explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T18:35:07Z

New editor:

I created a starter explanation, but I have no idea how to create tables. [[Special:Contributions/47.146.30.92|47.146.30.92]] 04:08, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

It is rare that xkcd makes me laugh out loud, but this comic's title text really got me! XD [[Special:Contributions/2601:241:8002:3E0:C95E:1939:2ED0:CD78|2601:241:8002:3E0:C95E:1939:2ED0:CD78]] 04:22, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I wonder if blackhat is the one who committed the murder in the last game, and was expunged from the current round with the social deduction game [[User:RG|RG]] ([[User talk:RG|talk]]) 04:35, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Also, I "fixed" panel 6: https://www.pasteboard.co/hxBFDL497SLH.png [[User:RG|RG]] ([[User talk:RG|talk]]) 04:54, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Whoever it was didn't necessarily commit the murder ''in the game'' - all we know is that it was ''discovered'' during the game. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:39, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

The reference to Monopoly seems ultra-specific given the plethora of games that have this structure, including Candyland, Snakes and Ladders, Sorry, and if one allows for multiple tokens, Parchisi and even Backgammon. Despite the amount of hate for Monopoly, it seems more likely that the editor has something against Monopoly than Randal. [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 05:14, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Also, Monopoly, played by the correct rules, is not that boring. It's just, that too many people skip the bidding rule. With 4 Players, after one turn around the table for all four game pieces (which required 10-12 dice rolls per player), statistically 75% of all properties should be snatched up. [[Special:Contributions/195.65.24.115|195.65.24.115]]

::Probably not worth debating how boring/bad Monopoly is or isn't. Suffice it to say that there are a large number of people who despise it, rightly or wrongly. [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 06:13, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
:::No, there are a large number of people who aware of the fact that Monopoly is supposed to be despised, and so espouse that view – like people who say they hate the word "moist" or believe that "We Built This City" is the worst song ever, because they've been told to say that. The number of people who have actually played Monopoly (using the actual rules) and who actually hate it is much, much smaller. People widely advertise hatred for a badly designed game based on a misinterpretation of Monopoly. That's not hating Monopoly – that's just not getting it and blaming someone else. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 11:15, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Monopoli? Is that the Italian version?--[[Special:Contributions/2A00:23CC:D248:8901:8046:B94B:F152:34FA|2A00:23CC:D248:8901:8046:B94B:F152:34FA]] 07:51, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

It's possible that [[Special:Contributions/2A02:8071:5C20:40:84FB:9239:8AB8:1729|2A02:8071:5C20:40:84FB:9239:8AB8:1729]] (who made both this edit and the Pachisi edit), coming from Germany, doesn't realize that in America, Parcheesi and Monopoly are the more accepted spellings (Pachesi is probably more appropriate for the historical game Parcheesi is based on, but this is about table games not historical games). [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 08:02, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I misread the tie-in as being Grogu, which would have made it even weirder. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:52, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
:Me too. Maybe because I'm not a board gamer and have never heard of Goku before. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:19, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I think a clearer example of a "boring" game is Ludo, where the goal is simply to move all the pawns around the board once. [[User:Redmess|Redmess]] ([[User talk:Redmess|talk]]) 09:57, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Ludo is Pachisi/Pachesi/Parcheesi, apparently (can't say I've ever heard of any of those names - always knew it as Ludo - but Ludo is a later name). There is a minimal amount of strategy involved in Ludo, in that you get to choose which pawn to move on any given go - unlike, say, Snakes & Ladders, which is entirely down to chance. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 10:57, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Where does the 3.75 for Twilight Imperium come from? First and second editions have 3.46, 3rd edition has 4.26 and 4th is even at 4.35. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:03, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I miss the board game extention pack to Calvinball. [[Special:Contributions/2A02:2455:1960:4000:1888:3B86:68A0:FA0F|2A02:2455:1960:4000:1888:3B86:68A0:FA0F]] 11:47, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
:Remember: If you don't touch the 30-yard base wicket with the flag, you have to hop on one foot! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 13:26, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
Went with a base game rating for Twilight Imperium, maybe one of the expansions is higher, but base game seems like most appropriate to reference. --[[User:Trimutius|Trimutius]] ([[User talk:Trimutius|talk]]) 11:58, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

What did the comment mean about the truth or dare murder reveal being untrue?
:I’m confused about this as well. I looked it up and it looks like he was convicted on some pretty compelling evidence. I’m not seeing anything about him being found not guilty on appeal. [[User:Salsmachev|Salsmachev]] ([[User talk:Salsmachev|talk]]) 14:01, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
:: I assumed it meant that it turned out that the bit about admitting it in a game of Truth or Dare turned out to be embellishment, but I can't find any evidence of that either. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:58, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I ''REALLY'' want "Candles of Vienna" to exist. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 14:31, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Maybe add some real hyperspecipic games? Like "castles of mad king Ludwig" or "Whitechapel". [[Special:Contributions/2A02:BA0:10A8:4CB6:C1DE:6320:68C1:1C95|2A02:BA0:10A8:4CB6:C1DE:6320:68C1:1C95]] 16:06, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure Hive is a good example for an abstract game; as it has a clear theme based on real things (bugs) even if some of the mechanics seem a little arbitrary. The other one given seems to fit; although the example in the comic feels to me like a parody of the Gipf games specifically. And trying to see how many others I could think of made me wish I had friends to play Otto Game Over with. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 17:14, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Are there actual rules for cones of dunshire available somewhere, or is it purely fantasy? [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 18:35, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T18:34:34Z

New editor: comment

3212: Little Red Dots

2026-02-26T08:12:44Z

New editor: fixed a grammar error and a typo(?)

{{comic
| number = 3212
| date = February 25, 2026
| title = Little Red Dots
| image = little_red_dots_2x.png
| imagesize = 634x306px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After a lot of analysis, I've determined that they're actually big red dots; they're just very far away.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a LITTLE RED BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Cueball asks researchers in different subjects to identify "little red dots" in an image from the {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (referred to in the caption as "JWST").

The {{w|Little red dot (astronomical object)|little red dot}}s that the comic refers to are actually young black holes from 500-700 million years after the Big Bang in the JWST telescope, the comic instead jokingly asks several different experts their thoughts

According to the Entomologist they are: {{w|Clover mite | Clover mites}} (Bryobia praetiosa), which are very small [[Red Spiders]].

According to the Computer Scientist they are: {{w|Defective pixel|Stuck pixels}}, pixels that do not work properly, and are stuck to one single color.

According to the Dermatologist they are: {{w|Cherry angioma|Cherry angiomas}}, harmless, non-cancerous skin growths made of clusters of dilated capillaries, appearing as bright red, smooth, or slightly raised spots.

According to the Graphic Designer they are: Colors of type [https://www.colorhexa.com/d73b3e Jasper] (● #d73b3e) and [https://www.colorhexa.com/e34234 Vermillion] (● #e34234, sometimes called Cinnabar). Part of the punchline is the shift in focus: instead of trying to identify the object, the designer is nitpicking the description of "red dot."

The alt text is a reference to the Father Ted scene from Series 2, Episode 1, titled "Hell", where Ted tries to explain perspective to Dougal while they are on holiday in a cramped caravan, using plastic toy cows to illustrate that real cows in a distant field are not small, they're just "far away" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0 YouTube]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Caption above all the panels:]
:Astronomers asking researchers from different departments to help them identify the "little red dots" in JWST images:

:[In each panel, Cueball stands at the left of an easel. The easel is shown each time as having a black image with three red dots on it. At the right of the easel in each panel is a different character looking at the image on the easel and commenting on it. At the top of each panel is a caption indicating the type of researcher commenting on the image.]

:Caption: Entomologists
:Megan: Clover mites.

:Caption: Computer scientists
:Knit Cap: Stuck pixels.

:Caption: Dermatologists
:Ponytail: Cherry angiomas.

:Caption: Graphic designers
:Hairy: No, those are vermillion, or maybe jasper.
:Hairy: Can I see your color settings?

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Graphic designers]]

Talk:3209: Plums

2026-02-19T07:08:01Z

New editor: comment

Referencing William Carlos Williams [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56159/this-is-just-to-say "This is Just To Say"], an apology for eating the plums. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1001:B000:6009:F81B:2869:73B7:339|2600:1001:B000:6009:F81B:2869:73B7:339]] 03:31, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Robert Frost is my first cousin five times removed. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 03:36, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

You could easily trap Edgar Allan Poe by training a crow. [[User:Xkdvd|Xkdvd]] ([[User talk:Xkdvd|talk]]) 05:07, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I just described the scene in the transcript, it doesn't look quite right to me, I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be brackets or something, could someone fix that if I did it wrong? [[User:Xkdvd|Xkdvd]] ([[User talk:Xkdvd|talk]]) 05:12, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

The characterization of the poem as an apology needs an [actual citation needed] tag. [[Special:Contributions/2001:8004:4E50:6B3:A564:E93B:1878:3634|2001:8004:4E50:6B3:A564:E93B:1878:3634]] 06:00, 19 February 2026 (UTC)
:The words "forgive me" aren't good enough for you? [[Special:Contributions/174.127.214.79|174.127.214.79]] 06:46, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Seems pretty simple. Eat the plums for the cred, and then book reservations for a romantic breakfast the next morning. [[Special:Contributions/73.42.229.109|73.42.229.109]] 06:22, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Could the caption style also be a reference to the poem? [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 07:08, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

3209: Plums

2026-02-19T06:55:35Z

New editor: hyperlinked "megan"

{{comic
| number = 3209
| date = February 18, 2026
| title = Plums
| image = plums_2x.png
| imagesize = 251x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a rebellious icebox. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a reference to the poem [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56159/this-is-just-to-say This Is Just to Say], in which the narrator is apologizing for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that Cueball cannot resist eating the plums from the icebox as a reference to the poem.

The title-text is a joke about trapping poets with references to their own poems, referencing another well-known poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken The Road Not Taken] by Robert Frost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball sitting at a desk with a laptop on it looking backward towards someone (possibly [[Megan]]) offscreen.]
:Out of view: I got you the ingredients for dinner tonight.
:Out of view: Oh, and the plums in the fridge drawer are for my yogurt tomorrow; you should just leave them.
:Out of view: Be back later!
:Cueball, thinking: Oh no.
:Caption: Help. It actually happened. I shouldn't, but how can I not!?
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3209: Plums

2026-02-19T06:54:22Z

New editor: grammar changes, removed comment about it only being a poem due to rythmic nature, introduced possibility of megan

{{comic
| number = 3209
| date = February 18, 2026
| title = Plums
| image = plums_2x.png
| imagesize = 251x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a rebellious icebox. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a reference to the poem [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56159/this-is-just-to-say This Is Just to Say], in which the narrator is apologizing for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that Cueball cannot resist eating the plums from the icebox as a reference to the poem.

The title-text is a joke about trapping poets with references to their own poems, referencing another well-known poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken The Road Not Taken] by Robert Frost.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball sitting at a desk with a laptop on it looking backward towards someone (possibly megan) offscreen.]
:Out of view: I got you the ingredients for dinner tonight.
:Out of view: Oh, and the plums in the fridge drawer are for my yogurt tomorrow; you should just leave them.
:Out of view: Be back later!
:Cueball, thinking: Oh no.
:Caption: Help. It actually happened. I shouldn't, but how can I not!?
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:3125: Snake-in-the-Box Problem

2026-02-17T20:45:30Z

New editor: humans are pretty cute

The math problem in question is https://oeis.org/A099155 [[User:Mei|Mei]] ([[User talk:Mei|talk]]) 21:57, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

why is d>8 unsolved? stevethenoob 21:59, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:Computational power, I guess, although I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that for N=9 snake=196. [[Special:Contributions/94.73.52.245|94.73.52.245]] 23:18, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:It's not that hard to imagine: if you were to try a brute force search it would take time that's exponential in the path length, which itself is exponential in d. There are evidently methods to do it slightly better, but not enough to make solving d=9 feasible yet. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 10:03, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:To give an impression of the rate at which these get solved: d=6 was solved in 1988, d=7 in 1996, d=8 in 2014. [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 10:32, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:Computational power is right. Time complexity is *super*-exponential - even the number of *nodes* increases exponentially as increasing N by 1 doubles the nodes. And time complexity doesn't increase linearly with the number of nodes - if we imagine a brute force algorithm there's 2^n nodes and each node has n-1 options, so we're looking at a multiple of exponential time. Current lower bound for N=9 is 190. [[User:GorillaWarfare|GorillaWarfare]] ([[User talk:GorillaWarfare|talk]]) 06:57, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

I would argue that computer science has one as well with the China room problem. [[User:Ctinsman|Ctinsman]] ([[User talk:Ctinsman|talk]]) 22:14, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

