explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2405: Flash Gatsby

2020-12-31T12:49:09Z

HostnameNotCaroline:

I think this link should be referenced (and something added about how the copyright for this particular work is specifically extended), but not sure how to : https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/595567/why-the-great-gatsby-isnt-public-domain#:~:text=Copyright%20laws%20in%20America%20are,domain%20until%20January%201%2C%202021.&text=In%201976%2C%20Congress%20passed%20the,revised%20copyright%20laws%20from%201909. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.121|162.158.62.121]] 02:30, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

I have one day to figure out how to do this in real life. Anybody have some tips?
[[User:HostnameNotCaroline|HostnameNotCaroline]] ([[User talk:HostnameNotCaroline|talk]]) 12:49, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

2178: Expiration Date High Score

2020-12-17T15:30:18Z

HostnameNotCaroline:

{{comic
| number = 2178
| date = July 19, 2019
| title = Expiration Date High Score
| image = expiration_date_high_score.png
| titletext = "Wait, we've MOVED since 2010. How on Earth did--" "Look, some of us were just born to be champions."
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is introducing the rules of the game ''Expiration Date High Score'' hence the title.

If you find an item which you purchased, but is now past its {{w|expiration date}}, you get a score which is what percent of your lifetime elapsed between when the item expired and when you found it.

[[Megan]], looking in a cupboard, find a can of beans that expired in 2010 (9 years ago), and that gives her a score of 24.3. Megan's age is thus revealed to be 37, found by substituting 2019 and 2010 into the formula 100*(2019-2010)/<age> = 24.3 and solving for the age.

[[Cueball]] then remarks that she will never beat her mom's jar of pickles that was from 1978. Megan then wonders if there are more cans (from 2010 or before) in the cupboard, and asks Cueball to remind her to not look any further until 2030. At that time the can would have been 20 years old and she would be 48, giving such a can a score of 100*(2030-2010)/48 = 41.6. That would thus beat her mom's high score.

If her mom's jar had expired in 1978 (not clear from the text), and for instance was found last year in 2018, then the formula for the mother's score would be 100*(2018-1978)/<Mom's age>. And this should then not be more than 41, thus revealing the mother age to be around 100 years old today (98 last year). Of course the jar could have had an expiration day some years later, or have been found earlier. Otherwise Megan's mom would have been above 60 when giving birth to Megan. Of course Megan could also just take this extra long wait in case the next can is not from 2010 but only 2013 etc.

Cueball's final remark is that this is a terrible competition, the worst ever. Because keeping food that can spoil could potentially be dangerous, if not so, at least disgusting when finally trying to get rid of it later.

Many perishable items, such as food, cosmetics, medications, batteries, or condoms, have expiration dates, or sometimes best by dates. The only other rule is, that it has to be something you have purchased yourself, so that heritages or stuff that was left in the basement when one moved in, does not count. A score of 100 or higher would indicate the item expired when you were born or before you were born, meaning it was already expired when you purchased it.

The joke is, that owning expired items without noticing for a long time, is here getting you a high score, while in reality it is not considered favorable to have food that has expired long time ago.{{Citation needed}}

The other joke is both the items in the comic (a can of beans and a jar of pickles) do not go bad with time but in fact remain edible indefinitely (as long as the jar/can is not opened and is undamaged.) {{Citation needed}}

Food going bad, in the sense that it will make you sick if you eat it, is most often caused by harmful bacteria growing in the food. Less often caused by fungi or yeast growing in the food and creating a poisonous substance, like methanol (wood alcohol.) The process of canning food involves boiling it to kill all possible pathogens, then sealing it in a can/jar while the food is still hot, with no air bubble. As long as this process is done correctly, as long as the jar lid has an air tight seal, and as long at the can is not punctured or gets a hole rusted through, no bacteria/virus/yeast/fungi can get in and the food cannot spoil. Some food may discolor over time in the jar/can, or the texture may change, but it cannot go bad in a way that makes it unsafe to eat.

Megan's mom could not have a jar of pickles with a 1978 expiration date because in 1978 jars and cans of food did not have expiration dates. Since then many countries introduced laws and regulations requiring companies to put expiration dates on perishable goods. In some instances this can have the negative effect of people throwing out good food by blindly following the suggested expiration date. This behavior can incentivize companies to adjust the expiration date, or put expiration dates on non-perishable goods, so that people will re-buy the products sooner.

The title text continues the conversation from the comic. Cueball remarks that they moved since 2010... Thus the beans were apparently bought while living in a different home, meaning they were moved along with their other belongings. This is somewhat unusual as many people take moving as an opportunity to go through their old stuff and get rid of things they no longer need. Since the rules clearly states that you have to have bought it yourself, it could not have been in the house when they moved in, they had to have brought it along (unless they later bought something that was already expired). But given Megan's final answer that "some of us were just born to be champions" indicates that she did bring it along, anticipating this game, and thus given her self a great score. And as is clear she is willing to wait 11 years to try to beat her mom's score.

It is not clear why they are keeping items for long periods of time in order to win. An easier way to win this game would be to buy food that is already expired. One could obtain a score of 100 simply by buying something that expired when one was born, and finding it the next day.

==Transcript==
:[Title up in the panel:]

:What's the most expired item you've found in your house?

:Calculate your
:Expiration Date High Score
:(must be something ''you'' purchased)

:[Equation in a circle:]

:Score = (year you found item) minus (year item expired) divided by (your age when you found it), multiplied by 100

:[Megan and Cueball talking in a kitchen, with Megan holding a can.]

:Megan: These beans expired in 2010! That's... let's see... 24.3! New personal best!
:Cueball: You're never going to beat your mom's jar of pickles from 1978.
:Megan: Maybe there are more cans in there. Remind me not to look until 2030.
:Cueball: This is the worst competition.

==Trivia==
The formula suggests Megans age to be 37, if this comic plays in 2019, when it was released. That puts her birth year to either 1982 or 1981 (depending on whether this plays before or after her birthday in 2019). This is in slight contrast to [[630: Time Travel]], which implies her birth year to be 1983.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Food]]

User:HostnameNotCaroline

2020-12-17T15:24:42Z

HostnameNotCaroline:

My username is based on Comic [[910]]. I don't really have anything else to say, so:

{{crickets}}

Talk:524: Party

2020-12-15T03:15:35Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* What form? */

''Yo, dawg, I heard you like to be rickrolled, so I rolled Rick into a rickroll so you could be Rick rickrolled rolled!'' [[User:Thokling|Thokling]] ([[User talk:Thokling|talk]]) 09:27, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Is it me, or is having Astley put on a pair of sunglasses to deliver a dry punchline reminiscent of CSI: Miami, where Horatio Caine gets in a clever one-liner at the end of the opening tag, almost always while donning sunglasses? [[User:GeniusBooks|GeniusBooks]] ([[User talk:GeniusBooks|talk]])
:I can't imagine it would be anything else at this point. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:59, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
::That makes the most sense. [[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 01:37, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
Wait. Wait. That's Danish? I always thought it was Megan. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.189}}
:It can't be Danish. Danish has rightfully told Black Hat, "I'm better at it [psychological manipulation and devastation] than you." She would have twisted into a means of doing something similar to Black Hat.{{unsigned ip|172.68.143.150}}
:True, her reaction would have been very different. Megan, being generic, seems to fit. [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 00:01, 18 April 2017 (UTC)
:I really don't think that's Danish...{{unsigned|Comment Police}}
::Wrong reaction, for Danish, but the hair reminds me of her. And besides, Danish doesn't always get the upper hand. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 03:50, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

