explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2134: Too Much Talking

2019-04-08T17:47:38Z

Waterlubber: created a rudimentary explanation

{{comic
| number = 2134
| date = April 8, 2019
| title = Too Much Talking
| image = too_much_talking.png
| titletext = Next time I go, I'm going to prepare a whole bunch of opinions that I'm sure are good, and make everyone sit quietly while I run through them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TALKATIVE PARTYGOER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball has recently returned from a party, and appears to be intoxicated to some degree. Different from most after-party regrets, he appears to have "talked too much." Likely, he expressed opinions that might be rejected or seen as embarassing by society, and is now remorseful and embarassed he said such things. In his shame, he recedes under his bed, but evidently he still feels strongly abouth is opinions and quickly returns to society.

Tbe title text presents a suggestion that will likely not go over well, as forcing those at a party to quietly listen to you is a great way to kill it.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2063: Carnot Cycle

2018-10-24T17:10:00Z

Waterlubber: /* Explanation */ added words of a constant volume

{{comic
| number = 2063
| date = October 24, 2018
| title = Carnot Cycle
| image = carnot_cycle.png
| titletext = The Carnot cycle is more properly known by its full title, the "Carnot-Tolkien-Wagner Ring Cycle."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please edit the explanation below and only mention here why it isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Carnot cycle}} is a theoretical thermodynamic cycle and is covered in most thermodynamics classes which looks very much like the figure drawn.

However in this case, Randall has replaced the labels of the 4 stages of the real Carnot cycle with new ones.

Each step is explained below

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Step in Comic
!Step in the real Carnot Cycle
!Explanation
|-
|1. Isometric expansion. When heated, the gas becomes larger due to increasing volume
|Reversible isothermal expansion of the gas at the "hot" temperature, Th (isothermal heat addition or absorption).
|The comic text uses a circular argument. Additionally, "isometric" means that the gas does ''not'' change in volume, in contrast to the change in volume here.
|-
|2. Isotonic expansion. The gas expands further due to dark energy while percent milkfat remains constant.
|Isentropic (reversible adiabatic) expansion of the gas (isentropic work output).
|Isotonic is commonly associated with sports drink (and not thermodynamics). Dark energy is hypothesized to be a cause for the expansion of the universe.
|-
|3. Isopropyl compression. While inflation is held constant, the gas contracts due to tightening interest rates.
|Reversible isothermal compression of the gas at the "cold" temperature, Tc. (isothermal heat rejection)
|Isopropyl alcohol is commonly used for cleaning.
|-
|4. Decline and fall. The gas diminishes and goes into the West while remaining Galadriel, completing the cycle.
|Isentropic compression of the gas (isentropic work input).
|{{w|Galadriel}} is a character in {{w|The Lord of the Rings}}. She is one of the leading {{w|Elf (Middle-earth)|elves}}, a race that in the time of the book is said to be dwindling (in number and importance) in {{w|Middle Earth}} and migrating westward to {{w|Valinor}}. Galadriel is one of the last elves to leave, after successfully resisting temptation to take the One Ring and become an all-powerful queen who dominates Middle-earth, instead saying "I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel."
|}

Alt text: Richard Wagner's Ring cycle consists of four operas. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings. Their works are known as {{w|Literary cycle}}s.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2025: Peer Review

2018-07-27T19:11:33Z

Waterlubber: /* Explanation */ Removed mobile wikipedia links and converted to their standard counterparts

{{comic
| number = 2025
| date = July 27, 2018
| title = Peer Review
| image = peer_review.png
| titletext = Your manuscript "Don't Pay $25 to Access Any of the Articles in this Journal: A Review of Preprint Repositories and Author Willingness to Email PDF Copies for Free" has also been rejected, but nice try.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PEER REVIEWER. Needs volunteer commentary on title text. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

