explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2694: Königsberg

2022-11-07T08:28:44Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added Citation Needed template

{{comic
| number = 2694
| date = November 4, 2022
| title = Königsberg
| image = konigsberg_2x.png
| imagesize = 448x343px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At first I thought I would need some gold or something to pay him, but then I realized that it was the 18th century and I could just bring a roll of aluminum foil.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WOLF, TWO GOATS, AND THREE BAGS OF GRAPH NODES. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[File:Konigsberg bridges.png|frame|right|{{w|Königsberg}}, Prussia in Euler's time, showing the Pregel river and its seven bridges.]]

This comic is about the {{w|Seven Bridges of Königsberg}} (present day {{w|Kaliningrad}}), a seminal {{w|graph theory}} problem solved by the famous mathematician {{w|Leonhard Euler}}.[https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/leonard-eulers-solution-to-the-konigsberg-bridge-problem] The problem was whether a path through the city crossing each of the seven bridges just once exists, without crossing the river forks any other way. In 1736, Euler proved that there is no such path. This result is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory and the first proof in the theory of networks[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/courses/2004/cscs535/review.pdf] — a subject now generally regarded as a branch of {{w|combinatorics}} — and presaged the development of {{w|topology}}. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity. {{w|Graph (discrete mathematics)|Graphs}} are a data structure common in many algorithmic problems in computer science.

[[Cueball]] attempts to cheat on the final exam in his algorithms class by traveling back in time to commission the construction of an eighth bridge before Euler could learn of the problem, allowing a trivial solution that would remove the rationale for further analysis. He hopes that this would alter his present-day timeline in such a way that the test becomes easier because graph theory might never have been developed. The use of the word "tried" implies failure, which is probably a good thing since his success would create a {{w|Temporal_paradox#Grandfather_paradox|paradox}}.

With the addition of the eighth bridge, it becomes possible to cross each bridge exactly once, starting at the north bank and ending on the larger eastern island, or vice-versa. However, there is still no way to traverse each bridge exactly once and return to the starting point, because the altered graph would have an {{w|Eulerian trail|Euler trail}} but not an Euler cycle. Thus the problem might still have been interesting to Euler{{Citation needed}}. (Adding a ninth bridge connecting the north bank to the east island would render the problem completely trivial.) We can't say whether Euler or others would have developed graph theory anyway, or whether Cueball's exam would have been any easier, more difficult, or similar.

An alternative modification allowing an easy solution is to remove bridges. During World War II, two bridges to the central island connecting it to the north and south banks were destroyed by bombing, so today there is an Eulerian trail across the five remaining bridges.

The title text alludes to the fact that ordinary {{w|aluminum foil}}, which was not commercially available until 1911, would have been a tremendously valuable curiosity in the 18th century, which didn't even have {{w|tin foil}}. Aluminum was a highly priced metal before the 1880s when inexpensive methods were developed to refine it. The {{w|Washington Monument#Aluminum_apex|Washington Monument}} was constructed with a tip made of pure aluminum due to its value and conductive capacity. Aluminum had not been extracted in its pure form at the time of Euler, and was known only in compounds such as {{w|alum}}, so the metal would have been unique and exotic.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball, standing next to two men wearing wigs, pointing with a pointer at a map showing the seven bridges problem, with an extra bridge added in dashed lines]
:Cueball: Lord Mayor of Königsberg, I will reward you handsomely if you construct this bridge before my friend Leonhard arrives.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I tried to use a time machine to cheat on my algorithms final by preventing graph theory from being invented.

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

2674: Everyday Carry

2022-09-21T19:22:44Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added citation needed template

{{comic
| number = 2674
| date = September 19, 2022
| title = Everyday Carry
| image = everyday_carry_2x.png
| imagesize = 370x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Someday I just know I'm going to encounter a problem that requires 500 flashlights and 700 knives with weird holes in them, and on that day I won't be caught unprepared.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FLASHLIGHT WITH WEIRD HOLES IN IT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

"EDC" stands for {{w|Everyday carry}}, which is a term for tools and other objects intended to be carried around during the course of everyday life. The notion is that a relatively small number of versatile items, designed to be easily portable, can prepare you for a wide variety of possible situations. Typical items include such things as wallets, cell phones, small flashlights, pocketknives and multi-tools. Items specific to a person's occupation, lifestyle, or other needs might also be included.

While the concept of regularly carrying items that you might need is a very old one, the abbreviation "EDC" has come to signify a subculture, [https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/7/24/20696487/everyday-carry-reddit-knife-wallet-gun well-represented on the internet] which promotes self-reliance and preparedness for almost any situation. As with so many subcultures, this movement has spawned a thriving market in selling products explicitly intended for "every day carry". Any internet search will reveal thousands of products, of various levels of quality and usefulness, marketed to people interested in EDC. Stylized pocketknives, 'tactical' flashlights, and tools purporting to fulfill multiple functions are common examples.

Rather than carefully consider the relative advantages of each of these pieces of gear, Cueball seems to have taken the advertising of such items at face value: he's purchased them all, and attempts to carry them all with him every day. The result is that he has so many items that he not only needs to wear a heavily augmented backpack, he also needs to drag around a cart carrying boxes and a massive bag, presumably filled with the thousands of pieces of gear he's purchased. Such a strategy obviously defeats the original purpose of EDC, which is to select a set of items that's both portable and useful, but such is the result of taking internet marketing literally.{{citation needed}}

In the title text, he expresses confidence that he'll be vindicated by encountering a situation in which his massive collection of items will be useful. He also makes clear that, having bought ''all'' the items available, his collection is wildly redundant, having hundreds of flashlights and pocketknives. While it's quite common to encounter a situation in which a knife or flashlight is needed (sometimes even two might be useful), a situation where hundreds would be useful is difficult to imagine. One use might be a very dangerous D&D LARP cloud of daggers.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball is standing and straining backwards, dragging a large sack nearly the size as him, with noticeable bulges. It is placed on top of two long, flat boxes on top of a flat, four-wheeled trolley. Motion lines indicate the trolley is rolling towards Cueball and his hands are shaking. Cueball is also wearing a large backpack with multiple compartments. The backpack, boxes and sack are all labelled "EDC"]

:[Caption under the panel:]
:It was hard work collecting all the everyday carry products on the Internet, but now I'm finally ready for anything.

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

Talk:2369: All-in-One

2020-10-08T08:29:36Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Accessibility adjustment */ new section

Is the title text a reference the Librareome project in Rainbow's End (Vernor Vinge)?

See, e.g., [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1856]

--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.124|162.158.79.124]] 18:06, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall took inspiration from [this Dilbert](https://dilbert.com/strip/1994-04-25). [[User:Moosenonny10|Moosenonny10]] ([[User talk:Moosenonny10|talk]]) 18:52, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't think "eat" and "corrugate" are intended as malfunctions. People sometimes eat paper -- it's a common trope in spy parodies where someone will eat a document to prevent someone from getting access to it. And corrugate just sounds like it's making corrugated cardboard from the input paper. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:22, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:I changed it. What do you think? ''welp, i'' [[User:Donthaveusername|Donthaveusername]] ([[User talk:Donthaveusername|talk]]) 19:37, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Seems like plagiarize would be somehow related to scan and copy.
: I imagine the internal sub-functions would be: Scan (or read from prepocessed page data from an original document 'sent to printer'), OCR (as necessary - implied in Translate but not mentioned as a function, despite being an actually popular 'one touch' function with appropriate desktop software involved), Comprehend (natural-language processing), De-Source (remove references that indicate the true source, including headers, watermarks, logos), Re-Arrange (optional shuffling/re-wording in places, maybe even synonyms), Re-Source (personalise back up again, for the plagiarist's benefit), then Print (if scan-for-copy/printed) or Save (if scan-for-storage, maybe even 'print'-to-storage via the device). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.52|141.101.98.52]] 00:21, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

shred and scan (or scanf) are also unix and C functions. Shred overwrites a file on disk, deleting it and preventing any subsequent recovery of the lost data. scan reads input according to a format string. Should one take a standard file and scan a string per the format '%s', the program will read in the variable until an end-of-line character is encountered. If the file were shredded first, resulting in a random set of bits, this end of line character might never be read. This seems to be more of a memory problem than a CPU problem, thus might not be the full explanation of the alt-text. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.126|162.158.126.126]] 21:10, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

The incomplete template mentions that there might be a reason for Randall making this topic, but I don't think there is other than just making a funny joke. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.146|172.69.34.146]] 22:42, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

What, it can fold but not spindle or mutilate? :( [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.114|162.158.75.114]] 23:14, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Is staple removal a real printer feature? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:17, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:Doubt it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.243|172.68.132.243]] 23:39, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
::Staple-detection is (fairly) trivial, but consistently extracting them 'nicely' while preserving the paper as much as possible might be beyond a device (it's tricky enough for a person, sometimes). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.211|141.101.99.211]] 23:51, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:::It's not beyond a staple remover. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.59|172.69.35.59]] 00:52, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
::::Even for a staple remover, it's sometimes not a trivial task, sometimes requiring some "intelligence". I don't think this feature is available in off-the-shelf tech. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 01:25, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

I'm disappointed there's no "jam for no particular reason in the most difficult place to access" option. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.184|108.162.216.184]] 23:18, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
: I thought there should be Paper Cranes in the right-hand column... But your suggestion is also an obvious omission. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.211|141.101.99.211]] 23:51, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Regarding the "possibility that this printer is a complex computer": most printers are. Any printer which can process postscript OR is connected to network obviously contains computer more powerful than first {{w|IBM Personal Computer|IBM PCs}}, not speaking about the computer used in {{w|Apollo Guidance Computer|Apollo}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:35, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
:Well, it's ''more'' complex now. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.59|172.69.35.59]] 00:53, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

== Multi-function machines in pairs ==

I used to work for a temporary services company. At a tech-company, I noticed several instances where there were two multi-function machines close to each other. I asked about that. I was told company security policy forbade having a copier connected to a communications line. So, one machine was used only for copying. The other machine was used as a fax machine. The security police came about because, in the past, some people trying to copy company confidential pages sometimes mistakenly faxed them. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.194|162.158.75.194]] 01:00, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

== Accessibility adjustment ==

I added "(selected)" to all items that are highlighted in green, for the benefit of readers who can't see the green highlight. While one may argue that such readers could refer to the transcript, which has the text "(lit green)," there is no reason to force readers to scroll back and forth between the explanation and transcript sections to discover this, and it would be onerous for those using a screen reader to listen to the page multiple times. [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 08:29, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

2369: All-in-One

2020-10-08T08:25:17Z

Thisisnotatest: /* List of functions */ Added (selected) to green items for accessibility

{{comic
| number = 2369
| date = October 7, 2020
| title = All-in-One
| image = all_in_one.png
| titletext = Changes with this update: If you use the combined scan-shred function, it now performs them in that order instead of the reverse, saving a HUGE amount of CPU time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THOSE PERFORATED EDGE STRIPS THAT ARE SO FUN TO TEAR. Needs an explanation of what all the functions do. Maybe give possible reasons to why Randall created this comic? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is an xkcd-style parody of an {{w|all-in-one printer}}, a printer which typically can perform several functions, usually printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. This machine starts off with fairly standard printer functions but quickly becomes absurd. The machine is accordingly oversized, making room for all the status indicators and (presumably) the extra internal parts required to accomplish the uncommon functions.

The title text says that the machine now scans things before trying to destroy them. Previously the machine destroyed documents and then scanned the pieces and tried to reconstruct them, which takes a large amount of processing power. It raises the possibility that this printer is a complex computer in itself, or that its driver can monopolize a host computer.

===List of functions===
Selected ones are highlighted with green (selected).

====''Functions that most all-in-one printers do''====
*'''{{w|Print}}''' (selected): The most common function that a printer needs to do.
*'''{{w|Photocopier|Copy}}''': A copy function allows a user to place a document on the integrated/linked scanning bed and the printer will immediately make a copy of the document as if a traditional 'analogue' photocopier.
*'''{{w|Fax}}''' (selected): A fax function sends a scanned document by telephone to another telephone number. The receiver fax machine will reconstruct the document and print it. A machine that has this function is usually also able to act as a receiver for faxes sent from elsewhere, though that setting wouldn't be visible in this configuration group.
*'''{{w|Image scanner|Scan}}''': A scan function is used to optically scan images or documents into digital forms so that they can be used by computers.
*'''{{w|Collate}}''' (selected): To sort multiple copies of printed documents into sequences of individual page order, usually across multiple output trays having one sequence for each copy, especially before binding.
*'''{{w|Staple (fastener)|Staple}}''' (selected): To staple together multipage documents, especially for each collated copy. This function is usually found only in high-end printers.

====''Functions that relate to printers, that most printers cannot do.''====
*'''Staple Removal''': Although mechanical removal of staples can be done by various devices, it's often not a ''simple'' task. Staples can be bent and mangled in many ways, and detaching them from paper without causing damage can require fairly complex intelligence.
*'''{{w|Paper shredder|Shred}}''': A shredder function is used to destroy paper for privacy or security by cutting it into strips or fine particles. Normally this task is handled by another specialised machine called a shredder, but this time it is already inbuilt into the printer.
*'''{{w|Translate}}''': If the paper text is in another language, this would presumably translate it for you — after scanning and {{w|Optical character recognition|OCRing}}. This would actually be a helpful function and may be available on recent scanner-printers.
*'''Add those {{w|Perforation|perforated}} edge strips that are so fun to tear''': This is probably a reference to a type of {{w|continuous stationery}}. The paper in question had perforated strips with holes along the sides which a spiked wheel would use to feed it through the printer. Then once it was printed out you would tear off the strips for a clean looking page. Note that the remaining page usually had a "standard" paper width, so the page before the strips were detached was wider than that standard. It's unclear if this function is adding ''perforations'' to standard paper, which would leave it too narrow, or somehow adding perforated ''strips'' to it. This could also refer to {{w|comb binding}}.

