daily journals''' and the illustrated magazines would have excluded such periodicals from all respectable families two decades ago... Those who have been divorced ... forty and fifty years ago lost at once and irrevocably their standing in society, while to-day they continue in all their social relationships, hardly changed...
::Editorial, ''The Watchman'', Boston
:::1908

:We write millions more letters than did our grandfathers, but the increase in volume has brought with it an automatic artificial machine-like ring ... an examination of a file of old letters reveals not only a remarkable grasp of details. But a '''fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking''' in the mechanical curt cut and dried letters of to-day.
::Forrest Crissey, ''Handbook of Modern Business Correspondence''
:::1908

:'''A hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it.''' Now the quickness and the cheapness of the post seem to justify the feeling that '''a brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.'''
::Percy Holmes Boynton, ''Principles of Composition''
:::1915

{{comic discussion}}

1227: The Pace of Modern Life

2013-06-20T16:21:27Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1227
| date = June 19, 2013
| title = The Pace of Modern Life
| image = the pace of modern life.png
| titletext = 'Unfortunately, the notion of marriage which prevails ... at the present time ... regards the institution as simply a convenient arrangement or formal contract ... This disregard of the sanctity of marriage and contempt for its restrictions is one of the most alarming tendencies of the present age.' --John Harvey Kellogg, Ladies' guide in health and disease (1883)
}}

==Explanation==
The debate as to whether or not the pace of modern life is detrimental to society, culture, and the human experience in general has been going on for longer than we may realize. Presently, the debate has focused on technology such as smartphones, tablets, and other portable electronics; however, many of the same arguments were made against newspapers, magazines, telegraphs, telephones, and even written correspondence 100 years ago.

People often tend to think of older times as better. The people complaining compare their present time to the time they lived in before, that is, a couple of decades ago, and this has been happening for over a century (at least). This comic makes a point that the older times people refer to, were also criticised in the exact same fashion. Since the same criticism is applied to each generation by the generation before that one, every generation thinks that the one they were born in is the good one. This is presentism as explained by Randall in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey|comic 24]].

The comic begins and ends with very similar arguments, perhaps emphasizing how these debates cycle and repeat over time.

On reading all of these quotes, one may find these quotes redundant and tiresome to read. Readers may find themselves skimming the text and skipping several quotes once they get the overall idea. This could be a self-referential point intending to demonstrate that the writing style of older times was less convenient than the oft-criticized brief modern style.

Some parts of all that long texts are in bold, others not. Here is the summary for only this bold text, picturing just our ''Modern World'':

:The art of letter-writing is fast dying out. We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.
:In olden times it was different. Men now live think and work at express speed. Sulkily read as they travel leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them.
:The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying. A craving for literary nips. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.
:The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate nothing is left to the imagination and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.
:Thirty pages is now too much. Fifteen pages further condensed a summary of the summary.
:Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.
:Hurried reading can never be good reading. Mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people, a brain incapable of normal working in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life, almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe.
:Teach the children how to play instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms, increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain.
:We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean, we take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play.
:The managers of sensational newspapers create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.
:To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible, may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.
:People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings the profession of letters is so little understood, tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint. Our modern family gathering, silent, each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine, deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago.
:Nude men and women in the daily journals fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking a hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. A brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.

The title text shows that the meaning of the institute of marriage debate has likewise been going on for quite some time.

==Transcript==
:'''The art of letter-writing is fast dying out.''' When a letter cost nine pence, it seemed but fair to try to make it worth nine pence ... Now, however, we think we are too busy for such old-fashioned correspondence. '''We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.'''
::''The Sunday Magazine''
:::1871

:It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to be always in a hurry. '''In olden times it was different.'''
::''The Medical Record''
:::1884

:With the advent of cheap newspapers and superior means of locomotion... The dreamy quiet old days are over... '''For men now live think and work at express speed.''' They have their ''Mercury'' or ''Post'' laid on their breakfast table in the early morning, and if they are too hurried to snatch from it the news during that meal, they carry it off, to be '''sulkily read as they travel ... leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them'''... The hurry and bustle of modern life ... lacks the quiet and repose of the period when our forefathers, the day's work done, took their ease...
::William Smith, Morley: ''Ancient and Modern''
:::1886

