explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1031: s/keyboard/leopard/

2024-03-14T00:48:08Z

XoX-TordSenpai-XoX:

My mechanical leopard's been working out for me, just the feeling of my fingers hitting it is amazing. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:35, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Why does it say "s/keyboard/leopard/" in the url of this page, but title of this comic is "s/leopard/leopard/"?[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 17:57, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
:Now I see "s/leopard/leopard/" twice in my previous comment. I forgot that I have an extension installed that was inspired by this comic. :) [[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 18:00, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I swear I read every instance of leopard as keyboard. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.89|173.245.54.89]] 23:33, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Shouldn't the title of the comic end in "g" since it's a global replace, like "s/keyboard/leopard/g"? [[User:Kroq-gar78|Kroq-gar78]] ([[User talk:Kroq-gar78|talk]]) 18:56, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
:I have no idea, but I do know that the current title matches the one on xkcd. We're not changing it, even if there was an error. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 03:50, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

:I just bought my new leopard today! It's working great, but it's a bit hard to use. Is there such a thing as a leopard-repair shop? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.47|108.162.219.47]] 21:03, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
some[http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-leopards-keypads] leopards even have touch screens[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.45|108.162.216.45]] 05:58, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

You sure it's not a sed command? Regexps just matches! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.97|108.162.215.97]] 13:44, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
:actually, it's an ed command.[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 12:10, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

If the first user's leopard now produces language in Chinese, why is the message in English? {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.155}}
:This is more like a joke to me (as a Chinese) because there isn't a real Chinese leopard as far as I'm concerned... Chinese characters are usually typed using an IME and a standard English leopard. We type in the pronunciation romanized and select from a list of characters with the same pronunciation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.164|162.158.255.164]] 03:28, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

The first add-on looks like google translate. {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.159}}

KEYBOARD. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 06:58, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

I have an extension that does quite this, so I have no idea who is actually saying "leopard". [[User:Cody Hackins|Cody Hackins]] ([[User talk:Cody Hackins|talk]]) 01:37, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
: Everyone except the person right above you (in allcaps) is just saying leopard. Here. Does this work? K E Y B O A R D?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.115|108.162.245.115]] 21:55, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

The first extension is Translate; the third is Wolfram|Alpha. [[User:Papayaman1000|Papayaman1000]] ([[User talk:Papayaman1000|talk]]) 07:15, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

As far as I know, 's/old/new/' only replaces the first instance of 'old' with 'new'. One would gace to use the g flag after the last slash to enable replacement of all instances of 'old'
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.223|141.101.91.223]] 23:42, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

My leopard doesn't seems to be working well since I didn't insert my leopard's USB port into my computer.Boeing-787lover 14:03, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Can anyone think of a regex replacement someone might want to do that would be reasonably typo'd into s/keyboard/leopard/g? It's been bugging me since the comic came out. [[User:Undergroundmonorail|Undergroundmonorail]] ([[User talk:Undergroundmonorail|talk]]) 19:01, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
:probably keopard->leopard which has been typoed from "keopard" into keyboard [[User:XoX-TordSenpai-XoX|-Lance]] ([[User talk:XoX-TordSenpai-XoX|talk]]) 00:48, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

No speculation on Leopard being a reference to the Apple codename? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.161|108.162.238.161]] 15:28, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

1547: Solar System Questions

2024-03-10T08:28:18Z

XoX-TordSenpai-XoX: /* Explanation */ somepony please rephrase my sentence about Iapetus so it doesn't suck so hard (4 am explainxkcd editing ftw! or maybe ftl...) also add a sun-tan joke or something, i couldn't think of one that worked well. -Lance

{{comic
| number = 1547
| date = July 6, 2015
| title = Solar System Questions
| image = solar_system_questions.png
| titletext = My country's World Cup win was exciting and all, but c'mon, what if the players wore nylon wings and COULD LITERALLY FLY?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Some questions have received more complete answers in the past decade, but are not explained in much detail here. What have we learned since of all these things? Particularly: "What's Ceres like?" "Why is Iapetus weird-colored?" "Which of the other moons have seas?" "Why does Iapetus have a belt?" Gimme some science!}}

