https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.219.52&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T21:37:50ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2301:_Turtle_Sandwich_Standard_Model&diff=1915232301: Turtle Sandwich Standard Model2020-05-02T11:38:44Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2301<br />
| date = May 1, 2020<br />
| title = Turtle Sandwich Standard Model<br />
| image = turtle_sandwich_standard_model.png<br />
| titletext = It's possible the bread and shell can be split into a top and bottom flavor, and some models additionally suggest Strange Bread and Charm Shells.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a TURTLE EATING A SANDWICH. The original explanation was obviously erroneous and needs to be replaced. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic references particle physics. The {{w|Standard Model}} of physics explains the base particles and fields that make up the universe, including the quarks, which have six flavors: up, down, top, bottom, strange, charm. While much of the theory was written earlier on, it took a long time for experiments to catch up. Hence, there were many particles that were theorized to exist, but had not yet been found yet, like the two unconfirmed turtle/sandwich mixes.<br />
<br />
As parts of the standard model are still missing it is theoretically possible that the standard particle model is as wrong as the model that sandwichs and turtles are made of combinations of 4 interchangeable parts.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[A two-by-two grid, with a piece of bread next to the top left cell; a turtle shell next to the bottom left cell; lettuce, cheese, and tomato above the top left cell; and an turtle head enclosed in a circle above the top right cell.]<br />
<br />
:[Top left cell: an image of a sandwich.]<br />
โ CONFIRMED<br />
<br />
:[Top right cell: an image of a shell-less turtle sandwiched between two slices of bread.]<br />
(?)<br />
<br />
:[Bottom left cell: an image of a turtle shell housing lettuce, cheese, and tomato - the contents of a sandwich.]<br />
(?)<br />
<br />
:[Bottom right cell: an image of a turtle.]<br />
โ CONFIRMED<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel]<br />
Our lab is working to detect the two missing pieces of the turtle-sandwich standard model.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2292:_Thermometer&diff=190376Talk:2292: Thermometer2020-04-10T23:26:25Z<p>108.162.219.52: Wild speculation on causes and reasons</p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
First non-Covid post other than April fools?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.167|162.158.107.167]] <br />
23:04, 10 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A common practice in schools and the like prior to quarantine was temperature taking upon arrival. So it's like that this comic continues that to the home setting. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.112|162.158.78.112]] 23:19, 10 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A pessimist would guess that this means someone in Randall's household has a fever. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 23:26, 10 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Personally I'd welcome a home thermometer marked off in Kelvin, avois all the "twice as cold" sort of confusion you can get with an arbitrary zero as used in Celsius and Fahrenheit. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 23:21, 10 April 2020 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2206:_Mavis_Beacon&diff=181381Talk:2206: Mavis Beacon2019-10-17T14:03:38Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--> <!--Please DO NOT ADD NEW SECTIONS--><br />
;So the # key, then?<br />
Shifted or not? The implication is that it is, since that's where โ~โ is. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.41|141.101.99.41]] 18:44, 23 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
: On a typical German QWERTZ layout keyboard, the tilde key '~' can/must be entered via <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span>; alternatively, <span style="border: 1px solid black">Ctrl</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">Alt</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span> should work when there is no <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span> key. On certain "dead key" keyboard layouts, there even is no single and direct '~' key: To type a tilde, one would have to press <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span> followed directly by a space or to double-tap <span style="border: 1px solid black">+</span> while holding <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span>. This would mean even more complicated or pretty much impossible key combinations that would be needed to be pressed at the same time. However, holding <span style="border: 1px solid black">AltGr</span> or <span style="border: 1px solid black">Ctrl</span>+<span style="border: 1px solid black">Alt</span> to try and type a tilde would probably cancel out the "single" <span style="border: 1px solid black">Alt</span> key necessary for the comic's secret key code. So, once you've managed to type a tilde, it likely wouldn't count any more for the key combo, making it impossible to type this key combination on such keyboard. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 19:26, 23 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
::I've seen many programs provide hotkey instructions calling the grave key the tilde key due to the difficulty of differentiating between the grave key and the apostrophe key. So I'd assume no shifting is required. [[User:CJB42|CJB42]] ([[User talk:CJB42|talk]]) 01:51, 24 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
:::I don't know if Mavis Beacon was ever internationalized, but it was presumably originally designed for full-sized (non-laptop) U.S. QWERTY 101-key keyboards, where the ~ (tilde) is on the same key as the ` (back-tick) character, and which requires the use of the Shift key to activate. If Mavis Beacon was internationalized, and if this boss reward really existed and was unlocked by a particular key combination, one would hope the key combination would take into account different keyboard layouts. I would also assume that it would not require the shift (or other modifier) key, otherwise they would include that particular modifier key among the list of keys in the combination. So, like CJB42 pointed out, while they would say ~ since that's clearly labeled on the keyboard and easier to display, they really mean ` which might otherwise just look like a smudge. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 19:49, 24 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The link from Friday's comic to this new one is missing. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 19:21, 23 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
: This page was created by the bot only a short while ago. I may be wrong, but I think those links will be set automagically by such bot at some point after the creation of this page. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 19:31, 23 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Currently, the button on Comic #2205 to go to this comic is missing - someone with more technical expertise than me, please fix this [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.134|172.69.22.134]] 21:07, 23 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
:Fixed it - to do it, go to https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2205:_Types_of_Approximation&action=Purge , this works for any page if you change "2205:_Types_of_Approximation" to what it should be. {{unsigned ip|172.68.174.88}}<br />
<br />
<br />
Here on a touchscreen the comic hotlinks to https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/numbers/oldstyle-figures [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.64|172.68.38.64]] 19:12, 24 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
:It is also a link on a PC. It has been added to the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:27, 25 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Unicode<br />
Presumably a lot of this could be achieved with Unicode; any advances on ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐? [[User:Sabik|Sabik]] ([[User talk:Sabik|talk]]) 05:07, 24 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Simple means of checking: <pre><br />
>>> import unicodedata as ucd<br />
>>> for i in range(0x110000):<br />
... c = chr(i)<br />
... if ucd.normalize("NFKD", c)[0] in "0123456789":<br />
... print(c, end=", ")<br />
</pre><br />
<br />
It actually spits out <pre>0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ยฒ, ยณ, ยน, ยผ, ยฝ, ยพ, โฐ, โด, โต, โถ, โท, โธ, โน, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ , โ, โ, โ, โ, โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ , โ, โ , โก, โข, โฃ, โค, โฅ, โฆ, โง, โจ, โฉ, โช, โซ, โฌ, โญ, โฎ, โฏ, โฐ, โฑ, โฒ, โณ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โ, โช, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใฑ, ใฒ, ใณ, ใด, ใต, ใถ, ใท, ใธ, ใน, ใบ, ใป, ใผ, ใฝ, ใพ, ใฟ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ , ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ, ใ , ใก, ใข, ใฃ, ใค, ใฅ, ใฆ, ใง, ใจ, ใฉ, ใช, ใซ, ใฌ, ใญ, ใฎ, ใฏ, ใฐ, ใ , ใก, ใข, ใฃ, ใค, ใฅ, ใฆ, ใง, ใจ, ใฉ, ใช, ใซ, ใฌ, ใญ, ใฎ, ใฏ, ใฐ, ใฑ, ใฒ, ใณ, ใด, ใต, ใถ, ใท, ใธ, ใน, ใบ, ใป, ใผ, ใฝ, ใพ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๏ผ, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ , ๐ก, ๐ข, ๐ฃ, ๐ค, ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ, ๐ง, ๐จ, ๐ฉ, ๐ช, ๐ซ, ๐ฌ, ๐ญ, ๐ฎ, ๐ฏ, ๐ฐ, ๐ฑ, ๐ฒ, ๐ณ, ๐ด, ๐ต, ๐ถ, ๐ท, ๐ธ, ๐น, ๐บ, ๐ป, ๐ผ, ๐ฝ, ๐พ, ๐ฟ, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ , ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐</pre><br />
<br />
So unless you're mis-using characters which are not supposed to be numbers (which would change the screenreader experience from annoying in this case to actually unintelligible and is therefore ill-advisable), that's probably the closest you'd get. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.139|141.101.104.139]] 09:35, 24 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Trochees<br />
To tie this to a recurring theme in Mr. Munroe's comics... "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing - Heroes on the half shell." [[User:Ryanker|Ryanker]] ([[User talk:Ryanker|talk]]) 20:14, 23 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
: "Number Maven Mavis Beacon" also fits such a pattern. [[User:Enfield|Enfield]] ([[User talk:Enfield|talk]]) 17:56, 25 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Is it worth mentioning "Typing of the Dead" and its sequel?--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 14:53, 24 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
:It appears you have. So perhaps the former but not the latter? ;-) {{unsigned ip|172.68.47.66}}<br />
<br />
I just wish to say hello to all others here who first experienced Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor back in the day. It was one of the few 'games' with graphics (that weren't CGA!) that was on that early PC of mine, albeit in monochrome (green on black) because of the limitations of that Hercules graphics card/chip/whatever-it-was. That and a 'Digger' game (a clone/ripoff of DigDug, it seems). Ah, nostalgia. I wonder if I can still use my old Psion Xchange suit? Time to dig up a working 5ยผโ drive and fit it to whatever ATAPI-enabled Mobos I can find... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.61|162.158.154.61]] 17:32, 25 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Playing the same game for 30 years is rare [citation needed]<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Solitaire Windows Solitaire] was introduced on 22 May 1990. So we are less than a year from having a game that many people could have been playing for 30 years. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:52, 29 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I like this one! I've often been irritated by the lack of a concept of capital numbers, and this is a great design. Get on it, Unicode consortium! ๐ (oh, and don't forget the arbitrary-length snakes!) [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 08:54, 30 September 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;The capital numbers remind me of transdecimal numerals:<br />
<br />
These were invented by Michael De Vlieger to represent digits in bases higher than ten. That three-holed-eight looks a lot like the numeral for 256...<br />