How academic publishing works: When a researcher wants to publish their findings, they send it to an academic journal. The editor of the journal is another researcher (usually a college professor), ''who gets paid nothing or a minimal honorarium'' for editing the journal. The editor chooses a few (usually three) peer reviewers who are other researchers familiar enough with the study's subfield to judge the study's quality fairly and accurately, and sends it out to them for review. These peer reviewers ''do not get paid'' for the work of reviewing the manuscript and offering a detailed critique of every part of the study, from lit review to methodology to conclusions drawn from the results. If the peer reviewers and editor agree that the study was well-conducted and the paper well-written (or just needs minor revisions), it is accepted and published in the journal. The researcher ''is not paid'' for getting their paper published in the journal.

In short, nobody in the process is paid for their work except the journal publisher, who charges other researchers, libraries and individuals for access to the fruit of these people's free labor. This is commonly referred to as a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paywall Paywall]".

This system relies upon researchers to be employed by either companies or universities in positions which require them to publish in order to remain employed or achieve promotions or pay raises. In universities, only postdocs and tenure-track or tenured professors are paid in a way that figures in their research time as well as their teaching time, which means that anyone not in one of those positions (lecturers, educators, adjunct instructors) is not paid for any research they might be doing and publishing, nor are those who are conducting research but cannot get a tenure-track job due to universities replacing tenure lines with non-tenure-track positions.

Charging for access to these works has raised controversy in recent years, due to concerns that this may lead to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_silo Information silos].

Ponytail seems to be presenting papers concluding that this flow of currency is not equitable. Unfortunately (?), the journal she has submitted these findings to has opted not to review or publish them, either because they do not find her research suitable for their publication, or because they have a financial interest which conflicts with the findings, since sending her paper to review would give it directly to her target audience.

The title text refers to a recent Twitter [https://twitter.com/hwitteman/status/1015049411276300289 post] that went viral. Researcher Dr. Holly Witteman informs the public that you could just ask many researchers for a PDF copy of their academic paper and that they would be delighted to do so free of charge.
Pre-Print Repositories are online databases for researchers to publish drafts of their research for quick distribution to willing reviewers, sidestepping the lengthy and often arduous reviewing process as conducted by many research journals. These databases are free to access by researchers and the general public, and often papers will remain on these sites long after their journal publication, making them a convenient way to get to papers locked behind a paywall. The publisher refuses to publish a paper that describes ways to get around the paywall restrictions that make up their bottom line.

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

:[Ponytail is sitting and looking at a laptop.]

:RE: Economics Journal Submission

:We have received your manuscript "The Bizarre Economics of Academic Publishing: Why Volunteer Peer Reviewers Should Rise Up and Demand Payment from For-Profit Journals."

:We have elected not to send it out for review.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1975: Right Click

2018-04-02T02:52:19Z

Waterlubber:

How are we going to handle submenus submenus and subitems etc? (Also Captcha outdated! Update immediately!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.34|162.158.238.34]] 01:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

I created this page manually. DgbrtBOT fail?

Also, notably, while the comic at xkcd.com works as intended (even from Chrome on Android, to a certain degree), the mobile site, m.xkcd.com, does not. It shows the standard system/browser-specific context menu. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 00:28, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Oh my gosh this is incredible. The Games section, especially, is mind boggling. Entropy! [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 00:30, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Whoever owns this site update ReCaptcha! [[User:Sizzilingbird|Sizzilingbird]] ([[User talk:Sizzilingbird|talk]]) 00:40, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

WOO!!! [https://uni.xkcd.com/ Unicode XKCD]!!! [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 00:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

This (uni.xkcd.com) is not new, I remember using this months (perhaps years) ago :P [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 02:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Is there a second for easter eggs in there? Fork bombs ( :(){ :|: &};: ) work, I'm not sure what else. [[User:Waterlubber|Waterlubber]] ([[User talk:Waterlubber|talk]]) 02:52, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Reluctant to call it an Easter Egg, but Utilities / Identify Song / Hey Now / Hey now na now / Sing "This Corrosion" to me inverts the colours on the comic/background [[User:Maslink|Maslink]] ([[User talk:Maslink|talk]]) 02:02, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

