Haiku Proof

Explanation:
In this comic Cueball attends a math class after having been awake for two full days (48 hours). After that he begins to hallucinate and dreams that the teacher Miss Lenhart (a professor in this comic) answers Megan's question, about a proof that there are an infinite number of prime numbers , in haiku . After the first line she floats up and during the third and final line she flies over the students heads. Note also that when Cueball looks up at the flying teacher when she takes off, Megan never moves her head because it's not happening in her world, and Cueball only hallucinates the teachers flies.
Euclid's theorem states that there are an infinite number of primes, prime numbers being numbers that are only divisible by themselves and 1. The most notable proof of this theorem, and the one presented in this comic, was first given by Euclid himself in his Elements . A more traditional form of this proof follows:
If we suppose that there are a finite number of primes, then they must have a product, i.e. p 1 p 2 ... p n = q . Now consider q + 1. If this number is prime itself, then we have discovered a new prime number, contrary to the assumption that we had listed them all. If it is not prime, it must have a prime divisor. Since all of the p k are a factor of q , they cannot be a divisor of q + 1. So q + 1 is divisible by a prime not on the list, which again is a contradiction. Therefore, there must be infinitely many primes.
At the last line of the haiku, Miss Lenhart says "Q.E.D., bitches!", Q.E.D. stands for "Quod Erat Demonstrandum", which means "Thus, it has been demonstrated." This is a Latin phrase which is used to show a proof is over. Ironically, the proof is not complete.
The comic essentially takes this proof and states it in the form of a haiku , which is a traditional form of Japanese poetry, which is in Japanese broken up into patterns of morae (or syllables ), a unit that measures the length of sound. A Japanese haiku consists of three lines with 5, 7 and 5 morae respectively per line. An English Haiku has 5, 7 and 5 syllables per line. The proof poem goes like this:
Top prime's divisors' Product (plus one)'s factors are...? Q.E.D., bitches!
Which can be divided in syllables like this:
Top - prime's - di - vi - sors' Pro - duct - (plus - one)'s - fac - tors - are...? Q. - E.- D., - bit - ches!
The haiku proof given is slightly off, as the first line talks about the "top prime's divisors," which makes no sense because the top prime doesn't have any divisors besides itself and one. You need to take the product of all primes, not just one. But, hey, it's a hallucination.
Haiku was also referred to before in 554: Not Enough Work .
The comic and title text conclude that going to class while sleep-deprived is an interesting, but entirely noneducational, experience. So, go for the sake of the hallucinations.
[Miss Lenhart teaching a class gestures with both hands up as Megan, sitting at the first desk on a stool, raises a hand and asks a question. Cueball sits at the desks behind her supporting his head in both hands with the elbows on the desk.] Megan: How do you know there are an infinite number of primes? Miss Lenhart: I'll answer in haiku!
[In a frame-less panel, Miss Lenhart lifts a hand up while answering. Both students sit upright on their stools.] Miss Lenhart: Top prime's divisors'
[Miss Lenhart floats into the air  with three lines beneath her legs. Cueball looks up. Megan does not change position.] Miss Lenhart: Product (plus one)'s factors are...?
[Miss Lenhart flies over the students heads with a curved line behind her. Neither student look up. The bottom frame of the panel is a curving thought/dream bobble that goes through the middle of the panel at a height just below the desk tops. Two thought circles goes from Cueball's head down to this frame, and Cueball's thoughts are shown below outside of the panel - without any frame around.] Miss Lenhart: Q.E.D., bitches! Cueball (thinking): Wow, after the 48-hour sleep-dep mark, lectures get really interesting.


Oregon

Explanation:
This comic relates to the computer game The Oregon Trail , and humorously depicts the consequences to real-world Oregon if everyone had arrived in the same manner they did in the game.
The Oregon Trail was an educational computer game released in 1971, but the version referred to is likely the more popular 1985 version.  In the game, players would play as a character taking a trek west along the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon.  The player's journey starts in 1848 and typically takes less than one year to complete.  Along the way, the player must manage resources (food, spare parts, etc.) and face risks and dangers (starvation, disease, etc.) .  Most players at the time were grade-school students. The game was very popular, and thousands of players played it monthly.
The game made it very easy to hunt for food.  Large animals (bison, bears, etc.) were very easy and rewarding targets, where spending a single bullet could be enough to collect enough food for multiple days.  There were also smaller prey available (rabbits, squirrels, etc.) which were harder to catch and provided less food.  Since bullets are much lighter and cheaper than food, it was a good strategy to bring the minimum amount of food and plan to hunt for meals.  Extra food can even be traded for money or other supplies, so it wasn't necessary to start the journey with anything except bullets.
The comic tries to document, as though in a historical fashion, what would have been the result if all the players had been real settlers who really had prepared for their journey on the Oregon Trail in that way. The parts before 1848 are historically accurate.  Starting from 1848, however, players of the game would form an unbelievably large influx of people arriving nearly simultaneously, with very little food or supplies being brought along.  Massive overhunting would soon strip the land bare, all large game slaughtered for meat, with hunger, starvation and disease soon to follow. Dysentery in particular was very common in the original game and perhaps the most infamous way to die, hence its listing as the most prominent epidemic.
The title text makes things rather recursive. In this alternate reality, thousands upon thousands of people fleeing from the overpopulated, devastated Oregon becomes the focus of another video game, much like The Oregon Trail in our universe.
History of 19th-century Oregon
[Timeline, with relevant images next to various dates.]
1805 [Two men stand at the edge of a cliff. One has a walking staff.] Arrival of Lewis & Clark
1825 Early settlers arrive
1841 Oregon Trail established
1843 Larger western migration begins
1848 [A horse is pulling a covered wagon. A gun peeks out the back.] Huge wave of 500,000+ settlers arrives from Missouri. Largely children and adolescents, most bring nothing but cartloads of bullets for hunting.
1849 [Cueball and Megan with rifles aim at something.] Overhunting begins to devastate ecosystem Dysentery epidemic.
1850 [Tombstones and bodies.] Shooting deaths skyrocket Typhoid epidemic Measles epidemic Cholera epidemic
1851 All mammals larger than squirrels wiped out by overhunting Massive famine
1852 [Sun low over a land, devoid of life. Scattered remains of corpses and skeletons.] Last survivors flee Oregon territory abandoned


Branding

Explanation:
This comic pokes fun at web sites (adult-themed sites in particular) which try to inflate their popularity by comparing themselves to other popular online services.  The strip shows four such advertisements that appear to Cueball as he browses the Internet.
Adblock is a browser extension which prevents advertisements from being displayed. Presumably Cueball normally browses the Internet with Adblock enabled, and thus would not see any of these ads.
The first advertises a website that brands itself as the " Facebook of sex". Because Facebook was ubiquitous at the time of writing, this is a good branding idea. Facebook is known to most users and connotes an easy-to-use platform where it's very easy to find people, chat with them, share pictures, etc. For someone looking for sex, this would probably seem like a good site to use. There are, in fact, sites that use this branding in their advertisements and/or their user interface which is likely what inspired Randall to write this comic. Cueball sighs and moves on, probably having seen this kind of ad many times already.
The second brands itself as "Twitter for 18+ singles". It is a similar but seemingly invented ad which again plays on the ubiquity and popularity of Twitter , which is a (generally) public chat forum. Despite the fact that, at the time this comic was published, it was limiting posts to 140 characters, it was still popular enough to get some attention and make someone think about going to the site.  Sending messages to the world in 140 characters or less might be somewhat less of a versatile platform than Facebook for chatting with other singles, but still perhaps viable. Cueball notes that it is becoming more and more popular to brand adult sites by comparing them to popular non-adult sites.
This third takes a turn for the unusual, branding itself as "Google Reader for S&M". Google Reader is a now-defunct platform that allowed users to aggregate web feeds such as RSS feeds into one place for convenience. The service is notably less well-known and popular than Facebook or Twitter, and given that it doesn't directly link you with other people, doesn't have the same connotation of allowing you to connect with others. Perhaps it would be a site that allowed you to aggregate various fan fictions, blogs, or other written works relating to S&M . However, Cueball is surprised such a site would exist.
The final ad brands itself as a "GitHub for lesbians". GitHub is a website that allows developers to collaborate on software projects using the Git revision control system. The concept is absurd — GitHub has a specialized function unrelated to anyone's gender or orientation, and it's barely a social network at all; the usefulness or appeal of such a system made specific to lesbians is not apparent. Cueball is surprised and possibly even intrigued by this last ad.
The title text relates to the third panel. RSS is a technology involved in Google Reader. RSS&M is a portmanteau of RSS and S&M.  This is a possible way for the third web site to brand itself.
Browsing without adblock [Cueball is sitting at a computer.] [Pop-up window with red background.] The Facebook of SEX! Click now! Cueball: Sigh. *Close*
[Pop-up window with green background.] Twitter for 18+ singles! Join today! Cueball: Does every porn site have to brand itself like this? *Close*
[Pop-up window with blue background.] We're like Google Reader for S&M! Cueball: Really? *Close*
[Pop-up window with orange background.] Try the new GitHub for lesbians! Cueball: Ok, wait, what?


