explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2777: Noise Filter

2023-05-19T11:39:17Z

Joem5636: Hearing protection comment added.

Took me a moment. It is very on-point for me. Randal proposes a sound level meter in such as Google reviews. Showing the real-time racket in a restaurant or other venue. Just this week I walked out of a new TOO-LOUD restaurant. I wish this feature existed! It is not total fantasy. Any Android cellphone "could" report location and sound-level to its masters.

I'm autistic. I would have liked this feature since I was first going places on my own.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.167|162.158.2.167]] 02:31, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

Hear hear! (Pun intended.) There are several restaurants my family won't go back to because they're too loud. One was PAINFULLY loud - well over 80 dBA. Hmm. Maybe I should take my sound level meter with me next time we eat out, and put the readings into a review. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.214|172.70.110.214]] 12:24, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

I interpreted the title as a pun on noise filters that block out ambient noise. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:13, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

How long until another of Randall's xkcd "jokes" becomes real? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.173|108.162.216.173]] 15:09, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

I would like one for temperature, some places are just too damn cold. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 18:40, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

Should the explanation include recent news articles about how restaurants are louder than they were a few decades ago? Such as https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-restaurants-got-so-loud/576715/ and https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/restaurant-noise-levels-solutions/ [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.46|172.69.65.46]] 20:13, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

: I think it should. Good get.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.35|162.158.91.35]] 22:12, 18 May 2023 (UTC)

The thing that gets me is the different radio/checkbox/range selection techniques being used. Almost like the same UI designer didn't add each subsection into this bit of the interface.
*Obvious "radio"-like choice for the opening Hours. You choose one or other presets ("Any"/no preference, "Now"/current status) or a probable pop-up dialogue ("Open at...") for date/time of more flexible choice or range.
*Rating that's also "radio"-appearing, as a way of giving the single minimum acceptible value for Rating.
*The slider which implies the single ''maximum'' acceptible value for noise level. Could have been set up similar to that with Rating (though clearly needs more than the six guide-labels as buttons, and "<=value" rather than "value+").
**The version for Party Mode would have been like the minimum for Rating, both of which could either be "top-down selected" sliders or this bottom-up one but reverse-labeled. Or "number+" buttons.
*Buttons of a multi-select/checkbox type for Price choice. Not visually different from 'radio buttons', except for that they have been multi-selected... perhaps the real thing in the appropriate interface-tk would show more rounded/square button profiles. Or give another clue as to whether selecting a second would add to/replace anything previously selected in that grouping. But it ''could'' have been a range-type choice for "up to", really.
**Or a double-slider, to accomodate minimum and maximum, allowing mid-sub-range "$$+$$$", if not "$+$$$$" for only extremes. Or a slider and separate toggle between whether the slider is bottom-up and top-down.
**But would you ever anticipate split-range choices? And also to what relative quantities do the given numbers of $s map onto, subjectively?
It shows that the design decisions involved weren't part of the same holistic design-time process. (This is not a comment against Randall's compositional choices, he's clearly parodying the actual "options"-type configuration screens that you get. Consciously or unconsciously replicating ''their'' design and implemention inconsistencies.)
 But thought it wasn't really worth a main-page explanation about, just thought it worth an extended comment in here for possible passing interest of others. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.153|172.70.86.153]] 23:45, 18 May 2023 (UTC)
The slider should go down to 30dB. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.89|172.70.114.89]] 02:48, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

I, and probably every other autistic person here, wishes this were a thing. For me at least, sound louder than about 70 dB physically hurts. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 10:02, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

I ALWAYS carry hearing protection. I play bassoon in wind ensembles and orchestras and sometimes need to ‘stopper’ because of trumpets, etc. It comes in handy in other noisy situations and takes up almost no space in my pocket.
[[User:Joem5636|Joem5636]] ([[User talk:Joem5636|talk]]) 11:39, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

2690: Cool S

2022-10-28T10:16:04Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */ fixed ‘spelling’ of Kekulé. I wrote a program to “read” chemical structure diagrams and named it Kekulé.

{{comic
| number = 2690
| date = October 26, 2022
| title = Cool S
| image = cool_s_2x.png
| imagesize = 325x327px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Although I hear they were caught cheating off of Rosalind, who sat at a desk in front of them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COOL MIDDLE SCHOOL RESEARCHER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The '{{w|Cool S}}' is a stylized drawing of the letter "S". It is a popular doodle among teenagers and pre-teens as it can be quickly hashed out using six vertical lines which are then connected with an appropriate pattern of diagonal lines.

Randall first draws the steps to make the Cool S. Then he draws a chain of repeats of this pattern, excluding the end caps, making something that looks like a twisted rope. Finally he separates the two strands and adds cross bars, creating something that turns out to have a visual similarity to the discovered helical structure of {{w|DNA}}. However, although the final diagram is a double helix, the chirality, or "handedness", is backwards: an actual DNA molecule winds in the opposite direction (clockwise, if you're looking at it end-on). (The tutorial at [http://realerthinks.com/correctly-draw-dna/ How to (correctly) draw DNA] describes this in more detail.)

He posits that the helical shape of DNA was originally discovered when somebody decided to doodle this extended S pattern.

Understanding the shape of the DNA molecule was an important step towards understanding how it duplicates itself and serves as a template for RNA. In real life, {{w|Francis Crick}} and {{w|James Watson}} were awarded a Nobel Prize for this discovery.

The title text is a reference to {{w|Rosalind Franklin}}, who made a material contribution to the discovery of DNA but was [https://web.archive.org/web/20160927113256/http://www.biomath.nyu.edu/index/course/hw_articles/nature4.pdf controversially not included in the Nobel Prize]. Many are quick to assume she was excluded due to sexism, but in reality it was because she had been dead for five years (Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously). Franklin's boss at the time of the discovery, {{w|Maurice Wilkins}}, was also named on the prize. Wilkins had shared some of Franklin's data with Watson, who then shared what he saw with Crick. None of the three men ever told Franklin that Watson and Crick had based their model on her data.

This account is reminiscent of how {{W|August Kekulé}} said he identified the ring structure of the benzene molecule. He claimed to have had a dream in which the atoms were moving around, with the last grabbing onto the first like the classic image of a snake grabbing its tail, forming a ring of six lines.