This comic is a list of questions which [[Randall]] has about the Solar System, which at first glance may appear to be things that Randall would like to learn about. In actuality, most of the questions have not been satisfactorily answered or proven by anyone in the {{w|List of unsolved problems in physics#Astronomy and astrophysics|scientific community}}. These open questions may serve to intrigue readers and prompt further interest in astronomy and austronautics.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question given
! Answered?
! Answer given by Randall (in red in the original)
! Comments
|-
| Why is the the Moon so blotchy?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Lava
| The {{w|Moon}} is in synchronous rotation with Earth, which means that we always can see only one half of the surface of the Moon. And on that side we can see large {{w|lunar maria}} formed by lava from big volcanoes. This surface is very different from all other celestial bodies we know in our Solar system. The double "the the" could be a Randallism — intended or unintended.
|-
| Why are all the blotches on the near side?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The nearside of the Moon is dominated by the blotchy 'seas' or maria, the far side by craters. {{w|Far side of the Moon#Differences|Several explanations}} for this have been proposed, including an overabundance of impacts obliterating the blotches on the more exposed far side, different compositions of heat-producing elements, large collisions, or heat produced by the still-cooling Earth.
|-
| Did Mars have seas?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Yes (briefly?)
| Recent explorations have confirmed there was once standing (and also flowing) water on {{w|Mars}}. Many rovers and orbiters on Mars give us the evidence on this early development of that planet, but it is still unknown how long such conditions existed in its history. Two of these probes have been the subject of comics before: [[695: Spirit]] and [[1504: Opportunity]].
|-
| Was there life on Mars?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| One of the big mysteries, {{w|Life on Mars|not yet answered}}.
|-
| What's Titan like?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane)
| The {{w|Cassini–Huygens}} mission confirmed the presence of {{w|Lakes of Titan|lakes and rivers}} on {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}. The {{w|Huygens (spacecraft)#Findings|Huygens}} lander itself returned some very yellow images of a dry lake bed from Titan's surface. The possibility of life on Titan was mentioned in [[829: Arsenic-Based Life]].
|-
| What was Earth like during the Hadean?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| ...
| The {{w|Hadean}} was the first geologic era on Earth, the planet had just formed and not much is known of that period of Earth. But since it was the time when Earth was formed it was mainly very hot with extreme volcanic activity, with the entire surface melted. This is why the era is named after {{w|Hades}} the ancient Greek god of the underworld, even though Hades was never associated with fire.
|-
| Is the Oort Cloud a real thing?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Oort Cloud}} is a theoretical spherical cloud of icy planetesimals, maybe dust, and also larger objects at a distance of up to around 100,000 {{w|Astronomical units|AU}} from our Sun. We can see similar clouds at other stars, but there is still no evidence that this cloud exists in our Solar System.
|-
| Why is the Sun's corona so hot?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Maybe
| Something about magnets?
| The {{w|corona}} of the Sun is hotter than it theoretically should be. Tiny solar flares called {{w|nanoflares}} might be responsible. The Sun's {{w|Stellar magnetic field|magnetic field}} is almost certainly relevant.
|-
| What are comets like?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Precipitous
| A comet can be dangerously steep: the {{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae lander}} finally stopped tumbling when it ran into a cliff.
|-
| Where's Philae, exactly?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| ...
| ...but we were not sure ''which'' cliff until September 5, 2016, when the European Space Agency announced that Philae had been found and photographed by Rosetta on the previous Friday (September 2). The landing of Philae was depicted in real time in the dynamic comic [[1446: Landing]]. This lasted for several hours. Later the comic was updated with a new image where Philae is resting on the edge of a cliff.
|-
| What's Pluto like?
| rowspan="2" style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| rowspan="2" | [Soon!]
| rowspan="2" | {{w|Pluto}} is so far from Earth ''and'' so small that traditional telescopes couldn't discern much about it. When this comic was released, the probe {{w|New Horizons}} was eight days away from its closest approach to Pluto and its moon {{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}; Randall was naturally excited about it. The probe was the subject of the comic [[1532: New Horizons]].
|-
| What's Charon like?
|-
| Why don't we have in-between-sized planets?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| There is a size-gap between the rocky {{w|terrestrial planets}} up to Earth size and the {{w|gas giants}} very much larger than Earth in our Solar System.
There are many known {{w|exoplanets}} (planets in other solar systems) filling in the range between our rocky planets and our gas giants, known as [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Exoplanet_Mass-Radius_Scatter_Super-Earth.png Super-earths] However, there is an observed but unexplained {{w|Small planet radius gap|scarcity of planets of this size category}} even among exoplanets.
|-
| What's Ceres like?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| [Working on it!]
| The {{w|Dawn (spacecraft)|Dawn probe}} was currently exploring the {{w|dwarf planet}} {{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}} at the time that this comic was written and released. Since the spacecraft's mission, it was determined that Ceres's surface is a mixture of ice and hydrated materials, like clay. The crust is at most thirty percent ice by volume, and though it likely lacks an internal ocean of water, highly-concentrated saltwater can still reach the surface from the outer mantle, allowing {{w|Cryovolcano|cryovolcanoes}} to form.
|-
| Why is Europa so weird-looking and pretty?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Ice over a water ocean
| {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} is a moon of {{w|Jupiter}} and the surface is basically thick pack ice covered in {{w|lineae}}.
|-
| Why is Io so weird-looking?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?)
| The moon {{w|Io (moon)|Io}} is also orbiting Jupiter and is close enough that {{w|tidal forces}} make it the most volcanic object in the solar system. The moon is mainly yellow but there are several other colors on the surface, for instance spots and streaks of bright red that comes from {{w|sulfur}} ejected by the volcanoes. The "wrong places" refer to some volcanoes discovered by the {{w|Voyager program|Voyager missions}} and believed to erupt sulfur. But more recent measurements showed that the temperature inside those volcanoes is about 2000 °C where this element is not liquid anymore but gas.
|-
| Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Maybe
| ...
| Many objects in the {{w|Kuiper Belt}} have a reddish hue. A possible explanation is that they are [http://www.space.com/9418-icy-red-objects-solar-system-edge-point-life-building-blocks.html covered in organic molecules] formed by the irradiation of their surface ices. The New Horizons probe might also shed light on this.
|-
| What are those spots on Ceres?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The Dawn probe found some mysterious spots on Ceres. These [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA19568.jpg white spots] are still not understood, but the mission is still running and we may figure out the source of the glowing white features. These spots became the punch line of the joke in [[1476: Ceres]].
|-
| What's in the seas under Europa's ice?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|ESA}} selected the mission {{w|Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer|Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE)}} to Jupiter. The moon Europa is one target for that mission. But we have to wait, because, even though it has already launched on 14 April 2023, its arrival at Jupiter is planned for 2031. But that's not uncommon for missions like this. New Horizons and {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} also traveled approximately ten years to reach their targets. And before such a mission can start many preparations have to be done. {{w|2010: Odyssey Two}} is a 1982 science fiction novel by {{w|Arthur C. Clarke}} in which he envisions life under the ice on Europa. This life becomes a major plot point both in this and in the two sequels.
|-
| Which of the other moons have seas?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| Several
| Randall has already mentioned above that there are liquids on two moons. The moon Titan at Saturn has lakes on its surface formed by liquid ethane, methane, and propane and the Jupiter's moon Europa has a sea of water covered by a thick sheet of ice. Depending on the definition of 'sea', other less obviously 'frozen water world' moons such as {{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}} at Jupiter may have {{w|Ganymede (moon)#Subsurface oceans|subsurface}} [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27151-aurora-reveals-jupiter-moons-secret-subsurface-sea.html oceans] of liquid water and on other moons it could be other substances that are liquid at the relevant temperature, like on Titan.
|-
| What are the big white things in Titan's lakes?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| ...
| This is a joke about some gaps in the radar measurements as shown in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA10008_Seas_and_Lakes_on_Titan_full_size.jpg this image].
|-
| What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The Jupiter mission {{w|Galileo (spacecraft)|Galileo}}, operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), arrived at Jupiter in 1995 and was sent to impact the planet at the end of that mission in 2003 to eliminate the possibility of contaminating local moons with terrestrial bacteria. Several measurements were done on the atmosphere but no pictures were sent back to Earth. So there is still no answer on this question.
|-
| What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Great Red Spot}} is a storm south of Jupiter's equator. Observations from Earth show a lifespan of more than 150 years. It's unknown why it's stable for that long a time and it's also not clear why the color is red. The probe {{w|Juno (spacecraft)|Juno}} has arrived in July 2016 at Jupiter but has not answered Randall's question.
|-
| What's pushing the Pioneer probes?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Heat from the RTG
| Discussed as the {{w|Pioneer anomaly}}. RTG stands for {{w|Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator}}. This effect was mentioned (and explained a little differently) in the title text of [[502: Dark Flow]].
|-
| What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| Several spacecraft experienced unexplained speed increases during Earth flybys. This is called the {{w|flyby anomaly}}.
|-
| Where are all the Sun's neutrinos?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Maybe partly
| Oscillating
| There are fewer observed electron neutrinos from the Sun than the standard model predicts. This is called the {{w|Solar neutrino problem}}. Since the sum of all the neutrinos, regardless of type, that come from the Sun add up to the predicted number of electron neutrinos it is theorized that neutrinos can change their type. This is called {{w|Neutrino oscillation}}, and can occur only if {{w|neutrinos}} have mass. Neutrino oscillation is considered a proof that the mass of a neutrino is non-zero. The {{w|Neutrino#Mass|mass of a neutrino}} is not yet measured and is one of the problems on the {{w|List of unsolved problems in physics#High-energy physics.2Fparticle physics|list of unsolved problems in physics}} on Wikipedia.
|-
| Why is there so much air on Titan?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}} has an atmospheric pressure 1.45 times that of Earth, but only 1/7th of the surface gravity which is less than Earth's own airless Moon has, hence the confusion. In fact, Titan actually has almost 20% more atmosphere by mass than Earth, and ''seven times'' more atmosphere across a given surface area! Less influence from the more distant Sun probably helps retain more of the atmosphere's gases (for instance, Mars saw most of its atmosphere blasted away by the Sun), and {{w|cryovolcanoes}} may replenish the methane fraction which should by now have ''all'' been converted into the other hydrocarbons present from subsurface reservoirs. Further studies are required to properly answer this question.
|-
| Why does the Kuiper Belt stop?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| A reference to the {{w|Kuiper Cliff}}. Most Kuiper Belt Objects are found between 42 and 48 {{w|astronomical units|AU}}; calculations predicted that there would be more and larger KBOs beyond 50 AU, but instead very few objects have been found in that region. The reason for this is still unknown.
|-
| Why is Iapetus weird-colored?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| ...
| {{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}} is an icy moon of {{w|Saturn}} and always keeps the same face towards Saturn. The trailing hemisphere is bright, with the leading one notably darker. - Per Wikipedia, the darker side of Iapetus is currently believed to have been caused by a combination of outside sources of matter (particularly meteors) and lag deposits from melting ice, and also sun exposure. It's also got carbon and hydrogen cyanide and stuff.
|-
| Why does Iapetus have a belt?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| Iapetus has a 13 km high ridge around most of the equator, and a number of 10-km-high mountains where the ridge is interrupted.
|-
| What's the deal with Miranda?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| {{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}} is the smallest of {{w|Uranus}}' five round satellites, and it's {{w|Verona Rupes|a bit rough around the edges}} and also has an unusually high orbital inclination that is difficult to explain. Also possibly a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Firefly|''Firefly'' reference] since {{w|List of Firefly planets and moons#Miranda|Miranda}} is also the name of a planet in {{w|Serenity (film)|''Serenity''}}, a film based on the {{w|Firefly (TV series)|''Firefly''}} TV series.
|-
| Did Uranus and Neptune change places?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Nice model}} is a theory of how our solar system formed, which suggests the possibility of Uranus and {{w|Neptune}} having swapped places before reaching their current positions. Work by Professor S. Desch [http://dusty.la.asu.edu/~desch/publications/2007/Desch2007.pdf also came to this result].
|-
| Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Late Heavy Bombardment}} is the name given to a theorized bombardment of the planet Earth during its early history, along with the other rocky planets around the Sun. It's believed that during that time many large objects still existed and are likely to have impacted the planets. On Earth the evidence for those impacts would have been destroyed, but on the Moon or Mercury some evidence may be available.
|-
| Did life start before it?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| For some speculation on this topic, see [http://www.livescience.com/5426-life-survived-earth-early-bombardment.html Life Could Have Survived Earth's Early Bombardment]. It is still a mystery if life was formed on Earth first or if it came from outer space.
|-
| Is Europa covered in ice spikes?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
|Dr Daniel Hobley has put forward a [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21341176 theory] that Jupiter's icy moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} has the right conditions to form ice spikes called {{w|Penitente (snow formation)|penitentes}} of up to 10m in height.
|-
| Why haven't we built a big inflatable Extreme Sports Complex on The Moon?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| ...
| The only silly item besides the "white on Titan's lakes" question, this question is less about science than about human priorities. It would be fun to watch sports in such a stadium - see the title text. Building a sports complex on the Moon would be prohibitively expensive in the context of government budgets, and transporting athletes to such a venue regularly would be logistically and financially complex. But it would be extremely cool.

