explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1391: Darkness

2014-07-10T21:51:27Z

Chorb:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MundaneMadeAwesome --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
Ugghhh, you just HAD to link to TVTropes... Now I'm gonna get sucked into the vortex! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.49|108.162.216.49]] 02:16, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
This narrative was actually the very first story I've read in The Onion back in 2006: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/rotation-of-earth-plunges-entire-north-american-co,1905/] -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 08:28, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Will Eno has a play, "TRAGEDY: a tragedy", which has a very similar set-up (reporters reporting on the fall of night as if they'd never known it before), but never explains how the situation came about --- now thanks to XKCD, we know how come! -- awhyzip, 7 July 2014

Isn't there a problem with the wish formulation? If the genie does not remember ever granting any wishes, how come the one in the comic is labelled as his "last wish". {{unsigned ip|173.245.49.181}}

"There usually is an added stipulation" ... really? Most time I read about genies, it's about someone using some clever way to overcome the limit on number of wishes, if there IS any limit to start with - but what I read may not be representative. This may require more research ... what is the most "traditional" genie story? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:47, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

:The most traditional would be the character simply carefully choosing all three wishes, using the last one at the very end of e story. Again, not representative either, but from what I've read the concept of "getting around the three-wish limit" seems to be a more recent take on the 'traditional' version. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:00, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
::The most traditional would be the character simply carefully choosing all three wishes, using the last one at the very end of e story. Again, not representative either, but from what I've read the concept of "getting around the three-wish limit" seems to be a more recent take on the 'traditional' version. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:00, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
:I'm pretty well-read in folklore. The three-wishes tale that I have seen come up most often involves a man getting three wishes, wishing for a sausage, his wife complaining, him wishing the sausage were on her nose and then wishing it were off her nose. There are several variants of that [//www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0750a.html here].

::I know that three-wishes tales are old and numerous. I was specifically asking for the traditional GENIE story - that is, if the traditional GENIE story is a three-wishes one (or if the traditional genie story is without limit). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:35, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

:I agree the ruse of getting more wishes is a modern device, not a folk one. In a ''Godel, Escher, Bach'' dialogue, for example, it is explained that genies only cast wishes, not metawishes (wishes about wishes). That requires a metagenie. [[User:Fewmet|Fewmet]] ([[User talk:Fewmet|talk]]) 03:03, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
Um... If the genie cannot remember that each wish was NOT his first, that does not preclude him from keeping track of or remembering how many wishes he has made. It doesn't keep him from remembering other wishes, he simply can't remember which one was NOT first. Perhaps I'm over-thinking this, but the genie would probably say, "I may remember your last wish was only your first, but I distinctly remember the 3 wishes you've made so far, especially the one to screw with my head. So... no more wishes for you." XP -naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 13:17, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
:I was more wondering about the genie having pause for thought when (remembering no previous wishes) he hears "for my ''last'' wish...". But with genies generally being the 'manual workers' of the magical world, generally being unimaginative (except for those that tend to twist wishes into causing unintended consequences, possibly something that Wish #1 was used to explore the possibility of) and working to rule (perhaps "twist the wish" is one of the rules?), they don't notice. [i]Or[/i] they're so fed up with "bottled servitude" that they'd be quite happy to go along with this new guy with the new attempt at rules-lawyering, at least until they get bored... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.192|141.101.99.192]] 14:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

::Considering the alternative is to stay in bottle (which looks definitely more boring to me) I'm surprised there IS a limit at all - or more exactly, that it's the GENIE forcing that limit, as opposed to some outside force. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:28, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I took this to be a reference to [//wisegeek.com/what-is-a-news-cycle.htm#didyouknowout news cycles]. The wisher was irritated that news reporting is influenced by an artificial constraint like the [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_news_cycle 24 hour news cycle] and wished the media would forget about it. In classic form, a poorly-worded wish is inconveniently interpreted. [[User:Fewmet|Fewmet]] ([[User talk:Fewmet|talk]]) 15:34, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

I think this is more about the media getting into a frenzy about things that are basic properties of living. (car accidents, breakins, starvation, murder, war, etc.) So they might as well get bent out of shape about something like the day/night cycle which is an absurd reduction of their usual retarded mannerisms. [[User:Chorb|Chorb]] ([[User talk:Chorb|talk]]) 21:51, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

