explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2969: Vice President First Names

2024-08-12T07:01:51Z

108.162.216.129: /* Contextual table of names */

{{comic
| number = 2969
| date = August 7, 2024
| title = Vice President First Names
| image = vice_president_first_names_2x.png
| imagesize = 364x556px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [Political pundit on the ScrabbleTV News channel] "After four years of defying orthographic pressure, Joe ceded the top of the ticket to Kamala, who--after considering Josh, Mark, Andy, Roy, and Pete--picked Tim."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by CORNELIUS LYSANDER THROCKMORTON "BOT" BOTTINGFORD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall observes that American {{w|Vice President of the United States|Vice Presidents}} since the 80s have almost all gone by short first names. It should be noted that all of the "short" first names in this strip, with the exception of John (F. Kennedy) are diminutives (or initials) of longer names, but all represent the names which the candidates preferred and publicly used. This comic was published one day after {{w|Kamala Harris}} (who replaced Biden as presidential candidate) chose {{w|Tim Walz}} as her running mate for the {{w|2024 United States presidential election|2024 presidential election}}. Both the Republican and Democratic tickets are present for 2024, since the 2024 election had not yet concluded when this comic was made. Either party winning would match the observation.

In the comic's caption, Randall amusingly describes this as an emerging "political consensus."

While not a "political" consensus per se, the observed phenomenon is a type of consensus — reflecting a multi-decade change in US societal norms — and is not simply a random coincidence.
* There has been a national US trend toward shorter names since the 1980s and 1990s, with a rise in the popularity of baby names like Ryan, Kyle, Amy and Lisa. (The trend has continued, with even shorter names like Ava, Mia and Max becoming more common in the 2000s and 2010s.)
* This has paralleled a trend in shorter business names, with companies like Dell, Cisco and eBay before the turn of the millennium and Google, Uber and Lyft after (cf. pre-1980 businesses like AT&T, BNSF or 3M which had to convert their very long names into acronyms to adapt). Product naming also began to simplify in the late 20th century, driven by marketing strategies that favored brevity and memorability, exemplified by Apple's iconic "iMac" and "iPhone" products (again, cf. names like "Tandy 1000", "Ford F 500" or "Little Debbie's Oatmeal Creme Pies").
* All of these naming trends reflect a ''general'' societal trend toward minimalism and less formality, also seen with corporate logos, product design (Apple), clothing design (Gap), furniture design (IKEA) and web/app design.

This societal shift may explain why many politicians with given names like Albert and Richard might have preferred to go by shorter, less formal sounding, more approachable names like Al and Dick, to match the zeitgeist. James Danforth Quayle additionally used his middle name (that being another common self-naming decision; or one arising from family tradition/convenience, given that James Cline Quayle was his father), one less commonly seen than the other unabbreviated name from which "Dan" might have come.

Given that trend, it is noteworthy that Vice Presidents have generally adopted shorter names, but presidents have been less likely to do so. It's possible to create theories around this (eg, the office of President is expected to have more gravitas and formality, while the Vice President has less of an official role, and wants to be more approachable), but the size of the group is small enough that it could easily be coincidence, particularly since many of those names (such as George, Barack and Kamala) can't be easily shortened. The exception, Donald Trump (which can be shortened to Don), did not become a politician until late in life, when he was already nationally famous using his full name.

The '''title text''' amusingly suggests (1) the existence of a ScrabbleTV News channel (named after {{w|Scrabble|the word game}}) staffed with (2) political pundits who (3) report Biden's decision to end his re-election campaign as being driven by orthographic (related to the writing of words) pressure to conform to the aforementioned political consensus. Having Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as VP violated this pattern, but elevating Harris to the presidency and selecting a short-named running mate would restore it. In addition to Tim Walz, all of the candidates considered most likely as running mate had short first names: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper and Pete Buttigieg. This could also be a subtle joke about political pundits tending to give confident, inaccurate hot-takes. (Biden's decision was driven, among other things, by worsening polling, rising concerns about his age, a poor debate performance against Trump and subsequent pressure from other leading Democrats.)

This is Randall's second recent comic about US politics and Kamala Harris, the first being [[2962: President Venn Diagram]] which was published right after she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket.

It is interesting that, even ignoring the stricter definition of having less than four letters in their name, only four pairings have a Presidential given (or adopted) name that is shorter than the Vice-Presidential one, and just two further cases (one of these not involved in winning an election) have equal length names. Whether either version of this trend continues prior to the comic's particular slice of history, and whether there is (anti-)correlation to unsuccessful pairings is an investigation not covered by the comic but could be easily researched.

