explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T03:15:47Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NINETIES KID WHO FELT SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic seems to be set in an alternative reality where the sun's brightness rises and falls within an 11 year cycle, causing there to be complete darkness for around 10 years. The change in brightness over the cycle is due to sunspots accumulating over half of the cycle. When the sun darkens, standard sunspots appear. When it brightens, fictitious 'bright' sunspots appear in place of the old, dark sunspots.

This would obviously be impossible {{citation needed}} as not only do sunspots cool the area of the sun where they appear, but during a dark phase, no light is coming from the sun, so the Earth would freeze.

The title text indicates the effect on internet memes that this process has. During the 2010's, when '90's kid' memes were still funny, many have changed to reflect that the Earth has been dark since the 2000's, and thus only those born in the 90's and before would remember dawn.

This comic seems to be an allegory correlating the solar cycle to events and periods in the cycle of human history. In the 1970s the sun was light, humans society was doing well, with progress made in social issues and lifestyle. The dark periods seem to coincide with dark events in history, ie 2001 and on, then things started to look up after the financial crash of 2014. A low point at 2020 could indicate the covid epidemic. The history shown does not correspond to the observed sunspot cycle in reality.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
(Caption above the comic):Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle.

There is a graph with "Sunspot number" and "Time".
Left to right:
Dark sunspots appear.
Sunspot number rises.
Numbers fall as sunspots merge.
Sunspots envelop sun, earth enters years of darkness.
Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

History:
(A graph goes back and forth from "Sun is light" and "Sun is dark".
{{comic discussion}}

2725: Sunspot Cycle

2023-01-17T03:12:17Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2725
| date = January 16, 2023
| title = Sunspot Cycle
| image = sunspot_cycle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x503px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Who can forget the early 2010s memes? 'You know you're a 90s kid if you remember the feeling of warm sunlight on your face.' 'Only 90s kids remember the dawn.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NINETIES KID WHO FELT SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic seems to be set in an alternative reality where the sun's brightness rises and falls within an 11 year cycle, causing there to be complete darkness for around 10 years. The change in brightness over the cycle is due to sunspots accumulating over half of the cycle. When the sun darkens, standard sunspots appear. When it brightens, fictitious 'bright' sunspots appear in place of the old, dark sunspots.

This would obviously be impossible {{citation needed}} as not only do sunspots cool the area of the sun where they appear, but during a dark phase, no light is coming from the sun, so the Earth would freeze.

The title text indicates the effect on internet memes that this process has. During the 2010's, when '90's kid' memes were still funny, many have changed to reflect that the Earth has been dark since the 2000's, and thus only those born in the 90's and before would remember dawn.

This comic seems to be an allegory correlating the solar cycle to events and periods in the cycle of human history. In the 1970s the sun was light, humans society was doing well, with progress made in social issues and lifestyle. The dark periods seem to coincide with dark events in history, ie 2001 and on, then things started to look up after the financial crash of 2014. A low point at 2020 could indicate the covid epidemic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
(Caption above the comic):Ever wonder why the sun disappears for about 10 years every other decade? This terrifying period of worldwide darkness is a consequence of the 11-year sunspot cycle.

There is a graph with "Sunspot number" and "Time".
Left to right:
Dark sunspots appear.
Sunspot number rises.
Numbers fall as sunspots merge.
Sunspots envelop sun, earth enters years of darkness.
Bright sunspots appear, cycle reverses.

History:
(A graph goes back and forth from "Sun is light" and "Sun is dark".
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1567: Kitchen Tips

2022-08-08T07:47:20Z

The Cat Lady:

Does the title text refer to Cueball never ripping a sheet of toilet paper off, just putting the end of the roll in the toilet and flushing, making it unroll? [[User:Thomasa88|Thomasa88]] ([[User talk:Thomasa88|talk]]) 05:16, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

:-Not quite, I think. I got the impression that cueball wiped with the ''whole roll,'' then simply shoved the entire thing down the toilet. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.72|199.27.128.72]] 05:49, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
That is really wasteful![[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.52|162.158.126.52]] 16:00, 16 July 2021 (UTC)
:: That option didn't even occur to me. In my defence, it just wasn't where the comic panels seemed to be heading. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 23:25, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Is Cueball really hosting a show here? I would think of this comic as a series of commercials or a vlog series rather than a TV show. Just my opinion. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.156|199.27.133.156]] 05:37, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:Maybe it's also meant to mock the so-called kitchen-hacks articles. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.56|108.162.225.56]] 07:01, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure it's aimed at [such-and-such]-hack listicles, articles, and videos. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.96|173.245.54.96]] 12:40, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

The implication is that the the first tip: "If you want to know the temperature of something, use a thermometer designed to measure its temperature", is as obvious as the other four ridiculous 'tips'.[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 07:42, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

:Zeimusu's comment goes to what i think is the real point of this comic. I came here since i wanted to know '''''why'''''. It is a commentary on the stupidity of not using the obvious and sane methods of household activities. There are a lot of really ''odd'' tips for households, including "unspooling two ply toilet paper to have each roll last twice as long" of which the "whole roll" usage is a parody. [[User:Harodotus|Harodotus]] ([[User talk:Harodotus|talk]]) 10:45, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
::I 2nd Zeimusu's comment. I think Randall is saying that meat thermometers should be used more often. I don't see how you could say each panel builds up from practical to impractical. Throwing away dishes is probably less practical that cooking directly on a stove. So it goes: Obvious tip (thermometer), Obvious tip (dishes), Obvious tip (stove), Really crazy obvious tip (hose in freezer, punchline), Further grossout title text (TP waste). I don't agree with Randall's cooking advice myself (I think a meat thermometer is bothersome, and cooking to a certain number for safety is not always the point of cooking) but if you follow his "scientific" perspective then it should be "obvious" you use a thermometer to measure internal meat temperature instead of the typical (scientifically unreliable) methods of basing it on timing or other folk wisdom indicators of meat being done.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.164|108.162.216.164]] 07:41, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
:::Actually throwing away dishes is not less practical than cooking on a stove if you consider that paper/plastic plates, plastic cups and plastic utensils can also be purchased and thrown away after every meal. Thus, the panel can be saying not to throw away ''glassware'' or to stop buying and throwing away ''plasticware'' and instead invest in dishes that can be cleaned and reused. In a way, this panel is the bridge between the realistic and the absurd since it can be taken either way IMHO. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 16:07, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
:::: A lack of meat thermometers isn't 'stupid' and you're only 'guessing' if meat is done if you are a child or an alien with no cultural context. Recipes will say 'Until the juices run clear' or 'until pink in the middle' for a reason. Because that means it's cooked. And the result is that thermometers are just superfluous for most home cooking. They get used in commercial kitchens because in most countries you are required by law to heat meat to a set temperature before you can serve it. You don't just heat it until the temperature reaches a set point and call it cooked, you cook until it's right for the recipe, then double check it with a thermometer to comply with health regulations. When equipment is mandated by law then it shows up a lot, but I worked in kitchens for years and I never met a chef who used one at home. Why? Because knowing the temperature isn't that helpful for a lot of things. When you are cooking a big turkey or barbecuing chicken from raw then they can potentially be useful but using them correctly (which involves totally disinfecting the probe after every time you use it, and for meat with bones or different thicknesses you need to test a couple of times on each piece) is extremely time consuming. If you ever fail to properly wash the probe then you'll contaminate your cooked meat with uncooked bacteria. Also, if you only wait for the temperature to reach the legal limit and take it off you might kill the bacteria but you won't necessarily properly cook the meat. If you are cooking steak at home you really don't want to use a meat thermometer unless you want to cook it well done. Steaks are supposed to be unevenly cooked to make them tender and juicy and depending on thickness you can either ruin a steak waiting for the temperature in the middle, or serve it very rare. That's why commercial chefs cook for colour or texture then probe once before it hits the plate. Almost every other kind of meat you are going to cook until it's evenly cooked through and you don't need a thermometer to see if that's happened. Thermometers just aren't helping most of these processes. They are taking up time to tell you something you already know; they are a way to standardize something for the commercial industry that you'd never do at home, just like I'm sure you don't put out a wet floor sign when you mop at home. In theory a thermometer can make your cooking safer but our whole lives are about acceptable levels of risk. It's safer to never step out of your house, to never see the sun light or inhale unfiltered air. But just like with meat, the risks there are very small and having a happy, convenient life has to trump some abstract idea of safety at some point. You can make that call for yourself where the line is for you but don't call other people stupid for just cooking a damn steak how they like it. [[User:LostAlone|LostAlone]] ([[User talk:LostAlone|talk]]) 16:56, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

The last tip would result in the freezer door being very hard to open as it becomes jammed with ice. Try it! [[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.11|188.114.102.11]] 08:20, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
: That's not the tip. The tip is that there's a better way. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 23:19, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

i don't find it surprising that randall doesn't read viz. http://viz.co.uk/category/top-tips/ --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.34|141.101.98.34]] 11:38, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

But what is his better of way of making ice? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.85.241|141.101.85.241]] 14:13, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:Presumably installing a faucet ''inside'' the freezer. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.224}}

Can we be sure that the title text is also from Cueball? [[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 14:19, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

My first inclination was that this was a meta joke on Randall's [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:My_Hobby My Hobby] series. The more I looked at it the more I think it is a progression from Practical to Impractical (Y-axis) and Plausible to Implausible (X-axis). It is both practical and plausible to check meat without a meat thermometer making the comment a true tip. However, assuming the title text is the implied ''last panel'', it is both impractical and implausible to stuff a whole roll of toilet paper down a toilet drain making the comment an imperative. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:43, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

I felt this was maybe a take on the whole "life-hacks" thing, most lifehacks are simple, and one would think, obvious. Some are a little less so, and some are just ridiculous.
We've become a society which has lost it's ability to solve things by thinking, and presumably the ability to pass on basic knowledge that has been known for years, instead we need to google, luckily there are people out there who will tell us what we need to know. [[User:6328915234|6328915234]] ([[User talk:6328915234|talk]]) 15:31, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
:You could have left it at the first paragraph, but no, you had to throw in a "Modern society is dumb, bluh bluh bleh" complaint. Neglecting the fact that it was the previous itineration of society that dropped the ball on passing down basic knowledge if anyone did, and apparently acting like checking Google is somehow inferior to older ways of finding out things. Go and Google how to get down off your high horse. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:11, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

This XKCD seems very similar to this recent episode of "The New Screensavers" in which Patrick Norton has a quick tip session about using a meat thermometer: https://youtu.be/AvN-9pOsnP8?t=1h9m47s Perhaps Randall watches the show? --[[User:Bkuhns|Bkuhns]] ([[User talk:Bkuhns|talk]]) 16:17, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Could 'easier on your plumbing' be interpreted as meaning that it's physically easier to wipe with sheets than a whole roll of paper? Just saying . . . {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.49}}
:Nope. Plumbing in this case probably refers to the regular usage of the word. I don't think Randall would try to imply an alternative meaning to the word so subtly where the normal meaning of the word fits so naturally. "It's much easier to use single sheets on your butt than it is to use a whole roll" vs "it's much easier for your toilet to handle single sheets than it is for it to handle a whole roll" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.34|108.162.241.34]] 16:22, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

I really don't think the last bit in the explanation about Greece is really necessary as it doesn't really add anything to the explanation. Does anyone second? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.170|108.162.216.170]] 14:33, 31 August 2015 (UTC)
:Agreed. I can't really be sure why somebody thought it was important to include. I mean, I can somewhat see why it's relevant, but the way it was introduced is very jarring. You might say "This is economically impractical, and is prone to clogging the toilet and the plumbing, especially in Greece, where narrow-bore outflows from the toilet are used, and the user is required to dump the used toilet paper in a trashcan adjacent to the toilet instead of flushing it." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.34|108.162.241.34]] 16:22, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
So I think these are also a commentary on the loss of once universal skills. Like how most people can't change a tire, drive a manual or do basic auto maintenance, let alone ride a horse, and many people can't prepare food w/out a microwave,
etc. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.58|172.68.141.58]] 15:10, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Seems like Randall has predicted the existence of YT channels like "5 Minute Crafts". [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 07:47, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2647: Capri Suns

2022-07-19T21:33:30Z

The Cat Lady:

The title text could also be referring to a catheter. I'm not sure which is funnier, but one is certainly grosser. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.115|172.70.85.115]] 18:15, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

That is definitely a urine collection bag from the end of a catheter. The colour would make it doubly "mistakable" for a Capri-Sun with primary flavour/colour being orange. And urine (when collected and undiluted) is usually orange in colour. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.156.215|172.69.156.215]] 18:38, 18 July 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, Capri Sun drinks are generally completely colorless, since the pouches are opaque and the liquid is therefore never really seen, so there's no need for artificial coloring to be added (which is the only reason other similar drinks have a color to them). [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 21:27, 18 July 2022 (UTC)
:: Depends on the flavor, because they have actual fruit juice. The drinks with cherry juice, for example, are red, and deeper than the drinks with orange juice are orange/yellow, because of the strength of pigment in the juices. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.213|172.70.206.213]] 01:41, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
:: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/as0vpa/caprisun_in_a_cup/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.163|172.70.206.163]] 10:46, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

I feel like these are more likely saline bags, given that 1) they've got a substantial amount of text on them, more consistent with saline bags' photos (https://www.google.com/search?q=saline+bag&tbm=isch) than with urine bags, which generally are blank. The tiny label text on the bag also seems to read saline -- would it be all right to change this to the preferred interpretation? [[User:Lorea|Lorea]] ([[User talk:Lorea|talk]]) 18:56, 18 July 2022 (UTC)
:In the larger version, the text clearly says "Saline" [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.123|172.71.30.123]] 21:38, 18 July 2022 (UTC)
::Zooming in on the larger version the text clearly says "saline". I've updated the transcript to reflect that. I've also cleaned up the explanation to incorporate that update.[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 00:12, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

How do you see the double size image?
:I used the Zoom function on my TV screen :P [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 21:33, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, it's definitely an IV bag, not a urine bag. I would say to change it back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.185|172.70.214.185]] 19:01, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

All I can say is "thank goodness for explainXKCD" otherwise I had no idea as Capri Sun isn't a thing in many countries [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.49|172.69.62.49]] 23:19, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

There was I thinking it was blood
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.78|172.70.91.78]] 07:34, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Heat wave in Europe and drought conditions provide this Twitter user to imagine Capri Sun as IV Drip [https://twitter.com/cleveleysnews/status/635186028790288385] [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 17:08, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

; IV sucrose solutions aren't that bad

Regarding whether IV Capri Sun is potentially dangerous, please see [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1998290/] which discusses IV injection of 100 ml of 50% sucrose solution as a therapeutic, and [https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/ajplegacy.1935.112.1.97] which states sucrose is quickly cleared by the kidneys. The other simple sugars aren't going to hurt. Citric acid is "a common ingredient used in [injected] pharmaceutical formulations."[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33888605/]. What's in Capri Sun which could cause IV toxicity? Its ingredients are, per [https://www.caprisun.com/product/capri-sun-juice-drink/capri-sun-tropical-punch-flavored-juice-drink-blend-10-ct-box-6-fl-oz-pouches-00087684001028#id_pdpNutritionContainer], "WATER; SUGAR; APPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE; CITRIC ACID; GRAPE, PINEAPPLE AND CHERRY JUICE CONCENTRATES; NATURAL FLAVOR; MUSHROOM EXTRACT." It's pasteurized.

I'm trying to find some quantification of the level at which undigested fruit juices are harmful when injected. They can cause temporary loss of liver and kidney function along with clotting resulting in pulmonary embolism, but it's not clear at what concentrations they become dangerous, and I can't find good sources. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.32|172.69.34.32]] 09:27, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-47623816 will have to do for now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.95|172.70.214.95]] 09:33, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2647: Capri Suns

2022-07-19T00:12:56Z

The Cat Lady:

2647: Capri Suns

2022-07-19T00:07:45Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2647
| date = July 18, 2022
| title = Capri Suns
| image = capri_suns.png
| titletext = [As security is dragging me away] "Come on, at least I didn't make the mistake in the other direction!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DISGUSTED NURSE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Capri Sun}}, a German juice concentrate drink, is a soft, flat, rectangular bag with a foil-sealed port you pierce with a straw and sip the juice. In hospitals, saline bags are also soft, flat, rectangular bags with the end of an IV drip connection tube sticking out. {{w|Saline (medicine)}} solutions are usually about 0.90% sodium chloride (table salt), so would taste fairly salty compared to a Capri Sun, which is mostly just sugar water. For comparison, assuming the fluid in a Capri Sun pouch weighs about 6.5625 oz, based on [https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight/substance/capri-blank-sun-coma-and-blank-fruit-blank-juice-blank-drink this site] giving 8.75 oz for a cup, the typical Capri Sun is about 0.00008% salt by weight.

The title text is pointing out that mistakenly drinking saline ''out'' of the bag like a Capri Sun is better than a Capri Sun being put ''into'' a patient's body, similar to a saline IV drip, as this would likely seriously endanger, if not kill, the recipient. The speaker appears to be using this as a justification for their actions, since their incompetence was, while inexcusable, at least not actually deadly to anyone. The security mentioned in the title text are likely not impressed by this, as hospitals are places where the act of pretending to be a doctor has the potential for many dangerous outcomes.

The comic arguably functions as a continuation of [[451: Impostor]] and [[699: Trimester]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Created by SOMEONE W.H.O. IS NOT A DOCTOR - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, wearing a lab coat, is drinking out of a straw inserted into an IV drip bag that is labelled "saline". The figure is surrounded by doctors and hospital staff who appear to include Ponytail and Megan, all of whom are looking at Cueball.]
:Cueball: You know, these Capri Suns are good, but they're ''really'' salty.

:[Caption below panel:]
:I think the hospital may be starting to realize that I'm not actually a doctor.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Doctor Ponytail]]

2647: Capri Suns

2022-07-19T00:05:29Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ Changed transcript to add IV bag is labelled "saline". Cleaned up explanation to reflect the fact that IV bag is labelled "saline" when zoomed in!

{{comic
| number = 2647
| date = July 18, 2022
| title = Capri Suns
| image = capri_suns.png
| titletext = [As security is dragging me away] "Come on, at least I didn't make the mistake in the other direction!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DISGUSTED NURSE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Capri Sun}}, a German juice concentrate drink, is a soft, flat, rectangular bag with a foil-sealed port you poke a straw through and sip the juice. In hospitals, saline bags are also soft, flat, rectangular bags with the end of an IV drip connection tube sticking out. {{w|Saline (medicine)}} solutions are usually about 0.90% sodium chloride (table salt), so would taste fairly salty compared to a Capri Sun, which is mostly just sugar water. For comparison, assuming the fluid in a Capri Sun pouch weighs about 6.5625 oz, based on [https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight/substance/capri-blank-sun-coma-and-blank-fruit-blank-juice-blank-drink this site] giving 8.75 oz for a cup, the typical Capri Sun is about 0.00008% salt by weight.

The title text is pointing out that mistakenly drinking saline ''out'' of the bag like a Capri Sun is better than a Capri Sun being put ''into'' a patient's body, similar to a saline IV drip, as this would likely seriously endanger, if not kill, the recipient. The speaker appears to be using this as a justification for their actions, since their incompetence was, while inexcusable, at least not actually deadly to anyone. The security mentioned in the title text are likely not impressed by this, as hospitals are places where the act of pretending to be a doctor has the potential for many dangerous outcomes.

The comic arguably functions as a continuation of [[451: Impostor]] and [[699: Trimester]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Created by SOMEONE W.H.O. IS NOT A DOCTOR - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, wearing a lab coat, is drinking out of a straw inserted into an IV drip bag that is labelled "saline". The figure is surrounded by doctors and hospital staff who appear to include Ponytail and Megan, all of whom are looking at Cueball.]
:Cueball: You know, these Capri Suns are good, but they're ''really'' salty.

:[Caption below panel:]
:I think the hospital may be starting to realize that I'm not actually a doctor.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Doctor Ponytail]]

Talk:1498: Terry Pratchett

2022-06-13T22:08:33Z

The Cat Lady:

Many were the books of Terry Pratchet... and I haven't read any of them. RIP Sir Terry. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.187|108.162.249.187]] 08:22, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

RIP Sir Terry :'( [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.149|141.101.106.149]] 10:17, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

It is so sad. He was ill with {{w|Early-onset Alzheimer's disease|early onset Alzheimer's}} the last eight years, and he still continued to write about a new book each year, and also four in the {{w|The Long Earth}} series together with {{w|Stephen Baxter}}. I have read almost all his books, only waiting for the latest books to come out in paper back. His Discworld series is monumental, and almost all of the 40 books are worth reading, and most of the times the series just got better and better from book to book. Might just begin reading them all again, once I have gotten hold of and read the last published book Raising Steam. (One last(?) book will be out in the fall, as will the last of the Long Earth series. But here another author are there to finish any loose ends). You will be missed, and thanks to Randall for making this comic. RIP. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:23, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I hadnt seen the news but the moment i saw the Title i knew what had prompted this xkcd. RIP and thank you. [[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 12:07, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

There was a comic that included a speculation on how much shelf space to leave for Terry Pratchett books, but I can't remember which one. Can anyone else remember and add a link? [[User:Jasqm|Jasqm]] ([[User talk:Jasqm|talk]]) 13:44, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
:It seems to be http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/625:_Collections [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:33, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but there is an optical illusion in this strip; the corners between frames look like they have dark circles in them. [[User:Kirdneh|Kirdneh]] ([[User talk:Kirdneh|talk]]) 15:28, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

The thing about Terry Pratchett's books, especially his Discworld series, is that you don't know how much you've read until you look at the series as a whole. I mean, I've *only* read all the Rincewind books, the City Watch books, most of the Weatherwax witch books, a couple of the one-shots, the Moist von Lipwig books, the Death books, etc. You don't realize how far you've come until you stop and turn around to look at where you've been. RIP Sir Terry Pratchett.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.80|108.162.216.80]] 15:32, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Even this comic was a little bit on the mind-blowing side, and so I'm probably going to end up spending a bunch of money on books I'll likely take years to even start reading... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.169|108.162.249.169]] 16:16, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Never before have I commented here, and I probably never will again. Just wanted to mark this comic in particular. Thank you Randall. Thank you Terry. RIP.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.54|141.101.99.54]] 16:57, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Same thing here. Thank you for everything, Terry. RIP. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.204|108.162.229.204]] 02:12, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

His books brought so much knowledge and enlightenment. [[User:Foldark|Foldark]] ([[User talk:Foldark|talk]]) 00:11, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

On another level, Cueball walking to the edge of the leaf and pausing allows us to ponder the next (unseen) panel. Does Cueball return to the relative safety of his flower, the only life he has known, or does he leap off the leaf in a bold move into a new world, new challenges, and new adventures? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.191|108.162.216.191]] 12:18, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

The Bromeliad Trilogy was a great series of books from a great author, and one of my favorite symbolic moments is after most of the characters have left Earth, and turn to see the planet eclipsing the sun and looking "for all the world, like a flower". -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 02:37, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Terry Pratchett plays the pronoun game in the quoted text "once you know the world is full of things like that, your life is never the same." Are we never the same after learning about the bromeliad frogs, or about the ground? For Cueball, and us the readers, it is clearly the ground. -Drake Aedus [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.83|141.101.106.83]] 09:27, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, this is getting me to read discworld. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:09, 19 March 2019 (UTC)

Certainly a fantastic writer and an inspiration to many people. GNU Terry Pratchett [[User:Viridiansurfer|Viridiansurfer]] ([[User talk:Viridiansurfer|talk]]) 13:18, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

I had the chance to hear Sir Pterry speak once, and to applaud him in person. I'm so glad I had the chance to express my admiration and gratitude. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 12:16, 26 December 2021 (UTC)

I read The Colour of Magic when it was first published. I had to wait a year for the sequel, The Light Fantastic. I read every single book he wrote as they came out over the years until the very last. In 1991 I was fortunate enough to meet him when he came out to South Africa. I still offered to buy him a banana Daiquiri :P He was unfailingly polite. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 22:08, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-26T20:03:57Z

The Cat Lady: /* "Every inch of the surface" */

hello from Anchorage, AK![[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:24, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
:Hi, but do remember to sign your Talk stuff, however otherwise meaningless. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 19:21, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

:oops forgot, just fixed it.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:24, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

I wonder whether they're also looking for Little Green Men, these aliens being themselves more of the 'bug-eyed monster' type. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 19:21, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

== "Every inch of the surface" ==

Should it be "every square inch of the surface"?
:Yes,....yes it should.[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:03, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-26T20:00:36Z

The Cat Lady: irrelevant

{{comic
| number = 2573
| date = January 26, 2022
| title = Alien Mission
| image = alien_mission.png
| titletext = Fine, we can go search the Himalayas for the Yeti ONE more time, but keep a safe altitude over the Pacific and PLEASE watch where you're going. We can't afford another Amelia Earhart incident.
}}
*This was the eighth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ALIEN LOOKING FOR BIGFOOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This strip portrays a conversation between two extraterrestrial flying saucers, in which they discuss their long secret observation of earth, only to reveal that at least one of their purposes was to find {{w|Bigfoot}}, which they have apparently been unable to do. The alien on one ship argues that it's time to give up and accept that no such creature exists on earth, while the other appears to hold out hope, in the face of a complete lack of evidence.

The first panel alludes to the fact that UFO sightings only became commonplace in the 1940s.

This strip is related to (and may be a continuation of) [https://xkcd.com/2572 the previous strip], which dealt with the reasons why UFO photographs are always out-of-focus and/or lacking details. This strip expands on the reasons ''why'' these alien ships are visiting earth, which apparently include an unsuccessful attempt to locate {{w|cryptids}}.

The humor derives from the fact that UFO enthusiasts and cryptozoology enthusiasts have a similar mindset: they both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment declares to be baseless. Both systems are fully lacking in clear scientific evidence, but have an abundance of eyewitness accounts and vague/blurry photographic evidence. And both belief systems have existed for many years, but rapidly advancing technology, accumulating data, and ubiquity of high quality cameras have still failed to capture any clear and detailed evidence of either (a point which [[Randall]] seems to find particularly significant). But, while these concepts are so parallel, they're logically independent, as one deals with species that are presumably native to earth, and the other deals with advanced alien species visiting the earth. The notion of alien visitors being interested in cryptozoology is incongruous: to them, all earth animals would presumably seem equally alien.

In previous strips, [[Randall]] has suggested playing conspiracy theories off one another (see [[966: Jet Fuel]]). This has a similar theme: suggesting that UFOs are here to search for Bigfoot (and the Yeti) sounds ridiculous on its face. But any explanation of ''why'' it's ridiculous would apply equally well to the notion of Bigfoot and UFO's individually.

At least some of the aliens clearly have a similar belief, at least in the {{w|Bigfoot}}/Sasquatch, which is why they came to the Earth. This implies that they had some prior knowledge (or suspicion) of its existence, and only then (possibly) narrowed it down to this one planet.

Their very thorough observation of the Earth (enough to comprehensively catalogue many of its humans and even track individual purchases of camera-technology, etc) seems to have been insufficient to find Bigfoot, but neither has it entirely refuted the claims. At least in the view of some of the holdouts with influence over this mission.

Whatever the arguments about the Sasquatch, the title text reveals a separate discussion regarding the {{w|Yeti}} (a similar large hominid purported to reside in the Himalayas), and the tentative permission to conduct ''one last search'' for it. This perhaps implies further unreferenced searches are also being made for the likes of the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman and Chupacabra. It also suggests that they ran into {{w|Amelia Earhart}} while both were flying over the Pacific Ocean, and that's why she disappeared.

That their clearly superior observation technology and methods have been apparently unable to resolve these issues at first seems like it shouldn't bode well for our own cryptozoologists, but the lack of definitively negative results does at least mean there's a degree of job-security, such as there already is.

==Transcript==
:[Four panels, largely featuring two 'classic' Flying Saucers hovering in the sky with speech-lines indicating communication between the saucers/crew.]

:[Panel one - only the leftmost saucer talking]
:Left Saucer: Sir, can we talk?
:Left Saucer: We've been observing earth for almost a century.

:[Panel two]
:Left Saucer: Hovering and zooming from place to place, trying to avoid being spotted by humans.
:Right Saucer: Yeah.

:[Panel three - frameless, narrowed to just the left saucer in view]
:Left Saucer: By now we've flown over every inch of the surface many times.
:Off-panel from right: Yes, and?

:[Panel four]
:Left Saucer: Face it: if bigfoot ''is'' real, he's not anywhere on this planet.
:Right Saucer: But humans have captured some intriguing videos!
:Left Saucer: *sigh*
:Right Saucer: How else do you explain the...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]

2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-26T19:57:36Z

The Cat Lady:

{{comic
| number = 2573
| date = January 26, 2022
| title = Alien Mission
| image = alien_mission.png
| titletext = Fine, we can go search the Himalayas for the Yeti ONE more time, but keep a safe altitude over the Pacific and PLEASE watch where you're going. We can't afford another Amelia Earhart incident.
}}
*This was the eighth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ALIEN LOOKING FOR BIGFOOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This strip portrays a conversation between two extraterrestrial flying saucers (presumably over radio), in which they discuss their long secret observation of earth, only to reveal that at least one of their purposes was to find {{w|Bigfoot}}, which they have apparently been unable to do. The alien on one ship argues that it's time to give up and accept that no such creature exists on earth, while the other appears to hold out hope, in the face of a complete lack of evidence.

The first panel alludes to the fact that UFO sightings only became commonplace in the 1940s.

This strip is related to (and may be a continuation of) [https://xkcd.com/2572 the previous strip], which dealt with the reasons why UFO photographs are always out-of-focus and/or lacking details. This strip expands on the reasons ''why'' these alien ships are visiting earth, which apparently include an unsuccessful attempt to locate {{w|cryptids}}.

The humor derives from the fact that UFO enthusiasts and cryptozoology enthusiasts have a similar mindset: they both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment declares to be baseless. Both systems are fully lacking in clear scientific evidence, but have an abundance of eyewitness accounts and vague/blurry photographic evidence. And both belief systems have existed for many years, but rapidly advancing technology, accumulating data, and ubiquity of high quality cameras have still failed to capture any clear and detailed evidence of either (a point which [[Randall]] seems to find particularly significant). But, while these concepts are so parallel, they're logically independent, as one deals with species that are presumably native to earth, and the other deals with advanced alien species visiting the earth. The notion of alien visitors being interested in cryptozoology is incongruous: to them, all earth animals would presumably seem equally alien.

In previous strips, [[Randall]] has suggested playing conspiracy theories off one another (see [[966: Jet Fuel]]). This has a similar theme: suggesting that UFOs are here to search for Bigfoot (and the Yeti) sounds ridiculous on its face. But any explanation of ''why'' it's ridiculous would apply equally well to the notion of Bigfoot and UFO's individually.

At least some of the aliens clearly have a similar belief, at least in the {{w|Bigfoot}}/Sasquatch, which is why they came to the Earth. This implies that they had some prior knowledge (or suspicion) of its existence, and only then (possibly) narrowed it down to this one planet.

Their very thorough observation of the Earth (enough to comprehensively catalogue many of its humans and even track individual purchases of camera-technology, etc) seems to have been insufficient to find Bigfoot, but neither has it entirely refuted the claims. At least in the view of some of the holdouts with influence over this mission.

Whatever the arguments about the Sasquatch, the title text reveals a separate discussion regarding the {{w|Yeti}} (a similar large hominid purported to reside in the Himalayas), and the tentative permission to conduct ''one last search'' for it. This perhaps implies further unreferenced searches are also being made for the likes of the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman and Chupacabra. It also suggests that they ran into {{w|Amelia Earhart}} while both were flying over the Pacific Ocean, and that's why she disappeared.

That their clearly superior observation technology and methods have been apparently unable to resolve these issues at first seems like it shouldn't bode well for our own cryptozoologists, but the lack of definitively negative results does at least mean there's a degree of job-security, such as there already is.

==Transcript==
:[Four panels, largely featuring two 'classic' Flying Saucers hovering in the sky with speech-lines indicating communication between the saucers/crew.]

:[Panel one - only the leftmost saucer talking]
:Left Saucer: Sir, can we talk?
:Left Saucer: We've been observing earth for almost a century.

