Unquote

Explanation:
In this comic, Randall poses the future possibility that at some time in the future, even a popular film as Star Wars will become forgotten by society.
" May the Force be with you " is one of the many famous phrases from the Star Wars movies. Star Wars has become popular enough to remain part of today's popular culture almost forty years since its initial release, and the source and meaning of the quote is commonly recognized. This comic suggests that eventually even the enormously popular Star Wars will fade into obscurity — by which time, ironically, Star Wars-like hovercraft will have been invented.
It is not uncommon for once-popular sayings to lose popularity and come into disuse; particularly when the sayings are sourced from a pop-culture reference such as a book or film. In fact, there are entire books dedicated to such topics. Each generation generally develops its own pop culture-references which frequently become unrecognizable to the next generation. Only a handful of pop-culture quotes tend to survive for decades. For example, the phrase "Sit on it", coined by the creators of " Happy Days " as a TV-friendly but derogatory-sounding comeback for the character Fonzie. The phrase was very popular during the show's 1970s-80s heyday, but today is far less recognizable to those born after that era, and is not commonly referenced today.
The title text suggests that the characters will write off the phrase as a saying from the "Old Country" (the foreign country or place where one's ancestors emigrated from). This is a play on the fact that ubiquitous film and TV quotes have not been around long enough for society to generally forget their origins, and the most common source for unfamiliar sayings in today's world are sayings from other countries where one's ancestors originated. The use of the expression in this comic implies that the speaker has no idea about the origins of the phrase. To him it might be a translation of a foreign expression, or from a long left-behind homeland.
A similar topic was addressed in 493: Actuarial , with Black Hat predicting when the last of the original Star Wars cast would die, and in 1093: Forget , predicting when the release of The Return of the Jedi would be forgotten. Also, 794: Inside Joke is about how much pop culture of centuries past has been forgotten.
The sentiment in this comic is similar to a quote from psychiatrist and author Irvin D Yalom:
[Two figures with spiky hair and backpacks are conversing. One is riding in a hover-car, or similar.] Future Hair: Bye! Friend: May the Force be with you! Future Hair: Huh? Friend: It's just something my grandma used to say. No idea what it means.
[Caption below the panel:] I wonder on what date Star Wars will be quoted for the last time.


Reassuring

Explanation:
Go is an abstract strategy board game considered computationally difficult, compared to chess. Because of the size and number of possible combinations, computers don't have an easy way to exhaustively search for the best move. Still, they are getting better and better playing it . Megan suggests that computers may soon reach the level of being able to beat the best human players, an artificial intelligence milestone that has already been accomplished with other games. At the time of this comic, Go was one of the last games where a computer can still be beaten by top humans (see 1002: Game AIs ). However, in May 2017, Google's AI AlphaGo defeated the world's top human Go player . This was referenced three months later in 1875: Computers vs Humans .
As a common human response, Cueball attempts to offer the consolation or defensive statement that humans remain better than computers at something else (see also 894: Progeny ). In this case, the first thing he thinks of is that humans are better at making such consoling statements. However, Megan disproves Cueball's statement by creating a script in the Python programming language to create an abundant supply of such statements.  An irony here is that each of the statements the computer generates defends humans, not computers.
Another such statement is made in the title text, that humans are better at quietly amusing themselves, oblivious to our "pending obsolescence" - which may refer alternatively to our inevitable deaths, or to the comic's own topic of our being replaced and surpassed by computers. The title text then again suggests, however, that the human statement is not true, referring to an Inspiron model of Dell computer which "quietly amuses itself" by showing a geometric screensaver as it presumably one day will be obsolete and replaced by a newer computer.
The original purpose of screensaver programs was to prevent images or characters from being burned into the phosphor layer of the older CRT displays. In more modern displays, including newer CRTs (cca mid-90s or newer), this could be achieved by simply turning it off after some period of time but originally there was no way to turn the display off programmatically. Thus the screensaver itself is already obsolete.
Gwern Branwen has used GPT-3 to generate reassuring parables .
[Megan is sitting at a computer, and Cueball is standing behind her.] Megan: Looks like computers will beat humans at Go pretty soon. Cueball: Wow. Cueball: That's the last of the big ones. Megan: Yeah. [Megan looks back over her shoulder at him.] Cueball: Well, at least humans are still better at, uh, Cueball: coming up with reassuring parables about things humans are better at? Megan: Hmm. [Megan types on her computer.] type type [She leans back over her chair again and addresses Cueball.] Megan: I made a Python script that generates thousands of reassuring parables per second. Cueball: Dammit. Computer: Computers will never understand a sonnet computers will never enjoy a salad comp—


Slideshow

Explanation:
It is very common for websites to feature a gallery of images – a website for a school, for example, might feature pictures of the students and teachers. Some websites display images in the form of a slideshow like this comic, with slow zoom and pan effects and fades between the images. This effect has been dubbed the Ken Burns effect after documentary filmmaker Ken Burns who popularized the effect. In many cases, the slideshow is a fixed element, and can't be controlled by the user. This prevents the user from navigating through the images at their own pace or viewing any one image for an extended period, and can be distracting. Randall expresses frustration at this.
The title text suggests points will be awarded to whoever can add that annoying effect to the text editors of the developers of Flickr , a photo-hosting website, so they can be subjected to the same thing to which they are subjecting Randall. This may be a response to recent changes to Flickr's website that includes such slideshows as one option; that said, Flickr has always allowed users to browse galleries in a normal grid layout and with user-controlled photo-by-photo full-window layout.
Dear website operators, [This strip is in the form of an animated gif. The panels transition with a Ken Burns-like fade-and-pan.] Cueball: I will never ... Cueball: ...want to browse a series of images... Cueball: ...like this.


Juicer

Explanation:
Juicers are typically used to crush fruits and/or vegetables, thereby extracting the liquid juice and creating a tasty, refreshing and easy to consume drink. However, in this case, instead of actual fruits or vegetables, someone is making juice from Fruit Gushers , a chewy fruit-flavored candy, thereby extracting a nearly nutritionless artificial "juice" out of a candy casing which was formulated specifically for human consumption.
This may or may not be a parody of recent "Fruit Gushers" television commercials, in which Fruit Gushers are shown to squirt out nearly limitless amounts of "juice".
The title text asserts that the rind is where all the vitamins in the fruit reside. This is a common belief of actual fruits, although it is an untrue urban legend for many fruits; even fruits like apples do not contain most of the fiber in the skin itself, but rather directly below; although when you peel an apple you remove more than just the skin, losing also some high fiber content anyway. It is absolutely absurd as in this case, though, as the "rind" of a Fruit Gusher consists mainly of sugar. This text mocks the usual sentiment that the less desirable part of a food is the part that is "better" for you.
It is also a parody of the notion that buying a juicer, or other things like exercise equipment, will automatically make people healthier. Here it is shown that what you do with the juicer is the relevant factor. It is a little hidden joke that there is way more red than blue, pointing out how Gushers (unfairly, because blue is the best flavor) always have more red than blue.
The comic can also be interpreted as parodying the idea of fruit juices being healthy. Though this is widely believed, recent studies demonstrate otherwise.
[We see a shelf. On it, from left to right, are: a bag of fruit gushers; a juicer; a bottle of bright red liquid; a bottle of bright blue liquid; and another bottle of bright red liquid.] "Oh yeah, juicers are great! I use mine all the time."


Halting Problem

Explanation:
In 1936 Alan Turing proved that it's not possible for an algorithm to decide whether an arbitrary program will eventually halt, or run forever. This was later called the Halting problem by Martin Davis . The official definition of the problem is to write a program (actually, a Turing Machine ) that accepts as parameters a program and its parameters. That program needs to decide, in finite time, whether that program will ever halt running these parameters.
The halting problem is a cornerstone problem in computer science. It is used mainly as a way to prove a given task is impossible, by showing that solving that task will allow one to solve the halting problem.
Randall , however, is providing a simpler solution. He implements his own code for the question "Does it halt?" which always returns "true", and directs us to think about the bigger picture.
From a physical perspective, according to our current understanding of physics, this is right. Given enough time, any program will halt. This is due to factors external to the actual program. Sooner or later, electricity will give out, or the memory containing the program will get corrupted by cosmic rays, or corrosion will eat away the silicon in the CPU, or the second law of thermodynamics will lead to the Heat death of the universe . Nothing lasts forever, and this includes a running program.
From a mathematical point of view, this is not true: a Turing machine will never have a hardware failure because it's not a physical machine. It's a theoretical construct, and it's defined mathematically, independent of any physical hardware. Similarly, ⅓ + ⅓ + ⅓ = 1 no matter what any physical hardware you are computing it on claims.
Another interpretation of Randall 's code is that, assuming the language uses an eager evaluation strategy, the Program in the parentheses is actually being run whenever his function is called. In this case, the function would wait until the program finishes and exits before returning "True". Therefore, Randall 's function is mathematically accurate. It does not solve the problem though, as it simply shifts the question to whether the function itself will ever halt. If his language uses lazy evaluation, the input program is completely ignored, and it reduces to the incorrect mathematical interpretation.
From a practical point of view, there are of course times that a programmer would want to return "false", since some programs can be mathematically shown to run forever.
The title text further relates to this issue by claiming to have found a case where something need not die, but Randall does not know how to actually show it to anyone, because just the fact everyone will die sooner than it doesn't prove it will not die. The wording of the title text might also be a reference to Fermat's Last Theorem .
It should be noted that Randall's solution, barring its unsoundness, solves more than the halting problem in the form it is usually stated. The halting problem requires two parameters (a program and its parameters), while Randall's function only accepts one (the program). The question of whether a program halts for every input can be shown to be even harder to solve than the halting problem, meaning that even if a Turing machine had an additional instruction allowing it to check whether a program halts with given parameters, it still could not always confirm that a given program that halts for all parameters does so.
The code in this comic is written in pseudocode , to demonstrate the "algorithm" rather than an implementation in some existing programming language. The syntax resembles a mix of C and Python .
The proof that the halting problem is unsolveable is to write a new function that uses Randall's program:
DEFINE META_DOESITHALT():
IF ( DOESITHALT(META_DOESITHALT) ) WHILE ( TRUE ) DO_NOTHING; ELSE HALT;

If Randall's function says that META_DOESITHALT halts by returning "TRUE" - then that makes META_DOESITHALT loop forever.   But if it decides that it must halt by returning "FALSE" - then META_DOESITHALT halts.
This proves that DOESITHALT can't possibly work - no matter what it actually does.
This is the software equivalent of "Everything I say is a lie".
[A short computer program.]
[Caption below the panel]: The big picture solution to the halting problem.


