https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.70.117.38&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T07:26:54ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1354:_Heartbleed_Explanation&diff=215262Talk:1354: Heartbleed Explanation2021-07-18T21:58:53Z<p>172.70.117.38: </p>
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<div>I assume everybody got the (truncated) reference to the password "<u>Co</u>rrect<u>Ho</u>rse<u>Ba</u>ttery<u>St</u>aple"... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.210|141.101.89.210]] 06:51, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Until I read this wiki, I did not get that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.50|108.162.216.50]] 10:09, 11 April 2014 (UTC)BK201<br />
:There are also references to (if I recall correctly): [[Missed Connections]], "snakes but not too long" from [[Umwelt]], there's boats (of which many comics exist), "bees in car why" may be slightly related to [[Parody Week: TFD and Natalie Dee]]... that's all I see. Also the ip (375.381.283.17) doesn't seem to represent anything, but you never know. {{User:Grep/signature|11:04, 11 April 2014}}<br />
::The IP most certainly does not represent anything because it is invalid. Three of the octets are >255. [[User:Dan|Dan]] 21:19, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::It does not refer to anything as an IP address. It can still represent something that is not a real IP address - fake IP addresses with four random non-octet numbers are far from unheard of in Hollywood products (e.g, Iron Man 3: 936.345.643.21) [[User:Amadan|Amadan]] ([[User talk:Amadan|talk]]) 03:45, 15 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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While the bug is explained very good, there is one point missing: The word "user" seems to imply that Meg is known to server. But the bug doesn't require that - ANYONE can ask the server. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:03, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Nope, the word "user" does not indicate a logged in user. It's just a reference to anybody who happens to "use" (actually: connect to) the server at the moment. In fact, it is a particular network connection (TCP or else), on which other end there is a "user" Meg. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.111|108.162.210.111]] 12:07, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::I would ague that the fact that the server associates her with the name 'Meg' rather than an IP address does indeed imply that she is known to the server. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.117.38|172.70.117.38]] 21:58, 18 July 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The transcript should include all the text in the servers memory, not just the highlighted text. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:04, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Nope, it can only do 64k per request. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.91|108.162.216.91]] 16:04, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::I meant that the transcript here above the talk page should include all text. When I wrote my comment, only the highlighted text in the computers thoghts where transcripted. Now that I visit the page again, it seems to be complete. The text in the servers last speech is only half the 500 charachters long (251) but that is explained by OnePointEight in the comment below. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:20, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:The speech bubble is formatted as truncated, but if it were complete it would be 500 characters which is what was requested by Megan and within the 64k max.[[User:OnePointEight|OnePointEight]] ([[User talk:OnePointEight|talk]]) 19:39, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Heartbleed Explanation Explanation. Lovely. Also, I see that Eve is an administrator. Eavesdropper? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 15:24, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Also the attacker is Meg, which can be thought of as an alternate to Mallory/Trudy [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 16:45, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::This is absurd. Meg is a common nickname for Margaret. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 20:38, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::As my main language is not English I'm not familiar with nicknames, but if Meg is a common nickname for Margaret then that is important and should be included in the explanation of the title text. I did not understand why Margaret suddenly turned up... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:28, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::The explanation of the title text has presumably been expanded since you visited it. It's a reference to a book. --[[User:V2Blast|V2Blast]] ([[User talk:V2Blast|talk]]) 03:34, 12 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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"Snakes but not too long"... great! --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.241|108.162.210.241]] 15:49, 11 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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It looks like the "server key" is a phone number: 1-483-503-8534 {{unsigned ip|199.27.130.228}}<br />
:I was thinking the same thing. 483 is not a valid area code however. {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.60}}<br />
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The User Ada is a reference to Ingress, in which Ada is the head of the blue team. Ingress, being an ARG, would be an IRL game.{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.10}}<br />
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Why has everyone here missed the reference to Portal 2? It almost seems so obvious :). [[User:YetAnotherGeek|YetAnotherGeek]] ([[User talk:YetAnotherGeek|talk]]) 09:23, 12 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:"Are you still there?" could also be a reference to the turrets in Portal / Portal 2 [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.126|173.245.62.126]] 09:42, 30 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Are we sure that the hacker in the comic is Megan? She has long, curly hair as opposed to short straight hair. Considering she has long hair and has malicious intent, she might be Danish. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.71}}<br />
:The server refers to her as "Meg", and if she were spoofing the source address, the packets wouldn't go back to her. That would be an amplification DoS attack. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.4|108.162.246.4]] 22:42, 13 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::What's to say that [[Danish|Danish's]] real name isn't Margaret? Last I checked, Margaret and Megan are not the same name. That and I'm pretty sure Megan doesn't have curly hair. --[[User:XndrK|XndrK]] ([[User talk:XndrK|talk]]) 19:56, 28 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Has anybody figured out what the selfie.jpg contents reaaly are? It isn't a valid JPG because the magic numbers don't match, and it isn't ASCII text because multiple bytes have the most significant bit set. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.45|108.162.215.45]] 07:52, 13 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I put 834ba962e2ceb9ff89bd3bff8c into a file and [https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/809c727dee625e37c3487f6d57d42e295e2fdd74a8c1f89ce7e667d8ae3e2fcc/analysis/1397428742/#additional-info sent it to VirusTotal]. The magic literal seems to match "DBase 3 data file with memo(s)", so I'd say that it's just random data. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.4|108.162.246.4]] 22:51, 13 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Has anyone figured out if the words "potato", "bird", and "hat" are supposed to mean something in particular? --[[User:Dfeuer|Dfeuer]] ([[User talk:Dfeuer|talk]]) 07:43, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I don't know about "potato" and "bird", but "hat" could possibly be a reference to Black Hat Guy, who often creates havoc to prove a point. Also, completely separately from Black Hat Guy, in security discussions, attackers are broken up between black hat ("bad") and white hat ("good") hackers. So "hat" could be a sort of generic reference for a hacker. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.116}}<br />