:[Panel two]
:Left Saucer: Hovering and zooming from place to place, trying to avoid being spotted by humans.
:Right Saucer: Yeah.

:[Panel three - frameless, narrowed to just the left saucer in view]
:Left Saucer: By now we've flown over every inch of the surface many times.
:Off-panel from right: Yes, and?

:[Panel four]
:Left Saucer: Face it: if bigfoot ''is'' real, he's not anywhere on this planet.
:Right Saucer: But humans have captured some intriguing videos!
:Left Saucer: *sigh*
:Right Saucer: How else do you explain the...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]

2573: Alien Mission

2022-01-26T19:51:48Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ very minor grammar edit

{{comic
| number = 2573
| date = January 26, 2022
| title = Alien Mission
| image = alien_mission.png
| titletext = Fine, we can go search the Himalayas for the Yeti ONE more time, but keep a safe altitude over the Pacific and PLEASE watch where you're going. We can't afford another Amelia Earhart incident.
}}
*This was the eighth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ALIEN LOOKING FOR BIGFOOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This strip portrays a conversation between two extraterrestrial flying saucers (presumably over radio), in which they discuss their long secret observation of earth, only to reveal that at least one of their purposes was to find {{w|Bigfoot}}, which they have apparently been unable to do. The alien on one ship argues that it's time to give up and accept that no such creature exists on earth, while the other appears to hold out hope, in the face of a complete lack of evidence.

This strip is related to (and may be a continuation of) [https://xkcd.com/2572 the previous strip], which dealt with the reasons why UFO photographs are always out-of-focus and/or lacking details. This strip expands on the reasons ''why'' these alien ships are visiting earth, which apparently include an unsuccessful attempt to locate {{w|cryptids}}.

The humor derives from the fact that UFO enthusiasts and cryptozoology enthusiasts have a similar mindset: they both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment declares to be baseless. Both systems are fully lacking in clear scientific evidence, but have an abundance of eyewitness accounts and vague/blurry photographic evidence. And both belief systems have existed for many years, but rapidly advancing technology, accumulating data, and ubiquity of high quality cameras have still failed to capture any clear and detailed evidence of either (a point which [[Randall]] seems to find particularly significant). But, while these concepts are so parallel, they're logically independent, as one deals with species that are presumably native to earth, and the other deals with advanced alien species visiting the earth. The notion of alien visitors being interested in cryptozoology is incongruous: to them, all earth animals would presumably seem equally alien.

In previous strips, [[Randall]] has suggested playing conspiracy theories off one another (see [[966: Jet Fuel]]). This has a similar theme: suggesting that UFOs are here to search for Bigfoot (and the Yeti) sounds ridiculous on its face. But any explanation of ''why'' it's ridiculous would apply equally well to the notion of Bigfoot and UFO's individually.

At least some of the aliens clearly have a similar belief, at least in the {{w|Bigfoot}}/Sasquatch, which is why they came to the Earth. This implies that they had some prior knowledge (or suspicion) of its existence, and only then (possibly) narrowed it down to this one planet.

Their very thorough observation of the Earth (enough to comprehensively catalogue many of its humans and even track individual purchases of camera-technology, etc) seems to have been insufficient to find Bigfoot, but neither has it entirely refuted the claims. At least in the view of some of the holdouts with influence over this mission.

Whatever the arguments about the Sasquatch, the title text reveals a separate discussion regarding the {{w|Yeti}} (a similar large hominid purported to reside in the Himalayas), and the tentative permission to conduct ''one last search'' for it. This perhaps implies further unreferenced searches are also being made for the likes of the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman and Chupacabra. It also suggests that they ran into {{w|Amelia Earhart}} while both were flying over the Pacific Ocean, and that's why she disappeared.

That their clearly superior observation technology and methods have been apparently unable to resolve these issues at first seems like it shouldn't bode well for our own cryptozoologists, but the lack of definitively negative results does at least mean there's a degree of job-security, such as there already is.

==Transcript==
:[Four panels, largely featuring two 'classic' Flying Saucers hovering in the sky with speech-lines indicating communication between the saucers/crew.]

:[Panel one - only the leftmost saucer talking]
:Left Saucer: Sir, can we talk?
:Left Saucer: We've been observing earth for almost a century.

:[Panel two]
:Left Saucer: Hovering and zooming from place to place, trying to avoid being spotted by humans.
:Right Saucer: Yeah.

:[Panel three - frameless, narrowed to just the left saucer in view]
:Left Saucer: By now we've flown over every inch of the surface many times.
:Off-panel from right: Yes, and?

:[Panel four]
:Left Saucer: Face it: if bigfoot ''is'' real, he's not anywhere on this planet.
:Right Saucer: But humans have captured some intriguing videos!
:Left Saucer: *sigh*
:Right Saucer: How else do you explain the...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]

Talk:2572: Alien Observers

2022-01-25T09:01:10Z

The Cat Lady:

This is my first explanation, i know it is really bad but i wanted to give it a go[[User:ElijahRock|ElijahRock]] ([[User talk:ElijahRock|talk]]) 20:39, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:Great you are helping. Often easier to continue and improve existing explanations rather than start as you did from scratch. Even if most of the original version end up getting changed. I make alot of edits but rarely begin the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:01, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

I don't think it makes sense to track each human individually, I was under the impression that it was a "before and after" picuture. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 22:14, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:I think they ''both'' track humans individually, and that this is a (representative) before-and-after picture. They probably have minions/computers/whatever continuously updating the actual flight-boundaries as people move around (and go into camera/phone/cameraphone stores and come out with something new) but this is a 'management briefing' that extraordinarily reports this otherwise mundane development as an individual matter, with a visual aid to make the report sink in. Just going to show how aliens can be both so alien and yet amazingly human in their bureaucratic minutiae. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 01:21, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

Feels like this is a partial rebuttal of https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1235:_Settled [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 23:08, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:Didn't see your comment, before, but added this link myself in my own way. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 01:21, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

I think that Randall is also referring to the fact that all footage of "UFOs" show them flying erratically. This being due to the fact that this is the way refraction works. Sorry for the bad English, not sure how to explain it :) EDIT: It could also refer to the fact that a lot of people still believe in UFOs even though this is a well-known phenomenon that is known to be the cause of a lot of these sightings. As I said below though most of these kind of sightings are reported by pilots flying at high altitudes, so now I'm not sure...[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 23:18, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:(Ditto above, didn't see this before starting editing, but...) I put it down to zoom-wobble in what I just inserted. Though didn't say that this is just normal (acceptable) hand-wobble augmented by the zoom needed to frame the distant whateveritis. Yes, rapidly changing refraction through moving air is probably also a thing (usually heat haze during the day, or the subtler stuff that astronomical telescopes have to deal with at night with lasers and adaptive optics and/or electronic post-processing) but I'm happy to leave it at zoom-wobble without going back and adding your suggestion. Do edit it if you feel like it, though, that being how this site works. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 01:21, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

:: The zoom-wobble is a great explanation! I didn't think of that at all :P However, there's lots of footage that exists from non-zoomed, fixed cameras like security cameras and 8 mm film cameras on tripods, which sort of obviates that explanation. But also, I did a quick search for footage like that and it looks nothing like refraction phenoma (at least the examples I could find) so my explanation isn't quite correct either. I think those kind of sightings are mostly reported by pilots at high altitudes, as those are more likely conditions for this to happen. I'm still leaning more towards my explanation than yours for now though:) I'm going to leave this here for now and wait for more discussion before I change anything [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 08:53, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2572: Alien Observers

2022-01-25T08:53:49Z

The Cat Lady:

This is my first explanation, i know it is really bad but i wanted to give it a go[[User:ElijahRock|ElijahRock]] ([[User talk:ElijahRock|talk]]) 20:39, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:Great you are helping. Often easier to continue and improve existing explanations rather than start as you did from scratch. Even if most of the original version end up getting changed. I make alot of edits but rarely begin the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:01, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

I don't think it makes sense to track each human individually, I was under the impression that it was a "before and after" picuture. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 22:14, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:I think they ''both'' track humans individually, and that this is a (representative) before-and-after picture. They probably have minions/computers/whatever continuously updating the actual flight-boundaries as people move around (and go into camera/phone/cameraphone stores and come out with something new) but this is a 'management briefing' that extraordinarily reports this otherwise mundane development as an individual matter, with a visual aid to make the report sink in. Just going to show how aliens can be both so alien and yet amazingly human in their bureaucratic minutiae. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 01:21, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

Feels like this is a partial rebuttal of https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1235:_Settled [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 23:08, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:Didn't see your comment, before, but added this link myself in my own way. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 01:21, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

I think that Randall is also referring to the fact that all footage of "UFOs" show them flying erratically. This being due to the fact that this is the way refraction works. Sorry for the bad English, not sure how to explain it :)[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 23:18, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
:(Ditto above, didn't see this before starting editing, but...) I put it down to zoom-wobble in what I just inserted. Though didn't say that this is just normal (acceptable) hand-wobble augmented by the zoom needed to frame the distant whateveritis. Yes, rapidly changing refraction through moving air is probably also a thing (usually heat haze during the day, or the subtler stuff that astronomical telescopes have to deal with at night with lasers and adaptive optics and/or electronic post-processing) but I'm happy to leave it at zoom-wobble without going back and adding your suggestion. Do edit it if you feel like it, though, that being how this site works. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 01:21, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

:: The zoom-wobble is a great explanation! I didn't think of that at all :P However, there's lots of footage that exists from non-zoomed, fixed cameras like security cameras and 8 mm film cameras on tripods, which sort of obviates that explanation. But also, I did a quick search for footage like that and it looks nothing like refraction phenoma (at least the examples I could find) so my explanation isn't quite correct either. I think those kind of sightings are mostly reported by pilots at high altitudes, as those are more likely conditions for this to happen. I'm still leaning more towards my explanation than yours for now though:) I'm going to leave this here for now and wait for more discussion before I change anything [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 08:53, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2572: Alien Observers

2022-01-24T23:18:59Z

The Cat Lady:

1479: Troubleshooting

2021-11-29T15:13:59Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1479
| date = January 28, 2015
| title = Troubleshooting
| image = troubleshooting.png
| titletext = "Oh, you're using their Chrome APP, not their Chrome EXTENSION. They're very similar but one handles window creation differently." is a thing I hope I can stop saying soon.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic revolves around the complexity of modern software and its sometimes low quality. Many problems that users experience are not obvious or straightforward, and methods for correcting the root cause of the problem requires invoking unrelated actions that happen to cause a desired side-effect. Knowing the non-obvious cause, the desired side effect, and how to trigger the unrelated feature that causes it requires memorization of lots of "stupid computer knowledge" rather than general principles and logical investigation of the software.

One particular example of an illogical fix to a software problem is depicted in the comic. Here, [[Cueball]] is trying to help [[Hairy]] resolve the problem of a program that is not responding to any mouse clicks. Cueball surmises that this is not due to abnormal behavior of the software (such as {{w|Hang (computing)|freezing}}), but rather because either the user or the software itself has opened a {{w|Modal dialog|modal dialog window}} outside of the main screen area, where it can not be seen. Modal dialog windows block access to the rest of the application, by seizing the sole focus of the user input. They are valid {{w|GUI}} tools and are used when the software needs the user's input before it can proceed further. However, opening such a window and placing it outside of the visible screen area ("off-screen") will make the window both inaccessible and invisible to the user, precluding them from closing it and re-gaining access to the software.

One non-obvious way to repair such a problem is to switch the screen resolution; this in itself does not fix the problem, but the resolution switch also forces the operating system to redraw all windows on the desktop, and some operating systems will also validate the coordinates of all windows and adjust these coordinates so that the windows do not end up in off-screen area. In this scenario, it is used as a side-effect to fix the problem, because operating systems rarely provide other, more obvious ways to bring off-screen windows back to the visible area.

By saying "Why is that even possible?", Hairy is quite correct in pointing out that the best way to address this problem at its root would be for the operating system developers to prevent the creation of windows off-screen, preemptively avoiding a whole class of window management problems before they can occur. For example, such mechanisms could validate coordinates during window creation, thus making sure that the dialog window would always be accessible and visible. Such a mechanism exists on OS X, but not on Windows, which the majority of desktop/laptop computers are running at the time of this comic's release.

In general, one can sort the possible solutions to the problem being discussed in the following order of preference, from best to worst:
*(Best): Have OS programmers implement automatic coordinate adjustment during window creation
*Have OS programmers provide easily accessible and visible control to invoke coordinate adjustment for all windows
*Have OS programmers provide a shortcut to invoke coordinate adjustment for all windows
*(Worst, depicted in comic): Have users rely on side-effect of properly implemented screen resolution change mechanism to fix the problem counter-intuitively.

The title text refers to the fact that two different and unrelated software packages can have confusingly similar names, even if the usage and features of those two packages can vary wildly, and knowing the implications of using one instead of the other is a case of "stupid computer knowledge". Knowing the difference between a '''Chrome app''', a cell phone app-style application, delivered from the Chrome web store, designed to be run in the Chrome browser, and a '''Chrome extension''', a browser extension installed into the Chrome browser, delivered from the Chrome web store, designed to modify the behavior of the browser itself, is a subtle distinction that may not be immediately apparent to users who might just have the name of the software they are looking for. {{w|Google Hangouts}} is an example of a product that exists as both a Chrome app and a Chrome extension, whose windows are more similar to each other than to normal Chrome browser windows; and confusingly, it's possible to be signed into one account with the app and another with the extension, especially when your employer or school uses Apps for Business/Education.

In many cases, Randall (or Cueball, his avatar) loves to help people using his specific knowledge (see [[208: Regular Expressions]]). But when the trick is "stupid", he would prefer the programmers to fix the problem definitively so he never has to rely on this trick anymore.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy sitting at a desk with laptop, with Cueball standing behind him.]
:Hairy: Wait, why can't I click anywhere?
:Cueball: I don't... Ugh, It opened a dialog box offscreen.
:Hairy: Why is that even ''possible?''
:Cueball: It really shouldn't be. But you can fix it by changing your screen resolution to trigger a window cleanup.
:Hairy: ''Seriously?''
:Cueball: I know, I know...

:To be honest, I can't ''wait'' for the day when all my stupid computer knowledge becomes obsolete.

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

1479: Troubleshooting

2021-11-29T15:13:09Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ The majority of computers runs Linux, only on the desktop does Windows have a majority.

{{comic
| number = 1479
| date = January 28, 2015
| title = Troubleshooting
| image = troubleshooting.png
| titletext = "Oh, you're using their Chrome APP, not their Chrome EXTENSION. They're very similar but one handles window creation differently." is a thing I hope I can stop saying soon.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic revolves around the complexity of modern software and its sometimes low quality. Many problems that users experience are not obvious or straightforward, and methods for correcting the root cause of the problem requires invoking unrelated actions that happen to cause a desired side-effect. Knowing the non-obvious cause, the desired side effect, and how to trigger the unrelated feature that causes it requires memorization of lots of "stupid computer knowledge" rather than general principles and logical investigation of the software.

One particular example of an illogical fix to a software problem is depicted in the comic. Here, [[Cueball]] is trying to help [[Hairy]] resolve the problem of a program that is not responding to any mouse clicks. Cueball surmises that this is not due to abnormal behavior of the software (such as {{w|Hang (computing)|freezing}}), but rather because either the user or the software itself has opened a {{w|Modal dialog|modal dialog window}} outside of the main screen area, where it can not be seen. Modal dialog windows block access to the rest of the application, by seizing the sole focus of the user input. They are valid {{w|GUI}} tools and are used when the software needs the user's input before it can proceed further. However, opening such a window and placing it outside of the visible screen area ("off-screen") will make the window both inaccessible and invisible to the user, precluding them from closing it and re-gaining access to the software.

One non-obvious way to repair such a problem is to switch the screen resolution; this in itself does not fix the problem, but the resolution switch also forces the operating system to redraw all windows on the desktop, and some operating systems will also validate the coordinates of all windows and adjust these coordinates so that the windows do not end up in off-screen area. In this scenario, it is used as a side-effect to fix the problem, because operating systems rarely provide other, more obvious ways to bring off-screen windows back to the visible area.

By saying "Why is that even possible?", Hairy is quite correct in pointing out that the best way to address this problem at its root would be for the operating system developers to prevent the creation of windows off-screen, preemptively avoiding a whole class of window management problems before they can occur. For example, such mechanisms could validate coordinates during window creation, thus making sure that the dialog window would always be accessible and visible. Such a mechanism exists on OS X, but not on Windows, which the majority of desktop computers are running at the time of this comic's release.

In general, one can sort the possible solutions to the problem being discussed in the following order of preference, from best to worst:
*(Best): Have OS programmers implement automatic coordinate adjustment during window creation
*Have OS programmers provide easily accessible and visible control to invoke coordinate adjustment for all windows
*Have OS programmers provide a shortcut to invoke coordinate adjustment for all windows
*(Worst, depicted in comic): Have users rely on side-effect of properly implemented screen resolution change mechanism to fix the problem counter-intuitively.

The title text refers to the fact that two different and unrelated software packages can have confusingly similar names, even if the usage and features of those two packages can vary wildly, and knowing the implications of using one instead of the other is a case of "stupid computer knowledge". Knowing the difference between a '''Chrome app''', a cell phone app-style application, delivered from the Chrome web store, designed to be run in the Chrome browser, and a '''Chrome extension''', a browser extension installed into the Chrome browser, delivered from the Chrome web store, designed to modify the behavior of the browser itself, is a subtle distinction that may not be immediately apparent to users who might just have the name of the software they are looking for. {{w|Google Hangouts}} is an example of a product that exists as both a Chrome app and a Chrome extension, whose windows are more similar to each other than to normal Chrome browser windows; and confusingly, it's possible to be signed into one account with the app and another with the extension, especially when your employer or school uses Apps for Business/Education.

In many cases, Randall (or Cueball, his avatar) loves to help people using his specific knowledge (see [[208: Regular Expressions]]). But when the trick is "stupid", he would prefer the programmers to fix the problem definitively so he never has to rely on this trick anymore.

==Transcript==
:[Hairy sitting at a desk with laptop, with Cueball standing behind him.]
:Hairy: Wait, why can't I click anywhere?
:Cueball: I don't... Ugh, It opened a dialog box offscreen.
:Hairy: Why is that even ''possible?''
:Cueball: It really shouldn't be. But you can fix it by changing your screen resolution to trigger a window cleanup.
:Hairy: ''Seriously?''
:Cueball: I know, I know...

:To be honest, I can't ''wait'' for the day when all my stupid computer knowledge becomes obsolete.

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

1455: Trolley Problem

2021-11-17T12:28:54Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1455
| date = December 3, 2014
| title = Trolley Problem
| image = trolley_problem.png
| titletext = For $5 I promise not to orchestrate this situation, and for $25 I promise not to take further advantage of this ability to create incentives.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|trolley problem}} is a thought experiment often posed in {{w|philosophy}} to explore moral questions, with applications in {{w|cognitive science}} and {{w|neuroethics}}. The general version is that an out of control trolley (or train) is heading towards 5 people on the track who can't get out of the way. On an alternative branch of the track is 1 person who can't get out of the way. The trolley can be diverted by using a lever, with the consequence of saving the 5 people but killing the 1 person.

The choice is between a deliberate action that will directly kill one person, or allowing events to unfold naturally, resulting in five deaths. The question posed is whether or not it is morally right to pull the lever. The moral question is not as simple as it may first appear.

This results of [http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/fatman/Default4.aspx this test] report that around 86% of respondents choose the utilitarian option of diverting the trolley.

There are, however, several alternative formulations of the same basic dilemma. One such scenario allows you to stop the trolley by deliberately pushing "a very fat man" into its path, killing the man but saving the other five people. Another scenario involves selecting a healthy young and innocent person to die, in order to save five others going through organ donation. In both of these examples the basic dilemma is the same. However, most people reject the utilitarian option in these cases.

After discovering a variation on this problem posed in a strip of the [http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3556#comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal] webcomic (which can be seen on the tablet he is carrying), [[Rob|Cueball]], Black Hat's roommate, presents it to [[Black Hat]]. Before Cueball can finish explaining the problem, most notably leaving out the disadvantage to flipping the lever where it would kill one person, Black Hat questions whether he would need to get up to reach the lever and how much it would interrupt his other activities. As usual, he cares nothing at all about what happens to other people. This response is linked to another theory in philosophy, that of {{w|self interest}} or {{w|egoism}} or {{w|Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|Objectivism}}, in which a person will choose the action with the most benefit for them personally.

Black Hat then poses an offer: he promises to divert the trolley if Cueball is one of the five endangered people, provided that Cueball pays him $1 now. Again Black Hat is twisting the situation to his own benefit, in this case monetary. In the case of self-interest, the $1 could be the price at which Black Hat values his time and effort, below which he feels there is no benefit to himself in pulling the lever. Cueball decides that there is no point posing the problem to someone like Black Hat and gives up. This further shows that it is challenging for people with different ethical frameworks to function together without a common understanding, either mutually or with one side using that understanding to motivate a mutually agreeable or horrible solution.

The title text follows this up by continuing Black Hat's offers. For $5 he will not deliberately arrange this situation and for $25 he will quit looking for further incentives. These attempts to exploit the thought exercise for personal gain further demonstrate Black Hat's cynical amorality.

Black Hat's offer makes Cueball himself the subject of the trolley problem: Cueball now has a choice of expending $1 to save 5 people while sacrificing one person, or $5 to save all 6 people. Of course, he could dismiss the offer as a joke, if not for the person making it, which, as we know from other comics, is very much capable of such exploits.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Ever heard of the trolley problem?
:Black hat: No. What is it?

:Cueball: A trolley is barreling towards five helpless people on the tracks. You can pull a lever to direct it onto another track, but-

:Black hat: Can I reach the lever without getting up?
:Cueball: Wait, I'm not-
:Black hat: In this scenario, how busy am I?

:Cueball: I guess I forgot who I was talking to.
:Black hat: For a dollar, I'll promise to pull the lever if one of the five people is you.

==Trivia==
*Three years later two comics were released with about one month between them where the Trolley problem was mentioned. In [[1925: Self-Driving Car Milestones]] it is in the last ''milestone'' on the list and a month later, in [[1938: Meltdown and Spectre]], it is used as a metaphor for the way some computer programs work.

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

1414: Writing Skills

2021-11-02T21:22:03Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1414
| date = August 29, 2014
| title = Writing Skills
| image = writing_skills.png
| titletext = I'd like to find a corpus of writing from children in a non-self-selected sample (e.g. handwritten letters to the president from everyone in the same teacher's 7th grade class every year)--and score the kids today versus the kids 20 years ago on various objective measures of writing quality. I've heard the idea that exposure to all this amateur peer practice is hurting us, but I'd bet on the generation that conducts the bulk of their social lives via the written word over the generation that occasionally wrote book reports and letters to grandma once a year, any day.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[White Hat]] are discussing the positive and negative effects of young people writing on mobile phones in the vernacular of the day, {{w|Short Message Service}} (SMS).

SMS messages are one of the primary means of text communication on mobile devices, and are typically limited to 160 characters. Due to the limited space available on this and other messaging platforms, and also to decrease the time taken to write a message, {{w|SMS language}} (aka textese) developed as a form of short-hand writing. This involves the abbreviation and deliberate misspelling of words, and the use of acronyms.

Naturally, the use of this style of language has expanded into other areas, including those where brevity is not an issue, and this expansion and evolution of language is a subject of intense debate. The main viewpoints on the subject are:

*Language is being negatively degraded by the use of text speak
*The use of text speak is a natural evolution of language

Cueball's point is that "practice makes perfect". The ability to form good grammar comes from practice through a lot of writing, even when that writing is informal; hence, the SMS generation gets a lot of practice compared to previous generations, who communicated mostly with speech, over the phone, and in person, and may have written only a few letters a year. To foster talent for a major literary work, we should encourage practice, even when that practice is through informal writing such as SMS.

This idea has some real scientific background. Such as the investigation in 2009 [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/026151008X320507/abstract Exploring the relationship between children's knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes]. In this study children 10-12 were asked to compose text messages. The number of textisms was recorded, and a positive correlation was found between use of sms abbreviations and success at literacy tests. This is then related to David Crystal's concept of "ludic" language: the playful use of language as a contribution to language development. That notion is developed here: By playing with textual language, one develops writing skills, just as by playing with balls one can develop sports skills. David Crystal [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HyNVuCxTtW0C&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=plester+wood+puja&source=bl&ots=x1kjFfoNAW&sig=moBSR9GJaQJlVBr_P9nqDJwvoxU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rVwDVK3VBqe60QXM5YHABw&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=plester%20wood%20puja&f=false explains]: "Children could not be good at texting if they had not already developed great literary awareness [...] If you are aware that your texting behaviour is different, you must have intuited that there is a standard."

{{w|James Joyce}} was a celebrated Irish novelist and poet, and his novel {{w|Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses}} is considered to be one of the most important works of modernist literature. It was criticized in some quarters for the frequent lack of punctuation and ungrammatical {{w|Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream of consciousness}} narrative mode. In addition to his better-known works, he wrote a number of love letters with extremely explicit content.

In the title text, Randall wishes to prove Cueball's point by analyzing and comparing bulk volumes of texts (= a {{w|Text corpus|corpus}}) written by children today and 20 years ago. Randall favors the literary ability of today's children for their everyday use of written word over the situation of the past, when children wrote only if forced to do so. The title text's second sentence is particularly long and complex (compared to almost any other title text), which will generally score much higher "on various objective measures of writing quality". Randall may be hinting that writing a lot of short title texts, like writing a lot of SMSs, improves your general writing quality - further strengthening Cueball's point. The title text is also 99 words long, probably referencing a 100 word limit.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are walking together, White Hat is holding a newspaper or report.]
:White Hat: Weird- Another study found that kids who use SMS abbreviations actually score ''higher'' on grammar and spelling tests.
:Cueball: Why on ''earth'' is that a surprise?

:[Cueball turns to White hat (who is now out side the frame. Inserted in the frame is a panel showing several kids throwing balls.]
:Cueball: Imagine kids suddenly start playing catch literally ''all the time''. Everywhere they go, they throw balls back and forth, toss them in the air, and hurl them at trees and signs- Nearly every waking hour of their lives.

:[Cueball talks on while White Hat begins to walk.]
:Cueball: Do you think their generation will suck at baseball because they learned sloppy skills?
:White Hat: ...So you think someone will become a great writer while ''sexting?''

:[They walk together.]
:Cueball: Have you ''read'' James Joyce's love letters? The phrases "My little fuckbird" and "Arse full of farts" appear. If we want to write ''Ulysses'', our generation may not be sexting ''enough''.
:White Hat: Eww.

==Trivia==
*Randall originally misspelled surprise as "suprise" in the first panel and also wrote "writing writing" in the beginning of the title text instead of just "writing". It was initially conjectured here that the errors may have been deliberately introduced as they are relevant to the subject. However, both of these errors were corrected on the same day the comic was released and currently are not present in the live version.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Phones]]

Talk:1393: Timeghost

2021-10-28T21:37:16Z

The Cat Lady:

A lot of the facts seem to fit information that sites like http://you.regettingold.com/ would provide. But I'll leave it up to someone else to work out the dates of everything (except for the imminent and possibly eerie deaths of the strip characters) being referenced, and thus what ages Randall is assuming the various cohorts are... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 04:58, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

''Forrest Gump'' the book - 1986

''Forrest Gump'' the movie - 1994

Vietnam War - 1955 to 1975

Keanu Reeves - born 1965 (age 49)

''The Simpsons'' season 5 - 1993 [[User:Dude1818|Dude1818]] ([[User talk:Dude1818|talk]]) 05:15, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I'm sure you all remember [[1108:_Cautionary_Ghost|Cautionary Ghost]]; there's got to be a lot of those around in the xkcd universe... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.73|108.162.231.73]] 07:23, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

I don't know enough about the English usage of the term to see the connection, but could this be a play on "zeitgeist", seeing how it is a literal translation of the word? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.115|103.22.200.115]] Tobl

Maybe it is just me, but I don't see the characters' deaths as imminent. In the first panel, Megan is not suprised to see that ghost and can even identify it easily. So my guess is that she previously met the ghost "some time" before, but she (obviously) doesn't like to know how much time she has left to live. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.156|108.162.229.156]] 08:12, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

(average age of new grandparents is less than 50) [citation needed] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.53}}
:can I site xkcd:1393 as a source for that data?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.79|173.245.48.79]] 09:17, 11 July 2014 (UTC)BLuDgeons

Google gives 25 as the average age people get their first child. Wikipedia also says Eminem rose to mainstream popularity in 1999 (His debut was earlier but the comic says "when Eminem got big", a subjective term but the 1999 figure might be more accurate?) This also makes season 5/6 of the Simpsons at age 4/5 the earliest age most people remember well.
Maybe change the dates to 1989, 1993 and 1999 for parenthood, simpsons and eminem respectively?

Sources:
Parent age: http://www.babycenter.com/0_surprising-facts-about-birth-in-the-united-states_1372273.bc?page=2 (questionable maybe)
Eminem got big: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem (Second paragraph, subjective)
Earliest memories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia (Second paragraph, personal recollection offset is 4.5 years)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.86|141.101.104.86]] 09:46, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
:I can't find a current number, but extrapolation from [http://www.familyfacts.org/charts/219/the-average-age-of-first-time-mothers-has-steadily-increased this] chart would put the average parent age for their first child at 25 or maybe 26. 28 is the average parent age for any child. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 12:34, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

How can we say that the time-ghost only first appeared in the beginning of this particular comic? In the first panel Megan seems to recognize the time-ghost, inferring that she's met him before - but Cueball has not. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:29, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

: Implying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.215|108.162.246.215]] 05:47, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

I do not know about the proper etiquette for submitting possible edits to the explanations.
Should "[...] than the time that has past since the ghost's began its" become "[...] than the time that has '''passed''' since the ghost began its"?
[[User:Zyzygy|Zyzygy]] ([[User talk:Zyzygy|talk]]) 9:24, 12 July 2014 (UTC)
:Looks reasonable. When you see lexical errors like that, feel free to just change it yourself. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:02, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

So, how old is Randall? {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.55}}

We need a category for "comics that make people feel old", if we don't already have one. You know, like that one with the eight-year-old talking about 9/11. If we do, just add this comic to it. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.222|199.27.128.222]] 22:53, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

RE The Simpsons: If you had a tape or boxset you may remember more of seasons 1-4, because you watched it over and over. Also at the time, seasons 1 and 2 were entering rerun territory/premiering in other countries (see below). The strange thing is, Network Ten in Australia used to regularly broadcast episodes dating back to at least season 3 during my childhood (late '90s and early 2000s'), but now the earliest episodes they play are from seasons 4-6, minimum. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.225}}

Nobody seems to interpret the last Time Ghost statement the way I did, so I thought I would list my perspective here. Death is when one stops existing. When do Megan and Cueball stop existing in this comic? When the strip is over. It started its haunting three panels ago, and they all die in one panel. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.56.83|162.158.56.83]] 13:00, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

I remember The Simpsons from The Tracey Ullman Show, before there was even a Season 1! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 21:37, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

1389: Surface Area

2021-10-27T21:29:48Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1389
| date = July 2, 2014
| title = Surface Area
| image = surface_area.png
| titletext = This isn't an informational illustration; this is a thing I think we should do. First, we'll need a gigantic spool of thread. Next, we'll need some kind of... hmm, time to head to Seattle.
}}
*A [http://xkcd.com/1389/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd - which can be reached easily from here as always, by clicking on the comic number above.
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
This map shows the total {{w|surface area}}s of all {{w|terrestrial planet}}s, {{w|dwarf planet}}s, {{w|natural satellite|moons}}, {{w|asteroid}}s and {{w|minor planet}}s that are larger than 100 m in the {{w|Solar System}}. They have all been represented as regions of a single massive landmass - a {{w|supercontinent}} like {{w|Pangaea}} - which is clearly surrounded by some kind of ocean.
===Solid Surfaces Present in Comic===
====Earth====
On the area that signifies {{w|Earth}} the {{w|continents}} are drawn using a {{w|map projection}} that keeps the scale of the continents correct. (This is something that [[Randall]] cares about as can be seen in [[977: Map Projections]]). The parts of the surface of the Earth that are covered by oceans are also included in the surface area of the Earth (i.e. the map shows the Earth's {{w|Crust (geology)|crust}}). An extra layer of 3–4 km of water seems rather insignificant when comparing to the Earth's radius of 6,370 km.

