# ­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:** 22
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/421 "2021-01-15T14:16:35Z")
D&D has been having a bit of a renaissance recently, which is why these alignment charts have been popping up so much. That said, as a D&D player since the 70s, I have yet to see one that is more than mildly amusing. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/422 "2021-01-15T14:41:57Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > In the 1/10,000 scale world, wouldn’t people have to sit, lie down, or crawl not just regularly, but pretty much all the time? In 1/10,000 scale world, are air molecules 1/10,000 smaller than life as well? Because if so, they’ll be no damn use to your lungs or your metabolism in general even if you respire them. That’s the problem with overthinking charmingly silly hypotheticals. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/423 "2021-01-15T15:13:42Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > In the 1/10,000 scale world, wouldn’t people have to sit, lie down, or crawl not just regularly, but pretty much all the time? I’m thinking a snorkel that goes down to the thicker air? ---
**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:** [January 15, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/424 "2021-01-15T15:24:20Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > What category does it fall into when, once you’ve got no more than 6 eggs left, you put them all in one side and cut the other side off to make them easier to grab and take up less room in the fridge? > > ETA: Not that I really grok these designations anyway. I assume they’re from LARPing or something like that. Agreed. The designations were systematic yet ??? As to your carton mayhem, do you cut the carton to have a 2x3 array of egg holders, or a 6x1 array of egg holders? I can be pretty anal-retentive about compacting, repacking, and optimally organizing things, but this is _way_ beyond my personal pale. Are you OK? 🙂 > [@DSeid](#): > > My son explained they refer to D&D character rules but does not think the joke works at any level as one who plays. Thank you. Still useless. Everybody publishes some filler sometimes. IMO this episode was that. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/425 "2021-01-15T15:26:58Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > In 1/10,000 scale world, are air molecules 1/10,000 smaller than life as well? Because if so, they’ll be no damn use to your lungs or your metabolism in general even if you respire them. > > That’s the problem with overthinking charmingly silly hypotheticals. 😕 In the SF classic **[_Fantastic Voyage_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage)** (at least in the book adaptation) there was much discussion of how “miniaturized light” interacted with the normal-scale world. Lots of hand-waving is required to get past these issues. Of course, just as one can build a model railroad that still works, one can build a 1:10000 model of the physical earth and populate it with fake underground lava, minature cities, oceans, mountains and such. If you built it stoutly enough real normal-sized people could indeed walk around on it, wade in the mid-oceans, etc. If installed in a vacuum chamber with just a smidgen of air added you could even simulate the full atmosphere. To lethal effect even using real-world sized molecules. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/426 "2021-01-15T15:59:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Thank you. Still useless. Everybody publishes some filler sometimes. IMO this episode was that. I actually really liked the egg one, as someone who frequently argues with my wife about the optimal egg-removal strategy. And I felt like the descriptions were close enough to the spirit of the D&D classifications to be amusing (although I would have switched chaotic good with chaotic neutral). ---
**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:** [January 15, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/427 "2021-01-15T16:10:29Z")
I too have had the egg debate. Some topics are universal when you share a house with somebody else. 😉 But when the labels are meaningless and the examples seemingly arbitrary samples of a much larger space, there’s just not much there there. OTOH I suppose, like any joke, you need to be in the target audience to “get it”. Speaking as a non-D&D person … For me he could as well have used certain letters of the alphabet where the joke was that they were the letters of the spectral types of stars. I probably wouldn’t have recognized the pattern, but if I did I’d have gotten the joke. And if not, not. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/428 "2021-01-15T16:35:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > As to your carton mayhem, do you cut the carton to have a 2x3 array of egg holders, or a 6x1 array of egg holders? I can be pretty anal-retentive about compacting, repacking, and optimally organizing things, but this is _way_ beyond my personal pale. Are you OK? 2x3. It takes, I dunno, 15-30 seconds to cut the carton in half that way? Basically, I do shit like that if it’s easy, and say ‘screw it’ otherwise unless I’m absolutely desperate for space. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2021, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/429 "2021-01-15T18:19:50Z")
I’m just interested to learn that there are apparently lots of other people who take eggs out of the carton in any particular order. I’d thought it was just me. (I seem to be Lawful Good about eggs; unless I’m combining eggs from cartons of two different dates to save space, in which case I’ll go for the Neutral Good arrangement.) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/430 "2021-01-15T18:32:17Z")
> **[1/100,000th Scale World](https://xkcd.com/2412/)** > > The floor should be slightly curved, but we haven't figured out artificial gravity yet, so for now we just added a trace intoxicating gas to the air that messes with your inner ear and gives you a sense that the ground is tilting away from you. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/431 "2021-01-15T20:21:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Speaking as a non-D&D person … Speaking _as_ a D&D person… Many arguments have been had as to what the alignment system means, and whether it is descriptive or prescriptive. About the only agreement is on lawful good and chaotic evil, with everything else in between being a matter of opinion. The _joke_ that is to be had in the comic is on the chaotic evil part, as every other alignment has some sort of way of dealing with the eggs, the chaotic evil character just murders them all. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/432 "2021-01-16T00:54:53Z")
Anyway, the chart’s got CE wrong. My wife puts the egg shells back in the carton. _That’s_ chaotic evil. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/433 "2021-01-16T15:30:02Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > My wife puts the egg shells back in the carton. _That’s_ chaotic evil. Agree it’s chaotic and evil, but beyond that … WTF??? ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/434 "2021-01-16T15:41:18Z")
I’ve seen a lot of people do that. They expect to just toss them out eventually together with the carton, and it probably keeps the sticky bits of egg white on the shells contained; though I don’t think I ever asked anybody why they were doing that. I just asked them to cut it out in my house, because I return the cartons to the egg suppliers for re-use and nobody wants them if they’re all sticky with egg white. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/435 "2021-01-16T15:43:44Z")
I would ask them what other garbage they store in their fridge for a week or two before throwing out. Color me amazed. But thank you for the enlightenment. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/436 "2021-01-16T15:44:41Z")
When I used to work in restaurants, and had big crates of eggs, 15 dozen, IIRC, I would do that when I had to crack a few dozen eggs. But at home I only do that if I am using the last few of a carton. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/437 "2021-01-16T23:01:14Z")
I think it was indeed usually when either they were making a lot of eggs at once so that at least one carton was being emptied, or were finishing off a previously started carton. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/438 "2021-01-17T01:19:15Z")
Does she put them in such that you can’t tell that they’re empty shells until you try to pull them out? My brother does that, and when we were living in the same house, that was one of my pet peeves. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/439 "2021-01-17T09:55:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Agree it’s chaotic and evil, but beyond that … WTF??? That’s like something from the Far Realms, the Lovecraftian expanse beyond the known planes of existence. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/440 "2021-01-17T19:09:49Z")
Let’s see, the Earth has a circumference of 25,000 miles, so in the 1/100,000 world, its circumference is 1/4 mile. Hardly need to worry about limited cell coverage when nobody’s more than 220 yards from where you’re standing. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=23)