===Contextual table of names===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Presidential and Vice-Presidential names, for the period within the comic, in chronological order.
! Year !! President !! Vice-President
|-
| 1952 (also 1956) || '''Dwight''' David "Ike"<ref name="ike">"Ike" was a shared nickname within the ''Ei''senhower family ("Big Ike", "Little Ike"), which became {{w|Ike for President (advertisement)|commonly used}} for himself, though never became a full replacement of his chosen (re-arranged) 'first' name.</ref> {{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower}} ''born David Dwight "Little Ike" Eisenhower'' || '''Richard''' Milhous {{w|Richard Nixon|Nixon}}
|-
| 1960 || style="background-color:lightyellow" | '''John''' "Jack" Fitzgerald {{w|John F. Kennedy|Kennedy}} || '''Lyndon''' Baines {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson}}
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1963<ref name="dallas">JFK's assassination meant LBJ acceded to the role, but under the Constitution as in effect at the time, he could not appoint a new Vice-President prior to his subsequent re-election bid.</ref> (Not in comic.) || colspan="2" | '''Lyndon''' B. Johnson
|-
| 1964 || '''Lyndon''' B. Johnson || '''Hubert''' Horatio {{w|Hubert Humphrey|Humphrey}} Jr.
|-
| 1968 (also 1972) || ‎'''Richard''' Nixon || '''Spiro''' Theodore {{w|Spiro Agnew|Agnew}}
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1973<ref name="watergate">Changes occuring within a Presidential term, in response to an emerging political scandal</ref> || '''Richard''' Nixon || '''Gerald''' Rudolph {{w|Gerald Ford|Ford}} Jr ''born Leslie Lynch King Jr.''
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1974<ref name="watergate"/> || ‎'''Gerald''' Ford || '''Nelson''' Aldrich {{w|Nelson Rockefeller|Rockefeller}}*
|-
| 1976 || ‎James "'''Jimmy'''" Earl {{w|Jimmy Carter|Carter}} Jr. || '''Walter''' Frederick "Fritz" {{w|Walter Mondale|Mondale}}
|-
| 1980 (also 1984) || '''Ronald''' Wilson {{w|Ronald Reagan|Reagan}} || '''George''' Herbert Walker {{w|George H. W. Bush|Bush}}
|-
| 1988 || '''George''' H.W. Bush || style="background-color:lightyellow" | James Danforth "'''Dan'''" {{w|Dan Quayle|Quayle}}
|-
| 1992 (also 1996) || style="background-color:lightyellow" |William "'''Bill'''" Jefferson {{w|Bill Clinton|Clinton}} ''born William Jefferson Blythe III'' || style="background-color:lightyellow" | Albert "'''Al'''" Arnold {{w|Al Gore|Gore}} Jr.
|-
| 2000 (also 2004) || '''George''' Walker {{w|George W. Bush|Bush}} || style="background-color:lightyellow" |Richard "'''Dick'''" Bruce {{w|Dick Cheney|Cheney}}
|-
| 2008 (also 2012) || '''Barack''' Hussein {{w|Barack Obama|Obama}} II || style="background-color:lightyellow" | Joseph "'''Joe'''" Robinette {{w|Joe Biden|Biden}} Jr.
|-
| 2016 || '''Donald''' John {{w|Donald Trump|Trump‎}}‎ || style="background-color:lightyellow" |Michael "'''Mike'''" Richard {{w|Mike Pence|Pence}}
|-
| 2020 || style="background-color:lightyellow" | "'''Joe'''" Biden || '''Kamala''' Devi {{w|Kamala Harris|Harris}}
|-
| 2024 ({{w|Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats}} win) || '''Kamala''' Harris || style="background-color:lightyellow" | Timothy "'''Tim'''" James {{w|Tim Walz|Walz}}
|-
| 2024 ({{w|Republican Party (United States)|Republicans}} win) || '''Donald''' J. Trump || style="background-color:lightyellow" | James David "'''JD'''" {{w|JD Vance|Vance}} ''born James Donald Bowman''
|}

:Complete titles are given in the first occurance, providing a full context of options for identification purposes; subsequent mentions may be reduced to their 'typical' name. Any relevent self-acknowledged sobriquets are inserted in quotes.
:Bold is used to indicate the individual's actually most commonly used single given name, as referenced within the comic. Surnames (also commonly used, with or without the title or other disambiguation) are wikilinked upon their first appearance.
:Italics indicates birth names, where different.
:Darkened rows show transitions not made via an {{w|List of United States major party presidential tickets|'ticket'}} at the end of each 4-year electoral cycle.
:Yellow cells echo the highlights the comic's indication of '''given names''' being four or fewer characters in length.
<references/>

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Tables are bad? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A table is shown in a panel. Names of "Four letters or fewer" are shown in the comic on a yellow background (bolded in the table below).]
:{| class="wikitable"
! !! President !! VP
|-
| 2024 ||? Kamala ? Donald || '''Tim ? JD ?'''
|-
| 2020 || '''Joe''' || Kamala
|-
| 2016 || Donald‎ || '''Mike'''
|-
| 2008 || Barack‎ || '''Joe'''
|-
| 2000 || George || '''Dick'''
|-
| 1992 || '''Bill''' || '''Al'''
|-
| 1988 || George || '''Dan'''
|-
| 1980 || Ronald‎ || George
|-
| 1976 || ‎Jimmy || Walter
|-
| 1974 || ‎Gerald || Nelson
|-
| 1973 || ‎Richard || Gerald
|-
| 1968 || ‎Richard || Spiro
|-
| 1964 || Lyndon || Hubert
|-
| 1960 || '''John''' || Lyndon
|-
| 1952 || Dwight || Richard
|}

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Since the 1980s, a political consensus has emerged: vice presidents should have short first names.

