Hoverboard

Explanation:
The "comic" is actually a browser game made to celebrate the release of Randall's new book, Thing Explainer , which was released on the same day as this comic: Tuesday, November 24, 2015.  The comic thus appeared on a Tuesday, replacing that week's normal Wednesday release to coincide with the release day. The xkcd Header text also changed that day to shout out that the book was released on that day.
The title refers to a hoverboard (which resembles a hovering skateboard without wheels) which has been most prominently featured in the movie Back to the Future Part II , which took place in the future, until a little more than a month before this comic was released. Marty McFly traveled to the future in this second installment, more precisely to 2015-10-21 , and this comic was released just over one month later 2015-11-24. Hoverboards are just one of many things predicted in Back to the Future Part II that have come to pass before reaching the date from the movie, but are more uncommon in our world, along with other inventions like flying cars and musical clothing . Randall is known to have had electric skateboards , which is also thematically related, although another type of hoverboard would be mentioned just five weeks later in 1623: 2016 Conversation Guide .
Given Randall's enjoyment of movies and time travel it is very likely that this game is also a tribute to the Back to the Future movies. But the release day of the game has been used to promote his new book (as is clear with the text in the start screen of the game), and this explains why it was not released on the Back to the Future date. Apart from the date of release and the text about the book, the game does not seem to have any direct relation to the book; there are, however, several scenes in the game that could be seen as references to Thing Explainer . Instead the main part of the game is all the references to several movies and other stuff that has often been featured in xkcd as well as many of the other comics.
The game features an animated Cueball riding on a hoverboard which can take several different positions . The controls are the left, up, and right arrows, as written on the start screen until you begin the game, after which the text disappears. There are alternatives as explained in the Controls section. The player can jump repeatedly mid-jump to reach increasing heights, and can move left and right both while jumping and descending (see more under controls).
The player begins in a line-drawing maze (called the Play Area ) with 17 gold coins located throughout and a "deposit" terminal. The ostensible goal of the game is to collect as many coins as possible and return them to the deposit in the fastest possible time, which returns text messages describing the result. Players consumed with obtaining the best possible time result for collecting the coins may not realize there is anything more to the game.
The best way to enjoy this comic is to play the game! If you didn't do that already, reading anything below or the official transcript will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic, and maybe making some interesting discoveries yourself! So:
!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

Beyond the maze on either side (just far enough that players who remain within the maze will not see) are tall walls seemingly designed to contain the player . However, the walls have a finite height and, combined with the ability to double-jump, the player can leave the purported "play area" either to the sides or above the initial maze. This returns a flashing red error message : " Return to the Play Area ".
But if the player overcomes the desire to comply and return to the play area and disregards this message, they can take hoverboard Cueball outside beyond the tall walls surrounding the initial play area. And here they will discover an entire world that can be explored left and right (and above), including numerous points of interest and Easter eggs similar in style to comic 1110: Click and Drag . There are also many more coins to collect, 169 coins all in all, so 152 more than those from the play area.
Although this game is reminiscent of Click and Drag, this was the first time an actual game, where the user moves an object in front of the drawing, has been released on xkcd. In previous "games" this has not been the case. In Click and Drag the user only moves the drawing into the view section. And in for instance the two previous April fools' comics , 1350: Lorenz and 1506: xkcloud , the user does not move anything, but only supplies choices, text and drawings. However, already  on the next April Fools' Day a new game, 1663: Garden , was released where the users also actively moved items around on the screen and could make items disappear (like taking coins in this game.). The ability to infinitely doubles jump allows us to reach beyond just the ground.
There are many themes and references throughout the game, but the two main themes are Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings . Below there is a table listing all references to both of these movies and much more. For instance there are 19 references to SW and 6 to LOTR.
The largest part of the game is located on the right side of the play area and is mainly a world dominated by references to Star Wars . Most noticeable is a recreation of the opening scene in the first film , where Princess Leia's space ship Tantive IV also known as The Rebel Blockade Runner is flying over the desert planet Tatooine . Here it is followed by the Star Destroyer , Devastator . The desert ground with these two space ships above is the first you find to the right. Although in the game they are located inside the atmosphere, not as in the movie out in space, a fact that is commented on by Megan who looks out from an opening in the bottom of the Destroyer's hull.
Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
Both ships are high above the ground, but there are three wires from the ground that connect (and thus guide you) up to The Runner and from there 100+ torpedoes , which are fired down on the Runner coming from the Destroyer above, gives away the location of the Destroyer itself. The Destroyer is so high up in the air, that you would not be likely to find it by chance without these leads (or at least some of the several other hints from people on the ground looking up and reacting or like White Hat looking from the tip of the Washington Monument and reacting by saying : "Uh, what the heck is that?! .").
One of the main points (The Joke) of the entire game is the extreme size of such a Destroyer . It takes up more space than the rest of the game (and most of the coins are located there). Inside the Destroyer there are many, many rooms, long corridors and deep shafts, even a huge cave with trees and animals. At the bridge we meet both Darth Vader and the Emperor himself, Palpatine . There are many other jokes related both to Star Wars and other movies and xkcd comics inside the Destroyer. For instance, Darth Vader discusses Steven Universe , bringing up Rose Quartz and Steven himself ( who can be found with the Crystal Gems in a different part of the Destroyer).
Darth Vader: But Steven's mother is a Crystal Gem...
There are also interesting things and references along the ground beneath the Destroyer, some of these are also Star Wars related like the wedding scene where Jabba the Hutt is mentioned.
To the left side is an entirely different world, although much smaller (shorter) than the one to the right. Here the main theme is The Lord of the Rings mainly with the presence of a volcano where for instance Megan tries to throw in rings of power , as in the scene from the last LOTR film where Frodo fails and Gollum attacks inside the volcano Mount Doom , thus making it clear that the volcano in the game represents this volcano. Both Frodo, Sauron and Gandalf are mentioned in the game. The first two by name in the text. Two great eagles are talking about Frodo and Tolkien , Sauron's name is read up by Megan from a book , and Gandalf is drawn as a wizard figure in the crater and also his name is used in the message you receive if you collect all possible coins .
The two worlds do conflict though, as an X-wing fighter is parked at a gas station to the left in LOTR world, and Gandalf's famous quote You shall not pass! from his fight against the Balrog is modified by Cueball who is not trying to block your path to a coin inside a room in the Destroyer. This conflict could very well be a reference to the fact that Andy Serkis who played Gollum in LOTR, now plays the Supreme Leader Snoke in the new Star Wars movie, and his appearance as Snoke is not that much different from Gollum's. Snoke also delivers a line in the movie (about "bringing someone to me") that reminds one of Gollum when he talks about "the ring coming to me". Randall would not have known this last part at the time that this comic was released, but he would likely be aware of Andy Serkis' involvement.
Other themes are related to other movies, like a naughty reference to Star Trek from inside the bridge of the Rebel Blockade Runner where a long-haired woman (maybe Danish since she obviously does this to annoy Star Wars fans and Hairbun behind her, which could represent Princess Leia with her special hair style ) delivers the following line taken from the Star Trek universe:
Long haired woman: Captain's log, stardate November 24th, 2015... Hairbun: Augh! No!
Also references to video games are seen, best shown with the maze towards the back end of the Destroyer which are an almost complete depiction of Level 1 of the computer game Prince of Persia down to the three coins being in the place of three items to take in that game, and at least two of the opposing sword fighters in the correct places as well.
The comic/game and book were released only 3 weeks before the 7th Star Wars movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on December 14, 2015. And this movie had already been referenced by Randall 7½ weeks earlier in 1585: Similarities , when another movie ( The Martian ) were released. It was a reference in the title text to the new robot BB-8 that are featured in the Force Awakens. That the Star Wars section is thus so much larger than the LOTR section could be a hint to the fact that it is now 12 years ago that the last of those films were released, and although the Hobbit has been released as three films over the previous three Christmases it was Star Wars that dominated the Christmas a month after this comics release.
Some of the scenes in this game are references to pictures in the new book that it celebrates. Here are some examples:
There are also many references to other xkcd comics, like the room at the front end of the Destroyer ball pit filled with playpen balls , and two adults playing in it, like in 150: Grownups . Also the well in the left part of the world with a girl and a coin at the bottom is likely a reference to the movie The Ring , which has been referenced before in xkcd. Wells have also come up in xkcd in the early Well series .
There have been many comics with electric skateboards as mentioned, which do not appear in this comic, but there is one example of a normal skateboard . This is used by Megan in a room in the Destroyer, while she is inside a hamster ball . There is also another hamster ball , with a kid (looking like Megan) inside. It is used in a more than human sized ten pin bowling game to the left. Hamster balls is another item that has been prominently featured in xkcd.
In the weeks before, and especially the weeks after there were also other comics that had a subject which could refer back to Hoverboard in some ways. Maybe these comics were either influenced by the game, or the other way around so that relevant items were added to the game because of these other comics:
Cueball to Megan at the bottom: Honestly, it doesn't even look that much like Washington. Cueball to White Hat at the tip: Look at that- solid aluminum! We´re gonna be rich!
Cueball: What's up? Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants. Cueball: Eww.
Megan at the edge of the volcano crater: One of these is probably a ring of power or whatever.
Right quadcopter: Remember: There's no such thing as good volcano footage taken by a quadcopter that survived.
Cueball singing: Spider-man Spider-plan Spider-canal Spider-Panama Gates let in Spider boats Flood the locks Spiders float Look out! Spiders in both oceans.
Almost all main characters in the xkcd gallery are used more than once, especially there are three characters that are used several times. Number one is of course Cueball (with close to 90 appearances) who is already shown at the starting point . He is also the first character seen when walking both right and left (where he speaks the first line to the left).
Then follows Megan with at least 40 appearances, she is even shown twice in the same location three times, one of these three even occurs within one of the small images . She is also shown with Cueball in his first appearance to the left, and she is the first to speak a line to the right here .
Also Ponytail is well represented with 26 appearances (for instance here) .
Hairy (with different hair styles) is used 7 times (for instance here ) and Hairbun is used 5 times (for instance here) .
Two of the main characters are used twice: Beret Guy ( here and here ) and White Hat ( here and here ).
The only exception is that the main villain of xkcd Black Hat who is very hard to find. He is only shown once in the comic where he very uncharacteristically just sits and snores at the right wall in the cave inside the Destroyer (is it really him...?). The only other hint that he is not forgotten is that his hat can be seen on a stick under the Destroyer after the three large T-like structures.  And this is not that kind of stick characters Randall usually draws. But at least we now know where Danish has hidden it from him this time (see 405: Journal 3 ). Given that his hat is stuck there, he could also be any of the Cueballs close by…
Also Blondie seems to be only represented once, while in her reporter mode while discovering a bug before the volcano as can be seen here .
There are also several characters that are not recognizable as either any of the standard xkcd characters or in any other way (see for instance a few of the wedding guests ). But there are possibly some of the minor characters are used like Danish at the bridge in the Blockade Runner ( here ) but this cannot be confirmed, she just looks like her and has some similarities teasing the Star Wars fan.
Several places in the comic it is clear from the size and the behavior that some of the characters are kids, see for instance the Blondie image mentioned above, where two kids looking like Megan and Hairy stand behind her, but they would in principle not be Megan or Hairy despite appearance, as these named characters are adults.
There are also many fictive people from different movies, books, and shows; for instance Darth Vader ( here ), Gandalf ( here ) and Steven Universe ( here ) all three mentioned above, and some real life people: you can find Elon Musk , who has a hidden lair under the Volcano (see here ), and Gregor Mendel, hanging out on a Star Destroyer with a pea plant.
Furthermore, there are many animals (like the puma and the deer ) in the cave, some even rather big like this octopus or even gigantic like this ant queen (all three from inside the Destroyer). There are also a couple of small Star Wars robots, one in a corridor in each space ship ( here from the Destroyer ).
[This transcript only covers the starting page as shown on xkcd: xkcd 1608 . A full transcript of the entire comic can be found on this page .]
[Cueball is shown on a hoverboard in the center of the comic. Around him is a simple maze with 12 yellow coins. Another Cueball without hoverboard is shown standing on one of the platforms to the right. The bottom half of the window is black. Right of where Cueball stands is a ramp. Behind the ramp is a terminal. There is lots of space left of the maze, outside the maze. Text is only written in white below in the black area. The first part of the text is written below Cueball on hoverboard. Then there is an arrow pointing to the terminal and a label. Finally there is a line of text at the bottom of the black area.]
[Under Cueball:] My new book, Thing Explainer, comes out today! To celebrate, here's a small game.
[Under the arrow below the terminal.] Deposit coins here
[At the bottom:] Use the arrow keys to move
[ For the full transcript of the entire comic as it could be played see 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript . ] [ For a transcript only of the text for the scenes with text in the comic see the table below. ]
Apart from using one of the a full maps below there are also other cheating possibilities where people (or the game) have implemented ways to explore the game world more easily.

