xkcd

halloween_spookster , in xkcd #2932: Driving PSA

When driving don't be nice. Be predictable.

GladiusB ,
@GladiusB@lemmy.world avatar

I'm taking a Smith system training and this is said constantly.

Gestrid ,

When driving, being predictable is being nice. Being nice is an accident waiting to happen.

... That sounded better in my head.

Anticorp ,

Half the people who wave you through have weird little control fetishes. They're not being polite, they're pursuing feelings of power. They're the same people driving 5 mph under the speed limit in the passing lane to "keep other people from speeding".

sebinspace ,

Well that’s certainly one of the takes of all time

Anticorp ,

I didn't just pull it out of my ass, it's a perspective I've seen espoused on this very platform, and also on Reddit.

LSNLDN , in xkcd #2897: Light Leap Years

Alt text lol

ZDL , in xkcd #2896: Crossword Constructors
@ZDL@ttrpg.network avatar

Imma need “xkcd explained” for this one!

Deebster OP ,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

These are all short words full of the most common letters, so will make designing crosswords easier because they’ll be useful “crossers”.

ZDL ,
@ZDL@ttrpg.network avatar

Oh, I see! Thanks!

stoly ,

But why references to musicians?

Deebster OP ,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

I assume it’s just an example of how to create new topical words since it’s a lot easier to name an album than to get a word well-known enough to be eligible for the dictionary.

The artists all seem to be big names so I assume it’s their popularity rather than any history of quirky album names that’s decided the list.

Soup ,

These specific musicians are referenced a lot by crosswords. NYT loves them, at least. Very “hip and with it”.

It’s kinda an inside joke, but that’s XKCD for ya.

stoly ,

Thanks, that’s what I needed

shneancy ,

I assumed it was because those musicians are popular enough that even if they released songs/albums with the title scheme akin to svnahshfhfbduj people would still buy them and know about them.

moistclump ,

Are we called crossers?

moistclump ,

Oh the crossword cross-er. Thought it was a cool new “puzzle head” term I hadn’t heard. Misread. I’m dumb at crosswords too.

randomaccount43543 ,
LazaroFilm , in xkcd #2886: Fast Radio Bursts
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

WOW!

magic_lobster_party ,

For those who don’t know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

saltesc , in xkcd #2851: Messier Objects
ECB , in xkcd #2908: Moon Armor Index

Interesting mix of kilometers and inches…

Agent641 ,

When do we get to start using kiloinches?

idiomaddict ,

I heard Everest is actually exactly 348 KI, they just thought 348.324 KI sounded more accurate

Frozengyro ,

I’ve heard that in feet they originally measured it to 29000 exactly. But they added 2 feet so people didn’t think they were estimating the height.

systemglitch ,

As a Canadian, this just seems normal to me.

Drusenija , in xkcd #2929: Good and Bad Ideas

So soup sounds like an idea and is actually an idea. Checks out.

general_kitten ,

I dont know, soup has always been a better idea than it first seemed to me

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Depends on the soup I find.

general_kitten ,

At least when you make soup yourself it good

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Canned french onion soup? meh.

Homemade french onion soup? Yeah!

flerp ,

YMMV. For me soup sounds like a good idea but I find it annoying to eat so for me personally it is a bad idea.

EmoDuck , in xkcd #2845: Extinction Mechanisms

Yeah, that’s jsut straight up BS. I’m a Trauma Specialist and the thing that actually happens when you get hit by such a large object going at such a speed is that either stars or birds start circling around your head, accompanied by a large bump rapidly growing out of the affected area.

Also, a very common symptom is that the struck individual looses their memory. This can easily be treated by simply striking them again, with similar force.

Moral of the story, don’t believe everything you read on the internet

jws_shadotak ,

I’m an expert in trusting people and I trust you on this.

hypnicjerk ,

i watched a 15 minute youtube video about skepticism and uncertainty, and frankly i’m not sure what to believe.

