explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3011: Europa Clipper

2024-11-14T23:43:29Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 3011
| date = November 13, 2024
| title = Europa Clipper
| image = europa_clipper_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x356px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They had BETTER make this a sample return mission.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a JOVIAN DESSERT. Please consider deleting this tag too soon, but refrain from doing so.}}

[[File:Animation of Europa Clipper trajectory around Jupiter.gif|thumb|right|The ''Europa Clipper's'' projected course around {{w|Jupiter}}, represented as the stationary <span style="color:green;">green</span> dot. In <span style="color:gold;">gold</span> is Jupiter's moon {{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}, in <span style="color:cyan;">cyan</span> is the moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} — the primary target of the spacecraft's study — and in <span style="color:#FF4500;">orange-red</span> is the innermost of Jupiter's NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE NOTRUMPWON2024MAGAFORLIFE 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The spacecraft's track is shown in <span style="color:magenta;">magenta</span>. Jupiter's largest moon {{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}} is not shown, but its gravitational pull affects the ''Clipper's'' trajectory. A mission goal is to achieve a 6:1 {{w|orbital resonance}} with Europa [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin-Ozimek/publication/383115312_AAS_24-433_Europa_Clipper_Mission_Analysis_Pump_Down_Trajectory_Design/links/66bcd845311cbb094938dbd6/AAS-24-433-Europa-Clipper-Mission-Analysis-Pump-Down-Trajectory-Design.pdf by September 2034]. ]]

The ''{{w|Europa Clipper}}'' space probe was launched from the {{w|Kennedy Space Center}} in Florida on [https://europa.nasa.gov/mission/about/ October 14, 2024]. It is expected to arrive at Jupiter and begin exploration of Jupiter's moons, particularly {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}, in April of 2030.

Europa is an icy moon. Water ice covers its surface. Around 15 to 25 kilometers (10 to 15 miles) beneath the ice, there is expected to be liquid water which may contain some [https://europa.nasa.gov/why-europa/ingredients-for-life/ basic forms of life]. To sample this liquid, its icy crust would need to be breached. The thickness of the ice dwarfs the ''Europa Clipper's'' 31 meter span.

Europa's surface of ice over liquid water can be compared to the caramelized crust on the popular dessert {{w|crème brûlée}}, perhaps because the {{w|Cassini-Huygens}} probe, after landing on Saturn's moon Titan in January of 2005, found that its surface had what was described as [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/world-unveiled-cr%C3%A8me-br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e-titan a "crème brûlée" consistency]. The hard surface of the caramel cream dessert is traditionally cracked open with a {{w|Tableware#Spoon|spoon}}, and so [[Randall]] posits that such equipment will be deployed by the ''Europa Clipper''.

In truth, no such spoon is present on the probe, and Europa's icy crust is too thick to be penetrated by a spoon of such size. Advanced measures are needed to prevent contamination of liquid water by Earth's organisms such as {{w|tardigrade}}s, {{w|deinococcus radiodurans}}, or {{w|bacillus subtilis}}. The ''Europa Clipper's'' course has been charted to avoid any contact with the surface of Europa (although it will fly through some sparse material it ejects into space) so as to prevent {{w|Planetary protection|contamination by microorganisms from Earth}}.

The successful deployment of any spacecraft's instrument is considered a cause for celebration because deployable spacecraft instruments often fail to correctly extend, unfurl or undock. The ''Clipper'' has a magnetometer that will be used at the end of a 8.5 meter boom (not apparent in the comic which, spoon extension aside, is an otherwise fairly accurate depiction) as part of its study of the moons' environment.

<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; margin: 1em 0;">
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0 1em;">
[[File:Europa_-_Perijove_45_(cropped).png|200px|alt=Europa]]
<div>Europa</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0 1em;">
[[File:2014_0531_Crème_brûlée_Doi_Mae_Salong_(cropped).jpg|200px|alt=Crème brûlée]]
<div>Crème brûlée</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0 1em;">
[[File:Europa_Clipper_spacecraft_model.png|200px|alt=The Europa Clipper spacecraft]]
<div>The ''Europa Clipper'' spacecraft</div>
</div>
</div>

The title text expands on the joke by stating that the spacecraft "had BETTER" return samples of Europa to Earth. However, the ''Europa Clipper'' is not a {{w|sample-return mission}}.

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

:[A space probe with two rectangular solar panels, a circular dish of the front, and a very large spoon extending beneath, longer than the span of both solar panels]

:[Below the panel:]
:Good news: NASA's '''''Europa Clipper''''' is en route to Europa and has successfully deployed its crème brûlée spoon.

==Trivia==
Initially, the ''Europa Clipper'' mission was planned to include a lander component, but it was removed from the project early on. The Europa Lander proposal lags significantly behind the Clipper in development and has not secured funding. An actual sample return mission is currently far into the future of {{w|Ocean Worlds Exploration Program|the pertinent plans for exploration}}.

In {{w|Arthur C. Clarke}}'s novel ''{{w|2010: Odyssey Two}}'', the monolith aliens tell humanity ''"All these worlds are yours — except Europa. Attempt no landing there."'' Contrary to the suggestion of the comic, no landing or any other physical interaction beyond observation of the surface and analysis of the ejecta of Europa is planned.

In {{w|Greek mythology}}, {{w|Europa (consort of Zeus)|Europa}} was a {{w|Phoenician}} princess whom {{w|Zeus}}, the king of the gods, abducted after transforming himself into a bull. The name of the continent Europe may derive from this legend, though alternative theories suggest it originates from ancient Greek words meaning "wide-gazing" or "broad face." Additionally, there is an {{w|Oceanid}} named {{w|Europa (Greek myth)|Europa}}, one of the many daughters of the {{w|Titans}}, {{w|Oceanus}} and {{w|Tethys}}. The name Europa is also used in other mythological contexts. Jupiter's moon Europa was named after the Phoenician princess, following the tradition of naming Jovian moons after Zeus's lovers.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Food]]

687: Dimensional Analysis

2024-11-14T23:43:14Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 687
| date = January 11, 2010
| title = Dimensional Analysis
| image = dimensional_analysis.png
| titletext = Or the pressure at the Earth's core will rise slightly.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball has a [[:Category:My Hobby|hobby]]: showing correct calculations according to the {{w|dimensional analysis}}, but with ridiculous correlations of uncorrelated events and measurements. Here Cueball is giving a talk and uses this trick to ''convince'' his listeners that the {{w|Toyota Prius}} combined {{w|United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA}} gas mileage is somehow connected to the constant ''{{W|Pi|π}}'' via the {{w|Planck energy}}, the pressure at the {{w|Inner_core|Earth's core}} and the width of the {{w|English Channel}}.