Mess

Explanation:
There is a common psychological phenomenon which causes people to mentally magnify their own flaws, while failing to notice the flaws of others, so common it apparently doesn't have a specific scientific categorization. Many self-conscious people apologize for "the mess" in their home whenever they have guests over, no matter how clean it may actually be. If the house is neater than the guest's own home, the guest is likely to say to themself: "If she thinks this is messy, what would she think of my place?!"
This phenomenon is shown in the comic when Cueball's friend apologizes for the mess, despite the only thing appearing out of order is what seems to be a crumpled article of clothing on the floor. This "mess" only amplifies Cueball's fears about his own lifestyle, as he is surely wondering what his friend might think of his messy lifestyle based on their much higher standards.
In the title text, Cueball's anxiety in further amplified when the host left out a glass of water from the night before and apologies for it. Cueball is nervous because when this seemingly small oversight, when applied to his friend's very high standards, might seem like a huge problem, and in his mind, making his home akin to something he thinks is no better than a garbage pit.
In 1565: Back Seat the exact opposite reaction to having to show other people a real messy place is used for the joke.
[Cueball and his Cueball-like friend walk into the friend's bedroom. The friend walks ahead while Cueball stand behind at the door. There's a made bed, a picture on the wall with a river and a sun at the horizon, some curtains around the window, a rug, and one unidentifiable item lying on the floor.] Friend: Sorry it's such a disaster in here. Cueball thinking: Whoa— what's wrong with me?
[Caption below the panel:] My room never looks as nice as the rooms other people apologize for.
The painting in Cueball's friend's room strongly resembles the painting in 1159: Countdown .


Alternate Universe

Explanation:
Randall is trying to make the point that eating lobsters is as weird as eating spiders . Crustaceans and arachnids are both arthropods , members of the same phylum, so his comparison isn't too far off. Then again, humans are in the same phylum ( chordates ) as sea squirts , so any perceived similarities are not exactly rooted in a close biological relationship. In addition, lobsters were once considered the "cockroaches of the sea", and a captain trying to feed his crew with lobster would often be seen as cruel; although there is some justification for that mindset as lobsters were served by being crushed into mush, shell and all, and boiled into a bland gruel. On the other hand, cooked tarantula spiders are considered a delicacy in Cambodia .
One common objection to eating spiders, crickets, roaches, and ants is that they are sometimes eaten whole, with guts, feces, and chitin devoured indiscriminately. However,  many people eat only the actual muscles of the lobster, the same as one would any vertebrate.
In the title text, Randall suggests a fantastical reason for why he is so repulsed by eating lobster; he was actually born on a world almost completely identical to Earth, and was unknowingly relocated to our Earth when he was a teenager. The sentiment expressed here is that the act of eating lobster feels outright alien to him. This might be a reference to the Mandela Effect , which is a suggestion by various peoples - some jokingly, some seriously - that groups of people occasionally get transported into alternate realities as an explanation for why so many people were certain that Nelson Mandela died in the 1980s despite him actually dying in 2013. (Contrary to popular belief, the Mandela Effect is not rationalising those false memories but rather why so many people have the same false memory.)
To feel that strongly about shellfish-based cuisine, he would have to have not been exposed to it until his adolescent years; this seems unlikely, as the real Randall Munroe was born about 60 miles inland from the United States' northern east coast, where said cuisine is particularly prevalent. In reality, he is probably merely grossed out by the idea of eating lobster, and is probably exaggerating his feelings for comic effect. The title text also references changing clocks to and from Daylight Saving Time (DST), a practice which Randall has previously shown disdain for, mocking its irrational premise in several comics . Again, he is likely comically exaggerating his feelings, unless he literally doesn't recall a time before his teenage years when his parents ever changed the clocks in accordance with DST.
The term " Earth Prime " is typically used in fictional multiverse settings, as a way to conveniently distinguish the Earth in which the narrative is rooted from any other Earths featured in the story.
The idea of a alternative universe where Brussels sprouts taste good was the subject in 2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect .
[Captions above the panel:] Imagine you were transported to an alternate universe just like your own, except people occasionally ate spiders. You can't convince anyone this is weird.
[Megan is holding a very large spider, with another similar spider before her on the ground, and Cueball is standing behind her, leaning away with his hands out to each side shocked, as shown with three small lines going out from his head.] Megan: Mmm... Cueball: No! What are you doing!?
[Caption below the panel:] This is how I feel about lobster.


Privacy Opinions

Explanation:
This comic is about opinions on internet privacy in general. Six positions are offered as options. Four of the positions are tagged negatively by Randall by their subtitles alone: the Crypto Nut, the Conspiracist, the Nihilist, and the Exhibitionist, all of which have negative meanings in contemporary English. That the viewer is encouraged to identify negatively with these four positions is further encouraged by the content of the panels, as those characters are depicted either as having such boring lives that they have no need for privacy (the Crypto Nut, the Nihilist), or as being crazy (the Conspiracist, the Exhibitionist).
A fifth position, the Philosopher, is tagged somewhat ambivalently by Randall: Megan, or possibly a look-alike, is depicted as boring her interlocutor, yet in the title text, Randall admits that he is usually the Philosopher. Also, “Philosopher” in vernacular English is neutrally valenced, potentially having the ability to expound either wisdom ("sophia") or sophistry . It is also a synonym for Sage, the sixth position. As Randall condones his own movement from Philosopher to Sage, he thus indicates that the Philosopher is to be viewed negatively, even if it is a tempting position to hold.
The title of the sixth position, the “Sage”, is positively valenced in contemporary English, and the author in the title text states that once he obtains a “burrito” — i.e., a “real” thing, he switches from the Philosopher to the Sage. The internal evidence presented thus far therefore is entirely consistent; Randall encourages the reader to identify with the Sage. However, the choice of Beret Guy to represent the Sage undercuts this somewhat as Beret Guy is frequently seen as bizarrely disconnected from reality in a way that is maladaptive (e.g. 1030: Keyed ) and overly obsessed with food to the point of creating trouble and potential self-harm (e.g. 452: Mission ).
By presenting five negatively tagged positions followed by a positively tagged sixth and final one, the author follows a rhetorical commonplace of listing and refuting a number of positions one by one, concluding with the favored and best one, which is not refuted and should be accepted both on its own merits and by virtue of being the last one standing. The comic therefore implies that no other (significant) positions exist.
Having completed the rhetorical analysis of the comic, we are now in a position to understand the meaning of “Internet Privacy”.
Panels #3 and 5 directly reference the American NSA. Panel #5's “exhibitionist” also references Google, but the characters in the panel appear to be NSA agents (one wears an official cap and they are viewing the exhibitionist on an official, government-looking monitor). Likewise, the focus of the “Nihilist” is that the joke is on the people who gather the data, rather than those who are subsequently able to make use of it (such as Facebook's users rather than “Facebook” itself; i.e., Facebook's employees and, by extension, its advertisers). The content of the actual data is only mentioned in panels #2, 4, and 5, and in each panel, it is suggested that it is meaningless or trivial. The Sage underscores the notion that any data known about him does not bother him, and therefore must be meaningless or trivial. The reader is thus encouraged to believe that it does not actually matter whether others discover personal data about him/her.
The comic is therefore what social theorists call reductive , because it reduces the range of possibilities of “Opinions on Internet Privacy” to an artificially and simplistically narrow subset; in this case, individuals concerned with government or corporate agencies using data that they have gathered on individuals, and the futility of worrying about such things. The comic does not admit the possibility of other “opinions on internet privacy” – namely, that individuals might have legitimate concerns with governmental or corporate uses of their data, let alone other individuals' access to data that is assembled and distributed by corporations such as Facebook. The comic likewise does not consider the possibility of individuals having more interesting lives than the characters depicted, and therefore very real concerns about their privacy due to the activities that they engage in that are potentially more career limiting (should they be discovered) than obsessing about cryptography or eating a burrito.
The comic is “functionally” reductive, as opposed to “intentionally” reductive, because the reduction is the function or effect of the comic for readers who read it straightforwardly. There is not enough internal evidence in the comic to maintain that the author intentionally excluded other viable opinions on internet privacy; it could be that they are just not on his radar. For example, we do not have enough information in the comic to claim that Randall is against civil rights; it could be simply that he doesn't often think about them. Likewise, it would exceed the evidence of the comic to claim that the author believes that schoolteachers who use the internet to facilitate legal but frowned-upon sexual behaviors should lose their jobs if they are found out due to internet privacy breaches; it could be that Randall simply hasn't bothered to worry about these matters if they don't affect him personally. This adjudication – whether the comic is “intentionally” reductive or not – may only be made on the basis of external evidence; that is, data known about Randall from sources beyond this comic.
An alternative interpretation of the title text is that it is not Randall speaking his own opinion, but instead represents Beret Guy's (i.e. the “Sage's”) perspective. Randall may indeed have some concern with internet privacy, which would be consistent with the views on open-source security expressed in 463: Voting Machines , for example. In other cases, such as 1490: Atoms and 1419: On the Phone , the title text has been used as additional, farcical statements made by characters in the strip, rather than as Randall expressing his own views. Under this interpretation, Beret Guy would be prone to philosophizing about security, but then be easily distracted by a burrito; this is consistent with Beret Guy's general behavior.
Additional observations about the comic follow.
Since a large percentage of people and companies present in the internet don't have the ability or intention to do strong cryptography, the crypto nut's communication is limited to talking with other crypto nuts - which indicates cryptography as a topic. A real crypto nut will encrypt not just the important stuff because otherwise the attacker (in this context, assumed to be a government agency, network operator or corporation) will know which mails contain stuff that was secret enough to warrant encrypting, thus giving them information about whom he's doing secret business with.
The (data) warehouse mentioned is the Utah Data Center which seems to be of impressive size. The punchline is created by taking the iceberg and warehouse analogies literally.
This type is predominantly associated with twitter, but other social networks as well. This archetype is humorously combined with a sexual exhibitionist, who gets a sexual rise from the knowledge that others are spying on him/her. The awkwardness of the spying officials is magnified by the fact that they appear to be of opposite sexes, increasing the discomfort of the seated male.
The monologue alludes to a scene in The Matrix in which Cypher arranges with the evil machines to become a traitor. The Sage is apparently immediately satisfied when he has food and prosperity. He does not need privacy or other democratic rights as long as he does not individually suffer from their absence.
The release of the comic on this date could be to coincide with the premiere of South Park 's 17th season on the same date, which starts with an episode ( Let Go, Let Gov ) in which Cartman discovers that the NSA has been spying on him.
The title text is to suggest that he enjoys burritos so much that being handed one even while philosophizing (his natural state) would stop him in his tracks to eat the burrito, thus becoming a pseudo-sage concerned only with the burrito at the exclusion of the topic of internet security. The burrito is later mentioned as a way to stay connected to the real word (compared to the world of art) in 1496: Art Project .
Opinions on Internet Privacy The Philosopher: Megan: "Privacy" is an impractical way to think about data in a digital world so unlike the one in which our soci-- Ponytail: So bored. The Crypto Nut: Cueball: My data is safe behind six layers of symmetric and public-key algorithms. Friend: What data is it? Cueball: Mostly me emailing with people about cryptography. The Conspiracist: [Cueball talks to Megan.] Cueball: These leaks are just the tip of the iceberg. There's a warehouse in Utah where the NSA has the entire iceberg. I don't know how they got it there. The Nihilist: Megan: Joke's on them, gathering all this data on me as if anything I do means anything. The Exhibitionist: [Cueball is watching a surveillance console, Officer Ponytail stands behind him.] Console: Mmmm, I sure hope the NSA isn't watching me bite into these juicy strawberries!! Oops, I dripped some on my shirt! Better take it off. Google, are you there? Google, this lotion feels soooo good. Cueball: Um. The Sage: [Beret Guy and Cueball sitting at a table. Beret Guy is holding a burrito.] Beret Guy: I don't know or care what data anyone has about me. Data is imaginary. This burrito is real.


