https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.48.103&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T15:30:30ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=893:_65_Years&diff=95164893: 65 Years2015-06-10T05:41:19Z<p>173.245.48.103: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 893<br />
| date = May 2, 2011<br />
| title = 65 Years<br />
| image = 65 years.png<br />
| titletext = The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.<br />
}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|Explain 5% percentile}}<br />
[[Randall]] is showing the number of still living humans who have walked on another world for the 65 year period that begins in 1969 (when a human first walked on the moon). Up to 2011 (when the comic was drawn), he has drawn a single line for the actual figures.<br />
<br />
For the subsequent years, he has drawn three lines using {{w|actuarial table}}s or life tables which show for each age the probability that a certain person will be alive by their next birthday. The line marked "5TH PERCENTILE" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive will be above that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be below that line. The line marked "95TH PERCENTILE" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive will be below that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be above that line. This means that there is a 5% probability that the number alive will be below the bottom line, a 90% probability that it will be between the top line and the bottom line, and a 5% probability that it will be above the top line. The middle line is not identified, but is probably the expected value for which there is a 50% probability that the number alive will be above that line and a 50% probability that the number alive will be below that line. <br />
<br />
Although the term ''other world'' would include all other worlds on which humans have walked, there is currently only one other world on which humans have walked, which is the moon. The humans that have walked there are the 12 {{w|List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon|Apollo astronauts}} who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.<br />
<br />
In particular, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed in November. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell: February 1971. David Scott and James Irwin: July 1971. John W. Young and Charles Duke: April 1972. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt: December 1972.<br />
<br />
Irwin died in 1991. Shepard and Conrad died in 1998 and 1999 respectively, making the total 9 as of the date this comic was published. Armstrong died in 2012, so the current number is 8. The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin, 83. There are two 82-year-olds, two 80s, one 78 and two 77s.<br />
<br />
The chart assumes that no other humans will go to walk on another world within the time-frame plotted and the title text implies that this is primarily an economically determined decision. While noting that not exploring space is a justifiable and sensible decision which may also be made by many hypothetical cultures on other worlds, the text implies a grandness to a civilization that would be given the opportunity to discover, study and memorialize the 'one-world graves' of other civilizations by choosing to explore space despite the economic difficulty. High five for exoplanet archaeology.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A graph titled 'Number of Living Humans Who Have Walked on Another World' - its y-axis is numbered 5, 10, 15, its x-axis increments every ten years from 1960-2040. The line of the graph has a bracket above it that says '65 Years', starting at 1969, ending in 2034.<br />
:The line starts at 1969 and increases steeply to 12 by 1972. It then plateaus until the early nineties declines gradually to 9 between 1991-1999, and then plateaus again.<br />
:From 2011-2035, which is labeled 'Projected Actuarial Tables', the line branches into three and begins to decline more steeply to zero. The area between the first and second branch is shaded and labeled '5th percentile' and the area between the second and third branch is shaded and labeled '95th percentile.']<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*The theme of actuarial projections was explored earlier in [[493: Actuarial]]; Randall's morbid python script for both was given in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ the blag].<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+Table of men who walked the moon<br />
|- style="background:#ccc;"<br />
| style="width:20px;"|<br />
| '''Name'''<br />
| '''Born'''<br />
| '''Died'''<br />
| '''Age at<br>first step'''<br />
| '''Mission'''<br />
| '''Lunar dates'''<br />
| '''Service'''<br />
