explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2287: Pathogen Resistance

2020-03-31T07:27:32Z

Tualha:

Note that the title text says "not not" -- meaning we're both trapped in here together [[User:John.Adriaan|John.Adriaan]] ([[User talk:John.Adriaan|talk]]) 04:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Do bacteriophages "afflict" humanity? To my knowledge, they only infect bacteria and are even considered a possible future alternative to antibiotics by some. What is up with them being represented here? 09:12, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Don’t worry, pathogens! All is not lost. There will always be some humans whose brains don’t work very well, who will buy into ideas like “vaccines cause autism”, or “faith healing”, or “natural remedies”, or “Trump is always right”. You’ll still have hosts. [[User:Tualha|Tualha]] ([[User talk:Tualha|talk]]) 07:27, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

2204: Ksp 2

2019-09-18T23:51:51Z

Tualha: Clarify phrasing

{{comic
| number = 2204
| date = September 18, 2019
| title = Ksp 2
| image = ksp_2.png
| titletext = "The committee appreciates that your 2020 launch is on track, but the 'human capital/personnel retention' budget includes a lot more unmarked cash payments than usual. What are th--" "Public outreach."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a KERBAL. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
''{{w|Kerbal Space Program}}'' (KSP for short) is a space flight simulation video game with a realistic orbital physics engine, allowing for real-life orbital maneuvers. KSP has been previously mentioned in [[1356: Orbital Mechanics]] and other comics. A sequel, abbreviated here as KSP 2, is planned to be released in 2020.

Also planned for 2020 is a Mars rover mission, {{w|Mars 2020}}. The joke in the comic comes as engineers are likely to want to extensively play with KSP2 to the exclusion of other things, and NASA is worried about the Mars 2020 mission being delayed, or failing, because the engineers are too focused on playing KSP2, including taking extensive vacation and "sick" days off. Cueball, sitting at a desk in front of a computer, is represented here as being in charge of KSP2, and the other characters standing around him are pleading with him to delay the release of KSP2 until the Mars rover program is complete, even being willing to "give [him] a moon".

Literally giving a moon to Cueball is impossible, but it is possible to {{w|Naming of moons|name a moon}} after Cueball, so that may be what is implied instead.

The title text seems to claim that NASA is paying KSP money to delay their release until after the Mars mission. NASA has dabbled in game physics engines for "public outreach," with the same mixed record of success as any promising R&D endeavor. Notable projects included a series of collaboration laboratories on various forms of social media including {{w|Second Life}} which hosted a "NASA CoLab" region active from 2007 to around 2013. While the unrealistic constraints imposed by real time physics engine simulation prevent much actual engineering, such shared 3D {{w|computer aided design}} (CAD) systems provided a measure of drafting training inside a play sandbox system outside of a formal work environment. The use of game development competitions to assist scientific progress is also used in, for example, the [https://fold.it/portal/ Fold.it] competitive protein folding game, where the winners build antibodies to save the lives of those who have health care.

An alternate reading of the comic is that the NASA engineers are taking vacation time and calling in sick because they are also programmers for KSP2, and are focusing their time and attention to that release deadline rather than the NASA one. This would be unlikely, as learning both engineering and software development to professional levels would take a long time, although NASA engineers could be called on to advise the KSP programmers on (say) the physics engine.

An alternate reading of the title text is that NASA engineers are being paid off in "unmarked cash payments" as a form of bribery to keep them working on the Mars mission, and preventing them from leaving to play or work on KSP2 instead.

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

:[Cueball sitting at a desk in front of a computer, surrounded to his left and right by Hairy, Ponytail, another Cueball, and Hairbun]
:Hairy: Please hold off until the end of summer. We can't afford the personnel hit right before the late July launch window.
:Ponytail: People have ''already'' started calling in sick!
:Hairbun: Do you want a moon? ''We'll give you a moon!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:NASA tries desperately to get the Kerbal Space Program team to delay ''KSP 2'' until after the ''Mars 2020'' mission launches.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Video games]]

1831: Here to Help

2019-08-26T23:10:10Z

Tualha: minor grammar fixes; film is not recent any more

{{comic
| number = 1831
| date = May 1, 2017
| title = Here to Help
| image = here_to_help.png
| titletext = "We TOLD you it was hard." "Yeah, but now that I'VE tried, we KNOW it's hard."
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a satire of computer programmers, who sometimes forget that not everything can be solved with an {{w|algorithm}}, or of the tendency to think computers are the answer to everything. In the first panel, [[Megan]] talks about how the field that she and [[Hairy]] work in has a difficult problem that many people have been working on. [[Cueball]], believing that algorithms can solve their problem, tries to help. In the next panel, Megan and Hairy silently watch Cueball working on the problem on his laptop. Finally, six months later, Cueball concedes, and an exasperated Megan retorts sarcastically, pointing out that she had explained its difficulty six months ago within the timeline.