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

:[10 drawings evolving from simple dashes, to a "cool S" symbol, to a representation of DNA. Unless otherwise stated, each drawing adds to the previous drawing]
:First drawing - three vertical lines side by side over three equally sized vertical lines
:Second drawing - Two diagonal lines added from the bottom of the top left line to the top of the bottom middle line, and the bottom of the top middle line to the top of the bottom right line
:Third drawing -
:Fourth drawing -
:Fifth drawing - Resets the last few steps and is the same as the second drawing.
:Sixth drawing (located under the first drawing, making a new line of drawings) -
:Seventh drawing -
:Eighth drawing -
:Ninth drawing -
:Tenth drawing -

:[Caption below the panel]:
:The structure of DNA was originally discovered by a group of especially cool middle school researchers.

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

Talk:2632: Greatest Scientist

2022-06-15T10:51:28Z

Joem5636: Penicillin redux

If anyone knows how to get this to work with the bar at the top, please do it! [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:32, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:[[User:SqueakSquawk4]] for everything to display correctly I think you need to follow the steps here: [[User:DgbrtBOT#When_the_BOT_fails...]] [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:43, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
::A) Following them now. B) Bookmarked. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:45, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:::Should be fixed now. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 18:49, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Saying Viviani already proved that the acceleration due to gravity on an object is independent of mass runs into a snag: Viviani suggest that it was Galileo who showed him that. So whether Galileo actually dropped any balls from the Tower of Pisa or was even the first to assert the principle in writing, he seems to be the driving force behind Vivian's proofs of it. Dismissing Galileo here is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 21:53, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me. Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.41|162.158.159.41]] 23:22, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

He did this before in 1531, where he combines several principles into a single comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.31|108.162.245.31]] 23:39, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:Hard to believe he's been doing these comics for nearly 500 years now. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.138|162.158.187.138]] 19:46, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

So many missed opportunities to include Focault's pendulum, cannonball mine drops, the Magnus and Coriolis effects, electromagnatism, etc, ad nauseam, ad astra [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.193|108.162.221.193]] 13:57, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

;Pavlov was inhumane
Pavlov did a lot more than just ring some bells. For example (Trigger warning for dog lovers), he drained them of stomach acid until they were dead for profit alone, and sewed dogs heads onto each other. I think this should be acknowledges. I have put this in the main article, but it has been removes. I've tried re-phrasing, and want to know how well that will stick.
:What do you think should happen. I think it is important to acknowledge, but at the same time it is not directly relevant to the comic. Please discuss. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 23:16, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
::It was I who removed the first phrasing, and as it is written now I think it's good. Perhaps a trivia section would be appropriate for it, as someone else mentioned, and I saw no problem with having a link in the previous version. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|speak]]) 09:19, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
:Seems most appropriate for a Trivia section and not the main article. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]]

;Two Petri dishes
The title text says that "''One'' of the petri dishes" fell (emphasis added). Is that an obscure reference to the {{w|Twin paradox}}?
:Proposed new text:
{| class="wikitable"
| (Title text) One of the petri dishes fell and one did not || The {{w|Twin paradox}} thought experiment: ... || See {{1432}} || {{w|Albert Einstein}}
|}
::No I think that is very far fetched. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:21, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
::: I have added it, with a "Possible" note next to it. (Or will have in a min)
::: Also, I assume you meant [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]], not [[1432: The Sake of Argument]].
::: Also Also, two Square brackets [ ] around an internal link, not two fancy/curly brackets {} [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 11:23, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
::::I will remove it. There is not sign of twin paradox in that title text! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:24, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
::::: Sorry. I'm such an imbecil for adding it. So so sorry. Is there something I can do to make up for it? I don't want to delete my account, but I would if you wanted. Edit: How about a compromise, where the Einstein theory is mentioned in brief under the table as far-fetched but possible? [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 14:27, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
::::::The link to the twin paradox is that there are two Petri dishes and only one of them falls (rather than all of them) and that being bonked on the head "gives an idea". I think this should be included, and wouldn't mind a "possible" or "unlikely" or "far-fetched" qualifier. For that matter I wouldn't mind if the table literally said "This is absolutely definitely positively with a cherry on top not a reference to the {{w|Twin paradox}}" :) -OP
::::Thanks SS4. I meant the title text of 1432, which explains thought experiments (they also came up in [[1233]] but aren't explained there).
::::I used {} because I assumed that'd link to that comic with ''both'' its number and its title. -OP
:::::Quick list of these things, in case it helps.
:::::* Bare URLs are treated as literal links if recognisable (might fall over some URLs, best avoided when more complicated than https://www.microsoft.com) - and note the padlock icon in most cases.
:::::* Single []s are for URLs.
:::::** <code>[URL]</code> alone gives a 'reference number' link, not very viewer-friendly
:::::** <code>[URL TEXT]</code> (with a <space> between) gives the TEXT-as-link-to-URL format
:::::** Will include a 'padlock' icon on (most?) external sites
:::::** Using an explainxkcd URL (e.g. pointing at a page like an edit-diff one) doesn't add the padlock... May be possible to link to those with [[]], below, but I find it simpler to do it this way, when necessary.
:::::* Double [[]]s are best used for internal links
:::::** <code><nowiki>[[PAGE_TITLE]]</nowiki></code> (need not use underscore for spaces, but can) links in the form you write...
:::::** <code><nowiki>[[PAGE_TITLE|TEXT]]</nowiki></code> gives you the choice of using alternate text.
:::::** Because of page-redirects, often a <code><nowiki>[[COMIC_NUMBER]]</nowiki></code> or a <code><nowiki>[[COMIC_TITLE]]</nowiki></code> will work and send you to the right <code><nowiki>[[COMIC_NUMBER:_COMIC_TITLE]]</nowiki></code>, but it's good practice to use the latter because some comics are titled with numbers, etc, and if you're not giving substituted link-text it's convention to link (e.g.) [[2632: Greatest Scientist]] visibly explicit like that... ;)
:::::* {{}} is for invoking Templates
:::::** Some are unqualified, like <code><nowiki>{{Citation needed}}</nowiki></code>
:::::** But <code><nowiki>{{TEMPLATE|OPTIONS|...}}</nowiki></code> is common. e.g.:
:::::*** <code><nowiki>{{w|Valid Wikipedia Page Title}}</nowiki></code> or,
:::::*** <code><nowiki>{{w|Valid Wikipedia Page Title#AndSubsection|Text to link with}}</nowiki></code> (that goes, in this case, directly to a subheadered sectio... if valid
:::::*** You ''could'' invoke http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padlock or [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padlock] or [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padlock Padlock] or even [[Padlock]] (if that last one were available locally, which it isn't!), but {{w|Padlock}} or {{w|Padlock#Symbolism|the symbolism of a padlock}} just works better and simpler!
:::::** Other useful templated shortcuts to external sites are {{template|tvtropes}} (a wiki-in-spirit) and {{template|wiktionary}}, that require the 'page title' as first parameter and any text-to-link-as optional second. Note that because {{tvtropes|TVTropesWillRuinYourLife}}, the TVTropes-linking template is set up to visually warn the possibly compulsive [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia|wikiwalker]] that they may get sucked in and ''does'' retain the padlock... ;)
:::::HTH, HAND! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.227|172.70.90.227]] 21:02, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
:::To close the Petri dish issue, (by the time I got to read tbis) the title text says "... that I left on the rail ..." so it wasn't one of the two hanging from the kite. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 21:34, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

