# ­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:** 40
**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:** [May 26, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/782 "2021-05-26T18:45:46Z")
There are a _lot_ of board games out there where you add up Victory Points at the end to determine the winner. Off the top of my head, Agricola, 7 Wonders, Between Two Cities, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Scythe…and that’s a small fraction of that game space. There’s no way to tell what the game is just from that snippet. _ETA: Also, what @Kron said._ ---
**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:** [May 26, 2021, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/783 "2021-05-26T21:25:08Z")
I’m really unclear about how that “asparagus” is supposed to have worked. Surely, even WWII-era gliders or paratroops would be able to avoid poles spaced 30 meters apart, while landing. Even if you string barbed wire between the tops, that still leaves holes much, much bigger than a human (your parachute might catch on one, but it’s not like you were planning on reusing it). ---
**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:** [May 26, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/784 "2021-05-26T21:31:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Surely, even WWII-era gliders or paratroops would be able to avoid poles spaced 30 meters apart, while landing. What if you have a 100 or 1000 landing in the same area? It’s not about stopping single troops or even platoons, but denying the area to mass formations. Add a couple crashes and some hostile fire and the area denial has a real impact. ---
**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:** [May 26, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/785 "2021-05-26T21:43:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m really unclear about how that “asparagus” is supposed to have worked. The stuff is very hard to spot from the air. Many glider landings were planned for less than full daytime. The glider’s landing approach angle is shallow enough that if there was any wire it’d be real hard to go over one and safely below the next even if you see it coming. Last of all although the gliders didn’t roll/slide very far across farmland after touching down it was far enough that you’d stand an appreciable risk of hitting one during deceleration even if you missed them all in the air. When the outer part of the wing hits one the whip-around is pretty severe; you can injure people and or break equipment loose that crushes people. As always wounded enemy are better than dead enemy; each wounded man takes somebody else out of the fight to help him, at least for awhile. Or at least that’s the idea behind asparagus. As noted by wiki, it wasn’t terribly effective. What I can’t say is how much that lack of effectiveness was from folks landing amongst it unscathed, or from mission planners avoiding those areas and landing elsewhere. With perhaps those other places being more heavily fortified with defenders. Passive defenses are an economy of force play. The cheaper and quicker to erect the better. A common army tactic is called canalization which amounts to "steer the enemy away from (or flat deny them) _this_ terrain and of necessity they’ll end up on _that_ terrain instead. Where we’ve set up a jolly fine reception. ---
**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:** [May 26, 2021, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/786 "2021-05-26T21:46:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A common army tactic is called canalization which amounts to "steer the enemy away from (or flat deny them) _this_ terrain and of necessity they’ll end up on _that_ terrain instead. Where we’ve set up a jolly fine reception. “And the enemy, in blue, will undoubtedly pursue, for that’s what you depend upon an enemy to do.” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/787 "2021-05-29T06:39:33Z")
> **[Astronomy Status Board](https://xkcd.com/2469/)** > > Junior astronomers hate getting put on board update duty, but someone's gotta make sure that stuff is still up there. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/788 "2021-05-29T06:53:22Z")
“Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/789 "2021-06-01T00:09:31Z")
> **[Next Slide Please](https://xkcd.com/2470/)** > > "I have nothing to offer but blood--next slide, please--toil--next slide, please--tears, and--next slide, please--sweat." Great Power Points of history. ---
**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 1, 2021, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/790 "2021-06-01T02:16:43Z")
The joke in this one was overdone, especially with it always being the exact same phrase (aside from the Latin at the end). (Click to the next one?) It would have worked better if it were either shorter, or (could you advance it, please?) they mixed it up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/791 "2021-06-01T11:39:47Z")
Also a rather similar joke has been around for ages The Powerpoint Gettysburg address [https://norvig.com/Gettysburg/](https://norvig.com/Gettysburg/) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/792 "2021-06-03T02:14:46Z")
> **[Hippo Attacks](https://xkcd.com/2471/)** > > It's cool how, when there's a number lots of people are curious about, but which isn't easy to measure, some random guess will get cited everywhere and become the universally quoted value. Unrelatedly, did you know there are 850 trillion waves in the ocean? I read somewhere that there’ve been 2471 xkcd strips. ---
**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 3, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/793 "2021-06-03T23:51:28Z")
A variation on this classic which proves there are only 978 xkcd strips. My site is my cite: > **[Citogenesis](https://xkcd.com/978/)** > > I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wildly inaccurate data which traced back to ... Wikipedia. To encourage people to be on their toes, I'm not going to say what book or author. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/794 "2021-06-05T11:36:51Z")
> **[Fuzzy Blob](https://xkcd.com/2472/)** > > If there's no dome, how do you explain the irregularities the board discovered in the zoning permits issued in that area!? ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/795 "2021-06-05T15:42:52Z")
I hope they figure out Fuzzy Blob - it shows up on a lot of my pictures too! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/796 "2021-06-05T15:47:38Z")
Gale was often Male, where Gail was generally only female. Also Gale Gordon goes pretty far back. (best known for Lucy Shows) Also had Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears and there was a Senator from out west named Gale. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/797 "2021-06-08T03:14:25Z")
> **[Product Launch](https://xkcd.com/2473/)** > > "Okay, that was weird, but the product reveal was normal. I think the danger is pas--" "One more thing." "Oh no." ---
**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:** [June 8, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/798 "2021-06-08T13:34:56Z")
> [@](#): > > No, don’t worry! A staggering number of people will survive! I am so stealing that. ---
**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 10, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/799 "2021-06-10T15:46:01Z")
> **[First Time Since Early 2020](https://xkcd.com/2474/)** > > Gotten the Ferris wheel operator's attention “Stepped on a scale” should be in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/800 "2021-06-10T17:12:55Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > “Stepped on a scale” should be in there somewhere. Very close to “Alarming”, I expect. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/801 "2021-06-10T17:18:07Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > > [@TroutMan](#): > > > > “Stepped on a scale” should be in there somewhere. > > Very close to “Alarming”, I expect.   Meh. I usually\* only step on a scale at the doctor’s office, which I would not have done had I not stepped on a screw. That is, unless you meant the _number_ might be alarming. \*I say usually, as I did buy a cheap scale on Amazon to weigh my dog to determine the right amount of flea medication. The way I do it is that I step on without holding him, and then while holding him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=41)