https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.70.131.214&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T22:58:00ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2601:_Instructions&diff=229512Talk:2601: Instructions2022-04-02T11:08:22Z<p>172.70.131.214: Add reply: spline interpolation, not cube.</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 />
<br />
== Turtle graphics ==<br />
<br />
So these are instructions for a turtle graphics program. The audio is drawn from https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3, a 9 hour 7 minute 12 second long audio file It's generated by feeding turtle code into a text-to-speech program, but idk which language or which program. If you can convert the speech back to text, somehow without ruining the formatting (or just do a lot of editing with regex until it looks right), you could feed it into a turtle graphics program and get the resulting drawing.<br />
<br />
: If you're not familiar with Turtle and Logo, look at this [[https://www.tutorialspoint.com/logo/logo_quick_guide.htm|quick guide]]. The short version is that these commands move a little cursor, called a turtle, which draws a line as it moves and turns. At this time, contributors have applied a few different computer transcriptions to the entire audio. There are quotes about turtles from a variety of sources intermixed with Logo code. It is expected that some correction to the code is needed, such as adding parenthesis that are not spoken in the audio. Standard Logo commands found in the audio are: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), and FORWARD (N). Some custom functions are defined, including DIST (N) (N) (N) (N), LERP (N) (N) (N), MIX (N) (N), CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N), and SQUARE (N) (N). The next steps are to test the transcripts of these custom functions in a Logo interpreter, at which point we can begin drawing the picture. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: The picture indeed will be Bob Ross. The first hour of radio has him saying, "A happy little tree - holding up a happy little world." We can coordinate transcribing this code at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository]. Credit for this progress goes to the GitHub owner. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:55, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't know what the current image on this page is. Is that the drawing you get by following these instructions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 20:58, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Wait I see now, that is the actual image for the comic. It just gets covered up by the button so I can't see it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 21:03, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Ah, it looks like someone realized it's actually longer than that. After downloading it, I found it to be 131,329,389 bytes. The Windows Properties viewer claims it is 8h41m08s in length, but that's wrong. It is actually 9h07m06s. By the way, the code is in the Logo language. He seems to have copied this from a book, but I don't know which one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 21:12, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Worth taking a look at? I can start looking for books that contain that text[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:39, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:The automatic speech system is using standard punctuation processing, meaning that critical marks for the code aren't being announced. You can't get the code from the samples without filling in the blanks after getting a transcript. [[User:N|N]] ([[User talk:N|talk]]) 22:19, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The MP3 file ends with this text: "''I even talk to turtles at times. But you need to understand LOGO to appreciate the great, great things that have been created. We spend so much of our life typing, looking, but never ever seeing.''" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.151|162.158.222.151]] 21:17, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
april fools' comic? [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 21:18, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think it's an April Fool's joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.148|108.162.238.148]] 21:20, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Well is it 2022/04/01 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.189|141.101.77.189]] 21:26, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think mine's broken. I don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 21:29, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:You press the radio button, it selects it, then you can press it a zillion times in any pattern and all it ever does is blink the entire image. Nothing else ever appears other than the radio button, and there’s never any sound so pressing the speaker in the corner to supposedly turn it on or off is also completely pointless.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 23:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Given the alt text "happy little turtles" and the tone of the narration I assume we're supposed to pretend the narrator is Bob Ross guiding us to creating an artistic masterpiece with Logo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 21:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Guys, it's been HOURS and the transcription is still incomplete. Step it up! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 21:37, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Not even sure what the transcript should be. I did my best[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:41, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::I have a feeling this might be one of the longest transcripts on the site. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 21:57, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Up until someone automates the process, I'll be working on the transcript and saving it in exkcd in parts (: Don't worry too much about edit overrides, I'll be transcribing in a google doc to avoid that! --[[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 21:53, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:The sections about turtles between the code blocks seems to be from <br />
<br />
Interesting Facts About Turtles <br />
A Little Nature Study by a Scientist that will Interest Old and Young Naturalists Alike <br />
By Randle C. Rosenberger M. D., Professor of Hygiene and Bacteriology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa. <br />
https://archive.org/stream/foreststream861916newy/foreststream861916newy_djvu.txt<br />
<br />
The uni.xkcd version of this comic also just shows the turtle like this article. So much for uses two April Fools comics against each other ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.77|172.70.114.77]] 22:44, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I ran the MP3 through Amazon Transcribe. It can do only 4 hours at a time, so I had to split the original file. I went from start to 03:59:59, 03:59:59 to 07:59:58, and 07:59:58 to end. Amazon Transcribe also gave me some subtitle files (index 1). They have time codes in them. So if someone wanted to note the times of the little quips, and host the audio file somewhere where links to the middle of the file can be generated (like YouTube), that could be cool. Below are the transcriptions for analysis. Replace X with 1, 2, or 3; and replace Y with json, srt, or vtt. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:15, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:<code><nowiki>https://pgn674.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd-2601/xkcd-2601-X.Y</nowiki></code><br />
<br />
:: No need to host anything special. Let's say we want to jump to time code 02:35:14.840 from the vtt subtitle file #1 (line 7084, subtitle 1771). 2*60*60+35*60+14=9314. Subtract a few seconds, and make a link like this. Click here to learn about turtle noises: https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=9310 [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:48, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::: I went and found all mentions of "turtle", extracted those lines, and generated links to them. Programmatically. If anyone wants to go through and do some manual review and fine tuning, go ahead. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 00:57, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I threw Adobe Premiere Pro at it: https://anonfiles.com/pbYfK7Sax4/radio_csv; and https://anonfiles.com/35YbKeScxe/radio_txt are the results. Note: these transcribe until 07:01:28:19. I am currently in the process of making APP suffer more and churn out the last two hours. --[[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 23:54, 1 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So... what language is this? I'm hearing: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), FORWARD (N) - all of which are standard LOGO commands. But I'm also hearing something that sounds like CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N) (N) (N), though it could also be QBIT, or text-to-speech for something like "^3". Either way it's NOT a standard LOGO command, so suggests it's a variant. Does not seem to be KTurtle, POOL, UCBLogo. QLogo, FMSLogo, and then I got bored searching. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:In the automatic transcription it has "Two cubic colon X one colon Y one colon X two"... which would be TO CUBIC :X1 :Y1 :X2 ... so it is defined above. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 01:15, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Yes, some of the commands seem to be defined at the top. CUBIC at the top, SQUARE maybe somewhere else. So a shortcut to decyphering it might be to just extract and render all the cubes from the "CUBIC" and "SQUARE" commands, given their values. But what format are the cubes? Are they even the coordinates of cubes? For both commands, the six numbers seem to be in the format A B A B A B where the As and Bs are similar or even in some cases identical, which seems a strange thing for a cube:<br />
<blockquote><pre><br />
SetXY -443 412<br />
PenDown<br />
Square -443 405 -443 397 -444 390<br />
</pre></blockquote><br />
The definition seems to be something like:<br />
<blockquote><pre><br />
ToCubic : X1 : Y1 : X2 : Y2 : Ex : Ey --- Parameter definitions?<br />
local Make " X0 XCor --- Local variable definitions?<br />
Local Make " Y0 YCor<br />
Local Make " ErrX1 Lerp : X0 : X 0.25<br />
local Make " ErrY1 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.25<br />
Local Make " ErrX2 Lerp : X0 : Ex 0.75<br />
Local Make " ErrY2 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.75<br />
IfElse<br />
Or<br />
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX1 : ErrY1 : X1 : Y1 <br />
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX2 : ErrY2 : X2 : Y2<br />
[<br />
Local Make " Qx0 mix : X0 : X1<br />
Local Make " Qy0 mix : Y0 : Y1<br />
Local Make " Qx1 mix : X1 : X2<br />
Local Make " qy1 Mix : Y1 : Y2<br />
Local Make " Qx2 mix : X2 : EX<br />
Local Make " Qy2 mix : Y2 : Ey<br />
Local Make " Lx0 mix : Qx0 : QX1<br />
Local Make " Ly0 mix : Qy0 : QY1<br />
Local Make " Lx1 Mix : Qx1 : Qx2<br />
Local Make " Ly1 Mix : qy1 : Q<br />
Local Make " PmX Mix : Lx0 : Lx1<br />
Local Make " PmY Mix : Ly0 : LY1<br />
Cubic : Qx0 : qy0 : Lx0 : Ly0 : PmX : PmY<br />
Cubic : Lx1 : Ly1 : Qx2 : Qy2 : Ex : Ey<br />
]<br />
[<br />
SetXY : Ex : Ey<br />
]<br />
</pre></blockquote><br />
Least, that's what it sounds like, but I suspect round brackets and suchlike are not spoken aloud :( --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 01:54, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Maybe it's implementing a cubic spline interpolation, not a tridimensional cube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 11:08, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Feels like the speech processing is lossy, so generating the code will be a lengthy labor of love transcribing it, then debugging it, trying to fill the gaps. The code may also have been fed through an automated "Bob Ross filter" which may have lost even more data. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
About a quarter of the way into the text is the line "You know, I'm beginning to suspect it's turtles all the way down!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.215|162.158.78.215]] 00:46, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
it's concerning that the only real way we'll be able to figure this comic out is to compile the entire 9 hour computer-generated voice speech. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v&#61;miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 01:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Here's my attempt to transcribe the first 11 minutes of this monstrosity or so: (I haven't run any of the transcribed code for the record.) --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.59|172.68.118.59]] 02:12, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
{| role="presentation" class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"<br />
!'''Partial Transcript'''<br />
|-<br />
| <pre><br />
# 0:00:00<br />
# And here we want to show you that you can program a picture right along with us. We'll use a single color, some unorthodox functions, and each line we'll put a bit of nature's masterpieces right here on our canvas. Today we'll have them run all the functions across the stream, right now, that you need to program along with us. Starting with a simple one: <br />
<br />
TO DIST :X0 :Y0 :X1 :Y1<br />
LOCAL MAKE "RX DIFFERENCE :X1 :X0<br />
LOCAL MAKE "RY DIFFERENCE :Y1 :Y0<br />
OUTPUT SQRT SUM PRODUCT "RX "RX PRODUCT "RY "RY<br />
END<br />
<br />
# 0:00:50<br />
# There we go. Just like that.<br />
<br />
TO LERP :A :B :T<br />
OUTPUT SUM :A PRODUCT :T DIFFERENCE :B :A<br />
END<br />
<br />
# 0:01:05<br />
# One more done, no pressure.<br />
<br />
TO MIX :A :B<br />
OUTPUT LERP :A :B 0.5<br />
END<br />
<br />
# 0:01:15<br />
# Really makes our programming life easier.<br />
<br />
TO CUBIC :X1 :Y1 :X2 :Y2 :EX :EY<br />
LOCAL MAKE "X0 XCOR<br />
LOCAL MAKE "Y0 YCOR<br />
LOCAL MAKE "ERRX1 LERP :X0 :EX 0.25<br />
LOCAL MAKE "ERRY1 LERP :Y0 :EY 0.25<br />
LOCAL MAKE "ERRX2 LERP :X0 :EX 0.75<br />
LOCAL MAKE "ERRY2 LERP :Y0 :EY 0.75<br />
IFORELSE LESSP :PXERR (DIST :ERRX1 :ERRY1 :X1 :Y1) LESSP :PXERR (DIST :ERRX2 :ERRY2 :X2 :Y2) [<br />
LOCAL MAKE "QX0 MIX :X0 :X1<br />
LOCAL MAKE "QY0 MIX :Y0 :Y1<br />
LOCAL MAKE "QX1 MIX :X1 :X2<br />
LOCAL MAKE "QY1 MIX :Y1 :Y2<br />
LOCAL MAKE "QX2 MIX :X2 :EX<br />
LOCAL MAKE "QY2 MIX :Y2 :EY<br />
LOCAL MAKE "LX0 MIX :QX0 :QX1<br />
LOCAL MAKE "LY0 MIX :QY0 :QY1<br />
LOCAL MAKE "LX1 MIX :QX1 :QX2<br />
LOCAL MAKE "LY1 MIX :QY1 :QY2<br />
LOCAL MAKE "PMX MIX :LX0 :LX1<br />
LOCAL MAKE "PMY MIX :LY0 :LY1<br />
CUBIC :QX0 :QY0 :LX0 :LY0 :PMX :PMY<br />
CUBIC :LX1 :LY1 :QX2 :QY2 :EX :EY<br />
] [<br />
SET X Y :EX :EY<br />
]<br />
END<br />
<br />
# 0:04:16<br />
# I think there's a programmer hidden at the bottom of every single one of us.<br />
<br />
MAKE "PXERR 0.5<br />
<br />
# 0:04:25<br />
# Let me show you what is going on up here.<br />
<br />
CLEAR SCREEN<br />
WINDOW<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -473 391<br />
<br />
# 0:04:38<br />
# I've just covered the entire canvas with just a bit of white.<br />
<br />
PENDOWN<br />
<br />
# 0:04:44<br />
# We start with a vision in our hearts and we put it on canvas.<br />
<br />
CUBIC -469 424 -458 416 -456 389<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -471 400<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 87<br />
FORWARD 14<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -443 412<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -443 405 -443 397 -444 390<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -442 400<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 84<br />
FORWARD 10<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -431 409<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -432 403 -432 397 -431 390<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -427 392<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -422 419 -415 416 -412 391<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -426 400<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -422 400 -418 401 -414 401<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -409 410<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -408 404 -408 398 -408 391<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -409 409<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -395 421 -390 396 -408 403<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -393 410<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -392 405 -392 399 -392 393<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -393 411<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -380 419 -377 400 -392 402<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -372 391<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -371 402 -374 400 -377 408<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -372 400<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 37<br />
FORWARD 13<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -471 380<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -471 366 -480 357 -460 361<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -457 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -457 372 -457 366 -457 360<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -448 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 179<br />
FORWARD 19<br />
PENUP<br />
<br />
# 0:09:30<br />
# Miriam Webster defines a turtle as: noun, any of an order (Testudines synonym Chelonia) of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine reptiles that have a toothless horny beak and a shell of bony dermal plates usually covered with horny shields enclosing the trunk and into which the head, limbs, and tail usually may be withdrawn.<br />
<br />
SET X Y -454 378<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -449 379 -444 380 -440 380<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -434 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 179<br />
FORWARD 16<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -439 378<br />
CUBIC -434 379 -430 380 -425 380<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -425 377<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -424 367 -431 356 -415 360<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -400 380<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -404 379 -413 382 -412 376<br />
CUBIC -410 360 -416 356 -400 360<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -412 368<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -409 369 -406 370 -403 370<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -376 380<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 178<br />
FORWARD 21<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -383 378<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -379 379 -374 380 -369 381<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -366 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -365 372 -366 366 -366 360<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -366 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -353 384 -349 375 -363 371<br />
CUBIC -358 372 -356 365 -353 361<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -338 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -341 378 -351 381 -350 376<br />
CUBIC -348 359 -355 358 -336 361<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -350 370<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -347 370 -344 370 -341 370<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -320 379<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -338 381 -331 375 -333 362<br />
CUBIC -332 358 -323 362 -320 361<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -332 370<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 89<br />
FORWARD 7<br />
SET HEADING -79<br />
FORWARD 1<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -474 336<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -473 329 -473 322 -474 316<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -473 327<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 85<br />
FORWARD 11<br />
PERNUP<br />
SET X Y -461 338<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -461 331 -461 323 -460 316<br />
PENUP<br />
<br />
# 0:16:03<br />
# Here are some interesting notes from interesting facts about turtles:<br />
# A little nature study by a scientist, Forest and Stream, January 1916:<br />
# Over a great many years I have taken a great interest in the land turtle.<br />
# I have at the present time a number, some of which I have had for at least<br />
# 17 years. To most people, they were ugly and repulsive, as the head when<br />
# fully protruded and extended, looks like a snake. And furthermore, their<br />
# clumsy method of progression does not add anything attractive.<br />
<br />
SET X Y -453 335<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -460 331 -456 312 -447 319<br />
CUBIC -442 324 -444 339 -453 335<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -439 335<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -439 329 -441 322 -439 316<br />
CUBIC -437 315 -433 316 -430 316<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -426 315<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -412 316 -408 339 -427 336<br />
CUBIC -426 329 -426 322 -427 315<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -409 336<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -409 330 -409 323 -409 316<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -405 316<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING -1<br />
FORWARD 19<br />
CUBIC -400 329 -397 322 -394 316<br />
SET HEADING 4<br />
FORWARD 20<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -381 325<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -379 325 -377 325 -375 325<br />
CUBIC -373 322 -375 319 -377 318<br />
CUBIC -393 311 -390 343 -375 334<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -359 335<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -366 307 -340 310 -348 336<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -342 315<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -341 321 -343 329 -342 335<br />
CUBIC -326 342 -322 324 -342 325<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -319 315<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -315 344 -305 337 -303 313<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -317 324<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 87<br />
FORWARD 12<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -473 303<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -473 296 -473 289 -473 282<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -473 292<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -469 292 -465 293 -461 293<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -460 303<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -461 297 -462 290 -461 284<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -456 285<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -453 312 -445 306 -441 284<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -455 292<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -451 293 -447 294 -443 293<br />
SET HEADING -7<br />
FORWARD 1<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -438 302<br />
PENDOWN<br />
SET HEADING 179<br />
FORWARD 17<br />
PENUP<br />
SET X Y -439 301<br />
PENDOWN<br />
CUBIC -425 311 -422 288 -438 293<br />
PENUP<br />
<br />
# One of the interesting points about turtles is their great variety of foods.<br />
# They are, as a rule, good scavengers eating all kinds of decomposing and putrefying<br />
# materials, beef or in fact any meat is eaten.<br />
<br />
# I have seen them eat the flesh of birds and of moles, and while earthworms are<br />
# relished by them, any worm or grub is taken worms from shell barks, and ordinary<br />
# maggots are gotten rid of in a hurry.<br />
<br />
# Blackberries, may apples, cherries and mulberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and<br />
# one vegetable eagerly eaten by my stock is green sugar corn, either raw or cooked.<br />
# In the spring when they first come out of the soil, and food is not plentiful in<br />
# their pen, I have bought canned corn and they certainly have made it disappear<br />
# very quickly. Beetles and tumble bugs, potato bugs, either in larval or mature<br />
# forms, are destroyed<br />
<br />
# Toadstools, especially the large flat pink ones, white and yellow ones are eaten<br />
# while I have seen them pass a black toadstool by several days unnoticed.<br />
</pre><br />
|}<br />
<br />
Here is a transcript of the non-code part:<br />
<pre><br />
And here we want to show you that you can program a picture right along with us.<br />
We'll use a single color, some unorthodox functions, and each line we'll put a<br />
bit of nature's masterpieces right here on our canvas.<br />
<br />
Today we'll have them run all the functions across the stream right now that you<br />
need to program along with us, starting with a simple one:<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
There we go, just like that.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
One more done! No pressure!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Really makes our programming life easier!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
I think there's a programmer hidden at the bottom of every single one of us!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Let me show you what is going on up here:<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
I've just covered the entire canvas with just a bit of white.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
We start with a vision in our hearts and we put it on canvas.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Miriam Webster defines a turtle as a noun. Any of an order Testudines,<br />
genus Chelonia, of terrestrial, freshwater and marine reptiles that have<br />
a toothless, horny beak in a shell of bony dermal plates usually covered with<br />
horny shields in closing the trunk and into which the head, limbs and tail<br />
usually may be withdrawn.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Here are some interesting notes from interesting facts about turtles:<br />
A little nature study by a scientist, Forest and Stream, January 1916:<br />
Over a great many years I have taken a great interest in the land turtle.<br />
I have at the present time a number, some of which I have had for at least<br />
17 years. To most people they were ugly and repulsive, as the head when<br />
fully protruded and extended, looks like a snake. And furthermore, their<br />
clumsy method of progression does not add anything attractive.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
One of the interesting points about turtles is their great variety of foods.<br />
They are, as a rule, good scavengers eating all kinds of decomposing and putrefying<br />
materials, beef or in fact any meat is eaten.<br />
<br />
I have seen them eat the flesh of birds and of moles, and while earthworms are<br />
relished by them, any worm or grub is taken worms from shell barks, and ordinary<br />
maggots are gotten rid of in a hurry.<br />
<br />
Blackberries, may apples, cherries and mulberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and<br />
one vegetable eagerly eaten by my stock is green sugar corn, either raw or cooked.<br />
In the spring when they first come out of the soil, and food is not plentiful in<br />
their pen, I have bought canned corn and they certainly have made it disappear<br />
very quickly. Beetles and tumble bugs, potato bugs, either in larval or mature<br />
forms, are destroyed.<br />
<br />
Toadstools, especially the large flat pink ones, white and yellow ones are eaten<br />
while I have seen them pass a black toadstool by several days unnoticed.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Here we have a happy little "pen down" statement<br />
That's it!<br />
And then:<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Occasionally when a female drops an egg on the ground, it is quickly eaten by the<br />
others. Ordinary hen's eggs are eaten and a great relish enjoyed hugely by them<br />
as thick sour milk. I have placed a quantity of this milk in two or three places<br />
in the pen and in five minutes it is surrounded by the turtles, just like flies<br />
on a lump of sugar. The scrapings of Limburger cheese have also been eaten.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
A piece of butter which had been upon a platter in the icebox for months was placed<br />
before them and this was eaten in due time, crab apples and cantaloupe are enjoyed<br />
by them, but watermelon is not so eagerly gobbled up like the cantaloupe.<br />
I was surprised one morning when I found1 of the large turtles had caught and<br />
disembowel, the very large toad, which I had in the yard.<br />
I have seen turtles eating at 11:00 at night when1 would think they would be resting.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Here you have the power to do anything you want!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They prefer the shade and at certain times during the day if the sun is very hot,<br />
they retreat under the logs which I have for a shelter during rain, they are very<br />
active and move about with heads and necks outstretched, enjoying the shower bath<br />
hugely and evidently on the outlook for worms. Just as some birds after or during<br />
a shower, the youngest of turtles I have ever had seems to take to the same food<br />
as the adults.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
As a rule, they emerge in April sometimes the middle of the month, but as early as<br />
April six they made their appearance. If the weather does not stay warm, they<br />
again go back to their retreats, mating commences almost within a day or two after<br />
their emergence. The males are quite persistent in their lovemaking, biting at<br />
the female etcetera. And on two occasions I have seen the scale removed from the<br />
shell of the female and blood ooze from these surfaces<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
I made friends with a turtle yesterday and he gave me his phone number.<br />
I asked is that a landline? He said no it's my shell phone.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
It is interesting to see the males fight among themselves. They raised themselves<br />
as high as possible and lunge and bite and snap at each other In getting away<br />
from his opponent. The Beaten one will beat a hasty retreat and retract his front<br />
feet or back feet as occasion demands and glide, not run, away.<br />
Running away is slow as compared to this turtle propulsion. It is not a slide,<br />
it is really a darting forward glide. Just recently I saw one male maltreating<br />
another in which the second fellow had all parts retracted and was being snapped<br />
at pushed and actually rolled over on his back by his opponent.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Occasionally one can see a turtle dragging another one along, the first one<br />
having the second fellow's hind leg between his shell. This has probably been<br />
the result of a scuffle. I have never known a land turtle to bite but have<br />
often seen them open their mouths wide and hiss or draw in their breath with<br />
a hissing or sighing sound.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Some people have turtles in their cellars believing that they catch rats and mice.<br />
I tried keeping some of mine in the cellar for two seasons in the wintertime.<br />
They kept up a constant walk exactly like a caged beast. I gave them meat,<br />
vegetables and water, but on no occasion did they take the proffered food.<br />
In the spring, I found several of them dead. I believe that these turtles died<br />
because they were exhausted from wandering around and around during their time<br />
of hibernation. I also believe that this unnatural hibernation led them to<br />
refuse all food.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Regarding the catching of rats and mice in cellars, I believe that rats and mice<br />