:Black Hat Guy is not completely separate. He wears a black hat because he is a black hat hacker. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.65|173.245.55.65]] 23:48, 17 April 2014 (UTC) TooMuchBlue<br />
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I think that "potato" and "bird" are a reference to portal 2, (possibly) how the computer cores constantly malfunction. [[User:mailmindlin|mailmindlin]]<br />
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To understand better how far this goes, [http://www.pabr.org/heartbleedtax/heartbleedtax.en.html A taxonomy of Heartbleed attacks] contains a very interesting list of attack cases. --[[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 12:53, 9 September 2014 (UTC)</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2488:_Board_Game_Argument:_Legacy&diff=2150262488: Board Game Argument: Legacy2021-07-14T17:06:00Z<p>172.70.117.38: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2488<br />
| date = July 12, 2021<br />
| title = Board Game Argument: Legacy<br />
| image = board_game_argument_legacy.png<br />
| titletext = Listen, you need to get over your reluctance to permanently alter a game. Now roll 2d6 to determine how many ounces of soda to spill into the box.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOARD GAME ARGUMENT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic continues the joke from comic [[2486: Board Game Party Schedule]], released the previous week, about the difficulty some gaming groups have actually ''playing'' any game at all once they get together. In this scenario the group have leveraged the difficulty of choosing a game into a game itself. It seems to be that each player has a certain number of votes, or tokens, that they can use to decide which game to play, with the added element that they permanently dispose of the losing game. This can lead to strategic play where a player might vote for a game, even if they don't want to play it that night, so that they could still play it at some future resolution of the choosing.<br />
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Once the voting is finished, the next phase of the game is to debate which expansion packs they should collectively buy for which game.<br />
<br />
A {{w|legacy game|legacy board game}} is one where players change the game itself in the course of play, such as by writing on certain cards and ripping up others, causing future sessions to be modified. A legacy game thus avoids the tendency of some games to become repetitive if they are played every week, which is a common tradition among friends or families. The meta-game this comic describes fits this definition, because the available pool of games (and expansion packs) changes based on the players' decisions. Randall refers to the “game“ of choosing what to play having become repetitive. Although official legacy games are sold by the manufacturers of the original game, some players may create their own legacy versions of a game.<br />
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The title text refers to how many board and card game owners are bothered by legacy games because they destroy game pieces. A legacy game, of course, is ''meant'' to be permanently altered, but [https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/5oxhz2/pandemic_legacy_do_you_really_destroy_cards_or/ many players] [https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2118913/do-you-have-destroy-cards find it hard] to perform destructive actions like cutting or tearing up cards. At an extreme, some owners wish to keep their games in as-new condition, going as far as refusing to shuffle cards in ways that bend them, or not punching tokens out of their cardboard frames. Even some games not classed as "legacy" games may have elements such as blank cards to be filled in by the players. For those who are reluctant to make changes, these items may remain blank forever. An additional layer of humour comes from the fact that it sounds like the speaker is chastising a game owner who does not want to engage with ordinary elements of the game, but instead urges them to pour soda on the game (something that would usually be an unfortunate accident). "2d6" is standard notation for games that involve rolling several different types of dice, where the first number refers to the number of dice to be rolled (in this case 2), and the second number referring to the style of dice (in this case 6-sided). That means that the player could end up pouring between 2 and 12 ounces of soda (inclusive) into their game box, depending on the total value rolled on the two 6-sided dice and assuming the dice roll directly translates to ounces.<br />
<br />
The board game boxes visible in this comic are real board games, including Wingspan and Wits and Wagers.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[White Hat, Megan, Ponytail, and Cueball are sitting around a table that is covered with board game boxes. White Hat is pointing at Ponytail. Both Ponytail and Cueball are holding boxes.]<br />
:Ponytail: You may reallocate up to five tokens to your top choice from last week. Remember, the game with the least support tonight will go to the thrift store.<br />
:Ponytail: Next, we'll resume the debate over ordering expansion packs.<br />
<br />
:[Caption beneath the panel:]<br />
:We got tired of having the same repetitive arguments every week over which game to play, so we developed ''Board Game Argument: Legacy''.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Board games]]</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2483:_Linked_List_Interview_Problem&diff=2145172483: Linked List Interview Problem2021-07-01T11:34:01Z<p>172.70.117.38: See last summary</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2483<br />
| date = July 1, 2021<br />
| title = Linked List Interview Problem<br />
| image = linked_list_interview_problem.png<br />
| titletext = I'd traverse it myself, but it's singly linked, so I'm worried that I won't be able to find my way back to 2021.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a LINKED LIST. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{w|Linked_list|Linked lists}} are a common way of working with data pointers in what's called a graph, making it a common interview question involving manipulating or otherwise interacting with a linked list. Possibly because programmers in the current day rarely work with a linked list directly, Randall suggests that such structures belong in a "technology museum," and thinks it would be more beneficial to mankind to email the list to such a museum rather than perform any useful work with it. Low-level software development is slowly getting replaced by automated code generation, but it is still very important to understand how it works.<br />
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A linked list is a way to store data in a computer. Each piece of data is stored with a pointer to the next piece. This makes it very easy to add new data in the middle, since only one existing pointer must change to point to the new data. The drawback of a naive implementation can be that finding data may require following the entire chain. Tehnical programming interviewers like to see if applicants are familiar with the structure and the computational complexity concept itself.<br />