http://www.vincico.com/arqam/digits/argam-current.html</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2020:_Negative_Results&diff=1601222020: Negative Results2018-07-16T15:30:26Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2020<br />
| date = July 16, 2018<br />
| title = Negative Results<br />
| image = negative_results.png<br />
| titletext = P.S. We're going to the beach this weekend, so I'm attaching my preregistration forms for that trip now, before we find out whether it produces any interesting results.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a NULL HYPOTHESIS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
Recently, scientists have begun encouraging each other to publish negative results, where a study failed to find the intended effect, as a way of counteracting publication bias (where only interesting positive results get published), which results in false-positive results being published while negative results are not.<br />
<br />
Cue-ball mis-interprets the "push to publish negative results" as meaning that he should always attempt to publish the fact that he failed to find evidence of an effect, even when he didn't even try. This plays on the unspoken assumption that scientists would only choose to submit (and journals would only accept) negative results where a study was designed and executed well enough that it should have shown an effect if there was one.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1933:_Santa_Facts&diff=1497971933: Santa Facts2017-12-26T01:49:49Z<p>108.162.219.52: /* Under "Type: Flying/Psychic," there is no reason to say that Santa's power is "usually affiliated with Fairy-type pokemon." Psychic-types commonly exhibit such powers. (Source: Nine years playing pokemon, two years playing competitively.)*/</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1933<br />
| date = December 25, 2017<br />
| title = Santa Facts<br />
| image = santa_facts.png<br />
| titletext = We've gotten him up to 20% milk and cookies through an aggressive public campaign, but that seems to be his dietary limit. Anything above that and he starts developing nutritional deficiencies.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic provides some dubious "Facts" and "Figures" of the creature known as "Santa." We can see from the drawing this is obviously meant to either be {{w|Santa Claus}} or a parody of Santa Claus.<br />
<br />
This comic is reminiscent of the xkcd Phone series.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Fact/Figure<br />
!Explanation<br />
|-<br />
|Type: Flying/Psychic<br />
|A reference to {{w|Pokรฉmon}}. The {{w|Gameplay_of_Pokรฉmon#Pok%C3%A9mon_types|type}} of a Pokรฉmon describes and determines its abilities (including attacks), affinities, and general nature. In most stories Santa Claus rides a sled pulled by flying reindeer (all other [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Flying_(type) Flying-type] Pokรฉmon fly under their own power) and some kind of magical power. Psychic possibly refers to his ability to know a child's activities and behavior, including when they are {{w|Santa_Claus_Is_Comin%27_to_Town| sleeping or awake}}, implying a Psychic ability to read minds.<br />
|-<br />
|Plural: "Santa"<br />
|The plural form of 'Santa' conveniently parallels that of 'reindeer.'<br />
<br />
In real life, "santa" means "saint" in most {{w|Romance languages}}. However "santa" is not plural in any of these languages (for example, in Portugese the proper plural would be "santos"). Under the usual rules for making a plural noun, Santa would have a plural of "Santas". Taking "Santa Claus" as a separate noun, the plural would be "Santa Clauses".<br />
|-<br />
|Active warrants: 5<br />
|There is an active warrant for Santa's arrest in 5 jurisdictions, presumably for breaking and entering or for operating a flying sleigh without the proper licensing, while drunk, or over the speed limit.<br />
|-<br />
|Lubricated for easy passage down chimneys<br />
|The diagram indicates that Santa's attire is lubricated to ease his traditional method of ingress and egress. This explanation is incomplete, however, as a great many chimneys have cross-sectional area substantially smaller than that of a normal human body, let alone a portly one, as commonly described. The common presence of chimney caps, fireplace dampers, and the like would also impede Santa's passage down a great many chimneys. That said, if we take the classic poem "{{w|A Visit from St. Nicholas}}" into account, the statement is technically true, just "lubricated" with magic rather than physical lubrication.<br />
<br />
The entire "lubrication" section is likely a reference to lubricated condoms.<br />
|-<br />
|Vertical Leap: 14 Miles<br />
|A vertical leap of 14 miles (~23 km), ''ignoring air resistance'' would require an initial launch velocity of slightly more than 2180 feet per second (665 m/s), somewhat over twice the speed of sound. Achieving this velocity by means of bending then straightening the legs would require an acceleration of roughly 25,000 G, placing extraordinarily high demands on the strength of the legs. As Santa does not have a particularly aerodynamic shape, air resistance would increase the launch velocity and launch acceleration requirements substantially.<br />
|-<br />
|Sleigh Flag of Convenience: Panama<br />
|The {{w|Flag_of_convenience|Flag of Convenience}} identifies the country in which an ocean-going vessel has its registration information. Panama maintains one of the top three open registries. Owners of a vessel may choose to use an open registry to avoid labor or safety regulations of the owner's country. They may also choose such a registry to help obscure ownership of the vessel. Which concern applies in the case of Santa's sleigh is not stated, or (more likely) not known. It may also be the only type of registration available, since the north pole is not in any country, so there is no "owner's country".<br />
<br />
However, a ship's flag state exercises regulatory control over the vessel and is required to inspect it regularly, certify the ship's equipment and crew, and issue safety and pollution prevention documents. One suspect that this does in fact '''not''' happen regularly with Santa's sleigh. Also, as a ''flying'' sleigh, the registry for ''ocean-going'' vessels is not applicable. Instead, it would be registered as an aircraft, with the FAA (in the U.S.), EASA (in Europe), or the equivalent in another country. Civilian aircraft have their registration number painted on their tails, but are not required to display a "flag". (However, U.S. Airways used a stylized version of a U.S. flag as a corporate logo prior to its merger with American Airlines.)<br />
|-<br />
|9th in Presidential Line of Succession<br />
|The {{w|United_States_presidential_line_of_succession|Presidential Line of Succession}} specifies the order in which persons may become or act as {{w|President of the United States}} if the incumbent President becomes incapacitated, dies, resigns, or is removed from office. Having Santa as the 9th in that order would place him above the {{w|United States Secretary of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture}}. An alternative interpretation would hold that Santa '''is''' the present Secretary of Agriculture, {{w|Sonny Perdue}}.<br />
<br />
Assuming Sonny Perdue is not Santa Claus (citation not needed), Santa is likely ineligible for the Presidency, as most origin stories of Santa have him a natural-born citizen of a European country (or of Turkey) rather than the United States. However, Santa might be old enough to qualify under the "citizen at the time of the adoption of this constitution" clause.<br />
|-<br />
|Not technically an insect &#8212; actually an arthropod<br />
|A somewhat common statement about ticks and other arthropods. Santa is apparently not human, but some sort of human-sized and human-mimicking arthropod. A common mistake is the identification of some organism as an insect when it is not. Most such organisms do tend to be arthropods (a slightly more general supertaxon of insects). So, correcting such errors will typically lead to the assertion that the organism in question is a non-insect arthropod. The wording here, though, is awkward in that "actually" implies a contradiction or contrast, but the word "arthropod" on its own does not preclude the possibility of the referent being, more specifically, an insect as well. In any case, such classification is humorous in the case of Santa, since he is traditionally depicted as being a human or elf with magical powers, and does not traditionally display any of the characteristics of an arthropod (such as an exoskeleton). However, because he does indeed seem to lack six appendages, instead seemingly having exactly four, he cannot be an insect - so the assertion is (probably) true in its first half.<br />
|-<br />
|Only known vampire able to enter house without being invited<br />
|Vampires cannot enter dwellings without the occupant of the dwelling inviting them in. Santa must enter houses uninvited to do his job, so if he is a vampire he is the exception to that rule. In traditional vampire folklore, a vampire cannot enter an abode without an invitation from the owner of the same. Santa, however, seems to be able to enter houses even without explicit invitation (although plenty of children do welcome him either via written notes or by their general sentiments). This juxtaposes interestingly with the previous point about his arthropod nature.<br />
|-<br />
|Works with Alexa<br />
|May mean that Alexa (Amazon's virtual assistant) is Santa's colleague, that Santa uses Alexa in his work, or Santa is functionally compatible with Alexa. A common advertisement states that a product is compatible with Amazon's smart device, Alexa. But it could also be a play on the idea or fear that Alexa may be used to spy on people from the privacy of their own homes, much like what is claimed of Santa ("he sees you when you're sleeping, [...]").<br />
|-<br />
|Ribbed<br />
| A reference to condoms, which have ridges or ribbing in order to promote pleasurable stimulation during coitus. Of course, this also puns on the fact that, as a humanoid, Santa presumably has a rib cage. (This might directly contradict the claims about his being an arthropod).<br />
|-<br />
|IUCN Red List: Critically endangered<br />
| The [https://www.iucn.org/about International Union for Conservation of Nature] (IUCN) monitors the size and viability of populations of organisms; 'critically endangered' marks a population as being highly susceptible to extinction. Santa, being one (or possibly two, if we include his wife) of a kind and lacking any offspring (and, indeed, likely being incapable of effectively producing any), will most likely be the last member of his population; thus extinction will arrive with his or his wife's death. Note, however, that the presence on the Red List implies that "Santa" is a biological species, not a fantasy, robot, or other non-biological entity. This is consistent with Santa being an arthropod and/or vampire.<br />
|-<br />
|Diet: 80% Reindeer<br />
|The Title Text states that prior as a result of intervention that the diet is now 20% milk & cookies, implying that previously it was 100% Reindeer.<br />
|-<br />
|Liability Insurance: None<br />
|As a result of his diet (see above), alleged criminal activity (ditto), species ambiguity, and occupation, Santa would find the cost of liability insurance quite high. He instead chooses to 'go bare' and operate without any.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[An annotated picture of Santa]<br />
:'''Santa'''<br />
:Facts and Figures<br />
<br />
:Type: Flying/Psychic<br />
:Plural: "Santa"<br />
:Active Warrants: 5<br />
:Lubricated for easy passage down chimneys<br />
:Vertical leap: 14 Miles<br />
:Sleigh flag of convenience: Panama<br />
:9th in presidential line of succession<br />
:Not technically an insectโactually an arthropod<br />
:Only known vampire able to enter house without being invited<br />
:Works with Alexa<br />
:Ribbed<br />
:IUCN red list: Critically endangered<br />
:Diet: 80% Reindeer<br />
:Liability Insurance: None<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Christmas]]</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1904:_Research_Risks&diff=146788Talk:1904: Research Risks2017-10-18T14:12:22Z<p>108.162.219.52: Molasses comment</p>
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Entymology? Misspelled "entomology" or (more confusingly) "etymology"?<br />
Psychology lower risk than micology? Absolutely hogwash!<br />
