explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1619: Watson Medical Algorithm

2015-12-21T15:08:47Z

SaturNine:

{{comic
| number = 1619
| date = December 21, 2015
| title = Watson Medical Algorithm
| image = watson_medical_algorithm.png
| titletext = Due to a minor glitch, 'discharge patient' does not cause the algorithm to exit, but instead leads back to 'hunt down and capture patient'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|much more on the different procedures etc.}}

IBM's {{w|Watson_(computer)|Watson}} is a natural language system designed to answer questions posed by humans. Recently, IBM has extended Watson to act as a {{w|clinical decision support system}}, using image analytics to aid physicians in medical decision making. In this comic, Randall shows a {{w|Flowchart|flowchart}} representing a possible algorithm for Watson, including bizarre techniques including surgical alteration of a patient to match a height and weight chart and squeezing the patient to remove yellow fluids. Like [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]], this comic pokes fun at a rigid, poorly-designed setup that ends up potentially doing more harm than good. The algorithm depicted treats a patient as more of a machine or mechanical system than a living being, especially through decisions such as:

* Injecting oxygen into patients with low oxygen saturation, rather than treating the root cause
* Removing and inspecting a skeleton, then diagnosing the patient's condition with a bone count
* Dissecting a doctor "for parts" after consulting him or her for advice
* Removing extra limbs from a patient if the count is less than 100
* Determining whether the "build environment" of the patient is sane. This is most probably a reference to the configure script used in the {{w|GNU_build_system|GNU build system}}, which emits "checking whether build environment is sane" as one of its status messages.
* Rinsing the whole patient with a saline solution
* Removing organs from a patient regardless of response to an organ donation request

Other decisions appear to be entirely unrelated to the conditions upon which they are predicated:

* If the patient has left because he did not cough up blood, then hunt down and capture patient (and continue)
* If the patient doesn't rate their pain on a scale from 0-10, sequence their genome, apply a {{w|tourniquet}}, and perform an {{w|autopsy}}
* If the patient's phones battery is low, defibrillate until the battery is charged, sync photos, then administer general anesthesia
* If the patient is successfully comforted after an oxygen injection, check their medical history and apply skin grafts
* If green fluid is released from the patient, begin to cauterize
* If the patient has 100+ limbs, check their Vitamin D level

The title text implies that, if the patient is so lucky to ever reach one of the two places with the option "discharge patient," a minor glitch will cause to program to go back to the ''hunt down and capture patient'' option which thus force the patient and the program to repeat the process again in an infinite cycle, that will only end once the patient give another rating of their pain level than on the 0-10 scale. Then the program will start to sequence their genome then apply a tourniquet and finally perform an autopsy, on what will in the end for certain be a deceased patient, but maybe not when the autopsy began. This will finally cause the patient to leave the cycle... as a corpse!

This is one of many comics with [[:Category:Flowcharts|flowcharts]], amongst other a recent comic with that very name: [[1488: Flowcharts]].

This is the second comic in a row about health issues with the last comic being [[1618: Cold Medicine]].

