https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Smperron explain xkcd - User contributions [en] 2026-04-22T18:17:29Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2038:_Hazard_Symbol&diff=161909 Talk:2038: Hazard Symbol 2018-08-27T12:46:28Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> When on xkcd, the emoji only shows up as an empty square. On this site, it shows up as a sigma, caputal Y with umlauts, tilde, and decree symbol. What is it actually supposed to be? [[User:Smperron|Kestrel]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 12:46, 27 August 2018 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2035:_Dark_Matter_Candidates&diff=161549 2035: Dark Matter Candidates 2018-08-20T13:48:20Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2035<br /> | date = August 20, 2018<br /> | title = Dark Matter Candidates<br /> | image = dark_matter_candidates.png<br /> | titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Every section needs to be filled and explained. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be, charted by mass from smallest (given in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronvolt#Mass Electronvolts]) to largest (given in kilograms). In cosmology, {{w|Dark_matter| dark matter}} is an unknown type of matter thought to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe. The joke in this comic is that the range of the mass of the possible particles and objects stretch over 81 powers of ten. Randall filled the gap between small candidate particles and large candidate objects with highly absurd suggestions.<br /> <br /> '''{{w|Axion|Axion}}'''<br /> <br /> A hypothetical elementary particle that might be a component of dark matter.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Sterile_neutrino|Sterile neutrino}}'''<br /> <br /> A hypothetical particle interacting only via gravity. It's an actual candidate for dark matter.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Electron|Electrons}} painted with space {{w|camouflage|camouflage}}'''<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Neutralino|Neutralino}}'''<br /> <br /> A hypothetical particle from {{w|Supersymmetry|Supersymmetry}}. It's an actual candidate for dark matter.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Q-ball|Q-ball}}'''<br /> <br /> In theoretical physics, a Q-ball is a stable group of particles. It's an actual candidate for dark matter.<br /> <br /> In billiards, a cue ball is the white (or yellow) ball hit with the cue in normal play.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Pollen|Pollen}}'''<br /> <br /> A joke candidate, though people with seasonal allergies may suspect that the universe genuinely is made up entirely of pollen in the springtime. <br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Ceratopogonidae|No-See-Ums}}'''<br /> <br /> Also called Ceratopogonidae, a family of small flies (1–4 mm long) who can pass through most window screens.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Pool (cue sports)|8-balls}}'''<br /> <br /> In billiards, the 8-ball is a black ball numbered 8. It's a pun with Q-ball/cue ball.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''Space {{w|Cow|Cows}}'''<br /> <br /> <br /> '''{{w|Obelisk|Obelisks}}, {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|Monoliths}}, {{w|Pyramid power|Pyramids}}'''<br /> <br /> While those human constructions are huge on a human scale, they're negligible at universe-scale.<br /> They often show up in fiction and pseudo-scientific literature as alien artifacts generating immense unknown power out of nowhere.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Black Holes ruled out by:'''<br /> * Gamma Rays<br /> ** If dark matter were black holes of this size, the black holes would be evaporating in bursts of hawking radiation, and we'd see a buzz of gamma rays from every direction.<br /> * GRB lensing<br /> * Neutron Star Data<br /> * Micro lensing<br /> * Solar System Stability<br /> * Buzzkill Astronomers<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Maybe those orbit lines on space diagrams are real and very heavy'''<br /> <br /> Any diagram of our solar system (or any solar system) will show lines representing the path the planet takes around its sun. Since planets orbit in ellipses, there will be an ellipse for every planet. This lines don't show real objects, though. Astronomers just draw them on pictures of the solar system to show where the planets move. If you draw a line on a map to give someone directions, that line isn't an object in real life; it's just on the map. If these lines were real, they would be huge (Earth's would be 940 million km long (2*pi*AU) and Neptune's would be 28 BILLION kilometers long). If they were also very dense, they would have a huge mass and could possibly account for the missing 85% of the mass in the universe. But they would also constantly be impaling the inner four planets, including the Earth, which would be a problem. Overall, not a very likely candidate.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> Dark matter candidates:<br /> <br /> [A list of candidates on a scale. The scale unit starts with energy and ends with mass:]<br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> !style=&quot;width:10%&quot;|Start<br /> !style=&quot;width:10%&quot;|End<br /> !style=&quot;width:55%&quot;|Candidate<br /> |-<br /> |&lt; µeV<br /> |10 meV<br /> |Axion<br /> |-<br /> |eV<br /> |10 KeV<br /> |Sterile neutrino<br /> |-<br /> |MeV<br /> |MeV<br /> |Electrons painted with space camouflage<br /> |-<br /> |10 GeV<br /> |10 TeV<br /> |Neutralino<br /> |-<br /> |100 TeV<br /> |10^-17 kg<br /> |Q-ball<br /> |-<br /> |ng<br /> |100 ng<br /> |Pollen<br /> |-<br /> |mg<br /> |mg<br /> |No-See-Ums<br /> |-<br /> |10^-1 g<br /> |10^-1 g<br /> |Bees<br /> |-<br /> |10 g<br /> |100 g<br /> |8-balls<br /> |-<br /> |100 kg<br /> |TON<br /> |Space Cows<br /> |-<br /> |TON<br /> |10^9 kg<br /> |Obelisks, Monoliths, Pyramids<br /> |-<br /> |10^9 kg<br /> |10^33 kg<br /> |Black Holes ruled out by:<br /> * Gamma Rays<br /> * GRB lensing<br /> * Neutron Star Data<br /> * Micro lensing<br /> * Solar System Stability<br /> * Buzzkill Astronomers<br /> |-<br /> |10^33 kg<br /> |&gt; 10^36 kg<br /> |Maybe those orbit lines on space diagrams are real and very heavy<br /> |}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Science]]<br /> [[Category:Physics]]<br /> [[Category:Astronomy]]<br /> [[Category:Line graphs]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2025:_Peer_Review&diff=160554 Talk:2025: Peer Review 2018-07-27T16:38:35Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> The title text seems to refer to [https://twitter.com/hwitteman/status/1015049411276300289 this tweet from Dr. Holly Witteman], which have since made popular by reddit (/r/YouShouldKnow and /r/lifehacks)<br /> [[User:Colonelheero|Colonelheero]] ([[User talk:Colonelheero|talk]]) 15:19, 27 July 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't tell you how many times I was curious about something and had to abandon the quest because the only info I could find was in a journal article and I felt like knowing wasn't worth the cost. [[User:Smperron|Kestrel]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:38, 27 July 2018 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2025:_Peer_Review&diff=160553 2025: Peer Review 2018-07-27T16:37:05Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2025<br /> | date = July 27, 2018<br /> | title = Peer Review<br /> | image = peer_review.png<br /> | titletext = Your manuscript &quot;Don't Pay $25 to Access Any of the Articles in this Journal: A Review of Preprint Repositories and Author Willingness to Email PDF Copies for Free&quot; has also been rejected, but nice try.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PEER REVIEWER. Needs volunteer commentary on title text. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> How academic publishing works: When a researcher wants to publish their findings, they send it to an academic journal. The editor of the journal is another researcher (usually a college professor), ''who gets paid nothing or a minimal honorarium'' for editing the journal. The editor chooses a few (usually three) peer reviewers who are other researchers familiar enough with the study's subfield to judge the study's quality fairly and accurately, and sends it out to them for review. These peer reviewers ''do not get paid'' for the work of reviewing the manuscript and offering a detailed critique of every part of the study, from lit review to methodology to conclusions drawn from the results. If the peer reviewers and editor agree that the study was well-conducted and the paper well-written (or just needs minor revisions), it is accepted and published in the journal. The researcher ''is not paid'' for getting their paper published in the journal.<br /> <br /> In short, nobody in the process is paid for their work except the journal publisher, who charges libraries and individuals for access to the fruit of these people's free labor. This system works on the assumption that all researchers are employed by either companies or universities in positions that require them to publish in order to remain employed or achieve promotions or pay raises. In universities, only postdocs and tenure-track or tenured professors are paid in a way that figures in their research time as well as their teaching time, which means that anyone not in one of those positions (lecturers, educators, adjunct instructors) is not paid for any research they might be doing and publishing, nor are those who are conducting research but cannot get a tenure-track job due to universities replacing tenure lines with non-tenure-track positions.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to a recent Twitter [https://twitter.com/hwitteman/status/1015049411276300289 post] that went viral. The original post asked professionals for examples of things that seem obvious but that the general public doesn't seem to get. Researcher Dr. Holly Witteman responded saying that you could just ask the author to send you a PDF copy of their academic paper and that they would be delighted to do so free of charge.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Ponytail is sitting and looking at a laptop.]<br /> <br /> :RE: Economics Journal Submission<br /> <br /> :We have received your manuscript &quot;The Bizarre Economics of Academic Publishing: Why Volunteer Peer Reviewers Should Rise Up and Demand Payment from For-Profit Journals.&quot;<br /> <br /> :We have elected not to send it out for review.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2025:_Peer_Review&diff=160552 2025: Peer Review 2018-07-27T16:33:26Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2025<br /> | date = July 27, 2018<br /> | title = Peer Review<br /> | image = peer_review.png<br /> | titletext = Your manuscript &quot;Don't Pay $25 to Access Any of the Articles in this Journal: A Review of Preprint Repositories and Author Willingness to Email PDF Copies for Free&quot; has also been rejected, but nice try.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PEER REVIEWER. Needs volunteer commentary on title text. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> How academic publishing works: When a researcher wants to publish their findings, they send it to an academic journal. The editor of the journal is another researcher (usually a college professor), ''who gets paid nothing or a minimal honorarium'' for editing the journal. The editor chooses a few (usually three) peer reviewers who are other researchers familiar enough with the study's subfield to judge the study's quality fairly and accurately, and sends it out to them for review. These peer reviewers ''do not get paid'' for the work of reviewing the manuscript and offering a detailed critique of every part of the study, from lit review to methodology to conclusions drawn from the results. If the peer reviewers and editor agree that the study was well-conducted and the paper well-written (or just needs minor revisions), it is accepted and published in the journal. The researcher ''is not paid'' for getting their paper published in the journal.<br /> <br /> In short, nobody in the process is paid for their work except the journal publisher, who charges libraries and individuals for access to the fruit of these people's free labor. This system works on the assumption that all researchers are employed by either companies or universities in positions that require them to publish in order to remain employed or achieve promotions or pay raises. In universities, only postdocs and tenure-track or tenured professors are paid in a way that figures in their research time as well as their teaching time, which means that anyone not in one of those positions (lecturers, educators, adjunct instructors) is not paid for any research they might be doing and publishing, nor are those who are conducting research but cannot get a tenure-track job due to universities replacing tenure lines with non-tenure-track positions.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to a recent Twitter [https://twitter.com/hwitteman/status/1015049411276300289 post] that went viral. The original post asked professionals for the best kept secret in their trade. One researcher responded saying that you could just ask the author to send you a copy rather than pay the fee to the journal and that the author would be delighted to do so free of charge.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Ponytail is sitting and looking at a laptop.]<br /> <br /> :RE: Economics Journal Submission<br /> <br /> :We have received your manuscript &quot;The Bizarre Economics of Academic Publishing: Why Volunteer Peer Reviewers Should Rise Up and Demand Payment from For-Profit Journals.&quot;<br /> <br /> :We have elected not to send it out for review.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2025:_Peer_Review&diff=160551 2025: Peer Review 2018-07-27T16:28:50Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2025<br /> | date = July 27, 2018<br /> | title = Peer Review<br /> | image = peer_review.png<br /> | titletext = Your manuscript &quot;Don't Pay $25 to Access Any of the Articles in this Journal: A Review of Preprint Repositories and Author Willingness to Email PDF Copies for Free&quot; has also been rejected, but nice try.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PEER REVIEWER. Needs volunteer commentary on title text. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> How academic publishing works: When a researcher wants to publish their findings, they send it to an academic journal. The editor of the journal is another researcher (usually a college professor), ''who gets paid nothing or a minimal honorarium'' for editing the journal. The editor chooses a few (usually three) peer reviewers who are other researchers familiar enough with the study's subfield to judge the study's quality fairly and accurately, and sends it out to them for review. These peer reviewers ''do not get paid'' for the work of reviewing the manuscript and offering a detailed critique of every part of the study, from lit review to methodology to conclusions drawn from the results. If the peer reviewers and editor agree that the study was well-conducted and the paper well-written (or just needs minor revisions), it is accepted and published in the journal. The researcher ''is not paid'' for getting their paper published in the journal.<br /> <br /> In short, nobody in the process is paid for their work except the journal publisher, who charges libraries and individuals for access to the fruit of these people's free labor. This system works on the assumption that all researchers are employed by either companies or universities in positions that require them to publish in order to remain employed or achieve promotions or pay raises. In universities, only postdocs and tenure-track or tenured professors are paid in a way that figures in their research time as well as their teaching time, which means that anyone not in one of those positions (lecturers, educators, adjunct instructors) is not paid for any research they might be doing and publishing, nor are those who are conducting research but cannot get a tenure-track job due to universities replacing tenure lines with non-tenure-track positions.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to a recent Twitter post that went viral. The original post asked professionals for the best kept secret in their trade. One researcher responded saying that you could just ask the author to send you a copy rather than pay the fee to the journal and that the author would be delighted to do so free of charge.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Ponytail is sitting and looking at a laptop.]<br /> <br /> :RE: Economics Journal Submission<br /> <br /> :We have received your manuscript &quot;The Bizarre Economics of Academic Publishing: Why Volunteer Peer Reviewers Should Rise Up and Demand Payment from For-Profit Journals.&quot;<br /> <br /> :We have elected not to send it out for review.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2009:_Hertzsprung-Russell_Diagram&diff=159043 2009: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 2018-06-20T19:40:57Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2009<br /> | date = June 20, 2018<br /> | title = Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram<br /> | image = hertzsprung_russell_diagram.png<br /> | titletext = The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is located in its own lower right corner, unless you're viewing it on an unusually big screen.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a RED GIANT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The {{w|Hertzsprung–Russell diagram}} is a scatterplot showing absolute luminosities of stars against its effective temperature or color. It's generally used to understand a star's age.<br /> <br /> The axes are labeled in {{w|Kelvin}} (degrees {{w|Celsius}} above {{w|absolute zero}}) for {{w|effective temperature}} and, in a unlike many Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams, {{w|Watts}} for {{w|luminosity}}. While most Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams are labelled in units of {{w|solar luminosity}} or {{w|absolute magnitude}}, all three are perfectly valid measures of {{w|luminosity}}, which refers to the total power emitted by the star (or other body). {{w|Effective temperature}} refers to temperature of a blackbody with the same surface area and luminosity. This is meant to provide an estimate of the surface temperature of the object.<br /> <br /> Regular Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams start at about 1000K and what is labeled on this diagram as 10&lt;sup&gt;21&lt;/sup&gt; watts&amp;mdash;i.e. the upper-left corner. This diagram has been extended to lower magnitudes on both axes. The joke comes from the absurdity of showing tiny (at least compared to stars) and often mundane objects on a diagram meant for stars.<br /> <br /> Though not included in the diagram, the title text notes that the screen displaying the diagram would probably be plotted somewhere in the lower right corner due to its (relatively) low brightness and heat output.<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> !Item<br /> !Effective Temperature<br /> !Luminosity<br /> !Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |Betelgeuse<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Vega<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Sun<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Proxima Centauri<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |HD 189733b<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Interior of a hydrogen bomb during detonation<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Jupiter<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Venus<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Earth<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Mars<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Moon<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Nuclear Football<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |France<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Europa<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Lightning Bolt<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Ivanpah Solar Plant Salt Tank<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Medium-sized Lava Lake<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Cruise Ship<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Campfire<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Blue Whale<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Arc Lamp<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Lightbulb<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |LED Bulb<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Astronomer<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2009:_Hertzsprung-Russell_Diagram&diff=159042 2009: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 2018-06-20T19:35:27Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2009<br /> | date = June 20, 2018<br /> | title = Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram<br /> | image = hertzsprung_russell_diagram.png<br /> | titletext = The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is located in its own lower right corner, unless you're viewing it on an unusually big screen.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a RED GIANT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The {{w|Hertzsprung–Russell diagram}} is a scatterplot showing absolute luminosities of stars against its effective temperature or color. It's generally used to understand a star's age.<br /> <br /> The axes are labeled in {{w|Kelvin}} (degrees {{w|Celsius}} above {{w|absolute zero}}) for {{w|effective temperature}} and, in a unlike many Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams, {{w|Watts}} for {{w|luminosity}}. While most Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams are labelled in units of {{w|solar luminosity}} or {{w|absolute magnitude}}, all three are perfectly valid measures of {{w|luminosity}}, which refers to the total power emitted by the star (or other body). {{w|Effective temperature}} refers to temperature of a blackbody with the same surface area and luminosity. This is meant to provide an estimate of the surface temperature of the object.<br /> <br /> Regular Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams start at about 1000K and what is labeled on this diagram as 10&lt;sup&gt;21&lt;/sup&gt; watts&amp;mdash;i.e. the upper-left corner. This diagram has been extended to lower magnitudes on both axes. The joke comes from the absurdity of showing tiny (at least compared to stars) and often mundane objects on a diagram meant for stars.<br /> Though not included in the diagram, the title text notes that the screen displaying the diagram would probably be plotted somewhere in the lower right corner.<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> !Item<br /> !Effective Temperature<br /> !Luminosity<br /> !Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |Betelgeuse<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Vega<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2006:_Customer_Rewards&diff=158945 2006: Customer Rewards 2018-06-18T18:46:23Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2006<br /> | date = June 13, 2018<br /> | title = Customer Rewards<br /> | image = customer_rewards.png<br /> | titletext = We'll pay you $1.47 to post on social media about our products, $2.05 to mention it in any group chats you're in, and 11 cents per passenger each time you drive your office carpool past one of our billboards.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Going to need to fill out the explanations in the table...Also, the explanation needs to be expanded.}}<br /> <br /> Many supermarkets offer customers {{w|Loyalty program|Loyalty programs}} that give discounts. To join one of these programs you often need to give various personal data, such as your name, or download an app that can access your {{w|Facebook}} account. The supermarket gets lots of valuable marketing data, and this is why it is able to offer a discount to members of the program.<br /> <br /> This comic imagines the exchange of data for a discount as the sales clerk offering cash at the point of sale, to emphasize how odd this exchange is. Not to mention, when flat-out asking to see someone's phone to write down their contact info and look at all their Facebook posts it sounds disturbingly like uncouth data harvesting, not too far removed from potential identity theft.<br /> <br /> The title text continues this by considering how companies will also find ways to incentivize positive viral marketing or offer services in exchange for viewing adverts. By imagining these situations as if they were cash transactions makes them seem ridiculous.<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> !style=&quot;width:15%&quot;|Amount<br /> !style=&quot;width:20%&quot;|Reward offers<br /> !style=&quot;width:65%&quot;|Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |24¢<br /> |Last name<br /> |Possibly used to gather additional data from Facebook or to guess the customer's ethnicity<br /> |-<br /> |35¢<br /> |List of family members<br /> |So that the merchant can send them targeted advertisements<br /> |-<br /> |79¢<br /> |Cell number<br /> |So that the merchant can send you targeted advertisements<br /> |-<br /> |$1.20<br /> |Facebook posts<br /> |So that the merchant can see what you're interested in a tailor advertisements to suit<br /> |-<br /> |$1.47<br /> |Post products on social media<br /> |Paying the customer to create advertisements for them<br /> |-<br /> |$2.05<br /> |Mention products in group chats<br /> |Movie and television studios get kickbacks from companies when products are mentioned or used in media<br /> |-<br /> |11¢<br /> |Per passenger when driving past billboard in office carpool<br /> |<br /> <br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[To the right Cueball stands in front of a sales desk, his shopping bag on the desk. Behind the desk on the left is a sales clerk wearing a peaked cap and typing on a cash register.]<br /> :Sales clerk: That will be $23.03. <br /> :Sales clerk: Also, I'll pay you 24 cents for your last name, 35 cents for a list of your family members, 79 cents for your cell number, and $1.20 if you hand me your phone and let me scroll through your Facebook posts. <br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :Loyalty cards and rewards account offers get way weirder if you think of them as separate transactions.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Characters with Hats]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2008:_Irony_Definition&diff=158942 2008: Irony Definition 2018-06-18T18:33:49Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2008<br /> | date = June 18, 2018<br /> | title = Irony Definition<br /> | image = irony_definition.png<br /> | titletext = Can you stop glaring at me like that? It makes me feel really ironic.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|It's IRONIC how incomplete this explanation is - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> [http://irony.urbanup.com/950347 progamer124] said that irony is &quot;One of the most misused words in the entire English language&quot;. Often this misuse arises from a crude attempt at a humourous malapropism or meta-humour, such as pre-empting someone deploying a &quot;citation needed&quot; tag on a wikipage by using a ridiculous citation.&lt;!--{{Citation needed}}!