explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2100: Models of the Atom

2019-01-21T11:45:34Z

VoidPhantom: /* Explanation */ Fix misspelling in nunchuck model (“nucleur” → “nuclear”)

{{comic
| number = 2100
| date = January 18, 2019
| title = Models of the Atom
| image = models_of_the_atom.png
| titletext = J.J. Thompson won a Nobel Prize for his work in electricity in gases, but was unfairly passed over for his "An atom is plum pudding, and plum pudding is MADE of atoms! Duuuuude." theory.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COMPLAINING EQUATION. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic humorously describes the changing view of what an {{w|atom}} is. This has happened so much it seems that we never really knew what we are looking at, and there have been many competing theories aside from the mainstream ones we are taught in school. He lists major depictions in the history of our understanding of an atom, and adds a few humorous ones in to poke fun at how diverse, contentious, and in retrospect often foolhardy, this history has been.

;Small hard ball model
The first model shown, in 1810, is said to be a "small hard ball model." Around this time, {{w|John Dalton}} published his textbook ''A New System of Chemical Philosophy'' which linked existing ideas of atomic theory and chemical reactivity to produce a combined {{w|Law of multiple proportions}} which proposed that each chemical element is comprised of a single unique type of atom, and introduced the concept of {{w|Molecular mass|molecular weight}}. Dalton's theories form the basis of what is known today as {{w|stoichiometry}}, which underpins chemical reactivity. As atoms were considered at this time to be the smallest possible division of matter the scientific community thought of them as "hard round balls" of different sizes; thus the name described here. The "small hard ball" model is still commonly used when teaching and discussing chemical molecules which do not require the level of detail provided by more advanced models, with atoms represented as small, hard, round balls connected by sticks representing chemical bonds.

;Plum pudding model
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the study of these "atom" things faced a crisis: where would the newly discovered "{{w|electron}}s" go? In 1904, physicist {{w|J. J. Thomson}}, who discovered electrons, had an idea: maybe the electrons were small point charges moving around in a big mass of positive charge. This was the "{{w|plum pudding model}}", the second model on the comic, called this because people imagined the positively charged mass as a "{{w|Christmas pudding|plum pudding}}". (The title text references Thomson as well, along with the humorous observation that plum puddings themselves are made of atoms.) The problem with this approach is that same charges generally repel, resulting in the more mobile or unbalanced charges forming a surface shell around the others, attempting to escape, rather than being content to being randomly distributed among them.

;Tiny bird model
There were many competing ideas in the formative years of what-are-atoms-made-of-ology, [[Randall]] makes up a 1907 "tiny bird model."

;Rutherford model
Ultimately, the tentative winner in the battle was the model of Thomson's student {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, who discovered from electrostatic scattering experiments that the positive charge seemed to be concentrated in the center of the atom, and proposed his {{w|Rutherford model}}, or "planetary model", in 1911, where electrons orbit a very concentrated positive charge. This model has often been compared to the orbit of the planets around the sun, with the electrostatic attraction of the electrons and protons shaping the orbits, rather than gravity. This is the fourth model in the comic.

;Bohr model
The Rutherford model could not explain the discrete spectral lines in absorption and emission spectra. It also did not explain why electrons did not spiral in to the nucleus. {{w|Niels Bohr}} patched the model up by proposing that electrons could only exist in distinct "energy levels" at discrete distances from the nucleus. The 1913 "{{w|Bohr model}}", the fifth model shown here, was part of beginning quantum mechanics. Physics behaves differently at the small scale of atoms than the large scales we are more familiar with.

;Nunchuck model
Randall facetiously suggests a "{{w|Nunchaku|nunchuck}} model", the sixth model shown, of a packet of protons swinging a packet of electrons around. One can imagine a handle filled with electrons bonded by the strong nuclear force to a chain made of neutrons, bonded again by the strong nuclear force to a handle made of protons. The heavier protonic handle acts loosely as an orbital center as the electron-filled opposite handle swings wildly around it, attempting to resolve its electrostatic attraction within the restraints of its chain.

;Chadwick model
The next refinement was in the structure of the nucleus. Note that at this time, nobody thought of splitting up the nucleus into {{w|proton}}s and {{w|neutron}}s. But pretty soon people noticed that protons and neutrons existed; {{w|James Chadwick}}, who discovered the neutron, figured that the atom had a nucleus of neutrons and protons, along with a bunch of electrons orbiting around it in a Bohrish manner. This is what the layman today often thinks of as an atom, and is the seventh model shown here.