: He missed a chance for a Rick Roll there (For all we know there may be a Rick Roll in here) [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 02:36, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

SPOILER:

I managed to save the image by playing ADVENT.exe, has anyone else found other ways? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.172|162.158.75.172]] 00:54, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

'''COMIC MAY BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION''' I think one of the menu options change since the comic was first posted. Randall may still be changing things. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 01:15, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
: Actually it's that once you do some things others "unlock". For instance, accessing File > Open > A:\ > Insert > Floppy disk, and then File > Open > A:\ you get the Games, Music, and the really cool Bookmarks catalog of comics. Also, as said above, completing the game ADVENT.exe lets you go to save:
{{Collapse top|title=Egg spoiler: Text adventure route}}
* Games
* ADVENT.EXE
* Castle
* Well
* Pull up the bucket
* Examine bucket
* Get key
* Back
* Back to the castle
* Open door
* Get clamp
* This might come in handy
* Get outta here
* Enter castle
* Examine machine
* Hmmm
* Put clamp in C-Remover
* Take lamp
* Leave
* Go back
* Cave
* Go deeper
* N
* E
* N
* N
* N
* W
* S
* W
* Examine nest
* Take egg
* ''Click''
Now you can save [https://i.imgur.com/X4LX3w9.png the image]! :)
{{Collapse bottom}}
: I made it hidden so that anyone who wants to explore on their own may still... [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:01, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:: The Help menu changed after I refreshed the page (that is what I see at first glance), other things may have changed as well. [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 02:29, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::: Ah - I don't recall it being different, but I may have missed an earlier version. Anyway here is another way to make the image available:
{{Collapse top|title=Egg spoiler: London Underground route}}
* Games
* Mornington Crescent
* Euston
* Warren Street
* Goodge Street
* Tottenham Court Road
* Leicester Square
* Charing Cross
* Embankment
* Westminster
* St James's Park
* Victoria
* Pimlico
* Vauxhall
* Easter basket
* Take egg (''Click'')
Though in reality it may be [https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Mornington+Crescent,+London+NW1+2JA,+United+Kingdom/Vauxhall,+London,+UK/@51.5103249,-0.1720918,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b2037dd36b9:0x11812a2d5cfb2ea3!2m2!1d-0.1388607!2d51.5343884!1m5!1m1!1s0x487604ec2b79a13d:0xdfa3f51e98dee89c!2m2!1d-0.1227798!2d51.4861366!3e1 faster to bike]?
{{Collapse bottom}}
:::This is really fun! (and there's [https://xkcd.com/1975/kat-bun-small.png this]) --[[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:43, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

I followed the "Land of 1000 dances" "na-na"s over 1000 times and didn't hit an end. It may be infinite. [[User:Jedi.jesse|Jedi.jesse]] ([[User talk:Jedi.jesse|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1935: 2018

2018-01-03T03:01:13Z

Waterlubber: oops forgot to sign

This is easy! Don't factor it - just multiply by 25 and if that ends in two zeros, but not four zeros then it's a leap year, at least most of the time.....17:25, 29 December 2017 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.112}}

This is easy! Don’t factor it - just convert it into a binary and look at the 2 least significant bits. If they are 00 the number is multiple of four. —[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 17:37, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

This is easy! Don't factor it - just subtract 4 repeatedly. If you end up at 0, it's divisible. If you end up at 1, 2, or 3, it's not. -- 17:55, 29 December 2017 (UTC){{unsigned ip|172.68.58.167}}

