xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

This comic is another entry in the "My Hobby" series of comics, and the first entry into the series since mid-2023.

Cueball and Ponytail are intelligence analysts, scrutinizing a projected image of an apparent satellite (or aerial) photograph. It features a parched landscape, of indeterminate scale, though has some clear watercourses flowing through it that suggest a fairly wide river and tributary, plus thin tracks that must be dirt roads serving various small buildings or compounds (depending upon the true zoom level) rather than game-trails.

In the middle of the image, spanning the river banks around a small bend, the image appears to have been pixelated, at least to the two characters viewing it.

They express concern that they're relying upon censored resources. Their commentary indicates that they are perhaps working for an intelligence agency working with classified imagery, who would expect to be using raw imagery, not something obscured. They're first considering whether they'd been provided the 'public'-level classification prepared by the satellite operator. Alternatively, they have stumbled upon a location that higher levels of their own agency (or partner domestic organisations) deem of greater security than they are entitled access to. The most frightening thought, though, is that a foreign counter-intelligence agency is protecting their own national secrets by hacking into their image-feeds and rendering them functionally useless.

To add to the confusion, the chosen location does not appear to have any relevant information recorded for it, such as whether it should contain a military base (of their own or their allies'; or of a potential/actual adversary). The lack of any other information, in the light of clearly hidden details, leads to a non-justifiable level of paranoia and concern over what might be being obscured.

As the caption reveals, the only pertinent things in that physical location are some very large squares, given various flat hues closely matching the original average ground appearance, entirely intended to be misinterpreted as post-process image pixelization. Since the combined structures stretch across several implied features (the width of the river and significant quantity of its bank, with possible buildings served by one of the dirt-tracks). Since this is another one of Randall's hobbies, he must have done this a number of times, on the off-chance that someone will make the indicated assumptions.

Randall's deception could be exposed by sufficiently detailed clouds floating above the colored panels. If the tactical image was really pixelated, the clouds would appear pixelated too. Not to mention if the photography was not perfectly aligned with his own squares, even after rotation to more conventionally align with the usual modern 'grid north' orientation.

In the title text, he continues to further confuse the remote-sensing people by drawing a watermark in the sand, leading people to believe the picture was taken in 2009 and is part of Google's publicly released material. Though this is indeed a possible source for the general public, it could be unexpected in more serious and separately sourced ground imagery directly taken for more commercial, governmental or intelligence-agency purposes. Also if this is supposed to be either live images or those just taken today, and then if they have an old watermark from 2009 it seems like someone is feeding them old images, rather than the expected newer ones. This would be very concerning. It may make them wonder how those that could hack their system would be so remiss as to use watermarked and clearly dated images.