explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2583: Chorded Keyboard

2022-06-14T06:20:57Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ removing ambiguity is my game.

{{comic
| number = 2583
| date = February 18, 2022
| title = Chorded Keyboard
| image = chorded_keyboard.png
| titletext = And even though it all went wrong / I'll stand before the lord of song / with nothing on my tongue but 'I don't understand, I swear I backed up my keyboard config before messing with it'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by LEONARD COHEN - Someone with proper computer knowledge should probably elaborate on the terms "chorded keyboard" and "keyboard config". Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This strip is a parody of the first verse (and in the title text, the end of the last verse) of {{w|Leonard Cohen}}'s "{{w|Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)|Hallelujah}}", which has become a distinctive and popular song of which {{w|Cover version|covers}} and versions exist. Written as a {{w|Sentimental ballad|ballad}}, it is partly based upon the allegory of a mystical {{w|Chord (music)|musical chord}} of several musical notes, that the words and tune both describe and illustrate by example.

Here is the verse from the song (see the lyrics [https://genius.com/Leonard-cohen-hallelujah-lyrics here]):
:Now I've heard there was a secret chord
:That David played, and it pleased the Lord
:But you don't really care for music, do ya?
:It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
:The minor fall, the major lift
:The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"

[[Cueball]] is {{w|Filk music|filking}} upon this theme, but in his case he has somehow set up his computer so that, upon pressing a certain combination of multiple keys on his keyboard, the system will automatically type out the word "hallelujah" (xkcd's all-caps lettering makes it unclear how the word is capitalized). In his description of the process, in both the comic proper and the title text, he uses adapted lyrics that again both describe and illustrate by example. Most of the initial lyrics are floating 'thoughts'. The punchline "hallelujah", however, is 'spoken' out of his computer monitor - typical of how on-screen text is indirectly shown in this comic series. It partially continues as a song parody through the title text but then trails off into a typical computer-complaint that he perhaps [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|may often have cause to make]].

The original lyrics rely upon typically nuanced rhymes, such as "do you" (or "do ya'") with "Hallelujah", and "fifth" with "lift", but fairly reliably rhymes "chord" with "Lord". In [[Randall]]'s version, it starts with "chord" and "word" which ''look'' like they should rhyme, but would be /kɔɹd/ {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet|vs.}} /wɝd/ in an typical US accent. Similarly "shift" and "left" might be considered not a {{w|Perfect and imperfect rhymes|perfect rhyme}} when read as prose, but should still be possible to meaningfully sing.

Technically, a {{w|Chorded_keyboard|chorded keyboard}} is one in which (nearly) all inputs are made by simultaneous pressing of a given combination of a limited number of keys, such as a literal handful of non-alphabetic keys, that the user learns to combine to represent the key-presses of more standard keyboards or (in some cases) signify entire phonemes or words. The workings of such a keyboard tends to be handled internally, sending to the computer the signal(s) that ''would'' have been sent from its larger cousin.

A big thing among Xennial hackers like Randall and his original audience was customising keyboard uses. The linux operating system was originally designed and used for personal customisation, and people move their configurations from system to system, often customising how things respond to such a degree that other users struggle to make use of their system at all. The first two major text editors, vim and emacs, were composed of different camps of how to efficiently type. The emacs camp believed it was more effective to hit many keys at once to accomplish a large task, but both editors were designed to be highly customisable. It's {{w|QWERTY#Properties|erroneously believed}} that the traditional qwerty keyboard was specifically designed to make typing inefficient so as to reduce engineering burden in making old typewriters responsive and reliable. Given the prevalence of them, it has been common among hackers to remap a keyboard to something they may personally consider more efficient, such as to use a {{w|dvorak keyboard layout|dvorak layout}} layout rather than a qwerty layout. Chorded configurations are an order of magnitude more efficient than the dvorak layout, but are more complex to configure because the result is not at all a one-to-one mapping. The {{w|Stenotype|traditional court reporting device}} is a chorded keyboard, to keep up with human speech.

Using a combination of normally single-use keys (the 'H' and a cursor) with others, including modifiers ('shift' and 'control'), i.e. 'chording' ''with'' his keyboard, is a kind of key combination found traditionally in emacs and operating system commands (such as pressing ctrl+alt+c, to copy a selection to clipboard). The ballad then comes across as an ode to system customisation and the practice of user-interface hacking, wherein a computer user knows how to rebuild their interface in almost any way they desire.

The chording example goes beyond mainstream use (shift and an alphabetic character changes the character case, whilst ctrl and a character may initiate an editing command) or mainstream multi-modifier combinations (ctrl, alt and the 'e' may result in the 'é', where the keyboard does not otherwise support it) and even goes beyond [[378: Real Programmers|emacs-like command ''sequences'']] which are generally software-specific. It seems likely that a setup such as that depicted in this comic is handled within the computer, either defined within the OS (all mainstream desktop operating systems support alternative keyboard mapping and customisable key-combinations, often for accessibility and international keyboard support), or (as is often the case with specialist configurable gaming keyboards) via the driver installed to mediate such esoteric keyboard combinations as the user has predefined for themselves.

Cueball's combination-keypress may in fact be better termed a 'macro', in some contexts. The single event, somehow triggered by this particular simultaneous multi-key input, invokes the injection of a pre-specified sequence of standard characters into the appropriate text-buffer/-stream, in lieu of manual per-character input.

The title text spoofs the last verse of the (original) song, with "Hallelujah" being replaced by Cueball trailing off musing about having apparently lost the backup of his keyboard configuration, implying that he ended up in a position where he would want to restore said backup (for instance, having tampered with it to the point he is no longer capable of operating the keyboard efficiently, if at all).

Here is the original verse, where the title text spoofs the last three lines:
:I did my best, it wasn't much
:I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
:I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
:And even though it all went wrong
:I'll stand before the lord of song
:With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah

As added irony, while in the original that verse is hopeful, with the singer being thankful for experiencing joy even from a relationship that ultimately failed, contrarily in the alt text Cueball is apparently expressing regret. Or, if taken literally, it could instead imply that God himself is questioning Cueball about his tampering with software, which could fit with the running gag of [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|Cueball's (often self-inflicted) computer problems being hyperbolically atrocious]].

When one modifies one's keyboard config, it can make the system seem unusable (or at least highly unexpected) to things like a boss, a spouse, or an automated maintenance system. When an error is made somewhere in the process, it can make the system seem unusable to the very person who made the changes, making it hard to change them back.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in an office chair at his desk, typing on his keyboard as shown by small lines over one hand, while looking at the screen of his stationary computer. The screen is on a raised platform on his desk. Lyrical text is written upon each scene, presumably what Cueball is typing.]
:I heard there was a secret chord
:That David pressed and it typed a word

:[A closeup on Cueball in a slim panel. We see him from the waist up, with his hands on the keyboard just beneath the panels frame.]
:But you don't use a chorded keyboard, do you

:[Same setting as in the first panel, except Cueball's arms have moved and there are movement lines above and below his arms.]
:It goes like this, <control> and <shift>
:The other hand hits H and <left>

:[Slimmer panel but same setting as in the first panel, again the arms have moved a bit, with movement lines above them. The final written word of text is marked as arising directly from the computer.]
:And all at once it types out
:Computer: Hallelujah

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

2457: After the Pandemic

2021-04-30T17:28:26Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2457
| date = April 30, 2021
| title = After the Pandemic
| image = after_the_pandemic.png
| titletext = I'm looking forward to having to worry a lot less about covid, but wouldn't mind if we worried a little more about giving each other colds. Colds are bad!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FACE MASK. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is another in a series of comics about the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this comic Randall is saying that he is looking forward to not having to wear a mask everywhere after the pandemic is over. Mandatory mask mandates were a common means by which various governments attempted to minimize the spread of Covid-19, prior to the development of vaccines. Now that the vaccines exist, people are assuming that these mask mandates will soon end, and in many jurisdictions they have already.

However, Randall hopes that people will continue the practice of wearing a mask when they are sick, as is common in many East Asian countries. This lets other people know the person is sick so they can give the sick person distance, and also prevents the sick person's coughs, which contain particles of the virus causing the sickness, from getting into the air. Both features would help reduce the spread of communicable diseases. Also, Randall thinks other people coughing on him is gross, as do most people.

The title text continues this line of reasoning by saying Randall wants to worry less about Covid-19, but hopes people would worry more about colds. However, the main benefit from continued mask wearing by sick people would be to help reduce the spread of the flu. Colds are generally mild and might cause someone to spend a few days home sick from work or school, however the flu is a deadly disease that usually kills tens of thousands of people each year.

==Transcript==

{| class="wikitable"
|+After the Pandemic
|-
|Things I will not miss one bit after the Pandemic
|Things I hope stick around and become normalized
|-
|Wearing masks everywhere
|Wearing masks when you're feeling sick, because it's an easy way to tell people to give you space, and also getting coughed on is gross
|}

Title Text: I'm looking forward to having to worry a lot less about covid, but wouldn't mind if we worried a little more about giving each other colds. Colds are bad!

{{comic discussion}}

2457: After the Pandemic

2021-04-30T17:22:40Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

2457: After the Pandemic

2021-04-30T17:21:51Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

2457: After the Pandemic

2021-04-30T17:21:31Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */ rough draft

2457: After the Pandemic

2021-04-30T17:17:59Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T22:31:10Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2456
| date = April 28, 2021
| title = Types of Scientific Paper
| image = types_of_scientific_paper.png
| titletext = Others include "We've incrementally improved the estimate of this coefficient," "Maybe all these categories are wrong," and "We found a way to make student volunteers worse at tasks."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RESEARCH DEPARTMENT ON A LUNCHBREAK. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, Randall describes categories of scientific papers with somewhat humorous generalized titles.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Breakdown of Papers
|-
|Paper Title
|Explanation
|Article Description
|-
|We put a camera somewhere new
|This may involve miniaturisation or other improvements of imaging sensors, power supply, transmission or retention of data, environmental hardening and (possibly) recovery afterwards.