The title text furthers Cueball's apparent arrogance by showing a dialogue. Megan or Hairy says, "We TOLD you it was hard," referring to the first panel, but Cueball, still confident in his own ability's superiority, says, "Yeah, but now that I'VE tried, we KNOW it's hard." The joke is that Cueball believes that, even though he has just failed, it was his attempt which proved the difficulty, and not Megan and Hairy's work for years. The dialog references an exchange from the film ''{{w|The Imitation Game}}'', in which {{w|Alan Turing|Alan Turing's}} superior claims, "The Americans, the Russians, the French, the Germans, everyone thinks Enigma is unbreakable," and Turing replies, "Good. Let me try and we'll know for sure, won't we?"

The satire, however, applies far beyond computer programmers. It can be read as a political commentary, as in ''[http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/trump-nobody-knew-health-care-could-be-so-complicated.html Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.]'' It is what we'd all like to see when well-meaning advice givers provide the "simple" solution to all our problems, or management provides glib advice from ten thousand feet. It is a commentary on the universal tendency to see problems as simple because we don't know what makes them hard.

This comic calls back to [[793: Physicists]] and possibly [[1570: Engineer Syllogism]] in central theme.

==Transcript==
:[Megan, standing next to Hairy, is addressing the reader holding her arms out. Cueball walks in from the right.]
:Megan: Our field has been struggling with this problem for years.

:[Cueball holds his laptop high up in one arm above Megan's head while holding his other arm out as well. Megan has turned to look at him.]
:Cueball: Struggle no more! I'm here to solve it with ''algorithms!''

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball sits on a chair at a desk with his laptop working on it, while Hairy and Megan looks on from behind.]

:[Cueball, still sitting at his laptop, points at the screen. Megan raises her arms and four small lines above her head, on either side of her speech line, indicate her annoyance with Cueball.]
:Six months later:
:Cueball: Wow, this problem is really hard.
:Megan: '''''You don't say.'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Programming]]

Talk:2163: Chernobyl

2019-06-15T08:39:02Z

Tualha: Reference to Masha Gessen article

Please note that the first panel is referring to an HBO mini-series about the Chernobyl disaster, not the disaster itself! White Hat is NOT expressing enjoyment of the disaster itself, which was my initial reaction! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 16:55, 14 June 2019 (UTC)
:If I were Randall, I would have put "HBO's ''Chernobyl''" to dispel that confusion. Also, I'd be much cooler. [[User:OhFFS|OhFFS]] ([[User talk:OhFFS|talk]]) 18:06, 14 June 2019 (UTC)
:That’s why Randall put it in italics. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.160.132|172.69.160.132]] 18:54, 14 June 2019 (UTC)
:Actually that's exactly what I thought until I came here, I've only been marginally aware such a show even existed, LOL! Actually, I took White Hat's enjoyment as "I find the subject interesting". In April & May I was coming to a bar for a Game Of Thrones viewing party (I only made it to three), and one either started or ended with Chernobyl, that was my only awareness of it. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:47, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

In the transcript, there's two words that might be both italic and bold: First, when Ponytail says "30 years ago, we banged some rocks together too hard.", I think "too" is italic and bold, and when she says "Yeah, we messed up real bad.", I think the "real" is also italic and bold. If this is the case, I don't know how to apply both bold and italic to text in wiki markup! Can anyone help? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 01:51, 15 June 2019 (UTC)
:Never mind - I figured it out via the Wikitext Cheatsheet! Putting 5 single quotes around the text did it! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:20, 15 June 2019 (UTC)
:: I completely agree those words are both, and I feel I can say so with utmost certainty. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:47, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

If you’re going to watch the series, be sure to read this so you’ll know which parts are total BS: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-hbos-chernobyl-got-right-and-what-it-got-terribly-wrong [[User:Tualha|Tualha]] ([[User talk:Tualha|talk]]) 08:39, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

2126: Google Trends Maps

2019-03-20T22:48:21Z

Tualha: Improve Pence explanation; genus and species names in italics

{{comic
| number = 2126
| date = March 20, 2019
| title = Google Trends Maps
| image = google_trends_maps.png
| titletext = It's early 2020. The entire country is gripped with Marco Rubio fever except for Alaska, which is freaking out. You're frantically studying up on etiquette and/or sexting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MARCO RUBIO. Each map needs to be individually explained. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[https://trends.google.com/ Google Trends] is a website for visualizing Google search activity by date and region. Used properly, it can give a picture of what topics people are interested in (as evidenced by what they search for) at particular times and in different places. Used improperly, it can simply [[1845:_State Word Map|amplify random noise]].