====The Moon====
{{w|Moon|The Moon}} has been inlaid in this map next to {{w|Antarctica}} which thus makes a great comparison of how small the Moon is compared to the Earth (there is room for more than 13 lunar surfaces on the Earth). Similarly, it is clear that the planet {{w|Venus}} is almost as big as the Earth.

This is also the general idea of the map - to give an idea about how big the Earth is and how small many of the other known planets etc. are; both compared to Earth and to each other. The map drawn on the Earth is probably there mainly as a guide to size, because none of the features that are known on some of the other objects, especially The Moon (i.e. {{w|Impact crater|craters}} and "{{w|Lunar mare|seas}}") and on {{w|Mars}} (i.e. {{w|Olympus Mons}}), are included.

====Other Moons, Asteroids, and Dwarf Planets====
The objects mentioned by name on the map are all but one amongst those that have reached {{w|hydrostatic equilibrium}} and these are all included on this {{w|List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System}}.

The one named object that is '''not''' on the above list is the asteroid {{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}}, which is included because it is the second largest object in the {{w|Asteroid belt}}. It is placed right next to the largest object in this belt, the dwarf planet {{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}, which is no longer considered an asteroid. And next to these two are the rest of the asteroids in two areas (see below), which thus groups all asteroids together.

The only object from the above list, (that qualifies for having a solid surface in hydrostatic equilibrium), '''which is not included''' is the {{w|Saturn}} moon {{w|Mimas (moon)|Mimas}}, which is also clearly the smallest object on the list.

This moon should have been located amongst the other five smaller moons of Saturn between the Earth and {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}} (the largest of Saturn's moons). Mimas has a surface area of 490,000 km2 which is somewhat smaller than the smallest included Saturn moon {{w|Enceladus}} with a surface area of 799,000 km2.

Generally the moons that belong to a given planet (for those with more than one moon large enough to be included), have been clustered together. Apart from the six (not seven...) moons of Saturn to the right of Earth, the four {{w|Galilean moons}} moons of {{w|Jupiter}} are located above the Earth, the five included moons from {{w|Uranus}} is located at the top to the far right.

The last planet to have many moons is {{w|Neptune}}, but only {{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}} is included. This is a fairly large moon, and the only of the 14 known moons of Neptune to be on the above list. However, there is one other moon, {{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} which is notable for being as large as a body of its density can be without being pulled into a spherical shape by its own gravity. It has a length of 424 km in the longest direction, and a mean radius of 210 km. A rough calculation of its surface area from this mean radius gives an area of 550,000 km2, making the surface area slightly larger than Mimas. As there is an '''unlabeled area''' located right next to the other Neptune moon Triton, it is most likely that this small area '''should represent Proteus''', and that it is an error that it was not labeled.

As this is the smallest area, the cut-off of objects could have been at 500,000 km2, as Vesta is also larger than this, which would make room for Proteus, but explain the missing Mimas.

Two of the included objects also have moons that are large enough to be included: Earth, of course, and the dwarf planet {{w|Pluto}} with its moon {{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}. In both cases these moons have been inlaid in the area of their mother planet.

Whereas the moons of the {{w|gas giant}}s and the asteroids have been located above and to the right of the Earth, the planets and dwarf planets have been included below earth (along with the two moons mentioned above). {{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}, Mars and Venus all touching Earth, and then below them the four {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|Trans-Neptunian}} dwarf planets - the {{w|Plutoid}}s.

====Not Included Dwarf Planets====
On the list from above there are, however, also these {{w|List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System#Most-likely additional dwarf planets|10 objects}} which have not been included with name on the map. These object are, however, only likely candidates for being dwarf planets (depending on whether they have reached hydrostatic equilibrium or not), and on the map they have thus been relegated to the sections without individual names. These object are thus probably grouped together (along with other relatively small objects like comets and smaller moons) in the area labeled ''Various small moons, comets, etc'', which is located at the bottom of the map between Mercury and Mars. The surface area for all of these object, when the surface area have been estimated, are larger than 1 million square kilometer, and thus larger than several of the named objects. So it is not the size that is the reason why such objects as {{w|90377 Sedna|Sedna}} and {{w|50000 Quaoar|Quaoar}} are not included with name, but probably the fact they are not investigated enough yet.

The remaining objects in the Solar System with a solid surface are the minor planets, which on the map has been labeled as asteroids even though these objects are grouped together in several other "belts" than the Asteroid belt. Here they have been assigned to two regions at the top of the map. Above the right part of the Earth area is the area ''Asteroids (1 km+)'' which include any object not already included larger than 1 km. (As these objects are no longer round it is the largest dimension, the length, that should be at least 1 km long). And finally the area ''Asteroids (100 m+)'' thus include any object not already included larger than 100 m.

Most of the rest of the objects that have been included in these three sections can likely be found on this {{w|List of Solar System objects by size}}.
====Very Small Objects====
Tiny objects smaller than 100 m down to space dust are excluded altogether as explained in the note below the headings. This is probably because their total surface area is impossible to estimate accurately, and also because any estimate would likely be too large to fit easily into the map.

===Non-Solar Bodies===
Between Earth and Titan is a tiny speck noted ''all human skin'', which is an interesting sort of solid surface. A rough estimate of the average {{w|body surface area}} and thus of the average area of all {{w|Human skin|humans skin}} can be made from these {{w|Body surface area#Average values|average values}} and from {{w|Population pyramid|population pyramids}} as this [http://populationpyramid.net/world/2015/ pyramid for 2015]. Average adults have a skin area of around 1.7-1.8 m2, but as a large part of the [https://www.census.gov/popclock/ human population] are children (with skin area down to about 0.25 m2 for infants) the total average will be smaller. By extrapolating the given values an average area of about 1.6 m2 can be found. This would make the area 7.2 billion × 1.6 m2 ≈ 11,500 km2. This is 60 times smaller than the smallest of the labeled moons {{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}} (of Uranus) with a surface area of 700,000 km2.

===Title Text===
The title text jokingly claims that this comic is not actually for information, but rather is something Randall thinks we should really do – that is, to stitch all the solar system's solid surfaces together, as the sub-sub heading says. To do this, we would need a giant spool of thread and then something he has to go get in Seattle… which presumably must be the {{w|Space Needle}}, a needle-like tower in Seattle, which should then be used in this grand project.

This could also have been a reference to the [http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/13/travel/la-tr-seattle-20111113 Seattle seamstresses] if it weren't for the fact that it's not.

====Skinning Planets and Surface Areas====
Since the land areas are on the surfaces of spheres, this would seem impossible as it would involve lots of deformation and be particularly challenging. It will also be very gruesome when he comes to the part of collecting (and stitching) all human skin together. The inclusion of this speck on the map is, however, also there to make it clear what the real intention is with the planets. Their surface is to be "skinned" of them, as you would have to do with the humans! Then it is all these "planet skins" that should be stitched together using the space needle. This also explains the ragged edges, and why the continents keep their correct size. It would make Randall into a planetary version of {{w|The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs}} movies character ''{{w|Buffalo Bill (character)|Buffalo Bill}}'', a serial killer who tried to make a suit out of the skin from the women he killed.

Randall would also need quite a lot of space for the very large ocean. However, the whole supercontinent is just somewhere between 3-4 times larger than the area of the Earth. And the area of the entire image is less than 9 times the area of the earth. As the {{w|Sphere#Area|formula}} for calculation surface areas for {{w|sphere}}s (4*π*r2) goes with the radius (r) squared, the diameter of the planet needed for the experiment do not need to be larger than 3 times that of the earth. Although there are no objects in the Solar System with this particular size, it is still smaller than the {{w|gas giant}}s, the smallest of these have a radius of almost 4 times that of the earth. {{w|Exoplanet}}s with this range of diameters have certainly been found, however, already at {{w|Exoplanet#Super-Earths, mini-Neptunes, and gas dwarfs|1.7 times the earth radius}} most planets size to be of the {{w|Super-Earth}} type and turns in to the {{w|Gas dwarf#Gas dwarf|gas dwarf}} type of planets. So an ocean of the size needed are not easy to come by.

As has been explained above the earth's surface is included disregarding surface water (oceans) and the same is valid for other objects with surface water, as the Saturn moon Titan which has great lakes (or even oceans) of liquid {{w|methane}} on the surface or the Jupiter moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} which is covered in a deep ocean with a thick cap of ice. (Interestingly this moon is placed on the map very near to the continent of {{w|Europe}} - maybe for easy comparison of these two areas).

===Gas Giants===
The gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have, however, not been included because they do not have any "solid surfaces"; even if they had a solid core (which is itself not clear), this would not comprise any "surface". The gas giants are believed to lack any well-defined surface at all, with the gases that make them up simply becoming thinner and thinner with increasing distance from the planets' centers, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the interplanetary medium. But if they were included via some sort of surface definition, the map of this comic would become a tiny speck amongst the map of the gas giants. Similarly, the surface of the {{w|Sun}} is also not considered a solid surface but hot {{w|Plasma (physics)|plasma}}; if it were included it would reduce even a map of the gas giants to a tiny speck.

===Other Comics===
The map is drawn in a similar style to the two maps of the Internet that Randall has created in the past:
*[[256: Online Communities]]
*[[802: Online Communities 2]]

===Data table===
Below is a table listing the object roughly in the order they would be read of the map (the same order as in the transcript.) But they can be sorted by each of the columns.

The data is taken when possible from the following table: {{w|List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System}}, and surface area is given with three significant digits.

For {{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}} and {{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} (the most likely candidate for the unlabeled area next to Triton) the area is calculated from their mean radius (i.e. they are not spherical). See also above in the explanation, also for calculating the area of all human skin.

The surface for a given object is also given as a ''Fraction of Earth's surface'', and from this the number of times the object could be placed on the Earth's surface is given as one divided by this fraction. For instance it can be seen that The Moon's surface can be placed more than 13 times on top of that of the Earth.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Surface area of mentioned objects
!Object
!Type
!Surface area (km2)
!Fraction of Earth's
!1/Fraction
|-
|{{w|Io (moon)|Io}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="41900000"| 4.19×107||0.082||12.2
|-
|{{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="73000000"| 7.30×107||0.143||7.00
|-
|{{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="30900000"| 3.09×107||0.061||16.4
|-
|{{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}}||Moon of Jupiter||data-sort-value="87000000"| 8.70×107||0.171||5.80
|-
|{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="2800000"| 2.80×106||0.0055||180
|-
|{{w|4 Vesta|Vesta}}||Asteroid||data-sort-value="870000"| 8.70×105||0.0017||590
|-
|{{w|Asteroids}} (1 km+)||Asteroid||N/A||N/A||N/A
|-
|{{w|Proteus (moon)|Proteus}} (not labeled)||Moon of Neptune||data-sort-value="550000"| 5.50×105||0.00011||910
|-
|{{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}}||Moon of Neptune||data-sort-value="23000000"| 2.30×107||0.045||22.2
|-
|{{w|Asteroids}} (100 m+)||Asteroid||N/A||N/A||N/A
|-
|{{w|Oberon (moon)|Oberon}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="7290000"| 7.29×106||0.014||71.4
|-
|{{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="700000"| 7.00×105||0.0014||714
|-
|{{w|Ariel (moon)|Ariel}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="4210000"| 4.21×106||0.008||125
|-
|{{w|Umbriel (moon)|Umbriel}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="4300000"| 4.30×106||0.008||125
|-
|{{w|Titania (moon)|Titania}}||Moon of Uranus||data-sort-value="7820000"| 7.82×106||0.015||66.7
|-
|{{w|Earth}}||Planet||data-sort-value="510000000"| 5.10×108||1||1
|-
|{{w|Tethys (moon)|Tethys}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="4940000"| 3.574×106||0.007||143
|-
|{{w|Enceladus}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="799000"| 7.99×105||0.0016||625
|-
|{{w|Dione (moon)|Dione}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="3970000"| 3.97×106||0.0078||128
|-
|{{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="6700000"| 6.70×106||0.0132||75.8
|-
|All {{w|Human skin|humans skin}}||Human organ||data-sort-value="11500"| 1.15×104||0.000023||43400
|-
|{{w|Rhea (moon)|Rhea}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="7340000"| 7.34×106||0.0144||69.4
|-
|{{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}||Moon of Saturn||data-sort-value="83000000"| 8.30×107||0.163||6.14
|-
|{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}||Planet||data-sort-value="75000000"| 7.50×107||0.147||6.80
|-
|{{w|Moon|The Moon}}||Moon of Earth||data-sort-value="37900000"| 3.79×107||0.074||13.5
|-
|Various small {{w|Natural satellite|moons}}, {{w|comet}}s, etc.||N/A||N/A||N/A||N/A
|-
|{{w|Mars}}||Planet||data-sort-value="140000000"| 1.40×108||0.2745||3.64
|-
|{{w|Makemake (dwarf planet)|Makemake}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="6400000"| 6.40×106||0.013||76.8
|-
|{{w|Haumea (dwarf planet)|Haumea}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="6800000"| 6.80×106||0.0133||75.2
|-
|{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="18000000"| 1.80×107||0.0353||28.3
|-
|{{w|Pluto}}||Dwarf planet||data-sort-value="17000000"| 1.70×107||0.0333||30.0
|-
|{{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}||Moon of Pluto||data-sort-value="4580000"| 4.58×106||0.009||111
|-
|{{w|Venus}}||Planet||data-sort-value="460000000"| 4.60×108||0.901||1.10
|}

==Transcript==
:[At the top of a map is a heading, with two sub headings and a note in brackets:]
:'''Space'''
:Without the space
:The Solar System's solid surfaces stitched together
:(Excluding dust and small rocks)
:[Below the headings there is a map with several distinct areas. Each area is labelled with a name or a description. This label is noted inside the area, except for areas that are too small; here the label is written outside and a line indicates which area the label belongs to. Only exception is the largest area, on which the contours of the Earth's continents are drawn. Surrounding the map is wavy lines to indicate that this is either an island or one big super-continent placed in an even larger ocean.]
:[Here below are the labels given as they appear in "normal" reading order in as read from left to right in the three main rows as will be indicated:]
:[Row one, above the line defined by the general top of the Earth area:]
:Io
:Callisto
:Europa
:Ganymede
:Ceres
:Vesta
:Asteroids (1 km+)
:[Here – above the Asteroids area before the Triton area - is a small unlabelled area (the only other except Earth)]
:Triton
:Asteroids (100 m+)
:Oberon
:Miranda
:Ariel
:Umbriel
:Titania
:[Row two, the unlabelled Earth area's row, but here only given those that are directly written to the right of this area:]
:Tethys
:Enceladus
:Dione
:Iapetus
:All human skin
:Rhea
:Titan
:[Row three, all the remaining items that are mainly below the Earth area:]
:Mercury
:The Moon
:Various small moons, comets, etc
:Mars
:Makemake
:Haumea
:Eris
:Pluto
:Charon
:Venus

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Illustrations of scale]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

Talk:1388: Subduction License

2021-10-27T20:18:18Z

The Cat Lady:

"In the end, much to Cueball's consternation, these mountains turn his desk and chair over. Cueball actually falls out of the frame in the final panel, where Beret Guy is already halfway down beneath the floor. This would not be possible in real life. [citation needed]"
...Hoping this is a joke...
:Citation needed is a recurring joke on ExplainXKCD.{{Citation needed}} [[User:PoolloverNathan|PoolloverNathan]] ([[User talk:PoolloverNathan|talk]]) 18:00, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

I'm assuming "subduction license" is being comically reinterpreted here from some other meaning. What is a subduction license, normally speaking? [[User:Jevicci|Jevicci]] ([[User talk:Jevicci|talk]]) 15:20, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
:play on words with "production license".

Um, you're making it too easy to make me normal and rub away very fast {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.9}}

I'm thinking the closest real term to "subduction license" is probably "Subversion License" - Subversion being a popular source code repository system. (Edit: Created a new account) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 21:02, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

:Nah, that's not it ... there's got to be some pun on ''license'', or perhaps a term that sounds like ''-uction license''. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.159|173.245.54.159]] 23:14, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
::Could be the ''seduction license'' he should have applied for instead. He wishes to seduce his roommate, and has applied for a license for this. However he misunderstood the word and has applied for the other license, and has also read about it on Wikipedia ;-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:31, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
::: Given Beret Guy's past and future expressions of unusual or impossible power, it's probably best to assume that it is literally a license that allows him to perform subduction. That it. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 05:59, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Google supplies http://www.cafepress.ca/+subduction+license-plate-frames which offers "Subduction License Plate Frames", which I believe is an accidental verbal conjunction. I believe it's in the context of the web site selling a range of images and designs printed on various objects. In this case the object is a license plate frame, and the image is a diagram of subduction. Since the centre is cut out of the image in order to display the license plate, the combination is pretty useless. But, here it is, a subduction license plate frame, in which to place your subduction license. So why is that funny? Well, maybe it was the web site's special offer of the day, or, it was a Googlewhack. But now, a few days later, the Internet is awash with people asking "Why is 'subduction license' funny?" rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.192|141.101.99.192]] 08:45, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

My second theory: by the time he sobered up and realised it wasn't funny after all, there wasn't time to draw a new comic. Although I could draw one of these in five minutes (lettering takes longer), so that doesn't work. Maybe he's ill, badly ill. rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.192|141.101.99.192]] 08:45, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

My third theory: did someone make earthquakes illegal? Or make them legal with a license? It's in the news that scientists are satisfied with the evidence that licensed fracking is causing earthquakes in Oklahoma, but it seems to be pretty easy to get a license or permit to do fracking. But the news story appeared after this comic was published - if you get your geology news from regular newspapers. And obviously the question had been asked earlier. So, the comic may be based on that. rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.192|141.101.99.192]] 08:45, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Alternate explanation for the title text: A fault is a break between two blocks of the lithosphere (or the crust if you want to be more vernacular). The two blocks move in one of three ways: laterally side-by-side (making it a transform fault), away from each other (a normal fault) or toward each other (a reverse fault, which is the kind involved in subduction). If Beret Guy were normal, he'd have to be moving away from Cueball. [[User:Fewmet|Fewmet]] ([[User talk:Fewmet|talk]]) 15:15, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

Also, "AUGH!" reminds me of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts Peanuts]: [[File:https://fenetreovale.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/charliebrownlucy-rugby.png]] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.232|108.162.229.232]] 19:02, 14 February 2017 (UTC)Mandel

Why does the mini mountain range have snow on the peaks? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.138|172.68.65.138]] 15:45, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

:Because it's funny! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:18, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1382: Rocket Packs

2021-10-27T09:46:08Z

The Cat Lady:

I think long fall boots (from Portal) would probably help with this.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.65|173.245.56.65]] 04:34, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
:-Not so much, they're designed for a completely different purpose. That's like expecting a kevlar vest to protect you against a sword. (They would, however, help if you ran out of fuel in midair.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.83|173.245.55.83]] 12:53, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
::A kevlar vest would protect you from a sword, if you're stabbed or hit in the chest.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.198|173.245.52.198]] 19:37, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
:::Kevlar vests do not protect against even relatively small knives. If wearers of Kevlar body armor expect to come in close contact with hostile people, they add metal or ceramic strike plates to their armor specifically designed to upgrade it to be able protect against being stabbed with a knife or sword. {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.11}}
I was thinking a chair design with the legs pulled out in front might help out. {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.174}}

Wear the jet pack on your chest, avoid calf-burn. But don't mention the genitals. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.61|141.101.104.61]] 05:13, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Is it really so hard to invent calf shields? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.30|108.162.221.30]] 07:53, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Where is the problem? just reverse front and rear :=)
http://www.thefind.com/apparel/info-batwing-chaps
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.199|108.162.254.199]] 10:10, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

The logic and humor of this comic could be extended to the notion of "free" medical care, in a world where people are inclined to try things like rocket packs. {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.73}}

Most practical rockets have the thrust in line with the center of gravity. A jetpack like the one depicted will tend to nose over unless the user sticks his lower legs up into the exhaust to deflect it. Not a great way to travel. Real jetpacks have the nozzles either side to get around this problem. They still have the difficulty of being unable to glide if the engine cuts. If this happens too low to use a parachute, that will spoil the user's day. [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 16:03, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Why do people keep talking about running out of fuel in midair? When was the last time you ran out of fuel in your car, in between gas stations? Sure, the consequences aren't quite as catastrophic, but my point is that usually people refill their tanks before they run out...[[User:Diszy|Diszy]] ([[User talk:Diszy|talk]]) 21:30, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
:Running out of fuel isn't the only reason your car might stall or stop in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes the engine overheats and stops or the accelerator just stops working for no (apparent) reason. If something similar happens to your jetpack when you are 30m in the air, you can expect a few medical bills, if not a visit to your neighborhood mortician. Any good jetpack should come equipped with emergency boosters, but how effective they may be at low heights is still an issue. {{unsigned ip|103.22.201.239}}
:I've run out of fuel in a car twice, due to faults. The first was a loan car - it smelt of petrol, but the owner said it was OK. Turned out it had a hole in the fuel tank, which meant that the petrol leaked out and left me stranded. The other time was my car - fuel tank had rusted (I was unaware of this), and when I went over a rough bit of road, it disintegrated, shedding fuel. Not all "out of fuel" errors are caused by driving until you run out. [[User:Farnz|Farnz]] ([[User talk:Farnz|talk]]) 13:55, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Real life rocket packs have flight times as short as 30 seconds in some cases, so running out if fuel and falling to the ground is a very real concern. [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 22:54, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

I think the title text may also refer to how free health care sometimes sounds just as far-fetched in the US as practical jetpacks becoming commonplace. It was something that always almost came up when people were comparing countries on the Internet these last few years. Especially when Canadians compared their country to the States... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.162|141.101.98.162]] 12:58, 17 June 2014 (UTC)
:There's no such thing as "free health care". TANSTAAFL, and TANSTAFH. Wherever you are, you and your country's economy pay for it one way or another (barring some novel method of enslaving providers of healthcare and medical supplies). Canadians pay about as much per capita for healthcare as most other industrialized nations, and incur intangible costs such as increased wait times, rationed care, and so on. I wish people would start using a less misleading term than "free healthcare", which falsely implies that magic fairies are making the costs and trade-offs disappear. If "free health care" seems "far-fetched" in the US, it's because most of us haven't lost sight of the fact that it isn't free, and (thanks to government intrusion, restrictions, and mandates) in a lot of ways it's much less free in the other sense of the word [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.71|173.245.50.71]] 07:43, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
::The point was not that Canada pays very little for healthcare, it is that the US pays so much. You are 100% right that Canada pays about as much as most other industrialized nations, but the US pays FAR more than most other industrialized nations. You completely ignore that the US pays per capita 90% MORE than Canada. Exact numbers are US: $8,508 Canada: $4,522.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.173|108.162.237.173]] 22:29, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
Why are comparisons being made with the USA. In the comic the character in potential need of medical care lives in a country with common sense about socialism. I am not saying anything about any country's politics, neither is the author of the comic.[[User:Weatherlawyer|Weatherlawyer]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 07:13, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

The comment about the "free medical care" was probably not politically charged. It merely points out (and makes fun of) the fact that personal jetpacks would have serious liability and well-being concerns. As Randall and probably the comic's character reside in the USA they doesn't have* free health care, and the joke alludes to the idea that most jetpack users would probably sustain horrendous injuries. *He might depending on which state he lives in -- or at least I think that's how it works in the USA, I don't remember.
Also, the "X is easy, the hard part is Y" could be a possible text substitution meme or oft misused expression? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.85|108.162.238.85]] 00:06, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

add glider wings to slow your fall. they will also help with steering and altitude control. wait that is a rocket plane

My take is; Rocket packs are so dangerous that the price, when buying one, should include "free" medical care.[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 09:46, 27 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1378: Turbine

2021-10-26T10:48:19Z

The Cat Lady:

Why is it "horrible, horrible"? Do you really, really not like it? It's not like it's a shaggy dog cartoon which you wasted several minutes on... Oh, wait... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.9|108.162.208.9]] 05:51, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

For me, it just sucks that Randall chose to end the week on a lame pun. On Mondays/Wednesdays, the "suckiness" of something like this would be offset by a good "what-if?" on Tuesday. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.225|103.22.201.225]] 06:00, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
:From what I've seen, Friday comics tend to be more "wacky" than the rest. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.134|108.162.238.134]] 23:22, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

While I agree it isn't the best xkcd could be, let's try and keep these pages objective, and leave the opinions in the comments. [[User:Mrmakeit|Mrmakeit]] ([[User talk:Mrmakeit|talk]]) 06:22, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

"I'm not a huge fan" is a catchphrase of Elon Musk, his opinion on patents, which was in the news a couple of days ago. Lift-off alludes to Musk's SpaceX. Wind turbine alludes to Musk's renewable energy company Solarcity. [[User:Tww|Tww]] ([[User talk:Tww|talk]]) 07:36, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

What's funny to me is that a turbine really is a giant fan. You'd just have to pump a whole ton of power (at the right voltage and sync rate) into it and possibly give it a kickstart of some kind to get it to turn. You could say the same about pretty much anything that generates power from rotational motion; it's a generator, but in the opposite direction, it's also a motor. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.67|173.245.50.67]] 11:25, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

I laughed at this comic, I thought it was great. As for the explanation, though, should it really be marked "complete" already? It reads like a first draft to me, and the comic is about a wind ''turbine'', not a wind''mill''. I'm gonna go fix that now. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 11:28, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
:I also liked this one. Great pun. As Enchantedsleeper may have found out {{w|windmill}} is the old mills for grain. But in some languages a wind turbine is called the same as a windmill! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:57, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

'apostrophe' is more of an oratorical device, for the benefit of an audience. In this case Megan is treating the turbine as if it were human - anthropomorphism - but this isn't really a central part of the comic, and doesn't need much explanation - [[User:Seanybabes|Seanybabes]] ([[User talk:Seanybabes|talk]]) 08:59, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

:"Apostrophe" is a grammatical device. I'm thinking you're confusing it with another word? [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 10:48, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

I ''just'' got the punchline today. My punnery organs evidently need a workout. --[[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 22:01, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????????????? [[User:SilverMagpie|SilverMagpie]] ([[User talk:SilverMagpie|talk]]) 21:52, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1377: Fish

2021-10-26T10:42:48Z

The Cat Lady:

I took it to mean that we are the camouflaged fish and the extraterrestrials are the shark. We have been naturally selected to be hard to find through some means, probably by distance from a predator life form or just being tiny, and have thus not encountered any of them. -- [[User:Irino|Irino]] ([[User talk:Irino|talk]]) 06:57, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

So, Fermi's paradox is a good defense for why you caught no fish, even though "there's plenty of fish in the sea." [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 09:06, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
:Not the Fermi paradox itself, that just questions why we could not find an evidence of extraterrestrial life out there, but this possible explanation of it. There are also other possible explanations, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#Explaining_the_paradox_hypothetically see Wikipedia] for them. [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 15:50, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
:No, but it could explain why I can't find a girlfriend...
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.72|108.162.216.72]] 22:41, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
:: Maybe you just are actually sexually oriented towards guys and don't consciously know it. Wait, is that a possible new explanation for the paradox itself? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 04:11, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

The most probable predator to civilizations is another civilization. There may be civilization out there which is so scary everyone is quiet so they don't find him. Wait ... WE may be that civilization. Half of civilization in our galaxy fears the battleships from our sci-fi shows because they thinks they are real and the other half fears that civilization with that kind of shows is going to build real battleships soon.
Ok, seriously, I already commented elsewhere ... we don't have anything so valuable it would be worth the resources needed for sending attack fleet here. We would need to REALLY piss someone off to be attacked. At least ... physically. Hey, those telescopes searching for signals from other civilization ... how good antivirus protection they have? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:22, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

:We don't have anything valuable so long as another civilization doesn't need and earth sized supply of calcium, potassium, sodium, nickle, and iron.--[[User:Bmmarti3|Bmmarti3]] ([[User talk:Bmmarti3|talk]]) 12:34, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

::We do have pet ferrets. They are cute, It is unlikely that there is another source of pet ferrets in the galaxy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.77|108.162.219.77]] 13:32, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

::They can get all of this closer. In fact, even if they actually arrive in our solar system, mining the asteroid belt would require less resources that bothering with Earth. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:21, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

:I've always found this to be terrible logic. In addition to sci-fi, we also broadcast news and documentaries. In addition to fictional triumphs, we also have real-life failures. We've broadcast that funding to NASA has been cut, and how he haven't been farther than the moon in what, 50 years? We have Mythbusters which is constantly debunking stupid stuff that humans believe, and also showing off the limits of our technology in a practical manner. We broadcast war, so they would be able to see just how deadly we actually are. Worst of all, we broadcast Fox News. I don't see aliens fearing us (if they're technologically advanced enough to spy on us without us seeing them), I see them wondering just what the Hell is going on here. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 18:57, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
::This all assumes that they didn't go through their own cultural phases similar to our own. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 18:59, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

:: Maybe they do know about us, but they want us (as a species) to first grow out of our weird adolescent years and crazy ideas before they interact with us. You don't go around inviting random rebellious teenagers to your house for no reason, do you? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.225|103.22.201.225]] 06:29, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

::That would be the better reaction for us. The worse reaction, to quote Doctor Who "...There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive! No wonder everyone keeps invading you...". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.172|162.158.92.172]] 11:38, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

::They won't have complete annotated list. They will have pieces. They will have hard time understanding our language - or the method we encoded the images with. They don't need to have more advanced technology than we have to spy on us (well ... maybe little). The task of UNDERSTANDING what they received would be the hard one. With the percentage of broadcast occupied with real and fictional wars, it IS possible that only things they decode will make them conclude contacting us might be dangerous. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:21, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

:I think that while they would know we are weak, they could fear us because we might someday develop enough technology to become a threat to them. That a civilization might be so paranoid as to attempt to destroy all other instances of intelligent life in the Universe when it finds tham does not seem so far-fetched to me. Of course, such a civilization only needs to fail once to be wiped out, so it's not the greatest survival strategy. -- [[User:Quadibloc|Quadibloc]] ([[User talk:Quadibloc|talk]]) 17:35, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

I think the problem is that traditional SETI methods are of dubious effectiveness at actually detecting radio transmissions from other civilizations due to the low initial power of said transmissions which then only get weaker as they propagate. Switch to our new optical methods of planet detection which have detected scores of planets in just a few years and the "paradox" might need to be reevaluated. Optical detection also makes it doubtful that any civilization would be able to effectively hide. [[User:Sturmovik|Sturmovik]] ([[User talk:Sturmovik|talk]]) 12:45, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

:::A lot of these issues have been the fodder for many a sci-fi book or show; The Prime Directive from Star Trek means advanced civilizations agree to *not* communicate with worlds that haven't developed FTL space travel. As far as reasons for destroying emerging technological worlds, who says a higher technologically-advanced species needs one? Whether it be an ID4 swarm of locusts swarming down for a temporary home, or a Borg thinning of the herd of weaker planets, a Death Star operator just showing their power, or the need for an hyperspace bypass. And with our search methods limited to light-speed measurements, be they radio or optical, even if we do get confirmation of life, it only means they *used* to exist, relativisticly, not that they continue to exist these many (thousands?) of years after those transmissions we received were sent. Not to mention that any non-directed signals such as our media are unlikely to make it out of our local planethood let alone our solar system without being severely degraded by the all the other naturally occurring radio sources out there.
And yes, us sending out 'Hey! Here we are!' transmissions willy-nilly into the galactic unknown would seem very much like a untrained CBer keying the mike and talking over the channel without so much as a 'Break-one-nine?' to the other out there that may be talking to one another. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.250|108.162.221.250]] 09:44, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

:If we would use our methods of planet detection on our solar system, we would notice Jupiter, Saturn ... and unknown source of radio emission stronger that Sun itself. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:21, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

By the way, the Chinese sci-fi writer {{w|Liu Cixin}} has published a {{w|Three Body (science_fiction)|trilogy}} called "Three Body", focusing on this idea (he called it "dark forest"): what if all the visible civilizations have been destroyed? What if revealing your neighbor's location to the universe is similar to the MAD ({{w|Mutual assured destruction}}) situation? The English version should hit the market this year. --[[User:Ent|Ent]] ([[User talk:Ent|talk]]) 15:51, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

