explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1703: Juno

2016-07-06T20:06:00Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ I didn't think the reference was too subtle

{{comic
| number = 1703
| date = July 6, 2016
| title = Juno
| image = juno.png
| titletext = "The name wasn't a tip-off?" "Honestly, at first I thought you were saying 'Juneau'. A gravity assist seemed like a weird way to get to Alaska, but I figured it must be more efficient or something."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Title text disputed.}}

This comic was written in honor of the {{w|Juno (spacecraft)|Juno space probe}}, which made headlines the day before this comic aired when it fired its engines and successfully entered into orbit around {{w|Jupiter}}.

It was reported on the day of this comics release that Juno arrived at its orbit [http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2016/07/06/how-juno-arrived-jupiter-one-second-off-schedule/86745128/ one second off schedule]. Since the comic is based on such reports this may explain why the comic was released rather late on this day after the arrival and also why it was not the subject of the previous comic which where released on the day (fourth of July) where the space probe officially reached Jupiter

Speaking at a {{w|NASA}} press conference a blonde woman standing behind a lectern announces that Juno has arrived at Jupiter within one second of its scheduled arrival. After traveling 1.7 billion miles (2.8 billion km) such a precision is very impressive which is acknowledged by someone from the press.

The joke is that one of the NASA engineers, [[Megan]], reveals that they actually intended for Juno to arrive at {{w|Saturn}}, but actually arrived at Jupiter with a timing that was still apparently the same within one second. Given the reaction from the spokesperson she knew this but it was not supposed to slip out.

This is of course ridiculous because if Saturn had been the intended target, Juno would have been off course by 10.25 AU when it arrived at Jupiter. Randall might be making a subtle (or not so subtle) reference to {{w|Mars Climate Orbiter|past difficulties}} NASA has had with [[Converting to Metric|converting to metric]] — in July 2016, Jupiter was 870 million '''kilometers''' (540 million miles) from Earth, while Saturn was 850 million '''miles''' (1.37 billion km) from Earth (and half the distance traveled by Juno). A similar measurement coincidence was noted in [[what if?]] ''{{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}}''. Also Saturn is a [http://www.space.com/18477-how-far-away-is-saturn.html maximum of 1.7 billion '''kilometers'''] (1.1 billion miles) away from the Earth. For Jupiter [http://www.space.com/18383-how-far-away-is-jupiter.html this distance] is 968 million km (601 million miles) away. But when traveling between planets long detours are necessary to reach the goal with a velocity that enables the space craft to go into orbit. So it is just a coincidence that Juno has traveled a distance to get to Jupiter in miles that fits with a possible distance to Saturn in kilometres.

The mix-up of the two planets Jupiter and Saturn could be a reference to the {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)|book}} and the {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|film}} ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' that were written simultaneously. In the book solely written by {{w|Arthur C. Clarke}} they go to Saturn. In the film (from 1968), however, they found it impossible to make Saturns rings well enough for director (and co-writer) {{w|Stanley Kubrick}} so there they ended up at Jupiter instead. (Athur C. Clarke later made the film canonical when he wrote the sequel ''{{w|2010 (film)|2010}}'', where the plot would only work with Jupiter, mainly because of its size and partly due to its {{w|Galilean moons|four big moons}} especially {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}).

==Title text==
Currently there is a disagreement about who says what in the title text. Maybe they will need to be listed as alternatives.

It should be noted that Juno is mostly linked to Jupiter and not to Saturn (the probe was sent to Jupiter in the real world), which fit best with the press speaks first explanation. Also this fits with the order of speaking. NASA, press, NASA and then in the title text press again.

===Press speaks first===
In the title text someone from the press asks if the name of the space probe, ''{{w|Juno (mythology)|Juno}}'', wasn't a tip of given the relation to Jupiter? The goddess Juno was the wife of {{w|Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter}} the chief deity in the {{w|Roman mythology}}. However her father is {{w|Saturn (mythology)|Saturn}} so there are relations to both Gods/planets. Her relationship to Jupiter, however, is most likely more common knowledge explaining the naming of the probe.

However, instead of mentioning this dual relationship one of the three NASA representatives say that at first they even believed it was for {{w|Juneau, Alaska|Juneau}}, the capital of {{w|Alaska}}. Showing that the engineers did not have a clue about the object of the mission. They did wonder why a {{w|gravity assist}} was planned to get there but guessed it was a more efficient method. Given that gravity assist is only relevant for interplanetary missions requiring a flyby of a planet it would never make sense to use to get between two destinations on Earth. Even though {{w|Cape Canaveral Air Force Station}} in Florida, from where the probe was launched, is about as long away from Juneau as it is possible to get inside the borders of the United States.

The mixup of Juno the Goddess and the capital city of Alaska could be a reference to the film ''{{w|Juno (film)|Juno}}'' where the title character is [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/quotes?item=qt0455671 named after the Goddess] as her father is into Roman and Greek mythology (although she calls her {{w|Zeus}} wife, Zeus being the equivalent of Jupiter in {{w|Greek mythology}} where Juno would be called {{w|Hera}}). Later a man introduced to her ask ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/quotes?item=qt0455636 Like the city in Alaska?]'' to which her reply is a plain ''No!''

===NASA speaks first===
In the title text someone, likely a member of the NASA team, asks if the name of the space probe, ''{{w|Juno (mythology)|Juno}}'', wasn't a tip off. In {{w|Roman mythology}} the goddess Juno was the daughter of {{w|Saturn (mythology)|Saturn}} (though also the wife of {{w|Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter}}). However, instead of mentioning this, someone (presumably a member of the press) replies that at first they had thought the probe was named for {{w|Juneau, Alaska|Juneau}}, the capital of {{w|Alaska}}. They had wondered why NASA wanted to use {{w|gravity assist}} to get there, but had guessed that it must be more efficient.

===Megan continues speaking===
The title text might also be continued discussion amongst the NASA representatives. After being shushed, Megan begins needling the spokeswoman about the huge error NASA made. The spokeswoman then admits to being confused about why the mission was so complicated.

==Transcript==
:[At a NASA press conference stands a blonde woman behind a lectern with the NASA logo. To the left stands Megan to the right Cueball, both looking towards the blonde woman.]
:Blonde woman: After traveling 1.7 billion miles, the ''Juno'' spacecraft reached Jupiter within one ''second'' of its scheduled arrival time.
:Logo: NASA

:[A person off-panel to the left comments and all three turns towards the speaker.]
:Off-panel voice: Very impressive!
:Blonde woman: Thank you.
:Logo: NASA

:[All three look straight out as Megan comments on the praise.]
:Megan: I mean, we were ''aiming'' for Saturn. Still, nailed the time.
:Blonde woman: ''Shhhh.''
:Logo: NASA

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1664: Mycology

2016-04-06T18:13:02Z

Suspender guy:

Sounds like a reference to the parasite that infects cats and migrates to humans/rats/mices that make them likes cats so that the parasites can infect other cats. The parasite has been very successful in history
( Toxoplasma gondii ) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.64|173.245.52.64]] 14:17, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
:I just heard that urban legend the other day. Unfortunately, Googling doesn't turn up anything for me to cite. Still, I feel like that is what the comic is referencing. [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 18:13, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1664: Mycology

2016-04-06T18:12:43Z

Suspender guy: Added my thoughts

1645: Toasts

2016-03-30T00:10:32Z

Suspender guy: /* The toasts */ Stereotype much?

{{comic
| number = 1645
| date = February 19, 2016
| title = Toasts
| image = toasts.png
| titletext = Platonic solids for my real friends and real solids for my platonic friends!
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|Toast (honor)|toast}} is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast" to congratulate and for whom a third person "toasts" in agreement.

The comic is based on the quote {{w|Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends}} which, though often attributed to the painter {{w|Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon}} or to {{w|Tom Waits}}, is a toast dating back to at least the nineteenth century. It is also the entire title of a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7q9i6KYmzQ song], the {{w|From_Under_the_Cork_Tree#Track_listing|ninth track}} on {{w|From Under the Cork Tree}}, a 2005 album by {{w|Fall Out Boy}}.

The comic plays on a permutation structure between two words (a type of {{w|chiasmus}}), yielding puns with various effects. In this comic eight persons drink a '''toast''' for their "real friends" and then for some other type of "friends". For the real friend they wish them to have one specific thing. This something is a word (X-Y) that can be split up in two meanings (X and Y), where one of them are then put in front the word friend, to explain what type of friends they are now toasting (often a bad/false type of friend) and then these friends get a wish for having what the word that are left of the original word means: "X-Y for my real friends and real Y for my X friends"

The first example is a typical toast, in Champagne, where this word can be split in the two phonetically similar words Sham and Pain, and the sham friends then get pain. [[#The toasts|Below]] all examples (including the ninth from the title text) are listed with explanation for all words. In some cases the word may actually refer to a drink (like the first with champagne), so that the first word is not something wished for the real friends, but the drink that is in the glass (these have been mentioned below). But for other toasts there is no such drink in existence, and the first word is the thing the toaster wishes for the real friends.

===The toasts===
*''Champagne'' sounds like a combination of the two words ''sham'' and ''pain''.
**{{w|Champagne}} is an expensive sparkling wine.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sham Sham] means false.
**{{w|Pain}} is not so nice to hand out.
***So [[Cueball]] toast his real friends with Champagne and wishes real pain to his false friends.
*''Pseudopods'' can be divided into ''pseudo-'' and ''pods''.
**{{w|Pseudopods}} (which translate to "false feet") are temporary cytoplasm-filled parts of the cell wall that are able to change their form in order to move. They are used in some eukaryotic cells to move around or to eat. Most cells that do this are called {{w|Amoeba|amoeboids}}. The {{w|Amoeba (genus)|amoeba}} is a common example. There is no drink named Pseudopods!
**{{w|Pseudo-}} (lying, false) is used to mark something that superficially appears to be (or behaves like) one thing, but actually is another.
**{{w|Pods}} or {{w|pod}} is not clearly defined. It could refer to {{w|Glossary_of_plant_morphology#Fruit_types|seedpod}} – a dry dehiscent fruit containing many seeds. Pods, both malevolent and benignant, appear in many works of SF and Fantasy.
***So the blonde woman will give her real friends a special part/adaptation of the amoeba. (Doesn't everyone wish they had pseudopods?) But it at least seems better than her pseudo-friends who would receive real pods with intricate ways to kill them.
*''Petticoats'' sounds like a combination of the two words ''petty'' and ''coats''
**A {{w|petticoat}} or underskirt is an article of clothing; specifically an undergarment to be worn under a skirt or a dress. There is no drink named petticoats!
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/petty Petty] means small (in rank of importance), insignificant or narrow-minded. See for instance {{w|petty crime}}.
**A {{w|Coat (clothing)|coat}} is a garment worn by both men and women, for warmth or fashion.
***So [[Megan]] will hand out undergarments for her real friends (a very personal gift) and coats for her less important/insignificant or narrow-minded friends (they seem to be the luckier ones here).
*''Loosestrife'' can be divided into ''loose'' and ''strife''.
**{{w|Loosestrife}} is a common name for plants within two different genera (which are not related): {{w|Lythrum}} (example: {{w|Lythrum salicaria|purple loosestrife}}) and {{w|Lysimachia}} (example: {{w|Lysimachia ciliata|Fringed Loosestrife}}). There is a patent for a [http://www.google.com.na/patents/CN1154814A?cl=en loosestrife drink] but it seems unlikely that this is in the glass.
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loose Loose] in this case means free from restraints, as the opposite of {{w|close friend}}. Loose can also refer to being sexually promiscuous, especially when used as an adjective for people.
**[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strife Strife] refers to bitter, sometimes violent, conflict or discord.
***So the "brunette" woman (i.e. similar hair but less dark than Megan) will give her real friends flowers and for her promiscuous friend she wishes they end up in a real violent conflict.
*''Ladybugs'' can be divided into ''lady'' and ''bugs''.
**{{w|Ladybugs}} (or Ladybird) are a family of insects common all over the world. They are [http://photobucket.com/images/cute%20ladybug considered cute]. There also exist a recipe for a [http://www.1001cocktails.com/recipes/mixed-drinks/104741/cocktail-ladybug.html ''ladybug'' cocktail].
**{{w|Lady}} is a civil term of respect for a woman, specifically the female equivalent to {{w|gentleman}} or {{w|lord}}, but in many contexts a term for any adult woman.
**{{w|Bugs}} in this case refer to {{w|insects}} or {{w|arachnids}}. It could also refer to the scientific classification {{w|Hemiptera}}, the "true bugs", which does not include ladybugs.
***[[Hairbun]] toasts her real friends in the ''ladybug'' cocktail - it could be a cocktail glass she is holding - (rather than giving the ladybugs for her real friends, even though they are [http://www.zazzle.com/cute+ladybug cute bugs] that most people are not afraid of). And then she will bestow real bugs ({{w|beetles}}, {{w|flies}} or {{w|spiders}}) to her lady friends. This is not necessarily all her female friends, it could be only those that are {{w|Lady#British_nobility|noble}} or at least think they are more important and thus would like to be called lady.
*''Single-payer'' can be divided into ''single,'' and payer, a word that rhymes with ''player''. In this case this word is then put together with real to form the word ''RealPlayer''.
**{{w|Single-payer}} refers to single-payer healthcare, a system in which the state, rather than private insurers, pays for all {{w|healthcare}} costs, a system used in several countries, but not so far in the US; it was initially considered but ultimately rejected when the {{w|Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act}}, also referred to as {{w|Obamacare}} by both detractors and supporters of the law, was discussed, passed by the US House and Senate, and signed into law by President {{w|Barack Obama}}. There is no drink named single-payer!
**{{w|Single person|Single}} refers to a person who is not in a relationship or is unmarried.
**{{w|RealPlayer}} is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. It is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm. In the past it has been {{w|RealPlayer#Reviews_and_critiques|criticized}} for containing adware and spyware. This was back from 1999 and up to the 2004 version.
**It is specifically '''not''' the word ''{{w|Single-player video game|single-player}}'' that is used! This word could refer to video games that only one player can play at a time, or when choosing to play single-player in a game where more could have played. ''RealPayer'' is '''not''' a word in use.
***[[White Hat]] thus wishes that his real friends have access to state-funded health care, and all his single friends will get RealPlayer. Since [[White Hat]] is normally benevolent, if naïve, he may imagine that RealPlayer will help his single friends enjoy Internet media, when they are home alone. Maybe he wishes to impress these singles with a free app as a present in the hope that he {{w|Get Lucky (Daft Punk song)|gets lucky}}. If it has been [[Hairy]] this would have seemed very likely… see [[1178: Pickup Artists]]. White Hat has not previously displayed these tendencies too clearly. As mentioned there have been some issues with RealPlayer in the past, but it has stayed on the market for more than a decade. However, since it has {{w|RealPlayer#Current_Status|recently been changed}} into ''RealTimes'' it may not be so cool a gift anyway. Also White Hat might wish to give away the old spy ware version of RealPlayer. But as opposed to most of the special type of friends, ''single-friends'' is not in itself a negative type of friend, especially not if you are yourself single. So no direct reason to make bad wished for single friends as opposed to sham friends.
*''Tumbleweeds'' sounds like a combination of the two words ''tumblr'' and ''weed''.
**{{w|Tumbleweed}} is a structural part of the above-ground anatomy of a number of species of plants, a {{w|Diaspore (botany)|diaspore}} (of seeds) that, once it is mature and dry, detaches from its root or stem, and tumbles away in the wind. The tumbleweed's {{w|Tumbleweed#Symbolism|association}} with the Western film genre has led to a highly symbolic meaning in visual media. But there is also a [http://www.idrink.com/v.html?id=33698 ''Tumbleweed'' cocktail].
**{{w|tumblr}} is a microblogging platform and social networking website
**{{w|Weed}} is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation but in this case it refers to {{w|Cannabis (drug)|Cannabis}} also known as marijuana and many other names including weed and would be used (again in this comic) as a {{w|psychoactive drug}}, i.e. to {{w|getting high|get high}}.
***[[Ponytail]] toast her real friends in the ''Tumbleweed'' cocktail (rather than giving them a western movie symbol, that will spread seeds all over their house), but with her friends on her favorite blogsite ''tumblr'' she will share her expensive weed.
*''Fauxhawks'' can be divided into ''faux'' and ''hawks''
**{{w|Mohawk_hairstyle#Fauxhawk_variants |Fauxhawks}} copies the style of a {{w|Mohawk hairstyle}}, but without shaving the sides of the head and not extending past the peak of the cranium. But there is also a [https://untappd.com/b/starving-artist-brewing-co-fauxhawks/1105627 ''Fauxhawks'' beer].
**{{w|Faux}} is a French word for "false".
**{{w|Hawks}} is a common name for some small to medium-sized diurnal birds of prey, widely distributed and varying greatly in size.
***[[Beret Guy]] thus wishes to cut his real friends hair in a very special way, maybe to his liking and thought of as a favor, but not necessarily liked by all his friends, cause although Beret Guy is weird, it seems that those around him are not. His false friends can have a predatory bird (maybe coming after them), but rather knowing Beret Guys love of all things, just as a present of something he likes, like animals. Alternatively he toast in the beer with that name - could be a fancy beer glass he is holding.
*'''Title text:'''
*''Platonic solids'' can be divided into ''platonic'' and ''solids''
**{{w|Platonic solids}}: In three-dimensional space, a platonic solid is a regular, convex polyhedron. It is constructed by congruent regular polygonal faces with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. Five solids meet those criteria, and each is named after its number of faces: Tetrahedron (a.k.a. "Regular triangle-based pyramid"), Hexahedron ("Cube"), Octahedron (can be considered the union of two square-based pyramids, base-to-base), Dodecahedron and Icosahedron. There is no drink named platonic solids!
**[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/platonic Platonic] means ''not sexual in nature'' as in {{w|platonic love}}, which is a type of love that is celibate and non-sexual. Platonic friends are friends who will never have sex with each other.
**{{w|Solid}} is one of the three fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid and gas). ''Doing someone a solid'' can also mean ''doing someone a favor''
***[[Randall]], must be speaking the title text and he wishes his real friends to have material in regular, convex polyhedron shape where as his {{w|platonic friends}} can get any other kind of solid material, alternatively a solid favor. Platonic friends are not necessarily bad to have so maybe it should be a positive toast for those as well. On the other hand, sometimes it is one friend that has decided it should be a platonic friendship. In this case the other may regret this and not wish good things for this friend.
**''Platonic'' can also refer to {{w|Platonic ideal}}s, which are models that real-life objects and processes implement only imperfectly.
***So while Randall wants his Platonic friends to have solid objects in the imperfect shapes that can exist in real life, he wants his "real friends" to have impossibly perfect hard copies of the regular tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron.

==Transcript==
:[There are two rows of 4 panels each. Each panel shows a different person offering a toast. Each one has some kind of drink in one hand which they hold up.]

