https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=198.41.238.33&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T11:17:34ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1663:_Garden&diff=1170981663: Garden2016-04-09T07:05:43Z<p>198.41.238.33: /* Colors of light */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1663<br />
| date = April 4, 2016<br />
| title = Garden<br />
| image = garden.png <!--This is the starting point and should be used here. Other images need to go in the explanation --><br />
| titletext = Relax. <br />
}}<br />
<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;">__TOC__</div><br />
*'''Note''' this is an interactive comic. Go to xkcd to try it out.<br />
*Currently there are links to '''images of items that can appear in the comic''' here: [[1663: Garden/Images]]! In time it could be the actual images as well.<br />
*'''Post screen shots of your garden''' (or others gardens and other images) on this page [[1663: Garden/Screen-shots]]!<br />
*'''Post links to your own garden''' on this page [[1663: Garden/Users gardens]] to let other users see what you have created!<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Include a table with all possible items as [[1663: Garden/Images#Images of items|listed here]] with image, links to image on xkcd, explanations and link to a screenshot/download of a garden where each item "grows". Only screen shots are useful for the real explanation [[1663: Garden/Screen-shots|post them here]], as content of urls change with time. More on how color of light and lamp position etc. affect growth as well as different positions in image develop different plant and items.}}<br />
<br />
This comics represents the [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] of 2016, and it is [[Randall|Randall's]] celebration of {{w|April Fools' Day}} Friday, April 1, 2016. <br />
<br />
Due to technical problems (or to make fools of his fans (see more about the [[#April Fool's header text|header text]] below) the comic did not go live until Sunday evening (after midnight, so technically first on Monday April 4th) so there was no Friday release the week before, see [[#Monday 4th of April release|more details below]].<br />
<br />
The comic begins with a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f1/Garden_Loading_collage.png loading screen] with a revolving tree and the text "loading..." This is because the first time a computer loads this dynamic comic it can take a while. <br />
<br />
Once it is loaded it displays "your '''Garden'''" being the barren landscape with a lamp as shown at the top of the explanation here. But if you leave the lights on and wait (or "relax", as the reader is told to do by the title text), then plants and other items will start to appear. The reason it is correct to call it "your garden" is that every time this comic is loaded from scratch, a new garden will be created with a unique url-address. By saving this link (making a bookmark for it), the user will be able to return to their garden again and again. As the garden only develops very slowly this is important. (If users wish to share their garden they can do it in the table on the page for '''[[1663: Garden/Users gardens|Users gardens]]''').<br />
<br />
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/78/1663_garden_Three_colors_over_everything_not_very_interesting.png Plants appear] one at a time, and sometimes it takes a long time. Only a few of the plants actually grow. For instance there are some large trees that begins as [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/27/1663_garden_Fast_growing_tree_-_leafless.png a large trunk] and from there [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/67/1663_garden_Fast_growing_tree_-_lots_of_leaves.png grows branches and leaves]. This can sometimes happen quite fast. Most other plants just appear. Most of the plants sway in the breeze. <br />
<br />
Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1663_garden_Pruned_garden_with_birds_deer_gate_cactus_turtles_snake_gate.png animals] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/de/1663_garden_Three_lamps_two_along_ground_with_pillars_not_in_blue_world_and_symmetric_gates.png building like structures] like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/15/1663_garden_Megan_Monolith_Animals_and_more.png a Monolith and birdbaths] appear tother with lots of other items like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ad/1663_garden_Office_space_with_star_plant_balloon_with_bird_and_grass_on_Cueball.png office furniture] with [http://xkcd.com/1663/#98dc3452-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0008 balloons swaying in the wind] or even one of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_red_and_red_First_thing_Mars_rover.png Mars rovers] which so [[:Category:Mars rovers|often has been featured]] in xkcd.<br />
<br />
On top of all this there several known characters may appear in different poses including [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] (for instance with a sword, see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6b/1663_garden_Megan_with_sword%2C_trees_octopuses_with_Cueball_bunny_ducklings.png here]), [[Ponytail]] (see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/eb/1663_garden_Ponytail_and_two_Cueballs_cat_pillar_and_trunk_sE.png here]) and [[Beret Guy]] from the torso and up (see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9b/1663_garden_Three_colors_more_separate_Beret_Guy_in_shrubbery_and_Octopus_on_office_desk.png here]). Megan and also Cueball can both be seen [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/06/1663_garden_Giant_planter_on_pillars_and_both_Cueball_and_Megan_with_black_hat.png with a black hat], but it is one that "grows" on top of their heads, and even Cueball with a such a hat, will not turn into [[Black Hat]]. There is also an unknown character, a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0c/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts.png girl on stilts] with black hair in a ponytail who like plants and balloons [http://xkcd.com/1663/#b28f8522-fd95-11e5-8001-42010a8e0013 sways in the wind].<br />
<br />
See a [[1663: Garden/Images|list with links to images]] that may appear in the garden (it seems new items are added in time). Here is also a page with [[1663: Garden/Screen-shots|Screen-shots of gardens]] and [[1663: Garden/Users gardens|examples of users gardens]], which can be displayed for others by using the [[#Saving garden with url|unique url address]] that each garden has.<br />
<br />
Every so often the image will refresh. You can change the number of lamps, their position, direction, beam width and the color temperature which always begins somewhere between white and yellow, but can change all the way from red to blue (See this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b8/Garden_Three_Lamp_screen_shot.png example] with one lamp selected and three colors of light). Other colors than those four may appear where two lamps light cone of different colored light overlap. <br />
<br />
How much the color affects the growth is too early to say, but there is a strong correlation for what appears in the garden depending on the color of light, and this is not only split between red, yellow and blue, but rather in more than 10 different colors. But is becomes very clear that pure red light results in a desert theme with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/98/1663_garden_Desert_with_red_light_only.png cactus and turtles] and pure blue gives an aquatic theme with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/23/1663_garden_Octopus_garden_with_Cueball_hand_up_and_a_black_hat_octopus.png lots of octopuses] that may wear a [[Black Hat]]! For the most interesting gardens the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/15/1663_garden_Megan_Monolith_Animals_and_more.png light colors should be mixed], see more below under [[#Effect of light|Effect of light]]. <br />
<br />
If this comic is scientifically accurate, that correlation will be based on {{w|photosynthetically active radiation}}. <br />
<br />
The title text "Relax" can be debated. Is it to let the users know they should just sit back and relax as the garden grows. Or should they relax and don't worry so much about how it works (not working here on explain xkcd though!) Or is he teasing the users by giving them a garden that they need to tend to, and then telling them to relax. And also giving them many more colors than lamps... Given that this comic was supposed to come out on April 1st, there is a good chance that it is, also, to tease the users. There are actually [[#Trivia|two other title texts]] as well.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[After a '''loading image''' with a rotating tree in the middle and the text "Loading..." with the three dots appearing one at a time, and then disappear when all three have been there the image shown above in the explanation will appear:]<br />
<br />
:['''Description of the image above''': A piece of bare landscape is shown. At the edges there are some rocks or stones raising the level from the general level through the center of the panel. Above the middle, a little more than halfway to the to of the panel, is a light bulb sitting inside a lamp that reminds of the desk lamp from the movie Luxo Jr. The lamp shines a yellow light down on the landscape in a broad cone that jus reaches the first rock to the left, but not those to the right. The lamp just hovers in the air. In the top right corner are two gray icons. The top one has a black frame and shows an image of a lamp, tilted left as opposed to the straight position of the lamp in the image. There is a + sign below in the left corner. The second icon without a frame has a large white cross in the middle.]<br />
<br />
:[This turns out to be a '''web applet''' and using the "+ lamp" icon two more lamps can be added getting up to three. They are all adjustable both regarding position, direction, color of light and beam width. When selecting a lamp a red circle appear around it with a small circle on top that can be used to control the light color from blue to the left to red to the right. In front is a red arrow that can turn the lamp and it can also be used to change the beam width by pulling it away from the lamp or pushing it back. The lamps can be moved by just clicking on it and moving it. The other icon with a X can be used to remove the lamps (and later any object that appear in the garden). When any object is selected there is a red circle around it. When this is done the gray cross icon becomes red and can the be used to delete the selected item. When no item is selected (either because it is deleted, or by clicking in a part of the screen with no items), then the cross icon turns gray again. When all three lamps are on, then the "+ lamp" icon is faded out.]<br />
<br />
:['''If you wait''' (or relax, as in the title text), then a plant will grow or animals, humans and other items may appear. This could be birds, snakes, octopuses or turtles, Megan or Cueball or a birdbath, a monolith or a tall gate just as a few examples. Most of the items appear in one go, but at least the largest trees grow up with a big stem first and then adds parts later with leaves or empty branches. Also one item may appear on top of another item and for instance birds may fly in the air.]<br />
<br />
==Functionality==<br />
===Lamps===<br />
*Additional lamps (up to three total) can be added by clicking the black plus lamp icon along the right of the window.<br />
**It will [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b8/Garden_Three_Lamp_screen_shot.png turn gray when there are three lamps].<br />
*Lamps can be removed by selecting a lamp (by clicking on it), then clicking the X icon along the right of the window, (which turns red when something is selected, see link above). <br />
**Pressing the Delete key on the keyboard also works.<br />
**All lamps can be removed. But nothing will grow without light.<br />
*Lamps can be adjusted in four different ways:<br />
*#The position of the lamp can be moved by clicking and dragging the lamp.<br />
*#The angle of the lamp can be rotated by [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/09/Garden_Red_Lamp_screen_shot.png selecting the lamp to reveal the red control triangle], and dragging it left or right, rotating it around the lamp.<br />
*#The area of the lamp can be adjusted from a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1663_garden_Pruned_garden_with_birds_deer_gate_cactus_turtles_snake_gate.png narrow "laser" beam] to a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cc/1663_garden_One_color_Light_blue.png wide flood] by clicking the lamp to reveal the red control triangle, and dragging it towards (wider) or away from (narrower) relative to the lamp.<br />
*#The light's color can be changed by clicking the lamp to reveal the red control dot, and by rotating the dot around the lamp the color can chance, see more [[#Colors of light|below]]<br />
<br />
===Colors of light===<br />
*The color of light can go from red to blue by moving the color control circle around the top half of the selected lamps red control circle. <br />
**The small color control circle changes color to match the color of the lamps beam of light.<br />
*In the center starting position of any new lamp the color of the light is a bright yellow color.<br />