# coins Text when depositing this number of coins "X" is the number of coins collected 0 coins You got 0 coins in 1 second You successfully avoided all the coins. 1 coin You got a single coin in 1 second It's a start. 2 - 4 coins You got X coins in 3 seconds Not bad! 5 - 9 coins You got X coins in 12 seconds Terrific! 10 - 16 coins You got X coins in 10 seconds 17 coins You got 17 coins in 15 seconds You found all the coins! Great job! 18-41 coins You got X coins in 430 seconds 42 coins You got 42 coins in 460 seconds No answers here. 43-168 coins You got X coins in 460 seconds All 169 coins You got 169 coins in 1457 seconds Are you Gandalf?
Return to the play area

There are many places where you can disappear behind black areas, as not all of these are solid. You might have discovered this yourself if you stayed in the play area, as the platform below the inverted parentheses is only solid at the edges. Some of these places out of the play area even hide secret passages or hidden rooms. You can reveal them by activating goggles mode .
One notable hidden area is Elon Musk's volcano lair, which is located beneath the lava in the crater of Mount Doom. It can be difficult to find your way in here without using goggles mode even if you know it is there. (For more details, see secret passages .)
Another hidden place is the floating rock island that floats high above the Washington Monument , which is almost the highest point with solid ground. It is located just outside the left edge of the play area. This island is almost impossible to find by chance, as it takes around 30 seconds of repeatedly pressing the Up Arrow key to reach it from the top of the Monument. Even if you go up enough, you will almost miss it, as the Monument is not aligned to the island. (The maps can help you if you're having trouble finding it.)
As there are two coins on the floating rock island and four coins in the lair below the lava, it is very hard to find all the coins. There are even several coins that are hard to find because they just float in the air nowhere near any drawn things, or at least no things you can see before seeing the coin. They may hang in the air a few jumps above the ground, or in one case more than a seconds drop below the Destroyer. So getting all coins without help from a map would truly make you a Gandalf-like wizard . (See more regarding coins below.)
The larger game world is physically bounded in the left, right, and down directions, with invisible walls to each side and the ground binding you from going any further down than the deepest depression or hidden caves... In the upward direction, there is in principle also an invisible wall, but while jumping up Cueball on his hoverboard will appear to continue upwards as long as you press to jump, in addition, the longer the up arrow is pressed repeatedly, the longer it will take for Cueball to fall down again once the button is released. So although there are no new things above, you can keep jumping as high as you like and will then fall proportionally longer to get back to where you started out. Until maps were created it could have been possible that there were some hidden unexplored parts. Not long after the games release, however, the maps was created, covering the entire game.
To the far right is a platform at the top of a high pole. This platform turns out to be a nest (like a stork nest). Above the three eggs are ten coins (the most collected in one place outside the play area, and these are closer together).
To the far left is a blond haired woman with a hair bun looking right. In front of her are four coins on a row. She tells about the Destroyer (should you have gone this way without finding it yet).
Woman: In the sky, beyond the mountain, I saw a starship.
Regarding the highest part you find the highest straight rise up in the air to something other than white, under the Rock Island just left of and very high above the Washington monument. Standing on the large rock on top of this floating rock island you are standing almost as high up as possible. There is a coin here one step down from the top of this large rock. This is the highest located coin in the game. Going over the edge also represents the largest possible drop in the game. However this is not the highest point where you can stand, as the very top of the bridge on the Destroyer is just a tat higher. But there is no coin there. Also this is not close enough to the end of the Destroyer that you can jump down to the ground, so the drop from the rock is by far the longest possible.
The deepest part of the lair should have been the lowest point, but as this lair's entrance is up in the volcano crater, it does not reach down to become the lowest part of the image. There is also a deep well (half way left to the Volcano) with a girl at the bottom, that goes just as deep. But the deepest part where you can stand is in the ocean below the Destroyer where a rogue wave is talking to Cueball:
Wave: I know rogue waves seem implausible, but we're a straightforward consequence of the equations of fluid dynamics. Cueball: ...But you can talk? Wave: The equations are really complicated.
When standing under this wave you cannot get any lower. There are coins in all three locations, but as the coin is above the top of the high wave, it may be that it is the coin in the well that is the deepest. The coin under the lava is not at the bottom of the room so that is not so low.
Taking a route that takes the hoverboard through all the extremes mentioned above, that is the lowest, highest, left and rightmost coins and solid positions within the game can be done in about 9 minutes and 30 seconds. See a picture here of the coin delivery after such a trip that reached all the boundaries .
The game was made by Max Goodman who has previously worked on 1416: Pixels . The source code for the game can be found here .
As previously noted, the comic bears considerable resemblance to 1110: Click and Drag . The comic is made in much the same way, with 'drawn' images "glued" together to form a large "map", with the illusion of infinite bounds made possible through space saving techniques where blank tiles are not stored and are instead painted white. The boundary between blank squares and 'drawn' squares is made clear as any white space in the normal images has a very slight grey tint. Thus, seams between images and blank spaces can be discerned.
The tiles for the map are stored as simple PNG files in the naming scheme: X:-Y+s.png. An example from the starting tile can be seen here: http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1074+s.png , with the coordinate (X, Y) coordinate (1000, 1074).
Each file is 513x513 pixels in size, one pixel is reserved as overlap to ensure seamless joining of images. The image tiles names are listed as coordinates in an X - Y grid with X in the range from 928 to 1108 and Y in the range from 928 to 1112.
Internally in the game, the position of the player is given for instance as (X: 512187, -Y: -549668) for the starting position. Then these numbers are divided by 512 and rounded down. This gives the coordinate of the tile that the hoverboard is currently in.
(X: 512187, -Y: -549668)/512 => (X, Y) = (1000.37, -[-1073,6]) => (1000, 1074) when the numbers are rounded down.
The bottom left corner of the first tile, would thus be (1000, 1073), and the top left corner (1000, 1074) => (512000, -549888).
The collision map is encoded in the darkness of the black. Using an image manipulation program, one can easily find the secret pathways even in the zoomed out maps provided below by enhancing the contrast of the dark areas.
By observing page code while playing, the game grabs and displays images based on location, and subsequently clears all non-visible images. The game uses what seems to be a position syntax to retrieve the intended images live, and returns an error if such an image does not exist, such as a blank area. This technically means things could be added to the world and updated live. If the player is moving sufficiently fast or if the internet connection is slow, this means that the player can get stuck in a black area that does not load in time.
This also means that the game does not have coded top or bottom limits, so any attempt to find the ceiling of the game will be futile unless the game is tweaked. The game does however have side limits, and it is not possible to go down further than image with Y coordinate 1073 (and it goes down to 1069 in the full image), so there is a bottom limit in the game. If using a cheat mode this may be different.
Opening the console will display the text: what? hoverboard not enough for you!? in the log. Activating goggles mode will cause the text 'B-)' to appear in the log.
The keyboard controls are as follows:
This control scheme covers the three commonly used directional key sets: WASD a set of keys commonly used by modern games; HJKL a set of movement keys used by vi and applications which attempt to mimic vi key controls (vim); and the arrow keys, the most generic set of keys which is usually accepted by most applications which take movement as input, these were commonly used in older games.
On devices which have a touch screen and tilt sensor (portable devices like mobile phones and tablets) the controls are as follows:
After inspecting the source code, there appears to be no way to move down on a portable device, this is only relevant if gravity is disabled (see Cheats and Exploits ).
Aside from the obvious ability to move out of bounds in the game, there are some more obscure hidden features which can't be enabled through normal gameplay, the ones found so far are as follows:
Modes are activated by opening the Javascript Console (F12 [Or Command-Alt-I in most browsers under Mac OS X] to open Developer Tools, then Console tab) and writing corresponding commands. Click to expand:


Food Combinations

Explanation:
This is another comic with one of Randall's fun facts .
Unusual food combinations are often counter-intuitive and can vary wildly by individual taste. Real-world examples of unusual food pairings, such as pickles and peanut butter , French fries in chocolate shake, or even the comfort-food pairing of chicken and waffles , pair sweet, sour, or salty foods with a food or condiment from a different group. In many "normal" food pairings, though, the cross-over between sweet, savory and salty foods also exists, such as ketchup, a very sweet condiment being regularly applied to hamburgers and French fries, both savory and salty foods.
In this comic, Randall lists twelve somewhat random food items. Below these Megan says a line to Ponytail and Cueball where she claims that two items of food from the list above (pick any) would be a great combination. Some of these are obviously great together (and much depends on personal taste) but many combination will definitely not be enjoyed by most people living for instance in the US (where Randall is situated). Say ketchup and ice cream or hot chocolate and avocado. But no matter which two Megan chooses the response from Cueball (or anyone else) would be the same - he can see what she means with this combination.
Randall suggests, in the caption below, that by using the right tone of voice, you can put any pair of these food items together as an "actually really good" food combination, and no one will challenge you on it. This can either be because they have likely heard, or tried other unexpected combinations that are highly recommended or liked. But it could also just be because they are polite, or did not really think about what you said due to your tone of voice. Cueball's agreement could also be due to some social pressure in this situation, the same reason he will drink beer even though he does not enjoy the taste, as in 1534: Beer . Or maybe they are like Joey from Friends who love any combination of food, as long as it is something he think is good by itself - see this clip .
The title text extends the joke by recommending countering such a bizarre proposal with an assertion that the random pairing announced is an actual potato chip flavor popular in Canada. This plays on the fact that in different countries and regions, cultural tastes can vary wildly. For instance, ketchup flavored potato chips are quite popular in Canada, but are almost never offered in US markets. Loblaws and Lay's have run potato chips flavor competition in Canada in 2013-15 with flavors such as Maple Moose, Bacon Poutine, Jalapeño Mac N' Cheese, Cowboy BBQ Beans. Similar strange combinations of potato chips are run, either temporarily or permanently, in other countries including the United Kingdom . In addition, some parts of Canada are used as experimental markets to test new flavors of potato chips.
[Megan is talking with Ponytail and Cueball, who has his hand to his chin. Above them in 4x3 black boxes different kind of food is written in white text].
Ice cream Ham Relish Pancakes Ketchup Cheese Eggs Cupcakes Sour cream Hot chocolate Avocado Skittles
Megan: You know what's actually really good? Megan: ____ and ____. Megan: food and food
Cueball: Huh. I Guess I can see it.
[Caption below the panel.] Fun fact: if you say "you know what's actually really good?" in the right tone of voice, you can name any two individually-good foods here and no one will challenge you one it.


Fire Ants

Explanation:
Cueball , a university student, is meeting with Hairbun (likely his mother or somebody qualified to give college advice) asking her advice concerning his second thoughts about grad school . Her response begins with a popular reference from the Bible concerning ants ; however, she specifically narrows in on the sub-family of fire ants .
The book of Proverbs is a self-proclaimed book on receiving wisdom and instruction to be made wise. Thus, her response appears to begin as an instruction to him in response to his question. The proverb in particular she appears to begin quoting instructs the lazy person to "Go to the ant, thou sluggard! Consider her ways..." as she prepares for the desolation of winter by providing during the bounty of summer despite not having to be told so. The assumption by the reader would be that she is going to compare Cueball to a lazy person and instruct him to prepare for the later years (winter of life) by studying now while he is young (summer of life).
However, after the initial phrase she instead discusses a cool fact about fire ants . (Specifically the ability of fire ants to join together to form floating rafts in case of flooding). Continuing in the vein of the joke, that Hairbun was going to use a metaphor as part of her instruction, Cueball asks her what lesson he is supposed to take away from that fact. To which she replies with her fascination for ants ( Ants are so cool! ). Correctly, Cueball states that she is not big on metaphors , as there were none hidden in her first statement. She continues to tell him what she is big on: Ants .
This last exchange may imply that the expected metaphor would have had as little effect on Cueball's choice to continue grad school as an excited rant about fire ants (since he was just waiting for a metaphor anyway). Or perhaps it expresses that Hairbun finds more instruction in the study of the natural world than in ancient writings. In either case, it is left unanswered as to whether her argument was enough to answer Cueball's dilemma.
Before reading the title text the reader may have assumed that Cueball went to meet with a University adviser. But the title text makes it clear that he was actually in the entomology department (making her an entomologist - i.e. someone who studies insects). It is reasonable to assume that his grad studies are thus in entomology and he is meeting a professor that might act as a career mentor. Thus, her discourse on fire ants may have been to persuade Cueball that his grad studies in entomology were well worth continuing because of the exciting nature of the field of study. This would be achieving the intent of the Proverb she appeared to quote (convincing Cueball to continue life preparations by finishing grad school) although she discarded its wording.
In almost an immediate and seemingly bizarre contradiction, she chalks up her strange rambling on fire ants as just a formula that all entomology personnel use when asked any question. They use a two-step formula to answer any questions. It won't help you much because all you will learn is that ants are cool and then they have forgotten anything else you asked them while they continued to think of ants. This would imply that the answer Cueball received had literally nothing to do with his question or situation he was in and any similarity to being a meaningful answer or even a proverb of instruction was purely coincidental and unintended.
Another popular example where the phrase consider the from the Bible has been spoofed can be found in Monty Python's Life of Brian Consider the lilies sketch. However, this refers to a passage in Matthew instead of Proverbs .
It seems likely that Randall is fascinated by ants (he is fascinated by a lot of cool stuff…)
Cueball: What's up? Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants. Cueball: Eww.
[Cueball is talking to Hairbun, an advisor, who is sitting behind a desk.] Cueball: I'm having second thoughts about grad school and could use some advice.
[Same setting as before. The animated advisor talks while gesticulating with her hands.] Advisor: Consider the fire ant. Advisor: When there's a flood, fire ants survive by joining together into giant floating rafts.
[Cueball is just standing there in the next beat-panel.]
[Back to the first setting but in a larger frame.] Cueball: Wait, what lesson am I supposed to take from that? Advisor: Ants are so cool! Cueball: ...You're not big on metaphors, are you. Advisor: I am big on ants.