1392: Dominant Players

2014-07-10T21:44:46Z

Chorb: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1392
| date = July 9, 2014
| title = Dominant Players
| image = dominant_players.png
| titletext = When Vera Menchik entered a 1929 tournament, a male competitor mocked her by suggesting that a special 'Vera Menchik Club' would be created for any player who lost to her. When the tournament began, he promptly became the first member of said club, and over the years it accumulated a large and illustrious roster.
}}

A [http://xkcd.com/1392/large larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd - which can be reached easily from here as always, by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Probably needs more detail.}}
The comic shows the rise and fall of players' strengths in two games, {{w|basketball}} and {{w|chess}}. For chess, there is an overall chart, and a women's chart.

For basketball, it uses a {{w|Player_efficiency_rating|player efficiency rating}}.

For chess, it uses the {{w|Elo rating}}. It explains that since Elo is relatively new (it was adopted by the World Chess Federation, FIDE, in 1970), the rating is extrapolated backwards in time and are thus shown as dashed lines before it was generally adopted. <br>
Interestingly it can be {{w|Elo_rating#Elo_ratings_beyond_chess|read on the Elo wiki page}} that {{w|Sports Reference|Sports-reference.com}} uses the Elo rating system to rate the best professional players in '''basketball''', football, baseball and hockey .

There are several references at given times of a career path noted with a node on the path. Some of these are intended to provide context (such as "Loses to Deep Blue"), while others are tangents or jokes. There are also some path that becomes dashed (not including any dashed chess player paths from before 1970). These references are in order of apperance:

'''Basketball'''
* {{W|Wilt Chamberlain}} - Becomes the first and so far only player to score {{w|Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game|100 points in a game}} (1962)
* {{w|Jerry West}} - The Guy in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NBALogo.svg The NBA logo] from 1969. (Read 5th paragraph in this {{w|National_Basketball_Association#Celtics.27_dominance.2C_league_expansion.2C_and_competition|wiki section}})
* {{w|Kareem Abdul-Jabbar}} - {{w|Airplane (film)|Airplane}} (a comedy film from 1980 where he played the co-pilot Roger Murdock)
* {{w|Magic Johnson}} - {{w|Magic_Johnson#HIV_announcement_and_Olympics_.281991.E2.80.9392.29|HIV announcement}}. (Dashed line from 1991 - where the fear of Aids forced him to retire)
** He {{w|Magic_Johnson#Return_to_the_Lakers_as_coach_and_player_.281994.2C_1996.29|returned to play once more}} in the season from 1995-1996
* {{w|Michael Jordan}} - {{w|Space Jam}} (an animated comedy film from 1996 starring {{w|Bugs Bunny}} and Jordan - who was the only live character during most of the movie)
** Jordan also has two periods of his path that are dashed.
** The first was during his {{w|Michael_Jordan#First_retirement_and_baseball_career_.281993.E2.80.931994.29|baseball career}} from 1993-1994 (i.e. his first retirement)
** And then his {{w|Michael_Jordan#Second_retirement_.281999.E2.80.932001.29|second retirement}} from 1999–2001
** He then {{w|Michael_Jordan#Washington_Wizards_comeback_.282001.E2.80.932003.29|came back}} to play two more years from 2001-2003...
* {{w|LeBron James}} - {{w|The Decision (TV special)|The Decision}} (a television special from 2010 about a heavily hyped decision as to which team he would play for the next season)
* {{w|Jose Capablanca}} - Considered one of the greatest chess players of all time.

