https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.70.130.192&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T12:42:37ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2483:_Linked_List_Interview_Problem&diff=214470Talk:2483: Linked List Interview Problem2021-07-01T04:23:09Z<p>172.70.130.192: </p>
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Assuming not everyone understands O notation: O(1) means that it always takes the same time, no matter how much data is stored. O(n) means the time is proportional to the amount of data stored - if you have 10 times the data, it takes 10 times as long to find the one you want.<br />
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This code won't mail the linked list to a museum - it will mail the memory location of the head of the list to a museum.</div>172.70.130.192https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2481:_1991_and_2021&diff=214337Talk:2481: 1991 and 20212021-06-28T15:23:33Z<p>172.70.130.192: example of fiction coming true</p>
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It's 7:12p and I'm on android at m.xkcd.com . There is no alt text, and the "see also" link directs back to the same page. The comic is fun though, people will be thinking about time travel as technology takes off. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.179|162.158.62.179]] 23:14, 25 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:There is no title-text on firefox on PC either. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.59|162.158.79.59]] 23:16, 25 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::The title text is botched. Instead the comic is wrapped in an <code>a</code> (hyperlink) element: <code><a href=""Oh, and our computers all have cameras now, which is nice during the pandemic lockdowns." "The WHAT.""></code>. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.152|141.101.98.152]] 23:24, 25 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:::I reckon the backend interface for posting a comic must have a field for the title text and a field for the "see also" link, and someone put the text in the wrong field. Easy mistake to make, hopefully fixed soon. -- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 02:33, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Wasn't the federal no lasers pointed at airplanes law was in acted to prevent laser guided missile attacks against airlines? Not laser attacks in general? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.136|172.68.129.136]] 01:24, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Sure, someone may have suggested that, but the truth is that anyone who has access to guided missiles (IE state-level actors and military forces) isn't going to be bound by federal law anyway [[User:Defaultdotxbe|Defaultdotxbe]] ([[User talk:Defaultdotxbe|talk]]) 02:37, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::My thoughts too. At first I took it as White Hat thinking that there were military attacks with lasers capable of shooting down planes… but a federal law against that would, as you say, not be heeded by those doing such things. On reflection I decided that White Hat is envisioning that ordinary citizens have laser guns and have taken to shooting them at planes, the way road signs get shot at by ordinary guns in reality. -- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 02:46, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:In short, '''no'''. 18 USC §39A, the federal law criminalizing the pointing of laser pointers at airplanes, was not enacted to prevent missile attacks against airlines. It was enacted to help combat kids (and others) causing real injury to airline personnel in what they thought were harmless pranks (they're not harmless). [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 03:46, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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It's interesting that Mr. 2021 summarizes the entire Internet/World Wide Web with "it's really easy to send news stories to your friends". The Internet certainly existed in 1991, but the advancement in that area over 30 years is pretty significant. I'm not sure how I would sum that up to someone from 30 years ago in a single comic panel, but I think it would come out differently than what we see here. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 03:57, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I saw the ratio of advertisements with www.foo.com in it rise only at the end of the 90s which was when the Internet started to get mainstream adoption. Before Google, it was not so easy to find relevant content with Altavista and friends. [[User:Bmwiedemann|Bmwiedemann]] ([[User talk:Bmwiedemann|talk]]) 20:31, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Don't confuse the Internet with the Web, though. With searchable access to alt.your.fetish.or.hobby on a usenet feed, a curated FAQ (or general conversation) could make you aware of ftp.hobbyfetish.org.au, or whatever wherewithall you needed to telnet directly to the FetishHobbyBBS. Or vice-versa if you'd started on a FIDONet connection. (Then there was the AOL Keyword approach, where you had such an ISP with such a USP and an acceptably obvious hobby/fetish.) Before Tim Berners-Lee (and whoever did Gopher, etc), plus the time needed to get into your prefered era of AskVistaGoogleDuck, the connectivity was there - just a little less automated and only ''hugely'' beyond a single person actually knowing everything they could connect to, rather than totally mind-blowingly so... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.105|162.158.158.105]] 00:05, 28 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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It's not so much the range of cordless phones that is of significant change, but the computing power inside the phone that made the most advancement since 1991. Phones at that time could only make phone calls! Texting didn't become available until 1992 and games and everything else we do on them was later. To me "range" means the connection range which improved a lot, but is still not as signficant as "range of use" [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:17, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Does "cordless phones" refer to cellphones? That's the "wireless" industry. Cordless phones are landline phone handsets that don't have a cord connecting them to the wall, and he's talking about the distance they can be from the base station. Mentioning these is a joke because so many people have cut the cord entirely, abandoning their landlines in favor of just using cellphones. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 12:59, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:That's what I wondered too. I would assume the comic is referring to cordless phones in the sense of landline phone handsets, not cellphones, if just because the coverage range of these phones '''has''' increased, whereas the opposite is true for cellphones. With 2G, you can get coverage up to 35km from the base station, whereas with 4G this is reduced to about 16km. There is effectively more cellphone coverage nowadays because there are more base stations, not because the coverage works at longer range. [[User:Zoid42|Zoid42]] ([[User talk:Zoid42|talk]]) 02:28, 27 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::I agree, & the assertion that ''cellphones'' have increased in range since '91 would be amusing, if it weren't so incorrect as to represent harmful disinformation. (Ironic, given the topic...) I have edited the explanation to make the situation clearer, but that paragraph is now overly long & contains several run-on sentences: The explanation would read better if split into coherent sections for each of the four changes Cueball described. <br />
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:56, 27 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:The computing power inside the phone would definitely sound significant in 1992 ; I suspect it would be comparable to top supercomputers of that time. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:10, 27 June 2021 (UTC) <br />
::It indeed seems that we're seeing 100s of GigaFLOPS in both those supercomputers and these smartphones. Possibly more, as I couldn't easily find mobiles from the last half decade referenced in those terms of measure. And, when it does, it refers to the ''GPU'', which makes for a very highly specialised architecture to render (e.g.) game environments via 3D elements, unlike supercomputers that... hmmm, often had a very highly specialised architecture to process (e.g.) weather predictions via 3D elements. ;)<br />
::Still hard to compare (is it easier to efficiently re-task arbitrary GPUs for things like, say, cryptofarming than it would for a weather-service machine to be re-applied to non-weather computing?) and of course other metrics such as data storage have been Moore's Lawed as well, by a combination of higher quantity, lower cost and increased availability (never mind pocket-portability) even before we start to get to near infinite swappable tape-storage now being approximated by virtually unlimited remote cloud storage (which could ultimately and opaquely still be as crude as tape-storage, but probably is disc-farms).<br />
::It would be interesting to go beyond the few brief glances I made at the details and actually with the various conversion factors that relate what we had in the early '90s (when something like a 486 DX2 66Mhz was the height of personal computing power, for me, at least until DX4 100s became available - and a HD 3.5" FDD wasn't always a given...) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.103|141.101.99.103]] <br />
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This is the second time Cueball travels from within the Covid-19 pandemic to visit White Hat [[2280]]. Is there any comic where White Hat interacts with pangolins, bats, or China? Even though Cueball is vaccinated by now, he might be a carrier [[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 22:46, 26 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:That field around Cueball might mean he's not physically here ; maybe it's not possible to transfer matter into past, just information. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:10, 27 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Black Hat: "Here wear this shirt when you project back." <br />
Cueball: 'Why? What does it say above that big block of code?' <br />
Black Hat: "'Reproduce this RNA sequence for a cool surprise!'" <br />
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:56, 27 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I disagree with the assertion added by [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.193|172.69.35.193]] ([[User_talk:172.69.35.193|talk]]):<br />
:'A moment of thought would make it clear that the "laser attack" is unlikely to damage the plane directly, because if it did, no new law would be needed.'<br />
Something being criminal under an existing law does ''not'' mean no new law is needed or will be passed. Maybe the existing penalty wasn't deemed sufficient. Maybe the law had loopholes not foreseen until the new technology appeared. Or maybe Congress just wanted to be seen to be doing something. There are many reasons why new laws can and have been passed to combat (the comic's word) something that's already not legal. Does anyone have thoughts to add? -- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 10:45, 28 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
: I agree, that addition should be removed. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:03, 28 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I'd like to add that the law Cueball references is only supposed to "combat" laser attacks, not necessarily outlaw them. I interpret this in the same way that one might outlaw firearms in order to "combat" mass shootings, or legislating TSA checks to "combat" bombings - both of which are already very illegal. So in Whitehats imagination, a law passed to "combat laser attacks on airliners" might be something like background checks on lasgun owners (deemed necessary because of frequent attacks). This law would be (arguagbly) "needed", even though the attacks themselves are already illegal. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.15|162.158.203.15]] 12:25, 28 June 2021 (UTC)<br />
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"You watch the science fiction television show 'Dark Angel', right? You know those automated hovering drones that can survey everything from the air? Well in 2021 they're real."[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.192|172.70.130.192]] 15:23, 28 June 2021 (UTC)</div>172.70.130.192https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2475:_Health_Drink&diff=2134642475: Health Drink2021-06-16T04:44:08Z<p>172.70.130.192: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2475<br />
| date = June 11, 2021<br />
| title = Health Drink<br />
| image = health_drink.png<br />