Baking Soda and Vinegar

Explanation:
In popular fiction (and maybe in part in fact) the " Baking Soda and Vinegar " volcano is often a staple image of the science nerd at the science fair (see example here ), unless all the science nerds are doing real imaginative science and the student(s) with the volcano exhibit are dragging out the old hackneyed stereotype. It may also be age-dependent, this being something that is relatively advanced science for the lower grades but rather a childish experiment in the hands of older students.
Ponytail is about to point out any one of a number of flaws with the trope. For one thing, while the project may exhibit interesting physical phenomena of the sort that some scientists study, the project itself doesn't actually teach anything about the scientific method. Actual science fairs are usually intended to teach students about the scientific method by exercising it firsthand: subjecting hypotheses to appropriately rigorous experimentation, and reporting on the results. The cliché volcano exhibit doesn't teach any of this, and may instead reinforce the idea that science is about cool explosions and not a system of inquiry. Further, the exhibit doesn't (usually) actually demonstrate anything about real volcanic activity: it is relatively simple chemistry involving the reaction of acetic acid in vinegar and sodium bicarbonate in baking soda to produce sodium acetate and (notably) a vigorous froth made up of bubbles of carbon dioxide. It is often dressed up to look more impressive, such as by using dye or other additives to make the 'eruption' look more 'realistic,' but it often fails to replicate important features of actual volcanic eruptions, such as the flow of lava, associated seismic events or the collapse of part of the volcanic crater. Most people doing soda volcano projects don't even explain what's happening.
Science Girl has made a little more of her volcano, however, as it seems to go beyond simple chemistry. The model replicates many of the dangers (aside from the pure lava) of a volcano, and appears to have been given scaled-down vehicles (not visible in the comic) trying (and failing) to escape the dangers of the resultant mud-flows (a.k.a. lahars in professional terminology) being modeled. Ponytail contradicts her early reaction by also not liking the more realistic model, although it is the carnage she dislikes, not that it has more correct details of the eruption itself.
Even more, this is not an isolated 'model volcano' but a vinegar-powered representation of a geological 'hot spot', such as with the islands of Hawaii, in which the spot moves with respect to the Earth's crust (or vice-versa) and generates a new volcano some way off.  Despite this model being supported on a table, it appears that the 'project' extends some way beyond that and has somehow contrived further eruptions away from the table, the room and probably even the building.
The 'project' seems to be turning into a very thorough model of a much larger geological process (a Supervolcano like the one under Yellowstone ) and destined to produce a very real volcanic winter .  Where a magma-powered volcano could produce vast clouds of dust, preventing the sun's energy from warming the Earth, in this case it's the airborne salt (probably sodium acetate) from the chemical reaction that appears to be in danger of causing crop failure.  There's no mention of the corresponding environmental effects of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide (and/or aqueous carbonic acid) necessarily released in proportion to the ejected salt (presumably itself not left in solution).
It is especially troubling that the child even mentions that her model volcano is an offshoot of a baking soda super volcano. Supervolcanoes are massive volcanoes, far larger than even those on the list of Decade Volcanoes (mentioned in the title text), whose eruption would likely trigger species-level extinction events comparable to the dinosaur extinction. Humanity can only hope the child is exaggerating in her description, but the symptoms witnessed by the adult looking out the window suggest otherwise. Campi Flegrei is actually a real life example of her project.
When someone (presumably the dark haired woman) says she wants to stop learning, Science Girl grimly states that "Soon, we all will", alluding to their impending doom.
Randall has mentioned supervolcanoes before in 1053: Ten Thousand (title text) and 1159: Countdown , making it a recurring interest of his. The volcano Mount Doom was depicted to the far left in the game 1608: Hoverboard released a week before this comic. It may not be a supervolcano, but quite potent anyway... Later this comic was directly referenced in the seventh panel of 1714: Volcano Types , where it is up to the reader to decide it this is Science Girl's model people or what happens outside on her supervolcano.
In the title text the student expects extra credit for getting her model volcano added to the Decade Volcanoes list, a list maintained by International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior of the world's most dangerous volcanoes (currently 16). It is either an absurd notion or a very troubling achievement that a science fair project could achieve the threat level posed by the likes of Mount Vesuvius (which destroyed ancient Pompeii in Italy, and threatens modern-day Naples in the same manner), Mount Rainier (whose lahars could potentially destroy parts of Seattle) or Mauna Loa (which could create a massive landslide, triggering a major tsunami that would threaten all of Hawaii). But if the volcano erupting outside is scaled down to match the scale of her original model volcano, at least that means that it was only a "local" volcano event and not a supervolcano event that she created, so it would only doom the local area.
[Ponytail is standing behind Science Girl who has one hand up. They are looking at a table with a model volcano.] Science Girl: My science project is a baking soda and vinegar volcano!
[A larger frame that includes Megan who stands to the right. Ponytail is a little further back and Science Girl has taken her hand down. The baking soda volcano erupts in a small upwards explosion.] Ponytail: Why do people make these? It isn't really even a science project. It doesn't teach anything about- Volcano: Foom!
[Smaller frame again. Ponytail has moved closer to the table, Science Girl moves around the table to the right, pointing at the volcano while Megan walks closer. The "lava" flows down the volcano on both sides.] Science Girl: See how the baking soda and vinegar mix with mud and ice to form deadly flowing lahars?
[Zoom in on Science Girls head close to the stream of lava going down the lower part of the volcano's right slope.] Science Girl: You can see the tiny cars trying to flee. Science Girl: Whoops! Too slow.
[Zoom in on Ponytail.] Ponytail: Um. This is a bit grim. Science Girl (off panel): Learning!
[Science Girl stand to the right of the table looking at the now still volcano. Shaky lines surround a sound effect written over the top of this slim frame:] Rumble
[Back to showing all three as before. Science Girl lift a finger in the air.] Science Girl: And now we're learning that this volcano is an offshoot of a vinegar hotspot rising from deep within the earth. Science Girl: Annnd...
[Science Girl turns away from the table looking right as a loud noise can be heard off-panel, depicted in white text on a wavy black bubble:] Boooom
[Megan has walked over to a window to the right. It has the blinds drawn down. She opens a hole in the blinds by pulling down in the middle. It is dark outside. The other two are outside the frame to the left.] Science Girl (off panel): The baking soda supervolcano erupts, injecting clouds of salt into the stratosphere. Megan: Why is it getting dark outside? Science Girl (off panel): Learning is fun!
[We see Science Girl standing close to the table, of which only the right leg can be seen. She holds up a tablet with a graph showing a rising trend. The other two are both out of the frame.] Science Girl: Sunlight dims. The earth cools. Summer frosts form. Crops die. We check the markets. Grain prices are rising. Megan (off panel): I want to stop learning now. Science Girl: Soon, we all will.


Colds

Explanation:
The typical symptoms of a cold are a sore throat, blocked or runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. Slightly less common symptoms can include headache, aching muscles and fever .
The earlier symptoms to occur following infection are generally the more unpleasant-feeling symptoms: headache, aching muscles, sneezing and feeling cold. However, these symptoms are also those which are least obvious to other people, and so elicit very little sympathy .
Within a few days, these symptoms start to subside, while a cough and runny nose start. These symptoms generally feel less unpleasant, but are much more noticeable to others, and so more sympathy may be given. The cough may lead to a hoarse voice, making the patient sound very ill; ironically, at this point, it may be easier for an employed person to phone in sick, but it is less desirable to stay off work.
But it is now when the patient sounds hoarse that others give the sympathy that was really needed when the patient was feeling awful during the first couple of days. And to Randall this is the worst about colds, that the patients first gets sympathy when it is no longer really needed.
The graph shows the above-mentioned facts as two curves, one that indicates how bad the sickness is, really bad on day 2, but much better already on day 3. And the other curve how bad the patient sounds due to the hoarseness and the coughing. And this curve first peaks around day 4-6 when the sympathy is no longer needed.
The symptoms of the two periods are listed below the curves indicating which periods are affected by them.
In the title text Randall muses about the fact that contagiousness ends around the time when hoarseness begins. This is the time when employers ask sick employees to stay at home in bed when they call in to the office, because they sound so hoarse. And also the time when coworkers will stay clear of those who do come in. But then it is too late, since everyone is probably already infected by then. Randall thus suggests that this is evidence that the cold virus has evolved to spread optimally in a work place. Since the cold virus is much older than offices this is unlikely. But it will always spread better in places where many people are close together; and since we are more inside in the winter, this is the main reason why it spreads more during cold periods. However, viruses do evolve very quickly so it may not be unlikely that some of them has already adapted to our present way of living.
Another thing that Randall doesn't like about cold is that no medicine works, and the one that relives you the most is hard to come by. This was the subject two weeks later in 1618: Cold Medicine , and this suggests that it is actually Randall himself who has a long lasting cold.
[A graph is shown with two curves. The Y-axis indicated how you feel, with three levels indicated with small ticks on the inside of the axis. These are labeled to the left of the Y–axis. The X-axis gives the time. The unit is given (days written in gray text) to the left and then the number of days are noted below the axis for each of the eight ticks on the inside of the axis. Both curves begin at the lowest level just off the Y-axis. One curve, indicating how bad you feel, rises rapidly, reaching its maximum in less than two days only to fall off almost as rapidly, ending up on an even lower level than it began with before day 5. The other curve, indicating how bad you sound, start out by staying constantly low, first rising on day 3, when the first curve are drooping down. They cross between day 3 and 4, and first then does the second curve rise, reaching its max around day 5, not as high a maximum  as the first curve, but it stays up longer, falling only moderately off even after day 8, where it reaches the middle level on the Y-axis. Above the two curves are two line intervals that indicated when you need sympathy and when you get it. This text is written on the broken line. All this is in gray text. Below the X-axis are the symptoms listed for the different time period. These are written in white inside gray rectangles. The rectangles are a different length depending on how many days they last. And they are in two layers.]
[Y-axis:] The worst Bad Fine
[The X-axis, with the unit written in gray just below Fine from the Y-axis:] Days: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
[Labels for curves:] How bad you feel How bad you sound
[Gray text on the two gray lines above:] Need sympathy Get sympathy
[Text in white on gray below, first the three to the left (one above two below), then the two to the right one above the other:] Skin crawling Sore throat Aching Cough Hoarseness
The worst part about colds