Functional

[White Hat stands behind Cueball, who is sitting at a computer.] White Hat: Why do you like functional programming so much? What does it actually get you? Cueball: Tail recursion is its own reward.


Highlighting

Explanation:
A number of people find it easier to read long texts by marking their place as they move through the reading. When done on paper, this may be done with a ruler, pencil, or finger. On-screen, however, one of the most effective methods is by highlighting the text being read. People accustomed to this form of reading often do it absentmindedly. Some people simply highlight parts of an article they're consulting without regards to which line they're currently reading, just to occupy their hands.
Highlighting, however, has the potential to create shapes on screen. Randall is referring to the fact that the shapes created may occasionally be symmetrical, which creates satisfaction. Different highlighting patterns may be caused by the user's browser, the site provided, or by simply dragging one's cursor across the screen with the mouse button held down, and releasing at different patterns..
The top example shows tight-fitting highlight syntax, which only covers the text of the paragraph. This is the most common result of highlighting an entire paragraph, but as paragraphs are rarely symmetrical, this example is marked by an X.
The second example starts the highlighting a few words in and continues to the end of the paragraph, while the third example begins another half-word in and continues down a line and a word before ending. Both of these patterns would be caused by manually highlighting the text with the mouse button, rather than rapidly-clicking until a segment is highlighted. The second example forms a square where the three lines of highlighted text overlap, while the third has rotational symmetry of the selected region; both are marked with checks.
The fourth example highlights the entire paragraph, as well as the whitespace caused by the indentation of the paragraph and at the end of the paragraph when the last line does not continue to the opposite margin. This example has both rotational and divisible symmetry, and is marked with a check.
The fifth example highlights the whitespace after the end of the paragraph, but not the whitespace of the indentation, leaving an odd block at the start of it. This ruins the paragraph's symmetry, and so this example is marked with an X.
The bottom example refers to the practice of websites adding a script to disable highlighting, often to discourage readers from copying their content. This creates a great dissatisfaction in readers accustomed to highlight as they read, shown by the many overlapping "X"s. Ironically since the comic is an image, the text in the comic can also not be highlighted.
The title text refers to the practice of websites of adding a script that searches upon clicking any word in the text; most notably done by Yahoo! news in years prior. The search may be of the site, the web, or of an advertisement provider. The script sometimes creates a popup, which, Randall says, causes him to "panic", and consequently never want to return to the site again. It is in fact quite annoying to the occasional highlighter, causing him to lose his place and interrupting his train of thought.
[A paragraph of text is shown. The highlight starts away from the leftmost edge of the highlight, and is a different distance to that between the rightmost edge of the highlight and the highlight end. Red X.] [A paragraph is shown. The highlight's starting point, end point, and number of lines included is such that there is an internal square in the middle, illustrated in green. Green tick.] [A paragraph is shown. Not only does it have an internal square, but the distance between the leftmost edge and the highlight start point is the same as the distance between the rightmost edge and the highlight end point. Green tick.] [A paragraph is shown. The entire paragraph is highlighted, making one big rectangle. Green tick.] [A paragraph is shown. The whole paragraph is selected, but the highlight starts away from the leftmost margin. This is shown with a red box, an arrow, and "?!?!". Red X.] [A paragraph is shown. Over the top is overlaid "[Clicking to highlight text is disabled]". Many, many red Xes.] I absentmindedly select random blocks of text as I read, and feel subconsciously satisfied when the highlighted area makes a symmetrical shape.


Shadowfacts

Explanation:
This comic is a parody of J.R.R. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings . The name of the horse, Shadowfacts, is a pun on Shadowfax , the horse Gandalf rides in the books. As the name "Shadowfacts" suggests, this horse interjects into conversations various facts about shadows. There is a possible deeper level to the pun, referring to the cat facts meme .
The three parts of a shadow are the umbra , penumbra and antumbra .
In the title text, Gandalf continues to speak, and is interrupted again by the horse with another fact about shadows. "Look to my coming on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the east." is what Gandalf said before the battle of Helm's Deep when he went to get reinforcements. The horse notes that if the sun is in the east, the shadows will be to the west of the objects that cast them.
A similar talking horse appears in 936: Password Strength .
[Gandalf sits on a horse, addressing three hobbits.] Gandalf: This is Shadowfacts, lord of all horses, and he– Shadowfacts: The outer part of a shadow is called the penumbra! Gandalf: Shut up.


Tall Infographics

Explanation:
This comic is a satirical infographic , which is usually used to simplify and help visualize information that would be dreadfully boring otherwise. Randall takes this "simplification" to the extreme by making an unhelpful infographic, complete with unnecessary data and ironic and blatant misuse of common graphs and charts. At this point, he is not even simplifying his sentence "By the year 2019, all information will be communicated in this clear and concise format." He makes a sarcastic claim, pointing out how needlessly complicated some infographics make things they are supposed to condense.
In the chart:
It is also likely that this comic is a send up of the recent trend towards presenting information in tall graphics that are easily viewed on smartphone screens. A tall graphic with the same pixel width as an iPhone, for example, can be viewed without zooming and using only vertical scrolling. Another discussion venue for the topic and this comic is Gizmodo: Tall Infographics Suck .
The prediction communicated in the comic did not actually happen by the year 2019. Alternatively, it did happen but was reversed so quickly nobody noticed it happened.
The title text mentions the often-hyped term " big data ." "Big data" normally refers to the challenges of working with and visualizing a quantity of data which is hard to process using traditional tools and methods. Randall, now speaking unsarcastically, tells us that just because the font size is huge doesn't mean you have handled the big data well.
BY THE YEAR 2018 2019 2020 ALL INFO Rmation [Graph representing all information.] [X axis of graph: 6 YEARS from now ( 72 months)] WILL BE [in two segments of a pie chart] Megan: COMMUNICATED Hairy: Yes! in THIS CLEAR and CONCISE [in a Venn diagram] F O R M A T [on the x axis of a bar graph of where these letters fall in the alphabet (the bar labeled T is shaded with a different color)] [Arrow pointing to the bar labeled "T": T ]


