explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1992: SafetySat

2018-05-16T01:06:57Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Grammar

{{comic
| number = 1992
| date = May 11, 2018
| title = SafetySat
| image = safetysat.png
| titletext = During launch, in the event of an unexpected sensor reading, SafetySat will extend prongs in all directions to secure itself and any other cubesats safely in the launch vehicle until the source of the problem can be determined.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|CubeSat}} is a standard format for small satellites that can fit in a 10×10×10 cm format with a mass of less than 1.3 kg. They have been widely used by academics for research satellites, and by both small and large companies.

CubeSats are often launched as an additional payload on commercial launches but also deployed from the {{w|International Space Station}} at the {{w|Kibo (ISS module)|Kibo-Module}} or other airlocks. All these satellites are orbiting the Earth in a low orbit and since they have no propulsion system they also become a part of {{w|space debris}} when they are out of control; Eventually they will reenter earth's atmosphere without any further hazard.

Only a few days before this comic was released the first interplanetary CubeSats called {{w|Mars Cube One}} was launched together with NASA's probe {{w|InSight}} aiming to the planet {{w|Mars}}.

One of Randall's influences in creating this comic may have been [https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/fcc-accuses-stealthy-startup-of-launching-rogue-satellites controversy surrounding a commercial launch of a sub-CubeSat sized pico-satellite] from a launch site in India, after the company had previously been denied launch permission within the US, due to safety concerns.

There are multiple safety rules to ensure that the CubeSat cannot damage the primary payload. However, the joke in this comic is that [[Randall]]'s design seeks to break as many rules as possible.

Items clockwise from top left:

;Rare-Earth Magnets
:{{w|Rare-earth magnets}} are very powerful magnets that have a high likelihood of messing up the functioning of nearby electronics, like other CubeSats. Might also cause the CubeSat to stick to other satellites.

;BIC Mini-Lighter
:Fire source, resting on the can of crude oil. The pressurized butane could also make the lighter burst, but in space without oxygen the lighter never would ignite. And even if the inside of the CubeSat contains some oxygen in weightlessness a flame would go out very soon, of course if it set off the crude oil or the guncotton then it would not matter, as the CubeSat would be destroyed.

;SDR/{{w|Software-Defined Radio}} (Code Editable via Public Wiki)
:A radio which can be programmed to broadcast and receive in a range of frequencies, and formats. Software-Defined Radios are useful for development of new or modified wireless protocols, as well as for monitoring the raw waveform data of a transmission regardless of the protocols used. The radio in this comic is stated to run firmware which can be modified from a publicly editable Wikipedia-style webpage. Since anyone could change the radio's instructions, the radio could interfere with other satellites, or with the launch vehicle. This counts as a huge security risk, as ''anyone'' could edit it.

;Laser Pointers (Fixed)
:These three laser points will effectively point in 3 different random directions, which is not safe for other objects around this Cubesat. It depends on the power of the laser pointers but, in general a laser over 5 mW can heat up and damage things given enough time.{{Citation needed|reason=Why is a laser pointer dangerous?|date=May 2018}}. Of course, with the satellite being in orbit it could potentially mess up the optical sensors of other satellites, but it would be a matter of chance.

;Laser Pointer (Hubble-Seeking)
:Aiming a laser at a visible light telescope is potentially destructive to the telescope in question by damaging its optical sensors. This is because CCD & CMOS image sensors are designed to detect finite light sources, concentrated & focused by an optical lens. Lasers produce high light levels well beyond the (comparatively) very low intensity light which image sensors are designed to detect; The energy of these excess photons can heat up the circuits between rows of photosensitive cells to the point where they overheat and fuse. For much the same reason, originates the phrase "do not stare into laser with remaining eye". Unlike the fixed laser pointers above, this one would track and aim a laser at the Hubble, with potentially disastrous results.

;CFCs/Ozone-depleting CFC Spritzer
:{{w|Chlorofluorocarbons}} (CFCs) are fully halogenated paraffin hydrocarbons that contain only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as volatile derivative of methane, ethane, and propane. {{w|Freon}} is a common example of a CFC, and the use of CFCs has been linked to a depletion of the Earth's {{w|ozone layer}} leading many countries to ban their use. Thus spritzing CFCs in an area relatively close to the Ozone layer may be a bad idea.

;Celebratory Firework
:Explosive fire source that could hit other satellites in the vicinity; Also potentially breaking the adjacent seal & igniting the crude oil behind it, turning it into crude oil that is also on fire. Could also set off the guncotton and result in an explosion that destroys the satellite.

;Volatile Epoxy Seal
:Epoxy is a substance composed of long-chain molecules which exhibit very strong adhesive bonds. Many mixtures of epoxy are flammable & produce hazardous fumes when burned. If this particular epoxy seal fails, everything within splatter range gets coated in flammable crude oil.

;{{w|Crude Oil}}
:{{w|Exxon Valdez oil spill}}, {{w|Deepwater Horizon explosion}}, {{w|Keystone Pipeline#Leaks and 2017 South Dakota spill|Keystone Pipeline leaks}}... need we say more? Of course the leakable volume would not be near those levels, but plenty dangerous nonetheless if it were to leak though a faulty seal or weld breakage or stress fractures. Containment and cleanup of such a leak would not be helped by the fact that such leakage could occur in orbit or even during launch. Oil spills in orbit might even present new and unexpected complications.

;Guncotton
:A form of {{w|nitrocellulose}}; an explosive. Could be set off by the firework or the crude oil, if it catches fire.

;Americium corners
:{{w|Americium}} is a very dense and radioactive substance. Depending on the amount of americium involved, this alone could shoot the mass over the 1.3 kg mass limit. The isotope <sup>241</sup>Am is used in smoke detectors but also proposed for use in {{w|Radioisotope thermoelectric generator|radioisotope thermoelectric generators}} in spaceflight.

;Spark Plug
:Fire ignition source, if connected to electricity; Excess mass if not.

;Solar Panel (Found)
:The quality of the solar panel and the power it produces would have to be investigated thoroughly before being cleared for space flight. Also, it isn't clear on the design exactly what, if anything, it is supposed to power, or if it is just excess mass.

;Batteries (eBay)
:The quality of batteries bought on auction sites can vary widely, and certain batteries exposed to conditions outside their design specifications can {{w|Battery_(electricity)#Explosion|explode or leak corrosive acids}}. These batteries might also be connected to the adjacent spark plug. Non-rechargable commercial batteries may leak or explode if a recharge is attempted, so if this is the intention of the Solar Panel, these would escalate into an even greater risk.

;Wet Sand Dispenser
:Possible reference to the {{w|Kessler syndrome}}, which refers to a hypothetical situation wherein there are enough objects floating around in low earth orbit that collisions between objects might result in a "domino effect," each collision causing more collisions and breaking objects into smaller pieces of space debris, which increase the likelihood of further collisions. Wet sand exhibits a high grip:slip ratio, where the surface tension of the water tends to make particulates clingy. Sand (silica granules) can be very harmful to a wide variety of systems, due to its hardness & abrasive qualities. Depending upon the pattern of water sublimation in either shaded or sunlit zones, the exact behavior of various quantities of "wet sand" in low Earth-orbital space might be of interest to the designers of this and of other spacecraft.

;Title text
:{{Wiktionary|prong|Prong}}s that extend in the event of an unexpected sensor reading at launch could damage the rocket and/or nearby CubeSats/payloads. Along with this, it is not unlikely that this CubeSat might be the source of any internal problem that might arise; in such a situation, having such a dangerous CubeSat further secure itself would be counterproductive, if spitefully entertaining.

== Trivia ==
The image was originally broken at both [[xkcd]] and [[explain xkcd]] (the xkcd image was broken, and the BOT uploaded that image to explain xkcd.) It was just a gigantic Γ shape at first (though with a rounded corner). The problem has now been fixed.

==Transcript==
:[A prototype for a small cube-shaped "CubeSat" satellite, with labels on various components.]

:[Labeled on top:]
:Rare-Earth Magnets
:Bic Mini Lighter
:Software-Defined Radio (code editable via a public wiki)

:[Labeled on right:]
:Laser Pointers (fixed)
:Laser Pointer (Hubble-seeking)
:Ozone-Depleting CFC Spritzer

:[Labeled on bottom:]
:Celebratory Firework
:Volatile Epoxy Seal
:Filler (Guncotton)

:[Labeled on left:]
:Americium Corners
:Spark Plug
:Solar Panel (found)
:Batteries (eBay)
:Wet Sand Dispenser

:[Labeled from within drawing in white text on top of a black rectangle:]
:Crude Oil

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My CubeSat proposal was the first to be rejected for violating every design and safety requirement simultaneously.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-21T08:19:58Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?" */ Entertainment?

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels that it is far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based on {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}}, all the labels are nonsense in this context. In effect, the comic is a parody of a common joke in which a person asks a scientist a question, the scientist begins by saying "It's really quite simple", then proceeds to give a very lengthy and highly technical explanation that non-scientists would not be expected to understand.

All of the labels in the diagram are complicated words or phrases. Some are related to orbital mechanics (e.g. "equinox" and "perihelion"), while others are wholly unrelated or even made up. Each label is nonsensical in its place in the diagram. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram.

The title text references warnings to not look directly into the sun, but parodies those warnings by referring to 'orbit', the anatomical term for the eye socket.

===Labels and Their Astronomical Meanings===

;Arctangent
*{{w|Arctangent}} is the inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine a non-right angle of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
*The angle shown in the comic has no astronomical meaning.

;Astral plane
*The {{w|Astral plane}} is a plane of existence in various esoteric theories. It features prominently in Dungeons and Dragons cosmology, connecting the various other planes of existence.
*The picture shows the {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon|lunar orbital plane}}, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth, tilted about 5.1 degrees from the ecliptic.

;Declension
*{{w|Declension}} is the inflection of nouns in a language. In this comic, it might be a portmanteau of declination and (right) ascension.
*In astronomy, the {{w|Declination|declination}} is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. It is measured north or south of the celestial equator, like the geographical latitude on Earth. But in the picture the label is at the angle for the axial tilt of the Earth.
*And the {{w|Right_ascension|right ascension}} is the angular distance measured eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle of the point in question.

;Determinant of the date of Easter
*In Western Christianity {{w|Easter}} always falls on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon after the beginning of spring (equinox). The ecclesiastical full moon is determined by a calendar that approximates the actual time of the full moon, Thus the date of easter is defined by a combination of a solar and a moon calendar. The position of that angle isn't that bad but it should be not more than 30 degrees (slightly more than one month.)
*In mathematics, the determinant is a function of numerical matrices. In this context, however, it apparently refers to something that directly determines the date of Easter.

;Dimples of Venus
*The {{w|Dimples of Venus}} are indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back.
*In astronomy the {{w|Belt of Venus}} is a shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere.

;Enceliopsis
*{{w|Enceliopsis}} are small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays".
*In astronomy this point has also no specific meaning. But {{w|Enceladus}} is a moon around {{w|Saturn}}.

;Equinox / Solstice
{{w|Equinox}} and {{w|Solstice}} have very different meanings:
*An Equinox is one of two instants in the year when the sun is exactly over the equator; the length of day and night are very nearly equal that day at all locations on the planet, and (in the United States) it is the first day of Spring or Autumn, depending on the time of year.
*A Solstice is one of two instants in the year when the sun's angle is maximally far from Earth's equator; when one occurs, the length of the day or night is shortest or longest (depending on whether one is in the northern or southern hemisphere), and (in the United States) it marks the first day of summer or winter.

Both types occur because the Earth's rotation axis is tilted (at 23.4 degrees) from its orbital plane (ecliptic) about the Sun.

Jokingly insisting that two different terms are American/British variants of the same word has been the topic of [[1677: Contrails]].

;Hypothecate
*{{w|Hypothecate}} is a legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage".
*The {{w|hypotenuse}} is the longest side of a right-angled triangle. Here it is an unrelated length, approximately equal to the diameter of the sun (half the angular size of the sun times twice the distance to it).

;Obsequity
*Obsequity means the state of being obsequious (showing an indecorous willingness to obey or serve, or "sucking up").
*In astronomy the correct word is {{w|Obliquity}}, meaning an axial tilt.

;Perihelix
*This is a portmanteau of helix and perihelion.
*The {{w|perihelion}} is the point in a elliptical solar orbit that is closest to the Sun.

;Prolapse
*A {{w|Prolapse}} is a medical condition in which an internal organ is slipped forward or down.
*{{w|Retrograde and prograde motion}} are terms used to describe the apparent motion of celestial objects through the sky.

;Sagittal plane
*The {{w|Sagittal plane}} is an anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
*The correct label in the picture would be the {{w|Ecliptic plane}}. The plane the Earth orbits the Sun.
*{{w|Sagittarius (constellation)|Sagittarius}} is one of the stellar constellations of the Zodiac. The center of the Milky Way lies in this constellation.

;Solar plexus
*The {{w|Solar plexus}} is a network of nerves located in the abdomen. It was the name of [[64: Solar Plexus]].
*{{w|Solar}} is an adjective referring to the Sun, the star in our solar system.

;Tropopause
*The {{w|Tropopause}} is the boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere, defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with increasing elevation. It is 9-17 km above sea level, not the thousands of kilometers as depicted here.
*The label appears to point at the orbit of the moon.

;Angle between the Astral and the Sagittal Planes
* The angle depicted is the inclination of the moon orbit. The planes are marked with the symbol for the Capricorn zodiac sign and an unknown symbol respectively; the angle is marked with the greek letter ''phi'' (ϕ), except with two vertical lines (as if it was a currency unit, similarly to the euro sign).

;Errata
* Errata are corrections in a published text (e.g. a newspaper article) issued after the publication.
* The angle depicted as errata is half the angular size of the sun, which has to match the lunar angular size to cause a solar total eclipse.

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every new moon (once every {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods| 29.5 days}}) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform or entertain the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angle is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a "Game Of Thrones" 'O' (a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines).]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

1719: Superzoom

2016-08-13T01:12:40Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Warning about a couple of intrinsic problems with consumer-level superzoom cameras.

{{comic
| number = 1719
| date = August 12, 2016
| title = Superzoom
| image = superzoom.png
| titletext = *click* Let him know he's got a stain on his shirt, though.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is showing off his new superzoom camera to [[White Hat]]. These are cameras with large zoom lenses, often up to 25× or higher magnification. He is very excited and starts by exclaiming how they can take detailed photos of the moon, and (on better models) relatively large photos of Jupiter. He then uses it for bird watching, which is a popular use for these cameras. He also is able to photograph an airplane, and make out the airline, both possible on these cameras, though it is unlikely he would be able to make out the registration number.

Finally, White Hat decides to buy a superzoom camera like Cueball's, and [[Cueball]] tells him about shop in town that sells them. This is where it takes a turn for the unlikely; as [[Cueball]] points the camera in the direction of this store, he is able to make out not only the worker inside but also (in the title text) the stain on his shirt. Even with the ability of these cameras, it would be unlikely for Cueball to be able to make out a specific worker inside the store, let alone a stain on their shirt, unless they are relatively close to the store.

There are lenses that can do this (e.g., the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRq18WpQZC0 Canon 5200mm]), but not a small consumer camera as shown in the illustration.

A couple of other factors that many people don't realize until they've made the mistake of buying a consumer-level superzoom camera is that a) taking a hand-held picture at maximum zoom is typically rather blurry because the lens is magnifying all vibration and it's impossible to hold the camera steady enough, and b) that the lens' aperture at maximum zoom is typically much smaller than at normal focal lengths, with the result that the shutter time must be several times longer to get proper exposure, compounding the vibration / blurry problem. Modern superzoom cameras do claim to have "image stabilization", perhaps several kinds anti-vibration compensation, but still ...

==Transcript==
[White Hat and Cueball are walking. Cueball is playing with a camera]

Cueball: I love these superzoom cameras. For a few hundred dollars you can take pictures of moon craters and Jupiter's clouds.

Cueball: And birds! See that speck up there?

[Camera clicking]

Cueball: Peregrine falcon!

[*click*]

Cueball: It's banded, too. Want the number?

Cueball: And see that plane?

[*click*]

Cueball: 787 Dreamliner

[*click*]

Cueball: Japan Airlines.

[*click*]

Cueball: Registration is—

White Hat: OK, I'm sold—I want one.

[*click*]

Cueball: They're in stock at the place on Union Road.

[*click*]

Cueball: Hey, Kevin's working today! He's great.

{{comic discussion}}

1683: Digital Data

2016-05-20T08:12:48Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ More likely explanation?

{{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 you're using still knows about the mouseover textâ€!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial draft.}}
Digital information, strictly speaking, does not degrade. While physical media themselves (such as books, or hard drives) may degrade as the universe continues, information, by itself, does not decay over time, and can be copied indefinitely with no changes. [This could be phrased much better.]

However, in this comic, Randall points out that while information itself doesn't degrade, things that are on the internet are often degraded through copying, because the copy is not 1:1. 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. (This is also demonstrated with the title 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 jpeg artifacting. In the last frame, this is taken to an extreme, as the frame appears to have been very sloppily screenshotted off of a smartphone or two, and covered in watermarks from various websites and programs.

"9gag" is a humor website often accused of rehosting other sites' funny content without attribution and adding their own watermark to the image or video.


The title text contains seemingly garbage characters, which typically result from encoding special characters (such as "smart" quotation marks) into a different character set. This is perhaps implying that at this time in the future Unicode is no longer the standard encoding for characters, and we are seeing translation errors reminiscent of what we experience in our time when character sets are improperly converted, for example between Unicode and ISO-8859-1.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

[Cueball and a White Hat are walking.]

Cueball: The great thing about digital data is that it never degrades.

[The next panel is slightly pixelated]

Cueball: Hard drives fail, of course, but their bits can be copied forever without loss.

[The third panel is more pixelated, the white is slightly discolored, and it contains part of the interface of some program]

Cueball: Film degrades, paint cracks, but a copy of a century-old data file is identical to the original.

[The fourth panel is even more pixelated and discolored, and contains watermarks and more 'frame' elements]

Cueball: If humanity has a permanent record, we are the first generation in it.

White Hat: Amazing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]

1660: Captain Speaking

2016-03-26T04:17:06Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo.

{{comic
| number = 1660
| date = March 25, 2016
| title = Captain Speaking
| image = captain_speaking.png
| titletext = Oh dang, you have to pay? Hey, has anyone else paid already? If so, can I borrow your phone for a sec?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Below this first paragraph (written by someone else) is a very rough draft. I am not knowledgeable in commercial flight, so fact-checking and general cleanup is appreciated.}}
(The captain of the plane has presumably slept through most of the flight, which has managed to proceed smoothly up to that point, which is not really surprising since most flights are on auto-pilot for hours at a time, and the pilots serve primarily for takeoff, landing, and emergencies. He is completely clueless, having to use a consumer app and asking the passengers to get flight details, instead of radioing for help as he probably should.)

("This is your captain speaking" is a cliche phrase which this comic is named after.) It appears that this captain has forgotten what plane he is on. He could not have fallen asleep a before takeoff, because planes cannot take off on auto-pilot, and require a human (awake) at the controls. Instead of checking with the other crew on the flight, (such as the copilot - citation needed?) the captain chooses to use a consumer app (FlightAware) in order to figure out where he is supposed to be going. To do this, he attempts to use the plane's WiFi network (add section about wifi on planes), however, the title text indicates that you have to pay to access it. He asks the passengers if one of them has already paid for it, and if he could borrow their phone; this entire situation is very irresponsible of the captain, who is responsible for the flight in the first place.

The fact that the captain is not sure of the flight number is not hard to imagine. Commercial pilots fly multiple flights per day and the numbers all run together after awhile. Every radio communication starts with the flight number, but if the captain has been out of commission for some time, the flight number could easily be forgotten. However, he'd certainly know the aircraft type, as commercial pilots are type-rated for a specific aircraft type and with rare exceptions (e.g. Boeing 757/767) the type is specific to an airframe type.

In most flights, the captain has not much to do in-flight because the the maneuvering can be controlled by an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avionics#Aircraft_avionics auto-pilot] keeping speed, altitude and direction. Most of the captain's attention is needed at the pre-flight checks, the take-off and the landing especially if there is adverse weather conditions like cross-winds. The joke may be in this weird situation where, in fact, there is nothing big to worry about since the flight could in theory be done without any human on board including the pilot. [Auto-pilots doesn't do take-offs <strike>and landings</strike> as of present, but you could in theory design such a system. In which case the joke is on the futuristic auto-pilot and the human "pilot" who is utterly clueless about how the plane's avionics works - hence his odd and unnecessary questions] Regulation for commercial passenger planes do however require there to be at least two (awake) people (one might be a flight attendant) present in the cabin at all times so a captain falling asleep is an unlikely situation. And even if it somehow did ground-radar would set off an alarm waking the captain.

This comic coincided with [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-man-goes-out-for-quiet-drink-in-essex-wakes-up-in-barcelona-a6951756.html a newspaper story] of British man, Alex Caviel, who after a night out had a vivid dream of being on an aeroplane only to wake up to find himself on a plane landing in Barcelona.

The comic was also published shortly after the Flydubai scandal([https://www.rt.com/news/337113-flydubai-scandal-leaks-fatigue/]), in which many pilots and former pilots accused the airline of overworking it's pilots and causing massive fatigue and stress, shortly after the crash of the flight FZ981. These claim were later waged against the Fly Emirates airline. The comic could portray a scenario in which one of the fatigued pilots wake up mid-flight, still suffering from lack of sleep.

==Transcript==
:[The text is written above a large commercial passenger airplane seen from below as it turns left. The text emanates from the cockpit.]
:Captain: This is your captain speaking.
:Captain: Gonna be honest-I just woke up and have no idea where I am. Looks like a Boeing of some kind?
:Captain: Oh, hey, it says the flight number here.
:Captain: Okay, I'm gonna check FlightAware to figure out where we're going.
:Captain: Anyone know how to get on the wifi?

{{comic discussion}}

1660: Captain Speaking

2016-03-26T04:10:49Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Better word?

{{comic
| number = 1660
| date = March 25, 2016
| title = Captain Speaking
| image = captain_speaking.png
| titletext = Oh dang, you have to pay? Hey, has anyone else paid already? If so, can I borrow your phone for a sec?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Below this first paragraph (written by someone else) is a very rough draft. I am not knowledgeable in commercial flight, so fact-checking and general cleanup is appreciated.}}
(The captain of the plane has presumably slept through most of the flight, which has managed to proceed smoothly up to that point, which is not really surprising since most flights are on auto-pilot for hours at a time, and the pilots serve primarily for takeoff, landing, and emergencies. He is completely clueless, having to use a consumer app and asking the passengers to get flight details, instead of radioing for help as he probably should.)

("This is your captain speaking" is a cliche phrase which this comic is named after.) It appears that this captain has forgotten what plane he is on. He could not have fallen asleep a before takeoff, because planes cannot take off on auto-pilot, and require a human (awake) at the controls. Instead of checking with the other crew on the flight, (such as the copilot - citation needed?) the captain chooses to use a consumer app (FlightAware) in order to figure out where he is supposed to be going. To do this, he attempts to use the plane's WiFi network (add section about wifi on planes), however, the title text indicates that you have to pay to access it. He asks the passengers if one of them has already paid for it, and if he could borrow their phone; this entire situation is very irresponsible of the captain, who is responsible for the flight in the first place.

The fact that the captain is not sure of the flight number is not hard to imagine. Commercial pilots fly multiple flights per day and the numbers all run together after awhile. Every radio communication starts with the flight number, but if the captain has been out of commission for some time, the flight number could easily be forgotten. However, he'd certainly know the aircraft type, as commercial pilots are type-rated for a specific aircraft type and with rare exceptions (e.g. Boeing 757/767) the type is specific to an airframe type.

In most flights, the captain has not much to do in-flight because the the maneuvering can be controlled by an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avionics#Aircraft_avionics auto-pilot] keeping speed, altitude and direction. Most of the captains attention is needed at the pre-flight checks, the take-off and the landing especially if there is adverse weather conditions like cross-winds. The joke may be in this weird situation where, in fact, there is nothing big to worry about since the flight could in theory be done without any human on board including the pilot. [Auto-pilots doesn't do take-offs <strike>and landings</strike> as of present, but you could in theory design such a system. In which case the joke is on the futuristic auto-pilot and the human "pilot" who is utterly clueless about how the plane's avionics works - hence his odd and unnecessary questions] Regulation for commercial passenger planes do however require there to be at least two (awake) people (one might be a flight attendant) present in the cabin at all times so a captain falling asleep is an unlikely situation. And even if it somehow did ground-radar would set off an alarm waking the captain.

This comic coincided with [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-man-goes-out-for-quiet-drink-in-essex-wakes-up-in-barcelona-a6951756.html a newspaper story] of British man, Alex Caviel, who after a night out had a vivid dream of being on an aeroplane only to wake up to find himself on a plane landing in Barcelona.

The comic was also published shortly after the Flydubai scandal([https://www.rt.com/news/337113-flydubai-scandal-leaks-fatigue/]), in which many pilots and former pilots accused the airline of overworking it's pilots and causing massive fatigue and stress, shortly after the crash of the flight FZ981. These claim were later waged against the Fly Emirates airline. The comic could portray a scenario in which one of the fatigued pilots wake up mid-flight, still suffering from lack of sleep.

==Transcript==
:[The text is written above a large commercial passenger airplane seen from below as it turns left. The text emanates from the cockpit.]
:Captain: This is your captain speaking.
:Captain: Gonna be honest-I just woke up and have no idea where I am. Looks like a Boeing of some kind?
:Captain: Oh, hey, it says the flight number here.
:Captain: Okay, I'm gonna check FlightAware to figure out where we're going.
:Captain: Anyone know how to get on the wifi?

