explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1315: Questions for God

2017-05-27T00:04:22Z

MatthewJ00: Changed explaination to reflect that "men" is used in the general sense, like "mankind," not to mean males.

{{comic
| number = 1315
| date = January 10, 2014
| title = Questions for God
| image = questions_for_god.png
| titletext = What sins could possibly darken the heart of a STEAMBOAT? I asked The Shadow, but he says he only covers men.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] is paraphrasing a famous quote from the British applied mathematician, and fellow of the Royal Society, {{w|Horace Lamb}}, who famously {{w|Horace_Lamb#Career|stated in 1932}}:
:"I am an old man now, and when I die and go to heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One is {{w|quantum electrodynamics}}, and the other is the {{w|Turbulence|turbulent motion of fluids}}. And about the former I am rather optimistic."

This was referring to two phenomena in physics that, at the time, were poorly understood and difficult to explain. Lamb proved to be correct in his prediction that quantum electrodynamics (QED) was easier to explain; nowadays we have a much clearer understanding of QED, while our understanding of turbulence has improved little. {{w|Richard Feynman}}, who was himself largely responsible for explaining QED, famously {{w|Turbulence|described turbulence}} as "the most important unsolved problem of classical physics".

[[Cueball]], in response, indicates that if he were to gain divine elucidation his question would relate to the widespread schoolyard rhyme "{{w|Miss Susie}}", which typically begins with the stanza:

:"Miss Susie had a steamboat
:The steamboat had a bell
:Miss Susie went to heaven
:The steamboat went to...

:'''Hell'''-o operator
:Please give me number nine
:..."

The rhyming scheme between the second and fourth lines, and implied contrast with "heaven," causes the listener to fill in the word "Hell" instead of the innocuous "Hello". Therefore, Cueball is wondering what a steamboat, an object lacking will, could have done to deserve divine punishment.

The title text is a reference to the 1930s pulp series "{{w|The Shadow}}", whose eponymous character is a psychic vigilante. The 1937 radio plays introduction began with the line ''"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"'' Unfortunately, since a steamboat is not a person, The Shadow would be unable to determine what heinous crimes the steamboat had committed to deserve damnation.

This comic, in particular the way Megan and Cueball are walking and its reference to theology, greatly resembles the later comic [[1505: Ontological Argument]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball walks together.]
:Megan: Horace Lamb said he would have two questions for God: why quantum mechanics, and why turbulence?
:Cueball: I'd have just one: ''What did Miss Susie's steamboat '''do?!'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Religion]]

1800: Chess Notation

2017-02-17T15:47:45Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ Fixed "tophat" to "white hat," the proper name of the character.

{{comic
| number = 1800
| date = February 17, 2017
| title = Chess Notation
| image = chess_notation.png
| titletext = I've decided to score all my conversations using chess win-loss notation. (??)
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball begins a conversation with [[White Hat]] with the non-sequitor declaration that he will be scoring his conversations using chess notation. In Chess there are 3 possible results, a win, a loss, or a draw. Those are denoted respectively 1–0, 0–1, and ½–½. Apparently Cueball believes that since White Hat doesn't care, this is a drawn conversation. The double question marks at the end of the title text indicates the move was a 'blunder'.

==Transcript==
Cueball: "I've decided to score all my conversations using chess win-loss notation."

White Hat: "I don't know or care what that means."

Cueball: "Fine."

White Hat: "Fine."

[Caption below drawing:] "½–½"

{{comic discussion}}

1588: Hardware Reductionism

2015-10-11T16:02:13Z

MatthewJ00: Fixed spelling of 'like'

{{comic
| number = 1588
| date = October 9, 2015
| title = Hardware Reductionism
| image = hardware_reductionism.png
| titletext = My MRI research shows a clear correlation between the size of the parietal lobe--the part of the brain that handles spatial reasoning--and enjoyment of 3D Doritos®.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Reductionism}} is the belief that things can be explained by their smaller parts. It can be abused, when complex phenomena with multiple causes are attributed to a single, simple cause.

{{w|Neurological}} reductionism is the attempt to explain people's behavior and personality by physical features of their brain. With advances in {{w|neuroscience}}, and especially in brain imaging, there's a fad to claim that brain types determine what the mind is. Examples of this kind of bad reductionism would be:

*Male brains have more grey matter than females. Therefore males are smarter. For an example of criticism of this kind of reasoning, see ''[http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/dec/04/male-female-brains-real-differences Male and female brains: the REAL differences]'' (4 December 2013).
*Brains of gay males are slightly more symmetrical, as are female brains, when compared to straight males. Therefore gay men are fated to be more effeminate. See [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080616-gay-brain.html Gay Men, Straight Women Have Similar Brains] (16 June 2008).
*The left side of the brain is associated with logical thinking, and the right, with visual and artistic thinking. Therefore people divide into "left-brain" or "right-brain" types, depending on how good they are at using each side. See {{w|lateralization of brain function}} on Wikipedia.

There are several problems with this kind of reasoning. First, most studies identify correlation, not causation (see {{w|correlation does not imply causation}}). Brains are plastic; they can be shaped by experience. For example, if, in a given society, the females are taught to mind their appearance, and the males are taught that aesthetic considerations are unmanly, then of course the female brains will end up with more developed aesthetic centers. In other words, behavior and capabilities aren't always ''determined'' by the brain. Sometimes it's the behavior that shapes the brain; sometimes a third factor (e.g., malnutrition) shapes both.

Second, even when the brain is actually a cause of the behavior, it's far from the only piece in the puzzle. Many studies on brain differences are correlation studies, often about very small effect sizes. Unfortunately, the popular science media tends to gloss over the statistical concept of "effect size". For example, imagine a study that says that males' brains are 0.1% more likely than females' brains to exhibit {{w|attention deficit hyperactivity disorder}} (ADHD). Journalists are prone to report it simply as '''Study Shows that Males Have More ADHD''', and this becomes a conversation sound-bite that neglects other factors, like genetics or pregnancy smoking. (See [[882: Significant]].)

Another kind of excessive neuronal reductionism is the overemphasis on brain modules ("scientists identify brain area responsible for religious faith", and the like). Though it's true that the brain has specialized areas, it's also true that the processing is very complex, messy, and distributed all over. Some varieties of brain damage can often be overcome by learning to use undamaged areas of the brain.

The comic illustrates the problem by analogy to some better-understood general-purpose computing hardware: the {{w|CPU}} in a smartphone. [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] have used their smartphones to take pictures of the same event: a {{w|triathlon}}, that is, an athletic competition comprising three modalities (e.g., swimming, cycling, and running). Cueball wonders why is it that Megan's photos are more popular, and Megan gives a reductionist explanation: She tells that her phone has a quadcore (four cores) whereas Cueball's phone only has two cores (here she even throws in the typical sentence "research shows that" to make her claim sound more valid. A {{w|Multi-core processor|core}} is a part of a CPU that is, roughly speaking, capable of acting as an independent computer. Megan thinks that this means Cueball's smartphone can only capture two events at the same time; she misunderstands how the specialized modules work and fails to realize that the number of cores is unrelated to how many events can be captured. Her claim is like saying that male brains are better at spatial reasoning, and therefore males are better triathlon photographers, or that females are better at multitasking, and therefore females are better triathlon photographers.

A CPU with more cores could process pictures faster, speeding up facial recognition or color filters. So it's true that Megan's CPU makes it slightly easier for her to take pictures. However, this has, at best, a very small effect in the number of "likes". There's a lot more going on with photography than the CPU of the phone: Megan's photographing skills, her luck in capturing interesting scenes, the number of on-line friends she has, etc.

So Megan misunderstands many things: the modularity of CPUs, the small effect of the CPU on the quality of her photography, and the actual causes of her success, much like people who reduce ability to structural features of the brain.

The title text is mocking reductionist explanations based on [[Randall|Randall's]] MRI ({{w|Magnetic resonance imaging|magnetic resonance imaging}}) research. One of the most famous (and [http://arstechnica.com/science/2011/08/gender-gap-in-spatial-reasoning-mia-in-matrilineal-society/ disputed]) claims about gendered brains is that women's brains are (slightly) worse at spatial reasoning. {{w|Doritos}} is a popular junk-food brand of {{w|tortilla chip}} which are typically so flat that they can called a 2D snack. In the 1990s they introduced a special 3D version, the {{w|Doritos#Doritos_3D.27s|3D Doritos®}}. (These [http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/25-junk-foods-we-wish-still-existed/3d-doritos bloated snacks] took up more surface area in your mouth, and had a hollow center filled with cheese-flavored air). A larger spatial reasoning brain area is thus associated with enjoyment of this three-dimensional variation of the popular junk-food snack. So the conclusion could be that men likes these 3D snacks more than women because of their better spatial reasoning, although there could be several other reasons for such gender specific choice of junk-food. The 3D Doritos has for a long time been discontinued, but was reintroduced in 2015, the year of this comics release.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball hold his smartphone looking at it while talking to Megan who is holding her smartphone in her hand.]
:Cueball: Your photos from the triatholon got so many more likes than mine.
:Megan: Yeah - My phone is quad-core. Research shows that iPhones like yours have just two cores, so they have a hard time capturing scenes with three different events in them.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:If we talked about phone hardware the way we talk about brain hardware

==Trivia==
*There is an error in Cueball's comment where he says triath'''o'''lon instead of triathlon.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1586: Keyboard Problems

2015-10-05T17:35:43Z

MatthewJ00: Fixed link.

{{comic
| number = 1586
| date = October 5, 2015
| title = Keyboard Problems
| image = keyboard_problems.png
| titletext = In the future, a group of resistance fighters send me back in time with instructions to find the Skynet prototype and try to upgrade it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. Characters from The Terminator could be explained better. Is there a "comics with Terminator" category? Anything else you can think of}}
This comic is about how computer problems appear with no obvious cause. Even technically skilled people often find themselves powerless to diagnose the problem, and resort to tricks and quirks to solve or circumvent the problem without really understanding how or why the trick should work.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] complains that some keys in his keyboard don't work. Generally speaking, this could be due either to a software problem (i.e. the keyboard driver not working properly, or some program ignoring keypresses) or to a hardware problem (the keyboard is physically damaged, typically because of dirt under the keys).

If the problem is in software, booting from a different operating system (e.g. an external recovery disk) should solve it, as the computer would not be using the faulty software. Conversely, if the problem is in hardware, changing the keyboard should solve the problem as the new keyboard is not physically damaged and has no dirt under the keys.

However, the problem stays there after booting from an external recovery disk (so it's not a software problem) and it has "followed Cueball since his last computer" (i.e. persists after changing the keyboard and even the whole computer, so it's not a hardware problem). Cueball is reasonably puzzled.

[[Megan]] seems to be used to Cueball's computer behaving strangely, and she doesn't even attempt to explain or solve the problem. The only explanation she needs for the problem is that "it's Cueball's computer". The characters in this comic are probably the same as in [[1084: Server Problem]], [[1316: Inexplicable]], and possibly [[349: Success]].

The last panel is a reference to {{w|The Terminator}}, a 1984 movie often referenced in xkcd. In the movie, the artificial intelligence named Skynet initiates a nuclear war, destroying most of humanity, then it sends killing machines to finish the rest. These include flying drones - Megan suggests that if such robots come to Cueball's vicinity, they will (physically) crash since computers around Cueball can't seem to ever work properly, and so hiding in Cueball's house she should be safe from the robots.

The title text refers to main plot of the movie, or rather it's sequel {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day}} - as Skynet's army is losing the battle against human Resistance movement, it finds a way how to send a humanoid robot {{w|Terminator_(character)|T800}} back in time to kill the mother of the Resistance's leader. The Resistance in turn sends a soldier back in time to protect her. In the sequel, the situation repeats with more advanced {{w|T-1000}} being the killer and T-800 being the protector of the kid - future leader. Along the way, they manage to destroy research lab where future Skynet hardware is to be born. The title suggest alternative mission into the past, using Cueball's power to cause Skynet's malfunction instead of destroying it physically (as Skynet got created later anyways, despite the destruction of the research lab).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball] sits between two laptops. Megan stands behind him.]

:Cueball: Keys on my keyboard keep failing, even when I boot from an external recovery disk.
:Megan: Sounds like it's hardware, then.

:[Cueball moves over to the laptop behind him.]

:Cueball: Yeah... except the problem followed me from my ''last'' computer.
:Megan: You have the most ''bizarre'' tech issues.

:[Cueball picks up the keyboard from the rear computer and plugs it into the one in front of him.]

:Cueball: It must be spreading via keyboards. This one won't work with ''any'' computer now.
:Megan: When the robot apocalypse happens, I'm hiding out in your house. Any Skynet drones that come near will develop inexplicable firmware problems and crash.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Terminator]]

1586: Keyboard Problems

2015-10-05T17:32:49Z

MatthewJ00: Added reference to #349.

{{comic
| number = 1586
| date = October 5, 2015
| title = Keyboard Problems
| image = keyboard_problems.png
| titletext = In the future, a group of resistance fighters send me back in time with instructions to find the Skynet prototype and try to upgrade it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. Characters from The Terminator could be explained better. Is there a "comics with Terminator" category? Anything else you can think of}}
This comic is about how computer problems appear with no obvious cause. Even technically skilled people often find themselves powerless to diagnose the problem, and resort to tricks and quirks to solve or circumvent the problem without really understanding how or why the trick should work.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] complains that some keys in his keyboard don't work. Generally speaking, this could be due either to a software problem (i.e. the keyboard driver not working properly, or some program ignoring keypresses) or to a hardware problem (the keyboard is physically damaged, typically because of dirt under the keys).

If the problem is in software, booting from a different operating system (e.g. an external recovery disk) should solve it, as the computer would not be using the faulty software. Conversely, if the problem is in hardware, changing the keyboard should solve the problem as the new keyboard is not physically damaged and has no dirt under the keys.

However, the problem stays there after booting from an external recovery disk (so it's not a software problem) and it has "followed Cueball since his last computer" (i.e. persists after changing the keyboard and even the whole computer, so it's not a hardware problem). Cueball is reasonably puzzled.

[[Megan]] seems to be used to Cueball's computer behaving strangely, and she doesn't even attempt to explain or solve the problem. The only explanation she needs for the problem is that "it's Cueball's computer". The characters in this comic are probably the same as in [[1084: Server Problem]], [[1316: Inexplicable]], and possibly [[349:Success]].

The last panel is a reference to {{w|The Terminator}}, a 1984 movie often referenced in xkcd. In the movie, the artificial intelligence named Skynet initiates a nuclear war, destroying most of humanity, then it sends killing machines to finish the rest. These include flying drones - Megan suggests that if such robots come to Cueball's vicinity, they will (physically) crash since computers around Cueball can't seem to ever work properly, and so hiding in Cueball's house she should be safe from the robots.

The title text refers to main plot of the movie, or rather it's sequel {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day}} - as Skynet's army is losing the battle against human Resistance movement, it finds a way how to send a humanoid robot {{w|Terminator_(character)|T800}} back in time to kill the mother of the Resistance's leader. The Resistance in turn sends a soldier back in time to protect her. In the sequel, the situation repeats with more advanced {{w|T-1000}} being the killer and T-800 being the protector of the kid - future leader. Along the way, they manage to destroy research lab where future Skynet hardware is to be born. The title suggest alternative mission into the past, using Cueball's power to cause Skynet's malfunction instead of destroying it physically (as Skynet got created later anyways, despite the destruction of the research lab).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball] sits between two laptops. Megan stands behind him.]

:Cueball: Keys on my keyboard keep failing, even when I boot from an external recovery disk.
:Megan: Sounds like it's hardware, then.

:[Cueball moves over to the laptop behind him.]

:Cueball: Yeah... except the problem followed me from my ''last'' computer.
:Megan: You have the most ''bizarre'' tech issues.

:[Cueball picks up the keyboard from the rear computer and plugs it into the one in front of him.]

