# ­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:** 86
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1702 "2022-09-26T15:27:16Z")
Sax solo ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1703 "2022-09-26T15:58:02Z")
> **[Two Key System](https://xkcd.com/2677/)** > > Our company can be your one-stop shop for decentralization. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1704 "2022-09-27T22:25:21Z")
1. Escalate - Increase the number of ~~troops~~ personnel in the cockpit ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1705 "2022-09-29T18:12:43Z")
> **[Wing Lift](https://xkcd.com/2678/)** > > Once the air from the top passes below the plane of the wing and catches sight of the spooky skulls, it panics, which is the cause of turbulent vortices. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1706 "2022-09-30T19:22:21Z")
> **[Quantified Self](https://xkcd.com/2679/)** > > It's made me way more excited about ferris wheels, subways, car washes, waterslides, and store entrances that have double doors with a divider in the middle. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1707 "2022-09-30T21:17:37Z")
Munroe is popular with nerds because he actually expresses the things we really do think about. Or at least, things very much like them. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1708 "2022-09-30T21:25:04Z")
Oh great, now whenever I visit someplace new, I have to think about locking my path there by finding a loop I can pass through in only one direction. A ferris wheel isn’t as nice as it seems at first. You do get locked to the wheel, but your path can just get pulled taut against the main axle, so it’s not much better than any other loop. I’ll bet one could show that it’s an NP-complete problem to prove that you actually have minimized the path length. There’s probably a way to demonstrate equivalence to the Traveling Salesman problem, for example. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1709 "2022-09-30T21:26:46Z")
I felt puzzled at first, because I had difficulty visualizing what he was describing. Then I felt personally attacked, because I had the epiphany of what he meant and it was like he was monitoring my interior monologues. That kind of virtual path minimization is one of the little psychological tics I have to fight hard to avoid becoming full-on obsessive disorder. So, yeah. “One of us”, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1710 "2022-10-01T00:34:14Z")
Coincidentally, something very much like this ran through my mind just yesterday. I got on a subway train from a platform on the right, and had to exit to a platform on the left, thus leaving my virtual path attached to the train as it sped away. I guess it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one who has these weird thoughts. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2022, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1711 "2022-10-01T14:00:17Z")
It’s weird, as I used to have “those thoughts” all the time, but haven’t in quite a while now. And now I probably will again, at least for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1712 "2022-10-01T14:12:19Z")
A common one is apparently imagining someone running beside you when looking out of a car or bus window on a journey, with various rules for how they are moving. I was astonished when I read that other people had the same thing. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2022, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1713 "2022-10-02T01:53:06Z")
I used to have a horse. Been quite a while, though I wonder whether that suggestion will bring him back. I wonder whether other people have other animals running alongside the car/bus/etc.? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1714 "2022-10-04T09:09:22Z")
> **[Battery Life](https://xkcd.com/2680/)** > > It's okay, I'm at 10%, so I'm good for another month or two. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1715 "2022-10-06T01:30:57Z")
> **[Archimedes Principle](https://xkcd.com/2681/)** > > "I've always wanted to run naked through town, but I don't want to get in trouble with the king or be remembered by history as a weirdo. I wonder how I could ... EUREKA!" I thought Eureka was just a town in northern California… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1716 "2022-10-07T20:01:19Z")
> **[Easy or Hard](https://xkcd.com/2682/)** > > "Friction-driven static electrification is familiar and fundamental in daily life, industry, and technology, but its basics have long been unknown and have continually perplexed scientists from ancient Greece to the high-tech era. \[...\] To date, no single theory can satisfactorily explain this mysterious but fundamental phenomenon." --Eui-Cheol Shin et. al. (2022) ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1717 "2022-10-08T01:10:14Z")
I didn’t know that about Tylenol. Another such drug is lithium, which is often prescribed for manic depression. It’s been used for about 70 years, but we still don’t know exactly how it works. ---
**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:** [October 8, 2022, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1718 "2022-10-08T13:08:25Z")
I’m guessing that part of the reason why friction electrification is so poorly understood is that friction, itself, is very poorly understood. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1719 "2022-10-11T05:20:06Z")
> **[Fan Theories](https://xkcd.com/2683/)** > > The universe fandom is great. Such sweet and enthusiastic people. How about we just call them _fanwanks_… ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1720 "2022-10-11T17:50:58Z")
Do we call outdated hypotheses and disproved models “Legends” and de-canonize them? ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/1721 "2022-10-12T02:40:24Z")
Yep. Until we’re out of ideas for later seasons, then we file off the serial numbers and revive them - bringing them back into canon. See: string theory. 😀 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=85) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=87)