====''Paper Functions Completely Unrelated to Printing''====
*'''Summarize''': Presumably this function would summarize a printed material for the user. Unclear how useful this would be.
*'''{{w|plagiarism|Plagiarize}}''': This function is unclear. Maybe it would plagiarize a paper for a certain subject? It would also be legally questionable.
*'''Roll''': This function is unclear. Perhaps it would roll up paper into a roll, like how the newspaper is rolled up for distribution by paperboys.
*'''Burn''': Perhaps the printer has this function for greater assurance that sensitive information will be irretrievably destroyed. Historically, some printers could be at risk of catching fire if they jammed in a particular way, and so the "{{w|lp0 on fire}}" error code was created to signal that it should be investigated urgently.
*'''Eat''': A printer is often said to "eat" paper by mangling either the input or output. Printer failure is also the modern descendant of the classic excuse for late homework, "{{w|the dog ate my homework}}".
*'''{{w|paper airplane|Fold airplane}}''': This function makes {{w|paper airplane}}s out of paper stored in the printer, or documents being printed.
*'''{{w|Origami}} flower''': Similar to the previous one, this function makes flowers using the {{w|origami}} paper folding process.
*'''{{w|Corrugate}}''': {{w|Corrugated fiberboard}} or cardboard is a kind of crinkled paper sandwiched between two sheets. This provides structural strength for low weight. Printers that jam can produce a paper that looks corrugated, but this is not an intended function, and corrugated fiberboard is not made with printers.
*'''{{w|Papier-mâché}}''': (Literally "chewed paper") is a composite construction material consisting of paper pieces, bound with an adhesive, often a flour paste. Shredded paper, partially eaten, would give a similar result (and any leftovers could be composted).
*'''{{w|Découpage}}''': An art form where paper printed with decorative images is glued onto an object (typically boxes, but also furniture) and covered with many layers of varnish so that the images appear painted onto the object.
*'''Notarize''' (selected): A {{w|notary public}} is a person certified by a government to attest that certain kinds of legal documentation are legitimate and executed. All-in-one printers and scanners may be able to recognize certain signs of legitimacy (e.g. the {{w|EURion constellation}}), but unless this printer has some tactile sensation, it cannot certify the identity of the person who signed the document as a human can.
*'''{{w|Biodegrade}}''': This would biodegrade the paper. Whether this would send this to an organic waste plant (which would be helpful) or actually house a composter inside the printer (which would be gross{{Citation needed}}) is unknown.
*'''Crumple and throw at trash like basketball''' (selected): Many people, when done with a piece of paper, will crumple it up and throw it into a trash can from a distance as if playing basketball.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A large printer-like machine, with the label All-in-One Paper Processor on the top left of it. There are three columns of functions, with a few of them having a green light. At the top of the machine is a "paper feed" tray. At the bottom of the machine, is a large hole, for outputting the paper.]

:'''Column 1'''
:*Print (lit green)
:*Copy
:*Fax (lit green)
:*Shred
:*Scan
:*Translate
:*Summarize
:*Plagiarize
:*Collate (lit green)

:'''Column 2'''
:*Staple (lit green)
:*Remove staples
:*Add those perforated edge strips that are so fun to tear
:*Roll
:*Burn
:*Eat

:'''Column 3'''
:*Fold airplane
:*Origami flower
:*Corrugate
:*Paper-mâché
:*Découpage
:*Notarize (lit green)
:*Biodegrade
:*Crumple and throw at trash like a basketball (lit green)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]

2369: All-in-One

2020-10-08T02:29:15Z

Thisisnotatest: /* List of functions */ Added Citation Needed template

{{comic
| number = 2369
| date = October 7, 2020
| title = All-in-One
| image = all_in_one.png
| titletext = Changes with this update: If you use the combined scan-shred function, it now performs them in that order instead of the reverse, saving a HUGE amount of CPU time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THOSE PERFORATED EDGE STRIPS THAT ARE SO FUN TO TEAR. Needs an explanation of what all the functions do. Maybe give possible reasons to why Randall created this comic? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is an xkcd-style parody of an {{w|all-in-one printer}}, a printer which typically can perform several functions, usually printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. This machine starts off with fairly standard printer functions but quickly becomes absurd. The machine is accordingly oversized, making room for all the status indicators and (presumably) the extra internal parts required to accomplish the uncommon functions.

The title text says that the machine now scans things before trying to destroy them. Previously the machine destroyed documents and then scanned the pieces and tried to reconstruct them, which takes a large amount of processing power. It raises the possibility that this printer is a complex computer in itself, or that its driver can monopolize a host computer.

===List of functions===

'''''Functions that most all-in-one printers do'''''
*'''Print''': The most common function that a printer needs to do.
*'''{{w|Photocopier|Copy}}''': A copy function allows a user to place a document on the integrated/linked scanning bed and the printer will immediately make a copy of the document as if a traditional 'analogue' photocopier.
*'''{{w|Fax}}''': A fax function sends a scanned document by telephone to another telephone number. The receiver fax machine will reconstruct the document and print it. A machine that has this function is usually also able to act as a receiver for faxes sent from elsewhere, though that setting wouldn't be visible in this configuration group.
*'''{{w|Image scanner|Scan}}''': A scan function is used to optically scan images or documents into digital forms so that they can be used by computers.
*'''{{w|Collate}}''': To sort multiple copies of printed documents into sequences of individual page order, usually across multiple output trays having one sequence for each copy, especially before binding.
*'''Staple''': To staple together multipage documents, especially for each collated copy. This function is usually found only in high-end printers.
'''''Functions that relate to printers, that most printers cannot do.'''''
*'''Staple Removal''': Although mechanical removal of staples can be done by various devices, it's often not a ''simple'' task. Staples can be bent and mangled in many ways, and detaching them from paper without causing damage can require fairly complex intelligence.
*'''{{w|Paper shredder|Shred}}''': A shredder function is used to destroy paper for privacy or security by cutting it into strips or fine particles.
*'''Translate''': If the paper text is in another language, this would, presumably translate it for you - after scanning and {{w|Optical character recognition|OCRing}}. This would actually be a helpful function and may be available on recent scanner-printers.
*'''Perforation''' This is probably a reference to a type of {{w|continuous stationery}}. The paper in question had perforated strips with holes along the sides which a spiked wheel would use to feed it through the printer. Then once it was printed out you would tear off the strips for a clean looking page. Note that the remaining page usually had a "standard" paper width, so the page before the strips were detached was wider than that standard. It's unclear if this function is adding ''perforations'' to standard paper, which would leave it too narrow, or somehow adding perforated ''strips'' to it.

'''''Paper Functions Completely Unrelated to Printing'''''
*'''Summarize''': Presumably this function would summarize a printed material for the user. Unclear how useful this would be.
*'''Plagiarize''': This function is unclear. Maybe it would plagiarize a paper for a certain subject? It would also be legally questionable.
*'''Roll''': This function is unclear. Perhaps it would roll up paper into a roll, like how newspaper is rolled up for distribution by paper boys.
*'''Burn''': Perhaps the printer has this function for greater assurance that sensitive information will be irretrievably destroyed. Historically, some printers could be at risk of catching fire if they jammed in a particular way, and so the "{{w|lp0 on fire}}" error code was created to signal that it should be investigated urgently.
*'''Eat''': A printer is often said to "eat" paper by mangling either the input or output. Printer failure is also the modern descendant of the classic excuse for late homework, "{{w|the dog ate my homework}}".
*'''Fold airplane''': This function makes {{w|paper airplane}}s out of paper stored in the printer, or documents being printed.
*'''Origami flower''': Similar to the previous one, this function makes flowers using the {{w|origami}} paper folding process.
*'''Corrugate''': {{w|Corrugated fiberboard}} or cardboard is a kind of crinkled paper sandwiched between two sheets. This provides structural strength for a low weight. Printers that jam can produce paper that looks corrugated, but this is not an intended function, and corrugated fiberboard is not made with printers.
*'''{{w|Papier-mâché}}''': (Literally "chewed paper") is a composite construction material consisting of paper pieces, bound with an adhesive, often a flour paste. Shredded paper, partially eaten, would give a similar result (and any leftovers could be composted).
*'''{{w|Découpage}}''': An art form where paper printed with decorative images is glued onto an object (typically boxes, but also furniture) and covered with many layers of varnish, so that the images appear painted onto the object.
*'''Notarize''': A {{w|notary public}} is a person certified by a government to attest that certain kinds of legal documentation are legitimate and executed. All-in-one printers and scanners may be able to recognize certain signs of legitimacy (e.g. the {{w|EURion constellation}}), but unless this printer has some tactile sensation, it cannot certify the identity of the person who signed the document as a human can.
*'''Biodegrade''': This would {{w|biodegrade}} the paper. Whether this would send this to an organic waste plant (which would be helpful) or actually house a composter inside the printer (which would be gross{{Citation needed}}) is unknown.
*'''Crumple and throw at trash like basketball''': Many people, when done with a piece of paper, will crumple it up and throw it into a trash can from a distance, as if playing basketball.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A large printer-like machine, with the label All-in-One Paper Processor on the top left of it. There are three columns of functions, with a few of them having a green light. At the top of the machine is a "paper feed" tray. At the bottom of the machine, is a large hole, for outputting the paper.]

:'''Column 1'''
:*Print (lit green)
:*Copy
:*Fax (lit green)
:*Shred
:*Scan
:*Translate
:*Summarize
:*Plagiarize
:*Collate (lit green)

:'''Column 2'''
:*Staple (lit green)
:*Remove staples
:*Add those perforated edge strips that are so fun to tear
:*Roll
:*Burn
:*Eat

:'''Column 3'''
:*Fold airplane
:*Origami flower
:*Corrugate
:*Paper-mâché
:*Découpage
:*Notarize (lit green)
:*Biodegrade
:*Crumple and throw at trash like a basketball (lit green)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]

2360: Common Star Types

2020-09-17T05:04:14Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added Original research template

{{comic
| number = 2360
| date = September 16, 2020
| title = Common Star Types
| image = common_star_types.png
| titletext = This article is about Eta Carinae, a luminous blue hypergiant with anomalous Fe[ii] emission spectra. For the 1998 Brad Bird film, see The Iron Giant (film).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an INDIGO BANSHEE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This 'infographic' chart purports to be a comparative guide to various star types, often described by a basic colour, which is something that even naked-eye astronomy has determined, and often qualified as 'dwarf' or 'giant' to describe relative sizes. An idea of the true size of a star has only really been possible since the development of modern instrumental astronomy, which can also determine the different conditions that make a red dwarf or a red giant 'red'.

In true xkcd tradition, this is taken beyond reality. The pantheon of stars illustrated extend the use of 'dwarf' and 'giant' as if describing mythical or fictional beings, pairing others from the fantasy ilk with hues and shades that may not be typically used, or encountered, by astronomers.

{| class="wikitable"
!Star !! Description
|-
| {{w|Yellow dwarf star|Yellow Dwarf}} || A real star type. This is the type of star that our sun is, with a lifespan measured in the billions of years. The title of "Dwarf" is an artifact, as the sun is larger than most stars, but was thought to be smaller due to the fact that larger stars were more visible than smaller stars.
|-
| {{w|Red giant|Red Giant}} || A real star type. When stars at about the sun's size begin to run out of fusion fuel, they expand to become red giants, and the outer shells expand and cool. When our sun enters this phase in a few billion years, it will consume the earth.
|-
| {{w|White dwarf|White Dwarf}} || Not a true star, but a real stellar object. These are formed when stars at about the sun's size finally die. They are superdense, and do not undergo nuclear fusion. They are responsible for type 1A supernova, a standard candle of astronomy.
|-
| {{w|Red dwarf|Red Dwarf}} || A real star type. The most common, smallest, and coolest type of true star in the universe (Brown Dwarfs are smaller and cooler, but do not undergo Hydrogen/Hydrogen fusion) These can live for trillions of years, the first red Dwarfs to form are still alive today.
|-
| Green Elf || An invention of Randall's, and a reference to the elves of {{w|Tolkien's legendarium}}. His elves are immortal, but slowly diminish over time, and leave Middle Earth (where ''The Lord of the Rings'' is set) as magic fades to the West, in the Undying lands.
|-
| {{w|Blue giant|Blue Giant}} || A real star type. The largest class of star in the main sequence, they have life spans measured in the millions of years and are highly luminous.
|-
| Teal Sphynx || An invention of Randall's; likely a form of the Greek {{w|Sphinx#Riddle_of_the_Sphinx|sphinx}}, which puts riddles to hapless travellers. One can only imagine what stellar riddles would be like.{{Original research}}
|-
| Gray Wizard || An invention of Randall's, and also a Reference to ''Lord of the Rings''. {{w|Gandalf the Grey}}, a wizard, is a protagonist and mentor figure in ''The Hobbit'' and the ''Lord of the Rings'', guiding and assisting the journeys within the books.
|-
| Indigo Banshee || An invention of Randall's, and a reference to {{w|Banshees}}, a type of spirit, or ghost, which can kill those who hear their wail.
|-
| Beige Gorgon. || An invention of Randall's, and a reference to {{w|Gorgons}} in {{w|Greek Mythology}}. "Dangerous to observe at optical wavelengths" refers to the property of Gorgons where any who gaze upon their faces will be turned to stone, however, seeing a Gorgon's refection was safe, so [[1791: Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector | most astronomers should be fine. ]]
|}

The title text is in the style of a Wikipedia page's hatnote / reference note. A page might have a title that is too easily landed upon by a search term that might also be expected to lead to one under a quite different subject. In this case, it was written as if the page {{w|Iron Giant}} (or {{w|iron giant}}) was about (or redirected to) {{w|Eta Carinae}}, a large Luminous Blue Variable star which has a relatively high level of ferrous ions. In reality, these redirect to ''{{w|The Iron Giant}}'', the first movie directed by the incredible Brad Bird. This note [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eta_Carinae&oldid=978789727 was added] to Wikipedia, but quickly removed; nobody has messed with the redirects (yet).

==Transcript==
[A chart, with circles representing stars of different colours and sizes. At the top:]
:Common star types

[A small yellow star.]
:Yellow dwarf
:Warm, stable, slowly-growing

[An even smaller white star.]
:White dwarf
:Small, hot, dim

[A very large red-orange star squishing the previous two stars into the corners of the chart.]
:Red giant
:Huge, cool, luminous

[A small red star.]
:Red dwarf
:Small, cool, ancient, dim

[An olive green, medium-sized star.]
:Green elf
:Old, diminishes into the west

[A fairly large pale blue star.]
:Blue giant
:Large, hot, short-lived

[A blue-green, medium-sized star.]
:Teal sphynx
:Cryptic, eternal

[A small silver-coloured star.]
:Gray wizard
:Wise, powerful, mercurial

[A tiny blue star.]
:Indigo banshee
:Bright, portentous, extremely loud

[A beige, medium-sized star.]
:Beige gorgon
:Dangerous to observe at optical wavelengths.

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

Template:Original research

2020-09-17T05:03:52Z

Thisisnotatest: Creating Original research template

[[265: Choices: Part 2|[Original research?]]]

