https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.221.15&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T10:01:04ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2552:_The_Last_Molecule&diff=2223492552: The Last Molecule2021-12-09T22:09:42Z<p>108.162.221.15: /* Explanation */ Possibly a reference to</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2552<br />
| date = December 8, 2021<br />
| title = The Last Molecule<br />
| image = the_last_molecule.png<br />
| titletext = Biology is really struggling; they're barely at 93% and they keep finding more ants.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a CONFUSED PARTIAL BIOCHEMIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic jokingly proposes a situation in which chemists have discovered and catalogued every single possible molecule. Thus they declare they have "completed chemistry."<br />
<br />
It may be a reference to a quote from around 1900, often attributed to Lord Kelvin or Albert Michelson: "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement."<br />
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In real life the number of ways to arrange atoms into molecules grows combinatorially with the number of atoms in a molecule. Since molecules can be arbitrarily large, the number of possible combinations is much much larger than the number of particles in the observable universe, making the full cataloging of all molecules impossible. Thus, a "final molecule" cannot be reached. In addition, chemistry is the study of the interaction and changing states of atoms and molecules, not simply the cataloging of all specimens of molecule. Even if we did have a list of every molecule, there are a far greater number of ways to continue studying them, so the field would still be nowhere near completed. <br />
<br />
This is reminiscent of biology's focus in previous centuries on simply cataloging the species on Earth.<br />
<br />
Further, the goal of science is not to "complete" a field, but to understand it better and better. No scientific field is considered fully understood. As readers are aware of this, part of the humor comes from the very high percentages given to the different fields. Putting Biology at 93% and Physics at 98% is patently absurd. <br />
<br />
If biology ''were'' simply a matter of cataloging species, we might not even be at 10%. As mentioned in the comic, we can't even give a definitive answer to changing-target questions like how many kinds of ants there are, let alone microscopic organisms. When J.B.S Haldane, founder of the field of population genetics, was asked what could be inferred about the creator from the creation, he reportedly said, "He has an inordinate fondness for beetles". Insects aside, fundamental and important problems such as what genes promote which traits, the nature of cognition, and the mechanism behind several diseases remain complete mysteries. We know less about our own ocean floor than we do about the surface of Mars. Needless to say, Biology is nowhere close to 93% solved. <br />
<br />
The title text in particular makes fun of Biology lagging behind due to the inherent difficulty of cataloging all species. Species are being constantly created and recategorized, so even if it were possible to know exactly what animals were alive on Earth at any one time, and which could interbreed, there would still be no agreement on the number of species they constituted, and that's without even getting into historic species, such as the contentious question of whether neanderthals are considered a subspecies of homo sapiens, or a whole separate species.<br />
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As for Physics, all the elementary particles of the Standard Model of particle physics have been experimentally detected, culminating in the 2012 detection of the {{w|Higgs Boson}}. But questions such as "what is dark matter?", "how do we unify the four fundamental forces?", "how do we make nuclear fusion possible on earth?", "is the speed of light symmetrical?", and "how many dimensions does the universe have?" make it clear that the field still has a long, long way to go.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Ponytail is presenting on a stage. To the top-center of the slide which Ponytail is pointing to, there is a circled "100% complete" under "Chemistry", then to the left is "Biology" which is at "93% complete" and to the right is "Physics" which is at "98% complete". The bottom of the slide shows the [[wikipedia:structural formula|structural formula]] of a molecule which is captioned "The Last One", along with a few smaller captions around it drawn as squiggles.]<br />
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:Ponytail: With the discovery of the last molecule, I'm pleased to announce that chemistry is finally complete.<br />
:Ponytail: Best of luck to our competitors in their race for second place.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Biology]]<br />
[[Category:Chemistry]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]</div>108.162.221.15https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2552:_The_Last_Molecule&diff=2223482552: The Last Molecule2021-12-09T22:02:37Z<p>108.162.221.15: /* Explanation */ There's a whole lot more to the complexity of counting species than just how hard it is to find them all.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2552<br />
| date = December 8, 2021<br />
| title = The Last Molecule<br />
| image = the_last_molecule.png<br />
| titletext = Biology is really struggling; they're barely at 93% and they keep finding more ants.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a CONFUSED PARTIAL BIOCHEMIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic jokingly proposes a situation in which chemists have discovered and catalogued every single possible molecule. Thus they declare they have "completed chemistry."<br />
<br />
In real life the number of ways to arrange atoms into molecules grows combinatorially with the number of atoms in a molecule. Since molecules can be arbitrarily large, the number of possible combinations is much much larger than the number of particles in the observable universe, making the full cataloging of all molecules impossible. Thus, a "final molecule" cannot be reached. In addition, chemistry is the study of the interaction and changing states of atoms and molecules, not simply the cataloging of all specimens of molecule. Even if we did have a list of every molecule, there are a far greater number of ways to continue studying them, so the field would still be nowhere near completed. <br />