== What form? ==

This explanation uses "Rickrolling", "rick rolling", "rickrolling", and "Rick rolling". Which form should I use? [[User:HostnameNotCaroline|HostnameNotCaroline]] ([[User talk:HostnameNotCaroline|talk]]) 03:15, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Talk:524: Party

2020-12-15T03:15:05Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* What form? */ new section

1806: Borrow Your Laptop

2020-12-15T03:01:33Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1806
| date = March 3, 2017
| title = Borrow Your Laptop
| image = borrow_your_laptop.png
| titletext = If used with software that could keep up, a scroll wheel mapped to send a stream of 'undo' and 'redo' events could be kind of cool.
}}

==Explanation==
[[White Hat]] asks to borrow [[Cueball|Cueball's]] laptop to view something (possibly a website). Cueball permits this, but immediately begins rattling off a list of very unusual key- and mouse-bindings that he has applied to the device. In the caption, [[Randall]] states that he himself tends to continually re-configure computers that he owns in weird ways, eventually rendering it unusable or at least unpleasant to use for others.

Of the three items in Cueball's list of customizations only the first and half of the second seems like a real and relevant changes.

At first he has programmed the computer so that hitting both shift keys simultaneously will change the keyboard back to QWERTY. The {{w|QWERTY}} keyboard is the standard in the US (as well as some other places using the roman alphabet). This implies that Cueball prefers a different keyboard layout, (most likely the {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} keyboard layout, see [[#Trivia|trivia]]), but doesn't need the printed letters to match up with those of the laptop. Cueball would have to make a special customization to make pressing the two shift key trigger this shift (see [[#Trivia|trivia]]). Presumably Cueball can later return to this favorite layout by pressing the shift keys again.

Cueball tells, in the first part of the second point on the list, that he has changed his keyboard layout so that {{w|capslock}} acts as the {{w|control key}} (Ctrl). Swapping capslock and control is a common thing to do in the world of enlightened users on {{w|Unix}} or for users of the {{w|Emacs}} [https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MovingTheCtrlKey editor]. The "Caps Lock" key (immediately to the left of the "A" in a traditional layout) is much easier to reach for a touch typist than the more out-of-the-way "Ctrl", and the latter is often used more frequently, especially by programmers.

However, the second part where Cueball says he has then moved capslock so that it is activated when hitting the {{w|spacebar}} makes no sense. It is quite impractical, as the spacebar is the largest key and it will not gain anything from being used for anything other than spaces, especially not a rarely used key that locks into capital letter mode move when activated. It would make the common accidental application of capslock more likely. And what is worse he doesn't tell White Hat where he has put the space bar function, making it impossible to write a simple text, although he could try to see what the Ctrl keys does now...

Finally Cueball goes out on a limb with an impossible setting, which is that his laptop is setup so that scrolling [[:Category:Time travel|moves through time]] instead of through "space" (as in up and down on the screen). This refers to {{w|spacetime}}, a common model in relativistic physics. The feature in only activated when using {{w|Touchpad#Operation_and_function|two-finger scroll}}, which is often used on {{w|Touchpad|touchpads}}/track pads for laptops as a gesture for scrolling. The title text may suggest that "moving through time" may pertain to undo/redo, or perhaps browser history.

Finally it becomes clear these three settings are not the only important changes, as Cueball's list continues with at least one other point which he doesn't get to finish in the comic. Thus the list may be much longer than four points.

In the title text Randall says that he would actually find a feature where the {{w|scroll wheel}} was mapped to send a stream of {{w|Undo|undo/redo}} commands would be kind of cool. (Notice he is no longer talking about the two-finger scroll from the comic). But only if used with software that could keep up with such a feature. He thus indirectly states that many programs would not be be able to keep up.

Such continuous undo/redo action would produce unexpected and chaotic results. This could also indicate that this was a similar feature that Cueball was referring to when talking about moving through time with the two finger scroll in the main comic. So not as in the computer traveling through time, but rather scrolling through the previous actions performed on the computer, as in moving through the computers past.

People often have reasons to change their keyboard layouts on laptops, due to the reduced keyboard, which can leave vital keys out. Rather than change the keyboard layout all the time in order to access keys which are not accessible in one of the layouts, one can take advantage of text substitution and keyboard remapping programs to set shortcuts for keys they use often.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat walks toward Cueball's desk pointing at his laptop while looking back at Cueball standing behind him.]
:White Hat: Can I load it up on your laptop?
:Cueball: Sure!
:Cueball: Oh, just hit both shift keys to change over to QWERTY.
:Cueball: Caps lock is control. And spacebar is capslock.
:Cueball: And two-finger scroll moves through time instead of space.
:Cueball: And–

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Once I've used a computer for a while, no one else will ever use it again.

==Trivia==
*It has been a recurrent theme for Randall to refer to the {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} keyboard layout, and, although he doesn't say so, it seems safe to assume that this is the current setting, as it is one of the most common QWERTY competitors, and has been [[:Category:Dvorak|repeatedly referenced]] in xkcd.
:Supporters claim that typing speed is faster on a Dvorak keyboard, although this is still contentious, and this is a reason Randall often makes jokes about it as can be seen in the category referenced above.
*The laptop most likely has a standard QWERTY keyboard, but if Cueball can type blindly in Dvorak he would not be troubled by the fact that the keys typed a different letter than what is on the keyboard's key.
*In the recent comic [[1787: Voice Commands]], which directly references Dvorak, Cueball is shown to be able to speak the QWERTY version of a Dvorak keyboard layout, proving that he really knows by heart the relation between these two settings used on a QWERTY keyboard layout.
:The same problem would arise if the computer is set to another language than the keyboard layout, which often happens in countries where more than one language is common.
*The shift key is a modifier key and in general it requires a second non modifier key to trigger an action. Furthermore the user interfaces in most operation systems don't distinguish between the left and right shift key.
:Nevertheless by doing some registry hacking (Windows) or editing configuration text files (UNIX/Linux) it is possible to reach Cueball's approach. The simpler and operating system independent approach would be to use a programmable keyboard, such as a keyboard using QMK firmware [https://qmk.fm/]
:A typical classic configuration for the shift key in Windows is by pressing one of the shift keys five times in a row it turns on a ''Sticky Key'' notice, where the ''Ease of access center'' enables people with for instance only one hand to be able to reach Ctrl+Alt+Delete or other combinations on which two hands are needed.
*A day after the release of this comic, a user on reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/5xi92h/a_scroll_wheel_mapped_to_send_a_stream_undo_and/ suggested] a way to make the undo-redo-scrolling work in emacs using undo-tree. It uses shift-scrolling to avoid conflicts with normal scrolling.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Time]]

1122: Electoral Precedent

2020-12-15T02:59:00Z

HostnameNotCaroline: Added 4 new items to the table

{{comic
| number = 1122
| date = October 17, 2012
| title = Electoral Precedent
| image = electoral_precedent.png
| titletext = No white guy who's been mentioned on Twitter has gone on to win.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TIME TRAVELER. Please explain and flesh out each broken precedent. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

During election season in U.S. presidential elections — and especially in election night coverage — it is common for the media to make comments like the ones set out in the first panel of this comic. [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] is demonstrating the problem with making such statements, many of which simply come down to coincidence.

