Editing 2350: Deer Turrets

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 8: Line 8:
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
−
In this comic [[Black Hat]] is giving what appears to be a press conference, in which he's offering a non-apology for his recent actions. This is not uncommon in politics and the military, in which the speaker offers bland admissions, such as "mistakes were made", while minimizing the importance of whatever happened.
+
{{incomplete|Created by a NEIGHBORHOOD DEER (PEW PEW). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
 +
[[Black Hat]] has built laser turrets that automatically shoot at nearby wireless devices. This could potentially be useful in a military context, but for [[72|reasons unforeseeable]], he's went and strapped them to local deer. Deer are well-defined by their tendency to move around (which [[Cueball]] attempted to exploit for ergonomic reasons in [[1329: Standing]]), typically in areas close to civilization, so attaching wireless-seeking laser robots to them effectively makes them organic killbots. As the last panel reveals, this can be circumvented by disabling wireless access on your devices (airplane mode), though Black Hat doesn't seem particularly concerned with letting people know this, and seems to brush these inventions off as simple mistakes (at least one member of the press isn't convinced, sarcastically asking "was it ''really'' a mistake?" knowing full well that Black Hat's ''real'' plan has gone off without a hitch).
  
−
In true Black Hat fashion, he has apparently built laser turrets that automatically shoot at nearby wireless devices. This could potentially be useful in a military context, but for [[72|reasons unforeseeable]], he's mounted them on local deer. This not only releases dangerous and indiscriminate weapons, potentially into populated areas, but also makes those weapons very difficult to identify and recover or shut down. Moreover, he then apparently lost interest in the whole project, presumably making no attempt to contain the damage.
+
In the second panel Black Hat uses the common idiom "hindsight is {{w|Visual acuity#Expression|20/20}}". This may likely be a pun, as "hind" is an archaic term for a female deer.
−
 
 
−
Throughout the exchange, Black Hat shows a typical lack of concern for the consequences of his action, dismissing them as "mistakes", even though they were clearly deliberate actions with very predictable outcomes. He then says that it was also a mistake to invite everyone present without warning them to put their phones in airplane mode, heavily implying that the laser-deer are approaching, and everyone on the audience is in immediate danger.
 
−
 
 
−
The title, "Deer Turrets," may be a pun on "deterrents," as laser turrets would certainly deter people with wireless devices from approaching deer.
 
−
 
 
−
In the second panel Black Hat uses the common idiom "hindsight is {{w|Visual acuity#Expression|20/20}}". This may be a pun, as "hind" is a term for an adult female (doe) deer - as {{w|Red_deer#Behaviour|a counterpoint}} to the adult male (buck) deer being known as a "stag" - and a "sight" is a {{w|Sight_(device)|visual aligning device}}, often for weaponry. Whether or not the potential pun has any further {{w|caliber}} to its references, this ''might'' be the ultimate aim of this wording.
 
  
 
The auto-targeting laser turrets may be a reference to attempts by researchers at the University of Washington to create a laser-based battery charging device [https://www.wired.com/story/wireless-charging-with-lasers/]. The device in question is mounted on a turret that locates and aims the beam at a photovoltaic cell attached to the battery. The same technology could theoretically be used with a higher-powered laser, but for the application described in the comic, the targeting mechanism would need to be altered to sense any electronic rather than the accompanying photovoltaic cell.
 
The auto-targeting laser turrets may be a reference to attempts by researchers at the University of Washington to create a laser-based battery charging device [https://www.wired.com/story/wireless-charging-with-lasers/]. The device in question is mounted on a turret that locates and aims the beam at a photovoltaic cell attached to the battery. The same technology could theoretically be used with a higher-powered laser, but for the application described in the comic, the targeting mechanism would need to be altered to sense any electronic rather than the accompanying photovoltaic cell.
  