This is very similar to a *lot* of SF out there. Pellegrino's "The Killing Star" is one good example (with R-bombing and the problems associated with it), but it's certainly not the only one. Listing some of these might be good. Listing the "Central Park at night" example from "The Killing Star" might be a reasonable addition. [[User:Brdavis|Brdavis]] ([[User talk:Brdavis|talk]]) 16:23, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

The real reason seems clear to me: existence of other life forms in the universe is probabilistically certain, but universe is so huge (in space and time) that we have no hope of reaching it. Regarding "huge in time", for example Mars might have been like nowadays's earth one billion years ago with elaborate civilisations and yet we now struggle to find a trace of life{{Citation needed}}. Regarding "huge in space", no hope of reaching it or even have definite proof of discovery. Or, err. Well, I have not said "never", right ? But the point remains: universe is so huge that a lot of life can be "statistically everywhere" and we just can't see it because its density is too small. Which is another way to say: life most certainly exists on many planets (and other types of systems) yet the fact that we don't detect it easily means that the kind of life we are looking for never had a chance to propagate quickly enough gain enough statistical density to be easily noticed. Compare life with {{w|Cantor Dust}}. [[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 10:11, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

:Good explanation that I 100% agree with. Humans simply can't grasp the vast amounts of time the galaxy has existed. For two technological civilisations to exist at exactly the same time in exactly the same region of space are vanishingly small.[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 10:42, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

But the Jaws theme is missing! I've tried turning the volume way up, reinstalling my sound card, making sure my MIDI drivers are working... [[User:Jorgbrown|Jorgbrown]] ([[User talk:Jorgbrown|talk]]) 23:33, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1377: Fish

2021-10-26T10:42:23Z

The Cat Lady:

I took it to mean that we are the camouflaged fish and the extraterrestrials are the shark. We have been naturally selected to be hard to find through some means, probably by distance from a predator life form or just being tiny, and have thus not encountered any of them. -- [[User:Irino|Irino]] ([[User talk:Irino|talk]]) 06:57, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

So, Fermi's paradox is a good defense for why you caught no fish, even though "there's plenty of fish in the sea." [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 09:06, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
:Not the Fermi paradox itself, that just questions why we could not find an evidence of extraterrestrial life out there, but this possible explanation of it. There are also other possible explanations, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#Explaining_the_paradox_hypothetically see Wikipedia] for them. [[User:Sten|'''STEN''']] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 15:50, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
:No, but it could explain why I can't find a girlfriend...
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.72|108.162.216.72]] 22:41, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
:: Maybe you just are actually sexually oriented towards guys and don't consciously know it. Wait, is that a possible new explanation for the paradox itself? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 04:11, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

The most probable predator to civilizations is another civilization. There may be civilization out there which is so scary everyone is quiet so they don't find him. Wait ... WE may be that civilization. Half of civilization in our galaxy fears the battleships from our sci-fi shows because they thinks they are real and the other half fears that civilization with that kind of shows is going to build real battleships soon.
Ok, seriously, I already commented elsewhere ... we don't have anything so valuable it would be worth the resources needed for sending attack fleet here. We would need to REALLY piss someone off to be attacked. At least ... physically. Hey, those telescopes searching for signals from other civilization ... how good antivirus protection they have? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:22, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

:We don't have anything valuable so long as another civilization doesn't need and earth sized supply of calcium, potassium, sodium, nickle, and iron.--[[User:Bmmarti3|Bmmarti3]] ([[User talk:Bmmarti3|talk]]) 12:34, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

::We do have pet ferrets. They are cute, It is unlikely that there is another source of pet ferrets in the galaxy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.77|108.162.219.77]] 13:32, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

::They can get all of this closer. In fact, even if they actually arrive in our solar system, mining the asteroid belt would require less resources that bothering with Earth. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:21, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

:I've always found this to be terrible logic. In addition to sci-fi, we also broadcast news and documentaries. In addition to fictional triumphs, we also have real-life failures. We've broadcast that funding to NASA has been cut, and how he haven't been farther than the moon in what, 50 years? We have Mythbusters which is constantly debunking stupid stuff that humans believe, and also showing off the limits of our technology in a practical manner. We broadcast war, so they would be able to see just how deadly we actually are. Worst of all, we broadcast Fox News. I don't see aliens fearing us (if they're technologically advanced enough to spy on us without us seeing them), I see them wondering just what the Hell is going on here. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 18:57, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
::This all assumes that they didn't go through their own cultural phases similar to our own. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 18:59, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

:: Maybe they do know about us, but they want us (as a species) to first grow out of our weird adolescent years and crazy ideas before they interact with us. You don't go around inviting random rebellious teenagers to your house for no reason, do you? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.225|103.22.201.225]] 06:29, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

::That would be the better reaction for us. The worse reaction, to quote Doctor Who "...There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive! No wonder everyone keeps invading you...". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.172|162.158.92.172]] 11:38, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

::They won't have complete annotated list. They will have pieces. They will have hard time understanding our language - or the method we encoded the images with. They don't need to have more advanced technology than we have to spy on us (well ... maybe little). The task of UNDERSTANDING what they received would be the hard one. With the percentage of broadcast occupied with real and fictional wars, it IS possible that only things they decode will make them conclude contacting us might be dangerous. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:21, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

:I think that while they would know we are weak, they could fear us because we might someday develop enough technology to become a threat to them. That a civilization might be so paranoid as to attempt to destroy all other instances of intelligent life in the Universe when it finds tham does not seem so far-fetched to me. Of course, such a civilization only needs to fail once to be wiped out, so it's not the greatest survival strategy. -- [[User:Quadibloc|Quadibloc]] ([[User talk:Quadibloc|talk]]) 17:35, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

I think the problem is that traditional SETI methods are of dubious effectiveness at actually detecting radio transmissions from other civilizations due to the low initial power of said transmissions which then only get weaker as they propagate. Switch to our new optical methods of planet detection which have detected scores of planets in just a few years and the "paradox" might need to be reevaluated. Optical detection also makes it doubtful that any civilization would be able to effectively hide. [[User:Sturmovik|Sturmovik]] ([[User talk:Sturmovik|talk]]) 12:45, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

:::A lot of these issues have been the fodder for many a sci-fi book or show; The Prime Directive from Star Trek means advanced civilizations agree to *not* communicate with worlds that haven't developed FTL space travel. As far as reasons for destroying emerging technological worlds, who says a higher technologically-advanced species needs one? Whether it be an ID4 swarm of locusts swarming down for a temporary home, or a Borg thinning of the herd of weaker planets, a Death Star operator just showing their power, or the need for an hyperspace bypass. And with our search methods limited to light-speed measurements, be they radio or optical, even if we do get confirmation of life, it only means they *used* to exist, relativisticly, not that they continue to exist these many (thousands?) of years after those transmissions we received were sent. Not to mention that any non-directed signals such as our media are unlikely to make it out of our local planethood let alone our solar system without being severely degraded by the all the other naturally occurring radio sources out there.
And yes, us sending out 'Hey! Here we are!' transmissions willy-nilly into the galactic unknown would seem very much like a untrained CBer keying the mike and talking over the channel without so much as a 'Break-one-nine?' to the other out there that may be talking to one another. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.250|108.162.221.250]] 09:44, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

:If we would use our methods of planet detection on our solar system, we would notice Jupiter, Saturn ... and unknown source of radio emission stronger that Sun itself. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:21, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

By the way, the Chinese sci-fi writer {{w|Liu Cixin}} has published a {{w|Three Body (science_fiction)|trilogy}} called "Three Body", focusing on this idea (he called it "dark forest"): what if all the visible civilizations have been destroyed? What if revealing your neighbor's location to the universe is similar to the MAD ({{w|Mutual assured destruction}}) situation? The English version should hit the market this year. --[[User:Ent|Ent]] ([[User talk:Ent|talk]]) 15:51, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

This is very similar to a *lot* of SF out there. Pellegrino's "The Killing Star" is one good example (with R-bombing and the problems associated with it), but it's certainly not the only one. Listing some of these might be good. Listing the "Central Park at night" example from "The Killing Star" might be a reasonable addition. [[User:Brdavis|Brdavis]] ([[User talk:Brdavis|talk]]) 16:23, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

The real reason seems clear to me: existence of other life forms in the universe is probabilistically certain, but universe is so huge (in space and time) that we have no hope of reaching it. Regarding "huge in time", for example Mars might have been like nowadays's earth one billion years ago with elaborate civilisations and yet we now struggle to find a trace of life{{Citation needed}}. Regarding "huge in space", no hope of reaching it or even have definite proof of discovery. Or, err. Well, I have not said "never", right ? But the point remains: universe is so huge that a lot of life can be "statistically everywhere" and we just can't see it because its density is too small. Which is another way to say: life most certainly exists on many planets (and other types of systems) yet the fact that we don't detect it easily means that the kind of life we are looking for never had a chance to propagate quickly enough gain enough statistical density to be easily noticed. Compare life with {{w|Cantor Dust}}. [[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 10:11, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

:Good explanation that I 100% agree with. Humans simply can't grasp the vast amounts of time the galaxy has existed. For two technological civilisations to exist at exactly the same time in exactly the same region of space are vanishingly small.

But the Jaws theme is missing! I've tried turning the volume way up, reinstalling my sound card, making sure my MIDI drivers are working... [[User:Jorgbrown|Jorgbrown]] ([[User talk:Jorgbrown|talk]]) 23:33, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

1363: xkcd Phone

2021-10-25T21:13:53Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1363
| date = May 2, 2014
| title = xkcd Phone
| image = xkcd_phone.png
| titletext = Presented in partnership with Qualcomm, Craigslist, Whirlpool, Hostess, LifeStyles, and the US Chamber of Commerce. Manufactured on equipment which also processes peanuts. Price includes 2-year Knicks contract. Phone may extinguish nearby birthday candles. If phone ships with Siri, return immediately; do not speak to her and ignore any instructions she gives. Do not remove lead casing. Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal. Volume adjustable (requires root). If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately. Do not submerge in water; phone will drown. Exterior may be frictionless. Prolonged use can cause mood swings, short-term memory loss, and seizures. Avert eyes while replacing battery. Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of a multitude of mobile-technology related issues that, when brought together, create a general satire of smartphone advertising. It was the first entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]] with the next [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] released about nine months later.

The advertised features here either make previously useful capabilities useless or add features nobody wants. Except for "your mobile world (going) digital", which is old news.

The first generation of cell phones (introduced in the early 1980s) used analog radio signals to send voice traffic - and this was the standard used by the first ever smartphone, the IBM Simon. But the second generation (2G) standards, introduced from 1991 onwards, were digital, and analog services had been phased out by 2010 in most countries, long before this comic was published in 2014.

To market something as "going digital" implies that the corporation has found a way to integrate computers and/or the internet into a market that previously existed without them; the market for mobile phones has ''always'' involved computers,{{Citation needed}} making the xkcd phone's marketing feel dated and clueless.

=== Explanations of features ===
From the top, going clockwise:
*'''Custom blend OS:''' iOS and Android are offered by different conglomerates and run on different kernels ({{w|Darwin (operating system)|Darwin}} and {{w|Linux kernel|Linux}}, respectively). A "custom blend" would probably be a nightmare to work with.
*'''Simulates alternative speed of light:''' This renders the clock useless as a means of telling time. The {{w|speed of light}} is 299,792,458 meters per second; relativistic effects, such as {{w|time dilation}}, are only noticeable at significant fractions of the speed of light. Since the phone is simulating a much slower speed of light, driving at even highway speeds will cause a significant amount of time dilation. For example, driving at 90 mph (90% of the default simulated speed of light) will give a time dilation factor of about 2.29, causing the clock to advance only 26 minutes for each hour; driving at exactly 100 mph makes the dilation factor infinite and will stop the clock entirely. Driving beyond 100 mph would make the clock start advancing through imaginary/complex time rather than real time, somehow, or maybe make it impossible to drive beyond 100 mph.
*'''Wireless:''' as in cordless phone. This is the bare minimum a phone has to have in order to be a mobile phone, so advertising it as a feature feels dated by decades. The alternative explanation, as in the phone has no wires at all, even inside, would render the phone either useless or extremely advanced technologically.
*'''Accelerometer screams in free fall:''' A humorous function. Rather than having some sort of feature to prevent breakage or cracking when a drop is detected, the phone just makes you more aware of its potential imminent doom.
*'''When exposed to light, phone says "Hi!":''' Bait and switch, and also a build from the previous joke. The implied feature is that the screen or camera will automatically adjust, but instead the phone is weirdly anthropomorphized.
*'''FlightAware partnership:''' This is a reference to the [http://www.flightaware.com/ FlightAware] flight tracking service. This FlightAware partnership results in the phone playing airplane engine noise whenever a flight passes over the phone's current location, an annoying and arbitrary feature. It may also be superfluous, as such noise may be heard from the plane itself, depending on altitude.
**This app was referenced in [[1660: Captain Speaking]].
*'''Realistic case:''' possibly a joke on various audiovisual devices like gaming consoles that advertise realistic sound, graphics, etc. Of course, applying "realistic" to an actual physical case is ridiculous. Either the case is actually real, or it doesn't actually function as a case. Possible reference to [[331: Photoshops]], where [[Cueball]] finds a physical object to not look realistic. Could also be a reference to "case" as in "best case" or "worst case", which would make this the realistic case. This would also be ridiculous.
*'''Clear screen:''' This is a pointless descriptor from the perspective of the consumer. Of course the screen is clear.{{Citation needed}} This joke works in tandem with the previous joke, as a play on "clear case, realistic screen," which are both hypothetically viable selling points.
*'''Side Facing Camera:''' There was a recent controversy surrounding an [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/spy-cam-peek-i Indiegogo for a surreptitious, side-mounted camera device] for smartphones due to the advertisement of the device as a good way to take creep shots, which are illegal in many places. Widespread dissemination of these devices as a built-in feature would likely result in a sharp increase in delinquency of this nature. May also be an ''ad absurdum'' extension of devices with both forward and backward facing cameras.

==== Title text ====
The ominous warnings and disclaimers in the title text are probably a reference to the ''Saturday Night Live'' parody ad for {{w|Happy Fun Ball}} ([https://youtu.be/GmqeZl8OI2M watch on YouTube]).

*'''Presented in partnership with Qualcomm, Craigslist, Whirlpool, Hostess, LifeStyles, and the US Chamber of Commerce.''' {{w|Qualcomm}} is a semiconductor company that designs and produces chips for mobile phones. {{w|Whirlpool Corporation}} is a large American multinational manufacturer and marketer of home appliances, while {{w|Whirlpool (website)|Whirlpool}} is a prominent Australian tech forum website, originally created for discussion of Australian broadband providers but now extending to cover general tech topics, including mobile phones. The other companies and lobbying organizations mentioned here have no association with mobile phones , though there is a long history of unrelated companies attempting to leverage their respective brands to help promote each other. The {{w|US Chamber of Commerce}} is a lobbyist group known for sponsoring political campaign ads, so their partnership with a phone manufacturer would imply some sort of political motive to its design.
*'''Manufactured on equipment which also processes peanuts.''' A warning often seen on candy and other foods for people with a peanut allergy. It is highly unlikely that equipment used to produce mobile phones would also process food.{{Citation needed}}
*'''Price includes 2-year Knicks contract.''' Mobile phones are often sold by phone companies in combination with a cell phone contract. The {{w|New York Knicks|Knicks}}, a team with a history of questionable personnel decisions, might in fact be willing to offer 2-year contracts (worth at least $1,100,000) to cellular phone purchasers regardless of their skill at basketball, though the vast majority of customers wouldn't be interested.
*'''Phone may extinguish nearby birthday candles.''' A rather oddly specific capability, which might also be annoying for anyone attempting to host a birthday party. As to how it would do this, a very powerful directional speaker would be able to blow out a nearby candle, but the speakers in mobile phones aren't going to be that big. It is also difficult to work out how the phone would detect and identify birthday candles. Perhaps when the phone senses light from candles, it says "hi" (see above) so loudly that they blow out.
*'''If phone ships with Siri, return immediately; do not speak to her and ignore any instructions she gives.''' {{w|Siri}} is a virtual personal assistant application for Apple devices. Not speaking to it and not following its instructions would defeat its purpose. It may suggest that a malevolent "Siri AI" has sneaked itself onto some devices, at the manufacturing stage, for some diabolical purpose. This may be a reference to the Companion Cube in the game {{w|Portal (video game)|Portal}}, in which the player is instructed by GLaDOS to disregard its advice if the cube appears to be animate, or it may be a reference to the [[1450: AI-Box Experiment|AI-Box Experiment]], in which allowing the AI to engage you in conversation will almost certainly result in it successfully convincing you to let it out of the box (here, probably connecting the phone to a data network).
*'''Do not remove lead casing.''' A mobile phone encased in lead would not function because it could not transmit or receive data. Devices that emit high levels of ionizing radiation are often encased in lead, but a phone that would emit that level of radiation would be unhealthy to carry around. If encased in sufficient lead to mitigate the danger, it would be uncomfortably heavy. This might be reference to [[925: Cell Phones]] where Randall makes fun of the {{w|WHO}} claiming that cell phones might cause cancer despite huge studies showing the opposite. This could also mean the device is an actual bananaphone as regular phones emit no ionizing radiation ([http://xkcd.com/radiation xkcd Radiation Dose Chart]). Regrettably, the lead casing would render the phone inedible, although this somewhat mitigates the issues with having been manufactured on equipment that also processes peanuts.
*'''Phone may attract/trap insects; this is normal.''' Some plants, like the {{w|Venus flytrap}}, attract and trap insects, but mobile phones are not known to exhibit this behavior.{{Citation needed}} This could possibly be a play on software ''bugs'' being introduced to the phone more easily than usual, depending on the specifics of its operating system (made much more likely by its apparent custom-made blended OS (see above)). Also may be a reference to {{w|Rasberry crazy ants}} which are attracted to electronics.
*'''Volume adjustable (requires root).''' {{w|Android rooting|Rooting}} is the method to gain privileged access on Android phones, allowing one to access features that normal users would not and should not normally modify. Adjusting the volume should be available to any user and should not be restricted to root access only.{{Citation needed}}
*'''If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately.''' These symptoms are usually associated with chemical or {{w|radiation poisoning}}. It is unclear why these would be cured by a {{w|factory reset}}, though software apps could plausibly be used to display nauseating visual effects. Radiation poisoning as a possible cause may also relate to the lead casing mentioned above. It is unclear how a (software-only) factory reset would repair a damaged lead casing. This may also be a reference to the series of similar disclaimers at the end of many medical advertisements.
*'''Do not submerge in water; phone will drown.''' Most phones are not waterproof and will probably short-circuit when submerged. The specific term of drowning would however imply that the phone breathes air (which actually would be possible if it had a {{w|Lithium–air battery}}).
*'''Exterior may be frictionless.''' The front of a smartphone is usually made of glass and should have a surface with very low friction. The back of a phone is usually made from a material that has higher friction to make it pleasant to hold and to make sure it doesn't slide off objects it is placed on. A [[669: Experiment|completely frictionless surface]] would make it almost impossible to hold and would make it very susceptible to drops (at which point the phone will scream).
*'''Prolonged use can cause mood swings, short-term memory loss, and seizures.''' These are all side effects that are associated with certain kinds of medication or radiation treatment of the brain and would not be acceptable for mobile phones. This may be the explanation for the memory loss in [[1660: Captain Speaking]].
*'''Avert eyes while replacing battery.''' Actions that would warrant averting your eyes are usually associated with high-intensity light capable of causing eye damage. Depending on the specific energy source, this may be accompanied by high levels of other types of radiation (e.g. making an {{w|X-ray}} photo). This may hint that the phone might be powered by a {{w|radionuclide}} battery which would explain the lead casing and the possible radiation side effects. A phone that emits X-ray radiation would not be healthy to be around. Alternately, this may be a reference to the {{w|Ark Of The Covenant}}, implying that gazing upon the battery or the compartment wall behind it is forbidden on pain of severe punishment. Or merely that with its back removed the phone would be naked, and the user should avert their eyes to preserve the phone's modesty.
*'''Under certain circumstances, wireless transmitter may control God.''' In {{w|monotheistic religions}}, God is the omnipotent creator of the universe; the very notion that He could be controlled is both heretical and, under some definitions of omnipotence, impossible (under others, omnipotence includes the ability to be or not to be controlled).

==Transcript==
:[An image of a smartphone standing up with a small dot on the side and a single button at the bottom. Many labels are pointing to different parts of it. Clockwise from the top left they read:]
:Runs custom blend of Android and iOS
:Simulates alternative speed of light (default: 100 miles per hour) and adjusts clock as phone accelerates
:Wireless
:Accelerometer detects when phone is in free fall and makes it scream
:When exposed to light, phone says "Hi!"
:FlightAware partnership: Makes airplane noise when flights pass overhead
:Realistic case
:Clear screen
:Side-facing camera

:''Introducing''
:<big><big>'''The xkcd Phone'''</big></big>
:Your mobile world just went digital®

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Religion]] 
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]

Talk:1358: NRO

2021-10-25T11:51:31Z

The Cat Lady:

Could what if #32 be valid here? https://what-if.xkcd.com/32/ --[[User:Mralext20|Mralext20]] ([[User talk:Mralext20|talk]]) 07:30, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

: Nah. Spy satellites are usually on geosynced orbits, so they always hover over the same area of the ground, meaning no blur. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.56|108.162.219.56]] 14:17, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

:: Spy satellites are not usually in geosynchronous orbits, as this would be much too far away from earth to be of much use, Spy satelites are normally in very low polar orbits to maximize the areas they can spy on. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.65|108.162.216.65]] 22:52, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Not only he is using the satellites, he is also using the software - probably something which will highlight recognized target on photo. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:28, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

I always thought this was a reference to the Governments Facial Recognition software they're working on. Combine that with the NSA's spy satellites and you can locate anyone anywhere. Maybe the NRO is a combination of such organizations and technologies (very very deadly) and they're testing it out using a Where's Waldo book. Not only testing the cameras on the satellite's resolution but the facial recognition software's ability to pick out a specific person in a crowd. [[User:Glitch|Glitch]] ([[User talk:Glitch|talk]]) 14:08, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

The sentence "He usually is quite hard to find, which makes it challenging." is really bothering me. I'm not sure what to do with it. I considered deleting it or shortening it, but none of those feel right. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 18:02, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

What was bothering you about it? It was a quick and dirty explanation at the time, so it doesn't matter. [[User:Fizzle|Fizzle]] ([[User talk:Fizzle|talk]]) 21:36, 22 April 2014 (UTC)
:Redundancy. "The hard thing is challenging." "The big thing was huge." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 09:42, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Would "Government Facial Recognition" work at all via satellite? Wouldn't they do better with Governments Scalp Recognition? {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.117}}

Possible reference to xkcd.com/970? -CyanLights [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.223|108.162.238.223]] 17:46, 23 April 2014 (UTC)
:I don't see that. [[970: The Important Field]] is about private guns, but this comic is about real military items. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:53, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

similar to http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3222#comic but SMBC goes much deeper and darker. {{unsigned ip|173.245.63.174}}

The USA murdering children from the sky is not a fit subject for humour. I find this comic repugnant. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 11:51, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1348: Before the Internet

2021-10-24T15:42:57Z

The Cat Lady:

I'm pretty sure that Randall doesn't make this mistake, but "Before the Internet" and "Before the Web" are two very different things in a way that old fogeys like myself (and him) tend to mutter on about when anyone younger than maybe 40 make the mistake of conflating the two.
If that's Exploit Mom, she'd probably be too young to ''really'' know times pre-Internet in the truest sense. (Although "before the layperson ''knew'' about the Internet" could be placed somewhere in the mid-to-late '90s, which ''is'' after the early '90s inception of the Web.)
Enough pedantry. Someone needs to make a more useful comment than the above, and quickly! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 06:00, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:The person asking the question is a child-character. The adult-character then followed up with a clarification question "[Do you mean] not having a phone or computer to distract you?". Though, in your "truest sense", "before the Internet" and "the first decade or so of the Internet" would be mostly the same. The Internet didn't have much of an impact on or value to society until after it reached a certain size.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 07:15, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
::Yeahbut you're still conflating "Internet" and "Web". "The first decade or so of the Internet" still takes us up to maybe the start of the '80s ''at the latest''. A college/university student of that time is now in now in their 40s (hence the "['''Even''', ''sic''] if that's Exploit Mom"), and I don't think that the adult character looks old enough. Hack off ten years or so (for the first ''Web'' Generation to find their new distraction, via AOL if not their college) and I think it would work better. Of course, I don't dismiss Megan/whoever being a little sparing with the truth for a good tale. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 23:11, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:::What society refers to as the "Internet" didn't really surface until the mid-to-late 90s. Before that, the systems that formed an "internet" (lower-case, to refer to the generic concept of wide-area interconnected systems) was only barely accessible to the public, and the systems that were connected this way in the early 80s were part of the original ARPANET that was primarily used by the military. In short, the "Internet" that we take for granted today was a product of its own discovery, which largely occurred in the mid-90s. An average-aged mom with a kid in the average age range to be asking questions like the one in this comic would probably have grown up in the 80s. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.249|199.27.128.249]] 03:39, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
::::Yes, exactly. Like I said, there's pedantry involved in this issue. But ''the internet'' (OSI layer 1-3 or 4, depending on how you define it) was named circa 1974 and pre-existed that in a vaguely recognisable form at the tail-end of the '60s. And is different from ''the web'' (OSI layer 7, itself). It's just an observation, and I would just count the adult in the strip as an 'unreliable narrator', whether intentionally or otherwise. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.211|141.101.89.211]] 04:50, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
I read a lot. Before the internet was cheap, I would go to the library on my bike, borrow 5 books (the limit), read them all and go to the library again. On a good weekend day I could repeat this 3 or 4 times. Some books I've read thousands of times. Relevant irrelevant comment[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.41|108.162.218.41]] 07:18, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
: Very impressive. Libraries are typically open for 8 hours a day, so you read 15-20 (3-4 x 5) books in 8 hours. That's about 30 minutes per book.
: A short novel is about 200 pages. I'm an accomplished reader, and I read about a page a minute. Assuming you read exclusively short novels, you managed 7 pages a minute, or 3500 words per minute, or one page every 10 seconds. That's about three times the 1000-words-per-minute limit on human skim-reading comprehension. I'm very impressed!
: This may explain why you have had to read some books thousands of times. At a reading speed of 3500 words per minute, your comprehension was likely extremely poor, necessitating you to go back many times to understand what was going on. May I suggest that in future, you read more slowly, so that you can understand better the first time? You'll enjoy what you're reading so much more.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.178|173.245.53.178]] 17:11, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Does this comic even ''need'' explaining? Pretty self-explanatory of you ask me. —[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.237|108.162.210.237]] 08:04, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

: I think some sort of explanation relating to why this is funny. It is sort of the opposite of the standard nostalgia. Rather like our parents generation may have had a similar discussion with their parents about the invention of TV (add a generation if you are too young). When you think about it, it is a bit odd how society is keen to develop tech to make things better, and at the same time declare that things were better in the past. We sometimes get quite good expositions on this sort of thing here... hopefully someone with some sociology/psychology knowledge can explain this a bit better. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.19}}
::Agreed it's fairly self-explanatory. The 'reverse-nostalgia' point is interesting. I guess the joke here is kind of that the Mom is making it sound like there was nothing to do before the internet, whereas in reality there was plenty to do; people weren't sitting around waiting for the internet to be invented so they didn't know that it was a thing that could be missing from their lives, it just seems that way now because we can't imagine our lives without it. In a way, it's almost a variation on the classic 'we can't watch TV, it hasn't been invented yet' joke.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.148|173.245.53.148]] 11:31, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:::People weren't sitting around waiting for Internet to be invented. Computers already existed, so people were walking around with floppy disks (or tapes) and saying things like "It would be great if we could exchange data while sitting home ..." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:48, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
::My main question is whether the Mom character is being serious or sarcastic - as in the way some people like to wind children up by giving them made-up answers to questions.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.148|173.245.53.148]] 11:33, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:::Yeah, she could be messing with her by just answering with the opposite of what she's clearly expected to say in this exchange. I think the joke works both ways. [[User:Enchantedsleeper|Enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 15:24, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

::Of course the past was better. Before the Internet, I had lot of free time I could spend whatever I wanted. Now I'm forced to spend most of day in work. Oh, wait, that isn't because of Internet but because I was child and had summer holiday and now I'm adult. (Also, the Internet technically exists since December 1974, but for most people, mid-1990s is start of Internet and my "before the Internet" refers to that). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:48, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Isn't this a joke on how older people say younger people don't interact with eachother unless through cellphone etc. Even if they are sitting right next to eachother--[[User:Nitho|Nitho]] ([[User talk:Nitho|talk]]) 11:59, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

I kindof took this joke as a variation on upstaging a complainer, i.e., "When I was your age, we walked uphill...''both'' ways". [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 22:24, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

;Ponytail
In [[1105: License Plate]] we can see Ponytail is a police officer. Therefore she must be at least 22, and therefore she was born before 1990. If this comic features Ponytail, then it must be set at most in 2000 (when Ponytail was 10). But in 2000 or before people didn't have smartphones. In my opinion this comic is set in 2014, and therefore the girl character is not [[Ponytail]] but simply a girl with a ponytail. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 12:44, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:Or maybe [[1105: License Plate]] was set in 2024?
:While we are identifying Randalls characters by how they are drawn, I don't think he does. (except for Blackhat and Beret Guy) -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 13:20, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
::Of course he doesn't. In [[1344: Digits]] it was arbitrary to label one character as Cueball and the other as Guy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.90|108.162.221.90]] 17:34, 28 March 2014 (UTC) (I'm [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]]).

I'd like to state my opinion that I think that Megan is being serious. I'm old enough to remember a time before internet and personal computers were widespread and my recollection is EXACTLY the same as Megan's.

^^Yes - I was there, and we were bored. If you were on the toilet and didn't have an old Reader's Digest handy, you read the bottles of Dr. Bronner's or shampoo bottles - I can still say "methylchloroisothiazolinone" without the slightest hitch or hesitation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.31|172.68.132.31]] 07:00, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

I grew up before television, we would listen to shows on the radio. There were comedies, dramas, cop shows, mysteries, it was wonderful! The whole family would be gathered in the living room, listening to Hitchcock's Half Hour, Men From The Ministry, Father Dear Father, Z-Squad, etc. I actually wish television had never been invented. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 15:42, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

1296: Git Commit

2021-10-21T20:01:47Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1296
| date = November 27, 2013
| title = Git Commit
| image = git_commit.png
| titletext = Merge branch 'asdfasjkfdlas/alkdjf' into sdkjfls-final
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the {{w|Git (software)|Git}} source code revision control software, which saves earlier versions of files and folders for later access into a special repository. This comes in handy when you want to try out whether an idea works (branching). Further, you can collaborate with others by use of remote repositories. Perhaps most importantly, it allows members of the development team to find key changes in the history, later. Git has been discussed in [[1597: Git]] as well.

A [[wikt:commit#Noun|''commit'']] is a saved version in a Git repository; a commit comes with a message that is supposed to describe what the commit contains, similar to the edit summaries used on {{w|MediaWiki}} sites such as ''[[explain xkcd]]'' and on [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=history}} this explanation]. [[Randall]], however, finds himself losing interest in the commit messages the more code he writes and winds up just using placeholder text or jokes to himself. Presumably, this is because his separate commits are part of a large effort that can't be effectively summarized, and where there's no particular urgent need to differentiate the commits. Seeing as in this context 12 hours of coding can be considered "dragging on," it's safe to assume that the kinds of commits Randall is talking about are not for some major in-production project, nor for something that a lot of other people are working on. In both of those cases, one would be much more likely to use descriptive commit messages, since you want to flag things that are important, either from a technical standpoint (e.g. "fix the thing that's making the site not work") or for the benefit of others who want to know which commits they should be paying attention to.