Cameras have been inserted into ''every'' obvious bodily orifice (including swallowed, to be later excreted), placed in interesting habitats to monitor wildlife, sent into volcanic craters/ocean trenches/high altitudes/nuclear reactors, launched into space and sent past/round/onto several of the solar-system's more interesting bodies.

There's no clue ''which'' new place a camera has now been put, but it will probably at the very least excite people in the appropriately narrow field of research.
|
|-
|Hey, I found a trove of old records! They don't turn out to be particularly useful, but still, cool!
|Rather than starting with the aim of investigating some question, and finding some way of answering it by uncovering evidence, sometimes a writer may have stumbled upon a cache of historic documents that they then feel compelled to justify the resulting 'WikiWalk' they may have found themselves sucked into.
|
|-
|My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it
| This title refers to the occasional rivalries between scientists within a field, which can push them to seek proof that they, and not their colleague, are correct.
|Note the lack of headers, suggesting an argument more than an explanation of data
|-
|The immune system is at it again
|The human immune system is notoriously complex, and there are countless papers in medical fields just describing its strangeness
|
|-
|We figured out how to make this exotic material, so email us if you need some
|Researchers often attempt to create materials despite there not being any demand, predicting that in the future their material will be game-changing without any actual applications. These researchers have created such a material, and are offering to produce it for anyone who needs it
|
|-
|What are fish even doing down there
|Deep sea marine biology regularly discovers [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7QXdlSBGGY strange lifeforms] in unexpected places, and theories explaining deep sea ecosystems are regularly confounded by new data.
|This paper does not appear to have any headers
|-
|This task I had to do anyway turned out to be hard enough for its own paper
|There is a huge variety in the complexity and importance of subjects studied in scientific papers, and often some supposedly easy task will be sufficiently complicated as to merit its own paper.
|
|-
|Hey, at least we showed that this method can produce results! That's not nothing, right?
|One of the struggles of the scientific method is that many experiments will not produce the results scientists desired or expected. These results are still (sometimes) important, but are often ignored compared to research with important findings
|
|-
|Check out this weird thing one of us saw while out for a walk
|This paper may be imagined as an opportunistic publication. A department or team has seen itself low down on the local 'league table' for academic output. A brainstorming session for a way of rectifying this led to desperately seizing upon the first idle comment made (in lieu of any better sounding ideas) that can somehow be shoehorned into their respective subject area.
|
|-
|We are 500 scientists and here's what we've been up to for the last 10 years
| Some papers summarize the work of big research teams, like those working on the [https://repositorio.uc.cl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11534/13948/Observation%20of%20a%20new%20particle%20in%20the%20search%20for%20the%20Standard%20Model%20Higgs%20boson%20with%20the%20ATLAS%20detector%20at%20the%20LHC.pdf Higgs Boson] (list of authors starts at page 17) or LIGO. Since the discoveries which are made are a team effort, probably outlasting many of the individual tenures involved, the papers have many authors listed.
A credit for participation may not mean any particularly great contribution by each individual, but being left out (even for one summer's secondment, seven years before any results could be recorded) would be taken as a slight, and an opportunity missed to be 'citable' in the future.
|A huge portion of the page is taken up by the presumably 500 authors' names, above the main horizontal bar.
|-
|Some thoughts on how everyone else is bad at research
|Similar to the "my colleague is wrong" paper, but in this case applied to far greater swathes of the community by the author(s) of this (possibly rambling) tract.
|
|-
|We scanned some undergraduates
|Some initial research, especially that on a low budget, may recruit students at the same institution as easily available test-subjects. Quite often these are psychological or sociological studies, but can involve more medical (but non-invasive) 'scans', from simple eyeball-tracking to full-body MRI.
|
|}

Trivia: Originally, this comic's title text misspelt volunteers as volunters. This may be intentional (WE might be the volunteers). This was quickly corrected.

==Transcript==
Types of Scientific Paper

''An array of scientific papers is shown, with only their titles legible. Titles are as follows:''

We put a camera somewhere new

Hey, I found a trove of old records! They don't turn out to be particularly useful, but still, cool!

My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it

The immune system is at it again

We figured out how to make this exotic material, so email us if you need some

What are fish even doing down there

This task I had to do anyway turned out to be hard enough for its own paper

Hey, at least we showed that this method can produce results! That's not nothing, right?

Check out this weird thing one of us saw while out for a walk

We are 500 scientists and here's what we've been up to for the last 10 years

Some thoughts on how everyone else is bad at research

We scanned some undergraduates

Title Text: Others include "We've incrementally improved the estimate of this coefficient," "Maybe all these categories are wrong," and "We found a way to make student volunters worse at tasks."

{{comic discussion}}

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T22:30:03Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2456
| date = April 28, 2021
| title = Types of Scientific Paper
| image = types_of_scientific_paper.png
| titletext = Others include "We've incrementally improved the estimate of this coefficient," "Maybe all these categories are wrong," and "We found a way to make student volunteers worse at tasks."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RESEARCH DEPARTMENT ON A LUNCHBREAK. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, Randall describes categories of scientific papers with somewhat humorous generalized titles.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Breakdown of Papers
|-
|Paper Title
|Explanation
|Article Description
|-
|We put a camera somewhere new
|Photographs and videos can be especially helpful in understanding what is or was going on. Capturing photos or video of some previously unrecorded phenomena (for example, the inner workings of some part of the human body, or the behaviour of some creature in the deep ocean) can be both exciting and rather helpful for further research. When simplified to "We put a camera somewhere now", such a feat doesn't sound quite as challenging as it tends to be.
|
|-
|Hey, I found a trove of old records! They don't turn out to be particularly useful, but still, cool!
|Rather than starting with the aim of investigating some question, and finding some way of answering it by uncovering evidence, sometimes a writer may have stumbled upon a cache of historic documents that they then feel compelled to justify the resulting 'WikiWalk' they may have found themselves sucked into.
|
|-
|My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it
| This title refers to the occasional rivalries between scientists within a field, which can push them to seek proof that they, and not their colleague, are correct.
|Note the single author listed, and the lack of headers, suggesting an argument more than an explanation of data
|-
|The immune system is at it again
|The human immune system is notoriously complex, and there are countless papers in medical fields just describing its strangeness
|
|-
|We figured out how to make this exotic material, so email us if you need some
|Researchers often attempt to create materials despite there not being any demand, predicting that in the future their material will be game-changing without any actual applications. These researchers have created such a material, and are offering to produce it for anyone who needs it
|
|-
|What are fish even doing down there
|Deep sea marine biology regularly discovers [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7QXdlSBGGY strange lifeforms] in unexpected places, and theories explaining deep sea ecosystems are regularly confounded by new data.
|This paper does not appear to have any headers
|-
|This task I had to do anyway turned out to be hard enough for its own paper
|There is a huge variety in the complexity and importance of subjects studied in scientific papers, and often some supposedly easy task will be sufficiently complicated as to merit its own paper.
|
|-
|Hey, at least we showed that this method can produce results! That's not nothing, right?
|One of the struggles of the scientific method is that many experiments will not produce the results scientists desired or expected. These results are still (sometimes) important, but are often ignored compared to research with important findings
|
|-
|Check out this weird thing one of us saw while out for a walk
|This paper may be imagined as an opportunistic publication. A department or team has seen itself low down on the local 'league table' for academic output. A brainstorming session for a way of rectifying this led to desperately seizing upon the first idle comment made (in lieu of any better sounding ideas) that can somehow be shoehorned into their respective subject area.
|
|-
|We are 500 scientists and here's what we've been up to for the last 10 years
| Some papers summarize the work of big research teams, like those working on the [https://repositorio.uc.cl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11534/13948/Observation%20of%20a%20new%20particle%20in%20the%20search%20for%20the%20Standard%20Model%20Higgs%20boson%20with%20the%20ATLAS%20detector%20at%20the%20LHC.pdf Higgs Boson] (list of authors starts at page 17) or LIGO. Since the discoveries which are made are a team effort, probably outlasting many of the individual tenures involved, the papers have many authors listed.
A credit for participation may not mean any particularly great contribution by each individual, but being left out (even for one summer's secondment, seven years before any results could be recorded) would be taken as a slight, and an opportunity missed to be 'citable' in the future.
|A huge portion of the page is taken up by the presumably 500 authors' names, above the main horizontal bar.
|-
|Some thoughts on how everyone else is bad at research
|Similar to the "my colleague is wrong" paper, but in this case applied to far greater swathes of the community by the author(s) of this (possibly rambling) tract.
|
|-
|We scanned some undergraduates
|Some initial research, especially that on a low budget, may recruit students at the same institution as easily available test-subjects. Quite often these are psychological or sociological studies, but can involve more medical (but non-invasive) 'scans', from simple eyeball-tracking to full-body MRI.
|
|}

Trivia: Originally, this comic's title text misspelt volunteers as volunters. This may be intentional (WE might be the volunteers). This was quickly corrected.

==Transcript==
Types of Scientific Paper

''An array of scientific papers is shown, with only their titles legible. Titles are as follows:''

We put a camera somewhere new

Hey, I found a trove of old records! They don't turn out to be particularly useful, but still, cool!

My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it

The immune system is at it again

We figured out how to make this exotic material, so email us if you need some

What are fish even doing down there

This task I had to do anyway turned out to be hard enough for its own paper

Hey, at least we showed that this method can produce results! That's not nothing, right?

Check out this weird thing one of us saw while out for a walk

We are 500 scientists and here's what we've been up to for the last 10 years

Some thoughts on how everyone else is bad at research

We scanned some undergraduates

Title Text: Others include "We've incrementally improved the estimate of this coefficient," "Maybe all these categories are wrong," and "We found a way to make student volunters worse at tasks."

