https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.69.129&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T02:33:18ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2477:_Alien_Visitors&diff=213603Talk:2477: Alien Visitors2021-06-17T16:57:03Z<p>141.101.69.129: </p>
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Good point, for those believing aliens help build the pyramids, if those aliens had already encountered say the MGM pyramid in Las Vegas, would they have helped people build a different kind of monument? Or it's1 stone pyramids regardless of the level of development? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.164|172.70.34.164]] 01:08, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: I'm surprised we don't have a [[:Category:Aliens]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.143|172.69.35.143]] 01:55, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Maybe we should? I found [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=500&offset=0&profile=default&search=aliens 37 pages] when searching for Aliens... But who should put in the link on the relevant of those? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:40, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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But.. but.. everyone[citation required] knows that the pyramid shape is ideal for landing alien Mother Ships on top of! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.244|141.101.98.244]] 07:04, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Thank you! Someone who knows what's up. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 07:29, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Could the "gears" in the title text be a reference to the Antikythera mechanism or something similar? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.187|162.158.89.187]] 09:32, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I just think that Randall thinks gear is a pretty neat invention, that Aliens could have taught us. But these came too late --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:00, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I think the lines emitting from the UFO in the second panel are not tractor beams but something like holographic projection. The pyramid and the stone cube are shown at different scales which indicates that these are not the real thing but images. Panel two depicts a "sneak preview" for the humans.<br />
:I think the pyramid is a picture (hologram) and the stone seems real and is held up by the tractor beam. I have amended the explanation and transcript with this. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:59, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Funny to see a mention of the Antikythera mechanism, as I recently read an article on it being digitaly reconstructed at UCL (based on found fragments and some text from the front and back side). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.129|141.101.69.129]] 16:57, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I'm pretty sure the ancient Egyptians had a ''secret technology'' called "scaffold" to help raise the uppermost blocks where a sufficient ramp becomes impractical/impossible... but I'm not about to do the research to prove it to anyone, at 6am. I could be wrong, but I think it's just the "controversial" but obvious answer?<br />
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 12:00, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I'm very surprised by the lack of imagination among these aliens. The most advanced tech they can think to offer us is ''gears''? How about a printing press, or electricity, or the combustion engine? Something else is going on here that no one yet has mentioned. Is Randall telling us that the aliens are restrained from giving us too much because of the Prime Directive or something? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.38|172.70.114.38]] 12:21, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Nah, I think they just go up the figurative "tech tree". Maybe the things your are mentioning are the next offers after gears? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:13, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
Or how about leaving us one of your spaceships? [[User:WaxWamp|WaxWamp]] ([[User talk:WaxWamp|talk]]) 13:39, 17 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Proposed next panel(s):<br />
: Megan: Gears? No, we've got those. How about clean energy?<br />
: Cueball: Well, we kind of have that.<br />
: Megan: Okay, what about the flight tech of your space ship? How long did it take you to get here anyway? Do you have FTL?<br />
: Alien: Well, our multi-generational mother-ship is in orbit of your moon. We are basing our offers on what our astronomers observed just before the ship left our home planet.<br />
: Cueball: Wow! Can we get your telescope technology? To see our ancestors from over 3000 years ago and come over here based on what you saw?<br />
: Megan: Where are you guys from anyway? Please don't say Bernard's Star.<br />
[[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 15:12, 17 June 2021 (UTC)</div>141.101.69.129https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2085:_arXiv&diff=1671352085: arXiv2018-12-19T08:51:05Z<p>141.101.69.129: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2085<br />
| date = December 14, 2018<br />
| title = arXiv<br />
| image = arxiv.png<br />
| titletext = Both arXiv and archive.org are invaluable projects which, if they didn't exist, we would dismiss as obviously ridiculous and unworkable.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Needs an explanation of why journals actually allow this system to continue, and to answer whether paper preprints are different from the final paper.}}<br />
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{{w|ArXiv}} is a [https://arxiv.org free online repository of electronic preprints of scientific papers] in various fields, particularly in physics, math, and computer science. Scientists typically publish "preprint" versions of journal articles to arXiv, which are free to publish to and read. In this comic [[Megan]] remarks that academic journals must have a hard time getting by, since their primary revenue is from researchers who pay to publish articles and readers who pay for subscriptions. Her remark seems to assume that arXiv must be a recent development, perhaps similar to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub sci-hub project] which began in 2011. However, [[Ponytail]] informs her that the arXiv project has been around since the 1990s (1991 to be exact). <br />
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After a panel of [[Megan]] looking contemplative, she remarks that that does not make sense at all. After all, why would publishing companies be able to make money from something that is free online? [[Ponytail]] tries to stop her from freaking out, so that her outrage does not inform others about the current arrangement and thus ruin the system. She uses the term "''jinx''" (to cast a spell, to bring bad luck), suggesting that the whole system might work by some magic spell.<br />
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[[Ponytail]] expressing confusion about the continued existence of scientific journals previously happened in [[2025: Peer Review]].<br />
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The title text refers to another project that is invaluable for internet research, the {{w|Internet Archive}} ([https://archive.org]). Internet Archive is a public archive of information, including public domain books and music. Internet Archive runs the {{w|Wayback Machine}}, an archive of backups of web pages all over the Web at various times that can be used to see past versions of a page, even if that site has since shut down. Internet Archive accepts submissions of any type of information, including new backups of web pages and newly-made public domain content. The title text argues that these two projects are so useful, yet make so little economic sense, that, if they did not exist, we would dismiss them as ideas that would never be viable. In addition, as "arXiv" is intended to be pronounced the same as "archive", both site have URLs with a common pronunciation.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan and Ponytail are standing together. Megan is talking to Ponytail.]<br />
:Megan: Wait, all the papers in your field are posted as free PDFs on arXiv? That must be killing big science journals, since they charge such huge subscription/publication fees.<br />
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:[Ponytail responds with her arms wide, palms up.]<br />
:Ponytail: Nah, we’ve been doing it since the 90s and nobody seems to care.<br />
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:[Megan contemplates, speechless.]<br />
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:[Megan slightly raises her arms and Ponytail puts up a hand to shush her.]<br />
:Megan: That makes no sense at all!!<br />
:Ponytail: ''Shhh, you’ll jinx it!''<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]</div>141.101.69.129https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1949:_Fruit_Collider&diff=151734Talk:1949: Fruit Collider2018-01-31T15:41:38Z<p>141.101.69.129: </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 />
I propose that - for once - we keep the bot-generated text in this explanation section: "This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect."<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.129|141.101.69.129]] 15:41, 31 January 2018 (UTC)</div>141.101.69.129