| '''Alma Mater'''<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 1. || {{w|Neil Armstrong}}|| 1930-08-05 || 2012-08-25 || 38y&nbsp;11m&nbsp;15d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo&nbsp;11}} ||rowspan="2"| July&nbsp;21,&nbsp;1969 || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|University of Southern California}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 2. || {{w|Buzz Aldrin}}|| 1930-01-20 || || 39y 6m 0d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 3. || {{w|Pete Conrad}} || 1930-06-02 || 1999-07-08 || 39y 5m 17d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 12}} ||rowspan="2"| November&nbsp;19–20,&nbsp;1969 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Princeton University}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 4. || {{w|Alan Bean}}|| 1932-03-15 || || 37y 8m 4d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|University of Texas, Austin}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 5. || {{w|Alan Shepard}} || 1923-11-18 || 1998-07-21 || 47y 2m 18d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 14}} ||rowspan="2"| February 5–6, 1971 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 6. || {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}|| 1930-09-07 || || 40y 4m 19d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Carnegie Mellon University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 7. || {{w|David Scott}} || 1932-06-06 || || 39y 1m 25d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 15}} ||rowspan="2"| July&nbsp;31&nbsp;-&nbsp;August&nbsp;2,&nbsp;1971 || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|University of Michigan}} (freshman year, and later, an honorary doctorate), {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 8. || {{w|James Irwin}} || 1930-03-17 || 1991-08-08 || 41y 4m 14d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|University of Michigan}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 9. || {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young}}|| 1930-09-24 || || 41y 6m 28d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 16}} ||rowspan="2"| April 21–23, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Georgia Institute of Technology}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 10. || {{w|Charles Duke}} || 1935-10-03 || || 36y 6m 18d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 11. || {{w|Eugene Cernan}} || 1934-03-14 || || 38y 9m 7d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 17}} ||rowspan="2"| December 11–14, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 12. || {{w|Harrison Schmitt}} || 1935-07-03 || || 37y 5m 8d || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Caltech}}, {{w|University of Oslo}} (exchange), {{w|Harvard University}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]</div>173.245.48.103https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1536:_The_Martian&diff=951631536: The Martian2015-06-10T05:38:39Z<p>173.245.48.103: /* Transcript */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1536<br />
| date = June 10, 2015<br />
| title = The Martian<br />
| image = the_martian.png<br />
| titletext = I have never seen a work of fiction so perfectly capture the out-of-nowhere shock of discovering that you've just bricked something important because you didn't pay enough attention to a loose wire.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk using a computer.]<br />
:Cueball: Ooh, trailer for The Martian!<br />
:Whitehat: What's that?<br />
:Cueball: Movie of a book I liked.<br />
:Whitehat: Should I read it?<br />
:[Cueball pivots on chair and turns away from computer to face Whitehat.]<br />
:Cueball: Depends. You know the scene in Apollo 13 where the guy says "we have to figure out how to connect this thing to this thing using this table full of parts or the astronauts will all die?<br />
:Whitehat: Yeah?<br />
:[Cueball pivots on chair again and resumes using computer while talking.]<br />
:Cueball: The Martian is for people who wish the whole movie had just been more of that scene.<br />
:Whitehat: How on earth did that become a big-budget thing with Matt Damon?<br />
:Cueball: No idea, but I'm so excited.<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>173.245.48.103https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1536:_The_Martian&diff=951621536: The Martian2015-06-10T05:35:11Z<p>173.245.48.103: /* Transcript */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1536<br />
| date = June 10, 2015<br />
| title = The Martian<br />
| image = the_martian.png<br />
| titletext = I have never seen a work of fiction so perfectly capture the out-of-nowhere shock of discovering that you've just bricked something important because you didn't pay enough attention to a loose wire.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
(Cueball is sitting at a desk using a computer.)<br />
Cueball: Ooh, trailer for The Martian!<br />
Whitehat: What's that?<br />
Cueball: Movie of a book I liked.<br />
Whitehat: Should I read it?<br />
(Cueball pivots on chair and turns away from computer to face Whitehat.)<br />
Cueball: Depends. You know the scene in Apollo 13 where the guy says "we have to figure out how to connect this thing to this thing using this table full of parts or the astronauts will all die?<br />
Whitehat: Yeah?<br />
(Cueball pivots on chair again and resumes using computer while talking.)<br />
Cueball: The Martian is for people who wish the whole movie had just been more of that scene.<br />
Whitehat: How on earth did that become a big-budget thing with Matt Damon?<br />
Cueball: No idea, but I'm so excited.<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>173.245.48.103https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=893:_65_Years&diff=95161893: 65 Years2015-06-10T05:25:35Z<p>173.245.48.103: /* Explanation */ explained what 5th and 95th percentile are</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 893<br />
| date = May 2, 2011<br />
| title = 65 Years<br />
| image = 65 years.png<br />
| titletext = The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.<br />
}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|Explain 5% percentile}}<br />