After the first panel the next 56 panels in this comic refer to each one of the {{w|United States presidential election#Electoral college results|56 presidential elections}} in U.S. history before {{w|Barack Obama|Obama's}} re-election in 2012. The panels depict a pre-election commentator noting a quality or condition that has never occurred to a candidate, until one of the candidates in that election broke the streak. In other words, one can always find at least one unique thing about a candidate who has gone on to win (or in some cases, lose) or the circumstances under which they won (or lost) that is unique from all previous winners (or losers). It's worth noting that some of these 'firsts' were truly precedent-setting (such as the first incumbent losing, the first president to win a third term, the first Catholic president, etc.), but the fact that they hadn't happened was no assurance that there wouldn't be a first time. As the years pass on, these 'streaks' become more and more nested and complicated, and then brought by Randall to the point of absurdity by pointing out very trivial things, such as "No Democratic {{w|incumbent}} without combat experience has ever beaten someone whose first name is worth more in {{w|Scrabble}}" (1996).

The flaw made by pundits while reporting such streaks is that there will always be ''something'' that has never happened before in an election, and they purport to suggest that these things are related to the candidate's win or loss. Randall considers this a logical flaw. A common one is, as noted in several panels, candidates can't win without winning certain states. The question, however, is one of {{w|Correlation does not imply causation|cause or effect}}.

Given that there have only been 56 elections, there are always going to be things that haven't happened before. If you go out looking for them, you're sure to find some. There is no magic about why these events haven't happened. In most cases, it is merely coincidence.

In the last two panels two more statements like the previous are given. They were both true before the {{w|United States presidential election, 2012|election in 2012}} on November the 6th. The comic came out in the middle of the campaign on October the 17th. The statements were constructed so that the first predicts that Obama can't win over {{w|Mitt Romney}}, and the second that he cannot lose. As Obama won the election he thus ended the streak ''Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers'' whereas the other streak is still valid.

The title text refers to the fact that {{w|Twitter}} was founded in 2006. Obama won in 2008, so at the time of the comic it was true that no white male person mentioned on Twitter had ever gone on to win the presidency; although certainly some former presidents, all of whom were white males, have subsequently been mentioned on Twitter. This streak was broken in the next election year, when Donald Trump won the 2016 election.

During these last four weeks before the election Randall posted no fewer than four comics related to this election. The others are: [[1127: Congress]], [[1130: Poll Watching]] and [[1131: Math]].

In 2020, Randall posted an update to this comic: [[2383: Electoral Precedent 2020]].

===Table of Broken Precedents===

''<font color="red">Please have someone else validate your row, as to make sure the table is accurate</font>''

