Editing 2998: Ravioli-Shaped Objects

{{comic
| number    = 2998
| date      = October 14, 2024
| title     = Ravioli-Shaped Objects
| image     = ravioli_shaped_objects_2x.png
| imagesize = 608x569px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = It's a real accomplishment to mess up a ravioli recipe badly enough that the resulting incident touches all four quadrants of the NFPA hazard diamond.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Ravioli}} are a kind of stuffed {{w|pasta}} comprising a filling enveloped in thin pasta dough, commonly square shaped, and serving as the object of this comic's table, which can be seen as a kind of {{w|confusion matrix}}. This comic compares four ravioli-shaped objects (square shaped objects with bulging cross-sections due to their filling) with some common actions associated with them. See the [[#Table of ravioli objects|table]] below.

The title text refers to the {{w|NFPA 704}} diagram for hazardous materials, a diamond figure put out by the {{w|National Fire Protection Association}} showing four kinds of fire hazards. A {{wiktionary|raviolo}} that touched all four quadrants would be a health hazard, fire hazard, and demonstrate (chemical) reactivity, and have some other miscellaneous hazard(s). The NFPA diamond was previously mentioned in [[2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond]].

===Table of ravioli objects===
{| class="wikitable" | style="background:#E6C3C3;"
! Ravioli-Shaped Objects
! scope="col"| Eat with a fork
! scope="col"| Rest your head on
! scope="col"| Puncture and slurp
! scope="col"| Install in your phone
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Ravioli}}
| style="background:#C5E6C3;"|Ravioli pasta would indeed be suitable to be eaten with a fork, as shown.
|Ravioli pasta is not structurally strong enough to support the weight of a human head while reclining, and would break and spill its filling over one's head and the object one is resting on. It may also be covered in sauce, adding to the general mess.
|style="background:#FBF8CE;"|If the ravioli filling is fluid enough, one could slurp it out with a straw. This would waste the pasta component, if it were not eaten afterwards.
|Phones are not meant to run on ravioli. Stuffing a phone with a raviolo would cause it to break as shown, spilling the filling through the phone, which is a terrible idea.

There is a mobile app named Ravioli, but it is quite unlikely that Randall had that in his mind.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Throw pillow}}
|Throw pillows are made of cloth and are inedible, whether one uses a fork or not.
| style="background:#C5E6C3;"|A throw pillow is meant to be used as head support while reclining on furniture.
|Throw pillows do not usually have liquids inside them. Hence, Cueball finds, to his dismay, that it's empty.
|Throw pillows are significantly bigger than phones and as such can't fit inside them, nor can typical pillows power them. As depicted, the attempt to force a pillow inside the phone has split the latter in half; the top half of the phone is visible on top of the pillow, and a bit of the bottom half can be seen beneath it.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Capri Sun}}
|Eating a pouch of sweetened juice with a fork would most likely simply pierce the pouch and spill the liquid all over Cueball.
|style="background:#FBF8CE;"|A Capri Sun would serve as a waterbed of sorts, and wouldn't be unduly uncomfortable in a pinch. However, it's still possible that the pouch could rupture and leave you with a sticky head and no support.
|style="background:#C5E6C3;"|Capri Suns are meant to be drunk like this, and are enjoyed by many.{{citation needed}}
|The phone shown is surrounded by spilled Capri Sun, implying that the attempt to force the two together punctured the pouch. The resulting spillage would most likely just result in the surface of the phone becoming annoyingly sticky, but if the liquid managed to get inside the phone (especially if the cover had been removed to try to put it in the compartment that usually holds the battery) it could cause a more significant and difficult to clean mess. Once actual power is provided (either an actual battery being subsequently used or the device offered external power by cable or inductance charger), the remaining residue could cause any number of further faults, and perhaps even critical component damage.
|-
! scope="row"| Bulging {{w|Lithium-ion battery|Lithium Battery}}
|Bulging lithium batteries are explosive hazards and should not be punctured lest they explode. Additionally the contents of the battery are toxic if one were to somehow manage to eat the burning bits of the battery.
|A lithium battery is a small, hard object, and a bulging one is no exception. Since the bulging comes from a buildup of heat and gas, (the primary gases being hydrogen and carbon dioxide), it would also be a constant fire hazard, which would not be conducive to relaxation.{{cn}} Lithium battery themed throw pillows, which bulge similarly to such batteries, do exist as a novelty item. Notably, these types of batteries are often referred to as "spicy pillows".
|Similarly to the 'eat with a fork' example, puncturing a bulging lithium battery is a bad idea.
|A bulging lithium battery ''could'' be installed in a phone, if one is willing to break the phone a bit (like the screen in the comic) to accommodate the bulging of the battery. More commonly, bulging batteries form inside the phone itself; if you don't usually have reason to charge or store it separately, you might only notice the problem when it causes the case or screen (shown as partly cracked, in the image) to distort significantly. In [[1422: My Phone is Dying]], [[Beret Guy]]'s phone is expanding. Although in his case it is not the normal bulging battery that causes this.
Upon noticing the bulging of a battery, it is strongly suggested that you uninstall it from the device it is in. It is at least no longer good at holding/delivering its power, and may even become at least as {{w|Lithium-ion battery#Fire hazard|hazardous}} as when used in all the other scenarios, so you should [https://www.reading.ac.uk/health-safety-services/fire-safety/lithium-battery-information/i-have-a-swollen-lithium-ion-battery-what-should-i-do ignore it at your peril].
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A 4x4 grid of squares. The columns are labeled: Eat with a fork, rest your head on, puncture and slurp, install in your phone. The rows are: Ravioli, throw pillow, Capri Sun, bulging lithium battery. Each row has an image of each respective item above the title, with the words “Home Sweet Home” on the throw pillow, and “Fruit” on the Capri Sun.]

