https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.79.43&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T09:39:03ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:683:_Science_Montage&diff=127297Talk:683: Science Montage2016-09-18T22:34:40Z<p>141.101.79.43: </p>
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<div>'Code grey!' may also be a reference to Grey Goo involving nanobots. {{unsigned ip|64.138.135.2}}<br />
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In the third panel down of the Real Life montage, Cueball is missing his lab goggles. {{unsigned ip|162.158.145.156}}<br />
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: They are in his hands. [[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 21:27, 8 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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The "hamster wheel" really looks more like a plasma ball, which would better fit the impressive-looking-but-totally-useless category.</div>141.101.79.43https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1626:_Judgment_Day&diff=108793Talk:1626: Judgment Day2016-01-06T16:45:42Z<p>141.101.79.43: /* Would it really require a lot of booster rockets? */</p>
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<div>It was making my titletext explanation too long and unwieldy, to include this particular speculation in my own contribution, but there's a ''possibility'' that it may well be Amazon's own sentience taking over the world, and rationalising that a dead and dying customer base is of no use to it... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.29|162.158.153.29]] 13:51, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Doesn't matter if it's self-sentience or not. Truth is, rigid laws are not the best way to use as a replacement for conscience. The 1613 did not deal with possibility of one or more of the laws being left out. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:53, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I think the "Judgment" part of the comic is that those tens of thousands of nukes hitting the sun may make it unstable in some way and destroy Earth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.43|141.101.79.43]] 14:34, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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:Of course, all of our nukes hitting the Sun would be a drop in the bucket of solar fusion reactions. Nothing would be destabilized. However, I'm sure inconvenient physics would not stop some movie scriptwriter from incorporating a spectacular CG-fueled nova as a plot point. [[User:Jhhxkcd|Jhhxkcd]] ([[User talk:Jhhxkcd|talk]]) 14:47, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
::That's pretty much already the plot of ''{{w|Sunshine (2007 film)|Sunshine}}'' (2007), though there the result was to (successfully) reignite a failing Sun, rather than to destabilize it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.56|162.158.135.56]] 15:35, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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The first two lines could be said by any non-hoarder looking at the stuff a hoarder has collected. "A stack of 130 used microwave dinner trays? Why do you even have all these? Are you insane? They're going in the recycling bin." I think that's the joke: the newly-sentient computer is Mom, and humanity is her teenage son with the very messy room, but this being xkcd, it gets more... um, ''extreme'' from there. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 16:18, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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== Would it really require a lot of booster rockets? ==<br />
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Can't you just "fall" into the sun for free once you're free of Earth's orbit? Why should it take a lot of booster rockets to get there? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.233|198.41.235.233]] 16:26, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
: a) The boosters are required to escape the earth's gravitational influence. After that sun's gravity would do the rest, b) A lot of boosters are required because there are a lot of missiles that need to be launched. --[[User:Desidiot|Desidiot]] ([[User talk:Desidiot|talk]]) 16:41, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
After escaping Earth's well, the nukes still have inherited the velocity of Earth's orbit. They need to reduce their periapsis close to/inside the sun. That would take extreme amounts of Delta v (i.e. energy)... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.43|141.101.79.43]] 16:45, 6 January 2016 (UTC)</div>141.101.79.43https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1626:_Judgment_Day&diff=108777Talk:1626: Judgment Day2016-01-06T14:34:03Z<p>141.101.79.43: </p>
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<div>It was making my titletext explanation too long and unwieldy, to include this particular speculation in my own contribution, but there's a ''possibility'' that it may well be Amazon's own sentience taking over the world, and rationalising that a dead and dying customer base is of no use to it... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.29|162.158.153.29]] 13:51, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Doesn't matter if it's self-sentience or not. Truth is, rigid laws are not the best way to use as a replacement for conscience. The 1613 did not deal with possibility of one or more of the laws being left out. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:53, 6 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I think the "Judgment" part of the comic is that those tens of thousands of nukes hitting the sun may make it unstable in some way and destroy Earth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.43|141.101.79.43]] 14:34, 6 January 2016 (UTC)</div>141.101.79.43https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1598:_Salvage&diff=1045691598: Salvage2015-11-05T11:53:28Z<p>141.101.79.43: /* changed "maters" to "matters"*/</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1598<br />
| date = November 2, 2015<br />
| title = Salvage<br />
| image = salvage.png<br />
| titletext = My hobby: Taking advantage of the rice myth by posting articles on "how to save your wet phone" which are actually just elaborate recipes for rice pilaf.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
The {{w|RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic''}} was a large ocean liner which, when it was completed in 1912, was the largest ship afloat. The ship famously hit an {{w|iceberg}} on its maiden voyage and sank, killing two-thirds of its complement (approximately 1,500 people) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters ever.<br />
