explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1732: Earth Temperature Timeline

2016-09-13T19:21:26Z

Transuranium: comment

Well, never mind then. Oh well. -- [[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 1:02, 12 September 2016
:I acknowledge that the picture is WAY too long, so I added a "skip to explanation" bar, to speed things up. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 17:32, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Is it just me or does the picture not render all the way down in full resolution on firefox? I found it worked on Chrome and explorer... And Wauw, just after I had created the new [[:Category:Climate change]]... Was also just watched a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxEGHW6Lbu8 QandA program] yesterday where [[1644: Stargazing|Brian Cox]] tried to convince some Australian politician about global warming, but the other one just cried conspiracy... Will take some time to make this one complete I guess? Great ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:53, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
:That's the thing with this kind of stuff. It takes a LONG time to make it just right. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 19:08, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Please delete the ridiculous trivia
*The colors used to represent temperature vary from blue (the perceived hue of a black body at 20000K) to pale red (perceived at 2200K).
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.139|108.162.221.139]] 19:44, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Of course you can pretty much ignore the part of the diagram that is in dotted line, you can't rely on that data. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 20:40, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
:Note that even if we ignore the extrapolated future, the warming in the past century is already a vastly more abrupt climate shift than anything that happened in the preceding 219 centuries. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:15, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
::Actually we don't know what the shifts were on that scale in the past. The dotted line before modern measurement is a very limited estimate. We have no idea what the year to year changes were in the past, at best we can work out an average. I am reminded of a house mouse(life span of about 1 year) looking at the leaves fall from the tress and saying "Surely this is the end of the world". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 14:44, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:::Randall explicitly addresses your specious complaint at 15900 BCE. Year-to-year fluctuations are not the same as the current century-long surge. Either show scientific evidence or go away, Mr Troll from Seattle Cloudflare. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:11, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:Have you read the referenced papers? Well you fit well with the people he refers to between the two lines at the top. ;-) We are heading for troublesome times :-( [[164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win]]... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:22, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

*the use unqualified of the words "still many people" is exactly the kind of weasely nonsense that this comic is designed to refute. there are "still many people" who claim the earth is flat, that they have been abducted by aliens, or that the MMR jab made their children autistic. those people are deluded or insincere. the difference with deniers of climate change is that there are in their ranks scientists who are clear-sighted but who have decided that funding at any price is better than none. this site should be better than that. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]]
::You're absolutely right, the ranks of climate deniers do indeed include a few scientists willing to sell their voices to the highest bidder (e.g. http://www.polluterwatch.com/heartland-institute ). But is that what you meant to say? - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:50, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:::that the wording be changed to reflect that. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:59, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

For a large post like this, it's a wonder that we can all keep up and edit something like this all at once. Wow. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 11:56, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:Also, anyone else notice that this was a top trending post on Facebook last night? I don't know if I could call it a milestone but it's still pretty cool. And '''WE''' edited it! :D --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:06, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Maybe someone should add the fact that the transcript may be a reference to oxidation?[[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]]) 19:21, 13 September 2016 (UTC)Transuranium

Talk:164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win

2016-05-27T10:31:05Z

Transuranium:

I'm sure that no matter what scientific evidence about global warming is, the political issue lost contact with science long ago. I mean, do we really need global warming to prove that burning all fossil fuels and deforesting most of planet is bad? Also, our ability to endanger species doesn't seem limited to global warming. And the so-called solutions to global warming? This is not about science. It's a fight between people who are getting rich on oil and people who are getting rich on projects labelled as ecological. And both sides are manipulating science data - one to deny the global warming, one to make it even worse that it is. ... I don't believe anyone have working solution to global warming which doesn't involve at least 3 billions dead humans. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:14, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

We have a global warming since the last twenty thousand years. And we are still at a cold period (on long term meanings). A real global warming would bring us back to the conditions of the dinosaur ages.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:15, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
:Correct. And it would be catastrophic on a global scale. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 17:48, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

