Earth Temperature Timeline

Explanation:
This comic is a timeline on how the temperature has changed from 20,000 BCE (Before Common Era ) to the present day (2016), with three predictions for the rest of the 21st century depending on what actions are taken (or not taken) to stop CO₂ emission. This comic is a direct, but much more thorough, follow up on the previous global warming comic: 1379: 4.5 Degrees . By having readers scroll through millennia of slow-paced natural changes, Randall uses the comic to confront the rapid temperature rise in recent years.
Over the past 100 years, human action has produced a large amount of CO₂ emissions , which have caused a rise in average global temperature through the greenhouse effect . This is called global warming and is part of a climate change , a subject that has become a recurrent subject on xkcd. There are still many people who claim that this is not happening, or at least that it is not caused by any human actions, called climate change deniers . One argument of theirs is that global warming is happening for natural causes, summarized with the phrase "temperature has changed before".
This comic shows that while temperature changes have indeed occurred before, the speed of the current temperature rise is much, much faster than those measured for many previous thousands of years. The comic became so popular that Randall postponed the release of his next comic to keep this one on the front page one day longer.
The temperature curve is a dotted line most of the time, but from about 1850 to 2016 the measurement data is good enough to let the curve become a solid line indicating that this is not an estimate. Before 1850 the temperature is an estimate based on the sources given. And likewise into the future the three possible curves are also dotted to show that they are predictions, based on how seriously the population of Earth takes knowledge (and comics) like this.
Although this is a topic Randall obviously takes very seriously, and by far most of the facts fit with known history, he still includes several jokes in the comic . See also the table explaining each item in the comic. After the election of Donald Trump for president later the year of this comic's release, it is possible that Randall believes that his worst fears (as expressed by the current path at the bottom) will hold up, with the actions taken by the new president.
The title text compares the saying that "the temperature has changed before" comparing temperature changes over thousands of years to the rapid global warming over the last century with saying that the "small" changes to the temperature a car experiences over the years of normal usage should not make you worried over the rapid temperature increase that happens when someone sets your car on fire. Randall previously used this joke in 1693: Oxidation .
The image attributes climate data sources as "Shakun et al. (2012), Marcott et al. (2013), Annan and Hargreaves (2013), HadCRUT4, IPCC":
Note there are several spelling errors in the comic, so please do only correct spelling errors that are not part of the comic! See more in the trivia section .
[A large heading, followed by a sub-caption. Below that two lines with a statement in between:] A timeline of Earth’s average temperature since the last ice age glaciation When people say “The climate has changed before,” these are the kinds of changes they’re talking about.
[A very long chart below the headings above is headed with a label for the scale of the X-axis above the chart. Below that a sub-caption. To the left an arrow down to the top of the chart pointing to the dotted curves starting point (at -4.3°C below the 1961-1990 average) with a label above the arrow. And arrow pointing left to the left of the center and another pointing right to the right of the center has labels. Below these is the temperature scale of the X-axis, with 9 ticks between the borders each with a label ranging from -4 to +4°C compared to the 1961-1990 average, but with another step in each direction not labeled towards to axis so the chart covers -5 to +5°C compared to the 1961-1990 average.] Temperature Compared to the 1961-1990 average Start Colder Warmer -4°C -3°C -2°C -1°C 0°C +1°C +2°C +3°C +4°C
[To the right of the chart is a gray text standing on the side down along the outer boarder of the chart with the sources for the chart:] Source: Shakun et. al. (2012) , Marcott et. al. (2013), Annan and Hargreaves (2013) , HadCRUT 4 , IPCC
[The chart is split in 10 columns by the temperature scale and the borders. The two central columns are white, and then from there to the left the background becomes a faded color that changes from light blue to blue at the edge in four steps. Similarly to the right the color changes from light red to red. To the left there is a time scale taking 500 years leaps from 20,000 BCE all the way to year 1, where there are two years, one for BBC and one for CE. The 500 year leaps continue until 1500 CE and from there the steps are down to 100 years until 2100 with also present day 2016 labeled. After 1500 the CE is omitted. The labels stop there, but there is space below covering down to 2200 CE. There is clearly visible division line across the chart on the level of each of the 500 step, and fainter lines for each of the 100 steps all the way even though only the last 5 of these 100 steps are labeled. There is a similar clear line at 2016. Below each step on the Y-axis is noted, and then any text starting before the next step is noted below indented. If there are extra image belonging to text this is indented once more. The graph that the whole chart is about is a dotted line that begins at the “start” point mentioned above at -4.3°C and then begins to go straight down. It will change left and right all the way down. To being with all text and most drawings are to right of the dotted curve. Whenever something is to the left it will be noted. When it says to the left above something, and then nothing over the next, then the next will be to the right. Only at the very bottom are there more entries to the left than right. ] 20000 BCE [An arrow goes from the dotted line to the central line at 0°C. In the middle of the line there is a temperature label:] 4.3°C At the start of our timeline, 22,000 years ago, Earth is 4°C colder than during the late 20 th century. Boston is buried under almost a mile of ice, and the glaciers reach as far south as New York City. [The Statue of Liberty is shown in front of a glacier front. A very tiny Cueball is on top of the glacier. The drawing is labeled and so is also the glacier.] New York Ice [Cueball (wearing a knit cap with a pom-pom is seen walking in a snowy landscape leaving black footprints behind him. He walks through the white central part of the chart.] [The skyline of Boston is shown with two clear buildings among all the other. Above it is a line and in between this area has been filled with thin lines. The drawing is labeled and so is this area. Also the skyline has an arrow pointing at it with a label:] Boston Ice Modern skyline
19500 BCE But the world is about to warm up. By this time, humans have already spread across Africa, Eurasia, and Australia. They’ve created painting, pottery, rope, and bows and arrows, but haven’t developed writing or farming.
19000 BCE Changes in the Earth’s orbit mean that more sunlight reaches the polar ice… [A line chart with a labeled Y-axis with three labeled ticks. The curve starts up and then goes down five times and up four times ending down. There is one plateau towards the end compared to the rest of the curve where the ups and downs are quite alike.] Summer sun W/m 2 at 60°N 550 500 450
18500 BCE [A map of the world. At the top is a light gray area covering North America, Greenland and northern Europe and most of the northern part of Russia. A similar gray area covers Antarctica. There are two labels in the gray area above and one in the gray area below:] Ice Ice Ice
18000 BCE …And the ice sheets start to melt.
17500 BCE Temperatures have been creeping upward, but around this point, CO 2 levels start to climb…
17000 BCE …And then the warming speeds up.
16500 BCE [Cueball is standing with a spear just the right of the graph talking to a rabbit.] Cueball: Still pretty cold.
16000 BCE [Megan points to the graph to the right of her and between her and Ponytail standing on the other side. Mean is the first drawing on the left side of the dotted curve, which has hardly moved since the beginning, only to just on the other side of 4°C.] [In the right part of the chart is an explanation of the data. Below the first two lines there are four drawings each showing possible temperature swings in reality compared to the smoothed data that represents the dotted curve of the entire chart. The dotted curve is shown in all four drawings and a thin line is shown running along it but with much more fluctuation left and right on the first two, a large spike right on the third and a large bump way right on the fourth. Above these there are two labels. The first labels is inside a bracket that covers the first three, and the last label is for the last drawing. Below is a list of sources.] Limits of this data: Short warming or cooling spikes might be “smoothed out” by these reconstructions but only if they’re small or brief enough. Possible Unlikely Reconstructions are from Shakun (2012) and Marcott (2013), scaled to Annan + Hargreaves (2013) estimate for the last glacial period.
15500 BCE In what is now France, humans paint murals on the walls of the Lascaux caves [Hairy paints three animals, two with horns, and two humans, Cueball holding hand with Hairy who has a spear. On the other side of the central line Megan writes three letters, the last of which is reversed.] NIИ
15000 BCE Ice sheets around Alaska shrink, exposing a land bridge between Asia and North America [From around the bottom if this section and down to 11500 BCE the dotted curve moved steadily to the right towards warmed temperature peaking close to -1.5°C. Before this the temperature had not moved much away from that at the start.]
14500 BCE [Cueball walks right looking back at the graph behind him. Megan walks in front of him pointing further right.] Cueball: Cool. Humans reach North America.
14000 BCE The edge of the ice withdraws from New York City and retreats North. [A large glacier front speaks in a speech bubble with an arrow pointing at it. Behind is there are four peaks in the horizon and in front of it three small melting pools and some rocks on the ground.] Glacier: That’s it! I’m moving to Canada!
13500 BCE Humans domesticate dogs (Date uncertain, may be much earlier) [Megan and Cueball is watching a wolf looking at them.] Megan: Okay, you can live in our homes and we’ll feed you, but we’ll still get mad f you poop on the floor. Wolf: Deal. Cueball: And we get to breed you to be tiny and dress you in little costumes. Wolf: …Wait.
