# ­xkcd thread

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574>\
**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:** 181

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**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:** [October 25, 2024, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3603 "2024-10-25T03:28:36Z")

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> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> It’s often unavoidable even in the same house – if my father was comfortable in a short sleeved shirt, my mother needed that sweater.

[![](https://mockup-api.teespring.com/v3/image/EfVQgbL6gAhMCo5-1Wv2ELgJ130/960/1120.jpg) ](https://mockup-api.teespring.com/v3/image/EfVQgbL6gAhMCo5-1Wv2ELgJ130/960/1120.jpg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3604 "2024-10-25T04:01:12Z")

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FWIW

> **[Cold temperature plays a central role in longevity](https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230403/Cold-temperature-plays-a-central-role-in-longevity.aspx)**
>
> Cold activates a cellular cleansing mechanism that breaks down harmful protein aggregations responsible for various diseases associated with aging.

> Even in humans, a correlation between body temperature and lifespan has been reported. Normal human body temperature is between 36.5 and 37 degrees Celsius. While an acute drop in body temperature below 35 degrees leads to hypothermia, human body temperature fluctuates slightly during the day and even reaches a cool 36 degrees during sleep. Interestingly, a previous study reported that human body temperature has steadily declined by 0.03 degrees Celsius per decade since the Industrial Revolution, suggesting a possible link to the progressive increase in human life expectancy over the last 160 years.

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3605 "2024-10-25T04:03:54Z")

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I think it’s likely the causation is the other way around, in the past, people were more likely to have low-grade infections that slightly increased their body temp and otherwise put a strain on the system.

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3606 "2024-10-25T05:53:29Z")

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Maybe.

But the experimental evidence, including in mammals, is _pretty_ good that causation seems to go from higher body temperature to shorter life and cooler with longer.

> **[Live Fast, Die Young? Or Live Cold, Die Old? - Neuroscience News](https://neurosciencenews.com/body-temperature-longevity-20190/amp/)**
>
> Body temperature exerts a greater effect on longevity and lifespan than metabolic rate, researchers report.

My assumption was that such was related to metabolic rate, but that article suggests not.

Dunno but the discussion here reminded me of this stuff.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 25, 2024, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3607 "2024-10-25T13:25:06Z")

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> [@DesertDog](#):
>
> > [@thorny\_locust](#):
> >
> > It’s often unavoidable even in the same house – if my father was comfortable in a short sleeved shirt, my mother needed that sweater.
> 
> [https://mockup-api.teespring.com/v3/image/EfVQgbL6gAhMCo5-1Wv2ELgJ130/960/1120.jpg](https://mockup-api.teespring.com/v3/image/EfVQgbL6gAhMCo5-1Wv2ELgJ130/960/1120.jpg)

Great shirt. I need one.

And yes, @thorny_locust’s point is very true.

A challenge w my not-quite-ex-wife (1 more week!) was here in warm FL she’d dress heavily at home and want the AC blasting and I’d want to dress lightly and have almost no AC.

In both our cases our clothing choices increased our incompatibility. Which was already about 5F when we dressed the same.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 25, 2024, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3608 "2024-10-25T15:57:13Z")

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> **[Sandwich Helix](https://xkcd.com/3003/)**
>
> The number one rule of string manipulation is that you’ve got to specify your encodings.

I believe the context is topology of digestive systems.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3609 "2024-10-25T16:03:07Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Great shirt. I need one.

If my mother were still alive, I’d have her birthday present.

(She lived to 89, for what that’s worth in the statistics.)

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**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3610 "2024-10-25T16:09:29Z")

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In Florida, the battle between my weak AC unit (admitted to me by the head maintenance guy in a moment of frankness) and the summer temps would result in the floor being several degrees cooler than the height of the thermostat, not helped by my unit facing west. I had to aim a fan from the carpet to the thermostat to blow the cooler air up to the thing, else the thing would have run all day long and even after the sun went down.