This ''is'' easy! Sums of numbers that have 4 as a factor are all divisible by four. (I'll leave the proof of that as an exercise for the reader, but it's really trivial, though possibly non-intuitive.) This means that one can take a number apart and check the individual pieces. Now, any number that's a multiple of 100 is divisible by four (10 * 10 = 5² * 2²,) so one can essentially cut away the higher digits of a number, as they do not influence its divisibility with regard to 4. Now look at the first of the remaining digits. If that's odd, add 2 to the last digit. If the last digit is now divisible by four, the original number is divisble by four. [[User:Tibfulv|Tibfulv]] ([[User talk:Tibfulv|talk]]) 00:38, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

This ''really, absolutely, truly, is 100% easy!'' To tell if a number is divisible by four, look at the last two digits. If the last one is divisible by four, the penultimate one is even. If it isn't divisible by four, the penultimate digit should be odd. [[User:Waterlubber|Waterlubber]] ([[User talk:Waterlubber|talk]]) 03:01, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

The calculation of Christmas is trivial{{Citation needed}} it's December 25th. Where as the calculation of Easter is complex ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus]). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.18|172.68.133.18]] 18:03, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Calculating the date of Christmas is actually non-trivial. It depends on your location. For example if you are in the US it's in December. If you are in Russia it's in January. If you are in Ukraine it's sortof both but not really. And if you are in Crimea, well, see one of the 2 previous sentences. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.238.172|172.68.238.172]] 15:22, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

:Actually, it's December 25 on the old Julian calendar in Russia. It's just that Russia uses the Julian calendar for liturgical purposes and the Gregorian calendar for secular purposes. It's a bit schizophrenic. [[User:Billjefferys|Billjefferys]] ([[User talk:Billjefferys|talk]]) 19:40, 30 December 2017 (UTC)
::I've moved some content to the trivia section and added this Julian calendar issue for the Eastern church.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:42, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

FYI, Christmas in 2018 falls on a Tuesday. I just did a quick research on my laptop's calendar, it is an answer to the title text.Boeing-787lover 19:10, 31 December 2017 (UTC) {{unsigned|Xkcdreader52}}

;Title text explanation mis-read
Explanation of title text is incorrect: "The title text refers to calculating the date of Christmas; again, this is a trivial exercise, because Christmas is always December 25." Title text states 'day of Christmas', not 'date...'. The day changes each year and so does require calculation. {{unsigned ip|162.158.111.73}}

Oops, my bad. Fixed. [[User:FlyingPiMonster|FlyingPiMonster]] ([[User talk:FlyingPiMonster|talk]]) 18:08, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
* I think you have it backwards. The title text is a reference to calculating the day (as in "date", not "day of week") of Easter. This is a non-trivial calculation (though one that modern computers can perform easily). On the other hand, the Christmas day is fixed. (There's no reason to believe that the joke was anything else.) - [[User:Mike Rosoft|Mike Rosoft]] ([[User talk:Mike Rosoft|talk]]) 19:13, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

I don't know who wrote the explanation, but... Are they having a bad day? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.205|162.158.111.205]] 18:44, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
:That was vandalism. I did a revert. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:06, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
::Ah, no, I was asking because the explanation sounds so angry. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.17|141.101.104.17]] 22:48, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

:Also, Megan understands that checking if a number divisible by 2 is easy [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.50|141.101.77.50]] 19:32, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

;Theory for possible explanation
Didn't want to edit this in because I'm not sure- but the motivation for this uncharacteristic lack of mathematical rigor could have to do with the current trend of people being dismissive of science being able to predict things. Something that seems pretty obvious is made to look like a chance event that nobody can really predict ahead of time. {{unsigned|Sirpent}}

::This is easy! Don't factor it - just subtract 2000. Is 18 divisible by 4? If so, you're an idiot. {{unsigned ip| 172.68.143.156}}

::The nonsense does look to me like a political discussion where one person uses "alternative facts". But in real life people get leap years "amusingly" wrong. Computer system designers for instance... one software tool I used passed into the year 2000 working correctly, but then it broke 2 months later because it thought 2000 wasn't a Gregorian calendar leap year, I guess because every 4th year is but every 100th year isn't. Every 400th year is, but, if the programmer just stopped at "every 4th is a leap year" then they'd have been fine until 2100. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.102|141.101.105.102]] 22:06, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