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Linked lists are, historically, one of the two main data structures that represent sequential data, along with arrays. Unlike arrays, they have the advantage of O(1) insertions and deletions thanks to not needing to reallocate the entire structure, but have O(n) random access (see {{w|Linked_list#Linked_lists_vs._dynamic_arrays|comparisons}}). However, it is highly unlikely that anyone using a modern programming language will interact with sequential data at the memory level, and such languages will provide an abstraction usually termed "array" or "list" that provides optimized access to sequences that may use under the hood arrays, linked lists, something else entirely, or a hybrid of the aforementioned technologies. Knowing the underlying concepts is anyway still useful to create fast running code which scales well to large data, avoiding e.g. traversing the list over and over again.<br />
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In the title text, a {{w|Linked_list#Singly_linked_list|singly linked list}} contains pointers to traverse the list in only one direction; namely, from the head to the end. By contrast, each element in a {{w|Linked_list#Doubly_linked_list|doubly linked list}} contains pointers to both the "next" and "previous" elements, enabling traversal in either direction. Randall continues the implication that such lists are obsolete by implying that traversing such a list would be akin to time travel to the past. Without the "previous element" pointers, Randall is concerned he would not be able to reverse the time travel, as he could not traverse the list in the reverse direction.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[Cueball is seen writing on a whiteboard, Ponytail is standing next to him. Above it, a piece of code is written, which apparently is what Cueball is writing on the whiteboard. The text reads:]<br />
<br />
define traverseLinkedList(headPointer):<br />
myId="<illegible scribbling probably containing a user ID>"<br />
authToken="<illegible scribbling containing an auth token>"<br />
museumAddress="<illegible address>@<illegible domain>.<illegible tld>"<br />
client=mailRestClient(myID,authToken)<br />
client.messages.send(to=museumAddress,<br />
subj = "Item donation?", body="Thought you<br />
might be interested: "+str(headPointer))<br />
return<br />
<br />
Ponytail: Hey.<br />
<br />
[Caption beneath the panel:]<br />
Coding interview tip: Interviewers get really mad when you try to donate their linked lists to a technology museum.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2482:_Indoor_Socializing&diff=2144242482: Indoor Socializing2021-06-30T10:25:09Z<p>172.70.117.38: Removed redundancy. Also flavored flavor text.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2482<br />
| date = June 28, 2021<br />
| title = Indoor Socializing<br />
| image = indoor_socializing.png<br />
| titletext = The problem with learning about biology is that everyone you meet is it.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by an INHALED PHLEGM DROPLET. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
[[Cueball]] is meeting [[White Hat]], who is probably not in the same household. White Hat asks how Cueball is, which is normal small talk, but Cueball responds by expressing his anxiety that they're inhaling one another's "gross lung air". Cueball then repeats a common joke regarding how impossible it is to connect with people when our conversation norms discourage honest communication, switching to a more socially acceptable "fine".<br />
<br />
"Gross" here may be a pun on the term {{w|gross anatomy}} (i.e. anatomy at the macroscopic level) and "gross" as a synonym for "disgusting."<br />
<br />
A recurring theme in XKCD is characters expressing an uncomfortable awareness of realities that most people tend to ignore, particularly for experts in a particular field (examples include [[2057: Internal Monologues]], [[913: Core]], [[203: Hallucinations]], and [[1839: Doctor Visit]]). In this strip, likely as a result of being primed by awareness of the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, Cueball finds it difficult to be in the same building with other people without being aware of the fact that they're breathing the same air, meaning that particles of biological material are being freely exchanged. In an earlier era, such concerns might have been dismissed as being extreme, but the pandemic has demonstrated that there's very real reason to be concerned. Even if everyone involved is vaccinated, that doesn't entirely remove the risk, nor does it protect against other diseases, which can spread in similar ways. <br />
<br />
The title text reinforces the idea that knowing more about any subject increases the likelihood that you'll become disturbed by some constant and basic reality of life. In this case, studying biology tends to be disturbing, since the field involves in depth knowledge of our own bodies, as well as all other organisms we encounter, and which makes one uncomfortably aware of all the risks and flaws basic to being alive.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[White Hat and Cueball are having a conversation.]<br />
:White Hat: How are you?<br />
:Cueball: Excruciatingly aware of how much of each other's gross lung air we're breathing.<br />
:Cueball: I mean, fine! How are you?<br />
<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Social interactions]]<br />
[[Category:Biology]]</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=929:_Speculation&diff=214363929: Speculation2021-06-28T23:10:52Z<p>172.70.117.38: grammar</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 929<br />
| date = July 25, 2011<br />
| title = Speculation<br />
| image = speculation.png<br />
| titletext = 'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
During a {{w|basketball}} game, the players discuss the nature of universal conformity. {{w|Facebook}} and {{w|Google+}} are competing {{w|social networks}}; at the time of this comic many people were switching to Plus over Facebook leading many to speculate that Facebook was in decline and that Plus would soon be the dominant social network. As of 2019, it seems that Facebook has successfully held its position as the Default Social Network™, while Google Plus was a colossal blunder for Google and was finally sunset for consumers in April 2019.<br />
The two players seem to have a disagreement over this. One player states that it would be ridiculous to expect everyone to move to Plus. The other player denies the notion that they have to, stating that he values his personal preference over conformity. He supports this idea by saying that his mother still uses {{w|AOL}} and other people continue using {{w|IRC}} and that if each time a new dominant social network emerged and everyone switched to it, neither of these things would stick around.<br />
<br />
They are interrupted when they pass the ball to [[Black Hat]], who immediately shoots it with a crossbow bolt. Their arguments and rather intelligent discussion are derailed by the absurdity of Black Hat's reaction, which is both humorous and puts the issue in stark contrast.<br />
<br />
Black Hat neither joins in the discussion nor does he participate in the game. It seems that any offer to participate in either is met with a blunt and clear denial. He is simply not a conformist.<br />
<br />