;Height shadow
I'm not sure which scientist (or probably ancient philosophy) it might be referencing, but I get the direct impression that the ''first'' shadow in the spiel (which KarlMann just removed the row for, and I agree that that it was redundant to the latter shadow, insofar as it was written) is directly referencing the principle of using a [https://geometryhelp.net/similar-triangles-calculating-height-tall-objects-using-shadow/ shadow to calculate height], as indicated by the illustration, as opposed to the 'shadow to calculate radius' of the latter one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.227|172.70.90.227]] 10:19, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
: I think you're right, and I may have been a bit hasty. But also, I don't know of any association of that shadow measurement with Eratosthenes. I'd guess that it well pre-dates him (pun not intended). But I have no idea who might have done it first, or whether their name may have been lost to the mists of history, much less any citation to back myself up on this. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 10:23, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
:: No, not hasty, as Erato's involvement was clearly less useful in that bit (and I take it that the ''h2'' local-horizontal to the dog is a typical Randall-joke comparison to the ''h1'' local-height to the tower-top), and it would just invite reversion to have merely cleared out the existing 'explanation' without something convincing to replace it. And I've nothing convincing (or based upon a definite named historic figure, or even an alleged/fabled one) in my mind, because I imagine the principle is Older Than The Pyramids, possibly back to Babylon/Ur/whatever if not even a hunter-gatherer rule-of-thumb.
::(Literally? Making an L with thumb and fingers and touching the thumb onto the end of your nose and sighting the tips of the upheld tips of fingers to a tree you're cutting down is also a pretty decent indicator (a couple of extra strides backwards might be reasonable!) of how far back is a safe distance when felling it. If you don't have that stick often mentioned in the arms'-length method. For some reason... despite being tolerably near at least one tree and having a handy axe available to you... ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 13:23, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
: Isn’t the first "shadow" mention an obvious reference to the famous story of how [[wikipedia:Thales of Miletus|Thales of Miletus]] (the "Father of Science") measured the height of the Great Pyramid ? Just google "Thales shadow" to get an idea of how widely known the experiment is. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2690810?seq=1| This article] discusses it in detail. I think the Thales experiment would deserve a mention in the explanation.

;Newton's Gravity
Newton didn't discover Gravity, (as Douglas Adams, as Dirk Gentley, said "they even leave it on at the weekend"). His insight was that there weren't separate Earth, Sun, Moon, Planet, etc gravities, but one Universal Gravity. He also worked out the equations which explain why we don't fall towards the sun. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 21:50, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

In one of Diana Gabalon's Outlander series of books, one of the lead characters, Claire, reinvents penicillin circa 1770 but she time-traveled from the 1970's or so.
[[User:Joem5636|Joem5636]] ([[User talk:Joem5636|talk]]) 10:51, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

2617: Maps

2022-05-11T10:51:52Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */ explanation of Google Mapping

{{comic
| number = 2617
| date = May 9, 2022
| title = Maps
| image = maps.png
| titletext = OpenStreetMap was always pretty good but is also now *really* good? And Apple Maps's new zoomed-in design in certain cities like NYC and London is just gorgeous. It's cool how there are all these good maps now!
}}

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

{{w|Apple Maps}} is a navigation app released in 2012 by Apple as a competitor and replacement for the widely used {{w|Google Maps}}. It was quite bad when first released, attracting lots of criticism from iPhone users who were accustomed to Google Map's more reliable and accurate navigation. In [https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-maps-gets-drivers-lost-in-australian-outback-police-warn/ one instance], it sent drivers 40 miles out of their way into the Australian desert with no water supply. Often, initial negative impressions about a product are retained for a long time, regardless of how it may have developed, particularly when there is an obviously superior competitor to adopt, and no compelling reason to revisit the alternatives. Hence Randall/Cueball is surprised to discover that Apple Maps is now pretty good. His surprise is exaggerated to the extent that it is comparable to finding that some fundamental constant of the universe has shifted, such as the speed of light or pi being changed to some other number.

The title text mentions {{w|OpenStreetMap}}, an open-data crowd sourced geodatabase, which has also improved since Randall has last checked, potentially moving it from a "pretty good" score to a "really good" score. He also adds two examples on how the Apple Maps service has improved: zooming in on cities, like London or New York you can see features like trees and road markings, the latter usually not visible on other mapping services at all. He marvels at the number of "good" mapping options now!

Google Maps itself, and especially its satellite coverage outside the US, was considered quite bad when it launched in 2005. The maps displayed back then led to mockery among "real" cartographers that the service couldn't really be considered a map, either: It was called "map-like", given that it was just a visualization running on an extensive geodatabase, and didn't have a fixed scale. However, Google's popular mapping approach revolutionized how maps were perceived all over the world. The approaches Google uses are explained in [https://blog.mapspeople.com/how-google-maps-is-made How Google Maps is Made]. This approach blurs the lines between traditional paper maps, GIS (geo-informational systems) and digitally rendered maps on screen. The process of "mapping" - as it is referenced here - has since moved significantly into the digital realm.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding his hands up and is staring down at his open palms. Megan and White hat is looking at him.]
:Cueball: You look around one day and realize the things you assumed were immutable constants of the universe have changed.
:Cueball: The foundations of our reality are shifting beneath our feet.
:Cueball: We live in a house built on sand.