The {{w|Starburst (symbol)|starbursts}} at the end (or beginning) of a path are references to a player appearing or disappearing in unusual circumstances:

* {{w|Alexander Alekhine}} - Died under disputed circumstances in Portugal
* {{w|Bobby Fischer}} - Text says "Vanished...". He did not actually vanish, but he did stop playing competitively for about 20 years starting in 1972. This is also probably a reference to the film {{w|Searching for Bobby Fischer}}, which is not actually about Fischer, but about a player who partly models his career on Fischer's. The name "Searching for Bobby Fischer" may lead people to believe Fischer literally vanished, but that is not the case.
* Bobby Fischer "Reappeared then vanished again" is another reference to Fischer, who resumed playing competitively in 1992 for a brief time. "He had problems" is a simplistic description of issues and controversies in Fischer's later life, including an arrest warrant (because he violated a U.S. embargo against Yugoslavia), unpaid taxes, controversy about his statements (including anti-semitism). The U.S. eventually revoked his passport, and he was jailed for eight months in Japan. He then received Icelandic citizenship, and lived out the rest of his life there.
* {{w|Vera Menchik}} - She died in an attack by an early guided missile (a {{w|V-1 flying bomb}}) launched by the Germans in World War II.

{{w|Judit Polgar}}, the strongest woman chess player ever, is shown rising from the gender-defined ranks of women's chess and breaking into the top 10 in the world FIDA ratings. She ranked eighth in the world in 2005.

In general not all possible players are included in these charts. For instance it is mentioned that Judit Polgar was the first woman ranked in the over all top 10. But only six players are shown on the over all chart around 2005, where she was ranked 8th. This is a general trend for all three charts. So this is a subjective list of players that [[Randall]] has deemed to be ''Dominant Players'' and not a full list of the best ranked players during the time period.

Another example (see at the bottom of {{w|Player_efficiency_rating#Reference_guide|this section}} on Wikipedia) of the above for Basketball would be the 2008–2009 season which was unique in that it was the only season in which more than one player posted an efficiency ratings of over 30.0 on the Player efficiency rating. In that season three players broke this barrier: LeBron James (31.76), {{w|Dwyane Wade}} (30.46), and {{w|Chris Paul}} (30.04). LeBron is shown to top that season, But Dwayne is far below (thus the scale does not fit?) and Chris is not on the list (i.e. he was not deemed to be a dominant players according to Randall).

It is thus on Randall's whim that some NBA players have been left out of the chart in favor of players with lower career and yearly efficiency ratings. Example: {{w|Tim Duncan}}, {{w|Charles Barkley}}, {{w|Oscar Robinson}}, {{w|Kobe Bryant}}, and Chris Paul could all have been included.

A similar reason would explain why former World Champion Chess Grandmaster {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} has not been included in the Chess Chart. Anand is one of six players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He occupied the number one position in several rating lists between 2007 and 2011. It is possible that Randall is a huge fan of {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} and biased against Anand as evinced by the comic [[1287:_Puzzle]] (Chess in a 'Go' board - there are no alternate colored squares as required by chess), though the interpretation of the comic and its comment appear to be a double-edged matter of debate.

Chess players {{w|Vladimir Kramnik}} and {{w|Levon Aronian}}, who have faced each other on multiple occasions in the 2010s, are shown as having their career paths entwined. It is a general trend observed every time two players paths cross each other more than once (the one on top the first time, will be below the second time and so forth. It is just more clear with these two than anywhere else).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
'''Dominant Players over Time'''

[Chart 1]
*Basketball (NBA/ABA)
:Player Efficiency Rating

[Chart 2]
*Chess
:Elo Rating

[Chart 3]
*Chess (Women)
:Elo Rating

==Trivia==
* The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/45/20140710201235!dominant_players.png original comic] said about Kira Zvorykina "Continued playing in tournaments into the 20th century". The 20th century is the 1900's in which Zvorkina was born (on September 29, 1919 according to Wikipedia). However, Zvorykina continued playing into the 21st century; [http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calculations.phtml?idnumber=13500392&rating_period=2008-01-01&t=0 her last games rated by the World Chess Federation] date from October 2007. Randall has corrected the notation to say "into the 21st century."
* The names of three NBA players have been misspelled: Neil Johnston (misspelled as "Neal"), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (missing hyphen), and Julius Erving (misspelled "Irving".)

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]

{{comic discussion}}

1392: Dominant Players

2014-07-10T21:43:02Z

Chorb: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1392
| date = July 9, 2014
| title = Dominant Players
| image = dominant_players.png
| titletext = When Vera Menchik entered a 1929 tournament, a male competitor mocked her by suggesting that a special 'Vera Menchik Club' would be created for any player who lost to her. When the tournament began, he promptly became the first member of said club, and over the years it accumulated a large and illustrious roster.
}}

A [http://xkcd.com/1392/large larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd - which can be reached easily from here as always, by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Probably needs more detail.}}
The comic shows the rise and fall of players' strengths in two games, {{w|basketball}} and {{w|chess}}. For chess, there is an overall chart, and a women's chart.