;538 Model
The eighth model shown is a made up "538 model," in 2008. {{w|FiveThirtyEight|538}} is a statistical analysis website that gained fame in 2008 for predicting every race but 2 correctly in the {{w|2008 United States presidential election|US presidential election}} and predicting every state and Obama's win in the 2012 election. Unlike most other media and polling institutes it saw a rather high probability of 29% for Trump to win the 2016 election by summing up the uncertainties in all the battle states. It has since been known for making mathematical models for everything; the model jokingly suggests that 538 has modeled and presumably made predictions about the atom. The {{w|pie chart}} shows the statistical composition of neutrons, protons and electrons, 38%, 31%, and 31% respectively. This could either be the average of a massive body with several isotopes or represent gallium-69, the most abundant {{w|Isotopes of gallium|isotope of gallium}}, with 31 protons, 31 electrons and 38 neutrons. FiveThirtyEight has previously been mentioned in several xkcd comics, including in [[477: Typewriter]], [[500: Election]], [[635: Locke and Demosthenes]], [[1130: Poll Watching]], [[1779: 2017]], and [[2002: LeBron James and Stephen Curry]]. It's appropriate to list the 538 model as a precursor to the quantum model, as it is a step towards considering the likelihood of different quantities of subatomic particles to be in different volumes of space, rather than considering them as strictly kinematic particles. The comic moves this development into 2008 in support of this joke, when it was actually made much earlier.

;Quantum model
But is the Chadwick model what scientists endorse today? No!
{{w|Maxwell's equations|The theory of electromagnetism}} says that accelerated charges, like the electrons circling, would lose energy emitted as electromagnetic waves and would quickly orbit into the nucleus. Bohr only postulated that this would not happen, but his model could not explain why. Another problem{{Citation needed}} is that atoms, even the hydrogen atom are not flat - which they would be, if a single electron orbited in a circular or elliptical trajectory.
Today (i.e. actually since 1926, 29 years after the discovery of the electron) physicists subscribe to a quantum model, which is the ninth model shown here. Instead of electrons with definite location and momentum (~speed), the parts of the atom are described by probability fields of possible locations and momentums. The changes in momentum probability normally cancel each other out, so there is no electromagnetic radiation. This is very abstract, and in the last model, the model is postulated to get so abstract that it is just a "small hard ball surrounded by math" model, the last model shown. This then is remarkably similar to the model we started out from, the "small hard ball model" (without the math).

;“Small hard ball surrounded by math” model
The picture for the "small ball surrounded by math" depicts a circle with several numbers around it. While the numbers seem to symbolize the "surrounding math" in a general sense, some of them suggest constants used in actual mathematical equations or other numbers related to the quantum model. The shapes and densities of the atomic orbitals are calculated with the {{w|Schrödinger_equation}}, which is complex and difficult to solve. Or with string theory, which does not make it easier. For this reason atoms are generally precisely considered in only very simple simulations, and the details of interactions of many atoms at large scales that form our daily lives are incredibly hard to precisely understand and predict on an atomic level. It comes down to "these roundish things we call atoms are moving around in these approximate ways obeying this complex equation with too many numbers involved in most situations to accurately model, so let's use a different, empirically derived formula that describes the behavior of the system in general."

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Number !! Explanation
|-
| 18 || Maximum number of electrons in the third (M) {{w|electron shell}}
|-
| 0.1 || 1/10th, a simple decimal
|-
| π || The {{w|Pi|number pi}} ratio of circumference of a circle to half its diameter. Pi is present in many physics equations, often as its double value (2π); also in the definition of the {{w|Planck_constant#Value|reduced Planck constant}} present in quantum-mechanical equations.
|-
| 173 || Possibly a typo (could be 137) referring to the fine structure constant which value is approximately 1/137
|-
| √2 || An irrational constant, the square root of two, which comes up frequently
|-
| 4i || A simple complex number; i is considered the square root of -1 (4i is the square root of -16)
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[One large panel with a caption centered on top and ten small drawings in two rows. Each drawing has a description below it.]

