explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3095: Archaea

2025-05-30T09:25:27Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

great, next time I get a disease caused by archea, I'll know who to blame [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.123|172.70.111.123]] 23:16, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
:After ruling out ''absolutely'' everything else (primarly that being sunshine, moon light and good times), I'm gonna suggest that it's "the boogie". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.216.115|162.158.216.115]] 23:53, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
''"Archaea has" in the caption is unfortunate, as it denotes that a lineage (a branch of a phylogenetic tree) has become pathogenic. Pathogens are living cells, not lines on a page. "Archaeans have" would have been better.'' I'm not 100% sure on the way Archaea is used grammatically in English, but isn't Archaea the plural of Archaeon, so it should be ''Archaea have''? Is the word Archaeans normally used?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.117|162.158.233.117]] 07:37, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
: In math(s), the original latin and greek has remained kinda pristine in modern english. In medicine and taxonomy, it's a dumpster fire of vagary and inconsistency comparable to the US tax code. As far as I'm concerned, use whatever pluralisation you want, you won't degrade the language any further. --DW [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.177|162.158.187.177]] 15:19, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
:'Archaea' is indeed the plural of 'archaeon', and congratulations for getting this correct! In an English-speaking world in which 'bacteria/bacterias' (bacterium/bacteria), 'algae/algaes' (alga/algae), and, for that matter, 'stadium/stadiums' (stadium/stadia) have become commonplace even in scientific publications [see ''dumpster fire'', above], knowledge of how to handle the singulars and plurals of Latin and latinized Greek loanwords is increasingly rare. The domain name 'Archaea' is in the plural, because it stands for a group of organisms. The same is generally true for the names of taxonomic groups above genus. However, because the name stands for ''one'' group of organisms, it is possible to treat the name as a {{w|Collective_noun|collective noun}} which takes a singular verb form. Thus, [the domain name] ''Archaea has'' and ''Archaea'' [in the specimen/culture collection] ''have'' are both correct, with context the determining factor. Replacing Archaea with [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Archaean Archaean] ducks the Latin and places singulars and plurals more in line with common English constructions (archaean/archaeans). Therefore, ''Archaea have'' and ''Archaeans have'' are both appropriate for the caption, whereas ''Archaea has'' is not. Confused yet? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.36|162.158.41.36]] 15:29, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
::It all depends if you think Latin and Greek words (and others) used in English are visitors, or have become English words. The former gives Octopus and Octopodes (it's Greek) or latter Octopuses. For non-academic use I think it's the latter. Remember, English (all varieties UK, USA, CDN, AUS, NZ st al) doesn't have an academy ruling over it, but is a rouge language responding to its speakers constantly evolving use. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:25, 30 May 2025 (UTC)
:Perhaps they've risen up en masse, forming a state of Archaea, with a war cabinet and army to take on the humans.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.51|172.71.241.51]] 10:11, 29 May 2025 (UTC)
:: [https://www.dude-n-dude.com/2020/01/12/amoebas-lorica-outbreak/ Be careful what you wish for] ... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.36|162.158.41.36]] 15:29, 29 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3085: About 20 Pounds

2025-05-06T11:41:40Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Wow - first here! I can't help thinking 'about 20 pounds' could be exactly 10 kg! 0r even one Newton?! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 05:50, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:"One Newton" and "10 kg" are totally different things. "10 kg" would cause 1 Newton of gravitational force if you were in a world with about 1% of Earth's gravity, though. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.109.86|172.69.109.86]] 09:53, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:20 pounds are approximately 9.072 kg, so not exactly 10 kg (in fact, it rounds to 9).

::Oops! In my rush I should have checked and put 100 Newtons. I was relying on 10kg being about 22 pounds, or rather the other way around, and then a particle having mass not weight and Science using Metric units. Apologies. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 11:41, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.55|172.70.134.55]] 10:02, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Though I don't think it at all merits being described as a reference, I am minded of the {{w|The Usenet Oracle}} (at least when I knew of it). Though, if it ''was'' to be a deleliberate shout-out, I'd expect a few more actual in-jokes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.130|172.70.86.130]] 06:10, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

I bet Randall is in some kind of force-interaction-related, What-if-induced rabbit hole right now (or has been at the time of writing). Wondering what the next comic will be about. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.144.175|172.71.144.175]] 08:39, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

"Nature of ... 20 pounds" is a reference to the koan "A monk asked Tozan, 'What is the nature of Buddha?' He replied, 'Three pounds of flax.'" Someone can add this to the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.115|172.70.111.115]] 08:57, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

"something that doesn't interact with electromagnetism cannot be 'seen', as photons will pass through it completely unaffected": is this supposed to be true ? I thought photons interacted with gravity, and even the phrase before states that gravity is believed to affect everything. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.151.93|172.68.151.93]] 09:17, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

My physics skills are rusty but 20 pounds is much more than the Planck mass. Doesn't this imply that Randall's dark matter particles would be black holes? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.107|172.68.243.107]] 10:05, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, you are right that 9 kg is about 417,000,000 times more than the Planck mass (21.76 μg), but no, that doesn't imply that 9 kg dark matter particles would be black holes, for that particle can be larger than 417,000,000 Planck lengths (1 Planck length is c. 1.616255×10–35 m, so above 7 rm, this particle would not collapse into a black hole). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.81|172.68.245.81]] 10:23, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Since it's Star Wars day and the 20 lbs. reference would be causing a massively large amount of mass, would it be safe to say that they "sense a great disturbance in the force?"
[[Special:Contributions/67.84.20.42|67.84.20.42]] 10:20, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Back in 2005, when the kg was an actual object's mass, there was an article about what a five pound (~2.268 kg) electron is, but it was deleted, for it is a "trivial result of special relativity". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.81|172.68.245.81]] 10:23, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3085: About 20 Pounds

2025-05-06T11:39:43Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Wow - first here! I can't help thinking 'about 20 pounds' could be exactly 10 kg! 0r even one Newton?! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 05:50, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:"One Newton" and "10 kg" are totally different things. "10 kg" would cause 1 Newton of gravitational force if you were in a world with about 1% of Earth's gravity, though. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.109.86|172.69.109.86]] 09:53, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:20 pounds are approximately 9.072 kg, so not exactly 10 kg (in fact, it rounds to 9).

::Oops! In my rush I should have checked and put 100 Newtons. I was relying on 10kg being about 22 pounds, or rather the other way around, and then a particle having mass not weight and Science using Metric units. Apologies. 11:36, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.55|172.70.134.55]] 10:02, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Though I don't think it at all merits being described as a reference, I am minded of the {{w|The Usenet Oracle}} (at least when I knew of it). Though, if it ''was'' to be a deleliberate shout-out, I'd expect a few more actual in-jokes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.130|172.70.86.130]] 06:10, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

I bet Randall is in some kind of force-interaction-related, What-if-induced rabbit hole right now (or has been at the time of writing). Wondering what the next comic will be about. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.144.175|172.71.144.175]] 08:39, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

"Nature of ... 20 pounds" is a reference to the koan "A monk asked Tozan, 'What is the nature of Buddha?' He replied, 'Three pounds of flax.'" Someone can add this to the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.115|172.70.111.115]] 08:57, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

"something that doesn't interact with electromagnetism cannot be 'seen', as photons will pass through it completely unaffected": is this supposed to be true ? I thought photons interacted with gravity, and even the phrase before states that gravity is believed to affect everything. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.151.93|172.68.151.93]] 09:17, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

My physics skills are rusty but 20 pounds is much more than the Planck mass. Doesn't this imply that Randall's dark matter particles would be black holes? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.107|172.68.243.107]] 10:05, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, you are right that 9 kg is about 417,000,000 times more than the Planck mass (21.76 μg), but no, that doesn't imply that 9 kg dark matter particles would be black holes, for that particle can be larger than 417,000,000 Planck lengths (1 Planck length is c. 1.616255×10–35 m, so above 7 rm, this particle would not collapse into a black hole). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.81|172.68.245.81]] 10:23, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Since it's Star Wars day and the 20 lbs. reference would be causing a massively large amount of mass, would it be safe to say that they "sense a great disturbance in the force?"
[[Special:Contributions/67.84.20.42|67.84.20.42]] 10:20, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Back in 2005, when the kg was an actual object's mass, there was an article about what a five pound (~2.268 kg) electron is, but it was deleted, for it is a "trivial result of special relativity". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.81|172.68.245.81]] 10:23, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3085: About 20 Pounds

2025-05-06T11:36:46Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Wow - first here! I can't help thinking 'about 20 pounds' could be exactly 10 kg! 0r even one Newton?! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 05:50, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:"One Newton" and "10 kg" are totally different things. "10 kg" would cause 1 Newton of gravitational force if you were in a world with about 1% of Earth's gravity, though. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.109.86|172.69.109.86]] 09:53, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:20 pounds are approximately 9.072 kg, so not exactly 10 kg (in fact, it rounds to 9). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.55|172.70.134.55]] 10:02, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Though I don't think it at all merits being described as a reference, I am minded of the {{w|The Usenet Oracle}} (at least when I knew of it). Though, if it ''was'' to be a deleliberate shout-out, I'd expect a few more actual in-jokes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.130|172.70.86.130]] 06:10, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

::Oops! In my rush I should have checked and put 100 Newtons. I was relying on 10kg being about 22 pounds, or rather the other way around, and then a particle having mass not weight and Science using Metric units. Apologies. 11:36, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

I bet Randall is in some kind of force-interaction-related, What-if-induced rabbit hole right now (or has been at the time of writing). Wondering what the next comic will be about. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.144.175|172.71.144.175]] 08:39, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

"Nature of ... 20 pounds" is a reference to the koan "A monk asked Tozan, 'What is the nature of Buddha?' He replied, 'Three pounds of flax.'" Someone can add this to the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.115|172.70.111.115]] 08:57, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

"something that doesn't interact with electromagnetism cannot be 'seen', as photons will pass through it completely unaffected": is this supposed to be true ? I thought photons interacted with gravity, and even the phrase before states that gravity is believed to affect everything. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.151.93|172.68.151.93]] 09:17, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

My physics skills are rusty but 20 pounds is much more than the Planck mass. Doesn't this imply that Randall's dark matter particles would be black holes? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.243.107|172.68.243.107]] 10:05, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, you are right that 9 kg is about 417,000,000 times more than the Planck mass (21.76 μg), but no, that doesn't imply that 9 kg dark matter particles would be black holes, for that particle can be larger than 417,000,000 Planck lengths (1 Planck length is c. 1.616255×10–35 m, so above 7 rm, this particle would not collapse into a black hole). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.81|172.68.245.81]] 10:23, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Since it's Star Wars day and the 20 lbs. reference would be causing a massively large amount of mass, would it be safe to say that they "sense a great disturbance in the force?"
[[Special:Contributions/67.84.20.42|67.84.20.42]] 10:20, 6 May 2025 (UTC)
Back in 2005, when the kg was an actual object's mass, there was an article about what a five pound (~2.268 kg) electron is, but it was deleted, for it is a "trivial result of special relativity". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.81|172.68.245.81]] 10:23, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3085: About 20 Pounds

2025-05-06T05:50:30Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Units

Talk:3053: KM3NeT

2025-02-20T08:48:49Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

First groan! (Not that I don't appreciate it, but definitely the most groanworthy comic in a long while...) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 17:59, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
For future context, this array has risen in notoriety thanks to the recent [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00444-1 detection] of the highest energy neutrino yet, but sadly I need to take this occasion to note how the deadliest thing in the strait of Sicily are not superluminal alien fish, but human traffickers moving people on botched up vessels from the north African coast for the past fifteen years, often resulting in shipwrecks in the waters right above KM3NeT. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.216.67|172.70.216.67]] 22:39, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I heard about this last week from a BBC Podcast (Inside Science?). The telescope is only part complete*, and consists of photo-multipliers (can detect a single photon) in glass spheres on a string rising from the sea floor to create a 3D grid (as illustrated). As the decay results in further luminescent particles the direction can be determined and the muon was travelling tangentially to the surface. *As with LIGO, the observation was made when the facility wasn't fully commissioned, so they had to carefully check for other light sources (possible joke source) that they weren't being 'swallowed' by bioluminecence? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:13, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3053: KM3NeT

2025-02-20T08:13:51Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Telescope design

First groan! (Not that I don't appreciate it, but definitely the most groanworthy comic in a long while...) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 17:59, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
For future context, this array has risen in notoriety thanks to the recent [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00444-1 detection] of the highest energy neutrino yet, but sadly I need to take this occasion to note how the deadliest thing in the strait of Sicily are not superluminal alien fish, but human traffickers moving people on botched up vessels from the north African coast for the past fifteen years, often resulting in shipwrecks in the waters right above KM3NeT. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.216.67|172.70.216.67]] 22:39, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I heard about this last week from a BBC Podcast (Inside Science?). The telescope is only part complete, and consists of photo-multipliers (can detect a single photon) in glass spheres on a string rising from the sea floor to create a 3D grid (as illustrated). As the decay results in further luminescent particles the direction can be determined and the muon was travelling tangentially to the surface. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:13, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3052: Archive Request

2025-02-18T11:30:03Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Good for thought!

The "everyone else is trapped outside" is reminiscent of ''so long and thanks for all the fish'' (i think that's the right book), with the house with the inverted walls. The person living inside the house sees everyone else as trapped within the house.[[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 07:34, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

I'm sure I'm not the only person to still ''have'' a handy XP machine, as well as a '98 one (SE is ok, I assume?) that I could boot up. As well as a 2K one that's already ''actually running'', as I type, plus I could get my original '95 running again (might need new CMOS battery), with ''possibly'' some usable Win 3.1/3.11 installation floppies. - I'm a bit less capable of running Vista (urgh!), but I know exactly where I can borrow such a laptop (still in use). I'd be all out of luck with 8/8.1 and 10, as throughout those eras I skipped them and still stuck with the better designed XP, until the very latest (Win11) machine was forced upon me (meh...), with all its various foibles. (Although I may be able to cover most of the bases via various linux boxen, no doubt, with the right WINE/equivalent setups.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.116|172.70.85.116]] 08:54, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

"However, since these records are having to be scanned from paper in the first place, the rest seems to simply be inserting extra complication unnecessarily." These things actually happen, though, because not only the technical standard of the documents might be dated, but also the SOPs the people at the archives still have to follow - or even the actual persons who work there.
Here in Germany, people were pretty baffled when it became known, during the COVID pandemic, that local public health offices still sent their epidemiological data to the federal agency in Berlin BY FAX. Health officials, however, were not ready to change this practice and cited a whole bunch of reasons why this was supposedly the better option. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.237|172.70.230.237]] 10:15, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

Firing up my suspicious node. (c.f. Commander Vimes) Another possibility is that providing these obstacles is a way of eliminating trivial requests, thus reducing the archivists workload and preventing the researchers getting bloated on low quality information. 😉 [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 11:30, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-11T09:13:04Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