Open Letter

Explanation:
This comic is a reference to the US government shutdown in 2013 that had been ongoing for a week and was still current as of the time of this comic. Under some circumstances, the United States Federal Government can temporarily shut down pending budget legislation being passed by the United States Congress. These shutdowns are typically due to political disagreements between the President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Due to the shutdown, numerous government services and facilities are shut down, often resulting in many logistical issues for the public.
Over the years, various conspiracy theories have been proposed claiming that the United States Government is not controlled by publicly-elected officials, but rather by one or more organizations that secretly control the actions of the government (sometimes termed a "shadow government" ). In this strip, Randall writes a letter to the shadow government, telling them that the situation (having the country's government shut down) is embarrassing and asking them to fix the problem.
This comic also implicitly argues against the plausibility of the aforementioned conspiracy theories if one assumes that a shadow-controlled government would be more likely to operate with a singular purpose and therefore be less susceptible to paralyzing political disagreements. Randall previously alluded to this in the title text to comic 1081 : "Really, the comforting side in most conspiracy theory arguments is the one claiming that anyone who's in power has any plan at all." This is one of several comics in which Randall expresses dismay at how many intelligent people can fall for absurd conspiracy theories; see comics 258 and 690 , among others.
The title text addresses the leadership of the shadow government in more colloquial terms, asking if they are suffering from personal problems that are impeding their ability to keep things under control. This is patronizing, and thus hilarious.
The message, as titled, is in the form of an " Open Letter ", being a directed and 'personal' message to a person or group of people which is nonetheless intended by the sender to be publicly aired (unlike a standard commentary or editorial, which is intended for public consumption, but addresses the concerned 'target' almost as an aside). In some cases this may be to ensure the correspondence is not kept confidential by the recipients and/or that the public as a whole are also indirectly addressed ('Cc'ed) in the correspondence, without having to compose a companion piece for that purpose. In this case, however, it may additionally be because the intended recipient(s) are not so easily identified for direct communication, and a public airing would ensure 'delivery' even without compromising the integrity of the message.  Open Letters are often aired (or pre-copied, verbatim, from actual correspondence) in one or area or other of the public media, and while web-comics aren't necessarily the most publicised of forums, the xkcd readership almost certainly leads to covering both the 'named' recipients and the intended public view.
[The picture shows a letter.] October 7 th 2013 To: The Freemasons, the Illuminati, Scientology, FEMA, the New World Order, the Federal Reserve, Citigroup, Halliburton, Google, the Vatican, Bilderburg, Walmart, the Rothschilds, the Knights Templar, HAARP, the UN, Skull & Bones, Bohemian Grove, the Koch Brothers, George Soros, the Trilateral Commision, the Knights of Malta, the CFR, Exxon Mobil, the Zionists, the Vril Society, the Lizard People, and everyone else who secretly controls the US government Can you please get your shit together? This is embarrassing. Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen


int(pi)

Explanation:
This comic purports to provide a tip to programmers, that the number " 3 " is cursed and shouldn't be used. There is no explanation given as to why the number 3 is cursed, and it could well have been chosen arbitrarily. The title text hints that the consequence for using the cursed number is non-functioning code, a pain for any programmer. The absurdity of the number 3 somehow being cursed is part of the humor.
To assist the programmer, the comic gives an example of how to avoid the use of the number 3, by using a slightly convoluted method of using int(pi) , which means the integer part of pi , without the fractional part . Pi, an irrational number , has a value starting 3.14159... , making int(pi) equal to 3. This is demonstrated in a formula to calculate the volume of a sphere , normally (4/3)*pi*(r^3), but converted for avoidance of the number 3 to (4/int(pi))*pi*(r^int(pi)).
For a number of reasons it is a good programming practice to use variables and constants where a value is used in multiple places, however this is not typically used in the case of natural numbers. There are unusual situations where this type of programming is a valid method, however typically for more specific circumstances, and not a certain number being seen as cursed.
In the title text, Randall takes the joke a step further, suggesting the usage of floor and ceiling functions : ceiling(pi) would be pi rounded up to the next integer, which is 4 ; and floor(pi) is pi rounded down to the next integer, which is 3. (Note that int(n) and floor(n) have the same value when n is greater than or equal to zero. For values less than zero, int(n) is equal to ceiling(n) .)
The joke here plays on the fact that basic rules of programming are confusing and novice programmers are often told to simply not do certain things without any explanation (see 292: goto ). This includes, in particular, a general proscription against " magic numbers " in the code. Replacing all significant magic numbers with named constants makes programs easier to read, understand and maintain. Randall takes this to an extreme by suggesting that certain numbers could be inherently problematic, but the general idea is perfectly believable.
Mmm... Floor pie. is a reference to The Simpsons.
See also Cargo cult programming .
[Inside a frame a formula is shown:] volume(r) = (4/int(pi))*pi*r^int(pi)
[Caption below the frame:] Programming Tip: The number "3" is cursed. Avoid it.


Angular Size

Explanation:
This comic is a comparison of the angular diameters (or apparent diameter) of various celestial objects at the surface of the earth relative to a vertex at the center of the Earth as diagrammed in the opening panel. The objects' scales are compared to actual objects on earth. Each size given is for the object at its closest approach to earth.
London's M25 motorway is around 60 km (35 miles) across, a soccer field is about 100 meters long (109 yards), a ping pong table is 274 centimeters long (9 feet), a laptop is about 35 centimeters across (13.75 inches), the tilde symbol on a keyboard is about 5 millimeters long (197 mils), and a cell of E. coli is about 2 microns long (78.75 millionths of an inch).
A simple formula can be used to find the size on earth of a celestial object when the size of or distance to the object is known. This is done by taking the radius of the earth, multiplying by the diameter of the object, and dividing by the distance to the object from the center of the earth.
The space objects referenced in the panels are:
The title text states that astronomy would be much easier if the celestial sphere were mapped to the earth - like a giant globe . Due to the distance of the stars you would just need magnifying glass to see the areas representing distant stars instead of an expensive powerful telescope to see huge distances.
Approximate values for the mappings to the Earth sphere (based on mean Earth radius at 6,371.0 km or 3,958.8 mi.):

The size of the part of Earth's surface directly under various space objects [Several images are shown, of space objects of differing size and at different distances from Earth, illustrating the differing sizes of their "shadows" as mapped onto Earth's surface viewed from the center of the Earth.]
[The first image merely sets the stage: Earth is a full circle, with two figures — Cueball and Megan — standing on it; a small space object casts a "shadow" on Megan, while a slightly larger object, though proportionally farther away, casts just about the same size shadow next to Cueball.]
[The second image is a map showing London, with the Thames running through it, and a ring highway running around it labeled "London's M25 Orbital Freeway". A grey circle is overlaid, just about the diameter of the M25; it is labeled "The Sun and The Moon (about the same size)".]
[The third image has a small grey rectangle in one corner labeled "Soccer field" for comparison. The image is dominated by four large, grey circles, considerably larger than the soccer field, labeled "Saturn", "Mars", "Jupiter", and "Venus", with Mars slightly larger than Saturn, Jupiter approximately twice the diameter of Saturn, and Venus approximately three times the diameter of Saturn. Smaller circles are labeled "Mercury", "Uranus", and "Neptune", with Mercury still somewhat larger than the soccer field, Uranus about its size, and Neptune slightly smaller.]
[The fourth image has the soccer field blown up to take up much of the view; its center circle, goal areas, and corner kick areas are visible. Labeled grey circles of various circles are again overlain: Callisto and Ganymede are about as large as one half of the field; Io, Titan, and Europa are somewhat smaller than half the field; and Ceres, Triton, and Pluto are much smaller (all three together would probably fit into the soccer field's center circle).]
[In the fifth image, there is a different grey rectangle, this one labeled "Ping Pong table", with a few balls and paddles visible. An irregular ovoid labeled "Phobos" is about the size of the table, as is a circle labeled "R. Doradus". An irregular circular shape labeled "Deimos" is about the size of half the table; a circle labeled "Betelgeuse" is a little smaller, and a circle labeled "Eris" is a little smaller, though still comfortably filling most of half of the table.]
[In the sixth image, a light grey image of laptop computer keyboard and screen is shown, viewed from directly above. An irregular shape labeled "4942 Munroe" is slightly larger than the laptop, while circles labeled "Alpha Centauri A", "Sirius", and "Alpha Centauri B" form a descending series somewhat smaller than it. Circles labeled "Proxima Centauri" and "Barnard's Star" are considerably smaller than the laptop: Proxima Centauri would fit on the trackpad, while Barnard's Star covers perhaps four keys on the keyboard.]
[In the seventh image we see a greatly zoomed-in shape which is identified as the "Tilde on laptop keyboard". A circle labeled "HD 189733 b (permadeath)" is almost as large as the tilde is wide; a circle labeled "Tau Ceti C (giant dog planet)" is somewhat smaller. Circles labeled "Gleise 581 g (jelly-filled planet)", "Gleise 667 C c (PILF)", and "HD 20794 c (moonchild)" are all 1/2 to 1/3 as wide as the tilde is wide. A smaller circle labeled "Event horizon of the black hole at the center of our galaxy" fits comfortably within the tilde's stroke width. A very small dot off in one corner (much smaller than the tilde or anything else in the image) is labeled "KOI-1686.01 (emergency backup earth)".]
[Finally, in the eighth image, the size comparison is to the grey outlines of four bacilliform bacteria labeled "E. coli". The outlines of two interstellar probes are shown, with circular main housings and protruding instruments and antennae. They are labeled "Voyager 1" and "Voyager 2".]
The exact dimensions of a professional soccer field are not precisely defined. In international matches they must be between 64 and 75m wide and between 100 and 110m long. Therefore soccer fields aren't well suited as a precise unit of measurement. However, they are commonly used to give people a rough understanding of an areas size. According to the angular diameter of the referenced celestial objects, Randall did his calculations using dimensions of 105m × 68m.
A similar model of representing the angular diameter of celestial objects as portions of the Earth's surface seen from its center was described in Isaac Asimov's May 1961 essay "Heaven on Earth".