**When '''rotating the control right''' the light becomes more yellow then orange and finally red. <br />
**When '''rotating the control left''' the light becomes white then turns into different shades of light blue before ending up blue. <br />
*The color control slides along without any clear fixed positions. <br />
**There must be a limit to the shortest distance the control can be moved along, but the smallest moves can have an effect on the garden, even though there is no clear change in the color.<br />
***Up to nine different colors can rather clearly be seen with a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/50/1663_garden_Single_colors.png a single lamp].<br />
***Many more when two or three colors overlap from [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/90/1663_garden_Three_colors.png three lamps].<br />
***See more details about about this under how these [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Color_maps|color maps]] have been made.<br />
**But there is reason to believe that even half the change will create different gardens, i.e. there can be at least one more position between those nine settings that will change the effect.<br />
***This would give eight more settings for a total of 17 "different" colors. <br />
***An experiment with such 17 settings for just one lamp have been set up here on xkcd:<br />
****See [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#One_lamp_one_color|One lamp one color]].<br />
****Here 17 gardens have been created with 17 distinctly different collor settings and they have both been linked [[#Saving garden with url|with their urls]] and screen shots of the starting positions (and some of the development) have been posted.<br />
****Can be easier to go through these gardens here that have been [[#1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Locked_gardens_only_for_explanation_use|locked for explanation use only]].<br />
*To make two examples of how the colors matter here are some:<br />
**Using "only" the nine original colors both the Mars rover and the stilt girl might be missed:<br />
***The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_red_and_red_First_thing_Mars_rover.png Mars rover] appears only when the color is very close but not all the way to red. All red give [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e3/1663_garden_One_color_red_12h.png dessert only] and a step more towards orange gives [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/ce/1663_garden_One_color_Orange_red_24h.png light poles].<br />
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1b/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts_right.png Stilts] appear with the smallest step towards yellow from the starting point. With not adjustments it is [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cb/1663_garden_One_color_Light_yellow_12h.png trees, Megan and birdbath] and further towards deep yellow results in a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/55/1663_garden_One_color_Yellow_12h.png whole sale snake landscape].<br />
*For further details see below for the [[#Effect of light|effect of light]].<br />
<br />
===Effect of light===<br />
*How much the color affects the growth is too early to say, but there is definitely some correlation. <br />
**For instance areas under lights set to the blue end of the spectrum develop an [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/23/1663_garden_Octopus_garden_with_Cueball_hand_up_and_a_black_hat_octopus.png aquatic theme] with lots of octopuses and maybe a Cueball. <br />
**Areas under lights set to the red end of the spectrum develop a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/98/1663_garden_Desert_with_red_light_only.png desert theme] with cactus and turtles. <br />
**Light yellow (starting light) seems great for [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/39/1663_garden_Yellow_plant_and_Megan_world.png plants and animals] and also birdbath and Megan likes it.<br />
*There are at the moment some research into single light covering the whole range in 17 divisons.<br />
**See these gardens [[#1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Locked_gardens_only_for_explanation_use|locked for explanation use only]] and also see more about this [[#Colors of light|above]].<br />
*Mixed light seems to be able to do the same but also much more.<br />
**What happens if using other than the two outer points red and blue and the starting light yellow color has not been explored in depth yet, although white light, between blue and light yellow/starting light, has been observed to grow a sort of [http://xkcd.com/1663/#ae3adcaa-fd37-11e5-8001-42010a8e0011 office theme], with desks, balloons and Cueballs, while [http://xkcd.com/1663/#28b238b0-fcf3-11e5-8001-42010a8e0018 orange] and [http://xkcd.com/1663/#efccf292-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0003 deeper yellow] light (between starting color and red) seems to produce lamp posts, sale signs and snakes, in addition to the same desert theme (more so for orange). However, little study has been done, and more research is needed. <br />
*Nothing seems to be able to grow under several conditions:<br />
**If no lamps are pointing towards the ground for instance because:<br />
***All [http://xkcd.com/1663/#21374f9e-fbbd-11e5-8001-42010a8e0015 lamps are deleted].<br />
***The [http://xkcd.com/1663/#4896b678-fbbe-11e5-8001-42010a8e0011 beam is laser thin.]<br />
***The lamps points towards the sky without [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#6a6a7be0-fbbe-11e5-800d-42010a8e0008 touching the ground.]<br />
***The lamps are [http://xkcd.com/1663/#c75991f6-fbbe-11e5-8001-42010a8e0011 below the ground pointing down].<br />
****On the other hand if the lamps are below the ground but pointing up it can result in growth well enough as shown in this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1663_garden_Different_light_from_below_the_ground.png example] and this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3a/1663_garden_Yellow_light_from_below_the_ground.png example].<br />
**It was believed that if the lamps where very close to the ground pointing straight down there would be no growth. <br />
***However this can be because only a very small area is illuminated<br />
****In this [http://www.xkcd.com/#9733dff4-fbbe-11e5-8001-42010a8e0012 example] there are turtles under the red light although it is not higher up than the yellow or blue.<br />
****Similar in this [http://xkcd.com/1663/#357a48d8-fbbf-11e5-8019-42010a8e0006 example] there are a deer and a cactus from even lower lamps.<br />
****Of course the lamp has to be so high as not to be underground as mentioned above.<br />
**Also if lamps point towards the ground there can still only grow something from the ground [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3e/1663_garden_Two_light_on_small_area_nothing_outside_the_light.png where the light touches]. The growth can move outside the light cones up in the air, but the base has to be within an area with light.<br />
***Of course lights can be moved and changed without destroying what has already grown there (or so it seems). So a particular garden cannot be used to determine this.<br />
***This is why some [[1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Experimental_gardens|Experimental gardens]] have been set up, and for those with bold text there will be no changes ever. <br />
***Examples from above has mainly been taken from this, or from the other gardens there. But then screen shots are preferable as the gardens change.<br />
<br />
===Grown Items===<br />
*Grown items may be highlighted by clicking on them.Selected grown items will be highlighted with a red circle, and appear slightly lighter then other items.<br />
*Grown items may be "pruned" by the red X icon along the right of the window, or pressing the Delete key on the keyboard.<br />
*Some items (such as the large tree) can be deleted in minor parts by selecting a branch or smaller set of leaves without deleting the entire tree.<br />
*See a collection of links to xkcd with [[1663: Garden/Images|images of the items]] than can appear in the garden.<br />
<br />
===Saving images===<br />
*In Edge, Firefox and Chrome, the image plus light cones but minus lamps and icons elements, can be saved by right clicking in the image.<br />
**They do not always save in the same way as some browsers saves the part of the background without any light cones as white, and other save it as no background, in which case it may render black, basically hiding any black items outside the light. <br />
***For those images it depends on which viewer is used to see the image, if everything can be seen or only that in the light cones.<br />
****See examples of how it looks with black background in these two color maps collections using [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/50/1663_garden_Single_colors.png a single lamp] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/90/1663_garden_Three_colors.png three lamps].<br />
****See more details about how these [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Color_maps|color maps]] have been made.<br />
****See also (at least) two examples of saved images as the are here on explain xkcd [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Saved_image_from_xkcd|here]].<br />
*An image of the whole screen can be captured, by pressing the PrtScn (Print Screen) key on the keyboard & then pasting the content into a blank image in an image-editing program.<br />
**An even better solution is to use a tool like {{w|Snipping Tool}} which can take the part of the screen that are relevant. This is how most of the [[1663: Garden/Screen-shots|screen shots]] for this explanation has been aquired.<br />
**In both way the lamps and icons can also be displayed, which is not an option with saved images.<br />
<br />
===Saving garden with url===<br />
*There is no [[1350#Permalink|permalink button]] as in the last two years' April Fool's comics.<br />
*The URL is different for every garden that is loaded, but stays the same. It links to a server-side copy of the scene, which then changes depending on what the users does with their gardens.<br />
**Sharing a URL will connect a new browser to the same garden session, but only the original browser will be allowed to edit.<br />
**The user can always return to change the garden with the link, but only from the same browser on the same computer.<br />
*The garden itself will thus continue to develop further from the time when the url was copied, and events will happen from now on even though the garden is not opened in any browser.<br />
**If the user doesn't keep it, it will become infested with weeds.<br />
**So most likely the garden is serverside, as all browsers are allowed to see the development of this garden, but users following the url are not allowed to edit anything.<br />
*Here is an example garden [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#0d11a2c8-fa8f-11e5-8001-42010a8e000e linked by ID] versus the same garden:<br />
**In the original [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7f/1663_garden_tree_turtle_birdbath.png screenshot from April 4th] from when the url was created<br />
**In a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1663_garden_Flying_birds_deer_gate_with_cactus_turtles_snake_etc.png screenshot from April 5th] the day after.<br />
**Here [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1663_garden_Pruned_garden_with_birds_deer_gate_cactus_turtles_snake_gate.png example] after the user pruned the garden in the examples.<br />
*Starting two browser windows or tabs pointing to the same URL will allow you to edit from either window.<br />
**linden.xkcd.com holds all the data; the UUID just corresponds to your access key, held in your browser's local storage.<br />
<br />
===Bugs===<br />
*There have been several bugs mentioned already after the first day. Please include any spotted here:<br />
**Also some problems that may now be fixed.<br />
*May not run on some tablets or smart phones (i.e. touch-screen only devices).<br />
*There are some browser versions of Chrome and Firefox where it doesn't run.<br />
*The lamps may be invisible for a few seconds after loading.<br />
*The whole page used to refresh at random intervals and lose the whole progress.<br />
**It still does on April 5th.<br />
**Sometimes (in some browsers?) the garden is reloaded when refreshing.<br />
***This may though be because of the url which is a [[#Saving garden with url|link to a given garden]]. <br />
***See examples of this [[1663: Garden/Users gardens|here]].<br />
***Seems to be dependent on the browser type.<br />
*Some lamps jumped back to their starting position after a few minutes, without the whole page reloading.<br />
*For a few hours after its apparition, the loading didn't seem to stop for some people, making them think that the rotating tree was the whole joke, with people expected to "relax" while looking at it.<br />
*Occasionally invisible objects are added. They can be deleted, and they have bounding boxes in the debugger. [http://xkcd.com/1663/?debug#d12a0932-faaa-11e5-8012-42010a8e0006]<br />
*Doesn't work over https, you have to use http instead.<br />
*It is possible to save the image in Chrome and in Firefox, but not in Explorer.<br />
**It is possible to save the visible portion of the image (in any browser) by pressing the Print-Screen key to perform a screen capture.<br />
**But in Chrome the image is black where there is no light.<br />
**In Firefox everything is visible, wth the light cones (in color) shown.<br />
*Appears to have a memory leak at least in some Windows/Firefox versions, as keeping the page open for a long time will cause Windows to kill Firefox for insufficient memory.<br />