[[Randall]] is showing the number of still living humans who have walked on another world for the 65 year period that begins in 1969 (when a human first walked on the moon). Up to 2011 (when the comic was drawn), he has drawn a single line for the actual figures. For the subsequent years, he has drawn three lines using {{w|actuarial table}}s or life tables which show for each age the probability that a certain person will be alive by their next birthday. The line marked "5TH PERCENTILE" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive will be above that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be below that line. The line marked "95TH PERCENTILE" indicates that there is a 95% probability that the number alive will be below that line and a 5% probability that the number alive will be above that line. The middle line is not identified, but is probably the expected value for which there is a 50% probability that the number alive will be above that line and a 50% probability that the number alive will be below that line. <br />
<br />
Although the term ''other world'' would include all other worlds on which humans have walked, there is currently only one other world on which humans have walked, which is the moon. The humans that have walked there are the 12 {{w|List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon|Apollo astronauts}} who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.<br />
<br />
In particular, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed in November. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell: February 1971. David Scott and James Irwin: July 1971. John W. Young and Charles Duke: April 1972. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt: December 1972.<br />
<br />
Irwin died in 1991. Shepard and Conrad died in 1998 and 1999 respectively, making the total 9 as of the date this comic was published. Armstrong died in 2012, so the current number is 8. The oldest living person to have landed on the moon is Aldrin, 83. There are two 82-year-olds, two 80s, one 78 and two 77s.<br />
<br />
The chart assumes that no other humans will go to walk on another world within the time-frame plotted and the title text implies that this is primarily an economically determined decision. While noting that not exploring space is a justifiable and sensible decision which may also be made by many hypothetical cultures on other worlds, the text implies a grandness to a civilization that would be given the opportunity to discover, study and memorialize the 'one-world graves' of other civilizations by choosing to explore space despite the economic difficulty. High five for exoplanet archaeology.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A graph titled 'Number of Living Humans Who Have Walked on Another World' - its y-axis is numbered 5, 10, 15, its x-axis increments every ten years from 1960-2040. The line of the graph has a bracket above it that says '65 Years', starting at 1969, ending in 2034.<br />
:The line starts at 1969 and increases steeply to 12 by 1972. It then plateaus until the early nineties declines gradually to 9 between 1991-1999, and then plateaus again.<br />
:From 2011-2035, which is labeled 'Projected Actuarial Tables', the line branches into three and begins to decline more steeply to zero. The area between the first and second branch is shaded and labeled '5th percentile' and the area between the second and third branch is shaded and labeled '95th percentile.']<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*The theme of actuarial projections was explored earlier in [[493: Actuarial]]; Randall's morbid python script for both was given in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/07/12/a-morbid-python-script/ the blag].<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+Table of men who walked the moon<br />
|- style="background:#ccc;"<br />
| style="width:20px;"|<br />
| '''Name'''<br />
| '''Born'''<br />
| '''Died'''<br />
| '''Age at<br>first step'''<br />
| '''Mission'''<br />
| '''Lunar dates'''<br />
| '''Service'''<br />
| '''Alma Mater'''<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 1. || {{w|Neil Armstrong}}|| 1930-08-05 || 2012-08-25 || 38y&nbsp;11m&nbsp;15d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo&nbsp;11}} ||rowspan="2"| July&nbsp;21,&nbsp;1969 || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|University of Southern California}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 2. || {{w|Buzz Aldrin}}|| 1930-01-20 || || 39y 6m 0d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 3. || {{w|Pete Conrad}} || 1930-06-02 || 1999-07-08 || 39y 5m 17d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 12}} ||rowspan="2"| November&nbsp;19–20,&nbsp;1969 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Princeton University}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 4. || {{w|Alan Bean}}|| 1932-03-15 || || 37y 8m 4d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|University of Texas, Austin}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 5. || {{w|Alan Shepard}} || 1923-11-18 || 1998-07-21 || 47y 2m 18d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 14}} ||rowspan="2"| February 5–6, 1971 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 6. || {{w|Edgar Mitchell}}|| 1930-09-07 || || 40y 4m 19d || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Carnegie Mellon University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 7. || {{w|David Scott}} || 1932-06-06 || || 39y 1m 25d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 15}} ||rowspan="2"| July&nbsp;31&nbsp;-&nbsp;August&nbsp;2,&nbsp;1971 || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|University of Michigan}} (freshman year, and later, an honorary doctorate), {{w|United States Military Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 8. || {{w|James Irwin}} || 1930-03-17 || 1991-08-08 || 41y 4m 14d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|University of Michigan}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 9. || {{w|John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young}}|| 1930-09-24 || || 41y 6m 28d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 16}} ||rowspan="2"| April 21–23, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Georgia Institute of Technology}}<br />