==Transcript and Discussion of Medical Appropriateness==
{{incomplete transcript}}
{| border=1
| | Step
| | Medically valid?
| | Conditions and following step
|-
| |
Draw Blood
| background-color:green |
Phlebotomy is a normal early step in the diagnostic process, but not as first and unconditional step
| |
Record patient’s name
|-
| |
Record patient’s name
| background-color:green |
OK
| |
Measure Patient’s height and Weight
|-
| |
Measure Patient’s height and Weight
| |
OK
| |
Consult Standard height/weight chart
|-
| |
Consult Standard height/weight chart
| |
OK
| |
Surgically adjust patient to match
|-
| |
Surgically adjust patient to match
| |
May be considered ethically dubious unless there are sound medical reasons for doing so. Could be an allusion to [[en:Procrustes]]
| |
Is patient coughing up blood?
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Is patient coughing up blood?
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
OK, coughing up blood is generally a sign that there is something wrong.
| |
Yes: Gather blood and return it to body
|-
| |
No: Is patient still here?
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Is patient still here?
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Not usually considered a step, but missing patients are a problem in some fields, psyche or icu for example.
| |
Yes: Record pulse rate
|-
| |
No: Hunt down and capture patient
|-
| |
Hunt down and capture patient
| |
Valid if patient should not have left the bed/unit, but the wording is possibly dubious.
| |
Is patient still here?
|-
| |
Gather blood and return it to body
| |
Dangerous idea due to likelihood of contamination.
| |
Record pulse rate
|-
| |
Record pulse rate
| |
OK, but maybe a little late.
| |
Is patient screaming?
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Is patient screaming?
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Very important question, indicating patient is conscious, in pain, and aware pain is bad. First attenders can use it in classifying priorities (quiet patients may be more severely injured). Generally useful in assessing nerve damage, pain relief, etc.
| |
Yes: Ignore
|-
| |
No: Check blood O2 saturation
|-
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 ` |
Check blood O2 saturation
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Diagnostically useful in many cases but frequently not an independent step; oxygen perfusion is also measured by pulse monitoring machines.
| |
>50%: Remove and inspect skeleton
|-
| |
<50%: Inject oxygen
|-
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Remove and inspect skeleton
| width="33%" rowspan=2 |
Fatal if patient is still alive when beginning.
| |
Too many bones: Is fluid coming out of patient?
|-
| |
Too few bones: Request consult with human doctor
|-
| |
Request consult with human doctor
| |
| |
Dissect doctor for parts
|-
| |
Dissect doctor for parts
| | This may be considered ethically dubious. Possible
reference to the Doctor Who episode “The girl in the fireplace”
| |
Discharge patient
|-
| |
Discharge patient
| |
| |
END STATE (before you read the title text)
|-
| |
Is fluid coming out of patient
| |
Unintended fluid release is always a problem. How significant a problem depends on where the fluid came from and if it is supposed to be coming from there.
| |
|-
| |
Squeeze patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
What colour?
| |
Never underestimate the number of different types of fluid the body can produce.
| |
|-
| |
Activate sprinklers
| |
| |
|-
| |
Subdue patient
| |
Potentially very important if patient is behaving dangerously (due to mental health issue or drugs) and/or is moving too much to be given critical treatment.
| |
|-
| |
Apply cream
| |
| |
|-
| |
Ask patient to rate pain level
| |
| |
|-
| |
Massage scalp
| |
| |
|-
| |
Patient is healthy
| |
Subjective?
| |
|-
| |
Admit for observation
| |
| |
|-
| |
Laser eye removal
| |
| |
|-
| |
Sequence genome
| |
| |
|-
| |
Apply tourniquet
| |
| |
|-
| |
Perform autopsy
| | Fatal if patient is still alive when beginning.
| | END STATE (taking the title text into account, the only possible one)
|-
| |
Inject oxygen
| |
Probably fatal. You don't want to inject gases directly to the blood vessels on account of the possibility of triggering a serious embolism.
| |
|-
| |
Comfort patient
| |
| |
|-
| |
Review medical history
| |
Important early step, rather too late and conditional.
| |
|-
| |
Skin grafts
| |
| |
|-
| |
Count number of limbs
| |
Probably a little late to be noticing this now.
| |
|-
| |
Remove extra limbs
| |
| |
|-
| |
Measure vitamin D
| |
Valid in diagnosis of bone related issues.
| |
|-
| |
Check whether build environment is sane
| |
| |
|-
| |
Rinse patient with saline solution
| |
| |
|-
| |
Is patient phone battery low?
| |
Invalid
| |
|-
| |
Defibrillate
| |
| |
|-
| |
Sync photos from camera
| |
Definitely invalid.
| |
|-
| |
Administer general anaesthesia
| |
Valid, but not at this stage.
| |
|-
| |
Blood loss?
| |
| |
|-
| |
Patient address changed?
| |
| |
|-
| |
Request organ donation
| |
| |
|-
| |
Remove organs
| |
|
|-
| |
Discharge patient
| |
| END STATE (before you read the title text)

|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Flowcharts]]

Talk:1580: Travel Ghost

2015-09-21T12:53:19Z

SaturNine:

Racing Ghosts is a refference to Mario Kart [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

So in the title text, is he being replaced with the ghost who always *ahem* comes last? --[[User:SaturNine|SaturNine]] ([[User talk:SaturNine|talk]]) 12:53, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1571: Car Model Names

2015-09-07T12:36:28Z

SaturNine:

Suzuki Sexism kinda has a ring to it... [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 14:39, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Worth noting that there actually was an engine manufacturer named "Coventry Climax", who produced a range of racing engines and specialty machinery like forklift trucks. Coventry Climax's engine works were eventually bought out by Jaguar Cars in the 1960s. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.154}}