Scientists — often physicists — use dimensional analysis to quickly check if a given formula can possibly relate to a physical system, because if you end up with an equation claiming that Joules are meters, something is clearly wrong. Dimensional analysis here refers to the check if both sides of the equation arrive at the same physical unit when the units of all variables get plugged into the equation. This requires knowledge of the system of units and the relation between different physical units. 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<math>\frac{\text{Planck energy}}{\text{Pressure at the core of the Earth}} \times \frac{\text{Prius combined EPA gas mileage}}{\text{Minimum width of the English Channel}} = \pi</math>

===Dimensional analysis===
The right hand side is dimensionless, it's the constant ''π'' = 3.14... which is defined by the relation of two lengths, the circumference and the diameter of a circle. The left hand side requires to plug in the dimensions of the named physical quantities:

*Planck energy: given in Joules [J]
*Pressure at the core of the Earth: often given in Pascals [Pa]
** In this case, the relationship is used of 1 Pascal [Pa] = 1 Joule per cubic meter [J/m³]
*Prius combined EPA gas mileage: miles per gallon, given in meters per cubic meter [m/m³]
**Fuel efficiency has two formats that are commonly used: length per volume and volume per length. The former must be used here in order to get the units to cancel correctly.
*Minimum width of the English Channel: given in meters [m]

When plugged into the left-hand side, this amounts to:

<math>\frac{\text{J}}{\frac{\text{J}}{\text{m}^3}} \times \frac{\frac{\text{m}}{\text{m}^3}}{\text{m}} = \text{m}^3 \times \frac{1}{\text{m}^3} = 1</math>

Note that for dimensional analysis constant factors are not taken into account. Here square brackets are used to denote dimensional analysis. In the above equation the unit of energy (joule) as well as all the unit of volume (cubic meter) cancel out each other.

Another aspect of the comic is that sometimes dimension analysis of equations that were not derived but rather "made up" can provide insight. However, in reality such an equation would have to be somehow "motivated", which is more of an art than science and requires great experience in the field the equation should relate to. The presented equation combines values that have no immediate causal relation with each other, so it does not make sense. Furthermore, since the values have absolutely no causal relation to each other, the ratios presented are simple coincidence; despite Cueball's claim, building a better Prius would not cause any changes to the English Channel.

The title text also refers to this, as a higher pressure at Earth's core could also balance the equation, keeping the result constant equal to ''π''. The Planck energy is an absolute, however, so it is not mentioned as a way to balance the next version of Prius.

===Some numbers for this calculation===
The {{w|Planck energy}} is the only nearly exact value we do have. Compared to other Planck values it is very large (macroscopic).
E_planck = 1.956 x 10<sup>9</sup> J

Pressure at the {{w|Inner_core#Temperature_and_pressure|core}} of the Earth ranges from 330 to 360 gigapascals.
Using a simple value like this:
P_core = 350 GPa = 3.5 x 10<sup>11</sup> J/m³

Prius combined {{w|Toyota_Prius#Fuel_economy_and_emissions|EPA gas mileage}}:
For the third generation (from 2010) the [https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26425 combined EPA gas mileage] is 50 miles per gallon.
50 mpg => 21,000,000 m/m³

Minimum width of the {{w|English Channel}} is about
33.1 km = 33,100 m

Calculating from these values you will get ''π'' = 3.54... that is pretty close to ''π'' = 3.14... while using a Planck value. According to Cueball this will be within the experimental error (the combined error for all four numbers - none are exact numbers). For instance if you tried the ePrius you would may get closer to pi — as the distance per fuel quantity in real life usage usually is somewhat lower than the standardized test value advertised — and that would reduce the result.

[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28Planck+Energy%29%2F%28Pressure+at+the+Earth%27s+core%29*%282010+Prius+combined+EPA+Gas+Mileage%29%2F%2833.1+km%29 Wolfram|Alpha can find most of the statistics and do the calculations.]

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Abusing dimensional analysis

:[On a blackboard.]
:(Planck energy/Pressure at the Earth's core) x (Prius combined EPA gas mileage/Minimum width of the English Channel) = π

:[Cueball indicates this equation with a pointer in front of a class.]
:Cueball: It's correct to within experimental error, and the units check out. It must be a fundamental law.
:Student: But what if they build a better Prius?
:Cueball: ''Then England will drift out to sea.''

{{comic discussion}}

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980: Money

2024-11-14T23:42:58Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 980
| date = November 21, 2011
| title = Money
| image = money.png
| titletext = There, I showed you it.
}}
{{TOC}}
* Clicking on the image on ''xkcd'' takes you to an [https://xkcd.com/980/huge/ interactive] and much larger image. On the interactive image there are two links: one takes you to the [https://xkcd.com/980/sources/ sources and downloads] page where a list of sources and the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money_huge.png full image] can be downloaded

==Explanation==
{{Quote| I had a huge amount of fun putting the money chart together. It was the first time in a long time that my life’s been stable enough that I’ve been able to really disappear into a project—I’d almost forgotten how enjoyable it can be.|[[Randall Munroe]]|[https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/11/24/money-chart/ Source]}}

This is a [[:Category:Charts|chart]] comic - a type of comic that [[Randall]] does from time to time. He has for instance done [[256: Online Communities|maps of the Internet]] ([[802: Online Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Communities 2|twice]]!) and other huge visualizations like this chart [[Radiation]] with a similar structure as this chart but with Radiation as the subject. The Radiation chart is most likely the inspiration for this much more comprehensive Money chart.

In this money chart there are five boxes with items on different scales of monetary value denoting prices and values of many things, big and small (with the values contemporary to the comic's release in 2011; most are now more expensive due to inflation). Each scale of dollar increments are different colors. One dollar increments are green - naturally, because American paper money is green. Thousands are orange/red. Millions are gray. Billions are yellow. Trillions are blue. This comic uses {{w|Long and short scales|the short scale}} for naming large numbers (so a billion = 1000 millions = 10<sup>9</sup> rather than a million millions = 10<sup>12</sup> as in continental Europe).

Included in one frame is a small man with a red and white striped shirt, blue pants, a cane and a knit cap. He is known as Wally or Waldo (in the US) from the {{w|Where's Wally?|''Where's Waldo?'' books}}. To not give anything away for those who wish to search for him themselves there will be no spoiler here. But if someone needs a little help... Then by clicking this [[980: Money/Transcript#Billions|link]] you will be directed to the relevant section amongst the five sections where Waldo can be found. (The link will take you to that section of the full transcript page). If you still cannot find him (or give up in advance) then just search the transcript page for Wally or Waldo. There is a [[Header text#Money|unique header text]] for this comic.

The title text is a reference to the phrase "Show me the money!" which originates from the film ''{{w|Jerry Maguire}}''.