:Cueball: It must be spreading via keyboards. This one won't work with ''any'' computer now.
:Megan: When the robot apocalypse happens, I'm hiding out in your house. Any Skynet drones that come near will develop inexplicable firmware problems and crash.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Terminator]]

1579: Tech Loops

2015-09-18T14:01:51Z

MatthewJ00: Added period at end of sentence. Merged sentence with main paragraph.

{{comic
| number = 1579
| date = September 18, 2015
| title = Tech Loops
| image = tech_loops.png
| titletext = And when I think about it, a lot of "things I want to do" are just learning about and discussing new tools for tinkering with the chain.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First attempt, typed quickly and probably dirtily}}

This comic is about how technically oriented people find more and more complex tools to solve simple problems, which is frustrating.

Usually, people who have used computers in the 1980s and 1990s feel that current tools are very powerful, but aimed at the wrong targets. A real life example of this can be someone who finds the Android keyboard lacks non-English characters, so this person thinks about programming a new keyboard app adding a few keys for characters used often in another language. This user tries to find simple example of Android programs to start learning the basics, and finds surprisingly that the "simple" application in Android is one that finds the GPS coordinates of the current position, searches for nearby gas stations and presents the user with a map for those gas stations.
This would be considered really, really difficult for traditional programming, especially if compared to the relatively simple task of presenting a keyboard on screen. One of the sections of the loop, where "VM" and "Chat Client" are listed is likely a reference to [[1305: Undocumented Feature]].

So, in the comic [[Randall]] finds that the things he wishes to do with his computer (maybe presenting a simple keyboard on screen or performing some simple calculations) can't be done easily, however there are plenty of libraries and tools for other, much more complex, tasks, which in some cases could be related to what he is trying to do but in any event are far too complex to learn and not well suited for the simple goal in his mind.

This is similar to a traditional joke which can be found on [http://www.pfccheatsheet.com/fnpgmr90.htm this link].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1579: Tech Loops

2015-09-18T14:00:46Z

MatthewJ00: Linkified comic reference.

{{comic
| number = 1579
| date = September 18, 2015
| title = Tech Loops
| image = tech_loops.png
| titletext = And when I think about it, a lot of "things I want to do" are just learning about and discussing new tools for tinkering with the chain.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First attempt, typed quickly and probably dirtily}}

This comic is about how technically oriented people find more and more complex tools to solve simple problems, which is frustrating.

Usually, people who have used computers in the 1980s and 1990s feel that current tools are very powerful, but aimed at the wrong targets. A real life example of this can be someone who finds the Android keyboard lacks non-English characters, so this person thinks about programming a new keyboard app adding a few keys for characters used often in another language. This user tries to find simple example of Android programs to start learning the basics, and finds surprisingly that the "simple" application in Android is one that finds the GPS coordinates of the current position, searches for nearby gas stations and presents the user with a map for those gas stations.
This would be considered really, really difficult for traditional programming, especially if compared to the relatively simple task of presenting a keyboard on screen.

The section where "VM" and "Chat Client" are listed is likely a reference to [[1305: Undocumented Feature]]

So, in the comic [[Randall]] finds that the things he wishes to do with his computer (maybe presenting a simple keyboard on screen or performing some simple calculations) can't be done easily, however there are plenty of libraries and tools for other, much more complex, tasks, which in some cases could be related to what he is trying to do but in any event are far too complex to learn and not well suited for the simple goal in his mind.

This is similar to a traditional joke which can be found on [http://www.pfccheatsheet.com/fnpgmr90.htm this link].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1579: Tech Loops

2015-09-18T13:59:39Z

MatthewJ00: Added information about comic 1305 and its relation to this one.

{{comic
| number = 1579
| date = September 18, 2015
| title = Tech Loops
| image = tech_loops.png
| titletext = And when I think about it, a lot of "things I want to do" are just learning about and discussing new tools for tinkering with the chain.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First attempt, typed quickly and probably dirtily}}

This comic is about how technically oriented people find more and more complex tools to solve simple problems, which is frustrating.

Usually, people who have used computers in the 1980s and 1990s feel that current tools are very powerful, but aimed at the wrong targets. A real life example of this can be someone who finds the Android keyboard lacks non-English characters, so this person thinks about programming a new keyboard app adding a few keys for characters used often in another language. This user tries to find simple example of Android programs to start learning the basics, and finds surprisingly that the "simple" application in Android is one that finds the GPS coordinates of the current position, searches for nearby gas stations and presents the user with a map for those gas stations.
This would be considered really, really difficult for traditional programming, especially if compared to the relatively simple task of presenting a keyboard on screen.

The section where "VM" and "Chat Client" are listed is likely a reference to 1305: Undocumented Feature

So, in the comic [[Randall]] finds that the things he wishes to do with his computer (maybe presenting a simple keyboard on screen or performing some simple calculations) can't be done easily, however there are plenty of libraries and tools for other, much more complex, tasks, which in some cases could be related to what he is trying to do but in any event are far too complex to learn and not well suited for the simple goal in his mind.

This is similar to a traditional joke which can be found on [http://www.pfccheatsheet.com/fnpgmr90.htm this link].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1573: Cyberintelligence

2015-09-04T11:57:35Z

MatthewJ00: Fixed the obscene error of using the string of letters "learnt" in place of the past tense of learn, "learned."

{{comic
| number = 1573
| date = September 4, 2015
| title = Cyberintelligence
| image = cyberintelligence.png
| titletext = We had gathered that raw information, but had yet to put it all together.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|May need more information.}}

This comic plays on the fact that some organization appears to be spending obscene amounts of money on their "cyber intelligence" budget, yet all that research appears not to have informed then that the prefix "cyber-" fell out of fashion years ago. The prefix "cyber" is derived from "{{w|Cybernetic}}," which comes from the Greek word κυβερνητικός meaning skilled in steering or governing. {{w|Cyber spying|Cyber intelligence}} is spying in the digital world. If cyber intelligence departments were given names today, they would likely be called Internet Intelligence, Virtual Intelligence or Online Intelligence departments.

This may be due to the fact that government organisations are typically named by middle-aged or senior officials who are generally less likely to be familiar with the current trends in technology language. They are more likely to stick to the words that were used when they first learned about the technology.

The title text continues the joke by implying the organization learned about the demise of "cyber-" yet failed to process or analyze that data. It may also be a reference to the previous comic, which was a link to a survey for xkcd readers.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Ponytail, pointing at a chart on her left and talking offscreen to the right.]
:Ponytail: Our overall FY2015 cyberintelligence budget was $8.1 billion-
:[Interrupted by offscreen]
:Offscreen: -Yet it wasn't enough to pick up on the fact that no one else had used the prefix "cyber-" for like a decade?
:Ponytail: Shut up.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Charts]]

1244: Six Words

2015-05-15T15:08:01Z

MatthewJ00: removed the "in-progress" to reflect the fact that version 1.0 has been released.

{{comic
| number = 1244
| date = July 29, 2013
| title = Six Words
| image = six words.png
| titletext = Ahem. We are STRICTLY an Orbiter shop.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Kuiper Belt}} is a region of the outer Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune consisting of numerous small icy bodies, including the dwarf planets {{w|Pluto}} and {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}. An {{w|Oberth effect|Oberth maneuver}} is a spaceflight maneuver, specifically an engine burn performed during the flyby of a celestial body. The point of this is to optimize usable energy, because rocket burns are more effective to perform at high speeds than at low speeds. The more massive the body and the lower the altitude, the higher the flyby speed will be, and the greater the performance gain due to the Oberth effect. The theoretical way to use rocket fuel most efficiently is therefore to execute the burn during a flyby of the most massive celestial body available, as close as possible.

Cueball is proposing to implement an "Oberth Kuiper Maneuver", and the proposal diagram shows the spacecraft using {{w|Gravity assist|gravity assists}} to travel first towards (presumably) {{w|Venus}} for a first boost, then towards a distant planetary object for another swing by, aiming it back towards the {{w|Sun}}, the most massive Solar System body, to perform an Oberth maneuver at the point of closest approach, as indicated by a small dot along the spacecraft trajectory. (The objects in the diagram are unmarked, and the identity of the distant planetary object is controversial. One possible interpretation is that it is a Kuiper Belt object, referred to by the word "Kuiper" in the name of the proposal. Another possible interpretation is that it is {{w|Jupiter}}, and the word "Kuiper" references the Kuiper Belt as the intended destination of the spacecraft after the maneuver. (See the discussion for arguments for either interpretation.) Also, because the proposed trajectory from Earth to Venus is impossible for unpowered flight, as it does not close on itself after a full orbit, and a single gravity assist from Venus would not suffice to reach either the Kuiper Belt or Jupiter, it is possible that the diagram might only be a simplified outline of a more complex flight plan. Alternatively, Cueball may have gotten it wrong, or [[Randall]] may simply not have concerned himself with such things for the purpose of a webcomic sketch.

An Oberth maneuver in the close vicinity of the Sun, while theoretically possible and extraordinarily effective at the speeds the spacecraft would reach, would however be very difficult to carry out in real life, because the neighborhood of the Sun is an extremely hostile environment and the spacecraft could be incinerated during a too-close flyby.

Cueball's argument for why the maneuver will work in real life is that it works in ''{{w|Kerbal Space Program}}'', a sandbox spaceflight simulator. While it does take into account quite a bit of the physics in a space flight, many liberties were taken in its production, such as a very simple relationship between mass and drag, and the heat and radiation stress the spacecraft would experience in close proximity of the Sun is not simulated either. The humour in referencing it lies in using a simple game program to simulate programs which take a great number of experts to implement. Use of ''Kerbal Space Program'' alone isn't a good enough argument for NASA to agree to implement the proposal; therefore one should not say it at NASA.

The title text refers to ''{{w|Orbiter (simulator)|Orbiter}}'', which is another spaceflight simulator program. The title text suggests that the argument doesn't work for NASA, not because it's not scientifically sound, but because NASA relies on the ''Orbiter'' simulator rather than the ''Kerbal'' simulator (although the proposed maneuver would appear to work in both). Note, however, that [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57495117-93/mars-curiosity-rover-team-prefers-macs-to-pcs/ a few team members "love" to play ''Kerbal''].

==Transcript==
:The six words you ''never'' say at NASA:
:[A trajectory path involving multiple slingshots around Earth, Jupiter, and the Sun labeled "Oberth Kuiper Maneuver" is being presented by Cueball for a crowd. Behind him is Ponytail, who appears to be disgusted.]
:Cueball: And besides— it works in Kerbal Space Program.

==Trivia==
*{{w|NASA}} is planning a mission to the sun at a closest distance of only 8.5 solar radii. The {{w|Solar Probe Plus}} will use seven Venus flybys to reach its [http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/index.php first close approach]. The maneuvers will last nearly seven years, before the real mission does start.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Video games]]

1524: Dimensions

2015-05-13T11:44:58Z

MatthewJ00: Changed the coordinate plane section to reflect the fact that generally X and Z are horizontal and Y is vertical in a 3D cartesian system.

{{comic
| number = 1524
| date = May 13, 2015
| title = Dimensions
| image = dimensions.png
| titletext = I would say time is definitely one of my top three favorite dimensions.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First version of explanation: revised}}
Our world is {{w|Dimension|3-dimensional}} (like in a box; length, width and height.) But in modern {{w|physics}}, {{w|space}} and {{w|time}} are unified in a four-dimensional continuum called {{w|Spacetime|spacetime}} where time becomes the fourth dimension.

It is to this 4-dimensional spacetime that [[Cueball]] refers in his monologue to [[Megan]], while he is philosophizing about his life in these four dimensions.

What Cueball comments on is that whereas we can, to some extent, determine in which direction we wish to move (at least on the surface of the Earth) in the three dimensions of space (up-down, left-right, forward-backward), we cannot help but being pushed ''inexorably forward'' through time. So it is quite lucky for Cueball that he thinks this is OK.

Being pushed in one of the other directions could be lethal, if you where pushed hard enough against a rock, over a cliff or in front of a truck. However, the same can be said about being pushed forward in time as well. It can be lethal by causing old age, or by placing us in dangerous times when natural disasters have happened. In either scenario, the danger can be avoided by sidestepping it, in one of the other 3 dimensions.

In the title text he then continues to muse about his favorite dimensions and places time in his top three dimensions. This means that one of the three space dimensions would be his least favorite. But in space, there is no difference between the three dimensions. It is only in a fixed reference system that you can assign any difference to these three directions (like on Earth). So this doesn't make any sense. Either time should be his favorite or his least favorite dimension. So if it is in the top three out of four, it must be number one...

Also, Cueball may be referring to a naive "fixed" view of three spatial dimensions in a {{W|Cartesian coordinate system}}, as often seen in geometry textbooks: the X and Z axes forming a horizontal plane and the Y axis being the vertical one. In this case, presumably, his three favorite "dimensions" could be X, Z and time, as he could easily move along these three axes, but moving along the Y axis (e.g. flying over the ground - or falling down a cliff) requires special arrangements or is outright dangerous.

However in {{W|M-theory}}, a theory that unifies all consistent versions of {{w|superstring theory}}, spacetime is eleven-dimensional, which would make a place in the top three a somewhat more interesting position. However, these extra dimensions are not currently detectable.

Previously [[Randall]] has made a comic about a man who was pushed sideways (although still held in place by gravity?) - so he was pushed both through time and to the side: [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]]. On a similar note in [[1376: Jump]] Cueball suddenly slides off without falling down after a jump...

The conditional verb used by Cueball suggests a different interpretation: "Of the four dimensions I '''''could''''' have spent my life etc .." but actually Cueball, as a character of a webcomic, has actually spent his entire life in a 3 dimensions universe (height, width and time). So when in the title text he says that time may be in the top three, he may imply that time is still his less favorite dimension

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting up against a tree, Megan lies with her hands behind her neck in front him under the foliage of the tree.]
:Cueball: Of the four dimensions I could have spent my life being pushed inexorably forward through, I guess "time" isn't the worst.

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Space]]

1513: Code Quality

2015-04-18T02:38:21Z

MatthewJ00: Expanded on title text explain.

{{comic
| number = 1513
| date = April 17, 2015
| title = Code Quality
| image = code quality.png
| titletext = I honestly didn't think you could even USE emoji in variable names. Or that there were so many different crying ones.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete| Needs fine-tuning and explaining of Ponytail's three comments}}

Ponytail is about to look at some source code Cueball has written, and he is warning her that he is self-taught so his code probably won't be written the way she is used to. Although few programming languages require a perfectly rigid style so long as the code is syntactically accurate, most programmers follow some sort of {{w|Programming_style|style}} to make the code easier to read. This includes indenting lines to show levels and using descriptive variable identifiers with {{w|CamelCase|CamelCase}} (or camelCase) or {{w|Snake case|snake_case}} capitalization (capitalizing each word except for the first, and separating lowercase words with underscores, respectively). In spite of Ponytail's initial (polite) optimism, she comments in three increasingly harsh and absurd similes. Firstly, she suggests that reading his code is like being in a house built by an unskilled child, using a small axe to put together what he thought was a house based on a picture. Secondly, she suggests that it looks like a salad recipe, written by a corporate lawyer (who are notoriously difficult to understand), on a phone with autocorrect that only corrected things to formulas from Microsoft Excel (which are notoriously complicated). Thirdly, she suggests that it is a transcript of the dialogue of couple arguing at {{w|IKEA}} (a world-wide chain of furniture stores which feature large, maze-like showrooms as well as a large warehouse area where you can pick up the furniture you want to buy in flat, some-assembly-required packaging; especially on weekends when many people crowd in to a store, they can be stress-inducing places), the transcript of which was then randomly edited until the computer compiled it with no errors. Finally, Cueball surrenders and makes the rather weak assurance that he will read “a style guide”.

A common technique for self-taught programmers is to follow and adapt tutorials, and to find examples of similar problems being solved and try to copy the code. This can (but doesn't always) lead to code that is hard to follow or otherwise "messy" as various different pieces of code are {{w|Jury_rig|jury-rigged}} together and tinkered with until they seem to work. Once a piece of code is working, it is usually considered too hard to go back and rewrite it to be cleaner or clearer, also at the risk of breaking something that has been working. This practice is known as {{w|refactoring}} and code projects that incorporate cycles of refactoring tend to be easier to read and maintain than those that don't.