[[Randall]] has created several Google Trends maps of search activity in the US. Each map colors in states according to which of two (or more) search queries was more popular. As noted at the top of the comic, all of these based on real queries (though not reflecting the same time period across all maps). However, none of them seem to show any especially ''useful'' comparisons.

* "Frostbite" vs "heat stroke": This is probably the most sensible comparison of the lot, showing which of these two risks of exposure people search up more often. However, the results are fairly obvious: in the colder northern and eastern states, "frostbite" is the more common search, while across the south and west, it's "heat stroke".
* "Best church" vs "best strip club": This map would seem to indicate people in Nevada (and only in Nevada) are more interested in strip clubs than religion. This may have something to do with the fact that Las Vegas is in Nevada.
* "Bigfoot" vs "Mike Pence": Apparently, everywhere except for Indiana, people in the US are more interested in a mythical hairy creature than in the current (at the time of this comic's release) Vice President of the United States. Since Mike Pence was once the governor of Indiana, this makes more sense if the time period covered precedes his nomination as Trump's running mate.
* "Etiquette" vs "{{w|sexting}}": Similar to the church/strip club example, this map contrasts search interest in polite behavior against risqué behavior.
* "Little dog" vs "big cat": The Trend map contrasts two searches for unidentified and briefly glimpsed wildlife that often snatch household pets left outside. The smallest canid in the wilds of America is the coyote, ''Canis latrans'', which are often smaller than the American wild dog, ''Canis lupus''. They are known for being scavenger/hunters and for the ululating "songs" their packs break into in the middle of the night. By contrast, "big cat" is a term for the largest members of the cat family (''Felidae''). Except for the jaguar, which is a roaring cat of the ''Panthera'' genus that inhabits Mexico and sometimes Arizona, the largest wild cat in North America is the mountain lion, ''Puma concolor''. It is also known as cougar, puma, catamount, ghost cat, over seventy other regional names, and the misnomer panther. (The cougar is ironically of the Felinae subfamily, all of which purr, and not Pantherinae, which roar. Black panthers in Africa are black-coated leopards, while black panthers in the Americas are black-coated jaguars, and both are Pantherinae. No black-coated pumas have been verified, leading zoologists to believe such sightings are misidentified.) "Little Dog" is also a Canadian television series, set in Newfoundland, which explains the larger number of searches for Little Dog in Maine, the state closest to Newfoundland.
* "Shark attack" vs "childbirth": While both of these things might be considered risky, there is not much of a relationship between them. As might be expected, the "shark attack" search is more common in most coastal states (and, for some reason, both Kentucky and Nevada).
* "Snakes" vs "ants" vs "bees" vs "alligators": These are all dangerous animals that cause occasional human fatalities (mainly from allergic reactions for ants and bees). There is no noticeable pattern in which animal is searched most often, though only Florida has alligators as the most common search of the four. Florida presumably has Alligators as the most searched item on this list as it is where the Everglades are located, a vast area of swamp and marsh that, aside from maintaining the ecosystem and the water supply of Florida, also is home to an obscene number of alligators.
* "Retirement planning" vs "bungee jumping": The implication here is that people in some states are more concerned with short-term fun rather than long-term planning.
* "Super Bowl" vs "funeral home": This is an attempt to contrast interest in a popular sports (and media) event against a rather somber topic.
* "Resume tips" vs "skateboard tricks": Another comparison between learning a "serious", goal-oriented skill (career advancement) and a "silly", fun skill (skateboarding). It is also an imperfect rhyme.
* "Donald Trump" vs "What do I do": The implication here seems to be that people in some states are more likely to ask Google "what do I do?", either in panic or in ignorance, than they are to look up the latest doings of the US President. The split shown is not too different to the actual split between states voting for Trump and for his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
* "Existential crisis" vs "Marco Rubio": Senator Marco Rubio was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Everywhere but Alaska, people were more likely to look up his name than to search for "existential crisis".

The title text uses two of these maps to paint a picture of the year 2020 (implying that these search patterns are both meaningful and likely to continue into the future). In this scenario, most of the country continues to read about Marco Rubio (except for Alaskans, still searching for help with their existential crises), and individuals are trying to learn about etiquette, sexting, or both, depending on their location.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Add the colored states. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:The least informative
:'''Google Trends Maps'''
:I've created over the years

:(All are real but not all cover the same date range)

:[12 maps of the United States are shown with the states colored. There are labels for the colors. Refer to the explanation for details on which states or areas are which color.]

