xkcd

[Willie the Duck]

This reminds me of a time when I was trying to explain a caltrop or Czech Hedgehog and explaining that they looked like a jack to someone born in the 80s and getting complete non-understanding.

[Lord Torath]

This reminds me of a time when I was trying to explain a caltrop or Czech Hedgehog and explaining that they looked like a jack to someone born in the 80s and getting complete non-understanding.

Heh! I still remember the Sesame Street episode where the girl recovered a dropped jack with a magnet on a string. (also, I was born in the 70's so I don't count)

[Rockphed]

Speaking of czech hedgehogs...

[Eldan]

I openly admit I had to look for a explanation for this one.

And even with the explanation I can't really tell what that is. I mean, I've probably seen one of those toys before- at least I knew what it is after looking it up- but just from the image? Not a clue.
(My first thought was "How is making popcorn supposed to launch that capsule?")

I looked at it and thought "they put the parachute for landing below the capsule instead of above it? Is the joke that 90s kids get things backwards?"

[EmmyNecromancer]

You know that Alignment Chart Alignment Chart Comic (Comic 2251)?
I think my alignment is "Chaotic Homozygous a-œ Green Recessive."

[Rockphed]

To be fair, the problem with the fruit press was not that it was poorly built, but rather that it was inefficient and over engineered for all the wrong things.

[Cazero]

This is just beautiful.

[Rakaydos]

Spoiler: It's solvable, even not knowing the blank mineless squares or the number of mines.

Show

2_1_
__3_
3___
_1_1

Only one of the two squares in the bottom left is a mine, so we know where 2 mines are, and two squares that are not mines:

2_1_
**3_
3?x_
?1x1

There has to be a mine next to the bottom 1, and no other mines next to the top one, which leaves only one place left a mine could go next to the 3:

2x1x
**3x
3*x*
x1x1

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: It's solvable, even not knowing the blank mineless squares or the number of mines.

Show

2_1_
__3_
3___
_1_1

Only one of the two squares in the bottom left is a mine, so we know where 2 mines are, and two squares that are not mines:

2_1_
**3_
3?x_
?1x1

There has to be a mine next to the bottom 1, and no other mines next to the top one, which leaves only one place left a mine could go next to the 3:

2x1x
**3x
3*x*
x1x1

Yeah, it took me a minute to recover my long-dormant Minesweeper logic skills and solve it that way.

[factotum]

Nothing happens when I click on the picture in either Firefox or Edge?

[georgie_leech]

Nothing happens when I click on the picture in either Firefox or Edge?

It isn't clickable, just a drawing alas.

I didn't work it out mentally anyway what are you talking about...

[Rockphed]

It isn't clickable, just a drawing alas.

I didn't work it out mentally anyway what are you talking about...

I totally did not work it out either. That is a silly thing to do!

Spoiler

Show

4 mines. The two squares below the 2 and the square above each lower 1

Having said that, I feel like this is a bad captcha. Teaching a computer to solve minesweeper seems like a fairly simple thing and computers are generally better at logic puzzles that can be written as math than people, at least once they are written as math.

[DataNinja]

Having said that, I feel like this is a bad captcha. Teaching a computer to solve minesweeper seems like a fairly simple thing and computers are generally better at logic puzzles that can be written as math than people, at least once they are written as math.

From what I remember of a person who came in to present to one of my university classes at some point years ago, Minesweeper is actually a bit of a complex puzzle to solve if you want it done quickly. A human's far better at being able to take shortcuts and see rules intuitively, while a computer has to scale up and recurse through all of the table and keep cross-referencing.

[halfeye]

I totally did not work it out either. That is a silly thing to do!

Spoiler

Show

4 mines. The two squares below the 2 and the square above each lower 1

Having said that, I feel like this is a bad captcha. Teaching a computer to solve minesweeper seems like a fairly simple thing and computers are generally better at logic puzzles that can be written as math than people, at least once they are written as math.