===Extra Money pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated, extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page. These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:
* [[980: Money/Transcript]] - The full transcript of the entire comic can be found here. It is linked from the [[#Transcript|Transcript]] section.
* [[980: Money/Prices in tables]] is a complete list of every item in the comic.

===Tables with explanations===
====Dollars====
{| class="wikitable"
|+Dollars
|-
|Top-left
|The price of various common bills and commodities. The One Dollar Menu is a type of menu at various fast food restaurants. The one dollar bill and ten dollar bill are likely used for reference points. A Starbucks coffee actually ranges in price from $1.95 to $2.15 depending on the location.
|-
|Middle-left
|Pet Ownership. The {{w|ASPCA}} is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The most expensive animal on this list may seem surprising; rabbits cost an average of 35 dollars more than dogs and 70 dollars more than cats.
|-
|Bottom-right
|Four boxes indicate that the CEO pay has skyrocketed from $490.31 (hourly) to $5,419.97 (hourly) in the same time period in which the average worker's salary has grown 10 cents.
|}

====Thousands====
{| class="wikitable"
|+Thousands
|-
|Top-right
|Hogwarts degree: a reference to {{w|Hogwarts|Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy}} from the popular book series by {{w|J. K. Rowling|J. K. Rowling}} about {{w|Harry Potter}}.
One box is the estimated yearly tuition for the school and the next is how much seven years at the school would cost. To get a degree at the school, it takes 7 years (starting at age 11, ending at age 18).
|-
|Bottom
|A reference to the song by {{w|Barenaked Ladies}} entitled "{{w|If I Had $1000000}}" and all the things referenced in the song to buy the love of another person.
|-
|Middle-Right
|A few items on the marriage of {{w|Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton|Kate Middleton and Prince William}}, the major royal wedding of 2011, including:
*a {{w|Wedding dress of Kate Middleton|wedding dress with its own Wikipedia page}} of 3 times the annual per capita income of the average UK person,
*an 8-tier [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381944/Royal-Wedding-cake-Kate-Middleton-requested-8-tiers-decorated-900-flowers.html wedding cake],
*and the flowers for the wedding. These re-appear in the Millions section of the graph, where they also list the costs for the security around the event ($20 million).
|}

====Millions====
{| class="wikitable"
|+Millions
|-
|Left
|Dr. Evil's ransom demands from the film "Austin Powers" corrected for inflation between 1969 and 1997.
|-
|Middle-right
|Another reference to J. K. Rowling, comparing her (actual $1 billion) net worth as an author with her (imagined $82,000) net worth as a rapper.
The magnified 82 orange/red ($1,000) boxes are footnoted "Professional assessment by rapper/geek culture expert MC Frontalot." {{w|MC Front-A-Lot}} is the creator of the subgenre of {{w|hip-hop}} known as {{w|Nerd Core}}.
|-
|Middle
|An {{w|Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor|F-22 Raptor fighter jet}} (valued at $154.5M) is compared to a Velociraptor ($1.9M in production costs for the film Jurassic Park)
|}

====Billions====
{| class="wikitable"
|+Billions
|-
|Top-Left ((Fictional)Billionaires section)
|{{w|Carlisle Cullen}} is from the {{w|Twilight (series)|''Twilight'' series}} of books and movies. He is a vampire and adoptive father of {{w|Edward Cullen|Edward}}, {{w|Emmett Cullen|Emmett}} and {{w|Alice Cullen (Twilight)|Alice Cullen}}, as well as {{w|Rosalie Hale|Rosalie}} and {{w|Jasper Hale}}. He was born in the 1640s and amassed his wealth through many years of compound interest and investments.
|{{w|Scrooge McDuck}} is a cartoon character from many {{w|Disney}} properties including the afternoon cartoon, ''{{w|Duck Tales}}''. Scrooge McDuck has a "money bin" full of coins and other sorts of collectibles that he routinely [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMU2NwaaXEA goes swimming in].
|{{w|Bruce Wayne}} is {{w|Batman}}. {{w|Batman}} is {{w|Bruce Wayne}}. He is portrayed in many comic books, graphic novels, TV shows and movies by many different actors.
|{{w|Artemis Fowl II|Artemis Fowl}} is an Irish child prodigy and a ruthless master criminal from the {{w|Artemis Fowl (series)|eponymous book series}}. He uses his intelligence to build his family fortune through crime.
|}

====Trillions====
{| class="wikitable"
|+Trillions
|-
|As Randall already indicated in the transcript, this is the block for world, continent and nation finances. The numbers are really huge. There are no jokes in here (apart from the fact that Randall tried to make the shapes of the GDP look like the continent), likely because financial values this large aren't funny to start with.
|-
|GDP is {{w|gross domestic product}}, the market value of all goods and services produced in a nation.
*The major chart in the center shows the development of the GDP in the world since the 1940s. So far the US GDP has always grown, except for a small reduction in the early 1980s, a flat line around the 1991 global recession and a flat line in the second half of the naughts. The world-wide GDP is growing more rapidly, but is also much more volatile.
|-
|In the middle of the box, it shows the worth of all gold ever mined in 2011 prices. This is important because of the concept of the {{w|gold standard}}, a concept where monetary values are linked to the value of gold. As indicated in the top-right of the box, both the EU and the USA have more debt than the total value of all gold in the world.
|-
|{{w|Derivative (finance)|Derivatives}} are a complex financial instrument where one is not trading in something tangible, but in derived values - like options. Derivatives thus are dangerous as one trades in concepts instead of values. Critics claim that derivatives are at the base of the 'economic bubble'.
*The growth of the derivatives market size is incredible - more than doubling every four years. The derivatives market thus is much larger than the GDP of the entire world.
*We get a reference to [http://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127 a proposed project to power the world] by erecting massive solar farms out in the deserts. The area of Texas alone would be enough to match almost all of our modern power costs (though the people who live in Texas wouldn't enjoy being displaced).
|}