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Broken Precedent !! Explanation !! Validity
|-
| 1788
| No one has been elected president before. ...But Washington was.
| Discounting the Articles of Confederation and its {{w|President of the Continental Congress|president}}, Washington is the first president of the US.
| True
|-
| 1792
| No incumbent has ever been reelected. ...Until Washington.
| Washington is the first person who had a second term. He was unopposed so there was no challenger.
| True
|-
| 1796
| No one without false teeth has become president. ...But Adams did.
| Washington had false teeth, made of human teeth and other materials. His successor Adams, despite having tooth decay, refused to wear false teeth.
| True
|-
| 1800
| No challenger has beaten an incumbent. ...But Jefferson did.
| Adams is the first president not to have a second term, due to signing the unpopular {{w|Alien and Sedition acts}}. He was defeated by the challenger, Jefferson.
| True
|-
| 1804
| No incumbent has beaten an challenger. ...Until Jefferson.
| The 2 previous incumbents were Washington, who was unopposed, and Adams, who lost as an incumbent (to Jefferson).
| True
|-
| 1808
| No congressman has ever become president. ...Until Madison.
| While George Washington served in the House of Burgesses, Madison served as congressman for Virginia's 5th district from 1789 to 1793 and the 15th District from 1793 to 1797 in the U. S. Congress.
| True
|-
| 1812
| No one can win without New York. ...But Madison did.
| While it is true New York voted against Madison but he still won, New York did not vote for Washington due to an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1788%E2%80%9389_United_States_presidential_election#New_York's_lack_of_Electors internal dispute].
| False
|-
| 1816
| No candidate who doesn't wear a wig can get elected. ...Until Monroe was.
| Despite popular misconception, Washington did not wear a wig, but in fact powdered his hair white.
| False
|-
| 1820
| No one who wears pants instead of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culottes breeches] can be reelected. ...But Monroe was.
| The first 5 presidents, including Monroe, all wore breeches.
|
|-
| 1824
| No one has ever won without a popular majority. ...J.Q. Adams did.
| Jackson won the plurality of the popular vote and Electoral College. But as it was a four way election, he did not achieve a majority - so the vote went to Congress, who elected John Quincy Adams.
| True
|-
| 1828
| Only people from Massachusetts and Virginia can win. ...Until Jackson did.
| Jackson was from South Carolina, while all previous presidents were from Massachusetts or Virginia.
| True
|-
| 1832
| The only presidents who get reelected are Virginians. ...Until Jackson.
| Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were the only re-elected presidents at that time, and they were all Virginians.
| True
|-
| 1836
| New Yorkers always lose. ...Until Van Buren.
| Martin Van Buren is the first president from the state of New York.
| True
|-
|1840
| No one over 65 has won the presidency. ...Until Harrison did.
| He was 68 and the first over 65, and died of pneumonia 31 days after giving the longest inauguration to date.
| True
|-
|1844
| No one who's lost his home state has won. ...But Polk did.
| Assuming "home state" refers to the state of residence, Polk is the first, losing Tennessee to Clay but took 15 of the 26 states including New York. However, if you count it as state of birth, Jackson and Harrison already did.
| True
|-
|1848
| As goes Mississippi, so goes the nation. ...Until 1848.
| Prior to 1848, every candidate who had won the state of Mississippi had won the election, with the only exception being the 1824 election, where John Quincy Adams was elected by Congress, due to no one winning the Electoral College. In 1848, Lewis Cass won the state of Mississippi, but lost the election to Zachary Taylor.
| True
|-
|1852
|New England Democrats can't win. ...Until Pierce did.
|Pierce is the first candidate from the Democratic Party from New England, specifically New Hampshire, and he won the election of 1852.
| True
|-
|1856
| No one can become president without getting married. ...Until Buchanan did.
| While other presidents were widowers, Buchanan was the first unmarried president, being a life long bachelor.
| True
|-
|1860
| No one over 6'3" can get elected. ...Until Lincoln.
| Lincoln was the first president over 6'3" president, at 6'4" tall, making him the tallest president to date.
| True
|-
|1864
|No one with a beard has been reelected. ...But Lincoln was.
|Lincoln was the first U.S. president to have a beard.
|
|-
|1868
|No one can be president if their parents are alive. ...Until Grant.
|
|
|-
|1872
|No one with a beard has been reelected in peacetime. ...Until Grant was.
|Grant was the second U.S. president (behind Lincoln) to be reelected with a beard, but only Grant was reelected during peacetime.
|
|-
|1876
|No one can win a majority of the popular vote and still lose. ...Tilden did.
|Samuel Tilden won a majority of the popular vote, with 51%, but lost in the electoral college in a {{w|1876 United States presidential election|contested election}}, resolved by the {{w|Compromise of 1877}}. (During the election of 1824, Jackson won the popular vote but did not win more than half of it, a majority)
| True
|-
|1880
|As goes California, so goes the nation. ...Until it went Hancock.
|Since being a state in 1850, the winner of California had won the election - until 1880 when Winfield Hancock won California, but lost the election to James Garfield.
|
|-
|1884
|Candidates named "James" can't lose. ...Until James Blaine.
|James Blaine was the first major candidate with the first name "James" to lose an election, losing to Grover Cleveland.
|
|-
|1888
|No sitting president has been beaten since the Civil War. ...Cleveland was.
|Grover Cleveland was the first president since the end of the Civil War to be defeated by a challenger, losing to Benjamin Harrison. Andrew Johnson was not chosen as the Democratic candidate in 1868. Ulysses S. Grant served 2 terms and did not run for a 3rd term. Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur (who became president after the assassination of James Garfield) did not seek reelection after their first term.
|
|-
|1892
|No former president has been elected. ...Until Cleveland.
|Cleveland was the first (and thus far only) president to serve 2 non-consecutive terms, winning the presidential election in 1884, losing in 1888, and winning in 1892.
|
|-
|1896
|Tall Midwesterners are unbeatable. ...Bryan wasn't.
|William Jennings Bryan lost the 1896 election to William McKinley. Bryan's measurements have been lost to history, but contemporary historians described him as "a tall, slender, handsome fellow".
|
|-
|1900
|No Republican shorter than 5'8" has been reelected. ...Until McKinley was.
|At the time, McKinley was only the 3rd Republican who was reelected (behind Lincoln, and Grant). And he was the shortest of them all, at 5'7" tall.
|
|-
|1904
|No one under 45 has been elected. ...Roosevelt was.
|At the start of his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest president, taking office at the age of 42.
|True
|-
|1908
|No Republican who hasn't served in the military has won. ...Until Taft.
|Taft was the first Republican to win an election and not serve in the military - Lincoln served during the Black Hawk War; Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and McKinley served in the Civil War; and Theodore Roosevelt served in the Spanish-American War.
|
|-
|1912
|After Lincoln beat the Democrats while sporting a beard with no mustache, the only Democrats who can win have a mustache with no beard. ...Wilson had neither.
|From Lincoln's presidency to Wilson's, only one Democrat won- Grover Cleveland, who had a mustache but no beard.
|
|-
|1916
|No Democrat has won while losing West Virginia. ...Wilson did.
|Since its statehood in 1863, Wilson is the first Democrat to lose West Virginia, but win the national election.
|
|-
|1920
|No incumbent senator has won. ...Until Harding.
|Harding was the first sitting Senator to become President - he resigned his position as Senator to become President.
|
|-
|1924
|No one with two Cs in their name has become president. ...Until Calvin Coolidge.
|'''C'''alvin '''C'''oolidge was the first with "two C's in his name". Presidents with "one C" in their names prior to Coolidge were John Quin'''c'''y Adams, Andrew Ja'''c'''kson, Za'''c'''hary Taylor, Franklin Pier'''c'''e, James Bu'''c'''hanan, Abraham Lin'''c'''oln, '''C'''hester A. Arthur, Grover '''C'''leveland and William M'''c'''kinley.
|
|-
|1928
|No one who got ten million votes has lost. ...Until Al Smith.
|Smith was the first candidate to get more than 10 million votes and lose. He received over 15 million votes, but lost to Herbert Hoover, who received 21.4 million votes, and won the electoral college, 444-87.
|
|-
|1932
|No Democrat has won since women secured the right to vote. ...Until FDR did.
|FDR was the first Democrat to win since 1919, when women secured the right to vote.
|
|-
|1936
|No President's been reelected with double-digit unemployment. ...Until FDR was.
|FDR was reelected during the Great Depression, when unemployment peaked at 22-25%.
|
|-
|1940
|No one has won a third term. ...Until FDR did.
|FDR is the first and only president to be elected for 4 terms due to his popularity/policies. This is now made impossible by the {{w|Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution|22nd amendment}}, which limits a president to 2 elected terms.
|
|-
|1944
|No Democrat has won during wartime. ...Until FDR did.
|
|
|-
|1948
|Democrats can't win without Alabama. ...Truman did.
|
|
|-
|1952
|No Republican has won without winning the House or Senate. ...Eisenhower did.
|
|
|-
|1956
|No one can beat the same nominee a second time in a leap year rematch. ...Until Eisenhower.
|
|
|-
|1960
|Catholics can't win. ...Kennedy beat Nixon.
|
|
|-
|1964
|Every Republican who's taken Louisiana has won. ...Until Goldwater.
|
|
|-
|1968
|No Republican vice president has risen to the Presidency through an election. ...Until Nixon.
|
|
|-
|1972
|Quakers can't win twice. ...Until Nixon did.
|The only Quaker president before Nixon was Herbert Hoover. Hoover only served one term.
|
|-
|1976
|No one who lost New Mexico has won. ...But Carter did.
|
|
|-
|1980
|No one has been elected President after a divorce. ...Until Reagan was.
|
|
|-
|1984
|No left-handed president has been reelected. ...Until Reagan was.
|
|
|-
|1988
|No one with two middle names has become president. ...Until "Herbert Walker".
|George H. W. Bush is the first and to date only president with 2 middle names.
|
|-
|1992
|No Democrat has won without a majority of the Catholic vote. ...Until Clinton did.
|
|
|-
|1996
|No Dem. incumbent without combat experience has beaten someone whose first name is worth more in Scrabble. ...Until Bill beat Bob.
|
|
|-
|2000
|No Republican has won without Vermont. ...Until Bush did.
|
|
|-
|2004
|No Republican without combat experience has beaten someone two inches taller. ...Until Bush did.
|
|
|-
|2008
|No Democrat can win without Missouri. ...Until Obama did.
|
|
|-
|2012?
|Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers.
|Barack Obama is 6' 1" (185 cm), and Mitt Romney is 6' 2" (188 cm). When Obama won, it broke the streak.
|
|-
|2012?
| No nominee whose first name contains a "K" has lost.
| This apparently refers only to major party nominees, as many third party and other nominees with a first name containing "K" have lost, such as {{w|Frank T. Johns}} of the Socialist Labor Party of America. Major party nominees with a "K" have won, such as Democrats Franklin Pierce, Franklin Roosevelt, and Barack Obama. If Romney had won, it would have broken the streak with respect to major party nominees, although not the streak as stated, which had already been broken with respect to all nominees.
|
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:The problem with statements like
:"No <party> candidate has won the election without <state>"
:Or
:"No president has been reelected under <circumstances>"

