explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2375: Worst Ladder

2020-10-22T07:16:14Z

Luckykaa:

Their ladder is obviously placed somewhere where they all have to walk under it to get into the boardroom. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.247|162.158.158.247]] 00:59, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

I find it extremely pleasing that within 20 minutes the XKCD itself in on the front page of Google results [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 01:09, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Google searches gonna be skyrocketing for "Worst Ladder". --01:24, 22 October 2020‎ (UTC) 198.41.238.108 (Please sign your comments)
:Can definitely see when the comic was posted [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&q=worst%20ladder]. Maybe we should add a screenshot to the trivia section --[[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 07:16, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Can someone create a category for "business"-related comics? There are quite a few (some related to Beret Guy's businesses, but others just general). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.37|172.69.33.37]] 01:31, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Can someone confirm if this comic is related to Quibi's shutdown announcement? Because if it isn't, then it's one major coincidence. [[User:Aderon|Aderon]] ([[User talk:Aderon|talk]]) 01:50, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
:I'm not entirely sure of the parallels but I'd love them to be in the article--[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 02:07, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

I thought someone had added a practical screenshot of Google's "worst ladder" search, before realising it was one of the inline Google-powered ads, this one 'aptly' for a certain popular online auction site which illustrated various ladders apparently up for sale upon its platform.... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 01:55, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
:I tried doing it, but it says I'm not allowed--[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 02:07, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
:: I saw that link (yours?) too, and appreciated it. Now, being just an IP I'm fairly sure I'd not be allowed to upload media to the Explain wiki, but I know it's been possible for others. Like with created highlights of the XKCD Garden, IIRC. But maybe it isn't automatic to all usernames but time/authorisation-prompted, after a certain length of engagement. Maybe the answer lies in the Community Portal, or the question could be asked there if not. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.225|162.158.158.225]] 02:46, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

I've got a screenshot of "Worst Ladder" GIS results taken around 02:45 UTC. Would it be worth adding to the wiki, and is there a way to upload it here? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 02:49, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

I kept feeling like I was missing some more specific reference about what company could possibly find itself replaced by "worst ladder" searches. Like, it's so specific it doesn't feel like "welp, all media companies are SOL because everyone just likes ladders now", it feels like this company was somehow in a niche that was uniquely affected...but I can't imagine what that niche could be haha.[[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 03:31, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
:No, I think "worst ladder" is just a stand-in for any random (and absurd) internet hype. I mean, who would ever be interested in watching people randomly pouring buckets of ice water over their heads... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:56, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

2131: Emojidome

2019-04-01T16:44:01Z

Luckykaa: Explaining selection order.

{{comic
| number = 2131
| date = April 1, 2019
| title = Emojidome
| image = emojidome.png
| titletext = 🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼🤼
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 😇. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is an interactive April Fools' comic that began at 4:00 PM UTC on April 1, 2019 in which users are shown two emoji roughly every 38 seconds, and vote for their favorite. The competing candidates are periodically overlaid with heart emojis that up float from the vote button oscillating in a sinusoidal pattern before disappearing above the candidate, and may represent real-time votes for each emoji. Supposedly, the emoji will be eliminated one-by-one until there are a final two emoji facing off, with the one most voted-for being crowned the best emoji.

The competing candidates are chosen in order of unicode value at first, resulting in similar emojis being compared. Examples include:

😜 squaring off against 😛 - two emoji playfully sticking their tongues out

🤩 squaring off against 😍 - two smiling emojis with symbols for eyes

😂 squaring off with 🤣 - two emojis that are crying in laughter/joy.

The title text may appear to be nonsense. If so, your browser may not be parsing the title text correctly. It consists of the 🤼 emoji eight times over.

An announcer-emoji (🤖) and a link to the full bracket was added at 38 minutes in. https://www.xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket.png

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]

2122: Size Venn Diagram

2019-03-12T09:03:32Z

Luckykaa: /* List of items in the diagram */

{{comic
| number = 2122
| date = March 11, 2019
| title = Size Venn Diagram
| image = size_venn_diagram.png
| titletext = Terms I'm going to start using: The Large Dipper, great potatoes, the Big Hadron Collider, and Large Orphan Annie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Large Terror. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:Symmetrical_5-set_Venn_diagram.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|{{w|Branko Grünbaum}}'s multi-set Venn diagram strategy from 1975, less symmetric than Randall's.]]
This comic is a {{w|Venn diagram}} illustrating the complete set of possible intersections of five different size adjectives: "little", "large", "small", "great" and “big”. Each unique intersection contains a short list of nouns that can be preceded by each of its intersecting adjectives.

For example, "flying fox" (a type of bat) appears at the intersection of "large", "small", and "great", because the species {{w|large flying fox}}, {{w|small flying fox}}, and {{w|great flying fox}} all exist, but there is no such species as a "big flying fox" or a "little flying fox". Similarly, humans have organs named the {{w|small intestine}} and {{w|large intestine}}, but no "little intestine", "great intestine", or "big intestine".

Some descriptors are applied in combination to their noun, rather than individually; for example, "planet" is placed in both the "little" and "big" groups in reference to the 2008 video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''.

In the title text, Randall declares that he will start intentionally using term combinations that don't appear in the above diagram, presumably to confuse people.

A similar concept can be seen in [[181: Interblag]], but in a tabular form rather than a Venn diagram.

===List of items in the diagram===
The following table lists all size/noun combinations that the Venn diagram can generate, with a description of each.
{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Big !! Great !! Large !! Little !! Small
|-
|'''Aunt'''
|
| [[wiktionary:great-aunt|sister of one's grandparent]]
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bang Theory'''
|currently-accepted {{w|Big Bang|scientific theory}} that explains the origin of the universe; also a {{w|The Big Bang Theory|TV sitcom}}|| || || ||
|-
|'''Barrier Reef'''
|
|{{w|Great Barrier Reef|world's largest coral reef system}}, off the coast of Australia
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bear Lake'''
|a {{w|Big Bear Lake, California|lake and surrounding community in California}}, in the mountains
|a {{w|Great Bear Lake|lake in Canada}}, in the Northwest Territories -- the largest lake entirely in Canada, and the fourth-largest in North America
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bend'''
| {{w|Big Bend|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend National Park|US National Park}} in Texas
| {{w|Great Bend (disambiguation)|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend, Kansas|city in Kansas}} and the description of the S-shaped curving of the {{w|Nile River}} in Egypt and Sudan
|
|
|
|-
|'''Billed Seed Finch'''
|
|{{w|Great-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1851
|{{w|Large-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1789
|
|
|-
|'''Blue'''
|nickname for [https://www.ibm.com IBM] and the {{w|New York Giants}}, also [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250 a movie]
|
|{{w|large blue|various different butterflies}}
|
|{{w|small blue|butterfly}}, smallest found in the UK
|-
|'''Blue Heron'''
|
|{{w|Great Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures 91–137 cm (36–54 in) long
|
|{{w|Little Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures about 60 cm (24 in) long
|
|-
|'''Board'''
| nickname for the {{w|New York Stock Exchange}} || || || ||
|-
|'''Cardiac Vein'''
|
|{{w|Great cardiac vein|left coronary vein}}
|
|
|{{w|Small cardiac vein|heart vein on the right side}}
|-
|'''Circle'''
|
|{{w|Great circle|largest possible circle}} that can be drawn on a sphere; the {{w|equator}} is an example of one on the Earth
|
|{{w|Little_Circle|The Little Circle}}, a group of political reformists based in Manchester, UK in the early 1800s
|{{w|Circle_of_a_sphere|a circle that lies on a sphere}} without passing through its center (which would make it a great circle)
|-
|'''Claims Court'''
|
|
|
|
|{{w|Small claims court|judicial court}} that handles cases involving only relatively small amounts of money
|-
|'''enchilada'''
|[[wiktionary:big enchilada|important person]] || || || ||
|-
|'''Depression'''
|
|{{w|Great Depression|period of prolonged economic downturn}} that affected the world economy in the 1930's
|
|
|
|-
|'''Dipper'''
|{{w|Big Dipper|subset collection of stars}} in the constellation {{w|Ursa Major}}
|
|
|name for the constellation {{w|Ursa Minor}}
|
|-
|'''Emerald'''
|
|
|{{w|Large_emerald|Geometra papilionaria}}, a bright green moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Jodis_lactearia|Jodis lactearia}}, a light green or white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Hemistola_chrysoprasaria|Hemistola chrysoprasaria}}, a light green or yellow-white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|-
|'''End'''
|The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the crank shaft of a reciprocating engine.
| {{w|Great End|Mountain in England}}
|
|
|The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the gudgeon pin and hence the piston in a reciprocating engine.
|-
|'''Eyed Conger'''
|eel
|
|eel
|
|eel
|-
|'''Flying Fox'''
|
|{{w|Great flying fox}}
|{{w|Large flying fox}}
|
|{{w|Small flying fox}}
|-
|'''Foot'''
|The well known folk-lore monster ''{{w|Bigfoot}}''
|
|
|Main character in the ''{{w|Land Before Time}}'' film series
|''{{w|Smallfoot (film)|Smallfoot}}'' is an animated film that inverts the Bigfoot legend, focusing on a group of yetis that tell stories about humans.
|-
|'''Forest Bat'''
|
|
|bat
|bat
|
|-
|'''Format'''
|
|
|{{w|Large format|anything larger than 4x5 inches in photography}}
|
|
|-
|'''Foundation'''
|The BIG Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit charity
|?
|?
|
|-
|'''Frog'''
|Slang for "boyfriend" (bf)
|
|?
|?
|{{w|Small Frog|An Australian frog species}}
|-
|'''Game'''
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, usually referring to the African {{w|big five game}} (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, cape buffalo); can also refer to the NFL's {{w|Super Bowl}}
|{{w|Great Game|19th Century geopolitical competition}} between the British and Russian Empires over control of Afghanistan
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, such as bears or moose
|
|Small animals hunted for sport or food, such as rabbits or ducks
|-
|'''Hadron Collider'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Hadron Collider|particle accelerator}}
|
|
|-
|'''Hearted'''
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bighearted#English|kind, generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greathearted|generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/largehearted|generous, benevolent, noble}}
|
|
|-
|'''House on the Prairie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little House on the Prairie|novel}} (later made into a TV show)
|
|-
|'''Intestine'''
|
|
|gut
|
|gut
|-
|'''Island'''
|{{w|Big Island|largest island in Hawaii}}
|{{w|Great Island|in Cork Harbour, Ireland}}
|{{w|Large Island|island in the Antilles, owned by Grenada}}
|{{w|Little Island|several islands named such}}, plus a song in ''{{w|Randy Newman's Faust}}''
|{{w|Small Island (novel)|novel which was made into a movie}}
|-
|'''League'''
|Nickname for top-level competition
|One of the leagues in Pokemon Go
|
|{{w|Little League Baseball|Youth baseball organization}}
|
|-
|'''Lies'''
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a [[wiktionary:big lie|form of propaganda]]
|
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a {{w|Little Lies|Fleetwood Mac song}}
|
|
|-
|'''Magellanic Cloud'''
|
|
|galaxy
|
|galaxy
|-
|'''Millimeter Telescope'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Millimeter Telescope|radio telescope}}
|
|
|-
|'''One'''
|Nickname for any large natural disaster that is expected to happen in the future, such as a tsunami or an earthquake in California
|Nickname for {{w|Wayne Gretzky}}, considered by many to be the greatest ice hockey player of all time, also comedian {{w|Jackie Gleason}} and many other people ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_One Wikipedia disambiguation page]).
|
|affectionate term for a small person
|{{w|The Small One|A Disney animated short directed by Don Bluth}}
|-
|'''Orphan Annie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Orphan Annie|comic strip}}
|
|-
|'''Planet'''
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|-
|'''Potatoes'''
|
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small potatoes|something relatively unimportant]]
|-
|'''Pox'''
|
|an old name for {{w|syphilis}}
|
|
|{{w|smallpox|a deadly disease}} which was effectively eradicated by 1977
|-
|'''Professor'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Professor|rap artist}}
|{{w|Little Professor|educational math toy}} (also "Little Professor Syndrome", an informal name for autism)
|
|-
|'''Richard'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Richard|musician}}
|
|-
|'''Room'''
|
|{{w|Great room|a McMansion's signature space}}
|
|{{w|White_Blood_Cells_(album)#Track_listing|Track 6}} on "White Blood Cells," the third album by {{w|The_White_Stripes|The White Stripes}}
|?
|-
|'''Screen'''
|another name for movies
|
|
|
|another name for TV
|-
|'''Sister'''
|[[wiktionary:big sister|older female sibling]]
|
|
|[[wiktionary:little sister|younger female sibling]]
|
|-
|'''Soldiers'''
|
|
|
|?
|{{w|Small Soldiers|1998 movie}} about sentient animated toys at war
|-
|'''Sur'''
|{{w|Big Sur|coastal region of California}} famed for its mountain scenery
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Terror'''
|
|{{w|Great Terror|One of two periods of violent political repression}}; one during {{w|Reign of Terror|the French Revolution}} between 1793 and 1794, the other in {{w|Great Purge|the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin}} between 1936 and 1938
|
|
|
|-
|'''Time'''
|major
|
|
|
|minor
|-
|'''Toothed Aspen'''
|tree (bigtooth)
|
|tree
|
|
|-
|'''Wall of China'''
|
|{{w|Great Wall of China|Series of fortifications}} over 13,000 miles long that served to protect various Chinese empires from raids and invasion from their north
|
|
|
|-
|'''White'''
|{{w|Big White Ski Resort|ski resort in British Columbia}}
|{{w|Great white shark|species of shark}} or a {{w|Great White|rock band}}
|{{w|Pieris brassicae|a butterfly}} or {{w|Large White pig|a common breed of pig}}
|
|{{w|Dixeia|multiple species}} of {{w|Pieris rapae|butterflies}} are known as small whites
|-
|'''Wonder'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Wonder|"Little Wonder" is a song and single by David Bowie, from the 1997 album Earthling.}}
|{{w|Small Wonder (TV series)|American sitcom}}
|-
|'''World'''
|?
|?
|
|?
|Ride at Disneyland
|}

