# ­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:** 4
**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:** [June 25, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/61 "2020-06-25T14:07:16Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Gonna try that onebox thing here. Maybe it’ll be legible enough people don’t have to go to the xkcd page. Nope. At least, not in my setup, and certainly not with my eyes; though I doubt most of the text in that one is legible to much of anybody, though the larger print might be. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/62 "2020-06-27T09:29:07Z")
> **[Endorheic Basin](https://xkcd.com/2325/)** > > My biggest fear is that colonial engineers will try to flood me to generate electricity. My biggest hope is that I'll develop sailing stones. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/63 "2020-06-27T14:54:34Z")
That’s a great one! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/64 "2020-06-28T15:35:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A barn-megaparsec is about 3 cubic centimeters. You must like an awful lot of sugar in your tea. Interestingly, the amount of sugar I prefer in my tea comes out to the same number in barn-megaparsecs and nanometer-acres. ---
**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 29, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/65 "2020-06-29T13:36:25Z")
And an acre, of course, is exactly 99 inch-miles. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/66 "2020-06-30T03:33:03Z")
> **[Five Word Jargon](https://xkcd.com/2326/)** > > My other (much harder) hobby is trying to engineer situations where I have an excuse to use more than one of them in short succession. Should have a five-word jargon phrase to describe this one, but my brain isn’t working very well right now. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/67 "2020-06-30T06:32:21Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Should have a five-word jargon phrase to describe this one, but my brain isn’t working very well right now. Idiopathic Aesthetically Discriminatory Jargon-specific Pentalogophilia ---
**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:** [July 1, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/68 "2020-07-01T16:38:38Z")
For those of us with only a slight knowledge of science, what do terms such as inch-miles mean? ---
**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:** [July 1, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/69 "2020-07-01T16:59:45Z")
It means that you measure one dimension in one unit and another dimension in another unit. So an “inch-mile” would be a strip one inch wide by one mile long. 99 such strips place side by side or end to end would cover one acre of area. The “joke” in the measurements mentioned is that they aren’t actually measurements anyone would ever use, but they’re technically possible. ---
**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:** [July 1, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/70 "2020-07-01T17:00:02Z")
It’s a unit of area. Square feet could also be called feet-feet. It’s not generally a useful unit, because we typically use the same units for x and y when we talk about area. But if you wanted to talk about the area of a piece of duct tape 5 miles long, I suppose there are situations where you might says it’s 15 inch-miles. ---
**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:** [July 1, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/71 "2020-07-01T17:35:41Z")
Okay, so that explains it when it’s units of distance. How about batman-poods? (Two units of mass, or is it weight?) > **[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Pood](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/pood)** > > Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Pood ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/72 "2020-07-02T03:09:47Z")
[xkcd: Oily House Index](https://xkcd.com/2327/) Oily House Index Most home owners would be under water oil if this were instantiated. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/73 "2020-07-02T05:41:37Z")
“…if you converted its mortgage to crude oil” is an odd way to put it. The denominator of the graph is the the price per sq ft of a home. The average mortgage will bear some relationship to the price, but it’s not equal to it, and it’s a liability rather than an asset. If I own something, I could convert it into something else, but it doesn’t make much sense to talk about converting a liability into something else. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/74 "2020-07-03T21:10:29Z")
We can’t really properly discuss units-based analysis without a link to this classic: [Droppings](https://what-if.xkcd.com/11/) The part I like best is the aside about fuel mileage; bird poop is nice and all, but the other is actually useful. Although his bird poop time to mouth conclusion confuses me a bit. He forgot the factor for “recency of car being washed” That one seems to have a very large influence. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/75 "2020-07-04T02:15:26Z")
That what-if is related to today’s > **[Space Basketball](https://xkcd.com/2328/)** > > My shooting will improve over the short term, but over the long term the universe will take more shots. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/76 "2020-07-07T02:35:08Z")
> **[Universal Rating Scale](https://xkcd.com/2329/)** > > There are plenty of finer gradations. I got 'critically endangered/extinct in the wild' on my exam, although the curve bumped it all the way up to 'venti.' It’s not universal enough. Doesn’t have a D-minus, for example. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2020, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/77 "2020-07-09T02:29:25Z")
> **[Acceptable Risk](https://xkcd.com/2330/)** > > Good thing I'm not already prone to overthinking everyday decisions! OK, let’s hang out together. You first. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/78 "2020-07-09T12:36:43Z")
A debate I have with myself every time wife & I discuss going out to dinner since we live amongst our flagrantly non-compliant heavily infected fellow Floridiots. The absolute level of exposure, if we’re being careful, is non-zero but low. Conversely the incremental exposure compared to staying home is ginormous. Which is the relevant measure of merit? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/79 "2020-07-11T23:58:14Z")
> **[Hamster Ball 2](https://xkcd.com/2331/)** > > The worst is being teased by responsible, mask-wearing teens. They even spritz the hamster ball with disinfectant before rolling it, carefully avoiding the filter vents. Covid follow up to: > **[Hamster Ball](https://xkcd.com/152/)** > > Reportedly, double-walled inflatable balls like this exist somewhere. Now to find that place. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/80 "2020-07-12T00:08:28Z")
[Too late to edit.] The closest thing I know of to such balls are Zorbing balls. You can’t walk in them, because the gap between the double walls is way too wide. They’re for rolling down hill. > **[Zorbing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorbing)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Zorbing (also known as globe-riding, sphereing, orbing) is the recreation or sport of rolling downhill inside an orb, typically made of transparent plastic. Zorbing is generally performed on a gentle slope but can also be done on a level surface, permitting more rider control. In the absence of hills, some operators have constructed inflatable, wooden, or metal ramps. Due to the buoyant nature of the orbs, Zorbing can also be carried out on water, ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=5)