Considering the existence of the Civic RX and the CR-V EX, Cervixxx should have been a Honda model. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

A simple Lua script I wrote to calculate these ratings: http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/12259822/
Run it with your favorite Lua interpreter, and it should ask for a name. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.160|108.162.216.160]] 03:01, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Interestingly, "xkcd" has a high score of 4.1. {{unsigned ip|199.27.129.59}}

:Could be a Jaguar, as homage to the XKS. --[[User:SaturNine|SaturNine]] ([[User talk:SaturNine|talk]]) 12:25, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

;Scores

Anyone know how the averages are calculated? I tried a couple but I don't arrive at the same numbers:

HONDA { -44 -80 -46 -21 -14 } Sum: -205 Avg: -41 
2CHAINZ { +6 +27 -44 -14 -21 -46 +83 } Sum: -9 Avg: -1.2857142857142857142857142857143 
Combined: (-205 -9) / (5 + 7) = -17.833333333333333333333333333333 

[[User:SG 01|SG 01]] ([[User talk:SG 01|talk]]) 15:29, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

I think only the model should be considered. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:36, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

:2CHAINZ { +6 +27 -44 -14 -21 -46 +83 } Sum: -9 Avg: -1.29 Index: -0.13
:CLIMAX { +27 +12 -21 +19 -14 +126} Sum: 149 Avg: 24.83 Index: 2.48

Obvioulsy it's the average divided by 10. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:44, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah, it's so obvious now, thanks :) [[User:SG 01|SG 01]] ([[User talk:SG 01|talk]]) 16:00, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

I worked it out to be average divided by 10 early on but why divided by 10? Is it because each category has 10 cars listed? This is the piece I've been stuck at. Understanding that part of the logic. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 16:05, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

The only thing I can think of is to make the numbers be below 10 as a lot of scoring is done in that scale, then again, that doesn't include numbers below 1 usually (On a scale from 1 - 10).
Oh, also the 3x3cutrix, the i is worth -21, not -45 (which is E), the x in 3x3 is treated as a normal x with score 126
:3X3CUTRIX { +55 -126 +55 +27 -68 -18 8 -21 +126 } Sum: 290 Avg: 32.222... Index: 3.22
[[User:SG 01|SG 01]] ([[User talk:SG 01|talk]]) 16:17, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

OK, my mistake. Thanks. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 16:27, 31 August 2015 (UTC)
BTW: 3X3CUTRIX { +55 +126 +55 +27 -68 -18 +8 -21 +126 } Sum: 290

Yea, made a typo there originally, did edit-fix it ^^ Also SIXAXLE4x4 { +15 -21 +126 -14 +126 +12 -45 +35 +126 +35 } Sum: 395 Avg: 39.5 Index: 3.95 (which is the number next to it)

[[User:SG 01|SG 01]] ([[User talk:SG 01|talk]]) 16:33, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Mercedes 3X-WIF3 scores a decent 3,33 [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.9|198.41.243.9]] 18:46, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Anyone want a Porsche 911? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 18:53, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

:The Saab Y. Worst possible car name. The Oldsmobile XXX. Best possible car name. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.4|173.245.54.4]] 19:33, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Seems worth mentioning somewhere that 3x3cutrix is semi leet/133+ for the English word executrix, the feminine form of executor, but I don't know quite where it belongs. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 20:49, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

"The letters F and B, with scores of 5 and -5, respectively, are about as common in English as in car models." Looked odd, at first reading. May need re-writing to point out that ±5 is as close to zero (parity between English and car-speak) as you get in this example. Perhaps "...scores of ''merely'' +5 and -5, respectively", or similar? But that also seems too brief. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 01:37, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
:Forgot to add what I meant to put here... Apostrophes. Very rare in car names (just the {{w|Kia_Cee%27d|Kia Cee'd}}), fairly often (over)used in standard English text. I wonder what its value is? (Not as easily 'assume it's a letter' as the x/times symbol.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 01:44, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

;Order of the scores
There are two possible explanations
;Score(x) = Frequency_in_cars(x) - Frequency_in_English(x)
I'm pretty sure it's a comparative scale between cars and English, not just a car-like/not-car-like scale.
:Randall uses positive numbers if a letter is more common in car models than in typical English (as X) which he then calls carlike. He used negative numbers if a letter's relative frequency in car models is lower than in typical English (as O) and he calls it English-like (more suitable for readable text). The letters F and B, with scores of 5 and -5, respectively, are about as common in English as in car models. With this nomenclature, the most English-like letter is Y because, while not the most common English letter, it is apparently extremely rare in car models.