:[First row panels:]
:[Cueball holding up a wine glass to the right:]
:Cueball: Champaign for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends!

:[A blonde woman holding up a regular glass to the left:]
:Blonde woman: Pseudopods for my real friends and real pods for my pseudo-friends!

:[Megan holding up a drinks glass to the right:]
:Megan: Petticoats for my real friends and real coats for my petty friends.

:[A "brunette" woman (i.e. similar hair but less dark than Megan) holding up a normal glass with a small umbrella in it to the right:]
:Brunette woman: Loosestrife for my real friends and real strife for my loose friends!

:[Second row panels:]
:[Hairbun holding up a wine glass to the left:]
:Hairbun: Ladybugs for my real friends and real bugs for my lady friends!

:[White Hat holding up a regular glass to the right:]
:White Hat: Single-payer for my real friends and RealPlayer for my single friends.

:[Ponytail holding up a regular glass to the right:]
:Ponytail: Tumbleweeds for my real friends and real weed for my Tumblr friends!

:[Beret Guy holding up a wine glass to the left:]
:Beret Guy: Fauxhawks for my real friends and real hawks for my faux friends!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

User:Suspender guy

2016-02-17T20:29:38Z

Suspender guy:

Whoa! I'm a user now! Whoop-dee-doo. At least my ip address isn't public anymore.

85e99632359891d1cc2dea33f0749ddf3dc1dcc21cfb81cfd26d485384737978

Talk:1425: Tasks

2016-02-17T20:26:24Z

Suspender guy:

the source of title text maybe is Szeliski, ''Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications'' (2010), p. 10. --[[User:Valepert|valepert]] ([[User talk:Valepert|talk]]) 06:59, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

[http://www.wired.com/2012/06/google-x-neural-network/ Google’s Artificial Brain Learns to Find Cat Videos] might be useful as a description of the problem [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 08:34, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

:Sorry for editing your comment but external links have different syntax that internal links so it wasn't working. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:21, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Nice Superman joke there, Pudder! --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.49|141.101.99.49]] 10:26, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
:It had been removed in an edit, so I shoehorned in back in :P --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:25, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
Isn't there an xkcd where the estimate of 5 years of work is equivalent to "might take forever?" [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:16, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure you're refering to 678. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.132|173.245.52.132]] 15:00, 25 September 2014 (UTC)

The link in the description is to a document by {{w|Seymour Papert}} and the [http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Summer_Vision_Project.html?id=qOh7NwAACAAJ book] on the project is also by Papert. Is there any contemporary evidence that it was actually Minsky who assigned the project? I think he just got interested in it later. 14:17, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

[http://xkcd.com/678/ 678: Researcher Translation] is probably what you're thinking of, Rtanenbaum. [[User:Ndgeek|Ndgeek]] ([[User talk:Ndgeek|talk]]) 17:44, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Is it possible that Randall's selection of bird rather than another naturally occurring object is a subtle reference to the Birdsnap app (http://engineering.columbia.edu/it-crow-or-raven-new-birdsnap-app-will-tell-you-0) which has solved some of the aspects of this problem? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.137|173.245.48.137]] 22:02, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

Hopefully I can add that this also seems to make reference to the U.S. Forest Service intention to make everyone have a permit to take pics, etc., in national parks. https://www.yahoo.com/travel/dont-take-that-picture-the-u-s-forest-service-might-98484656432.html {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.21}}

Post the picture to an online forum, say it's a bird, if it's not everyone will correct you as per http://xkcd.com/386/, so scrape forum and if there's a lot of attention it's not a bird, if there isn't much attention it probably is a bird. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.78|141.101.99.78]] 23:06, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

A dev team at Flickr took this comic as a challenge, and set up a PoC at http://parkorbird.flickr.com/ (that seems to work fairly well). --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.135|108.162.210.135]] 20:08, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
:I was duly impressed. It doesn't recognize big bird very well, though. ;) [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 20:26, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

A 'picture of a bird' from a CS perspective is a reverse engineering problem. The picture is a 2 dimensional rendering of a 3-dimensional world and a 'bird' is a 3-dimensional object. It takes years for the mind of a newborn human to be able to recognize a majority of objects based on their 'first look' at a stereoscopic (two-eyes) image presented by their visual cortex. The software equivalency of this would be to create a 3 dimensional representation of objects and create a linear-algebra algorithm that can define the statistical probability that any given shape is within a certain degree of exclusion a matrix representation of the target shape (area) of the 3 dimensional object (bird) based on distance (using spacial reconstruction). It's not impossible, it's just really really hard. - nerd answer {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.166}}
:To be honest I don't think it is impossible to replicate any function of human intelligence and mental capacity on a computer system. It just requires sufficient processing ability, appropriate hardware, and of course, an understanding of how humans do it in the first place. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:29, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

1635: Birdsong

2016-01-28T15:33:31Z

Suspender guy: Changed youtube link to start at the point in the song mentioned in the comic

{{comic
| number = 1635
| date = January 27, 2016
| title = Birdsong
| image = birdsong.png
| titletext = Maybe if I put it in a box for a while with a speaker playing some pleasant pastoral music, I can reprogram it.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows [[Cueball]] walking and singing along with the {{w|songbird}} singing above him; Cueball is apparently enjoying the perfect weather and the birdsong as he comments on both. In the next panel, the bird continues to sing, but now it sings the words to the song "{{w|Smooth (song)|Smooth}}" ([https://youtu.be/6Whgn_iE5uc?t=1m26s official video]) by {{w|Santana (band)|Santana}} featuring {{w|Rob Thomas (musician)|Rob Thomas}}. This gives the word songbird a completely new meaning. The bird's singing begins to annoy Cueball, so he chases the bird with a {{w|butterfly net}} in an attempt to catch it. Meanwhile the bird just continues with the song. (Interestingly the two lines from the last two panels follow each other in the song, but Cueball manages to get hold of the net in between).

The lines the bird sings are (most) of the last three lines from the chorus (see the [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/santana/smooth.html lyrics]):
*And it's just like the ocean under the moon
*Well, that's the same as the emotion that I get from you
*You '''got the kind of loving that can be so smooth, yeah.'''
*'''Gimme your heart, make it real'''
*'''Or else forget about it'''

The comic is a play on the words ''bird'' and ''song''. Songbirds, of course, don't actually sing: the sounds they make are territorial challenges, mating cries, etc. But in Western cultural traditions, particularly the {{w|pastoral}} one, imagining these sounds as 'song' is part of seeing nature as beautiful and harmonious. Ironically, the fact that this bird is really singing urban pop music, is perceived by Cueball to be an intrusion.

In the title text Cueball suggest playing {{w|Pastoral#Pastoral_music|pastoral music}} to 'reprogram' the bird, which is of course an even more unnatural intervention - all with the purpose of restoring the pastoral naturalness of the nature. Of course some birds can actually {{w|Talking bird|emulate human words}}, and in this way also sing real words, like with the {{w|common hill myna}}. Other birds can mimic any odd and unusual sounds, particularly the {{w|lyrebird}} of Australia is known to reproduce all types of sounds from chainsaws to barking dogs and certainly also music.

The title text of "reprogramming" the bird by placing it in a box also refers to {{w|B. F. Skinner|B.F. Skinner}} and his development of {{w|Programmed learning|programmed learning}} through his theories of operand conditioning and behaviorism in psychology. By famously using birds in so-called {{w|Skinner boxes}}, he conditioned birds to respond to certain stimuli and expect rewards for particular behaviors, leading to an understanding of many impulsive behaviors in humans like addiction. Cueball apparently hopes to "correct" the bird and its song through this method.

Lately [[Randall]] has had his characters catch several things (but [[:Category:Butterfly net|never butterflies]]) with a butterfly net; most recently in [[1622: Henge]], where it was the Sun that was caught in the net...

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking and talking, while a bird, flying above him is singing, with four notes floating around it to indicate this. The notes are clearly above and removed from Cueball's text.]
:Cueball (singing): The sun is shining, the birds are singing—

:[Cueball stops and looks up when the bird above him starts to sing using human language, four notes are floating around the text. The text of the bird's song is in ''italic text'' to indicate this.]
:Bird (singing): ''Got the kind of lovin' that can be so smooth, yeah''

:[Cueball looks down and black smoke emanates from the top of his head. The bird now flies above the panel but still sings in human language, four notes are floating below the text.]
:Bird (singing - off-panel): ''Give me your heart, make it real''

:[Cueball is chasing the bird with a butterfly net, the bird is flying away from Cueball, continuing to sing, four notes are floating around the text.]
:Bird (singing): ''Or else forget about it''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Butterfly net]]

1234: Douglas Engelbart (1925-2013)

2016-01-21T22:08:34Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Added some text to give time perspective

{{comic
| number = 1234
| date = July 5, 2013
| title = Douglas Engelbart (1925-2013)
| image = douglas engelbart 1925 2013.png
| titletext = Actual quote from The Demo: '... an advantage of being online is that it keeps track of who you are and what you're doing all the time...'
}}

==Explanation==
The comic describes and references {{w|The Mother of All Demos}} in honor of {{w|Douglas Engelbart}}, who died on July 2, 2013.

The demo is renowned for the numerous technologies Douglas' team introduced, which the comic references before sliding into apocryphal claims. At the first panel he presents various inventions, including the {{w|Computer Mouse}}. The second panel contains the opening lyrics of Leonard Cohen's song {{w|Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)|Hallelujah}}. The "Secret Chord" is a reference to his "Chord Key Set" he also presented at this demo. This relatively obscure device, essentially a piano with five keys, was meant as an alternative to the well-known keyboard. The third is a reference to contemporary internet memes, specifically [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/cats cat pictures] and [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/yolo YOLO].

The title text is a reference to recent revelations about spying by the United States {{w|National Security Agency}}, which was making headlines when this comic was published.

===The inventions in detail===
Several of the inventions presented by Douglas in 1968 were years ahead of their time, and many would prove to be very influential in the development of personal computing. Some of the technologies demonstrated found success in the following decades, while others did not.

'''Cathode ray tube'''
:The German physicist {{w|Ferdinand Braun}} invented the {{w|Cathode ray tube}}, or CRT, in 1897. The Russian scientist {{w|Boris Rosing}} was the first to use the CRT to receive a video signal. CRT was the most common technology used for television screens and computer monitors in the last century, but has since been succeeded by modern devices such as {{w|OLED}}, {{w|plasma display}}, or the ubiquitous {{w|LCD}}. In the demo, Douglas used CRT monitors to demonstrate video conferencing, as well as collaborative real-time editing.
'''Computer mouse'''
:Douglas did refer to this device as a "mouse", but officially it was named the "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System". He filed a [http://www.google.com/patents/US3541541?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false patent] for this device on June 21, 1967 and received the patent on November 17, 1970. Douglas stated: "I don't know why we call it a mouse. It started that way and we never changed it."
'''Text movement/cloning'''
:This is well known today as "cut, copy and paste". On some early text-based systems, the user moved the cursor to the beginning of the text to be copied, typed <CTRL>+K+B , and then moved the cursor to the end of the copied text and typed <CTRL>+K+E. At the demo, Douglas demonstrated that the same task could be accomplished with the mouse. Today, many people do not use keyboard commands for cut, copy and paste, and instead use the mouse exclusively.
'''Joint file editing'''
:Text editors were in the nascent stage of their development in 1968. Douglas demonstrated the first text editor capable of "joint file editing". The first successful system to implement joint file editing came 15 years later, when {{w|Concurrent Versions System|CVS}} was made available in the middle of the 1980's.
'''E-mail'''
:Although not referred to as e-mail, Douglas demonstrated the exchange of "direct messages", which fulfills a similar role to modern e-mail.
'''File sharing'''
:The demo also demonstrated the exchange of files between users, paving the way for modern file sharing, and the associated legal and ethical debate.
'''Audio codec'''
:Douglas demonstrated a "masking codec" capable of coding and decoding an audio stream. This would eventually lead to the development of the wide variety of modern audio codecs, including the MP3 codec, which was produced by the {{w|Fraunhofer Society}}.

===Concepts that Douglas did not invent===
The third panel exaggerates Douglas' claims to a hilarious and ridiculous level.

'''{{w|Image macro}}s'''
:A form of image with large text, typically in the font "Impact", superimposed over a photograph, typically for humorous effect.
'''{{w|LOLcats}}'''
:The most famous of the image macros, featuring cats.
'''YOLO'''
:As the fictional Douglas states, this is an acronym for "you only live once". It has been around for at least a century, but in 2011 it saw a huge boost in popularity in both youth culture and internet memes mocking youth culture.

==Transcript==
:San Francisco, December 9th, 1968:
:[We see a figure talking into a headset. It's a fair assumption that it's Douglas Engelbart.]
:Douglas: ...We generated video signals with a cathode ray tube... We have a pointing device we call a "mouse"... I can "copy" text... ... and we have powerful join file editing... underneath the file here we can exchange "direct messages"...
:[Douglas continues to narrate. Some music is playing.]
:Douglas: ...Users can share files... ... files which can encode audio samples, using our "masking codecs"... The file you're hearing now is one of my own compositions...
:Music: I heard there was a secret chord
:[Douglas continues to narrate.]
:Douglas: ...And you can superimpose text on the picture of the cat, like so... This cat is saying "YOLO", which stands for "You Only Live Once"... ...Just a little acronym we thought up...

==Trivia==
*The full original video of the demo from December 9, 1968 is available at the [http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html Stanford] website. The "Chord Key Set" can be found at Clip 13.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Internet]]

872: Fairy Tales

2016-01-13T19:37:09Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Added note about facial recognition eigenvectors. Don't have a citation, but I read about it somewhere.

{{comic
| number = 872
| date = March 14, 2011
| title = Fairy Tales
| image = fairy tales.png
| titletext = Goldilocks' discovery of Newton's method for approximation required surprisingly few changes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Eigenvalues and eigenvectors|Eigenvectors}} are a mathematical concepts that can be applied to a {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrix}}. A matrix is mostly displayed as an rectangular array of elements used to describe the state of objects in physics. In pure mathematics they can be much more complex. The most important issue to the understanding of the comic is that a matrix can be transformed through various processes. These transformations can include rotation, movement and scaling of the object described by the matrix. An eigenvector refers to elements of the vector space of the matrix which remain unchanged (except possibly being scaled to be longer or shorter) after the transformation is applied. The prefix 'eigen-' applied to the term is adopted from the German word ''eigen'' for "self-" or "unique to", "peculiar to", or "belonging to." As the eigenvector remains unchanged through the transformation of the matrix it can be used to describe something unique about that matrix.

The concept of an eigenvector has nothing to do with the fairy tale {{w|Cinderella}}, therefore [[Megan]] confuses [[Cueball]] when she asks whether it occurred in the story of Cinderella.

The story of Cinderella includes Cinderella going to a ball in disguise, dancing with a prince and then leaving early and quickly, so that she accidentally leaves a glass slipper behind. The prince then uses the shoe to find Cinderella. Megan says that the way she learned it, the prince used an eigenvector and corresponding eigenvalue to match the shoe to its owner. This is a somewhat logical mathematical connection to make as eigenvectors, unchanged properties of mathematical matrices that may allow for mathematical identification of the changed matrix, correspond to the unchangeable property of the shoe (size) that allowed the prince to correctly identify the owner of the shoe even after the shoe was misplaced. Eigenvectors are sometimes used in facial-recognition software to match 2 faces.

Megan explains that her mother would talk about her work, math, while she fell asleep in the midst of reading bed time stories. The middle panel refers to the story of {{w|The Ant and the Grasshopper}} with the addition of what is likely a reference to the {{w|Poincaré conjecture}}, a (now-misnamed) theorem in mathematics. Megan also mentions two other story changes. Inductive White and the (''n''−1) Dwarfs is a combination of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the {{w|Mathematical induction|principle of induction}}, and The lim''x''→∞(''x'') Little Pigs combines the {{w|Three Little Pigs}} with {{w|Limit (mathematics)|mathematical limits}}. It "got weird toward the end" because the number of pigs tends to infinity as the story progresses. Each of the stories has a varied degree of similarity to the mathematical concepts that were mixed in as though the professor began to talk about a mathematical principle that may have been brought to mind while reading the story or already on her mind.

In the title text, {{w|Newton's method}} for approximation is a method for finding successively better approximations to the zeroes (or roots) of a real-valued function. In {{w|The Story of the Three Bears|Goldilocks}}, the protagonist finds successively better porridge and comfier chairs in a house where three bears lived. In the same way, in the Mom's version of the fairy tale, she would find successively better approximations to zeroes instead of successively better bowls of porridge.

==Transcript==
:[Megan sits in an armchair, reading a book.]
:Megan: Are there eigenvectors in ''Cinderella''?
:Cueball: ...no?
:Megan: The prince didn't use them to match the shoe to its owner?
:Cueball: What are you ''talking'' about?
:Megan: Dammit.
:[Megan is in bed, mom is sitting on the edge of the bed reading.]
:My mom is one of those people who falls asleep while reading, but keeps talking. She's a math professor, so she'd start rambling about her work.
:Mom:But while the ant gathered food ...
:Mom:...zzzz...
:Mom:...the grasshopper contracted to a point on a manifold that was ''not'' a 3-sphere...
:I'm still not sure which versions are real.
:Cueball: You didn't notice the drastic subject changes?
:Megan: Well, sometimes her versions were better. We loved ''Inductive White and the (n−1) Dwarfs''.
:Megan: I guess ''The limx→∞(x) Little Pigs'' did get a bit weird toward the end...

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

User:Suspender guy

2015-12-22T17:13:26Z

Suspender guy: Created page with "Whoa! I'm a user now! Whoop-dee-doo. At least my ip address isn't public anymore."

Whoa! I'm a user now! Whoop-dee-doo. At least my ip address isn't public anymore.