The joke in this might be that it might take some time to brute-force the prime factorisation of 2018 with a calculator as it’s 2*1009. Same holds true for 2017 which is prime. Therefore on might come to the conclusion that factorisation is hard already at this scale. (flx) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.71|172.68.253.71]] 22:24, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

;Odd/even is another joke
Cueball: No, it's definitely not. Leap years are divisible by 4.
Megan: Right, and for odd numbers, that's easy.
Megan: But 2018 is even.

She can see that finding out if a number is divisible by 2 is easy, but for dividing by 4 it's a "50/50 chance", and really hard to calculate. IMHO the best joke in the comic but missing from the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.50|141.101.77.50]] 23:59, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

I think it's interesting that 2018 only has two factors, 2 and 1009. Maybe a trivia?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.107|162.158.238.107]] 17:40, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

I think there should be a mention of leap year rules in general, since they are nontrivial (divisble by 4, except not multiples of 100, except yes to multiples of 400)? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.233|172.68.142.233]] 18:43, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

I think the joke in the title text is a play on the old joke that even though we know every year when Christmas falls, and every year we always say that we are going to begin saving or shopping in the months preceding Christmas we always get to December and are "surprised" that Christmas happens to be in December. Effectively Randall is suggesting that the reason we are surprised Christmas is in December is not due to forgetting but rather that we are "calculating" when the day is. Also related are Jokes about American Tax day (April 15th) or pretty much anything to do with procrastination. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.107|172.69.70.107]] 01:06, 31 December 2017 (UTC) Sam

Here is some trivia! This comic is number 1935. In 83 more comics XKCD will reach number 2018. So sometime in the year 2018 we will have comic number 2018. Now go calculate what date that will happen ... and don't pull out your pocket slide rule [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule] to do the calculation. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:47, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Trivia "So we will have a comic named 2018 and a comic numbered 2018 both in the year 2018" is wrong: actually, comic named "2018" was published in the year 2017. [[Special:Contributions/195.62.179.66|195.62.179.66]] 07:23, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
: Aargh. Thank you. Corrected. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:13, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1935: 2018

2018-01-03T03:00:38Z

Waterlubber: added an even easier way to the growing list of easy ways to modulo by 4

This is easy! Don't factor it - just multiply by 25 and if that ends in two zeros, but not four zeros then it's a leap year, at least most of the time.....17:25, 29 December 2017 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.112}}

This is easy! Don’t factor it - just convert it into a binary and look at the 2 least significant bits. If they are 00 the number is multiple of four. —[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.35|172.69.33.35]] 17:37, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

This is easy! Don't factor it - just subtract 4 repeatedly. If you end up at 0, it's divisible. If you end up at 1, 2, or 3, it's not. -- 17:55, 29 December 2017 (UTC){{unsigned ip|172.68.58.167}}

This ''is'' easy! Sums of numbers that have 4 as a factor are all divisible by four. (I'll leave the proof of that as an exercise for the reader, but it's really trivial, though possibly non-intuitive.) This means that one can take a number apart and check the individual pieces. Now, any number that's a multiple of 100 is divisible by four (10 * 10 = 5² * 2²,) so one can essentially cut away the higher digits of a number, as they do not influence its divisibility with regard to 4. Now look at the first of the remaining digits. If that's odd, add 2 to the last digit. If the last digit is now divisible by four, the original number is divisble by four. [[User:Tibfulv|Tibfulv]] ([[User talk:Tibfulv|talk]]) 00:38, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

This ''really, absolutely, truly, is 100% easy!'' To tell if a number is divisible by four, look at the last two digits. If the last one is divisible by four, the penultimate one is even. If it isn't divisible by four, the penultimate digit should be odd.