| titletext = You'd need to keep track of so many people! Would you use, like, Excel or something? Far too fancy for a simple country nanoenzyme developer like me.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a NANOENZYME. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This comic pokes fun at health fads, alternative medicine and the like. It points out that many such products will go out of their way to market themselves as legitimate and cutting-edge by using impressive-sounding scientific terms, yet fail to perform even the most basic part of actual science: running a randomized controlled trial to find out if the drink actually helps fight infections. When [[Cueball]] points this out, [[White Hat]] reacts as though this process is highly advanced and unreasonable, which clearly demonstrates that his product is either nonsensical or an active scam (or both).<br />
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{{w|Enzymes}} are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. For example, certain proteins aid digestion by breaking down large molecules. Every cell of the human body produces lots of enzymes; the suggestion that people may be lacking them is frequently used as a basis to peddle pseudoscientific products. Nanoenzymes are synthetic materials that perform similar functions to ordinary enzymes; although they may be useful for treating specific diseases and conditions, the average person will probably not find them beneficial. {{w|Amino acids}} are the chemicals that make up proteins, and therefore all natural enzymes are made from amino acids anyway. White Hat's claim use of the term is not particularly explanatory and is likely used to impress and bewilder his audience, so that they are more likely to buy the product.<br />
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The comic may reference the FDA's decision [https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/06/08/the-aducanumab-approval three days earlier] to approve a drug for Alzheimer treatment, without direct evidence of efficacy.<br />
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The title text further showcases White Hat's incompetence. First, he suggests keeping track of large numbers of people in a clinical trial by storing their data in {{w|Microsoft Excel}}, a popular spreadsheet application. Despite the insistence of many companies and government agencies throughout the years, Excel [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/excel-database-sonal-kanabar|Excel is not a database], and it should not be used to store other people's personal and medical information. He then complains that Excel is too "fancy", and then calls himself a "country nanoenzyme developer". {{w|Nanomaterials}} are developed using specialised equipment in laboratories by people who are extremely well-versed in science; the notion of comparing one of these scientists to a 'simple country farmer' is ludicrous, and the idea that they would find Excel daunting and overcomplicated is equally so. It's ironic that the person with the seemingly very complicated work and production would be unable to perform the simple procedures which Cueball has suggested in order to make his claims rigorous and supported with evidence. In this, White Hat is demonstrating his complete incompetence and lack of knowledge into what his product actually does.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[White Hat holding a bottle and standing next to Cueball]<br />
:White Hat: My new health drink is packed with amino acid nanoenzymes that I designed to train your immune system to fight infections!<br />
:Cueball: Can you give it to some people and see if they get sick less often?<br />
:White Hat: Whoa, that sounds '''''way''''' too complicated.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Biology]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]</div>172.70.130.192https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2474:_First_Time_Since_Early_2020&diff=2134512474: First Time Since Early 20202021-06-15T22:46:34Z<p>172.70.130.192: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2474<br />
| date = June 9, 2021<br />
| title = First Time Since Early 2020<br />
| image = first_time_since_early_2020.png<br />
| titletext = Gotten the Ferris wheel operator's attention<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a FERRIS WHEEL OPERATOR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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This is yet another comic part of the [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] on the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic|2020-21 pandemic}} caused by the {{w|COVID-19|coronavirus disease 2019}} (COVID-19).<br />
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This comic is a chart that orders things based on the level of alarm that would occur if it were revealed that someone had not done a given thing since early 2020. Many of the items, but not all, are linked to new constraints due to the pandemic.<br />
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The title text serves as another chart point, though it isn't given where it is on the chart. <br />
<br />
;Been to a birthday party <br />
Going to a birthday party was a normal task before the pandemic, and it's normal to say you haven't gone to one since early 2020. <br />
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;Eaten at a restaurant <br />
Eating at a restaurant was also common before governments instated lockdowns, but during the lockdowns many restaurants had to limit their service to delivery and take-out.<br />
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;Seen my family<br />
Seeing your family was fairly common before the governments instated lockdowns. However, there were emergency visits during the lockdown period.<br />
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;Been on a plane<br />
Governments around the world cancelled commercial flights during the pandemic. However, businessmen like Bill Gates used private jets during the pandemic.<br />
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;Gone to a movie<br />
Many cinema halls around the world closed due to the pandemic. Several movies were instead released directly to TV via OTT platforms.<br />
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;Gone to a store<br />
Although some stores were closed during the lockdown period, others were open for essential commodities. Therefore, going to a store for the first time since early 2020 is little strange.<br />