might be kept away by the noise made by the turtle making its endless march<br />
around the cellar, but doubt whether a turtle could catch a rat or a mouse.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
In my yard, I had a galvanized iron pin three ft. in length by two ft. in width by<br />
3 inches in depth for water. In this the turtles would enjoy themselves drinking<br />
from the edge with heads submerged or with the entire body submerged for sometimes<br />
as long as several hours. And even for a whole day, even in the country where I<br />
now have the herd, I have a small dish in which they can just get in and they<br />
certainly appreciate a bath.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
How about some interesting things in 10 facts about marine turtles from the WWF UK?<br />
There are seven species of marine turtle. Marine turtles were around more than<br />
100 million years ago and lived alongside dinosaurs. These days, scientists<br />
recognize seven species of marine turtle, the hawksbill, the loggerhead, the<br />
leatherback, the olive Ridley, the green, the flatback and the Kemps Ridley.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtles do not have teeth. They use their beak like mouth to grasp their food.<br />
This beak is made of keratin, the same stuff your fingernails are made of.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtle shells are made of over 50 bones fused together. So they are literally<br />
wearing their bones on the outside. They also have light spongy bones that<br />
help them float.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Their young lives are a mystery. The first few years of a marine turtle's<br />
life are known as "the lost years". That's because the time between when the<br />
hatchlings emerge until they return to coastal shallow waters to forage is<br />
incredibly difficult to study. The "lost years" they spend at sea, which can<br />
be up to 20 years largely remain a mystery to us.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They can be ginormous. Marine turtle species vary greatly in size.<br />
The smallest Kemps Ridley measure around 70 cm long and weigh up to 40 kg<br />
whilst the leatherback can reach up to 180 cm long and weigh 500 kg.<br />
That is over 10 times heavier. Amazingly, Wales holds the world record<br />
for the largest marine turtle ever found. In 1988, a leatherback was found<br />
ashore measuring 2.5 m long, 2.5 m from flipper to flipper and weighing over<br />
900 kg.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
It's survival of the fittest. It is estimated that only around one in 1000<br />
marine turtle hatchlings make it to adulthood. This is down to the long time<br />
it takes for them to reach maturity and the many dangers faced by hatchlings<br />
and juveniles, from predators to marine plastics.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They make some interesting noises. Female leatherbacks make some strange<br />
noises when they are nesting, some of which sound similar to a human belch.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Just let it happen!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They have color preferences, turtles seem to prefer red, orange and yellow food.<br />
They appear to investigate these colors more than others when looking for a meal.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
You know I'm beginning to suspect it's turtles all the way down!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Marine turtles can migrate incredibly long distances. The longest known record<br />
is for a female leatherback who swam nearly 13,000 miles over 647 days from<br />
Indonesia to the west coast of America. That is over 20 miles a day!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They always return home. Females return to the same beach they hatched on to<br />
lay their own eggs and bury them in sand nests. Marine turtles' amazing ability<br />
to navigate comes from their sensitivity to the earth's magnetic fields.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Move the turtle. Playing, working, just having fun.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Here are some more interesting bits from interesting facts about turtles:<br />
A little nature study by a scientist Forest and Stream, January 1916:<br />
The laying of eggs, this is one of the most instructive things that I have ever<br />
watched. Invariably they chose in my yard a situation with a southern exposure<br />
when desiring to lay. In only two instances was an eastern exposure observed,<br />
and once a western part of the yard being a cement walk, we could sometimes<br />
observe the female making motions as for digging the nest. Sometimes for a<br />
half a day she would remain stationary and with her back legs commenced to work<br />
for this purpose, lifting her to the grass plot In a short time she would<br />
commence to dig first with the left hind foot she would remove a little dirt<br />
and pile it up on her left side, then with the right hind foot and pile the<br />
removed dirt upon the right side. This would be repeated again and again<br />
probably for hours until the proper size hole and depth was obtained.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Egg laying does not always occur during the daytime, as I have observed one or<br />
two digging away past midnight. Sometimes they will have dug for about an<br />
inch or so and then not make any more progress downward. In these instances<br />
they have met with obstructions like a small stone which they cannot remove.<br />
I have with a pair of forceps removed the obstruction on several occasions<br />
with the turtle still in c two and after a minute or two she resumes her work.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
The nest or repository is about 3 inches in depth and about an inch and a half or<br />
a little more in width. When she has it finished, she discharges her eggs into it.<br />
When the egg is deposited in the hole, she is not just satisfied in dropping it,<br />
but she reaches down with her hind leg and places the egg horizontally and covers<br />
a little dirt over it. Then the second egg and the remaining eggs are all treated<br />
similarly and when the last1 is deposited and placed, she commences to fill up with<br />
the dirt that remains. This she puts into the hole with an alternate right and<br />
left leg until all is filled in.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
After it is all done, she pats it with both her hind feet together and then with<br />
her body raised and lowered pets and smooths over the place where the eggs are<br />
buried. Then she leaves it and never looks after it as the sun now plays its<br />
part in hatching the eggs. The eggs are whitish in color with a semi-elastic<br />
shell about the size of a pigeon egg.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
The number laid by a turtle varies. I have seen three and on one occasion I<br />
have seen eight laid at one sitting. I have also observed one turtle laying<br />
its eggs, covering them over, and a little later a day or two, another female<br />
dig in the same place, remove the eggs and lay her own in this doubly-dug<br />
repository. Once a female dug six hours and laid four eggs. Another dug<br />
several hours. The hole measured two inches across and three and one half<br />
inches in depth. And she laid eight eggs within a half hour.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Not all eggs hatch out. But in the instance where eight were laid, I had<br />
the pleasure of seeing six little baby turtles come out other eggs which were<br />
laid in a hole dug with a western or eastern exposure, never came to anything.<br />
I have dug carefully into these nests, but I have always come upon decomposing<br />
eggs.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
For the most interesting egg laying I ever witnessed, the turtle commenced<br />
to dig at six pm, and was still busy at work the next morning at eight o'clock.<br />
Five days later a second turtle dug these eggs out arid, deposited four of her<br />
own and covered the nest up personally. I do not believe that the turtle digging<br />
out the previous batch of eggs was vindictive or mischievous but that the ground<br />
seemed soft and easily worked. Therefore it took advantage of the spot.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Average person paints three turtles a year, factoid!<br />
Actually just statistical error. Average person paints zero turtles per year.<br />
Turtles George who lives in cave and eats over 10,000 each day is an outlier<br />
and should not have been counted.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
The young turtles when they make their emergence at the end of three months,<br />
are dark in color and quite active. If you place one on its back at this time<br />
it will arch its head and neck and come around its normal position.<br />
The shell, of course, is quite soft, but in about three years the shell really<br />
becomes hardened though some clear portions of the shell around the edges are<br />
still soft. The color of the shell gradually changes to that usually seen in<br />
the head, and soft parts are modeled speckled or of a solid color.<br />
I have two in my collection where the head and neck are solid yellow.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Do you know what a sea turtle's favorite sandwiches? Peanut butter and<br />
jellyfish! That sounds weird, but it's actually true. Just ask the next<br />
sea turtle you meet. But I think we shouldn't mention it to the jellyfish.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Here are some interesting observations from odd facts about turtles:<br />
Christian Observer, May 11th 1919: It has been said that the turtle, like<br />
the whale, has no other enemy than man and as much as both the little creature<br />
and the big pursued their various ways in practical immunity from harm and the<br />
fear of sudden death.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
In many ways, the turtle is one of the strangest of living things. Whales must<br />
come to the surface frequently to breathe and it is pretty well known what they<br />
feed upon. The seal cannot remain beneath the sea nearly so long as the whale<br />
and his food is very well known. But the turtle in all his varieties in all his<br />
ways, is a most mysterious animal. It does not indeed seem to matter to him<br />
whether he stays beneath the surface for an hour or for a week.<br />
Nor does it trouble him to spend an equal time on I land if the need arises.<br />
Your turtle is neither fish, flesh nor fowl. Yet his flesh partakes of the<br />
characteristics of all three.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Eating seems a mere superfluidity with him since for weeks at a time he may be<br />
headed up in a barrel with a bung out and emerged after his long fast.<br />
Apparently none the worse for his enforced abstinence from food from light and<br />
almost from air.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
All you need to draw is a few instructions, a little turtle and a vision in your mind.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
In the whole category of animal organisms, there is none so tenacious of life<br />
as the turtle. Injuries that would instantly be fatal even to fish<br />
leave the turtle apparently undisturbed and his power of staving off<br />
death is nothing short of marvelous.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Just as soon as a baby turtle emerges from the egg off he scuttles down to the sea.<br />
He has no one to teach him, no1 to guide him in his curious little brain.<br />
There has implanted a streak of caution based upon the fact that until a<br />
certain period in his life his armor is soft and no defense against hungry fish,<br />
and he at once seeks shelter in the tropical profusion of the gulf weed which<br />
holds within its branching fronds, an astonishing abundance of marine life here.<br />
The young turtle feeds unmolested while his armor undergoes the hardening process.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Whatever the young sea turtle eats and wherever he eats it, facts not generally<br />
ascertained, one thing is certain: It agrees with him immensely. He leads<br />
a pleasant sort of life basking in the tropical sun and cruising leisurely in<br />
the cool depths.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Once he has attained the weight of \xc2\xa325 which usually occurs within the first<br />
year, the turtle is free from all danger after that no fish or mammal,<br />
however ravenous, however well armed with teeth, interferes with the turtle.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
When once he has withdrawn his head from its position of outlook into the folds<br />
of his neck, between the two shells intending devours, may struggle in vain<br />
to make an impression upon him<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
How about some neat facts courtesy of "10 Cool Facts About Turtles"<br />
from Deutsche Welle? They have been around for a really, really long time.<br />
There is a reason why turtles look a little prehistoric. The first ever<br />
specimens evolved around 260 million years ago in the late Triassic period.<br />
Shortly after their arrival, the earth experienced a mass extinction event<br />
that wiped out about 90% of all life on land. Luckily for the turtles,<br />
their burrowing and water dwelling habits set them up for long term survival<br />
in this strange new world.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They have one of the longest lifespans in the animal kingdom. While a<br />
turtle's lifespan largely depends on the species, almost all of them have<br />
the potential to live to a ripe old age. A typical pet turtle can make<br />
it to anywhere between 10 and 80 years while larger species often keep going<br />
for more than 100 years. Because it's so difficult to accurately measure age<br />
over a century, researchers think some turtles could even be hundreds of years old.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
See how easy it is to create a tree in your little world!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They come in all shapes and sizes. There are currently 356 known species of<br />
turtles. As a rule, they are all reptiles with a hard cartilage shell, but that<br />
is about where the similarities end. There are sea turtles, leatherback turtles,<br />
snapping turtles, pond turtles, soft shelled turtles, and of course tortoises.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Not all turtles are tortoises but all tortoises are turtles. Yes, technically<br />
all tortoises are in fact turtles. They belong to the Testudines family which<br />
includes reptiles whose bodies are protected by a bony outer shell.<br />
But the main difference between turtles and tortoises is that tortoises live<br />
exclusively on land while most turtles live in or near water.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Some turtles are vegetarians while others are carnivorous. Most turtles are<br />
actually omnivores but a few species are more picky when it comes to their diet.<br />
Most tortoises are happy to munch on leafy greens or fruit. Not to the fearsome<br />
looking alligator turtle which is almost entirely carnivorous and feeds on<br />
anything from fish to small mammals that venture too close to the water's edge.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
All species lay their eggs on land when they are ready to lay their eggs.<br />
Even water dwelling turtles will dig their nests in the sand or the earth near<br />
their habitat but they are not the nurturing type. No species of turtle<br />
sticks around to raise their young. When the babies hatch they are on their own.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
A turtle's gender is determined by temperature like crocodiles and alligators.<br />
A turtle's gender is determined after fertilization. If the turtle's eggs<br />
incubate below 27.7 degrees Celsius, the hatchlings will be male. But if the<br />
eggs incubate above 31 degrees they will be female. If the temperature is<br />
somewhere in between our fluctuates, a mix of male and female babies will<br />
hatch. As oceans warm, turtles tend to give birth to more females.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They have an amazing sense of direction. Sea turtles are known for their<br />
amazing ability to return to the exact beach where they were born years later.<br />
Like many animals, turtles can navigate their way at sea by sensing the individual<br />
lines of the magnetic field, but they can also remember the magnetic signature of<br />
coastlines and sends tiny variations in magnetic fields allowing them to guide<br />
themselves home.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
And excellent vision, too. Turtles have strong underwater eyesight.<br />
Researchers have discovered that they can see a range of different colors and<br />
even prefer some colors to others. Although sea turtles are famous for their<br />
internal GPS, there is evidence to suggest they do not see very well on land.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Many species are endangered. Having survived for millions of years, six out of<br />
seven turtle species are classified as threatened or endangered as a result of<br />
human activity. Every year thousands become trapped in commercial trawl nets while<br />
in some parts of the world they are killed for their eggs, meat and shells.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
How about some interesting facts from turtle facts by Alina Bradford,<br />
writing for livescience.com? Turtles are reptiles with hard shells that protect<br />
them from predators. They are among the oldest and most primitive groups of<br />
reptiles, having evolved millions of years ago. Turtles live all over the world<br />
in almost every type of climate.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
And then according to the integrated taxonomic information system, the turtle<br />
order Testudines genus Chelonia splits into two sub orders, Cryptodira, and<br />
Pleurodira, and then further splits into 13 families, 75 genera and more than<br />
300 species.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
They say everything looks better with odd values for things but sometimes I put<br />
even values just to upset the interpreter.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtle, tortoise and terrapins are often used interchangeably as synonyms, but<br />
there are distinct differences between the types of Chelonians, according to<br />
the San Diego Zoo.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtles spend most of their lives in water. They are adapted for aquatic life<br />
with webbed feet or flippers in a streamlined body. Sea turtles rarely leave<br />
the ocean except to lay eggs in the sand. Freshwater turtles live in ponds<br />
and lakes and they climb out of the water onto logs or rocks to bask in the<br />
warm sun.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Tortoises are land animals, their feet are around and stumpy adapted for walking<br />
on land. They also dig burrows with their strong four limbs and slip underground<br />
when the sun gets too hot. Terrapins live on land and in water usually in swamps,<br />
ponds, lakes and rivers.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
With so many different types of turtle, there is no average size. The<br />
largest sea turtle species is the leatherback turtle. It weighs 600 to<br />
1500 and is about 4.5 to 5 and a quarter feet long. According to the<br />
World Wildlife Federation, the Galapagos tortoise grows up to six ft.<br />
long and 573(lb?). According to the San Diego Zoo, the largest freshwater<br />
turtle in North America is the alligator snapping turtle. It can grow to 2<br />
5 ft long and weigh as much as 200(lb?). The Yangtze giant softshell<br />
turtle is the largest softshell turtle. It measures up to 3.6 ft across<br />
and weighs up to 309(lb?).<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
A turtle's shell is a modified rib cage and part of its vertebral column,<br />
according to the Animal Diversity Web at the University of Michigan.<br />
The top part of the shell is called the carapace and the bottom is<br />
called the plastering. According to the San Diego Zoo, the shell is<br />
made up of about 60 bones that are covered by plates called scoots.<br />
Scoots are made of keratin, the same material that makes up humans<br />
fingernails.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that "All the thoughts of a turtle are<br />
turtles and of a rabbit rabbits." So let's try to think like a turtle!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Many turtles are able to retract their heads and feet into their shells.<br />
Turtles are placed in the two sub orders based on the method of retraction.<br />
According to the Animal Diversity Web at the University of Michigan,<br />
Pleurodirs pull their heads in sideways, Cryptodirs draw their heads<br />
straight back into the shell. Sea turtles have lost the ability to retract<br />
their heads.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtles are very adaptive and can be found on every continent except Antarctica.<br />
Most turtle species are found in southeastern North America and south Asia.<br />
Only five species live in Europe, according to Drs. Foster and Smith,<br />
a veterinarian business based in Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Sea turtles can be found in the Coral Triangle, an area that includes the<br />
waters of Indonesia Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua, New Guinea;<br />
coastal east Africa, the meso-American reef in the Caribbean, the Galapagos<br />
Islands and the Gulf of California.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Hey, what do you get if you cross a turtle with a giraffe? A turtleneck!<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
The african helmeted turtle is the most common turtle in Africa, according to<br />
Animal Planet. It is a hunter scavenger that eats young birds and small mammals.<br />
It steals bait from fishermen's hooks. It also releases a foul smelling liquid<br />
from glands in its legs.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Roti Island snake-necked turtles are found only on Roti Island,<br />
a 62 square mile island in Indonesia, according to the San Diego Zoo.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtles are not social creatures. While they typically don't mind if there<br />
are other turtles around them, they don't interact or socialize, according<br />
to Encyclopedia Britannica. Most turtles are active during the day, spending<br />
their time foraging for food.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtles are not silent creatures. Some sound like electric motors, some<br />
sound like belching humans, and some bark like dogs. The red-footed tortoise<br />
from South America clucks like a chicken.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Most turtles are omnivores. They eat a variety of different things<br />
depending on their species. Musk turtles eat molluscs, plants, small fish,<br />
and insects. The Cooter turtle is mostly vegetarian and the green sea turtle<br />
only eats grasses and algae.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
I read in the L.A. Times this morning that 42,000 Mazda cars were recalled<br />
because of a spider problem. Really makes you think doesn't it?<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
The alligator snapping turtle lures in fish with its tongue which looks like a<br />
worm. It wiggles its tongue to attract a hungry fish and then snaps down on it<br />
with its strong jaw. It also eats aquatic plants, snakes, frogs, fish, worms,<br />
clams, crayfish and other turtles.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
All turtles lay eggs. They find a place on land to lay their eggs, dig a nest<br />
into the sand or dirt and then walk away. No species of turtle nurtures their<br />
young.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Turtles reach the age to mate at different times. Some come of age as young<br />
as a few years old, while others don't reach sexual maturity until around 50<br />
years has passed.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Some species fight for the right to mate with a female while others seduce her<br />
with a mating ritual to mate. Male and female turtles intertwine their tails<br />
so that their shell openings line up perfectly.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
Sea turtles travel from the ocean to lay eggs on beaches. Usually, sea<br />
turtles lay around 110 eggs in a nest, though the flat back turtle only<br />
lays 50 at a time.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
The temperature of the sand affects the sex of the turtle. The perfect<br />
beach temperature produces an equal number of male and female offspring due<br />
to rising temperatures. Too many sea turtle females are being born, contributing<br />
to the decline in species numbers, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, many turtle<br />
species are listed as threatened, endangered or critically endangered.<br />
For example, the plow share tortoise and radiated tortoise are estimated<br />
to be extinct in the next 45 years.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
A pair of Russian tortoises went into space in 1968. The Soviet Union<br />
launched Zond Five, a space probe that was the first spacecraft to orbit the moon<br />
It returned safely and the tortoises survived. They had lost about 10% of<br />
their body weight, but they remained active and showed no loss of appetite,<br />
according to NASA.<br />
<br />
(code)<br />
<br />
I even talked to turtles at times but you need to understand logo to appreciate<br />
the great, great things that have been created. We spend so much of our life<br />
typing, looking, but never, ever seeing.<br />
<br />
</pre><br />
<br />
OMG, fond memories of LOGO! I'm in a loud bar at the moment so I can't listen, and I'm not listening to NINE HOURS anyway, LOL! Everybody DOES realize, someone needs to extract the program and run it in LOGO, right? I would guarantee this draws something interesting and/or stupid. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:27, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I found a [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository] for transcription. May be of use to you guys for adding more info and citations to this Wiki. By the way, I didn't know this wiki existed. I don't want to create an account for it right now so good luck guys ;-; 04:12, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I tried running some code through "ucblogo" on a Linux distro, but didn't get very far with it. ---Tim 04:16, 2 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Given that the audio is generated by text-to-speech, could a source-aware speech-to-text work better (fewer errors and less manual correction) than a generic one? For example, finding the right text-to-speech, extracting a sound for each phoneme, and then searching for near-identical snippets of waveform, seems like it could potentially be more reliable than the generic neural nets which are primarily trained for real human speech. Or even training a neural net on the same text-to-speech source, with a big block of sample data, if that would help distinguish homophones. Presumably someone here is good enough at this sort of thing to try that? [[User:Sqek|Sqek]] ([[User talk:Sqek|talk]]) 10:05, 2 April 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2601:_Instructions&diff=2294072601: Instructions2022-04-01T20:58:11Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2601<br />
| date = April 1, 2022<br />
| title = Instructions<br />
| image = instructions.png<br />
| titletext = Happy little turtles<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a KIND ROBOT TUTOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
What is happening???</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1700:_New_Bug&diff=2292881700: New Bug2022-03-30T13:25:24Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1700<br />
| date = June 29, 2016<br />
| title = New Bug<br />
| image = new_bug.png<br />
| titletext = There's also a unicode-handling bug in the URL request library, and we're storing the passwords unsalted ... so if we salt them with emoji, we can close three issues at once!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[Cueball]] asks if an off-panel character can look at his bug report. The person asks if it's a "normal one," and not a "horrifying" one which proves that the entire project is "broken beyond repair and should be burned to the ground." This implies that there have been reports of the "horrifying" variety in the past.<br />
<br />
Cueball promises that it is a normal one but it turns out that the server crashes when a user's password is a resolvable URL, which implies that the server is in some way attempting to resolve passwords as if they were URLs. A resolvable URL is one that is syntactically correct and refers to a find-able and accessible resource on the internet (i.e. does not return a {{w|HTTP_404|404 error}} or equivalent when resolved). Therefore a resolvable URL is a {{w|fully qualified domain name}} or a valid IP address that points to a valid server, and it can optionally specify a resource that exists on that server. Normally there is no reason for a system to treat a password as if it were a URL — and testing if a password is a resolvable URL would be a horrible thing to do as it would involve sending the password over the internet in a (at the time the comic was written) most likely completely unencrypted format.<br />
<br />
Also, Cueball specifically states that the server is crashing, rather than his application. While this could be an example of misused terminology on the part of Cueball or Randall, given Cueball's history (for example causing the most basic console commands to fail in [[1084: Server Problem]] or other tech issues as seen in [[1586: Keyboard Problems]]) his choice of terms is probably accurate. In the context of web services the server refers to either the computer itself or the program that responds to web requests and executes the user's (i.e. Cueball's) application. Cueball would be in charge of building the application. The importance of this distinction is that a typical system has safe guards in place at many levels to prevent a misbehaving application from crashing anything other than itself. So for his application to crash the server (either the computer itself or the server software hosting his application) would require his application to be operating in a way far outside of the normal, which has been the case for Cueball in previous comics. Alternatively, the project might include its own server software without the safeguards. In either case it is clear that Cueball's issue is far from normal, for which reason the off-panel person gives up and decides that burning the project to the ground is the only solution, telling Cueball ''I'll get the {{w|Charcoal_lighter_fluid|lighter fluid}}''.<br />
<br />
In the title text, another two issues with Cueball's program are mentioned, together with a possible solution that would fix all three problems at once. The second problem is a unicode-handling bug in the URL request library, and the third is that the passwords are stored unsalted. The proposed solution is to salt the passwords with {{w|emoji}} (unicode, multi-byte characters), which is claimed to solve all three issues at once. {{w|Salt (cryptography)|Salting}} passwords means that random characters are added to the password before it is cryptographically-secured and stored in the database. Salting increases security in the event that the database is compromised by ensuring that users with the same password will not have the same password hash. This makes some attacks that can be used to crack hash databases, such as {{w|Rainbow table|rainbow tables}}, effectively impossible. Salting passwords with emoji can potentially "fix" these bugs in different ways. First, emoji and other unicode characters are not valid characters in URLs. As a result the salted-passwords will no longer be resolvable URLs. This will presumably circumvent (but not actually fix) the bug that causes the server to crash. In addition, the passwords will now be salted, increasing security. There is no obvious way that this would actually fix a unicode-handling bug in the URL request library. Given Cueball's general approach to problems like this, the best explanation is probably that he hasn't "fixed" the bug but rather that it is no longer a bug because he is relying on its behavior to help fix these other issues, i.e. the classic [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=It%27s%20not%20a%20bug%2C%20it%27s%20a%20feature it's not a bug, it's a feature].<br />