==Transcript==
:[This transcript is only reproducing text visible on the [https://www.xkcd.com/980/ front page comic].]
:[Title panel at the top left has one large heading, and then it is possible to read the first and third out of five lines (but not for instance the second line which is just the word "almost"):]
:'''Money'''<br>
:A chart of<br>
:all of it<br>
:[Below this there are 5 large panels, each with a series of plots, comparing the values of various things. The only clearly visible text is the title of each panel written in white on black background at the top of each panel]<br>
:[The first section covers single coffees up to the hourly salaries of CEOs. It is located below the title panel and there are a lot of green groups marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Dollars'''
:[The next section discusses values from around $1000 to $1,000,000, including a dissection of the song If I had $1000000. It is located directly below the Dollars section and has mainly orange groups (but also some green) marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Thousands'''
:[The third section focuses on $1,000,000 to $1,000,000,000, with a large section on campaign contributions of American political presidential campaigns, values of expensive works of art, and J. K. Rowling. It is located to the right of the Thousands section below the Billions section and there are a lot of gray groups (but also some orange) marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Millions'''
:[The fourth section gets into larger scale finances, profits of various sectors, costs of natural disasters, and net worths of the richest people on the planet. Also, Donald Trump. It is located to the right of the Dollars section and above both the Millions and Trillions section and has mainly yellow groups (but also some gray and red) all marked by unreadable text. There are, however, a few large headings that can be read:]
:'''Billions'''
:Education
:The Economic (...?)
:US household income
:Federal budget
:[In the last panel global financial status is described. It discusses derivatives, liquid assets, public debt by nation and GDP by continent, culminating with the total economic production of the human race to date. It is located below the Billions section to the right of the Millions section and has mainly cyan groups (but also one yellow) all marked by unreadable text.]
:'''Trillions'''
:['''For the full transcript of the [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money_huge.png huge image] see [[980: Money/Transcript]].''']

==Trivia==
* ''xkcd'' usually posts at around midnight Eastern time the day of the comic, but this comic was posted at about noon. The reason is that it was difficult to get it all finished in time, as was explained in the [[Blag]] post titled [https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/11/24/money-chart/ Money chart] released three days later. This post also states that this was the first big project he undertook after his [https://blog.xkcd.com/2011/06/30/family-illness/ fiancée was diagnosed] with breast [[:Category:Cancer|cancer]].
* This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20211215032232/https://store.xkcd.com/products/money-poster available as a poster] in the ''xkcd'' store before it was [[Store|shut down]].
* Randall misspelled "communication" as "communcation" in the section on campaign donations.
* This is the first ''xkcd'' comic featuring [[Donald Trump]].

{{comic discussion}}

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465: Quantum Teleportation

2024-11-14T23:42:48Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 465
| date = August 20, 2008
| title = Quantum Teleportation
| image = quantum teleportation.png
| titletext = Science should be exactly as cool as the headlines sound. Like the "RUSSIANS CUT APART AND REASSEMBLE DOGS" thing
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Quantum teleportation}} is a method of effectively taking a quantum state that exists in one laboratory and destroying it in the current laboratory and later recreating exactly the same — still unmeasured — quantum state in another laboratory that could potentially be very far away.

Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist

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This is achieved by first creating an entangled quantum state in a laboratory and moving one part of the entangled quantum state to a faraway laboratory. Now let's say a scientist desires to teleport the quantum state |ψ⟩ to a faraway lab. The scientists does a specific measurement on the combination of |ψ⟩ and their half of the entangled quantum state, and the outcome of their measurement will be two bits of classical information. They can then telephone over the results of their two bits of information to tell scientists at the faraway lab how to do a measurement on their half of the entangled quantum state, which will recreate the quantum state |ψ⟩ at the faraway lab, effectively teleporting it. This is an important result in quantum mechanics, especially in regards to quantum computing.

The name is misleading in that it does not create an efficient means of transportation via teleportation — something like the {{w|Transporter (Star Trek)|teleporters}} from ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' i.e. a ''conventional teleporter'' — where macroscopic objects like humans (composed of [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=number+of+atoms+in+a+human&lk=4&num=3 7 × 10<sup>27</sup> atoms]) could be teleported to an arbitrary place.

The comic jokes with the fact that news reporters wish to get a story about Star Trek teleporters, and the scientist is angry that there is no interest in his quantum version — the reporters are even disappointed when they write their story. The last panel appears to indicate that this scientist not only has a quantum teleporter, he also has a "regular" teleporter of the type the reporter is asking about, which would be a gigantic news item, as it is one of the biggest challenges of this century (and possibly future ones as well) to build one. He uses the conventional teleporter to escape to The Bahamas.

The whole method of quantum teleportation is predicated on being able to first create entangled quantum states and then transport, by conventional means, one-half of the entangled state. Only after this step could you then destroy the shared entangled quantum state, to "teleport" a different quantum state to the new location.

Quantum teleportation is deeply related to {{w|Bell's theorem}} where it's shown that quantum mechanics is incompatible with the idea of local hidden variables and that has been experimentally demonstrated (though a few very small loopholes still have not been conclusively ruled out). Explaining "it's a particle statistics thing" is a great explanation of the related Bell's theorem experiments, which demonstrate quantum entanglement, which is at the root of quantum teleportation. In these experiments, physicists take an entangled quantum state, move it apart, and then randomly decide which direction to measure each side of the quantum states. Through a statistical analysis of the results, you can demonstrate and measure each entangled particle in a randomly chosen direction. The statistical correlations between the particles are consistent with quantum mechanics and inconsistent with any local hidden variable theory; however, this instantaneous wave-function collapse does not break special relativity as wave-function collapse {{w|No-communication theorem|does not allow communication of any information}}. Instead, you can just analyze the correlations after the fact and compare the hypothesis of local hidden variables to the inconsistent hypothesis predicted by quantum mechanics and verify the quantum mechanical prediction.

In the comic, Cueball explains to the reporter that quantum teleportation isn't what reporters build it up to be, before Cueball successfully teleports by switching his teleportation machine from quantum teleportation to regular teleportation.

The title text refers to the controversial 1940s Soviet {{w|Experiments in the Revival of Organisms}} video that depicts a dog's head being cut off and revived. The film is controversial in that the footage is often perceived as being staged, though the {{w|Sergei S. Bryukhonenko|Soviet scientist}} depicted in the video was attempting these sorts of experiments, and this research eventually led to the first Soviet open heart operation in 1957 — another instance of crazy headlines that may not be as interesting to the public when first explained, but may be an important step on the way to some type of practical use. Cutting apart and reassembling dogs could also be a metaphor for quantum teleportation if it were used to transfer dogs' states from a group of particles in one location to a group of particles in another location, which could be described as taking apart dogs and resembling them in a different location, although the word cut would be inaccurate. If this is the case, then Randall is arguing that this particular piece of science is as cool as it seems (because the objects are disassembled then resembled into someone else, as opposed to simply being moved); the reporters are merely disappointed because they were expecting something else.

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball-like reporter and Cueball are facing each other, sitting in chairs.]
:Reporter: So, Quantum Teleportation-
:Cueball: The name is misleading. It's a particle statistics thing.

:[Zoom in on the reporter.]
:Reporter: So it's not like Star Trek? That's boring.

:[Zoom out again to both. Cueball leaves his seat and moves behind it.]
:Cueball: Okay, I'm sick of this. Every time there's a paper on quantum teleportation, you reporters write the same disappointed story.