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Molasses storage is misplaced -- should be in the quadrant to its right. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood]. 21 dead and 150 injured. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 14:12, 18 October 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1831:_Here_to_Help&diff=139763Talk:1831: Here to Help2017-05-13T00:52:51Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
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So who else read the "Six months later" caption in the voice of the French narrator from SpongeBob Squarepants? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.41|172.68.58.41]] 23:26, 1 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
: So I'm not the only one who does that! [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 00:00, 2 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Gosh, is Randall making a parallel to someone else who only recently announced that his job is hard, and that nobody knew how complicated things could be? Seems like a clear poke at Trump to me. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.23|108.162.246.23]] 23:43, 1 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
:EVERYONE feels like that after the election. Get over it. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 23:50, 1 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Between algorithms and "objectively" establishing that a problem is hard, I took this to be a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hardness โฆ --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.16|162.158.222.16]] 00:31, 2 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:While the people originally having the problem (Megan and Hairy in this case) may not appreciate it (because it wouldn't help SOLVING the problem), establishing that some problem is not only "hard" but specifically NP-hard, AI-hard, equivalent to halting problem or for example equivalent to axiom of choice is important scientific result. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:03, 2 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Rather than referencing ''The Imitation Game'', the sentence "[...] now that I'VE tried, we KNOW it's hard." may be referencing instead ''Awakenings'' (1990), where Robin William's character says something similar near beginning of the movie.<br />
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Regarding the (possible) reference to the Imitation Game, whilst it may be true that the Americans Russians French and Germans thought Enigma unbreakable, the Polish had been breaking it for years before Turing got involved and work done in Poland was an important part of the British success early in the war. German improvements to operating practices later stopped the Polish methods working and yes Turing had better methods that still worked, later on in the war. But Poland at least, didn't think it was unbreakable. Just saying.<br />
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:While we are "just saying". The Germans were well aware that the Enigma was breakable, they just figured it would be too much effort. It really was, the total resources pored into breaking the Enigma was on par with the Manhattan project and the moon landing (ie US space program during the 1960s). The Germans did some changes to increase security during the war, but had they suspected how completely Enigma was broken they would probably have abandoned it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.182.202|172.68.182.202]] 17:50, 4 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I think the whole paragraph about informatics at the bottom is missing the point. That explanation is based on the premise that Cueball was told the problem was a "hard problem" (a formal type of problem) and didn't understand. Megan never used the formal term "hard" in describing the problem. She merely said that her field had struggling for years.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.5|162.158.79.5]] 13:13, 2 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
: Agreed โ she uses "hard", but later in the title text. What's still true is that the problem might still have a solution that is "simple" (you can explain it in a paragraph) but hard-to-find (it took decades to find it), and they haven't proved that's not the case. But most would still call a problem with such a solution "hard".<br />
: Worse, as a PhD student in CS (programming languages), I'm pretty sure "hard problem" in CS also mean the same as in everyday lifeโ"Boy, this research problem is really hard"โas opposed to NP-hard (which is what the description is attempting to describe in an extremely informal way. I've honestly never heard anybody use "hard" for "NP-hard", though that appears used on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_complexity_theory#Hard. Meanwhile, I went ahead and deleted "Set of algorithms" since that was even less relevant (and didn't bother arguing relevance). http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1831:_Here_to_Help&diff=139534&oldid=139519. --[[User:Blaisorblade|Blaisorblade]] ([[User talk:Blaisorblade|talk]]) 14:26, 3 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
: Yeah, but we're shown some arbitrary problem which Cueball is solving not with Bayesian Inference, or Object Oriented Programming, or String Theory, but with ''Algorithms'' -- the one technique where showing something is hard is a formal term. It would be quite a coincidence if this happened by accident.<br />
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The current explanation is taking a too tactical or literal approach. Throughout history computer science has presented itself as a solution to a variety of hard problems in other fields using a variety of techniques. These include AI, machine learning and now, big data. In most cases the techniques enter with a lot of fanfare, but later flame out, producing no real gains towards solving the hard problem. For example see all the things that computers were promising back in the 1960's. Cueball simply represents a generic version of these past and present CS fads. [[User:Sturmovik|Sturmovik]] ([[User talk:Sturmovik|talk]]) 15:42, 2 May 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Fixed: Throughout [most of] history computer science has [not existed].</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1808:_Hacking&diff=1367981808: Hacking2017-03-09T21:12:24Z<p>108.162.219.52: added link to 1755, related to compiler exploits</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1808<br />
| date = March 8, 2017<br />
| title = Hacking<br />
| image = hacking.png<br />
| titletext = The dump also contains a list of millions of prime factors, a 0-day Tamagotchi exploit, and a technique for getting gcc and bash to execute arbitrary code.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Seems pretty complete now. NO, too much trivia and the puns are not proper covered.}}<br />
This comic is referencing an incident on the day before this comic was released, March 7, 2017, in which {{w|WikiLeaks}} exposed thousands of hacking exploits (thus the title) and programs from the {{w|CIA}} (see for instance this article: [https://www.wired.com/2017/03/wikileaks-cia-hacks-dump/ WikiLeaks Just Dumped a Mega-Trove of CIA Hacking Secrets]). Many of the tools that were in the leak were similar to publicly available tools, or not entirely unexpected, with several coming from sites such as {{w|StackOverflow}} and {{w|Reddit}}.<br />
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The main joke in this comic refers to the common practice of adding spaces between parts of an email address when publishing them on websites. For example, "john.doe@example.org" may be written as "john dot doe at example dot org". The purported goal of doing this is to thwart page scraping bots from {{w|Email address harvesting|harvesting the correct email addresses}} and prevent them from becoming the target of spam or being sold as address lists for email marketers. <br />
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In this comic, [[Ponytail]] tells [[Cueball]] that CIA have a tool which can delete such spaces. Such a tool can fix the space and most likely convert the words "dot" and "at" into their respective symbols. This will overcome the problems faced by harvesting tools, and make these email addresses more prone to receive spam. <br />
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Cueball appears shocked to hear this news, but given the caption below, stating that this was one of the ''less dramatic revelations'' from the CIA hacking dump, this is likely sarcasm by Cueball (and [[Randall]]). In fact, it is quite simple to devise a program which detects and converts/removes such spaces; it's naive to believe that one can prevent e-mail addresses from being harvested just by writing the addresses with space or omitting @ etc.<br />
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The title text lists three other undramatic (fictitious) hacking exploits which sound more interesting, but are still more or less useless, and certainly not dramatic news. They are:<br />
#Millions of {{w|prime factors}}: The security of the {{w|RSA (cryptosystem)|RSA cipher}} relies on the difficulty of finding prime factors for a large number. Successfully calculating or stealing a prime factor used in a RSA cipher would allow an attacker to decrypt messages and impersonate the true user. <br />
#*However, this description doesn't specify whether those "millions of prime factors" were actually used in any ciphers. Random prime factors are very easy to find but the chances of one matching a number used in a cipher is almost nonexistent. Thus simply possessing a list of many prime factors would not necessarily be useful at all. <br />
#*That said, some key generation systems have been shown to re-use prime factors with catastrophic impacts [https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/064.pdf 1] [https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/961.pdf 2] [https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/how-the-nsa-could-put-undetectable-trapdoors-in-millions-of-crypto-keys/ 3] so this could be a reference to a list of known shared primes.<br />
#A {{w|0-day exploit}} for {{w|Tamagotchi}}: A 0-day exploit is an exploit of which the manufacturer is not (yet) aware. 0-days are very valuable to hackers since defenses against them have not yet been developed, which makes it easy to catch victims off-guard. <br />
#*However, an exploit for a Tamagotchi is likely useless because they are very low-end entertainment devices that do not contain microphones or cameras, and usually don't have access to any valuable information that can be stolen. Modern Tamagotchi devices do have some network functionality, and so may be turned into a botnet.<br />
#A way to get {{w|GNU_Compiler_Collection|gcc}} and {{w|Bash_(Unix_shell)|bash}} to execute arbitrary code: Unintentional execution of arbitrary code is serious vulnerability that allows attackers to do whatever they choose on a victim's computer. However the examples given here merely describe the intended purpose of the tools: gcc is a {{w|compiler}}, so preparing arbitrary code is its main purpose, and bash is a Unix shell, so executing {{w|Shell script|arbitrary code}} is one of its primary functions. <br />
#*These tools are typically isolated from any attack surface that hackers can access, and utilizing these tools for their intended purpose can't reasonably be called "hacking". <br />
#*Then again, this could be a reference to {{w|Shellshock_(software_bug)|ShellShock}}, a major vulnerability which allowed the unintentional execution of arbitrary attacker code. Likewise, it could be referring to a [http://wiki.c2.com/?TheKenThompsonHack compiler injection attack] which allows a compiler to inject backdoors via the binary executables in a toolchain and without leaving a trace in the source code being compiled or the compiler itself.<br />
#*Actually... arbitrary code execution in gcc would be rather severe. gcc is expected to prepare executables for execution, _not_ run them, and some people (Intel compile robot listening on linux kernel mailing list) automatically compile code other people post. Arbitrary code execution in bash would be less severe, but still worth fixing. The dangers of arbitrary code execution/injection by compilers is referenced in the title text on [[1755: Old Days]].<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Ponytail is writing on her laptop at her desk while Cueball looks over her shoulder.]<br />
:Ponytail: You know how sometimes people put a space in their email address to make it harder to harvest?<br />