I wonder where [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party making it in Boston Harbor, at ambient temperature, at scale] would fit on this scale. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.162|172.70.206.162]] 04:38, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: A little to the left of the microwave thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.252|162.158.186.252]] 05:14, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Oh, no, much further to the right. You stole our colony from us, set up some tinpot, pretended 'country' in its place, and you didn't even have the class to make a decent cup of tea first. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.93|12.68.205.93]] 06:24, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: And, even if [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68085304 this guy] is right, ''way'' too much salt... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.130|172.70.91.130]] 07:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::: Soyuz nyerushimyy respublik svobodnik... [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 14:13, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:::: Well maybe if you didnt force us to buy discounted tea from you after fighting a war for us, we wouldn't be in this situation. [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 15:43, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::::: Yeah, a tiny island should not have that much control over a fractionable part of a continent [[User:Danger Kitty|Danger Kitty]] ([[User talk:Danger Kitty|talk]])
: I would like to as a british person to corroborate this, in the 80's my Dad visited the USA (he did go to florida) and still is complaining that the freshly boiled water wasn't poured directly onto the tea bag but was instead the tea bag and the hot water(now luke warm water) and bag was delivered separately!!! The delivery of freshly boiling water on to the bag is the major issue with microwaves, not the nucleation thing in my experience. Bear in mind I don't even actually like tea, still care enough to right this, but i'll be signing this anonymously to avoid shame being bought on my family and my family's familys. Murderous royals are a lot less popular the tea [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.227|108.162.245.227]]
:: I first visited the US in 1980. A friend who was with hate coffee and was horrified when he ordered tea that he got the water and the tea bag separately. When he suggested they add the water as soon as it was boiled, the wait staff thought he was joking. Many years later in Texas, a waiter asked me why I, a Brit, was drinking coffee, not tea. "You don't know how to make it," I replied. (In my house, the electric kettle and teapot sit next to each other on the kitchen worktop.)--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 09:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

When I make ramen, I put the measuring cup in the microwave. Fight me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.87|162.158.167.87]] 05:35, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: On behalf of the British Empire: whateva. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:28, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

"...to the point virtually every home has an electric tea kettle as a standard appliance". If I'm reading it correctly, this and the comic suggests we (though not I, as I'm not a tea-drinker) make tea ''in the electric kettle''. Electric tea-urns, yes, or maybe a setup like a samovar. But, generally, the kettle itself (and, so far as I'm aware, always with an electric kettle) is used to heat the water, which you then pour into the tea''pot'' into which the requisite number of tealeaves/teabags are also put to steep. (Or, for the lazy way, into the mug-with-teabag.) I wouldn't be able to use my electric kettle to (for example) make my instant mashed-potato into the actual mash, if I'd have regularly used it to mash tea. Or top up the boiling saucepan that I'd realised I'd not quite enough water in to cover the pasta/vegetables/whatever. Or to easily add nust a little more heat (with less new water) to the washing-up bowl than would be possible from the hot tap, back to as hot as possible without scalding me. – Whether intentional or not, I suspect Randall has the role of kettle and teapot mixed up, and so (without the intent to parody) has the editor who wrote the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 05:49, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Agree, we make tea in a mug using water from a kettle. I'd be furious if an American made tea in my kettle, how will I then make up my instant Nescafe? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 18:28, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the section on 'Boiling the water in a pot' refers to a teapot - I think it means boiling the water in a pot on the hob, and then making tea with it (in a pot/mug). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.27|172.69.195.27]] 07:53, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:I agree, but I also think there's a language issue with the use of pot vs. pan that makes things more confusing. I think there are several types of cookware that Americans call pot and British call pan. So British would not say they boil water in a pot but rather in a saucepan (if there's no kettle available of course). [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 09:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I (as Brit) am uncommon in using an electric filter coffee machine to make tea (two bags in what is supposed to be the coffee filter). Set up, press the button and come back to a not jug of fresh tea which is not stewed. If later, the hot plate has shut off and it is cold, you can zap it in a mug in the microwave. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: As another brit, what? I do not understand the mechanics of this, please elaborate. Additionally, my understanding is that the water would be *briefly acquainted* with the tea, thus would be a poor facsimile of "tea" and would rather be closer to something the americans would attempt. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.126|141.101.99.126]] 11:46, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:::I did say 'uncommon' but Kenwood made a coffee/tea machine to do this. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but 167 below has the basics right. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:13, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
::I'm guessing the water would drip on to the teabags, then soak all the way through them and drip out into the jug, without allowing sufficient to accumulate that it would run straight out without passing fully through the bag. It's an intriguing idea. But most definitely wrong.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.239|172.70.85.239]] 17:15, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
Your guess is right. It works because the (finely cut) leaves are exposed to boiling hot water for a few minutes, you wouldn't drink any before you have half a jug and that is quite 'bright'. Better than a teabag in a mug! Want it stronger, use more bags. Big advantage - you set it up, press button, come back in 5 to 25 minutes and your tea is waiting, including a second mug, not and not stewed. Wrong - but works so right. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:13, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c Technology Connections]! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 09:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

You Westerners have literally no idea how to make proper, good tea! SMH [[User:TPS|TPS]] ([[User talk:TPS|talk]]) 13:00, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

As a Brit who grew up in sight of the Yorkshire Tea factory – and worked there on occasion – and having travelled very widely around the world – including in the US – I feel I'm supposed to have an opinion. However, I have ''never'' encountered the microwaving of water as mentioned here, and I would not object to it as supposedly problematic for tea-quality reasons. I'd object for reasons of common sense. What mystifies me is the idea that kettles are tea-specific. They are for heating water, not making tea. Coffee uses hot water. Pasta, rice and potatoes use hot water. Peas, carrots, cabbage, sweetcorn...

Baking bread often involves a pan of steaming water in the oven.

"But I can boil water in a pan for cooking pasta or vegetables."

Yes, but you'll be waiting a l-o-o-o-ng time. I'll heat my water in the kettle, pour it into the now-hot pan, cook my pasta, and I'll be eating before your water is boiling.

A kettle is not a tea-making item any more than a frying pan is an omelette-making item; tea is simply one of the things you can make with water from a kettle. Hot water is a basic civilised human commodity, predating recorded history. That we should live in a mechanised world, and the Consumer Nation doesn't have water-boiling appliances as standard (saying instead "I don't have a kettle because I don't drink tea") is ludicrous.

Using a microwave rather than buying a kettle is a bit like not buying a hammer for driving in nails because you've got a big pair of pliers that will do. Sure, they're heavy lumps of metal than live in your toolbag, but they're not the right thing.

The Brits, incidentally, are not tea lovers. They are prolific consumers of awful tea that actual tea lovers wouldn't use for cleaning their drains. The most enthusiastic tea enthusiasts I've ever met were from Maryland.

It's all just social ceremony in the UK. Milk first, tea first, must use a saucer, must use a pot...tea is a British religion, not a British drink.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 14:23, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: How long does it take you to boil water for, let's say enough water for four people's worth of pasta, using an electric kettle? I reckon that's about 4 liters of water? I'm genuinely curious. Now also double the time, because as mentioned in the explanation, American outlets produce half the power of British outlets. And let me not fail to mention that almost all American homes have either special higher power outlets for stoves or gas powered stoves, and frequently have special high-power outlets for microwaves as well. 4 liters of water to boil takes about 5-6 minutes on a low-end American stove, about 3-4 minutes on a gas stove, and about 2 minutes on an induction stove. None of which strikes me as a particularly long time, especially when the most popular varieties of pasta in America all need to be boiled for 8+ minutes. How does this compare to twice the length of time as your electric kettle? Because if your Electric Kettle actually allows you to be eating your pasta before our water has even boiled, that would require your kettle to boil water in around -2min to -6min. And if your electric kettle can time travel, then that is truly an astonishing device. Honestly my takeaway from this is that British Stoves must be apparently heated by a single candle if "boiling water for pasta" is considered to take a "l-o-o-o-ng time". {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.161|21:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)}}

I wonder what the Brits would feel about repurposing a single-cup coffee maker. These days, I usually put a tea bag in a mug and place it in a Keurig machine and run it (without a K-cup, of course) to deliver the hot water. Probably the wrong temperature, but fast and easy and the result is good enough. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:52, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Would any British person care to evaluate my tea making practices? Boil water in electric kettle. Pour water over teabag, allow to steep, remove teabag. Add sugar and ice cubes. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 15:54, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:...well, seems a fairly standard "making one mug of tea for oneself" process. It lacks a milk-adding stage (thus no arguments about whether before or after the water). Removing the teabag at that point probably means it's not going to become a Builders' Brew, which is your choicd. Sugar is ok. And... Waitwhat... ''Ice Cubes?!?'' ...can I get back to you on that? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.163|172.70.162.163]] 17:50, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I can confirm (by inadvertent experiments conducted on flatmates) that they indeed do not like tea being make in the kettle. What really makes them angry though is making coffee in the teapot. It ruins the taste of the teapot forever apparently. There is also a faction that insists that a teapot should never be washed, and washing it invokes a lesser anger.[[User:Gopher|Gopher]] ([[User talk:Gopher|talk]]) 15:56, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

On rare occasions where I don't have a kettle available, I use a microwave oven to boil water for tea. But it doesn't look and taste quite the same, and often leaves an ugly foam at the surface when the tea bag is added. This phenomenon is investigated here: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/22264. So the British might be right... Disclaimer: I'm neither from the UK nor from the US. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.126|172.69.68.126]] 16:16, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

There is a [https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/669449994039853056/wizardlyghost-silverjirachi-pidoop tumblr thread] about the topic of teamaking in microwaves, kettles, etc. Funnily enough it showed up in my Instagram reels feed just a few hours before this comic was posted. I was thinking perhaps Randall saw it too and was inspired by it? Both of them have to deal with the different ways of making tea and how "absurd" or "unconventional" (etc.) they are. Even if Randall didn't have it in mind, it's certainly a funny little coincidence. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 16:36, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm guessing my occasional summertime practice of filling a gallon jar with water and lots of tea bags, setting it on the back porch in the sun for a few hours until the water turns dark brown, then putting the whole thing in the refrigerator and later drinking it over ice would be toward the more angry end of the spectrum.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.204|172.70.126.204]] 16:39, 10 December 2024 (UTC)Pat
:I think the "in the sun for a few hours" part might just be too incomprehensible to most of us, here in Britain. If we ''have'' a few hours of sun (and we're not abroad and deliberately sunburning ourselves on the beach/beside the pool in our week at the Costa Lotta budget-all-inclusivs holiday) then we're either fuming at our workdesks complaining about the louts stripping down to their shirtsleeves and splashing in the town-centre fountains or we're on our lunch-break and we ''are'' the louts stripping down to our shirtsleeves and splashing in the town-centre fountains. In neither case would sun-stewed tea be a priority. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.163|172.70.162.163]] 17:50, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps it's worth to mention how dangerous it is to boil water in a microwave. https://tastecooking.com/dangerous-microwave-water/
[[User:Mestafais|Mestafais]] ([[User talk:Mestafais|talk]]) 15:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

There are several comics with unmarked scales. It would be interesting if the descriptions started using pixels to point where each mark is along the line. As a rough estimate, the four points mentioned here are at X-values: 90px, 115px, 345px, and 645px, indicating that the pot method is 10% as infuriating as the chalice method - or that making tea in a pot ten times would be equally as infuriating as making it once in a chalice (at least, assuming the kettle method causes zero furons. I know of {{w|hedons and dolors}}. I guess 'furons' are a unit of fury, right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.236|172.70.46.236]] 16:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Interesting to see the interest in editing this. Had a quick check of the last ten comics, looking at the number of edits made in the first 14 hours (the exact time this page has been around, as of me starting the check) and in total, and extrapolated to edits/day (in the case of total edits, both just to the latest edit and right up to 'now'). Thought it'd be interesting to give you my results (assuming I tallied/etc correctly)...
*3022 - 14hr: '''61''' ('''105'''/day); Total: 61 ('''105/day...''')
*3021 - 14hr: 23 (39/day); Total: 39 (11/day -> 10/day)
*3020 - 14hr: 22 (38/day); Total: 36 (10/day -> 6/day)
*3019 - 14hr: 28 (48/day); Total: 54 (17/day -> 7/day)
*3018 - 14hr: 14 (24/day); Total: 48 (4/day -> 4/day)
*3017 - 14hr: 29 (50/day); Total: 33 (32/day -> 3/day)
*3016 - 14hr: 28 (48/day); Total: 46 (4/day -> 3/day)
*3015 - 14hr: 20 (32/day); Total: '''83''' (5/day -> 5/day)
*3014 - 14hr: 40 (69/day); Total: 66 (16/day -> 3/day)
*3013 - 14hr: 36 (61/day); Total: 68 (3/day -> 3/day)
...of course, the first 14 hours probably biases to British readers/editors, and it was too fiddly to add up ''|bytes changed per edit|'' as a more useful metric than mere number of pokes. But quite a bit of interest we already have here. More edits in fourteen hours than any other article less than fourteen (indeed, 17!) days old... ;) Seems to have really hit a mark, this subject! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.201|172.69.195.201]] 19:21, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:This one is super weird. I may be weirdness incarnate... but... [[User:Maybe Bill Cipher|An anonymous Gravity Falls expert]] ([[User talk:Maybe Bill Cipher|talk]]) 19:33, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:Well obviously. I mean this one ''really'' matters![[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.23|141.101.98.23]] 08:52, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

I would argue that the more pessimistic interpretation of the two low-end options makes sense, rather than the more generous versions offered in the current explanation. I think the first one does literally mean making tea in the kettle, and the second one does mean boiling water in a teapot. Making tea *using* a kettle isn't anything to get mad about, it's the default practice. That should put it at the zero point of the line, but it isn't, it's to the right. On the other hand, obviously making tea *in* the kettle would incite a modest amount of rage (on the scale of zero to microwaving a mug), and it makes sense that boiling water in a teapot would incite about 50% more, as shown.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.160|172.69.134.160]] 19:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: An American making tea in the correct way by boiling water in the kettle and then pouring that into a teapot with the tea would still probably conspire to make it badly and make the Brit angry. And Brits really do get quite upset about the idea of tea made with water boiled in a stovetop pan.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.23|141.101.98.23]] 08:55, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

There is a standard for making tea, ISO 3103: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3103, and apparently from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
And, of course, it must be really hot for in infinite improbability drive to work properly.
[[User:Lordpishky|Lordpishky]] ([[User talk:Lordpishky|talk]]) 20:24, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

All this blather and not one bit about that quintessential Kiwi staple, [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gumboot_tea gumboot tea]. Boil the kettle (about the size of a Dutch oven), throw in handfuls of leaf black tea, and let it sit until consumed. Reheat as needed. One sip, and the source of the Commonwealth aversion to the insane Yankee habit of drinking tea black is immediately apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.123.8|172.70.123.8]] 20:31, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

So, I have a Quooker that boils my water. Add tea (leaves)... done. But *don't* add milk, please.... spoil... {{unsigned|Palmpje|20:50, 10 December 2024 (UTC)}}

''Ultimately, the real difference comes down to convenience: In the USA, the standard voltage for electric appliances (including an electric kettle) is 120 volts, while it is twice that (240 volts in practice, though nominally 230V) in the UK. Since the amperage for an electric kettle is the the same in both countries (15 amps), this means that an equivalent kettle in the UK has twice the power (3.2kw versus 1.6kw), and can heat the water in a fraction of the time. Meanwhile, a standard microwave has a similar power in both countries (from 700 to 1000 watts), for reasons unrelated to the supply voltage it is equipped to use. Therefore, heating a small cup in a microwave might take a few moments longer than a kettle in the USA, but is many times slower to wait for compared to using an electric kettle in the UK.'' Electric kettles are a bit faster in the UK due to the voltage difference, but it's not that much and I highly doubt speed is the main concern here. The main 'convenience' difference between boiling water in a kettle vs a microwave is quantity: Brits usually don't just make one cup/mug of tea! On the rare occasion Americans drink tea, it's more often just the one person drinking one cup, making a microwave a convenient choice.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.90|162.158.233.90]] 21:40, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Add in some [https://www.foodandwine.com/why-you-should-add-salt-to-tea-8549735 salt]! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:44, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

It's not about voltage. They use different gauge heater wire to get the Watts wanted/allowed.

The classic UK plug is nominal 13 Amps. (The circuits may be nominal 16A but there is now better insulation than in 1949.) At 230 Volts that would be 3KW (near enuff). That will be the "legal numbers". At 240V it may be 3,250W true. OTOH a 10V sag might be expected in all but the poshest wall-wiring.

amazon.co.uk sells kettles nearly all rated 3KW. Exceptions are Greepas at 1800W ("However, some customers have reported that it's very slow to boil"); also Philips 2200W, Daewoo 1400W, and OLEGA 1500W 'Fast Boiling'.