**On the forum, Weeks tries to summon davean! [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=320#p3951923]<br />
*Does not work in many Linux versions.<br />
*Tree trunks will sometimes grow endlessly without leaves depending on the lights hitting them.<br />
*If you are dragging a light, the arrow, or the color slider when a refresh happens, the refresh will enter an infinite loop.<br />
**This seems to cause corruption of the garden because refreshing the whole page will result in a loop that never loads the page.<br />
**Clearing your local data for xkcd.com solves the issue but also makes you unable to edit your garden.<br />
*On April 6, gardens viewed from [http://xkcd.com/1663/#7877bdfc-fc03-11e5-8001-42010a8e000c http://xkcd.com/1663/] links began to include double-size objects, while they appeared <s>normally</s> with different objects enlarged when viewed from [http://linden.xkcd.com/#7877bdfc-fc03-11e5-8001-42010a8e000c http://linden.xkcd.com/].<br />
**Apparently some of the server's art files were <s>misdirected to the larger versions</s> replaced with new large images. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160407054439/http://linden.xkcd.com/art/rover.png] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-rover.png]<br />
**New giant objects are still placed according to their original sizes. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=320#p3951908]<br />
**This was suddenly fixed on April 7, simultaneous with browser memory issues. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=360#p3952207]<br />
***However, some giant images remained cached (where?) for a long time. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=400#p3952527]<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*There are three different title text in this comic, as there are also one over each of the two icons.<br />
**The normal one "Relax" is mentioned above.<br />
**The other two are explanations for what the two icons in the top right corner does and appear when the cursor hovers over them. <br />
***They are ''Create new light'' explaining that this icon introduces new lamps and<br />
***''Remove selected (delete key)'', which explain that this icon can be used to remove (delete) selected items like lamps, plants or items. It also explains that the delete key can be used instead of the icon.<br />
<br />
===Monday 4th of April release===<br />
*Due to technical problems (or to make [[#April Fool's header text|fools of his fans?]]) the comic did not go live until Sunday evening (after midnight, so technically first on '''Monday April 4th''').<br />
**There was thus no Friday release in the week before<br />
**So the Wednesday comic [[1662: Jack and Jill]] got a lot more attention than it would usually have had. <br />
*This comic thus turned in to the Monday release instead, as no other comic was released later that Monday, as this would have taken attention away from this very special comic.<br />
**But it was called the ''April 1st comic'' and later the ''Friday comic'' in the [[#April Fool's header text|header text]] displayed at the top of xkcd to explain why there was no Friday comic. <br />
***A header text continued to stay a the top but changed two more times until the release past midnight Sunday in the US. (It was even past midnight {{w|Pacific Time}}, but not yet on Hawaii...) <br />
**There were thus only two comics released in the week before this Monday, which may be the first time since xkcd went live on {{xkcd||xkcd.com}} in 2006.<br />
<br />
===April Fool's header text===<br />
*There is some debate as to whether this comic is an April Fool's comic or not.<br />
**Was instead the April fool's joke the text written above the comic in the header of xkcd?<br />
**There is reason to believe this was [[#April Fool's comic|not the case]] based on among other thing these header text.<br />
*Below it a list of the different header text displayed from Friday until the comic was just released.<br />
**The header text continued to change regularly [[#Header text after release|after release]] in regard to this comic at least until next Friday (April 8th).<br />
**Here below is the different header text with info on when it appeared.<br />
***Links are given when possible to a [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Screen-shots_of_header_text|screen shots]] on the word ''message'' and to a webarchive in another link when both are available.<br />
*On Friday, April 1st, 2016, the xkcd website changed to a new [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/81/1663_garden_April_1st_comic_is_currently_experiencing_technical_difficulties.png message] where the standard message "XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday." usually is. (This [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/69/1663_garden_Commercial_header_text_before_April_1st_problems.png message] had, however, up to this point and for a long time been a [http://web.archive.org/web/20160401175527/https://www.xkcd.com/ commercial] for ''[[Thing Explainer]]''). But now it [http://web.archive.org/web/20160401204749/https://xkcd.com/ began displaying] this instead:<br />
::The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties. <br />
::Please stand by! <br />
*Early Saturday April 2nd the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e0/1663_garden_Calendar_systems_in_which_Saturday_is_April_1st.png message] was [http://web.archive.org/web/20160402050932/http://xkcd.com updated]:<br />
::The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.<br />
::Status update: Please stand by.<br />
::Status update: This is fine. Everything is fine.<br />
::Status update: Everything is on fire.<br />
::Status update: Searching for calendar systems in which Saturday is April 1st.<br />
*Later on Saturday the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/06/1663_garden_Delayed_until_Sunday_night.png message] was again [http://web.archive.org/web/20160402175822/http://www.xkcd.com changed] to:<br />
::The Friday xkcd comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties<br />
::[Editor's note: Everything is on fire] and has been delayed until Sunday night.<br />
*The comic did not come out until past midnight in the entire North America (coming out just before midnight in Hawaii).<br />
*It was finally released very early on Monday April 4th, and the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/Garden_Loading_screen_shot.png message] then [http://web.archive.org/web/20160404123555/http://xkcd.com/ returned] to the old standard text for xkcd for a short while: <br />
::XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<br />
<br />
===Header text after release===<br />
*During April 4th, after the release the message changed from the old standard to display a [[:Category:Protip|Protip]]:<br />
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.<br />
*And then later on April 4th, the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a2/1663_garden_Protip_and_url_hint.png message] was again [http://web.archive.org/web/20160404185353/http://www.xkcd.com/#5dbfbb82-fc20-11e5-8001-42010a8e000d changed] to:<br />
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.<br />
::You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only. <br />
*When the next comic came out, the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/61/1663_garden_Note_if_seeing_todays_comic.png message] then [http://web.archive.org/web/20160408105110/http://xkcd.com/1663/#4b04323a-fddc-11e5-8001-42010a8e0016 changed] to<br />
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.<br />
::You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.<br />
<br><br />
::Note: If you're seeing today's comic in place of your garden, change the URL from xkcd.com/#<your code> to xkcd.com/1663/#<your code>.<br />
*When the Friday comic came out on April 8th, the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c5/1663_garden_Back_to_pro_tips_only_after_Friday_comic.png message] then changed back to<br />
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.<br />
::You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.<br />
<br />
===April Fool's comic===<br />
*This comic '''was indeed supposed to be''' the Friday 1st of April, April Fool's comic!<br />
**This statement is based on several things, which can can be deduced from the above header text and the subsequent issues with the many [[#Bugs|bugs in this comic]].<br />
*It is clear that this comic did actually come out as promised, at least as promised in the third message about release on Sunday night.<br />
**It is also clear that it is regarded as the Friday comic, even in the last update before the release, which was two days after April 1st.<br />
*It is also clear that this was a very complex comic, and it is realistic that Randall did have problems with making it work. <br />
**On day two there still seemed to be several minor bugs, which seemed to improve over time so Randall was still working on it after release.<br />
***But then new bugs appeared when the next comic was released.<br />
*Both of the last two April Fool's comics, [[1350: Lorenz]] and [[1506: xkcloud]], have had no real meaning or joke in the comic. The jokes appeared from user input, and here it comes from waiting. <br />
**This makes people who spend too much time on these comics ''April Fool's'' (or if they rather wish to be called a ''nerds'' than fools, then they can claim to have been a victim of [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]]).<br />
**So, even if Randall ''did'' play a joke on people who [[Talk:1662: Jack and Jill#What happened to Friday's comic|eagerly awaited the comic]], then he did deliver as promised a spectacular comic Sunday night. <br />
*There are several reasons to believe that Randall would have preferred the comic to get out on Friday April 1st.<br />
**Apart from it being a time consuming comic that in it self is April Fool's comic material, then by getting it out Friday this special comic, which he obviously have used a lot of time to prepare, would have had one more day as the first comic.<br />
**Getting it out before a weekend would have let many more users spend time looking at their garden. Now many would not spend enough time to appreciate the comic, as it came out right when the new work week began.<br />
***And it is a very complicated comic that just to get to understand how to really use it could take a days time even for someone with time.<br />
***And this is not talking about how the comic works, but just how to use the program, i.e. the whole [[#Functionality|functionality]] of the comic is way more complex than even a game like [[1608: Hoverboard]].<br />
**And before next weekend two more comics were released taking some of the focus away from this one too soon, and also before the next weekend. <br />
***Of course die hard fans will not forget this one, but many xkcd fans may only come by in the weekend etc. and such a hard to come by comic like this, that demands patience and that you return does not profit from being bumped down to number three as it would be next Friday.<br />
*Randall lives of his fans goodwill and to deliberately make a pun on them like this would probably not seem like a good business proposal, apart from the fact that the comic now gets less attention than by coming out before the weekend.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]<br />
[[Category:Interactive comics]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with animation]] <!-- The trees and plants wave in the breeze --><br />
[[Category:April fools' comics]] <!-- This was delayed but if not directly an April fool's comic then the comments leading up to it was, and this is the only comic to list as April fools' this year --><br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] <br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]] <br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] <br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Mars rovers]]<br />
[[Category:Protip]] <!-- The tip given in the header of xkcd as a reaction to the comic. Maybe that will not be permanent, but it will be mentioned in the explanation here and should stay--></div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1601:_Isolation&diff=104814Talk:1601: Isolation2015-11-09T22:03:17Z<p>198.41.238.33: Same topic, yet again.</p>
<hr />
<div>The title text is referring to Yudkowsky's [http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/ AI-Box Experiment], which was already mentioned in [http://www.xkcd.com/1450/ xkcd.com/1450] and explained [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1450:_AI-Box_Experiment here]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.11|162.158.153.11]] 09:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If I remember correctly, there's a letter by an Ancient Roman writer complaining that people always write stories down now instead of just telling them to each other. So this mindset has existed for much longer than two centuries. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.191|141.101.106.191]] 09:08, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:But there had been little update in the technology behind books/writing since then and the news paper! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There is someone (not logged in) that believes that the last panel indicates that it is the same Cueball through 175 years that are ignored by his friends, instead of just a jab at generic people who complains about technology. Cueball being this generic person. I highly disagree with this, but the second I changed it to something else the same IP address changed it right back. I have now made two versions of this explanation. And made it clear that it would mean Cueball and his friends were about 200 years old. Then I will leave it to someone else to choose if both of these explanations should be left in, or maybe even a third be added...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:42, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Your explanation is correct and [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] is behaving like a child. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:41, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