: Humans aren't cute animals (mostly), so I propose a variant of the problem called the Chinese Red Panda Room [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 22:38, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:: humans are pretty cute. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 20:45, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Interesting. Just a few days ago I was investigating a very similar idea (looking at a path that transitioned between adjacent ''faces'' of a polyhedron, which was effectively going from vertex to connected vertex upon that chosen polyhedron's ''dual''), but for the opposite reason, i.e. looking for the paths that actually maximised proximity (along the path) between neighbouring faces (upon the polyhedra), so that it actually minimised the search back/forth along the path-chain to establish what value the adjacent polyhedron faces (beyond the ones automatically at ±1 positions on the chain) inherited.
 As to solving this one (basically disallowing visiting of any nodes adjacent to prior visits ''other'' than the single one that the +1 position of the chain has to first go to), I've got a basic idea of how I'd N-dimensionally space-search the possible routes (after all, visiting any given node at {0,1} value for dimensions [a, b, c, ...] rules out now visiting all of [!a, b, c, ...], [a, !b, c, ...], [a, b, !c, ...], etc, ''except'' whichever one of these was chosen for the next step of onward travel), for valid foldings across the appropriate N-polytype cuboidal analogue. Though I suspect that the exponental (or greater!) growth in the potential search-trees you'd use would be the sticking point. No point in setting off an exhaustive algorithm if it seemed likely to take three years to check just 1% of possibilities, and no doubt more dedicated analysis than my own brute-forcing method has already hit other problems in trying a more nuanced extrapolation between each level of added dimensionality, which is where the unsolved nature of this starts to bite.
 But also think it'd be far more interesting to investigate the possibilities in the N>3-Dimensional extensions of non-cubic platonic solids, like the {{w|600-cell}} and beyond, and establish what allowable lengths of traversal ''they'' would allow, under similar stipulations.
 Great! I love getting things like this to think about. If I can spare the time needed... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.59|82.132.245.59]] 22:22, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
: I think you've been nerd-sniped. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 22:42, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
::So far, I've personally got as far as:
::*For any given number of dimensions, N, there are always N adjacent points (point, zero dimensions, zero neighbours; line, one dimension, one neighbour; square, two dimension, two neighbours, etc).
::*In total, there are 2N points (0d=1, 1d=2, 2d=4, etc)
::*A maximum possible length, L, has a ''lower'' lower limit of starting at any particular vortex and only taking directions that are perpendicular to all prior directions (for a cube, only go by x, y and z directions once), and this would be eaual to N.
::*But that's overly-lazy, as you're ruling out (as you gain enough dimensions) revisiting a dimensional plane, even though you're allowed to revisit a point on that plane that's shifted by at least ''two'' other dimensions of offset. e.g. the top right of a cube's facing face when you started at the bottom left of it (went 'deep' to the rear face, took two steps from the rear-lower-left to rear-upper-right then back).
::*For the first step, you have N choices from your starting position. You take one and cannot later visit any of the ones you did not choose to go to. For the second step onwards, you have N-1 basic choices (every direction but backwards to the prior step) and should choose one and rule out ever visiting the rest.
::*This gives a new (at least for N>2) lower limit to L whereby the sum of starting, taken and not-taken nodes that you count can be added to by new steps until you would end up with have a total greater than 2N. (Line: start on one (of two), choice of one (taken), two points 'marked', only two points possible; Square: start on one (of four), two choices, take one, reserve one, three points 'marked', still the fourth point available for L=2, but then five points would be marked (the untaken-from-start being the only non-backwards choice) so can't go further.
::*But this is also wasteful as (in increasingly higher dimensions) there's nothing to stop an unvisited neighbour of a past step from being a(n enforced) unvisited neighbour from a later step, as you 'choose' to go only to a valid further point. So clever "near-neighbour" backtracking can reduce the number of ''freshly'' eaten-up points and thus maintain more future points for more steps.
::**Noting that past-step no-go-neighbours that can possibly 'fold into' the current-step's not-going-neighbours list only become such after ''at least'' two intervening steps (for 'square-based' hypercubic domains, whereas triangle-based hypernets (e.g. tetra-, octa- and icosohedrons, in 3-space) happen after just one step, and pentagon-based ones (dodecahedrons in 3-space) can't take advantage of this in less than three. (This seems to share some of the mathematics with the 'classical' rabbit-population problem, whereby new offspring only become viable breeding population after a step or two since their generation.)
::*Optimally, in fact, you should aim to double-back in such a way as leave yourself with ''all but one'' onward neighbour unavailable (thus only eating up potential points at a rate of one per step, at that point).
::*Heading vaguely back 'towards' past snake-lengths, in higher-dimensional hypernets, seems like the best(/longest) space-filling strategy. It's a bit like coil-built pottery, but with more undulations (and dimensions) to it. But with care to make sure you don't burrow yourself into a dead-end with ''no'' viable onward choices while still having maybe half of the potential visitable/neighbourable points untouched, or avoiding filling 'voids' to guaranteeing accessing a majority of the potential future visits, but unwisely not exploiting all the phase-space of vertices optimally.
::**I can mentally visualise doing this successfully in 3-, 4- and 5-cube situations, elegantly enough (it's like , but N>=6 versions get increasingly hard to do in my head with certainty. After I've slept on it, I might have to break out the pencil and paper.
::So, yeah, I've set a lower-limit to L, for various Ns, and can construct a ''possible'' upper-limit to L, but I haven't even checked these L(N)s vs. the values stated in the comic. Or what progress (and more advanced logical reasoning) has already been made in the field. I suspect I'm just reinventing the (hyper-)wheel, of course, rather than have the key to the problem that everyone else had failed to spot, but that's not the point. If I get even half way close to what the 'professionals' in this field have managed, I'll be smug and self-satisfied enough for myself. And, anyway, I've explained myself enough tolet any ''other'' similarly-minded nerd the ability to get at least as far as I've got with this problem. Which is as good an outcome, as far as I'm concerned, as getting this done entirely on my own. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.41|82.132.244.41]] 00:33, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
::: I'm still having trouble getting hold of long enough snakes. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:31, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
::: I've got the 50 length one for 7D, lets see if I can go further :) --[[User:Darth Vader|Darth Vader]] ([[User talk:Darth Vader|talk]]) 13:25, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Psychology is way ahead of y'all, they've been putting actual mice in weird boxes for ''decades''. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 22:45, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:Psychology might have been putting animals in boxes for decades, but zoology has been doing it for centuries! [[Special:Contributions/97.118.209.207|97.118.209.207]] 00:36, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
::Gastronomy has been doing it for as long as people have been storing food. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:41, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/284912743/--[[Special:Contributions/2001:4450:8178:2200:D1C2:8DED:F6FE:E93C|2001:4450:8178:2200:D1C2:8DED:F6FE:E93C]] 04:01, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:::That link doesn't work. When I remove the -- at the end it goes to some kind of math game. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:58, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Reading (just) the [comments] of the underlying research suggests that 98 is the longest found snake. Perhaps that means a longer one has not been explicitly eliminated (making 8 also not solved to some extent) [[Special:Contributions/2A02:A45B:8867:0:BED8:F2BA:838E:765|2A02:A45B:8867:0:BED8:F2BA:838E:765]] 22:52, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
:a(8)=98 was proven by: Östergård, P.R.J., Pettersson, V.H. Exhaustive Search for Snake-in-the-Box Codes. Graphs and Combinatorics 31, 1019–1028 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00373-014-1423-3
:[[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 09:46, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

I suppose Randall doesn't consider [[beetles]] cute, or else [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#Wittgenstein's_beetle philosophy of language] would be included. [[Special:Contributions/137.25.230.78|137.25.230.78]] 23:15, 6 August 2025 (UTC)
: that's a great example [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 01:46, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
: very nice one, reminds me of the story of the bug (moth) and debugging in computer science {{unsigned ip|88.129.22.189|07:46, 1 September 2025}}

In simultaneous interpreting, humans are the cute animal in the box. {{unsigned|DrInterpreter|07:35, 7 August 2025 (UTC)}}

I don't believe an explanation of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment is necessary to understand this comic. However, people keep editing the page to include an incorrect description of the experiment, by saying the cat is either dead or alive and you don't know which until you open the box. That's wrong and misses the point of quantum superposition. The cat is not dead or alive, it's literally both, due to its fate being linked to radioactive decay, a process that is subject to quantum superposition. Since it does seem inevitable that someone will keep editing this to add an explanation, I've added one myself. [[Special:Contributions/177.12.49.23|177.12.49.23]] 10:29, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

The link in the mail newsletter lead to "http://https//xkcd.com/3125/", not sure if that's worth documenting here. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:07, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Not a chemistry grad student, but is it possible that Randall intended "lure campus squirrels into laundry hampers in the hope that it ''sparks'' inspiration" as a humorous method of investigating the triboelectric effect? [[Special:Contributions/129.222.87.163|129.222.87.163]] 13:25, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

n=2: Snakes on a plane. [[Special:Contributions/64.201.132.210|64.201.132.210]] 16:47, 7 August 2025 (UTC)
:it makes so much sense and i hate that fact. --[[User:Utdtutyabthsc|Utdtutyabthsc]] ([[User talk:Utdtutyabthsc|talk]]) 04:04, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

the comic number 3125 is 5^5 [[Special:Contributions/96.77.127.105|96.77.127.105]] 18:26, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Conclusion: we better have no snakes in the world {{unsigned ip|102.117.215.0|08:21, 8 August 2025 (UTC)}}

In the middle of the tree "wrong" examples, is the vertex leading from head to tail also a "wrong" vertex and should be coloured red? [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 06:01, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

I suspect the squirrel fur + hamper + spark implies something electrochemical, though I haven't quite made the connection between the animal and the box. {{unsigned ip|88.129.22.189|07:46, 1 September 2025}}

I've found a length-373 snake in 10 dimensions. The previous record of 370 as listed on Wikipedia dates to 2012.

I started working on Snake-in-the-Box in August after xkcd #3125 introduced me to the problem. I'm grateful to Randall Munroe for calling it to my attention. I intend to keep working on it.

I described my results in a paper available at https://zenodo.org/records/17344872 which includes C code anyone can compile and run to validate the length-373 snake. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17344872

If you know anyone working in graph theory who can advise me on how to get my results recognized in a trusted forum (or who would even just like to compare notes about the Snake-in-the-Box problem), please let me know. My email address is
in my paper.
[[User:Tom239|Tom239]] ([[User talk:Tom239|talk]]) 19:46, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

3111: Artificial Gravity

2026-01-26T19:58:01Z

New editor: citation needed

{{comic
| number = 3111
| date = July 4, 2025
| title = Artificial Gravity
| image = artificial_gravity_2x.png
| imagesize = 423x365px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Low gravity can cause bone loss, so we're pleased to report that, since we initiated capsule motion, the number of bones in each crew member has been steadily increasing.
}}

==Explanation==
In a low gravity environment, such as a spaceship taking an interplanetary or interstellar voyage, the human body will experience slow but {{w|Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_human_body|adverse side effects}}. Many prototype designs have been introduced to combat this, both in science fiction and real life. One of the most common (for non-fictional purposes, or in {{w|hard science fiction}}) is to use a rotating system to subject the crew to [[123: Centrifugal Force|centrifugal force]], simulating the effects of {{w|gravity}}. Examples of mimicking gravity using spinning elements are: the whole wheel-like space-station and internal living ring of the ''Discovery'', from ''{{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}''; the extended rotating arms of the ''Hermes'', in ''{{w|The Martian (film)|The Martian}}''; the whole rotating structure of ''Endurance'', from the movie ''{{w|Interstellar (film)|Interstellar}}''.

[[Cueball]] instead describes a spacecraft in which the crew quarters are being continuously shaken back and forth across an axis. [[Ponytail]] immediately sees problems with this approach, and asks if the shaking pod can be replaced with a much safer and more stable spinning wheel or cylinder. Cueball concedes this argument, but reveals that the ship has already been built, launched, and is in operation, so the crew is stuck with the shaking pod setup. Apparently, nobody pointed out that there was a much better approach during the mission development.

A shaking spaceship design would create an experience of gravity for the crew — just a very unpleasant one. When the capsule accelerates "up" (from the point of view of the picture), the crew will feel a gravity-like force pulling them "down" against the capsule 'floor'. However when the capsule accelerates "down", the crew will find themselves thrown against what was the 'ceiling' of the capsule, but has now suddenly become the 'floor', in an experience similar to falling several metres. The direction of this artificial "gravity" will keep alternating as long as the capsule keeps shaking. This will result in the crew not only repeatedly falling against one surface or the other, but also at a variable apparent gravity as the capsule's lateral velocity changes. This might make their life onboard ship, which could (otherwise) be expected to last for many years, somewhat
unpleasant.{{citation needed}}

This shaking system would also be wasteful of energy, since there would be losses due to friction at the joints between modules, as well as the energy costs of changing the motion of the crew module relative to the rest of the structure. In contrast, a rotating structure freely floating in a weightless environment tends to retain its motion, with negligible losses due to interactions with other bodies.

The title text discusses the form of bone density loss known as {{w|spaceflight osteopenia}}, caused by gravity loss. The speaker claims that "the number of bones in each crew member has been steadily increasing". This is because the shaking, and subsequent multiple impacts, are fragmenting the crew members' bones. The broken pieces of bone are then being counted as bones in their own right and increasing the effective count, without telling if the pod's awkward configuration has done anything to reduce bone ''mass'' loss.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing near a blueprint of a spacecraft with strap on boosters, with Cueball pointing at the blueprint. In place of conventional conical fairing, this spacecraft has a large mechanical arm on the nose. The arm is holding an egg-shaped capsule. Two semi-transparent drawings of the arm and the capsule are depicted on either side of it with speed streaks in between, implying shaking back and forth motion of the arm. There is illegible text on the top left the bottom right and the bottom right text is in box.]
:Cueball: To produce artificial gravity during the voyage, the crew capsule is kept in constant motion.
:Ponytail: Wouldn't it make more sense to spin it instead of shaking it, so the acceleration is steadier?
:Cueball: ...Listen. You, I, and the crew all wish we'd thought of that before launch.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord

2026-01-24T05:50:25Z

New editor: laid the groundwork for a title text explanation

{{comic
| number = 3198
| date = January 23, 2026
| title = Double-Pronged Extension Cord
| image = double_pronged_extension_cord_2x.png
| imagesize = 698x267px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Oh, and can I borrow 50 sacks of loose flour, a pile of lithium-ion batteries, a bucket of bleach, and a bucket of vinega--' 'NO!!!!!!'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by THE EXTENSION CORD FROM COMIC #509. I can't explain the anchoring it to the wall part yet, and I didn't do the title text. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
As Ponytail correctly points out, extension cords with prongs on both ends are lethally dangerous. They are also known as [https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/generators/why-suicide-extension-cords-are-so-dangerous-a1189731437/ suicide cords] for this reason.

Ponytail seems to relax when she persuades Cueball to use a regular extension cord instead. But then he elaborates that rather than wanting the cord to carry electricity, he actually intends to use it as a makeshift support similar to the screwdriver in Louis Slotin's infamous "Tickling the dragon's tail" experiment, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotin#Criticality_accident which proved fatal]. Understandably, this horrifies Ponytail even more.

The title text references other household materials known to be dangerous. Lithium batteries and flour are highly eplosive, while combining vinegar and bleach results in chlorine gas, which is highly toxic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball is approaching Ponytail from off, who is sitting at a desk, with a laptop.]
:Cueball: Do you have an extension cord with prongs at both ends? Can I borrow it?
:Ponytail: '''''No'''''!!!

:[Close up of Ponytail raising her arms in an exasperated fashion]
:Ponytail: No one should '''''ever''''' buy or make those!
:Ponytail: They start fires, destroy equipment, and risk electrocuting you or grid workers!
:Cueball: OK, OK, I get it.

:[The view zooms back out, showing Ponytail handing Cueball an extension cord.]
:Cueball: Can I just borrow a regular cord, then?
:Ponytail: Sure. Here.
:Cueball: The prongs aren't important. I just thought they'd help anchor it to the wall.
:Ponytail: Wait, what are you-

:[Cueball is walking away from Ponytail, who sits at her desk with her hands to her head.]
:Cueball: I need it to help hold up the top half of the reflector for this plutonium core that I'm-
:Ponytail: '''''AAAAAAAA!!!!'''''

==Trivia==
Two days before this comic's publication, Randall Munroe released an xkcd "What-If?" video on YouTube, [https://youtu.be/s3oLIDaElaE "How long would you survive with no DNA?"], which suggests that the hypothetical instantaneous removal of all of a person's DNA would be similar in its effects to those of receiving a massive dose of ionizing radiation. Slotin's accident was one of the most notable such events known.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

Talk:561: Well

2026-01-21T19:28:16Z

New editor: comment

s[he] be[lie]ve[d][[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.124|141.101.98.124]] 14:40, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
:why [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 16:35, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
:sbeve [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:28, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Shouldn't we elaborate on the questioned superiority of DVORAK? --[[Special:Contributions/129.206.196.49|129.206.196.49]] 20:45, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Actually, QUERTY was not designed to avoid jamming keys. It actually seems to be based on morse code mappings - to suit the majority of early users who were morse code operators. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fact-of-fiction-the-legend-of-the-qwerty-keyboard-49863249/?no-ist {{unsigned ip|103.22.201.159}}

The final two frames appear to be foreshadowed by the title text within Connected (http://xkcd.com/807/) [[User:Lakeside|Lakeside]] ([[User talk:Lakeside|talk]]) 19:02, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I like how the 'uncomfortable truth' for the man is that he never meant it when he said 'I love you', but for the woman, it's that she always did! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 23:47, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

What is ironic is that I am setting up a keyboard based on [https://github.com/michaeldickens/Typing Michael Dicken's optimizer]. Also, while I prefer vim (light weight!), I also have Xemacs out of my own choice. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 20:37, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

:The uncomfortable truth is that both emacs and vi are quite difficult to learn, just in different ways.

:Emacs, after you learn it, allows you to write the highly flexible macros for the text processing but requires to type some very long command names to do most things. Being largely written is Lisp, historically Emacs had also been very slow and memory-hungry but with the modern computers it doesn't matter any more. Oh, and Emacs messes up the proper Tab characters, replacing them with spaces.