The title text refers to {{w|emoji}}, or "smiley faces". They exist in Unicode, or can be simulated using ASCII characters. Many languages will allow variable names to include underscores, so a variety of sad face ASCII emoji will be legal variable names, such as <code>T_T</code>, <code>p_q</code>, <code>ioi</code> etc. Progressively more possible crying-face emoji are possible if variables can include [http://hexascii.com/sad-emoticons/ UTF-8 characters] or full Unicode. To this end, Ponytail is implying that at least a portion of, and possibly most or all of Cueball's variables were emoji variables.

In the realm of Unicode, there are many crying emojis, as the comic states (e.g. 😢,😭,😂,😿,😹) In most programming languages it would be impossible to use them in variable names, as the symbols would break the language's syntax rules. Notable exceptions to this are {{w|Go (programming language)|Go}} and {{w|Swift (programming language)|Swift}}, Apple's new programming language, in which the code can understand and use emojis in variables. Java, as another example, allows unicode characters in variable names as long as they are letter, numeric, combining or non-formatting marks. (See [http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-3.html#jls-3.8] and [http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Character.html#isUnicodeIdentifierPart%28int%29]). Also, some C++ compilers support foreign Unicode characters and can have emoji in that manner.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball showing Ponytail his laptop]
:Cueball: Keep in mind that I'm self-taught, so my code may be a little messy.
:Ponytail: Lemme see - I'm sure it's fine.

:[Ponytail sits at desk]
:Ponytail: ...Wow. This is like being in a house built by a child using nothing but a hatchet and a picture of a house.

:Ponytail: It's like a salad recipe written by a corporate lawyer using a phone autocorrect that only knew Excel formulas.

:Ponytail: It's like someone took a transcript of a couple arguing at IKEA and made random edits until it compiled without errors.
:Cueball: '''''Okay,''''' I'll read a style guide.

{{comic discussion}}


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

805: Paradise City

2015-03-14T03:30:25Z

MatthewJ00: Got rid of the acute accent on the 'e' in debut.

{{comic
| number = 805
| date = October 13, 2010
| title = Paradise City
| image = paradise city.png
| titletext = Take me down to the paradise municipality / where the grass is mauve and the girls aren't fromthisreality.
}}

==Explanation==
"{{w|Paradise City}}" is a song by the hard rock band {{w|Guns N' Roses}} which appeared on their debut album ''{{w|Appetite for Destruction}}''. It sings of the fictional Paradise City, an idyllic place whereto the lyrical self longs to return. The location is contrasted with the depressing reality in which the persona is trapped, using for instance the image of a gas chamber.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] can be seen singing different versions of the chorus. In each panel, the word "City" is substituted by a synonym and the rest of the verse is altered accordingly to keep the rhyme scheme (usually awkwardly because he has chosen difficult words to rhyme with).

The sequence of stanzas describes the fate of Paradise City. It starts the original version drawing an idyllic picture. In a rather unexpected turn, however, the next stanza has the place pillaged and plundered. Chaos and anarchy reign, the once fresh and green meadows are now burned. Law and order are restored in the next verses and the other extreme starts to prevail: Paradise City has become a totalitarian {{w|dystopia}}. The fourth stanza refers to {{w|George Orwell|George Orwell's}} dystopian novel ''{{w|Nineteen Eighty-Four}}''. The book shows a world in which mind control and omnipresent surveillance render individual thought and action impossible. The concluding verses suggest that the totalitarian government has successfully brainwashed the former rebels and established an effective, yet sterile technocratic society. "Cortical lesions" in this panel could be a reference to the dystopian novel ''{{w|Uglies}}'' by {{w|Scott Westerfeld}}, which describes a society in which extreme plastic surgery is used to turn people "pretty". (SPOILER) It is later revealed in the book that this procedure is accompanied by a neurosurgical operation making the patient placid and obedient through a {{w|lobotomy}}.

The development of the city in Cueball's song reveals that the term "{{w|Paradise}}" can be applied to very different and even oppositional scenarios. While the original song describes the city as a rural Eden, some might refute this conception as a bourgeois or {{w|Agrarianism|agrarian romantic}} ideal. Others would fear that too much individual freedom might be dangerous and opt for {{w|Surveillance state|security through control}}. Especially the picture of the last stanza is a common vision in dystopian literature (e.g. ''{{w|Brave New World}}''): Although the citizens of a future society entirely lack any personal choice or individual freedom, they deem themselves happy because education or thought control present this a necessity for a functioning society.

In popular culture, the word "Paradise" is often used to describe a place of bliss and perfect harmony, as in the original religious sense of the term. It is however also frequently linked to the idea of living out one's deepest and darkest desires, therefore in some way to a place of {{w|sin}}. Considering the lifestyle of Guns N' Roses, it can be assumed that the "pretty girls" of the original song are not necessarily chaste.

The title text suggests that ''Paradise City'' is in fact a drug-induced state of {{w|Ecstasy (emotion)|ecstasy}} with strange and colourful {{w|hallucination|hallucinations}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits on a box playing a guitar and singing.]
:Cueball: Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.
:Cueball: Take me down to the paradise village where the grasses burn and those cute girls pillage.
:Cueball: Take me down to the fire-charred counties where the law's restored by Canadian mounties.
:Cueball: Take me down to Orwellian regions where they retrain girls using cortical lesions.
:Cueball: Take me down to the paradise borough where the grass is labeled 'cause the girls are thorough. Ohh, won't you please take me hooome...

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

1496: Art Project

2015-03-09T18:59:41Z

MatthewJ00: Changed explain to reflect the fact that the second speaker is Megan, not the fourth speaker. Some grammar cleanup.

{{comic
| number = 1496
| date = March 9, 2015
| title = Art Project
| image = art project.png
| titletext = It's my most ambitious project yet, judging by the amount of guacamole.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic appears to be satirizing {{w|art}} in two different ways. From one perspective [[Randall]] is describing various art forms in unusual ways (e.g. a portrait by [[Cueball]], a video for [[Megan]], and perhaps live action by [[Ponytail]]). From another perspective, Randall might be making fun of {{w|Time-lapse photography|time-lapse photography}} movies. {{w|YouTube}} has a robust collection of videos taken from stitching together pictures or short video clips taken every day or every week; in the {{w|87th Academy Awards|2015 Academy Awards}}, one of the Best Picture nominees, {{w|Boyhood (film)|Boyhood}}, used a similar method, filming short sequences annually over the course of a decade and a half.

In each case, the art described would be useless. A picture of oneself "every hundred years" will only happen once; a "picture every 1/24th of a second" is the standard {{w|frame rate}} for most small cameras for video, and "watching my face age in real time" is just life...

Then finally the girl with the long hair (not a character named yet) pokes fun at all of them by simply watching their attempts at "art" while she eats a {{w|burrito}}. Randall may also be referencing the many perspectives on art by leaving this comic open to several interpretations. The use of a burrito as a punchline representing someone who is grounded in reality instead of engaging in esoteric pursuits has been seen before in [[1269: Privacy Opinions]].

The title text is just more snark, claiming that it's Megan's most ambitious project ever if the sole criterion for ambition is the amount of {{w|guacamole}} used.

==Transcript==

:Cueball: I'm doing an art project where I take a picture of myself every hundred years.

:Girl with short hair: I'm doing an art project where I take a picture of myself every 1/24th of a second.

:Ponytail: I'm doing an art project where you can come to my house and watch my actual face age in real time.

:Megan: I'm doing an art project where you all do those things while I eat a burrito.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1210: I'm So Random

2015-02-09T21:18:26Z

MatthewJ00: Fixed the "metric foot" link to go to "foot (prosody)" instead of an article about the measurement.

{{comic
| number = 1210
| date = May 10, 2013
| title = I'm So Random
| image = im so random.png
| titletext = In retrospect, it's weird that as a kid I thought completely random outbursts made me seem interesting, given that from an information theory point of view, lexical white noise is just about the opposite of interesting by definition.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Hairy]] walks up to [[Black Hat]], utters a nonsense phrase and them proclaims that he is "so random". This is a reference to a modern phenomenon in which people make "random" statements, and somehow imagine themselves to be funny and interesting because of this. Black Hat, never one to hesitate over bringing someone down hard, replies that he is also random, proving this by pouring forth a torrential stream of numbers that nearly overcomes poor Hairy. Black Hat then resumes his posture at the computer, as if nothing has happened.

It is true that when brilliant and creative people speak passionately about a subject, they can make mental leaps and changes of context that might seem bewildering to an outsider. The conversation may even seem to be "random". However, simply vocalizing nonsense is not analogous, or even desirable; it is more likely a character trait of someone who has difficulty in following or adding to a normal human conversation.

Black Hat's "random" numbers are actually quoted from [http://oeis.org/A002205 the first lines] of ''{{w|A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates}}'' making it both "officially random", but also essentially not. See also: [[221: Random Number]].

A side note is that "Monkey tacos" is a phrase which contains two trochees. A {{w|trochee}} is a {{w|Foot_(prosody)|metric foot}} with one stressed beat and one unstressed beat; it may be a reference to or an unconscious allusion to [[856: Trochee Fixation]].

The title text elaborates on "random text", stating that he once would have believed that Hairy's random outbursts made him interesting despite the definition of "interesting" meaning the opposite. {{w|White noise}} is essentially random sounds waves which taken en masse blend into audio static essentially taking on a macroscopically uniform sound experience despite their random nature. This can be used in some sleep or relaxation therapies, which foils well with the random assault experienced in the comic.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat sitting at his desk at a computer. Hairy runs up behind him.]
:Hairy: ''MONKEY TACOS!'' I'm so random.

:Black Hat: Yeah, me too.

:[Black Hat swings in his chair to face Hairy and emits a massive speech bubble filled with random numbers, knocking Hairy to the ground.]
:Black Hat: 100973253376520135863467354
:::: 876809590911739292749453754
:::: 204805648947429624805240372
:::: 063610402002291665084226895
:::: 319645093032320902560159533
:::: 476435080336069901902529093

:[Black Hat resumes work at his computer as if nothing has happened.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1469: UV

2015-01-05T12:02:23Z

MatthewJ00: Corrected spelling of rough in incomplete tag.

{{comic
| number = 1469
| date = January 5, 2015
| title = UV
| image = uv.png
| titletext = Hey, why stop at our house? We could burn down ALL these houses for the insurance money.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Rough draft. Nerds editing, lynx, and speciation.}}

Ultraviolet (or UV, the title of the comic) light is a kind of light that is slightly more energetic than the visible light spectrum. Ultraviolet light is normally by itself invisible, but can induce fluorescing (glowing) of certain organic molecules. This is a means to detect small amounts of blood (as most television watchers know) and also urine. The first part of this comic focuses on Megan showing off her new UV flashlight to Cueball, who in this scenario lives with Megan, by revealing how disgusting their bathroom really is despite how clean it appears. She manages this due to UV light's special property of causing chemicals in urine to glow. Both Cueball and Megan are horrified by their discovery. A common meme with UV lights or other cleanliness tests resulting in over reaction to the normal state that didn't previously require extreme responses, but some how does when revealed. Feeling that their house will never be clean, Cueball and Megan resolve to burn it down for the insurance money ({{w|insurance fraud}}). The last panel of the comic reveals that the two hadn't purchased fire insurance beforehand, and plan on purchasing it now, only to make a claim immediately afterwards. This plan will not work, because insurance only covers fires that begin after purchasing the insurance, and does not cover anything that happens before purchasing the insurance or intentionally caused situations.

The title text shows just how morally bankrupt the UV flashlight made Megan and Cueball, as one of them suggests burning down many houses in order to claim the insurance money. This plan also will not work. Even if insurance has been purchased for the other homes, the insurance companies will pay the owners of those homes, not Cueball and Megan (And Cueball and Megan would be arrested).

==Transcript==
:[Megan standing behind Cueball, who's sitting at a computer.]
:Megan: Our bathroom looks pretty clean, right?
:Cueball: I think so, why?
:Megan: I got a UV flashlight, come look.

:[Megan and Cueball are walking]

:[Megan and Cueball are offscreen]
:Cueball: Looks fine.
:*click click*
:Cueball: ...Oh my god.

:[Megan and Cueball walking in the opposite direction]
:Cueball: The toilet looked like the guy's chest after the alien broke out.
:Megan: What do we ''do''?

:[Megan and Cueball standing]
:Cueball: We clean. Clean and clean and never stop.
:Megan: It won't be enough. We should just burn the place down for the insurance money.

:[Cueball standing behind Megan, who's pouring gasoline onto the floor.]
:Cueball: Isn't that wrong?
:Megan: My morality evaporated under the harsh UV lught.

:[Megan and Cueball standing outside a burning building]

:[Megan and Cueball standing, Cueball looking at his phone]
:Cueball: Ok, I'm Googling insurance companies. Which one do you think pays the most?
:Megan: Let's just try calling around.

{{comic discussion}}

505: A Bunch of Rocks

2014-12-01T23:09:20Z

MatthewJ00: Fixed one spelling issue.

{{comic
| number = 505
| date = November 17, 2008
| title = A Bunch of Rocks
| image = a_bunch_of_rocks.png
| titletext = I call Rule 34 on Wolfram's Rule 34.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|What is the diagram to the right of the Epitaph of Stevinus? Many items are not well explained.}}

[[Cueball]] awakens to find himself trapped for eternity in an endless expanse of sand and rocks. At first, he uses this time to derive all of mathematics and physics, including {{w|quantum mechanics}} and {{w|general relativity}}. Next Cueball creates a computer that can process any possible function, out of rocks and rules for the interaction between rocks. He then simulates a particle followed by the interactions between particles, followed by the entire universe. The amount of time it takes to simulate the change in the universe from one instant to the next ({{w|Planck time}}) takes an extremely long time as the time it takes to update just one row of rocks can be measured in eons.

Cueball then apologizes for any flaws we see in the simulation. This implies that the audience is living in Cueball's simulation, making Cueball essentially God.

The final frame cuts to a classroom where a bored student stares at his hands waiting for class to end. Cueball admonishes the student for thinking that class is lasting forever. The joke being that the boredom felt in a classroom is nothing compared to the boredom that inspires Cueball to spend his time toiling to keep the universe moving.

The title text suggests that {{w|Rule 34 (Internet meme)|Rule 34}} should be called on {{w|Elementary cellular automaton#Random initial state|Wolfram's Rule 34}}. Rule 34 (see [[305: Rule 34]]) is a humorous rule of the Internet which states "If you can imagine it, there is porn of it. No exceptions." Wolfram's Rule 34 is a cellular automaton. Therefore the title text says that someone should make pornography featuring the cellular automaton in question.

===Graphs===
The three diagrams in the "Physics, too. I worked out the kinks..." panel are, from left to right:
# The {{w|Normal distribution}} of the {{w|Gaussian curve}} marking the points that represent a standard deviation of σ and 2σ. This is one of the fundamental building blocks of statistics. In quantum mechanics particles are viewed as inherently random, therefore the time at which a particle will decay, the position of a particle and its velocity are all calculated using similar curves. A deviation of σ occurs 50% of the time where a deviation of 2σ occurs about 5% of the time.
# The {{w|Inclined plane#History|Epitaph of Stevinus}}, an explanation of the mechanical advantage of using an {{w|inclined plane}}. The inclined plane is one of the six classical {{w|simple machine}}s, one of the fundamental building blocks of mechanical and civil engineering.
# A depiction of {{w|length contraction}}, with two lines of the same length locally but different lengths as one is viewed in motion.

The graph that represents partial interaction is a {{w|Feynman Diagram}}. This shows the interaction of subatomic particles who collide and exchange some momentum via a photon. The slope of the middle line represents the distance moved and the time lost/gained during the interaction.