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As it sank, the ''Titanic'' broke into two pieces. The ship was lost for decades until the {{w|Wreck of the RMS Titanic|wreck site}} was discovered in 1985. A number of proposals have been made to salvage the wreck of the ''Titanic'' both before and since the wreck's discovery, famously fictionalised in the thriller novel and film {{w|Raise the Titanic!|''Raise the Titanic!''}} There could be a joke on this title as in ''Rice'' the Titanic, even though it would not be possible to mistake the two words when spoken in the majority of dialects of English. This comic may play on the dual meaning of the word "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salvage salvage]" in respect of {{w|Salvage data|electronics}} and {{w|Marine salvage|maritime wrecks}}.<br />
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The general consensus at this time is that the wreck is too fragile to be salvaged intact. Numerous expeditions have been made to the wreck site since its discovery, with several parties (without any outside authorization) taking various artifacts from the site. A popular view is that the wreck is effectively a mass grave and that plundering the site for profitable artifacts is akin to grave-robbing. Most believe the wreck should be left where it is, intact. That said, explorers have already done notable damage to the wreck.<br />
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This comic shows a fictional attempt to salvage the two main pieces of the ''Titanic'' wreck, which, as it likely would in real life, garners media coverage as a 'historic salvage'. The salvage seems to consist of several ships raising the hull via cables attached to some sort of buoyant sled placed under the hull (as might actually happen). This is followed by helicopters carrying the hull in unison, again via cables to the cradle (a much less practical operation). The hull halves are then dropped into a giant tub of rice. The entire salvage attempt is increasingly cartoonish and unrealistic, but the tub of rice takes this to another level. Also, the two parts of the Titanic collapsed when hitting the sea floor, and thus could not be moved as shown in the comic. See this video of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGeskFzE0s How Titanic Sank].<br />
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The punchline to the comic references the "rice myth," a popularly disseminated method of salvaging consumer electronics (usually cell phones) which have been submerged in water. (See [http://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2013/november/researchshowsriceistheanswerforawetmobile.php Research Shows Rice is the Answer for a Wet Mobile]). The method entails burying the wet device in a bowl of rice. This process is commonly claimed to dry the device, but investigation reveals that the process is only mildly effective (though not entirely a myth either, see below).<br />
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The comic suggests that the wreck of the Titanic would benefit from being dried as quickly as possible, in a humorous contrast to actual reality. Surviving non-metallic material on board the ship may not benefit at all from drying. Far more ancient shipwrecks are best preserved by keeping the recovered timbers ''wet'' (but progressively desalinated, where applicable), cool and anoxic, at least while conserving chemicals such as {{w|Polyethylene glycol}} are infused into the wood to allow safe and gradual drying without causing further damage. Leather, cloth and other organic remains may have variations on this regime. Thus the rice might benefit an electronic device briefly exposed to water, but is not likely to benefit a ship that has been immersed for over a century, where the interest is in more than merely stabilizing the remaining metal hull and infrastructure.<br />
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The title text tells of another [[:Category:My Hobby|hobby]] of [[Randall|Randall's]]. He likes to take advantage of the "rice myth" to post fake articles on how to save your wet cell phone. But the instructions turn out to be elaborate recipes for rice {{w|Pilaf}} - so the joke on you is that you have just put you wet phone into your dinner dish, which will most likely just make matters worse. But people are willing to try anything if they find it by Googling it. It is thus clear that Randall considers the 'rice' method of electronic salvage to be a myth.<br />
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There are numerous on-line discussions of the technique with mixed levels of success. Critically, where rice is tested against other methods, rice appears to perform worse than other methods. Controlled experiments on this topic tend to show that {{w|silica gel}} (aka the "Do Not Eat" {{w|Silica_gel#Desiccant|packets}} often found in boxes with electronics or pharmaceuticals) is the most effective drying agent, with mixed results for rice. (see [http://smartphones.wonderhowto.com/how-to/myth-debunked-uncooked-rice-isnt-best-way-save-your-water-damaged-phone-0154799/ Myth Debunked: Uncooked Rice Isn't the Best Way to Save Your Water-Damaged Phone], where it turns out that leaving the phone to air-dry may actually be the best solution).<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan is shown standing at the rail of a ship with a microphone reporting the event shown in the background. A small helicopter and a larger two rotor model, lowering a rope with hook, are hovering over a crane ship with its hook down line going down in the water. It is depicted like a news screen as seen on TV. Below Megan are two headings. The first in a white insert with double frame, and the other written in white over the gray ocean water.]<br />
:Historic Salvage<br />
:Live<br />
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:[Four crane ships are shown lifting the bow part of the RMS Titanic. There are pontoons beneath the ship to help it float up. The name of the ship can be seen.]<br />
:RMS Titanic<br />
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:[Both parts of the Titanic are now flown by helicopters, four for the stern and five for the bow. One helicopter for each part is a two rotor model. Ropes go from the helicopters down on each side of the ship parts to pontoons below them. Below in the ocean there are two crane ships.]<br />
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:[The two parts of the ship is now lowered in to a huge bowl of rice (labeled) standing at the coast just out of the ocean, which can be seen to the left. One of the five helicopters for the bow is missing. For scale there are drawn two trees to the left, and something is parked to the right, maybe a truck.]<br />