{{comic discussion}}

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T22:29:29Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2456
| date = April 28, 2021
| title = Types of Scientific Paper
| image = types_of_scientific_paper.png
| titletext = Others include "We've incrementally improved the estimate of this coefficient," "Maybe all these categories are wrong," and "We found a way to make student volunteers worse at tasks."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RESEARCH DEPARTMENT ON A LUNCHBREAK. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, Randall describes categories of scientific papers with somewhat humorous generalized titles.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Breakdown of Papers
|-
|Paper Title
|Explanation
|Article Description
|-
|We put a camera somewhere new
|Photographs and videos can be especially helpful in understanding what is or was going on. Capturing photos or video of some previously unrecorded phenomena (for example, the inner workings of some part of the human body, or the behaviour of some creature in the deep ocean) can be both exciting and rather helpful for further research. When simplified to "We put a camera somewhere now", such a feat doesn't sound quite as challenging as it tends to be.
|
|-
|Hey, I found a trove of old records! They don't turn out to be particularly useful, but still, cool!
|Rather than starting with the aim of investigating some question, and finding some way of answering it by uncovering evidence, sometimes a writer may have stumbled upon a cache of historic documents that they then feel compelled to justify the resulting 'WikiWalk' they may have found themselves sucked into.
|
|-
|My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it
| This title refers to the occasional rivalries between scientists within a field, which can push them to seek proof that they, and not their colleague, are correct.
|Note the single author listed, and the lack of headers, suggesting an argument more than an explanation of data
|-
|The immune system is at it again
|The human immune system is notoriously complex, and there are countless papers in medical fields just describing its strangeness
|
|-
|We figured out how to make this exotic material, so email us if you need some
|Researchers often attempt to create materials despite there not being any demand, predicting that in the future their material will be game-changing without any actual applications. These researchers have created such a material, and are offering to produce it for anyone who needs it
|
|-
|What are fish even doing down there
|Deep sea marine biology regularly discovers [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7QXdlSBGGY strange lifeforms] in unexpected places, and theories explaining deep sea ecosystems are regularly confounded by new data.
|This paper does not appear to have any headers
|-
|This task I had to do anyway turned out to be hard enough for its own paper
|There is a huge variety in the complexity and importance of subjects studied in scientific papers, and often some supposedly easy task will be sufficiently complicated as to merit its own paper.
|
|-
|Hey, at least we showed that this method can produce results! That's not nothing, right?
|One of the struggles of the scientific method is that many experiments will not produce the results scientists desired or expected. These results are still (sometimes) important, but are often ignored compared to research with important findings
|
|-
|Check out this weird thing one of us saw while out for a walk
|This paper may be imagined as an opportunistic publication. A department or team has seen itself low down on the local 'league table' for academic output. A brainstorming session for a way of rectifying this led to desperately seizing upon the first idle comment made (in lieu of any better sounding ideas) that can somehow be shoehorned into their respective subject area.
|
|-
|We are 500 scientists and here's what we've been up to for the last 10 years
| Some papers summarize the work of big research teams, like those working on the [https://repositorio.uc.cl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11534/13948/Observation%20of%20a%20new%20particle%20in%20the%20search%20for%20the%20Standard%20Model%20Higgs%20boson%20with%20the%20ATLAS%20detector%20at%20the%20LHC.pdf Higgs Boson] (list of authors starts at page 17) or LIGO. Since the discoveries which are made are a team effort, probably outlasting many of the individual tenures involved, the papers have many authors listed.
A credit for participation may not mean any particularly great contribution by each individual, but being left out (even for one summer's secondment, seven years before any results could be recorded) would be taken as a slight, and an opportunity missed to be 'citable' in the future.
|A huge portion of the page is taken up by the presumably 500 authors' names, above the main horizontal bar.
|-
|Some thoughts on how everyone else is bad at research
|Similar to the "my colleague is wrong" paper, but in this case applied to far greater swathes of the community by the author(s) of this (possibly rambling) tract.
|
|-
|We scanned some undergraduates
|Some initial research, especially that on a low budget, may recruit students at the same institution as easily available test-subjects. Quite often these are psychological or sociological studies, but can involve more medical (but non-invasive) 'scans', from simple eyeball-tracking to full-body MRI.
|
|}

Trivia: Originally, this comic's title text misspelt volunteers as volunters. This may be intentional (WE might be the volunteers). This was quickly corrected.

==Transcript==
Types of Scientific Paper

''An array of scientific papers is shown, with only their titles legible. Titles are as follows:''

We put a camera somewhere new

Hey, I found a trove of old records! They don't turn out to be particularly useful, but still, cool!

My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it

The immune system is at it again

We figured out how to make this exotic material, so email us if you need some

What are fish even doing down there

This task I had to do anyway turned out to be hard enough for its own paper

Hey, at least we showed that this method can produce results! That's not nothing, right?

Check out this weird thing one of us saw while out for a walk

We are 500 scientists and here's what we've been up to for the last 10 years

Some thoughts on how everyone else is bad at research

We scanned some undergraduates

{{comic discussion}}

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:24:40Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:20:59Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:16:44Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:16:35Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:11:21Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:08:32Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ formatting

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:07:20Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

Talk:2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:06:28Z

Reywas:

I've a feeling we could find actual papers that paraphrase down to those in the comic. Also, lol at the 500 scientists' "citation" section. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.104|162.158.159.104]] 20:36, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

As we edit this we should probably pay attention to the content / layout of the article images: The number of lines beneath the title and layout of each "paper" he's drawn could be relevant to the joke. For example, the "500 scientists" presumably have a massive authors list, and the one on how "everyone else is doing it wrong" has a single author and a particularly "article-esque" layout.

[[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.45|172.68.132.45]] 21:04, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

True. Do you think we should add another column describing the pictured paper to the explanation chart?
[[User:Reywas|Reywas]] ([[User talk:Reywas|talk]]) 21:06, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T21:03:18Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:57:15Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:51:47Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ headings

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:51:07Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:49:52Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ //;Drop Table

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:42:54Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */ lowercase

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:42:21Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ trivia

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:41:28Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:40:17Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ start

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:39:11Z

Reywas: whoops

2456: Types of Scientific Paper

2021-04-28T20:38:50Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */ formatting

919: Tween Bromance

2020-08-29T02:54:40Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ Cross-referencing!!!!

{{comic
| number = 919
| date = July 1, 2011
| title = Tween Bromance
| image = tween_bromance.png
| titletext = Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.
}}
==Explanation==
Apparently, Randall hates some ridiculous neologisms. [[Cueball]] seems to be dictating a "Tween bromance" story or novel to [[Megan]], who is possibly typing it up. He is including all the words that get to Megan in a sequence. Megan is just annoyed and starts to shriek in rage; considering Cueball keeps speaking more annoying words in the title text, that seems to have been the point.

*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tween Tween]" means a pre-adolescent. Portmanteau of ''teen'' and ''between'', specifically between the ages of nine (9) and thirteen (13).
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bromance Bromance]" means a close non-sexual friendship between two males. Portmanteau of ''brother'' and ''romance''.
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guesstimate Guesstimate]" means an estimate made with very little information. Portmanteau of ''guess'' and ''estimate''.
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frenemy Frenemy]" means a mixture of a friend and a rival. Portmanteau of ''friend'' and ''enemy''.
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yiff Yiff]" is a word invented by the {{w|furry community}}. In most contexts it simply means "fornicate", supposedly derived from the sound a fox makes during mating.
*"{{Wiktionary|moist}}" is an ordinary word, but one that many people find mildly creepy, especially in this context.
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint Taint]" is the part between the genitals and the anus (perineum) in slang.
*"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panties Panties]" is a common term in the U.S. for women's underwear.
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=preggers Preggers]" a slang term for being pregnant.
*"{{Wiktionary|verbiage}}" is a fairly new usage of an older word, meaning too many words used to explain a subject.
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=va-jay-jay Va-jay-jay]" /vəˈjājā/ IPA /vəˈdʒeɪdʒeɪ/ is just a way of saying "vagina".
*"[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Irregardless Irregardless]" is a {{w|solecism}}. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0037-irregardless.htm Or perhaps this portmanteau.]

Like this comic fills a sentence with (gross) neologisms, [[550: Density]] crams a sentence with memes.

According to [[1485: Friendship]], Randall doesn't like the word ''bromance'' much either. Uncomfortable synonyms are also seen in [[1322: Winter]] and [[2352: Synonym Date]]

==Transcript==
:[All of Cueball's lines are overlaid over the entire comic; the panels listed are merely the ones directly under each sentence fragment.]
:[Cueball is standing smugly behind Megan, who is seated in front of a computer and typing.]
:Cueball: By my guesstimate,

:Cueball: my frenemy yiffed so hard

:Cueball: her moist taint made
:[Megan's eye twitches.]

:Cueball: her panties preggers!
:Megan: ''STOP IT STOP IT!''

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

1322: Winter

2020-08-29T02:48:19Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ Cross-referencing!

{{comic
| number = 1322
| date = January 27, 2014
| title = Winter
| image = winter.png
| titletext = Stay warm, little flappers, and find lots of plant eggs!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] and [[Cueball]] are walking. Beret Guy is making several remarks about the situation. The air is cold, there is ice to walk on, he has mittens, the sunlight is warm, and the birds are chirping in the trees. When making these observations, however, he does not use the conventional terms. Instead he uses word compounds, similar to "[[1133: Up Goer Five|Up Goer Five]]". When Cueball brings up Beret Guy's odd vocabulary, he retorts by declaring that the name does not matter, as long as the things themselves are what they should be. This is the same concept that is communicated in the line from the Shakespearean play, "Romeo and Juliet": "What's in a name? That which we call {{w|a rose by any other name would smell as sweet}}." The concept is similar to that discussed by Richard Feynman as the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05WS0WN7zMQ YouTube Video: R. P. Feynman on the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something]</ref>

In the title text Beret Guy continues to use playful language and offers affectionate encouragement: "stay warm, little flappers", demonstrating that his intentions are kind, not obfuscatory. Additionally, it is an indirect salutation from [[Randall Munroe]] to the readers, acknowledging the remarkably cold temperatures North America was experiencing at the time.