==Trivia: Other ways to shorten names==
Politicians can also use a more casual name by using an already less unwieldy middle name (as with {{w|Mitt Romney|Willard Mitt Romney}}, but doubly-averted in Dan Quayle's case). Even when they're not shortened to four or fewer letters, names can be made more casual in other ways (as with {{w|Bernie Sanders|Bernard 'Bernie' Sanders}}). As well, some politicians were commonly called by short nicknames even if they did not run under those names (Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower).

Some of these may have been adult decisions, a personal choice to mark adulthood (or a change of career) by a more character-distinguishing variation, others may have been 'imposed' upon them by family, friends or peers over time and become happily accepted as the norm by the recipient without any great personal consideration.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]

Talk:1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T06:13:31Z

108.162.216.129: Commented on missing char

The character I'm missing in the title is [http://unicode-table.com/en/0FD0/ Tibetan Mark Bska- Shog Gi Mgo Rgyan U+0FD0] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 06:13, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T06:10:27Z

108.162.216.129: Tried correcting title text, there is one character that still shows up bad for me.

{{comic
| number = 1538
| date = June 15, 2015
| title = Lyrics
| image = lyrics.png
| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:603: Idiocracy

2015-03-15T01:15:09Z

108.162.216.129:

This explanation seems to be incorrect. The key point was that White Hat actually was wrong! The average education has gone up, and the average IQ ''cannot'' sink! By allowing Cueball to agree with clearly false laments, he baits him into revealing his stupidity. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 19:58, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
:The title text pretty much spells out that, in Randall's mind, White Hat is correct. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.66|199.27.128.66]] 06:14, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

I propose that the hatted figure is not in fact [[White_Hat|White Hat]], as neither the hat shape nor the personality are consistent with other appearances. ([[:Category:Comics featuring White Hat‏‎]]) The real White Hat, when he speaks, is generally a bit of a wet blanket or well-meaning buffoon. This one, whom I'll dub [[White_Derby|White Derby]], is speaking counter-buffoonery, what we may reasonably guess to be the actual thoughts of the author. Usually Cueball fills this role (eg [[258:_Conspiracy_Theories]]), and in fact if the roles here were reversed I'd tend to ignore the misshapen hat. But two and two, together, well... --[[Special:Contributions/66.114.70.139|66.114.70.139]] 18:39, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
:Eh. He hasn't appeared in any other strips, and it's not too harmful to put him under the umbrella of the real White Hat. I see your point; White Hat is no longer a generic character like [[Hairy]], but an actual recurring one.
:Also, have Black Hat and White Hat ever appeared in the same comic? (Click and Drag doesn't count.) [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 09:08, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

So, does this page qualify for Complete now? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.66|199.27.128.66]] 05:36, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Sorry Randall. You're wrong here. IQ can change. Just because there is a mean for the IQ of the current population, doesn't mean that average can't shift over time. And if we used to be cavemen then either the IQ did shift, or we've always been this smart, which means we couldn't have evolved.

In this case, IQ is exactly the same as morality. Both shift ever so slightly over time, such that the mean is always the acceptable "norm". You can't feel this shift unless you study it. The difference is that morality exhibits locality, so morality shifts slower or faster depending on the subsection of society. Thus you have people who believe they are more right than others, but no one believes they are outright wrong (as a culture). Proof in the pudding is doing a poll on the population as to how smart they think they are. They always rate themselves such that the mean is shifted 1 or 2 deviations up. Same thing with morality. People all espouse a morality that they think is 1 or 2 deviations greater than the standard, whether they are a religious sect or secularists.

But the short of it, a population mean doesn't imply the mean never changes.[[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 21:12, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

:While IQ can change, the way you're explaining it is not the way the Cueball or "White Hat" is explaining it. In fact, "White Hat" never explicitly states that IQ doesn't evolve at all; just not to the depressing trend Cueball here thinks it does. Anonymous 23:04, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

In fact average IQ cannot change. The average IQ of humanity is always 100, because that is the definition of the IQ scale.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 01:15, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If there is reason for climate change it is almost certainly due to the destruction of trees. Any ridiculous assertions about carbon dioxide can not be confirmed or denied and the political machinations about carbon dioxide stem from Margaret Thatcher's war on the coal miners in Britain.

It would be a simple matter to replant forests. All we would have to do is pay for that in higher latitudes and send in drones to deal with illegal loggers in lower latitudes. 20 years or so should sort out most of the problems.

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 17:03, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

: I see what you did there... This is the bit where you go "Everything I just said was wrong" --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 17:26, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

1491: Stories of the Past and Future

2015-02-25T14:59:07Z

108.162.216.129: /* Trivia */ It's Les Misérables not Les Miserábles

{{comic
| number = 1491
| date = February 25, 2015
| title = Stories of the Past and Future
| image = stories_of_the_past_and_future.png
| titletext = Little-known fact: The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flinstones theme becomes recognizable.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}
''A larger version of the image is available [http://xkcd.com/1491/large/ here].''

X-axis: Date of publication.

Y-axis, "Years in the future": Number of years the story's events take place, after the story's publication.

Y-axis, "Years in the past": Number of years the story's events take place, before the story's publication.

For example, "Water Margin" was published in the 14th century (x ~= 1300) and relates events from the 12th century, about 200 years before its publication (y ~= 200 in the past).