13000 BCE [Randall did not use the normal spelling for Woolly Rhino, but this is an accepted alternative spelling:] Wooly Rhino goes extinct Oregon is scoured by huge floods as glacial dams burst and lakes of meltwater flow to the sea
12500 BCE Ice sheets withdraw from Chicago
12000 BCE Humans settle Abu Hureyra in Syria
11500 BCE [An arrow on the left side of the dotted curve is pointing down along the dotted curve and to the left indicate temperature is declining again, meaning the dotted curve now moves left to colder temperatures. This only continues until 10500 BCE. It is only the second time something is noted on the left side after Megan at 16000 BCE] Temperatures start to decline, mainly in the Northern hemisphere This may be caused by changes in ocean circulation due to the floods of cold fresh meltwater flowing into the Atlantic as the North American ice sheet melts. This cooler period is called the Younger Dryas
11000 BCE [This is the first text to the left of the dotted curve:] Humans reach Argentina
10500 BCE [An arrow pointing down along the right side of the dotted curve and to the right indicate temperature is increasing again, meaning the dotted curve now moves right to hotter temperatures. This continues until 8000 BCE where it levels out just above 0°C.] Warming resumes Human settlements at Jericho
10000 BCE First development of farming
9500 BCE Saber-toothed cat goes extinct [To the left:] Horses disappear from North America
9000 BCE [To the left, Randall spelled Pokémon wrong:] Last North American Pokemon go extinct [Cueball with a speak and Megan is looking up at this last “fact”.] Megan: That is not a real fact. Temperatures reach modern levels Rising seas cut off the land bridge between North America and Asia Cattle domesticated
8500 BCE Ice sheets retreat across the Canadian border Temperatures start to level out slightly above 1961-1990 levels
8000 BCE [The above sentence breaks over the 8000 BCE line. From here a maximum in temperature on the chart is reached at 0.5°C which will not be overtaken until 2000 CE. It stays almost constant here until 5000 BCE where a slight cooling begins.]
7500 BCE [To the left:] This warm, stable period is called the Holocene Climate Optimum [To the left:] Jiahu settled in China
7000 BCE Final collapse of the North American ice sheet leads to rapid 2-4m sea level rise… [A small arrow points down and left to the right of the dotted curve. There is a small decrease in temperature but it is very small and would have been missed without the arrow and label.] …And a period of cooling in the Northern hemisphere
6500 BCE [To the left:] As seas rise to near their modern levels, Britain is cut off from mainland Europe
6000 BCE Humans develop copper metalworking
5500 BCE [To the left:] Massive volcanic eruption in Oregon creates crater lake Gold metalworking
5000 BCE [To the left:] Invention of the wheel [To the left. To the right of the dotted curve is an arrow pointing down and slightly left. From here temperature decreases very slowly but steadily from 0.5°C until 1000 BCE where a stable plateau is reached around 0°C.] Earth begins to cool slowly mainly due to regular cycles in its orbit
4500 BCE [To the left:] Proto-Indo-European language develops [To the right of the curve Ponytail holds up a hand towards Cueball.] Ponytail: Let’s make our language heavily inflected, so future students have to memorize a zillion verb endings! Cueball: Okay! [To the left:] Permanent settlements in the fertile crescent
4000 BCE Horses domesticated [To the left:] Minoan culture arises on Crete
3500 BCE Egyptian mummification Rise of the Indus Valley civilization [To the left:] Invention of writing in Sumer “prehistory” ends, “history” begins Earliest human whose name we know (Pharaoh Iry-Hor in Egypt)
3000 BCE Three Sovereigns and five emperors period in China Gilgamesh [To the left:] Imhotep Mayan culture emerges [To the left:] Great Pyramid constructed
2500 BCE Corded Ware culture in Europe [To the left of the curve two rock musicians with long hair and electrical guitars are standing on either side of a small gate made of three slabs of stone, one on top of the other two standing stones.] Stonehenge completed Chariots developed
2000 BCE [To the left:] Alphabetic writing developed in Egypt Last mammoths on a tiny Siberian island go extinct [To the left:] Minoan eruption
1500 BCE [To the left:] Iron smelting Olmec civilization develops in Central America [A Trojan horse with two Cueball-like guys in front and a third standing on its back. Its back is at three Cueball’s height and its head rises to the level of the Cueball on its back. It stands on a platform with four wheel on the visible side. There is text on the horse] Setting of the Iliad and the Odyssey Text on horse: Not a trap [To the left:] Invasion of the Sea peoples* * A real thing Polynesians explore the Pacific Ocean
1000 BCE [From 1000 BBC to 1000 CE the temperature is stable and very close to 0°C.] [To the left:] Solomon Illiad [sic] and Odyssey composed [To the left:] Rise of Greek city-states Neo-Assyrian empire [To the left:] First Olympics Zapotec writing in modern Mexico [To the left:] Confucius
500 BCE [To the left:] The stuff in the 300 (film)|movie 300 , but regular speed and with more clothing Buddha Nazca Lines [To the left:] Alexander the Great [To the left:] Mayan hieroglyphics Ashoka the Great [To the left:] Paper invented [To the left:] Asterix Teotihuacán metropolis [To the left:] Julius Caesar
[At the year 0, there is instead two numbers for each of the two scales before and after Christ:] 1 BCE 1 CE [To the left:] Roman Empire Jesus [To the left and erupting volcano.] Pompeii Three Kingdoms period [To the left:] Gupta empire [To the left:] Various groups take turns sacking Rome Attila the Hun
500 CE Muhammad [To the left:] Tang Dynasty [An arrow to the right of the dotted curve pointing down, takes a swing far out from the curve and then bends back again. The text label next to it breaks into the next 500 period. The dotted curve stays stable at 0°C along this arrow.] Medieval warm period in Europe and some northern regions (too regional to affect the global average much) [To the left:] Leif Eriksson
1000 CE [The dotted curve moves to the left towards lower temperature reaching a minimum around 1650 of about -0.6°C at the Little Ice Age.] [To the left a drawing of a compass with needle pointing the black end towards north east. There are labels for the four main directions and a label next to it:] N W E S Magnetic compass navigation [To the left:] Ghengis [sic] Khan Zheng He’s fleet explores Asia and Africa [To the left:] Aztec Alliance [To the left:] Printing press [To the left:] Columbus
1500 CE European Renaissance [To the left:] Shakespeare
1600 [To the left:] Newton [To the right of the dotted curve there is an arrow pointing down that makes a swing in towards the curve and then back out again. At -0.6°C this is the coldest it has been since 9500 BCE. It is labeled:] ”Little Ice Age”
1700 Steam engines [To the left:] Unites States Independence
1800 Industrial Revolution [To the left:] Telegraphs [After this the dotted curve becomes solid.]
1900 [To the left, and on the line for 1900:] Airplanes [To the left:] World Wars [The solid line takes a step to the right close to 0°C. Over the rest of the 1900s it moves closer to 0°C crossing it before 2000 where it almost reaches the maximum temperature of 0.5 °C from earlier in 8000 BCE.] Fossil fuel CO 2 emissions start rapidly increasing [To the left:] Nuclear weapons [To the left:] Internet
2000 Northwest Passage opens [From here to present day the solid line increases rapidly and in 2016 present day is almost reaches 1°C, with about 0.8°C.]
2016 [To the left on the line for 2016:] Present day [From here the curve once again becomes dotted as this is the future. After one dot it splits in two and after the first two dots another split between them occurs forming three possible future dotted curves. The first curve bending down before the others, and thus to the right of the other two reaches about 1.2°C and then goes straight down and stops at the 2100 line. An arrow points to it from the left and a label is written patly before and the rest after the 2100 line to the left of the curve:] Best-case scenario assuming immediate massive action to limit emissions
2100 [The middle curve bends a little down after reaching 1.3°C and then continues this path reaching 2°C in 2100. An arrow point from below to it and a label is written below the curve and below 2100 line:] Optimistic scenario [The last line continues along the path from the last 16 years of the solid line reaching 4.2°C at 2100, almost as far on the other side of 0°C in 150 years as it took 14000 years to move from the other side from the start of the chart. Another arrow point to this from below with a label below the curve and below 2100 line:] Current Path
This comic became popular with a much broader audience than most xkcd comics. It was discussed admiringly by news sites such as Popular Science , Reason , Slate , Smithsonian , Forbes , Vox , NPR , Quartz , Science Alert and Climate Central . It was promoted by famous individuals such as Elon Musk and even twitted by the UN council on Climate Change , and obviously hated on by vocal climate change deniers and cranks such as Anthony Watts debunked and Joanne Nova debunked
Saying the "dotted line comes from computer models" is a bit inaccurate. Prehistoric temperature reconstructions are based on lots of measurements from lots of places around the planet: ice cores, lake and ocean sediments, etc. which are the best proxy records of climate change. From those measurements, one infers temperature, so Randall Munroe may be more correct than he realises . Calling that process computer modeling stretches the meaning of the phrase. For more rationalist critique of this chart not driven by the agenda of pushing pseudoscientific beliefs which are against the worldwide consensus, see t h i s and most insightfully, this .
Note: Since a lot of new people are here looking for this chart today, I'll be posting Wednesday's comic on Thursday instead. Before that, the normal heading with the release day of xkcd was shown. This was (of course) still there Tuesday the day after the release, because it was first on Wednesday there were reason to note the delay. It stayed in place even for some time after the "Wednesday" comic was released on Thursday, but was then removed before noon (EST) on Thursday. Randall did thus not post a link to this comic in the header text for new visitors to use, only giving them that one extra day. Even though the next comic was released on a Thursday, the scheduled Friday comic 1734: Reductionism was still released as planned. This was also the first time this occurred on xkcd - see this trivia item from the Friday comic.