=====Dictionary=====

*The sky is cold: it's a clear, cold day
*floor water: puddle
*too hard to drink: frozen
*handcoats: mittens or gloves
*spacelight: sunlight
*flappy planes: birds
*beeping: chirping
*stick towers: trees
*little flappers: baby birds
*plant eggs: seeds, berries

Strange synonyms are also found in [[919: Tween Bromance]] and [[2352: Synonym Date]]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Beret Guy, Cueball in a winter hat and Beret Guy in a beret, are walking through snow and across a patch of ice.]
:Beret Guy: The sky is cold and the floor water is too hard to drink.

:[Beret Guy looks upwards.]
:Beret Guy: But I have my handcoats and the spacelight is warm.

:[Beret Guy and Cueball continue on through woods; there are musical notes coming from the trees.]

:Beret Guy: Listen—the flappy planes are beeping in the stick towers.

:[Cueball pauses.]
:Cueball: Those are all the wrong words for those things.
:[Beret Guy replies from off panel.]
:Beret Guy: Maybe—but the things themselves are all right. So who cares?

:[Cueball continues walking, with sunlight and musical notes above.]

==References==
<references/>

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

2352: Synonym Date

2020-08-29T02:44:29Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ started the analysis

{{comic
| number = 2352
| date = August 28, 2020
| title = Synonym Date
| image = synonym_date.png
| titletext = We need some grub to munch--I'll go slouch over to the kitchen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Birthed by an AUTOMATON. Please elucidate here why this explication isn't concluded. Do NOT banish this epithet prematurely.}}
[[Ponytail]] asks [[Hairy]] about [[Megan]], his date. Hairy mentions that she's a talented writer and seems cool, but when prompted by Ponytail, says Megan is into synonyms. Megan apparently enjoys unsettling Hairy with words. Ponytail thinks word games aren't too bad, and she would be right if Megan didn't exist.

In the next panel (labeled "Earlier..."), it's raining, and Hairy comes back in. Megan comments, "Ugh, it's so watery out. You must be clammy! Want to guzzle some tea?" replacing wet, wet and drink with some questionable-sounding words. Continuing, she says, "Let me slough off this dress, and slither into something more comfortable," replacing take and put.

She further elaborates on this in the title text, saying "We need some grub to munch--I'll go slouch over to the kitchen," replacing food with grub and eat with munch and inserting a slouch into her sentence.

[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Excessive use of uncommon words] is a common trope in fiction, and also seen in real life. Usually, the speaker is trying to demonstrate their superior intelligence or knowledge. Megan, on the other hand, seeks to use a similar tactic to make listeners uncomfortable.

Strange synonyms were also the focus in [[1322: Winter]], and a similar concept was the joke in [[919: Tween Bromance]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Hairy talking.]
:Ponytail: So, how is she?
:Hairy: Well...she's a talented writer. Seems very cool.
:Ponytail: ...but?
:Hairy: She's really into...synonyms.

:Ponytail: I don't understand.
:Hairy: Her hobby is finding the most unsettling possible words for any sentence.
:Ponytail: Word games? That doesn't sound too bad.
:Hairy: Well...

:[Caption above reads "Earlier..."]
:[Megan talking to Hairy, who is dripping wet.]
:Megan: Ugh, it's so watery out.
:Megan: You must be clammy! Want to guzzle some tea?

:Megan: Let me slough off this dress,
:Megan: and slither into something more comfortable.
{{comic discussion}}

2352: Synonym Date

2020-08-29T02:38:06Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ !!FUN!!

{{comic
| number = 2352
| date = August 28, 2020
| title = Synonym Date
| image = synonym_date.png
| titletext = We need some grub to munch--I'll go slouch over to the kitchen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Birthed by an AUTOMATON. Please elucidate here why this explication isn't concluded. Do NOT banish this epithet prematurely.}}
[[Ponytail]] asks [[Hairy]] about [[Megan]], his date. Hairy mentions that she's a talented writer and seems cool, but when prompted by Ponytail, says Megan's into synonyms. Megan apparently enjoys unsettling Hairy with words. Ponytail thinks word games aren't too bad, and she would be right if Megan didn't exist.

In the next panel (labeled "Earlier..."), it's raining, and Hairy comes back in. Megan comments, "Ugh, it's so watery out. You must be clammy! Want to guzzle some tea?" replacing wet, wet and drink with some questionable-sounding words. Continuing, she says, "Let me slough off this dress, and slither into something more comfortable," replacing take and put.

She further elaborates on this in the title text, saying "We need some grub to munch--I'll go slouch over to the kitchen," replacing food with grub and eat with munch and inserting a slouch into her sentence.

Strange synonyms were also the focus in [[1322: Winter]], and a similar concept was the joke in [[919: Tween Bromance]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Hairy talking.]
:Ponytail: So, how is she?
:Hairy: Well...she's a talented writer. Seems very cool.
:Ponytail: ...but?
:Hairy: She's really into...synonyms.

:Ponytail: I don't understand.
:Hairy: Her hobby is finding the most unsettling possible words for any sentence.
:Ponytail: Word games? That doesn't sound too bad.
:Hairy: Well...

:[Caption above reads "Earlier..."]
:[Megan talking to Hairy, who is dripping wet.]
:Megan: Ugh, it's so watery out.
:Megan: You must be clammy! Want to guzzle some tea?

:Megan: Let me slough off this dress,
:Megan: and slither into something more comfortable.
{{comic discussion}}

2352: Synonym Date

2020-08-29T02:33:42Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */ This transcript is complete.

{{comic
| number = 2352
| date = August 28, 2020
| title = Synonym Date
| image = synonym_date.png
| titletext = We need some grub to munch--I'll go slouch over to the kitchen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an AUTOMATON. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Ponytail]] asks [[Hairy]] about [[Megan]], his date. Hairy mentions that she's a talented writer and seems cool, but when prompted by Ponytail, says Megan's into synonyms. Megan apparently enjoys unsettling Hairy with words. Ponytail thinks word games aren't too bad, and she would be right if Megan didn't exist.

In the next panel (labeled "Earlier..."), it's raining, and Hairy comes back in. Megan comments, "Ugh, it's so watery out. You must be clammy! Want to guzzle some tea?" replacing wet, wet and drink with some questionable-sounding words. Continuing, she says, "Let me slough off this dress, and slither into something more comfortable," replacing take and put.

She further elaborates on this in the title text, saying "We need some grub to munch--I'll go slouch over to the kitchen," replacing food with grub and eat with munch and inserting a slouch into her sentence.

Strange synonyms were also the focus in [[1322: Winter]], and a similar concept was the joke in [[919: Tween Bromance]].
==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Hairy talking.]
:Ponytail: So, how is she?
:Hairy: Well...she's a talented writer. Seems very cool.
:Ponytail: ...but?
:Hairy: She's really into...synonyms.

:Ponytail: I don't understand.
:Hairy: Her hobby is finding the most unsettling possible words for any sentence.
:Ponytail: Word games? That doesn't sound too bad.
:Hairy: Well...

:[Caption above reads "Earlier..."]
:[Megan talking to Hairy, who is dripping wet.]
:Megan: Ugh, it's so watery out.
:Megan: You must be clammy! Want to guzzle some tea?

:Megan: Let me slough off this dress,
:Megan: and slither into something more comfortable.
{{comic discussion}}

1556: The Sky

2016-06-07T06:07:43Z

Reywas: trying a new summary

{{comic
| number = 1556
| date = July 27, 2015
| title = The Sky
| image = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This explanation seems to constantly be in a state of incompleteness. Previous versions were too wordy, but evidently someone decided to just scrap everything and write their own, poorly written, misspelled version that doesn't actually make any sense.}}
This comic shows [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] admiring a beautiful, cloud-strewn sky, with Megan stating that it is one of her
favorite halves. This is ironic both in that the sky and earth are not generally referred to as halves, and in that the phrase "one of" generally refers to larger groups of things, and in this context of only two options does not actually tell us which half Megan prefers. The title text continues referring to earth and sky as halves, describing earth in an unusual fashion before noting that, as a sphere, either half ultimately ends in more sky.
note:does this explanation clear things up any better, or am I just blindly continuing the problem?
==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing looking upward with in a small frame a light blue background.]
:Cueball: I like the sky.
:Megan: Yeah.

:[Zooms out to show a blue evening sky, the sun must be setting to the left and a streak of yellow and orange clouds goes from top left to bottom right. The sky/clouds get darker further to the right and several stars are visible behind the clouds on the indigo blue sky in the top right corner. There are also some gray clouds low over the horizon. Cueball and Megan standing to the far left Below them and the sky from the horizon and down there is a thick a black slab taking up about a sixth of the frame height.]
:Megan: It's one of my favorite halves.