Another example: ''{{w|The Bridge on the River Kwai}}'' was written around 1957 (actually 1952) and it was set around 13 years before (actually in 1942-43, i.e. 10 years before).

Grey area in the "Years in the future" part: Stories set in the future (from their publication's date), whose the story's events' date is already past (from now).

Grey area in the "Years in the past" part: Stories set in the past (from their publication's date), published closer to their setting than to today.

Taking the "years in the past" on the y-axis to be read as negatives like in most graphs one can write:

Dates on the lower line satisfy: y=x-2015 . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015+y and are set in the year x+y=2015+2y

Dates on the upper line satisfy: y=2015-x . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015-y and are set in the year x+y=2015

Thus it's clear that the definitions of the lines are consistent with each other as they follow similar but inverted functions.

In the top portion of the graph, the two sides of the line are defined as "still possible" and "obsolete" (gray area). If no new works were added, the "obsolete" realm would expand over time, with "still possible" including fewer and fewer works. Conversely, the gray area in the lower portion (works published closer to now than to their setting) would contract. Perhaps the artist is making a comment about a perceived lack of imagination in literature? But given the highly selective list of works chosen, it's not very clear what overall conclusion the reader should draw. Perhaps it's just intended to show an unusual and interesting way to look at literature in a quantitative fashion.

==Trivia==
There is a hypercorrection in ''{{w|Rip Van Winkle}}'' as ''Rip van Winkel''. Washington Irving may have misspelled ''van {{w|nl:Winkel|Winkel}}''.

It's ''{{w|Les Misérables}}'' not ''Les Miserábles''. Note that French doesn't have "á".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
Stories of the Past and Future
The page shows an XY chart with the X-Axis representing "Date of Publication", and the Y-Axis showing "Years in the Future" positive, and "Years in the Past" negative.

{| {{table}}
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Publication'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Description'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Written'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Difference'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Set In'''
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Memoirs of the Twentieth Century|Memoirs of the Twentieth Century]]|| book written by Samuel Madden||1733||264||1997
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Golf in the Year 2000|Golf in the Year 2000]]|| novel written by J. McCullough||1892||108||2000
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Looking Backward|Looking Backward]]|| novel written by Edward Bellamy||1888||112||2000
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Enoch Soames|Enoch Soames]]|| short story by Max Beerbohm||1897||100||1997
|-
| [[Wikipedia:The Time Machine|The Time Machine]]|| novel written by H.G. Wells||1895||800,806||802,701
|-
| 1984||||||||
|-
| A Week in the Wales of the Future||||||||
|-
| The Jetsons||||||||
|-
| Star Trek !TOS!||||||||
|-
| 2001: A Space Odyssey||||||||
|-
| Space: 1999||||||||
|-
| 2010: Odyssey Two||||||||
|-
| Star Trek: The Next Generation||||||||
|-
| 2061: Odyssey Three||||||||
|-
| Zero Wing||||||||
|-
| 3001: The Final Odyssey||||||||
|-
| Enterprise||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future Part II||||||||
|-
| Transformers (TV Series)||||||||
|-
| Terminator 2 (1995 Portion)||||||||
|-
| Casablanca||||||||
|-
| The Pillow Book||||||||
|-
| History of the Peloponnesian War||||||||
|-
| Moby Dick||||||||
|-
| Gospels||||||||
|-
| The Epic of Gilgamesh||||||||
|-
| The Iliad||||||||
|-
| Ashokavadana||||||||
|-
| Book of Genesis||||||||
|-
| Water Margin||||||||
|-
| King John||||||||
|-
| Henry IV||||||||
|-
| Richard III||||||||
|-
| Henry VIII||||||||
|-
| Julius Caesar||||||||
|-
| King Lear||||||||
|-
| A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court||||||||
|-
| Lest Darkness Fall||||||||
|-
| Asterix||||||||
|-
| The Ten Commandments||||||||
|-
| The Flintstones||||||||
|-
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (prologue)||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (IV - VI)||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (I - III)||||||||
|-
| Raptor Red||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (VII - IX)||||||||
|-
| Ice Age||||||||
|-
| 10,000 BC||||||||
|-
| 300||||||||
|-
| Year One||||||||
|-
| The Prince of Egypt||||||||
|-
| Downton Abbey||||||||
|-
| Pearl Harbour||||||||
|-
| Saving Private Ryan||||||||
|-
| Chariots of Fire||||||||
|-
| Blazing Saddles||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future Part III||||||||
|-
| Roots||||||||
|-
| Treasure Island||||||||
|-
| The Last of the Mohicans||||||||
|-
| A Tale of Two Cities||||||||
|-
| Gone With The Wind||||||||
|-
| Gunsmoke||||||||
|-
| Rip Van Winkel [sic]||||||||
|-
| Les Miserábles [sic]||||||||
|-
| Oklahoma!||||||||
|-
| Lawrence of Arabia||||||||
|-
| The Music Man||||||||
|-
| Annie (Play)||||||||
|-
| Annie (Movie)||||||||
|-
| Schindler's List||||||||
|-
| Mad Men||||||||
|-
| Evita||||||||
|-
| Bonnie and Clyde||||||||
|-
| Chinatown||||||||
|-
| Gandhi||||||||
|-
| The Sandlot||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future||||||||
|-
| Patton||||||||
|-
| Catch-22 (Movie)||||||||
|-
| The Great Escape||||||||
|-
| Catch-22 (Book)||||||||
|-
| M*A*S*H||||||||
|-
| Grease||||||||
|-
| Happy Days||||||||
|-
| Platoon||||||||
|-
| The Wonder Years||||||||
|-
| Dirty Dancing||||||||
|-
| The Right Stuff||||||||
|-
| JFK||||||||
|-
| Apollo 13||||||||
|-
| That '70s Show||||||||
|-
| The Wolf of Wall Street||||||||
|-
| Freaks and Geeks||||||||
|-
| I Love the '80s||||||||
|-
| The Bridge on the River Kwai||||||||
|-
| American Graffiti||||||||
|-
| Apocalypse Now||||||||
|-
| The Big Lebowski||||||||
|-
| [[Wikipedia:United 93 (film)|United 93]]|| film directed by Paul Greengrass||2006||-5||2001
|-
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the '90s (U.S. TV series)|I Love the '90s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2004||-14||1990
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Hotel Rwanda|Hotel Rwanda]]|| film directed by Terry George||2004||-10||1994
|-
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the 2000s|I Love the 2000s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2014||-14||2000
|-
|
|}