Solar Spectrum

Explanation:
This comic's release day was postponed from the scheduled Wednesday release to a Thursday release because Randall noticed the extreme popularity of the previous comic on Monday: 1732: Earth Temperature Timeline . Randall even explained this in the header text; see this trivia item from the previous comic.
This comic depicts the Fraunhofer lines , i.e. the spectral lines seen when sunlight is split in a spectrometer . These appear as black gaps in the rainbow of light, caused by light being absorbed by elements in the Sun . The frequencies of light that an atom absorbs depend on the exact arrangement of electron orbitals around it - because each element has a different pattern of orbitals, each one has a distinctive pattern in the absorption spectrum. The chart shows most of the main lines in the visible spectrum and identifies the elements linked to them.
The image of the Fraunhofer lines from Wikipedia is shown below in the section with a table of these lines. Here it can be seen that all the lines that are labeled with elements are correctly labeled. Also all lines shown in the part of the spectrum included in the comic are included. Ten of the lines included are not labeled in the picture on Wikipedia (at least not with an element; two of the three "h" labels are not in the table on Wikipedia). Six of these also have no label in the comic. The other four lines' label Those giant sunglasses constitutes the joke of the comic. There seems to be only one clear error in the comic and that is the fifth line labeled Sunglasses, the middle of the lines, which is actually a Hydrogen line (C in the picture below). But the line next to it to the right is one of those not labeled in either picture and it seems likely that it was this line Randall meant to be a Sunglass line...
All ten extra lines (including both the labeled and unlabeled ones) seem to correspond to the spectrum of silicon , and the joke then refers to the silicon dioxide (aka glass) used in the lenses of the Sun's sunglasses. Of course, this means that the glasses have been ionized and turned into plasma by the heat of the sun.
The idea of a sun with sunglasses is a reference to pictures/clipart of the sun wearing sunglasses, often used to denote good weather. Randall has specifically used this picture in at least two what if? posts:
In Into the Sun it is seen in the fourth image. The title text of that image even references the fact that those sunglasses will block the light to Earth: A partial solar eclipse is when the Earth moves across the part of the Sun blocked by its sunglasses.
So this comic is a direct callback to this what if? post.
In Black Hole Moon it is in the first image also including a banana as the mouth. Both the image and the title text of that image references the fact that those sunglasses will block (eclipse) some the light to Earth: Doctors warn that even sunglasses that block UVB will only protect you from the part of the Sun covered by them.
There is another joke in drawing a sun with sunglasses because sunglasses are meant to protect your eyes from the sun, so what should they protect the Sun's eye from, Star light...? Also, any glasses worn by the sun, would they not become sun glasses?
Transitions ® is a brand of photochromic lenses ; however, photochromic lenses are often referred to as "transition lenses", so the title text does not necessarily refer to the brand. Photochromic lenses are a type of plastic lens used in prescription spectacles that allow the lens to turn dark when exposed to UV light such as that found in sunlight. The sun choosing to get transition lens would prove a waste of money as the lenses would be permanently transitioned to be dark, so a pair of ordinary sunglasses would likely have proved more cost effective. (Always assuming they do not turn into plasma when getting close to the sun...)
This is the official image for Fraunhofer lines (solar spectrum) on Wikipedia: The graph is a typical spectral lines chart, with a long rainbow band (from ultraviolet to the left to infrared on the right both colors appearing black as they are not visible.) The black lines in it, indicating the traces of different elements. Noe that the comic only covers the visible part of this spectrum.
[A chart shows the visible colored spectrum of the sun from deep violet to deep red. Along the spectrum are shown 28 black spectral lines of different thickness. Above the chart is a caption:] The Sun's spectral lines
[Above the chart there are four and below the chart there are two labels, each label has one or more arrows pointing to different black lines. The two that has only one arrow points to two close lines marking them both. Only 22 lines are labeled like this, the other 6 are not labeled. The labels in reading order, with the number of arrows noted behind in square brackets:] Calcium [3] Iron [5] Sodium [1] Oxygen [2] Hydrogen [3] Magnesium [1] Those giant sunglasses [5]


Reductionism

Explanation:
Reductionism is an approach that seeks to understand the world by breaking problems into simpler pieces. This approach can disregard emergent properties which appear only from the individual parts working together.
In this comic Randall shows the first part of a dictionary entry on the word Reductionism . In a real dictionary like Dictionary.com an entry with similar build up looks like this:
Reductionism Noun 1. The theory that every complex phenomenon, especially in biology or psychology, can be explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic physical mechanisms that are in operation during the phenomenon. 2. The practice of simplifying a complex idea, issue, condition, or the like, especially to the point of minimizing, obscuring, or distorting it.
In the comic the n refers to noun and the "1." indicate that this is the first of more than one entries about the word.
The meta joke is that Randall is attempting to define the word Reductionism by taking the reductionist approach to its extreme. He thus breaks the word into its 12 individual letters explaining the origin of each individual letter, acting as if the word was nothing more than the "sum" of all its letters. In doing so he entirely fails to explain the actual meaning of the word.
The entire entry number 1. could in principle have 12 phrases one for each of the letters R, E, D, U, C, T, I, O, N, I, S and M, but here only the first two for R and E are included, the third (D) only just starts when the entry is cut off at the bottom of the panel. It could be argued that the two I's could share one explanation, but as a reductionist you might not even notice that the I had already been explained.
As it happens, every letter of the Latin alphabet (the writing system used by the English language and many other languages) is ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics , not just "R". But maybe the same sentence is used for all the consonants as the only word in the explanation for "D" is "is"; the same that starts the explanation for "R".
The second letter that is explained is "E", a vowel . In modern English spelling, the letter "E" is used – alone or in combination – to represent a number of different vowel sounds (compare "gene", "bed", "crepe"). In the word "reductionism", the "E" can be pronounced as /ɪ/ ("riductionism"), /iː/ ("reeductionism") or /ə/ ("ruductionism"), depending on dialect and emphasis, but the comic is talking about the sound used to pronounce the letter itself, /iː/ ("long E"). It explains that this vowel sound was normally represented with the letter "I" until the 1500's. This is a reference to the Great Vowel Shift , a change in the pronunciation of many English vowels around that time. Before then, a word like "see" was pronounced /seː/ (approximately "seh", with no diphthong), while a word like "bite" was pronounced /biːt/ ("beet"). So in modern English pronunciation, the "long E" sound is the same as what the "long I" spelling used to represent.
In the title text, two people are speaking. The first speaker has noticed that "physics people can be a little on the reductionist side". (Randall would consider himself a physicist). The presumed physicist then says that it is a ridiculous notion. He challenges the other to "Name ONE reductionist word I've ever said." But by claiming he is not a reductionist by focusing on the individual words (which, even/especially in the case of "reductionist", are never used solely by reductionists) he is asking for an impossible comparison to be made, when proof of reductionism is clearly an emergent property of a fuller sentences, if not whole discourses. By insisting on focusing only upon individual words in this manner the speaker likely proves themself a reductionist, in the very act of trying to refute this accusation.
Reductionism has previously appeared deep down in 1416: Pixels .
[The comic represents an entry in a dictionary for a word. Unlike normal comics not only capital letters are used, and thus here the capitalization of the comic is also used in the transcript. The entry is cut off through the bottom of the fourth line by the bottom of the panel, but the last line is still readable.] REDUCTIONISM • n . 1. "R" is a letter with origins in the Egyptian hieroglyphics. "E" stands for a vowel sound normally represented by "I" until the 1500's. "D" is