They have totally messed with old temperature data. They "adjust" old thermometers to make them fit the data they want. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:30, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

You don't want to hear this, but my take is:
1. Global warming is probably real.
2. Global warming is probably exacerbated by human activity.
3. There is no possible way of averting global warming by reducing the output of greenhouse gases from human activity. WILL NOT HAPPEN.
Oh well! As Cueball says, it should be a wild ride. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 01:13, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Note: "if we keep people from understanding just a little longer" ... as if someone need to actively do something to prevent majority of people of understanding hard to explain scientific topic. Most people still didn't accepted the fact that debts are supposed to be paid, and that's simple arithmetics. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:11, 24 January 2014 (UTC)
:Actually, debt owed by entities that emit currency is very different from debts owed by other economic entities. It's very far from "simple arithmetics" (and that's the reason there is such a thing as a central bank). {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.197}}

Thanks 199.27.128.144 for your fix on my bad HTML mishap here. If you would have an account here I could talk to you directly. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:19, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

It's been eight years since this comic, so I guess it ended up being the latter. Except I don't think anyone is embarrassed for the inaccuracies in the climate models. [http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/06/satellites-show-no-global-warming-for-17-years-5-months/ No warming for 17 years 5 months][[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.15|108.162.219.15]] 15:12, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
:The science of global warming is irrelevant. Every posed ecological disaster hasn't been an effort to advert it, but a political ploy to shift money from earners to consumers. Why did plans like putting windmills everywhere (which requires a lot of oil and oil burning, and uses up natural water supplies) get all the government funding, while actual solutions like fuel cells and nuclear got shut down (which CAN solve our dependency on oil if they only had the same funding as the wind/solar groups)? Because the top liberals were heavily invested in wind/solar, and were using politics as a way to give that group more financial success than the market would naturally allow. Why did they invest in such failures? Because they didn't understand the technology and science of the problem. If liberals had invested in fuel cell and nuclear, they would have won.[[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 15:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps because they were scared of nuclear because of meltdowns. As for fuel cells, I have no idea why they did that. [[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]]) 10:31, 27 May 2016 (UTC)Transuranium

:Might want to look at the last 17 years and 6 months or maybe even 7 months. {{unsigned|Flewk}}

Talk:1685: Patch

2016-05-25T10:35:53Z

Transuranium:

Hey, I'm first! Guessing the Bot only JUST created this, it was mere minutes after midnight EST when I landed on this page. Unfortunately this is a comic I'm less capable of explaining. From the looks of it, his Photoshop Patch turned what looks like C code into gobbledegook by filling in several of the spaces (and I think even changing some of the characters, possible with characters which fill more of the space). - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.77|108.162.218.77]] 04:24, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

This appears to be Python code. Note the "def" keyword, how "for i in [garbled]:" is used rather than C's for syntax, and how there are no semicolons or braces. --[[User:Sherlock9|Sherlock9]] ([[User talk:Sherlock9|talk]]) 05:03, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

Photoshop has a 'patch' tool but it has a very different function from a software patch.
:An explanation of Photoshop's patch tool might be helpful in identifying patterns in what pixels were changed by it, perhaps facilitating the identification of some likely characters. [[User:Dansiman|Dansiman]] ([[User talk:Dansiman|talk]]) 05:56, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

The first function looks like "isPrime" and seems to check if a number is prime. The last function looks like "quicksort". Both are common functions you create when learning programming. Not sure about the second one, but it looks like it uses regular expressions. -- [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.242|198.41.242.242]] 06:44, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
:I think the second one is "isPrimeRegex". *cringe* [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.25|141.101.104.25]] 08:55, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

Second function looks like a function to check if number is a prime using Regex (described here http://www.noulakaz.net/2007/03/18/a-regular-expression-to-check-for-prime-numbers/). I don't know if it deserves some special mention, but at least to me (non-programmer) it looks like one of the most arcane things you can do in programming [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.79|141.101.80.79]] 07:22, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