Talk:416: Zealous Autoconfig

2015-12-22T17:12:16Z

Suspender guy:

I have my network autoconfig set up to run a rainbow table attack if there's a password on the network. Wifi everywhere is great. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 15:05, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
:That's superb! [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 17:12, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

But how would the school know about the Lenhart children if Mrs. Roberts deleted the students table? {{unsigned ip|184.11.73.88}}}
:I say it'd be a liveware attack. A voice-call from the application, with in-built speech-synthisis and speech-recognition capabilities, requesting information from the school secretary him/herself. Probably a Black Hat construction. Or Hartigan (/whoever) from the Leverage series... ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.107.249.215|178.107.249.215]] 23:43, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

I think Miss Lenhart must be the Lenhart children's paternal aunt. Their mother is most probably Mrs. Lenhart. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 02:20, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

When I saw "Ctrl + C" my first thought was "copy." It's the dumb thing about windows and every implementation that uses that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.217|108.162.245.217]] 14:02, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

It gets worse! I regularly use Konsole, where ctrl-c cancels things; ctrl-shift-c copies, but then I start using ctrl-shift-c in Chrome and end up debugging web pages instead of copying text. GAH! {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.157}}

A similar concept to [[538: Security]]. [[User:Shanek|Shanek]] ([[User talk:Shanek|talk]]) 12:29, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Believe it or not, you can use ctrl-insert to copy on almost any linux or windows program. Shift-delete is cut and shift-insert is paste. --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 13:13, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

XKCD 1479 right here.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.124|108.162.237.124]] 17:49, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

I think there's also a pun on "acquired". A network address can be acquired, but when children are acquired it means something quite different. (However, in context they are both required to connect.) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.32|198.41.238.32]] 11:22, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

User talk:St.nerol

2015-11-12T03:41:44Z

Suspender guy: /* Thanks! */ new section

==We're trying to cut down on new categories==
Hello, welcome to the wiki. Thanks for spam fighting. We're using Categories as a broad way of finding related comics. By creating lots of specific categories it limits the number of related comics to just a few. We've decided to not use Categories as a kind of ad-hoc tag cloud, but to help people find possibly related comics. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:18, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
:Hi! Well, I have actually read your long post about the categories in the portal, and I can't say anything more than that I really agree with you! I think that several of the existing categories feels too specific. (For example, I suspect that we never will find more than two comics related to the "Axiom of Chioce", but on the other hand, Logic and Set theory are two areas related to math that I know Randall is often coming back to.) Flowcharts was probably the most specific I created, and even though I only tagged two (?) I think that there exists at least a handful of them. (One named "Flow Chart" was not yet explained.) I worried instead that maybe some of the categories I created were almost too broad, like "Computers". – [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 09:44, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

::Eh, more tags also make it harder to completely tag pages, because there's more to remember. Brains can only process so much when creating new pages. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 09:59, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

:::And some comics will also be borderline cases whether they fit in a certain category or not. So I think we shouldn't have too high expectations on being completely "done". But the way I think, someday I might go through all comics and try to complete for example the Sarcasm and the Language tags. Or the Physics and the Math tags. Or the ones with color. So we're in a progress. --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 10:48, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
:::"Puts on sunglasses", "Windmills", "Wingsuit", "Airships", and "Axiom of Choice" are, I think, superfluous categories. Though there might be more comics on these subjects than I know about, and if somebody finds them useful I don't really mind them being there. :) --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 11:10, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Uh. Please, I can barely remember all the categories we have right now. Try to hold back and finish what we already have. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:27, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:Seconded. Again. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:33, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
::I'm disappointed. Do you really think that "Physics", "Music" and "Philosophy" are bad categories, or are you just worried that ''you'' won't remember them? Well, maybe I should just leave this and focus more on my studies instead. -[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:49, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

:::There's a [[:Category:Comics by topic|lot of categories]] right now, and I think the wiki would be better served if we finished applying all the categories that we already have. When we're finished polishing what we have off, we can start making new categories. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:47, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

:::I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression the messages above were triggered by the Julia Stiles category, which, indeed, is too specialized at the moment. On the other hand, there is no need for a single editor to be able to know all categoies by heart. The wiki way is "progressive enhancement" and comics will ''eventually'' be tagged by editors if they notice a missing category. Besides, there's a [[Special:Categories|list of categories]] precisely for that, as well as [[Special:SpecialPages|several other]] category-related special pages. But regardless of the outcome of such opinion differences, let's not let such disagreements discourage either side. We are very few and every helping hand is precious. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 14:35, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

::::I've never heard about Julia Stiles. I think it was triggered by the Philosophy category. I ''have'' been working a lot on applying the categories we have. It's when I do this that I sometimes see a category wanting. I think it saves some effort if I can create the category while I'm at it, instead of having to wait and later go through the comics again. --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:32, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

==[[Proof]]==
Nerol, you are espousing a minority view. http://www.google.com/search?q=zeno+arrow+instantaneous+derivative - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:09, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
:The derivative can be written as dx/dt. This presupposes an (arbitrarily) small time interval. The definition of the derivative involves taking a limit. And we can talk about the limit value. We get the velocity. Honestly I think the greeks knew about "velocity" too. But in the paradox: could dt in dx/dt actually be zero? -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 11:50, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
::Yes. That's the whole point of limits and derivatives. If values arbitrarily close to a point are convergent, then the derivative exactly at the point is equal to the limit. That's why dx/dt is called instantaneous velocity.
::The articles in that search also cover infinite steps in finite time. Majority views of science consider Zeno's paradoxes resolved, and the explanation should reflect that. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 12:41, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
:::An example: you don't need modern mathematics to calculate ''exactly'' when Achilles overtakes the tortoise. And you don't need a rigorous formulation of limits to make sense of the concept of velocity. Math here is an excelent ''tool'', but it ''describes'' motion, it doesn't ''explain'' it. (Heck, if anyone could even explain to me how it can be that a formal intellectual game so wonderfully relates to the physical world.) Also, it seems to be an open problem whether space-time is fundamentally continuous or discrete. If it is discrete, a calculus description becomes purely nonsensical at small enough time intervals. -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:29, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
::::If we were relying on physical reality for this argument, then Zeno's paradoxes are trivially disproven by counterexample. Motion exists, things get hit by arrows, and the article should baldly mock him for claiming otherwise.
::::Therefore, I assumed we were sticking to the realm of theory, where time and space are uniform, flat, and infinitely divisible. In that realm, infinitesimal calculus is generally considered superior to Zeno, and the article should reflect that. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 15:04, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
::::p.s. Limit discussion to Zeno vs Leibniz (vs Law), because that's what's in the comic.
:::::Yes, that was a sidtrack. (though quantum theory is very theory-heavy) My strong understanding is that calculus splendidly ''describes'' physical reality, but not so well ''explains'' metaphysical concerns. I'm a student in both these diciplines, though by far yet an expert, and very interested in the intersection between physics and philosophy. And I agree that the analogy with the infinite sum adds interesting input. On the other hand, "derivative" would in the context be rather excangeable for "velocity", which I'm sure the greeks had a word for. I don't feel that it adds any perspective. Others do, so I hesitated in removing that sentence, but I also felt it was a bit confusing. Please add a reasonable sentence about the derivative if you want to.
:::::Lastly, one can easily find that professional and other opinions about the paradoxes show a vast variation. (Btw, Wikipedia just taught me an tough variation on the paradoxes: {{w|Thomson's lamp}}. There are several proposed solutions to them, but the question is by far settled, and there is no academical consensus. The explanation surely does reflect that? -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:53, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
{{outdent}}
:(resetting indentation because too many colons)
:Thought experiments in "idealized classical reality" are fun. It's a Cartesian Newtonian universe containing infinite flat planes (optionally frictionless) and perfectly spherical cows.
:Thompson is a bit less "real" than Zeno because it requires infinite acceleration & velocity. But it reminds me of a similar paradox involving an infinitely large ball pit (or jar, or bag, or other container). At every step, you add X balls (arbitrary integer > 1) then remove one of them. At midnight, obviously there should be infinite balls in the pit. However, if the balls are numbered, and you add them in numerical order, then remove them in the same order, it is clear that for every number, you can compute the exact time before midnight that it is removed. In this case, the ball pit is empty at midnight. {{w|Georg Cantor}} for the win!
:I will attempt to compose a more balanced approach to Leibniz vs Zeno. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 18:33, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
::I read your changes & they were good, really. I added a parenthesis about continuous vs discrete spacetime, but I don't think that you will find it objectionable. Please check it so that I can know you are happy with the reading! --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:32, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

==Preview feature==
Hi, please do always a preview before you save a page. The recent changes page would be much smaller and more easy to explore.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:18, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
:I have a feeling it might take some time to make that routine, but I'll try. ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 22:19, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

== Blue Eyes ==

I added the page [[Blue Eyes]] – {{unsigned|108.162.221.53}}

:Nice! – [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 21:23, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

== Thanks! ==

This edit[http://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1184:_Circumference_Formula&diff=prev&oldid=30254] made me quite happy. I actually went to look through the edit history to find who added it.
Thanks for brightening my day. God bless! [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 03:41, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

928: Mimic Octopus

2015-11-09T16:19:09Z

Suspender guy: Fixed tag

{{comic
| number = 928
| date = July 22, 2011
| title = Mimic Octopus
| image = mimic_octopus.png
| titletext = Even if the dictionaries are starting to give in, I refuse to accept 'octopi' as a word mainly because--I'm not making this up--there's a really satisfying climactic scene in the Orson Scott Card horror novel 'Lost Boys' which hinges on it being an incorrect pluralization.
}}

{{Incomplete|There really isn't any explanation of the scene from Lost Boys}}
==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of fish and sea-life identification charts, referencing the {{w|mimic octopus}} which, as the name implies, is able to mimic other animals. The creatures the octupus mimics include tuna, a clownfish, a lionfish, a shark, what appears to be seaweed, an angler fish, an anchor, a submarine, a scuba diver, multiple fish, and a single octupus.

The {{w|Orson Scott Card}} novel that the title text refers to is ''{{w|Lost Boys (novel)|Lost Boys}}'': "A withdrawn eight-year-old in a troubled family invents imaginary friends who bear the names of missing children" (Publisher's Weekly).

According to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFyY2mK8pxk Merriam-Webster Dictionary], "octopi," "octopuses," and "octopodes" (UK English) are all correct plural versions of "octopus."

==Transcript==
:Southeast Asian Sea Life
:Identification Chart
:[There are silhouettes of eight individual fish, a school of fish, a scuba diver, an anemone, a submarine, and an anchor, each labeled "Mimic Octopus." There is also a silhouette of an octopus, labeled "Two Mimic Octopuses."]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Biology]]

928: Mimic Octopus

2015-11-09T16:18:28Z

Suspender guy: Added incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 928
| date = July 22, 2011
| title = Mimic Octopus
| image = mimic_octopus.png
| titletext = Even if the dictionaries are starting to give in, I refuse to accept 'octopi' as a word mainly because--I'm not making this up--there's a really satisfying climactic scene in the Orson Scott Card horror novel 'Lost Boys' which hinges on it being an incorrect pluralization.
}}

{{Incomplete|reason=There really isn't any explanation of the scene from Lost Boys}}
==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of fish and sea-life identification charts, referencing the {{w|mimic octopus}} which, as the name implies, is able to mimic other animals. The creatures the octupus mimics include tuna, a clownfish, a lionfish, a shark, what appears to be seaweed, an angler fish, an anchor, a submarine, a scuba diver, multiple fish, and a single octupus.

The {{w|Orson Scott Card}} novel that the title text refers to is ''{{w|Lost Boys (novel)|Lost Boys}}'': "A withdrawn eight-year-old in a troubled family invents imaginary friends who bear the names of missing children" (Publisher's Weekly).

According to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFyY2mK8pxk Merriam-Webster Dictionary], "octopi," "octopuses," and "octopodes" (UK English) are all correct plural versions of "octopus."

==Transcript==
:Southeast Asian Sea Life
:Identification Chart
:[There are silhouettes of eight individual fish, a school of fish, a scuba diver, an anemone, a submarine, and an anchor, each labeled "Mimic Octopus." There is also a silhouette of an octopus, labeled "Two Mimic Octopuses."]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Biology]]

34: Flowers

2015-11-06T21:26:22Z

Suspender guy: Added inverted and desaturated image of the comic, to illustrate the title text.

{{comic
| number = 34
| date = November 9, 2005
| title = Flowers
| image = flowers.jpg
| titletext = This is actually pencil on paper, just inverted and colored
}}
==Explanation==
This is a drawing of flowers that [[Randall]] made. It seems the flowers are based on his imagination, rather than being a real species - see the original quote in the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section.

The title text explains that Randall originally drew the flowers in pencil on normal paper. He did thus not paint them. Instead he used the invert feature of a photo-editing program to reverse it from black-on-white to white-on-black. After that he added color to the flowers.

==Trivia==
As noted in the title text, the original drawing for the comic was made in pencil, then inverted and colored. The image below is a re-inverted, desaturated version of the comic, which gives a good approximation of what the original drawing might have looked like.

[[File:flowers_inverted.jpeg|200px|thumb|left|Inverted and desaturated version of the comic.]]

==Transcript==
:[A sketch of flowers, drawn in green, red and yellow on a black background.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 30th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[30: Donner]].
**The next was [[29: Hitler]].
*Original title: "Wednesday's Drawing - Flowers"
*Original [[Randall]] quote:
::"Original drawing is pencil on {{w|graph paper}}.
::Bonus points if you can identify the flowers. 'cause I sure can't."
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 30]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

File:flowers inverted.jpeg

2015-11-06T21:22:59Z

Suspender guy: Inverted version of comic #34, "Flowers", to show how the comic was made.

== Summary ==
Inverted version of comic #34, "Flowers", to show how the comic was made.
== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file derived}}

66: Abusive Astronomy

2015-11-06T21:14:29Z

Suspender guy: Added inverted image of the comic, to illustrate the title text.

{{comic
| number = 66
| date = February 20, 2006
| title = Abusive Astronomy
| image = abusive_astronomy.jpg
| titletext = Medium: Pencil on paper
}}
==Explanation==
An asterism is a pattern of stars which form some sort of perceived shape in the night sky. Some of these are patterns are used to name regions of the sky, as constellations. Modern astronomy organises the sky into 88 constellations, but different cultures saw different patterns in the same night sky, going back at least as far as the Babylonians and there are many other patterns and grouping of stars. The {{w|Pleiades}}, {{w|Orion's belt}} and the {{w|Big Dipper}} are among the most common asterisms that we recognize today and are among the first taught to people with an interest in astronomy. The Pleiades is an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, it is a group of stars which formed from the same nebula, and are moving together. Orion's belt consists of three stars which appear close in the sky, but are in fact at great distance from each other. The Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major. It can be used to help find the north pole star {{w|Polaris}} which is an aid to night-time navigation.

During planetarium tours, the tour guide will point out popular constellations and stars, sometimes they will ask a question to get the audience involved in the presentation. Usually these people are big on showing the wonder of the galaxy and are all smiles, but people have bad days. The comic is presenting an especially aggressive way of introducing the night sky.

When astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere are showing stars to people, there will frequently be someone who points to the Pleiades and says, "There's the Big Dipper!" (both appear as a trapezium of stars, with a handle, though the Pleiades is much smaller). This gets frustrating about the 100th time that you encounter this error. So, this comic could show someone releasing their frustration on the misinformed public by pointing out that what they just pointed at is actually the Pleiades. Then, pointing out that you can always locate the Pleiades by following the line of the stars in the belt of Orion. Then, pointing out the REAL Big Dipper.

In the title text, [[Randall]] explains that he drew this comic as a line drawing on white paper, using only a pencil. The image was later inverted for publication.

==Trivia==
As noted in the title text, the drawing for this comic was originally done in pencil, then inverted. Here is a re-inverted version of the file, to show (approximately) what the original drawing looked like.

[[File:Abusive_Astronomy_Inverted.jpeg|200px|thumb|left|Inverted version of the comic.]]

==Transcript==
:Identifying star clusters:
:[Image of a star cluster.]
:This is the Pleiades, asshole.

:Orion's Belt:
:[Image of Orion's Belt.]
:Only a moron couldn't find it.

:This is the Big Dipper:
:[Image of the Big Dipper.]
:What the hell is wrong with you?

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

File:Abusive Astronomy Inverted.jpeg

2015-11-06T21:09:04Z

Suspender guy: Comic #66, "Abusive Astronomy", inverted to show how it was made. (See title text.) Inverted using GIMP.

== Summary ==
Comic #66, "Abusive Astronomy", inverted to show how it was made. (See title text.)

Inverted using GIMP.
== Licensing ==
{{XKCD file derived}}

1350: Lorenz

2015-11-01T17:10:01Z

Suspender guy: Could not reproduce these bugs

__NOTOC__
{{comic
| number = 1350
| date = April 1, 2014
| title = Lorenz
| image = lorenz.png
| titletext = Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story
}}
<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;">__TOC__</div>
'''NOTE: The above is the first panel of an interactive comic.''' 
To actually experience the interactive content you need to go to this comic on xkcd (click on the date above the comic, which, as always, takes you to the xkcd comic) 
For a collection of images that appear in this comic, see [[1350: Lorenz/Images]]. These will also be described below under [[#Themes|themes]]. 
Also note that the order of the options are random. And by adding that there is a fifth option - and only four can be shown - this means there are 5*4*3*2 = '''120 different permutations''' of the way the options can be arranged only in this first image. So the above image will only appear with these four options in this order in less than 1% of the cases! Of course when you choose an option it is indifferent what the order of the other options was.

==Explanation==
This is an interactive and dynamic comic with the first picture shown on top of this page, with a possible combination of text options to choose from (see above). The picture is always the same but the order of the four sentences is chosen randomly. The result of all the interactions by the readers led to the generation of {{w|Crowdsourcing|crowd-sourced content}}. In honor of {{w|April Fools' Day}}, the comic was posted a day earlier than normal (on Tuesday instead of Wednesday).

The title 'Lorenz' is referring to {{w|Edward Norton Lorenz}} who, among other subjects, was famous for {{w|Chaos theory}} and the {{w|Butterfly effect}}.

The title text is a reference to how the story line of this comic will be chaotic by nature, since it includes all of the user submitted dialogue and updates over time based on statistics of user clicks. In this manner, it is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.

This comic is an example of a {{w|Choose Your Own Adventure}} story as mentioned in the title text.

Some of the idea of this comic is used again in the next year's April Fools' comic [[1506: xkcloud]] where user input also generated a very complex comic and the concept of "[[#Permalink|permalink]]" was used again.

==Functionality and bugs==
The reader is initially presented with only one panel where Knit Cap Girl is sitting in front of her computer. The reader is given multiple choices concerning what exactly Knit Cap Girl is thinking. Upon choosing any option - the chosen text will appear where her gray speech bubble was (and this will then disappear), and then a second panel appears to the right, to give continuity to the story. Each new panel may have a new set of options or just the button "Continue" to see the next panel without making any choice in particular. Eventually, one may reach a dead end in which the story is interrupted and reader is presented with a text box to suggest how it should continue. Some of the suggestions given should eventually become available as new options.

===Knit Cap Girl===
Knit Cap Girl is a completely new character wearing a knit cap. Since Knit Cap Girl seems to be together with [[Hairy]] in this comic it would be strange if she should be representing Megan. (Hairy has some bad reputation in trying to fool girls to fall for him. Perhaps he has finally found out how to be with a woman; although they seem to fight in this comic some times.)

===Number of options===
Normally, there is a total of 4 options to make: a/b/c/d. Their order changes constantly. Sometimes, there are 3 or fewer options, with the text box to suggest an alternative option. Sometimes, a given panel actually has 5 or more available options, although even in this case only 4 options appear at a time. Refreshing the comic changes randomly which of the available options are visible and which are hidden. As of late April 2014, the existence of 5 options seems to occur only in a few rare cases, including the first panel itself. There are no longer any panels that seem to have six options.