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

Talk:1510: Napoleon

2016-06-06T21:23:33Z

Reywas:

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)

In Flanders, the comic series [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Kiekeboes De Kiekeboes] is very popular. Though sadly unknown abroad (unlike other Belgian comic series like Tintin or The Smurfs). As a reader of the series, I immediately noticed the striking similarity with the 1989 album [http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Een_koud_kunstje Een koud kunstje]. In that album, the protagonist, Marcel Kiekeboe, bumps into the Bonaparte society. Their aim is to free Napoleon form the Antarctic ice, where he has been frozen until science could being him back to life. Nobody knew that apart from the Bonaparte society. The comic series is set up mostly as a sitcom, so the humor is hard to explain, and even harder to translate. However, the fact that Napoleon is buried in the ice strikes me. First, I thought it was a well known comply theory (like Elvis being still alive), However, I can't find other references of Napoleon on Antarctica. Any thoughts about this are much appreciated. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.59|141.101.66.59]] 21:46, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

This reminds me of the comment I made about people that
deny the moon landing, we need another moon landing to
take one of them along...then leave them there! ^_- {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.101}}

Anybody else think that him escaping the antarctic could very likely be an allusion to global warming? [[User:Reywas|Reywas]] ([[User talk:Reywas|talk]]) 21:23, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

447: Too Old For This Shit

2015-05-26T08:18:55Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ adding to the explaination

{{comic
| number = 447
| date = July 9, 2008
| title = Too Old For This Shit
| image = too_old_for_this_shit.png
| titletext = They say if a mathematician doesn't do their great work by age eleven, they never will.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes fun of the fact that most mathematical geniuses have their exceptional work done in their early years (for which they eventually become famous) by exaggerating it, particularly given that "too old for this shit" is a phrase more appropriately used by people later in age. At the age of thirteen, even precocious mathematicians will not be to a point where they would be pushing the frontier of mathematical knowledge, let alone to the point where they would be "too old for it." As such, this is more a joke about a young boy attempting to dismiss the world around him. It also plays on the fact tht in xkcd comics, it is often difficult to tell age because of lack of detail, which is necessary to set up the final punchline

A striking example is {{w|Carl Friedrich Gauss}} the famous mathematician, who wrote his exceptional masterpiece {{w|Disquisitiones Arithmeticae}} at the early age of 21. This idea was for instance used in the fictional biography of Gauss, ''{{w|Measuring the World}}'', where he admits to having trouble understanding his own work when he got older because of his age.

The age ''theory'' apply to most types of natural science. {{w|Albert Einstein}} was also very young (26) when he published his {{w|Annus Mirabilis papers|four groundbreaking papers}} in the same year (his {{w|Annus Mirabilis}} in 1905) including the one that eventually gave him the {{w|nobel prize}}. Later in life, for instance, he never accepted the theory of {{w|quantum physics}} - which is now a very well established theory.

The title of the comic, "Too Old For This Shit", is also likely a reference to the {{w|Lethal Weapon}} series, in which one of the main characters (Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover) is repeatedly quoted as saying things along the line of "I'm too old for this shit."

The title text asserts that thirteen is way too old as it claims that mathematicians should do their '''great work''' at the age of eleven! If not - they will never do anything great.

==Transcript==
:[Two kids are standing in front of a whiteboard covered with equations.]
:Kid to the right: I wish I could do math like when i was young.
:Kid to the left: Huh?
:Kid to the right: It doesn't come easy like it once did.
:Kid to the left: Uh huh.
:Kid to the right: Math is a game for the young. I need to sit back and let the future happen.
:Kid to the left: You're thirteen.
:Kid to the right: Yes, and it's time I accept that.

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

973: MTV Generation

2015-05-09T17:54:24Z

Reywas: /* Transcript */ Sorry, but the transcript isn't really the best place for rants.

{{comic
| number = 973
| date = November 4, 2011
| title = MTV Generation
| image = mtv_generation.png
| titletext = If you identified with the kids from The Breakfast Club when it came out, you're now much closer to the age of Principal Vernon.
}}

==Explanation==
People often call today's kids the '''MTV Generation''', like [[White Hat]] does in the strip, because the {{w|MTV Generation}} were accused of bad attention spans and concentration (caused by MTV). [[Megan]] explains that the term really originated about 25 years ago, so today's kids are actually one generation newer.

An alternative definition of "the MTV generation", is that they '''are''' the teenage 12-19 year olds of the early 2000's to mid 2010's, because they were born to parents who came of child-bearing age during the core popularity time period referenced by the comic.

{{w|MTV}} is Music Television, it is a TV channel in the US and elsewhere that, when it started in the 1980s, used to show {{w|music video}}s. The focus has now shifted to {{w|reality shows}}.

{{w|The Breakfast Club}} is an iconic movie from 1985 in which 5 very different teenagers spend a Saturday detention together at the school. Principal Vernon was the principal in the movie and was the overseer of the detention - the actor playing principal Vernon was around 45 years old at the time of filming.

[[Randall]] has covered making people feel old several times in [[647: Scary]], [[891: Movie Ages]], [[1393: Timeghost]], and [[1477: Star Wars]].

==Transcript==
:[Teenager playing with phone walks in background. White Hat and Megan are in the foreground.]
:White Hat: See, that's the problem with the MTV generation— No attention span.

:Megan: You know, that phrase referred to the 12-19 demographic that formed the core MTV audience in the mid-1980s.

:White Hat: Uh huh? So?
:Megan: That generation's now in their 40s.

:[White Hat scratches his head.]
:White Hat: That can't be right.
:Megan: Face it: Your problem with the MTV generation is their ''kids''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

554: Not Enough Work

2015-05-08T10:53:09Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ cleaning up the explaination

{{comic
| number = 554
| date = March 11, 2009
| title = Not Enough Work
| image = not_enough_work.png
| titletext = It's even harder if you're an asshole who pronounces <> brackets.
}}

==Explanation==
In some companies, programmers can find themselves under-employed. This may be because these companies have little programming work until something breaks or needs upgrading, or perhaps they are between projects, or simply waiting for a go-ahead. Coders still need to make themselves available to perform emergency fixes, but they may have no other assigned work. This requires them to find constructive ways to spend their time. Or unconstructive, if that is more fun.

{{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} is a keyboard layout that was proposed in 1936 as an alternative to the existing, entrenched {{w|Qwerty keyboard|QWERTY}} layout, developed in the 1870s. The QWERTY keyboard is the standard in the US, but some features in its layout are based on mechanical considerations rather than the optimum placement for typing speed. For example, common letter combinations such as 'st' and 'th' had to be arranged so that their operating levers were separated from each other, lest they cause jams and slow down the typist. More than sixty years later, such mechanical considerations could be overcome, and Dvorak designed his keyboard layout with typing efficiency in mind.

The Dvorak keyboard was ultimately unsuccessful. It still persists today, but has never threatened the dominance of the QWERTY keyboard. Even if the Dvorak layout is more efficient (which is still a matter for debate), QWERTY was and is the standard. This means that every keyboard user has to learn QWERTY anyway, and there is insufficient benefit in spending the time to learn a new layout, especially when you would have to switch back and forth between Dvorak and QWERTY as the situation demands.

Therefore, even seriously considering the switch is a sign that you really having nothing better to do. Another joke is that even though the coder has plenty of spare time on his hands to practice on Dvorak, he has only been able to 'almost' match his old typing speed.

{{w|Gopher (protocol)|Gopher}} is a defunct internet protocol, which has been completely superseded by {{w|HTTP}}. It's a perfect example of the kind of thing a programmer might implement in the absence of other, more useful work. (As an aside, the protocol is named for the mascot of the University of Minnesota, where it was developed.)

{{w|HTML}} and {{w|XHTML}} are markup languages used to describe web documents. XHTML-strict is a more restricted version of XHTML that excludes certain redundant tags like <nowiki><center></nowiki>, which is theoretically no longer necessary now that <nowiki><div>and </nowiki> exist. {{w|Haiku}}, on the other hand, is a kind of Japanese poetry. Rather than having a rhyming meter like Western poetry, Japanese poetry has strict restrictions on syllable count; a haiku must contain three lines, containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively. The section of code given is HTML markup, and would be read by a web developer like this:

:Div class equals Main
:Span ID equals Marquee
:Blog! end span end div

This meets the syllable requirements. Restricting yourself to writing markup in this form would be extremely challenging and time-consuming and pointless, so it, too, is a good sign that coders need more real work to do. The title text notes that pronouncing the angle-brackets would be even more challenging to write HTML in Haiku format, prompting Randall to name anyone who does this an asshole.

Finally, the last panel mentions the biggest timesink of them all: webcomics. (Or, say, [[Main Page|wikis devoted to explaining the jokes in webcomics]].)

==Transcript==
:Signs your coders don't have enough work to do:
:[Cueball sitting at his workstation, with Ponytail standing behind him.]
:Cueball: I'm almost up to my old typing speed in Dvorak

:[Two men standing by a server rack.]
:Cueball: Our servers now support Gopher. Just in case.

:[Megan standing near her workstation speaking to Cueball.]
:Megan: Our pages are now HTML, XHTML-STRICT, and Haiku-compliant.
:Cueball: Haiku?
:Megan:
::<nowiki><div class="main"></nowiki>
::<nowiki></nowiki>
::<nowiki>Blog!</div></nowiki>

:[Ponytail sitting at her workstation.]
:Ponytail: Hey! Have you guys seen this webcomic?

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

1099: Tuesdays

2015-05-08T10:44:25Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1099
| date = August 24, 2012
| title = Tuesdays
| image = tuesdays.png
| titletext = Try our bottomless drinks and fall forever!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] and at least one other person ([[Megan]]) are sitting at a restaurant. The waitress, [[Ponytail]], tells Beret Guy there is a special on Tuesdays for "endless wings". Restaurants often have different daily discounts to encourage people to come in. In a normal restaurant, "endless wings" would presumably refer to "all-you-can-eat" chicken wings, meaning the customer can pay a flat price and eat all the wings they want without paying any more.

However, in this comic, Beret Guy tells the waitress that he already has "endless wings", which he means literally (a similar issue of wishes being taken literally is referenced in [[1086: Eyelash Wish Log]]) and Beret Guy begins growing wings which ultimately appear "endless" as they grow to a span of at least the circumference of the Earth by the last panel (and presumably continue growing). The other characters scream in horror for obvious{{Citation needed}} reasons.

The title text plays on another common restaurant offer of "bottomless drinks", meaning unlimited free refills of drinks. However, falling into something literally bottomless (i.e. without a bottom) would result in falling forever. (However, even this is unlikely unless the diameter of the cups that the drinks are served in is large enough to fit a whole person into.)