:[Cueball has gone to a device that was behind him and was out of the scope of the three previous panels. He turns a knob that makes a sound in a zigzag sound buble.]
:Reporter (Off panel): But-
:Cueball: Talk to someone else. I'm going to the Bahamas.
:Knob: ''Click''

:[Inserted panel with a zoom in on the device that is labeled, and the knob is now turned to the right position. Both possible positions are labeled.]
:Label: Teleporter
:Left: Quantum
:Right: Regular

:[Cueball is beamed up in classic Star Trek fashion.]
:''Vrmmm''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]

1683: Digital Data

2024-11-14T23:42:28Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 1683
| date = May 20, 2016
| title = Digital Data
| image = digital_data.png
| titletext = â€&oelig;If you can read this, congratulationsâ€”the archive youâ€™re using still knows about the mouseover textâ€!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Digital information}} has the potential to be copied such that the copy is 100% identical to the original. While physical media themselves (such as books, or hard drives) and information stored by analog means may degrade as the universe continues, digital information as expressed by specific values, such as combinations of binary zeros and ones, does not decay over time and can be copied indefinitely with no changes.

However, in this comic, [[Randall]] points out that while digital information itself doesn't need to degrade, things that are on the Internet are often degraded through copying when the copy is not a 1:1 copy or changes are deliberately introduced. In addition, as technology advances, the method to save or call the information changes and the medium to view it changes, occasionally causing misinterpreted information. 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it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist the mouseover text.) As the frames continue, they gain the appearance of images which have been screenshotted repeatedly, with a resulting loss of quality due to compression of the original resolution and {{w|JPEG}} {{w|compression artifact|artifacting}}. (The JPEG format is intended for representing photorealistic grayscale or color images; when misused for line drawings, such as comic strips, any compression artifacts become particularly noticeable, as the background is normally of completely uniform color.) In the last frame, this is taken to an extreme, as the frame appears to have been very sloppily screenshotted off of at least two different smartphones (not the same device that uses the bottom frame in the third panel as the top border in panel four), and the final image is covered both with a watermark from an unregistered screenshot program, as well as references to at least two different web sites: {{w|9GAG}} (bottom right image) and {{w|Tumblr}} in the web address bottom left. 9GAG is an online platform and social media website where users upload and share content of their own, or of other networks. It is often accused of rehosting other sites' funny content without attribution and adding their own watermark to the image or video. Furthermore, the image ends up cropped, so that part of White Hat's last comment is left outside the frame.


As an easter egg, the [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/digital_data_2x.png high-resolution] (pixel-doubled) version of the comic is merely the comic resized to 50% and then to 400%, making it an image of poorer quality rather than a higher resolution image as for other comics, demonstrating how repeated {{w|image scaling}} can also introduce artifacts into images.

The mouseover text is seemingly addressed to a reader in the future who will only be able to access xkcd through a {{w|digital archive}}. Digital information might not degrade with time, but it can't be properly displayed without knowledge of the encoding. As new encodings and file formats get developed and old ones abandoned, the webpage format of the comic might not be available in the future, when users would need special archives to view content from today's world. The mouseover text contains seemingly {{w|mojibake|garbage characters}}, which typically result from data being interpreted according to a {{w|character encoding}} different from the one used to encode it. In this case, the characters are the result of encoding the string [https://ftfy.vercel.app/?s=%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%C5%93If+you+can+read+this%2C+congratulations%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%80%9Dthe+archive+you%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2re+using+still+knows+about+the+mouseover+text%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%C2%9D%21 <tt>“If you can read this, congratulations—the archive you’re using still knows about the mouseover text”!</tt>] using {{w|UTF-8}} (which represents non-{{w|ASCII}} {{w|Unicode}} characters as multibyte sequences) and then interpreting the resulting bytes as the still commonly used {{w|Windows-1252}} encoding (which uses only one byte per character, but utilizes the non-ASCII codepoints for a limited selection of extra letters and symbols such as "â" or "€"). This shows that degradation of digital data through conversions isn't restricted to images. Furthermore, as screen navigation moves away from the mouse toward touch, voice recognition, and modes still to be implemented, mouseover text will itself become archaic. The garbage characters appeared later in the title text in [[3003]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a White Hat are walking, Cueball holds both hands in front of him palms up.]
:Cueball: The great thing about digital data is that it never degrades.

:[They walk on in the next panel which shows jpeg compression artifacts, as if the image had been converted from png format to a lossy jpeg format.]
:Cueball: Hard drives fail, of course, but their bits can be copied forever without loss.

:[They continue walking in the third panel which is now clearly pixelated, the white is slightly discolored, and it contains part of the interface of some program, probably supposed to be a screen shot from a smartphone. At the bottom there are three blue buttons and one gray. the first is a blue "<" indicating back in a browser. Then a grayed out ">" that is not active. And then three more standard buttons in blue to the right of those two. The interface matches that of an iPhone running Safari in iOS 9 (or other versions with the same Safari UI (probably iOS 7-9))]
:Cueball: Film degrades, paint cracks, but a copy of a century-old data file is identical to the original.

:[Still walking, now Cueball holds out both arms to the sides, and finally White Hat replies. This panel is heavily pixelated and discolored and has a distorted aspect ratio. It contains a clear watermark of 9GAG (although difficult to read all letters in the end of the first word), even more 'frame' elements, and text above the image at the bottom (where the last letter is obscured by the frame of the image). There is also an internet address at the bottom left, but it is not readable except for the .tumblr.com ending. In this panel it is clear that it is a screen shot from a smart phone. The frame around the image obscure the very top of Cueball's text and the half of the last letter in White Hat's reply.]
:Cueball: If humanity has a permanent record, we are the first generation in it.
:White Hat: Amazing

:Watermark: Screenshotpro 2
:Watermark: ~Unregistered~

:Top border: Verizon LTE '''4:45 PM'''
:Bottom text [slightly cut off]: 9GAG
:Internet address at the bottom [nearly unintelligible]: [drama].tumblr.com

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]

478: The Staple Madness

2024-11-14T23:42:21Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 478
| date = September 19, 2008
| title = The Staple Madness
| image = the_staple_madness.png
| titletext = Staple guns: because duct tape can't make that 'kaCHUNK' noise.
}}

==Explanation==
Optimistic [[Beret Guy]] can never take life seriously. He loves to play with everything, and nothing is more exciting than {{w|Staple gun|a tool}} that sticks things together with an impressive ''kaCHUNK'' sound when he pulls the trigger, even on things that (definitely) shouldn't be stapled.

Installing {{w|Debian}} is a pun on the installation of software, and the installation of real life things by attaching them to things.