The phrase "Merge branch 'asdfasjkfdlas/alkdjf' into sdkjfls-final" mimics the phrasing used by Git. A ''branch'' is a specific sequence of commits which can be made in parallel to other branches of development, and later merged. Here, we see that Randall has also gotten lazy with his branch names: "branch 'asdfasjkfdlas/alkdjf'" might be the series of two commits starting with "here have code". "sdkjfls-final" could be the branch indicated by the vertical string of circles on the left, into which the other more branch is merged in commit "adkfjslkdfjsdklfj".

Most git tools show the commit history with the most recent commits first, so showing the oldest first like this would require something like the <code>--reverse</code> option.

The comments go from being pretty detailed as to his thoughts and reasons for the code ("enabled config file parsing"), to relatively uninformative summaries ("misc bugfixes"), to completely uninformative words ("more code"), and then finally he doesn't even bother trying to come up with words, instead just hitting a key ("aaaaaaaa") or semi-random keys ("adkfjslkdfjsdklfj"), then goes back to typing words but words that have a bit of a craziness to them rather than having anything to do with describing the code ("my hands are typing words"). The "adkfjslkdfjsdklfj" line and similar garbage in the title text comes from having your hands on the "{{w|home row}}" on a standard {{w|QWERTY}} keyboard, then hitting "random" keys without moving your fingers from their standard home row positions. The keys you hit "randomly" will be combinations of A, S, D, and F on the left hand, and J, K, L, and ; on the right hand (although the ; key seems to have been avoided, possibly because without the presence of surrounding quotes a ; character will end the comment). It is common to see stuff like that when a person is required to type something — i.e. a mandatory field — but they have no interest in typing anything meaningful or no idea what to write, so they just hit the easiest keys to hit and call it done.

==Transcript==
{| class="wikitable"
! 
!Comment
!Date
|-
|(main)||created main loop & timing control||14 hours ago
|-
|(main)||enabled config file parsing||9 hours ago
|-
|(main)||misc bugfixes||5 hours ago
|-
|(main)||code additions/edits||4 hours ago
|-
|(main)||more code||4 hours ago
|-
|(branch)||here have code||4 hours ago
|-
|(branch)||aaaaaaaa||3 hours ago
|-
|(main)||adkfjslkdfjsdklfj||3 hours ago
|-
|(main)||my hands are typing words||2 hours ago
|-
|(main)||haaaaaaaaands||2 hours ago
|}
:[Caption below the panel:]
:As a project drags on, my Git commit messages get less and less informative.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Version Control]]

Talk:1285: Third Way

2021-10-16T16:48:18Z

The Cat Lady: fixed the template loop

I think the article should explain the 'typewriter story' mentioned in the title text. [[User:Ollieollieoxenfree|Ollieollieoxenfree]] ([[User talk:Ollieollieoxenfree|talk]]) 04:22, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

I'm wondering if the title text refers to the habbit many people have of slamming on their space key creating a very load sound- hence you can hear the difference between one space and two. But I'm not confident enough to edit the page [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.97|173.245.52.97]] 19:12, 1 December 2020 (UTC)

One line per sentence is reminiscent of a diagrammed/formal logic argument in philosophy. It would be a much more effective convention to help people parse and interpret content and validity of e.g. political claims. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.63.198|173.245.63.198]] 17:21, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

Line break after every sentence. 
Because I can. 
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.7|108.162.245.7]] 04:41, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

ONE SPACE AFTER A PERIOD. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:38, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:MY VOTE TOO!!! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:MY VOTE, TWO!!! (not really) [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 09:20, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Writing plaintext, I always do two spaces after a sentence ending period.
This is probably because I did in fact start typing on a real typewriter.
In an environment where automatic formatting will take place, like a web page or wiki text, I use the newline.
I have had people in this wiki collapse my multiple line forms to one of the others.
(I was disappointed.)
--[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 04:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I prefer double spacing, but I used single spacing in writing the explanation, just to make people happy. Perhaps I should have used new lines. [[User:Concomitant|Concomitant]] ([[User talk:Concomitant|talk]]) 05:10, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
: I'm a double-spacer too. Am I wrong? I can't break myself of the habit, I even do it in tweets! --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:43, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The 'third way' is a little underappreciated here: it divides the text into self contained logical units, and makes text processing tools (grep, diff etc.) much more usable.
Proper text rendering engines (TeX, HTML, etc.) already make this assumption and group sentences accordingly.
If only I realized this earlier, it would have made my thesis revisions much more easier.
In fact, up to this moment, I thought I was that lone guy in the comic.
EDIT: this comment in xkcd forums makes my point clear: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=106217#p3489055
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.11|141.101.96.11]] 05:42, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

:As a programmer, I find nothing weird in adapting your style to language. Writing two spaces in HTML or TeX is useless, as they won't render as two spaces anyway. (While using for this purpose nonbreakable spaces, which would render, is a crime.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
::It would also render incorrectly if the period was close to the end of a line. If the markup is [last word of sentence][period][nbsp][space][next sentence], the last word of the first sentence could end up on the next line unnecessarily. But if it's [last word of sentence][period][space][nbsp][next sentence], the next line of text would start with a space, which is much worse.--[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 15:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

::I end my sentences with a line break, a % and another linebreak. Only after commata etc i use a single line break. Oh, and don't forget to protect the space after points used in abbreviations, not as full stops, by a backslash. Most TeX increase the length of the space after a full stop a bit. Bit question: Why don't double space people, when using Word not just use a longer space instead of a double space. Noone would have the idea to indent a paragraph or substitute a tab with a series of spaces.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.117|108.162.242.117]] 03:11, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
:::Because the keyboard does not contain a longer space key.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I always just find and replace double space with single space. If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 06:33, 1 November 2013 (UTC) Synthetica

I always just find and replace single space with double space. If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

So, why did double spacing after a period ever exist? It doesn't seem necessary. [[User:PheagleAdler|PheagleAdler]] ([[User talk:PheagleAdler|talk]]) 07:31, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:Here's the standard explanation: on typewriters, each character takes up the same amount of space. So a lower-case "i" takes up the same amount of space as a capital "M". This is called a monospace font. When typing, if you just put a single space after the end of period ending a sentence, the reader doesn't necessarily get the sense that a new sentence has started. This is particularly true if you were typing in all caps, as might be common on some types of forms or documents. Two spaces, however, does the job nicely. In theory, with modern proportional-width fonts, this is unnecessary. [[User:Rylon|Rylon]] ([[User talk:Rylon|talk]]) 23:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
::Here's the researched explanation: http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324 So technically, an em-space after a period, an en-space after a comma. Or you know, whatever you want. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 06:22, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

even though i learned typing on a typewriter, to this day i had never heard of the double space thing. maybe it's a US only thing, like the stupid french with spaces BEFORE punctuation marks. [[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 07:54, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:I've always taken the double-space thing as a US thing. Some editors like emacs default to it, which is really annoying. That said, as a frenchman, the "space before punctuation" is normal to me and it is part of the ''codified'' typography -- and I think this is actually an important distinction to make. Is this double-space vs single-space something codified somehow? As a last word, I need to be nitpicky: the exact French typography rule is "a space before punctuation made of two parts (namely colon, semi-colon, exclamation/question mark) and no space before punctuation made of a single part (dots, commas.)" It's a very deterministic rule that is easy to apply (whether one agrees to it or not.) [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 16:40, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
::This is a common question from the French and some other nationals. The answer is that English does not work that way. There is no official codified version. The most you have is small pockets of codification within an organization, such as The University of Boulder, or UPI or the US Army. If you're working in or with such an organization you should use their standard. If you try to extend any such standard to the rest of the world you are a nasty egomanical control freak who should be chopped into pieces and fed to the fishes.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

As a german typographer I have to say I’m ''shocked''! ''Two'' spaces per period? A space ''before'' punctuation?! My scientific opinion: you all are completely crazy ;-) (Just kidding, but seriously, two spaces? In Germany, the first possibility to do that safely is your last will …) [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 10:34, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The doubled spaces appear in my browser's tooltips. (Maybe someone should add some non breaking spaces to the quotation of the tooltip text?) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.236|141.101.98.236]] 10:45, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

As a(n automatic) two-spacer person (just you watch, I'll use 'em here, despite it obviously not being rendered), it's just what I learnt, back in the '70s, here in the UK. I've no idea ''why'' I learnt it. However, it may stem from the same root as the 'rule' in handwriting (not biros, but nibbed pens dipped in ink... wow, I feel old, but it ''was'' at primary school) that we use a gap as big as our our (very little) little-fingers to separate sentences. I imagine differentiating full-stops (US: periods) from commas in the messy medium of ink might be a valuable visual indicator as to what a given smudge might ''actually'' be. So, anyway, double-spacing. On the other hand I should report that, "I've dropped the habit it of appropriate punctuation prior to quotes," I say, "despite being the way I learnt it." And instead I will drop "<- Commas from that sort of position," you see, "even through I'll keep the ones that are semantic pauses." You see how my standards are slipping? Anyway, good comic. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programme.  [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 14:44, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

:I'm in the same boat this this bloke. I don't get the typewriter tie in. I seem to recall being taught to use a finger gage correct gap of whitespace to leave between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next. This was in an American small town southern school in the early 1980s. I assume it was for readability. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.25|108.162.236.25]] 16:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The "third way" is used for articles on the [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news BBC News] website :-) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 14:52, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:Actually, they put each sentence into a paragraph of its own, which is yet different. (In HTML: <code>... .</code> vs. <code>... . </code>) --[[User:Das-g|Das-g]] ([[User talk:Das-g|talk]]) 16:07, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:That's what I came here to say, that the Third Way is common-place on the web today, it is the tabloid style. This headline article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24775846 off the BBC right now only has full-stops (periods in en-US) before paragraph breaks, apart from quotations (ie what the BBC did not write). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.229|141.101.98.229]] 16:11, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:The BBC is not the only web site to do that - and it is '''so''' annoying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.244|108.162.222.244]] 10:15, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

There's a FOURTH way! I receive a "Weekly Update from Senator Tim Scott" HTML formatted email about once a week (unsurprisingly) which, in lieu of spaces between words, uses a carriage return and a linefeed. This alleviates the question of how many spaces between sentences completely! It also renders as oneverylongword in my email client. Ie: <blockquote>Thankyouforsubscribingtomye-newsletter.</blockquote> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.25|108.162.236.25]] 16:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
: And a fifth: In France, they use one whitespace before and after double punctions (:;?!) but only one whitespace after single punctuation (.,). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.25|141.101.79.25]] 20:15, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I think the finger space was to help kids create clear separation while developing their proficiency at penmanship.
I think the 2x space is a fall out from the fixed width formatting of typewriters to help assist the reader (or proof reader) with the start and end of a sentence.
Double spacing has almost become OCD for me. I can't help it. Of course I also leave paragraph marks on while I type as well. I wonder if the French would require a space before a double quote, "The author ponders. "

I think we could improve old school cryptography if we just used carriage returns and ignored the 'new' line.
I might be able to accept and adopt the single space rule if I can make my spaces default to twice the point size of every other character in the style.
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.186|199.27.128.186]] 19:00, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:FOROL DSCHO OLCRY PTOGR APHYT AKEYO URCUE FROME NIGMA DECOD ESAND ARRAN GEEVE RYTHI NGING ROUPS OFFIV EWITH OUT''AN Y''PUNC TUAT IONAN DINAL LCAPS  [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 01:38, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

I have my word processor set to a a gap equal to one and a half spaces after a sentence ends[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.198|173.245.52.198]] 19:05, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

New paragraph (TWO line brakes) after every sentence :-) --[[User:Sten|Sten]] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 20:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I love how the explanation uses the third method. Nice touch. [[User:JRDeBo|JRDeBo]] ([[User talk:JRDeBo|talk]]) 23:29, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Does anyone think there's any significance to the sword and the spear? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.144|108.162.208.144]] 23:46, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
:Yes, because this is a SERIOUS ISSUE. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 06:35, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:A sword has a longer blade, while a spear keeps people further away. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.210|108.162.219.210]] 12:45, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

According to the [[http://fireemblemwiki.org/Weapon_triangle Fire Emblem weapon triangle]], the 1-spacers win against the 2-spacers. Then again, I put one space after each sentence. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Picture of a cat after every full stop !!! {{unsigned ip|173.245.51.221}}

With all the whitespace compression and variable width fonts in modern technology switching back to 2-space is as viable as switching over to localized Programmer Dvorak. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.18|108.162.231.18]] 13:44, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Hey, does anyone know if there's any way to make the wiki keep two spaces in a row, so the title text shows up properly? [[User:SuperSupermario24|Just some random derp]] 15:46, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

I was mildly confused about the weird phrasing of "This comic refers to the dance-off occurring ..." I already forgot my browser plugin that I've installed an hour ago. I think its great that it happened on a xkcd-related site. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.22|141.101.92.22]] 12:41, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm not from the US so I never actually heard about a rule with two spaces. From my point of view the rule is stupid, really dumb. Just let go of it! There is no reason for it. My brain starts to spasm when I hear about a rule of two spaces after a period. Ungh!! {{unsigned ip|162.158.86.113}}

The 2 spaces used in (early) PCs and TypeWriters (and TTYs) could be caused by the too little difference between a «.» and a «,» with little fonts on CRTs (''320*200px with 8*8px single letter with <16" monitors with a signal trought an RF cable, for a C64''), dot-printers (''like 60*75 dpi (h*v), 9*9 per character, for an Epson MX-80'') and typewritten sheets (''maybe with dirty sort/type'')?
[The examples in parentheses are for a mid-level-case, because there are worst monitors and standards than those, see previous comments]
''Nickh''²+, [[Special:Contributions/188.114.103.166|188.114.103.166]] 00:11, 10 November 2016 (UTC) .

Well, looks like the one-spacers will win due to the weapon triangle. After all, lances best swords. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.64|172.68.174.64]] 16:54, 17 January 2019 (UTC)
:Do line breakers count as axes or staves? [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:06, 19 March 2019 (UTC)

I just realized that there's a line break after ever sentence in this article.
(Insert formatting here)
:It’s four tildes (~ Those guys) to sign your comment. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:06, 19 March 2019 (UTC)

I have an easy solution to the debate.
Just press the TAB key after each sentence (doesn't work here, because of editing reasons).

google docs actually enforces the one space style for capitalization.

Is it just me, or is the wiki intentionally using the third way? (I'm a one-spacer. See?
:WHy did you not close the bracket :( [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 10:38, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

1283: Headlines

2021-10-16T13:15:13Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1283
| date = October 28, 2013
| title = Headlines
| image = headlines.png
| titletext = 1916: 'PHYSICIST DAD' TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO GRAVITY, AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HE FINDS. [PICS] [NSFW]
}}

==Explanation==
This comic satirizes the sensationalist language used in Internet headlines. Many websites generate ad revenue for getting visitors ("getting more clicks"), so some unscrupulous editors seek to manipulate their readers using tantalizing yet formulaic and crass headlines, designed to attract readers rather than summarize the article's contents. You might recognize this technique from those ridiculous text advertisements — "local mom discovers 1 weird tip to reduce belly fat." The practice is nothing new: {{w|tabloid journalism}} has been doing this for many years (e.g. ''{{w|National Enquirer}}''). The numbers shown at the headline are also often wrong and not covered by the article.

Signs of a dishonest headline include giving undue weight to trivial topics, or appealing to readers' emotions or needs (fear, outrage, pity, lust, laziness) instead of offering serious information. In severe cases, it may be a {{w|bait-and-switch}}, claiming to offer something it isn't. By failing to give a useful summary of the story, whilst attempting to force the reader to click on every story on the off-chance that it's interesting, they amount to an intentionally deceptive form of spam.

[[Randall]] parodies the formula in this comic with such trivializing headlines for important historical events:

*1905 - How a shocking new theory, discovered by a dad, proves scientists are wrong about ''everything!''
:{{w|Albert Einstein}} published his {{w|Annus Mirabilis papers}}, which changed views on space, time, mass, and energy, and laid the groundwork for much of modern physics. They included his papers on {{w|special relativity}} and on {{w|mass–energy equivalence}} ("E = mc2"). He had an infant son in 1905 (born May 1904).
:The use of the term "dad" helps readers tune in emotionally. "Proving scientists wrong about everything" is obviously an inflation of Einstein's achievements, though not completely incorrect as Einstein's discoveries did undermine current theories about fundamentals of the universe such as space, time and motion. Einstein was awarded the {{w|Nobel Prize}} in 1921 for his work on the {{w|photoelectric effect}}; his work on relativity was still not accepted by many physicists at that time.
*1912 - 6 ''Titanic'' survivors who should have died
:{{w|Sinking of the RMS Titanic}}. "should have died" seems to be referring to six passengers whose survival was downright miraculous, though the wording is (deliberately) ambiguous to imply the six passengers ''deserved'' to have died. Possibly referred to here is the survival of {{w|J. Bruce Ismay}}, chairman and managing director of the White Star Line (the company responsible for the Titanic), who was condemned as a coward for leaving the sinking liner.
*1920 - 17 things that will be outlawed now that women can vote
:The {{w|Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution}} was passed, guaranteeing voting rights for women in all US states. The prediction of new prohibitions is a reference to alcohol prohibition under the authority granted to the federal government by the {{w|Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution}}. While the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified before women's suffrage was guaranteed by the Nineteeth, alcohol prohibition was widely seen as an issue driven by women's opinions (hence the suggestion that more things would be prohibited now that women had the vote).
*1928 - This one weird mold kills all germs
:{{w|Penicillin}} was discovered by Alexander Fleming.
*1929 - Most embarrassing reactions to the stock market crash [GIFS]
:This is a reference to the {{w|Wall Street Crash of 1929}}, the most devastating stock market crash in history and the beginning of the Great Depression. The "embarassing reactions" may be a reference to the suicides of people suddenly impoverished by the depression.
:[GIFS] indicates that the post will contain animated GIF images, which are a crude form of short video. Presumably, these GIFs will feature the aforementioned suicides, which would be considered tasteless at best. The {{w|GIF#Animated_GIF|GIF89a specification}} which supports animation was released in 1990, so animated GIFs (or computers for that matter) didn't exist in 1929.
*1945 - These 9 Nazi atrocities will make you lose faith in humanity
:1945 is the year that World War II ended. It's also the year that many war crimes committed by Nazi Germany were discovered or declassified. These events would be cause enough for anyone to re-evaluate their belief in the inherent goodness of the human race. However, the specific phrase "lose faith in humanity" is one often employed on the web by rather over-dramatic people in response to something someone did to exasperate them; and because that particular wording is closely associated with exaggerative tendencies, its usage in relation to Nazi war crimes only downplays their seriousness.
*1948 - 5 insane plans for feeding West Berlin you won't believe are real
:1948 is when the Soviet Union established the {{w|Berlin Blockade}}, preventing food and other critical supplies from reaching occupied Berlin. In response, Western forces organized the {{w|Berlin Airlift}} (previously referenced in [[1037: Umwelt]], where it became Berlin Chairlift instead).
*1955 - Avoid polio with this one weird trick
:The {{w|polio vaccine}} was developed.
:"One weird trick" is a common phrase used in Internet ads: see [http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/how_one_weird_trick_conquered_the_internet_what_happens_when_you_click_on.html this article] for more information. It may also refer to the fact that polio viruses were used as the first vaccines.
*1957 - 12 nip slips potentially visible to Sputnik
:The Soviet Union launched {{w|Sputnik 1}}, the world's first artificial satellite. A ''nip slip'' is when a woman unintentionally exposes all or part of one or both of her nipples; in the context of the internet, it generally refers to a photograph capturing such a moment.
:Saying that 12 were visible from space implies that they were really big 'nip slips', or at least that only those 12 were big enough to be visible to telescopes.
*1968 - This year's assassinations ranked from most to least tragic
:{{w|Martin Luther King Jr.}} and {{w|Robert F. Kennedy}} ({{w|John F. Kennedy's}} younger brother) were both assassinated in 1968 (five years after JFK).
:Assassinations are rare and considered to be always tragic, so "ranking" them trivializes the political and emotional depth of the events.
*1969 - This is the most important photo of an astronaut you'll see all day
:{{w|Apollo 11}} performed the first manned lunar landing. During this historic trip newspapers printed as many pictures of astronauts as they could.
*1986 - This video of a terminally ill child watching the ''Challenger'' launch will break your heart
:Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight. See {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger disaster}} for details. This was the first shuttle mission that included a teacher on board as part of the crew ({{w|Christa McAuliffe}}, ''{{w|Teacher in Space Project}}''), so there were many children -- a New York Times poll put the number at 48% of 9-13 year olds in the US -- watching this particular launch live as teachers around the country had TV sets in their classrooms showing the ill-fated launch in real time. The launch was not shown on most mainstream TV stations; only {{w|CNN}} broadcast it live.
:Since this many children did see it, there would also have been several terminal ill children watching, and likely also some press out at one such place. So they could get this picture. And again toy with our emotions.
*1989 - You won't ''believe'' what these people did to the Berlin wall! [video]
:{{w|Fall of the Berlin Wall}}.
:[video] indicates a link to a video
*Jan 1, 1990 - 500 signs you're a 90s kid
:A 90s kid is someone born in the late 80s or early 90s (and spent most their childhood in the 1990s). Headlines like [http://www.buzzfeed.com/melismashable/25-ways-to-tell-youre-a-kid-of-the-9 this one from BuzzFeed] toy with their readers' sense of nostalgia. The parody headline is funny because it starts precisely on the first day of the 1990s, meaning that the only "90s kids" that it would apply to would be newborns. This is a reference to a common joke about the 90s not having a concrete identity in some ways like the 70s or 80s did in terms of popular culture, and yet those born in that decade always seem to have long lists of things that make you a "90s kid".
*The title text: 1916: 'Physicist dad' turns his attention to gravity, and you won't believe what he finds. [PICS] [NSFW]
:Einstein published his theory of {{w|General relativity}}, which is a vast generalization of the theory of {{w|Special relativity}} from 1905 and provides a model for gravity. In 1916 Einstein had two sons who lived in Zurich while he lived in Berlin.
:[NSFW] is "Not Safe for Work" - a tag to identify explicit images. Here it is used to trick readers hoping to find pornography.
:[PICS] tells the potential viewer that there are images embedded
:If you think of ''Gravity'' as a girl's name, then the reference to porn becomes more obvious.

This topic is re-used in [[1307: Buzzfeed Christmas]].

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the frame:]
:'''20th Century Headlines'''
:Rewritten to get more clicks

:[The years are always written at the center. The text has a line pointing to the relevant year. The first text is written to the left of the year. Then the texts below is alternately written to the right and to the left, finishing at the right in 1990.]
:1905 - How a shocking new theory, discovered by a dad, proves scientists are wrong about ''everything!''
:1912 - 6 ''Titanic'' survivors who should have died
:1920 - 17 things that will be outlawed now that women can vote
:1928 - This one weird mold kills all germs
:1929 - Most embarrassing reactions to the stock market crash [GIFs]
:1945 - These 9 Nazi atrocities will make you lose faith in humanity
:1948 - 5 insane plans for feeding West Berlin you won't believe are real
:1955 - Avoid Polio with this one weird trick
:1957 - 12 nip slips potentially visible to Sputnik
:1968 - This year's assassinations ranked from most to least tragic
:1969 - This is the most important photo of an astronaut you'll see all day
:1986 - This video of a terminally ill child watching the ''Challenger'' launch will break your heart
:1989 - You won't ''believe'' what these people did to the Berlin wall! [Video]
:Jan 1, 1990 - 500 signs you're a 90s kid

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]

[[Category:Clickbait]]
[[Category:Stock Market]]

1274: Open Letter

2021-10-15T14:47:19Z

The Cat Lady: /* Addressee */ typo

{{comic
| number = 1274
| date = October 7, 2013
| title = Open Letter
| image = open_letter.png
| titletext = Are you ok? Do you need help?
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to the {{w|United States federal government shutdown of 2013|US government shutdown in 2013}} that had been ongoing for a week and was still current as of the time of this comic. Under some circumstances, the United States Federal Government {{w|Government shutdown in the United States|can temporarily shut down}} pending budget legislation being passed by the United States Congress. These shutdowns are typically due to political disagreements between the President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Due to the shutdown, numerous government services and facilities are shut down, often resulting in many logistical issues for the public.

Over the years, various conspiracy theories have been proposed claiming that the United States Government is not controlled by publicly-elected officials, but rather by one or more organizations that secretly control the actions of the government (sometimes termed a {{w|Shadow government (conspiracy)|"shadow government"}}). In this strip, [[Randall]] writes a letter to the shadow government, telling them that the situation (having the country's government shut down) is embarrassing and asking them to fix the problem.

This comic also implicitly argues against the plausibility of the aforementioned conspiracy theories if one assumes that a shadow-controlled government would be more likely to operate with a singular purpose and therefore be less susceptible to paralyzing political disagreements. Randall previously alluded to this in the title text to [[1081|comic 1081]]: "Really, the comforting side in most conspiracy theory arguments is the one claiming that anyone who's in power has any plan at all." This is one of several comics in which Randall expresses dismay at how many intelligent people can fall for absurd conspiracy theories; see comics [[258]] and [[690]], among others.

The title text addresses the leadership of the shadow government in more colloquial terms, asking if they are suffering from personal problems that are impeding their ability to keep things under control. This is patronizing, and thus hilarious.

The message, as titled, is in the form of an "{{w|Open letter|Open Letter}}", being a directed and 'personal' message to a person or group of people which is nonetheless intended by the sender to be publicly aired (unlike a standard commentary or editorial, which is intended for public consumption, but addresses the concerned 'target' almost as an aside). In some cases this may be to ensure the correspondence is not kept confidential by the recipients and/or that the public as a whole are ''also'' indirectly addressed ('Cc'ed) in the correspondence, without having to compose a companion piece for that purpose. In this case, however, it may additionally be because the intended recipient(s) are not so easily identified for direct communication, and a public airing would ensure 'delivery' even without compromising the integrity of the message. Open Letters are often aired (or pre-copied, verbatim, from actual correspondence) in one or area or other of the public media, and while web-comics aren't ''necessarily'' the most publicised of forums, the xkcd readership almost certainly leads to covering both the 'named' recipients and the intended public view.

===Addressee===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Addressee !! Brief Description
|-
| {{w|Freemasonry|The Freemasons}}|| Fraternity claiming the legacy of medieval stonemasons. Some of the {{w|Founding Fathers of the United States}} were members of the organization. Organised in local groups, the so-called ''Lodges''.
|-
| {{w|Illuminati}} || Secret society formed in Bavaria to further the ideas of {{w|enlightenment}}. Although officially banned in 1785, many conspiracy theorists believe the organisation might have survived and is still secretly exerting influence.
|-
| {{w|Scientology}} || A church founded by science-fiction writer {{w|L. Ron Hubbard}}. Often criticised for alleged {{w|brainwashing}} of its members and accused of hiding commercial interests behind religious claims.
|-
| {{w|FEMA}} || Agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, that has been granted extensive authorisations in cases of emergency and is therefore believed to act as an entity independent of governmental control. Conspiracy theorists also claim that FEMA has been building concentration camps to silence conspiracy theorists.
|-
| {{w|New_World_Order|The New World Order}} || Not a secret organisation itself, but rather the concept of establishing a totalitarian system controlled by an elitist group in this list.
|-
| {{w|Federal_Reserve|The Federal Reserve}} || Central state bank system of the United States, therefore to some degree able to control the monetary circulation of the {{w|US Dollar}}.
|-
| {{w|Citigroup}} || One of the four biggest American financial service corporations. Considered by the {{w|Financial Stability Board}} to be a {{w|Too big to fail|"systemically important financial institution"}}.
|-
| {{w|Halliburton}} || International corporation offering technical services, especially in the field of oil and gas production. Also a major supplier for the {{w|US military}}. Halliburton was in the headlines for unethical business practices and connections to the former US Vice President {{w|Dick Cheney}}.
|-
| {{w|Google}} || Corporation offering Internet services, most notably the {{w|Google Search|Google search engine}}. Known for collecting massive amounts of data about its users in order to sell personalised advertisement. The idea of secret plans of Google has been mentioned in comic [[792]].
|-
| {{w|Holy See|The Vatican}} || Central government of the {{w|Catholic Church}} and residence of the {{w|pope}}. Historically important not only as a religious authority, but also as a {{w|Papal States|secular political power}}.
|-
| {{w|Bilderberg_Group|Bilderburg (correctly: ''Bilderberg'')}} || Annual conference of important politicians, bankers, directors of major corporations and other {{w|List of Bilderberg participants|people of influence}}, therefore considered the quintessential elitist meeting.
|-
| {{w|Walmart}} || American retail corporation, best known for the eponymous chain of warehouse stores. As of January 2013, Walmart is the world's largest public corporation by revenue.
|-
| {{w|Rothschild_family|The Rothschilds}} || Family of Jewish financiers that was later elevated into European nobility. Believed to exercise influence through considerable wealth. The subject of conspiracy theories since the mid-19th century, when they amassed the largest fortune in world history.
|-
| {{w|Knights Templar}} || Originally a medieval Christian military order of considerable influence, the Knights Templar were inspiration for many successive (secret) organisations that are sometimes believed to undermine governmental authorities. There is also an {{w|Knights Templar (Freemasonry)|eponymous order}} affiliated with Freemasonry. It may also be a reference to the ''{{w|Assassin's Creed|Assassins Creed}}'' video game series, in which several historical figures are claimed to have been Templars.
|-
| {{w|High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program#Conspiracy theories|HAARP}} || Ionospheric research project of the US military. Believed by some conspiracy theorists to conceal attempts to control the weather and trigger catastrophes.
|-
| {{w|United Nations|The UN}} || Large intergovernmental organization; most countries (193) in the world are members, with Palestine and the Vatican having observer status at the UN. It has little direct power unless its member states choose to cooperate.
|-
| {{w|Skull and Bones|Skull & Bones}} || A secret society at the {{w|Yale University}} that has many influential American politicians amongst its members, including former Presidents {{w|George H. W. Bush}} and {{w|George W. Bush}}, as well as former Secretary of State {{w|John Kerry}}.
|-
| {{w|Bohemian Grove}} || Campground of the private {{w|Bohemian Club}} in San Francisco, known for hosting an annual encampment of club members and selected guests who are among the most powerful men in the world.
|-
| {{w|Political activities of the Koch brothers|The Koch Brothers}} || Owners of the second-largest private company in the USA, known for supporting libertarian and conservative political causes.
|-
| {{w|George_Soros|George Soros}} || Business magnate and investor, known for supporting liberal political causes.
|-
| {{w|The Trilateral Commission}} || {{W|Think tank}} and associated meeting, emphasizing cooperation between North America, Western Europe, and Japan; founded by {{w|David Rockefeller}}
|-
| {{w|Sovereign Military Order of Malta|The Knights of Malta}} || Religious order that was once a sovereign state; contemporary {{w|Malta|Republic of Malta}} is not controlled by this order. Its exact status now is debated; it considers itself a "sovereign subject of international law" and has observer status at the United Nations.
|-
| {{w|Council on Foreign Relations|The CFR}} || Acronym for the {{w|Council on Foreign Relations|Council on Foreign Relations}}. Foreign policy think tank in the United States
|-
| {{w|ExxonMobil|Exxon Mobil}} || Major petroleum corporation; third largest company in the world, by revenue
|-
| {{w|Zionism|The Zionists}} || Political movement favouring the creation of a Jewish homeland, a goal achieved with the creation of the state of {{w|Israel}}. In a conspiracy-theory context, it references the belief that wealthy and powerful Jews (such as the above-referenced Rothschilds) control political and social institutions, as presented e.g. in the (fake) {{w|Protocols of Zion}}.
|-
| {{w|Vril#Vril society|The Vril Society}} || The "Vril" are a hidden subterranean race from the novel ''Vril, the Power of the Coming Race'' by {{w|Edward_Bulwer-Lytton|Edward Bulwer-Lytton}}. The novel allegedly inspired a "Vril Society" in Nazi Germany; however, there is no real evidence that the society existed, much less that it had the influence sometimes ascribed to it.
|-
| {{w|Reptilian humanoid|The Lizard People}} || Secret snake-men, similar to the aliens from ''{{w|V (franchise)|V}}''. This is probably a reference to the conspiracy theories of {{w|David Icke}}, which include the idea that an ancient race of god-like, shapeshifting Lizards have interbred with humans, and that these half-bloods now secretly control the world.
|-
| and everyone else who secretly controls the {{w|Federal government of the United States|US Government}} || Note the implicit notion that so many different groups each have control, which makes no sense.
|}

==Transcript==
:[The picture shows a letter.]
:October 7th 2013
:To: The Freemasons, the Illuminati, Scientology, FEMA, the New World Order, the Federal Reserve, Citigroup, Halliburton, Google, the Vatican, Bilderburg, Walmart, the Rothschilds, the Knights Templar, HAARP, the UN, Skull & Bones, Bohemian Grove, the Koch Brothers, George Soros, the Trilateral Commision, the Knights of Malta, the CFR, Exxon Mobil, the Zionists, the Vril Society, the Lizard People, and everyone else who secretly controls the US government
:Can you please get your shit together?
:This is embarrassing.
:Sincerely,
:A Concerned Citizen

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]

Talk:1273: Tall Infographics

2021-10-15T14:35:23Z

The Cat Lady:

From 2019 here! I just found this comic and I am shook!