::It's neither! Part of the humor is the bizarre reframing that occurs in the last few panels as you suddenly begin to consider that instead of just being a representative sampling of generic people's complaints throughout the years, you suddenly consider that maybe this IS just one guy, riding his hobby-horse relentlessly throughout the decades without letup -- Dude! Take a hint! For me, especially the way he is hanging on a strap in the penultimate panel suddenly makes him seem like he's been stalking these people, following them with his opinions... {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}<br />
:::We will have to wait until the official transcript appears. That might settle the question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 15:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
it says "sims" not "The Sims". "sim" is just short for "simulator". there are other things that simulate things beyond "The Sims". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 12:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would rather say that the main explaination of the joke is a third way:<br />
-Cueball represent the kind of person that complains about people ignoring each other. The contemporaries of such kind of person are clearly annoyed by his behavior and ignore him willingly. The complainer should understand the hint that people prefer isolation much better than having to interact with him. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 12:27, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I'm pretty sure that this is the joke. It's not that society is becoming more isolated, it's that everybody is intentionally trying to ignore Cueball, ''and he's not taking the hint'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.11|162.158.60.11]] 14:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Agreed --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.66|173.245.54.66]] 15:04, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think that "dude, it's been 2 centuries" refers to the actual notion of people complaining about social isolation due to the current relavant "media" at the time rather than cueball himself- this might be other people, but these guys are all stick figures... It's also very unlikely that someone would live this long. {{Citation needed}} --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.5|108.162.216.5]] 12:57, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't think those people are supposed to be Cueballs friends. They may be strangers, and the idea is that people don't WANT to be social with strangers. Using technology to isolate may be reaction to fact that cities force us into bigger groups that we are comfortable socializing with. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:40, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought that Cueball being centuries old WAS the joke - it looks like this is just a montage along the lines of [[1227]], but it was actually Cueball saying the same thing for two solid centuries.<br />
:I am inclined to agree that it's one of the jokes. I have never heard "take a hint" used to refer to things someone hadn't personally experienced. While people don't really live 2 centuries, it is a comic, not reality, and the implication he is the same Cueball makes a fun twist at the end of an obvious joke. He's poked at the history of this before, and the joke "maybe it's not technology, maybe it's your personality" has been done at least as far back as the Walkman example, probably much further. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Also, this is clearly a lowercase-s-sim, not The Sims. Possibly inspired by the Infinite Fun Space of Ian M Banks' Culture novels, but that's not definite enough to put it.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.207|162.158.38.207]] 14:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, that struck me as odd too. Anyone care to reformat? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.60|173.245.56.60]] 17:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Anyone else think these might be actual quotes from the relevant times? Quick Google search doesn't support that (but then Google seems to skew its results towards recent more "relevant" responses, to the detriment of historical references -- give me what some random blogger has to say over the historical context! (Google obviously hasn't incorporated this strip yet, because then this strip will be the top result for all searches, and pages like this one will be the rest...)), but maybe Randall deliberately choose obscure references. Against this idea is that when he's done this in the past [citation needed], he's put in the references. But then, maybe he's mixing it up a little.... Thoughts? {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}<br />
:I could find nothing to support it either. I doubt it is specific quotes because some are very generic, and because the cartoonist uses the same internet as the audience. If we can't find it, I doubt that would be the joke. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:The style and pace and lexicon of the comments seems classically consistent with the ages being depicted. Mind you, that's what a clever person like Randall would ''try'' to do, with his dialogue. I was a little unsure about the age of "Bookworm", for the first panel, but {{w|The Bookworm|a painting by that name}} was painted circa 1850, so if that was its original title then it might well be an era-accurate term for bibliophiles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 16:47, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I feel like I have actually seen at least a few of these quotes before but like you guys I don't have a source. Yet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.22|108.162.221.22]] 17:19, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Additionally, the results of [https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22we+even+read+as+we+walk%22&meta=&gws_rd=ssl a Google search for "we even read as we walk"], which I thought might be the easiest thing worth trying to track down, ''currently'' displays just two results. And those are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page this site's explicit Main Page] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/ this site's ''implicit'' main page] - technically something very close to a self-referential Googlewack! (This will doubtless change, if this page's transcript is also indexed, plus the XKCD original's transcript, plus other places chatting about this even including the XKCD Sucks blog, I'm sure. If it isn't already different for other, non-UK, Google front-ends...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 20:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This is quite a hobby horse for Randall. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 22:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1595:_30_Days_Hath_September&diff=104047Talk:1595: 30 Days Hath September2015-10-28T03:00:51Z<p>198.41.238.33: Why would it be?</p>
<hr />
<div>THIS RHYME IS TERRIBLE. You can slot the months into it in nearly any order and it will still scan. The knuckle trick is far superior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_days_hath_September#Knuckle_Mnemonic<br />
[[User:CLAVDIVS|CLAVDIVS]] ([[User talk:CLAVDIVS|talk]]) 06:00, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I use the knuckle trick too. And I am Dutch, so not only the "German, French, Swiss, Romanians and Belgians" use that trick. I count from the index finger and reverse on the little finger for July and August. Might not be representative for all Dutch, I've heard the rhyme too. (suitably translated) -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.196|141.101.104.196]] 09:36, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:From Jan to Jul(1~7) its odd numbers 31 days, while from Aug to Dec(8~12) its even numbers 31. Feb is 28 or 29. Much shorter. - MythSearcher {{unsigned ip|162.158.176.35}}<br />
::Or (in other words) subtract 7 if number of month is above 7. Then odd always means 31 and even 30 or February. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.159|162.158.91.159]] 07:39, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:As above, except that I use Hallowe'en and New Year as checks! {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.61}}<br />
:I come from the UK. I have never heard the rhyme and everyone I know uses the knuckle trick. Though London is not exactly representative of the whole country... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 09:51, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I've been taught the knuckle mnemonic as a child; it went index finger to little finger, then to other hand starting from index finger again. Incidentally, I'm Russian (as opposed to German, French, Swiss, Romanian, Belgian, or Dutch). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.77|141.101.81.77]] 10:00, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
Datum point: British, was taught the rhyme ('alone'-rhyming version) when young but then learnt the (apparently widespread) 'knuckle-trick' from I-don't-know-where. Little-finger knuckle is January, index-finger knuckle is July, then right-hand in reverse, for me, until out of months... So I tend to use the latter more, now. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.224|162.158.39.224]] 17:23, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I always heard "30 days hath september, april june and november, all the rest have 31, except february alone. And that has 28 days clear, with 29 in each leap year." <br />
How do people remember it if it doesn't rhyme?- madness! {{unsigned ip|162.158.38.218}}<br />
<br />
:No no no, its "30 days hath November, August, March and December..." --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:31, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Pudder, No no no no no no, March and August and December have 31 days! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.163|108.162.249.163]] 23:30, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In Spain both rhyme and knuckle are well-known, and usually taught to children (the rhyme suitably [https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendario_gregoriano#Duraci.C3.B3n_del_a.C3.B1o_gregoriano translated], of course). For some reason, I've always found it easier to just remember the number of days by memory than resorting to any mnemonic trick. I tend to use the known numbers to check if I remember the mnemonic correctly, and not vice versa. Also, it's usual to see people wondering which number corresponds to which month (e.g. October is month 10), which I also remember no problem since I have memory. [[User:Jojonete|Jojonete]] ([[User talk:Jojonete|talk]]) 12:37, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Of course if we hadn't moved the start of the year from March to January, September, October, November and December would make much more sense as months 7, 8, 9 and 10! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.204|162.158.34.204]] 15:30, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I'm from Denmark and here I have heard of the knuckle method, but we do not have a rhyme that is so well know that I have heard of it (but I'm sure someone has.) But as the Jojonete wrote I also just know which month have how many days by memory etc. But I have told my six year old daughter about the knuckle method. I think it is great that it works. And everyone knows that February is the one with 28 days, so that is not the difficult part to remember... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:50, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I tried the mouseover text trick and got "7" for October. Someone help! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.119|162.158.255.119]] 17:10, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:You are very funny. The mouseover text trick works great when your app is set to "month" view, but fails if set to "week" view. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.163|108.162.249.163]] 23:30, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
October of all months seems like a pretty easy one to keep track of, simply because October 31st is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween pretty popular holiday.] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.11|108.162.220.11]] 18:48, 26 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