See also [https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/ What If # 124], which gives great detail to the topic of lunar swimming. ''{{w|The Menace From Earth}}'', a 1957 short story by Robert Heinlein, describes another potential moon-based extreme sport.
|}

The title text refers to the {{w|2015 FIFA Women's World Cup}} which was won by the USA the day before. The nylon wings and flying may be a reference to two passages from 3001: The Final Odyssey, one where Frank Poole tries out various wings while in an extremely low gravity environment, and one where he remarks while watching Swan Lake that Tchaikovsky could never have imagined a performance where the dancers were actually flying (due to aforementioned low gravity). This is also a reference to the last point on the list, because if we had such a stadium on the Moon, maybe it would be possible to use such wings to make very long floating leaps.

==Transcript==
:'''Questions I have'''
:'''about the solar system'''
:(some answered)

:{| class="wikitable" style="border: 0px;"
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is the the Moon so blotchy?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Lava
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why are all the blotches on the near side?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did Mars have seas?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Yes (briefly?)
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Was there life on Mars?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Titan like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane)
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What was Earth like during the Hadean?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Is the Oort Cloud a real thing?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is the Sun's corona so hot?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Something about magnets?
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What are comets like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Precipitous
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Where's Philae, exactly?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Pluto like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" rowspan="2" | [Soon!]
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Charon like?
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why don't we have in-between-sized planets?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Ceres like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | [Working on it!]
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is Europa so weird-looking and pretty?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Ice over a water ocean
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is Io so weird-looking?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?)
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What are those spots on Ceres?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's in the seas under Europa's ice?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Which of the other moons have seas?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Several
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What are the big white things in Titan's Lakes?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's pushing the Pioneer Probes?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Heat from the RTG
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Where are all the Sun's Neutrinos?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Oscillating
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is there so much air on Titan?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why does the Kuiper Belt Stop?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is Iapetus weird-colored?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why does Iapetus have a belt?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's the deal with Miranda?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did Uranus and Neptune change places?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did life start before it?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Is Europa covered in ice spikes?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why haven't we built a big inflatable extreme sports complex on the moon?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Firefly]]

1547: Solar System Questions

2024-03-10T08:17:05Z

XoX-TordSenpai-XoX: /* Explanation */ the formatting was broken for the "firefly reference" text in some weird way and it didn't display. hyperlinking to the category page is probably not the best way to do it, but it was the only thing that appeared to work. -Lance

{{comic
| number = 1547
| date = July 6, 2015
| title = Solar System Questions
| image = solar_system_questions.png
| titletext = My country's World Cup win was exciting and all, but c'mon, what if the players wore nylon wings and COULD LITERALLY FLY?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Some questions have received more complete answers in the past decade, but are not explained in much detail here. What have we learned since of all these things? Particularly: "What's Ceres like?" "Why is Iapetus weird-colored?" "Which of the other moons have seas?" "Why does Iapetus have a belt?" Gimme some science!}}