<br />
This is reminiscent of biology's focus in previous centuries on simply cataloging the species on Earth.<br />
<br />
Further, the goal of science is not to "complete" a field, but to understand it better and better. No scientific field is considered fully understood. As readers are aware of this, part of the humor comes from the very high percentages given to the different fields. Putting Biology at 93% and Physics at 98% is patently absurd. <br />
<br />
If biology ''were'' simply a matter of cataloging species, we might not even be at 10%. As mentioned in the comic, we can't even give a definitive answer to changing-target questions like how many kinds of ants there are, let alone microscopic organisms. When J.B.S Haldane, founder of the field of population genetics, was asked what could be inferred about the creator from the creation, he reportedly said, "He has an inordinate fondness for beetles". Insects aside, fundamental and important problems such as what genes promote which traits, the nature of cognition, and the mechanism behind several diseases remain complete mysteries. We know less about our own ocean floor than we do about the surface of Mars. Needless to say, Biology is nowhere close to 93% solved. <br />
<br />
The title text in particular makes fun of Biology lagging behind due to the inherent difficulty of cataloging all species. Species are being constantly created and recategorized, so even if it were possible to know exactly what animals were alive on Earth at any one time, and which could interbreed, there would still be no agreement on the number of species they constituted, and that's without even getting into historic species, such as the contentious question of whether neanderthals are considered a subspecies of homo sapiens, or a whole separate species.<br />
<br />
As for Physics, all the elementary particles of the Standard Model of particle physics have been experimentally detected, culminating in the 2012 detection of the {{w|Higgs Boson}}. But questions such as "what is dark matter?", "how do we unify the four fundamental forces?", "how do we make nuclear fusion possible on earth?", "is the speed of light symmetrical?", and "how many dimensions does the universe have?" make it clear that the field still has a long, long way to go.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Ponytail is presenting on a stage. To the top-center of the slide which Ponytail is pointing to, there is a circled "100% complete" under "Chemistry", then to the left is "Biology" which is at "93% complete" and to the right is "Physics" which is at "98% complete". The bottom of the slide shows the [[wikipedia:structural formula|structural formula]] of a molecule which is captioned "The Last One", along with a few smaller captions around it drawn as squiggles.]<br />
<br />
:Ponytail: With the discovery of the last molecule, I'm pleased to announce that chemistry is finally complete.<br />
:Ponytail: Best of luck to our competitors in their race for second place.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Biology]]<br />
[[Category:Chemistry]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]</div>108.162.221.15https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2549:_Edge_Cake&diff=221924Talk:2549: Edge Cake2021-12-03T14:33:44Z<p>108.162.221.15: </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 />
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The cake being all edges is a reference to everything about her birth being an edge case.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 03:41, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
: It seems likely that the title of the comic is a related pun: her birthday is an edge case, and so she has an edge cake.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.221|162.158.106.221]] 04:22, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
So is Hairbun officially named Emily now, sort of like how all instances of Megan are Megan even though she's only called that once? I know all the names here are just placeholders of convenience, but even then I've never know what the rules for naming are. [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 06:11, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Well, Megan is referred to multiple times in the xkcds as "Megan", while the one time Hairbun was called Emily, it referred to the real{{citation needed}} Emily Dickinson. So, probably not. <span style="font-family:serif">[[User:Bubblegum|<span style="color:#00BFFF">bubblegum</span>]]-[[User_talk:Bubblegum|<span style="color:#BF7FFF">talk</span>]]|[[Special:Contributions/Bubblegum|<span style="color:#FF7FFF">contribs</span>]]</span> <span style="font-family:serif">02:44, 3 December 2021 (UTC)</span><br />
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Edge pieces on cake are often sought after because they hold more frosting, for cakes which are frosted while out of the pan. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.23|172.70.134.23]] 06:37, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
: I have an impression that Cueball is delighted by having only edge pieces, however some cakes edge pieces may be either sought for or avoided, depending on one's tastes. E.g. tarts have more crispy base cake content and less filling at the edges. One person may go for the filling, another for the crispy base. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.11|162.158.102.11]] 09:50, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
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So it seems the events in the comic happened on Apr 1., as the "last month" birthday could be either Feb 28. or 29. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.11|162.158.102.11]] 09:50, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Not necessarily. Remember, Emily can have her birthday ''whenever she wants'', so the date this comic is set as is entirely arbitrary. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.51|172.70.178.51]] 12:26, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Are there any particular existing arctic international flights that could have been the one Emily was born on? -- [[Special:Contributions/256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] 15:51, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