Ayn Random

Explanation:
The comic is an attack on the problems with the philosophy of "Objectivism". White Hat explains to Cueball a program he wrote, the "Ayn Random Number Generator", which is a pun on Ayn Rand , the name of a writer who created a philosophical system known as Objectivism . The joke is an attack on her philosophy, which claims to be a completely fair mechanism for distributing resources, but inherently favors those who start out with more resources, or already in a position to acquire the resources. It also has a strong overarching theme that people that believe in objectivism are inherently better than other people, and thus deserve what extra resources can be acquired - as with the Ayn Random Number Generator, which claims to be completely fair and balanced, but actually favors some numbers - which White Hat explains by saying that they deserve to come up more because they're inherently better.
Now, objectivists, of course, would challenge the above portrayal, but the joke is, in the end, an attack on Ayn Rand's philosophies. A more nuanced description is that objectivists believe that the primary aim of life is to maximise personal happiness. In their view, if some humans are born more capable of satisfying their desires than other people, they deserve to reap greater rewards from life than others, no matter the cost to those others.
As an aside, "biased" random number generators exist. They're called weighted random number generators, and they have many practical applications when the programmer isn't lying about the number generator's function and output.
The title text identifies a group of people whose names match the regular expression /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i . A step-by-step explanation of the expression:
Overall, it matches two words separated by a space, composed entirely of the letters in [plurandy], which is what all the names listed have in common. This could suggest that those letters are, to quote White Hat, intrinsically better.
As an aside, if the entirety of the title text is matched against the regular expression, it matches "and Duran" instead of "Duran Duran".
Since the primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality (or, at least, "rationality" as defined by Rand: her critics argue that the conclusions she reached do not actually derive inevitably from her premises and that additional, unstated assumptions are necessary to make the system work), the implication may be that the random number generator favors rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction, i.e. a quotient p/q). On the other hand, given computers cannot store data of unlimited length, it is impossible for any real world computer random number generator to produce an irrational number in any of the usual integer or floating point representations—so probably not.  (Although a computer could encode irrationals or generate them randomly if it uses another representation, one of the standard algebraic number representations, for instance.)  Alternately, an Objectivist might argue that if the intent of the comic is to attack or mock Objectivism, then the comic inadvertently satirizes itself via the "rationality" interpretation.
[Cueball sitting at a laptop, White Hat behind him.] Cueball: This Ayn Random number generator you wrote claims to be fair, but the output is biased toward certain numbers. White Hat: WELL, MAYBE THOSE NUMBERS ARE JUST INTRINSICALLY BETTER!


Giraffes

Explanation:
Genetic engineering is the scientific approach towards altering and modifying the genome of organisms. In the process, DNA material is extracted from a source organism and then inserted into the genome of a host organism. It is thus possible to create hybrids between species that would not crossbreed naturally. The technique is also applied in order to expedite the sometimes lengthy process of selective breeding .
The comic suggests the creation of genetically modified giraffes . Following the recurring theme in the comics that dinosaurs and dinosaur-like traits make life more interesting, Randall expresses his desire to see genetic engineers insert DNA from extinct sauropods into the giraffe's genome, resulting in giraffes with very large and thick tails. Randall has previously shown great interest in dinosaurs and their integration into the modern age. It is possible that Randall wishes to combine the two due to the fact that they'd look very "cool" together as they are both seemingly weird animals. Giraffes are distinctive for their extremely long neck and sauropods have extremely long tails; the drawing would indicate that the giraffe's neck and sauropod's tail are of equal height/length, thus creating a bizarrely satisfying sense of symmetry.
The idea of extracting and reproducing DNA material of dinosaurs appears most prominently in the 1993 motion picture Jurassic Park . The concept is regarded by scientists as rather implausible because DNA disintegrates soon after the death of the organism (read: around 500 years ) and would not be preserved in fossils.
Furthermore, the science of genetic engineering is not yet able to accomplish major alterations in complex genomes. While mice and other small vertebrates have successfully been modified for research purposes, the daily use of genetic engineering is limited to plants and monads . That besides, the less closely related the starting species are to each other, the more difficult it would be to successfully combine them. So while the field of genetic engineering is always advancing, combining the body of a modern-day mammal with the tail of a dinosaur will remain a pipe dream for a long time yet. (Also, there are no known cases of preserved non-avian dinosaur DNA being discovered, and current chemistry knowledge indicates that no DNA can survive over 1 million years.)
In general, genetic engineering is a highly controversial topic with regards to the responsibility of science. While some praise the scientific progress and welcome the possibilities it brings, others fear that genetic science might enable man to alter the ways of nature and to presume the role of an almighty creator. The creation of hybrid animals (so called Chimeras ) is often regarded as the ultimate hubris and the climax of moral decay. Some countries have therefore installed strong legal restrictions for the modification of genetic material extracted from humans and animals.
The title text refers to Kickstarter , a funding platform for creative projects. Any person who wants to start a creative project, but lacks the resources to do so, can create a Kickstarter campaign where donors can contribute donations. Usually, the owner of the Kickstarter promises exclusive benefits to donors of certain tiers. For example, the title text could well be finished to say If you fund my Kickstarter with a donation of $20 or more, I will give you exclusive access to my weekly blog on the development stages of the giraffosaurus. If you donate $100 or more, you can receive a life-sized cardboard cut-out of the giraffosaurus. Donations of $10,000 or more will earn your name in a raffle for ownership of the first three giraffosauruses. This may also be a reference to 1055: Kickstarter .
While dinosaurs are a recurring trope since the beginning of xkcd, giraffes have been featured in some what-if articles as a measurement of height.
Interestingly enough, there seems to have been a species of sauropod dinosaur that bore a certain likeness to the modern giraffe and has therefore been christened Giraffatitan .
My Hobby: [Silhouette of a giraffe with a sauropod's tail.] Convincing genetic engineers that giraffes would look better if they had sauropod tails


Reverse Identity Theft

Explanation:
Identity theft is the criminal method of assuming the identity of an unsuspecting person, usually to get credit in their name. While this is done deliberately, the comic introduces the idea of reverse identity theft: An older person with little knowledge of computers involuntarily uses another person's email address because they supposed it to be their own. Since most email addresses follow a generic pattern, they simply adapt the pattern to conform with their own name, unaware that someone with the same initial and last name already owns the address.
Most internet users face at some point the message that their desired email address is "already taken". Because email addresses must be unique and only a limited set of characters is allowed, people with common names usually add numbers to their name. The comic suggests that elder people might easily forget that they had to take, for instance, [email protected] when they signed up. Instead, the person would tell everyone that their address was [email protected] , since that follows the generic pattern and is the most intuitive assumption for them. They are in complete ignorance that the address belongs, in fact, to whomever claimed it first. In this case, the address belongs to Randall himself. (In case you're wondering, yes, [email protected] is Randall's email according to the xkcd blag .)
The comic has Cueball call an older person, who apparently gave Cueball's email address to the phone company, which now emails Cueball the bills - this could have been avoided if said company confirmed an email address first. The person is not able to understand why this is not their email address (as it corresponds with their name) and is also very confused how Cueball got their phone number. The latter reveals a major problem of reverse identity theft: Using another person's email address for your own business matters exposes your own identity. The owner of the address could easily take advantage of the situation, leading to a scenario of regular identity theft. Fortunately, Cueball seems to be more honest; Black Hat probably would not have given any warning.
Due to the sheer mass of people online, nearly all simple nicknames are already taken; and the number of possible combinations is further diminished by services (e.g., Gmail ) which ignore the dot sign altogether and does not allow the use of hyphens or underscores. This policy is designed to prevent fraud, but it forces users to add numbers or other unique identifiers to their names. Apart from the scenario addressed in the comic, another subsequent problem is the use of wrong email addresses by third parties. Someone sending sensitive personal information to the wrong recipient can just as easily expose a person's identity as the person himself.
In the end, there is no practical solution to the problems arising from the uniqueness of usernames and email addresses. Instead, it is simply the consequence of naming itself: While a name was originally intended to distinguish its bearer from a limited number of people (e.g. the rest of the village), the Internet makes it necessary to distinguish ourselves from the entire rest of the world (or at least everybody online).
Note that Gmail ignores everything behind a plus sign. Like ignoring dots, this is used as a way to create email aliases . The plus sign in the formula used in the comic should therefore considered to be only an indicator for concatenation, not a literal character in the address.
If your email address is [First initial]+[Last name]@gmail.com you gradually get to know lots of older people who have the same name pattern
Cueball: Yes, I know it would make sense if that were your email address, but it's not. Person on the phone: But how did you get my number? Cueball: Your phone bill.