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail serves Beret Guy and Megan at a table.]
:Ponytail: ...and on Tuesdays we offer endless wings.
:Beret Guy: Haha, cool. <code>i have those.</code>

:Ponytail: You what?

:[Beret Guy sprouts a pair of wings.]
:Ponytail: ''AAAAA!!''

:[Beret Guy's wings start getting longer.]
:Ponytail and Megan: ''AAAAAAA''

:[Wings start to extend into space out from the earth.]
:Everyone: ''AAAAAAAA''

==Trivia==
*This is one of the few comics since the ''xkcd'' lettering became inked and standardized as all-caps that lowercase lettering has been used (including the word "i" which would normally be capitalized). In this case, the usage may be to denote a whisper or soft voice.

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

1088: Five Years

2015-05-08T10:41:57Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ modifying the explaination

{{comic
| number = 1088
| date = July 30, 2012
| title = Five Years
| image = five_years.png
| titletext = 'Well, no further questions. You're hired!' 'Oh, sorry! I'm no longer interested. There's a bunch of future I gotta go check out!'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a take on the common and cliched job interview question here asked by [[Hair Bun Girl]]: ''Where do you see yourself in 5 years.'' The interviewer is attempting to see where the job seeker would like to take their career and also what their hopes and dreams are etc.

In the comic, instead of explaining where he would like to be in 5 years, [[Beret Guy]] and the interviewer wait around for 5 years without moving to find out. And as Beret Guy expected they stayed exactly where they were. (This could be suggesting that most people do not change much over five years.)

The title text is a continuation of their conversation in which Beret Guy turns down the job because he wants to find out what happened the last 5 years while they were both sitting in that room.

Given Beret Guy's ability to manipulate reality ([[1099: Tuesdays]]), it's possible he froze himself and the interviewer for 5 years.

==Transcript==
:[Hair bun Girl and Beret Guy sit across from each other at a desk. The woman has a bun.]
:Hair bun Girl : Where do you see yourself in five years?
:Beret Guy: Oh man, I don't know! Let's find out!
:[The characters stare at one another.]
:[Cobwebs and hair grow; the desk and chairs fall into disrepair.]
:[Five years pass.]
:Beret Guy: Hah—
:Beret Guy: I ''thought'' so!

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]

1522: Astronomy

2015-05-08T10:38:48Z

Reywas: This is a simple transcript, as there are no words in the comic.

{{comic
| number = 1522
| date = May 8, 2015
| title = Astronomy
| image = astronomy.png
| titletext = Astrobiology is held back by the fact that we're all too nervous to try to balance on the ladder while holding an expensive microscope.
}}

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

For many ordinary objects, one can achieve a better view in two ways: (#1) by looking at the object from a distance through a telescope, or (#2) by approaching the object and looking at it through a magnifying glass. Magnifying glasses typically have a very short resolving distance, usually on the order of a tenth of a meter, so approach #2 is effective only in the case where you can get very close to the object in question.

In the comic, the objects being viewed are celestial bodies. Megan takes approach #1, looking at them through a telescope. Beret Guy attempts approach #2, using a step-ladder to try to get close to the celestial bodies, and then looking through a magnifying glass. This approach could be successful only if the celestial bodies were within a few meters of us. In fact they are many orders of magnitude further away than that, and Beret Guy's use of the ladder would yield no appreciable improvement in his view of celestial bodies through a magnifying glass. The history of astronomy is filled with drastic underestimates of distances to celestial bodies, but none quite so comical as Beret Guy's very extreme underestimate. The comic is funny because although Beret Guy's approach is absurd, it still works.

Although Beret Guy approach to astronomy seems ill-informed, previous comics such as [[1486: Vacuum]] and [[1490: Atoms]] shows that his unusual understanding of science actually works.

The title text assumes (for comic effect) that the only thing wrong with Beret Guy's strategy is that the ladder would be unstable, when in fact his approach would be quite obviously bound to fail for the reasons described above.

In the title text, the word "astrobiology" is the joining of the prefix astro- and biology and refers to the study of life (or possibility thereof) elsewhere in the universe.

It might be interesting to note that a lot of developments in "terrestrial" biology were made by the use of a simple microscope (a.k.a. a magnifying lens), so Beret Guy's approach might be an attempt to build on that.

==Transcript==

[Megan looks at the stars through a large telescope]
[Beret Guy brings in a ladder]
[Beret guy climbs the ladder, and looks at the stars through a magnifying glass]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1490: Atoms

2015-05-08T10:34:49Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ cleaning it up

{{comic
| number = 1490
| date = February 23, 2015
| title = Atoms
| image = atoms.png
| titletext = When I was little I had trouble telling my dad apart from the dog. I always recognized my mom because she had a bunch of extra plutoniums in her middle. I never did ask her why...
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Megan]] is preparing a sample of what appears to be some mineral for {{w|elemental analysis}}. It seems to be some kind of {{w|silicate}} containing a small amount of {{w|iron}} (a common example of this would be {{w|red sandstone}}), and she is running a test to see if it contains {{w|beryllium}} (a rarer element whose best-known natural form is as a component of {{w|emerald}}).

[[Beret Guy]] seems to be able to tell what elements the substance is composed of just by eyeballing it, making him perhaps the perfect elemental analysis instrument. To confirm this, Megan asks Beret Guy what he sees when he looks at her face, expecting that a normal person would describe the arrangement of colors that they see. Since Beret Guy only sees the atoms Megan is composed of (mostly {{w|Composition_of_the_human_body|oxygen, carbon and hydrogen}}) he only notices the unusual atoms. In this case he sees the metal atoms her {{w|Dental_restoration#Materials_used|dental fillings}} are composed of. This shows his "atomic vision" extends beyond the surface of the substances. Megan finds this bizarre and asks Beret Guy what is wrong with him. He states that he suspects people think he is weird because he contains too much {{w|zinc}}, missing Megan’s point: what is weird is not Beret guy’s zinc content, but his ability to apparently see everything as clouds of atoms.

High zinc intake ({{w|Zinc toxicity|zinc toxicity}}) can cause nausea, vomiting, pain, cramps and diarrhea. It also reduces copper absorption, which affects the immune system.

The comic continues the theme of Beret Guy’s naive misunderstandings of scientific terminology turning to be literally true: in a previous [[1486: Vacuum|comic]] his ill-informed misinterpretation of the notion of energy in the vacuum resulted in him gaining significant superpowers.

In the title text, the concept is taken even further: Beret Guy found his dad indistinguishable from a dog: likely because skin and fur are mostly made of {{w|keratin}}, which is an organic mix primarily made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur that would make all mammals look similar.

He could, however, apparently distinguish his mother because she contained {{w|plutonium}}. This is a very unusual occurrence that cannot possibly occur naturally in humans. Several possible explanations have been proposed:

1) She had an {{w|Radioisotope thermoelectric generator|RTG}}-powered pacemaker (a few hundred were made in the 1970s).

2) She lived near Los Alamos during the second world war and was a member of the [http://pills52.com/2014/2837153/ UPPU club (translated as “You pee Pu!”)]. Alternatively, she could have been exposed to another source such as {{w|radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant}}.

3) She was one of {{w|The Stepford Wives}} robots.

4) She was the victim of some unidentified, unethical medical experimentation.

It is also possible that the presence of plutonium in his mother may be the source of his own differences: radioactive exposure (in this case, potentially in utero) is a common source of super powers in comic books and other fiction. However, there is not a clear link between maternal plutonium and Beret Guy's "too many zincs".

One explanation for Beret Guy having too much zinc could be that his mother's plutonium changed into zinc through the process of {{w|Radioactive Decay}}.

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands at a table and is preparing a sample for some kind of analysis in a device, when Beret Guy walks in.]
:Beret guy: What’re you doing?
:Megan: Testing a sample for beryllium.
:Beret guy: That? Yeah, there’s a bunch of berylliums.
:Megan: How do you know?

:[Megan turns to Beret Guy who takes the sample and looks at it.]
:Beret guy: Look at it! See? Tons of oxygens and silicons, a few irons but definitely some berylliums too! Can’t you see them?

:[They continue to talk.]
:Megan: No, I can’t see a list of the atoms in a thing by looking.
:Beret guy: How do you tell what things are?

:[Zoom in on Megan.]
:Megan: This is ridiculous. Look at me. What do you see?
:Beret guy (off-panel): You have tons of metal in your face. Lots of fillings, I guess?

:[Megan states at Beret Guy who takes a looks at his own arm.]
:Megan: What’s '''''wrong''''' with you?
:Beret guy: Too many zincs? I’ve always worried I had too much zinc and everyone thought I was weird.

==Trivia==
*In the original version of the comic there was a typo in the title text, ''form'' instead of ''from'':
**I had trouble telling my dad apart '''form''' the dog.

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

1521: Sword in the Stone

2015-05-07T07:33:52Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ cleaning it up

{{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==
In this comic, [[Megan]] pulls a sword out of a stone. A flash of light comes down and music plays, and a heavenly voice tells her she has ascended to the {{w|throne of England}}. Megan then pulls out her phone and searches on Wikipedia for {{w|England}} (proving the comic takes place in a time period with Wikipedia). After having read for a while she begins, while reading on, to replace the sword into the rock.

The comic references the fables of {{w|King Arthur}} and the {{w|Knights of the Round Table}}. In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove {{w|Excalibur#Excalibur_and_the_Sword_in_the_Stone|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 {{w|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}}. The animated {{w|The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(film)|musical}} by Walt Disney is a well known version of this fairytale.

A key element of the joke is that as Megan begins to read about England, especially information concerning being an English ruler, she quickly thinks better of this and begins to put the sword back in its place. The punchline that Megan puts the sword back after reading about England suggests that the "gift" of being the leader of England is not worth the risk and/or work associated. It is also likely intended to suggest some degree of antipathy towards England and/or English people on the part of the character or author.

