Difference between revisions of "Talk:2360: Common Star Types"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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(Sph[y|i]nx)
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Um, I didnt have to solve a catchpa to edit. Anybody know why? -[[User:Donthaveusername]] 10:02, 18 September 2020
 
Um, I didnt have to solve a catchpa to edit. Anybody know why? -[[User:Donthaveusername]] 10:02, 18 September 2020
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It's rather arbitrary, of course (these distinctions always are), but I had always assumed that "sphinx" was the fictional beast of myth, while "sphynx" refers to the real hairless cat breed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.5|108.162.238.5]] 06:04, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

Revision as of 06:04, 19 September 2020

I'm thinking a table (Name, appearance, summary, ¿is real?, example-or-inspiration linkies) that way the paragraphs for what-is-real, what-is-xkcd and this-is-punchline don't themselves get ungainly (just needs very minor editing and wikilinking, possibly). And apols again to the first explained who seemed to appreciate their submission as only a placeholder so I overwrote rather than integrated. 162.158.158.171 22:37, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

[1] remained on Wikipedia for all of six minutes :/ 162.158.62.149 23:40, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Ten minutes, surely? Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Wat. (Full text here.) Lightcaller (talk) 01:55, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

And of course Brad Pitt is a star of yet another type... 108.162.215.188 04:53, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Re Beige Gorgon, this is the average colour of the universe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_latte

Note that FeII spectral lines actually refer to signs of Fe+ ions (neutral is 'I', every ionisation level above that adds 1) but I can't see it mattering to anyone who doesn't read this far and it'd certainly have FeIII lines as well for 2+, or maybe I'm confused myself, so I supported the (chemistry) Ferrous association in the description with a link while I was editing nearby. 162.158.158.19 09:45, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

My opinion: I'm kinda getting bored of this types of comics here - listing some real scientific stuff and some made up. There's been a lot of them, and they seem repetitive - no real new humor. 162.158.103.125 11:30, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

YMMV? Looking at the last 100, if I include a very broad justification for inclusion I get just 20% one could say are 'this type', but sub-10% (with 2351 the most recent) if I am more realistic about comparison. And I generally like them, but each to their own. 162.158.159.32 14:10, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

...Teal Sphinx? :P 172.69.63.201 14:44, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

I'm not seeing a plausible connection to Teal Swan, myself. BunsenH (talk) 23:19, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
I don't think I believe Indigo Children is relevent, nor the Red Dwarf comedy series (in the table, though the Titletext mention as an example is Ok but is one thing among many that spoils it being concise). I mean, "mercury is (shiny) grey, the grey wizard is mercurial" makes more sense as a possibly inspirational factoid, but I don't want to add that because it's not really that explanatory. But never mind. 162.158.158.171 23:38, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Question: What is the style guide for British vs. American Spelling (e.g., Color vs. Colour) in explain xkcd? I've seen quite a bit of that on this page. If it comes down to a vote, I think that we should stick with American spelling in general, because Randall is American. Argis13 (talk) 18:05, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

I believe the wiki standard is "consistency within an article" usually according to how the original contributors set it, where there isn't another factor (like direct quotation). Though before now I've seen perfectly consistent non-US spellings being (incompletely) systematically Americanized over an Anglicised (but possibly just Commonwealth/acceptible-everywhere-but-the-US) original. I don't think Johnson vs. Webster has yet arisen in a 'bracket' comic (or perhaps Merriam-Webster/OED to be actually current) so I don't know we can claim language-lover Randall automatically claims home-turf advantage. ;) 162.158.159.32 19:46, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if the indigo banshee isn't referring to indigo children172.69.34.60 23:30, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

I imagine not. Sometimes a hue is just a hue. But now I think I know where the idea of the Blue Children came from, in another unrelated thing. 162.158.154.35 00:12, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Perhaps this comic was inspired by this fact: https://www.zdnet.com/article/20-years-of-linux-on-big-iron/ 172.68.24.118 13:53, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Um, I didnt have to solve a catchpa to edit. Anybody know why? -User:Donthaveusername 10:02, 18 September 2020

It's rather arbitrary, of course (these distinctions always are), but I had always assumed that "sphinx" was the fictional beast of myth, while "sphynx" refers to the real hairless cat breed. 108.162.238.5 06:04, 19 September 2020 (UTC)