2278: Scientific Briefing

2020-03-11T05:04:31Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added Citation needed template

{{comic
| number = 2278
| date = March 9, 2020
| title = Scientific Briefing
| image = scientific_briefing.png
| titletext = "I actually came in in the middle so I don't know which topic we're briefing on; the same slides work for like half of them."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Made by a CULTURE PRETENDING BAD THINGS ARE GOOD. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the need to act on problems, and the need to communicate them in ways that people can act on them. This problem underlies many issues in modern life, and anybody can help it, by thinking, talking, helping, or asking others to help. If you can think of anything to do, say, make, or start, to help this, like say a small wiki for organizing discussion and viewpoints around issues that interested people could contribute to, please start something and link your work here to help others act as well.{{Citation needed}}

Things are not good, and are going to be bad soon. The only way for things to not be bad is for someone to do something about it. [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are presenting these things to [[White Hat]], presumably hoping to encourage him to do something about things, but he instead chooses to wait for things to become bad, to which Megan replies that this is exactly the bad thing she and Cueball were hoping to prevent.

What things? Any number of things, because, as the title text remarks, this is true of "like half of" any things examined by society. While a literal 50% of ''all'' things may not be getting bad (or good), in a more general sense all line graphs would trend (at least slightly) either up or down. This binary 'either good or bad' finding may lead one to conclude that "like half" of all graphs show something getting bad (or else good). The three comics preceding this one have been about COVID-19 ("the '''co'''rona'''vi'''rus '''d'''isease discovered in 20'''19'''"), so "things" could refer to cases of infections, but like [[2275]], likely this comic is a comment on the numerous world catastrophes that get sidelined until the very last moment, such as invading giant spiders, unemployment, crime, water quality, road systems, rising extremism and wars between groups with similar needs, lack of responsible oversight in majorly impactful international decisions, corruption and lack of trust for those with power, or climate change and related extinction of most species and cultures. Given Megan & Cueball's reaction to White-Hat's failure to act, this "sidelining" or failure to take action may very likely be the subject of their graph.

In short, the graph ''may'' indicate that our responses to information are going from good to bad.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Cueball are showing a graph on a projected screen. The graph is labeled "Things", with "Time" advancing to the right on the ''x''-axis. The level of "Things" has been rising over time to a point labeled "Now". The current level of "Things" is above a level labeled "Good", and about as far below a level labeled "Bad". Megan is pointing to the line of "Things" with a pointer stick, while Cueball is pointing up to the "Bad" level with a pointer stick.]

:Megan: Here's the situation:
:Megan: This line is here.
:Cueball: But it's going up toward ''here''.

:[White Hat enters the scene. His hand is on his chin. Cueball is no longer holding a pointer stick.]

:White Hat: So things will be bad?
:Megan: Unless someone does something to stop it.
:White Hat: Will anyone do that?
:Megan: ...We don't know.
:Megan: That's why we're showing you this.

:[A narrow panel focusing only on Megan and Cueball.]

:White Hat (off-panel, left): So you don't know,
:White Hat: And the graph says things are '''''not''''' bad.
:Cueball: But if no one acts, they'll '''''become''''' bad.

:[White Hat is back inside the frame. He is gesturing to Megan and Cueball with his palm up.]

:White Hat: Well, please let me know if that happens!
:Megan: Based on this conversation, it already has.

==Trivia==
*Poorly labeled graphs were already the topic of [[833: Convincing]].
*This comic was initially missing the speech line to Cueball in panel 3.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Charts]]

1196: Subways

2020-02-14T08:38:39Z

Thisisnotatest: added Missing cities section

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in distorted geographic position. While {{w|Vancouver}} is the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – distances are not accurate (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example) and cities are often arranged in the wrong direction from one another:

* San Francisco is shown directly west of Toronto - in reality west southwest
* Boston is shown directly north of New York City and just slightly to the west - in reality east northeast
* Atlanta is shown west southwest of Miami - it is actually north northwest
* Atlanta is shown northwest of Mexico City - it is actually northeast
* Atlanta is shown slightly east of being south of Los Angeles - it is actually just slightly north of being directly east

The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}}, B.C., is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section).

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section).
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport logo for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a paper airplane.

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - https://www.sfmta.com/maps/muni-metro-map
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

===Missing cities===
Not all cities with a subway are shown on the map. Missing from the map:
*Pittsburgh (Port Authority of Allegheny County) has a light rail subway tunnel in the downtown area. The subway opened in 1985, which is before this comic was published.

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

==Trivia==
*A print version of this comic is available in the [https://store.xkcd.com/products/subways xkcd store].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]

Talk:2257: Unsubscribe Message

2020-01-20T18:58:05Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Unsubscribe pages you have to read to actually unsubscribe */ new section

>>>YOU HAVE BEEN UNSUBSCRIBED<<<[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.148|162.158.214.148]] 12:57, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

If I ever make an unsubscribe message, it'll just be this comic. [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 13:28, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

You have been SO unsubscribed that it isn't even funny! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.148|162.158.214.148]] 15:44, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

>>> You Have Been SuperScribed >>> [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 16:02, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

"You are unsubscribing. We can retain your details in case you wish to revert this change in the future. Do you wish us to retain your stored preferences?" (NO) "Do you wish us to retain your external contact details?" (NO) "Do you wish us to hibernate your core profile and reserve your username?" (NO) "Data fully removed from our server" ... ... "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.53|141.101.99.53]] 17:26, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

== Unsubscribe pages you have to read to actually unsubscribe ==

Then there are the unsubscribe pages that you have to uncheck your subscription and then clicking an Update button. And the ones that give you several alternatives to unsubscribing and obscure the unsubscribe link by not using the word "unsubscribe" in the unsubscribe link and you have to figure out that that's the link.
[[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 18:58, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2254: JPEG2000

2020-01-16T08:04:00Z

Thisisnotatest: Comment on use of JPEG2000 for a cartoon

Cubeball's keyboard has disappeared in the third panel. 22:24, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Pretty sure the woman in this comic should be called Hairbun. Updating transcript... [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 01:31, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Jpeg2000 is widely used on archive.org (scans are stored as .jp2 there). For example, the image of this page [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.215730/2015.215730.The-Theory#page/n99/mode/1up] is internally from a jp2.zip file:
https://ia601604.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/16/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.215730/2015.215730.The-Theory_jp2.zip&file=2015.215730.The-Theory_jp2/2015.215730.The-Theory_0099.jp2
where BookReaderImages.php seems to be able to read .jp2 in zip and send it to you as a legacy format your browser can handle. [[User:Yosei|Yosei]] ([[User talk:Yosei|talk]]) 01:48, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if as a result of this comic, xkcd fans will cause rapid adoption. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:11, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

:Looks like [https://pdf-aktuell.ch/pa/language/en/is-jpeg2000-compression-suitable-for-pdf-files-for-prepress/ it just isn't worth it].

GIMP seems to be able to load JPEG2000 images. To export as JPEG2000, you need an external plugin. [[User:Fabben|Fabben]] ([[User talk:Fabben|talk]]) 12:02, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
:That’s correct, I changed the text. --17:06, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall is deliberately referencing Valve's Artifact's [https://steamcommunity.com/games/583950/announcements/detail/1712958942366879379 long haul]. Even has a loose connection with image artifacts. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.102|172.68.47.102]] 12:20, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Would a brief description of the .png format (more typically used for comic images) be appropriate? {{unsigned|162.158.78.70}}

I was pretty sure that patents were the main problem with adoption, at least in time when .gif patents were problem. However, seems the patent status is getting better and it isn't helping ... meanwhile, WEBP, which is using similar technology, is gaining traction.
... which would also answer question of previous commenter: while brief mention of PNG might be worth it, mention of WEBP and similar alternatives would be more important -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:46, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

It's also used for [http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Image_System textures in Second Life]. In fact, that page also states that decompressing JPEG2000 is much more processor-intensive than other image compression methods, so I guess that might be another reason for the lack of general adoption? [[User:EddyM|EddyM]] ([[User talk:EddyM|talk]]) 00:50, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

JPEG2000 is not at all unknown in the geospatial community. Both USGS and NASA offer various aerial and satellite imagery products in JPEG2000 format only. I assume it is one of the most versatile non-proprietary photographic imaging formats out there. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.184|162.158.167.184]] 06:30, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

When I clicked on th3 .jp2 as ljnked in the Trivia, my tablet wanted to open it only in my (pre-installed bog-standard) ebook reader ''or'' GPS Essentials (perhaps confirming 162.158.167.184's comment, just above). But mention of JPEG2000 takes me back (25 years or so!) to a time a similar scare to the GIF patent issue had motivated alternatives to the 'public' common picture standard. And reminds me also of the "masking" technique used on (regular?) JPEGs, based upon keyword-hash shuffling/deshuffling of selected 8x8-pixel DCT units of a JPEG image (and of the hues apllied to the curves) to reversibly censor images, IIRC driven largely by Japanese censorship rules. Somewhere on an old hard disk I must still have the reverse-engineered 'solver' I wrote for that, written in Delphi... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.144|141.101.107.144]] 18:14, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

Odd that Randall would use a lossy JPEG2000 image for a cartoon rather than a lossless one. A friendly reminder that JPEG is best for photography and is not intended for line drawings. [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 08:04, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2234: How To Deliver Christmas Presents

2019-11-30T05:12:29Z

Thisisnotatest: Commented on lack of Original research template leading me to add a Citation needed template instead

Is the equation in the comic wrong? It should be (4 kg*m/s) / (book mass), right?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.245|108.162.221.245]] 19:34, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
:Yes, that's correct. The equation in part 2 should be (speed) = (momentum) / (mass), given (momentum) = (speed) x (mass). Though the answer seems to be correct, assuming a book mass of approximately 0.8lbs (0.36kg). --shabegger {{unsigned|Shabegger}}
::Have added this to a [[#Trivia|trivia section]]. Maybe Randall will later update the comic, although it is probably cumbersome... But if he does, then that should go in the trivia and the mention of this that I made in the comic, should be changed to, there was an error... Feel free to improve my formulas. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:35, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

Is that a "Baby Yoda" in the right window? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.6.94|172.69.6.94]] 20:06, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
:Houseplant [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:33, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
::Nope that is Pikachu, I'm certain. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:10, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
:::I also thought it looked like Yoda. In the 2x version, it looks most like a baby elephant, but careful examination suggests it's probably Pikachu in a ''really'' weird perspective (the thing that looks like Yoda's second ear is actually Pikachu's ''tail'', and his ''actual'' second ear is probably behind his head). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.62|141.101.77.62]] 22:47, 27 November 2019 (UTC)
::::I agree that it is rather difficult to see, but with Randall's use of Pikachu in the past, and the fact that I play Pokémon Go and instantly saw it as Pikachu, I'm quite convinced this is what it should be. Also Yoda do not exist on Earht, but everyone knows Pikachu does :p But can see the baby elephant likeness and the other options as well. By the way, not everyone knows about the 2x version, so here is [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/how_to_deliver_christmas_presents_2x.png the link for that].
::::[[Media:2234-_How_To_Deliver_Christmas_Presents_Pikachu_in_window.png|Close up of Pikachu in window]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:22, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
:::::I may not play Pokémon Go, but I know what a Pikachu looks like, and I don't see it. I'm not even sure which ear the other IP is talking about, or where its eyes and snout are. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.18.82|162.158.18.82]] 20:33, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
:::::::It’s a gremlin, I’m certain of it. Looks like one, and Gremlins is a Christmas film.

Why the uptick in fireplaces around 2012/2013? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.242.166|172.68.242.166]] 02:00, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
: It snowed that year, maybe that's why? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 09:53, 28 November 2019 (UTC)

This comic was posted the day before Thanksgiving, a major American holiday. Can't be a coincidence can it? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 09:53, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
:Also 2 days before black Friday, a even more major American holiday, and typical ocasion to get christmas gifts. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:00, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
::Yes also think it is Black Friday related. It is now people should think of buying it, as many buy their gifts tomorrow. I buy the way had just ordered the book 10 hours before this comic came came out. But had all along decided that I could wait for x-mas. So someone will give it to me... :-p So although i look forward to reading it, I could wait ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:14, 28 November 2019 (UTC)

I think it might be notable how, in number 3, the gift explicitly becomes a book. There's no inherent reason--you could just put any gift in the same package as the other and get the same joke. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 11:31, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
:Of course it's notable, it's the point of this comic. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 16:30, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

". . . the holiday of Christmas, which in the US happens usually on December 25 of each year." Usually? No, I think Christmas in the US is always on December 25th, by law. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.136|162.158.214.136]] 12:37, 28 November 2019 (UTC)
:The beginning of the sentence is "Giving Christmas presents is a traditional way to celebrate ..." - so it referrs to the giving of presents, which usually happens on the 25th. There is no law defining the day you give christmas gifts.--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:45, 28 November 2019 (UTC) Good rewrite . . . .[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.88|162.158.214.88]] 12:01, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

I attempted to add an Original research? template reference, but that template doesn't seem to exist, so I added Citation needed instead. If someone cares to such a template, I'm guessing it would best link to [[265: Choices: Part 2]]. In any case, that's the template I feel would best apply to the NORAD tracking conclusion.
[[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 05:12, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

2234: How To Deliver Christmas Presents

2019-11-30T05:06:59Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added Citation needed

{{comic
| number = 2234
| date = November 27, 2019
| title = How To Deliver Christmas Presents
| image = how_to_deliver_christmas_presents.png
| titletext = Building codes in hurricane zones rely on studies of how easily flying debris can break residential windows. If you're looking for a science fair project idea and you hate your neighbors, I'm sure they could always use more data!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CHIMNEYBOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is [[:Category:Book promotion|yet another]] fun way to promote [[Randall|Randall's]] new book, ''[[How To]]'', released on September 3, 2019, reminding people to buy it as a {{w|Christmas present}} that could be given to a friend or family member. Giving Christmas presents is a way to celebrate the holiday of {{w|Christmas}}, celebrated in the United States on December 25th. Randall always releases a [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comic]] on the 25th or close to that day.

The entire comic links to https://xkcd.com/how-to/, a description of his book and ways to order it. As always the [[xkcd_Header_text#2014-07-23_-_what_if.3F_book_tour|entire picture is a link]], even though he has made the {{w|URL}} blue as if it was a clickable link. Of course it will also work if you actually click on the URL. At least in this comic he does state that you can click anywhere on the comic, and if that doesn't work he also gives the URL. Many people would probably still click on the blue link-like line, having not read his text. But the objective of getting them to the [https://xkcd.com/how-to/ xkcd page about How To] would have been obtained.