:1788... No one has been elected president before. ...But Washington was.
:1792... No incumbent has ever been reelected. ...Until Washington.
:1796... No one without false teeth has become president. ...But Adams did.
:1800... No challenger has beaten an incumbent. ...But Jefferson did.
:1804... No incumbent has beaten a challenger. ...Until Jefferson.
:1808... No congressman has ever become president. ...Until Madison.
:1812... No one can win without New York. ...But Madison did.
:1816... No candidate who doesn't wear a wig can get elected. ...Until Monroe was.
:1820... No one who wears pants instead of breeches can be reelected. ...But Monroe was.
:1824... No one has ever won without a popular majority. ...J.Q. Adams did.
:1828... Only people from Massachusetts and Virginia can win. ...Until Jackson did.
:1832... The only presidents who get reelected are Virginians. ...Until Jackson.
:1836... New Yorkers always lose. ...Until Van Buren.
:1840... No one over 65 has won the presidency. ...Until Harrison did.
:1844... No one who's lost his home state has won. ...But Polk did.
:1848... As goes Mississippi, so goes the nation. ...Until 1848.
:1852... New England Democrats can't win. ...Until Pierce did.
:1856... No one can become president without getting married. ...Until Buchanan did.
:1860... No one over 6'3" can get elected. ...Until Lincoln.
:1864... No one with a beard has been reelected. ...But Lincoln was.
:1868... No one can be president if their parent are alive. ...Until Grant.
:1872... No one with a beard has been reelected in peacetime. ...Until Grant was.
:1876... No one can win a majority of the popular vote and still lose. ...Tilden did.
:1880... As goes California, so goes the nation. ...Until it went Hancock.
:1884... Candidates named "James" can't lose. ...Until James Blaine.
:1888... No sitting president has been beaten since the Civil War. ...Cleveland was.
:1892... No former president has been elected. ...Until Cleveland.
:1896... Tall midwesterners are unbeatable. ...Bryan wasn't.
:1900... No Republican shorter than 5'8" has been reelected. ...Until McKinley was.
:1904... No one under 45 has become president. ...Roosevelt did.
:1908... No Republican who hasn't served in the military has won. ...Until Taft.
:1912... After Lincoln beat the Democrats while sporting a beard with no mustache, the only Democrats who can win have a mustache with no beard. ...Wilson had neither.
:1916... No Democrat has won while losing West Virginia. ...Wilson did.
:1920... No incumbent senator has won. ...Until Harding.
:1924... No one with two Cs in their name has become president. ...Until Calvin Coolidge.
:1928... No one who got ten million votes has lost. ...Until Al Smith.
:1932... No Democrat has won since women secured the right to vote. ...Until FDR did.
:1936... No President's been reelected with double-digit unemployment. ...Until FDR was.
:1940... No one has won a third term. ...Until FDR did.
:1944... No Democrat has won during wartime. ...Until FDR did.
:1948... Democrats can't win without Alabama. ...Truman did.
:1952... No Republican has won without winning the House or Senate. ...Eisenhower did.
:1956... No one can beat the same nominee a second time in a leap year rematch. ...Until Eisenhower.
:1960... Catholics can't win. ...Until Kennedy.
:1964... Every Republican who's taken Louisiana has won. ...Until Goldwater.
:1968... No Republican vice president has risen to the Presidency through an election. ...Until Nixon.
:1972... Quakers can't win twice. ...Until Nixon did.
:1976... No one who lost New Mexico has won. ...But Carter did.
:1980... No one has been elected President after a divorce. ...Until Reagan was.
:1984... No left-handed president has been reelected. ...Until Reagan was.
:1988... No one with two middle names has become president. ...Until "Herbert Walker".
:1992... No Democrat has won without a majority of the Catholic vote. ...Until Clinton did.
:1996... No Dem. incumbent without combat experience has beaten someone whose first name is worth more in Scrabble. ...Until Bill beat Bob.
:2000... No Republican has won without Vermont. ...Until Bush did.
:2004... No Republican without combat experience has beaten someone two inches taller. ...Until Bush did.
:2008... No Democrat can win without Missouri. ...Until Obama did.
:2012... Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers. No nominee whose first name contains a "K" has lost. Which streak will break?

==Trivia/Errors==
* There was an error in the original 1800 panel of the comic, as Jefferson (not Adams) was the first challenger to beat an incumbent, when Jefferson beat then-president Adams in 1800. This was later corrected.

* Also, one of the statements of a streak for the 2012 elections can be considered wrong: in 1952, the Republican candidate/running mate Eisenhower/Nixon defeated the Democratic alliterative ticket Stevenson/Sparkman (in what can only be described as a landslide). The comic has been changed, and now reads "Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers" as the streak which would have the Republican ticket as the winners.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring John F. Kennedy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]

2150: XKeyboarCD

2020-12-15T02:36:36Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2150
| date = May 15, 2019
| title = XKeyboarCD
| image = xkeyboarcd.png
| titletext = The key caps use LCD displays for all the vowels, so they can automatically adjust over the years to reflect ongoing vowel shifts while allowing you to keep typing phonetically.
}}

==Explanation==
In the same vein (and with the same humor) as the [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], the XKeyboarCD seems to be an overly inventive and borderline ludicrous keyboard intended for some unknown audience. It has an assortment of features (some fairly normal, some more exotic) which give it a..."diverse skill set". This may be in reference to {{w|Space-cadet keyboard}}s which were made for programmers and had several keys not present on standard QWERTY keyboards.

XKeyboardCD is a play on xkcd, and keyboard. (XK eyboard CD)

*'''54 Configurable Rubik's Keys'''
The smaller cubes on a {{w|Rubik's cube}} resemble computer keys, so this feature makes fun of that by adding a spinnable Rubik's cube above the keyboard. The implication is that the keys would be 'configured' by twisting the sides of the cube until the desired configuration is reached, although parity means that not all configurations could be reached by conventional means by a 3x3 cube. (Parity exists on 4x4 cubes.) There can be a maximum of 53 keys (the bottom center position can't contain a key because it's the mounting position). Additionally, the top key can't be moved around, so the maximum amount of configurable keys is 52. (The four remaining centers can be moved by rotating the entire cube.) The bottom-facing keys would obviously be hard to see/reach.

*'''Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji'''
This feature parodies the feature of some laptop-keyboards where it is possible to dynamically assign emojis to a small touchscreen area. There is a disaccord between hard-coded, useful and emoji, especially with the large keys in a central position on the keyboard. Which emojis would be "the most useful" is highly subjective. For example in the comic it shows the quite popular laughing with tears emoji, along with the octopus emoji and others. Notably, the "aerial tramway" was once the least-used emoji, and remains very rarely used.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Emoji
! Name
|-
| 😰
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat/ Anxious Face With Sweat]
|-
| 😂
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-tears-of-joy/ Face With Tears of Joy]
|-
| 🐙
| [https://emojipedia.org/octopus/ Octopus]
|-
| 🏇
| [https://emojipedia.org/horse-racing/ Horse Racing]
|-
| 🚡
| [https://emojipedia.org/aerial-tramway/ Aerial Tramway]
|}

*'''Serif Lock'''
{{w|Serifs}} are small lines on the ends of certain characters in fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia. It is dependent on the font, not on the character; "A" is represented by the same code regardless of its font. Since a given font almost always either has or doesn't have serifs, this key seems challenging to implement. This key could be implemented, however, by simply changing between a pair of fonts when it is pressed. What's more, the button is placed roughly where left shift is on most keyboards, liable to cause frustration.

*'''Unlimited Key Travel'''
Key travel is the distance a key moves between its unpressed and pressed states. In reality, laptop keys only move a few millimeters before bottoming out, and conventional keyboards up to about a centimeter. Increased key travel may make typing more comfortable, up to a point. However, the usefulness of having unlimited key travel is unclear, and the question of how this would be physically possible in the keyboard depicted remains unanswered. The keyboard would have to be infinitely deep to allow unlimited key travel, although pushing it to the near bottom would require extra-long fingers. At least it is the greatest possible value, trumping any other keyboard. This is a play on transport passes, allowing unlimited travel (usually within a certain time or transport network).