:Conversation is said to be a lost art ... Good talk presupposes leisure, both for preparation and enjoyment. '''The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.'''
::''Frank Leslie's popular Monthly'', Volume 29
:::1890

:Intellectual laziness and the hurry of the age have produced '''a craving for literary nips.''' The torpid brain ... has grown too weak for sustained thought.
:'''There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.'''
::Israel Zangwill, ''The Bachelors' Club''
:::1891

:'''The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate to allow for the preparation of such plates as our fathers appreciated.''' If a picture catches the public fancy, the public must have an etched or a photogravured copy of it within a month or two of its appearance, the days when engravers were wont to spend two or three years over a single plate are for ever gone.
::''Journal of the Institute of Jamaica'', Volume 1
:::1892

:So much is exhibited to the eye that '''nothing is left to the imagination'''. It sometimes seems almost possible that the modern world might be choked by its own riches, '''and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.'''
:The articles in the ''Quarterlies'' extend to thirty or more pages, but '''thirty pages is now too much''' so we witness a further condensing process and, we have the ''Fortnightly'' and the ''Contemporary'' which reduce thirty pages to '''fifteen pages''' so that you may read a larger number of articles in a shorter time and in a shorter form. As if this last condensing process were not enough the condensed articles of these periodicals are '''further condensed''' by the daily papers, which will give you a '''summary of the summary''' of all that has been written about everything.
:'''Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.'''
:Ephemeral literature is driving out the great classics of the present and the past ... '''hurried reading can never be good reading.'''
::G. J. Goschen, ''First Annual Address to the Students'', Toynbee Hall. London
:::1894

:The existence of '''mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people''', especially in large cities, is an obvious phenomenon ... the mania for stimulants ... diseases of the mind are almost as numerous as the diseases of the body... This intellectual condition is characterized by '''a brain incapable of normal working ... in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life''', with its facilities for rapid locomotion and '''almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe'''...
::''The Churchman'', Volume 71
:::1895

:If we '''teach the children how to play''' and encourage them in their sports ... '''instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms''', the next generation will be more joyous and will be healthier than the present one.
::''Public Opinion: A Comprehensive Summary of the Press Throughout the World'', Volume 18
:::1895

:The cause of the ... increase in nervous disease is '''increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain'''. Everything is done in a hurry. '''We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean''', take a trip to Chicago for an hour's talk... '''We take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play''' ... what wonder if the pressure is almost more than our nerves can bear.
::G. Shrady (from P.C. Knapp)
::"Are nervous diseases increasing?" ''Medical Record''
:::1896

:'''The managers of sensational newspapers''' ... do not try to educate their readers and make them better, but tend to '''create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.''' The owners of these papers seem to have but one purpose, and that is to increase their circulation.
::''Medical Brief'', Volume 26
:::1898

:'''To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible''' on account of the demands on our time made by our business... We act on the apparent belief that all of our business is so pressing that we must jump on the quickest car home, eat our dinner in the most hurried way, make the closest connection for a car returning ...
::Louis John Rettger. ''Studies in Advanced Physiology''
:::1898

:In these days of increasing rapid artificial locomotion, '''may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk?'''
:'''I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.''' We live in days of water trips and land trips, excursions by sea, road and rail-bicycles and tricycles, tram cars and motor cars .... but in my humble opinion, good honest walking exercise for health beats all other kinds of locomotion into a cocked hat.
::T. Thatcher, "A plea for a long walk",
::''The Publishers Circular''
:::1902

:The art of conversation is almost a lost one. '''People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings''' ... what has been generally understood as cultured society is rapidly deteriorating into baseness and voluntary ignorance. '''The profession of letters is so little understood''', and so far from being seriously appreciated, that ... Newspapers are full, not of thoughtful honestly expressed public opinion on the affairs of the nation, but of vapid personalities interesting to none save gossips and busy bodies.
::Marie Corelli,
::''Free opinions, freely expressed''
:::1905