: A holiday where? Why would it be a holiday? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 03:00, 28 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;brain adaptation ridicule…celebration<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 09:44, 27 October 2015 (UTC) me thinks that while the absurdity of these life hacks has been explained well the deeper issue might yet be missed here: the cultural shift from relying on mental recall and concentration to adapting your brain to rely on technology more than before, reduced attention span and reduced factual memory (better childhood telephone number recall than children's mobile numbers recall) and optimized lookup routines {{unsigned ip|141.101.66.5}}<br />
<br />
<big>digital amnesia!</big> --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 10:02, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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http://www.bbc.com/news/education-34454264 --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 10:38, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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+ http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/wyzowl/its-official-we-have-shorter-attention-spans-than-goldfish-infographic-01353885#w1RCPWdWy1LoDlvI.97 --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 10:48, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My uncle had a nonsense rhyme based on this:<br /><br />
Thirty days hath September,<br /><br />
April, June, and no wonder<br /><br />
All the rest ate peanut butter,<br /><br />
Except Grandma, who rode a tricycle<br /><br />
about this color. (holds hand 3 feet above ground)<br /><br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 13:19, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Yay! I came here specifically to post this version, but was beaten to it. It's from the Napolean XIV album from 1966: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvABMymQz_k</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1594:_Human_Subjects&diff=104042Talk:1594: Human Subjects2015-10-27T22:01:56Z<p>198.41.238.33: Typos? Meh. Repeated typos? Hm...</p>
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<div>The responses in panels 1, 3, and 4 show that Megan is trying to downplay the issues despite better knowledge. This is probably done to surprise the reader of the dialogue for better dramatic effect. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.159|162.158.91.159]] 05:59, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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In the second panel, Megan makes a good point which Ponytail misses. If the control group had a high incidence of arson, while the experimental group did not (and assuming that proper protocols were followed in assigning subjects to groups), there is a possibility that the drug has the side-effect of suppressing the urge for arson [[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 06:45, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Where is the point? "People where arrested for arson" - "Side effects" - "They where in the control group". That's not really a point for the side-effect of surpressing the urge for arson, is it? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 09:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
::If only people from the control group have been arrested, it is or could be. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.213|162.158.91.213]] 10:58, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::In this case both the control and the test group must be full of arsonists and the question is why did Ponytail let them lose to commit arson in the first place. May bye a double-blind test?[[User:Jkotek|Jkotek]] ([[User talk:Jkotek|talk]]) 13:29, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::Maybe both groups were arsonists and the thing helps prevent the person from getting arrested somehow. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:50, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Where were they arrested? Where was the control group? Where is the "where"? That's not really a question to be asking, is it? 22:01, 27 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Another interpretation of the second panel is that Ponytail went fishing for patterns in the data, and happened to find the apparent cluster of arson arrests. There is no obvious reason why arson arrests would have any bearing on a drug trial. (Of course this depends on the drug, but the experiment in the last panel is about moisturizing cream; since no more specifics are given there is no reason to assume it is a psychologically active substance.) If you look at enough variables about a group of people (be they ever-so carefully randomly selected) you will probably find some "unusual" pattern - some way that they differ from the entire population.<br />
:A classic example of this is the observation about Israeli fighter pilots having predominantly girl children. However, when one looks at subsequent births to Israeli pilots, they show the usual gender distribution. The only reason for looking at the gender distribution of children of Israeli fighter pilots was because somebody noticed this pattern in some data set. See "Science of the Discworld" by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.112|199.27.128.112]] 23:29, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
did [[Danish]] cut her hair? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 11:22, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I agree, this is more typical of [[Danish]], so either she cut her hair or is wearing it up in some manner. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.118|108.162.218.118]] 00:48, 25 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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also, the title text could allude to the fact that sociopaths (or successful ones at least) tend to be really adept at getting other people to write off or engage in their behaviours. that is, the IRB, despite the apparent awfulness of the actions of the subjects, on meeting them thought they were pretty cool and people should lay off. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 11:28, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Are those "citation needed" of any use? There is already a link to Wikipedia for sociopathy. Also, the invoked reasons ("Is an arsonist defined as a sociopath?", "Is a masochist the same as a sociopath?", "Is there an agreed upon definition of 'truly sociopathic behaviour', and is this it?") are not sound to me. Sociopathy is defined as "antisocial behavior", so are arson and sadism. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.23|141.101.66.23]] 11:32, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: I elected to simply remove references to sociopathy. I think the comic uses the phrase "awful" people, and I don't think it is necessary to instill the article with controversy by defining the people as sociopaths or any other term. Simply describing their traits and noting that it is unusual and why should be sufficient. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 14:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I realize that this area is for discussing the subject of the comic, but of all the comic strips out there this is the last one I would ever expect to include the "word" ''snuck''. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 13:23, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:This area is mainly for discussing the improvement of the article. Unlike Wikipedia, here we also can discuss the subject of the comic. I addressed your comment, because I never had heard the word (no scare quotes) ''snuck'', but immediatly knew it was an alternate past tense of ''sneak''. I added this: ''Snuck'' is a dialectal past tense of ''sneak''.[http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g08.html]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:37, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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::With respect, I don't think the word "snuck" is uncommon or in any way unique to this comic. I don't think there is any valid need to include a line defining a common verb. If people don't know what the word "snuck" is, dictionary websites are aplenty, but let's not turn this site into one of those ones where every word is a link to a definition. Unless it's jargon or technical or a proper noun that needs explanation, I don't think definitions or links are really needed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.31|108.162.216.31]] 14:01, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Why use a dictionary when Conan can do it for you? :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoHSczX8pU {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.84}}<br />
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This comic could be referencing the growing realization that that the subjects of almost all psychology studies are not representative of the world population at large and of the great variety of humans found in the world. The subjects in psychology experiments are usually psychology students or other undergraduate students. Thus the subjects of these experiments are WIERD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic), these subjects are not close to worldwide normal. See this [//www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/psychology-studies-biased-toward-we-10-08-07/ Scientific American article] for more information. Thus this biases the results of psychology experiments in systematic ways, just as having a bunch of sociopaths as subjects would also systematically effect the results. --[[User:Benjamin|Benjamin]] ([[User talk:Benjamin|talk]]) 15:07, 23 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Might this comic be related to the increased effect of placebo in medical studies? The "awful people" explanation is one of the ones mentioned in the article: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34572482 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.49|141.101.79.49]]<br />
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:: Not really [[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.197|162.158.252.197]] 04:16, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Does antisocial behavior really invalidate non-neuro/psychological drug trials? I don't think personality would change the progression and nature of other diseases. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.137|199.27.128.137]] 09:29, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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It may be worth noting that in the Milgram experiments, the subjects continued to administer harsher shocks when told to "Please continue," or other similarly anodyne statements, but when they were actually ordered to continue, none did. This was the subject of this week's Radiolab episode, presumably coincidentally. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 03:19, 25 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;World Polio Day Comic<br />
<br />
At the top of xkcd.com is a link to Bill Gate's blog http://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/XKCD-Marks-the-Spot which currently contains one of Mr. Munroe's strips. Is this an appropriate subject for this wiki? and if so how?--[[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.101|198.41.235.101]] 20:35, 24 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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http://i1.theportalwiki.net/img/d/d3/GLaDOS_sp_laser_powered_lift_completion02.wav [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.65|108.162.221.65]] 23:43, 26 October 2015 (UTC)</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1592:_Overthinking&diff=103634Talk:1592: Overthinking2015-10-19T22:12:16Z<p>198.41.238.33: Nu cred.</p>
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<div>First Panel:<br />
DOI: 10.1097/JSM.0000000000000221<br />
Title:<br />
Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, Carlsbad, California, 2015. Tamara HB, Mitchell HR, Sandra FG et al.<br />
Link:<br />
journals.lww.com/cjsportsmed/Fulltext/2015/07000/Statement_of_the_Third_International.2.aspx<br />
<br />
Second Panel:<br />
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyv191<br />
Title:<br />
Associations of sitting behaviours with all-cause mortality over a 16-year follow-up: the Whitehall II study. Richard MP, Emmanuel S., Annie RB et al.<br />
Link:<br />
ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/10/09/ije.dyv191<br />
<br />
Third Panel:<br />
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.09.046 <br />
Natural Sleep and Its Seasonal Variations in Three Pre-industrial Societies. G. Yetish, H. Kaplan, B. Wood et al.<br />
Link:<br />
cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2815%2901157-4<br />
<br />
Full Text links: goo.gl/kc8cSs<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.206|162.158.34.206]] 13:17, 19 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;DOI's<br />
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Doh, after I added the links and noticed they were off by a panel I went to add a blurb in the comic description likely at the same time someone else did so in the references section I had just created. :P lol [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:38, 19 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Linking "Digital Object Identifier" to www.doi.org is not helpful. Even their FAQ doesn't tell you what a DOI is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier will be more informative to most people, assuming wikipedia is correct. {{unsigned ip|198.41.235.101}}<br />