--&gt;<br /> <br /> The most common types of irony are sarcasm (where the meaning of a word or phrase is the exact opposite of it's literal definition) and paradox (a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects). [[Black Hat]] is using the latter in his response to [[Cueball]].<br /> <br /> A frequent source of ridicule of citizens of the USA, is the continued misuse of the word irony. The classic example of this is the song Ironic by {{w|Alanis Morissette}} which consists of a list of unfortunate and annoying events, all incorrectly assigned the status of &quot;Ironic&quot;. The criticism of this song as being typical of that country's citizens' inability to understand irony is itself ironic as Alanis Morissette is Canadian.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Black Hat and Cueball are walking together. Cueball is visibly upset.]<br /> :Black Hat: It's ironic how '''''you''''' know the definition of irony, yet '''''I'm''''' the one in this conversation who's happy.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2008:_Irony_Definition&diff=158941 2008: Irony Definition 2018-06-18T18:32:24Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2008<br /> | date = June 18, 2018<br /> | title = Irony Definition<br /> | image = irony_definition.png<br /> | titletext = Can you stop glaring at me like that? It makes me feel really ironic.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|It's IRONIC how incomplete this explanation is - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> [http://irony.urbanup.com/950347 progamer124] said that irony is &quot;One of the most misused words in the entire English language&quot;. Often this misuse arises from a crude attempt at a humourous malapropism or meta-humour, such as pre-empting someone deploying a &quot;citation needed&quot; tag on a wikipage by using a ridiculous citation.&lt;!--{{Citation needed}}!--&gt;<br /> <br /> The most common types of irony are sarcasm (where the meaning of a word or phrase is the exact opposite of it's literal definition) and paradox (a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects). [[Black Hat]] is using the latter in his response to [[Cueball]].<br /> <br /> A frequent source of ridicule of citizens of the USA, is the continued misuse of the word irony. The classic example of this is the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette which consists of a list of unfortunate and annoying events, all incorrectly assigned the status of &quot;Ironic&quot;. The criticism of this song as being typical of that country's citizens' inability to understand irony is itself ironic as Alanis Morissette is Canadian.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Black Hat and Cueball are walking together. Cueball is visibly upset.]<br /> :Black Hat: It's ironic how '''''you''''' know the definition of irony, yet '''''I'm''''' the one in this conversation who's happy.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2008:_Irony_Definition&diff=158940 2008: Irony Definition 2018-06-18T18:31:42Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2008<br /> | date = June 18, 2018<br /> | title = Irony Definition<br /> | image = irony_definition.png<br /> | titletext = Can you stop glaring at me like that? It makes me feel really ironic.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|It's IRONIC how incomplete this explanation is - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> [http://irony.urbanup.com/950347 progamer124] said that irony is &quot;One of the most misused words in the entire English language&quot;. Often this misuse arises from a crude attempt at a humourous malapropism or meta-humour, such as pre-empting someone deploying a &quot;citation needed&quot; tag on a wikipage by using a ridiculous citation.&lt;!--{{Citation needed}}!--&gt;<br /> <br /> The most common types of irony are sarcasm (where the meaning of a word or phrase is the exact opposite of it's literal definition) and paradox (a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects). [[Blackhat]] is using the latter in his response to [[Cueball]].<br /> <br /> A frequent source of ridicule of citizens of the USA, is the continued misuse of the word irony. The classic example of this is the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette which consists of a list of unfortunate and annoying events, all incorrectly assigned the status of &quot;Ironic&quot;. The criticism of this song as being typical of that country's citizens' inability to understand irony is itself ironic as Alanis Morissette is Canadian.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Black Hat and Cueball are walking together. Cueball is visibly upset.]<br /> :Black Hat: It's ironic how '''''you''''' know the definition of irony, yet '''''I'm''''' the one in this conversation who's happy.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2007:_Brookhaven_RHIC&diff=158915 2007: Brookhaven RHIC 2018-06-18T14:50:05Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2007<br /> | date = June 15, 2018<br /> | title = Brookhaven RHIC<br /> | image = brookhaven_rhic.png<br /> | titletext = &quot;Buddy, you trying to pull something? I can't buy this gold--all the electrons are missing. I could face serious charges!&quot;<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a HEAVILY CHARGED BOT ION. Someone could probably calculate the revenue of this proposed project... And I think we need to mention a few other comics involving absurd research proposals. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> The {{w|Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider}} is a particle accelerator designed to collide gold ions together at incredibly high speeds. This is normally done to study particle physics - the high-energy collisions allow us to learn more about how subatomic particles behave.<br /> <br /> [[Randall]] proposes that, instead of using the beam of gold ions for particle collisions, it should be diverted and sold at cash-for-gold stores to make money. He proposed damaging part of the circular particle accelerator to add a diverter, so he can direct the gold ion beam to the three stores. It is unclear, however, how he would manage to transport the gold to the stores, as once it leaves the circular particle accelerator, parts of the beam are not in an enclosed space, and would likely collide with something. It would also cause problems once it reached the stores.<br /> <br /> The joke is that because they are traveling at relativistic speeds, the mass of the particles being sold will be much more than the mass of the ions being supplied to the collider's input. However, it would be very difficult to sell a beam of charged particles{{Citation needed}}, and the amount of gold involved is below microscopic scales. That, and the fact that he is trying to misuse the particle accelerator for his own profit, is the reason why Brookhaven rejected Randall's proposal. Also, the energy used by the particle accelerator would cost more than the revenue from selling the gold.<br /> <br /> Randall has done many comics describing impractical research proposals in the past.<br /> <br /> The title text imagines the owner of the stores complaining about the sale, not because of impracticality, but because Randall tries to sell gold ions with the entire positively-charged nucleus of the gold atom with all 79 electrons stripped from it instead of normal, electrically neutral gold atoms. This is also a pun on the word &quot;charges&quot;, which could refer to {{w|electric charge}} or to {{w|criminal charge|criminal charges}}.<br /> <br /> This is an actual map of the area around {{w|Brookhaven National Laboratory}}, with east at the top. The cash for gold stores depicted in the comic are, from left to right:<br /> <br /> * New York Gold Center, 451 Glen Dr Ste D, Shirley NY 11967-1100<br /> * Cash for Gold, 969 Montauk Hwy, Shirley NY 11967-2111<br /> * Gold Traders Inc, 450 William Floyd Pkwy, Shirley, NY 11967-3480<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A single panel contains a simplified overhead map view of the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and some of the surrounding area. The map is rotated 90°; north is to the left. The collider is located on the left hand side of the image as a yellow beam (representing the Gold ions) outlined in black. Parts of the collider are are labeled and there are light gray arrows indicating the direction of travel for the ions. At the bottom of the main accelerator ring there is a diverter that splits the ion beam and directs it towards a set of three Cash for Gold stores, passing through a more diverters along the way. Each Cash for Gold store is represented with a yellow burst and is marked with a Google maps style &quot;store&quot; locator pin. The following labels are written on the map.]<br /> <br /> :Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider<br /> :Gold Ion Source<br /> :Accelerator Ring<br /> :Diverter<br /> :Gold Ion Beam<br /> <br /> :[There are arrows coming from this label pointing at each store]<br /> :Cash for Gold Stores<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :Sadly, Brookhaven rejected my proposed experiment<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Physics]]<br /> [[Category:Science]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2003:_Presidential_Succession&diff=158402 2003: Presidential Succession 2018-06-06T13:01:35Z <p>Smperron: /* Order of succession */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2003<br /> | date = June 6, 2018<br /> | title = Presidential Succession<br /> | image = presidential_succession.png<br /> | titletext = Ties are broken by whoever was closest to the surface of Europa when they were born.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a DESIGNATED SURVIVOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The {{w|United States presidential line of succession}} is the order of people who serve as president if the current incumbent President is incapacitated, dies, resigns, or is removed from office. <br /> <br /> The {{w|Presidential_Succession_Act#Presidential_Succession_Act_of_1947|Presidential Succession Act of 1947}} was an act by the U.S. Congress that revised the presidential order of succession to its current order. This act, though never challenged in the courts, may not be constitutional for two reasons. First, it is unclear whether members of Congress can be designated in the line of succession. Secondly, the act allows for a cabinet officer to be &quot;replaced&quot; as acting President by a new Speaker of the House or a new President Pro Tempore of the Senate.<br /> <br /> The full text of the Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission can be found here: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_continuity_of_government.pdf<br /> <br /> The first 6 members of Randall's list are included in the current line of succession. After the top 6, his list ranges from politicians, to actors who have played Presidents, to athletes. <br /> <br /> Randall's list omits the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, as well as many other cabinet positions. Perhaps he does not find those people qualified to become President of the United States, or is concerned about the constitutionality of lawmakers becoming President.<br /> <br /> This is another comic in the continuing line of comics about American politics, especially after the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016.<br /> <br /> ==Order of succession==<br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;<br /> !#<br /> !Randall's order<br /> !Current order by the 1947 Act<br /> !Notes<br /> |-<br /> |1<br /> |President<br /> |President<br /> |Not generally considered part of the line of succession, as incumbents cannot &quot;succeed&quot; to their own post.<br /> |-<br /> |2<br /> | Vice president<br /> | Vice president<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |3<br /> |Secretary of State<br /> |Speaker of the House of Representatives<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |4<br /> |Secretary of Defense<br /> |President pro tempore of the Senate<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |5<br /> |Secretary of Homeland Security<br /> |Secretary of State<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |6<br /> |Attorney General<br /> |Secretary of the Treasury <br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |7<br /> |Five people who do not live in Washington DC, nominated at the start of the President's term and confirmed by the Senate<br /> |Secretary of Defense<br /> |{{w|Washington, D.C.}} is the capital of the United States, and is where the {{w|White House}}, the President's residence, is located. Presumably this provision covers the case where much of the government, including positions 1–6 here, are killed by a natural disaster or attack in Washington, D.C.<br /> <br /> It is unclear if these 5 people have to have any qualifications whatsoever. It is also unclear if an order is determined among these 5 or if they take up joint presidency.<br /> |-<br /> |8<br /> |{{w|Tom Hanks}}<br /> |Attorney General<br /> |Academy Award-winning American actor<br /> |-<br /> |9<br /> |State Governors, in descending order of state population at last census<br /> |Secretary of the Interior<br /> |At the time of publishing, the last {{w|United States Census}} was the 2010 Census. {{w|2010_United_States_Census#State_rankings|Link}} to state populations.<br /> |-<br /> |10<br /> |Anyone who won an Oscar for playing a governor<br /> |Secretary of Agriculture<br /> |Oscars, or {{w|Academy Awards}}, are annual film awards awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.<br /> |-<br /> |11<br /> |Anyone who won a Governor's award for playing someone named Oscar<br /> |Secretary of Commerce <br /> |The {{w|Governors Awards}} are an annual award ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present lifetime achievement awards within the film industry. As this award is a lifetime achievement award, it does not seem possible that an actor could win this award for simply playing someone named Oscar.<br /> |-<br /> |12<br /> |{{w|Kate McKinnon}}, if available<br /> |Secretary of Labor<br /> |Comedic actress famous for being a cast member on {{w|Saturday Night Live}}. She is known for her character work and celebrity impressions. She has recently done impersonations of members of the Trump administration including Spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.<br /> |-<br /> |13<br /> |Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles artists #1 through #10 (for groups, whoever is credited first in name, liner notes, etc)<br /> |Secretary of Health and Human Services <br /> |The {{w|Billboard Hot 100}} is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. <br /> |-<br /> |14<br /> |The top 5 US astronauts in descending order of total spaceflight time<br /> |Secretary of Housing and Urban Development <br /> |The top 5 US astronauts with the most space time are: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kelly_(astronaut) Scott Kelly] (879 total days), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Whitson Peggy Whitson] (665), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_L%C3%B3pez-Alegr%C3%ADa Michael López-Alegría] (215)<br /> |-<br /> |15<br /> |{{w|Serena Williams}} (or, if she lost her most recent match, whoever beat her)<br /> |Secretary of Transportation<br /> |As of the time of publishing, Serena Williams was the top female tennis player (though not the world #1 ranking, because she took time off for pregnancy). She is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all-time, winning 39 {{w|Grand Slam (tennis)|Grand Slam}} titles, including 23 women's singles titles. At the time of publication Serena Williams did win her most recent match (third round French Open 2018 on June 2nd), although she withdrew from her next match against Maria Sharapova.<br /> <br /> If her most recent defeat was to a non-US player, it is unclear whether that person would still qualify for President.<br /> |-<br /> |16<br /> |The most recent season NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL MVPs<br /> |Secretary of Energy<br /> |MVP stands for {{w|Most Valuable Player}}. The 4 listed leagues are the major sports leagues in the United States, the {{w|National Basketball Association}} (NBA), the {{w|National Football League}} (NFL), {{w|Major League Baseball}} (MLB), and the {{w|National Hockey League}} (NHL).<br /> <br /> As of the time of publishing, the most recent MVPs for the listed sports are {{w|Russell Westbrook}} (NBA), {{w|Tom Brady}} (NFL), {{w|José Altuve}} and {{w|Giancarlo Stanton}} (MLB has two, one for the American League and one for the National League), and {{w|Connor McDavid}} (NHL).<br /> |-<br /> |17<br /> |{{w|Bill Pullman}} and his descendants by absolute primogeniture<br /> |Secretary of Education <br /> |American actor, known for playing President Thomas J. Whitmore in the 1996 film ''{{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|Independence Day}}''. <br /> <br /> Absolute primogeniture is a form of succession where the oldest direct descendant receives the title. This is contrasted to {{w|Male-preference primogeniture}}, in which males come before females in the order of the throne, whether the males were born first or not. This may be a reference to the British law {{w|Succession to the Crown Act 2013}}, which changed the order of the throne from male-preference primogeniture to absolute primogeniture. This act allows {{w|Princess Charlotte of Cambridge|Princess Charlotte}} to retain her place in line before {{w|Prince Louis of Cambridge|Prince Louis}}.<br /> |-<br /> |18<br /> |The entire line of succession to the British throne<br /> |Secretary of Veterans Affairs <br /> |Unsure if this is constitutional, or what the Founding Fathers would have wanted (a Brit sitting as U.S. President!). The first 57 names on the list are {{w|Succession_to_the_British_throne#Current_line_of_succession|here}}, as of the time of publishing. [https://lineofsuccession.co.uk/?date=2018-06-06 British Line of Succession on 6 June 2018] shows the list as it was at the comic's publication. In theory this entry includes several thousand people.<br /> |-<br /> |19<br /> |The current champion of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest<br /> |Secretary of Homeland Security<br /> |The {{w|Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest}} is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition sponsored by {{w|Nathan's Famous}} held on July 4th. As of the time of publishing, the most recent men's winner is {{w|Joey Chestnut}} and the women's winner is {{w|Miki Sudo}}.<br /> |-<br /> |20<br /> |All other US citizens, chosen by a 29-round single-elimination Jousting tournament<br /> |''None''<br /> |Effective for a population up to 536,870,912 individuals (2^29), although additional rounds can be added should the population grow further.<br /> |}<br /> <br /> The title text mentions whoever was closest to the surface of {{w|Europa}} when they were born. Europa is a moon of Jupiter, so most people would be very far from its surface when they were born. However, the depending on the relative positions of Earth and Jupiter when you were born, you could easily have been tens of millions of miles closer. Alternatively, Randall could be playing on how Europa sounds like Europe.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> : A proposal for a new presidential line of succession<br /> : Current politics aside, most experts agree the existing process is flawed. The presidential succession act of 1947 is probably unconstitutional on several counts, and there are many practical issues with the system as well.<br /> : (for more, see the surprisingly gripping [https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-continuity-of-the-presidency-the-second-report-of-the-continuity-of-government-commission/ ''Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission'', June 2009]).<br /> : Proposed line of succession:<br /> :# President<br /> :# Vice president<br /> :# Secretary of State<br /> :# Secretary of Defense<br /> :# Secretary of Homeland Security<br /> :# Attorney General<br /> :# Five people who do not live in Washington DC, Nominated at the start of the president's term and confirmed by the Senate<br /> :# Tom Hanks<br /> :# State Governors, in descending order of state population at last census<br /> :# Anyone who won an Oscar for playing a governor<br /> :# Anyone who won a Governor's award for playing someone named Oscar<br /> :# Kate McKinnon, if available<br /> :# Billboard year-end hot 100 singles artists #1 through #10 (for groups, whoever is credited first in name, liner notes, etc)<br /> :# The top 5 US astronauts in descending order of total spaceflight time<br /> :# Serena Williams (or, if she lost her most recent match, whoever beat her)<br /> :# The most recent season NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL MVPs<br /> :# Bull Pullman and his descendants by absolute primogeniture<br /> :# The entire line of succession to the British throne<br /> :# The current champion of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest<br /> :# All other US citizens, chosen by a 29-round single-elimination Jousting tournament.<br /> <br /> : Title text: Ties are broken by whoever was closest to the surface of Europa when they were born.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2003:_Presidential_Succession&diff=158400 2003: Presidential Succession 2018-06-06T12:58:18Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2003<br /> | date = June 6, 2018<br /> | title = Presidential Succession<br /> | image = presidential_succession.png<br /> | titletext = Ties are broken by whoever was closest to the surface of Europa when they were born.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a DESIGNATED SURVIVOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The {{w|United States presidential line of succession}} is the order of people who serve as president if the current incumbent President is incapacitated, dies, resigns, or is removed from office. <br /> <br /> The {{w|Presidential_Succession_Act#Presidential_Succession_Act_of_1947|Presidential Succession Act of 1947}} was an act by the U.S. Congress that revised the presidential order of succession to its current order. This act, though never challenged in the courts, may not be constitutional for two reasons. First, it is unclear whether members of Congress can be designated in the line of succession. Secondly, the act allows for a cabinet officer to be &quot;replaced&quot; as acting President by a new Speaker of the House or a new President Pro Tempore of the Senate.<br /> <br /> The full text of the Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission can be found here: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_continuity_of_government.pdf<br /> <br /> The first 6 members of Randall's list are included in the current line of succession. After the top 6, his list ranges from politicians, to actors who have played Presidents, to athletes. <br /> <br /> Randall's list omits the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, as well as many other cabinet positions. Perhaps he does not find those people qualified to become President of the United States, or is concerned about the constitutionality of lawmakers becoming President.<br /> <br /> This is another comic in the continuing line of comics about American politics, especially after the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016.<br /> <br /> ==Order of succession==<br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;<br /> !#<br /> !Randall's order<br /> !Current order by the 1947 Act<br /> !Notes<br /> |-<br /> |1<br /> |President<br /> |President<br /> |Not generally considered part of the line of succession, as incumbents cannot &quot;succeed&quot; to their own post.<br /> |-<br /> |2<br /> | Vice president<br /> | Vice president<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |3<br /> |Secretary of State<br /> |Speaker of the House of Representatives<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |4<br /> |Secretary of Defense<br /> |President pro tempore of the Senate<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |5<br /> |Secretary of Homeland Security<br /> |Secretary of State<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |6<br /> |Attorney General<br /> |Secretary of the Treasury <br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |7<br /> |Five people who do not live in Washington DC, nominated at the start of the President's term and confirmed by the Senate<br /> |Secretary of Defense<br /> |{{w|Washington, D.C.}} is the capital of the United States, and is where the {{w|White House}}, the President's residence, is located. Presumably this provision covers the case where much of the government, including positions 1–6 here, are killed by a natural disaster or attack in Washington, D.C.<br /> <br /> It is unclear if these 5 people have to have any qualifications whatsoever. It is also unclear if an order is determined among these 5 or if they take up joint presidency.<br /> |-<br /> |8<br /> |{{w|Tom Hanks}}<br /> |Attorney General<br /> |Academy Award-winning American actor<br /> |-<br /> |9<br /> |State Governors, in descending order of state population at last census<br /> |Secretary of the Interior<br /> |At the time of publishing, the last {{w|United States Census}} was the 2010 Census. {{w|2010_United_States_Census#State_rankings|Link}} to state populations.<br /> |-<br /> |10<br /> |Anyone who won an Oscar for playing a governor<br /> |Secretary of Agriculture<br /> |Oscars, or {{w|Academy Awards}}, are annual film awards awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.<br /> |-<br /> |11<br /> |Anyone who won a Governor's award for playing someone named Oscar<br /> |Secretary of Commerce <br /> |The {{w|Governors Awards}} are an annual award ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present lifetime achievement awards within the film industry. As this award is a lifetime achievement award, it does not seem possible that an actor could win this award for simply playing someone named Oscar.<br /> |-<br /> |12<br /> |{{w|Kate McKinnon}}, if available<br /> |Secretary of Labor<br /> |Comedic actress famous for being a cast member on {{w|Saturday Night Live}}. She is known for her character work and celebrity impressions.<br /> |-<br /> |13<br /> |Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles artists #1 through #10 (for groups, whoever is credited first in name, liner notes, etc)<br /> |Secretary of Health and Human Services <br /> |The {{w|Billboard Hot 100}} is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. <br /> |-<br /> |14<br /> |The top 5 US astronauts in descending order of total spaceflight time<br /> |Secretary of Housing and Urban Development <br /> |The top 5 US astronauts with the most space time are: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kelly_(astronaut) Scott Kelly] (879 total days), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Whitson Peggy Whitson] (665), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_L%C3%B3pez-Alegr%C3%ADa Michael López-Alegría] (215)<br /> |-<br /> |15<br /> |{{w|Serena Williams}} (or, if she lost her most recent match, whoever beat her)<br /> |Secretary of Transportation<br /> |As of the time of publishing, Serena Williams was the top female tennis player (though not the world #1 ranking, because she took time off for pregnancy). She is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all-time, winning 39 {{w|Grand Slam (tennis)|Grand Slam}} titles, including 23 women's singles titles. At the time of publication Serena Williams did win her most recent match (third round French Open 2018 on June 2nd), although she withdrew from her next match against Maria Sharapova.