:[Map 1]
:[Blue:] Frostbite
:[Red:] Heat stroke

:[Map 2]
:[Blue:] Best church
:[Red:] Best strip club

:[Map 3]
:[Blue:] Bigfoot
:[Red:] Mike Pence

:[Map 4]
:[Blue:] Etiquette
:[Red:] Sexting

:[Map 5]
:[Blue:] Little dog
:[Red:] Big cat

:[Map 6]
:[Blue:] Shark attack
:[Red:] Childbirth

:[Map 7]
:[Blue:] Snakes
:[Red:] Ants
:[Yellow:] Bees
:[Green:] Alligators

:[Map 8]
:[Blue:] Retirement planning
:[Red:] Bungee jumping

:[Map 9]
:[Blue:] Super Bowl
:[Red:] Funeral home

:[Map 10]
:[Blue:] Resume tips
:[Red:] Skateboard tricks

:[Map 11]
:[Blue:] Donald Trump
:[Red:] What do I do

:[Map 12]
:[Blue:] Existential crisis
:[Red:] Marco Rubio

{{comic discussion}}

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

1891: Obsolete Technology

2017-09-19T10:44:47Z

Tualha: typos; another reason to prefer fax in these contexts

{{comic
| number = 1891
| date = September 18, 2017
| title = Obsolete Technology
| image = obsolete_technology.png
| titletext = And I can't believe some places still use fax machines. The electrical signals waste so much time going AROUND the Earth when neutrino beams can go straight through!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Someone please find some statistics for annual fireworks casualties and injuries.}}

This comic mocks people who criticize an industry for using obsolete technology, even when said technology is sufficient for the task at hand. The claim often comes with the implication that those in charge of the industry are behind the times and cannot adapt to the cutting edge. What these critics often fail to realize is that there are cost benefits to sticking with "obsolete" infrastructure, and that upgrading to the newest tech can introduce unwanted side effects and other risks.

Here, Ponytail is one such critic, complaining that the business is taking "forever" to get with the times. Megan uses sarcasm to deliver her counterargument, (although she may be serious): despite the advent of nuclear weapons, fireworks use the ancient technology of {{w|gunpowder}} (invented in the 9th century), because fireworks are used by civilians for celebratory purposes and should have as few lethal side effects as possible{{Citation needed}}. As they use gunpowder, fireworks do claim a handful of lives and cause thousands of injuries each year due to improper handling procedures. Nuclear-based fireworks would not only cause much larger and immediately lethal explosions{{Citation needed}}, but would also release radiation that would poison spectators. Between June 18th and July 18th of 2016, fireworks caused an estimated 11,000 injuries, of which 7,000 had to be treated in hospitals. In the whole year of 2016, four people died. (U.S. stats, [http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2017/06/30/456213.htm]). In the same time, nuclear explosions directly caused neither injuries nor deaths,{{Citation needed}} suggesting that health hazards could be lowered by using nuclear fireworks.

However, what is not stated in the comic is that nuclear explosions can have detrimental effects on human health. For example, should a nuclear explosion at a firework display be too powerful, the spectators, and possibly the neighborhood around the display, would be vaporized instantly. Fallout from a nuclear reaction could spread radiation across a wide area, leading to increased risks of cancers and other detrimental genetic mutations. In addition, outside of natural radioactive decay there is no known method to remove radiation from an object, and some radioactive particles can still harm human health for thousands of years. Famous nuclear accidents, such as those in Chernobyl and Fukushima, have led to the surrounding area becoming uninhabitable for years.

In other words, sometimes using newer technology is "overkill" for the purpose, and it might be costlier to switch to a newer technology. For example, many industrial machines were designed and sold in the 1990s when {{w|floppy disk}}s were the prevalent means of storing the instructions, but those machines still have one or two or even more decades of usable lifetime left, and the instruction files still fit on those floppy disks. So, in 2017, there are several companies that thrive on buying, refurbishing and selling floppy disks. This [https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/why-do-floppy-disks-still-exist-the-world-isnt-ready-to-move-on/ report] portrays one of these companies.

