explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1640: Super Bowl Context

2016-03-18T19:38:29Z

Legofan613: Addressing the incomplete block - "This explanation provides way too much context, link to Wikipedia instead."

{{comic
| number = 1640
| date = February 8, 2016
| title = Super Bowl Context
| image = super_bowl_context.png
| titletext = Why did the chicken cross the road? It begins over five thousand years ago with the domestication of the red junglefowl in southeast Asia and the development of paved roads in the Sumerian city of Ur.
}}

==Explanation==

[[White Hat]] tries to make normal conversation with [[Cueball]] about yesterday's {{w|American football}} game, {{w|Super Bowl 50}}.

When asking Cueball if he watched the game, Cueball begins with a simple ''Yes'', but then continues to add the contextual fact that about a third of the US population watched the event, which is an incredibly high percentage in today's [http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definition/media%20landscape media landscape]. And according to Cueball this [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-super-bowl-50-862888 fraction is increasing], despite [http://moneyterms.co.uk/media-fragmentation/ media fragmentation]. Thus, even though there are today more and more different ways to watch news, sports and other entertainment, the Super Bowl continues to gain more viewers every year.

It turns out that Cueball has a problem. He cannot just reply to a simple question without trying to put the conversation into some kind of {{w|Context (language use)|context}} which does not necessarily have anything to do with the question asked, or at least not with the expected answer. From White Hat's reply it is obvious that he has had conversations like this with Cueball before, as he asks if they could ''just talk without your weird need to give context for everything?''

Cueball feels the need to disseminate any information he finds interesting, even in trivial conversation. Normally people like to have context-free conversations and White Hat invites Cueball to try to fit in with normal people's conversational style.

Cueball apologizes and agrees to try, but even though he really tries hard, with White Hat encouraging him to just reply normally to a question about the [http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/02/01/report-peyton-manning-has-told-close-friends-hell-retire/ rumored retirement] of {{w|Peyton Manning}}, he cannot stop himself from including context in his reply again. White Hat probably wanted Cueball to join in such minimal-context speculation. But, failing miserably again, White Hat finally gives up, and suggests they should try another conversation in a year, when Cueball might have learned to talk about the Super Bowl without context (hence the title).

This time he goes off on a tangent about Peyton as a {{w|mammal}}, and then adding the process of {{w|aging}} and mentioning two reasons for this (which are not well understood). The first he mentions is {{w|Ageing#Damage-related factors|accumulation of damage}}, which includes {{w|mutations}} that can lead to diseases such as {{w|cancer}}. The other process he mentions is {{w|Ageing#Programmed_factors|timed factors}} which includes {{w|Telomeres}}. These have been linked to {{w|senescence|biological aging}} because of the shortening of telomeres at each {{w|Cell cycle|cell division}}; when telomeres become too short, the cells die (and so do mammals).

To cap it off, he mentions that {{w|retiring}} is a recent concept. But this only makes sense when compared to how long there have been mammals, not compared to how long there have been sports and games, where people could be too old, and thus need to retire long before they would die from old age. Before humans began to enjoy things for fun, the concept of retiring made no sense. You worked/fought for a living, until you got too old and died.

Cueball in this comic may represent [[Randall]], as much of {{xkcd}} is spawned from, or occasionally poking fun at, his own hyper-analytical tendencies. And it is also common knowledge that Randall is not very interested in sport, though there are several xkcd [[:Category:American football|comics about American football]]. The year before this one he made another comic in relation to the final, and in this comic, [[1480: Super Bowl]], he even mentions the fact that he does not know much about [[:Category:Sport|sports in general]]. So this is the second year in a row a comic has been released in conjunction with the Super Bowl final. But before 2015, there has only been one other comic like this, which was in 2006 with [[60: Super Bowl]].

The title text continues the joke with Cueball replying to the old {{w|anti-humor}} joke: "{{w|Why did the chicken cross the road?}}" Cueball replies with a preposterous amount of information instead of the cliched simplistic answer: "To get to the other side."