This comic is a list of questions which [[Randall]] has about the Solar System, which at first glance may appear to be things that Randall would like to learn about. In actuality, most of the questions have not been satisfactorily answered or proven by anyone in the {{w|List of unsolved problems in physics#Astronomy and astrophysics|scientific community}}. These open questions may serve to intrigue readers and prompt further interest in astronomy and austronautics.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question given
! Answered?
! Answer given by Randall (in red in the original)
! Comments
|-
| Why is the the Moon so blotchy?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Lava
| The {{w|Moon}} is in synchronous rotation with Earth, which means that we always can see only one half of the surface of the Moon. And on that side we can see large {{w|lunar maria}} formed by lava from big volcanoes. This surface is very different from all other celestial bodies we know in our Solar system. The double "the the" could be a Randallism — intended or unintended.
|-
| Why are all the blotches on the near side?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The nearside of the Moon is dominated by the blotchy 'seas' or maria, the far side by craters. {{w|Far side of the Moon#Differences|Several explanations}} for this have been proposed, including an overabundance of impacts obliterating the blotches on the more exposed far side, different compositions of heat-producing elements, large collisions, or heat produced by the still-cooling Earth.
|-
| Did Mars have seas?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Yes (briefly?)
| Recent explorations have confirmed there was once standing (and also flowing) water on {{w|Mars}}. Many rovers and orbiters on Mars give us the evidence on this early development of that planet, but it is still unknown how long such conditions existed in its history. Two of these probes have been the subject of comics before: [[695: Spirit]] and [[1504: Opportunity]].
|-
| Was there life on Mars?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| One of the big mysteries, {{w|Life on Mars|not yet answered}}.
|-
| What's Titan like?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane)
| The {{w|Cassini–Huygens}} mission confirmed the presence of {{w|Lakes of Titan|lakes and rivers}} on {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}. The {{w|Huygens (spacecraft)#Findings|Huygens}} lander itself returned some very yellow images of a dry lake bed from Titan's surface. The possibility of life on Titan was mentioned in [[829: Arsenic-Based Life]].
|-
| What was Earth like during the Hadean?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| ...
| The {{w|Hadean}} was the first geologic era on Earth, the planet had just formed and not much is known of that period of Earth. But since it was the time when Earth was formed it was mainly very hot with extreme volcanic activity, with the entire surface melted. This is why the era is named after {{w|Hades}} the ancient Greek god of the underworld, even though Hades was never associated with fire.
|-
| Is the Oort Cloud a real thing?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Oort Cloud}} is a theoretical spherical cloud of icy planetesimals, maybe dust, and also larger objects at a distance of up to around 100,000 {{w|Astronomical units|AU}} from our Sun. We can see similar clouds at other stars, but there is still no evidence that this cloud exists in our Solar System.
|-
| Why is the Sun's corona so hot?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Maybe
| Something about magnets?
| The {{w|corona}} of the Sun is hotter than it theoretically should be. Tiny solar flares called {{w|nanoflares}} might be responsible. The Sun's {{w|Stellar magnetic field|magnetic field}} is almost certainly relevant.
|-
| What are comets like?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Precipitous
| A comet can be dangerously steep: the {{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae lander}} finally stopped tumbling when it ran into a cliff.
|-
| Where's Philae, exactly?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| ...
| ...but we were not sure ''which'' cliff until September 5, 2016, when the European Space Agency announced that Philae had been found and photographed by Rosetta on the previous Friday (September 2). The landing of Philae was depicted in real time in the dynamic comic [[1446: Landing]]. This lasted for several hours. Later the comic was updated with a new image where Philae is resting on the edge of a cliff.
|-
| What's Pluto like?
| rowspan="2" style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| rowspan="2" | [Soon!]
| rowspan="2" | {{w|Pluto}} is so far from Earth ''and'' so small that traditional telescopes couldn't discern much about it. When this comic was released, the probe {{w|New Horizons}} was eight days away from its closest approach to Pluto and its moon {{w|Charon (moon)|Charon}}; Randall was naturally excited about it. The probe was the subject of the comic [[1532: New Horizons]].
|-
| What's Charon like?
|-
| Why don't we have in-between-sized planets?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| There is a size-gap between the rocky {{w|terrestrial planets}} up to Earth size and the {{w|gas giants}} very much larger than Earth in our Solar System.
There are many known {{w|exoplanets}} (planets in other solar systems) filling in the range between our rocky planets and our gas giants, known as [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Exoplanet_Mass-Radius_Scatter_Super-Earth.png Super-earths] However, there is an observed but unexplained {{w|Small planet radius gap|scarcity of planets of this size category}} even among exoplanets.
|-
| What's Ceres like?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| [Working on it!]
| The {{w|Dawn (spacecraft)|Dawn probe}} was currently exploring the {{w|dwarf planet}} {{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}} at the time that this comic was written and released. Since the spacecraft's mission, it was determined that Ceres's surface is a mixture of ice and hydrated materials, like clay. The crust is at most thirty percent ice by volume, and though it likely lacks an internal ocean of water, highly-concentrated saltwater can still reach the surface from the outer mantle, allowing {{w|Cryovolcano|cryovolcanoes}} to form.
|-
| Why is Europa so weird-looking and pretty?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Ice over a water ocean
| {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} is a moon of {{w|Jupiter}} and the surface is basically thick pack ice covered in {{w|lineae}}.
|-
| Why is Io so weird-looking?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?)
| The moon {{w|Io (moon)|Io}} is also orbiting Jupiter and is close enough that {{w|tidal forces}} make it the most volcanic object in the solar system. The moon is mainly yellow but there are several other colors on the surface, for instance spots and streaks of bright red that comes from {{w|sulfur}} ejected by the volcanoes. The "wrong places" refer to some volcanoes discovered by the {{w|Voyager program|Voyager missions}} and believed to erupt sulfur. But more recent measurements showed that the temperature inside those volcanoes is about 2000 °C where this element is not liquid anymore but gas.
|-
| Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Maybe
| ...
| Many objects in the {{w|Kuiper Belt}} have a reddish hue. A possible explanation is that they are [http://www.space.com/9418-icy-red-objects-solar-system-edge-point-life-building-blocks.html covered in organic molecules] formed by the irradiation of their surface ices. The New Horizons probe might also shed light on this.
|-
| What are those spots on Ceres?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The Dawn probe found some mysterious spots on Ceres. These [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA19568.jpg white spots] are still not understood, but the mission is still running and we may figure out the source of the glowing white features. These spots became the punch line of the joke in [[1476: Ceres]].
|-