{{w|MS-DOS}} is a computer operating system made by {{w|Microsoft}} that was dominant during much of the 1980s. When Microsoft released Windows, a newer operating system (or series of operating systems), they encouraged people to switch to that, which many did. MS-DOS became essentially obsolete when Microsoft released Windows 95 in 1995. However, there remain rare circumstances in which MS-DOS (or another command-line operating system) is still preferred, such as when no mouse, touchscreen, or other pointing hardware is available, or when the hardware does not support a newer operating system. To make matters simpler, there is {{w|DOSBox}}, a free and open-source MS-DOS emulator which is actively maintained and extended.

The title text uses a different twist: it criticizes the current use of fax machines, which many find obsolete compared to e-mail (black and white only, text sent as image making further treatment complicated, waste of ink and paper for recipient while sender has to pay per fax in some countries), then argues it is obsolete due to being electron-based while neutrino-based communication would be faster. In 2017 neutrino detectors are heavy and expensive, used for nuclear research only. Electronic communications travel at a fair share of speed of light and the advantage of path would be at most a factor of π/2, so neutrino-based communication would be way too expensive compared to the speed gain (and the time saving would be a few hundredths of a second). Real-world fax detractors would rather replace it with other electronic communication systems, not neutronic ones.

Fax machines are a peculiar topic among "obsolete" technology. In some fields, like lawyer offices, pharmacies and medical practices, they staunchly hold their ground, as they offer a way to quickly transfer handwritten and hand-signed documents. Confidentiality is also an issue; fax, which uses a landline, is more difficult to intercept than internet-based traffic. In some countries, a telecopy is a valid document, having the same legal value as the original. So, a patient can call his doctor to fill a prescription, which is faxed to the pharmacy where the patient can fetch his drugs, saving precious time. In the same manner, a legal request can be sent to the receiver, without having to use a courier or express mail.

==Transcript==

:[Ponytail sits in front of an old computer. Megan stands behind her.]
:Ponytail: Whoa, this is running MS-DOS! It's weird how new technology takes forever to reach some industries.
:Megan: Yeah. Like how we still use gunpowder for fireworks, even though we've had nuclear weapons for over 70 years.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Computers]]

1860: Communicating

2017-07-07T22:39:01Z

Tualha: assorted minor fixes

{{comic
| number = 1860
| date = July 7, 2017
| title = Communicating
| image = communicating.png
| titletext = You're saying that the responsibility for avoiding miscommunication lies entirely with the listener, not the speaker, which explains why you haven't been able to convince anyone to help you down from that wall.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need my "Alice" quotes checked. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

''There's glory for you.''

In Lewis Carroll's "{{w|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There}}", {{w|Alice_(Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland)|Alice}} meets {{w|Humpty Dumpty}} (the egg-shaped character from the children's verse). Humpty Dumpty is a Looking Glass creature, and the Looking Glass creatures all feature some form of inversion. For Humpty Dumpty the inversion is in meanings. He berates Alice for having a name that doesn't mean anything (contrasted with his name which means his shape).

But Humpty declares to Alice "There's glory for you". Alice doesn't understand what Humpty means by "glory". Humpty explains that he can make words mean whatever he chooses to mean. By "glory" he meant "a nice knockdown argument".

In the comic Humpty is explaining to "Alice" (portrayed by [[Science Girl]]) that he can choose meanings for his words. "Alice" wonders what meaning should be given to that utterance, and decides it means "Please take all my belongings". Humpty realizes he has been caught in a trap, but now Alice is choosing meanings, and even his protests are taken to mean "take my car too".

While it seems that Alice chooses these specific meanings of words to educate Humpty Dumpty about the mistake in his way of thinking, she could as well inform him about planned theft with random, meaningless words or not at all. After all, she got "permission". Also, even though Humpty Dumpty decides about the meanings of words by himself, he "accidentally" chooses the normal meanings of all of Alice's words, because otherwise he wouldn't be informed about the planned theft and wouldn't be able to react to this with "What!? No!".

Humpty Dumpty is known from the nursery rhyme or riddle:

:''Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,

:''Humpy Dumpty had a great fall.

:''All the King's horses and all the King's men,

:''Couldn't put Humpty together again.''

Carroll's Humpty Dumpty is a parody of people who use technical language without defining their terms, and expect others to understand. The title text continues this. By Humpty insisting that he is not responsible for others understanding him he is unable to get help getting down from the wall, which will lead to his inevitable demise. This two-sided nature of communication is also shown in the title text of [[1028: Communication]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Egg-shaped character Humpty Dumpty, drawn with an angry face, is sitting on a brick wall and facing Alice.]
:Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less.
:Alice: I wonder what all those words you just said meant. Maybe you're telling me I can have all your stuff!
:Humpty Dumpty: What!? No!
:Alice: Your car, too? Gosh, thanks!

{{comic discussion}}