This comic may reference an engineering truism describing a similar scenario: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." The truism's actual meaning refers to the scenario where when a novice has only learned to use one tool (such as one programming language), they may attempt to solve all problems using only that tool, which may end badly. This saying is referred to explicitly in [[801: Golden Hammer]]. Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist

From just reading the comic by itself, one may presume that in the last panel, [[Cueball]] has been stapled to the ceiling (as obvious evidence to [[Megan]] that Beret Guy has indeed been abusing her staple gun). According to the comic's [http://xkcd.com/478/info.0.json official transcript], however, it is in fact God who is speaking. Due to Beret Guy's [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]], it is rather likely that God has been stapled as well -- perhaps to the ceiling.

{{w|Duct tape}}, thanks to its combination of tensile and adhesive strength, is commonly regarded as the ultimate do-it-yourself repair tool. Like a staple gun, it can also be used to stick things together. Although it does make a nice sound when pulling a strip out quickly, it does not make a loud ''kaCHUNK'' sound upon fixing two objects together.

In [[291: Dignified]], Beret Guy hangs upside down and says (in the title text) that he has stapled his hat to his head to make it stay on. That may very well have been the inspiration for this comic.

This was the fourth time the [[Megan#Name|name Megan]] was used in xkcd, the first time being in [[159: Boombox]].

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Cueball standing.]
:Beret Guy: [holding up a staple gun] I found Megan's staple gun!
:Cueball: [facepalming] Oh no.

:[Beret Guy kneeling over a laptop on the floor.]
:Cueball: [from outside panel] Oh God, what are you--
:Beret Guy: [stapling a DVD to the laptop] Installing Debian! ''kaCHUNK''

:[Beret Guy standing over a table.]
:Beret Guy: [stapling a sandwich together] Sandwiches! ''kaCHUNK kaCHUNK''

:[Beret Guy running with the staple gun.]
:Beret Guy: Must affix everything to everything!

:[Unframed panel.]
:''kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK kaCHUNK''

:[Megan enters, holding a tote bag.]
:Megan: ...Have you been abusing my staple gun?
:Beret Guy: No.

:God: [as voice from above] YES!

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

251: CD Tray Fight

2024-11-14T23:42:15Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 251
| date = April 20, 2007
| title = CD Tray Fight
| image = cd_tray_fight.png
| titletext = This is silly, of course. The enemy will be born in the network.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the behavior of a {{w|Optical disc drive#Loading mechanisms|tray loading optical disc drive}} of a desktop computer. When the tray is opened and the user is reaching for the disc, a process or task on the computer can, at that exact inopportune time, request that the disc drive close its tray. Alternatively, accidentally bumping the open tray may engage the auto-close feature, resulting in the same scenario.

This results in a sort of "tug of war" between the user who is trying to remove the disc and the CD drive trying to retract, and it is this tug of war that worries Cueball (or, more likely, Randall) that the "Robot War" is impending. The title text, however, points out that this fear is irrational, not because we'll always be Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong 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A {{tvtropes|RobotWar|Robot War}} is a recurring theme in science fiction where humans develop robots that become self-aware and start a war against humanity. A well-known example of this theme is found in the {{w|Terminator franchise}} where, as the title text suggests, a military computer network ({{w|Skynet (Terminator)|Skynet}}) becomes self-aware and starts a world war to kill all humans. This event is also parodied in [[1046: Skynet]], but with Skynet failing due to {{w|semantic satiation}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing, holding a CD tray that is half-in his computer. There are other CDs on the floor.]
:Cueball: Hey. Hey! Stop retracting my CD!
:I feel uncomfortable when my computer physically struggles with me. Sure, I can overpower it <u>now</u>, but it feels like a few short steps from here to the robot war.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Terminator]]

160: Penny Arcade Parody

2024-11-14T23:42:09Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 160
| date = September 20, 2006
| title = Penny Arcade Parody
| image = penny arcade parody.png
| titletext = No one show this to Tycho's wife, okay?
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Penny Arcade}}'' is a {{w|webcomic}}, primarily about video games and the culture surrounding them. It is written by {{w|Jerry Holkins}} and illustrated by {{w|Mike Krahulik}}, though they are better known as their comic alter-egos: Tycho Brahe and Jonathan "Gabe" Gabriel.

This strip begins as a parody of the ''Penny Arcade'' strip, which makes fun of Sony for providing a lack-luster selection of PS3 games available on the console's launch date. However, it quickly Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all 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wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist turns into the narrator's fantasy of what might happen if Tycho discovered his spoof.

The enormous wall of text in the second and third panels may be a reference to the Penny Arcade strip [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/ "I Hope You Like Text."]

The cardboard tube references one of Gabe's alternate characters, Cardboard Tube Samurai.

==Transcript==
:[The first panel uses the art style of Penny Arcade.]
:Gabe: What? Sony has plenty of launch titles lined up that aren't lame sequels.
:Tycho: Name one. And furthermore, they... I... uh...

:[The art style is dropped. The next two panels are just text.]
:I can't do this. I can't parody Penny Arcade. I've got nothing on those guys. They're a class act, they know their audience, they know exactly what they're doing. Gabe experiments with his art, always bold and fresh without trying to perform. Tycho's writing continues to astound day after day. I can just see him, reading my uncultured swill masquerading as his florid prose.

:[The panel is bottomless, and the text escapes the panel.]
:But he's not angry, no. He's sitting at his desk smiling that condescending half-smile, the corner of his mouth belying the self-assurance of a writer who never misplaces a word. His firm hands rest easily on the keyboard, his right thumb caressing the space bar gently, as I enter the room. He knows I'm there without turning around, and I'm too nervous to speak. But I don't have to; he understands, I can see it in the way his eyes play over me, reading my fears and doubts in a glance and washing them away with a knowing smile. Then he's on his feet, he's in front of me, and I don't feel the electric jolt I expected as our hands meet. It's just warm, warm and right: As I sink into his eyes I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I see Tycho smile at someone behind me. Gabe is standing there, grinning that mischievous grin, and twirling his beloved cardboard tube between his fingers.

:The night has just begun.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Video games]]

275: Thoughts

2024-11-14T23:42:03Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 275
| date = June 11, 2007
| title = Thoughts
| image = thoughts.png
| titletext = And now I might never get to again.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic relates to the situation of getting introduced to the parents of one's girlfriend, which is often felt to be rather awkward. The parents tend to scrutinize and question the aspirant in order to find out if he is a good catch. A particularly delicate issue is the fact that the suitor may have had sexual intercourse with their daughter. This topic is almost never openly addressed, but can sometimes be felt in the subtext of the conversation. This makes the scenario somewhat susceptible to a so-called {{w|Freudian slip}}. The term describes a common psychological phenomenon where a subconscious thought bursts through and induces, for example, a slip of the tongue.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] tries to repress any thoughts of sexual nature while talking to her parents [[Blondie]] and [[Blondie]]'s Cueball-like man. He promptly utters the sentence "I have licked your daughter's nipples." and thus involuntarily addresses the topic he tried to avoid. Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist 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The title text suggests that either the parents do not want their daughter to meet him again, or that the girlfriend interdicts his licking her nipples again because of the embarrassing scene.

From ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]'':
{{quote|If I thought it was awkward ''before'' I made a comic about it...}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talking with his girlfriend's parents represented by Blondie, holding a hand up in greeting and a larger version of Cueball. Above them there is a caption:]
:When meeting a girlfriend's family, I have to suppress the weirdest thoughts.
:Cueball: Hi!
:Blondie: Hi! It's so nice to finally meet you!
:Cueball: I have licked your daughter's nipples.

{{comic discussion}}

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

100: Family Circus

2024-11-14T23:41:48Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 100
| date = May 10, 2006
| title = Family Circus
| image = family circus.jpg
| titletext = This was my friend David's idea
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|The Family Circus}}'' is a comic characterized by single-panel round comics with a caption below the comic. Jeffy is a character in ''Family Circus'', and dotted lines representing his wanderings are a frequent theme of ''Family Circus'' comics. {{w|Obsessive-compulsive disorder}} (OCD) is a mental illness that compels the sufferer to perform repetitive actions. Common symptoms include, but are not restricted to, excessive hand washing and repeated opening and closing of a door.

The comic depicts the character Jeffy as having Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and traces his movements over a period of time. The dotted line that depicts his movements returns frequently to the kitchen Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist Ygs have it all wrong RandallIsAZionist sink, presumably either to repeatedly wash his hands or to make sure that the faucet was turned off.

In the title text, [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] attributes this idea to the unknown friend [[David]]. He did the same in [[42: Geico]] and [[51: Malaria]].

==Transcript==
:[Picture shows a pathway winding through trees to a sink inside a house, out to some swings and back to the sink, out to a ball and back to the sink, then on into the house. The direction of travel isn't indicated.]
:Jeffy's ongoing struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring David]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

1559: Driving

2024-11-14T23:41:42Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 1559
| date = August 3, 2015
| title = Driving
| image = driving.png
| titletext = Sadly, it probably won't even have enough gas to make it to the first border crossing.}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|self-driving car}} is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when [[Black Hat]] places a rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to {{w|Anchorage}}, {{w|Alaska}}, which is presumably quite far from where Black Hat and [[Cueball]] are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is yet another evil prank from xkcd's resident [[classhole]].

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the [[2394: Contiguous 41 States|contiguous lower 41 states]] requires two border crossings, once into {{w|Canada}} from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. The title text expresses regret about this probable failure; perhaps Randall was looking forward to the encounter between the border guards and the vehicle's "occupant." However, even if the car does not get to Anchorage, Black Hat will have created a serious problem for its owner who will have to report the car as stolen.

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Shortly after this comic appeared, Tesla released footage of a robotic charger that can [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33794085 connect itself to a Tesla automatically.] If this kind of technology becomes common then a self-driving electric car might be able to make a transcontinental journey without human intervention.

At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where self-driving cars were for sale to individuals. However, several corporate-owned test cars are frequently seen on public roads (such as those operated by Google among others). {{w|Google_driverless_car|Nevada, Florida, California and Michigan}} were the first states to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads, and this legality is quickly spreading to many other states, as well as several countries in Europe. Alternatively, Randall might be setting this comic in an idyllic near future, wherein you could drive all over the country (and Canada) with these cars!

It could have been [[Beret Guy|Beret Guy's]] car - see [[1493: Meeting]]. Self-driving cars are a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, carrying a rock, is walking toward Cueball, leaving a trail of sand.]
:Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?
:Cueball: What?
:Cueball: Uh, probably.

:[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]
:Black Hat: Great!

:[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left in. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.]
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Thump*
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Please fasten your seatbelt.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>click*
:Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska.
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Navigating.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>slam*

:[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball.]
:Car driving off: ''Vrrrrrrrrrrrr<small>rrrr<small>rrrrr<small>rr</small></small></small>''
:Black Hat: I love self-driving cars.
:Cueball: ...Whose car ''was'' that?
:Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Sabotage]]

2261: Worst Thing That Could Happen

2024-11-14T23:41:33Z

RandallIsAZionist:

{{comic
| number = 2261
| date = January 29, 2020
| title = Worst Thing That Could Happen
| image = worst_thing_that_could_happen.png
| titletext = Before I install any patch, I always open the patch notes and Ctrl-F for 'supervolcano', 'seagull', and 'garbage disposal', just to be safe.
}}

==Explanation==
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[[Ponytail]] and her friends are considering upgrading some part or program of their computers. They may feel the need to upgrade because the software they are currently using has some vulnerability that is only patched in newer revisions (this comic was released just two weeks after the [https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/windows-7-end-of-life-support-information end of extended support] for {{w|Windows 7}}), or because they want to have access to some new feature. As part of the decision-making process, Ponytail asks her friends, "What's the worst that could happen?" If the computers they are discussing are privately owned, she may be concerned about losing personal data or having to learn new software interfaces. On the other hand, if they are discussing a corporate computer system, there may also be business-related risks. If their company relies on functionality offered by their current system that has been deprecated or modified in the updated version (such as in [[1172: Workflow]], or as with many specialized tools or machines in the real world), they may suffer downtime while they modify the rest of their workflow. Even if the upgraded system should continue to fit their needs, they may need to take some downtime to perform the update and deal with the risks of something going badly along the way, and there may be major costs associated with license subscriptions and support contracts. "What's the worst that could happen?" is also a common {{w|rhetorical question}}; Ponytail may be expressing a belief that nothing bad could happen as a result of the upgrade, and not expecting an answer.

Unfortunately, Ponytail's friends answer with their ideas for the worst things that could happen ''ever'', not ''as a result of the upgrade'', as Ponytail meant, or they are taking the question to the logical extreme and invoking {{w|chaos theory}}. The result is a list of "worst things" ridiculously unconnected to a computer upgrade. At the end, however, [[Megan]] interprets these as possible results of the upgrade, and advises against upgrading. A [[#List of worst things|list with explanations]] can be found below. Ponytail facepalms at her friends' overly-literal senses of humor.

Alternatively, Ponytail could be facepalming at the fact that the worst thing which could happen, according to her team, is that they are put on a ridiculous game show in which, if they answer a question incorrectly, they are chucked in garbage disposal. This may be bad, but it is nowhere near as bad as an erupting supervolcano or nuclear war.{{Citation needed}} However, [[Cueball]] has shown anxiety and difficulties in social situations, such as the less-than-helpful advice in [[1917: How to Make Friends]], so he (and likewise [[Hairy]] and Megan) may consider that embarrassment on the game show (which might then be immortalized online) is worse than instantaneous death in a nuclear war.