:There is a great '''tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint''', not only that placed upon them by the will of the parent. But against any restraint or limitation of what they consider their rights ... this fact has filled well minded people with great apprehensions for the future.
::Rev. Henry Hussmann,
::''The authority of parents''
:::1906

:'''Our modern family gathering, silent''' around the fire, '''each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine''', is the somewhat natural outcome of the banishment of colloquy from the school ...
::''The Journal of Education'', Volume 29
:::1907

:Plays in theatres at the present time present spectacles and '''deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago'''... The current representations of '''nude men and women in the daily journals''' and the illustrated magazines would have excluded such periodicals from all respectable families two decades ago... Those who have been divorced ... forty and fifty years ago lost at once and irrevocably their standing in society, while to-day they continue in all their social relationships, hardly changed...
::Editorial, ''The Watchman'', Boston
:::1908

:We write millions more letters than did our grandfathers, but the increase in volume has brought with it an automatic artificial machine-like ring ... an examination of a file of old letters reveals not only a remarkable grasp of details. But a '''fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking''' in the mechanical curt cut and dried letters of to-day.
::Forrest Crissey, ''Handbook of Modern Business Correspondence''
:::1908

:'''A hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it.''' Now the quickness and the cheapness of the post seem to justify the feeling that '''a brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.'''
::Percy Holmes Boynton, ''Principles of Composition''
:::1915

{{comic discussion}}

1227: The Pace of Modern Life

2013-06-20T16:20:12Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1227
| date = June 19, 2013
| title = The Pace of Modern Life
| image = the pace of modern life.png
| titletext = 'Unfortunately, the notion of marriage which prevails ... at the present time ... regards the institution as simply a convenient arrangement or formal contract ... This disregard of the sanctity of marriage and contempt for its restrictions is one of the most alarming tendencies of the present age.' --John Harvey Kellogg, Ladies' guide in health and disease (1883)
}}

==Explanation==
The debate as to whether or not the pace of modern life is detrimental to society, culture, and the human experience in general has been going on for longer than we may realize. Presently, the debate has focused on technology such as smartphones, tablets, and other portable electronics; however, many of the same arguments were made against newspapers, magazines, telegraphs, telephones, and even written correspondence 100 years ago.

People often tend to think of older times as better. The people complaining compare their present time to the time they lived in before, that is, a couple of decades ago, and this has been happening for over a century (at least). This comic makes a point that the older times people refer to, were also criticised in the exact same fashion. Since the same criticism is applied to each generation by the generation before that one, every generation thinks that the one they were born in is the good one. This is presentism as explained by Randall in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey|comic 24]].

The comic begins and ends with very similar arguments, perhaps emphasizing how these debates cycle and repeat over time.

On reading all of these quotes, one may find this quote collection highly redundant and a bit tiresome to read. Readers may find themselves quickly skimming the text and skipping several quotes once they get the overall idea. This could be a self-referential point intending to demonstrate that the writing style of older times was less convenient than the oft-criticized brief modern style.

Some parts of all that long texts are in bold, others not. Here is the summary for only this bold text, picturing just our ''Modern World'':

:The art of letter-writing is fast dying out. We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.
:In olden times it was different. Men now live think and work at express speed. Sulkily read as they travel leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them.
:The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying. A craving for literary nips. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.
:The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate nothing is left to the imagination and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.
:Thirty pages is now too much. Fifteen pages further condensed a summary of the summary.
:Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.
:Hurried reading can never be good reading. Mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people, a brain incapable of normal working in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life, almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe.
:Teach the children how to play instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms, increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain.
:We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean, we take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play.
:The managers of sensational newspapers create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.
:To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible, may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.
:People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings the profession of letters is so little understood, tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint. Our modern family gathering, silent, each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine, deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago.
:Nude men and women in the daily journals fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking a hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. A brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.

The title text shows that the meaning of the institute of marriage debate has likewise been going on for quite some time.