Collections

Explanation:
Cueball enters, excited that he's managed to buy every one of author Terry Pratchett 's Discworld books for his Kindle e-reader . Megan says that it seems pointless to her to build a Kindle collection.
Cueball interprets this to mean she thinks it's pointless to build a collection on an electronic device, perhaps due to the DRM ( digital rights management ) software common on these devices which can (for instance) make it difficult to transfer the files if the device breaks. (This was the subject of 488: Steal This Comic and DRM has been the general subject of many xkcd comics .)
However, Megan is actually commenting on the futility of building up any kind of collection at all, since nothing we do can change the fact that we're inevitably going to die. And when we die, we always die alone - i.e. no one else can follow you on that last journey. And no matter how much you have collected (or earned) during this life that will not change. (A magpie is a bird traditionally thought to be drawn to collect shiny objects and bring them back to its nest.)
This view is in line with those advanced by the philosophical movement known as existentialism which theorizes that life has no deep, hidden meaning and hence even things that we personally feel are meaningful (like building up collections) will not change the outcome of life in the end.
Cueball obviously has seen Megan in such moods before (see 220: Philosophy ), and excuses himself for not noticing immediately (in the first panel) by the fact that he sometimes mistakes her existential crisis as technical insight. Megan deepens her crisis by pointing out that she sometimes makes the  mistake to think that the universe cares. This is a disguised criticism of Cueball's behaviour, meaning that she would rather want him to care about her existential crisis, instead of simply brushing them off.
The title text points out that Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection. (That would then be all his works not just the Discworld series...) is an excellent way to get out of an existential crisis
By the time of his death Pratchett had written 41 Discworld books and more than 70 books in total. The day after Pratchett died Randall made a tribute comic to his memory in 1498: Terry Pratchett .
Cueball: I now have every Discworld book! Megan: Eh. Building a Kindle collection seems pointless.
Cueball: Yeah, I know the DRM means I'll probably lose them someday. Megan: No, pointless in general.
Megan: Sure, you satisfy deep magpie-like urges by building neat collections, but you still die alone.
Cueball: Sorry, sometimes I mistake your existential crises for technical insights. Megan: Sometimes I mistake this for a universe that cares.


Newton and Leibniz

Explanation:
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz both developed calculus independently of each other about eight years apart, as it says in the comic. However, although Newton had begun working on calculus before Leibniz, he didn't publish it, and Leibniz was the first to publish it (see the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy ).
In calculus a derivative is the result of mathematical differentiation: the instantaneous rate of change of a function relative to its argument, and denoted df(x)/dx. As taught in schools, if a function is drawn as a graph, the derivative of that function at a given point is equal to the slope of that graph at that point. However, the literary word derivative means developed from something older or copied/adapted from others, as Newton claims is the case here.
The pun is that Newton is claiming that Leibniz's mathematical derivative is a derivative, or descendant, from his earlier development of this calculus.
The comic as a whole is mocking the pattern of corny one-liners that David Caruso often spurts out during the opening scenes of CSI: Miami . The one liner is followed by him dramatically pulling off or putting on his sunglasses and then the show breaks into the title sequence which starts with Roger Daltrey singing an extended "YEEEEAAAAAAAH", from the song Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who as noted in the title text. This has become a popular Internet meme and was used frequently with Michael Jackson's death . The sunglasses joke was also used in the title text of 977: Map Projections . The counts of each letter (Y E A H) in the scream are 1, 6, 6, and 6, which combined produce the year in which Newton is credited to have discovered calculus.
[Newton with long white hair, facing right, holds up a sheet of paper, with several lines indicating the writing on it, in one hand and the other hand is also held up. He stands in front of an empty desk. A smaller frame breaking the border at the top of the frame has a caption:] Newton, 1666 Newton: I've invented calculus!
[Leibniz with long black hair, facing left, holds up a sheet of paper, with several lines indicating the writing on it, in one hand. He stands in front of a desk with a book and two pieces of paper, one lying below the other paper but up above the book. A smaller frame breaking the border at the top of the frame has a caption:] Leibniz, 1674 Leibniz: I've invented calculus!
[Back to a similar image of Newton, but he has now taken his arms down, still holding his paper.] Newton: Really? Sounds a little bit...
[Zoom in on Newton as he puts on a pair of sunglasses in a panel without a frame. The table is not included.]
[Newton now with sunglasses on, again in front of the table.] Newton: ... Derivative.


Tech Support Cheat Sheet

Explanation:
The main point of this comic is that many tech-savvy people may not know much about computers (and certainly don’t automatically know how to do everything someone may want help with). They just have developed an intuition which works in many situations. This intuition is shown here in the form of a diagram. In particular, the chart exposes the computer expert's secret ingredient: trial and error.
A flowchart is an organizational tool for showing process flow. A box is an instruction, a diamond indicates a question, and the arrows control the flow from one symbol to another. Other flowchart comics can be found here .
The title text is a sad admission that even knowing the procedure for how to fix the problem, many people will not follow it and still call their presumably more tech-savvy children.  (In a minority of cases, it may be that the person did try to follow it, and still ended up at the "Ask someone for help or give up" step.) In this case the father of Megan calls her to help print the flowchart to put near his computer so he can be the computer wiz...
This is one of the cases where the name Megan is used, without the character Megan being drawn in the comic.
Dear various parents, grandparents, co-workers, and other "not computer people." We don't magically know how to do everything in every program. When we help you, we're usually just doing this:
[There is a flowchart there. Numbers are included to improve clarity, and do not appear in the original.]
Rectangle: Start. [Go to 1.]
[1. Diamond] Find a menu item or button which looks related to what you want to do. [I can't find one - go to 2.] [Ok - go to 3.]
[2. Diamond] Pick one at random. [I've tried them all - go to 4.] [Ok - go to 3.]
[3. Rectangle] Click it. [Go to 5.]
[4. Rectangle] Google the name of the program plus a few words related to what you want to do. Follow any instructions. [Go to 5.]
[5. Diamond] Did it work? [Yes - go to 8.] [No - go to 6.]
[6. Diamond] Have you been trying this for over half an hour? [Yes - go to 7.] [No - go to 1.]
[7. Rectangle] Ask someone for help or give up. [End of flowchart.]
[8. Rectangle] You're done! [End of flowchart.]
Please print this flowchart out and tape it near your screen. Congratulations; you're now the local computer expert!


Psychic

Explanation:
A psychic is a person who is able to access information that is beyond normal sensory perception through extrasensory perception. This information may vary widely in scope and value, ranging from archaeological to the ability to read minds. Cueball describes himself as such a person, to which Megan responds with disbelief because it is a bold and unsupported claim. To prove his abilities, Cueball has Megan think of a random number from 1 to 100, which he then guesses correctly to demonstrate his ability to read minds. Megan is amazed that Cueball was correct, but he simply dismisses her disbelief and wants to go back to pretending to lead a normal life.
The four panels are actually a setup to the real joke in this comic: the final sentence spoken by a narrator. It reveals that Cueball has simply played a trick on Megan and that anyone can repeat it. The joke is that, theoretically, a person can guess a random number from 1 to 100 once in one hundred tries, or 1% of the time, according to the law of large numbers . By playing this trick enough times on enough friends, the trickster is statistically likely to get a number right eventually. Assuming the person whose number he guesses is not familiar with the trick, it will appear as if the trickster is actually psychic. Should this happen, the trickster can then play the joke out as he wants, hence the "it's totally worth it" at the end.
The title text appeals again to statistics. People are poor random-number generators —e.g. being less likely to pick numbers at the extremes or exactly in the middle. Knowing this, the 'psychic' could restrict his guesses accordingly, improving his odds of guessing correctly.
Randall has made several smaller references to the number 42 as the answer to the ultimate question about the universe from Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (for instance in this message from 1608: Hoverboard , and the vision test in 1213: Combination Vision Test . This could be the reason he chose 42+1 as his guess. He both knows Megan, and knows that she knows him. So thinking that he may suspect she would choose 42, she thus adds one, to not choose that exact number... Cueball took a similar reasoning based on his knowledge of Megan and himself, and was lucky this time. Maybe thus increasing his chance to more than 1% as from the title text.
[Cueball is talking with Megan.] Cueball: I'm psychic, you know. Megan: There's no such thing.
[In a frame-less panel they continue to talk.] Cueball: Okay, think of a number from one to one hundred. Megan: Okay. Cueball: 43. Megan: Holy shit!
[Cueball lifts one hand towards Megan.] Cueball: I try not to let it affect my life too much. Megan: Wait, I can't believe this.
[Cueball turns and walks away, but stretches his arm back out towards Megan, who is still just standing looking after him.] Cueball: Don't worry about it. Forget I said anything. Megan: But- Cueball: Let's get to the movie. Megan: I, uh... OK, sure.
[Caption below the last two panels:] This trick may only work 1% of the time, but when it does, it's totally worth it.


Skins

Explanation:
Furries , which have been discussed in a previous comic , are people who really like anthropomorphic animals and may enjoy drawing them or dressing up as them. One of the most prominent elements of the furry community is furry conventions, where furries meet-and-greet each other, show off and engage in activities in their fursuits, sell furry-related media, and so on.
Here, Cueball mentions furry identities. The grand majority of furries have a "fursona", that is, a furry animal with which they associate themselves. While there are different approaches towards creating a fursona, they tend to be an animal representation of either themselves or what they wish to be. These fursonas sometimes have quite a bit of background that explains their origins, their abilities, where they live, and their interests... even if their interests involve pretending to be humans. According to Cueball, "skins" are furries who have fursonas that like to pretend to be humans. In other words, skins are humans who pretend to be animals who pretend to be humans . The 4th panel magnifies the ridicule of the concept of skins, the skins at the convention behaving excitedly about events that actual humans usually consider mundane. This is further emphasized by the grammatically-correct but unnatural sounding phrases that they use (which could be similar to how humans imitating animal calls could sound). It is atypical to consider "having a job" to be an activity to emphasize doing in a day (it is more a description of a state of being rather than an activity as such), and even stranger to say that in response to a question about the weather. This concept would be repeated in the title text of comic 1530 .
If this comic satirizes furry conventions, then the title text satirizes fursuits. In this case, there are skins who wear fursuits of their fursonas, but, since their fursonas like to pretend that they are humans, these skins wear human suits over their fursuits. Such a setup would seem unwieldy, so there are skins who avert this by simply taking off their fursuits, going to the conventions as their human selves, thus technically integrating into the whole "skin atmosphere". Possible problems from this can include the "wear a human suit" skins getting angry at the "take off the fursuit" skins for "ruining the fantasy atmosphere" (since, technically, the real-life skin is not the same that would be the fursona's human facade, especially if the skin makes no effort to change the appearance to fit the human facade), or again, because they are too "cheap" or "lazy" to make or otherwise obtain the two suits. This clash of ideals would cause a lot of drama, something that furries ( or all other subcultures ) are no stranger to.
[Cueball is packing luggage.] Voice: Where are you going? Cueball: Convention.
Voice: What for? Cueball: Well, you know furries, right? Voice: Sure... [Cueball closes suitcase.]
Cueball: We're furries whose animal identities have a thing for pretending to be humans. Voice: I see.
[A convention. People sit behind booths in the background.] Cueball, with glasses and a mug: How's the weather? Megan: Great! I've been driving my car and having a job all day! Cueball: Did you meow? Megan: Not once!