OTOH!!

On Amazon US site nearly all kettles are 1500W, a few lower like 1100W. At assumed 120V 1500W is 12.5Amps. 15Amp circuits are still common in older houses (despite changes in 1960s) but we supposed to de-rate for 'long-running' (not clearly specified in old code) so 12 Amps is in a ballpark.

Note that all US kettles are lower power than all but the tamest UK kettles. Essentially half power.

And IIRC, the 13/16A rating which allows super-power kettles in the UK was not for tea but for "electric fire", room heat. In post-War rebuilding, smokey coal was already depreciated in cities, steam plumbing and chimneys are expensive. Copper wire is costly too, but you "have" to have electric, and low-cost plans like ring-main were investigated.
[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 22:44, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

"accept that tea-appropriate boiling water can be obtained directly from the sink's plumbing" - unless it comes out literally at boiling temperature, it isn't tea appropriate. I live in France now, and order catering bags of tea from Amazon because French tea is dismally awful, not helped at all by this fairly widespread belief that black tea steeps at 60C. When I share tea bags with friends, I have to keep reminding them, boiling! Boiling! So, see, there are worse things than using a microwave to heat the water... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.126.208|172.71.126.208]] 06:00, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
:Not boiling - OFF boiling. Higher than 60C, yes, but if you put actually boiling water straight on to the tea (or worse, boil the water with the tea in it), that's at least as bad. (And how far off the boil exactly depends on the type of tea.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.22|141.101.98.22]] 09:00, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T08:11:54Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Talk:3016: Cold Air

2024-11-27T09:12:57Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Wind speed to damage factor

Back In The Day, one of the idiot youngsters in a first-year chemistry lab, before leaving at the end of the afternoon, connected a water faucet to a natural-gas line (used for Bunsen burners) with a rubber hose, and opened both taps. By the next morning, much of the natural-gas network in the heart of the city was flooded. It took a while to get everything working again, and the cleanup wasn't cheap. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:50, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
:You have the right username to mention this! ;)
:Also, the 'big trick', back in my day, was to be at the (correct end of) the science-lab bench and briefly blow into a pipe (temporarily unplugged from the burner) just as you turn your tap on. Then watch as the rest of the row (downstream of your connection to the supply) have their active flames go out. ...but I leave it to your imagination the ''three'' main problems (and various other less major ones) with trying that, with the benefit of hindsight. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.201|172.69.195.201]] 00:02, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

Anyone understand the physics here? It seems clear that adding tanks of cool, dry air will make storms (and particularly tornados) far worse, not better, as the incoming hot, wet air will react with any released air to make even worse/dramatic weather patterns. But is there more to it? If the tanks are sealed, then effect could be muted by simply not releasing the stored air once the problem is realized, but this would be countered by at least two factors: First, the title text indicates that an additonal error was made resulting in it beingg impossible to seal the stored air completely (it escapes through the water system). But also, any time weather got bad enough to open leaks in the system, I think this would produce a catastrophic result as the storm mixed with all the cold dry air at once? [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 23:01, 25 November 2024 (UTC)
:My understanding is generally that explosive failure of a container with sufficient "anti-tornado" air inside is going to be non-trivial (and you face this threat constantly, in the settlement that has an "air tower", whereas tornados are relatively infrequent and mostly cross countryside). ''post-edit: And the editor who set up the current explanation seems to have had much the same idea... gratifying to know I'm on the same wavelength as at least one person!''
:And the water-connection would be bad due to (first) extremely pressurised water and (immediately afterwards) almost as pressurised air pushing through the areas plumbing systems, with unknown secondary effects such as effectively blowing empty any water-heaters that ''really'' shouldn't be left to be 'boiled dry' (after enough air bubbles in, the remaining water will soak up the burner heat and evaporate beyond design limitations, adding to the gas pressure ''and'' no longer moderating the effects on the boiler body itself; not sure exactly what will go wrong, but it may not be pretty). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.201|172.69.195.201]] 00:02, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

Without knowing which 'city' the diagram might be of (or, indeed, how figurative Cueball's illustrative figure might be), I checked the first "tornado alley" city I could think of and came up with {{w|One Kansas City Place}} as how tall the taller buildings might be. In that case, just shy of 200m (with spire on top) and 40-odd floors. The dimensions of the 3000psi tank (external, but ignoring support infrastructure) is somewhere around 400m in height, perhaps 600m side to side, presumably oblate spheroidal, so approaching (less thickness of container walls) 75 ''million'' m³ of compressed air. Which is compressed, and would otherwise be around 15,000 million m³ (15 km³!) of atmosphere if ever released. As a very vague upper limit. Notwithstanding the apparent use of an existing (ex-)water-tower in the titletext. But obviously there's possibly abstract and definitely reinterpretable alternative interpretations of the quantities that might be involved. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.225|172.69.195.225]] 00:48, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

It seems that the wiki math package <pre><math> </math></pre> Does not work properly, and returns an error Failed to parse <pre>(Missing <code>texvc</code> executable. Please see math/README to configure.):</pre> when I attempted to add the math describing the speed of the air using LaTeX [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.92|172.68.22.92]] 01:06, 26 November 2024 (UTC)
:This is a long-standing error (at some point, one bit of update invalidated the rendering process, and nobody is currently able to update the other component/configuration).
:There are plenty of alternate ways to format a newly needed formula, without TeX, and anything that's the same as when it was pre-rendered will continue to show as the inline "formula image" (which I think is potentially worse, anyway, when it comes to accessibility issues). It's really not too hard to do it without the math-tag extension working properly, though. e.g. <table style="display: inline-table; line-height: 0.6em; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; font-size:10pt; font-style: italic; text-size-adjust: none;"><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">p1•v1</td><td rowspan="2">=</td><td style="border-bottom: 1px solid black;">p2•v2</td></tr><tr><td>t1</td><td>t2</td></tr></table> ...as quick example with just a little bit of fine tuning applied. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.134|172.70.160.134]] 01:44, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

The statement that 3000PSI is 6x higher than known high pressure systems is false. Scuba tanks contain air at this pressure (240bar/3000psi) and the systems used to fill scuba tanks are twice that. {{unsigned ip|172.71.26.101|09:28, 26 November 2024}}
:Perform the wiki magic and add that source!--[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 15:04, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=40+Bar+to+psi My calculator (Google)] says 400MPH is 644 KPH (not 500). Also 40 Bar seems to be well on the high side of 500psi (580psi).

''"winds of about 40-400 mph [1] (about 50-500 kph)" "about 40 bar [2] (about 500 psi)."''

--[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 01:11, 26 November 2024 (UTC)
:The source says tornadoes go up to 318 mph (512 kph) but the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Bridge_Creek%E2%80%93Moore_tornado strongest tornado on record] exceeded that. I couldn't confirm when I wrote whether that was ''actually'' the strongest, and since the only purpose of the number is to say "Cueball's windspeeds are way, way worse", I decided an upper bound of 400 covered it.--[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 15:04, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

::"I decided an upper bound of 400 covered it." Somebody edited my words and omitted the key point: ARITHMETIC. English to Metric is NOT 4:5. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 23:32, 26 November 2024 (UTC)
:::Hmmm... "English to Metric". Strange phrase, for ''various'' reasons. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.200|172.69.195.200]] 00:13, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

So my brief wikihole dive has me doubting again; but is the part about requiring refrigeration accurate? By my understanding, pressurising the air in the first place would raise its temperature. It then goes back to equilibrium with the environment while it's stored at pressure, and temperature drops when it's released.

Just heard on the BBC Science in Action podcast 21November - the USA research group Climate Action, has shown that the damage due to wind goes up with the eighth power of the speed. Thus 9% increase results in twice the damage! Would help to explain some of the magnitude of the peaks on the graph! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:12, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3010: Geometriphylogenetics

2024-11-12T12:38:38Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Does the phrase "maximum likelihood" have any relationship to phylogenetics? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:01, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: {{w|Computational_phylogenetics#Maximum_likelihood|Profoundly so}}. Most contemporary analyses, especially of large datasets, use either maximum-likelihood methodologies or Bayesian inference (q.v.). I will see if I can say something coherent and comprehensible about this in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.58|172.71.147.58]] 03:30, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::If it was you who added the explanation for the title text, nicely done! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

"Pointy circle" is, of course, an oxymoron. Randall is also making a joke about how older phylogenetic trees were based on anatomy, like saying that squares and triangles are close because they have exoskeletons with straight lines and joints. Now, the tree is (where possible) based on genetic similarity. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 05:10, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Hippos can't swim? Did the BBC lie to us? https://youtu.be/X20NjqMiQyo?si=8pN-xwgKJEWM08ZF
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.135|172.68.186.135]] 06:18, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Why was phylogenetic analysis required to establish this relationship? Reuleaux triangles are an intermediate form, demonstrating a close relation between circles and triangles. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.208|172.71.130.208]] 06:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

''Obviously'', he's doing phylogenetics wrong: the pentagons (& hexagons, not shown) should also be shown as descending from the circles. Plus, the ovoids (far more than a middle step between lentiform & triangle, truly an extant branch in their own right) are not represented ''at all''. A major oversight, to cut such corners, given the point he's circling about?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 06:31, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone should add something about how circles and triangles are related through trig in a way that the rest aren't. Sorry I am new to this and don't know how to format my comment correctly.

I'm sure you could develop a 'DNA' sequence for geometric shapes. [Number of active vertices + angle, Number of curves in each side + variation from straight + orientation from centre, thickness of stroke, etc] basically the sort of data in any drawing data of said shape. Thus you could have two circles that look every similar, but one being an extreme Reulaux triangle and the other a 10,000 sided polygon with no side curvature at all! C.f. Swift and swallow! YMMV [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 10:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, but I don't believe in this "Theory of Polygon Evolution". I believe all abstract polygons were created in their current state by intelligent mathematicians. [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 12:21, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:Heathen - The One True Creator is Euclid! 😉 [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 12:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3010: Geometriphylogenetics

2024-11-12T10:38:34Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Shape DNA

Talk:3008: Proterozoic Rocks

2024-11-07T07:58:03Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

So the last panel refers to the unseen birth of a rock? How are rocks even born?

A few ways. Fusion likely formed many elements, and neutron star death possibly the rest of the naturally occurring ones. When those started sticking together they would form rocks. The type likely being referred to here is probably sediment being compressed and former a cohesive stone, magma crystalizing, or compression of the latter two types of rocks into different types of rocks. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.124.222|172.71.124.222]] 06:52, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I think in this context it was by up welling magma and they are only rare because plate tectonics and erosion has recycled 99.9X% of them. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:58, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3002: RNAWorld

2024-10-24T07:16:32Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Is any of this specific to Disneyland or could it be Disney World, which would be more fitting for the title? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.93|172.70.43.93]] 18:43, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, Ariel is from The Little Mermaid, which is a Disney film, Ratatouille is another Disney film, and Elsa is from Frozen and Frozen II, both of which are Disney films. I believe that RNAWorld is a play on Disneyworld. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::I'm sure .43.93, above, understands that they are definitely Disney characters that are equally relevent to either Disney World or Disneyland (or Eurodisney, or...). It's the "World" bit that was important (and now is correctly referenced, so far as I can see). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.10|172.69.194.10]] 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Pfft. "Euro Disney" is 'so' 1994. It reminds me of the arguments I had with people ~20 years ago who honestly thought the currency in much of Europe was officialy the "Eurodollar". Sure, Joachimsthal is in Europe... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.172|172.71.103.172]] 21:11, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Depends what they meant by {{w|Eurodollar|'officially'}}, and when. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.107|172.68.186.107]] 22:08, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

the rat's name is Remy [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:06, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

What should we call the girl with the Mickey/Minnie ears? Or is a physical description good enough? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 01:08, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:Is he not a boy? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.206|172.70.90.206]] 02:59, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
::can't tell tbh [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 06:31, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:::'He' has short hair and no ponytail, so probability 79% a XY mutant (all men are ;-) )' so for symmetry, how about Jack? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:16, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2979: Sky Alarm

2024-08-31T11:47:28Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

♫♪ 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)

Talk:2979: Sky Alarm

2024-08-31T11:46:16Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Product design

♫♪ 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 (mistaken 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)

Talk:2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-05T10:42:09Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

ummm. How does editing this stuff work. Is this HTML? Why can't we have a gooey? Also, I only sort of get this comic, but it's not that funny.
<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up">Here is some scrolling text... going up!</marquee>
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.102|172.69.58.102]] 05:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
: Have a WHAT? - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.88|172.70.179.88]] 09:26, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: A [https://kirby.fandom.com/wiki/Gooey Gooey]. Although I'm not sure how that would help.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 11:27, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: I'm sure that should be GUI (Graphical User Interface. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.76|141.101.69.76]] 11:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The "violin" symbols look like an upside-down bag symbol (multiset symbol) to me, moreso than integrals. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.135|172.69.58.135]] 18:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Did my best with my first ever contribution - I know there's a chart feature but I cba to relearn html. Feel free to fix it and PLEASE finish my bad explanations. [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

⌊⌋ are floor brackets (and you can now copy-paste them from here into the explanation as needed) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.33|162.158.126.33]] 06:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

As for the spaghetti, in Python, it'd be a list containing a tuple containing a list containing a set containing an empty tuple. Probably doesn't mean anything specific and pretty much useless), but it *is* legal code [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.164|162.158.126.164]] 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Yay, I figured out how to use a table! [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:42, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm British, ex 60+ years and I'm sure I was taught in school to use "for first person speech" and 'for quoting others'. I hadn't even noticed printers doing the opposite. But there again I didn't go to Grammar School. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:36, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't think he would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Fall with Autumn) YMMV.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 10:42, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
:I'm British, too, and as I recall my school says sixty years ago, the symbols () are just called brackets and parenthesis is just the grammatical construct in which they can be used. But you can use dashes or even commas to indicate a parenthesis. This has been discussed on such blogs has Ben Yagoda's Not One-off Britishisms. https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/12/15/square-brackets/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.178|172.70.90.178]] 08:16, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah - I don't know where this weird idea that British people use single quotes comes from - it's not my experience. Generally seems to be double quotes for direct speech, and single quotes for paraphrasing, scare quotes, 'jargonisms', etc. I've added to the explanation to reflect that a bit.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.176|172.69.195.176]] 11:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
::Similar vintage of Brit, here. Always taught to write "66s and 99s" on any primary quotation (you'd '6 and 9' quotes-within-quotes and 66/99 quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes). Except books often seemed to be single(-double(-single))-nesting, always assumed that was the US standard, as they tended to have the likes of "color" and "sulfur", too.
::In typing (typewriter, word processor and on into the internet age) I'd use ""s as my primary, unless it 'wasn't really speech'... essentially scare-quotes, or emphasis. Though in the text-only information age (usenet, etc), I'd use some of the others for /Italics/, *Bold* and _Underline_ purposes.
::For coding purposes, I'd have to use whatever the programming language required (I added the note about Pascal's character/string differentation), except in Perl, where I go for a 'sensible' mix of aesthetics/readability and practicality as I make wide use of the [https://perldoc.perl.org/perlop#Quote-Like-Operators full range of options] available to me, in quotation context, whatever doesn't clash badly with any use of q[array], qq{sub or hash}, qx|binary OR|, =~s/whatever is in my/regexp/, etc... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.36|172.69.194.36]] 12:54, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The integral sign (and its reverse) in the context of string instruments are the so-called 'F-holes', and they're not just decorative elements but help in the instrument(s) resonate more freely. Other shapes exist as well. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_hole here] for an in-depth explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.151.27|172.69.151.27]] 09:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

「かっこ」[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.151|108.162.250.151]] 09:24, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall missed an opportunity to reference catamorphisms i.e. banana brackets. There may be some better examples missed as well.