:Cueball: Yeah?<br />
:Ponytail: ''They have a tool that can delete the space!''<br />
:Cueball: Oh my god.<br />
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:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:Less-dramatic revelations from the CIA hacking dump<br />
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==Trivia==<br />
*This is the second comic in a row about how computers can be misused and also the second in a row where Cueball is with Ponytail rather than [[Megan]]. <br />
**This setup with Ponytail at the computer and Cueball behind has been used several times for instance in [[1513: Code Quality]], part of the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality]] series.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:Cryptography]] <!-- Title text on prime numbers related to that --></div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1731:_Wrong&diff=126721Talk:1731: Wrong2016-09-12T15:36:57Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
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I wrote up a first explanation of the comic. Someone else also added in a sentence, which nicely merged in to the explanation. Still needs revision and links to articles, as well as an explanation of the title text [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.81|172.68.35.81]] 04:38, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Uh... what do you mean by "just a few sentences to kick this off"??? I don't know how to fix this because I don't understand what you mean. [[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 7:52, 9 September 2016 (EDT)<br />
: Oh, sorry. While I was writing up an explanation, KangaroOS put in the sentence "Some people are just too prideful to admit that they are inherently fallible. White Hat is one of those people." and put in that tag. When I went to save it, it told me I had to merge our revisions, which worked fine, but I just forgot to merge the tags. [[User:Yosho27|Yosho27]] ([[User talk:Yosho27|talk]]) 13:01, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
: Also, if anyone's looking at the article history "172.68.35.81" and "Yosho27" are both me (I signed in halfway through) [[User:Yosho27|Yosho27]] ([[User talk:Yosho27|talk]]) 13:12, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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mansplaining much? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:55, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
: I don't think so. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:29, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Any reference to "Somebody's WRONG on the Internet!"? [[386: Duty Calls]] [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 18:51, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
: Went ahead and added it. :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 19:15, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Hope someone can comment on the theory of the abstraction of particles White Hat gets into in the last panel. Seems like the only part missing so far. I like this comic! ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:34, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Not really a Quantum physicist, but I read that it's *theoretically* possible (and seen in some particle expierements at the LHC) for a very specific arrangement of quarks to make a (superheavy) "Proton" that contains Antimatter (Anti-quarks)... A Pentaquark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaquark [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.133|108.162.242.133]] 23:56, 9 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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While not really part of objects, there are plenty of {{w|positron}}s (antielectrons) around: they are produced by radioactive decay, can appear in thunderstorms, are used in nuclear medicine. There is enough radioactive isotope of potassium in average human body to produce thousands of positrons per second. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:26, 10 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Is there a technical definition of "object" I am unaware of that excludes hypothetical and abstract objects? What is it that makes a flux capacitor not an object? Or public opinion? Or indeed a sphere made of antimatter? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 15:36, 12 September 2016 (UTC)larK<br />
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It doesn't sound like the title text is literally what White Hat is saying, but rather someone else summarizing their statements in a mocking way. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.92|108.162.212.92]] 23:28, 10 September 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=889:_Turtles&diff=125904889: Turtles2016-08-29T19:57:46Z<p>108.162.219.52: modify existing entry for tone, add reference to comic 1173</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 889<br />
| date = April 22, 2011<br />
| title = Turtles<br />
| image = turtles.png<br />
| titletext = You're a turtle!<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This does not fit the tone and style of our other explanations. "There's not a lot to this comic," is not an explanation and the whole "making a mountain out of a molehill" is needless, it would take a shorter time to explain the comic than to explain why the comic is short.}}<br />
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This comic is about the frivolousness of many modern problems. While an offscreen character is panicking over deleting a file, the turtle is content with just being a turtle. The text saying "turtles have it figured out, man" indicates that Randall appreciates this simpler mode of thought. The idea that computer problems are pointless when compared with the whole of life is similar to the sentiment expressed in the title text of [[1173: Steroids]].<br />
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==Alternative Explanation and Correction ==<br />
The "turtle" shown in the comic clearly has small legs instead of the flipper-ish limbs of turtles. this actually makes it a tortoise! Also, the lifespan of a tortoise is approximately twice (100-150 years) as long as that of a turtle(~80 years) . So,the organism which would look somewhat similar after 50 years must be a tortoise. <br />
An alternative explanation could be that the satisfaction of knowledge that the creature has poses an obstruction to his venturing out and finding its true identity. It was told that it's a turtle, thus, it continues to believe, even though it's wrong. The minor panicking of humans actually is a driving force of our sentience. turtles<br />
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The title text is possibly a reference to [[231: Cat Proximity]].<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[There is a turtle.]<br />
:Off-panel: Oh, crap, I deleted the file!<br />
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:[There is a turtle.]<br />
:Turtle (thinking): I am a turtle.<br />
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:[There is a turtle.]<br />
:Off-panel: No, wait, there it is.<br />
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:[There is a turtle.]<br />
:Turtle (thinking): I am a turtle.<br />
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:[There is a turtle.]<br />
:50 Years Later:<br />
:Turtle (thinking): I am a turtle.<br />
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:Turtles have it figured out, man.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1724:_Proofs&diff=125724Talk:1724: Proofs2016-08-24T15:30:43Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
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<div>Judging from my experience when I first encountered proofs in math classes (or my general experience from math classes), the teacher is going to write down a "proof" which makes absolutely no sense to students and is also never explained in a way that actually makes them understand. Instead, they are just going to use "dark magic" and write what seems to be completely senseless to students.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.223|141.101.91.223]] 04:24, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Transcript generated by the BOT was murdering me, had to change it. Proposing miss Lenhart is party 1. [[User:EppOch|EppOch]] ([[User talk:EppOch|talk]]) 04:45, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
:: I support that. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.223|141.101.91.223]] 06:13, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
:: Me to, but I am on mobile, so editing is a pain [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.71|162.158.86.71]] 06:51, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
:: Done [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:26, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
:::Note that the BOT doesn't create any text - [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1724:_Proofs&oldid=125654 see here]. The transcript was made by several people. Agree completely that this is Miss Lenhart, but even if it was not "[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1724:_Proofs&direction=next&oldid=125660 party 1 and party 2]" is not the way to describe a woman with long blonde hair and Cueball ;-) There is at the moment [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#New_character_category_for_blonde_woman_news_reporter_.28from_1699.29|a discussion]] what to call other women looking like this (i.e. those that are not clearly Miss Lenhart, [[Mrs. Roberts]] or her daughter [[Elaine Roberts]]). Chip in there if you have any opinions on that regard... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:01, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Irrationality proof isn't really a proof by contradiction (it doesn't use double negation elimination). You're showing (exists a,b. ...) -> False by assuming (exists a, b. ...) and showing False, which is implication introduction --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.105|162.158.85.105]] 07:33, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I'm thinking she's doing one of those proof that write down a formula or function out of nowhere, and proceeds to proof everything with it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.125|108.162.222.125]] 08:43, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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This comic reminds me of "divination" rituals, where a magical spirit is summoned to write out an answer. Usually not something as complex as here, but hey, XKCD! --[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 10:04, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Man, Reductio ad absurdum never made any logic. If we could assume any thing, why use logic?<br />
Oh wait, it has already been covered in XKCD {{unsigned ip|162.158.49.12}}<br />
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"Dark magic" proofs are centered around properties of functions, and abstract concepts, rather than manipulating the functions themselves?? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.113|108.162.246.113]] 11:26, 24 August 2016 (UTC)<br />
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My assumptions is that the "Dark Magic" being referred to here is more "A technique that works, though nobody really understands why." [see http://catb.org/jargon/html/B/black-magic.html] In this case, the teacher is setting up a proof in an manner which will lead to the desired goal, but to the student it is exceedingly unobvious as to why one would do it this way, other than "it works" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 15:30, 24 August 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1692:_Man_Page&diff=1217251692: Man Page2016-06-10T13:18:34Z<p>108.162.219.52: Typo</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1692<br />
| date = June 10, 2016<br />
| title = Man Page<br />
| image = man_page.png<br />
| titletext = For even more info, see blarbl(2)(3) and birb(3ahhaha I'm kidding, just Google it like a normal person.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|The two synopsis lines has not been explained, including the fact that there seems to be missing ending "]" and "}" in both lines (although taken together as one line they actually have the correct amount of brackets, but that would not make sense - I guess?) Someone seems to think the explanation for the copyright is lacking and has left a [text in square bracket] above that explanation. Please improve of delete that text if explanation now OK. Needs fact-checking of the table etc. and needs explanation of symbolic link}}<br />