Mystery News

Explanation:
With the introduction of tabbed browsing, many users, even on widescreens, will have so many tabs open that it is hard to find any given one. At 44 tabs on Google Chrome on a 1080p screen, the user can no longer see any text on the tabs. Long before this point (~20 tabs), the text is so short as to be unusable. Randall refers to this tendency to open many tabs without closing them in this comic.
Many modern tabbed browsers can remember what tabs were open upon closure if this setting is on, and will reload the same tabs on startup. This will start any auto-playing videos, such as YouTube videos (although some browsers, like Firefox, have since fixed this by forcing videos to pause), which appear on any of the open pages. This situation can also occur during browsing when an auto-playing video does not begin playing until after a user has moved on to a new tab, when a page with a video refreshes in the background, or when a site with such a video automatically opens in a tab that does not become the active tab when it opens.
This generally leads the user to clicking through all of the open tabs to try to find where the sound is coming from. This can be even more difficult if the video is not obvious and not centered on the screen of whatever tab it is playing in. Years after the release of this comic, Google Chrome began to indicate to the user which tabs are playing audio, thus alleviating this problem.
The title text refers to websites that refresh in the background , causing videos (and ads) to start playing again even if you stopped them previously. Many news sites, such as CNN, will do this if you stay on the same page for 30 minutes .
[Cueball sitting at a laptop.] Laptop: It's day five of the trade summit, and still no... Cueball: Dammit click click click
I get most of my news from autoplaying videos in browser tabs I can't find.
Title text : If you find and stop the video, but you've--against all odds--gotten curious about the trade summit, just leave the tab opened. It will mysteriously start playing again 30 minutes later!


Minifigs

Explanation:
Lego minifigures (often abbreviated as minifigs ) are tiny plastic people designed by the Danish toy manufacturer Lego as part of their construction toy sets. Since 1978, over four billion minifigures have been sold, so they still have a long way to go before they surpass the human population (which is around 7.8 billion). The figures resemble simplified humans, often with a yellow skin colour and featuring interchangeable body parts, such as legs, torsos, heads, hair, and hats.
The graph depicted in the comic extrapolates the total number of minifigures and compares it to the growth of the world population , which reached 7 billion in March 2012. By the extrapolations of the comic, Lego minifigures will outnumber the human population by 2019. The extrapolation of statistical data has appeared in various xkcd comics, e.g. in 605: Extrapolating , 1007: Sustainable , and 1204: Detail . However, unlike the other extrapolated scenarios, the prognosis of this comic seems quite likely.
Since Lego is designed to resemble nature and civilization on a miniaturized scale, some sets also contain Lego cars as vehicles for the minifigures. With over 381 million Lego tires produced for these miniature cars, Lego is already the world's largest manufacturer of tires . This fact is addressed in the title text.
Lego (as of mid-October 2013) calculates they have made 7 billion+ figures. Earlier in 2013, they believed they would surpass the human count in 2014, but revised their numbers on the day this comic was released to what this chart says.
[Graph: x-axis 1980, 1990, 2010, 2020; y-axis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 billions.] [Plot-line 1: Number of people in the world.] [Plot-line 2: Number of Lego People in the world.] [Label above the x-axis at 2013 reads "Today".] [Shortly before 2020, both plot lines cross.]
[Caption below the graph:] By 2019, humans will be outnumbered.


Monty Hall

Explanation:
This comic is a reference to the US game show Let's Make a Deal , and more specifically the Monty Hall problem , a probability puzzle based on the show and named after its original host, Monty Hall . The premise of the show was that Hall would offer "deals" to contestants pulled from the audience in which they could win cash and prizes. Some deals involved games/tasks the contestant had to perform, while others simply involved the contestant making choices between a series of doors or boxes. In such games of choice, there were often several prizes and typically at least one "zonk", the show's name for an undesirable "gag" prize, which on the original Monty Hall version of the show were frequently animals such as goats.
In the classic version of the Monty Hall Problem , a contestant is offered a choice of three doors. Behind two of the doors are goats, and behind one of them is a car. First, the contestant chooses a door, which remains closed. The host then opens one of the two remaining doors and reveals a goat. The contestant is then offered a final choice of whether to switch their choice to the remaining closed door, or keep the door they originally chose. The problem involves an analysis of the probability of the contestant choosing the car given certain circumstances.
The problem assumes that a contestant would want to win a car, and would be disappointed to win a goat, which most contestants would have no ability to house, and no use for. The comic shows that Beret Guy , upon the host revealing that door B has a goat behind it, chooses to take the goat to keep as a pet, which makes them both very happy. This is much like, and may be an allusion to, the Simpsons episode Bart Gets an Elephant , in which Bart opts for the gag prize of an African Elephant rather than the $10,000 award. According to an interview with Monty Hall, several contestants actually decided to keep the animals; although rare, it was allowed since the animals were offered as prizes (and they were a lot more expensive than the consolation cash prize).
The title text references the car and the other goat, untouched behind the remaining doors.
For an in-depth analysis of the Monty Hall Problem, see its article at Wikipedia
The apparent "paradox" of the Monty Hall Problem is that many people's initial reaction once the host opens a door to reveal a goat, is that there are two remaining doors, one with a car and one with a goat; and therefore there is an equal probability the car is behind each door. Many people therefore believe that switching makes no difference to the odds of winning a car.

However, assuming that the host has knowledge of which doors contain goats, and that their choice of which door to open is always an unchosen door containing a goat, it is actually twice as likely that the contestant will win the car if they switch than if they keep their original choice. This is because the contestant initially had a one-in-three chance of choosing the car and a two-in-three chance of choosing a goat. Switching always wins the car in those two-thirds of cases where the contestant initially chose a goat. The probability of winning by switching is therefore the same as the probability that the contestant initially chose a goat.
The switch essentially gives the contestant both remaining doors instead of just the one door originally chosen. Because the host always has at least one goat available, the fact that the host reveals a goat does not provide the contestant any new information about their initially chosen door. The initial door still has a two-in-three chance of being a goat, and switching still has a two-in-three chance of winning. Opening a goat-door simply shifts all of the probability of the remaining two doors being a car to the remaining unchosen door.
Simple explanation :
Imagine there are 100 doors instead of just 2, and after you pick a door, the host opens all but one, revealing all goats. Do you switch to the remaining door or keep your initial pick?  Just as there is a 2/3 chance of picking the car when switching in the 3-door scenario, there is now a 99/100 chance of picking the car when switching in the 100 door scenario.  In this scenario, it becomes obvious that it is not a 50/50 chance when two doors remain.
Important Side Note :
There has been great debate about the precise wording of the problem, and what assumptions or rules might apply. These variants can greatly change the probabilities.
One variant has the host open one of the two remaining doors at random, which could result in the car being revealed, and the game ending. In that scenario, if a goat has been revealed, the probability that the first pick is correct is now 1/2 and switching is not advantageous.
In 1/3 of all possible games, the first pick is correct. The host cannot pick the car. In 1/3 of all possible games, the first pick is wrong but the host does not reveal the car. In 1/3 of all possible games, the first pick is wrong and host will reveal the car. We now know those cases are impossible.
With only 2/3rds of all possible games remaining, the chance that switching will win the car is now (1/3)/(2/3) = 1/2. Likewise, not switching also has a 1/2 chance of winning. Note that this variant requires that the host picks a door at random.
Another variant has the host only offering to switch if the first choice is correct.  In this case, switching always loses.
[A figure - Monty Hall - stands on stage, holding a microphone. There are three doors; two labelled "A" and "C", which are closed, and one that is being held open by Monty. There's a ramp to the right, down which a goat is being led by Beret Guy.] Beret Guy: ...and my yard has so much grass, and I'll teach you tricks, and... Goat: ♥