Who is that? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.156|172.68.186.156]] 10:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Likely reference to the quote and catchphrase "We can't stop here, this is bat country" from ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 11:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The 'violin' quotes may look similar (but not identical) to the S-Shaped bag delimiters (U+27C5 & U+27C6), though these are normally used in the opposite order to enclose multisets.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.90.10|172.71.90.10]] 13:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The French quotation marks « » are better known as guillemets. They are also used in Spanish, and probably several other written languages. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.167|172.71.142.167]] 15:10, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The single-/double-quotes being recursively embedded with the other reminds me of a short story I once read. It had the form of a tale a person was telling of when he encountered a stranger with a tale of his own. In that tale, the stranger made the aquaintance of a particularly talkative individual. That individual reported the story he heard from a further interlocutor, that story featuring the reminiscences of someone else... ''Which came to a conclusion." ...is the way it ended.' ...and so went that story" ...but of course that was just what was heard.' ...if, of course, you could credit it."'' (It was more layers deep, of course, and with both starting quotes and the paragraph-maintaining standards of opening quotes, which yet still managed to suck you in.) Cannot remember who it was by/what it was called, but obviously the play on the style (a bit more clever than ''just'' "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said, "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said "..."'"'") made a big impression on me at the time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

'''"~~ I'm being sarcastic and..."''' The symbol ≈ means approximately equal to. This is much used in some engineering writing. "Output level should be ≈1 Volt." In casual work this may be approximated as "~", or "~~" which is less liable to be confused for a negative sign. {{unsigned|PRR|04:02(+:03), 5 July 2024}}
:It can also be used for such as "~240V", AC power supply, and I use tildes an awful lot in Perl for both regexp operations and bitwise negation (though I also like it as a nicely distinctive choice of delimiter character for joined/split data transportation, at times) . As to the comic text, I sort of associate it with the 'decorated' usernames (akin to Dwarf Fortress 'item quality modifiers', but of course not inspired by such, not sure if they inspired it) along the lines of <code>.~·«wIeRdLyReNdErEdNaMe»·~.</code> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.158|172.70.91.158]] 10:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-05T10:41:03Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

ummm. How does editing this stuff work. Is this HTML? Why can't we have a gooey? Also, I only sort of get this comic, but it's not that funny.
<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up">Here is some scrolling text... going up!</marquee>
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.102|172.69.58.102]] 05:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
: Have a WHAT? - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.88|172.70.179.88]] 09:26, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: A [https://kirby.fandom.com/wiki/Gooey Gooey]. Although I'm not sure how that would help.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 11:27, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: I'm sure that should be GUI (Graphical User Interface. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.76|141.101.69.76]] 11:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The "violin" symbols look like an upside-down bag symbol (multiset symbol) to me, moreso than integrals. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.135|172.69.58.135]] 18:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Did my best with my first ever contribution - I know there's a chart feature but I cba to relearn html. Feel free to fix it and PLEASE finish my bad explanations. [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

⌊⌋ are floor brackets (and you can now copy-paste them from here into the explanation as needed) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.33|162.158.126.33]] 06:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

As for the spaghetti, in Python, it'd be a list containing a tuple containing a list containing a set containing an empty tuple. Probably doesn't mean anything specific and pretty much useless), but it *is* legal code [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.164|162.158.126.164]] 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Yay, I figured out how to use a table! [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:42, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm British, ex 60+ years and I'm sure I was taught in school to use "for first person speech" and 'for quoting others'. I hadn't even noticed printers doing the opposite. But there again I didn't go to Grammar School. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:36, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't think he would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Fall with Autumn) YMMV.
:I'm British, too, and as I recall my school says sixty years ago, the symbols () are just called brackets and parenthesis is just the grammatical construct in which they can be used. But you can use dashes or even commas to indicate a parenthesis. This has been discussed on such blogs has Ben Yagoda's Not One-off Britishisms. https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/12/15/square-brackets/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.178|172.70.90.178]] 08:16, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah - I don't know where this weird idea that British people use single quotes comes from - it's not my experience. Generally seems to be double quotes for direct speech, and single quotes for paraphrasing, scare quotes, 'jargonisms', etc. I've added to the explanation to reflect that a bit.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.176|172.69.195.176]] 11:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
::Similar vintage of Brit, here. Always taught to write "66s and 99s" on any primary quotation (you'd '6 and 9' quotes-within-quotes and 66/99 quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes). Except books often seemed to be single(-double(-single))-nesting, always assumed that was the US standard, as they tended to have the likes of "color" and "sulfur", too.
::In typing (typewriter, word processor and on into the internet age) I'd use ""s as my primary, unless it 'wasn't really speech'... essentially scare-quotes, or emphasis. Though in the text-only information age (usenet, etc), I'd use some of the others for /Italics/, *Bold* and _Underline_ purposes.
::For coding purposes, I'd have to use whatever the programming language required (I added the note about Pascal's character/string differentation), except in Perl, where I go for a 'sensible' mix of aesthetics/readability and practicality as I make wide use of the [https://perldoc.perl.org/perlop#Quote-Like-Operators full range of options] available to me, in quotation context, whatever doesn't clash badly with any use of q[array], qq{sub or hash}, qx|binary OR|, =~s/whatever is in my/regexp/, etc... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.36|172.69.194.36]] 12:54, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The integral sign (and its reverse) in the context of string instruments are the so-called 'F-holes', and they're not just decorative elements but help in the instrument(s) resonate more freely. Other shapes exist as well. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_hole here] for an in-depth explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.151.27|172.69.151.27]] 09:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

「かっこ」[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.151|108.162.250.151]] 09:24, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall missed an opportunity to reference catamorphisms i.e. banana brackets. There may be some better examples missed as well.

Who is that? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.156|172.68.186.156]] 10:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Likely reference to the quote and catchphrase "We can't stop here, this is bat country" from ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 11:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The 'violin' quotes may look similar (but not identical) to the S-Shaped bag delimiters (U+27C5 & U+27C6), though these are normally used in the opposite order to enclose multisets.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.90.10|172.71.90.10]] 13:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The French quotation marks « » are better known as guillemets. They are also used in Spanish, and probably several other written languages. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.167|172.71.142.167]] 15:10, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The single-/double-quotes being recursively embedded with the other reminds me of a short story I once read. It had the form of a tale a person was telling of when he encountered a stranger with a tale of his own. In that tale, the stranger made the aquaintance of a particularly talkative individual. That individual reported the story he heard from a further interlocutor, that story featuring the reminiscences of someone else... ''Which came to a conclusion." ...is the way it ended.' ...and so went that story" ...but of course that was just what was heard.' ...if, of course, you could credit it."'' (It was more layers deep, of course, and with both starting quotes and the paragraph-maintaining standards of opening quotes, which yet still managed to suck you in.) Cannot remember who it was by/what it was called, but obviously the play on the style (a bit more clever than ''just'' "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said, "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said "..."'"'") made a big impression on me at the time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

'''"~~ I'm being sarcastic and..."''' The symbol ≈ means approximately equal to. This is much used in some engineering writing. "Output level should be ≈1 Volt." In casual work this may be approximated as "~", or "~~" which is less liable to be confused for a negative sign. {{unsigned|PRR|04:02(+:03), 5 July 2024}}
:It can also be used for such as "~240V", AC power supply, and I use tildes an awful lot in Perl for both regexp operations and bitwise negation (though I also like it as a nicely distinctive choice of delimiter character for joined/split data transportation, at times) . As to the comic text, I sort of associate it with the 'decorated' usernames (akin to Dwarf Fortress 'item quality modifiers', but of course not inspired by such, not sure if they inspired it) along the lines of <code>.~·«wIeRdLyReNdErEdNaMe»·~.</code> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.158|172.70.91.158]] 10:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-05T10:39:25Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

ummm. How does editing this stuff work. Is this HTML? Why can't we have a gooey? Also, I only sort of get this comic, but it's not that funny.
<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up">Here is some scrolling text... going up!</marquee>
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.102|172.69.58.102]] 05:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
: Have a WHAT? - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.88|172.70.179.88]] 09:26, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: A [https://kirby.fandom.com/wiki/Gooey Gooey]. Although I'm not sure how that would help.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 11:27, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: I'm sure that should be GUI (Graphical User Interface. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.76|141.101.69.76]] 11:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The "violin" symbols look like an upside-down bag symbol (multiset symbol) to me, moreso than integrals. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.135|172.69.58.135]] 18:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Did my best with my first ever contribution - I know there's a chart feature but I cba to relearn html. Feel free to fix it and PLEASE finish my bad explanations. [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

⌊⌋ are floor brackets (and you can now copy-paste them from here into the explanation as needed) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.33|162.158.126.33]] 06:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

As for the spaghetti, in Python, it'd be a list containing a tuple containing a list containing a set containing an empty tuple. Probably doesn't mean anything specific and pretty much useless), but it *is* legal code [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.164|162.158.126.164]] 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Yay, I figured out how to use a table! [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:42, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm British, ex 60+ years and I'm sure I was taught in school to use "for first person speech" and 'for quoting others'. I hadn't even noticed printers doing the opposite. But there again I didn't go to Grammar School. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:36, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't think he would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Call with Autumn) YMMV.
:I'm British, too, and as I recall my school says sixty years ago, the symbols () are just called brackets and parenthesis is just the grammatical construct in which they can be used. But you can use dashes or even commas to indicate a parenthesis. This has been discussed on such blogs has Ben Yagoda's Not One-off Britishisms. https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/12/15/square-brackets/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.178|172.70.90.178]] 08:16, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah - I don't know where this weird idea that British people use single quotes comes from - it's not my experience. Generally seems to be double quotes for direct speech, and single quotes for paraphrasing, scare quotes, 'jargonisms', etc. I've added to the explanation to reflect that a bit.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.176|172.69.195.176]] 11:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
::Similar vintage of Brit, here. Always taught to write "66s and 99s" on any primary quotation (you'd '6 and 9' quotes-within-quotes and 66/99 quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes). Except books often seemed to be single(-double(-single))-nesting, always assumed that was the US standard, as they tended to have the likes of "color" and "sulfur", too.
::In typing (typewriter, word processor and on into the internet age) I'd use ""s as my primary, unless it 'wasn't really speech'... essentially scare-quotes, or emphasis. Though in the text-only information age (usenet, etc), I'd use some of the others for /Italics/, *Bold* and _Underline_ purposes.
::For coding purposes, I'd have to use whatever the programming language required (I added the note about Pascal's character/string differentation), except in Perl, where I go for a 'sensible' mix of aesthetics/readability and practicality as I make wide use of the [https://perldoc.perl.org/perlop#Quote-Like-Operators full range of options] available to me, in quotation context, whatever doesn't clash badly with any use of q[array], qq{sub or hash}, qx|binary OR|, =~s/whatever is in my/regexp/, etc... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.36|172.69.194.36]] 12:54, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The integral sign (and its reverse) in the context of string instruments are the so-called 'F-holes', and they're not just decorative elements but help in the instrument(s) resonate more freely. Other shapes exist as well. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_hole here] for an in-depth explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.151.27|172.69.151.27]] 09:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

「かっこ」[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.151|108.162.250.151]] 09:24, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall missed an opportunity to reference catamorphisms i.e. banana brackets. There may be some better examples missed as well.

Who is that? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.156|172.68.186.156]] 10:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Likely reference to the quote and catchphrase "We can't stop here, this is bat country" from ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 11:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The 'violin' quotes may look similar (but not identical) to the S-Shaped bag delimiters (U+27C5 & U+27C6), though these are normally used in the opposite order to enclose multisets.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.90.10|172.71.90.10]] 13:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The French quotation marks « » are better known as guillemets. They are also used in Spanish, and probably several other written languages. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.167|172.71.142.167]] 15:10, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The single-/double-quotes being recursively embedded with the other reminds me of a short story I once read. It had the form of a tale a person was telling of when he encountered a stranger with a tale of his own. In that tale, the stranger made the aquaintance of a particularly talkative individual. That individual reported the story he heard from a further interlocutor, that story featuring the reminiscences of someone else... ''Which came to a conclusion." ...is the way it ended.' ...and so went that story" ...but of course that was just what was heard.' ...if, of course, you could credit it."'' (It was more layers deep, of course, and with both starting quotes and the paragraph-maintaining standards of opening quotes, which yet still managed to suck you in.) Cannot remember who it was by/what it was called, but obviously the play on the style (a bit more clever than ''just'' "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said, "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said "..."'"'") made a big impression on me at the time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

'''"~~ I'm being sarcastic and..."''' The symbol ≈ means approximately equal to. This is much used in some engineering writing. "Output level should be ≈1 Volt." In casual work this may be approximated as "~", or "~~" which is less liable to be confused for a negative sign. {{unsigned|PRR|04:02(+:03), 5 July 2024}}
:It can also be used for such as "~240V", AC power supply, and I use tildes an awful lot in Perl for both regexp operations and bitwise negation (though I also like it as a nicely distinctive choice of delimiter character for joined/split data transportation, at times) . As to the comic text, I sort of associate it with the 'decorated' usernames (akin to Dwarf Fortress 'item quality modifiers', but of course not inspired by such, not sure if they inspired it) along the lines of <code>.~·«wIeRdLyReNdErEdNaMe»·~.</code> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.158|172.70.91.158]] 10:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-05T10:36:41Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

ummm. How does editing this stuff work. Is this HTML? Why can't we have a gooey? Also, I only sort of get this comic, but it's not that funny.
<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up">Here is some scrolling text... going up!</marquee>
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.102|172.69.58.102]] 05:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
: Have a WHAT? - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.88|172.70.179.88]] 09:26, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: A [https://kirby.fandom.com/wiki/Gooey Gooey]. Although I'm not sure how that would help.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.121|172.70.163.121]] 11:27, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: I'm sure that should be GUI (Graphical User Interface. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.76|141.101.69.76]] 11:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The "violin" symbols look like an upside-down bag symbol (multiset symbol) to me, moreso than integrals. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.135|172.69.58.135]] 18:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Did my best with my first ever contribution - I know there's a chart feature but I cba to relearn html. Feel free to fix it and PLEASE finish my bad explanations. [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

⌊⌋ are floor brackets (and you can now copy-paste them from here into the explanation as needed) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.33|162.158.126.33]] 06:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

As for the spaghetti, in Python, it'd be a list containing a tuple containing a list containing a set containing an empty tuple. Probably doesn't mean anything specific and pretty much useless), but it *is* legal code [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.164|162.158.126.164]] 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Yay, I figured out how to use a table! [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 06:42, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm British, ex 60+ years and I'm sure I was taught in school to use "for first person speech" and 'for quoting others'. I hadn't even noticed printers doing the opposite. But there again I didn't go to Grammar School. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:36, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:: [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't and would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Call with Autumn) YMMV.
:I'm British, too, and as I recall my school says sixty years ago, the symbols () are just called brackets and parenthesis is just the grammatical construct in which they can be used. But you can use dashes or even commas to indicate a parenthesis. This has been discussed on such blogs has Ben Yagoda's Not One-off Britishisms. https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/12/15/square-brackets/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.178|172.70.90.178]] 08:16, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah - I don't know where this weird idea that British people use single quotes comes from - it's not my experience. Generally seems to be double quotes for direct speech, and single quotes for paraphrasing, scare quotes, 'jargonisms', etc. I've added to the explanation to reflect that a bit.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.176|172.69.195.176]] 11:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
::Similar vintage of Brit, here. Always taught to write "66s and 99s" on any primary quotation (you'd '6 and 9' quotes-within-quotes and 66/99 quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes). Except books often seemed to be single(-double(-single))-nesting, always assumed that was the US standard, as they tended to have the likes of "color" and "sulfur", too.
::In typing (typewriter, word processor and on into the internet age) I'd use ""s as my primary, unless it 'wasn't really speech'... essentially scare-quotes, or emphasis. Though in the text-only information age (usenet, etc), I'd use some of the others for /Italics/, *Bold* and _Underline_ purposes.
::For coding purposes, I'd have to use whatever the programming language required (I added the note about Pascal's character/string differentation), except in Perl, where I go for a 'sensible' mix of aesthetics/readability and practicality as I make wide use of the [https://perldoc.perl.org/perlop#Quote-Like-Operators full range of options] available to me, in quotation context, whatever doesn't clash badly with any use of q[array], qq{sub or hash}, qx|binary OR|, =~s/whatever is in my/regexp/, etc... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.36|172.69.194.36]] 12:54, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The integral sign (and its reverse) in the context of string instruments are the so-called 'F-holes', and they're not just decorative elements but help in the instrument(s) resonate more freely. Other shapes exist as well. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_hole here] for an in-depth explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.151.27|172.69.151.27]] 09:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

「かっこ」[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.151|108.162.250.151]] 09:24, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall missed an opportunity to reference catamorphisms i.e. banana brackets. There may be some better examples missed as well.