*'''Diagonal Spacebar'''
Instead of a wide key at the bottom that typists can hit easily with either thumb, we now have a tall, narrow key that requires being pressed with the right pinkie. This would not be a good change since most peoples' pinkies are their weakest finger. Some ergonomic keyboards have a slightly curved spacebar or a separated spacebar for each thumb.

*'''Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)'''
This is essentially a {{w|Jog dial|jog dial}}, or similar {{w|Rotary encoder|rotary encoder}}. These are sometimes used with keyboards: as controls for volume, video editing, or drawing.
Many computer keyboards have four {{w|arrow keys}}: up, left, right, and down. However, the XKeyboarCD just has one that can be rotated. This has the added bonus of allowing the arrow keys to point more than four different directions. In a keyboard, it would be awkward to operate as going from horizontally left to horizontally right, for example, would require the user to rotate the key first and then press it, which wastes precious time when playing a video game like [http://explainxkcd.com/1608 the hoverboard comic], where you have to rapidly press arrow keys to move around. It would not let one press multiple arrow keys at once. Trackpoint devices provide similar joystick-like direction function, but are easier to control with a finger.

*'''15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad'''
A {{w|15 puzzle}} is a square containing fifteen smaller squares and one blank spot, which allows the squares to be moved around. The squares are shuffled and then reassembled as a game or pastime, and are usually labelled 1-15 (as is the case here) or, when assembled properly, create a picture. A {{w|Numeric keypad|numberpad}} in this style would be frustrating to use for typing numbers, as they could shift (or be shifted) around, but could provide a fun feature to use as a game. Alternatively the keys could be rearranged as with the Rubik`s keys. How this would be used to generate numeric input is unclear, but the presence of 16 positions suggests {{w|hexadecimal}} input is possible. Keyboard keypads do have around 17 keys, but only 0-9 usually have numbers whereas the XKCD keypad has numbers 1-15 in the middle of the numberpad probably also surrounded by the more conventional arithmetic operators, enter, and decimal point.

*'''Ergonomic Design'''
The cylindrical portion of the keyboard is advertised as being an ergonomic design. Most ergonomic keyboards are both curved into a convex shape and split in the middle, with the blocks of keys on either side rotated around the vertical axis. This is done to follow natural arm and finger movements more closely, that is, avoid forcing the user to rotate their arms and hands to match the flat and rectangular key arrangement of a non-ergonomic keyboard. Some ergonomic keyboards come in unconventional form factors, such as vertical keyboards, to allow the user's hands to rest in more neutral positions or to change positions throughout the day, but the cylinder shape presented here is a ''concave'' shape which requires the user to lift and twist his arms to reach certain keys (or roll the cylinder from side to side), which would be an even more strenuous motion than typing on a standard keyboard. The slogan of the keyboard - "for power users and their powerful fingers" fits this difficulty, but makes no sense as a feature.

*'''Title Text'''
The title text references sound changes in languages. Every language (and indeed, every dialect) routinely undergoes changes in its sounds and phonemes, in a mostly regular and systematic, but not totally predictable way (otherways the dialects would sound the same and also the century, when a shift occurs, and the rate of change are not predictable). While not only vowels are affected, in languages with many vowels such as English, they're particularly likely to shift around and/or merge. While having dynamic keycaps that change can actually come in handy, the feature of only having vowels change in response to sound shifts is a bit less so. One normally enters the spelling and not the pronunciation of words (except with some Asian input systems). The spelling and pronunciation do not change at the same time.

First, while changes in how we pronounce words are always ongoing, the way we write words down tends to stay relatively static, and thahs wiy wuhd faynd thaet werds biykahm ihncaampriyhehnsihbuhl duw tuw now laanger biyihng spehlld aes they wer bihfaor. Second, English only uses five glyphs (aeiou) and a variety of methods to represent four times as many vowel sounds, so the software would need to have a way to handling that (in some dialects "bird" and "turn" for example, have the same vowel but are represented by "ir" and "ur", as it also ''can'' be by the "er" in the bird called the "{{w|tern}}" - or not). Third, vowel shifts are not ubiquitous: the {{w|Caught-cot merger}}, for example, is a phenomenon happening across some parts (but not all) of the US and UK. Therefore, while some people would say "caught" and "cot have the same vowel it should be spelled the same by the keyboard, but others would say they're two different vowels and should not be spelled identically. Fourth, sound shifts tend to occur over a relatively long period of time (in terms of human lifetimes), so a user would probably find the keycaps only change once or twice. All in all, this is not a very useful feature.

An alternative explanation is that the keys actually map to the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}} and converts what you type into English words (and the vowel changes). The IPA is an alphabet used in linguistics and language teaching, designed to represent every phoneme present in languages of the world unambiguously, with optional modifiers to indicate more subtle nuances in pronunciation, intonation and speech pathology. This alphabet consists of 107 letters and 56 modifiers (with some letters shared with the Latin and Greek alphabets), which would explain the large number of keys. In that case, the feature remains questionable since it only handles vowel shifts and not consonants, and anybody who'd use an IPA-keyboard would probably need to type out the phonology of other languages and appreciate not having to find a key has moved because English has undergone a vowel shift.

*'''Trivia'''
This is the second time that the "xkcd" has been used around a middle word, which uses some of the xkcd letters to form this word. The first was [[1506: xkcloud]] - XKC lou D, to spell ClouD with the C and D from XKCD, in that comic the letters where all lowercase. In this comic the Keyboard, has an X before the word and a C before the D with the xkcd letters capitalized.

==Transcript==
:[Headings above a drawing of a very special keyboard:]
:Introducing the
:<big>XKeyboarCD</big>
:A keyboard for powerful users and their powerful fingers®

:[The keyboard has many more keys than a usual Keyboard. Usual keyboards for stationary computers typically have a few of the rows with 21 keys, and then some with fewer. This Keyboard has 28 keys on the top row. The other rows have special keys that make it difficult to compare, but there is basically also room for 28 in the bottom row, except one spot where there is one key in a space for 2x2 keys. Begining from the bottom and coutning keys there are 27. Skipping those that take up space in two or more rows, when going to the next row from the bottom there are 23, then 24, then 18, then 27 and finally 28 keys in the top row, for a total of 147 keys (vs 105 on a regular keyboard). Then there are 54 extra keys above the keyboard to the left (27 shown) and 156 in 6 rows of 26 to the right for a total of 357 keys 330 shown. All six rows have keys all the way over with no empty space in between, as there are on regular keyboards. Also there are no space between the top row (with F1 button etc) and those below. At each side of the keyboard the keys do no align at the edges, which is normally the case. The keyboard has several special features, most of which are labeled. The only special features that is not labeled is a small square with 2x2 keys that are elevated a bit above all other keys. It is in the region above the normal position of the four arrows. All eight other special features have an arrow pointing to them from their labels. Here below is a description of the labeled items as well as a transcript of their labels. They are listed in the order of their labels first above and then below the keyboard going from left to right.]