;Score(x) = Frequency_in_cars(x)
English has no relationship with the score
:It seems that Randall arbitrarily used positive and negative numbers: if a letter is very common in car models (as X) he calls it carlike. If a letter is very uncommon in car models (as O) he calls it English-like. With this nomenclature the most English-like letter is Y, but actually Y is the least carlike letter. The most common letter in ordinary English is E. Y on the other hand is just in the middle (place 13), which can't be called English-like.
[[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 12:56, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
::"Y (...) can't be called English-like". Well, it can be, as it's not uncommon. And on the relative scale, it's much more indicative of being English than it is of being a car. And I'm going to give the explanation a further tweak, I think, hopefully small and agreeable. Also don't think the reversion helped (without checking the edit-changes), it was almost right. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 13:24, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
Now I understood your idea. I think I tweaked it to be more understandable. X is a letter that supports your claim. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:41, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

I'd like to suggest a third possibility, I figured it was a ratio: Score(x) = 100*(Frecuency_in_cars(x) / Frequency_in_English(x) - 1). This allows numbers to be negative or positive and would explain the questions raised above. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 13:53, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Well, my "little tweak" became a big overhaul, then edit-conflicted. For the record, it became the following monstrosity:
Scores for letters and numbers are presumably taken from their frequency in car models. [[Randall]] doubtless analysed a car-name database, in a manner similar to that used to derive the {{w|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency#Relative_frequencies_of_letters_in_the_English_language|letter frequency statistics for written English}} against which the former seems to have been compared. From these, letters that appeared equally commonly in both lists (either rare or frequent, but consistently between the two) would have been given a hypothetical value of zero, whilst ones that were almost exclusively in one medium would have a high-magnitude score; positive for more car-like and negative for more English-like.
Without the raw car-letter frequency data it's hard to derive the exact formula used, but taking the mathematical {{w|Logarithm|log value}} of a ratio would give us zero for 1:1 (equally car-like and English-like) and high positive/negative values for comparisons more skewed more towards the former/latter.
The closest letters to zero in the comic are F at +5 and B at -5 and may hover somewhere around the same ratios in car-names as in English (around 2.2% and 1.4% of total usage in the above link), with just a slight car/English dominance. The most 'car-like' letter is X, that seems to be quite common in cars whilst very rare (<1% of usage) in English.
The most 'English-like' letter in the comic is Y with a score of -90. Y is not common in English (~2%), but presumably even more disproportionately uncommon in car names. The next most 'English-like' letter, O, with a given score of -80. It is significantly more frequent in English (~7.5%, and perhaps the fourth most encountered individual letter), and so is likely also more frequent in the raw car-name data, alone, albeit similarly much less than 'expected' from its English occurances.
It makes some sense that rarer English letters are over-chosen (for the novelty and stand-out effect) for car names, at the general expense of several commoner English letters without particular bias, thus the highest positive peak is greater in magnitude than the lowest negative trough. Although you could also point out that 'x' (used for 'times') is also a more useful car-name 'letter', whilst the letter O might be surpressed in alphanumeric sequences so as not to be confused with a zero.
When looking at the numbers in the table, Randall's analysis may have dealt with the decimal digits entirely seperately, based upon something like {{w|Benford%27s_law|Benford's Law}} for the natural occurance of numbers in common data, rather than from their disproportionately rare occurance within largely alphabetic English. It is thus not unexpected that the 1 that is most common in data is underepresented within numbers in car-names, whilst sub-avearge 5 becomes a 'power number' in the world of cars, and the third most car-like character in the comic.
There are 19 positive scores and 17 negative scores. They each add up to a score of 735 and -722, respectively, with the grand total being +13, suggesting that without rounding errors the whole system could have a neutral score. The numbers alone give a total offset of -0, the letters alone thus account for a not particularly unreasonable +0.5 'error' per character, and may also support the idea of separate analyses of these two sets.
...there was no easy way to resolve the differences, so the above is FYI. ('''TLDR: perhaps it's a Log function?''') In editing it down, I'd also had another bit:
The letters I and T may appear in non-word model-name strings to represent "Injection" and "Turbo", respectively, but with their overwhelming commonality already in English text they still appear ''more'' more in English than in cars.
...which was looked less useful and too wordy even for me, but might also be a useful fragment to consider. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 15:09, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

;Typo or Deliberate?