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1656: It Begins

2016-03-16T20:12:18Z

RenniePet:

It Begins:
:[http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/15/media/oscars-chris-rock-asian-jokes/index.html Oscar apologizes]!
Did it work? :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:50, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

:This brings the question how often would comment "It Begins" be labeled as offensive, for example racist or something ... and, unfortunately, that already begun years ago. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:48, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

It has been quite a while since the last [[:Category:Protip|Protip]], except for the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/50/1608_1048x1074y_Pyramid_protip.png pyramid pro tip] in [[1608: Hoverboard]], it is almost 100 comics since the last real protip comic: [[1565: Back Seat]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:08, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

This makes me think of the beginning of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_%28film%29 The Birds]. I do not know if it is intended. -- [[User:InviPinkUnicorn|InviPinkUnicorn]] ([[User talk:InviPinkUnicorn|talk]]) 11:44, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

The bird's behavior is pretty normal, gulls break clam shells and such by dropping them on to the beach. Maybe it was a clam shell phone? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.180|108.162.245.180]] 15:21, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

In my opinion the explanation is missing one important use of "It begins": fearmongering. I follow a far-right website just to keep oriented (and sometimes entertained) about far-right political views, and the guy who runs the site typically runs at least one story a week with the title starting with "It begins:". Some examples: "It Begins… Obama Plays Race Card Against Trump – Attacks White Working Class", "It Begins… Obama’s HUD Launches Civil Rights Investigation on IL Town for Not Building Public Housing", "It Begins… Democrat Lawmaker Proposes $100 Tax on Every Gun", "It Begins… Outraged Flea Market Shopper Calls Cops Over Confederate Memorabilia", etc. etc. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 20:12, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1649: Pipelines

2016-02-29T16:21:15Z

RenniePet: A Bucket for Monsieur

No discussion yet? Strange ...

Anyway, the title text "and we'll all just show up with a bucket each day to take our share of the resulting smoothie" reminds me of this bit near the end of Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx0ME65y72E (Warning: not for the squeamish.) --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 16:21, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1632: Palindrome

2016-01-21T11:57:35Z

RenniePet:

> Megan (i.e. Randall) has created a much longer palindrome based on this original

Seems Randall didn't create the palindrome, which is also found in a forum posting on The Return of Talking Time dated May 14, 2012:

[http://www.talking-time.net/showpost.php?p=1370627&postcount=6286 View Single Post]

... unless of course that user was Randall.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.191|141.101.64.191]] 08:25, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:That does not seem likely. If the user invented the palindrome is of course also impossible to say, but it seems unlikely that Randall created it. I have corrected the explanation accordingly. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:44, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I found the centre of the very long palindrome that was linked to, it's the 'e' in "Hehre" which only occurs once in that 17826 word monstrousity. Easy to control F.

Edit: first e. Not second one.
: --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.149|108.162.245.149]] 09:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Is it really necessary to have the palindrome written forwards, without spaces, capitalised, reversed etc etc etc. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:58, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:No. I deleted most useless versions. Sorry, Nick818 [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1632:_Palindrome&diff=prev&oldid=109524] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:31, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually, there is another method to construct palindromes of arbitrary length: If X is a palindrome, then "'X' sides reversed is 'X'" is a palindrome, too. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.215|162.158.91.215]] 10:09, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

if 'nam is an abbreviation of Vietnam, shouldn't it be capitalised? if it isn't, what is it an abbreviation of? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.161|141.101.106.161]] 12:32, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with any type of tinsel which is attached to thread. Is this a relatively recent development, or something that is more common outside the US? [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:04, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I think it should be "a god's 'Nam tables" because "God" means "the only god" and "a god" is one of many. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:40, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::: "It felt like a Napoleon's Waterloo." You'll need a high-ranking grammar nazi to explain how this works exactly, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 16:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::::: The (grammatical) contexts are different. "Waterloo" is the name of a city, it doesn't refer to any concept so it can never be a general noun, only ever a proper noun. God however works differently, as a general noun it refers to a deity ("Zeus is a god") but as a proper noun it refers to the Abrahamic god (diversely called in different languages and religions). This isn't to say you could never use capital God when following "a". If you are referring to a god of a Judaic religion or an interpretation of God as in "In Christianity and Judaism we find a different God", then you would be right. You might also use a capitalised plural in sentences like "Yaweh is one of many Gods" (again the meaning is "interpretation of God"), much as I could say I am one of many "Marios" on this earth, however this usage requires a bit of a grammatical juggling act, and some prescriptivists might not accept it.

:::::This is all nice and well if you consider God a proper noun (again like Jack or Yaweh) but the reasoning may completely fall apart if you consider the capitalisation as a simple honorific form. The latter interpretation is however unlikely given the usage of God in the English language. To elaborate: if you try to replace God as used in some expressions with some general noun like "guy" as referring to a certain predetermined person, you will find that in some cases a reasonable substitution would be "the guy" rather than simply "guy": e.g.: "God is all forgiving" --> "The guy is all forgiving" ("Guy is all forgiving" seems to refer to a person named Guy, rather than to a specific guy, which corroborates the proper-noun thesis).

:::::In short "god" and "God" are kind of two different words just like "Jack" (the one who works in the cubicle next to yours, you know the one) and "jack" (the one you plug in your CD player to listen to music. What? Isn't it what's all the rage these days?), they just happen (ok, not really, they were crafted this way) to be spelt and read the same. {{unsigned ip|162.158.152.65}}
:::::(Very sorry for the rant. Just a grammar Nazi sergeant, some things may be wrong or up for debate [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.65|162.158.152.65]] 17:10, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

:::::: [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waterloo "Can never"] can never work. I hear kitchen duty on St. Helena is not pleasant. Don't forget to pack some stamps and stationery when they ship you out, I want to lick the taste of your tears off your letters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 02:47, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

:In the [[1632:_Palindrome#Trivia|trivia]] it mentions that there is a comma between the nam and tables in the original(?) post, and by the way 'Nam is capitalized there. So is it then God's Vietnam? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:36, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Just a guess about the next comic. It might very well relate to this news about a possible [http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system Planet X]! Looking forward to seing if I'm right ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:24, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Apropos "(It is not long since another xkcd comic referred directly to porn - see 1629: Tools)." Or, as Tom Lehrer put it, "when correctly viewed, everything is lewd". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 11:55, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1632: Palindrome

2016-01-21T11:55:14Z

RenniePet:

> Megan (i.e. Randall) has created a much longer palindrome based on this original

Seems Randall didn't create the palindrome, which is also found in a forum posting on The Return of Talking Time dated May 14, 2012:

[http://www.talking-time.net/showpost.php?p=1370627&postcount=6286 View Single Post]

... unless of course that user was Randall.

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.191|141.101.64.191]] 08:25, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:That does not seem likely. If the user invented the palindrome is of course also impossible to say, but it seems unlikely that Randall created it. I have corrected the explanation accordingly. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:44, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I found the centre of the very long palindrome that was linked to, it's the 'e' in "Hehre" which only occurs once in that 17826 word monstrousity. Easy to control F.

Edit: first e. Not second one.
: --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.149|108.162.245.149]] 09:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Is it really necessary to have the palindrome written forwards, without spaces, capitalised, reversed etc etc etc. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:58, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
:No. I deleted most useless versions. Sorry, Nick818 [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1632:_Palindrome&diff=prev&oldid=109524] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:31, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually, there is another method to construct palindromes of arbitrary length: If X is a palindrome, then "'X' sides reversed is 'X'" is a palindrome, too. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.215|162.158.91.215]] 10:09, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

if 'nam is an abbreviation of Vietnam, shouldn't it be capitalised? if it isn't, what is it an abbreviation of? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.161|141.101.106.161]] 12:32, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with any type of tinsel which is attached to thread. Is this a relatively recent development, or something that is more common outside the US? [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:04, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I think it should be "a god's 'Nam tables" because "God" means "the only god" and "a god" is one of many. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 12:40, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::: "It felt like a Napoleon's Waterloo." You'll need a high-ranking grammar nazi to explain how this works exactly, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 16:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
::::: The (grammatical) contexts are different. "Waterloo" is the name of a city, it doesn't refer to any concept so it can never be a general noun, only ever a proper noun. God however works differently, as a general noun it refers to a deity ("Zeus is a god") but as a proper noun it refers to the Abrahamic god (diversely called in different languages and religions). This isn't to say you could never use capital God when following "a". If you are referring to a god of a Judaic religion or an interpretation of God as in "In Christianity and Judaism we find a different God", then you would be right. You might also use a capitalised plural in sentences like "Yaweh is one of many Gods" (again the meaning is "interpretation of God"), much as I could say I am one of many "Marios" on this earth, however this usage requires a bit of a grammatical juggling act, and some prescriptivists might not accept it.

:::::This is all nice and well if you consider God a proper noun (again like Jack or Yaweh) but the reasoning may completely fall apart if you consider the capitalisation as a simple honorific form. The latter interpretation is however unlikely given the usage of God in the English language. To elaborate: if you try to replace God as used in some expressions with some general noun like "guy" as referring to a certain predetermined person, you will find that in some cases a reasonable substitution would be "the guy" rather than simply "guy": e.g.: "God is all forgiving" --> "The guy is all forgiving" ("Guy is all forgiving" seems to refer to a person named Guy, rather than to a specific guy, which corroborates the proper-noun thesis).

:::::In short "god" and "God" are kind of two different words just like "Jack" (the one who works in the cubicle next to yours, you know the one) and "jack" (the one you plug in your CD player to listen to music. What? Isn't it what's all the rage these days?), they just happen (ok, not really, they were crafted this way) to be spelt and read the same. {{unsigned ip|162.158.152.65}}
:::::(Very sorry for the rant. Just a grammar Nazi sergeant, some things may be wrong or up for debate [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.65|162.158.152.65]] 17:10, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

:::::: [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waterloo "Can never"] can never work. I hear kitchen duty on St. Helena is not pleasant. Don't forget to pack some stamps and stationery when they ship you out, I want to lick the taste of your tears off your letters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.138|162.158.114.138]] 02:47, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

:In the [[1632:_Palindrome#Trivia|trivia]] it mentions that there is a comma between the nam and tables in the original(?) post, and by the way 'Nam is capitalized there. So is it then God's Vietnam? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:36, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Just a guess about the next comic. It might very well relate to this news about a possible [http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system Planet X]! Looking forward to seing if I'm right ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:24, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Apropos "(It is not long since another xkcd comic referred directly to porn - see 1629: Tools)." Or, as Tom Lehrer put it, "when correctly viewed, everything is lewed". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 11:55, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

1632: Palindrome

2016-01-21T11:46:48Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Add a blank.

{{comic
| number = 1632
| date = January 20, 2016
| title = Palindrome
| image = palindrome.png
| titletext = I hope that somewhere in the world, "Panamax" is the last option on a "size" drop-down menu on a sex toy site.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|palindrome}} is a word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same whether you read forwards or backwards, like ''race car''. Normally capitalization, spacing, and punctuation are ignored.

This comic is based on the famous palindrome: "A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama", devised by {{w|Leigh Mercer}}, which references the construction of the {{w|Panama Canal}} and is the first mentioned on the Wikipedia page for palindromes [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Palindrome&oldid=700753837 at the time] this comic was released.

[[Megan]] recites a much longer palindrome for [[Cueball]]. This palindrome is based on the original, (and was posted in this [http://www.talking-time.net/showthread.php?p=1370627#post1370627 forum thread] more than three years before the release of this comic). It is much less logical, and manages to include the word anal (which then refers to the title text and sex toys, see below).

[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nam 'Nam] is an apheresis of Vietnam. See more explanation of the words in the palindrome in the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section. Note that in the original version from the link above there were a comma before tables so it is two items in the list: God's 'Nam, tables, etc.

Due to its list like structure, the Panama palindrome is easily extensible by adding additional [http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/phahn/anagrams/panama.htm noun phrases], and some of these extensions lay claim to being "[http://norvig.com/pal17txt.html The Longest Palindrome Ever]".

The title text references the maximum size of ships that can fit through the Panama Canal, which is {{w|Panamax}}. [[Randall]] would really enjoy if this was the last option (i.e. biggest size) on a {{w|drop-down menu}} on a {{w|sex toy}} site. For instance such a site could have a banner saying; "If you have a ''Panama Anal'', then try our ''Panamax {{w|Butt plug}}''".

In the game [[1608: Hoverboard]] there is also a reference to the Panama canal with the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0d/1608_1026x1073y_Ruins_with_Cueball_singing_of_Spiders_and_Panama.png song that Cueball sings at the ruin] to the right.

===The Palindrome===
Although it is less logical it is indeed a palindrome:
:'''Original''':
:: A man, a plan, a God's 'Nam tables, nitrate, tar, tinsel, Batman's dog: Anal Panama.

: '''Palindrome''', i.e. original sentence reversed:
:: amanaP lanA :god s'namtaB ,lesnit ,rat ,etartin ,selbat maN' s'doG a ,nalp a ,nam A

: '''With no spaces''' or other punctuation and in all lowercase:
:: amanaplanagodsnamtablesnitratetartinselbatmansdoganalpanama

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are walking. She holds up her arm and hand while reciting a palindrome:]
:Megan: A man, a plan, a God's 'Nam tables, nitrate, tar, tinsel, Batman's dog: Anal Panama.

==Trivia==
*In the [http://www.talking-time.net/showpost.php?p=1370627&postcount=6286 version] posted on-line in 2012, there was an extra comma after God's 'Nam:
**A man, a plan, a God's 'Nam, tables, nitrate, tar, tinsel, Batman's dog: Anal Panama.
**This means that it is not ''God's 'Nam tables'', but rather two items ''God's 'Nam'' and ''tables'', since it is a list of items.
*The '''meaning of the words''':
**These words are from the original palindrome: Man, Plan and Panama
**But what about the rest, taking the original with the "," as mentioned above:
***{{w|God|God's}} 'Nam - [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nam 'Nam] is here short for {{w|Vietnam}}; God's 'Nam would refer to a Quagmire of God's creation. (The Quagmire is a figurative name of the {{w|Vietnam War}}).
***{{w|Tables}} - can either be a piece of furniture or a data table.
***{{w|Nitrate}} - a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO3− that are mainly produced for use as fertilizers in agriculture. But as an oxidizing agents it can be used to create explosives where the rapid oxidation of carbon compounds liberates large volumes of gases. Given the end of the sentence it could also be a reference to {{w|Amyl nitrite}}, for which notable side effects includes "relaxation of involuntary muscles, especially the blood vessel walls and the internal and external anal sphincter."
***{{w|Tar}} - is a black mixture of hydrocarbons and free carbon. Originally referred primarily to a substance derived from the wood and roots of pine. But it has also been used in {{w|Tar#Definition|other contexts}}. For instance naturally occurring "{{w|tar pits}}", actually contain {{w|asphalt}} rather than tar.
***{{w|Tinsel}} - Tinsel, is a type of decorative material that mimics the effect of ice, consisting of thin strips of sparkling material attached to a thread. When in long narrow strips not attached to thread, it is called "lametta", and emulates icicles. It was originally a metallic garland for Christmas decoration. The modern production of tinsel typically involves plastic, and is used particularly to decorate Christmas trees.
***{{w|Ace the Bat-Hound|Batman's dog}} - Ace the Bat-Hound was the canine crime-fighting partner of {{w|Batman}} and {{w|Robin (comics)|Robin}} in DC Comics of the 1950s and 1960s.
***{{w|Anal}} - relates to {{w|anus}}. Searching for "Anal Panama" will return links to pages with {{w|porn}}. This is because the most used form of ''Anal'' is in regard to {{w|Anal Sex}} which is often used in porn. (It is not long since another xkcd comic referred directly to porn - see [[1629: Tools]]).
*The '''meaning of the sentence''':
**There are no obvious meaning of this palindrome.
**As it also seems it is not of Randall's device, then it seems less important for this site, than if it were.
**The original palindrome was also a list of things that lead to choosing Panama.
***A man had a plan to make a canal. He chose Panama.
**This one is also in list form:
***A man had a plan to use the Vietnam war with nitrate, tar and tinsel (maybe some kind of explosives with Christmas decorations), finally adding Batman's dog to get Anal Panama...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Religion]]

1621: Fixion

2015-12-27T02:00:26Z

RenniePet: /* Table of Phenomena */ Wormhole is one word, add a link.

{{comic
| number = 1621
| date = December 25, 2015
| title = Fixion
| image = fixion.png
| titletext = My theory predicts that, at high enough energies, FRBs and perytons become indistinguishable because the detector burns out.
}}

==Explanation==
The second [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comic]] in a row, the first being [[1620: Christmas Settings]].

This comic was released on {{w|Christmas}} day as a present from [[Randall]] to all {{w|physicists}}. It introduces a new particle, the ''Fixion'', which explains everything. The word "Fixion" can be read as a pun: Either it can mean something like "fix-i-on," with "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-on#Suffix -on]" being a suffix for many particles, and this particle being able to "fix" things; or it means "fiction" (in English, the pronunciations of "-xion" and "-ction" are indistinguishable). Alternately, "Fixion" could be a portmanteau of "fix" and "ion", implying that the particle is not subatomic but is a different type of ion.

In physics, there are still many {{w|List of unsolved problems in physics|big questions and mysteries}}. There are many phenomena which don't seem to fit, and we don't know how to explain yet. The "Fixion" is satirically presented as a particle which acts as a {{w|Deus ex machina}}, (see also [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusExMachina tvtropes]), which solves all of these mysteries without any serious fundamental reasons.

The style of the chart suggests a {{w|Feynman diagram}} - an easy way of drawing particle interactions. Every time there is an interaction, the main central Fixion-line changes direction. Typically, {{w|fermions}} (the "solid" particles like {{w|electrons}} and {{w|quarks}}) are shown with solid lines, {{w|photons}} (and generally the weak-force-carrying {{w|bosons}}) are shown with wavy lines, {{w|gluons}} with spiraling lines and other mediating particles (such as {{w|pions}} in the {{w|nuclear force}}, or the {{w|Higgs boson}}) with a dotted line. Randall obeys these rules only very loosely, which makes sense - many of the things involved in this Feynman diagram are either so theoretical that they have no widely used standard representation, or would never appear in a sensible diagram (spacecrafts, for instance). All mentioned types of lines - and even more types - are presented in the diagram. All that the Fixion does is described in the [[#Table of Phenomena|table below]].

The title text is a continuation of one of the jokes already mentioned in the main comic (fourth phrase from the top to the left) about {{w|Fast radio burst}}s (FRBs) and {{w|Peryton (astronomy)|perytons}}. See explanation in the last entry in the [[#Table of Phenomena|table below]].