| What's in the seas under Europa's ice?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|ESA}} selected the mission {{w|Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer|Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE)}} to Jupiter. The moon Europa is one target for that mission. But we have to wait, because, even though it has already launched on 14 April 2023, its arrival at Jupiter is planned for 2031. But that's not uncommon for missions like this. New Horizons and {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} also traveled approximately ten years to reach their targets. And before such a mission can start many preparations have to be done. {{w|2010: Odyssey Two}} is a 1982 science fiction novel by {{w|Arthur C. Clarke}} in which he envisions life under the ice on Europa. This life becomes a major plot point both in this and in the two sequels.
|-
| Which of the other moons have seas?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| Several
| Randall has already mentioned above that there are liquids on two moons. The moon Titan at Saturn has lakes on its surface formed by liquid ethane, methane, and propane and the Jupiter's moon Europa has a sea of water covered by a thick sheet of ice. Depending on the definition of 'sea', other less obviously 'frozen water world' moons such as {{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}} at Jupiter may have {{w|Ganymede (moon)#Subsurface oceans|subsurface}} [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27151-aurora-reveals-jupiter-moons-secret-subsurface-sea.html oceans] of liquid water and on other moons it could be other substances that are liquid at the relevant temperature, like on Titan.
|-
| What are the big white things in Titan's lakes?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| ...
| This is a joke about some gaps in the radar measurements as shown in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA10008_Seas_and_Lakes_on_Titan_full_size.jpg this image].
|-
| What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The Jupiter mission {{w|Galileo (spacecraft)|Galileo}}, operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), arrived at Jupiter in 1995 and was sent to impact the planet at the end of that mission in 2003 to eliminate the possibility of contaminating local moons with terrestrial bacteria. Several measurements were done on the atmosphere but no pictures were sent back to Earth. So there is still no answer on this question.
|-
| What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Great Red Spot}} is a storm south of Jupiter's equator. Observations from Earth show a lifespan of more than 150 years. It's unknown why it's stable for that long a time and it's also not clear why the color is red. The probe {{w|Juno (spacecraft)|Juno}} has arrived in July 2016 at Jupiter but has not answered Randall's question.
|-
| What's pushing the Pioneer probes?
|style="background: lightgreen" | Yes
| Heat from the RTG
| Discussed as the {{w|Pioneer anomaly}}. RTG stands for {{w|Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator}}. This effect was mentioned (and explained a little differently) in the title text of [[502: Dark Flow]].
|-
| What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| Several spacecraft experienced unexplained speed increases during Earth flybys. This is called the {{w|flyby anomaly}}.
|-
| Where are all the Sun's neutrinos?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Maybe partly
| Oscillating
| There are fewer observed electron neutrinos from the Sun than the standard model predicts. This is called the {{w|Solar neutrino problem}}. Since the sum of all the neutrinos, regardless of type, that come from the Sun add up to the predicted number of electron neutrinos it is theorized that neutrinos can change their type. This is called {{w|Neutrino oscillation}}, and can occur only if {{w|neutrinos}} have mass. Neutrino oscillation is considered a proof that the mass of a neutrino is non-zero. The {{w|Neutrino#Mass|mass of a neutrino}} is not yet measured and is one of the problems on the {{w|List of unsolved problems in physics#High-energy physics.2Fparticle physics|list of unsolved problems in physics}} on Wikipedia.
|-
| Why is there so much air on Titan?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}} has an atmospheric pressure 1.45 times that of Earth, but only 1/7th of the surface gravity which is less than Earth's own airless Moon has, hence the confusion. In fact, Titan actually has almost 20% more atmosphere by mass than Earth, and ''seven times'' more atmosphere across a given surface area! Less influence from the more distant Sun probably helps retain more of the atmosphere's gases (for instance, Mars saw most of its atmosphere blasted away by the Sun), and {{w|cryovolcanoes}} may replenish the methane fraction which should by now have ''all'' been converted into the other hydrocarbons present from subsurface reservoirs. Further studies are required to properly answer this question.
|-
| Why does the Kuiper Belt stop?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| A reference to the {{w|Kuiper Cliff}}. Most Kuiper Belt Objects are found between 42 and 48 {{w|astronomical units|AU}}; calculations predicted that there would be more and larger KBOs beyond 50 AU, but instead very few objects have been found in that region. The reason for this is still unknown.
|-
| Why is Iapetus weird-colored?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| ...
| {{w|Iapetus (moon)|Iapetus}} is an icy moon of {{w|Saturn}} and always keeps the same face towards Saturn. The trailing hemisphere is bright, with the leading one notably darker.
|-
| Why does Iapetus have a belt?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| Iapetus has a 13 km high ridge around most of the equator, and a number of 10-km-high mountains where the ridge is interrupted.
|-
| What's the deal with Miranda?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| {{w|Miranda (moon)|Miranda}} is the smallest of {{w|Uranus}}' five round satellites, and it's {{w|Verona Rupes|a bit rough around the edges}} and also has an unusually high orbital inclination that is difficult to explain. Also possibly a [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Firefly|''Firefly'' reference] since {{w|List of Firefly planets and moons#Miranda|Miranda}} is also the name of a planet in {{w|Serenity (film)|''Serenity''}}, a film based on the {{w|Firefly (TV series)|''Firefly''}} TV series.
|-
| Did Uranus and Neptune change places?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Nice model}} is a theory of how our solar system formed, which suggests the possibility of Uranus and {{w|Neptune}} having swapped places before reaching their current positions. Work by Professor S. Desch [http://dusty.la.asu.edu/~desch/publications/2007/Desch2007.pdf also came to this result].
|-
| Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| The {{w|Late Heavy Bombardment}} is the name given to a theorized bombardment of the planet Earth during its early history, along with the other rocky planets around the Sun. It's believed that during that time many large objects still existed and are likely to have impacted the planets. On Earth the evidence for those impacts would have been destroyed, but on the Moon or Mercury some evidence may be available.
|-
| Did life start before it?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
| For some speculation on this topic, see [http://www.livescience.com/5426-life-survived-earth-early-bombardment.html Life Could Have Survived Earth's Early Bombardment]. It is still a mystery if life was formed on Earth first or if it came from outer space.
|-
| Is Europa covered in ice spikes?
|style="background: salmon" | No
| ...
|Dr Daniel Hobley has put forward a [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21341176 theory] that Jupiter's icy moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} has the right conditions to form ice spikes called {{w|Penitente (snow formation)|penitentes}} of up to 10m in height.
|-
| Why haven't we built a big inflatable Extreme Sports Complex on The Moon?
|style="background: lightyellow" | Partly
| ...
| The only silly item besides the "white on Titan's lakes" question, this question is less about science than about human priorities. It would be fun to watch sports in such a stadium - see the title text. Building a sports complex on the Moon would be prohibitively expensive in the context of government budgets, and transporting athletes to such a venue regularly would be logistically and financially complex. But it would be extremely cool.