Time Travel

Explanation:
Megan prefaces her statements with "I've traveled here from the year 1983 [likely the year of her birth] to say this." The statement is (assuming 1983 to be her birth year or, at least, a year she lived during) perfectly valid, albeit not very meaningful. Its phrasing implies a form of time travel other than the normal one minute per minute that everybody is subject to, even though this is not the case. This gives more emphasis to whatever she is about to say, which is instead quite anticlimactic and mundane.
Cueball notes this but still wishes that she would stop saying that as it is superfluous and captures more attention than her statement is actually worth. It would also get annoying to hear that same line repeated numerous times.
The title text continues this idea of Megan inserting another superfluous - although true - forwards to her letters. It's technically true because the letter will arrive at the recipient some time in the future, but this is not the way most salutations that begin "Dear Future <name>" are meant. Many schoolchildren are assigned to write letters to their future selves as an exercise in reflection and thinking about the future, but addressing every letter this way would likely become annoying.
[Megan has entered the scene from the left, and has her arms raised.  Cueball is eating something (possibly a bagel?) and looking over his shoulder at Megan.]
Megan: I've traveled here from the year 1983 to say this: Megan: Are there any bagels left? Caption: While it's technically true, I wish she'd stop prefacing every sentence with that.


Anatomy Text

Explanation:
Megan and a person not shown person are taking photos of their own anatomy for inclusion in relevant Wikipedia articles. This is one of the few comics where Megan is named, and also one of the few comics to feature speech bubbles. It is revealed that instead of taking these photos at home or in a professional studio , they are shooting at a TGI Friday's restaurant.
TGI Friday's is an American multinational restaurant chain known for its casual family-friendly atmosphere, upbeat service, and fried appetizers. Megan's and the person's behaviour is of course highly inappropriate, due to the sanitation issues relating to sitting or laying naked on the tables, as well as public decency issues; nudity is illegal in most public places, and this is compounded by the fact that there are usually children in TGI Friday's.
The message implicit in the comic (and stated outright in the title text) is that careful cropping can produce useful, apparently professional reference images, even if the source photograph was not taken in a professional manner, or was pornographic in nature.
Plate 15: Female breast [There is a drawing of a breast, with 'breast', 'areola', and 'nipple' labeled.]
Plate 16: External female genitalia [There is a picture of external female genitalia. 'labia majora', 'labia minora', 'clitoris', 'urethral opening', and 'vagina' are labeled.  Voice #1's speech bubble partly covers the middle of the genitalia.] Voice #1: HEY!
Plate 17: External male genitalia [There is salt, ketchup, and mustard to one side.] Voice #2: Shit! Voice #1: What the hell?  You can't do that in here. Voice #2: Megan, get off the table! Voice #2: Grab the tripod!
Plate 18: Erect Penis [The picture appears to be at an angle. Megan is running.] Voice #1: We're calling the cops! Voice #2: RUN! Voice #1: TGI Friday's is a family establishment!


Suspicion

Explanation:
Rob is having online chats with what appears at first glance to be a woman. However, he grows suspicious at the apparent consumerism dedication of the "woman" - and perhaps of the perfection of the online connection, touching on the stereotypical nerd fear that any relationship going well must contain some secret flaw - and so requests that they both "get tested". The woman on the other end of the computer does not pass a CAPTCHA test and is unable to prove she is a human.
In using the phrase "get tested", the comic is making a joke that refers both to the CAPTCHA test above and the STD or VD test that couples will take to make sure they are physically free of communicable diseases.
A spambot is an automated program (comparable in many ways to a robot) that sends out emails or links (such as in the title text) to simulate a human's writing but contains advertising. The test that Rob and "Lisa" take is called "VK", a reference to the Voight-Kampff empathy tests from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and film Blade Runner . The test in these works is intended to distinguish real humans from very realistic humanoid robots called "replicants". Both CAPTCHAs and the Voight-Kampff test are related to the Turing test , a way to measure the degree to which a computer can successfully imitate a human.
The name "Lisa" may be an allusion to ELIZA , one of the first chatbots, written in 1966. According to its (her?) creator, people became "quickly and deeply emotionally involved with the computer program" during the chat. "Lisa" may also reference the computer girlfriend Lisa from the 1985 movie Weird Science
The title text is the spambot's last sad goodbye — it includes lots of product advertisements and links, such as an online advertiser may insert into a search results page.
329: Turing Test is another comic dealing with Turing tests/CAPTCHAs.
[Rob is sitting at a computer, typing.] Rob: I've loved our online chats these past few months, Lisa. Computer: Me too. I really like you, Rob.
[Rob continues to type.] Rob: It's just... now and then you mention products you like, and... I worry. Computer: What? Honey...
[Rob types.] Rob: Before this goes any further, I think we should go get tested. You know, together. Computer: You don't trust me? Rob: I just want to be sure.
[A web browser is open.] VK Couples Testing Test ID: 21871138 Waiting...Partner connected. (A pair of CAPTCHA images) [You] Library [Partner] Kittens Rob: Okay, mine says "library". Yours? Computer: I... uh... Rob: Oh god. Computer: I'm more than a spambot! Our love was real! Rob: Goodbye, Lisa.


Blockbuster Mining

Explanation:
Cueball has acquired the intellectual property rights to produce a movie, but is unsure of how to make it appealing to a wide audience. An off-screen character suggests hiring Michael Bay , a director and producer well known (and occasionally criticized) for his style of film adaptation. Cueball is unsure that the IP would be a good fit for a summer blockbuster, but is dismissed.
The following panels depict violent and gritty scenes from a spy thriller, starring an unknown and brutal female spy. In the last panel, she is revealed to be Harriet the Spy , the 11 year old protagonist of a bestselling children's book written by Louise Fitzhugh, as well as other spinoff books written by various other authors.
The comic references Hollywood's search for new stories to adapt to film, and how poor (not to mention violent ) some of these adaptations can be. There is additional humor in the fact that the original novel is about school-child concerns such as friends and is not violent.
The film adaptation of Bridge to Terabithia had trailers that made it appear to have very little in common with the themes and tone of the novel.  The actual movie is one of Hollywood's better book adaptations [1] but the trailers were extremely misleading and off-putting to fans of the novel, as in the title text.  Viewers who were unfamiliar with the novel and saw the movie with expectations based on the trailer were also unprepared for the actual movie [2] .  The trailer was essentially every single special-effect shot from the movie, giving the impression it was a special-effects extravaganza, which would have been very inappropriate based on the novel, and does not reflect the actual content of the movie.
The film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are was met with favorable responses from critics , the public, and the book's author .
[Cueball holds a script in his hands.] Cueball: We've acquired some new rights, but I'm not sure it's in the spirit to make it a blockbuster-- Voice: Do it anyway. Take $100 million, hire Michael Bay. Cueball: But-- Voice: NEXT!
[Panel is inverted, white on black background.] [Two men, played by Cueball-like actors are pointing machine guns at Harriet, played by a Megan-like actress. Harriet points two handguns back at them.] Harriet: They said if I were captured I should take my own life. Harriet: But I'd just as soon take yours.
[Harriet jumps off a cliff carrying a spiral notebook and a gun, while the cliff explodes behind her. In the background is a helicopter, some mountains, and the sea.] BOOM
[Panel is inverted, white and red on black background.] [A man played by a Cueball-like actor is tied to a chair. Blood is pooling on the ground below. Harriet stands in front, holding a bloody pipe.] Man: Stop! I'll talk! Harriet: No, I know everything. This is just for fun.
[Crosshairs follow a Cueball-like man.] Harriet: I'll be watching.
[The panel is inverted colour, white on black.] Harriet the [in red] SPY [A bloody spiral notebook, with blood streaks leading from it.]
Apparently, Harriet the Spy was actually adapted into a film in 1996. Presumably [ citation needed ] it was more faithful to the novel than this xkcd.