There are situations that can come up in minesweeper that are not soluble by logic.

I do like the not actually logic gates.

[137beth]

The real challenge for computers is infinite minesweeper.

[PattThe]

I felt that, drone. I felt that.

[Vinyadan]

https://xkcd.com/2540/

Sure, sure... but what about an organ transplant done on an airship surrounded by butterflies, using a gyroscope to stabilise the operating table, and a medical sewing machine to suture the wound?

(I wish I had a link to some time this really happened).

[DavidSh]

This convention is going to get into a dispute with the convention on Things That Seem Like They Should Work But Don't, over who has rights to the initialism TTSLTSWBD.

[Willie the Duck]

Sure, sure... but what about an organ transplant done on an airship surrounded by butterflies, using a gyroscope to stabilise the operating table, and a medical sewing machine to suture the wound?

(I wish I had a link to some time this really happened).

Pretty sure it would be in Girl Genius instead.
edit: or Narbonic or Skin Horse or...

[Rockphed]

Pretty sure it would be in Girl Genius instead.
edit: or Narbonic or Skin Horse or...

Or "A Miracle of Science!"

Sorry, I occasionally go back and read that comic and it was on my mind. I will go give myself 20 lashes for the wasted time I just caused.

[Radar]

Or "A Miracle of Science!"

Sorry, I occasionally go back and read that comic and it was on my mind. I will go give myself 20 lashes for the wasted time I just caused.

And you are right to punish yourself as I cannot resist a good archive binge like that. That being said, I agree with your tastes.

[Lord Torath]

I really like Immunity.

[Maat Mons]

There are niche scenarios where deliberately infecting yourself makes sense. But these days, we have much better methods of giving ourselves immunity.

[Rockphed]

I don't like that one. It feels like a strawman argument. It isn't wrong, but it feels like refuting an argument that nobody is making.

[Maat Mons]

You've never heard of pox parties? I guess they have really declined since the mid nineties, thankfully.

[Rockphed]

You've never heard of pox parties? I guess they have really declined since the mid nineties, thankfully.

No, I have heard of them. They depend on a disease being more dangerous for older people and babies than for children while also having no vaccine. Chicken pox is so much worse for adults we don't even call it the same thing. They pretty much died off when the chicken pox vaccine became available.

Vaccines originated in a similar idea: give people a mild disease and they won't get the nasty variant.

Which is a subtlety that Randal is leaving out, hence why I think the recent docs about infection feels like a strawman.

[Max_Killjoy]

A, um, more recent disease... has seen people deliberately gathering... to give each other that disease... because "then you're immune"... even though that really doesn't appear to be the case.

[Rockphed]

A, um, more recent disease... has seen people deliberately gathering... to give each other that disease... because "then you're immune"... even though that really doesn't appear to be the case.

The most recent thing I saw about the disease you are probably talking about is that people who have had the disease are an order of magnitude less likely to contract it than people who received any of the available vaccines. And, if it is what I think you are talking about, most of those people were a) at a low risk of complications, and b) able and willing to hide out for a month or so after contracting it.

Which all goes back to there being reasons other than simply never getting it again to purposefully contract a disease*. As I said, Randal isn't wrong. It just feels like he is setting up a strawman argument to show everyone how clever he is. To be fair a lot of xkcd is him trying to show people how clever he is so this isn't anything new, but normally he manages without being snide.

*As with Granny Weatherwax in Witches Abroad, timing is important.

[Max_Killjoy]

The most recent thing I saw about the disease you are probably talking about is that people who have had the disease are an order of magnitude less likely to contract it than people who received any of the available vaccines.

Um... not really.

Having had it before falls well behind the major vaccines, especially after a few months.

Spoiler

Show

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/...cid=mm7044e1_w

[theangelJean]

In other news, the James Webb Space Telescope made it to Space...

And today's xkcd is nicely complemented (and debunked) by explainxkcd.