English history is rife with monarchic strife, and a brief inquiry into their {{w|List of monarchs of the British Isles by cause of death|causes of death}} will show that almost one in three {{w|British rulers}} have died either in battle or from murder, etc. This would quickly lead most sane people to conclude that the risks associated with ruling England far outweigh the benefits.

The title text furthers this plot, having Megan comment on the hassle when the only thing she was interested in was the cool 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.

From the time of the {{w|Roman Empire}} all the way up to {{w|Charles II of England|Charles II's}} reclamation of the throne, England was one of the most contested and most difficult to hold chunks of real estate on Earth. Besides the constant threat of usurpation, as evidenced by the numerous wars for the crown, such as the {{w|Norman_conquest_of_England|Norman conquest}} and the {{w|War of the Roses}}, there were also constant difficulties in managing the frontier regions. This can be seen from {{w|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 the movie {{w|Braveheart}} for a good example of the regular headaches they caused, seen from the English point of view), as well as the {{w|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 in this comic is a 21st century version (reincarnation) of the old Arthur.

The timing of this comic might relate to the birth of princess {{w|Princess_Charlotte_of_Cambridge|Charlotte Elizabeth Diana}} on May 2nd, 2015 just four days before this comic, and the burden of a royal of having a whole life in public shaking hands of strangers. Since {{w|Succession to the Throne Act, 2013|2013}} the {{w|Line of succession to the British throne|line of succession}} was changed to {{w|Primogeniture#Absolute_primogeniture|absolute primogeniture}}, meaning that she will keep her current position in the line (4th after her {{w|Prince George of Cambridge|older brother}}) even if she later gets baby brothers. Before this year, that would not have been the case, as the male gender took rank over birth order.

It is also probably not a coincidence that this comic was published the day before the {{w|United Kingdom general election, 2015|UK General Election}}, on May 7, 2015. This election decides the modern day leader of England and the rest of the UK. And the problems they face today, may even be more likely to cause Megan to give away the throne, than the risk of untimely death she would have faced in Arthur's days.

==Transcript==

:[Megan walks up to a sword in a stone.]

:[Megan tries to pull the sword out of the stone.]

:[A flash of light and music plays as she removes the sword.]

:[While standing with the swords a voice from heaven speaks in gray shaky letters:]
:Heavenly voice: ''The Throne of England is yours''

:[Megan takes out her smart phone and writes:]
:Wikipedia
:England

:[Megan reads on her phone.]

:[Megan starts to replace the sword back into the stone.]

{{comic discussion}}


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

485: Depth

2015-03-07T23:01:41Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ explanation expansion

{{comic
| number = 485
| date = October 6, 2008
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| title = Depth
| image = depth.png
| titletext = The Planck length is another thousand or two pixels below the comic.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is a companion piece to [[482: Height]], which explored a {{w|logarithmic scale}} from the edge of the observable universe down to the Earth's surface. ''Depth'' continues the process, viewing logarithmically smaller scales from Earth's atmosphere down to the interior of a single {{w|proton}}. This combination is reminiscent of Charles and Ray Eames' 1977 short film [http://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0 Powers of Ten].

Here's a walk through the entire comic:

* At the top we see a cutaway view of a story apartment complex. From left to right are a reference to [[150: Grownups]], [[Megan]] {{w|exorcising}} {{w|Windows Vista}}, [[Ponytail]] and Megan playing {{w|Guitar Hero}} or a similar game, [[Cueball]] at a desk, and what appear to be some sexytimes.
* The view descends into Cueball's tower PC.
* Entering the computer's internals, we see a mouse plugged into the PS/2 (6-pin mini-DIN) connector. This is a visual pun, since the mouse is an actual rodent and not a handheld device.
* Next we dive into the CPU. We see a multi-layered pun on the question "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" There may be a pun with a chip's connector pin, but the more obvious reference is Randall's answer of 32,767 = 215 - 1, the largest possible value of a signed 16-bit integer. Adding one rolls back over to -32,768, which is 32,768 devils or "negative angels." (See [[571: Can't Sleep]] for a similar joke and a more elaborate explanation.)
* A blood-sucking mosquito appears to be "leeching" a torrent.
* A {{w|segfault}} is a problem with memory access.
* We zoom into a memory unit on the CPU. Cueball is being {{w|rickrolled}}, as indicated by the label "pixel on {{w|Rick Astley|Rick Astley's}} shoulder."
* A "fork();" command points at one of several unlabeled spermatazoa. Forking and sperm are capable of spawning "child processes."
* {{w|Peter Norton}} is the founder of {{w|Norton Antivirus}}. He is shown fighting a biological virus, rather than informatic malware.
* Showing the relative scale of {{w|carbon nanotubes}}, the suggestion is that these then lead on to a more megastructural {{w|Space Elevator}}, for which carbon nanotubes are often cited as a suitably strong component needed for the cable.
* We soon zoom into a silicon atom in the CPU. In the {{w|electron cloud}}, the squiggles made out of arrows are {{w|Feynman diagram}}s. A Feynman diagram in the shape of a stick figure is saying "Sup?", a pun on the "Sup" particle (supersymmetric partner 'squark' to the Up quark) and an abbreviation of the greeting "What's up?."
* An 'iPod Femto' is shown, as a pun on the '{{w|iPod Nano}}' (both are {{w|SI prefixes}}), both of which refer to units far smaller than any ipod that has ever, or likely will ever, be created.
* {{w|Brian Greene}} is a theoretical physicist and {{w|Popular science|pop scientist}} who discusses the nature of the universe. The picture of him knitting is a pun on {{w|string theory}} and PBS miniseries, {{w|The Fabric of the Cosmos}}.
* The {{w|Planck length}} (<big>ℓ</big>P) is the smallest theoretically measurable distance, defined by three fundamental constants in physics: the {{w|speed of light}} in a vacuum (c), {{w|Planck constant|Planck's constant}} (h), and the {{w|gravitational constant}} (G). The Planck length is vastly smaller than any known particle, and modern physics is a long way from being able investigate such a scale.

[[1162: Log Scale]] and [[482: Height]] are other comics about the use of log scales.

==Transcript==
:Sizes Accurate on a vertical log scale
:[Series of images of characters doing various things. The things they are doing are listed in left to right order.]
:Cueball and Megan playing in a ball pen
:Megan using witchcraft to ban vista "Out, Vista!"
:Ponytail and Megan play Rock Band
:Man and woman are having "fun" on a shaking bed.
:[Below this series of images, an image of a man on the computer.]
:Cueball is on a computer and the image expands as it goes down. Here are the labels from left to right, up to down:
:CD
:DVD
:Case
:North Bridge
:PS/2
:Mouse (rodent)
:RAM
:CPU Socket Pin
:32,767 Angels Dancing (one more and they'd roll over and become {{w|Two's complement|32,768 Devils}}), Rice, Torrent (a bug), CPU, upcoming segfault
:dust mite
:hair
:OVUM
:Data (a pixel on Rick Astley's shoulder), rust mite, fork();
:Peter Norton fighting a baxteriophage
:memory
:carbon nanotubes
:space elevator
:a line of silicon (Si), Electron Cloud, a man made out of arrows saying "sup?"
:silicon nucleus
:IPod femto
:Brian Greene knitting furiously ''clank, clunk''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Guitar Hero]]

1320: Walmart

2015-03-07T22:56:49Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ title text expansion

{{comic
| number = 1320
| date = January 22, 2014
| title = Walmart
| image = walmart.png
| titletext = What I really want is to hang out where I hung out with my friends in college, but have all my older relatives there too.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic satirizes the way in which large social networks, such as Facebook and Google+, attempt to aggregate all aspects of the user's online social presence. Earlier social networks had more granular focuses; e.g. MySpace originated with a music focus, and even earlier various bulletin board systems were centered around specific topics. By contrast, many social media companies attempt to encapsulate the variety of aspects of their users' online lives, thereby aggregating their personal, professional, and private lives in a way that was previously unlikely to occur.

The first comparison to Walmart, a large multi-national "big box" retailer that sells everything from gardening supplies to televisions to groceries, is apt because Walmart, too, is attempting to aggregate various aspects of your life into a single location - but rather than aggregating your social media presence, it's attempting to aggregate your shopping habits.

The punch line of the joke is that social interactions at Walmart are awkward, contrived, and frequently undesired — just as they can grow to become in a social network that is insufficiently focused or too bloated. People communicate differently with different groups of people, and if they are attempting to connect with friends, they are unlikely to want their grandparents present. Similarly, if a person is attempting to buy groceries, he may not be interested in extended small talk with acquaintances with whom he may not share much in common (perhaps the fact that they both shop at Walmart is the biggest similarity they share).

The title text elaborates on this idea by sarcastically implying that he wants all his older relatives to hang out where he hung out in college, likely causing extreme awkwardness.

==Transcript==
:When a network tries to become everyone's one-stop hub, the Walmart of social interaction...
:[Cueball and Hairy standing in a supermarket, Cueball holding groceries under his arm, Hairy with a cart.]
:Cueball: Oh, uh, hi! Funny running into you here.
:Hairy: Oh, hey! Yeah! How've you been?
:...it inevitably becomes the Walmart of social interaction.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

675: Revolutionary

2015-03-07T22:53:58Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ Physics explaination

{{comic
| number = 675
| date = December 14, 2009
| title = Revolutionary
| image = revolutionary.png
| titletext = I mean, what's more likely -- that I have uncovered fundamental flaws in this field that no one in it has ever thought about, or that I need to read a little more? Hint: it's the one that involves less work.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic contrasts brilliant revolutionary scientific thought with the simplistic arrogance of assuming one understands the current scientific theory enough to correct it. The character with the goatee has a degree in {{w|philosophy}}, and perhaps has certain ideas of his own about how the world should fundamentally be described by physics. He has studied Einstein's {{w|theory of special relativity}} for less than an hour and thinks it is wrong, and that he has a better theory. When confronted about this, he considers the objection as based in {{w|dogma}}, and remains so confident that he wants to email the "president of physics". His ignorance of the field is emphasized by thinking that the entire field of physics has a president - although certain important organizations such as the {{w|American Physical Society}} do have presidents.