Fashion Police and Grammar Police

Explanation:
In this comic, two groups of angry protesters are presented and labeled. They are probably not actually protesting side by side, but simply drawn side by side to compare their similarities.
The left group represents the Fashion Police with Cueball holding a sign implying that Crocs are prohibited (by showing Crocs shoe/sandall in a circle with a strike through it). Crocs are a type of clogs made of foam. Crocs (and their imitators) have become fairly popular due to their low price, comfort, and ease of use, but are broadly considered unfashionable to wear in public . It is not the first time Randall mocks a special type of shoes, previously in 1065: Shoes Randall was after shoes that has those creepy individual toes like Vibram FiveFingers . They will also never be a hit with the Fashion Police. [ citation needed ]
The right group represents the Grammar Police with another Cueball holding a sign with three homophones: Their (belongs to them), They're (contraction meaning "they are"), There (a location).  These words, due to their common usage and identical pronunciation are frequently confused for one another, with one spelling being used in a context meant for a different one, causing the Grammar Police to quickly intervene (see 386: Duty Calls ). See the Grammar Police on Twitter and also Linguistic prescription which comes up on Wikipedia when searching for Grammar Police.
The two groups look similar, standing in similar poses, with one Cueball holding signs in each group, and Megan in the front line of both groups. Each group also has one member brandishing a sword, indicating the exaggerated level of intensity they feel about their respective causes.
Both types of people will correct, criticize, denigrate or mock those who fail to conform to their criteria for what is "correct". Fashion police oppose people wearing clothing that's mismatched, out of style/ fashion or simply "ugly" to them. Grammar police are "sticklers" for grammar rules and have an immediate negative reaction when someone uses non-standard grammar in a sentence. These two groups are generally seen as socially separate, and their goals appear very distinct, but the comic explains how the two groups are actually very similar.  This is demonstrated by listing eight characteristics (plus a ninth in the title text) common to both groups. See explanation in the table below .
In the caption below the comic Randall notes that he just realized that these are literally the same people because they both exhibit the listed traits.
It seems like a safe assumption (see 1339: When You Assume ) that there are more grammar pedants (see title text of 1652: Conditionals ) than fashion police people who read xkcd, and it also would seem likely that many xkcd readers would dislike the Fashion Police.  This comic may, therefore, be intended to point out to grammar pedants that their behavior is functionally similar to that of other people who they dislike. Ponytail also represented the grammar police in 1576: I Could Care Less , where Megan puts her in place after she polices her sentence; this thus shows what Randall thinks about such police work and supports the above assumption. In 1576: I Could Care Less, "literally" was also used in the title text.
Randall is, with regards to language, definitely one of those that can belong in this group: To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well.
The title is a ninth point to add to the list, with the asterisk in front representing one more bullet. See the last entry in the table below for more:
[Beneath two headings to the left and right are shown two aggressive-looking groups of people with only the four people in the front clearly shown for each group. Behind them five other people can be seen, but they are not drawn with the same solid line and are only partly shown behind the first four, but legs from all five in each group can be seen along with some heads (all Cueball like) and arms etc. The front of the left group consist of Hairy holding a fist up towards left, Megan with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, straight up above his head and another Cueball-like guy to the right is holding up a broken branch in one hand toward right. The person behind this last person is shown to hold up his fist towards right like Hairy does to the left. The sign shows a Crocs shoe in a circle with a strike through it going above the Crocs from top left to bottom right.  The front of the right group consist of Megan holding both her arms over her head hands folded into fist while looking towards left, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, towards the right and up above Ponytails head, she is raising one hand in a fist to the left and finally a bald guy with glasses is brandishing a short sword in one hand toward right while holding his other hand palm up. The sign has three similar words written beneath each other.] Left: Fashion Police Right: Grammar Police Sign: Their They're There
[Below the two groups are eight points with bullets:] Judgemental and smug Angry about something deeply arbitrary Strong opinions backed by style guides Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted is your responsibility Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you
[Caption below the panel:] I just realized these are literally the same people


Manhattan Project

Explanation:
The Manhattan Project was a big, expensive, secret research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II . Because of the unprecedented scale of the project, which involved some of the brightest minds in science and the efforts of thousands of people, "Manhattan Project" has become a metaphor for any kind of all-out effort involving the top minds of a discipline to achieve a single objective, often expressed as the phrase " We need a new Manhattan Project ".
The day before this comic was released the following announcement was made: Microsoft will ‘solve’ cancer within the next 10 years by treating it like a computer virus . And on the day this comic was released (but probably after the comic was released) there was a press conference where Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Pledge $3 Billion to Fighting Disease (all disease in general.) This is the kind of projects that could be called Manhattan type projects and these (at least the Microsoft announcement) could be the reason this comic came out now.
In this comic, Ponytail starts by making the suggestion that they should create a "new Manhattan Project" to cure cancer. Taken figuratively, this would imply a heavily-funded, massive collaborative effort involving the best scientists in the field of cancer research , and is not an unreasonable idea in itself. However, she and her fellow scientists all take the idea literally instead, and the New Manhattan Project ends up actually developing a nuclear bomb. In the final panel, Ponytail appears to realize that this runs somewhat counter to her original objective [ citation needed ] (not to mention is redundant, as the original Manhattan Project already invented the nuclear bomb).
The title text hastily justifies this mistake by claiming a partial success; that their nuclear detonation did, indeed, kill all cancer within the blast radius of the explosion. However, it fails to mention that the blast would also kill everything else as well. It also admits that the explosion would most likely end up causing more cancer due to the ionizing radiation and fallout . The title text is reminiscent of both the main comic and the title text of 1217: Cells .
This was the first time since 1355: Airplane Message , more than two years prior, that Randall mentions cancer (on a banner!), a recurring subject on xkcd, but mainly around the time when his then-fiancée (now wife) was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer in October of 2010. Interestingly enough there are only two facts in that previous comic, and that other fact (from the title text) was referenced the week before this comic came out in 1732: Earth Temperature Timeline . But it could be a coincidence.
The Manhattan Project was the scene of 809: Los Alamos , and a story from the site is being told in 1520: Degree-Off . According to 980: Money the Manhattan project used $24,400,000,000. Nuclear weapons in general has been a recurrent subject on xkcd and their invention was also mentioned last week in 1732: Earth Temperature Timeline around 1950 CE. The previous comic with a similar mushroom cloud was 1655: Doomsday Clock , and in that comics explanation at least three other "recent" comics about such weapons of mass destruction are mentioned.
[A five panel layout with each panel slightly narrower than the one before.] [Ponytail holding her arms out speaks to Cueball.] Ponytail: What we need to cure cancer is a new Manhattan Project!
[Cueball stands next to Ponytail on podium with a banner overhead. Ponytail is lifting her arms high up and addresses a huge crowd below the podium. Faces disappear into the distance, but at the podiums edge are four full faces, from left to right they are Hairy, a person with flat hair, a person with white hair and a Cueball-like guy.] Banner: Research Initiative
[Cueball and Megan sitting behind a desk looking out and Ponytail standing to the right facing away from them wear laboratory goggles and laboratory coats. There are several Erlenmeyer flasks on the desk and Ponytail is also holding such a flask. There are other glass wares on the desk.]
[Megan, holding a hand in front of her face, Cueball and Ponytail, all wearing some kind of glasses strapped around the back of their heads stand behind two chest-height barriers looking into the distance where a large mushroom cloud rises high in the air with the typical ring around the stem below the main cloud and smoke/dust surrounding the bottom of the stem. It is much higher in the image than the three mountains in the left background.]
[Close up of Ponytail, as she faces to the right. She is wearing very dark protection glasses, looking like those used for looking at the sun during a solar eclipse.] Ponytail: Wait.


Datacenter Scale

Explanation:
This comic expands, to the limit, the strategy that it's a net cost saving to allow cheap hardware to fail and simply replace it than to have robust but much more expensive systems to start with. The technique was made famous by Google circa 1999, when its successful cost-effective server designs were actually using sub-consumer, nearly junk, hardware.
RAID ("redundant array of independent disks") is a technology that splits data across several hard drives as if they were one. RAID comes in several levels (varieties) which have different applications, but one of the big applications of RAID is creating mirrored hard disks that back each other up. If one disk drive in such a RAID fails, no data is lost.
However, RAID is complicated to configure, so you don't want to be constantly setting it up. An alternative technique for data centers is, therefore, to simply send the data to several servers at once. This makes maintenance easier, but without RAID, one hard disk crash basically breaks the server. However, this is what the woman with a bun's (possibly an adult Science Girl ) data center is doing since their scale is so large that fixing individual servers actually more expensive than simply buying a new one for replacement, and instead of fixing the drive they throw away the machine. (More about this approach will be explained later on)
From here, the comic starts to exaggerate. Nowadays, servers can be made extremely small (" Blade servers ") and dozens of servers can be attached to one 19-inch rack in a data center. Rather than going to the effort of unplugging and unscrewing one blade from the rack, when a blade fails at Cueball 's data center they just throw away the rack, and Ponytail agrees and mildly mocks the woman with a bun for replacing one server.
Hairy 's data center goes one step further - they have so many servers that they would constantly have to be throwing away and replacing racks, so instead they just build a new room when one rack fails. This would be currently possible with small modular data centers that are built in shipping containers for easy transport and can be linked together to expand capacity.  Here the cargo-container "room" with the failure would be quickly swapped with a fresh one.  Cueball adds "like Google!" - Randall previously mentioned Google's approach to hard drive failures in the what if? Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards . Back in 2007 they had one failure every few minutes, which might have increased hugely since then.
Finally Megan appears and her company, of course, breaks the scale of silliness in exaggeration. She says that they don't have any fire extinguishers (neither regular sprinklers nor the systems that deploy gasses like FM-200 which alter the room air's ability to sustain a fire). Rather, they just rope the center off, thus letting the data center burn down. Then they simply move a town over and build a new one. This may indicate they are so big that the entire town will burn down if their center catches fire, for else they did not have to skip town. Alternatively, they just leave the center burning and this may cause problems in that town, so they simply flee the premises.
Most big internet companies do have multiple redundant data centers around the world, in order to increase speeds for users in different countries, but Megan's idea would be very expensive, result in increased latency , possibly kill people (either in their company, or other people in the town and since they do not try to put out the fire), and cause severe destruction of properties in addition to their own.  These last two items would result in additional litigation and fines, and potentially jail sentences for the people charged with implementing the policy.  They may also result in other towns being unwilling to take their business, out of fear they will wind up burning too.
Hairy still thinks that it makes sense, while Cueball wonders what difference the roping off does. This could again be a reference to the fact that they just let the buildings burn without bothering about the local consequences, and the next step is just one more step towards the extreme of the title text.
This comic references how, as data requirements expand, the cost of time eventually outweighs the cost of hardware at ever increasing scales (drive, rack, room, building). While this comic takes this to the extreme, with whole buildings being destroyed for simple flaws, the concept is not as far-fetched as it seems if "thrown out" is taken to include being sold to equipment refurbishers.  It could indeed be cost effective for a large data services provider to resell racks or even whole data center modules at some significant fraction of their "as new" price as opposed expending the time and effort to attempt a repair.  The equipment refurbisher would then rely on a cost advantage like cheaper labor to repair the flaw and sell it back to Google or another company with less demanding requirements.  Equipment rental firms already operate on this model and with the added incentive customers preferring to rent newer models, this means that the equipment is often preemptively replaced before failures even occur.
The title text refers to Isaac Asimov 's science-fiction short story The Last Question ( comic version ), where humanity asks, at different stages of its spatial and technological development, the same question to increasingly advanced computers: "How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?". At each point, the computer's answer is that it does not yet have sufficient data for a meaningful answer. Ultimately, the computers are all linked through hyperspace, outside the physical boundaries of the universe, and make up a single computing entity named AC which keeps pondering the question even as the heat death of the universe occurs and time and space cease to exist. When AC finally discovers the answer, since there is nobody left to report it to, it decides to demonstrate it and says " LET THERE BE LIGHT! ", which are the first words said by God during the Creation, according to the Book of Genesis . Here, the title text implies that, as the universe died, AC no longer had a use for it as a physical support and, taking the comic's logic to the next extreme, chose to discard it and get a brand-new one instead of bothering to "fix" it by reversing its entropy. This short story was also referenced in 1448: Question .
This comic's concept of taking a real world phenomenon and exaggerating it to levels currently considered implausible for comic effect closely mimics an earlier comic which describes progressively more "hardcore" programmers in 378: Real Programmers . This comic might be related to 1567: Kitchen Tips which suggests not throwing away your dishes but washing them.
[Zoom in on a woman with a bun holding her hand palm up in front of her taking to people off-panel right.] Woman with a bun: RAID controllers don't make sense at our scale; everything is redundant at higher levels. When a drive fails, we just throw away the whole machine.
[In this frame-less panel it is revealed that the woman with a bun talked to Cueball and Ponytail who is looking her way.] Cueball: Machine? We throw away whole racks at a time. Ponytail: Yeah, who replaces one server ?
[Hairy has appeared from the left and holds one hand palm up towards the other three where also the woman with a bun has turned towards him.] Hairy: We just replace whole rooms at once. At our scale, messing with racks isn't economical. Woman with a bun:  Wow. Cueball: Like Google!
[Megan walks in from the left, and everyone including Hairy now looks towards her. Cueball has taken a hand up to his chin. The replies to Megan are written with clearly smaller font.] Megan: We don't have sprinklers or inert gas systems. When a datacenter catches fire, we just rope it off and rebuild one town over. Hairy: Makes sense. Cueball: I wonder if the rope is really necessary.