Headlines

Explanation:
This comic satirizes the sensationalist language used in Internet headlines. Many websites generate ad revenue for getting visitors ("getting more clicks"), so some unscrupulous editors seek to manipulate their readers using tantalizing yet formulaic and crass headlines, designed to attract readers rather than summarize the article's contents. You might recognize this technique from those ridiculous text advertisements — "local mom discovers 1 weird tip to reduce belly fat." The practice is nothing new: tabloid journalism has been doing this for many years (e.g. National Enquirer ). The numbers shown at the headline are also often wrong and not covered by the article.
Signs of a dishonest headline include giving undue weight to trivial topics, or appealing to readers' emotions or needs (fear, outrage, pity, lust, laziness) instead of offering serious information. In severe cases, it may be a bait-and-switch , claiming to offer something it isn't. By failing to give a useful summary of the story, whilst attempting to force the reader to click on every story on the off-chance that it's interesting, they amount to an intentionally deceptive form of spam.
Randall parodies the formula in this comic with such trivializing headlines for important historical events:
Albert Einstein published his Annus Mirabilis papers , which changed views on space, time, mass, and energy, and laid the groundwork for much of modern physics. They included his papers on special relativity and on mass–energy equivalence ("E = mc 2 "). He had an infant son in 1905 (born May 1904). The use of the term "dad" helps readers tune in emotionally. "Proving scientists wrong about everything" is obviously an inflation of Einstein's achievements, though not completely incorrect as Einstein's discoveries did undermine current theories about fundamentals of the universe such as space, time and motion. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect ; his work on relativity was still not accepted by many physicists at that time.
Sinking of the RMS Titanic . "should have died" seems to be referring to six passengers whose survival was downright miraculous, though the wording is (deliberately) ambiguous to imply the six passengers deserved to have died. Possibly referred to here is the survival of J. Bruce Ismay , chairman and managing director of the White Star Line (the company responsible for the Titanic), who was condemned as a coward for leaving the sinking liner.
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, guaranteeing voting rights for women in all US states. The prediction of new prohibitions is a reference to alcohol prohibition under the authority granted to the federal government by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution . While the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified before women's suffrage was guaranteed by the Nineteeth, alcohol prohibition was widely seen as an issue driven by women's opinions (hence the suggestion that more things would be prohibited now that women had the vote).
Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming.
This is a reference to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , the most devastating stock market crash in history and the beginning of the Great Depression. The "embarassing reactions" may be a reference to the suicides of people suddenly impoverished by the depression. [GIFS] indicates that the post will contain animated GIF images, which are a crude form of short video. Presumably, these GIFs will feature the aforementioned suicides, which would be considered tasteless at best. The GIF89a specification which supports animation was released in 1990, so animated GIFs (or computers for that matter) didn't exist in 1929.
1945 is the year that World War II ended. It's also the year that many war crimes committed by Nazi Germany were discovered or declassified. These events would be cause enough for anyone to re-evaluate their belief in the inherent goodness of the human race. However, the specific phrase "lose faith in humanity" is one often employed on the web by rather over-dramatic people in response to something someone did to exasperate them; and because that particular wording is closely associated with exaggerative tendencies, its usage in relation to Nazi war crimes only downplays their seriousness.
1948 is when the Soviet Union established the Berlin Blockade , preventing food and other critical supplies from reaching occupied Berlin. In response, Western forces organized the Berlin Airlift (previously referenced in 1037: Umwelt , where it became Berlin Chairlift instead).
The polio vaccine was developed. "One weird trick" is a common phrase used in Internet ads: see this article for more information. It may also refer to the fact that polio viruses were used as the first vaccines.
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 , the world's first artificial satellite. A nip slip is when a woman unintentionally exposes all or part of one or both of her nipples; in the context of the internet, it generally refers to a photograph capturing such a moment. Saying that 12 were visible from space implies that they were really big 'nip slips', or at least that only those 12 were big enough to be visible to telescopes.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy ( John F. Kennedy's younger brother) were both assassinated in 1968 (five years after JFK). Assassinations are rare and considered to be always tragic, so "ranking" them trivializes the political and emotional depth of the events.
Apollo 11 performed the first manned lunar landing. During this historic trip newspapers printed as many pictures of astronauts as they could.
Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight. See Space Shuttle Challenger disaster for details. This was the first shuttle mission that included a teacher on board as part of the crew ( Christa McAuliffe , Teacher in Space Project ), so there were many children -- a New York Times poll put the number at 48% of 9-13 year olds in the US -- watching this particular launch live as teachers around the country had TV sets in their classrooms showing the ill-fated launch in real time. The launch was not shown on most mainstream TV stations; only CNN broadcast it live. Since this many children did see it, there would also have been several terminal ill children watching, and likely also some press out at one such place. So they could get this picture. And again toy with our emotions.
Fall of the Berlin Wall . [video] indicates a link to a video.
A 90s kid is someone born in the late 80s or early 90s (and spent most their childhood in the 1990s). Headlines like this one from BuzzFeed toy with their readers' sense of nostalgia. The parody headline is funny because it starts precisely on the first day of the 1990s, meaning that the only "90s kids" that it would apply to would be newborns. This is a reference to a common joke about the 90s not having a concrete identity in some ways like the 70s or 80s did in terms of popular culture, and yet those born in that decade always seem to have long lists of things that make you a "90s kid".
Einstein published his theory of General relativity , which is a vast generalization of the theory of Special relativity from 1905 and provides a model for gravity. In 1916 Einstein had two sons who lived in Zurich while he lived in Berlin. [NSFW] is "Not Safe for Work" - a tag to identify explicit images. Here it is used to trick readers hoping to find pornography. [PICS] tells the potential viewer that there are images embedded.
This topic is re-used in 1307: Buzzfeed Christmas .
[Caption above the frame:] 20th Century Headlines Rewritten to get more clicks
[The years are always written at the center. The text has a line pointing to the relevant year. The first text is written to the left of the year. Then the texts below is alternately written to the right and to the left, finishing at the right in 1990.] 1905 - How a shocking new theory, discovered by a dad, proves scientists are wrong about everything! 1912 - 6 Titanic survivors who should have died 1920 - 17 things that will be outlawed now that women can vote 1928 - This one weird mold kills all germs 1929 - Most embarrassing reactions to the stock market crash [GIFs] 1945 - These 9 Nazi atrocities will make you lose faith in humanity 1948 - 5 insane plans for feeding West Berlin you won't believe are real 1955 - Avoid Polio with this one weird trick 1957 - 12 nip slips potentially visible to Sputnik 1968 - This year's assassinations ranked from most to least tragic 1969 - This is the most important photo of an astronaut you'll see all day 1986 - This video of a terminally ill child watching the Challenger launch will break your heart 1989 - You won't believe what these people did to the Berlin wall! [Video] Jan 1, 1990 - 500 signs you're a 90s kid


Improved Keyboard

Explanation:
Modern smartphones and tablets have touchscreen LCD displays which completely cover the device's surface; for this reason they rely on software keyboards to input text such as text messages. The simplest software keyboards simply display a standard QWERTY keyboard and allow the user to tap on the letters they wish to enter, but this is slow. More sophisticated software keyboards such as SwiftKey facilitate faster text entry through gestures supported by language models. Because this space is still under development, new software keyboards promising better text entry continue to appear.
Black Hat is annoyed about Cueball 's text messages, so he sends Cueball a "better" keyboard that actually doesn't work — with the desired result that Cueball is not able to text him at all. His statement that the app is better than SwiftKey "in some ways" is literally true — it's better for him , not for Cueball.
The Android keyboard app SwiftKey has been mentioned before , and Black Hat has done something similar in 156: Commented .
According to the title text, Randall does often try out new keyboard apps, only to be reminded each time that he ends up wasting more time learning the new gestures than he saves in typing more quickly. Alternatively, the increased effort and thought put into typing makes him realize that nothing he would type is really worth it to him anymore.
Similar problems arise later in 1586: Keyboard Problems and 1678: Recent Searches .
[Cueball walks on screen, holding a phone, and starts talking to Black Hat.] Cueball: Did you get my texts? Black Hat: You should install this keyboard I found. Cueball: What? Why? Is it better than SwiftKey? Black Hat: In some ways. [Black Hat begins to walk off-panel.] Cueball: Ok, installing... Cueball: It's not working. The key area is blank—I can't type anything. [Black Hat has left. Cueball stares at his phone.] [Beat frame. Cueball lets his hands fall to their side.] Cueball: ...Hey.


Third Way

Explanation:
This comic refers to the debate occurring in the United States about the correct number of space characters after a period at the end of a sentence .
While typewriter typists in the United States were traditionally taught to use two spaces between sentences, this is becoming less common and many sources now recommend having only one space, although this topic is still controversial .
Cueball is advocating a line break after every sentence, the eponymous "third way".
This obviates the problem, as a period will always appear at the end of a line and the spacing after it becomes moot.
A line break after every sentence is sometimes called " semantic linefeeds ".
This is particularly useful when plain text files based on a markup language (such as HTML , TeX , or Wiki markup ) are edited by multiple people using a version control system where it helps to facilitate comparison of changes and avoid merge conflicts.
In most markup languages, a single line feed in the source is rendered as a simple space, while two linefeeds generate a paragraph break.
This approach allows the source to be easily manipulated and versioned, while the rendered output still keeps the regular flow and justification abilities of running text.
(Incidentally, HTML and languages derived from it such as BBCode and Wiki markup will generally render multiple consecutive whitespace characters as a single space, so pretty much every page on the Internet uses single spacing whether the author wants to or not.)
The title text uses single spaces between the back-and-forth quotations; but within each quotation, the quoted speaker's preferred spacing is used; when the single-spacing advocate claims to be using double spacing, this is indeed a lie.
However, realistically, it is implausible that one can hear whitespace. [ citation needed ]
Randall's mocking characterization in the title text of overzealous advocates using the phrase "WAKE UP, SHEEPLE" has appeared in previous comics: 496: Secretary: Part 3 and 1013: Wake Up Sheeple .
Note that this is not the first time Randall has proposed a controversial third way , and this debate is later referenced in 1989: IMHO .
Sentence spacing was previously mentioned in the title text of 1070: Words for Small Sets .
[To the left a group with three Cueballs, a Ponytail and Megan at the front which face another group with two Cueballs, a Ponytail and a black haired ponytail at the front. Each group has a placard. A Cueball in the left group has a cutlass and a Cueball in the right group has a spear as they are angrily facing off against each other. Off to the far right side stands a lone Cueball also with a placard.] Left placard: Two spaces after a period Middle placard: One space after a period Right placard: Line break after every sentence