:'''Models of the Atom'''
:over time

:[A somewhat imperfectly drawn circle.]
:1810 Small hard ball model

:[A rounded-corners trapezoid inside which there are four small plus signs and four small circles with minus signs inside them.]
:1904 Plum pudding model

:[A bigger circle, with four birds on the surface and music notes above.]
:1907 Tiny bird model

:[A small circle with dots circling around it, drawn with paths.]
:1911 Rutherford model

:[A circle with a plus sign with three circles around it, each with a dot.]
:1913 Bohr model

:[A nunchuck swinging, with the left stick filled with circles with plus signs and the right stick filled with circles with minus signs.]
:1928 Nunchuck model

:[A nucleus with three circles around it, each with a dot.]
:1932 Chadwick model

:[A pie chart, where a part of it has a circle, a part of it has a circle with a minus sign and a part of it has a circle with a plus sign.]
:2008 538 model

:[A small circle with clover-like orbitals around it and surrounded by two outer partly dashed circles.]
:Today Quantum model

:[A circle surrounded with numbers.]
:Numbers: 18, 0.1, π, 173, √2, 4i
:Future "Small hard ball surrounded by math" model

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Physics]]

1581: Birthday

2015-09-23T22:23:04Z

VoidPhantom: “Happy Birthday to You” did not become public domain; it’s an orphan work (see, e.g., <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/09/happy-birthday-everybody-victory-public-domain-asterisk>)

{{comic
| number = 1581
| date = September 23, 2015
| title = Birthday
| image = birthday.png
| titletext = I guess I need to apologize to my parents, friends, and the staff at Chuck E. Cheese's for all the times I called the cops on them.
}}

==Explanation==
[[xkcd]] turns 10 years old on September 30, 2015 (a week after the release of this comic). In this comic [[Randall]] honors his webcomic by singing to it the classic "{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" song.

"{{w|Happy Birthday to You}}" is one of the most commonly sung songs in the English language (and is common in many others). Because of its age, ubiquity and simplicity, it has long surprised people to learn that it was not in the public domain. {{w|Warner/Chappell Music}} claimed the copyright to the lyrics, and has demanded royalties for any recording, publication or public performance for commercial purposes. Total revenues for this song were estimated at $2 million annually.

This strip refers to a ruling, from the day before the release of this comic, by a federal judge in California ({{w|George H. King|George King}}), stating that the song is not covered by a valid copyright (see [http://www.law360.com/articles/706173 Warner's 'Happy Birthday' Copyright Not Valid, Judge Rules]). This ruling resulted from a conflict that arose when Warner Music filed a lawsuit against singer {{w|Rupa Marya}} and filmmaker {{w|Robert D. Siegel|Robert Siegel}} demanding royalties for the use of the song in their productions. With this ruling, the court declared that Warner/Chappell does not have a copyright claim to the song, and therefore the song can now be sung or published by anyone, in any context, without having to pay royalties to Warner/Chappell. Munroe seems to be celebrating the fact that this strip, which would have put him at risk for a lawsuit the day before, is now completely legal.

The title text is a joke that refers to Randall calling the police against {{w|Chuck E. Cheese's}} as well as his own friends and parents when they sang "Happy Birthday" and did not pay royalties. The song is very commonly used in entertainment restaurants, such as Chuck E. Cheese's, and at both grown up's and children's birthdays. Because restaurants are commercial enterprises, public performances of the song, prior to this ruling, would potentially expose the restaurant to liability claims (though singing it at a private birthday party would not). In either case, calling the police would be an extreme overreaction.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the frame:]
:xkcd turns 10 years old this month.
:In light of last night's court ruling in
:''Rupa Marya v. Warner/Chappell Music Inc.'',
:I would just like to say:

:[The song text is written, with nine musical notes, three groups on each side of the text, above a birthday cake with 10 lit candles. The cake has two distinct layers. On each layer there are drawn 6 xkcd stick figures with small black bullets between them. The center bullet in the bottom layer is shaped like a heart. The figures at the edges can be difficult to recognize. The figures in the upper layer and from the left are: A man with a hat (hard to see if it is one of the recognized characters), White Hat, Megan, Pony Tail, Hairy and Cueball (hard to see him properly). Similar in the lower layer: Black Hat, Danish, Beret Guy, Rob, Cutie, and a girl (hard to see, but looks like girls hair, not a hat).]
:Happy birthday to you
:Happy birthday to you
:Happy birthday, dear xkcd
:Happy birthday to you

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

1141: Two Years

2015-09-13T09:20:56Z

VoidPhantom: /* Explanation */ Spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 1141
| date = November 30, 2012
| title = Two Years
| image = two years.png
| titletext = She won the first half of all our chemo Scrabble games, but then her IV drugs started kicking in and I *dominated*.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic marks the second year of [[Randall Munroe]]'s wife's battle with cancer, and appears to depict actual events from those two years. Randall is depicted as [[Cueball]] and his wife as [[Megan]], as per usual for both.

