xkcd #3232: Countdown Standard
Title text:
Anyone who is caught counting ‘three … two … one … zero … GO!’ will be punished with a lifetime of eating only ISO standard food samples.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3232/
You must log in or # to comment.
Same wifh rock paper scissors
Unconfusable:
Ready, Set, Go!
Ready, set, on your mark, get set, get ready, here, we …
I have been wanting to have this argument with david bowie but then he had to up and die so now i have to have it with his ghost. how inconsiderate.
“Feel the rhythm. Feel the rhyme…”
Playing Chained Together we had so many jumps that a full count was too long, so we took out the 3 entirely and counted fast. “2 1 Go! 2 1 Go!” Very successful. That game even counts for you if you press the hotkey, but it takes five full seconds, and there’s lava rising down there!
XKCD 927 comes to mind.
I’m genuinely surprised it’s not mentioned in the hover text … though I think you can see it in between the lines there.
In Finnish we typically say "Än, yy, tee, nyt!", because our word for "now", nyt, is composed of letters N, Y and T.
The “y” is pronounced roughly the same way as “ew” in “new”. “ä” in the same as “a” in “cat”, and “e” is the same as “e” in “well”.
How about translating this to English and using the following as the standard?
"Aehn, oh, double you, now!"
🙃
The three syllable ‘w’ kinda ruins it.
Eh everyone says “dubya” anyways
Holy shit, is that why people call george w bush dubya? As a non native English speaker I wouldn’t have thought of that in a million years
Still, all other letters only clock 1 syllable. I vote we just go ahead and change the standard to “dub”.
One, two, five!
Saying “on the count of three” before you start counting is optimal, in timelines where that tradition is widely known. It’s more words the first time but many people need the time provided by saying them to mentally prepare, and then if you need repeated counts no such preparation is necessary and each one takes only three beats.
The real problem in my opinion is people count too slowly and irregularly for a precise sync up. Better to learn from the world of music and count off
One ee and ah, two ee and ah, three ee and ah GO
This is why you have a practice count! “On three, everybody… one, two, three!”
“Okay, got that? Here we go: one, two… three!”
You can count me in like that but I insist a full measure of Mars, Bringer of War.
Left out the Arthurian “One… Two… Five… No, Three… Go!”
I just say “THREE!”. It’s the “ONE TWO THREE!” variant but I skip “ONE” and “TWO”.
If you’re not ready now, you won’t be after the count down.
Apollo 11 voice goes ‘4, 3, 2, 1, 0, liftoff’.
Liftoff is a non-integral byproduct of the countdown, not an actual canon part of the sequence.
If you don’t say liftoff then the rockets don’t ignite.
You ignite the rocket before liftoff though?
Right, but if you don’t say it, they won’t have ignited.
It’s similar to the reason rain dances work. They don’t stop dancing until it rains.
I’m a theatre tech and stagehand. “Go” is saved for cue calls. It’s always lift on three. One two THREE.
It always tickles me when I come across people with enough comms etiquette to not say “Go” unless they are giving a cue. “I’ll wait for you to say G. O. before I do anything”
My favorite thing is the ability for most if not all hands on comms to have the most random conversations and then stop cold as soon as “standby…” Is heard. Then after all the cues have been given, the conversation picks up exactly wherever it left off.
LX7 Standby
Standing