Do you think the use of pi is a reference to one of the other comics(I forgot which one...)?[[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]]) 10:35, 25 May 2016 (UTC)Transuranium

1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T11:01:48Z

Transuranium: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1684
| date = May 23, 2016
| title = Rainbow
| image = rainbow.png
| titletext = Listen, in a few thousand years you'll invent a game called 'SimCity' which has a 'disaster' button, and then you'll understand.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explanation made on the fly. Please Edit!}}
The first panel starts with the ending of Noah's Ark from Jewish and Christian faith. After Noah got two of each animal and his family, he got in an ark that he and his family built. When the world flooded, they were safe. At the end of the flood, God presented a rainbow to say that he wouldn't do that again. As the comic goes on, [[Cueball]] notices more apology rainbows for other random events that could also destroy the world. The events in the 2nd and 3rd panel won't happen {{Citation Needed}}. The title text is a continuation of the conversation. With SimCity you have all the control just like God.

==Transcript==
{{nonexistent transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T11:00:22Z

Transuranium: Just a question

How do I find the official transcript?[[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]]) 11:00, 23 May 2016 (UTC)Transuranium

1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T10:58:18Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */ Grammar!

1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T10:57:05Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */ Just the alt-text

{{comic
| number = 1684
| date = May 23, 2016
| title = Rainbow
| image = rainbow.png
| titletext = Listen, in a few thousand years you'll invent a game called 'SimCity' which has a 'disaster' button, and then you'll understand.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explanation made on the fly. Please Edit!}}
The first panel starts with the ending of Noah's Ark from Jewish and Christian faith. After Noah got two of each animal and his family, he got in an ark that he and his family built. When the world flooded, they were safe. At the end of the flood, God presented a rainbow to say that he wouldn't do that again. As the comic goes on, [[Cueball]] notices more apology rainbows for other random events that could also destroy the world. The events in the 2nd and 3rd panel won't happen {{Citation Needed}}. The alt-text is a continuation of the conversation. With SimCity you have all the control just like God.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T10:50:06Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */ Part two of my edits

{{comic
| number = 1684
| date = May 23, 2016
| title = Rainbow
| image = rainbow.png
| titletext = Listen, in a few thousand years you'll invent a game called 'SimCity' which has a 'disaster' button, and then you'll understand.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explanation made on the fly. Please Edit!}}
The first panel starts with the ending of Noah's Ark in Catholic faith. After Noah got two of each animal and his family, he got in an ark that he and his family built. When the world flooded, they were safe. At the end of the flood, God presented a rainbow to say that he wouldn't do that again. As the comic goes on, [[Cueball]] notices more apology rainbows for other random events that could also destroy the world. The events in the 2nd and 3rd panel won't happen [[Citation Needed]]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T10:44:24Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */ The 1st edit

843: Misconceptions

2016-05-20T21:04:16Z

Transuranium: /* Grammar edits /*

{{comic
| number = 843
| date = January 5, 2011
| title = Misconceptions
| image = misconceptions.png
| titletext = "Grandpa, what was it like in the Before time?" "It was hell. People went around saying glass was a slow-flowing liquid. You folks these days don't know how good you have it."
}}

==Explanation==
The Wikipedia article {{w|List of common misconceptions}} gives a list of commonly-repeated anecdotes that are widely believed to be true, but actually are not.

A [http://xkcd.com/843/info.0.json teacher], looking like [[Miss Lenhart]], is announcing that since it is the first Tuesday in February, by law and custom the reading of this article is requirement to stem the repetition of these incorrect anecdotes. (Funnily enough the comic was released the first Wednesday in January, which could just as well have been written in the comic).