<br />
The title text shows that his general approach to problems is not to actually fix bugs but to work around them and even rely on them for other behavior. This approach to software development makes for terrible code, which is likely how Cueball got into this trouble in the first place. Therefore the title text shows that he still has yet to learn from his mistakes, further supporting the suggestion to just burn the whole thing down.<br />
<br />
In the title text of the first, using emoji in variable names is mentioned. Emoji has since then become a [[:Category:Emoji|recurrent theme]] on xkcd.<br />
<br />
In [[1349: Shouldn't Be Hard]], Cueball is also programming and finding it very difficult, although he thinks it should be easy. An off-panel person suggests burning the computer down with a blowtorch, much like the off-panel person in this one suggests burning the whole project (including the computer) to the ground with lighter fluid. In the next comic, with multiple storylines [[1350: Lorenz]], one [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2ed958de-badf-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd story line] results in a computer being [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a6/lorenz_-_laptop_9.png burned with a blow torch].<br />
<br />
Interestingly, the 2021 vulnerability {{w|Log4Shell|Log4Shell}} could be triggered when a specially crafted URL was logged with the Log4j framework. This could lead to a crash (as in the comic) or the computer being taken over by the attacker. However, the contents of a password field should never be logged, so this still would indicate a major problem with the design of Cueball's project.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball sits at his desk in front of his computer leaning back and turning away from it to speak to a person off-panel.]<br />
:Cueball: Can you take a look at the bug I just opened?<br />
:Off-panel voice: Uh oh.<br />
<br />
:[Zoom out and pan to show only Cueball sitting on his chair facing away from the computer, which is now off-panel. The person speaking to him is still of panel even though this panel is much broader.]<br />
:Off-panel voice: Is this a '''normal''' bug, or one of those horrifying ones that prove your whole project is broken beyond repair and should be burned to the ground?<br />
<br />
:[Zoom in on Cueball's head and upper torso.]<br />
:Cueball: It's a normal one this time, I promise.<br />
:Off-panel voice: OK, what's the bug?<br />
<br />
:[Back to a view similar to the first panel where Cueball has turned towards the computer and points at the screen with one hand.]<br />
:Cueball: The server crashes if a user's password is a resolvable URL.<br />
:Off-panel voice: I'll get the lighter fluid.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:Programming]]<br />
[[Category:Emoji]]<br />
[[Category:Unicode]]<br />
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2594:_Consensus_Time&diff=228970Talk:2594: Consensus Time2022-03-24T17:07:04Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
What if there's, like, a group of trolls that all press the button at like 9:00 pm? [[User:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)]] ([[User talk:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|talk]]) 17:20, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Less than a day should be enough time for a team of people to notice and override the trolls' attempt to game the system.<br />
Unless the trolls decide to push the button right before midnight.<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 23:11, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Presupposes that an executive decision that "oh, that was just sabotage, we can ignore all those 'votes'" by an oversight panel is deemed ok to occasionally enforce. As with actual election votes, that shouldn't be taken lightly (for fear of top-down skewing of the actual sincere wish of those casting their opinions).<br />
:As it's a median (in itself a good idea, as there's no reason to cast very extreme outliers — it doesn't do anything more to the result than a barely marginal outlier) all you need to do is ask enough people (in excess of any counter-aiming participation, if there's a fight over it) to merely adjust their 'feeling' to half an hour later (or earlier, if that's your aim) than they normally would.<br />
:Added to the 'natural' variation in feeling (spread statistically amongst your participating group) it would be practically impossible to decide that a distinct tapering-lump of results exists, to possibly disqualify. Whereas if results show clear 'lumps' hours apart (e.g. around 3AM and/or 9PM, as well as the standard bunch around the 'honest' opinion point), there might be a case to officially intervene. Or at least officially review the procedure. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 09:14, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
: It's basically Wiki-Time, the same principles apply as a Wiki... and Wikis are always 100% accrate, rite? --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 18:42, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Probably a reference to the Senate DST thing[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.237|172.70.210.237]] 17:46, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I feel like this could supersede time-zones as well, by weighting reports by relative longitude, so you could have a kind of continuous change in time as you travel. I'm sure this wouldn't cause any problems at all, since every single computer would effectively be in its own mini time-zone, with its clock going at a slightly different speed, and both current time and speed of time would vary continuously with position.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.11|162.158.159.11]] 17:53, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I have to feel that the night shift people would really not like this. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:35, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My take on this is that Midnight is a fixed point, it's always at the same time, and the day compresses and expands around it based on the median 9AM location. So, some days will have long hours in the morning, then compressed hours in the afternoon and evening. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 20:37, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
See also consensus new year https://xkcd.com/2092/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.237|172.70.210.237]] 20:43, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think he's also ripping on the concept of "wisdom of the crowd". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:31, 16 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If someone makes this app, I'd use it. I might not follow its clock, but I'd be interested in seeing what happens. [[User:Draco18s|Draco18s]] ([[User talk:Draco18s|talk]]) 00:01, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The sociologist in me wants to see this... The computer scientist in me could not be reached for comment and only mumbled something about "checking stock in the bomb shelter" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.62|108.162.246.62]]<br />
<br />
Hmm... Does this probably mean 9AM today could theoretically be '''after''' 9AM tomorrow in some cases!? Talk about a new approach to time travel. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.147.9|172.70.147.9]] 05:12, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Working example: https://matthewminer.name/projects/consensus-time/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 20:47, 18 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
: 👏 excellent work --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 18:46, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I've often thought the answer to the arguments about daylight saving time could be solved by going back to something like the old Canonical Hours with the period from sunrise to sunset divided into 12 hours, with short hours in winter and longer ones in summer. Incidentally, in the late sixties, an experiment was tried in the UK to keep the country on daylight saving all year round, called British Standard Time. I remember going to school in the north of England in December and it was still dark to well past nine o'clock in the morning. It apparently reduced road deaths, but it was abandoned after three years. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 09:09, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Re. "the next vote would occur sooner or later respectively": This doesn't make sense - by definition, the vote takes place at no fixed time. Everybody votes at different times, depending on when they feel like it's 9am. They could, if they wished, do this capriciously, with no relation at all to the previous day's vote. One possible outcome of this is that the consensus view could drift so far from that of some individual views that it becomes impossible to determine which 'day' they're voting in respect of, and therefore which vote they should be counted in.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.239|162.158.34.239]] 11:25, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I see your point. If I was writing it, I'd suggest one of three alternatives.<br />
:*The time that an otherwise consistent (possibly even 'accurate') voter votes is at variable times according to the Consensus Clock.<br />
:*What it really means is that the votes are ''actioned'' (or processed, but see below) at Consensus Midnight (close-of-votes) which is going to usually be earlier/later than 24-hours after the prior C.M. point.<br />
:*During the period of longer (or shorter) hours, for the Consensus adjustment, the vote that comes in three Consensus Hours before that day's Consensus 9AM will not actually be three 'real' hours before that point, and there is no indication that it will be back-adjusted, in case the Consensus Median Vote asked for 15 minutes earlier but might appear to be (say) 10 minutes earlier. (A vote that is deemed Consensus Median and 15 minutes later will ''always'' be intrinsically 15 minutes later.)<br />
:But I don't think there'll ever be a problem deciding which day a vote is effective for (though it might be different from intention, for the more inattentive voters). My proposed implementation would be to assume a cut-off at (or maybe slightly before, depending upon overheads) C.M., with all votes now either held off or handed straight over to the next day's vote as very-early votes for the next 9AM rather than very-(very-very-)late votes for the one now being acted upon.<br />
:A simple method that saves end-of-day time to process involves a chronological-queue of incoming votes. For every odd-numbered vote added to the tail of the queue, from the 3rd one onwards, a single recorded vote (the current earliest) is shifted off the head of the queue (to be recorded/archived, maybe, but no longer relevent to the result we will calculate).<br />
:At the moment of tallying, the head of the queue has your median-vote. The next one waiting to be shifted, if it's an odd-length, the mid-point of that with the next one on if the queue is even-length. (If I've described/imagined it correctly!)<br />
:This immediately sets the time-factor used to expand/contract the hours from 00:00 to 09:00 in the Consensus Clock to get 9AM to match the Consensus Median Plus 24 Hours.<br />
:Problems with lag/latency of incoming votes (chronologically confirmed, at source, but late to be processed centrally) would be most important with those immediately around the precisely defined Median, when sheer weight of opinion suggests that it'll be the most busy, but there should be enough idle-capacity to insert or shuffle items into the right bit of queue before the Midnight point. Or maintain sub-lists (5 minute slots?) that are maintained and finalised seperately and then their number of entries reported as a simple digest so that the system knows that "the ''n''th point of the ''m''th array", and maybe the n+1th, or the first in the m+1th (if needed), is/are to be plucked out at Midnight and looked at.<br />
:It really won't matter if a million votes come in at 23:59, so long as they are counted and have been at least balanced by a million earlier-votes from 00:00 onwards. But if valid and acceptable but ''very late'' votes filter through after a preliminary decision has already been made based upon a now pre-Median time-vote timing, the new (true) Median can be established within the first few minutes (or probably seconds, or even microseconds!) of the adjusted-hours and the adjustment-Rate simply re-adjusted accordingly to meet whatever the revised Consensus is (seconds later? minutes later, at a push?).<br />
:It could not push the next 9AM beyond 24 hours from the vote-period's closing Midnight, and likely won't push it beyond the prior idea of what the Midnight the upcoming day would originally have, without serious mass-action to break the system.<br />
:An example of deliberate breaking could be by coordinating ''everyone'' to seed a few heavily premature votes (so the next Midnight is sent close to 15 real-hours after the vote-close one, very compressed 0:00->09:00 upon the clocks) then virtually nothing until everyone else quite deliberately votes at a confirmable moment of 23:59:59 (or as close as feasible, without being next-day votes, whilst jamming the queue-mechanism and forcing delayed evaluation) to force the rapidly-compressed clocks to switch over to a snail-paced rate to compensate...<br />
:...But that kind of coordinated civil-disruption wouldn't be suddenly conjoured out of nowhere. I would expect that there'd be plenty of forewarning that any particular disruptive strategy is being considered (or experimented with), and it also needs (almost) everyone to be striving to force the exact same scenario with easily detected coordination of instructions. Heavily outnumbering both honest-voters and those dishonest-voters contrarily inclined. Otherwise the effect is minimal, or even practically ineffective. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.229.27|172.68.229.27]] 21:39, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Of course, before mechanical clocks, hours varied across the year. With 12 short hours each day, and long ones over night in winter and 12 long ones in summer, with shorter hours overnight. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 21:31, 17 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The total day length would remain the same in this proposal. That means that the length of the hours (both before and after 9AM) would vary.<br />
The reference to the weekly cycle seems to refer to the fact that people tend to sleep in during the weekends. Thus, on Saturday and Sunday the buttons would be pressed later, and consequently 9AM would be relatively late on Sundays and Mondays. What (if any) effects there would be on other weekdays is unclear to me, which makes it an interesting experiment to conduct in someone else's country.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.20|141.101.99.20]] 10:13, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:"The total day length would remain the same in this proposal." - I'm not sure about that. If it had marked 'Shorter Hours' for the latter ⅝<sup>ths</sup> of the day, I'd agree. The drawn hour-ticks might indeed look (possibly measure) differently-spaced between each example of 9AM to Midnight. But I'm not sure that isn't just an illustrative foible. The assertion that midnights on that retro-subjective scale are locked to the objective (solar? meridean-gap wide?) midnights is far more obvious in its ommission. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.29|162.158.159.29]] 15:14, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My personal solution is for my clock noon to be identical to solar noon, at my present location, and for clock midnight to be halfway between solar noon of the previous and next days. That may mess up everyone else, but I'll be satisfied. (I hate early sunsets during the winter here.) [[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]]) 20:27, 21 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This is not entirely dissimilar from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Turkey Historic Turkish Time], which evidently included setting clocks to midnight at sunset. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 17:07, 24 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=532:_Piano&diff=228844532: Piano2022-03-22T21:29:34Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 532<br />
| date = January 19, 2009<br />
| title = Piano<br />
| image = piano.png<br />
| titletext = Good thing he didn't make it smaller, or it'd need someone 3 inches tall to play it.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is the reverse of the [http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/old90/304.html "twelve inch pianist" joke] that appeared in the rec.humor.funny {{w|Usenet}} {{w|Usenet newsgroup|newsgroup}}. <br />
<br />
In the original joke, a man found a genie in a bottle, and it is implied that he wished for a "twelve inch ''penis''," but the genie misheard him and instead granted him a "twelve inch ''pianist''." The crux is that the word ''pianist'' sounds similar to the word ''penis''; the joke also relies on the common trope of {{w|genies}} granting {{w|wishes}} (as in the tale of '''''{{w|Aladdin|Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp}}'''''), and the common stereotype that larger penises are more desirable.<br />
<br />
In this comic, the opposite happens: Cueball wished for a "twelve inch ''pianist''" to play his miniature piano, but was misheard by the genie, implying that the genie instead granted him a "twelve inch ''penis''." Megan has understood this implication, and therefore wants to have sex with Cueball (in accordance with the aforementioned stereotype).<br />
<br />
The title text suggests that if Cueball had made a smaller piano – and had thus wished for a smaller ''pianist'' – he would have instead received a ''smaller penis'', making him ''less'' desirable according to the stereotype.<br />
<br />
Genies (or the magic lamps containing them) are mentioned in at least four other comics:<br />
*[[152: Hamster Ball]]<br />
*[[879: Lamp]]<br />
*[[1391: Darkness]]<br />
*[[2193: Well-Ordering Principle]]<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is holding a box with an open lid. A miniature piano is inside. Megan is looking at it]<br />
:Cueball: My hobby is making miniatures. Check this out — it's a fully-functional grand piano.<br />
:Megan: Woah — beautiful.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks at the miniature piano.]<br />
:Cueball: Sadly, I've never heard what proper music sounds like on it—the keys are too small to play.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball closes lid to the piano.]<br />
:Cueball: I once asked a genie for someone who could play it for me, but I think he misheard.<br />
:Megan: ...are you doing anything later?<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
For the record, pianist /'piənɪst/ and penis /'pinɪs/ are near homophones in English. This is because pianist has a different stress pattern than piano /pi'æno/. The vagaries of the English language.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2048:_Curve-Fitting&diff=2284982048: Curve-Fitting2022-03-16T05:54:28Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* LOESS */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2048<br />
| date = September 19, 2018<br />
| title = Curve-Fitting<br />
| image = curve_fitting.png<br />
| titletext = Cauchy-Lorentz: "Something alarmingly mathematical is happening, and you should probably pause to Google my name and check what field I originally worked in."<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
An illustration of several plots of the same data with {{w|Curve fitting|curves fitted}} to the points, paired with conclusions that you might draw about the person who made them. These data, when plotted on an X/Y graph, appear to have a general upward trend, but the data is far too noisy, with too few data points, to clearly suggest any specific growth pattern. In such a case, many different mathematical and statistical models ''could'' be presented as roughly fitting the data, but none of them fits well enough to compellingly represent the data. <br />
<br />
When modeling such a problem statistically, much of the work of a data scientist or statistician is knowing which fitting method is most appropriate for the data in question. Here we see various hypothetical scientists or statisticians each applying their own interpretations to the exact same data, and the comic mocks each of them for their various personal biases or other assorted excuses. In general, the researcher will specify the form of an equation for the line to be drawn, and an algorithm will produce the actual line.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless scientists work much more seriously on the reliability of their assumptions by giving a value for the {{w|Standard deviation|standard deviation}} represented by the Greek letter sigma σ or the Latin letter s as a measure to quantify the amount of variation of the data points against the presented ''best fit''. If the σ-value isn't good enough an interpretation based on a specific fit wouldn't be accepted by the science community.<br />
<br />
Since [[Randall]] gives no hint about the nature of the used data set - same in each graph - any fitting presented doesn't make any sense. The graphs could represent a star map, the votes for the latest elected presidents, or your recent invoices on power consumption. This comic just exaggerates various methods on interpreting data, but without the knowledge of the matter in the background nothing makes any sense.<br />
<br />
===Linear===<br />
[[File:Anscombe's quartet 3.svg|thumb|200px|Different data sets result in the same regression.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = mx + b</math><br />
<br />
{{w|Linear regression}} is the most basic form of regression; it tries to find the straight line that best approximates the data. As it's the simplest, most widely taught form of regression, and in general differentiable functions are locally well approximated by a straight line, it's usually the first and most trivial attempt of fit.<br />
<br />
The picture to the right shows how totally different data sets can result in the same line. It's obvious that some more basics about the nature of the data must be used to understand if this simple line really does make sense.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Hey, I did a regression."'' refers to the fact that this is just the easiest way of fitting data into a curve.<br />
<br />
===Quadratic===<br />
<math>f(x) = ax^2 + bx + c</math><br />
<br />
{{w|Polynomial regression|Quadratic fit}} (i.e. fitting a parabola through the data) is the lowest grade polynomial that can be used to fit data through a curved line; if the data exhibits clearly "curved" behavior (or if the experimenter feels that its growth should be more than linear), a parabola is often the first, easiest, stab at fitting the data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I wanted a curved line, so I made one with math."'' suggests that a quadratic regression is used when straight lines no longer satisfy the researcher, but he still wants to use simple math expression. Quadratic correlations like this are mathematically valid and one of the simplest kind of curve in math, but this curve doesn't appear to satisfy the data any better than does simple, linear regression.<br />
<br />
===Logarithmic===<br />
[[File:Logarithm_plots.png|thumb|200px|Common logarithm functions.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = a\log_b(x)</math><br />
<br />
A {{w|Logarithm|logarithmic}} curve grows slower on higher values, but still grows without bound to infinity rather than approaching a horizontal {{w|asymptote}}. The small ''b'' in the formula represents the base which is in most cases ''{{w|e (mathematical constant)|e}}'', 10, or 2. If the data presumably does approach a horizontal asymptote then this fit isn't an effective method to explain the nature of the data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Look, it's tapering off!"'' builds up the impression that the data diminishes while under this fit it's still growing to infinity, only much slower than a linear regression does.<br />
<br />
===Exponential===<br />
[[File:Exponential.svg|thumb|200px|Exponential growth (green) compared to other functions.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = a\cdot b^x</math><br />
<br />
An {{w|Exponential growth|exponential curve}}, on the contrary, is typical of a phenomenon whose growth gets rapidly faster and faster - a common case is a process that generates stuff that contributes to the process itself; think bacteria growth or compound interest.<br />
<br />
The logarithmic and exponential interpretations could very easily be fudged or engineered by a researcher with an agenda (such as by taking a misleading subset or even outright lying about the regression), which the comic mocks by juxtaposing them side-by-side on the same set of data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Look, it's growing uncontrollably!"'' gives an other frivolous statement suggesting something like chaos. Also this even faster growth is well defined and has no asymptote at both axes.<br />
<br />
===LOESS===<br />
A {{w|Local regression|LOESS fit}} doesn't use a single formula to fit all the data, but approximates data points locally using different polynomials for each "zone" (weighting data points differently as they get further from it) and patching them together. As it has many more degrees of freedom compared to a single polynomial, it generally "fits better" to any data set, although it is generally impossible to derive any strong, "clean" mathematical correlation from it - it is just a nice smooth line that approximates the data points well, with a good degree of rejection from outliers.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I'm sophisticated, not like those bumbling polynomial people."'' emphasises this more complicated interpretation, but without a simple mathematical description it's not very helpful to find informative interpretations of the underlying data.<br />
<br />
===Linear, No Slope===<br />
<math>f(x) = c</math><br />
<br />
Also known as a constant function, since the function takes on the same (constant) value ''c'' for all values of ''x''. The value of ''c'' can be determined simply by taking the average of the ''y''-values in the data.<br />
<br />
Apparently, the person making this line figured out pretty early on that their data analysis was turning into a scatter plot, and wanted to escape their personal stigma of scatter plots by drawing an obviously false regression line on top of it. Alternatively, they were hoping the data would be flat, and are trying to pretend that there's no real trend to the data by drawing a horizontal trend line.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I'm making a scatter plot but I don't want to."'' is probably done by a student who isn't happy with their choice of field of study.<br />
<br />
===Logistic===<br />
[[File:Logistic-curve.svg|thumb|200px|A standard logistic function between the values ''0'' and ''1''.]]<br />
The {{w|Logistic regression|logistic regression}} is taken when a variable can take binary results such as "0" and "1" or "old" and "young".<br />
<br />
The curve provides a smooth, S-shaped transition curve between two flat intervals (like "0" and "1").<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I need to connect these two lines, but my first idea didn't have enough math."'' implies the experimenter just wants to find a mathematically-respectable way to link two flat lines.<br />
<br />
===Confidence Interval===<br />
Not a type of curve fitting, but a method of depicting the predictive power of a curve.<br />
<br />
Providing a confidence interval over the graph shows the uncertainty of the acquired data, thus acknowledging the uncertain results of the experiment, and showing the will not to "cheat" with "easy" regression curves.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Listen, science is hard. But I'm a serious person doing my best."'' is just an honest statement about this uncertainty.<br />
<br />
===Piecewise===<br />
Mapping different curves to different segments of the data. This is a legitimate strategy, but the different segments should be meaningful, such as if they were pulled from different populations.<br />
<br />
This kind of fit would arise naturally in a study based on a regression discontinuity design. For instance, if students who score below a certain cutoff must take remedial classes, the line for outcomes of those below the cutoff would reasonably be separate from the one for outcomes above the cutoff; the distance between the end of the two lines could be considered the effect of the treatment, under certain assumptions. This kind of study design is used to investigate causal theories, where mere correlation in observational data is not enough to prove anything. Thus, the associated text would be appropriate; there is a theory, and data that might prove the theory is hard to find.<br />
<br />
One notable time this is used is when a researcher studying housing economics is trying to identify housing submarkets. The assumption is that if two proposed markets are truly different, they will be better described using two different regression functions than if one were to be used.<br />
<br />
The additional curved lines visible in the graph are the kind of confidence intervals you'd get from a simple OLS regression if the standard assumptions were valid. In the case of two separate regressions, it would be surprising if all those assumptions (that is, i.i.d. Normal residuals around an underlying perfectly-linear function) were in fact valid for each part, especially if the slopes are not equal.<br />
<br />
A classical example in physics are the different theories to explain the black body radiation at the end of the 19th century. The {{w|Wien approximation}} was good for small wavelengths while the {{w|Rayleigh–Jeans law}} worked for the larger scales (large wavelength means low frequency and thus low energy.) But there was a gap in the middle which was filled by the {{w|Planck's law}} in 1900.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I have a theory, and this is the only data I could find."'' is a bit ambiguous because there are many data points ignored. Without an explanation why only a subset of the data is used this isn't a useful interpretation at all. As a matter of fact, with the extra degrees of freedom offered by the piecewise regression, it could indicate that the researcher is trying to fit the data to confirm their theory, rather than building their theory off of the data.<br />
<br />
===Connecting lines===<br />
This is often used to smooth gaps in measurements. A simple example is the weather temperature which is often measured in distinct intervals. When the intervals are high enough it's safe to assume that the temperature didn't change that much between them and connecting the data points by lines doesn't distort the real situation in many cases.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I clicked 'Smooth Lines' in {{w|Microsoft Excel|Excel}}."'' refers to the well known spreadsheet application from {{w|Microsoft Office}}. Like other spreadsheet applications it has the feature to visualize data from a table into a graph by many ways. "Smooth Lines" is a setting meant for use on a {{w|line graph}}, a graph in which one axis represents time; as it simply joins up every point rather than finding a sensible line, it is not suitable for regression.<br />