Who is that? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.156|172.68.186.156]] 10:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Likely reference to the quote and catchphrase "We can't stop here, this is bat country" from ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 11:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The 'violin' quotes may look similar (but not identical) to the S-Shaped bag delimiters (U+27C5 & U+27C6), though these are normally used in the opposite order to enclose multisets.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.90.10|172.71.90.10]] 13:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The French quotation marks « » are better known as guillemets. They are also used in Spanish, and probably several other written languages. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.167|172.71.142.167]] 15:10, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The single-/double-quotes being recursively embedded with the other reminds me of a short story I once read. It had the form of a tale a person was telling of when he encountered a stranger with a tale of his own. In that tale, the stranger made the aquaintance of a particularly talkative individual. That individual reported the story he heard from a further interlocutor, that story featuring the reminiscences of someone else... ''Which came to a conclusion." ...is the way it ended.' ...and so went that story" ...but of course that was just what was heard.' ...if, of course, you could credit it."'' (It was more layers deep, of course, and with both starting quotes and the paragraph-maintaining standards of opening quotes, which yet still managed to suck you in.) Cannot remember who it was by/what it was called, but obviously the play on the style (a bit more clever than ''just'' "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said, "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said "..."'"'") made a big impression on me at the time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

'''"~~ I'm being sarcastic and..."''' The symbol ≈ means approximately equal to. This is much used in some engineering writing. "Output level should be ≈1 Volt." In casual work this may be approximated as "~", or "~~" which is less liable to be confused for a negative sign. {{unsigned|PRR|04:02(+:03), 5 July 2024}}
:It can also be used for such as "~240V", AC power supply, and I use tildes an awful lot in Perl for both regexp operations and bitwise negation (though I also like it as a nicely distinctive choice of delimiter character for joined/split data transportation, at times) . As to the comic text, I sort of associate it with the 'decorated' usernames (akin to Dwarf Fortress 'item quality modifiers', but of course not inspired by such, not sure if they inspired it) along the lines of <code>.~·«wIeRdLyReNdErEdNaMe»·~.</code> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.158|172.70.91.158]] 10:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-04T07:36:57Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Talk:2937: Room Code

2024-05-25T07:30:29Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Obviously, for many of us it would be more helpful as a mnemonic for a slightly older relative born on May 18, 2002. But since the author is American, it is of course reasonable for him not to have mentioned this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.235|162.158.134.235]] 20:36, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::Do "many" of you use YYMMDD though? YY rather than YYYY? Many, many of us use DDMMYY though. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 20:46, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::::UK resident here. I have only used YYYYMMDD at the start of file names to manually produce versioning order.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, add me to the "2nd of May" club. (Or whatever young relative I can retrospectively induce to join, anyway.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.165|172.69.79.165]] 22:58, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, of course DDMMYY is a thing as well (although I would have expected dots or something), I might have mentioned that. Here in Sweden, YYMMDD is very common, along with YYYY-MM-DD, D/M YYYY and YYYYMMDD (the latter increasingly so, very rare before y2k). YY-MM-DD and D/M -YY are rather less common (after y2k). Formats with dots or Roman numerals are almost unheard of, as are middle-endianness and anything with slashes before or after the year. Source: subjective experience. :) (Of course, many Swedes also realize that months have names that alleviate ambiguity.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 04:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::Which brings up https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2562:_Formatting_Meeting (I don't know how to do internal links) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.80|172.71.22.80]] 20:52, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::::I know that State Side, they say that as you write May 2nd 2024, then it's right to have MMDDYYYY, but they celebrate the 4th of July! However, in the UK we are likely to date letters 2nd May, 2024. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::''"I don't know how to do internal links"'' At the very bottom of the Editing page, "'''Editing help (opens in new window)'''", which goes to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links and you want "'''Internal links'''" --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:11, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
wait...so y'all actually don't need help with remembering numbers? oh. I can usually memorize like 10 long strings of random numbers almost instantly by finding patterns through them. order through chaos? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:13, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I usually remember numbers with their pattern on computer or telephone keys. When I recite π, I start moving my hand through the air at some point. Here the even position digits are ascending in the middle and the others are 001, so quite easy. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 03:39, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:I remember random information by putting it in my phone! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2889: Greenhouse Effect

2024-02-03T09:54:58Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

First description! FIRST 🤑 [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:45, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Is there a category or a name for the set of comics which make the observation of "x thing happened closer to Y thing than today"? --[[User:Raviolio|Raviolio]] ([[User talk:Raviolio|talk]]) 18:57, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe Category:Timelines could work? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:00, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
:It is also similar in structure to many of the comics in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old| Category:Comics to make one feel old] but has a quite different theme [[Special:Contributions/172.69.6.156|172.69.6.156]] 23:06, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Do we have a source for the "their answers closely match modern estimates"? that would be a good thing to add [[User:Happier7713|Happier7713]] ([[User talk:Happier7713|talk]]) 19:35, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

A nit -- the Newcomen atmospheric engine was invented in 1712 and is usually thought of as the first steam engine (at least of the modern, western, world). {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.36 |20:25, 2 February 2024}}
:The Newcomen was certainly started it, and tends to be somewhat overshadowed (I actually walked past ''the'' oldest still-in-place Newcomen beam engine, earlier today... never seen it working (by hydrau;ics, these days), but it's there). But its practical efficiency was limited by its operation, and it took (Boulton and) Watt to make it into the potentially mobile powerhouse that drove much of the really developed stuff (beyond mine-drainage/etc).
:Of course, it was also more fuel efficient, so if we'd have somehow done exactly the same amount of IR via Newcomen-style machines then we'd probably have accelerated the burning of resources across the same period, so... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 00:10, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

I would say we did plenty of work. In 1896, noone had any idea what renewable energy is. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:48, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

:There have been windmills and watermills and fire from wood for thousands of years. The real problem is fossils, which release co2 from millions of years. In my opinion, it's about the attitude of "the right to consume" instead of "the right to use". --[[User:LaVe|LaVe]] ([[User talk:LaVe|talk]]) 06:35, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

“yet after 128 years there’s been close to no progress to changing our infrastructure to be renewable-energy based.” That might or might not be true, depending on how you define “close to no progress” but regardless of that, the comic does not make any such claim, and that part should be deleted frm the explanation of the comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.35|162.158.186.35]] 05:06, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

:Given what has appeared in other xkcd comics with a global-warming theme, I think the "close to no progress" reaction is permissible. Whether it is accurate is remarkably hard for me to pin down. A study I found in 2014 said that annual per-capita energy consumption in the USA rose from 100MM to 350MM BTUs between 1900 and 1973, and has since remained almost constant. 1973, of course, was the Arab oil embargo, which stimulated massive investment in energy efficiency that continue to the present day. Each of us now uses many more things for the same energy - but the population is increasing, therefore so is the bulk carbon-dioxide loading. A 2023 US Government attempt to forecast energy use in the USA between now and 2050, I found to be both unreadable and unhelpful in terms of assessing whether we are gaining on energy efficiencies and transition to renewables. There simply were too many variables in the inputs. And as 2020 demonstrated, our response to energy challenges will be forced by economics, not climate politics or comics IMO. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.168|172.71.150.168]] 07:22, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

I was unable to find an article by "Crawford 1997" in which either of the quotes cited in the title text appear in full. They might appear in other articles included in the [https://www.jstor.org/stable/i399217 special issue of the journal Ambio] devoted to the work that Arrhenius and colleagues did in the last decade of the 19th century. The two articles by Elisabeth Crawford in that journal, one sole-authored and one co-authored, provide considerable context for the discovery, including the various competing theories about global warming that were being debated among scientists at the time, and the remarkable observation by Arrhenius that such warming was not a bad thing. According to the Crawford sole-authored paper, Arrhenius wrote (translation from Swedish), "It [global warming] "will allow our descendants, even if they only be those of a distant future, to live under a warmer sky and in a less harsh environment than we were granted." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.130|172.71.151.130]] 07:04, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Arguably, it was Abraham Darby's invention of the coke fired blast furnace in 1709, that vastly increased iron production, was the real start of the industrial revolution and use of coal as a fuel. (It was actually banned in some places as being a dirty fuel for cooking and heating) Of course that would mess up the nearer to / further from dates that this series of comics use. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:51, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2889: Greenhouse Effect

2024-02-03T09:53:34Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

First description! FIRST 🤑 [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:45, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Is there a category or a name for the set of comics which make the observation of "x thing happened closer to Y thing than today"? --[[User:Raviolio|Raviolio]] ([[User talk:Raviolio|talk]]) 18:57, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe Category:Timelines could work? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:00, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
:It is also similar in structure to many of the comics in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old| Category:Comics to make one feel old] but has a quite different theme [[Special:Contributions/172.69.6.156|172.69.6.156]] 23:06, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Do we have a source for the "their answers closely match modern estimates"? that would be a good thing to add [[User:Happier7713|Happier7713]] ([[User talk:Happier7713|talk]]) 19:35, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

A nit -- the Newcomen atmospheric engine was invented in 1712 and is usually thought of as the first steam engine (at least of the modern, western, world). {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.36 |20:25, 2 February 2024}}
:The Newcomen was certainly started it, and tends to be somewhat overshadowed (I actually walked past ''the'' oldest still-in-place Newcomen beam engine, earlier today... never seen it working (by hydrau;ics, these days), but it's there). But its practical efficiency was limited by its operation, and it took (Boulton and) Watt to make it into the potentially mobile powerhouse that drove much of the really developed stuff (beyond mine-drainage/etc).
:Of course, it was also more fuel efficient, so if we'd have somehow done exactly the same amount of IR via Newcomen-style machines then we'd probably have accelerated the burning of resources across the same period, so... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 00:10, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

I would say we did plenty of work. In 1896, noone had any idea what renewable energy is. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:48, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

:There have been windmills and watermills and fire from wood for thousands of years. The real problem is fossils, which release co2 from millions of years. In my opinion, it's about the attitude of "the right to consume" instead of "the right to use". --[[User:LaVe|LaVe]] ([[User talk:LaVe|talk]]) 06:35, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

“yet after 128 years there’s been close to no progress to changing our infrastructure to be renewable-energy based.” That might or might not be true, depending on how you define “close to no progress” but regardless of that, the comic does not make any such claim, and that part should be deleted frm the explanation of the comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.35|162.158.186.35]] 05:06, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

:Given what has appeared in other xkcd comics with a global-warming theme, I think the "close to no progress" reaction is permissible. Whether it is accurate is remarkably hard for me to pin down. A study I found in 2014 said that annual per-capita energy consumption in the USA rose from 100MM to 350MM BTUs between 1900 and 1973, and has since remained almost constant. 1973, of course, was the Arab oil embargo, which stimulated massive investment in energy efficiency that continue to the present day. Each of us now uses many more things for the same energy - but the population is increasing, therefore so is the bulk carbon-dioxide loading. A 2023 US Government attempt to forecast energy use in the USA between now and 2050, I found to be both unreadable and unhelpful in terms of assessing whether we are gaining on energy efficiencies and transition to renewables. There simply were too many variables in the inputs. And as 2020 demonstrated, our response to energy challenges will be forced by economics, not climate politics or comics IMO. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.168|172.71.150.168]] 07:22, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

I was unable to find an article by "Crawford 1997" in which either of the quotes cited in the title text appear in full. They might appear in other articles included in the [https://www.jstor.org/stable/i399217 special issue of the journal Ambio] devoted to the work that Arrhenius and colleagues did in the last decade of the 19th century. The two articles by Elisabeth Crawford in that journal, one sole-authored and one co-authored, provide considerable context for the discovery, including the various competing theories about global warming that were being debated among scientists at the time, and the remarkable observation by Arrhenius that such warming was not a bad thing. According to the Crawford sole-authored paper, Arrhenius wrote (translation from Swedish), "It [global warming] "will allow our descendants, even if they only be those of a distant future, to live under a warmer sky and in a less harsh environment than we were granted." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.130|172.71.151.130]] 07:04, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Arguably, it was Abraham Darby's invention of the cold tired blast furnace in 1709, that vastly increased iron production, was the real start of the industrial revolution and use of coal as a fuel. (It was actually banned in some places as being a dirty fuel for cooking and heating) Of course that would mess up the nearer to / further from dates that this series of comics use. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:51, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2889: Greenhouse Effect

2024-02-03T09:51:16Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

First description! FIRST 🤑 [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:45, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Is there a category or a name for the set of comics which make the observation of "x thing happened closer to Y thing than today"? --[[User:Raviolio|Raviolio]] ([[User talk:Raviolio|talk]]) 18:57, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe Category:Timelines could work? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:00, 2 February 2024 (UTC)
:It is also similar in structure to many of the comics in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_to_make_one_feel_old| Category:Comics to make one feel old] but has a quite different theme [[Special:Contributions/172.69.6.156|172.69.6.156]] 23:06, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

Do we have a source for the "their answers closely match modern estimates"? that would be a good thing to add [[User:Happier7713|Happier7713]] ([[User talk:Happier7713|talk]]) 19:35, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

A nit -- the Newcomen atmospheric engine was invented in 1712 and is usually thought of as the first steam engine (at least of the modern, western, world). {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.36 |20:25, 2 February 2024}}
:The Newcomen was certainly started it, and tends to be somewhat overshadowed (I actually walked past ''the'' oldest still-in-place Newcomen beam engine, earlier today... never seen it working (by hydrau;ics, these days), but it's there). But its practical efficiency was limited by its operation, and it took (Boulton and) Watt to make it into the potentially mobile powerhouse that drove much of the really developed stuff (beyond mine-drainage/etc).
:Of course, it was also more fuel efficient, so if we'd have somehow done exactly the same amount of IR via Newcomen-style machines then we'd probably have accelerated the burning of resources across the same period, so... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 00:10, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

I would say we did plenty of work. In 1896, noone had any idea what renewable energy is. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:48, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

:There have been windmills and watermills and fire from wood for thousands of years. The real problem is fossils, which release co2 from millions of years. In my opinion, it's about the attitude of "the right to consume" instead of "the right to use". --[[User:LaVe|LaVe]] ([[User talk:LaVe|talk]]) 06:35, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

“yet after 128 years there’s been close to no progress to changing our infrastructure to be renewable-energy based.” That might or might not be true, depending on how you define “close to no progress” but regardless of that, the comic does not make any such claim, and that part should be deleted frm the explanation of the comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.35|162.158.186.35]] 05:06, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