See also [https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/ What If # 124], which gives great detail to the topic of lunar swimming. ''{{w|The Menace From Earth}}'', a 1957 short story by Robert Heinlein, describes another potential moon-based extreme sport.
|}

The title text refers to the {{w|2015 FIFA Women's World Cup}} which was won by the USA the day before. The nylon wings and flying may be a reference to two passages from 3001: The Final Odyssey, one where Frank Poole tries out various wings while in an extremely low gravity environment, and one where he remarks while watching Swan Lake that Tchaikovsky could never have imagined a performance where the dancers were actually flying (due to aforementioned low gravity). This is also a reference to the last point on the list, because if we had such a stadium on the Moon, maybe it would be possible to use such wings to make very long floating leaps.

==Transcript==
:'''Questions I have'''
:'''about the solar system'''
:(some answered)

:{| class="wikitable" style="border: 0px;"
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is the the Moon so blotchy?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Lava
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why are all the blotches on the near side?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did Mars have seas?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Yes (briefly?)
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Was there life on Mars?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Titan like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Cold, yellow, lakes + rivers (methane)
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What was Earth like during the Hadean?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Is the Oort Cloud a real thing?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is the Sun's corona so hot?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Something about magnets?
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What are comets like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Precipitous
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Where's Philae, exactly?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Pluto like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" rowspan="2" | [Soon!]
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Charon like?
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why don't we have in-between-sized planets?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's Ceres like?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | [Working on it!]
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is Europa so weird-looking and pretty?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Ice over a water ocean
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is Io so weird-looking?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Sulfur volcanoes (? in the wrong places?)
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why are so many Kuiper Belt objects red?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What are those spots on Ceres?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's in the seas under Europa's ice?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Which of the other moons have seas?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Several
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What are the big white things in Titan's Lakes?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What do Jupiter's clouds look like up close?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's all that red stuff in the Great Red Spot?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's pushing the Pioneer Probes?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Heat from the RTG
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What pushes spacecraft slightly during flybys?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Where are all the Sun's Neutrinos?
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | Oscillating
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is there so much air on Titan?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why does the Kuiper Belt Stop?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why is Iapetus weird-colored?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why does Iapetus have a belt?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | What's the deal with Miranda?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did Uranus and Neptune change places?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did the Late Heavy Bombardment happen?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Did life start before it?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Is Europa covered in ice spikes?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Why haven't we built a big inflatable extreme sports complex on the moon?
| style="border: 0px;" |
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Firefly]]

574: Swine Flu

2024-03-10T07:05:08Z

XoX-TordSenpai-XoX: /* Transcript */ fixing a minor formatting error. 2011Seniorsrule (not seniurs - that's clearly an "O") is underlined in the comic, so why wasn't it underlined in the transcript? Also, why'd Skeeve37 get a linebreak and not PSF or CrackMonkey? -Lance

{{comic
| number = 574
| date = April 27, 2009
| title = Swine Flu
| image = swine flu.png
| titletext = Bad flu epidemics can hit young adults hardest because they provoke their powerful immune systems into overreaction, so to stay healthy spend the next few weeks drunk and sleep-deprived to keep yours suppressed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Swine influenza|Swine flu}} is a strain of the flu which can be transmitted from pigs to humans. In 2009, it was the origin of the {{w|Pandemic H1N1/09 virus}}, which most news stations called either "H1N1" (the subtype name) or "swine flu". Because of the ambiguous name given to it and the somewhat hazy description of the transmittal process and dangers to humans, many people were concerned about the virus in ways that weren't going to be threats. This comic pokes a bit of fun at the overreaction by users on {{w|Twitter}} (rebranded as "X", in July 2023, long after this comic).

[[Randall]] (or someone else) seems to have created Twitter accounts for all referenced handles (that may not have already existed). Some of the handles continue their interactions with each other in later tweets.