:[Five keys close to the QWERTY keys positions have colorful emoji on them. They each take up the space of 2x2 normal keys, although it is not clear if all the "normal" keys have the same size:]
:Hardcoded plastic keys for the 5 most useful emoji
:😰 😂 🐙 🏇 🚡

:[A cube with 3x3 keys on each side hangs above the keyboard to the left supported by a small rod. Three sides are fully visible, 27 keys:]
:54 configurable Rubik's keys

:[Just right of the middle above the main keyboard is a cylinder with keys inside in 6 rows of 26 keys (126 in all). It either decreases in diameter into it making it look almost like a tunnel, or is drawn as if it almost disappear in the far distance, being much deeper than it should be.]
:Ergonomic design

:[In the region where the normal numberpad would be there are 15 numbers from 1 to 15 in a 4x4 grid leaving space for an empty key hole. There is a row of keys both above and below this grid. The numbers do not come in order from 1 to 15, but rather in a jumble. Also the empty hole is not a full key spot. Instead it is in the second row of numbers, with a bit more space to the left than to the right of the middle of the three keys.]
:
:{| class="wikitable"
|+15 puzzle-style numberpad
|-
|1
|8
|4
|12
|-
|7
|Empty area
|11
|3
|-
|15
|6
|10
|9
|-
|2
|5
|13
|14
|}

:[To the left in the second row (below the Caps Lock position) the outer key is twice as wide as the other normal keys.]
:Serif Lock

:[An arrow points to the eight key in the bottom row, but is probably just referring to all the keys in general:]
:Unlimited key travel

:[There is a segment of the keyboard that seems to be empty of keys, but still white like the rest of the keys, not black as where keys are actually missing. It is where on a regular keyboard, the normal keys are separated from the special function keys. But it turns out it is indeed a long key going vertically:]
:Diagonal spacebar

:[Where the four arrow keys are on a regular keyboard there is a 2x2 key segment that only has one key in the middle with black background around it. It has an arrow head on it pointing right. That is if the key had not been turned about 45 degree counter clockwise, so the arrow points up to the right.]
:Arrow key (rotate to adjust direction)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

84: National Language

2020-12-15T02:30:36Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 84
| date = April 3, 2006
| title = National Language
| image = national_language.jpg
| titletext = She's pretty sharp when provoked.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about the concept of {{w|Nativism (politics)|nativism}}, which is the view that those who are native to a place should have more rights than immigrants. A frequently expressed view in the U.S. (and in other countries) is that immigrants should learn English, which is the primary language in the United States.

In the comic, one character is arrogantly arguing the nativist position. However, the woman next to him interrupts him and says a phrase in the {{w|Cherokee}} language - "Hello, my name is Sarah" - which is an Iroquoian language used by the Cherokee {{w|Native Americans in the United States|Native American}} people. Although Cherokee seems to be a relatively {{w|Cherokee#Origins|young culture}}, it is much more native to America than any European culture, such as that which brought English.

The woman is therefore effectively suggesting a "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" argument, that if the Europeans did not have to learn the native language, why should current immigrants learn English? She points out that even the English speakers are immigrants who did not learn the native language. Alternatively, she is saying that the term "national language" has no clear meaning, especially in the United States, where there is no official language; therefore, the "language they speak there" can be any of the languages spoken in the country: English, Spanish, German, Cantonese, or Cherokee, to name a few.

The title text reveals that Ponytail is in fact Randall's friend; in the comic it is unclear who his friend is.

==Transcript==
:[Caption on top:]
:This happened to my friend:

:[Three men and two women are standing in a row.]
:Cueball: English should be the national language. These immigrants should have to learn English when they come here.
:Megan: Yeah.

:Cueball: When you go to live somewhere, you learn the language they speak there.
:Cueball: English is the language of the land.

:Ponytail: Excuse me, but ''osio Sarah dawado.''

:Cueball: What the hell was that?
:Ponytail: Cherokee.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1869: Positive and Negative Reviews

2020-12-15T02:19:49Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1869
| date = July 28, 2017
| title = Positive and Negative Reviews
| image = positive and negative reviews.png
| titletext = This restaurant is great! I was feeling really sick, but then I ate there and felt better!
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows {{w|customer review}}s from people who purchased a made-up {{w|sports drink}} multi-pack containing twelve 20 oz bottles. The people who gave negative reviews are {{w|Merlin}} (the wizard from the legends of King Arthur) and B. Button (from the short story ''{{w|The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)|The Curious Case of Benjamin Button}}'' and its {{w|The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film)|film adaptation}}). Merlin remembers the future; in the {{w|T. H. White}} novel series ''{{w|The Once and Future King}}'', he was born at the wrong end of time and has to live backwards. Benjamin Button was born with the physical appearance of an old man and grows younger as time progresses. In this comic, they apparently perceive time backwards: Merlin was thirsty then he drank the SmartQuench 9000, but he perceived it as drinking and then becoming thirsty. Benjamin Button was {{w|Dehydration|dehydrated}} then drank 3 bottles and got better, but perceived it the other way around.

Particles of {{w|matter}} can have a positive or negative {{w|electric charge}}. Particles have associated {{w|antiparticle}}s with opposite charge. For example {{w|electron}}s are negatively charged particles and their antiparticles are {{w|positron}}s, which are positively charged. Antiparticles can be {{w|Feynman_diagram|interpreted}} as if they were the associated particle moving backward in time. Applying that interpretation to customer reviews gives the caption of the comic: positive reviews from people traveling backward in time are negative reviews (the "antiparticles" of positive reviews).

The caption seems to say that there are only positive experiences—some going forward, some backward in life. However, Randall gives an example in the title text of a positive review which is actually about a negative experience by a person traveling backward in time (the person ate at a restaurant then got sick). The conclusion is that there are both positive and negative events, but the way they are perceived depends on both the event and whether one sees it going forward or backward in time.

==Transcript==
:[A picture with four small bottles and a larger one is shown. The text to the right reads:]
:SmartQuench 9000
:Sports Drink
:20 oz  12-pack

:[Below is a list with reviews; a picture for the user (avatar) and the name below, the rating (in stars) and the text to the right.]
:---Customer reviews---
:Amy 2015 (4 of 5 stars) Perfect after a run
:Anon513 (5 of 5 stars) My favorite flavor
:Merlin (1 of 5 stars) Drinking this made me thirstier
:Mike63 (4 of 5 stars) Good price
:B Button (1 of 5 stars) Drank 3 bottles on a hot day and got dehydrated!

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Physics tells us that negative reviews are really just positive reviews from people traveling backward in time.

==Trivia==
*The use of the phrase 'physics tells us...' may be alluding to the way people use 'physics' or 'science' to justify nonsense. See [[1240: Quantum Mechanics]] and [[1475: Technically]].
*There are many examples of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MerlinSickness "Merlin Sickness"] in fiction. Merlin was mentioned earlier in [[270: Merlin]].
*Time-reversed aging is also explored in [[560: Lithium Batteries]].

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Online reviews]]

2398: Vaccine Tracker

2020-12-15T02:18:24Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Transcript */ Removed the incomplete tag.

{{comic
| number = 2398
| date = December 14, 2020
| title = Vaccine Tracker
| image = vaccine_tracker.png
| titletext = *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo. *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VACCINE TRACKER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Similar to [[281: Online Package Tracking]], Cueball is trying to "track" the status of the {{w|Tozinameran|Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine}}, which was approved in the USA the week prior to the publishing of this comic, and began to be administered the day of publication. Cueball is impatient for the vaccine to be released to the public, wanting the pandemic to end as soon as possible. Because of that, he is treating the state vaccine website like a package tracker, even though it will probably be several months before he is vaccinated.

Of course, the state vaccine website does not act like a package tracker, and updates will be few and far between. The comedy in this comes from Cueball expecting it to update regularly, even though the vaccine is not going to come anytime soon.