The rest of the comic discusses how to "deliver" this Christmas present. As mentioned in the comic, the "traditional" way that parents teach their kids about Christmas and Christmas gift giving is with the story of {{w|Santa Claus}}, a man who lives on the North Pole, who delivers gifts each Christmas Eve by riding a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He is usually depicted entering a house to deliver gifts by going down the home's chimney. Every year, the {{w|NORAD Tracks Santa|North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks Santa}} as he delivers gifts around the world. Although we take that story for granted, it is no less ridiculous than the alternatives this comic explores, and in fact considerably more so, as there is no reason to believe NORAD can detect Santa in flight given his various other legendary stealth techniques.{{Citation needed}}

As mentioned in the comic, fireplaces (and chimneys) are becoming less common in the United States, so Randall (drawn as Cueball) proposes 3 options for how to deliver his new book as a present:

'''Option 1''': Vaporize the gift (and blow it into their house).
This would allow the particles of the book to enter the air vents of the house. However, this book would be unreadable, which defeats the purpose of purchasing the book for someone. As noted by Randall using information from a [https://doi.org/10.3155/1047-3289.58.4.502 Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association study], dust particles can remain inside a house for months (with vacuuming) and decades without vacuuming. This inspires Cueball to vacuum his house.

'''Option 2''': Throw the book through their window.
Based on [https://www.fema.gov/previous-missile-impact-tests-wood-sheathing research by FEMA], Randall states the speed needed to throw a book-sized object through a window to be 25 mph (~40 km/h). Breaking a window is probably not an ideal way to deliver a gift, as the recipient likely would not be pleased with a hole in their window. If a house has a broken window, perhaps from a previous gift delivery, they might cover up the window with a piece of plywood. Randall notes the speed to throw a book-sized object through a piece of plywood to be 250 mph (~400 km/h), faster than a human can reasonably throw.

If the book weighs about 400g, 25 mph would be enough. But the formula in the comic is wrong (inverted), see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]] below.

The title text mentions that building codes in hurricane-prone areas, like the southern United States, rely on information on how easily flying debris can break windows, presumably to improve reinforcement of such windows. Randall proposes a {{w|science fair project}} contributing to these studies (by throwing books at windows).

'''Option 3''': Intercept a different package.
This option is to intercept an order of a different book, and replace the pages of the book with Randall's book (which Black Hat is shown doing). As the recipient, Cueball, remarks, this is similar to {{w|Spoofing attack|content spoofing}} / content injection, where information passed over the Internet is replaced before being delivered to the user. In this "real-life" case, the book's content has been "injected" and replaced with a different book.
An off-screen person mentions {{w|HTTPS}}, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, an extension of regular HTTP, used for secure communication. Cueball and this person believe that "paper" needs HTTPS, so that Cueball's original book can be "securely delivered" without being intercepted by third parties such as Black Hat.

This could also relate to {{w|code injection}}, where malicious code is injected into a program. An example of code injection is with the famous comic, [[327: Exploits of a Mom]], where Mrs. Roberts deletes the school's database tables.

The house is very detailed and in the windows are both a cat (typical click bait) and a different figure, perhaps a Pikachu.

==Transcript==
:[The comic is divided into three sections. The top section contains one low panel stretching across the entire comic. It has a header (same as the title of the comic) with a sub-header beneath. Then below that is a picture of Randall’s new book ''How To''. The black book is shown standing. The blue title is readable but the white text beneath it as well as blue and white text below the image is unreadable. On the cover is a white drawing of Cueball putting in a light-bulb with a quad-copter under each foot. White Hat is watching as Megan walks in with a ladder. Next to the book is a segment of text with a blue link at the end. Beneath this is a text from where a curved arrow goes to the book.]
:<big><big>How To Deliver Christmas Presents</big></big>
:<big>In a future without chimneys</big>
: How To
:For more questionable ideas for using science to solve problems, check out my new book, '''''How To!''''' Click on this comic or go to xkcd.com/how-to
:Good Christmas gift!

:[The second section has three normal sized panels on the same row. In the first panel, Randall, drawn as Cueball, is presenting the problem of the comic, while holding one hand out palm up.]
:Randall: The traditional way to get Christmas presents into a house is to have a large reindeer-herding man slither down the chimney with them.
:Randall: Unfortunately, chimneys are becoming less common in the United States.

:[The middle panel shows a line graph with one black and four gray lines. The X-axis is a time scale, with small ticks for each year and larger labeled ticks for every fifth year. The Y-axis is a percentage range with small ticks for every 5% and larger labeled ticks for every 10%. Each of the gray lines are swinging up and down quite a lot, but all but one of them clearly falls down as times passes. The black line has a clear downwards falling tendency. Each line has a label written on segments of the lines, where the lines are thus disrupted. For the gray lines the text is also gray. Above the lines are the following text:]
:<big>Disappearing chimneys</big>
:Percentage of new homes with fireplaces
:Source: Census Bureau ''Survey of Construction''
:X-Axis: 1990  1995  2000  2005  2010  2015
:Y-Axis: 40%  50%  60%  70%  80%
:Overall
:West
:Midwest
:South
:Northeast

:[In the third and last panel of this segment Randall, holding his arms out, explains that there are other ways to solve the problem.]
:Randall: But that's OK; there are other ways to get a gift into a house
:Randall: Here are a few options!

:[The last segment has a large panel taking up the bottom half of the comic. At the bottom of this panel there are even two smaller comics which lie over this panel and break the bottom border of the panel. They relate to the information in the large panel. In the middle of this panel is a detailed drawing of a house. The tiles of the roof are all individually drawn (8 rows with about 23 tiles each for a total about 180 tiles). To the right on the roof top is a chimney indicated with a dotted line, showing where it is not present. The front of the house has two small windows to the left, a door with door knob, in the middle of the house, with a two steps stair in front of it and a large window with three segments to the right. All three windows have curtains visible and are divided in two, a top and a bottom part On the top of the middle segment there is a handle for opening the windows, all five segments of them. In the window to the left sits a cat and in the central segment of the large window to the right sits Pikachu. The foundation of the house is drawn as 4 rows of bricks to the left (about 12 in each row) and three to the right (about 16 in each row, for 48 on both sides for a total of about 96). ]

:[To the left on the side of the house is a line indicating a ventilation shaft. Three arrows end there. They are coming from a bunch of particles of a disintegrating black book with part of a title still readable. Other text is visible, but not readable. Only the first word of the title can be read, but even here the last letter is already partly dissolved. The book is hanging above the grass on the ground below it to the left of the house. Above the book is a section of text marked with a large white number 1 inside a black circle. Beneath the book this text continues. Bordering this text is a one panel comic belonging to this text segment.]
:'''1''' Even without chimneys, houses aren't airtight. If you vaporize the gift, parts of it will enter the house through the intake vents...
:Book: How
:...And it will ''stay'' there.
:According to a 2008 study from Clarkson University, particles of your gift that settle in their house will remain there for an average of several months if they vacuum, and seven decades if they don’t
:Source: DOI 10.3155/1047-3289.58.4.502

:[The one panel comic is on top of the large panel beneath the door to the house, but about three times as wide. In the panel, Megan and Cueball are reacting to statement 1. Cueball is walking away from her to the right.]
:Megan: Seven ''decades?!''
:Cueball: BRB, I need to go vacuum.
:Megan: Houses are ''disgusting''

:[To the right of the house a gift wrapped present is flying towards the large window, with five lines indicating its speed and direction. Beneath the book is a line indicating the ground away from the house. There is a large segment of text surrounding the book on the three sides away from the house. Above the present next to the dotted-lined chimney is a large white number 2 inside a black circle. Then follows text which goes out to the edge of the panel, and this text continues down to the level of the book where it then only continues to the right of the speed lines. And then finally two lines of text are beneath the book above the ground next to the house.]
:'''2''' The critical momentum necessary for a projectile to break glass is around 4 kg*m/s. (40 for ½" plywood.)
:Source: fema.gov/previous-missile-impact-test-wood-sheathing
:This means you can deliver a book-sized gift by hurling it at a window at 25+ mph
:Speed = book mass/ 4 kg*m/s = 25 mph
:But if they’ve put up plywood shutters, you’ll need 250mph+ delivery speeds.

:[Finally beneath the house and text segment 2, there is a large white number 3 inside a black circle adjacent to the top right of the segment 1 panel comic. Next to this is the final text segment in this panel. Beneath this text is yet another comic, this time in five panels referring to the text, where the panels also break the lower border of the large panel.]
:'''3''' Wait until they order a different book, then intercept the package, open the binding, and replace the pages with the ones from yours.

:[The five panel comic is on top of the large panel but beneath the text segment 3. ]
:[Black Hat opening a box with one hand while having his own book under the other arm.]

:[The book cover is open, the pages from the original book have been removed and are interchanged with those from Black Hat’s book, two arrows indicating the switch.]

:[Black Hat carrying a closed box.]

:[Cueball going down to retrieving the package from the bottom of a three step stairs.]

:[Cueball is standing next to the open box reading the book.]
:Cueball: ...Ugh, real-life content injection.
:Off-screen voice: We need HTTPS for paper.

==Trivia==
*The equation in the comic is incorrect, although the approximate result is correct
**Speed = book mass/ 4 kg*m/s = 25 mph
***The units of this formula is not m/s but s/m.
**It should be 4 kg*m/s /book mass
***Assuming the book weighs about 0.8lbs (360 g) this would give a speed of 11.1 m/s = 40 km/hour = 24.86 mph ≈ 25 mph.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Hurricanes]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1196: Subways

2019-06-28T14:06:00Z

Thisisnotatest: /* San Francisco */ Adjusted punctuation

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in distorted geographic position. While {{w|Vancouver}} is the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – distances are not accurate (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example) and cities are often arranged in the wrong direction from one another:

* San Francisco is shown directly west of Toronto - in reality west southwest
* Boston is shown directly north of New York City and just slightly to the west - in reality east northeast
* Atlanta is shown west southwest of Miami - it is actually north northwest
* Atlanta is shown northwest of Mexico City - it is actually northeast
* Atlanta is shown slightly east of being south of Los Angeles - it is actually just slightly north of being directly east

The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}}, B.C., is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section).

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section).
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport [https://www.logoventure.com/ logo] for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y paper airplane]. [https://logomines.com/ Logo Design].

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - https://www.sfmta.com/maps/muni-metro-map
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

1196: Subways

2019-06-28T14:04:41Z

Thisisnotatest: Punctuation adjustments

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in distorted geographic position. While {{w|Vancouver}} is the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – distances are not accurate (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example) and cities are often arranged in the wrong direction from one another:

* San Francisco is shown directly west of Toronto - in reality west southwest
* Boston is shown directly north of New York City and just slightly to the west - in reality east northeast
* Atlanta is shown west southwest of Miami - it is actually north northwest
* Atlanta is shown northwest of Mexico City - it is actually northeast
* Atlanta is shown slightly east of being south of Los Angeles - it is actually just slightly north of being directly east

The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}}, B.C., is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section).

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section.)
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport [https://www.logoventure.com/ logo] for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y paper airplane]. [https://logomines.com/ Logo Design].

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - https://www.sfmta.com/maps/muni-metro-map
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

1037: Umwelt

2019-04-29T14:25:14Z

Thisisnotatest: Added Nothing result section; moved comment on no comic for iPad from Trivia to that new section along with new material

{{comic
| number = 1037
| date = April 1, 2012
| title = Umwelt
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.
}}
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was
[[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.

This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fool joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.

An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location, or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live, or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].

===The Void===
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]

If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.

Possible reference to The Ring (http://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.

Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."

Browser: Alternative Browser

===Aurora===
[[File:umwelt aurora.png]]

One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.

Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Locations: Canada, Boston, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Norway, Denmark, France, Rhode Island (not sure if mobile only or not.) (also in virginia, but using ohio in the first panel) (also in maryland, but using canada in the first panel)

In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.

===Snake===
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]

The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest snake is the python, the longest ever being 33 feet or approx. 10 meters. The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.

Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162).

===Black Hat===
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]

Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.

Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it ''''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.

Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.

===Too Quiet===
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]

A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.

Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.

Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop

===Pond===
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]

Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.

Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.

===Galaxies===
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]

Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.

The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them. This is presumably a reference to [http://www.mariowiki.com/boo Boo], an enemy from certain Mario games who moves toward Mario only when Mario is facing away from Boo.

This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.

Location: unknown

===xkcd Gold===
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]

This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".

Referrer: 4chan

===Yo Mama===
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]

Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."

Possibly a veiled criticism of Facebook. This could be slightly rewritten as: "This comic takes place in a dystopian future where the government is afraid of dissent, so it tracks everyone at all times, and some people privately doubt the government, but not enough to stop submitting information to Facebook. But that dystopian future is now."

Referrer: Facebook

===Reddit===
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]

Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.

This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description|Self Description]] where the third panel embeds the entire comic within itself.

One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.

Referrer: Reddit

===Buns and Hot dogs===
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]

This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?"

Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].

Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter

===Twitter===
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]

A summary of the content "typically" found on Twitter.

In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_ebooks Horse Ebooks] retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.

On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.

Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".

Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.

Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background colour, which is "a really pleasant blue".

Referrer: Twitter

===Wikipedia===
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]

The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board of an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.

Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.

Referrer: Wikipedia

===Google Chrome===
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]

{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.

Browser: Chrome

===Chrome/Firefox===
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]

Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.

Browser: Chrome

===Google Chrome-2===
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]

This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.

Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view

===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]

Another reference to crashing web browsers.
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)

===Internet Explorer===
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]

Yet another reference to crashing web browsers

Browser: Internet Explorer

===Maxthon===
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]

Browser: Maxthon

===Netscape Navigator===
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]

[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]

{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.

Browser: Netscape

===Rockmelt===
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]

{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.

Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.

:I run to the rock just to hide my face
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place
:There's no hiding place down here

It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.

Browser: Rockmelt

===Plugin Disabled===
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]

When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display.

Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop

===Corporate Networks===
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]

These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.

ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times

===Military===
[[File:umwelt military.png]]

[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.

ISP: Military networks

===T-Mobile===
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]

Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.

ISP: T-Mobile

===Verizon and AT&T===
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]

[[File:umwelt att.png]]

Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.

ISP: Verizon and AT&T

===France===
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]

A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived.

A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friends immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French, and in fact conquered much of Europe.

The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "touche".

Locations: France & Quebec

===Germany===
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]

This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.