14th_cylon ,

the thing that actually happens when you get hit by such a large object going at such a speed is that either stars or birds start circling around your head

and what do you think these circling stars do to others? they just further hurt anything in close proximity. have you considered that?

hydroptic , in xkcd #2934: Bloom Filter

Do you want to learn about probabilistic data structures?

  • maybe
  • no
Nomecks , in xkcd #2922: Pub Trivia

8 is yes, but I don't have enough space to fit the proof in a post.

joe_cool ,

Easy, only relevant part: defined as being > 1

Mango ,

Today I triggered a guy who hates FTP and he gave me 4 whole nested comments ranting about how bad it is under the hood. Maybe you just don't wanna fit the proof.

tooLikeTheNope ,

from the explanation:

This is a famous, centuries-old open question in math known as Goldbach's conjecture. Mathematicians widely believe that it is true,it has held true for every number checked up to 4 ⋅ 1018, but since it's impossible to check every number, we can't assume it's universally true

Way more than enough to make any thing true on the interweb these days

Nomecks ,

Woosh

tooLikeTheNope , (edited )

Oh no dude, that wasn't referred to you at all, I got and enjoyed your lighthearted humour, the comment was a just general consideration on the rhetoric I too often encounter when diving into a heavily controversial threads on the interweb; e.g. usually a rando with 5 figures karma points will suddenly pop up out of nowhere bringing up bro'mbastically that in his own singular experience the argument was true/false, therefore whatever was the hypothesis, or the wall of text of fact-checked peer-reviewed argumentation presented, it surely must be simply correct/wrong...and everyone lived happily ever after in demagogyland.

Diabolo96 , in xkcd #2830: Haunted House

Remember when every phone on the house had it’s own proprietary cable ? Truly horrible times.

jasondj ,

Remember when you had to rent your phone from the phone company?

Imagine if service providers still did that now, and you’d have to rent a special box from the internet company to access the internet…or one from the TV company to watch shows and movies. What a world.

Persen ,

You still have this in some parts of EU.

jasondj ,

The joke is that this is the state of American TV and Internet.

Sure some Cable ISPs let you bring your own modem, and Verizon Fios used to let you provision the Ethernet handoff of the ONT to go direct into your own router (if you chat up the install tech and are able to test connectivity with them there)…but the majority of users rent their modems and cable boxes.

Thisfox ,

How bizarre.

pastermil ,

Sony Ericson’s break-off cable was fun to use!

seSvxR3ull7LHaEZFIjM , in xkcd #2882: Net Rotations

Don’t show this to anyone with OCD.

EmoDuck ,

I don’t have OCD but I definitely have this spinning thing. The worst thing is when you’re unsure if you are short a spin or not, it’s like having a sneeze stuck that won’t come out

null ,
@null@slrpnk.net avatar

And you’re certain you don’t have OCD…?

Feathercrown ,

Have OCD, occasionally counterspin to reverse one I’ve done but only single spins. This would drive me crazy lol

Also related: www.xkcd.com/2679/

spujb ,

holy shit i do this string thing and i get stressed if i get too many winds around a place i don’t like

match , in xkcd #2878: Supernova
@match@pawb.social avatar

Wikipedia (Near-Earth Supernova) says that a 25 ly away supernova would wipe out half the ozone layer so that’s probably the lower bound for what we want

kurwa ,

Geez, how many stars do we have that close to us?

elvith , (edited )

So far, we know of 131 stars objects

en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_nearest_stars_and_brow…

whocares314 ,

None. Space is big, and stars that can potentially supernova are rare. …m.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_supernova_candidates

hperrin ,

Your answer is a little misleading. I think you meant there are several stars that close to us, but none that can go supernova.

whocares314 ,

That’s fair. It’s also a little misleading because there are other cosmic events that could happen that are both closer to us and potentially further away, and have in the past. I wouldn’t say we are immune from the hazards of space but my comment could have been construed that way.

TheBat ,
@TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

That’s disappointing

SkyNTP , in xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas

Real answer: power density. Pound for pound, gas still contains more energy than our best batteries. The weight of energy storage is still a massive deal for anything that cannot be tethered to a grid or be in close practical proximity for frequent recharging, from rockets, planes and cars (sometimes) to chainsaws and lawnmowers (sometimes).

Atelopus-zeteki ,
@Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run avatar

Thing is that pound of gas is gone, that pound of battery is still there and ready for recharge.

Revan343 ,

A pound of dead battery doesn't help me when I'm camping 10km from the nearest access to the power grid. (There are actually powerlines not even a kilometre from my favourite campsite, but those are going to be measured in kV, and so aren't really useful to me.)

Now, if I had enough solar panels in a mobile setup, probably folding out of a trailer, I could make it work, but solar panels are expensive.

FiFoFree ,

But solar panel costs are falling way faster than battery costs.

DaPorkchop_ ,

Sure, but even then there are plenty of cases where a solar panel doesn't make much sense either. If you're cutting down a tree in the woods, would you rather grab your gas-powered chainsaw out of your truck and cut down the tree, or grab your solar-powered chainsaw out of your truck, spend minutes setting up solar panels to pick up the small amount of sunlight which makes it to the forest floor, and then cut down the tree?

The point is there will always be a market for ICEs until there are batteries with competitive energy density to gasoline. You don't see solar- or battery-powered trains or construction/mining equipment because these things need huge amounts of energy to work, energy which can be easily stored in a fairly small fuel tank (which can be quickly topped off when necessary).

FiFoFree ,

Absolutely, just like there's some things a horse can do that a car just can't.

I don't plan on buying a horse or needing to do those things, and I don't think the vast majority do either.

The end result is that there will still be ICEs in niche applications, but those who know how to operate them and the supply chains that currently make them cheap and dominant will slowly die off.

vaultdweller013 ,
@vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works avatar

A dead battery is far worse than an empty jerry can, atleast the jerry can is light. Hell there are even some real nice collapsible ones and thats not even accounting for fuel bladders. Electric is useful but it is also rather rigid as well.

Takashiro ,

Density is relative to efficiency, and electric wins

What i cannot understand is people trying to defend something that is clearly worse,

Sotuanduso ,
@Sotuanduso@lemm.ee avatar

Googling tells me that:

  • Electric cars have 77% efficiency
  • Gas cars have 30% efficiency
  • Electric car batteries have 270 Wh/kg (converts to 0.97 MJ/kg)
  • Gasoline has 46 MJ/kg

So the math here says electric gives you (0.97 * 77%) 0.75 MJ/kg output and gas gives you (46 * 30%) 13.8 MJ/kg output. Plus, as someone else said, spent gasoline no longer weighs you down.

I like the idea of electric, and I want to see it replace gas as soon as possible, but fair is fair.

bitwolf ,

Technically empty batteries weigh less than charged batteries.

Not that the difference is significant enough to tip the scale though.

thepreciousboar ,

And let's not forget that fueling your car requires a tank, a decently sized pump and 2 minutes of your time. A quick charge will hopefully charge your battery to 80% in 30 minutes, while giving you less km and running 300kW of power through hefty cables and big transformers, consuming the amount of energy that a family house consumes in a few days.

(And yes, battery manufacturing and disposal consume enormous amount of resources)

Electric and gas have different situations in which they shine. Gas/diesel engines are just a bunch of steel and some control chips, optimized in more thana century of technological development if we couls develop carbon neutral fuel, electric cars would not be needed. Unfortunately, it woulf be difficult to do at scale of current fuel consumption. More (electric, battery-less) public transport, less road goods transportation, more nuclear, electric for vehicles that move 100% of the time (delivery and logistic vehicles) and carbon-free fuel for other kinds of vehicles (personal transportation) is a good balance, in my personal, ignorant, armchair opinion.

someacnt_ ,

How do you think about hydrogen cars? They have better fuel density, and hydrogen is renewable.

Manalith ,

The argument that I've heard is that electric cars aren't actually cleaner because of the pollution caused by mining the minerals required for the batteries.

FrederikNJS ,

I'm sorry but I'm too lazy to dig up links to back up my claim. But you are correct in that electric vehicles pollute far more being produced than combustion engine cars, however the electric vehicles gain that back over it's lifetime if your charge from mostly non-fossil sources. The figures I have read says that over the lifetime of a car, electrics output 70% less CO2 than combustion cars, and that includes the production of each of the cars.