The calculation of Christmas is trivial{{Citation needed}} it's December 25th. Where as the calculation of Easter is complex ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus]). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.18|172.68.133.18]] 18:03, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Calculating the date of Christmas is actually non-trivial. It depends on your location. For example if you are in the US it's in December. If you are in Russia it's in January. If you are in Ukraine it's sortof both but not really. And if you are in Crimea, well, see one of the 2 previous sentences. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.238.172|172.68.238.172]] 15:22, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

:Actually, it's December 25 on the old Julian calendar in Russia. It's just that Russia uses the Julian calendar for liturgical purposes and the Gregorian calendar for secular purposes. It's a bit schizophrenic. [[User:Billjefferys|Billjefferys]] ([[User talk:Billjefferys|talk]]) 19:40, 30 December 2017 (UTC)
::I've moved some content to the trivia section and added this Julian calendar issue for the Eastern church.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:42, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

FYI, Christmas in 2018 falls on a Tuesday. I just did a quick research on my laptop's calendar, it is an answer to the title text.Boeing-787lover 19:10, 31 December 2017 (UTC) {{unsigned|Xkcdreader52}}

;Title text explanation mis-read
Explanation of title text is incorrect: "The title text refers to calculating the date of Christmas; again, this is a trivial exercise, because Christmas is always December 25." Title text states 'day of Christmas', not 'date...'. The day changes each year and so does require calculation. {{unsigned ip|162.158.111.73}}

Oops, my bad. Fixed. [[User:FlyingPiMonster|FlyingPiMonster]] ([[User talk:FlyingPiMonster|talk]]) 18:08, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
* I think you have it backwards. The title text is a reference to calculating the day (as in "date", not "day of week") of Easter. This is a non-trivial calculation (though one that modern computers can perform easily). On the other hand, the Christmas day is fixed. (There's no reason to believe that the joke was anything else.) - [[User:Mike Rosoft|Mike Rosoft]] ([[User talk:Mike Rosoft|talk]]) 19:13, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

I don't know who wrote the explanation, but... Are they having a bad day? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.205|162.158.111.205]] 18:44, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
:That was vandalism. I did a revert. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:06, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
::Ah, no, I was asking because the explanation sounds so angry. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.17|141.101.104.17]] 22:48, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

:Also, Megan understands that checking if a number divisible by 2 is easy [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.50|141.101.77.50]] 19:32, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

;Theory for possible explanation
Didn't want to edit this in because I'm not sure- but the motivation for this uncharacteristic lack of mathematical rigor could have to do with the current trend of people being dismissive of science being able to predict things. Something that seems pretty obvious is made to look like a chance event that nobody can really predict ahead of time. {{unsigned|Sirpent}}

::This is easy! Don't factor it - just subtract 2000. Is 18 divisible by 4? If so, you're an idiot. {{unsigned ip| 172.68.143.156}}

::The nonsense does look to me like a political discussion where one person uses "alternative facts". But in real life people get leap years "amusingly" wrong. Computer system designers for instance... one software tool I used passed into the year 2000 working correctly, but then it broke 2 months later because it thought 2000 wasn't a Gregorian calendar leap year, I guess because every 4th year is but every 100th year isn't. Every 400th year is, but, if the programmer just stopped at "every 4th is a leap year" then they'd have been fine until 2100. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.102|141.101.105.102]] 22:06, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

The joke in this might be that it might take some time to brute-force the prime factorisation of 2018 with a calculator as it’s 2*1009. Same holds true for 2017 which is prime. Therefore on might come to the conclusion that factorisation is hard already at this scale. (flx) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.71|172.68.253.71]] 22:24, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

;Odd/even is another joke
Cueball: No, it's definitely not. Leap years are divisible by 4.
Megan: Right, and for odd numbers, that's easy.
Megan: But 2018 is even.