Megan and Cueball have previously experienced a severely-botched upgrade in [[349: Success]], in which Cueball somehow caused them to end up in shark-infested waters off the coast of a deserted island when he was just trying to get their computer to dual-boot BSD.

The title text talks about searching upgrade release notes for some of the things listed to be sure none are potential side effects of an upgrade. "Ctrl-F" is a common keyboard shortcut for "find text string" in many programs. Since Randall is just reading but not changing the patch notes, a web browser, PDF viewer, or word processing program such as Adobe Reader or Microsoft Word might have been used.

===List of worst things===
*The list of "worst things that could happen" discussed by the team are:

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
|'''Thing''' || '''Notes'''
|-
|"{{w|Supervolcano}}." || A supervolcano is a volcano that would (or does) eject over 1,000 cubic kilometers of material when it erupts. The United States in particular is home to a supervolcano in {{w|Yellowstone National Park}}. When it erupts, the results will be catastrophic to the entire world, possibly triggering a volcanic winter, massive crop die-offs (and subsequent cascading extinctions up the food chain), and the destruction of human civilization. This probably would not be set off by any sort of software update.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|"{{w|Robot uprising}}." || An artificial intelligence overthrows humanity and takes over the world. Hairy is probably concerned with a violent uprising in which the robots are determined to exterminate humanity, as in, for example, the {{w|Terminator (franchise)|''Terminator''}} films, rather than [[1450: AI-Box Experiment|an AI who just wants to stay in a box]]. Randall has written about robot uprisings (both violent and humorous) in [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|several comic strips]]. If Ponytail's company is involved in artificial intelligence, a robot uprising could be a remotely plausible worst-case scenario from a botched upgrade.
|-
|"Everyone falls down a {{w|well}} at once." || There have been several well-publicized incidents in which a real person fell down a well, such as [https://www.biography.com/personality/baby-jessica Baby Jessica] and {{w|Category:Cases of people who fell into a well|these people}}. If ''everyone'' fell down a well at once, there would be nobody to get them out, which would be a pretty bad thing. It's unclear how this upgrade could cause this outcome, making this suggestion preposterous.
|-
|"Instead of hitting the tallest thing around, lightning starts hitting the nicest." || {{w|Lightning}} generally strikes the tallest object under a thunderstorm, a topic addressed in {{what if|16|''What-if #16: Lightning''}}. {{w|Lightning rods}} are built to take advantage of this effect to protect nearby important objects from the lightning. If lightning started hitting the ''nicest'' thing around, then it would presumably strike whatever it was that the lightning rods are meant to protect (nice buildings, nice people, [https://history.nasa.gov/SP-350/ch-7-3.html nice rockets]). If the computer that's being upgraded is connected to the [[1620: Christmas Settings|Universe Control Panel]], this change could be a plausible negative consequence of the update.
|-
|"{{w|Seagulls}} all get {{w|handguns}}." || Guns in the hands of humans account for the large majority of homicides and suicides in the USA. Letting handguns be wielded by seagulls, which lack the impulse control and cognitive thinking required to make the ownership of a handgun somewhat safe, would make this much worse. Seagulls are not particularly known for their intelligence, self control, or kindness toward others. At popular beaches, seagulls are known to aggressively harass humans for their food; if they wielded handguns, a great deal of violence would ensue. Even if mayhem and death were not due to intentional use (i.e., if the seagulls were capable of learning that use of a handgun would get them food or something else they might like), they would happen from accidental use.
|-
|"A really '''''slow''''' nuclear war." || No {{w|nuclear war}} involving two sides launching nuclear weapons at each other has ever been fought, but experts generally agree that an all-out nuclear war between superpowers would end very quickly and very badly for all parties involved (as well as all parties not involved). A "slow" nuclear war might play out as a series of tit-for-tat individual launches rather than a single apocalyptic exchange, but the destruction of cities and release of fallout would be the same. Perhaps the anticipation of when exactly it's "your turn" to be a target would make the slow war a worse experience.

Much of the computer networking technology used today has its roots in research into hardening nuclear command and control systems against an incoming first strike, and many works of fiction have depicted nuclear war (or the risk of nuclear war) resulting from computer and software errors in systems that are supposed to "upgrade" the decision-making process, such as ''{{w|WarGames}}'' and "{{w|Fail-Safe (novel)|Fail-Safe}}". If Ponytail's company is involved in the defense industry, a nuclear war could be a plausible worst-case scenario from a botched upgrade.
|-
|"We have to go on a game show where they show you photos of people you've met once and ask you their names, and if you get one wrong a trapdoor opens and you fall into a garbage disposal." || The premise of this game show seems to play on Munroe's frequent references to anxiety about social situations. For people who have troubles remembering names, encountering someone you've met once before can be harrowing, as you may know that you ''should'' know their name, but be unable to recall it, creating embarrassment and awkwardness (particularly if the person remembers your name with ease). The concept is that fear could be exploited in the form of a game show. Many popular game shows feature contests where contestants who fail are subjected to pain and/or humiliation, such as the ''{{w|Ninja Warrior}}'' franchise. This case is particularly exaggerated, as the inability to remember even a single name would result in being dropped into a garbage disposal, which would virtually guarantee serious maiming and/or death. The reaction of the strip characters suggests that they all share a lack of confidence in their ability to remember the names of casual acquaintances, making such a game show one of the "worst things" they could encounter. Possibly a Voltron reference.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is standing in front of a desk with a computer. One of her hands is on the keyboard. Behind her, Cueball, Hairy, and Megan are looking at the computer screen.]
:Ponytail: We should upgrade. What's the worst that could happen?
:Cueball: Supervolcano.
:Hairy: Robot uprising.
:Megan: Everyone falls down a well at once.

:[Zoom in on Cueball, Hairy, and Megan. Cueball has turned toward the other two.]
:Cueball: Instead of hitting the tallest thing around, lightning starts hitting the nicest.
:Megan: Seagulls all get handguns.
:Hairy: A really '''''slow''''' nuclear war.

:[Large panel with the original setting. Ponytail has turned towards the other three but is now facepalming, as Cueball gesturing with his hands at chest-height are still looking at the other two facing him.]
:Cueball: We all have to go on a game show where they show you photos of people you've met once and ask you their names, and if you get one wrong a trapdoor opens and you fall into a garbage disposal.
:Hairy: '''Ooh,''' that's a good one.
:Megan: Yeah, let's put off the upgrade.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]