Still nothing.

[[File:Example.jpg]]I'm not really sure how to transcribe an infographic... Sorry. [[User:Saibot84|Saibot84]] 04:17, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:I tried to expand on it a bit, sorry if it's not the best. ollien 04:20, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
For anyone wondering if the "FORMAT" frequency graph is self-referential to the entire comic... no, or at least not on actual explicit instances of the letters (certainly nowhere near 26 Ts, and even proportionally the As are vastly the most frequent and Fs the ''actual'' least, the rest almost identical), but I wouldn't put it past Randall having taken into account cummulative font-size, or something like that. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.253.80|178.98.253.80]] 07:23, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:It's by position in the alphabet (F=6, O=15, R=18, M=13, A=1, T=20). [[Special:Contributions/67.183.134.13|67.183.134.13]] 07:38, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
::Gah, I'm an idiot. The "26" should have clued me in. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.253.80|178.98.253.80]] 17:20, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
It's a reference to cellphone screen aspect ratios![[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 10:48, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

I think this comic might be inspired by [http://www.symantec.com/connect/sites/default/files/users/user-2935611/zeroaccess_blog_infographic.png that infographic] which was recently published regarding an attack against a botnet. (At least that was my first association - and I, too, found that graphic a little unsuitable when I saw it in the news) -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 12:42, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:Search for "infographics" at google images and you will find thousands other examples.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:50, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

I think there is more to the explanation: Big Data mostly will be analyzed statistically, so we will get diverse diagrams and infographics as result. The trend will be an increase in the number of cases where informationen is presented in this way. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.98.211|178.26.98.211]] 14:23, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

: Note that Big Data is used nowadays as a ''buzzword'', even if you don't have that much data. Remember: if your data cannot be processed by Excel, [http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2013/hadoop_hatred.html it isn't big]. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 14:47, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
::More accurately: Just because your data cannot be processed by Excel, that doesn't make it big.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.21|108.162.216.21]] 13:16, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

I read the Venn diagram to mean that data would be either clear OR concise, if you took it literally.[[Special:Contributions/75.120.198.118|75.120.198.118]] 08:38, 6 October 2013 (UTC)gonzo

:I don't think that's quite right. The Venn diagram is intended to be just as superfluously self evident as the other graphics. The set of all things "Clear" intersects with the set of all things "Concise" in the region "And".
[[Special:Contributions/111.69.237.202|111.69.237.202]] 09:06, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

:: it's a Venn diagram? D'Oh! Of course it's a Venn diagram. I thought it was the Mastercard logo! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.71|141.101.104.71]] 19:33, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:: I think you mean "if your data ''can'' be processed by Excel, it isn't big". [[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 00:07, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

:: Or maybe "if your data cannot be processed by Excel, it isn't necessarily big." Because it might really ''be'' big - you wouldn't know. [[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 00:21, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Another take on infographics: http://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/05/how-to-make-a-shitty-infographic/ --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:40, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

"In the pie chart, the areas represent the proportion of letters in each word." - this isn't right; the area for "will" is three times the size of the area for "be". It could be comparing the number of consonants in each word. {{unsigned ip|86.128.6.174}}
: "will" and "be" are both forms of the verb "to be". "Be" is therefore merely the infinitive, while "will" is both a conjugated form (3rd person singular) and in the future tense. Therefore "will" has three levels of meaning to "be"'s one... ;) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.122|108.162.229.122]] 12:49, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

Could the part where Megan is saying "Communicated" to Hairy and Hairy responds with an enthusiastic "Yes!" possibly be a reference to some other infographics about preventing sexual assault by making sure to have consent first? I remember seeing a lot of those around my high school and college, so I could just be assuming this based off my surroundings and whatnot. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 07:14, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

I make infographics, myself, and recently have given up and switched from using square, 4:3, or 16:9 to using 3:4 (making the image taller than wide) to deal with the fact that a snowballing proportion of my hypothetical audience is viewing the image on their phone, and can't even easily resize a wide graphic to see the whole thing comfortably...and that the ones who see it on the computer have far greater ability to view an image regardless of its aspect ratio. 
/me sighs — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 15:30, 16 December 2016 (UTC)
:Did the smartphones in 2016 not have auto-rotate? [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 14:35, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

Fortunately, this, like that whole weird thing with the Mayans, is another doomsday prophecy that did not come to pass. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.178|162.158.75.178]] 02:09, 18 January 2019 (UTC)
:This is a travesty, we must change wiki to be infographic only [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:05, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Its 2019...--[[User:Realqwerty64|Realqwerty64]] ([[User talk:Realqwerty64|talk]]) 17:32, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
:Comments at the bottom. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:05, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Wait, what if “72 months” wasn’t actually false precision? Do we only have 14 days left? – [[User:Unnameduser17|Unnameduser17]] ([[User talk:Unnameduser17|talk]]) 13:30, 20 September 2019 (UTC)
:Unless something bad happens in the next 4 hours (depending on what country you're in) then no. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.127|162.158.158.127]] 20:18, 3 October 2019 (UTC)
: Sometrhing bad didn’t happen...then[[User:Rereading xkcd|Rereading xkcd]] ([[User talk:Rereading xkcd|talk]]) 03:27, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

1271: Highlighting

2021-10-15T14:04:40Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1271
| date = September 30, 2013
| title = Highlighting
| image = highlighting.png
| titletext = And if clicking on any word pops up a site-search for articles about that word, I will close all windows in a panic and never come back.
}}

==Explanation==
A number of people find it easier to read long texts by marking their place as they move through the reading. When done on paper, this may be done with a ruler, pencil, or finger. On-screen, however, one of the most effective methods is by highlighting the text being read. People accustomed to this form of reading often do it absentmindedly. Some people simply highlight parts of an article they're consulting without regards to which line they're currently reading, just to occupy their hands.

Highlighting, however, has the potential to create shapes on screen. Randall is referring to the fact that the shapes created may occasionally be symmetrical, which creates satisfaction. Different highlighting patterns may be caused by the user's browser, the site provided, or by simply dragging one's cursor across the screen with the mouse button held down, and releasing at different patterns..

The top example shows tight-fitting highlight syntax, which only covers the text of the paragraph. This is the most common result of highlighting an entire paragraph, but as paragraphs are rarely symmetrical, this example is marked by an X.

The second example starts the highlighting a few words in and continues to the end of the paragraph, while the third example begins another half-word in and continues down a line and a word before ending. Both of these patterns would be caused by manually highlighting the text with the mouse button, rather than rapidly-clicking until a segment is highlighted. The second example forms a square where the three lines of highlighted text overlap, while the third has rotational symmetry of the selected region; both are marked with checks.

The fourth example highlights the entire paragraph, as well as the whitespace caused by the indentation of the paragraph and at the end of the paragraph when the last line does not continue to the opposite margin. This example has both rotational and divisible symmetry, and is marked with a check.

The fifth example highlights the whitespace after the end of the paragraph, but not the whitespace of the indentation, leaving an odd block at the start of it. This ruins the paragraph's symmetry, and so this example is marked with an X.

The bottom example refers to the practice of websites adding a script to disable highlighting, often to discourage readers from copying their content. This creates a great dissatisfaction in readers accustomed to highlight as they read, shown by the many overlapping "X"s. Ironically since the comic is an image, the text in the comic can also not be highlighted.

The title text refers to the practice of websites of adding a script that searches upon clicking any word in the text; most notably done by Yahoo! news in years prior. The search may be of the site, the web, or of an advertisement provider. The script sometimes creates a popup, which, Randall says, causes him to "panic", and consequently never want to return to the site again. It is in fact quite annoying to the occasional highlighter, causing him to lose his place and interrupting his train of thought.

==Transcript==
:[A paragraph of text is shown. The highlight starts away from the leftmost edge of the highlight, and is a different distance to that between the rightmost edge of the highlight and the highlight end. Red X.]
:[A paragraph is shown. The highlight's starting point, end point, and number of lines included is such that there is an internal square in the middle, illustrated in green. Green tick.]
:[A paragraph is shown. Not only does it have an internal square, but the distance between the leftmost edge and the highlight start point is the same as the distance between the rightmost edge and the highlight end point. Green tick.]
:[A paragraph is shown. The entire paragraph is highlighted, making one big rectangle. Green tick.]
:[A paragraph is shown. The whole paragraph is selected, but the highlight starts away from the leftmost margin. This is shown with a red box, an arrow, and "?!?!". Red X.]
:[A paragraph is shown. Over the top is overlaid "[Clicking to highlight text is disabled]". Many, many red Xes.]
:I absentmindedly select random blocks of text as I read, and feel subconsciously satisfied when the highlighted area makes a symmetrical shape.

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

Talk:1232: Realistic Criteria

2021-10-07T12:14:13Z

The Cat Lady:

I'm not sure I want NASA (or other space agencies) to solve all problems on earth. And what constitutes a problem? My laptop crashed this morning? Fighting in Afghanistan? Flooding in Germany and Poland? [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 07:28, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Hence the title: "Realistic Criteria" ;-) [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 07:29, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

:I'm sure there is more that enough problems for 15 years in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ alone. Also, exploring other planets can help solving problems on our one. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
::Earth should have a Bugzilla. [[Special:Contributions/80.195.213.223|80.195.213.223]] 13:43, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

''"The argument between exploring space vs saving resources and solving problems on Earth is a pretty common modern one, both in theory, and in practice."''

Actually, we shouldn't have started expanding our species out of Africa before predicting (and allowing for) the development of Religious Hatred, Mechanised Warfare and Oppressive Copyright Practices...{{unsigned ip|86.10.119.75}}
:Personally, I usually quickly send my initial Zulu forces up to blockade the land-bridge in the vicinity of Egypt, and ''then'' expand out throughout Africa so as to allow me to develop my own superior navy (and as many wonders as I can, including the library) before anyone else gets there. (Apologies, my comment below rather sent me down this line of thought.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.53.132|178.98.53.132]] 17:20, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

This attacks a rather typical conservative attitude that we shouldn't "waste" resources on "minor" problems when there are bigger problems to deal with. (e.g., "Why are you giving me a ticket for speeding when there are murderers out there you should be catching?") The title text pinpoints the fallacy of it (if you only ever work on the biggest problems, you will never solve that problem and also never accomplish anything else) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:10, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I have issue with 'The comic is, at its core, a parody of the overly optimistic scientism that often attaches itself to the idea of a manned Mars mission, which in the minds of its supporters is always "ten to fifteen years away," no matter the unsolved technical or logistics challenges that are still standing in the way.' I think it's the converse. The overly optimistic ''semi-''scientism that if we put something like Mars exploration on hold that the resources this frees up would be instantly transferable into "solving all the world's ills". The ten-to-fifteen-year span is then the (sarcastic?) suggestion as to how long this would need to be done for, before we can consider them all solved and start pumping the same resources back into space missions and pick up from where we leave off.
:I agree that the 'The comic is, at its core, a parody of the overly optimistic scientism that often attaches itself to the idea of a manned Mars mission, which in the minds of its supporters is always "ten to fifteen years away," no matter the unsolved technical or logistics challenges that are still standing in the way.' line is not a correct analysis of this comic. I removed it, but would be happy to see it re-added if there is a discussion here that bring to light any evidence supporting it. [[Special:Contributions/149.32.192.33|149.32.192.33]] 13:38, 2 July 2013 (UTC) Mike Powers
::It could even be some what of a reference to [https://xkcd.com/678/ 678: Researcher Translation] [[User:Regdoug|Regdoug]] ([[User talk:Regdoug|talk]]) 14:47, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

(Reminds me of my typical Civilization-playing scenario, pumping lightbulbs into one or other single scientific advance, but switching the target when realising I would ''quite'' like something else researched (perhaps for its associated military unit), even though it wasn't my original plan on the way to (perhaps) the Alpha Centauri win. Or, more generally, jumping between all 'spare population' being scientists and them all being entertainers or tax collectors, for a few turns, to deal with morale or cashflow problems while a corrective Wonder is being built... then once it's done I'm free to blithely make it 100% Science again, if I've got such a max/min playing style at the time...) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.53.132|178.98.53.132]] 17:20, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Great(!) Made a unanimous decision to make the change I intended (the "Fuggit!"-labelled edit), after apparently no-one else having an opinion about the need to switch the focus round, and then quickly a set of ''other'' edits occur that don't even revert things back (which I wouldn't have minded). Anyway, don't want to cause an Edit War by reverting/de-reverting/etc, so I'm leaving the following here for your combined consideration.

Mr (or Ms) 149.32.192.33 who "removed the comment about (...) the Mars Mission". You didn't remove anything explicitly about Mars, as I'd already removed that reference and re-edited that section (check what I did in http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1232:_Realistic_Criteria&diff=prev&oldid=42725) and of all the edits I made , I actually quite liked that bit of rare non-waffling. I propose we re-add text similar to:
The comic is, at its core, looking at the idea that space exploration is something we can ill-afford to fund whilst there are so many Earth-based issues that need to be addressed.
It's indicating White-Hat's views, and is neutral about whether this is a ''sound'' idea or not. (The rest is maybe more forceful, as I'm personally definitely not an "Earth-only" person, although I'm not extreme in the other direction either so hopefully created balance.)

My thanks to the typo-corrector (I'm always mistyping "lieu", it seems). Although "spaceborne" seems more correct to me than the hyphenated version. "Space-born", yes (born of space, e.g. a person of said heritage), but "airborne" is a word in my dictionary, so... Anyway, I've no excuse when I used "seem" instead of "seam" as the root of another word.

Dgbrt: Good reduction of my waffle (surrounding my oblique reference to Teflon), but I'm saddened to lose the general (if not always proven) examples and your edit perhaps goes explicitly pro-Space more than I'd intended. Still, it's shorter and more readable. I don't understand the criteria for "Trivia" enough to understand if that'd be a more suitable locale for what was removed. (But suspect it wouldn't be for the purely hypothetical asteroid-avoiding scenario.)

And I know this is potentially a hot-topic. Hence why I used loads of words to try to indicate that it ''is'' a hot-topic, that almost everyone could have an opinion about. (Even exclusing the totally uninformed, "for every expert there's an equal and opposite expert", so I tried to make sure everybody understood why they might find the explanation neither too pro-Space or too anti-space, depending on their defauly stance.) But for now I shall leave it as is. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.53.132|178.98.53.132]] 15:58, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

:Uhhh, who should (or would) read all this?
:I'm trying to keep it simple, but all important details must be shown. That's why this article is still incomplete.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:29, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

:I apologize for the issues. I assume what happened was that we were both editing at the same time. When tried to submit and was prompted to update. I skimmed the update too quickly and only seen the "The comic is, at its core" start of your paragraph and assumed it was the "Mars Mission" paragraph and thus deleted it. I have no issues with you adding the "The comic is, at its core, looking at the idea that space exploration.." initial paragraph and you will not be starting an editing war. --[[Special:Contributions/149.32.192.33|149.32.192.33]] 15:56, 3 July 2013 (UTC) Mike Powers

;Chaos at the explain section

Please try to add your content in a proper way, people will NOT read this chaos. But even if they do, they still do not understand what you're talking about. At this moment this explain is chaos and so it is incomplete.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:41, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Ok, chaos indeed, and I don't pretend to understand the edit-history progression. (When did the Mars Mission get specifically reintroduced? Perhaps I don't care.) How about something ''quite'' brief like...
White Hat is suggesting that the exploration of space and other planets is a luxury that we should not yet be dedicating resources to when there are so many other things for which the resources could apparently be similarly used.
Cueball agrees, possibly disingenuously, then asks how long it would be for a society purely focussed upon Earth-problem solutions to implement the necessary answers, allowing us to renew spending on the aforementioned luxuries without cause for complaint. The Title Text errs towards the lengthier period, almost certainly tongue in cheek regarding the ease of such an approach.
It is probably a simplistic point of view that funding and work currently dedicated to the space sciences are fully transferable away from this area and towards creating a utopian ideal on Earth, on a whim. It also unfairly discounts the very real possibility that large tracts of research and practical engineering might indeed have useful Earthly applications, but without the driver of 'space' may never be undertaken in the first place.
Then perhaps a final paragraph about Real Life not being a game where, turn by turn, the entire scientific apparatus can be diverted from one 'tech tree' target to another without causing stumbling blocks. And that we don't even have a well-defined Tech Tree, and sideways propogation of ideas is rife. Purely non-space research is as self-destructive to advancement as much as single-mindedly purely pursuing its space-targetted counterpart to the exception of environmental protection, food production, etc.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 of this suggestion explain the <strike>obvious</strike> direct content of the comic. Paragraph 3 deals with the issue raised (I'm very much assuming Cueball and the Title Text are being as sarcastic as White Hat is being earnest). Anything else could be considered mere opinion, but perhaps can still be kept neutral. But someone else might have better wording for all of it. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.53.132|178.98.53.132]] 22:56, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

;Do What Works

This is my first post, so I'm not sure if it's appropriate to discuss the underlying theme. If not, please let me know. Anyway . . .

Historically, for my ancestors at least, exploration and expansion to new frontiers did a lot more to solve their problems than any government programs. They came to America during the potato famine, climbed into a covered wagon and headed west.

From Apollo 15 astronaut Alfred F.Worden's poem, "Apollo Lost":

Say to me we need the money 
Just to feed the poor, 
And I say, 'Gee that's funny, 
It's for them that we explore.' 

Say to me we should be fighting, 
Say to me the world's at war. 
And I say we are uniting 
People tired of war and more. 

[[User:CoderLass|CoderLass]] ([[User talk:CoderLass|talk]]) 20:53, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

I apologize if I have made the new explanation too pro-space. But I believe it should be, as Randall is. Great poem, by the way. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 22:48, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
:Many thanks for your edit, but humans are still also animals. So I did remove a few statements. The incomplete tag is also removed. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:41, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
::You removed the reason why space exploration is especially important? Good job. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 21:59, 8 February 2014 (UTC)

Coincidentally, a lot of things that are used in day-to-day life now were actually originally developed for space travel or made possible by space travel, such as GPS, solar energy or the ability to freeze dry food. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 00:04, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I always felt Cueball was being sarcastic, pointing out the ridiculousness of White Hat's statement.

This comic hits a little differently in 2021, when billionaires are spending [https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/jeff-bezos-space-flight-money-better-uses/ enough money to prevent 37.5 million people from starving] in order to enjoy four minutes in space. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.242|162.158.89.242]] 10:49, 4 September 2021 (UTC)
:Hear hear, well said! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 12:14, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1030: Keyed

2021-09-25T16:39:29Z

The Cat Lady:

Is is just me, or does that explanation make Carrie Underwood sound like one crazy b*tch? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 01:21, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
:''All'' man-basher songs make women seem like crazy bitches. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.114|108.162.245.114]] 03:19, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
::All women who sing man-basher songs ''are'' crazy bitches. {{unsigned ip|162.158.255.154}}
::I'm not sure the love-related songs guys sing are any better...granted, they usually make the singers seem creepy rather than crazy, but I don't think that's any better. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 21:42, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Could this comic explain why Ponytail was at Beret Guy's place of "Business"?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.77|108.162.216.77]] 17:05, 18 March 2015 (UT

Maybe it's her key, and someone can copy it and open her house! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.59|108.162.246.59]] 21:41, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
:My first thought was that it's a duplicate of her car key, thus allowing someone to steal her car! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 14:31, 27 August 2021 (UTC)
::It's not a car key, though.
::How do you know that? It looks like a car key to me! (Please sign your posts) [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 16:39, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1169: Expedition

2021-09-22T23:33:10Z

The Cat Lady:

He should have written: ''... than in any other game.'' --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 06:50, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
:Not really. That would imply Google Maps is a game too. It's just a piece of software he uses as a game.
::Erm ... that's the point. --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 13:40, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Someone should write a game for this. It would just use the google maps API. It starts by putting you at a random point and the zoom is disabled. Then you have to navigate to a city. [[Special:Contributions/75.181.36.6|75.181.36.6]] 13:07, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
:Great idea! I’d definitely play it. --[[Special:Contributions/77.186.78.102|77.186.78.102]] 15:50, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
::There used to be a game (don't know if it is still played) called "Table Top Rallying". It involved a Rand McNally map of the USA (and it had the be the right Rand McNally map for the year). Participants would "drive" around the map, collecting clues and answering questions, and the like. [[Special:Contributions/194.106.220.85|194.106.220.85]] 09:17, 5 February 2013 (UTC)
::My kids and I invented a similar game using google maps. It was called "Would you live?" and involved getting a sum of pretend money with which to pretend buy things on ebay, after which you would be dropped at a random point on the map. We used random.org to get the random location. You got more money for the next round if you survived, and bonus points for how quickly you could identify where you were on the map, starting from the mostzoomed in point. My son, then ten years old, scored a major coup by finding a giant barge on ebay for $800. Saved him many of the times he was dumped in the north pacific. --Tamara G.

I just tried out what Cueball suggests, and the first city I found was Yakutsk. Knowing well that downstream from Yakutsk there are at least some settlements, I made a quick Google/Wikipedia search for those and found ''1710:Yakutsk:. 1560 Aldan River from the east. River tends northwest. 1373:Sangar: coal mines. 1560:Vilyuy River from the west. River tends north. 959:Arctic Circle. 939:Zhigansk,founded in 1632, 865:Agraphena Island. 545:Sikhtyakh. 385:Kyushur:regional center. 222:Lena Delta'' (Wikipedia; numbers are kilometers from the mouth).
Sangar’s here [https://maps.google.de/maps?q=%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F,+%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%A1%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%B0+(%D0%AF%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%8F),+%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=63.944009,127.460632&spn=0.170408,0.441513&sll=70.670881,127.394714&sspn=0.513643,1.766052&oq=%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80&t=h&hnear=Sangar,+Russia&z=11], Zhigansk’s a lot blurrier [https://maps.google.de/maps?q=%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F,+%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%A1%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%B0+(%D0%AF%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%8F),+%D0%96%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=66.775804,123.393631&spn=0.076491,0.220757&sll=71.580532,126.968994&sspn=0.490331,1.766052&oq=%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0&t=h&hnear=Zhigansk,+Russia&z=12], Siktyakh (Wiki misspelled it and Google Maps shows it in the wrong point – it’s, of course, down by the river) is hardly to see [https://maps.google.de/maps?q=%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F,+%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%A1%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%B0+(%D0%AF%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%8F),+%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%8F%D1%85&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=69.910586,125.104408&spn=0.016657,0.055189&sll=69.783461,125.047073&sspn=0.134065,0.441513&oq=%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%85%D1%82%D1%8F%D1%85&t=h&hnear=Siktyakh,+Russia&z=14], and if anyone can point me to the “regional center” Kyushur, I’d be infinitely thankful.
(In fact, I could not find Kyushur in any source except this Wikipedia site and a translation of a part of a Lithuanian report about Gulag life. Cyrillic script gave no results at all.) --[[Special:Contributions/77.186.78.102|77.186.78.102]] 15:50, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
Kyusyur's Wikipedia page is here: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%8E%D1%81%D1%8E%D1%80 .[[Special:Contributions/212.51.202.130|212.51.202.130]] 16:23, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
:I knew it must have been a typo! In fact, the Google Maps image of Kyusyur is a lot less blurred out than Zhigansk and Siktyakh: [http://goo.gl/maps/UvR7C] --[[Special:Contributions/77.186.104.182|77.186.104.182]] 10:39, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Google Maps is [[1110|Click and Drag]] on steroids. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 00:49, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

Should the explanation say what the Google Maps is showing? That ruins the game he's given us! [[Special:Contributions/50.81.41.36|50.81.41.36]] 06:15, 5 February 2013 (UTC)
: Umm… it just shows “the mouth of the Lena River” exactly as the comic says in the first sentence! --[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 16:32, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

No way to really tell, but it reminded me of [[288|Elevator]]. [[Special:Contributions/119.224.49.84|119.224.49.84]] 13:26, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

I use a similar "game" to challenge myself and improve my skills of orientation. I go to Google earth (or google maps with satelite images), disable all markers/labels, get zoomed out over Europe (where I live) and then try to zoom in to a particular place, without of moving the view. So first e.g. scrolling until I got Germany in focus, then until it is western Germany, then I got some landmarks (big cities, mountain ranges) pretty handy already and can get into more detail. I started with easy challenges (my current place of living in a larger town), continued with harder ones (my old home in small towns/villages), places of friends/relatives I visited a handfull times, places I have been on vacation... If it gets to hard, I either open the map view in another tab, or click a place to see the description (oh, if this is city A, I need to go much further down that river to find city B)... Usually after trying with these hints for a few times it gets easy to find the right landmarks on each zoom level, and get much better orientation around that area. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:23, 6 August 2019 (UTC)

Not directly related, but: isn't it interesting how the complexity of a game has little to no correlation with how much time the obsessives spend on it? [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 11:28, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

There's a game called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoGuessr GeoGuessr] that drops you in a random Google Street View location and you have to figure out where you are from what you can see of your surroundings. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 23:33, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1168: tar

2021-09-22T23:18:13Z

The Cat Lady:

I thought the title text would be "tar --help"
[[Special:Contributions/123.202.19.132|123.202.19.132]] 06:59, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Is it good that I could have disarmed the bomb, and I have only used tar (or for that matter, Linux) sparsely? [[User:NSDCars5|NSDCars5]] ([[User talk:NSDCars5|talk]]) 12:16, 9 May 2014 (UTC)NSDCars5

The comic is about the difficulty of the tar program options.

Even if his life depended on it and after years of usage, Bob/Randall could not come up with the right parameters without looking them up. So a situation is shown, where Bob's life depends on coming up with the right parameters:

* It shows an atomic warhead
* It has a user interface, which requests any valid tar command
* If it is not entered on the first try within 10s, the bomb is not disarmed and potentially explodes on the spot

Randall has come up with a situation, where the unix guy Bob can be the hero by knowing tar parameters. This is a pipe dream of a geek; nobody cares IRL, if you know tar parameters on the first try.

It is hilarious, that
* the bomb says in full detail the rules including that you should not cheat and it probably has no means to check whether you cheated. This is no game, but feels like one. In war and love every means is allowed - even cheating; it would also be self-defense for disarming the bomb; Bob and his colleagues are not even considering to cheat.
* the user has root access to the bomb, shown by the bomb as ~#, the tilde is the home directory, the # signifies super-user rights; even if the available programs prevent the bomb from being shutdown or disabled by a nonintended way, normally no root access is given for users of linux devices during normal usage; and disarming the bomb with official rules is normal usage of a bomb; a root prompt should not be necessary, if the bomb software is designed and configured well; possibly the unix prompt is a simulation for entering an answer
* Bob shurely needs more than 10s to come. So the bomb will have announced that questions, which require unix knowledge will follow - or has already asked other Unix questions; perhaps after 10s without entering anything a new question comes up
* this bomb can be disarmed with "common knowledge"

Small notes:
* The screen looks to be really grayscale (esp. the inverted "TEN") - not just because of the comic; it has at least 3 colors (black, white, tar gray); it could be that the "TEN" is updated dynamically and is thus inverted
* The comic is quite black: The screen and the bomb; Randall seldomly uses solid black areas; the bomb is a gloomy topic so it is black like "tar" (pun)

Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.121.97|178.26.121.97]] 07:24, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

I think there is a visual double pun in this strip: the bomb disarmed by a tar command is a reference to the [[wikipedia:Tar (computing)#Tarbomb|tarbombs]], but it also looks like the [[wikipedia:File:Tsar Bomba Revised.jpg|Tsar Bomb(a)]]. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 08:24, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: I don’t think it looks like Tsar Bomba. If anything, it is much more similar to [[wikipedia:Fat Man|Fat Man]]. --[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 08:38, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: Yeah, but "Fat Man" doesn't sound like "tarbomb". --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 10:48, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: Furthermore, the Tsar bomb was much bigger; I think I've read somewhere that it had the size of a bus. --[[Special:Contributions/95.34.7.179|95.34.7.179]] 11:11, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

I think another joke is in the fact that you don't know which Unix is running on the bomb so you don't actually know which parameter layout is supported. tar --help for example may or may not be valid since -- is a GNU extension.

tar -bvzx for a tar.bzip2 .... wait... no... argh... I've always just trusted my fingers.. --[[Special:Contributions/59.167.191.93|59.167.191.93]] 10:14, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Will '''tar -?''' be valid everywhere?. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:32, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: No, in very old implementations of tar (pre-POSIX), the hyphen is not permitted before flags. I believe that '''tar ?''' will be though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.166|172.68.54.166]] 19:55, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

tar -lvvb archive.tar.bz
File not found. Sorry, you're dead.
~#
[[Special:Contributions/74.82.68.68|74.82.68.68]] 12:35, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Googling tar commands would definitely take more than 10 seconds, especially considering that Rob did not take his computer. (A smartphone is an option, but...)
Then again, why would "ten" be written in letters instead of numerals? [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:28, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:I think the clock is already counting down. So probably they've discovered the bomb with still some minutes on the display. They call Bob when there is a minute left, He arrives with 25 sec's on the display and 15s later the screendump is made... [[Special:Contributions/86.82.116.63|86.82.116.63]] 22:33, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: This makes sense. --[[User:Shine|Shine]] ([[User talk:Shine|talk]]) 22:41, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

I think the current explantion is missing an important point: the tar commands are not that much difficult. What makes tar complicated is that there are many different implementations. The linux guy knows only gnu tar, but some unices have much different implementations and different commands. "tar --help" is certainly not available on an old hpux, for example. '''That''' make is difficult to type a valid tar command – even more if you don't know the implementation.
[[Special:Contributions/212.222.53.78|212.222.53.78]] 10:26, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Will '''tar -?''' be valid everywhere?. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:32, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm a Windows user, so bear with me. Couldn't he type something like "man tar" to get the proper usage of the "tar" command on this particular system? It's a "man" command, so it shouldn't count as a try towards typing a "tar" command. Of course, maybe the bomb would explode if he entered anything else. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.159.230|70.31.159.230]] 13:46, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

:Yeah, all standard Unix installations should have man installed. But many mini installations don't, so these days Google is the standard backup.[[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 14:58, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Fixed comment/wasn't reading. Only thing I can say here is that I've used embedded distros without 'man'; you could probably 'strings' the binary though. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]])

Randall's joke is spot on, as usual. I've been using UNIX for nearly 30 years. Windows User's solution is elegant. Before Google there was the <code>man</code> command. In all seriousness, productivity on a UNIX box can be greatly enhanced simply by keeping good notes. I keep patterns of all sorts of UNIX commands handy so I don't have to look them up. As Wikipedia implies, <code>tar -tf</code> (I prefer <code>-tvf</code>) should be memorized because one quickly learns that one should ''always'' inspect tarballs before unpacking them. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 14:11, 1 February 2013 (UTC)''

One of the reasons that tar is so useful is that it can often do exactly what you want when other, more obvious commands cannot. For instance, recursively copying a directory from one place to another (using "cp") can be tricky when symbolic links are involved, and thus people memorize incantations like "tar cf - . | (cd dest; tar xf -)". As well, it's a standard tool that's guaranteed to be found on every Unix installation (unlike zip/unzip).[[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 14:58, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

tar --help. Problem solved. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:21, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Maybe '''tar -?''' is better?. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:32, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