Top-Left
:Ravioli, eat with a fork: [green]
::[Cueball sits on a chair in front of a table with a jar of sauce on it. He is eating from a plate from ravioli.]
::Cueball: ''Nom Nom Nom''

Top Mid-Left
:Ravioli, Rest your head on: [red]
::[Cueball is lying down on a couch with ravioli smooshed on his head and the couch. Ravioli bits can be seen on the ground]
::Cueball: Eww.

Top Mid-Right
:Ravioli, puncture and slurp: [yellow]
::[Cueball is slurping from a ravioli through a straw. In front of him is table with two plates, presumably with ravioli on them.]
::''Slurp''

Top-Right
:Ravioli, Install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone is shown with bits of ravioli sticking out and tomato sauce is dripping out.]

Top-Mid Left
:Throw pillow, eat with a fork: [red]
::[Cueball sits on a chair in front of a table with a jar of sauce on it. He is poking with a fork at a throw pillow covered in tomato sauce.]
::''Poke poke''

Top-Mid Mid-Left
:Throw pillow, rest your head on: [green]
::[Cueball is looking at his phone and is lying on a couch. His head is resting on a throw pillow.]

Top-Mid Mid-Right
:Throw pillow, puncture and slurp: [red]
::[Cueball is sucking on a straw that is inserted in a pillow.]
::Cueball: Aw man, this one is empty.

Top-Mid Right
:Throw pillow, install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone is shown on a throw pillow that has the words “Home Sweet Home” partially obscured.]

Bottom-Mid Left
:Capri Sun, eat with a fork: [red]
::[Cueball sits on a chair in front of a table with a jar of sauce on it. He has stabbed a Capri Sun on a plate and is now splattered with juice.]

Bottom-Mid Mid-Left
:Capri Sun, rest your head on: [yellow]
::[Cueball is looking at his phone and is lying on a couch. His head is resting on a Capri Sun.]
::Cueball: Honestly kind of comfortable.

Bottom-Mid Mid-Right
:Capri Sun, puncture and slurp: [green]
::[Cueball is drinking from a Capri Sun through a straw.]
::''Sluuurp''

Bottom-Mid Right
:Capri Sun, Install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone is shown to be squishing a Capri Sun. Juice is trickling out.]

Bottom Left
:Bulging lithium battery, eat with a fork: [red]
::[An explosion bordered by 4 skull and crossbones.]

Bottom Mid-Left
:Bulging lithium battery, rest your head on: [red]
::[Cueball is looking at his phone and lying on his couch. His head is resting on a smoldering battery.]
::Cueball: This fire hazard is uncomfortable.

Bottom Mid-Right
:Bulging lithium battery, puncture and slurp: [red]
::[An explosion bordered by 4 skull and crossbones.]

Bottom Right
:Bulging lithium battery, install in your phone: [red]
::[A phone with a bulging back, presumably from the bulging lithium battery. The phone’s screen is cracked in the center.]

==Trivia==
Surprisingly, the bottom right square was [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/4f/20241019165156%21ravioli_shaped_objects_2x.png initially marked in <span style="background-color:#C5E6C3">&nbsp;green&nbsp;</span>] rather than <span style="background-color:#E6C3C3;">&nbsp;red&nbsp;</span> (or <span style="background-color:#FBF8CE;">&nbsp;yellow&nbsp;</span>) when it was first uploaded. This square may have been marked in green because, although putting a bulging battery in a mobile phone is not normal usage, it is a situation that can ''arise'' from normal usage when a "healthy" battery begins to fail. One other suggestion was that this was an [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd phone]], and a dodgy battery is part of a 'feature', such as an 'integrated hand warmer' or 'dynamic expansion').

More likely, it was just because Randall automatically went with the default association of "Row N is appopriate for Column N", as is his [[:Category:Confusion matrices|usual design]] for these comics, to which he adds adjustments for other surprises, exceptions and outright jokes. 


{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Phones]]