<br />
===Ad-Hoc Filter===<br />
Drawing a bunch of different lines by hand, keeping in only the data points perceived as "good". Not really useful except for marketing purposes.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I had an idea for how to clean up the data. What do you think?"'' admits that in fact the data is whitewashed and tightly focused to a result the presenter wants to show.<br />
<br />
===House of Cards===<br />
Not a real method, but a common consequence of misapplication of statistical methods: a curve can be generated that fits the data extremely well, but immediately becomes absurd as soon as one glances outside the training data sample range, and your analysis comes crashing down "like a house of cards". This is a type of ''overfitting''. In other words, the model may do quite well for (approximately) {{w|Interpolation|interpolating}} between values in the sample range, but not extend at all well to {{w|Extrapolation|extrapolating}} values outside that range.<br />
<br />
''Note:'' Exact polynomial fitting, a fit which gives the unique <math>(n-1)</math>th degree polynomial through <math>n</math> points, often display this kind of behaviour.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"As you can see, this model smoothly fits the- wait no no don't extend it AAAAAA!!"'' refers to a curve which fits the data points relatively well within the graph's boundaries, but beyond those bounds fails to match at all.<br />
<br />
The name is also a potential reference to the TV show ''{{w|House of Cards (U.S. TV series)|House of Cards}}''. The plot in House of Cards began with a premise of a rise to power in the United States government, but as it continued into more seasons the premise was taken to an extreme, introducing more and more ridiculous plot points ("WAIT NO, NO, DON'T EXTEND IT!").<br />
<br />
===Cauchy-Lorentz (title text)===<br />
{{w|Cauchy_distribution|Cauchy-Lorentz}} is a continuous probability distribution which does not have an expected value or a defined variance. This means that the law of large numbers does not hold and that estimating e.g. the sample mean will diverge (be all over the place) the more data points you have. Hence very troublesome (mathematically alarming). <br />
<br />
Since so many different models can fit this data set at first glance, Randall may be making a point about how if a data set is sufficiently messy, you can read any trend you want into it, and the trend that is chosen may say more about the researcher than about the data. This is a similar sentiment to [[1725: Linear Regression]], which also pokes fun at dubious trend lines on scatterplots.<br />
<br />
A brief Google search reveals that Augustin-Louis Cauchy originally worked as a junior engineer in a managerial position. Upon his acceptance to the Académie des Sciences in March 1816, many of his peers expressed outrage. Despite his early work in "mere" engineering, Cauchy is widely regarded as one of the founding influences in the rigorous study of calculus & accompanying proofs. Notably, his later work included theoretical physics, and Lorentz was also a well-known physicist. Therefore, the title-text may be referring back to [[793: Physicists]].<br />
<br />
Alternately, the title-text could be implying that the person who applied the Cauchy-Lorentz curve-fitting method may not be well qualified to the task assigned.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Curve-Fitting Methods'''<br />
:and the messages they send<br />
<br />
:[In a single frame twelve scatter plots with unlabeled x- and y-axes are shown. Each plot consists of the same data-set of approximately thirty points located all over the plot but slightly more distributed around the diagonal. Every plot shows in red a different fitting method which is labeled on top in gray.]<br />
<br />
:[The first plot shows a line starting at the left bottom above the x-axis rising towards the points to the right.]<br />
:Linear<br />
:"Hey, I did a regression."<br />
<br />
:[The second plot shows a curve falling slightly down and then rising up to the right.]<br />
:Quadratic<br />
:"I wanted a curved line, so I made one with math."<br />
<br />
:[At the third plot the curve starts near the left bottom and increases more and more less to the right.]<br />
:Logarithmic<br />
:"Look, it's tapering off!"<br />
<br />
:[The fourth plot shows a curve starting near the left bottom and increases more and more steeper towards the right.]<br />
:Exponential<br />
:"Look, it's growing uncontrollably!"<br />
<br />
:[The fifth plot uses a fitting to match many points. It starts at the left bottom, increases, then decreases, then rapidly increasing again, and finally reaching a plateau.]<br />
:LOESS<br />
:"I'm sophisticated, not like those bumbling polynomial people."<br />
<br />
:[The sixth plot simply shows a line above but parallel to the x-axis.]<br />
:Linear, no slope<br />
:"I'm making a scatter plot but I don't want to."<br />
<br />
:[At plot #7 starts at a plateau above the x-axis, then increases, and finally reaches a higher plateau.]<br />
:Logistic<br />
:"I need to connect these two lines, but my first idea didn't have enough Math."<br />
<br />
:[Plot #8 shows two red lines embedding most points and the area between is painted as a red shadow.]<br />
:Confidence interval<br />
:"Listen, science is hard. But I'm a serious person doing my best."<br />
<br />
:[Plot #9 shows two not connected lines, one at the lower left half, and one higher at the right. Both have smaller curved lines in light red above and below.]<br />
:Piecewise<br />
:"I have a theory, and this is the only data I could find."<br />
<br />
:[The plot at the left bottom shows a line connecting all points from left to right, resulting in a curve going many times up and down.]<br />
:Connecting lines<br />
:"I clicked 'Smooth Lines' in Excel."<br />
<br />
:[The next to last plot shows a echelon form, connecting a few real and some imaginary points.]<br />
:Ad-Hoc filter<br />
:"I had an idea for how to clean up the data. What do you think?"<br />
<br />
:[The last plot shows a wave with increasing peak values. Finally the plot of the wave is continued beyond the x- and y-axis borders.]<br />
:House of Cards<br />
:"As you can see, this model smoothly fits the- ''wait no no don't extend it AAAAAA!!''"<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This is the comic 2048, or 2<sup>11</sup>. In addition to being the name of a popular app referenced in [[1344: Digits]], this is an extremely round number in binary (100,000,000,000<sub>2</sub>). [[1000: 1000 Comics]] pointed out that comic 1024 would be a round number, but there were not any comics noting 2048.<br />
<br />
*This comic is similar to [[977: Map Projections]] which also uses a scientific method not commonly thought about by the general public to determine specific characteristics of one's personality and approach to science.<br />
<br />
*Regressions have been the subject of several previous comics. [[1725: Linear Regression]] was about linear regressions on uncorrelated or poorly correlated data. [[1007: Sustainable]], [[1204: Detail]] and [[1281: Minifigs]] depict linear regressions on data that was actually logistic, leading to bizarre extrapolations. [[605: Extrapolating]] shows a line extrapolating from just two data points.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Scatter plots]]<br />
[[Category:Line graphs]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2048:_Curve-Fitting&diff=2284972048: Curve-Fitting2022-03-16T05:50:50Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* Exponential */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2048<br />
| date = September 19, 2018<br />
| title = Curve-Fitting<br />
| image = curve_fitting.png<br />
| titletext = Cauchy-Lorentz: "Something alarmingly mathematical is happening, and you should probably pause to Google my name and check what field I originally worked in."<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
An illustration of several plots of the same data with {{w|Curve fitting|curves fitted}} to the points, paired with conclusions that you might draw about the person who made them. These data, when plotted on an X/Y graph, appear to have a general upward trend, but the data is far too noisy, with too few data points, to clearly suggest any specific growth pattern. In such a case, many different mathematical and statistical models ''could'' be presented as roughly fitting the data, but none of them fits well enough to compellingly represent the data. <br />
<br />
When modeling such a problem statistically, much of the work of a data scientist or statistician is knowing which fitting method is most appropriate for the data in question. Here we see various hypothetical scientists or statisticians each applying their own interpretations to the exact same data, and the comic mocks each of them for their various personal biases or other assorted excuses. In general, the researcher will specify the form of an equation for the line to be drawn, and an algorithm will produce the actual line.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless scientists work much more seriously on the reliability of their assumptions by giving a value for the {{w|Standard deviation|standard deviation}} represented by the Greek letter sigma σ or the Latin letter s as a measure to quantify the amount of variation of the data points against the presented ''best fit''. If the σ-value isn't good enough an interpretation based on a specific fit wouldn't be accepted by the science community.<br />
<br />
Since [[Randall]] gives no hint about the nature of the used data set - same in each graph - any fitting presented doesn't make any sense. The graphs could represent a star map, the votes for the latest elected presidents, or your recent invoices on power consumption. This comic just exaggerates various methods on interpreting data, but without the knowledge of the matter in the background nothing makes any sense.<br />
<br />
===Linear===<br />
[[File:Anscombe's quartet 3.svg|thumb|200px|Different data sets result in the same regression.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = mx + b</math><br />
<br />
{{w|Linear regression}} is the most basic form of regression; it tries to find the straight line that best approximates the data. As it's the simplest, most widely taught form of regression, and in general differentiable functions are locally well approximated by a straight line, it's usually the first and most trivial attempt of fit.<br />
<br />
The picture to the right shows how totally different data sets can result in the same line. It's obvious that some more basics about the nature of the data must be used to understand if this simple line really does make sense.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Hey, I did a regression."'' refers to the fact that this is just the easiest way of fitting data into a curve.<br />
<br />
===Quadratic===<br />
<math>f(x) = ax^2 + bx + c</math><br />
<br />
{{w|Polynomial regression|Quadratic fit}} (i.e. fitting a parabola through the data) is the lowest grade polynomial that can be used to fit data through a curved line; if the data exhibits clearly "curved" behavior (or if the experimenter feels that its growth should be more than linear), a parabola is often the first, easiest, stab at fitting the data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I wanted a curved line, so I made one with math."'' suggests that a quadratic regression is used when straight lines no longer satisfy the researcher, but he still wants to use simple math expression. Quadratic correlations like this are mathematically valid and one of the simplest kind of curve in math, but this curve doesn't appear to satisfy the data any better than does simple, linear regression.<br />
<br />
===Logarithmic===<br />
[[File:Logarithm_plots.png|thumb|200px|Common logarithm functions.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = a\log_b(x)</math><br />
<br />
A {{w|Logarithm|logarithmic}} curve grows slower on higher values, but still grows without bound to infinity rather than approaching a horizontal {{w|asymptote}}. The small ''b'' in the formula represents the base which is in most cases ''{{w|e (mathematical constant)|e}}'', 10, or 2. If the data presumably does approach a horizontal asymptote then this fit isn't an effective method to explain the nature of the data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Look, it's tapering off!"'' builds up the impression that the data diminishes while under this fit it's still growing to infinity, only much slower than a linear regression does.<br />
<br />
===Exponential===<br />
[[File:Exponential.svg|thumb|200px|Exponential growth (green) compared to other functions.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = a\cdot b^x</math><br />
<br />
An {{w|Exponential growth|exponential curve}}, on the contrary, is typical of a phenomenon whose growth gets rapidly faster and faster - a common case is a process that generates stuff that contributes to the process itself; think bacteria growth or compound interest.<br />
<br />
The logarithmic and exponential interpretations could very easily be fudged or engineered by a researcher with an agenda (such as by taking a misleading subset or even outright lying about the regression), which the comic mocks by juxtaposing them side-by-side on the same set of data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Look, it's growing uncontrollably!"'' gives an other frivolous statement suggesting something like chaos. Also this even faster growth is well defined and has no asymptote at both axes.<br />
<br />
===LOESS===<br />
A {{w|Local regression|LOESS fit}} doesn't use a single formula to fit all the data, but approximates data points locally using different polynomials for each "zone" (weighting differently data points as they get further from it) and patching them together. As it has much more degrees of freedom compared to a single polynomial, it generally "fits better" to any data set, although it is generally impossible to derive any strong, "clean" mathematical correlation from it - it is just a nice smooth line that approximates well the data points, with a good degree of rejection from outliers.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I'm sophisticated, not like those bumbling polynomial people."'' emphasises this more complicated interpretation but without a simple mathematical description it's not very helpful to find academic descriptions on the underlying matter.<br />
<br />
===Linear, No Slope===<br />
<math>f(x) = c</math><br />
<br />
Also known as a constant function, since the function takes on the same (constant) value ''c'' for all values of ''x''. The value of ''c'' can be determined simply by taking the average of the ''y''-values in the data.<br />
<br />
Apparently, the person making this line figured out pretty early on that their data analysis was turning into a scatter plot, and wanted to escape their personal stigma of scatter plots by drawing an obviously false regression line on top of it. Alternatively, they were hoping the data would be flat, and are trying to pretend that there's no real trend to the data by drawing a horizontal trend line.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I'm making a scatter plot but I don't want to."'' is probably done by a student who isn't happy with their choice of field of study.<br />
<br />
===Logistic===<br />
[[File:Logistic-curve.svg|thumb|200px|A standard logistic function between the values ''0'' and ''1''.]]<br />
The {{w|Logistic regression|logistic regression}} is taken when a variable can take binary results such as "0" and "1" or "old" and "young".<br />
<br />
The curve provides a smooth, S-shaped transition curve between two flat intervals (like "0" and "1").<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I need to connect these two lines, but my first idea didn't have enough math."'' implies the experimenter just wants to find a mathematically-respectable way to link two flat lines.<br />
<br />
===Confidence Interval===<br />
Not a type of curve fitting, but a method of depicting the predictive power of a curve.<br />
<br />
Providing a confidence interval over the graph shows the uncertainty of the acquired data, thus acknowledging the uncertain results of the experiment, and showing the will not to "cheat" with "easy" regression curves.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Listen, science is hard. But I'm a serious person doing my best."'' is just an honest statement about this uncertainty.<br />
<br />
===Piecewise===<br />
Mapping different curves to different segments of the data. This is a legitimate strategy, but the different segments should be meaningful, such as if they were pulled from different populations.<br />
<br />
This kind of fit would arise naturally in a study based on a regression discontinuity design. For instance, if students who score below a certain cutoff must take remedial classes, the line for outcomes of those below the cutoff would reasonably be separate from the one for outcomes above the cutoff; the distance between the end of the two lines could be considered the effect of the treatment, under certain assumptions. This kind of study design is used to investigate causal theories, where mere correlation in observational data is not enough to prove anything. Thus, the associated text would be appropriate; there is a theory, and data that might prove the theory is hard to find.<br />
<br />
One notable time this is used is when a researcher studying housing economics is trying to identify housing submarkets. The assumption is that if two proposed markets are truly different, they will be better described using two different regression functions than if one were to be used.<br />
<br />
The additional curved lines visible in the graph are the kind of confidence intervals you'd get from a simple OLS regression if the standard assumptions were valid. In the case of two separate regressions, it would be surprising if all those assumptions (that is, i.i.d. Normal residuals around an underlying perfectly-linear function) were in fact valid for each part, especially if the slopes are not equal.<br />
<br />
A classical example in physics are the different theories to explain the black body radiation at the end of the 19th century. The {{w|Wien approximation}} was good for small wavelengths while the {{w|Rayleigh–Jeans law}} worked for the larger scales (large wavelength means low frequency and thus low energy.) But there was a gap in the middle which was filled by the {{w|Planck's law}} in 1900.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I have a theory, and this is the only data I could find."'' is a bit ambiguous because there are many data points ignored. Without an explanation why only a subset of the data is used this isn't a useful interpretation at all. As a matter of fact, with the extra degrees of freedom offered by the piecewise regression, it could indicate that the researcher is trying to fit the data to confirm their theory, rather than building their theory off of the data.<br />
<br />
===Connecting lines===<br />
This is often used to smooth gaps in measurements. A simple example is the weather temperature which is often measured in distinct intervals. When the intervals are high enough it's safe to assume that the temperature didn't change that much between them and connecting the data points by lines doesn't distort the real situation in many cases.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I clicked 'Smooth Lines' in {{w|Microsoft Excel|Excel}}."'' refers to the well known spreadsheet application from {{w|Microsoft Office}}. Like other spreadsheet applications it has the feature to visualize data from a table into a graph by many ways. "Smooth Lines" is a setting meant for use on a {{w|line graph}}, a graph in which one axis represents time; as it simply joins up every point rather than finding a sensible line, it is not suitable for regression.<br />
<br />
===Ad-Hoc Filter===<br />
Drawing a bunch of different lines by hand, keeping in only the data points perceived as "good". Not really useful except for marketing purposes.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I had an idea for how to clean up the data. What do you think?"'' admits that in fact the data is whitewashed and tightly focused to a result the presenter wants to show.<br />
<br />
===House of Cards===<br />
Not a real method, but a common consequence of misapplication of statistical methods: a curve can be generated that fits the data extremely well, but immediately becomes absurd as soon as one glances outside the training data sample range, and your analysis comes crashing down "like a house of cards". This is a type of ''overfitting''. In other words, the model may do quite well for (approximately) {{w|Interpolation|interpolating}} between values in the sample range, but not extend at all well to {{w|Extrapolation|extrapolating}} values outside that range.<br />
<br />
''Note:'' Exact polynomial fitting, a fit which gives the unique <math>(n-1)</math>th degree polynomial through <math>n</math> points, often display this kind of behaviour.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"As you can see, this model smoothly fits the- wait no no don't extend it AAAAAA!!"'' refers to a curve which fits the data points relatively well within the graph's boundaries, but beyond those bounds fails to match at all.<br />
<br />
The name is also a potential reference to the TV show ''{{w|House of Cards (U.S. TV series)|House of Cards}}''. The plot in House of Cards began with a premise of a rise to power in the United States government, but as it continued into more seasons the premise was taken to an extreme, introducing more and more ridiculous plot points ("WAIT NO, NO, DON'T EXTEND IT!").<br />
<br />
===Cauchy-Lorentz (title text)===<br />
{{w|Cauchy_distribution|Cauchy-Lorentz}} is a continuous probability distribution which does not have an expected value or a defined variance. This means that the law of large numbers does not hold and that estimating e.g. the sample mean will diverge (be all over the place) the more data points you have. Hence very troublesome (mathematically alarming). <br />
<br />
Since so many different models can fit this data set at first glance, Randall may be making a point about how if a data set is sufficiently messy, you can read any trend you want into it, and the trend that is chosen may say more about the researcher than about the data. This is a similar sentiment to [[1725: Linear Regression]], which also pokes fun at dubious trend lines on scatterplots.<br />
<br />
A brief Google search reveals that Augustin-Louis Cauchy originally worked as a junior engineer in a managerial position. Upon his acceptance to the Académie des Sciences in March 1816, many of his peers expressed outrage. Despite his early work in "mere" engineering, Cauchy is widely regarded as one of the founding influences in the rigorous study of calculus & accompanying proofs. Notably, his later work included theoretical physics, and Lorentz was also a well-known physicist. Therefore, the title-text may be referring back to [[793: Physicists]].<br />
<br />
Alternately, the title-text could be implying that the person who applied the Cauchy-Lorentz curve-fitting method may not be well qualified to the task assigned.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Curve-Fitting Methods'''<br />
:and the messages they send<br />
<br />
:[In a single frame twelve scatter plots with unlabeled x- and y-axes are shown. Each plot consists of the same data-set of approximately thirty points located all over the plot but slightly more distributed around the diagonal. Every plot shows in red a different fitting method which is labeled on top in gray.]<br />
<br />
:[The first plot shows a line starting at the left bottom above the x-axis rising towards the points to the right.]<br />
:Linear<br />
:"Hey, I did a regression."<br />
<br />
:[The second plot shows a curve falling slightly down and then rising up to the right.]<br />
:Quadratic<br />
:"I wanted a curved line, so I made one with math."<br />
<br />
:[At the third plot the curve starts near the left bottom and increases more and more less to the right.]<br />
:Logarithmic<br />
:"Look, it's tapering off!"<br />
<br />
:[The fourth plot shows a curve starting near the left bottom and increases more and more steeper towards the right.]<br />
:Exponential<br />
:"Look, it's growing uncontrollably!"<br />
<br />
:[The fifth plot uses a fitting to match many points. It starts at the left bottom, increases, then decreases, then rapidly increasing again, and finally reaching a plateau.]<br />
:LOESS<br />
:"I'm sophisticated, not like those bumbling polynomial people."<br />
<br />
:[The sixth plot simply shows a line above but parallel to the x-axis.]<br />
:Linear, no slope<br />
:"I'm making a scatter plot but I don't want to."<br />
<br />
:[At plot #7 starts at a plateau above the x-axis, then increases, and finally reaches a higher plateau.]<br />
:Logistic<br />
:"I need to connect these two lines, but my first idea didn't have enough Math."<br />
<br />
:[Plot #8 shows two red lines embedding most points and the area between is painted as a red shadow.]<br />
:Confidence interval<br />
:"Listen, science is hard. But I'm a serious person doing my best."<br />
<br />
:[Plot #9 shows two not connected lines, one at the lower left half, and one higher at the right. Both have smaller curved lines in light red above and below.]<br />
:Piecewise<br />
:"I have a theory, and this is the only data I could find."<br />
<br />
:[The plot at the left bottom shows a line connecting all points from left to right, resulting in a curve going many times up and down.]<br />
:Connecting lines<br />
:"I clicked 'Smooth Lines' in Excel."<br />
<br />
:[The next to last plot shows a echelon form, connecting a few real and some imaginary points.]<br />
:Ad-Hoc filter<br />
:"I had an idea for how to clean up the data. What do you think?"<br />
<br />
:[The last plot shows a wave with increasing peak values. Finally the plot of the wave is continued beyond the x- and y-axis borders.]<br />
:House of Cards<br />
:"As you can see, this model smoothly fits the- ''wait no no don't extend it AAAAAA!!''"<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This is the comic 2048, or 2<sup>11</sup>. In addition to being the name of a popular app referenced in [[1344: Digits]], this is an extremely round number in binary (100,000,000,000<sub>2</sub>). [[1000: 1000 Comics]] pointed out that comic 1024 would be a round number, but there were not any comics noting 2048.<br />
<br />
*This comic is similar to [[977: Map Projections]] which also uses a scientific method not commonly thought about by the general public to determine specific characteristics of one's personality and approach to science.<br />
<br />
*Regressions have been the subject of several previous comics. [[1725: Linear Regression]] was about linear regressions on uncorrelated or poorly correlated data. [[1007: Sustainable]], [[1204: Detail]] and [[1281: Minifigs]] depict linear regressions on data that was actually logistic, leading to bizarre extrapolations. [[605: Extrapolating]] shows a line extrapolating from just two data points.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Scatter plots]]<br />
[[Category:Line graphs]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2048:_Curve-Fitting&diff=2284962048: Curve-Fitting2022-03-16T05:48:04Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* Linear */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2048<br />
| date = September 19, 2018<br />
| title = Curve-Fitting<br />
| image = curve_fitting.png<br />
| titletext = Cauchy-Lorentz: "Something alarmingly mathematical is happening, and you should probably pause to Google my name and check what field I originally worked in."<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
An illustration of several plots of the same data with {{w|Curve fitting|curves fitted}} to the points, paired with conclusions that you might draw about the person who made them. These data, when plotted on an X/Y graph, appear to have a general upward trend, but the data is far too noisy, with too few data points, to clearly suggest any specific growth pattern. In such a case, many different mathematical and statistical models ''could'' be presented as roughly fitting the data, but none of them fits well enough to compellingly represent the data. <br />
<br />
When modeling such a problem statistically, much of the work of a data scientist or statistician is knowing which fitting method is most appropriate for the data in question. Here we see various hypothetical scientists or statisticians each applying their own interpretations to the exact same data, and the comic mocks each of them for their various personal biases or other assorted excuses. In general, the researcher will specify the form of an equation for the line to be drawn, and an algorithm will produce the actual line.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless scientists work much more seriously on the reliability of their assumptions by giving a value for the {{w|Standard deviation|standard deviation}} represented by the Greek letter sigma σ or the Latin letter s as a measure to quantify the amount of variation of the data points against the presented ''best fit''. If the σ-value isn't good enough an interpretation based on a specific fit wouldn't be accepted by the science community.<br />
<br />
Since [[Randall]] gives no hint about the nature of the used data set - same in each graph - any fitting presented doesn't make any sense. The graphs could represent a star map, the votes for the latest elected presidents, or your recent invoices on power consumption. This comic just exaggerates various methods on interpreting data, but without the knowledge of the matter in the background nothing makes any sense.<br />
<br />
===Linear===<br />
[[File:Anscombe's quartet 3.svg|thumb|200px|Different data sets result in the same regression.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = mx + b</math><br />
<br />
{{w|Linear regression}} is the most basic form of regression; it tries to find the straight line that best approximates the data. As it's the simplest, most widely taught form of regression, and in general differentiable functions are locally well approximated by a straight line, it's usually the first and most trivial attempt of fit.<br />
<br />
The picture to the right shows how totally different data sets can result in the same line. It's obvious that some more basics about the nature of the data must be used to understand if this simple line really does make sense.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Hey, I did a regression."'' refers to the fact that this is just the easiest way of fitting data into a curve.<br />
<br />
===Quadratic===<br />
<math>f(x) = ax^2 + bx + c</math><br />
<br />
{{w|Polynomial regression|Quadratic fit}} (i.e. fitting a parabola through the data) is the lowest grade polynomial that can be used to fit data through a curved line; if the data exhibits clearly "curved" behavior (or if the experimenter feels that its growth should be more than linear), a parabola is often the first, easiest, stab at fitting the data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I wanted a curved line, so I made one with math."'' suggests that a quadratic regression is used when straight lines no longer satisfy the researcher, but he still wants to use simple math expression. Quadratic correlations like this are mathematically valid and one of the simplest kind of curve in math, but this curve doesn't appear to satisfy the data any better than does simple, linear regression.<br />
<br />
===Logarithmic===<br />
[[File:Logarithm_plots.png|thumb|200px|Common logarithm functions.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = a\log_b(x)</math><br />
<br />