−
In the title text, Black Hat claims that his great grandfather designed the RMS ''{{w|Titanic}}'', the then-largest ocean-liner in the world which {{w|Sinking of the Titanic|sank after striking an iceberg}} in 1912, and the ''{{w|LZ 129 Hindenburg}}'', the then-largest airship in the world which {{w|Hindenburg disaster|caught fire and crashed}} in 1937. He claims that his ancestor did not retire from the design business after the loss of the ''Titanic'', but instead learned from it and made the ''Hindenburg'' "iceberg-proof". This is an obvious and humorous lie for several reasons. First, the lead designers of the ''Olympic''-class ''Titanic'' and the ''Hindenburg''-class airship were two different people, {{w|William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie|Lord Pirrie}} and Dr. {{w|Ludwig Dürr}} respectively, and Black Hat is probably not one of Dürr's great-grandsons (Lord Pirrie had no children). Secondly, while no airship has been recorded to be destroyed by striking an iceberg, it's not because of any "iceberg-proofing" efforts by Black Hat's great-grandfather, or anyone else -- it's just due to the basic fact that airships fly in the air, where there are no icebergs.{{Citation needed}} Were an airship to strike an iceberg, it would almost certainly be destroyed; in fact, the even deadlier accident on the airship {{w|USS Akron|USS ''Akron''}} resulted from the airship simply striking the (unfrozen) ocean.
+
The title text is humorous because ships in the air do not have to deal with icebergs the way ships in the water would. The ''{{w|Titanic}}'' was a large ocean liner infamous for sinking after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912. The ''{{w|Hindenburg disaster|Hindenburg}}'' was a dirigible infamous for catching fire and being destroyed by fire in 1937. It's unknown whether Black Hat's great grandfather was comically inept at his job and genuinely thought the Hindenburg should be made iceberg-resistant or whether he was intentionally sabotaging the Hindenburg by redirecting safety considerations from reducing fire hazards to reducing the possibility of being punctured by an iceberg.
−
There is also the implication that the "iceberg proofing" is where the project went awry - a hot enough fire will melt an iceberg, so it may be implied that the "iceberg proofing" was intentionally filling the airship with flammable hydrogen gas so it would explode and melt the iceberg on impact. It is unclear how this would be remotely helpful in case of iceberg collision, but it would be very ironic given the fate of the Hindenburg.
 
  
 
The possibility of mounting devices on wild deer was previously referenced in the title text of [[1924: Solar Panels]].
 
The possibility of mounting devices on wild deer was previously referenced in the title text of [[1924: Solar Panels]].
−
 
−
Black Hat has built a similar device to target users of Google Glass in [[1251: Anti-Glass]].
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
Line 36: Line 28:
 
:Black Hat: Yes. Hindsight is 20/20.
 
:Black Hat: Yes. Hindsight is 20/20.
  
−
:[Close-up, Black Hat holds up his index finger]
+
:[Close-up]
 
:Black Hat: But science is about learning from mistakes
 
:Black Hat: But science is about learning from mistakes
 
:Black Hat: And not being afraid to make new ones.
 
:Black Hat: And not being afraid to make new ones.
Line 42: Line 34:
 
:[Side view again]
 
:[Side view again]
 
:Black Hat: Like inviting you here, but not warning you to put your phones in airplane mode.
 
:Black Hat: Like inviting you here, but not warning you to put your phones in airplane mode.
−
:Black Hat: Another mistake.
+
:Black Hat: Another mistake, but that's okay.
−
:Black Hat: But that's okay.
 
 
:Off-Panel: ''Gallop gallop''
 
:Off-Panel: ''Gallop gallop''
 
:Audience member: ''Is it really?!''
 
:Audience member: ''Is it really?!''
 
:Black Hat: I think it's fine.
 
:Black Hat: I think it's fine.
 
:Deer: ''Pew! Pew!''
 
:Deer: ''Pew! Pew!''
−
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
[[Category: Comics featuring Black Hat]]
 
[[Category: Comics featuring Black Hat]]
 
[[Category: Animals]]
 
[[Category: Animals]]

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)

Templates used on this page:

Retrieved from "https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2350:_Deer_Turrets"