===Easy navigation===
Instead of clicking with the mouse you can move more quickly through the panels using the keyboard:
*Up/Down - navigate options
*Enter/Right/Spacebar - choose option after navigating with Up/Down
*Left - go back one panel
*a/b/c/d - choose any option directly

===New panels===
It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog are submitted. The dialog options could be based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B testing|A/B measurement techniques}}. This will mean that the most popular choices for dialog lines will prevail as the statistics build up. In some cases, dialog line options do not depend on the continuity of the storyline followed, suggesting that some parts of the story are planned. For example, several of the story lines involve one of the two main characters waking up and for instance telling the other character, "I had the strangest dream…" or even reliving the dream. This may be due to common submissions across story lines. Of course there is the other option that Randall has used the first week of April to look though some input and choose himself. These possibilities are not mutually exclusive. Some of the options that were there very early were in quite poor English. Later the same idea was still there but in a more refined sentence. However, after the first week or two, no new panels seemed to appear, which suggests that some were drawn to match the story's progression.

===Permalink===
A "{{w|permalink}}" is a portmanteau, of "permanent-link". Each panel has a "permalink" button which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader — so a reader can save the chosen choices to compare them to other ways going through the selections. The permalink do only save the chosen options, not the order or the visible options in the image where the permalink is recorded. So it is not possible to save a copy where the options are in the same order as they are in the 1/120 version shown at the top. Also if you go back in the story from a permalink, you can risk, when passing back through a panel with five options, that the option you just got back from, is no longer available, as it is the option randomly not shown this time.

===Suggest a line===
Some times it is possible to add your own suggestions in a panel where there are still other choices. But if not before, then the story will always reach a "final" panel (dead-end) where the reader only has the option left to "suggest a line..." By doing so and pressing enter this text is then shown in the speech bubble. But these suggestions can't be saved as there are no permalink button after this. The reader has to do a screen shot by himself - if he wishes to save his own witty remark. As a few weeks had progressed there were probably so few new suggestions that Randall stopped changing the comic. There has been no reason to believe that new options or panels appeared after the first few weeks of April.

===Bugs===
Since this interactive comic relies on many servers in the background to provide the response to the reader's actions, there are some problems reported here:
*{{w|HTTP cookie|Cookies}} and {{w|Javascript}} are required to see this page properly. Without cookies, the next panel will not render; attempting to load the page in the UNIXKCD terminal or loading the page without Javascript will just get you the [[1349|previous comic]].
*In the first week after the comic was released, if a response led to a panel where two characters speak at the same time, it was impossible to proceed past the first speech bubble. This was subsequently fixed.
As a consequence of these bugs many readers had trouble understanding how this interactive comic worked.

==Themes==
===Computer===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! The beginning [[Image:lorenz - computer.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl sits at her laptop saying/thinking something. You choose what from four options and thus starts the interactive and dynamic comic. Originally on April the 1st there where only four choices, but this has increased since. But you always have four to choose from when you begin.
|-
! Computer problems [[Image:lorenz - laptop 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 5.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 6.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl's laptop has an unspecified problem. Hairy walks in and they attempt to fix it by connecting his laptop with hers. There are two outcomes possible:
*He fails so badly that they end up randomly floating in the ocean (with or without circling sharks - a reference to [[349: Success]] see below.)
*It doesn't work so now Knit Cap Girl tries to write something on Hairy's laptop from a paper (a manual?) she holds in her hand. This also fails and the story continues with a blowtorch scene - see below:
|-
! Blowtorch [[Image:lorenz - laptop 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 9.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 10.png]] [[Image:lorenz - laptop 11.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl becomes so upset with her laptop that she decides to melt it using a blowtorch - a clear reference to the comic from the day before this one: [[1349: Shouldn't Be Hard]]. After this they walk out of the building.
|}

===Political debate===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Debate [[image:lorenz - debate laptop.png]] [[image:lorenz - debate 1.png]] [[image:lorenz - debate 2.png]] [[image:lorenz - debate 5.png]] [[image:lorenz - debate 4.png]] [[image:lorenz - debate 3.png]] [[image:lorenz - visit.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl uses har laptop to watch a debate online between the Politician 1 (on the left) and the Politician 2 ([[Cueball]], on the right), the subject and the actual conversation of which varies according to the storyline. Eventually one of two things can happen:
*They fight each other, the Politician 2 using a lightsaber (or something that looks like a holy sword, but isn't) and the Politician 1 using his bare fists
*Politician 1 is going down on one knee - either to pray or as in a suggestion to ask the other to marry him...
Subjects debated could be user suggestions but below are one of those from April the 1st:
*Politician 1 accuses Politician 2 of having never liked Firefly.
*Politician 1 vows to end the "war on Christmas" if elected.
*Politician 1 praises his adversary and supports his economic plan.
*Politician 1 questions Politician 2's project of tying multiple birds to a car as fuel replacement, which would require some method to make the birds take off in unison. The solutions mentioned for this topic are given here as an example:
**Opening and closing an umbrella near them (a reference to {{W|Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade}}).
**Using a predatory bird to the car to scare them
**Putting resources in the hands of bird educators for the purpose of training them
**Employing fiscal hawks.
If the Politician 1 points out some problem with the reasoning, often the solution proposed by the Politician 2 would be doing the same in a larger scale or saying he completely agrees with everything the other says...
In the end, Hairy walks in to Knit Cap Girl and points out something happening near which may or may not involve birds (or what ever was the subject) which could be a direct result of Politician 2's project. Again all this could be user input!
The last image where Hairy walks in have been used also in other story lines
|}

===Ocean===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Wrong move [[image:lorenz - laptop 6.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl tries to write something on Hairy's laptop from a note she has in her hand. Hairy watches. This image is also used in the computer problem theme above. But this time it goes really wrong and the Ocean scene appears right after this:
|-
! Sharks [[image:lorenz - shark zero.png]] [[image:lorenz - shark one.png]] [[image:lorenz - sharks.png]] [[image:lorenz - squids.png]] [[image:lorenz - blood.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl and Hairy are floating in the ocean, with or without sharks. A clear reference to [[349: Success]]. Sharks have been the subject of several other comics.
Three giant squids appear and a lone shark seems disturbed. Maybe the squids killed the sharks leaving the blood in the last of these images?

Here are some examples with these images
*[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:9b96fda0-bb48-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd Zero and one shark]
*[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:9b6e3082-bb48-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd Three shark]
*[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:9ba76992-bb48-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd Squids and blood].

|-
! Beach [[image:lorenz - hairy swims away.png]] [[image:lorenz - beach.png]]
|Knit Cap Girl and Hairy starts to swim out of the shark free ocean and finally reaches a beach - see [[349: Success]].
*Here are an example where they reach the [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:310127b6-bbb3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd beach].
|}

===Leaving the building===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Leaving [[Image:lorenz - going.png]]
| In some storylines the two characters leaves the building. Either with the laptop intact (like after the politic debate) or with a fused laptop (see computer problems theme). In either case they encounter one of the following scenarios when they come out the door:
|-
! Empty lawn [[Image:lorenz - away.png]]
| Sometimes nothing is outside the building except the pavement they walk upon there is just an empty lawn. See [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b69f6096-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd this example] for both of the first two pictures here. From this point they can move on to walk past stuff - see below.
|-
! Huge hole on the lawn [[image:lorenz - hole.png]]
| There is a huge hole in the ground just outside of the building. The two characters always end up falling into it and one of them awakes from a night mare - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd this example]. See below about dreams.
|-
! Rocket on the lawn [[Image:lorenz - rocket 1.png]]
| There is a space rocket on the lawn outside the building - see [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 this example]. See below about dreams and space travel.
|}

===Walking===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Starting the walk [[Image:lorenz - away.png]]
| When there is nothing outside the building the walk begins. It can though begin in other ways, but that is usually longer into a complicated story. The walk begins with Knit Cap Girl and Hairy walking together, but they also often walks alone as will be shown below.
|-
!Walking past [[Image:lorenz - tree.png]] [[Image:lorenz - gap.png]]
|Knit Cap Girl and Hairy walks together past the following items:
*A tree
*A gap in the ground - which Knit Cap Girl jumps over, much like in a pit from Mario brothers.
|-
!Walking together [[Image:lorenz - dark.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walking.png]]
|The two characters are seen walking together from different perspectives.
|-
!Arguing [[Image:lorenz - discuss.png]] [[Image:lorenz - hairy leaves.png]] [[Image:lorenz - knit cap leaves.png]]
|Knit Cap Girl and Hairy stops their walk to have an argument. Then either she or he leaves the other by walking back the way they came.
|-
!Alone - Girl [[Image:lorenz - walk 5.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 6.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 9.png]] [[Image:lorenz - thinking.png]] [[Image:lorenz - bird gift.png]] [[Image:lorenz - bird money.png]]
|Knit Cap Girl walks alone. This is not necessarily because of the argument! She is seen walking alone in many different poses and perspectives. At one point she is thinking - this does not have to be while alone! At some point a bird passes over her carrying a gift. It then returns - now with a money note in its beak.
|-
!Alone - Guy [[Image:lorenz - meanwhile.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - walk 10.png]] [[Image:lorenz - thinking 2.png]]
|Hairy is seen walking alone. This is not necessarily because of the argument! He is seen walking alone in two poses. At one point he is thinking - this does not have to be while alone! In one story line the ''meanwhile'' image appears before this walk like in [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:aee5abf0-bb29-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd this example].
|}

===Rocket launch===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
!Into the rocket [[Image:lorenz - rocket 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 4.png]]
| Leaving the bulding the characters find the rocket on the lawn, and climbs into it.
|-
!Out of the rocket [[Image:lorenz - rocket 5.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 6.png]]
| In some storylines the rocket does not launch (it fails or they do not wish to go into space). So the two characters climb out again.
|-
!Rocket launch [[Image:lorenz - rocket 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 11.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 9.png]]
| If they do not climb out again, the rocket will launch into space. Sometimes an image from the flight simulator program {{W|Kerbal Space Program}} will appear - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd this example] where the launch wakes a character up from a dream. If the characters do not wake up here, see dream theme, then the rocket will go into space - see Space theme. Before reacing space a dark image will turn up as shown [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 here].(This picture is also used in the dream sequence with the hole).
|}

===Space===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
!Rocket launch [[Image:lorenz - rocket 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 11.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 9.png]]
| When the rocket is launch into space sometimes an image from the flight simulator program {{W|Kerbal Space Program}} will appear - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd this example]. The characthers do not always wake up if this image is shown as in the example, see dream theme. If they do not then the rocket will go into space and often a black image will turn up as shown [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 here].(This picture is also used in the dream sequence with the hole). See other examples for these pictures in the last two entries.
|-
!Flying over earth [[Image:lorenz - rocket 10.png]]
| After entering space, the rocket is in an orbit over earth.
|-
!In space [[Image:lorenz - rocket 13.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 14.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 19.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 20.png]]
| From earth the rocket flies into deep space. At one point it may come close to the sun - which could explain the white color in one image.
|-
!Asteroids [[Image:lorenz - rocket 24.png]]
| Passing the {{W|Asteroid belt}}
|-
!Saturn [[Image:lorenz - rocket 12.png]]
| Passing {{W|Saturn}} with it's majestic rings
|-
!Fly by [[Image:lorenz - rocket 15.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 16.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 17.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 18.png]]
| The space rocket encounters another space ship that asks a question about relativity, the same one that appeared in [[265: Choices: Part 2]]. The other space rocket will shoot and destroy the main rocket if the question isn't answered satisfactory see below. Otherwise the two rockets fly past each other.
|-
!Little Prince [[Image:lorenz - rocket 21.png]]
| Eventually the space rocket meets a guy on a very tiny planet which most likely is a reference to {{w|The Little Prince}}. This could also be a reference to the asteroid [http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/09/30/asteroid-4942-munroe/ 4942 Munroe], then it could be [[Randall]] on the rock... The story never seem to move past this point. Here is an [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6490cc4a-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd example].
|-
!Attack [[Image:lorenz - rocket 15.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 16.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 17.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 22.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 23.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 5.png]]
| If the answer to the space ship is not acceptable it will turn around after passing, and shoot down the rocket. This will turn off the rockets in the Kerbal Space Program simulator, and in turn one of the characthers (Hairy?) will awake from a dream, see dream theme. Most of the images above as well as this attack is included in [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 this example]
|}

===Kerbal Space Program===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
!Engines on [[Image:lorenz - rocket 11.png]]
|These pictures are from the flight simulator program {{W|Kerbal Space Program}} (KSP). An example of the image in the comic can be seen [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd here]. In this case the liftoff with the engine on turns out to be just a dream. But the image can also precede a space travel going into deep space - as the travel shown below. See more on the this under the space theme.
|-
!Engines off [[Image:lorenz - rocket 23.png]]
|Here we see an image with the engines off. See this [http://i.imgur.com/UofvQ.png image] from KSP where the rocket engines are not on. This image is usually shown after the spaceship is shut down and it turns out it was just a dream - see [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 this example]. See more on the this under the space theme.
|}

===Dinosaur===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Dinosaur Comics [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]]
| The green T-rex from {{w|Dinosaur Comics}} (a clip-art-based webcomic that uses the same artwork with different captions for every strip.) interrupts the story and proceeds to talk about his tiny arms or other subjects. The first three pictures are taken directly from the webcomic, except that the third picture is larger in the real comic (see [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2420 this particular example] where the title text actually refer to Randall and xkcd). In the end, the dinosaur stamps on the house the main characters are in (this is thus Randall's own picture). If it gets this far one of the characters will wake up from a dream - It may be only Knit Cap Girl as she is the one seen fully in the fourth image. Examples where this is the second dream can be seen [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:5e94d028-bb7d-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd here] and [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 here]. See more under the dream theme.

Characters from ''Dinosaur Comics'' has aslso appeared in [[145: Parody Week: Dinosaur Comics]] and [[1452: Jurassic World]].
|}

===Boomerang===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Finding Boomerang [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 2.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl finds a boomerang on the ground and may express her feelings about it. The other images listed below, may come more or less in any order and any number of times. She may comment on it again after catching it. She may also put it down. See below also for examples of story lines.
Boomerangs are also featured in: [[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]], [[475: Further Boomerang Difficulties]], [[939: Arrow]]
|-
! Throwing Boomerang [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 6.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 9.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 10.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 5.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang 11.png]]
| Knit Cap Girl throws the boomerang, and it flies back (and forth). This can go on for a while, and she may even [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:08896f1c-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 lay it down and walk away]. However, more often than not she will end up with an accident:
|-
! Accidents [[Image:lorenz - boomerang accident.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang accident 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang accident 5.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang accident 6.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang rocket 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang rocket 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang boom.png]] [[Image:lorenz - surprise.png]] [[Image:lorenz - run.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang accident 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - boomerang accident 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - meanwhile.png]]
| These accidents are:
*Getting hit in the face - The two options here below are both featured in [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ee6b910c-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd this example].
**Knit Cap Girl getting hit in the face with the boomerang rebound (i.e. [[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]])
**Knit Cap Girl fails to catch the boomerang and the rebound hit Hairy in the face off screen and he then enters the frame in the next image.
*Hitting the space rocket from another story branch - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd this example].
*The boomerang crashing into something off panel - someone may shout back - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:fc34f46a-ba98-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd this example]. (i.e. [[475: Further Boomerang Difficulties]])
**In some cases the meanwhile image appears like in [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:aee5abf0-bb29-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd this example].
|}

===Pokémon===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! A wild Pikachu appeared [[Image:lorenz - pikachu appeared.png]]
| Some of the storylines involve Pokémon battles featuring Pikachu, a very popular Pokémon. The battles are drawn in the style of the video games. (A trainer in the left-bottom corner facing the foe in the right-top corner, with a narration box below the scene and the trainer's Pokéballs visible, although some elements are missing, such as the level, gender and HP bar.) In this first image Pikachu the wild pokémon appears. Then the fight begins. Pikachu is the reason no fight begins in [[1516: Win by Induction]].

|-
! Pikachu's moves [[Image:lorenz - pikachu abandonment.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu anguish.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu ant.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu extrude.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu faceless.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu friendship.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu granite.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu graph.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu ink cloud.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu radicality.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu theft.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu uplift.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu ethylene.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu blank.png]]
| Pikachu uses a number of different moves, though these are mostly made up and are not from the Pokémon games. Pikachu's moves are almost invariably remarked by the narrator as "It's not very effective...", but "It's super effective!" is also possible to appear. (see below)
In the video games, a move is "not very effective" when the opponent's type resists the attacking move's type and "super effective" when the opponent's type is weak to the attacking move's type.