===Table of Phenomena===
*Below, all the phenomenons mentioned in the comic (and in the title text) has been listed and described.
*The order is the top left phenomenon first, and then alternating between right and left down to the bottom and then the title text at the end.
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
|'''Phenomenon''' || '''In the comic''' || '''Description''' || '''Solved?'''
|-
| Main component of dark matter
|| An arrow points to the very first part of the main line.
|| Our best measurements of the universe predict that visible matter is only about one-sixth of the matter in the universe; the remaining matter is "{{w|dark matter}}" that cannot be seen. The leading candidates for dark matter are {{w|weakly interacting massive particles}} (WIMPs). These would be new, undiscovered forms of matter which barely interact except through gravity and thus give off little or no light. Some of the dark matter is likely made up of {{w|Massive compact halo objects}} (MACHOs); effectively dead stars too dim to see. MACHOs are probably only a minority of the dark matter, however. Studies of two colliding galaxy clusters suggest that dark matter can pass through other matter without slowing down, unlike ordinary matter. Moreover, calculations of the elements produced during the {{w|big bang}} - which match the observed distribution of elements in the universe very precisely - don't leave room for enough additional {{w|protons}} and {{w|neutrons}} to form the dark matter.
|| No. Proving the nature of dark matter will most likely win someone a {{w|Nobel Prize}}.
|-
| Confines quarks and gluons
|| An arrow points to the very first part of the main line.
|| {{w|Quark confinement}} means that we never see particles with {{w|colour charge|color charge}} (i.e. {{w|quark}}s and {{w|gluon}}s) on their own. They only exist in groups that cancel out the color charge. Try to separate the groups, and the energy you add will instead cause new particles to pop into existence.
|| The basic facts of confinement are well understood, but some of the details are too complicated to tease out.
|-
| Neutralizes monopoles
|| An arrow points to the first solid line going away from the main line, left and upwards. This is thus a solid particle going out from the Fixion.
|| {{w|Magnetic monopoles}} (i.e., a north charge without a south charge) should exist, according to many {{w|Grand Unified Theory|grand unified theories}} (GUTs) and {{w|String theory|string theories}}, but none have ever been seen.
|| No! Despite claims that pop up in the news every year, creating a monopole-like state in the magnetic spins of a crystal is not the same as creating a real monopole.
|-
| Suppresses antimatter in early universe
|| No arrow.
|| The universe today is made almost entirely of matter. {{w|Antimatter}} and matter are identical, except that the charges are opposite. Antimatter and matter "{{w|Annihilation|annihilate}}" when they come into contact? So why is the universe made of matter? Why didn't the universe have equal amounts of both, and if it did, why didn't it annihilate itself immediately? This is a big question in physics today. Of course, the Fixion explains this by its ability to suppress the formation of antimatter in the early universe.
|| Lots of theories, no conclusive evidence for any yet. The most notable theories revolve around the {{w|weak interaction}}, which has been shown to treat matter and antimatter asymmetrically. Now that the {{w|Higgs boson}} has been found, the biggest project for the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}} experiments is to try to crack this.
|-
| Spontaneously emits dark energy
|| Two arrows points to two dotted lines going out left and downwards below the first solid line. It is thus two mediating particles that go out from the Fixon.
|| Prior to the 1990s, most {{w|cosmologists}} expected that the universe's expansion after the Big Bang would either slow down or stay constant. In 1998, cosmologists discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. Under {{w|Einstein|Einstein's}} theory of {{w|general relativity}}, the observed acceleration predicts that ordinary matter and dark matter make up about 30% of the universe's total energy, with the rest coming in the form of "{{w|dark energy}}." The nature of dark energy is not certain. However, the leading candidate is that space itself has intrinsic energy (either constant or variable), and so as space expands, the energy of the universe increases.
|| Again, Nobel Prize territory.
|-
| Mediates proton decay, but then hides it.
|| An arrow point to several lines going to and from the main line. The outer line does not connect with the main line. Maybe this represents the hiding part of this proton decay mediator.
|| Many GUTs predict that {{w|proton decay|protons will decay}}, but experiments have shown the proton to have a half-life of at least 10<sup>33</sup> years very much longer than the {{w|age of the universe}} (1.38x10<sup>10</sup> years).
|| It's not ''necessarily'' a problem. All theories predict that proton decay is a very slow process (10<sup>32+</sup> seconds), which is consistent with the current data.
|-
| Introduces dispersion in perytons from kitchen microwaves, explaining fast radio bursts
|| Two arrows point to four wavy lines. The waves of the lines have different wave length. The one line coming out left is of the same at wavelength as the top of the three coming out right. The two below each decrease in wavelength compared to the one before them. Maybe this is not meant to represent photon-like particles, but are just different frequencies of microwaves from the microwave oven – thus relating to the subject.
|| {{w|Fast radio burst}}s (FRBs) are unexplained bursts of radio-frequency energy from space, they could even be extragalactic signals, with speculations that they might be signs of {{w|extraterrestrial intelligence}}. {{w|Peryton (astronomy)|Perytons}} are things that ''look like'' FRBs, but come from Earth (specifically, from the {{w|microwave oven}} at {{w|Parkes Observatory}}). Randall's Fixion makes some perytons change frequency distribution so they appear to come from space; thus in fact all FRBs come from microwave ovens.
|| No, but it's probably something very big - a star collapsing to a {{w|black hole}} or (as now looks likely) a {{w|magnetar}} (magnetic neutron star)
|-
| Broken symmetry causes ϴ=0, explaining unobserved neutron dipole moment
|| An arrow points to the part of the main line just before the first wavy line.
|| The {{w|neutron electric dipole moment}} is a measure of how balanced electric charge is inside the neutron. ϴ (theta) is a number in {{w|quantum chromodynamics}} (QCD) which quantifies the breaking of a type of symmetry called {{w|CP violation|CP symmetry}}. If ϴ is not 0, one result of this should be a neutron dipole moment. {{w|Symmetry breaking}} is a common explanation of effects in some areas of theoretical physics (for instance, it's an important part of {{w|Peter Higgs|Higgs'}} theory about why particles have mass), but normally it explains why a value is ''not'' zero. Presumably the Fixion breaks CP symmetry independently of QCD, which means that ϴ can be 0 while preserving observed CP-breaking effects.
|| Again, it's not (yet) a problem - the predicted dipole moment is tiny, and we're only just reaching the point when we can measure it that accurately.
|-
| Causes alpha effect
|| No arrow.
|| Ther {{w|alpha effect}} is a weird effect from chemistry, where putting an "alpha" atom with a {{w|lone pair}} of electrons close to a molecule makes the molecule more likely to give up its electrons. The Fixion is the reason for this effect.
|| Lots of competing explanations.
|-
| Covers naked singularities
|| No arrow – but the text is situated next to the middle of the three wavy lines going right.
|| A {{w|naked singularity}} is like a black hole without an {{w|event horizon}}. So far no naked singularity has been observed (except, arguably, the big bang) and the {{w|cosmic censorship hypothesis}} suggests they can't exist, although some people have suggested ways of making them. Of course if any did exist then the Fixion will cover it, so it won’t become embarrassed by its nudity. Randall has mentioned these in his latest [[what if?]]: [http://what-if.xkcd.com/140/ Proton Earth, Electron Moon].
|| Not necessarily something that needs explaining - none have been seen, and most theories say they don't exist. If support grows for {{w|loop quantum gravity}}, then we might have to start really searching.
|-
| Intercepts certain gravitational waves before they're observed.
|| An arrow points to a spiraling line going upwards to the left, so this is drawn like a gluon.
|| If {{w|gravity}} behaves like {{w|Fundamental interaction|the other forces}}, it must be conveyed by waves. Our best detector, {{w|LIGO}} has yet to detect any {{w|gravitational waves}}, though this is probably just due to the low probability of events that would be detectable. Only extreme events like {{w|binary black hole}} mergers are detectable with the current setup. The proposed {{w|LISA Pathfinder}} spacecraft will be able to see things like orbiting black holes and {{w|neutron stars}}. Since the Fixion intercepts gravity waves before they are observed we should not get our hopes up too high about observing any even with LISA.
|| Let's wait for the LISA data before jumping to conclusions.
|-
| Causes coronal heating
|| No arrow – but the text is situated next to the middle of the three wavy lines going right.
|| For some reason the outer layer of the {{w|sun}} (the {{w|corona}}) is hotter than most reasonable theories predict. This is for instance mentioned in Randall’s new book ''[[Thing Explainer]]'' in the entry about the sun. This can also be seen on the [[Thing_Explainer#Preview Pages |back cover of the book]]. The phenomenon is explained by the Fixion…
|| It's a mystery, but it possibly has something to do with waves in the corona (for example, the {{w|High Resolution Coronal Imager}} has seen "braids" in the corona that whip around and unravel themselves).
|-
| Higgs-ish
|| As this is just a property of the Fixion there is no arrow.
|| The {{w|Higgs boson}} is a manifestation of the Higgs field... but many supersymmetry and string theories predict multiple Higgs-like particles. It's almost a prerequisite of any new theory that it has a Higgs-ish element. So the Fixion blends in with this.
|| N/A
|-
| Superluminally smooths anisotropies in early universe (but adds faint polarization for BICEP3 to find)
|| An arrow points to the point of the main line just below the bottom space probe.
|| The {{w|Cosmic Microwave Background}} (CMB) is incredibly uniform. In fact it is so uniform that the conclusion is that these areas must have been in contact at some time in the early universe. But with the universe being infinite, and the speed of light being finite, mos parts of the universe will never be able to interact (anymore at least). The explanation usually given for the uniformity is that the universe expanded really fast in the beginning during what is called the {{w|Inflationary epoch}}. {{w|BICEP_and_Keck_Array#BICEP2|BICEP2}} is a {{w|radio telescope}} at the South Pole whose operators claim to have seen polarization in the CMB indicative of inflation. (See [[1365: Inflation]] that references BICEP2's results). The Fixion fixes the problem since it allowed {{w|Faster-than-light|superluminally}} smoothing of the early anisotropies to explain the smoothness observed today. The Fixion has left just enough signal that the new {{w|BICEP_and_Keck_Array#BICEP3|BICEP3}} telescope will be able to find them.
|| As stated, {{w|Inflation (cosmology)|inflation}} is the standard explanation and it holds up fairly well. Other studies haven't seen the polarization that BICEP2 has - the {{w|Planck (spacecraft)|Planck space telescope}} also suggests that the BICEP2 team were looking at an unusually dusty bit of space, which could cause polarization. Hopefully this will improve with the BICEP3 data that should be published in 2016.
|-
| Accelerates certain spacecraft during flybys
|| Two arrows point to two solid lines going away from the main line (left and right). At the end of each line there is a space craft with satellite dish and solar panels, representing the items that the Fixion interacts with.
|| This refers to the {{w|flyby anomaly}} which is sometimes (but not always) seen when spacecraft fly close to planets and pick up more speed than expected. It's not always seen – for instance the {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta space probe}} had no flyby anomaly when it swooped extremely close to Mars. Another anomaly for spacecraft’s (a deceleration this time) has been mentioned in the title text of [[502: Dark Flow]].
|| It could be an unpredicted quirk of gravity and relativity... or it could be experimental error.
|-
| Triggers Siberian sinkholes
|| No arrow, but it is right next to the solid line with an arrow going into the main line just before the first hole where the main line disappears and becomes dotted. Thus it could be a reference also to these holes.
|| Recently, (2014), several {{w|sinkholes}} opened up in {{w|Yamal_Peninsula#Yamal_craters |remote parts}} of Siberia. The explanation is currently unknown, except of course we now know that it was the Fixion that caused it.
|| While there are lots of weird theories, there's a good chance they were caused by {{w|Arctic methane release}} due to melting {{w|permafrost}} which is probably caused by {{w|global warming}}. See ([http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mystery-of-the-siberian-holes-at-the-end-of-the-world-solved-scientists-offer-explanation-9642988.html Mystery of the Siberian holes… solved]).
|-
| Melts ice in "Snowball Earth" scenario
|| No arrow.
|| {{w|Snowball Earth}} is the theory that the whole planet was covered in ice at some point. To melt all that ice by the {{w|greenhouse effect}} would require far more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than seems plausible. However, if volcanoes were to deposit black soot on the surface of the ice, it would start absorbing heat more efficiently (in scientific terms, the Earth's {{w|albedo}} would decrease) and that would also make the planet heat up. Of course it was the Fixion was the cause of the melting ice.
|| There are {{w|Snowball_Earth#Scientific_dispute|scientific dispute}} regarding the theory for a Snowball Earth. There is no conclusive evidence that it ever occurred, but those in favor has presented lots of {{w|Snowball_Earth#Evidence|evidence}}…
|-
| Transports neutrinos faster than light, but only on certain days through one area of France
|| An arrow points to the part of the main line that becomes dotted between the two “{{w|wormholes}}”. This is where the neutrinos move faster than light…
|| Refers to the {{w|faster-than-light neutrino anomaly}}, where it seemed that a neutrino beam from {{w|CERN}} on the France/Switzerland border to the {{w|OPERA experiment}} in Italy traveled faster than light. Scientists were not able to reproduce the result. Of course it was because of the Fixion. This Neutrino experiment was also mentioned in [[955: Neutrinos]], where there are more explanation on the subject.
|| In the end, there was no mystery, just a [http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112551696/cern-confirms-neutrinos-not-faster-than-light/ defective cable causing a measurement error].
|-
| Suppresses sigma in experiments
|| No arrow but the last solid line, with an arrow pointing left, that is going away from the main line, point almost directly at it.
|| Sigma (σ) refers to the {{w|standard deviation}} - a mathematical measure of how much an observed value differs from the expected value. For a formal scientific discovery in particle physics, the standard is 5 sigma which means that there is about a 1 in 3.5 million chance that the results were caused by random errors (of course, they could be caused by ''systematic'' errors, such as measurement problems). Some tantalizing experiments have found interesting results at 3 or 4 sigma but either can't reach 5 sigma or {{w|Oops-Leon|are subsequently dis-proven}}. The question is, if the way the Fixion works here in this comic pushes the sigma value one way or the other? Does it suppress the value so it goes below or above the level of significance? Is it artificially pushed in the direction so a result seems like it is significant when it is not (see for instance [[882: Significant]]), or if it is the other way so some experiments, which could have found what the experimenters wanted to find, did not because the sigma has been artificially lowered below the proof threshold. Either way it is a very annoying fact of the Fixion, but it would explain a lot, and probably also make it very hard to find the Fixion because of this intrinsic behavior.|| N/A
|-
| My theory predicts that, at high enough energies, FRBs and perytons become indistinguishable because the detector burns out.
|| From the title text.
|| This is a continuation of the joke already mentioned above regarding Fast radio bursts (FRBs) and perytons. GUTs normally predict that all the forces we see are the different low-energy versions of a single force which can only be seen at extremely high energies (much higher than any Earth-based collider could produce). A high-energy FRB would be a {{w|gamma ray burst}} and if it came from a close enough object, would obliterate all life on Earth... It would also wreck the sensitive electronics at Parkes Observatory. This "high energy unification" is stated in a way reminiscent of the unification of electromagnetic and weak forces at high energies; but unlike the latter, it involves two things only "appearing" (or, in this case, not appearing) to be the same, not actually becoming the same.
|| N/A
|}

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:A Christmas gift for physicists:
:The '''Fixion'''
:A new particle that explains everything

:[A chart resembling a Feynman diagram is shown. It begins with a solid line coming down at the top, going a little to the left. The line continues downwards all the time, but changes direction 16 times before exiting at the bottom almost straight under the starting point. At every point where it changes direction, there is some kind of “interaction” with something outside this line. There are 19 phrases, 10 on the left and 9 on the right. 11 of these are distinct labels for points on the line as 14 gray curved arrows points between these 11 phrases to specific points on the line. Three of the phrases on the left has two arrows pointing to two different, but close, parts of the line. The main central line is solid all the way, except at the very bottom, where it “disappears” inside a hole only to “reappear” later from a similar hole. Between these two holes the line is dotted. The lines going away (or to) the main line can be straight and solid, straight and dotted, wavy lines (with different waviness), even looking like a spiral. Two straight solid lines ends up at two space probes, and finally the last two straight solid lines coming in (and out) on either side of the “hole” in the line has arrow pointing in and out. Below the phrases will be listed in reading order, taking one on each side alternatingly. Above each is described if there are any arrow and, if there are, what they points at.]

:[Left: Arrow pointing to the very first part of the main line:]
::Main component of dark matter

:[Right: Arrow pointing to the very first part of the main line, but below the previous arrow:]
::Confines quarks and gluons

:[Left: Arrow points to the first solid line going left and upwards:]
::Neutralizes monopoles

:[Right: No arrow:]
::Suppresses antimatter in early universe

:[Left: Two arrows points to two dotted lines going out left and downwards below the first solid line:]
::Spontaneously emits dark energy

:[Right: Arrow pointing to several lines going almost parallel with the main line. The first line closest to the arrow is not connected with the main line. It bends closer to the other lines in the middle. The next line is connected to the main line, and is thus actually two lines going in to the main line. The same goes for the inner line, where there is some distance between the entry and exit, as the middle of these three lines connect to the main line in between. In principle there are four lines going in/out and one not connected, but it looks like three lines:]
::Mediates proton decay but then hides it

:[Left: One arrow points to the first wavy line (7 peaks) coming out and up towards the dotted lines above. A second arrow points further down the main line where there are three more wavy lines coming out, but to the right, they are all of the same length and go almost straight right, only a little down. The first has as short a wave length as the line above to the left, but as it is shorter it only has 6 peaks. Then the wavelength decreases to a very long one for the last, 5 peaks and then 3 peaks. The arrow points almost where the middle wavy line exits the main line:]
::Introduces dispersion in perytons from kitchen microwaves, explaining fast radio bursts

:[Right: An arrow point to the part of the main line between the three parallel lines and the first wavy line:]
::Broken symmetry causes ϴ=0, explaining unobserved neutron dipole moment

:[Left: No arrow:]
::Causes alpha effect

:[Right: No arrow, but right next to the middle of the three wavy line:]
::Covers naked singularities

:[Left: An arrow points to a spiraling line going upwards to the left:]
::Intercepts certain gravitational waves before they're observed.

:[Right: No arrow, but right next to the bottom of the three wavy line:]
::Causes coronal heating

:[Left: No arrow:]
::Higgs-ish

:[Right: A long arrow point to the point of the main line just below the line pointing to the bottom (and left) of the space probes:]
::Superluminally smooths anisotropies in early universe (but adds faint polarization for BICEP3 to find)

:[Left: One arrows point towards the point on the main lines where a solid line goes to the right and up and another arrow points on another solid line going away from the main line towards left and down. At the end of both lines are drawn spacecrafts with satelite dish and solar panels:]
::Accelerates certain spacecraft during flybys

:[Right: No arrow, but right next to the solid line with an arrow going into the main line just before the first hole where the main line disappears and becomes dotted:]
::Triggers Siberian sinkholes

:[Left: No arrow:]
::Melts ice in "Snowball Earth" scenario

:[Right: Arrow points to the dotted part of the main line between the two holes:]
::Transports neutrinos faster than light, but only on certain days through one area of France

:[Left: No arrow but the last solid line, with an arrow pointing left, that is going away from the main line, point almost directly at it:]
::Suppresses sigma in experiments

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1621: Fixion

2015-12-26T15:32:16Z

RenniePet: /* Table of Phenomena */ Minor corrections.

{{comic
| number = 1621
| date = December 25, 2015
| title = Fixion
| image = fixion.png
| titletext = My theory predicts that, at high enough energies, FRBs and perytons become indistinguishable because the detector burns out.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This explanation is very incomplete. It is a small and terrible draft, only listing some immediate things I have noticed. This article should be structured as: General idea, table of explanations for each property.}}
The second [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas]] comic in a row, this one - released on Christmas day - is a present to all physicists of a new particle, the ''Fixion'', which explains everything. The word "fixion" can be read as a pun: Either it can mean something like "fix-i-on," with "-on" being a suffix for many particles, and this particle being able to "fix" things; or it means "fiction" (in English, the pronunciations of "-xion" and "-ction" are indistinguishable).

In physics, there are still many big questions and mysteries. There are many phenomena which don't seem to fit, and we don't know how to explain yet. The "fixion" is satirically presented as a particle which acts as a {{w|Deus ex machina}} (see also [https://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusExMachina tvtropes]) which solves all of these mysteries without any serious fundamental reasons.

The style of the chart suggests a {{w|Feynman diagram}} - an easy way of drawing particle interactions. Typically, fermions (the "solid" particles like electrons and quarks) are shown with solid lines, photons (and generally the weak-force-carrying bosons) are shown with wavy lines, gluons with spiraling lines and other mediating particles (such as pions in the nuclear force, or the Higgs) with a dotted line. Randall obeys these rules only very loosely, which makes sense - many of the things involved in this Feynman diagram are either so theoretical that they have no widely used standard representation, or would never appear in a sensible diagram (spacecraft, for instance).

The title text is a further joke about FRBs and perytons. GUTs normally predict that all the forces we see are the different low-energy versions of a single force which can only be seen at extremely high energies (much higher than any Earth-based collider could produce). A high-energy FRB would be a {{w|gamma ray burst}} and if it came from a close enough object, would obliterate all life on Earth... and wreck the sensitive electronics at Parkes Observatory. This "high energy unification" is stated in a way reminiscent of the unification of electromagnetic and weak forces at high energies; but unlike the latter, it involves two things only "appearing" (or, in this case, not appearing) to be the same, not actually becoming the same.

===Table of Phenomena===
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5
|'''Phenomenon''' || '''Description''' || '''Solved?'''
|-
| Main component of {{w|dark matter}} || Our best measurements of the universe predict that visible matter is only about one-sixth of the matter in the universe; the remaining matter is "dark matter" that cannot be seen. The leading candidates for dark matter are {{w|WIMPs}} - weakly interacting massive particles. These would be new, undiscovered forms of matter which barely interact except through gravity and thus give off little or no light. Some of the dark matter is likely made up of {{w|MACHOs}} - massive compact halo objects; effectively dead stars too dim to see. MACHOs are probably only a minority of the dark matter, however. Studies of two colliding galaxy clusters suggest that dark matter can pass through other matter without slowing down, unlike ordinary matter. Moreover, calculations of the elements produced during the big bang - which match the observed distribution of elements in the universe very precisely - don't leave room for enough additional protons and neutrons to form the dark matter. || No, and proving the nature of dark matter will win someone the Nobel Prize.
|-
| Confines {{w|quark}}s and {{w|gluon}}s || {{w|Quark confinement}} means that we never see particles with {{w|colour charge|color charge}} (i.e. quarks and gluons) on their own. They only exist in groups that cancel out the color charge. Try to separate the groups, and the energy you add will instead cause new particles to pop into existence. || The basic facts of confinement are well understood, but some of the details are too complicated to tease out.
|-
| Suppresses antimatter in early universe || The universe today is made almost entirely of matter. Antimatter and matter are identical, except that the charges are opposite. Antimatter and matter "annihilate" when they come into contact? So why is the universe made of matter? Why didn't the universe have equal amounts of both, and if it did, why didn't it annihilate itself immediately? This is a big question in physics today. Of course, the fixion explains this. || Lots of theories, no conclusive evidence for any yet. The most notable theories revolve around the weak interaction, which has been shown to treat matter and antimatter asymmetrically. Now that the Higgs boson has been found, the biggest project for the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}} experiments is to try to crack this.
|-
| Neutralizes monopoles || {{w|Magnetic monopoles}} (i.e., a north charge without a south charge) should exist, according to many GUTs (grand unified theories) and string theories, but none have ever been seen. || No (despite claims that pop up in the news every year, creating a monopole-like state in the magnetic spins of a crystal is not the same as creating a real monopole.)
|-
| Spontaneously emits {{w|dark energy}} || Prior to the 1990s, most cosmologists expected that the universe's expansion after the Big Bang would either slow down or stay constant. In 1998, cosmologists discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. Under Einstein's theory of general relativity, the observed acceleration predicts that ordinary matter and dark matter make up about 30% of the universe's total energy, with the rest coming in the form of "dark energy." The nature of dark energy is not certain. However, the leading candidate is that space itself has intrinsic energy (either constant or variable), and so as space expands, the energy of the universe increases. || Again, Nobel Prize territory.
|-
| Mediates {{w|proton decay}}, but then hides it. || Many GUTs predict that protons will decay, but experiments have shown the proton to have a half life of at least the age of the universe. || It's not ''necessarily'' a problem. All theories predict that proton decay is a very slow process (10<sup>32+</sup> seconds), which is consistent with the current data.
|-
| Broken symmetry causes ϴ=0, explaining unobserved neutron dipole moment || The {{w|neutron electric dipole moment}} is a measure of how balanced electric charge is inside the neutron. ϴ (theta) is a number in quantum chromodynamics which quantifies the the breaking of a type of symmetry called {{w|CP violation|CP symmetry}}. If ϴ is not 0, one result of this should be a neutron dipole moment. {{w|Symmetry breaking}} is a common explanation of effects in some areas of theoretical physics (for instance, it's an important part of Higgs' theory about why particles have mass), but normally it explains why a value is ''not'' zero. Presumably the fixion breaks CP symmetry independently of QCD, which means that ϴ can be 0 while preserving observed CP-breaking effects. || Again, it's not (yet) a problem - the predicted dipole moment is tiny, and we're only just reaching the point when we can measure it that accurately.
|-
| Introduces dispersion in perytons from kitchen microwaves, explaining fast radio bursts || {{w|Fast radio burst}}s are unexplained bursts of radio-frequency energy from space. {{w|Peryton}}s are things that ''look like'' FRBs, but come from Earth (specifically, from the microwave oven at Parkes Observatory). Randall's fixions makes some perytons change frequency distribution so they appear to come from space. || No, but it's probably something very big - a star collapsing to a black hole or (as now looks likely) a {{w|magnetar}} (magnetic neutron star)
|-
| Covers naked singularities || A {{w|naked singularity}} is like a black hole without an {{w|event horizon}}. So far no naked singularity has been observed (except, arguably, the big bang) and the {{w|cosmic censorship hypothesis}} suggests they can't exist, although some people have suggested ways of making them. || Not necessarily something that needs explaining - none have been seen, and most theories say they don't exist. If support grows for {{w|loop quantum gravity}}, then we might have to start really searching.
|-
| Causes {{w|alpha effect}} || A weird effect from chemistry, where putting an "alpha" atom with a {{w|lone pair}} of electrons close to a molecule makes the molecule more likely to give up its electrons. || Lots of competing explanations.
|-
| Causes coronal heating || For some reason the outer layer of the sun (the {{w|corona}}) is hotter than most reasonable theories predict. || It's a mystery, but it possibly has something to do with waves in the corona (for example, the {{w|High Resolution Coronal Imager}} has seen "braids" in the corona that whip around and unravel themselves).
|-
| Intercepts certain {{w|gravitational waves}} before they're observed. || If gravity behaves like the other forces, it must be conveyed by waves. Our best detector, {{w|LIGO}} has yet to detect any gravitational waves, though this is probably just due to the low probability of events that would be detectable. Only extreme events like binary black hole mergers are detectable with the current setup. The proposed LISA spacecraft will be able to see things like orbiting black holes and neutron stars. || Let's wait for the LISA data before jumping to conclusions.
|-
| Higgs-ish || The {{w|Higgs boson}} is a manifestation of the Higgs field... but many supersymmetry and string theories predict multiple Higgs-like particles. It's almost a prerequisite of any new theory that it has a Higgs-ish element. || N/A
|-
| Accelerates certain spacecraft during flybys || This refers to the {{w|flyby anomaly}} which is sometimes (but not always) seen when spacecraft fly close to planets and pick up more speed than expected. It's not always seen - ROSETTA had no flyby anomaly when it swooped extremely close to Mars. || It could be an unpredicted quirk of gravity and relativity... or it could be experimental error.
|-
| Superluminally smooths anisotropies in early universe (but adds faint polarization for BICEP3 to find) || The CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) is incredibly uniform. In fact it is so uniform that the conclusion is that these areas must have been in contact at some time in the early universe. But with the age of the universe, even traveling at the speed of light, opposite sides never touch. The explanation usually given is that the universe expanded really fast in the beginning ("inflation"). {{w|BICEP2}} is a radio telescope at the South Pole whose operators claim to have seen polarization in the CMB indicative of inflation. || As stated, inflation is the standard explanation and it holds up fairly well. Other studies haven't seen the polarization that BICEP2 has - the {{w|Planck (spacecraft)|Planck space telescope}} also suggests that BICEP2 team were looking at an unusually dusty bit of space, which could cause polarization.
|-
| Triggers Siberian sinkholes || Recently, several sinkholes opened up in remote parts of Siberia. The explanation is currently unknown. || While there are lots of weird theories, there's a good chance they were [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mystery-of-the-siberian-holes-at-the-end-of-the-world-solved-scientists-offer-explanation-9642988.html caused by melting permafrost] (possibly due to global warming)
|-
| Melts ice in "{{w|Snowball Earth}}" scenario || "Snowball Earth" is the theory that the whole planet was covered in ice at some point. To melt all that ice by the greenhouse effect would require far more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than seems plausible. However, if volcanoes were to deposit black soot on the surface of the ice, it would start absorbing heat more efficiently (in scientific terms, the Earth's {{w|albedo}} would decrease) and that would also make the planet heat up. || There's no firm evidence one way or the other for Snowball Earth.
|-
| Transports neutrinos faster than light, but only on certain days through one area of France || Refers to the {{w|faster-than-light neutrino anomaly}}, where it seemed that a neutrino beam from {{w|CERN}} on the France/Switzerland border to the {{w|OPERA experiment}} in Italy traveled faster than light. Scientists were not able to reproduce the result. || In the end, there was no mystery, just a defective cable causing a measurement error.
|-
| Suppresses sigma in experiments || Sigma (σ) refers to the {{w|standard deviation}} - a mathematical measure of how much an observed value differs from the expected value. For a formal scientific discovery in particle physics, the standard is 5 sigma which means that there is about a 1 in 3.5 million chance that the results were caused by random errors (of course, they could be caused by ''systematic'' errors, such as measurement problems). Some tantalizing experiments have found interesting results at 3 or 4 sigma but either can't reach 5 sigma or {{w|Oops-Leon|are subsequently disproven}}. The fixion means that actually, these experiments ''have'' found what the experimenters wanted to find, but because of the fixion's dastardly behavior, the sigma has been artificially lowered below the proof threshold.|| N/A
|}

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:A Christmas gift for physicists:
:The '''Fixion'''
:A new particle that explains everything

:[A chart resembling a Feynman diagram is shown. It begins with a solid line coming down at the top, going a little to the left. The line continues downwards all the time, but changes direction 16 times before exiting at the bottom almost straight under the starting point. At every point where it changes direction, there is some kind of “interaction” with something outside this line. There are 19 phrases, 10 on the left and 9 on the right. 11 of these are distinct labels for points on the line as 14 gray curved arrows points between these 11 phrases to specific points on the line. Three of the phrases on the left has two arrows pointing to two different, but close, parts of the line. The main central line is solid all the way, except at the very bottom, where it “disappears” inside a hole only to “reappear” later from a similar hole. Between these two holes the line is dotted. The lines going away (or to) the main line can be straight and solid, straight and dotted, wavy lines (with different waviness), even looking like a spiral. Two straight solid lines ends up at two space probes, and finally the last two straight solid lines coming in (and out) on either side of the “hole” in the line has arrow pointing in and out. Below the phrases will be listed in reading order, taking one on each side alternatingly. Above each is described if there are any arrow and, if there are, what they points at.]

:[Left: Arrow pointing to the very first part of the main line:]
:Main component of dark matter

:[Right: Arrow pointing to the very first part of the main line, but below the previous arrow:]
:Confines quarks and gluons

:[Left: Arrow points to the first solid line going left and upwards:]
:Neutralizes monopoles

:[Right: No arrow:]
:Suppresses antimatter in early universe

:[Left: Two arrows points to two dotted lines going out left and downwards below the first solid line:]
:Spontaneously emits dark energy

:[Right: Arrow pointing to several lines going almost parallel with the main line. The first line closest to the arrow is not connected with the main line. It bends closer to the other lines in the middle. The next line is connected to the main line, and is thus actually two lines going in to the main line. The same goes for the inner line, where there is some distance between the entry and exit, as the middle of these three lines connect to the main line in between. In principle there are four lines going in/out and one not connected, but it looks like three lines:]
:Mediates proton decay but then hides it

:[Left: One arrow points to the first wavy line (7 peaks) coming out and up towards the dotted lines above. A second arrow points further down the main line where there are three more wavy lines coming out, but to the right, they are all of the same length and go almost straight right, only a little down. The first has as short a wave length as the line above to the left, but as it is shorter it only has 6 peaks. Then the wavelength decreases to a very long one for the last, 5 peaks and then 3 peaks. The arrow points almost where the middle wavy line exits the main line:]
:Introduces dispersion in perytons from kitchen microwaves, explaining fast radio bursts

:[Right: An arrow point to the part of the main line between the three parallel lines and the first wavy line:]
:Broken symmetry causes ϴ=0, explaining unobserved neutron dipole moment

:[Left: No arrow:]
:Causes alpha effect

:[Right: No arrow, but right next to the middle of the three wavy line:]
:Covers naked singularities

:[Left: An arrow points to a corkscrew line going upwards to the left:]
:Intercepts certain gravitational waves before they're observed.