Mouse-over text: Little known fact - The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flintstones theme becomes recognizable.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]

1491: Stories of the Past and Future

2015-02-25T14:57:07Z

108.162.216.129: /* Trivia */ Randall was hypercorrect, in my opinion

{{comic
| number = 1491
| date = February 25, 2015
| title = Stories of the Past and Future
| image = stories_of_the_past_and_future.png
| titletext = Little-known fact: The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flinstones theme becomes recognizable.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}
''A larger version of the image is available [http://xkcd.com/1491/large/ here].''

X-axis: Date of publication.

Y-axis, "Years in the future": Number of years the story's events take place, after the story's publication.

Y-axis, "Years in the past": Number of years the story's events take place, before the story's publication.

For example, "Water Margin" was published in the 14th century (x ~= 1300) and relates events from the 12th century, about 200 years before its publication (y ~= 200 in the past).

Another example: ''{{w|The Bridge on the River Kwai}}'' was written around 1957 (actually 1952) and it was set around 13 years before (actually in 1942-43, i.e. 10 years before).

Grey area in the "Years in the future" part: Stories set in the future (from their publication's date), whose the story's events' date is already past (from now).

Grey area in the "Years in the past" part: Stories set in the past (from their publication's date), published closer to their setting than to today.

Taking the "years in the past" on the y-axis to be read as negatives like in most graphs one can write:

Dates on the lower line satisfy: y=x-2015 . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015+y and are set in the year x+y=2015+2y

Dates on the upper line satisfy: y=2015-x . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015-y and are set in the year x+y=2015

Thus it's clear that the definitions of the lines are consistent with each other as they follow similar but inverted functions.

In the top portion of the graph, the two sides of the line are defined as "still possible" and "obsolete" (gray area). If no new works were added, the "obsolete" realm would expand over time, with "still possible" including fewer and fewer works. Conversely, the gray area in the lower portion (works published closer to now than to their setting) would contract. Perhaps the artist is making a comment about a perceived lack of imagination in literature? But given the highly selective list of works chosen, it's not very clear what overall conclusion the reader should draw. Perhaps it's just intended to show an unusual and interesting way to look at literature in a quantitative fashion.

==Trivia==
There is a hypercorrection in ''{{w|Rip Van Winkle}}'' as ''Rip van Winkel''. Washington Irving may have misspelled ''van {{w|nl:Winkel|Winkel}}''.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
Stories of the Past and Future
The page shows an XY chart with the X-Axis representing "Date of Publication", and the Y-Axis showing "Years in the Future" positive, and "Years in the Past" negative.