|- style="background:#def;"<br />
| 10. || {{w|Charles Duke}} || 1935-10-03 || || 36y 6m 18d || {{w|United States Air Force|Air Force}} || {{w|United States Naval Academy}}, {{w|MIT}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 11. || {{w|Eugene Cernan}} || 1934-03-14 || || 38y 9m 7d<br />
|rowspan="2"| {{w|Apollo 17}} ||rowspan="2"| December 11–14, 1972 || {{w|United States Navy|Navy}} || {{w|Purdue University}}, {{w|Naval Postgraduate School}}<br />
|- style="background:#ffe8e8;"<br />
| 12. || {{w|Harrison Schmitt}} || 1935-07-03 || || 37y 5m 8d || {{w|NASA}} || {{w|Caltech}}, {{w|University of Oslo}} (exchange), {{w|Harvard University}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]</div>173.245.48.103https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1525:_Emojic_8_Ball&diff=93306Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball2015-05-15T06:50:24Z<p>173.245.48.103: </p>
<hr />
<div>I'm not sure that "This is an obvious parody" counts as an explanation of the cartoon. I looked up "Magic 8 ball" (with which I was unfamiliar). I looked up "Emoji" (with which, too, I was unfamiliar). I then turned back to the cartoon, and I still don't understand it. What's more, there is no explanation of the practically unique absence of mouseover text. [[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 05:55, 15 May 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Lack of mouseover / alt and title attributes is common in **interactive** comics. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:23, 15 May 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It seems that this comic may be poking fun at the reliance of the modern generation on emoji for communication. By trying to answer serious questions only in emoji, their inadequacy in conveying information is shown. After all, a telephone and party ball hardly answer how one will die. It's all left to the imagination. <br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.179|173.245.56.179]] 06:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There might be a horoscope component to it too, i.e. you can interpret the emoji as a meaningful answer no matter which one you get. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.162|108.162.215.162]] 06:30, 15 May 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm guessing Randall is using Unicode emoji characters, i.e. from a font I don't have. I get a small rectangle with "01F40C" (two rows of three characters), which is indicative of "A character I have no font support for", in the browser I'm using (although from previous experience it isn't a browser thing, it's that I haven't deliberately installed the specialist font involved). Which rather spoils things for me, this time round, but I suppose doesn't cause problems for most people who have been persuaded to install emoji-characters to use in the place of 'mere' emoticons... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 06:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Linux folks can install the ttf-ancient-fonts package to add support for the Unicode emoji characters.</div>173.245.48.103https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=540:_Base_System&diff=83739540: Base System2015-01-30T00:35:28Z<p>173.245.48.103: /* Outfield */ Eye contact is near home base, not first base</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 540<br />
| date = February 6, 2009<br />
| title = Base System<br />
| image = base system.png<br />
| titletext = I once got to second base with a basketball player. She was so confused.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a pun on the {{w|Baseball metaphors for sex|Baseball metaphor}} used to describe how far a date went regarding erotic actions. Many different versions of the Baseball metaphor exist, with varying degrees of complexity. <br />
<br />
The comic comes in two parts. In the first one, the strip along the top, Ponytail and Cueball discuss how Cueball's date went. When Cueball answers Ponytail's question with "second base", Ponytail asks what that means exactly. They fumble around with the definition in panel two, then Ponytail brings two more, very different, sports into the metaphor: {{w|American football}} (50 Yard line) and {{w|bowling}} (ten-pin). What this could mean is up for debate, but it certainly sounds tricky, as Cueball says. Ponytail then brings up a ''third'' sport in her elaboration; her reference to "red flag" could mean anything, as {{w|Flag#In sports|many sports use flags}}, some of them red, for a variety of things. <br />
<br />
The second part, the diagram, depicts a much more complex version of the baseball metaphor, where baseball terms and jargon are used to describe the many and varied things human beings like to do in the bedroom. Explanations have been separated by position. In order to understand the terms used, one may want to consult this picture:<br />