[https://twitter.com/SKEEVE37 Skeeve37] is a self-described {{w|Hypochondriasis|hypochondriac}}. The tweet exemplifies the general populace's over-concern with the "animal themed" pandemics. Similarly after the {{w|Avian influenza|bird flu}} scare, people avoided eating chicken.

[https://twitter.com/hanneloreEC Hanneloreec] is a self-described "young lady who is concerned about many things". She is a reoccurring character in the webcomic {{w|Questionable Content}} by Jeph Jacques, who also manages her twitter handle.

[https://twitter.com/PAULYSHOREFAN Paulyshorefan]'s tweet is a reference to the flash game "[https://www.crazygames.com/game/pandemic-2 Pandemic 2]", in which players try to create a disease that infects the whole world. {{w|Madagascar}} is the most difficult country to infect, as it only has 1 port and often closes it at the slightest hint of an infection. The difficulty of infecting Madagascar has caused it to become a [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything meme]. The user's Twitter handle is a reference to {{w|Pauly Shore}}, a comedian who was briefly popular in the 1990s before quickly becoming out of favor and derided as unfunny.

[https://twitter.com/CrackMonkey74 CrackMonkey74]'s tweet is a parody of viral Christian(?) messages that say that current tragedies are God's punishment, [http://bible.cc/mark/13-7.htm despite the fact that the Bible says that the end is not yet to come.] More specifically, Crackmonkey74 blames the {{w|American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU}}, {{w|Lesbian|lesbians}} (a reference to the current culture wars that give big press towards proponents of {{w|Same-sex marriage|same-sex marriage}} against fundamentalist Christians), {{w|September 11 attacks|9/11}} (the day when the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|Twin Towers}} fell, causing controversy on whether {{w|Muslim}} terrorists crashed their planes on the towers or whether the government {{w|9/11 conspiracy theories|staged}} this by purposefully demolishing the towers) and {{w|Nanorobotics|nanobots}} (possibly a reference towards the highly promising but still relatively not understood field of nanotechnology, plus another reference towards the phrase "playing God"). He is likely the same Crackmonkey74 from [[406: Venting]] and [[202: YouTube]].

[https://twitter.com/Twilight7531 Twilight7531]'s tweet implies that she got a {{w|Bone fracture#Orthopedic|bone fracture}} which ended up protruding from her arm. However, she seems to lack medical knowledge, so she is worried that her fracture is actually swine flu (though how she can be typing with a broken arm is confusing).

[https://twitter.com/Wigu Wigu]'s tweet is a reply towards [https://twitter.com/Untoward Untoward]'s. Given the context, Untoward seems to have "gotten intimate" with a pig (since {{w|syphilis}} is a venereal disease). Given the fact that Untoward got sick because of a pig, Untoward seems to have concluded that he got swine flu.

The last comment by [https://twitter.com/2011SENIORSRULE 2011Seniorsrule] references a medical paper published by the journal {{w|The Lancet}}, in which it is proposed that {{w|Autism|autism}} is caused by {{w|Vaccine|vaccination}}. Since then, the paper was partially retracted in 2004, and fully retracted in 2010 because of conflicts of interest. The entire incident has been defined as the {{w|MMR vaccine controversy}}. This stance has still been seen since the retraction of the paper, and still holds some popularity by {{rw|cranks}}, {{rw|quacks}}, {{rw|pseudoscience|pseudoscientists}}, and {{rw|conspiracy|conspiracy theorists}} alike who are convinced that the {{rw|CDC}} is {{rw|Release_the_data|hiding vital data}} that proves {{rw|Anti-vaccination_movement#Autism|vaccines cause autism}}. The most famous figure in support of it is {{w|Jenny McCarthy}}. This Twitter user is not only using a debunked study about a completely different set of vaccines, they have also confused cause and effect (i.e. even if vaccines caused autism, that doesn't mean that autistic people carry flu vaccines). Also, licking vaccinated people isn't how vaccines are administered.{{Citation needed}} On top of that, fear of germs and/or hypersensitivity is common among autistic people, so "licking an autistic kid" may be a difficult and possibly painful experience for the lickee. (By contrast, allistic children are well known to enjoy being licked.)

The title text at first states the fact that some flu symptoms are actually the symptoms of the body's reaction, and can in some cases be more dramatic than the initial infection. E.g. A fever is a defense mechanism of the body against a disease. Then the title text makes the recommendation to protect oneself from an overreaction by living an unhealthy life. This is not good advice.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Caption:]
:Twitter is great for watching
:uninformed panics unfold live.

:[The comic shows a twitter search results page with "Swine flu" in the search box and a gray search button.]
:twitter [Swine flu] (search)

:[The results is displayed in a frame below the search panel:]
:Realtime results for '''Swine flu''' 0.05

:[This next line is highlighted in yellow. Most text here and below is written in normal black font, but the underlined links in the main text is in blue. Below each tweet is a line with info and reply links etc. all in gray font. Between the yellow line and the first tweet and between each tweet is a dotted line.]
:1,918 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Skeeve37: Oh god I ate pork yesterday before I knew about swine flu!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Hanneloreec: Without duct tape I can't seal the door to keep out swine flu but I can't get duct tape without going outside! Help!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Paulyshorefan: How long until the swine flu reaches me here in Madagascar?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:CrackMonkey74: Swine flu is God's punishment for the ACLU and lesbians and 9/11 and nanobots!
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Twilight7531: I fell down the stairs and there was a crack and a jagged white thing is sticking out of my arm guys is this swine flu?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from twitterific ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:Wigu: @Untoward: No, that sounds like syphilis, not swine flu. What did you say you did with a pig?
:Less than 10 seconds ago from tweetdeck ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:2011Seniorsrule: My Dad said flu vaccines are linked to autism, so to be safe from swine flu I'm trying to lick an autistic kid.
:Less than 10 seconds ago from web ∙ reply ∙ view tweet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

==Trivia==

*CrackMonkey74 has appeared in two earlier comics: [[202: YouTube]] and [[406: Venting]].
*Randall's dismay over uninformed panics, especially regarding disease, will be mirrored in numerous comics concerning the very real COVID-19 pandemic over 10 years later.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:9/11]]

2650: Deepfakes

2022-07-26T16:27:03Z

XoX-TordSenpai-XoX: /* Explanation */ added mention of another concern people have that seems to come up in discussion of deepfakes, since it seemed kinda relevant. :3 -Lance

{{comic
| number = 2650
| date = July 25, 2022
| title = Deepfakes
| image = deepfakes.png
| titletext = If so great a deductive mind as Arthur Conan Doyle can be fooled by the Cottingley Deepfakes, what chance do we mortals have? Soon our very reality will be dictated by the whims of Frances (9) and Elsie (16).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DEEPFAKE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|deepfake}} is an altered video, designed to deceive by replacing a person in a video. [[White Hat]] believes that this technology will make it difficult to trust videos. However, [[Cueball]] responds by saying that "fakes" have always existed, in photos (either through {{w|photoshopping|alterations by software such as Adobe Photoshop}}, or deliberately staging fakes images, e.g. {{w|Loch Ness Monster#%22Surgeon's photograph%22 (1934)|of the Loch Ness Monster}}) and even more so by people simply lying. White Hat comes around to Cueball's position and says that even the written word is prone to deception and lying.