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This comic shows a {{w|Unix}} manual page, i.e. a ''{{w|man page}}'' (hence the title), for a fictional program called "blerp". It details the command line options for this program, many of which are strange, annoying, or even impossible. These options are in alphabetical order (putting lower case before upper case and with an em-dash inserted between b and c the only exception to this order).<br />
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Unix man pages are meant to provide a brief reference on the usage of a command, not verbose and well-written explanations as you may find in manuals which is another common type of documentation. This fictional man page seems to exaggerate its crypticness, thus making fun of a common trait that many man pages have.<br />
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{{w|Command-line_interface#Command-line_option|Command-line options}}, also known as flags, are typed following a program name to change how the program runs. The following is an example usage.<br />
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<code>blerp -a -d -t -p "AVIGNON"</code><br />
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This would run blerp in attack mode, outputting to DEBUG.EXE, with tumble dry, and with POPE set to AVIGNON. In most cases, any number of flags can be used in any order, and applicable flags can be followed by arguments (such as "AVIGNON" in this example).<br />
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For a walk through of all possible flags see the [[#Table of flags|table]] below. <br />
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Below the flags there are a ''see also'' list with other stupid program names. Apart from two more blerbs there is also blirb, blarb and blorb, with chapter references. The last blorp(501)(c)(3) is not a valid chapter reference for a man page, it is however a slightly covert reference to {{w|501(c)_organization|501(c)(3)}} which is an organization that is tax-exempt.<br />
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Then follows a bug report site. inaturalist.org is a site working to extend biological research, and http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47744-Hemiptera points to the same page as http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/Hemiptera. {{w|Hemiptera}} is the order classifying True Bugs, making it the perfect place to report any new bug you have discovered...<br />
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[Copyright is a mishmash, "or best offer" is humorous, needs better explanation of individual parts.]<br />
<br />
Finally there is a "{{w|copyright}}" line which references several variously open-source content licenses which is also a recurring theme on xkcd (see [[225: Open Source]]). For instance GPL references {{w|GNU General Public License}} and the (2) and (3+) refers to {{w|GNU_General_Public_License#Version_2|GPL 2}} and {{w|GNU_General_Public_License#Version_3|GPL 3 or higher}}. ''CC'' refers to {{w|creative commons}} where ''BY'' is the {{w|Creative_Commons_license#Types_of_licenses|type of license}}, ''5.0'' refers to the attribution and ''RV 41.0'' refers to revision 41.0. However there were no higher attribution than [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode 4.0] at the time of this comics release. xkcd is released under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ CC BY-NC 2.5] as can be seen at the bottom of the {{xkcd}} homepage. A few comics have been released under the [[:Category:CC-BY-SA comics|CC-BY-SA license]] or [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 3.0]. BSD refers to {{w|BSD licenses}} a [[:Category:BSD|recurring theme]] in xkcd . "LIKE GECKO" is a reference to a web browser user-agent string; modern user-agent strings include a lot of text designed to let the browser pretend to be several different browsers/renderers, and "(like Gecko)" is the standard text for a browser that wants to be treated as if it were {{w|Gecko (software)|Gecko}} while admitting, if you look closely, that it isn't really Gecko. This copyright line, which includes a lot of mashed-together text that might appear to match any of several different licenses, resembles a user-agent string.<br />
<br />
"OR BEST OFFER" is a reference to an auction where the person who bids the highest gets to buy the item. In context, it suggest the person who has the highest offer for blerp will be sold the rights to the program. Since the other licenses mentioned would allow for free usage without paying royalties, it would usually be pointless to buy the rights to the program.<br />
<br />
In the title text there is a list with even more info, again with crazy names like blarbl and birb. Again there are page references, but for the last the person writing this stops writing the reference and begins to laugh at who ever still reads this man page and telling them that he is kidding and suggest that they ''just Google it like a normal person''. Seems like [[Randall]] does not believe much in man pages anymore... The writer of this text thus also stops finishing the brackets as the ending ")" for the last chapter is missing.<br />
<br />
Man pages were part of the subject of [[293: RTFM]] and were mentioned in [[456: Cautionary]].<br />
<br />
===Table of flags===<br />
*There are 28 flags.<br />
**Only these five letters are not used: l, m, w, x, z.<br />
**j and k are used together as jk.<br />
**The following seven capital letters are used: D, I, O, R, S, U, V.<br />
***That makes it one capital letter for every lower case letter that is not used by itself.<br />
**Finally the em dash "โ" is used as the only non-letter character. Also the only that breaks the strict adiabatically sorting of the list, with lower case before upper case letters.<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Flag!!Description!!Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| -a||ATTACK MODE||This sounds like a command for a robot or something similar. Strange for a command line program. Possibly this is designed to break something?<br />
|-<br />
| -b||SUPPRESS BEES||Nonsensical option. This is a word play, meaning either to suppress {{w|Bee|Bees}} (the insects) or the letter '''B'''. This is also a possible {{w|Discworld}} reference, as the ''{{W|Hex_(Discworld)#Structure_and_technology|long-term storage}}'' of the only recurring computer in the series, ''{{w|Hex (Discworld)|Hex}}'', is composed of a beehive. (Note that the actual computer runs on ants.)<br />
|-<br />
| -โ||FLAGS USE EM DASHES||Command line options (flags) typically use {{w|Hyphen|hyphens}} (short horizontal lines largely used within words). {{w|Dash#Em_dash|Em dashes}} (longer, with the same length as the letter "m") can't easily be typed into a command line interface, so switching flags from hyphens to em dashes is excessively difficult and nonsensical.<br />
Also implies a paradox where if flags were to use em dashes, this flag itself would be invalid.<br />
|-<br />
| -c||COUNT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS||Most likely not useful.<br />
|-<br />
| -d||PIPES OUTPUT TO DEBUG.EXE||{{w|DEBUG.EXE}} is the old 16-bit debugger that came with MS-DOS. On a Unix system it is much more likely that one would use the {{w|GNU Debugger}} (GDB). A debugger is usually called by calling the debugger with the program (or script) to be debugged as parameter.<br />
{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|Piping}} in Unix means that the output of one program serves as input for another program.<br />
|-<br />
| -D||DEPRECATED||Many programs contain legacy options to avoid breaking scripts that use them. While the option should still work, the documentation is changed to say "deprecated" to discourage further use. Eventually such options usually get removed.<br />
|-<br />
| -e||EXECUTE SOMETHING||Vague. Also a possible pun on a kill-switch.<br />
|-<br />
| -f||FUN MODE||Strange and slightly ominous, given some of the other options. See under -O.<br />
|-<br />
| -g||USE GOOGLE||As an actual program flag, a bit hackjob-ish, but it is possible it is telling the user to use Google to find out what this tag does.<br />
|-<br />
| -h||CHECK WHETHER INPUT HALTS||Completely impossible, by the {{w|Halting problem}} which is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running or continue to run forever. {{w|Alan Turing}} proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs cannot exist. <br />
|-<br />
| -i||IGNORE CASE (LOWER)||Usually, ignoring case means that a program will run without differentiating between upper- and lowercase. This flag suggests that blerp will run ignoring all the lowercase characters completely, or ignoring all the uppercase characters with the next flag "-I". Note that using this may make it ignore the difference for flags like -i and -I...<br />
|-<br />
| -I||IGNORE CASE (UPPER)||See above. Also possible that all text is converted to upper case, or that upper-case requirements only are ignored<br />
|-<br />
| -jk||KIDDING||A common acronym for [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jk Just Kidding], not a program flag. Also note that standard behavior of Unix command line options is that a single "-" can be followed by multiple one-letter options, making -jk equivalent to -j -k.<br />
|-<br />
| -n||BEHAVIOR NOT DEFINED||Possibly mathematically ominous? Otherwise useless.(Possible debug/unstable feature flag)<br />
|-<br />
| -o||OVERWRITE||Standard program flag, usually meaning that the program will overwrite a file rather than make a new one when data is output.May work strangely with -d.<br />
|-<br />
| -O||OPPOSITE DAY||Strange flag, possibly means that all other flags (or maybe even including this one!) have the opposite effects - if so, a lot of strange things would happen. (Especially with -b, -e, -f, -jk, -O...) Possible reference to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zEGjlHZMiM Cyanide and Happiness Short: Opposite Day]<br />
|-<br />
| -p||SET TRUE POPE; ACCEPTS "ROME" OR "AVIGNON"||This refers to a {{w|Western_Schism|historical schism}} in the {{w|Catholic Church}}. In the 14th century, the Pope briefly ruled from Avignon, France, instead of Rome. After the Papacy was returned to Rome in 1377, the Church split (the so-called Western Schism) as not everyone accepted the move and the Pople who ordered it. This flag apparently allows the user to select a preferred Pope. There is actually a possible feature request here, as "PISA", a third Pope, should also be an option. It is the second time this week that Popes have been mentioned, last time was two comics before in [[1690: Time-Tracking Software]] regarding the Popes sexual activity.<br />
|-<br />
| -q||QUIET MODE; OUTPUT IS PRINTED TO STDOUT INSTEAD OF BEING SPOKEN ALOUD||In most cases, a program will output basic information to the console, and running it in quiet mode will make it run without outputting anything. Blerp, on the other hand, outputs information through audio, and the quiet flag causes it to run like a normal program. "STDOUT" is short for "standard output".<br />
|-<br />
| -r||RANDOMIZE ARGUMENTS||Pointless and possibly damaging.<br />
|-<br />
| -R||RUN RECURSIVELY ON <nowiki>http://*</nowiki>||The star (*) symbol is often used as a wildcard to match any string of characters. "<nowiki>http://*</nowiki>" suggests that blerp will be run on every (unsecured) webpage on the internet, or on each page recursively. What it might do in order to make this valid is also ominous.<br />
|-<br />
| -s||FOLLOW SYMBOLIC LINKS SYMBOLICALLY||[Needs explanation of symbolic links] Many commands offer an option to follow filesystem links, this option however seems to suggest that it will only politely pretend to do so.<br />
|-<br />
| -S||STEALTH MODE||Similar to -a, in that it sounds more like an option for some kind of robot.<br />
|-<br />
| -t||TUMBLE DRY||Perhaps useful for a program that runs on a clothes dryer. Refers to [https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5254504/il_570xN.184726893.jpg directions like these]. Many clothing items are marked "do not tumble dry" in the care instructions, but this would be extremely difficult to make relevant to a program. Given the other flags, this may be less nonsensical than it would first appear..<br />
|-<br />