In the title text, Black Hat continues to provide an example of his tendency to play by his own rules. A clay pigeon is a clay disc that is thrown into the air and serves as a target on a {{w|skeet shooting}} range. Participants are expected to shoot the pigeons with a shotgun but Black Hat would rather capture the clay pigeons and shoot them from a very close range. (This is made even more humorous by the excellent crossbow skills he shows in the comic.) This practice eventually got him expelled from the shooting range. It is unclear whether Black Hat was good at shooting clay pigeons from farther away.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Two Cueball-like guys are playing basketball. The right guy (Cueball) attempts to throw the basketball through the hoop, but it bounces off down to his friend. To the right Black Hat has his back to the other two while he is looking at his phone.]<br />
:Friend: Do you seriously think ''everyone'' will move to Plus? It was hard enough getting them on Facebook.<br />
<br />
:[The friend has caught the rebound and now passes the basketball back to Cueball. Black Hat is not shown.]<br />
:Cueball: Do they have to?<br />
:Cueball: My mom still uses AOL—it doesn't mean my social life has to happen there.<br />
<br />
:[Only Cueball is shown. He passes the basketball to the right towards the off-pannel Black Hat.]<br />
:Cueball: Universal adoption isn't everything. I mean, IRC is still—<br />
<br />
:[Zoom in on the basketball as an arrow pierces the ball, forming a slight depression.]<br />
:''Thunk''<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks to Black Hat who has a crossbow in one hand, he is still looking at the phone in his other hand. The ball with the arrow lies between them.]<br />
:Cueball: You're not really the "catch" type, are you?<br />
:Black Hat: I am not.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]<br />
[[Category:Social networking]]<br />
[[Category:Basketball]]<br />
[[Category:Crossbows]]<br />
[[Category:Sport]] <!-- The other sport mentioned being skeet shooting --></div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2478:_Alien_Visitors_2&diff=213895Talk:2478: Alien Visitors 22021-06-21T17:28:53Z<p>172.70.117.38: TNG trivia</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 />
Sorry for intruding, I am just delighted that I am early [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.161|162.158.166.161]] 14:02, 18 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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"Maybe we shouldn't stand right under it." This line might (inadvertently?) reference the common alien-movie fail in which massive spacecraft hover at low altitude over human populations without obliterating them and their infrastructure. It might also be bathroom humor. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.134|172.68.129.134]] 15:56, 18 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I'm with the original explanation. The aliens just don't seem very advanced, so they're worried that the spaceships are poorly constructed and pieces might fall off, or the entire ship might just drop. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:19, 18 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:You are probably correct with respect to Randall's intentions. The situation, though, brings to my mind Turtledove's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwar_series Worldwar series], in which "The Race" had very advanced technology (hence little risk of spaceships crashing on their own) but had, at least initially, a poor opinion about human technologies and their advancement. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.132|172.68.129.132]] 18:31, 18 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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::Thanks for the reference, 172.68.129.132! I’m enjoying listening to the series for free through my public library account using Hoopla. Apparently the original e-books had atrocious copy editing so I get to miss out on that visual horror. :-). [[User:Dhugot|Dhugot]] ([[User talk:Dhugot|talk]]) 18:02, 19 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: Also reminds me of that StarTrek (NextGen) episode where a very low intelligence species has advanced space travel that it obtains by stealing it from other species. (Sorry - I forget the episode title). [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:::That was Season 2 episode "Samaritan Snare". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.117.38|172.70.117.38]] 17:28, 21 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
To the individual who made a callback to Capri Sun--bless you. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.83|172.70.130.83]] 19:11, 18 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Need a category for this recurring comic: [[:Category:Alien Visitors]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.65|172.69.35.65]] 00:33, 19 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Doesn’t the United States still add lead to gasoline used for piston airplane engines, and also high octane race car fuel?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.55|162.158.62.55]] 03:28, 19 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Very limited niche use remains, phased out of major applications. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.206|141.101.98.206]] 08:52, 19 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Does 167,000 aircraft in the USA (plus more around the world) count as “limited niche use”? Assuming a super conservative estimate of an average of only 100 hours/year/airframe and an equally conservative burn rate of 10 gal/hr, that’s 167 million gallons of leaded gasoline burned per year. See https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=14754 for more info on the FAA’s continuing refusal to remove lead from avgas.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.44|172.70.110.44]] 04:46, 20 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:::Considering the 276 million cars in the USA and their yearly consumption of 123.5 billion gallons of fuel, that is pretty much limited niche use, yes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.232|162.158.94.232]] 14:40, 21 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Although lead was originally added to gas in order to improve efficiency, it was retained in order to reduce refining expense. After refining crude oil, you get gasoline at a variety of octanes. The different octanes are blended to produce what you pay for (e.g. 87 for regular, 93 for premium). Lead is an octane-boosting additive, allowing manufacturers to ship sub-standard gas (that is a little below the rated octane), adding lead to bring it up to standard. Without lead, you need to blend in a higher proportion of higher-octane gas in order to get the required octane rating. Which is why, back when lead was being phased out, unleaded gas cost more than leaded. The effect of lead reducing engine knock is simply a result of the gas having a higher octane rating. High octane gas without lead (e.g. premium) has the same effect.<br />
<br />