Date

Explanation:
Cueball and Megan (as biologists) are on a first date. As opposed to the usual romantic talk or discussion about each other's histories or character, the comic suggests that 30% of the time, two biologists on a first date will end up making Punnett squares , which non-biologists might not consider very interesting or romantic. The comic may be a play on the idea that couples on a first date might wonder about (or on a very promising date, even discuss) the traits in the other person that might be passed on to potential children.
A Punnett square is a simple diagram used in biology to determine the probable resulting genotype of cross-breeding two organisms, be they plant or animal (including humans). The diagram shows all possible results of crossing a single genotype from each parent in the offspring genotype following Mendelian inheritance .
For humans and most animals, there are two alleles for each gene, and each parent passes one of their alleles for each gene on to the offspring. The most simple Punnett square is a 2x2 table with a legend of the two paternal alleles on one axis (e.g.: A and A ) and the two maternal alleles on the other axis (e.g.: A and a ). Each box of the Punnett square represents a possible genetic outcome as a result of each each of the alleles being passed on to the offspring ( AA , Aa , AA and Aa ). For certain genetic traits, one genotype may determine a specific trait in the offspring; e.g. black hair in rats. Certain genotypes have dominant and recessive alleles. An offspring must have both of the recessive alleles to display the recessive trait; in the above example, if "a" was an allele for a recessive trait, the offspring could not have the recessive trait, as there is no possible aa outcome. This is the basic principles that allows statements to be made that two parents with a certain blood type or eye colour could not possibly have an offspring with a certain other blood type or eye colour.
More complicated Punnett squares can factor in multiple genes and be larger in scale, but ultimately follow the same principle. The premise for the purposes of the comic is that by using Punnett squares, one can assess the likelihood of certain genetic traits (such as hair colour or colour blindness) in their offspring with another person. One would have to know their genetic makeup in general for this to be possible.
While a genotype refers to the genetic makeup of an organism, a phenotype as referenced in the title text refers to the resulting traits (e.g.: Red hair is a phenotype).
The traits mentioned by Cueball and Megan are all genetic traits which can be traced using Punnett squares. That said, at least two of the traits (green eyes and color blindness) are not traits determined by a simple single-gene interaction. Colour blindness can be inherited, although there are a significant number of genes that can factor into various types of color blindness. Red green color blindness, the most common variety, is sex linked to the X chromosome. Because of the way X chromosomes are passed, if Cueball's mother was colorblind then Cueball would be, though his faulty X chromosome could only be passed to a daughter who would need another faulty X from her mother to inherent colorblindness. Once thought to have fairly simple genetic factors, eye color is now known to be a factor of at least 15 different genes with almost any parent-child combination possible. Red hair is still believed to be a recessive trait associated with a small number of genes (perhaps even one gene), although other traits once thought to be determined by only one gene have since been proven otherwise.
[Two people are sitting at a table, with a candle-lit dinner. Cueball is holding up a sheet of paper, and Megan is scribbling.] Cueball: Both my parents were colorblind, so... Megan: Hey, if we made more than two, we'd have a better-than-even chance of adorable red hair. Cueball: Ooh, and check this: green eyes! Trivia: 30% of biologist first dates disintegrate into making Punnett squares.


Locke and Demosthenes

Explanation:
This comic re-imagines a scene from Ender's Game , by Orson Scott Card . This is shown in the first two panels depicting the siblings Locke and Demosthenes , as Cueball and the girl. Their real names are Peter and Valentine Wiggin (and these first names are used in the official transcript on xkcd). In the book these two kids write their opinions on their world's version of the internet to gain extreme political influence. Below is a synopsis:
Spoiler alert! In the book Ender is an above-average-intelligence boy who is selected to become a potential leader of Earth's "Defense" Forces in the event of another Bugger invasion (later re-titled the Formic invasions). Meanwhile, Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine decide to save the world from itself. They do this by asserting themselves as wise demagogues who comment on political events on what are known as the "free nets" which are nets open to comment by anyone in the world. They choose pseudonyms to write under, as no one would take the words of children seriously, choosing Locke (Peter's pseudonym), and Demosthenes (Valentine's). Eventually they gain enough respect to be invited to participate in moderated political debates in the higher class nets. By the end of the book, Peter has become the leader of the world, and Valentine runs away with Ender to a planet formerly inhabited by Buggers to live out their lives in peace. End spoiler alert!
Ender's Game was published in 1985, when most people had never used (and some had never heard of) the internet. The first webpage set up with individual personal opinions (leaving out forums and bulletin board services) was online in 1994, the word "weblog" was invented in 1997 and "blog" in 1999. When Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game , Peter and Valentine's plan was based on a sci-fi idea expected to occur in the near future.
However, this apparently science-fictional future concept is now just the mundane (and extremely un-influential) act of blogging. In 1985, Orson Scott Card's idea of how politics works in practice may have seemed a little naive, but now that blogging is an everyday phenomenon, Peter and Valentine's aspirations seem downright silly. We see their plan to win vast political influence manifest itself as a WordPress blog, and a particularly unimportant one at that, with 0 comments on most posts.
The joke hinges on the underwhelming reversal of Peter and Valentine's expectations. It forms both a parody of science fiction that has been rendered outdated by technology, and also a parody of the expectations well-intentioned people have going onto the internet to express their opinions.
The titles of Peter's blog posts parody the arrogance of internet commentators, with names beginning with things like "Everyone's wrong about..." This further underscores the lack of influence his WordPress blog would have and his naivete, as this is a typically unconvincing way to speak to people about politics, but someone with the arrogance to think everyone will naturally see their genius and insist they be put in charge of the world would not realise it.
In the bottom right corner there are links to other blogs. One is for Demosthenes, but the other is for FiveThirtyEight , a real political blog that was founded by Nate Silver in 2008, more than a year before this comic was released. It was still owned by Nate in 2009, the year of this comic's release, but in 2010 the blog became a licensed feature of The New York Times online and in July 2013, ESPN announced that it would become the owner. The blog takes its name from the number of electors in the United States electoral college: 538. It is a website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging. Nate Silver has been referenced , several times in xkcd, though mainly in the title text, before this comic for instance in 500: Election .
The title text uses Locke's full name, Peter Wiggin, and is formed as a short letter that informs him that he has become the president of the world, and that he should meet tomorrow 8:00 sharp at the United Nations (UN) headquarters. This is either a very child-like representation of how a presidential appointment might be announced or a sarcastic comment someone has left on his blog — either way, further riffing on the naivete of the plan in the first place. Also note that the note is addressed to "Peter" rather than "Locke"; Peter's attempt to remain anonymous has failed miserably.
During their conversation, Peter is shown feeding a squirrel. In Ender's Game the character of Peter Wiggin is a sadistic sociopath - and there is a particular scene in the book where Valentine stumbles across a skinned squirrel still twitching in pain.
xkcd has referenced Ender's Game before this, specifically in 241: Battle Room , dealing with Ender's experience during his training, and 304: Nighttime Stories , dealing with the sequels to Ender's Game.
[The "real" names and the fact that the squirrel is vomiting comes from the official transcript on xkcd.]
[Valentine (a.k.a. Demosthenes, with long dark hair), is laying on her back on the ground looking up at the sky with her hands behind her head. Peter (a.k.a. Locke, looking like Cueball) is attracting a squirrel with some food his hand.] Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it's falling apart politically. What can we do?
[Peter turns towards and sits down, leaning back on one hand. Valentine sits up in a similar position. Her hair looks like a mix between Megan and Hairbun's hair. The squirrel behind Peter is bending over the food Peter has thrown out for it.] Peter: I know — we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions. People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything! Valentine: Brilliant!
[Beneath the first two panel is large panel displaying a blog page. The background is light gray and then there are four white rectangular sections with rounded corners.] [There is a heading in the top central section:] Locke Powered by Wordpress
[Below is the largest section, which extends below the panel. It has a scroll bar to the right which is partly scrolled down. The last sentence of a post can be seen at the top, with a time stamp below. Then follows the heading of a new post and the first line of this, which is partly cut off at the bottom of the panel:] which is why we must reach out to the Russian leadership. Posted at 3:15AM by Locke Comments (0) The Problem with China In recent months much has been made of
[To the right is two sidebars. The top one shows recent posts:] Recent posts: >> A few thoughts on... Comments (0) >> Russian Aggression... Comments (1) >> Trade policy and the... Comments (0) >> And one more thing... Comments (0) >> Everyone's wrong about... Comments (1)
[Below this is list of links to other websites, this section also extends below the panel. The second link is partly cut off at the bottom of the panel, so it is not possible to see that this is probably also underlined:] Blogroll: >> Demosthenes >> FiveThirtyEight


Brontosaurus

Explanation:
Megan describes her relationship to Cueball with the simile "our love is like a turtle," a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks that the Brontosaurus is a better comparison. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of a certain apatosaurine were initially named Brontosaurus excelsus by the paleontologist O.C. Marsh in 1879. This species was later determined in 1903 to be in the same genus as Apatosaurus ajax , which Marsh had named two years before B. excelsus : the older genus name is preferred according to convention (making the preferred binomial Apatosaurus excelsus ). The term Brontosaurus therefore became a scientific redundancy (a so-called junior synonym), and had this status at the time of this comic's release. Due to the correct skull for an apatosaurine not being confirmed until 1978 , the term "brontosaurus" had in the meantime become popularly associated with an apatosaurine depicted with a speculative Camarasaurus -like head, hence the "mistaken combination" mentioned in the comic.
Applied to the scenario in the comic, Cueball apparently considers the relationship without any emotional foundation and only continues it out of nostalgic motives. This conclusion counteracts the initial romantic tone adopted by the turtle simile, as comparing a romance with a falsely classified fossil is one of the least charming statements imaginable. [ citation needed ]
The title text aims at Randall's well-known enthusiasm for Velociraptors . Megan retorts by comparing any future sex between the two of them to be as likely as finding a Velociraptor in his house. The insult has a second barb: painting Cueball as being obsessed with movies involving Velociraptor s.
Randall has previously mentioned the Brontosaurus name change in 460: Paleontology . The Apatosaurus also appears in 15: Just Alerting You and 650: Nowhere .
However the status of "Brontosaurus" remains under discussion, with a 2015 study of diplodocids reporting that the more gracile fossils should be classified in a separate genus. This would re-divide the apatosaurines between the Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus genera.
[Cueball and Megan are sitting at a bench. Megan is holding a turtle.] Megan: Our love is like a turtle.
[Megan sets down the turtle and turns to Cueball. They hold hands.] Megan: Humble and simple, enduring by virtue of perfect design.
Cueball: Our love is like a brontosaurus.
Cueball: Recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.