:[Caption below panel]
:The day I discovered that Apple Maps is kind of good now

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-07T12:14:09Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */ period added

{{comic
| number = 2577
| date = February 4, 2022
| title = Sea Chase
| image = sea_chase.png
| titletext = There are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STRETCHED OBLONG PARABOLOID. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, Randall returns to one of his pet subjects: [[977: Map Projections|map projections]]. Unusually, this time it is from the perspective of people living - or, in this case, sailing - upon the world that is quite literally being mapped.

Two sailing ships, of circa 18th century design, are engaged in a close chase across the {{w|Atlantic}}, the aggressor flying the Skull and Crossbones of a stereotypical pirate vessel. It can be seen from the flags of both ships that they are tacking into the wind, the trailing ship seeming to be lighter and yet deploying more effective canvas with two active sails than the forward one can with three. The ship being chased has a plan to escape and the means to do so. At a crucial moment, [[Cueball]] is told to flip a large incongruous switch that (like several [[1620: Christmas Settings|other]] [[1763: Catcalling|artifacts]] in the xkcd universe) alters the nature of their reality.

Whereas beforehand the world is directly represented upon a simply contiguous map, the {{w|Robinson projection}}, it is now changed to one (which is actually the new reality) known as {{w|Goode homolosine projection|Goode Homolosine}} in which the flattening of the world mitigates localised warping of angle/distance/area by introducing discontinuities in relatively 'unused' parts of the mapped world, such as the center of the Atlantic.

By precisely timing the change (as they cross a particular {{w|meridian}}, possibly the 40°W one), they leave the pursuer now on the wrong side of the very real gap, allowing the pursued ship to escape whatever fate they were trying to avoid. Though there is still an oceanic connection, it requires sailing down the edge towards the tropics, rounding this particular rent in the planet's surface and heading back up the other side. This is vastly further than Cueball's ship needs to travel to reach (presumably) any European port in which they can safely moor.

The title text elaborates on the policies of the ship: crewmates are never to look into the "projection abyss" and to never hit the red button labeled "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map DYMAXION]."

The first rule suggests that changing the projection of physical reality produces a gap in reality, a void. This may be dangerous to gaze into or simply unnerving to crewmates, hence the rule. This may also be a reference to a well known quote by philosopher {{w|Friedrich Nietzsche}}: “He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” See [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm Beyond Good and Evil at Project Gutenberg]

The second rule references a button that seems to do the same thing as the lever but changes the world into a "Dymaxion" (a {{w|Portmanteau|portmanteau}} of "dynamic", "maximum" and "tension") projection. The {{w|Dymaxion map|Dymaxion projection}} projects the Earth in a way that preserves land scale as much as possible. (Most maps warp land area, distance, and/or angle.) However, the preservation of scale comes at the cost of dramatically altering a map in a nearly unrecognizable and unintuitive manner. The necessary discontinuities resulting from pressing this button would be even more strange and mind-bending than the 'interrupted' Goode Homolosine, so turning the world into this projection may be bad, and a good reason to create a rule against pressing the button in question.

The Robinson, Goode Homolosine, and Dymaxion projections have been referenced in [[977: Map Projections]].

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

:[A pirate ship flying the Skull and Crossbones is sailing after a merchant ship.]
:Merchant ship sailor #1: They're closing in!
:Merchant ship sailor #2: Hang on, we're almost at the meridian!

:[A map of the Earth in the Robinson projection, with two red dots in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A voice comes from the red dot further to the east.]
:Merchant ship sailor #2: ''Now!'' Throw the switch!

:[Cueball, representing merchant ship sailor #1, pulls down a giant lever switch labeled "Projection", from "Robinson" to "Goode Homolosine".]

:[A map of the Earth in the Goode Homolosine projection, with one red dot on the American side of the split and one red dot on the European side of the split.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2577: Sea Chase

2022-02-07T12:13:00Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */ Added link to Dymaxion (projection)

{{comic
| number = 2577
| date = February 4, 2022
| title = Sea Chase
| image = sea_chase.png
| titletext = There are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STRETCHED OBLONG PARABOLOID. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, Randall returns to one of his pet subjects: [[977: Map Projections|map projections]]. Unusually, this time it is from the perspective of people living - or, in this case, sailing - upon the world that is quite literally being mapped.

Two sailing ships, of circa 18th century design, are engaged in a close chase across the {{w|Atlantic}}, the aggressor flying the Skull and Crossbones of a stereotypical pirate vessel. It can be seen from the flags of both ships that they are tacking into the wind, the trailing ship seeming to be lighter and yet deploying more effective canvas with two active sails than the forward one can with three. The ship being chased has a plan to escape and the means to do so. At a crucial moment, [[Cueball]] is told to flip a large incongruous switch that (like several [[1620: Christmas Settings|other]] [[1763: Catcalling|artifacts]] in the xkcd universe) alters the nature of their reality.

Whereas beforehand the world is directly represented upon a simply contiguous map, the {{w|Robinson projection}}, it is now changed to one (which is actually the new reality) known as {{w|Goode homolosine projection|Goode Homolosine}} in which the flattening of the world mitigates localised warping of angle/distance/area by introducing discontinuities in relatively 'unused' parts of the mapped world, such as the center of the Atlantic.

By precisely timing the change (as they cross a particular {{w|meridian}}, possibly the 40°W one), they leave the pursuer now on the wrong side of the very real gap, allowing the pursued ship to escape whatever fate they were trying to avoid. Though there is still an oceanic connection, it requires sailing down the edge towards the tropics, rounding this particular rent in the planet's surface and heading back up the other side. This is vastly further than Cueball's ship needs to travel to reach (presumably) any European port in which they can safely moor.