What about "tar xf foo.tar"? I always assume options without dash work everywhere because options they are the original scheme. Of course, foot.tar might be absent, but in my view, the command itself remains valid.
As to the time limit: I imagine a countdown starts when the first key is hit - that leaves little time for "man tar". [[Special:Contributions/46.142.35.251|46.142.35.251]] 16:49, 1 February 2013 (UTC) madd

It feels like a partial reference to comic [http://xkcd.com/208/ xkcd 208]--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.157.176|108.162.157.176]] 04:31, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't find tar all that tricky. The situation I'm always trumped with is when copying data, using cp, scp or rsync -r, then chmod -R /data 555. Why is '-R' capitalized? --[[Special:Contributions/98.253.217.12|98.253.217.12]] 19:54, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
:Because -r is 'substract the "read" right'. More interresting question is, why ssh -p but scp -P? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:03, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

First thing that struck me here was the Jurassic Park allusion. Surprised no-one else has mentioned it.--[[Special:Contributions/58.6.184.37|58.6.184.37]] 07:01, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
:No one mentioned "What are four lowercase letters that are not legal flag arguments to the Berkeley UNIX version of `ls'?" question either ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:07, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Does this mean we should start retroactively rename cueball to "rob"?
:Rob is ''a'' Cueball, not ''every'' Cueball, so no. [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 14:05, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
::By that logic, Megan is ''a'' Cutie, not ''every'' Cutie. We should only name Megan in comics where her name appears. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 17:07, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

There is something morbid in the subtext here.... I have a feeling that Randall is going to kill off Megan, Rob, and "White Hat"... [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 01:47, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Randall, I am disappoint! I haven't used tar for more than a year and I don't err anymore: tar -xvzf file (.gz) or tar -xvjf file (.bz2), and I still consider myself quite the newb. Works on all flavors of linux I tried (I like trying linuxes on VMs, dunno about other unixes, but everytime I need it, I get it right, so I wouldn't even consider this in my list of hardest programs to get right first time). For those interested: -x extract -v verbose (I like it) -z uncompress (for some compression types, in some flavors this works with bz2, IIRC) -j uncompress (for bz2, maybe others). [[Special:Contributions/189.123.132.123|189.123.132.123]] 20:51, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

:Your "z" Is wrong for .bz2 (or .z or uncompressed); it's only for ".gz". The reason it works for you is that your distro is using BSD tar, which silently ignores compression-related flags on the t and x commands and figures it out automatically. Which means you're better off using "-xvf" than "-

:More importantly, "works on all flavors of linux I've tried" is a far cry from "portable". The majority of desktop Unix systems are not linux, but OS X. There are plenty of servers running other BSD flavors. And lots of old machines running commercial *nixes or OpenSolaris. Not to mention Cygwin, and native/MinGW ports to Windows. People checking in code because "it works on Fedora and Ubuntu, so it must be portable" is becoming as big a problem as when people used to test on three different BSD derivatives but no SysV. So you should feel bad. :P [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 01:54, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

:Originally bzip used -y. Not speaking about fact that bzip is pretty new - and some unixes don't have ANY compression support in their tar. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:03, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

The quickest tar command with valid syntax would be "tar t". Every switch after the first command letter is optional. Even the initial dash is optional. [[Special:Contributions/85.24.234.35|85.24.234.35]] 11:03, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
:(That would also be a command that is valid in every known tar version throughout the universe.)
: Doesn't appear to work; console redirection is used as the input stream, terminated by Ctrl-D, at which point (on Android, and assuming you don't know the format) tar returns with "invalid tar magic" and then $? is non-zero (fail). If however you redirect 2>/dev/null, then $? returns 0 (success). I think the redirection is what's succeeding so any valid prestidigitation ought to work. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]])

The tar command actually has a unique syntax in unix. Classicly, it's first parameter is a subcommand (letter) followed by zero or more option letters. (And I think the subcommand had to be first.) Parameters for the options follow in sequence after that, in the same order the options where listed. Then, for the 'c' subcommand, an input filename list follows. This syntax was rather painful when you had perhaps 5 different option letters each with parameters, but this was a normal enough occurance when you specified the tape drive, tape block size, tape length, and a few others I can't even remember. Early implementations would have a file listing tape configurations so you could pick one and all its parameters with a single digit. In any case, it should be noted that a dash ('-') was actually NOT ALLOWED on the parameters. More recent versions of tar have attempted to add the more common unix option parsing, but still support the dash-less form. Having said all that, I tend to prefer "tar xvzf filename.tar.gz" and "tar tvzf filename.tar.gz". [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 20:18, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure about it, so I'll not add to the explanation: doesn't "tarbomb" also refers to a malicious tarball that releases a ridiculously big file filled with blank/random data? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 01:26, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Um... the prompt is "~# "... That's a root prompt. Shouldn't Rob just "~# kill -9 1

Kernel panic – not syncing: Attempted to kill init!"? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.105|173.245.56.105]] 03:50, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

The user is root (indicated by the ~#). So, rm -rf / [[Special:Contributions/162.158.45.48|162.158.45.48]] 17:13, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
: Linux/OSX will limp along. Root's also probably preserved and the necessary reboot begs the question if you'd be better off rebooting (with power down) in the first place. Assuming it finishes in seconds (OSX is 12 minutes, about), that multiple commands were allowed, or that 'tar' doesn't have to appear first, I'd assume the verifier could be in ROM. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]])

I think the fact that there's a page and a half of comments arguing about what would be an 'obvious' solution shows how difficult a question this is... --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.226|108.162.237.226]] 08:44, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

It would be cool if someone made this (without the bomb) in real life. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.30|172.68.133.30]] 02:57, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

I laughed so hard at this comic I woke up the whole house! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 23:18, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1161: Hand Sanitizer

2021-09-22T18:40:26Z

The Cat Lady:

Does anyone think the "peak" referred to in the title text could be the 1918 flu pandemic? Or even the bird flu outbreak?[[User:Chexwarrior|Chexwarrior]] ([[User talk:Chexwarrior|talk]]) 10:31, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
:I'm thinking the "hipster" comment is a reference to how hipsters always think stuff was better (or it peaked) in the past so it must be on the downslide.--[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 14:47, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

That 99.99% number on the hand sanitizer is probably made up anyway. Any actual scientific measure of effectivity would need to take into account different resistance of different types of germs. So, question is, is the sanitizer more or less effective? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:35, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

:I actually had in the back of my mind that the 99.99% figure wasn't a "dead germ count," but the number of strains of germs the sanitizer has the ability to kill. i.e. there are some strains which it doesn't kill. —[[Special:Contributions/98.122.166.235|98.122.166.235]] 12:59, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

:: Actually 99.99% isn't made up, its actually derived from how accurate the lab tests are. Most antibacterials, even plain 15% alcohol, will kill ALL infectious bacteria and viruses but you cannot confirm this because there are errors inherent in the tests such as contamination from the environment or more often that the samples have to grow (in the case of bacteria) or infect (in the case of viruses) to give a measurable result since you cannot tell by normal observation which are dead and which are live. With the tiny numbers that may survive the likelihood of infection or growth is low, resulting in errors with even the strongest chemical agents. --[[Special:Contributions/31.205.24.175|31.205.24.175]] 18:56, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

::: 15% alcohol is hardly effective (please state source), most effective is 70%, which means anything lower doesn't kill all bacteria. Alcohol is also only partially effective against viruses. It needs other agents to boost its effectivity. [[Special:Contributions/178.197.254.3|178.197.254.3]] 09:27, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Shouldn't 200 million times .01% actually be equivalent to 200 million times .0001, which equals 20 000 germs? [[Special:Contributions/134.169.169.121|134.169.169.121]] 13:16, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
:: The error depends on the calculator, I think. In my calculator 200000000 ✕ 0.01% = 20000 - [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 17:38, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it should. I wonder if he will change it when he notices? [[Special:Contributions/24.93.151.187|24.93.151.187]] 13:37, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, 2 000 000 * .01% = 20 000 is correct
:: ... Except that the calculation should be 0.01% of 200`000`000 - [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 17:38, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
:: It is perfectly fine to write 200000000*0.01%. "%" is simply shorthand for 1/100. 09:30, 6 November 2015 (UTC)

Quite aside from the arithmetic, right now the US has two epidemics: influenza and norovirus, which is often known by the misnomer of "stomach flu." According to infectious disease experts, while alcohol is likely pretty effective against bacteria and SOME viruses including influenza, alcohol is probably NOT very effective against norovirus. The best way to stop the spread of norovirus: frequent hand washing with soap and water.
[[Special:Contributions/24.91.233.200|24.91.233.200]] 13:47, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

:I'm sure that it will not stop people from trying to use alcohol to get rid of norovirus infection. :-) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:05, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

"The humor (if a worldwide disaster can be said to be humorous)" I found this funnier than the comic, really. [[Special:Contributions/189.123.133.183|189.123.133.183]] 04:17, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm surprised no-one had commented in 2020 :P Wow, I just had a weird thought; I wonder how many of the earlier commenters on here are still alive? Statistically... [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 18:40, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1160: Drop Those Pounds

2021-09-22T18:28:54Z

The Cat Lady:

"Dropping Thirty Pounds Fast"? Is that a reference to the projectile weight being approx 30lb and "dropping" it on someone's walls? [[User:DreamingDaemon|DD]] ([[User talk:DreamingDaemon|talk]]) 10:03, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
:I was thinking more along the lines of thirty pounds of blood and dismembered flesh. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:46, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

A trebuchet works by dropping a large weight connected to the swing arm, thereby propelling the projectile in a parabola (hopefully) towards the target. Thus, by dropping 30 lbs fast, you may literally hit your target. {{unsigned|‎62.109.36.140}}

:Anyhow the explanation is a little off. The "subtlety" referred to is not that people tend to ignore weight loss flyers. It is that the flyer ''looks'' like a flyer for a weight loss programme, while it is actually trying to recruit people for something entirely different. Most people would not get this and sign up thinking that they would lose body weight, while they would be signing up for the trebuchet club. The only hint is the drawing, really. I agree with the above comment that the "dropping 30lbs" probably refers to the projectile. [[Special:Contributions/62.25.36.19|62.25.36.19]] 10:52, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

::Actually - I didn't mean that the 30lbs was the projectile but rather the counterweight propelling the projectile. [[Special:Contributions/62.109.36.140|62.109.36.140]] 12:53, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

My vote is that 30lbs stands for the projectile. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.159.230|70.31.159.230]] 15:55, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

30lbs for the projectile is most consistent with the alt-text, which implies that they will be hurling projectiles at the town. A 30lbs counterweight would only be able to fling a projectile an order of magnitude smaller. Also, for medieval trebuchets the "average mass of the projectiles was probably around 50–100 kg" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet#Counterweight_trebuchet Wikipedia article]) --[[User:Forlackofabettername|Forlackofabettername]] ([[User talk:Forlackofabettername|talk]]) 16:23, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

:A trebuchet club would likely be building smaller models than the original medieval ones, so my vote is the 30lbs is referring to the counterweight, not the projectile. In a trebuchet, the counterweight drops fast, whereas the projectile doesn't initially drop at all, but it rather launches upwards and sideways; it'll be some time before it starts dropping, and even then not very quickly as the vertical speed takes some time to switch from up to zero, and then finally down, eventually building up speed to something that might be considered "FAST". But the "FAST" is mostly in the horizontal direction rather than seen as a "drop". In the meantime, that counterweight had already dropped more directly a long time ago. --boB

::Even the projectiles will take more to drop, it still quite "FAST" compare any weight loss program, so I think it can still refer to the projectile. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 18:17, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

:::I can just imagine someone from the club saying "Let's drop 30 lbs on the target". Besides, I'd consider the usage of the word "drop" to be more metaphorical because in the operation of a trebuchet, no individual actually drops a counterweight; they simply pull a pin or cut a rope. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.159.230|70.31.159.230]] 20:54, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

A what-if wonder: considering a {{w|trebuchet}} is a {{w|weapon}}, will it be legal to own and place a {{w|trebuchet}} in your own {{w|backyard}}? [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 18:20, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
: The art of [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1613740646 backyard ballistics] is a firmly established niche hobby -- presumably for people with really big backyards. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 20:22, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
::'''''Presumably''''' people with really big backyards ... or with really annoying neighbors. {{unsigned|76.172.113.16}}
:: I needed a new hobby since I broke the last one... this is a contender! Thanks! :D [[User:DreamingDaemon|DD]] ([[User talk:DreamingDaemon|talk]]) 16:42, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

This might be example of '''literal''' vs '''figurative''' meaning: for trebuchet it is literally dropping counterweight and literally hitting a target. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 17:06, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for finally turning my temporary text into a proper explanation :) [[Special:Contributions/62.25.36.19|62.25.36.19]] 17:16, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Image could also be mistaken for two people taking a walk by a hill to a castle; which would be consistent with mistaking the add for one for weight-loss; The absence of any trebuchet in the picture suggests this is deliberate. [[Special:Contributions/144.124.1.121|144.124.1.121]] 10:04, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Although there is ambiguity here, I would think that the 30 pounds is referring to the counterweight. This is due to the fact that any device can hurl a projectile (spring catapult, torsion device, and of course trebuchet) but what sets the trebuchet apart from the rest is that it is powered by falling mass. Also, any trebuchet club that is just starting will likely be building small golfball trebuchets which would likely use counterweights on the scale of 30 pounds. I agree the alt-text makes more sense if they are actually hurling 30 pounds, but I think the main joke here is the comic that makes use of the fact that a trebuchet is literally a dropping weight. Lastly, you aren't "dropping" the projectile, you are hurling it. {{unsigned|72.71.205.240}}

:Of course it's truly pedantic, but has anybody considered that dropping a 30-pound counterweight to fling a projectile imparts the same amount of energy1 to the target as dropping a 30-pound "projectile" (which would be more like a bomb in this case) on the target from roughly the same height the counterweight drops? So dropping a 30-pound counterweight on a trebuchet is very much indeed like dropping a 30-pound payload directly on your target, albeit at an angle that's more likely to be disadvantageous to the target, and from a location that's generally easier to occupy.

:1This is disregarding the additional friction losses, of course, which would be higher in the case of flinging a projectile with a trebuchet than in the case of dropping a bomb, due to friction in the trebuchet's axle or other mechanisms, the greater distance the projectile most likely travels as well as the higher speed with which it does so, and the projectile's lower mass and thus lower inertia. [[User:Daddy|Daddy]] ([[User talk:Daddy|talk]]) 14:01, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

But what IS the LEAST subtle method???[[Special:Contributions/204.138.232.251|204.138.232.251]] 20:40, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

:Using it on the town. [[User:Kyledavide|Kyledavide]] ([[User talk:Kyledavide|talk]]) 17:29, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm surprised that nobody else has mentioned (or that I have somehow managed to skim over) the reference to the ''usual'' over-figerative depiction of "hitting a target" in such aspirationally motivating advertising, i.e. an archery target with an arrow in the bullseye. Or unpierced, but pensively awaiting the projectile, depicted in flight (in extreme perspective, heading intothe page that the target often faces straight out from) or otherwise. (I suspect that the phenomena extends to firearms targets as well, especially in communities with a relatively high amount of target-shooting involvement. I'm sure I've seen the old "german soldier silhouette" image used, albeit very rarely.) But, anyway, I can imagine that Randall is additionally riffing off the number of "Hit your target!" flyers with a bullseye motif... but skewing that to the fictional target reader's expectation that a motif or depiction of a parabolic trajectory might be supposed to convey exactly the same thing, rather than its actual literalist meaning. [[Special:Contributions/178.99.226.118|178.99.226.118]] 00:44, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm impressed that nobody added to the explanation how much is 30 pounds in kilograms. I did that now. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 00:18, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

It is a FLYER from a trebuchet club geddit? {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.169}}

For some weird reason the image that came into my mind was the people from the trebuchet club launching someone's ''head'' as the projectile. I imagine a person's head would weigh about 13.6 kg (30 lb), thus fulfilling both conditions posited by the flyer. The person who wanted to lose weight would've hit their target, and so would the trebuchet club :P [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 18:28, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1158: Rubber Sheet

2021-09-22T15:39:16Z

The Cat Lady:

There is no rope in black hole analogy. On the other hand ... maybe one day this becomes common analogy for explaining some method of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light FTL] travel ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:52, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

<strike>It is no rope - it is a rubber sheet seen from the side. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.121.97|178.26.121.97]] 14:01, 9 January 2013 (UTC)</strike>sorry, you meant the rope there ;-) Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.121.97|178.26.121.97]] 20:18, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Did you see the harmonics of the wave? I think there are four different ones in the third frame. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.121.97|178.26.121.97]] 14:01, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

- Two harmonics, two different phases of each. [[Special:Contributions/123.237.156.13|123.237.156.13]] 15:56, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

- Realistically, the forms of the rubber sheet in panels 1-3 and possibly the last are significant. The first and second panels are probably illustrating something interesting related to Catenary curves and behaviour when external force is applied, the 3rd references wave reinforcement, the heavy ball is correctly moving straight up and down as expected under Newton's laws. I don't know if the orientation of the bowling ball, hight relative to how far down it is pulled or the vibrations have formal significance, but a physicist would be wise not to neglect them if they wanted to model the situation properly. The comic overall is clearly showing how a large number of well known effects can occur in a simple thought experiment. The tag line isn't joking when it says there is a lot of physics going on, those shapes aren't being chosen arbitrarily to look good. They are accurate illustrations of the situation being described. A look into the details of what a physicist might imagine, if you will. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.16}}

It seems to me there should be a cross-reference to [[895: Teaching Physics]] (and if I knew more about the conventions of this wiki I would be bold and add it myself... but I don't, so I won't.) --[[Special:Contributions/67.36.177.100|67.36.177.100]] 17:35, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

: Furthermore, you could see the "BOOOIING" in this comic as an alternative to the "Boooooring" (only one-letter difference) at the end of [[895: Teaching Physics]] : Instead of becoming boring after "...Annnnd..." cliffhanger, the demonstration becomes really fun. Anyone to add that point in the explanation if relevant ? --[[User:Koundelitchnico|KoundelitchNico]] ([[User talk:Koundelitchnico|talk]]) 09:36, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

I made a playlist of the mentioned "Fun to Imagine" series of videos:
:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE6765CE680E701E&feature=mh_lolz
[[User:Deelkar|Deelkar]] ([[User talk:Deelkar|talk]]) 03:16, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Well I made a rebuttal of Einsdynamics:
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sci.geo.earthquakes/fEDVy5w-M5Q Gravity first, luser!][[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 18:57, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Here's a video of a bowling ball being dropped on a trampoline from a height of 165 m (500 ft) https://youtu.be/-6h65t2MOfU?t=623 [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 15:39, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

1142: Coverage

2021-09-21T22:25:36Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ added "professional" in front of "wrestling"

{{comic
| number = 1142
| date = December 3, 2012
| title = Coverage
| image = coverage.png
| titletext = My resonant tunneling diode phone has limited range but a short enough wavelength to penetrate even the densest cages. This gives me a major combat advantage, hopefully.
}}

==Explanation==
The caption "faraday cagematch" is a portmanteau of "faraday cage" and "cagematch".

A {{w|Faraday cage}} is a cage of conducting material that interferes and blocks out {{w|electromagnetic radiation}} like cell phone signals, provided the material is of the appropriate thickness and the gaps between the "bars" are significantly smaller than the wavelength of the radiation. A {{w|cage match}} is a type of professional wrestling match in which the participants fight in a ring enclosed by a metal cage. The comic caption is a play on the two terms, putting [[Cueball]] into a cage match in the Faraday cage that is blocking his reception.

The title text is a play on a rule in cage matches that states that a participant wins if they are first to escape the cage. {{w|Tunneling diode|Tunneling diodes}} are capable of fast operation, allowing a device to generate high frequency signals, which are more capable of penetrating the mesh openings in a Faraday cage.

Randall uses Faraday cages again in [[Faraday Tour]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking at a phone.]
:Cueball: Man, the coverage here is ''awfu—''

:[Another man punches Cueball.]
:Caption: Faraday cagematch
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Phones]]

Talk:1131: Math

2021-09-19T20:43:39Z

The Cat Lady:

I really like the term "dramatically equal." - Kieran

Sorry, I don't know how to upload the correct image. - Artod

:Picture downloaded from xkcd, uploaded to the wiki with the correct license and "xkcd" added to the filename as a prefix, then filename changed in page source to correct image. Hope this helps in the future! - [[User:Coombeseh|Coombeseh]] ([[User talk:Coombeseh|talk]]) 10:36, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
:Can somebody please explain further? I guess the joke is about the forecast? thank you --[[Special:Contributions/89.144.192.97|89.144.192.97]] 14:17, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Randall's on the nose again. This is why I just turned off all media yesterday, especially toward the end of the evening. Unless you're up for contrived suspense, it's really just tediousness lived through: barely five minutes of "news" per hour, the remaining "empty" time filled with the drone of talking heads waxing obnoxious about irrelevancies. This morning, the results are in, and I'm no worse for not having endured the conjectural drivel... -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 15:25, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

:As a note, the title text is referring to the consensus polls, including those at fivethirtyeight.com, which were referred to in the previous episode. Another interpretation of the "numbers" comment is that the predictions based on polling numbers and proper statistical analyses of those, rather than mere punditry and opinion, were always the best predictors of what was going to happen in this election. So not only could numbers retroactively tell us who won (based on actual votes) but numbers when used as individual data points with variance and sample sizes, and combined into an aggregate, were far more effective in telling us prospectively who was going to win. [[Special:Contributions/128.104.149.65|128.104.149.65]] 18:11, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Numbers continue <ins>to be best</ins> system for determining? {{unsigned|204.191.29.154}}
:Yes and no. In news stories (see newspaper headlines for an example), this is a typical format. You didn't notice the "To surprise of pundits" part that came first? [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 00:57, 8 November 2012 (UTC)
:I believe the previous entry was addressing the missing article "the" in the caption. [[User:mwburden|mwburden]] 16:17, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
::So was the answer. The caption, like many news headlines, omits the articles. "To [the] surprise of pundits, numbers continue to be [the] best system..." [[Special:Contributions/72.169.224.103|72.169.224.103]] 15:45, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

[http://election.princeton.edu/2012/11/06/comment-thread-3-live-blogging/ For more critical relevance], he texted along these lines yesterday to one of the more prominent non-Nate Silver analysts, Prof. Sam Wang of the Princeton Election Consortium {{unsigned|70.167.158.178}}

I wish Randall had made the bar 538 pixels wide (it's only 400ish). - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:52, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

"Explain the title text." What's there to explain? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.109|173.245.52.109]] 22:18, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

I removed the tag, and expanded the title text explanation.

Polling data gave trump a 30% or so chance of winning. That is more than it gave Romney, and probably a better chance than a lot of democrats thought he had. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 13:58, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
:Statistical analysis of the polling data by FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a much better chance than it did Romney; but that was due to a number of factors not picked up by pundits, like the high number of undecideds in the run-up to the 2016 election, and that Nate Silver's models (correctly) showed the Electoral College as favoring Democrats in 2012 and Republicans in 2016 in case of a close popular vote. Raw nationwide polling numbers, without that statistical analysis, didn't look good for Trump. [[User:Pelosujamo|Pelosujamo]] ([[User talk:Pelosujamo|talk]]) 00:35, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
::Nate Silver and most other analysts vastly underestimated the high levels of misogyny prevalent in the USA that caused Hilary to lose to Trump. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:43, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1129: Cell Number

2021-09-19T20:26:48Z

The Cat Lady:

In the explanation: "The next three digits are the exchange number (the middle digit being always 2 or higher)". That cannot be true. After my area code, my exchange number is 504...the middle digit being a zero i.e. <2. Where did you get the information that the middle exchange number has to be a 2 or higher? That source should be corrected as well See [http://www.reversenumberdatabase.com/817-504 This Link].--[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 17:13, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

:The limitation being discussed existed only until the 1990s. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbering_plan].[[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 19:28, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
:: I reordered some paragraphss so that hopefully it makes more sense: the first paragraph sets up the history; the third paragraph reflects current reality; the second is the transition. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 05:16, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
::: I see. The "Prior to the proliferation of cell/mobile/handy phones..." stated in the first paragraph sets it up as historical numbering (i.e. rules prior to 1990) and not the current rules. It has been reordered very well to make more sense (at least to me!).
:::: My exchange number is 407, Now where'd you get that info again? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.65|162.158.79.65]] 17:57, 16 October 2018 (UTC)
::::: This limitation was a relic of the "two letters, five numbers" system (the first and fourth digits still have to be 2 or above), which used two of all but two (QZ) letters on the numbers 2-9 to denote an exchange code, then five numbers, e.g. "KL5-5555" (KL being 55 here). Since there isn't a letter corresponding to 1 or 0, those combinations were used for area codes before seven-digit dialing became obsolete and the 407 exchange code (and 151{{Citation needed}} others), as well as the 847 area code (and 639{{Citation needed}} others), were introduced. I'm not sure which is more telling: that this was a thing, or that I know this before age 18. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.9|162.158.74.9]] 08:13, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

I guess this has something to do with keeping your phone number even when switching providers? We got a law in Norway around that time, which says you're able to keep your phone number while switching. Only difference is that here you can only tell, from the first two of eight digits, which ''provider'' you had in 2005 (or whenever it took effect). --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 08:31, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

:It probably does. There is no mention of 2005 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan North American Numbering Plan wikipedia article] ... seems it's the part needing explanation the most. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:38, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

: According to wikipedia, mobile number portability was implemented in the USA in 2003.11.24. The comic would make sense with 2003, but why 2005? Maybe it only caught on enough in 2005: http://www.pyramidresearch.com/pa_may26_mnp.htm

: One reason for switching to a new "local" number would be so that those who have land lines aren't making "long-distance" phone calls to your cell phone. My brother just recently moved back from the east coast and is keeping his same cell phone number, which doesn't affect my other siblings and myself because we only use cell phones (which only count the number of minutes used). But my mom still uses land lines most of the time and so she's being billed for a long-distance call whenever she calls him, even though he lives about a mile away from her. But since most people are ditching the land lines, I think it'll be a moot point in about 5-10 years. --[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 13:45, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

It has to do with cell phones versus land lines. Back in the day (before the early 2000s), many people still had a land line as their primary or only phone. Your phone number's area code would be based on the area in which you lived. If you moved to a new area, you would get a new phone number, and if you moved out of the previous area code, a new area code. But with a cell phone, when you moved you kept the same number, including the area code. This was especially true after the 2003 law made it so you could keep the same number even if you switch your provider. The year 2005 has to do with when many people made their cell phone their primary or only phone. As [http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-03-24-cell-phones_x.htm this USA TODAY]article mentions, in 2003 18% of Americans with cell phones considered their cell phone their primary phone. Given the rapid growth of the industry, it is possible that 2005 is when more than half of cell phone owners in America considered their cell phone their primary phone.

:The details differ, of course ("your mileage may vary"). There are so many possible reasons why this occurs. My parent's cell phones (612) don't match their home land-line (763) due to area code splits -- they didn't move or cause the disconnect themselves. As for me, my first cell phone matched theirs, but in 2005 I moved to Michigan (586 area), creating a disconnect. Then to make things worse, early next year (2006) I got a second line (and new phone) on my new girlfriend's account, and she lived on the other side of the city (734). We married and moved near where I was living & working, but both still have "734" cell phones for family purposes. So Randall's "living" can also be "dating / where significant other is living". --BigMal27 / [[Special:Contributions/192.136.15.149|192.136.15.149]] 15:54, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

For anyone from outside the US, the key fact here is that in the US, your mobile phone has an area code the same as a landline. I used to live in the US, and it blew my mind to learn that mobile phones had area codes there. I was like, but.... Huh? That's like saying your car has a postal address.[[User:Carlisle|Carlisle]] ([[User talk:Carlisle|talk]]) 15:06, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

:In the US, our cars kind of do have a postal address -- the state they are titled & registered in, the same state emblazoned on the license plate in the back (and sometimes the front also). However, the states don't like it when you operate an "out-of-state" car in their territory for too long. Specifically, you are using public roads that you are not paying for. Then, when you transfer title and are assigned a new plate, you get a new letter/number combination. License plates -- and specifically the random ID (or "vanity plate" custom ID) they hold -- are not portable between states. --BigMal27 / [[Special:Contributions/192.136.15.149|192.136.15.149]] 15:47, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Article Four of the US constitution outlines the relation between the states. It requires states to give "full faith and credit" to the public acts, records, and court proceedings of the other states.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:56, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

::In the past, in Italy you had to do the same when you moved from one province to another. Now, if you move, you pay car taxes to a different province, but your license plate stays the same. At the time, the province code was part of the license number, now it isn't anymore. If you have an old plate with a province code, you keep it even if you move.
::If you have an out-of-country car, and move to Italy for more than a year, then you have to get Italian license plates.
::--[[Special:Contributions/85.159.196.90|85.159.196.90]] 17:51, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

:::[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Poland In Poland] the license plate starts with three letters encoding the county (voivodeship and powiat) --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 10:28, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

::In the UK the first two letters on a car's plate are for where it was registered, but after that they may as well be meaningless, you do see more S plates in Scotland, M plates in Manchester etc. but the letters don't always even indicate the car was bought as new in that place, I take photos for car dealers and you often see new cars for sale with plates from other parts of the country. Still, actually being able to post to a car would be funny.
::On the subject of postal addresses, I had an Irish friend at uni, and when we were exchanging addresses to write to each other at the end of first year he gave his address as (not his real name, obviously) Sean Murphy, Kilbeggan, Ireland. We all laughed but he said, the postman knows who everyone is so they don't need street names and numbers, we asked what if they got a new postman, and he said 'that wouldn't happen'.[[User:Carlisle|Carlisle]] ([[User talk:Carlisle|talk]]) 23:10, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

I'm 34 and live in the USA and it still took me a while to understand this. The 2005 date is because even though the portability law was passed in 2003, it was still difficult to do and not very common to keep you number until 2005.

Same here in the UK, with the MAC code. Car numbers changed a couple of times when they had to add a number because of having used up all the earlier ones. It meant all cars were registered on one day of the year, the same as race-horses. That made life difficult for car salesmen. So they did something else. I have no idea what and I am too old to care. I do recall that originally numbers had one of two letter groupings dividing the year.

Caernarfonshire, for example, had JC and CC and the code was in bare metal on a black background. They changed that at the same time to black code on a reflective white background front (and yellow back. Unless I misremember.) One thing I do know for sure is that I used Google news before it was clickbait. I remember writing it downs somewhere.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:56, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

== Handi phones ==
''"cell/mobile/handi phones"'' ... Who uses "handi phones"? Would be really interesting :) --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 02:18, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
:A German friend tells me that that is the term of art for what US folks call "cellular" phones: "Ruf mich am Handi an," (in my broken German: "call me on my handi/cellphone") Given that we've got an international audience, it seemed appropriate to use. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 02:31, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

::Ah ok. And you had me thinking that someone in the English speaking world was using our German term ;) --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 02:43, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
::But we write it "Handy" ("Handi" (with a german "i") is how you speak it – the letter "y" can be a "i"- or a "ü"-sound in German). --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 16:32, 3 November 2012 (UTC)
:::I stand corrected, then... -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 04:36, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

In my overhaul I've tried to change all references to the simple "mobile phone". This is a literal definition and as such shouldn't fall victim to confusion about regional terminology like "cell". Let me know if you're aware of an audience that would not understand "mobile", or just add the appropriate clarification yourself. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 17:37, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

== Bloated explanation ==
There is a lot of information about the structure of US phone numbers here, and while general information is good to set up the joke, the specifics can be left to the wikipedia article. Specifically, all the talk of how exchanges are numbered and long distance charges is utterly irrelevant to the strip, and the information about choosing custom numbers is relevant only to the title text (and takes about one line to explain). The meat of the joke is that area codes used to be location-based but rapidly became more flexible around 2005, resulting in that rather arbitrary meaning today, yet this is mentioned almost casually in just one sentence near the end. I will trim and reorder the article so that it's more relevant to the comic shortly, unless there are objections. - [[User:Jerodast|jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 11:01, December 3, 2012

:Quite a few explanations are like that. People add things that seem relevant to them, but don't really help explain the comic. If you look at most of the explanations past the 1050 mark, quite a few of them aren't perfect. If you want to tighten them up, by all means do so. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:39, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

==Additional Info on Phone Numbering Systems==
I trimmed a lot of unnecessary information from the explanation, because it had nothing to do with explaining the joke of the comic. For those parties looking for more information on phone numbering plans, here is what I removed:

*The middle digit of the area code was originally always 0 or 1 to allow mechanical dialing circuits to identify the sequence as an area code or not.
*The next three digits are the exchange number (the middle digit being always 2 or higher), and the final four digits are typically random.
*Business customers frequently could pay a premium for a specific number (if available), either to spell a brief slogan, or for easy memorization.