:Given what has appeared in other xkcd comics with a global-warming theme, I think the "close to no progress" reaction is permissible. Whether it is accurate is remarkably hard for me to pin down. A study I found in 2014 said that annual per-capita energy consumption in the USA rose from 100MM to 350MM BTUs between 1900 and 1973, and has since remained almost constant. 1973, of course, was the Arab oil embargo, which stimulated massive investment in energy efficiency that continue to the present day. Each of us now uses many more things for the same energy - but the population is increasing, therefore so is the bulk carbon-dioxide loading. A 2023 US Government attempt to forecast energy use in the USA between now and 2050, I found to be both unreadable and unhelpful in terms of assessing whether we are gaining on energy efficiencies and transition to renewables. There simply were too many variables in the inputs. And as 2020 demonstrated, our response to energy challenges will be forced by economics, not climate politics or comics IMO. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.168|172.71.150.168]] 07:22, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

I was unable to find an article by "Crawford 1997" in which either of the quotes cited in the title text appear in full. They might appear in other articles included in the [https://www.jstor.org/stable/i399217 special issue of the journal Ambio] devoted to the work that Arrhenius and colleagues did in the last decade of the 19th century. The two articles by Elisabeth Crawford in that journal, one sole-authored and one co-authored, provide considerable context for the discovery, including the various competing theories about global warming that were being debated among scientists at the time, and the remarkable observation by Arrhenius that such warming was not a bad thing. According to the Crawford sole-authored paper, Arrhenius wrote (translation from Swedish), "It [global warming] "will allow our descendants, even if they only be those of a distant future, to live under a warmer sky and in a less harsh environment than we were granted." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.130|172.71.151.130]] 07:04, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Arguably, it was Abraham Darby's invention of the cold tired blast furnace in 1709, that vastly increased iron production, was the real start of the industrial revolution and use of coal as a fuel. (It was actually banned in some places as being a dirty fuel for cooking and heating) Of course that might need up the nearer to / further from dates that this series of comics use. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:51, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2885: Spelling

2024-01-25T07:51:27Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

citing every word in an essay because I really, ''really'' don't know how to spell [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 13:00, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
:Fungi. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.80|172.70.86.80]] 14:17, 24 January 2024 (UTC) ;)
:Spore way of going about things. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.77|172.71.178.77]] 15:00, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
:Yeah, the lack of a period at the end of that sentence, makes it read "really, ''really'' don't know how to spell Mushrooms" & that works great as a sentence\statement, in this case!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:49, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
::curse my habit of not using periods online!!!! [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:39, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

Boo! at the spoilsport who took out my 'dilemna' easter egg. :oP [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.101|141.101.99.101]] 16:27, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

I like how someone misspelled "spell" until I corrected it. [[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 17:19, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Funny, this setting doesn't look all that much like that of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_Gay#Plagiarism_investigations Office of the President of Harvard University] ... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.197.133|172.69.197.133]] 17:31, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
:Do you mean Claudine Gay, that Nazi Hamas sympathizer who couldn't answer a simple question about Harvard's code of conduct with respect to advocating for anti-Semitic genocide, and had to resign disgracefully after it was revealed she plagiarized more than half of her academic publications? Do you mean her? Yes. It looks nothing like that.

;Dictionary Copyright
Citing a dictionary is a great example of attribution: A ''portion'' is directly quoted, with its source stated for verification purposes. Attribution is a great practice; copying without attribution isn't literal theft, but it ''is'' lazy & irresponsible, & actually detracts from the real value of the copy. Copying ''with'' attribution, on the other hand, is difficult to show any real harm from, & is arguably beneficial to all but rent-seekers. Attribution is essential! What other works, are cited with attribution, as consistently as a dictionary? Even scholarly papers seem oft-quoted without attribution... This is a disservice to both the listener, & anyone who might value the original, & potentially to the one copying. 'News' is another example of having less value without attribution... What's another good example of something that isn't as useful unless the source is cited?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:07, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
:On the other hand, far too many lazy presenters, speakers, and best men have included the phrase "Webster's Dictionary defines [everyday word everyone knows the meaning of but you're about to poetically but incorrectly redefine] as..." [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 04:33, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

I wonder if many people realise that in many ways using an AI to write an essay is a type of plagiarism engine? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:51, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

;Norway
This is probably just a coincidence (I don't think Randall has any particular ties to Norway), but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Borch_and_Ingvild_Kjerkol_plagiarism_affair is quite recent. [[User:Villemoes|Villemoes]] ([[User talk:Villemoes|talk]]) 19:18, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

There's also this https://apnews.com/article/harvard-president-plagiarism-claudine-gay-14330935453134c7c9c9a9c496020568 and this https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/youtube-creator-james-somerton-plagiarism-accusation-response-rcna130860 which are fairly recent and in the English speaking world. I just think plagiarism is a common topic right now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.241|172.70.42.241]] 23:01, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2882: Net Rotations

2024-01-18T08:17:10Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Wait, so I'm not the only one who thinks about this? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.177|172.71.167.177]] 23:28, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

Second! Still, I'm surprised that there are no edits yet. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.160|172.70.210.160]] 23:58, 17 January 2024 (UTC)

This sounds like the premise of the 1966 sci-fi story The Revolving Boy by Gertrude Friedberg. I recall reading it sometime in the 1960s or ’70s. I wonder whether Randall has read the book too — https://solarbridge.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/the-revolving-boy-gertrude-friedberg/
I'm drawing a blank. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.68|162.158.158.68]] 01:05, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

I feel like the "worldline torsion" line needs to be explained moreso than the OCD thing, since "worldline" is a word people might not know and it's the crux of the joke. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.50|162.158.62.50]] 02:47, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

:A worldline is a relativistic concept, the track of a particle (or anything, by extension) through 4D spacetime. Randall is imagining it as a physical object (not a mathematical abstraction) and thus whenever the actual object rotates, its worldline is twisted. Presumably these physical worldlines would build up torsional potential energy as they twisted, and could eventually be damaged if too many twists/year were present.[[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:57, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

I would love to know what my net rotations is. Not enough to actually keep track, mind you. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.126|172.70.178.126]] 02:53, 18 January 2024 (UTC)
:I had a season pass to an amusement park a few years ago, and the time I spent on the Scrambler would probably make mine quite difficult to calculate, even if I knew how many times I rode it. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.57|172.69.247.57]] 04:41, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

isn't this a refernce to spacetime torsion and the einstien-cartan theory? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Cartan_theory

When I used to do plasma donations (they draw blood, centrifuge it, extract the plasma/platelet fraction and return the red and white cells) I would, when telling someone about it, jokingly say that the only side effect was, then I would jump and spin. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:17, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2878: Supernova

2024-01-09T08:33:39Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

It's all fun and games until the supernova is 93 million miles away [[User:Poxy6|'''Poxy6''']] ([[User talk:Poxy6|talk]]) 13:03, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
:Luckily there's only one star that close, and it's not big enough to become a supernova. "when our Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel, it will expand to become a red giant, puff off its outer layers, and then settle down as a compact white dwarf star" [https://www.universetoday.com/18847/life-of-the-sun/]. Of course, that will still destroy the Earth. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:33, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
::"...there's only one star that close ''at the moment!''". ;) Ok, so we haven't seen anything likely to swing by close (any time soon), never mind being in an explody frame of mind whilst doing so, but... :p [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.61|172.71.178.61]] 16:41, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
::Alpha Centauri is very nearly identical to our sun. It will also go red giant and then explode.[[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 16:53, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

This seems to be a very early release. I had not expected to find a new comic already. Maybe Randall knows Betelgeuse goes Super Nova today... He can't wait - see [[1644: Stargazing]]! Unless of course it is too close! (Betelgeuse should be a safe distance away and seems by far the closest Super Nova candidate, as least according to [https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/earth-danger-betelgeuse-supernova Astronomer Patrick Moore]). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:07, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
I added an explanation and transcript [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.108|172.70.43.108]] 13:09, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

I wonder if randall has played outer wilds [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.53|172.70.178.53]] 16:34, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

I recall other proximity chart comics about 'how close people are to things' such as proximity to cats. Maybe someone can find those and add them as references. [[User:Laser813|Laser813]] ([[User talk:Laser813|talk]]) 16:40, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

I'm feeling lazy and not feeling like verifying this, but I think the graph is also representative of the light curve we expect to see during a supernova. The stars brightness reaches a peak very quickly, then more gradually diminishes. [[User:Galeindfal|Galeindfal]] ([[User talk:Galeindfal|talk]]) 18:04, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
: Exactly, I thought this was the joke: The graph under the title "Supernova" looks just like a Type Ia supernova light curve, but then it turns out to be about enthusiastic astronomers. It seems supernovae aren't only helpful in establishing a distance scale to astronomers, but also to behavioural scientists who study astronomers. [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 20:55, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

: even a superficial search by a behavioural scientist (who also handle statistics :) makes this aspect obvious. Absolutely worth to integrate it into description! https://www.ecosia.org/images?addon=opensearch&_sp=32592cb2-9564-46eb-9b5c-5ae955333b74&q=supernova+graph --[[User:LaVe|LaVe]] ([[User talk:LaVe|talk]]) 00:57, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Why the fuck aren’t the units and magnitude of the axes labled? I had to use my brain. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.89|172.70.207.89]] 05:28, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Surely there should be some dotted sections, particularly the gap between the edge of the Milky Way and Andromeda, then the next nearest galaxy (where there are few stars)? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:33, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Anyone know of a recent event that could have inspired this comic? Betelgeuse is mentioned in the explanation but has there been any newsworthy supernovae in the past week? [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 05:49, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2876: Range Safety

2024-01-03T19:54:15Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so a Trivia section has been automatically generated, and an imagesize parameter has been added (at half size) to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. --[[User:TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ([[User talk:TheusafBOT|talk]]) 14:54, 3 January 2024 (UTC)
:Okay, so, today we learned modern xkcd comics are drawn entirely with the pencil tool, with the brush size for the text averaging 22 pixels, and then downscaled to 1/15th of the size before final publication. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.91|162.158.103.91]] 15:01, 3 January 2024 (UTC)
::The text is a font...
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:03, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

Why is the tower missing in the second panel?
:If the other buildings weren't in the same place, and the tower weren't back in panel 3, I'd have guessed that the rocket was moved back to the VAB to wait for the next launch window. Maybe this was more activity of the Range Mischief Officer? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:05, 3 January 2024 (UTC)
::Seems to be back. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:54, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

Is it worth adding a guess of what kind of rocket it is to the explanation? The phallic design seems like one of Blue Origin's. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:06, 3 January 2024 (UTC)
:The thin "neck" makes it look like somewhat like a Long March 4 when carrying a large fairing, but it's a bit exaggerated in how much thicker the lower stages are. The ratio looks more like a Vega-C, but then the neck is way too short.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 17:37, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2871: Definitely

2023-12-23T09:08:33Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Regrettably for someone who has mild dyslexia, and with it in All Caps, I have difficulty seeing the subtleties of the spellings. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:08, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2866: Snow

2023-12-12T08:40:26Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Age resets

"This comic is a interesting comic about how most people get childishly excited about snow, including Randall." Really, that's the best you can come up with? Can we all please either try a little harder than that or leave the explanation for others? [[User:Darkwolf0218|Darkwolf0218]] ([[User talk:Darkwolf0218|talk]]) 04:39, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

I don't think the graph actually plateaus, to me it still seems to be (very slightly) rising at the end. I expect Cueball's "apparent age" is asymptotically approaching the original value. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 06:28, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

Regarding the lower plateau, what isn't shown is the negative effects of having to go and shovel the drive or the disappointment when the snow melts. These will reset his age and may overshoot the other way :'( [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:40, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2865: The Wrong Stuff

2023-12-09T08:14:25Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Other odd materials?

the design is very timeghost-esque [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.165|172.71.167.165]] 21:42, 8 December 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

== personal similarity ==

NOTE: people are misleadingly adding comments below this lengthy topic. Looks like the interface is defaulting to that.

I made a post to the derelict cypherpunks list right before this about ghost visits. It’s notable because I used to post to the same derelict list about making a spaceship out of tissue paper, specifically pursuing the wrong materials in response to a ghostlike experience preventing me from effective work (which i now understand as a dissociative disorder).

[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2023-December/120247.html Thu Dec 7 20:57:06 PST 2023]<blockquote><code>2249

a ghost visits you

you: “oh! a ghost! are you a spirit of a person who is now dead?”

the ghost looks sheepish

ghost: “i am a psychological result of something you went through!”

the ghost grins, trying to put on a great-looking appearance

you: “awww frack”

the ghost stops grinning and looks crestfallen and depressed

ghost: “i want to repeat something that perturbed you from the thing you went through, over and over … would this be okay with you?” [translator may have taken liberties with this line]

you: “oh no that would um be really perterburing! um !!”

ghost [looking sheepish again]: “um !”

you and the ghost both put handkerchiefs over your mouths to represent politeness or something and you go for a walk down a lane in your town called “memory la—
</code></blockquote>

[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2023-January/110003.html Mon Jan 30 18:35:20 PST 2023]<blockquote><code>[crazy][spam]

let’s reduce the tension and go back to a concept spammed to this list before

let’s make a space rocket out of tissue paper! or s9mething similarly incredibly flimsy like cobwebs or dustballs.
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2023-January/110004.html Mon Jan 30 18:36:19 PST 2023]
<blockquote><code>[crazy][spam]

- we can use an nlp bot to scrape the internet for materials
properties and perform the rough design

- we can make bots that replicate like a reprap generator to collect
the materials
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2023-September/117502.html Sun Sep 3 18:03:06 PDT 2023]
<blockquote><code>Model Spaceship Made Of Snow

I'm guessing we can make it out of ice when it is really cold. We
could press or melt the snow to make it into ice, and cast, cut, or
assemble and fuse parts into a spaceship shape.

Rocket fuel could melt the ship when it burns, maybe need a way to
cool it significantly, but with a model maybe it could hold compressed
air somehow? it does seem hard
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2023-September/117517.html Sun Sep 3 18:23:54 PDT 2023]
<blockquote><code>how to make spaceship out of ice?

so, ice is likely to melt when traveling at escape velocity, maybe
imagining a huge buffer around the ship: like, design it to melt its
exterior. big wide giant spaceship near ground, little tiny spaceship
at edge of atmosphere
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2022-March/097050.html Tue Mar 8 17:35:33 PST 2022]
<blockquote><code>The Questioning Spam

A worker was building a rocket ship out of grass.

Questioner: "Why don't you use, I dunno, like, steel and ceramic
plates, to make your rocket ship, rather than grass?"

Worker: "It's just a hobby project."

Questioner: "Why don't you make it a serious proiject?"

Worker: "I really have more time than money, honestly."
…
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2022-January/094637.html Fri Jan 7 03:23:38 PST 2022]
<blockquote><code>[ot][spam][crazy] holding community goals

stone soup is kind of a puzzle, no? like building a spaceship out of
wet noodles
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2021-December/093963.html Wed Dec 22 09:47:30 PST 2021]
<blockquote><code>Making a Spaceship out of Wet Noodles in C

It's hard to make a C program that builds a spaceship out of wet noodles.

But, at the end of the day, it's down to your free time,
experience+ingenuity, and the libraries you have available to call
into.
</code></blockquote>
[https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2021-December/093000.html Wed Dec 1 00:17:51 PST 2021]
<blockquote><code>[spam][ot][rambling][crazy] Building a Spaceship Out Of Something Ridiculously Weak and Flimsy

I like to daydream around hard challenges.

I don't know how to build a spaceship. But maybe it would be fun to try.

To make it harder, let's make it out of only something ridiculously hard to
do it with, like toilet paper, or leaves, or old newspapers.