===Notes===
The Swiss patent office line refers to {{w|Albert Einstein}}, who was employed as a Swiss patent clerk while coming up with his theory of special relativity. This joke is also referenced in http://explainxkcd.com/1067/ .Also there is a standing joke that very few important inventions have come from Switzerland, since the country hadn't been involved in the world wars, and thus has not been part of the weapons race, nor was it a driving force in the preceding Industrial Revolution.

In the center of the comic, the binary numbers pointing to the particle are both 42. This is a reference to the comedic answer to the ''Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything'' from the ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series.

Cueball mentions that if we see an artifact flutter in and out of reality he must have made a mistake in the last "billions and billions of millennia." This implies the small period of time artifact is present in his time is longer than our universe has existed. This is a ''very'' long time.

===Cellular Automaton===
Cueball uses the rocks to build a {{w|cellular automaton}}, a computational model based on simple rules to advance from one state to the next. Certain cellular automata are {{w|Turing-complete}}, which means that they can be used to represent any conceivable algorithm if expanded infinitely. He specifically seems to be running Wolfram's {{w|Rule 110}}, which is capable of universal computation.
When using Rule 110 for universal computation, one builds a background pattern, which can be seen in the comic as the pattern of smaller triangles, and then performs computation by sending out "rockets" to collide and interact with each other.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking alone in a desert, narrating his own situation.]
:So I'm stuck in this desert for eternity.
:I don't know why. I just woke up here one day.

:I never feel hungry or thirsty.

:I just walk.

:Sand and rocks

:stretch to infinity.
:As best as I can tell.

:[Cueball is sitting in the desert, in a contemplative position.]
:There's plenty of time for thinking out here.
:An eternity really.

:[Cueball is sketching stuff in the sand.]
:I've rederived modern math in the sand
:and then some.

:[Different graph types are depicted.]
:Physics too. I worked out the kinks in quantum mechanics and relativity.
:Took a lot of thinking, but this place has fewer distractions than a Swiss patent office.

:[Cueball is walking along the desert, laying out rocks.]
:One day I started laying down rows of rocks.

:[Cueball continues to deploy rocks.]
:Each new row followed from the last in a simple pattern.

:[Image continues to zoom out showing laid out rocks.]
:With the right set of rules and enough space,

:I was able to build a computer.
:Each new row of stones is the next iteration of the computation.

:Sure it's rocks instead of electricity, but it's the same* thing.
:Just slower.
:<nowiki>*Turing-complete</nowiki>

:[Cueball in contemplative pose.]
:After a while, I programmed it to be a physics simulator.

:[A particle labeled by binary strings.]
:Every piece of information about a particle was encoded as a string of bits written in the stones.

:[A {{w|Feynman diagram}} showing two particles interacting.]
:With enough time and space, I could fully simulate two particles interacting.

:[Cueball standing before the vastness of the desert.]
:But I have ''infinite'' time and space.

:[Depiction of various galaxies and other systems.]
:So I decided to simulate a universe.

:[Cueball is walking about his rocks, moving them around.]
:The eons blur past as I walk down a single row.

:[Zoom out of the rows of rocks.]
:The rows blur past to compute a single step.

:[Shows placement of two particles.]
:And in the simulation...

:[The two particles have moved; an after-image of their previous placement is present.]
:...another instant ticks by.

:[A person observes a mote of dust vanish.]
:So if you see a mote of dust vanish from your vision in a little flash or something

:[Cueball is holding two rocks, rearranging them.]
:I'm sorry. I must have misplaced a rock
:sometime in the last few billions and billions of millennia.

:[Cueball in front of the vastness of his infinite desert.]
:Oh and...

:[Cueball in a classroom setting with head in hands, girl and professor are present; there are apparently less than five minutes left in the class.]
:If you think the minutes in your morning lecture are taking a long time to pass for ''you''...

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

1441: Turnabout

2014-10-31T14:52:08Z

MatthewJ00: Added information about retroreflector probability.

{{comic
| number = 1441
| date = October 31, 2014
| title = Turnabout
| image = turnabout.png
| titletext = Whenever I miss a shot with a sci-fi weapon, I say 'Apollo retroreflector' really fast, just in case.
}}

==Explanation==
In the comic, two people are engaging in a battle with laser guns. One appears to gain the upper hand as he jumps on an obstacle, as the other's shot goes wide. He delivers the classic line [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnyLastWords "Any last words?"] and is answered with the confusing phrase "Apollo retroreflectors". The earlier wild shot, reflected off the moon, promptly lances down from space and hits him in the back.

A retroreflector is a device or surface that reflects light back at its source. The [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/experiments/lrr/ Apollo 11], 14 and 15 moon missions placed several such devices on the surface of the Moon to help scientists on Earth measure the distance between the two bodies using laser ranging, as did some of the Russian landers. The likelihood of the wild shot being aimed at the moon is fairly low in itself, and the probability of accidentally hitting a retroreflector on the moon is lower still. Even if it did, it is highly unlikely that a pistol-sized generator could produce a beam coherent enough to inflict damage after traveling to the moon and back, as lasers built for the purpose of hitting retroreflectors on the moon typically get a return around one quadrillionth of the original beam.

The title text mentions that you would need to say "Apollo retroreflector" really fast, because from Earth you would only have about [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2+*+moon+distance+from+earth+%2F+speed+of+light 2.5 seconds] before the light is reflected back to its source.

[[Randall]] discussed the effect of hitting the moon with lasers in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ What If: Laser Pointer] and the likelihood of hitting a celestial object with a laser in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/109/ What If: Into the Blue].

==Transcript==

[Two people engage in battle using handheld laser guns.]

[Person 2's shot misses, Person 1 jumps on a desk.]

Person 1: Any last words?

Person 2: "Apollo retroreflectors"

Person 1: What?

[Person 1 is hit in the back by the reflected shot.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Space]]

1439: Rack Unit

2014-10-27T15:00:48Z

MatthewJ00: Added a period at transcript setting information.

{{comic
| number = 1439
| date = October 27, 2014
| title = Rack Unit
| image = rack_unit.png
| titletext = There's also nothing in the TOSes that says you can't let a dog play baseball in the server room!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explain "similar pitches". What does the term pitch typically refer to in data centers and beehives, and what are typical values?}}
[[Black Hat]] announces to [[Megan]] that {{w|19-inch_rack}}s for datacenter servers and {{w|Langstroth hive}} frames are both 19 inches wide. Black Hat is motivated by this knowledge to break into a Google datacenter and fill server racks with beehives. When Megan sarcastically consoles Black Hat for the loss of his hives, he declares that he'll find other datacenters to install hives in.

In reality standard server frames and {{w|Langstroth hive}} frames are both 19 inches wide, but they have completely different mounting mechanisms and differ in other dimensions.

Some datacenters provide colocation services where customers may install a server at a central location with better bandwidth and power reliability than a customer could provide on their own. Noticing that typical colocation {{w|Terms Of Service}} (TOS) agreements don't specifically rule out the installation of beehives, Black Hat suggests he can enter a legal contract allowing him to install beehives at a data center without being kicked out.

As with many types of Terms of Service contracts, such as privacy agreements, a standard {{w|Standard_form_contract|boilerplate}} wording is used amongst many contractors. Megan comments that a term forbidding the installation of beehives will quickly become a standard term in colocation agreements.

The alt-text may be a reference to the film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118570/quotes?ref_=tt_ql_3 Air Bud]. The original quote is "Ain't no rules says a dog can't play basketball."

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Black Hat are talking, Megan is sitting at a computer.]
:Black Hat: I've discovered something.
:Megan: Oh?
:Black Hat: Standard server rack units and standard beehive honeycomb frames are compatible.
:Black Hat: They're both 19 inches, with similar pitches.
:Megan: Uh oh.
:Black Hat: I'm pleased to announce that today, for a few hours, Google led the world in datacenter honey production.
:Black Hat: Until their security people kicked me out.
:Megan: I'm sorry your beekeeping career ended so quickly.
:Black Hat: I'll find a new datacenter.
:Black Hat: Turns out most colocation TOSes don't mention beehives.
:Megan: I suspect that will soon change.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]

887: Future Timeline

2014-10-21T15:27:59Z

MatthewJ00: Added more information, rewrote incomplete tag reason.

{{comic
| number = 887
| date = April 18, 2011
| title = Future Timeline
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = future timeline.png
| titletext = Not shown: the approximately 30,000 identical, vaguely hysterical articles titled "WHITE PEOPLE IN [THE US/BRITAIN] TO BECOME MINORITY BY [YEAR]!", which came up for basically any year I put in.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Very little elaboration.}}
This comic uses the same strategy as comic [[715: Numbers]], in which Randall uses Google to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs.

"2101 - War Was Beginning" is a reference to the opening narration of video game ''Zero Wing''; the same narration is famous for the internet meme "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}". As there are not any other out and out references in the comic, and the rest are actually results that you can find if you search using Randall's methods, we're pretty sure "War Was Beginning" came up when he googled 2101 as well.

Another point of this comic is that certain event, e.g. "Social Security stops running surplus", are repeated multiple times. Also, certain bizarre events, like "Apocalypse occurs", or "Flying cars reach market", happen before rather plausible things, like "HTML 5 Finished". Certain events, like "Japan is a robot-only country", may be related to a recurring theme in xkcd comics, including [[605: Extrapolating]]. This may also refer to the large amount of research being done to develop viable robots in Japan as compared with other countries.

The title text is borne of a recurring "white people panic"; scaremongers will put in years of the very near future in order to get the panicked racist people to pay attention to them (without actually using valid or accepted scientific measurements to back up these claims; panicked racist people don't exactly fact-check very much), while level-headed sociologists will usually come up with more distant dates from their extrapolations.

As for how accurate the Internet has been: The ONLY prediction to have come true as of January 2014 is the world population hitting the 7 billion mark. The United States has now returned to Afghanistan, making that prediction unlikely to occur even by the end of 2014. And unless you count the Android phone platform, Linux shows absolutely no signs of winning back 50% of the operating system market in the next 12 months.

This comic has similar features to [[1413: Suddenly Popular]], [[1093: Forget]], and [[891: Movie Ages]].

==The predictions==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Prediction
! Further Details
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2012
| World population
| Ever since the advent of modern medicine and the more efficient agricultural processes developed suit the Industrial Revolution, the human population had been growing at an unprecedented rate. This has caused some people to worry about overpopulation, which would cause a scarcity of resources and overcrowding, and propose various solutions, most of which involve some form of eugenics. 7 billion is a landmark number because it is a multiple of 1 billion.
|-
| Flying cars
| For decades, flying cars have been a staple of futuristic sci-fi and technological predictions. So far none of these predictions, which to tend to hover around 5–10 years from whatever the current date is, have come true.
|-
| Canada cuts greenhouse emissions
| Currently, the Earth is experiencing an unprecedented period of warming we call global warming, caused in part by greenhouse emissions, which are gases that help trap heat in the atmosphere. Countries have repeatedly gotten together and promised to stop emitting greenhouse gases, but so far they have failed to meet their targets.
|-
| Apocalypse occurs
| This is in reference to the popular film 2012, which portrays the world ending December 22, 2012, using the end of a cycle of the Mayan calendar as a basis for predicting the end of the world. Some people took this rather more seriously, and actually believed that the world would end on this date. It didn't.
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2013
| National debt paid off
| For years, the subject of national debt has been a political point of contention, with the Republicans typically favoring paying it all off, and the Democrats more willing to spend to pull the country out of recessions in the economy. Clinton, a democrat, at one point proposed [http://money.cnn.com/1999/06/28/economy/clinton/
paying off the debt by 2015].
|-
| Microchipping Americans
| Microchips are small computer chips, typically embedded in pets in case they get lost, that contain information about the pet. Some, more irrational, people worry about the government microchipping everyone in an effort to monitor their activities.
|-
| Homlessness ended in MA
| Homelessness has been a persistent problem in societies all over the world for centuries. It is unclear why Massachusetts specifically would end homelessness — Massachusetts is a more Democratic and wealthier state than others, but no particular initiatives have been started there to end homelessness.
|-
| Health care reform law repealed
| A health care reform law, popularly known as Obamacare, was signed into law in 2010. Ever since, many Republicans have tried (in vain) to repeal it, disliking the idea that government should provide and require healthcare.
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2014
| US leaves Afghanistan
| After the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, home of the Taliban, the terrorist organization behind the attacks. The war has gone on since then, with the public growing increasingly tired of it. Public support now favors a withdrawal, but for military and logistical reasons, the government cannot simply move all the troops currently in Afghanistan home right now. For one, that would cause immediate chaos in the country. Therefore, the government instead promises to eventually withdraw all troops, planning on doing so by the end of 2014.
|-
| GNU/Linux dominant OS
| An operating system, or OS, is the software that forms the structure in which applications on you computer function. Some typical OSs include Mac OSX, Windows 8, and Linux. The first two of those three are commercial products, sold as a copy by a company. The last is an open-source OS, one that anyone can download and modify free. Typically, open-source software is used by a small number of socially conscious people. It is therefore unrealistic to predict that it will become mainstream in the near future.
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2015
| New Horizon reaches Pluto
| The New Horizon spacecraft is a U.S. space mission designed to go to Pluto and take photographs, collect samples, etc. It is scheduled to reach Pluto in 2015.
|-
| Healthcare law causes hyperinflation
|
|-
| Millennium development goals achieved
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2016
| Baby boomers begin turning 65
| Baby boomers are individuals conceived in the years following World War Two, roughly defined as those born from 1946-1959. This isn't so much a prediction as basic math; if you were born in 1946, you turned 65 in 2011.
|-
| Android takes 38%/45% of market share
| Android is a popular operating system for smartphones and tablets, created by Google. Market share is the percentage of all devices that use the product, in this case the Android operating system. These entries together are humorous because they cannot both happen at the same time.
|-
| Windows phone overtakes iOS
|
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2017
| China completes lunar mission
|
|-
| Social Security stops running surplus
|
|-
| US budget balanced
|
|-
| Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|
|-
| Cosmetic surgery doubles
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2018
| Social Security stops running surplus
|
|-
| Jesus returns to Earth
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2019
| Social Security stops running surplus
|
|-
| Every baby has genes mapped at birth
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2020
| Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels
|
|-
| Keyboards and mice become obsolete
|
|-
| New Tappan Zee bridge constructed
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2021
| US debt reaches 97% of GDP
|
|-
| US unemployment falls to 2.8%
|
|-
| Restored caliphate unifies Middle East
|
|-
| Lake Mead evaporates
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2022
| Kilimanjaro snow-free
|
|-
| HTML 5 finished
|
|-
| Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2023
| Jesus returns to Earth (again)
|
|-
| US debt passes 100% of GDP
|
|-
| All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest
|
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2024
| Atlantis begins to reappear
|
|-
| Orangutans extinct in wild
|
|-
| China lands men and women on the moon
|
|-
| NASA sets up permanent moon base
|
|-
| Female professionals pass males in pay
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2025
| World population reaches 8 billion
|
|-
| Two billion people face water shortages
|
|-
| 62 MPG cars introduced
|
|-
| US power fades
|
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2026
| Atlantis emerges completely
|
|-
| Rock Bands die out
|
|-
| US debt paid off
|
|-
| Car accidents cease
|
|-
| West coast falls into ocean
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2027
| Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train
|
|-
| Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established
|
|-
| Social Security stops running surplus
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2028
| Tobacco outlawed
|
|-
| 40% of coral reefs gone
|
|-
| US debt paid off
|
|-
| Social Security stops running surplus
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2029
| Social Security trust fund exhausted
|
|-
| Computers pass the Turing test
|
|-
| Aging reversed
|
|-
| Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2030
| Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging
|
|-
| Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels
|
|-
| Arctic ice-free in summer
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2031
| Computers controlled by thought
|
|-
| Realtors replaced by technology
|
|-
| Social Security trust fund exhausted
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2032
| "Big One" hits San Francisco
|
|-
| US elects first married lesbian President
|
|-
| Entire world converted to Christianity
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2033
| Kilimanjaro ice disappears
|
|-
| India becomes superpower
|
|-
| Europe reaches Mars
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2034
| US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple
|
|-
| US builds autonomous robot army
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2035
| 80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources
|
|-
| Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size
|
|-
| Arctic sea lane opens
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2036
| 80% of US has access to high-speed rail
|
|-
| Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2037
| Arctic ice-free in September
|
|-
| Social Security trust fund exhausted
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2038
| 32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos
|
|-
| "Big One" hits California
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2039
| US population hits 400 Million
|
|-
| Severe heat waves become commonplace
|
|-
| Scientology becomes majority religion in US
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2040
| Arctic summers ice-free
|
|-
| Nanotechnology makes humans immortal
|
|-
| 2041
| Social Security trust fund exhausted
|
|-
| 2043
| World population passes 9 Billion
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2044
| Mankind genetically engineered to be happy
|
|-
| Childhood obesity reaches 100%
|
|-
| 2045
| Humans and machines merge
|
|-
| 2046
| World's natural resources depleted
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2047
| World ruled by banks and corporations
|
|-
| Tobacco industry fails
|
|-
| US begins using autonomous attack drones
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2048
| Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing
|
|-
| Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle
|
|-
| Entire US population overweight
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2049
| $1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity
|
|-
| Singularity occurs
|
|-
| Fishing industry collapses
|
|-
| rowspan="5"| 2050
| 80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers
|
|-
| China controls space
|
|-
| Sex with robots possible
|
|-
| Cars banned from European cities
|
|-
| One million species extinct from climate change
|
|-
| 2051
| Atmosphere escapes into space
|
|-
| 2052
| Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2053
| US budget balanced
|
|-
| Majority of Americans in prison
|
|-
| Cars driven by dogs
| This has already occured!
|-
| 2054
| Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2055
| Atmospheric CO2 doubled
|
|-
| Oil runs out
|
|-
| Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2056
| RFID-tagged driverless cars
|
|-
| Robots given same rights as humans
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2057
| 150 Japanese settlers on Mars
|
|-
| Colorado River runs dry
|
|-
| 2058
| Smoking ends in New Zealand
|
|-
| 2059
| Humans have domesticated robots
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2060
| Human race lives in peace
|
|-
| Extreme droughts across much of Earth
|
|-
| Global temperature rise reaches 4 °C
|
|-
| Oil runs out again
|
|-
| 2061
| Halley's comet returns
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2062
| Uganda hosts World Cup
|
|-
| The Jetsons
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2063
| First human clones reach adulthood
|
|-
| Population of Moon reaches 100,000
|
|-
| Population of Mars reaches 10,000
|
|-
| Spacecraft exceed speed of light
| Physics as currently understood states that it is impossible to exceed the speed of light. A monumental shift in our physics would have had to have occured for this to come true.
|-
| 2064
| Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2065
| Last coral reefs die out
|
|-
| Chernobyl cleanup complete
|
|-
| 2066
| Cyprus achieves its goal
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2067
| Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV
|
|-
| Redheads go extinct
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2068
| Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering
|
|-
| Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem
|
|-
| Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water
|
|-
| 2069
| Public masturbation legalized
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2070
| World population peaks
|
|-
| City-scale flooding disasters
|
|-
| 60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2071
| Europe's temperatures rise by 3 °C
|
|-
| World summer temperatures rise by 5 °C
|
|-
| 2072
| US retirement age is set to 75
|
|-
| 2073
| Oceans do not rise one foot
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2074
| Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million
|
|-
| Supertyphoons hit Japan
|
|-
| 2075
| US retirement age set to 69
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2076
| Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors
|
|-
| Social Security trust fund exhausted
|
|-
| 2078
| Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2079
| US debt reaches 716% of GDP
|
|-
| Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest
|
|-
| Floods commonplace
|
|-
| Religion marginalized
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2080
| Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP
|
|-
| UK population doubles
|
|-
| 2082
| World population declines to one billion
|
|-
| 2084
| Robot policemen introduced
|
|-
| 2085
| US deficit reaches 62% of GDP
|
|-
| 2088
| Japan becomes all-robot country
|
|-
| 2089
| World halts fossil fuel use
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2090
| Global warming hits 7 °C
|
|-
| Global warming hits 4 °C
|
|-
| rowspan="11"| 2100
| Global warming around 5-7 °C
|
|-
| Sea levels have risen by a meter or more
|
|-
| Joshua trees nearly extinct
|
|-
| Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous
|
|-
| Germany tropical
|
|-
| Emperor penguins extinct
|
|-
| Arctic permafrost thaws
|
|-
| Rising seas flood coastal cities
|
|-
| Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts
|
|-
| All coral reefs gone
|
|-
| Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor
|
|-
| 2101
| WAR WAS BEGINNING
|
|}