She continues to make it clear that this is to make the students in general a little less wrong, and the main outcome will be that the guest of any future parties the students ever attend, will not have to listen to them retell these misconceptions and for that these guest will thank those who have decided on this new law in advance.

In the caption below the comic [[Randall]] expresses his wishes that he lived in a {{w|Many-worlds interpretation|parallel universe}} where this rule had been used for many years. So he would not have to listen to all these stories at every party he goes to. Since Randall likes to correct people if they are wrong (see [[386: Duty Calls]]), not having to discuss with those that believe these misconceptions, would make his parties much better.

The title text refers to a specific one of these {{w|List_of_common_misconceptions#Materials_science|false stories about glass}}:
:''That {{w|glass}}, while seeming solid, is actually an extremely viscous liquid and will flow over time, as is seen on older buildings where the window panes are thicker at the bottom.''
In reality, older manufacturing processes did not produce glass panes with as uniform thickness as modern processes, and people tended to install the uneven panes with the thicker side at the bottom for stability. Glass simply does not flow at room temperature; it's more viscous than solid lead by a factor of over a ''billion''. The fact that glass is solid at room temperature was again referenced in a foot note, under the pipe with glass, in [[1649: Pipelines]].

==Transcript==
:[A teacher, could be Miss Lenhart, is standing in front of a board, looking at a laptop computer she is holding in one hand while elocuting.]
:Miss Lenhart: Okay, middle school students, it's the first Tuesday in February.
:Miss Lenhart: This means that by law and custom, we must spend the morning reading through the Wikipedia article ''List of Common Misconceptions'', so you can spend the rest of your lives being a little less wrong.
:Miss Lenhart: The guests at every party you'll ever attend thank us in advance.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I wish I lived in this universe.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Physics]]

378: Real Programmers

2016-05-13T10:18:02Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 378
| date = February 1, 2008
| title = Real Programmers
| image = real_programmers.png
| titletext = Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This needs to be condensed, reorganized and edited it does not need information added or explanations expounded upon. The dubs we give to the characters do not make the explanation easier to read in this case, they should be disregarded.}}

This comic satirises the mythical {{w|Real Programmer}}. To quote Wikipedia, "the term Real Programmer is computer programmers' folklore to describe the archetypical 'hardcore' programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favour of more direct and efficient solutions". The implication is that modern programmers are coddled by today's tools of the trade, which eschew detailed understanding for simple workflows. {{w|GNU nano}} is a {{w|text editor}} - a program often used to edit the source code of other programs; it is modern, simple, and easy-to-use. {{w|Emacs}} and {{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}} are also text editors, and {{w|ed (text editor)|ed}} is a {{w|line editor}}. These represent progressively more "old school" solutions to the problem of editing code. {{w|cat (Unix)|cat}} is a Unix program that concatenates and outputs the contents of files. Things get steadily more ridiculous from here. Using a magnetised needle to flip bits on a hard drive requires nanometric precision and intuitive mastery of binary code, but in the early days of programming people did use needles sometimes to fix bugs on {{w|Punched card|Punched cards}}. The use of a magnetized needle may also be a reference to the {{w|Apollo Guidance Computer|Apollo AGC guidance computer}}, whose instructions were physically written as patterns of wires looped around or through cylindrical magnets in order to record binary code.

The above-mentioned methods are the ones mentioned in the comic. The first is used by the a man sitting at his desk. Followed by [[Megan]], two others and [[Hairbun]].

The final character suggests the utterly surreal idea of using butterflies; he is just using the {{w|Butterfly effect in popular culture|Butterfly effect}}, a "phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome". The joke at this point relies on stretching the connection between the ideas of "difficult-to-use" and "requires detailed understanding of underlying principles", to suggest that not only do ''Real'' Programmers know everything about how computers work, but they know how to manipulate the ambient physical environment in elaborate ways to cause computers to do what they want, akin to performing {{w|trick shot}}s that accomplish feats of programming.