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;Installed software updates<br />
Regularly installing software updates is recommended, mainly for security reasons. However, many people don't follow these recommendations (mostly by fear of software inconsistency or instability), although a delay of more than one year is quite long. Mentioning software updates is weird, because it is not directly related to the COVID pandemic. On the contrary, since many people spent much more time at home and worked at home, it was all the more important to keep software up to date.<br />
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;Eaten a vegetable<br />
Since vegetables are essential to a healthy diet, not eating a single vegetable in a whole year is not recommended. Anxiety due to the pandemic, disruption of social relations, may have caused people to consume more junk food than usual.<br />
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;Opened the fridge<br />
This is quite weird, since most people use their refrigerators to store fresh food. Maybe some people became anorexic because of anxiety due to the pandemic or stopped consuming fresh food and relied more on junk food. Moreover, most food products will alter or rot if stored in a fridge for more than one year, and become dangerous to eat.<br />
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;Paid taxes<br />
Although some people, depending on where they live and their income, may not pay taxes in an immediately obvious way, there are some taxes, such as {{w|VAT}} in many countries and {{w|sales tax}} in the United States or Canada, which almost everyone would pay in the natural course of everyday life, though may not be 'obvious' in the paying, or even be extracted at source (withheld from payroll) in the simpler cases.. (Randall lives in {{w|Massachusetts}}, which does not have a VAT, but does have a 6.25% sales tax.) It is therefore strange that someone could have gone a year without paying any taxes, implying they made almost no monetary transactions in the period, nor are made (directly) responsible for any residential or property-owning taxations that might otherwise be payable to one or other layer of government.<br />
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If the statement refers specifically to income taxes (which is often the case when people refer to "taxes", because the paperwork and large sums of money transferred at once makes the income tax highly noticeable and memorable), it might describe someone who filed a tax return for 2019 early in 2020 and then waited until later in 2021 to file a return for 2020.<br />
<br />
;Washed my hands<br />
One of the main pieces of advice during the pandemic was to wash one's hands, frequently. Even in normal circumstances, washing hands is a good idea to remain hygienic, and not do so for a year would be disgusting to most people, and a good way of catching diseases.<br />
<br />
;Seen another person<br />
Despite the restrictions, most people will have seen another person during the pandemic.<br />
<br />
;Seen a ghost<br />
The fact that the speaker apparently has seen a ghost, both now and presumably before early 2020 (else they would simply say it was the 'first time' they saw a ghost) is unusual.<br />
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;Served as a decoy<br />
Similar to the previous point, this is not a normal activity, so the specificity is unusual.<br />
<br />
;Sighted land<br />
Most people live on land{{fact}}, so sighting land should not be unusual, even during a pandemic. The fact that someone has gone over a year without sighting land suggests they have been lost at sea for the duration. There are several reported cases of ships' crews refused permission to disembark, due to local restrictions and/or because their scheduled relief were unable to embark, but the unluckily held-on persons forced to remain beyond their originally planned obligations should never have been left permanently beyond any tantalisingly unreachable view of the shore.<br />
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Taken more literally, it could simply mean that the person remained indoors and did not look outside, or that the person was temporarily blind.<br />
<br />
;Checked the news<br />
If someone has not checked the news since early 2020, they will likely be in for a shock upon checking. Noting that this could possibly (if increasingly absurdly) still apply to someone like [[Ponytail]] (as portrayed in strip #[[2396:_Wonder_Woman_1984|2396]]).<br />
<br />
;Checked on the customers in the {{w|escape room}}<br />
The implication is that the customers in question have been trapped in the escape room since early 2020. Most escape rooms are not equipped to support a person for that length of time, so unless the customers actually escaped, they would likely not have survived.<br />
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;Contracted a novel bat virus<br />
As a 'novel bat virus' is what kicked off the whole pandemic, contracting another one may send the whole world into a repeat of the pandemic.<br />
<br />
;Gotten the Ferris wheel operator's attention (title text)<br />
It seems that the speaker has been stuck in a {{w|Ferris wheel}} for a year. It is unclear how he may have survived.<br />
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Alternately, it would be perfectly normal that the speaker has not been at an amusement park with a working Ferris wheel since early 2020 - but it would be unusual to focus on interacting with the operator versus enjoying the attraction.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
: [Heading:]<br />
: "This is actually the first time I've _____ since early 2020."<br />
: [Below showing a vertical arrow with the words "normal" and "alarming" at the top and the bottom of the arrow respectively. At the right side of the arrow showing a long list of text starts with a triangle.]<br />
: ◀ been to a birthday party<br />
: ◀ eaten at a restaurant<br />
: ◀ seen my family<br />
: ◀ been on a plane<br />
: ◀ gone to a movie<br />
: ◀ gone to a store<br />
: ◀ installed software updates<br />
: ◀ eaten a vegetable<br />
: ◀ opened the fridge<br />
: ◀ paid taxes<br />
: ◀ washed my hands<br />
: ◀ seen another person<br />
: ◀ seen a ghost<br />
: ◀ served as a decoy<br />
: ◀ sighted land<br />
: ◀ checked the news<br />
: ◀ checked on the customers in the escape room<br />
: ◀ contracted a novel bat virus<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:COVID-19]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>172.70.130.192