==Transcript==
:<big>'''THE FUTURE'''</big>
:'''According to Google search results'''
:Events for each year determined by the first page of Google search results for the phrases:
::{|
|-
|"By <year>"
|"In year"
|-
|"By the year <year>"
|"In the year <year>"
|-
|"Will * by the year <year>"
|"Will * in the year <year>"
|-
|"In <year>, * will"
|"By <year>, * will"
|}

:{|
|-
|rowspan="4" width="50px" valign="top"|2012
|World population reaches 7 billion
|-
|Flying cars reach market
|-
|Canada cuts greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels as per Kyoto
|-
|Apocalypse occurs
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2013
|National debt paid off through President Clinton's plans
|-
|Microchipping of all Americans begins
|-
|Homelessness ended in Massachusetts
|-
|Health care reform law repealed
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2014
|US leaves Afghanistan
|-
|GNU/Linux becomes dominant OS
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2015
|New Horizons reaches Pluto
|-
|Health care law causes hyperinflation
|-
|192 UN member nations achieve millennium development goals:
*Extreme poverty and hunger eradicated
*Universal primary education implemented
*Women empowered, gender equality reached
*Environmental stability ensured
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2016
|Baby boomers begin turning 65
|-
|Android takes 38% of the smartphone market
|-
|Android takes 45% of the smartphone market
|-
|Windows Phone overtakes iOS in smartphones
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2017
|China completes unmanned Lunar sample-return mission
|-
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|US budget balanced
|-
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|-
|Cosmetic surgery doubles
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2018
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|Jesus returns to Earth
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2019
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|Every baby has genes mapped at birth
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2020
|Solar power becomes cheaper than fossil fuels
|-
|Keyboards and mice become obsolete
|-
|New Tappan Zee bridge constructed
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2021
|US debt reaches 97% of GDP
|-
|US unemployment falls to 2.8%
|-
|Restored caliphate unifies Middle East
|-
|Lake Mead evaporates
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2022
|Kilimanjaro snow-free
|-
|HTML 5 finished
|-
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2023
|Jesus returns to Earth (again)
|-
|US debt passes 100% of GDP
|-
|All unprotected ancient forests gone from Pacific Northwest
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2024
|Atlantis begins to reappear
|-
|Orangutans extinct in wild
|-
|China lands men and women on the moon
|-
|NASA sets up permanent moon base
|-
|Female professionals pass males in pay
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2025
|World population reaches 8 billion
|-
|Two billion people face water shortages
|-
|62 MPG cars introduced
|-
|US power fades
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2026
|Atlantis emerges completely
|-
|Rock Bands die out
|-
|US debt paid off
|-
|Car accidents cease
|-
|West coast falls into ocean
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2027
|Japan introduces new fastest Maglev train
|-
|Lyndon Larouche-planned Mars colony is established
|-
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2028
|Tobacco outlawed
|-
|40% of coral reefs gone
|-
|US debt paid off
|-
|Social Security stops running surplus
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2029
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|Computers pass the Turing test
|-
|Aging reversed
|-
|Wikipedia reaches 30 Million articles
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2030
|Half of Amazon rain forest lost to logging
|-
|Cancer deaths double from 2008 levels
|-
|Arctic ice-free in summer
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2031
|Computers controlled by thought
|-
|Realtors replaced by technology
|-
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2032
|"Big One" hits San Francisco
|-
|US elects first married lesbian President
|-
|Entire world converted to Christianity
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2033
|Kilimanjaro ice disappears
|-
|India becomes superpower
|-
|Europe reaches Mars
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2034
|US diabetes cases double, treatment costs triple
|-
|US builds autonomous robot army
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2035
|80% of America's energy comes from renewable sources
|-
|Himalayan glaciers down 80% in size
|-
|Arctic sea lane opens
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2036
|80% of US has access to high-speed rail
|-
|Asteroid Apophis misses/hits Earth
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2037
|Arctic ice-free in September
|-
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2038
|32-bit timestamps roll over, causing Y2K-level chaos
|-
|"Big One" hits California
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2039
|US population hits 400 Million
|-
|Severe heat waves become commonplace
|-
|Scientology becomes majority religion in US
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2040
|Arctic summers ice-free
|-
|Nanotechnology makes humans immortal
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2041
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2042
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2043
|World population passes 9 Billion
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2044
|Mankind genetically engineered to be happy
|-
|Childhood obesity reaches 100%
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2045
|Humans and machines merge
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2046
|World's natural resources depleted
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2047
|World ruled by banks and corporations
|-
|Tobacco industry fails
|-
|US begins using autonomous attack drones
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2048
|Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing
|-
|Unisex bathing suits cover body from shoulder to ankle
|-
|Entire US population overweight
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2049
|$1.000 computer exceeds computational ability of humanity
|-
|Singularity occurs
|-
|Fishing industry collapses
|-
|rowspan="5" valign="top"|2050
|80% of Earth's population lives in urban centers
|-
|China controls space
|-
|Sex with robots possible
|-
|Cars banned from European cities
|-
|One million species extinct from climate change
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2051
|Atmosphere escapes into space
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2052
|Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending exceed total US revenue
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2053
|US budget balanced
|-
|Majority of Americans in prison
|-
|Cars driven by dogs
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2054
|Hunger becomes unimaginable global problem
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2055
|Atmospheric CO2 doubled
|-
|Oil runs out
|-
|Copper, tin, lead, gold, and nickel all exhausted
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2056
|RFID-tagged driverless cars
|-
|Robots given same rights as humans
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2057
|150 Japanese settlers on Mars
|-
|Colorado River runs dry
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2058
|Smoking ends in New Zealand
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2059
|Humans have domesticated robots
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2060
|Human race lives in peace
|-
|Extreme droughts across much of Earth
|-
|Global temperature rise reaches 4 °C
|-
|Oil runs out again
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2061
|Halley's comet returns
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2062
|Uganda hosts World Cup
|-
|The Jetsons
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2063
|First human clones reach adulthood
|-
|Population of Moon reaches 100,000
|-
|Population of Mars reaches 10,000
|-
|Spacecraft exceed speed of light
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2064
|Clean Air Act finishes reducing haze in national parks to natural levels
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2065
|Last coral reefs die out
|-
|Chernobyl cleanup complete
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2066
|Cyprus achieves its goal
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2067
|Americans live in domed cities and watch 3D TV
|-
|Redheads go extinct
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2068
|Ozone hole over Antarctic finishes recovering
|-
|Lord Jesus rules Earth from throne in Jerusalem
|-
|Entire world population gay due to chemicals in the water
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2069
|Public masturbation legalized
|-
|rowspan="3" valign="top"|2070
|World population peaks
|-
|City-scale flooding disasters
|-
|60% of world's energy comes from renewable sources
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2071
|Europe's temperatures rise by 3 °C
|-
|World summer temperatures rise by 5 °C
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2072
|US retirement age is set to 75
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2073
|Oceans do not rise one foot
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2074
|Number of 100-year-olds reaches one million
|-
|Supertyphoons hit Japan
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2075
|US retirement age set to 69
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2076
|Average scientific paper has more than 24 authors
|-
|Social Security trust fund exhausted
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2077
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2078
|Newspapers become obsolete and die out
|-
|rowspan="4" valign="top"|2079
|US debt reaches 716% of GDP
|-
|Lodgepole pines disappear from Northwest
|-
|Floods commonplace
|-
|Religion marginalized
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2080
|Federal spending reaches 70% of GDP
|-
|UK population doubles
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2081
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2082
|World population declines to one billion
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2083
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2084
|Robot policemen introduced
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2085
|US deficit reaches 62% of GDP
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2086
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2087
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2088
|Japan becomes all-robot country
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2089
|World halts fossil fuel use
|-
|rowspan="2" valign="top"|2090
|Global warming hits 7 °C
|-
|Global warming hits 4 °C
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2091
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2092
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2093
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2094
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2095
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2096
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2097
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2098
|
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2099
|
|-
|rowspan="11" valign="top"|2100
|Global warming around 5-7 °C
|-
|Sea levels have risen by a meter or more
|-
|Joshua trees nearly extinct
|-
|Earth's climate resembles that of the Cretaceous
|-
|Germany tropical
|-
|Emperor penguins extinct
|-
|Arctic permafrost thaws
|-
|Rising seas flood coastal cities
|-
|Rain forests mostly gone due to climatic shifts
|-
|All coral reefs gone
|-
|Gillette introduces 14-bladed razor
|-
|rowspan="1" valign="top"|2101
|WAR WAS BEGINNING
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Google Search]]

1436: Orb Hammer

2014-10-21T15:18:09Z

MatthewJ00: Removed incomplete tag.

{{comic
| number = 1436
| date = October 20, 2014
| title = Orb Hammer
| image = orb_hammer.png
| titletext = Ok, but make sure to get lots of pieces of rock, because later we'll decide to stay in a room on our regular orb and watch hammers hold themselves and hit rocks for us, and they won't bring us very many rocks.
}}

==Explanation==
This conversation suggests doing something that sounds absurd and not useful at all for the daily activities of a regular human. Yet it refers in simple English words to the {{w|Apollo_program|Apollo human spaceflight program}} which sent people to the Moon to bring geological samples back to Earth to study them. The use of such simple language contributes to the effect of the suggestion sounding absurd, even though the numerous side-products of the effort to realize the project have in fact had many benefits for regular people.

No person has been on the Moon since the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, in 1972. Occasional lunar rocks can still be collected on Earth. They are formed when a celestial body impacts the Moon's surface, forming a crater and launching small rocks into the space. Some of them will eventually reach Earth, see {{w|Lunar_meteorite|lunar meteorites}}.

The title text refers to the current Mars missions ({{w|Mars_Pathfinder|Pathfinder}}, {{w|Spirit_(rover)|Spirit}}, {{w|Opportunity_(rover)|Opportunity}}, {{w|Curiosity_(rover)|Curiosity}}) where, instead of traveling to Mars ourselves, we stay on Earth ("our regular orb") and control rovers by remote. The rovers collect geological samples and test them for life, but have no way to send the samples back to Earth.

The idea of using simple language in highly technical fields began with [[547: Simple]] and was revisited in [[722: Computer Problems]] and [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. It should be noted however, that in this case [[Randall]] didn't use the 1000 most basic words in the English language, because that {{w|simple:Wikipedia:List_of 1000 basic words|list}} does not contain the words "glowing" or "orb," but does contain "moon," "earth," "bright," and "ball."

The idea of using simple language to create humour highlighting the absurdity of normal activities has previously been explored with [[203: Hallucinations]].

==Transcript==
Person 1: You know that glowing orb in the night sky?

Person 2: Yeah?

Person 1: Let's go hit it with a hammer until little pieces break off, then bring the pieces back and lock them in a closet.

Person 2: Sounds good!

Text under panel: The Apollo program was weird.

{{comic discussion}}

1436: Orb Hammer

2014-10-20T11:06:51Z

MatthewJ00: Added basic title text explain.

1366: Train

2014-10-13T00:46:48Z

MatthewJ00: Rewrote title text explain, fixed grammar of Transcript.

{{comic
| number = 1366
| date = May 9, 2014
| title = Train
| image = train.png
| titletext = Trains rotate the Earth around various axes while elevators shift its position in space.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic, which appeared the day before {{w|National Train Day}}, plays on the fact that a choice of a {{w|Inertial frame of reference|reference frame}} is arbitrary, leading to the {{w|Principle of relativity|"Principle of relativity"}} in {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s theories of {{w|special relativity}} and {{w|general relativity}}. But at speeds much lower than the speed of light it also applies to the {{w|Classical mechanics|newtonian mechanics}}.