The title text elaborates on the policies of the ship: crewmates are never to look into the "projection abyss" and to never hit the red button labeled "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map DYMAXION]"

The first rule suggests that changing the projection of physical reality produces a gap in reality, a void. This may be dangerous to gaze into or simply unnerving to crewmates, hence the rule. This may also be a reference to a well known quote by philosopher {{w|Friedrich Nietzsche}}: “He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” See [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4363/4363-h/4363-h.htm Beyond Good and Evil at Project Gutenberg]

The second rule references a button that seems to do the same thing as the lever but changes the world into a "Dymaxion" (a {{w|Portmanteau|portmanteau}} of "dynamic", "maximum" and "tension") projection. The {{w|Dymaxion map|Dymaxion projection}} projects the Earth in a way that preserves land scale as much as possible. (Most maps warp land area, distance, and/or angle.) However, the preservation of scale comes at the cost of dramatically altering a map in a nearly unrecognizable and unintuitive manner. The necessary discontinuities resulting from pressing this button would be even more strange and mind-bending than the 'interrupted' Goode Homolosine, so turning the world into this projection may be bad, and a good reason to create a rule against pressing the button in question.

The Robinson, Goode Homolosine, and Dymaxion projections have been referenced in [[977: Map Projections]].

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

:[A pirate ship flying the Skull and Crossbones is sailing after a merchant ship.]
:Merchant ship sailor #1: They're closing in!
:Merchant ship sailor #2: Hang on, we're almost at the meridian!

:[A map of the Earth in the Robinson projection, with two red dots in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A voice comes from the red dot further to the east.]
:Merchant ship sailor #2: ''Now!'' Throw the switch!

:[Cueball, representing merchant ship sailor #1, pulls down a giant lever switch labeled "Projection", from "Robinson" to "Goode Homolosine".]

:[A map of the Earth in the Goode Homolosine projection, with one red dot on the American side of the split and one red dot on the European side of the split.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2553: Incident Report

2021-12-14T00:33:48Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2553
| date = December 10, 2021
| title = Incident Report
| image = incident_report.png
| titletext = Increasing-precision timestamps are the Jaws theme of incident reports.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERLY-PRECISE TEMPORAL SHARK. At approximately 14:29:26.6 EDT the shark initiated an acceleration, shortly thereafter mouth aperture increased from 0 to 100%. According to CCTV footage the first tooth touched victim 1 at 14:29:30.45 ± 1/29.997th of a second, at 14:29:30.49 blood, at 14:29:30.52 the title text emerged shortly followed by the second {{citation needed}} joke. Christopher Nolan then entered the first {{citation needed}} joke at 14:31:12.99 as part of the 4K remastering of Tenet. Do NOT delete this tag too late, or else the birthday firework jugglers may never exist.}}

An {{w|incident report}} describes the sequence of events when something goes wrong, including the lead-up as well as the aftermath. This usually involves describing at what time related events happen. In this comic, a report at a {{w|nuclear power plant}} on the day of the comic's publishing starts with particularly vague timestamps (that a package of fireworks arrived "roughly 18 hours prior" to it), then uses approximate minute-level precision ("14:00" and "14:20", which could reasonably be five minutes off in either direction), then minute-level precision ("14:28"), then second-level precision ("14:29:22" and "14:29:26").

This suggests that the ''clock'' time is really a proxy for the ''amount'' of time before one specific moment where everything falls apart, and when seconds start appearing, it implies that the recollection is within a few minutes of the disaster. Normally the increased level of precision reflects close monitoring capabilities of the affected systems, reviewing monitoring equipment, such as surveillance camera and microphone recordings, and/or detailed analysis by incident investigators. It may have been sufficient for the resulting inquiry to merely note the prior arrival of the original package, and possibly then read off (whatever remains of) the signing-in logs for the approximate times each member of staff arrives on the scene. At some point, though, the investigation will refer to fully timestamped security recordings, perhaps even eventually frame-by-frame with particular interest in exactly which things touched exactly what other things, in sequence, in order to hopefully learn all the necessary lessons about the incident.

Synchronization of events is important in [https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process/Pages/default.aspx incident investigations], so often systems are required to take input from common, relatively precise time references, such as {{w|GPS_disciplined_oscillator|GPS}}, {{w|WWV_(radio_station)|WWV broadcast}}, or cellular telephone systems. For example, an aircraft crash needs {{w|Airport_surveillance_radar|radar}} positioning data synced with [https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap3_section_4.html voice communications] and {{w|Flight_recorder|flight recorder data}}. Lack of correlation between these is a potential source of conspiracy theories, for example one of the {{w|United Airlines Flight 93#Crash 9-11|hijacked planes}} crashed into Pennsylvania either at 10:03 or 10:06 depending on two different information sources.

In many situations, incident reports are anonymized as shown to protect the identities of those people involved in the incidents. This is often done to prevent unnecessary blaming of certain individuals, particularly when it hasn't yet been determined whether the incident was negligence or just an accident.

Examples of real-life incident reports with second-level precision timestamps showing the increasing precision around critical moments include:
* [https://spaceflightnow.com/challenger/timeline/ Explosion] of the Space Shuttle Challenger
* [https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/chernobyl-accident-appendix-1-sequence-of-events.aspx Chernobyl explosion]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island Accident]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2021_United_States_Capitol_attack January 6]

The report shown cuts off before reaching the actual incident, leaving it to the reader to imagine what happened next. If the birthday cake has lit candles, one possible sequence of events is that a dropped or badly thrown juggling pin could have hit one of them and then rolled over to the fireworks package, thus igniting the package. This would have caused the fireworks to go off underneath the reactor control's console.

Although the comic refers to {{w|Juggling club|juggling "pins"}}, jugglers commonly call those props "clubs." It is possible Randall is confusing the {{w|Bowling pin|similarly shaped objects}} in 10-pin bowling to juggling clubs. "Pins" are another name for a component of Uranium Carbide type {{w|Nuclear fuel#Uranium carbide|nuclear fuel rods}}, which are involved in the safe control of the nuclear reaction within a nuclear power plant. No sane reactor staff would juggle these complex, heavy and expensive pieces of equipment.{{citation needed}}

The title text refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4 theme music] from the 1975 film ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'', which has come to represent impending danger. Movies use music to create the correct emotional tone; suspenseful music indicates that something bad is about to happen. The ''Jaws'' theme is an iconic example, famously used to create a sense of foreboding, then uses increasingly rapid tempo to build a sense of imminent danger, culminating in a dramatic moment of disaster (a shark attack, in the film). As with the increasing tempo of this theme, the increasing frequency with which events are recorded in an incident report build the increasing sense that something terrible is imminent.

