Title text:
Starting a meta-leaderboard for tracking who holds the record for ranking behind the most distinct people on an online leaderboard.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3110/
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Title text:
It's important for devices to have internet connectivity so the manufacturer can patch remote exploits.
Transcript:
[A store salesman, Hairy, is showing Cueball a dehumidifier, with a "SALE" label on it. Several other unidentified devices, possibly other dehumidifier models, are shown in the store as well.]
Salesman: This dehumidifier model features built-in WiFi for remote updates.
Cueball: Great! That will be really useful if they discover a new kind of water.
Source: https://xkcd.com/3109/
Title text:
To combat the threat, many airlines are installing wing-mounted spray bottles.
Transcript:
Megan: Shining laser pointers at planes is a federal crime. It's incredibly dangerous.
Cueball: Oh, because it can blind the pilot?
Megan: That's one reason...[A plane is shown, with a green laser pointer aimed at it.]
[The laser disappears. A cat, approximately the same size as the plane, pounces on the plane and sends it tumbling.]
Source: https://xkcd.com/3108/
Title text:
Once you add the balloons into the model, it makes forecasting easier overall--the forecast is always 'cold and dark, with minimal solar-driven convection.'
Transcript:
[A graph is shown. The X axis is labeled Number of Weather Balloon Launches Per Day. It's logarithmic, with ticks in powers of 10, and values shown at 1, 10, 100, 1,000, 1 million, 1 billion, and 1 trillion. The Y axis is labeled Weather Model Accuracy, no values are shown. The plot starts above the mark for 1 balloon, at about 40% of the maximum value of the curve, it quickly rises through a point labelled "Current Rate", at about 4000 launches per day and 85% of the maximum. The maximum value is reached at 100 million, plateaus until 10 billion, and then reduces even more rapidly down to perhaps 15% maximum accuracy above the 10 trillion mark.]
Source: https://xkcd.com/3107/
Title text:
'This HAZMAT container contains radioactive material with activity of one becquerel.' 'So, like, a single banana slice?'
Transcript:
[Cueball holds a stick while talking with Megan and White Hat.]
Cueball: This stick is one meter long.
Megan: Cool.
White Hat: That's a nice stick.[Cueball holds a smallish rock.]
Cueball: This rock weighs one pound.
Megan: I'd believe it.
White Hat: Looks like a normal rock.[Cueball holds a small battery.]
Cueball: This battery is one volt.
Megan: Seems fine.
White Hat: Might need a recharge.[Cueball holds a capacitor while Megan and White Hat panic.]
Cueball: This capacitor is one farad.
Megan: Aaaaa! Be careful!!
White Hat: Put it down!!
Source: https://xkcd.com/3106/
Title text:
We're getting a lot of complaints from commuters who were routed onto a coaster, but the theme park patrons who spent hours stuck on an intercity line are also not happy.
Transcript:
[A close-up shot of Black Hat from the shoulders up]
Black Hat: Compatibility and interoperability are so important.[A zoom out reveals that Black Hat is standing in front of and pointing at a diagram showing a commuter subway car and a roller coaster car, and the tracks they both run on. Standing next to him are Cueball and Hairbun]
Black Hat: For example, most subway rails are 143.5 cm apart. But many roller coasters use a narrower 110 cm gauge.[This panel shows only Black Hat]
Black Hat: For the last few years, our company has been quietly retrofitting roller coasters to use 143.5 cm tracks.[Black Hat now has his fists raised]
Black Hat: Soon, we can begin phase 2.
Voice from off-panel: Maybe interoperability is actually bad.
Black Hat: If you listen to the destination announcement while boarding, you'll be fine.
Source: https://xkcd.com/3105/
Title text:
Numbers can be tricky. On the day of my 110th birthday, I'll be one day younger than John Tukey was on his.
Transcript:
[Text formatted as a block quote]
"Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise."
John W. Tukey
The Future of Data Analysis (1962)Caption below the comic:
Happy approximate birthday to John Tukey, author of my favorite statistics quote, who was born 110.000 years ago sometime this week.