Randall gave REV-4 as an example car name. Did he accidentally misspell the (Toyota) RAV4, or was this a deliberate reference to chapter 4 of Revelations?--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.26|173.245.54.26]] 02:31, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

;Old Goths

49 is a reasonable age for those who grew up Goth in the 80s, just sayin'.
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.123|141.101.99.123]] 08:47, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

I thought this too. It could be a joke on a youth sub-culture growing up (old).
-- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.157|108.162.229.157]] 11:28, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

;'Quick' and Dirty Car Data
Examining {{w|List_of_automobile_sales_by_model|this page}}, which has notable exceptions (I specifically looked for the Toyota '''Y'''aris and the Kia Cee'd, neither of which were there), using a quick script to isolate the car names, a lengthy ''manual'' process of sanitising all the exceptions the quick script couldn't handle and then another script to analyse letter frequencies of the model names (''not'' the make/marque part), I came up with the following undefinitive data, that is almost certainly flawed but may yet be useful:
<spaces> = 85 (but this count of whitespace may not be accurate and is superfluous...
& = 1 (...as are these first four items of punctuation, given their absence from Randall's chart)
- = 23
. = 3
/ = 10
0 = 104
1 = 73
2 = 54
3 = 43
4 = 35
5 = 54
6 = 35
7 = 18
8 = 26
9 = 17
A = 231 (includes à)
B = 30
C = 95
D = 54
E = 210 (includes é and ë)
F = 46
G = 52
H = 18
I = 122
J = 12
K = 13
L = 113
M = 83
N = 99
O = 145 (includes ó)
P = 80
Q = 4
R = 202
S = 127 (includes Š)
T = 166
U = 45
V = 38
W = 19
X = 25
Y = 33
Z = 14
Comparing just B and F (natural frequency 1.4% and 2.2%, above 30 to 46, both instances being approximately 1:1.5 when comparing the two letters within the same source), this matches the similarly close-to-zero scores given to them by Randall. O vs. Y is 4.4:1, above, real life is 3.8:1 and adjusting for O being 1/9th 'more carlike' we get a similar value. But Z vs J is 7:6, real life it's 1:2 and I can't reconcile that with the 1.3:1 on Randall's chart. Probably indicates something non-linear (e.g. a log function) along the way, if O:Y wasn't so easy to distinguish. Might, of course, be a differently biased dataset and thus GIGO. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 00:35, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I thought that R would be used quite frequently.. (i.e Audi RS5). {{unsigned|Thomas 633}}

Surprised nobody mentioned before now the irony of Lincoln, the late 20th C. status symbol luxury vehicle, being paired with Marxism.--[[User:SaturNine|SaturNine]] ([[User talk:SaturNine|talk]]) 12:36, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

1571: Car Model Names

2015-09-07T12:34:54Z

SaturNine: Added note re: irony of pairing the capitalist status symbol Lincoln with Marxism

{{comic
| number = 1571
| date = August 31, 2015
| title = Car Model Names
| image = car_model_names.png
| titletext = CLIMAX is good, but SEXCLIMAX is even better.
}}

==Explanation==

In English, letters like X and Z are rarely used in the common vernacular. Marketers have found that names with these infrequently-appearing letters sell more products.

;Scores

There are two explanations for scores. Both of them share the fact that [[Randall]] must have used a car-name database to calculate letter frequency in car models.

There are 19 positive scores and 17 negative scores, which is interpreted differently in each explanation.

;Score(x) = Frequency_in_cars(x) - Frequency_in_English(x)
This formula generates a positive number if a letter is more common in car models than in typical English (as X) which Randall then calls carlike. The formula generates a negative number if a letter's relative frequency in car models is lower than in typical English (as O) and Randall calls it English-like (more suitable for readable text). The letters F and B, with scores of 5 and -5, respectively, are about as common in English as in car models. With this nomenclature, the most English-like letter is Y because, while not the most common English letter, it is apparently extremely rare in car models. The most common letter in ordinary English is E, which is (presumably) fairly common in car models.