Some explanations:
*Panel 1: Randall's wife-to-be (at that point) receives a diagnosis over the phone (from Dr. [[Ponytail]]) as Randall sits by her side supportively. His wife has Megan long hair at this time.
*Panel 2: His wife undergoes IV (intravenous) {{w|chemotherapy}}. Because of the hair loss that results from chemotherapy, many patients opt to shave their heads when they undergo chemotherapy. As can be seen from the stubble she did not shave her hair, but has lost almost all of it. Only the hair coming back between chemo sessions is the cause of the stubble. Her hair grows back over the course of the panels following the end of her chemo (from panel 7).
*Panel 3: The two of them spend time alone together, experiencing something beautiful in the world for it may be one of her last chances to do so. Randall reinforces this sentiment in panel 8. In this panel (#3) she wears a knit cap presumably because it is cold.
*Panel 4: The couple waits for a phone call from her doctor to hear the results of a scan. Both are clearly impatient and anxious.
*Panel 5: More chemotherapy. The couple plays {{w|Scrabble}}, in which players use letter tiles to spell words in a cross-word style. She uses the fact that she has cancer as leverage to get Randall to ignore the fact that the word she has played ('''zarg''') is not a real word.
*Panel 6: Someone suggests they come for a visit next year, but all they can think about are the words "next year." Their future is entirely uncertain because of her health, making long-term planning a consistent source of worry and doubt. In this panel she wears a knit cap to hide her missing hair.
*Panel 7: Randall and his fiancée marry. With the chemotherapy completed, her hair has grown back enough that she has stopped using her knit cap.
*Panel 8: The couple goes whale ({{w|humpback whales}}) watching, possibly on their {{w|honeymoon}}. In this panel, she again wears the knit cap either because it is cold or because she is weak.
*Panel 9: Randall paraphrases a line from the song "{{w|Still Alive}}" (watch the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_S0PGu-cH4 video]) from the video game ''{{w|Portal}}'' (''"I'm doing science and I'm still alive"''). He does this because his wife is again back at her laptop working.
*Panel 10: The two of them sit under a tree reflecting on the significance of the past two years.
*Panel 11: Randall and his wife go out to dinner to celebrate the fact that she has made it two years since her {{w|biopsy}}. This turns awkward for [[Hairy]], the waiter, since he had assumed it was an anniversary of their marriage.

The title text is referring to a possible {{w|Chemotherapy#Neurological adverse effects|side-effect of chemotherapy drugs}}, the inability to concentrate. It could also just be the fact that the chemo can make you feel just terrible. When whatever effect kicks in, she loses the rest of their Scrabble games for that day. However, as we see in panel 5, there is a reason why she wins ''all'' of the first half of their games. But this is not enough, or she even forgets to play on the cancer, when the drugs takes effect.

==Transcript==
:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit on a bed, Randall's fiancée is talking on the phone. The person she is talking to, a doctor holding a clipboard, is shown inset.]
:Randall's fiancée: Oh god.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit together while Randall's fiancée, now bald, is receiving chemotherapy. They are both on their laptops.]
:IV pump: ... Beeep ... Beeep ... Beeep ...

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (who is wearing a knit cap) are paddling a kayak against a scenic mountain backdrop.]

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit at a table, staring at a cell phone. There is a clock on the wall. Her head is stubbly.]
:Randall's fiancée: How long can it take to read a scan!?

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are back at the hospital again, Randall's fiancée receiving chemo. They are playing Scrabble.]
:Randall: "Zarg" isn't a word.
:Randall's fiancée: But ''caaaancer.''
:Randall: ...Ok, fine.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (wearing a knit cap) are listening to a Cueball-like friend. A large thought bubble is above their heads and it obscures the friends talk. The text below, split in three is the only part there can be no doubt about:]
:Friend: So next year you should come visit us in the mounta
::a
::and
:Randall and Randall's fiancée (thinking): '''"Next year"'''

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are getting married, with a heart above their heads. Randall's wife's hair is growing back.]

:[Randall and Randall's wife (wearing a knit cap) stand on a beach, watching a whale jump out of water.]
:''Fwoosh''

:[Randall's wife is sitting at a desk with her laptop standing on top of two books. Her hair has grown back a little more. Randall stands behind her.]
:Randall: Hey— you're doing science, and you're still alive.
:Randall's wife: Yeah!