However, this type of programming has already been implemented as an emacs command, which is stated by another character as: ''C-x M-c M-butterfly...'' To this the final programmer can only say ''Dammit, Emacs.'' as this has just proven that real programmers use Emacs...

{{w|GNU Emacs}} is a popular editor known for its vast profusion of features and extensions to perform all sorts of functions beyond simple text editing, and is widely regarded as one of the best examples of software which succeeds despite being totally riddled with {{w|Feature creep|featuritis}}. It is likely that [[Randall]] really thought this was a great tool at the time of this comic.

Emacs commands are usually referred to by the key sequence required to activate them, such as "C-x M-c" (Control-x Meta-c, though this exact key sequence is a bit different from most Emacs commands). The macro referenced is a pun on the play/movie titled "{{w|M. Butterfly}}". The butterfly programmer saying "Dammit, Emacs" plays on Emacs' notoriety for its kitchen sink design approach of tossing in all the features and options that anybody might ever conceivably want. By way of example, later versions of Emacs actually added a totally useless "M-x butterfly" command as an easter egg, in reference to this very comic: see the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtxhuX6ano YouTube demo] and [http://www.screenr.com/a2s screenr demo].

To cap this the title text suggests manipulating the {{w|Physical constant|universal constants}} in order to create a universe in which the required computer data will exist. The programmers shown may even represent the fulfillment of this master programmers plan. The universe may have been designed in such a way that the programmers ancestry would result in his parents, who would meet and have a child, who would learn programming and eventually find himself in a position where he undertakes the task of creating a program, which fills the disk with the desired data. In tandem, of course, all of the people involved with creating and developing all the required hardware, software, raw materials, computer science, electricity, logic (etc., etc., etc.) would have to be part of the master plan. Put simply, it would probably be simpler just to use Emacs. To put it theologically this Real Programmer would be called God.

[[505: A Bunch of Rocks]] features Cueball as a ''Real'' Programmer, who designs the universe out of boredom as a simulation made of rocks. He would also be a God of our universe, although he did run it as a simulation just by setting the physical constants.

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball like man sits at a computer, programming. Cueball stands behind him and looks over his shoulder.]
:Cueball: <code>nano</code>? Real Programmers use <code>emacs</code>.

:[Megan appears behind him.]
:Megan: Hey. Real Programmers use <code>vim</code>.

:[A second Cueball like man appears behind her.]
:Ed Cueball: Well, Real Programmers use <code>ed</code>.

:[A third Cueball like man appears behind him.]
:Cat Cueball: No, Real Programmers use <code>cat</code>.

:[Hairbun appears behind him.]
:Hairbun: Real Programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand.

:[A fourth Cueball like man enters, facing them all. We see him facing the last two Cueball like men and Hairbun.]
:Butterfly Cueball: Excuse me, but Real Programmers use butterflies.

:[A Cueball like programmer is standing and holding out a butterfly in front of his computer. The butterfly flaps its wings.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): They open their hands and let the delicate wings flap once.

:[The next two panels are smaller and the two texts below are written uninterrupted respectively above and below both panels. The first panel is the Cueball like programmer with the butterfly, and above him four curved arrows pointing up or down. The second panel shows the upper atmosphere, with large clouds far below and the earth even further down. Also here are shown seven of the same type of arrows.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): The disturbances ripple outward, changing the flow of the eddy currents in the upper atmosphere.
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure air to form,

:[Also the next two panels are smaller and the texts below are written uninterrupted above both panels. The first panel shows the atmosphere, again with clouds, and four parallel lines coming from above, and then they begin to merge, getting quite close at the bottom of the panel. The second panel shows the four lines merging on a driver platter.]
:Butterfly Cueball (narrating off-screen): Which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.