:There are a few possibities (at least pre-COVID, and obviously we'd be looking historically in this case anyway) as [https://interestingengineering.com/polar-routes-flights-that-go-over-earths-poles might be shown here]. There's two possible (but neither definite) International Datelines on the comic diagram, in case they help orient which from/to directions might have been diverted further in or out of their own kinks in the flightpath to coincide with 90°N. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 16:21, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Expanded copies of this comic have been appearing on other comics, so large that it fills the whole screen for me. Is anyone else having this problem? [[User:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)]] ([[User talk:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|talk]]) 22:24, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Someone (check the [[Special:RecentChanges|Recent Changes]] page, if you want) has been vandalising a lot of things. Currently I see a picture of an amphibious avian creature on this article's top (if I still need to revert it myself, I will do, but I've seen others have already been reverting other recent vandalism, so I may not need to by the time I've checked again). This very clever individual is obiviously mentally superior to us all(!) the way they can edit wiki pages seemingly at will... Impressive, eh? At some point I'm sure we'll get back to normlal, however boring that may be. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.67|172.70.90.67]] 23:33, 2 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Not to be too pedantic but isn't rotation a FREQUENCY, not a SPEED? [[User:Skulker|Skulker]] ([[User talk:Skulker|talk]]) 03:19, 3 December 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Tempted to add a link in the Trivia section to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Warrimoo Wikipedia] or [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ss-warrimoo/ Snopes] pages on the SS Warrimoo, a ship that (reportedly) was on the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1900, with a number of interesting implications that follow. There's no way to prove that it actually happened, but it's fun to imagine and is somewhat similar to the premise of the comic. --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.15|108.162.221.15]] 14:33, 3 December 2021 (UTC)</div>108.162.221.15https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:632:_Suspicion&diff=221577Talk:632: Suspicion2021-11-30T00:27:57Z<p>108.162.221.15: </p>
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<div>"I'm more than a spambot! Our love was real!" might suggest that the spambot has actually more self-awareness/feelings than you might expect. -- [[Special:Contributions/145.7.91.126|Arjen]] 10:35, 28 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
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:Or an extremely well designed spambot. ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.67|173.245.55.67]] 20:43, 18 April 2014 (UTC)BK201<br />
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Couples wanting to check themselves can try an implementation of this test at http://vk-couples-testing.appspot.com/ :-) --[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 15:10, 1 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Your link is broken. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100103023116/http://vkcouplestesting.com/] [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 21:20, 28 March 2019 (UTC)<br />
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Should we consider the name "Lisa" to be important? One of the very first chat-bots was called Eliza. [[Special:Contributions/91.183.95.109|91.183.95.109]] 15:13, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::Don't forget that Apple's first GUI was the Lisa system.{{unsigned ip|24.207.62.236}}<br />
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I would be happy to see a reference to Philip K. Dick's Voigt-Kampff from his book 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Since it was written in 1968 and Scott used it as an inspiration to write Blade Runner. Original source and stuff. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.55|108.162.231.55]] 22:31, 31 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Considering what's on panel #2 and #3, I thought that "getting tested" meant those ads that asks to insert your name and your partner's name to check if it's a good relationship. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 14:00, 4 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I thought VK stood for the Russian social network. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.153|108.162.221.153]] 15:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I landed on this page on xkcd using the random button. Then when I hit the random button again, I was on the exact same page. That happen to anyone? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 09:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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[[http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25| Dilbert (October 25, 2001)]] discusses this (30 September 2015's comment). [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.72|199.27.133.72]] 19:05, 22 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I'm offering the alternative interpretation that perhaps she *isn't* a spambot, but is pissed off at being given a spambot test, thus refuses to answer, leading to cueball ending the relationship. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.36|141.101.99.36]] 18:28, 7 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
:Except she admits to being a spambot in the last panel. And the fact that she's a spambot is the basis for the whole joke of the comic. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:13, 11 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Does anyone else think Lisa is a reference to the Apple computer? [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 21:18, 24 March 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Okay, for some apparent reason, I found the 2nd panel that 'Lisa' was saying Honey..., I found it sweet. 'she' feels sad too that Rob doesn't trust her.Boeing-787lover 15:21, 1 July 2018 (UTC)<br />
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spamton [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.15|108.162.221.15]] 00:27, 30 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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== Kitten5 theory ==<br />