The prevalence of digitally controlled dialing allowed the restrictions on digits in area codes and exchanges to be relaxed, suddenly making many new area codes and exchanges available. According to the {{w|North American Numbering Plan}}, currently:
*The first 3 digits (Area Code) can be [2-9][0-9][0-9],
*the next 3 digits (Exchange) can be [2-9][0-9][0-9], and
*the final 4 digits (Subscriber Number) can be [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9].
There are [http://www.nanpa.com/area_codes/index.html some rules] for area code exceptions or reserved numbers though. Specifically, X11 codes are not valid as area codes (e.g. 411, 911, etc...) and Xyy (repeated last 2 digits) codes are reserved for special use area codes (e.g. toll-free/freephone 800, 888, etc..). [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 17:44, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I've had the same mobile number for twenty-two years. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:26, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1124: Law of Drama

2021-09-10T22:07:23Z

The Cat Lady:

Regarding the transcript: I don't think you have enough data to characterize this short curve as exponential. What does "slightly exponential" mean, anyway? In any case, it looks like it becomes linear as the x values increase. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 11:21, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

::It could be a shallow power function curve . . .--[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 13:57, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

::Increasing, concave up. That's really the way to describe it. "Exponential" is a word used too widely by people who don't understand what it means. [[User:MGK|MGK]] ([[User talk:MGK|talk]]) 20:47, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

:I took 26 data points, assumed the axes defined a (0-1,0-1) window, and tried an extrapolation (using Microsoft Excel; someone with a different tool can surely do better). An exponential model fits fairly well: y = 0.0782 * e^(2.7035*x) with R^2 = 0.9928. However, I agree about the linear end section -- the exponential trendline clearly starts to pull high. --BigMal27 // [[Special:Contributions/192.136.15.149|192.136.15.149]] 13:57, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

I think Randall thought about the shape of this curve. You see how it becomes linear as both drama and anti-drama declaration increase? At low values, there is a residual amount of drama even when there is little anti-drama declaration, but the marginal increase eventually becomes constant. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 11:28, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

:I think that may be it. Care to add it to the page? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 11:31, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

:I think that the upper limit for drama statements does indeed have an end-point, beyond which those declarations can't increase. At that point, I suppose, the drama-ridden person experiences a split state-change, either dropping to the original non-drama state by disavowing all the causers-of-drama in their lives, or by becoming a causer-of-drama.--[[User:Noni Mausa|Noni Mausa]] ([[User talk:Noni Mausa|talk]]) 13:11, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

:: At this point in the discourse, I'm reminded of a real-scientist friend who admonished me once for reading too much into some data, and it seems applicable here, too. To wit: the axes are not labeled with units -- no tick marks to be seen anywhere -- nor is it clear what sort of axes are in use: log, {{w|logit}}, {{w|probit}}? Randall, not being the naïve sort, likely understands this, and merely shows us a graph that suggest a slightly accelerating direct relationship between the two axes. If the axes are linear, the curve has the characteristic upward swing of an exponential, but we don't ''know'' that, and any conjecture beyond observable facts is inappropriate. To leap to application of, say {{w|Levenberg-Marquardt}}, seems folly. (As an aside, I'm reminded of the old Benny Hill skit, where he's a movie director being interviewed on some talking-heads show; says the interviewer: "I particularly enjoyed the poignancy of suddenly switching to black and white film right as..." Benny Hill: "Rubbish, we just ran out of film, and black and white was all we had left.") -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:23, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

:::Sometimes the comments are better than the comic. This is one of those times :) [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 22:07, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

I was trying to figure out how the title text could make sense grammatically, but now I think it was just written in the form of a vague, 'dramatic', facebook post. Is it just me? [[User:Alanthecowboy|Alanthecowboy]] ([[User talk:Alanthecowboy|talk]]) 13:32, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

As someone that has been through several drama classes, as well as a high school club, I've always found the phrases "causing drama" and "too much drama" to be really irritating. You can never have too much drama! (You can have too much comedy, though.) [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 19:41, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

The title is probably influenced by the concept of dharma from Indian philosophy- the "natural law". [[Special:Contributions/87.57.147.173|87.57.147.173]] 11:01, 27 October 2012 (UTC) mb

If we can figure out who "They" are, we'll have this solved in a jiffy. [[User:David.windsor|David.windsor]] ([[User talk:David.windsor|talk]]) 21:36, 6 December 2013 (UTC)
:"They" are the independent, obviously and the "declaration" is of Independence, equally obviously. We, on the other hand, were quite alright without them and then some pricks with absolutely no hold on reality put Winston Churchill in power.

:Ho hum, 'twas ever thus![[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:28, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Just once I want to see or hear this sentence: "God I just feel like I'm always surrounded by so much drama, y'know? Guess that's what I get for working in a theatre!" - FlyingPiggy

Talk:1122: Electoral Precedent

2021-09-10T20:11:11Z

The Cat Lady:

This illustrates how the future is unlike the past in countless ways. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.59}}

----
I don't understand what he means by Alternative Tickets in the last frame.
:It does not say 'Alternative', it says {{w|Alliterative}}, meaning that both names starts with the same sound/letter. '''R'''omney/'''R'''yan --[[User:Pmakholm|Pmakholm]] ([[User talk:Pmakholm|talk]]) 16:04, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
----
My research tells me that Jefferson won 1800. Error on Randall's part? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 08:52, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused by 1792 vs. 1804: The latter is "No incumbent has beaten a challenger", but didn't Washington face any challenger when he was re-elected in 1792? [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 14:19, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
: {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_1792|He ran unopposed}} --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 14:33, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:: As far as I understand it, he had four opponents, but got all the votes. Then, the electoral college voted on whom to be the vice president among the remaining candidates. But it seems unlikely to get 100% of the popular votes, do I misinterpret the wiki page? [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 17:45, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:::Well, back then, the electoral college didn't take their votes from the people. They just decided, so they decided to give Washington the presidency. [[Special:Contributions/140.247.0.79|140.247.0.79]] 18:55, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

----
"1904: No one under 45 has become president. ... Roosevelt did."

Sort of. {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}} (Oct 1858–1919) was under 45 when he ''became'' president, in 1901. But by the time of the ''1904'' election he was 46.
 [[Special:Contributions/75.36.234.236|75.36.234.236]] 18:48, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:Correct. Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest President to date, but Kennedy was the youngest yet ''elected''. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 20:09, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

The image needs to be updated. I'm not sure how to do that myself. [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 23:56, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Uploaded corrected image, changed tense on comments. Reload/refresh to check the 1800 frame should now show Jefferson... --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 01:36, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

And how can people be from Virginia AND Massachusett? I think he meant OR.[[Special:Contributions/77.245.46.86|77.245.46.86]] 11:39, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

I take it the entire comic will not go up under "Transcripts"? [[User:Bobidou23|Bobidou23]] ([[User talk:Bobidou23|talk]]) 22:03, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

:It will, but no one's been bothered the transcribe it all yet.[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 23:01, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

----
Although Buchanan/Breckinridge won in 1856, Stevenson/Sparkman were defeated by Eisenhower/Nixon in 1952.

He's wrong about the other 'precedent' for 2012 as well. Other first name with a K losers:
*1924, Frank T. Johns (Socialist Labor)
*1932, Frank S. Regan (Prohibition)
*1936, Frank Knox (Republican)
*1948, Tucker P. Smith (Socialist)
*1980, Patrick J. Lucey (Independent)
*1996, Patrick Choate (Reform)
*2004, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
*2008, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
--[[Special:Contributions/76.20.209.221|76.20.209.221]] 10:43, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
----

Good point about small party candidates, but Tucker P. Smith was the Socialist vice presidential candidate in 1948; the presidential candidate was Norman Thomas.
--[[Special:Contributions/174.59.119.154|174.59.119.154]] 13:51, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
----
You're technically wrong about Chuck Baldwin. He was born as Charles Baldwin. He only ran for vice president in '04 and president in '08. I'm too lazy to find the rest.[[User:Randomperson4000|Randomperson4000]] ([[User talk:Randomperson4000|talk]]) 19:31, 26 August 2014 (UTC)
----

;Errors
Should the errors be included in the article explanation, or should they just be discussed here in the chat box? I'm of the opinion that anything that doesn't go towards explaining the comic should go here in the discussion. I would lean towards keeping error nitpicking confined to the discussion page. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 13:19, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

:I think errors should be put down in a trivia/errors section. Or, if a flame war is starting, move it onto the talk page. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

I put back my original comment on the 2012 streaks; some anonymous person had previously written 'whether he thinks "st" and "sp" sounds are different enough to count as alliteration', but first of all, an alliteration requires the (first) sound(s)/letter(s) of two words to be the same (not different), and second, if Randall would consider Stevenson/Sparkman not to be alliterative (as their second letters differ), he would undoubtedly think the same about Romney/Ryan.--[[User:Jay|Jay]] ([[User talk:Jay|talk]]) 14:11, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:Yeah, I noticed that edit, but thought there was a "not" in there, which would have made it make sense. Ah well. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:50, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:Not quite true, Jay - St/Sp is two different consonant ''blends'', which are much more intertwined than a consonant and its following vowel, as in Ro/Ry. The question is do they sound alike, not the literal letters used. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 17:06, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Re: 1996 - surely 'William' (12 pts not including 50 pts for using all seven letters) beats 'Robert' - (8 pts)? {{unsigned|163.1.166.255}}

----

2012: Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers.

Isn't Obama 6'1" and Romney is 6'2"? Certainly Obama won there. [[Special:Contributions/24.6.170.96|24.6.170.96]] 01:47, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

:The comic was written before the presidential election. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.223}}

;Transcript
Just finished the transcript. I didn't check for typos, since there was a lot of typing. It would be great if someone else would look over it. {{unsigned|207.242.93.10}}

:Looks great! I've removed a lot of the whitespace which (I think) makes it easier to read, and doesn't require quite as much scrolling. I haven't gone through and spell checked everything either, but if someone finds anything they can fix it. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

----

2012: No Republican has lost a November 6 presidential election...
2012: No one ever wins re-election after the previous two presidents - from different parties - won re-election...
2012: No Democrat was re-elected with very high unemployment and a Republican-controlled House...

...until Obama. [[Special:Contributions/50.74.2.12|50.74.2.12]] 02:06, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

----

Is it me or does the 1972 panel now say „Quakers can’t win twice“? What happened to „No wartime candidate has won without Massachusetts“?
1956–1964 seem to be wrong, too. Or am I missing something?
[[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 23:15, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

----

2016: No white guy who's been mentioned on twitter has gone on to win... Until Trump did. [[User:Redninjakoopa|Redninjakoopa]] ([[User talk:Redninjakoopa|talk]]) 04:53, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

----

Funny how the alt text is now also false, considering Trump is now president-elect. ill change the comment on Jan. 20th {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.39}}
:It's really funny because Trump is basically the king of Twitter politics/mud-slinging, I'm presuming that Randall didn't go back and change that alt-tag, because it was a safe bet that anyone coming after Obama would be another white guy, and anyone elected would be mentioned on twitter, but because Trump is so prolific on Twitter it makes the alt-text seem almost prophetic. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.251|172.68.58.251]] 14:14, 4 April 2019 (UTC) Sam

----

1848
Democrats do not lose when they carry Pennsylvania.
But
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1848_United_States_presidential_election
Shows Taylor the Whig carrying Pennsylvania and winning.
I am confused.

----

Trump isn't white, he's orange. The first white guy to be mentioned on Twitter and then get elected president is Joe Biden.
:Ahh, I love this comment. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:29, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
:Quite :) [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:11, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1116: Traffic Lights

2021-09-07T17:30:05Z

The Cat Lady:

I doubt that this comic carries any deeper meaning. [[Special:Contributions/108.233.253.211|108.233.253.211]] 16:29, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Traffic signals really are one of the most inscrutable inventions to ever be made. I mean, red means stop, yellow means caution, green means go. Unless you're in a turn lane, which means you have to watch for the green arrow, if there is one, or wait for an opening. Unless you're turning right, which is permitted to turn at any time providing there aren't any cars. Unless there's a sign that says "No Right Turn On Red". There's also the crazy cities that have special right turn lights. Then there's the intersections that have a sign for each lane telling what can and cannot be done. Or, if you're really lucky one of those intersections that has the LED screen that dynamically changes what the lane can and cannot do. And to top it all off, the Colorado Department of Transportation (as well as a few other states I'm sure) are testing out a 4-stage left turn light to increase the safety of drivers. [https://www.auroragov.org/cs/groups/public/documents/document/003604.pdf] Yes, you read that pamphlet correctly. There is a special 4th light, just to blink yellow, because you couldn't just make the yellow light blink, like it does anyway after 9pm. No. There has to be a whole special light that indicates when a left-turn-er must use special caution to turn.

: Note that New York City doesn't allow right turns on red, unless a sign is posted that says otherwise. I suppose this helps reduce the incidence of pedestrians being run into/over. You might also think it helps keep vehicles out of crosswalks, but it doesn't. [[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 01:13, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

: What about turning left on red from a one way street onto another one way street? I don't know how prevalent that is but it's fairly common in downtown Columbus Ohio (my locale) and to a lesser extent some smaller towns around here. [[Special:Contributions/74.218.18.210|74.218.18.210]] 12:30, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
::First time commenting. Not sure about the reply syntax. But @ Ohio person: Up here in Michigan, we have supposedly special U-turns on divided highways (not to be confused with expressways; I'm just referring to the main business roads.) If there is a light, you can treat it like turning right, even though it is an apparent left-turn and an actual u-turn. "So long as you don't cross a lane of traffic, it is legal to turn if the lane is clear unless posted otherwise." From my driver's ed instructor. This does not apply to the second turn lane. I cannot tell you how many times I've been honked at for obeying the law and not turning right from the left lane. Sorry for any terrible typing or messups. I'm doing this on my phone. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 08:42, 20 November 2013 (UTC)Dartania

Nope. I'm done driving. Bring on the self-driving cars, people are officially idiots. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:52, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
: There is a problem with a blinking yellow arrow. Blinking yellow is already used. It means you have the right of way, but the other direction may proceed as well. What is wanted here is blinking red, which means that you stop, but may proceed, as someone else has the right of way. As for adding a fourth light, this just confuses things even more, particularly with respect to color blind individuals. Having said that, Virginia's variant is to have lights with both left arrows and solid greens. If it is green arrow, you have the right of way, while solid green means the other direction also has a green. There is almost always a sign reading "left turn yield on <solid-green-circle>" [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 18:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

::so the blinking yellow left arrow generally means the same as a round green light - you can go when it's clear, but the opposite traffic has a green light too. I love this idea because a lot of the time where there is a separate left-turn signal, there are advanced lefts for both ways, and then left turners get a red left arrow and have to stop while people going straight get a green - so even where there's no oncoming traffic, you can't turn. this way, you just lose your "advance" status and go back to the regular rule of "turn if you can, otherwise you end up turning as the lights go yellow"

::I think what Lcarsos is pointing out if you check the PDF link, is that the new left-turn lane has 4 lights, all of which are left-arrow shaped. Thus, his point is why couldn't they make the 2nd light (yellow left arrow) blink, instead of installing a third light which is also a yellow left arrow whose job is to blink?

::I can think of a few possible reasons - first, perhaps an all-blinking light has different bulbs which are more efficient for blinking and won't burn out as much; second, because they want to distinguish between the two lights more strongly (i.e. if you glance over between blinks, you don't have to wait a moment to see if it will blink - if you see the 3rd light up, you know it's going to blink without waiting for it to actually blink); similarly, I suppose there could be colour blindness issues where they want to make it clear which light is which.

::PS: Right on Red is more common in north america than other places, but even here there are a few exceptions that do not allow right turns on red lights. New York City is one. Montreal is another. Most of Mexio is a third. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 21:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

::You can also white a white 'cigar' light that is inteded for busses only.

:From the first traffic light in London 1868 until standardization in the 1920s people tried out many crazy lights (see http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/T-VT.1970.23426) including---literally---bells and whistles to announce changes. It seems this phase is still not really over.[[Special:Contributions/134.169.34.172|134.169.34.172]] 10:33, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Hmm... not one to do the actual analysis, I still wonder whether there could be some message encoded in the pattern of lights -- in binary ASCII, baudot, Morse, or something. Hmm... [[Special:Contributions/208.54.40.227|208.54.40.227]] 19:12, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

This explanation mentions a lot of hands where no hands exist. "The right-hand lane," for example. This is a pet peeve of mine. People just adding the word, "hand" randomly into a sentence. It's superfluous and it's annoying. It should be removed before someone slaps whoever did it with their right-hand hand.[[Special:Contributions/173.25.252.230|173.25.252.230]] 14:35, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

:I believe "right-hand" is used to differentiate "the opposite from the left" from "the opposite of wrong". If I say "get in the right lane", there is a chance for confusion and/or a cliche joke. If I say "get in the right-hand lane", my meaning is clearer.{{unsigned|Tryc}}

;Red and yellow

In Poland you can sometimes stumble upon '''red and yellow''' -- while yellow alone means that there shortly would be a red, and you can proceed if you are at or almost at crossing, but stop otherwise, red and yellow is to mean that there shortly would be green (go), and to prepare oneself. But it is quite rare. [[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:45, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

:In Germany all traffic lights behave this way. [[User:Joha.ma|Joha.ma]] ([[User talk:Joha.ma|talk]]) 07:45, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

::At least some lights in Czech behave this way too. -- [[Special:Contributions/89.177.52.2|89.177.52.2]] 08:04, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

:::I find it funny how you people say "some lights", considering the red-yellow combination is the standard across Europe before it turns green; and is the default behaviour for all lights, with minor exceptions. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.36|141.101.77.36]] 22:25, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

This is the way ALL UK lights behave.

Some lights in the US use '''red and yellow''' to mean that a pedestrian is crossing, although I've only seen this when the light is blinking red/yellow to start with (yes, I've seen full 3-bulb traffic lights that are only used to flash red/yellow). [[User:Zer0keefie|Zer0keefie]] ([[User talk:Zer0keefie|talk]]) 11:42, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

OK, here is the difference between the US and Europe:

Originally I believe all the traffic lights went through the sequence (1) green in one direction, red in another, (2) yellow in both directions, meaning "clear off the intersection" for the first direction and "get your car into gear" in the second direction, (3) red in one direction, green in another.

There are two problems though: first, when the green changes to yellow, people try to squeeze through (and it may even be difficult to stop if you're traveling at speed), second, when the red changes to yellow, people who are not stopped but carrying speed are trying to squeeze through earlier while the light is still yellow (this gets worse if the yellow is long and the incoming drivers don't know if it's after red or after green), and collisions ensue.

The solutions for these problems taken in US and Europe are different. In Europe the yellow-after-red is shown together with the red still on, strongly suggesting "no, you may not enter", and in the other direction the green often blinks once 10 seconds before it switches to yellow. In US there is no yellow-after-red, the red changes directly to green, and yellow always goes only after green (the automatic transmissions being prevalent, there is no need to shift into gear). The yellow is often long, to let the traffic on the fast roads to clear off, Also, there is usually a period of red in all directions which lets the stragglers clear off the intersection for sure before the other side goes green. This is why slipping on red just after yellow had ended is considered no big deal in US and a major no-no in Europe. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.111|108.162.245.111]] 23:15, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

:Where I live, in Santa Cruz do Sul - Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil, we have no yellow before green, but very few traffic lights blink red once right before green. Here, slipping on red is also common, but it's also common to stretch it a bit more and confusion ensues. Continuing from what has been said below, some traffic lights in Porto Alegre even have a numeric countdown.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.220|108.162.212.220]] 20:06, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

In Brazil some cities have greens and red in a row, and they decrease to indicate how long the green or red will last. something like http://www.guiasjp.com/fotos_noticias/foto_1165344648.8822.jpg [[Special:Contributions/189.125.162.182|189.125.162.182]] 20:22, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
In BRazil too, in Goiânia there's a nice one here for pedestrians, with leds, that show an animated pedestrian walking and when the time is running out HE RUNS FASTER! Like, it's about to go green for the cars, but feel free to cross... IF YOU'RE FAST!

In Tianjin China they have a traffic signal that is a single bar of light. If it is green it starts subtracting bar length segments. When there is about a quarter left it turns yellow and then red. It then start subtracting bar length segments from the other end until it gets to about a quarter length and then turns green again. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bob406/3428844012

In Beijing China we have side ways lights ,numric countdowns and sometimes both.We sometimes turn left from the right.Somtimes we can turn right on red and sometimes we can’t.No signs telling you what to do.[[User:1337-PI|1337-PI]] ([[User talk:1337-PI|talk]]) 00:56, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
;Obvious

It's how traffic engineers troll you when you are going the wrong way on a one-way. Learn to read signs!

;Reference to previous comic

This comic has some tongue in cheek self reference to [[277: Long Light]]. #Meta And definite trolling, by [[Randall]]

:What about [[781: Ahead Stop]]?

:Turing Machine?

Any chance it is one?

;Etc

I was almost expected to see the Konami code in the left light, though I'm not sure how "B A Start" would have been shown. [[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 01:13, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

;Music

I am no musician, but I can't help but wonder if there could be a hidden music chart in there somehow.
Also, if you want confusing, try understanding parking signs in Montreal.

:Might be, but depending on what pitches or sounds you assign to the lights, you could get pretty much every degree of harmony or cacophony you want. - Another possible music reference: Anybody reminded of Hendrix' "The Wind Cries Mary"? "The traffic lights, they turn, uh, blue tomorrow." [[Special:Contributions/89.0.230.165|89.0.230.165]] 08:14, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

;And You thought 4 stage was bad enough

Here In BC, in older installations, and I'm not sure whether any still exist, there used to be lights with 5 stages. It wasn't really any different than the standard red-yellow-green-turn combo you generally see where the turning light may come on, it just had the yellow arrow shown when the turning arrow is about to expire in it's own lamp. It behaves pretty expectantly, but it looks very imposing.

;Race cars

The second light has quite a resemblance to the "christmas tree" that governs the start of a drag race, where the lights change colors according to a pattern <nowiki>http://www</nowiki> dot nhra dot com/nhra101/basics.aspx [[Special:Contributions/69.121.10.82|69.121.10.82]] 04:32, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I sat and watched this increasingly surreal show for about three minutes, then I broke down laughing when one of the lights turned purple. [[Special:Contributions/174.239.196.155|174.239.196.155]] 06:09, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

In UK, ALL lights go Red -> red AND yellow -> green -> yellow on it's own -> red again. Red and yellow means it's about to go green and yellow on it's own means it's about to go red. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.246|141.101.98.246]] 21:43, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

;Bird

What is the bird doing? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.65|108.162.218.65]] 19:12, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

;Left lane

The page says "In normal course, right turns would be permitted from the right lane and left turns from the left lanes.". In Melbourne there are intersections where traffic turning right is required to use the ''left'' lane. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.169}}

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.111|108.162.216.111]] 03:15, 5 October 2016 (UTC) You should try driving in utah

I do not know how to add the incomplete tag but no where do I see any mention of the sign under the left most light, the one showing at least where I live no forward travel in any direction is allowed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.159|162.158.62.159]] 11:59, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

;Turn right from left lane
'''Believe it or not,''', turning right from the left lane is actually a thing in {{w|Melbourne, Victoria}}. They call it a {{w|hook turn}}, and it's used on roads with trams to stop cars stopping on the tram line while waiting to turn. The car pulls over on the left (outermost lane in Australia), and when there's a large enough gap or the lights change it turns across all lanes of traffic. Terrifying thing when you see it for the first time.
[[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 02:36, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Oh god, the sign beneath the furthest left traffic light is cropped. Is the sign important here? [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:12, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

In my country we call traffic lights "robots", that is the official name. We had friends visiting from England once, that we gave directions to (pre-GPS). They got very confused at the instruction given, "turn right at the second robot", lol! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 17:30, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1113: Killed in Action

2021-09-07T13:07:29Z

The Cat Lady:

The title text is essentially the beginning of the hanging paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox
:It's not quite the same--[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 17:03, 27 September 2012 (UTC) thing.
:The unexpected hanging paradox only applies when you have a measure of foreknowledge. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 05:50, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

I think there's also a strong indication that this is mocking cop films from the 80's/90's, such as Lethal Weapon, where a character would always die just before retirement.
--[[Special:Contributions/46.246.31.111|46.246.31.111]] 07:08, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

This one is a variant of the old Czech joke: "The study has proved that statistically the most casualties happen in the last car of a train. Therefore the committee suggests to make all trains one car shorter." --[[User:Mity|Mity]] ([[User talk:Mity|talk]]) 09:59, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
:On the other hand, adding a vacant car to the end of the train could be a reasonable approach.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 21:55, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

This comics's explanation is complete bollocks, I think. Of course it is NOT a "fact that such a room exists". This comics parodies trope often used in cop movies - an elderly cop goes to work for the last time before his retirement, packs things, plans fishing the next day ... only to be called to one more case (possibly with a new, young and brash partner). And despites his efforts not to screw anything and stay clear of danger, he is either mortally wounded or screws big time and is degraded. So much clichè, that if someone says "It's my last day or service", you might be sure one of the two options above happens. See http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Retirony for all the use cases and examples. [[User:Edheldil|Edheldil]] ([[User talk:Edheldil|talk]]) 10:25, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
:I added the tv trope to the explanation. Didn't even see your comment at first, but why didn't you just change and add to the explanation yourself? That would be the whole point of the wiki. --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 10:34, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

To add a little irony to the irony, the dead cop actually IS in a "locked, heavily guarded room." (There's a Sufi story along those lines.) The real solution to the retirony risk would be for their retirement day to fall within a 12 month window, chosen by some randomly generated number chosen before the shift begins. Thus they could avoid building up a hazardous "retirony field" focused around the point-source retirement day. Sort of like this thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_ring [[User:Noni Mausa|Noni Mausa]] ([[User talk:Noni Mausa|talk]]) 12:11, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
:...But that doesn't eliminate the "retirony field", it only dispurses it over a larger area. The retirony claim would shift to "(s)he was due to retire this year" times the number of retirees within that retirement window. Assuming these tragic events are "uniformly distributed" the probability they'll happen will be present right up to the end of one's active tour of duty, no matter what. Shorten the train, indeed. :) -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:29, 26 September 2012 (UTC)
::How about simply not planning your retirement at all, and instead just spontaneously quitting at some point? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 15:38, 27 September 2012 (UTC)
:::Yeah, that would work. Writing it into a collective agreement might be a bit iffy...[[User:Noni Mausa|Noni Mausa]] ([[User talk:Noni Mausa|talk]]) 11:20, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
::In some (read >=1) US jurisdictions (or maybe all, I just saw one story on reddit where it was explained) there is the possibility for officers who served a certain amount of time to keep working, but they have the right to quit at any time at a moment's notice without repercussions of any kind. Iirc the officers referred to someone in this state as having "pulled the pin", analogous to removing the safety pin on grenades hich would allow you to just drop it and let it blow up. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 07:01, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
:Alternative route: declare someones retirement '''on the day of their retirement'''. Make sure to forbid them in the day of their retirement from taking any missions, no matter how much they need the cop! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 15:17, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
::But the thing is... At that point, you're just saying, 'hey, you can't retire until we give the say-so, but when we do, you are fired and will just hang around the station till 5, then leave forever.' If the retiree doesn't know about it, then... It's hardly retirement, is it? [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 19:37, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
:That would not work. Working on Dec 30th, you would know for sure that Dec 31st would be your retirement date. So you cannot retire on Dec 31st. With that in mind: working on Dec 29th, you would know for sure that Dec 30th would be your retirement date. With that in mind: working on Dec 28th, you would know for sure that Dec 29th would be your retirement date. With that in mind.... --[[User:Oscar|Oscar]] ([[User talk:Oscar|talk]]) 13:02, 13 November 2012 (UTC)
An unstated but related phenomenon is "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias Confirmation Bias], where something significant stands out in our mind, causing us to overreact or use bad judgement. In this case, the confirmation bias makes it seem like cops are always killed on their last day, so they create such a room.
:Actually, all cops who are killed on the job are killed on their last day!
::Not necessary true in all movies. Detective [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Hopkirk Marty Hopkirk], for example, continued fighting crime after dead. [http://hellsing.wikia.com/wiki/Seras_Victoria Seras Victoria] changed the classical police officer uniform for a special force one but was still reffered as "police girl". I'm sure there are more examples. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:16, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
^then show us these other examples if you're so sure. [[Special:Contributions/71.23.180.37|71.23.180.37]] 23:28, 30 December 2012 (UTC)Realist

There is an easy solution: as soon as a cop is "getting too old for this shit", surely he's going to retire soon. So, to avoid the chance of retirony, you fire him immediately. This has the side effect of meaning you no longer need to pay any pensions. And, just as in every other case of "let's run this public service like a for-profit corporation", it can't possibly have any downsides. If people try to point out that such a policy will make it very hard to maintain a loyal and dedicated police force, you just call them socialists and soft on crime. Eventually they'll start gathering statistical proof that it was a bad idea, but all you have to do is maintain that the science still isn't 100% in because this one retired astrophysicist disagrees with all of the economists, so it would be rash to do anything. Keep that up for a decade or two, retire, and then blame all the problems on your successor. Everybody wins! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 06:01, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

What is the "yet another new idea"? My curiosity has been trolled by this vague statement [[User:SystemParadox|SystemParadox]] ([[User talk:SystemParadox|talk]]) 10:08, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

This happened to a firefighter friend of mine. He died of a heart attack on the day of his retirement! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 13:07, 7 September 2021 (UTC)

1113: Killed in Action

2021-09-07T11:24:26Z

The Cat Lady: /* Explanation */ fixed typo

{{comic
| number = 1113
| date = September 26, 2012
| title = Killed in Action
| image = killed in action.png
| titletext = We can't let this happen again. We need to build a secure TWO-day-before-retirement safe room.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic plays with the TV and film trope of {{tvtropes|Retirony}}, in which a cop is killed in action only a short time before (often the day before) retirement, usually producing a sense of even greater tragedy in the timing of the death. The humor of this strip arises from the notion that, given so many policemen are killed the day before retirement, retiring cops could be sequestered in a secure facility on the day before their retirement to avoid retirony. Unfortunately this merely results in tragedy when a cop is killed the day before being sequestered.

The title text is a reference to the reactionary nature of security procedures often put in place in the aftermath of an incident, and how they typically fail to address the root cause of the problem. If the logic expressed in the title text was followed repeatedly, eventually the number of days police officers spent in the secure room would encompass their entire career.
A certain similarity could be drawn between this and the US Army's problematic policy of only having combat troops serve for a single year in combat during the Vietnam war (unlike during WWII, when combat units were put into the front line and left there until the war was over, with losses being made up with a constant flow of individual replacements, which was even more problematic). Having troops only serve for a single year led to a far lower rate of troops "broken" from constant combat stress, but it also led to soldiers increasingly avoiding risk
once the halfway point of their year was passed and their time to go home got closer; not only that, but the stress of the last few months, knowing one was almost "home safe", yet forced into danger repeatedly could also psychologically damage men. It also created an incentive to just make it alive through the war, no matter what it took, unlike a situation where a soldier knows they are stuck there until the war is over; this can be a great incentive to fight harder, or at least to just give up any real hope that you'll live long enough to see the end anyway. They later revisited this "combat year" approach also, and tried yet another new idea.

See also the {{w|Unexpected hanging paradox|paradox of the "unexpected hanging"}}.

==Transcript==
:[An old lady, a woman and Cueball are standing in the background by a coffin. A policeman and the policewoman Ponytail are standing in the foreground.]
:Ponytail: Good cop. It's a real shame—
:Ponytail: He was just one day away from getting put in the locked, heavily guarded room where all cops stay for the last day before they retire.

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