<br />
;Shifted DOI<br />
<br />
The Image provided here does not match with the one given at [http://xkcd.com/1592/]. At xkcd.com the DOIs are shifted to match the corresponding text. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.167|162.158.92.167]] 14:22, 19 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Indeed you are correct. It would appear that Randall didn't intend to confuse us this way. ;) Problem is the comic panel on this page is auto-grabbed by a bot. Someone with more experience than me is going to have to look into this. Once the panel is updated, we can update the DOI link references. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:26, 19 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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;0000000000000221 ???<br />
<br />
The Journal of Sports Medicine seems to think that someday they might have over a '''quadrillion''' articles indexed by DOI. I dunno, maybe that's a tiny bit overly optimistic? - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:09, 19 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;"Figuring out which ideas are true is hard."<br />
Verification is hard? Maybe as hard as finding a solution?<br />
OMG it's a hidden message: Randall found a proof for P=NP! {{unsigned ip|162.158.91.213}}<br />
<br />
I'm not convinced that's hard. It seems to me more likely that accepting the consequences is hard. For example, telling people they can no longer smoke because they are harming themselves and others would likely impinge on their personal freedom or hurt their poor little feelings. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 22:12, 19 October 2015 (UTC)</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1589:_Frankenstein&diff=103270Talk:1589: Frankenstein2015-10-12T11:38:28Z<p>198.41.238.33: </p>
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<div>I get all that—I came here to find out what the moon landing reference is all about. Any ideas? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.191|108.162.249.191]] 04:45, 12 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
: xkcd has referred to "moon landing hoax" theories and their proponents (whom xkcd disparages) a few times, including [http://xkcd.com/202/ 202 "YouTube"], [http://xkcd.com/258/ 258 "Conspiracy Theories"], and [http://xkcd.com/1074/ 1074 "Moon Landing"]; this is (at least) the 4th such reference. [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 05:16, 12 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
: He says that, because he is a MONSTER, and has a damaged brain from a complete moron instead of from a famous scientist. You know - the plot of the movie ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.115.22|162.158.115.22]] 08:58, 12 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
Frankenstein A.K.A Elvis. Judging by that hairstyle [[User:Prack|Prack]] ([[User talk:Prack|talk]])<br />
: I suggest the moon landing reference is simply Randall's monster subverting the attempt to redefine the canon. If Randall succeeds in redefining the monster's name, then it also becomes canonical that the moon landings were faked. Randall is unlikely to agree with the canon he has just created.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.127|141.101.98.127]] 10:16, 12 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: That was my thought too (just not formulated quite as clearly). [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 11:38, 12 October 2015 (UTC)<br />
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"The doctor" is a joke in itself because it's analog to "The monster" of the original, so it's likely to start the same discussions the other way around. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.212|162.158.90.212]] 09:36, 12 October 2015 (UTC)</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1585:_Similarities&diff=1027891585: Similarities2015-10-04T10:36:45Z<p>198.41.238.33: Typos.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1585<br />
| date = October 2, 2015<br />
| title = Similarities<br />
| image = similarities.png<br />
| titletext = I just came from The Martian, and I just have to say: Forget BB-8; I want a pet Sojourner! It's always been the cutest of our Mars rovers.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|The whole explanation needs better flow.}}<br />
<br />
'''Spoiler alert: Details of The Martian's plot mentioned below. '''<br />
<br />
[[Ponytail]] compares two very different books by listing their similarities for [[Cueball]] and ends up concluding that they are basically the same book. Of course similar development history does not mean similar books...<br />
<br />
''{{w|Fifty Shades of Grey}}'' began as a {{w|fan fiction}} of a well known brand (the {{w|Twilight (novel series)|Twilight book series}}). It was originally written on the internet by {{w|E. L. James}}. It was then transformed into a successful book series which was later turned into a {{w|Fifty Shades of Grey (film)|movie}} released in February 2015.<br />
<br />
''{{w|The Martian (Weir novel)|The Martian}}'' was originally a serialized story written by {{w|Andy Weir (writer)|Andy Weir}} on his blog which was later compiled into an ebook for people to easily download, then published into a physical book, and has now had a {{w|The Martian (film)|movie}} created based on it. The movie was officially released in the US on the same day this comic was released (October 2nd 2015). <br />
<br />
Since ''Fifty Shades'' is a romance story about a sadomasochistic relationship, and ''The Martian'' is a very technical story about surviving completely alone on a hostile planet, the two books could not be any more different, hence the joke due to the juxtaposition. Cueball continues the joke by joining the two titles using red for Mars, to make a new book title, that should cover both books: ''Fifty Shades of Red.'' Ponytail is very enthusiastic about the book concept, saying it would be irresistible (at least for her and Cueball). It is not clear from the comic if he liked the movie. Since he now compares it to a book series that has been <br />
{{w|Fifty_Shades_of_Grey#Background|described}} as ''mommy porn'' it could indicate that he was not so satisfied with the movie. On the other hand he may just have noticed this connection and found that it would make a great joke here on the release day.<br />
<br />
It is possible that the brand that the Martian derives from is NASA itself. The Martian has been [https://xkcd.com/1536/ compared to Apollo 13] by Randall. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/ Apollo 13] does indeed glorify the roles of the NASA engineers; and the Martian does a similar thing.<br />
That Randall would go see this movie as soon as it was released was already made perfectly clear back in June when he released the comic [[1536: The Martian]] showing how excited he is about the book. He then really looked forward to the movie. <br />
<br />
[[Randall]] indicates in the title text that he has just seen the movie. This is very likely, as premiere movies often have a sneak preview after midnight on the release day, so it is possible for him to see the movie and then post this comic early on the actual release day, or he could have been invited to a preview for selected individuals. <br />
<br />
The [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BB-8 BB-8] mentioned in the title text is the {{w|astromech droid}} from the upcoming movie {{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}}, and is available as a toy (see also BB-8 on the [http://www.starwars.com/databank/bb-8 official Star Wars] home page). {{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}} was the Mars ''Pathfinder'' robotic rover used by Mark Watney, the protagonist of ''The Martian'' (played by {{w|Matt Damon}} in the movie), to allow him to contact Earth. Randall indicated that he thinks the Sojourner is much cuter than BB-8, and that he would like to have one as a pet. He then states that the Sojourner has always been the cutest among all the {{w|Mars rovers}}. There have been 4 so far the other three being {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}, {{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}} and {{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}} which have already been used in xkcd comics: [[695: Spirit]], [[1091: Curiosity]] and [[1504: Opportunity]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[Ponytail is talking to Cueball.]<br />
<br />
:Ponytail: So it's a work of fiction about a well-known brand. written on the Internet by an enthusiast, republished as a bestselling book, and then made into a big movie.<br />
:Cueball: Yup.<br />
<br />
:[Ponytail holds her hand to her chin. Beat panel.]<br />
<br />
:[Ponytail is talking to Cueball again.]<br />
:Ponytail: Yeah, ''The Martian'' and ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' are basically the same book.<br />
:Cueball: "''Fifty Shades of Red?''"<br />
:Ponytail: Man, ''tell'' me you wouldn't read that.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Robots]]<br />
[[Category:Space]]</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1580:_Travel_Ghost&diff=102255Talk:1580: Travel Ghost2015-09-22T12:30:41Z<p>198.41.238.33: The simulation is not real enough. Um, it doesn't simulate enough. Yeah, that's better.</p>
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<div>Racing Ghosts is a refference to Mario Kart [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: This seems like a bit of a stretch to me. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.118|173.245.55.118]] 13:35, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:: It's not a reference to Mario Kart specifically (lots of racing games have ghosts), but that's basically what this is doing - translating the concept of racing ghosts to the real world.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.70|108.162.216.70]] 13:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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::: Well, there are some fitness running apps that support a ghost runner mode, so you run against your best time and get updates if you are in front or behind of your „ghost“. Without actually being able to prove it, I believe (and always assumed) this idea is actually inspired from racing games like Mario Kart. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.115.36|162.158.115.36]] 13:56, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Also, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_attack#Video_games [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 14:11, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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So in the title text, is he being replaced with the ghost who always <i>*ahem*</i> comes last? --[[User:SaturNine|SaturNine]] ([[User talk:SaturNine|talk]]) 12:53, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I agree. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.154|173.245.50.154]] 13:36, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Women prefer men that are stuck in traffic?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.235|162.158.90.235]] 19:17, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::: Nah - just someone who takes the "scenic" route. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.17|108.162.215.17]] 19:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::: I love that this could be a reference to the move Ghost. Great. -[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:51, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is this the first time Cueballs children were shown? [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 17:22, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't know if it's worth mentioning that this appears to be a width-first (route-)search algorithm. A memory-heavy but guaranteed 'perfect' solver of best routing, at every point of choice (from the very first, how you start the journey), all possible/practical travel options are explored (including taking a journey in the 'wrong' direction, or waiting for the non-stop train that is not the first to arrive, to take advantage of connections with faster transport links), in parallel according to the total time (or other measure of efficiency) yet taken on each iteration. Unless any 'ghost' arrives at a node that has already been visited by a 'ghost', when it need not continue. Eventually, the most efficient son-of-a-son-of-a-son...-of-a-son-of-a-ghost will reach the destination, indicating the 'correct' answer. At least within the limits of the split-and-propogate algorithm, and the amount of parallelisation available to devote to the problem. (See also the multiple-overlayed 'searches' performed by two-minutes-of-Nicholas Cage, in the near-climactic scene in {{w|Next_(2007_film)|the film 'Next' (beware spoilers!)}}.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 22:38, 21 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
