explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2366: Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies

2021-12-22T13:28:54Z

198.41.242.219: /* Double size image for 4K shows more detail */ new section

Personally, I think the most likely digit there is 4, followed by 6. I'm pretty sure it can't be a 9 given the angles, so I wouldn't say that's likelier than other alternatives in the explanation. (Very trivial point, so I won't bother editing.) It's most likely intended to be a generic nonsense squiggle (similar to the lines of text, but for just one character), purposely illegible to leave the actual location within Orlando ambiguous. It just happened to come out as a very 4ish squiggle.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.189|162.158.79.189]] 16:25, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

32841 is not a valid zip code. I'm also dubious that the town/city name is Orlando. Sure, it probably does start with an O (and not a cursive A, since the street name has a capital A to show the way the letter should look), but it certainly doesn't continue on long enough to be Orlando, especially with no ascending stroke for the 'd' and not appearing to end with a round shape for a letter like 'o'. It appears to me to be more of an n/m/r final letter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.14|162.158.75.14]] 23:19, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

:Ah, that's what I get for just punching "32841 zip code" into Google and seeing Orlando FL come up. The closest-looking valid zip code I can find that's still in Orlando is 32891; fixed the transcript. The end of the word Orlando just seems intended to be generic squiggles not actually matching any letters, like almost everything after the Ingredients label. If you can find another town/city in FL that starts with O and has a similar-looking enough zip code, go for it. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 23:59, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

::All zip codes that begin 328 are in Orlando. 32841 specifically is not in use. [[User:Silverpie|Silverpie]] ([[User talk:Silverpie|talk]]) 02:12, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

:::It seems impossible to read the zip code as anything other than [3][2 or 4][6 or 8][squiggle][1], where the squiggle is different from the other 4 digits and probably isn't a 0. Under these constraints, there are 20 possible zip codes, but if the zip has to be valid and the city name has to be one word that starts with O and in Florida, the only possible choices are Orlando and 32891 or 32861. To keep the transcript faithful to the actual appearance, I'll let it stay as "O[illegible], FL 328#1" and put the city and zip deduction in the explanation. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 01:45, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't see that the mouse-over suggests an escalation as described. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 00:23, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:I saw it as "had address on packaging, just so; grandma starts campaign of complaints to give granddaughter a similar experience; granddaughter suggests stopping original action if that would stop granny's retalation; (but apparently an armistice purely on those terms is not acceptable to Big-G)" - But there's other interpretations, I'll admit. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.154|141.101.98.154]] 00:45, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::That's how I saw it too -- no suggestion that the package didn't originally have the address. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 01:17, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Isn't this a reference to the Annie's brand?
:"Annie Withey believed it was possible to build a socially conscious and successful business. This was her mission in 1989, when she wrote her name, address, and phone number on the very first boxes of Annie’s Mac and Cheese. Her legacy lives on as Annie’s strives to change the future for our kids, starting with food." per https://www.annies.com/our-mission/ . So maybe? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:59, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:I am pretty sure Annie's brand has a story on the label

I didn't get the clues pointing that it's a package and mistakenly thought it was a cooking recipe web page. Many sites feel obliged to precede the recipe with a personal story on the food, which distracts from what the reader wants -- the recipe itself. I'd been a good comic as well if it was a pun on that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.94.50|172.68.94.50]] 03:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: I didn't interpret it as a package of the cookies, either. To me it looked like the company's ("Amelia's Farm") website and I interpreted the "nutrition facts" table as the site's menu. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:35, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::For readers in the USA, it's more obviously a Nutritional Facts box - the varied weight of horizontal lines and the Percentage (%) symbol at the end of each line is standard.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 21:04, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:Tip: the word you're looking for is "parody" rather than pun. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 01:52, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Anyone else think the additional squiggles at the bottom left include a circle K (Kosher) and Parve (containing neither meat nor milk) which would be plausible for cookies (and could easily anger some grandmothers)? If so, is it worth adding to the transcript?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.212|108.162.219.212]] 12:10, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: On magnification, it just looks like random squiggles to me. The letter in the circle looks like a lowercase "i", which is not (as far as I know) the symbol for any kosher certification. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:42, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:It could just as easily be some impression of a trademark or copyright or any other of the many circle-like designations on food packages.