[[Cueball]] concedes that it is possible for such a revolutionary idea to come from a relative outsider. One example is {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s own formulation of {{w|special relativity}}, which came while he was working at a patent office in Switzerland, although he did already have a Ph.D in physics. A {{w|thought experiment}} considers some hypothesis, theory, or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.

The "racecar on a train" idea alludes to thought experiments involving {{w|Frame_of_reference#Simple_example|frames of reference}}, which are important in relativity. If the philosopher had studied more, he would know that this idea is accounted fore by the fact that, when a system is moving at nearly the speed of light, any motion within the system that could otherwise cause faster-than-light travel results in the flow of time changing so as to avoid this issue.

The title text compares two possible scenarios:
*That decades of work by numerous physicists is fundamentally incorrect, and I found the flaw immediately
*That I need to read a little more

[[Randall]] hints that reading a little more is much less work than having to develop entirely new foundations of physics.

Usually, when someone with little understanding of the subject thinks that they have found a flaw, it takes only a little bit more reading to discover that the flaw is in fact completely explained already.

As an example, lets say a high school student happens to do sqrt(5-6). His calculator tells him 'Error', and he thinks he has uncovered a function which has no answer. In fact, with a little more reading, he would discover that mathematicians have a whole area devoted to this type of mathematics, namely {{w|Imaginary numbers|imaginary numbers}}.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Yes, science is an open process in which a good idea can come from anybody.

:Cueball: Yes, widely-believed theories are on occasion overturned by simple thought experiments.

:Cueball: And yes, your philosophy degree equips you to ask interesting questions sometimes.

:[Cueball is talking to a philosopher with a goatee, who is sitting at a computer.]
:Cueball: But you did not just overturn special relativity, a subject you learned about an hour ago, with your "racecar on a train" idea.
:Philosopher: You just don't like that I'm turning a rational eye to your dogma. Hey, what's the email for the president of physics?

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

322: Pix Plz

2015-03-07T22:48:45Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 322
| date = September 28, 2007
| title = Pix Plz
| image = pix_plz.png
| titletext = But one of the regulars in the channel is a girl!
}}

==Explanation==
Though this comic predates it, there is an [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet Internet meme] best stated as "there are no girls on the Internet." It is also known as [http://rules-of-the-internet.urbanup.com/2799580 Rule 16] or [http://rulesoftheinternet.com Rule 30] [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rules-of-the-internet of the Internet], not to be confused with Wolfram's cellular automata. This comes partly from a supposition that girls aren't smart enough to go on the Internet or even use technology, and more directly from the idea that they are afraid of interacting in such a male-dominated subculture. Thankfully for humanity at large the meme is now the opposite of true (just look at the female-dominated Facebook) but still lives on as a joke, albeit not always a pleasant one. For many users, the {{Wiktionary|puerile}} nature of the Internet creates a repulsive force because of exactly what [[Cueball]] is doing. As soon as anyone claims to be a female online there will invariably be a slew of "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tits-or-gtfo tits or gtfo]" replies.

[[Randall]] projects this stereotypical Internet douchebaggery onto [[Cueball]], who behaves this way out of {{w|misogyny}} thinly disguised as a joke. This barely-a-joke, found in certain areas of the internet (especially IRC and 4chan), holds the view that women are only "good for" sex and porn. By making such a huge deal out of her being a girl, he directs unwanted sexual attention at any female who joins.

[[Black Hat]], while usually a destructive force, and self-proclaimed [[classhole]], here switches positions with Cueball, standing up for women everywhere. (This makes sense when you consider that Black Hat tends to pursue Randall's thoughts in a more controversial way, see [[86: Digital Rights Management]]). He enlists the help of a [[Ponytail]] character named Joanna to [http://banhammer.urbanup.com/1921346 ban] Cueball from the Internet.

{{w|IRC}} is the acronym for Internet Relay Chat. It is a protocol that eventually evolved into the {{w|instant messenger}}s, {{w|chat room}}s, and {{w|XMPP|XMPP (formerly Jabber)}} servers around today. With the advent of live-streaming video online, IRC channels are making a come-back as a way for hosts and audiences to communicate with each other in real-time.

An {{w|Electromagnetic pulse|EMP}} is an electromagnetic pulse that will disrupt electronics from functioning normally. An EMP is a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Small EMPs will disrupt electricity momentarily, larger EMPs are capable of burning out circuitry and erasing hard drives.

At the title text Cueball tries to defend his misogyny by claiming one of his IRC chat system acquaintances is a female, as if to imply that makes his words no longer misogynist (this is similar to the defense "I'm not racist! Some of my best friends are black!").

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat stands in the entrance to a room. The door has been broken down. A surprised Cueball has turned away from his computer to face the remains of the door.]
:Black Hat: Hi. I'm here about the girl who visited your IRC channel last night looking for Java help.
:Cueball: What did you do to my door?

:Black Hat: When someone with a feminine username joins your community and you say "OMG a woman on the Internet" and 'jokingly' ask for naked pics, you are being an asshole. You are not being ironic. You are not cracking everybody up. You are the number one reason women are so rare on the Internet.
:Black Hat: At least, the parts of it you frequent.

:[Ponytail enters the room, holding some sort of device.]
:Black Hat: As someone who likes nerdy girls, I do not appreciate this. I'm here to ban you from the Internet. The gal behind me with the EMP cannon is Joanna - she'll be assigned to you for the next year. Try to go online and she'll melt your PC.
:Cueball: Dude, she's hot. Is she single?
:Black Hat: Joanna, fire.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

189: Exercise

2015-03-07T22:46:23Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ expanding title text explaination

{{comic
| number = 189
| date = November 27, 2006
| title = Exercise
| image = exercise.png
| titletext = I haven't had the patience for RPGs in a long time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Role-playing_game|Role-playing games}} (RPGs) are a pastime commonly associated with {{w|Geek|geeks}} in which players assume the role of a fictional character in a fantasy world. In many RPGs, character evolution and advancement is represented by "leveling up". Through winning battles and, less frequently, completing of tasks or missions, characters are awarded experience points (XP), which can be spent on increasing their ratings in attributes (such as strength or speed) or skills (such as bow-hunting or computer hacking). The number of XP awarded is generally proportional to the difficulty of the task completed.

[[Cueball]] is doing {{w|Chin-up|chin-ups}}, a strength-training exercise that targets the latissimus dorsi and biceps. Repeating this exercise over time will improve his ability to do more chin-ups in one go - in other words, he will become stronger. In doing so, he is effectively leveling up his STR (strength) attribute in real life. While doing his chin-ups, he comments that he will soon switch to running - an aerobic exercise that improves endurance - in order to build up his CON (constitution) attribute. Cueball is treating his gym session like an RPG, and observes that, as a self-confessed geek, he would not be as interested in exercising without that link.

The title text implies that, as [[Randall]] has lost his patience and ability to play RPG games as has happened to many people, likely due to playing more action packed games, he now does not have the patience to exercise.

==Transcript==
:Like many geeks, I got a lot more interested in exercise once I made the connection to leveling up.
:[Cueball is doing pull-ups on a bar.]
:Cueball: One more point to str, then I'll run to work on con.

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

542: Cover-Up

2015-03-07T22:43:00Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */ added title text explaination

{{comic
| number = 542
| date = February 11, 2009
| title = Cover-Up
| image = cover_up.png
| titletext = Man, this trick has saved me so many times.
}}

==Explanation==
Gullible means easily deceived or naïve. This is a game many people play with each other "Whoa, someone wrote 'gullible' in the sky!" "Did you know when you look at the Microsoft logo upside-down it looks like the word 'gullible'?" Those that are gullible check. Those that aren't, don't. In fact they will pointedly not do the thing that the first person has suggested as a show of how non-gullible they are. [[Black Hat]] uses this to his advantage to cover up copious bloodstains on a ceiling.

The story in this comic may be a continuation of [[515: No One Must Know]].

The title text is hinting that Munroe has had to cover up killing people several times, which is (hopefully) a joke.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is holding blood stained rags while Danish is holding an equally bloody mop.]
:Black Hat: Okay, got the blood off the walls.
:Danish: I finished the floor.

:Black Hat: Good; he'll be home any-
:Black Hat: Oh crap! We forgot to clean the ceiling!

:Danish: There's no time!
:Black Hat: Wait, I'll handle it.

:[Cueball with briefcase enters the house.]
:Black Hat: Hi. Did you know "gullible" is written on your ceiling?
:Cueball: Hah. Yeah, right.

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

348: Close to You

2015-03-07T22:40:11Z

Reywas: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number =348
| date =November 23, 2007
| title =Close to You
| image =close_to_you.png
| titletext =We should probably talk about this before the wedding.
}}

==Explanation==
This is Randall's version of the popular {{w|Carpenters (band)|Carpenters}} song, "{{w|(They Long to Be) Close to You}}". The actual first verse goes like this:

:''Why do birds suddenly appear''
:''Every time you are near?''
:''Just like me, they long to be''
:''Close to you''

In this parody, the reason birds suddenly appear whenever the girl is near is because the girl is a zombie, and those are {{w|Turkey Vulture|turkey vultures}}, carrion birds that prey on the flesh of dead bodies.

The title text is joking about couples not discussing their relationship before their wedding, as is seen [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/302:_Names| here]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball singing to zombie Megan.]
:Cueball: Why do birds suddenly appear

:Cueball: Every tiiiime you are neeear

:Cueball: Wait, are those turkey vultures?

:Cueball: Okay, listen, are you a zombie?
:Megan: Hurrghhh...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Zombies]]
[[Category:Romance]]