:[Randall and Randall's wife sit under a tall tree on a hill.]
:Randall: It's really only been two years?
:Randall's wife: They were big years.

:[Randall and Randall's wife sit at a table in a fancy restaurant. Her hair has grown back even more. The waiter (Hairy) brings them a dish with a cover on it.]
:Waiter: Happy... Anniversary?
:Randall's wife: Biopsy-versary!
:Waiter: ...Eww.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Video games]]

940: Oversight

2015-09-12T17:51:20Z

VoidPhantom: /* Explanation */ Grammar correction

{{comic
| number = 940
| date = August 19, 2011
| title = Oversight
| image = oversight.png
| titletext = I felt so clever when I found a way to game the Fitocracy system by incorporating a set of easy but high-scoring activities into my regular schedule. Took me a bit to realize I'd been tricked into setting up a daily exercise routine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Fitocracy}} is a web site that turns workouts into a social game by awarding points, badges, levels and all sorts of other {{w|Gamification|gamification}}. [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]], by their judgement, have spent approximately two hours engaged in sexual activity. However, according to this cartoon, Fitocracy does not consider sex to be an activity acceptable for its site, despite the vigorous nature of Cueball and Megan's sexual workout.

The title text explains how sites like Fitocracy are so successful. Because human brains, especially the cynical ones, like to game the system whenever they can, they will find easy things to do that also score high. In the case of Fitocracy, these are simple exercises that add up a lot when applied daily. But the creators of Fitocracy (and other such successful sites, like Weight Watchers or Lumosity) know this, and, as {{w|Russian reversal|"in Soviet Russia" joke}}, the system games you shown.adopting an exercise regimen, or losing weight, or getting smarter, or whatever else there is.

Sex does raise your breathing rate and heartbeat, but as sparkpeople (a similar site to fitocracy) [http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=you_asked_does_sex_count_as_cardio_how_many_calories_does_it_burn notes], it is not as effective as a session at a gym, as it does not typically use the main muscle groups in their full range of motion, and doesn't sustain a raised heartbeat for a sufficient length of time. They consider sex to be less effective as cardio than brisk walking, as it burns only about 100-200 kcal per hour, which is little raised above a typical resting rate of about 60 kcal per hour.

Please note that on the xkcd browser for Android, instead of the correct comic, the following unpublished 'Five Minute Comics' is shown:

[[File:overshight_android.png]]

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball have sex up against a wall.]

:[Megan and Cueball have sex standing in an armchair.]

:[Megan and Cueball have sex in a swing, swaying above a table with a flower vase on it.]

:[Fitocracy. The search phrase is "sex" and the site returned "activity not found."]

:[Megan and Cueball stand in front of the computer, Megan is at the keyboard, Cueball stands back wearing a towel tied around his waist.]
:Megan: Come on! That was like two hours of cardio!
:Cueball: Hmm, let's see... The part on the dresser was ''kind'' of like skiing...
<references/>
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Five-minute comics]]

933: Tattoo

2015-09-12T17:42:27Z

VoidPhantom: /* Explanation */ Spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 933
| date = August 3, 2011
| title = Tattoo
| image = tattoo.png
| titletext = I calculate that the electrons in radiation therapy hit you at 99.8% of the speed of light, and the beam used in a 90-second gamma ray therapy session could, if fired with less precision, kill a horse (they did not let me test this).
}}
==Explanation==
An {{w|Oncologist}} is a doctor who specializes in the treatment of {{w|cancer}}. This comic is certainly related to the {{w|breast cancer}} issue that [[Randall]] is going through with his fiancée. [[Megan]] in this comic has a {{w|tattoo}} for the alignment lasers of the radiotherapy machine which will fire a beam of radiation with sufficient intensity to kill the cells in the targeted area. A common such machine is a linear accelerator or "Linac" which accelerates electrons to very high speed, these can then either be used to generate high energy Xrays to treat the patient, or the electron beam itself can be used (both are types of radiation). Commonly when radiotherapy is used as part of breast cancer treatment some combination of both is prescribed. In order to allow healthy tissue to recover better, rather than deliver all the radiation in one go, the treatment is delivered a little bit each day over the course of about a month. It is therefore vital that the radiation can be delivered to the correct target area day after day, and this is done by lining up the alignment lasers of the linac with the skin markers - that is Megan's tattoo dots. It may not be considered a "traditional" tattoo (because it says it was done by her Oncologist and not in a tattoo parlor).

