https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Unmapped 2026-04-16T11:37:46Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2471:_Hippo_Attacks&diff=213036 2021-06-03T01:11:59Z

<p>Unmapped: /* Explanation */ grammatical fix</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2471<br /> | date = June 2, 2021<br /> | title = Hippo Attacks<br /> | image = hippo_attacks.png<br /> | titletext = It's cool how, when there's a number lots of people are curious about, but which isn't easy to measure, some random guess will get cited everywhere and become the universally quoted value. Unrelatedly, did you know there are 850 trillion waves in the ocean?<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a HIPAA-VIOLATING HIPPO. I think we have managed to capture the broad strokes of the comic, but it could use some copy-editing (especially my words), and I am not confident I am not missing some finer details. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The first part of this comic deals with unreliable sources on the internet. Neither &quot;viral posts&quot; or &quot;random listicles&quot; are usually very reliable sources of information. They rarely cite their sources, and they are often published without much fact-checking, as published volume and impressive-sounding numbers are far more important for ad-revenue than actual facts.<br /> <br /> The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ({{w|HIPAA}}, pronounced ''HIP-uh'') is an American healthcare law enacted in 1996. One of the most commonly cited provisions from HIPAA is the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which regulates the use and disclosure of protected health information. <br /> <br /> In this comic, Cueball and Megan are discussing the number of {{w|hippopotamus}} attacks, which is unverified. They propose an alternative explanation as to why this particular number is hard to come by: it would be violating the patients' privacy to create statistics of a very specific and unusual cause of death. The punchline comes with the pun of &quot;hippo violation&quot; to &quot;HIPAA violation&quot;.<br /> <br /> The title text provides further explanation to the criticism of listicles. They sometimes provide factoids with regards to ill-defined, hard-to-measure numbers, and these factoids might end up in common circulation between such articles. One extreme example such would be the number of waves in the ocean. Some problems with this definition would be: <br /> <br /> * In which ocean/oceans?<br /> * Over what time frame?<br /> * What is the smallest ripple that counts as a wave?<br /> * When does one count two interacting waves as separate, and when does one count them as one?<br /> <br /> With different answers to these questions, wildly different answers could be reached.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Cueball sits at his computer desk, facing left. Megan stands behind him.]<br /> :Cueball: I hate unsourced statistics.<br /> :Cueball: ''This'' viral post says hippos kill 2,900 people a year, but ''this'' random listicle says 500.<br /> :Megan: Makes sense.<br /> :Megan: Publishing the real number would be a hippo violation.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Animals]]<br /> [[Category:Statistics]]<br /> [[Category:Puns]]</div>

Unmapped https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2432:_Manage_Your_Preferences&diff=207033 2021-03-04T00:59:42Z

<p>Unmapped: Note likely Atrius reference to Atrus from Myst.</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2432<br /> | date = March 4, 2021<br /> | title = Manage Your Preferences<br /> | image = manage_your_preferences.png<br /> | titletext = Manage cookies related to essential site functions, such as keeping Atrius and his sons imprisoned within the page.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a CONFUSINGLY-LABELED COOKIE MANAGER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> &quot;Atrius&quot; in the title text may refer to Atrus, the main non-player character in the Myst series.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Text box: Manage Your Preferences<br /> <br /> Text box: Agree to whatever <br /> <br /> Text box: Transport me to an immersive Myst-like game where I click confusingly-labeled toggle switches, only some of which work, perhaps never to find my way back to the page I wanted.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Unmapped https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2432:_Manage_Your_Preferences&diff=207032 2021-03-04T00:57:08Z

<p>Unmapped: /* Transcript */ fixed typo</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2432<br /> | date = March 4, 2021<br /> | title = Manage Your Preferences<br /> | image = manage_your_preferences.png<br /> | titletext = Manage cookies related to essential site functions, such as keeping Atrius and his sons imprisoned within the page.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a CONFUSINGLY-LABELED COOKIE MANAGER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Text box: Manage Your Preferences<br /> <br /> Text box: Agree to whatever <br /> <br /> Text box: Transport me to an immersive Myst-like game where I click confusingly-labeled toggle switches, only some of which work, perhaps never to find my way back to the page I wanted.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

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