Encryptic

Explanation:
Web sites and other computers that authenticate users via passwords need to be able to know if the user typed in the right password. But storing the password itself on the computer has been known to be unnecessarily risky since the publication of Password Security: A Case History in 1978. In that paper, Robert Morris and Ken Thompson demonstrated the practice of using a slow, cryptographically-secure one-way hash function , so that even if the password file is stolen, it will be very hard to figure out what the passwords are, so long as the passwords themselves are suitably complex. They also pioneered the use of a "salt" which makes each password hash completely different even if two users use the same password. See A tour of password questions and answers for background on salts and suitably slow hash functions.
Adobe, however, ignored these well-known principles, and instead stored over a hundred million passwords in a reversibly encrypted way, using a terrible choice of encryption methods which exposes a great deal of information about the passwords, and does not involve a salt. This password database was recently obtained by someone and released on the Internet.
In particular, Adobe used Triple DES , an older encryption algorithm which can still be relatively secure when properly used, but they used it improperly. It works on 64-bit (8 character) blocks. Assuming that the passwords are stored in plain ASCII, this means that a sequence of 8 characters in a password which starts on a character position which is a multiple of eight is always encrypted to the same result. Therefore, two passwords starting with "12345678" would start with the same block after being encrypted. Furthermore, this means that you can actually get a very good idea of the length of the password since anything with only one block is a password with length between 1 and 8 characters, and having two blocks implies it has between 9 and 16 characters, etc.
Adobe also stored hints users created for their passwords. That means that an attacker knows not only if the same 8 characters are used for multiple passwords but also has some hints for guessing them. That means that common password portions should be easy to recover and that any user may be "compromised" by someone else using a part of the same password and providing a good hint. As an example, a password having three hints "Big Apple", "Twin Towers" and "If you can make it there" is probably "New York" or a simple variation on that. The weakness here is that no decryption and therefore no hard cracking has to take place, you just group the passwords by their encrypted blocks and try to solve them like a crossword puzzle. These weaknesses have already been used to presumably identify a password used by Edward Snowden , as discussed at 7 Habits of Highly Effective Hackers: Can someone be targeted using the Adobe breach? .
The examples are not taken from the actual leaked file, since that uses a different format , and the examples are evidently cleverly crafted to make a nice crossword-like puzzle, which can be solved as shown in the Passwords section below.
As mentioned on http://filosottile.github.io/analyzing-the-adobe-leaked-passwords/ the data in the comic isn't real and contains a hidden message. If the "user password" hashes are Base64 encoded, they read:
More readable:
E.g., with the initial unique hash blocks: python2 -c "print '4e18acc1ab27a2d6a0a2876eb1ea1fca'.decode('hex_codec').encode('base64')"
The last letter "r" is not fully encoded in the data shown, but any letter from "g" to "v" produces the same binary data.
The title text makes a reference to a previous comic: Black Hat's trouble with what to do with stolen passwords . It also states that users of pirated Photoshop are the winners here. This is because in order to make Photoshop pirate-able, it was modified (cracked) by removing the requirement for registration so their passwords were not sent to Adobe and therefore are not present in the leaked file.
Soon after this comic was published, the most common 1000 passwords were actually compiled into a set of 10 interactive online crosswords , inspired by the comic.
The title itself is a reference to cryptic crosswords .
Note that characters in the passwords could be upper or lower case, and they may involve common substitutions like "0" (number zero) for "O" (letter O); therefore, the clues cannot guarantee that the answer shown here is precisely correct. Nevertheless, we have plenty of information for a brute force attack.
[Caption above the panel:] Hackers recently leaked 153 million Adobe user emails, encrypted passwords, and password hints. Adobe encrypted the passwords improperly, misusing block-mode 3DES. The result is something wonderful:
[Caption below the panel:] The greatest crossword puzzle in the history of the world


Puzzle

Explanation:
The game of go (also called Weiqi, Baduk or Igo) is usually played on the 19×19 intersections of a grid, but sometimes a faster, simpler version is played on the 9×9 intersections of a grid; which thus has 8×8 squares, as a chessboard, though they are not colored in an alternating pattern – introduced to chess in the 13th century . In the comic, white has chess pieces and plays against black, which uses go stones.
In chess, particularly in puzzles, the phrasing "White to move" indicates that it's the White player's turn; "White to play and win" indicates that it's White's turn and if White plays correctly, the next series of moves will result in an advantageous position or possibly outright win for White. The caption "White to continue insisting this is a chessboard" is a play on this traditional phrasing. The same kind of phrasing is also used in Go puzzles . In Go puzzles the objectives are often of a local or tactical character, such as "White to capture four black stones" or "White to live in the corner".
Two versions of the board were posted by Randall: both had white after e3, d4, Nf3, Nc3, but the first with an extra bishop at e4 ( [email protected] ), the second after Bd2.
It is unclear who has gone first. In Go it is traditional for black to go first, while in Chess it has been traditional for white to go first for about a century. Indeed, both players have made five moves, although the caption/"punchline" implies it is the start of white's sixth turn; though if black did go first, none of his/her pieces are in the 3-3 handicap positions marked on a 9×9 Go board.
The title text refers to the (at the time) upcoming 2013 World Chess Championship between Carlsen and Anand. Magnus Carlsen is (at publishing of this comic) a 23 year old Norwegian chess grandmaster. Viswanathan Anand is (at publishing time) a 44 year old Indian grandmaster. Both have been (and as of 2019 are) among the world top chess players.
The game transcript in the title text refers to the ending of the famous Opera Game between Paul Morphy and the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. That game ends with 16. Qb8+ Nxb8 17. Rd8#. In the title text, Black continues to make moves as if he has not been checkmated, over White's protests. After White uses his rook to capture Black's king to emphasize the checkmate, Black defiantly writes "0-1" (the notation symbolizing a Black victory) on his scoresheet. When informed that his move cannot be to declare victory, he flips the board. "0-1" may also represent a position on a go board (first down on the top left corner) in certain coordinates systems .
The game transcript is written in standard algebraic notation . The destination square is represented by a lowercase letter (a-h, on the x-axis) and a number (1-8, on the y-axis), with the bottom-left square being a1 and the top-right square being h8. The uppercase letters refer to the piece that is moving to that square (e.g., Q = Queen, K = King, N = Knight, R = Rook), so Qa1 would mean moving the Queen to the bottom-left square. The absence of an uppercase letter refers to a pawn's move (e.g., "f6" means moving a pawn to f6). If the move captures a piece, an "x" is inserted between the piece and the destination (e.g., Nxb8). Checks are indicated by +, and checkmate by #.
[A game board with 8×8 white squares and black borders, like a go board or an all white chessboard, there are white chess pieces in starting position on the bottom after e3, d4, Nf3, Nc3, Bd2 and five black Go pieces on the vertices in the center of the board at d4 d5 c6 g4 g6.] [Caption below the frame:] White to continue insisting this is a chessboard


Substitutions

Explanation:
This is the first comic in the Substitution series where Randall has suggested substitutions that will make reading the news more fun. But there have been several comics using substitutions both before and after these ones.
The series as of 2016:
Randall is playing off of the fact that many readers of modern news articles quickly become bored with the legal and political jargon. He suggests that substituting certain words for others can make reading the article more interesting, albeit less accurate. Although since Randall doesn't think very highly of the news, he's probably suggesting this chart wouldn't make them less accurate at all. (See for instance 558: 1000 Times and 932: CIA .)
For example, a sentence that reads
Witnesses reported that the suspect allegedly escaped unharmed.
would be changed to
These dudes I know reported that the suspect kinda probably escaped unharmed.
This substitution does not change the meaning much, and the original sentence does not lose much of its accuracy. However, for substitutions later in the comic, a sentence may be changed as follows:
A new study finds that senators and other congressional leaders are increasingly likely to view election results on their smartphone.
into
A Tumblr post finds that elf-lords and other river spirits are increasingly likely to view eating contest results on their Pokédex.
Which is less meaningful, but more interesting.
The final substitution returns from the realm of the ridiculous to replacing "could not be reached for comment" with "is guilty and everyone knows it." If a journalist writes a story about an accused suspect but is unable to contact them or receives no response from them, they will write that the person "could not be reached for comment." Randall's whimsical assumption that silence implies guilt is so common that juries are instructed that they should not infer guilt if the defendant fails to testify, particularly in nations that have a right against self-incrimination.
Chrome and Firefox extensions are available for applying the substitutions on webpages.
'Spaaace' could be a reference to the Space Core from Portal 2 , or to the way The Muppet Show presented Pigs in Spaaace .
The Virtual Boy is a table-top video game console made by Nintendo released in 1995 and discontinued about the same year. It achieved true-3D graphics through the use of a large visor containing a pair of LED screens, though it considered having done so incredibly poorly, while also lacking any form of ergonomic comfort and sporting several critical design flaws. As a result, it is commonly mocked as one of Nintendo's biggest failures (sometimes by Nintendo itself).
The Pokédex is a device in the Pokémon world that records the data of captured Pokémon.
Homestar Runner is the title character of a Flash-animated web cartoon series, known for being an idiot.
It seems generally that Randall is no fan of Google Glass, which was also shown earlier in 1251: Anti-Glass and later in 1304: Glass Trolling . Thus explaining why Google Glass has such a ridiculous substitution as Virtual Boy . Google Glass has become a recurring theme in xkcd.
In the title text Elon Musk is mentioned. He is (amongst other things) the CEO of Tesla Motors , which produces electric cars. In the title text the sentence "Electric cars" was replaced by "atomic cats" according to the chart of the comic.
News reports about new studies ( Tumblr posts) are further lampooned in 1295: New Study , a comic posted two weeks later.
[Caption above the panel:] Substitutions that make reading the news more fun:
[A table of words/sentences on the left that changes into those on the left. Between each set of words, there is a gray arrow pointing from the right.]
Witnesses ➜ These dudes I know Allegedly ➜ Kinda probably New study ➜ Tumblr post Rebuild ➜ Avenge Space ➜ Spaaace Google Glass ➜ Virtual Boy Smartphone ➜ Pokédex Electric ➜ Atomic Senator ➜ Elf-lord Car ➜ Cat Election ➜ Eating contest Congressional leaders ➜ River spirits Homeland security ➜ Homestar Runner Could not be reached for comment ➜ Is guilty and everyone knows it