:Vi doesn't have this flexibility but has a built-in set of commands extremely well suited to editing the programs. Vi is well-suited for the remote administration because it works well even over the very slow and high-latency connections and allows to do everything with just the alphanumeric keys, thus working even when the handling of the function keys (including arrows ans such) was not set up correctly. One of the newer versions of vi, vim, allows to do some very extensive programmable text manipulation, getting closer to Emacs in this respect; and vim can be set up to mess up the Tab characters just like Emacs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.5|108.162.246.5]] 21:58, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

::vi is the hell, my keyboard doesn't have a META key... Maybe it's ALT, or ALT+CTRL,... ALT+SHIFT, or ALT+SHIFT+CTRL+ESC+...A hell. But you can rely on vi, it's available on every UNIX based system. So, if you just have a simple Telnet or SSH login you have to figure out how vi does work. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:30, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

:::Meta means alt. So M-E would be Alt-E.
::::that, or the "start/windows" key [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:28, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

The Firefly explanation is too much, especially with the point about airing out of order. I think with the inclusion of Randall's personal preference for Firefly, and its frequent reference by Randall, it would make a lot more sense. [[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 08:07, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

The voice in the last panel is clearly coming out of the well, as is the case in Well 2. It's not Megan saying "I love you" unlike the current explanation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.228|141.101.107.228]] 21:06, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

In the last panel, Megan got a response without tossing in a coin, so it would seem this is definitely a sneak preview of the punchline coming up in 568:Well 2).[[User:Nowaynotme|Nowaynotme]] ([[User talk:Nowaynotme|talk]]) 00:15, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

"A common myth states that this was done to slow typists down; this was not the case." Is that really a common myth? I've never heard about it. I've only ever heard about the jamming thing which, as pointed out in the explanation, seems to check out. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:05, 3 February 2020 (UTC)
:I removed that part. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:48, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
::Except that it really is(/was/(is/was) supposed to be) commonly known (or 'known', incorrectly). And the Wikipedia page for QWERTY actually does say "Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, but rather to speed up typing." That's practically the same sentence.
::Maybe new people like the above just aren't paying attention enough to encouter the myth (whether or not they believe it, or ar told that it is wrong), but I don't believe it has become so significantly uncommon as to no longer bear repeating here to explain the context of the 'unconfortable truth' of the alternative ''not'' being better and the 'facts' that say otherwise being wrong.
::There are still adherents to Dvorak (or other) keyboards, of course, and I imagine that those who have trained themselves to use one don't actually have it ''worse'' on either physical or on-screen, but the debate goes on (and was certainly active a decade and a half ago). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 14:28, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Point taken. I just never heard of that (and unlike "to prevent mechanical jamming" it doesn't really make sense). It's still not relevant for the explanation of the comic, though. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 15:12, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

LOL Emacs is anything but "user friendly" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.113|162.158.79.113]] 14:20, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, I've used VI since day one, and I've never used Emacs. It's user friendly, it just takes practi... wait. [[User:NanoMan2000|NanoMan2000]] ([[User talk:NanoMan2000|talk]]) 14:56, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:971: Alternative Literature

2025-11-10T20:30:00Z

New editor: comment

I would totally buy a blank book. I could hollow them out to make boxes, or wire up the insides to build a revolving door, or hire an artist to draw wonderful images in them to put on display for anyone who comes over to my home. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:21, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

Interestingly, this is exactly the argument used to explain why reading books is better than watching TV: TV gives too much of the ready context, while a book allows the reader to fill in the blanks with his own imagination. The empty books just go one step further. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.11|108.162.246.11]] 22:15, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
:I dunno, I mean, there's plenty of space in TV to work in stuff, exercise your imagination. In my view a book is for having stuff in it. A story in a book gives you a structure to build on, a framework that lets you build higher than you would go on your own. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:19, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

I write short stories all the time but nobody reads them.
Maybe I should get a printer?

"Telling someone who trusts you that you're giving them medicine, when you know you're not, because you want their money, isn't just lying--it's like an example you'd make up if you had to illustrate for a child why lying is wrong."

I think it is worse when vets do it to cattle and sheep. You never get to hear the farmer saying "Bah!"
though. Odd, that.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 19:10, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Anybody else reminded of "The Library of Babel" by Borges? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.113|108.162.238.113]] 16:32, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Going way back to the 2013 comment (writing in 2021): there are excellent reasons to buy blank books. As you say, writing in them is a really good reason. Buying them to ''read'' is not, for my non-hallucinatory self, a good reason. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 13:44, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

Everybody here going on about the benefits of buying blank books to write and draw stuff. You guys know those are called notebooks, right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.27|172.70.254.27]] 19:06, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

I was simply reminded of John Cage's blank music piece. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 11:05, 17 November 2024 (UTC)
:That's {{w|4′33″}}, though of course that's deliberately "everything but the music", compared to "we put something in that's (apparently) related to the problem, but then diluted it out so you don't get any side-effects (but somehow still the effects that we imagine)". The Cage piece is more an honest "here, have an elaborate drink of water" than homeopathy's "you ''will'' hear whatever other symphony you desire, in your head!"... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.142|172.70.86.142]] 12:31, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Why do all the links lead to rationalwiki? should this be changed?

3141: Mantle Model

2025-09-14T17:52:41Z

New editor: fixed "antle plumes" explanation

{{comic
| number = 3141
| date = September 12, 2025
| title = Mantle Model
| image = mantle_model_2x.png
| imagesize = 527x317px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Mantle plumes explain Hawaii, Yellowstone, Iceland, the East African Rift, the Adirondack uplift, the Permian extinction, the decline of Rome, the DB Cooper hijacking, and the balrog in Moria. Those little hills of sand in your yard are caused by antle plumes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explain why the causes for title text are mysterious .This page was created by {{w|Pele (deity)|PELE}}, THE GODDESS OF VOLCANOES AND FIRE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|mantle plume}} is a flow of {{w|magma}} upward from deep in the Earth toward the surface. Some plumes are thought to come close to the surface and result in hotspots that produce volcanoes, such as the hotspot that formed the {{w|Hawaiian Islands}} chain. Here Randall says the plumes account for every surface feature on Earth that we can't otherwise account for, due to the little knowledge of them, which is absurd.

The title text extends this further, suggesting with increasing absurdity that mantle plumes account for other things:
* Hawaii. A hotspot, hypothesized to sit atop a mantle plume, did indeed create the Hawaiian Islands.
* Iceland. The same as Hawaii, essentially. Except for being at the edge of two plates instead of in the middle of one.
* {{w|Yellowstone}}. This area of hot springs, geysers, and other geothermal phenomena is in the {{w|Yellowstone Caldera}}, which some geologists believe sits atop a mantle plume.
* The {{w|East African Rift}}. This area in East Africa is a developing divergent {{w|tectonic plate}} boundary where the African plate is in the process of splitting into two tectonic plates.
* The {{w|Adirondack_Mountains#Geology|Adirondack uplift}}. The Adirondack Mountains were raised by the collision of tectonic plates. Some geologists believe that tectonic plates are in turn driven, in part, by mantle plumes.
* The {{w|Permian extinction}}, also called the 'Great Dying' and more formally as the Permian-Triassic extinction event, is the largest of the {{w|List of extinction events|"big five" mass extinctions}} since vertebrate life appeared on Earth. There are several hypotheses as to why it happened, one of which, {{w|Siberian Traps}} volcanism, could have happened because of a mantle plume.
* The decline of Rome refers to the end of the {{w|Roman Empire}}. The decline was caused by a lot of factors, including changing social pressures, financial exhaustion after a series of wars, pressure from neighboring rivals, and siphoning of resources and attention to Constantinople. All of which had nothing to do with mantle plumes.{{Citation needed}}. One suggestion would be that this relates to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which was a tragedy, but not empire-ending. It could also allude to the Volcanic Winter of 536, which was in all likelihood caused by a volcano and which did hasten the decline of the Roman Empire in the age of Justinian.
* The {{w|DB Cooper}} airplane hijacking occurred in 1971 and remains unsolved. Dan B. Cooper is an alias of the hijacker, whose real name is unknown. The hijacking had nothing to do with mantle plumes.{{Citation needed}} This is one of several xkcd cartoons referring to [[D. B. Cooper]], including [[1400: D.B. Cooper]] in which Cueball suggested that Cooper might have become filmmaker {{w|Tommy Wiseau}}, and [[2498: Forest Walk]], in which Cooper is seen stuck in a tree on [[Beret Guy]]'s property.
* The {{w|balrog}} in {{w|Moria, Middle-earth|Moria}} is a fictional beast in {{w|J.R.R. Tolkien}}'s {{w|legendarium}} that first appeared in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}''. It too has nothing to do with mantle plumes,{{Citation needed}} but it was revealed by the dwarves, who "delved too greedily and too deep and awoke a terror of shadow and flame." If we were to delve sufficiently greedily and deep that we dug into a mantle plume, we would indeed be greeted by a terrible amount of flame,{{Citation needed}} although the shadow aspect is unconfirmed.
* Antle plumes are a pun on the word "ant" and the phrase "mantle plumes". These things are usually called {{w|anthills}} and are created by ants as entrances to their underground nests.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A diagram of the Earth’s inner structure is shown with the caption “Standard geophysical model of the mantle”. Dotted lines forming structures that appear to be moving through and between various layers of the mantle are labeled with arrows. The arrows either point to the base of the structures on the inside of the planet or formations on the outside.]

:[In the center around the Earth’s core are vertical columns rising up away from the core through cracks in lower layers of mantle. At different layers the structure either branches out horizontally between layers or again vertically through additional cracks. This process might yield a single vertical column, or several branching horizontal and vertical branches.]
:[These structures are labeled:]
:Hypothesized mantle plumes

:[On the Earth’s surface are various rock formations that align with the locations of plumes just below.]
:[The formations are labeled:]
:Every feature of the Earth surface that we have a hard time explaining

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Standard geophysical model of the mantle

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper]]

Talk:3068: Rock Identification

2025-03-26T21:03:33Z

New editor: comment

I made a transcript [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 21:03, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

3068: Rock Identification

2025-03-26T21:02:41Z

New editor: added transcript

{{comic
| number = 3068
| date = March 26, 2025
| title = Rock Identification
| image = rock_identification_2x.png
| imagesize = 430x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Is it worth anything?' 'I dunno, is the answer to that question worth another $5?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GARNET IN A MICA SCHIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
He bribed her.

==Transcript==
[Cueball is holding a small spotted rock]
Cueball: Can you identify this rock I found?

Ponytail: Not without knowing '''where''' you found. It's difficult to identify minerals by sight without the geological context.

[Cueball is holding $5 bill under the same small spotted rock]

Cueball: Can you identify this rock I found wrapped in a $5 bill?

Ponytail: Sure! Looks like garnets in a mica schist.

{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[Caption above the comic:]
:how to ask geologists to identify a rock
:[A two-paneled comic, one panel being labeled "wrong:" and the other being labeled "right:"]
:[The panel labeled "wrong:"]
:[Cueball holds out a rock to Megan]
:Cueball: Can you identify this rock that I found?
:Megan: Not without knowing where you found it. It's difficult to identify minerals by sight without the geologic context.

:[The panel labeled "right:"]
:[Cueball holds out a rock wrapped in a $5 bill to Megan]
:Cueball: Can you identify this rock that I found wrapped in a $5 bill?
:Megan: Sure! Looks like garnets in a mica schist.

{{comic discussion}}

3056: RNA

2025-02-26T17:34:50Z

New editor: added more detail to the transcript

{{comic
| number = 3056
| date = February 26, 2025
| title = RNA
| image = rna_2x.png
| imagesize = 566x291px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 2040s: RNA formed the basis for life each of the five known times it arose on the early Earth.
}}

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

EARLY EXPLANATION THIS IS A BASE: This Is a comic about the evolution of our understanding of RNA over time as our understanding of it improved. In the 1960s, our understanding was limited to DNA, but as the frames progress, we realized RNA also did things, and it turned weird as we learned that RNA is almost more important than DNA. It is unknown if life arose more than once on Earth, the title text mocks this; current theories believe in a single-celled common ancestor for all life on earth.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[In each panel, Cueball is standing in front of a poster. On the poster there is a picture of a double helix (presumably DNA) and some illegible text, although the poster is different in each panel. Each panel has a header indicating the decade in which it takes place.]

:'''1960s'''
[Cueball has a hand up in an explanatory pose]
:Cueball: Life is based on DNA, which uses RNA to make proteins do stuff.

:'''1980s'''
:[Cueball faces towards the poster, with his hand on his chin.]
:Cueball: Also, the RNA does some stuff itself, which is weird.

:'''2000s'''
:[Cueball has his arms raised in the air.]
: Cueball: There are ''so'' many types of RNA. It's doing ''so'' much stuff.

:'''2020s'''
[Cueball has both his hands down]
:Cueball: Life is a seething mass of RNA that sometimes uses DNA to take notes.
:Person out of frame: What do the proteins do?
:Cueball: Errands for RNA.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]

2990: Late Cenozoic

2024-09-25T19:51:28Z

New editor: capitalized a t

{{comic
| number = 2990
| date = September 25, 2024
| title = Late Cenozoic
| image = late_cenozoic_2x.png
| imagesize = 303x396px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our nucleic acid recovery techinques found a great deal of homo sapiens DNA incorporated into the fossils, particularly the ones containing high levels of resin, leading to the theory that these dinosaurs preyed on the once-dominant primates.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ONCE-DOMINANT BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Many Science Museums contain fossils, which are often reconstructed into full skeletons.
In the comic, aliens discovered the reconstructed fossils from our museums and misidentified them as coming from actual dinosaurs living at the time, and have made thus made their timeline of events accordingly.
The title text says that a high amount of resin and human DNA has led to them theorizing that dinosaurs ate humans.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Three squid-like aliens in a classroom; one alien stands in front of a board covered with minute text and a drawing of a T-Rex skeleton. Two aliens sit on chairs watching the teacher-alien. The teacher-alien points at the board with one tentacle. The image is encapsulated in a box, and there is a caption beneath it.]

Teacher-alien: Species such as triceratops and tyrannosaurus became more rare after the cretaceous, but they survived to flourish in the late Cenozoic, 66 million years later.
Many complete skeletons have been discovered from this era.

[Caption beneath the panel:]
It's going to be really funny when our museums get buried in sediment.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2979: Sky Alarm

2024-08-31T19:50:36Z

New editor: comment

♫♪ Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me... ♪♫ :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:55, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

I've tried to do just this by subscribing to a channel promisingly named "AstroAlert", which then proceeded to spam me 500 times per day with messages about a random meteor on the opposite part of the world. Woe. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.200|162.158.110.200]] 05:15, 31 August 2024 (UTC)
:Hence the need for this alarm, to keep it LOCAL, :) That's the thing, any such thing needs a LOCATION, to limit results to what is locally relevant to each person. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:19, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

This comic seems super simple, so I added as muc( explanation as I can think of... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:19, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Local58 moment 💔

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.138|172.70.85.138]] 11:27, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

With that device, no work is ever going to be done again... D: [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.24|108.162.221.24]] 11:36, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

There is a nice site called [https://apod.nasa.gov/ Astronomy Picture of the Day] that is like this. Alas, it is "A cool space thing happened three days ago - sorry you missed it". --[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 11:41, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Sounds like it needs a sky dome camera system (like they made for immersive filmimg) on the roof coupled with statistical analysis (mistakenly aka AI) to recognise and record 'interesting' things, coupled with localised alerts for known phenomena. A product for someone? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 11:46, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Most cool astronomical events don't come up so suddenly that you need an alarm. We know about eclipses years in advance, meteor showers recur annually, comets have months of warning, and unusual auroras are usually known a few days early. Anything sudden will probably also be short-lived, so by the time you get outside it will be over. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:26, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Seems like there should be a name for these alerts, like "Amber Alert" for missing children. I nominate "Neil Alert" -- it should probably use Neil deGrasse Tyson's voice. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:28, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Since the characters in the comic are the same as in the previous ISS comic, I like to think that they're in the ISS and Megan is getting ready to do an EVA (ignore the fact that such a desk wouldn't make sense, or the walking, or that prepping for the EVA would probably take well over a full orbit) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.93|172.71.223.93]] 17:58, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Dang, we really cleaned up all the incomplete explanations, didn't we?
Either that, or someone just went around and removed all the tags [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:50, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

Talk:1032: Networking

2024-03-01T22:46:50Z

New editor: replied to my own comment

I don't think "Connr" is a typo, as it's very likely the type of thing that a Web 2.0 business owner would do (see, for instance, the businesses Flickr, Tumblr, etc). [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 17:56, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
: That makes a lot of sense. I probably should have edited out the parenthetical when I copied/pasted from the blog. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:47, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
''All of these things are not common behavior.''
I don't know why, but that line of the explanation got me laughing for a full minute. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.66|108.162.215.66]] 06:20, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
: Yeah, I think we should make a "citation needed" for this thing [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.149|173.245.53.149]] 17:42, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Another example of a "long tail" business is a luxury car maker like Lambourghini. While their parent companies (Audi and Volkswagen) target wider audiences, Lambourghini intentionally focuses on the very high-end luxury market, pricing their vehicles around $400,000 each. Their highest sales year on record was 2008, when they delivered a worldwide total of 2,430 new cars. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.120|108.162.245.120]] 21:20, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

The "next" button is broken. It points to explainxkcd.com/1032. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 19:50, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Is the "Do you have more of your cards? They're delicious!" line a reference to the now-defunct CardMunch business card reader? Seem like the sort of thing that Beret Guy might take literally, resulting in him physically munching a card... [[User:PabloVergos|PabloVergos]] ([[User talk:PabloVergos|talk]]) 07:39, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does the last paragraph seem unnecessary and repetitive? The terms agile, lean, and long-tail were already described as real business terms in the previous paragraph. Also, I don't believe these terms are considered buzzwords just yet, at least not to the level of words like synergy. If anything, it doesn't add anything to better explain the comic.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.41|173.245.54.41]] 18:28, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Apparently, the "normal" guy works at a business with a bunch of female workers and a queen who has babies all the time. {{unsigned ip|162.158.75.136}}

IMO, The last paragraph should be removed. It is an opinion, tries to be funny and fails at it.

please remove all that unnecessary snark! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.65|172.70.134.65]] 18:25, 16 September 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

my favorite line in any xkcd strip is "holy shit that thing is full of cash!" [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 16:10, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
:hey look, it's past me! hello me from 2022! [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 22:46, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2899: Goodhart's Law

2024-02-26T22:17:07Z

New editor: more comment, signed

I don't think there's anything else that could be included in the transcript, so i'm deleting the incomplete tag. if anyone has an idea to make it better, just add it. i know it seems too soon, but there's really nothing else to the comic. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 22:17, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

2899: Goodhart's Law

2024-02-26T22:16:00Z

New editor: deleted the tag, the transcript is complete

{{comic
| number = 2899
| date = February 26, 2024
| title = Goodhart's Law
| image = goodharts_law_2x.png
| imagesize = 295x321px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [later] I'm pleased to report we're now identifying and replacing hundreds of outdated metrics per hour.
}}

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

A metric or {{w|performance indicator}} is a measure (hence "metric") chosen as indicative (hence "indicator") that the system overall is working as intended (for example, the number of cars sold may be used to measure how healthy a particular country's economy might be). {{w|Goodhart's law}} is the idea that when the metric becomes the only thing people focus on, all efforts will be directed to improving that metric (for example, cars may be heavily subsidized since it matters not how much money a car makes or who gets one, all that matters is that the total number of cars sold goes up). This means that the things the metric was indirectly measuring (that enough people could afford to buy a car) is no longer being measured, hence the metric ceases to be a good metric.

