explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2618: Selection Bias

2022-05-13T07:07:29Z

162.158.62.123:

Why is the site giving errors so much? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 21:19, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
:It just went down for about ten minutes. Once in a while I was able to get pages to load, but it was rare (probably 3-5 times). Most of the pages that did load had no CSS. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.161|172.70.130.161]] 22:03, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
:I blame a secret global infiltration by brain-eating extraterrestrials bent on steadily eroding our infrastructure while we kill each other in stimulated warfare. Do you agree with this common hypothesis? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.241|172.70.114.241]] 01:00, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

I love the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2618%3A_Selection_Bias&type=revision&diff=268675&oldid=268673 current explanation] of the title text, thanks [[User:Kev|Kev]] ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:38, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
:: I am the individual on mobile who revised the referenced text so as to mention engineers. This above comment by Kynde was added after my revision, but links to the previous version which was not current at the time of their post. I do not know why they call it current. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.123|162.158.62.123]] 07:07, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:Hear, hear! A true gem! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.17|172.69.134.17]] 07:37, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
:Thank you kindly, meanwhile I return to find a much improved BALLPIT APPARTMENT and have come to say ''I got that reference'' and heartilly approve''''Italic text''''[[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:27, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
::I agree wholeheartedly, but what does it have to do with selection bias??? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.241|172.70.114.241]] 01:06, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
::I don't get it at all, which kind of defeats the point of Explain XKCD when people are adding inside jokes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 05:06, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Acquiescence bias is often used in sales to try to induce a bigger sale. Asking, "Will there be anything else?" instead of "Is that all?" can make a significant difference in the amount of a sale, even though you are still leaving the decision up to the customer. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 06:30, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

2039: Begging the Question

2022-05-11T18:17:16Z

162.158.62.123: Undo revision 265701 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2039
| date = August 29, 2018
| title = Begging the Question
| image = begging_the_question.png
| titletext = At least we can all agree on the enormity of this usage.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes fun of the constant battle between those who maintain a {{w|Linguistic prescription|prescriptive view of language}} and those who have a {{w|Linguistic description|descriptive view}}. In the prescriptive view, language has fixed rules and fixed usage, and any usage that does not adhere to established rules is incorrect. In the descriptive view however, language is malleable and any usage can be correct if it is common and understood by most people.

The comic specifically calls out two phrases which are commonly misused in the prescriptive sense, and whose meanings have changed in modern usage in the descriptive sense:

;Nauseous
''Nauseous'' in its supposedly 'proper' form means "causing {{w|nausea}}", while ''nauseated'' means affected with nausea.

Prescriptively speaking, it is only correct to use the word "nauseous" to describe the food item since that was the cause of Ponytail's nausea. Saying "the food made her nauseous" would be interpreted, by a prescriptivist, as meaning the food somehow caused her (her body, her appearance, etc.) to become so disgusting that she now causes other people to feel nausea. As White Hat states, the proper phrasing is that the "the food was nauseous", and it "made [her] nauseated".

Both historically and in modern usage, however, "nauseous" is a valid synonym of "nauseated". It is difficult, if not impossible, to cite an era of history when most people would not understand "she is nauseous" to mean she does not feel well.

;Begging the question
{{w|Begging the question}} originally referred to a logical fallacy where an argument assumed its conclusion. The phrase first meant to question (beg) the original question. In modern usage, it has come to mean to "raise a question or point that has not been dealt with". This is often a point of contention for prescriptivists. However, as the caption explains, Cueball has an entirely different meaning for this phrase that he created himself: "fight a losing battle against changing usage". This is actually a meta-meaning, as that is actually the common activity of prescriptivists who complain about incorrect usage; it's a losing battle, because language change is inevitable and unstoppable. And specifically, trying to preserve the original meaning of "begging the question" is a losing battle.

Ponytail might recognize that her exposure to nauseous food has both nauseated her and caused her to become nauseous to Cueball. The question is not merely begged, it is missed.

