this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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xkcd

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xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation

https://xkcd.com/2940

Explain xkcd #2940

Title Text:

My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me.

alt-text:A chart that categorizes various modes of transportation based on their practicality and danger level:

Zone of Practicality:

  • Trains
  • Airliners
  • Boats
  • Walking
  • Cars
  • Scooters
  • Bicycles

Zone of Specialty and Recreational Vehicles:

  • Motorcycles
  • Helicopters
  • Light aircraft
  • Go karts
  • Skateboards
  • Rollerblades
  • Skis
  • Unicycles
  • Sleds
  • Bumper cars

?????:

  • Hot air balloons

“Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.”

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hot air balloons are a very useful mode of transportation if your goal is to take aerial photographs from them (although admittedly nowadays you could also use drones). It's always a question of what you want to achieve.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aerial_photographs_from_hot_air_balloons

[–] brbposting 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Interesting, that's the closest thing I've seen to a personal photo album on Wikipedia.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

It is Wikimedia Commons, not Wikipedia. That is where most of the images used on Wikipedia and other WMF projects are stored. It has categories for nearly everything under the sun.