Talk:825: Guest Week: Jeffrey Rowland (Overcompensating)

2013-10-23T23:06:31Z

Traveller: Comment on the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement parallel.

The Turkey Voluntary Extinction Movement has to be a riff on the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (www.vhemt.com [I'm not sure what the "t" is doing there] ). Alas, their primary purpose seems to be selling TShirts (their site concludes with the FAQ Question: How do I order stickers, T-shirts, and stuff?)[[User:Traveller|Traveller]] ([[User talk:Traveller|talk]]) 23:06, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

1281: Minifigs

2013-10-23T23:00:03Z

Traveller: Added details on Lego's own beliefs.

{{comic
| number = 1281
| date = October 23, 2013
| title = Minifigs
| image = minifigs.png
| titletext = The LEGO Group is already the world's largest tire manufacturer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}

{{w|Lego minifigure}}s (often abbreviated as ''minifigs'') are tiny plastic people designed by the Danish toy manufacturer {{w|Lego Group|Lego}} as part of their construction toy sets. Since 1978, over four billion minifigures have been sold. The figures resemble simplified humans, often with a yellow skin colour and featuring interchangeable body parts.

The graph depicted in the comic extrapolates the total number of minifigures and compares it to the growth of the {{w|world population}}, which reached 7 billion in March 2012. By the extrapolations of the comic, Lego minifigures will outnumber the human population by 2019. The extrapolation of statistical data has appeared in various xkcd comics, e.g. in #[[605]]. However, unlike the other extrapolated scenarios (#[[1204]],#[[1007]]), the prognosis of this comic seems quite likely.

Since Lego is designed to resemble nature and civilization on a miniaturized scale, some sets also contain Lego cars as vehicles for the minifigures. With over 381 million {{w|Lego tire}}s produced for these miniature cars, Lego is already the world's largest manufacturer of tires. This fact is addressed in the title text.

Lego (as of last week / mid-October 2013) calculates they have made 7 billion+ figures. Earlier this year, they believed they would surpass the human count in 2014, but revised their numbers last week to (more or less) what this chart says.

==Transcript==
:[Graph: x-axis 1980, 1990, 2010, 2020; y-axis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 billions]
:[Plot-line 1: Number of people in the world.]
:[Plot-line 2: Number of Lego People in the world.]
:[Label above the x-axis at 2013 reads "Today."]
:[Short before 2020 both plot lines cross.]

:By 2019, humans will be outnumbered.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Extrapolation]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:825: Guest Week: Jeffrey Rowland (Overcompensating)

1281: Minifigs