For basketball, it uses a {{w|Player_efficiency_rating|player efficiency rating}}.

For chess, it uses the {{w|Elo rating}}. It explains that since Elo is relatively new (it was adopted by the World Chess Federation, FIDE, in 1970), the rating is extrapolated backwards in time and are thus shown as dashed lines before it was generally adopted. <br>
Interestingly it can be {{w|Elo_rating#Elo_ratings_beyond_chess|read on the Elo wiki page}} that {{w|Sports Reference|Sports-reference.com}} uses the Elo rating system to rate the best professional players in '''basketball''', football, baseball and hockey .

There are several references at given times of a career path noted with a node on the path. Some of these are intended to provide context (such as "Loses to Deep Blue"), while others are tangents or jokes. There are also some path that becomes dashed (not including any dashed chess player paths from before 1970). These references are in order of apperance:

'''Basketball'''
* {{W|Wilt Chamberlain}} - Becomes the first and so far only player to score {{w|Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game|100 points in a game}} (1962)
* {{w|Jerry West}} - The Guy in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NBALogo.svg The NBA logo] from 1969. (Read 5th paragraph in this {{w|National_Basketball_Association#Celtics.27_dominance.2C_league_expansion.2C_and_competition|wiki section}})
* {{w|Kareem Abdul-Jabbar}} - {{w|Airplane (film)|Airplane}} (a comedy film from 1980 where he played the co-pilot Roger Murdock)
* {{w|Magic Johnson}} - {{w|Magic_Johnson#HIV_announcement_and_Olympics_.281991.E2.80.9392.29|HIV announcement}}. (Dashed line from 1991 - where the fear of Aids forced him to retire)
** He {{w|Magic_Johnson#Return_to_the_Lakers_as_coach_and_player_.281994.2C_1996.29|returned to play once more}} in the season from 1995-1996
* {{w|Michael Jordan}} - {{w|Space Jam}} (an animated comedy film from 1996 starring {{w|Bugs Bunny}} and Jordan - who was the only live character during most of the movie)
** Jordan also has two periods of his path that are dashed.
** The first was during his {{w|Michael_Jordan#First_retirement_and_baseball_career_.281993.E2.80.931994.29|baseball career}} from 1993-1994 (i.e. his first retirement)
** And then his {{w|Michael_Jordan#Second_retirement_.281999.E2.80.932001.29|second retirement}} from 1999–2001
** He then came back to play two more years...
* {{w|LeBron James}} - {{w|The Decision (TV special)|The Decision}} (a television special from 2010 about a heavily hyped decision as to which team he would play for the next season)
* {{w|Jose Capablanca}} - Considered by many as one of the greatest chess players of all time.

The {{w|Starburst (symbol)|starbursts}} at the end (or beginning) of a path are references to a player appearing or disappearing in unusual circumstances:

* {{w|Alexander Alekhine}} - Died under disputed circumstances in Portugal
* {{w|Bobby Fischer}} - Text says "Vanished...". He did not actually vanish, but he did stop playing competitively for about 20 years starting in 1972. This is also probably a reference to the film {{w|Searching for Bobby Fischer}}, which is not actually about Fischer, but about a player who partly models his career on Fischer's. The name "Searching for Bobby Fischer" may lead people to believe Fischer literally vanished, but that is not the case.
* Bobby Fischer "Reappeared then vanished again" is another reference to Fischer, who resumed playing competitively in 1992 for a brief time. "He had problems" is a simplistic description of issues and controversies in Fischer's later life, including an arrest warrant (because he violated a U.S. embargo against Yugoslavia), unpaid taxes, controversy about his statements (including anti-semitism). The U.S. eventually revoked his passport, and he was jailed for eight months in Japan. He then received Icelandic citizenship, and lived out the rest of his life there.
* {{w|Vera Menchik}} - She died in an attack by an early guided missile (a {{w|V-1 flying bomb}}) launched by the Germans in World War II.