Cueball begins with the origin of {{w|chickens}}. They are believed to be descendants from domestication of the {{w|Red junglefowl}}, which occurred at least five thousand years ago in Asia, as Cueball correctly explains. Before there were chickens, there could not be one crossing a road. It also couldn't be called "crossing the road" without a {{w|Road surface|pavement}}. The {{w|History_of_road_transport#Wheeled_transport|first development of paved roads}} was in the city of {{w|Ur}} in the ancient {{w|Sumer|Sumerian}} civilization about 4000 BC (6000 years ago) (also partly explained in Cueball's reply).

As a trivial note, this comic is a rare instance of White Hat not being the fall guy for the joke. But already in his next discussion with Cueball ([[1657: Insanity]]) he was again the pun of the joke.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are walking together.]
:White Hat: Did you watch the Super Bowl?
:Cueball: Yes, like a third of the country.
:Cueball: A fraction that is steadily ''increasing'' despite media fragmentation.

:[White Hat stops and Cueball turn towards him.]
:White Hat: Can't we just talk without your weird need to give context for everything?
:Cueball: Sorry. I'll try.

:[As White Hat asks Cueball another question Cueball bunches his hands into fists. He is clearly struggling.]
:White Hat: Sounds like Peyton Manning's probably going to retire.
:Cueball: Yes, I... ...It...
:White Hat: C'mon, you can do it...
:Cueball: He...

:[Cueball spreads out his arms a little as he replies with two long sentences, while White Hat walks away from him.]
:Cueball: ''—Mammals like Peyton age via a process that involves both the accumulation of damage and poorly-understood timed factors.''
:Cueball: ''Yet the concept of retirement itself is surprisingly recent...''
:White Hat: Okay, good try. Maybe next year.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1419: On the Phone

2016-02-04T00:40:39Z

Legofan613:

{{comic
| number = 1419
| date = September 10, 2014
| title = On the Phone
| image = on_the_phone.png
| titletext = 'No idea what I was thinking! Haha! But anyway, maybe we should check out what this Ba'al guy has to say.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Fidgeting}} while talking on the telephone is a very common habit and may manifest as doodling or pacing. In the case of the person speaking off-panel (presumably [[Cueball]]), he paces while absent-mindedly moving random objects around the house. Taking this behavior to the extreme, he has also erected an {{w|obelisk}} in the backyard and carved prayers to "Ba'al, the Soul Eater" on it. This may be a reference to the saying "Idle hands are the devil's playthings."

The title text suggests that the "fidgeting" is just a cover story - the off-panel speaker is actually worshipping (or possessed by) Ba'al, and is casually trying to encourage Megan to do the same.

{{w|Baal_(disambiguation)|Ba'al}}, or {{w|Baal (demon)|Baal}}, refers to one of many deities and demons which go by this name. Given its title "The Soul Eater", it probably refers to {{w|Beelzebub}} (one of the {{w|Classification_of_demons#Binsfeld.27s_classification_of_demons|seven princes of hell}}). Ba'al, the Soul Eater has been referred to [[:Category:Ba'al|in other comics]].

==Transcript==
[Megan is pointing off-panel to the left and looking off-panel to the right.]
:Megan: Why is there a teapot in the bathroom?
:Off-panel voice (right): Sorry. When I'm on the phone I always zone out and pick stuff up and carry it around.
[Megan is in front of an open fridge, holding a hammer.]
:Megan: There's a hammer in the fridge.
:Off-panel voice: Another phone call. I was just fidgeting.
[Megan is walking next to four stacks of household objects: the first has a lightbulb on top of a book, the second has a blender on top of three books, the third has five books (two balanced vertically) with a smaller rectangular object on top, and the fourth has two tennis balls on top of three books.]
:Megan: Did you put all our stuff in weird stacks?
:Off-panel voice: Long call. Sorry.
[Megan, outside, looks up at a towering straight-sided object.]
:Megan: ...Why is there a giant obelisk in the backyard?
:Off-panel voice: Phone again. My bad.
:Megan: It's carved with prayers to "Ba'al, the Soul-Eater."
:Off-panel voice: Haha! I'm so absentminded.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Ba'al]]

1638: Backslashes

2016-02-04T00:39:27Z

Legofan613:

{{comic
| number = 1638
| date = February 3, 2016
| title = Backslashes
| image = backslashes.png
| titletext = I searched my .bash_history for the line with the highest ratio of special characters to regular alphanumeric characters, and the winner was: cat out.txt | grep -o "\\\[[(].*\\\[\])][^)\]]*$" ... I have no memory of this and no idea what I was trying to do, but I sure hope it worked.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need rewriting of the entries in the list and a thorough analysis of the title text}}

Most {{w|Formal language|formal languages}} use the concept of a {{w|String literal|string}}, which is just a text between some delimiters, usually quotes. For example, "Hello, world" is a string. The text being represented is "Hello, world" without the quotes, however the quotes are also written to mark the beginning and end of the string. This is a problem when the text itself contains a quote, as in "This is a "quoted" string". The quotes around the word "quoted" are intended to be part of the text, but the {{w|Lexical analysis|language processor}} will likely confuse it for the end of the string.

To avoid this problem, an {{w|Escape character|escape character}} (usually a backslash) is prepended to non-string-terminating quotes. So, the previous text would be written as "This is a \"quoted\" string". The language processor will substitute every occurrence of \" with only the quote character, and the string terminates at the quote character which does not immediately follow a backslash. However, the problem now is that the intended text might contain a backslash itself. For example, the text "C:\" will now be interpreted as an unterminated string containing a quote character. To avoid this, literal backslashes also are escaped with a second backslash, i.e. instead of "C:\" we write "C:\\", where the language processor interprets \\ as one single backslash and the quote terminates the string.

This doubling of backslashes happens in most programming and scripting languages, but also in other syntactic constructs such as {{w|Regular expression|regular expressions}}. So, when several of these languages are used in conjunction, backslashes pile up exponentially (each layer has to double the number of slashes). A reasonable example would be a {{w|PHP}} script in a web server which writes {{w|JavaScript}} code to be run in the client. If the JavaScript code has to output a smiley for scratching one's head (i.e. <code>r:-\</code> ), it would look like this:
document.write ("r:-\\");
However, since this JavaScript code is to be written through a PHP script, the PHP code would be:
echo "document.write (\"r:-\\\\\");";
where:
* The word <code>echo</code> is the PHP command for writing something
* The first quote starts the string
* The <code>document.write (</code> (including the open parenthesis) is written literally
* The <code>\"</code> following that is a literal quote to be written
* The <code>r:-</code> is written literally
* The first two slashes produce one single slash
* The next two slashes produce another single slash
* The next <code>\"</code> produces a literal quote character
* The close parenthesis and the semicolon are to be written literally
* The next quote finishes the string.
* The final semicolon terminates the <code>echo</code> command

So, the presented scenario has escalated from a simple <code>r:-\</code> smiley to no less than five backslashes in a row without stepping out of the most common operations. If we go a bit further and try to write a {{w|Java (programming language)|Java}} program that outputs our PHP script, we'd have:
System.out.println ("echo \"document.write (\\\"r:-\\\\\\\\\\\");\";";
Here, we have 11 backslashes in a row: the first 10 produce the 5 we need in our PHP script, and the last one is for escaping the quote character.

This kind of backslash explosion is known as {{w|Leaning toothpick syndrome}}, and can happen in many situations. The one in the title text is about a {{w|Bash (Unix shell)|bash}} command (which uses the backslash to escape arguments) invoking the {{w|grep}} utility which searches for text following a pattern specified by means of a regular expression (which also uses the backslash to escape special characters). This leads to 3 backslashes in a row in the command, which could easily become 7 backslashes in a row if the text being searched for also contains a backslash. Even advanced users who completely understand the concept often have a hard time figuring out exactly how many backslashes are required in a given situation. It is hopelessly frustrating to carefully calculate exactly the number of backslashes and then noticing that there's a mistake so the whole thing doesn't work. At a point, it becomes easier to just keep throwing backslashes in until things work than trying to reason what the correct number is.

=== Entries in the list ===
The first three entries with 1-3 backslashes make sense: a "real backslash" is when the program is told to find one of these using two backslashes. And if you need to find such a double "real backslash" you would need a third, hence the first ''real'' is written in italic.

Using 5-7 backslashes continues the trend, first with five a reference to {{w|Elder}} which has many meanings. It has become known through the {{w|Harry Potter}} universe with the {{w| Magical_objects_in_Harry_Potter#Deathly_Hallows|Elder wand}} made from {{w|Sambucus|Elder wood}}. The {{w|Elder Days}} is also the first Ages of Middle-earth in {{w|The Lord of the Rings}}. It is probably in reference to the {{w|Elder Gods}} of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Using 6 backslashes will cause them to escape the computer and enter your brain and using 7 backslashes makes it ''so real it {{w|Transcendence (philosophy)|transcends}} {{w|Spacetime|time and space}}.''

The list gives names for all numbers of backslashes from 1 up to 8, but then the last entry has 11 slashes followed by "..." to indicate they continue forever. This is: ''The true name of {{w|Baal (demon)|Ba'al}}, the {{w|Soul eater (folklore)|Soul-Eater}}''. This indicates that if you continue misusing backslashes like this you will end up devoured by a demon, for instance {{w|Beelzebub}}, for being so thoughtless... Ba'al has been [[1419: On the Phone|mentioned]] [[1246: Pale Blue Dot|before]] in {{xkcd}}.

=== Title text ===
It's unclear whether the regular expression in the title text is valid or not. A long discussion about the validity of the expression has occurred here on explainxkcd.com. The fact that many editors of the site, often themselves extremely technically qualified, can't determine whether the expression is valid or not adds a meta layer to the joke of the comic. This is probably an example of [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]].

==Transcript==
:[A list of the names of different numbers of backslashes. After each "item" there is a gray line to the text describing each item. As the text is aligned above each other, the lines becomes shorter as the sequence of backslashes becomes longer until there is just a line with the length of a single hyphen for the last item. There are 1 to 8 backslashes and then 11 plus "..." in the last entry.]
:\------------ Backslash
:\\----------- Real backslash
:\\\---------- ''Real'' real backslash
:\\\\---------- Actual backslash, for real this time
:\\\\\--------- Elder backslash
:\\\\\\-------- Backslash which escapes the screen and enters your brain
:\\\\\\\------- Backslash so real it transcends time and space
:\\\\\\\\------ Backslash to end all other text
:\\\\\\\\\\\...- The true name of Ba'al, the Soul-Eater

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Regex]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Ba'al]]

1246: Pale Blue Dot

2016-02-04T00:38:52Z

Legofan613: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1246
| date = August 2, 2013
| title = Pale Blue Dot
| image = pale_blue_dot.png
| titletext = Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. There is no road out of this oblivion; we must embrace it. We must join with the darkness. Ba'al the Annihilator offers us no happiness, no answers, naught but the cold embrace of the void. To imagine any other end is delusion. We must give in to the will of Ba'al, for he will one day consume us and our world alike. I therefore call on Congress to fully fund space exploration, and to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. Thank you.
}}
==Explanation==
The {{w|Pale Blue Dot}} is a picture of the Earth taken in 1990 by the {{w|Voyager 1}} spacecraft at a distance about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). It was part of the {{w|Family Portrait (Voyager)|Family Portrait}}, a series of images of the entire {{w|Solar System}} from beyond it.

The picture was taken at the request of {{w|Carl Sagan}}, a well known space scientist at that time. In 1994 Sagan wrote the book "{{w|Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space}}" inspired by this picture. In the book, Sagan waxed eloquent about the picture in a widely-quoted passage. The complete passage can be found in [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Pale_Blue_Dot:_A_Vision_of_the_Human_Future_in_Space_.281994.29 Wikiquote], and you can hear Carl Sagan himself reciting it in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g this YouTube video].

[[Cueball]] quotes from a condensed version of this passage until he is interrupted by an argument over ''which'' speck in the picture is actually the Earth. When Cueball cries out in exasperation that it doesn't matter, then the entire authenticity of the image is called into question. This pokes fun at the fact that the Pale Blue Dot picture has very little visual attractiveness, apart from the intellectual interest relying on the viewer's knowledge that the central speck is actually our home planet seen from a great distance.

The first two sentences of the title text are also a quotation from Sagan's paean to the Pale Blue Dot picture, but then the text veers humorously into non-scientific mysticism that starkly contrasts with the attitude and intent of the original work.

The title text evokes {{w|Cosmicism}}, a philosophy developed and exemplified by the fictional {{w|Cthulhu Mythos}}. This Mythos is expounded in fantasy/horror works of H.P. Lovecraft and, later, August Derleth, and features a cosmology in which humanity is depicted as inconsequential within a greater existence that is unknowable and frightening. Cosmicism asserts that humanity is doomed to destruction through the workings of vastly more powerful supernatural forces beyond our understanding. There are many instances in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft of factions that embrace the destruction of humanity and actively work towards bringing about that end through the invocation of the unknowable and powerful forces that supporters of Cosmicism believe surround everything.

The text also references {{w|Ba'al}}, originally a Semitic deity that has been since associated with demonic or otherwise evil forces. The name Ba'al, and other variants of the same, has been included in many other fictional works often as a villain or antagonist. For example, the fictional System Lord {{w|Ba'al (Stargate)#Ba.27al|Ba'al}} from the television show {{w|Stargate}}. The title text supplants all of the supernatural forces associated with Cosmicism in the works of other authors with Ba'al. The speaker in the title text is acting as a Cosmicist and is calling on the United States Congress to which he is speaking to fund the space exploration program as a means to join with Ba'al, the Eater of souls. The fact that a Ba'al cultist would be speaking in front of Congress in such a manner is absurd and thus hilarious.

Ba'al, the Eater of Souls is referred to [[:Category:Ba'al|in later comics]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands on a podium, the Pale Blue Dot picture is behind him.]
:Cueball: Consider this Pale Blue Dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. Everyone you love, every human being who ever was, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived out their lives on this mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. All our-
:[Heckling]: I think that's a stuck pixel. We're the speck on the left.
:Cueball: ...Ok, '''''this''''' Pale Blue Dot is everything you-
:[Heckling]: No, you were right before. ''That'' one is earth.
:Cueball: '''''Look, it doesn't matter!'''''
:[Heckling]: I ''knew'' it!
:[Heckling]: I think this is just a lens cap picture.

==Trivia==
*At the time when this comic was published NASA did reveal two other pictures, showing our home planet from a long distance, [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130722.html Saturn] and [http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=1228 Mercury] probes did picture the Earth at the same time. Earth appears as a tiny dot in these images as well as a result of the vast distance between Earth and the probes.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Ba'al]]

1246: Pale Blue Dot

2016-02-04T00:38:19Z

Legofan613: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1246
| date = August 2, 2013
| title = Pale Blue Dot
| image = pale_blue_dot.png
| titletext = Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. There is no road out of this oblivion; we must embrace it. We must join with the darkness. Ba'al the Annihilator offers us no happiness, no answers, naught but the cold embrace of the void. To imagine any other end is delusion. We must give in to the will of Ba'al, for he will one day consume us and our world alike. I therefore call on Congress to fully fund space exploration, and to join with Ba'al, the Eater of Souls. Thank you.
}}
==Explanation==
The {{w|Pale Blue Dot}} is a picture of the Earth taken in 1990 by the {{w|Voyager 1}} spacecraft at a distance about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). It was part of the {{w|Family Portrait (Voyager)|Family Portrait}}, a series of images of the entire {{w|Solar System}} from beyond it.

The picture was taken at the request of {{w|Carl Sagan}}, a well known space scientist at that time. In 1994 Sagan wrote the book "{{w|Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space}}" inspired by this picture. In the book, Sagan waxed eloquent about the picture in a widely-quoted passage. The complete passage can be found in [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Pale_Blue_Dot:_A_Vision_of_the_Human_Future_in_Space_.281994.29 Wikiquote], and you can hear Carl Sagan himself reciting it in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g this YouTube video].

[[Cueball]] quotes from a condensed version of this passage until he is interrupted by an argument over ''which'' speck in the picture is actually the Earth. When Cueball cries out in exasperation that it doesn't matter, then the entire authenticity of the image is called into question. This pokes fun at the fact that the Pale Blue Dot picture has very little visual attractiveness, apart from the intellectual interest relying on the viewer's knowledge that the central speck is actually our home planet seen from a great distance.

The first two sentences of the title text are also a quotation from Sagan's paean to the Pale Blue Dot picture, but then the text veers humorously into non-scientific mysticism that starkly contrasts with the attitude and intent of the original work.

The title text evokes {{w|Cosmicism}}, a philosophy developed and exemplified by the fictional {{w|Cthulhu Mythos}}. This Mythos is expounded in fantasy/horror works of H.P. Lovecraft and, later, August Derleth, and features a cosmology in which humanity is depicted as inconsequential within a greater existence that is unknowable and frightening. Cosmicism asserts that humanity is doomed to destruction through the workings of vastly more powerful supernatural forces beyond our understanding. There are many instances in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft of factions that embrace the destruction of humanity and actively work towards bringing about that end through the invocation of the unknowable and powerful forces that supporters of Cosmicism believe surround everything.

The text also references {{w|Ba'al}}, originally a Semitic deity that has been since associated with demonic or otherwise evil forces. The name Ba'al, and other variants of the same, has been included in many other fictional works often as a villain or antagonist. For example, the fictional System Lord {{w|Ba'al (Stargate)#Ba.27al|Ba'al}} from the television show {{w|Stargate}}. The title text supplants all of the supernatural forces associated with Cosmicism in the works of other authors with Ba'al. The speaker in the title text is acting as a Cosmicist and is calling on the United States Congress to which he is speaking to fund the space exploration program as a means to join with Ba'al, the Eater of souls. The fact that a Ba'al cultist would be speaking in front of Congress in such a manner is absurd and thus hilarious.

Ba'al, the Eater of Souls is referred to [[Category:Ba'al|in later comics]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands on a podium, the Pale Blue Dot picture is behind him.]
:Cueball: Consider this Pale Blue Dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. Everyone you love, every human being who ever was, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived out their lives on this mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. All our-
:[Heckling]: I think that's a stuck pixel. We're the speck on the left.
:Cueball: ...Ok, '''''this''''' Pale Blue Dot is everything you-
:[Heckling]: No, you were right before. ''That'' one is earth.
:Cueball: '''''Look, it doesn't matter!'''''
:[Heckling]: I ''knew'' it!
:[Heckling]: I think this is just a lens cap picture.

==Trivia==
*At the time when this comic was published NASA did reveal two other pictures, showing our home planet from a long distance, [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130722.html Saturn] and [http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=1228 Mercury] probes did picture the Earth at the same time. Earth appears as a tiny dot in these images as well as a result of the vast distance between Earth and the probes.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Ba'al]]

1246: Pale Blue Dot

2016-02-04T00:37:55Z

Legofan613: Now that it's seemingly become a repetitive theme, thought I'd create a Ba'al category for 1246, 1419, and 1638.

Talk:1616: Lunch

2015-12-14T14:59:04Z

Legofan613: Just being a friendly reader and helping out with the language gap. :)

... I don't think pizza is that bad. Those are sort of things people could really eat ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:36, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

That's not that gross, IMO. Tomato sauce is pretty much thought of as thick tomato juice. White bread. Salt. Normal things. And this seems to be assuming I wouldn't want to eat a brick of cheese. I do this regularly-ish with brie. [[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 13:51, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm not American, so what does he mean by cheese and grease soaked vegetables?
:The cheese is a common ingredient in the pizza seen in the comic, which might be a plain cheese pizza. As for the veggies, this might be a reference to french fries, which is essentially potatoes cooked in a deep fryer which is filled with oil (though I can't be sure with the English definition correlation between grease and oil).
:On this side of the lake pizza's made with dough (white bread), tomato sauce, cheese, and apparently salt the way Randall makes it. Some people put veggies on their pizza, which later get greasy and oily thanks to the cheese; nothing to do with french fries, though I'm told fries on pizza is actually pretty good Though I suppose you'd call them chips over there.

1616: Lunch

2015-12-14T14:56:11Z

Legofan613: Not exactly sure what's incomplete about this one...

{{comic
| number = 1616
| date = December 14, 2015
| title = Lunch
| image = lunch.png
| titletext = I'm trying to be healthier, so after I eat this brick of cheese, I'll have a spoonful of grease-soaked vegetables.
}}

==Explanation==

The explanation is in the comic itself: Pizza seems way grosser if you imagine eating just the ingredients. The title text refers to eating the individual ingredients of a vegetable pizza, which is perceived as a healthier choice due to the presence of vegetables, despite the high fat content of the cheese and oil that are also included on the pizza.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a Cueball-like guy are behind a table. Visible on the table are a bread, a glass, a box with “cheese” and a small heap]
:Friend: What're you having for lunch?
:Cueball: The usual - half a pound of cheese, white bread, a glass of tomato sauce, and some salt.
:Friend: Eww.

:[Caption below the panel]
:Pizza seems way grosser if you imagine eating just the ingredients.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1556: The Sky

2015-10-30T13:55:46Z

Legofan613: Cleaned up and expanded the explanation

{{comic
| number = 1556
| date = July 27, 2015
| title = The Sky
| image = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Cueball]] says that he likes the sky. The comic then shows a huge image of the sky with an enormous cloud formation, and [[Megan]] calls the sky one of her favorite halves.

However, when you look up at the sky at sunset you can see reddish clouds and stars like in the upper right corner. This is well known in xkcd that [[Randall]] really loves astronomy and looking at the sky. So seen from this perspective, there would still be plenty of sky even if we removed the Earth completely. However, there would not longer be any clouds or nice colors.

The title text also indicates that although the other half is a favorite, below the surface you will see shipwrecks and (sea-)snakes. The rest is just rocks, and if you move these things away you see the sky at the top of the oceans surface. The title text is also a subversion: given that the image depicts half open sky and half clouds, the "other half" could be taken to mean the clouds. Once stated that it contains shipwrecks and snakes, it is clear it is not the clouds she's referring to. Given xkcd's romantic theme throughout many strips, it's possible that the title text is precluding the mushy implication of the "other half" being Cueball, the way many would call their loved ones their "better half."

The comic may also be a reference to the Half The Sky Movement, or to Mao Zedong's statement that "Women hold up half the sky". Under this interpretation, Cueball's comment about the sky is taken ambiguously by Megan who answers "It's one of my favorite halves". Megan may be referring to the movement, the book or the film of the same name, or the quotation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing looking upward with in a small frame a light blue background.]
:Cueball: I like the sky.
:Megan: Yeah.

:[Zooms out to show a blue evening sky, the sun must be setting to the left and a streak of yellow and orange clouds goes from top left to bottom right. The sky/clouds get darker further to the right and several stars are visible behind the clouds on the indigo blue sky in the top right corner. There are also some gray clouds low over the horizon. Cueball and Megan standing to the far left Below them and the sky from the horizon and down there is a thick a black slab taking up about a sixth of the frame height.]
:Megan: It's one of my favorite halves.

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

1576: I Could Care Less

2015-10-30T13:49:23Z

Legofan613: Again, the issue addressed by the "incomplete" template appears to be fixed, so the template was removed.

{{comic
| number = 1576
| date = September 11, 2015
| title = I Could Care Less
| image = i_could_care_less.png
| titletext = I literally could care less.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less" and its idiomatic meaning in American English as an expression of indifference, [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/care synonymous with "I could'''n't''' care less."] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUsPnKD1gk&t=14s Many] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw&t=1m2s people] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&t=1m7s argue] that this use is incorrect and the phrase should only be "I couldn't care less," which is the original form of the expression and remains the [http://blog.dictionary.com/could-care-less/ standard form in British English]. This is the opinion expressed, for example, by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes": <blockquote>Like I could care less 
That means you do care 
At least a little</blockquote>
However, linguists point out that the strict application of logic to an idiom is inappropriate: many expressions seem on the surface to mean the opposite of the meaning they are used to convey (e.g. "head over heels"), and they [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/03/18/why_i_could_care_less_is_not_as_irrational_or_ungrammatical_as_you_might.html defend "I could care less" on those grounds]. The psychologist Steven Pinker argues in ''The Language Instinct'' that the phrase is sarcastic (cf. "Big deal!"), [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/giveadamn.html while linguist John Lawler explains] it as a "Negative Polarity Item," a phrase that is practically only used in negated form, allowing the explicit negation to be omitted (a pattern often found in French).

In this comic, Megan feels alone because there is unavoidable difference between her understanding of her own words and the listener's interpretation, so while she sees discussion of semantics as being of potentially high social and emotional value, she doesn't think it has objective value. However, ironically, at the end of the comic, the meaning of "I could care less" with regards to Ponytail's behavior is ambiguous: either Megan is brushing off Ponytail's pedantry because she doesn't care about it (she couldn't care less) or she is hurt by Ponytail's focus on the details of her words rather than the emotional cues she should have learned over the course of their relationship (she actually could care less).

The title text refers to another word often used in ways some consider incorrect: "literally" (see [[725: Literally]]). The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that 'literally' or 'figuratively,' the speaker could or couldn't care less. Further, it implies that Munroe considers the argument over whether literally may be properly used to mean 'figuratively' is petty in the same way.

Alternatively, it could mean that Megan cares too much about Ponytail's correction, considering her response to it.

In a further alternative, the title text could amount to a self-ironical evaluation on Munroe’s part to the effect that he himself might be devoting too much of his time and energy to the meaning of the phrase in question, as evidenced by the comic itself.

The inverse image of Megan floating through space in the fourth panel, as well as her long introspection, is a reference to the five-part "Choices" series, starting at [[264: Choices: Part 1]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Ponytail are walking together.]

:Megan: ...Anyway, I could care less.

:Ponytail: I think you mean you couldn't care less. Saying you could care less implies you care at least some amount.

:Megan: I dunno.

:Megan: We're these unbelievably complicated brains drifting through a void, trying in vain to connect with one another by blindly flinging words out into the darkness.

:Megan: Every choice of phrasing and spelling and tone and timing carries countless signals and contexts and subtexts and more, and every listener interprets those signals in their own way. Language isn't a formal system. Language is glorious chaos.

:Megan: You can never know for sure what any words will mean to anyone. All you can do is try to get better at guessing how your words affect people, so you can have a chance of finding the ones that will make them feel something like what you want them to feel. Everything else is pointless.

:Megan: I assume you're giving me tips on how you interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot.

:Megan: But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Logic]]

1595: 30 Days Hath September

2015-10-30T13:40:25Z

Legofan613: It looks like the issue addressed by the incomplete tag was addressed, so I deleted the template.

{{comic
| number = 1595
| date = October 26, 2015
| title = 30 Days Hath September
| image = 30_days_hath_september.png
| titletext = There's a cool mental calculation hack I recently learned for this: If you open the calendar app on your phone or computer, the highest-numbered box along the bottom is equal to the number of days in the month!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Thirty days hath September}} is a {{w|mnemonic}} frequently used to remember how many days each month has in the Gregorian calendar. [[Cueball]] is reciting the mnemonic trying to figure out how many days October has. This comic was released during the last week of October (the 26th) where it becomes increasingly important to know if there are 30 or 31 days in the month. However, he seems unable to concentrate on reciting the poem correctly, keeping track of which months the poem has named and keeping in mind the specific month he was interested in, so by the time he finishes the poem he is unsure whether October was in the list of 30-day months or not. So he starts over again with the same result every single time, as can be seen from the caption below the frame. It seems he also get stuck in all the other months disregarding if it is one of the month mentioned in the mnemonic.

There are numerous versions of the mnemonic, some of which rhyme better, but this version is one of the more common ones.

In the caption, [[Randall]] states that this happens to him every month. It's assumed that, after a number of iterations with the poem, he eventually remembers the months correctly and figures out the number of days in the current month, which he then remembers until the month changes and forces him to resort to the mnemonic again.

The title text is a parody of {{w|life hacking}}, and suggests just looking up on one's computer's calendar how many days there are in each month, with the punchline disguised by over-explaining the process of the "cool mental calculation hack" (even though there's nothing even remotely resembling a mental calculation in checking a calendar). The joke is that the mnemonic is supposed to be the real "cool mental calculation hack" which saves a lot of effort, but it is really just describing the mundane method of checking your calendar. This is similar to [[1567: Kitchen Tips]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is thinking.]
:Cueball: Thirty days hath September, April, June and November
:Cueball: All the rest have 31—except February, which has 28, and leap year makes it 29.
:Cueball: Wait, which month was I listening for? Oh right, October.
:Cueball: Did I say "October" in there? Now I can't remember.
:Cueball: 30 days hath September...

:I get stuck in this loop every month.

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