<br /> <br /> If her most recent defeat was to a non-US player, it is unclear whether that person would still qualify for President.<br /> |-<br /> |16<br /> |The most recent season NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL MVPs<br /> |Secretary of Energy<br /> |MVP stands for {{w|Most Valuable Player}}. The 4 listed leagues are the major sports leagues in the United States, the {{w|National Basketball Association}} (NBA), the {{w|National Football League}} (NFL), {{w|Major League Baseball}} (MLB), and the {{w|National Hockey League}} (NHL).<br /> <br /> As of the time of publishing, the most recent MVPs for the listed sports are {{w|Russell Westbrook}} (NBA), {{w|Tom Brady}} (NFL), {{w|José Altuve}} and {{w|Giancarlo Stanton}} (MLB has two, one for the American League and one for the National League), and {{w|Connor McDavid}} (NHL).<br /> |-<br /> |17<br /> |{{w|Bill Pullman}} and his descendants by absolute primogeniture<br /> |Secretary of Education <br /> |American actor, known for playing President Thomas J. Whitmore in the 1996 film ''{{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|Independence Day}}''. <br /> <br /> Absolute primogeniture is a form of succession where the oldest direct descendant receives the title. This is contrasted to {{w|Male-preference primogeniture}}, in which males come before females in the order of the throne, whether the males were born first or not. This may be a reference to the British law {{w|Succession to the Crown Act 2013}}, which changed the order of the throne from male-preference primogeniture to absolute primogeniture. This act allows {{w|Princess Charlotte of Cambridge|Princess Charlotte}} to retain her place in line before {{w|Prince Louis of Cambridge|Prince Louis}}.<br /> |-<br /> |18<br /> |The entire line of succession to the British throne<br /> |Secretary of Veterans Affairs <br /> |Unsure if this is constitutional, or what the Founding Fathers would have wanted (a Brit sitting as U.S. President!). The first 57 names on the list are {{w|Succession_to_the_British_throne#Current_line_of_succession|here}}, as of the time of publishing. [https://lineofsuccession.co.uk/?date=2018-06-06 British Line of Succession on 6 June 2018] shows the list as it was at the comic's publication. In theory this entry includes several thousand people.<br /> |-<br /> |19<br /> |The current champion of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest<br /> |Secretary of Homeland Security<br /> |The {{w|Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest}} is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition sponsored by {{w|Nathan's Famous}} held on July 4th. As of the time of publishing, the most recent men's winner is {{w|Joey Chestnut}} and the women's winner is {{w|Miki Sudo}}.<br /> |-<br /> |20<br /> |All other US citizens, chosen by a 29-round single-elimination Jousting tournament<br /> |''None''<br /> |Effective for a population up to 536,870,912 individuals (2^29), although additional rounds can be added should the population grow further.<br /> |}<br /> <br /> The title text mentions whoever was closest to the surface of {{w|Europa}} when they were born. Europa is a moon of Jupiter, so most people would be very far from its surface when they were born. However, the depending on the relative positions of Earth and Jupiter when you were born, you could easily have been tens of millions of miles closer. Alternatively, Randall could be playing on how Europa sounds like Europe.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> : A proposal for a new presidential line of succession<br /> : Current politics aside, most experts agree the existing process is flawed. The presidential succession act of 1947 is probably unconstitutional on several counts, and there are many practical issues with the system as well.<br /> : (for more, see the surprisingly gripping [https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-continuity-of-the-presidency-the-second-report-of-the-continuity-of-government-commission/ ''Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission'', June 2009]).<br /> : Proposed line of succession:<br /> :# President<br /> :# Vice president<br /> :# Secretary of State<br /> :# Secretary of Defense<br /> :# Secretary of Homeland Security<br /> :# Attorney General<br /> :# Five people who do not live in Washington DC, Nominated at the start of the president's term and confirmed by the Senate<br /> :# Tom Hanks<br /> :# State Governors, in descending order of state population at last census<br /> :# Anyone who won an Oscar for playing a governor<br /> :# Anyone who won a Governor's award for playing someone named Oscar<br /> :# Kate McKinnon, if available<br /> :# Billboard year-end hot 100 singles artists #1 through #10 (for groups, whoever is credited first in name, liner notes, etc)<br /> :# The top 5 US astronauts in descending order of total spaceflight time<br /> :# Serena Williams (or, if she lost her most recent match, whoever beat her)<br /> :# The most recent season NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL MVPs<br /> :# Bull Pullman and his descendants by absolute primogeniture<br /> :# The entire line of succession to the British throne<br /> :# The current champion of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest<br /> :# All other US citizens, chosen by a 29-round single-elimination Jousting tournament.<br /> <br /> : Title text: Ties are broken by whoever was closest to the surface of Europa when they were born.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=158063 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-31T14:23:47Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000_update.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This is the seventh entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]] after [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]]. This time a nonconsecutive version number is used to match the milestone comic number.<br /> <br /> List of features (clockwise from top-center):<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four rear-facing cameras. However, YouTube personality nigahiga created a parody of the iPhone (iFhone 8) that has four cameras structured similarly, e.g. taking a picture of a letter K gives 4K. An alternative interpretation is that the cameras take four ''identical'' pictures simultaneously, which would use up storage space at 4 times the rate of a standard camera while providing no advantage.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:''' A {{w|Camera_obscura|camera obscura}} is a dark room or box with a small hole allowing light to enter. The size of the hole causes light travelling in straight lines to project a dim inverted image on the back of the room or box; the concept is the predecessor to a modern camera, which uses a lens to allow more light to enter. A camera obscura is not strictly speaking a camera as in an image capture device (although there are pin-hole cameras which use the same mechanism). Actual phones have front-facing conventional cameras, allowing selfies, video calling, etc.<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. However, since a {{w|death mask}} is created to look just like the deceased's face, all cameras provide this &quot;feature&quot; automatically.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:''' Presumably this means that parts of the screen (pixels) can be bought in a sponsoring deal. If enough pixels are sold, your screen would be rendered unusable. It is common for advertisers to buy part of the screen real-estate on a service web site (in fact, {{w|The Million Dollar Homepage}} hosted nothing but a 1000x1000 pixel grid of advertisements), and &quot;images&quot; the size of individual pixels can be used to track site access without being intrusive to the user. For the xkcd Phone 2000, it appears that advertisers have access to part of the screen (worryingly, right in the middle). Slightly less intrusive approaches have been used in bookstores selling customised versions of the Kindle, for example, and it is common for cell phone networks to insist on network-specific software to be installed on a phone. <br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The {{w|Antikythera_mechanism|Antikythera Mechanism}} is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:''' Modern phones can use machine learning techniques (usually in the cloud) to identify and tag camera content - this makes it possible to search, for example, for photos containing a particular person or subject without requiring user input. Cellphone photos are often used in contributions to social media with some form of user-provided caption. This phone appears to combine the two, using {{w|Maggie Haberman}} to provide automatic captions for photos taken by the phone's owner (although whether this is explicitly for social media use or internal to the phone is unclear).<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A water key, or &quot;spit valve,&quot; is a feature on most brass and some wind instruments used to empty the instrument of condensation caused by the musician's breath (and not, as is commonly thought, saliva). Of course, one wouldn't think condensation would form on the inside of a smartphone.<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a {{w|Grind#Typical_grinds|hollow grind}} is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors. This seems to imply that the phone is exceedingly smooth, which would make it difficult to hold{{Citation needed}}.<br /> *'''Absorbent:''' Many modern phones are designed to be waterproof, to avoid accidents and allow use in the rain. It's also common to have some form of oleophobic coating on the screen to reduce smearing as fingers are used on the touchscreen. This phone seems to have the reverse feature, and be explicitly designed to absorb things (presumably liquids--perhaps that's why it needs a spit valve).<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' {{w|Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information|dynamic typing}} is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:''' A {{w|Backflow_prevention_device|backflow prevention device}} is a mechanism that avoids the possibility of liquid (usually water) travelling in the opposite direction from the normal intent if the expected pressure is inverted. Since there is not normally any liquid flowing through a phone (unless in this case relating to the spit valve), this would not normally be a useful feature. However, some smart phones do contain pressure measuring devices such as barometers (which can also be used in some cases to detect the phone being squeezed), so maybe this phone is intended to be resilient to such conditions.<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):''' A {{w|Swiss Army knife}} is a folding knife, traditionally with many secondary &quot;blades&quot; for multiple uses such as can openers and files. {{w|Switzerland}} is known for remaining neutral (and not being invaded) in both of the World Wars of the 20th century despite war raging across surrounding countries, suggesting that it is unlikely that the knife would ever been unlocked. While such a feature on a phone (or phone case) may be useful, it is likely to be a safety concern, and a threat to convenience when security checkpoints such as airports start confiscating the phone when they notice it conceals a knife blade. What's more, a phone does not provide the ideal grip for a knife blade - especially if force is to be applied to it. This may also reference the Swiss military practice of soldiers keeping military rifles in their private homes but only being given ammunition in the event the army is mobilized.<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free water bottles have become popular. PCB probably refers to a {{w|Printed Circuit Board}}, which is made of copper and not plastic and contains the electrical components that control most modern electronic devices such as phones. It may also refer to {{w|Polychlorinated biphenyl}} (PCBs), a category of persistent organic pollutants which are not used very much any more; it would be far worse than BPA for anyone concerned with the issue.<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):''' {{w|AMOLED}} is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. {{w|Liquid-crystal_display|LCD}} is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A {{w|Seven-segment_display|7-segment display}} is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification, so it is inappropriate for text messages, let alone graphics.<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough for fuel cells. There have been many attempts to create a highly portable fuel cell that can be used to power phones. Although having to use gasoline instead of a USB cord would likely cause more problems for the average consumer a fuel cell does have some notable advantages over a standard lithium-ion battery. When comparing a fuel cell to a battery of equal size the fuel cell will be capable of powering an object for far longer than the battery. This includes lithium-ion batteries which are commonly used for powering phones and are typically the majority of its mass. This would mean one could shrink the size of the battery substantially yet still be able to provide the same amount of power. The smaller battery can be kept as is in order to reduce the weight of the phone or can free up space for more features to be installed into the phone. This might simply be the first xkcd phone that mentions that it does this. Provides a possible explanation to how the manufacturer of the phone is capable of fitting so many unusual features into the phone to begin with. Another advantage of a fuel cell powered phone is that it is independent from a working power grid (useful for disaster situations where thousands of people would no longer be capable of staying in contact with others or people who are stranded and alone) and there is no need for a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if #128: {{what if|128|Zippo Phone}}.<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permanent)''' Sharpie® is a brand most associated with a line of markers. While a stylus is generally a pen-like object that doesn't create markings, but instead allows finer input on a touch screen, &quot;Dry-Erase + Permanent&quot; implies that these are in fact markers. These would allow the user to write on the screen, but as this wouldn't allow any form on input to the phone, it would only serve as a very expensive pseudo-whiteboard. Even if they were actually styluses, having two would be of little use. Note that permanent was previously spelled &quot;permenant&quot;, incorrectly. This was later corrected; See [[#Trivia]]<br /> *'''Mouse Cursor:''' A feature of Blackberry smartphones which has gone out of favor due to the popularity of touch screens. However, Android phones, at least, still support bluetooth HID access, and on some devices it is possible to pair the phone with a mouse (and keyboard) and access the screen through a mouse pointer. This can be particularly useful if the phone is exporting its display to a large external screen - and {{w|Samsung_DeX|some manufacturers}} have provided tethering systems based around pairing a phone with a mouse. A mouse pointer is relatively useless when a touch screen is in use, since the user's finger usually covers the pointer.<br /> <br /> The tagline for the phone says that the marketing team hopes that 2000 still sounds like a futuristic number. It was common for a time to have futuristic science-fiction take place on or around the year 2000 (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Knight Rider 2000, Death Race 2000, Space: 1999), and many devices marketed in the late 20th century had a &quot;2000&quot; as part of their product name in order to sound futuristic. However, since the year 2000 was 18 years ago at the time of this comic's publication, this is no longer the case. The number 2000 also represents the fact that this is the 2000th xkcd comic.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to {{w|Retina Display}}, a term used to describe Apple products with higher pixel densities. The xkcd Phone marketing team would be unable to use the term due to Apple's having registered it as a trademark. Additionally, the {{w|Fovea centralis|Central fovea region}} is a portion of your eye's retina containing the most densely packed photosensitive neurons (confusing the biological retina with the electronics display of the same name). {{w|Foveated rendering}} is a genuine computer graphics technique intended to increase performance by rendering with higher quality to the regions of the display where the user is looking, and lower quality at the edges of vision; it is expected to be useful for virtual reality (one of the uses for cell phones) as a way to deal with the required high pixel densities while managing power consumption. There are displays with variable density, in specialist uses, but such a feature is not practical in a phone because the whole area of the display is typically useful and needs to provide high resolution (as the user's eye moves across it).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :[The comic depicts a smartphone showing many uncommon features. The front view shows a mouse cursor and a circle in the middle. The side view reveals the circle as something like an old photo lens from 1900 extending far above the surface and four large buttons (camera lenses) at the rear. The third view is from the top and just mentions a &quot;hollow ground.&quot; The bottom view looks like as it was opened by a can opener and shows a big USB connector and on the right a small black connection.]<br /> :Dockless<br /> :Silent<br /> :Quad camera takes four copies of every picture<br /> :Front-facing camera obscura<br /> :3D facial contour analysis shows you a realistic preview of your death mask<br /> :Sponsored pixels<br /> :Front and rear pop-out grips<br /> :Humidity-controlled crisper<br /> :Antikythera mechanism<br /> :New York Times partnership: all photos taken with camera app are captioned in real time by reporter Maggie Haberman<br /> :Spit valve<br /> :Standard USB connector<br /> :Coin purse-style squeeze access<br /> :Hollow-ground<br /> :Absorbent<br /> :Keyboard supports dynamic typing<br /> :Backflow preventer<br /> :Swiss Army partnership: folding knife (unlocks only if Switzerland is invaded)<br /> :100% BPA-free PCB construction<br /> :AMOLCD display (7-segment)<br /> :Runs on battery for the first 6 hours, then uses gasoline<br /> :Sharpie® dual stylus (dry-erase + permanent)<br /> :Mouse cursor<br /> <br /> :Introducing<br /> :'''&lt;big&gt;The xkcd Phone 2000&lt;/big&gt;'''<br /> :We're still hoping this sounds like a futuristic number®®™®©™&lt;sup&gt;®&lt;/sup&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> # The stylus was previously called 'permenant'. This was later corrected, to permanent. You can still see the original image [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:xkcd_phone_2000.png here]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:xkcd Phones]]<br /> [[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=158062 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-31T13:52:15Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000_update.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This is the seventh entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]] after [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]]. This time a nonconsecutive version number is used to match the milestone comic number.<br /> <br /> List of features (clockwise from top-center):<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four rear-facing cameras. However, YouTube personality nigahiga created a parody of the iPhone (iFhone 8) that has four cameras structured similarly, e.g. taking a picture of a letter K gives 4K. An alternative interpretation is that the cameras take four ''identical'' pictures simultaneously, which would use up storage space at 4 times the rate of a standard camera while providing no advantage.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:''' A {{w|Camera_obscura|camera obscura}} is a dark room or box with a small hole allowing light to enter. The size of the hole causes light travelling in straight lines to project a dim inverted image on the back of the room or box; the concept is the predecessor to a modern camera, which uses a lens to allow more light to enter. A camera obscura is not strictly speaking a camera as in an image capture device (although there are pin-hole cameras which use the same mechanism). Actual phones have front-facing conventional cameras, allowing selfies, video calling, etc.<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. However, since a {{w|death mask}} is created to look just like the deceased's face, all cameras provide this &quot;feature&quot; automatically.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:''' Presumably this means that parts of the screen (pixels) can be bought in a sponsoring deal. If enough pixels are sold, your screen would be rendered unusable. It is common for advertisers to buy part of the screen real-estate on a service web site (in fact, {{w|The Million Dollar Homepage}} hosted nothing but a 1000x1000 pixel grid of advertisements), and &quot;images&quot; the size of individual pixels can be used to track site access without being intrusive to the user. For the xkcd Phone 2000, it appears that advertisers have access to part of the screen (worryingly, right in the middle). Slightly less intrusive approaches have been used in bookstores selling customised versions of the Kindle, for example, and it is common for cell phone networks to insist on network-specific software to be installed on a phone. <br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The {{w|Antikythera_mechanism|Antikythera Mechanism}} is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:''' Modern phones can use machine learning techniques (usually in the cloud) to identify and tag camera content - this makes it possible to search, for example, for photos containing a particular person or subject without requiring user input. Cellphone photos are often used in contributions to social media with some form of user-provided caption. This phone appears to combine the two, using {{w|Maggie Haberman}} to provide automatic captions for photos taken by the phone's owner (although whether this is explicitly for social media use or internal to the phone is unclear).<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A water key, or &quot;spit valve,&quot; is a feature on most brass and some wind instruments used to empty the instrument of condensation caused by the musician's breath (and not, as is commonly thought, saliva). Of course, one wouldn't think condensation would form on the inside of a smartphone.<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a {{w|Grind#Typical_grinds|hollow grind}} is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors. This seems to imply that the phone is exceedingly smooth, which would make it difficult to hold{{Citation needed}}.<br /> *'''Absorbent:''' Many modern phones are designed to be waterproof, to avoid accidents and allow use in the rain. It's also common to have some form of oleophobic coating on the screen to reduce smearing as fingers are used on the touchscreen. This phone seems to have the reverse feature, and be explicitly designed to absorb things (presumably liquids--perhaps that's why it needs a spit valve).<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' {{w|Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information|dynamic typing}} is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:''' A {{w|Backflow_prevention_device|backflow prevention device}} is a mechanism that avoids the possibility of liquid (usually water) travelling in the opposite direction from the normal intent if the expected pressure is inverted. Since there is not normally any liquid flowing through a phone (unless in this case relating to the spit valve), this would not normally be a useful feature. However, some smart phones do contain pressure measuring devices such as barometers (which can also be used in some cases to detect the phone being squeezed), so maybe this phone is intended to be resilient to such conditions.<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):''' A {{w|Swiss Army knife}} is a folding knife, traditionally with many secondary &quot;blades&quot; for multiple uses such as can openers and files. {{w|Switzerland}} is known for remaining neutral (and not being invaded) in both of the World Wars of the 20th century despite war raging across surrounding countries, suggesting that it is unlikely that the knife would ever been unlocked. While such a feature on a phone (or phone case) may be useful, it is likely to be a safety concern, and a threat to convenience when security checkpoints such as airports start confiscating the phone when they notice it conceals a knife blade. What's more, a phone does not provide the ideal grip for a knife blade - especially if force is to be applied to it. This may also reference the Swiss military practice of soldiers keeping military rifles in their private homes but only being given ammunition in the event the army is mobilized.<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free water bottles have become popular. PCB probably refers to a {{w|Printed Circuit Board}}, which contains the electrical components that control most modern electronic devices such as phones. It may also refer to {{w|Polychlorinated biphenyl}} (PCBs), a category of persistent organic pollutants which are not used very much any more; it would be far worse than BPA for anyone concerned with the issue.<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):''' {{w|AMOLED}} is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. {{w|Liquid-crystal_display|LCD}} is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A {{w|Seven-segment_display|7-segment display}} is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification, so it is inappropriate for text messages, let alone graphics.<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough for fuel cells. There have been many attempts to create a highly portable fuel cell that can be used to power phones. Although having to use gasoline instead of a USB cord would likely cause more problems for the average consumer a fuel cell does have some notable advantages over a standard lithium-ion battery. When comparing a fuel cell to a battery of equal size the fuel cell will be capable of powering an object for far longer than the battery. This includes lithium-ion batteries which are commonly used for powering phones and are typically the majority of its mass. This would mean one could shrink the size of the battery substantially yet still be able to provide the same amount of power. The smaller battery can be kept as is in order to reduce the weight of the phone or can free up space for more features to be installed into the phone. This might simply be the first xkcd phone that mentions that it does this. Provides a possible explanation to how the manufacturer of the phone is capable of fitting so many unusual features into the phone to begin with. Another advantage of a fuel cell powered phone is that it is independent from a working power grid (useful for disaster situations where thousands of people would no longer be capable of staying in contact with others or people who are stranded and alone) and there is no need for a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if #128: {{what if|128|Zippo Phone}}.