Upon reading the address I immediately thought that the city was Orlando and that granny's name was "Wanda Munroe". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.43|162.158.74.43]] 13:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Per the editing FAQ, we use the smaller version of the comic here. But perhaps we should always include a link to the high-res version when one is available? Though it doesn't quite fit under either "Transcript" or "Explanation". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I think the city's actually Ocala and Randal didn't even try to match the city to the zip code. (Too many L's!) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:This seems unlikely given how everything after the O is squiggled and there's another much more well-known candidate with a zip code that's much closer to matching. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 01:45, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Just what was her grandmother doing to get cookies like that? To get cookies that are crumbly and brittle, Grandma cooked her cookies for too long at too high a temperature, driving too much water out. The gritty texture can be achieved by not using enough water in the batter to start with; put the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl set at too high a speed, add the water all at once (but not enough to hydrate all the flour particles) and mix it for too long. This should form lots of fine lumps to give a gritty texture. To get the crispy middle and gooey outside, use ''way'' too much fats, like the butter, and don't let it evenly distribute in the batter, so that when it melts in the oven, the fats ooze out and soften the edges, but Grandma would have had to add extra water after the initial mixing, so the conversion of steam will dry out the middle and put the fat out. Okay, I am reaching a bit with the last one. You have got to do a lot of things wrong to make cookies that bad. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 03:17, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
:Using specialty flours can do some of it. I tried using non-wheat flours to make gluten-free cookies a couple of decades ago, with mixed success. They tended to come out brittle and crumbly, and if I recall correctly, tapioca flour gave them a certain grittiness. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:44, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
:You'd get a gritty quality if you also made sure you used only the finest farmyard grit... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.247|162.158.158.247]] 14:12, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Finally, the first xkcd to address the issue of GMO antibacterials head on

First question, is oatmeal involved? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.96|172.69.22.96]] 03:23, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Reference to "Cookie Clicker" seems unlikely to me. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:00, 3 October 2020 (UTC)
:I agree and removed that part. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:35, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

When I first read the comic, I read the first paragraph, thought "oh, another story about happy evenings and healthy ingredients and so on", read the last paragraph, which confirmed my expectation, and didn't even realize the rest of the story. Anyone else was reading the text like this? [[User:Bolisom|Bolisom]] ([[User talk:Bolisom|talk]]) 07:53, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:Hm... no. I (and I guess most others) have read the text completely becaus, you know, that is only place where the joke could have been. ;) But now that you mention it this should/could be added to the explanation since besides of the part that you accidently skipped it's like any other text of its sort. While it might not be Amelia's intention that you don't read the middle part it could have been Randall's intention just to fool the reader. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:35, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

== Double size image for 4K shows more detail ==

I accidentally discovered it when I got a 4K monitor. If you have hidpi set (150%+ scaling in Windows), xkcd will default to double sized comics. The one for this is:
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/amelias_farm_fresh_cookies_2x.png

You can open the double size images by opening the picture itself in the browser, then appending "_2x" to the filename (before the file extension portion).

The zip code is pretty clearly 32841, which is apparently invalid (it makes sense to prevent an accidental actual address).

Talk:2557: Immunity

2021-12-21T15:09:29Z

198.41.242.219:

well, if you look at society as a whole it makes more sense. the reason we have so many mutations is that we have a significant portion of the populous with no immunity [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.125|172.68.110.125]] 20:49, 20 December 2021 (UTC) mark ifi
:But the mutations come about from the virus replicating a lot, i.e in people with the virus. It still doesn't make sense to catch it, because you have a chance of your infection being the one that produces a terrible mutation [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.130|141.101.77.130]] 22:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::That isn't how mutations work. Mutations are able to propagate strongly only in environments where there is something killing off the parent species. Like a functioning immune system.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I can see this one annoying a lot of people. It's the lot of people who can already be annoying, so I don't think that's a big problem. (A few, who misread it as about ''vaccination'' giving immunity, may actually think it supports them. I'm not sure we can do anything about that either.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.85|162.158.159.85]] 21:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Would you kindly provide a link to the "Mount Stupid" comic for reference.{{unsigned|172.70.174.119}}