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I used to be naive enough to think Lisa got a huge "WRONG" on her screen; while the catch she got was either because she was supposed to answer "Kitten5" instead of "kittens", or vice versa. Additional info: the "I am not a robot" button feels adding extra flavour to the story. (English =/= my native language) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.123|162.158.183.123]] 17:34, 7 June 2019 (UTC)</div>108.162.221.15https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1645:_Toasts&diff=112821Talk:1645: Toasts2016-02-19T13:40:14Z<p>108.162.221.15: </p>
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<div><!-- Remember to sign your comments with a ~~~~ --><br />
Are we sure "single-payer" is not a typo, making it "single-player" to fit with "RealPlayer"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.144|162.158.202.144]] 11:18, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
:That's what I thought as well. [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 11:19, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
::Yes it is not a typo as Single-payer refers to Single-payer healthcare as now explained above. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:27, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I'm fairly certain this comic is in reference to the "Fall Out Boy" song, entitled "Champagne For My Real Friends And Real Pain For My Sham Friends", from their 2005 album "From Under The Cork Tree"; though he could also be referencing Francis Bacon, Tom Waits, the television show Happy Days, the show One Tree Hill, or Spike Lee's "25th Hour". If you do a Google search for the phrase, it requires some exclusions (like -"fall out boy") to prevent that song from dominating the first page of results. It's one of their most famous titles.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.48|108.162.216.48]] 12:00, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
:Please just include links to these relevant songs etc. in the explanation. And thanks for the comment. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:27, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
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:White Hat thus wish that his real friends have access to free health care, and all his single friends will get RealPlayer. Maybe he wishes to impress these singles with a present and hope he gets lucky. (If it has been Hairy this would have seemed very likely… see 1178: Pickup Artists. White Hat has not previously displayed thse tendencies to clearly).<br />
I doubt this. RealPlayer was a terrible piece of software nobody wanted and was often bundled with spyware (see wikipedia)<br />
::Well I wrote it and disagree. Since it has been on the market for 10 years, and has just been updated, then it cannot be that terrible, and I cannot find what you say should be on Wikipedia to show that it should be bad still at present. But of course if it has just been upgraded to a new name, then giving the old app is not so hot. Has addressed this in the explanation. Aqlso please feel free to update something you find in error yourself ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:27, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
::: You wrote the source code for RealPlayer or the explantation here? If first you should know why it has such a bad reputation, if second: RealPlayer was some time ago bundled with spyware that sent unique ID's with other userdata to a server, also it had several other problems and is considered by several tech magazines as one of the worst software programs. It might not mention that in the english wikipedia but the german has a section for it. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealPlayer#Kritik To stay on topic: Maybe he wishes his single friends RealPlayer so they need his help to get the malware off their computers and he can impress them? Is way more probable from my experience. [[User:Bobylein|Bobylein]] ([[User talk:Bobylein|talk]]) 12:43, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
::::And to stay in English for those who are not native Germans... we can also take the English wiki link to the {{w|RealPlayer#Reviews_and_critiques|critique}}! ;-) As I can read from that it was in 1999 and 2007 that it was bad, and as this is now 9 years ago at least, and they keep updating it, the errors may have been improved out? Why would anyone else continue to make it better or using it? But again feel free to update the explanation even more with these kinds of info. I still think it is not so bad to get a free app, unless it is the spy ware version. I expect this doesn't exist anymore, and it is not explicitly stated that he would give them that.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:53, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
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This is the first comic with [[Hair Bun Girl]] since [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] proposed a name change to for instance Hairbun. I take this chance to get more comments on this subject by posting his note, that is now posted on her site:<br />
Should [[Hair Bun Girl]] be renamed to Hairbun? [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Rename_Hair_Bun_Girl See here]<br />
--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:04, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
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As a non-native speaker, when I first read it, I though "petty friends" could mean "pet animals" and "real coats" would then refer to them having real fur as coats - which is often an aspect animal friends don't like on certain rich people (wearing real fur coats), but completely normal for the animals itself.<br />
Also "Realplayer", aside from its repuration as not-so-useable software, is used for video streaming, including on porn sites. So (male?) "single friends", being single, might have to resort using Realplayer/porn to satisfy their needs.<br />
[[User:Zefiro|Zefiro]] ([[User talk:Zefiro|talk]]) 13:16, 19 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
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In regard to the second tile, I read it at first to mean that the girl's real friends are pseudopods and that all her human acquaintances are "pseudo-friends". This would be like a stereotypical "lab nerd". Doesn't track with any other slide, but I thought it might add to the conversation...</div>108.162.221.15