<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permanent)''' Sharpie® is a brand most associated with a line of markers. While a stylus is generally a pen-like object that doesn't create markings, but instead allows finer input on a touch screen, &quot;Dry-Erase + Permanent&quot; implies that these are in fact markers. These would allow the user to write on the screen, but as this wouldn't allow any form on input to the phone, it would only serve as a very expensive pseudo-whiteboard. Even if they were actually styluses, having two would be of little use. Note that permanent was previously spelled &quot;permenant&quot;, incorrectly. This was later corrected; See [[#Trivia]]<br /> *'''Mouse Cursor:''' A feature of Blackberry smartphones which has gone out of favor due to the popularity of touch screens. However, Android phones, at least, still support bluetooth HID access, and on some devices it is possible to pair the phone with a mouse (and keyboard) and access the screen through a mouse pointer. This can be particularly useful if the phone is exporting its display to a large external screen - and {{w|Samsung_DeX|some manufacturers}} have provided tethering systems based around pairing a phone with a mouse. A mouse pointer is relatively useless when a touch screen is in use, since the user's finger usually covers the pointer.<br /> <br /> The tagline for the phone says that the marketing team hopes that 2000 still sounds like a futuristic number. It was common for a time to have futuristic science-fiction take place on or around the year 2000 (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Knight Rider 2000, Death Race 2000, Space: 1999), and many devices marketed in the late 20th century had a &quot;2000&quot; as part of their product name in order to sound futuristic. However, since the year 2000 was 18 years ago at the time of this comic's publication, this is no longer the case. The number 2000 also represents the fact that this is the 2000th xkcd comic.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to {{w|Retina Display}}, a term used to describe Apple products with higher pixel densities. The xkcd Phone marketing team would be unable to use the term due to Apple's having registered it as a trademark. Additionally, the {{w|Fovea centralis|Central fovea region}} is a portion of your eye's retina containing the most densely packed photosensitive neurons (confusing the biological retina with the electronics display of the same name). {{w|Foveated rendering}} is a genuine computer graphics technique intended to increase performance by rendering with higher quality to the regions of the display where the user is looking, and lower quality at the edges of vision; it is expected to be useful for virtual reality (one of the uses for cell phones) as a way to deal with the required high pixel densities while managing power consumption. There are displays with variable density, in specialist uses, but such a feature is not practical in a phone because the whole area of the display is typically useful and needs to provide high resolution (as the user's eye moves across it).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :[The comic depicts a smartphone showing many uncommon features. The front view shows a mouse cursor and a circle in the middle. The side view reveals the circle as something like an old photo lens from 1900 extending far above the surface and four large buttons (camera lenses) at the rear. The third view is from the top and just mentions a &quot;hollow ground.&quot; The bottom view looks like as it was opened by a can opener and shows a big USB connector and on the right a small black connection.]<br /> :Dockless<br /> :Silent<br /> :Quad camera takes four copies of every picture<br /> :Front-facing camera obscura<br /> :3D facial contour analysis shows you a realistic preview of your death mask<br /> :Sponsored pixels<br /> :Front and rear pop-out grips<br /> :Humidity-controlled crisper<br /> :Antikythera mechanism<br /> :New York Times partnership: all photos taken with camera app are captioned in real time by reporter Maggie Haberman<br /> :Spit valve<br /> :Standard USB connector<br /> :Coin purse-style squeeze access<br /> :Hollow-ground<br /> :Absorbent<br /> :Keyboard supports dynamic typing<br /> :Backflow preventer<br /> :Swiss Army partnership: folding knife (unlocks only if Switzerland is invaded)<br /> :100% BPA-free PCB construction<br /> :AMOLCD display (7-segment)<br /> :Runs on battery for the first 6 hours, then uses gasoline<br /> :Sharpie® dual stylus (dry-erase + permanent)<br /> :Mouse cursor<br /> <br /> :Introducing<br /> :'''&lt;big&gt;The xkcd Phone 2000&lt;/big&gt;'''<br /> :We're still hoping this sounds like a futuristic number®®™®©™&lt;sup&gt;®&lt;/sup&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> # The stylus was previously called 'permenant'. This was later corrected, to permanent. You can still see the original image [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:xkcd_phone_2000.png here]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:xkcd Phones]]<br /> [[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=157971 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-30T17:38:25Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Mouse Cursor''' Most recent Android phones have external mouse support and will display a mouse cursor. However, this is typically disabled by default. This mouse cursor seems to always be present, even when the touch screen is in use.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four rear-facing cameras. However, YouTube personality nigahiga created a parody of the iPhone (iFhone 8) that has four cameras structured similarly, e.g. taking a picture of a letter K gives 4K.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:''' A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura camera obscura] is a dark room or box with a small hole allowing light to enter. The size of the hole causes light travelling in straight lines to project a dim inverted image on the back of the room or box; the concept is the predecessor to a modern camera, which uses a lens to allow more light to enter. A camera obscura is not strictly speaking a camera as in an image capture device (although there are pin-hole cameras which use the same mechanism). Actual phones have front-facing conventional cameras, allowing selfies, video calling, etc.<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. A death mask would be a new take on this.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:''' Presumably this means that parts of the screen (pixels) can be bought in a sponsoring deal. If enough pixels are sold, your screen would be rendered unusable.<br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera Mechanism] is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:''' Modern phones can use machine learning techniques (usually in the cloud) to identify and tag camera content - this makes it possible to search, for example, for photos containing a particular person or subject without requiring user input. Cellphone photos are often used in contributions to social media with some form of user-provided caption. This phone appears to combine the two, using Maggie Haberman to provide automatic captions for photos taken by the phone's owner (although whether this is explicitly for social media use or internal to the phone is unclear).<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A spit valve is used for emptying saliva out of wind instruments, particularly large brass instruments. It is to be hoped that less saliva accumulates in a smart phone (best not to think about it{{Citation needed}})<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind#Typical_grinds hollow grind] is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors and certainly not what you'd want on the edge of a phone.<br /> *'''Absorbent:''' Many modern phones are designed to be waterproof, to avoid accidents and allow use in the rain. It's also common to have some form of oleophobic coating on the screen to reduce smearing as fingers are used on the touchscreen. This phone seems to have the reverse feature, and be explicitly designed to absorb things (presumably liquids).<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information dynamic typing] is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:'''<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):''' A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Army_knife Swiss Army knife] is a folding knife, traditionally with many secondary &quot;blades&quot; for multiple uses such as can openers and files. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Swizerland] is known for remaining neutral (and not being invaded) in both of the World Wars of the 20th century despite war raging across surrounding countries, suggesting that it is unlikely that the knife would ever been unlocked. While such a feature on a phone (or phone case) may be useful, it is likely to be a safety concern, and a phone does not provide the ideal grip for a knife blade - especially if force is to be applied to it.<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free waterbottles have become popular. There is no plastic in a printed circuit board (PCB).<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):''' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOLED AMOLED] is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display LCD] is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display 7-segment display] is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification, so it is inappropriate for text messages, let alone graphics.<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough for fuel cells. There have been many attempts to create a highly portable fuel cell that can be used to power phones. Although having to use gasoline instead of a USB cord would likely cause more problems for the average consumer a fuel cell does have some notable advantages over a standard lithium-ion battery. A fuel cell of equal size as any battery would, in some cases, be capable of powering the phone many times longer than if you had used a normal battery. It would also mean that there would also mean users would not have to rely on a working power grid (useful for disaster situations where thousands of people would no longer be capable of staying in contact with others or people who are stranded and alone) or having to use a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if #128: Zippo Phone [https://what-if.xkcd.com/128/].<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permenant)''' &quot;Permenant&quot; is curiously spelled incorrectly, perhaps comically highlighting that the permanent portion of the dual stylus would be unable to correct any typos that a dry-erase marker would allow.<br /> *'''Mouse Cursor:''' A feature of Blackberry smartphones which has gone out of favor due to the popularity of touch screens.<br /> <br /> The tagline for the phone says that the marketing team hopes that 2000 still sounds like a futuristic number. It was common for a time to have futuristic science-fiction take place on or around the year 2000 (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey). However, since the year 2000 was 18 years ago at the time of this comic's publication, this is no longer the case.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to {{w|Retina Display}}, a term used to describe Apple products with higher pixel densities. The XKCD Phone marketing team would be unable to use the term due to Apple's having registered it as a trademark. Additionally, the {{w|Fovea centralis|Central fovea region}} is a portion of your eye's retina (confusing the biological retina with the electronics display of the same name).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=157969 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-30T17:36:25Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Mouse Cursor''' Most recent Android phones have external mouse support and will display a mouse cursor. However, this is typically disabled by default. This mouse cursor seems to always be present, even when the touch screen is in use.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four rear-facing cameras. However, YouTube personality nigahiga created a parody of the iPhone (iFhone 8) that has four cameras structured similarly, e.g. taking a picture of a letter K gives 4K.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:''' A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura camera obscura] is a dark room or box with a small hole allowing light to enter. The size of the hole causes light travelling in straight lines to project a dim inverted image on the back of the room or box; the concept is the predecessor to a modern camera, which uses a lens to allow more light to enter. A camera obscura is not strictly speaking a camera as in an image capture device (although there are pin-hole cameras which use the same mechanism). Actual phones have front-facing conventional cameras, allowing selfies, video calling, etc.<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. A death mask would be a new take on this.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:''' Presumably this means that parts of the screen (pixels) can be bought in a sponsoring deal. If enough pixels are sold, your screen would be rendered unusable.<br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera Mechanism] is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:''' Modern phones can use machine learning techniques (usually in the cloud) to identify and tag camera content - this makes it possible to search, for example, for photos containing a particular person or subject without requiring user input. Cellphone photos are often used in contributions to social media with some form of user-provided caption. This phone appears to combine the two, using Maggie Haberman to provide automatic captions for photos taken by the phone's owner (although whether this is explicitly for social media use or internal to the phone is unclear).<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A spit valve is used for emptying saliva out of wind instruments, particularly large brass instruments. It is to be hoped that less saliva accumulates in a smart phone (best not to think about it{{Citation needed}})<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind#Typical_grinds hollow grind] is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors and certainly not what you'd want on the edge of a phone.<br /> *'''Absorbent:''' Many modern phones are designed to be waterproof, to avoid accidents and allow use in the rain. It's also common to have some form of oleophobic coating on the screen to reduce smearing as fingers are used on the touchscreen. This phone seems to have the reverse feature, and be explicitly designed to absorb things (presumably liquids).<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information dynamic typing] is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:'''<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):''' A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Army_knife Swiss Army knife] is a folding knife, traditionally with many secondary &quot;blades&quot; for multiple uses such as can openers and files. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Swizerland] is known for remaining neutral (and not being invaded) in both of the World Wars of the 20th century despite war raging across surrounding countries, suggesting that it is unlikely that the knife would ever been unlocked. While such a feature on a phone (or phone case) may be useful, it is likely to be a safety concern, and a phone does not provide the ideal grip for a knife blade - especially if force is to be applied to it.<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free waterbottles have become popular. There is no plastic in a printed circuit board (PCB).<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):''' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOLED AMOLED] is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display LCD] is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display 7-segment display] is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification, so it is inappropriate for text messages, let alone graphics.<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough for fuel cells. There have been many attempts to create a highly portable fuel cell that can be used to power phones. Although having to use gasoline instead of a USB cord would likely cause more problems for the average consumer a fuel cell does have some notable advantages over a standard lithium-ion battery. A fuel cell of equal size as any battery would, in some cases, be capable of powering the phone many times longer than if you had used a normal battery. It would also mean that there would also mean users would not have to rely on a working power grid (useful for disaster situations where thousands of people would no longer be capable of staying in contact with others or people who are stranded and alone) or having to use a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if #128: Zippo Phone [https://what-if.xkcd.com/128/].<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permenant)''' &quot;Permenant&quot; is curiously spelled incorrectly, perhaps comically highlighting that the permanent portion of the dual stylus would be unable to correct any typos that a dry-erase marker would allow.<br /> <br /> The tagline for the phone says that the marketing team hopes that 2000 still sounds like a futuristic number. It was common for a time to have futuristic science-fiction take place on or around the year 2000 (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey). However, since the year 2000 was 18 years ago at the time of this comic's publication, this is no longer the case.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to {{w|Retina Display}}, a term used to describe Apple products with higher pixel densities. The XKCD Phone marketing team would be unable to use the term due to Apple's having registered it as a trademark. Additionally, the {{w|Fovea centralis|Central fovea region}} is a portion of your eye's retina (confusing the biological retina with the electronics display of the same name).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=157962 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-30T17:22:14Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Mouse Cursor''' Most recent Android phones have external mouse support and will display a mouse cursor. However, this is typically disabled by default. This mouse cursor seems to always be present, even when the touch screen is in use.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four rear-facing cameras. However, YouTube personality nigahiga created a parody of the iPhone (iFhone 8) that has four cameras structured similarly, e.g. taking a picture of a letter K gives 4K.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:''' A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura camera obscura] is a dark room or box with a small hole allowing light to enter. The size of the hole causes light travelling in straight lines to project a dim inverted image on the back of the room or box; the concept is the predecessor to a modern camera, which uses a lens to allow more light to enter. A camera obscura is not strictly speaking a camera as in an image capture device (although there are pin-hole cameras which use the same mechanism). Actual phones have front-facing conventional cameras, allowing selfies, video calling, etc.<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. A death mask would be a new take on this.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:'''<br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera Mechanism] is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:''' Modern phones can use machine learning techniques (usually in the cloud) to identify and tag camera content - this makes it possible to search, for example, for photos containing a particular person or subject without requiring user input. Cellphone photos are often used in contributions to social media with some form of user-provided caption. This phone appears to combine the two, using Maggie Haberman to provide automatic captions for photos taken by the phone's owner (although whether this is explicitly for social media use or internal to the phone is unclear).<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A spit valve is used for emptying saliva out of wind instruments, particularly large brass instruments. It is to be hoped that less saliva accumulates in a smart phone (best not to think about it{{Citation needed}})<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind#Typical_grinds hollow grind] is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors and certainly not what you'd want on the edge of a phone.<br /> *'''Absorbent:'''<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information dynamic typing] is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:'''<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):'''<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free waterbottles have become popular. There is no plastic in a printed circuit board (PCB).<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):''' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOLED AMOLED] is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display LCD] is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display 7-segment display] is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification, so it is inappropriate for text messages, let alone graphics.<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough in regards to fuel cells. There have been many attempts to use hydrocarbons, like gasoline, for charging cell phones. Although it would likely cause more problems for the average consumer having a fuel cell would reduce weight and prevent reliance on a working power grid or having to use a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if #128: Zippo Phone [https://what-if.xkcd.com/128/].<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permenant)''' &quot;Permenant&quot; is curiously spelled incorrectly, perhaps comically highlighting that the permanent portion of the dual stylus would be unable to correct any typos that a dry-erase marker would allow.<br /> ®<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=157957 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-30T17:16:20Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four rear-facing cameras.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:'''<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. A death mask would be a new take on this.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:'''<br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera Mechanism] is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:'''<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A spit valve is used for emptying saliva out of wind instruments, particularly large brass instruments. It is to be hoped that less saliva accumulates in a smart phone (best not to think about it{{Citation needed}})<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind#Typical_grinds hollow grind] is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors and certainly not what you'd want on the edge of a phone.<br /> *'''Absorbent:'''<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information dynamic typing] is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:'''<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):'''<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free waterbottles have become popular. There is no plastic in a printed circuit board (PCB).<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):''' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOLED AMOLED] is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display LCD] is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display 7-segment display] is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification, so it is inappropriate for text messages, let alone graphics.<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough in regards to fuel cells. There have been many attempts to use hydrocarbons, like gasoline, for charging cell phones. Although it would likely cause more problems for the average consumer having a fuel cell would reduce weight and prevent reliance on a working power grid or having to use a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if(128 Zippo Phone).<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permenant)''' &quot;Permenant&quot; is curiously spelled incorrectly, perhaps comically highlighting that the permanent portion of the dual stylus would be unable to correct any typos that a dry-erase marker would allow.<br /> ®<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=157954 2000: xkcd Phone 2000 2018-05-30T17:11:15Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2000<br /> | date = May 30, 2018<br /> | title = xkcd Phone 2000<br /> | image = xkcd_phone_2000.png<br /> | titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an XKCD PHONE 2000 USER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> *'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. &quot;Dockless&quot; could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging.<br /> *'''Silent:''' Implying perhaps that the phone is unable to produce sound entirely. Labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br /> *'''Quad Camera Takes Four Copies of Every Picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. At the time of writing no phone on the market has four cameras.<br /> *'''Front-Facing Camera Obscura:'''<br /> *'''3D Facial Contour Analysis Shows You a Realistic Preview of Your Death Mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. A death mask would be a new take on this.<br /> *'''Sponsored Pixels:'''<br /> *'''Front and Rear Pop-Out Grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be &quot;popped out&quot;, offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain &quot;Sponsored Pixels&quot;.<br /> *'''Humidity-Controlled Crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. <br /> *'''Antikythera Mechanism:''' The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera Mechanism] is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers.<br /> *'''New York Times Partnership: All Photos Taken with Camera App are Captioned in Real Time by Reporter Maggie Haberman:'''<br /> *'''Spit Valve:''' A spit valve is used for emptying saliva out of wind instruments, particularly large brass instruments. It is to be hoped that less saliva accumulates in a smart phone (best not to think about it{{Citation needed}})<br /> *'''Standard USB Connector:''' a USB 3.0 A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a &quot;standard&quot; USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the &quot;slave&quot; device, rather than the &quot;host&quot; as a USB A port would imply.<br /> *'''Coin Purse-Style Squeeze Access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br /> *'''Hollow-Ground:''' a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grind#Typical_grinds hollow grind] is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors and certainly not what you'd want on the edge of a phone.<br /> *'''Absorbent:'''<br /> *'''Keyboard Supports Dynamic Typing:''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information dynamic typing] is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br /> *'''Backflow Preventer:'''<br /> *'''Swiss Army Partnership: Folding Knife (Unlocks Only if Switzerland is Invaded):'''<br /> *'''100% BPA-Free PCB Construction:''' {w|Bisphenol A} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leech estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free waterbottles have become popular. There is no plastic in a printed circuit board (PCB).