Editing 1235: Settled

{{comic
| number    = 1235
| date      = July 8, 2013
| title     = Settled
| image     = settled.png
| titletext = Well, we've really only settled the question of ghosts that emit or reflect visible light. Or move objects around. Or make any kind of sound. But that covers all the ones that appear in Ghostbusters, so I think we're good.
}}

==Explanation==
Displayed is a timeline chart showing the percentage of people in the United States who have a camera at every moment. [[Randall]] refers to the fact that today most people carry embedded camera devices using their {{w|cell phones}} or the even more modern {{w|Smartphone|smartphones}}.

The chart shows that after the 1980s the percentage increases rapidly, almost reaching 100% by 2013. The text below the image states that "We have conclusively settled the questions of {{w|Flying_saucer|flying saucers}}, lake monsters [such as the {{w|Loch Ness Monster}}], {{w|ghost}}s, and {{w|Bigfoot}}", implying that because almost everyone carries a camera the evidence should have arisen by now to settle any question about such phenomena. Of course, such evidence has ''not'' arisen — but that doesn't stop many people from continuing to believe the myths. But at least now it is hard to claim that you saw something, but didn't have a camera to capture it with. If something moved by so fast that you did not have time to take a picture, then it could also be questioned if you have time to see that it was a ghost etc.

The title text declares that, in the case of ghosts, only the questions regarding phenomena that can be captured with a camera have been settled - leaving, in other words, ghosts that can't be seen, heard, or felt are essentially indistinguishable from an absence of ghosts. The title text also makes a joke about the ghosts of ''{{w|Ghostbusters}}'', a popular film that featured highly visible and noisy ghosts which left a slime. If such ghosts existed, recording them would be very easy.

==Transcript==
:[A graph with percentage from 0 to 100 on the Y-axis with three ticks with labels, top, middle and bottom. The X-axis is a timeline with years with labeled ticks at every five years interval from 1980 but also including a final tick at the year of release, 2013, which is written in a smaller font. The graph shown a red line that starts before 1980 at just above 0% and stays there through the 80s, rises a little past 1990 and reached 1-2% at around 2000, but then it rises rapidly to 10% at 2005, 75% at 2010, and around 90% at 2013, where the rise begins to flatten out asymptotically towards 100 %. There is a caption for what the Y-axis represents over the flat part of the curve:]
:Percentage of the US population carrying cameras everywhere they go, every waking moment of their lives:
:Y-axis labels:
::100%
::50%
::0%
:X-axis labels: 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 <small>2013</small>

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In the last few years, with very little fanfare, we've conclusively settled the questions of flying saucers, lake monsters, ghosts, and Bigfoot.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Paranormal]]
[[Category:Ghostbusters]]