Drz ,
Prandom_returns ,

Do we ignore fuel distribution costs? How much fuel is required to distribute fuel to the stations? Shipping oil from high-conflict areas?

Electric is stipl very much problematic, with the coal burning. But at least it has a lot of headroom to improve, and can be produced locally.

Oh, and my fucking lungs mate.

Theharpyeagle , in xkcd #2932: Driving PSA

Nothing gets me closer to road rage than people waving me on when they have the right of way at a four way stop. Like yes thank you that's very polite, but we both could've been through this intersection if you'd gone when you were supposed to.

waz , (edited )

I try to never use "the finger" when another driver is being an ass. In that case I always just give them a thumbs down and a sad face.

I save the middle finger for people who are being "nice", especially when it is making things dangerous. I find it is the quickest way get them to just go.

I try to be coniderate while driving. Being predictable is safe. Deviating from the rules is dangerous. I think being safe more considerate than being "nice".

IzzyScissor ,

I've never thought about giving drivers like this the finger, but I'm absolutely going to from now on.

It's not being 'nice'. It's dangerous. That's deserving of a middle finger.

explodicle ,

And it gets them to stop doing it. There's no "oh don't worry I'm good" that they listen to.

Maggoty ,

The only two actual rules that apply to four way stops is everyone stops and the first person to start moving gets the right of way. All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn't get applied in real life. They're noble ideas, but just fucking go if no one else is.

deweydecibel ,

All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn't get applied in real life.

What the hell are you talking about? People obey the first to stop first pull out rule all the damn time.

JonEFive ,

Yes, but there are also a lot of times where they don't in my personal experience. If there's a question about who technically got there first - like two cars approach at roughly the same time - the rules aren't always followed as written by other drivers.

Maggoty ,

Not in my experience. Of course, as long as people are actually stopping, someone already stopped has an advantage. But that's a difference between East and West Coast US driving. In the East people come to a complete stop before moving again. In the West they'll slow down a lot, nearly stop even. So there's definitely regional characteristics. But the most common law is that of our childhood, possession is 9/10ths of the law.

KroninJ ,
@KroninJ@lemmy.world avatar

First to stop is the safer option. I feel that most people around here follow that too.

It also has a rare benefit of seeing the interaction between a majority first-to-goers at a 4 way.

JonEFive ,

Growing up, there was a four-way stop near my house that one of my friends absolutely hated. It was a pretty busy intersection, and he hated that drivers didn't seem to follow the rules that the person to the right goes first or whatever.

One time when I was driving, he was shocked like "what are you doing!? Its not your turn, you're gonna cause an accident!" when I went. I was like "what are you talking about?" I had driven through that intersection hundreds of times and never really thought about it. When I payed attention to the way the intersection flowed, I figured out the unwritten understanding that I and everyone else approached it with. It was basically just "stop and wait for a car or two to go before proceeding". There was no guaranteed order that I could come up with, it was just that everyone in the area seemed to understand.

Written rules are great if everyone is following the written rules. If you follow the written rules at that intersection you'll be fine, but you're likely to annoy someone for a moment. Nobody is going to be confused if you wait, just impatient.

I agree with you. More important than following rules is to pay attention and adapt as appropriate. If you're the only one following the written rules, there's a chance that you're the one acting unpredictably.

Maggoty ,

Yeah the written rules seem logical. But they just don't match with human behavior.

Cryophilia ,

Found the Cali driver

Maggoty ,

Nope, been so over the country. It's always been that way.

starman2112 ,
@starman2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

Yeah this comment should not be so far in the negatives. I much prefer calling someone a dickhead for going before their turn than screaming "YOU HAVE RIGHT OF WAY" at some dipshit who's holding up traffic because they feel like being nice

Potatos_are_not_friends ,

In some towns, these yokels will stop in the middle of the street to wave you to jaywalk.

Like Jesus Christ, NOOO! Stop being polite!

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