explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1058: Old-Timers

2017-05-28T04:25:44Z

Rhmcoff:

Wouldn't the heat from the servers have thawed the egg and killed her early? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:44, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
* What? That... ''What''? The egg isn't actually sent through the internet, if that's what you mean. The information from the parents' genes was taken from their proteins, encoded in digital format on the computer at the lab, sent to another lab, then re-encoded into protein format to be implanted in an egg. In that context, the egg was an entirely separate part of the process. If you mean the egg would have been thawed by the people at the Venter institute holding the egg up next to the servers, unprotected, while they implanted the synthesized genome (or the people at the lab doing the same thing with the unfertilized egg while sequencing the DNA), that's... well, simply not how that works. As for "killed her early": I'm not sure of a good way to ''start'' asking what you mean by that. As opposed to killing her at the intended time? As opposed to killing the unfertilized egg before they could sequence the DNA? Or even killing the physical egg while it was somehow being transported via the internet? [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 11:07, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
**Sincerely, Summer Glau {{unsigned|Wotpsycho}}
To me the title text seems to be referencing something completely different, as it seems to be coming from Neckbeard, to Buns, saying that he was on the internet before he was born as well, possibly in the form of pornography while his mother was pregnant. Just my idea. [[User:Tyman2651|Tyman2651]] ([[User talk:Tyman2651|talk]]) 20:43, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

:I was thinking along those lines, except maybe the conception was on the Internet. lol [[Special:Contributions/173.245.63.180|173.245.63.180]] 21:26, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
::The title text is clearly from Buns' perspective. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 20:39, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

I cringe when I see her sit like that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.161|108.162.238.161]] 16:44, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

Another important part of the joke is that BBSes have nothing to do with the Internet. While there were some that morphed into ISPs, e.g. Prodigy and AOL, mostly they were self contained and reached peak popularity after the modern internet was created. --[[User:Rhmcoff|Rhmcoff]] ([[User talk:Rhmcoff|talk]]) 04:25, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Talk:701: Science Valentine

2017-05-26T04:59:23Z

Rhmcoff:

If he really did figure out, by sitting down and thinking his life and their relation through, that he doesn't really love her, then he did the right thing. Of course he may not have been scientific enough, if the reasons his feelings and happiness decreases is caused by some outside agency... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:56, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I think the r0, r1, r2 are correlation coefficients. They are all between -1 and 1, and all called r, which is a common name for a correlation coefficient. Also, this would mean r2 shows a strong negative correlation between two things. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.39|108.162.215.39]] 06:57, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

I agree with the above comment, great explanation for this statistical variable which shows that his love becomes negatively correlated with time, complementing the first panel's graph. [[User:Barrtender|Barrtender]] ([[User talk:Barrtender|talk]]) 14:26, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

:I also think that the correlation coefficient interpretation is right. Moreover, it looks like r0 refers to the time just after the first meeting (slightly positive trend), r1 to the time when they were dating (negative trend) and r2 to the time after engagement (with even stronger negative trend). --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.245|198.41.242.245]] 18:26, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

::You are conflating correlation with slope. While they share the same sign, a gentle slope and steep slope can have the same correlation coefficient. It might be better to look at the correlation probability, which for the three values are 4.0%, 37.21%, and 64.0%. All other things being equal, these are the probabilities that the two variables are actually correlated. Thus, only the last measurements should be considered significant. It does '''not''' imply A strong negative trend. --[[User:Rhmcoff|Rhmcoff]] ([[User talk:Rhmcoff|talk]]) 04:59, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

Maybe [[833: Convincing]] would be worth mentioning in the explanation, where Megan draws a relationship themed graph (and Cueball complains about missing axis lables) -- [[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 02:35, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Talk:665: Prudence

2017-05-26T03:33:58Z

Rhmcoff:

Anyone else reminded of the MALP from Stargate? Portal to another world, the probe is similar in design, etc [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.228|141.101.99.228]] 19:14, 25 December 2013 (UTC)
:Exactly what I thought [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.48|108.162.229.48]] 16:47, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
::The probe is similar to the Mars rovers Randall drew several times after this comic, and the naming is similar to Curiosity which was Lucy's problem rather than Megan's Prudence. But interesting with the probe through portal. Have moved this down to the bottom as it has nothing to do with explaining the comic. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:02, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
:::The design looks nothing like a MALP, and it requires a cable to work. I bet Monroe didn't even consider it. --[[User:Rhmcoff|Rhmcoff]] ([[User talk:Rhmcoff|talk]]) 03:33, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

I'm curious to see what people think would happen in this scenario time-wise. In the book, time passes at a very different rate in Narnia than in the "real world" - in fact, at one point, the four protagonists grow to become adults in Narnia, yet when they accidentally return to the real world through the wardrobe, only a few minutes have passed. So if that detail is consistent here, Megan using a probe to observe Narnia from the "real world" side of the wardrobe should either cause a time paradox, or she should see things happening extremely fast through the probe. [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 21:25, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
:Mentioned the time problems in the explanation for the comic that used this fact. I belive that CS Lewis only intended to write the first book to begin with. The ending does't fit well with the behaviour of Narnia time in the next three Prince Caspian books. And hence the other books does paint a different picture of how Narnia time works, and this inconsistency makes the question hard to answer --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:02, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Talk:200: Bill Nye

2017-05-22T23:07:02Z

Rhmcoff:

Seems to be complete to me. [[User:David.windsor|David.windsor]] ([[User talk:David.windsor|talk]]) 20:47, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
:Same for me, it's not incomplete any more unless someone does find new issues.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:08, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
::isn't "PS" a bit weird in a wiki?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.192|173.245.53.192]] 19:15, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
:::Fixed. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:15, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Is the mother [[Miss Lenhart]]? [[User:MrGameZone|0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101]] ([[User talk:MrGameZone|talk page]]) 00:31, 6 February 2014 (UTC)
:Nope, Randall would have mentioned her.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:01, 6 February 2014 (UTC)
:Now she is [[Blondie]]. Miss Lenhart is a teacher, which is not give here, although she does teach her chilcren --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:12, 10 September 2016 (UTC)
Bill Nye isn't a scientist. He's a mechanical engineer, comedian, and educator. [[User:Rhmcoff|Rhmcoff]] ([[User talk:Rhmcoff|talk]]) 23:07, 22 May 2017 (UTC)