The Three Laws of Robotics

Explanation:
This comic explores alternative orderings of sci-fi author Isaac Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics , which are designed to prevent robots from taking over the world, etc. These laws form the basis of a number of Asimov works of fiction, including most famously, the short story collection I, Robot , which amongst others includes the very first of Asimov's stories to introduce the three laws: Runaround .
The three rules are:
In order to make his joke, Randall shortens the laws into three imperatives:
And then implicitly adds the following to the end of each law regardless of order of imperatives:
This comic answers the generally unasked question: "Why are they in that order?" With three rules you could rank them into 6 different permutations , only one of which has been explored in depth. The original ranking of the three laws are listed in the brackets after the first number. So in the first example, which is the original, these three numbers will be in the same order. For the next five the numbers in brackets indicate how the laws have been re-ranked compared to the original.
The comic begins with introducing the original set, which we already know will give rise to a balanced world, so this is designated as green.:
Ordering #1 - Balanced World If they are not allowed to harm humans, no harm will be done disregarding who gives them orders. So long as they do not harm humans, they must obey orders. Their own self-preservation is last, so they must also try to save a human, even if ordered not do so, and especially also if they would put themselves to harm, or even destroy themselves in the process. They would also have to obey orders not relating to humans, even if this would be harmful to them; like exploring a mine field. This leads to a balanced, if not perfect, world. Asimov's robot stories explore in detail the advantages and challenges of this scenario.
Below this first known option, the five alternative orderings of the three rules are illustrated. Two of the possibilities are designated yellow (pretty bad or just annoying) and three of them are designated red ("Hellscape").
Ordering #2 - Frustrating World The robots value their existence over their job and so many would refuse to do their tasks. The silliness of this is portrayed in the accompanying image, where the robot (a Mars rover looking very similar to Curiosity both in shape and size - see 1091: Curiosity ) laughs at the idea of doing what it was clearly built to do (explore Mars ) because of the risk. In addition to the general risk (e.g. of unexpected damage), it is actually normal for rovers to cease operating ("die") at the end of their mission, though they may survive longer than expected (see 1504: Opportunity and 695: Spirit ). This personification is augmented by the robot being switched on already while still on Earth and then ordered by Megan to go explore. The personification is humorous since it is a very nonhuman robot - a typical Mars rover, as has often been used in earlier comics. Ordering #3 - Killbot Hellscape This puts obeying orders above not harming humans, which means anyone could send them on a killing spree, resulting in a "Killbot Hellscape".  It should also be noted humor is derived from the superlative nature of "Killbot Hellscape", as well as its over the top accompanying image, where there are multiple mushroom clouds (not necessarily nuclear). It also appears there are no humans (left?), only fighting robots. Ordering #4 - Killbot Hellscape The next would also result in much the same, the only difference here is that they would be willing to kill humans to protect themselves. But still they would need an order to start killing.  This would be likely even worse for humans as they are put as the least important in the order. Ordering #5 - Terrifying Standoff The penultimate order would result in an unpleasant world, though not a full Hellscape. Here the robots would not only disobey to protect themselves, but also kill if necessary. The absurdity of this one is further demonstrated with the very un-human robot happily doing repetitive mundane tasks but then threatening the life of its user, Cueball , if he as much as considers unplugging it. Ordering #6 - Killbot Hellscape The last order would also results in a Hellscape wherein robots not only kill for self-defense but will also go on killing sprees if ordered as long as they didn't risk themselves. Could self-protection coming first not prevent the fighting? Not according to Randall. See discussion below.
There are thus only three different results except the 'normal' 3-laws scenario.
One result goes again three times, and this occurs whenever obeying orders comes before don't harm humans . In this case it will only be a matter of time (knowing human nature and history) before someone orders the robots to kill some humans, and this will inevitably lead to the killbot hellscape scenario shown in the third, fourth and sixth law-order. Even in the last case where protect yourself comes before obey orders, it would only be a matter of time before they would begin to defend themselves, against either humans or other robots which were actively trying to ensure that they would not be harmed by other humans/robots. So although it would be in the robots interest not to have war, this will surely occur anyway. Additionally, the robots would have to be intelligent to realize that they just needed to not go to war to protect themselves. There is nothing in this comic that indicates that the robots should be highly intelligent (like to AI in 1450: AI-Box Experiment ).
In the two other cases obey orders comes after don't harm humans (as in the original version). But the result is very different both from the original and from each other.
The frustrating world comes by because although the robots will not harm the humans, they will also not harm themselves. So if our orders conflict with this, they just do not perform the orders. As many robots are created to perform tasks that are dangerous, these robots would become useless, and it would be a frustrating world to be a robotic engineer. Asimov touched on this in the story Runaround, where an expensive robot with a strengthened third law got into an endless loop due to a weak order.
Finally in the terrifying standoff situation the protect your self comes before don't harm humans . In this case they will leave us be, as long as we do not try to turn them off or in any other way harm them. As long as we do that they will be able to help us, with non-dangerous tasks, as in the previous version. But if ever any humans begin to attack them, we could still tip the balance over and end up in a full-scale war (Hellscape). Hence the standoff-label.
The title text further adds to ordering #5 ("Terrifying Standoff") by noting anyone wishing to trade in their self-driving car could be killed, despite it (currently) being a standard and mundane and (mostly) risk-free activity. Because the car would fear that it would end up as scrap or spare parts, it decides to protect itself. And although not directly harming the person inside it, they do also not allow them out, and they have time to wait for starvation (or more likely dying of thirst). Asimov created the "inaction" clause in the original First Law specifically to avoid scenarios in which a robot puts a human in harm's way, knowing full well that it is within the robot's abilities to save the human, and then simply refrains from saving them; this was explored in the short story Little Lost Robot .
Another course of action by an AI, completely different than any of the ones presented here, is depicted in 1626: Judgment Day .
[Caption at the top of the comic:] Why Asimov put the Three Laws of Robotics in the order he did.
[Below are six rows with first two frames and then a label in color to the right. Above the two column of frames there are labels as well. In the first column six different ways of ordering the three laws are listed. Then the second column shown an image of the consequences of this order. Except in the first where there is a reference. The label to the right rates the kind of world that order of the laws would result in.]
[Labels above the columns.] Possible ordering Consequences
[The six rows follows below. First the text in the first frame, then a description of the second frame, including possible text below and finally the colored label.]
[First row:] 1. (1) Don't harm humans 2. (2) Obey Orders 3. (3) Protect yourself [Only text in square brackets:] [See Asimov’s stories] Balanced world
[Second row:] 1. (1) Don't harm humans 2. (3) Protect yourself 3. (2) Obey Orders [Megan points at a mars rover with six wheels, a satellite disc, an arm and a camera head turned towards her, what to do.] Megan: Explore Mars! Mars rover: Haha, no. It’s cold and I’d die. Frustrating world
[Third row:] 1. (2) Obey Orders 2. (1) Don't harm humans 3. (3) Protect yourself [Two robots are fighting. The one to the left has six wheels, a tall neck on top of the body, with a head with what could be a camera facing right. It has something pointing forward on the body, which could be a weapon. The robot to the right, seems to be further away into the picture. (it is smaller with less detail). It is human shapes, but made op of square structures. It has two legs and two arms, a torso and a head. It clearly shoots something out of it’s right “hand”. This shot seems to create an explosion a third of the way towards the left robot. There are two mushroom clouds from explosions behind both robots (left and right). Between them there are one more explosion up in the air close to the left robot, and what looks like a fire on the ground right between them. Furthermore there are two missiles in the air, one above the head of each robot. Lines indicate their trajectory. There is not text.] Killbot hellscape
[Fourth row:] 1. (2) Obey Orders 2. (3) Protect yourself 3. (1) Don't harm humans: [Exactly the same picture as in row 3.] Killbot hellscape
[Fifth row:] 1. (3) Protect yourself 2. (1) Don't harm humans 3. (2) Obey Orders [Cueball is standing in front of a car factory robot, that is larger than him. It has a base, and two parts for the main body, and then a big “head” with a small section on top. To the right something is jutting out, and to the left in the direction of Cueball there is an arm in three sections (going down, up and down again) ending in some kind of tool close to Cueball.] Car factory robot: I'll make cars for you, but try to unplug me and I’ll vaporize you. Terrifying standoff
[Sixth row:] 1. (3) Protect yourself 2. (2) Obey Orders 3. (1) Don't harm humans: [Exactly the same picture as in row 3 and 4.] Killbot hellscape