To be fair, if the vaccination would only protect you for ONE infection it wouldn't be worth it. The idea about immunity is that immunity trained by either vaccination or infection will then protect you from '''multiple''' following infections. The problem with it is that in case of covid (or flu), the immunity wanes off with time AND the virus mutates into new variants the immunity doesn't work as well against. Sure, it still makes sense to vaccinate, but just because the virus spread so much you are very likely to catch it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
:Are you making the mistake (without the other baggage) I mentioned above about misreading the comic? This comic isn't about the vaccination at all. It's about infection. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 22:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Infection is the normal method of vaccination. Until recently with mRNA vaccines, almost all vaccines were about infection- either with the disease itself, a weakened version of the disease, or a related disease.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:(And, to add, if the vaccine just protected against ONE infection, where that one infection was sufficiently dangerous, it would indeed be worth it. Better than chancing the infection on a naïve immune system and hoping to come out the other side with a similarly infection-specific immune effect (c.f. annual flu waves) but without the QC and care given to the vector.) ((See, I knew it'd spark response, didn't intend to say much. Maybe I should just stay out of this until it blows over.)) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 23:01, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Of course it is about the vaccination - this supports Randall's earlier statements for being pro vaccine, that you should get the immunity from vaccination and not from infection! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:24, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Hmmm, no. It's about COVID (and that by inference). It doesn't mention the vaccine. The conversation ''might'' have been about the vaccine, but the comic (and its discussion of what it is sensible to do, or not) is vaccine free. It's "anti-infection", but not directly "pro-vaccine". (He, I and you ''are'' all sensibly pro-vaccine, I think. The comic itself is only vocal on that subject by omission and a chain of logic that will never occur to those stuck at the original fallacy.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

People who know a lot about the immune system could also be referring to people who are aware of possibilities like the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox, but stays dormant in your body after you recover and can come back later as shingles. This is less likely to happen if you get the vaccine to prevent chickenpox in the first place. --[[User:Norgaladir|Norgaladir]] ([[User talk:Norgaladir|talk]]) 00:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

A vaccination doesn't necessarily give you immunity, e.g. with the Covid or influenca vaccines, so you still can get infected. But being vaccinated reduces the risk of suffering complications like death that can ruin your and other peoples' life.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.229|162.158.94.229]] 07:59, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:...''significantly'' reduces the risk, in fact. It likely also (though it's a harder thing to establish) reduces the catch-and-transmit rate, thus yet another thing to do to help others, even those you'll never meet directly, who are unable or (ugh!) unwilling to think this far ahead. Unmitigated (and, especially, sought-after) 'natural' infection as represented in the comic just helps spread the thing further and faster and does a gross disservice to onward contacts, contacts-of-contacts, etc, etc. Excuse my preaching to the choir here, but it needs to be said. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

While trying to update the explanation for 'neutrality of tone' and address some infectious disease history, I came across this [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120728/#!po=44.6721|Highly Infectious Diseases in Critical Care] article
from the NIH published January 3 of 2020 which includes a comparison of smallpox, measles, SARS-1, and MERS-cov illustrating how significantly vaccination has reduced global infections. Check out the graph of measles from 1980. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 13:46, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

My hero is the person who added the citation needed to "Diseases are bad", as well as those who realize that vaccination is largely a form of infection on purpose (within one of the following five options: infection by the disease itself, infection by a weakened disease, infection by a killed and inactive version of the disease, infection by a related less dangerous disease that shares some characteristics with the original disease, infection by a laboratory created RNA strands that mimic the disease being attacked). Therefore, catching the disease on purpose, is a form of vaccination. Israel did a study on infection by the disease itself and found 6.7 times stronger immune response than other forms of COVID-19 vaccination. [https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I would like to add that the comic criticizes only a part of ''anti-vaxxers'' population that show the circular logic presented. There are other parts, e.g. those who are not quite sure if the cost/benefit (or rather risk/risk) calculus is right for the rapidly developed and hastily officially approved (in comparison to long-established vaccines against other diseases) and/or novel (mRNA) vaccine products, fearing long-time side effects of the vaccine. On the other hand, long-term effects of the disease itself are also not known yet, even if some middle-term ones are known or being investigated already. There are still other parts like those who oppose governmental obligations or pressure to vaccinate against covid and related restrictions, and take the refusal as a personal freedom stance. There may be others. -- [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.219|198.41.242.219]] 15:09, 21 December 2021 (UTC)