The title text also plays on another word commonly argued over by prescriptivists. "Enormity" in its classical usage means either extreme wickedness or a monstrous offense or evil, though it is more commonly used in modern writing as a synonym for enormousness (i.e. largeness in size). The title text exploits the lexical ambiguity that this creates.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and White Hat standing next to each other talking. White Hat has raised his hand while Cueball stands behind him.]
:Ponytail: That food made me nauseous.
:White Hat: No, the ''food'' was nauseous. It made you ''nauseated''.
:Cueball: Come on, you're just begging the question.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:I annoy people on all sides by using "beg the question" to mean "fight a losing battle against changing usage".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2052: Stanislav Petrov Day

2018-10-01T13:36:26Z

162.158.62.123:

Wednesday was also Talk Like a Pirate Day [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:51, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
: What is a pirate's favorite letter?
: Aaaar!
: Many people think it's the 'R', but it's actually the 'C'! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.168|162.158.106.168]] 15:05, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
::...I feel like I've read that on a webcomic somewhere... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.16|172.68.174.16]] 15:32, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
:::It's a common audience participation joke when Paul and Storm perform The Captain's Wife's Lament, maybe that's what you're thinking of [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.123|162.158.62.123]] 13:36, 1 October 2018 (UTC)
:::Ye'd think they'd be the most fond if the 'C', but without 'P', they just be irate. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.100|108.162.241.100]] 16:01, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
Ayyy, got this one pretty fast. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.13|162.158.154.13]] 15:18, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
:I thought that International Talk Like A Pirate Day was September 19th. I've been celebrating it on that day for decades [[User:Mr. I|Mr. I]] ([[User talk:Mr. I|talk]]) 19:37, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

I just read about Mr Petrov the other day, maybe on Quora. I wonder if Randall received the same article in his daily digest :) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.78|141.101.107.78]] 16:26, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

'''History of Petrov Day as a holiday'''

My critics: Not explaining much to the comics content; even admires that a stupid citation is still needed; this Wiki isn't a link list; I can do more... But I don't want to do censorship so maybe we can put this into a single sentence belonging to an explanation. Otherwise some could be moved to a trivia section. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:17, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

I can't find anything specific, but a couple other articles list this BBC link https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24280831 which states that his heroism was kept secret until after the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991ish) and that Mr. Petrov "kept silent for 10 years" - so 1993 or maybe 2001. [[User:Afbach|Afbach]] ([[User talk:Afbach|talk]])
:Read the first paragraph: "The incident was unknown to the public until it was revealed shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991." --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:41, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

I think everyone missed the subtle point in this comic - Stanislav was famous for correctly identifying the nuclear attack alert as a false alarm, and Cueball thought the calendar alert he received was a false alarm as well! I believe that's the real joke here! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:30, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

You all missed the joke of the “false alarm clock”, which is that if it keeps going off when it’s not supposed to, you very well might assume that it’s another false alarm when you are actually supposed to wake up, and thus will sleep late anyway, completely defeating the point of the alarm. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 20:33, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does Eliezer Yudkowsky show up abnormally frequently in explainXKCD? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.118|108.162.241.118]] 04:35, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

1615: Red Car

2018-04-20T00:06:02Z

162.158.62.123: /* Explanation */ Removed incorrect (and unneeded) text about acidity only being for liquids.

{{comic
| number = 1615
| date = December 11, 2015
| title = Red Car
| image = red_car.png
| titletext = That guy only drives an alkaline car to overcompensate for his highly acidic penis.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a take on the common stereotype that men who drive large, expensive, and/or ostentatious cars (such as sports cars, highly modified cars, and lifted pick-up trucks), do so in order to compensate for insecurity about their manhood. Typically this is summarized as saying they are compensating for having small penises.

{{w|Cyan}} is a greenish-blue color that is not a basic color term in most languages. It is the {{w|complementary color}} to red in the CMYK (subtractive) or RGB (additive) color models.

[[Megan]], upon seeing [[Hairy]] drive past in a red convertible, tells [[Cueball]] that Hairy must be compensating for his cyan colored penis.