<br />
[[File:540baseballdiamond.jpg|The baseball diamond and surrounding areas]]<br />
<br />
===Out of Play===<br />
<br />
Outside the foul line extending from either side of the diamond, the area is "out of play". Anyone who takes the ball out of this area has committed a foul, and as such breached one of the acceptable rules of sexual conduct in the metaphor.<br />
<br />
*Anal sex is a pun on the term "foul ball", as the anus is where fecal matter collects. The position is placed just outside the foul line.<br />
*Downloading Star Trek fanfiction and replacing Riker's name with your crush is a reference to {{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}. Riker, the First Officer of the Enterprise-D, is often a subject of sexual desire among the fandom, and so taking a piece of fanfiction (fan-written, noncanon stories written about a piece of fiction) and replacing Riker's name with that of your crush is an ultra-nerdy way of indicating that they are attractive - so ultra-nerdy, it's creepy.<br />
*The binary (i.e. base 2) numbers are an {{w|ASCII}} representation of the characters "base 2". The base of a number system is the number of unique digits required to represent numbers in that system. Binary is therefore a "base 2" system. This seems to be a little nerd sniping: wasting the time of anyone familiar enough with computing to know how to decode it.<br />
*"Your base" is a reference to the original "base" metaphor mixed with a reference to the Zero Wing {{w|All Your Base}} meme. It's possible that this being here is a stealth insult towards the reader - the reader's own base (himself) is "out of play" and thus undesirable.<br />
<br />
===Outfield===<br />
<br />
The "outfield" is a group of players who are there to catch the ball if it goes away from the main play area (anything outside the upper curving line) and return it to play in a manner advantageous to their team. As they separated away from the main play area, the things in the outfield are often references to sexual behaviors that are "kinky" and "out there".<br />
<br />
*2outfielders1glove is a reference to the infamous {{w|2girls1cup}} scatological site and associated meme.<br />
*The [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=retrograde%20wheelbarrow Retrograde Wheelbarrow] is a sex position, one referenced previously in [[300: Facebook]], making this a callback.<br />
*Eye contact from {{w|Janeane Garofalo}} is a tie-in to the "eye contact" entry positioned near home base. It's possible that this is placed in the outfield because fantasizing about celebrities like Janeane Garofalo is a behavior that is often considered unusual, even though many people do it.<br />
<br />
===Infield===<br />
<br />
The infield is a series of catchers stationed immediately outside or just within the diamond, with the goal of receiving the ball from the outfield (or catching it themselves) and using it to tag any running opposing teammates to foil their attempts at moving to the next base on the diamond. Players within the diamond, such as the shortstop, will also be doing this as well - they often receive the ball from the infield. As such, the infield is still "out there", away from the "usual" sexual interactions in the diamond, but they are things you might pass upon the way.<br />
<br />
*Napoleon's Forces is a cartography joke, one making a comment that all of this complicated positioning makes the image look like a map depicting military maneuvers - or possibly simply a visual gag meant to evoke the image of Napoleon's army marching through a land of sexual behaviors.<br />
*Fursuits are anthropmorphic animal costumes worn by some members of the {{w|Furry Fandom}}, people who are fans of anthropomorphized (human-like) animals. Fursuiters are a small fraction of the entire fandom, but are sometimes used in sexual play.<br />
*Fursuits (crotchless) are fursuits with no fabric or covering on the groin (crotch) of the wearer, and as such are specifically intended for sexual play. They are placed slightly further "out there" on the field due to this being more unusual, and across the orgasm line.<br />
*Standing anywhere near Peaches is referring to the musician {{w|Peaches (musician)|Peaches}} who is known for her heavy use of sexual imagery.<br />
<br />
===The Diamond===<br />
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The "diamond" is the geometric pattern formed by the four bases - first, second, third, and home plate. After the ball is hit by the batter, and is in the air, players have a chance to move to the next base in line, from first, to second, to third, and finally to home plate (scoring only if they make it to home plate), only being removed from play if they are touched by a player carrying the ball in an attempt to move between bases. Thus there is a "progression" from one base to the next of sexual activity in the metaphor, until climax is achieved (getting to 'home plate' and 'scoring a point')<br />
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The entries in this section are ordered roughly from home plate to first, to second, to third, and then to home plate again, in the counterclockwise direction that the players move.<br />
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*Eye contact is placed just alongside the initial stage where the 'player' has just stepped off the home plate and is starting to move towards first. This is a deliberate setup for the 'thigh contact' pun later just before home plate (eye contact first, and then thigh contact later, when sex has begun).<br />