Location: Germany

===Israel===
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]

Transcript:

בחורה: אמא, פגשתי בחור נהדר! אבל הוא לא יהודי.‏

...

רגע, מה את אומרת, "גם אנחנו לא"?‏

אני לגמרי מבולבלת.‏

(Translation from Hebrew)

Person: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a religious group and a nationality/ethnicity.

Location: Israel

===Carnot Cycle===
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]

A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg graph of the Carnot cycle.]

Location: Japan

===UK===
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]

He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).

Location: UK

===Blizzard===
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under.

For each location this displayed in, the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin

===Tornado===
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under.

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, The Midwest, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] reminds a lot of the one from this version of Umvelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]

===Hurricane===
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under.

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

===Lake Diver Killer===
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]

This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing and assumes that they were murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant.

Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain

===Lincoln Memorial===
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]

Locations: Illinois & Washington D.C.

===Helicopter Hunting===
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]

In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.

Location: Alaska

===Newspaper===
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]

Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.

Location: Various

Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst

===Robot Paul Revere===
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]

Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and computer binary.

Location: Boston

===Counting Cards===

All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT, and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]

Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.

Location: Harvard

[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]

Location: MIT

[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]

"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program.

Location: Smith

[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]

Location: Wellesley

[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]

Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.

===Giant Box Trap===
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]

Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk.

Location: Christopher Newport University

===Chemo Support===
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]

[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.

Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.

Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

===Reviews===
[[File:reviews.png]]

The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].

Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m, and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)

===Nothing===

The comic doesn't appear in iPad browsers. The top buttons and the bottom buttons are side by side, and you can only see the title in the top.

On April 28 and 29, 2019, a visit from San Francisco on macOS 10.14.4 using Chrome 74, Safari 12.1, or Firefox 66.0.3, all with JavaScript enabled, produced no comic, just two adjacent rows of navigation buttons.

==Transcript==
:[Note to courageous readers- The transcript has been reordered in the order in which the comics appear in the picture and appropriate names have been given.]

:'''The Void'''
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]

:'''Aurora'''
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: Hockey's on.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

:'''Aurora-US'''
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: It's cold out.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

:'''Snake'''
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]

:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.

:'''Black hat'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk. One is Black Hat. The other is an analyst. Black Hat has a number of terminals attached to his head.]
:Analyst: You come across a tortoise in the desert. You flip it over. It struggles to right itself. You watch. You're not helping. Why is that?

:Black Hat: It '''knows''' what it did.

:[View of the entire scene, with said turtle off in the distance on its back and trying to right itself.]

:'''Too quiet'''
:[A group of four scale down a wall into a field in the middle of the night. They walk off single-file.]
:Person 1: It's quiet.

:Person 3: Yeah - *Too* quiet.

:[A Velociraptor is off in the distance, following the group.]
:Person 4: Yeah - too *too* quiet.

:Person 2: Yeah - 2quiet2furious.
:Person 1: Fuck off, Steve.

:'''Pond'''
:[A landscape showing a pond, some reeds, and a set of mountains off in the distance.]

:'''Galaxies'''
:[A trio of galaxies.]
:Galaxy 1: He's not looking!
:Galaxy 3: Let's get him!
:[Lines draw in illustrating the eye-line of one of a pair of people.]
:Cueball: So he said he didn't get the text, but c'mon, he *never* misses texts. Right? ..hello?
:Megan: I'm just staring at your head freaked out by the fact that there are millions of galaxies *directly behind it*.

:'''xkcd Gold'''
:[Cueball holding bat.]

:Cueball: Sorry, but this comic

:[Cueball starts to wind up.]

:Cueball: requires

:[Cueball prepares to strike with bat.]

:Cueball: XKCD

:[Cueball swings at a beehive.]
:GOLD

:[Penis Bees fly out of the beehive.]

:'''Yo mamma'''
:[Cueball yells at a friend.]
:Cueball: Oh yeah? Well you mama's so ''cynical'', her only dog ballast is a ''leash''!
:(This comic takes place in a dystopian future where the government is afraid dogs can hover, so it requires them to wear weights at all times, and some people privately doubt the government, but not enough to stop buying dog weights.)

:'''Reddit'''
:Five seconds ago:
:[You sitting in front of a desk, reading a reddit thread.]
:You: Oh, hey, reddit has a link to some XKCD april fools comic.

:Now: [An image of the xkcd comic page.]
:Five seconds from now:

:You: ..hey

:30 seconds from now:
:[DANCE PARTY!]

:'''Buns and Hot dogs'''
:Cueball: What I wanna know is why do hot dogs come in packages of six while buns come in these huge sacks of ash and blood from which "Ave Maria" is faintly audible?
:[Chanting sacks of gore in the background.]

:'''Twitter'''
:[A Twitter account page with the following: Many tweets, fewer following, even fewer followers, A bunch of assholes in the suggested follow box, trending topics partitioned into: Word Games, Misogyny, and Bieber, stuff your eyes automatically ignore, A really pleasant blue. and the timeline: Something about a podcast, Someone confused because the description doesn't match the link, The link you clicked on to get to this comic, Rob Delaney, Passive Aggression, and horse ebooks.]

:'''Wikipedia'''
:[There's no comic here because instead of drawing one, I spent the last hour reading every news story cited in the Wikipedia article on The Mile High Club.]

:'''Google Chrome'''
:[A Chrome plugin error page.]
:Chrome: This plugin requires Sergey Brin's permission to run. Please wait while he is woken.

:'''Chrome/Firefox'''
:[Two people; Cueball is sitting at a desk in front of a laptop.]
:Cueball: Man, chrome's hardware acceleration really sucks.
:Ponytail: Oh - Theres' a great add-on that fixes it.
:Cueball: Oh? What's it called?
:Ponytail: "Firefox".

:'''Google Chrome-2'''
:[A Chrome plugin error page with the characteristic jigsaw piece.]
:Chrome: Chrome is looking for this piece. Have you seen it? Chrome thinks it links up with a corner.

:'''Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing'''
:[Firefox error page.]
:Firefox: Well, this is embarrassing. You know how I'm not supposed to peek at your browsing in private mode? Firefox.. is sorry. Firefox will not blame you if you
:[Button with text.]
:Click here to report this incident.

:'''Internet Explorer'''
:[IE error page.]
:IE: Error: Internet Explorer has given up.

:'''Maxthon'''
:Cueball: Maxthon? Hey, 2005 called. Didn't say anything. All I could hear was sobbing. This is getting harder. Anyway, yeah, Maxthon's still cool! Didn't know it was still around!

:'''Netscape Navigator'''
:[Two different versions exist: one with Cueball talking and one with Megan with tentacle arms talking.]
:Person: Netscape Navigator? Hey, the nineties called - drunk as usual. I hung up without saying anything. This is getting harder. Anyway - it's cool that you'e got netscape running.

:'''Rockmelt'''
:[Cueball running to laptop.]
:I ran to Rockmelt to hide my face

:[Cueball sitting at laptop.]
:But Rockmelt cried out -

:[Laptop shouting.]
:NO HIDING PLACE

:[zoom out.]
:NO HIDING PLACE DOWN HERE

:'''Google Chrome-3'''
:[A chrome plugin error page.]
:Chrome: There does not exist --nor could there '''ever''' exist-- a plugin capable of displaying this content.

:'''Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google - Chrome'''
:[Chrome error page.]
:Chrome: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Microsoft/Amazon - Firefox'''
:[Firefox error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Microsoft/The Times'''
:[Error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/The Times is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Corporate - Generic'''
:[Error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, we work as a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Military'''
:[Person looking at two browser windows.]
:Cueball: I know y'all know what you're doing. But if you're on a military machine and you're supposed to be watching for missiles or something, I hope you're keeping an eye on that in the background while you're reading comics. Also: Thanks.

:'''T-Mobile'''
:[Error page.]
:Data Error: T-Mobile was unable to establish a connection

:'''Verizon'''
:[Error page]
:Error: You have exceeded your Verizon monthly bandwidth cap. Mobile web browsing has been disabled.

:'''France'''
:[Two people; one of which is browsing using a laptop.]
:Cueball: Hey, you're French, right? Ever see what happens when you type "French Military Victories" into Google?
:French person: Does it take you to an article on Napoleon?

:French person: ..no? Strange, given how he kicked everyone's asses up and down Europe for over a decade.

:[Beat frame.]

:Cueball: Touche.
:French person: You know, that'd sound smarter if you didn't pronounce it like it rhymes with "douche".

:'''Germany'''
:[Cueball dropping food from an unorthodox high perch.]
:June 1948: In response to the Soviet blockade of East Germany, the western allies construct the Berlin Chairlift.
:Cueball on chairlift: Food!

:'''Israel'''
:[Person on phone.]
:Person (Translation from Hebrew): Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

:'''Carnot Cycle'''
:[Ponytail on a motorcycle with a heat-entropy graph on the side.]
:Ponytail: Check out my new Carnot Cycle!
:Cueball: Neat - how fast does it go?
:Ponytail: Depends how cold it is outside.

:'''Great Britain'''
:[Illustration of the Atlantic ocean.]
:American person: Sorry I don't have a comic poking fun at the UK here. I only had time to get to the most ''important'' US states.
:British person: Hey - At least we have free health care and real ale.

:'''Earthquake-Blizzard'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Boston", "Chicago", "Dallas", "Georgia", "Halifax", "Illinois", "Michigan", "Minnesota", "Missouri", "the Northeast", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", 'Pennsylvania", "Philadelphia", "Texas", "Toronto", "Tennessee", "New York", "Wisconsin"}! That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..
:[Both people are trudging through a massive blizzard.]
:Danish: In pictures, snow always looked so nice and sof - ''AAAA! MY NECK! How do people live here?!''
:Cueball: Come on - it's only three more miles.

:'''Earthquake-Tornado'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Dallas", "Illinois", "The Midwest", "Missouri", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", "Tennessee", "Texas"}!
:Cueball: That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..
:[Both people are in a shelter in a prairie with a rapidly-approaching tornado.]
:Danish: AAAA CLOSE THE SHELTER DOOR!
:Cueball: Say the magic words...
:Danish: THIS PLACE IS THE WORST!
:Cueball: Thank you.

:'''Earthquake-Hurricane'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "D.C", "Florida", "Houston", "Miami", "New Jersey", "North Carolina", "South Carolina", "Virgina"}! That was huge!
:Cueball: That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..

:[Both are in the middle of a hurricane. Danish is grabbing onto a signpost to avoid being swept away.]
:Danish: AAAAA WHAT THE SHIIIIT!
:Cueball: Calm down - this is barely a category 2.

:'''Lake Diver Killer'''
:[TV Field Reporter in front of a cordoned-off lake.]
:Reporter: Police divers searching the bay say they have recovered the body of another victim of the "Lake Diver Killer."
:Reporter: During the search, three more divers were reported missing.

:'''Washington'''
:[The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.]
:In this Marble Prison As in the nightmares of the nation they tried to devour
:The nanobots that constituted Abraham Lincoln
:Are entombed forever.

:'''Alaska'''
:[A person with a gun chasing a helicopter on the back of a wolf in a snowy Alaskan field.]
:Some people hunt wolves from helicopters. I hunt helicopters from a wolf.

:'''Life in lab'''
:[Newspaper headline.]
:Scientists/UMass Amherst students/RIT students create life in lab
:[Caption under picture of scientists.]
:"The trick was fuckin'"

:'''American Revolution'''
:Robot Paul Revere: Remember: Zero if by land, One if by sea.

:'''MIT'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: I see their admission standards have been slipping.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''MIT Course 15c'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: I *knew* we shouldn't have picked course 15s.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''Smith/Wellesley'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of Smith/Wellesley students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: We should've gone with Wellesley/Smith.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''CNU'''
:[Person unsuspectingly strolls under a giant box trap controlled by a Trible.]
:I worry that CNU only invited me back as a ruse because they realized I never turned in my final paper and want my diploma back. But if it turns out it's for real, I'll see you Wednesday at the Ferguson!

:'''Dana Farber'''
:[Cueball, pointing towards head.]
:Cueball: Check it out - In support of people going through chemo, I shaved my head.
:Lots of love to everyone reading this at Dana Farber. Cancer sucks. If you are new to DFCI, there's a great little garden on the third floor of the yawkey if you need somewhere quiet to just sit for a little bit and breathe.

:'''Reviews'''
:Shopping before online reviews:
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a store. Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. There is another lamp on the table behind them.]
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: And affordable.
:Cueball: Let's get it.
:Megan Ok!

:Shopping now:
:[Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. Megan looks at her phone.]
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: It's got 1 1/2 stars on Amazon. Reviews all say to avoid that brand.

:[Cueball and Megan are now both looking at their phones.]
:Cueball: This one has good reviews.
:Megan: Wait, one guy says when he plugged it in, he got a metallic taste in his mouth and his cats went deaf.
:Cueball: Eek. What about- ...no, review points out it resembles a uterus.

:[Cueball is still looking at his phone, Megan has hers at her side.]
:Cueball: Ok, I found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews. Her lamps start at 1,300 Francs and she's only reachable by ski lift.
:Megan: You know, our room looks fine in the dark.

==Trivia==
*Reddit user [http://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.

*The transcript section for this comic also included a note alluding to its extreme length:
: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki> ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this))
: [[Two people standing next to each other. One is holding the head end of a snake...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
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[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
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[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
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[[Category:Philosophy]]
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Talk:2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-02T03:35:04Z

Thisisnotatest: /* I think the table is wrong */ Added note on missing time zones

Sorry for the server downtime, it should be fixed now. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:24, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

: So what was it? Hardware issue, failed software update, reconfiguration boo-boo, external attack, frozen process, Y2K+19 bug? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:30, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
::To be honest: I don't know. But probably a mixture of "external attack" and "frozen process" AND my laziness to check the health of the Wiki by 24/7. I figured it out when the BOT couldn't do the proper updates and some refreshing restarts to some processes did the job. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:54, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

The leftmost label says "10:00 AM EST", but I'm 95% sure that it should be "5:00 AM EST". That makes sense both in terms of time zones / date lines, and also in terms of the number of hash marks (the 9th hash mark before 1:30 PM: 2 PM - 9 = 5 AM). --Brandon [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.224|172.69.22.224]] 19:35, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
:Agreed. The minor scale tick marks appear to be at 1 hr increments past the "1:30 PM" denoted time. However that doesn't follow for before 1:00 pm to reach the labeled "10:00 AM" mark. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.88|172.68.34.88]] 20:59, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
:I suspect he failed to translate the label correctly to EST, since it would be 10:00 AM UST. I'm going to add some content into the explanation on the word "Consensus" from Wiktionary. It has multiple definitions that include both "agreement among the members of a given group" as in a common time to celebrate the New Year, as well as "Average projected value" that might also be applicable here. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:35, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
:I'm watching the xkcd page to see if Randall updates the comic image to correct this error. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 00:50, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm actually not certain Randall '''suggests''' a time for universal celebration of New Year. Apart from the word "Consensus", there's nothing to suggest it. Rather, I read it as a stated time where a majority will agree to the statement that it's now 2019. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.187|141.101.96.187]] 22:38, 31 December 2018 (UTC)Wilhelm
: I agree that he's probably not suggesting everyone should celebrate at some common time - see my recent edit on the meaning of consensus in the explanation. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 23:27, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

'''Happy NEW YEAR!!!'''