Pikachu's moves (see below for examples - those appearing in the examples are marked with ¤$£ etc):
* Abandonment ^ - Pikachu disappears completely.
* Anguish ¤% - Pikachu is sad.
* Ant Colony - Pikachu is covered in ants.
* Extrude - Pikachu's head moves away from his body as his neck becomes long and malleable.
* Faceless $ - Pikachu's face disappears.
* Friendship £ - Pikachu is on Knit Cap Girl's head, signifying they are now friends. Friendship, though not a move, is a game mechanic in the video games.
* Granite % - Pikachu is atop a block of granite.
* Graph Theory ¤ - The theory can be seen behind Pikachu
* Ink Cloud % - Pikachu is covered in ink. In the storyline Pikachu uses it, there is the option to "gather" the ink.
* Radicality £ - Pikachu is on a skateboard.
* Theft & - Pikachu wears Knit Cap Girl's hat. Pikachu seems to be using "Thief", a similarly-named actual move from the games, that is used to steal the foe's item and use it as its own.
* Uplift - Pikachu's head goes upward, separated from its body, showing a long, thick cable still connecting the head and the body.
* Ethylene Dichloride ¤ - Pikachu holds a glass with Ethylene Dichloride - Nothing seems to happen, although Ethylene Dichloride is a toxic chemical, therefore there may be future consequences for the characters.
** After using it, ("not very effective") Pikachu may make remarks about the move using the blank version of the image from below (the following text are users suggestion):
*** I used to be better at chemistry.
*** This is still better than all the lightning crap.
* Blank text box ¤£% - for user input
**The below items are (probably) not with a certain picture but text that users have suggested appear in the blank picture at the bottom of this section:
** Struggle
***In one storyline, after Pikachu uses a number of moves, it says: "Now I only have Struggle left. Tie?" In the Pokémon games, when a Pokémon runs out of PP (Power Points, the energy required to use each of its moves) for all its moves, it may only use Struggle, a weak move, indefinitely reusable, that harms not only the opponent but the user as well.
** Cuteness %
** Yet %
** Crowdsource
** The Discrete Metric

Here are some examples of battle (please help include links to all moves):
* ¤ [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd 4 different moves]
* % [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:f203d1c6-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd 5 different moves]
* £ [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8737f5b4-ba92-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd 3 different moves]
* $ [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:feaa5d4e-bbd2-11e3-802c-002590d77bdd Faceless move]
* & [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:b8fe0a3c-bb52-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd Theft move]
* ^ [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:2f0612e0-bbd7-11e3-8030-002590d77bdd Abandonment move]

Below are some transcript of lines from user input and their references:
*One narration line is "Where's Twitch when I need help?", a reference to {{w|Twitch Plays Pokémon}} which was also covered by comic [[1333: First Date]].
*Another narration line is: "Google Maps didn't warn me of this.", a reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YMD6xELI_k Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge].
*Other remarks from Pikachu or about Pikachu can be seen in [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:e8cf1df0-bbd4-11e3-802e-002590d77bdd this example]
** Pikachu: Aren't you going to catch me? It's not difficult, I promise... Please? [Knit Cap Girl and Hairy ignore him and go away]
*** Please! Jigglypuff keeps on drawing on my face!
*** You were walking in tall grass! You asked for it!
*** Please... Tame me! I want to party on days other than Thursday.
**** [Hairy remarks] Y'know, if we catch a Pikachu, we would never [sic] to pay our electric bills again.
*Pokémon mentioned other than Pikachu:
** Charizard (In one storyline, "Go Charizard" is one usable move in battle)
** Jigglypuff
|-
! Not effective [[Image:lorenz - pikachu not very effective.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu end 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu end 2.png]]
|Normally after a few failed attempts - where the result is given as ''It's not very effective'', there is an uncomfortable silence as the Pikachu says "Um..." Then it talks to Knit Cap Girl and Hairy and as they then walk away past the Pókemon, Pikachu is left in the tall grass and has time to make a final remark. See [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9a86363c-bb53-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd this example] where they walk away only to meet another wild Pikachu.
|-
! Super effective [[Image:lorenz - pikachu super effective.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu fainted.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu dead 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu dead 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu dead 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu dead 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - pikachu dead 5.png]]
|Rarely, a suggested move knocks Pikachu out. This is stated as ''It's super effective'' (sometimes this image comes right after the one with ''It's not very effective''). The result is that Pikachu faints. Knit Cap Girl and Hairy looks at the fainted (not dead) Pikachu who lies facedown in the grass. Then Knit Cap Girl ''pokes'' the pókemon and they walk past him out of the tall grass like in [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:feaa5d4e-bbd2-11e3-802c-002590d77bdd this example].
|}

===Dreams===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Walking up [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 5.png]]
| Sometimes, Knit Cap Girl or Hairy find themselves waking from a dream, suggesting that all prior events were just them dreaming. Below are several situations where a dream will or may occur described (and shown with the full sequence leading up to the dream displayed).
Often a dream loops upon itself, as a character wakes up multiple times in the same storyline, either from the same dream or from different dreams.
Sometimes it even turns out that each character has a dream in the same storyline, meaning that the last to wake up, has dreamt that they were the other character waking up before... See examples of all this below.
The dream scenarios (together with the ''meanwhile'' image) would make it possible to connect all images into one long sequence!
Some situations will always result in a character waking up, others will only in some story lines lead to an awakening.
As can be seen in these two images Knit Cap Girl wakes up with her head to the left and the cap lying on the end of the bed. Hairy wakes up with his head to the right.
|-
! Falling [[Image:lorenz - hole.png]] [[Image:lorenz - falling.png]] [[Image:lorenz - aaa.png]] [[Image:lorenz - aaa 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 9.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 5.png]]
| One of the most obvious dreams is the one about falling as in this case where both characters falls into a big hole outside the building they are leaving - as shown here in [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd this example] where first one then the other characters awake from the same falling dream.
In the case - with the hole - one (or either as shown above) of the characters wakes up from the nightmare after falling into the hole. But they can wake up after any of the three black pictures shown here. The other two pictures (which were not included in the first example) can be seen in [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ba285dea-baa3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd this example].(The total black picture is also sometimes used in the space theme). The hole situation will always turn out to be a dream.
|-
! Dinosaur [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - dinosaur 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]]
| A Dinosaur enters the comic (see more about these same images under the Dinosaur theme). If the comic goes on long enough these four images will appear and after the last the character awakes from the nightmare. It may be only Knit Cap Girl as she is the one seen fully in the fourth image. Examples where this is the second dream can be seen [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:5e94d028-bb7d-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd here] and [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 here]. If the dinosaur steps on the building the story will always turn out to be a dream.
|-
! Evil spaceship [[Image:lorenz - rocket 15.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 16.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 17.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 18.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 22.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 23.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 5.png]]
| During a space travel the rocket passes another space ship. If a failed communication occurs the space ship turns around and shoots down the rocket. At this point it turns out it was just a nightmare and one of the characters wake up (maybe only Hairy?). See [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 this example]. In the last picture before waking we see an image from the flight simulator program Kerbal Space Program (KSP) with the rockets off - see the KSP theme. This situation will always turn out to be a dream.
|-
! Rocket launch [[Image:lorenz - rocket 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - rocket 11.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]]
| This dream is not really a nightmare, as opposed to the three above, where the characters always wake up. This is not necessarily the case for the rocket launch. But in this case described here Knit Cap Girl (maybe also Hairy) wakes up during the rocket launch - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd this example]. In the last picture before waking we see an image from the flight simulator program Kerbal Space Program (KSP) with the rockets on - see the KSP theme.
|-
! Politic debate [[Image:lorenz - debate 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - debate 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - debate 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]]
| In this dream, that is not so much a nightmare that it will always be a dream (like the first three) Knit Cap Girl (maybe also Hairy) wakes up after a silly political debate - see [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd this example].
|}

===Waking up===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
|-
! Walking up [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 5.png]]
| Sometimes, Knit Cap Girl or Hairy find themselves waking from a dream, suggesting that all prior events were just them dreaming. After they awake they stay in bed for a while and then go out in to the world. These scenes will be shown here below.
As can be seen in these two images Knit Cap Girl wakes up with her head to the left and the cap lying on the end of the bed. Hairy wakes up with his head to the right.
|-
! In bed - Girl [[Image:lorenz - wake up 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 11.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 10.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 3.png]]
|Knit Cap Girl wakes up with a ''Gasp''. She sits for a while - may then begin to sing ''I woke up like this'' (This could be a reference to {{W|Flawless (Beyoncé song)}}). After this she may lie down again before finally getting out of bed.
|-
!Yawning - Girl [[Image:lorenz - wake up 4.png]] [[Image:lorenz - computer.png]]
|Yawning Knit Cap Girl gets back to her laptop and we are back to the first image as can be seen in [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd this example].
|-
! In bed - Guy [[Image:lorenz - wake up 5.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 6.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 13.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 7.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 12.png]]
|Hairy wakes up with a ''Gasp''. He sits for a while - may then begin to sing ''I woke up like this'' (This could be a reference to {{W|Flawless (Beyoncé song)}}). After this he may lie down again before finally getting out of bed. Notice that [[Randall]] forgot to draw Hairy's hairy hair as he lay down again. If it was a wig, it should have hung over the bed like Knit Cap Girls Knit Cap does.
|-
!Yawning - Guy [[Image:lorenz - wake up 8.png]] [[Image:lorenz - wake up 9.png]]
|Yawning Hairy walks in where Knit Cap Girl sits at her laptop and tells her about his dream(?) as can be seen in [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd this example], where both yawning pictures appear.
|-
! Salesman [[Image:lorenz - sale 1.png]] [[Image:lorenz - sale 2.png]] [[Image:lorenz - sale 3.png]] [[Image:lorenz - sale 4.png]]
| Instead of going to Knit Cap Girl after walking up Hairy can take an alternative route where he meets [[White Hat]], a salesman with a small stand. White Hat tries to sell something to Hairy. Will he succeed.
|}

==Transcript==
:[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the picture shown at the top of the explanation here.]

:[The comic starts with two panels. In the top panel we see Knit Cap Girl sitting at a desk in front of her laptop typing. There is a speech line up to a gray but empty speech bubble.]
:[The second panel below has the same gray background as the empty speech bubble above. Here is presented four options to what Knit Cap Girl could be saying. They are marked a, b, c and d written in small white rectangles next to the text. There is a small arrow at the top pointing to the first panel:]

:a Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays.
:b Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on.
:c Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook.
:d Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh...

:[Once the reader chooses one of the options the text will appear in the speech bubble where the gray area is replaced with the usual white background. The lower gray panel disappears. Now the comic really begins.]
:[A new panel is shown after the selection, again with one to four options to choose from in the new gray panel below. This will continue until it comes to an end where the reader finally only has the choice to suggest the next line.]

:[The order of the up to four options are random, and changes every time you begin again (or even go back to a previous frame). This means that the a-d in the transcript is not the same next time. In some few panels there are even more than four options. To see the fifth you have to reload, then you may find this fifth option next time. The first panel is one of those with five options.]
:[The fifth not shown above is: '''These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game.''']

:[In the first days of the comic when it developed quickly, new options appeared only to later disappear. '''Gravity. Lots of it.''' is one of those lost options from the first panel. At one time there was also by mistake two versions of one of the other five mentioned above. But this was later deleted. Maybe there could still be a permalink to these lost stories out there...? (Wish granted: see [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:87adb65e-baa2-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd here] for the part just after "Gravity. Lots of it.")]

:[Although it may be impossible to finish? ... it has been tried to make a complete '''[[1350: Lorenz/Transcript|interactive transcript]]'''.]

==Trivia==
*In one [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:lorenz_-_wake_up_7.png panel] Hairy is drawn in bed ''without'' his hair - see the [[#Waking up|Waking up]] pictures.
*The most common pictures are [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/vS9UO5cGsw1hoDrrNLMSRg.png "Not very effective"], [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/VegCGBEOFJCsFxJpbmvziQ.png Throwing], [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/zHPHozjDXmCUy66bYVSRoQ.png Waiting], [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/ZNBJOG1e-vCfzdqKFHQ21A.png Leaving the House].
*The rarest pictures are [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/VgSdMz8OAHQ8w5Ee432f5Q.png The Little Prince], [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/0RW46RaD8RJDfTyBOTqlpw.png The beach], [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/OZZtCeXrnU0UskVTCUQf1Q.png An exponential chart]. (As of late April there are several pictures from the complete list, that no longer seem to be available - so they are not only rare, but extinct in the comic if no one has a permalink to a comic where they appear).
*'''The all time longest comics by panel - top three'''.
**Please only include '''clearly different''' storylines:
*# [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 77 panels] - Space/dinosaur double dream, boomerang, and exploding rocket.
*# [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b94d8be4-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd 49 panels] - Tiles, double hole dream, boomerang
*# [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:718ad9a6-bc6e-11e3-800f-002590d77bdd 41 panels] - Politics, hole dream, boomerang.
**There may be no upper boundary!
**But this is then the list of the longest comics with most panels as found so far.
**If you beat a record please post the '''permalink''' here.
**Please note themes included in comic.
**Please move beaten records down and delete the fourth.
*'''Longest by themes''' - click to expand:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
Include only more than one if the story is clearly different from from the record.
#Multiple dreams:
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 77 panels] - Two dreams one by each charachter, after space and dinosaur attack.
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2ed958de-badf-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 36 panels] - Hole dream, blowtorch laptop, rocket take-off dream.
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:452c03fc-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd 35 panels] - Two times the same dream with big hole by the same charachter (shovel/blowtorch and then boomerang).
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ba285dea-baa3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd 28 panels] - One dream with hole that returns to starting point - does the dream continue?
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd 26 panels] - Two different dreams by the same character after hole and rocket.
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:5e94d028-bb7d-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd 22 panels] - Two different dreams by the same character after hole and dinosaur attack.
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd 21 panels] - Two times the same dream with big hole - once be each character
##? - More than two dreams
#Boomerang:
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 77 panels] - double dream etc.
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 39 panels] - Starting with politic debate in a dream.
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ee6b910c-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 34 panels] - As the 39 panel, but here both the girl and the Hairy gets the boomerang in the face!
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:a1776988-ba41-11e3-8035-002590d77bdd 30 panels] - Rocket, dream, Boomerang hits her in the face. She then puts it down and then picks it up again
#Space:
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 77 panels] - double dream etc.
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6490cc4a-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd 30 panels] - reaching the Little Prince:
#Dinosaur:
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 77 panels] - double dream etc.
#Political debate:
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 39 panels] - but also dream and boomerang.
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:aee5abf0-bb29-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd 31 panels] - politicians fighing and explosive bananas - including the ''meanwhile'' image
#Blowtorch:
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2ed958de-badf-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 36 panels] - Hole dream, blowtorch laptop, rocket take-off dream.
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9a86363c-bb53-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 26 panels] - blowtorch and moving past Pokémon twice
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97cbd552-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd 25 panels] - dream of hole and then blowtorch
#Pokémon:
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9a86363c-bb53-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 26 panels] - blowtorch and moving past Pokémon twice
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd 24 panels] - really long fight
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8737f5b4-ba92-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd 22 panels] - moving past Pokémon.
##[http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd 24 panels] - long fight, Pokemon uses 3 moves and Megan pokes it.
#Sharks
##[http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:30f53d98-bbb3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd 13 panels] - reaching beach
</div>
 
*'''Longest by starting point''' - click to expand:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
Only the longest:
#These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game: [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 77 panels]
#Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on: [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 39 panels]
#Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays: [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ba285dea-baa3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd 28 panels]
#Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh...: [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd 24 panels]
#Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook: [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:441ba2fe-bc03-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd 13 panels]
#Gravity. Lots of it: [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:cbde2d30-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 10 panels]
</div>
 

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Boomerangs]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Dreams]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:BSD]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

Talk:1013: Wake Up Sheeple

2015-10-14T13:06:02Z

Suspender guy:

This one is my favorite comic. That is all, nothing constructive to add here. just praise. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:33, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Waking up of ancient creatures may be a reference to "The Cabin in the Woods", the movie that Randall, a fan of Firefly, is likely to have watched. [[Special:Contributions/62.105.129.252|62.105.129.252]] 10:43, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

::Considering the comic came out a month before the movie, it's somewhat unlikely. [[Special:Contributions/192.138.72.196|192.138.72.196]] 13:08, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

"Oh God Oh God Oh God!" should bring some help!--DrMath 06:46, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure that the Sheeple are a race? I thought that it was just one giant monster (using the royal "we" in its speech). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.219|141.101.97.219]] 11:23, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
: I agree - there is no indication that there are more than one Sheeple, but the trees(?) in the background and the loud baaa indicates that the one shown is a giant. Also the zoom in on the mega eye goes that way. I have corrected the explain acordingly.[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:25, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

I dissagree. "Ten thousand years '''we''' slumbered..." ~ ~ ~ ~ {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.72}}

Aren't they goats? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.75|173.245.48.75]] 04:31, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Sheeple is a plural word, if it were just the one you'd have to call is a sheeperson. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.135|173.245.48.135]] 16:08, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

:Both sheep and people have a singular sense so it is not impossible that sheeple has too. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 01:15, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
::But "people" as a singular is a ''collective'' noun. A people is a group such as a nationality or race, not a single individual member [[User:CVictoria|CVictoria]] ([[User talk:CVictoria|talk]]) 19:06, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Removed the following paragraph:
<pre>This comic may also be a view on Randall's actual political views; the awakened monster in the comic actually represents all the "sheeple". Thus, Randall may be saying that if the "sheeple" wake up and realize that the government is controlling them, without an authority figure (i.e. the government) the sheeple would go wild and pandemonium would ensue.</pre>
It seems to be wild speculation, and unless there is something to back it up, I think it should remain removed from the explanation. [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 13:06, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

1013: Wake Up Sheeple

2015-10-14T13:00:08Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Removed speculation

{{comic
| number = 1013
| date = February 6, 2012
| title = Wake Up Sheeple
| image = wake_up_sheeple.png
| titletext = You will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter--a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is going through the traditional street-protester refrain about the government having control over our lives and shouts "wake up, sheeple!" through a megaphone. ''{{w|Sheeple}}'' is a {{w|portmanteau}} of ''sheep'' and ''people'' used as a derisive term to describe people who thoughtlessly wander through their daily lives going exactly where they are "herded" by the powers that be.

However, in this comic, the Sheeple are gigantic humanoid sheep-men who have slumbered beneath the Earth for ten thousand years, and whom Cueball has inadvertently awoken with his repeated mantra (much as in [[555: Two Mirrors]]). The Sheeple appear to be some kind of {{w|Cthulhu_Mythos|eldritch abomination}} who will destroy the human race, and Cueball seems to be the only one previously unaware of their existence.

The title text says the humans will be led "like lambs to the slaughter" which is a phrase that appears many times in older texts, the Bible as an example. The phrase means that someone or something would be led to its destruction without it thinking to escape from the disaster. The Sheeple are likely to take it amiss, because it indicates the uncaring frequency with which humans kill sheep.

See more Sheeple-related comics at [[:Category:Sheeple]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball yells into a megaphone.]
:Cueball: Your government has turned against you! Corporations control your every thought! - Open your eyes!

:[Head-on view of Cueball.]
:Cueball: Wake up, sheeple! Wake up, sheeple! - '''''WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!'''''

:[The man takes the megaphone away from his mouth.]
:''RUMBLE''

:[A half-sheep half-man creature rises through the cracking earth, holding aloft a gnarled staff.]
:''B-A-A-A-A-A...''

:[Close-up on the sheep-man's eye.]
:''TEN THOUSAND YEARS WE SLUMBERED... NOW WE RIIIIIIIISE'' baaaaaa

:[A clearly upset Megan goes up to Cueball, hands held out in front of her plaintively.]
:Megan: OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD ''WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!''
:Cueball: What? But I didn't—
:Out-of-frame #1: He awoke the Sheeple!
:OOF #2: Heaven forgive us!
:OOF #3: All is lost!

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

Talk:163: Donald Knuth

2015-10-09T20:28:32Z

Suspender guy:

In Pascal you define the lower and upper bounds of an array when you declare it, e.g.,

anArray[-5 .. 5] OF integer

which has always struck me as a much better idea than having arrays always starting at 0.
[[User:Jstout|Jstout]] ([[User talk:Jstout|talk]]) 20:41, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Why the swipe at Ada? I don't know about "the programming language of the future", but it's not a historical footnote either. It's used in many safety critical systems such as flight control, trains, even banking, and not just because that's what was used in the past. This language is still heavily used in these areas and is still being updated under MIL-STD and ISO.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.185|108.162.217.185]] 15:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)
:Wikipedia verifies your claims. Removed. [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 20:28, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

163: Donald Knuth

2015-10-09T20:27:42Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Removed commentary on Ada programming language as irrelevant, and probably inaccurate (according to wikipedia)

{{comic
| number = 163
| date = September 27, 2006
| title = Donald Knuth
| image = donald_knuth.png
| titletext = His books were kinda intimidating; rappelling down through his skylight seemed like the best option.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Donald Knuth}} is a computer science Professor Emeritus at {{w|Stanford University}} who is famous for writing {{w|The Art of Computer Programming}} and developing the TeX computerized typesetting system.