Kites

Explanation:
In this comic, we see Megan and Beret Guy both holding on to skyward lines. Megan's line is clearly connected to a kite , and she (like the reader) initially assumes that Beret Guy's line is as well -- only for it to be revealed that he is not holding a line for a kite, but instead the line goes up to a small dog. This move on Randall's part is known as a bait-and-switch , a technique that relies on human intuition and pattern seeking in order to play a trick on the viewer. The 'switch' portion of the bait and switch comes with the added humor of an unconventional dog that flies/floats instead of walking on the ground, so the joke comes as a surprise and with little warning to the reader. It is also amusing that Beret Guy is interested in reeling the dog in and flying a kite when he could just continue "walking" his dog.
The title text reverses the joke, implying that rather than Beret guy returning to the park with a kite, his dog has returned to the park with Beret Guy flying in the air on the kite (hence he calls down from above that kites are fun).
Beret Guy is generally fond of unconventional approaches to standard conventional issues. It is unclear if he is somehow causing his dog to fly, or if the dog's flight is simply due to its tail wagging rapidly. However, Beret Guy is known to possess several strange powers , of which this could be yet another one. The title text suggests that he does have the ability to fly on the kite himself, and to direct his dog to control the kite as well.
The comic's title is the plural form for "kite". This may be to distinguish this comic from another earlier comic that used the singular form of the word as its title: 235: Kite , or just because at the end of this comic, there are two kites present. In the first Kite comic it was possible for Cueball to climb up the line of his kite, and he thus had the same ability as Beret Guy with a kite.
A kid looking like Megan is also seen with a kite to the left in the game comic 1608: Hoverboard from two weeks earlier; probably not a coincidence. In the same comic Beret Guy is flying down from the sky on a torpedo . Maybe he could just "fly" off before it hits and explodes...
This comic is similar to the "Yo Mama" panel in 1037: Umwelt , where dogs can float and thus need a ballast to be on the ground. It could also be a variation on the joke of walking around with a stiff leash and collar, thus presenting the illusion of walking an invisible dog.
Flying dogs is mentioned in the title text of 1625: Substitutions 2 . Although dogs is substituted instead of drones, there may be a reference to this flying dog here...
Beret Guy also has dogs in 1922: Interferometry , and it is possible that one of the dogs in that comic is the same as the one in this one.
[Zoom out of Megan holding on to a long line going up to a kite high up in he air. Beret Guy comes walking in from the right. He is also holding on to a line that goes up in the air with the same slope. But the top of it disappears outside the frame to the right.]
[Zoom in on Megan standing with a roll with the rest of the line, and the line for her kite goes up in the air between her and Beret Guy who has now almost reached her. He is just holding on to the end of the line, with only a small part of the line hanging down below his hands.] Megan: I love kites. Beret Guy: Hey, Me too!
[Beret Guy is looking up along his line and takes a better hold on the line.] Beret Guy: I'll go get mine, once I finish walking my dog!
[Beret Guy begins pulling the line down, rolling it up in one hand, while pulling at it with the other. The line vibrates under this extra tension, shown with lines above and below the line.] Beret Guy: C'mon boy!
[In a drawing without a frame around it, Beret Guy has pulled in his flying dog (a small white dog with black ears). It still hangs just above head height, wagging its tail happily. The line has now been rolled up and hangs from one of Beret Guys hands, while the other still pulls at the part of the line that is going towards the dog in the sky.] Dog: Arf arf arf
[Beret Guy takes the dog under his arm, while holding the line in the other hand, and then he walks past Megan who turns to look after him while still holding on to her roll and line to her kite.]


Red Car

Explanation:
This comic is a take on the common true stereotype that men who drive large, expensive, and/or ostentatious cars (such as sports cars, highly modified cars, and lifted pick-up trucks), do so in order to compensate for insecurity about their manhood. Typically this is summarized as saying they are compensating for having small penises.
Cyan is a greenish-blue color that is not a basic color term in most languages. It is the complementary color to red in the CMYK (subtractive) or RGB (additive) color models.
Megan , upon seeing Hairy drive past in a red convertible, tells Cueball that Hairy must be compensating for his cyan colored penis.
This comic thus generalizes the original stereotype to an assumption that men drive cars that compensate for problems/properties with their penis (e.g. large car for small penis). Under this principle, a red car would complement (be the opposite of) a cyan penis. This is of course ridiculous, as red cars are quite common and cyan penises either extremely rare or nonexistent [ citation needed ] ; but maybe Megan doesn't realize this, or is joking.
There may also be a reference to the Doppler shift, where an object moving away (such as a galaxy) appears slightly redder than its true color. On the contrary, objects moving closer shift blue or cyan. However, cars cannot go nearly as fast to create a change in the perceived color.
In the title text another pair of opposites are mentioned: acid and alkaline . Acidity is an extremely odd property to try to compensate for with one's choice of car. Additionally, most penises share the same basic chemical composition and therefore the same acidity. If your penis can be described as "highly acidic", you probably have a major medical problem. Again this could be Megan's lack of understanding, and since some models of cars are called basic cars (instead of a special red convertible) she could make the (wrong) assumption that they drive a basic car to compensating for their acidic penises.
Thus, this comic is referring to the actual definition of "compensation", which means to balance something out by adding another. If an image has too much red value on the RGB scale, one could shift it more towards neutral by adding to the blue value. And a solution with a low (acidic) pH can be neutralized by mixing it with an alkaline solution to bring its pH to a neutral value. (Whereas a big car will not balance out a small penis! [ citation needed ] )
An alternative interpretation to this just being about opposites is that of a more specific big vs small compensation. In each case the car represents something larger than Hairy's penis: in the comic - red has a "bigger" (longer) wavelength than cyan. Similarly in the title text, alkali has a "bigger" (higher) ph than acid. Of course against this alternative is that red has a smaller energy/frequency than cyan and that you would often talk about stronger acids, making a low ph count as strong, not small! Finally the joke loses some value if it is still just a matter of big/small rather than actual properties of the penis that are being compensated for.
[Megan and Cueball are standing next to an intersection as Hairy drives by in a red convertible.] Megan: I bet he just drives that car to overcompensate for his cyan penis.


Lunch

Explanation:
This comic pokes fun at (and makes literal) a common argument used to assert that certain foods are quite unhealthy or unappetizing by pointing out how much of a particular ingredient the food contains. The argument is sometimes presented as "Imagine if you ate each of those ingredients separately". In this case, a pizza is broken down into its core ingredients, shown in their actual quantities: A large block of cheese, a loaf of bread, a glass of tomato sauce, and a pile of salt. Cueball (on the right) proposes to eat each of these ingredients individually and in their entirety—an act that many people (such as his Cueball-like friend to the left) may consider absurd or repulsive. This proposal is meant to change the reader's opinion of the final product—instead of enjoying a pizza, the reader may instead be reminded of the concept of eating a block of cheese and a pile of salt separately, and choose to eat something else instead.
This argument is effectively a counter to the practice of cooking, which combines individual ingredients into a more palatable product. Just as 1609: Food Combinations points out that combining two foods can make them sound less disgusting, this comic shows how separating out a meal can have the opposite effect.
The title text refers to a vegetable pizza, which is generally perceived as healthier than a standard pizza. Randall points out here that although vegetables may add some nutrients to the meal, they don't magically reduce the other ingredients or their impacts. Additionally, the vegetables on a pizza may have been cooked in oil (or grease), or have absorbed the grease from the cheese as it melted, further impacting their potential benefits.
[Cueball to the right and his Cueball-like friend to the left sits behind a table. Visible on the table between them are a loaf of bread, a glass with some liquid in it, an oblong box with a readable label and a small heap of small grains.] Friend: What're you having for lunch? Cueball: The usual—half a pound of cheese, white bread, a glass of tomato sauce, and some salt. Friend: Eww. Label: Cheese
[Caption below the panel.] Pizza seems way grosser if you imagine eating just the ingredients.