In the comic, [[White Hat]] suggests addressing this by creating a metric of how many metrics have become a target, and immediately suggests a way to direct all efforts to improving that metric (to give a bonus to anyone who finds a metric that has been targeted), thereby making it, by design, not a good metric.

The title text continues the joke, by presenting a new metric (changes per hour) in a pleased manner, although that many changes (and offered bonuses per hour) would likely be ruinous to their organization.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball and White Hat, standing. Cueball is talking to White Hat. White Hat has a hand on his chin.]
:Cueball: When a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric.
:White Hat: Sounds bad. Let's offer a bonus to anyone who identifies a metric that has become a target.

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:2899: Goodhart's Law

2024-02-26T22:14:43Z

New editor: commented

Talk:967: Prairie

2022-11-09T21:10:41Z

New editor: commented

Except it's not a perfect analogy because each grain is a separate entity, and it's an external force, the wind, that produces the wave motion. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:24, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

: It actually works out better than you think, because a laser requires an external energy source to {{w|Laser pumping|pump}} it. Colorado is also shaped like a {{w|Optical cavity|laser cavity}}. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.125|173.245.48.125]] 06:36, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

;Purple Mountains Majesties
The song America the Beautiful was written by Katharine Lee Bates, originally in the form of a poem entitled "Pikes Peak", which is a 14,000+ foot peak in Colorado Springs. I changed the phrasing of the article from "which '''may''' in fact allude to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado" to "which '''does''' in fact allude to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado." There is no question of whether the song refers to the Colorado Rocky Mountains.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.55|108.162.215.55]] 20:36, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

"There is a long running joke in the Rocky Mountain West of completely obliterating nearby states, and in particular Nebraska."
Can someone explain this? Maybe it's just because I'm from the east coast, but I have never heard anything about this. Where does the joke come from? How does it go? [[User:Leafy Greens|Leafy Greens]] ([[User talk:Leafy Greens|talk]]) 23:26, 16 November 2014 (UTC)
: First you kill all the bison then eradicate the remains of the population and replace them with a people who have no knowledge or respect for the land.

In one generation the waves are harnessed to destroy.

HTH.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]])

No I don't think it's one of your best ones either.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 20:25, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

One thing to note, the Greeks used the word ēlektron to designate amber, which they observed to have an attractive effect on small objects when rubbed with fur. The electron was the subatomic particle observed in the famous double slit experiment to exhibit properties of both particles and waves. [[User:Grizzly1|Grizzly1]] ([[User talk:Grizzly1|talk]]) 06:46, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

1. i do not understand "There is a long running joke in the Rocky Mountain West of completely obliterating nearby states, and in particular Nebraska." 2. is google news clickbait

i had a dream about this comic once. see, i was some people this cool tower defense game i made, and then everyone left, and i sat down on the couchthat was there. on the tv, there was this comic, except there were a bunch of people lying down, surrounded by blood (they were stick figures like in xkcd). then, one frame at a time, they started getting up. it was at about this point that i discovered i coudn't move. the camera zoomed in on megan, and just as she turned around to look at me i woke up.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 21:10, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy

2022-11-07T19:08:51Z

New editor: added a power

*[[Beret Guy]] is a very strange person. Sometimes he takes these strange tendencies into the supernatural.
**'''Click''' to expand for a more detailed explanation:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
==Explanation==
In the early comics he was more just a strange and naive guy. There is an early start to the strangeness, but that power could also be attributed to [[Cueball]] (at least it is a shared power) in [[248]].

After comic [[1099]], Beret Guy begins to appear frequently with these strange powers, typically not related to each other, except that he has some issues with electrical sockets and power cords as seen in [[1293]] and [[1395]]. (See also [[509: Induced Current]] and the title text of [[614: Woodpecker]], regarding power cords, but not these strange powers.)

Many of these apparent powers manifest as objects behaving strangely around him. It is unclear whether these are in fact powers inherent to Beret Guy or whether the objects are simply cursed; as indicated in [[1772]], most of his possessions were acquired from shops specializing in cursed items.

Here is a list of the comics where Beret Guy displays strange powers that are beyond the realm of possibility.

===List of abilities===
#[[248]]: Manages to create a hypothetical situation (trapping him and his friend).
#[[1088]]: Capable of waiting in the same place for five years, presumably without sustenance
#[[1099]]: He has infinite wings.
#[[1135]]: Makes spiders weave him a shirt.
#[[1158]]: Creates rope to pull & release ball via his imagination.
#[[1293]]: Pours soup from power socket.
#[[1388]]: Subducts through the floor to form mountains in his room.
#[[1395]]: Inflates a laptop through a power cord so that it floats like a helium balloon.
#[[1422]]: Makes a phone with an old battery behave like a dying star.
#[[1486]]: Uses the vacuum energy to fly and "gain unlimited power" with a vacuum cleaner.
#[[1490]]: Sees the individual atoms, and can distinguish the different elements. But he cannot see what they are actually a part of, like a human or a dog.
#[[1522]]: Can examine life on exoplanets around distant stars through a magnifying glass just by standing on a ladder.
#[[1614]]: A little less clear what his powers are in this. But first he is walking a flying/floating dog, and then he returns flying on (or as) a kite, while the dog holds on to the line of the kite.
#[[1617]]: Living by eating newspaper and without breathing oxygen for several years in a sealed and buried box.
#[[1922]]: Riding in the air above two small dogs combined into a larger dog through interferometry
#[[2310]]: Being able to sleep on the vertical side of walls due to a much higher than normal attraction to the {{w|Great Attractor}}, because of higher dimensional bones.
#[[2325]]: Beret Guy attracts water so it flows to him rather than running out towards the nearby oceans. He thus claims he is like an endorheic basin, which is a limited drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water.
#[[2376]]: Claims to have the ability to do battle with ghosts, although this is not shown because Beret Guy did not have a cursed amulet that makes ghosts angry.
#[[2446]]: He creates a huge spike protein outside his body after receiving the [[:Category:COVID-19_vaccine|COVID-19 vaccine]].
#[[2534]]: He managed to create a retractable "rocket" that can extend and deliver payload to the ISS and then return to it's starting position without the base ever leaving the ground.
#[[2695]]: He created volcano seeds which, when planted, create a tiny volcano.
</div>
 

[[Category:Comics by topic]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

Talk:2692: Interior Decorating

2022-10-31T23:57:45Z

New editor: changed an s to a z

what about occam’s razor?[[User:Anonymouscript|Anonymouscript]] ([[User talk:Anonymouscript|talk]]) 22:11, 31 October 2022 (UTC)
:Isn’t ominous, not in itself. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 22:13, 31 October 2022 (UTC)
:It sounds like it would be dangerous, since a razor is a sharp blade. Unless it's Occam's safety razor. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:27, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

Siege Perilous is ominous and mythical, but what is it a metaphor for? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:27, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

I don't think the Pelosi attack is relevant to this comic. At best, it could be trivia fodder, but I find it highly unlikely that it influenced the comic in any way. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.39|108.162.216.39]] 22:50, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1011: Baby Names

2022-10-25T01:37:25Z

New editor: commented

"Old lady" names like Edith or Margaret are also pretty awful for a girl. She's gonna have to live her early years with a name that makes her sound like she's 50. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:13, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
:There's a young Margaret in ''A Wrinkle in Time''. Also, I know a young woman named Margaret. However, I can hardly imagine a worse name than Bertha. [[User:Dfeuer|Dfeuer]] ([[User talk:Dfeuer|talk]]) 16:09, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Remember that they are only "Old Lady" names because they were popular baby names 50 years ago! In 50 years time people will say don't name your child Hunter! That's a grandpa name! (Yes people actually call their sons that!) --[[User:LostFire|LostFire]] ([[User talk:LostFire|talk]]) 09:54, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
: I once met a man in his mid-50s named Austin. For half his life he got people commenting on how old-fashioned his name is, and for the other half he's gotten people saying when they saw his name on the list they were expecting a kid.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.70|173.245.52.70]] 01:39, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm from Brazil and I find interesting that the concept of names that makes children feel much older exists in other languages. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.119|108.162.254.119]] 03:47, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

:It's common to pretty much all cultures, name fads come and go. In Brazil, for example, you don't see many girls named "Lourdes", or old men named "Felipe". --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.241|108.162.210.241]] 15:18, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

:Interestingly this problem seems (to me) to be relatively unexistant in Poland. This seems to be helped by our attitude to name variants (i.e. considering them same name in most cases). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.216|141.101.89.216]] 21:06, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

::What... I'm from Poland and I think this does exist in Poland Take Stefan, Kasimierz, Władysław etc. I even found this article: http://www.edziecko.pl/ciaza_i_porod/1,79473,18054856,Helena__Aniela__Kazimierz_i_Wladyslaw__stare_imiona.html

I suspect "friendly" is so it would play out in introductions as such: "Nice to meet you. I'm ''friendly''." --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.148|108.162.225.148]] 14:05, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Still can't think of a name dumber than 'Renesmee'. 'North West' comes close. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.53|108.162.221.53]] 02:07, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

My friend married a man named "Durr." First child was named Kathy. I suggested Corianne for the second {{unsigned ip|173.245.63.146}}

I have a friend who was briefly called Parsley. When she was born, her Grandfather got the call instead of her Grandmother, and reported that her name as "Parsley". He then went straight back to sleep, leaving the Grandmother quite frustrated. After reading this comic, she felt sort of famous. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.77}}

Technically, "Sean" should have an accent on the 'a', so that it is pronounced "Shawn". It's a transliteration of "John" into the alphabet that was in use in Ireland a couple of centuries ago. If you leave out the accent, it's a different word, a prefix meaning "old" and pronounced "shan". Using family names as given names is also a thing. "Kim" is a nice name for a girl... but in N Korea? And finally "Joyst" as a reference to "Joyce" recalls the arts graduate from Dublin looking for a job as a builder... "The difference between a joist and a girder? Well, Joist wrote Ulysses and Girder wrote Faust"[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.208|162.158.38.208]] 21:35, 12 September 2018 (UTC)

Guys "Astamouth" is definitely worse than "Renesmee". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.13|162.158.111.13]] 07:47, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

There is currently a very famous child who is named a wifi password and I think this comic is much funnier because of it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 01:29, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

"doopsiquorps" is worse.

1625: Substitutions 2

2022-10-20T01:14:49Z

New editor: changed the title text

{{comic
| number = 1625
| date = January 4, 2016
| title = Substitutions 2
| image = substitutions_2.png
| titletext = Within a few minutes, our roads will be full of uncontrollably-swerving cats and our skies full of Amazon delivery dogs.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second comic in the [[:Category:Substitution series|Substitution series]] where [[Randall]] has suggested substitutions that will make reading the news more fun. But there have been several [[:Category:Substitutions|comics using substitutions]] both before and after these ones.

The series as of 2016:
*[[1288: Substitutions]]
*[[1625: Substitutions 2]]
*[[1679: Substitutions 3]]

In this table, [[Randall]] suggests substituting several common phrases in generic news with similar or related phrases that mean something different for comical effect. Some of the replacements are {{w|synonyms}}, some are {{w|antonyms}}, and some are plain different concepts; and, even though they would (most of the time) make a grammatically correct sentence, the resulting idea would, however, often sound absurd or bizarre.

Some of the examples might, also, mock the fact that many news contradict the actual facts or obvious results of a situation. For example, "[influential person] vows to do good to the world" would be replaced with a more usual fact "[influential person] probably won't do good to the world" - see [[#Example of sentences|example]] below with North Korean leader.

The title text is an example of how the closing sentence of a given article or report might sound after using the substitutions in the comic.
:Before substitutions: Within a few '''years''', our roads will be full of '''self-driving''' cars and our skies full of Amazon delivery '''drones'''.
:After substitutions: Within a few '''minutes''', our roads will be full of '''uncontrollably-swerving''' cars and our skies full of Amazon delivery '''dogs'''.
The flying dogs could be a reference to [[1614: Kites]]. Was the first of two in a row where Amazon is mentioned in the title text (next [[1626: Judgment Day]]).