I don't know what kinds of problems one runs into when building a
spaceship, but when I start planning it I think the first problem will be
getting something to go really, really far against gravity.

Another problem I hear about is burning up as you accelerate through the
atmosphere.

I imagine aiming what direction you go in is pretty hard too.

I'm thinking I'm probably okay with there being some guidance computers and
robotics on the craft, but that we would _mostly_ make it out of tissue
paper or whatnot. Making computers out of tissue paper can be considered a
separate problem, for now.

One way to make tissue paper move is to burn it. Could we use a
tissue-paper-fueled rocket to accelerate the craft? Almost certainly not,
but doing the calculations for this could inform what thing to consider
next.

I have no idea how to make a rocket, or how rockets work, but I imagine
that when you burn something, it turns into gas, and the expansion of the
gas is much larger than the thing you burned, so if you direct this gas in
some direction or another, it might push something further. I dunno. Like
getting up from a chair because of a fire you sat in. Maybe? I dunno.

Maybe I'll briefly websearch for "solid fuel rocket" and see what I get.
</code></blockquote> … the post goes on and I then replied with more things for a few days. Rereading it turns out I was playing with my psychological triggers from social influence AI, and it’s hard to continue cause my amnesia and dissociation is kicking in (might try a different part not sure). I think of this xkcd as about me though!

[[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.32|172.71.254.32]] 21:48, 8 December 2023 (UTC)

It's probably worth a mention that the title is most likely a reference to "The Right Stuff" (film). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.65|172.69.247.65]] 22:57, 8 December 2023 (UTC)

The title is probably a reference to "The Right Stuff" (TV Series) instead, since the title's unusual capitalization aligns with the series's title's font style but not the film's title font. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.43|172.71.146.43]] 00:04, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

:I don't understand why the Trojan Horse is considered an example of building something out of the wrong stuff. Within the legendary context of the Trojan War, the Trojan Horse succeeded at exactly what it was built to do, namely, transport the Greek warriors into Troy so they could sack the city. An actual horse made out of skin and muscle and bones would not have been able to fit the Greek warriors inside.{{cn}} That's like saying that Lunar Module Eagle from Apollo 11 was built of the wrong material because it didn't have feathers. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.57|172.70.127.57]] 06:34, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
:: Humour comes in threes, perhaps Randall was struggling to come up with a third example (while saving the Brick Moon for the mouse over text)? :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:04, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

What has happened to this wiki? It used to be when there were glitches and flubs, there would be evidence, screenshots, records for us to see, particularly for those of us who didn't see it before it was fixed. Now there's a passing mention in Trivia and for all we know someone could be mistaken or lying. Uhhh, we'd like to SEE this! I mean, when the anomaly is "It was posted super early/late", okay, not much to capture there, really, but a screenshot of the mis-capitalized title would have been easy! Every time the comic is uploaded 2x, a bot gives "here it is normal sized, which isn't special at all and you can see anyway because Randall fixed it by now". What happened to the recordkeeping here? (BTW, the text title here still says "the", not "The") [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]])

The discrete would have worked. :-) What isn't mentioned was the successful (for a given definition of) we the reinforced concrete ships in WW2. Mostly mine sweepers. They could be repaired at sea! Possibly a precursor of GRP? Oh, BTW steel was thought to be a wrong material! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:14, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2842: Inspiraling Roundabout

2023-10-17T19:34:49Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

First edit. I'm unfamiliar with the road rules in the comic so I just added the transcript in it's most basic form. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 02:00, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

:don't worry, even a wrong explanation is better than no explanation because it tricks people into being correct for you [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:15, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
: New here, not sure of the procedure for discussing interpretation: I disagree with the interpretation that this is navigable by entering all the way into the center then driving out in a clockwise direction - that would be driving against traffic, which would be illegal and seem to violate the assertion that this is "technically navigable" (anything is "technically navigable" if you have a big enough vehicle and disregard for other people's property, but I'm assuming that we want to stay legal). I believe that the "correct way" to navigate this would be to signal and change to the right-lane until you get to your exit. The inward spiral may give cars a circuit or two to wait for a clear lane to the right, but the deeper you get, the faster you have to change lanes to get out again? --[[User:Candu|Candu]] ([[User talk:Candu|talk]]) 14:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

added longer explanation [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:05, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Could we create a category for these "traffic" or "driving" related comics? This would include this comic and the previous, and others that relate to driving/cars/traffic. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.37|172.70.211.37]] 04:02, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

in left lane driving countries this would work pretty well as a roundabout

I've heard the Spanish and British road authorities are planing to implement this for roads going to France. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.144|172.64.236.144]] 06:39, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Actually, the correct solution is an out-spiraling roundabout, which if properly designed means that if you start in the correct lane, you end up at the correct exit without changing lanes. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Well if it spiralled the other way it would be a great roundabout design.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.28|162.158.203.28]] 08:14, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Out-spiraling roundabouts are getting more popular in the UK - they recently repainted the Wandsworth Bridge Roundabout as an out-spiral, and it's gone from one being one of the worst roundabouts in the area to one of the best. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.153|172.70.90.153]] 10:04, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

An example I designed several years ago... :https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5071913,-3.1457705,18z/data=!3m1!1e3 [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:34, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

About driving in circles for hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc --[[User:Itub|Itub]] ([[User talk:Itub|talk]]) 11:32, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Uzumaki??? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.99|172.71.22.99]] 12:24, 17 October 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

I think the author of the explanation completely misunderstood the design. This is the turbo roundabout, except instead of getting everybody out it pulls everybody into the center, just like the highway supercollider from early xkcd. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.239|172.70.242.239]] 12:29, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Alternative ending/version - there is a singularity at the center of the roundabout [[User:Dllahr|Dllahr]] ([[User talk:Dllahr|talk]]) 12:42, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

I think the explanation as currently written is way overcomplicating the situation, it seems clear to me that this roundabout is designed (much like in the recent comic #[[2728]]), to require lane changes for some paths, and the inward spiral is simply to guide anyone that's indecisive or otherwise missing their exist out of the way of other drivers, and forcing them to make a decision rather than circling indefinitely to avoid a collision. The current description of having you go backwards out the spiral after reaching the end seems ridiculously over complicated and doesn't match any of the design elements of the path. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 14:36, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
:I agree. The broken lines indicate that lane changes are intended. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.230.25|162.158.230.25]] 15:42, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

This design has a regulating effect on the traffic mass. (Assuming changing lanes is allowed.) When there is light traffic, cars can easily change on the next lane to reach their destination. When there is heavy traffic, some cars will fail to change lanes quickly enough, and they become trapped in the spiral. When the traffic becomes light again, the outermost cars will be able to leave the spiral. I estimate that up to 50 cars can be temporarily removed from the local traffic this way. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.150.31|172.69.150.31]] 16:57, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Should there be a category for this comic, [[2728: Lane Change Highway]], [[253: Highway Engineer Pranks]], and similar ones? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.137|172.68.253.137]] 18:12, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

== Magic Roundabouts ==

See these two "unusual" roundabouts in England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempstead)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Actually, they are (no longer) roundabouts, but Ring Junctions. Effectively mini Ring Roads. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

In France at least this design would not create any conundrum because roundabout rules are clearly stated and independent of ground markings. It could still be somewhat confusing.

Talk:2842: Inspiraling Roundabout

2023-10-17T07:37:24Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Highway Design.

Talk:2820: Inspiration

2023-08-27T08:27:10Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Universal Gravity

Apples that fall off the tree on the moon cause less pain, could that also be a motive for his proposal? APB [[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.220|162.158.129.220]] 13:18, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Here we see Cueball as W. B. Yeats, inventing the silver apples of the moon. [[User:Aasasd|Aasasd]] ([[User talk:Aasasd|talk]]) 03:24, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Ah yes, another jab at red delicious apples from Randall. I love it. [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|Trogdor147]] ([[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous#Help_with_Creating_a_User_Page|talk]]) 03:39, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
:"Another"? would you mind linking to previous jab(s) so that we may link to it/get a category created for these jabs, and link to that category? - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 10:27, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
::One prior [[388: Fuck Grapefruit|comic 'jab']], for which the explanations refers to his book-jab at them. There ''may'' be more, that was just from memory, but not sure Cat-worthy just yet. But a direct reference link can wait until someone has searched for more/better, maybe. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.197|141.101.76.197]] 13:18, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
In the UK I have not come across a Red Delicious, just Golden ones, which are sort of golden, but sounding similarly bland. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:27, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Uhh, Randall was lacking inspiration for a comic? I saw nothing worth a comic, so I came here. Seems like Randall just doesn’t like Red Delicious.—Besides, is there a better word than “jab”? Mockery?--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.196|172.70.246.196]] 06:30, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
:If this is a running gag, should there be some kind of category for it, like Category:My Hobby does? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.63|172.70.179.63]] 08:03, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
::Actually, Randall stole (inadvertently, I'm sure) this from a running gag in a famous French BD named Rubrique-à-Brac [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubrique-%C3%A0-Brac]. Isaac Newton is a recurring character who regularly gets hit in the head with different objects. [[User:Vfp15|Vfp15]] ([[User talk:Vfp15|talk]]) 23:10, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

This feels a bit like a pun that he expected a "tasty" apple but found a "delicious" instead--or maybe just an assertion that the name of Red Delicious apples is a lie. - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 10:19, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
:It absolutely is a lie, but there's a reason for that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgZNDTJSvJQ&pp - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.41|172.70.179.41]] 16:10, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Why didn't Randall draw Newton's hair when he was fully capable of doing so in [[626: Newton and Leibniz]]?
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.39.35|172.70.39.35]] 11:48, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
:Because it's not Newton. From the apple story,some people seem to have got the impression that Newton was the first to observe gravity, and therefore "was he really such a genius? I reckon I'd have noticed things falling to the floor". The comic makes fun of these would-be discoverers of the laws of gravitation, and presents an alternative inspirational moment that might be equally likely to these lesser intellects without the benefit of hindsight.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.167|172.70.85.167]] 12:09, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

The Apple in question was a Flower of Kent - Newton saw it fall, not on his head ...

the mention of the moon could be referencing the moon landing, that occurred the day prior to the comic's release, confirming ice deposits (meaning potential for apple growing). I don't think the cueball in the comic represents newton but rather someone parodying Newton, possibly they thought for a moment that the apple fell from the moon [visible in the background], and then got the inspiration for moon apples. it is also possible that cueball hoped that moon apples would hurt less (or maybe grow bigger)

Just my foible, but everyone knew about gravity, "they even leave it on at the weekend"* but his insight was that it is universal,not a number of different ones. *Douglas,Adams' Dirk Gently's HDA [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:27, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2809: Moon

2023-08-01T09:38:26Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Moon as saviour of the oceans.

Happy birthday to me. This comic is a good birthday present, so I'm gonna try to add some stuff to the explanation now. [[User:R3TRI8UTI0N|R3TRI8UTI0N]] ([[User talk:R3TRI8UTI0N|talk]]) 02:11, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Okay, added a Trivia section and a lot of stuff to the explanation. Request someone help add more information about lunar cycles and some wikipedia links. [[User:R3TRI8UTI0N|R3TRI8UTI0N]] ([[User talk:R3TRI8UTI0N|talk]]) 02:35, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
:Ah, well, I added more (sufficient? ...haven't wikilinked yet) info about the illumination/tide cycles. i.e. about half the time (at least) half reilluminating areas on the night side of Earth + roughly twice a day dragging/flinging the tides 'upwards' (modifying the Sun's own twice-daily effects).
:Had to heavily qualify the secondary Trivia point, for caveats. I mean selenically-specific names aren't rare, when refering to orb sometimes known as Phoebe/Cynthia, until you become more precise about "common English use". Didn't say anything about (the) Earth, but did mention the Sun(/suns in general) in the edit comment. Interesting point to make, but not so much unusual as stemming from long time (way into prehistory!) custom so really being the heavily weighted precedent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.187|172.70.90.187]] 05:21, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
:Reminds me of that conversation from Dragonheart (paraphrized as I only watched the German dub): "So instead of calling me 'dragon" in your language you call me 'dragon' in another language... I think I like it" [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:16, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

If there was no Moon, would an Earth astronomer that discovered moons around one of the other planets be considered a loony? [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:40, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
:If there was no moon, it's quite possible there would be no intelligent life on Earth. Also, when Galileo Galilei found Jupiter's moons, he was totally considered loony by some, while others said it's defect of the telescope. Remember that at that point of history, suggesting that if Earth has moon, other planets might have one too was something you could be burned on stake for. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:13, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

I doubt the title text is intended as a reference to that saying. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.51|172.69.247.51]] 04:17, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
:Yeah, I don't get how that is related either. The title text references that it is pretty, but the nmoves away from that. Not sure how that is related to a quote that doesn't even use the word "pretty". --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:28, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Like many things,{{Citation needed}} it has probably seemed usual whilst we only know our own example. Once we started to find other examples out there, we can discover the ways in which it's an outlier. (Martian: "Well of ''course'' there's those two small rock 'stars' visibly zipping around overhead, that's what the sky alsays looks like for me, and I imagine that it's much the same for anyone else..." Earthling/Venusian/Jovian/Tritonian/Plutoid: "...hold my beer!") [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.133|141.101.99.133]] 07:26, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

I've been saying this about the Sun… A great fireball looming in the sky. It remotely powers life. (Even with 90% of that power lost at each trophic level!) It is worshipped as a god. It controls Earthlings' sense of time. When it leaves the sky at a regular interval, a wave of fear follows, and everything seeks shelter and goes dormant until its return. Oh, but it also burns and mutates the flesh of those who stand in its rays, to the point that it's ''dangerous to look at''. Sounds fake, right? And yet, there it is. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]] 08:00, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

I have a personal theory that the constant gravitational massage is responsible for sustaining the Earth's large magnetic field, thus preventing the solar wind making us like Venus or Mars, and probably keeping the tectonic plates on the move. (Oh and dogs domesticated themselves - just saying p.s. same for cats but only after we had barns). [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 09:38, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2778: Cuisine

2023-05-22T18:56:03Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

I’m surprised it’s not Beret guy at the stove… [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.186|108.162.245.186]] 03:33, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
: Yup, you have a point... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:17, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Well, here "'''''very''''' high heat" is millions of degrees (any kind), yes? [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 04:13, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Is the title text that stupid American thing where people consider themselves some nationality despite no cultural exposure because one of eight great-grandparents was?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.77|162.158.2.77]] 04:26, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
: Taken to the extreme, to the time when galaxies were first starting to condense out of vast hydrogen clouds and form the first generation of stars and black holes. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 04:33, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
: I wouldn't say that, no... It's trying to boast long experience. Sounds to me like instead of going back in his life to, say, his childhood, he's taking humankind - LIFE - to back before human beings, back to cells in primordial ooze. Before even the formation of Earth, I think? Judging from mentioning space... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:17, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
::The title text says "collapsing in the darkness of space" which I take as a reference to before 'first light', that is before ANY fusion had occurred. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:56, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

I’m curious who it is who added “exciting new forms of matter” with a citation to randall’s use of the same phrase earlier. This is a common way of talking for the comic demographic, although maybe a little immature as the decades pass. It’s different to see it cited, and I wonder if the editor was from a different culture or young or a bot, or maybe I am just going crazy. My name is karl i have usernames like baffo32 or xloem, i’ve been mentally ill for a decade or so but used to be a nerd. There seem to be fewer nerds here. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.131|162.158.159.131]] 12:45, 20 May 2023 (UTC) I’m thinking the citation is for completeness and apologize for my craziness. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.131|162.158.159.131]] 12:46, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

Can someone provide the chain of reactions that lead from water to iron? I think the first step from water to helium might sound familiar to people, since that's the "classic" example for nuclear fusion. But how do we get from there to iron? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 12:31, 22 May 2023 (UTC)
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.16|172.69.22.16]] 13:19, 22 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2775: Siphon