Rather than viewing this situation as a train causing itself to move relative to an immobile Earth, [[Randall]] provides the unconventional perspective of a train remaining fixed in space while causing the Earth itself and all the stars in the sky to rotate instead. In principle either perspective is equally valid — though in practice different trains often move in mutually-exclusive directions, thus each train would have to define its own frame of reference. There is a quotation, attributed to Einstein, that he once asked a ticket collector, "What time does Oxford stop at this train?"

Changing the reference frame into the inside of the train only means that you see the outside world in a different reference, since the train doesn't really move the Earth, it simply appears that way from the inside.

From the Newtonian perspective this choice of frame is valid, but results in unnecessarily complicated maths; the equation of motion would include terms for centrifugal, Coriolis and other so-called "fictional forces" see [[123: Centrifugal Force]]. Newton supposes the existence of "inertial frames", in which these forces are zero, and the surface of the Earth approximates an inertial frame well. In General Relativity, the presence of mass in a system curves the {{w|spacetime}} around of it. The train-earth system could be modeled in general relativity, taking the train as fixed. However the resulting equations would be complex, and not amenable to an exact solution

The title text expands on this to include elevators, which change a person's position relative to the center of the Earth. From a passenger's perspective, it would appear as though the Earth's position was instead being changed in space.

These examples use the train and the elevator as fixed points to define relative travel. The more common method to define movement is to use the Earth's surface as fixed point, but other reference points could be the {{w|Earth's rotation|Earth's center}}, the {{w|Earth's orbit|Sun}}, predefined {{w|Fixed star|"fixed" stars}} or the {{w|Galactic year|center of our galaxy}}. Each of these would result in a completely different movement speed:
* The speed of the train (stationary on the equator) relative to the earth's center: 465 m/s (1,674 km/h or 1,040 mph)
* The speed of the train (on earth) relative to the sun: 30 km/s (108,000 km/h or 67,000 mph)
* The speed of the train (on earth) relative the center of our galaxy: 220 km/s (828,000 km/h or 514,000 mph)

The train, as seen from the earth's surface, doesn't seem to rotate the earth, but it does in fact have a minute, immeasurable effect on the Earth's rotation (see [http://what-if.xkcd.com/41/ what-if? 41: Go West] and [[162: Angular Momentum|comic 162: Angular Momentum]]).

==Transcript==
:'''TRAIN:'''
:[On the upper edge of a circle representing the Earth, Cueball is in a train car looking to his left.]
:Cueball:...almost...
:[The train tracks run between another person standing at the 2:00 position, and Hairy standing at the 9:30 position. There's yet another person standing at the 6:00 position, between some snow-capped mountains and some low hills.]
:[There's a counterclockwise arrow in the middle of the circle, and motion lines indicate that everyone and everything on the planet is moving counterclockwise, except for the train, which is motionless.]

:A machine that grabs the Earth by metal rails and rotates it until the part you want is near you

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1366: Train

2014-10-13T00:42:10Z

MatthewJ00: Fixed the grammar and mechanics of the third paragraph.

{{comic
| number = 1366
| date = May 9, 2014
| title = Train
| image = train.png
| titletext = Trains rotate the Earth around various axes while elevators shift its position in space.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic, which appeared the day before {{w|National Train Day}}, plays on the fact that a choice of a {{w|Inertial frame of reference|reference frame}} is arbitrary, leading to the {{w|Principle of relativity|"Principle of relativity"}} in {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s theories of {{w|special relativity}} and {{w|general relativity}}. But at speeds much lower than the speed of light it also applies to the {{w|Classical mechanics|newtonian mechanics}}.

Rather than viewing this situation as a train causing itself to move relative to an immobile Earth, [[Randall]] provides the unconventional perspective of a train remaining fixed in space while causing the Earth itself and all the stars in the sky to rotate instead. In principle either perspective is equally valid — though in practice different trains often move in mutually-exclusive directions, thus each train would have to define its own frame of reference. There is a quotation, attributed to Einstein, that he once asked a ticket collector, "What time does Oxford stop at this train?"

Changing the reference frame into the inside of the train only means that you see the outside world in a different reference, since the train doesn't really move the Earth, it simply appears that way from the inside.

From the Newtonian perspective this choice of frame is valid, but results in unnecessarily complicated maths; the equation of motion would include terms for centrifugal, Coriolis and other so-called "fictional forces" see [[123: Centrifugal Force]]. Newton supposes the existence of "inertial frames", in which these forces are zero, and the surface of the Earth approximates an inertial frame well. In General Relativity, the presence of mass in a system curves the {{w|spacetime}} around of it. The train-earth system could be modeled in general relativity, taking the train as fixed. However the resulting equations would be complex, and not amenable to an exact solution

The title text takes this further by saying that elevators do the same thing by pulling the Earth up and down, rather than moving up and down in a fixed space via cables and weights affixed to pulleys that are themselves moored to fixed points.

These examples use the train and the elevator as fixed points to define relative travel. The more common method to define movement is to use the Earth's surface as fixed point, but other reference points could be the {{w|Earth's rotation|Earth's center}}, the {{w|Earth's orbit|Sun}}, predefined {{w|Fixed star|"fixed" stars}} or the {{w|Galactic year|center of our galaxy}}. Each of these would result in a completely different movement speed:
* The speed of the train (stationary on the equator) relative to the earth's center: 465 m/s (1,674 km/h or 1,040 mph)
* The speed of the train (on earth) relative to the sun: 30 km/s (108,000 km/h or 67,000 mph)
* The speed of the train (on earth) relative the center of our galaxy: 220 km/s (828,000 km/h or 514,000 mph)

The train, as seen from the earth's surface, doesn't seem to rotate the earth, but it does in fact have a minute, immeasurable effect on the Earth's rotation (see [http://what-if.xkcd.com/41/ what-if? 41: Go West] and [[162: Angular Momentum|comic 162: Angular Momentum]]).

==Transcript==
:'''TRAIN:'''
:[On the upper edge of a circle representing the Earth in a wrong scale, Cueball is in a train car, looking to his left.]
:Cueball:...almost...
:[The train tracks run between another person standing at the 2:00 position, and Hairy standing at the 9:30 position. There's yet another person standing at the 6:00 position, between some snow-capped mountains and some low hills.]
:[There's a counterclockwise arrow in the middle of the circle, and motion lines indicate that everyone and everything on the planet is moving counterclockwise, except for the train, which is motionless.]

:A machine that grabs the Earth by metal rails and rotates it until the part you want is near you

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]

626: Newton and Leibniz

2014-10-07T19:40:25Z

MatthewJ00: Made the first sentence sound better.

{{comic
| number = 626
| date = August 21, 2009
| title = Newton and Leibniz
| image = newton_and_leibniz.png
| titletext = YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Isaac Newton}} and {{w|Gottfried Leibniz}} both developed {{w|calculus}} independently of each other about 8 years apart, as it says in the comic. {{w|Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy|However}}, Newton disputed the fact that Leibniz invented calculus independently of him.

In calculus a {{w|derivative}} is the result of mathematical differentiation: the instantaneous rate of change of a function relative to its argument, and denoted df(x)/dx. Another way to think of the derivative is as a plot of all the slopes of lines tangent to the graph of a function. However, the literary word derivative means developed from something older.

The pun is that Newton is claiming that Leibniz's mathematical derivative is a derivative, or descendant, from his earlier development of this calculus.

The comic as a whole is mocking the pattern of corny one-liners that {{w|David Caruso}} often spurts out during the opening scenes of {{w|CSI: Miami}}. The one liner is followed by him dramatically pulling off or putting on his sunglasses and then the show breaks into the title sequence which starts with the word "YEEEEAAAAAAAH." This has become a [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/csi-4-pane-comics popular Internet meme] and was used frequently with {{w|Michael Jackson}}'s death.

==Transcript==
:Newton, 1666
:[Newton with long white hair holds up a sheet of paper.]
:Newton: I've invented calculus!

:Leibniz, 1674
:[Leibniz with long black hair holds up a sheet of paper.]
:Leibniz: I've invented calculus!

:Newton: Really? Sounds a little bit...

:[Newton puts on a pair of sunglasses.]

:Newton: ...''Derivative.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Puts on sunglasses]]

1430: Proteins

2014-10-07T16:00:18Z

MatthewJ00: Made a sentence in the title text explain grammatically correct.

{{comic
| number = 1430
| date = October 6, 2014
| title = Proteins
| image = proteins.png
| titletext = Check it out--when I tug the C-terminal tail, the binding tunnel squeezes!
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is asking [[Megan]] what she does, to which she replies that she works on software to predict protein folding. There are many folding prediction software programs. Some of the most well known are {{w|Folding@Home}}, {{w|Rosetta@Home}} and {{w|FoldIt}}.

{{w|Protein folding}} is the process by which proteins, which are floppy, unstructured chains of amino acids when initially synthesized in a cell, assume a stable, functional shape. If the folding process does not complete, or completes incorrectly, the resulting protein can be inactive or even toxic to the body. Misfolded proteins are responsible for several {{w|neurodegenerative}} diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson's disease, as well as some non-neurodegenerative diseases such as cardiac amyloidosis.

Cueball asks Megan why it is such a hard computational problem, and Megan replies that it is like folding a live {{w|Crane (bird)|crane}}, not just a paper crane. The analogy is that a protein cannot just fold to a figurative representation of a bio-molecule (analogous to how a paper crane abstractly resembles the live crane). It must assume an exact, perfect fold in order to be functional.

{{w|Levinthal's paradox}} is a thought experiment, also constituting a self-reference in the theory of protein folding. In 1969, Cyrus Levinthal noted that, because of the very large number of degrees of freedom in an unfolded polypeptide chain, the molecule has an astronomical number of possible conformations. For example, a polypeptide of 100 {{w|Residue (chemistry)|residue}}s will have 99 peptide bonds, and therefore 198 different {{w|Dihedral angle|phi and psi bond angles}}. If each of these bond angles can be in one of three stable conformations, the protein may misfold into a maximum of 3^198 different conformations (including any possible folding redundancy). Therefore if a protein were to attain its correctly folded configuration by sequentially sampling all the possible conformations, it would require a time longer than the age of the universe to arrive at its correct native conformation. This is true even if conformations are sampled at rapid (nanosecond or picosecond) rates. The "paradox" is that most small proteins fold spontaneously on a millisecond or even microsecond time scale. This paradox is central to computational approaches to protein structure prediction.

Cueball asks whether he can make cuts during the folding process, as if this would then make folding a living crane somehow possible. This is probably a reference to proteins which begin as a single polypeptide chain before being cut into two chains by proteases (which may then join together again, by disulfide rather than by peptide bonds). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin Insulin] is one such protein. Megan replies "if you can fold a Protease enzyme", an analogy to saying "if you can fold yourself some scissors". Protease enzymes are proteins whose job it is to break down (i.e. cut) other proteins, often in very specific ways. They are thus analogous to extremely specialized scissors. The meaning of this is that if, when trying to predict the folding trajectory in nature of protein A, one allows to make cuts - one is making the assumption that the Protease that cut protein A is already folded and functional. In other words, making cuts while folding just changes the question to how the protease doing the cutting was folded.

In origami, purists [http://www.barf.cc/jeremy/origami/BOOK/essays/origami_purism/origami_purism.htm] considered it as cheating if you cut the paper or use more than one sheet of paper, which is why Cueball asks if cuts are allowed.

The title text refers to the result of folding a paper crane in origami. By pulling the tail, the head will move forward and down. However, since the joke is about folding proteins, this idea is extrapolated to include the folded proteins. The C-terminus (end of the protein chain), in this case analogous of the tail, if "pulled" would cause a created cavity or tunnel to squeeze, much like pulling a knot would do the same.

{{w|Folding@Home}} (F@H) is a distributed computing project which aims to simulate protein folding for research purposes. Rather than the traditional model of using a supercomputer for computation, the project uses idle processing power of a network of personal computers in order to achieve massive computing power. Individuals can join the project by installing the F@H software, and are then able to track their contribution to the project. Individual members may join together as a team, with leaderboards measuring team and individual contributions.

Note that most modern computers do not "waste" computing time as much as older ones. They dynamically reduce their clock speed and other power consumption at times of low usage. If you donate computer time, you are probably also donating a bit of money to the cause in the form of your electricity bill. Many people consider this to be more fun, convenient and efficient than donating via credit card.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking with Megan]
:Cueball: What do you do?
:Megan: I make software that predicts how proteins will fold.
:Cueball: Is that a hard problem?
:Megan: Someone may someday find a harder one.
:Cueball: Why is it so hard?
:Megan: Have you ever made a folded paper crane?
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Megan: Imagine figuring out the folds to make an actual living crane.
:Cueball: ...just folds? Can I make cuts?
:Megan: If you can fold a protease enzyme.

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

1430: Proteins

2014-10-06T16:04:16Z

MatthewJ00: Rewrote incomplete reason.

{{comic
| number = 1430
| date = October 6, 2014
| title = Proteins
| image = proteins.png
| titletext = Check it out--when I tug the C-terminal tail, the binding tunnel squeezes!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More info on protein folding, expansion on F@H, possible expansion on title text explain.}}

In this comic, [[Cueball]] is asking [[Megan]] what she does, to which she replies that she works on software to predict protein folding. This is a reference to one of a number of folding prediction software programs, some of the most well known are {{w|Folding@Home}}, {{w|Rosetta@Home}} and {{w|FoldIt}}.

{{w|Protein folding}} is a mechanism exhibited by protein structures to assume a functional shape. If the folding sequence does not complete, or completes incorrectly, the resulting protein can be inactive or even toxic to the body. These misfolded proteins are responsible for certain allergies, and are believed to be the cause of several {{w|neurodegenerative}} and other diseases.

Cueball asks Megan why is it such a hard computational problem, and Megan replies that it is like folding a live crane, not just a paper crane. That is because a protein cannot fold to an abstract representation of its native fold (analogous to how a paper crane abstractly resembles the live crane) - it must assume an exact, perfect fold in order to be functional.

{{w|Levinthal's paradox}} is a thought experiment, also constituting a self-reference in the theory of protein folding. In 1969, Cyrus Levinthal noted that, because of the very large number of degrees of freedom in an unfolded polypeptide chain, the molecule has an astronomical number of possible conformations. For example, a polypeptide of 100 residues will have 99 peptide bonds, and therefore 198 different phi and psi bond angles. If each of these bond angles can be in one of three stable conformations, the protein may misfold into a maximum of 3^198 different conformations (including any possible folding redundancy). Therefore if a protein were to attain its correctly folded configuration by sequentially sampling all the possible conformations, it would require a time longer than the age of the universe to arrive at its correct native conformation. This is true even if conformations are sampled at rapid (nanosecond or picosecond) rates. The "paradox" is that most small proteins fold spontaneously on a millisecond or even microsecond time scale. This paradox is central to computational approaches to protein structure prediction.

Cueball asks whether he can make cuts during the folding process, as if this would then make folding a living crane somehow possible. Megan replies "if you can fold a Protease enzyme", an analogy to saying "if you can fold yourself some scissors". Protease enzymes are proteins whose job it is to break down (i.e. cut) other proteins, often in very specific ways. They are thus analogous to extremely specialized scissors. The meaning of this is that if, when trying to predict the folding trajectory in nature of protein A, one allows to make cuts - one is making the assumption that the Protease that cut protein A is already folded and functional. In other words, making cuts while folding just changes the question to how the protease doing the cutting was folded.

In origami, purists [[http://www.barf.cc/jeremy/origami/BOOK/essays/origami_purism/origami_purism.htm]] considered it as cheating if you cut the paper or use more than one sheet of paper.

The title text refers to the result of folding a paper crane in origami. Pulling the tail, the head will move forward and down. However, since the joke is about folding proteins, this idea is extrapolated to include the folded proteins. The C-terminus (end of the protein chain), in this case analogous of the tail, if "pulled" would cause a created cavity or tunnel to squeeze, much like pulling a knot would do the same.

