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| | | title = Every Data Table | | | title = Every Data Table |
| | | image = every data table.png | | | image = every data table.png |
| − | | titletext = I'm hoping 2022 is relatively normal because I don't know what symbol comes after the asterisk and the dagger. | + | | titletext = "I'm hoping 2022 is relatively normal because I don't know what symbol comes after the asterisk and the dagger." |
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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | This comic is another entry in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}. | + | {{incomplete|Created by OBELISQUE ASSTRICKS. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| | + | This comic is another entry in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic|2020-21 pandemic}} of the {{w|SARS-CoV-2}} virus, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}. |
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| − | It shows a future data table with one entry for each year from 2017 to 2024, so this table is made at least three years after publication of the comic (presuming it does not depict some form of advanced estimation of trends). The only discernible differences across the eight years are that two years have footnotes as in 2020* and 2021<sup>†</sup>, whereas the other six years have not.
| + | The COVID pandemic has had a large impact on the entire world and one way this can be seen is through strange stats resulting from the effects of the pandemic. Various statistics such as employment statistics, spending power, holiday miles, pet ownerships, births (or at least conceptions) and — naturally — deaths may have been either grossly suppressed/increased for the majority of 2020, and for 2021 may have hardly recovered, partially recovered, renormalised, bounced back with a vengeance or be over-compensated for in the effort to catch up. |
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| − | Sometimes a symbol such as an asterisk (*) or a dagger (†, also called an obelus or obelisk) is used to denote an unusual entry in a table to be explained in a footnote with a matching symbol.
| + | It is hard to know what 2022 might be like. Nothing (at the time of this comic being published) is exactly back to normal and proper recovery or the resulting compensatory readjustment may not have concluded in time for 2022 to reflect the trends expected based upon pre-2020 figures, and the additional further years that future statistics will record. |
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| − | The COVID-19 pandemic has had a large impact on the entire world and one way this can be seen is through strange stats resulting from the effects of the pandemic, at least in 2020 and 2021, the years marked with footnote in the data table. Various statistics such as employment statistics, spending power, holiday miles, pet ownership, births (or at least conceptions), and—naturally—deaths may have been either grossly suppressed/increased for the majority of 2020, and for 2021 may have hardly recovered, partially recovered, renormalized, bounced back with a vengeance or be over-compensated for in the effort to catch up.
| + | As an example, the cycles of Summer Olympics/Paralympics and Winter Olympics has been disrupted due to the 2020 Summer Olympics being postponed to 2021, thus causing the next Winter Olympics to be only 1 year away (in 2022) and the next Summer Olympics/Paralympics to be 3 years away (in 2024). This has not occurred since the 1990s (when the all the Winter games were shifted away from the Summer Games' years), the 1960s (the start of the Summer Paralympics) or the 1940s (the last major interruption in the main Summer Olympic cycle). |
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| − | Thus Randall concludes that "every data table" will look like this one from now on, hence the title of the comic.
| + | Sometimes punctuation such as an asterisk (*) or a dagger (†, also called an obelisk) is used to denote an unusual entry in a table to be explained in a footnote with a matching symbol. Common symbols that are used if the first two are taken include multiple asterisks (such as ** or ***), or a series of further symbols such as a double dagger (‡), the section symbol/silcrow (§), the parallel/double-pipe (‖) and the paragraph symbol/pilcrow ( ¶ ) and numbers (123). |
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| − | In the title text [[Randall]] states that he hopes 2022 is relatively normal. Comically, he doesn't mainly hope for this because he wants the COVID-19 pandemic to end, but rather because he doesn't know what footnote symbol to use after the asterisk and the dagger.
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| − | At the time of this comic's publication in August 2021, nothing was exactly back to normal and proper recovery or the resulting compensatory readjustment may not have concluded in time for 2022 to reflect the trends expected based upon pre-2020 figures, and the additional further years that future statistics will record. The point is moot, however, because in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and (directly or indirectly) triggered various humanitarian, economic, and political crises around the world. By 2023 the war was still a source of global instability and any hopes of normalization are extremely premature.
| + | The author, however, seems to have forgotten the potential monkey's paw nature of his wish. Relative is a relative term. It could well be that the whole pandemic thing becomes the new normal, thus removing the necessity of using symbols to delineate such years. |
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| − | Common symbols that are used after the asterisk and dagger include the double dagger (‡), the section symbol/silcrow (§), the parallel/double-pipe (‖) and the paragraph symbol/pilcrow (¶). Alternately one could use multiple symbols (such as †† or ***) or superscript numbers (¹, ², ³ ...).
| + | == Transcript == |
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| − | Unrelated to the usage as English footnote characters, the asterisk and dagger symbol are used in German mainly as the shorthand "genealogic signs" to express "born" and "died" respectively (e.g. in encyclopaedias, as the German terms ''geboren'' and ''gestorben'' are three-syllable words and would need to be shortened, but start with the same two letters), so a person that is 2020(*) and 2021(†) would have been alive for only about a year, depending on the months. This symbology is also used on some tomb stones. An optimistic view is the "birth" and "death" of the coronavirus {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which would also understandably result in uncertainty on the next symbol in this order, for 2022. Pessimists in this context might suggest to use ∞, which is the symbol for infinity.
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| − | Similarly, in biology, an asterisk marks a species (or genus, etc...) that is possibly extinct and a dagger is used to note the possible extinction. (Double asterisks indicate taxa believed to be extinct in the wild but known to be extant in cultivation). This of course does not fit well with SARS-CoV-2, which is not close to extinction.
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| − | Randall seems not to have noticed the potential {{w|monkey's paw}} nature of his wish. "Relative" requires a comparison between things. It could be that the whole fall-out of the pandemic becomes the new normal, and future years have no necessity to use symbols to explain how those years come to be like everyone knows they are, while dates before 2020 will be entirely understood as the old normal. Only 2020 and 2021 may need contextual clarifying, due to their nature as a transition from the old normal to the new normal.
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| − | == Transcript ==
| + | :2017........ (scribble) |
| − | :[A data table is shown with eight years given. After each year is a series of dots, followed by illegible squiggles. The table is slanted compared to the panel, and closely cropped so it's impossible to tell how far the squiggles might extend or what other years might be included beyond the eight shown. Two of the years are marked with symbols indicating unseen footnotes.] | + | :2018....... (scribble) |
| − | :2017.......
| + | :2019....... (scribble) |
| − | :2018....... | + | :2020*...... (scribble) |
| − | :2019....... | + | :2021<span style="font-family: serif;"><sup>†</sup></span>...... (scribble) |
| − | :2020*...... | + | :2022....... (scribble) |
| − | :2021<span style="font-family: serif;"><sup>†</sup></span>....... | + | :2023....... (scribble) |
| − | :2022....... | + | :2024....... (scribble) |
| − | :2023....... | |
| − | :2024....... | |
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| − | :[Caption below the panel:] | + | :[Caption under the panel:] |
| | :Every data table from now on | | :Every data table from now on |
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| | [[Category:COVID-19]] | | [[Category:COVID-19]] |
| | [[Category:Statistics]] | | [[Category:Statistics]] |
| − | [[Category:Footnotes]] <!-- referencing symbols only, but heavily implied to exist -->
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