:[Right: No arrow, but right next to the bottom of the three wavy line:]
:Causes coronal heating

:[Left: No arrow:]
:Higgs-ish

:[Right: A long arrow point to the point of the main line just below the line pointing to the bottom (and left) of the space probes:]
:Superluminally smooths anisotropies in early universe (but adds faint polarization for BICEP3 to find)

:[Left: One arrows point towards the point on the main lines where a solid line goes to the right and up and another arrow points on another solid line going away from the main line towards left and down. At the end of both lines are drawn space probes with sat4elie dish and solar panels:]
:Accelerates certain spacecraft during flybys

:[Right: No arrow, but right next to the solid line with an arrow going into the main line just before the first hole where the main line disappears and becomes dotted:]
:Triggers Siberian sinkholes

:[Left: No arrow:]
:Melts ice in "Snowball Earth" scenario

:[Right: Arrow points to the dotted part of the main line between the two holes:]
:Transports neutrinos faster than light, but only on certain days through one area of France

:[Left: No arrow but the last solid line, with an arrow pointing left, that is going away from the main line, point almost directly at it:]
:Suppresses sigma in experiments

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Space]]

1615: Red Car

2015-12-11T14:25:06Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ In Danish at least the tradition is that a fancy car is to compensate for impotence, not necessarily a small penis.

{{comic
| number = 1615
| date = December 11, 2015
| title = Red Car
| image = red_car.png
| titletext = That guy only drives an alkaline car to overcompensate for his highly acidic penis.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a take on the common stereotype that men who drive big (expensive) cars, do so to compensate for a small penis or problems with impotence.

{{w|Cyan}} is a greenish-blue color that is not a basic color term in most languages. It is the {{w|complementary color}} to red.

[[Megan]], upon seeing [[Hairy]] drive past in a red convertible, tells [[Cueball]] that he must be compensating for his cyan colored penis.

This comic thus generalizes the original stereotype to an assumption that men drive cars that compensate for problems with their penis. Under this principle, a red car would complement (be the opposite of) a cyan penis.

In the title text two other opposites are mentioned: {{w|acid}} and {{w|alkaline}}. An alkaline car would complement an acidic penis. This may also be a alkaline battery reference and refer to drivers of expensive electric cars.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are standing next to an intersection as Hairy drives by in a red convertible.]
:Megan: I bet he just drives that car to overcompensate for his cyan penis.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1606: Five-Day Forecast

2015-11-20T15:06:15Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Minor copy-editing.

{{comic
| number = 1606
| date = November 20, 2015
| title = Five-Day Forecast
| image = five_day_forecast.png
| titletext = You know what they say--if you don't like the weather here in the Solar System, just wait five billion years.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w| Meteorology#Meteorologists |meteorologists}} only provides us with a five day forecast.

In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a [[Five-Day Forecast]] and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecast.

Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we must assume this indicates the weather today (and not tomorrow on in a trillion years). It is first in the second panel that we have made the first jump according to the label.

When moving past the five days, the weather is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. And then it is winter with January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.

Looking at the five-year forecast, guesses are made as to what the weather will be like at the same time of year. For these first three predictions the weather symbols are all of the same three types. Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow. And the temperature range from 21 to 44°F (-6.1 to 6.6°C), winter temperature.

Then we go into the far future, jumping a million year from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. However, in 3 million years time aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from something looking like {{w| flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. The temperature range is still the same (except that it rises to 52°F or 11.1°C, a possible reference to global warming) in one panel. But then while the attack is going on the temperature rises to 275°F (135°C).

Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather". Because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in its {{w|Sun#Main_sequence| main sequence|}}), it will still grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust its supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate be expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panel two and three where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes less hot as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105°F = 40.5°C and 371°F = 188 °C). So in two billion years the temperature is hot enough that all the earth's oceans will have boiled away… Actually this will happen already in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years].

Then once there is {{w| Sun#After_core_hydrogen_exhaustion|no longer enough hydrogen}} the Sun will truly expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until five billions years from now, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen already in three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a five-billion-years forecast. Alternatively it is just indicating how uncertain these kind of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
Disregarding this, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earth's position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71 million degrees Fahrenheit (almost 40 million degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). And although that may rise by a factor ten during {{w| Stellar nucleosynthesis |helium fusion}} then that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of Fahrenheit, since the Sun's outer temperature decreases as it increases its diameter. So this panels temperature also makes little sense.

The red giant phase only last half a million years, so a billion years after the Sun has been a red giant its outer atmosphere will for sure have disappeared leaving only a {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not indicated in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background |background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 Kelvin = -270.4245ºC = -454.7641ºF. So this is a few degree F colder than what is shown in the comic which states the temperature is -452ºF = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the star light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.

In the last panel with trillion years, we jump right past the Sun's Red Giant phase, to a panel looking much like the one after five billions years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars become fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as they run out of fuel and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature even decreases one degree to -453ºF as the universe keeps expanding and the wave length of the radiation does the same (thus decreasing its temperature).

The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

A ten days forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]] Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well.

==Transcript==
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]

:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:41°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:44°F

:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
:29°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:21°F
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
:24°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:35°F

:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:25°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:36°F
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
:37°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:41°F

:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:52°F
:[A grey cloud.]
:40°F
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
:275°F
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
:40°F

:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A larger orange sun.]
:105°F
:[A very large red sun.]
:371°F
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
:71.488.106°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F

:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
:[A bright yellow sun.]
:38°F
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with many stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
:-452°F
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
:-453°F

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1597: Git

2015-10-30T13:22:10Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Adding an interesting fact.

{{comic
| number = 1597
| date = October 30, 2015
| title = Git
| image = git.png
| titletext = If that doesn't fix it, git.txt contains the phone number of a friend of mine who understands git. Just wait through a few minutes of 'It's really pretty simple, just think of branches as...' and eventually you'll learn the commands that will fix everything.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Can someone who understands Git please explain how it works? Some information on graph theory might be helpful}}
{{w|Git (software)|Git}} is a {{w|Version control|version control}} system often used to track changes to (usually) plain text files, such as computer code. Within a folder and its subfolders, the user can tell Git which files to keep track of changes for. All the files that are being tracked in this manner make up a repository. Internally, Git works by saving the differences between various versions of the files, rather than creating a new copy each time the user "commits" the current version of the code. This approach allows the user to switch between various versions of the code fairly quickly. However, this can be confusing for new users because when changing between versions, Git effectively rewrites the files under its control to match that version - one file may have several different versions depending on which state Git has set it to, but only one of these versions is visible at any given moment. The others are not hidden or moved, they do not exist until Git modifies the file to match that version.

In addition to allowing the user to track changes to the files over time using "commits" (versions of the files stored by the user), Git also allows the user to develop several versions of the files in parallel using "branches" (mentioned in the title text). This allows a programmer to, for example, keep a stable, functioning version of their code in one branch, while developing a new feature in a separate branch. When the new feature is ready, Git provides tools to efficiently "merge" the changes from the development branch back into the main branch. While powerful, there are also several pitfalls which can confuse users. For example, a file may have only been committed in one branch (so it is only visible in that branch), causing a user who has switched to a different branch to think that file was lost somehow.

Sharing a Git repository with other users is done through a remote repository, such as [https://github.com/ GitHub], [https://about.gitlab.com/ GitLab], or one set up by the user themselves. This remote repositories act as a central location through which collaborates share their work. Changes do not automatically propagate between users; instead, once someone has changes they are ready to share, they must upload ("push" in Git terminology) their changes to the remote repository. Other users can then download ("pull") those changes. This allows each user complete control over when changes are applied to their version of the files. Once one user has pushed his or her changes, all other users will need to merge those changes into their code before they can push. Depending on how much the changes conflict, Git may be able to automatically combine both users' version, or the user may need to do so manually.

In programming, Git is a very popular way to share source code of programs between computers and users and thus work on projects collaboratively.

However, problems often arise when, for example, one attempts to upload code to a file someone else has already edited.
Git has quite a few tricks to handle "merging" itself.

One way of simplifying collaboration is to work in a "branch", the same files that everyone has, but your changes do not become visible to other users yet. Only when you merge (there we go again) your branch with the master branch, other users will see your "commits".

But, due to the complex nature of Git (and its notoriously counter-intuitively named commands), a large portion of users are unable to use it beyond basic commands. They consider it usually much more efficient just to save the code to a different file, download a newer copy, and then re-apply their original changes to the new copy than to try and understand and use Git's own convoluted built-in commands to attempt to fix it properly.

Git was originally created by {{w|Linus Torvalds}}, the same person who originally created {{w|Linux}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball points to a computer on a desk near Ponytail and Hairy.]
:Cueball: This is Git. It tracks collaborative work on projects through a beautiful distributed graph theory tree model.
:Ponytail: Cool. How do we use it?
:Cueball: No idea. Just memorize these shell commands and type them to sync up. If you get errors, save your work elsewhere, delete the project, and download a fresh copy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]

1577: Advent

2015-09-14T13:40:35Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo.

{{comic
| number = 1577
| date = September 14, 2015
| title = Advent
| image = advent.png
| titletext = The few dozen doors that have little Christmas trees on them are a nice touch.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|first drafts}}
An {{w|Advent calendar}} is usually a means of celebrating the days before Christmas. Each day on the calendar contains a small gift. This comic satirizes the concept by proposing such a calendar that would have one gift for each day one is anticipated to live. Such a calendar would be very morbid and existential. This is especially disturbing when given as a gift because it implies someone has put extensive thought into when the recipient will die.

In Cueball's case, assuming each square in the calendar represents one day, and that the wall he is facing is the entire present he received, the sender of the gift assumes he will live for just under 46 more years. Each smaller grid is 10×7, and the larger grid is 12×20 smaller grids; 10×7×12×20/365.25 = 45.99589. Assuming that Cueball is a male from the US, and according to American Official Social Security [http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html Actuarial Life Table] for males, he is probably 31-32 years old at the time of this comic's publication.

The title text refers back to a standard advent calendar by saying that the Christmases are specially marked; on a traditional Advent calendar, only the 1st to the 24th of December have doors, however in recent times, Advent calendars often also include an additional door for the day after Advent, Christmas Day. Referring back to [[1070: Words for Small Sets]], the title text places Cueball's death between 24 and 60 years in the future.

A completely different advent calendar was mentioned in [[994: Advent Calendar]].

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is looking at a large wall subdivided into a rectangular grid, with each grid subdivided into 70 small drawers]
:Caption: Unsettling gift: Life expectancy Advent calendar

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1558: Vet

2015-08-03T10:53:41Z

RenniePet: Europe may not be safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4Rl4VrMp8 [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 11:20, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

"There is something wrong with my dog" and "The Migratory Bird Treaty act" is really messed up. Roomba might be produced in US, but a dog is not a bird so Megan must be really confused. Except for just a few species, birds can fly and the last Roomba that flown got help from its owner into a wall for being a walking hazard. Or could Megan mean that among the dirt is feathers (from pillows maybe) that got stuck in the wheels and therefor ascends directly from birds and dinosaurs. [[User:Aquaplanet|Aquaplanet]] ([[User talk:Aquaplanet|talk]]) 13:06, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:That whoosh sound was the joke going way over your head. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.141|173.245.54.141]] 14:39, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:{{w|Bird_Dog_(song)|Bird dog}}..? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 06:32, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

It looks to me like this is a vet at a big-box pet supply store; that would explain the lack of a separate waiting room. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:02, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

:I was going to say that maybe it's just a returns counter or complaint department. Are there actually vets at Petsmart-or-others that operate like this? Vet being a desk that you just queue up for? [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 19:36, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

The pet of the second customer fits into the carrier, because it apparently is HALF-dog (head and a pair of legs). {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.99}}

"...Perhaps he has another small dog in there..." Actually, he may have arrived by bus or car, with the dog inside the carrier during the ride (for safety and convenience) but walking into the clinic with the dog on a leash because, hey! carrying even a smallish dog inside its carrier is a lot more work than getting the dog to carry himself, while carrying the much lighter carrier in the other hand. [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 01:38, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Reading the explanation about dog being too big, I got another idea: the second person is going to complain about the dog not fitting in the carrier (because it grown, likely) and would want the vet to do something with the dog to fix it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:43, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

;Add discussion of what would really happen when she released it into the wild

Would it be able to move on the ground outdoors?

Start trying to vacuum up the dirt under it and just dig itself into a hole?

Get stuck due to inability to move on a surface that isn't horizontal?

Eventually, it's going to "die" because the batteries run out, but what happens until then.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.56.215|162.158.56.215]] 13:29, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Well, if it finds a mate to reproduce with, and quickly enough to raise the young Roombairns to maturity before it does expire... Evolution! Maybe the race of Roombae will develop to inhabit an unused ecological niche, and proliferate! Or, because there rarely ''are'' unused ecological niches, become an aggressive 'invader', causing the decline or even extinction of the existing wildlife in that footprint.
:As the Roombakind's main ability is moving dirt, I predict that it will be the two major large-scale creatures who move dirt who may be effected. The beaver, and humanity.
:Good luck, Homo North Americanus! Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water. But maybe by the time they develop the means to do so (perhaps by cooperatively forming "Roombacraft", coming together in a group and selectively reversing their airflow to create a cushion of air to first cross the Panama Canal and the gaps between the ice sheets over the top of the Arctic, whilst some tilt to provide thrust, and perhaps even ultiamtely the oceans themselves....), humanity in Europe, Asia, Australasia and elsewhere will have found a developing natural predator of this potential planetary scourge.
:And then we can but only hope that this natural predator, whatever it might be, does not itself evolve to become an even worse threat to humanity's existence!
:...You will of course find my logic to be faultless, throughout this entire speculation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:36, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:: "Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water."
:: May not be a problem much longer ...
:: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/24/travel/trans-siberian-road/
:: --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:53, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

;Order of explanation
Actually, what I was going to write was that I think the explanation needs some shuffling. Currently it's "What a Rhoomba is; Other comics mentioning Rhoombas; The details of the comic (in the light of the knowledge of Rhoombas); The details of the title-text." To be consistent to the general form, it seems like it needs to be "The details of the comic (albeit without over-assumption of pre-knowledge concerning Roombas); What a Rhoomba is; (And add why it wouldn't survive 'in the wild', if you wish.); Explain the title-text; Conclude with the links to the other comics." Or similar. But that'd need a hefty re-write for forward/backward references. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:46, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T10:47:26Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Minor refinement.

{{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 the 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 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 the kind of evil prank Black Hat is infamous for.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into 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. Black Hat is sad about this fact. He could have liked it if it was possible for the car to actually go all the way.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, holding a large rock, is addressing Cueball.]
:Black Hat:
:Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?
:Cueball:
:What?
:Uh, probably.
:Black Hat:
:Great!
:Thump
:Please fasten your seatbelt.
:click
:Take me to Anchorage, Alaska.
:Navigating
:slam
:vroom
: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]]

1546: Tamagotchi Hive

2015-07-03T20:39:22Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Slight elaboration.

{{comic
| number = 1546
| date = July 3, 2015
| title = Tamagotchi Hive
| image = tamagotchi_hive.png
| titletext = The Singularity happened, but not to us.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explain the comic and the title text}}
A {{w|Tamagotchi}} is a keychain-sized virtual pet simulation game from 1996. Ostensibly for children, they had appeal for people of all ages. The characters are colorful and simplistically designed creatures based on animals, objects, or people. Beginning with the 2004 Tamagotchi Plus/Connection, a second wave of Tamagotchi toys emerged, featuring a different graphic design by JINCO and gameplay which elaborated upon the first generations. However, the story behind the games remained the same: Tamagotchis are a small alien species that deposited an egg on Earth to see what life was like, and it is up to the player to raise the egg into an adult creature. The creature goes through several stages of growth, and will develop differently depending on the care the player provides, with better care resulting in an adult creature that is smarter, happier, and requires less attention. Gameplay can vary widely between models, and some models, such as TamagoChu, require little to no care from the player. Tamagotchi has a large fan base.

{{w|Distributed computing}} is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system is a software system in which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages. The components interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal. Examples of distributed systems vary from SOA-based systems to massively multiplayer online games to peer-to-peer applications.

The singularity in the title text refers to {{w|technological singularity}} which would result in an {{w|intelligence explosion}} where artificial intelligence would take over. The implication is that the AI takes care of a population of virtual creatures rather than the human population.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby
:[A tree graph of Tamagotchis.]
:Running a massive distributed computing project that simulates trillions and trillions of Tamagotchis and keeps them all constantly fed and happy

[[Category:My_Hobby]]

{{comic discussion}}

633: Blockbuster Mining

2015-06-29T21:26:40Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ "&" -> "and"

{{comic
| number = 633
| date = September 7, 2009
| title = Blockbuster Mining
| image = blockbuster mining.png
| titletext = The 2007 Bridge To Terebithia trailer put me off too much to see that particular movie, but I am cautiously optimistic about Where The Wild Things Are.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has acquired the {{w|intellectual property}} rights to produce a movie, but is unsure of how to make it appealing to a wide audience. An off-screen character suggests hiring {{w|Michael Bay}}, a director and producer well known (and occasionally criticized) for his style of film adaptation. Cueball is unsure that the IP would be a good fit for a summer blockbuster, but is dismissed.

The following panels depict violent and gritty scenes from a spy thriller, starring an unknown and brutal female spy. In the last panel, she is revealed to be {{w|Harriet the Spy}}, the 11 year old protagonist of a bestselling children's book written by Louise Fitzhugh, as well as other spinoff books written by various other authors.

The comic references Hollywood's search for new stories to adapt to film, and how poor (not to mention {{w|Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters|violent}}) some of these adaptations can be. There is additional humor in the fact that the original novel is about school-child concerns such as friends and is not violent.

The {{w|Bridge to Terabithia (2007 film)|film adaptation}} of {{w|Bridge to Terabithia (novel)|Bridge to Terabithia}} had trailers that made it appear to have very little in common with the themes and tone of the novel. The actual movie is one of Hollywood's better book adaptations{{Citation needed}}, but the trailers were extremely misleading and off-putting to fans of the novel, as in the title text. Viewers who were unfamiliar with the novel and saw the movie with expectations based on the trailer were also unprepared for the actual movie{{Citation needed}}. The trailer was essentially every single special-effect shot from the movie, giving the impression it was a special-effects extravaganza, which would have been very inappropriate based on the novel, and does not reflect the actual content of the movie.

The {{w|Where_the_Wild_Things_Are_(film)|film adaptation}} of {{w|Where the Wild Things Are}} met with {{w|Where_the_Wild_Things_Are_(film)#Critical response|favorable responses from critics}}, the public, and the {{w|Maurice Sendak|book's author}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a script in his hands.]
:Cueball: We've acquired some new rights, but I'm not sure it's in the spirit to make it a blockbuster--
:Voice: Do it anyway. Take $100 million, hire Michael Bay.
:Cueball: But--
:Voice: ''NEXT!''

:[Panel is inverted, white on black background.]
:[Two men are pointing machine guns at Harriet. Harriet points two handguns back at them.]
:Harriet: They said if I were captured I should take my own life.
:Harriet: But I'd just as soon take yours.

:[Harriet jumps off a cliff carrying a spiral notebook and a gun, while the cliff explodes behind her. In the background is a helicopter, some mountains, and the sea.]
:''BOOM''

:[Panel is inverted, white and red on black background.]
:[Man is tied to a chair. Blood is pooling on the ground below. Harriet stands in front, holding a bloody pipe.]
:Man: Stop! I'll talk!
:Harriet: No, I know everything. This is just for fun.

:[Crosshairs follow a man.]
:Harriet: I'll be watching.

:[The panel is inverted colour, white on black.]
:Harriet
:the
:[in red] ''SPY''
:[A bloody spiral notebook, with blood streaks leading from it.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

Talk:1542: Scheduling Conflict

2015-06-26T10:22:39Z

RenniePet: Current start of the emplanation is stupid.

What happened to my transcript? I came here, found no page created, put the template up with a transcript and now it's all been overwritten. :P [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:19, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
:What happened is that you created the page [[1542]], but that is only mean to be a ''redirect page'' that leads to this page: [[1542: Scheduling Conflict]]. The bot that creates this automatically deleted your transcript when it did it's magic. You can still find you transcript on the 1542 page in the history. (You will have to press the 1542 in the ''(Redirected from 1542)'' at the top of the page to go that page). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:34, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
::@Jarod997 -- I think there might have been a scheduling conflict. [[User:Ahem|Ahem]] ([[User talk:Ahem|talk]]) 16:41, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
::@Kynde Ah ha! Tyvm for the explanation. I was wondering though why I wasn't seeing any page up - was the bot a little slow yesterday? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:26, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

In the explanation, I thought it was more a play on an oxymoron of a bunch of people who are good at fixing scheduling conflicts, only to have a contest in which they're entered be cancelled because of a scheduling conflict. I was going to put this in the explanation (which was blank at the time), but then someone overwrote me - and quite ironically a conflict arose. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:26, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
:Certainly these were my first thoughts. (Championships must take place after (often regional) qualifying Heats, and those that ascend to the final level then need to make themselves available for the ultimate play-offs.) It's possibly the inverse (conflict-creation!), but getting through the preliminaries might be like the old joke of losing out on the competition to become Village Idiot to the competitor ''who didn't turn up''! With ''neither'' of the two sought-after contacts available, either they've not resolved to ensure that at least one of them is contactable at all times, or else they've managed to put aside all other commitments (''including'' the Championships?) to finally get some time together ''with each other''... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.30|141.101.98.30]] 16:39, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
My original take was similar to that of Jarod997- the cancellation wasn't due to anything the participants did/didn't do, but that the competition itself had a scheduling conflict (like the venue was double-booked or something). [[User:AnInsideJoke|AnInsideJoke]] ([[User talk:AnInsideJoke|talk]]) 18:23, 24 June 2015 (UTC)AnInsideJoke
: Sure but that is just not funny, and it does not explain why nobody could be reached for comment [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:02, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
:: Because they were too embarrassed over their inability to fix the scheduling conflict over the scheduling conflict championships. [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 22:50, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps it's somethin about the US elections or any debate (we didn't recieve any news here at south, im at Brazil hehehehhehe), but a debate is a national event with conflicts chanpionships and it is scheduled. I recon that is something with the schedule of US elections debate, perhaps it was cancled or just changed. perhaps i was seeing the light reflect on mars and was flashed with the M.I.B. memory flash hehehehehehhehehehehehhe. [[User:Gabrielpenalber|gabrielpenalber]] ([[User User:Gabrielpenalber|talk]])

A few remarks, but I'll leave it to someone better versed in the English language to work it into the explanation if he/she wishes to:
- Is this an American thing, to assume the current world champion must be last year's national champion?
- there is a play on words in the title(s), they would be read as "National Scheduling Conflict: Championships canceled" which begs the question "Which championships?". It is only when reading the NSCC banner that you could assume something like the "National Scheduling Conflict Championships" exists.
- How did they get a world champion if the championships are presumably always cancelled? Does that mean the prize is claimed anyway or that the champion is actualy not as good at scheduling conflicts as all those people cancelling because of scheduling conflicts.
- Now I'm overthinking, but there is no reason for a spokesperson to be a good at the activity of the organisation he/she is spokesperson for, or is there? {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.116}}
-

This reminds me a lot of comic #1466: Phone checking. Both are about an obscure championship, and both are interrupted by the nature of said championship. --[[User:Quantanaut|Quantanaut]] ([[User talk:Quantanaut|talk]]) 17:08, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

So (as commented on briefly by an earlier person) I initially read the newspaper headline as National Scheduling Conflict: Championships Cancelled, which is the most obvious reading the way it's stylized, although obviously the picture doesn't make sense in this context. But I think this is intended, that you first read it that way then you look at the picture and go "oh".--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.195|108.162.215.195]] 19:36, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
: Yeah, I also thought that's what it said. Maybe a mention of {{w|syntactic ambiguity}} in the explanation would be worthwhile? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.96|108.162.221.96]] 02:25, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
::Honestly the idea that it was two separate sentences never actually occurred to me at all, since while having it as one sentence makes sense as a joke (especially considering other things in XKCD, like the Tautology Society), whereas the way you're suggesting it isn't a joke. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 00:27, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Is there any significant scheduling conflict going on Randall's life right now or his recent past that served as impetus for this comic? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.35|108.162.220.35]] 02:20, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
:That'd explain why the last few weeks/month of comics seemed to have been delayed until later in the day.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.236|108.162.219.236]] 08:14, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

I think there could be a reference to the very common political ploy of using a "scheduling conflict" as an excuse to miss an event where the politician expects to be challenged or questioned on an issue he wishes to avoid. This is so frequent that it has become a cliché in American politics. [[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 06:58, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Seems like a remarkably convoluted explanation rather than the simpler one that it is the National Scheduling Conflict Championships (NSCC) which have been cancelled, the joke being the obvious one [[User: Stumpy|Stumpy]]
: I agree, the current first couple paragraphs are ridiculous. If this silly way of reading the two newspaper headlines as separate lines has to be mentioned, it should be at the end, as a kind of dubious and totally unlikely alternative interpretation. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:22, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

== constraint programming ==

I think the championship is referring to computer programs that solve scheduling conflicts (a NP hard problem) google "constraint programming scheduling problems"

Basically scheduling is an example of a real world problem that can be expressed in a set of NP-complete constraints that can be solved by a computer given enough time. Even tho the problem is NP, the real world data and symmetries of problem means that certain algorithms (or constraint solver) can find the answer faster than others. The championship would be a completion to advance the state of art in constraint solvers to speed the computation of real world NP hard problems (such completions exist/existed). -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.142|173.245.48.142]] 08:31, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

1534: Beer

2015-06-06T00:59:08Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Less slang.