The title text refers to Pfizer's vaccine plant in Michigan, and is also a reference to [[281: Online Package Tracking]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks towards Cueball. Cueball sits in front of his laptop.]
:Megan: What are you up to?
:Cueball: You know how when I have a package coming, I sit here refreshing the package tracker?
:Megan: Is that the state vaccine website?
:[Cueball refreshes the page]
: *REFRESH*

:Megan: You know it will be a while before you can-
:[Cueball refreshes the page, cutting her off.]
: *REFRESH*
:Megan: They haven't even announced when-
:[Cueball refreshes the page again, cutting her off.]
: *REFRESH*

:Megan: Are you going to sit there clicking refresh for several months?
:Cueball: '''''I am ready for the pandemic to be done.'''''
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2397: I Just Don't Trust Them

2020-12-15T02:15:26Z

HostnameNotCaroline: Deleted the incomplete tag- you can put it back if I'm wrong and it's incomplete.

{{comic
| number = 2397
| date = December 11, 2020
| title = I Just Don't Trust Them
| image = i_just_dont_trust_them.png
| titletext = I believe in getting immunity the old-fashioned way: By letting a bat virus take control of my lungs and turn my face into a disgusting plague fountain while my immune system desperately Googles 'how to make spike protein antibodies'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.

[[Cueball]] partially echoes a statement made by {{rw|anti-vaccine}} activists about "{{rw|Big_Pharma|Big Pharma}}" (the powerful and profit-driven companies who develop pharmaceutical drugs such as vaccines). Anti-vaccine protesters falsely believe that vaccines contain harmful toxins (such as HIV proteins, {{rw|Anti-vaccination_movement#Aluminum|aluminum salts}}, formaldehyde, {{rw|Thiomersal|mercury}}, and nanoparticles) that cause ill effects on the human body, that just because there has never been a licensed mRNA vaccine before that these new vaccines are not safe in the long term, and that the corporations that make them are not to be trusted because they are exploiting a captive public for profit while disregarding public health. The joke is that Cueball is revealed to be not talking about Big Pharma but, instead, bats.

According to the WHO, COVID-19 has an ecological origin in bat populations. Hence, Cueball sees the virus as something developed by bats, and the ambiguity by which he expresses his desire to not be infected adds to the joke.

The comic could simply be seen to serve as a compelling argument against the anti-vaccine movement, which is often criticized for spreading misinformation and increasing rates of disease, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This comic comes shortly after the news of the development of several COVID-19 vaccines with high rates of success; there are concerns that herd immunity may be delayed if people refuse to take the vaccine.

The title text refers to getting immunity the old fashioned way, i.e. catching the disease and waiting for your immune system to build up a response. This is usually considered healthful when immunity to minor diseases is common, and can avoid the sudden forced evolution of new diseases among extensively hypercareful communities, but developing natural immunity is certainly incredibly dangerous during a pandemic of a serious illness. One joke here is that many anti-vaxxers claim that it is more natural to not take a vaccine. Because many people conflate "natural" with "healthful", the assumption underlying the claim "it is more natural to not take a vaccine" is that it is therefore more healthful. Such arguments are an example of the {{rw|fallacy|logical fallacy}} known as {{rw|Appeal_to_nature|Appeal to nature}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands with his arms to his sides, facing Megan.]
:Cueball: I just don't trust them, and I don't want to put something they developed into my body.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:How I feel about bats

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2398: Vaccine Tracker

2020-12-15T02:10:36Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Transcript */ Added *REFRESH*es.

{{comic
| number = 2398
| date = December 14, 2020
| title = Vaccine Tracker
| image = vaccine_tracker.png
| titletext = *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo. *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VACCINE TRACKER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Similar to [[281: Online Package Tracking]], Cueball is trying to "track" the status of the {{w|Tozinameran|Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine}}, which was approved in the USA the week prior to the publishing of this comic, and began to be administered the day of publication. Cueball is impatient for the vaccine to be released to the public, wanting the pandemic to end as soon as possible. Because of that, he is treating the state vaccine website like a package tracker, even though it will probably be several months before he is vaccinated.

Of course, the state vaccine website does not act like a package tracker, and updates will be few and far between. The comedy in this comes from Cueball expecting it to update regularly, even though the vaccine is not going to come anytime soon.

The title text refers to Pfizer's vaccine plant in Michigan, and is also a reference to [[281: Online Package Tracking]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks towards Cueball. Cueball sits in front of his laptop.]
:Megan: What are you up to?
:Cueball: You know how when I have a package coming, I sit here refreshing the package tracker?
:Megan: Is that the state vaccine website?
:[Cueball refreshes the page]
: *REFRESH*

:Megan: You know it will be a while before you can-
:[Cueball refreshes the page, cutting her off.]
: *REFRESH*
:Megan: They haven't even announced when-
:[Cueball refreshes the page again, cutting her off.]
: *REFRESH*

:Megan: Are you going to sit there clicking refresh for several months?
:Cueball: '''''I am ready for the pandemic to be done.'''''
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2398: Vaccine Tracker

2020-12-15T02:07:51Z

HostnameNotCaroline: /* Explanation */ Added an explanation and merged it with a couple of other edits- can you add on to it? Thanks!

{{comic
| number = 2398
| date = December 14, 2020
| title = Vaccine Tracker
| image = vaccine_tracker.png
| titletext = *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo. *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VACCINE TRACKER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Similar to [[281: Online Package Tracking]], Cueball is trying to "track" the status of the {{w|Tozinameran|Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine}}, which was approved in the USA the week prior to the publishing of this comic, and began to be administered the day of publication. Cueball is impatient for the vaccine to be released to the public, wanting the pandemic to end as soon as possible. Because of that, he is treating the state vaccine website like a package tracker, even though it will probably be several months before he is vaccinated.

Of course, the state vaccine website does not act like a package tracker, and updates will be few and far between. The comedy in this comes from Cueball expecting it to update regularly, even though the vaccine is not going to come anytime soon.

The title text refers to Pfizer's vaccine plant in Michigan, and is also a reference to [[281: Online Package Tracking]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks towards Cueball. Cueball sits in front of his laptop.]
:Megan: What are you up to?
:Cueball: You know how when I have a package coming, I sit here refreshing the package tracker?
:Megan: Is that the state vaccine website?
:[Cueball refreshes the page]

:Megan: You know it will be a while before you can-
:[Cueball refreshes the page, cutting her off.]
:Megan: They haven't even announced when-
:[Cueball refreshes the page again, cutting her off.]

:Megan: Are you going to sit there clicking refresh for several months?
:Cueball: '''''I am ready for the pandemic to be done.'''''
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2398: Vaccine Tracker

2020-12-15T01:47:45Z

HostnameNotCaroline: Added transcript

{{comic
| number = 2398
| date = December 15, 2020
| title = Vaccine Tracker
| image = vaccine_tracker.png
| titletext = *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo. *refresh* Aww, still in Kalamazoo.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a VACCINE TRACKER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks towards Cueball. Cueball sits in front of his laptop refreshing the page.]
:Megan: What are you up to?
:Cueball: You know how when I have a package coming, I sit here refreshing the package tracker?
:Megan: Is that the state vaccine website?

:Megan: You know it will be a while before you can-
:[Cueball refreshes the page, cutting her off.]
:Megan: They haven't even announced when-
:[Cueball refreshes the page again, cutting her off.]

:Megan: Are you going to sit there clicking refresh for several months?
:Cueball: '''''I am ready for the pandemic to be done.'''''
{{comic discussion}}