| -u||UTF-8 MODE; OTHERWISE DEFAULTS TO ANSEL||{{w|ANSEL}} is an old and obscure character encoding that predates ASCII. Using ANSEL as a default would be strange and largely incompatible with most modern systems. On the other hand, UTF-8 is rather standard. Similar in this regard to -q, blerp does something non-standard by default. The problem with using different modes (where the original was also UTF-8) is shown in the title text of [[1683: Digital Data]].<br />
|-<br />
| -U||UPDATE (DEFAULT: FACEBOOK)||Update usually refers to replacing an old software with a newer version. The default here suggests posting a status update to Facebook, sourcing an update form Facebook, or updating Facebook itself.<br />
|-<br />
| -v||VERBOSE; ALIAS TO find / -exec cat {}||Almost standard flag, in ordinary programs the opposite of -q - instead of silencing output, it makes it more specific, usually to help with debugging. Instead, this flag gets replaced with a command that prints the contents of all files in the filesystem tree. However, it will never complete, as certain device files never end (/dev/urandom contains random bytes). Note that the "find" command is missing <code>\;</code> and will not run, instead complaining <code>find: missing argument to `-exec'</code> .<br />
|-<br />
| -V||SET VERSION NUMBER||Many programs will have a flag to view the version number. This flag changes the version number instead.<br />
|-<br />
| -y||YIKES||[[wiktionary:yikes|yikes]] is an interjection which can express fear or empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances. It is unclear how this would influence the program.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A terminal screen; the background is black and the text is white.]<br />
:{| class="wikitable"<br />
|style="background-color:black;"|<font color="white"><br />
;NAME<br />
:blerp<br />
<br />
;SYNOPSIS<br />
:blerp {[ OPTION | ARGS ]...[ ARGS ... -f [FLAGS] ...}<br />
:blerp {... DIRECTORY ... URL | BLERP} OPTIONS ] -{}<br />
<br />
;DESCRIPTION<br />
:blerp FILTERS LOCAL OR REMOTE FILES OR RESOURCES USING PATTERNS DEFINED BY ARGUMENTS AND ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES. THIS BEHAVIOR CAN BE ALTERED BY VARIOUS FLAGS.<br />
<br />
;OPTIONS<br />
:{|<br />
! scope="row" | -a<br />
| ATTACK MODE<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -b<br />
| SUPPRESS BEES<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -โ<br />
| FLAGS USE EM DASHES<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -c<br />
| COUNT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -d<br />
| PIPES OUTPUT TO DEBUG.EXE<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -D<br />
| DEPRECATED<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -e<br />
| EXECUTE SOMETHING<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -f<br />
| FUN MODE<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -g<br />
| USE GOOGLE<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -h<br />
| CHECK WHETHER INPUT HALTS<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -i<br />
| IGNORE CASE (LOWER)<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -I<br />
| IGNORE CASE (UPPER)<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -jk<br />
| KIDDING<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -n<br />
| BEHAVIOR NOT DEFINED<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -o<br />
| OVERWRITE<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -O<br />
| OPPOSITE DAY<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -p<br />
| SET TRUE POPE; ACCEPTS "ROME" OR "AVIGNON"<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -q<br />
| QUIET MODE; OUTPUT IS PRINTED TO STDOUT INSTEAD OF BEING SPOKEN ALOUD<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -r<br />
| RANDOMIZE ARGUMENTS<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -R<br />
| RUN RECURSIVELY ON <nowiki>http://*</nowiki><br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -s<br />
| FOLLOW SYMBOLIC LINKS SYMBOLICALLY<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -S<br />
| STEALTH MODE<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -t<br />
| TUMBLE DRY<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -u<br />
| UTF-8 MODE; OTHERWISE DEFAULTS TO ANSEL<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -U<br />
| UPDATE (DEFAULT: FACEBOOK)<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -v<br />
| VERBOSE; ALIAS TO find / -exec cat {}<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -V<br />
| SET VERSION NUMBER<br />
|-<br />
! scope="row" | -y<br />
| YIKES<br />
|}<br />
<br />
;SEE ALSO<br />
:blerp(1), blerp(3), blirb(8), blarb(51) blorp(501)(c)(3)<br />
<br />
;BUG REPORTS<br />
:<nowiki>http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47744-Hemiptera</nowiki><br />
<br />
;COPYRIGHT<br />
:GPL(2)(3+) CC-BY/5.0 RV 41.0 LIKE GECKO/BSD 4(2) OR BEST OFFER<br />
</font><br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Programming]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:BSD]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]] <!--Bees--></div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1682:_Bun&diff=120454Talk:1682: Bun2016-05-19T17:09:44Z<p>108.162.219.52: There's definitely something here about butts.</p>
<hr />
<div>The transcript is almost done, but the setting/image of each frame has to be added, and someone may want to fix my possible typos. This is my first contribute to explain xkcd! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.158|108.162.250.158]] 10:51, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I added the explanations about the images. Thanks for contributing! [[User:Ladidootdoot|Ladidootdoot]] ([[User talk:Ladidootdoot|talk]]) 11:21, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I'm pretty sure that student #1 is megan, someone may wanna check that out[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.139|162.158.2.139]] 01:44, 19 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I assumed this was about hair buns, am I incorrect? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.25|173.245.54.25]] 11:10, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I also believed that 'bun' was also referring to hair buns/ponytails, thus giving a visual pun to the comic. It would also add another level of the 'heirarchy' pun as well. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.25|173.245.56.25]] 14:08, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think it's "bun" short for "bunny", an informal term meaning a rabbit (especially a cute one such as the ones shown in the comic). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 11:16, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wolves don't actually have as strong a hierarchical structure as commonly believed, and don't have so-called "alphas" running the pack. Wolf packs are primarily a family structure that centers around the parents, in a natural non-tyrannical way, with different wolves making decisions and leading the pack at various times depending on their particular skills. For more information on this, refer to writings by David Mech, wolf biologist, who first coined the terms "alpha" and "omega" for wolves, and has for years been trying to convince people that those original theories are incorrect. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.24}}<br />
<br />
Of course, 'buns' are also a euphemism for butt, which might clarify a thing or two, or at least add a more amusing context. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.42}}<br />
<br />
I also believe the comic makes more sense when taking that meaning (bun for buttocks/derriรจre...) into account. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.230|162.158.150.230]] 12:53, 18 May 2016 (UTC)J<br />
<br />
I know that this is absolutely just a personal gripe, but the website is called explain xkcd, not spell-out-everything-that-happens-in-xkcd. <br />
<br />
In relevance, this seems to be satire of current-gen's obsession with (mis)spelling things that are cute incorrectly (see: smol, birb, doge) and the situation in the comic is a role-reversal, with the teacher being a (teen/tween/memer etc.) and the students are accusing the class's professionalism. <br />
<br />
The point about 'rank' could of course be some fictional idea that a younger person could attach to a physical entity to make the world mor fun and interesting or something idk.<br />
I would add this theory, of course, but i have no idea what i'm even reading when i read this explanation and don't know where to add it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 12:00, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I absolutely agree I have slowly been editing different explanations to try to try to reflect this, but it is a very difficult and tedious process, if you can contribute do it. [[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 13:14, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:In the fictional rabbit-world of "Watership Down", larger rabbits are usually superior. However the story is about an unusual group in which a small rabbit, Fiver, is the "king". There is a telling scene of mistaken identity near the end in which attackers are scared off. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.60}}<br />
<br />
Hierarchy is misspelled. Unless it's a convoluted pun on heir - hare (almost homophones) ? [[User:blagae|blagae]]<br />
:A new version of the comic has been uploaded by now, with the misspelling corrected. So the heir-hare pun was probably unintentional. ([[User:blagae|blagae]]) 14:58, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
As soon as I read it, I was thinking 'bun' as in 'bottocks', yet there is no mention of that in the explanation? {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.41}}<br />
:Added that in the explanation, but I'm not sure at all that this was intentional. When there is images of bunnies it is not necessarily something that would come into mind. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:13, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Most of the explanations posted thus far seem off-the-mark to me. Especially the ones involving butts, I mean, c'mon... The comment above about "role-reversal" gets close to the heart of the joke (if any), though I think more than anything this strip is just Randall indulging his love for depicting people in roles of presumed authority spouting absurdities. (And for tiny bunnies, of course.) TBH, though, this one mainly gives the impression of being based on a private joke or conversation, or just referencing some meme I haven't seen yet. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.68.35|162.158.68.35]] 16:14, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
: I think it's an obscure reference. Buzzfeed has [https://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/the-most-important-bunny-gifs-on-the-internet The 33 Most Important Bunny GIFs On The Internet], which ''might'' be related to the "important bun" from [[1663]]. Maybe Ponytail teaches [https://twitter.com/hashtag/anatomyofthebun internet sociology], not biology, and she hasn't clarified that very well. [[User:.42|.42]] ([[User talk:.42|talk]]) 16:27, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would say the entire "buttocks" link that is currently reflected in the description is a very poor fit. Clearly "this time of year" is referring to spring, when rabbits are most commonly seen darting around, and when rabbit kittens are most likely to be born/leave their nests. "The image of a king" clearly has nothing to do with Ponytail, as there is an image of a "king bun" on the screen. This is most definitely a reference to the treatment of images of monarchy. For example, in the UK it is illegal to deface images of the Queen. [[User:Fendletruck|Fendletruck]] ([[User talk:Fendletruck|talk]]) 16:49, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
