# ­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:** 76
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1502 "2022-07-01T19:08:59Z")
There are, of course, Reasons for the various state boundary curiosities that have gotten into the books, and I kinda doubt that all of them would be easily overturned, long time passing or no. ---
**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 1, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1503 "2022-07-01T19:13:26Z")
> [@Civil\_Guy](#): > > I kinda doubt that all of them would be easily overturned Did you miss the mouseover text? It acknowledges that point… > It was scary when the graphic designers **seized control of the country** ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1504 "2022-07-02T03:00:54Z")
> **[The Universe by Scientific Field](https://xkcd.com/2640/)** > > The math and philosophy people also claim everything, but the astronomers argue that the stuff they study really only comprises a small number of paper surfaces. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1505 "2022-07-02T03:51:13Z")
Oh. Graphic designers. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1506 "2022-07-02T04:48:23Z")
Looks like that’s by volume. Earth has a volume of 1.1e21 m^3, while the universe is about 4e80 m^3. That ratio is approximately the “other” figure of 3e-60 (or 3e-58 percent). Mass though gives a much more reasonable fraction of 0.000000000000000000000000006%. Not sure about information content, but it’s probably in-between due to the high information density of black holes. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1507 "2022-07-02T05:39:54Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Looks like that’s by volume. Earth has a volume of 1.1e21 m^3, while the universe is about 4e80 m^3. That ratio is approximately the “other” figure of 3e-60 (or 3e-58 percent). If it’s just Earth, he goofed. Geologists study the Moon, Mars, Venus, and other bodies. So do chemists. And physicists study black hole mergers. It wasn’t astronomers who designed LIGO. ---
**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:** [July 2, 2022, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1508 "2022-07-02T12:50:44Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > It wasn’t astronomers who designed LIGO. But it is astronomers who use it. We’re seeing the emergence of a new field of gravitational wave astronomy. Admittedly, the boundaries are fuzzy, and a large fraction of the current gravitational wave astronomers were previously gravitational physicists (and might still be, on some of their non-LIGO projects). But there are also now some folks using those instruments, and will be more in the future, who have never been physicists by specialty, only astronomers. > [@dtilque](#): > > If it’s just Earth, he goofed. Geologists study the Moon, Mars, Venus, and other bodies. A similar fuzzy-boundary problem: Someone who studies the Moon is a selenologist. Even if they’re a geologist on other projects. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1509 "2022-07-02T16:22:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A similar fuzzy-boundary problem: Someone who studies the Moon is a selenologist. Even if they’re a geologist on other projects. But even then, they’re not astronomers. Ditto for areologists. And whatever they call people who study rock samples from asteroids, which we already have some of and will have lots more of in a year or so. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1510 "2022-07-04T20:11:18Z")
> **[Mouse Turbines](https://xkcd.com/2641/)** > > It's sad seeing those videos of turbine blade being torn apart in high winds, but it's the only way they can disperse their seeds. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1511 "2022-07-04T20:17:24Z")
I just saw video of a turbine being torn to pieces in high winds on Reddit within the last few days. It’s weird to see such an immediate callback in such disparate contexts. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1512 "2022-07-07T06:30:20Z")
> **[Meta-Alternating Current](https://xkcd.com/2642/)** > > It's always bothered me that you can't cancel out an inverter by putting a second inverter after it. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1513 "2022-07-07T20:32:12Z")
Apparently there was a different comic [No One Was Hurt](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/No_One_Was_Hurt) posted but it was taken down because reasons. ---
**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 7, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1514 "2022-07-07T20:39:04Z")
Ouch. Good move taking that one down quickly. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2022, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1515 "2022-07-08T12:34:23Z")
And in principle, if an inverter JUST turns a DC source into a square wave, and you match the frequencies and phases up, you could cancel out an inverter with another one in series with it. But there’s a lot of room for that to go wrong. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2022, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1516 "2022-07-09T09:36:53Z")
> **[Cosmologist Gift](https://xkcd.com/2643/)** > > These neutrinos were freshly produced by a local source just 8 minutes ago There’s also some neutrinos even fresher than that, although how fresh depends on how close it is to the nearest nuclear reactor or uranium ore deposits. > **[Map of the World’s Neutrinos Exposes Nuclear Activity Wherever It’s Happening](https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/09/10/247967/map-of-the-worlds-neutrinos-exposes-nuclear-activity-wherever-its-happening/)** > > A seemingly unsubstantial particle called a neutrino is opening a new window on the world. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1517 "2022-07-09T12:25:21Z")
And while the solar neutrinos may have been produced about 8 minutes ago, they are kept fresh and only seem to have aged immeasurably small fractions of a second. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2022, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1518 "2022-07-12T04:15:42Z")
> **[fMRI Billboard](https://xkcd.com/2644/)** > > \[other side\] If the first word of an instruction you're given starts with the same letter as your crush's name, for that step imagine the experimenter is your crush. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1519 "2022-07-13T19:11:27Z")
> **[The Best Camera](https://xkcd.com/2645/)** > > The best camera is the one at L2. No surprise this one is about JWST. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1520 "2022-07-16T05:04:53Z")
> **[Minkowski Space](https://xkcd.com/2646/)** > > My liege, we were able to follow the ship into Minkowski space, but now they've jumped to Hilbert space and they could honestly be anywhere. ---
**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:** [July 16, 2022, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1521 "2022-07-16T12:37:11Z")
I’m not sure how to work in a joke about anti-de Sitter space, but I’m still disappointed that he didn’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=75) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=77)