==Transcript==
:'''The art of letter-writing is fast dying out.''' When a letter cost nine pence, it seemed but fair to try to make it worth nine pence ... Now, however, we think we are too busy for such old-fashioned correspondence. '''We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk over a real sheet of paper.'''
::''The Sunday Magazine''
:::1871

:It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to be always in a hurry. '''In olden times it was different.'''
::''The Medical Record''
:::1884

:With the advent of cheap newspapers and superior means of locomotion... The dreamy quiet old days are over... '''For men now live think and work at express speed.''' They have their ''Mercury'' or ''Post'' laid on their breakfast table in the early morning, and if they are too hurried to snatch from it the news during that meal, they carry it off, to be '''sulkily read as they travel ... leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them'''... The hurry and bustle of modern life ... lacks the quiet and repose of the period when our forefathers, the day's work done, took their ease...
::William Smith, Morley: ''Ancient and Modern''
:::1886

:Conversation is said to be a lost art ... Good talk presupposes leisure, both for preparation and enjoyment. '''The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.'''
::''Frank Leslie's popular Monthly'', Volume 29
:::1890

:Intellectual laziness and the hurry of the age have produced '''a craving for literary nips.''' The torpid brain ... has grown too weak for sustained thought.
:'''There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.'''
::Israel Zangwill, ''The Bachelors' Club''
:::1891

:'''The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate to allow for the preparation of such plates as our fathers appreciated.''' If a picture catches the public fancy, the public must have an etched or a photogravured copy of it within a month or two of its appearance, the days when engravers were wont to spend two or three years over a single plate are for ever gone.
::''Journal of the Institute of Jamaica'', Volume 1
:::1892

:So much is exhibited to the eye that '''nothing is left to the imagination'''. It sometimes seems almost possible that the modern world might be choked by its own riches, '''and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.'''
:The articles in the ''Quarterlies'' extend to thirty or more pages, but '''thirty pages is now too much''' so we witness a further condensing process and, we have the ''Fortnightly'' and the ''Contemporary'' which reduce thirty pages to '''fifteen pages''' so that you may read a larger number of articles in a shorter time and in a shorter form. As if this last condensing process were not enough the condensed articles of these periodicals are '''further condensed''' by the daily papers, which will give you a '''summary of the summary''' of all that has been written about everything.
:'''Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.'''
:Ephemeral literature is driving out the great classics of the present and the past ... '''hurried reading can never be good reading.'''
::G. J. Goschen, ''First Annual Address to the Students'', Toynbee Hall. London
:::1894

:The existence of '''mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people''', especially in large cities, is an obvious phenomenon ... the mania for stimulants ... diseases of the mind are almost as numerous as the diseases of the body... This intellectual condition is characterized by '''a brain incapable of normal working ... in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life''', with its facilities for rapid locomotion and '''almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe'''...
::''The Churchman'', Volume 71
:::1895

:If we '''teach the children how to play''' and encourage them in their sports ... '''instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms''', the next generation will be more joyous and will be healthier than the present one.
::''Public Opinion: A Comprehensive Summary of the Press Throughout the World'', Volume 18
:::1895

:The cause of the ... increase in nervous disease is '''increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain'''. Everything is done in a hurry. '''We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean''', take a trip to Chicago for an hour's talk... '''We take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play''' ... what wonder if the pressure is almost more than our nerves can bear.
::G. Shrady (from P.C. Knapp)
::"Are nervous diseases increasing?" ''Medical Record''
:::1896

:'''The managers of sensational newspapers''' ... do not try to educate their readers and make them better, but tend to '''create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.''' The owners of these papers seem to have but one purpose, and that is to increase their circulation.
::''Medical Brief'', Volume 26
:::1898

:'''To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible''' on account of the demands on our time made by our business... We act on the apparent belief that all of our business is so pressing that we must jump on the quickest car home, eat our dinner in the most hurried way, make the closest connection for a car returning ...
::Louis John Rettger. ''Studies in Advanced Physiology''
:::1898

:In these days of increasing rapid artificial locomotion, '''may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk?'''
:'''I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.''' We live in days of water trips and land trips, excursions by sea, road and rail-bicycles and tricycles, tram cars and motor cars .... but in my humble opinion, good honest walking exercise for health beats all other kinds of locomotion into a cocked hat.
::T. Thatcher, "A plea for a long walk",
::''The Publishers Circular''
:::1902