Will his children have half-siblings that are fathered by the ghost that has replaced him in the bedroom? Or are ghosts infertile?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.170|108.162.215.170]] 04:07, 22 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Doesn't light do this according to some theory, sending out "investigation waves / photons" to determine the quickest way to get anywhere? I'm no expert on this, just some food for thought...<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.249|162.158.90.249]] 11:57, 22 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Not really - or at least not real. There may be some "potential photons" in some attempts to describe some quantum-based theory ... but there will certainly be no investigation photons after wave collapse. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:12, 22 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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If the simulations explore all travel possibilities, how long will it be until bike ghost gets run off the road by bus ghost? Or flattened by texting driver ghost? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 12:30, 22 September 2015 (UTC)</div>198.41.238.33https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1576:_I_Could_Care_Less&diff=101777Talk:1576: I Could Care Less2015-09-15T00:35:15Z<p>198.41.238.33: And I could care less that I could care more.</p>
<hr />
<div>Another excellent comic by Randall. In case of interest to anyone a different perspective, David Mitchell did a wonder rant on this... "Dear America... | David Mitchell's SoapBox" <br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.100}}<br />
<br />
The only people who complain about this phrase are pedantic morons who have never heard such things as "head over heels". <br />
<br />
Here, I've composed a list of common vernacular/slang idioms which are valid, clear, and diametrically opposed to their original meaning:<br />
* "Head over heels"<br />
* "Break a leg"<br />
* "It's the shit"<br />
* "That's bad"<br />
* "She's phat"<br />
* "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"<br />
* "Irregardless"{{unsigned|Cwallenpoole}}<br />
: "Diametrically opposed" is redundant. The words mean the same thing. Sorry, when the topic of conversation is pedanticism I couldn't resist :P [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.170|108.162.221.170]] 22:17, 12 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:The reason I dislike "I could care less" is because it just grates me. It disrupts the flow of parsing language in my brain, throwing up a "wait, what?" exception that I have to expend far more mental energy than usual to correctly interpret the meaning of something in my head. I'm not being pedantic for the sake of uptight rule adherence and feeling superior (I play around with language and use it in non-standard forms all the time), I'm pedantic because it causes my brain real difficulties in processing the meaning of what a person's said. I mean I'm a woman with Asperger's (and a British one at that) so maybe things are a little different for me, but that's just why I personally strongly dislike this usage. The things on your list though are all different in some way to "I could care less", at least for me, for example:<br />
:* "Head over heels" - How is this an opposite meaning, exactly? Doesn't it give a rather nice metaphor for being giddy about something? Being hyperbolic and metaphorical doesn't make it an opposite meaning.<br />
::*Because your head is ''normally'' over your heels. Nothing special about it. Heels over head would be much more interesting...[[User:Silverpie|Silverpie]] ([[User talk:Silverpie|talk]]) 17:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::*Personally I always think of it as your head being bowled over your heels - not the sort of "over" as in "higher gravitational potential energy", but in the same "around" sense of being "turned over" or "starting over". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 03:58, 13 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:* "Break a leg" - This is closer to being an opposite, but the exact opposite to wishing an actor good luck would be to wish them bad luck. The mutation to a slightly absurdist statement marks it out as having a different meaning, especially as "break a leg" isn't really used in any other context than to wish a person good luck. While it may be the case that "I could care less" is rarely (if at all) used in its literal form, there's still nothing to mutate it and obviously mark it out as a linguistic special usage case. It's also still how I'd expect someone to phrase it if they were actually telling me they could care less about something.<br />
::: The "Vaudeville theory" on this page is where I got my understanding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_a_leg --EE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.135|108.162.216.135]] 13:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:* "It's the shit" - Again, this is mutated. People aren't saying "it's shit", the word "the" handily tags it for my brain parser to handle differently.<br />
:* "That's bad" - Well, you've got me here actually. I mean, context (and tone) makes the meaning obvious but I can't objectively understand why this phrase doesn't cause me the same sort of difficulties at all. Perhaps because I grew up in the 80s, and a big part of my musical upbringing was Michael Jackson. ''♬ A-hee-hee! Hoo! ♬''<br />
:* "She's phat" - This is completely literal, "phat" is a slang term meaning excellent or attractive. It may be a mutation of the word "fat" or not, its etymology is uncertain, but it is indisputably a very different word now (much like how "orchids" means a species of flower rather than testicles, and "sinister" hasn't meant left in centuries).<br />
::: I understand it's an acronym: Pretty Hot And Tempting. --EE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.135|108.162.216.135]] 13:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:* "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" - This is also completely literal, Freud meant that while he believed many things ''could'' have hidden, psychosexual meanings... that while sometimes a person might be puffing on a cigar due to some suppressed phallic desires... they could also just be puffing on a cigar because they're enjoying a nice cigar. That is to say, not everything has a hidden subconscious meaning, and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, not a substitute object to fellate.<br />
:* "Irregardless" - Well yes, the suffix added to "regardless" here would usually invert its meaning, but "irregardless" isn't actually a word that existed before it came into use with its current meaning so it's not like saying a previously established and defined word (or phrase).<br />
: Anyway, while I do believe language is flexible and mutable, this particular phrase fails the easily interpretable test for my brain. I try not to be too uptight about it, but it really does irritate me in a way I can't help. Obviously my opinion is not the only one, so that's just my 1.29587 British pence on the matter :D [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]] 12:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::(In response to Cwallenpoole, not 141.101.98.195, who makes good points that I didn't actually read first!) "Head over heels" is of course "head over (and down), heels (upwards) (...and continue this rotation to its logical conclusion)"; "Break a leg" has {{w|Break_a_leg|a number of possible origins}} (I always assumed wishing luck was unlucky, thus the inverse, but several "the leg not being yours" versions also ring true); "It's the shit" is using a somewhat unfortunate object (certainly if you miss out the "the") that is a short-cut off-colour superlative like "the dog's bollocks"; "bad==good" I always assumed was "what's bad to the establishment is good for our own clique"; "phat" is far too modern for me, but probably arises a similar positive superlative with some counter-culture anti-standard spelling; Cigars being cigars don't sound diametrically opposed, to me, although who knows ''what'' went on in Freud's head!; "Irregardless" is an obvious portmanteau/malapropism blend that is so easy to create. - Or so I would personally explain these.<br />
:: Here's an additional one, though, if you care for it: "Cheap at half the price". It sounds wrong if you dig deep and work out that it must mean "It is not more than or equal to twice the actually fair price you should have been asking" (i.e. it's less than double the price). But I've always internally rationalised it as really saying "If this figure you mention actually were only half of the full price you are ''truly'' asking for, the real price would still be considered cheap" (i.e. it's less than half price). Or it could just be obfuscated salesman patter, i.e. telling the truth (still making a profit, but less than a 100% mark-up) but using weasel-words and terminology that create misleading imagery in the listener's mind. i.e. No crime, no foul, should Trading Standards happen to come-a-visiting, one day... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 13:21, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::''Actually'', to follow-up on myself: "It's cheap(, it being in this instance) at half the price (I would normally charge)" works best. Why has that only just occured to me? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 13:33, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:::Attempting to interpret "head over heels" to somehow mean "head down, heels up" isn't etymologically accurate; it's simply a reversal of the original expression, which was "heels over head." There's a similar expression in German ("Hals über Kopf") and Scandinavian (Norwegian "hals over hode", Swedish "hals över huvud") literally "neck over head," which means "in great hurry or disarray, without thinking" and is also sometimes (particularly in Norwegian) reversed for no particular reason: perhaps it's just the "mouth feel" that makes it tempting. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 10:40, 12 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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'I couldn't care less' is the standard formulation in the UK, for one. I always assumed that the US version was originally a variant on this which was later contracted, eg 'I could care less, but not much'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.106|141.101.99.106]] 07:10, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Given that xkcd is so pro-science, I don't think the analysis here should endorse the peeve that there's anything wrong with "I could care less" (or use of "literally" as an intensifier), since most actual linguists, experts on how language works, think it's fine. See for example the list of posts dealing with the question here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=21170#more-21170 And of course, the comic itself points out how petty an besides the point this kind of "correction" is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 07:43, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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: As a linguist, regarding the claim that most actual linguists think it's fine, I'd have to respectfully say HELL NO! There is a difference between acknowledging the pragmatic implementation of the phrase, that is, its use in common parlance and the general acceptance and understanding of it, and the question wether or not it is "fine". The comic exemplifies a rather extreme version of the idea "Whatever people use is proper language" - in other words, as long as everybody involved in a conversation gets what is meant, there is no point in arguing semantics, grammer, etc. This is, however, neither the only, nor the dominant approach to language and linguistics. For exapmle, it doesn't answer the question how such an ostensibly paradox use of this phrase came to happen, where (geographically, socially, etc.) the phrase might have originated, and other puzzless regarding the origin of the phrase; this attitude also dismisses any inquiry into how humans process (or ignore) such discrepancies between literal meaning and actual use, and in general, how humans organise, structure, and conecptualise language. Additionally, this comic adds a radical deconstructional (and maybe existential) twist to this perspective by basically saying, "We're all alone, and can never really know or understand anybody else".<br />