{{w|Judit Polgar}}, the strongest woman chess player ever, is shown rising from the gender-defined ranks of women's chess and breaking into the top 10 in the world FIDA ratings. She ranked eighth in the world in 2005.

In general not all possible players are included in these charts. For instance it is mentioned that Judit Polgar was the first woman ranked in the over all top 10. But only six players are shown on the over all chart around 2005, where she was ranked 8th. This is a general trend for all three charts. So this is a subjective list of players that [[Randall]] has deemed to be ''Dominant Players'' and not a full list of the best ranked players during the time period.

Another example (see at the bottom of {{w|Player_efficiency_rating#Reference_guide|this section}} on Wikipedia) of the above for Basketball would be the 2008–2009 season which was unique in that it was the only season in which more than one player posted an efficiency ratings of over 30.0 on the Player efficiency rating. In that season three players broke this barrier: LeBron James (31.76), {{w|Dwyane Wade}} (30.46), and {{w|Chris Paul}} (30.04). LeBron is shown to top that season, But Dwayne is far below (thus the scale does not fit?) and Chris is not on the list (i.e. he was not deemed to be a dominant players according to Randall).

It is thus on Randall's whim that some NBA players have been left out of the chart in favor of players with lower career and yearly efficiency ratings. Example: {{w|Tim Duncan}}, {{w|Charles Barkley}}, {{w|Oscar Robinson}}, {{w|Kobe Bryant}}, and Chris Paul could all have been included.

A similar reason would explain why former World Champion Chess Grandmaster {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} has not been included in the Chess Chart. Anand is one of six players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. He occupied the number one position in several rating lists between 2007 and 2011. It is possible that Randall is a huge fan of {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} and biased against Anand as evinced by the comic [[1287:_Puzzle]] (Chess in a 'Go' board - there are no alternate colored squares as required by chess), though the interpretation of the comic and its comment appear to be a double-edged matter of debate.

Chess players {{w|Vladimir Kramnik}} and {{w|Levon Aronian}}, who have faced each other on multiple occasions in the 2010s, are shown as having their career paths entwined. It is a general trend observed every time two players paths cross each other more than once (the one on top the first time, will be below the second time and so forth. It is just more clear with these two than anywhere else).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
'''Dominant Players over Time'''

[Chart 1]
*Basketball (NBA/ABA)
:Player Efficiency Rating

[Chart 2]
*Chess
:Elo Rating

[Chart 3]
*Chess (Women)
:Elo Rating

==Trivia==
* The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/45/20140710201235!dominant_players.png original comic] said about Kira Zvorykina "Continued playing in tournaments into the 20th century". The 20th century is the 1900's in which Zvorkina was born (on September 29, 1919 according to Wikipedia). However, Zvorykina continued playing into the 21st century; [http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calculations.phtml?idnumber=13500392&rating_period=2008-01-01&t=0 her last games rated by the World Chess Federation] date from October 2007. Randall has corrected the notation to say "into the 21st century."
* The names of three NBA players have been misspelled: Neil Johnston (misspelled as "Neal"), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (missing hyphen), and Julius Erving (misspelled "Irving".)

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1392: Dominant Players

2014-07-10T21:36:53Z

Chorb:

This may be related to the recent MOBA segregation controversy: http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2014/07/02/hearthstone-tournament/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.25}}

What is the significance of the line colors? {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.78}}
:I think the red lines are those players that were undisputed #1 for a significant period. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 08:02, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
: But Petrosian has no colored line, although he was world champion. Maybe he did not have the highest ELO rating despite being WC?[[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 09:23, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:Ya, this line colouring thing is bugging me. :P [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:22, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Dashed lines are apparently for the period before ELO ratings existed, taking 1965 as a start point (midway between the point in time when ELO rating was adopted by USCF and FIDE, respectively. There seems to be an exception for Alekhine -or is that a very long dash? [[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 09:23, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Naughty Randall, always label your axes! [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 08:00, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The comment in the women's rankings about Kira Zvorykina is a little odd. One would hope she continued playing in tournaments into the 20th century, given that the first 81 years of her life were in the 20th century. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.220}}