9603120071 is an actual accession number for an [https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=9603120071 incident] at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 1996. Four slightly contaminated stray kittens were found, cleaned, and adopted. No clock times were mentioned in the report.

Real-world nuclear power stations have strictly regulated control rooms which would prevent the simultaneous presence of fireworks, juggling and birthday celebrations.{{Citation needed}} There is no East Valley nuclear power plant, but there are two reactor units at the nuclear power plant in Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Facility: East Valley Nuclear Plant
:Date: 12/10/2021
:Report ID: 9603120071
:Event description: Roughly '''18 hours''' prior to the incident, an Amazon package containing fireworks was mistakenly delivered to the reactor control room and left under the console.
:The next day, at approximately '''14:00''', Technician A arrived at the facility with a bag containing four juggling pins. At '''14:20''', Technician A entered the control room, and joined Technician B at the console.
:At '''14:28''', Technician C exited the elevator and approached the control room holding a birthday cake intended for Technician B.
:At '''14:29:22''', Technician A said "Hey [Technician B], check out this cool trick I learned" while taking out the juggling pins. Technician B turned to look just as, at '''14:29:26''', Technician C entered holding the cake.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You know things are about to get bad when the incident report starts including seconds in the timestamps.

{{comic discussion}}

2553: Incident Report

2021-12-14T00:32:37Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2553
| date = December 10, 2021
| title = Incident Report
| image = incident_report.png
| titletext = Increasing-precision timestamps are the Jaws theme of incident reports.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERLY-PRECISE TEMPORAL SHARK. At approximately 14:29:26.6 EDT the shark initiated an acceleration, shortly thereafter mouth aperture increased from 0 to 100%. According to CCTV footage the first tooth touched victim 1 at 14:29:30.45 ± 1/29.997th of a second, at 14:29:30.49 blood, at 14:29:30.52 the title text emerged shortly followed by the second {{citation needed}} joke. Christopher Nolan then entered the first {{citation needed}} joke at 14:31:12.99 as part of the 4K remastering of Tenet. Do NOT delete this tag too late, or else the birthday firework jugglers may never exist.}}

An {{w|incident report}} describes the sequence of events when something goes wrong, including the lead-up as well as the aftermath. This usually involves describing at what time related events happen. In this comic, a report at a {{w|nuclear power plant}} on the day of the comic's publishing starts with particularly vague timestamps (that a package of fireworks arrived "roughly 18 hours prior" to it), then uses approximate minute-level precision ("14:00" and "14:20", which could reasonably be five minutes off in either direction), then minute-level precision ("14:28"), then second-level precision ("14:29:22" and "14:29:26").

This suggests that the ''clock'' time is really a proxy for the ''amount'' of time before one specific moment where everything falls apart, and when seconds start appearing, it implies that the recollection is within a few minutes of the disaster. Normally the increased level of precision reflects close monitoring capabilities of the affected systems, reviewing monitoring equipment, such as surveillance camera and microphone recordings, and/or detailed analysis by incident investigators. It may have been sufficient for the resulting inquiry to merely note the prior arrival of the original package, and possibly then read off (whatever remains of) the signing-in logs for the approximate times each member of staff arrives on the scene. At some point, though, the investigation will refer to fully timestamped security recordings, perhaps even eventually frame-by-frame with particular interest in exactly which things touched exactly what other things, in sequence, in order to hopefully learn all the necessary lessons about the incident.

Synchronization of events is important in [https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process/Pages/default.aspx incident investigations], so often systems are required to take input from common, relatively precise time references, such as {{w|GPS_disciplined_oscillator|GPS}}, {{w|WWV_(radio_station)|WWV broadcast}}, or cellular telephone systems. For example, an aircraft crash needs {{w|Airport_surveillance_radar|radar}} positioning data synced with [https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap3_section_4.html voice communications] and {{w|Flight_recorder|flight recorder data}}. Lack of correlation between these is a potential source of conspiracy theories, for example one of the {{w|United Airlines Flight 93#Crash 9-11|hijacked planes}} crashed into Pennsylvania either at 10:03 or 10:06 depending on two different information sources.

In many situations, incident reports are anonymized as shown to protect the identities of those people involved in the incidents. This is often done to prevent unnecessary blaming of certain individuals, particularly when it hasn't yet been determined whether the incident was negligence or just an accident.

Examples of real-life incident reports with second-level precision timestamps showing the increasing precision around critical moments include:
* [https://spaceflightnow.com/challenger/timeline/ Explosion] of the Space Shuttle Challenger
* [https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/chernobyl-accident-appendix-1-sequence-of-events.aspx Chernobyl explosion]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island Accident]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2021_United_States_Capitol_attack January 6]

The report shown cuts off before reaching the actual incident, leaving it to the reader to imagine what happened next. If the birthday cake has lit candles, one possible sequence of events is that a dropped or badly thrown juggling pin could have hit one of them and then rolled over to the fireworks package, thus igniting the package. This would have caused the fireworks to go off underneath the reactor control's console.

Although the comic refers to {{w|Juggling club|juggling "pins"}}, jugglers commonly call those props "clubs." It is possible Randall is confusing the {{w|Bowling pin|similarly shaped objects}} in 10-pin bowling to juggling clubs. "Pins" are another name for a component of Uranium Carbide type {{w|Nuclear fuel#Uranium carbide|nuclear fuel rods}}, which are involved in the safe control of the nuclear reaction within a nuclear power plant. No sane reactor staff would juggle these complex, heavy and expensive pieces of equipment.{{citation needed}}

The title text refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4 theme music] from the 1975 film ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'', which has come to represent impending danger. Movies use music to create the correct emotional tone; suspenseful music indicates that something bad is about to happen. The ''Jaws'' theme is an iconic example, famously used to create a sense of foreboding, then uses increasingly rapid tempo to build a sense of imminent danger, culminating in a dramatic moment of disaster (a shark attack, in the film). As with the increasing tempo of this theme, the increasing frequency with which events are recorded in an incident report build the increasing sense that something terrible is imminent.