Scientific studies of deepfakes have produced surprising results, suggesting that they are more likely to increase uncertainty than persuade,[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305120903408] that their increased prevalence could inoculate the public against {{w|disinformation}},[https://dspace.cuni.cz/handle/20.500.11956/150489] and that they are more likely to be shared because of their humorousness than persuasiveness.[http://essay.utwente.nl/91654/] Other studies have found that deepfakes are persuasive, especially among those who are unfamiliar with them.[https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2020.0174][https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1780812]

Another common complaint about deepfakes, though not touched upon in the comic, is that it would make it easy to create fake porn of people for revenge purposes. Although, this point can be refuted by Cueball's point in the comic, that if not by deepfake, then someone could do the same with some really good photoshop work.

The {{w|complaint tablet to Ea-nasir}} is a 3,800 year-old clay tablet containing the oldest known written complaint, in which a customer complains to a merchant, Ea-nasir, about his copper ingots. Cueball's last statement says that perhaps this complaint could have been a lie to begin with, and there was nothing wrong with Ea-nasir's wares. This supposition is arguably the humor of the comic, apart from the hyperbole of the title text.

The title text references the {{w|Cottingley Fairies}}, a series of five photographs produced in 1917 by two children, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, who were 16 and 9, respectively. The photographs appear to show the children playing with fairies in their garden. The photographs received widespread attention when Sir {{w|Arthur Conan Doyle}}, the author of the ''Sherlock Holmes'' stories, used the photos as proof of paranormal phenomena in a 1920 magazine article. Conan Doyle was notable for being a strong proponent of reaching conclusions based on evidence and reason, and also held a deep belief in paranormal and supernatural phenomena. In 1983, Elsie and Frances finally confessed that the photos had been faked, by the simple process of posing cardboard figures cut out of a children's book. Due to technical advances, young children now can more easily create convincingly realistic fakes.

A similar dilemma was discussed in [[1958: Self-Driving Issues]], where technology does not create a new way to lie, but may make such lies more convincing to certain parties (in the other strip, self-driving cars).

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are walking to the right.]
:White Hat: Thanks to deepfakes, soon we won't know what's real anymore. Video will become meaningless.

:[White Hat and Cueball walk on, Cueball lifts one hand with the palm up.]
:Cueball: I dunno.
:Cueball: We've had Photoshop for decades and staged photos for centuries.
:Cueball: It hasn't made photos meaningless.

:[Zoom in on Cueball, who is turned left towards off-panel White Hat.]
:Cueball: The bottleneck for fake stuff isn't technical. The bottleneck is willingness to lie.
:Cueball: "People lying" is a very old problem.
:Cueball: It's a known exploit.

:[Zoom back out on White Hat and Cueball who have stopped. White Hat has a hand on his chin. Cueball holds his hands out to the sides.]
:White Hat: I guess technically we've been able to make '''''text''''' deepfakes for 5,000 years.
:Cueball: Maybe Ea-nasir's copper ingots were actually fine!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Photography]]

2642: Meta-Alternating Current

2022-07-25T11:56:59Z

XoX-TordSenpai-XoX: /* Transcript */ added a bit noting the labels and their pointing arrows. -Lance

{{comic
| number = 2642
| date = July 6, 2022
| title = Meta-Alternating Current
| image = meta_alternating_current.png
| titletext = It's always bothered me that you can't cancel out an inverter by putting a second inverter after it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CHAIN OF INVERTERS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Direct current}} is a unidirectional flow of electrons from a power source to something being powered, through one or more conductors, before returning to the power source via one or more other conductors, thus completing the circuit. Batteries produce direct current. It is commonly used in electronics applications, including computers. {{w|Alternating current}}, on the other hand, frequently reverses the direction of electron flow, and is commonly used for longer-distance transmission (such as from the power plant to an outlet).

This comic proposes a humorous ''Meta-Alternating Current'', which uses a series of adapters to "alternate" between DC and AC current along the length of a connector. This is absurd in part because typical {{w|power inverter}} efficiency is 90%, and maximum {{w|bridge rectifier}} efficiency is about 99% for 120 V,{{citation needed}} so an {{w|extension cord}} made of in this manner would lose about 10% power per such pair.

The title text bemoans that an inverter, which converts direct current to alternating current, does not work in the other direction, as a layman's interpretation of the word "inverter" might assume. Rather, a separate device, a {{w|rectifier}}, also pictured in the comic, must be used for this second conversion. (However, a similar circuit to an inverter may be used to rectify in a process called {{w|active rectification}}.)

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

:Cursed Connectors #120

:[Drawing of a chain of rectifiers and inverters. There are seven pairs of rectifiers/inverters. The chain starts on the left with a mains plug (type B), followed by the first rectifier. It ends with the last inverter, and a female mains plug (type B socket).]

:[They are also labelled, by means of the words "rectifiers" and "inverters" with arrows drawn pointing to a few of each. Per the labels, the inverters are the big chunky ones, and the rectifiers are the smaller ones.]

:Meta-alternating current extension cord
:(alternates between AC and DC)

==Trivia==
This comic replaced [[No One Was Hurt]] as comic 2642 after it was taken down from [[xkcd]]'s website.

This comic does not have a high-resolution (2x) image for high-DPI displays, making it look more blurry than usual on such devices (such as smartphones). This is probably because it was uploaded hastily to replace No One Was Hurt quickly.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Cursed Connectors]]