A {{w|Logarithm|logarithmic}} curve grows slower on higher values, but still grows without bound to infinity rather than approaching a horizontal {{w|asymptote}}. The small ''b'' in the formula represents the base which is in most cases ''{{w|e (mathematical constant)|e}}'', 10, or 2. If the data presumably does approach a horizontal asymptote then this fit isn't an effective method to explain the nature of the data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Look, it's tapering off!"'' builds up the impression that the data diminishes while under this fit it's still growing to infinity, only much slower than a linear regression does.<br />
<br />
===Exponential===<br />
[[File:Exponential.svg|thumb|200px|Exponential growth (green) compared to other functions.]]<br />
<math>f(x) = a\cdot b^x</math><br />
<br />
An {{w|Exponential growth|exponential curve}}, on the contrary, is typical of a phenomenon whose growth gets rapidly faster and faster - a common case is a process that generates stuff that contributes to the process itself, think bacteria growth or compound interest.<br />
<br />
The logarithmic and exponential interpretations could very easily be fudged or engineered by a researcher with an agenda (such as by taking a misleading subset or even outright lying about the regression), which the comic mocks by juxtaposing them side-by-side on the same set of data.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Look, it's growing uncontrollably!"'' gives an other frivolous statement suggesting something like chaos. Also this even faster growth is well defined and has no asymptote at both axes.<br />
<br />
===LOESS===<br />
A {{w|Local regression|LOESS fit}} doesn't use a single formula to fit all the data, but approximates data points locally using different polynomials for each "zone" (weighting differently data points as they get further from it) and patching them together. As it has much more degrees of freedom compared to a single polynomial, it generally "fits better" to any data set, although it is generally impossible to derive any strong, "clean" mathematical correlation from it - it is just a nice smooth line that approximates well the data points, with a good degree of rejection from outliers.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I'm sophisticated, not like those bumbling polynomial people."'' emphasises this more complicated interpretation but without a simple mathematical description it's not very helpful to find academic descriptions on the underlying matter.<br />
<br />
===Linear, No Slope===<br />
<math>f(x) = c</math><br />
<br />
Also known as a constant function, since the function takes on the same (constant) value ''c'' for all values of ''x''. The value of ''c'' can be determined simply by taking the average of the ''y''-values in the data.<br />
<br />
Apparently, the person making this line figured out pretty early on that their data analysis was turning into a scatter plot, and wanted to escape their personal stigma of scatter plots by drawing an obviously false regression line on top of it. Alternatively, they were hoping the data would be flat, and are trying to pretend that there's no real trend to the data by drawing a horizontal trend line.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I'm making a scatter plot but I don't want to."'' is probably done by a student who isn't happy with their choice of field of study.<br />
<br />
===Logistic===<br />
[[File:Logistic-curve.svg|thumb|200px|A standard logistic function between the values ''0'' and ''1''.]]<br />
The {{w|Logistic regression|logistic regression}} is taken when a variable can take binary results such as "0" and "1" or "old" and "young".<br />
<br />
The curve provides a smooth, S-shaped transition curve between two flat intervals (like "0" and "1").<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I need to connect these two lines, but my first idea didn't have enough math."'' implies the experimenter just wants to find a mathematically-respectable way to link two flat lines.<br />
<br />
===Confidence Interval===<br />
Not a type of curve fitting, but a method of depicting the predictive power of a curve.<br />
<br />
Providing a confidence interval over the graph shows the uncertainty of the acquired data, thus acknowledging the uncertain results of the experiment, and showing the will not to "cheat" with "easy" regression curves.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"Listen, science is hard. But I'm a serious person doing my best."'' is just an honest statement about this uncertainty.<br />
<br />
===Piecewise===<br />
Mapping different curves to different segments of the data. This is a legitimate strategy, but the different segments should be meaningful, such as if they were pulled from different populations.<br />
<br />
This kind of fit would arise naturally in a study based on a regression discontinuity design. For instance, if students who score below a certain cutoff must take remedial classes, the line for outcomes of those below the cutoff would reasonably be separate from the one for outcomes above the cutoff; the distance between the end of the two lines could be considered the effect of the treatment, under certain assumptions. This kind of study design is used to investigate causal theories, where mere correlation in observational data is not enough to prove anything. Thus, the associated text would be appropriate; there is a theory, and data that might prove the theory is hard to find.<br />
<br />
One notable time this is used is when a researcher studying housing economics is trying to identify housing submarkets. The assumption is that if two proposed markets are truly different, they will be better described using two different regression functions than if one were to be used.<br />
<br />
The additional curved lines visible in the graph are the kind of confidence intervals you'd get from a simple OLS regression if the standard assumptions were valid. In the case of two separate regressions, it would be surprising if all those assumptions (that is, i.i.d. Normal residuals around an underlying perfectly-linear function) were in fact valid for each part, especially if the slopes are not equal.<br />
<br />
A classical example in physics are the different theories to explain the black body radiation at the end of the 19th century. The {{w|Wien approximation}} was good for small wavelengths while the {{w|Rayleigh–Jeans law}} worked for the larger scales (large wavelength means low frequency and thus low energy.) But there was a gap in the middle which was filled by the {{w|Planck's law}} in 1900.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I have a theory, and this is the only data I could find."'' is a bit ambiguous because there are many data points ignored. Without an explanation why only a subset of the data is used this isn't a useful interpretation at all. As a matter of fact, with the extra degrees of freedom offered by the piecewise regression, it could indicate that the researcher is trying to fit the data to confirm their theory, rather than building their theory off of the data.<br />
<br />
===Connecting lines===<br />
This is often used to smooth gaps in measurements. A simple example is the weather temperature which is often measured in distinct intervals. When the intervals are high enough it's safe to assume that the temperature didn't change that much between them and connecting the data points by lines doesn't distort the real situation in many cases.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I clicked 'Smooth Lines' in {{w|Microsoft Excel|Excel}}."'' refers to the well known spreadsheet application from {{w|Microsoft Office}}. Like other spreadsheet applications it has the feature to visualize data from a table into a graph by many ways. "Smooth Lines" is a setting meant for use on a {{w|line graph}}, a graph in which one axis represents time; as it simply joins up every point rather than finding a sensible line, it is not suitable for regression.<br />
<br />
===Ad-Hoc Filter===<br />
Drawing a bunch of different lines by hand, keeping in only the data points perceived as "good". Not really useful except for marketing purposes.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"I had an idea for how to clean up the data. What do you think?"'' admits that in fact the data is whitewashed and tightly focused to a result the presenter wants to show.<br />
<br />
===House of Cards===<br />
Not a real method, but a common consequence of misapplication of statistical methods: a curve can be generated that fits the data extremely well, but immediately becomes absurd as soon as one glances outside the training data sample range, and your analysis comes crashing down "like a house of cards". This is a type of ''overfitting''. In other words, the model may do quite well for (approximately) {{w|Interpolation|interpolating}} between values in the sample range, but not extend at all well to {{w|Extrapolation|extrapolating}} values outside that range.<br />
<br />
''Note:'' Exact polynomial fitting, a fit which gives the unique <math>(n-1)</math>th degree polynomial through <math>n</math> points, often display this kind of behaviour.<br />
<br />
The comment below the graph ''"As you can see, this model smoothly fits the- wait no no don't extend it AAAAAA!!"'' refers to a curve which fits the data points relatively well within the graph's boundaries, but beyond those bounds fails to match at all.<br />
<br />
The name is also a potential reference to the TV show ''{{w|House of Cards (U.S. TV series)|House of Cards}}''. The plot in House of Cards began with a premise of a rise to power in the United States government, but as it continued into more seasons the premise was taken to an extreme, introducing more and more ridiculous plot points ("WAIT NO, NO, DON'T EXTEND IT!").<br />
<br />
===Cauchy-Lorentz (title text)===<br />
{{w|Cauchy_distribution|Cauchy-Lorentz}} is a continuous probability distribution which does not have an expected value or a defined variance. This means that the law of large numbers does not hold and that estimating e.g. the sample mean will diverge (be all over the place) the more data points you have. Hence very troublesome (mathematically alarming). <br />
<br />
Since so many different models can fit this data set at first glance, Randall may be making a point about how if a data set is sufficiently messy, you can read any trend you want into it, and the trend that is chosen may say more about the researcher than about the data. This is a similar sentiment to [[1725: Linear Regression]], which also pokes fun at dubious trend lines on scatterplots.<br />
<br />
A brief Google search reveals that Augustin-Louis Cauchy originally worked as a junior engineer in a managerial position. Upon his acceptance to the Académie des Sciences in March 1816, many of his peers expressed outrage. Despite his early work in "mere" engineering, Cauchy is widely regarded as one of the founding influences in the rigorous study of calculus & accompanying proofs. Notably, his later work included theoretical physics, and Lorentz was also a well-known physicist. Therefore, the title-text may be referring back to [[793: Physicists]].<br />
<br />
Alternately, the title-text could be implying that the person who applied the Cauchy-Lorentz curve-fitting method may not be well qualified to the task assigned.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Curve-Fitting Methods'''<br />
:and the messages they send<br />
<br />
:[In a single frame twelve scatter plots with unlabeled x- and y-axes are shown. Each plot consists of the same data-set of approximately thirty points located all over the plot but slightly more distributed around the diagonal. Every plot shows in red a different fitting method which is labeled on top in gray.]<br />
<br />
:[The first plot shows a line starting at the left bottom above the x-axis rising towards the points to the right.]<br />
:Linear<br />
:"Hey, I did a regression."<br />
<br />
:[The second plot shows a curve falling slightly down and then rising up to the right.]<br />
:Quadratic<br />
:"I wanted a curved line, so I made one with math."<br />
<br />
:[At the third plot the curve starts near the left bottom and increases more and more less to the right.]<br />
:Logarithmic<br />
:"Look, it's tapering off!"<br />
<br />
:[The fourth plot shows a curve starting near the left bottom and increases more and more steeper towards the right.]<br />
:Exponential<br />
:"Look, it's growing uncontrollably!"<br />
<br />
:[The fifth plot uses a fitting to match many points. It starts at the left bottom, increases, then decreases, then rapidly increasing again, and finally reaching a plateau.]<br />
:LOESS<br />
:"I'm sophisticated, not like those bumbling polynomial people."<br />
<br />
:[The sixth plot simply shows a line above but parallel to the x-axis.]<br />
:Linear, no slope<br />
:"I'm making a scatter plot but I don't want to."<br />
<br />
:[At plot #7 starts at a plateau above the x-axis, then increases, and finally reaches a higher plateau.]<br />
:Logistic<br />
:"I need to connect these two lines, but my first idea didn't have enough Math."<br />
<br />
:[Plot #8 shows two red lines embedding most points and the area between is painted as a red shadow.]<br />
:Confidence interval<br />
:"Listen, science is hard. But I'm a serious person doing my best."<br />
<br />
:[Plot #9 shows two not connected lines, one at the lower left half, and one higher at the right. Both have smaller curved lines in light red above and below.]<br />
:Piecewise<br />
:"I have a theory, and this is the only data I could find."<br />
<br />
:[The plot at the left bottom shows a line connecting all points from left to right, resulting in a curve going many times up and down.]<br />
:Connecting lines<br />
:"I clicked 'Smooth Lines' in Excel."<br />
<br />
:[The next to last plot shows a echelon form, connecting a few real and some imaginary points.]<br />
:Ad-Hoc filter<br />
:"I had an idea for how to clean up the data. What do you think?"<br />
<br />
:[The last plot shows a wave with increasing peak values. Finally the plot of the wave is continued beyond the x- and y-axis borders.]<br />
:House of Cards<br />
:"As you can see, this model smoothly fits the- ''wait no no don't extend it AAAAAA!!''"<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This is the comic 2048, or 2<sup>11</sup>. In addition to being the name of a popular app referenced in [[1344: Digits]], this is an extremely round number in binary (100,000,000,000<sub>2</sub>). [[1000: 1000 Comics]] pointed out that comic 1024 would be a round number, but there were not any comics noting 2048.<br />
<br />
*This comic is similar to [[977: Map Projections]] which also uses a scientific method not commonly thought about by the general public to determine specific characteristics of one's personality and approach to science.<br />
<br />
*Regressions have been the subject of several previous comics. [[1725: Linear Regression]] was about linear regressions on uncorrelated or poorly correlated data. [[1007: Sustainable]], [[1204: Detail]] and [[1281: Minifigs]] depict linear regressions on data that was actually logistic, leading to bizarre extrapolations. [[605: Extrapolating]] shows a line extrapolating from just two data points.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Scatter plots]]<br />
[[Category:Line graphs]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2591:_Qua&diff=228228Talk:2591: Qua2022-03-10T06:47:35Z<p>172.70.131.214: </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 />
If Megan's not careful, this pattern can quickly spiral to infinity: "Nice use of qua qua qua ''qua'' qua qua qua." "Nice use of qua qua qua qua qua qua qua ''qua'' qua qua qua qua qua qua qua." "Nice use of..." --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.93|172.70.178.93]] 16:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Or perhaps "Nice use of 'Nice use of ... '" although new forms of quote mark would need to be invented. --[[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 19:11, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
::From what I've seen, you just alternate between " and '. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 23:45, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Hey, [[244|no recursing]]. [[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 21:46, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
;qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua qua[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 20:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I feel like there should be a duck somewhere. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:05, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
Buffalo everywhere are concerned.<br />
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Maybe one could note that the two uses of "qua" are different: While in the meaning of "as"/"in capacity of", qua is a preposition, it is a relative pronoun in the Latin expression "sine qua non". <br />
So, actually, the explanation of the title text given so far is slightly incorrect: The correct use of "qua" (as a preposition) is NOT essential to the correct use of "sine qua non" (where we use only the Latin relative pronoun). Instead, "qua" is essential to build the complex expression "sine qua non qua sine qua non", where the middle qua is indeed the preposition! <br />
I also feel that Randall is making fun of "pretentious" people by demonstrating how quickly their talk turns into something like "blablabla" [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.153|172.70.246.153]] 21:51, 9 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:But the explanation of the title text is not claiming that it is specifically as a proposition that “qua” is essential, is it?<br />
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:[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 04:31, 10 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Even after reading the comic, title text & the explainxkcd.com description, I am still confused. I've never heard of that word/phrase.<br />
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:Agreed, I feel that the explanation qua it stands leaves me almost qua confused qua I was before coming here and reading it. If qua roughly means “as” or “for the purpose of” then would someone please explain why this not an example of someone using sine qua non: “I could have left work after the accident if I wanted, but decided sine, bore the pain, and stayed.” I don’t get it.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 06:47, 10 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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On this you are not alone.<br />
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If you say "Qua Qua Qua Qua" really fast, it kind of sounds like you are saying "quack quack quack". Thus Megan would sound like she is saying "Nice use of quack quack quack quack..." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 00:56, 10 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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This comic is most likely inspired by this week's Sunday puzzle on NPR, which asks for an English word that starts with the "kw" sound but doesn't contain Q,U,K, or W. See https://www.npr.org/2022/03/06/1084744124/sunday-puzzle-may-the-odds-be-in-your-favor<br />
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Quamvis sint sub aqua sub aqua maledicere temptant. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.88|172.70.251.88]] 06:22, 10 March 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2586:_Greek_Letters&diff=227939Talk:2586: Greek Letters2022-03-04T15:32:43Z<p>172.70.131.214: Possible O R B S explanation</p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
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Pi also shows up in lots of extremely advanced equations as pi, not as something else, adding edit. 123.456.7890<br />
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zeta_0 is also used for the first transfinite ordinal that is unreachable through ''((edit: by some random IP: "...finite application of..."))'' addition, multiplication, exponentiation, and epsilons subscripting. EDIT: phi is used for the Veblen hierachy. [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 05:11, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I wouldn't normally internally spellcheck/factcheck someone's signed Talk comment, as I think it's rude to do so (especially 'invisibly'), but an IP added some words to yours (without clear indication) probably with good reason but also with slightly bad typing. So I've highlighted their (corrected) addition, which at first sight seems a valid clarification but I haven't double-checked. And now this is me taking fully (IP-)signed ownership of what I changed. Would have been simpler for the prior editor just to have made a signed-reply, like this but far shorter, but they didn't! Ah well... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 14:03, 1 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Don't you have an English saying: '''simple/easy as π'''? [[User:Nukio|Nukio]] ([[User talk:Nukio|talk]]) 05:51, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:the saying is '''easy as pie''' as in the dessert. sometimes we write it '''easy as π''' as a nerdy joke. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 08:08, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: sqrt(-1) 2³ Σ π and it was delicious [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:30, 28 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Related: https://xkcd.com/2520/ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.224|162.158.103.224]] 08:59, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I've found a use for capital Xi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harish-Chandra%27s_%CE%9E_function that seems to be from the field of Harmonic Analysis. [[User:Douira|Douira]] ([[User talk:Douira|talk]]) 14:50, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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The part that says the farad is "unusually large" is incredibly biased IMO. On the scale of planets its "unusually small", In fact, on the scale of EV's its even pretty normal. The writer is only considering small electronic circuits. Also the Henry is very well scaled to the Farad so how "unusual" is it really? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.33|108.162.241.33]] 17:13, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:Apologies for the incredible bias. You're right in saying that I'm only considering small electronic circuits; I haven't worked on power distribution systems or applications with large capacitor banks, so my only hands-on experience of components measured in whole farads would be supercapacitors. In consumer electronics, where capacitors are typically labelled in pico, nano or microfarads, the whole farad is rarely encountered. I do still think that capacitors are a good counter-example of items using Mu that you can see and touch, in so many modern electronic devices. But as my previous use of language was so divisive, I'll let someone else attempt to reintegrate the point, if they feel it's useful. [[User:Kazzie|Kazzie]] ([[User talk:Kazzie|talk]]) 16:11, 27 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Isn't the ''capital'' psi used for the wavefunction? [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 19:35, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Yes, but rarely. The lowercase ψ is much more common (AFAIK it dates back to [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grave_Schroedinger_(detail).png Schrödinger himself].<br />
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How sad that there is no '''η'''! Missed chance to blame steam machine engineers for not trying harder to invent the perpetuum mobile. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.177|172.70.242.177]] 20:01, 26 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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The lowercase epsilon is used much more often for something else - usually to denote that the "variable" on the lefthanded side is a member of the "set" of the righthanded side of the lowercase epsilon. Of course, this is totally unimportant ;-).<br />
:You are referring to the "element of" sign, which is distinct from lowercase epsilon (although based on it).<br />
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I highly doubt that the use of Ξ has anything to do with it "looking like a UFO." Rather, I'd suggest it's because it's essentially never used, at least among the English speaking mathematicians in the US, and probably Europe. [[User:Douira|Douira]] went out of their way to find an example, and found something increadibly obscure, which supports the point. ''Why'' Ξ is rarely used is another question. Maybe because it could easily be confused for an E or Sigma, with lazy handwritting? Maybe because it's a Greek letter without a direct Latin counterpart, so doesn't correspond with the first letter of any common words? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.49|162.158.63.49]] 22:50, 26 February 2022 (UTC)som<br />
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In my experience lower case eta, zeta, (and xi) most commonly show up as dummy variable in an integral. Any two may be used for a double integral and all three for a triple. Double and triple integrals are often quite terrifying, particularly when somebody cannot write all three symbols consistently and distinctly, so many integrals become "integral squiggle squiggle dee squiggle dee squiggle".[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.219|172.70.174.219]] 10:10, 27 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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π is also commonly used as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime-counting_function prime-counting] function in number theory. Most problems regarding primes are usually considered hard, like the twin prime conjecture.<br />
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Lower-case sigma is also used in sigma-algebras, which is part of the theoretical background underlying statistics, among other things. I second that the lower-case epsilon drawn by Randall is the lunate variant that looks indistinguishable from the "is an element of" symbol and should probably get mentioned. On an unrelated note, there's a story of someone using capital xi at a math conference specifically to annoy some other mathematician who *really* didn't like them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.26|172.70.211.26]] 20:30, 27 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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:Yeah I came to comment this, lower-case sigmas come up in sigma-algebras and are absolutely terrifying (bias) in that context. The joke about ‘someone trying very hard to apply this’ works with sigma-algebras in the context of measure theory -- someone trying to actually apply measure theory to a real problem. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.117|162.158.129.117]] 10:48, 28 February 2022 (UTC) <br />
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Alpha is also used in aeronautics for the angle of attack of the airflow over a wing. Exceeding a critical angle of attack leads to an aerodynamic stall, which has been cause of many fatal accidents.<br />
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Uppercase phi looks like an obvious reference to [https://twitter.com/nathanwpyle/status/1178152201392447488| this comic and author], as he normally uses the term orb to refer to spheres and balls (as part of the intrincate language of the characters), besides he normally uses that typographic resource of writing a word with its letters separated by spaces, i.e.: e x p e r i e n c e, in the example link. I'm missing the math context on why refering to orbs for uppercase phy, but it could be just because due to the form of the character. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.54|172.70.86.54]] 10:28, 28 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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The lowercase gamma symbol and description may also be a reference to the downward-looping flight path of enemy ships in the video-game Galaga, which zoom down the screen at the player's starfighter while shooting at them, then retreat and zoom back up. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]]<br />
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Why was my remark on the impossibility of {{w|squaring the circle}} removed? (https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2586:_Greek_Letters&diff=227689&oldid=227680) [[User:ThomasGauss|ThomasGauss]] ([[User talk:ThomasGauss|talk]]) 20:06, 28 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
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My sibling's in an advanced calculus course, when she saw the joke about lowercase omega she laughed for a different reason, remarking how accurate it was and how impossible it is to use in her class? (I can't remember exactly.) I don't understand what she meant, I'm in a lower class. Could somebody add an alternate explanation possibly? 123.456.7890<br />
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:Differential forms? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.111|172.70.230.111]] 03:24, 2 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
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::Yes, that's it. I still have no idea how they work, though. 123.456.7890<br />
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O R B S are chanted with such gravitas in the Games Done Quick speedrunning fundraiser events. I would say this is a niche pull, but it seems up Randall's alley.</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2588:_Party_Quadrants&diff=2278832588: Party Quadrants2022-03-03T03:27:18Z<p>172.70.131.214: axes => axis</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2588<br />
| date = March 2, 2022<br />
| title = Party Quadrants<br />
| image = party_quadrants.png<br />
| titletext = Single-elimination might provide more drama, but I think we can all agree that a comprehensive numerical scoring system will let us better judge the party's winner.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a SPORCLE PARTIER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
In this comic there are four quadrants to allow the user to visualize the range of possibilities of fun for the author of this comic (Randall) and for guests. The rows indicate a "fun for guests" range of "no" to "yes" (top to bottom), and the columns indicate a range of "fun for Randall" also marked "no" to "yes" (left to right).<br />
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The data point that is high and to the right within the upper right quadrant is for a "Sporcle Geography Tournament with Snacks! Live-Updating Scoreboard, and no Distracting Music". {{w|Sporcle}} is a trivia website. The joke here is that having a geography trivia contest is really fun for Randall, but not very fun for everyone else.<br />
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In the bottom right quadrant (fun for everyone), are two separately outlined but largely overlapping party zones, one that is the Appropriate Zone for a Party and another that is that which applies to Randall's own Birthday Party. They are both vaguely ellipsoid and both seem to aim to enclose a reasonable to fairly maximal amount of fun in both axis, without being so much extreme fun that they might get out of hand nor let the balance of fun stray too far from equal. The key difference is that the range of the birthday party is skewed towards being marginally more for Randall's enjoyment, as the person the attendees to the party might wish to honour/humour on this occasion, whilst any other type of party is geared slightly more towards the enjoyment of the other attendees, where the host (i.e. Randall) probably should work at ensuring the enjoyment of the various guests.<br />
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The joke is that for some reason, Randall keeps accidentally planning parties in the Top Right Quadrant (fun for him, not for guests). This is regardless of which party-context, and completely beyond either of the zones.<br />