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


:Big: Bang Theory, Enchilada, Board, Sur
:Little: Orphan Annie, House on the Prairie, Richard
:Large: format, Millimeter Telescope, Hadron Collider
:Small: claims court, potatoes
:Great: Barrier Reef, Wall of China, Depression, Terror, aunt

:Big/Great: Bend, Bear Lake
:Big/Small: time, screen
:Big/Little: Dipper, Planet, lies, sister
:Little/Great: Blue Heron
:Little/Large: Professor, Forest Bat
:Big/Large: Toothed Aspen
:Large/Small: intestine, Magellanic Cloud
:Little/Small: wonder, soldiers
:Small/Great: pox, cardiac vein
:Large/Great: Billed Seed Finch

:Big/Large/Great: hearted
:Big/Small/Great: end
:Big/Little/Small: foot
:Big/Little/Great: league
:Little/Large/Great: (none)
:Big/Little/Large: foundation
:Big/Large/Small: Eyed Conger, Blue
:Little/Large/Small: emerald
:Little/Small/Great: circle, room
:Large/Small/Great: flying fox

:Big/Large/Small/Great: game, white
:Big/Little/Small/Great : world, one
:Big/Little/Large/Great : (none)
:Big/Little/Large/Small : frog
:Little/Large/Small/Great : (none)

:Big/Little/Large/Small/Great: Island

{{comic discussion}}

2122: Size Venn Diagram

2019-03-12T08:29:00Z

Luckykaa: /* List of items in the diagram */

{{comic
| number = 2122
| date = March 11, 2019
| title = Size Venn Diagram
| image = size_venn_diagram.png
| titletext = Terms I'm going to start using: The Large Dipper, great potatoes, the Big Hadron Collider, and Large Orphan Annie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Large Terror. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:Symmetrical_5-set_Venn_diagram.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|{{w|Branko Grünbaum}}'s multi-set Venn diagram strategy from 1975, less symmetric than Randall's.]]
This comic is a {{w|Venn diagram}} illustrating the complete set of possible intersections of five different size adjectives: "little", "large", "small", "great" and “big”. Each unique intersection contains a short list of nouns that can be preceded by each of its intersecting adjectives.

For example, "flying fox" (a type of bat) appears at the intersection of "large", "small", and "great", because the species {{w|large flying fox}}, {{w|small flying fox}}, and {{w|great flying fox}} all exist, but there is no such species as a "big flying fox" or a "little flying fox". Similarly, humans have organs named the {{w|small intestine}} and {{w|large intestine}}, but no "little intestine", "great intestine", or "big intestine".

Some descriptors are applied in combination to their noun, rather than individually; for example, "planet" is placed in both the "little" and "big" groups in reference to the 2008 video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''.

In the title text, Randall declares that he will start intentionally using term combinations that don't appear in the above diagram, presumably to confuse people.

A similar concept can be seen in [[181: Interblag]], but in a tabular form rather than a Venn diagram.

===List of items in the diagram===
The following table lists all size/noun combinations that the Venn diagram can generate, with a description of each.
{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Big !! Great !! Large !! Little !! Small
|-
|'''Aunt'''
|
| [[wiktionary:great-aunt|sister of one's grandparent]]
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bang Theory'''
|currently-accepted {{w|Big Bang|scientific theory}} that explains the origin of the universe; also a {{w|The Big Bang Theory|TV sitcom}}|| || || ||
|-
|'''Barrier Reef'''
|
|{{w|Great Barrier Reef|world's largest coral reef system}}, off the coast of Australia
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bear Lake'''
|a {{w|Big Bear Lake, California|lake and surrounding community in California}}, in the mountains
|a {{w|Great Bear Lake|lake in Canada}}, in the Northwest Territories -- the largest lake entirely in Canada, and the fourth-largest in North America
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bend'''
| {{w|Big Bend|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend National Park|US National Park}} in Texas
| {{w|Great Bend (disambiguation)|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend, Kansas|city in Kansas}} and the description of the S-shaped curving of the {{w|Nile River}} in Egypt and Sudan
|
|
|
|-
|'''Billed Seed Finch'''
|
|{{w|Great-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1851
|{{w|Large-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1789
|
|
|-
|'''Blue'''
|nickname for [https://www.ibm.com IBM] and the {{w|New York Giants}}, also [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250 a movie]
|
|{{w|large blue|various different butterflies}}
|
|{{w|small blue|butterfly}}, smallest found in the UK
|-
|'''Blue Heron'''
|
|{{w|Great Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures 91–137 cm (36–54 in) long
|
|{{w|Little Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures about 60 cm (24 in) long
|
|-
|'''Board'''
| nickname for the {{w|New York Stock Exchange}} || || || ||
|-
|'''Cardiac Vein'''
|
|{{w|Great cardiac vein|left coronary vein}}
|
|
|{{w|Small cardiac vein|heart vein on the right side}}
|-
|'''Circle'''
|
|{{w|Great circle|largest possible circle}} that can be drawn on a sphere; the {{w|equator}} is an example of one on the Earth
|
|{{w|Little_Circle|The Little Circle}}, a group of political reformists based in Manchester, UK in the early 1800s
|{{w|Circle_of_a_sphere|a circle that lies on a sphere}} without passing through its center (which would make it a great circle)
|-
|'''Claims Court'''
|
|
|
|
|{{w|Small claims court|judicial court}} that handles cases involving only relatively small amounts of money
|-
|'''enchilada'''
|[[wiktionary:big enchilada|important person]] || || || ||
|-
|'''Depression'''
|
|{{w|Great Depression|period of prolonged economic downturn}} that affected the world economy in the 1930's
|
|
|
|-
|'''Dipper'''
|{{w|Big Dipper|subset collection of stars}} in the constellation {{w|Ursa Major}}
|
|
|name for the constellation {{w|Ursa Minor}}
|
|-
|'''Emerald'''
|
|
|{{w|Large_emerald|Geometra papilionaria}}, a bright green moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Jodis_lactearia|Jodis lactearia}}, a light green or white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Hemistola_chrysoprasaria|Hemistola chrysoprasaria}}, a light green or yellow-white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|-
|'''End'''
|The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the crank shaft of a reciprocating engine.
| {{w|Great End|Mountain in England}}
|
|
|The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the gudgeon pin and hence the piston in a reciprocating engine.
|-
|'''Eyed Conger'''
|eel
|
|eel
|
|eel
|-
|'''Flying Fox'''
|
|{{w|Great flying fox}}
|{{w|Large flying fox}}
|
|{{w|Small flying fox}}
|-
|'''Foot'''
|The well known folk-lore monster ''{{w|Bigfoot}}''
|
|
|Main character in the ''{{w|Land Before Time}}'' film series
|''{{w|Smallfoot (film)|Smallfoot}}'' is an animated film that inverts the Bigfoot legend, focusing on a group of yetis that tell stories about humans.
|-
|'''Forest Bat'''
|
|
|bat
|bat
|
|-
|'''Format'''
|
|
|{{w|Large format|anything larger than 4x5 inches in photography}}
|
|
|-
|'''Foundation'''
|The BIG Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit charity
|?
|?
|
|-
|'''Frog'''
|Slang for "boyfriend" (bf)
|
|?
|?
|{{w|Small Frog|An Australian frog species}}
|-
|'''Game'''
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, usually referring to the African {{w|big five game}} (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, cape buffalo); can also refer to the NFL's {{w|Super Bowl}}
|{{w|Great Game|19th Century geopolitical competition}} between the British and Russian Empires over control of Afghanistan
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, such as bears or moose
|
|Small animals hunted for sport or food, such as rabbits or ducks
|-
|'''Hadron Collider'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Hadron Collider|particle accelerator}}
|
|
|-
|'''Hearted'''
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bighearted#English|kind, generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greathearted|generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/largehearted|generous, benevolent, noble}}
|
|
|-
|'''House on the Prairie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little House on the Prairie|novel}} (later made into a TV show)
|
|-
|'''Intestine'''
|
|
|gut
|
|gut
|-
|'''Island'''
|{{w|Big Island|largest island in Hawaii}}
|{{w|Great Island|in Cork Harbour, Ireland}}
|{{w|Large Island|island in the Antilles, owned by Grenada}}
|{{w|Little Island|several islands named such}}, plus a song in ''{{w|Randy Newman's Faust}}''
|{{w|Small Island (novel)|novel which was made into a movie}}
|-
|'''League'''
|Nickname for top-level competition
|One of the leagues in Pokemon Go
|
|{{w|Little League Baseball|Youth baseball organization}}
|
|-
|'''Lies'''
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a [[wiktionary:big lie|form of propaganda]]
|
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a {{w|Little Lies|Fleetwood Mac song}}
|
|
|-
|'''Magellanic Cloud'''
|
|
|galaxy
|
|galaxy
|-
|'''Millimeter Telescope'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Millimeter Telescope|radio telescope}}
|
|
|-
|'''One'''
|Nickname for any large natural disaster that is expected to happen in the future, such as a tsunami or an earthquake in California
|Nickname for {{w|Wayne Gretzky}}, considered by many to be the greatest ice hockey player of all time, also comedian {{w|Jackie Gleason}} and many other people ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_One Wikipedia disambiguation page]).
|
|affectionate term for a small person
|?
|-
|'''Orphan Annie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Orphan Annie|comic strip}}
|
|-
|'''Planet'''
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|-
|'''Potatoes'''
|
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small potatoes|something relatively unimportant]]
|-
|'''Pox'''
|
|an old name for {{w|syphilis}}
|
|
|{{w|smallpox|a deadly disease}} which was effectively eradicated by 1977
|-
|'''Professor'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Professor|rap artist}}
|{{w|Little Professor|educational math toy}} (also "Little Professor Syndrome", an informal name for autism)
|
|-
|'''Richard'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Richard|musician}}
|
|-
|'''Room'''
|
|{{w|Great room|a McMansion's signature space}}
|
|{{w|White_Blood_Cells_(album)#Track_listing|Track 6}} on "White Blood Cells," the third album by {{w|The_White_Stripes|The White Stripes}}
|?
|-
|'''Screen'''
|another name for movies
|
|
|
|another name for TV
|-
|'''Sister'''
|[[wiktionary:big sister|older female sibling]]
|
|
|[[wiktionary:little sister|younger female sibling]]
|
|-
|'''Soldiers'''
|
|
|
|?
|{{w|Small Soldiers|1998 movie}} about sentient animated toys at war
|-
|'''Sur'''
|{{w|Big Sur|coastal region of California}} famed for its mountain scenery
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Terror'''
|
|{{w|Great Terror|One of two periods of violent political repression}}; one during {{w|Reign of Terror|the French Revolution}} between 1793 and 1794, the other in {{w|Great Purge|the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin}} between 1936 and 1938
|
|
|
|-
|'''Time'''
|major
|
|
|
|minor
|-
|'''Toothed Aspen'''
|tree (bigtooth)
|
|tree
|
|
|-
|'''Wall of China'''
|
|{{w|Great Wall of China|Series of fortifications}} over 13,000 miles long that served to protect various Chinese empires from raids and invasion from their north
|
|
|
|-
|'''White'''
|{{w|Big White Ski Resort|ski resort in British Columbia}}
|{{w|Great white shark|species of shark}} or a {{w|Great White|rock band}}
|{{w|Pieris brassicae|a butterfly}} or {{w|Large White pig|a common breed of pig}}
|
|{{w|Dixeia|multiple species}} of {{w|Pieris rapae|butterflies}} are known as small whites
|-
|'''Wonder'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Wonder|"Little Wonder" is a song and single by David Bowie, from the 1997 album Earthling.}}
|{{w|Small Wonder (TV series)|American sitcom}}
|-
|'''World'''
|?
|?
|
|?
|Ride at Disneyland
|}

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


:Big: Bang Theory, Enchilada, Board, Sur
:Little: Orphan Annie, House on the Prairie, Richard
:Large: format, Millimeter Telescope, Hadron Collider
:Small: claims court, potatoes
:Great: Barrier Reef, Wall of China, Depression, Terror, aunt

:Big/Great: Bend, Bear Lake
:Big/Small: time, screen
:Big/Little: Dipper, Planet, lies, sister
:Little/Great: Blue Heron
:Little/Large: Professor, Forest Bat
:Big/Large: Toothed Aspen
:Large/Small: intestine, Magellanic Cloud
:Little/Small: wonder, soldiers
:Small/Great: pox, cardiac vein
:Large/Great: Billed Seed Finch

:Big/Large/Great: hearted
:Big/Small/Great: end
:Big/Little/Small: foot
:Big/Little/Great: league
:Little/Large/Great: (none)
:Big/Little/Large: foundation
:Big/Large/Small: Eyed Conger, Blue
:Little/Large/Small: emerald
:Little/Small/Great: circle, room
:Large/Small/Great: flying fox

:Big/Large/Small/Great: game, white
:Big/Little/Small/Great : world, one
:Big/Little/Large/Great : (none)
:Big/Little/Large/Small : frog
:Little/Large/Small/Great : (none)

:Big/Little/Large/Small/Great: Island

{{comic discussion}}

2122: Size Venn Diagram

2019-03-12T08:25:29Z

Luckykaa: /* List of items in the diagram */

{{comic
| number = 2122
| date = March 11, 2019
| title = Size Venn Diagram
| image = size_venn_diagram.png
| titletext = Terms I'm going to start using: The Large Dipper, great potatoes, the Big Hadron Collider, and Large Orphan Annie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Large Terror. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:Symmetrical_5-set_Venn_diagram.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|{{w|Branko Grünbaum}}'s multi-set Venn diagram strategy from 1975, less symmetric than Randall's.]]
This comic is a {{w|Venn diagram}} illustrating the complete set of possible intersections of five different size adjectives: "little", "large", "small", "great" and “big”. Each unique intersection contains a short list of nouns that can be preceded by each of its intersecting adjectives.

For example, "flying fox" (a type of bat) appears at the intersection of "large", "small", and "great", because the species {{w|large flying fox}}, {{w|small flying fox}}, and {{w|great flying fox}} all exist, but there is no such species as a "big flying fox" or a "little flying fox". Similarly, humans have organs named the {{w|small intestine}} and {{w|large intestine}}, but no "little intestine", "great intestine", or "big intestine".

Some descriptors are applied in combination to their noun, rather than individually; for example, "planet" is placed in both the "little" and "big" groups in reference to the 2008 video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''.

In the title text, Randall declares that he will start intentionally using term combinations that don't appear in the above diagram, presumably to confuse people.

A similar concept can be seen in [[181: Interblag]], but in a tabular form rather than a Venn diagram.

===List of items in the diagram===
The following table lists all size/noun combinations that the Venn diagram can generate, with a description of each.
{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Big !! Great !! Large !! Little !! Small
|-
|'''Aunt'''
|
| [[wiktionary:great-aunt|sister of one's grandparent]]
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bang Theory'''
|currently-accepted {{w|Big Bang|scientific theory}} that explains the origin of the universe; also a {{w|The Big Bang Theory|TV sitcom}}|| || || ||
|-
|'''Barrier Reef'''
|
|{{w|Great Barrier Reef|world's largest coral reef system}}, off the coast of Australia
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bear Lake'''
|a {{w|Big Bear Lake, California|lake and surrounding community in California}}, in the mountains
|a {{w|Great Bear Lake|lake in Canada}}, in the Northwest Territories -- the largest lake entirely in Canada, and the fourth-largest in North America
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bend'''
| {{w|Big Bend|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend National Park|US National Park}} in Texas
| {{w|Great Bend (disambiguation)|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend, Kansas|city in Kansas}} and the description of the S-shaped curving of the {{w|Nile River}} in Egypt and Sudan
|
|
|
|-
|'''Billed Seed Finch'''
|
|{{w|Great-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1851
|{{w|Large-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1789
|
|
|-
|'''Blue'''
|nickname for [https://www.ibm.com IBM] and the {{w|New York Giants}}, also [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250 a movie]
|
|{{w|large blue|various different butterflies}}
|
|{{w|small blue|butterfly}}, smallest found in the UK
|-
|'''Blue Heron'''
|
|{{w|Great Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures 91–137 cm (36–54 in) long
|
|{{w|Little Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures about 60 cm (24 in) long
|
|-
|'''Board'''
| nickname for the {{w|New York Stock Exchange}} || || || ||
|-
|'''Cardiac Vein'''
|
|{{w|Great cardiac vein|left coronary vein}}
|
|
|{{w|Small cardiac vein|heart vein on the right side}}
|-
|'''Circle'''
|
|{{w|Great circle|largest possible circle}} that can be drawn on a sphere; the {{w|equator}} is an example of one on the Earth
|
|{{w|Little_Circle|The Little Circle}}, a group of political reformists based in Manchester, UK in the early 1800s
|{{w|Circle_of_a_sphere|a circle that lies on a sphere}} without passing through its center (which would make it a great circle)
|-
|'''Claims Court'''
|
|
|
|
|{{w|Small claims court|judicial court}} that handles cases involving only relatively small amounts of money
|-
|'''enchilada'''
|[[wiktionary:big enchilada|important person]] || || || ||
|-
|'''Depression'''
|
|{{w|Great Depression|period of prolonged economic downturn}} that affected the world economy in the 1930's
|
|
|
|-
|'''Dipper'''
|{{w|Big Dipper|subset collection of stars}} in the constellation {{w|Ursa Major}}
|
|
|name for the constellation {{w|Ursa Minor}}
|
|-
|'''Emerald'''
|
|
|{{w|Large_emerald|Geometra papilionaria}}, a bright green moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Jodis_lactearia|Jodis lactearia}}, a light green or white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Hemistola_chrysoprasaria|Hemistola chrysoprasaria}}, a light green or yellow-white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|-
|'''End'''
|The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the crank shaft of a reciprocating engine.
| {{w|Great End|Mountain in England}}
|
|
|The bearing connecting a connecting rod to the gudgeon pin and hence the piston in a reciprocating engine.
|-
|'''Eyed Conger'''
|eel
|
|eel
|
|eel
|-
|'''Flying Fox'''
|
|{{w|Great flying fox}}
|{{w|Large flying fox}}
|
|{{w|Small flying fox}}
|-
|'''Foot'''
|The well known folk-lore monster ''{{w|Bigfoot}}''
|
|
|Main character in the ''{{w|Land Before Time}}'' film series
|''{{w|Smallfoot (film)|Smallfoot}}'' is an animated film that inverts the Bigfoot legend, focusing on a group of yetis that tell stories about humans.
|-
|'''Forest Bat'''
|
|
|bat
|bat
|
|-
|'''Format'''
|
|
|{{w|Large format|anything larger than 4x5 inches in photography}}
|
|
|-
|'''Foundation'''
|The BIG Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit charity
|?
|?
|
|-
|'''Frog'''
|Slang for "boyfriend" (bf)
|
|?
|?
|?
|-
|'''Game'''
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, usually referring to the African {{w|big five game}} (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, cape buffalo); can also refer to the NFL's {{w|Super Bowl}}
|{{w|Great Game|19th Century geopolitical competition}} between the British and Russian Empires over control of Afghanistan
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, such as bears or moose
|
|Small animals hunted for sport or food, such as rabbits or ducks
|-
|'''Hadron Collider'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Hadron Collider|particle accelerator}}
|
|
|-
|'''Hearted'''
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bighearted#English|kind, generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greathearted|generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/largehearted|generous, benevolent, noble}}
|
|
|-
|'''House on the Prairie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little House on the Prairie|novel}} (later made into a TV show)
|
|-
|'''Intestine'''
|
|
|gut
|
|gut
|-
|'''Island'''
|{{w|Big Island|largest island in Hawaii}}
|{{w|Great Island|in Cork Harbour, Ireland}}
|{{w|Large Island|island in the Antilles, owned by Grenada}}
|{{w|Little Island|several islands named such}}, plus a song in ''{{w|Randy Newman's Faust}}''
|{{w|Small Island (novel)|novel which was made into a movie}}
|-
|'''League'''
|Nickname for top-level competition
|One of the leagues in Pokemon Go
|
|{{w|Little League Baseball|Youth baseball organization}}
|
|-
|'''Lies'''
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a [[wiktionary:big lie|form of propaganda]]
|
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a {{w|Little Lies|Fleetwood Mac song}}
|
|
|-
|'''Magellanic Cloud'''
|
|
|galaxy
|
|galaxy
|-
|'''Millimeter Telescope'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Millimeter Telescope|radio telescope}}
|
|
|-
|'''One'''
|Nickname for any large natural disaster that is expected to happen in the future, such as a tsunami or an earthquake in California
|Nickname for {{w|Wayne Gretzky}}, considered by many to be the greatest ice hockey player of all time, also comedian {{w|Jackie Gleason}} and many other people ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_One Wikipedia disambiguation page]).
|
|affectionate term for a small person
|?
|-
|'''Orphan Annie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Orphan Annie|comic strip}}
|
|-
|'''Planet'''
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|-
|'''Potatoes'''
|
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small potatoes|something relatively unimportant]]
|-
|'''Pox'''
|
|an old name for {{w|syphilis}}
|
|
|{{w|smallpox|a deadly disease}} which was effectively eradicated by 1977
|-
|'''Professor'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Professor|rap artist}}
|{{w|Little Professor|educational math toy}} (also "Little Professor Syndrome", an informal name for autism)
|
|-
|'''Richard'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Richard|musician}}
|
|-
|'''Room'''
|
|{{w|Great room|a McMansion's signature space}}
|
|{{w|White_Blood_Cells_(album)#Track_listing|Track 6}} on "White Blood Cells," the third album by {{w|The_White_Stripes|The White Stripes}}
|?
|-
|'''Screen'''
|another name for movies
|
|
|
|another name for TV
|-
|'''Sister'''
|[[wiktionary:big sister|older female sibling]]
|
|
|[[wiktionary:little sister|younger female sibling]]
|
|-
|'''Soldiers'''
|
|
|
|?
|{{w|Small Soldiers|1998 movie}} about sentient animated toys at war
|-
|'''Sur'''
|{{w|Big Sur|coastal region of California}} famed for its mountain scenery
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Terror'''
|
|{{w|Great Terror|One of two periods of violent political repression}}; one during {{w|Reign of Terror|the French Revolution}} between 1793 and 1794, the other in {{w|Great Purge|the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin}} between 1936 and 1938
|
|
|
|-
|'''Time'''
|major
|
|
|
|minor
|-
|'''Toothed Aspen'''
|tree (bigtooth)
|
|tree
|
|
|-
|'''Wall of China'''
|
|{{w|Great Wall of China|Series of fortifications}} over 13,000 miles long that served to protect various Chinese empires from raids and invasion from their north
|
|
|
|-
|'''White'''
|{{w|Big White Ski Resort|ski resort in British Columbia}}
|{{w|Great white shark|species of shark}} or a {{w|Great White|rock band}}
|{{w|Pieris brassicae|a butterfly}} or {{w|Large White pig|a common breed of pig}}
|
|{{w|Dixeia|multiple species}} of {{w|Pieris rapae|butterflies}} are known as small whites
|-
|'''Wonder'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Wonder|"Little Wonder" is a song and single by David Bowie, from the 1997 album Earthling.}}
|{{w|Small Wonder (TV series)|American sitcom}}
|-
|'''World'''
|?
|?
|
|?
|Ride at Disneyland
|}

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


:Big: Bang Theory, Enchilada, Board, Sur
:Little: Orphan Annie, House on the Prairie, Richard
:Large: format, Millimeter Telescope, Hadron Collider
:Small: claims court, potatoes
:Great: Barrier Reef, Wall of China, Depression, Terror, aunt

:Big/Great: Bend, Bear Lake
:Big/Small: time, screen
:Big/Little: Dipper, Planet, lies, sister
:Little/Great: Blue Heron
:Little/Large: Professor, Forest Bat
:Big/Large: Toothed Aspen
:Large/Small: intestine, Magellanic Cloud
:Little/Small: wonder, soldiers
:Small/Great: pox, cardiac vein
:Large/Great: Billed Seed Finch

:Big/Large/Great: hearted
:Big/Small/Great: end
:Big/Little/Small: foot
:Big/Little/Great: league
:Little/Large/Great: (none)
:Big/Little/Large: foundation
:Big/Large/Small: Eyed Conger, Blue
:Little/Large/Small: emerald
:Little/Small/Great: circle, room
:Large/Small/Great: flying fox

:Big/Large/Small/Great: game, white
:Big/Little/Small/Great : world, one
:Big/Little/Large/Great : (none)
:Big/Little/Large/Small : frog
:Little/Large/Small/Great : (none)

:Big/Little/Large/Small/Great: Island

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2017: Stargazing 2

2018-07-10T07:50:17Z

Luckykaa:

In the description for the earlier comic, it is quite emphatically asserted that this is not Megan (although it certainly is drawn like her) but is, instead, a male TV host. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.28|172.68.174.28]] 20:21, 9 July 2018 (UTC)MrBigDog2u
:Thanks, but I believe the transcript of the former comic was interpreted false. People are often outlined as male when they are in fact women. AND in this comic it's clearly a female without any doubt. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:Actually if you go to /1646/info.0.json , you'll find the presenter referred to as he twice. Unless you're saying Megan uses he, it seems unlikely to be a female. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For what it's worth, I assumed it was a female until I read the explanation for 1644. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.37|162.158.107.37]] 22:57, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
::Two questions about that:
::1.) I don't see any use of the word "he" in that transcript. Where do you see that?
::2.) Why 1646? Isn't that one with Cueball writing a Twitter bot?
::Looking at xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json, xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json, & xkcd.com/2017/info.0.json, I can't find a reference to gender in ''any'' of them.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:37, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:::Hey Zarquon, if you look again at [https://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json], you can see the star guide referenced as “he” a couple times if you carefully read the whole transcript. If alternatively your contribution to this wiki is that of trolling, you are making this rather obvious. If you’re getting different contents for that file than we are, maybe you could upload it to ipfs or something for comparison and tell us the ip addresses that xkcd.com resolves to for you, so that somebody can debug the issue. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 07:38, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:Is it possible this is meant to be {{w|Brian_Cox_(physicist)|Brian Cox}}? The hair is right and he's often noted for his enthusiasm. don't know how well known he is in the US, but a nerd like Randall is very likely to know of him --[[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 07:50, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
"Don't bother trying to catch them"??? What stellar object would you catch? Unless this is a reference to asteroid mining? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.28|172.68.90.28]] 22:47, 9 July 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:Those stellar objects are so close compared to all the others, who wouldn't try?? Could you imagine actually meeting another object in this universe of distant interstellar bodies? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.46|172.68.54.46]] 23:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

1866: Russell's Teapot

2017-07-21T07:07:24Z

Luckykaa: Title text is clearly referring to the barber paradox and not Russell's teapot.

{{comic
| number = 1866
| date = July 21, 2017
| title = Russell's Teapot
| image = Russells_Teapot.png
| titletext = Unfortunately, NASA regulations state that Bertrand Russell-related payloads can only be launched within launch vehicles which do not launch themselves.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete| }}
Russell's Teapot is a philosophical argument that reflects on the difficulty of trying to prove a negative. It involves a hypothetical teapot orbiting a heavenly body, whose existence hasn't been proven. It is very often used in atheistic arguments. Russell's Teapot is an analogy which Bertrand Russell devised "to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others."

"He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong." (Wikipedia)

[[Cueball]] is trying to settle the teapot argument by actually launching a teapot into space via a crowdfunding campaign.

The title-text refers to Bertrand Russell's [[wikipedia:Barber_paradox|Barber Paradox]]. In this paradox, it is stated "one who shaves all those, and those only, who do not shave themselves.". However, this is impossible, because if the barber does not shave himself, then the statement is false (because he is a man the barber does not shave). If the barber shaves himself, then the barber himself is one man who shaves himself and that the barber shaves.

==Transcript==

[[Cueball]] is standing in front of a blueprint labeled "CubeSat-Based Design", containing a satellite with a teapot in the top.

Below the comic box:
"I'm crowdfunding a project to launch a teapot into orbit around the sun to settle the Russell thing once and for all."

==Alt-text==

Unfortunately, NASA regulations state that Bertrand Russell-related payloads can only be launched within launch vehicles which do not launch themselves.

{{comic discussion}}

1844: Voting Systems

2017-06-06T09:34:05Z

Luckykaa: FPTP isn't really used in "most places",

{{comic
| number = 1844
| date = May 31, 2017
| title = Voting Systems
| image = voting_systems.png
| titletext = Kenneth Arrow hated me because the ordering of my preferences changes based on which voting systems have what level of support. But it tells me a lot about the people I'm going to be voting with!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about types of single-winner voting systems:

1) '''{{w|Approval voting}}''' has voters "approve" (i.e. select) any number of candidates. The winner is the most-approved candidate. It works with the same kind of ballot as current methods, but would allow a "compromise" candidate who is the second choice of a majority to defeat a candidate who is the top choice of a plurality but disliked by other groups.

2) '''{{w|Instant-runoff voting}}''' (also known as Ranked Choice or Preferential Voting) has voters rank the candidates in order of preference. Ballots are initially counted for each elector's top choice. If a candidate secures more than half of these votes, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate in last place is eliminated and removed from consideration. Ballots that had this candidate as the top choice now have the second preference as the top choice (this is the "instant runoff"). The top remaining choices on all the ballots are then counted again. This process repeats until one candidate is the top remaining choice of a majority of the voters or all but one candidate have been eliminated. IRV's proponents have successfully implemented it in a few places, such as the city of San Francisco.

3) A '''{{w|Condorcet method}}''' elects the candidate that would win a majority of the vote in all of the head-to-head elections against each of the other candidates. A candidate with this property is called the Condorcet winner. Due to the {{w|Condorcet paradox}}, an election with 3 or more candidates might not have a Condorcet winner, so Condorcet methods differ in the secondary set of rules used to handle that situation.

4) Not directly mentioned in the comic, '''{{w|First-past-the-post voting}}''' (FPTP, aka '''{{w|Plurality (voting)|plurality voting}}''') is the method currently used in the US, Britain, and several other countries. It only allows voters to choose a single candidate. People who study voting methods agree that FPTP is not the best way to implement democracy, but they have made little progress in replacing it after decades of effort.

'''{{w|Arrow's impossibility theorem}}''' gives a list of criteria for ranked voting systems (such as IRV or Condorcet) and states that no system can satisfy all of them at once, despite that for each of them it may seem "obvious" that an electoral system ought to satisfy it. Some voting theorists (such as Cueball) dislike IRV because it fails more of the criteria than Condorcet does.

The primary joke in the comic is the premise that people who are pedantic or knowledgeable enough to find Arrow's theorem to be relevant will self-fulfill the theorem by being inclined to disagree on any effort to change the voting system. This is illustrated by Cueball's voting system preference that is contingent on the preferences of other people, which defeats their effort to produce a community-wide ranking.

A secondary joke in the comic is that often voters don't pick their favorite choice in a vote. Instead, they vote for a less favorable, but more likely electable, person as a way to prevent their least favorite choice from being elected. (For example, in 2016 many who would have preferred to see Sanders elected voted instead for their less-favored choice, Clinton. The idea being that splitting the vote between Sanders and Clinton could end up with their least-favored choice, Trump, being elected.) This is the kind of situation these voting systems are designed to eliminate, as a traditional FPTP voting system creates situations where people do not vote for their first-choice candidate.

A third joke is the recursive self-referencing inherent in having to vote for a voting system creates. Cueball's strategic vote switch implies that they are using FPTP (which they dislike) to make the decision. If they were using any of the other methods, his behavior would not be necessary.

The title text stipulates that Cueball has no fixed ranking of preference for human candidates, but makes this choice dependent on which voting system is favoured by the group. This exceeds strategic voting considerations as the ranking should have full information, whom Cueball prefers in each situation. Therefore Arrow's impossibility theorem and the analysis behind it assume the ranked preferences of an individual voter as a fixed given. To make them dependent on the voting system makes assessing the efficacy of the voting systems absurd or at least much more complicated to do as a general assessment. That is given as the reason, why Arrow would wholeheartedly hate him.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on either side of Cueball who is talking while lifting one hand.]
:Cueball: I prefer approval voting, but if we're seriously considering instant runoff, then I'll argue for a Condorcet method instead.

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Strong Arrow's theorem: The people who find Arrow's theorem significant will never agree on anything anyway.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1832: Photo Library Management

2017-05-05T07:24:36Z

Luckykaa: Typo: phone -> photo

{{comic
| number = 1832
| date = May 3, 2017
| title = Photo Library Management
| image = photo_library_management.png
| titletext = A good lifehack is to use messy and unstable systems to organize your photos. That way, every five years or so it becomes obsolete and/or collapses, and you have to open it up and pick only your favorite pictures to salvage.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More explanation needed on what the comic is about, and the transcript is incomplete. The title text also needs to be explained.}}

The comic is split into 6 sectors as described below:
{| class="wikitable"
!Sector
!Caption
!Explanation
|-
| Low Amount of Photos Taken, more than a little amount of time to sort
| No Problems
| With only a few photos to sort, and lots of time to do so, Randall is able to maintain his photo library efficiently.
|-
| Area under line increasing where more time is spent as more photos are taken
| Can't find the good photos among the thousands of bad ones
| The amount of photos being taken is too high for Randall to adequately sort in the small amount of time he has.
|-
| Area above line of negative gradient, as number of photos increases and time decreases
| Can't Sleep, Too busy sifting through photos to find the best ones
| Randall has taken too many photos, but has dedicated the time to sorting them. As a result, he is lacking sleep through his determination to complete the task.
|-
| Area in between both side lines, after No Problems but before cloud storage
| Photo library fits on most devices as long as they're not too old
| Randall takes quite a few photos, but still enough to fit on a more modern hard drive.
|-
| Area in between both side lines, after 'not too old' but before 'Moore's Law'
| Need cloud storage, external hard drives, or frequent upgrades
| Randall takes so many photos that he needs more storage than is on his computer to hold them.
|-
| Area after 'cloud storage', going off until the two side lines meet
| Photo library grows faster than Moore's Law
| {{w|Moore's Law}} is a law that states that technology will keep getting better exponentially. However, Randall's photos take up so much space that even Moore's law can't catch up to the number of photos stored.
|}

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

A graph with the x axis being number of photos taken per day and y axis being the time spent going through photos per day, divided into six sections:

Section 1: Few photos taken per day, no limit to time spent: "No Problems"

Section 2: Some photos taken per day, a limited amount of time spent going through: "Photo Library Fits On Most Devices As Long As They're Not Too Old"

Section 3: More photos taken per day, less time spent going through: "Need Cloud Storage, External Hard Drive, Or Frequent Upgrades"

Section 4: A lot of photos taken per day, and even less time spent going through: "Photo Library Grows Faster Than [http://www.mooreslaw.org/ Moore's Law]."

Section 5: Above line increasing where more time is spent as more photos are taken: "Can't Find The Good Photos Among The Thousands Of Bad Ones"

Section 6: Below line of negative gradient, as number of photos increases and time decreases: "Can't Sleep, Too Busy Sifting Through Photos To Find The Best One"
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Line graphs]]

1820: Security Advice

2017-04-07T11:10:19Z

Luckykaa: Adda an extra note on "secure fonts".

{{comic
| number = 1820
| date = April 5, 2017
| title = Security Advice
| image = security_advice.png
| titletext = Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name.
}}

==Explanation==

The comic depicts a conversation between [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]], discussing the fact that giving people security advice in the past has failed to improve their internet security, and in some cases even made things worse. One such example is telling people to create complicated passwords containing numbers and symbols, which not only made the passwords harder to remember (leading people to create huge security risks by [https://arstechnica.com/security/2015/04/hacked-french-network-exposed-its-own-passwords-during-tv-interview/ leaving post-it notes with their passwords on their computer monitor]), but did not actually make those passwords harder to crack (see [[936: Password Strength]]).

As a result, Cueball suggests using {{w|reverse psychology}} and give out bad advice instead, in hopes of achieving a positive effect. The last panel contains a list of these security tips, which are parodies of actual security tips.

===Security Tip Explanations===
{| class="wikitable"
!Security Tip
!Explanation
|-
|Print out this list and keep it in your bank safe deposit box (header)
|This is a standard recommendation for documents that must be kept secure because they are irreplaceable and/or contain sensitive information. However this list itself is easily replaceable and the contents will be well-known, so storing it in a safe place is totally unnecessary. Putting it in a {{w|safe deposit box}} would even be counterproductive since the list can only serve its purpose as a ready reminder if it's easily accessible to everyone.
|-
|Don't click links to websites
|The usual tip is "Don't click on ''suspicious'' website links" or "Don't click any links in suspicious emails". The comic's variation instead tells users not to click on any links to any websites, which essentially stops them from using the World Wide Web altogether.
|-
|Use prime numbers in your password
|It is usually recommended that one uses numbers in one's password, to increase its entropy, making it harder to find with a {{w|Brute-force attack|brute force}} attack. In contrast the comic suggests using {{w|prime numbers}} in one's password. Large prime numbers are an essential part of modern cryptography and security systems, when used in algorithms that are computed by machines. They don't have any effect when used by humans in passwords, except for maybe making it harder to remember. In addition, if people were to regularly use prime numbers in their passwords, it would actually make passwords ''easier'' to guess, as it would substantially reduce the number of possible passwords people may choose from.
|-
|Change your password manager monthly
|It is often recommended to change passwords on a regular basis and to use a {{w|password manager}}. Password managers are programs which can help users create, store, and change their passwords easily and securely. Changing password managers monthly would involve copying all stored passwords from one manager to another, which would be quite impractical and has no security benefit.
|-
|Hold your breath while crossing the border
|At some border crossings, government agents may search computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. The usual advice for such situations ranges from asserting your rights to resetting all devices and deleting all data prior to crossing a border. Holding one's breath can potentially prevent inhaling germs or poisons in some situations, though useless in the context of computer security. These two topics mixed in the same advice won't achieve anything, but if you hold your breath for too long you could pass out when crossing, or look stressed/suspicious and invite even more scrutiny. This could also be a reference to the superstition of holding one's breath when passing a graveyard, or similarly to the movie [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away Spirited Away], where the main character is instructed to hold her breath while crossing the bridge that acts as the border between the human and spirit world. In any case, holding one's breath while browsing the Internet would have no useful effect, supernatural or otherwise.
|-
|Install a secure font
|A real tip might be "Install a secure browser" especially when many people used {{w|Internet Explorer 6}}. Secure fonts do exist and are designed to make checks difficult to alter, but using one on a computer would not help one's internet security. May also refer to [https://www.proofpoint.com/us/threat-insight/post/EITest-Nabbing-Chrome-Users-Chrome-Font-Social-Engineering-Scheme Google Chrome "Install missing font" malware].
|-
|Use a 2-factor smoke detector
|{{w|Multi-factor authentication|Two factor authentication}} describes the practice of using two different identification factors (such as a password and a code from a secure token) to authenticate the user. A two factor smoke detector presumably uses two or more factors to identify ''smoke'' (such as {{w|Smoke_detector#Ionization|ionization}} and {{w|Smoke_detector#Photoelectric|photoelectric}}). Such devices [https://alarmspecs.com actually exist], but, while improving the users general safety, they do nothing to improve their internet security.

Also, the logic behind using two-factor authentication is that '''both''' types of credentials must match to grant access. Smoke detectors work otherwise - usually firing if '''any''' of the sensors detect a fire. If the smoke detector worked according to the authentication logic it will be less likely to detect smoke, effectively lessening fire safety as compared to a single sensor one.
|-
|Change your maiden name regularly
|The usual tip is to change your passwords regularly. Some password recovery procedures ask for a security question, like "what is your {{w|Maiden and married names|maiden name}}" (which is the family name that you were born with). Sometimes, the maiden name of a parent of yours (typically your mother as your father's maiden name is most often your name too) is asked instead of one of yours. Since it acts as a second password, security questions should also be changed regularly. Literally changing your maiden name, however, is impossible by the definition of "maiden name". Also, maiden names and other trivia typically asked by security questions are not secret, so they are inherently not secure.
A real tip for dealing with security questions would be to enter false data.
|-
|Put strange USB drives in a bag of rice overnight
|The usual security tip is "Don't plug strange {{w|USB flash drive|USB drives}} into your computer," because sometimes attackers leave USB devices with malicious programs lying around, hoping that people will plug them into target computers out of curiosity. This tip states that you should "put USB drives in a bag of rice overnight" which is a common technique for drying out water-damaged devices, due to rice's absorbent qualities. This would not clean the drive of viruses, and unless the drive was wet (perhaps because you found it outside due to it being called "strange") it would not do anything. In [[1598: Salvage]], another attempt is made to salvage something unconventional with rice.
|-
|Use special characters like & and %
|You can use special characters to increase the entropy/strength of your password, though as describe in [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/936:_Password_Strength xkcd 936], that often leads to passwords that are hard to remember but not particularly strong. The password context is missing here, and in everyday situations the characters & and % are not special. These two characters are often disallowed in passwords because of their relevance to {{w|SQL}} (a common database query language). If these characters were used in a password, a badly written security system using SQL could have severe bugs (and security vulnerabilities) similar to the security flaw in [[327: Exploits of a Mom]].
|-
|Only read content published through Tor.com
|{{w|tor (anonymity network)|Tor}} is a software solution to provide anonymity on the web for its users. The website [https://tor.com Tor.com] is the website of fantasy and sci-fi book publisher Tor, which has no relation to the Tor-network.
|-
|Use a burner's phone
|A play on using a {{w|Prepay mobile phone|burner phone}} (a cheap/disposable cell phone like those purchased at 7-11, often used for drug deals or other activity one might not want traced), and using the cell phone of a burner, i.e. a person who goes to the {{w|Burning Man|Burning Man festival}}.
|-
|Get an SSL certificate and store it in a safe place
|{{w|Transport Layer Security|SSL/TLS}} is a protocol for securing connections on the internet. To check if someone is who they claim to be, you can check the individual's {{w|Public key certificate|certificate}}. Such a certificate has to be public; storing it in a safe place makes the certificate useless. You have to store the private key that matches the certificate in a safe place, else someone could steal the identity.
|-
|If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.
|This tip is a reference to Ingmar Bergman's film {{w|The Seventh Seal#Synopsis| The Seventh Seal}}, in which the protagonist challenges Death to a game of chess. (This is also the theme of [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/393 393: Ultimate game]).
|-
|Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name. (Title Text)
|The usual security tip here is ''"only trust Twitter accounts claiming to be legitimate if they have a blue check mark next to their name"'', which means that the account is verified as legitimate. This tip suggests only giving your ''password'' to verified accounts, although you shouldn't give your password to ''any'' account. It also refers to problems especially visible in the US banking system, where there is very little security for direct account drafts, and because of that it is advised there to keep the account number as secret as possible. In contrast, in Europe giving your account number to someone is one of the most common ways to get paid.

A related tip might be ""Never give your password or bank details to a website that doesn't have a padlock icon next to the URL"". In some browsers, if you access a secure website, there will be a padlock icon in the browser indicating you've connected to a secure website using the secure https protocol. So this tip treats the verified account icon the same way you might treat a secure website icon.
|}

==Transcript==

:Ponytail: We've been trying for decades to give people good security advice.
:Ponytail: But in retrospect, lots of the tips actually made things worse.

:Cueball: Maybe we should try to give ''bad'' advice?
:Ponytail: I guess it's worth a shot.

:Security tips
:(Print out this list and keep it in your bank safe deposit box.)
* Don't click links to websites
* Use prime numbers in your password
* Change your password manager monthly
* Hold your breath while crossing the border
* Install a secure font
* Use a 2-factor smoke detector
* Change your maiden name regularly
* Put strange USB drives in a bag of rice overnight
* Use special characters like & and %
* Only read content published through Tor.com
* Use a burner's phone
* Get an SSL certificate and store it in a safe place
* If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1818: Rayleigh Scattering

2017-04-03T07:27:49Z

Luckykaa:

I keep trying to correct the misspelled joung Girl to Young Girl but it keeps reverting. I corrected the two non-capitalized sentences and they stay put. Does "joung" have a meaning i don't understand? [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 14:55, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
:There might be conflicting edits, that happens a lot with new comics[[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 15:34, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Question - while I understand the intent of the comic is that overly complicated explanations can be confusing, isn't the title-text analogy incorrect? Doesn't chlorophyll scatter green light and absorbs other colors, whereas with the sky, it's really just different levels of scattering and very little absorbing (hence why a clear sky at dusk can appear red, the sky wasn't absorbing red light, it was just scattering it differently than blue light). Isn't that fundamentally different from the way most other common objects get their perceived color? (ps - I'm not a scientist, just curious, appreciate any feedback)
:Sry, no answer to your question, but a second chlorophyll-related one: I doubt that chlorophyll "reflects" green light, "scattering" should be correct! Any other opinions???? milebrega, 14:38, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

"Why are leaves green?" "Well, the leaf absorbs most of the colors, but not the green light, which it scatters instead." "Why is my shirt black?" "Well the cloth absorbs most of the colors, but just scatters the black light... wait..." [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 15:46, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

I like to think this is Miss Lenhart, continuing her science teaching in the same vein as in 'Venus'. There's no proof in the comic, but it fits nicely. Potentially something to add as a possibility in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.247|162.158.154.247]] 16:38, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
:I second the take that this is Miss Lenhart; I guess she's not in a classroom setting but she's been in similar situations. Someone should mention that the girl's second question is the same from [[803: Airfoil]] (also with Miss Lenhart). Articles have mentioned sort of "series" of themes before; that article, [[1145: Sky Color]], and this have an ongoing theme of "how to explain science to kids".[[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.34|172.68.150.34]] 04:04, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Yesssss <3 I had the exact same thought the first time Rayleigh scattering was explained to me: "isn't that just a specific mechanism of air being blue?" For some reason such explanations majorly tend to insist that the air is not in fact blue, and it has always bothered me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.19|162.158.111.19]] 16:41, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Maybe the explanation should point out that the real reason the planes "stay up" is that the tiny birds are on the '''underside''' of the wings.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 17:20, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

If air is blue how come a sunset, with LOTS of air, is red? I know the answer but it is the obvious next question with this explanation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.171|162.158.74.171]] 17:22, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
:During the day the Sun heats the air. At sunset you see the result of this heating, the air glows red-hot or orange-hot and starts to quickly cool down. You can't see it glowing during the day because of the very bright Sun.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 17:40, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
::Oh ok. Than why is the sun-rise also red? ;-). --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 23:40, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
:: https://www.reddit.com/r/ExplainLikeImCalvin/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.202|108.162.210.202]] 10:31, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Can someone add this to the comics featuring those respective characters? [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 17:41, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

New here, probably not following proper form in this commend, but, if I may ask, is that thing about mountains appearing blue actually true? (Unsigned)

I received the 'rayleigh scattering' explanation myself, and it served me well. Even without knowing anything about quantum mechanics or how the human eye works, knowing that there's an optic principle at work other than simple pigmentation explains why the light is golden early and late in the day, and why dust or smoke can have such diverse effects on the colour of the light beaming down, especially at dusk and dawn.

If I'd been told air was blue, I'd have a lot more questions, and I'd still think that gemstones like alexandrite that look different colours in different light were somehow magical, instead of just having unique physical properties. So, I'd like to assume Randall's just making a outlandish joke, not really trying to say that it's wrong to give children the phrase 'rayleigh scattering' and explain what the consequences of it are, even without describing the mechanisms behind it--something that still goes way over my head.[[User:Namaphry|Namaphry]] ([[User talk:Namaphry|talk]]) 04:59, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Air is not blue - certainly not in the same way that leaves are green or blue-dyed liquids are blue. This is evident when observing the Moon - a large chunk of rock much farther away than any mountains. Does all the air we're looking through at it make it appear blue? Of course not. If anything, the Moon can appear orange near the horizon. (But clearly, the reason is not that "air is orange".)

""Air is not blue - certainly not in the same way that leaves are green or blue-dyed liquids are blue. ""
Have You ever seen liquid air or oxygen?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.52|162.158.92.52]] 06:29, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
: Actually no. And a google image search for Liquid Oxygen doesn't give an image I'm totally convinced is actually of Oxygen (Best match seems to be a flask of Ozone, although it is most certainly a very deep blue).

What is happening with the sky is that air can appear to glow with various colors when illuminated with a strong directional source of light, such as the sun. The color depends on multiple factors, including the angle of illumination and observation. The glow can be commonly seen being blue, white, yellow, or red - with blue hues generally observable on clear days, and reddish hues at sunrise or sunset. This only works with a directional source of light; when the source of light is diffuse, such as under a large cloud cover, the sky doesn't appear blue, and neither do distant mountains, readily disproving the notion that air itself would be blue.

There. That didn't involve any quantum mechanics. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.88|172.68.215.88]] 07:07, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Is there no xkcd April Fool's this year? ~[[User:Luc|Luc]] [[[User talk:Luc|talk]]] 22:27, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

;Current explanation all backwards?
I seriously doubt the point of the comic is to tell children wrong answers just because they might not understand the real answer. That is just horrible. "The child's reaction in this comic, "Wow!", suggests that not only she understood, but is also excited about learning, which could be more important to her development than hearing the "correct" answer up front." That doesn't make any sense. I'm sure he doesn't want to say, tell children planes fly because of birds in their wings. There are easy and simple ways to give the correct answer, that children will understand, and it's definitely not better for their development and interest to tell them absolut BS. It's the other way around, he makes fun of this answer, and so wants to make the point to NOT tell children things like that just because you're too lazy to explain, or because you think they might not understand. The point is not: Give an easy and possibly wrong answer to children. The point is rather: While for blue sky the easier (and TRUE) answer might be enough for kids, for other things that's not the best solution, and definitely don't oversimplify so much that your answer actually is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.98|162.158.88.98]] 08:53, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
:I completely agree. I find the current explanation to be 100% the opposite of what Randall has been trying to say in earlier comics. The joke is those that think it is better to tell false stories rather than try to tell the truth. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:28, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Look, there's really no question about whats going on in this comic, and people need to stop overcomplicating and overanalyzing things. Here's how it breaks down: Science Girl asks a science question. Blondie gives a simplified but still correct answer, while Megan gives the traditional but more complicated answer. Blondie then makes the point that's also the comic's intended moral - that we can view things at different levels of detail, and that just because an explanation is less detailed than you're use to doesn't mean it's actually wrong.

Then in the last panel, Blondie takes her valid point to its illogical conclusion by giving an explanation that isn't merely simplified, but straight up wrong, which frustrates Megan. This panel has no moral and is not trying to make a point. It's just there to be the punchline. Anyone reading ''any'' kind of moral into it should probably remember why they're called "comics" in the first place.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.172|108.162.241.172]] 02:04, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

;Hommage to Calvin and Hobbes?
I believe this comic could be an hommage to Calvin and Hobbes comics, where Calvin asks his dad stuff about nature, and his dad replies with completely nonsensical explanations.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.22|162.158.114.22]] 21:20, 1 April 2017 (UTC)
:Calvin and Hobbes did not invent children asking science questions or parents who can't answer them.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.172|108.162.241.172]] 02:04, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

== The other side of the argument ==

The other side of the argument is basically that by giving an overly simple and inaccurate explanation, one can be very misleading. There is another take on the following sentence:

The child's reaction in this comic, "Wow!", suggests that not only she understood, but is also excited about learning, which could be more important to her development than hearing the "correct" answer up front.

That is that the child may be impressed by a mere superficiality. Did she really understand, or was the explanation in some way impressive? (Impressiveness does not imply correctness.)

A person might say, "Wow!" to some Hollywood special effects. Does that really mean that the person is interested in how to create such effects? Does the girl in the strip really care to learn? If she does, starting off by telling her something wrong seems a rather odd way to go about it.

When one starts in a field of study, one often needs to have simple explanations. Otherwise, the sheer mass of detail can be overwhelming. It is more useful to give an explanation that is more or less correct and to mention that there are special cases. An example is Einsteinian physics which obsoleted Newtonian physics, but the latter is still close enough to be useful in everyday situations.

Additionally, if one gets in the habit of simplifying everything without regard to correctness, where does it end? The final frame gives an example of this.

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.166|108.162.245.166]] 00:26, 2 April 2017 (UTC) (Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net>

== April fools day comic absense ==

Where's the 2017 April fools day comic?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.197|162.158.79.197]] 11:50, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

I noticed that too... maybe its hiding. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.10|162.158.142.10]] 15:33, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

1813: Vomiting Emoji

2017-03-20T16:18:33Z

Luckykaa: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1813
| date = March 20, 2017
| title = Vomiting Emoji
| image = vomiting_emoji.png
| titletext = My favorite might be U+1F609 U+1F93F WINKING FACE VOMITING.
}}
[[Category:Emoji]]
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic relates to the recent Unicode proposal for a vomiting emoji. Megan believes that there should be vomiting versions of all emoji. She writes up a proposal, putting the new modifier at U+1F93F. Six example emojis are given, being progressively more nonsensical, starting with a vomiting cowboy and ending with a vomiting hand. Randall states that his favorite possibility is a winking face vomiting.

Unicode is the computing industry standard for representing text. More recent additions have included emoji characters, such as grinning face (😁) or a clap symbol (👏)

Unicode also supports "combining modifiers". These allow, for example, accents to be placed on characters that do not have an accented version elsewhere. There are also modifiers for emojis, usually intended to modify skin tone. Megan's proposal is to add another one of these modifiers for vomiting, so that any emoji could conceivably be vomiting.

In [[1726: Unicode]], Randall proposed a "brontosaurus" emoji in Unicode.

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

:Cueball: The proposed emoji for Unicode 10.0 look good.
:Megan: Hmm. "U+1F92E FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH VOMITING"

:Cueball: Eww.
:Megan: Really, "vomiting" should be a combining modifier, so you can use it to make a vomiting version of any emoji.
:Cueball: Umm.
:Megan: I'm gonna write up a proposal.

:U+1F93F VOMITING MODIFIER
:(cowboy emoji vomiting) U+1F920 U+1F93F VOMITING COWBOY
:(Statue of Liberty emoji vomiting) U+1F5FD U+1F93F VOMITING STATUE OF LIBERTY
:(dove emoji vomiting, with an olive branch near its head) U+1F54A U+1F93F VOMITING DOVE
:("first quarter moon with face" emoji vomiting) U+1F31B U+1F93F VOMITING MOON
:(rocket ship emoji with vomit coming from its window) U+1F680 U+1F93F VOMITING ROCKET SHIP
:(hand emoji with a hole in it, vomit is coming from that hole) U+270B U+1F93F VOMITING HAND

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1806: Borrow Your Laptop

2017-03-03T09:36:35Z

Luckykaa:

One assumes this is a software development environment or similar

{|
!Statement
!Explanation
|-
|Oh, just hit both shift keys to change over to QWERTY.
| Likely has keyboard in DVORAK
|-
|Caps lock is control. And spacebar is capslock.
| Changing Caps Lock to a "more useful" key is common. However to change an even larger key to be capslock (Space) is odd
|-
|And two-finger scroll moves through time instead of space.
|Two finger scrolling is often used to move through a document or application on a mousepad or touchscreen device - this could be seen as moving through space (despite the cursor not actually being real). Randall is presumerably making a comment re: Space Time continuum or similar?
|-
|Once I've used a computer for a while no one else will ever use it again.
|It is unlikely that any user who tries using a computer configured like this would be expecting it and would find the workflow very hard - they are unlikely to ask again to use Cueball's computer
|}
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.197|141.101.99.197]] 07:55, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Just a minor point QWERTY is not the standard "Roman" keyboard but "English" as "French" is AZERTY and German is something else. The other thing is that just the change from US to UK can really mess things up, $>£ is trivial as @ not only moves, but the symbol keys all seem to do different things. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:58, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, in the UK I often have to use a Windows box misconfigured as US, where @ is in the wrong place. At work, one had a postit note explaining how to get the @ symbol, until I spent all of 5 seconds fixing it. Worse though is Apple, who insist on using US keyboard layout even in the UK. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 09:24, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

I'm surprised that no one has pointed out the impossibility of changing from DVORAK to QWERTY by pressing both shift keys, seeing as most laptops have hardware keyboards.
unless he has somehow rigged a voltronesque keyboard or he has a touchscreen keyboard or an onscreen one.
[[User:Dudeonyx|Dudeonyx]] ([[User talk:Dudeonyx|talk]]) 09:20, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
: Dvorak users typically just change the keymap. Since it's designed for touch typing,there's no real point to lettering on the keys [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 09:36, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

The part "The next point on the list makes little sense" is not exactly true. Swapping caps lock with ctrl is actually quite common (if extravagant), google it. Some do it because they are used to some old layout (probably either pre-PC era or from the Unix world, see some Sun keyboards from the 90s). Most do it because ctrl is useful but small (especially on laptops), while caps lock is a large, rarely used key. Opinions on the ergonomy of this vary, trending towards negative, although there certainly are avid supporters.

So, the line actually starts like something you may actually hear in real life (I know I have). And then you get to... SPACE?!? Why would you turn space into a caps lock?! That's where the joke hits. It's not that the whole point of the list makes little sense, it's that it takes an existing, somewhat justified but controversial idea and turns it on its head midway through. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.76|162.158.102.76]] 09:29, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

1793: Soda Sugar Comparisons

2017-02-01T09:32:37Z

Luckykaa: The metric conversion was far too accurate given at most 2 significant figures in feet.

{{comic
| number = 1793
| date = February 1, 2017
| title = Soda Sugar Comparisons
| image = soda_sugar_comparisons.png
| titletext = The key is portion control, which is why I've switched to eating smaller cans of frosting instead of full bottles.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs more words.}}

In this comic, Randall compares soda's sugar content to some types of candy. The first two panels compare the sugar content of a 20 oz.(591 ml) bottle of soda to three {{w|Cadbury egg|Cadbury eggs}} and a {{w|Snickers bar}} the length of the bottle. Next, he compares one week's worth of soda to a bottle of {{w|Icing_(food)|cake frosting}}. Continuing the estimations, he states that one soda a day for six months will provide the same amount of sugar as four gallons of {{w|Skittles}}. Finally, he compares three years' worth of daily sodas contains as much sugar as a {{w|Convenience store|convenience store's}} 20-foot (6.1m) long candy counter.

Below the title is a reference to [[1035: Cadbury Eggs]], which also compares soda's sugar content to Cadbury Eggs.

In the title text, it is stated that the key is portion control, which sounds normal until it is revealed that the portion control is actually for frosting instead of soda. Eating frosting out of cans is also referenced in [[418: Stove Ownership]].

===Data===
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! Number of 20-oz bottles !! Equivalent sugar content (Coca-Cola) !! Candy portion !! Approximate sugar content
|-
| 1 || 65 grams || 3 (US) Crème Eggs 1 9-inch Snickers bar (approx. equivalent to roughly 2 [https://www.snickers.com/nutritional-info standard Snickers bars]) || 60 grams 54 grams
|-
| 7 || 455 grams || 1 20-oz bottle frosting || 360 grams (assuming [http://calorielab.com/brands/betty-crocker-decorating-icing/106/2003516 Betty Crocker decorating icing]) 780 grams (assuming [http://calorielab.com/brands/betty-crocker-fluffy-white-frosting/106/2003671 Betty Crocker Fluffy White Frosting])
|-
| 180 || 11,700 grams || 4 gallons of Skittles || 12,000 grams (assuming Skittles are molten/ground) Approx 8,500 grams (assuming [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/EllipsoidPacking.html realistic ellipsoid packing])
|-
| 1095 || 71,175 grams || A 20-foot confectionary counter || 80,000 grams (assuming candy is pure sugar, and bars are densely packed, this would be a counter 20 feet long, 2 feet high, 1 inch deep)
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1793: Soda Sugar Comparisons

2017-02-01T09:26:14Z

Luckykaa:

And that's why I don't really drink soda. [[User:Cardboardmech|Cardboardmech]] ([[User talk:Cardboardmech|talk]]) 06:30, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Stellar work from [[User:Schroduck|Schroduck]] but can we get a better idea of the calories in a candy counter. We're looking at approx 3000 candy bars (a catering box holds 48 bars, is designed to be usable for display and about 2 bars wide) ballpark figures though so not adding the edit yet, but 3 tiers of boxes would be about right [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 09:26, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

1791: Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector

2017-01-30T12:01:06Z

Luckykaa: Fixed what I assume is a mistake... Sentence didn't really make sense

{{comic
| number = 1791
| date = January 27, 2017
| title = Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector
| image = telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png
| titletext = On the other hand, the refractor's limited light-gathering means it's unable to make out shadow people or the dark god Chernabog.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic compares two major types of {{w|optical telescope}}: The {{w|refracting telescope}} and the {{w|reflecting telescope}}. A refracting telescope produces an image with a series of lenses. A reflecting telescope uses mirrors. (A third type, the {{w|catadioptric system}} telescope, uses both mirrors ''and'' lenses. It is not shown here.)

It first looks like the comic is simply trying to show that refracting has many flaws, such as expense, size and visibility (see more [[#The real problems with refracting telescopes|details below]]). However, the punchline invalidates these complaints with the (apparently major) flaw listed with the reflecting telescope: '''It can't see space vampires'''.

The unstated reason for this is that {{w|vampires}}, {{w|Vampire#Apotropaics|according to some cultures}}, cannot be seen in a mirror. As {{w|space vampires}} (like earth vampires) are widely believed to be {{w|Vampire#Origins_of_vampire_beliefs|made up}} and thus unlikely to interest most [[1644: Stargazing|stargazers]], this complaint is superfluous, and the reflecting telescope effectively has no flaws in comparison to the refracting telescope. There are other problems, though, with reflecting telescopes see [[#The real problems with reflecting telescope|details below]]. (Also there was a big problem in the [[#Trivia|original version of this comic]]).

Frequently, however, the right-angle transition at the base of the refractor telescope is done with a prism (an "image erector"). This uses the optical principle of total internal reflection. If mirror-non-appearance of vampires is due to the interaction of evil with silver, a refractor using a prism could still see vampires. On this theory, however, the reflector could too, since modern astronomical mirrors are coated with aluminum, not silver.

The title text expands on the seeing of supernatural beings, as another negative point is added to the refracting telescope; it apparently can't see {{w|Shadow person|Shadow People}} or the Slavic god {{w|Chernobog|Chernabog}} (normally spelled Chernobog), both of which are important although clearly not as important to the telescope's merit as seeing vampires since the fact is only mentioned in the title text. So of course the refracting telescope is still the best. Of course also neither the {{w|Shadow_person#History_and_folklore|shadow people}} nor {{w|Chernobog#Folklore|the god}} exists so this would likewise be a moot point.

In reality, "shadow people" are a psychological phenomenon wherein humans ascribe human shapes and movements to shadows in dark spaces. Chernobog is a 12th century Slavic deity, whose name translates to ''black god''. His most famous appearance in modern media was in the 1940 Disney movie {{w|Fantasia (1940 film)|''Fantasia''}} (and Disney merchandise is also almost the only place that his name is spelled as Randall spelled it, with an "a" in the middle). Because shadows are dark and the god is also dark, they cannot be seen by the refracting telescope due to the reduced light-gathering which has already been mentioned as a drawback in the main comic.

Telescopes have been the subject of [[:Category:Telescopes|many comics]] on xkcd. Recently one about space telescope was released [[1730: Starshade]] and before that a large "private" telescope was shown in [[1522: Astronomy]].

===The real problems with refracting telescopes===
The basic performance of a telescope is determined by its size: a wider telescope catches more light, making it easier to see faint objects, while a longer telescope is better for high magnification viewing. For looking at stars, the width is actually more important. No matter how much you zoom, a star is too far away to make bigger, but with a big aperture, you can see stars too faint for the naked eye. Planets benefit more from magnification, and distant galaxies need both.

In both respects, it's much easier to make a big reflector telescope than a big refractor one. Since a lens can only be held in place by its edge, the center of a large lens sags due to gravity, distorting the images it produces. This means most refractor telescopes make do with narrow apertures only a couple of inches across. Reflector telescopes are sometimes called "light buckets" because they can have extremely big openings that can catch light from even very faint stars. In addition, because it has a mirror at one end, the reflector telescope is, in effect, twice as long as it appears - a refractor just cannot compete.

Refracting telescopes were only gradually overtaken by reflecting telescopes, however. In the age of {{W|great refractors}}, the largest telescopes in the world were refractors. Reflectors at the time had mirrors surfaced in {{W|speculum metal}} that began to tarnish only months after application, negatively affecting telescope performance. This problem was resolved when it became possible to surface a mirror in silver, but the problems with refractive lenses persist. Because of this, the {{w|List of largest optical telescopes historically|largest optical telescopes ever built}} are reflectors, rather than refractors. In addition, a {{w|liquid mirror telescope}} uses a very cheap, but potentially very large mirror - with the drawback that the telescope can only look straight upwards.

'''Randall's points:'''
*More expensive
**Grinding a high quality lens is more expensive than producing an equivalent mirror - {{w|Crown glass (optics)|crown glass}}, which is needed for good quality telescope lenses, is expensive.
*Less compact
**In theory, a refractor ''could'' be made compact, but the image quality would be awful, because the lens would have to be extremely fat. The longer the telescope is, the less dramatic the focusing needs to be.
*{{w|Chromatic aberration}}:
**In optics, chromatic aberration is an effect resulting from dispersion in which there is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same convergence point, producing a rainbow effect around the image familiar to people who wear glasses, and with prisms. It occurs because lenses have different refractive indices for different wavelengths of light. Each colour is therefore focused slightly differently by the lens. Mirrors don't have chromatic aberration, since the light is reflected off the front of the mirror. The {{w|achromatic lens}} can reverse this effect, but it's expensive and its size is limited. Nevertheless, before telescope mirrors were perfected in the early 20th century, the best telescopes were achromatic refractors.
***Note that this effect has also been mentioned in relation to photography by [[Black Hat]] in [[1014: Car Problems]], in a completely different context, but shows this is an issue Randall has considered before.
*Reduced light-gathering
**Apart from generally needing to be smaller than reflector telescopes a further problem comes from glass defects, striae or small air bubbles trapped within the glass. In addition, glass is opaque to certain wavelengths, and even visible light is dimmed by reflection and absorption when it crosses the air-glass interfaces and passes through the glass itself. All of this reduce the light gathered.

'''Other problems not mentioned by Randall:'''
*Suspending a lens
**Another important difference (and a big reason why large refracting telescopes don't exist) is that the lens of a refracting telescope has to be supported by the edges, so that light can pass through it. As a result there comes a point where it is no longer feasible to mount a large lens in a telescope due to its weight and the need to support it from the edges. In contrast the mirror of a reflecting telescope is supported from behind, and any support structures for the primary mirror are not in the path of the light. As a result, substantially larger mirrors can be easily mounted and supported. As an additional benefit this behind-the-mirror support has led to the creation of {{w|Adaptive_Optics|Adaptive Optics}}, a technique (which is impossible for refracting telescopes) that allows some of the atmosphere's distortions to be corrected for.
*A mirror can be segmented to make a larger reflecting surface out of smaller (and hence easier to build/mount/support) mirrors. By using a {{w|Segmented_mirror|segmented mirror}} it is possible to build an effective aperture much larger than what could be built even from a single mirror, which is itself much larger than the largest possible lens that might be built for a refracting telescope.

====The real problems with reflecting telescope====
It is worth noting that (apart from the vampire problem) reflecting telescope also has disadvantages compared to a refracting telescope:
*The main disadvantage is that in almost all reflecting telescope designs the focal point is directly in front of the mirror, i.e. in between the mirror and the target of interest.
**As a result a {{w|Secondary_mirror|secondary mirror}} is commonly used to direct the focal point somewhere outside of the field of view. However, this secondary mirror (and the struts that support it) will still block part of the field of view - although the focus of the telescope means that the secondary mirror is not visible when looking at distant objects, it will result in diffraction patterns that also hinder the image quality. In fact, this is the source of the {{w|Diffraction_spike|diffraction spikes}} around stars which are commonly seen in astronomical images.
*A reflecting telescope is also harder to maintain:
**The mirrors need to be very precisely aligned (this is called {{w|collimation}}), and this can be a laborious process. They may also need re-polishing.
**The telescope is open at one end, allowing dust and dirt to enter.
*A reflecting telescope is not very portable. This is why {{w|Birdwatching|bird-spotters}} use small refractor telescopes as an easy way to get a closer view of birds.

Despite this disadvantage, reflecting telescopes are used almost exclusively in modern astronomy because of practical limitations in making large refracting telescopes. Very few amateur astronomers use refracting telescopes - nowadays, they most exist to con people looking for Christmas presents in department stores (just because a telescope promises 100x zoom doesn't mean the image quality is any good!)

==Transcript==
:[A one panel comic showing two different telescope designs next to each other with labels above them and a bullet list of points below the them. The left drawing will be described first then the right.]

:[Left:]
:<big>Refractor</big>

:[A slim telescope design is shown. At the top the light enters shown in a light yellow shade between two thin parallel light gray lines that just fits inside the opening of the telescope which is slightly wider at the top than at the lens sitting a short way into the opening. The lens causes the light to focus just where the telescope again changes dimensions, and the light enters a small opening at the bottom of the long pipe of the telescope. Here the yellow light is a point as the two gray lines cross each other at that point. The light then broadens slightly again and the thin yellow light cone hits a mirror at the bottom of the telescope and is reflected to the left and out through the eyepiece. Below are the following points:]
:*More expensive
:*Less compact
:*Chromatic aberration
:*Reduced light-gathering

:[Right:]
:<big>Reflector</big>

:[A much broader (more than 150% of the first) but also much shorter (66%) telescope design is shown. At the top the light enters shown in a light yellow shade between two thin parallel light gray lines that still just fits inside the opening of the telescope. On it's way down to the bottom of the telescope the light passes by a small mirror turned down towards the bottom. When the hits the curved bottom mirror light is focus on it's way back back and a small light cone hits the small mirror mentioned before sitting almost at the top of the telescope. This mirror reflects the light to the left into an even thinner light cone that goes out through the eyepiece located near the top of the telescope. Below is the following point:]
:*Can't see space vampires

==Trivia==
*In an '''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/b/b2/20170127171253%21telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png earlier version]''' of this comic, the eyepiece of the refracting telescope appeared to include either a mirror or a prism (possibly {{w|porro prism}} or {{w|amici roof prism}}).
**These make the image upright and allow the observer to look through the telescope from a more comfortable position.
**A mirror, however, would invalidate the only advantage it has over reflecting telescopes.
**So even though it could be said to be a prism (without the vampire problem) [[Randall]] later choose to correct this "error" so the '''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b2/telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png current/final version]''' shows the light going straight out of the end without the risk of anyone interpreting the offensive part for a mirror destroying the joke.
**Now it also looks just like one of the depictions of this type of telescopes on the Wikipedia page for the refracting telescope.
***See this {{w|Refracting_telescope#Refracting_telescope_designs|design}} that does not include a mirror/prism.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Religion]]

Talk:1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-01-12T15:46:38Z

Luckykaa:

I'm not too experienced with PhotoShop, but I think that the tool is a selective delete that he used on water bodies, so removing most of the water while maintaining relative shapes and sizes?
:Mostly just from the fact that India looks desiccated.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 05:06, 11 January 2017 (UTC)Girish
::Australia is pretty mutilated, so I think the tool was used on land too [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.111|162.158.178.111]] 05:55, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Where are Laos and Cambodia missing? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.11|108.162.246.11]] 06:14, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:It seems that Laos and Burma have been merged into one big county, as well as Cambodia and Thailand. Maybe they are just unnecessary details according to this map projection. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.22|162.158.238.22]] 16:39, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

The tool removes spaces of uniform color automagically. If you have big countries like India or Australia, they get caught by the algorithm as well. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.9|162.158.69.9]] 06:16, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Can anybody figure out the projection before the application of the tool? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.232|108.162.219.232]] 06:58, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:I think it is a Mercator projection that got mutilated. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 07:50, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
::I agree, it looks like a Mercator that Freddy Kruger got at.
Girish, [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 09:02, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:::I think if it was a Mercator, the bottom of Antarctica would be flat. To me, it looks like Winkel Tripel, with the odd angles in Alaska and the Russian Far East. [[User:Schroduck|Schroduck]] ([[User talk:Schroduck|talk]]) 15:02, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

I feel like there is some part of sarcasm in "unused blank spaces", as if it was Randall saying "You're right, why would anyone care about the oceans? There, I have removed them, problem solved.". Can anyone tie this to a recent event? Or maybe the joke is about improperly handling data, where you use a tool just because it's known to work well and for the sake of processing data, even if using in a given context doesn't make much sense. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.213|141.101.69.213]] 10:14, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

This map proves, once again, that it's good to be an archipelago. Philippines, FTW! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.58|172.68.54.58]] 13:59, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:Hold your patriotic horses there, where did Palawan go? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.138.10|162.158.138.10]] 12:24, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Comics like these make me wonder how Randall preserves the XKCD visual style when working with content that is clearly not hand-drawn. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]]

"This is a play on the common advice to young children to refrain from "running with scissors" to avoid physical accidents." <-- Does anyone else thing this is a bit of a stretch?
:Yes, I do :) [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 15:46, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-01-11T11:21:40Z

Luckykaa: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1784
| date = January 11, 2017
| title = Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize
| image = bad_map_projection_liquid_resize.png
| titletext = This map preserves the shapes of Tissot's indicatrices pretty well, as long as you draw them in before running the resize.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Partial -- explains a few underlying concepts but needs a lead section}}

Maps of the world use different types of projection in order to represent spherical world on a flat piece of paper. These projections are often designed to preserve shapes, directions or sizes of countries. Randall's interest in map projections has been mentioned before in [[977: Map Projections]].

In this case we see a different projection, that uses [https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/content-aware-scaling.html Photoshop's content aware resizing tool] in order to remove areas of similar colour. While this does remove much of the sea, this is not particularly useful. It also distorts India and Australia so that they are unrecognisable.

South America fits into Africa almost as it did in the era of the super-continent [[wikipedia:Pangaea|Pangaea]].

[[wikipedia:Tissot's indicatrix|Tissot's indicatrices]] are equally sized small circles overlaid on a globe to show the distortion of a particular map projection.

The title text suggests that the shapes of Tissot's indicatrices would be pretty well preserved by the Liquid Resize transformation, 'as long as you draw them in before running the resize'. Since drawing in the indicatrices first would fill all the blank areas between the continents with little circles, the Photoshop filter (which tries to fill blank space) would then no longer be able to find much contiguous blank space anywhere anymore, and in effect leave the input image almost unchanged.. which indeed would cause the shapes of the indicatrices, along with everything else, to be pretty well preserved.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[Caption at the top of the panel:]

Bad Map Projection #107:

The LIQUID RESIZE

A political map compressed using Photoshop's content-aware resizing algorithm to cut down on unused blank space

[A map of the world divided and colored by political boundaries, with outlines around each continent in black and around each country in dark gray. Antarctica is colored in light gray, bodies of water in white, and countries in pale shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The map is heavily distorted, with Africa in the center and the other continents curving around it, approximating the bounds of a square with rounded corners.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]

1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-01-11T11:19:52Z

Luckykaa:

{{comic
| number = 1784
| date = January 11, 2017
| title = Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize
| image = bad_map_projection_liquid_resize.png
| titletext = This map preserves the shapes of Tissot's indicatrices pretty well, as long as you draw them in before running the resize.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Partial -- explains a few underlying concepts but needs a lead section}}

Maps of the world use different types of projection in order to represent spherical world on a flat piece of paper. These projections are often designed to preserve shapes, directions or sizes of countries. Randall's interest in map projections has been mentioned before in [[977: Map Projections]].

In this case we see a different projection, that uses [https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/content-aware-scaling.html|Photoshop's content aware resizing tool] in order to remove areas of similar colour. While this does remove much of the sea, this is not particularly useful. It also distorts India and Australia so that they are unrecognisable.

South America fits into Africa almost as it did in the era of the super-continent [[wikipedia:Pangaea|Pangaea]].

[[wikipedia:Tissot's indicatrix|Tissot's indicatrices]] are equally sized small circles overlaid on a globe to show the distortion of a particular map projection.

The title text suggests that the shapes of Tissot's indicatrices would be pretty well preserved by the Liquid Resize transformation, 'as long as you draw them in before running the resize'. Since drawing in the indicatrices first would fill all the blank areas between the continents with little circles, the Photoshop filter (which tries to fill blank space) would then no longer be able to find much contiguous blank space anywhere anymore, and in effect leave the input image almost unchanged.. which indeed would cause the shapes of the indicatrices, along with everything else, to be pretty well preserved.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[Caption at the top of the panel:]

Bad Map Projection #107:

The LIQUID RESIZE

A political map compressed using Photoshop's content-aware resizing algorithm to cut down on unused blank space

[A map of the world divided and colored by political boundaries, with outlines around each continent in black and around each country in dark gray. Antarctica is colored in light gray, bodies of water in white, and countries in pale shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The map is heavily distorted, with Africa in the center and the other continents curving around it, approximating the bounds of a square with rounded corners.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]

1769: Never Seen Star Wars

2016-12-13T09:55:58Z

Luckykaa: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1769
| date = December 7, 2016
| title = Never Seen Star Wars
| image = never_seen_star_wars.png
| titletext = If anyone calls you on any weird detail, just say it's from the Jedi Prince book series, which contains so much random incongruous stuff that even most Expanded Universe/Legends fans collectively agreed to forget about it decades ago.
}}

==Explanation==
[[White Hat]] tries to start a conversation with [[Cueball]] about the [[wikipedia:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] space opera film franchise, which Cueball cuts short by stating that he has never seen the movies. This deeply astonishes White Hat. Because the movies are known worldwide and are ingrained into American pop culture, White Hat considers seeing ''Star Wars'' a universal experience.

Cueball reasons that not having watched the films is the "default option", the option that applies if a person makes no explicit choice. In this case it means that if a person does not make the explicit choice to watch the films, then they remain in their initial state of not having watched them. There is some (mildly flawed but still relevant) logic to this: it has been estimated that about 1 billion people, about 15% of the world's population, have seen at least one of the Star Wars movies. This means that about 85% of people alive today have, intentionally or otherwise, exercised that default option. Even accounting for people who have never had the option of seeing Star Wars movies (through poverty, age, country of residence, what have you) people who have not seen Star Wars are still in the majority.

However, the Star Wars mythology is so frequently referenced in American popular culture that it's difficult to consume a normal media diet in the US without being exposed to enough quotes, clips, references, parodies and analogies to piece together most of the plot and major scenes of the films, even having taken no action to see them. Even without having watched it, it's reasonable that White Hat would expect Cueball to know something about the series. He is right, as it happens, since Cueball is able to recognize that "{{w|Death Star}}" is a ''Star Wars'' reference.

When White Hat finally begins to grasp that Cueball has indeed not seen ''Star Wars'', he declares that they must see it very soon or even immediately. When Cueball again shows a lack of interest, White Hat seemingly calls in social reinforcements to agree with him that having watched ''Star Wars'' is the norm. Cueball feels threatened by his friend's unreasonably assertive behavior and quickly removes himself from the situation.

White Hat's attitude during this exchange can be contrasted with [[1053: Ten Thousand]], where Cueball instead handles a similar knowledge gap as an opportunity rather than something horrifying.

Later, [[Ponytail]] likewise wishes to start a conversation about ''Star Wars'', this time about a new movie coming out. Based on his previous experience, Cueball reconsiders admitting to not having seen the past movies, and instead pretends to be looking forward to the new one. Ponytail then tries to continue the conversation, so Cueball bluffs with an incorrect declaration that Darth Vader eats Jedi, likely constructed from other mentions of the ''Star Wars'' characters that he has overheard throughout his life. Cueball carefully chooses his words to make it seem as if he knows what he is talking about.

However, Ponytail doesn't call him out on this error, instead agreeing with it. Cueball is relieved—expressed as his thinking an onomatopoeic sigh of relief—as he believes he has guessed at an accurate piece of information and has avoided entering a similar situation to the previous one. The punchline of this part of the comic is Ponytail's identical feeling of relief, showing that she likewise hasn't seen ''Star Wars'', is also hiding this fact, and is also glad to not be caught. It may be inferred that Ponytail thinks not starting a conversation about ''Star Wars'' might expose her as someone who doesn't follow the series closely.

The "{{w|Star Wars expanded universe|Expanded Universe}}" (EU) was the term used to refer to canonical content outside of original six motion pictures, including novels, comic books, and video games, which existed in a shared continuity. After the ''Star Wars'' franchise was acquired by Disney it was announced that the "Expanded Universe" would be discontinued and rebranded as "Legends", so that the new ''Star Wars'' movies would not have to adhere to the established EU canon.

The title text is a tip for people like Cueball, to help them hide deception when roped into conversations about the films. It argues that since the ''{{w|Jedi Prince series|Jedi Prince}}'' series of novels established so many strange concepts that don't mesh with most other canon information, it makes for an excellent scapegoat to blame ill-fitting declarations on, seeing as even the most devoted, well informed fan has agreed to forget the entire series. Casually bringing up such a forgotten series might also make the bluffer out to be extremely knowledgeable about the ''Star Wars'' franchise as a whole.

This comic may be inspired by the fact that a new ''Star Wars'' movie, ''{{w|Rogue One}}'', will be released into American theaters on December 16, 2016, 9 days after the publishing of the strip.

The huge pop cultural success of Star Wars means it is genuinely surprising to encounter an individual who has not seen it (at least amongst the typical audience of XKCD). The TV series ''{{w|How I Met Your Mother}}'' had {{w|Do I Know You?|an episode}} based around this premise, and there is a radio comedy chat show on {{w|BBC Radio 4}}, as well as a television version in the UK titled ''{{w|I've Never Seen Star Wars (radio series)|I've Never Seen Star Wars}}'', in which celebrity guests try out experiences that are common to others, but new to them.

==Transcript==
[White Hat is facing Cueball while talking to him]
:White Hat: You know the scene on the Death Star where—
:Cueball: Nah, I've never seen ''Star Wars''.

[Close-up of White Hat in a smaller panel]
:White Hat: <big style="background:#000;color:#fff;">''WHAT.''</big>

[White Hat and Cueball are still facing each other]
:White Hat: ''…How?!''
:Cueball: Uh, it was easy?
:Cueball: It was literally the default option.

[Close up of Cueball, White Hat is speaking off-panel]
:White Hat: But… How did you—
:Cueball: Not doing things is my superpower. I'm not doing an infinite number of things ''as we speak!''

[White Hat and Cueball are still facing each other]
:White Hat: We ''have'' to watch it.
:Cueball: Nah, I'm good.

[White Hat has turned away from Cueball and has his hands to his mouth to shout to people off-panel. Cueball has likewise turned away as he walks away and is speaking back over his shoulder]
:White Hat: ''Hey everyone! This guy's never seen Star Wars!''
:Cueball: Listen, I gotta go.

{|class="wikitable"
|Later…
|}
[Ponytail is looking down at her phone in her left hand while Cueball is facing her]
:Ponytail: Wait, there's a new ''Star Wars''?
:Cueball: Oh, I've nev—
:Cueball: …Yeah! Excited for it! Big fan.

[Ponytail holds her phone to her side, transferred to her right hand, as she and Cueball face each other]
:Ponytail: What'd you think of the last one?
:Cueball: Uh… That Darth Vader, man.
:Cueball: Sure does love eating Jedi.

[Ponytail and Cueball continue facing each other]
:Ponytail: Haha, he sure does!
:Cueball [thinking]: Phew!
:Ponytail [thinking]: Phew!
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1771: It Was I

2016-12-12T10:44:06Z

Luckykaa:

"It me" isn't "caveman-speak"... It's a popular Internet meme. See [http://www.papermag.com/it-me-you-and-everyone-we-know-a-look-at-the-webs-most-ambiguous-meme-1427655235.html here] and [http://www.papermag.com/an-interview-with-pastaversaucy-the-inventor-of-the-it-me-meme-1427658503.html here], for starters. --[[User:Esterhazy|Esterhazy]] ([[User talk:Esterhazy|talk]]) 07:47, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I was thinking it might be a reference to the syntax Jar Jar Bings uses "It's a me Jar Jar" "Misa is" etc. which would ad to why Darth Vader begs the Emperor never to speak like this again, it could also serve as a reference to the Darth Jar Jar theories flying around.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.148|162.158.202.148]] 08:30, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Not super familiar with the general style on this wiki, but surely we should note that this ''Star Wars'' comic comes ahead of Friday's ''Rogue One'' premiere, right? Like in a trivia section or the main article somehow? [[User:Aepokk|Aepokk]] ([[User talk:Aepokk|talk]]) 08:19, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I read it as being the emperor who said "It was me who allowed the-" --[[User:RU42LINES|ru42lines]] ([[User talk:RU42LINES|talk]]) 09:32, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
: I agree, so edited as such. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.233|141.101.98.233]] 09:46, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
: Quite right, thanks! --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 10:29, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I checked a bunch of online style guides. It looks like Luke is actually wrong here. "to be"/"was" is a linking verb, and generally "It was I" is considered the correct form. "It was me" is acceptable informally but that doesn't invalidate the rule. [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 10:22, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
: I think you may have missed the point there.--[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 10:30, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
:: Just a note that might be relevant to a more detailed discussion. This wiki does often detail the academic elements of the joke [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 10:44, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1771: It Was I

2016-12-12T10:22:26Z

Luckykaa:

"It me" isn't "caveman-speak"... It's a popular Internet meme. See [http://www.papermag.com/it-me-you-and-everyone-we-know-a-look-at-the-webs-most-ambiguous-meme-1427655235.html here] and [http://www.papermag.com/an-interview-with-pastaversaucy-the-inventor-of-the-it-me-meme-1427658503.html here], for starters. --[[User:Esterhazy|Esterhazy]] ([[User talk:Esterhazy|talk]]) 07:47, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I was thinking it might be a reference to the syntax Jar Jar Bings uses "It's a me Jar Jar" "Misa is" etc. which would ad to why Darth Vader begs the Emperor never to speak like this again, it could also serve as a reference to the Darth Jar Jar theories flying around.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.148|162.158.202.148]] 08:30, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Not super familiar with the general style on this wiki, but surely we should note that this ''Star Wars'' comic comes ahead of Friday's ''Rogue One'' premiere, right? Like in a trivia section or the main article somehow? [[User:Aepokk|Aepokk]] ([[User talk:Aepokk|talk]]) 08:19, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I read it as being the emperor who said "It was me who allowed the-" --[[User:RU42LINES|ru42lines]] ([[User talk:RU42LINES|talk]]) 09:32, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
: I agree, so edited as such. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.233|141.101.98.233]] 09:46, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I checked a bunch of online style guides. It looks like Luke is actually wrong here. "to be"/"was" is a linking verb, and generally "It was I" is considered the correct form. "It was me" is acceptable informally but that doesn't invalidate the rule. [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 10:22, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1769: Never Seen Star Wars

2016-12-07T12:34:21Z

Luckykaa:

My first time providing an explanation and transcript! For once I'm early enough, understand the joke, AND had time! LOL! Be kind... :)

(Hey, if I had an account would I still have to do those damned Captchas?) - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.227|162.158.126.227]] 06:54, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
:I assume your account would have to be autoconfirmed. That means its having over a certain "age" and over a certain edit count. I think the age is a couple of days and the edit threshold is fifteen, though this wiki may have those values configured differently. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]]

You mean it is not a reference to the BBC Radio 4 show. As an experience I will give XKCD 9/10.
: It is the go-to example of a film that 'everyone' has seen. Added a not to this effect, although I feel it could be better phrased. Surprised TVTropes doesn't have a page on this. [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 12:34, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

--

I added a few speculations about the number of people who actually have seen the movies (or one of them). If someone find a decent reference feel free to edit that. I also noticed one word play, not sure if it should be explained or not, but probably. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.89|141.101.80.89]] 09:44, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Is there any canonical evidence Vader didn't eat Jedi though? In the prequel films, he only kills Jedi off-screen. In A New Hope, when he kills Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan disappears. Maybe he just went hungry that day. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.143|141.101.98.143]] 11:38, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

1769: Never Seen Star Wars

2016-12-07T12:24:06Z

Luckykaa: Expand on examples of other shows based around this premise.

{{comic
| number = 1769
| date = December 7, 2016
| title = Never Seen Star Wars
| image = never_seen_star_wars.png
| titletext = If anyone calls you on any weird detail, just say it's from the Jedi Prince book series, which contains so much random incongruous stuff that even most Expanded Universe/Legends fans collectively agreed to forget about it decades ago.
}}

==Explanation==
[[White Hat]] tries to start a conversation with [[Cueball]] about the [[wikipedia:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] sci-fi film franchise, which Cueball cuts short by stating that he has never seen the movies. This deeply astonishes White Hat. Because the movies are known worldwide and are ingrained into American pop culture, White Hat considers seeing ''Star Wars'' a universal experience.

Cueball reasons that not having watched the films is the "default option". In other words, humans are not born with intrinsic knowledge of the series. In fact, ''Star Wars'' was started very recently on the scale of human existence, so the majority of people ever to exist were never able to watch it{{Citation needed}}. As for why he has not watched ''Star Wars'' despite being fully able to do so, Cueball goes on to say that ''not'' doing most given things is easy, appealing to his own apparent laziness. Another possible reason is that, while it is hard to find information about how many have seen Star Wars (especially given home video releases), one estimate is about 1000 million people have seen at least one of the Star Wars movies. This amounts to 10% of the current world population, so 9/10 will not have seen it. In the US and the rest of the Western world, the fraction of people having seen at least one of the movies may be above 50%, which makes Cueballs factoid incorrect from a statistical point of view, even if he is still right about "not doing something" being the default option.

Another word play here is that "default" means "failure to do something required by duty or law : neglect" according to dictionaries, so it is _literally_ the default option.

When White Hat finally begins to grasp that Cueball has indeed not seen ''Star Wars'', he declares that they must see it very soon or even immediately. When Cueball's response is one of uninterest again, White Hat seemingly calls in social reinforcements to agree with him that watching ''Star Wars'' is the norm. Cueball feels threatened by his friend's unreasonable behavior and quickly removes himself from the situation.

Later, [[Ponytail]] likewise wishes to start a conversation about ''Star Wars'', this time about a new movie coming out. Based on his previous experience, Cueball reconsiders admitting to not having seen the past movies, and instead pretends to be looking forward to the new one. Ponytail then tries to continue the conversation, so Cueball bluffs with an incorrect declaration that Darth Vader eats Jedi, likely constructed from other mentions of the ''Star Wars'' characters that he has overheard throughout his life. Cueball carefully chooses his words to make it seem as if he knows what he is talking about.

However, Ponytail doesn't call him out on this error, instead agreeing with it. Cueball is relieved—expressed as his thinking an onomatopoetic sigh of relief—as he believes he has guessed at an accurate piece of information and has avoided entering a similar situation to the previous one. The punchline of this part of the comic is Ponytail's identical feeling of relief, showing that she likewise hasn't seen ''Star Wars'', is also hiding this fact, and is also glad to not be caught. It may be inferred that Ponytail thinks not starting a conversation about ''Star Wars'' might expose her as someone who doesn't follow the series closely.

The title text is a tip for people like Cueball, to help them hide deception when roped into conversations about the films. It argues that since the ''Jedi Prince'' series of novels established so many strange concepts that don't mesh with most other canon information, it makes for an excellent scapegoat to blame ill-fitting declarations on, seeing as even the most devoted, well informed fan has agreed to forget the entire series. Casually bringing up such a forgotten series might also make the bluffer out to be extremely knowledgeable about the ''Star Wars'' franchise as a whole.

This comic is most likely in reference to a then-new ''Star Wars'' movie, ''Rogue One'', which would release into American theaters 9 days after the publishing of the strip on December 16, 2016 (exactly a week before the Belgian release of December 14), or ''The Force Awakens'', which had been out for a while at the time.

The huge pop cultural success of Star Wars means it is genuinely surprising to encounter an individual who has not seen it (at least amongst the typical audience of XKCD). The TV series "How I Met Your Mother" had an episode based around this premise, and there is a radio comedy chat show on [[wikipedia:BBC Radio 4|BBC Radio 4]] in the UK titled [[wikipedia:I've Never Seen Star Wars (radio series)|I've Never Seen Star Wars]], in which celebrity guests try out experiences that are common to others, but new to them, as well as a television version.

==Transcript==
[White Hat is facing Cueball while talking to him]
:White Hat: You know the scene on the Death Star where—
:Cueball: Nah, I've never seen ''Star Wars''.

[Close-up of White Hat in a smaller panel]
:White Hat: <big style="background:#000;color:#fff;">''WHAT.''</big>

[White Hat and Cueball are still facing each other]
:White Hat: ''…How?!''
:Cueball: Uh, it was easy?
:Cueball: It was literally the default option.

[Close up of Cueball, White Hat is speaking off-panel]
:White Hat: But… How did you—
:Cueball: Not doing things is my superpower. I'm not doing an infinite number of things ''as we speak!''

[White Hat and Cueball are still facing each other]
:White Hat: We ''have'' to watch it!
:Cueball: Nah, I'm good.

[White Hat has turned away from Cueball and has his hands to his mouth to shout to people off-panel. Cueball has likewise turned away as he walks away and is speaking back over his shoulder]
:White Hat: ''Hey everyone! This guy's never seen Star Wars!''
:Cueball: Listen, I gotta go.

{|class="wikitable"
|Later…
|}
[Ponytail is looking down at her phone in her left hand while Cueball is facing her]
:Ponytail: Wait, there's a new ''Star Wars''?
:Cueball: Oh, I've nev—
:Cueball: …Yeah! Excited for it! Big fan.

[Ponytail holds her phone to her side, transferred to her right hand, as she and Cueball face each other]
:Ponytail: What'd you think of the last one?
:Cueball: Uh… That Darth Vader, man.
:Cueball: Sure does love eating Jedi.

[Ponytail and Cueball continue facing each other]
:Ponytail: Haha, he sure does!
:Cueball [thinking]: Phew!
:Ponytail [thinking]: Phew!
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1745: Record Scratch

2016-10-12T08:06:51Z

Luckykaa: /* Misleading title text */

== Misleading title text ==

Note: this is a ridiculous pedantic rant. Tl;dr: the xkcd alt text for today is misleading, and I read a lot about the history of music storage to back up that claim.

http://xkcd.com/1745/

So, this alt text is actually pretty misleading, because he's misusing the "whoa! Event A was closer to Event B than to today" meme by implying that 78s were vinyl, when in fact they were largely shellac -- and also I would argue that he's just got the facts wrong about when the 78-rpmera ended. The 78-rpm era arguably began as early as 1898, and arguably ended as late as the 1950s. In became the standard in 1925. So, ok, we could say, "Yeah, 78-rpm era should be considered to mean some time before 1940. That's reasonable, because the 1940s is really when the age of the 33 1/3 begins. So, OK, Randall, the 78-rpm era was closer to the Civil War than to today. But here's the thing. You implied that the 78-rpm era was a vinyl thing. That's not really true. Vinyl is what ushered in the 33 1/3 days. So while it's maybe a cool piece of trivia to say "we first started using 33 1/3 rpm vinyl records in earnest only slightly closer to today than to the Civil War," it's not really a "wow, compare these well known events! Look how old this record scratch reference is!" Because tapes didn't start to seriously compete with vinyl until the late 1970s, and didn't overtake it until about 1985. So it would be fair to say, "the vinyl era ended closer to the start of the Vietnam War than to today," assuming we treat the Vietnam War as beginning in 1954 or later.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.66|108.162.219.66]] 05:04, 12 October 2016 (UTC)
: Agreed. Half way between the end of the US civil war and today was 1940. Vinyl LPs didn't overtake 78's until around 1952 according to Wikipedia (and 78's were being sold until 1960). So I guess what Randall means is that the time between the end of the era, and now is less than the time between the end of the civil war and the start of the 78 era. Might add something to this effect (if nobody else beats me to it) since this does require some clarification. [[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 08:06, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

Why is the explanation even mentioning "gramophones" or "phonographs"? Never mind making them sound important to this comic? (I'm not sure of the spelling, but think "gramophone" is wrong). As someone whose childhood was still during the record era, I've never seen either, but have played many records, and heard said scratch sound many times when I was sloppy or unlucky. It seems likely that 78-rpm records are from the grammophone era, but as the above commentor points out, those weren't vinyl. I would suspect vinyl records are all well past the time of grammophones. The device in question was "commonly" known simply as a record player. The current explanation is making the reference sound a LOT older than it is (and Randall already went there in the title text). - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.227|162.158.126.227]] 05:53, 12 October 2016 (UTC)
:He did not write that the 78-rpm area was a vinyl thing. The vinyl thing is about the scratching of modern records... Gramophone is the Wikipedia name for record player. So chill man ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:40, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

Somebody said it "stores music on a disc with very small bumps". I had to correct that. I feel old. I was born closer to World War 1 than to the present day.

I think Randall chose the exact perfect moment for this comic since vinyls are getting more and more popular, again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_revival#Sales I doubt they will get as widely spread as in past times, but at least here in my town here in Germany even the bigger electronic retailers have fairly large vinyl supplies again. Enough to consider them back in popular culture? I don't know, because I don't know how the situation applies in the US which would be the relevnat part for the understanding of the comic. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:24, 12 October 2016 (UTC)