An array in computer science is a structure that stores multiple values in a fixed order, and the elements are accessed by their index number. In Pascal, for instance, one writes <tt>array[1]</tt> to access the first element in the array. Most "modern" (read: descended from C) languages use 0 as the index for the first element in the array, but it is possible (if one is careful about it) to ignore the 0th element and use 1 as the first index. In some programming languages (such as {{w|Ada (programming language)|Ada}}) it is possible to select an arbitrary range of indexes for each array type, so the first index might be not only 0 or 1 but even 100000. [[Cueball]] is complaining that [[Black Hat]] was not consistent in his choice of where to start his arrays. This is a valid complaint, as a lack of such consistency can make coding errors both more likely and less easy to detect.

Black Hat's cites Donald Knuth to support his rebuttal, but the quote he uses does not seem relevant. It turns out that Black Hat had illegally entered the professor's house in order to question him on indices. Donald Knuth's words were not an intellectual response to the question, but rather an alarmed response to the presence of an intruder. It is not clear if Black Hat is aware of this.

The title text suggests that Black Hat finds Donald's reputation intimidating, and he decided that the best way to overcome his fears was by making a bold entrance.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball are sitting back to back at two separate desks, typing.]
:Cueball: Man, you're being inconsistent with your array indices. Some are from one, some are from zero.
:Black Hat: Different tasks call for different conventions. To quote Stanford algorithm's expert Donald Knuth, "Who are you? How did you get in my house?"
:Cueball: Wait, what?
:Black Hat: Well, that's what he said when I asked him about it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Programming]]

201: Christmas GPS

2015-10-07T13:58:26Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Noted that GeoHashing comic appears long after this one

{{comic
| number = 201
| date = December 25, 2006
| title = Christmas GPS
| image = christmas gps.png
| titletext = If it's over water, and you can't get a boat or revise the rules to preserve the makeout, there is no helping you.
}}

==Explanation==
In the comic Cueball has gotten a GPS and asks Megan what to do with it. She suggest that they take their current coordinates and modify the latitude and longitude with a simple function based on their birthdays, thereby pointing to an arbitrary, non-random location. For example, if Cueball was born on let's say April 1, 1986 and Megan on August 12, 1988 and they are somewhere in New York ([https://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=New%20York%20City&params=40.768062_N_-73.98468_E_type:landmark 40.768062,-73.98468]), the coordinate they type will make ([https://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?params=40.040186_N_-73.081288_E_type:landmark 40.040186, -73.081288]). The good thing about keeping the number before the decimal point is that the distance is still realistic to get to by car. Megan suggests to make out in this place. This procedure is somewhat of a precursor to [[Geohashing]].

The comic is a Christmas comic, since it came online on Christmas Day 2006.

The title text suggests if the location you make for yourselves is over water (which the example above happens to be), you either need to find a boat or find some rule that you can preserve the promise of making out, and if you can't do either, then there is no way you'd get to make out.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Check it out-I got a GPS receiver for Christmas! What should we do with it?

:Megan: Let's take our latitude & longitude, put our birthdays after the decimal points, then go to that spot and make out.

:[Cueball is in love.]

:Merry Christmas from XKCD{{sic}}
:[Car driving off in to the distance.]

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

1584: Moments of Inspiration

2015-09-30T13:21:52Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Fixed confusing part (after my first two attempts at humor failed...)

{{comic
| number = 1584
| date = September 30, 2015
| title = Moments of Inspiration
| image = moments_of_inspiration.png
| titletext = Charles, I just talked to John and Mildred, who run that company selling seeds and nuts, and their kids with MOUTHS are starving!
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Isaac 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. He was indeed inspired by a {{w|Isaac_Newton#Apple_incident|falling apple}} but over time this developed into the legend that he was originally inspired 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 some mundane everyday event taking place.

In the second situation Cueball throws a baseball towards {{w|Lise Meitner}}, but when she fails to catch the ball it hits one of her porcelain model-atoms. In this way Meitner discovered a way to split the atom. The porcelain might also be also be a reference to {{w|Meissen porcelain}}, in German called "Meißner Porzellan", where "Meißner" is phonetically very similar to "Meitner". Cueball may represent {{w|Otto Hahn}}, since they were part of the Hahn-Meitner-Strassmann-team that worked on this problem. Hahn was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, where Meitner was overlooked. Throwing something at someone and asking them to [http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/think-fast-throwing-something.1984437/ think fast] is a common "joke", where the receiver rarely has a chance to actually catch the object. But in this case it could also be a reference to the fact that she then thought fast then made a major discovery. Or if it is Hahn, then he thought faster and got the award instead of her.

In the third situation, some of {{w|Charles Darwin}}'s children are shown to have 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.)

{{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.

The "John" and "Mildred" of the title text may be Mildred and {{w|John T. Scopes}} of the famous 1925 "monkey trial" in which John was fined $100 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school.

==Transcript==
:[Isaac Newton, with curly long hair, sits under a tree. A waning crescent moon can be seen. An apple falls and hits him on the head. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Isaac Newton
:Apple falling: Bonk
:Isaac Newton: Ow!

:[Isaac Newton rubs his sore head.]
:Isaac Newton: Aha!

:[Cueball throws a baseball towards Lise Meitner with short dark hair. (The ball can be seen in the next frame). She turns towards him too late to react and completely fails to even try catching the ball. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Lise Meitner
:Cueball: Hey Lise! Think fast!
:Ball hitting something (off-screen): Crash

:[Lise takes her hands to her mouth and she watches the broken porcelain atom lying in two pieces on the floor where it has fallen of a desk. On the desk three other intact atoms can be seen. The baseball lies behind her.]
:Lise Meitner: Oh no! My collection of porcelain atoms!
:Lise Meitner:...Hmm.

:[Four kids are standing in front of Megan and Charles Darwin (with a big beard and hair behind the ears). All the kids are trying to drink a glass of soda with a straw in them. The first kid is a boy with dark flat hair and sips soda through the straw with his mouth. The next kid is a boy with standing black hair, he tries in wain to drink with his beak open on each side of the glass. The third kid is a girl with her hair in a bun. She tries to get her beak into the glass which she has put on the floor. The last kid is a boy version of Cueball who slurps his soda through the straw. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Charles Darwin
:Megan: I gave our kids soda, but the ones with beaks always have trouble drinking it.
:Charles Darwin: I've noticed that...
:Boy with flat dark hair: Sip sip
:Boy with standing black hair and a beak: Crunch
:Girl with her hair in a bun and a beak: Peck peck
:Cueball like kid: Sluurp

:[A hairy guy is standing in front of Albert Einstein (with wild hair and a moustache), who is holding one hand to his head and has a clock in his other hand. Behind them is a train, with a locomotive at the front and a wagon behind that stretches beyond the frame. Another hairy guy has his head out of the front window of the wagon and is flashing a light towards the other two. In the next three windows can be seen passengers, two with Cueball like heads and one with hair. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Albert Einstein
:Albert Einstein: I wish your twin brother would stop shining lights at us from that train. I can barely see my clock!
:Albert Einstein: ...Wait!

{{comic discussion}}

1584: Moments of Inspiration

2015-09-30T13:19:57Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ fixed error (forgot to capitalize)

{{comic
| number = 1584
| date = September 30, 2015
| title = Moments of Inspiration
| image = moments_of_inspiration.png
| titletext = Charles, I just talked to John and Mildred, who run that company selling seeds and nuts, and their kids with MOUTHS are starving!
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Isaac 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. He was indeed inspired by a {{w|Isaac_Newton#Apple_incident|falling apple}} but over time this developed into the legend that he was originally inspired 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 some mundane everyday event taking place.

In the second situation Cueball throws a baseball towards {{w|Lise Meitner}}, but when she fails to catch the ball it hits one of her porcelain model-atoms. In this way Meitner discovered a way to split the atom. The porcelain might also be also be a reference to {{w|Meissen porcelain}}, in German called "Meißner Porzellan", where "Meißner" is phonetically very similar to "Meitner". Cueball may represent {{w|Otto Hahn}}, since they were part of the Hahn-Meitner-Strassmann-team that worked on this problem. Hahn was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, where Meitner was overlooked. Throwing something at someone and asking them to [http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/think-fast-throwing-something.1984437/ think fast] is a common "joke", where the receiver rarely has a chance to actually catch the object. But in this case it could also be a reference to the fact that she then thought fast then made a major discovery. Or if it is Hahn, then he thought faster and got the award instead of her.

Some of {{w|Charles Darwin}}'s children had beaks{{Citaton needed}}, 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.)

{{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.

The "John" and "Mildred" of the title text may be Mildred and {{w|John T. Scopes}} of the famous 1925 "monkey trial" in which John was fined $100 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school.

==Transcript==
:[Isaac Newton, with curly long hair, sits under a tree. A waning crescent moon can be seen. An apple falls and hits him on the head. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Isaac Newton
:Apple falling: Bonk
:Isaac Newton: Ow!

:[Isaac Newton rubs his sore head.]
:Isaac Newton: Aha!

:[Cueball throws a baseball towards Lise Meitner with short dark hair. (The ball can be seen in the next frame). She turns towards him too late to react and completely fails to even try catching the ball. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Lise Meitner
:Cueball: Hey Lise! Think fast!
:Ball hitting something (off-screen): Crash

:[Lise takes her hands to her mouth and she watches the broken porcelain atom lying in two pieces on the floor where it has fallen of a desk. On the desk three other intact atoms can be seen. The baseball lies behind her.]
:Lise Meitner: Oh no! My collection of porcelain atoms!
:Lise Meitner:...Hmm.

:[Four kids are standing in front of Megan and Charles Darwin (with a big beard and hair behind the ears). All the kids are trying to drink a glass of soda with a straw in them. The first kid is a boy with dark flat hair and sips soda through the straw with his mouth. The next kid is a boy with standing black hair, he tries in wain to drink with his beak open on each side of the glass. The third kid is a girl with her hair in a bun. She tries to get her beak into the glass which she has put on the floor. The last kid is a boy version of Cueball who slurps his soda through the straw. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Charles Darwin
:Megan: I gave our kids soda, but the ones with beaks always have trouble drinking it.
:Charles Darwin: I've noticed that...
:Boy with flat dark hair: Sip sip
:Boy with standing black hair and a beak: Crunch
:Girl with her hair in a bun and a beak: Peck peck
:Cueball like kid: Sluurp

:[A hairy guy is standing in front of Albert Einstein (with wild hair and a moustache), who is holding one hand to his head and has a clock in his other hand. Behind them is a train, with a locomotive at the front and a wagon behind that stretches beyond the frame. Another hairy guy has his head out of the front window of the wagon and is flashing a light towards the other two. In the next three windows can be seen passengers, two with Cueball like heads and one with hair. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Albert Einstein
:Albert Einstein: I wish your twin brother would stop shining lights at us from that train. I can barely see my clock!
:Albert Einstein: ...Wait!

{{comic discussion}}

1584: Moments of Inspiration

2015-09-30T13:17:40Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ I find it improbable that Darwin's children *actually* had beaks...

{{comic
| number = 1584
| date = September 30, 2015
| title = Moments of Inspiration
| image = moments_of_inspiration.png
| titletext = Charles, I just talked to John and Mildred, who run that company selling seeds and nuts, and their kids with MOUTHS are starving!
}}

==Explanation==

{{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:

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 "Meißner Porzellan", where "Meißner" is phonetically very similar to "Meitner".

Some of {{w|Charles Darwin}}'s children had beaks{{citaton needed}}, 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.)

{{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.

The "John" and "Mildred" of the title text may be Mildred and {{w|John T. Scopes}} of the famous 1925 "monkey trial" in which John was fined $100 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school.

==Transcript==
:[Isaac Newton, with curly long hair, sits under a tree. A waning crescent moon can be seen. An apple falls and hits him on the head. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Isaac Newton
:Apple falling: Bonk
:Isaac Newton: Ow!

:[Isaac Newton rubs his sore head.]
:Isaac Newton: Aha!

:[Cueball throws a baseball towards Lise Meitner with short dark hair. (The ball can be seen in the next frame). She turns towards him too late to react and completely fails to even try catching the ball. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Lise Meitner
:Cueball: Hey Lise! Think fast!
:Ball hitting something (off-screen): Crash

:[Lise takes her hands to her mouth and she watches the broken porcelain atom lying in two pieces on the floor where it has fallen of a desk. On the desk three other intact atoms can be seen. The baseball lies behind her.]
:Lise Meitner: Oh no! My collection of porcelain atoms!
:Lise Meitner:...Hmm.

:[Four kids are standing in front of Megan and Charles Darwin (with a big beard and hair behind the ears). All the kids are trying to drink a glass of soda with a straw in them. The first kid is a boy with dark flat hair and sips soda through the straw with his mouth. The next kid is a boy with standing black hair, he tries in wain to drink with his beak open on each side of the glass. The third kid is a girl with her hair in a bun. She tries to get her beak into the glass which she has put on the floor. The last kid is a boy version of Cueball who slurps his soda through the straw. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Charles Darwin
:Megan: I gave our kids soda, but the ones with beaks always have trouble drinking it.
:Charles Darwin: I've noticed that...
:Boy with flat dark hair: Sip sip
:Boy with standing black hair and a beak: Crunch
:Girl with her hair in a bun and a beak: Peck peck
:Cueball like kid: Sluurp

:[A hairy guy is standing in front of Albert Einstein (with wild hair and a moustache), who is holding one hand to his head and has a clock in his other hand. Behind them is a train, with a locomotive at the front and a wagon behind that stretches beyond the frame. Another hairy guy has his head out of the front window of the wagon and is flashing a light towards the other two. In the next three windows can be seen passengers, two with Cueball like heads and one with hair. There is a caption in a frame that breaks the top border of the main frame:]
:Albert Einstein
:Albert Einstein: I wish your twin brother would stop shining lights at us from that train. I can barely see my clock!
:Albert Einstein: ...Wait!

{{comic discussion}}

1578: Squirrelphone

2015-09-16T13:08:12Z

Suspender guy: corrected spelling and changed what sound a dial tone is (who's dial tone is continuous ringing!?) (plus added wikilink)

{{comic
| number = 1578
| date = September 16, 2015
| title = Squirrelphone
| image = squirrelphone.png
| titletext = After a while, the squirrel starts making that beeping noise and doesn't stop until it hops back up onto the stump.
}}

==Explanation==
A "squirrelphone" is a portmanteau of "{{w|squirrel}}" and "{{w|phone}}".

In this comic, we see a squirrel pretend to be a telephone, only to bite [[Cueball]] who tries to pick it up and use it as one. This is humorous because a living squirrel is not an appropriate creature to maintain a phone call{{Citation needed}}. This could be seen as an example of mimicry in Nature, or parasitism where one creature gains a benefit from another.

It is an allusion to the vampire squirrel documented over the weekend that allegedly 'attacked and killed' a deer. The comic follows the absurd conclusion that the squirrel uses mimicry to 'attack and kill' humans. [[Cueball]] is lucky to still be alive{{Citation needed}}.

The sounds the squirrel makes correspond to the tones that the terminals made when you used the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) in the US:
* When someone else called you and the receiver of your phone was on the hook, the phone made loud and long "riiing riiiing" tones. --- This is the case in the first frame of the comic.
* When you picked the receiver up, the phone call was established and no extra noises were made.
* When no phone call was established and you picked up, a continuous humming tone was heard, meaning the service was up and you could dial someone else's number. (A {{w|dial tone}})
* When no phone call was established but dialling was not possible, short "bip bip bip bip" tones were heard. This happened either when an existing call ended or was interrupted or you had had the receiver off hook for too long (about half a minute) without dialing --- This is the case in the title text of the comic ---. In this case, you should hang up so that you can receive calls or pick the receiver up again and dial.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is approaching a stump with a squirrel perched on it. A ringing noise is coming from the squirrel's back.]
:Squirrel: Riiiiing
:Squirrel: Riiiiiing

:[Cueball has picked up the squirrel and is holding it to his left ear]
:Cueball: Hello?

:[The squirrel bites Cueball's head]
:Squirrel: Chomp!
:Cueball: Ow!

:[Cueball holds his hand to his cheek while the squirrel leaps away, fleeing]
:Cueball: ???

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

919: Tween Bromance

2015-09-11T13:17:35Z

Suspender guy: Added incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 919
| date = July 1, 2011
| title = Tween Bromance
| image = tween_bromance.png
| titletext = Verbiage. Va-jay-jay. Irregardless.
}}
{{Incomplete|The comments section mentions several things that need to be added to the explanation.}}
==Explanation==
Apparently Randall hates some ridiculous neologisms. [[Cueball]] seems to be dictating a "Tween bromance" story or novel to [[Megan]], who is possibly typing it up. He is including all the words that get to Megan in a sequence including the final three words in the title text. Megan is just annoyed.

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

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

According to [[1485: Friendship]], Randall doesn't like the word ''bromance'' much either.

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

:Cueball: my frenemy yiffed so hard

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

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

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

Talk:1560: Bubblegum

2015-08-05T16:37:02Z

Suspender guy:

I believe the title text refers to the story about Calvin Coolidge about making a bet to not say 3 words.[[User:Blawho|Blawho]] ([[User talk:Blawho|talk]]) 04:51, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Duke Nukem says: "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum...", not the other way around. Don't know if this is worth mentioning. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:24, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation, I didn't know the movie quote. With this info in mind, I now think that panel 2 shows that Cueball is perhaps not making friends, so he decides to just go for the chewing gum option?? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.36|141.101.99.36]] 08:40, 5 August 2015 (UTC)
I added that the dénouement was similar to something the naïve and childish Beret Guy would do, that okay? [[User:MadHaighaHatta|Completely sane (And not Anglo-Saxon)]] ([[User talk:MadHaighaHatta|talk]]) 11:27, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

;Title text
Title text only 16 words? ''I(1) came(2) here(3) to(4) chew(5) bubblegum(6) and(7) say(8) no(9) more(10) than(11) eighteen(12) words(13) ... and(14) I'm(15) all(16) out(17) of(18)'' --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.98|162.158.93.98]] 10:26, 5 August 2015 (UTC)
: Title text 18 words, movie quote 16 words. Unless Randall takes the stuff in the movie quote as "bubble gum" where Randall's own text uses "bubblegum." Which is entirely possible, but weird. But then, what's not to like about "weird?" [[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 10:41, 5 August 2015 (UTC)
:: sorry, no native english - why is "I'm" counted as one word as it is "I am" which I would count as two words? Or is "don't" and "can't" also one word? -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.17|162.158.92.17]] 13:09, 5 August 2015 (UTC)
:::"don't" and "can't" are both also considered one word. In English, a contraction functions as one word, even though it combines multiple words. Don't bother asking why... the rules of English don't necessarily make sense. :-) [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 16:37, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

The description of the hovertext mentions "out of words" and "out of both"; might want to include the original, "out of bubblegum". Also, the deliberate truncation implies "out of time", which could relate to the possibility of it being a tribute to Roddy Piper.--[[User:Beth|Beth]] ([[User talk:Beth|talk]]) 12:44, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

I don't wanna change Randall's work - I just want to mention that ''I came here to chew bubblegum and say only sixteen words ... and I'm all out of'' would be more close to proposed origin where a) 16 words [with I'm= 1] and b) only positive descriptions used. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.17|162.158.92.17]] 13:16, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

1556: The Sky

2015-07-28T00:12:58Z

Suspender guy: Changed "mathematically" to "logically" (more accurate...)