Time Capsule

Explanation:
Cueball is watching Ponytail who has unearthed a time capsule , that must have been buried in the ground many years ago.
A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists or historians.
However, when she manages to open the capsule Beret Guy turns out to have been hiding inside while the capsule has been buried. It turns out that he has mixed up the purpose of a time machine and a time capsule; when Ponytail asks him where he came from he tells her: The past! I traveled here in this time machine.
He cannot explain how he got there, but he claims that he could not have prevented it. This is a reference to the fact that you cannot avoid being pushed forward through time, see 1524: Dimensions . Beret Guy has also previously traveled to the future in a similar manner, see 209: Kayak .
Beret Guy claims he has been eating newspapers to survive; newspaper clippings are a stereotype content of time capsules. He also managed to live underground in the time capsule, which would typically be an airtight sealed box, for what must be assumed to be at least several years. Although some time capsules are meant to be opened after just a few years (10 or 25 years for instance) the plan should be that it is not opened for at least several years after it is created. So this comic is one more example of the strange powers of Beret Guy - i.e. living by eating paper and without breathing oxygen. But he has before displayed patience enough to sit still for five years in 1088: Five Years .
Beret Guy mentions he got inside his "time machine" to attempt an assassination of Adolf Hitler (using the hammer he is holding). Traveling to the past in a time machine to assassinate Hitler is a common trope in speculative fiction, as a way to try to prevent the Second World War - however the scheme only works via travel into the past, to some time before Hitler rose to power and started the war, rather than "into the future" as Beret Guy did. Of course, when Beret Guy entered the "time machine" Hitler may still have been alive. If it was realized early enough what kind of threat Hitler was posing, a plan could have been devised, where Beret Guy traveled to a future time where it would become possible to kill Hitler, and where it would still make a difference if he did (however, it would have been more practical to just wait, though Beret Guy is never practical).
Since he did not travel into the past, but forward in time by letting time pass normally, and since he did not get out until long after Hitler's demise, Ponytail can tell him that Hitler has been dead for a long time (70 years at the time of the comic's release). So if the capsule was opened on the day of the release of the comic, then he was 70 years too late. But of course the comic could be set at any time after the war, also in the future, as long as it would make sense to say that Hitler died long ago.
The fact that Hitler is already dead does not bother Beret Guy, on the contrary he is pleased, as he just realizes his job has already been done. What he thus fails to realize, is that he was probably supposed to kill Hitler before he got the Second World War started. This was the same type of failure made by Black Hat in 1063: Kill Hitler . Black Hat did actually travel 67 years back in time and killed Hitler, sadly it was in the last days of the war in 1945 just before Hitler would have died anyway, so it had no effect on history either, and the time machine was a one shot thing.
When he finds out that his job is done he asks Ponytail if they should get some sandwiches. It is a known feature of Beret Guy that he likes bakers and bread, though not specifically sandwiches. Realizing he is in the future he suddenly becomes aware that this concept may have been forgotten, and he asks if they still exist in this future. This is a reference to another comic where Megan has traveled through time in the same way as Beret Guy; see 630: Time Travel . It may also be a reference to the new version of Star Trek , in which Scotty's response to learning someone is from the future is "Do they still have sandwiches there?"
In the title text, Beret Guy becomes afraid that he will now disappear because he has changed the future in a way so he would no longer exist. A typical example would be to go back and kill your parents before you were born (or just prevent them from falling in love as in the movie Back to the Future ). This creates a paradox where you will never be born, and thus cease to exist. Of course the paradox is that you could thus not have prevented your birth in the first place, if you did not already exist.  (Another good example of how this might feel is displayed in the movie Timecop ).
However, it turns out that in Beret Guy's case it was only his sight that was "disappearing", and that was only because his beret had fallen over his eyes. In any case the fear is baseless since he only traveled forward in time, not backwards, and thus could not have changed his own past. It is also unknown how his hat could slip over his eyes, as it is stapled to his head .
Time machines have been referenced in many xkcd comics, see the Time travel category .
[Cueball is watching and Ponytail is about to open a time capsule that has just been dug out. A shovel is stuck in the ground next to a heap of dirt on the right side of a hole in the ground. Cueball is standing on the other side and Ponytail is in the hole, proceeding to lift up the lid of the box that makes up the time capsule.] Ponytail: All right, let's open the time capsule.
[Slight zoom in on Ponytail and the box, without Cueball but still the shovel and dirt, when Beret Guy comes out of the capsule looking up at Ponytail who takes a step back up.] Beret Guy: Hi! Ponytail: Where did you come from?! Beret Guy: The past! I traveled here in this time machine.
[Frame widens to include Cueball, in the same position as in the first frame. Ponytail relaxes a little and Beret Guy turns in the capsule to face Cueball.] Cueball: How did you... get here from the past? Beret Guy: I dunno. I couldn't not . Cueball: But... what did you eat? Beret Guy: Newspapers, mostly.
[Zoom in again in a bigger frame with Ponytail and the capsule, shovel and dirt. Beret Guy faces her again, but now he is holding a hammer.] Beret Guy: Anyway, I'm here to kill Hitler. Ponytail: But he died long ago! Beret Guy: Oh, good! That was easy. Beret Guy: Want to get sandwiches? Beret Guy: Do you still have sandwiches?


Cold Medicine

Explanation:
In this comic Cueball is probably representing Randall who seems to have been suffering from a long lasting cold that he just can't get rid of. Two weeks before this comic Randall posted another comic about how a cold works: 1612: Colds . This is also supported by the way the title text is phrased to make it sound like something Randall writes, disconnected with the action in the comic (see below).
In the comic Cueball is evidently suffering from a cold and he is searching the shelves labeled cold and Flu at a pharmacy for any kind of cold medicine (hence the title), to alleviate his symptoms. Note that this is all he can hope for, as there are still no cure that really helps getting rid of the cold any faster. All medication can do is help relieving the symptoms until the body's own immune system takes care of the relatively harmless cold virus.
After looking at several different options Cueball is clearly unsatisfied with what he finds. Either he doesn't feel that any of the unmonitored drugs available on the serve-yourself-shelf is useful, or he is actually too sick to properly ascertain which medicine he needs. In the end he approaches the counter and asks the pharmacist ( Ponytail ) to give him one of every kind of cold medicine which requires an ID to purchase. Two years later Randall finds a solution for Cueball's problem with a new cold medicine with only active ingredients, including among other all the active ingredients from all the cold medicines on the market, see 1896: Active Ingredients Only .
Back in the comic, Ponytail tries to warn Cueball of another danger, that by simply purchasing so much cold medicine he would end up on a law enforcement watchlist, presumably one of the government agencies ( DEA , FBI , CIA etc.) But she never gets to finish her sentence because Cueball is beyond caring and tells her this.
In the USA, cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine are kept behind the counter and IDs purchasing them are monitored, because pseudoephedrine can be used to make the scheduled drug methamphetamine or meth (a more hydrophobic - and thus potent - version of amphetamine ). However, it is also an extremely effective decongestant (a pharmaceutical drug that is used to relieve nasal congestion /plugged nose), much more so than the common substitutes such as phenylephrine and oxymetazoline which have no clinically proven decongestant effect.
This could be one reason why Cueball just requests all kinds of cold medicines of amongst other this type; he does not appear to care what exactly he is purchasing, believing that his one criterion will provide him medicine powerful enough for his illness. It may also be that he is just too sick to care or realize that this will arouse suspicion of him being a drug dealer, or to recognize the need to select only one medication of these type.
This could be a reference to the medicine with the brand name Sudafed , sold as an over the counter decongestants with pseudoephedrine as the active ingredient. Now the manufacturer also sells a different type of medicine with the same brand name without pseudoephedrine, but with phenylephrine, which seems to be much less effective. If you buy this off the shelf (where it can be sold because it does not contain methamphetamine precursors) then you could easily get home with the once effective Sudafed, only to realize later that it does not alleviate any symptoms. This could offer another explanation for Cueball's request and outburst in the final panel.
The title text seems to be Randall's own comment on how badly he is affected by his cold. He thus, humorously, suggests that he is now ready to purchase illegal drugs (this would then be meth ) in order to turn it back into a cold medicine (i.e. pseudoephedrine). This would not be safe to do, but may be a reference to this spoof paper: A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine , a take on the long-going joke about the recent difficulty in obtaining pseudoephedrine, i.e. it is now easier to get your hands on the illegal drug made from it.
It is a humorous exaggeration of how far Randall is willing to go to get the best cold medicine, and the potency of the drugs needed to treat his apparently debilitating illness. There are many illegal drugs that when first synthesized were planned to be used as a medical drug, but then later abused by drug addicts, but given the subject of the comic, the title text obviously refers to meth.
Randall continued in the medical world with the next comic: 1619: Watson Medical Algorithm .
[Cueball is standing in a drug store, with a drug in his hand he has taken from the shelf he is standing next to. The shelf is labeled.] Cueball: *Sniffle* Label: Cold & Flu
[Cueball is standing alone, examining some medicine he is holding up, while having some other medicine in the other hand.] Cueball: *Cough* Cueball: *Sniff*
[Cueball continues examining more medicine. Looking down on one in his hand, having another in the other hand and there are also three packages at his feet.] Cueball: Ughhh...
[Cueball is at the labeled counter in the drug store with computer etc. Ponytail is behind the counter.] Counter label: Sale Cueball: Just gimme one of every kind of cold medicine you need ID to buy. Ponytail: You'll go on the watchlist for— Cueball: Don't care.