{{comic
| number = 1534
| date = June 5, 2015
| title = Beer
| image = beer.png
| titletext = Mmmm, this is such a positive experience! I feel no social pressure to enjoy it at all!
}}

==Explanation==

[[Hairy]] offers [[Cueball]] some beer from his fridge, and Cueball takes the opportunity to suggest that people should admit that beer tastes bad and stop pretending to like it. Hairy berates Cueball for making such an affirmation, and Cueball, having failed to break the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S1d3cNge24&t=47m34s mutual knowledge barrier], consents to drink it and pretend to like it to preserve social cohesion and what he perceives to be a mass delusion.

The comic implies that beer doesn't actually taste good, and instead fits the definition of an {{w|acquired taste}}, with most people initially pretending to like beer to conform to social norms, and later {{w|Internalisation (sociology)|internalizing}} this belief to prevent {{w|cognitive dissonance}}. The theory is that this dissonance is perpetuated by advertising and {{w|peer pressure}}, which present beer as a naturally pleasant beverage. [[Cueball]] agrees to do his part to maintain that image, having been criticized when he tried to {{w|The Emperor's New Clothes|bring up the truth}}. Cueball fails to empathize with [[Hairy]]. He has failed to build an accurate cognitive model as he assumes that Hairy is also only pretending to like beer.

The title text {{w|sarcastic|sarcastically}} expands on this.

The [http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/10/01/352771618/from-kale-to-pale-ale-a-love-of-bitter-may-be-in-your-genes like or dislike] of certain tastes, such a beer, may have a [http://news.psu.edu/story/327406/2014/09/23/research/research-shows-alcohol-sensations-influenced-genes genetic background] which would be linked to the culture and evolution of your ancestors.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Hairy standing in front of a fridge.]
:Hairy: What do you drink? Stouts? Lagers?
:Cueball: Uh, anything's fine.

:[Cueball and Hairy holding beers and Hairy is drinking.]
:Cueball: ...do you ever think maybe we should just admit that all beer tastes kind of bad and everyone's just pretending?

:[Now Cueball drinks.]
:Hairy: Man, you are ''no'' fun at all.
:Cueball: Ok, got it. Not a word.
:Hairy: Dude, if you don't like it, don't drink it.
:Cueball: No, no, gotta do my part! Mmmmm!!!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]

1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect

2015-05-29T11:43:52Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Singular.

{{comic
| number = 1531
| date = May 29, 2015
| title = The BDLPSWDKS Effect
| image = the bdlpswdks effect.png
| titletext = This well-known effect has of course been replicated in countless experiments.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}
BDLPSWDKS is an acronym for Bernoulli Doppler Leidenfrost Peltzman Sapir Whorf Dunning Kruger Stroop, as explained in the comic.

The effect mentioned appears to be a mashup of seven scientific principles from different scientific fields, with elements from each principle appearing in the resulting description of the effect:

{{w|Bernoulli's principle}} in fluid dynamics (also mentioned in [[803: Airfoil]]) states that an increase in the speed of a fluid with certain properties occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy, often incorrectly used to explain how an airplane lifts off the ground. This is referenced by the firetruck lifting off.

The {{w|Doppler effect}} in physics refers to the change in a wave's frequency for an observer moving relative to its source. The effect can be observed from the siren sounding in an approaching vehicle. This is referenced by the firetruck moving towards the observer and making noise.

The {{w|Leidenfrost effect}} refers to how liquid will produce an insulating vapor layer when in near contact with an extremely hot surface, causing it to hover over said surface. This is referenced by the firetruck hovering on a layer of superheated gas.

The {{w|Peltzman effect}} refers to how regulations intended to increase safety are ineffective or counterproductive. This is likely referenced by the observer responding to a dangerous situation after being warned.

The {{w|Sapir–Whorf hypothesis}} states that a person's world view and cognitive processes are affected by the structure of the language the person speaks. This is referenced by how the observer reacts differently depending on the {{w|Tone (linguistics)|tonality}} of the language in which the warning is uttered and whether or not the language contains the word "firefighter."

The {{w|Dunning–Kruger effect}} refers to unskilled people mistakenly perceive themselves as more skilled than they really are, while skilled people underestimate their own abilities. This is referenced by how observers react differently when they erroneously perceive themselves to be fluent in a language.

The {{w|Stroop effect}} refers to the phenomenon in which it is easier to name the color of the ink in which a word is written when the word refers to the same color as the ink than when the word refers to a different color. If we assume the firetruck is red, this suggests that the driver shouting '''<span style="color:red">RED</span>''' would get a faster response than the driver shouting '''<span style="color:red">GREEN</span>'''.

Usually, for an effect to be considered real, the scientific method requires the effect to be replicated by different experimenters in different times and places. It is hard to imagine several scientists in different parts of the world creating the setup to replicate this effect; however the title text mentions it has been done countless times.

==Transcript==

:Ponytail stands next to a screen displaying a firetruck hurtling toward Cueball on what appears to be a layer of gas.

:Ponytail: The Bernoulli-Doppler-Leidenfrost-Peltzman-Sapir-Whorf-Dunning-Kruger-Stroop Effect states that if a speeding fire truck lifts off and hurtles towards you on a layer of superheated gas, you'll dive out of the way faster if the driver screams ''"RED!"'' in a '''''non'''''-tonal language that '''''has''''' a word for "firefighter" than if they scream ''"GREEN!"'' in a '''''tonal''''' language with '''''no''''' word for "firefighter" which you '''''think''''' you're fluent in but '''''aren't'''''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:1528

2015-05-22T12:39:41Z

RenniePet:

Wohoo I'm first how's it going people from the near future?

Weirdly enough, 80 proof vodka and the human body are both about 60% water. If you replaced the remaining 30-odd percent of volume in your body with pure alcohol, you could sustain yourself purely on vodka! Or become vodka. [[User:Consumer|Consumer]] ([[User talk:Consumer|talk]]) 09:37, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

That Polytail is a pretty hardcore lady - it looks like she's drinking directly from the bottle. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:39, 22 May 2015 (UTC)

1524: Dimensions

2015-05-13T13:17:37Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ I'm guessing man-made disasters (war) have killed more people than natural disasters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}



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

Talk:1522: Astronomy

2015-05-08T10:35:13Z

RenniePet:

For a telescope you can be far away, for a magnifying glass or microscope you need a ladder to be nearer to the stars. Microscopes are for biology, telescopes for astronomy.
They have got a similar purpose, but look and are applied differently. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.122|108.162.254.122]] 07:09, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Seemed like another example of Beret guy contradicting how things work, like how he blows into the power cord and inflated a computer, or how he plugged a cord into a power outlet labeled "COFFEE" and coffee came out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.168|108.162.238.168]] 07:19, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
:Yes obviously this approach works for Berret Guy because this is what he does. Explanation lacks this fact. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:44, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
:Soup, wasn't it? But yes, for some reason he can actually use a stepladder to get a closer look (and a better one, thanks t the magnifying glass) on the "curtain of the night", which for him ''is'' actually within reach. As if it is just like a stage back-cloth with some form of star-effect (holes and backlight or sewn-in LEDs) as far as he is concerned.
:But what I was actually coming here to say was regarding Astrobiology being a portmanteu (as currently in the explanation). I'm not sure I'd call it that. It's really a perfectly normal compound description of a study area, like many others in science, used to clarify what ''subset'' of biology it is (e.g. paleobiology being the biology of historic organisms, more or less, coming roughly from the greek for "old life study"). Although it does rather hint at it's "the biology of stars themselves", as opposed to the perhaps more accurate exobiology ("outside life study") when it comes to off-Earth life not in (or being) actual stars; or xenobiology ("strange life study"), although that does tend to include oddments of obscure Earth biology and artificial life as well and really doesn't mean the study of extra-terrestrial organisms... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.186|141.101.98.186]] 08:00, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
:: Astrobiology is a perfectly normal word. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.151|173.245.54.151]] 08:49, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

A minor comment on the incorrect use of the word ''portmanteau'' in the explanation so far: it is defined as [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/portmanteau a word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words], [[wikipedia:portmanteau]]; however, [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/astro- astro-] is a combining form of the the greek word ''aster'' meaning ''star'', used to form compound words, such as ''astro-bio-logy'' (aster-bios-logos: star-life-word). See [[1485]] for an example of the correct use of ''portmanteau''. (someone beat me to it while i was editing this ;-))
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.161|141.101.104.161]] 08:07, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
:Thank you. --{{User:17jiangz1/signature|09:14, 08 May 2015}}

You could view the comic as a theatrical production, Megan's telescope as a prop, and Beret guy is just inspecting the backdrop. The ladder is for comic and aesthetic effect {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.53}}

Aaaaa. Astronomers do not touch telescopes while observing. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.185|173.245.52.185]] 09:23, 8 May 2015 (UTC) Cameron

My first association was the Hubble Space Telescope: Even though there are huge telescopes on earth, most (all?) of them are inferior to the relatively small telescope a few km above earth's surface. Beret Guy could have tried to achive the same effect by climbing a ladder. [[User:Epaminaidos|Epaminaidos]] ([[User talk:Epaminaidos|talk]]) 09:58, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm with 141.101.99.53 - I'm not sure that those white dots are stars. My first thought was that they were flecks of dirt or something on the wall or on the inside of a dome. What Megan is doing there with that huge telescope I don't know, but a telescope of that size is not usually used outdoors where stars can be seen down to the horizon. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:35, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1521: Sword in the Stone

2015-05-06T10:52:14Z

RenniePet:

In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove the Sword in the Stone is the lawful king of England. Arthur is an orphan being raised in secret; he notices the sword, removes it, and is proclaimed king. The sword is sometimes identified as Excalibur, although in other versions Excalibur was acquired by King Arthur from the Lady of the Lake. The most familiar version of this story is ''The Sword in the Stone'' by T. H. White which is based on ''Le Mort d'Arthur'' by Sir Thomas Malory. Having a woman remove the sword would introduce difficulties. [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 06:12, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Seriously? Megan being transgender is preposterous. The comic mentions a throne, not a king. The proposition that the character needs to be a man is far fetched and a bit sexist. The legend usually mentions a ruler, not a kind per se. Even if it were a king, that is a baseless statement. Legends are up to interpretation. If a woman pulls out a sword it is possible that she be crowned Queen without having a king. Case in point, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria -of England; they both have seen the glory days of Britain. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.152|108.162.221.152]] 07:27, 6 May 2015 (UTC)BK201

: And there was {{w|Jadwiga of Poland}}, female who was crowned '''king'''. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:33, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

In a visual novel, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saber_(Fate/stay_night) King Arthur is a girl]. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.169|108.162.222.169]] 08:06, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Should be lawful king of Britain. King Arthur was fighting against the English. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.66|141.101.98.66]] 08:30, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

I doubt it's a coincidence that this comic was published the day before a UK general election that is widely predicted to be heading for the most complicated hung parliament in history. The monarch is a purely ceremonial head of state in practically all respects, but does (in theory) have the responsibility to "ask" someone to form a government (in practice, the person asked is determined by who holds the parliamentary majority, but there are huge arguments raging about who will "legitimately" hold such a majority, the leader of the party with most seats or the leader who can rustle up the biggest coalition). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.24|141.101.99.24]] 09:11, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

: I agree that this is a much more likely explanation for the timing of the comic. Don't have time to change the text myself right now ... --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:51, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1521: Sword in the Stone

2015-05-06T10:51:52Z

RenniePet:

In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove the Sword in the Stone is the lawful king of England. Arthur is an orphan being raised in secret; he notices the sword, removes it, and is proclaimed king. The sword is sometimes identified as Excalibur, although in other versions Excalibur was acquired by King Arthur from the Lady of the Lake. The most familiar version of this story is ''The Sword in the Stone'' by T. H. White which is based on ''Le Mort d'Arthur'' by Sir Thomas Malory. Having a woman remove the sword would introduce difficulties. [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 06:12, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Seriously? Megan being transgender is preposterous. The comic mentions a throne, not a king. The proposition that the character needs to be a man is far fetched and a bit sexist. The legend usually mentions a ruler, not a kind per se. Even if it were a king, that is a baseless statement. Legends are up to interpretation. If a woman pulls out a sword it is possible that she be crowned Queen without having a king. Case in point, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria -of England; they both have seen the glory days of Britain. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.152|108.162.221.152]] 07:27, 6 May 2015 (UTC)BK201

: And there was {{w|Jadwiga of Poland}}, female who was crowned '''king'''. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:33, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

In a visual novel, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saber_(Fate/stay_night) King Arthur is a girl]. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.169|108.162.222.169]] 08:06, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Should be lawful king of Britain. King Arthur was fighting against the English. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.66|141.101.98.66]] 08:30, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

I doubt it's a coincidence that this comic was published the day before a UK general election that is widely predicted to be heading for the most complicated hung parliament in history. The monarch is a purely ceremonial head of state in practically all respects, but does (in theory) have the responsibility to "ask" someone to form a government (in practice, the person asked is determined by who holds the parliamentary majority, but there are huge arguments raging about who will "legitimately" hold such a majority, the leader of the party with most seats or the leader who can rustle up the biggest coalition). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.24|141.101.99.24]] 09:11, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

: I agree that this is a much more likely explanation for the timing of the comic. Don't have time to change the text my self right now ... --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:51, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

1521: Sword in the Stone

2015-05-06T10:47:55Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ I don't think the Scots see themselves as being headaches.

{{comic
| number = 1521
| date = May 6, 2015
| title = Sword in the Stone
| image = sword in the stone.png
| titletext = That seems like an awful lot of hassle when all I wanted was a cool sword.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}

This comic references the fables of {{w|King Arthur}} and the {{w|Knights of the Round Table}}. In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove the Sword in the Stone is the lawful king of {{w|England}}. Arthur is an orphan being raised in secret; he notices the sword, removes it, and is proclaimed king. The sword is sometimes identified as Excalibur, although in other versions Excalibur was acquired by King Arthur from the {{w|Lady of the Lake}}. The most familiar version of this story is {{w|The Sword in the Stone}} by {{w|T. H. White}} which is based on {{w|Le Morte d'Arthur}} by {{w|Sir Thomas Malory}}.

[[Megan]] pulls out {{w|Excalibur#Excalibur_and_the_Sword_in_the_Stone|The Sword in the Stone}}. A flash of light comes down and music plays, and a heavenly voice tells her she is heir to the throne of England. Megan then pulls out her phone, which is very much unlike the Medieval King Arthur and searches on Wikipedia for England and begins to replace the sword into the rock. The title text furthers this plot, having Megan comment on the hassle when the only thing she was interested in was the sword. Apparently Megan is not enthusiastic about power, and her choice is made when she sees how problematic it could be to reign over the country of England.

A key element of the joke is what Randall implies Megan would see when she searched for information on England, especially information concerning being an English ruler. English history is rife with monarchic strife, and a brief inquiry into [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_British_Isles_by_cause_of_death the percentage of British rulers who died in battle or as a result of political intrique vs those who died of natural causes] would quickly lead most sane people to conclude that the risks associated with ruling England far outweigh the benefits. From the time of the Roman Empire all the way up to Charles II's reclamation of the throne, England was one of the most contested and most difficult to hold chunks of real estate on the planet. Besides the constant threat of usurpation, as evidenced by the numerous wars for the crown, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England Norman Conquest] and the [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses War of the Roses], there were also constant difficulties in managing the frontier regions. This can be seen in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian's_Wall Hadrian's Wall], a creation of the titular Roman Emperor designed to keep the ever difficult Scots out of the areas of Roman control (the Scots would be a constant problem for England up until the reign of King James; think of Braveheart for a good example of the regular headaches they caused, seen from the English point of view), as well as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Anglo-Welsh_Wars Welsh uprisings] that occurred with such consistency that you could set your watch to them.

It should be noted that in Arthurian Legend, it is stated that Arthur would return when England most needed him. It is possible that Megan is the reincarnation of Arthur.

The timing of this comic might relate to the excitement of the yellow press about the birth of princess {{w|Princess_Charlotte_of_Cambridge|Charlotte Elizabeth Diana}} this week and the burden of a royal of having a whole life in public shaking hands of strangers.

==Transcript==

:[Megan walks up to The Sword in the Stone]
:[Megan tries to pull out The Sword in the Stone]
:[A flash of light and music plays as she removes The Sword in the Stone]
:Heavenly voice: The Throne of England is yours
:Megan: Wikipedia. England.
:[Megan starts to place The Sword of the Stone back into the stone]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1521: Sword in the Stone

2015-05-06T10:42:59Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ England = awful? Tsk, tsk.

{{comic
| number = 1521
| date = May 6, 2015
| title = Sword in the Stone
| image = sword in the stone.png
| titletext = That seems like an awful lot of hassle when all I wanted was a cool sword.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}

This comic references the fables of {{w|King Arthur}} and the {{w|Knights of the Round Table}}. In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove the Sword in the Stone is the lawful king of {{w|England}}. Arthur is an orphan being raised in secret; he notices the sword, removes it, and is proclaimed king. The sword is sometimes identified as Excalibur, although in other versions Excalibur was acquired by King Arthur from the {{w|Lady of the Lake}}. The most familiar version of this story is {{w|The Sword in the Stone}} by {{w|T. H. White}} which is based on {{w|Le Morte d'Arthur}} by {{w|Sir Thomas Malory}}.

[[Megan]] pulls out {{w|Excalibur#Excalibur_and_the_Sword_in_the_Stone|The Sword in the Stone}}. A flash of light comes down and music plays, and a heavenly voice tells her she is heir to the throne of England. Megan then pulls out her phone, which is very much unlike the Medieval King Arthur and searches on Wikipedia for England and begins to replace the sword into the rock. The title text furthers this plot, having Megan comment on the hassle when the only thing she was interested in was the sword. Apparently Megan is not enthusiastic about power, and her choice is made when she sees how problematic it could be to reign over the country of England.

A key element of the joke is what Randall implies Megan would see when she searched for information on England, especially information concerning being an English ruler. English history is rife with monarchic strife, and a brief inquiry into [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monarchs_of_the_British_Isles_by_cause_of_death the percentage of British rulers who died in battle or as a result of political intrique vs those who died of natural causes] would quickly lead most sane people to conclude that the risks associated with ruling England far outweigh the benefits. From the time of the Roman Empire all the way up to Charles II's reclamation of the throne, England was one of the most contested and most difficult to hold chunks of real estate on the planet. Besides the constant threat of usurpation, as evidenced by the numerous wars for the crown, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England Norman Conquest] and the [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses War of the Roses], there were also constant difficulties in managing the frontier regions. This can be seen in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian's_Wall Hadrian's Wall], a creation of the titular Roman Emperor designed to keep the ever difficult Scots out of the areas of Roman control (the Scots would be a constant problem for England up until the reign of King James; think of Braveheart for a good example of the regular headaches they caused), as well as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Anglo-Welsh_Wars Welsh uprisings] that occurred with such consistency that you could set your watch to them.

It should be noted that in Arthurian Legend, it is stated that Arthur would return when England most needed him. It is possible that Megan is the reincarnation of Arthur.

The timing of this comic might relate to the excitement of the yellow press about the birth of princess {{w|Princess_Charlotte_of_Cambridge|Charlotte Elizabeth Diana}} this week and the burden of a royal of having a whole life in public shaking hands of strangers.

==Transcript==

:[Megan walks up to The Sword in the Stone]
:[Megan tries to pull out The Sword in the Stone]
:[A flash of light and music plays as she removes The Sword in the Stone]
:Heavenly voice: The Throne of England is yours
:Megan: Wikipedia. England.
:[Megan starts to place The Sword of the Stone back into the stone]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1520: Degree-Off

2015-05-05T10:03:09Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo

{{comic
| number = 1520
| date = May 4, 2015
| title = Degree-Off
| image = degree off.png
| titletext = I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY SCIENCES', I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (physics), [[Hair Bun Girl]] (biology), and [[Megan]] (chemistry) appear to be on a talk show called Degree-Off, hosted by [[Hairy]], where representatives of different fields, try to explain why their field is the best and why to get a degree in their field. The title "Degree-Off" is a portmanteau of "{{w|Academic degree|degree}}", as in the recognized completion of studies at a school or university, and "{{w|face-off}}", a direct confrontation between two people or groups. Since there are three participants, this is not a true face-off, unless Megan, who does not speak, is not counted.

The host asks the physicist Cueball to go first. He light-heartedly begins to tell, what appears to be long story, beginning with a {{w|Richard Feynman}} anecdote. During the {{w|Manhattan Project}} in Los Alamos, Richard Feymann got bored because of the isolation and started learning lock picking on the secret documents safes. Using these new skills, he played lots of pranks on his colleagues, like leaving notes and spooking them into believing there was a spy among them (which, of course, {{w|Klaus_Fuchs|there was}}). He finishes his case with [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford a quote] from {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, implying that his speech was quite long and winding. The quote communicates the idea that physics is the only fundamental framework, so that the job of chemists, biologists and other scientist simply is to catalog and systematize observations ("collect stamps") on phenomena too complicated to presently be fully described in terms of physics. This idea was already used earlier by [[Randall]] in [[435: Purity]].

The biologist, Hair Bun Girl, goes next, showing, with a graph (see below), that the field of biology has helped reduce disease. She then goes on to claim that the heroes in biology (the part known as Medicine) has even "slain" one of the {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Originally these were Conquest, War, Famine and Death. But, mainly in popular culture, Conquest has been renamed to the one she refers to: {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
This graph shows the death rate from infectious disease in USA, similar to that shown in the comic presented by Hair Bun Girl, as both have the range of 1900-2000. The spike is attributable to the {{w|1918 flu pandemic}}. The graph has been published in this paper [http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=768249 Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century].
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:Crude_Infectious_Disease_Mortality_Rate_in_the_United_States_from_1900_Through_1996.gif]]</div>
</div>

Hair Bun Girl then goes on to directly accuses Cueball, i.e. the physicists, of creating a new Horseman to replace the one slain by the biologist. She claims that they gathered in the desert to do so. Given Cueball's opening remark, she must be referring to the creation of the first {{w|atomic bomb}}, which was built and tested in the {{w|New Mexico desert}}. After the test detonation of the first nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, {{w|J. Robert Oppenheimer}}, the director of the the {{w|Los Alamos National Laboratory}}, found himself quoting the {{w|Bhagavad Gita}}: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"---thus the creation of a new Horseman.

It has for some time been clear that Randall is a big fan of {{w|Terry Pratchett}}, but this became evident when the famous author died in March 2015, see [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]. Pratchett used the Four Horsemen several times in his books, although mainly {{w|Death (Discworld)|Death}}, in the ''{{w|Discworld}}'' series, which was first featured in [[625: Collections]]. Especially in {{w|Good Omens}} do these four horsemen have a prominent part. In this book, Pestilence, has retired after the discovery of {{w|Penicillin}}, and he has then been replaced by {{w|Pollution}}.

In the title text the biologist goes on to even shout at Cueball ({{w|All caps}} letters), as she mocks the physicist for not being "harder" after all their condescending towards the squishy (soft) sciences, referring to the concepts of {{w|hard and soft science|hard and soft sciences}} and how physicists sometimes label all other sciences as "soft" and demean them. In [[435: Purity]], the only subject presented as "purer" than physics is mathematics, and even math is then degraded compared to physics in the title text.

Due to the obvious Terry Pratchett references as mentioned above, there have been some discussion about if the all-capital-letters in the title text should indicate that it was Death from the Discworld that spoke these lines (he always speaks in <span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1520:_Degree-Off&oldid=92439#Explanation Small caps]</span>). However, the title text is clearly a continuation of the biologist remark and would make no sense if suddenly spoken by Death.

It is known that Randall thinks that biology is superior to physics, as also seen in [[520: Cuttlefish]].

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is acting as the host of a TV talk show, ''Degree-Off''. Cueball, Hair Bun Girl, and Megan are acting as representatives of Phys (Physics), Bio (Biology), and Chem (Chemistry) respectively. They each stand behind their own Lectern with the respective subject label.]

:Hairy: Welcome to the ''Degree-Off'', where we determine which field is the best! Physics, wanna go first?
:Cueball: Sure! I'd like to tell the story of Richard Feynman's Manhattan project lockpicking pranks...

:Cueball: ...and as he said, "all science is either physics or stamp collecting."
:Cueball: Thank you.
:Hairy: ''Great!'' Bio, you wanna go next?
:Hair Bun Girl: Okay.

:[A graph labeled "Per 100,000 is shown above Hair Bun Girl]
:Hair Bun Girl: This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country.

:[Hair Bun Girl raising her left hand]
:Hair Bun Girl: The heroes of my field have ''slain'' one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

:[Hair Bun Girl pointing at Cueball]
:Hair Bun Girl: While the heroes of ''your'' field gathered in the desert to create a new one.