{| {{table}}
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Publication'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Description'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Written'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Difference'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Set In'''
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Memoirs of the Twentieth Century|Memoirs of the Twentieth Century]]|| book written by Samuel Madden||1733||264||1997
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Golf in the Year 2000|Golf in the Year 2000]]|| novel written by J. McCullough||1892||108||2000
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Looking Backward|Looking Backward]]|| novel written by Edward Bellamy||1888||112||2000
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Enoch Soames|Enoch Soames]]|| short story by Max Beerbohm||1897||100||1997
|-
| [[Wikipedia:The Time Machine|The Time Machine]]|| novel written by H.G. Wells||1895||800,806||802,701
|-
| 1984||||||||
|-
| A Week in the Wales of the Future||||||||
|-
| The Jetsons||||||||
|-
| Star Trek !TOS!||||||||
|-
| 2001: A Space Odyssey||||||||
|-
| Space: 1999||||||||
|-
| 2010: Odyssey Two||||||||
|-
| Star Trek: The Next Generation||||||||
|-
| 2061: Odyssey Three||||||||
|-
| Zero Wing||||||||
|-
| 3001: The Final Odyssey||||||||
|-
| Enterprise||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future Part II||||||||
|-
| Transformers (TV Series)||||||||
|-
| Terminator 2 (1995 Portion)||||||||
|-
| Casablanca||||||||
|-
| The Pillow Book||||||||
|-
| History of the Peloponnesian War||||||||
|-
| Moby Dick||||||||
|-
| Gospels||||||||
|-
| The Epic of Gilgamesh||||||||
|-
| The Iliad||||||||
|-
| Ashokavadana||||||||
|-
| Book of Genesis||||||||
|-
| Water Margin||||||||
|-
| King John||||||||
|-
| Henry IV||||||||
|-
| Richard III||||||||
|-
| Henry VIII||||||||
|-
| Julius Caesar||||||||
|-
| King Lear||||||||
|-
| A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court||||||||
|-
| Lest Darkness Fall||||||||
|-
| Asterix||||||||
|-
| The Ten Commandments||||||||
|-
| The Flintstones||||||||
|-
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (prologue)||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (IV - VI)||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (I - III)||||||||
|-
| Raptor Red||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (VII - IX)||||||||
|-
| Ice Age||||||||
|-
| 10,000 BC||||||||
|-
| 300||||||||
|-
| Year One||||||||
|-
| The Prince of Egypt||||||||
|-
| Downton Abbey||||||||
|-
| Pearl Harbour||||||||
|-
| Saving Private Ryan||||||||
|-
| Chariots of Fire||||||||
|-
| Blazing Saddles||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future Part III||||||||
|-
| Roots||||||||
|-
| Treasure Island||||||||
|-
| The Last of the Mohicans||||||||
|-
| A Tale of Two Cities||||||||
|-
| Gone With The Wind||||||||
|-
| Gunsmoke||||||||
|-
| Rip Van Winkel [sic]||||||||
|-
| Les Miserábles [sic]||||||||
|-
| Oklahoma!||||||||
|-
| Lawrence of Arabia||||||||
|-
| The Music Man||||||||
|-
| Annie (Play)||||||||
|-
| Annie (Movie)||||||||
|-
| Schindler's List||||||||
|-
| Mad Men||||||||
|-
| Evita||||||||
|-
| Bonnie and Clyde||||||||
|-
| Chinatown||||||||
|-
| Gandhi||||||||
|-
| The Sandlot||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future||||||||
|-
| Patton||||||||
|-
| Catch-22 (Movie)||||||||
|-
| The Great Escape||||||||
|-
| Catch-22 (Book)||||||||
|-
| M*A*S*H||||||||
|-
| Grease||||||||
|-
| Happy Days||||||||
|-
| Platoon||||||||
|-
| The Wonder Years||||||||
|-
| Dirty Dancing||||||||
|-
| The Right Stuff||||||||
|-
| JFK||||||||
|-
| Apollo 13||||||||
|-
| That '70s Show||||||||
|-
| The Wolf of Wall Street||||||||
|-
| Freaks and Geeks||||||||
|-
| I Love the '80s||||||||
|-
| The Bridge on the River Kwai||||||||
|-
| American Graffiti||||||||
|-
| Apocalypse Now||||||||
|-
| The Big Lebowski||||||||
|-
| [[Wikipedia:United 93 (film)|United 93]]|| film directed by Paul Greengrass||2006||-5||2001
|-
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the '90s (U.S. TV series)|I Love the '90s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2004||-14||1990
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Hotel Rwanda|Hotel Rwanda]]|| film directed by Terry George||2004||-10||1994
|-
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the 2000s|I Love the 2000s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2014||-14||2000
|-
|
|}

Mouse-over text: Little known fact - The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flintstones theme becomes recognizable.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]

1491: Stories of the Past and Future

2015-02-25T14:54:32Z

108.162.216.129: typo, and another misspelling by Randall

{{comic
| number = 1491
| date = February 25, 2015
| title = Stories of the Past and Future
| image = stories_of_the_past_and_future.png
| titletext = Little-known fact: The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flinstones theme becomes recognizable.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}
''A larger version of the image is available [http://xkcd.com/1491/large/ here].''

X-axis: Date of publication.

Y-axis, "Years in the future": Number of years the story's events take place, after the story's publication.

Y-axis, "Years in the past": Number of years the story's events take place, before the story's publication.

For example, "Water Margin" was published in the 14th century (x ~= 1300) and relates events from the 12th century, about 200 years before its publication (y ~= 200 in the past).

Another example: ''{{w|The Bridge on the River Kwai}}'' was written around 1957 (actually 1952) and it was set around 13 years before (actually in 1942-43, i.e. 10 years before).

Grey area in the "Years in the future" part: Stories set in the future (from their publication's date), whose the story's events' date is already past (from now).

Grey area in the "Years in the past" part: Stories set in the past (from their publication's date), published closer to their setting than to today.

Taking the "years in the past" on the y-axis to be read as negatives like in most graphs one can write:

Dates on the lower line satisfy: y=x-2015 . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015+y and are set in the year x+y=2015+2y

Dates on the upper line satisfy: y=2015-x . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015-y and are set in the year x+y=2015

Thus it's clear that the definitions of the lines are consistent with each other as they follow similar but inverted functions.