2023-05-12T19:07:42Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

My understanding was that siphoning can essentially be explained by the Bernoulli equation? There is a difference in potential energy between the upper and lower container so it flows. The weight of water in the downhill part of the tube pulls water up the uphill section of the tube (think like a vacuum), and so on until there's either no difference in head or no more water. Siphoning will work with any diameter tube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 15:43, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:That's right. The only mention of capillary action in the siphon wikipedia article is when talking about phenomenon that *isn't* a siphon. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:15, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Agree, capillary action does not seem to be referenced or implied in the comic, presenting only the (not "functioning") siphon phenomenon. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.134.142|172.68.134.142]] 16:23, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:Seconded/thirded. Capillary action isn't even what they were expecting. The small amount of water in the lowe receptical indicates they correctly ''filled'' the tube, but then as the longer length drained it did not then induce further flow up and over through the shorter length. e.g. nature no longer abhored the resulting vacuum (or there was increased negative-pressure vapourisation, beyond that previously expected, or other method of seepage 'airlock'-breaking) and thus the short-end also drained straight back out again instead of becoming a potentially self-sustaining inflow to the whole siphoning setup.
::If the upper end got restricted (say by touching the side of the bucket) the loss of flow would allow air to enter the bottom end and drain out the tube. I've done this. :-( [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:07, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:While the capilliary action element ''could'' induce the start of a rather limited 'empty' siphon setup to start (maybe, I'd have doubts about the 'fluid friction' actually acting against the gravity-feed part, once the surface-tension bit has "climbed the mountain" and started to merely seep out of the other end, almost incidentally, for a sufficiently thin tubing where CA is a significant factor), this suddenly failing for whatever reason (surface-tension effects being nullified) wouldn't then send a token amount of water into the low bucket, nor particularly stop unrelated siphon-flow from continuing properly (in fact, suddenly 'interaction-free' liquid and tubing might siphon ''faster'', with effectively zero fluid boundary effects dragging on the induced flow).
:But perhaps someone with more QFD experience could explain where my assessment is wrong. So not going to personally rewrite the current Explanation intro just now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.161|172.70.162.161]] 16:21, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:I'd like to contribute as one more data point. I also don't see capillary action as being relevant. In particular, as another commenter said, the water in the lower bucket quite clearly supports the idea that the siphon effect was the subject of the characters' confusion. How else is Randall supposed to depict the siphon effect anyway? I agree that the drawing alone ''could'' also suggest capillary action is what's being investigated, but I don't think it suggests that the caption has ''incorrectly'' referred to it as the siphon effect. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.100|172.71.254.100]] 18:44, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2770: Tapetum Lucidum

2023-05-02T16:19:39Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Added possibility of XPilot as inspiration, as a different branch of "triangular ships in 2D worlds" from Asteroids, which is a single-player PvE with no static walls or rebounding shots. The shots from xpilot ships can, if the map is set to do so, bounce off walls. Or be distorted by gravity, so aren't lasers. (Or maybe they can be, but it's been decades since I played it and development moves on!) But I'm sure the ecosystem of clone-games arising from both these inspirations (and other predecessors to both/between their respective releases) is nigh on uncatalogued so who knows if Randall's depicting some actual specific release or just a memetic interloper that just has the right narrative features for this particular comic's "message". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.169|172.70.85.169]] 12:56, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

:Lasers are distorted by gravity. If we are talking about black holes, at least. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:54, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

::(Technically lasers aren't distorted. The space they pass through is. ;) )
::Not as much as physical things. I too was an XPilot player/hoster, a few decades ago now. Ah, nostalgia...
::The "bullets" could be fired into a cluster of gravity-blocks and whip around like mad until they timed-out or managed to escape from whatever 'random' side their chaotic paths led them to. Great fun to include such features when editing maps (adding detailing and fine-tuning with a text editor to the conversion of some interesting image to the map format, often obtained via netpbm piping and a bit of other automatic/manual editing), especially with shields a disabled feature so as to make it a risky proposition to enter combat in close proximity (and a rather desperate escape-route, if piled up between walls).
::Or set your map with huge time-to-die (bullets, drifting mines, etc), a high number of wall bounces allowed and skew the pickup populations with many multiple spread-shooters (front and rear) and let the players create a 'bullet soup' situation oh so easily! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.98|141.101.99.98]] 22:40, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
::Not sure about xpilot, but these must be bullets, or burst of say plasma/energised particles, as laser beams would go from ship to wall of target (almost) instantaneously.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 16:19, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Come on, Randall- Tapetum Ludum was right there! [[User:Breensht|SaturnVI]] ([[User talk:Breensht|talk]]) 11:49, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/18/zombieland-rules-full-list-columbus-official-and-deleted-scenes This is one of many possible references for the "double tap" Zombieland quote and annotation noting its use as title in the sequel. ([[User talk:GuestCharlie|talk]])

is making the transcript this verbose productive? is it supposed to be a guide to fully recreate the image if it's not loading on your end? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.127|172.70.114.127]] 10:57, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
:Yes, it should be this verbose. It is meant for the visually impaired. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.227|172.70.134.227]] 14:16, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2743: Hand Dryers

2023-02-27T19:31:29Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

The mouseover text is trolling, since that would be impossible. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.140|172.70.200.140]] 16:23, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

The Pratt & Whitney J58 is capable of producing exhaust velocities exceeding that of Mach 2 at ground level. It would be possible (though extremely inadvisable) to dry one's hands in the exhaust, at least for the brief period where one still has hands. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.72|172.70.115.72]] 16:44, 27 February 2023 (UTC) J. Kupec

With a low enough vacuum in the surrounding area, a supersonic hand dryer should be able to apply drying without enough energy dissipation to damage the skin. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.184|172.69.65.184]] 17:27, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

As far as I understand it, the low velocity dryers heat the air, the high velocity ones don't, but rely on the air being compressed and air speed is of the essence. The other problem with the idea of very high speed is that 'stuff' could penetrate the skin (there is a type of needle-less vaccination gun on that principle).[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:31, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2742: Island Storage

2023-02-24T19:00:52Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Hey at least New Zealand made it onto this map! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.48|172.70.178.48]] 17:46, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Of course the proper storage mode involves packing the continents back to Gondwada layout and then hiding them on the far side ;-) [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:59, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2742: Island Storage

2023-02-24T18:59:50Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Hey at least New Zealand made it onto this map! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.48|172.70.178.48]] 17:46, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
Of course the proper storage mode involves packing the continents back to Gondwada layout and then hiding them on the far side ;-) [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:59, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2718: New Year's Eve Party

2023-01-04T22:26:49Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

There may be a "Twenty-Twenty Vision" pun (only that it's 20/23 visual accuity, which isn't as bad as this Cueball now has), but not sure it's good enough to mention... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.70|162.158.34.70]] 22:07, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
: I would say that's exactly what the title text is playing on, and should be included. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.157|172.71.242.157]] 09:45, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

What's Hairy holding? [[User:Thexkcdnerd|Thexkcdnerd]] ([[User talk:Thexkcdnerd|talk]]) 03:41, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
:His jacket? As per the existing Explanation, I agree that it looks like he's just entered the party, and not yet found out where to leave his outdoor coat. Perhaps was going to ask Cueball where he could safely leave it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.77|172.70.91.77]] 04:00, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Megan is (AFAICT) carrying a spare pair of 2023 glasses. Presumably for Hairy. Possibility Megan wants everyone to have 2023 glasses but Cueball has (typically) taken it too far. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:54, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

: This may be added to the transcription. --[[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 21:37, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

To me as a non-native speaker of English, "New Year's Eve 2023" would be on December 31st, 2023 and not 2 days ago.. So I wonder if this is the standard usage in English? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.234|172.71.94.234]] 14:50, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
:Good question! "2023 New Year's Eve" seems to me (a native speaker American) ''probably'' like a few days ago but "New Year's Eve, 2023" is certainly a year later. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.230|162.158.166.230]] 15:06, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
::I don't think I would associate "<following year>" with NYE at all, if I can help it, only with the subsequent New Year's Day ''or'' the concept of anticipating the change. And I'd likely leave "New Year's Eve" un-numbered (by either side of Janos's doorway).
::I know I've talked of things like "One year, we went to <place> five times... New Year, Easter break, Summer, Autumn break and Old Year...", though that doesn't even make an effort to assign the annum in particular, if it helps to narrow down my default thinking about this sort of thing. Which is probably not typical (even for my bit of UK - for one thing, we could actually go on holiday five times in a year... albeit it wasn't your modern jet trip half way round the world, just to a different bit of the UK on what would he considered a "budget break" in today's terms). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.175|172.70.85.175]] 17:29, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

This is partly the tendency in spoken and (less so) in written English to leave words out and assume the correct meaning by context. 172.71.94.234 is effectively reading "NYE 'in' 2023" whereas I read it as "NYE 'for' 2023". [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 22:26, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Novelty glasses may come in other shapes, such as "Google". --

Talk:2718: New Year's Eve Party

2022-12-31T08:55:29Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

Talk:2718: New Year's Eve Party

2022-12-31T08:54:13Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Megan spare glasses

Talk:2692: Interior Decorating

2022-11-01T21:15:59Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

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)
::It could be very hazardous to use, if you tried whilst sailing upon the Ship Of Theseus... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.54|172.70.91.54]] 01:47, 1 November 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)

Isn't Chekhov's gun supposed to be on a mantelpiece? I don't know why I remember that. It's not in Wikipedia but is on plenty of other sites about it. Anyone know the origin of the mantelpiece angle? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.243|172.70.210.243]] 02:12, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
:not necessarily, it's just the most common example of a superfluous detail in 'Why draw attention to an otherwise superfluous detail if it's not of importance?' that's at heart of Chekhov's Gun.[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.217|198.41.242.217]] 07:45, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

I was introduced to Chekov's gun when I was sad to my son that fiction has 1)Plot Premise, 2) Plot Plants 3) Plot Fixes. The Chekhov's gun would be 2), but a pistol drawn from a handbag sold be 3) unless mentioned in Act 1. Of course weapons on the wall could be 1) depending on the house.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 21:15, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

This would go great with a dying ivy with only a single leaf, and a blue curtain. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.215.4|172.71.215.4]] 04:21, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

This has one two many metaphors. That last one is the straw that broke the camel's back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.116|172.70.175.116]] 05:48, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

:It was perfectly ok until it tried to jump that shark! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 10:41, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
::No need to jump Chekhov's gun here, sharks are fine, just watch out for those red herrings.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.209|172.70.246.209]] 13:05, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
:::Can you shoot red herrings in a barrel with Chekhov's gun? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:14, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

img looks slightly blurry. is this because the 2x version is of an odd width (397 pixels) for some reason? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.76|172.70.111.76]] 19:40, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2673: Cursed mRNA Cocktail

2022-09-19T08:09:13Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

"¼ tsp MSG or nutritional yeast," is like saying, "A monochrome d12 or the city of Washington, D.C." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.25|172.71.154.25]] 20:55, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
:I’ve never eaten the city of Washington, DC, but I am pretty sure I’ve had a 12-sided die in my mouth for some stupid reason or another. I don’t see how the colour would affect the flavour, and since I don’t specifically remember, I don’t know if it was a single colour or swirly. But had it been particularly umami tasting I think I would actually remember, as I would not have expected that. MSG and yeast/yeast extract both have a strong umami flavour (gluten extract, which you are not sensitive to unless you have coeliac disease, also has this taste, as do many broths). As a result, both would impart that flavour to the concoction. I am pretty sure dice and cities don’t impart this flavour, so I can’t see how this assertion could possibly make sense.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.175.10|172.68.175.10]] 10:02, 17 September 2022 (UTC)
:: It's about relative complexity, and is probably intended generally as hyperbole. MSG is a single smallish molecule and nutritional yeast is an entire living organism. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.25|172.71.154.25]] 05:36, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

I wonder if this was inspired by "drug coctails", where a combination of different drugs is prescribed to treat a disease. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:08, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
: Spelled cocktails. I like it. The wikipedia disambiguation page for cocktail lists "A mixture of drugs, especially a mixture of Antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV sometimes called a "triple cocktail"" but there is no specific page for the term. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.185|162.158.166.185]] 04:57, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Given how little of the mayo and yeast are in the final drink, I would expect that this would taste like slightly sweetened water. Therefore I dispute the assertion in the explainer that "very few people would find such a mixture palatable". --[[User:Gamrix|Gamrix]] ([[User talk:Gamrix|talk]]) 03:30, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Funny, "MSG" always makes me recall "Triangle and Robert"... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.41|141.101.76.41]] 06:54, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Taking (admittedly large) liberties with the recipe, this is almost watered down kewpie or Japanese mayo. One online recipe suggests that adding sugar, msg and rice wine vinegar to American mayo is sufficient to create an kewpie imitation. Considering the water, perhaps mRNA cocktail is best enjoyed as a glaze on sushi? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.125|162.158.2.125]] 04:37, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Serious question: is this comic funny? If so, someone please explain the joke to me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.185|162.158.166.185]] 02:28, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Not all XKCDs are "funny". Some are more about answering odd question, like "what would a mRNA vaccine taste like?" [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:06, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2673: Cursed mRNA Cocktail

2022-09-19T08:06:32Z

RIIW - Ponder it:

"¼ tsp MSG or nutritional yeast," is like saying, "A monochrome d12 or the city of Washington, D.C." [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.25|172.71.154.25]] 20:55, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
:I’ve never eaten the city of Washington, DC, but I am pretty sure I’ve had a 12-sided die in my mouth for some stupid reason or another. I don’t see how the colour would affect the flavour, and since I don’t specifically remember, I don’t know if it was a single colour or swirly. But had it been particularly umami tasting I think I would actually remember, as I would not have expected that. MSG and yeast/yeast extract both have a strong umami flavour (gluten extract, which you are not sensitive to unless you have coeliac disease, also has this taste, as do many broths). As a result, both would impart that flavour to the concoction. I am pretty sure dice and cities don’t impart this flavour, so I can’t see how this assertion could possibly make sense.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.175.10|172.68.175.10]] 10:02, 17 September 2022 (UTC)
:: It's about relative complexity, and is probably intended generally as hyperbole. MSG is a single smallish molecule and nutritional yeast is an entire living organism. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.25|172.71.154.25]] 05:36, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

I wonder if this was inspired by "drug coctails", where a combination of different drugs is prescribed to treat a disease. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:08, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
: Spelled cocktails. I like it. The wikipedia disambiguation page for cocktail lists "A mixture of drugs, especially a mixture of Antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV sometimes called a "triple cocktail"" but there is no specific page for the term. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.185|162.158.166.185]] 04:57, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Given how little of the mayo and yeast are in the final drink, I would expect that this would taste like slightly sweetened water. Therefore I dispute the assertion in the explainer that "very few people would find such a mixture palatable". --[[User:Gamrix|Gamrix]] ([[User talk:Gamrix|talk]]) 03:30, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Funny, "MSG" always makes me recall "Triangle and Robert"... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.41|141.101.76.41]] 06:54, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Taking (admittedly large) liberties with the recipe, this is almost watered down kewpie or Japanese mayo. One online recipe suggests that adding sugar, msg and rice wine vinegar to American mayo is sufficient to create an kewpie imitation. Considering the water, perhaps mRNA cocktail is best enjoyed as a glaze on sushi? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.125|162.158.2.125]] 04:37, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Serious question: is this comic funny? If so, someone please explain the joke to me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.185|162.158.166.185]] 02:28, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
Not all XKCDs are "funny". Some are more about answering odd question, like "what would a mENS vaccine taste like?" [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:06, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2632: Greatest Scientist

2022-06-14T21:50:33Z

RIIW - Ponder it: Nation's law of Gravity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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