:Cueball: ...Jeez, what the hell? I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!
:Hair Bun Girl: ''You must have been thinking of stamp collecting.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1520: Degree-Off

2015-05-05T10:02:07Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo

{{comic
| number = 1520
| date = May 4, 2015
| title = Degree-Off
| image = degree off.png
| titletext = I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY SCIENCES', I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (physics), [[Hair Bun Girl]] (biology), and [[Megan]] (chemistry) appear to be on a talk show called Degree-Off, hosted by [[Hairy]], where representatives of different fields, try to explain why their field is the best and why to get a degree in their field. The title "Degree-Off" is a portmanteau of "{{w|Academic degree|degree}}", as in the recognized completion of studies at a school or university, and "{{w|face-off}}", a direct confrontation between two people or groups. Since there are three participants, this is not a true face-off, unless Megan, who does not speak, is not counted.

The host asks the physicist Cueball to go first. He light-heartedly begins to tell, what appears to be long story, beginning with a {{w|Richard Feynman}} anecdote. During the {{w|Manhattan Project}} in Los Alamos, Richard Feymann got bored because of the isolation and started learning lock picking on the secret documents safes. Using these new skills, he played lots of pranks on his colleagues, like leaving notes and spooking them into believing there was a spy among them (which, of course, {{w|Klaus_Fuchs|there was}}). He finishes his case with [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford a quote] from {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, implying that his speech was quite long and winding. The quote communicates the idea that physics is the only fundamental framework, so that the job of chemists, biologists and other scientist simply is to catalog and systematize observations ("collect stamps") on phenomena too complicated to presently be fully described in terms of physics. This idea was already used earlier by [[Randall]] in [[435: Purity]].

The biologist, Hair Bun Girl, goes next, showing, with a graph (see below), that the field of biology has helped reduce disease. She then goes on to claim that the heroes in biology (the part known as Medicine) has even "slain" one of the {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Originally these were Conquest, War, Famine and Death. But, mainly in popular culture, Conquest has been renamed to the one she refers to: {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
This graph shows the death rate from infectious disease in USA, similar to that shown in the comic presented by Hair Bun Girl, as both have the range of 1900-2000. The spike is attributable to the {{w|1918 flu pandemic}}. The graph has been published in this paper [http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=768249 Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century].
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:Crude_Infectious_Disease_Mortality_Rate_in_the_United_States_from_1900_Through_1996.gif]]</div>
</div>

Hair Bun Girl then goes on to directly accuses Cueball, i.e. the physicists, of creating a new Horseman to replace the one slain by the biologist. She claims that they gathered in the desert to do so. Given Cueball's opening remark, she must be referring to the creation of the first {{w|atomic bomb}}, which was built and tested in the {{w|New Mexico desert}}. After the test detonation of the first nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, {{w|J. Robert Oppenheimer}}, the director of the the {{w|Los Alamos National Laboratory}}, found himself quoting the {{w|Bhagavad Gita}}: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"---thus the creation of a new Horseman.

It has for some time been clear that Randall is a big fan of {{w|Terry Pratchett}}, but this became evident when the famous author died in March 2015, see [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]. Pratchett used the Four Horsemen several times in his books, although mainly {{w|Death (Discworld)|Death}}, in the the ''{{w|Discworld}}'' series, which was first featured in [[625: Collections]]. Especially in {{w|Good Omens}} do these four horsemen have a prominent part. In this book, Pestilence, has retired after the discovery of {{w|Penicillin}}, and he has then been replaced by {{w|Pollution}}.

In the title text the biologist goes on to even shout at Cueball ({{w|All caps}} letters), as she mocks the physicist for not being "harder" after all their condescending towards the squishy (soft) sciences, referring to the concepts of {{w|hard and soft science|hard and soft sciences}} and how physicists sometimes label all other sciences as "soft" and demean them. In [[435: Purity]], the only subject presented as "purer" than physics is mathematics, and even math is then degraded compared to physics in the title text.

Due to the obvious Terry Pratchett references as mentioned above, there have been some discussion about if the all-capital-letters in the title text should indicate that it was Death from the Discworld that spoke these lines (he always speaks in <span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1520:_Degree-Off&oldid=92439#Explanation Small caps]</span>). However, the title text is clearly a continuation of the biologist remark and would make no sense if suddenly spoken by Death.

It is known that Randall thinks that biology is superior to physics, as also seen in [[520: Cuttlefish]].

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is acting as the host of a TV talk show, ''Degree-Off''. Cueball, Hair Bun Girl, and Megan are acting as representatives of Phys (Physics), Bio (Biology), and Chem (Chemistry) respectively. They each stand behind their own Lectern with the respective subject label.]

:Hairy: Welcome to the ''Degree-Off'', where we determine which field is the best! Physics, wanna go first?
:Cueball: Sure! I'd like to tell the story of Richard Feynman's Manhattan project lockpicking pranks...

:Cueball: ...and as he said, "all science is either physics or stamp collecting."
:Cueball: Thank you.
:Hairy: ''Great!'' Bio, you wanna go next?
:Hair Bun Girl: Okay.

:[A graph labeled "Per 100,000 is shown above Hair Bun Girl]
:Hair Bun Girl: This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country.

:[Hair Bun Girl raising her left hand]
:Hair Bun Girl: The heroes of my field have ''slain'' one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

:[Hair Bun Girl pointing at Cueball]
:Hair Bun Girl: While the heroes of ''your'' field gathered in the desert to create a new one.

:Cueball: ...Jeez, what the hell? I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!
:Hair Bun Girl: ''You must have been thinking of stamp collecting.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1520: Degree-Off

2015-05-05T10:00:17Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo

{{comic
| number = 1520
| date = May 4, 2015
| title = Degree-Off
| image = degree off.png
| titletext = I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY SCIENCES', I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (physics), [[Hair Bun Girl]] (biology), and [[Megan]] (chemistry) appear to be on a talk show called Degree-Off, hosted by [[Hairy]], where representatives of different fields, try to explain why their field is the best and why to get a degree in their field. The title "Degree-Off" is a portmanteau of "{{w|Academic degree|degree}}", as in the recognized completion of studies at a school or university, and "{{w|face-off}}", a direct confrontation between two people or groups. Since there are three participants, this is not a true face-off, unless Megan, who does not speak, is not counted.

The host asks the physicist Cueball to go first. He light-heartedly begins to tell, what appears to be long story, beginning with a {{w|Richard Feynman}} anecdote. During the {{w|Manhattan Project}} in Los Alamos, Richard Feymann got bored because of the isolation and started learning lock picking on the secret documents safes. Using these new skills, he played lots of pranks on his colleagues, like leaving notes and spooking them into believing there was a spy among them (which, of course, {{w|Klaus_Fuchs|there was}}). He finishes his case with [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford a quote] from {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, implying that his speech was quite long and winding. The quote communicates the idea that physics is the only fundamental framework, so that the job of chemists, biologists and other scientist simply is to catalog and systematize observations ("collect stamps") on phenomena too complicated to presently be fully described in terms of physics. This idea was already used earlier by [[Randall]] in [[435: Purity]].

The biologist, Hair Bun Girl, goes next, showing, with a graph (see below), that the field of biology has helped reduce disease. She then goes on to claim that the heroes in biology (the part known as Medicine) has even "slain" one of the {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Originally these were Conquest, War, Famine and Death. But, mainly in popular culture, Conquest has been renamed to the one she refers to: {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
This graph shows the death rate from infectious disease in USA, similar to that shown in the comic presented by Hair Bun Girl, as both have the range of 1900-2000. The spike is attributable to the {{w|1918 flu pandemic}}. The graph has been published in this paper [http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=768249 Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century].
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:Crude_Infectious_Disease_Mortality_Rate_in_the_United_States_from_1900_Through_1996.gif]]</div>
</div>

Hair Bun Girl then goes on to directly accuses Cueball, i.e. the physicists, of creating a new Horseman to replace the one slain by the biologist. She claims that they gathered in the desert to do so. Given Cueball's opening remark, she must be referring to the creation of the first {{w|atomic bomb}}, which was built and tested in the {{w|New Mexico desert}}. After the test detonation of the first nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, {{w|J. Robert Oppenheimer}}, the director of the the {{w|Los Alamos National Laboratory}}, found himself quoting the {{w|Bhagavad Gita}}: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"---thus the creation of a new Horseman.

It has for some time been clear that Randall is a big fan of {{w|Terry Pratchett}}, but this became evident when the famous author died in march 2015, see [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]. Pratchett used the Four Horsemen several times in his books, although mainly {{w|Death (Discworld)|Death}}, in the the ''{{w|Discworld}}'' series, which was first featured in [[625: Collections]]. Especially in {{w|Good Omens}} do these four horsemen have a prominent part. In this book, Pestilence, has retired after the discovery of {{w|Penicillin}}, and he has then been replaced by {{w|Pollution}}.

In the title text the biologist goes on to even shout at Cueball ({{w|All caps}} letters), as she mocks the physicist for not being "harder" after all their condescending towards the squishy (soft) sciences, referring to the concepts of {{w|hard and soft science|hard and soft sciences}} and how physicists sometimes label all other sciences as "soft" and demean them. In [[435: Purity]], the only subject presented as "purer" than physics is mathematics, and even math is then degraded compared to physics in the title text.

Due to the obvious Terry Pratchett references as mentioned above, there have been some discussion about if the all-capital-letters in the title text should indicate that it was Death from the Discworld that spoke these lines (he always speaks in <span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1520:_Degree-Off&oldid=92439#Explanation Small caps]</span>). However, the title text is clearly a continuation of the biologist remark and would make no sense if suddenly spoken by Death.

It is known that Randall thinks that biology is superior to physics, as also seen in [[520: Cuttlefish]].

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is acting as the host of a TV talk show, ''Degree-Off''. Cueball, Hair Bun Girl, and Megan are acting as representatives of Phys (Physics), Bio (Biology), and Chem (Chemistry) respectively. They each stand behind their own Lectern with the respective subject label.]

:Hairy: Welcome to the ''Degree-Off'', where we determine which field is the best! Physics, wanna go first?
:Cueball: Sure! I'd like to tell the story of Richard Feynman's Manhattan project lockpicking pranks...

:Cueball: ...and as he said, "all science is either physics or stamp collecting."
:Cueball: Thank you.
:Hairy: ''Great!'' Bio, you wanna go next?
:Hair Bun Girl: Okay.

:[A graph labeled "Per 100,000 is shown above Hair Bun Girl]
:Hair Bun Girl: This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country.

:[Hair Bun Girl raising her left hand]
:Hair Bun Girl: The heroes of my field have ''slain'' one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

:[Hair Bun Girl pointing at Cueball]
:Hair Bun Girl: While the heroes of ''your'' field gathered in the desert to create a new one.

:Cueball: ...Jeez, what the hell? I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!
:Hair Bun Girl: ''You must have been thinking of stamp collecting.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

Talk:1520: Degree-Off

2015-05-04T10:49:10Z

RenniePet:

I assume "''Your'' field gathered in the desert to create a new one." refers to the Manhattan Project? {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.74}}
:Yes [[User:Jachra|Jachra]] ([[User talk:Jachra|talk]]) 06:52, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Chem wants absolutely no part of this conversation. [[User:Jachra|Jachra]] ([[User talk:Jachra|talk]]) 06:52, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. Is she claiming that her heros have conquered death? [[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 06:58, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Pestilence [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.176|173.245.56.176]] 07:10, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

also a possible reference to: https://xkcd.com/435/ ? {{unsigned ip|141.101.75.101}}

The stamp collecting quote is from Ernest Rutherford, not Richard Feynman. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.43}}

1052 also compares degrees --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.12|141.101.104.12]] 08:36, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

My assumption was that Cueball was giving a long and possibly rambling talk about physics starting with an anecdote about Feynman and ending with one about Rutherford. I didn't consider the quote to be wrongly attributed therefore.

Please be aware that the proper way to link to wikipedia is to use [[Template:w]].--{{User:17jiangz1/signature|10:01, 04 May 2015}}

This may be Randall's indirect way of saying what he thinks of the anti-vaxxers. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:49, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1519: Venus

2015-05-02T13:40:34Z

RenniePet:

The "Runaway Greenhouse Effect" refers to the continuing increase of a planet's average temperature due to an increase of gases that reflect heat from the planet back toward its surface; Venus is an example of this to the extent that its temperature is not tolerable to Earth-like organisms.

:Considering that our probes are only able to work for few hours on the surface, emphasizing "Earth-like" sounds like understatement. The temperature is not the most dangerous property of Venus, though. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:19, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

The "Butterfly Effect" refers to the hypothesis that a small action (such as a butterfly flapping its wings) in a chaotic system such as a planet's weather, can have a large effect (such as causing a storm on the other side of the planet). [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 06:43, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

I added a link to Tulip Fever (and clarified the 'links' to the mistold history), which may or may not be 'inspiring' Miss's little tale, but certainly would be interesting if intended to be the so-called-historic basis in this retelling of facts. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.186|141.101.98.186]] 11:19, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Two of the false statements were referred to as "puns", but that's not how I understand the word pun, so I changed the texts. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:39, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

Any suggestions about where the phrase "I ride the skies atop a screaming bird of ..." comes from? --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:40, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1519: Venus

2015-05-02T13:39:11Z

RenniePet:

1519: Venus

2015-05-02T13:35:09Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ That's not a pun either.

{{comic
| number = 1519
| date = May 1, 2015
| title = Venus
| image = venus.png
| titletext = The sudden introduction of Venusian flowers led to an explosive growth of unusual Earth pollinators, which became known as the "butterfly effect."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This explanation requires some touching up.}}
[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a class scientifically incorrect information that oppose the majority of currently scientifically acknowledged facts concerning the planet Venus, while using actual scientific terminology incorrectly to support her claims.

In the first panel we see Miss Lenhart teaching the history of Venus. Planetary scientists think that Venus may have had surface water billions of years ago, but it all evaporated due to stronger sunlight, and was eventually lost due to ultraviolet dissociation. However, there is no evidence that Venus ever had fields of flowers, or Venusians, or any other form of life.

In the second panel, {{w|runaway greenhouse effect}} is a play on words. Miss Lenhart uses the term literally and claims the existence of sentient greenhouses actually running away. In reality, the effect caused Venus to develop a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which raised its temperature to 460 C (860 F), hotter than daytime on Mercury.

The third panel ties the previous distortion into the very real (but unconnected) {{w|Tulip mania|historic reputation}} of the Netherlands as {{w|Netherlands#Agriculture|flower growers}}, as a further fabrication by Miss Lenhart. In the final panel we see that she is a month away from retirement and doesn't care about relaying accurate information anymore.

The title text is an incorrect reference to the {{w|butterfly effect}} (a term used in chaos theory), which of course has nothing to do with the fact that {{w|Butterfly|butterflies}} help to pollinate flowers on Earth. This is a continuation of Miss Lenhart's false explanations of science and history.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is standing in front of an image, presumably a temperate Venus, with greenhouses, grass, flowers and a river flowing into a sea.]
:Miss Lenhart: Venus once was temperate. It had seas and rivers, and Venusians cultivated vast fields of beautiful flowers.

:[The image is now zoomed out to see the entirety of Venus, with continents and oceans. The greenhouses are shown fleeing ("running") away from Venus.]
:Miss Lenhart: Until their greenhouses fled the planet due to the runaway greenhouse effect.

:[Miss Lenhart is now standing in front of a classroom and addressing the students, we see one of these, a young girl with a loose hair bun, sitting at a desk.]
:Miss Lenhart: The Venusians pursued their greenhouses to Earth, settling in the Netherlands and kickstarting the Dutch floral industry. Any questions?

:Offscreen: Because you're retiring in a month, do you just not care what you say anymore?
:Miss Lenhart: ''What?!'' I '''''ride the skies''''' atop a screaming bird of truth! Also, yes, I do not.

==Trivia==
*It is not directly mentioned that this is Miss Lenhart, but her look and profession fits this character well enough to make this deduction.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1519: Venus

2015-05-02T13:14:28Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ That's not a pun.

{{comic
| number = 1519
| date = May 1, 2015
| title = Venus
| image = venus.png
| titletext = The sudden introduction of Venusian flowers led to an explosive growth of unusual Earth pollinators, which became known as the "butterfly effect."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This explanation requires some touching up.}}
[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a class scientifically incorrect information that oppose the majority of currently scientifically acknowledged facts concerning the planet Venus, while using actual scientific terminology incorrectly to support her claims.

In the first panel we see Miss Lenhart teaching the history of Venus. Planetary scientists think that Venus may have had surface water billions of years ago, but it all evaporated due to stronger sunlight, and was eventually lost due to ultraviolet dissociation. However, there is no evidence that Venus ever had fields of flowers, or Venusians, or any other form of life.

In the second panel, {{w|runaway greenhouse effect}} is a play on words. Miss Lenhart uses the term literally and claims the existence of sentient greenhouses actually running away. In reality, the effect caused Venus to develop a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which raised its temperature to 460 C (860 F), hotter than daytime on Mercury.

The third panel ties the previous distortion into the very real (but unconnected) {{w|Tulip mania|historic reputation}} of the Netherlands as {{w|Netherlands#Agriculture|flower growers}}, as a further fabrication by Miss Lenhart. In the final panel we see that she is a month away from retirement and doesn't care about relaying accurate information anymore.

The title text is a pun on the {{w|Butterfly effect}}, because {{w|Butterfly|Butterflies}} help to pollinate flowers on Earth, misattributing it to Miss Lenhart's false explanation of history.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is standing in front of an image, presumably a temperate Venus, with greenhouses, grass, flowers and a river flowing into a sea.]
:Miss Lenhart: Venus once was temperate. It had seas and rivers, and Venusians cultivated vast fields of beautiful flowers.

:[The image is now zoomed out to see the entirety of Venus, with continents and oceans. The greenhouses are shown fleeing ("running") away from Venus.]
:Miss Lenhart: Until their greenhouses fled the planet due to the runaway greenhouse effect.

:[Miss Lenhart is now standing in front of a classroom and addressing the students, we see one of these, a young girl with a loose hair bun, sitting at a desk.]
:Miss Lenhart: The Venusians pursued their greenhouses to Earth, settling in the Netherlands and kickstarting the Dutch floral industry. Any questions?

:Offscreen: Because you're retiring in a month, do you just not care what you say anymore?
:Miss Lenhart: ''What?!'' I '''''ride the skies''''' atop a screaming bird of truth! Also, yes, I do not.

==Trivia==
*It is not directly mentioned that this is Miss Lenhart, but her look and profession fits this character well enough to make this deduction.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1518: Typical Morning Routine

2015-04-29T11:41:32Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1518
| date = April 29, 2015
| title = Typical Morning Routine
| image = typical_morning_routine.png
| titletext = Hang on, I've heard this problem. We need to pour water into the duct until the phone floats up and ... wait, phones sink in water. Mercury. We need a vat of mercury to pour down the vent. That will definitely make this situation better and not worse.
}}

==Explanation==
Waking up to an alarm can be annoying, especially when it is your partner's alarm, and they are slow to wake up and even then has difficulty in figuring out how to turn the alarm off. This comic takes this to a ridiculous extreme, whence the comic derives its humour, especially when paired with the title describing this situation as a '''Typical Morning Routine'''. Of course the typical could refer only to the part of the "routine" until the phone is dropped into an air vent...

In this comic, a guy with morning hair ([[Hairy]]) is shown using his phone as his alarm clock. We never see who he is sharing the bed with, a person that must get more and more angry with him and his alarm.

It can sometimes be complicated to turn off the alarm on a {{w|smartphone}} when groggy. The guy has apparently exited the alarm app by mistake. In some OSes, simply exiting the app doesn't close it, requiring you to use the app switcher to close it. (As of when this comic was posted, [[Randall]] uses both iOS and Android according to [[1508: Operating Systems]]).

After giving up on shutting the alarm app off Hairy then, in annoyance, gets the brilliant idea of trying to remove the battery, in the dark, to forcefully shut off his phone, instead of just trying to turn it off... However, in this process, he accidentally drops his device down an {{w|air vent}} next to the bed. Such a vent for an {{w|underfloor air distribution}} may not be very deep, so the phone can be expected to survive the fall. Usually such a {{w|Register (air and heating)|vent}} will have some sort of grille preventing anything large from falling into it. But this phone must have been small enough to slip through anyway. (This narrows it down to Android phones, since iPhones do not incorporate consumer removable batteries.)

If they were a little handy, they would probably be able to open the vent and retrieve the phone. But of course it cold either be too deep, or they do not have the tools (maybe they live in a rented apartment). So being unable to get it out, Hairy tries to remotely {{w|Brick (electronics)|brick}} the phone from his laptop. (That is to erase important system files rendering the device as useful as a brick).

However, Hairy seems to have accidentally gone into {{w|airplane mode}} in the confusion, thereby cutting off all {{w|wireless communications}} with the device. Airplane Mode also has a side effect where by turning off all communication components, the phone conserves charge where the phone will now last a week, rather than typically a day or so. Rather than dealing with the noise for weeks, Hairy proposes that they just move out instead. But a smartphone playing loud sounds in airplane mode typically only last a day or so before the battery charge runs out.

In the title text his partner remembers this problem (as if it was a problem heard off before). The solution was to pour water into the duct until the phone floats to the top. Then realizing that phones do not float in water suggest to use {{w|Mercury (element)|mercury}}. The phone would certainly float on mercury, as it is a very dense liquid (the only metal that is liquid at room temperature). The extremely toxic nature of mercury, however, makes pouring it into the air supply a somewhat less-than-stellar idea, not to mention the fact that the required amount of mercury would be extremely expensive. The last line in the title text shows Hairy's sarcastic remark to this idea, where he states that the mercury idea would ''definitely make this situation better and not worse''.

If they were actually ready to pour mercury down the went, or brick the phone (ruining it anyway) then maybe they could just pour enough water into the vent instead, until the phone would shut down by being flooded, therefore short-circuited. This would not work if the phone was waterproof.

Of course all these great ideas they have, would probably not have come up, if they had not just been awakened brutally by a very loud alarm, that they fail to keep quiet. It is very difficult to think clear and straight in such a distressful circumstance.

==Transcript==
:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming, and also from where the alarm goes off. A small broken square surrounds the first word spoken.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep'''
:Voice (right): Urgh
:Voice (left): Your alarm is going off
:Voice (right): Huh?
:Voice (left): Make it stop.
:Voice (right) Urrgh

:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming. Several small lines surrounds the last "sound" which is not spoken. The alarm noise is continued from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep Bleep B'''
:Voice (left): Hit snooze.
:Voice (right): I'm ''trying''. I closed the alarm app and I can't... I'll just pop out the battery.
:Voice (right): Whoops!
:Clang

:[The lights have turned on so it is now a white panel with black text. The voice to the right came from Hairy with morning hair. He is leaning over the side of the bed, looking down the air vent through which he has dropped the phone. The other person to the left is not shown. The alarm noise (now coming from the air vent as visualized by the lines coming out of the vent) still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''eep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Make it stop!
:Hairy: It... fell down the vent.

:[Hairy is sitting in his bed with a laptop. The person to the left is still off-screen. The alarm noise still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame out of the comic the the right.]
:Alarm: '''ep Bleep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Can you brick it remotely?
:Hairy: Trying... I think I fumbled it into airplane mode?
:Off-Screen voice: The battery could last for weeks.
:Hairy: You know, maybe we should just move.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1518: Typical Morning Routine

2015-04-29T11:39:52Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo.

{{comic
| number = 1518
| date = April 29, 2015
| title = Typical Morning Routine
| image = typical_morning_routine.png
| titletext = Hang on, I've heard this problem. We need to pour water into the duct until the phone floats up and ... wait, phones sink in water. Mercury. We need a vat of mercury to pour down the vent. That will definitely make this situation better and not worse.
}}

==Explanation==
Waking up to an alarm can be annoying, especially when it is your partner's alarm, and they are slow to wake up and even then has difficulty in figuring out how to turn the alarm off. This comic takes this to a ridiculous extreme, whence the comic derives its humour, especially when paired with the title describing this situation as a '''Typical Morning Routine'''. Of course the typical could refer only to the part of the "routine" until the phone is dropped into an air vent...

In this comic, a guy with morning hair ([[Hairy]]) is shown using his phone as his alarm clock. We never see who he is sharing the bed with, a person that must get more and more with him and his alarm.

It can sometimes be complicated to turn off the alarm on a {{w|smartphone}} when groggy. The guy has apparently exited the alarm app by mistake. In some OSes, simply exiting the app doesn't close it, requiring you to use the app switcher to close it. (As of when this comic was posted, [[Randall]] uses both iOS and Android according to [[1508: Operating Systems]]).

After giving up on shutting the alarm app off Hairy then, in annoyance, gets the brilliant idea of trying to remove the battery, in the dark, to forcefully shut off his phone, instead of just trying to turn it off... However, in this process, he accidentally drops his device down an {{w|air vent}} next to the bed. Such a vent for an {{w|underfloor air distribution}} may not be very deep, so the phone can be expected to survive the fall. Usually such a {{w|Register (air and heating)|vent}} will have some sort of grille preventing anything large from falling into it. But this phone must have been small enough to slip through anyway. (This narrows it down to Android phones, since iPhones do not incorporate consumer removable batteries.)

If they were a little handy, they would probably be able to open the vent and retrieve the phone. But of course it cold either be too deep, or they do not have the tools (maybe they live in a rented apartment). So being unable to get it out, Hairy tries to remotely {{w|Brick (electronics)|brick}} the phone from his laptop. (That is to erase important system files rendering the device as useful as a brick).

However, Hairy seems to have accidentally gone into {{w|airplane mode}} in the confusion, thereby cutting off all {{w|wireless communications}} with the device. Airplane Mode also has a side effect where by turning off all communication components, the phone conserves charge where the phone will now last a week, rather than typically a day or so. Rather than dealing with the noise for weeks, Hairy proposes that they just move out instead.