This comic thus generalizes the original stereotype to an assumption that men drive cars that compensate for problems/properties with their penis (e.g. large car for small penis). Under this principle, a red car would complement (be the opposite of) a cyan penis. This is of course ridiculous, as red cars are quite common and cyan penises either extremely rare or nonexistent; but maybe Megan doesn't realize this.

There may also be a reference to the Doppler shift, where an object moving away (such as a galaxy) appears slightly redder than its true color. On the contrary, objects moving closer shift blue or cyan. However, cars cannot go nearly as fast to create a change in the perceived color.

In the title text another pair of opposites are mentioned: {{w|acid}} and {{w|alkaline}}. Acidity is an extremely odd property to try to compensate for with one's choice of car. Additionally, most penises share the same basic chemical composition and therefore the same acidity. If your penis can be described as "highly acidic", you probably have a major medical problem and should not be buying cars. Again this could be Megan's lack of understanding, and since some models of cars are called [http://jalopnik.com/5327974/why-cant-you-get-a-nice-basic-car-these-days basic cars] (instead of a special red convertible) she could make the (wrong) assumption that they drive a basic car to compensating for their acidic penises.

Thus, this comic is referring to the actual definition of "compensation", which means to balance something out by adding another. If an image has too much red value on the RGB scale, one could shift it more towards neutral by adding to the blue value. And a solution with a low (acidic) pH can be neutralized by mixing it with an alkaline solution to bring its pH to a neutral value. (Whereas a big car will not balance out a small penis!{{Citation needed}})

An alternative interpretation to this just being about opposites is that of a more specific big vs small compensation. In each case the car represents something larger than Hairy's penis: in the comic - red has a "bigger" (longer) wavelength than cyan. Similarly in the title text, alkali has a "bigger" (higher) ph than acid. Of course against this alternative is that red has a smaller energy/frequency than cyan and that you would often talk about stronger acids, making a low ph count as strong, not small! Finally the joke loses some value if it is still just a matter of big/small rather than actual properties of the penis that are being compensated for.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are standing next to an intersection as Hairy drives by in a red convertible.]
:Megan: I bet he just drives that car to overcompensate for his cyan penis.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Penis]]

Talk:1615: Red Car

2018-04-20T00:04:10Z

162.158.62.123:

Penises: They're about ''this'' red. Now can we <u>please</u>, as a culture, move on? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.206|108.162.210.206]] 08:40, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

I would also like to point out that if your penis is any kind of blue color, you are probably having a medical emergency, in which case you should be taking much more serious steps than purchasing a particular kind of car to compensate. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.151|108.162.236.151]] 21:55, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Is this the first time, color is used in the comics? --[[User:Widescape|Robert]] ([[User talk:Widescape|talk]]) 09:43, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
:No, there are a lot more [[:Category:Comics with color|comics with color]] {{User:17jiangz1/signature|09:56, 11 December 2015}}

I think the joke is that red has a longer wavelength than cyan (nanometers of difference). Not anything to do with colour theory. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.133.96|162.158.133.96]] 10:06, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
:I'll have you know that a few nanometres make ''all'' the difference, for some people. <u>Click here</u> for the miracle pill you must have!
:(Seriously, as stated elsewhere, it's opposites. Big car, small equipment; RGB(100%,0%,0%) car, RGB(0%,100%,100%) equipment; pH>7 car, pH<7 equipment. Perhaps an annotated colour-wheel picture in the explanation, as a visual guide?) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 12:10, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
:It seems to me it could also be a reference Anaglyph 3D red-cyan glasses. Bigger color difference makes things look closer to the viewer and thus larger. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaglyph_3D#Interference_filter_systems Wikipedia] {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.47}}
:sorry, I am calling this for 162.158.133.96. Big wavelength vs small wavelength. Big ph number (alkali) vs small ph number(acid). Its consistent. This is fundamentally a big vs small penis joke. In fact, think i am gonna make an edit ... [[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 12:53, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
:Although a low pH indicates a high concentration of H+ ions. In that sense, acidic is high and alkaline is low. [[User:MGK|MGK]] ([[User talk:MGK|talk]]) 23:12, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
::Yes and cyan colour has higher frequency and thus energy that Red, so that just doesn't make as much sence as red opposite of cyan, as small opposite of big and alkaline opposite of acidic. I'm for the opposite solution, without taking numbers into account. Else it is not even funny in my opinion, as it would still just be small vs big, instead of, what to me seems to be the funny part, which is that Megan takes it to just mean that the car always compensate for different properties of a guys penis. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:20, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