Source: https://xkcd.com/3104/
Title text:
Sure, this exoplanet we discovered may seem hostile to life, but our calculations suggest it's actually in the accretion disc's habitable zone.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3103/
Title text:
If you think curiosity without rigor is bad, you should see rigor without curiosity.
Transcript:
[Miss Lenhart is standing in front of a whiteboard with some scribbles on it.]
Miss Lenhart: I'm supposed to give you the tools to do good science.[Miss Lenhart is now standing in front of Jill and Cueball, who are seated at classroom desks.]
Miss Lenhart: But what are those tools?
Miss Lenhart: Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results.
Miss Lenhart: What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science?[Miss Lenhart headshot.]
Miss Lenhart: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important:
[A list, presented in a sub-panel that Miss Lenhart is pointing to:]
Outcome variable:
- correct scientific results
Predictors:
- collaboration
- skepticism of others' claims
- questioning your own beliefs
- trying to falsify hypotheses
- checking citations
- statistical rigor
- blinded analysis
- financial disclosure
- open data
[presumably the list goes on, as it runs off the visible part of the panel][Another Miss Lenhart headshot.]
Miss Lenhart: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial:
- genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and
- ammonium hydroxide
[Miss Lenhart, standing, and Jill, seated at desk]
Jill: Wait, why did ammonia score so high? How did it even get on the list?
Miss Lenhart: ...and now you're doing good science!
Source: https://xkcd.com/3101/
Title text:
With a good battery, the device can easily last for 5 or 10 years, although the walls probably won't.
Transcript:
[A loud sound appears out of nowhere in the upper left part of the panel, around the word are many small lines going away from it and before the word there is a warning emoji. In the lower right corner Cueball is sitting in an office chair at his desk in front of his computer. He is holding his hands to his head and begins by shouting and then talking.]
⚠ Boop!
Cueball: Aaaaa!
Cueball: I heard it again!
Cueball: Where is that coming from!?
[Caption below the panel:]
It turns out living well is only the second best revenge. The best revenge is making a tiny hole in someone's wall and dropping in a battery-powered capsule that, every 6-12 hours, plays the alert sound of a USB device connecting.
Source: https://xkcd.com/3100/
xkcd #3099: Neighbor-Source Heat Pump
Title text:
The installation of the pipes on the inside of the insulation can be challenging, especially when the neighbor could come home at any minute.
Transcript:
[Two houses are shown next to each other. They have almost identical facades with a base, two windows on either side of a door and a chimney to the right on the roof. But next to the left house there is a small box with two light-blue pipes going from the house to the box. From the bottom of the box two similar light-blue pipes goes a bit down under ground, the left further than the right, and then they bend to the right and goes under the neighboring house to the right. The upper pipe closest to the ground is shown to enter the wall of the right house, going almost up to the roof, and then bending sharply around going down below ground. Then it goes under ground to the other side of the house and do the same in the right wall, going up and down. Where it goes under ground, it connects to the the other pipe that has gone all the way straight under the house.]
[Caption below the panel:]
A covertly-installed Neighbor-Source Heat Pump takes advantage of the fact that your neighbor keeps their house cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Source: https://xkcd.com/3099/
Title text:
Ultimately, history would imperfectly record the story of the Foal of Troy.
Transcript:
[A horse is facing Cueball and Ponytail, who are standing in front of an entrance below a tower.]
[In an inset panel, Cueball is talking to Megan and Hairy.]
Cueball: When the Greeks departed, they left behind a horse as a gift.[Hairbun is standing behind a horse, with Cueball standing in front.]
We took it as a gesture of peace, but it carried a secret payload.[A smaller horse is standing behind the horse from previous panel, which is looking behind at it.]
One night, from within the horse, another, smaller horse emerged![Close-up on Cueball.]
Cueball: Our guards have been unable to determine the inner horse's objective, but it has begun to show an interest in our oats.
Off-panel voice 1: An attack on Troy's food supply!
Off-panel voice 2: How dare they!?
Source: https://xkcd.com/3098/
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