:[All the programmers who has commented so far stands in the order they have commented facing the last Cueball like man who slaps his forehead.]
:Cueball: Nice. 'Course, there's an Emacs command to do that.
:Cat Cueball: Oh yeah! Good ol' C-x M-c M-butterfly...
:Butterfly Cueball: Dammit, Emacs.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Emacs]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

1680: Black Hole

2016-05-13T10:11:22Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1680
| date = May 13, 2016
| title = Black Hole
| image = black_hole.png
| titletext = It also brings all the boys, and everything else, to the yard.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More details... What would happen if a black hole like this was in a living room... It's not clear what exactly in the comic is a reference to the Big Lebowski movie. This needs clarification}}
[[Cueball]] is curious as to why [[Black Hat]] has a miniature {{w|black hole}} on his table; Black Hat responds that it "really brings the room together", making a pun on both the black hole aesthetically completing the room as well as it literally "bringing the room together" through its gravitational pull. Evidently the black hole is massive enough to bring the room together optically into visible {{w|Einstein ring}}s by {{w|gravitational lensing}}. In reality wouldn't last very long because of Hawking radiation. This makes a black hole shed some mass and makes it shed even more mass when it is smaller. Or it would collapse everything in the room onto itself including [[Cueball]] and [[Black Hat]]

The comic references 'The Dude's' rug in the film "{{w|The Big Lebowski}}", whilst the title text makes a more contemporary cultural reference to a well-known song lyric from the song "{{w|Milkshake (song)|Milkshake}}" by {{w|Kelis}}; however, in this case, since {{w|gravity}} does not discriminate between which things it will attract{{Citation needed}}, it brings "the boys, and everything else", to Black Hat's yard.

[[Randall]] describes a similar scenario in the "Neutron Bullet" chapter of the [http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ what if? book], and a black hole of similar dimensions in the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|129|Black Hole Moon}}''.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is standing near a coffee table as Black Hat approaches. They are presumably in Black Hat's living room. The coffee table has a miniature black hole on top of it, resting on a small pedestal.]
:Cueball: Why do you have a miniature black hole on your coffee table?
:Black Hat: It really brings the room together.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

Talk:1680: Black Hole

2016-05-13T10:07:27Z

Transuranium:

IF the explanation of "Milkshake" being a coded message is correct, then I like how Melis plays with it. I always thought the more sexual way, Milkshake meaning shaking her milk bags. Sure, that brings boys to the yard.... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.151|141.101.104.151]]

It's not clear what exactly in the comic is a reference to the Big Lebowski movie. This needs clarification. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 06:48, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

:In the Big Lebowski, The Dude's reasoning for wanting the rug replaced was that "It really tied the room together" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.80|108.162.219.80]] 07:50, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

The event horizon of the black hole in the cartoon appears to be roughly an inch across, which using the formula linking Schwarzschild radius to mass (r = 2MG/c^2) gives a black hole of about 3 earth masses. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.138|162.158.34.138]] 08:06, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

:OMG. That would mean it also excerts 3 times the gravitational force of earth. As a result people near (also as far away as earth orbits) would only be comfortable standing at a significant angle. Time may also appear to progress slower near the black hole due to the time dilation effect. But I am unsure how pronounced this effect will be from a black hole that size. Audible and visible effects of this would be people talking slower (but not lower as you have with the doppler effect, i beleive that to be a sci-fi misconception), and peoples movements seeming slower. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 08:50, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

:That strong a pull would mean the hole would not only collect air and particles, but also pull furniture into it. Seing as both people are standing upright I'm guessing the pull can not be more than say one fifth of earths. Maybe it has a visible accretion disc? If you were to run the formula in reverse what diameter would that give you of the hole itself? [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 09:23, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

There's only 5 years between the Big Lebowski and Milkshake (1998 vs 2003) so while "more contemporary" is technically correct, I think it underestimates how old Milkshake is. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.21|141.101.98.21]] 08:15, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps this comic is in reference to [http://gizmodo.com/were-one-step-closer-to-better-tabletop-particle-accele-1775501374 this article referencing tabletop particle accelerators]? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.74|141.101.104.74]] 08:38, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