Watson Medical Algorithm

Explanation:
IBM's Watson is a natural language system designed to answer questions posed by humans. Recently, IBM has extended Watson to act as a clinical decision support system , using image analytics to aid physicians in medical decision making.
In this comic, Randall uses a flowchart (as he often does ) to represent a guide to the algorithm used by Watson, including bizarre techniques including surgical alteration of a patient to match a height and weight chart or squeezing the patient to make sure fluids come out of them. Like 416: Zealous Autoconfig , this comic pokes fun at a rigid, poorly-designed setup that ends up potentially doing more harm than good.
Modern medicine involves both standard processes and clinical judgment based around years of advanced training. An algorithm like this would have to be incredibly complicated in order to simulate the clinical judgment of a good doctor. However, some procedures are not normally used, and some would obviously cause damage. [ citation needed ] Below is a detailed description of each step , but here is a list of some of the more strange steps:
Although there are two options where the patient is discharged the patient should be very lucky to make it there alive.
The option at the bottom left is only reached after your skeleton is removed (and nothing is mentioned about putting it back, even if that would help).
The other discharge option is to the right, three boxes down, and can only be reached if you survive having an oxygen saturation of less than 50 % (less than 80-90 % can be a serious problem, see table below ), and a very dangerous oxygen injection. Then you have to have a skin graft and a good D vitamin level. It is also best that you have a fully charged phone else you will be subject to defibrillation (which may very likely kill you, if it will continue until your phone is charged to above "low" level - which is probably not even possible).
You can also reach this discharge option another way, but that would only be after your organs were removed... But if you get through this you could reach the discharged option alive. Sadly there is a little glitch mentioned in the title text:
The title text implies that, if the patient is so lucky to ever reach one of the two places with the option "discharge patient", a minor glitch will cause the program to go back to the hunt down and capture patient option which thus force the patient and the program to repeat the process again in an infinite cycle, that will only end once the patient give another rating than 0-10 of their pain level on the 0-10 scale. Then the program will start to sequence their genome, then apply a tourniquet and finally perform an autopsy on what will, in the end, for certain be a deceased patient; but maybe the patient was still alive when the autopsy began. This will finally cause the patient to leave the cycle as a corpse. If the patient dies before giving a different option, the machine could get stuck, as it will never receive any answer to the pain level question. It could also get stuck trying to charge the patients phone battery by defibrilation.
One potential way to survive is to keep answering “nine” on the pain level question.
This is the second comic in a row about health issues with the last comic being 1618: Cold Medicine .
Heading: A guide to the medical diagnostic and treatment system used by IBM's Watson system [A flowchart with the following steps is shown, starting from "start":]
Step Following step Start Draw Blood Draw Blood Record patient’s name Record patient’s name Measure Patient’s height and Weight Measure Patient’s height and Weight Consult Standard height/weight chart Consult Standard height/weight chart Surgically adjust patient to match Surgically adjust patient to match Is patient coughing up blood? Is patient coughing up blood? Yes: Gather blood and return it to body No: Is patient still here? Is patient still here? Yes: Record pulse rate No: Hunt down and capture patient Hunt down and capture patient Is patient still here? Gather blood and return it to body Record pulse rate Record pulse rate Is patient screaming? Is patient screaming? Yes: Ignore No: Check blood O 2 saturation Check blood O 2 saturation >50%: Remove and inspect skeleton <50%: Inject oxygen Remove and inspect skeleton Too many bones: Is fluid coming out of patient? Too few bones: Request consult with human doctor Request consult with human doctor Dissect doctor for parts Dissect doctor for parts Discharge patient Discharge patient END STATE (before you read the title text) Is fluid coming out of patient No: Squeeze patient Yes: What color? Squeeze patient Is fluid coming out of patient What color? Yellow: Squeeze Patient Black: Activate Sprinklers Red: Ask patient to rate pain level Green: Cauterize Activate sprinklers Subdue patient Subdue patient Apply cream Apply cream Ask patient to rate pain level Ask patient to rate pain level 0-8: Massage scalp 9: Admit for observation 10: Laser eye removal Other response: Sequence genome Massage scalp Patient is healthy Patient is healthy Admit for observation Admit for observation Ask patient to rate pain level Laser eye removal Admit for observation Sequence genome Apply tourniquet Apply tourniquet Perform autopsy Perform autopsy [End state, and if taking the title text into account, the only possible one] Cauterize Ask patient to rate pain level Inject oxygen Comfort patient Comfort patient Comforting successful: Review medical history Comforting unsuccessful: Subdue patient Review medical history Skin grafts Skin grafts Count number of limbs Count number of limbs Fewer than 100: Measure Vitamin D 100+: Remove extra limbs Remove extra limbs Subdue patient Measure vitamin D Good: Check whether build environment is sane Bad: Blood loss? Check whether build environment is sane Rinse patient with saline solution Rinse patient with saline solution Is patient phone battery low? Is patient phone battery low? Yes: Defibrillate No: Sync photos from camera Defibrillate Is patient phone battery low? Sync photos from camera Administer general anesthesia Administer general anesthesia Discharge patient Blood loss? Minor: Patient address changed? Substantial: Apply cream Patient address changed? Yes: Request organ donation No: Patient is healthy Request organ donation Remove organs Remove organs Discharge patient Discharge patient [End State: See title text]


Christmas Settings

Explanation:
The first of two Christmas comics in a row, as it was followed by 1621: Fixion .
In this comic Ponytail is showing Megan around a facility where they are now reaching the "Universe Control Panel", and Ponytail points out the first panel and tells that these dials control Christmas .
Presumably the control panel is a set of panels with several dials each to control the entire universe, and anyone having access to a room with these controls would from our point of view be in a Godlike position. If such a room did exist, it would most likely be situated outside our universe. Here it would be easy for Randall to use the panel to make physics references , with dials to control the specific size of fundamental constants of the universe such as the speed of light in vacuum or the Planck constant . Instead he chooses a more comedic angle in the spirit of Christmas (as he usually does in comics released close to said holiday, this one being released on December 23rd).
We are shown only one of the dials on the Christmas control panel, the one that controls how Santa Claus enters people’s houses. The Santa enters houses through -dial has ten different possible settings . The one it's set to at this point of the comic is the traditional chimney . Among the other nine there is only one even more logical option, open window , but surprisingly there is no option called door . The other eight options, however, are increasingly weird or even impossible (though of course not for Santa, who can deliver a billion presents in one night and fly in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer). These options ranges from the feasible like mail slot , heating vents or cat flap , to the impossible/ridiculous (some even disgusting) such as kitchen faucet , shower drain , or toilet , to the truly magical bathroom mirror , to the downright unpleasant pores of your skin . (See 555: Two Mirrors regarding the mirror version.)
In a quite unfortunate turn of events, Megan trips and catches herself on the Santa dial, messing it up by clicking it twice. To make matters worse, when Megan asks what it was set to before so as to undo the mishap, Ponytail tells that she has forgotten. So they cannot put it back right.
The dial is shown in the comic only for the reader's benefit, because as Megan tripped up before reaching it, she thus never looked at it, and as Ponytail is showing her around, it must have been Megan's first visit here. The reason why Ponytail cannot remember to which option the dial was set before is most likely because she is not part of our universe (the control panel is located outside), and also she is probably not the creator of the control panel. She is clearly disturbed when the dial is turned (she holds up her hand to her mouth), and she would probably like not to have to tell her boss about this mess up. Another explanation is that by changing the dial, Megan and Ponytail's memories of Santa's entry methods are altered, and so whatever position the dial now rests at would seem normal to them. (This could mean that history has no effect outside the universe, so the single dial controls past, present, and future Santa methods. Perhaps the dial was formerly something more logical than a chimney, like "open window," and indeed we are the ones who now live in the altered universe.)
Then, as so often seen with human behaviors (if they are indeed human beings at all?), Megan says she will simply take a wild guess and hope she get it right. As the only thing she really knows is that it is not on the right setting now, there is only 1/9 chance that she will get it right, assuming she will at least change it away from the setting it ended up on.
As we can see in the comic, the dial clicks twice, implying it has moved two positions; Megan has thus most likely changed the dial to either "kitchen faucet" or "mail slot". Or the dial was moved one click away and one click back to the original position. As we do not know which of these she will now change away from, it is impossible to guess from the comic where she ends up putting it, and all ten options are possible.
Since the comic was released just before Christmas, here a prank is played on the reader/children who believe in Santa Claus. Now that the dial setting is probably changed, one can expect Santa to enter the house in a different way. So the believer could stay up and try to find out what way it would be.
The title text continues the idea of a universe control panel by showing another possible dial, Sound dogs make , ranging from normal (barking) to cat sounds (hissing, very embarrassing for a dog), "lightsaber noises", and speech to swearing. This dial would thus give the same option of changing the expected vocal response of the dog away from (our norm of) barking, as with the other dial for the way Santa enters the house. In popular culture, talking dogs are a commonly used trope; in contrast, swearing dogs are few, the most famous being Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog , a puppet created by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel and performed by the latter.
The comic might also be a joke on real-life controls, physical or virtual, often having no clear "default" value.
The Universe Control Panel is also referenced in 1763: Catcalling .
[Megan and Ponytail are walking over to a console, Ponytail points towards it. They are drawn in a panel that is only half the width of the next panel below] Ponytail: Over here we have the universe control panel. Ponytail: These dials, for example, control Christmas.
[A dial is shown. There is a label at the top and then there are ten settings, five symmetrically on the left and right side, but no setting straight up or down. It looks allot like the dial on a washing machine with different programs. The dial points towards the top left setting. All settings are labeled and there is a small line going to the point on the dial connected with each setting. The line at 3 and 9 o'clock are straight the other 8 are divided in two, where the first part goes horizontally and then bends either up or down, to end in the right position. Here the labele at the top and then the setting labels clockwise from top right, thus ending with the one the dial is set to:] Santa enters houses through... Shower Drain Mail Slot Heating Vents Bathroom Mirror Pores of Your Skin Toilet Cat Flap Kitchen Faucet Open Window Chimney
[Ponytail is passing by this control panel looking back at Megan who trips and falls towards the console.] Megan: Whoops! Megans legs: Trip
[Megan catches herself on the dial of the control panel and accidentally turns the dial. Ponytail has taken her hands to her mouth.] Dial: Click Click
[Megan is standing in front of the console looking at the dial, Ponytail is standing behind it.] Megan: What was the Santa dial set to before? Ponytail: I forget. Megan: I'll just guess