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The title text makes mention of a comprehensive, and perhaps overly complicated, scoring system to determine who is the party's winner, which may be a reference to the Sporcle trivia game night that Randall has planned in the upper right quadrant. That he's talking about "winning the party" suggests he is fundamentally misunderstanding the point of parties -- they're supposed to be fun for everyone attending, not (exclusively) a competition.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Geography]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2579:_Tractor_Beam&diff=2277312579: Tractor Beam2022-02-28T20:07:38Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2579<br />
| date = February 9, 2022<br />
| title = Tractor Beam<br />
| image = tractor_beam.png<br />
| titletext = Did you base the saucer shape on pop culture depictions of aliens, or was that stuff based on your ships? Does the rotational symmetry help with ... hey, where are you going?<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by EX-TRACTOR FAN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
Cueball is being pulled into a spaceship by a beam of light, called a {{w|tractor beam}} in the title. This is a {{tvtropes|AlienAbduction|common trope}} in science fiction, and usually pretty scary for the person involved. However, while Cueball is being pulled up, he asks a series of questions about the beam, about the force on the ship, and about the ship itself. The punch line is the caption - the aliens, frustrated by Cueball's questioning, release him and move on, to presumably find a different human to abduct and study. Many people have reported {{w|Alien abduction|being abducted by aliens}} in real life, though none of these have been confirmed.{{citation needed}}<br />
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The first three questions deal with the properties of the beam – how it can be controlled to pull only him (and his clothes), not anything else. He also wonders whether the beam would still continue to lift his shoes if he took them off midway. Perhaps his apparel is only rising with him because it normally stays attached to him, perhaps it is similarly levitated with equal force or impulse. Theoretically, it could only lift his clothing, with enough force to hoist him along with it, though if this was done with insufficient finesse, it could cause damage to the clothing or the person. (One might be be tempted to call this a {{tvtropes|NegativeSpaceWedgie|Space Wedgie}}.) It is highly unlikely that this type of tractor beam could be used on Cueball without him realizing it, which would likely lead to him asking how the tractor beam lifted the clothes and not him.<br />
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Next, Cueball asks if his weight is pulling the ship downward. This would be the case, for example, if he were hoisted upwards by a rope instead of the beam, as equal but opposite forces act against each other, but not if the beam alters the nature of his surroundings such as with {{w|The First Men in the Moon|Cavorite}} or another means of {{w|gravitational shielding}} or alteration.<br />
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Then he asks what will happen if a bat flies through the beam. Things that could happen include the beam breaking (and him falling downward) due to the projected effect being interrupted, the bat being pulled up ahead of him as it enters the effective volume of the levitating beam or else nothing at all as it is outside the actual volumetric segment of the beam that is more than ambient light-effects. It may presumably have a relationship with the same focal effect as that which avoids the ground upon which he previously stood being drawn upwards. Also, the shadow of the bat on the ground might make the light beam look like an inverted {{w|Bat-Signal}}.<br />
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As the ship leaves, Cueball continues asking questions, as shown in the title text. Those questions address the shape of the ship. He asks whether the aleains based the saucer shape on depictions of extraterrestrials in earth popular culture, or if classic flying saucers were inspiered by them. <br />
His next question was cut off, but what we heard is "does the rotational symettry help with".<br />
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Whether Cueball actually arrived onboard the ship is uncertain. If he started badgering the aliens with questions during the lift and then (as stated) was immediately set down again then he did not. Either way, they got fed up and decided to return him to the ground instead of sharing their knowledge, or just because they preferred someone less talkative. They may prefer or expect more scared, overawed, or surprised abductees but, by whatever alien criteria they judge their catches, it seems he isn't what they want.<br />
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This was the third comic in less than three weeks featuring aliens using this type of flying saucer type spaceship. The other two came two comics in a row just 6 and 7 comics before this one, [[2572: Alien Observers]] and [[2573: Alien Mission]]<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[A flying saucer type spacecraft hangs in the air above a flat area with scattered rocks and two hills in the background. A beam of 'light' emerges, a conical region textured with wavy lines radiating along its length, from a small square opening beneath the bottom of the craft going down to the ground a bit right of the saucer where its conceivably circular cross-section is rendered elliptic by both its angle of projection and our own viewing perspective. Cueball hangs suspended within the middle of the beam, above the ground but still some way from the saucer. His arms are held out to either side and his legs are bent up behind him. He is looking up at the saucer while talking.]<br />
:Cueball: Does this beam only lift me? How do you avoid pulling up dirt and leaves and stuff? If I kick off my shoes, will they fall?<br />
:Cueball: Is my weight pulling your ship downward? What will happen if a bat flies through the beam?<br />
:Cueball: Hey, why does your ship have those blinky lights? Are they...<br />
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:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:Moments later, the aliens set me back down and left.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Aliens]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2585:_Rounding&diff=2274532585: Rounding2022-02-24T05:02:02Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* Transcript */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2585<br />
| date = February 23, 2022<br />
| title = Rounding<br />
| image = rounding.png<br />
| titletext = I've developed a novel propulsion system powered by loss of precision in unit conversion.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT moving at ᛟ smoots per millibarn attometer (rounded) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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This comic is about the follies of unit conversion. Normally, when you say you can ride a bike at 45 {{w|Miles per hour|mph}} if you round, you mean that you can ride at a speed between 44.5 and 45.5, something most people are incapable of doing.{{Citation needed}} The joke is that he actually means if you go through a extremely long chain of rounding imprecisely, starting at 17 mph (which is not an improbable speed for an ordinary road-bike and a reasonably fit rider), you can get to the value of 45.<br />
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The title text furthers the joke by taking the imprecise rounding literally, implying that this increase could actually be used/abused as a novel form of propulsion, but it isn't clarified for what type of vehicle. It could be an engine for ground or air travel, but contains the implication that it is trying to 'trick physics' similar to the {{w|Alcubierre drive|theoretical 'warp drive'}} conceived to propel interstellar spacecraft at otherwise impossible speeds.<br />
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Randall also esoterically uses some units here: fathoms/sec, furlongs/min, and furlongs/hr. A {{w|fathom}} is a unit of length, usually used to measure the depth of water. Fathoms/sec could potentially be used to measure the speed of a submersible, but not the speed of a bike. A {{w|furlong}} is also a unit of length, but is mostly obsolete except in horse racing. It is possible that furlongs/min or furlongs/hour could be used to measure the speed of a horse. {{w|Knot (unit)|Knot}}s (nautical mile per hour) are a standard unit of measuring speed, but are typically used for measuring speed for airplanes or ships, not speed on land.<br />
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{| class="wikitable"<br />
! step !! mph !! {{w|Metre per second|m/s}} !! {{w|Knot (unit)|knots}} !! {{w|fathom}}s/sec !! {{w|furlong}}s/min !! {{w|Kilometres per hour|km/h}} !! furlongs/hour !! {{w|yard}}s/sec<br />
|-<br />
! 1<br />
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 17 ||style="background-color:green;"| 7.59968 || || || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 2<br />
| 17.9 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 8 ||style="background-color:green;"| 15.5508 || || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 3<br />
| 18.41 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 16 ||style="background-color:green;"| 4.50083 || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 4<br />
| 20.45 || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 5 ||style="background-color:green;"| 2.72727 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 5<br />
| 22.5 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 5.50001 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 3 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 6<br />
| 24.55 || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 39.5021 || || <br />
|-<br />
! 7<br />
| 24.85 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 21.5983 || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 40 || || <br />
|-<br />
! 8<br />
| 25.32 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 22 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 40.744 || || <br />
|-<br />
! 9<br />
| 25.48 || || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 41 ||style="background-color:green;"| 203.809 || <br />
|-<br />
! 10<br />
|style="background-color:green;"| 25.5001 || || || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 204 || <br />
|-<br />
! 11<br />
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 26 ||style="background-color:green;"| 11.623 || || || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 12<br />
| 26.84 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 12 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 3.57909 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 13<br />
| 30 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 4 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 14.6667<br />
|-<br />
! 14<br />
| 30.68 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 7.5 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 15<br />
|-<br />
! 15<br />
| 32.73 ||style="background-color:green;"| 14.6304 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 8 || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 16<br />
|style="background-color:green;"| 33.554 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 15 || || || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 17<br />
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 34 || || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 4.53332 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 18<br />
| 37.5 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 32.5867 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 5 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 19<br />
| 37.98 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 33 || || || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 18.5659<br />
|-<br />
! 20<br />
| 38.86 || || ||style="background-color:green;"| 9.5 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 19<br />
|-<br />
! 21<br />
| 40.91 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 35.549 ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 10 || || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 22<br />
| 41.43 || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 36 || ||style="background-color:green;"| 5.52373 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 23<br />
|style="background-color:green;"| 45.0001 || || || ||style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 6 || || || <br />
|-<br />
! 24<br />
|style="background-color:lightgreen;"| 45 || || || || || || || <br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Cueball, wearing a bike helmet and standing next to a bike, is speaking to Megan.]<br />
<br />
:Cueball: I can ride my bike at 45 MPH.<br />
:Cueball: If you round.<br />
<br />
:[To their right and proceeding down the rest of the comic, arrows show conversions from one measure into another unit.]<br />
<br />
:'''17 MPH'''<br />
:8 meters/sec<br />
:16 knots<br />
:5 fathoms/sec<br />
:3 furlongs/min<br />
:6 fathoms/sec<br />
:40 KPH<br />
:22 knots<br />
:41 KPH<br />
:204 furlongs/hr<br />
:26 MPH<br />
:12 M/S<br />
:4 furlongs/min<br />
:15 yards/sec<br />
:8 fathoms/sec<br />
:15 M/S<br />
:34 MPH<br />
:5 furlongs/min<br />
:33 knots<br />
:19 yards/sec<br />
:10 fathoms/sec<br />
:36 knots<br />
:6 furlongs/min<br />
:'''45 MPH'''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2583:_Chorded_Keyboard&diff=227276Talk:2583: Chorded Keyboard2022-02-20T05:49:13Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Why is it H+<Left> rather than H+<Right>? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:22, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Probably for the rhyme with "Shift" in the previous verse. In terms of practicality, though, I agree — <Right> would make more sense for a real keychord. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.154}}<br />
::A pity Shift and Left don't rhyme very well. But then neither do Chord and Word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 03:41, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::It works if you're from New Zealand. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.16|162.158.111.16]] 10:37, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Wow, I totally missed that {{w|near rhyme}}. It's not quite so bad if you sing it, though. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:46, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::: Eh, {{w|Tom Lehrer}}'s certainly done much worse slant rhymes. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 03:55, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Sadly, too, there was the opportunity for "The other hand, hits H and ''lift.''" Alas. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 04:23, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I don't know about other people, but I can reach H+<Left> on my keyboard with the index finger and pinky of my right hand, but H+<Right> requires thumb and pinky and doing something terribly awkward with my wrist. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.161|172.70.110.161]] 06:51, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I added some (necessary?) additional contextualising of how it mirrors the original song, consider it a bridge/middle-eight, so that those who still don't quite get that bit of popular culture get a bit more of the idea than before.<br />
::In the process I made an executive decision to comment about the rhyming (or not) along the way.<br />
::...but I strayed into 'Cueball's Computer Problems' territory, and then noticed (sorry, missed it before diving in) that it's mentioned again (but chronologically before!) at the the end of the explanation. I'm not quite sure how to remove the redundancy. The lyrical trailing-off really needs to mention this, I feel, but removing repetitions from the other person's text will need extra thought too. If someone gets in there before I do and modifies either/both of the sections nicely then that'll be Ok, but I'll try to revisit it myself (and {{wiktionary|kill_one%27s_darlings|'kill my darlings'}} if necessary) if nobody else sees fit to in my stead. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 19:02, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:presumably he programmed his keyboard to use chord-logic for ALL common words.... if he has ctrl, alt, shift, and at least two special function keys, such as win and alt-gr.... that's 2^5=32 possible signal combinations from function keys. if he uses the 8 direction keys on the numeric keypad, that's 32*8= 256 possibilities for command modifiers to each letter. So, in theory, he could program in an unique combination of key strokes that chooses between the 256 most common words that begin with each letter, totaling 6656 possible words that can by typed using chording. The combination that results in "hallelujah" just happens to be ctrl-shift-h-left. hopefully there's a graphical prompt which shows you the 8 possible current words to choose from, given the most recent combination of function keys and a given letter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 05:49, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I happen to know that if you're typing in Japanese phonetic letters using MS Word, there are actually so many homonym words which have different logographic symbols, and different meanings, but which all SOUND the same, and thus are phonetically TYPED the same, that's it actually NORMAL for Word to list a pop-up context menu with the top-8 word choices you might have just meant to enter, and require you to select one before continuing. and then it swaps out the correct logograph symbol for the phonetic symbols you just typed. I don't think it uses the numpad directional arrows to make the choice, but honestly, it would be a lot more user-friendly if it did.... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 05:49, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is it steganography? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.41|108.162.237.41]] 04:03, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Stenography* [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.239|198.41.242.239]] 19:09, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Ironically, having considerable knowledge of one of those covers of the song can lead to more confusion than less familiarity with any of them. My wife was recently moderately obsessed with Rufus Wainwright, including his cover of 'Hallelujah'. So when I read this comic, I didn't catch on until most of the way through what other Randall was up to. But when she read it, she caught on in the first line, and yet, didn't get the title text at all until I explained it to her (having compared some versions overnight before then), since that line isn't included in Rufus' version. No particular point here, just, well, 'Talk'. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 01:55, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone recorded a cover with these lyrics yet? I had kind of assumed that would happen soon after this was posted. --[[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 04:14, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Control Shift H ==<br />
https://defkey.com/what-means/ctrl-shift-h shows the shortcut action in 113 programs. (Who knew there was a website devoted to keyboard shortcuts?) In Firefox, it shows your history as soon has you hit the H. (I like to think that Randall uses good ol' open source Firefox.) Your history will show the current XKCD page first, of course, but that listing does not include the word "HALLELUJAH." The next keydown is interpreted as a separate keystroke. Nothing interesting happens with the 8 permutations of Ctrl-Shift (up or down) and (left arrow, numpad left, left tab, backspace). I was kinda hoping that Mozilla had secretly conspired to tweak this keystroke combination in the last update. In short, I have nothing to add to the explanation, but not for lack of trying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.187|108.162.219.187]] 23:52, 19 February 2022 (UTC) (This is my first explainxkcd comment. I'll properly sign up before I comment again.)<br />
<br />
We can add a javascript snippet that captures this keychord and shows "Hallelujah" on this website, right :P<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.188.81|172.70.188.81]] 04:46, 20 February 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2583:_Chorded_Keyboard&diff=227275Talk:2583: Chorded Keyboard2022-02-20T05:48:12Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Why is it H+<Left> rather than H+<Right>? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:22, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Probably for the rhyme with "Shift" in the previous verse. In terms of practicality, though, I agree — <Right> would make more sense for a real keychord. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.154}}<br />
::A pity Shift and Left don't rhyme very well. But then neither do Chord and Word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 03:41, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::It works if you're from New Zealand. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.16|162.158.111.16]] 10:37, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Wow, I totally missed that {{w|near rhyme}}. It's not quite so bad if you sing it, though. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:46, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::: Eh, {{w|Tom Lehrer}}'s certainly done much worse slant rhymes. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 03:55, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Sadly, too, there was the opportunity for "The other hand, hits H and ''lift.''" Alas. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 04:23, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I don't know about other people, but I can reach H+<Left> on my keyboard with the index finger and pinky of my right hand, but H+<Right> requires thumb and pinky and doing something terribly awkward with my wrist. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.161|172.70.110.161]] 06:51, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I added some (necessary?) additional contextualising of how it mirrors the original song, consider it a bridge/middle-eight, so that those who still don't quite get that bit of popular culture get a bit more of the idea than before.<br />
::In the process I made an executive decision to comment about the rhyming (or not) along the way.<br />
::...but I strayed into 'Cueball's Computer Problems' territory, and then noticed (sorry, missed it before diving in) that it's mentioned again (but chronologically before!) at the the end of the explanation. I'm not quite sure how to remove the redundancy. The lyrical trailing-off really needs to mention this, I feel, but removing repetitions from the other person's text will need extra thought too. If someone gets in there before I do and modifies either/both of the sections nicely then that'll be Ok, but I'll try to revisit it myself (and {{wiktionary|kill_one%27s_darlings|'kill my darlings'}} if necessary) if nobody else sees fit to in my stead. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 19:02, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:presumably he programmed his keyboard to use chord-logic for ALL common words.... if he has ctrl, alt, shift, and at least two special function keys, such as win and alt-gr.... that's 2^5=32 possible signal combinations from function keys. if he uses the 8 direction keys on the numeric keypad, that's 32*8= 256 possibilities for command modifiers to each letter. So, in theory, he could program in an unique combination of key strokes that chooses between the 256 most common words that begin with each letter, totaling 6656 possible words that can by typed using chording. The combination that results in "hallelujah" just happens to be ctrl-shift-h-left. hopefully there's a graphical prompt which shows you the 8 possible current words to choose from, given the most recent combination of function keys and a given letter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 05:47, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I happen to know that if you're typing in Japanese phonetic letters using MS Word, there are actually so many homonym words which have different logographic symbols, and different meanings, but which all SOUND the same, and thus are phonetically TYPED the same, that's it actually NORMAL for Word to list a pop-up context menu with the top-8 word choices you might have just meant to enter, and require you to select one before continuing. and then it swaps out the correct logograph symbol for the phonetic symbols you just typed. I don't think it uses the numpad directional arrows to make the choice, but honestly, it would be a lot more user-friendly if it did.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.170|162.158.74.170]] 05:38, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is it steganography? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.41|108.162.237.41]] 04:03, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Stenography* [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.239|198.41.242.239]] 19:09, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Ironically, having considerable knowledge of one of those covers of the song can lead to more confusion than less familiarity with any of them. My wife was recently moderately obsessed with Rufus Wainwright, including his cover of 'Hallelujah'. So when I read this comic, I didn't catch on until most of the way through what other Randall was up to. But when she read it, she caught on in the first line, and yet, didn't get the title text at all until I explained it to her (having compared some versions overnight before then), since that line isn't included in Rufus' version. No particular point here, just, well, 'Talk'. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 01:55, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone recorded a cover with these lyrics yet? I had kind of assumed that would happen soon after this was posted. --[[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 04:14, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Control Shift H ==<br />
https://defkey.com/what-means/ctrl-shift-h shows the shortcut action in 113 programs. (Who knew there was a website devoted to keyboard shortcuts?) In Firefox, it shows your history as soon has you hit the H. (I like to think that Randall uses good ol' open source Firefox.) Your history will show the current XKCD page first, of course, but that listing does not include the word "HALLELUJAH." The next keydown is interpreted as a separate keystroke. Nothing interesting happens with the 8 permutations of Ctrl-Shift (up or down) and (left arrow, numpad left, left tab, backspace). I was kinda hoping that Mozilla had secretly conspired to tweak this keystroke combination in the last update. In short, I have nothing to add to the explanation, but not for lack of trying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.187|108.162.219.187]] 23:52, 19 February 2022 (UTC) (This is my first explainxkcd comment. I'll properly sign up before I comment again.)<br />
<br />
We can add a javascript snippet that captures this keychord and shows "Hallelujah" on this website, right :P<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.188.81|172.70.188.81]] 04:46, 20 February 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2583:_Chorded_Keyboard&diff=227274Talk:2583: Chorded Keyboard2022-02-20T05:47:16Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Why is it H+<Left> rather than H+<Right>? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:22, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Probably for the rhyme with "Shift" in the previous verse. In terms of practicality, though, I agree — <Right> would make more sense for a real keychord. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.154}}<br />
::A pity Shift and Left don't rhyme very well. But then neither do Chord and Word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 03:41, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::It works if you're from New Zealand. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.16|162.158.111.16]] 10:37, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Wow, I totally missed that {{w|near rhyme}}. It's not quite so bad if you sing it, though. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:46, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::: Eh, {{w|Tom Lehrer}}'s certainly done much worse slant rhymes. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 03:55, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Sadly, too, there was the opportunity for "The other hand, hits H and ''lift.''" Alas. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 04:23, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I don't know about other people, but I can reach H+<Left> on my keyboard with the index finger and pinky of my right hand, but H+<Right> requires thumb and pinky and doing something terribly awkward with my wrist. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.161|172.70.110.161]] 06:51, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I added some (necessary?) additional contextualising of how it mirrors the original song, consider it a bridge/middle-eight, so that those who still don't quite get that bit of popular culture get a bit more of the idea than before.<br />
::In the process I made an executive decision to comment about the rhyming (or not) along the way.<br />
::...but I strayed into 'Cueball's Computer Problems' territory, and then noticed (sorry, missed it before diving in) that it's mentioned again (but chronologically before!) at the the end of the explanation. I'm not quite sure how to remove the redundancy. The lyrical trailing-off really needs to mention this, I feel, but removing repetitions from the other person's text will need extra thought too. If someone gets in there before I do and modifies either/both of the sections nicely then that'll be Ok, but I'll try to revisit it myself (and {{wiktionary|kill_one%27s_darlings|'kill my darlings'}} if necessary) if nobody else sees fit to in my stead. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 19:02, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:presumably he programmed his keyboard to use chord-logic for ALL common words.... if he has ctrl, alt, shift, and at least two special function keys, such as win and alt-gr.... that's 2^5=32 possible signal combinations from function keys. if he uses the 8 direction keys on the numeric keypad, that's 32*8= 256 possibilities for command modifiers to each letter. So, in theory, he could program in an unique combination of key strokes that chooses between the 256 most common words that begin with each letter, totaling 6656 possible words that can by typed using chording.<br />
The combination that results in "hallelujah" just happens to be ctrl-shift-h-left. hopefully there's a graphical prompt which shows you the 8 possible current words to choose from, given the most recent combination of function keys and a given letter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 05:47, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
::I happen to know that if you're typing in Japanese phonetic letters using MS Word, there are actually so many homonym words which have different logographic symbols, and different meanings, but which all SOUND the same, and thus are phonetically TYPED the same, that's it actually NORMAL for Word to list a pop-up context menu with the top-8 word choices you might have just meant to enter, and require you to select one before continuing. and then it swaps out the correct logograph symbol for the phonetic symbols you just typed. I don't think it uses the numpad directional arrows to make the choice, but honestly, it would be a lot more user-friendly if it did.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.170|162.158.74.170]] 05:38, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is it steganography? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.41|108.162.237.41]] 04:03, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Stenography* [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.239|198.41.242.239]] 19:09, 19 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Ironically, having considerable knowledge of one of those covers of the song can lead to more confusion than less familiarity with any of them. My wife was recently moderately obsessed with Rufus Wainwright, including his cover of 'Hallelujah'. So when I read this comic, I didn't catch on until most of the way through what other Randall was up to. But when she read it, she caught on in the first line, and yet, didn't get the title text at all until I explained it to her (having compared some versions overnight before then), since that line isn't included in Rufus' version. No particular point here, just, well, 'Talk'. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 01:55, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone recorded a cover with these lyrics yet? I had kind of assumed that would happen soon after this was posted. --[[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 04:14, 20 February 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Control Shift H ==<br />