*Passing notes refers to a common method of communication in the classroom in school, often used by students as a form of courtship. It is placed halfway between the start and first base - the point at which communication has begun.<br />
*First base is kissing. This is one of the most common assigned meanings for what the 'first base' is in the baseball metaphor - as in, "getting to first base".<br />
*The boring zone is the point between kissing and sexual teasing or activity - the point where intimacy has become normal but sexual behaviors have not been okayed yet. This is boring for many (stereotypical) males especially. It can also be the point at which a workup is attempted from kissing to gentle stroking and finally to the overt sexual teasing that is found by the time you have gotten to second base.<br />
*Second base is licking or hands under the shirt. Overt sexual teasing, in an attempt to get the other person aroused.<br />
*'Hands on the pants' and 'hands in the pants' are two activities that happen in a very short distance of each other during an average sexual encounter. They are also separated by the 'orgasm line', indicating that teasing has stopped and actual sexual activity has begun.<br />
*Third base is oral sex. Oral sex is often used to prepare or arouse another person in preparation for intercourse, although it can be performed until one or both climax. In older versions of the baseball metaphor, third base was "hands in the pants" instead, which has been moved to earlier on the line in this new, "modern" version - or at least, Randall's conception of it.<br />
*The Virginity line, which is also named, in brackets, after the {{w|Maginot Line}}, a series of French fortifications that were thought to be impenetrable during the leadup to {{w|World War II}}. This line provides a direct "barrier" to the path between third base and a home run. The Maginot Line was thought to be completely impenetrable until it was bypassed by the German army during WW2 through the Ardennes forest, whereupon it was encircled and destroyed. Virginity is often seen as an impenetrable barrier, or an unwillingness, up until arousal and desire conspire to make it go away rapidly.<br />
*Teens, naturally, having a propensity for hormone-driven sex, bypass the Virginity line with ease.<br />
*Sharing root PWs (passwords) is placed very close to home plate. As a system administrator, the one thing you never, ever do is give anyone the root (core) password to a file system, because anyone with the password is able to get unlimited access to the system to do whatever they please. Sharing a root password with another person is a nerdy way of saying that you trust them on an intimate, deep level. In other words, it requires more trust than oral sex.<br />
*Finally, there is home plate. In this diagram, it is unlabelled, but in all versions of the baseball metaphor, the home plate signifies sexual intercourse and climax. Scoring a "home run" with a sexual partner means you "took it all the way" and "scored a point".<br />
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===Within the Diamond and the Orgasm Line===<br />
Inside the diamond, at the center of the mound, is the pitcher. Several odd positions are placed here in Randall's diagram.<br />
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*Dry humping is the activity of humping (thrusting against) a partner without one or both of them removing their clothes, in order to arouse or gain sexual satisfaction. The location is probably a combination of the fact that it lies somewhere between hands on/in the pants, is definitely not an activity that is considered "out there" (in the outfield), hasn't quite made it to 3rd base, but is still pretty close to home and crossing the virginity line.<br />
*Using the scroll thingy on that one Apple mouse is presumably here because the small, rounded scroll button can be imagined to be a clitorus. See also [[243]]<br />
*The Orgasm Line, which passes through almost every other play field, seems to be a divider that runs throughout the entire map that separates teasing and arousing behavior from overt sexual behavior intended to pleasure others. Fursuits (arousing, to some) become crotchless fursuits (overtly a sexual tool) when they cross the orgasm line. Hands on the pants and hands in the pants are two related but different activities - hands on the pants is arousing, and hands in the pants is intended to pleasure others.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball and Ponytail are talking; Ponytail is sitting on the back of a chair with her feet on the seat, and Cueball is sitting on the floor facing her.]<br />
:Ponytail: So how far did you get with her?<br />
:Cueball: Second base?<br />
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:Ponytail: Wait, which one is that? Below the waist, but... not under the clothes?<br />
:Cueball: I think that's... shortstop?<br />
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:Ponytail: You should try crossing the pitcher's mound. Then down the 50-yard line, and right past her ten-pin.<br />
:Cueball: Sounds tricky.<br />
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:Ponytail: Yeah. Last time I tried it, I got a red flag. If you know what I mean.<br />
:Cueball: I really don't.<br />
<br />
:[A diagram of a baseball diamond.]<br />
:The "Base" Metaphor Explained<br />
:[Bases and x points are marked, as well as dashed lines covering the field.]<br />
:[Along the first base line is "Your Base".]<br />
:[Slightly right of that is a binary base:<br />