In the last frame, it is mentioned that [[Cueball]] has a barbed wire bicep tattoo, which is common in the US as a tattoo that people get when they want to seem tough, even if they aren't tough already.

The joke in the comic is that Cueball got this barbed wire tattoo to look tough, but it pales in comparison to the tattoo from (or for) the cancer removal or treatment. This is ironic because people who get barbed wire tattoos believe themselves to be tough. It is kind of funny because Cueball has his whole shirt off just to show a biceps tattoo.

The title text references gamma ray therapy after describing electron linear accelerator-based treatment systems; however, technically gamma ray therapy only refers to radionuclide (i.e., Cobalt-60) based radiation therapy systems. In regards to a 90-second session killing a horse, typical dose rates of modern radiation therapy systems are of the order of several Gray per minute for the field sizes used, for example, in the treatment of {{w|breast cancer}}. It is feasible that a single 90-second delivery of radiation could deliver over 10 Gy in a single instance to the specific areas of the body that could be fatal, such as neuropathy or radiation induced liver disease.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is in the panel. Megan points at her chest.]
:Megan: I just have one tattoo - it's six dots on my chest, done by my oncologist.

:Megan: I need them for aligning the laser sights on a flesh-searing relativistic particle cannon,

:Megan: So it will only kill the parts of me

:[Dramatic zoom, the panel background is black, with white text.]
:Megan: That are holding me back.

:[The panel is larger, revealing who they're talking to.]
:Megan: But your barbed wire bicep tattoo is pretty hardcore, too!
:Cueball: No, it's OK. I'll just go put a shirt on.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Physics]]

667: SkiFree

2015-09-11T18:23:33Z

VoidPhantom: /* Explanation */ Spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 667
| date = November 25, 2009
| title = SkiFree
| image = skifree.png
| titletext = And from that day on, I wore this little 'F' pendant everywhere I went.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|SkiFree}} is a free to play video game. In it, you're a downhill skier who attempts to ski down a hill while avoiding obstacles which cause you to crash (which slows you down), at the start you can choose to go down three different timed/scored courses or ignore them all and ski freely. Beyond the end of the courses you can continue sking downhill. You can also move (slowly) uphill and sideways.

If you ski too far down the hill a monster similar to one in the comic will begin to chase you, contact with the monster ends the game. Since it's much faster than you normally, you'll get caught. The monster also appears if you travel too far in the sideways or upwards directions.

One of the lesser known commands in SkiFree is the 'F' key, which speeds you up, even faster than the monster. A second monster appears slightly further down the hill but by skiing downhill diagonally with the F key it is possible to evade both.

The joke here is that [[Megan]] has thought long and hard about the concept of the monster, relating it to the inevitability of death, and is nonplussed by the revelation that there is a simple mechanism that may allow her to escape it.

The title text refers to pendants or talismans that are worn to protect us from harm or to remind us of important truths. Here, it's implied that even though we currently accept that we cannot avoid death, maybe we just haven't found our 'F' command yet, and we should not give up all hope.

==Transcript==
:[A screenshot of SkiFree, with the abominable snowman running towards the player.]

:[Megan is sitting at her computer.]
:Megan: I've always thought of the SkiFree monster as a metaphor for the inevitability of death.

:[Cueball comes up behind her.]
:Cueball: SkiFree, huh? You know, you can press "F" to go faster than the monster and escape.

:[The screenshot again. The player is zooming away from the monster.]

:[Megan sits at her computer in silence.]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:565: Security Question

2015-09-10T21:23:45Z

VoidPhantom:

The explanation says "security questions are treated much more seriously than passwords." I completely disagree. People generally understand that a password should be complicated but just pick something easily memorable for the security question. The security question is often easier to crack as they can be looked up and the user might tell you the answer inadvertently. For example, in Now You See Me, they trick their rich benefactor into giving up his bank account security answers. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 02:35, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

:I agree, and I've changed the explanation text. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:17, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

:Also now with social media if you don't have enough privacy settings enabled an attacker can find the answers on say your facebook page, and even if you did have the privacy stuff it won't help if the attacker is on your friend list. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.117|141.101.99.117]] 19:35, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

“Of course, by taking the drink Cueball also admits having buried bodies ''at all''.”
Uh, no, he doesn’t? If he never hid any bodies south of Main Street, it doesn’t imply he hid any bodies anywhere else… right? ~ [[User:VoidPhantom|VoidPhantom]] ([[User talk:VoidPhantom|talk]]) 21:23, 10 September 2015 (UTC)