While Randall has to wait... in central Europe it just happened when I'm posting this. And in Germany we don't have only the "Autobahn" with no speed limit, every eighteen year old or older child plays with fireworks...

Nonetheless not only in California there are some people giving more attention to a much more unique event: New Horizons is passing {{w|(486958) 2014 MU69|Ultima Thule}}, six ''light hours'' away from Earth.
Let's see if Randall does cover this event. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:49, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

On the topic of Orthodox churches using shifted Julian calendar: I can't speak for the entire world, but here in Russia it's not really relevant, since the church calendar is limited to religious matters, and New Year is a secular holiday. (But Orthodox Christmas will in fact be observed on Jan 7th.) There ''is'' an obscure holiday called Old New Year that is New Year shifted to 14th, but hardly anyone celebrates it and it certainly doesn't replace the regular one. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.236|141.101.77.236]] 16:58, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

I note that 3:00PM (UTC-3) lists only "Northern" Brazil. That's kinda correct (should be actually "Northeastern" Brazil), but the South/Southwest, which is actually where the largest part of Brazilian population lives, is nowhere to be found. Due to DST, it ''should'' be in the 2:00PM line (UTC-2), but that line is blank. Unfortunately, I don't have the population numbers on hand to fix the entry, much less to fix the world population percentages on the table.--[[User:MCBastos|MCBastos]] ([[User talk:MCBastos|talk]]) 17:04, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

'''Consensus Definition'''

IP Address user 173.245.54.13 edited the explanation and replaced the Wikipedia definition references with an interpretation of how Randall incorrectly used the term "consensus" in place of majority vote - I don't agree that Randall has made any error, as I don't believe he intended consensus to represent majority vote. I'd like other opinions about restoring my original definitions in place of this new content, as I think it detracts from an understanding of the comic. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:35, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

I eventually decided that "consensus New Year" meant "Agreement it is New Years," more or less. As midnight marches past people, more people concede that it's the new year. To me, Mr M is just giving an interesting graph.

: (BTW, you failed to sign your comment.) I like to think Randall is smarter than just using a word without understanding every nuance of it - after all, writing these comics is his full-time job instead of just a pastime. The fact that consensus is sometimes understood that way is the very reason why I thought the definition that states otherwise was useful and informative. The definitions included "average projected value" that seemed to match exactly how it was used in the title (by grammatical structure) and in the graph (by definition), so I'm of the opinion that Randall knew this as well and would not have misused the word outside of it's correct definition. I believe he created the graph to represent the "average projected value" of the metric at each point in time, very explicitly and meaningfully; to think otherwise seems to me to be an insult to his intelligence. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 01:08, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
I agree w/ you, and thinks it's an interesting graph from which one can't conclude
much about RM https://xkcd.com/688/ . [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.83|172.68.58.83]] 03:23, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

== I think the table is wrong ==

I don't see how 100% can be reached before "western Mexico", "MST", and "PST". California alone has a population of about 40 million, so it would seem as though at least 1% of world population would have to be "western Mexico", "MST", and "PST".

:Additionally, some :30 and :45 timezones are missing (not sure whether they are missing from the xkcd graph itself) [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 03:35, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-02T03:28:48Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added note on use of slope in the graph

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], [[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. While the Gregorian calendar is used as the civil calendar in most countries of the world, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

Randall has made a common mistake in this comic, misusing the term {{Wikipedia|consensus}} for the common practice of {{Wikipedia|majority vote}}.

In scenarios involving group decision-making, consensus means that all or almost all members of the group will accept the decision. Depending on how it is done, this generally results in a slower decision-making process due to discussion, but decisions that many more people are happy with. Consensus can scale to large groups of people using approaches such as the [https://seedsforchange.org.uk/spokescouncil spokescouncil model] to speed dialogue. By this definition, Consensus New Year happens at one of the last four time zones as the last to "agree" enter 2019, so (nearly full consensus definition) 4:00 am, 5:00 am, 6:00 am, or (full consensus definition) 7:00 am EST on January 1, 2019.

Consensus lies in contrast to majority vote, where a decision passes when over 50% of the people desire it. Majority vote is used in most current large democracies and is what most people are familiar with. It is quick to describe and implement, but can result in harshly polarized political groups, and a stark lack of minority rights.

It is also possible that Randall is using "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" in its statistical sense, where it indicates the average projected value of a metric.

Additionally, some of the lines are shown with a slope, which is inaccurate. Since sun time is not used anywhere, a correct graph line would only consist of horizontal and vertical lines.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Fiji, New Zealand
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
| 10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
| 11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
| 12:00 PM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Eastern Europe, Egypt, Central & Southern Africa
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
| 7:00 PM || 00:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina
|-
| 11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Atlantic Canada, Venezuela
|-
| 12:00 AM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-02T02:44:32Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Correcting pm to am times on Consensus New Year actual time

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], [[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. While the Gregorian calendar is used as the civil calendar in most countries of the world, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

Randall has made a common mistake in this comic, misusing the term {{Wikipedia|consensus}} for the common practice of {{Wikipedia|majority vote}}.

In scenarios involving group decision-making, consensus means that all or almost all members of the group will accept the decision. Depending on how it is done, this generally results in a slower decision-making process due to discussion, but decisions that many more people are happy with. Consensus can scale to large groups of people using approaches such as the [https://seedsforchange.org.uk/spokescouncil spokescouncil model] to speed dialogue. By this definition, Consensus New Year happens at one of the last four time zones as the last to "agree" enter 2019, so (nearly full consensus definition) 4:00 am, 5:00 am, 6:00 am, or (full consensus definition) 7:00 am EST on January 1, 2019.

Consensus lies in contrast to majority vote, where a decision passes when over 50% of the people desire it. Majority vote is used in most current large democracies and is what most people are familiar with. It is quick to describe and implement, but can result in harshly polarized political groups, and a stark lack of minority rights.

It is also possible that Randall is using "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" in its statistical sense, where it indicates the average projected value of a metric.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Fiji, New Zealand
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
| 10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
| 11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
| 12:00 PM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Eastern Europe, Egypt, Central & Southern Africa
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
| 7:00 PM || 00:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina
|-
| 11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Atlantic Canada, Venezuela
|-
| 12:00 AM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

2092: Consensus New Year

2019-01-02T02:41:10Z

Thisisnotatest: Added the time of the actual Consensus New Year.

{{comic
| number = 2092
| date = December 31, 2018
| title = Consensus New Year
| image = consensus_new_year.png
| titletext = The biggest jump is at 11:00am EST (4:00pm UTC) when midnight reaches the UTC+8 time zone. That time zone, which includes China, is home to a quarter of the world's population. India and Sri Lanka (UTC+5:30) put us over the 50% mark soon after.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please complete this explanation once everyone has entered the new year. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], [[Randall]] is proposing a compromise for when to celebrate, or recognize, {{w|New Year's Day}}. These celebrations traditionally take place at the stroke of midnight between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st, at the local time of the event's location. With "Consensus New Year", these celebrations would happen at the same time, world over, and would be at exactly 1:30 pm {{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}} (6:30 pm {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}}). At this time, about half the world's population would be in 2018 local time and the other half would be in 2019. This is due to the various time zones throughout the world, and the graph is based on the proportion of the population in these zones.

This is based on the assumption that the entire world uses the same calendar system. Randall's graph shows the year starting on the same day for the entire world. While the Gregorian calendar is used as the civil calendar in most countries of the world, the Eastern Orthodox churches uses the Julian calendar, on which the year will begin 13 days later, and the year (as of December 2018-January 2018) is 1440 on the Muslim calendar and 5779 on the Hebrew calendar.

Randall has made a common mistake in this comic, misusing the term {{Wikipedia|consensus}} for the common practice of {{Wikipedia|majority vote}}.

In scenarios involving group decision-making, consensus means that all or almost all members of the group will accept the decision. Depending on how it is done, this generally results in a slower decision-making process due to discussion, but decisions that many more people are happy with. Consensus can scale to large groups of people using approaches such as the [https://seedsforchange.org.uk/spokescouncil spokescouncil model] to speed dialogue. By this definition, Consensus New Year happens at one of the last four time zones as the last to "agree" enter 2019, so (nearly full consensus definition) 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm, or (full consensus definition) 7:00 pm EST on January 1, 2019.

Consensus lies in contrast to majority vote, where a decision passes when over 50% of the people desire it. Majority vote is used in most current large democracies and is what most people are familiar with. It is quick to describe and implement, but can result in harshly polarized political groups, and a stark lack of minority rights.

It is also possible that Randall is using "{{Wiktionary|consensus}}" in its statistical sense, where it indicates the average projected value of a metric.

===Time zones===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Time EST !! Time UTC !! %Population in 2019 !! Regions entering 2019
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 0 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 0 || Kamchatka (Russia), Fiji, New Zealand
|-
| 8:00 AM || 13:00 || 0 || Magadan (Russia), Pacific Islands
|-
| 9:00 AM || 14:00 || 0 || Vladivostok (Russia), Queensland (Australia)
|-
| 10:00 AM || 15:00 || 5 || Yakutsk (Russia), Japan, Korea, Eastern Indonesia
|-
| 11:00 AM || 16:00 || 25 || China, Irkutsk (Russia), Taiwan, Western Australia, Malaysia
|-
| 12:00 PM || 17:00 || 30 || Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Vietnam, Thailand
|-
| 1:00 PM || 18:00 || 35 || Omsk (Russia), Kazakhstan, Bangladesh
|-
| 1:30 PM || 18:30 || 55 || India, Sri Lanka
|-
| 2:00 PM || 19:00 || 60 || Yekaterinburg (Russia), Pakistan
|-
| 3:00 PM || 20:00 || 60 || Samara (Russia), Georgia, Oman, UAE
|-
| 4:00 PM || 21:00 || 70 || Moscow (Russia), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, East Africa
|-
| 5:00 PM || 22:00 || 75 || Eastern Europe, Egypt, Central & Southern Africa
|-
| 6:00 PM || 23:00 || 85 || Central Europe, Africa
|-
| 7:00 PM || 00:00 || 90 || (GMT) UK, Portugal, Ireland, Western Africa
|-
| 8:00 PM || 01:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 9:00 PM || 02:00 || 90 ||
|-
| 10:00 PM || 03:00 || 90 || Northern Brazil, Argentina
|-
| 11:00 PM || 04:00 || 90 || Atlantic Canada, Venezuela
|-
| 12:00 AM || 05:00 || 95 || (EST) Eastern USA, Peru, Chile
|-
| 1:00 AM || 06:00 || 100 || (CT) Central USA, Mexico, Central America
|-
| 2:00 AM || 07:00 || 100 || (MT) Central USA, Western Mexico
|-
| 3:00 AM || 08:00 || 100 || (PST) Western USA
|-
| 4:00 AM || 09:00 || 100 || Alaska
|-
| 5:00 AM || 10:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 6:00 AM || 11:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|-
| 7:00 AM || 12:00 || 100 || Pacific Islands
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A graph labeled “Percentage of the world's population living in 2019” with Y-axis markers at 0%, 50%, and 100%, and X-axis markers at 10:00 AM EST Dec 31st, 1:30 PM EST, 7:00 PM EST, Midnight EST, 3:00 AM EST Jan 1st, and 7:00 AM EST.]
:[The line graph shows the percentage increasing from 0 to 100% in several steps, with 50% reached at 1:30 PM EST.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Consensus New Year: as of 1:30PM Eastern Time (6:30PM UTC) a majority of the world's population will be living in 2019.

==Trivia==
Randall has mislabeled the leftmost point of the graph: the Earth's earliest time zone ({{w|UTC+14:00}}) should have the midnight at 5:00 AM EST rather than 10:00 AM EST. The number of one-hour increments on the x-axis does not match Randall's label.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Time]]

1196: Subways

2018-12-27T07:50:13Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Official subway maps */ Fixed broken link to San Francisco MUNI map

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in distorted geographic position. While {{w|Vancouver}} is the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – distances are not accurate (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example) and cities are often arranged in the wrong direction from one another:

* San Francisco is shown directly west of Toronto - in reality west southwest
* Boston is shown directly north of New York City and just slightly to the west - in reality east northeast
* Atlanta is shown west southwest of Miami - it is actually north northwest
* Atlanta is shown northwest of Mexico City - it is actually northeast
* Atlanta is shown slightly east of being south of Los Angeles - it is actually just slightly north of being directly east

The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section.)

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section.)
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport [https://www.logoventure.com/ logo] for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y paper airplane]. [https://logomines.com/ Logo Design].

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - https://www.sfmta.com/maps/muni-metro-map
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

1196: Subways

2018-12-27T07:17:50Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added notes on geographic distortion

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}
*The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
[[File:North American subways.svg.png|right|border|link=http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html|North America Subways by Prof. Bill Rankin]]
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map have whimsically named connections, such as the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles, or the "Rocky Mountain Tunnel" connecting the Blue Lines of Chicago and San Francisco. Vancouver and San Francisco are connected through a station called Richmond, which appears to double as {{w|Richmond, British Columbia}} and {{w|Richmond, California}}. The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), but its approximate location on this map would suggest the [http://www.seattlemonorail.com/ Seattle Monorail], or perhaps Springfield, Oregon, which [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Matt-Groening-Reveals-the-Location-of-the-Real-Springfield.html Matt Groening revealed was the inspiration for the Simpsons' hometown].

The [http://www.radicalcartography.net/subways.html Urban Mass Transit Systems of North America] map (right) created by [http://hshm.yale.edu/rankin Yale Professor Bill Rankin] on his web site [http://www.radicalcartography.net/ Radical Cartography] in 2006 presents all of the subway systems in North America at the same scale using geographic, instead of topological, layout.