:The art of conversation is almost a lost one. '''People talk as they ride bicycles–at a rush–without pausing to consider their surroundings''' ... what has been generally understood as cultured society is rapidly deteriorating into baseness and voluntary ignorance. '''The profession of letters is so little understood''', and so far from being seriously appreciated, that ... Newspapers are full, not of thoughtful honestly expressed public opinion on the affairs of the nation, but of vapid personalities interesting to none save gossips and busy bodies.
::Marie Corelli,
::''Free opinions, freely expressed''
:::1905

:There is a great '''tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint''', not only that placed upon them by the will of the parent. But against any restraint or limitation of what they consider their rights ... this fact has filled well minded people with great apprehensions for the future.
::Rev. Henry Hussmann,
::''The authority of parents''
:::1906

:'''Our modern family gathering, silent''' around the fire, '''each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine''', is the somewhat natural outcome of the banishment of colloquy from the school ...
::''The Journal of Education'', Volume 29
:::1907

:Plays in theatres at the present time present spectacles and '''deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago'''... The current representations of '''nude men and women in the daily journals''' and the illustrated magazines would have excluded such periodicals from all respectable families two decades ago... Those who have been divorced ... forty and fifty years ago lost at once and irrevocably their standing in society, while to-day they continue in all their social relationships, hardly changed...
::Editorial, ''The Watchman'', Boston
:::1908

:We write millions more letters than did our grandfathers, but the increase in volume has brought with it an automatic artificial machine-like ring ... an examination of a file of old letters reveals not only a remarkable grasp of details. But a '''fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking''' in the mechanical curt cut and dried letters of to-day.
::Forrest Crissey, ''Handbook of Modern Business Correspondence''
:::1908

:'''A hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it.''' Now the quickness and the cheapness of the post seem to justify the feeling that '''a brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week–a "line" now by another to-morrow.'''
::Percy Holmes Boynton, ''Principles of Composition''
:::1915

{{comic discussion}}

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-08T06:03:53Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = August 20, 2008
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Quantum teleportation}} is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing.

The name is misleading in that it does not create an efficient means of transportation via like something like Star Trek teleporters or the "conventional teleporter" where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 1025 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place.

The whole method is predicated on first being able to first create entangled quantum states and transport by conventional means one-half of the entangled state. Only after this step, could you then destroy the shared entangled quantum state, to "teleport" a different quantum state to the new location.

====It's a particle statistics thing====
Quantum teleportation is deeply related to {{w|Bell's theorem}} where its shown that quantum mechanics is incompatible with the idea of local hidden variables and which has been experimentally demonstrated (though a few very small loopholes still have not been conclusively ruled out). Explaining "its a particle statistics thing" is a great explanation of the related Bell's theorem experiments, which demonstrate quantum entanglement which is at the root of quantum teleportation. In these experiments, physicists take an entangled quantum state move it apart and then randomly decide which direction to measure each side of the quantum states. Through a statistical analysis of the results, you can demonstrate and measure each entangled particle in a randomly chosen direction. The statistical correlations between the particles are consistent with quantum mechanics and inconsistent with any local hidden variable theory; however this instantaneous wavefunction collapse does not break special relativity as wavefunction collapse {{w|No-communication_theorem|does not allow communication of any information}}. Instead you can just analyze the correlations after the fact and compare the hypothesis of local hidden variables to the inconsistent hypothesis predicted by quantum mechanics, and verify the quantum mechanical prediction.

====Russians Cut Apart and Reassemble Dogs ====
The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet {{w|Experiments in the Revival of Organisms}} video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the {{w|Sergei S. Bryukhonenko|Soviet scientists}} depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and Cueball are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Cueball: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Cueball: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Cueball leaves seat and moves behind it.]
:Reporter: But-
:[Cueball has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Cueball: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. ''Click''
:[Cueball switches a device on.]
:[Device labelled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:''VRMMM''
:[Cueball is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion.]

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

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-08T06:01:06Z

Jimbob: /* Title Text */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = August 20, 2008
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Quantum teleportation}} is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing.

The name is misleading in that it does not create an efficient means of transportation via like something like Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place. The whole method is predicated on first being able to create entangled quantum states, then transport one-half of the entangled state by conventional means though space, for each state you mean to transport for each quantum state desire to destroy locally, and recreate in another location later.