In the top portion of the graph, the two sides of the line are defined as "still possible" and "obsolete" (gray area). If no new works were added, the "obsolete" realm would expand over time, with "still possible" including fewer and fewer works. Conversely, the gray area in the lower portion (works published closer to now than to their setting) would contract. Perhaps the artist is making a comment about a perceived lack of imagination in literature? But given the highly selective list of works chosen, it's not very clear what overall conclusion the reader should draw. Perhaps it's just intended to show an unusual and interesting way to look at literature in a quantitative fashion.

==Trivia==
There is a misspelling in ''{{w|Rip Van Winkle}}'' as ''Rip Van Winkel''. (Alternatively, Washington Irving may have misspelled ''van {{w|nl:Winkel|Winkel}}''.)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
Stories of the Past and Future
The page shows an XY chart with the X-Axis representing "Date of Publication", and the Y-Axis showing "Years in the Future" positive, and "Years in the Past" negative.

{| {{table}}
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Publication'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Description'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Written'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Difference'''
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Set In'''
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Memoirs of the Twentieth Century|Memoirs of the Twentieth Century]]|| book written by Samuel Madden||1733||264||1997
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Golf in the Year 2000|Golf in the Year 2000]]|| novel written by J. McCullough||1892||108||2000
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Looking Backward|Looking Backward]]|| novel written by Edward Bellamy||1888||112||2000
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Enoch Soames|Enoch Soames]]|| short story by Max Beerbohm||1897||100||1997
|-
| [[Wikipedia:The Time Machine|The Time Machine]]|| novel written by H.G. Wells||1895||800,806||802,701
|-
| 1984||||||||
|-
| A Week in the Wales of the Future||||||||
|-
| The Jetsons||||||||
|-
| Star Trek !TOS!||||||||
|-
| 2001: A Space Odyssey||||||||
|-
| Space: 1999||||||||
|-
| 2010: Odyssey Two||||||||
|-
| Star Trek: The Next Generation||||||||
|-
| 2061: Odyssey Three||||||||
|-
| Zero Wing||||||||
|-
| 3001: The Final Odyssey||||||||
|-
| Enterprise||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future Part II||||||||
|-
| Transformers (TV Series)||||||||
|-
| Terminator 2 (1995 Portion)||||||||
|-
| Casablanca||||||||
|-
| The Pillow Book||||||||
|-
| History of the Peloponnesian War||||||||
|-
| Moby Dick||||||||
|-
| Gospels||||||||
|-
| The Epic of Gilgamesh||||||||
|-
| The Iliad||||||||
|-
| Ashokavadana||||||||
|-
| Book of Genesis||||||||
|-
| Water Margin||||||||
|-
| King John||||||||
|-
| Henry IV||||||||
|-
| Richard III||||||||
|-
| Henry VIII||||||||
|-
| Julius Caesar||||||||
|-
| King Lear||||||||
|-
| A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court||||||||
|-
| Lest Darkness Fall||||||||
|-
| Asterix||||||||
|-
| The Ten Commandments||||||||
|-
| The Flintstones||||||||
|-
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (prologue)||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (IV - VI)||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (I - III)||||||||
|-
| Raptor Red||||||||
|-
| Star Wars (VII - IX)||||||||
|-
| Ice Age||||||||
|-
| 10,000 BC||||||||
|-
| 300||||||||
|-
| Year One||||||||
|-
| The Prince of Egypt||||||||
|-
| Downton Abbey||||||||
|-
| Pearl Harbour||||||||
|-
| Saving Private Ryan||||||||
|-
| Chariots of Fire||||||||
|-
| Blazing Saddles||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future Part III||||||||
|-
| Roots||||||||
|-
| Treasure Island||||||||
|-
| The Last of the Mohicans||||||||
|-
| A Tale of Two Cities||||||||
|-
| Gone With The Wind||||||||
|-
| Gunsmoke||||||||
|-
| Rip Van Winkel [sic]||||||||
|-
| Les Miserábles [sic]||||||||
|-
| Oklahoma!||||||||
|-
| Lawrence of Arabia||||||||
|-
| The Music Man||||||||
|-
| Annie (Play)||||||||
|-
| Annie (Movie)||||||||
|-
| Schindler's List||||||||
|-
| Mad Men||||||||
|-
| Evita||||||||
|-
| Bonnie and Clyde||||||||
|-
| Chinatown||||||||
|-
| Gandhi||||||||
|-
| The Sandlot||||||||
|-
| Back to the Future||||||||
|-
| Patton||||||||
|-
| Catch-22 (Movie)||||||||
|-
| The Great Escape||||||||
|-
| Catch-22 (Book)||||||||
|-
| M*A*S*H||||||||
|-
| Grease||||||||
|-
| Happy Days||||||||
|-
| Platoon||||||||
|-
| The Wonder Years||||||||
|-
| Dirty Dancing||||||||
|-
| The Right Stuff||||||||
|-
| JFK||||||||
|-
| Apollo 13||||||||
|-
| That '70s Show||||||||
|-
| The Wolf of Wall Street||||||||
|-
| Freaks and Geeks||||||||
|-
| I Love the '80s||||||||
|-
| The Bridge on the River Kwai||||||||
|-
| American Graffiti||||||||
|-
| Apocalypse Now||||||||
|-
| The Big Lebowski||||||||
|-
| [[Wikipedia:United 93 (film)|United 93]]|| film directed by Paul Greengrass||2006||-5||2001
|-
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the '90s (U.S. TV series)|I Love the '90s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2004||-14||1990
|-
| [[Wikipedia:Hotel Rwanda|Hotel Rwanda]]|| film directed by Terry George||2004||-10||1994
|-
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the 2000s|I Love the 2000s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2014||-14||2000
|-
|
|}