The networks on xkcd's map are displayed in distorted geographic position. While {{w|Vancouver}} is the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – distances are not accurate (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example) and cities are often arranged in the wrong direction from one another:

* San Francisco is shown directly west of Toronto - in reality west southwest
* Boston is shown directly north of New York City and just slightly to the west - in reality east northeast
* Atlanta is shown west southwest of Miami - it is actually north northwest
* Atlanta is shown northwest of Mexico City - it is actually northeast
* Atlanta is shown slightly east of being south of Los Angeles - it is actually just slightly north of being directly east

The map's design is modeled after the system map of the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}} in Boston where Randall is from.

===City-specific notes===

====Vancouver====
*The {{w|Canada Line}} and the {{w|Expo Line (TransLink)|Expo Line}} are shown as the same color; SkyTrain's official maps depict them with light blue and dark blue respectively.
*{{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the southernmost terminus of the Canada Line is located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, California}} (see San Francisco section.)

====Boston====
*The "Green Line Extension to Canada" references {{w|Green Line Extension|the actual project}} to extend the {{w|Green Line (MBTA)|Green Line}} into Medford, north of Boston.
*The "Ashmont–Manhattan High-Speed Line" shown as connecting Boston's Red Line to New York City's 1 train is a play on the {{w|Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line}} in Boston.
*The {{w|Red Line (MBTA)|Red Line}} stops "Skinflower" and "Bonevine" are plays on the actual name of the Red Line's terminus, {{w|Braintree (MBTA station)|Braintree}}.
*The {{w|Orange Line (MBTA)|Orange Line}} terminates in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain in Dorchester. Therefore, it is connected to the {{w|Jamaica–179th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line)|Jamaica 179 St}} station on the map.

====San Francisco====
*Both Muni and BART are depicted in San Francisco's map and are completely separate systems, although the map gives the impression that trains interline between the two. Non-wheelchair-accessible stops on Muni lines are omitted.
*{{w|Richmond, California|Richmond}} is the name of the city where the northern terminus of the {{w|Richmond-Fremont line|Richmond–Fremont}} and the {{w|Richmond-Daly City/Millbrae line|Richmond–Daly City/Millbrae}} BART lines are located, and shares its name with {{w|Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond, British Columbia}} (see Vancouver section.)
*"Sunnydale" is the {{w|Sunnydale Station|actual name}} of the terminus of the Muni {{w|T Third Street}} line, not to be confused with {{w|Sunnydale|the city}} where ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is set.

====Los Angeles====
*The {{w|Gold Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Gold Line}} and the {{w|Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Orange Line}} are shown with swapped colors.
*The Orange Line is the only {{w|bus rapid transit}} (BRT) line to be shown on the map. LA Metro also operates a second BRT line, the {{w|Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)|Silver Line}}, which is not shown.

====New York City====
*The {{w|New York City Subway}}, {{w|Port Authority Trans-Hudson}} (PATH), and the single line of the {{w|Staten Island Railway}} (with a connection via the {{w|Staten Island Ferry}}) are shown.
*{{w|Jamaica, Queens|Jamaica}} is the name of the neighborhood in Queens where the E, F, and J/Z trains terminate. Kingston is the capital and largest city in the country of {{w|Jamaica}}.
*The actual {{w|G (New York City Subway service)|G train}} is notorious for unreliable service, hence the "Random Service" notation.
*The "Robert Moses High-Speed Line" refers to the NYC urban planner {{w|Robert Moses}}, who was one of the most influential planners in supporting cars over all public transport, creating the car-dependent {{w|New York metropolitan area}}.

====Philadelphia====
*Both {{w|SEPTA}} subway lines, a portion of the {{w|SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines}}, and the {{w|PATCO Speedline}} are shown.
*"Trolley Rt. 10 to California" is a play on the actual {{w|SEPTA Route 10|Route 10}} trolley.

====Washington, DC====
*The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system advising passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevator doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.
*The "Morgantown, WV Automated Line" references the {{w|Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit}} system, which was built in 1975 as a {{w|personal rapid transit}} demonstrator and serves the three campuses of West Virginia University.
*{{w|Greenbelt (WMATA station)|Greenbelt}} is the northern terminus of the Washington Metro's Green and Yellow lines, hence the Green line being depicted as forming a belt.
*This comic was made before the Silver line was constructed, so it does not appear in the comic.

====Miami====
*The "Caribbean Metromover" references the {{w|Miami Metromover}}, a people mover in downtown Miami (not shown on the map.)
*The airport [https://www.logoventure.com/ logo] for Miami International Airport (MIA) is replaced with a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y paper airplane]. [https://logomines.com/ Logo Design].

====San Juan====
*The "Puerto Rico Submarine" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and New York refers to the fact that San Juan is on an island, namely {{w|Puerto Rico}}.
*The "Mona Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of San Juan and Santo Domingo may refer to the island of {{w|Isla de Mona|Mona}}, which lies between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

====Monterrey====
*The "Chicxulub Tunnel" that connects the Red Lines of Santo Domingo and Monterey refers to the 65-million-year-old {{w|Chicxulub crater}}, which lies roughly between the two cities.

===Official subway maps===
*Atlanta - http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx
*Baltimore (MTA Maryland) - http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/metro-subway.jpg
*Boston (MBTA) - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
*Chicago (CTA) - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
*Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
*Los Angeles (LACMTA) - http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.gif
*Mexico City - http://www.metro.df.gob.mx/imagenes/red/redinternet.pdf
*Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
*New York City (MTA) - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
*New York City (PATH) - http://www.panynj.gov/path/maps.html
*Philadelphia (SEPTA and PATCO) - http://www.septa.org/maps/system/index.html
*San Francisco (BART) - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif
*San Francisco (MUNI) - http://transit.511.org/static/providers/maps/SF_712200722845.gif
*Toronto (TTC) - https://www.tourbytransit.com/toronto/public-transit/subway
*Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
*Washington (WMATA) - http://wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

{{clear}}

==Transcript==
:'''Subways of North America'''
:[A subway-line style (bold colored, 45-degree aligned lines with white bars indicating stations) map has been constructed by combining and linking various parts of the subway maps from many different cities, as if all of the transit systems were connected directly. The cities include (from top to bottom, left to right) Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Monterrey, San Juan, Santo Domingo, and Mexico City.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:2037: Supreme Court Bracket

2018-08-26T07:01:08Z

Thisisnotatest: Added comment on italics use.

Came here for insight, only to discover this is tomorrow's comic, I'm viewing Friday's comic on Thursday after midnight. D'oh! Damn, seeing a comic early and I can't provide or contribute to the explanation, LOL! I realize the bracket and "Sweet 16" are sports things, I think football and/or basketball, and I spotted the famous name Roe vs. Wade, so seems like court cases, but that's it. Looking forward to people explaining the smaller jokes (I spotted "Loving" and "Virginia", and I feel like I recall their license plates say "Virginia Is For Lovers" I think, I expect something there). [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:58, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:Protip: Thursday after midnight is Friday! Nonetheless this comic was released at 0:00 EDT meaning it was still Thursday at time zones westwards. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 07:03, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:I got here at like 9:10 Pacific time and the comic was already up; normally I have to wait until like 1 AM before Randall posts it/you guys auto-mirror it.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.235|172.68.189.235]] 08:23, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
::The pages here are created automatically less than two minutes after the original was published on xkcd. Today, like some others in the recent past, this happened at 4:01 UTC (or GMT - the server time) which corresponds to 0:01 EDT (Randall time) and 21:01 PDT (the day before at your time.) The weekday is defined by Randall's time zone - US citizens should know about the shift from east to west. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:01, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Errm. You can go back to the previous comic if you hit the [<Prev] button just above the current one. {{unsigned ip|141.101.107.36}}

I agree that this is a sports reference, but can someone also include some sort of note about the title? I think that the "Supreme COURT" is referring to a basketball COURT, connected to how brackets like this are used in basketball like with March Madness. [[User:B. A. Beder|B. A. Beder]] ([[User talk:B. A. Beder|talk]]) 05:50, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:No, I'm pretty sure it's titled Supreme Court Bracket because the bracket consists of cases in which the Supreme Court of the United States made the rulings. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.6|162.158.90.6]] 10:35, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
::Why not both? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.82|108.162.219.82]] 18:49, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:::There is an actual basketball court in the Supreme Court building: https://www.si.com/nba/2018/07/25/supreme-court-building-basketball-court [[User:Tplaza64|Tplaza64]] ([[User talk:Tplaza64|talk]]) 00:03, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Well, how would the tournament turn out? We know who won the cases, so who's the king of the US legal system? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.66|162.158.90.66]] 06:41, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
: Many participants fail to reappear for the round 2, so not much progress yet. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.86|141.101.77.86]] 13:24, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:: I think it would be interesting if someone who knows a little more about the US legal system could write some short fanfic pieces about each of the cases later in the bracket. Maybe write each participant as if they were actually individuals, and try to come up with a reason for each case that's kind of consistent with their previously shown personalities. In cases like NLRB v Brown (mentioned below), you could just link to the case or give a short dramatised summary. For cases that haven't happened in reality, post a short piece describing the case presented, and let people vote on the outcome (as I believe was previously done for another comic about brackets, on Twitter or something I think?). I'd love to see how it went. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 15:38, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Moral of the story: If you are the respondent in a landmark case, you might as well give up. --[[User:Troy0|Troy0]] ([[User talk:Troy0|talk]]) 07:53, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:I noticed that as well. Do most "landmark" cases go to the plaintiff or is this just an outlier sample?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.235|172.68.189.235]] 08:23, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
: But Marbury actually won the case, the court was unable to deliver the ruling [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.104|162.158.155.104]] 09:42, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
::"Marbury won"? Not according to the unanimous 4-0 ruling AGAINST Marbury.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.140|172.69.22.140]] 20:20, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
: As I see it (IANAL), the plaintiff goal in the Supreme Court usually is to change something (overrule a previous court decision, repeal a law), while the respondent typically fights to keep things the same. If the plaintiff loses, no changes are made. If nobody sees any changes in the country, why the case would be a landmark? Only when both outcomes change things for many people, like in the Dred Scott case, the respondent win makes a landmark. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.86|141.101.77.86]] 13:24, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

I think this comic is unique because the comic references real life events without throwing in any fake events for comic effect. Usually the comic would have some imaginary events included. I guess just the idea that winners of Supreme Court cases are going to come back to the court and compete against each other is comical enough. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:42, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

;Adding an image
I created an image showing the winners superimposed on the original comic so you can see who is due to "play" each other next. Is there any way to upload the file? the image is this: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:UploadStash/thumb/15zj3hymeul4.6wctza.13964.png/600px-15zj3hymeul4.6wctza.13964.png [[User:Mrdownes|Mrdownes]] ([[User talk:Mrdownes|talk]]) 11:27, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:In general we don't need such an image because it doesn't explain much and the winners are already highlighted at the explanation. This Wiki isn't a picture book. Nevertheless check the menu and you will find the entry "Upload file". --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:09, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
:I think that updated bracket image would be fun to see regardless. Please do post it. [[User:Wisnij|Wisnij]] ([[User talk:Wisnij|talk]]) 19:08, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

The Brown won the NLRB v Brown match in round 2. (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/380/278/) -[[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.244|172.69.69.244]] 15:19, 24 August 2018 (UTC)
: Are there any other possible matchups that were actual cases in the same way? Someone already mentioned ''Massachusetts v Connecticut''. How would you fill in the bracket to get the maximum number of real cases? -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 15:38, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Just wanted to thank all you folks for the explanation! I couldn't make head or tail of this comic… (Comes of being a non-USian, I guess. Even after reading this page, I only recognised two of those cases. xkcd is usually pretty universal — within the geek world, anyway — and US-specific ones like this are pretty puzzling to the rest of us.) Cheers! — [[User:Gidds|Gidds]] ([[User talk:Gidds|talk]]) 23:56, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

The joke here is simply that, while court cases are competitions, the winner of a case does not challenge the winner of another case (unlike sports tournaments). It's a juxtaposition joke, made funnier by the fact that "court" is used in sports as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.163|172.68.189.163]] 00:09, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

I just realized that the part of the explanation about the title text is not entirely correct. It mentions that a bracket is busted when a matchup does not have the predicted result, but I think it needs to point out the fact that it's related to any matchup that includes the team you picked to win the bracket instead of just any matchup in the bracket. In summary, if the team you picked to make it past the bracket loses a matchup, you then have no chance of a correct pick for any team from that bracket in later matchups - hence that bracket is busted. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:04, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

Just as tables cause readability issues, semantic use of italics can cause issues. Specifically, it is not safe to assume that screen reading software will distinguish italicized content such that a blind person will be aware which side won the case in the comic description. It is safe only to explicity indicate the winner through text. [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 07:01, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

2037: Supreme Court Bracket

2018-08-26T06:57:49Z

Thisisnotatest: /* Explanation */ Added explicit "(winner)" text for accessibility. It is not safe to assume that screen readers distinguish italicized text.

{{comic
| number = 2037
| date = August 24, 2018
| title = Supreme Court Bracket
| image = supreme_court_bracket.png
| titletext = My bracket was busted in the first round; I had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final, probably in a case over who gets to annex Rhode Island.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Each court case needs its own explanation, preferably a small paragraph instead of a sentence in parentheses. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Supreme Court of the United States}} is the highest federal court of the United States. A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} is a tree diagram that represents the series of games played during a knockout tournament. [[Randall]] suggests that the winners of the 16 listed court cases will file against each other and then again until the final winner is selected. However, many of them were humans who lived too far apart chronologically for that to be possible. For example, over 100 years separated Gibbons v. Ogden from Near v. Minnesota, making a lawsuit between {w|Thomas Gibbons|Thomas Gibbons} and J.M. Near improbable. (Minnesota is a state and could survive indefinitely, but it lost the case.) In fact, {w|Thomas Gibbons|Thomas Gibbons} died in 1826, making it impossible for him to be a party to a lawsuit subsequent to Near v. Minnesota, which was decided in 1931.

Court cases are typically titled as plaintiff versus defendant. Randall is spoofing this idea by imagining famous Supreme Court cases as though they were games in the first round of a single-elimination tournament, similar to college basketball's {{w|NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament|March Madness}}, complete with a ranking bracket. "Sweet 16" in the context of a tournament refers to the stage in a tournament where 16 competitors remain. This comic's concept is thus a word play on "court" (court of law v. basketball court).