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**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3611 "2024-10-25T18:59:44Z")

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> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> I had to aim a fan from the carpet to the thermostat to blow the cooler air up to the thing

Couldn’t you just have turned the thermostat down a bit?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3612 "2024-10-25T19:13:09Z")

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Distracting myself from election data, @puzzlegal, it’s cool to be cool. Some [prospective human](https://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5468) data:

> Several demographic factors were linked to individual level temperature, with older people the coolest (–0.021°C for every decade, P\<0.001) and African-American women the hottest (versus white men: 0.052°C, P\<0.001). Several comorbidities were linked to lower temperature (eg, hypothyroidism: –0.013°C, P=0.01) or higher temperature (eg, cancer: 0.020, P\<0.001), as were physiological measurements (eg, body mass index: 0.002 per m/kg2, P\<0.001). Overall, measured factors collectively explained only 8.2% of individual temperature variation. **Despite this, unexplained temperature variation was a significant predictor of subsequent mortality: controlling for all measured factors, an increase of 0.149°C (1 SD of individual temperature in the data) was linked to 8.4% higher one year mortality (P=0.014)**.

Bolding mine.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3613 "2024-10-25T19:24:53Z")

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> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> > [@John\_DiFool](#):
> >
> > I had to aim a fan from the carpet to the thermostat to blow the cooler air up to the thing
> 
> Couldn’t you just have turned the thermostat down a bit?

The durned thing was so inefficient that turning it down couldn’t cool things down further _at all_ on especially hot and sunny days; it would just keep running all day long until it burned itself out. Turning it up (by contrast) just meant sweating myself to death every night as I tossed and turned. The issue is that the cooler air close to the floor was in an eternal battle with the hotter air nearer the ceiling, with the frontal boundary never reaching the thermostat, tho running the ceiling fan helped a bit (the floor fan was still a better choice).

My Cleveland flat’s AC AND heater are immensely more efficient and powerful, and combined with the superior insulation all around thanks to the winters here, my bills here have been MUCH lower than in Florida.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 25, 2024, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3614 "2024-10-25T19:37:25Z")

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Much of 1970s & prior construction in booming FL, CA, and AZ were woefully energy inefficient. Lousy or absent insulation, leaky windows & doors, undersized HVAC systems, no thought to vent or thermostat placement or sizing, etc.

There was enough of a land rush on, and energy was cheap enough, that nobody gave a thought to efficiency or to adequacy.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3615 "2024-10-26T10:56:31Z")

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> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> Fahrenheit is a tiny bit more cursed than Celsius, though not by much, since basing the scale on the characteristics of water is still a bit parochial. It’s not even really true that the boiling point of water is 100 C. It’s off by a bit, since it’s actually based on the triple point of water.

but then again, who doesn’t love a temp. measuring system which dynamically changes its output with altitude.

… or air-pressure

The other day, I surpresed Wifey - by no means the scientific type - using a scale expanding device outside of a lab and in our own house.

Who would have thinked?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 27, 2024, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3616 "2024-10-27T23:31:22Z")

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> [@Al128](#):
>
> but then again, who doesn’t love a temp. measuring system which dynamically changes its output with altitude

Not wuite, since STP is part of the definition. Now. Admittedly not when it was being defined originally a couple hundred years ago.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 27, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3617 "2024-10-27T23:56:29Z")

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Pretty much standards get more rigorously defined when the need arises. As long as “the temperature of boiling water” was close enough for purposes that was fine. As soon as \<1° accuracy started to make a difference they added the stipulation of standard atmospheric pressure. Then the purity standard of the water, etc.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 28, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3618 "2024-10-28T22:12:24Z")

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> **[Wells](https://xkcd.com/3004/)**
>
> You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3619 "2024-10-29T18:50:12Z")

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Hmmmm.

Oil is at the time of this posting selling for $67.26 per 42-gallon barrel, or $1.60 per gallon.

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room with two 1/2 liter bottles of Aquafina water. If I crack one of them open, I’ll be charged $6.00 when I check out. Price (retail): $45.42 per gallon.

So by this one highly cherry-picked measure, the water is over 28 times more valuable than the oil. Perhaps it’s the water, rather than the free fuel, that you can sell for a lot of money instead?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 29, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3620 "2024-10-29T20:34:39Z")

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Location, location, location.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3621 "2024-10-31T02:56:57Z")

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> **[Disposal](https://xkcd.com/3005/)**
>
> We were disappointed that the rocket didn't make a THOOOONK noise when it went into the tube, but we're setting up big loudspeakers for future launches to add the sound effect.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [November 1, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3622 "2024-11-01T15:24:05Z")

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We’re also looking into branching out into the mining and fracking industries.

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