The mouse over text makes it fairly clear that it's a joke about opposites. If anything could be added to the explanation as it stands, I might clarify that red and cyan are specifically colors of light. When shone on a single area (and therefor mixed) these two colors will create white light. When these colors of light are represented on a color wheel, they are placed opposite each other. So cyan and red in this sense fit as opposites, like big and small, alkaline and acidic. {{unsigned ip|108.162.227.125}}

For some reason, this made me laugh extremely hard. I've been up all night and maybe it's sleep deprivation, as it makes me do weird things, like bingewatch on several ISS videos simultaneously. [[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 10:56, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

There is also a common stereotype that a car's color reveals something about its owner's psychology (e.g. [https://www.thecaretrust.ie/colour-of-car-personality here]). So, I think Megan is not only generalizing one stereotype but rather mixing two stereotypes, as in other comics. Zetfr 11:41, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Is this the shortest complete explanation on this site? {{unsigned|B0xertw1n}}
:[[3: Island (sketch)]] and [[28: Elefino]] are shorter. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 12:53, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

[[Wikipedia:Litmus|Litmus]] anyone? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 13:40, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Alternative interpretation of the alt-text: the alkaline car could additionally refer to an electric car powered by an alkaline battery [[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.163|141.101.91.163]] 22:55, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
:Yeah I also felt that there had to be some more to the alt-text than just another random opposite. Maybe that's it. Or some wordplay that I don't see? -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.192|162.158.91.192]] 01:40, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
::I agree, electric makes more sense. No one would be proud of a "basic" car, but people do take pride in their electric "eco-friendly" rides. Also, Randall likes to use technology in his jokes, which makes the electric explanation fit better. Lastly, people talk about having electric cars; when was the last time someone talked about having a "basic" car?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.58|173.245.54.58]] 21:58, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
A hydrogen powered car would then have a low pH due to high amounts of hydrogen... and thus be highly acidic? {{unsigned ip|Swordsmith}}　

I think that the contributor two items up has the right idea about the title text. Litmus is an indicator of an acidic or alkaline solution. An acidic solution turns litmus paper red, an alkaline solution turns it blue.
The current explanation of the title text " An alkaline solutions is a basic solution. Thus, men that drive basic cars are compensating for their acidic penises." Does not make any sense to me. ([[User:Paw 42|Paw 42]] ([[User talk:Paw 42|talk]]) 18:48, 12 December 2015 (UTC))
:Litmus doesn't makes sense as an explanation because the red/blue difference isn't the emphasis of the comic. Randall is making a point about the idea of people interpreting cars to be symbols of pride for their owner to compensate for their supposedly-unimpressive junk. A litmus explanation pays too much attention to the details of the first joke and misses the forest for the trees.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.58|173.245.54.58]] 22:02, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I vote to delete the alternate big/small interpretation, as I do not see it makes any sense or even make the joke funny. See both mine and others comments above as to why this is so. I will though not delete it my self yet. But have changed to indicate in the explanation why the alternate explanation has many flaws. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:41, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I want to visit the current description in the article that "Cyan is a greenish-blue"... It is ''literally'' green-blue. No '-ish' about it. #0FF in an #RGB triple-nibble hex format. If talking about it by visual impression, rather than by components, cyan doesn't ''look'' green at all. It just looks like light-blue. At least to your current author. Whilst I'm not diagnosed as colour-blind, I know that (for example) even normal male and female perceptions of colour can have different resolutions and impressions of various hues.