The cases are:
====Marbury v. ''Madison'' (winner), 1803====
The case {{w|Marbury v. Madison|Marbury v. Madison}} declared a provision of the {{w|Judiciary Act of 1789}} unconstitutional, thus preventing several late-term appointments by outgoing President {{w|John Adams}} from being seated under incoming President {{w|Thomas Jefferson}}. More importantly, the ruling established the principle of {{w|judicial review}} by which the Supreme Court can overturn, on the basis of unconstitutionality, laws passed by {{w|United States Congress|Congress}} and signed into law by the {{w|President of the United States|President}}. For this reason it is considered the single most important decision in American constitutional law.

====''McCulloch'' (winner) v. Maryland, 1819====
The case {{w|McCulloch v. Maryland|McCulloch v. Maryland}} established a broad interpretation of the "necessary and proper" clause, specifically finding that Congress could incorporate a Bank of the United States because the purpose was to help carry out Congress' explicit powers under Article I, section 8.

====''Gibbons'' (winner) v. Ogden, 1824====
The case {{w|Gibbons v. Ogden|Gibbons v. Ogden}} established that interstate commerce is regulated by the U.S. Congress according to the U.S. Constitution, that interstate navigation is fundamental to interstate commerce, and that therefore the power to regulate interstate navigation in this way rests with the U.S. Congress, not with any state legislature.

On 01 March 1824, the US Supreme Court decided in favor of Thomas Gibbons in his appeal of a case brought against him by Aaron Ogden in an attempt to prevent Gibbons from operating steamboats to transport goods and passengers between New York City, New York and Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The US Supreme Court decision reversed a prior injunction against Gibbons issued by a New York State court deciding that Ogden held exclusive navigational rights by way of having licensed them from two men to whom the New York State Legislature had granted the navigation rights in several acts between 1798 and 1807.

====''Near'' (winner) v. Minnesota, Jan 30, 1930 – Jun 1, 1931====
The case {{w|Near v. Minnesota|Near v. Minnesota}} is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that found that prior restraints on publication violate freedom of the press as protected under the {{w|First Amendment to the United States Constitution}}, a principle that was applied to free speech generally in subsequent jurisprudence. The Court ruled that a Minnesota law that targeted publishers of "malicious" or "scandalous" newspapers violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Noteworthy it was later a key precedent in {{w|New York Times Co. v. United States}} (1971), in which the court ruled against the Nixon administration's attempt to enjoin publication of the Pentagon Papers.

====''NLRB'' (winner) v. Jones & Laughlin, 1937====
{{w|NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.|National Labor Relations Board v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation}} was a US labor law case. It declared that the {{w|National Labor Relations Act of 1935}} was constitutional. It effectively preserved the {{w|New Deal}}, which was being pursued by US President {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt}} in reaction to the {{w|Great Depression}}. Previous Supreme Court cases, unlike ''NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin'', had invalidated New Deal statutes.

====''Brown'' (winner) v. Board of Education, Dec 9, 1952 – May 17, 1954====
The case {{w|Brown v. Board of Education|Brown v. Board of Education}} the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. It stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

This ruling paved the way for the {{w|Civil rights movement|Civil Rights Movement}}. However, the decision did not spell out any sort of method for ending racial segregation in schools, and the Court's second decision in {{w|Brown v. Board of Education#Brown II|Brown II}} only ordered states to desegregate "with all deliberate speed."

====''Gideon'' (winner) v. Wainwright, 1963====
In the case {{w|Gideon v. Wainwright|'''Gideon''' v. Wainwright}} the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states are required under the {{w|Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixth Amendment}} to the U.S. Constitution to provide an attorney or lawyer to defendants in criminal cases who are unable to afford their own attorneys.

====''Griswold'' (winner) v. Connecticut, 1965====
ToDo:{{w|Griswold v. Connecticut|Griswold v. Connecticut}}
(right to birth control)

====''Miranda'' (winner) v. Arizona, 1966====
ToDo:{{w|Miranda v. Arizona|Miranda v. Arizona}}
(required police to inform suspects of their rights)

====''Loving'' (winner) v. Virginia, April 10, 1967 - June 12, 1967====
ToDo: {{w|Loving v. Virginia|Loving v. Virginia}}
(overturned a ban on interracial marriage)

====''Roe'' (winner) v. Wade, January 22, 1973====
ToDo: {{w|Roe v. Wade|Roe v. Wade}}
(right to abortion)

====''United States'' (winner) v. Nixon, July 8, 1974 - July 24, 1974====
ToDo: {{w|United States v. Nixon|United States v. Nixon}}
(ordered president Nixon to turn over Watergate tapes)

====''Bush'' (winner) v. Gore, December 12, 2000=====
ToDo: {{w|Bush v. Gore|Bush v. Gore}}
(disputed 2000 Presidential election)

====''Lawrence'' (winner) v. Texas, June 26, 2003====
ToDo:{{w|Lawrence v. Texas|Lawrence v. Texas}}
(invalidated sodomy laws)

====''Massachusetts'' (winner) v. EPA, 2007====
ToDo:{{w|Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency|Massachusetts v. EPA}}
(decided that the state of Massachusetts has standing to sue the EPA for not doing enough against global warming)

====''Obergefell'' (winner) v. Hodges, June 26, 2015====
ToDo:{{w|Obergefell v. Hodges|Obergefell v. Hodges}}
(allowing same-sex marriage)

The title text refers to a practice of filling out a March Madness bracket, predicting a winner for each game up to the championship. A bracket is "busted" when the result of a game is not as predicted; because future matchups depend on previous results, the whole bracket is worthless at that point. Randall "had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final", predicting both parties would win all previous rounds and advance to the final game/case. Because Connecticut lost its first-round case to Griswold, his bracket is busted in the first round.

In the second part of the title text, Randall writes: "I had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final, probably in a case over who gets to annex Rhode Island." In fact, there actually was a Supreme Court case ''Massachusetts v. Connecticut'' (summary at [https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/282/660/ Justia.com], full text at [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17012735467934830012&q=Connecticut+v.+Massachusetts&hl=en&as_sdt=2006 Google Scholar]) dealing with water rights on the Connecticut River, which flows between the two states.

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 participants each on the left and right side. From both sides toward the middle the brackets reduce to eight, then four, two, and one line where the latter join to a rectangle in the middle.]

:[Left side:]
:Marbury - Madison
:McCulloch - Maryland
:Gibbons - Ogden
:Near - Minnesota
:NLRB - Jones & Laughlin
:Brown - Board of Education
:Gideon - Wainwright
:Griswold - Connecticut

:[Right side:]
:Miranda - Arizona
:Loving - Virginia
:Roe - Wade
:United States - Nixon
:Bush - Gore
:Lawrence - Texas
:Massachusetts - EPA
:Obergefell - Hodges

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Now that we've finished the round of 32, the Supreme court will be moving on to the Sweet 16.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2017: Stargazing 2

2018-07-15T07:41:08Z

Thisisnotatest: Clarify the json vs cartoon issue, leading to a misunderstanding between editors.

In the description for the earlier comic, it is quite emphatically asserted that this is not Megan (although it certainly is drawn like her) but is, instead, a male TV host. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.28|172.68.174.28]] 20:21, 9 July 2018 (UTC)MrBigDog2u
:Thanks, but I believe the transcript of the former comic was interpreted false. People are often outlined as male when they are in fact women. AND in this comic it's clearly a female without any doubt. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:Actually if you go to /1646/info.0.json , you'll find the presenter referred to as he twice. Unless you're saying Megan uses he, it seems unlikely to be a female. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For what it's worth, I assumed it was a female until I read the explanation for 1644. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.37|162.158.107.37]] 22:57, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
::Two questions about that:
::1.) I don't see any use of the word "he" in that transcript. Where do you see that?
::2.) Why 1646? Isn't that one with Cueball writing a Twitter bot?
::Looking at xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json, xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json, & xkcd.com/2017/info.0.json, I can't find a reference to gender in ''any'' of them.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:37, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:::Hey Zarquon, if you look again at [https://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json], you can see the star guide referenced as “he” a couple times if you carefuread the whole transcript. If alternatively your contribution to this wiki is that of trolling, you are making this rather obvious. If you’re getting different contents for that file than we are, maybe you could upload it to ipfs or something for comparison and tell us the ip addresses that xkcd.com resolves to for you, so that somebody can debug the issue. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.243|162.158.62.243]] 07:38, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Not a troll, but a failure to detect an xkcd site error. It appears the issue is that the xkcd website is sending out json information that is mismatched with the cartoons. That is, https://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json has the json information for the cartoon at https://xkcd.com/1644/ where we would expect the json data for that cartoon to be at https://xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json. So if you (logically) read https://xkcd.com/1644/info.0.json and search it for "he" or "him" you don't find it. But if all you're doing is looking for "he" or "him" you might not notice that "stargazer" isn't in that json file either. Confirmed the mis-URLed json file for the cartoon does refer to the host as "he." [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 07:41, 15 July 2018 (UTC)
:Is it possible this is meant to be {{w|Brian_Cox_(physicist)|Brian Cox}}? The hair is right and he's often noted for his enthusiasm. don't know how well known he is in the US, but a nerd like Randall is very likely to know of him --[[User:Luckykaa|Luckykaa]] ([[User talk:Luckykaa|talk]]) 07:50, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::It is certainly Brian Cox as was found out in the first Stargazing and as fits with the offical transcript. It is even named after his show. End of story! I have corrected both explanations. Please don't go there DGBRT. This was discussed back then and was concluded to be so. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:08, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::There is even a triva with the original transcript in the original copmic to make this clear. Read that first! [[1644:_Stargazing#Trivia]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:11, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:Bullshit. The pronoun "he" does not make him male as a person. That's a stupid preconception, which is perpetuated in the 21st century by a subfaction of feminists, thereby making a fool of themselves. There is no solid hint as to what the actual sex/gender of the figure is, and in this case English language defaults to "he". Maybe Randall indeed thought of Brian Cox, but that's speculation, not basis to infer a gender. And why anyway does it matter?!?!? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.44|162.158.94.44]] 11:03, 11 July 2018 (UTC)
::I disagree it is called Stargazing and he has a show called Stagazing live and is a famous physicist and Randall follows these things and like astronomical phenomenons. I have no doubt it is a reference to Brian cox. And Randall does not use he when it is about Megan in other transcripts! BS to you too ;) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:25, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

"Don't bother trying to catch them"??? What stellar object would you catch? Unless this is a reference to asteroid mining? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.28|172.68.90.28]] 22:47, 9 July 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
:Those stellar objects are so close compared to all the others, who wouldn't try?? Could you imagine actually meeting another object in this universe of distant interstellar bodies? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.46|172.68.54.46]] 23:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)
:I assumed that, having described all the goodies in an aircraft, there's a chance that someone might literally try to catch one by jumping in the air (with a suitably poor concept of distance). Or trying to construct some kind of giant butterfly net.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 17:36, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:The Triangle may refer to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Triangle Summer Triangle] It can be found very easily by beginners. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.94|172.68.51.94]] 12:22, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::Actually, any three non-colinear points make up a triangle so there are an incredibly large number (not infinite, but ...) of triangles formed by combinations of three stars. I would go so far as to speculate that it may not be possible to find three stars that ARE perfectly colinear (certainly not in three dimensions). I think that's sort of the point of the joke.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.28|172.68.174.28]] 16:25, 10 July 2018 (UTC)MrBigDog2u

Is anyone else worried about a reference to shining a light at aircraft? There are decent astronomical reasons to have a moderately (50mW-200mW in my case) powerful laser, since it provides a very visible "pointer" when showing people to bits of the sky (or for lining up a telescope, where you can't see the surroundings easily and amateurs like me can get lost). But there are way too many stories of morons shining lasers at aircraft in an attempt to "cause trouble" (by blinding the pilot and potentially killing hundreds of people in the subsequent crash), so any responsible astronomer would be checking for aircraft in the sky, not doing this anywhere near an airport, and moving the laser in circles to avoid holding it on a target. I don't consider shining a light at a plane to be a topic of amusement.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 17:36, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:Have you ever heard of a pilot noticing having a light shined on them from the ground by a pedestrian? It seems to me planes are so far away the jitter of your hand is going to make actually blinding the pilot a comparable task to blinding a moving housefly the same way. The light will also be much weaker at that distance, and the cockpit would have to be aiming at you. I feep pointing at an aircraft with a laser would be pretty safe, because the plane’s angular size is so much smaller than your precision, and it is moving super fast. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.136|108.162.219.136]] 19:53, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
:I do! And I wonder what would happen to the plane [https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ if we tried more power]? Hmmm... [[User:BytEfLUSh|BytEfLUSh]] ([[User talk:BytEfLUSh|talk]]) 19:01, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::Pilots blinded by laser are real issue, but only WHEN LANDING or taking off, and therefore in very low attitude. I don't think it's problem in normal cruising altitude. However, if the telescope was in mountains which the airplanes flied over relatively low ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:37, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
::A traditional flashlight shone at a pilot is unlikely to do much - although there are definitely consumer lights that could be visible at range. Using a telescope sounds more like generating a searchlight (and there are absolutely members of the public who have picked up military searchlights, and who have attracted attention by firing them even carefully). It does depend what's intended, but I think the implication is that the light is bright enough to do something (if only visibly illuminate the plane); shining a searchlight at an aircraft even at moderate distance is likely to be distracting and possibly blinding. Practically, no, I don't think it's a major issue as described. But aircraft are often at fairly low altitude: they take a while to get near to cruising height near me - I work a few miles from Heathrow, and think I could absolutely get a moderate strike rate on cockpit windows allowing for a bit of spread if I were a homicidal moron - lasers take a while to dissipate. I'm glad there seemed to be no reports of anyone doing this with yesterday's RAF centenary low-altitude flypast. And of course there are a lot of military training flights at very low altitude in some areas. I don't believe there's ever been a case of more than temporary blinding, and no crashes, but since I actually like having access to bright lasers (and conventional flashlights) for justifiable and responsible reasons, I just think pointing bright lights at aircraft a topic worth avoiding in the context of humour. Idiots, though hopefully few read xkcd, are easily encouraged. And when someone finally brings a plane down, it's really not going to be funny.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 11:56, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Does no one else see this as referencing "stars" in the sense of celebrities? That would make sense to me of several of the otherwise bizarre statements here... [[User:Asimong|Asimong]] ([[User talk:Asimong|talk]]) 05:55, 11 July 2018 (UTC)

Contradictory statements- if it's their observatory, the theses must be theirs. Why would they stock their cabinets with other people's theses? And does anyone know why "Add a comment" is linking to an edit page? Am I supposed to copypaste my address and stuff every time?