====It's a particle statistics thing====
Quantum teleportation is deeply related to {{w|Bell's theorem}} where its shown that quantum mechanics is incompatible with the idea of local hidden variables and which has been experimentally demonstrated (though a few very small loopholes still have not been conclusively ruled out). Explaining "its a particle statistics thing" is a great explanation of the related Bell's theorem experiments, which demonstrate quantum entanglement which is at the root of quantum teleportation. In these experiments, physicists take an entangled quantum state move it apart and then randomly decide which direction to measure each side of the quantum states. Through a statistical analysis of the results, you can demonstrate and measure each entangled particle in a randomly chosen direction. The statistical correlations between the particles are consistent with quantum mechanics and inconsistent with any local hidden variable theory; however this instantaneous wavefunction collapse does not break special relativity as wavefunction collapse {{w|No-communication_theorem|does not allow communication of any information}}. Instead you can just analyze the correlations after the fact and compare the hypothesis of local hidden variables to the inconsistent hypothesis predicted by quantum mechanics, and verify the quantum mechanical prediction.

====Russians Cut Apart and Reassemble Dogs ====
The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet {{w|Experiments in the Revival of Organisms}} video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the {{w|Sergei S. Bryukhonenko|Soviet scientists}} depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and Cueball are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Cueball: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Cueball: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Cueball leaves seat and moves behind it.]
:Reporter: But-
:[Cueball has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Cueball: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. ''Click''
:[Cueball switches a device on.]
:[Device labelled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:''VRMMM''
:[Cueball is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion.]

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

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-08T06:00:10Z

Jimbob: /* It's a particle statistics thing */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = August 20, 2008
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Quantum teleportation}} is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing.

The name is misleading in that it does not create an efficient means of transportation via like something like Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place. The whole method is predicated on first being able to create entangled quantum states, then transport one-half of the entangled state by conventional means though space, for each state you mean to transport for each quantum state desire to destroy locally, and recreate in another location later.

====It's a particle statistics thing====
Quantum teleportation is deeply related to {{w|Bell's theorem}} where its shown that quantum mechanics is incompatible with the idea of local hidden variables and which has been experimentally demonstrated (though a few very small loopholes still have not been conclusively ruled out). Explaining "its a particle statistics thing" is a great explanation of the related Bell's theorem experiments, which demonstrate quantum entanglement which is at the root of quantum teleportation. In these experiments, physicists take an entangled quantum state move it apart and then randomly decide which direction to measure each side of the quantum states. Through a statistical analysis of the results, you can demonstrate and measure each entangled particle in a randomly chosen direction. The statistical correlations between the particles are consistent with quantum mechanics and inconsistent with any local hidden variable theory; however this instantaneous wavefunction collapse does not break special relativity as wavefunction collapse {{w|No-communication_theorem|does not allow communication of any information}}. Instead you can just analyze the correlations after the fact and compare the hypothesis of local hidden variables to the inconsistent hypothesis predicted by quantum mechanics, and verify the quantum mechanical prediction.

====Title Text====
The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet {{w|Experiments in the Revival of Organisms}} video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the {{w|Sergei S. Bryukhonenko|Soviet scientists}} depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and Cueball are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Cueball: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Cueball: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Cueball leaves seat and moves behind it.]
:Reporter: But-
:[Cueball has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Cueball: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. ''Click''
:[Cueball switches a device on.]
:[Device labelled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:''VRMMM''
:[Cueball is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion.]

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

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-08T05:59:29Z

Jimbob:

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = August 20, 2008
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Quantum teleportation}} is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing.

The name is misleading in that it does not create an efficient means of transportation via like something like Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place. The whole method is predicated on first being able to create entangled quantum states, then transport one-half of the entangled state by conventional means though space, for each state you mean to transport for each quantum state desire to destroy locally, and recreate in another location later.