<br /> *'''AMOLCD Display (7-Segment):'''<br /> *'''Runs on Battery for the First 6 Hours, then Uses Gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough in regards to fuel cells. There have been many attempts to use hydrocarbons, like gasoline, for charging cell phones. Although it would likely cause more problems for the average consumer having a fuel cell would reduce weight and prevent reliance on a working power grid or having to use a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if(128 Zippo Phone).<br /> *'''Sharpie® Dual Stylus (Dry-Erase + Permenant)''' &quot;Permenant&quot; is curiously spelled incorrectly, perhaps comically highlighting that the permanent portion of the dual stylus would be unable to correct any typos that a dry-erase marker would allow.<br /> ®<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1991:_Research_Areas_by_Size_and_Countedness&diff=156848 1991: Research Areas by Size and Countedness 2018-05-09T20:55:47Z <p>Smperron: /* Transcript */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1991<br /> | date = May 9, 2018<br /> | title = Research Areas by Size and Countedness<br /> | image = research_areas_by_size_and_countedness.png<br /> | titletext = Mathematicians give a third answer on the vertical axis, &quot;That question is poorly defined, but we have a sub-field devoted to every plausible version of it.&quot;<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a VERY BIG AND NUMEROUS RESEARCH FIELD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This is a 2-dimensional chart that is about different research fields. The vertical axis is the accuracy of the quantity of the studied object, and the horizontal axis is how large the studied object is.<br /> <br /> Entymology on the graph is possibly a reference to [[1012: Wrong Superhero]].<br /> <br /> ;Upper left quadrant (Small &amp; count known)<br /> <br /> {| class = &quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Research field<br /> ! Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Elementary particle physics}}<br /> |Elementary particle physics is concerned with the study of subatomic particles, of which there are 17. Most notably, until recently it was uncertain whether the {{w|Higgs boson}} was one of the elementary particles, but scientists have a &quot;pretty good estimate&quot; because the mathematical models don't predict the existence of many other particles<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Dentistry}}<br /> |Dentistry is the study of teeth. Humans grow 32 teeth, which is a &quot;pretty good estimate&quot; since it is very rare for {{w|Hyperdontia|more than 32 teeth to grow}} and it is rather common for {{w|wisdom teeth}} to be surgically extracted<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Shakespeare}} studies<br /> |Shakespeare studies is concerned with the works of William Shakespeare. Generally, 36 plays are attributed to him, but between 1 and 3 additional plays are considered &quot;lost&quot; (i.e. at some point between being first published or performed and scholars seriously studying Shakespeare, all known copies, references, and fragments were destroyed, making it impossible to determine whether Shakespeare actually wrote them or whether they actually existed as separate plays), and {{w|Shakespeare apocrypha|some 20 more}} are believed to have been written by him, but not signed. To make matters worse, some plays that ''were'' published or performed under Shakespeare's name are believed to have been written as collaborations (not fully by him) or mis-attributed (we don't know who wrote them but, everyone says it was him).<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Ornithology}}<br /> |Ornithology studies birds. As with all animal classifications, we aren't really certain how many species there are, and are [https://www.amnh.org/about-the-museum/press-center/new-study-doubles-the-estimate-of-bird-species-in-the-world constantly revising the figure], but all estimates remain in the low thousands, so we do have a &quot;pretty good estimate&quot;<br /> |-<br /> |{{w| literature}}<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ;Lower left quadrant (Small &amp; count unknown)<br /> <br /> {| class = &quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Research field<br /> ! Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Mycology}}<br /> |Mycology is the study of fungi. It is a lot harder to discern which species a fungus is, and therefore classify it, so we &quot;have no idea&quot; how many kinds of fungi there are. Studies [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21613136 vary wildly] between about 70,000 to over 5,000,000<br /> |-<br /> |Entymology<br /> |It is unclear whether [[Randall]] means {{w|entomology}} or {{w|etymology}} (probably neither; it's likely that this wasn't a mistake). In either case, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28938083 estimates for insects] (entomology) vary from less than 1,000,000 to 30,000,000; and [https://www.quora.com/How-many-root-words-are-there-in-the-English-language estimates for root words] (etymology) reaching hundreds of thousands.<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Microbiology}}<br /> |Microbiology studies microorganisms, of which some 1,400 are known and &quot;estimates for the total number of microbial species vary wildly, from as low as 120,000 to tens of millions and higher&quot;, according to [https://www.quora.com/How-many-root-words-are-there-in-the-English-language Nature magazine]. <br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Pharmacology}}<br /> |The number of drugs (pharmaceuticals) discovered and synthesized is not tallied, according to [https://www.raps.org/regulatory-focus%E2%84%A2/news-articles/2014/10/how-many-drugs-has-fda-approved-in-its-entire-history-new-paper-explains recent studies], but an estimate can be obtained by seeing how many have passed through the {{w|Food and Drug Administration|U.S. FDA}} (1,453). Many home remedies, which might technically qualify as drugs, have not been approved because {{w|Novelty (patent)|&quot;everybody knows that&quot;}}, as well as many solely recreational drugs since regulation might result in outlawing. Because of this, &quot;we have no idea&quot; how many drugs truly exist.<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ;Upper right quadrant (Big &amp; count known)<br /> <br /> {| class = &quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Research field<br /> ! Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |Marine Mammology<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |Presidential History<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Railway}} Engineering<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Geology}}<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Cosmology}}<br /> |Cosmology is the study of the universe. There is an asterisk with the note &quot;Depends on who you ask&quot;, relating to the estimate of how many universes there are. While it might seem obvious that there is only one universe -- the &quot;uni&quot; in universe meaning one -- some branches of physics believe that our universe is part of a {{w|multiverse}}, and this remains an open and contested subject in the field.<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ;Upper right quadrant (Big &amp; count unknown)<br /> <br /> {| class = &quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Research field<br /> ! Explanation<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Botany}}<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Paleontology}}<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Black Hole}} Astronomy<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Exobiology}}<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |{{w|Theology}}<br /> |How many gods?<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The comic depicts a Cartesian plane. The X-axis is labeled &quot;Size of the Thing You Study&quot; and the Y-axis is labeled &quot;That thing you study - how many of them are there?&quot; The X-axis ranges from small to big going left to right, and the Y-axis ranges from &quot;We have a pretty good estimate&quot; to &quot;We have no idea&quot; going top to bottom.<br /> <br /> * Elementary particle physics - extremely small, good estimate<br /> * Dentistry - very small, very good estimate<br /> * Shakespeare studies - small, extremely good estimate<br /> * Ornithology - small, good estimate<br /> * Ancient Literature - small, ok estimate<br /> * Mycology - small, not good estimate<br /> * Entymology - very small, very not good estimate<br /> * Microbiology - extremely small, no idea<br /> * Pharmacology - extremely small, no idea<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1990:_Driving_Cars&diff=156752 1990: Driving Cars 2018-05-07T21:29:08Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1990<br /> | date = May 7, 2018<br /> | title = Driving Cars<br /> | image = driving_cars.png<br /> | titletext = It's probably just me. If driving were as dangerous as it seems, hundreds of people would be dying every day!<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a SCARY CAR- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic is a joke about how dangerous cars are. It says how it is a giant machine, and [[Cueball]] is able to drive it simply because he took a driving test. This is similar to other comics (need links) where Randall comments on how some of our &quot;routine&quot; everyday tasks are quite unusual when viewed from a certain perspective. <br /> <br /> The rest of the joke is in the title text, &quot;It's probably just me. If driving were as dangerous as it seems, hundreds of people would be dying every day!&quot; Of course, many people ([http://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics over 3,000] world-wide, about 100 in USA) do die every day in car accidents. Furthermore, an unknown and difficult to estimate number of people die prematurely as a consequence of pollution caused by cars. Many people would, however, argue that this human sacrifice is acceptable in view of the real and perceived advantages of being able to drive giant machines from A to B.<br /> <br /> A faded Cueball is visible above Cueball in the comic picture. This may be a previous draft that Randall drew on top of.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[In a panel, Cueball stands in front of a car with his hands together.]<br /> :Cueball: Time to accelerate this giant machine up to terrifying speeds and steer it using my hands, which I am allowed to do because I took a 20-minute test in high school!<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :Driving freaks me out.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1989:_IMHO&diff=156628 1989: IMHO 2018-05-04T17:44:00Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1989<br /> | date = May 4, 2018<br /> | title = IMHO<br /> | image = imho.png<br /> | titletext = &quot;Ugh, TMI.&quot; &quot;Yeah, that's some tantalizing meat info.&quot;<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TLA CONFLICT GENERATOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> The conversation begins with a reference to the controversy between whether the H in IMHO (In my honest/humble opinion) stands for &quot;honest&quot; or &quot;humble&quot;. Some older internet users, including Cueball, use it to mean &quot;humble&quot;, which Cueball references as being the norm in the 1990s. However, many younger internet users, including, apparently, Ponytail, use it to mean &quot;honest&quot;, which became the norm after another SMS abbreviation, TBH (To be honest) became popular c. 2011. However, the joke veers into absurdity with Ponytail sharing her unusual opinions on other internet controversies, including: <br /> <br /> Believing the G in {{w|GIF}} (Graphics Interchange Format) is silent, so she pronounces it &quot;if&quot;, as opposed to the two main camps claiming it should be either a hard G (&quot;jiffy&quot;) or a soft G (as in &quot;gift&quot;).<br /> <br /> Believing that the S in SMDH (Shaking My Damn Head) stands for &quot;Swallowing&quot;.<br /> <br /> Believing a viral picture of {{w|the_dress|a dress}} that appears black and blue to some people and white and gold to others is actually black and white.<br /> <br /> Believing that the database language {{w|SQL}} (Structured Query Language) is pronounced &quot;Squill&quot; as opposed to the two main camps claiming it should be &quot;Sequel&quot; or the initialization S-Q-L (&quot;Ess Cue Ell&quot;).<br /> <br /> Using {{w|tab_key|tabs}} after {{w|Full_stop|periods}}, instead of the two main opposing camps of using either one or two spaces. It used to be proper style when typing to use two spaces after the period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence, however the newer standard, as implemented by {{w|HTML}} which collapses all multiples of spaces into one, is to only include one space after sentences, or indeed in all circumstances.<br /> <br /> In the last panel, Cueball exclaims &quot;OMG&quot; (meaning &quot;Oh My God&quot;) to which Megan replies &quot;Yeah, mine too&quot;, taking the meaning as &quot;Oh My Genitals&quot; from the 5th panel. This leads to the title text &quot;TMI&quot; (Too Much Information). <br /> <br /> In the title text, another incorrect belief Ponytail has is believing TMI to be &quot;Tantalizing Meat Info,&quot; as opposed to Too Much Information.<br /> <br /> The comic also obliquely references the mistaken opinion that website polling is an accurate measure of anything; selection bias (among many other problems) renders them useless for measuring the general population.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail stand together, talking.]<br /> :Cueball: I thought the &quot;H&quot; in &quot;IMHO&quot; was &quot;Humble.&quot; But Buzzfeed ran a poll and &quot;Honest&quot; won.<br /> :Megan: That can't be true. Their readers are messing with us.<br /> <br /> :Ponytail: Are you sure? I've always used it to mean &quot;Honest,&quot;<br /> :Megan: ... What?!<br /> <br /> :[Close up of Cueball holding a phone. A box with usage of &quot;IMHO&quot; and &quot;TBH&quot; from Google Trends shows &quot;TBH&quot; suddenly rising in 2011, with a second spike in 2014.]<br /> :Cueball: It was definitely &quot;Humble&quot; in the 1990s.<br /> :Cueball: Maybe people who picked it up after the rise of &quot;TBH&quot; in 2011 interpreted it as &quot;Honest&quot; and used it that way.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail as before.]<br /> :Megan: I can't get over this. What other wrong opinions do you have?<br /> :Megan: The &quot;G&quot; in &quot;G-I-F&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: Silent.<br /> <br /> :[Close up of Ponytail, with Megan talking from offscreen.]<br /> :Megan: The &quot;S&quot; in &quot;SMDH&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: Swallowing.<br /> :Megan: The &quot;G&quot; in &quot;OMG&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: &quot;Giantess&quot; or &quot;Genitals&quot;.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail as before.]<br /> :Megan: The Dress?<br /> :Ponytail: Black and White.<br /> :Megan: Is the database language &quot;Sequel&quot; or &quot;Ess Cue Ell&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: I've always said &quot;Squill&quot;.<br /> <br /> :Cueball: Okay, the big one: how many spaces after a period?<br /> :Ponytail: None; I use tabs.<br /> :Cueball: OMG.<br /> :Megan: Yeah, mine too.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1989:_IMHO&diff=156627 1989: IMHO 2018-05-04T17:42:30Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1989<br /> | date = May 4, 2018<br /> | title = IMHO<br /> | image = imho.png<br /> | titletext = &quot;Ugh, TMI.&quot; &quot;Yeah, that's some tantalizing meat info.&quot;<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TLA CONFLICT GENERATOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> The conversation begins with a reference to the controversy between whether the H in IMHO (In my honest/humble opinion) stands for &quot;honest&quot; or &quot;humble&quot;. Some older internet users, including Cueball, use it to mean &quot;humble&quot;, which Cueball references as being the norm in the 1990s. However, many younger internet users, including, apparently, Ponytail, use it to mean &quot;honest&quot;, which became the norm after another SMS abbreviation, TBH (To be honest) became popular c. 2011. However, the joke veers into absurdity with Ponytail sharing her unusual opinions on other internet controversies, including: <br /> <br /> Believing the G in {{w|GIF}} (Graphics Interchange Format) is silent, so she pronounces it &quot;if&quot;, as opposed to the two main camps claiming it should be either a hard G (&quot;jiffy&quot;) or a soft G (as in &quot;gift&quot;).<br /> <br /> Believing that the S in SMDH (Shaking My Damn Head) stands for &quot;Swallowing&quot;.<br /> <br /> Believing a viral picture of {{w|the_dress|a dress}} that appears black and blue to some people and white and gold to others is actually black and white.<br /> <br /> Believing that the database language SQL is pronounced &quot;Squill&quot; as opposed to the two main camps claiming it should be &quot;Sequel&quot; or the initialization S-Q-L (&quot;Ess Cue Ell&quot;).<br /> <br /> Using {{w|tab_key|tabs}} after {{w|Full_stop|periods}}, instead of the two main opposing camps of using either one or two spaces. It used to be proper style when typing to use two spaces after the period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence, however the newer standard, as implemented by {{w|HTML}} which collapses all multiples of spaces into one, is to only include one space after sentences, or indeed in all circumstances.<br /> <br /> In the last panel, Cueball exclaims &quot;OMG&quot; (meaning &quot;Oh My God&quot;) to which Megan replies &quot;Yeah, mine too&quot;, taking the meaning as &quot;Oh My Genitals&quot; from the 5th panel. This leads to the title text &quot;TMI&quot; (Too Much Information). <br /> <br /> In the title text, another incorrect belief Ponytail has is believing TMI to be &quot;Tantalizing Meat Info,&quot; as opposed to Too Much Information.<br /> <br /> The comic also obliquely references the mistaken opinion that website polling is an accurate measure of anything; selection bias (among many other problems) renders them useless for measuring the general population.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail stand together, talking.]<br /> :Cueball: I thought the &quot;H&quot; in &quot;IMHO&quot; was &quot;Humble.&quot; But Buzzfeed ran a poll and &quot;Honest&quot; won.<br /> :Megan: That can't be true. Their readers are messing with us.<br /> <br /> :Ponytail: Are you sure? I've always used it to mean &quot;Honest,&quot;<br /> :Megan: ... What?!<br /> <br /> :[Close up of Cueball holding a phone. A box with usage of &quot;IMHO&quot; and &quot;TBH&quot; from Google Trends shows &quot;TBH&quot; suddenly rising in 2011, with a second spike in 2014.]<br /> :Cueball: It was definitely &quot;Humble&quot; in the 1990s.<br /> :Cueball: Maybe people who picked it up after the rise of &quot;TBH&quot; in 2011 interpreted it as &quot;Honest&quot; and used it that way.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail as before.]<br /> :Megan: I can't get over this. What other wrong opinions do you have?<br /> :Megan: The &quot;G&quot; in &quot;G-I-F&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: Silent.<br /> <br /> :[Close up of Ponytail, with Megan talking from offscreen.]<br /> :Megan: The &quot;S&quot; in &quot;SMDH&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: Swallowing.<br /> :Megan: The &quot;G&quot; in &quot;OMG&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: &quot;Giantess&quot; or &quot;Genitals&quot;.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail as before.]<br /> :Megan: The Dress?<br /> :Ponytail: Black and White.<br /> :Megan: Is the database language &quot;Sequel&quot; or &quot;Ess Cue Ell&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: I've always said &quot;Squill&quot;.<br /> <br /> :Cueball: Okay, the big one: how many spaces after a period?<br /> :Ponytail: None; I use tabs.<br /> :Cueball: OMG.<br /> :Megan: Yeah, mine too.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1989:_IMHO&diff=156625 1989: IMHO 2018-05-04T17:33:19Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1989<br /> | date = May 4, 2018<br /> | title = IMHO<br /> | image = imho.png<br /> | titletext = &quot;Ugh, TMI.&quot; &quot;Yeah, that's some tantalizing meat info.&quot;<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TLA CONFLICT GENERATOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> The conversation begins with a reference to the controversy between whether the H in IMHO (In my honest/humble opinion) stands for &quot;honest&quot; or &quot;humble&quot;. Some older internet users, including Cueball, use it to mean &quot;humble&quot;, which Cueball references as being the norm in the 1990s. However, many younger internet users, including, apparently, Ponytail, use it to mean &quot;honest&quot;, which became the norm after another SMS abbreviation, TBH (To be honest) became popular c. 2011. However, the joke veers into absurdity with Ponytail sharing her unusual opinions on other internet controversies, including: <br /> <br /> Believing the G in GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is silent, as opposed to the two main camps claiming it should be a hard or a soft G.<br /> <br /> Believing a viral picture of a dress that appears black and blue to some people and white and gold to others is actually black and white.<br /> <br /> Believing that the database language SQL is pronounced &quot;Squill&quot; as opposed to the two main camps claiming it should be &quot;Sequel&quot; or the initialization S-Q-L (&quot;Ess Cue Ell&quot;).<br /> <br /> Using tabs after periods, instead of the two main opposing camps of using either one or two spaces, referring to both the common programmer argument whether to indent with 2 spaces, 4 spaces, or a tab, and the 2 spaces or 1 after the period argument.<br /> <br /> In the last panel, Cueball exclaims &quot;OMG&quot; (meaning &quot;Oh My God&quot;) to which Megan replies &quot;Yeah, mine too&quot;, taking the meaning as &quot;Oh My Genitals&quot; from the 5th panel. This leads to the title text &quot;TMI&quot; (Too Much Information). <br /> <br /> In the title text, another incorrect belief Ponytail has is believing TMI to be &quot;Tantalizing Meat Info,&quot; as opposed to Too Much Information.<br /> <br /> The comic also obliquely references the mistaken opinion that website polling is an accurate measure of anything; selection bias (among many other problems) renders them useless for measuring the general population.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail stand together, talking.]<br /> :Cueball: I thought the &quot;H&quot; in &quot;IMHO&quot; was &quot;Humble.&quot; But Buzzfeed ran a poll and &quot;Honest&quot; won.<br /> :Megan: That can't be true. Their readers are messing with us.<br /> <br /> :Ponytail: Are you sure? I've always used it to mean &quot;Honest,&quot;<br /> :Megan: ... What?!<br /> <br /> :[Close up of Cueball holding a phone. A box with usage of &quot;IMHO&quot; and &quot;TBH&quot; from Google Trends shows &quot;TBH&quot; suddenly rising in 2011, with a second spike in 2014.]<br /> :Cueball: It was definitely &quot;Humble&quot; in the 1990s.<br /> :Cueball: Maybe people who picked it up after the rise of &quot;TBH&quot; in 2011 interpreted it as &quot;Honest&quot; and used it that way.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail as before.]<br /> :Megan: I can't get over this. What other wrong opinions do you have?<br /> :Megan: The &quot;G&quot; in &quot;G-I-F&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: Silent.<br /> <br /> :[Close up of Ponytail, with Megan talking from offscreen.]<br /> :Megan: The &quot;S&quot; in &quot;SMDH&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: Swallowing.<br /> :Megan: The &quot;G&quot; in &quot;OMG&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: &quot;Giantess&quot; or &quot;Genitals&quot;.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail as before.]<br /> :Megan: The Dress?<br /> :Ponytail: Black and White.<br /> :Megan: Is the database language &quot;Sequel&quot; or &quot;Ess Cue Ell&quot;?<br /> :Ponytail: I've always said &quot;Squill&quot;.<br /> <br /> :Cueball: Okay, the big one: how many spaces after a period?<br /> :Ponytail: None; I use tabs.<br /> :Cueball: OMG.<br /> :Megan: Yeah, mine too.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1988:_Containers&diff=156573 1988: Containers 2018-05-03T14:56:18Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1988<br /> | date = May 2, 2018<br /> | title = Containers<br /> | image = containers.png<br /> | titletext = All services are microservices if you ignore most of their features.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by SOME GLUED TOGETHER SERVERS and updated by a DOCKER AFICIONADO. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{w|Docker (software)|Docker}} is a computer program that performs operating-system-level virtualization also known as containerization. It is developed by Docker, Inc. <br /> <br /> White Hat was complaining about how everyone was using Docker. With the implied statement that he did not understand what all the fuss was about.<br /> <br /> Cueball explains the fundamental idea behind Docker. He complains about how difficult it can be to combine two programs and having them work together as one. This is something all programmers can relate to. His specific example is to get two separate programs to display side by side on a tablet.<br /> <br /> The main joke is that Cueball's solution is a surprising twist to solving the problem. Instead of writing a lot of complicated code, he sidesteps the problem elegantly by using two separate devices and literally gluing them together.<br /> <br /> Another joke is that he uses literal glue and literally purchases two separate computers. Docker uses the same general idea but the &quot;glue&quot; and the &quot;multiple computers&quot; are done in software.<br /> <br /> Cueball states that he has achieved enlightenment when he solved the problem by sidestepping it.<br /> <br /> White hat at first does not seem to understand the enlightenment since Cueball did not actually learn anything about the programs he was working on. When White hat after a pause says &quot;Ok, fair&quot; this suggests that White hat has now understood what Cueball means. A good programmer doesn't necessarily need to be able to write programs or even understand how they work, provided that he has the skills needed to combine existing programs to solve his tasks. An alternate interpretation is that someone with little programming experience could create a working program simply by copy/pasting code snippets from a coding forum such as StackOverflow and &quot;gluing&quot; them together without really understanding how they work.<br /> <br /> The title text makes a joke about developers writing code for use in a Docker environment. The ideal is to only write &quot;microservices&quot; which are modules that do just one thing and does that well. The joke here is that even when a module does many different things, you can pretend it is a &quot;microservice&quot; by just ignoring all its features but one (hopefully the one that it does well).