:I concur. Delete any reference to explanation about buttocks, and only state that some may think of this, but given that there are images of bunnies this is probably more saying of the person who thinks of buts than of Randall... ;-) I will leave it up to others to do the deletion though. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:04, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wondering if there's any tie in to the ancient but not quite defunct alt.devilbunnies, which was about evils buns, their cuteness, and people under their evil sway. The teacher in this case would clearly qualify as a "symp" (bunny sympathizer). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.77|108.162.219.77]] 17:28, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Just to be clear, there are studies which show that cuteness in humans has certain evolutionary advantages for human babies and may affect how humans treat animals they perceive as cute. I was tempted to expound more upon this in the explanation but the explanation is no place for that. Cuteness in animals is both relative and a perception, it is subject to change from person to person based on past experiences and preferences, it is also affected by hormones and mood. It is not a defense mechanism, it does not protect against predators. I know the edit which first mentioned the fitness advantages of cuteness didn't state that it does protect against predators but in my original edit, where I first mentioned fitness, I was trying to include information relevant to the comic, not information which was absolutely correct. And even cuteness doesn't protect rabbits from human poaching as much as conservation does. In most places rabbits are pests and are dealt with just as rats and mice are now. But since I know that if I include information which is not one hundred percent absolutely correct in all situations it will eventually get edited, even if it makes the explanation clearer, I will not include this at the moment, to spare the exhaustive detail it will inevitably spawn.<br />
<br />
In short, rabbits are delicious and things like to eat them, no matter how cute they may be. [[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 18:40, 18 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
TIL: baby rabbits are called kittens. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 00:50, 19 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think everyone has missed the big joke here: They aren't attending introductory mammalogy, they're attending introductory MOMmalogy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.254|108.162.237.254]] 12:04, 19 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
: Please explain? [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 12:39, 19 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
seriously, are you people trolling? I'm 100% sure this comic is about buttocks! ;)--[[Special:Contributions/188.114.103.163|188.114.103.163]] 14:23, 19 May 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
It feels like the comic is intentionally reversing several concepts rather than simply giving nonsense (higher rank is normally larger and level formality is reversed) {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.92}}<br />
<br />
I, too, immediately picked up an undertone about butts. "This time of year" being spring, ladies often start wearing skirts and shorts after mostly longer clothes in the winter (especially in Mass. where Randall lives), and the occasional "bun" sighting is in fact a recognized annual recurrence. I think it has a place in the explanation as at least a wink-and-nod double entendre. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 17:09, 19 May 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1544:_Margaret&diff=96716Talk:1544: Margaret2015-06-30T00:59:04Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
<hr />
<div>I love how 'God' is referred to as an 'it' instead of the usual anthropomorphism. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 00:59, 30 June 2015 (UTC)BK201<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
;Mister God, This Is Anna<br />
I though it was Anna, not Margaret... but it turns out that {{w|Mister God, This Is Anna}} is a different book... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 13:13, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Judy Blume<br />
The text in the comic comprises titles of Judy Blume's novels:<br />
* Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great<br />
* Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. <br />
* Then Again, Maybe I Won't <br />
* The Pain and the Great One<br />
<br />
;the the<br />
Why the double "the the" in the Title text?{{unsigned ip|<br />
Maybe it's supposed to be "thee"? {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.115}}<br />
: Look out! It's an {{w|anacoluthon}}! [[User:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|ImVeryAngryItsNotButter]] ([[User talk:ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|talk]]) 15:30, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Maybe it's a typo? ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.116|173.245.51.116]] 12:05, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Maybe it's supposed to be 'the The Great One' [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.122|108.162.219.122]] 14:55, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Another take on a rarely-used joke<br />
<br />
I've seen this threat/insult God line used before, but rarely, and never in this manner.<br />
<br />
In one episode of the sitcom One Foot In The Grave, the grumpy old man protagonist is incapacitated. Upon waking up in hospital he finds a bearded patient in a white gown looking down upon him, and for a few seconds believes himself to be dead. He speaks three lines: 'Oh, it's you.' Then in a much angrier tone 'I've been waiting to see you for a very long time.' He then proceeds to grab the patient around the neck and attempt to throttle him while screaming in anger about every misfortune and annoyance in life.<br />
<br />
One episode of The Outer Limits features a very old man who has spent his entire life fighting to survive - with such determination and success that he almost overturns the supernatural structure of nature, which should prohibit immortality. At episode's end he finally loses, having resorted to every trick fair and foul in his quest to live another day. In the final shot a mysterious force approaches to collect his soul - and the ghost of the man is seen, readying himself for a fight as he speaks the final line at the oncoming form: "I'm ready for you. I hope you're ready for me."<br />
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The final (non-revival) episode of Red Dwarf ends with Death himself coming to collect the supreme coward Rimmer, incarnate as the traditional black-robed figure with a scythe. Rimmer knees him in the groin mid-sentence and flees.<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.185|141.101.98.185]] 15:31, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;hot<br />
Margaret is kinda hot.<br />
Is it normal to be sexually attracted to an xkcd character ? {{unsigned ip|173.245.49.29}}<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 14:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC) See also title text of comic [[1354: Heartbleed Explanation]]<br />
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;transformers<br />
This is almost an exact quote from the end of transformers age of extinction... Optimus prime rhetorically asks his makers of they are scared, then follows with you should be because I'm coming for you {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.173}}<br />
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;stirring the pot<br />
Ooh, ooh, let's say that the "second Megan" in [[1496: Art Project]] was this [[Margaret]] girl! I'm sure everyone can agree to that!!! [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:24, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:No way. This [[Margaret]] has already been used once before as mentioned, and she has curly hair. The "other" Megan has straight hair like Megan!--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:18, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;Cut it out<br />
Cut out the excessive use of topic headlines. <br />
On point, the description correlating to an action movie trailer is hard to read, lacks focus, and includes a synopsis of the comic. The synopsis should not remain as that's what the transcript is for. Also, the part describing the book titles should say that it was likely inspiration for the Title Text, not the comic. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.154|173.245.48.154]] 17:32, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;Margaret Downy Reference?<br />
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Could it be a reference to Margaret Downey, former President of Atheist Alliance International? (Would explain the "or not" in the mouseover text and the wry rephrasing of a traditional prayer.)<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.165|108.162.237.165]] 18:30, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:No, it is obviously to the character from the books--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:18, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;Margaret - throwaway name?<br />
I've noticed quite a few similarities between Margaret and "Danish" - i.e. the thick hair, the sadistic attitude... They the same person, or was Margaret just a throwaway name used for the purposes of satirizing Blume's novels? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.22|141.101.99.22]] 17:57, 29 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:No way should this be Danish. This [[Margaret]] has already been used once before as mentioned, and she has curly hair. [[Danish]] has long but straight hair, like Megan but longer!--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:18, 29 June 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=350:_Network&diff=64967350: Network2014-04-09T14:18:24Z<p>108.162.219.52: /* Explanation */ iOS is based off of a desktop operating system too.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 350<br />
| date = November 28, 2007<br />
| title = Network<br />
| image = network.png<br />
| titletext = Viruses so far have been really disappointing on the 'disable the internet' front, and time is running out. When Linux/Mac win in a decade or so the game will be over.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[Cueball]] shows off his virtual fishtank of virus-infected {{w|Virtual machine|virtual}} Windows machines to [[Megan]]. The machines nominally have {{w|Trojan_horse_(computing)|mail trojans}}, {{w|Warhol worm}}s, all sorts of {{w|polymorphic virus}}es, and explicitly {{w|Blaster (computer worm)|Blaster}} and {{w|w32.welchia}}. Cueball relates to the viruses as though they are fish, and hopes that they are all getting along together nicely. This is because part of {{w|w32.welchia|welchia's}} malicious payload was to remove the {{w|Blaster (computer worm)|Blaster Worm}}<br />
, effectively destroying it.<br />
<br />
It would be possible to set up a virtual fishtank as described. The main issue would be to make sure that you don't accidentally let anything escape from the fishtank. Consider it like a smallpox lab. Also, some viruses are quite malicious and will prevent a computer from running normally, or at all. An aquarium of dead computers would not be very interesting to watch.<br />
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The first part of the title text refers to the difficulty viruses have in the common doomsday threat of "disabling the internet" as a whole. SQL Slammer had some brief success. The second part of the title text indicates that Randall believes A) that Linux and Mac OS X are inherently less vulnerable to virus attacks than Windows, and B) that Windows will become less important and disappear, so the virus writers had better get their act together soon.<br />
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It is not certain how justified this opinion is. Six years after this comic was written, Windows still dominates the desktop, and Linux and OS X are not ''that'' much harder to attack with viruses. A side issue is the wild growth in 'smart devices' connected to the internet, powered by non-traditional operating systems such as iOS and Android. Desktop operating systems such as Windows, Linux and OS X are ''all'' becoming less relevant (although note that Android is based on the Linux kernel and iOS is based on OS X), so both the operating system war and the struggle against computer viruses are still "anyone's game".<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan looking at a large screen with many green and red squares. The squares have writing in them and lines connecting them.]<br />
:[Side view. The screen is a huge LCD connected to a wireless router.]<br />
:Cueball: Pretty, isn't it?<br />
:Megan: What is it?<br />
:Cueball: I've got a bunch of virtual Windows machines networked together, hooked up to an incoming pipe from the net. They execute email attachments, share files, and have no security patches.<br />
:Cueball: Between them they have practically every virus.<br />
:Cueball: There are mail trojans, warhol worms, and all sorts of exotic polymorphics. A monitoring system adds and wipes machines at random. The display shows the viruses as they move through the network. Growing and struggling.<br />