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

==Explanation==
Cueball says that he likes the sky. The comic then shows a huge image of the sky with an interesting cloud formation and stars beyond it, and Megan calls the sky one of her favorite halves. The title text implies that the two "halves" in question are the Earth and the Sky. Logically, stating one of my favorites it must imply that there must be at least one other favorite, and since we are talking about halves there are exactly two -- which means that both the sky and the earth are favorites. This is an absurd statement as it means everything is a favorite, while the concept of favorite means that you value something more than something else, which is not the case here.

"One of my favorite halves" is a {{w|Tautology_(logic)|tautology}} because it implies that the other half is also a favorite and there are no other segments that would not be favorite. There are several xkcd comics about tautology, e.g. [[703: Honor Societies]], [[870: Advertising]] and [[1310: Goldbach Conjectures]]. A similar sentence comes in the title text of [[1524: Dimensions]] where the sentence, ''I would say time is definitely one of my top three favorite dimensions'', also makes very little sense...

Randall has also made fun of silly uses of "one of the" in [[1368: One Of The]].

The title text refers to the fact that the Earth is round, so if you "moved it out of the way" you would find more sky on the other side -- except that the sky only exists due to the air following the gravity and curvature of the earth. Beyond the sky there is just space, and if you would moved the earth you would also move the sky and you would only see space.

The title text also indicates that although the other half also is a favorite, it is mainly the shipwrecks and the snakes that are interesting. The rest is just rocks, and if you move them you see the sky on the other side of Earth. Taking into account how many different things that are on "the other half", one might use a long time to wonder why [[Randall]] choose to mention only two. (But that may be a waste of time...)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing looking upward with in a small frame a light blue background.]
:Cueball: I like the sky.
:Megan: Yeah.

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

1417: Seven

2015-07-23T02:43:25Z

Suspender guy: /* Title text list */ replaced "Mr Munroe" with wiki-linked "Randall" (just to be consistent with other pages...)

{{comic
| number = 1417
| date = September 5, 2014
| title = Seven
| image = seven.png
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellesley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] (or perhaps [[Randall]]) says he can't distinguish between sets that have exactly seven objects. This leads him to exchange the items in the sets without noticing, to the point where, when attempting to list a single set, each item mentioned actually belongs to a different set.

This is shown in the comic when Cueball tries to enumerate the seven dwarfs from ''{{w|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs}}'', a task some people might find difficult, although they would not just choose words from other sets of seven to fill in the gaps.

The title text reveals that even a trivial set of seven items, like the days of the week, also goes completely wrong.

The comic is a reference{{Citation needed}} to the {{w|Set-theoretic definition of natural numbers#Oldest definition|oldest set-theoretic definition of the natural numbers}}, in which for each natural number, an equivalence class is defined over all sets which contain the same number of items. As Cueball is known for [[:Category:Math|mathematical thinking]], he could be presumed to have taken the underlying equivalence relation to heart, and (over)applying it to real life, genuinely judging sets to be identical if they all contain N objects.

The number seven being the number for when sets become indistinguishable is possibly a reference to {{w|The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two|Miller's law}}; however, this law refers to elements ''within the same set'' becoming indistinguishable, rather than the indistinguishability of different sets of the same size - indeed, its original tests involved either distinguishing between the items, or repeating them back ''in the correct order''.

The number seven has culturally been {{w|7 (number)#Religion and mythology|regarded as a special, magical or holy number}}, which contributes to the large number of familiar sets of seven that make this comic possible. This proliferation of well-known sets of 7 items could be another reason why Randall chose to use the number {{w|seven}} in the comic.

===Comic list===
For each of the seven lists below, the relevant item's traditional position within its own list of seven, according to Wikipedia, is '''not''' necessarily equal to its position on the list in the comic. For some lists the position is equal, but not for most. For instance Sneezy is traditionally never mentioned first amongst the dwarfs since the leader Doc normally comes first. But "phylum" is the second major taxonomic rank as is "phylum" the second item on the list in the comic.

The seven "dwarfs" mentioned and their relevant sets of seven are (items in the set are written in bold):
{| class="wikitable"
|
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
|-
!{{W|Seven Dwarfs#Disney Dwarfs|Disney's Dwarfs}} from ''{{w|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs}}''<ref group=c>The order is taken from the page about the movie. But Sneezy is never no. 1, on the other page, which is listed alphabetically, he is no. 5.</ref>
|Doc
|Grumpy
|Happy
|Sleepy
|Bashful
|'''Sneezy'''
|Dopey
|-
!Major {{w|taxonomic ranks}}.<ref group=c>There are now actually 8 on this list as {{w|Domain (biology)|domain}} has been included as the first in the list in 1990. It is, however, still normal to only list the 7 ranks in the table.</ref>
|kingdom
|'''phylum'''
|class
|order
|family
|genus
|species
|-
!{{w|Continents}}<ref group=c>Continents are normally listed by size (as here in the table), in which case Europe is no. 6. Alphabetically it would be fifth. By population, Europe would actually be no. 3 (i.e. it would match the position in Cueball's list). But by population density, it is no. 2. In reality Europe is not even a continent in it self, as it is connected directly to Asia (and also Africa) and there are {{w|Continent#Number_of_continents|many reasons}} not to split the continents into seven...</ref>
|Asia
|Africa
|North America
|South America
|Antarctica
|'''Europe'''
|Australia
|-
!{{w|Seven deadly sins|Deadly sins}}<ref group=c>List as on Wikipedia.</ref>
|lust
|gluttony
|greed
|'''sloth'''
|wrath
|envy
|pride
|-
!{{w|Seven-layer dip|Seven Layer Dip (recipe)}}<ref group=c>The list on Wikipedia is not in the order the dip should be made. The order used above is from this [http://allrecipes.com/recipe/seven-layer-dip-i/ recipe].</ref>
|refried beans
|cheese
|ground beef
|sour cream
|'''guacamole'''
|salsa
|chopped black olives/tomatoes/green onions
|-
!|Layers of the {{w|OSI model}}<ref group=c>The order above is in reverse. The numbers given on Wikipedia is from 7 to 1 as they stand above. However when showing them in a table they begin with no. 7. So it can be discussed if this is the correct order or the reverse. Since Data link is no. 2, the reverse above becomes the "correct" no. 6.</ref>
|application
|presentation
|session
|transport
|network
|'''data link'''
|physical
|-
!|{{w|Wonders of the World#Seven Wonders of the Ancient World|Wonders of the Ancient World}}<ref group=c>List as on Wikipedia.</ref>
|Great Pyramid of Giza
|Hanging Gardens of Babylon
|Statue of Zeus at Olympia
|Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
|Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
|'''Colossus of Rhodes'''
|Lighthouse of Alexandria
|}

<references group=c />

===Title text list===
The title text extends this saying he also does the same with the set of the seven days of the week.

The sets Cueball's "days of the week" come from are:
{| class="wikitable"
|
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
|-
!{{w|Days of the week}}<ref group=t>In the US, the weekdays are usually mentioned with Sunday first, whereas the international {{w|ISO week date}} standard defines Monday as the first day of the week. Although Randall is from the US, he has previously expressed his preference for [[1179: ISO 8601|ISO 8601]] (among [[526: Converting to Metric|other international standards]]), so it's reasonable to assume he'd list the days of the week starting on Monday.</ref>
|'''Monday'''
|Tuesday
|Wednesday
|Thursday
|Friday
|Saturday
|Sunday
|-
!{{w|Seven Seas#Modern|The Seven Seas (modern version)}}<ref group=t>There are many ways to lists 7 named bodies of water. The one used in the table uses the order from the Wikipedia article on the modern version, from the largest to the smallest of the seven. But at the top of the article on the {{w|Seven Seas}} another set of oceans are used. Here the two largest bodies of water (Pacific and Atlantic) are split in a north and a south part, and the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean is included. They then displace the three smallest bodies of water mentioned in the table above. If that list is sorted in alphabetic order, using the name Antarctic Ocean instead of Southern Ocean, then "Arctic" would come second: Antarctic, '''Arctic''', Indian, North Atlantic, North Pacific, South Atlantic and South Pacific. "Arctic" could also be a reference to {{w|Climate zones}} - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]. It could not, however, be a reference to {{w|Continents}}, because the Arctic is not a continent {{w|Continent#Number of continents|regardless of how they're counted}}.</ref>
|The Pacific Ocean
|The Atlantic Ocean
|The Indian Ocean
|The '''Arctic''' Ocean
|The Mediterranean Sea
|The Caribbean Sea
|The Gulf of Mexico.
|-
!{{w|Seven Sisters (colleges)|Seven Sisters}}, historically women's colleges in U.S.<ref group=t>List as on Wikipedia.</ref>
|Mount Holyoke
|Vassar
|'''Wellesley'''
|Smith
|Radcliffe
|Bryn Mawr
|Barnard
|-
!Traditional {{w|spectral color}}s<ref group=t>On the list on Wikipedia there are only six colors but Indigo was used to get to seven colors by Newton - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]].</ref>
|Red
|Orange
|Yellow
|'''Green'''
|Blue
|Indigo
|Violet
|-
!{{w|Pleiades (Greek mythology)|Pleiades}}, Seven Sisters, nymphs and daughters of Atlas and Pleone in Greek mythology<ref group=t>List as on Wikipedia, with the oldest first and the youngest last (it's unclear whether the ones in the middle are also listed by age). In any case, only in reverse alphabetical order Electra would be no. 5: Taygete, Sterope, Merope, Maia, '''Electra''', Celaeno, and Alcyone.</ref><ref group=t>Electra is one of the septet of Pleiades sisters, and also of the septet of the complete extant plays by Sophocles. Until [[Randall]] tells us which he meant, both are possible.</ref>
|Maia
|'''Electra'''
|Taygete
|Alcyone
|Celaeno
|Sterope
|Merope
|-
!|''{{w|Sophocles|Complete Plays}}'' by Sophocles<ref group=t>ibid</ref>
|Ajax/Aias
|'''Electra'''
|Oedipus The King/Rex/Tyrannus
|Oedipus at Colonus
|Antigone
|The Trachinian Maidens/The Women of Trachis
|Philoctetes
|-
!|''{{w|The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People}}'' by Dr. Stephen R. Covey<ref group=t>These seven habits are clearly named in order as they are listed as Habit 1 through Habit 7.</ref>
|Be proactive
|Begin with the end in mind
|Put first things first
|Think win-win
|Seek first to understand and then to be understood
|'''Synergize'''
|Sharpen the saw
|-
!|In the {{w|Book of Revelation}} in the {{w|New Testament}} there are {{w|Seven seals}}<ref group=t>''The Seventh Seal'' is also the name of a movie released in 1957, which belongs to a '''lot''' of sets of seven -- see the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section.</ref>
|The First seal
|The Second seal
|The Third seal
|The Fourth seal
|The Fifth seal
|The Sixth seal
|'''The Seventh seal'''
|}

<references group=t />

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are talking.]
:Megan: Can you name all the dwarfs from Snow White?
:Cueball: Sure, there's, um...
:Cueball's thoughts: Sneezy, phylum, Europe, sloth, guacamole, data link, Colossus of Rhodes
:I have this problem where all sets of seven things are indistinguishable to me.

==Trivia==
*Arctic (no. 2 on the title text list) could also be a reference to {{w|Climate zones|climate zones}}: '''Arctic''', North Temperate, Northern Subtropical, Tropical, Southern Subtropical, South Temperate and Antarctic.
**There are however usually only five mentioned according to the {{w|Köppen climate classification}}. They are: Tropical, Dry, Temperate, Continental and Polar climate.
*Concerning the seven colours of the spectrum (no. 4 on the title text list) {{w|Indigo#Classification as a spectral color|indigo is stuck in}} by {{w|Isaac Newton}} to add up to the seven notes in the {{w|Scale (music)#Western music|Western musical scale}}.
**It should be noted that {{w|Indigo#Classification as a spectral color|Newton probably meant}} the colours {{w|cyan}} and {{w|blue}} as we think of it today, rather than blue and {{w|indigo}}.
**Also note that in a {{w|rainbow}} you usually {{w|Rainbow#Number of colours in spectrum or rainbow|cannot distinguish more than six colours}} with cyan melting in with green and blue and the same for indigo with blue and violet.
***{{w|Color term#Basic color terms|This is highly dependent on the language you speak.}} Russian, for example, has both sinij and goluboj to describe different blues that in English are both blue. Japanese, as another example, has blue and green together (kinda) in 青.
**These are also the traditional seven artists' pigments, {{w|Roy G. Biv|with the accompanying mnemonic "Roy G. Biv"}} (or the "Richard Of York..." counterpart mnemonic, for those indoctrinated by a different method). Indigo dye is a widely known and readily available colouring agent. The ongoing ubiquity of the ''pigment'' (think denim) gives it a unique prominence in spite of its uncertain status as a spectral colour.
*''The Seventh Seal'' (no. 7 on the title text list) could also refer to the 1957 film {{w|The Seventh Seal}} by Swedish director {{w|Ingmar Bergman}}. Indeed, we can put it in quite a few sets of seven.
**This was Bergman's seventh film with an English title beginning with the letter 'S' (ignoring articles). ''A Ship Bound for India'', ''Summer Interlude'', ''Secrets of Women'', ''Summer with Monika'', ''Sawdust and Tinsel'', ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', '''''The Seventh Seal'''''.
**Similary ''The Seventh Seal'' is also the seventh Bergman film whose Swedish title starts with 'S', although the list has some different members. ''Skepp till Indialand'', ''Sånt händer inte här'', ''Sommarlek'', ''Sommaren med Monika'', ''Sommarnattens leende'', ''Sista paret ut'', '''''Det sjunde inseglet'''''.
**''The Seventh Seal'' was also one of seven Bergman films submitted by Sweden for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film during the 1950s and 1960s. '''The Seventh Seal''', ''The Magician'', ''The Virgin Spring'', ''Through a Glass Darkly'', ''The Silence'', ''Persona'', ''Shame''.
**According to the Wikipedia page on {{w|The Seventh Seal|The Seventh Seal}}, the Jesuit publication America wrote, "It also began a series of seven films that explored the possibility of faith in a post-Holocaust, nuclear age. In 'The Virgin Spring' (1960), 'Through a Glass Darkly' (1961), 'Winter Light' (1962) and 'The Silence' (1963), he poses traditional faith questions in identifiably religious language. The characters struggle self-consciously with their inability to believe in God and form relationships with one another. In 'Wild Strawberries' (1957) and 'The Magician' (1958), the issues are veiled in layers of metaphor. The theological questions become apparent only by placing them in the context of the other films of the period. With 'The Silence' he concludes that God is unknowable, and the human person must simply continue life's journey seeking understanding and happiness however one can. At that point, [http://americamagazine.org/node/148305 God-questions drop out of his films altogether].
*One way to remember the names of the Seven Dwarfs from the Disney film is: three emotions (Happy, Bashful, Grumpy), two S's (Sleepy, Sneezy), two D's (Dopey, Doc). Cueball assumes that Megan is asking in the context of the Disney film, but other works have named the dwarfs differently; see {{w|Seven Dwarfs}}.
*Megan's question uses the plural '''dwarfs'''. Astronomers also refer to the plural of {{w|dwarf star}}s as "dwarfs". The word "dwarves" is used in {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}'s works, but has been seen as far back as [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html the early 1800s].

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

856: Trochee Fixation

2015-07-20T18:49:57Z

Suspender guy: Added incomplete tag

{{comic
| number = 856
| date = February 4, 2011
| title = Trochee Fixation
| image = trochee fixation.png
| titletext = If you Huffman-coded all the 'random' things everyone on the internet has said over the years, you'd wind up with, like, 30 or 40 bytes *tops*.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|Seems like we're missing the humor here... maybe similar idea to [[1210|1210:I'm So Random]]}}

A {{w|trochee}} is a type of {{w|metric foot}}. A foot is a measure in poetry, it consists of stressed beats and unstressed beats. A trochee is a foot which consists of one stressed beat followed by an unstressed beat. "Trochee" itself is an example of this as you stress the first syllable and don't stress the second syllable ("TROH-kee".) In the comic, an unidentified young girl develops a fixation with words that are trochees, such as robot ("ROH-bot",) raptor ("RAP-tor",) and Jesus ("JEE-zus".) [[Megan]] explains her behaviour. She proposes a "radical trocheeotomy." [[Cueball]] misinterprets Megan's intent as a "{{w|tracheotomy}}", a removal of the girl's vocal cords, of which he is in favor.

Megan proceeds with the trocheeotomy, but it sadly does not have the intended effect. Though the previous trochees have been removed, the girl immediately generates new ones: "BAN-jo," "TUR-tle," "JET-pack," "FER-ret," and so on. Megan therefore resorts to Plan B, implied to be removing the girl's trochee fixation via cranially-applied brick.

There are references to {{w|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles}} and {{w|Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers}}, both of which are examples of actual, trochaic TV show titles. Additionally, there is a reference to sci/fi author {{w|Neal Stephenson}} who has written {{w|Snow Crash}}, {{w|Anathem}} and many other books.

"Jetpack ferret" could be a reference to [[20: Ferret]], although the ferret in question only had wings.

{{w|Huffman coding}} is a lossless data compression algorithm that works by recording a specific string and then only recording that the string is repeated a certain number of characters later on until eventually it only contains a "dictionary" of unique substrings and then mentions of where those substrings repeat. In highly repetitive data this can cut down the file size immensely, which is what Randall is implying by saying you would only end up with 30–40 bytes. Most of the "random" stuff said on the Internet has been said before.

Trochee and other types of poetry "feet" is the subject of [[1383: Magic Words]], and the trochaic form is explored further in [[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]].

==Transcript==
:Girl: Robot ninja! Pirate doctor laser monkey! Narwhal zombie badger hobo bacon kitty captain penguin raptor Jesus!

:Megan: We'd been seeing this brain damage for years, but only recently did our linguists identify the pattern behind it.

:Megan: The patients fixate on animals and types of people whose names are trochees (two syllables, with the accent on the first).

:The malfunction causes a rush of dopamine whenever these trochees are heard or spoken.
:[Chart shows "internet" and "brain," with arrows marked "trochees" traveling both ways between them. An arrow marked "dopamine" loops from the brain back to the brain.]