{{w|Folding@Home}} (F@H) is a distributed computing project which aims to simulate protein folding for research purposes. Rather than the traditional model of using a supercomputer for computation, the project uses idle processing power of a network of personal computers in order to achieve massive computing power. Individuals can join the project by installing the F@H software, and are then able to track their contribution to the project. Individual members may join together as a team, with leaderboards measuring team and individual contributions.

Please be aware that modern computers do not "waste" computing time in the same way as old ones - they dynamically reduce their clock speed and other power consumption at times of low usage. If you donate computer time, you are actually donating money to the cause in the form of your electricity bill (which sounds more convenient than via credit card anyway).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking with Megan]
:Cueball: What do you do?
:Megan: I make software that predicts how proteins will fold.
:Cueball: Is that a hard problem?
:Megan: Someone may someday find a harder one.
:Cueball: Why is it so hard?
:Megan: Have you ever made a folded paper crane?
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Megan: Imagine figuring out the folds to make an actual living crane.
:Cueball: ...just folds? Can I make cuts?
:Megan: If you can fold a protease enzyme.
{{comic discussion}}

1430: Proteins

2014-10-06T16:03:32Z

MatthewJ00: Made the title text explanation more understandable without losing important substance.

{{comic
| number = 1430
| date = October 6, 2014
| title = Proteins
| image = proteins.png
| titletext = Check it out--when I tug the C-terminal tail, the binding tunnel squeezes!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More info on protein folding, expansion on F@H, explanation of the joke and title text.}}

In this comic, [[Cueball]] is asking [[Megan]] what she does, to which she replies that she works on software to predict protein folding. This is a reference to one of a number of folding prediction software programs, some of the most well known are {{w|Folding@Home}}, {{w|Rosetta@Home}} and {{w|FoldIt}}.

{{w|Protein folding}} is a mechanism exhibited by protein structures to assume a functional shape. If the folding sequence does not complete, or completes incorrectly, the resulting protein can be inactive or even toxic to the body. These misfolded proteins are responsible for certain allergies, and are believed to be the cause of several {{w|neurodegenerative}} and other diseases.

Cueball asks Megan why is it such a hard computational problem, and Megan replies that it is like folding a live crane, not just a paper crane. That is because a protein cannot fold to an abstract representation of its native fold (analogous to how a paper crane abstractly resembles the live crane) - it must assume an exact, perfect fold in order to be functional.

{{w|Levinthal's paradox}} is a thought experiment, also constituting a self-reference in the theory of protein folding. In 1969, Cyrus Levinthal noted that, because of the very large number of degrees of freedom in an unfolded polypeptide chain, the molecule has an astronomical number of possible conformations. For example, a polypeptide of 100 residues will have 99 peptide bonds, and therefore 198 different phi and psi bond angles. If each of these bond angles can be in one of three stable conformations, the protein may misfold into a maximum of 3^198 different conformations (including any possible folding redundancy). Therefore if a protein were to attain its correctly folded configuration by sequentially sampling all the possible conformations, it would require a time longer than the age of the universe to arrive at its correct native conformation. This is true even if conformations are sampled at rapid (nanosecond or picosecond) rates. The "paradox" is that most small proteins fold spontaneously on a millisecond or even microsecond time scale. This paradox is central to computational approaches to protein structure prediction.

Cueball asks whether he can make cuts during the folding process, as if this would then make folding a living crane somehow possible. Megan replies "if you can fold a Protease enzyme", an analogy to saying "if you can fold yourself some scissors". Protease enzymes are proteins whose job it is to break down (i.e. cut) other proteins, often in very specific ways. They are thus analogous to extremely specialized scissors. The meaning of this is that if, when trying to predict the folding trajectory in nature of protein A, one allows to make cuts - one is making the assumption that the Protease that cut protein A is already folded and functional. In other words, making cuts while folding just changes the question to how the protease doing the cutting was folded.

In origami, purists [[http://www.barf.cc/jeremy/origami/BOOK/essays/origami_purism/origami_purism.htm]] considered it as cheating if you cut the paper or use more than one sheet of paper.

The title text refers to the result of folding a paper crane in origami. Pulling the tail, the head will move forward and down. However, since the joke is about folding proteins, this idea is extrapolated to include the folded proteins. The C-terminus (end of the protein chain), in this case analogous of the tail, if "pulled" would cause a created cavity or tunnel to squeeze, much like pulling a knot would do the same.

{{w|Folding@Home}} (F@H) is a distributed computing project which aims to simulate protein folding for research purposes. Rather than the traditional model of using a supercomputer for computation, the project uses idle processing power of a network of personal computers in order to achieve massive computing power. Individuals can join the project by installing the F@H software, and are then able to track their contribution to the project. Individual members may join together as a team, with leaderboards measuring team and individual contributions.

Please be aware that modern computers do not "waste" computing time in the same way as old ones - they dynamically reduce their clock speed and other power consumption at times of low usage. If you donate computer time, you are actually donating money to the cause in the form of your electricity bill (which sounds more convenient than via credit card anyway).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking with Megan]
:Cueball: What do you do?
:Megan: I make software that predicts how proteins will fold.
:Cueball: Is that a hard problem?
:Megan: Someone may someday find a harder one.
:Cueball: Why is it so hard?
:Megan: Have you ever made a folded paper crane?
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Megan: Imagine figuring out the folds to make an actual living crane.
:Cueball: ...just folds? Can I make cuts?
:Megan: If you can fold a protease enzyme.
{{comic discussion}}

910: Permanence

2014-03-31T00:02:03Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ made the last sentence of the explanation not sound like it was written by a third-grader

{{comic
| number = 910
| date = June 10, 2011
| title = Permanence
| image = permanence.png
| titletext = This hostname is going in dozens of remote config files. Changing a kid's name is comparatively easy!
}}

==Explanation==
Changing a server name is a complex process as the name will be placed in several machines. So [[Cueball]] wants to make sure that he chooses a great ''permanent'' name, that he can give to the server he is running.

When [[Megan]] quips on how quickly Cueball named their daughter Caroline (a living being, that is, the type of entity that would give the server purpose), Cueball reminds Megan that he had to choose a name quickly on account of Megan's wishes to call her Epidural. Cueball references an "{{w|epidural}}" which is a process used during childbirth/labor that blocks both pain and sensation (by continuously injecting drugs directly into the spinal canal). Megan tries to justify this by explaining that those were very good drugs, but thus also confirms Cueball in that she was drugged and not in her right mind - wishing to name her daughter after the drug she was taking.

In the title text Cueball mentions that he thinks that it is easier to change a person's name than to change the hostname of a server because of the number of changes that would need to be made to each of the machines that would have saved the old name of the server. It seems, however, that Cueball has never had to wait in line at the Social Security Administration office or at the Department of Motor Vehicles, as both of those events typically take excruciatingly long amounts of time.

==Transcript==
:[A large panel the combined width of the four panels below it.]
:[A blue Linux terminal installer screen with a grey box that is labeled "[!]CONFIGURE THE NETWORK" in red. Below, in black, it reads "Please enter the hostname for the system." Below is an empty blue entry box with a cursor and dashed underscore, and below this it says "<GO BACK>".]

:[Cueball sits at his computer, Megan stands behind him.]
:Megan: You've been staring at that screen a while.
:Cueball: Picking a good server name is important.

:[Megan stares at him.]

:[She continues to stare.]

:[Cueball pushes his chair back, puts one elbow on the back of the chair and points with his other hand at the screen.]
:Megan: And yet you settled on "Caroline" for our daughter in like 15 seconds.
:Cueball: But this is a ''server!''
:Besides, I had to—you were trying to name her "epidural."
:Megan: Those ''were'' good drugs.

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

1348: Before the Internet

2014-03-28T11:47:40Z

MatthewJ00: added explanation

{{comic
| number = 1348
| date = March 28, 2014
| title = Before the Internet
| image = before_the_internet.png
| titletext = We watched DAYTIME TV. Do you realize how soul-crushing it was? I'd rather eat an iPad than go back to watching daytime TV.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft, please proofread and edit.}}
[[Megan]] appears with [[Ponytail]], who in this comic is a child. After asking what life was like before the internet, Megan answered with the most basic answer possible, just describing what Ponytail likely already knew. When Ponytail broadens her question, Megan responds with what it is likely many kids think life was like before the internet: dull, boring, and eventless. Megan continues on to explain that even the fact that life was more fulfilling and engaging did not compensate for the nonexistence of the internet.
The title text goes on to include daytime television. Daytime television consisted mostly of soap operas, and children's programming existed almost exclusively before noon on Saturdays. Further, Megan also believes that dying do to lots of different types of metal poisoning (eating an iPad) would be better than going back to a pre-internet world.

==Transcript==
:Ponytail: Do you remember before the internet?
:Megan: Oh yeah, totally.
:Ponytail: what was it like?
:Megan: Not having a phone or computer to distract you?
:Ponytail: Yeah.
:Megan: It was '''''SO. BORING.''''' All the time. I just '''''sat''''' there. It was the '''''worst.'''''
:Ponytail: But wasn't it, like, more fulfilling? Engaging?
:Megan: Wasn't worth it.
:Ponytail: ''I'' still get bored.
:Megan: Not like we did.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Internet]]

1015: Kerning

2014-03-26T11:42:08Z

MatthewJ00: Added title text explain, removed unnecessary writing from transcript.

{{comic
| number = 1015
| date = February 10, 2012
| title = Kerning
| image = kerning.png
| titletext = I have never been as self-conscious about my handwriting as when I was inking in the caption for this comic.
}}

== Explanation ==
{{incomplete|This explain is way too breif.}}
In typography, {{w|kerning}} refers to the spacing between consecutive letters, or the process of adjusting said spacing. As you can see in the comic, the kerning in the sign is badly done: the spacings between C and I and between C and E are inconsistent.

The comic explains that once a person learns what good kerning is, he or she will get irritated by shoddy kerning in the future. Unfortunately, the comic itself has also taught us to be annoyed. Thanks, Randall.

The title text is written by Randall to the author, explaining that as he was writing this comic about kerning, he was very self conscious of his own handwriting as the act of thinking about kerning made him aware of it in his own writing.
== Transcript ==
:[There is a poorly-kerned sign on the side of a building labeled "CITY OFFICES". Two people are standing in front of it.]
:Person 1: ''Argh!''
:Person 2: what?
:If you really hate someone, teach them to recognize bad kerning.

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

1347: t Distribution

2014-03-26T11:35:07Z

MatthewJ00: added a bracket on the end, removed incomplete transcript note

{{comic
| number = 1347
| date = March 26, 2014
| title = t Distribution
| image = t_distribution.png
| titletext = If data fails the Teacher's t test, you can just force it to take the test again until it passes.
}}

==Explanation==
According to {{w|Student's t-distribution|Wikipedia}}, "In probability and statistics, Student's t-distribution (or simply the t-distribution) is a family of continuous probability distributions that arise when estimating the mean of a normally distributed population in situations where the sample size is small and population standard deviation is unknown." The distribution is named for the pseudonym of William Gosset, an employee of Guinness Brewery who did not want to reveal his real name when publishing his work. A Student's t distribution is similar to a standard Gaussian (symmetric bell curve) distribution, but has "fatter tails"; thus, the one shown in the comic is roughly the right shape.

The comic is a play on the name "Student" (the pseudonym of the creator) vs. "Teacher". The idea is that a "teacher's" distribution would be more complex, and that it would be used for fitting data when the student's distribution wasn't sophisticated enough. Of course, in actuality, such a complex distribution as the one shown in the comic would have many parameters, and in practice would probably lead to overfitting and/or bias. Thus, the comic (and the title text) can be seen as making fun of the conflation of complexity and sophistication, or perhaps of the idea that a statistician's job is to use more and more sophisticated tools to force the data to yield a "publishable" result, rather than to use the simplest appropriate tool and let the chips fall where they may.

The title text plays on the word "test". The first part of the sentence refers to a potential "Teacher t-test" which would be used in a statistical context to test for the significance of some observation, as opposed to the real "Student's t-test" which is used to determine if two sets of data differ by a statistically significant amount. On the other hand, the second part of the sentence refers to the possibility for students to take tests (or exams) until they pass. The resulting sentence may refer to statistical fallacy, or the (conscious or unconscious) action of manipulating observations or misconducting experiments to give statistical significance to a false fact.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is adjusting a bell-curved cutout labelled Student's T Distribution on a piece of paper on a table]
:Cueball: Hmm

:[Cueball examines the paper]
:Cueball: ...Nope.

:[Cueball takes away the student's distribution cutout]

:[Cueball attempts to place a far more complicated multi-modal cutout on the page labelled Teacher's T Distribution]

{{comic discussion}}

1015: Kerning

2014-03-24T14:23:14Z

MatthewJ00: added incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 1015
| date = February 10, 2012
| title = Kerning
| image = kerning.png
| titletext = I have never been as self-conscious about my handwriting as when I was inking in the caption for this comic.
}}

== Explanation ==
{{incomplete|This explain is way too breif.}}
In typography, {{w|kerning}} refers to the spacing between consecutive letters, or the process of adjusting said spacing. As you can see in the comic, the kerning in the sign is badly done: the spacings between C and I and between C and E are inconsistent.

The comic explains that once a person learns what good kerning is, he or she will get irritated by shoddy kerning in the future. Unfortunately, the comic itself has also taught us to be annoyed. Thanks, Randall.

== Transcript ==
:[Some IDIOT used a font with TERRIBLE kerning on the side of a building for a sign labeled "CITY OFFICES". Only, you aren't even sure because of this terrible kerning, as the "C" and the "I" in "CITY" have waaay too strong kerning. And so do the "C" and the "E" in "OFFICES", to the point that it actually looks like TWO words. And the I and the C are so close together, they almost look like a freakish K! Two people stand in front of this sign. One notices all these obvious flaws, while the other exists in peaceful ignorance.]
:Person 1: ''Argh!''
:Person 2: what?
:If you really hate someone, teach them to recognize bad kerning.

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

1243: Snare

2014-03-24T12:07:13Z

MatthewJ00: re-added incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 1243
| date = July 26, 2013
| title = Snare
| image = snare.png
| titletext = It's going in A collection of satellites skewered with pins and mounted in display boxes. Not necessarily MY collection.
}}

==Explanation==
{incomplete|Mostly, but not completely done.}
[[Cueball]] is relating some odd news items to [[Black Hat]]. A structure has been discovered that consists of large ring strung with superstrong mesh, a 260-mile long pole, and a gigantic winch.

Cueball realizes that the pole, ring and net combination sounds like a {{w|Butterfly_net|butterfly net}}, but one of immense size. Given his history of nefarious activities, Cueball infers and then accuses Black Hat of wanting to "catch" the {{w|International Space Station}}, which orbits about 260 miles above the earth.

Black Hat does not deny the charge, but he dissimulates by saying it is not ''the'' ISS that he intends to catch but just ''an'' international space station, implying that it could be some other one. However, it is transparently obvious which space station he is targeting. Hint: it is the only truly international space station, it is actually called the International Space Station, and it has an orbit that matches the length of the pole that was found.

The real buildings probably belong to these structures:
*The giant ring from the first panel may be an allusion to the {{w|Tevatron}}, a former circular particle accelerator at the {{w|Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory}} (Fermilab), east of Batavia, near Chicago, Illinois.

*Similarly, the gigantic winch in St. Louis, may refer to the 630-foot high {{w|Gateway Arch|Gateway Arch Monument}}. It is the tallest man-made monument in the United States. Even the rough south-north direction of this building does match to this scenario because the Fermilab is approx. 260 miles north of St. Louis. However, it is an arch, not a winch.