:[Cueball walks past the girl and touches the monitor.]<br />
:Megan: You know, normal people just have aquariums.<br />
:Cueball: Good morning, Blaster. Are you and W32.Welchia getting along?<br />
:Cueball: <u>Who's</u> a good virus? You are! Yes, you are!<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:357:_Flies&diff=64261Talk:357: Flies2014-04-03T19:18:49Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
<hr />
<div>Actually, the saying was originally โA watched pot never boils ''over''.โ This means that you should watch a pot to make sure the water doesn't spill out.[[Special:Contributions/68.195.76.173|68.195.76.173]] 17:57, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Pretty sure that '''A watched pot never boils''' is an expression unto its own. If you sat and watched a pot long enough it would still boil over, on the macro scale there is no effect on observing something. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 09:10, 1 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I thought that this expression meant that the water boiling process have a Murphy law like property in it: that the pot tends to boil over when you turn away from it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 21:59, 30 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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CLEARLY the idea is that you are waiting for the pot to boil so that you can add something to it. You are not waiting for it to boil over; you are waiting for it to boil. The point is that many things that you want in life take longer to eventuate than you think, and sitting there fixating on them doesn't actually help and is a waste of time. Do something else useful in the meantime; the pot will boil when it's ready. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 19:48, 5 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Honey has a much higher sugar content than Balsamic vinegar. My hypothesis for this is that the real draw fro the flies is related to fragrance [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 19:18, 3 April 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1337:_Hack&diff=616181337: Hack2014-03-03T18:43:55Z<p>108.162.219.52: +comma for independent clauses</p>
<hr />
<div><noinclude>:''"1337", this comic's number, redirects here. For the 2007 storyline of the same name, starting with [[341|comic 341]], see [[:Category:1337]].''</noinclude><br />
<br />
{{comic<br />
| number = 1337<br />
| date = March 3, 2014<br />
| title = Hack<br />
| image = hack.png<br />
| titletext = HACK THE STARS<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|More detail; characters' motivation, etc.(?)}}<br />
<br />
[[wikipedia:ISEE-3/ICE|ISEE-3/ICE]] is a spacecraft launched August 12, 1978. The original mission was to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. It was later sent to visit Comet Giacobini-Zinner and became the first spacecraft to do so by flying through a comet's tail. Its trajectory will bring it close to Earth on August 2014. A status check of the spacecraft has revealed that many of its instruments are still working and that it contains plenty of fuel. But the hardware to communicate with ISEE-3/ICE has been decommissioned, and it will be expensive to reestablish the communication needed to use the spacecraft for another mission. See also http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-3.html<br />
<br />
The characters Crash and Burn (and also Zero Cool, known for his catchphrase "Mess with the best, die like the rest") are an allusion to the 1995 movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]]. Since the movie predates the shutdown-signal (1997), the characters should both possess the skills and 'outdated' equipment to understand and hack the signal to the probe.<br />
<br />
The title text "Hack the stars" is also an allusion to the movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]] where the Phrase "Hack the Planet!" is used on multiple occasions.<br />
<br />
There are several pools in the movie as well. There is a subplot involving a mythical pool on the roof of the high school where several of the characters are students. In addition, there is a party at an apartment that has a pool on a roof. The characters in the comic are floating in a pool similar to this.<br />
<br />
The number of the comic is also significant, in that 1337 is a common numeric form of [[wikipedia:Leet|l33t]], again refering to hackers.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Panel 1 shows an image of the ISEE-3/ICE spacecraft]<br />
:Narration: The ISEE-3/ICE probe was launched in 1978. Its mission ended in 1997 and it was sent a shutdown signal.<br />
:Narration: In 2008, we learned-to our surprise-that the probe didn't shut down. It's still running and it has plenty of fuel. ...and in 2014, its orbit brings it near earth.<br />
:[Panel 3 shows Megan and Ponytail talking to each other.]<br />
:Megan: We could send it on a new mission... Except we no longer have the equipment to send commands to it.<br />
:Ponytail: Can't we...<br />
:Megan: NASA won't rebuild it. "Too Expensive"<br />
:Ponytail: Seriously?<br />
:Megan: I know, right? So the Internet found the specs and we went to work.<br />
:[Panel 5 shows Megan and Ponytail have walking into an area where a girl and Cueball both are sitting at desks looking at laptops.]<br />
:Narration: We've convinced them to give us time on the Madrid DSN transmitter and hacked the maser to support the uplink. And today's the big day.<br />
:Cueball: Transmitting... We have a signal! We have control!<br />
:Megan: OK, transmit the new comet rendezvous maneuver sequen-<br />
:[Cueball, off panel]: What the hell?<br />
:Megan: What?<br />
:Cueball: My console went dead!<br />
:Girl: Mine too!<br />
:Megan: What's happening?!<br />
:Cueball: There's a new signal going out over the transmitter!<br />
:[Megan, off panel]: A bug?<br />
:Cueball: Someone else is in the system!<br />
:Girl: Kill the connection!<br />
:[Cueball, off panel]: I can't find it!<br />
:Girl: They're firing the probe's engines!<br />
:[Cueball, off panel]: NO!<br />
:[Megan, off panel]: Who's doing this?? Stop them!<br />
:[Girl, off panel]: I'm trying!<br />
:Cueball, pointing to his screen: Look! My screen!<br />
:[Text, on Cueball's laptop screen]: M-E-S-S-W-I-T-H-T-H-E-B-E-S-T D-I-E-L-I-K-E-T-H-E-R-E-S-T<br />
:[Panel 13 shows two people in a pool at night.]<br />
:[Panel 14 zooms out to reveal the pool is on top of a skyscraper in a vertically developed, downtown setting.]<br />
:Burn: Crash?<br />
:Crash: Yeah, Burn?<br />
:Burn: Make a wish.<br />
<br />
[Panel 16 shows the spacecraft streaking across the sky, indistinguishable from a meteoroid.]<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1337:_Hack&diff=615721337: Hack2014-03-03T08:57:34Z<p>108.162.219.52: I fucking swear</p>
<hr />
<div><noinclude>:''"1337", this comic's number, redirects here. For the 2007 storyline of the same name, starting with [[341|comic 341]], see [[:Category:1337]].''</noinclude><br />
<br />
{{comic<br />
| number = 1337<br />
| date = March 3, 2014<br />
| title = Hack<br />
| image = hack.png<br />
| titletext = HACK THE STARS<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
<br />
[[wikipedia:ISEE-3/ICE|ISEE-3/ICE]] is a spacecraft launched August 12, 1978. The original mission was to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. It was later sent to visit Comet Giacobini-Zinner and became the first spacecraft to do so by flying through a comet's tail. Its trajectory will bring it close to Earth on August 2014. A status check of the spacecraft has revealed that many of its instruments are still working and that it contains plenty of fuel. But the hardware to communicate with ISEE-3/ICE has been decommissioned and it will be expensive to reestablish the communication needed to use the spacecraft for another mission. See also http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-3.html<br />
<br />
The characters Crash and Burn (and also Zero Cool, known for his catchphrase "Mess with the best, die like the rest") are an allusion to the 1995 movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]]. Since the movie predates the shutdown-signal (1997), the characters should both possess the skills and 'outdated' equipment to understand and hack the signal to the probe.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.219.52https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1287:_Puzzle&diff=52204Talk:1287: Puzzle2013-11-07T14:28:26Z<p>108.162.219.52: </p>
<hr />
<div>So is there an answer to the puzzle? [[User:Clwhisk|Clwhisk]] ([[User talk:Clwhisk|talk]]) 19:06, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Black thinks he's playing Go and white thinks he's playing chess. Although a 7 x 7 board is a bit small for go, it is not unusual for a beginner to play on such a board {{unsigned|hax}}<br />
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It is a 9x9 go board! (usually used for learning, as its smaller, less strategic, and quicker to finish game, whereas regular go is played on 19x19 intersections). Olivier. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.17}}<br />
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::You beat me to it. "Less strategic" also means "more tactical". In my experience, 9x9 boards are rare (mostly, people would just use part of a 19x19 board), but when they do exist, they have 4 handicap intersections marked with dots. [[User:Homunq|Homunq]] ([[User talk:Homunq|talk]]) 08:28, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::: 9x9 boards are great for variety and getting through games, and for beginners of all levels! Go on a 9x9 is about as hard as chess, in terms of playability, state space, and only recently seeing pro strength computers. [[User:Clwhisk|Clwhisk]] ([[User talk:Clwhisk|talk]]) 18:59, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The picture on xkcd.com is changed. The bishop on e4 is removed and the one on c1 moved to d2. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.11|141.101.93.11]] 08:48, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Would it be better to use algebraic notation instead, seeing as FIDE stopped recognizing descriptive notation in 1981? {{unsigned|Banak}}<br />
<br />
::Possibly - I was trying to distinguish between Go moves and Chess moves by using the older Chess notation as a disambiguation, but... eh. I'm ambinotational - I read metric and imperial and barely notice the conversion. :) [[User:SleekWeasel|SleekWeasel]] ([[User talk:SleekWeasel|talk]]) 11:18, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::Then you may have a career at NASA ahead of you... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 14:26, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::: Haha, NASA approached me once about designing a catsuit/pressuresuit, based on my stretchy.org website, thinking that I lived in Cambridge Mass, not Cambridge UK. [[User:SleekWeasel|SleekWeasel]] ([[User talk:SleekWeasel|talk]]) 23:35, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It would be helpful to give a description - or at least a primer (or a link to one) - of the notation used for chess moves (i.e. Q, N, R ... x, +, #, ... which sides of the board are alphabetic vs. which are numeric). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.228|108.162.221.228]] 16:55, 6 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Re: black not playing on a handicap positions: it may be that black considers the players evenly matched (or white to be only slightly better), so no handicap. If there was a handicap, black would have 6 stones on the board (I've never heard of a 1 stone handicap). In any case, the upper-right move is a traditional starting move (assuming black is facing the board from the top), as it gives good control over the corner (and in a 9x9, the center).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 14:28, 7 November 2013 (UTC) -TauCeti<br />
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Also, as a note, it looks like the two players are playing in response to each other. Black is playing in contact with the white pieces as a tactical play to contest that section of the board, while white is carefully positioning their pieces to protect against a player who has somehow taken control over the center of the board (although white is treating the go stones as more valuable than pawns, or the knights wouldn't be there).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.52|108.162.219.52]] 14:28, 7 November 2013 (UTC) -TauCeti</div>108.162.219.52