:The warning signs appear in childhood:
:[Child sits in front of TV.]
:Child: Yeah! Mighty teenage morphin' ninja power mutant turtle rangers!
:Social reinforcement focuses the fixation on a few dozen words.
:Cueball (off-panel): Is there a cure?

:[Girl is reclining under a big machine pointed at her face.]
:Megan: We're about to try a radical trocheeotomy.
:Cueball: Rip out her vocal chords? I'm in favor.
:Megan: No, we're modifying her vocabulary* to erase the words she's fixated on.
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>Digitoneurolinguistic hacking! It's totally real! Ask Neal Stephenson.

:Megan: Either the gap will be filled by normal words, or she'll just generate a new set of trochees.
:Megan: Here goes.
:[She pulls the lever on a large panel.]
:''kachunk bzzzZZZZZZ''

:[Girl is waking up.]
:Girl: ...GzZhRmPh ...
:Girl ...banjo turtle!
:Girl: Jetpack ferret pizza lawyer! Dentist hamster wombat plumber turkey jester hindu cowboy hooker bobcat scrapple!
:Megan (off-panel): Sigh.
:Megan: Time for plan B.
:Cueball: Someone get a brick.

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

1551: Pluto

2015-07-15T00:15:46Z

Suspender guy: /* Table of objects */ Suggested Randall may have added artifacts, rather than NASA removing them

{{comic
| number = 1551
| date = July 14, 2015
| title = Pluto
| image = pluto.png
| titletext = After decades of increasingly confused arguing, Pluto is reclassified as a "dwarf Pluto."
}}

When the image is clicked the latest [http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-spacecraft-displays-pluto-s-big-heart-0 NASA post] opens up.
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New Page.}}

This comic was posted on Tuesday, July 14th 2015, in honor of the {{w|New Horizons}} deep space probe making its flyby at {{w|Pluto}}. It thus breaks the regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday cycle for the [[xkcd]] comics. [[Randall]] has taken the largest released image by this day and drawn humorous {{w|Pareidolia|pareidolia}} on top of it.

It can be compared to preliminary descriptions by geologists, e.g. [http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/07140911-new-horizons-best-look-at.html?referrer=http://t.co/ExQJ6cKS1Q New Horizons' best look at Pluto before close approach | The Planetary Society].

===Table of objects===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| Candy shell
| Suggests Pluto is a confection.
|-
| JPEG plumes
| The {{w|JPEG}} image format has the common issue of slightly distorting an image with {{w|Compression artifact}}s. The artifacts shown here do not appear in the official version of this image, and may have been added by [[Randall]] (or edited out by NASA). But there have been tweets about people seeing plumes associated with active volcanoes and the like, which were explained as being artifacts.
|-
| Frontal bone
| Interpreting Pluto as a head, the {{w|frontal bone}} could be the light-colored region next to the darker top (the north pole).
|-
| Grease stains
| The darkened area of Pluto's north pole is attributed to grease.
|-
| Bugs
| Could refer to possible extraterrestrial life on Pluto in to form of {{w|insects}}, or "bugs".
|-
| Bullet holes
| A string of small round features which Randall suggests were the result of Pluto getting shot repeatedly.
|-
| New Netherlands
| Reference to [[1519: Venus]] and also a [[what if?]] about draining the Earth's oceans onto Mars. In that What If?, the Netherlands issued forth from the portal that drained the oceans to claim Mars as New Netherlands. Presumably something similar happened on Pluto.
|-
| Disputed territory
|
|-
| Snake pit
|
|-
| Full text of the wikipedia article on pareidolia
| {{w|Pareidolia}} is the human brain's tendency to see patterns where they don't exist. While probably a reference to the famed {{w|Face on Mars}}, the joke is also recursive: You'd be seeing the text of a Wikipedia article explaining to you that you couldn't actually be seeing the text of a Wikipedia article.
|-
| Tadpole
| One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
|-
| Kuiper Belt loops
| The {{w|Kuiper belt}} is a region in our solar system that contains a large concentration of icy bodies, including Pluto. Randall jokingly refers to Kuiper Belt as the same kind of belt that's used to fasten clothing, and identifies features on Pluto's surface as loops for the belt.
|-
| Serenity
| The lead spaceship from the TV series {{w|Firefly}}. One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
|-
| Dinosaur
| One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
|-
| The good part
|
|-
| Moon bud
|
|-
| Ghost
| A reference to {{w|Pacman}}. One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined.
|-
| Pluto dinosaur extinction crater
| Suggests Pluto had dinosaurs and lost them the same way Earth did.
|-
| Heart
| One of a number of pareidolic features Randall has outlined, and the only one (currently) also informally named as such by NASA.
|-
| Coronary Artery Disease
| Also known as {{w|ischemic heart disease}}, which causes degradation of heart tissue. The region identified in the comic looks less 'healthy' (is darker and more ragged) compared to the rest of the 'Heart', which Randall suggests is caused by the disease.
|-
| Mount Mons
| Referring to the general practice of naming extraterrestrial mountains {{w|Mons (planetary nomenclature)|"X Mons"}} (e.g. {{w|Olympus Mons}}, a mountain on Mars and the largest mountain in the Solar System), as well as naming terrestrial mountains "Mount X". Since "mons" is Latin for "mountain", the feature's suggested name translates as "Mount Mountain".
|-
| Charging socket
|
|-
| Cracks (beginning to hatch)
| Implying that Pluto is some manner of giant egg. Possibly a reference to the ''Doctor Who'' episode ''Kill the Moon'', in which the Moon is revealed to be an egg from which a monster is hatching.
|-
| Scars from predator attacks
| Since it's all-caps, we can't tell if "PREDATOR" is a proper noun, but this is possibly a reference to the movie series ''Predator'', about a race of aliens who hunt other beings for sport.
|-
| Reset button
| The structure indicated is a small black dot (at least at this distance this picture was taken). Reset buttons on home electronics are often small buttons or holes.
|-
| Debate Hole where we're putting all the people still arguing about Pluto's planet status
| Pluto was reclassified as a {{w|dwarf planet}} rather than a {{w|planet}} following the latter term's controversial {{w|redefinition in 2006}} by the {{w|International Astronomical Union}}. Arguments about the classification continue to pop up. The same argument is referenced in the title text.
|-
| Area missed during ironing
| The area indicated is near the {{w|Terminator (solar)|terminator}} and shows some intriguing topographic relief.
|-
| Probably Benign
| A {{w|neoplasm}} or tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue. Randall is suggesting that the abnormal region near the heart has been evaluated by a doctor and determined to be {{w|Benign tumor|benign}}.
|-
| Chocolate frosting
| Suggests the discrepancy in color over Pluto's surface may be a function of what cake frosting was used where.
|-
| Vanilla frosting
| As above, suggests the discrepancy in color over Pluto's surface may be a function of what cake frosting was used where.
|-
| Border of pride lands
| A reference to the Disney animated feature ''The Lion King.'' In the movie, the Pridelands is the bright and prosperous region ruled by the Lion King while a dark territory beyond its border is controlled by hyenas. The border identified in the comic corresponds with a feature NASA calls the "whale's tale," with the rest of the whale being the large dark splotch.
|-
| Hyena country
| A continuation of the ''Lion King'' reference above.
|-
| Dock connector
| From the point of view of the photograph, this feature of Pluto is at the planet's "bottom," where iPod dock connectors are.
|}

==Transcript==
:'''PLUTO'''
:Some of the features already identified in today's ''New Horizons'' image

:[Many marks on the image of Pluto follow:]

:Candy shell
:Frontal bone
:Grease stains
:Bugs
:JPEG plumes
:Full text of the wikipedia article on pareidolia
:Bullet holes
:New Netherlands
:Disputed territory
:Snake pit
:Tadpole
:Pluto dinosaur extinction crater
:Kuiper beltloops
:Serenity
:Ghost
:Dinosaur
:The good part
:Moon bud
:Scars from predator attacks
:Reset button
:Megaman
:Charging socket
:Cracks (beginning to hatch)
:Plug (inflating/deflating)
:HEART
::Mount Mons
::Coronary artery disease
:Debate hole
::Where we're putting all the people still arguing about Pluto's planet status
:Chocolate frosting
:Probably benign
:Vanilla frosting
:Dock connector
:Border of pride lands
:Hyena country
:Area missed during ironing

:Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI - click for original

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1537: Types

2015-06-12T13:13:23Z

Suspender guy: noted that the "picture" is ASCII art, and added wikilink

{{comic
| number = 1537
| date = June 12, 2015
| title = Types
| image = types.png
| titletext = colors.rgb("blue") yields "#0000FF". colors.rgb("yellowish blue") yields NaN. colors.sort() yields "rainbow"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Title text not explained. More details before the list.}}

This comic is a series of programming jokes about a ridiculous new programming language. Most regular programming languages distinguish a number of types, e.g. integers , strings, lists,... All of which have different behaviours. The operation "+" is conventionally defined over more than one of these types. Applied to two integers, it returns their addition, but applied to two strings it concatenates them:

<code>> 2 + 3

5

> "123" + "abc"

"123abc"</code>

While these behaviours are standard, conventional, and intuitive, there is a huge amount of variation among programming languages when you apply an operation like "+" to different types. One logical approach is to always return an error in all cases of type mixing, but it is often practical to allow some case mixing, since it can hugely simplify an operation. Variation and lack of a clearly more intuitive behaviour leads some languages to have weird results when you mix types.

# <code>2 + "2"</code> uses the <code>+</code> operator on a number and a string. In a normal language, this would result either the number <code>4</code> (addition), or <code>"22"</code> (string concatenation); however, the new language converts the string to an integer, adds them to produce <code>4</code> and converts back to a string.
# <code>"2" + []</code> adds a string to an array (a list), this time. This first inexplicably converts the string to a number again, and then it literally adds the number to the list by appending it (this would make sense if it was <code>[] + 2</code>, but usually not the other way around). And then the result is converted to a string again.
# <code>(2/0)</code> divides <code>2</code> by <code>0</code> and quite reasonably results in <code>NaN</code> (not a number).
# <code>(2/0)+2</code> adds <code>2</code> to <code>NaN</code>. <code>2</code> is "added" to the string <code>"NaN"</code> (again, the number is converted to a string for apparently no reason), which produces <code>"NaP"</code>, as if <code>2</code> was added to <code>"N"</code> to produce <code>"P"</code> (as per alphabetical order).
# <code>""+""</code> looks like it is concatenating (adding) an empty string to another empty string, which should produce an empty string. However, the entire thing is treated as one string (with the start quote being the first one and the end quote being the very last one), which produces the egregious '<code>"+"</code>'.
# <code>[1,2,3]+2</code> seems to test whether it's sound to append <code>2</code> to the list <code>[1,2,3]</code>, and concludes that it doesn't fit the pattern, returning the boolean value <code>false</code>. It could conceivably also be the result of an attempt to add <code>2</code> to the ''set'' <code>[1,2,3]</code>, which already contains that element (although <code>{1,2,3}</code> would be a more common notation for sets).
# <code>[1,2,3]+4</code> returns <code>true</code> for much the same reason.
# <code>2/(2-(3/2+1/2))</code> is a floating point joke. Floating point numbers are notoriously imprecise. With precise mathematics, <code>(3/2+1/2)</code> would be exactly 2, hence the entire thing would evaluate to <code>2/0</code> or <code>NaN</code> in Randall's new language. However, the result of <code>(3/2+1/2)</code> is "just slightly off," which makes the result "just slightly off" of <code>NaN</code> (which would be ridiculous in a real language). The ironic thing is that fractions with 2 in the denominator are ''not'' the kind of numbers that typically suffer from floating point impreciseness.
# <code>range(" ")</code> normally wouldn't make any sense. However, the new language appears to interpret it as ASCII, and in the ASCII table, character #32 is space, #33 is <code>!</code>, and #34 is <code>"</code>. So, instead of interpreting <code>" "</code> as a string, it seems to be interpreted as <code>34, 32, 34</code> (in ASCII), and then <code>range</code> appears to transform this into <code>34, 33, 32, 33, 34</code> (the "ranges" between the numbers), which, interpreted as ASCII, becomes <code>['"', '!', ' ', '!', '"']</code>.
# <code>+2</code> appears to be applying a unary <code>+</code> to the number <code>2</code>, which should just be <code>2</code>. However, the code is adding <code>2</code> to the line number <code>10</code> in this context.
# <code>2+2</code> would normally be <code>4</code>. However, the interpreter takes this instruction to mean to add the value 2 to the literal value of <code>2</code>, making it <code>4</code> and then reports that the work is "Done". This can be seen in the subsequent lines where all <code>2</code>s are replaced by <code>4</code>s. This could be a reference to languages like Fortran where literals were able to be assigned new values.
# <code>range(1,5)</code> would normally return <code>[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]</code>. However, since the value of <code>2</code> has been changed to <code>4</code>, it returns <code>[1, 4, 3, 4, 5]</code>, and this even affects the line number (which is 14 instead of 12).
# <code>floor(10.5)</code> should return <code>10</code> (the "floor" of a decimal number is that number rounded down). However, it instead returns {{w|ASCII art}} of the number on a "floor."

==Transcript==
My new language is great, but it has a few quirks regarding type:
<pre>
[1]> 2+"2"
=> "4"
[2]> "2"+[]
=> "[2]"
[3]> (2/0)
=> NaN
[4]> (2/0)+2
=> NaP
[5]> ""+""
=> '"+"'
[6]> [1,2,3]+2
=> FALSE
[7]> [1,2,3]+4
=> TRUE
[8]> 2/(2-(3/2+1/2))
=> NaN.0000000000000013
[9]> range(" ")
=> ('"','!'," ","!",'"')
[10]> +2
=> 12
[11]> 2+2
=> DONE
[14]> RANGE(1,5)
=> (1,4,3,4,5)
[13]> FLOOR(10.5)
=> |
=> |
=> |
=> |
=> |___10.5___
</pre>

{{comic discussion}}

1534: Beer

2015-06-06T14:44:49Z

Suspender guy: Added "trivia" heading

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

==Explanation==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect

2015-05-29T21:15:29Z

Suspender guy: Added "citation needed" after the explanation of the title text. Why would this not be sarcastic?

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

==Explanation==

The BDLPSWDKS Effect in the title is an {{w|acronym}} for Bernoulli-Doppler-Leidenfrost-Peltzman-Sapir-Whorf-Dunning-Kruger-Stroop Effect, as explained by [[Ponytail]] in the comic. She stands in front of a slide that shows [[Cueball]] being subjected to this effect.

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

{{w|Bernoulli's principle}} in fluid dynamics (also mentioned in [[803: Airfoil]]) states that an increase in the speed of a fluid with certain properties occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy. This is referenced by the lifted firetruck hurtling rather than just speeding.

The {{w|Doppler effect}} in physics refers to the change in a wave's frequency for an observer moving relative to its source. Sound from the oncoming firetruck increases in pitch. In tonal languages, changes in pitch change the meaning, making it harder for Cueball to understand the word screamed by the driver.

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

The {{w|Peltzman effect}} refers to how regulations intended to increase safety are ineffective or counterproductive. Red means stop and green means go, so yelling "red" would induce the (usually) counterproductive behavior of starting to walk more, rather than less.

The {{w|Sapir–Whorf hypothesis}} states that a person's world view and cognitive processes are affected by the structure of the language the person speaks. A language without a word for "firefighter" would conceivably not contain a word for "firetruck" either, thus avoiding the association with danger firetrucks have, slowing down Cueball's reaction.

The {{w|Dunning–Kruger effect}} refers to unskilled people mistakenly perceiving themselves as more skilled than they really are, while skilled people underestimate their own abilities. Obviously, if Cueball isn't fluent in the language, s/he'd take more time to process "green", as opposed to "red" in a well-understood language.

The {{w|Stroop effect}} refers to the phenomenon in which it is easier to name the color of the ink in which a word is written when the word refers to the same color as the ink than when the word refers to a different color. Firetrucks are red, this suggests that the driver shouting '''RED''' would get a faster response than the driver shouting '''GREEN'''.

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

Furthermore, the opportunity of publishing this comic strip may (or may not) be related to the recently issued sequels of franchises such as `Mad Max` and `Carmageddon`, where it's not unusual to find heavy wheeled vehicles trampling pedestrians for fun, or simply because the drivers do not care.

==Transcript==

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

1206: Einstein

2015-05-12T21:13:12Z

Suspender guy: /* Explanation */ Added detail about the meaning of "currently"

{{comic
| number = 1206
| date = May 1, 2013
| title = Einstein
| image = einstein.png
| titletext = Einstein was WRONG when he said that provisional patent #39561 represented a novel gravel-sorting technique and should be approved by the Patent Office.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Randall]] is playing with the notion that since Einstein contributed so much to society, and many of his works have withstood testing, disproving Einstein must be a difficult task. This is proven false by taking a mundane declaration by Einstein and proving it false with a simple task.

Nobel laureate and ''Time'' Person of the Century {{w|Albert Einstein}} is often considered one of the smartest and most influential men in world history. His theories have revolutionized our understanding of the Universe and inspired generations of scientists. In this comic, [[Cueball]] indicates to a friend that he is working on an experiment that may disprove Einstein. The implication is that Cueball is conducting a serious scientific experiment which may disprove one of Einstein's scientific theories. The second frame, however, implies that the Einsteinian "theory" Cueball's experiment may disprove is an offhand (and subjective) remark by Einstein about the availability of good sandwiches.

The experiment Cueball is "currently conducting" probably refers to the fact that he is currently eating a sandwich, and if that sandwich was indeed a good one, Einstein would be proved wrong. Part of the humor here is that Cueball's friend probably assumes that when Cueball says "currently," he means the experiment is part of Cueball's work, not what he is doing at that exact moment.

In [[947: Investing]], Randall comments on how people put too much credence in a joke Einstein made in passing, and in [[799|comic 799]] we see {{w|Stephen Hawking}} in a similar predicament, every word he says taken as a major declaration.

The title text demonstrates the ability to "disprove" Einstein while not challenging his scientific work but rather one of his decisions in his capacity as a patent clerk at the Swiss Patent Office at the time he published his first major papers (previously alluded to in [[1067: Pressures]]). According to [https://www.ige.ch/en/about-us/einstein/frequently-asked-questions.html the Einstein FAQ] on the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property's website, patent #39561 is one of several patents that "we can assume ... were personally examined by Einstein". A PDF of the patent, which was indeed a gravel sorter ({{w|trommel}}), can be found [https://www.ige.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/Institut/d/i109401.pdf here] in German.

Another part of the joke involves tenses: when Cueball says "I'm currently conducting an experiment," his friend assumes that Cueball is involved in an ongoing research project; but he actually means that he is conducting an experiment at that very moment, by eating a sandwich.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and friend eating at a table.]
:Cueball: I'm currently conducting an experiment which may prove Einstein wrong!
:Friend: Ooh, exciting!

:1947:
:[Einstein and Cueball walking.]
:Einstein: It's ''impossible'' to find a good sandwich in this town.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]