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[White Hat is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind him.]<br /> :White Hat: Man, Docker is being used for &lt;i&gt;everything&lt;/i&gt;.<br /> :White Hat: I don't know how I feel about it.<br /> :Cueball: Story time!<br /> <br /> :[Cueball is standing by himself.]<br /> :Cueball: Once, long ago, I wanted to use an old tablet as a wall display.<br /> <br /> :[A picture of Cueball's imagined tablet with two applications open side by side. The app on the left is &quot;LiveCam&quot;.]<br /> :Cueball: I had an app and a calendar webpage that I wanted to show side by side, but the OS didn't have split-screen support.<br /> :Cueball: So I decided to build my own app.<br /> <br /> :[White Hat and Cueball as before, but White Hat has turned to face Cueball.]<br /> :Cueball: I downloaded the SDK and the IDE, registered as a developer, and started reading the language's docs.<br /> <br /> :[A picture of two smartphones glued together side by side, held on a backing board. The same two applications shown earlier are open on different phones.]<br /> :Cueball: ...Then I realized it would be '''&lt;i&gt;way&lt;/i&gt;''' easier to get two smaller phones on eBay and glue them together.<br /> :Cueball: On that day, I achieved software enlightenment.<br /> <br /> :[White Hat and Cueball still facing each other, with White Hat's arm resting on the back of the chair.]<br /> :White Hat: But you never learned to write software.<br /> :Cueball: No, I just learned how to glue together stuff that I don't understand.<br /> :White Hat: I...OK, fair.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1987:_Python_Environment&diff=156523 1987: Python Environment 2018-05-01T14:33:41Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1987<br /> | date = April 30, 2018<br /> | title = Python Environment<br /> | image = python_environment.png<br /> | titletext = The Python environmental protection agency wants to seal it in a cement chamber, with pictoral messages to future civilizations warning them about the danger of using sudo to install random Python packages.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PYTHON script (well actually PERL but that's besides the point) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python}} is a {{w|computer}} {{w|programming language}} which has been around for quite awhile, especially on {{w|Linux}} platforms. [[Randall]] has likely used it on his computer for quite a few years, from the early years where it wasn't so easy to install, through newer versions where there is a more defined way to install it. Because standards change over time, and he didn't completely uninstall old versions before installing new versions (likely to not break what was already working), he's ended up with a mess where different pieces and versions of Python and its related components litter his {{w|hard drive}}'s {{w|directory structure}}.<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Text<br /> ! Explanation<br /> |-<br /> | $PATH<br /> | $PATH refers to the {{w|PATH (variable)|PATH}} environment variable, which determines where to search for executable files. In this case, it indicates that the pip, Homebrew Python (2.7), and OSX's pre-installed Python are accessible on path, with ~/newenv/ and a mysterious ???? as part of PATH.<br /> |-<br /> | pip<br /> | {{w|pip (package manager)|pip}} is the Python {{w|package management system}}, and is used to install and manage python packages. As it is written in Python, it requires Python to run. It leads to easy_install, Homebrew Python (2.7), &quot;(misc folders owned by root)&quot;, and ????.<br /> |-<br /> | Homebrew Python (2.7)<br /> | {{w|Homebrew (package management software)|Homebrew}} is the de facto standard third-party OSX package manager. Homebrew Python (2.7) is the Python 2 version installed through Homebrew. This leads to Python.org binary (2.6) and /usr/local/Cellar.<br /> |-<br /> | OS Python<br /> | Apple bundles an (out of date) version of Python with OSX. This only leads to ????.<br /> |-<br /> | ????<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | easy_install<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | Anaconda Python<br /> | {{w|Anaconda (Python distribution)|Anaconda}} is a Python distribution for data science and machine learning related applications.<br /> |-<br /> | Homebrew Python (3.6)<br /> | As of the creation of the comic, Python 3.6 is the current stable version of Python.<br /> |-<br /> | Python.org binary (2.6)<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | (Misc folders owned by root)<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | /usr/local/Cellar<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | &lt;code&gt;/usr/local/opt&lt;/code&gt;<br /> | Both &lt;code&gt;/usr/local&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;/opt&lt;/code&gt; are directories that store files that do not belong to a Unix-like operating system. Usually, files in &lt;code&gt;/usr/local&lt;/code&gt; were created with a {{w|make (software)|make command}}, and files in &lt;code&gt;/opt&lt;/code&gt; are unbundled packages. The joke is that &lt;code&gt;/usr/local/opt&lt;/code&gt; should really, really not exist.<br /> |-<br /> | /(A bunch of items with &quot;Frameworks&quot; in them somewhere)/<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | $PYTHONPATH<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | Another pip??<br /> | There should only be one PIP (package management system) in place. More that one would lead to them contradicting each other. Randall is confused as to how the second one got there.<br /> |-<br /> | ~/python/<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | ~/newenv/<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | /usr/local/lib/python3.6<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | /usr/local/lib/python2.7<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> Randall compares his degraded Python environment to a {{w|Superfund}} site. Superfund is a US federal government program created for cleaning up contaminated land.<br /> <br /> The title text may refer to the philosophical debate surrounding the construction of warning features around the [[wikipedia:Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Warning_messages_for_future_humans|WIPP]] site in New Mexico, and other nuclear waste disposal sites. In particular, it may refer to [https://web.archive.org/web/20090320054657/http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%20message%20to%2012,000%20a_d.htm this article]. These would have to last and be understandable for tens of thousands of years, longer than any known human-made structure or language to date.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :[A single frame depicting a flowchart is shown. Many chaotic arrows are arranged between the items which are:]<br /> :$PYTHONPATH<br /> :EASY_INSTALL<br /> :ANACONDA PYTHON<br /> :HOMEBREW PYTHON (3.6)<br /> :ANOTHER PIP??<br /> :HOMEBREW PYTHON (2.7)<br /> :PYTHON.ORG BINARY (2.6)<br /> :PIP<br /> :EASY_INSTALL<br /> :$PATH<br /> :(MISC FOLDERS OWNED BY ROOT)<br /> :????<br /> <br /> :[The endpoints are:]<br /> :/usr/local/Cellar <br /> :/usr/local/opt<br /> :/(A BUNCH OF PATHS WITH &quot;FRAMEWORKS&quot; IN THEM SOMEWHERE)/<br /> :~/python/ <br /> :~/newenv/<br /> :/usr/local/lib/python3.6<br /> :/usr/local/lib/python2.7<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :My Python environment has become so degraded that my laptop has been declared a superfund site.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Computers]]<br /> [[Category:Programming]]<br /> [[Category:Flowcharts]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1987:_Python_Environment&diff=156522 1987: Python Environment 2018-05-01T14:33:06Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1987<br /> | date = April 30, 2018<br /> | title = Python Environment<br /> | image = python_environment.png<br /> | titletext = The Python environmental protection agency wants to seal it in a cement chamber, with pictoral messages to future civilizations warning them about the danger of using sudo to install random Python packages.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PYTHON script (well actually PERL but that's besides the point) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python}} is a {{w|computer}} {{w|programming language}} which has been around for quite awhile, especially on {{w|Linux}} platforms. [[Randall]] has likely used it on his computer for quite a few years, from the early years where it wasn't so easy to install, through newer versions where there is a more defined way to install it. Because standards change over time, and he didn't completely uninstall old versions before installing new versions (likely to not break what was already working), he's ended up with a mess where different pieces and versions of Python and its related components litter his {{w|hard drive}}'s {{w|directory structure}}.<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Text<br /> ! Explanation<br /> |-<br /> | $PATH<br /> | $PATH refers to the {{w|PATH (variable)|PATH}} environment variable, which determines where to search for executable files. In this case, it indicates that the pip, Homebrew Python (2.7), and OSX's pre-installed Python are accessible on path, with ~/newenv/ and a mysterious ???? as part of PATH.<br /> |-<br /> | pip<br /> | {{w|pip (package manager)|pip}} is the Python {{w|package management system}}, and is used to install and manage python packages. As it is written in Python, it requires Python to run. It leads to easy_install, Homebrew Python (2.7), &quot;(misc folders owned by root)&quot;, and ????.<br /> |-<br /> | Homebrew Python (2.7)<br /> | {{w|Homebrew (package management software)|Homebrew}} is the de facto standard third-party OSX package manager. Homebrew Python (2.7) is the Python 2 version installed through Homebrew. This leads to Python.org binary (2.6) and /usr/local/Cellar.<br /> |-<br /> | OS Python<br /> | Apple bundles an (out of date) version of Python with OSX. This only leads to ????.<br /> |-<br /> | ????<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | easy_install<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | Anaconda Python<br /> | {{w|Anaconda (Python distribution)|Anaconda}} is a Python distribution for data science and machine learning related applications.<br /> |-<br /> | Homebrew Python (3.6)<br /> | As of the creation of the comic, Python 3.6 is the current stable version of Python.<br /> |-<br /> | Python.org binary (2.6)<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | (Misc folders owned by root)<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | /usr/local/Cellar<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | &lt;code&gt;/usr/local/opt&lt;/code&gt;<br /> | Both &lt;code&gt;/usr/local&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;/opt&lt;/code&gt; are directories that store files that do not belong to a Unix-like operating system. Usually, files in &lt;code&gt;/usr/local&lt;/code&gt; were created with a {{w|make (software)|make command}}, and files in &lt;code&gt;/opt&lt;/code&gt; are unbundled packages. The joke is that &lt;code&gt;/usr/local/opt&lt;/code&gt; should really, really not exist.<br /> |-<br /> | /(A bunch of items with &quot;Frameworks&quot; in them somewhere)/<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | $PYTHONPATH<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | Another pip??<br /> | That there should only be one PIP (package management system) in place. More that one would lead to them contradicting each other. Randall is confused as to how the second one got there.<br /> |-<br /> | ~/python/<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | ~/newenv/<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | /usr/local/lib/python3.6<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> | /usr/local/lib/python2.7<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> Randall compares his degraded Python environment to a {{w|Superfund}} site. Superfund is a US federal government program created for cleaning up contaminated land.<br /> <br /> The title text may refer to the philosophical debate surrounding the construction of warning features around the [[wikipedia:Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Warning_messages_for_future_humans|WIPP]] site in New Mexico, and other nuclear waste disposal sites. In particular, it may refer to [https://web.archive.org/web/20090320054657/http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%20message%20to%2012,000%20a_d.htm this article]. These would have to last and be understandable for tens of thousands of years, longer than any known human-made structure or language to date.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :[A single frame depicting a flowchart is shown. Many chaotic arrows are arranged between the items which are:]<br /> :$PYTHONPATH<br /> :EASY_INSTALL<br /> :ANACONDA PYTHON<br /> :HOMEBREW PYTHON (3.6)<br /> :ANOTHER PIP??<br /> :HOMEBREW PYTHON (2.7)<br /> :PYTHON.ORG BINARY (2.6)<br /> :PIP<br /> :EASY_INSTALL<br /> :$PATH<br /> :(MISC FOLDERS OWNED BY ROOT)<br /> :????<br /> <br /> :[The endpoints are:]<br /> :/usr/local/Cellar <br /> :/usr/local/opt<br /> :/(A BUNCH OF PATHS WITH &quot;FRAMEWORKS&quot; IN THEM SOMEWHERE)/<br /> :~/python/ <br /> :~/newenv/<br /> :/usr/local/lib/python3.6<br /> :/usr/local/lib/python2.7<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :My Python environment has become so degraded that my laptop has been declared a superfund site.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Computers]]<br /> [[Category:Programming]]<br /> [[Category:Flowcharts]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1987:_Python_Environment&diff=156456 1987: Python Environment 2018-04-30T14:50:30Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1987<br /> | date = April 30, 2018<br /> | title = Python Environment<br /> | image = python_environment.png<br /> | titletext = The Python environmental protection agency wants to seal it in a cement chamber, with pictoral messages to future civilizations warning them about the danger of using sudo to install random Python packages.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PYTHON script (well actually PERL but that's besides the point (I know a lot of people who would fight you over that comment)) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The title text may refer to the philosophical debate surrounding the construction of warning features around [[wikipedia:Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant|WIPP]] site in New Mexico, and other nuclear waste disposal sites. These would have to last tens of thousands of years, longer than any known human-made structure or language to date.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> A single panel depicting a complicated flowchart.<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> !Item<br /> !Preceded by<br /> !Followed by<br /> !Description<br /> |-<br /> |$PYTHONPATH<br /> |'Nothing'<br /> |EASY_INSTALL, ANACONDA PYTHON, HOMEBREW PYTHON (3.6), ANOTHER PIP??<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |EASY_INSTALL<br /> |$PYTHONPATH<br /> |ANACONDA PYTHON, HOMEBREW PYTHON (2.7), PIP<br /> |<br /> |-<br /> |PIP<br /> |EASY_INSTALL, $PATH<br /> |EASY_INSTALL, HOMEBREW PYTHON (2.7), (MISC FOLDERS OWNED BY ROOT), ????<br /> |<br /> |}<br /> <br /> Caption: My Python environment has become so degraded that my laptop has been declared a superfund site.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Computers]]<br /> [[Category:Programming]]<br /> [[Category:Flowcharts]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1982:_Evangelism&diff=156003 Talk:1982: Evangelism 2018-04-18T17:07:01Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I want to know where vi vs. emacs fits on this spectrum. <br /> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.53|108.162.238.53]] 15:12, 18 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> :I use vi by virtue of the fact that it once opened on my computer and I don't know how to close it [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.76|108.162.219.76]] 15:20, 18 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> When you say people open bananas from the other side, which side is the proper side and which is the other? I open from the proper side, not the side with the stem (just like the monkeys taught us) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.76|108.162.219.76]] 15:20, 18 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The title text seems to be a reference to the big-endian/little-endian war in &quot;Gulliver's Travels&quot;.[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:04, 18 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> And 3 miles to the right of the banana conflict is &quot;iPhone vs. Android&quot; [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 17:07, 18 April 2018 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1982:_Evangelism&diff=156002 1982: Evangelism 2018-04-18T17:04:51Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1982<br /> | date = April 18, 2018<br /> | title = Evangelism<br /> | image = evangelism.png<br /> | titletext = The wars between the &quot;OTHER PRIMATES OPEN THEM FROM THE SMALL END&quot; faction versus the &quot;BUT THE LITTLE BIT OF BANANA AT THE SMALL END IS GROSS&quot; faction consumed Europe for generations.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a 2 METER FARENHEIT LOVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Evangelism is defined as a zealous advocacy for a cause. This comic presents a line plot where causes are listed in order from advocates who are least intense to most intense going left to right.<br /> <br /> ;''Religious proselytizers''<br /> Religious proselytizers are, of the groups on this list, most known for intense evangelism in popular culture, yet Randall contrasts them in this strip with four other groups which he finds to be even more intense in their evangelism.<br /> <br /> ;''People who want the US to switch to metric'' and ''People who want the US to switch to metric but keep Fahrenheit''<br /> Unlike most of the world, the US uses [[wikipedia:United States Customary Units|US customary units]] instead of metric units. Some people wish for this to change.<br /> <br /> Pro-metric people who wish to keep the {{w|Fahrenheit}} scale rather than change to {{w|Celsius}} are ranked as slightly more evangelic. A common argument for keeping the Fahrenheit scale is due to 0°F equating to &quot;really cold&quot; and 100°F to &quot;really hot&quot; when talking about weather.<br /> <br /> ;''People who threw away their socks and bought all one kind''<br /> This is a reference to the [[1572:_xkcd_Survey|xkcd Survey]] from September 2015 which included this question:<br /> <br /> &lt;blockquote&gt;<br /> Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too?<br /> &lt;/blockquote&gt;<br /> <br /> ;''People who open bananas from the other end''<br /> Some people prefer to open bananas from the bottom (small end) instead of the top (stem end). This is the way primates in the wild have been observed to open bananas. Less force is required to open a banana at the bottom than at the stem, causing less bruising of the fruit &amp; generally making it easier to open. However, if not done carefully, this can result in the fruit getting squished and making a mess on the person's fingers. Opening bananas from the stem end offers no practical advantage, yet appears to be the predominant habit of most banana-eating humans {{Citation needed}}.<br /> <br /> The title text is a fictional argument that apparently somehow tore apart Europe. It is about how bananas are supposed to be opened, so it is absurd for this to have actually happened. The supposed argument ''stems'' from a disagreement over the suggested ease of opening a from the bottom, versus the idea that the small bit at the base of a banana is unappetizing. This also appears to be a reference to the wars between the Blefuscudians who opened their eggs at the big end, and the Lilliputians who broke their eggs at the small end, as documented in Jonathan Swift's epic novel Gulliver's Travels.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :[A single frame is shown. The header reads:]<br /> :People by intensity of evangelism<br /> :[An arrow points from left to right. The text above:]<br /> :More intense<br /> <br /> :[A line is drawn from left to right with five markers on it.]<br /> :[Marker on the left:]<br /> :Religious proselytizers<br /> :[Marker in the middle:]<br /> :People who want the US to switch to metric<br /> :[Marker slightly right of the middle:]<br /> :People who want the US to switch to metric but keep Fahrenheit<br /> :[Marker at the beginning of the last quarter:]<br /> :People who threw away their socks and bought all one kind<br /> :[Marker at the right:]<br /> :People who open bananas from the other end<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1982:_Evangelism&diff=156001 1982: Evangelism 2018-04-18T17:04:19Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1982<br /> | date = April 18, 2018<br /> | title = Evangelism<br /> | image = evangelism.png<br /> | titletext = The wars between the &quot;OTHER PRIMATES OPEN THEM FROM THE SMALL END&quot; faction versus the &quot;BUT THE LITTLE BIT OF BANANA AT THE SMALL END IS GROSS&quot; faction consumed Europe for generations.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a 2 METER FARENHEIT LOVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Evangelism is defined as a zealous advocacy for a cause. This comic presents a line plot where causes are listed in order from advocates who are least intense to most intense.<br /> <br /> ;''Religious proselytizers''<br /> Religious proselytizers are, of the groups on this list, most known for intense evangelism in popular culture, yet Randall contrasts them in this strip with four other groups which he finds to be even more intense in their evangelism.<br /> <br /> ;''People who want the US to switch to metric'' and ''People who want the US to switch to metric but keep Fahrenheit''<br /> Unlike most of the world, the US uses [[wikipedia:United States Customary Units|US customary units]] instead of metric units. Some people wish for this to change.<br /> <br /> Pro-metric people who wish to keep the {{w|Fahrenheit}} scale rather than change to {{w|Celsius}} are ranked as slightly more evangelic. A common argument for keeping the Fahrenheit scale is due to 0°F equating to &quot;really cold&quot; and 100°F to &quot;really hot&quot; when talking about weather.<br /> <br /> ;''People who threw away their socks and bought all one kind''<br /> This is a reference to the [[1572:_xkcd_Survey|xkcd Survey]] from September 2015 which included this question:<br /> <br /> &lt;blockquote&gt;<br /> Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too?<br /> &lt;/blockquote&gt;<br /> <br /> ;''People who open bananas from the other end''<br /> Some people prefer to open bananas from the bottom (small end) instead of the top (stem end). This is the way primates in the wild have been observed to open bananas. Less force is required to open a banana at the bottom than at the stem, causing less bruising of the fruit &amp; generally making it easier to open. However, if not done carefully, this can result in the fruit getting squished and making a mess on the person's fingers. Opening bananas from the stem end offers no practical advantage, yet appears to be the predominant habit of most banana-eating humans {{Citation needed}}.<br /> <br /> The title text is a fictional argument that apparently somehow tore apart Europe. It is about how bananas are supposed to be opened, so it is absurd for this to have actually happened. The supposed argument ''stems'' from a disagreement over the suggested ease of opening a from the bottom, versus the idea that the small bit at the base of a banana is unappetizing. This also appears to be a reference to the wars between the Blefuscudians who opened their eggs at the big end, and the Lilliputians who broke their eggs at the small end, as documented in Jonathan Swift's epic novel Gulliver's Travels.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :[A single frame is shown. The header reads:]<br /> :People by intensity of evangelism<br /> :[An arrow points from left to right. The text above:]<br /> :More intense<br /> <br /> :[A line is drawn from left to right with five markers on it.]<br /> :[Marker on the left:]<br /> :Religious proselytizers<br /> :[Marker in the middle:]<br /> :People who want the US to switch to metric<br /> :[Marker slightly right of the middle:]<br /> :People who want the US to switch to metric but keep Fahrenheit<br /> :[Marker at the beginning of the last quarter:]<br /> :People who threw away their socks and bought all one kind<br /> :[Marker at the right:]<br /> :People who open bananas from the other end<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1980:_Turkish_Delight&diff=155795 1980: Turkish Delight 2018-04-13T14:27:36Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1980<br /> | date = April 13, 2018<br /> | title = Turkish Delight<br /> | image = turkish_delight.png<br /> | titletext = I take it Narnia doesn't have Cinnabons? Because if you can magic up a plate of those, I'll betray whoever.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PLATE OF TURKISH DELIGHT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> ''{{w|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe}}'' is a fantasy novel by C. S. Lewis, the first installment of the series ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. In it, a group of 4 sibling children discover another world called Narnia. At the beginning of the story, the land is in a perpetual winter caused by the White Witch (the antagonist of the story). One of the children, Edmund, is approached by the White Witch and offered {{w|Turkish delight}}, a type of confection, in exchange for leading the other children to her.<br /> <br /> {{w|Cinnabon}} is a popular chain restaurant in the USA which serves mostly cinnamon buns covered in a thick, sugary glaze.<br /> <br /> Turkish delight is very different from typical confections found in the modern western world and isn't very popular. Randall comments that if he were in Edmund's shoes he would not have been persuaded.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1980:_Turkish_Delight&diff=155794 1980: Turkish Delight 2018-04-13T14:25:49Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */ First pass</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1980<br /> | date = April 13, 2018<br /> | title = Turkish Delight<br /> | image = turkish_delight.png<br /> | titletext = I take it Narnia doesn't have Cinnabons? Because if you can magic up a plate of those, I'll betray whoever.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PLATE OF TURKISH DELIGHT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> *{{w|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe}}* is a fantasy novel by C. S. Lewis, the first installment of the series *The Chronicles of Narnia*. In it, a group of 4 sibling children discover another world called Narnia. At the beginning of the story, the land is in a perpetual winter caused by the White Witch (the antagonist of the story). One of the children, Edmund, is approached by the White Witch and offered {{w|Turkish delight}}, a type of confection, in exchange for leading the other children to her.<br /> <br /> {{w|Cinnabon}} is a popular chain restaurant in the USA which serves mostly cinnamon buns covered in a thick, sugary glaze.