Moon Shapes

Explanation:
The Earth's Moon , being the most prominent object in the night sky (most of the time), is a frequent subject of art; particularly art depicting a nighttime scene. Unfortunately, the moon often appears in works of art in ways that are very dramatic and would not be realistically possible. It may be done out of ignorance, or knowingly by taking artistic license . As someone interested in and who has worked in astronomy, this likely bothers Randall .
The Moon is well known to have " phases " describing what portion of the visible surface of the moon is illuminated by sunlight and highly visible, and what portion is dark, and generally only slightly visible when the moon appears while the sun is also up. These phases progress between "New" (when the surface facing the Earth is completely dark) and "Full" (when the surface facing the Earth is completely illuminated, appearing as a full disk as viewed from Earth). Mid-way between those extreme phases is a "Quarter" Moon, when exactly one-half of the surface facing Earth is completely dark - at this point the Moon is a quarter of the way in its cycle from the New Moon, either one quarter of the way into it ("First" Quarter) or a quarter of the way from completing it ("Last" Quarter).
Because the Moon is approximately spherical, its illuminated side appears as "crescent" in shape as it progresses from New to First Quarter phase. As it progresses from First Quarter to Full phase, observers on Earth see a Waxing " Gibbous Moon (which just means that the dark portion has formed a crescent). One can imagine this like a globe on which you draw a straight line from the north pole to the south pole down the center of the side facing you (appearing to create two semi-circles); upon rotating the globe, the line would become rounded as it moved away creating a crescent on the side the line was moved towards. Because of the geometry involved, a line connecting the two points (horns) of a Crescent Moon (or of the darkened crescent inverse of a Gibbous Moon) must be a diameter of the moon (i.e. it must pass through the center of the circle).
The deliberate misidentification of a Waxing Gibbous Moon ("waxing" means going from new to full; that is increasing in illuminated area) as a "wax gibbon" (a Southeast Asian ape made of a nonpolar solid) is a source of humor in this comic. This is probably a reference to H.P. Lovecraft, who had several of his stories take place under "a gibbous moon" for dramatic effect, or even more likely a reference to the Discworld by Terry Pratchett , often referenced in xkcd (as in 1498: Terry Pratchett ). In the witch series the Gibbous Moon is mentioned several times as the most magic, rather than the more often used Crescent or Full Moon.
Further, because the light portion of the Moon is illuminated by sunlight (whether or not the Moon is in the sky at the same time as the Sun), the light side of the Moon will always be facing towards the Sun. If the Moon is in the night sky, the Sun must be somewhere "below" the horizon on the other side of the Earth. Thus, at night, the light portion of the Moon must always be on the half of the Moon that faces the horizon (there are points during the daytime when the orientation can go the other way); however, because of the moon tilt illusion it is possible for the light portion of the moon to appear to point up. The moon tilt illusion is generally not as severe and may only last a few hours after sunset.
It is worth noting that while the Moon's dark portion blends imperceptibly with the dark night sky, it is still a solid body. Therefore it would be impossible to see more distant objects such as stars "through" the dark portion of the Moon's circumference. This is most dramatically exemplified by a solar eclipse during which the Moon passes in front of the Sun and is therefore completely dark (the Sun is lighting only the far side), but the Moon's circumference still blocks a circular portion of the Sun's light.  Therefore, if we were to see any lights in the part of the sky the dark side of the Moon blocks, they would need to be from sources between us and the Moon's surface, such as a nuclear war on the moon.
This comic lists some of the some common mistakes. In some cases, a depiction may be unrealistic in multiple ways - for example, the Flag of Tunisia has both unrealistic horns and a star visible between the horns, while the Charles VI tarot shows a Moon with over-long horns pointing towards the horizon.
In the title text, Randall is referring to the movie Independence Day and how one of the alien's ships (in the movie) 'eclipses' part of the Moon. He says that if the points go halfway or longer around the Moon, then he imagines it's caused by an alien ship and interprets the entire piece of art in that context (i.e. aliens are about to attack those shepherds!).
[Caption above the panel:] Interpreting the shape of the moon in art [The left part of the panel shows a two column chart is shown with labels above the columns. The left side shows the moons shape as white on a black square. These types of moons could be seen in certain art pieces. The right side saying whether this is normal or not as indicated with a green check mark or a red X. Right of the second column there are explanations of why the specific type of moon is marked as it is and what it could be called or how it could be possible even with the red X. The upper three moons have one common explanation as indicated with a bracket that covers all three with the text on the middle part of the bracket. Similarly moon five and six also have a bracket and only one explanation.] Shape Normal?
[Shape #1-3 shows a white circle (full moon), a more than half full moon (Gibbon) and a thin seal at the bottom right of the square.] ✓ ✓ "Full" or "Quarter" or "Harvest" or "Wax Gibbon" or whatever ✓
[Shape #4 same as #3 but with the seal in the upper part of the square.] X Not possible at night
[Shape #5-6 shows a full moon with a circular section taken out of the right side and a seal that goes almost all the way around the circumference of the moon with almost a full circle taken out of the top left part of the moon.] X X Only possible during a lunar eclipse (#1 only, dubious) or a solar eclipse (bright part is the Sun)
[Shape #7 same as #3 but with the seal a little smaller and more to the top and less to the left. Around the moon there are several starts represented with 29 small white dots. In the center of the black square there is a black circle, coinciding with the outer rim of the seal. Within this circle (the dark side of the moon) there are no stars!] ✓ Looks OK
[Shape #8 same as #7 but apart from the 29 small white dots from before there are now also 6 more dots inside the dark circle with no stars in #7.] X There's either a hole in the Moon or a nuclear war on its surface.