;Score(x) = Frequency_in_cars(x)
It seems that Randall arbitrarily used positive and negative numbers: if a letter is very common in car models (as X) he calls it carlike. If a letter is very uncommon in car models (as O) he calls it English-like. With this nomenclature the most English-like letter is Y, but actually Y is the least carlike letter. The most common letter in ordinary English is E. Y on the other hand is just in the middle (place 13), which can't be called English-like.

;Algorithm for the index
Randall devised an index for car models which is the score average divided by 10.

;Example
We take 2Chainz and add the scores of its different numbers and letters: 6 +27 -44 -14 -21 -46 +83 = -9

Average is -9/7 = -1.29 and divided by 10 it's -0.129 or -0.13.

;Names to avoid
*Honda '''2Chainz''' - {{w|2 Chainz}} is an American rapper
*Mitsubishi '''Fhqwhgads''' - A reference to a running joke on {{w|Homestar Runner}}. See http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Fhqwhgads
*Kia '''49andGothy''' - Gothy or gothic is a member of the {{w|goth subculture}}; most of its members are much younger than 49
*Chevrolet '''Niceguy''' - A reference to the idiom "nice guys finish last".
*Oldsmobile '''Goodwood''' - May be a reference to the {{w|Goodwood Festival of Speed}}
*Infiniti '''Toothy69''' - Possibly a reference to the sex position where you would not want teeth involved.
*BMW '''Outhouse''' - Loose standing toilet, or {{w|Outhouse}}.
*Volkswagen '''Woodpony 7oh7''' - Wood ponies are wooden constructions to give kids (and sometimes adults) the feeling of riding a horse, but don't actually move. 7oh7 is a way to pronounce 707, which could be a reference to the Boeing 707 passenger jet series.
*Chrysler '''Uh Iono''' - When pronounced, sounds roughly like someone slurring "Uh, I don't know" [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iono]
*Nissan '''Doody''' - May reference the unfortunately named {{w|Nissan Moco}}, which is Spanish for snot

;Potential Hits
*Honda '''3Chainz''' - A play on 2Chainz in the previous section; according to the table the number 2 has a score of 6 and the number 3 has a higher score of 55; the index will go up by (55-6)/7/10=0.7.
*Subaru '''Andre3000''' - {{w|André 3000}} is an American rapper
*Suzuki '''Sexism''' - Akihiro Suzuki is a Tokyo city assemblyman who made sexist remarks in June 2014.
*Lincoln '''Marxism''' - {{w|Marxism}} is a political method of societal analysis which has been used to critique {{w|Capitalism}}. There are various essays noting {{w|Karl Marx|its founder}} and {{w|Abraham Lincoln}} exchanged letters during the American civil war. Lincoln is also the marque for the {{w|Ford Motor Company}}'s luxury vehicles, capitalist status symbols throughout the late 20th century. Its juxtaposition with Marxism is thus particularly ironic.
*Hyundai '''Climax''' - In this context, an {{w|orgasm}}. The title text finds an excuse to add another "x" with the model '''SexClimax'''.
*Porsche '''Zizek9000''' - A portmanteau referencing academic {{w|Slavoj Žižek}} and the {{w|Saab 9000}}
*Lexus '''3×3Cutrix''' - 3×3 is a play on 4×4; this car presumably has 3 wheels. "Executrix" (in {{w|leet}} "3×3Cutrix") is the female counterpart of "executor", one who administers a will.
*Acura '''PizzaJazz''' - The letter Z has a very high score, so using 4 of them in a fairly short name makes this a potential hit.
*Ford '''SixAxle 4×4''' - A contradictory name, as the 4×4 refers to a vehicle that has all four wheels connected to the drivetrain, which would only use two axles. May also be a reference to the Sony PlayStation's {{w|Sixaxis controller}}.
*Toyota '''Cervixxx''' - A portmanteau of {{w|cervix}} and XXX rating used by pornographic industry to make titles seem more extreme (see {{w|X rating}}). It being the highest scoring item on the list may be an attempt to show that {{w|sex sells}}.

Note that Randall gives the symbol × the value of 126, which means he equates it with the letter x.
:index(3×3Cutrix) = (+55 + score(×) +55 +27 -68 -18 +8 -21 +126)/9/10 = 3.22. This means that the score of the symbol × is 90×3.22 - 164 = 125.8

;Title text
As mentioned in the comic, the index for the word "climax" is 2.48. However, applying the index to the phrase "sexclimax" yields a value of 2.72, higher than that for "climax".

