# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 161
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3203 "2024-06-22T15:45:04Z")
Until that comment I didn’t pick up that the strip started with making you think they were talking about playing Civ online, with the kicker panel being that he actually was a time traveler. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2024, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3204 "2024-06-23T21:11:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Amtrak is much more comfortable than Greyhound, and the price and convenience are a lot closer to Greyhound than to air travel. TBF that’s if you’re traveling coach. In the Northeast Corridor that’s a doddle but two or three nights from Chicago to the west coast in coach is not for everybody, and a sleeper can\* run you $600 a night. \*Amtrak pricing is like airline pricing used to be. The amount shelled out over the same route can vary a lot depending mostly on the calendar. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3205 "2024-06-23T22:29:46Z")
The price comparison is complicated. The $600 would presumably otherwise be spent on a hotel room for one or two nights. Further (partial) comparison is that it includes meals and a small table for taking thoughtful notes for your hobby or upcoming meeting. Get up and walk around, and look out the big windows. Like it or not, see how America really is, not from kilo-feet away. No airport hassles. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3206 "2024-06-25T02:54:06Z")
> **[Situation](https://xkcd.com/2950/)** > > We're right under the flight path for the scheduled orbital launch, but don't worry--it's too cold out for the rockets to operate safely, so I'm sure they'll postpone. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3207 "2024-06-25T13:10:08Z")
Is this a dig at Starliner? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3208 "2024-06-25T13:42:08Z")
No, it’s a reference to the [Challenger explosion.](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/weather/2021/01/19/how-weather-caused-the-loss-of-the-space-shuttle-challenger) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3209 "2024-06-25T13:43:57Z")
And Titanic, Tacoma Narrows, Hindenburg, Chernobyl… ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3210 "2024-06-25T13:52:58Z")
If this is about engineering disasters in general, I’m not sure the examples all count. The Titanic sank due to a perfect storm of unlucky circumstances. The risks of hydrogen in dirigibles was well-known and the engineers were confident that their safety measures were adequate. And I’m unaware that the design of Tacoma Narrows had any faults that were glaringly obvious beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3211 "2024-06-25T14:01:54Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > And I’m unaware that the design of Tacoma Narrows had any faults that were glaringly obvious beforehand. I think that’s the joke. You don’t really know all the failure modes beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3212 "2024-06-25T14:18:49Z")
Another possible POV of the joke was that the engineers understood the nature of seemingly additive hazards actually multiplying risk. At least in the sense of potential severity if not always in potential likelihood. Meanwhile clueless management thought: “The ship is safe, the blimp is safe, the reactor is safe and the bridge is safe. So therefore all together they’re even safer. Full speed ahead!” Safety doesn’t accumulate; risk does. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3213 "2024-06-25T14:38:02Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > No, it’s a reference to the [Challenger explosion.](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/weather/2021/01/19/how-weather-caused-the-loss-of-the-space-shuttle-challenger) > [@beowulff](#): > > And Titanic, Tacoma Narrows, Hindenburg, Chernobyl… And possibly Calvin and Hobbes: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/zQSSz.gif "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/zQSSz) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3214 "2024-06-25T14:47:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Safety doesn’t accumulate; risk does. Ah, I get it now- the joke is piling all those risky things together. Sort of like how probabilities multiply: the chance of something happening is the inverse of the product of all the chances that it won’t; and since the chances it won’t are less than one, that product can get worryingly small. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3215 "2024-06-25T15:09:26Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > If this is about engineering disasters in general, I’m not sure the examples all count. The Titanic sank due to a perfect storm of unlucky circumstances. Some of the circumstances were unlucky, but some were just bad decisions. Like not including enough lifeboat capacity. Or not keeping an adequate watch for icebergs, and then responding to that watch. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3216 "2024-06-25T15:11:52Z")
Wasn’t the Titanic built with steel that went brittle in extremely low temps? or is that a myth? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3217 "2024-06-25T15:18:03Z")
It seems it was the rivets that were substandard and prone to breaking in the cold North Atlantic water. IIRC the steel plates of the ship were, for the time, very good steel. > **[NIST Reveals How Tiny Rivets Doomed a Titanic Vessel](https://www.nist.gov/nist-time-capsule/nist-beneath-waves/nist-reveals-how-tiny-rivets-doomed-titanic-vessel)** > > When the remains of RMS Titanic were discovered more than 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) beneath the surface of the North Atlantic i ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3218 "2024-06-25T15:24:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Or not keeping an adequate watch for icebergs, and then responding to that watch. I think the watch was there and normal for the ship and the crew responded reasonably quickly once the warning was sounded. I think the issue was a moonless night and the sea was unusually calm. It being very dark and the calm sea meant waves were not breaking on the iceberg which meant spotting it was more difficult. Add in 50,000+ tons of ship moving around 20 mph and that delay in spotting the iceberg was enough. The ship simply can’t turn that fast. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3219 "2024-06-25T17:38:13Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And possibly Calvin and Hobbes: Farmer Brown made me think of a family in the neighborhood I grew up in: one of the sons was killed by lightning in their driveway and about 25 years later their house was hit by a tornado. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3220 "2024-06-25T21:07:12Z")
Another problem with the watch on the Titanic is that the crow’s nest didn’t have binoculars. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3221 "2024-06-26T18:39:33Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > “Amtrak combines the convenience and affordability of air travel with the speed and comfort of bus travel.” > [@Chronos](#): > > Amtrak is much more comfortable than Greyhound, and the price and convenience are a lot closer to Greyhound than to air travel. My wife took Amtrak once for a business trip from New Haven to Baltimore. It cost twice as much as a plane ticket would have cost, took hours longer to get there, and she had no seat or a place to put her luggage—nor did she get any assistance from the conductor or anyone else. In Amtrak’s defense it would have helped if she had been more able-bodied and had less luggage. In any event, the experience was negative enough that she vowed to never take Amtrak again. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2024, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3222 "2024-06-27T04:35:41Z")
> **[Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas](https://xkcd.com/2951/)** > > Although Kansas is widely thought to contain the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states, topologists now believe that it's actually their outer edge. ::resisting urge to quote Dorothy re: Kansas:: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=160) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=162)