9603120071 is an actual accession number for an [https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=9603120071 incident] at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 1996. Four slightly contaminated stray kittens were found, cleaned, and adopted. No clock times were mentioned in the report.

Real-world nuclear power stations have strictly regulated control rooms which would prevent the simultaneous presence of fireworks, juggling and birthday celebrations.{{Citation needed}} There is no East Valley nuclear power plant, but there are two reactor units at the nuclear power plant in Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Facility: East Valley Nuclear Plant
:Date: 12/10/2021
:Report ID: 9603120071
:Event description: Roughly '''18 hours''' prior to the incident, an Amazon package containing fireworks was mistakenly delivered to the reactor control room and left under the console.
:The next day, at approximately '''14:00''', Technician A arrived at the facility with a bag containing four juggling pins. At '''14:20''', Technician A entered the control room, and joined Technician B at the console.
:At '''14:28''', Technician C exited the elevator and approached the control room holding a birthday cake intended for Technician B.
:At '''14:29:22''', Technician A said "Hey [Technician B], check out this cool trick I learned" while taking out the juggling pins. Technician B turned to look just as, at '''14:29:26''', Technician C entered holding the cake.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You know things are about to get bad when the incident report starts including seconds in the timestamps.

{{comic discussion}}

2553: Incident Report

2021-12-13T12:01:10Z

Joem5636: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2553
| date = December 10, 2021
| title = Incident Report
| image = incident_report.png
| titletext = Increasing-precision timestamps are the Jaws theme of incident reports.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERLY-PRECISE TEMPORAL SHARK. At approximately 14:29:26.6 EDT the shark initiated an acceleration, shortly thereafter mouth aperture increased from 0 to 100%. According to CCTV footage the first tooth touched victim 1 at 14:29:30.45 ± 1/29.997th of a second, at 14:29:30.49 blood, at 14:29:30.52 the title text emerged shortly followed by the second{{citation needed}} joke. Christopher Nolan then entered the first {{citation needed}} joke at 14:31:12.99 as part of the 4K remastering of Tenet. Do NOT delete this tag too late, or else the birthday firework jugglers may never exist.}}

An {{w|incident report}} describes the sequence of events when something goes wrong, including the lead-up as well as the aftermath. This usually involves describing at what time related events happen. In this comic, a report at a {{w|nuclear power plant}} on the day of the comic's publishing starts with particularly vague timestamps (that a package of fireworks arrived "roughly 18 hours prior" to it), then uses approximate minute-level precision ("14:00" and "14:20", which could reasonably be five minutes off in either direction), then minute-level precision ("14:28"), then second-level precision ("14:29:22" and "14:29:26").

This suggests that the ''clock'' time is really a proxy for the ''amount'' of time before one specific moment where everything falls apart, and when seconds start appearing, it implies that the recollection is within a few minutes of the disaster. Normally the increased level of precision reflects close monitoring capabilities of the affected systems, reviewing monitoring equipment, such as surveillance camera and microphone recordings, and/or detailed analysis by incident investigators. It may have been sufficient for the resulting inquiry to merely note the prior arrival of the original package, and possibly then read off (whatever remains of) the signing-in logs for the approximate times each member of staff arrives on the scene. At some point, though, the investigation will refer to fully timestamped security recordings, perhaps even eventually frame-by-frame with particular interest in exactly which things touched exactly what other things, in sequence, in order to hopefully learn all the necessary lessons about the incident.

Synchronization of events is important in [https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process/Pages/default.aspx incident investigations], so often systems are required to take input from common, relatively precise time references, such as {{w|GPS_disciplined_oscillator|GPS}}, {{w|WWV_(radio_station)|WWV broadcast}}, or cellular telephone systems. For example, an aircraft crash needs {{w|Airport_surveillance_radar|radar}} positioning data synced with [https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap3_section_4.html voice communications] and {{w|Flight_recorder|flight recorder data}}. Lack of correlation between these is a potential source of conspiracy theories, for example one of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93#Crash 9-11 hijacked planes]] crashed into Pennsylvania either at 10:03 or 10:06 depending on two different information sources.

In many situations, incident reports are anonymized as shown to protect the identities of those people involved in the incidents. This is often done to prevent unnecessary blaming of certain individuals, particularly when it hasn't yet been determined whether the incident was negligence or just an accident.

Examples of real-life incident reports with second-level precision timestamps showing the increasing precision around critical moments include:
* [https://spaceflightnow.com/challenger/timeline/ Explosion] of the Space Shuttle Challenger
* [https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/chernobyl-accident-appendix-1-sequence-of-events.aspx Chernobyl explosion]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island Accident]

The report shown cuts off before reaching the actual incident, leaving it to the reader to imagine what happened next. If the birthday cake has lit candles, one possible sequence of events is that a dropped or badly thrown juggling pin could have hit one of them and then rolled over to the fireworks package, thus igniting the package. This would have caused the fireworks to go off underneath the reactor control's console.

Although the comic refers to {{w|Juggling club|juggling "pins"}}, jugglers commonly refer call those props as "clubs." It is possible Randall is confusing the {{w|Bowling pin|similarly shaped objects}} in 10-pin bowling to juggling clubs. "Pins" are another name for a component of Uranium Carbide type [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fuel#Uranium_carbide nuclear fuel rods], which are involved in the safe control of the nuclear reaction within a nuclear power plant. No sane reactor staff would juggle these complex, heavy and expensive pieces of equipment.{{citation needed}}

The title text refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4 theme music] from the 1975 film ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'', which has come to represent impending danger. Movies use music to create the correct emotional tone; suspenseful music indicates that something bad is about to happen. The ''Jaws'' theme is well known for the increasing tempo during its intro, which might be paralleled here to the increasingly precise timestamps of the report.

9603120071 is an actual accession number for an [https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=9603120071 incident] at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 1996. Four slightly contaminated stray kittens were found, cleaned, and adopted. No clock times were mentioned in the report.