Scribblenauts

Explanation:
Scribblenauts is a game for the Nintendo DS in which the player controls a character named Maxwell, whose goal is to get a "Starite" in each level. The player has the ability to summon over 22,000 different objects into the game by typing them on the touchscreen using the DS's stylus device. Those items are then ostensibly used to help Maxwell collect the Starite (for example, typing "ladder" to help him reach a Starite that's inside a tree), but the player can decide to forgo the objective and just type in random things for fun.
The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, and has excited the imagination of writers and journalists in popular culture, some of whom posit the theory that a catastrophic accident at the LHC could destroy the world. One of those ideas concerned the LHC creating a black hole that would proceed to suck in all the surrounding matter. However, in the game, the LHC, when tapped, creates a comically small black hole which only kills Maxwell.
Megan discovers that the LHC can be summoned in Scribblenauts, and has a fun time creating black holes with it. Cueball's snide comment is an unfortunately rather common reaction among adults towards entertainment geared for children, and the fact that Scribblenauts is a portable game just gives him another stick to beat it with.  Irritated, Megan types in the phrase "pretentious asshole", and then pretends that Cueball has suddenly appeared. It is unclear whether she is reffering to Cueball spawning in-game, or his presence in the real world. Note that, in reality, Scribblenauts doesn't respond to profanity.
In the title text, she types "guy who's just jealous that I beat all his Mario Kart times" (this could be a reference to 423: Finish Line and 290: Fucking Blue Shells ) and once again, Cueball "appears" right in front of her. Mario Kart is another video-game series geared towards children, and there's a version of it for the DS, which implies that Cueball's just being snooty about Scribblenauts because Megan has so thoroughly dominated him in another "DS kids game".
[Megan is sitting on bed.] [In Scribblenauts word input format.] LARGE HADRON COLLIDER Click Megan: Wow, Scribblenauts even lets you summon the LHC.
[Cueball is sitting at a computer. Megan talks from off-panel.] Fwoosh Megan: And it makes a black hole! This game rules. Cueball: I guess it's okay, for a DS kids game.
[In Scribblenauts word input format.] PRETENTIOUS ASSHOLE Click [Megan looks up.] Megan: Oh, hi! It worked!


The Search

Explanation:
This comic is a commentary on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The ants' dialogue describes the narrow scope of their search (a few tiles, and only looking for pheromone trails), and thus they conclude that there is no other intelligent life. The irony is that humanity does of course exist, [ citation needed ] but were simply not present in the kitchen at the time of search, nor do we communicate with ant pheromones. [ citation needed ] Similarly, our ability to search outer space for other life is limited to our ability to detect specific modes of communication (i.e. radio waves) and to the very limited area of space imposed by technological limitations on transportation, range, and sensitivity of our equipment.
The title text refers to the Kepler mission to discover Extrasolar planets . In August 2009, a couple of weeks before this comic, the first results of this mission were released, which showed the spacecraft to be healthy and had detected a known exoplanet. No new science results would be released until November of 2009, which Randall was anticipating. This mission has found more than 2,700 planet candidates that still have to be confirmed by other telescopes. So that's the difference to the ants. As of August 2013, two "reaction wheels" (heavy metallic discs that can be spun to impart angular momentum to the probe, mounted on the major axis; an alternative to reaction thrusters, which require a depletable supply of reaction fuel) on Kepler have failed, causing NASA to change the mission, though it will still be looking for planets with its two remaining wheels.
The second part is a bait-and-switch joke; by calling the search for extrasolar planets "the second most important thing our species has ever done", it creates the expectation that the "first most important thing" will be a monumental breakthrough, such as for example the concept of language. Instead, the title text ends up just revealing that Randall likes having pizza delivered.
[Two ants are facing each other with their antennas almost touching. They are on a tiled floor with the two nearest rows of tiles fully shown, and those further back covered partly be the speech text of the ant to the right.] Ant: We've searched dozens of these floor tiles for several common types of pheromone trails. Ant: If there were intelligent life up there, we would have seen its messages by now.
[Caption below the panel:] The world's first ant colony to achieve sentience calls off the search for us.


Lincoln-Douglas

Explanation:
The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas , respectively the Republican and Democratic nominees for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois (Douglas was the incumbent). All seven debates were devoted to the topic of slavery, a red-hot issue in the United States that played a significant role in precipitating American Civil War. Although Lincoln ultimately lost the election, he had the edited text of the debates published in a book. The book's popularity and widespread media coverage of the original debates helped put his name on the map in American politics, leading to his nomination for President of the United States by the Republican party in 1860. Lincoln went on to win the election (Douglas was one of his opponents in this race), after which point several states immediately seceded and formed a separate government, the Confederate States of America . The Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861, sparking the American Civil War , a vicious conflict between the states that would last for four years.
In 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac defeated the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Four and a half months later, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address , to dedicate the Soldiers' National Cemetery. The Address, less than three minutes long, became one of the most famous speeches in American history; millions of schoolchildren have memorized it verbatim in the 150 years since.
In this comic, Stephen Douglas heckles President Lincoln after the opening sentence of the Gettysburg Address with a juvenile "your mom" joke, which is both anachronistic and not up to Douglas's usual elegant standards of debate. The only difference from the original speech is that "our fathers" is replaced with "your mom".
The title text admits that Douglas actually died soon after the election (passing away in June 1861), but suggests the webcomic Hark! A Vagrant , written by Kate Beaton , if you're looking for historical accuracy in your webcomics. Hark!'s usual topics are historical or literary figures.
[Abraham Lincoln stands before an audience.] Stephen Douglas: Oh yeah? Well, fourscore and seven years ago your MOM brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal!
After his 1860 loss to Lincoln, Stephen Douglas's famed debating skills entered a rapid decline.


Tornado Hunter

Explanation:
This is a play on the occupations/hobbies " tornado chaser " - someone who, instead of evacuating the area like normal people, actually goes in to get a closer look at the tornado - and " big game hunter ", who often kill for trophies. Tornado chasers are typically, but not always, meteorologists . Here, the tornado chaser actually hunts the tornado with a gun like big game, the joke being that this is not possible in real life. [ citation needed ]
The "F-3" is a reference to the Fujita scale used to classify tornado intensity. It goes from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, with an updated Enhanced Fujita scale , as mentioned in the title text, being used in the US since 2007.
The title text is an aside from Randall, saying that he finds the notation for the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF-#, for example EF-5 for a level 5 tornado,) to be stupid, and suggests that we continue to use the Enhanced Fujita scale to measure the strength of tornadoes, but abbreviate it to F instead, leading to the non-stupid "F-whatever" notation, 'whatever' signifying the number of the tornado on the scale.
This is the second comic about tornadoes, a recurring subject on xkcd, but it was the first to actually show a tornado. Storm chasers hunting tornadoes was also mentioned in the first comic about tornadoes 402: 1,000 Miles North and they were also shown in 752: Phobia .
[Two people are in a car, which is driving past a cactus. The passenger has a pith helmet and a mustache.] Cueball: The tornado's three miles west, moving northeast at 15 mph. Passenger: Go right; get ahead of it.
[A tornado is visible. The passenger pulls out a gun, and stands up in the car.] Passenger: Okay, we're in range! Stop here!
[The passenger fires the gun at the tornado.] BANG Tornado: AUGH! [The tornado is split in half by the bullet.]
Passenger: Big one! Must be an F-3! Cueball: I'm not sure we're doing this right. Passenger: Help me mount it on the hood. [The passenger is holding the tornado by its tail.]


Free

Explanation:
Asbestos is a fibrous material most commonly known and used for its heat-resistant properties. It was commonly used in housing insulation until its astonishingly destructive effects on human lungs were discovered. The use of asbestos in housing is now banned, but asbestos is still quite common in laboratory hot pads, as well as in concrete industrial buildings where the risk of it getting into the air is minimal.
The comic depicts a common advertising trick taken to an absurd extreme; quite clearly all of the cereal products depicted are asbestos-free, but most have opted not to advertise that fact (if it even occurred to them at all) because it should be obvious. A more realistic example can be found in confectionery products, wherein the term " fat free" might be applied when it's clear that sugar , gelatin , and other ingredients involved in the product are in no way related to, or contain, fat. Note that in some countries, like Germany for example, this practice is actually not allowed, since it counts as "misleading advertising".
While the suggestive implication might be that competitive products do not declare as asbestos free because they cannot truthfully say this, the irony may be that the "asbestos-free" disclaimer could also cause a customer to distrust the product on the grounds of damning by faint praise —if the best thing they can say about a product is that it doesn't contain a toxic building material, do we really want to know what actually is in this stuff?
The claim in the title text—that a rival product has no swine flu —is equally superfluous, as any food product containing disease-causing viruses would be subject to recalls, severe fines, and quite a few people losing their jobs; the fact that the product is actually on a supermarket shelf implies that it already has a stellar reputation for not causing serious illness. [ citation needed ] The use of it here could also be a reference to 574: Swine Flu .
The competing claims, however, sets up the hopefully false risks involved in whether to choose the one with definitely no asbestos (but possibly contains swine flu) or the other that definitely has no swine flu (but may include asbestos).
Misleading advertising is also the subject of the previous comic 624: Branding , and of subsequent comics 870: Advertising and 993: Brand Identity .
[A shelf holds 3 boxes of cereal. Each box shows a bowl of cereal.] GenCo Ⓞat Cereal StayPuft Oat Cereal RedFarm Oat Cereal (with additional text in a star) Asbestos-free! I hate whatever marketer first realized you could do this.