https://defkey.com/what-means/ctrl-shift-h shows the shortcut action in 113 programs. (Who knew there was a website devoted to keyboard shortcuts?) In Firefox, it shows your history as soon has you hit the H. (I like to think that Randall uses good ol' open source Firefox.) Your history will show the current XKCD page first, of course, but that listing does not include the word "HALLELUJAH." The next keydown is interpreted as a separate keystroke. Nothing interesting happens with the 8 permutations of Ctrl-Shift (up or down) and (left arrow, numpad left, left tab, backspace). I was kinda hoping that Mozilla had secretly conspired to tweak this keystroke combination in the last update. In short, I have nothing to add to the explanation, but not for lack of trying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.187|108.162.219.187]] 23:52, 19 February 2022 (UTC) (This is my first explainxkcd comment. I'll properly sign up before I comment again.)<br />
<br />
We can add a javascript snippet that captures this keychord and shows "Hallelujah" on this website, right :P<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.188.81|172.70.188.81]] 04:46, 20 February 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2579:_Tractor_Beam&diff=2268802579: Tractor Beam2022-02-10T12:05:49Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2579<br />
| date = February 9, 2022<br />
| title = Tractor Beam<br />
| image = tractor_beam.png<br />
| titletext = Did you base the saucer shape on pop culture depictions of aliens, or was that stuff based on your ships? Does the rotational symmetry help with ... hey, where are you going?<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by AN ANNOYING CUEBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
Cueball is being pulled into a spaceship by a beam of light, called a {{w|tractor beam}} in the title. This is a {{tvtropes|AlienAbduction|common trope}} in science fiction, and usually pretty scary for the person involved. However, while Cueball is being pulled up, he asks a series of questions about the beam, about the force on the ship, and about the ship itself. The punch line is the caption - the aliens, frustrated by Cueball's questioning, release him and move on, to presumably find a different human to abduct and study. Many people have reported {{w|Alien abduction|being abducted by aliens}} in real life, though none of these have been confirmed.{{citation needed}}<br />
<br />
The first three questions deal with the properties of the beam – how it can be controlled to pull only him (and his clothes), not anything else. He also wonders whether the beam would still continue to lift his shoes if he took them off midway. Perhaps his apparel is only rising with him because it normally stays attached to him, perhaps it is similarly levitated with equal force or impulse. Theoretically, it could only lift his clothing, with enough force to hoist him along with it, though if this was done with insufficient finesse, it could cause damage to the clothing or the person. (One would be tempted to call this a {{tvtropes|NegativeSpaceWedgie|Space Wedgie}}.) It is highly unlikely that this type of tractor beam could be used on Cueball without him realizing it, which would likely lead to him asking how the tractor beam lifted the clothes and not him.<br />
<br />
Next, Cueball asks if his weight is pulling the ship downward. This would be the case, for example, if he were hoisted upwards by a rope instead of the beam, as equal but opposite forces act against each other, but not if the beam alters the nature of his surroundings such as with {{w|The First Men in the Moon|Cavorite}} or another means of {{w|gravitational shielding}} or alteration.<br />
<br />
Then he asks what will happen if a bat flies through the beam. Things that could happen include the beam breaking (and him falling downward) due to the projected effect being interrupted, the bat being pulled up ahead of him as it enters the effective volume of the levitating beam or else nothing at all as it is outside the actual volumetric segment of the beam that is more than ambient light-effects. It may presumably have a relationship with the same focal effect as that which avoids the ground upon which he previously stood being drawn upwards.<br />
<br />
As the ship leaves, Cueball continues asking questions, as shown in the title text.<br />
<br />
Whether Cueball actually arrived onboard the ship is uncertain. If he started badgering the aliens with questions during the lift and then (as stated) was immediately set down again then he did not. Either way, they got fed up and decided to return him to the ground instead of sharing their knowledge, or just because they preferred someone less talkative. They may prefer or expect more scared, overawed, or surprised abductees but, by whatever alien criteria they judge their catches, it seems he isn't what they want.<br />
<br />
This was the third comic in less than three weeks featuring aliens using this type of flying saucer type spaceship. The other two came two comics in a row just 6 and 7 comics before this one, [[2572: Alien Observers]] and [[2573: Alien Mission]]<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A flying saucer type spacecraft hangs in the air above a flat area with scattered rocks and two hills in the background. A tractor beam emerges beneath it from a small square area on the bottom side. This goes down to the ground a bit right of the saucer, where it forms an ellipsis on the ground (presumably a circle if seen from the saucer. Cueball hangs suspended in the middle of the beam a bit closer to the ground than the saucer. His arms are held out to either side and his legs are bend behind him. He is looking up at the saucer while talking.]<br />
:Cueball: Does this beam only lift me? How do you avoid pulling up dirt and leaves and stuff? If I kick off my shoes, will they fall?<br />
:Cueball: Is my weight pulling your ship downward? What will happen if a bat flies through the beam?<br />
:Cueball: Hey, why does your ship have those blinky lights? Are they...<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:Moments later, the aliens set me back down and left.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Aliens]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2573:_Alien_Mission&diff=225835Talk:2573: Alien Mission2022-01-28T02:57:42Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
hello from Anchorage, AK![[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:24, 26 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Hi, but do remember to sign your Talk stuff, however otherwise meaningless. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 19:21, 26 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:oops forgot, just fixed it.[[User:New editor|New editor]] ([[User talk:New editor|talk]]) 19:24, 26 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I wonder whether they're also looking for Little Green Men, these aliens being themselves more of the 'bug-eyed monster' type. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 19:21, 26 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Although they follow each other there is no clear indication that the two aliens are the same. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:10, 27 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
::They bought their UFOs from the same dealership..? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.121|172.70.90.121]] 13:55, 27 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Bob's Saucer Repair: Power by Ozzie, Handling by Taz, Paint job by Topper/Pierre.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 00:19, 28 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I question the current Analysis "The humor derives from the fact that UFO enthusiasts and cryptozoology enthusiasts have a similar mindset: They both believe in phenomena that the scientific establishment declares to be baseless." At a deeper level that may be true, but the primary humor comes from (a) us not being the reason for the alien presence (we tend to assume it's all about us) and (b) the sudden absurd realization that aliens have cryptozoology enthusiasts too.--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]] 23:41, 27 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
;"Every inch of the surface"<br />
Should it be "every square inch of the surface"? {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.55}}<br />
:Yes,....yes it should.[[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 20:03, 26 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
::...but the surface of the Earth isn't square! :p [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.193|141.101.98.193]] 20:06, 26 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Insert that one story of the founding of Carthage here :) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.57|172.70.134.57]] 22:27, 26 January 2022 (UTC)Bumpf<br />
:It should be "every square meter", because who on earth (and beyond) is still using imperial units? [[User:Kimmerin|Kimmerin]] ([[User talk:Kimmerin|talk]]) 08:33, 27 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Maybe it is "every linear inch" because they have an advanced technology allowing them to scan an infinity of lines and add the results to create a surface?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.49.143|172.70.49.143]] 12:19, 27 January 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would hate myself if I didn't put in a plug for a friend's book series, Sci-Comedy genre. In Jerry Boyd's Bob and Nikki series, Bigfoot aren't native, they were dumped here by a different group of aliens that occasionally used them as slaves. They also love garlic and you can effectively trade with them. There are also Starfoot, who are used as slaves by the Commonwealth but have a planet of their own. Since DB Cooper speaks their language, he and his grandson left earth to settle there and raise garlic fields. All in all a rollicking funny series. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]])<br />
<br />
today the random button goes to https://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/ --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 02:57, 28 January 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2572:_Alien_Observers&diff=2255212572: Alien Observers2022-01-24T20:45:05Z<p>172.70.131.214: basic transcript</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2572<br />
| date = January 24, 2022<br />
| title = Alien Observers<br />
| image = alien_observers.png<br />
| titletext = ALERT: Human 910-25J-1Q38 has created a Youtube channel. Increase erratic jerkiness of flying by 30% until safely out of range.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by an UNJUSTIFIED MARTIAN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
There is speculation by many people that there could be some form of extraterrestrial life observing us, hovering around in various flying vehicles or perhaps using some form of giant telescope. these claims are often backed up by blurry pictures which claim to be of alien vehicles. the joke being made here is that the aliens are doing this on purpose, and must always meet certain conditions so that any picture taken of them will turn out badly. [this is my first explanation, i know it really sucks, if anyone sees this please fix it]<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
Alien 1: Human 38XT11-B-C54 <!-- 11 or II? --> just bought a new phone with a 10x zoom, so we have to expand our restricted flight zone by 1,800 meters to keep our ship blurry.<br />
<br />
Alien 2: Seriously? Didn't they '''''just''''' upgrade?<br />
<br />
Alien 1: I know, I know...<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2570:_Captain_Picard_Tea_Order&diff=2253992570: Captain Picard Tea Order2022-01-22T15:42:31Z<p>172.70.131.214: /* Other Words */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2570<br />
| date = January 19, 2022<br />
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order<br />
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png<br />
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.<br />
}}<br />
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A VERY ATTRACTIVE BUT NEWLY FORMED 19th CENTURY BRITISH PRIME MINISTER- Please change this comment when editing this page. There would be way too many additional [[285: Wikipedian Protester|citations needed]] for it to work here. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
Captain {{w|Jean-Luc Picard}} is a primary character in the science fiction TV series ''{{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}'', which is focused on the crew of a starship. The ship is equipped with {{w|Replicator (Star Trek)|replicators}}, which can create virtually any object or material requested, including food and drink, and which respond to verbal commands. <br />
<br />
In the show, Picard's beverage of choice is {{w|Earl Grey tea}}. His habitual method for ordering is to first specify what he wants (tea, in this case), then specify a particular type (Earl Grey), and then give specific instructions for how it is to be served (hot, as opposed to {{w|iced tea}}). Because this is his favored drink, he repeatedly places the exact order "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAT6-dY1QI Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.]" The first picture in the strip implies that the display shows each part of the order, and provides a list of options for the next step.<br />
<br />
[[Randall]] parodies this repeated order by suggesting [[#Other Words|other words]] that could follow "Tea. Earl Grey.", starting from ones he considers more "normal" moving to those he presumes increasingly "less normal" down a long and winding arrow.<br />
<br />
The results of two examples from the normal/less-normal scale are also illustrated: Sticky tea and loud tea. Sticky is kind of obvious, though perhaps not immediately understandable, the loud version is a tea that screams "Teeee..." The vibrating and screeching teacup may be a reference to the various ''Star Trek'' episodes about {{w|tribble}}s, which behave in a similar way in the presence of Klingons.<br />
<br />
The very last qualifying addition, the least normal is not a single word but "Tea for him, too." This reinterprets the meaning of the standard introductory words, suggesting that "tea", and "Earl Grey" are separate orders, which implies that he wants the replicator to produce tea, then replicate a human being named Earl Grey (either one of the {{w|Earl Grey|Earls Grey}} or a person surnamed Grey with the given name of Earl), then a second tea to serve to this newly created person. {{w|Earl Grey tea}} is named after the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey}}, a 19th century British Prime Minister, and Captain Picard possibly wishes to have said Earl be generated to provide him with company.<br />
<br />
In contrast to the often trivial use of a replicator as merely a potentially infinitely versatile vending machine, the comic sets up a number of quite esoteric options, culminating in Earl Gray himself potentially drinking (generic) tea, after both the tea and he have been replicated into existence by Picard.<br />
<br />
In the title text, someone tells Picard that they should wait until the Earl has been fully extruded from the dispenser, and ''then'' ascertain what he would actually wish to drink. The presumption is that it could take some time to get a full living person out of the replicator. This sort of operation would be better suited for the holodeck, which has been used to create simulacra of other historical figures, including Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and Sir Isaac Newton, with the limitations that they are mere simulations without their own autonomy and cannot exist beyond the limits of the fixed holotransmitters; though at least two others seem to have gained full sentience, and granted (or be convinced they were granted) physical freedom.<br />
<br />
In the various versions of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'', it's established that {{w|Replicator_(Star_Trek)#Origins_and_limitations|replicators aren't capable of producing living things}}, so canonically this version of the order could not be filled.<br />
<br />
===Other Words===<br />
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"<br />
! Word !! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| Hot<br />
| A fairly normal word to be used when ordering tea. Although that it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations (such as "Iced", below) are available. This is the chosen word of the five visible words Picard is potentially presented with in the first drawing. The act of requesting this is thus illustrated, though not of the appearance of the tea itself.<br />
|-<br />
| Iced<br />
| {{w|Iced tea}} is a typical variation of tea. In the United States, iced tea is a popular alternative to soft drinks and makes up about 85% of all tea consumed.<br />
|-<br />
| Decaf<br />
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decaffeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it. In the series ''Picard'', set several decades after ''The Next Generation'', Picard does actually order "Tea, Earl Grey, decaf" in [https://tvline.com/2020/01/26/star-trek-picard-premiere-easter-eggs-earl-grey-decaf/ one scene].<br />
|-<br />
| Good<br />
| A normal, subjective term. Most people drinking tea would want it to be good, but to specify it like this would perhaps be strange. This is one of the words in the first drawing, as a listed alternative to Hot.<br />
|-<br />
| Lukewarm<br />
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people (including Picard) do not want their teas to be lukewarm. <br />
|-<br />
| Tasty<br />
| Similar to good, most people would want their tea to be tasty, or at least flavorsome.<br />
|-<br />
| Boiled<br />
| Boiling the water used to make the tea is a common and normal way to increase the flavor and nutrients extracted from the tea leaves, though it is suggested that the actual ideal temperature of hot water is 75-98°C (167-210°F), according to whether it is a light tea or a dark one, and that perhaps it should be sipped at around 65°C/150°F-ish if desired 'hot'.<br />
Having made a tea and ''then'' bringing it back to the boil (especially after adding milk/etc.) may destroy some of the desirable qualities previously imbued. {{w|Masala chai}} is generally boiled, but would never be made with Earl Gray.<br />
|-<br />
| Watery<br />
| Tea is a drink that often involves water, but this perhaps suggests over dilution or under infusion in some way.<br />
|-<br />
| Sour<br />
| Many people do not enjoy a sour taste, which can accompany rot and is a strange thing to specify when ordering Earl Grey tea. Although lemon juice is often an additive used in the same way (but as a complete alternative) to milk.<br />
|-<br />
| Meaty<br />
| Most teas are plant-based. While teas such as {{w|beef tea}} do exist they are more generally regarded as either a soup or a medicine. Furthermore, this kind of tea would be unlikely to be Earl Grey, making this statement less normal.<br />
|-<br />
| Solid<br />
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea, unless there was a situation where it could be rehydrated later. <br />
|-<br />
| Dry<br />
| Tea is a liquid typically made with water and may have milk. A dry version might be either unmade (e.g. tea leaves in their un-infused form) or freeze-dried back into a dehydrated form.<br />
"Dry" can also be used to describe {{w|Dryness (taste)|a "mouth feel"}} in a [https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f1gxx/eli5_how_can_a_drink_taste_dry/ variety of drinks] ''or'' {{w|Prohibition|enforced alcohol-free scenarios}}. For the latter option, it can assume a default serving with an {{w|Hot_toddy#Variations|alcoholic component}}, or an entirely {{w|Long Island iced tea|alternate basis}} for the beverage, which the request needs to be specify it is not.<br />
This is one of the five words Picard was seen presented with in the first drawing.<br />
|-<br />
| Raw<br />
| This describes tea that has not been "cooked", so it would just be tea made with room-temperature water. {{w|Iced_tea#Sun_tea|Sun tea}} is a form of iced tea that can be brewed by placing tea in a large glass container with water and leaving the container in the sun for hours, resulting in a smoother flavor. A replicator could likely produce sun tea at the same speed as hot tea, making it a viable (if somewhat exotic) choice of preparation.<br />
|-<br />
| Deep-fried<br />
| Tea is not usually deep-fried. But you'll probably {{w|Deep-fried Mars bar|find someone}} who has tried it, [https://www.pitco.com/blog/deep-fried-liquids-trend one way or another].<br />
|-<br />
| Sticky<br />
| Perhaps significantly dehydrated, or thickened with enough of a hydrophilic substance, this would produce something very unlike most teas that would usually be requested. For example, the addition of significant amounts of sugar may lead to a more viscous brew.<br />
This scenario is illustrated to show a clearly messy product that awkwardly sticks to and drips from the replicator as well as Picard.<br />
|-<br />
| Grilled<br />
| Tea is not usually grilled.<br />
|-<br />
| Fossilized<br />
| Fossilizing leaves replaces their biological molecules with minerals. Brewing fossilized tea leaves would dissolve some of those and produce a beverage that resembles mineral water more than tea.<br />
|-<br />
| Magnetic<br />
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink. In addition, consuming more than one magnetic source may end up squeezing tissues in the intestines or bowels, with potentially lethal consequences. However, this would not be the {{w|Irn-Bru|first drink}} to be supplemented with iron.<br />
|-<br />
| Ballistic<br />
| Usually, the replicated beverage is deposited in a stationary cup, but Picard could ask for it to be dropped or thrown out instead.<br />
|-<br />
| Unstable<br />
| This word is often used to refer to radioactive or explosive materials, which hopefully is not a property that would apply to something meant to be ingested. Alternatively, this could imply that the receptacle into which the tea is delivered should be unstable - being unbalanced, or lacking a flat bottom. This is likely to lead to the tea being spilled.<br />
|-<br />
| Blessed<br />
| Tea is a beverage, and it may be strange to ask a machine to create 'blessed' tea. However, if the machine were to use holy water, already blessed by a human, it is [https://www.quora.com/When-does-Holy-water-lose-its-Holiness-If-its-boiled-is-the-resulting-water-vapor-still-considered-Holy-Does-it-lose-its-Holy-property-when-it-transfers-into-a-gas-Is-it-still-Holy-when-it%E2%80%99s-frozen#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20as%20long,else%2C%20it%20remains%20holy%20water.&text=a%20simple%20change-,Never.,He%20is%20faithful possible] for it to remain "blessed" after the water is used to make tea. It is also possible that this is a reference to tea which could be used in [http://www.archbishoplefebvre.com/blog/baptism-can-i-use-any-liquid baptism].<br />
In role-playing games, items can be Blessed, i.e. having greater positive or lesser negative effects. This includes potions, a class of drinks that do not usually include any teas but could contain the "potion of water", which may also, therefore, be the basis of this blessed brew.<br />
|-<br />
| Blurry<br />
| Being blurry is not a normal state for tea to have. Cloudy, on the other hand, is quite normal for certain brews.<br />
|-<br />
| Loud<br />
| While molecules in tea (especially hot tea, and vitally so in an {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel)|Infinite Improbability Drive}}) do move vigorously, this does not usually result in distinct audible effects.<br />
However, as illustrated, it seems the requested cup of tea is produced capable of emitting a high-pitched, high-volume whining sound that entirely dominates the vicinity. It actually appears to somewhat vocalize what it is, Teeeee...<br />
|-<br />
| Virtual<br />
| Virtual tea cannot be produced physically, so asking a physical tea machine for it would be very strange. However, it might be useful on the holodeck, a device that can produce a virtual environment able to be interacted with.<br />
|-<br />
| Intravenous<br />
| This means the tea would be injected directly into the customer's veins, likely a very painful experience if the tea comes out boiling. Instrument of choice would probably be a {{w|Infuser|''tea infuser''}}. <br />
|-<br />
| Expanding<br />
| In a sense, most hot tea is expanding: as the water in the tea evaporates, it becomes much less dense, increasing in "size". <br />
But most people would probably argue that the evaporated water is no longer part of the tea. Water, like most materials, usually expands as it increases in temperature—except between freezing and about 4° C, where it has the unusual property of {{w|Water_%28molecule%29#Density_of_water_and_ice|''contracting slightly''}} as temperature increases. If tea behaves similarly despite the extra dissolved compounds, then "expanding tea" would describe any tea between 4° C and boiling point. Possibly beyond, and explosively so, if {{w|Superheating|superheated}} and then nucleating points are introduced.<br />
On the other hand, this tea may simply be tea spilled on the floor, which could then spread out as it evaporated.<br />
|-<br />
| Ironic<br />
| How tea could be ironic will be a mystery if your culture has no understanding of irony. The irony of the most celebrated Frenchman in science fiction history delighting in a very British beverage is a nice touch of cosmopolitanism. There is also a possibility that the tea will speak or otherwise communicate in ironic terms. While this is very strange and unlikely, it can be considered, given the other scenarios on this list.<br />
|-<br />
| Segmented<br />
| Tea is usually served in a cup. There is the simple explanation that the cup is divided into segments, though this is the cup, and not technically the tea itself. Tea tends to stick together and form one liquid making it hard to segment. Separating the tea into segments would not be possible without some form of an emulsifying gel.<br />
|-<br />
| Verbose<br />
| This describes using lots of words and language, and would not likely be used for tea, because it cannot speak. Command-line computer programs often run in a 'silent' mode without displaying every step of what happens on the screen. Such programs may have a {{w|Verbose mode|''-verbose'' parameter}} that disables the silent mode. As the replicator is run by a computer, the verbose parameter could be applied to the process of tea-making, with the replicator providing an info-dump on the molecular arrangement of the tea, together with the cup of liquid.<br />
|-<br />
| Cursed<br />
| As with "Blessed", above, items can be Cursed in role-playing games, i.e. having greater negative or lesser positive effects; while there are strategic uses for Cursed items, generally the player would prefer uncursed ones (neutral or blessed). Amongst curseable items are potions, a class of consumables that do not usually include any teas but does contain the "potion of water", which may therefore be the cause of this cursed cuppa.<br />
Cursed items have featured in xkcd previously: [[2332: Cursed Chair]], [[2376: Curbside]], and [[:Category:Cursed Connectors]].<br />
<br />
"Cursed items" are more vaguely defined in real life, making "cursed tea" something rare. However, it is possible for a drink to be [https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-know-if-my-drink-had-a-witchs-hex-potion hexed].<br />
|-<br />
| Unexpected<br />
| By definition, Picard is asking for tea, expecting it promptly. Perhaps the request for it to be "unexpected" would cause it to be delivered at an unknown time in the future, or to have some alteration.<br />
|-<br />
| Bipedal<br />
| Bipedal organisms have two feet. As tea does not walk, this would be a very strange term to use when describing tea. <br />
|-<br />
| Afraid<br />
| Tea does not have feelings. Although water {{w|Water memory|may remember things}} (at least pseudo-scientifically) or [https://www.quotes.net/mquote/901305 consider some things to be unpleasant].<br />
|-<br />
| Infinite<br />
| The scope of this request is unclear. It could mean endless production (a steady stream of tea, without obvious limits so long as servicing the request remains practical), an instantaneous production of an infinite volume of tea (possibly more immediately shown to be flawed in its method of execution), or tea which will exceed the heat death of the universe. Either could result in an infinitely ''dense'' tea (eventually?), but this may no longer be {{w|No-hair theorem|identifiable as tea}} so might be one of the less practical options, even amongst those on this list.<br />
Indeed, Randall ranks it as the least 'normal', except for just ''one'' further named order.<br />
|-<br />
| Tea for him, too<br />
| {{w|Earl Grey tea|Earl Grey}} is a tea blend. In Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard often offers tea to other people, so it is unclear why this would be the least normal.<br />
Taken along with the title text, this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|2<sup>nd</sup> Earl}} for whom the tea blend was supposedly named) and a second such beverage for him to later drink. See more in the [[#Explanation|explanation]] above regarding the title text<br />
|-<br />
! colspan="2" | Words Picard could have seen in the first drawing, but which were not included as labels on the line<br />
|-<br />
| Cold<br />
| Like Iced tea, asking for cold tea is a relatively normal request.<br />
|-<br />
| Pink<br />
| Earl grey is usually an orange-brown color, not pink. There are, however, a wide variety of [https://www.adagio.com/search/index.html?query=rose teas which come from pink leaves] or [https://www.flourandspiceblog.com/karachi-style-kashmiri-chai-pink-tea/ whose color is "pinkish"].<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[At the top of the panel, there is a large caption covering two lines with a sub-caption below in a normal-sized font:]<br />
:<big>Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"</big><br />
:From most normal to least<br />
<br />
:[Bellow this we see Picard, drawn bald except for a bit of hair near his ears and behind his head. He stands next to a machine, which is a standing rectangle of the same dimensions as Picard. In the front, there is an opening around the middle, a dispenser from where the ordered items can be retrieved. There is a label at the top of the machine. Picard is giving a command to the machine. His first three words are clearly spoken out as they stand, but then at the end of the sentence, instead of just adding one more word, there is a list of five words in a column between two gray lines. Five words are visible, but the top and bottom words are fading out, presumably other words are above and below, but no longer visible. All except the middle are gray. The middle word is placed as the direct follow up to the first three words in the sentence Picard speaks out, and this word is black like the previous three words. So this middle word is clearly the one he actually speaks out. The others were options, presumably on his mind.]<br />
:Label: Replicator<br />
:Picard: <br />
<font color="Gray">Good.</font><br />
<font color="Gray">Cold.</font><br />
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.<br />