I once read a short story about this situation where the hole kept feeding and eventually swallowed the whole Galaxy. I thought it was a Stephen King, but my Google Fu can't find it... [[User:Supachris28|Supachris28]] ([[User talk:Supachris28|talk]]) 09:22, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

:It was one of the scare-stories surrounding the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where a micro-black hole would form and end-of-the-world scenario would ensue. Apparently such a hole could form but would immediately destabilize. On a related note, this brings into question as to how stable the hole in the comic would be, since it seems rather small. If it were to destabilize it would have enough energy to blow the earth to pieces, despite its deceivingly innocent size. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 09:48, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

Was I right to add a little about hawking radiation?[[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]]) 10:07, 13 May 2016 (UTC)Transuranium

1680: Black Hole

2016-05-13T10:05:08Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1680
| date = May 13, 2016
| title = Black Hole
| image = black_hole.png
| titletext = It also brings all the boys, and everything else, to the yard.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More details... What would happen if a black hole like this was in a living room... It's not clear what exactly in the comic is a reference to the Big Lebowski movie. This needs clarification}}
[[Cueball]] is curious as to why [[Black Hat]] has a miniature {{w|black hole}} on his table; Black Hat responds that it "really brings the room together", making a pun on both the black hole aesthetically completing the room as well as it literally "bringing the room together" through its gravitational pull. Evidently the black hole is massive enough to bring the room together optically into visible {{w|Einstein ring}}s by {{w|gravitational lensing}}. In reality wouldn't last very long because of Hawkington radiation. This makese a blackhole shed some mass and makes it shed even more mass when it is smaller.

The comic references 'The Dude's' rug in the film "{{w|The Big Lebowski}}", whilst the title text makes a more contemporary cultural reference to a well-known song lyric from the song "{{w|Milkshake (song)|Milkshake}}" by {{w|Kelis}}; however, in this case, since {{w|gravity}} does not discriminate between which things it will attract{{Citation needed}}, it brings "the boys, and everything else", to Black Hat's yard.

[[Randall]] describes a similar scenario in the "Neutron Bullet" chapter of the [http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ what if? book], and a black hole of similar dimensions in the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|129|Black Hole Moon}}''.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is standing near a coffee table as Black Hat approaches. They are presumably in Black Hat's living room. The coffee table has a miniature black hole on top of it, resting on a small pedestal.]
:Cueball: Why do you have a miniature black hole on your coffee table?
:Black Hat: It really brings the room together.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

Talk:1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T12:18:05Z

Transuranium:

I added the emoji snake. Is emoji snake the same as a Unicode snake would be? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 05:46, 4 May 2016 (UTC)
:I assumed Unicode snakes would use three different characters: a head, a body segment, and a tail. Your solution is good, but objectively not perfect compared to what's shown in the comic.
:So what ''would'' be the optimal snake transcription method here? A parenthetical aside saying "''A drawing of a snake stretches to the right end of the line.''"? Or should we just blackmail the Unicode consortium again? [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]]
::The correct solution is obviously to include a 16 Mpixel image of a snake.[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 07:41, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Could the title text also be a reference to the snake in umwelt? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 05:46, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Amazon is notorious for being bad at this. Here's a somewhat related [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdugwr4Fgk Computerphile video]. [[User:Eno|Eno]] ([[User talk:Eno|talk]]) 06:32, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Also, funnily enough, the filler text and the snakes were used in medieval (hand-written) manuscripts. Although it's not a snake but usually a nondescript wriggle that could only pass as a snake when you're squinting really hard. For filler text it's usually low-content words like "truly", "verily", "indeed", "without fail", "in truth" or stuff like that. So it's really an old problem with no satisfactory solution developed in hundreds of years... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.93|162.158.85.93]] 08:19, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