While at the time, the V-1 was called a "Flying Bomb", wikipedia indeed calls it an early pulse-jet ancestor of the modern cruise missile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_flying_bomb . I built a model of one in an 8th grade rocketry club, replacing the pulse jet with an Estes D-6-0. Mine took off, but sure enough, yes, the stubby wings stalled easily, the flight path was a weird s curve as the wings stalled out twice while under thrust.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 09:03, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Link to the game against Deep Blue, anybody? Also, shouldn't the title text be at least mentioned? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.71|199.27.128.71]] 09:13, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Kasparov-Deep Blue Games: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1014770 {{unsigned ip|141.101.64.131}}

The explanation says in the first sentence that for chess there's an overall rating and a woman's rating in the comic. All I see is a men's rating and a woman's rating, no overall rating, however. {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.24}}
: As Judith Polgar is present in the first chart, it appears to be an overall, not specifically a men's chart.[[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 11:37, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:: My impression is that the above is the Men's Chart but with Judit added (hence the note), because (although unsure because of the curse of unlabelled axes) some of the other top-ranking-women-but-not-top-ranking-overall would still earn a position on the above 'graph'.
:: (Also, something in me wanted a reference to Chess-Boxing, but it appears that was not the aim.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 13:16, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Anyone knows why Viswanathan Anand is not included (or am I blind?) Marty / [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.43|141.101.104.43]]
I had the exact same question. It appears that this is a West and Russian centric view of the world [[User:Indianrediff|Indianrediff]] ([[User talk:Indianrediff|talk]]) 13:23, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:No. Koneru Humpy is mentioned. He's a big Carlson fan and I think he doesn't like Anand. One of his old comics suggested that. Probably never realised Anand met and beat Carlson back in 2008. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.78|108.162.222.78]] 16:37, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:Out of pure curiosity, could anyone please upload an image/link of how Anand's curve might look, if it was added to the graph? I'm not a huge chess fan, but I am interested in seeing the extent of Randall's possible bias in this regard. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.62|173.245.62.62]] 05:21, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

For me it feels weirder to see Stefanova there, but not Topalov. Then again, for some reason Bulgarian media keep a low profile of her. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.107}}
It's Julius Erving not Irving. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.151|173.245.54.151]] 13:27, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The choice of basketball and chess is something to think about. This mostly is about chess, and basketball represents the physical sports. It immediately stands out that chess players have much longer careers than basketball players. [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 15:55, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

:Something else I think someone needs to look at is the line of best fit. For basketball it's basically horizontal, but for chess it tends to curve upwards. I'd add it myself, but I feel like there's more than just that and I'm missing something. [[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 16:53, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I haven't seen any mention of this interpretation, so it might be just me, but I immediately read the juxtaposition of basketball to chess as a contrast of how skill at the top level of basketball is essentially stagnant, whereas the best chess players have been outstripping their predecessors for decades. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.157}}

The y-axis is unlabelled, that's annoying --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.222|141.101.93.222]] 19:53, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

A couple points;
1) I would interpret the Basketball vs. Chess dichotomy as a slam against basketball, with the (largely) serious comments about chess vs. pointing out movies on BB. There are a jillion things he could have chosen to comment on - why highlight the embarassing career moves of BB players?
(2) The rating system for BB has an (essentially) static upper limit, whereas these chess rating systems have larger upper bounds as the player pool grows, so comparisons of upper bounds are unfair. That may be part of the point, or a dishonest comparison. Not sure of Randall's motivations. (not that I like BB anyways...)
(3) No comparison to women's BB is made - so this further inclines me to think that there are two separate agendas here: (i) physical BB vs. mental chess and (ii) women's rights in chess. An honest comparison would include women's BB as well.
(4) The vertical axis on the graphs do not start at zero, so the scaling could be correct... just somewhat deceiving by violating fundmental rules of creating graphs (no labels, inconsistent scales and they have non-zero bases).
(5) Red lines are *generally* the top person at some point in their career for more than 5(?) years (David Robinson seems like the tell)

All in all, rather disappointed in the seemingly conflicting political agendas and poorly represented graphs.
[[User:Chorb|Chorb]] ([[User talk:Chorb|talk]]) 21:36, 10 July 2014 (UTC)