In the title text his partner remembers this problem (as if it was a problem heard off before). The solution was to pour water into the duct until the phone floats to the top. Then realizing that phones do not float in water suggest to use {{w|Mercury (element)|mercury}}. The phone would certainly float on mercury, as it is a very dense liquid (the only metal that is liquid at room temperature). The extremely toxic nature of mercury, however, makes pouring it into the air supply a somewhat less-than-stellar idea, not to mention the fact that the required amount of mercury would be extremely expensive. The last line in the title text shows Hairy's sarcastic remark to this idea, where he states that the mercury idea would ''definitely make this situation better and not worse''.

If they were actually ready to pour mercury down the went, or brick the phone (ruining it anyway) then maybe they could just pour enough water into the vent instead, until the phone would shut down by being flooded.

Of course all these great ideas they have, would probably not have come up, if they had not just been awakened brutally by a very loud alarm, that they fail to keep quiet. It is very difficult to think clear and straight in such a distressful circumstance.

==Transcript==
:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming, and also from where the alarm goes off. A small broken square surrounds the first word spoken.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep'''
:Voice (right): Urgh
:Voice (left): Your alarm is going off
:Voice (right): Huh?
:Voice (left): Make it stop.
:Voice (right) Urrgh

:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming. Several small lines surrounds the last "sound" which is not spoken. The alarm noise is continued from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep Bleep B'''
:Voice (left): Hit snooze.
:Voice (right): I'm ''trying''. I closed the alarm app and I can't... I'll just pop out the battery.
:Voice (right): Whoops!
:Clang

:[The lights have turned on so it is now a white panel with black text. The voice to the right came from Hairy with morning hair. He is leaning over the side of the bed, looking down the air vent through which he has dropped the phone. The other person to the left is not shown. The alarm noise (now coming from the air vent as visualized by the lines coming out of the vent) still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''eep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Make it stop!
:Hairy: It... fell down the vent.

:[Hairy is sitting in his bed with a laptop. The person to the left is still off-screen. The alarm noise still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame out of the comic the the right.]
:Alarm: '''ep Bleep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Can you brick it remotely?
:Hairy: Trying... I think I fumbled it into airplane mode?
:Off-Screen voice: The battery could last for weeks.
:Hairy: You know, maybe we should just move.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1518: Typical Morning Routine

2015-04-29T11:39:16Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Typo.

{{comic
| number = 1518
| date = April 29, 2015
| title = Typical Morning Routine
| image = typical_morning_routine.png
| titletext = Hang on, I've heard this problem. We need to pour water into the duct until the phone floats up and ... wait, phones sink in water. Mercury. We need a vat of mercury to pour down the vent. That will definitely make this situation better and not worse.
}}

==Explanation==
Waking up to an alarm can be annoying, especially when it is your partner's alarm, and they are slow to wake up and even then has difficulty in figuring out hos to turn the alarm off. This comic takes this to a ridiculous extreme, whence the comic derives its humour, especially when paired with the title describing this situation as a '''Typical Morning Routine'''. Of course the typical could refer only to the part of the "routine" until the phone is dropped into an air vent...

In this comic, a guy with morning hair ([[Hairy]]) is shown using his phone as his alarm clock. We never see who he is sharing the bed with, a person that must get more and more with him and his alarm.

It can sometimes be complicated to turn off the alarm on a {{w|smartphone}} when groggy. The guy has apparently exited the alarm app by mistake. In some OSes, simply exiting the app doesn't close it, requiring you to use the app switcher to close it. (As of when this comic was posted, [[Randall]] uses both iOS and Android according to [[1508: Operating Systems]]).

After giving up on shutting the alarm app off Hairy then, in annoyance, gets the brilliant idea of trying to remove the battery, in the dark, to forcefully shut off his phone, instead of just trying to turn it off... However, in this process, he accidentally drops his device down an {{w|air vent}} next to the bed. Such a vent for an {{w|underfloor air distribution}} may not be very deep, so the phone can be expected to survive the fall. Usually such a {{w|Register (air and heating)|vent}} will have some sort of grille preventing anything large from falling into it. But this phone must have been small enough to slip through anyway. (This narrows it down to Android phones, since iPhones do not incorporate consumer removable batteries.)

If they were a little handy, they would probably be able to open the vent and retrieve the phone. But of course it cold either be too deep, or they do not have the tools (maybe they live in a rented apartment). So being unable to get it out, Hairy tries to remotely {{w|Brick (electronics)|brick}} the phone from his laptop. (That is to erase important system files rendering the device as useful as a brick).

However, Hairy seems to have accidentally gone into {{w|airplane mode}} in the confusion, thereby cutting off all {{w|wireless communications}} with the device. Airplane Mode also has a side effect where by turning off all communication components, the phone conserves charge where the phone will now last a week, rather than typically a day or so. Rather than dealing with the noise for weeks, Hairy proposes that they just move out instead.

In the title text his partner remembers this problem (as if it was a problem heard off before). The solution was to pour water into the duct until the phone floats to the top. Then realizing that phones do not float in water suggest to use {{w|Mercury (element)|mercury}}. The phone would certainly float on mercury, as it is a very dense liquid (the only metal that is liquid at room temperature). The extremely toxic nature of mercury, however, makes pouring it into the air supply a somewhat less-than-stellar idea, not to mention the fact that the required amount of mercury would be extremely expensive. The last line in the title text shows Hairy's sarcastic remark to this idea, where he states that the mercury idea would ''definitely make this situation better and not worse''.

If they were actually ready to pour mercury down the went, or brick the phone (ruining it anyway) then maybe they could just pour enough water into the vent instead, until the phone would shut down by being flooded.

Of course all these great ideas they have, would probably not have come up, if they had not just been awakened brutally by a very loud alarm, that they fail to keep quiet. It is very difficult to think clear and straight in such a distressful circumstance.

==Transcript==
:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming, and also from where the alarm goes off. A small broken square surrounds the first word spoken.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep'''
:Voice (right): Urgh
:Voice (left): Your alarm is going off
:Voice (right): Huh?
:Voice (left): Make it stop.
:Voice (right) Urrgh

:[The panel is completely black, with white text. Small lines indicate from where the two voices are coming. Several small lines surrounds the last "sound" which is not spoken. The alarm noise is continued from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''Bleep Bleep Bleep B'''
:Voice (left): Hit snooze.
:Voice (right): I'm ''trying''. I closed the alarm app and I can't... I'll just pop out the battery.
:Voice (right): Whoops!
:Clang

:[The lights have turned on so it is now a white panel with black text. The voice to the right came from Hairy with morning hair. He is leaning over the side of the bed, looking down the air vent through which he has dropped the phone. The other person to the left is not shown. The alarm noise (now coming from the air vent as visualized by the lines coming out of the vent) still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame directly into the next panel.]
:Alarm: '''eep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Make it stop!
:Hairy: It... fell down the vent.

:[Hairy is sitting in his bed with a laptop. The person to the left is still off-screen. The alarm noise still continues from the previous panel and continues over the top of the frame out of the comic the the right.]
:Alarm: '''ep Bleep Bleep Bleep Ble'''
:Off-Screen voice: Can you brick it remotely?
:Hairy: Trying... I think I fumbled it into airplane mode?
:Off-Screen voice: The battery could last for weeks.
:Hairy: You know, maybe we should just move.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

Talk:1514: PermaCal

2015-04-20T12:45:15Z

RenniePet:

In Megan's response, the "h" in "19th" is backwards.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.214.239|108.162.214.239]] 05:47, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure that's a mistake since lowercase letters normally aren't used. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:49, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:Looks like he forgot the line on the upper left. He used the capital 19TH for Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.60|173.245.48.60]] 07:24, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:I think it's intentional. All the H's after a T have shortened upperleft lines. Probably for nice http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/kerning [[User:ToaVin|ToaVin]] ([[User talk:ToaVin|talk]]) 10:12, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Leap seconds have nothing to do with the length of the year: corrected. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 07:49, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

"Leap seconds normally account for the differences in the length of our 24 hour day and the time taken for the world to rotate 360 degrees on its axis" - this sentence mixes two unrelated concepts. First, a day is not a rotation of 360 degrees. Because the Earth also orbit the sun, the rotation from noon one day to noon the following day is a bit more than 360 degrees (360.9856 or so) (rotation measured relative to the stars) - this is why constellations appear to move throughout the year. Second, leap seconds are required because the leap day corrections of the Gregorian calendar are good, but not perfect, at matching the difference between Earth orbits (years) and Earth rotations (days). Every so often, a small correction is required. The corrections are not regular because the causes of the drift are numerous: tidal effects, orbital eccentricity, the underlying (small) flaws in the calendar, etc. I have not made any changes in the explanation. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.66|141.101.104.66]] 08:41, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

While you are true on one part, that Earth doesn't take 24 hours to rotate 360 degrees (it takes around 23 hours and 56 minutes if I recall correctly), leap seconds are used to account for differences between 24 hours and a solar day. If it was used to adjust the length of the year the time of day would drift, it would also be fairly pointless as the leap days take us out by 1/4 of a day.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.175|108.162.250.175]] 10:41, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Do we know for sure that this comic was released on a Sunday - the 19th instead of the 20th? The first entry in this page is from the 20th. Of course there are some references to the 19th, but then again it is obvious that it is on the 20th that Megan asks. Anyone who can find out if this is the correct date, or just a mistake by someone who misunderstood something based on the dates in the comic? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:19, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Apropos a "permanent calendar", Isaac Asimov proposed just such a calendar. http://calendars.wikia.com/wiki/World_Season_Calendar This web page unfortunately doesn't go into details, but there were several advantages. The same calendar is used for all years, your birthday is always on the same day of the week, no need to remember "30 days hath Sept. ...", and several other advantages I can't remember right now. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:45, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1511: Spice Girl

2015-04-14T18:58:58Z

RenniePet:

Not being shouted (from without, at either cueball or his female companion) by a post-apocalyptic crowd, surely, but by Cueball (from within, at the post-apocalyptic person of whom he is currently trying to deny entry whilst possibly necessary weaponry is being loaded)... Or so I read it. If that makes sense. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.4|141.101.99.4]] 05:43, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
:It does look like that, but the caption states "through a door". -- microslayer
::The little lines around the origin point of the speech "bubble" is usually used in XKCD to indicate that the sound is coming through the surface or offscreen (see Writers Strike (360) and Time Vulture (926)). -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 06:52, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
:::Except that I read the ''caption'' as meaning "through a door" by our Cueball, i.e. what someone like him would be shouting ''out'', plosively. (It's "through the wall", anyway, if that's a 'through something' speech-bubble-originator-indicator (like the "THUMP"s are) rather than 'rather loudly' emphasis that I'd expect to be associated with Cueball. They are shown differently, with the non-THUMP indicator not really having the same appearance as all the other ones otherwise mentioned. Even in the very same panel.) Anyway, just my POV. Needs an Official Transcript to be sure, I suppose. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.4|141.101.99.4]] 07:12, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
::::The speak line clearly shows it is Cueball who shouts this quiz title through a door. No question is it like this, so I have corrected the transcript accordingly.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:54, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
:::::I disagree. It's not that clear. The marks around the end of the speech line indicate the question is being shouted from the other side of the wall, and I think - but can't be certain - that the line terminates near Cue Ball's head looks like to me like ambiguous drawing by the cartoonist. That, and the "through the door" make me think that Cue Ball is just silently holding the door shut against the rampaging hoards, who are doing all the shouting. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.123}}
::::::I agree that it is unclear. See comic [[1493]]. Randall has used those little "blast" lines USUALLY to denote off-screen speech, but in that comic (the first example I found going backwards), he uses it directly on Cueball. That said, most uses are for sound effects or off-screen/through wall speech. I expected to find it used for "shouting", but Cueball isn't even shouting in that comic. Not sure why Randall used it. Another example is [[1393]]. I initially read this comic as Cueball speaking, otherwise Randally would have drawn the line over Cueball's head to the door, but I don't think the other interpretation is necessarily wrong. I do think the third one had to go though. Cueball shouting to Megan doesn't line up with the caption of "through the door". [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:28, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
:::::::I also find it to be confusing. I first thought it was Cueball that was doing the shouting but after reading this page I now see that the little marks around the speech line are usually used when the speaker is off panel or inside of something (car or coming from PC, etc). I went looking through back comics to see if any yelling was indicated differently and found one where the character was not yelling but the speech line has the same little marks (First panel of Fundamental Forces http://xkcd.com/1489/). In that case it looks like a small mistake, but in this comic it just leaves me unsure who is speaking. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.171|108.162.221.171]] 14:39, 13 April 2015 (UTC)Agent0013
::::::: I am satisfied with the two different explanations currently being shown, given the controversy. However, to continue to support 'my' interpretation, do note the difference between the *THUMP* origins (unidirectionally starred lines, definitely on the door) and the question's origins (splayed lines, and an origin on the surface of a wall... ''coincidentally'' in the right place to be confused with originating from Cueball's mouth?). I'd accept that there's argument (before anyone else gives it) that because of Cueball's head being where it is one might not see the leftward-sloping asterism lines, but I don't think it's close enough to have obscured this (and could have been easily drawn to ''avoid'' such an illustration problem, as might a way to have drawn it to be unconfusingly not associated with Cueball's head at all). Tell you what, let's see if we can get it via the 3d.xkcd.com interface... ''Then'' we might know... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.4|141.101.99.4]] 15:26, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
::::: I agree that it is clear it is Cueball shouting. The caption says through a door, not through a wall. The lines (different from the "through-door" lines) indicate he is shouting it with stress in his voice, through the door at a Spice Girl on the other side. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.187|108.162.250.187]] 23:06, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
:: [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] and [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.123|108.162.229.123]] are correct, the shouting is coming from outside the room. Randall/Cueball imagines he is hearing quiz titles "being shouted," he is not imagining shouting them himself. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 11:56, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
::: Furthermore, ''"in order to make sure the one you '''let in''' is not some scary person but a merciful one"'' makes no sense because the Spice Girl in question is clearly meant to be the girl loading the gun behind the box. She's already in the room. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.123}}
:::: Hmm, or maybe not. I thought the hair was too different from Megan's usual style, but it could be her. So now I'm about 50/50 on this one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.123|108.162.229.123]] 12:28, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
::::There is no such character as Megan. Please see [[Megan]]. I quote ""Megan" does not necessarily always represent the same character from comic to comic. She is essentially the female equivalent of Cueball, representing the every-woman to his everyman.". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 13:08, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
::::::::I agree that it is difficult to determine from the small lines where the speak comes from. I have added several changes to the explain, but kept most of it in. I still believe that it is Cueball that shouts, but I'm not 100% sure anymore. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:06, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't know much about the Spice Girls, but the comic seems to be referring to two; Is there a "merciful" Spice Girl? Is there one likely to "start a war"? And is there a "war" that is specifically to do with the Spice Girls? -[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.95|141.101.106.95]] 08:01, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
What about Camp Spice?? {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.103}}

The comic is clearly inventing new Spice Girls: the original Spice Girls didn't have a merciful one, or an evil one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 13:10, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
:Disagree. In real life, there has not been a war started by ANY spice girl. This is clearly fantasy. It is just as likely that Randall is imagining the Spice Girls rise to power and in their newfound power, become associated with new traits (e.g. one is a merciful and one starts a war - in Cueball's fantasy scenario, there are only two spice girls left, or two who could possibly be at the door). There is no basis to assume this is a reference to invented new spice girls.
:: I also think that if Randall intended to have the quiz's answers make sense, it would have to be the latter, since the quiz won't have an "evil" or "merciful" spice. That said, given Randall's comment about needing to make the link titles less irritating, it's unlikely he would actually do the quiz. He just wants to be less annoyed while skimming his, Facebook feed (for example) [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:33, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
::You are wrong when you say 'the quiz won't have an "evil" or "merciful" spice'. [http://www.kidspot.com.au/the-spice-girls-and-10-other-mummy-types-you-might-know/ Here] you can see Baby Mummy, Sporty Mummy, Scary Mummy, Posh Mummy, Ginger Mummy, and also Old Mummy, Oracle Mummy, Supercalifragalistic Mummy, Drop and Run Mummy, Hover Mummy, Boring Mummy, Disaster Zone Mummy, and Baby Factory Mummy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 17:15, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Why are we all ignoring the fact that this is not just this quiz title? It extends to things like "Which Harry Potter Character are you?" and other stuff like that. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 00:15, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
:Because the comics name is Spice Girl!--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:06, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

That's some [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land Waste Land] level shit of complexity right there. [[User:Boerder|Boerder]] ([[User talk:Boerder|talk]])

The discussion has convinced me my initial interpretation is wrong, but I still like it best: Cueball is shouting, in a panic, at Megan Spice, who he thought was innocent until those at the door came for her. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.108|173.245.50.108]] 16:40, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

The whole idea that the shout is coming from Cueball is nonsense, utter nonsense. Megan is loading her shotgun, and saying "Haha, you'll see!" So Megan is the merciful spice girl or the one who started the war. The shouted question "Which spice girl are you?" is directed at Megan. And Randall is saying that he likes to imagine questions like this as being shouted through a door. Cueball and Megan are on the same side of the door. Ergo the shout is coming from outside. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 18:58, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

1511: Spice Girl

2015-04-14T18:49:09Z

RenniePet: /* The shout comes from outside */ Grammar

__NOTOC__
{{comic
| number = 1511
| date = April 13, 2015
| title = Spice Girl
| image = spice_girl.png
| titletext = Haha, you'll see!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Links to a specific quiz with this question in it, and a specific work with this scene in it, would be really helpful}}

This is a complex and challenging comic to understand, depending on the reader's familiarity with the {{w|Spice Girls}}, with quizzes about the Spice Girls, and with {{w|Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|postapocalyptic}} {{w|dystopia|dystopian}} fiction.

===The Spice Girls===
The Spice Girls are a British pop girl group formed in 1994. It consists of five girls who each have a "spice girl" nickname. The five girls with their respective nicknames are:
*{{w|Mel B}} (MB) or "Scary Spice"
*{{w|Mel C}} (MC) or "Sporty Spice"
*{{w|Emma Bunton}} (Em) or "Baby Spice"
*{{w|Geri Halliwell}} (G) or "Ginger Spice"
*{{w|Victoria Beckham}} (V) or"Posh Spice"
The letter in parenthesis are relevant for the interpretation of the [[#The title text|title text]]

===The internet quiz===
This is one example of a trend of on-line quizzes that would "identify" the user with one person/personality of a group based on a series of personality questions. This will most often concern which member of a band, TV cast/film cast or character from books etc. the quizzer most resembles. In this comic it is specifically [[#Spice girl quizzes|Spice girl quizzes]] that are the subject.

In this comic, [[Randall]] is suggesting that in order to cope with, what he probably considers to be irritating {{w|clickbait}} links to these quizzes, he imagines the link titles as ''being shouted through a door in a in a postapocalyptic dystopia''. This is a reference to a trope in movies set in such postapocalyptic settings (which Randall presumably enjoys more) in which the heroes must determine whether an unknown agent is friend or foe, which in some such media occurs by shouting through locked doors. It is not likely that Randall would actually complete these quizzes, but if he did in this fantasy setting, the stakes would be higher and each answer would be fraught with dangerous meaning. It would thus also be much more fun taking the quiz and the result would seem to be important.

As can be seen, from the nicknames above, there is no Merciful Spice, and although Scary Spice may be the one you might at first associate with starting a war, that is not necessarily a reference to her.
''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SQYLHWo8TA The Merciful One]'' could be a reference to the song with the same name by {{w|Zohar (band)|Zohar}}, another British music ensemble. This song is very slow and easy compared to ''Wannabe''.

===Two interpretations===
There are two ways of interpreting this comic, as it is not initially fully clear whether the "speech line" in the comic is coming from [[Cueball]] or through the wall adjacent to him. It leads to two very different interpretations!

====Speech lines in xkcd====
There is no discussion about the thumping on the door though. Everybody agrees that there is someone outside the door who thumps on it. The small lines on the door around the "speech line" for the Thump radiate all directions.

However, the small radiating lines on the wall around the "speech line" for the shouting are less spread. This has led to some disagreement as to whether the "Which are you" line is are coming from outside the room (through the wall) or from Cueball.

Speech that comes from on-screen characters is nearly always indicated without any radiating lines. In [[1489: Fundamental Forces]] radiating lines are shown coming from someone on-screen speaking normally, but it only occurs once out of four though (vs. four out of four for those from off-screen characters in that comic) so this may be an unintentional inconsistency by Randall.

Speech that comes from off-screen is always(?) indicated with these radiating lines as can be seen in the aforementioned [[1489: Fundamental Forces]], the last frame of [[1507: Metaball]] or twice in [[1493: Meeting]].

The problem in this comic is that the speech line points to Cueball's head and is close to it. Its distance from his face is similar to what Randall typically uses to indicate what a character is saying. They are often drawn a little closer than that, but it is not uncommon that there are some distance. So, absent the radiating lines, it would look very much like Cueball is the one speaking. Since the radiating lines '''are''' there, however, an interpretation is that the shout as coming out of the wall, just as the thumps are coming from the door.

====The shout comes from Cueball====
In this interpretation the four little lines from the speech line going to Cueball's indicate that he is shouting.

Cueball is shouting the question '''through a door''' at a charged time during a postapocalyptic war, in order to make sure the one he lets in is not some evil person but a merciful one. In this comic, Megan is preparing for the worst by loading her shotgun, while a, possibly dangerous, Spice Girl is knocking on their door. The line from [[#The title text|the title text]] is said by the spice girl outside.

====The shout comes from outside====
In this interpretation the four little lines from the speech line are only stopping near Cueball's, but is actually comming from (through) the wall to indicate that the question is shouted from outside.

This would then indicate that Megan is the Spice Girl (remember that Megan is not the same character from comic to comic so this is not a problem for this interpretation).

The quiz questions is being shouted by an angry agent or crowd outside the door at a charged time during a postapocalyptic war. Cueball tries to protect "Megan Spice", who the crowd would be after. In case that she is The Merciful One there is not problem. But if she is the one that started this war they would like to apprehend her.

In this case it looks like Megan does not have any intention of answering, and she is preparing for when the people outside break down the door by loading her shotgun to defend herself. The line from [[#The title text|the title text]] is said by the Megan Spice indicating that when they get through the door they will be in trouble.

===The title text===
The title text refers to the [http://lyrics.wikia.com/Spice_Girls:Wannabe lyrics] from the Spice Girls' debut single, ''{{w|Wannabe (song)|Wannabe}}'' (Listen to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLIiF15wjQ Wannabe on YouTube]'') Here below is the relevant excerpt from the song where the letters in the last four lines refer to the spice girls [[#The Spice Girls|as given above]]. This rap {{w|bridge (music)|bridge}} is sung by Scary Spice except for the line with Easy V which is sung by Ginger Spice:
:So here's a story from A to Z,
:You wanna get with me You gotta listen carefully
:We got Em in the place who likes it in your face
:You got G like MC who likes it on an
:Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady
:And as for me, '''ha ha, you'll see'''

These lyrics function as a little introduction to the then less well known girl group. The final line takes on a threat-like tone in this new context of the comic. And it doesn't help that it is Scary Spice who sings it.

The text may seem a little confusing to understand, especially the line that finishes ''on an''. According to another lyrics-site, which also has [http://genius.com/3134866 explanations] to some parts of the text, it means that G and MC likes it (sex) together with {{w|MDMA|ecstasy}} - as "On an E" is slang for being on ecstasy (see it used in this [https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090518130834AA0QdJD discussion]). They could not sing this directly without resulting in a PG rating, thus they inserted the "E" in the next line as '''E'''asy V, a line which is even sung by another spice girl, Ginger spice, where the rest of this bridge is sung by Scary spice.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is trying to barricade a door with his own body (although it already has a bar in front of it). He is in a room that is deteriorating with Megan who is loading a shotgun while sitting behind some sort of box.]
:Knocking on the door: '''Thump Thump'''
:Voice (see interpretations above): '''Which Spice Girl are you?!'''
:Voice: The merciful one, or the one who started this war?

:[Caption below the frame:]
:'''When I see those quiz titles, I like to imagine they're'''
:'''being shouted through a door in a postapocalyptic dystopia.'''

==Spice girl quizzes==
*''What spice girl are you?'' quizzes
**[http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/which-spice-girl-are-you#.gbkv2p3jDX Buzzfeed]
**[http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/w-MjcRyEoFZ/Which+Spice+Girl+Are+You Zimbio]
**[http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/which-spice-girl-are-you/ Brainfall]
**[http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_spice_girl_are_you GoToQuiz]
*Kidspot, ''[http://www.kidspot.com.au/the-spice-girls-and-10-other-mummy-types-you-might-know/ The Spice Girls and 10 other mummy types you might know];'' Baby Mummy, Sporty Mummy, Scary Mummy, Posh Mummy, Ginger Mummy and 10 others.