::Another interesting side point is that computer-controlled refineries have effectively reduced the quality of gas you get at the pump. There are serious legal penalties for selling gas with an octane rating below what is labeled, but no penalties for being higher. Back when refineries were not computer controlled, they were not precise enough to produce the exact blend required, so they would always err a little higher (e.g. selling 88 octane labeled as 87). But with modern systems, they can sell exactly what's labeled, so consumers don't get any free bonus octane anymore. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 16:22, 19 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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:: Leaded gasoline doesn't just provide anti-knock capability, in older cars, the lead gradually accumulates around the valve seats and serves to soften the impact of the valve as it snaps shut. Modern cars have both anti-knock sensors and hardened valve seats - so you don't need it anymore. My 1960 Mini needs leaded gas because of the valve-seat issue - and as a result I have to use a lead additive for about one in five tankfuls of gas. Fortunately, that car is mostly a "garage queen" and is only driven to local car shows and such. I atone for this by driving a Tesla as my main vehicle! [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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An honorary mention might be made to {{w|Thomas Midgley Jr.}}, who helped to make both TEL and CFCs widely used. (Though didn't get the chance to widely promote his bed-lift before it also proved unsafe.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.206|141.101.98.206]] 08:52, 19 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I don't think the Hindenburg exploded. It just burned.<br />
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One would question how benevolent these aliens are. They only offer inferior technology (pyramids, biplanes) which they could have ''trivially'' seen not to be useful, or they offer harmful technology like lead-based gasoline and inefficient fruit-presses. On the other hand they do not offer the one tech we don't have, e.g. still-standing flying saucers. Thus one may question their real motives... <Insert reference to V>. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 17:53, 20 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Or maybe they're trying to ensure we have a well rounded tech growth rather than beelining to spaceflight. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.134|162.158.126.134]] 21:35, 20 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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: For sure the Hindenburg didn't explode - and there is evidence that much of the problem wasn't the loss of the hydrogen anyway since hydrogen flames ascend UPWARDS away from the passenger gondola - and hydrogen burns at a relatively low temperature. A bigger problem was that the skin of the airship was sprayed with iron oxide on the inside and aluminium on the outside - which, when burned together, was essentially "thermite". That stuff is hard to set on fire, but once it gets started it's horrifically energetic - it's what the Germans were using as incendiary bombs...so they REALLY should have known better! Given the rapidly increasing cost (and scarcity) of helium - airships may soon have to go back to using hydrogen. But it could easily be made safe with modern technology to monitor (and purge) oxygen from inside the hydrogen cells, adequate lightning protection...and an "anything-except-freaking-thermite!!" skin. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:19, 21 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I feel like the references to the Secretary series are in error. Ron Paul *does* have a blimp in those comics, so it's tangentially related, but the secretary series is very much not the alien visitors series.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.99|162.158.187.99]] 12:34, 21 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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As for biplanes - because they have ample wing area, they typically have shorter wing-spans than monoplanes. This reduces the moment of angular inertia and that allows them to turn more rapidly...and that is why they are used in aerobatics and crop spraying. The infamous "Red Baron" of WWI flew a Fokker triplane which enhanced the ability to maneuver even more - although at the expense of even more drag. However, high drag also means you can slow down much more rapidly - which allowed more interesting tactical possibilities. Biplanes were VERY useful in the era in which they were flown. They didn't vanish because they were a terrible technology - but because the nature of arial warfare changed. Modern fighter aircraft try to get the best of both worlds by having wings with a greater chord length - providing more lift area without messing up roll/yaw angular inertia. However, this does worsen longitudinal angular inertia - which is relatively unimportant in a modern "dogfight" where the only real requirement is to be able to turn tightly enough for a missile firing solution. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2472:_Fuzzy_Blob&diff=213237Talk:2472: Fuzzy Blob2021-06-07T14:12:29Z<p>172.70.117.38: forgot to sign...</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 />
That bot description is comedy gold, I think the page is already perfect. "It's a finger." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.60|141.101.98.60]] 02:30, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Really, what more explanation do we need? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.13|172.69.63.13]] 02:39, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:The only thing I could see being added is if there is a sub joke regarding the historic 4th ave church being unusual. It might just be an unimportant detail, but most of Randell's jokes have something extra behind them.[[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 03:28, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:That didn't come from the bot, it comes from anonymous user 162.158.62.37. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:46, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The NAVY UFOs are the same type of feature; a little bug is inside the camera, sitting on the lens inside the aircraft window. You can see the insects feet, blurry, of course, and you can watch it turn around.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.186|172.69.35.186]] 02:48, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Nice of the insects to show up on radar too, for consistency.[[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 03:28, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The people in the comics are stick figures. Their limbs and appendages are simple lines. Why would they know that the blob in the image is a finger? That’s a construct for the 3D world of people.<br />
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----<br />
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Someone showed me a photo of a "spirit guide" - a strange glowing fuzzy orb, floating near a group of spiritually-minded people in a dim room. I thought a few minutes, threw a pinch of flour into the air in a dim room, took a flash photo, and there were dozens of little fuzzy orbs in the photo! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.72|172.69.35.72]] 06:29, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:That's why ghosts are white, obviously. They keep throwing flour around, and end up covering themselves. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.36|141.101.98.36]] 08:54, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I have photos full of fuzzy orbs from tunnel. I'm not sure what EXACTLY those are, but I think bad lighting has more to do with them than ghosts. Unless there were much more causalities building that tunnel than reported. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:54, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Will there be an explanation of “zoning permits” joke? Sounds like something local to US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.122|162.158.222.122]] 07:02, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: I just did add something, but without seeing your request here so maybe I need to dig up a Wikilink for that definition in particular. But I always understood Zoning Permits as being roughly equivalent to Planning Permissions in the UK, or close enough. That's from my exposure to US films/TV, where it can be a (usually) minor plot-point. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.36|141.101.98.36]] 08:54, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Addendum: Yeah, it's like Planning Permission (skewed towards Land Use designations, but the two systems are overlapping in concept). What I found funny was that "Euclidean zoning" was ''not'' actually named for the coordinate system. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.46|141.101.98.46]] 09:12, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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What's the joke about 4th avenue church? Google fins a 4th avenue church, but it doesn't seem to be related to any mistery.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 10:24, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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: It might just be that churches tend to employ unusual architecture, and historic churches tend to employ a combination of antique and unusual architecture, making them distinct from the surrounding buildings, especially in urban areas. Maybe people seeing the churches would think that there's some hidden conspiratorial meaning behind their structure. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.117.38|172.70.117.38]] 14:12, 7 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Should it mentioned that these are stick figures, and usually don't have "fingers"? Also, why is it (white) flesh-toned instead of (ink) black? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.178|172.69.71.178]] 23:59, 5 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: Rand's white, so he probably didn't think of that and would possibly be embarrassed or change it if brought to his attention. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.226|172.70.110.226]] 00:59, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::A finger in front of a lens blocks light from reaching the film, or the sensor array. Why, then, is the finger a light shade of supposed skin tone? Isn't that another reason why it should appear black instead? [[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]]) 04:40, 6 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:::The convex nature of a fingertip means often plenty of side-lighting is available (unless you've stoppered the whole finger right straight over the whole aperture and have no exposure at all, never mind an off-focus finger). I can confirm a finger-blob looks lit and skin-coloured (assuming daytime/lit-room photography) from a non-zero number of photos returned from the lab (remember those days?) with a sticker on them to suggest that their sharp-eyed QCing (and possibly statutory "illegal/immoral content guardianship" filtering) had determined that there was an obvious technical fault with the image, but it wasn't their fault/nothing they can do about it, and next time don't stick your finger there (or shake the camera, or fail to use a flash, or get the basic focal length right, or whatever). But an easily removable sticker, because maybe you ''were'' a budding experimental photographer not yet with your own darkroom to see your results quicker than an hour (drop-in photography shops) or a few days/couple of weeks (postal processing).<br />
::: ((There's also precedence for the 'stick figures' having close up details, but I'm not going to reference them, because having it ''not'' be a flesh-pink blob, but something more stick-figurey would remove a layer of viewer certainty in interpreting the desired joke. And, possibly, there's a little bit of an echo of Spiderman Noir (from the "Spiderverse" film) and the Rubik's Cube, making it ''actually'' and legitimately surprising to stickworld civilisation...)) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.38|141.101.98.38]] 07:23, 6 June 2021 (UTC)</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2470:_Next_Slide_Please&diff=2129282470: Next Slide Please2021-06-01T18:26:05Z<p>172.70.117.38: /* Trivia */ fix typo</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2470<br />
| date = June 1, 2021<br />
| title = Next Slide Please<br />
| image = next_slide_please.png<br />
| titletext = "I have nothing to offer but blood--next slide, please--toil--next slide, please--tears, and--next slide, please--sweat."<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by -- Next slide, please -- a BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic presumes that many famous quotes are actually excerpts from slideshow presentations, and the text they were reading was split across multiple slides. The person making the speech wasn't operating the slide projector, so they had to ask the operator to go to the next slide. The common way to ask this is to say "next slide, please", but these have been edited out of the historical transcripts. The comic imagines the places where the slide breaks might have been, and inserts that request.<br />
<br />
Most of these quotes are drawn from speeches, which could conceivably have been accompanied by slides or other stage directions ("pause for laughter"), but the list is quite ridiculous as it includes works of literature, where the reader is the one who turns pages as necessary, and speeches from periods of history, such as the American Revolution, which predated slide projectors{{Citation needed}}. <br />
<br />
The phrase "Next slide, please" is perhaps in a sweet-spot of utility and performance. A rehearsed presentation, with speaker and 'slide handler' working with a tight script, could probably do without off-stage prompting at all, or the better lecturers with an oft-repeated talk could set it all on timings knowing they can keep the changes synchronised with their speech, or vice-versa. But when a cue is necessary, an unambiguous signal should be used, and an audible 'clicker' (or a small and briefly flashed light) has been used historically, especially with pre-electronic slide-shows where the slide-operator at the back of an auditorium needed to clearly discern the intent of the person at the lectern.<br />
<br />
Single words might be more efficient, such as "Next", "Slide" or "Please" on their own, but occasionally could crop up in the rest of their patter, unrelated to a desired change. (It is a comedy staple that a person who was without an expected 'clicker' would actually resort to ''saying'' "Click", with or without later confusion when they say something that sounds like they intended an advance.)<br />
<br />
Two word signals (e.g. "Next slide", "Next, please" or "Slide, please") might suffice to be clear but sound a bit sharp, or even rude and condescending to the 'floor staff', devaluing the tacked on politeness. Overly long phrases, such as "Thank you, Mr Hargreaves, could you put the next image, if you would be so kind", are not unknown but indicative of an inexperienced yet amicable (or else supercilious) presenter, and would present greater distractions to the audience if used consistently for many instances of prompting.<br />
<br />
While still suffering from repetition, and the apparent sincerity of politeness may have worn thinner through overuse, it seems that these three words have been honed in on (at least in the anglosphere) as a commonly expected phrasing.<br />
<br />
The further test of the orator's character is now when a change is missed, accidentally doubled, the prepared sequence is subtly digressed from the talk or an audience comment requires reversal to prior material. At this point communications between the podium and off-stage become vastly more improvisational, dependent upon the situation encountered. If the audience is 'lucky', the exchange necessitates a full dialogue, with different joys depending upon how much of the non-presenter's half of the discussion can be heard as resolution or resignment is attained. None of the comic's examples go this far but the possibilities of what they might have entailed, in each case, is easily imagined. <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Quote<br />