Creepy

Explanation:
This comic displays Cueball 's fears that his attempts to strike up a conversation with Megan will only result in her rejecting him and even humiliating him in front of others for attempting to get to know her - he might even risk getting his picture on Facebook with a warning that he is a creep to be avoided. This is because he worries that others might interpret his behavior as sexual harassment , the exaggerated flip-side of his attempted courtship. It turns out in the fifth and last panel that the first four panels was just one large thought bubble on how Cueball fantasized an attempt to contact Megan would turn out.
Ironically, however, Megan is actually attracted to Cueball and is dismayed that he has not spoken to her. Therefore, Cueball's fears are unfounded and are even preventing the two from meeting and possibly forming a relationship. Megan could of course also have spoken to Cueball herself, but she expects him to make a move if he is interested. Thus she also prevents herself from making contact because of her own expectations and fears of rejection.
The title text is the continuation of Megan's apparent journal entry and further emphasizes the irony of the situation: in the attempt to be alluring to Cueball, Megan took out her "adorable new netbook ," the very thing Cueball stopped himself from complimenting in the first place.
This comic comments on the unsettling effects of social change, particularly with respect to the advent of social media and to modern sensitivity toward a woman's (or any person's) right to be left alone in public. It points out that attempting to start a conversation with a stranger has become risky, and we have yet to evolve new customs and conventions to signal openness to such an approach. The risk is aggravated by social media, by which means an innocent misjudgment may subject one to public humiliation - or even worse someone might expect that you had intention of performing some sexual crime - if that type of info is published with a picture and/or your name on Facebook or Twitter etc. your life could be ruined without any reason. As a result, opportunities to meet other people are missed, loneliness and social isolation are increased, and one may even experience existential fears of being unattractive. Ironically, some people react to this problem by relying on the same social media to stay connected with others.
[Cueball and Megan are sitting on chairs, presumably on a train.] Cueball: Hey, cute netbook. Megan: What.
[Zoomed in on Cueball and Megan.] Cueball: Your laptop. I just— Megan: No, why are you talking to me.
[Zoomed in on Megan.] Megan: Who do you think you are? If I were even slightly interested, I'd have shown it.
[Both Cueball and Megan, with Megan pointing at Cueball.] Megan: Hey everyone, this dude's hitting on me. Voice #1: Haha Voice #2: Creepy Voice #3: Let's get his picture for Facebook to warn others.
[The previous panel fades into a thought bubble of Cueball.] [Cueball and are sitting on chairs, on the train, and Megan is typing on her laptop.] Dear blog, Cute boy on train still ignoring me.


Ohm

Explanation:
This comic deliberately conflates the origin story of the comic-book superhero of Spider-Man with the origin of Ohm's law , as both the origin story of Spider-Man and Ohm's law deal with power, though the power is of different types.
In the origin story of Spider-Man Peter Parker (who would become Spider-Man) is raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. When Parker goes through various stages of teenage angst and rebellion, his Uncle Ben (in different situations depending on the comics and/or movie) advises him that "with great power comes great responsibility". Here, power is taken by the reader to refer to Parker's superhero powers, acquired from a bite from a radioactive spider and via various technologies Parker designs himself. It is to be noted, however, that Uncle Ben doesn't know about these powers in the origin stories and only means this as general advice.
In contrast, in this xkcd comic, Ohm's law is supposedly delivered to Georg Ohm by a similar authority figure in the form of relating current and resistance to power (in the unit of Watts ), where power is defined as the change in energy per unit time. In real life, Ohm obviously was never "advised" about the law but instead determined experimentally that current through an Ohmic resistor was proportional to the voltage .
This relationship is summarized by Ohm's law :
Voltage = Current x Resistance (V=IR)
Electric power is defined as:
Power = Current x Voltage (P=VI - Joule's first law ) which, by replacing "Voltage" with "(Current x Resistance)" (from Ohm's law): Power = Current x (Current x Resistance) = Current² x Resistance which leads to the power equation alluded to in the comic.
The joke here is that given the proportionality, by definition a great (amount of) power would involve a great (amount of) current and/or resistance (squared), as here the phrase 'great power' could be taken to mean 'a large capability to do things' or 'a numerically large quantity of (electrical) power'. There is also humor in the improbability of this scenario, the comparison with Spider-Man, as well as the suggestion that it was how Ohm derived his eponymous law.
The title text takes this further, by redefining the power equation as a more generalised differential equation , which simply states that power is proportional to the change of energy per unit time (dE/dt), which is another way of stating that "power = energy per unit time". In many engineering and physics books the differential form is presented as the general form from which a specific algebraic form can be derived as the differential form is more adaptable to special cases, and therefore more general, and so the title text extends the conflation of physical power and electrical power to a more generalised form.
[A Cueball-like guy (Georg Ohm) is kneeling behind and holding his Cueball-like uncle by the shoulders as he is lying down.] Uncle: Remember: With great power comes great current squared times resistance.
[Caption below the frame:] Ohm never forgot his dying uncle's advice.


Surgery

Explanation:
Cueball is lying down, waiting to undergo surgery, when he asks the surgeon to insert and wire up a USB port to nerves. The surgeon assumes that Cueball wants to control USB devices, but Cueball assures him that he just wants the hardware. It is revealed that he is waiting for the software update that will allow him to do as he pleases.
Linux is an open source kernel for an operating system. Linux is notorious for its less-than-perfect support for hardware, although support for most hardware is eventually patched into the official kernel release. Cueball is here under the impression that support for a USB port can be patched into his arm in a similar fashion to how hardware support can be added to the Linux kernel.
The " Vista -Ready" sticker in the title text is a humorous indication from the doctor that the patient is "advanced enough" to have Windows Vista installed. The irony is multilayered. There was a lawsuit against Microsoft about promoting not-so-capable computers as "Windows Vista Capable"; they could neither run Vista fully nor smoothly. On top of that, the typical Linux user would not be very enthusiastic about Windows at all; someone who runs Linux has actively chosen an alternative operating system.
[A surgeon is standing over a patient on a gurney.] Patient: While you're doing the surgery, can you also implant this in my arm?
Surgeon: A USB port? Patient: Just wire it up to some nerves.
Surgeon: ...This won't let your brain control USB devices, you know. Patient: Sure – I just want the hardware.
Patient: The rest is software; I'm sure there will be a project to patch together support eventually. Surgeon: Ah – you're a Linux user, I see. Patient: Yeah, how'd you know?


RPS

Explanation:
Reverse Polish notation is a method of writing mathematical expressions, where operators are after their operands, not between.
For example, 2 + 2 becomes 2 2 + , and (2 × 2) ÷ 3 becomes 2 2 * 3 / . This comic plays on that, by placing a Polish Sausage (a North American term for Kielbasa ) after both halves of the bun instead of between.
The title text is a pun on the fact that Reverse Polish Notation is also known as Postfix notation . "Fixins" is a Southern US slang for condiments such as mustard, chopped onions, and more. The slang is derived from how you "fix" up, or prepare, your food item whenever you have items that can be customized per person after being cooked.
The news section for this comic says " Comic today's you confuses here click if ", which is also written in some kind of reverse polish notation and would be " If today's comic confuses you, click here " in proper English.
[A sausage with mustard is sitting to the right of an empty bun.] [Caption below the panel:] Reverse Polish Sausage


Conversations

Explanation:
This comic humorously links both dysentery and laptop computers with conversations in which one participant is on the toilet .
Dysentery results from viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections in the intestine, and is characterized by severe diarrhea , which means that someone will be on the toilet frequently and/or for a long time. So when dysentery was more prevalent, people spent more time on the toilet and presumably would have to talk to other people while sitting there. Dysentery has largely subsided in the developed world, which is why the graph of dysentery cases falls to near zero over time.
Laptops could cause toilet conversations because wireless internet allows people to carry their laptop anywhere around the house, even to the bathroom. They can still communicate with friends by text, voice, or even video chat, which means people can multitask by holding an online conversation while sitting on the toilet. If the chatting is just in text, then the other person won't have to know that their friend is on the toilet - Hopefully voice and video chat are less common while sitting on the toilet.
There are always some conversations on the toilet, because the social conventions against it are sometimes ignored or overridden by urgent situations. This explains why the conversations graph does not reach zero in the middle.
The joke in the title text is a direct reference to a previous comic regarding The Oregon Trail and dysentery.
The title text refers to the popular educational computer game around the 1980s titled the Oregon Trail. The game purports to educate students about 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail in the western United States . Among the features in the game is the common occurrence for a party member to die of a disease such as cholera , typhoid , or dysentery . The title text humorously suggests that the data for the graph comes from occurrences of dysentery in the game.
[A graph plots time vs. 3 lines.] [Dysentery cases starts high, drops to near zero with time.] [Laptop sales starts at zero, then raises.] [Frequency of conversations in which one participant is on the toilet - falls as dysentery cases falls, then rises again with laptop sales.]


