2629: Or Whatever

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Or Whatever
Oh yeah, I didn't even know they renamed it the Willis Tower in 2009, because I know a normal amount about skyscrapers.
Title text: Oh yeah, I didn't even know they renamed it the Willis Tower in 2009, because I know a normal amount about skyscrapers.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BUILDING OR WHATEVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 442.1 metre skyscraper in Chicago. It is currently the third tallest building in North America, and was indeed the tallest building in the world for 25 years, surpassing the World Trade Centre upon opening in 1973, and being surpassed by the Petronas Towers upon their opening in 1998.

White Hat conveys some interesting historical trivia to Cueball, regarding the Sears Tower. Cueball seems unable to stop himself from one-upping with what he knows about tall structures in general. This could also be the nerdy impule to share cool information with the world.

This reply gives additional information that slightly invalidates White Hat's contribution. He seems to realise this (and not for the first time), so tags on the meaningless caveat of "or whatever".

This is meant to diffuse the tension he may have added by his well-meaning contradiction, but could also be taken as a passive-aggressive behaviour by interlocutors who can already by tetchy about the original 'correction'.

Being already self-conscious that he has overstepped the mark for polite smalltalk, he then hypercorrects the self-perceived tone of his response by explicitly denying that he knows far more about the tower, but only by providing the very facts that he is trying to claim not to know.

This comic hinges on the debate around the highest structure vs highest building[1]. A building is generlly defined as a human-built structure fit for human habitation when it is fit for human habitation, while a structure is generally defined as anything humans make. (Or in some cases, anything an animal makes, like crab shells.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[Cueball and White Hat looking out on a skyline.]
White Hat: You know, back in the 90s, the Sears Tower was the world's tallest tower.
Cueball: Yeah! Or "building". The CN Tower and the KVLY-TV Antenna were taller, but the CN Tower isn't always considered a building and the antenna is supported by guy wires or whatever.
[Caption below the panel]:
Whenever I get self-conscious about how obsessive I sound about some random topic, I panic and tack on "or whatever".


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Discussion

This is me when I don't want to fact-check things I only barely remember reading about once. -V 172.70.206.163 09:47, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

That with knowing a normal amount about skyscrapers reminds me of typing with one's human hands in #1530 (Keyboard mash)--Gunterkoenigsmann (talk) 17:13, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

And once again, no love for Ostankino teletower built in 1966, which is a building-like structure unlike that bayonet-like CN Tower. *sighs in Muscovite* 172.70.251.112 10:22, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

The Ostankino tower isn't considered a building. It doesn't have "continuously occupiable floors", so it's a just a tower, same as the CN...except shorter. 172.70.230.75 11:27, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

But a decade older - doesn't concern the nineties, though. 627235 (talk) 11:33, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Fun additional trivia! The Willis Tower has over 100 floors, with floor 103 or so having an observation area meant for tourists. There're these glass boxes that extend out the sides you can walk into, with only an inch-and-a-half of disconcertingly-clear material between you and certain death. Source: I've been there, though it has been years. 172.70.126.215 11:08, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

While colloquially confused, there is a difference between "building" (a structure build for interior/floor space), a "tower" (a free-standing structure whose purpose is to provide height for some application at the top while using little or none of the height for actual floors or at least not seeing them as a priority) and a "mast" (a thin, often lattice work, structure supported by guy wires. Also several measurements of height (especially for buildings) like roof height, structural height, highest floor or pinnacle (total) height including antennas. The highest buildings during the 90s were: Sears Tower (roof and structural), WTC North Tower (pinnacle/antenna and top floor), Petronas Towers (since 1998, only structural) The highest other structures were the CN Tower (free-standing tower) and Warsaw Radio mast (collapsed 1991) succeeded by the KVLY mast, both cable supported. In 2004, the Taipei 101 succeeded the Sears Tower as highest building (floor since 2001, roof) and the Petronas Towers (structural) but not pinnacle height (2000 the antenna was extended to "beat" the WTC, succeeded by Burj Khalifa) 627235 (talk) 11:33, 7 June 2022 (UTC) Sears Tower antenna/pinnacle height, that is, not Petronas. 627235 (talk) 11:41, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Say what you like about the Birj Khalifa, it does make this debate less troubling. It's the tallest... just about any definition you care to pick (building, structure, ego stroke, phallic compensation, etc.). 172.71.22.167 21:42, 7 June 2022 (UTC)


What's with the dislike of "inhabitable"? Can I inhabit a particular floor? Maybe. Can I habit one? Not really. 172.70.162.5 16:32, 8 June 2022 (UTC)