!Attribution<br />
!Context<br />
|-<br />
| "Give me liberty or give me—Next slide, please—death!"<br />
| {{w|Patrick Henry}}, at the {{w|Second Virginia Convention}} on March 23, 1775, as part of the revolutionary war against {{w|Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain}}.<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down—Next slide, please—this wall."<br />
| {{w|Ronald Reagan}}, {{w|Berlin Wall Speech}} (1987).<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| "It was the best of times—Next slide, please—It was the worst of times."<br />
| {{w|A Tale of Two Cities}}, novel by {{w|Charles Dickens}}. <br />
| At the current pace, the intro would have 13 "Next slide, please" instances. <br />
|-<br />
| "We have nothing to fear but—Next slide, please—fear itself."<br />
| Inauguration of {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt}} in 1933. <br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| "To be or—Next slide, please—not to be, that is the question."<br />
| From the play ''Hamlet'' by {{w|William Shakespeare}}, Act III, Scene i. <br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art—Next slide, please—more lovely and—Next slide, please—more temperate."<br />
| Shakespeare's {{w|Sonnet 18}}. <br />
| A sonnet is a type of love poem, and it requires rhyming and pacing. The inclusion of "Next slide, please" is breaking the poetic flow, as well as unbalancing the length of lines, making it unpredictable when a rhyme is supposed to occur. <br />
|-<br />
| "We shall fight—Next slide, please—on the beaches, we shall fight on—Next slide, please—the landing grounds..."<br />
| {{w|Winston Churchill}}, ''{{w|We shall fight on the beaches}}'' speech.<br />
| 4 June 1940, after the disastrous first weeks of the {{w|battle of France}} Churchill had to acknowledge a military disaster but to convene confidence in victory and will to fight.<br />
|-<br />
| "Read my lips—Next slide, please—no new taxes."<br />
| {{w|George H. W. Bush}}, spoken at 1988 Republican National Convention<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| "That's one small step for man—Next slide, please—one giant leap for mankind."<br />
| {{w|Neil Armstrong}}, when he stepped off the {{w|Apollo 11}} lunar module and onto the surface of the Moon. <br />
| Normally would be proof of a fake moon landing, although Neil Armstrong strong insisted that the speech be made on location.{{fact}} The positioning of the "next slide, please" was placed at the intended comma, although there was also a small gap within "one giant" which could also be a potential placement in the audio clip. <br />
|-<br />
| "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears! Next slide, please. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."<br />
| From the play ''{{w|Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar}}'' by Shakespeare, Act III, Scene ii. <br />
| Takes place after Julius Caesar suffered a few stab wounds in Act III, scene i. If it were a presentation, the pictures would need to be created between scenes, although the play implies there would barely be enough time in response to a recent event. <br />
|-<br />
| "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of—Next slide, please—a good fortune, must be in want of—Next slide, please—a wife."<br />
| Intro to ''{{w|Pride and Prejudice}}'', written by {{w|Jane Austen}}.<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| "Veni, vidi—Velim, pictura proxima—vici."<br />
| {{w|Julius Caesar}}, in a letter after defeating Pharnaces II (47 BC). Literally, "I came, I saw—Please, next picture—I conquered." - it seems to fit nicely into the alliteration.<br />
| Caesar used this phrase to refer to a swift, conclusive victory at the Battle of Zela.<br />
|-<br />
| "I have nothing to offer but blood--next slide, please--toil--next slide, please--tears, and--next slide, please--sweat." (title text)<br />
| Winston Churchill, '''{{w|Blood, toil, tears and sweat}}'' speech.<br />
| From 1940, shortly after he became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when asking for a vote of confidence in the new all-party (unity) cabinet.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
: [Text at the center:]<br />
: ''Did you know?''<br />
: ''Transcripts of famous quotes often''<br />
: ''leave out the slideshow instructions.''<br />
: ''Here’s the line actually sounded:''<br />
: [Below showing a list of quotations, with Ronald Reagan standing next to a slide showing the Berlin Wall to the right of the text.]<br />
: "Give me liberty or give me—Next slide, please—death!"<br />
: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down—Next slide, please—this wall."<br />
: "It was the best of times—Next slide, please—It was the worst of times."<br />
: "We have nothing to fear but—Next slide, please—fear itself."<br />
: "To be or—Next slide, please—not to be, that is the question."<br />
: "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art—Next slide, please—more lovely and—Next slide, please—more temperate."<br />
: [Below showing another list of quotations, with Winston Churchill standing next to a slide showing a beach to the left of the text.]<br />
: "We shall fight—Next slide, please—on the beaches, we shall fight on—Next slide, please—the landing grounds..."<br />
: "Read my lips—Next slide, please—no new taxes."<br />
: "That's one small step for man—Next slide, please—one giant leap for mankind."<br />
: "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears! Next slide, please. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."<br />
: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of—Next slide, please—a good fortune, must be in want of—Next slide, please—a wife."<br />
: "Veni, vidi—Velim, pictura proxima—vici."<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
* The Blood, toil, tears and sweat speech was already the topic of [[1148: Nothing to Offer]]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ronald Reagan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Winston Churchill]]</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2469:_Astronomy_Status_Board&diff=2128042469: Astronomy Status Board2021-05-30T22:12:39Z<p>172.70.117.38: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2469<br />
| date = May 28, 2021<br />
| title = Astronomy Status Board<br />
| image = astronomy_status_board.png<br />
| titletext = Junior astronomers hate getting put on board update duty, but someone's gotta make sure that stuff is still up there.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
Ponytail is staring at the sky on a telescope while Cueball is operating a checklist, visible on a screen.<br />
<br />
Since they are junior astronomers, they appear to have been tasked with simply verifying whether normal celestial objects are still present in the sky.<br />
<br />
This is likely a reference to the many "status boards" for online services ([https://portal.office.com/ServiceStatus example], [https://status.cloud.google.com/ another example], [https://forum.suprbay.org/status a different example], [http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/ a funnier example]). The joke is that it would be funny if there was a status board to check that all the celestial bodies are still there, and that with our modern culture few people are looking directly at the real sky, even though anyone with a telescope and an unobstructed view could just look at the sky to verify for themselves without referencing such a status board. This is compounded by the fact that the listed celestial bodies have existed for billions of years, and are expected to last for billions more, leading one to wonder why astronomers would bother checking and rechecking just to see if they're "still there" with any sort of regularity.<br />