===Table of substitutions===
*In this table the difference between the original and the substituted word (and the change to the sentences) will be explained.
**[[#Example of sentences|Example of sentences]] are given below.
:{| class="wikitable"
! Original
! Substitution
! Explanation
|-
| {{w|Debate}}
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dance-off Dance-off]
| A 'debate' is often used between political candidates, to give the voters a chance to decide who they will vote for. One of the candidates  is often called the winner of such a debate by some degree or other of consensus. Randall is indicating that they could just as well have performed a 'dance-off' where they would dance until one of them danced better than the other, as adjudged by the viewing crowd or a panel of judges. Such a dance-off is often seen in [http://gameshows.wikia.com/wiki/Family_Dance_Off TV-shows] or [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3024964/combined films] etc.
|-
| {{w|Autonomous car|Self driving}}
| Uncontrollably [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swerving swerving]
| 'Self driving' cars were also mentioned in [[1623: 2016 Conversation Guide]], just two comics before this one where it was stated that they would come surprisingly soon (within a few minutes according to the substitutions suggested here). Self-driving cars were still in their adolescence when this comic was written, and Randall pokes fun with the mental image of self-driving cars running completely out of control and swerving dangerously out of their lanes. Self-driving cars is a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd.
|-
| {{w|Poll}}
| {{w|Psychic reading}}
| A 'poll', especially regarding political issues, refers to {{w|opinion poll|opinion}} or {{w|exit poll|exit}} polls. These tend to ask a carefully selected sample (for either balance or an intended ''inbalance'', depending on the poll's neutrality) their opinions in order to extrapolate the global consensus, e.g. the future result of an {{w|election}}. This substitution is Randall's way of saying that they could just as well have used a {{w|psychic}} person to predict the result. A true psychic (if that they are) would reveal an accurate result, whilst a false one (skilled at 'cold reading' an audience) would likely wish to provide the answer that pleases those asking the question (the actual purpose of some polls), or else attempt to provide their actual 'best guess' as to future outcomes in order to improve their own legend.
|-
| {{w|Candidate}}
| {{w|Airbender}}
| A 'candidate' usually refers to a political person who represents a certain political party in an election. He would then be that party's candidate, for instance for a presidential election. 'Airbender' refers to the show {{w|Avatar: The Last Airbender}}, where there are waterbenders, earthbenders, firebenders and airbenders.
|-
| {{w|Unmanned aerial vehicle|Drone}}
| {{w|Dog}}
| Drones can be many things, for instance a {{w|Drone (bee)|male bee}}, but as used in the title text it refers to unmanned aerial vehicles. {{w|Amazon.com|Amazon}} is about to use small drones to deliver parcels, and Randall has referred to these before (see [[1523: Microdrones]]). However, until just before the recent trend of becoming popularised as a 'toy' or professional camera platform, the term became closely associated with ''military'' drones that have been used to observe (and, more recently, fire upon) enemy forces without risking any military personnel.
|-
| {{w|Vows}} to
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/probably Probably] won't
| Vowing to do something means that you really promise to do this. But when politicians vow something, for instance, it seems to often end up becoming a forgotten promise. Hence the antonym substitution which means the opposite. From ''really will'' to ''probably won't''.
|-
| {{w|Fugitive#Terminology|At large}} (or {{w|At-large}})
| Very [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/large large]
| A criminal that is on the run is said to be at large (no hyphen). At-large (with hyphen) is a political designation for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent the whole membership of the body, rather than a subset of that membership. Neither of these have anything to do with the physical size or "largeness" of the subject.
|-
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/successfully Successfully]
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/suddenly Suddenly]
| The two words have nothing much to do with each other except that they both begin with ''su''.
|-
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/expand Expands]
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/physical Physically] expands
| 'Expands' often refers to a physical expansion, or inflation. But it is also possible to expand on an explanation, as is done for this comic. So that would become: This explanation is being physically expanded beyond all measures. It is worth noting that, if iterated, this substitution would result in an infinite string of of "physically"s prior to any "expand."
|-
| {{w|First degree|First }} /{{w|second degree|second }} /{{w|third degree|third-degree}}
| [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Friggin Friggin'] awful
| First, second and third-degree can be used in many context. It is common to think about {{w|Burn|burns}}, which can {{w|Burn#Signs_and_symptoms|range from first to fourth degree}}, where higher is worse. Also {{w|murder}} charges can range in from first to third degree in for instance the US. Here first degree murder is the worst. But it can be used for other things, like an {{w|undergraduate degree}} or {{w|postgraduate education}} for first and second degree respectively. But the substitution fits best with murder or burn, as Friggin(g) is a "softer" swear word than for instance other more commonly used four letter words. It often replaces ''fuck''. Its original meaning was a coarse word for female masturbation (see [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frigging#English frigging]).
|-
| An [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unknown unknown] number
| Like {{w|100 (number)|hundreds}}
| In the news, an unknown number mostly means 'probably not zero.' It is often used in phrases like "an unknown number of assailants broke into a house in Munroe Heights," or "an unknown number of people are missing" after a calamity of some sort. "Like hundreds" does give a different flavor.
|-
| {{w|Front-runner |Front runner}}
| {{w|Blade Runner}}
| In American politics, a 'front-runner' is a leader in an electoral race. It can also mean the front-runner in athletic events (the namesake of the political concept). Here it is generally clear who the front-runner is, whilst the political front-runner is sometimes less clear or a more subjective viewpoint. A 'blade runner' is a person who retires (kills) rogue cyborgs in the movie Blade Runner, where {{w|Harrison Ford}} plays the lead Blade Runner.
|-
| {{w|Globe|Global}}
| {{w|Spherical}}
| Global comes from globe, but means so much more today. It is often used in contexts such as {{w|global warming}} or {{w|World war|global warfare}}. But since a globe is spherical, this substitution makes more sense than most, although talking about ''the effect of spherical warming'' would probably not get {{w|Greenpeace}} into action. Might be confusing if an actual physical object affecting Earth were described as being sphere-like, rather than as occuring around the globe.
|-
| {{w|Years}}
| {{w|Minute|Minutes}}
| It will often make a sentence lose its meaning when changing the units drastically from years to minutes (there are 525600 minutes in the usual 365 days present in a year). For instance it would be unusual that a prisoner convicted for murder would get 20 minutes in jail, rather than 20 years.
|-
| {{w|Minute|Minutes}}
| {{w|Years}}
| Same as above but reversed. For instance a car might make a trip around a race track in just 7 years! One lesson at school lasted 45 years.
|-
| No {{w|Indication| indication}}
| Lots of {{w|Sign (disambiguation)|signs}}
| Scientifically, the fact that there is 'no indication' that a theorem is correct does not positively prove the theorem wrong, it merely does not support it (assuming there are no actual counter-indications, which is often the case with the more esoteric ideas). This is often seized upon by those trying to promote a pseudoscience, in that their chosen idea "has not been proven to be wrong" (and yet, conversely, "it's just a theory" is incorrectly used to refute something that has valid scientific backing). Moreover, hearsay and bad experimental practices are often cited as 'proof'. A crackpot idea may thus be unsupported by valid science (there is 'no indication' of its truth) and yet its supporters insist upon there being 'lots of signs' that it is true, selectively using only ambiguous results that (to them, at least) lend credence to it being a fact. The substitution of 'no indication' with 'lots of signs' thus automatically converts the expected conservative and cautious stance on some disputed issue or other into the weasel-words phrasing that the issue's supporters may start using in their own propaganda.
|-
| [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/urge Urged]{{w|Self-control|restraint}} by
| {{w|Alcohol intoxication|Drunkenly}} [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/egg_on egged on]
| If someone urges someone else to restrain themselves, then they are trying to make them exercise self-control, and discourage them from starting or continuing a possibly foolish act. In this substitution we have the exact opposite, as to egg someone on to do something is actively encourage an act to happen, or continue.
|-
| {{w|Horsepower}}
| {{w|Ton|Tons}} of {{w|horsemeat}}
| Cars power is measured in horsepower (hp), a typical family car having like hundred hp, being derived from the nominal amount of power that a suitably-harnessed horse could have provided. In cars, this has nothing to do with horse meat, of any quantity, but here a mechanical (or electrical) engine is envisaged as a literally horse-powered device.
|}

===Example of sentences===
*Here follows some real examples with links to the news/text:
**Words from the list, and the replacement words are highlighted with '''bold''' font.
**All words are included at least once, and the list is sort of sorted after the order the words appear in the comic, but most sentences have more than one word from the list, on purpose!

*[http://observer.com/2015/12/fifth-republican-debate-where-each-candidate-excelled-and-faltered/ Original sentence]: Fifth Republican '''debate''': where each '''candidate''' excelled and faltered
:Modified sentence: Fifth Republican '''dance-off''': where each '''airbender''' excelled and faltered

*[http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1101667_1000-horsepower-self-driving-electric-faraday-future-concept-leaked Original sentence]: 1,000-'''Horsepower''' '''Self-Driving''' Electric Faraday Future Concept Leaked?
:Modified sentence: 1,000-'''Tons of Horsemeat''' '''Uncontrollably Swerving''' Electric Faraday Future Concept Leaked?

*[http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/18/poll-donald-trump-remains-clear-gop-frontrunner-cnn-debate/ Original sentence]: A new Morning Consult '''poll''' shows real estate mogul Donald Trump remains on top as the GOP '''frontrunner''' following Tuesday’s '''debate'''.
:Modified sentence: A new Morning Consult '''psychic reading''' shows real estate mogul Donald Trump remains on top as the GOP '''blade runner''' following Tuesday’s '''dance-off'''.

*[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/01/asia-pacific/new-years-address-north-koreas-kim-vows-raise-living-standards/#.VouQZvnhBlZ Original sentence]: North Korea’s Kim '''vows to''' raise living standards
:Modified sentence: North Korea’s Kim '''probably won't''' raise living standards

*[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180163/Murderers-rapists-1-153-criminals-large-recalled-prison-30-years.html Original sentence]: Murderers and rapists among 1,153 criminals still '''at large''' after being recalled to prison over the last 30 '''years'''
:Modified sentence: Murderers and rapists among 1,153 criminals still '''very large''' after being recalled to prison over the last 30 '''minutes'''

*[http://www.dawn.com/news/1169341 Original sentence]: Pakistan '''successfully''' tests first indigenous armed '''drone'''
:Modified sentence: Pakistan '''suddenly''' tests first indigenous armed '''dog'''

*[http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-expands-gun-controls-in-executive-moves-1452012973 Original sentence]: Obama '''Expands''' Gun Controls in Executive Moves
:Modified sentence: Obama '''Physically Expands''' Gun Controls in Executive Moves

*[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3578054/ Original sentence]: There was '''no indication''' of '''first degree''' familial relationships in the analyzed dataset.
:Modified sentence: There was '''lots of signs''' of '''friggin' awful''' familial relationships in the analyzed dataset
*[http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2003/06/22/stories/2003062202101200.htm Original sentence]: …rescue crews continued to collect bodies and interview survivors, including '''an unknown number''' of wounded languishing in homes and hospitals with '''third degree''' burns
:Modified sentence: …rescue crews continued to collect bodies and interview survivors, including '''like hundreds''' of wounded languishing in homes and hospitals with '''friggin' awful''' burns

*[http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/09/politics/azealia-banks-donald-trump-idiot/ Original sentence]: The Republican presidential '''front-runner''' faces a '''global''' firestorm
:Modified sentence: The Republican presidential '''blade runner''' faces a '''spherical''' firestorm

*[http://www.reuters.com/article/us-georgia-ossetia-obama-idUSWBT00953020080808 Original sentence]: U.S. presidential '''candidate''' Barack Obama on Friday '''urged restraint by''' both Russia and Georgia in the conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in Georgia.
:Modified sentence: U.S. presidential '''airbender''' Barack Obama on Friday '''drunkenly egged on''' both Russia and Georgia in the conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in Georgia.

*[http://phors.locost7.info/phors06.htm Original sentence]: Video: 52-'''Horsepower''' Citroen AX Laps Nurburgring In Under 10 '''Minutes'''
:Modified sentence: Video: 52-'''Tons of horsemeat''' Citroen AX Laps Nurburgring In Under 10 '''Years'''

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:More
:'''Substitutions'''
:That make reading the news more fun

:[A table of words/sentences on the left that change in to those on the left. Between each set of words there is a gray arrow pointing from right.]
:{|
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Debate
| ➜
| Dance-off
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Self driving
| ➜
| Uncontrollably swerving
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Poll
| ➜
| Psychic reading
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Candidate
| ➜
| Airbender
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Drone
| ➜
| Dog
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Vows to
| ➜
| Probably won't
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | At large
| ➜
| Very large
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Successfully
| ➜
| Suddenly
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Expands
| ➜
| Physically expands
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | First/second/third-degree
| ➜
| Friggin' awful
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | An unknown number
| ➜
| Like hundreds
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Front runner
| ➜
| Blade runner
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Global
| ➜
| Spherical
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Years
| ➜
| Minutes
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Minutes
| ➜
| Years
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | No indication
| ➜
| Lots of signs
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Urged restraint by
| ➜
| Drunkenly egged on
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Horsepower
| ➜
| Tons of horsemeat
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Substitution series]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Substitutions]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]

Talk:788: The Carriage

2022-10-18T02:56:45Z

New editor: changed my comment

Fun fact: you can sing anything written in ballad meter to the tune of anything else written in ballad meter. Try singing the pokemon theme to the tune of saving grace. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:23, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
: Do you mean ''Amazing'' Grace? {{unsigned ip|74.226.103.181}}
::Bah, close enough. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:00, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

What is this Y-button? --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 16:38, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
: It is the button used to enter / exit a vehicle in GTA (XBOX versions) [[User:SioD|SioD]] ([[User talk:SioD|talk]]) 09:28, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
::You have to press a button to steal a car? {{unsigned|Weatherlawyer}}
:::While playing the game, on that device, you gain pretend illegal possession of a pixelated vehicle by pushing the game controller button specified [[User:Katt3|Katt3]] ([[User talk:Katt3|talk]]) 17:56, 19 September 2016 (UTC)Katt3

Is it Emily ion the comic? She is not depicted with a bun on wiki. And neither is she in most of the pics found on google. If someone makes an edition of GTA they would not necessarily use them selves as the protagonist? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:27, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Can we please change 'Hair Bun Girl' to 'Emily Dickinson'? We all know that's who she's supposed to be. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.35|108.162.218.35]] 13:41, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Just rewrote the first quatrain with GTA wording:
Because I could not stop for Death/
He kindly stopped for me/
I yanked him from the driver’s seat/
And got a carriage free. {{unsigned ip|108.162.220.221}}

I sympathize fully with Randall. Since I learned (can't remember where) that this poem can be sung to "the Yellow Rose of Texas" I can't read it any other way either. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.117|108.162.242.117]] 21:31, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
: Babylon 5 episode, "Day of the Dead" [[User:Cosumel|Cosumel]] ([[User talk:Cosumel|talk]]) 19:37, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Does anyone else just see "crap crap crap ..." for the main page now? I just see pages of the one word over and over. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.222|172.70.131.222]] 23:35, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

btw, this also works with loch lomond. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 02:55, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:788: The Carriage

2022-10-18T02:55:14Z

New editor: commented

Fun fact: you can sing anything written in ballad meter to the tune of anything else written in ballad meter. Try singing the pokemon theme to the tune of saving grace. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:23, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
: Do you mean ''Amazing'' Grace? {{unsigned ip|74.226.103.181}}
::Bah, close enough. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:00, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

What is this Y-button? --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 16:38, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
: It is the button used to enter / exit a vehicle in GTA (XBOX versions) [[User:SioD|SioD]] ([[User talk:SioD|talk]]) 09:28, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
::You have to press a button to steal a car? {{unsigned|Weatherlawyer}}
:::While playing the game, on that device, you gain pretend illegal possession of a pixelated vehicle by pushing the game controller button specified [[User:Katt3|Katt3]] ([[User talk:Katt3|talk]]) 17:56, 19 September 2016 (UTC)Katt3

Is it Emily ion the comic? She is not depicted with a bun on wiki. And neither is she in most of the pics found on google. If someone makes an edition of GTA they would not necessarily use them selves as the protagonist? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:27, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Can we please change 'Hair Bun Girl' to 'Emily Dickinson'? We all know that's who she's supposed to be. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.35|108.162.218.35]] 13:41, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Just rewrote the first quatrain with GTA wording:
Because I could not stop for Death/
He kindly stopped for me/
I yanked him from the driver’s seat/
And got a carriage free. {{unsigned ip|108.162.220.221}}

I sympathize fully with Randall. Since I learned (can't remember where) that this poem can be sung to "the Yellow Rose of Texas" I can't read it any other way either. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.117|108.162.242.117]] 21:31, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
: Babylon 5 episode, "Day of the Dead" [[User:Cosumel|Cosumel]] ([[User talk:Cosumel|talk]]) 19:37, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Does anyone else just see "crap crap crap ..." for the main page now? I just see pages of the one word over and over. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.222|172.70.131.222]] 23:35, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

btw, this also works with old lang syne. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 02:55, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:181: Interblag

2022-09-27T00:28:23Z

New editor: commented

One of the comics that got me into XKCD. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:17, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

i heard about it on the webweb! [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 00:28, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

Talk:506: Theft of the Magi

2022-08-25T20:46:36Z

New editor: commented

Is it an "aaw" of dissapointment, or an "aaw" of affection? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.121|108.162.231.121]] 23:28, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

:In the comic, it's spelled "aww", as in a cuteness overload. Please note the difference. /s
:I think it's an aww of affection, as explained above. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.67|173.245.55.67]] 21:24, 18 April 2014 (UTC)BK201

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in "The gift of the Magi", wouldn/t the wife's hair grow back eventually, thus meaning she actualy gave away nothing (And got a very nice set of hairbrushes in return)? {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.254}}
:Said like someone who doesn't know how much effort maintaining long hair takes! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:44, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Why is L4D expensive enough to cost a used roomba? and why does an expected-to-be-like-20-dollars dueling harness cost a used xbox? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.58|108.162.215.58]] 22:40, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
:It's not about the money value of the items, but the sociopathic malice invested in their theft that counts! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:44, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

i'm pretty sure it's an aww of dissapointment, as in aww i couldnt get that!
:I'm pretty sure an aww of affection suits the dynamic of their relationship where there mutually destructive tendencies are a key factor binding them together.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.101|162.158.92.101]] 13:09, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Fun fact, this page shows up first when you search "theft of the magi" and the actual comic is second! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.178|172.70.175.178]] 18:54, 20 March 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

guys, this actually exists! search "roomba dueling harness" [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 20:46, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1032: Networking

2022-08-25T16:10:02Z

New editor: commented

Talk:772: Frogger

2022-04-23T06:58:21Z

New editor: commented

There's actually a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2gow415F5k video] of this already, made by Robot Chicken. It doesn't have the innocent bystanders, though, and it doesn't have the title text either. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 10:00, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:In other words, it in no way has anything even faintly resembling the same joke or premise, except that it involved frogger and a crash. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 17:23, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Honestly, most frogs attempting to cross the road would go unnoticed, whether missed or flattened. But if you saw a frog the size of an Izeta in the road, you probably would swerve to miss, if you thought no one was in the next lane. [[User:Nyperold|Nyperold]] ([[User talk:Nyperold|talk]]) 21:38, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

somebody actually made this game XD https://shadowsora211.itch.io/bad-luck-cat my highscore is 3550. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 06:58, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:256: Online Communities

2022-04-05T07:05:48Z

New editor: commented

I'm gonna try and put together some sort of explanation at all for this one. A couple of things I could use help on in terms of location if people want to chip in: series of tubes within myspace; the Icy North; the islands bounded by the Ocean of Subculture, Sea of Memes, and P2P Shoals; and the location of some of the tiny islands around the map (e.g. why is the Lonely Island near friendster, Google's Volcano Fortress off the IRC Isles, etc.). Thanks in advance!! [[User:Amurfalcon|Amurfalcon]] ([[User talk:Amurfalcon|talk]]) 20:30, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
:I've found Googling some of the more obscure things and half-readable things helps a lot. It's how I got Xu Jinglei. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 17:03, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
The Lonely Island may be a reference to the comedy band of the same name. Shortly before this map was made they blew up after appearing on SNL. I do not know if this is relevant to its location on the map. [[User:CloverOtsworth|CloverOtsworth]] ([[User talk:CloverOtsworth|talk]]) 00:03, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Can someone remove that stray line break before "A larger version..."? It irks me and I don't know how to get rid of it.