Mouse-over text: Little known fact - The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flintstones theme becomes recognizable.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]

1491: Stories of the Past and Future

2015-02-25T13:07:36Z

108.162.216.129: /* Explanation */

1491: Stories of the Past and Future

2015-02-25T12:57:00Z

108.162.216.129: /* Trivia */

1491: Stories of the Past and Future

2015-02-25T12:51:47Z

108.162.216.129: Category:Large drawings

Talk:1454: Done

2014-12-01T14:54:14Z

108.162.216.129: Under an oppressive government?

How do we know the girl is in the United States?? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.177|141.101.104.177]] 08:54, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Is it a girl? I was thinking the hair is a bit like mick Jaggers... - Palitu {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.223}}

: I think it's a girl, and I think she's in the United States, as xkcd is a US-based comic, and pony-tail is a recurring figure also presumably in the United States. And I think it's all rather sad. Note that she's kneeling on her chair, not sitting - this is more common for girls than guys. My take is that she's the kind of person who can enter into a fantasy relationship with a person she doesn't really know, and then if/when they do ever meet in real life it will all break down because her fantasy is only that, and the real person will not match her expectations at all. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 09:37, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

:: I look at that she was incredibly lucky - it's a classic internet relationship scam. Maybe I'm just a cynic. There's also the phrase [http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/do-over "Done Over"], although I think it's a British idiom, so I highly doubt it was meant as a double entendre. [[User:Oobayly|Oobayly]] ([[User talk:Oobayly|talk]])

Consider this as a possible reference to Kim Kardashian's photo.. An effect of her trying to "break the internet" -KLee {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.212}}

'''Identity of the writer?'''
:If the writer is based on a reoccurring character than it has to be either Megan or Danish. Is there a consensus as to who it is?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.163|173.245.56.163]]

:: Isn't she Caroline, or 'curly buns'. Similar curly haired girl has appeared in similar roles on several pages but it seems her age isn't entirely set and instead fluctuates according to the call of a particular strip.

I don't think that anyone literally said "shut it down", I believe it was a rhetoric, at least that's how I read it. [[User:Official.xian|Official.xian]] ([[User talk:Official.xian|talk]]) 11:47, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Oh yes. Forget that the economy would go to hell without Internet. Forget how much science is done using Internet. The real reason for Internet to exist is so you can get in love with someone on different continent. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:44, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
:I'm not so sure... it would seem it was primarily funny cat videos, the funniest possible of which was obviously posted, viewed, and judged as the final necessary use of the internet. It was thus agreed to shut it down, as there is really no need to continue with this charade variously coined as "commerce", "science", or other superfluous forms of so-called "communication" (that is the garbled blathering that is not funny cat pictures or videos), all depending of course on your preferred (but nonetheless obviously deluded) persuasion. This comic only serves to prove it. I am left wondering, though... how did Ponytail come to learn this? SMS? Phone Tree? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 13:55, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
::Is there perhaps a meme going around where instead of "lol" you write "internetover" to say "this is so good/funny, i can now die happy" and the comic author was annoyed with that and made this where the start situation is silly and the end is even sillier? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.163|108.162.254.163]] 14:10, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

This could be far more than a romantic involvement. She says she thought she was asking too much. But then she found... a like-minded individual, someone who can... notice the 'glitches in the matrix', as it were. Much more might have been lost here than a believed love. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.169|173.245.54.169]] 14:13, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

It could mean the girl is in love or wants to adopt a child from a country like Iran, but before she can tell, the internet THERE is shut down by the government
(which happens all the time because of some youtube video or something). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.114|108.162.237.114]] 14:18, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

: Or the writer may be in a country like Russia, China, or Turkey, where the internet is widely used but under constant threat of political censorship.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 14:54, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1406: Universal Converter Box

2014-08-11T04:45:19Z

108.162.216.129: Gas gender changer; ADB

Would like to see what a gender changer for the petrol pump looks like... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 04:37, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

: It’s a funnel.

: I guess those folks still using their ADB keyboards are out of luck.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 04:45, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1402: Harpoons

2014-08-01T14:04:14Z

108.162.216.129: Yankee Clipper

I took the sentient space craft joke to be a reference to the movie "Dark Star".

Harpoon is a brand of rum. Did a bottle make it into space? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.196|108.162.219.196]] 12:55, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Did this comic upload quite late in the day for anyone else? Is anyone else experiencing or did anyone else experience that "Latest Comic" is still going to 1401 as ix XKCD.com and XKCD.com/#

"This is obviously a joke, as sentient spacecraft cannot be created with current technology." Yeah, will need a citation on that... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.148|108.162.229.148]] 13:23, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Definitely a joke. Appolo 12’s call sign was Yankee Clipper, and a clipper ship would not carry any harpoons.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 14:04, 1 August 2014 (UTC)