The title text is a reference to how butterfly collections are usually presented. The insects are mounted in glass display cases, each skewered through the body with a pin, and labelled. The text appears to be spoken by Black Hat, who here tries to imply that it may not be *his* collection of satellites. Perhaps he is minding it for a friend.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Black Hat. Black Hat is using a laptop.]
:Cueball: They said on the news that they found a giant ring lying in a field outside Chicago. Strung with some kind of superstrong mesh.
:Black Hat: Mhm?
:Cueball: Then they found a 260 mile long shaft connected to the ring, running from Chicago to St. Louis. In St. Louis they found a gigantic winch.
:Black Hat: Did they.
:Cueball: It sounds kind of like...
:Cueball: ...a butterfly net.
:Cueball: ...are you planning on catching the International Space Station?
:Black Hat: I'm planning to catch ''an'' international space station. Not sayin' which.

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

1243: Snare

2014-03-24T12:01:27Z

MatthewJ00: Proofread and final edit. Removed incomplete tag.

{{comic
| number = 1243
| date = July 26, 2013
| title = Snare
| image = snare.png
| titletext = It's going in A collection of satellites skewered with pins and mounted in display boxes. Not necessarily MY collection.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is relating some odd news items to [[Black Hat]]. A structure has been discovered that consists of large ring strung with superstrong mesh, a 260-mile long pole, and a gigantic winch.

Cueball realizes that the pole, ring and net combination sounds like a {{w|Butterfly_net|butterfly net}}, but one of immense size. Given his history of nefarious activities, Cueball infers and then accuses Black Hat of wanting to "catch" the {{w|International Space Station}}, which orbits about 260 miles above the earth.

Black Hat does not deny the charge, but he dissimulates by saying it is not ''the'' ISS that he intends to catch but just ''an'' international space station, implying that it could be some other one. However, it is transparently obvious which space station he is targeting. Hint: it is the only truly international space station, it is actually called the International Space Station, and it has an orbit that matches the length of the pole that was found.

The real buildings probably belong to these structures:
*The giant ring from the first panel may be an allusion to the {{w|Tevatron}}, a former circular particle accelerator at the {{w|Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory}} (Fermilab), east of Batavia, near Chicago, Illinois.

*Similarly, the gigantic winch in St. Louis, may refer to the 630-foot high {{w|Gateway Arch|Gateway Arch Monument}}. It is the tallest man-made monument in the United States. Even the rough south-north direction of this building does match to this scenario because the Fermilab is approx. 260 miles north of St. Louis. However, it is an arch, not a winch.

The title text is a reference to how butterfly collections are usually presented. The insects are mounted in glass display cases, each skewered through the body with a pin, and labelled. The text appears to be spoken by Black Hat, who here tries to imply that it may not be *his* collection of satellites. Perhaps he is minding it for a friend.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Black Hat. Black Hat is using a laptop.]
:Cueball: They said on the news that they found a giant ring lying in a field outside Chicago. Strung with some kind of superstrong mesh.
:Black Hat: Mhm?
:Cueball: Then they found a 260 mile long shaft connected to the ring, running from Chicago to St. Louis. In St. Louis they found a gigantic winch.
:Black Hat: Did they.
:Cueball: It sounds kind of like...
:Cueball: ...a butterfly net.
:Cueball: ...are you planning on catching the International Space Station?
:Black Hat: I'm planning to catch ''an'' international space station. Not sayin' which.

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

874: Time Management

2014-03-18T12:04:02Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ corrected spelling of successful

{{comic
| number = 874
| date = March 18, 2011
| title = Time Management
| image = time management.png
| titletext = I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. Check for grammar, other issues.}}
In the first two panels of the comic, a voice from off screen is explaining the importance of time management and its benefits. The schedule on the wall, however, is loose and follows a very simple plan for the day, making willpower only seem necessary for getting up on time and posting on his blog, leaving the rest of the day to do whatever he wants.

The title text, in a way, explains what the schedule is about, possibly alluding that [[Cueball]]'s goal in life is to be successful at messing around, not actually being successful at what would traditionally be considered something one would do to become successful.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk with a computer. There's a schedule on the wall next to it. Cueball is typing.]
:The key to leading a productive life is time management.
:''type type''

:Choose goals, build a schedule, and have the WILLPOWER to follow it-
:or be LEFT BEHIND by those of us who DO.
:''type type type''

:[We see the schedule in closeup.]
:SCHEDULE
:7:00am Wake up
:7:15am-8:00am Post on productivity blogs about my schedule
:8:00am-whenever Fuck around

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

874: Time Management

2014-03-18T12:03:34Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ completed writing of explanation

{{comic
| number = 874
| date = March 18, 2011
| title = Time Management
| image = time management.png
| titletext = I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. Check for grammar, other issues.}}
In the first two panels of the comic, a voice from off screen is explaining the importance of time management and its benefits. The schedule on the wall, however, is loose and follows a very simple plan for the day, making willpower only seem necessary for getting up on time and posting on his blog, leaving the rest of the day to do whatever he wants.

The title text, in a way, explains what the schedule is about, possibly alluding that [[Cueball]]'s goal in life is to be successful at messing around, not actually being successful at what would traditionally be considered something one would do to become sucessful.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk with a computer. There's a schedule on the wall next to it. Cueball is typing.]
:The key to leading a productive life is time management.
:''type type''

:Choose goals, build a schedule, and have the WILLPOWER to follow it-
:or be LEFT BEHIND by those of us who DO.
:''type type type''

:[We see the schedule in closeup.]
:SCHEDULE
:7:00am Wake up
:7:15am-8:00am Post on productivity blogs about my schedule
:8:00am-whenever Fuck around

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

874: Time Management

2014-03-18T12:00:50Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ rewrote explanation

{{comic
| number = 874
| date = March 18, 2011
| title = Time Management
| image = time management.png
| titletext = I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. Check for grammar, other issues.}}
In the first two panels of the comic, a voice from off screen is explaining the importance of time management and its benefits. The schedule on the wall, however, is loose and follows a very simple plan for the day, making willpower only seem necessary for getting up on time and posting on his blog, leaving the rest of the day to do whatever he wants. On the second panel, where it says "

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk with a computer. There's a schedule on the wall next to it. Cueball is typing.]
:The key to leading a productive life is time management.
:''type type''

:Choose goals, build a schedule, and have the WILLPOWER to follow it-
:or be LEFT BEHIND by those of us who DO.
:''type type type''

:[We see the schedule in closeup.]
:SCHEDULE
:7:00am Wake up
:7:15am-8:00am Post on productivity blogs about my schedule
:8:00am-whenever Fuck around

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

1308: Christmas Lights

2014-03-18T11:53:58Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ actually removed incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 1308
| date = December 25, 2013
| title = Christmas Lights
| image = christmas_lights.png
| titletext = Merry Christmas from xkcd!
}}

==Explanation==
Each light in this Christmas scene is represented by its {{w|electromagnetic spectrum}}, which shows in a graphical form how much energy is radiated by each wavelength of light.

These graphs plot the intensity of all visible radiation. Infrared and ultraviolet are partially plotted also, represented by black. It starts with longer wavelengths on the left ({{w|infrared}}), continues with {{w|visible light}} in the middle from red to blue, and ends with {{w|ultraviolet}} at the right. There are 4 distinct spectra in this comic:

In the center of the image, between [[Beret Guy]] and the couple, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], appears to be a light spectrum of a fire, notable because it emits a lot of energy in the infrared band (The left zone of the spectrum), emitted typically from hot sources, and in the red and orange zone (typical colors of a fire). The spike toward the left hand side of the spectrum is likely the 4.3 µm resonance wavelength of hot CO2 characteristic of burning hydrocarbons (see {{w|Flame_detection#Emission_of_radiation|Emission of radiation}}). Given the size of the spectrum and its positioning, this represents a fireplace at which the characters are warming themselves against the winter chill.

In the right of the comic appear some spectra arranged in the form of a Christmas tree. There are 3 different spectra in this "Christmas tree":

At the top appears a complicated spectrum, possibly that of a white LED (see [http://led-brdf.wikispaces.com/Introduction+to+LEDs here]), representing the tradition in some cultures of putting a star (or an angel, but still usually lit) at the top of the Christmas tree.

In the branches there are two simpler spectra (repeated at various places), one with a peak in the green zone, representing a green light source, and other with a peak in the red zone, representing a red light source. Both of these represent the tradition of putting colorful decoration in the tree, in this case apparently red and green colored Christmas lights.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, Cueball, and Beret Guy sitting on the floor and a big spectrum with one peak is shown between them. On the right many smaller spectra are shown in a shape of a christmas tree.]

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

1308: Christmas Lights

2014-03-18T11:53:36Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ Checked grammar, confirmed information, removed incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 1308
| date = December 25, 2013
| title = Christmas Lights
| image = christmas_lights.png
| titletext = Merry Christmas from xkcd!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Check grammar, check spectra and reference good fits to what is here}}
Each light in this Christmas scene is represented by its {{w|electromagnetic spectrum}}, which shows in a graphical form how much energy is radiated by each wavelength of light.

These graphs plot the intensity of all visible radiation. Infrared and ultraviolet are partially plotted also, represented by black. It starts with longer wavelengths on the left ({{w|infrared}}), continues with {{w|visible light}} in the middle from red to blue, and ends with {{w|ultraviolet}} at the right. There are 4 distinct spectra in this comic:

In the center of the image, between [[Beret Guy]] and the couple, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], appears to be a light spectrum of a fire, notable because it emits a lot of energy in the infrared band (The left zone of the spectrum), emitted typically from hot sources, and in the red and orange zone (typical colors of a fire). The spike toward the left hand side of the spectrum is likely the 4.3 µm resonance wavelength of hot CO2 characteristic of burning hydrocarbons (see {{w|Flame_detection#Emission_of_radiation|Emission of radiation}}). Given the size of the spectrum and its positioning, this represents a fireplace at which the characters are warming themselves against the winter chill.

In the right of the comic appear some spectra arranged in the form of a Christmas tree. There are 3 different spectra in this "Christmas tree":

At the top appears a complicated spectrum, possibly that of a white LED (see [http://led-brdf.wikispaces.com/Introduction+to+LEDs here]), representing the tradition in some cultures of putting a star (or an angel, but still usually lit) at the top of the Christmas tree.

In the branches there are two simpler spectra (repeated at various places), one with a peak in the green zone, representing a green light source, and other with a peak in the red zone, representing a red light source. Both of these represent the tradition of putting colorful decoration in the tree, in this case apparently red and green colored Christmas lights.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, Cueball, and Beret Guy sitting on the floor and a big spectrum with one peak is shown between them. On the right many smaller spectra are shown in a shape of a christmas tree.]

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

248: Hypotheticals

2014-03-14T12:28:36Z

MatthewJ00: /* Explanation */ Got rid of the title text explanation tag, as it is unneeded.

{{comic
| number = 248
| date = April 13, 2007
| title = Hypotheticals
| image = hypotheticals.png
| titletext = What if someone broke out of a hypothetical situation in your room right now?
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|TV tropes still do need an explain.}}
The comic is, in short, a new take on the common TV trope in which characters in a thought bubble will sometimes look out of the bubble and talk directly to the person thinking it, another person nearby, or, occasionally, the viewer. In this comic, however, it features [[Cueball]] and [[Beret Guy]] in a conversation together, in which Beret Guy creates a hypothetical situation by imagining he had ice cream. This then, to Cueball's dismay, creates a hypothetical situation in which Beret Guy has ice cream, which he promptly begins to eat. Cueball then creates a hypothetical situation in which his hypothetical self has a knife to 'cut' out of the thought. He then gives this knife to Cueball, who supposedly will use it to cut out of his hypothetical situation.

The title text puts the comic into context, noting the unlikely possibility — and your most likely surprised reaction — if a person in a hypothetical situation you'd involuntarily created managed to break out of it and suddenly appear in your room. OR it could be understood the other way, that a person you have forced into your hypothetical situation breaks free from it, and disappears from you room. Also, it points out that the situation is in fact a hypothetical situation itself, creating some irony.

==Transcript==
:Beret Guy: What if I had some ice cream? Wouldn't that be awesome?
:Cueball: No, stop--
:Beret Guy (thinking):
::Cueball: Great, you've trapped us in a a hypothetical situation!
::Beret Guy (holding ice cream): Mm, ice cream.
::Cueball: Maybe if I had a knife I could cut our way free...
::Cueball (thinking):
:::Beret Guy: Mmm, ice cream!
:::Cueball (reaching back into previous thought bubble): Here, take this one.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Recursion]]

1332: Slippery Slope

2014-03-12T12:17:20Z

MatthewJ00: Added title text explain.

{{comic
| number = 1332
| date = February 19, 2014
| title = Slippery Slope
| image = slippery_slope.png
| titletext = Sure, taking a few seconds to be respectful toward someone about something they care about doesn't sound hard. But if you talk to hundreds of people every day and they all start expecting that same consideration, it could potentially add up to MINUTES wasted. And for WHAT?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The explain is confusing and fixed to a bad compromise Randall wouldn't like.}}
The "{{w|Slippery slope}}" argument hinges on the idea that if A happens, then B will follow as a minor but expected consequence. B will lead on to C, C leads onto D, and so on. Each consequence gets progressively worse until you reach an undesirable situation. A slippery slope argument propagates that A should not be allowed, because if it is, then the resulting chain of consequences will lead to the undesirable situation.

In the comic, [[White Hat]] uses a slippery slope argument to [[Cueball]], to justify being inconsiderate to people (which is an unusual context for this argument). He argues that if he expends minor effort being considerate to one person, he will be expected to be considerate to everyone he meets, which - he wishes to argue - is an undesirable situation. Thus, he justifies being inconsiderate as avoiding the slippery slope. This idea is extended in the title text, where he continues extrapolating the train of thought to come to the conclusion that minutes of time would be "wasted".

In the title text, the same idea is added to include that merely seconds or minutes are not terribly large amounts of time to be nice to a few people, building off of the faulty argument in the comic.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Yeah, but if I'm considerate toward one person about one thing, what's next?
:White Hat: Being nice to ''other'' people about ''other'' things?
:White Hat: Where does it ''end?''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Logic]]

1341: Types of Editors

2014-03-12T12:02:42Z

MatthewJ00: Added Transcript

{{comic
| number = 1341
| date = March 12, 2014
| title = Types of Editors
| image = types_of_editors.png
| titletext = m-x machineofdeath-mode
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|WYSIWYG}}, pronounced, "whizz-ee-whig", is an acronym that stands for "What you see is what you get". In regards to computers, it refers to text editors in which the user can see exactly what will be published as he is typing it. The comic compares various types of editors.

A WYSIWYG editor displays the edited document in its final, typically printed, form.

A WYSIN(not)WYG, is similar to an HTML source editor, where you enter raw HTML code and are (in a different view) presented with the rendered appearance of the page. The em tag marks text that has stress emphasis

The WYSITUTWYG ("... is totally unrelated to ...") editor apparently takes your input and proceeds to ignore it entirely, instead displaying totally unrelated words.

Finally, the WYSIHYD ("... is how you die") "editor" is not an editor at all, but a pun on the multiple meanings of the word "get": If you see "eaten by wolves", you will get ... eaten by wolves. The white-on-black writing is probably a reference to the anime ''Death Note''.

The title text is a fictitious command to the highly extensible {{w|Emacs}} text editor. Emacs operates in various "modes", which are customizations for specific purposes. Placing Emacs into "Machine of Death" mode would turn it into a WYSIHYD editor. Another fictitious emacs mode can be found in comic [[378]]. "Machine of Death" is a reference to the 2010 book [http://machineofdeath.net/ Machine of Death], with [[Randall Munroe]] being one of the writers. It is a collection of short stories about a device than can predict how people die from a drop of their blood. In many of the stories very unusual deaths are predicted, often in a very literal way.

==Transcript==
[There are four boxes, each with different headings over them.]

[First Box]
WYSIWYG What you see is what you get
What you see: ''Hi''
What you get: ''Hi''

[Second Box]
WYSINWYG What you see is not what you get
What you see: Hi
What you get: ''Hi''

[Third Box]
WYSITUTWYG What you see is totally unrelated to what you get
What you see: Hi
What you get: The HORSE is a noble animal.

[Last Box]
WYSIHYD What you see is how you die
What you see: EATEN BY WOLVES
What you get: Eaten By Wolves