In practice you reformulate. Not necessarily insert filler words, but just reorder the sentence enough that justification works. That is assuming the automated justification doesn't work, which will try a combination of multiple methods like word-spacing, letter-spacing and hyphenation. Imagine hyphenating at "de-" instead, but adding a little bit extra letter space in "between", and almost double normal word space between "between" and "de-".[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.222|162.158.114.222]] 08:20, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

While the arabic part is interesting, I don't feel it to be very relevant here. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.156|108.162.249.156]] 09:11, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Sorry- how do add a [citation needed] in superscript? [[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]])Transuranium

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T12:15:59Z

Transuranium: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1676
| date = May 4, 2016
| title = Full-Width Justification
| image = full_width_justification.png
| titletext = Gonna start bugging the Unicode consortium to add snake segment characters that can be combined into an arbitrary-length non-breaking snake.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|hasty & impatient placeholder. Still an early draft; needs citations, fact-checking, and it also needs the Wikipedia links to be fixed.}}
The comic refers to an irritating problem in laying out text to fit from edge to edge, the problem of {{w|justification (typesetting)|justification}}. Sometimes, as before a long word like "[[:wikt:deindustrialization|deindustrialization]]," there's no universal good way to make the typography work. It is a difficult problem to make text look good and be easily legible especially in a narrow space, with the biggest issue being how to handle words that are too long to fit nicely.

The comic shows several solutions to this problem, some realistic and others less so, but each unsatisfying. "Giving up" is ugly, leaving a line break which doesn't fit with the rest;spacing looks pretty confusing as people may think it is an acronym. hyphenating is confusing in English because its spelling requires full-word recognition ("deindus-" looks like an independent, unfamiliar word, pronounced "dayn-duss"); stretching is unnatural, probably hard to code or render, unfamiliar and quite ugly; adding "filler" words, a radical solution, makes the writing worse (in the case of the example, making the tone too informal); and adding a meaningless snake image, just long enough to fill the extra space, is a novel (and quite bizarre) solution which probably wouldn't actually be used by a serious typographer.[Citation needed]

The title text suggests that in order to facilitate this last method of "solving" the problem, the {{w|Unicode Consortium}}, the organization in charge of the common text standard {{w|Unicode}}, should add "snake-building characters" (similar in concept to the existing {{w|Box Drawing}} block), to allow variable-length snake images to be used as filling. The use of the phrase "non-breaking" in the title text is a play on {{w|non-breaking space}} and implies that an automatic line break could not be inserted after a snake segment; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added{{Citation needed}}, and always require a good reason{{Citation needed}} before adding a character or set of characters to the standard. Strange decisions by the consortium have previously been referenced in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]], [[1513: Code Quality]], and [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]].

Note that in Arabic, it is common to stretch the lines connecting letters as a relatively elegant and satisfying resolution to this problem. This trick is called "{{w|kashida}}" (كشيدة) and is explained and illustrated [http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/creative-arabic-calligraphy-kashida-tajim-and-tashkil--cms-23240 here].

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panels:]
:Strategies for full-width justification

:[Below the caption is a column with six boxes, each showing a different "strategy" for justification which is annotated beside it. Here the anotation is written at the top and the text below. The top and bottom of the text is cut of in the middle, but as it can be "read" this is written anyway. Only for hyphenation does an extra word appear at the end. In the last with snakes, a snake is drawn to cover the entire space from the end of between to the right border.]

:Giving up
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Letter spacing
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::b  e   t   w   e  e   n
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Hyphenation
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between deindus-
::trialization and the
::growth of ecological

:Stretching
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::<big><big><big>between</big></big></big>
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Filler
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between crap like
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Snakes
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between [a snake filling the gap]
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

==Trivia==
*The full text (with alternate changes) reads:
::''...their famous paper on the relationship between [crap like]/[ 🐍 ] deindustrialization and the growth of [ecological]...''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]