# ­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:** 19
**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:** [December 19, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/361 "2020-12-19T13:51:21Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I was surprised to see that the Denver area was basically a big blob of population in the middle of nowhere. It’s a little more accurate to say the Boulder-Denver-Colorado Springs nascent metroblob is in the middle of nowhere. Those three areas have not grown together … yet. The non-suburban areas between them aren’t devoid of population; they’re semi rural but seem destined, water permitting, to fill in over the next 30-40 years. ---
**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:** [December 19, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/362 "2020-12-19T14:33:35Z")
And now I’m kind of wondering what Denver has, that makes it a site for a city. Most cities are built around some obvious geographical feature, like the mouth of a river. Is there a major river that runs through Denver, and if so, is there any significance to that spot on the river? ---
**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:** [December 19, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/363 "2020-12-19T14:56:12Z")
Wiki’s potted history says it was originally connected to the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, plus a nearby minor river in what’s otherwise pretty dry territory. So more to do with the luck of where the gold was found than anything else. At least as to North/South. As to East/West, ISTM towns were semi-destined to spring up in the foothills, not out in the arid flats, nor up in the steep country. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/364 "2020-12-19T20:50:53Z")
If you’re driving in from the east, there’s no change between Kansas and Colorado, just a tilt to the plains as you keep going up. Then it’s almost BOOM mountains with Denver in the last flat-ish area before you can’t pack people in. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/365 "2020-12-19T20:59:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s a little more accurate to say the Boulder-Denver-Colorado Springs nascent metroblob is in the middle of nowhere. Based on mapping, it looks like Fort Collins and Cheyenne will eventually be assimilated into the Denver blob too. ---
**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:** [December 19, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/366 "2020-12-19T22:12:27Z")
In regards to the Statistics one, even if you don’t need statistics to choose between vaccination and no vaccination, you probably do still need them for decisions like one dose vs. two, or how big the doses need to be, or how much time between the doses, or any of myriad other questions the research was designed to answer. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/367 "2020-12-22T05:17:07Z")
> **[Conjunction](https://xkcd.com/2401/)** > > The IAU is sad to announce that at 00:39 UTC on December 22nd, Jupiter and Saturn did unfortunately come into contact, and appear to have blooped together. I wish they wouldn’t use such highly technical terms like _blooped_. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2020, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/368 "2020-12-22T11:41:43Z")
I prefer splooshed. After all, they’re semi-liquid. I wonder how far the splooshes went? Probably clear to Earth’s orbit. :eek: Incoming!!! ---
**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:** [December 22, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/369 "2020-12-22T14:37:21Z")
There is, in fact, such a thing as contact binary stars, which are exactly what they sound like: Stars so close that they’re touching. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2020, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/370 "2020-12-22T16:04:27Z")
That sounds even more violent and unhealthy for children and other living things than does “crossing the streams.” And we _know_ what happens when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/371 "2020-12-24T01:44:07Z")
> **[Into My Veins](https://xkcd.com/2402/)** > > "Okay, for the last time, the shot is free, so we can't--" "Shut up and take my money!" ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/372 "2020-12-24T05:45:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Probably clear to Earth’s orbit That reminds me of the fact (that I probably learned here but might have been Youtube Astronomy video comments) that you could fit all the other planets on a line with each just touching the next in between the Earth and the Moon, if only just barely, and obviously depending on how you define the surface of the larger planets. I couldn’t believe it at first when I read it, but if you do the math it checks out. ---
**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:** [December 24, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/373 "2020-12-24T12:01:26Z")
Interesting. Said another way, even the small amount of _Space_ between Earth & Moon is still a lot compared to all the solids, liquids, and appreciably-thick gases in the whole solar system. Space is big. Really really big. But what happens when you let go of the magic that put them all touching, and conventional physics suddenly takes over? A giant Earth-crushing SPLOOSH; that’s what! 😉 It’d be epic to watch from a suitable distance. Say out about Alpha Centauri. ---
**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:** [December 24, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/374 "2020-12-24T16:01:49Z")
So, I’m pretty sure that the current one is a pop culture reference, but I’m apparently even less up on pop culture than is Randal Monroe. A little help? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/375 "2020-12-24T16:14:32Z")
According to [Explain XKCD](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2402:_Into_My_Veins), it’s a reference to a [Simpsons episode from 1995.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Star_Is_Burns) It’s a pretty obscure reference, and also a misquote. If that’s really what he was going for, its a miss. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/m4xIy1rlJKs/hqdefault.jpg "Just hook it to my veins") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4xIy1rlJKs) ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/376 "2020-12-24T18:22:13Z")
It’s an internet meme. I don’t doubt that it originated with that Simpsons episode, but responding to a post about bacon or whatever food or what have you is currently internet cool with “Yesss” or, worse, “Yasss”, and “Inject this directly into my veins” is a meme. As is “Shut up and take my money!”, which comes from an episode of Futurama. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2020, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/377 "2020-12-26T03:32:16Z")
> **[Wrapping Paper](https://xkcd.com/2403/)** > > Wow, rude of you to regift literally every gift that you or anyone else has ever received. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/378 "2020-12-29T03:05:59Z")
> **[First Thing](https://xkcd.com/2404/)** > > Then I'm going to go on a weeks-long somatic hypermutation bender, producing ever-more targeted antibodies, while I continue to remain distanced and follow guidance from public health authorities. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/379 "2021-01-01T06:15:37Z")
> **[Flash Gatsby](https://xkcd.com/2405/)** > > Protip: At midnight your excuse for not having read The Great Gatsby can switch from "I'm worried about violating copyright" to "I think my copy requires Flash." ---
**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:** [January 1, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/380 "2021-01-01T14:51:53Z")
I’d honestly forgotten until I read that comic that this is when works start entering the public domain again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=20)