Fixing Problems

Explanation:
Due to the complex relationships within a program or other system, making an alteration can cause problems with other parts of the program. This can lead to a seemingly small "fix" becoming a long chain of debugging and consecutive fixes, which Cueball is in the middle of, a typical example of recursion often used in xkcd. As Cueball attempts to solve the initial computer issue, he creates more problems along the way.
The title text suggests that the original problem was not stopping the function of the program and the benefits that Cueball may have hoped to achieve with the mentality of "If it ain't broke, break it and fix it" are being consumed by the expanding effort of the fix.  Attempting to solve all of these problems results in more time wasted than he hoped would be gained by optimizing the inefficient tool described in the title text. Though depending on the tool, he could publish the changes once completed, allowing the community using that tool to gain back the man-hours collectively. Wondering if something is worth doing has been a subject in 1205: Is It Worth the Time?
This comic is similar in thesis to 1445: Efficiency and 1319: Automation . Other relevant comics include 1171: Perl Problems , where using regular expressions causes more problems than it solves, 349: Success , where Randall comments on the goals of a project decreasing in optimism as a project goes on due to more and more problems distracting from the original, and 1579: Tech Loops , which shows that attempting to fix one problem in a piece of software can force a developer to delve into seemingly irrelevant parts of the relevant tech loop that the software in question is trapped in.
[Cueball sitting in an office chair at his desk typing on his laptop. A person addresses him from the left:] Off-panel voice: What are you working on? Cueball: Trying to fix the problems I created when I tried to fix the problems I created when I tried to fix the problems I created when...


Rosetta

Explanation:
On the day this comic was posted (September 30th 2016), the Rosetta mission ended with the final descent of Rosetta onto the comet 67P . Landing Rosetta on the comet gave the scientists ( Ponytail , Megan and Hairy ) a chance to collect extra data from very close to the comet, using the spacecraft's powerful sensors.
Cueball however assumed that the landing was a " kinetic impact " mission to deflect a comet that was on a collision course with Earth. A similar scenario (but using a nuclear weapon implanted inside of the asteroid to deflect it) was depicted in the 1998 film Armageddon , of which Cueball is apparently a fan. Armageddon is a high-throttle action movie, infamous among NASA employees for its incredibly liberal application of artistic license. IMDb has a list of factual inaccuracies .
In reality, at the time Rosetta landed, 67P was already leaving the inner solar system and was a long way past Earth . It will return to the inner solar system in around 5 years' time, but its orbit will not pass close to the Earth in any foreseeable time.
Also, as the title text hints, Rosetta's speed was only 90 cm per second relative to the surface at the moment of impact (or about 2 mph/3.25 km/h; the speed of a slow walk), while the comet was traveling at 14.39 km/s. Given that Rosetta only weighs a couple of tons (or six horses ), and 67P weighs nearly 10 billion tons (or 22 billion horses), Rosetta's landing will have no actual measurable effect on the comet's momentum.
Rosetta (and its lander, Philae ) were previously the subject of the comics 1402: Harpoons and 1446: Landing , and were mentioned in 1461: Payloads , 1547: Solar System Questions and possibly 1621: Fixion .
[A control room with Megan and Hairy sitting on stools in front of an opposite desk with computers. Hairy has his arms in the air. Ponytail is standing between them with Cueball, she is watching Megan and he is looking at Hairy.] Megan: Signal lost. Megan: Rosetta has impacted the comet. Ponytail: Good work everyone. Hairy: Woooo!
[Zoom on Ponytail, still looking at Megan and Cueball who has turned towards Ponytail.] Cueball: So. Cueball: Do you think we deflected it?
[Ponytail turns to Cueball as does Hairy who turns and looks away from his computer.] Ponytail: Huh? Cueball: Did we hit the comet hard enough to deflect it away from Earth?
[In a frame-less panel Ponytail talks with Cueball.] Ponytail: That... Is that what you thought we were doing? Cueball: I just assumed...
[Megan enters whispering in Ponytail's ear, holding a hand up to her mouth. Ponytail still looks at Cueball who raises his arms up in the air.] Megan: He's a huge Armageddon fan. Let him have this. Ponytail: Okay, fine. Ponytail: Yes! We did it! The Earth is saved! Cueball: Wooo!


Work

Explanation:
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. See explanation of individual design elements below.
The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. Randall implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (in this case his desk and the water glass and the desk lamp on top of it), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort.
This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay I, Pencil , except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the comic focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape.
Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."
There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a typical desk lamp, is that this is a work desk rather than about all the work put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title. (Interestingly, but without being related to this comic, the next comic was called 1742: Will It Work ).
The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.
In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (based on his imagination) but still he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.
This may be because he already had a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord was mentioned in the title text of 1036: Reviews . As the lamp on this desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews...
Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.
A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in 277: Long Light , including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord, as he might believe it was a frustrated engineer that is the cause of such an inconvenient placement of the switch.
[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]
[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:] An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD
[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:] Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall
[Arrow points to glass:] Years-long negotiation with glass supplier
[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:] 4 hours of meetings
[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:] 9 hours of meetings
[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:] Months of tip-over testing
[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:] Ongoing debate
[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:] Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest
[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:] Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired
[Caption under the panel:] Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.


Will It Work

Explanation:
This comic humorously lists how likely computer code is to function on the user's computer based on the source of the code.
App store or package manager: Most likely referring to the Apple's Mac or iOS App Store , Google's Google Play , Microsoft's Windows or Windows Phone Store , or package managers such as Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool (APT). Programs in the App Store are already compiled from raw code into executable files that have been tested on their respective platform -- otherwise they would be rejected from the storefront -- and so should be expected to run with no effort from the user. Similarly, a package manager for a Linux OS handles downloading and installing the program requested, as well as installing any dependencies (other programs or libraries needed by the desired program, potentially including locusts ) automatically.
GitHub Link: GitHub is a website where people can host Git repositories of code that they are working on. Since Git is built to track changes in code for an entire project, it is likely that all of the code needed to run the project is included in the download. One reason it may be less reliable than the previous entry is that it may not include external libraries expected to already be on the user's computer.
SourceForge Link: SourceForge is similar in scope to GitHub : hosting source code repositories but also binary packages. But it is older and dwindling in popularity. As a result, a project hosted on SourceForge is more likely to be abandoned.
Geocities/Tripod Link: Geocities is a now-defunct free website host. Tripod is a similar website host owned by Lycos . The fact that the software comes from there means that nobody has paid attention to the project since Geocities shut down, which could mean that code rot has begun to take effect, with various dependencies being less and less likely to work over time.
Copy-and-paste example from paper's appendix: Some academic papers publish code or pseudocode ( example of a paper with pseudocode in appendix ) in order to illustrate their concepts, strategies or algorithms. Often this code is not meant to be compiled because it is thought to illustrate ideas rather than be used in an actual working piece of software. Copying and pasting this code and trying to compile it will rarely give satisfactory results, and that is why it is at this point in the comic's spectrum.
Anything that "requires only minimal configuration and tweaking": The punchline of the comic is that something advertised as having been tested and working with "minimal configuration and tweaking" on the system it was developed on turns out to be a frustrating mess that will almost inevitably require huge fixes for anybody else trying to get it to function. It's also often used by technically advanced people who are not aware of how difficult even minimal configuration and tweaking can be for beginners.
The title text refers to websites such as Stack Overflow that allow users to post questions about their code and have other users provide answers. Websites like Stack Overflow usually generate useful answers but the quality may be lower if the conversation is disgruntled (i.e. if the asker has put in very little effort to solve the problem themselves) or if the language is less commonly used. The title text of 1185: Ineffective Sorts also references executing arbitrary code until it works, in that comic the code is actually mentioned as being from StackOverflow.
Saying that something "depends on the phase of the moon" usually means that there is some apparently random component to the problem, as neither the performance of a program nor the quality of answers on websites should depend on the position of the moon in its orbit. However, there was at least one case where the phase of the moon did, in fact, trigger a bug in code.  This comic was released the day after Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish holiday that always occurs at or near a new moon.  It is not clear whether this is why Randall was thinking about moon phases or just a coincidence.
The shape of the moon was the subject of 1738: Moon Shapes released during the week before this comic was released. This comic is called Will It Work , the previous comic was just called 1741: Work
[Caption above the panel:] Likelihood you will get code working based on how you're supposed to install it:
[A chart with a double arrow going from the top to the bottom. Both arrows are labeled. Along the arrow, six labels follow from top to bottom. The first five take up different amounts of space, but the space between them (bottom of one to top of the next) is the same and resembles a typical line shift between paragraphs. The space, however, to the last label is more than three times as wide.] Very likely
App store or package manager
GitHub Link
SourceForge Link
Geocities/Tripod Link
Copy-and-paste example from paper's appendix