Scary

Explanation:
Rob is telling his eight-year-old nephew a ghost story, employing such clichéd devices as a flashlight-lit face and stock ghost story endings. The boy is unimpressed, so Rob challenges him to come up with a scarier story. Rob's nephew merely states that he was born after 9/11 , and yet he is already mentally developed enough to hold a conversation with an adult. This proves effective, as in the final panel Rob assumes the fetal position, gripped by existential dread.
No hidden meaning here, but this sure is scary for many adults. What's being implied here is that time seems to be moving really quickly and we're getting older faster than we think. Events that seem like they "just happened" have happened long enough ago for a whole other person to come into existence, grow up, and learn to carry on a conversation. Every time we get reminded of this fact, it can be scary, as you then realize that you are now closer to your death...
9/11 was a terrorist attack in the United States in 2001, on September 11th. Major events such as the assassination of Kennedy , the Moon Landing of Apollo 11 or 9/11 are easily memorable. It is often said that "everyone remembers where they were when they first heard...". In consequence, these events act as milestones in our memory. They are recalled more vividly, and seem more recent. Today this is maybe also topping the Attack on Pearl Harbor which happened in 1941.
The title text mentions that Randall is teaching his 8 year old relatives to say the same as in the comic — presumably to the annoyance of his older relatives who will be reminded of the fast passage of time. He does not stop here, but teaches the 14 year old's to say they are born after Toy Story — a major block buster hit from Pixar which came out in 1995. A movie many people will remember fondly and feel just came out the other day... He continues with these scary thoughts by mentioning that Pokémon (1996) came out over a decade ago and that kids born after the big Disney hit movie Aladdin from 1992 will turn 18 next year (i.e. in 2010 a year after this comic was published).
Randall has both before and after this comic tried to make people feel old several times.
[Rob and his nephew (also drawn like a Cueball, but smaller) are sitting on the ground facing each other. Rob is holding a flash-light up to his face and leans back on the other arm, while crossing his legs. The nephew is sitting forward resting one arm on his lifted knees and leaning back on his other arm.] Rob: But they never found the ghost's head! Nephew: Lame story, Uncle Rob. Rob: And you could do scarier? Nephew: Sure.
[Rob has removed the flash-light from his face and the nephew leans more back and has shifted a leg down so only one knee supports the arm which are now more straight.] Rob: Try me. Nephew: 9/11 happened before I was born, yet I'm old enough to have this conversation with you.
[Rob has dropped the flash-light. The nephew has taken the other arm down on the ground. Beat panel.]
[Rob has curled his legs up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them while the nephew relaxes even more.]


Fall Foliage

Explanation:
Cueball and Megan have driven some distance from home, and Megan enjoys the pastime of leaf peeping , happily taking photographs of the beautiful fall or autumn foliage. Cueball points out that they could've stayed home and used Photoshop to alter pictures they've already taken, saving themselves the trouble of going on the trip. The hue control in such image editing programs shifts the colors around the spectrum without altering the brightness; the green leaves in a summer picture could then easily be shifted to yellow or red.
Megan simply shushes him in the strip, but the title text is implied to be Megan's retort, saying that Cueball used to be a happier person, and if he will continue being like this, she would prefer to see him in old pictures rather than living with him. Or it could be that Cueball is making a response to the shush as he seems to be the more technologically inclined and more annoyed.
The comic is also showing how, because of technology, many people are not as "happy" as they once were. Instead of appreciating natural beauty, Cueball simply wishes to "replicate" the experience by using Photoshop; unfortunately, this would deprive him of both the experience of beautiful fall leaves and a shared intimacy with Megan.
See also 1314: Photos about people taking pictures and White Hat complaining.
Later in 1719: Superzoom White Hat and Cueball again discusses photography, while in 2111: Opportunity Rover White Hat shares his anti-photography opinion again.
[Cueball and Megan are standing on a cliff overlooking a forest of gorgeous orange foliage. The forest grows up a hill and behind and right of the forest there are is forest free hill and in the horizon two small mountain peaks rises up to the gray blue sky. Cueball is holding his camera down while Megan is holding her camera up taking a photo. As opposed to normal the text is written inside two speech bubbles with arrow ending pointing at the two. Also the sound of the camera is written inside a white area with small u shapes forming part of the frame for this sound.] Cueball: Instead of driving all this way, we could've just taken our summer pictures and messed with the "hue" slider in Photoshop. Megan: Hush. Camera: Click


Static

Explanation:
This comic describes an unlikely confusion between a condom and an antistatic wrist strap . The two characters, presumably Cueball and Megan, are in the dark and about to engage in sexual intercourse . Megan checks that Cueball has a condom on. Cueball thinks a condom isn't necessary because he has an antistatic wrist strap on. Megan finds this ridiculous.
Antistatic wrist straps are important safety tools for electronics work such as handling computer parts. The wrist strap provides a conduction path directly from one's skin to an electrical ground , preventing the buildup of static electricity which, if accidentally discharged upon touching part of a circuit, can damage sensitive electronic components.
Condoms , on the other hand, are an important safety tool for sex, as birth control and protection from STDs .
The confusion is humorous because both items have abstract similarities, but are used in wildly different kinds of activities. In an abstract sense, both are items that you want to be sure to put on before engaging in a certain activity, wearing it throughout that activity to prevent any disastrous accidental effects.
The last panel implies that in his confusion, Cueball put on a condom in order to replace the RAM in his computer the previous week. Rather than actually asking about it, Megan just thought that was weird. Geek Squad is the computer service department of the Best Buy chain of American electronics superstores. So Cueball also implies that he put on a condom while working in Best Buy, for performing computer repair, and so he was fired for indecency.
The title text conveys the irrational belief that nothing can go wrong on a project while wearing an antistatic wrist band. In reality, the wrist band will only protect your electronics from electrostatic discharge , and there are plenty of other things that could go wrong on an electronics project, such as bad soldering, installing the wrong component, mechanical damage through excessive force, or even electric shock from an exposed live voltage. Or the text could be referring to even non-electronics projects, in which case the wrist band would really be pointless.
[It's pitch black. Only Cueball and Megan's dialogue can be seen.]
Megan: Hang on, I can't see—did you put on a condom? Cueball: It's okay. I've got a wrist thing on.
Megan: A what? Let me see that. fumble Megan: This is an anti-static strap.
Cueball: You mean it doesn't... Megan: No. Why would you even THINK that? Cueball: I guess I was mixed up.
Cueball: Wait, so when I was replacing that RAM last week... Megan: Yeah, I THOUGHT that was weird. Cueball: Oh, but it explains why the Geek Squad fired me.


Nowhere

Explanation:
This is a sarcastic comic poking fun at romanticism.
The phrase used by Cueball in the first panel hints at the romantic, suggesting that he is so happy to be with Megan that there is nowhere else that he would rather be right at this moment than here with her.
Megan wonders if this is her viewpoint, and imagines herself riding a dinosaur, probably an Apatosaurus , suggesting that she would rather be doing just that. This, and the title text are saying that the likelihood that out of all the possibilities in the universe, the chances that the one single place you would most want to be is just sitting with your significant other is fairly low.
The title text is Megan's comment to Cueball, where she asks him if he is serious, when there are like a thousand species of Dinosaurs he could be riding (or running from).
Previously, in 15: Just Alerting You , a man rode on a Brontosaurus which at the time of release of this comic was thought to just be an outdated name for Apatosauruses . This was made clear a few comics earlier in 636: Brontosaurus . Apatosauruses are also mentioned in 460: Paleontology .
[Megan is sitting on a couch with Cueball lying in her lap, his feet going out over the armrest.] Cueball: There's nowhere I'd rather be than with you here right now.
[Zoom in on Megan, still showing Cueball's head in her lap.]
[Further zoom in on Megan, so only most of Cueball's head can be seen. The couch is only partly sketched, and behind her thee thought bobbles lead to a day dream she is having, where we see she is imagining herself riding an apatosaurus, holding the reins going into the dinosaurs mouth.]


Bag Check

Explanation:
Cueball argues with a TSA agent at an airport security checkpoint over the TSA policy of prohibiting airline passengers from bringing liquids or gels in quantities greater than 3.4 ounces (100 ml) in their carry on items. To prove his point, Cueball points out that modifying the lithium ion battery in his laptop computer to be an explosive poses a more plausible risk to the aircraft than carrying an innocuous bottle of water. The joke is that now the security team is even MORE worried about him specifically and will take away his laptop and most likely detain him for questioning.
The title text continues Cueball's line of argument, segueing into a protest as the situation escalates to the point of Cueball apparently being placed under arrest. This is, however, a bit of an exaggeration, as for them to place someone under arrest, they need real reason to think that they are going to do something bad, and simply knowing this information is not enough to justify this action.
Interestingly, in 2017 a ban on laptops and other large, battery-equipped devices (but not smartphones) in the cabin was initiated by the United States, and followed by other countries, with the stated aim of lowering the risk of somebody bringing an explosive onto the plane inside it. Granted, this was in response to a Somali incident where a bomber snuck a laptop loaded with actual explosives (not just the batteries) onto a plane, but the similarities are still quite evident.
[Cueball and Megan are at a security checkpoint in an airport. A guard is holding an open backpack and a bottle of water, and Cueball is arguing with him. Megan is facepalming.] Cueball: But if you're worried about bombs, why are you letting me keep my laptop batteries? If I overvolted them and breached the cells, it would make a sizeable explosion. Megan: Oh god. Cueball: It's okay, dear. In a moment he'll realize I have a good point and return my water.