: Such an attitude of total relativism ("Every experience ist entirely subjective and unique") makes my skin crawl. It is by far more presumptious than being a little pedantic about grammar and the use of expressions.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.176|162.158.114.176]] 11:35, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Agreed. Words have meanings and reducing the amount of trust you can place in those meanings decreases the value of the language. "You could never understand me, so I might as well not even try to make myself understood" is a cop-out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.23|108.162.219.23]] 15:22, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:: I stand by my comment that most linguists would argue that the phrase does not warrant censure, on the grounds that it is (1) in very common use, probably about 5 times as common as "couldn't care less" in American speech, including educated speech, and about half as common in writing, (2) long established, with the OED's first reference back in 1966, only twenty years after it first notes "I couldn't care less" (and with Google Book Search, we can push this back to the 1940s: it occurs repeatedly in the official transcript of a House Congressional Hearing in 1947, for example), (3) idiomatic, so that logical analysis of its strict literal content is not helpful, and (4) analogous to other constructions (in English and other languages) that don't raise any eyebrows or hackles. That does not mean that they don't consider it interesting and worthy of explanation, of course. Indeed, almost all the work of actually trying to explain how "could care less" arose has been done by people who are at pain to point out that they find the phrase unobjectionable (while those who disapprove of it don't seem to get much further than calling it "an ignorant substitution" or a result of "sloppy speech and sloppy writing"). It's of course hard to prove that this is the majority view in academic circles, but I refer to Lawler, Liberman, Pullum, Okrent [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/03/18/why_i_could_care_less_is_not_as_irrational_or_ungrammatical_as_you_might.html], Pinker, the various dictionaries that list it without deprecation (e.g. RH Webster's: "usage: could care less, the apparent opposite of couldn't care less, is actually used interchangeably with it to express indifference. Both versions occur mainly in informal speech."), and linguistic popularizers such as Grammarist [http://grammarist.com/usage/could-care-less/]. This clearly reflects the descriptivist paradigm that seeks to understand language as it actually occurs, and looks skeptically on attempts to impose "rules" that are often demonstrably wrong. In other words, treating linguistics as an empirical science. The version of this position that Megan argues in the comic is obviously heightened for comic effect (she's also using a sort of mock-Gricean analysis to impute a possible helpful intent to Ponytail). You can find most of these points endorsed in a very reasonable [http://blog.dictionary.com/could-care-less/ blog post by dictionary.com]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.152|141.101.105.152]] 09:25, 12 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'<br />
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'<br />
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'<br />
[[http://www.linkedin.com/in/Comet Comet]] 23:35, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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As it's currently written, the explanation seems to suggest that "I could care less" is the American form and "I couldn't care less" British. In fact, both forms are in use in the US, and it wouldn't surprise me if "I could care less" occurs occasionally in British English as well. There are also other English-speaking countries in the world. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 07:47, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:As a Brit, I can't think of any time I've heard a fellow Briton say "I could care less", it's always seemed very much an American phenomenon. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]] 12:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:Another American chiming in here to say that I never, ever, ever say "I could care less" when I mean "I couldn't care less". Characterizing it as "*the* American form" is incorrect. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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As for the title text, I'd disagree with "The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that literally or figuratively, the speaker could or couldn't care less." I think that Randall is pretty clear here: he ''should'' ('could' as in polite request) care less about irrational idioms instead of wasting time drawing comics about it. But he just can't resist. And without him doing so, we wouldn't be here. So in fact, it is nonsense for Randall to care less, and this contradiction is the point of the title text joke. But then again, I'm not native English speaker, and even less of a thought reader to understand what was on his mind. -- kavol, [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.224|141.101.96.224]] 08:30, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I had an alternate take on the title text. Since I could care less literally means I care some but could stand not to care as much, I took it to mean that for all the comic says about the true spirit and nature of communication and the evils of forcing linguistic absolutism onto other people, at the end of the day Randall still does care about people using correct phraseology. Yes, language is so much more than words and sounds but without clear grammatical usage rules communication could descend into chaos. This is actually one of the pivotal points in Jet Li's movie Hero which is a great commentary on this comic's profundity. The deep resonating pools of meaning that communication stores is only useful for peace and coexistence if we can all understand each other and come together as one. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:48, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::I'm solidly with the IP. Randall is saying that, evidently, this is something which is important to him, and something he's put a lot of thought into. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 17:33, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I think "I could care less" is completely unheard of in Britain - I had to come here to find out what this was all about! In the UK the correction wouldn't be seen as pedantic, but rather that you had said something really rather odd, possibly for effect. I'm guessing in the US this doesn't stand out, and the phrase is "familiar" so the brain will run with it, but it just sounds really weird and jarring to me. That's not being pedantic, we toss double negatives around all over the place. Randall's point is that it how you interpret the words, rather than exact rules. So if ponytail is British then she is genuinely just trying to check that it wasn't a slip of the tongue and not meant for effect. To experience how odd it sounds its like a similar phrase "I don't give a s**t", but someone saying "I do give a s**t" (unless you guy's say that as well?!). {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.205}}<br />
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: You're right, the British National Corpus has essentially no hits for "could care less" [http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/]. However, Ponytail's "correction" doesn't sound like she's unfamiliar with the expression, but more like the common pedantic objection to it, so I doubt that she's intended to be British, or that it's anything other than "showing off how well she knows some mental checklist." The Lawler link above ([http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/giveadamn.html]) discusses the example "They could give a damn about Whitewater" (as in they '''don't''' actually give a damn about it). I think you could get away with "I give a shit?" or "[Like] I give a shit!" (with the "like" elided) as implicitly negative, but no, you can't put in an affirmative "do." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 10:05, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I'm fighting a long lost battle, I know, but can I mention my fight against the (long-standing) misuse of Decimation when the speaker/writer probably means Devastation? These days it's often assumed to be its own mathematical complement (around ~10% survival, rather than the intended ~10% depletion). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 13:47, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I am right with you on this one. Although I don't think the users are mistaking the Dev- for the Dec-, they have just forgotten or never learned that "decimate" had anything to with percentages. Heck, many English speakers don't grasp that percent has anything to do with percentages. [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 15:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Either one works, depending on how the sentence is finished:<br />
* I could care less...about this than other things.<br />
* I couldn't care less...about this than I already do.<br />
--EE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.135|108.162.216.135]] 13:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Indeed, but "I could..." also begs the question "...but will I?" and so does not actually affirms that "I ''will'' care less (than with other things)", whilst "I couldn't..." is more imperative as in "...and therefore I wouldn't". (Unless you want to read the latter as "I couldn't care less because I actually care quite a lot already and I know that this will never change", I suppose! Oh dear, we uregently need to start using one of those totally-umambiguous ConLangs based upon predicate logic!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 15:48, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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On a different note: The way the panels are set up is pretty interesting. Anyone a idea, why he set it up like that? Does he want to tell us something? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.196|162.158.92.196]] 17:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:The panels seem to form a logical story progression: introduction / development / conclusion, each on 3 lines. The panel on solitude and darkness is inverted -- it's literally dark -- which is a common comics idiom to emphasize a specific panel and break monotony {{Citation needed}}. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 20:41, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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This is starting to feel like the [http://english.stackexchange.com/ English Language & Usage Stack Exchange] :-)<br />
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It's quite amusing as most of the discussion here is about the pedantic usage solely focused on how the listener perceives the expression irregardless (;-p) of what the speaker tried to express, which is is exactly what the comic is ranting about.<br />
If we want to be all pedantic, I'd offer the alternative that "I could care less" is a literally (;-p) perfectly sound form in itself. It's all about expressing the emotional value that someone attaches to a concept or thing -- think of it as an emotional energy or charge. Since everything is inter-dependent, there is no such thing as an absolute zero, it's the relation to other things that matters. The expression "I don't care" would imply the speaker devotes a neutral emotional energy value to the subject. Since it's a relative value, there are no boundaries in either direction and consequently "I could care less" and "I couldn't care less" are perfectly valid. It's all relative, as used to say Frank. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 20:28, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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'I know what you're thinking about,' said Tweedledum; 'but it isn't so, nohow.'<br />
'Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, 'if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'<br />
[[http://www.linkedin.com/in/Comet Comet]] 23:26, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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"I could care less, but I would have to try" is the phrase as I have always known it (shortened to "I could care less...). I always took this to mean that someone was indifferent to a thing. It is a bit of an oxymoron since to try would mean you care more when your goal is to care less. My assumption has always been that the way someone feels about something generally exists on a scale from love to hate with the dead center being indifference. To care more from an indifferent standpoint is too move towards one of the poles (love or hate) and thus the oxymoron.--[[User:The elusive pickle|The elusive pickle]] ([[User talk:The elusive pickle|talk]]) 22:27, 11 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
Is it proper to use citations or should we just link to the source? {{User:17jiangz1/signature|10:44, 12 September 2015}}<br />
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;Negation by association in French<br />
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The [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/giveadamn.html assertion] that ''could care less'', or ''give a damn'', is "negative in its own right" in the same way as ''pas'' in French sounds dubious to me to say the least, if not downright bovine excrement. In French, the original word for negation is ''ne'', it came to be associated with ''pas'', so that there was a perceived redundancy. Dropping ''ne'' when ''pas'' is used clearly conserves the negative meaning (it is only usual in oral French though, and frowned upon in written French). The same applies with adverbs that have a negative meaning, like ''jamais'' (never). But this is a very generic process, and thus completely different from very specific cases like ''could care less''. [[User:Zoyd|Zoyd]] ([[User talk:Zoyd|talk]]) 17:28, 12 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I've heard people say they ''couldn't'' give a damn. Never heard someone say they ''could''. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]] 13:17, 14 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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It's a shame we don't know Ponytail's name. If we did, this would pass the Bechdel test. Out of interest, are there any xkcds which pass the Bechdel test? {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.183}}<br />
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I could care more. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 00:35, 15 September 2015 (UTC)</div>198.41.238.33