Anything that "requires only minimal configuration and tweaking"
Unlikely


Coffee

Explanation:
In this comic Cueball and Megan are anticipating guests.  Offering coffee to house guests is a commonly-accepted courtesy in the United States (and most of the western world (and rest of the world)). However, they seem to be unaware of the basics of coffee making . Cueball is concerned that this lack of knowledge is an indication of their mutual immaturity (thinking of himself as a "fake adult"),
This comic thus follows a frequently used theme of people growing up but finding themselves unable or unwilling to accept traditional adult roles (see 150: Grownups , 441: Babies , 616: Lease , 905: Homeownership and 1674: Adult ). While there are cultures where coffee is served to children, it is generally seen in the United States (and western world (and rest of the world)) as an adult beverage—like beer which has also served as the subject in the comic 1534: Beer .
Megan is, however, confident that the necessary steps can be determined. The steps she follows however are quite unorthodox...
She attempts to make coffee by pouring the ingredients on the ground (misinterpreting the meaning of "ground coffee"), sucking it up with a Dyson vacuum cleaner (misinterpreting the meaning of " vacuum brewing "), then boiling the mixture by placing the vacuum cleaner's removable plastic canister over a hot stove, and pouring the resulting sludge through the vacuum-cleaner filter (instead of a standard coffee filter ).
Megan says she is a regular "Starbuck" after pouring the batch of coffee, believing the name of the cafe chain Starbucks to be synonymous with the actual job title " barista ", further indicating a general lack of knowledge regarding the subject of coffee. The Starbucks coffee chain was loosely named after the fictional character Starbuck from the book Moby Dick , so she could be referring to this, although Starbuck had nothing to do with coffee brewing! The third possible interpretation is that Megan is unaware of the reason for Starbucks' naming and thought that it was the possessive "Starbuck's" and that the founder was named Starbuck. See more trivia about Starbuck below.
This method of making coffee would be very expensive as it would most likely destroy the vacuum-cleaner canister and filter. If the vacuum cleaner had ever been used, then it would not be very hygienic either, although if it had not been used then the floor would probably also be very unhygienic anyway. Since the plastic from the canister has probably also gone into contact with the sludge after being heated over open fire, there is a high risk that this "coffee" is actually poisonous for more than one reason.
The title text refers to the expense of replacing the "filter", as vacuum-cleaner filters are considerably more costly than single-use coffee filters.
This was the first of two comics in a row about food, the next being 1744: Metabolism .
[Cueball and Megan are talking.] Cueball: We should make coffee for our guests. Megan: Crap. I know nothing about coffee. Cueball: We're basically fake adults. Megan: Don't panic. We can figure this out.
[Megan shakes a can of coffee grounds out on the floor as Cueball watches.] Megan: We just pour the coffee grounds...
[Pan to only Megan who pours a pail of water over the grounds now lying in a pile on the floor.] Megan: ...Add water...
[Cueball watches as Megan vacuums up the mixture on the floor with a bag-less vacuum cleaner, the wire going off panel right behind her.] Vacuum cleaner: Vrrrr
[Megan is holding the dirt canister from the vacuum cleaner over two lit gas burners on a stove. The canister free vacuum cleaner is standing behind her and Cueball is behind this watching her.] Megan: Now we just hold it over the burners... Burners: Hissss
[Megan is holding the dirt canister over one shoulder while pouring the hot content into a small mug, as Cueball watches. Three wiggly lines above the liquid indicates that it is hot.] Megan: Annnd... serve. Cueball: Nice! Megan: I'm a regular Starbuck!


Metabolism

Explanation:
Eating is fundamentally a process where energy from food gets absorbed into the body in order to drive every cellular process in the body.  Energy that is absorbed but not needed in the short term gets converted and stored as body fat. This is called metabolism . Consuming too much food and not exercising enough are major factors for obesity , which is a problem in many first world countries today, especially in the United States .
For obese people, losing weight is often an enormously difficult task.  Standing in stark contrast, there are also lean people who do not seem to ever gain any weight even though they appear to eat whatever and however much they want.  This leads some people (including the lean people themselves) to believe that one can have a special metabolism where excess food energy somehow does not affect the body.  This belief is common, though not supported by scientific evidence.  The comic makes fun of that kind of notion.  While Cueball describes to White Hat how his metabolism is "special" (the phrase "one of those" implicitly meaning unusual), he is in fact only describing the normal case: no matter what he eats, his body converts the food to energy and stores any excess food as fat which stays in his body for future use.
The title text stretches this further, telling about the normal habit of drinking water (and the consequences of not drinking it) as something odd.  Starting to feel bad at first and eventually dying if refraining from drinking for too long a time are perfectly normal consequences of dehydration. This was also touched upon in 1708: Dehydration , in which Megan spent all day researching whether low-grade dehydration is really a thing -- ironically forgetting to eat or drink at all, to predictable results.
Obesity has only fairly recently become a public health issue due to lifestyle changes brought on by technologies such as industrialization and trade.  Human bodies evolved under conditions where it was hard to ever find enough to eat, so to store as much excess energy as possible as fat was a beneficial adaptation.  Historically, stored fat would be consumed during hard times that was sure to come.  The act of collecting food through farming or hunting/gathering also demanded physical labor which limited the amount of excess energy that would remain.  In comparison, people nowadays hardly need to expend any energy to buy their food from a nearby market.  They also have much more sedentary lifestyles and rarely ever go hungry.  Without an active commitment to exercise more or eat less, there would almost never be a shortage of energy and no chance for body fat to be used. Randall has previously shown how bad his health becomes when he starts eating lots of fat (or sweet) food in 418: Stove Ownership .
There are many rational explanations for why some people might not gain weight despite eating a lot.  For example, it's possible that they only eat a lot during special occasions and social gatherings, where they are easily seen eating.  On more private occasions when no one is watching, they could just as well eat much less or even skip entire meals.  They might also lead a much more active lifestyle and thus require more energy than an average person despite their thin appearance.  Other less pleasant reasons might include chronic diseases, parasite infections, or eating disorders.
This is the second comic in a row about food, the previous being 1743: Coffee .
[Cueball, on the left, and White Hat are sitting on chairs on either side of a table, facing each other. They each have plates of food and glasses of some beverage set in front of them. Each has picked up a portion of food on a fork to eat it.]
Cueball: I have one of those metabolisms where I can eat whatever I want and my body converts it to energy and stores the excess as fat.


Record Scratch

Explanation:
A vinyl disc (also known as a gramophone record ) is a type of storage medium that stores audio recordings on the disc by carving the audio data into a continuous spiral groove on the surface of the disc. These are typically played on a phonograph (also known as record players (since 1940s) or, most recently, turntables). The player spins the disc as a stationary stylus rides along the groove. The movement of the stylus along the groove is converted by an electromagnetic or piezoelectric transducer into a corresponding electric current, which an amplifier then converts to sound.
The noise referred to as a "record scratch" can be caused by someone attempting to stop a record's play by dragging the stylus across the radius of the record, or by stopping the disc's rotation with one's hand (opposing the turntable's rotation). As a result, this is often used as a sound effect in movies for comedic effect. This type of sound is also often used in hip-hop music; in particular, rapidly and manually rotating the disc in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions.
The comic pokes fun at a movie cliché in which the story opens with the main character in some kind of unbelievable predicament, followed by a record scratch, seemingly freezing time (using the sound of a sudden pausing of a record to symbolize the sudden pausing of time in the movie). As the action in the film is paused, a character narrates something along the lines of, "Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering (how I ended up in this situation)..." The rest of the story then follows, often with the film going back in time to depict the events that leads up to the situation of the opening scene.
In this case, it would be interesting to know why Cueball is at a party where everyone has wine glasses in their hands, but suddenly one of the glasses (Cueball's or his nearest adversary's) is lying on the floor, and it seems like a fight is about to break out. This is what an opening narration might begin to explain (typically in a flashback) after the record scratch.  At the time of the comic's posting, parodying the cliché, variations on the phrase had become a popular meme on social media. As the record scratch continues to be used despite the fact that record players (gramophones) have largely become obsolete technology, Randall pokes fun at this by beginning this meme by giving the backstory on what that sound actually is, (as many people from the younger generation may very well not know this), rather than giving context to the situation via a story. This is yet one more of Randall's comics that is trying to make people feel old , and is likely most relevant to those who have actually used vinyl to listen to music, comedy or other recordings.
The title text indicates (in a manner similar to that of 891: Movie Ages ) that the "78-rpm era" – referring to the fact that the original industry standard of records making 78 revolutions per minute (rpm) (1925-1950s) – is now closer to the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865) than it is to present day, another way that Randall is making the reader feel old. Note; these 78 rpm records were made of shellac, not of vinyl.
[In a black area, with jagged edges, at the top of the comic is a sound effect written with white text. Below there are two frames with text. This text is narrated by Cueball standing below with four people around him. Cueball is highlighted by being drawn in the regular way whereas the other four people are drawn in light gray. Cueball has just dropped a wineglass, spilling wine on the floor to the left and dropping the glass, spilling more wine, to the right, He has his arms slightly out, and seems to be turned towards three people to the right, while looking to the left at Ponytail. Ponytail is holding a glass of wine in one hand and is the other hand up waving her fist at Cueball. On his other side Hairy is advancing towards him with both hands up in fists ready for a fight. (It could be his wine glass dropped on the floor at Cueball's feet as it is also drawn in gray). Behind Hairy is Megan also with a wine glass held in one hand, and behind her is another Cueball-like guy with a wine glass holding one arm out pointing a  finger at Cueball.]
Record Scratch
Cueball (narrating): You're probably wondering what that sound was. Cueball (narrating): Well, long ago, music was recorded on vinyl discs...