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

Talk:1510: Napoleon

2015-04-11T13:28:25Z

RenniePet:

Well, this explains a lot. Why Obama refuses to return to the Moon and wants to go for an asteroid...[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 07:33, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
:That would make an awesome addition to the story line. I wish Randall included that extra panel. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.89|173.245.50.89]] 08:21, 10 April 2015 (UTC)BK201
:So... the reason he wants to go for an asteroid is that we need the capability to send the Moon-escaped Napoleon there! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 09:42, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Haha this is now one of my favorite xkcd comics [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.33|141.101.98.33]] 08:16, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
:Which goes to show that tastes can be different - I think this comic is just silly, silly, silly. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:28, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

IMHO the explanation somewhat misses the crucial point: A parody of the villain type
who always comes back in comic books. (Don't force me to add a TVTropes link :-) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.240|198.41.243.240]] 09:22, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Another question - Why the Antarctic? Something evil resting under deep ice is concept used for example in movie(s) The Thing ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_from_Another_World]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(2011_film)]] - chose your favorite ;-) or game Prisoner of Ice [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_Ice]].[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 13:59, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
: Don't forget Alien vs. Predator! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.33|141.101.98.33]] 09:21, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

In 2115, Napoleon escapes from the moon and almost conquers the United Nations of Earth before being defeated. He is then sent into the Sun, where he stays for the next thousand years.... But in the 32nd century, humanity begins extracting material from the Sun to build a Dyson Sphere, and this allows Napoleon to escape and wreak havoc once more. At this point, the Star People just give up and go "WTF?!". [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 16:37, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/124/kennedy.png [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.177|108.162.210.177]] 18:20, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

I was so sure that "A century later" meant this was a setup for an "Avatar-the last airbnder" joke. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.28|141.101.98.28]] 12:27, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

1509: Scenery Cheat Sheet

2015-04-09T10:32:48Z

RenniePet: /* Table */ Fix link.

{{comic
| number = 1509
| date = April 8, 2015
| title = Scenery Cheat Sheet
| image = scenery cheat sheet.png
| titletext = At the boundary between each zone, stories blend together. Somewhere in the New Mexico desert, the Roadrunner is pursued by a tireless Anton Chigurh.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Explanation required.}}

{{w|GeoGuessr}} is a game using {{w|Google Street View|StreetView}} images that drops the player in a random location and challenges them to work out where they are. It is also referenced in [[1214: Geoguessr]].

Crash-landed astronauts probably refer to the movie {{w|Gravity (film)|Gravity}} where {{w|Sandra Bullock}} do crash land. It is not clear in the movie if it is in the United States, but if she new this Cheat Sheet, she would quickly be able to determine that...

Some entries (for instance, ''{{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}'') reflect the locations where the stories are set, and others (like ''{{w|Dances with Wolves}}'') reflect where they were filmed. Several regions on the map have labels which are not actually movies. The map is the most detailed in the {{w|Northeastern United States|northeast}}, which is where [[Randall]] lives.

The title text references ''{{w|Anton Chigurh}}'' (portrayed by {{w|Javier Bardem}}), who is the main antagonist of the film ''{{w|No Country For Old Men}}.'' In this case he would have taken over the role of {{w|Wile E. Coyote}}, and would thus hunt down {{w|Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner|The Road Runner}} at the boundary between the sections for these two movies, which would be somewhere in the {{w|New Mexico}} desert.

==Table==
In this table all the movies from the map are mentioned, in the order from top left, left to right, top to bottom:
{| class="wikitable"
! Movie Title
! Setting for Movie
! Actual Filming Location(s)
! Section on map
! Notes
|-
| {{w|The Goonies}}
|
| Cannon Beach, and Astoria, OR
|
|
|-
| {{w|Twilight (2008 film)| Twilight}}
| Forks, WA
| Portland, OR
| rowspan="2" | {{w|Washington (state)|Washington}}, {{w|Oregon}} and most northern part of {{w|California}} except for the part taken up by The Goonies.
| Same sections as 50 Shades of Grey
|-
| {{w|Fifty Shades of Grey (film)|50 Shades of Grey}}
| Seattle, WA
| Vancouver, BC
| Same sections as Twilight which is clear from this fact:. The Fifty series was originally a {{w|fan fiction}} version of Twilight, but then developed into three full novels. It became the first film based on a fan fiction book.
|-
| {{w|Dances with Wolves}}
| Fort Sedgwick, CO
| South Dakota and Wyoming
| rowspan= "2" |
|
|-
| {{w|Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers}}
| Planet Klendathu
| Hell's Half Acre, WY
|
|-
| {{w|Fargo (film)|Fargo}}
| Fargo ND, Brainerd MN, Minneapolis MN
| Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN area, Hallock MN, Bathgate, ND
|
|
|-
| {{w|Wild Wild West|Wild Wild West}}
| The southwest area
| Tuscon, Arizona; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Pierce, Idaho
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Sandlot|The Sandlot}}
| Suburban Los Angeles
| Salt Lake City, Utah
|
|
|-
| {{w|Napoleon Dynamite|Napoleon Dynamite}}
| Preston, Idaho
| Preston, Idaho
|
|
|-
| {{w|Brokeback Mountain|Brokeback Mountain}}
| Wyoming
| Southern Alberta
|
|
|-
| {{w|Oregon Trail (video_game)|Oregon Trail}}
| {{w|Platte River|Platte}}, {{w|Snake River|Snake}}, and {{w|Columbia River|Columbia}} river valleys
|Video Game, not a film
|
| Could also refer to the film "{{w|The Oregon Trail (1936 film)}}".
|-
| {{w|Interstellar (film)|Interstellar}} (Earth parts)
| {{w|Northeast_megalopolis|BosWash}} (converted to farmland), probably near former NYC
| Alberta
| rowspan="3" |
| "Earth Parts"
|-
| {{w|Star Trek (film)|Star Trek (2009)}} (Earth parts)
| Iowa
| Iowa
| "Earth Parts"
|-
| {{w|Field of Dreams|Field of Dreams}}
|
| Dyersville, IA
|
|-
| {{w|The Music Man (1962 film)|The Music Man}}
| River City, IA
| Warner Bros Studio, Burbank, CA
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Blues Brothers (film)|Blues Brothers}}
| Chicago
| Chicago and Milwaukee
|
|
|-
| {{w|A Christmas Story|A Christmas Story}}
| Indiana
| Cleveland, OH
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|Jack & Diane|That song about Jack and Diane}}
|
| Lake Monroe, IN
| "In the Heartland"
|-
| {{w|8 Mile (film)|8 Mile}}
| Wayne County, Michigan
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}
| {{w|Punxsutawney,_Pennsylvania|Punxsutawney, PA}}, {{w|Pittsburgh|Pittsburgh}}
| Woodstock, IL
|
|
|-
| {{w|My Side of the Mountain|My Side of the Mountain (book)}}
| Adirondack Mountains, NY
| Catskill mountains, near Delhi, NY
|
| The area shown on the map includes the Adirondacks, as well as the Tug Hill Plateau and the Finger Lakes. The Catskills appear to be excluded.
|-
| {{w|Super Troopers|Super Troopers}}
| Vermont, NY ("Somewhere near the border")
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Pet Semetary|Pet Semetary}}
| Ludlow, Maine
|Hancock, Maine
|
|
|-
| {{w|What About Bob?|What about Bob}}
|Lake Winnipesaukee, NH
|Smith Mountain Lake, VA
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Departed|The Departed}}
| Boston, MA
| Boston & New York
|
|
|-
| {{w|Signs (film)|Signs}}
| {{w|Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown, PA}}
|
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|The Village (2004 film)|The Village}}
| Covington, PA
| {{w|Chadds Ford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Chadds Ford, PA}}
|
|-
| {{w|War of the Worlds (2005 film)|War of the Worlds (2005)}}
| Massachusetts
| California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia
|
| Also referenced in [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]
|-
| {{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}
| Amity Island (stand-in for Martha's Vineyard)
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Rock (film)|The Rock}}
| {{w|Alcatraz Island}}
| {{W|Alcatraz Island}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Zodiac (film)|Zodiac}}
| San Fransisco Bay Area
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Sideways|That movie about wine & talking}}
| {{w|Santa Ynez Valley}}
| {{w|Santa Ynez Valley}}
|
| He clearly means ''Sideways''. Mapped area does not include the Santa Ynez Valley wine country, but instead shows the {{w|Central_Valley_(California)|California Central Valley}}.
|-
| {{w|Top Gun|Top Gun}}
| NAS Miramar, San Diego, CA
| Nevada, NAS Miramar, San Diego, CA
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|Part of Independence Day}}
| Grand Canyon & Area 51
| Utah / Nevada
|
|-
| {{w|Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner|Roadrunner cartoons}}
| {{w|Southern Arizona}}
|Animated, not filmed
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz}}
| Kansas, Oz
|
|
| The Judy Garland version, presumably. The earth parts.
|-
| {{w|Twister (1996 film)|Twister}}
| Oklahoma
|
|
|
|-
| Anything by {{w|Mark Twain}}
| Hannibal, MO
|
|
| The mapped area doesn't quite include Twain's home town of Hannibal, MO.
|-
| {{w|Walk the Line|Walk the Line}}
| Tennessee
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|October Sky|October Sky}}
| Coalwood, WV
| East Tennessee
|
|
|-
| {{w|Dirty Dancing|Dirty Dancing}}
| {{w|Catskill Mountains|Catskill Mountains}}
|
|
|
|-
| [Generic City]
| Washington DC, Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia
| N/A
|
|
|-
| {{w|Deep Impact (film)|Deep Impact}}
| Atlantic Coast
|
|
| The Mega-tsunami
|-
| {{w|The Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt for Red October}}
| Atlantic Ocean
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind}}
| Tara, near {{w|Jonesboro, Georgia|Jonesboro, GA}}
|
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|Forrest Gump|Forrest Gump}}
| Alabama
|
|
|-
| {{w|List of most expensive films|Every movie with a big budget...}}
|
|Hollywood, CA
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Truman Show|The Truman Show}}<br>but with desert in the background
|
|
|
| If it were filmed in Las Vegas ...
|-
| {{w|Tombstone (film)|Tombstone}}
| {{w|Tombstone, Arizona|Tombstone, AZ}}
| Arizona
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|The Mask of Zorro|The Mask of Zorro}}
| California
| Mexico
|
|-
| {{w|No Country for Old Men (film)|No Country for Old Men}}
| (West) Texas
| Texas, New Mexico
|
|
|-
| {{w|True Grit (1969 film)|True Grit}}
| Arkansas
|New Mexico
|
| Obviously the {{w|True Grit (2010 film)|2010 version}}
|-
| {{w|Office Space|Office Space}}
|
| Austin, TX
| rowspan="3" |
|
|-
| {{w|Dazed and Confused (film)|Dazed and Confused}}
| Austin, TX
|
|
|-
| {{w|Kill Bill|Kill Bill}}
| El Paso, TX
|
|-
| {{w|Duck Dynasty|Duck Dynasty}}
| {{w|West Monroe, Louisiana|West Monroe, LA}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Princess and the Frog|Princess and the Frog}}
| New Orleans
|Animated, not filmed
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|All Dogs Go to Heaven|All Dogs go to Heaven}}
| New Orleans
|Animated, not filmed
|
|-
| {{w|Big Fish|Big Fish}}
|
| Wetumpka and Montgomery, AL
| rowspan="2" |
|
|-
| {{w|O Brother, Where Art Thou?|O Brother Where Art Thou}}
| Parchman Farm, MS
| Canton, MS; Florence, SC
|
|-
| {{w|Beasts of the Southern Wild|Beasts of the Southern Wild}}
| Louisiana
| Montegut, LA
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Truman Show|The Truman Show}}
| Los Angeles area
| {{w|Seaside, Florida|Seaside, FL}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Adaptation (film)|Adaptation}}
| Everglades, FL and surrounding areas
|
|
| Very loosely based on the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean, which chronicles the lifestyle of orchid thief and dealer John Laroche. The movie is about a screenwriter who struggles to adapt the book into a movie, turning himself into a main character in his own story.
|-
| {{w|Miami Vice|Miami Vice}}
| Miami
|
| Or the {{w|Miami Vice (film)|film}}
|
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Above the frame is the following text.]
:'''A cheat sheet for'''
:figuring out where in the US you are
:by recognizing the background from movies
:(for use by GeoGuessr players and crash-landed astronauts)

:[In the frame is a map of the mainland USA with the 48 mainland states lined out in thin gray lines. All areas on the map have been enclosed in sections divided by curved black lines. These sections sizes goes from encompassing several states down to just a small section of a single state. The sections cover the entire USA without any holes. There is also one section in the Atlantic Ocean. All sections are labeled. If the section is large enough the text stands inside, if it is too small, the text is outside and an arrow will point to the relevant section
:[Here below all the text on the map will be transcribed From top left, left to right, top to bottom:]
:The Goonies
:Twilight
:50 Shades of Grey
:Dances with Wolves
:Starship Troopers
:Fargo
:Wild Wild West
:The Sandlot
:Napoleon Dynamite
:Brokeback Mountain
:Oregon Trail
:Interstellar (Earth parts)
:Star Trek (2009) (Earth parts)
:Field of Dreams
:The Music Man
:Blues Brothers
:A Christmas Story
:That song about Jack and Diane
:8 Mile
:Groundhog Day
:My Side of the Mountain (book)
:Super Troopers
:Pet Semetary
:What about Bob
:The Departed
:Signs
:The Village
:War of the Worlds (2005)
:Jaws
:The Rock
:Zodiac
:That movie about wine & talking
:Top Gun
:Part of Independence Day
:Roadrunner cartoons
:The Wizard of Oz
:Twister
:Anything by Mark Twain
:Walk the Line
:October Sky
:Dirty Dancing
:[Generic City]
:Deep Impact
:The Hunt for Red October
:Gone with the Wind
:Forrest Gump
:Every movie with a big budget...
:The Truman Show
:but with desert in the background
:Tombstone
:The Mask of Zorro
:No Country for Old Men
:True Grit
:Office Space
:Dazed and Confused
:Kill Bill
:Duck Dynasty
:Princess and the Frog
:All Dogs go to Heaven
:Big Fish
:O Brother Where Art Thou
:Beasts of the Southern Wild
:The Truman Show
:Adaptation
:Miami Vice

==Trivia==

Not everything {{w|Mark Twain}} wrote was really set on the {{w|Mississippi River}}. For instance, he first gained attention as a fiction writer with "{{w|The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County}}," which is about {{w|Northern California}}.

==See also==
*[https://geoguessr.com/ GeoGuessr's official website]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:1508: Operating Systems

2015-04-06T19:02:28Z

RenniePet:

[something].js isn't that far off: https://github.com/runtimejs/runtime (Sometimes I feel like JavaScript is a cult...) :) [[User:Bb010g|Bb010g]] ([[User talk:Bb010g|talk]]) 06:07, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Typo in title text: ''singed'' should be ''signed''.[[User:Jezzaaaa|Jezzaaaa]] ([[User talk:Jezzaaaa|talk]]) 06:43, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

:That's not a typo. Singed means slightly burnt. It's implying a post-apocalyptic environment. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.126|108.162.219.126]] 07:10, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

:I know almost nothing about Richard Stallman, but he does sound like the kind of guy who might be giving out signed photos of himself. :-) --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 19:02, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" Could be a play of words on "Bloodborne", the game. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.14|108.162.212.14]] 09:01, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

[something].js is probably referring to Node.js or one of the many frameworks built on Node.JS (such as Google's Angular.js). Node.js isn't written in Javascript, but in c/c++ using Google's V8 JS engine and is a replacement for Apache (a web platform). My interpretation is that it's only a matter of time before someone builds an entire OS using Node.js principles.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.99|108.162.221.99]] 10:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" makes me think of blood-borne nanites more than anything. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.179|108.162.250.179]] 11:21, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Ditto here, "Blood Drone" implies, to me, an operating system for blood borne nanotech. [[User:Ioldanach|Ioldanach]] ([[User talk:Ioldanach|talk]]) 16:34, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

What if the ASI will be running on GNU/Hurd and 8 years after the war will seize Randal's house? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:35, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I cannot find any reliable source stating that iOS stands for "internet Operating System." To the contrary, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_OS Internet Operating Systems] seems like something different entirely. If anyone can find evidence to the contrary, please provide a link. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 14:57, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that iOS came from the iPhone Operating System conjunction based on what I read on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS Wikipedia]. I'm also inclined to support the idea that "Blood Drone" would be more likely to refer to blood-borne devices than to personal warfare devices, although with the timeline proximity to the Apocalypse, it is easy to see the reason for the other assumption. --[[User:Ancientt|Ancientt]] ([[User talk:Ancientt|talk]]) 16:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I fixed a teeny tiny typo. off changed to of. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 17:03, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Looks like he doesn't have much faith in the future of Android. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 18:55, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1508: Operating Systems

2015-04-06T18:55:27Z

RenniePet:

[something].js isn't that far off: https://github.com/runtimejs/runtime (Sometimes I feel like JavaScript is a cult...) :) [[User:Bb010g|Bb010g]] ([[User talk:Bb010g|talk]]) 06:07, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Typo in title text: ''singed'' should be ''signed''.[[User:Jezzaaaa|Jezzaaaa]] ([[User talk:Jezzaaaa|talk]]) 06:43, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

:That's not a typo. Singed means slightly burnt. It's implying a post-apocalyptic environment. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.126|108.162.219.126]] 07:10, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" Could be a play of words on "Bloodborne", the game. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.14|108.162.212.14]] 09:01, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

[something].js is probably referring to Node.js or one of the many frameworks built on Node.JS (such as Google's Angular.js). Node.js isn't written in Javascript, but in c/c++ using Google's V8 JS engine and is a replacement for Apache (a web platform). My interpretation is that it's only a matter of time before someone builds an entire OS using Node.js principles.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.99|108.162.221.99]] 10:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" makes me think of blood-borne nanites more than anything. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.179|108.162.250.179]] 11:21, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Ditto here, "Blood Drone" implies, to me, an operating system for blood borne nanotech. [[User:Ioldanach|Ioldanach]] ([[User talk:Ioldanach|talk]]) 16:34, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

What if the ASI will be running on GNU/Hurd and 8 years after the war will seize Randal's house? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:35, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I cannot find any reliable source stating that iOS stands for "internet Operating System." To the contrary, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_OS Internet Operating Systems] seems like something different entirely. If anyone can find evidence to the contrary, please provide a link. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 14:57, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that iOS came from the iPhone Operating System conjunction based on what I read on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS Wikipedia]. I'm also inclined to support the idea that "Blood Drone" would be more likely to refer to blood-borne devices than to personal warfare devices, although with the timeline proximity to the Apocalypse, it is easy to see the reason for the other assumption. --[[User:Ancientt|Ancientt]] ([[User talk:Ancientt|talk]]) 16:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I fixed a teeny tiny typo. off changed to of. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 17:03, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Looks like he doesn't have much faith in the future of Android. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 18:55, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

1508: Operating Systems

2015-04-06T18:52:14Z

RenniePet: /* Explanation */ Spelling - my mistake.

{{comic
| number = 1508
| date = April 6, 2015
| title = Operating Systems
| image = operating systems.png
| titletext = One of the survivors, poking around in the ruins with the point of a spear, uncovers a singed photo of Richard Stallman. They stare in silence. "This," one of them finally says, "This is a man who BELIEVED in something."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More fine tuning needed? What does the height above the time line mean. Is the lowest the main system. Or is it solely based on order of appearance. There is always one OS at the bottom...}}
In this comic, [[Randall]] gives an overview of past, present and (speculatively) future of the Operating Systems running in his house at any given time. Notably, because Randall is fascinated by technology, there is rarely only one OS running in his household. The timeline tracks how Operating Systems have come and gone over the years, and the gradual shift from desktop Operating Systems to mobile can be observed. Beyond the present day, we see some of Randall's humorous predictions as to which technologies and companies will dominate the Operating System landscape in the future.

It seems most likely that the OS that is closest to the time-line is also the one he mainly uses during these extended periods.

Previous and current systems:
*{{w|MS-DOS}} (Microsoft Disk Operating System): The standard, command-line-based, OS for IBM PC-compatible computers in the 80s and early 90s.
*{{w|Microsoft Windows}}: The standard GUI-based OS for IBM PC-compatible computers from the mid 80s to the present day. Early versions operated as shells on top of MS-DOS rather than stand-alone OSes in their own right, which may explain part of the overlap in those two bars. Randall's bar indicates that he first started using Windows in the era of Windows 3.1 and stopped in 2007, presumably switching to Linux as his main OS.
*Apple's {{w|Mac OS}} (Macintosh Operating System): The OS of Apple's Macintosh line of computers. Randall's bar indicates that he stopped using Macs in 2001, a time when the fortunes of Apple were in decline and Macintoshes were "niche" computers.
*{{w|Linux}}: An open-source (typically free) Unix-like OS. Randall's bar indicates that he likely used it on one or two PCs starting from 1999 while still using Windows on other PCs, or perhaps was dual-booting one or more PCs with Windows, until abandoning Windows in 2007 to use Linux full-time. This timing coincides with the release of Microsoft's controversial {{w|Windows Vista}} and the advent of more user-friendly Linux distributions.
*{{w|OS X}} (Macintosh Operating System v10): The successor OS of Apple's Macintosh line of computers. Although it was sometimes marketed as merely the 10th version of the earlier Mac OS, it was largely a new product. The bar indicates Randall's renewed use of Macintosh computers in 2009 when Apple was in a much better financial state than it was in 2001.
*{{w|Android_(operating_system)|Android}}: The OS of Android phones and tablets. Randall is indicating that he has at least one of these devices.
*Apple's {{w|iOS}}: The OS of {{w|iPhone}}, {{w|iPad}}, and {{w|Apple TV}}. Randall is indicating that he also has at least one of these.

His predictions for the future include:
*2018: That {{w|OS X}} and {{w|iOS}} will merge.
*2019: That [http://github.com/runtimejs/runtime#readme someone will succeed] in coding an entire operating system in {{w|Javascript}}.
*2022: That there'll be an OS based on {{w|Tinder_(application)|Tinder}}.
*2024: That the various devices from {{w|Nest Labs}} would be expanded so much that there's an entire operating system for them.
*2029: That {{w|Elon Musk}} will be up to something ambitious and futuristic.
*2030: That {{w|Disk_operating_system|DOS}} would make a comeback, but only in an ironic fashion (maybe because there would be no more disks left for it to operate from).
*2034: That ordinary people will be deploying {{w|Unmanned_combat_aerial_vehicle|weaponized drones}} in their homes.
*2042: Human civilization comes to a fiery end (maybe due to the unholy combination of weaponized drones and whatever the Elon Musk Project had developed). Another possible explanation is that human civilization will be wiped out by an artificial super-intelligence, superior to human intelligence, as Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, Bill Gates and many tech pundits foresee that 2045 will be the year to see such technology becoming real, and as Elon Musk, Bill Gates and many other tech pundits fear that it will be the extinction of all life on earth, as explained [http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html on this page].
*2059: At this time the operating system will be {{w|GNU}}/{{w|Hurd}}. This infamously and perennially late [http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html GNU/Hurd] OS will finally be released after human civilization has been wiped out. The joke is that GNU/Hurd began to be developed in 1990, and while it was expected to be released in a relatively short time, even now only unstable builds have been released. So Randall is saying that it will finally be ready to run in his house a decade or two after the end of humanity, i.e., that a production-ready version will never be released. Or Randall could be saying that, though human ''civilization'' doesn't exist any more, humanity still lives on, and GNU/Hurd will be the only system smart enough to be picked up by this post-catastrophe generation.

The title text refers to {{w|Richard Stallman}}, the founder of the {{w|Free Software movement}} and the GNU and Hurd projects. The survivors of the fire that ended the human civilization has uncovered a slightly burned ({{w|Singe|singed}}) picture of him. And they can see, either directly from the picture or because they already know of Stallman, that this was a man that really believed in something. In this case it was ''free software'' and the ''technical superiority of Hurd over the Linux Kernel''.

GNU is a collection of free software utilities, particularly the system utilities used with the Linux Kernel to form the Linux operating system (often called GNU/Linux by those who wish to emphasize the contribution of the GNU project). Hurd is an operating system kernel designed as part of GNU project that could be used in place of the Linux kernel to produce a compete GNU operating system. Hurd has a microkernel architecture, which has many perceived advantages over Linux's monolithic kernel, and is thought by many to be technically superior, despite its low adoption rate compared to the Linux kernel.

Randall has made several comics about free software and also about Stallman. See this list of [[:Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman|comics featuring Richard Stallman]]. Most are these are also about free software in some form.

==Transcript==
:[At the top of the panel:]
:'''Operating Systems'''
:running in my house

:[At the bottom there is time-line that runs from 1990 to 2066. It has small indicators for every year, larger for every 5 years and largest for every 10 years. Below the 10 year indicators are written the years. Also the year 2015 is marked:]
:1990 2000 2010 Now 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060

:[Bars above the time-line in four levels are labeled with operating system names, representing the time period for that OS. Below is a list of the bars on the time-line in order of first appearance (with approximate year ranges given). Also the level from 1-4 is indicated, with level 1 just above the time-line and level 4 the highest level above the line:]

:[Level 1 from 1988 to 1998 (extends a little left past the beginning of the time-line but not off panel):]
:MS DOS
:[Level 2 from 1993 to 2007:]
:Windows
:[Level 3 from 1994 to 2001:]
:Mac OS
:[Level 1 from 1999 to 2018:]
:Linux
:[Level 2 from 2009 to 2023. On the way the bar merges with iOS around 2019:]
:OS X
:[Level 3 from 2009 to 2016:]
:Android
:[Level 4 from 2013 to 2023. On the way to 2023 the bar moves down past Android to merge with OS X around 2019:]
:iOS
:[Level 1 from 2018 to 2028. The text is written in square brackets:]
:[Something].js
:[Level 3 from 2022 to 2029:]
:TinderOS
:[Level 2 from 2023 to 2032:]
:Nest
:[Level 1 from 2028 to 2041:]
:Elon Musk Project:
:[Level 3 from 2030 to 2036:]
:DOS, but ironically
:[Level 2 from 2034 to 2041:]
:Blood Drone
:[This is not a bar, but the text (in three lines) is in a, double bar-height (level 1-2), square bracket. The bracket extends from 2042 to 2051:]
:Human civilization ends in fire
:[Level 1 from 2059 going past the end of the panel past 2066:]
:GNU/Hurd

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]