She can see that finding out if a number is divisible by 2 is easy, but for dividing by 4 it's a "50/50 chance", and really hard to calculate. IMHO the best joke in the comic but missing from the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.50|141.101.77.50]] 23:59, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

I think it's interesting that 2018 only has two factors, 2 and 1009. Maybe a trivia?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.107|162.158.238.107]] 17:40, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

I think there should be a mention of leap year rules in general, since they are nontrivial (divisble by 4, except not multiples of 100, except yes to multiples of 400)? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.233|172.68.142.233]] 18:43, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

I think the joke in the title text is a play on the old joke that even though we know every year when Christmas falls, and every year we always say that we are going to begin saving or shopping in the months preceding Christmas we always get to December and are "surprised" that Christmas happens to be in December. Effectively Randall is suggesting that the reason we are surprised Christmas is in December is not due to forgetting but rather that we are "calculating" when the day is. Also related are Jokes about American Tax day (April 15th) or pretty much anything to do with procrastination. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.107|172.69.70.107]] 01:06, 31 December 2017 (UTC) Sam

Here is some trivia! This comic is number 1935. In 83 more comics XKCD will reach number 2018. So sometime in the year 2018 we will have comic number 2018. Now go calculate what date that will happen ... and don't pull out your pocket slide rule [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule] to do the calculation. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:47, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Trivia "So we will have a comic named 2018 and a comic numbered 2018 both in the year 2018" is wrong: actually, comic named "2018" was published in the year 2017. [[Special:Contributions/195.62.179.66|195.62.179.66]] 07:23, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
: Aargh. Thank you. Corrected. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:13, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1926: Bad Code

2017-12-08T20:16:38Z

Waterlubber:

Is it just me or is the fact that this page was created by a bad coder slightly funny? [[User:Halo422|Halo422]] ([[User talk:Halo422|talk]]) 16:56, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

Sometimes on this wiki we change the created by text to something relevant to the comic Halo. [[User:DPS2004|DPS2004]] ([[User talk:DPS2004|talk]]) 16:58, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

"MAY be the same Cueball and Ponytail as the Code Quality series"???!?! As far as I'me concerned, this is the latest entry in the Code Quality series! Oh, and my interpretation of her "Wait, crap." was her saying she realized he's actually done that before, thrown hammers at that wall. I feel like the giving-him-bad-ideas explanation makes more sense, though. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 17:56, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

The hammer-throwing may also be a call-back to xkcd 905, "Homeownership", where Cueball accidentally destroys his home by getting carried away drilling holes in the walls?

Wait, so nobody thinks calling it "Bad Code" instead of the prior "Code Quality" is a veiled reference to Mr Robot? Randall clearly watches the show; I thought he was referring to the show's repeated assertion that careless people are like bad code, their actions dangerously in need of revision. IE that some people have a knack for really messing stuff up which reaches far beyond the minimal effort they put into choosing their actions.

I'm almost certain that "parsing html" is a reference to this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454
[[User:Waterlubber|Waterlubber]] ([[User talk:Waterlubber|talk]]) 20:16, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

1704: Gnome Ann

2016-07-08T04:06:29Z

Waterlubber: added weak explanation, midnight here, sorry

{{comic
| number = 1704
| date = July 8, 2016
| title = Gnome Ann
| image = gnome_ann.png
| titletext = In the words of Andrew Johnson, if I am to be shot at, I want Gnome Ann to be in the way of the bullet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
The name "Gnome Ann" is a pun on "No Man"
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

1684: Rainbow

2016-05-23T20:29:45Z

Waterlubber: /* Explanation */

{{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| More details needed, for instance is there a specific reference to the burning of the Earth in the bible before Noah, or is this just the meteor(s) in the past? And what about the planned Armageddon, is that then off? More about issues with raccoons and what immortality would do to an ecosystem. More about the sims for the title text explanation. Are there other hidden meanings/interpretations?}}

In this comic Cueball (possibly representing the patriarch {{w|Noah}} of Jewish and Christian faith) talks to {{w|God}} after {{w|Genesis flood narrative|the biblical flood}}. He asks what the coloured band across the sky is, and God tells him it is a {{w|rainbow}}. According to the Book of Genesis, God placed the {{w|Rainbows in mythology|worlds first rainbow}} in the sky as a promise to humanity that he would never again make a flood to cleanse the world of sin ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%209:2-9:17&version=KJV Genesis 9:2–17]). A {{w|rainbow}} is an {{w|optical phenomena|optical phenomenon}} caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a {{w|spectrum}} of light appearing in the sky, one of many light phenomena caused by sunlight and precipitation.