;bay of trolls

Might this be a reference to bay of pigs? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.135|173.245.48.135]] 03:58, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
:Possibly, but, well, it'd be rather speculative to include it, and there's [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3APrefixIndex&prefix=Bay+of&namespace=0 lots] of other "Bay of X" places, e.g. Bay of Fundy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.235|141.101.99.235]] 05:46, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

; Map of the Internet

I don't know if or how much this art was inspired by this comic, but if you like 256 you'll love the [http://jaysimons.deviantart.com Map of the Internet]. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 16:14, 6 January 2015 (UTC)''

"World of Warcraft ... based on a previously-existing RPG series" i'm not sure about this statement. The first thing that most people think about would be Warcraft but that's not an RPG series (they are strategy games) unless we are considering it so for the minimal RPG elements in Warcraft 3. Perhaps it's referencing an other series (maybe Diablo) or I'm missing something and since i'm far from an expert in either WOW or xkcd i'll let someone else decide if it should be changed (a possible minimal change would be changing "RPG series" to either "game series" or "video game series"). [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.125|188.114.111.125]] 07:49, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

There's no explanation of the "anthropomorphic dragons" bit. I mean, I'm sure many of us know what it means (wink wonk), but some may be confused. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.33|108.162.246.33]] 03:31, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

what is a one-syllable way to say "practical" or "practicals"? [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 07:05, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1712: Politifact

2022-04-05T05:38:21Z

New editor: commented

The title text can be interpreted in two ways: Either that the pants are actually on fire or that rolling the smoke-bomb was a blatant lie. I'm not sure what to make of the "::FWOOOSH::" in the latter case...
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.66|162.158.83.66]] 16:46, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

I think there is also an aspect of excessive literalism here. For example when Meagan says "I swear I locked that window" Politifact says "false". While it is literally true that this statement was false this is only tangentially related to the conversation. What is important is the home break in going on.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.70|173.245.56.70]] 17:59, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

I think that the title text has two equally true meanings. It was NOT a smoke bomb (it was some other type of bomb, so calling it "smoke bomb" is false) and also Politifact's pants were literally on fire. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.147|162.158.214.147]] 21:32, 27 July 2016 (UTC)
: Smoke Bombs are not as obviously incendiary as (say) Incendiary Bombs, but they are actually burning, beneath the deliberate smoke, and perfectly capable of igniting materials. Depending upon their (mis)use. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.20|141.101.98.20]] 12:00, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Is it appropriate for the transcript to have colored text? The point of a transcript is to have a formal plain text description, decorating the text in this manner to convey information seems contrary to that. An in-parenthesis statement of the color would perhaps be better. [[User:Thomson's Gazelle|Thomson's Gazelle]] ([[User talk:Thomson's Gazelle|talk]]) 16:51, 28 July 2016 (UTC)
:Well that can be discussed, but it's the way it has been done in all comics with colored text. It is always easy to read it if you copy paste and you can still search for the words. And a reader will not have problems with the text. But agree that the transcript should mention that PolitiFact is written like their logo with colors. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:46, 28 July 2016 (UTC)
::...maybe we should make a page for the formatting guidelines of transcripts. I swear I see this same thing on every page with formatted text in the transcript. [[User:Papayaman1000|Papayaman1000]] ([[User talk:Papayaman1000|talk]]) 19:32, 28 July 2016 (UTC)
:::I think it is as it should be. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:05, 28 July 2016 (UTC)
::::While I feel that formatted text is a perfectly good style decision for the transcripts in this way, I'd like to point out that when there was a discussion on changing the tagline - "It's because you're dumb" - it was pointed out that there are blind people who use this site to follow xkcd, by having a reader program read this transcript. I'm not sure if such a program would mention colours or bold or italic text (etc), which would mean mentioning the colours could be more effective. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.118|108.162.218.118]] 02:34, 29 July 2016 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 10:30, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:::::I did add that but Dgbrt reverted my changes do not quite know why... :/ --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:17, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
::::::"Revert: The transcript isn't the explain section." seems apt given the sheer amount of description added. If you'd have stuck with (in the first square bracket) saying "Politi is blue and Fact in red, whenever spoken by the PolitiFact character", or ideally something even briefer", it would aid the (colour?)blind readers to get the novelty of that more than the stuff like messy hair. IMO [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.211|141.101.70.211]] 08:15, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
:::::::The transcript should describe the scene. But I do agree that I may have filled to much info into this one. Sorry about that. Have reinserted parts of the text. But a transcript serves several functions:
:::::::#To make it possible to find out what any kind of text/numbers etc. reads, even if it is hard to read in the comic.
:::::::#To make a description of what happens in the images. This has two purposes:
:::::::##So people with eye disabilities can find out what the comic is about. So here a full description of the comic is needed apart from the text.
:::::::##So it is possible to search the comic for info on the content, like a woman with a hat with a white tag.
:::::::#Finally it is great if the transcript represents the way it is written in the comic as close as possible including colors (which should also be described in the text for those that cannot see them selves). So tables, colors and formatting is fine. If the text then is harder to read it is possible to copy paste it.
:::::::This has been used throughout the explain xkcd, and if it is done thorough enough it will enable people to search for characters and objects.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:25, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

I'm taking off the Incomplete tag. I tried to avoid deleting or diminishing the alternate interpretations, but I'm not sure I entirely succeeded.
Also, when looking at the term Truth-o-meter, the only thing I'm capable of thinking is "wouldn't veritometer be a better term?"[[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.81|172.68.35.81]] 02:15, 2 August 2016 (UTC)
:Maybe but that's what PolitiFact calls it... I have tried to improve the explanation a bit, by putting in some deleted parts again. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:40, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

?Dubious legal claim?
The article first describes PolitiFact as breaking and entering, then later says this:

> Although entering someone's house against their wishes is illegal, regardless of how entry is achieved, Megan's failure to secure the window means that PolitiFact cannot be charged guilty of breaking and entering

This claim seems dubious, especially since “breaking and entering” generally doesn’t actually require “breaking” in places where it is an actual charge as far as I can tell. It also contradicts the start of the article.

Perhaps remove this and replace “breaking and entering” with burglary earlier on?

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.178|162.158.212.178]] 19:23, 28 April 2021 (UTC)
:That's right, it's certainly still illegal to enter somebody's house without permission even if they left their window open. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.145|172.68.132.145]] 03:31, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

i'm typing this while listening to the sea shanty "wellerman" but backwards and sped up.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 05:38, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:914: Ice

2022-04-04T22:19:10Z

New editor: commented

Well, at least he didn't lose his spleen. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I understood the AAA-Club as reference to him shouting AAAAA. I think that is something pretty common in his situation. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.189|162.158.91.189]] 20:25, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

lol why would Danish need to harvest his ice anyway? And where the hell did she get a bathtub full of kidneys and an AAA membership? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.249|108.162.215.249]] 22:31, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
:Yeah she should donate those. [[User:SilverMagpie|SilverMagpie]] ([[User talk:SilverMagpie|talk]]) 17:36, 1 December 2016 (UTC)
::they could be *sheep* kidneys.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

I don't think this is Danish. The hair is a little different, and this situation makes more sense if she is a stranger than someone Beret Guy knows. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.214|162.158.63.214]] 00:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
:She looks exactly like Danish, and her personality is the same. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 11:08, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Is this a "Danish commits an act of surreal sadism" comic or a "Beret Guy gets in a weird situation" comic? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.91|172.70.134.91]] 03:53, 11 March 2022 (UTC)

:don't rule out the possibility of it being both.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 22:18, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:914: Ice

2022-04-04T22:18:00Z

New editor: added tildas

Well, at least he didn't lose his spleen. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I understood the AAA-Club as reference to him shouting AAAAA. I think that is something pretty common in his situation. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.189|162.158.91.189]] 20:25, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

lol why would Danish need to harvest his ice anyway? And where the hell did she get a bathtub full of kidneys and an AAA membership? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.249|108.162.215.249]] 22:31, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
:Yeah she should donate those. [[User:SilverMagpie|SilverMagpie]] ([[User talk:SilverMagpie|talk]]) 17:36, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

I don't think this is Danish. The hair is a little different, and this situation makes more sense if she is a stranger than someone Beret Guy knows. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.214|162.158.63.214]] 00:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
:She looks exactly like Danish, and her personality is the same. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 11:08, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Is this a "Danish commits an act of surreal sadism" comic or a "Beret Guy gets in a weird situation" comic? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.91|172.70.134.91]] 03:53, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
:don't rule out the possibility of it being both.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 22:18, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:914: Ice

2022-04-04T22:17:35Z

New editor: commented

Well, at least he didn't lose his spleen. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I understood the AAA-Club as reference to him shouting AAAAA. I think that is something pretty common in his situation. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.189|162.158.91.189]] 20:25, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

lol why would Danish need to harvest his ice anyway? And where the hell did she get a bathtub full of kidneys and an AAA membership? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.249|108.162.215.249]] 22:31, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
:Yeah she should donate those. [[User:SilverMagpie|SilverMagpie]] ([[User talk:SilverMagpie|talk]]) 17:36, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

I don't think this is Danish. The hair is a little different, and this situation makes more sense if she is a stranger than someone Beret Guy knows. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.214|162.158.63.214]] 00:13, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
:She looks exactly like Danish, and her personality is the same. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 11:08, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

Is this a "Danish commits an act of surreal sadism" comic or a "Beret Guy gets in a weird situation" comic? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.91|172.70.134.91]] 03:53, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
:don't rule out the possibility of it being both.

Talk:2601: Instructions

2022-04-04T05:31:25Z

New editor: commented

;Turtle graphics
So these are instructions for a turtle graphics program. The audio is drawn from https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3, a 9 hour 7 minute 12 second long audio file It's generated by feeding turtle code into a text-to-speech program, but idk which language or which program. If you can convert the speech back to text, somehow without ruining the formatting (or just do a lot of editing with regex until it looks right), you could feed it into a turtle graphics program and get the resulting drawing.
:If you're not familiar with Turtle and Logo, look at this [[https://www.tutorialspoint.com/logo/logo_quick_guide.htm|quick guide]]. The short version is that these commands move a little cursor, called a turtle, which draws a line as it moves and turns. At this time, contributors have applied a few different computer transcriptions to the entire audio. There are quotes about turtles from a variety of sources intermixed with Logo code. It is expected that some correction to the code is needed, such as adding parenthesis that are not spoken in the audio. Standard Logo commands found in the audio are: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), and FORWARD (N). Some custom functions are defined, including DIST (N) (N) (N) (N), LERP (N) (N) (N), MIX (N) (N), CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N), and SQUARE (N) (N). The next steps are to test the transcripts of these custom functions in a Logo interpreter, at which point we can begin drawing the picture. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
: The picture indeed will be Bob Ross. The first hour of radio has him saying, "A happy little tree - holding up a happy little world." We can coordinate transcribing this code at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository]. Credit for this progress goes to the GitHub owner. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:55, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I don't know what the current image on this page is. Is that the drawing you get by following these instructions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 20:58, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
: Wait I see now, that is the actual image for the comic. It just gets covered up by the button so I can't see it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 21:03, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Ah, it looks like someone realized it's actually longer than that. After downloading it, I found it to be 131,329,389 bytes. The Windows Properties viewer claims it is 8h41m08s in length, but that's wrong. It is actually 9h07m06s. By the way, the code is in the Logo language. He seems to have copied this from a book, but I don't know which one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 21:12, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Worth taking a look at? I can start looking for books that contain that text[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:39, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

:The automatic speech system is using standard punctuation processing, meaning that critical marks for the code aren't being announced. You can't get the code from the samples without filling in the blanks after getting a transcript. [[User:N|N]] ([[User talk:N|talk]]) 22:19, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

The MP3 file ends with this text: "''I even talk to turtles at times. But you need to understand LOGO to appreciate the great, great things that have been created. We spend so much of our life typing, looking, but never ever seeing.''" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.151|162.158.222.151]] 21:17, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

april fools' comic? [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 21:18, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:I think it's an April Fool's joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.148|108.162.238.148]] 21:20, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Well is it 2022/04/01 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.189|141.101.77.189]] 21:26, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Broken Version

I think mine's broken. I don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 21:29, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:You press the radio button, it selects it, then you can press it a zillion times in any pattern and all it ever does is blink the entire image. Nothing else ever appears other than the radio button, and there’s never any sound so pressing the speaker in the corner to supposedly turn it on or off is also completely pointless.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 23:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Alright, it’s April 2nd now, so if all of you have been LYING about it actually doing something, just playing along with the joke, you can admit it now.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 18:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Did it only work on American April 1st, or only for some people? It's the third of April here now, and it's still a boring button that clicks on once and does nothing else. Have I missed it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.13|108.162.249.13]] 20:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Given the alt text "happy little turtles" and the tone of the narration I assume we're supposed to pretend the narrator is Bob Ross guiding us to creating an artistic masterpiece with Logo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 21:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Guys, it's been HOURS and the transcription is still incomplete. Step it up! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 21:37, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:Not even sure what the transcript should be. I did my best[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:41, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::I have a feeling this might be one of the longest transcripts on the site. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 21:57, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Wanna bet? [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]]... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Or [[980: Money/Transcript]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:59, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Up until someone automates the process, I'll be working on the transcript and saving it in exkcd in parts (: Don't worry too much about edit overrides, I'll be transcribing in a google doc to avoid that! --[[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 21:53, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:The sections about turtles between the code blocks seems to be from

Interesting Facts About Turtles
A Little Nature Study by a Scientist that will Interest Old and Young Naturalists Alike
By Randle C. Rosenberger M. D., Professor of Hygiene and Bacteriology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.
https://archive.org/stream/foreststream861916newy/foreststream861916newy_djvu.txt

The uni.xkcd version of this comic also just shows the turtle like this article. So much for uses two April Fools comics against each other ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.77|172.70.114.77]] 22:44, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

I ran the MP3 through Amazon Transcribe. It can do only 4 hours at a time, so I had to split the original file. I went from start to 03:59:59, 03:59:59 to 07:59:58, and 07:59:58 to end. Amazon Transcribe also gave me some subtitle files (index 1). They have time codes in them. So if someone wanted to note the times of the little quips, and host the audio file somewhere where links to the middle of the file can be generated (like YouTube), that could be cool. Below are the transcriptions for analysis. Replace X with 1, 2, or 3; and replace Y with json, srt, or vtt. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:15, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

:<code><nowiki>https://pgn674.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd-2601/xkcd-2601-X.Y</nowiki></code>
:: No need to host anything special. Let's say we want to jump to time code 02:35:14.840 from the vtt subtitle file #1 (line 7084, subtitle 1771). 2*60*60+35*60+14=9314. Subtract a few seconds, and make a link like this. Click here to learn about turtle noises: https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=9310 [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:48, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::: I went and found all mentions of "turtle", extracted those lines, and generated links to them. Programmatically. If anyone wants to go through and do some manual review and fine tuning, go ahead. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 00:57, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I threw Adobe Premiere Pro at it: https://anonfiles.com/pbYfK7Sax4/radio_csv; and https://anonfiles.com/35YbKeScxe/radio_txt are the results. Note: these transcribe until 07:01:28:19. I am currently in the process of making APP suffer more and churn out the last two hours. --[[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 23:54, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

