# XKCD 1190: "Time"---Randall's setting something up... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901 "2013-03-25T10:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/381 "2013-07-07T03:21:56Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Oooh. The castle’s entirely underwater. > > There’s no going back for our heroes. Yeah, that was my take as well. Good thing they went to high ground. This mountain might be an island in a bit. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/382 "2013-07-07T15:17:24Z")
Was that the bucket floating in the water? So we’ll never find out what Beret Girl was up to? ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/383 "2013-07-07T17:55:30Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Yeah, that was my take as well. Good thing they went to high ground. This mountain might be an island in a bit. I’m not sure it’s a mountain. Cueball said, “I guess the mountains don’t go back down on the other side.” That suggests he sees a flat area extending to the horizon. Here’s a wild notion: what if their home is (or was) way down on a continental shelf, or even on a continental slope, exposed by extremely low sea levels. Maybe we’re looking at the end of an ice age, and they’ve just climbed up onto what would be the coast during an interglacial period? On an unrelated note, that almost has to be a signal tower of some kind. Judging from what they saw in the distance, it’s probably intended to use a reflector to flash messages to the next tower. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/384 "2013-07-07T21:42:12Z")
MMmm. The altitude’s getting to them. They must be a mile or more up. That would shoot down the continental shelf theory, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/385 "2013-07-07T21:59:46Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > I’m not sure it’s a mountain. Cueball said, “I guess the mountains don’t go back down on the other side.” That suggests he sees a flat area extending to the horizon. > > Here’s a wild notion: what if their home is (or was) way down on a continental shelf, or even on a continental slope, exposed by extremely low sea levels. Maybe we’re looking at the end of an ice age, and they’ve just climbed up onto what would be the coast during an interglacial period? How about this instead: they started from the (former) shore of the [Black Sea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis)? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/386 "2013-07-07T22:01:52Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > MMmm. > > The altitude’s getting to them. They must be a mile or more up. That would shoot down the continental shelf theory, wouldn’t it? Not necessarily. If they’re used to a high oxygen content from living, say, a mile below sea-level, sea-level would feel depleted to them at first. They’d adjust quickly though, just like someone from Florida visiting Denver. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/387 "2013-07-08T19:03:56Z")
Well, they’ve made contact. Are they all wearing porkpie hats or something? Oh god, is it a community of hipsters?!! ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/388 "2013-07-08T19:07:27Z")
They’re going to end up in a cauldron, just watch. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/389 "2013-07-08T19:56:44Z")
“Hi, I’m Larry; this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.” ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/390 "2013-07-08T21:24:37Z")
Looks like they’re speaking Wingdings. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/391 "2013-07-08T21:53:07Z")
Weird. They didn’t walk that far for the common language to change. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/392 "2013-07-09T00:42:13Z")
You know those jokes/stories where you get your audience hooked with an interesting premise and string them along for a while and give all sorts of extraneous details as a diversion and then the punchline to the whole thing is just a really bad pun? I hope this isn’t going to be one of those. If it is, I may have to murder someone. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/393 "2013-07-09T11:57:12Z")
Well, we don’t know how far they’ve walked. Megan mentioned that they have slept multiple times before the one night we saw and here she says they are from “far away”. It also seems their people don’t travel much. Remember, they had never seen a waterfall before, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/394 "2013-07-09T13:29:06Z")
> [@tanstaafl](#): > > Well, we don’t know how far they’ve walked. Megan mentioned that they have slept multiple times before the one night we saw and here she says they are from “far away”. It also seems their people don’t travel much. Remember, they had never seen a waterfall before, for example. Keep in mind that they can also see their home from the top of the mountain. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/395 "2013-07-10T09:28:54Z")
I’m not sure that they were given just water … ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/396 "2013-07-10T14:46:28Z")
Perhaps the Wingdingers need some help rebuilding a castle? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/397 "2013-07-10T17:02:23Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > I’m not sure that they were given just water … Could have been XYZ. But then[,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Earth_thought_experiment) XYZ might be water in their world! Also, I think that some of the squiggles mean ‘undetached rabbit part’[.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_of_translation) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/398 "2013-07-10T19:03:30Z")
It was the way they both suddenly got tired after they drunk, then the frame went black. But maybe not. Looks like Cueball is learning the lingo. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/399 "2013-07-10T19:23:39Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Keep in mind that they can also see their home from the top of the mountain. I thought she was joking- aiming in the general direction of home. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901/400 "2013-07-11T07:55:23Z")
Took me a bit to figure out the last sequence - Cueball is drawing pictures on the ground with the stick to establish communications. It just looked somewhat aggressive at first. And is the small tower a theodolite or something similar? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-1190-time-randalls-setting-something-up/653901.md?page=21)