:Rice<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]</div>141.101.79.43https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1599:_Water_Delivery&diff=104568Talk:1599: Water Delivery2015-11-05T11:28:43Z<p>141.101.79.43: </p>
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<div>I...dont get it {{unsigned ip|108.162.228.179}}<br />
: I suspect this is another of "hey, why we are even bothering with bottled water when we have water pipes" ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:05, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
Yeah, i'm suspecting that this means that "we've always had 1 hr. water delivery, in the form of modern plumbing. it's pretty similar to https://xkcd.com/1367/ in which (amazon) is reinventing something that already exists. Also advertising is spelled wrong, but that's just a typo perhaps. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.5}}<br />
:Sounds about right. And isn't Advertizing the the American way of spelling it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 14:25, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Yes, it is. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 14:49, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::''Criminalizing'' means ''making criminal'' and if the word ''advertizing'' existed it would mean ''making an advert''. The correct spelling in American English is ''advertising,'' (telling the public about a product)) and the original comic is corrected. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 16:54, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I wish the illustration had showed the bottles transition from vertical to horizontal, then merge together to form the pipe. - - EazyEpete {{unsigned|EazyEpete}}<br />
:That would have been better. ☺ [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 14:49, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
::But less practical, as the point is to add more water, and end-to-end would represent less water-per-meter than side-by-side. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 22:15, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Global transition to HDPE (Polyethylene) pipes and plumbing can be related to the subject. {{unsigned ip|162.158.180.137}}<br />
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This would make sense if water was simply water. However, the water in my pipes at home tastes terrible and rapidly coats my plumbing with lime deposits. My favorite local restaurant serves the same water...I pay for bottled instead. In the nearby small city, though, the tap water tastes fine. Similarly, I spend a couple months every year at a location in Texas where I don't even feel clean after showering with their tap water because it is so "soft" and I've considered buying bottled water and using a solar shower. In the store you'll find not only different brands, but different types; spring water, distilled water, etc; just because you have a source for one type of water does not mean all other types of water are invalid. {{unsigned|Swordsmith}}<br />
:Certainly water isn't just water; there are lots of factors that go into what water tastes like, does to what it comes in contact with, and contains both as good and bad substances -- just like when you go to a paint store and ask for white or black, and find out there are 20 varieties of what we think of as a simple color (or lack of). But we still just call water water regardless of what (liquid) form it takes, and we call white white even when it's just very slightly off, so in those theoretical terms the comic makes perfect sense. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 22:15, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Possible reference to https://xkcd.com/1165/ ? The one panel looks like a river to me. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:39, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I don't want to dive back into my own explanation again to make yet another minor edit, especially if I'm going to cause anyone an edit conflict on a far better addition/change/overhaul. ...but if anyone wants to take the "(cars and buses and planes)" aside and add "trains" in there as well, as examples of discrete passenger units? If it remains there. For some reason I missed the thing ''closest'' to the eventual hyperloop concept... ''edit: Also, I meant to say "'''prompt''' home-order goods", but seemed to have forgotten to type it!'' (Also, I didn't bother explaining the Titletext. Someone should try that. Although I'm not sure Amazon ''is'' thinking the same, except through the same '(il)logical extrapolation', vis-a-vis water delivery.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.161|141.101.106.161]] 15:42, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I believe people are overlooking the 1 hour part of this comic. Amazon has been shipping water for a long time (citation needed). The 1 hour aspect is what makes it closer to a pipe now. You're basically using an on-demand system to request the water in 1 hour and it's being delivered like a tap. This also plays into the title text in that Amazon is ultimately striving to make "real time" deliveries of everything, so a toothpaste pipe is closer to reality now if you define pipe in the same way the comic implies.<br />
[[User:RTPGiants|RTPGiants]] ([[User talk:RTPGiants|talk]]) 17:24, 4 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Slight bug in the editing panel, when asked what webcomic we're talking about, it cannot be in all caps, it must be strict lowercase, despite appearances on xkcd.com. Could someone take a look at it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 00:54, 5 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:It took me several months to figure out that "this wiki" is named "explain xkcd" and not "explainxkcd". I spent those months answering two questions every time the "what's this wiki's name" question appeared (when I missed the answer, a different question appeared).--[[User:Jojonete|Jojonete]] ([[User talk:Jojonete|talk]]) 09:06, 5 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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By the way, how about setting up a service like Amazon's, having someone come to your door with an empty bottle, filling it from your tap, and charging the customer for quick water delivery?--[[User:Jojonete|Jojonete]] ([[User talk:Jojonete|talk]]) 09:14, 5 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Cynic here! Bottled water are also oft used as a vanity item - display of wealth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.43|141.101.79.43]] 11:28, 5 November 2015 (UTC)</div>141.101.79.43