So... what language is this? I'm hearing: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), FORWARD (N) - all of which are standard LOGO commands. But I'm also hearing something that sounds like CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N) (N) (N), though it could also be QBIT, or text-to-speech for something like "^3". Either way it's NOT a standard LOGO command, so suggests it's a variant. Does not seem to be KTurtle, POOL, UCBLogo. QLogo, FMSLogo, and then I got bored searching. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:In the automatic transcription it has "Two cubic colon X one colon Y one colon X two"... which would be TO CUBIC :X1 :Y1 :X2 ... so it is defined above. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 01:15, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:: Yes, some of the commands seem to be defined at the top. CUBIC at the top, SQUARE maybe somewhere else. So a shortcut to decyphering it might be to just extract and render all the cubes from the "CUBIC" and "SQUARE" commands, given their values. But what format are the cubes? Are they even the coordinates of cubes? For both commands, the six numbers seem to be in the format A B A B A B where the As and Bs are similar or even in some cases identical, which seems a strange thing for a cube:
<blockquote><pre>
SetXY -443 412
PenDown
Square -443 405 -443 397 -444 390
</pre></blockquote>
The definition seems to be something like:
<blockquote><pre>
ToCubic : X1 : Y1 : X2 : Y2 : Ex : Ey --- Parameter definitions?
local Make " X0 XCor --- Local variable definitions?
Local Make " Y0 YCor
Local Make " ErrX1 Lerp : X0 : X 0.25
local Make " ErrY1 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.25
Local Make " ErrX2 Lerp : X0 : Ex 0.75
Local Make " ErrY2 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.75
IfElse
Or
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX1 : ErrY1 : X1 : Y1
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX2 : ErrY2 : X2 : Y2
[
Local Make " Qx0 mix : X0 : X1
Local Make " Qy0 mix : Y0 : Y1
Local Make " Qx1 mix : X1 : X2
Local Make " qy1 Mix : Y1 : Y2
Local Make " Qx2 mix : X2 : EX
Local Make " Qy2 mix : Y2 : Ey
Local Make " Lx0 mix : Qx0 : QX1
Local Make " Ly0 mix : Qy0 : QY1
Local Make " Lx1 Mix : Qx1 : Qx2
Local Make " Ly1 Mix : qy1 : Q
Local Make " PmX Mix : Lx0 : Lx1
Local Make " PmY Mix : Ly0 : LY1
Cubic : Qx0 : qy0 : Lx0 : Ly0 : PmX : PmY
Cubic : Lx1 : Ly1 : Qx2 : Qy2 : Ex : Ey
]
[
SetXY : Ex : Ey
]
</pre></blockquote>
Least, that's what it sounds like, but I suspect round brackets and suchlike are not spoken aloud :( --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 01:54, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

: Maybe it's implementing a cubic spline interpolation, not a tridimensional cube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 11:08, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Feels like the speech processing is lossy, so generating the code will be a lengthy labor of love transcribing it, then debugging it, trying to fill the gaps. The code may also have been fed through an automated "Bob Ross filter" which may have lost even more data. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

About a quarter of the way into the text is the line "You know, I'm beginning to suspect it's turtles all the way down!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.215|162.158.78.215]] 00:46, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

it's concerning that the only real way we'll be able to figure this comic out is to compile the entire 9 hour computer-generated voice speech. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 01:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:Anyone actually doing any transcribing of this audio text is a true April Fools' fool, hence the reason to release this on April 1st. But I'd still like to see what the Fools' come up with :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:26, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm moving all things about audio transcription here: [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]], both the real transcript and peoples very long comments in the main discussion, to keep the main page short and keep loading time down. The comments from here go in the [[Talk:2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript|discussion]] for that page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

OMG, fond memories of LOGO! I'm in a loud bar at the moment so I can't listen, and I'm not listening to NINE HOURS anyway, LOL! Everybody DOES realize, someone needs to extract the program and run it in LOGO, right? I would guarantee this draws something interesting and/or stupid. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:27, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I found a [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository] for transcription. May be of use to you guys for adding more info and citations to this Wiki. By the way, I didn't know this wiki existed. I don't want to create an account for it right now so good luck guys ;-; 04:12, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I tried running some code through "ucblogo" on a Linux distro, but didn't get very far with it. ---Tim 04:16, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Given that the audio is generated by text-to-speech, could a source-aware speech-to-text work better (fewer errors and less manual correction) than a generic one? For example, finding the right text-to-speech, extracting a sound for each phoneme, and then searching for near-identical snippets of waveform, seems like it could potentially be more reliable than the generic neural nets which are primarily trained for real human speech. Or even training a neural net on the same text-to-speech source, with a big block of sample data, if that would help distinguish homophones. Presumably someone here is good enough at this sort of thing to try that? [[User:Sqek|Sqek]] ([[User talk:Sqek|talk]]) 10:05, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I think that the original comment at the top is the best approach. Using the speech-to-text data posted yesterday, and doing some simple regsubs, I can get it into good enough shape that I can proceed to transcribe the whole program by editing the file while listening to the audio, in real time. "In real time" means nine hours to correctly transcribe the whole thing. So any other approach would have to do better than nine hours. Plus if somebody put a little effort into organization, the transcription can be parallelized and so completed in nine hours / N transcribers. ---Tim [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.41|172.70.38.41]] 13:10, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I was helping with this last night, and here are the major steps we've done to interpret the code and who has helped, I think.
* [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] Used AWS to make a transcription of the audio, which we have been building from
* [[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.59|172.68.118.59]] Transcribed the critical functions at the top of the transcription
* [https://github.com/theinternetftw theinternetftw] Found a working interpreter and set up a collaboration space at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 a GitHub repo], and has since been maintaining the code
* [https://github.com/theinternetftw theinternetftw] Also transcribed the first hour and got us our view of a partial picture
* [https://github.com/somebody1234 somebody1234] Got a messy but runnable version of the entire transcription and a view of the entire picture with errors
* Many people are transcribing bits of audio and submitting to GitHub. Here is the list of [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601/graphs/contributors contributors]
[[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 15:06, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I have changed the image to that which is seen on xkcd when loading the comic. It has not been updated on this page yet as of when I write this. But the turtle is of course not the comic, but a placeholder for those webcrawlers that would fail when trying to download the radio button. I have also added info on this in the current explanation. As I have made a link to a new sub page for the looong audio transcript and removed all of that from this page and discussion and put it here: [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I started planning to write some code to figure this out, but moved on to other things after a few hours, due to psychological issues I have. The draft just runs the audio through the start of a random speech to text model. I trained a tokenizer around the logo code but didn't move farther. There are a lot of possible next steps, some of which others have mentioned. A simple approach would be to finetune the model around the hand-transcribed data. https://colab.research.google.com/gist/xloem/4310a26b6c9d13adac14307b948157d3/untitled4.ipynb [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.147|172.70.114.147]] 23:04, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Any plans to exkcd the "real" comic that gets drawn by the LOGO code in the audio? I mean, I recognize, e. g., the Mars rover and Ursa Major, but what's the significance of the vacuum decay here, for instance? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 01:18, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
:Now that the project is complete, we should add the resulting image on this page (not just a link to github). It'll be what folks are looking for first. And then we can start identifying the many references in the picture and turtle quotes. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:26, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
::well, i added the picture. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 08:08, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

It was wonderful watching all of this unfold. Great work everyone. I don't have an account here, nor on github, but I thought I'd mention that the makesvg.py uses the ':=' operator which was introduced in python 3.8. Not all of us have it on our creaky old machines. Maybe add a comment in the usage at the top of the file? Or better, refactor the .py?
-- [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 14:39, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

Is there a trick to making it work? I've tried both Firefox and Chrome. I hear the narration and can toggle the mute, but it never draws the picture for me. I have enabled JavaScript and I have disabled Privacy Badger, NoSCript, and uBlock Origin and still no joy. I did find the final drawing so I've seen the animation via GIF.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.221|108.162.221.221]]
:: Signing with triple tilde puts the WRONG IP address for me! My IP is NOT 108.162.221.221, my IP is 47.186.56.37. What gives????
:: --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.221|108.162.221.221]]
::: i'm trying to find a way to say this that doesn't sound condescending, but do you actually think the comic draws the picture or are you using https://benediktwerner.github.io/xkcd-2601-drawer/ ? if it's the former, the comic does not draw the picture. if it's the latter, you have to click the "use the latest code" button and *then* click draw. again, i know that sounded super condescending, pls don't think i'm trying to be mean. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 05:24, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

does this comic *technically* feature beret guy, ponytail, etc or not. they're not *in* the comic, but it could be said to feature them. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 05:31, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2601: Instructions

2022-04-04T05:26:55Z

New editor: fixed my grammar

Talk:2601: Instructions

2022-04-04T05:24:57Z

New editor: tried to not be condescending

;Turtle graphics
So these are instructions for a turtle graphics program. The audio is drawn from https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3, a 9 hour 7 minute 12 second long audio file It's generated by feeding turtle code into a text-to-speech program, but idk which language or which program. If you can convert the speech back to text, somehow without ruining the formatting (or just do a lot of editing with regex until it looks right), you could feed it into a turtle graphics program and get the resulting drawing.
:If you're not familiar with Turtle and Logo, look at this [[https://www.tutorialspoint.com/logo/logo_quick_guide.htm|quick guide]]. The short version is that these commands move a little cursor, called a turtle, which draws a line as it moves and turns. At this time, contributors have applied a few different computer transcriptions to the entire audio. There are quotes about turtles from a variety of sources intermixed with Logo code. It is expected that some correction to the code is needed, such as adding parenthesis that are not spoken in the audio. Standard Logo commands found in the audio are: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), and FORWARD (N). Some custom functions are defined, including DIST (N) (N) (N) (N), LERP (N) (N) (N), MIX (N) (N), CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N), and SQUARE (N) (N). The next steps are to test the transcripts of these custom functions in a Logo interpreter, at which point we can begin drawing the picture. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
: The picture indeed will be Bob Ross. The first hour of radio has him saying, "A happy little tree - holding up a happy little world." We can coordinate transcribing this code at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository]. Credit for this progress goes to the GitHub owner. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:55, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I don't know what the current image on this page is. Is that the drawing you get by following these instructions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 20:58, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
: Wait I see now, that is the actual image for the comic. It just gets covered up by the button so I can't see it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 21:03, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Ah, it looks like someone realized it's actually longer than that. After downloading it, I found it to be 131,329,389 bytes. The Windows Properties viewer claims it is 8h41m08s in length, but that's wrong. It is actually 9h07m06s. By the way, the code is in the Logo language. He seems to have copied this from a book, but I don't know which one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 21:12, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Worth taking a look at? I can start looking for books that contain that text[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:39, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

:The automatic speech system is using standard punctuation processing, meaning that critical marks for the code aren't being announced. You can't get the code from the samples without filling in the blanks after getting a transcript. [[User:N|N]] ([[User talk:N|talk]]) 22:19, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

The MP3 file ends with this text: "''I even talk to turtles at times. But you need to understand LOGO to appreciate the great, great things that have been created. We spend so much of our life typing, looking, but never ever seeing.''" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.151|162.158.222.151]] 21:17, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

april fools' comic? [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 21:18, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:I think it's an April Fool's joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.148|108.162.238.148]] 21:20, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Well is it 2022/04/01 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.189|141.101.77.189]] 21:26, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Broken Version

I think mine's broken. I don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 21:29, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:You press the radio button, it selects it, then you can press it a zillion times in any pattern and all it ever does is blink the entire image. Nothing else ever appears other than the radio button, and there’s never any sound so pressing the speaker in the corner to supposedly turn it on or off is also completely pointless.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 23:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Alright, it’s April 2nd now, so if all of you have been LYING about it actually doing something, just playing along with the joke, you can admit it now.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 18:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Did it only work on American April 1st, or only for some people? It's the third of April here now, and it's still a boring button that clicks on once and does nothing else. Have I missed it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.13|108.162.249.13]] 20:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Given the alt text "happy little turtles" and the tone of the narration I assume we're supposed to pretend the narrator is Bob Ross guiding us to creating an artistic masterpiece with Logo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 21:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Guys, it's been HOURS and the transcription is still incomplete. Step it up! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 21:37, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:Not even sure what the transcript should be. I did my best[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:41, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::I have a feeling this might be one of the longest transcripts on the site. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 21:57, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Wanna bet? [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]]... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Or [[980: Money/Transcript]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:59, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Up until someone automates the process, I'll be working on the transcript and saving it in exkcd in parts (: Don't worry too much about edit overrides, I'll be transcribing in a google doc to avoid that! --[[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 21:53, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:The sections about turtles between the code blocks seems to be from

Interesting Facts About Turtles
A Little Nature Study by a Scientist that will Interest Old and Young Naturalists Alike
By Randle C. Rosenberger M. D., Professor of Hygiene and Bacteriology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.
https://archive.org/stream/foreststream861916newy/foreststream861916newy_djvu.txt

The uni.xkcd version of this comic also just shows the turtle like this article. So much for uses two April Fools comics against each other ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.77|172.70.114.77]] 22:44, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

I ran the MP3 through Amazon Transcribe. It can do only 4 hours at a time, so I had to split the original file. I went from start to 03:59:59, 03:59:59 to 07:59:58, and 07:59:58 to end. Amazon Transcribe also gave me some subtitle files (index 1). They have time codes in them. So if someone wanted to note the times of the little quips, and host the audio file somewhere where links to the middle of the file can be generated (like YouTube), that could be cool. Below are the transcriptions for analysis. Replace X with 1, 2, or 3; and replace Y with json, srt, or vtt. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:15, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

:<code><nowiki>https://pgn674.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd-2601/xkcd-2601-X.Y</nowiki></code>
:: No need to host anything special. Let's say we want to jump to time code 02:35:14.840 from the vtt subtitle file #1 (line 7084, subtitle 1771). 2*60*60+35*60+14=9314. Subtract a few seconds, and make a link like this. Click here to learn about turtle noises: https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=9310 [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:48, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::: I went and found all mentions of "turtle", extracted those lines, and generated links to them. Programmatically. If anyone wants to go through and do some manual review and fine tuning, go ahead. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 00:57, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I threw Adobe Premiere Pro at it: https://anonfiles.com/pbYfK7Sax4/radio_csv; and https://anonfiles.com/35YbKeScxe/radio_txt are the results. Note: these transcribe until 07:01:28:19. I am currently in the process of making APP suffer more and churn out the last two hours. --[[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 23:54, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

So... what language is this? I'm hearing: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), FORWARD (N) - all of which are standard LOGO commands. But I'm also hearing something that sounds like CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N) (N) (N), though it could also be QBIT, or text-to-speech for something like "^3". Either way it's NOT a standard LOGO command, so suggests it's a variant. Does not seem to be KTurtle, POOL, UCBLogo. QLogo, FMSLogo, and then I got bored searching. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:In the automatic transcription it has "Two cubic colon X one colon Y one colon X two"... which would be TO CUBIC :X1 :Y1 :X2 ... so it is defined above. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 01:15, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:: Yes, some of the commands seem to be defined at the top. CUBIC at the top, SQUARE maybe somewhere else. So a shortcut to decyphering it might be to just extract and render all the cubes from the "CUBIC" and "SQUARE" commands, given their values. But what format are the cubes? Are they even the coordinates of cubes? For both commands, the six numbers seem to be in the format A B A B A B where the As and Bs are similar or even in some cases identical, which seems a strange thing for a cube:
<blockquote><pre>
SetXY -443 412
PenDown
Square -443 405 -443 397 -444 390
</pre></blockquote>
The definition seems to be something like:
<blockquote><pre>
ToCubic : X1 : Y1 : X2 : Y2 : Ex : Ey --- Parameter definitions?
local Make " X0 XCor --- Local variable definitions?
Local Make " Y0 YCor
Local Make " ErrX1 Lerp : X0 : X 0.25
local Make " ErrY1 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.25
Local Make " ErrX2 Lerp : X0 : Ex 0.75
Local Make " ErrY2 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.75
IfElse
Or
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX1 : ErrY1 : X1 : Y1
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX2 : ErrY2 : X2 : Y2
[
Local Make " Qx0 mix : X0 : X1
Local Make " Qy0 mix : Y0 : Y1
Local Make " Qx1 mix : X1 : X2
Local Make " qy1 Mix : Y1 : Y2
Local Make " Qx2 mix : X2 : EX
Local Make " Qy2 mix : Y2 : Ey
Local Make " Lx0 mix : Qx0 : QX1
Local Make " Ly0 mix : Qy0 : QY1
Local Make " Lx1 Mix : Qx1 : Qx2
Local Make " Ly1 Mix : qy1 : Q
Local Make " PmX Mix : Lx0 : Lx1
Local Make " PmY Mix : Ly0 : LY1
Cubic : Qx0 : qy0 : Lx0 : Ly0 : PmX : PmY
Cubic : Lx1 : Ly1 : Qx2 : Qy2 : Ex : Ey
]
[
SetXY : Ex : Ey
]
</pre></blockquote>
Least, that's what it sounds like, but I suspect round brackets and suchlike are not spoken aloud :( --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 01:54, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