==Transcript==
:{| style="text-align:center; border:0px; width:63%;"
| '''Certain letters and numbers are used disproportionately often in car models compared to regular text.'''
|-
| (see:"Rev-4 cr-x x3 G6 Maxx")
|}

:{| style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid;"
| colspan="37" | '''Letter and number scores based on relative frequency in car model names'''
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Carlike
|| 60
||
|| 6
|| 55
|| 35
|| 74
|| 6
||
||
||
||
||
|| 27
||
||
|| 5
|| 27
||
||
|| 64
|| 32
|| 12
|| 19
||
||
||
|| 40
|| 8
|| 15
||
||
|| 41
||
|| 126
||
|| 83
|-
||
|| '''0'''
|| '''1'''
|| '''2'''
|| '''3'''
|| '''4'''
|| '''5'''
|| '''6'''
|| '''7'''
|| '''8'''
|| '''9'''
|| '''A'''
|| '''B'''
|| '''C'''
|| '''D'''
|| '''E'''
|| '''F'''
|| '''G'''
|| '''H'''
|| '''I'''
|| '''J'''
|| '''K'''
|| '''L'''
|| '''M'''
|| '''N'''
|| '''O'''
|| '''P'''
|| '''Q'''
|| '''R'''
|| '''S'''
|| '''T'''
|| '''U'''
|| '''V'''
|| '''W'''
|| '''X'''
|| '''Y'''
|| '''Z'''
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | English-like
||
|| -74
||
||
||
||
||
|| -58
|| -67
|| -37
|| -14
|| -5
||
|| -21
|| -45
||
||
|| -44
|| -21
||
||
||
||
|| -46
|| -80
|| -27
||
||
||
|| -18
|| -68
||
|| -20
||
|| -90
||
|}

:{| style="text-align:center; border:0px; width:63%;"
| '''Based on these scores, here are a few suggestions for car companies:'''
|-
| (with average letter scores)
|}

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid; width:63%;"
| colspan="2" | '''Names to avoid'''
| colspan="2" | '''Potential hits'''
|-
| style="text-align:right; width:25%; color:#808080;" | Honda
| style="text-align:left;" | '''2Chainz''' (-0.13)
| style="text-align:right; width:25%; color:#808080;" | Honda
| style="text-align:left;" | '''3Chainz''' (0.57)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Mitsubishi
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Fhqwhgads''' (-0.62)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Subaru
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Andre3000''' (1.30)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Kia
| style="text-align:left;" | '''49AndGothy''' (-2.96)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Suzuki
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Sexism''' (1.82)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Chevrolet
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Niceguy''' (-3.09)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Lincoln
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Marxism''' (2.17)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Oldsmobile
| style="text-align:left;" | '''GoodWood''' (-4.44)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Hyundai
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Climax''' (2.48)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Infinity
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Toothy69''' (-4.51)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Porsche
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Zizek9000''' (3.06)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | BMW
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Outhouse''' (-4.85)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Lexus
| style="text-align:left;" | '''3x3Cutrix''' (3.22)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Volkswagen
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Woodpony 7OH7''' (-5.70)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Acura
| style="text-align:left;" | '''PizzaJazz''' (3.56)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Chrysler
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Uh Iono''' (-5.65)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Ford
| style="text-align:left;" | '''SixAxle''' 4x4 (3.95)
|-
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Nissan
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Doody''' (-5.84)
| style="text-align:right; color:#808080;" | Toyota
| style="text-align:left;" | '''Cervixxx''' (4.85)
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Sex]]

Talk:1571: Car Model Names

2015-09-07T12:25:06Z

SaturNine:

1570: Engineer Syllogism

2015-08-29T11:20:57Z

SaturNine: Parenthetical insertion of an observation strongly implied but not made explicit

{{comic
| number = 1570
| date = August 28, 2015
| title = Engineer Syllogism
| image = engineer_syllogism.png
| titletext = The less common, even worse outcome: "3: [everyone in the financial system] WOW, where did all my money just go?"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|It can be improved.}}
A {{w|syllogism}} is a logical argument where two or more propositions lead to a conclusion through {{w|deductive reasoning}}. For example, one of the best-known syllogisms is:
# All men are mortal
# Socrates is a man
# Therefore, Socrates is mortal

