xkcd #3256: Nostalgia Content

Title text:

Gen-Z got a chunk of the Carboniferous, and now all their memes are about how pathetic and small today's dragonflies are.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3256/

explainxkcd for #3256

431 points · 15 comments · view on lemmy.world

15 Comments

lichengeese@lemmy.zip · 21 pts · 80d (1 reply)

I got curious about "parataxites", but was unable to find anything relevant by that name. I think he meant to write:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites

Deconceptualist@leminal.space · 13 pts · 80d

Yep, that's definitely what was intended because he drew one in the comic.

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 80d

Being nostalgic for pogs is like going gaga for the pre-Cambrian explosion. That's the least exciting part of the era.

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 14 pts · 80d (2 replies)

Does he mean Prototaxites?

Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club · 13 pts · 80d (1 reply)

Probably, as pictured.
I miss them dearly.
(However inappropriately they were later named.)

But also TIL about the word wiki/Parataxis:

Parataxis (from Greek: παράταξις, "act of placing side by side"; from παρα, para "beside" + τάξις, táxis "arrangement") is a literary technique in writing or speaking that favors short, simple sentences without conjunctions, or sentences coordinated without the use of subordinating conjunctions.

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 2 pts · 80d

I bet XKCD is setting this up for a future issue where they make the correction and subsequent explanation.

CannedYeet@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 80d

Only real Denisovans know

four@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 80d (1 reply)

I genuinely think that giant dragonflies are pretty rad. Though I would probably freak out if I saw one IRL

Deconceptualist@leminal.space · 6 pts · 80d

If one decided to harass you, you would likely not be physically capable of outmanoeuvring it.

RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 80d (1 reply)

I found an old slammer the other day. It looks like a saw blade.

grue@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 80d

I also have one like that somewhere.

Deebster@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 80d

I often think that it would be great if one of the Star Trek/Gate or similar shows would go to a very young world (and not just dinosaurs). Obviously budget would be a factor and having no intelligent life limits the story options so I can see why not, but it would be an interesting thing to see.

SteveNashFan@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 80d

It kinda already happened: https://youtu.be/6YsNRnZRgg8

tacosanonymous@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 80d

A minor rounding error.

Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club · 2 pts · 80d

I member ...