2265: Tax AI

2020-02-07T21:54:55Z

MississippiJoel: Added a mention of a public tax filing service to avoid unnecessary product advertiement

{{comic
| number = 2265
| date = February 7, 2020
| title = Tax AI
| image = tax_ai.png
| titletext = I ended up getting my tax return prepared at a local place by a really friendly pretrained neural net named Greg.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|CREATED BY GREG. Needs explanation for "Seitan"}}

The deadline for filing tax returns in the United States is April 15, so many people in the US are beginning the process of filing their taxes at the time of this comic's publication. Traditionally, people used tax provider companies, but it is becoming more popular to use tax preparation software, such as {{w|TurboTax}} or a service from the {{w|Free File Alliance}}, which helps to fill in the tax forms after a user enters their income information and {{w|Tax deduction|deduction}}s for the year. Notably, many countries, such as Australia, provide their citizens with tax forms already filled out, but sent to the person in question for review. The United States has not implemented this policy, largely due to lobbying by companies such as TurboTax.

In this comic, [[Cueball]] has attempted to train a {{w|artificial neural net}} to prepare his {{w|Tax return (United States)|US tax return}}, but it has made several comical errors, purportedly because it was not trained extensively enough. Most of the errors consist of {{w|malapropism}}s, words that sound almost the same but mean very different things switched for comic effect. This suggests Cueball trained the neural net by talking to it.

The title text references [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]], which indicates that getting a human to do something is basically using a "pretrained neural net". Cueball has chosen to use a local tax provider to help him file his taxes, aka a "pretrained neural net" in the form of a human named Greg.

===Types of errors===
* "claim 1040 defendants": typically, taxpayers may claim "{{w|dependent}}s" (not "{{w|defendant}}s", persons being sued or accused of crimes) to deduct a certain amount of money from their taxable income, which is intended to represent money used for their care. Dependents include children, wards, elderly parents, and others for whom the taxpayer is the primary caregiver, so 1040 would be an absurdly high number.{{Citation needed}} {{w|Form 1040}} is the number of the primary tax document that must be filed in the United States.
* "seitan local income tax" is a reference to "{{w|state income tax|state and local income tax}}" which can be deducted from federal income taxes in the US. Most states in the United States have income taxes that must be prepared separately, but some do not. {{w|Seitan}} is another name for wheat gluten, used in vegetarian or vegan dishes.
* "fiscal year 20202": presumably the neural net got carried away with 2's and 0's in 2020. However, at the date the comic was published, Cueball should be filing his 2019 taxes anyway. Alternately, the comic could be place in the future and it took the way most people will speak the year 2022 ("twenty twenty-two") and then transferred this directly to numbers ("20" "20" "2" becoming 20202).
* "standard deduckling" : the "{{w|standard deduction}}", which is what many taxpayers opt to do rather than attempting to {{w|itemize deductions|itemize their deductions}}. The standard deduction is based on filing status and typically increases each year. This comic was published on the anniversary of {{w|Marshall Rosenberg}}'s death, who shared a peacemaking way based on experiences with ducklings. He taught that what was truly natural behavior for people was the joy of a child giving food to a hungry duckling, the child so happy to give nurturing to another life. His students and their students still reference ducklings to refer to this natural joy.
* "atomizing" his "clams": instead of "itemizing his claims" which, as mentioned above, wouldn't make sense if he was taking the standard deduction anyway. Itemized deductions means to "itemize" or list individual deductions, such as charitable donations, medical expenses, mortgage interest payments, etc. Choosing to itemize deductions may lead to a greater deduction, but requires more effort and supporting documentation, in case of a {{w|Income tax audit|tax audit}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk using a laptop.]
:Laptop: You may claim up to 1040 defendants on your seitan local income tax for fiscal year 20202 by taking the standard deduckling and atomizing your clams.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I used a neural net to prepare my tax returns, but I think I cut off its training too early.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]

1375: Astronaut Vandalism

2014-05-31T20:22:48Z

MississippiJoel:

{{comic
| number = 1375
| date = May 30, 2014
| title = Astronaut Vandalism
| image = astronaut_vandalism.png
| titletext = That night, retired USAF pilots covertly replaced the '62' with '50'.
}}

==Explanation==
Signs like this normally show the distance to places on earth's surface. This sign also has an arrow pointing away from earth and towards "space", with a distance of 62 miles (100 km), due to "astronaut vandalism".