<font color="Gray">Dry.</font><br />
<font color="Gray">Pink.</font><br />
<br />
:[To the left of the machine, a long arrow begins snaking its way towards the bottom, where it ends in an arrow pointing down towards the bottom of the panel. At the top, there is a broad and thick bar from which it starts. Beneath this there are several ticks, the first three are close together and on a part of the arrow that goes almost straight down. But then the arrow curves in under the drawing of Picard, and goes over another drawing of him, placed in a captioned frame. The arrow goes around this and up on the other side, where it goes around another drawing of Picard in a similarly captioned frame. After having gone around this frame it goes a bit up before turning almost straight down before the final arrowhead that points down. In total there are 36 labeled ticks on the arrow, see labels below. The ticks have very varying distances between them. There are especially long between them around the first panels with Picard, but closer together at the start and towards the very end. Above the top bar from where the arrow starts there is also a label and just below this and to the left of the long arrow is a smaller arrow pointing down in the direction of the long arrow. This small arrow has a label at its starting point.]<br />
:Bar label: Normal<br />
:Small arrow label: Less normal<br />
<br />
:[The second drawing of Picard, shows him standing next to the labeled machine. Picard is this time holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine to the cup. He clearly looks down at the cup rather than on the machine, as the hair behind his ear is turned differently than the first drawing, where he looks straight towards the machine. Above is a label inside a frame overlaid on the top line of the panel, with what Picard ordered:]<br />
:"Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky."<br />
:Label: Replicator<br />
<br />
:[The third drawing of Picard, only displays him and not the machine. He is holding a vibrating cup in both hands and has now turned the other way, away from where the machine was in the previous drawings (again clearly seen by his hair). Very large letters are displayed in three lines behind him to the exclusion of all else. Four of the 15 letters are partly hidden behind the panel's frame, and seven of them are partly covered by Picard. Above is a label inside a frame overlaid on the top line of the panel, with what Picard ordered:]<br />
:"Tea. Earl Grey. Loud."<br />
:Teacup: <big>'''Teeeeeeeeeeeeee'''</big><br />
<br />
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish:]<br />
:Hot<br />
:Iced<br />
:Decaf<br />
:Good<br />
:Lukewarm<br />
:Tasty<br />
:Boiled<br />
:Watery<br />
:Sour<br />
:Meaty<br />
:Solid<br />
:Dry<br />
:Raw<br />
:Deep-fried<br />
:Sticky<br />
:Grilled<br />
:Fossilized<br />
:Magnetic<br />
:Ballistic<br />
:Unstable<br />
:Blessed<br />
:Blurry<br />
:Loud<br />
:Virtual<br />
:Intravenous<br />
:Expanding<br />
:Ironic<br />
:Segmented<br />
:Verbose<br />
:Cursed<br />
:Unexpected<br />
:Bipedal<br />
:Afraid<br />
:Infinite<br />
:Tea for him, too<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Star Trek]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2571:_Hydraulic_Analogy&diff=225295Talk:2571: Hydraulic Analogy2022-01-22T05:48:55Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text, although adding to it is perfectly fine. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Is it significant that the Cueball giving the prize just says "The Nobel Prize" without specifying which one? Did the Cueball who discovered this machine get all the Nobel Prizes? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 05:48, 22 January 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2570:_Captain_Picard_Tea_Order&diff=2251362570: Captain Picard Tea Order2022-01-20T20:40:08Z<p>172.70.131.214: explained what a holodeck is</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2570<br />
| date = January 19, 2022<br />
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order<br />
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png<br />
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.<br />
}}<br />
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by A VERY ATTRACTIVE BUT NEWLY FORMED 19th CENTURY BRITISH PRIME MINISTER- Please change this comment when editing this page. There would be way too many additional [[285: Wikipedian Protester|citations needed]] for it to work here. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
Captain {{w|Jean-Luc Picard}} is a primary character in the in the science fiction TV series ''{{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}'', which is focused on the crew of a starship. The ship is equipped with {{w|Replicator (Star Trek)|replicators}}, which can create virtually any object or material requested, including food and drink, and which responds to verbal commands. <br />
<br />
In the show, Picard's beverage of choice is {{w|Earl Grey tea}}. His habitual method for ordering is to first specify what he wants (tea, in this case), then specify a particular type (Earl Grey), and then give specific instructions for how it is to be served (hot, as opposed to {{w|iced tea}}). Because this is his favored drink, he repeatedly places the exact order "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAT6-dY1QI Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.]" The first picture in the strip implies that the display shows each part of the order, and provides a list of options for the next step.<br />
<br />
[[Randall]] parodies this repeated order by suggesting [[#Other Words|other words]] that could follow "Tea. Earl Grey.", starting from ones considered "normal" moving to those presumed increasingly "less normal" down a long and winding arrow.<br />
<br />
The results of two examples from the normal/less-normal scale are also illustrated: Sticky tea and loud tea. Sticky is kind of obvious, though perhaps not immediately understandable, but the loud version is a tea that screams "Teeee..." The vibrating and screeching teacup may be a reference to the various ''Star Trek'' episodes about {{w|tribble}}s, which behave in a similar way in the presence of Klingons.<br />
<br />
The very last qualifying addition, the least normal is not a single word but "Tea for him, too." This reinterprets the meaning of the standard introductory words, suggesting that "tea", and "Earl Grey" are separate orders, which implies that he wants the replicator to produce tea, then replicate a human being named Earl Grey (either one of the {{w|Earl Grey|Earls Grey}} or a person named Grey with the given title of Earl), then a second tea to serve to this newly created person. {{w|Earl Grey tea}} is named after the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey}}, a 19th century British Prime Minister, and Captain Picard apparently wishes to have said Earl be generated to provide him with company.<br />
<br />
In contrast to the often trivial use of a replicator as merely a potentially infinitely versatile vending machine, the comic sets up a number of quite esoteric options, culminating in Earl Gray himself potentially drinking (generic) tea, after both the tea and he have been replicated into existence by Picard.<br />
<br />
In the title text, someone tells Picard that they should wait until the Earl has been fully extruded from the dispenser, and ''then'' ascertain what he would actually wish to drink. The presumption is that it could take some time to get a full living person out of the replicator. <br />
<br />
In the various versions of ''{{w|Star Trek}}'', it's established that {{w|Replicator_(Star_Trek)#Origins_and_limitations|replicators aren't capable of producing living things}}, so this version of the order would not be canonically possible.<br />
<br />
===Other Words===<br />
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"<br />
! Word !! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| Hot<br />
| A fairly normal word to be used when ordering tea. Although that it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations (such as "Iced", below) are available. This is the chosen word of the five visible words Picard is potentially presented with in the first drawing. The act of requesting this is thus illustrated, though not of the appearance of the tea itself.<br />
|-<br />
| Iced<br />
| {{w|Iced Tea}} is a 'normal' variation of tea.<br />
|-<br />
| Decaf<br />
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decaffeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it. In the series ''Picard'', set several decades after ''The Next Generation'', Picard does actually order "Tea, Earl Grey, decaf" in [https://tvline.com/2020/01/26/star-trek-picard-premiere-easter-eggs-earl-grey-decaf/ one scene].<br />
|-<br />
| Good<br />
| A normal, subjective term. Most people drinking tea would want it to be good, but to specify it like this would perhaps be strange. This is one of the words in the first drawing, as a listed alternative to Hot.<br />
|-<br />
| Lukewarm<br />
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people (including Picard) do not want their teas to be lukewarm. <br />
|-<br />
| Tasty<br />
| Similar to good, most people would want their tea to be tasty, or at least flavorsome.<br />
|-<br />
| Boiled<br />
| Boiling the water used to make the tea is a common and normal way to increase the flavor and nutrients extracted from the tea leaves, though it is suggested that the actual ideal temperature of hot water is 75-98°C (167-210°F), according to whether it is a light tea or a dark one, and that perhaps it should be sipped at around 65°C/150°F-ish if desired 'hot'.<br />
Having made a tea and ''then'' bringing it back to the boil (especially after adding milk/etc.) may destroy some of the desirable qualities previously imbued.<br />
|-<br />
| Watery<br />
| Tea is a drink that often involves water, but this perhaps suggests over dilution or under infusion in some way.<br />
|-<br />
| Sour<br />
| Many people do not enjoy a sour taste, which can accompany rot and is a strange thing to specify when ordering Earl Grey tea. Although lemon juice is often an additive used in the same way (but as a complete alternative) to milk.<br />
|-<br />
| Meaty<br />
| Most teas are plant-based.<br />
|-<br />
| Solid<br />
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea, unless there was a situation where it could be rehydrated later. <br />
|-<br />
| Dry<br />
| Tea is a liquid typically made with water and may have milk. A dry version might be either unmade (e.g. tea leaves in their un-infused form) or freeze-dried back into a dehydrated form.<br />
"Dry" can also be used to describe {{w|Dryness (taste)|a "mouth feel"}} in a [https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f1gxx/eli5_how_can_a_drink_taste_dry/ variety of drinks] ''or'' {{w|Prohibition|enforced alcohol-free scenarios}}. For the latter option, it can assume a default serving with an {{w|Hot_toddy#Variations|alcoholic component}}, or an entirely {{w|Long Island iced tea|alternate basis}} for the beverage, which the request needs to be specify it is not.<br />
This is one of the five words Picard was seen presented with in the first drawing.<br />
|-<br />
| Raw<br />
| This describes tea that has not been "cooked", so it would just be tea made with room-temperature water. This is {{w|Iced_tea#Sun_tea|possible}} but generally takes many hours.<br />
|-<br />
| Deep-fried<br />
| Tea is not usually deep-fried. But you'll probably {{w|Deep-fried Mars bar|find someone}} who has tried it, [https://www.pitco.com/blog/deep-fried-liquids-trend one way or another].<br />
|-<br />
| Sticky<br />
| Perhaps significantly dehydrated, or thickened with enough of a hydrophilic substance, this would produce something very unlike most teas that would usually be requested. For example, the addition of significant amounts of sugar may lead to a more viscious brew.<br />
This scenario is illustrated to show a clearly messy product that awkwardly sticks to and drips from the replicator as well as Picard.<br />
|-<br />
| Grilled<br />
| Tea is not usually grilled. However, Americans once decided to throw a tea party where the tea was brewed in the Atlantic Ocean so all bets are off.<br />
|-<br />
| Fossilized<br />
| Since tea is a liquid, it would be tricky to figure out how to fossilize it.<br />
|-<br />
| Magnetic<br />
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink. However, this would not be the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irn-Bru first drink] to be supplemented with iron.<br />
|-<br />
| Ballistic<br />
| Usually, the replicated beverage is deposited in a stationary cup, but Picard could ask for it to be dropped or thrown out instead.<br />
|-<br />
| Unstable<br />
| This word is often used to refer to radioactive or explosive materials, which hopefully is not a property that would apply to something meant to be ingested. Alternatively, this could imply that the receptacle into which the tea is delivered should be unstable - being unbalanced, or lacking a flat bottom. This is likely to lead to the tea being spilled.<br />
|-<br />
| Blessed<br />
| Tea is a beverage, and it may be strange to ask a machine to create 'blessed' tea. However, if the machine were to use holy water, already blessed by a human, it is [https://www.quora.com/When-does-Holy-water-lose-its-Holiness-If-its-boiled-is-the-resulting-water-vapor-still-considered-Holy-Does-it-lose-its-Holy-property-when-it-transfers-into-a-gas-Is-it-still-Holy-when-it%E2%80%99s-frozen#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20as%20long,else%2C%20it%20remains%20holy%20water.&text=a%20simple%20change-,Never.,He%20is%20faithful possible] for it to remain "blessed" after the water is used to make tea. It is also possible that this is a reference to tea which could be used in [http://www.archbishoplefebvre.com/blog/baptism-can-i-use-any-liquid baptism].<br />
In role-playing games, items can be Blessed, i.e. having greater positive or lesser negative effects. This includes potions, a class of drinks that do not usually include any teas but could contain the "potion of water", which may also, therefore, be the basis of this blessed brew.<br />
|-<br />
| Blurry<br />
| Being blurry is not a normal state for tea to have. Cloudy, on the other hand, is quite normal for certain brews.<br />
|-<br />
| Loud<br />
| While molecules in tea (especially hot tea, and vitally so in an {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel)|Infinite Improbability Drive}}) do move vigorously, this does not usually result in distinct audible effects.<br />
However, as illustrated, it seems the requested cup of tea is produced capable of emitting a high-pitched, high-volume whining sound that entirely dominates the vicinity. It actually appears to somewhat vocalize what it is, Teeeee...<br />
|-<br />
| Virtual<br />
| Virtual tea cannot be produced physically, so asking a physical tea machine for it would be very strange. However, it might be useful on the holodeck, a device that can produce a virtual environment able to be interacted with.<br />
|-<br />
| Intravenous<br />
| This means the tea would be injected directly into the customer's veins, likely a very painful experience if the tea comes out boiling. Instrument of choice would probably be a {{w|Infuser|''tea infuser''}}. <br />
|-<br />
| Expanding<br />
| In a sense, most hot tea is expanding: as the water in the tea evaporates, it becomes much less dense, increasing in "size". <br />
But most people would probably argue that the evaporated water is no longer part of the tea. Water, like most materials, usually expands as it increases in temperature—except between freezing and about 4° C, where it has the unusual property of {{w|Water_%28molecule%29#Density_of_water_and_ice|''contracting slightly''}} as temperature increases. If tea behaves similarly despite the extra dissolved compounds, then "expanding tea" would describe any tea between 4° C and boiling point. Possibly beyond, and explosively so, if {{w|Superheating|superheated}} and then nucleating points are introduced.<br />
On the other hand, this tea may simply be tea spilled on the floor, which could then spread out as it evaporated.<br />
|-<br />
| Ironic<br />
| How tea could be ironic will be a mystery if your culture has no understanding of irony. The irony of the most celebrated Frenchman in science fiction history delighting in a very British beverage is a nice touch of cosmopolitanism.<br />
|-<br />
| Segmented<br />
| Tea is usually served in a cup. It tends to stick together and form one liquid. Separating the tea into segments would not be possible without some form of an emulsifying gel.<br />
|-<br />
| Verbose<br />
| This describes using lots of words and language, and would not likely be used for tea, because it cannot speak. Command-line computer programs often run in a 'silent' mode without displaying every step of what happens on the screen. Such programs may have a {{w|Verbose mode|''-verbose'' parameter}} that disables the silent mode. As the replicator is run by a computer, the verbose parameter could be applied to the process of tea-making, with the replicator providing an info-dump on the molecular arrangement of the tea, together with the cup of liquid.<br />
|-<br />
| Cursed<br />
| As with "Blessed", above, items can be Cursed in role-playing games, i.e. having greater negative or lesser positive effects; while there are strategic uses for Cursed items, generally the player would prefer uncursed ones (neutral or blessed). Amongst the curseable items are potions, a class of consumables that do not usually include any teas but does contain the "potion of water", which may therefore be the cause of this cursed cuppa.<br />
Cursed items have featured in xkcd previously: [[2332: Cursed Chair]], [[2376: Curbside]], and [[:Category:Cursed Connectors]].<br />
<br />
"Cursed items" are more vaguely defined in real life, making "cursed tea" something rare. However, it is possible for a drink to be [https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-know-if-my-drink-had-a-witchs-hex-potion hexed].<br />
|-<br />
| Unexpected<br />
| By definition, Picard is asking for tea, expecting it promptly. Perhaps the request for it to be "unexpected" would cause it to be delivered at an unknown time in the future, or to have some alteration.<br />
|-<br />
| Bipedal<br />
| Bipedal organisms have two feet. As tea does not walk, this would be a very strange term to use when describing tea. <br />
|-<br />
| Afraid<br />
| Tea does not have feelings. Although water {{w|Water memory|may remember things}} (at least pseudo-scientifically) or [https://www.quotes.net/mquote/901305 consider some things to be unpleasant].<br />
|-<br />
| Infinite<br />
| The scope of this request is unclear. It could mean endless production (a steady stream of tea, without obvious limits so long as servicing the request remains practical), an instantaneous production of an infinite volume of tea (possibly more immediately shown to be flawed in its method of execution), or tea which will exceed the heat death of the universe. Either could result in an infinitely ''dense'' tea (eventually?), but this may no longer be {{w|No-hair theorem|identifiable as tea}} so might be one of the less practical options, even amongst those on this list.<br />
Indeed, Randall ranks it as the least 'normal', except for just ''one'' further named order.<br />
|-<br />
| Tea for him, too<br />
| {{w|Earl Grey tea|Earl Grey}} is a tea blend. In Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard often offers tea to other people, so it is unclear why this would be the least normal.<br />
Taken along with the title text, this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the {{w|Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|2<sup>nd</sup> Earl}} for whom the tea blend was supposedly named) and a second such beverage for him to later drink. See more in the [[#Explanation|explanation]] above regarding the title text<br />
|-<br />
! colspan="2" | Words Picard could have seen in the first drawing, but which were not included as labels on the line<br />
|-<br />
| Cold<br />
| Like Iced tea, asking for cold tea is a relatively normal request.<br />
|-<br />
| Pink<br />
| Earl grey is usually an orange-brown color, not pink. There are, however, a wide variety of [https://www.adagio.com/search/index.html?query=rose teas which come from pink leaves] or [https://www.flourandspiceblog.com/karachi-style-kashmiri-chai-pink-tea/ whose color is "pinkish"].<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[At the top of the panel, there is a large caption covering two lines with a sub-caption below in a normal-sized font:]<br />
:<big>Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"</big><br />
:From most normal to least<br />
<br />
:[Bellow this we see Picard, drawn bald except for a bit of hair near his ears and behind his head. He stands next to a machine, which is a standing rectangle of the same dimensions as Picard. In the front, there is an opening around the middle, a dispenser from where the ordered items can be retrieved. There is a label at the top of the machine. Picard is giving a command to the machine. His first three words are clearly spoken out as they stand, but then at the end of the sentence, instead of just adding one more word, there is a list of five words in a column between two gray lines. Five words are visible, but the top and bottom words are fading out, presumably other words are above and below, but no longer visible. All except the middle are gray. The middle word is placed as the direct follow up to the first three words in the sentence Picard speaks out, and this word is black like the previous three words. So this middle word is clearly the one he actually speaks out. The others were options, presumably on his mind.]<br />
:Label: Replicator<br />
:Picard: <br />
<font color="Gray">Good.</font><br />
<font color="Gray">Cold.</font><br />
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.<br />
<font color="Gray">Dry.</font><br />
<font color="Gray">Pink.</font><br />
<br />
:[To the left of the machine, a long arrow begins snaking its way towards the bottom, where it ends in an arrow pointing down towards the bottom of the panel. At the top, there is a broad and thick bar from which it starts. Beneath this there are several ticks, the first three are close together and on a part of the arrow that goes almost straight down. But then the arrow curves in under the drawing of Picard, and goes over another drawing of him, placed in a captioned frame. The arrow goes around this and up on the other side, where it goes around another drawing of Picard in a similarly captioned frame. After having gone around this frame it goes a bit up before turning almost straight down before the final arrowhead that points down. In total there are 36 labeled ticks on the arrow, see labels below. The ticks have very varying distances between them. There are especially long between them around the first panels with Picard, but closer together at the start and towards the very end. Above the top bar from where the arrow starts there is also a label and just below this and to the left of the long arrow is a smaller arrow pointing down in the direction of the long arrow. This small arrow has a label at its starting point.]<br />
:Bar label: Normal<br />
:Small arrow label: Less normal<br />
<br />
:[The second drawing of Picard, shows him standing next to the labeled machine. Picard is this time holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine to the cup. He clearly looks down at the cup rather than on the machine, as the hair behind his ear is turned differently than the first drawing, where he looks straight towards the machine. Above is a label inside a frame overlaid on the top line of the panel, with what Picard ordered:]<br />
:"Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky."<br />
:Label: Replicator<br />
<br />
:[The third drawing of Picard, only displays him and not the machine. He is holding a vibrating cup in both hands and has now turned the other way, away from where the machine was in the previous drawings (again clearly seen by his hair). Very large letters are displayed in three lines behind him to the exclusion of all else. Four of the 15 letters are partly hidden behind the panel's frame, and seven of them are partly covered by Picard. Above is a label inside a frame overlaid on the top line of the panel, with what Picard ordered:]<br />
:"Tea. Earl Grey. Loud."<br />
:Teacup: <big>'''Teeeeeeeeeeeeee'''</big><br />
<br />
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish:]<br />
:Hot<br />
:Iced<br />
:Decaf<br />
:Good<br />
:Lukewarm<br />
:Tasty<br />
:Boiled<br />
:Watery<br />
:Sour<br />
:Meaty<br />
:Solid<br />
:Dry<br />
:Raw<br />
:Deep-fried<br />
:Sticky<br />
:Grilled<br />
:Fossilized<br />
:Magnetic<br />
:Ballistic<br />
:Unstable<br />
:Blessed<br />
:Blurry<br />
:Loud<br />
:Virtual<br />
:Intravenous<br />
:Expanding<br />
:Ironic<br />
:Segmented<br />
:Verbose<br />
:Cursed<br />
:Unexpected<br />
:Bipedal<br />
:Afraid<br />
:Infinite<br />
:Tea for him, too<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Star Trek]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>172.70.131.214https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2570:_Captain_Picard_Tea_Order&diff=2249422570: Captain Picard Tea Order2022-01-19T23:46:11Z<p>172.70.131.214: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2570<br />
| date = January 19, 2022<br />
| title = Captain Picard Tea Order<br />
| image = captain_picard_tea_order.png<br />
| titletext = We can ask the Earl for his order once he's fully extruded from the dispenser.<br />
}}<br />
*This was the fifth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by EXTRUDED EARL GREY- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
Captain {{w|Jean-Luc Picard}} is the captain of the starship ''USS Enterprise'' in the TV series ''{{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}''. It appears that {{w|Earl Grey tea}} is a beverage that he requests many times in the series, with the exact phrase "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaAT6-dY1QI Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.]" Randall is parodying this expression with other words that could follow "Tea. Earl Grey."<br />
<br />
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=1 class="wikitable"<br />
! Word !! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| Hot<br />
| A fairly normal word to be used when ordering tea. Although that it even needs specifying is itself a clue that other variations (such as "Iced", below) are availablee. <br />
|-<br />
| Iced<br />
| {{w|Iced Tea}} is a 'normal' variation of tea.<br />
|-<br />
| Decaf<br />
| Traditional teas (from {{w|Camellia sinensis}}) tend to have caffeine in them. Asking for {{w|Decaffeination|decafeinated}} tea is not particularly uncommon if the drinker requires it.<br />
|-<br />
| Good<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Lukewarm<br />
| While this is a temperature that tea can be at, most people do not want their teas to be lukewarm.<br />
|-<br />
| Tasty<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Boiled<br />
| Boiling tea is a common way to increase the flavor and nutrients extracted from the tea leaves.<br />
|-<br />
| Watery<br />
| Tea is a drink that often involves water.<br />
|-<br />
| Sour<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Meaty<br />
| Most teas are plant-based.<br />
|-<br />
| Solid<br />
| Tea is usually drunk as a liquid. It would be strange to ask for solid tea.<br />
|-<br />
| Dry<br />
| Tea is a liquid usually made with water or milk. Neither is capable of being dry in the usual liquid form.<br />
|-<br />
| Raw<br />
| This describes tea that has not been "cooked", so it would just be tea made with room-temperature water.<br />
|-<br />
| Deep-fried<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Sticky<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Grilled<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Fossilized<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Magnetic<br />
| Tea is not magnetic. Magnetic metals would have to be added to the tea, which would not be pleasant to drink.<br />
|-<br />
| Ballistic<br />
| Usually, the replicated beverage is deposited in a stationary cup, but Picard could ask for it to be dropped or thrown out instead.<br />
|-<br />
| Unstable<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Blessed<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Blurry<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Loud<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Virtual<br />
| Virtual tea cannot be produced physically, so asking a physical tea machine for it would be very strange.<br />
|-<br />
| Intravenous<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Expanding<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Ironic<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Segmented<br />
| Tea is usually served in a cup. It tends to stick together and form one liquid. Separating the tea into segments would not be possible.<br />
|-<br />
| Verbose<br />
| This describes using lots of words and language, and would not likely be used for tea, because it cannot speak.{{citation needed}}<br />
|-<br />
| Cursed<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Unexpected<br />
| By definition, Picard is asking for tea, expecting it promptly. Perhaps the request for it to be "unexpected" would cause it to be delivered at an unknown time in the future, or to have some alteration.<br />
|-<br />
| Bipedal<br />
| Tea does not walk.{{citation needed}} This would be a very strange term to use when describing tea.<br />
|-<br />
| Afraid<br />
| Tea does not have feelings.<br />
|-<br />
| Infinite<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| Tea for him, too<br />
| {{w|Earl Grey tea|Earl Grey}} is a tea blend.<br />
Taken along with the context of the Titletext, this Replicator order is for "Tea" (not otherwise qualified), a replicated version ''of'' the Earl Grey (one or other of those {{w|Earl Grey|of that name}}, possibly the 2<sup>nd</sup>) and a second beverage for his own sake.<br />
|-<br />
! colspan="2" | Descriptions included in comic, but not on the line<br />
|-<br />
| Cold<br />
| Like Iced tea, asking for cold tea is a relatively normal request.<br />
|-<br />
| Pink<br />
| Earl grey is usually an orange-brown color, not pink.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[There is a line going towards the bottom of the panel in a curve with marks and words next to them. Various pictures of Captain Picard, are displayed next to the curves.]<br />
:[Caption at top of the panel:]<br />
:Other words Captain Picard tried at the end of his tea order before settling on "hot"<br />
:[Subtitle below the caption:]<br />
:From most normal to least<br />
:[Picard stands next to a machine labeled 'REPLICATOR', giving a command. Some options such as 'Good,' 'Cold,' 'Dry,' and 'Pink' are displayed perpendicularly adjacent to 'Hot', the latter clearly selected.]<br />
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.<br />
:[Below, another version of Picard standing next to the replicator is displayed. Picard is holding a cup, with sticky lines connecting his hands and the machine]<br />
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Sticky.<br />
:[This time, Picard is holding a vibrating cup and large letters are displayed in the background to the exclusion of all else.]<br />
:Picard: Tea. Earl Grey. Loud.<br />
:Teacup: '''TEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'''<br />
:[Words on the arrow from start to finish. The tail of the arrow is labeled 'Normal.' There is a parallel arrow pointing in the same direction labeled 'Less normal.']<br />
:Hot<br />
:Iced<br />
:Decaf<br />
:Good<br />
:Lukewarm<br />
:Tasty<br />
:Boiled<br />
:Watery<br />
:Sour<br />
:Meaty<br />
:Solid<br />
:Dry<br />
:Raw<br />
:Deep-fried<br />
:Sticky<br />
:Grilled<br />
:Fossilized<br />
:Magnetic<br />
:Ballistic<br />
:Unstable<br />
:Blessed<br />
:Blurry<br />
:Loud<br />
:Virtual<br />
:Intravenous<br />
:Expanding<br />
:Ironic<br />
:Segmented<br />
:Verbose<br />
:Cursed<br />
:Unexpected<br />
:Bipedal<br />
:Afraid<br />
:Infinite<br />
:Tea for him, too<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Star Trek]]</div>172.70.131.214