More Accurate

Explanation:
This comic spoofs the Terminator series, in which a super-intelligent machine from the future time travels back in time to kill Sarah Connor . As could be expected from a movie, the antagonistic robot is a human-like android.
However, we currently have military "robots" (actually vehicles controlled remotely by people) that are completely unlike anything in the movie. Originally, UAV were only used for surveillance and reconnaissance. But, now more than ever, they are used for attacks. And most importantly, they are not walking humanoids but flying machines. They are not restricted to carrying human-intended guns as in the movie but are armed with powerful explosives and long-range missiles. Thus the name of the comic: Randall points out being attacked by a flying plane-like drone -- such as the Predator drone shown in the last panel (heavily used for offensive operations by the USAF and the CIA in Afghanistan and Pakistan) -- is a much more accurate outcome should the robots rise up against humans.
It is important to note that, in the actual Terminator 1 movie , this substitution would not actually be so simple. The terminator sent back in time knows Sarah Connor's name and city of residence, but not her appearance or address; it locates her by looking her up in a phone book (and ends up killing a number of other women with the same name, as well as its intended target's roommate, before finding the correct Sarah Connor.) Additionally, the terminator regularly operates inside buildings and rearms itself by picking up human small-arms. A Predator-type drone, while a superior killing system, would be unable to do any of that. A drone which could interact with and operate in the human environment with the ease the terminator displays (let alone successfully disguise itself as a human) would be a major accomplishment which no real-world project has yet come close to.
One thing that keeps us short of a Terminator scenario is that most of the unmanned aerial vehicles are either pre-programmed or flown remotely by members of the military, and are not left to their own devices.
The title text emphasizes this by pointing out that we have entire fleets of these drones, and notes that at some point, we entered the future.
Similar buildup and Terminator reference are to be found in 1177: Time Robot .
10 years after this comic was published, almost to the day, a movie in the Terminator franchise called Terminator: Dark Fate came out which includes a scene very similar to this comic involving a Predator drone being used by the super-intelligent machine to take out its target. Also, shortly after that movie came out Randall published a comic about it with the same name.
[Cueball with a shotgun approaches a woman carrying a tray with glasses.] Cueball: Sarah! Come with me if you want to live! A robot assassin has been sent here to kill you!
[Sarah holds her hands over her mouth. She has presumably dropped the tray, as it lies on the floor.] Cueball: I'm here to save you. I may not be as strong or fast as a machine, but I'll fight to keep you-
[There's a huge orange and yellow explosion. The two are disintegrated and Cueball's shotgun goes flying.] BOOM
[A flying robot assassin is above the bomb site.]


So Bad It's Worse

Explanation:
The graph in the comic shows the enjoyability of movies - going from good to okay to bad, then popping back up with " So Bad It's Good ". The term is used to describe movies that are so terrible that, ironically, watching them is actually an enjoyable experience, even if just to poke fun or marvel at the absurdity of how bad they are. The comic lists Plan 9 from Outer Space and The Rocky Horror Picture Show , two widely known films of this type.
However, the graph warns of showing The Star Wars Holiday Special , as it manages to wrap back around from "So Bad It's Good" to being So Bad it's Horrible . The Star Wars Holiday Special is a prime-time comedy special based on Star Wars . It is widely known for its terrible quality, and has never been fully released (although an animated segment that introduced Boba Fett , which George Lucas has approved of, has been released as a bonus feature on a DVD).
The bottom of the comic shows Cueball , Megan , and Ponytail watching a movie with alcohol - first enjoying it, then merely watching, then not watching it and unhappily drinking.
The title text refers to torrents , which are a way to obtain large amounts of data over the internet. Since the Holiday Special was only aired once on television and was never released on VHS or DVD, torrents of the TV recordings are one of the few ways to actually see it. According to Munroe , he had torrented a copy of the film and intended to watch it in its entirety, in spite of its terribleness, just to cement himself as a nerd. However, he underestimated how bad it really was, and could not make it all the way through.
The title text may also contain an subtle play on a line of Star Wars dialogue. In Return of the Jedi , Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker , " Obi-Wan once thought as you do . You don't know the power of the dark side! I must obey my master." The implication here being that "kitschy nerd cred" is the "dark side" being served by those who would sit through a torrent of The Star Wars Holiday Special .
Protip: Even at "Bad Movie Night," avoid the Star Wars holiday special.
[A graph plots movie enjoyability against movie quality. It drops steadily through points marked "Good Movie" to "Okay Movie" to "Bad Movie," rises up again for "So-Bad-It's-Good (Plan 9, Rocky Horror, etc)," and then drops off the bottom of a graph with an arrow pointing to where "Star Wars Holiday Special" would be. There are three mini-panels below the graph, arranged from "Good" to "Bad" along the movie quality axis.]
[Three friends are on a couch, drinking and gesticulating enthusiastically.] [The same three are sitting quietly, with a bottle on the floor.] [The three are sitting around a table, drinking and looking miserable. One seems to be passed out on the table.]


Nachos

Explanation:
Megan (in one of the few comics where she is actually named) and Ponytail are playing together on an online multiplayer shooter game. Ponytail calls Cueball , who is living with Megan, and easily persuades him to make nachos . Wi-Fi and microwave ovens both use radio frequencies around 2.4 GHz , so Cueball's cooking disrupts Megan's connection and allows Ponytail to kill Megan's character. Boom! Headshot is a catchphrase made popular through a web mockumentary series called Pure Pwnage , and is also used in the game League of Legends by the character Caitlyn.
The title text points out that Megan has only herself to blame, as gaming on WiFi is susceptible to such issues, while gaming with a wired connection (e.g. Ethernet ) is not.
Note: If using the microwave actually does interfere with your WiFi, then get another microwave. Not (strictly) because it would mess with the WiFi, but because your microwave has a hole somewhere and is leaking non-ionizing radiation it shouldn't. It won't kill you, but it's not operating at peak efficiency. See this video on the subject.
Around the time of this comic's release, the xkcd website was temporarily redesigned using Yahoo! GeoCities . Snapshots of the site at the time can be found on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine .
This was the fifth time Megan is drawn and given the name Megan in xkcd, the first time being in 159: Boombox . Once in between this and the previous of these comics ( 478: The Staple Madness ), her name was used in 596: Latitude , but she was not drawn there.
[Cueball is on the phone with Ponytail, who's on her computer in the other half of a split panel.] Cueball: Hello? ... Oh, hey. Looking for Megan? She's gaming. Ponytail: I know. You know what's delicious? Nachos.
[Ponytail clicks on her computer while talking.] Ponytail: When you layer the cheese so it gets on every chip... then smother them in sour cream and salsa...
Cueball: Mm, that IS delicious. And I've got the ingredients, too! Ponytail, on phone: You should make some! Cueball: I will! Ponytail, on phone: Hurry.
[Cueball is making nachos in the microwave.] Microwave: beep beep whirrrr
Megan, at her computer: My wifi signal!
[Ponytail who called is at her computer.] Computer: Boom! Headshot.


Climbing

Explanation:
This comic makes fun of a certain type of images very common on the internet. Those pictures are taken with a camera turned by 90° or rotated later by software, thus creating the illusion of people walking on walls or ceilings. While the original pictures depict the physical impossibility of a rotated gravitational force , Cueball uses the aforementioned technique to create pictures of himself on a climbing wall . Megan approaches him from above the wall, indicating that the climbing wall is in fact lying on the floor. It becomes clear that Cueball was not able to climb a real wall and therefore crawled on the floor with his camera adjusted accordingly.
Her comment is a sideswipe on the practise of self-display on Facebook , which is often done with the help of image manipulation .
The title text implies that Cueball has in fact stolen a real climbing wall, and that Megan wants him to return it.
An alternative reading is that Cueball could be climbing a relatively easy climbing wall, and the joke is it’s so easy that Megan can walk on it, thus conveying that it could be really easy, but Cueball might perceive it as hard; thus, Megan impresses the viewers more than Cueball by showing how easy the course is.
[Cueball seen from his back, as he is ascending a gray climbing wall with 16 white handles in different shapes and sizes. He is standing on one near the bottom left of the panel with his left foot, holding on to a large handle to the left of his head, and one to the right at shoulder height. His right foot is seeking hold on another handle above knee hight of his left leg.]
[Cueball is seen in profile still climbing up the gray wall, which is drawn in the right part of the panel, 13 handles protruding. At the top of the panel something is protruding from the wall at more than ninety degree angle to the wall, as the line soon goes off panel at the top, but it seems to be directed at a small white half circle at the top of the panel. The line begins in front of the last of the handles at the top, a small one, and below this there is a larger handle bending up making it easy to hold on to. Cueball is holding on with his hands to two similar "easy" handles.]
[Cueball climbs a bit further up till his hand reaches the up bending handle in front of the line, and his lower leg and upper knee touches the two handles his hands where on before. Here he has stopped climbing and lifts his head back to look up and sees Megan standing there above him (as she was also doing at the top of the previous panel, but cut off at leg and face). She just stands perpendicular to the wall facing down towards Cueball. The panel has panned up following Cueball so there are only 11 handles now, two more visible "above" Megan, and four from the previous panel are now below this panels frame.]
[Same scene but Cueball is now looking at the wall as Megan speaks.] Megan: Your Facebook rock climbing pictures just got a lot less impressive.


October 30th

Explanation:
For Halloween, a child has dressed up as Dr. Emmett L. Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd ) from the Back to the Future film trilogy. In the films, Brown created a time machine out of a DeLorean DMC-12 car, which he and teenage protagonist Marty McFly use to travel through time.
The joke of the comic is that Halloween is on October 31st, and by showing up dressed as Doc Brown on October 30th, the kid can make the joke that he "overshot" the time machine and went back one more day than he meant to. Doc is heard throughout the movie franchise saying "Great Scott" as an exclamation of surprise.
The title text suggests an inventive use of time-travel to get ten times the candy — hitting each house at a 30-year interval up until 2300. The interval matches that of the first two BttF movies, which take place in the years 1955, 1985 (the present at the time), and 2015.
Of course, one would have no idea starting off if Halloween is still being celebrated in 2300, or indeed if the human race even still exists.
[A kid dressed up in a lab coat and goggles is standing on a neighbor's doorstep.] Kid: Trick or treat! Neighbor: Nice Doc Brown costume, but today's October 30th. Kid: Great Scott, I must have overshot!