: Maybe it's implementing a cubic spline interpolation, not a tridimensional cube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 11:08, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Feels like the speech processing is lossy, so generating the code will be a lengthy labor of love transcribing it, then debugging it, trying to fill the gaps. The code may also have been fed through an automated "Bob Ross filter" which may have lost even more data. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

About a quarter of the way into the text is the line "You know, I'm beginning to suspect it's turtles all the way down!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.215|162.158.78.215]] 00:46, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

it's concerning that the only real way we'll be able to figure this comic out is to compile the entire 9 hour computer-generated voice speech. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 01:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:Anyone actually doing any transcribing of this audio text is a true April Fools' fool, hence the reason to release this on April 1st. But I'd still like to see what the Fools' come up with :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:26, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm moving all things about audio transcription here: [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]], both the real transcript and peoples very long comments in the main discussion, to keep the main page short and keep loading time down. The comments from here go in the [[Talk:2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript|discussion]] for that page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

OMG, fond memories of LOGO! I'm in a loud bar at the moment so I can't listen, and I'm not listening to NINE HOURS anyway, LOL! Everybody DOES realize, someone needs to extract the program and run it in LOGO, right? I would guarantee this draws something interesting and/or stupid. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:27, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I found a [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository] for transcription. May be of use to you guys for adding more info and citations to this Wiki. By the way, I didn't know this wiki existed. I don't want to create an account for it right now so good luck guys ;-; 04:12, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I tried running some code through "ucblogo" on a Linux distro, but didn't get very far with it. ---Tim 04:16, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Given that the audio is generated by text-to-speech, could a source-aware speech-to-text work better (fewer errors and less manual correction) than a generic one? For example, finding the right text-to-speech, extracting a sound for each phoneme, and then searching for near-identical snippets of waveform, seems like it could potentially be more reliable than the generic neural nets which are primarily trained for real human speech. Or even training a neural net on the same text-to-speech source, with a big block of sample data, if that would help distinguish homophones. Presumably someone here is good enough at this sort of thing to try that? [[User:Sqek|Sqek]] ([[User talk:Sqek|talk]]) 10:05, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I think that the original comment at the top is the best approach. Using the speech-to-text data posted yesterday, and doing some simple regsubs, I can get it into good enough shape that I can proceed to transcribe the whole program by editing the file while listening to the audio, in real time. "In real time" means nine hours to correctly transcribe the whole thing. So any other approach would have to do better than nine hours. Plus if somebody put a little effort into organization, the transcription can be parallelized and so completed in nine hours / N transcribers. ---Tim [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.41|172.70.38.41]] 13:10, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I was helping with this last night, and here are the major steps we've done to interpret the code and who has helped, I think.
* [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] Used AWS to make a transcription of the audio, which we have been building from
* [[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.59|172.68.118.59]] Transcribed the critical functions at the top of the transcription
* [https://github.com/theinternetftw theinternetftw] Found a working interpreter and set up a collaboration space at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 a GitHub repo], and has since been maintaining the code
* [https://github.com/theinternetftw theinternetftw] Also transcribed the first hour and got us our view of a partial picture
* [https://github.com/somebody1234 somebody1234] Got a messy but runnable version of the entire transcription and a view of the entire picture with errors
* Many people are transcribing bits of audio and submitting to GitHub. Here is the list of [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601/graphs/contributors contributors]
[[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 15:06, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I have changed the image to that which is seen on xkcd when loading the comic. It has not been updated on this page yet as of when I write this. But the turtle is of course not the comic, but a placeholder for those webcrawlers that would fail when trying to download the radio button. I have also added info on this in the current explanation. As I have made a link to a new sub page for the looong audio transcript and removed all of that from this page and discussion and put it here: [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I started planning to write some code to figure this out, but moved on to other things after a few hours, due to psychological issues I have. The draft just runs the audio through the start of a random speech to text model. I trained a tokenizer around the logo code but didn't move farther. There are a lot of possible next steps, some of which others have mentioned. A simple approach would be to finetune the model around the hand-transcribed data. https://colab.research.google.com/gist/xloem/4310a26b6c9d13adac14307b948157d3/untitled4.ipynb [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.147|172.70.114.147]] 23:04, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Any plans to exkcd the "real" comic that gets drawn by the LOGO code in the audio? I mean, I recognize, e. g., the Mars rover and Ursa Major, but what's the significance of the vacuum decay here, for instance? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 01:18, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
:Now that the project is complete, we should add the resulting image on this page (not just a link to github). It'll be what folks are looking for first. And then we can start identifying the many references in the picture and turtle quotes. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:26, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
::well, i added the picture. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 08:08, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

It was wonderful watching all of this unfold. Great work everyone. I don't have an account here, nor on github, but I thought I'd mention that the makesvg.py uses the ':=' operator which was introduced in python 3.8. Not all of us have it on our creaky old machines. Maybe add a comment in the usage at the top of the file? Or better, refactor the .py?
-- [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 14:39, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

Is there a trick to making it work? I've tried both Firefox and Chrome. I hear the narration and can toggle the mute, but it never draws the picture for me. I have enabled JavaScript and I have disabled Privacy Badger, NoSCript, and uBlock Origin and still no joy. I did find the final drawing so I've seen the animation via GIF.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.221|108.162.221.221]]
:: Signing with triple tilde puts the WRONG IP address for me! My IP is NOT 108.162.221.221, my IP is 47.186.56.37. What gives????
:: --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.221|108.162.221.221]]
::: i'm trying to find a way to say this that doesn't sound condescending, but do you actually think the comic draws the picture or are you using https://benediktwerner.github.io/xkcd-2601-drawer/ ? if it's the former, that's what the comic is. if it's the latter, you have to click the "use the latest code" button and *then* click draw. again, i know that sounded super condescending, pls don't think i'm trying to be mean. [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 05:24, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2591: Qua

2022-03-09T20:37:34Z

New editor: tildas

If Megan's not careful, this pattern can quickly spiral to infinity: "Nice use of qua qua qua ''qua'' qua qua qua." "Nice use of qua qua qua qua qua qua qua ''qua'' qua qua qua qua qua qua qua." "Nice use of..." --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.93|172.70.178.93]] 16:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
:Or perhaps "Nice use of 'Nice use of ... '" although new forms of quote mark would need to be invented. --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 19:11, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
;qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 20:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2591: Qua

2022-03-09T20:37:04Z

New editor: qua qua qua

Talk:2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-31T18:42:49Z

New editor: commented

hello from Anchorage, AK![[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:24, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
:Hi, but do remember to sign your Talk stuff, however otherwise meaningless. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 19:21, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

:oops forgot, just fixed it.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:24, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

I wonder whether they're also looking for Little Green Men, these aliens being themselves more of the 'bug-eyed monster' type. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 19:21, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
:Although they follow each other there is no clear indication that the two aliens are the same. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:10, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
::They bought their UFOs from the same dealership..? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 13:55, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Bob's Saucer Repair: Power by Ozzie, Handling by Taz, Paint job by Topper/Pierre.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 00:19, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

I question the current Analysis "The humor derives from the fact that UFO enthusiasts and cryptozoology enthusiasts have a similar mindset: They both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment declares to be baseless." At a deeper level that may be true, but the primary humor comes from (a) us not being the reason for the alien presence (we tend to assume it's all about us) and (b) the sudden absurd realization that aliens have cryptozoology enthusiasts too.--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]] 23:41, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

;"Every inch of the surface"
Should it be "every square inch of the surface"? {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.55}}
:Yes,....yes it should.[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:03, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
::...but the surface of the Earth isn't square! :p [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.193|141.101.98.193]] 20:06, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
:::Insert that one story of the founding of Carthage here :) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.57|172.70.134.57]] 22:27, 26 January 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
:It should be "every square meter", because who on earth (and beyond) is still using imperial units? [[User:Kimmerin|Kimmerin]] ([[User talk:Kimmerin|talk]]) 08:33, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
:Maybe it is "every linear inch" because they have an advanced technology allowing them to scan an infinity of lines and add the results to create a surface?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.49.143|172.70.49.143]] 12:19, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

I would hate myself if I didn't put in a plug for a friend's book series, Sci-Comedy genre. In Jerry Boyd's Bob and Nikki series, Bigfoot aren't native, they were dumped here by a different group of aliens that occasionally used them as slaves. They also love garlic and you can effectively trade with them. There are also Starfoot, who are used as slaves by the Commonwealth but have a planet of their own. Since DB Cooper speaks their language, he and his grandson left earth to settle there and raise garlic fields. All in all a rollicking funny series. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]])

today the random button goes to https://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 02:57, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

seems complete, deleting tag.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 16:58, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

why has what if? not been updating lately? anybody know? [[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 21:06, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
: I suspect Randall got bored of that project, or got tired of doing new research for it. The What if? page hasn't been updated in a few years, though Randall had written several books that seem to be similar: [[what_if#The_book]] and [[How To]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.95|172.70.214.95]] 22:56, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
:yeah, but did you see the [[Countdown in header text]]? could be a possible what if? 2.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 08:26, 30 January 2022 (UTC)
:t.rex on a plane...[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 08:26, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

:wow, i predicted it. i'm as surprised as you are.

Talk:2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-30T08:26:41Z

New editor:

Talk:2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-30T08:20:25Z

New editor: added a comment

User:New editor

2022-01-28T21:09:09Z

New editor:

i have recently joined explainxkcd, and it is so fun. i live in alaska.21:09, 28 January 2022 (UTC)[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]])

User:New editor

2022-01-28T21:08:47Z

New editor: Created page with "i have recently joined explainxkcd, and it is so fun. i live in alaska."

i have recently joined explainxkcd, and it is so fun. i live in alaska.

User talk:New editor

2022-01-28T21:07:21Z

New editor: Created page with "i am a new editor."

i am a new editor.

Talk:2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-28T21:06:31Z

New editor: why?

2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-28T20:21:41Z

New editor: deleted tag.

{{comic
| number = 2573
| date = January 26, 2022
| title = Alien Mission
| image = alien_mission.png
| titletext = Fine, we can go search the Himalayas for the Yeti ONE more time, but keep a safe altitude over the Pacific and PLEASE watch where you're going. We can't afford another Amelia Earhart incident.
}}
*This was the eighth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==

The comic portrays a conversation between aliens inside two flying saucers (or alternately, two aliens whose form is that of flying saucers) in which they discuss their long-secret observation of Earth. It seems that the leader of the mission is in the right saucer, as the alien in left saucer begins by saying "Sir, can we talk". The left alien then continues to state that they have been secretly observing Earth for almost a century (perhaps from the early 1930's or late 1920's, and the title text suggests they already were there in 1937). During these almost 100 years, they have repeatedly flown over every (square) inch of Earth's surface, while trying to avoid being spotted by humans. (This is related to the previous comic, which is about improving cell-phone cameras making it increasingly difficult for flying saucer occupants to avoid being photographed.)

This leads up to the punchline, which reveals that the leader in the right saucer has been hunting for {{w|Bigfoot}}. The left alien tells him that if a Bigfoot exist anywhere in the universe, it is not on planet Earth. Apparently even advanced aliens have been unable to spot Bigfoot. The alien leader continues his delusion by citing intriguing human videos of something that looks like Bigfoot. When the other alien sighs, implying that this conversation has occurred many times before, the leader continues his arguments with the typical conspiracy line, "How else do you explain the..."

The first panel alludes to the fact that UFO sightings became {{w|Roswell_Incident|commonplace only in the 1940s}}.

The humor derives from the fact that {{w|UFO}} enthusiasts and {{w|cryptozoology}} enthusiasts have a similar mindset: They both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment believes baseless. Both systems are fully lacking in clear evidence but have an abundance of eyewitness accounts and vague/blurry photographic evidence. And both belief systems have existed for many years, but rapidly advancing technology, accumulating data, and ubiquity of high quality cameras have still failed to capture any clear and detailed evidence. ([[Randall]] seems to find this point particularly significant, and although his previous comic explained the bad flying saucer photos, he already made the comic [[1235: Settled]] long ago, where he calls it settled that Bigfoot, UFOs, and similar phenomena don't exist since everyone has a camera handy at all times.) While these concepts are parallel, they're logically independent, as one deals with species that are presumably native to Earth and the other deals with advanced alien species visiting the Earth. The notion of alien visitors being interested in cryptozoology is incongruous: to them, all Earth animals would presumably seem equally alien.

In previous strips, Randall has suggested playing conspiracy theories off against one another (see [[966: Jet Fuel]]). This comic has a similar theme: suggesting that UFOs are here to search for Bigfoot (and the Yeti) sounds ridiculous on its face. But any explanation of ''why'' it's ridiculous would apply equally well to the notion of Bigfoot and UFO's individually.

Some of the aliens clearly have a similar belief, at least in Bigfoot, which is why they came to Earth. This implies that they had some prior knowledge or suspicion of its existence, and only then possibly narrowed it down to this one planet because of the videos humans have made.

Whatever the arguments about Bigfoot, the title text reveals a separate discussion regarding the {{w|Yeti}}, a similar large hominid purported to reside in the {{w|Himalayas}}, and the tentative permission to conduct ''one last search'' for it. As the Yeti and Bigfoot are very similarly described, they could also be seen as the same, so the only difference is that finding a Bigfoot in the Himalayas would make it a Yeti. In the discussion about this last search, they caution about staying high above the Pacific and watch where they are going. This is because, as it turns out, they were the cause of the Amelia Earhart incident. {{w|Amelia Earhart}} disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 and neither her nor her plane have ever been found. The title text implies that she disappeared because of an encounter with a flying saucer. She has previously been the main character in [[950: Mystery Solved]] and has since been a [[:Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

That their clearly superior observation technology and methods have been apparently unable to resolve these issues at first seems like it shouldn't bode well for our own cryptozoologists. But since lack of results does nothing to deter them, and since it is always impossible to prove a negative, they would likely not change their beliefs even if they heard of the alien results: "Bigfoot of course hides when the aliens look! And how else do you explain the..."

This comic followed directly after [[2572: Alien Observers]], in which aliens in similar-looking flying saucers observe Earth. It is not specifically stated that these two form a series, but this comic could be seen as a direct follow up to the previous one, indicating that the aliens are the same in the two comics.

==Transcript==
:[Two 'classic' Flying Saucer spacecraft are hovering in the sky with speech-lines indicating communication from someone within each saucer. The rightmost is tilted a bit, like it is being attentive to the left.]
:Left Saucer: Sir, can we talk?
:Left Saucer: We've been observing earth for almost a century.

:[Same setting but both saucers are level.]
:Left Saucer: Hovering and zooming from place to place, trying to avoid being spotted by humans.
:Right Saucer: Yeah.

:[In a Frameless panel only the left saucer is shown. The right saucer's voice emerges from an edge-of-panel starburst.]
:Left Saucer: By now we've flown over every inch of the surface many times.
:Right Saucer (off-panel): Yes? And?

:[Same setting as in the first panel, with the right one tilted towards the left saucer.]
:Left Saucer: Face it: If Bigfoot '''''is''''' real, he's not anywhere on this planet.
:Right Saucer: But humans have captured some intriguing videos!
:Left Saucer: ''*sigh*''
:Right Saucer: How else do you explain the...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart]]