<br /> <br /> Turkish delight is very different from typical confections found in the modern western world and isn't very popular. Randall comments that if he were in Edmund's shoes he would not have been persuaded.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1979:_History&diff=155785 1979: History 2018-04-13T13:57:39Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1979<br /> | date = April 11, 2018<br /> | title = History<br /> | image = history.png<br /> | titletext = HISTORIANS: We've decided to trim the past down to make things more manageable. Using BCE/CE, would you rather we lose the odd-numbered or even-numbered years?<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a HISTORIAN. Needs to be expanded. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic quotes a [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19134214/httpswwwxkcdcom1979/|a lengthy section of the Bloomington Daily Pantagraph's September 30, 1881 issue]. The tragic event referenced throughout is the {{w|Assassination of James A. Garfield|assassination of President James A. Garfield}}. Interestingly, the article is about how closely studied the incident will or will not be in the future. Garfield's assassination is rarely more than a quick note in a history class, leaving only the &quot;dry and tedious&quot; historians to comb through the details.<br /> <br /> The writer also notes that vast quantities of accounts exist of the national grief and trauma caused by Garfield's murder, and wonders whether students in the future will bother to read those accounts to understand it, or simply let historians sum it up without conveying the vastness of the response. That fear at least did prove well-founded; most students are not aware of the fallout of the assassination, or indeed, of Garfield at all. [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are discomfited by the fact there exists a vast, untapped store of information that they have never read, about an event they know little to nothing about despite it apparently causing nationwide trauma. This leads to a larger point about the vastness of history, and the extreme difficult of learning all of it. <br /> <br /> The article itself references other events that would have been in recent memory at the time of publication. For example, it cites the defeat of Roscoe Conkling as a serious event that would fade in importance when compared to Garfield's assassination. Conkling was a senator in Garfield's party who resigned in protest of Garfield's policies, then failed to achieve re-election; contrary to the writer's belief, both these events have faded into roughly the same level of obscurity. He also speculates that there may not be any event in American history that matches the level of grief caused by Garfield's assassination, not even that of Lincoln. In historical memory, however, the Lincoln assassination is still a towering, defining event, whereas Garfield's is a footnote. The bolded sections of the text emphasize how important the author(s) thought this event was.<br /> <br /> The title text indicates that there is more information about the past than can be researched by the manpower of available historians at this time. For whatever reason, be it lack of funding to carry out research or lack of interested people becoming historians, the facetious solution is to just ignore events of either even or odd numbered years. This would essentially halve the amount of data to go through and the amount of time to go through it, but it would be at the detriment of our understanding of all of the context of said events. As an example World War 2 started and ended on odd years, but some of the most tide-turning battles (Fall of France, most of Stalingrad, D-Day) happened on even years.<br /> <br /> Although this format with small panels above and below a larger one has been seen before, there could be an extra joke this time, if it is seen as if there were originally five panels to the comic, but the second and fourth (the even ones) were removed.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[In a small panel top left, Cueball walks up to Megan who is sitting on an office chair holding a tablet showing a screen full of (to the reader) unreadable text.]<br /> :Megan: I read this article in an old newspaper, and I can't stop thinking about it.<br /> <br /> :[Below is a large panel twice as wide as the first, and much longer. It contains the newspaper clip that Megan talks about. Three sections of the text is in normal black font, the rest is in gray font:]<br /> :'''The public events of the last three months are of the class which will go into its permanent history. We have been living in an atmosphere of history which will be immortally preserved.''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Even the brief series of important dates to be collated for the use of the schoolboys of centuries hence will contain the day of the assassination, and the day of the death of President Garfield. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;The intermediate events co-related, like the defeat of Roscoe Conkling, will be of great interest, but will scarcely be likely to stand prominently out from the page of history written in 1881. To us who have been the witnesses, so to speak, of the tragic incidents of the times, it seems entirely probable that future generations will eagerly scan every feature of the recent bereavement which the nation has suffered. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :'''How accurately will future generations know the immense volume of grief and sorrow which has rolled over the land? Will those who come after us ever be able to understand the extent of our loss?''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Is there anything in the first century of our history—even the death of the great Lincoln—which can be used as a parallel? &lt;/font&gt; <br /> <br /> :&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Perhaps a careful reading of the daily papers of the present. period may give some future antiquarian a fine idea of the feelings of the nation during the past summer.&lt;/font&gt; '''But these journals are so large, so full of detail, that we imagine the coming American will never find time to read the record.''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;He must depend on a brief statement, meagerly compiled by some dry and tedious historian. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :::&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;-The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph &lt;/font&gt;<br /> :::&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;September 30,&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; 1881 &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :[The third and final panel is the same size as the first, below and to the right. It contains a zoom in on Cueball and Megan talking.]<br /> :Cueball: Man. The past is so '''''big. '''''<br /> :Megan: How do historians even cope?<br /> :Cueball: I have no idea.<br /> :Megan: I honestly have enough trouble just with the present.<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1979:_History&diff=155696 Talk:1979: History 2018-04-11T14:46:10Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> Heh. I accidentally misread the line, so I thought it said: &quot;I honestly have enough trouble with just the ''president''&quot;. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 11:48, 11 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> :Same here. Then I thought &quot;What the heck?&quot; and read the last line again. Lol. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:20, 11 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> ::And same here, lol! I was actually wondering about what the possible motivations could have been to use Megan as the character to say that. Then I read it again :D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.172|162.158.255.172]] 14:26, 11 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I only make comments, and let others figure out how to edit it into the above. I once read someplace that there is a reasonable limit to accurate historical research at about 3 centuries- events more than 300 years in the past become more mythological than factual, and events more than 500 years in the past are so remote that we can't even begin to understand the culture in which they occurred. While there are famous exceptions to this rule, they occur entirely in the realms of either archaeology or theology and religion, not in the science of history.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:32, 11 April 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The link to the actual page of the paper is fantastic - especially the ads along the right side - &quot;Anti-Morbific, the Great Liver and Kidney Remedy&quot; and &quot;Trash's Magnetic Ointment&quot;. So, a question - there's no by-line. Is there any way to figure out who wrote this? I assume maybe multiple people, like and editorial board? [[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 13:36, 11 April 2018 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1979:_History&diff=155695 1979: History 2018-04-11T14:45:58Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1979<br /> | date = April 11, 2018<br /> | title = History<br /> | image = history.png<br /> | titletext = HISTORIANS: We've decided to trim the past down to make things more manageable. Using BCE/CE, would you rather we lose the odd-numbered or even-numbered years?<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an HISTORIAN. Needs to be expanded. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic quotes a [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19134214/httpswwwxkcdcom1979/|a lengthy section of the Bloomington Daily Pantagraph's September 30, 1881 issue]. The tragic event referenced throughout is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_James_A._Garfield assassination of President James A. Garfield]. Interestingly, the article is about how closely studied the incident will or will not be in the future. Garfield's assassination is rarely more than a quick note in a history class, leaving only the &quot;dry and tedious&quot; historians to comb through the details.<br /> <br /> The punchline comes from not how insignificant this assassination has come to be viewed, but from Megan and Cueball being baffled by the sheer scope of information contained in the past.<br /> <br /> The title text indicates that there is more information about the past than can be researched by the manpower of available historians at this time. For whatever reason, be it lack of funding to carry out research or lack of interested people becoming historians, the facetious solution is to just ignore events of either even or odd numbered years. This would essentially halve the amount of data to go through and the amount of time to go through it, but it would be at the detriment of our understanding of all of the context of said events.<br /> <br /> User Seebert commented, &quot;I only make comments, and let others figure out how to edit it into the above. I once read someplace that there is a reasonable limit to accurate historical research at about 3 centuries- events more than 300 years in the past become more mythological than factual, and events more than 500 years in the past are so remote that we can't even begin to understand the culture in which they occurred. While there are famous exceptions to this rule, they occur entirely in the realms of either archaeology or theology and religion, not in the science of history.&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[In a small panel top left, Cueball walks up to Megan who is sitting on an office chair holding a tablet showing a screen full of (to the reader) unreadable text.]<br /> :Megan: I read this article in an old newspaper, and I can't stop thinking about it.<br /> <br /> :[Below is a large panel twice as wide as the first, and much longer. It contains the newspaper clip that Megan talks about. Three sections of the text is in normal black font, the rest is in gray font:]<br /> :'''The public events of the last three months are of the class which will go into its permanent history. We have been living in an atmosphere of history which will be immortally preserved.''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Even the brief series of important dates to be collated for the use of the schoolboys of centuries hence will contain the day of the assassination, and the day of the death of President Garfield. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;The intermediate events co-related, like the defeat of Roscoe Conkling, will be of great interest, but will scarcely be likely to stand prominently out from the page of history written in 1881. To us who have been the witnesses, so to speak, of the tragic incidents of the times, it seems entirely probable that future generations will eagerly scan every feature of the recent bereavement which the nation has suffered. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :'''How accurately will future generations know the immense volume of grief and sorrow which has rolled over the land? Will those who come after us ever be able to understand the extent of our loss?''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Is there anything in the first century of our history—even the death of the great Lincoln—which can be used as a parallel? &lt;/font&gt; <br /> <br /> :&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Perhaps a careful reading of the daily papers of the present period may give some future antiquarian a fine idea of the feelings of the nation during the past summer.&lt;/font&gt; '''But these journals are so large, so full of detail, that we imagine the coming American will never find time to read the record.''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;He must depend on a brief statement, meagerly compiled by sonic dry and tedious historian. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :::&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;-The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph &lt;/font&gt;<br /> :::&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;September 30,&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; 1881 &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :[The third and final panel is the same size as the first, below and to the right. It contains a zoom in on Cueball and Megan talking.]<br /> :Cueball: Man the past is so '''''big. '''''<br /> :Megan: How do historians even cope?<br /> :Cueball: I have no idea.<br /> :Megan: I honestly have enough trouble just with the present.<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1979:_History&diff=155694 1979: History 2018-04-11T14:42:53Z <p>Smperron: Explained title text</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1979<br /> | date = April 11, 2018<br /> | title = History<br /> | image = history.png<br /> | titletext = HISTORIANS: We've decided to trim the past down to make things more manageable. Using BCE/CE, would you rather we lose the odd-numbered or even-numbered years?<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by an HISTORIAN. Needs to be expanded. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic quotes a [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19134214/httpswwwxkcdcom1979/|a lengthy section of the Bloomington Daily Pantagraph's September 30, 1881 issue]. The tragic event referenced throughout is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_James_A._Garfield assassination of President James A. Garfield]. Interestingly, the article is about how closely studied the incident will or will not be in the future. Garfield's assassination is rarely more than a quick note in a history class, leaving only the &quot;dry and tedious&quot; historians to comb through the details.<br /> <br /> The punchline comes from not how insignificant this assassination has come to be viewed, but from Megan and Cueball being baffled by the sheer scope of information contained in the past.<br /> <br /> The title text indicates that there is more information about the past than can be researched by the manpower of available historians at this time. For whatever reason, be it lack of funding to carry out research or lack of interested people becoming historians, the facetious solution is to just ignore events of either even or odd numbered years. This would essentially halve the amount of data to go through and the amount of time to go through it, but it would be at the detriment of our understanding of all of the context of said events.<br /> <br /> A user commented, &quot;I only make comments, and let others figure out how to edit it into the above. I once read someplace that there is a reasonable limit to accurate historical research at about 3 centuries- events more than 300 years in the past become more mythological than factual, and events more than 500 years in the past are so remote that we can't even begin to understand the culture in which they occurred. While there are famous exceptions to this rule, they occur entirely in the realms of either archaeology or theology and religion, not in the science of history.Seebert&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[In a small panel top left, Cueball walks up to Megan who is sitting on an office chair holding a tablet showing a screen full of (to the reader) unreadable text.]<br /> :Megan: I read this article in an old newspaper, and I can't stop thinking about it.<br /> <br /> :[Below is a large panel twice as wide as the first, and much longer. It contains the newspaper clip that Megan talks about. Three sections of the text is in normal black font, the rest is in gray font:]<br /> :'''The public events of the last three months are of the class which will go into its permanent history. We have been living in an atmosphere of history which will be immortally preserved.''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Even the brief series of important dates to be collated for the use of the schoolboys of centuries hence will contain the day of the assassination, and the day of the death of President Garfield. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;The intermediate events co-related, like the defeat of Roscoe Conkling, will be of great interest, but will scarcely be likely to stand prominently out from the page of history written in 1881. To us who have been the witnesses, so to speak, of the tragic incidents of the times, it seems entirely probable that future generations will eagerly scan every feature of the recent bereavement which the nation has suffered. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :'''How accurately will future generations know the immense volume of grief and sorrow which has rolled over the land? Will those who come after us ever be able to understand the extent of our loss?''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Is there anything in the first century of our history—even the death of the great Lincoln—which can be used as a parallel? &lt;/font&gt; <br /> <br /> :&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;Perhaps a careful reading of the daily papers of the present period may give some future antiquarian a fine idea of the feelings of the nation during the past summer.&lt;/font&gt; '''But these journals are so large, so full of detail, that we imagine the coming American will never find time to read the record.''' &lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;He must depend on a brief statement, meagerly compiled by sonic dry and tedious historian. &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :::&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;-The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph &lt;/font&gt;<br /> :::&lt;font color=&quot;gray&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;September 30,&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; 1881 &lt;/font&gt;<br /> <br /> :[The third and final panel is the same size as the first, below and to the right. It contains a zoom in on Cueball and Megan talking.]<br /> :Cueball: Man the past is so '''''big. '''''<br /> :Megan: How do historians even cope?<br /> :Cueball: I have no idea.<br /> :Megan: I honestly have enough trouble just with the present.<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1615:_Red_Car&diff=106813 1615: Red Car 2015-12-11T14:29:29Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1615<br /> | date = December 11, 2015<br /> | title = Red Car<br /> | image = red_car.png<br /> | titletext = That guy only drives an alkaline car to overcompensate for his highly acidic penis.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This comic is a take on the common stereotype that men who drive expensive cars do so to compensate for a small penis or problems with impotence.<br /> <br /> {{w|Cyan}} is a greenish-blue color that is not a basic color term in most languages. It is the {{w|complementary color}} to red in the CMYK color model.<br /> <br /> [[Megan]], upon seeing [[Hairy]] drive past in a red convertible, tells [[Cueball]] that he must be compensating for his cyan colored penis.<br /> <br /> This comic thus generalizes the original stereotype to an assumption that men drive cars that compensate for problems with their penis. Under this principle, a red car would complement (be the opposite of) a cyan penis. <br /> <br /> In the title text two other opposites are mentioned: {{w|acid}} and {{w|alkaline}}. An alkaline car would complement an acidic penis. This may also be a alkaline battery reference and refer to drivers of expensive electric cars.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[Megan and Cueball are standing next to an intersection as Hairy drives by in a red convertible.]<br /> :Megan: I bet he just drives that car to overcompensate for his cyan penis.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1615:_Red_Car&diff=106812 1615: Red Car 2015-12-11T14:28:40Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1615<br /> | date = December 11, 2015<br /> | title = Red Car<br /> | image = red_car.png<br /> | titletext = That guy only drives an alkaline car to overcompensate for his highly acidic penis.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This comic is a take on the common stereotype that men who drive expensive cars do so to compensate for a small penis or problems with impotence.<br /> <br /> {{w|Cyan}} is a greenish-blue color that is not a basic color term in most languages. It is the {{w|complementary color}} to red.<br /> <br /> [[Megan]], upon seeing [[Hairy]] drive past in a red convertible, tells [[Cueball]] that he must be compensating for his cyan colored penis.<br /> <br /> This comic thus generalizes the original stereotype to an assumption that men drive cars that compensate for problems with their penis. Under this principle, a red car would complement (be the opposite of) a cyan penis. <br /> <br /> In the title text two other opposites are mentioned: {{w|acid}} and {{w|alkaline}}. An alkaline car would complement an acidic penis. This may also be a alkaline battery reference and refer to drivers of expensive electric cars.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[Megan and Cueball are standing next to an intersection as Hairy drives by in a red convertible.]<br /> :Megan: I bet he just drives that car to overcompensate for his cyan penis.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1603:_Flashlights&diff=105040 Talk:1603: Flashlights 2015-11-13T17:33:46Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>it is missimg reference to another comic where randall makes a joke about flashlight and fleshlight. The comic had a star wars setting with death vader and luke skywalker. https://xkcd.com/1397/ --anonymous [[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.41|162.158.153.41]] 15:08, 13 November 2015 (UTC) <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Is that it? I swear there must be more to the joke than this explanation implies. It just describes what's going on in the comic. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 10:29, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> -- Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. [[User:Pete|Pete]] ([[User talk:Pete|talk]]) 11:19, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> &quot;A typo&quot;, uh? Sure, sure, of course it was only a typo, Randall ;) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.57|108.162.221.57]] 10:38, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> :I also think the type was that he searched on flashlight instead and found the flashlight enthusiast page from that ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:58, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think it's unfair to assume lack of detail in the explanation, the fact that research was obviously done on the meaning of fleshlight an it's association to the comic, is more than I would have original got from the comic by itself. However if you perceive additional meaning please share, the thing I love about 'This' website is for the ability for others to add their interpretations. --[[User:Igwarrender|Igwarrender]] ([[User talk:Igwarrender|talk]]) 10:52, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> Quote:<br /> &lt;blockquote&gt;When Cueball refers to classic Flashlights(torches) as dim and finnicky, this gives reason to assume that the flashlight he is holding is going to be ridiculously overengineered.&lt;/blockquote&gt;<br /> I disagree. In the generation of Randall (and me), the flashlights most of us had as kids really did suck and were dim and finnicky. That's not an exaggeration which, as is implied in the explanation, is used to prepare the joke. It's more of an explanation on why he is interested in modern flashlights in the first place. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.225|162.158.91.225]] 10:58, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> : AND they almost always had at least half flat batteries. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 11:41, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It's funny how &quot;the explanation&quot; has a need to point out that there were no prior knowledge about fleshlights. (according to Wikipedia) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.180.197|162.158.180.197]] 12:44, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I never leave for work without my trusty '''Lumapower EDC-LM31''' with its '''Cree XML(U2) LED''' and its '''3.7 volt size 14500 Lithium Ion cell.''' But I'm not a flashlight geek! Besides, 420 lumens is no where near enough power to set trees on fire. (Personally, I think this comic is an example of Rule 34. Randall was originally thinking about Fleshlights, typo'd into flashlights, and discovered a sort of geeky torch porn sort of thing out there. Also, the flashlight I describe is real, but has nothing on the stuff you'll see in Candlepower Forums.) [[User:Co149|Co149]] ([[User talk:Co149|talk]]) 12:52, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> :The 100,000 lumen lamps (X-LED MRK72 or is that MKR72?) have to be water-cooled! That's plenty hot enough for me.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.147|162.158.34.147]] 14:07, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> ::There are videos of flashlights that set things on fire, without lensens etc. One of them is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhdKnMlJ4H4 this] video of an ''Magic Scorpion'' flashlight, a halogen variant. But I've also seen video's of (custom-built) LED flashlight that set things to smolder. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.111|141.101.104.111]] 14:56, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> : It's not lumen that sets things on fire, it's lux. All you need is a good focus. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.101|198.41.235.101]] 17:11, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It feels to me that &quot;their highest-end models are ALSO capable of setting trees on fire.&quot; is some advertisement where the tree is a metaphore for one's organ. as such it is clear that &quot;They're impossible to use without severe burns&quot;. which makes it really twisted that &quot;some [people] swear it's worth it&quot;<br /> <br /> I think the burning trees joke comes from this [[http://www.wickedlasers.com/torch &quot;...even fry and egg&quot;]] thing. --[[User:Arturojain|Arturo Jain]] ([[User talk:Arturojain|talk]]) 14:26, 13 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Should the explanation contain something about the prevalence of internet forums dedicated to enthusiasts of various activities or hobbies? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 17:33, 13 November 2015 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1590:_The_Source&diff=103380 Talk:1590: The Source 2015-10-14T13:13:15Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>As soon as I finished this comic, I started to hear it. Please, make it stop. It's not on the basement, nor the attic. It's getting louder. Driving me crazy. Please. Maybe this gun would help me to shut the noise down. Now, where should I aim it?<br /> :Very dark humour there from anonymous... I guess it will be to late to help him now. But if he misses he will have even more ringing noises in his ears than after reading this comic. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:13, 14 October 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The background noise created by appliances like refrigerators and washing machines is typically generated by their electric motors/pumps which operate at 60 Hz; a frequency I would not consider &quot;high pitched&quot;. The only devices I can think of off the top of my head that generate what I would consider high-pitched noise are TVs (both CRT and flat-screen). [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 13:13, 14 October 2015 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1586:_Keyboard_Problems&diff=102905 1586: Keyboard Problems 2015-10-05T23:47:59Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1586<br /> | date = October 5, 2015<br /> | title = Keyboard Problems<br /> | image = keyboard_problems.png<br /> | titletext = In the future, a group of resistance fighters send me back in time with instructions to find the Skynet prototype and try to upgrade it.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Needs some rewording and reorganizing}}<br /> <br /> This comic is about how people diagnose and solve computer problems. Cueball and Megan are trying to solve a keyboard issue, but are somewhat incompetent at diagnosing the issue. Cueball in particular blames a broken keyboard on software or a keyboard virus.<br /> <br /> In the comic, [[Cueball]] complains that some keys in his keyboard don't work. Generally speaking, this could be due either to a software problem (i.e. the keyboard driver not working properly, or some program ignoring keypresses) or to a hardware problem (the keyboard is physically damaged, typically because of dirt under the keys).<br /> <br /> If the problem is in software, booting from a different operating system (e.g. an external recovery disk) should solve it, as the computer would not be using the faulty software. Conversely, if the problem is in hardware, changing the keyboard should solve the problem as the new keyboard is not physically damaged and has no dirt under the keys.<br /> <br /> However, the problem stays there after booting from an external recovery disk (so it's not a software problem) and it has &quot;followed Cueball since his last computer&quot; (i.e. persists after changing to a new laptop with a new keyboard, so it's not a hardware problem). Cueball is reasonably puzzled.<br /> <br /> [[Megan]] seems to be used to Cueball's computer behaving strangely, and she doesn't even attempt to explain or solve the problem. The only explanation she needs for the problem is that &quot;it's Cueball's computer&quot;. The characters in this comic are probably the same as in [[1084: Server Problem]], [[1316: Inexplicable]], and possibly [[349: Success]].<br /> <br /> Both Cueball and Megan are entirely clueless to the fact that the issue is likely a hardware issue with the keyboards, rather than a virus that spreads between computers. It's possible Cueball uses the computer in a dirty environment with food or dust clogging up all of his keyboards. Blaming such a broken-key problem on software or a virus is completely absurd.<br /> <br /> The last panel is a reference to {{w|The Terminator}}, a 1984 movie often referenced in xkcd. In the movie, the artificial intelligence named Skynet initiates a nuclear war, destroying most of humanity, then it sends killing machines to finish the rest. These include flying drones - Megan suggests that if such robots come to Cueball's vicinity, they will (physically) crash since computers around Cueball can't seem to ever work properly, and so hiding in Cueball's house she should be safe from the robots.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to main plot of the movie and its sequel {{w|Terminator 2: Judgment Day}}. As Skynet's army is losing the battle against the human Resistance movement, it finds a way to send a humanoid robot {{w|Terminator_(character)|T-800}} back in time to kill the mother of the Resistance's leader. The Resistance in turn sends a soldier back in time to protect her. In the sequel, the situation repeats with the more advanced {{w|T-1000}} being the killer and a reprogrammed T-800 being the protector of the child (the future leader). Along the way, they manage to destroy the research lab where Skynet hardware is to be born in the future. The title text suggests an alternative mission into the past, sending Cueball back in time and using his power to cause Skynet to malfunction instead of destroying it physically (as Skynet was created later anyway, despite the destruction of the research lab).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[Cueball sits between two laptops. Megan stands behind him.]<br /> <br /> :Cueball: Keys on my keyboard keep failing, even when I boot from an external recovery disk.<br /> :Megan: Sounds like it's hardware, then.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball moves over to the laptop behind him.]<br /> <br /> :Cueball: Yeah... except the problem followed me from my ''last'' computer.<br /> :Megan: You have the most ''bizarre'' tech issues.<br /> <br /> :[Cueball picks up the keyboard from the rear computer and plugs it into the one in front of him.]<br /> <br /> :Cueball: It must be spreading via keyboards. This one won't work with ''any'' computer now.<br /> :Megan: When the robot apocalypse happens, I'm hiding out in your house. Any Skynet drones that come near will develop inexplicable firmware problems and crash.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Computers]]<br /> [[Category:Terminator]]</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1584:_Moments_of_Inspiration&diff=102630 1584: Moments of Inspiration 2015-09-30T12:55:29Z <p>Smperron: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1584<br /> | date = September 30, 2015<br /> | title = Moments of Inspiration<br /> | image = moments_of_inspiration.png<br /> | titletext = Charles, I just talked to John and Mildred, who run that company selling seeds and nuts, and their kids with MOUTHS are starving!<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> {{w|Isaac Newton|Newton}}'s original examples describing the force of gravity show an apple falling from a tree in order to explain why the apple falls toward the Earth, instead of the Earth falling toward the apple, however, over time this developed into the legend that he was originally inspired by watching an apple fall, and the legend further evolved into the idea that the inspiration came from being actually struck by the apple. The first part of this comic retells that famous legend. The later panels depict similar (but more implausible) legends that could emerge if we were to assume that other scientists' most famous examples and discoveries were based on actually observing these events taking place:<br /> <br /> Someone (possibly {{w|Otto Hahn}}?) threw a ball at {{w|Lise Meitner}}'s porcelain (model) atom collection, and Meitner discovered a way to split the atom. The porcelain might also be also be a reference to {{w|Meissen porcelain}}, in German called &quot;Meißner Porzellan&quot;, where &quot;Meißner&quot; is phonetically very similar to &quot;Meitner&quot;.<br /> <br /> Some of {{w|Charles Darwin}}'s children had beaks, which made them less able to drink soda. (The comic is unclear on whether this makes them more or less fit to survive and reproduce; considering the negative health consequences of soda consumption, it would seem that evolution would favor the humans who cannot drink soda.) This is a reference to Darwin's initial findings on the RMS Beagle on how Galapagos finches with differently shaped beaks are better suited for specific types of food, and therefore are better selected for in environments where those foods are available. (The alt-text furthers this with a description of how beaks rather than mouths are more useful when the foods have shells that need to be cracked open.)<br /> <br /> {{w|Albert Einstein}} remarks to a man that it's annoying that the man's twin brother keeps flashing a light from a train when Einstein is trying to check his clock. He then comes to a sudden revelation. This references several of Einstein's (separate--it makes little sense together in this manner) thought experiments on special relativity, such as the twin paradox (the twin on the train should be younger after decelerating to a stop), the time between separate flashes of light, and the time dilation experienced by the observer in the moving reference frame.<br /> <br /> The &quot;John&quot; and &quot;Mildred&quot; of the title text may be Mildred and {{w|John T. Scopes}} of the famous 1925 &quot;monkey trial&quot; in which John was fined $100 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[Heading: Isaac Newton]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :[Isaac sits under a tree. An apple falls and hits him on the head]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Isaac Newton: Ow!&lt;br&gt;<br /> :&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Isaac Newton: Aha!&lt;br&gt;<br /> :&lt;br&gt;<br /> :[Heading: Lise Meitner]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Cueball: Hey Lise! Think fast!&lt;br&gt;<br /> :[Crash]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Lise Meitner: Oh no! My collection of porcelain atoms! ...Hmm.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :&lt;br&gt;<br /> :[Heading: Charles Darwin]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Megan: I gave our kids soda, but the ones with beaks always have trouble drinking it.&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Charles Darwin: I've noticed that&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Kid 1: [Sip Sip]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Kid 2 (with beak): [Crunch]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Kid 3 (with beak): [Peck Peck]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Kid 4: [Sluurp]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :&lt;br&gt;<br /> :[Heading: Albert Einstein]&lt;br&gt;<br /> :Albert Einstein: I wish your twin brother would stop shining lights at us from that train. I can barely see my clock! ...Wait!&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1582:_Picture_a_Grassy_Field&diff=102438 Talk:1582: Picture a Grassy Field 2015-09-25T14:24:32Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>Yikes! It's like an sql-injection for your imagination. [[User:Nique|Nique]] ([[User talk:Nique|talk]]) 05:28, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe someone should send DiCaprio to hunt for these creatures... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 05:50, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> : I'll see your Leo and raise you one Neo... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.246|162.158.114.246]] 08:00, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Reminds me of [[248|#248]]. --[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 07:39, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe consider SCP-Wiki's Cognitohazards, things that are dangerous once you know of them. The creature described here would be a very mild version of those (Sorry, no idea about the identification methods for non-account holders) {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.165}}<br /> : It actually comes off pretty similarly to a specific item, [http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-637 SCP-637]. They're classified memetic objects. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.91|173.245.55.91]] 13:56, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The Onthological argument?<br /> What does this have to do woth the Cartesian Onthological argument? I suggest the deletion of that part.[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.145|188.114.111.145]]<br /> : Agree [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:08, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> : I think it should be left in (or put back). When I read the comic initially, I immediately thought Randal was poking fun at the ontological argument. For anyone not familiar, the core of the ontological argument is that you can induce god into existence using just words and definitions. Here, Megan essentially creates a mind-attacking being by defining it to exist. Actually, you could go so far as to argue that her mind invader is just the idea of god in and of itself - i.e. a mind invading meme that only exists because you think it exists. Obviously, not everyone here agrees with this view, but I think it should at least be mentioned in the explanation as a possibility. [[User:ActuallySerious650|ActuallySerious650]] ([[User talk:ActuallySerious650|talk]]) 14:16, 25 September 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Is there a name for thought experiments (relaxation techniques?) that start with &quot;Picture a grassy field&quot;? I feel like this is an established thing being referenced that should be included in the explanation. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:24, 25 September 2015 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1556:_The_Sky&diff=98542 Talk:1556: The Sky 2015-07-27T16:43:26Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>Typical, I think nobody's actually going to try to explain this, and I get Save Conflicted. My (wordier) version. In case any of it is useful.<br /> :The sky is ever changing, and can often give interesting views such as that illustrated in the comic. Cueball and Megan seem to be agreeing about this, and its pleasing nature.<br /> :As (ignoring particularly unusual viewpoints, severe topography and obscuring vegetation/architecture) the sky is pretty much the upper hemisphere of any external view, it is inded a &quot;half&quot;. It would seem to be redundant to say it is &quot;one of my favourite halves&quot;, as that indicates both a list of at least two items to choose from ''and'' more than one 'favourite'. Being in 'the top two of a list of two' actually means nothing. But the other half could be the ground ''or'' the sea, ''or'' a composite of the two, so conceivably there ''might'' be more than two 'halves' to choose from in this case. Not that the statement makes much more sense.<br /> :The title-text acknowledges the fact that the other half can have snakes (the land), shipwrecks (the sea) and rocks (either), in a manner that sounds like justifications for any non-sky 'halves' being interesting too, to the kind of people Cueball and Megan seem to be. But it also suggests that by removing all of these you'd be seeing sky, below, that people on the other side of the 'rocks' (the whole Earth) had been seeing as their own 'sky above'. At least until the effects of entirely removing the substance of the planet start to show, of course.<br /> ...for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.168|141.101.98.168]] 11:57, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe, maybe the comic is a slight refference to the recent observetory of plutos athmosphere. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe this comic is related to comic [[1368]]? [[User:Gartenzaun|Gartenzaun]] ([[User talk:Gartenzaun|talk]]) 13:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> :Or this [[1524: Dimensions]]. Regarding the favourite of a small set.-[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't defend this position properly (other than by appealing to shipwrecks) but I'm pretty sure &quot;the other half&quot; is the ocean (or water in general) and that this is a callback to something in early XKCD (the halves thing.) I don't care enough to find the reference though, so FFTI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:18, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> My read on the &quot;halves&quot; bit is the Biblical Genesis bit where the world was split into sky and sea, &quot;And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.&quot; -[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.112|173.245.56.112]] 14:36, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> : Agreed, this appears to be a biblical reference - [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&amp;version=GNT| this version]] explains it pretty clearly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.177|108.162.249.177]] 14:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't tell if the sky is a photograph with a digital filter or a painting. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :I'm pretty sure it's a digital painting. For one thing, there's a little artistic license in the transition from sunset at the left to evening stars at the top right. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 14:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :: I don't see it -- has the picture changed? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 16:31, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ::: I didn't notice the stars at the top right until [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] pointed it out. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think it's important that Megan says the sky is ONE of her favorite halves, and that the explanation &quot;at least at their present location...the ground is dark, flat, and otherwise boring&quot; is thus too simplistic. The ground where they are standing is in silhouette (it's presumably sunrise or sunset), but I think the implication is that C. and M. (who are obviously not finding words adequate to express how they feel about what they're seeing), are awed by the beauty of Nature, regardless of whether it's sky, sea (shipwrecks), land (rocks) or living things (snakes).[[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 15:01, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Is it possible that the meaning of Megan's statement is that there are other binary sets where she prefers one over the other? For example, her favorites might include (in addition to sky) female, light, and loud. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:43, 27 July 2015 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1556:_The_Sky&diff=98539 Talk:1556: The Sky 2015-07-27T16:37:38Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>Typical, I think nobody's actually going to try to explain this, and I get Save Conflicted. My (wordier) version. In case any of it is useful.<br /> :The sky is ever changing, and can often give interesting views such as that illustrated in the comic. Cueball and Megan seem to be agreeing about this, and its pleasing nature.<br /> :As (ignoring particularly unusual viewpoints, severe topography and obscuring vegetation/architecture) the sky is pretty much the upper hemisphere of any external view, it is inded a &quot;half&quot;. It would seem to be redundant to say it is &quot;one of my favourite halves&quot;, as that indicates both a list of at least two items to choose from ''and'' more than one 'favourite'. Being in 'the top two of a list of two' actually means nothing. But the other half could be the ground ''or'' the sea, ''or'' a composite of the two, so conceivably there ''might'' be more than two 'halves' to choose from in this case. Not that the statement makes much more sense.<br /> :The title-text acknowledges the fact that the other half can have snakes (the land), shipwrecks (the sea) and rocks (either), in a manner that sounds like justifications for any non-sky 'halves' being interesting too, to the kind of people Cueball and Megan seem to be. But it also suggests that by removing all of these you'd be seeing sky, below, that people on the other side of the 'rocks' (the whole Earth) had been seeing as their own 'sky above'. At least until the effects of entirely removing the substance of the planet start to show, of course.<br /> ...for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.168|141.101.98.168]] 11:57, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe, maybe the comic is a slight refference to the recent observetory of plutos athmosphere. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe this comic is related to comic [[1368]]? [[User:Gartenzaun|Gartenzaun]] ([[User talk:Gartenzaun|talk]]) 13:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> :Or this [[1524: Dimensions]]. Regarding the favourite of a small set.-[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't defend this position properly (other than by appealing to shipwrecks) but I'm pretty sure &quot;the other half&quot; is the ocean (or water in general) and that this is a callback to something in early XKCD (the halves thing.) I don't care enough to find the reference though, so FFTI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:18, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> My read on the &quot;halves&quot; bit is the Biblical Genesis bit where the world was split into sky and sea, &quot;And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.&quot; -[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.112|173.245.56.112]] 14:36, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> : Agreed, this appears to be a biblical reference - [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&amp;version=GNT| this version]] explains it pretty clearly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.177|108.162.249.177]] 14:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't tell if the sky is a photograph with a digital filter or a painting. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :I'm pretty sure it's a digital painting. For one thing, there's a little artistic license in the transition from sunset at the left to evening stars at the top right. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 14:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :: I don't see it -- has the picture changed? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 16:31, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ::: I didn't notice the stars at the top right until [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] pointed it out. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 16:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think it's important that Megan says the sky is ONE of her favorite halves, and that the explanation &quot;at least at their present location...the ground is dark, flat, and otherwise boring&quot; is thus too simplistic. The ground where they are standing is in silhouette (it's presumably sunrise or sunset), but I think the implication is that C. and M. (who are obviously not finding words adequate to express how they feel about what they're seeing), are awed by the beauty of Nature, regardless of whether it's sky, sea (shipwrecks), land (rocks) or living things (snakes).[[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 15:01, 27 July 2015 (UTC)</div> Smperron https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1556:_The_Sky&diff=98518 Talk:1556: The Sky 2015-07-27T14:49:09Z <p>Smperron: </p> <hr /> <div>Typical, I think nobody's actually going to try to explain this, and I get Save Conflicted. My (wordier) version. In case any of it is useful.<br /> :The sky is ever changing, and can often give interesting views such as that illustrated in the comic. Cueball and Megan seem to be agreeing about this, and its pleasing nature.<br /> :As (ignoring particularly unusual viewpoints, severe topography and obscuring vegetation/architecture) the sky is pretty much the upper hemisphere of any external view, it is inded a &quot;half&quot;. It would seem to be redundant to say it is &quot;one of my favourite halves&quot;, as that indicates both a list of at least two items to choose from ''and'' more than one 'favourite'. Being in 'the top two of a list of two' actually means nothing. But the other half could be the ground ''or'' the sea, ''or'' a composite of the two, so conceivably there ''might'' be more than two 'halves' to choose from in this case. Not that the statement makes much more sense.<br /> :The title-text acknowledges the fact that the other half can have snakes (the land), shipwrecks (the sea) and rocks (either), in a manner that sounds like justifications for any non-sky 'halves' being interesting too, to the kind of people Cueball and Megan seem to be. But it also suggests that by removing all of these you'd be seeing sky, below, that people on the other side of the 'rocks' (the whole Earth) had been seeing as their own 'sky above'. At least until the effects of entirely removing the substance of the planet start to show, of course.<br /> ...for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.168|141.101.98.168]] 11:57, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe, maybe the comic is a slight refference to the recent observetory of plutos athmosphere. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Maybe this comic is related to comic [[1368]]? [[User:Gartenzaun|Gartenzaun]] ([[User talk:Gartenzaun|talk]]) 13:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> :Or this [[1524: Dimensions]]. Regarding the favourite of a small set.-[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't defend this position properly (other than by appealing to shipwrecks) but I'm pretty sure &quot;the other half&quot; is the ocean (or water in general) and that this is a callback to something in early XKCD (the halves thing.) I don't care enough to find the reference though, so FFTI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:18, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> My read on the &quot;halves&quot; bit is the Biblical Genesis bit where the world was split into sky and sea, &quot;And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.&quot; -[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.112|173.245.56.112]] 14:36, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Agreed, this appears to be a biblical reference - [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&amp;version=GNT| this version]] explains it pretty clearly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.177|108.162.249.177]] 14:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't tell if the sky is a photograph with a digital filter or a painting. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)</div> Smperron