::0110 0010 0110 0001<br />
::0111 0011 0110 0101<br />
::0010 0000 0011 0010] ("base 2" in ASCII)<br />
:[First base: Kissing.]<br />
:[Second base: Hands under the shirt and/or licking.]<br />
:[Third base: Oral sex (formerly "hands in the pants").]<br />
:[The following are x marks:<br />
::Slightly right of home plate: Eye contact.<br />
::Along the first base line: Passing notes.<br />
::Slightly before first base: Downloading Star Trek fanfiction and replacing Riker's name with your Crush's.<br />
::Right field: Eye contact from Janeane Garofalo.<br />
::Between the pitcher and second base: Using the scroll thingy on that one Apple mouse.<br />
::Near the shortstop: Dry humping.<br />
::Left of second base: Fursuits.<br />
::Farther left: Fursuits (crotchless).<br />
::Just before home plate: Thigh contact.<br />
::Beyond 3rd base, along the 3rd base line: Standing anywhere near Peaches.<br />
::Foul of the third base line: Anal sex (fill in your own "Foul Ball" pun here.)<br />
::Left outfield: 2outfielders1glove.<br />
::Left outfield: Retrograde wheelbarrow.]<br />
:[The following are dashed lines:<br />
::A region along the line from first to second base: The Boring Zone.<br />
::A line traveling across the second to third baseline, and towards home plate: The orgasm line. (Dry humping is on the "orgasm" side.)<br />
::Between third base and home: "Virginity" (Maginot) line.]<br />
:[Arrows pointing out various other features:<br />
::An arrow crossing the "Virginity" line: Teens.<br />
::An arrow nearer to home plate: Sharing root PWs.<br />
::An arrow crossing the orgasm line in the outfield: Napoleon's forces.]<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Sex]]<br />
[[Category:Furries]]</div>173.245.48.103https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:315:_Braille&diff=70592Talk:315: Braille2014-06-30T04:52:22Z<p>173.245.48.103: Why the blind need to know what a light switch controls; why signs say that guide dogs are allowed</p>
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<div>Don't know braille enough to sight-read (I know, but I certainly can't touch-read it, so I have to go on the visuals), but when I work out the cipher, each time, sometimes the 'translation' ''is'' revealed to be interesting, but more often than not there's a braille-enabled sign that doesn't seem to make sense in the first place. Mainly ones where the effort of finding the sign is probably a bigger handicap than dealing with what the sign says. "Push" on a 'next stop' button on a bus, that to me would seem obviously such a button if you make tactile contact with it in the first place (although the driver usually liaises with anyone with that sort of difficulty, anyway). "If you need any assistance, please ask" tacked down onto a reception desk, where any receptionist that is there would surely notice the blind person <strike>looking</strike> feeling around for such a 'handy' notice and so should intervene straight off the bat.<br />
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But the one that always gets me is the one that labels a WC's external light-switch. No other switches are labelled, around that area (nor anything else, save for the WC sign, high up on the door, surely difficult to examine or even ''imagine'' you should try to find to examine), and I can ''barely'' justify that sign by the possibility that a person might have bad sight in low light and have learnt braille to compensate, for which this is useful. But I just can't get past the thought that every reasonably sighted person and every 'reasonably blinded' person would have no use at all for the braille component, one way or another.<br />
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I stand to be corrected by anyone who knows better, of course. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 20:32, 19 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Hope I'm not typing where I shouldn't be #noob but it would make more sense if cueball read "s-i-g-h-t-(ed) p-e-o-p-l-e s-u-c-k" [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 04:34, 29 January 2014 (UTC)noob<br />
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:If you want to go for grade 2, it gets much shorter than that: s-i-gh-t-ed p s-u-c-k ("p" alone is read as "people", and gh is also a two-letter sign). [[User:Silverpie|Silverpie]] ([[User talk:Silverpie|talk]]) 20:10, 15 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Maybe the reason for the braille sign on the WC light switch was so that the blind person (who couldn't see the light) would know that switch should be off when the WC isn't in use, and won't waste electricity).<br />
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In the U.S., it was common for places like the Post Office to have a sign saying that pet dogs were prohibited, but guide dogs for the blind were allowed. This was widely seen as silly, because a blind person wouldn't be able to read the sign. (The law has since been changed to allow all disabled persons to bring assistance animals in places where pets are prohibited.) However, including the exemption for the blind on the sign made sense. The point was so that a sighted person who read the sign would know about the exemption for the blind, and wouldn't tell a blind person not to bring a dog into the place. Sometimes there is a non-obvious explanation for something that seems silly, but really isn't.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.103|173.245.48.103]] 04:52, 30 June 2014 (UTC)</div>173.245.48.103