Making Friends

Explanation:
Ponytail is complaining to Cueball that it is hard to make new friends once you are out of school. She even has problems just meeting new people, let alone making those new people her friends.
This is a common problem, or maybe rather an advantage of going to school. In school you are forced together with a group of people you have to see everyday and work together with in groups. This is a great catalyst for making new friends. In the early grades the kids haven't had time to form many friendships so they are ready to make new friends, and later in college the young people often move away from their home town, and thus have no friends in their new town, and are again ready to make friends. Later in life it is rare to be put in a similar situation, and the people you do meet might already have several friends; for most people there is usually a rather low limit on how many friends it is possible to keep close. Thus many feel it is hard to make new friends compared to when they went to school.
Cueball has a solution, but it is very weird. He says he pretends to be injured, and then, as if he were a weak animal on the savanna , he expects other people to begin circling around him, not directly to eat him, but to take his food, shelter and nutrients . This is a weird formulation as nutrients is what you get from your food, so either he is referring twice to his food, or he actually refers to his value as nutrient (i.e. food) for another being. Also it is unlikely for a person to steal his shelter, unless this refers to his clothing, as "the shelter" would usually be seen as a normal person's house, which is rather hard to take [ citation needed ] , especially if the person is renting and it belongs to someone else.
He then talks about these possible future friends as if they will descend on him, making it sound even more like they are birds hanging above him like vultures . But his plan is to start telling these people who are ready to rob him of his life support cool facts about space before they get a chance to descend, and then make them like him based on this knowledge. And then before they know what hit them, they are instantly his friends. If this were actually about vultures, his method could be used to trap said vultures, a trick that might be used to try and capture vultures by tricking them to come down in order to eat them yourself (if stuck in a desert, etc).
Cueball seems to think this is a fantastic idea, as shown by his arm gestures. But Ponytail seems to think otherwise. Her comment this explains a lot is probably a reference to other strange habits of Cueball that she has observed. Or his lack of other friends. Or there was a story about how they met that had confused her until this conversation occurred...
The logic of Cueball's "friends" could be that Cueball is extremely rich. If he pretends to be near death, some cynics might try to become closer to Cueball to gain at least some of Cueball's wealth upon his death.
In the title text Ponytail mentions that what Cueball has just described fits well with the behavior of turkey vultures rather than humans. Turkey vultures are a type of bird of prey which feeds on carrion. They are known to identify and circle weak, injured, dead or dying animals so they can eat them (take their nutrients).
As they are animals they would not care about cool facts about space, but Cueball did seem to talk about other humans in the main comic. The title text, however, goes even further out this line and have Cueball cite his mom: "My mom always told me a turkey vulture is just a friend you haven't met yet, usually because you don't smell enough like decaying meat." This is  a reference to the old saying: "A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet", and the action of the vultures eating dead animals.
Smelling of decaying meat would be likely to attract the vultures but it should be noted that this is likely to drive away most other potential (human) friends, as most people don't like the smell of decaying meat. [ citation needed ] Also, there is very little reason to believe that you could become friends with vultures , although if you get up and show that you are not really injured, they are likely to give up and fly away rather than attack you, unless they are starving .
Vultures hanging in the air over prey that is about to die, was also the subject of 926: Time Vulture . Saying cool things about space, hoping that people like you, was the subject of 1644: Stargazing . The comic 1485: Friendship , was not about friendship...
[Cueball is walking with Ponytail holding her arms out while talking.] Ponytail: Making friends is so much harder once you're out of school. Ponytail: Everyone's so busy. And how do you even meet people?
[In this frame-less panel Cueball raises his arms in front of his chest while they walk on.] Cueball: Here's what I do: Cueball: I pretend to be weak and injured, and wait for others to start circling, hoping to take my food, shelter, and nutrients.
[Cueball stop walking and lifts both arms straight out as Ponytail turns towards him.] Cueball: Then, before they can descend, I start telling them cool facts about space until they like me. Cueball: Bam , friendship! Ponytail: This explains a lot.


Spider Paleontology

Explanation:
This Monday comic was the first in a series of two comics that continued in the next release 1748: Future Archaeology on Wednesday. Both comic in this series have titles of a noun followed by a field of research.
A time-traveler (the black floating energy Sphere) visits the present day from the far future. Spiders are the Sphere civilization's current craze, just as dinosaurs are currently our craze. The Jurassic Park media franchise began with the first film in 1993 and the year before the release of this comic in 2016, the fourth movie Jurassic World were released with at least one more film in development. We also have theme parks and kids dressing up as dinosaurs.
The time-traveler arrives in the presence of Megan and Cueball , and tells them who it is and why it is here, to see spiders which they learned about through fossils (See the explanation of the next comic about the strange fact that it speaks English). Megan points it towards a spider sitting in its web; the Sphere is awestruck to see the object of its obsession in the living flesh, but seeing it sitting in it's web, the Sphere asks why it has been caught. Megan realizes that because it only knows about spiders from fossils, it could come as a big surprise that the spiders sit in their webs like this. Spider silk does in fact fossilize in amber (and most fossils of spiders are also found in amber because the soft body of a spider does not easily petrify ). The reason we know that silk threads in amber are the spider's web is because we can compare fossils with the spiders of today. If not for the fact that we knew about spiders' webs in advance, it would be hard to say if we would have made the connection from the amber fossils. The Sphere is thus surprised to see the spider in a web since they had not understood any possible hint of spider webs in the fossil records, from which the Sphere's civilization gathered all their knowledge of spiders. Spiders have been on Earth at least for 380 million years and are still thriving and more than 40,000 species are known.
With our current knowledge, we know that webs are an essential part of a spider's life. Making sense of a spider's life is practically impossible without including their webs. However, the future-people have done just that until now; discovering how wrong they are is bound to become an intense experience for them. It should be noted that there have been multiple present-day discoveries of fossilized spiders' webs preserved in amber - however, since fossils forming like this is a rare event, it is quite possible that none would have been found by the future-people.
Megan immediately connects the fact that the Sphere did not know about spider webs to our current understanding of dinosaurs: If a future civilization thinks they understand spiders based on fossils, while missing something as essential as their web, what is the human civilization missing about dinosaurs? Cueball quickly catches on, and Megan asks if they can borrow the time-machine to experience their own revelations about dinosaurs just like the revelation the Sphere has just had about spiders.
The title text calls back to one of Randall's favorite facts (see 1211: Birds and Dinosaurs ) - that birds are technically part of the clade Dinosauria . Birds do lots of weird stuff - like starlings flocking , the dances of birds of paradise , lyrebird mimicry or petrels puking stomach oil . Randall says that for every time a birds does something weird then it is likely that dinosaurs would have had equally strange behaviors, and birds are only a small subset of all dinosaurs. So there would have been even more strange behaviors among the dinosaurs than among the present days birds. It is, however, basically impossible to tell from the fossil record. All we know is that dinosaurs had features such as display feathers (like on a Peafowl (a descendant of dinosaurs)), neck frills , and crests (like on the Dimetrodon , which lived before the dinosaur with which it is not related) which likely played a role in mating and territorial shows.
It is unclear what the Sphere is. Since it states that what they know about spiders comes from fossils on our planet, it seems likely that the Sphere is neither human nor from our planet. So most likely they are a space traveling species and not human. The appearance as a sphere may either be an indication that they did not travel in person but rather only look out at the past through the energy sphere, or it may be that these aliens are actually spheres, floating as energized objects in space. In that case this is an actual alien floating in front of Megan and Cueball. It seems like the Sphere's civilization already had the spider craze before they invented time travel, and they decided to use time travel the first time to go back to see real spiders on Earth. This also tells us that they are from so far into the future that there are no spiders left. Of course with climate changes etc. going on, that may not necessarily be too far into the future. As long as the human race (or knowledge of spiders) has also disappeared from Earth. But since the Sphere itself tells us that it comes from a distant future, the setting is not related to how fast humans and spiders becomes extinct. As is seen in the next follow up comic, there is very little left of our current civilization, and no records of spiders and their webs.
This is the second comic with special mentioning of a science related directly to spiders, the first being 1135: Arachnoneurology .
In this comic Randall manages to combine no less than three of his favorite recurring subjects with time travel , spiders and, of course, dinosaurs .
[The Sphere, a time-traveler depicted as a solid floating black energy sphere surrounded by six outwardly-curved segments) seems to have materialized in front of Megan and Cueball who is in the right part of the panel facing left towards it.  The Sphere looks like this except in the zoom in from panel two. A voice emanates from the Sphere.] Sphere: I'm here from the distant future! Megan: Cool! What for? Sphere: Spiders!
[A close-up of the Sphere, still depicted as a black sphere, but not perfectly round at this zoom level and also clearly with some white dots in the dark area. It is also now surrounded by seven (rather than six) narrow rays with irregular dots between the rays. Megan answers it from off-panel.] Sphere: We've learned about your planet's spiders from fossils. Sphere: There's a whole spider craze. We have spider theme parks, spider movies, spider costumes... Sphere: Such beautiful animals! Megan (off-panel): I guess...
[Same setting as in the first panel but Megan is pointing left past the Sphere.] Sphere: Now we've got time travel, so I'm here to see one for myself! Megan: Sure! There's one over there!
[The Sphere floats over a leafless branch sticking out of the ground. A spider web is strung between the left border of the panel (four spokes) and the branch (three spokes). A spider (almost as large as the Sphere) sits in the center of the web. Megan answers it from off-panel.] Sphere: Woowwww! Sphere: What's that giant net it's caught in? Megan (off-panel): You mean its web? Sphere: Its what?
[Same setting as in the first panel.] Megan: Oh, right, fossils. So you wouldn't know about...
[In a frame-less panel only Megan is shown facing left while she ponders. Beat panel.] Megan: ...
[Again a scene similar to the first.] Megan: Oh my God. Dinosaurs must have been so weird . Cueball: Holy crap, yeah. Megan: Listen, can we borrow your time machine?