In this comic, [[Cueball]] is an engineer who is attempting to make the following syllogism:
# I am good at understanding "numbers" (i.e., mathematics)
# The stock market is made of numbers
# Therefore, I am good at understanding the stock market

Since most engineers are purportedly good at math, proposition 1 seems to be true. It is also loosely true that the {{w|stock market}} is made of numbers, but only in the sense that every system can be given a post-hoc numeric characterization; the dynamics of the stock market are primarily human-driven. In this comic Cueball thinks that his skill at math will help him beat the stock market. Little does he know that the system can be unpredictable, so he ends up losing money as the financial instrument he's invested in loses value. This is due to the financial markets being largely controlled by humans making emotional decisions and not some calculable reason or logic. The fact that humans make emotional decisions is alluded to in the [[title text]] of [[592: Drama]].

Even if the propositions "I am good at understanding numbers" and "The stock market is made of numbers" were true in Cueball's interpretation, and even if the implicit premise that understanding a system's components implies understanding the system held, Cueball would still be wrong to conclude that "I am good at understanding the stock market": this would be a {{w|fallacy of the undistributed middle}}. The problem is that proposition 1 seems to say "I am good at understanding all math". However, the "all" is not present, so Cueball may not necessarily understand the math underlying the stock market.

This comic may also refer to the 1998 movie {{W|Pi (film)|Pi}} where the main character repeats to himself several times his assumptions that the world is all numbers, and thus he, a great mathematician, should be able to predict the stock market, which is all numbers.

The title text could refer to an alternative scenario in which Cueball does, in fact, figure out a way to extract large quantities of money from the stock market, causing a sudden, major decline in everybody else's wealth. This could be a reference to the recent {{w|2015 Chinese stock market crash}} which largely affected most other world financial markets, particularly during the week of August 24–28, during which this comic was published, or more broadly to economic depressions in general. Alternatively, Cueball could cause a global stock market crash if he is an engineer responsible for vital stock-market-related software and/or hardware. Another alternative meaning behind the title text would be a reference to high-frequency quantitative trading, which relies more on financial technology engineering than sophisticated financial knowledge, which significantly contributed to the {{w|2010 Flash Crash}}.

Another interpretation of the title text is that literally everyone's stock market assets have suddenly lost their value. This is possible since there is no conservation of value for the stock market. The value of a particular stock is determined by a majority that is willing to trade it at a given price. Thus, a global distrust in the system can lead to a reduction of stock values and, in consequence, lead to a domino effect where the overall stock market is affected, in other words a crash of the system (i.e., it's not just Cueball; nobody understands the system fully). As the title text states this is less common.

==Transcript==

:[An white frame with text inside an underbrace and an overbrace]
:An engineer
:syllogism.

:[Cueball is at his desk in front of his computer, with his hands on his knees, thinking.]
:Cueball, thinking: 1: I am good at understanding numbers.

:[Cueball takes one hand to his chin, still thinking.]
:Cueball, thinking: 2: The stock market is made of numbers.

:[Cueball lifts both arms from his legs, still thinking.]
:Cueball, thinking: 3: Therefore I-- ''Wow'', where did all my money just go?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Logic]]

Talk:1568: Synonym Movies 2

2015-08-24T12:01:55Z

SaturNine:

I believe they are (in order): ''Harry Potter'', ''Rocky'', ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', ''Indiana Jones'', and ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.114|173.245.48.114]] 04:15, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

I wonder why Randall retained the Roman numerals instead of replacing them with numbers? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.81|108.162.216.81]] 06:35, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

This explanation has got to have the most redundancies of any explanation on this site. It more or less says the same things four times. Those sure are a lot of redundancies. I don't think there is another explanation with this many redun... OK, OK, I'll stop. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.21|141.101.104.21]] 07:05, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

It feels like Randall gave up on this concept halfway through. The last two (or three) Harry Potter titles, all but the first Pirates, and the last Indiana Jones (I refuse to acknowledge that thing that happened in 2008) are not synonyms for the actual title, but Up Goer Five-style plot synopses. --[[User:SaturNine|SaturNine]] ([[User talk:SaturNine|talk]]) 12:01, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1568: Synonym Movies 2

2015-08-24T12:00:43Z

SaturNine: