explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2382: Ballot Tracker Tracker

2020-11-07T03:48:59Z

Pomplemoose:

{{comic
| number = 2382
| date = November 6, 2020
| title = Ballot Tracker Tracker
| image = ballot_tracker_tracker.png
| titletext = Good luck to Democrats in the upcoming Georgia runoff elections, and to the Google Sheets SREs in the current run-on elections.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BALLOT TRACKER TRACKER TRACKER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic was posted 3 days after the 2020 election day in the United States (November 3, 2020). As of the date of posting, the {{w|2020 United States presidential election}} still had not been "called" for either candidate, President {{w|Donald Trump}}, or the challenger, former Vice President {{w|Joe Biden}}. This is untypical for most US presidential elections, which were "called" either on election day or on the morning following.

A major reason for the slowness in deciding the results of the election is the use of {{w|mail-in ballot}}s, caused by social distancing concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mail-in ballots in some states were counted after the in-person voting, which has caused delays in the vote-counting.

As of the date of posting, the electoral vote counts were 253-214 in favor of Biden, with 270 electoral votes needed to win the election. Six states were considered "too close to call", with no determined winner until more ballots were counted.

Cueball in this comic has created an app or a website that tracks in real-time how fast "ballot trackers" update. A ballot tracker is a government site that lets individuals check whether their mail-in ballot has been received and accepted or rejected. Voters who mailed their ballot on or shortly before election day are anxiously waiting to see whether it arrived on time, but ballot tracking sites do not update very frequently. The date this comic was posted was the deadline in some states for ballots to be received or for rejected ballots to be corrected.

Randall may instead have meant to refer to news organizations, which are constantly updating reported vote counts as they are published by the states. Some news organizations also have [https://web.archive.org/web/20201107022852/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/upshot/network-race-call-tracker.html "ballot tracker trackers"] which are tracking how other news organizations are tracking ballots. Cueball (representing Randall) is anxiously waiting for a resolution to this long election season and is constantly checking to see if the race has been decided yet.

In the title text, Randall wishes good luck to the Democrats in the state of Georgia who are running in later run-off elections. Two Senate seats were being voted on in the state of Georgia in 2020, but no candidate achieved over 50% of the vote in either race. By law in the state of Georgia, these two races will be decided in "runoff" elections, where the top two candidates from each of the races run against only each other, on January 5, 2021. Randall also wishes good luck to the SREs (probably {{w|Site Reliability Engineer}}s) of Google Sheets, an online spreadsheet program, who are in charge of maintaining the Google infrastructure while people like him are constantly refreshing their sheets and pulling data. Randall is comparing Georgia's upcoming "runoff" election to the current election, calling it a "run-on" for how long it is taking.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is sitting behind a desk, pointing at a laptop. White Hat is standing behind him. Crumpled up papers are strewn across the ground. ]
:Cueball: And this tab is my ballot tracker tracker, which tracks how quickly other ballot trackers update.
:White Hat: You should add a tracker for how often you breathe so you don't forget.
:Cueball: '''''I will breathe when they call it.'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

2382: Ballot Tracker Tracker

2020-11-07T03:44:27Z

Pomplemoose: Added a link with an example Ballot tracker tracker.

{{comic
| number = 2382
| date = November 6, 2020
| title = Ballot Tracker Tracker
| image = ballot_tracker_tracker.png
| titletext = Good luck to Democrats in the upcoming Georgia runoff elections, and to the Google Sheets SREs in the current run-on elections.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BALLOT TRACKER TRACKER TRACKER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic was posted 3 days after the 2020 election day in the United States (November 3, 2020). As of the date of posting, the {{w|2020 United States presidential election}} still had not been "called" for either candidate, President {{w|Donald Trump}}, or the challenger, former Vice President {{w|Joe Biden}}. This is untypical for most US presidential elections, which were "called" either on election day or on the morning following.

A major reason for the slowness in deciding the results of the election is the use of {{w|mail-in ballot}}s, caused by social distancing concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mail-in ballots in some states were counted after the in-person voting, which has caused delays in the vote-counting.

As of the date of posting, the electoral vote counts were 253-214 in favor of Biden, with 270 electoral votes needed to win the election. Six states were considered "too close to call", with no determined winner until more ballots were counted.

Cueball in this comic has created an app or a website that tracks in real-time how fast "ballot trackers" update. A ballot tracker is a government site that lets individuals check whether their mail-in ballot has been received and accepted or rejected. Voters who mailed their ballot on or shortly before election day are anxiously waiting to see whether it arrived on time, but ballot tracking sites do not update very frequently. The date this comic was posted was the deadline in some states for ballots to be received or for rejected ballots to be corrected.

Randall may instead have meant to refer to news organizations, which are constantly updating reported vote counts as they are published by the states. Some news organizations also have [https://web.archive.org/web/20201107022852/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/upshot/network-race-call-tracker.html "ballot tracker trackers"] which are tracking how other news organizations are tracking ballots. Cueball (representing Randall) is anxiously waiting for a resolution to this long election season and is constantly checking to see if the race has been decided yet.

In the title text, Randall wishes good luck to the Democrats in the state of Georgia who are running in later run-off elections. Two Senate seats were being voted on in the state of Georgia in 2020, but no candidate achieved over 50% of the vote in either race. By law in the state of Georgia, these two races will be decided in "runoff" elections, where the top two candidates from each of the races run against only each other, on January 5, 2021. Randall also wishes good luck to the SREs (probably {{w|Site Reliability Engineer}}s) of Google Sheets, an online spreadsheet program, who are in charge of maintaining the Google infrastructure while people like him are constantly refreshing their sheets and pulling data. Randall is comparing Georgia's upcoming "runoff" election to the current election, calling it a "run-on" for how long it is taking.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is sitting behind a desk, pointing at a laptop. White Hat is standing behind him.]
:Cueball: And this tab is my ballot tracker tracker, which tracks how quickly other ballot trackers update.
:White Hat: You should add a tracker for how often you breathe so you don't forget.
:Cueball: '''''I will breathe when they call it.'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

1510: Napoleon

2015-04-10T04:27:54Z

Pomplemoose: Create new comic page

{{comic
| number = 1510
| date = April 10, 2015
| title = Napoleon
| image =
| titletext = "Mr. President, what if the unthinkable happens? What if the launch goes wrong, and Napoleon is stranded on the moon?" "Have Safire write up a speech."
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Explanation required.}}

1507: Metaball

2015-04-03T12:46:09Z

Pomplemoose: Changing and adding external links

{{comic
| number = 1507
| date = April 3, 2015
| title = Metaball
| image = metaball.png
| titletext = Shoot, it landed in the golf course. Gonna be hard to get it down the--oh, never mind, it rolled onto the ice hazard. Face-off!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete | Explanation is unfinished}}
The gang is playing a game of ball that incorporates the rules of all games that use a ball. Similar to [http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/05/27 Calvinball] from ''Calvin and Hobbes'', the rules seem to be somewhat arbitrary and are based on the location of the players and the ball. Cueball is out (baseball) because the soccer ball, en route to the basketball hoop, clipped the corner of the baseball zone and ponytail invoked the infield fly rule. In baseball the infield fly rule can be invoked by the umpire, Ponytail in this case, to prevent an infielder from intentionally dropping a fair ball when runners are on multiple bases, forcing the runners on base to advance and allowing the infielder's team to quickly preform a double or triple play by throwing the ball to where the runners are trying to get and performing force out on their base. The infield fly rule, once called out by the umpire, forces the batter to be out whether the infielder tries to get the batter out. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule]. The title text presumably happens sometime later in the game. The ball rolls onto the golf section of the game meaning that the players would have to try to hit the ball into the hole or possibly still the basketball depending on if each portion of the game has its own way to score or if the goal is to always get the soccer ball into the basketball hoop. However before this situation occurs the ball rolls into a separate portion of the game, the ice hazard section. This area in the field is where hockey is played switching the rules to hockey rules and causing there to be a face off.

==Transcript==
:[Megan kicks a soccer ball. Cueball leaps to dunk the ball through (or block it from going in) a basketball hoop.]
:[Offscreen:] Out!
:[Cueball:] What do you ''mean'', out?!
:[Ponytail, consulting the rules/map:] The ball clipped the corner of the baseball zone. Infield fly rule.
:[Cueball:] Aw, ''maaan''...
{{comic discussion}}

1507: Metaball

2015-04-03T12:33:09Z

Pomplemoose: Reorganizing the explanation

{{comic
| number = 1507
| date = April 3, 2015
| title = Metaball
| image = metaball.png
| titletext = Shoot, it landed in the golf course. Gonna be hard to get it down the--oh, never mind, it rolled onto the ice hazard. Face-off!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete | Explanation is unfinished}}
The gang is playing a game of ball that incorporates the rules of all games that use a ball. Similar to Calvinball from ''Calvin and Hobbes'', the rules seem to be somewhat arbitrary and are based on the location of the players and the ball. Cueball is out (baseball) because the soccer ball, en route to the basketball hoop, clipped the corner of the baseball zone and ponytail invoked the infield fly rule. In baseball the infield fly rule can be invoked by the umpire, Ponytail in this case, to prevent an infielder from intentionally dropping a fair ball when runners are on multiple bases, forcing the runners on base to advance and allowing the infielder's team to quickly preform a double or triple play by throwing the ball to where the runners are trying to get and performing force out on their base. The infield fly rule, once called out by the umpire, forces the batter to be out whether the infielder tries to get the batter out. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule). The title text presumably happens sometime later in the game. The ball rolls onto the golf section of the game meaning that the players would have to try to hit the ball into the hole or possibly still the basketball depending on if each portion of the game has its own way to score or if the goal is to always get the soccer ball into the basketball hoop. However before this situation occurs the ball rolls into a separate portion of the game, the ice hazard section. This area in the field is where hockey is played switching the rules to hockey rules and causing there to be a face off.

==Transcript==
:[Megan kicks a soccer ball. Cueball leaps to dunk the ball through (or block it from going in) a basketball hoop.]
:[Offscreen:] Out!
:[Cueball:] What do you ''mean'', out?!
:[Ponytail, consulting the rules/map:] The ball clipped the corner of the baseball zone. Infield fly rule.
:[Cueball:] Aw, ''maaan''...
{{comic discussion}}

1507: Metaball

2015-04-03T12:20:08Z

Pomplemoose: Title text edit and minor grammatical error fix

{{comic
| number = 1507
| date = April 3, 2015
| title = Metaball
| image = metaball.png
| titletext = Shoot, it landed in the golf course. Gonna be hard to get it down the--oh, never mind, it rolled onto the ice hazard. Face-off!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete | Explanation is unfinished}}
The gang is playing a game of ball that incorporates the rules of all games that use a ball. Similar to Calvinball from ''Calvin and Hobbes'', the rules seem to be somewhat arbitrary and are based on the location of the players and the ball. Cueball is out (baseball) because the soccer ball, en route to the basketball hoop, clipped the corner of the baseball zone and ponytail invoked the infield fly rule. In baseball the infield fly rule can be invoked by the umpire, Ponytail in this case, to prevent an infielder from intentionally dropping a fair ball when runners are on multiple bases, forcing the runners on base to advance and allowing the infielder's team to quickly preform a double or triple play by throwing the ball to where the runners are trying to get and performing force out on their base. The infield fly rule, once called out by the umpire, forces the batter to be out whether the infielder tries to get the batter out or not.
:'''The infield fly rule''': A baseball rule. When the ball is in the air and the umpire signals that he is invoking the rule, the batter is out (and all force plays removed) regardless of whether the ball is caught. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule).
:'''Title text''': The title text presumably happens sometime later in the game. The ball rolls onto the golf section of the game meaning that the players would have to try to hit the ball into the hole or possibly still the basketball depending on if each portion of the game has its own way to score or if the goal is to always get the soccer ball into the basketball hoop. However before this situation occurs the ball rolls into a separate portion of the game, the ice hazard section. This area in the field is where hockey is played switching the rules to hockey rules and causing there to be a face off.

==Transcript==
:[Megan kicks a soccer ball. Cueball leaps to dunk the ball through (or block it from going in) a basketball hoop.]
:[Offscreen:] Out!
:[Cueball:] What do you ''mean'', out?!
:[Ponytail, consulting the rules/map:] The ball clipped the corner of the baseball zone. Infield fly rule.
:[Cueball:] Aw, ''maaan''...
{{comic discussion}}

1507: Metaball

2015-04-03T12:11:09Z

Pomplemoose: Adding sentences in infield fly rule.

{{comic
| number = 1507
| date = April 3, 2015
| title = Metaball
| image = metaball.png
| titletext = Shoot, it landed in the golf course. Gonna be hard to get it down the--oh, never mind, it rolled onto the ice hazard. Face-off!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete | Explanation is unfinished}}
The gang is playing a game of ball that incorporates the rules of all games that use a ball. Similar to Calvinball from ''Calvin and Hobbes'', the rules seem to be somewhat arbitrary and are based on the location of the players and the ball. Cueball is out (baseball) because the soccer ball, en route to the basketball hoop, clipped the corner of the baseball zone and ponytail invoked the infield fly rule. In baseball the infield fly rule can be invoked by the umpire, Ponytail in this case, to prevent an infielder from intentionally dropping a fair ball when runners are on multiple bases, forcing the runners on base to advance and allowing the infielder's team to quickly preform a double or triple play by throwing the ball to where the runners are trying to get and performing force out on their base. The infield fly rule, once called out by the umpire, forces the batter to be out whether the infielder try's to get the batter out or not.
:'''The infield fly rule''': A baseball rule. When the ball is in the air and the umpire signals that he is invoking the rule, the batter is out (and all force plays removed) regardless of whether the ball is caught. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule).
:'''Title text:'''

==Transcript==
:[Megan kicks a soccer ball. Cueball leaps to dunk the ball through (or block it from going in) a basketball hoop.]
:[Offscreen:] Out!
:[Cueball:] What do you ''mean'', out?!
:[Ponytail, consulting the rules/map:] The ball clipped the corner of the baseball zone. Infield fly rule.
:[Cueball:] Aw, ''maaan''...
{{comic discussion}}