<br />
Astronomers do regularly observe {{w|occultation}}s of stars by other celestial bodies, and sometimes also search through archived images for missed occultations. This can provide information on the size and orbit of an asteroid too small to observe directly, or other useful scientific knowledge, but occulted stars are not "gone", merely hidden. There are also a few astronomers who are searching image archives for [https://www.space.com/hunt-for-universe-missing-stars-space-mysteries stars that really have completely vanished without a trace] (or suddenly appeared), as this would be a sign of truly novel physics -- perhaps even a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence -- but no such vanishings have yet been identified. <br />
<br />
Small stars which have exhausted their hydrogen fuel without building enough heat to fuse carbon or oxygen, are theorized to eventually collapse into faint "{{w|white dwarf}} stars" which are of such low luminosity that they are unlikely to remain visible to the naked eye from the Earth's surface except at very close proximities. The Earth's sun, Sol, is generally expected to follow this progression as a low-mass {{w|main sequence}} star, during the latter period of its {{w|stellar evolution}}. Although some stellar models predict that relatively rapid collapses are possible, the long time scale over which stellar evolutions are believed to occur decreases the odds of observing any one specific star both before and after this transition. In this comic, individual stars are not listed; therefore "gone" is unlikely to be useful for the stars, because a great number of stars would be "still there" until well after the expected collapse of our own sun. <br />
<br />
One of the proposed outcomes of the ultimate fate of the universe is the {{w|Big Rip}}. If it's correct, all the items on the status board will eventually move from Still There to Gone, beginning with the most distant galaxies and proceeding to the the objects in our own solar system (although there will be hardly any time for the board to show Gone for the closest, especially the Moon). This scenario is dramatized in the short story "{{w|Last Contact}}" by Stephen Baxter. <br />
<br />
Collisions between celestial bodies are commonly postulated as a fundamental part of the formation of {{w|planetary nebula}}. Since most mass in the known universe is observed to have a relatively low {{w|albedo}}, the presence of numerous unlit, massy bodies of planetary scale and smaller is strongly indicated. This is corroborated by measurements of orbital deflection detected in many visible stars, hinting at the possibility of large planets orbiting around them, unseen due to distance & low luminosity. The possibility of one or more local planets being "gone" could be attributed to unpredicted collision with another object of similar mass or equivalent velocity. Such a collision is one possible explanation for the sudden & catastrophic disintegration of Earth's moon, Luna, in the novel {{w|Seveneves}} by Neal Stephenson. This hypothetical event forms the premise of this book, during which Earth's whole sky becomes occluded by dust raised by millions of impacts across its surface & eventually by the constant incandescent descent of lunar debris itself. Again however, a single collision with any planet besides the Earth would not remove ''all'' the "Planets" from the Earth's visible night sky, so "gone" remains unlikely to be used for that category of celestial objects. <br />
<br />
Occlusion of Earth's entire sky, due to airborne dust, volcanic ash, increased cloud cover, {{w|light pollution}}, or sufficiently dense layers of high-albedo material in orbit, may be the least unlikely potential reason for all of these celestial phenomena to be flagged as "gone". Notably, the phenomena in question would remain; only our view of them would be gone.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Text above panel:]<br />
:Astronomy Status Board:<br />
<br />
:[Text inside the panel:]<br />
:Moon Still There Gone<br />
:Sun Still There Gone<br />
:Stars Still There Gone<br />
:Planets Still There Gone<br />
:Galaxies Still There Gone<br />
:[In the above text, the instances of "Still There" are glowing in green, while the instances of "Gone" are in grey red, indicating the above-mentioned celestial bodies are still there.]<br />
<br />
:[Below Ponytail is looking at a telescope, while Cueball is pressing a button to operate the above-mentioned panel.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Astronomy]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>172.70.117.38https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2468:_Inheritance&diff=2125602468: Inheritance2021-05-26T19:38:45Z<p>172.70.117.38: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2468<br />
| date = May 26, 2021<br />
| title = Inheritance<br />
| image = inheritance.png<br />
| titletext = People ask me whether I feel any moral qualms about the source of the points, but if he hadn't introduced factory farming to Agricola, someone else would have.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
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This comic is in reference to {{w|Strategy game|strategy board games}}, which often score players on some type of point system based on a variety of possible achievements. The joke in this comic is that Cueball has a massive sum of points that were not scored in the current game but rather handed down from his grandfather. Board games do not normally include an inheritance from previous sessions, in contrast to real life where some people become wealthy by inheriting vast sums of money from ancestors. Such inheritances tend to have a compounding effect on inequality over time, leading to 'successes' in life who have done little, if anything, to earn their wealth. Cueball offers to distribute a trifling fraction of his points to the other players, but he will still have an insurmountable advantage. Despite his 'generosity', no one wants to play a game that they have no chance of winning.<br />
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See also the '[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/a-small-loan-of-a-million-dollars Small Loan of a Million Dollars]' trope of a profile in which the author or subject discusses the simple tricks they used to retire early or buy a house, often involving a hurried admission of financial assistance from a family.<br />
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The title text asks Cueball if he has any moral qualms over the source of these points, then indicates his grandfather's fortune was made through {{w|factory farming}} in the farm-themed board game {{w|Agricola_(board_game)|Agricola}}. Factory farming is frequently brought up as immoral. Large fortunes in real life are sometimes created, grown, and protected by immoral actions, creating an ethical dilemma for those who inherit them.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
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:[Ponytail, White Hat, Megan, and Cueball are playing a board game. There are drinks on the table. Ponytail is writing something]<br />
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:Ponytail: Let's see...I got 31, you have 28, 35 for you, and-<br />
:Cueball: -I've got 10,019.<br />
:Ponytail: *Sigh*<br />
:Cueball: Hey, add another 20 to everyone, on me!<br />
:White Hat: ''I hate this''. <br />
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:[Caption beneath the panel:]<br />
:No one wants to play board games with me ever since I inherited 4,000,000 victory points from my grandfather.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]</div>172.70.117.38