====It's a particle statistics thing====
Quantum teleportation is deeply related to {{w|Bell's theorem}} where its shown that quantum mechanics is incompatible with the idea of local hidden variables and which has been experimentally demonstrated (though a few very small loopholes still have not been conclusively ruled out). Explaining "its a particle statistics thing" is a great explanation of the related Bell's theorem experiments. In these experiments, physicists take an entangled quantum state move it apart and then randomly decide which direction to measure each side of the quantum states. Through a statistical analysis of the results, you can demonstrate and measure each entangled particle in a randomly chosen direction. The statistical correlations between the particles are consistent with quantum mechanics and inconsistent with any local hidden variable theory; however this instantaneous wavefunction collapse does not break special relativity as wavefunction collapse {{w|No-communication_theorem|does not allow communication of any information}}. Instead you can just analyze the correlations after the fact and compare the hypothesis of local hidden variables to the inconsistent hypothesis predicted by quantum mechanics, and verify the quantum mechanical prediction.

====Title Text====
The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet {{w|Experiments in the Revival of Organisms}} video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the {{w|Sergei S. Bryukhonenko|Soviet scientists}} depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and Cueball are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Cueball: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Cueball: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Cueball leaves seat and moves behind it.]
:Reporter: But-
:[Cueball has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Cueball: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. ''Click''
:[Cueball switches a device on.]
:[Device labelled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:''VRMMM''
:[Cueball is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion.]

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

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-08T05:58:47Z

Jimbob:

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = August 20, 2008
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|We have to explain this: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.}}
{{w|Quantum teleportation}} is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing.

The name is misleading in that it does not create an efficient means of transportation via like something like Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place. The whole method is predicated on first being able to create entangled quantum states, then transport one-half of the entangled state by conventional means though space, for each state you mean to transport for each quantum state desire to destroy locally, and recreate in another location later.

===It's a particle statistics thing===
Quantum teleportation is deeply related to {{w|Bell's theorem}} where its shown that quantum mechanics is incompatible with the idea of local hidden variables and which has been experimentally demonstrated (though a few very small loopholes still have not been conclusively ruled out). Explaining "its a particle statistics thing" is a great explanation of the related Bell's theorem experiments. In these experiments, physicists take an entangled quantum state move it apart and then randomly decide which direction to measure each side of the quantum states. Through a statistical analysis of the results, you can demonstrate and measure each entangled particle in a randomly chosen direction. The statistical correlations between the particles are consistent with quantum mechanics and inconsistent with any local hidden variable theory; however this instantaneous wavefunction collapse does not break special relativity as wavefunction collapse {{w|No-communication_theorem|does not allow communication of any information}. Instead you can just analyze the correlations after the fact and compare the hypothesis of local hidden variables to the inconsistent hypothesis predicted by quantum mechanics, and verify the quantum mechanical prediction.

The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet {{w|Experiments in the Revival of Organisms}} video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the {{w|Sergei S. Bryukhonenko|Soviet scientists}} depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and Cueball are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Cueball: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Cueball: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Cueball leaves seat and moves behind it.]
:Reporter: But-
:[Cueball has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Cueball: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. ''Click''
:[Cueball switches a device on.]
:[Device labelled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:''VRMMM''
:[Cueball is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion.]

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

Talk:620: Wings

2013-06-08T05:44:16Z

Jimbob: Created page with "Cueball's physics has a mistake on this one (or at least assumes we've managed to heat the atmosphere of Titan to Earth's temperature). The temperature of Titan is roughly 1/..."

Cueball's physics has a mistake on this one (or at least assumes we've managed to heat the atmosphere of Titan to Earth's temperature). The temperature of Titan is roughly 1/3 the temperature of Earth on an absolute scale. Starting with the Ideal Gas Law, PV = NkT (k is Boltzmann's constant, N is # of molecules, P is pressure, V is volume, T is temperature), its easy to define the density of a gas, ρ as:

ρ = m/V = (m P)/(N k T) = P (m/N) / (k T)

Titan's atmosphere is 98.4% molecular nitrogen (N2) and on Earth only 78.1% molecular nitrogen (by volume), but for simplicity we'll assume 100% for both. The weight of one molecule of Nitrogen is (m/N) ~ 2 × 14 × 1.67x10-27 (kg/molecule) (there are 28 nucleons per molecule with a mass of about 1.67x10^-27 kg.