And now some even more confusing datam-points, of an otherwise unrelated nature: in the default pallette my copy of OpenOffice uses (the handiest thing to check, outside of direct HTML encoding) the colour I could enumerate as #0FF (by sight alone... not having bothered to 'pipette' sample a screen grab of it in a graphics editor, to get exact values) is called "light cyan". I can't find non-light "cyan", but it'd probably be around #088 (that might be the value the one labelled "turqoise" has, which ''does'' seem to have a green-ish component, so might be more like #097ish), as #00F (pure blue, by my own assessment) is called "light blue" and the colour labelled "blue" (but that I'd call ''dark blue'') looks roughly #008-ish. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 00:24, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm tempted to edit out all mention of 'base' or 'basic.' The comic and title text both only mention 'alkaline,' and what began as an unnecessary mention of that ~synonym now goes on to 'basic cars' v. special ones, none of which is in the comic nor needed to fully explain it. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 01:35, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Isn't the joke just because adding the red to the cyan gives you white, the default colour for the comic? {{unsigned ip|162.158.91.193}}
:I don't think that's the reasoning behind it. Red+Cyan=White because Red is the bits of white that aren't Cyan, i.e. the opposite, which ''is'' the joke, SFAICT... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 23:35, 21 December 2015 (UTC) (PS, sign your post by adding <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> to the end. Or nearly the end, as in this case.) {{unsigned ip|162.158.152.227}}

I'm not sure why the comment about acidity only being applicable about liquids is in there, but it's neither true (see https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.201000252), nor relevant to the explanation of the comment. I'm going to edit it out.

Talk:314: Dating Pools

2017-06-22T16:39:29Z

162.158.62.123:

By this standard, 14 is the minimum dating age. As a father, I approve [[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 14:49, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

The chart appears to be using the following function for the maximum age: max_age_other <= (your_age - 7) * 2
The max age is determined by the oldest the other person can be before you are too young for them according to the age/2 + 7 rule.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.100|108.162.216.100]] 17:20, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thought of this? http://www.roundstable.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Screen-Shot-2013-11-19-at-8.32.48-AM-690x377.png
(as far as making charts on stuff like love and shtuff.{{unsigned ip|108.162.217.89}}

1777: Dear Diary

2016-12-27T03:50:05Z

162.158.62.123: /* Explanation */ fixed the knowyourmeme link so that it includes the text.

{{comic
| number = 1777
| date = December 26, 2016
| title = Dear Diary
| image = dear_diary.png
| titletext = Dear Diary: UNSUBSCRIBE
}}

==Explanation==

[[Black Hat]] is writing in a diary (probably his, but possibly not see below). His entry starts with the common idiom "Dear diary". In a regular diary entry, this opening is used to give the impression of writing to a trusted friend, the diary being anthropomorphized to take that friend's role. However, where other people would write about their day or put their feelings into words, Black Hat's diary entry consists of a standard phishing scam attempting to request some private information in exchange for a large cash amount which does not exist. In this case, the scam is the famous [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nigerian-scams Nigerian Royalty scam]. [[Black Hat]] apparently is so used to tricking people that even his own anthropomorphized diary is not safe from his pranks. Alternatively, the entry is intended for anyone who looks at his diary without his permission. It's also possible he has obtained someone else's diary and is somehow trying to scam the diary's owner, although it's not clear how that might work.

This comic creates a stark contrast by putting together elements that seem similar, but do not belong together, for comedic effect.
* Combining old-school hand written media (a diary) and memes from the electronic age (a phishing attempt as usually found in spam mail).
* Contrasting the very personal, intimate atmosphere of "Dear diary" with something that is normally automatically replicated to millions of mail addresses.
* Opening up with a sentence that might come from a real personal diary (many people will fantasize about being rich or famous in their diaries), and following up with something that nobody would expect from a personal diary.

The title text is similar to [[1675: Message in a Bottle]], which also uses the word "unsubscribe" in an unusual way. The title text also mimics a standard way to get off some mailing lists, so perhaps it's [[Randall]]'s diary that Black Hat is molesting, and therefore the title-text is Randall expressing a desire to be disassociated from it.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is seated at a table, writing with a pencil in a diary.]

:Writing: Dear Diary,
:Writing: Hello. I am the Crown Prince of Nigeria. I have recently come into a large fortune, but...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]