Real-world nuclear power stations have strictly regulated control rooms which would prevent the simultaneous presence of fireworks, juggling and birthday celebrations.{{Citation needed}} There is no East Valley nuclear power plant, but there are two reactor units at the nuclear power plant in Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Facility: East Valley Nuclear Plant
:Date: 12/10/2021
:Report ID: 9603120071
:Event description: Roughly '''18 hours''' prior to the incident, an Amazon package containing fireworks was mistakenly delivered to the reactor control room and left under the console.
:The next day, at approximately '''14:00''', Technician A arrived at the facility with a bag containing four juggling pins. At '''14:20''', Technician A entered the control room, and joined Technician B at the console.
:At '''14:28''', Technician C exited the elevator and approached the control room holding a birthday cake intended for Technician B.
:At '''14:29:22''', Technician A said "Hey [Technician B], check out this cool trick I learned" while taking out the juggling pins. Technician B turned to look just as, at '''14:29:26''', Technician C entered holding the cake.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You know things are about to get bad when the incident report starts including seconds in the timestamps.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2497: Logic Gates

2021-08-04T11:00:42Z

Joem5636:

As someone has just Transcripted basically almost all the fine detail I had planned to entable in the Explanation, I shall not now create repetition. Though I had a little more description to the NORXONDOR GOGONAX, in particular, to reference bidirectional (antiparallel) diode pairings (e.g. an LED assembly that glows a different hue depending upon the applied current bias) as probable inspiration, and that latched Flip-Flops surely inspired some part of the Frankensteinian gate-types, too. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.119|141.101.99.119]] 00:08, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

(Also, surprised there was no direct "GONDOR" reference. Or maybe that's because it was ''too'' obvious?) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.211|141.101.99.211]] 00:12, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

: I was also missing a "GONDOR" reference, and all the X's also made me think XEHANORT. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.174|172.70.126.174]] 03:49, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

...So, who's ready to draw up some truth tables? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.211|172.70.126.211]] 01:22, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

I can't get the lines in the bitwise-operation example to align properly; the first one is indented a tad. Can someone please fix that? Thanks... [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 04:11, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

The symbol for norx gate (1-input OR, two outputs) I'd read as a noninverting buffer to increase another gate's usable fan-out. Xand gort resembles the symbol for an [[wikipedia:Operational amplifier|op-amp]]. Given the subtraction that an op-amp does, the xand gort's truth table probably resembles that of the [[wikipedia:Material conditional|"implies" operator]]. [[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 04:23, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

the "NORG XORT" is not equivalent to an XOR, as the symbol is round on the right. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.186|141.101.69.186]] 06:39, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Right, "NORG XORT" would be a XNAND with inverted inputs, though I don't know what the logic table from a XAND or XNAND gate would look like. If De Morgan applies to XAND/XOR the same way as with AND/OR, would a "NORG XORT" then be equivalent to a XOR ? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.43|162.158.129.43]] 15:12, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
:: I think it is specifically a hybrid between XOR and NAND. The left edge is curved like OR, and the right edge curved like AND. I did spend some time thinking about XAND, though. One of my ideas was a >2-input AND that is only true if exactly 2 inputs are true. I wonder what qubit gates are like. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.174|108.162.219.174]] 16:16, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

;Logic Gates
It seems to me that their ought to be 16 possible logic gates. Although some would ignore one or both inputs. [[User:Algr|Algr]] ([[User talk:Algr|talk]]) 07:18, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
:Yes. The 74181 4-bit arithmetic logic chip implements all 16 possible binary logic operations. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/74181 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.253|162.158.94.253]] 07:34, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
:: It doesn't say the names of the various gates. On my list I made up a few, like "Only B" that only returns true if B is true and A isn't. Are their real names for this? [[User:Algr|Algr]] ([[User talk:Algr|talk]]) 18:57, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
::: I could suggest "Unless" (as in 'B unless A', or maybe to counterpart 'A unless B' with standard order of operands, 'A disallows B'). Though the partially composite construct '!A && B' would be easier to grasp by those already handling logic statements, I think. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.78|141.101.76.78]] 19:24, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
::: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_function#Table_of_binary_truth_functions --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.135|162.158.126.135]] 23:02, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
:::: So '''"Only B"''' is called '''"Converse nonimplication"'''?! Maybe I'm the ''only'' logical person. [[User:Algr|Algr]] ([[User talk:Algr|talk]]) 06:30, 4 August 2021 (UTC)
:As Randall drew gates with two outputs, these would have 256 (16^2) possible functions [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.252|162.158.94.252]] 15:15, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
:: That couldn't logically be anything but two logic gates sharing the same input. [[User:Algr|Algr]] ([[User talk:Algr|talk]])

there should be a category of comics where it starts out like a normal list and gets weirder and weirder like [[2070:_Trig_Identities|Trig Identities]] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.164|172.70.34.164]] 18:53, 3 August 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

What, no IMPLIES gate? I actually used this once to implement a NOT operation in a database see search. [[User:Joem5636|Joem5636]] ([[User talk:Joem5636|talk]]) 11:00, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2466: In Your Classroom

2021-05-24T12:33:00Z

Joem5636:

yay! another one where a table is useful for an explanation! also first ALPHALUL [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.59|162.158.79.59]] 01:01, 22 May 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

Exobiology should not be in the Good area. I've seen those movies, I know what happens next. [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 02:18, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

I'm sort of sad that the the hover text, or perhaps the origin, wasn't simply "Tautology" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.74|108.162.237.74]] 21:01, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

I think that the scales would be better shown as +/- from a (0,0) point than %'s from the top left. At least for the Good/Bad axis It's really weird to say that "Education" has 10% ''danger'' because it's not quite as good as having an atmosphere. Is it just me? --[[User:Bobson|Bobson]] ([[User talk:Bobson|talk]]) 01:51, 23 May 2021 (UTC)
:Many students consider education - especially tests - dangerous. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:26, 23 May 2021 (UTC)

Not sure how big is smallest quasar, but I suspect one appearing in class would be bad even for Sun and rest of solar system. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:29, 23 May 2021 (UTC)

Is vertical axis how dangerous? I read it as either being positive utility (Societal good and bad) or how much Randall likes it? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 10:19, 23 May 2021 (UTC)

Shouldn't it be vulcanology?[[User:Joem5636|Joem5636]] ([[User talk:Joem5636|talk]]) 12:33, 24 May 2021 (UTC)