We think of Space as being so very far away. This comic puts into perspective that it's really a lot closer to get to Space than to many destinations we're used to getting to by car or airplane. We think of 62 miles as being an easy trip on the ground, but that same 62 miles is incredibly hard when going vertically, against the force of gravity. Distance-wise, however, it's the same.

The title text states that the distance to "space" was changed later from 62 miles (100 km) to 50 miles (80 km) by retired Air Force pilots. This indicates that the pilots wanted to reduce the altitude considered to be "space", so that their own high altitude flights could be considered space flights.

The {{W|U.S. Air Force|USAF}} will award {{W|astronaut wings}} to rated astronauts who fly higher than 50 miles, while the {{W|World Air Sports Federation}} (FAI) in the mid 1950s designated the 100-kilometer {{W|Karman Line}} (62 miles) as the official boundary between the {{W|Earth's atmosphere}} and {{W|outer space}}. So for some pilots in the 1960s it was enough to fly above 50 miles to earn the wings and eight pilots on the {{w|X-15|X-15 Program}} earned them like this. This explains why it was retired pilots who changed the sign - so their wings would still be valid.

This comic thus both point out that the limit where space starts is arbitrarily chosen and also that space is often much closer than for instance the two largest cities in some randomly chosen location in the US.

===Posible interpretations===
There may be an Elvis aspect to this comic. The mileages are approximately consistent with the signs being in Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace of Elvis Presley. Tupelo is about 100 miles from Graceland (Elvis' home) in Memphis, Tennessee. Tupelo is also a bit over a hundred miles from the International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame in Jackson, Tennessee. The mileages given by Google maps, however, don't exactly match the mileages on the sign in the comic. Instead of 98 & 115 (in the comic), Google maps gives 101 & 104.

Another possible explanation is a simple mixup. {{W|Winona, Mississippi}} is the hometown of astronaut {{W|Donald H. Peterson}}, who is a retired Air Force officer and pilot, and served as an astronaut in the early Shuttle program. From Winona, it is 115 miles to Memphis International Airport, and 98 miles to Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport ([http://www.travelmath.com/nearest-airport/Winona,+MS source]). Thus, the sign would be reasonably located in Winona, albeit with an error, and Peterson would have vandalized it (and some visiting USAF buddy of his could change it back).

The road from Jackson to Memphis is I-55 (northwards); the distance (according to [https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=jackson&daddr=memphis&hl=en&sll=33.137551,-89.802246&sspn=8.955085,10.338135&geocode=FQXX7AEdluOf-ikhG3SQfysohjGgOPBB5M0TBw%3BFd5WGAIdLPah-ilFl0PqHn7VhzH-thpgFfOT0Q&t=h&mra=ls&z=8 Google Maps]) is 210 miles. That 98+115=213 may indicate that the location is 3 miles off I-55. There is a place called "Pace" near Cleveland which is around 79 miles from Winona. The "astronaut vandalism" may have been to prefix "Pace" with an "s" to form "sPace", and then to rotate the sign. The spacing on the signs in the cartoon is consistent with the idea that the "s" was added; it is a little cramped. The "P" of "space", "M" of "Memphis" and "J" of "Jackson" are perhaps a little larger than the other letters, indicating that those might have been the original initial majuscule letters.

Based purely on the mileages, it is most likely that the sign is located in or near Grenada, MS. This makes the mileages nearly correct when using US-51 as opposed to I-55 to get to Memphis and Jackson, and also is about 62 miles from Pace, MS via Mississippi Route 8. It is unlikely, however, that a sign in Grenada would include the mileage to such a small town as Pace from such a great distance. Cleveland would be a much more useful control city for motorists. Additionally, since the viewer is looking east, Pace would be behind the viewer. Assuming the one doing the vandalism did more than simply turn and add a letter to the sign, it is possible that they also detached it from the southbound-side of the pole (where it could be viewed pointing to the west) and reattached it to the eastbound side, as shown here.

==Transcript==
:[A signpost with three arrows.]
:[Arrow pointing up:]
:Space 62
:[Arrow pointing right:]
:Jackson 115
:[Arrow pointing left:]
:Memphis 98

==Trivia==
*See [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2004/09/where_does_space_begin.html Slate: Where does space begin?] for more background.
*This comic was published on the same day that Version 2 of the {{w|Dragon (spacecraft)|Dragon spaceship}} was unveiled.
*The mileage of the sign indicates the "[http://welcometheplutians.joelbonner.com/wp/?p=33 scene of the crime]" to be at Grenada, Mississippi.
*The development codename of Windows 98 was "Memphis".

{{comic discussion}}

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2265: Tax AI

1375: Astronaut Vandalism