Then cueball notices a {{w|Rainbow#Variations|double rainbow}} outside the original ''promise rainbow''. Secondary rainbows are caused by double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops. When asked about this God seems to falter, but recovers and claims he made it to show that he will never again set the Earth on fire. As an afterthought he says sorry about that, although it was a while back. This may refer to the young earth being a liquid ball of molten stone.

Cueball begins to notice some other types of {{w|Halo (optical phenomenon)|halos}} that can appear around the sun (or the moon). The one he spots is most likely the {{w|22° halo|circular 22° halo}}, which is a halo forming a circle with a radius of approximately 22° around the Sun, or occasionally the Moon. God promptly claims it is a promise to never again make {{w|raccoons}} {{w|Immortality|immortal}} as it destroyed the Earth's {{w|ecosystem}}. Although today these animals can be a pest, see [[1565: Back Seat]], they are luckily not immortal.

The third bow could also be a "tertiary rainbow", which forms a ring around the sun, but is normally lost in the glare of the sunlight passing through raindrops. A [http://what-if.xkcd.com/150/ What if... about rainbows] which mentions this third rainbow was released on the same day as this comic.

Cueball continues by noticing two {{w|sun dogs}} (or parahelia) which often co-occur with the 22° halo. These consist of a pair of bright spots either side on the Sun, intersected by the halo. God gets tired of this and tries to stop Cueball by saying that he has said sorry, and asks him to drop the subject. That is probably sensible because there are 23 different {{w|Optical_phenomena#Atmospheric_optical_phenomena|atmospheric optical phenomena}} listed on Wikipedia alone. Following the logic of the comic and the evasive answer of God, it could mean there are some more skeletons in the closet.

The title text is a continuation where God tells Cueball that in the future humanity will invent a game called {{w|SimCity}}. This is a strategy computer game in which the player creates and manages an environment wherein ''sims'' autonomously build a city (or in later versions a country, or a planet). The player has God-like control of the world, including a [http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Disasters disaster button], for when the player can't wait for a disaster to happen by chance. God is suggesting that it is too tempting, once a civilization has been built up, to push the disaster button just to see what happens.

Overall the comic pokes fun at the idea of explaining natural phenomena as messages from a deity.

==Transcript==
:[Noah, here represented as Cueball, is looking up on a rainbow band going through the top right corner of the panel. The band displays the following colors from outward and in: Red, yellow, green, blue and purple. A black blob in the bottom of the panel right of Noah, has white text with the reply from God to Noah's questions. This continues through the rest of the comic.]
:Noah: Wow, God- What's that band of color?
:God: A ''rainbow''.
:God: It is a sign of my promise that I will never again flood the Earth.

:[In this frameless panel Noah is not looking so much up. God's reply is split in two black blobs with a small connection between them.]
:Noah: Oh, good! Hey, what about that second bow above the first one?
:God: Oh, uh, sign of my promise not to set the earth on fire.
:God: Sorry for doing that a while back.

:[Noah points left, God's black reply blob hangs higher, only above Noah's shoulders]
:Noah: What about that third faint bow near the sun?
:God: My promise to never again destroy Earth's ecosystem by making raccoons immortal.

:[Noah points even higher up towards left, with God's reply situated as before]
:Noah: And the little rainbow clouds on either side of-
:God: Look, I ''said'' I'm sorry. Can we just drop it?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Animals]]