The pressure on Titan is PTitan=146.7 kPa, and TTitan = 93.7 K, while on Earth PEarth=101.3 kPa and TEarth = 287 K.

Plugging in numbers, we get ρTitan = 5.3 kg/m3 and ρEarth = 1.2 kg/m3 (note the measured surface density of air on Earth is 1.2 kg/m3 at Earth's mean temperature even without the simplifying assumption of 100% N2).

Hence Titan's atmosphere is 4.4 = (5.3/1.2) times denser than Earth's (or 340% denser); not 50% denser as stated in the comic.

You will get the 50% denser if you assume the same planetary temperature on Titan as on Earth. Titan at 287 K would have a density of ρTitan at 287K ~ 1.73 kg/m3 which is about 50% greater than Earth's.

For the second calculation (panel 2), note {{w|Lift_(force)|lift}} is proportional to the density of air. If your action on Earth creates a lift of L0 and you weigh W0, on Titan you'd have a lift of 4.4 L0 (Cueball calculated 1.5 L0) due to the greater air density. Your weight would only be 0.14 W0, due to Titan's lower surface gravity. If lift balances weight, you would be able to fly on Titan, that is if 4.4 L0 = 0.14 W0. That means to fly on Titan you need a lift on Earth of L0 = 0.03 W0, that is 3% of your Earth weight. Substituting Cueball's Titan density you would get the critical value from the comic: L0 = 0.14 W0/(1.5) = 9% W0.

PS: I largely adapted this [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43578&hilit=620+wings&start=120#p1726506 my writeup on xkcd forums from 2009 when the comic was made]. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 05:44, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-05T05:19:08Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = 2008-08-20
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum_teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation Quantum teleportation] is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing

This is a far cry from being able to get Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place.

The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_in_the_Revival_of_Organisms Experiments in the Revival of Organisms] video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_S._Bryukhonenko Soviet scientists] depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and a Scientist are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Scientist: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Scientist: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Scientist leaves seat and moves behind it]
:Reporter: But-
:[Scientist has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Scientist: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. <<Click>>
:[The Scientist switches a device on.]
:[Device labeled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:<<VRMMM>>
:[The scientist is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion]



{{comic discussion}}

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-05T05:18:50Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = 2008-08-20
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum_teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation Quantum teleportation] is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing

This is a far cry from being able to get Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place.

The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_in_the_Revival_of_Organisms Experiments in the Revival of Organisms] video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the [Soviet scientists](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_S._Bryukhonenko) depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments and this research eventually lead to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and a Scientist are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Scientist: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Scientist: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Scientist leaves seat and moves behind it]
:Reporter: But-
:[Scientist has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Scientist: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. <<Click>>
:[The Scientist switches a device on.]
:[Device labeled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:<<VRMMM>>
:[The scientist is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion]



{{comic discussion}}

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-05T05:06:20Z

Jimbob: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = 2008-08-20
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum_teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation Quantum teleportation] is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing

This is a far cry from being able to get Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and a Scientist are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Scientist: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Scientist: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Scientist leaves seat and moves behind it]
:Reporter: But-
:[Scientist has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Scientist: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. <<Click>>
:[The Scientist switches a device on.]
:[Device labeled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:<<VRMMM>>
:[The scientist is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion]



{{comic discussion}}

465: Quantum Teleportation

2013-06-05T05:05:36Z

Jimbob: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = 2008-08-20
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum_teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation Quantum teleportation] is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating that exact same (unmeasured) quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ> to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ> and their half of the entangled quantum state and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ> at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing

This is a far cry from being able to get Star Trek teleporters where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of 10^25 particles) could be teleported to an arbitrary place.

==Transcript==
:[Reporter and a Scientist are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Scientist: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.
:Scientist: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on Quantum :Teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.
:[Scientist leaves seat and moves behind it]
:Reporter: But-
:[Scientist has gone to device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels.]
:Scientist: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas. <<Click>>
:[The Scientist switches a device on.]
:[Device labeled "TELEPORTER" is switched from "Quantum" to "Regular".]
:<<VRMMM>>
:[The scientist is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion]



{{comic discussion}}