explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:988: Tradition

2021-10-10T18:18:58Z

141.101.77.84:

Redacted the following from the explanation:

:It would be interesting to see this research, because the most popular Christmas album of all time was not released until 1994, "{{w|Merry Christmas (Mariah Carey album)|Merry Christmas}}" by {{w|Mariah Carey}}. This album featured what is considered to be the most ubiquitous song around this time of the year which is "All I Want For Christmas Is You" which is also featured prominently in the very popular (and frequently replayed) movie {{w|Love Actually}} from 2003. The song is the only holiday song and ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the U.S. So, usually the information that Randall presents to us doesn't immediately present itself as egregiously incorrect, but this one just seems to not factor in the popular success of a mid-90s release.

because the list on which Randall based his graph is linked later in the explanation, and Randall doesn't have control over its data (unless he's using Data Over Billboard Charts). [[User:Noëlle|Noëlle]] ([[User talk:Noëlle|talk]]) 12:35, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Couldn't this be when all the older Christmas carols and such were popularly released, id est, when radios were becoming common? [[Special:Contributions/107.204.46.198|107.204.46.198]] 15:13, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

It also doesn't include [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Got_Run_Over_by_a_Reindeer Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer] which is also played incessantly. [[Special:Contributions/63.239.65.11|63.239.65.11]] 20:26, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

And what about the alt-text? Is it perhaps suggesting that tradition is not as it is made out to be? {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.63}}

Eric Harvey of The Atlantic responded to this comic by pointing out that the period between radio's coming to dominance during the Depression and the onset of rock'n roll was the point where mass media was at its' most *mass* before segmentation took hold. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/12/why-the-christmas-song-canon-has-a-baby-boomer-bias/250344/ [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.70|173.245.52.70]] 13:44, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Isn't all traditions just that? Something some people did on a regular basis long time ago and we just carry on doing...that's why i don't give a damn about traditions.[[Special:Contributions/198.41.229.24|198.41.229.24]] 15:04, 14 December 2016 (UTC)
:The point is more that these particular traditions are a lot more recent than people, even baby boomers, assume. - [[Special:Contributions/172.69.55.118|172.69.55.118]] 22:10, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

What about Last Christmas, is that not also very popular now in the US? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:49, 19 April 2018 (UTC)
:Not that much as in Europe, look {{w|Last_Christmas#All-time_charts|here}}. In Germany before Christmas you feel like Wham!rolled, switching on the radio: "Laaaast Christm...". It's annoying. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:22, 21 April 2018 (UTC)
::reminds me of {{w|Flappie}}[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.84|141.101.77.84]] 18:18, 10 October 2021 (UTC)
I SAW MOMMY KISSING SANTA CLAUS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

2525: Air Travel Packing List

2021-10-07T19:13:08Z

141.101.77.84: /* Explanation */ Tyop

{{comic
| number = 2525
| date = October 6, 2021
| title = Air Travel Packing List
| image = air_travel_packing_list.png
| titletext = I know the etiquette is controversial, but I think it's rude when the person in front of me reclines their seat into the bell of my trumpet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an TRUMPETBORNE PARACHUTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about a proposed air-travel packing list, and the humor is that many people who have not been flying during Covid might have forgotten what to pack. Most of the items are already found on the plane, SOUND like they would be useful on a plane, or could be useful in (the unlikely event of) a plane crash. Here is a quick summary of each:

{| class="wikitable"
! Item
! Explanation
|-
|Seat cushion
|This can be used as a flotation device in a crash and is provided by the airline. Some people may also bring their own cushions for comfort.
|-
|{{w|Parachute}}
|Parachutes are normally used to slow down your falling out of the sky to a relatively safe speed in case of a severe problem with your aircraft, and are routinely used as a safety device by (para)glider pilots, test pilots, military aircraft crew and in similar situations when being unable to land safely is a significant concern. A parachute won't be very useful in a typical passenger airplane (even a small one) as there is no way to safely exit such a plane in-flight. Even the airplanes used to voluntarily exit from while they're perfectly good (as some crazy people do) need to be specifically designed or modified for the purpose such as having wide sliding doors that are unaffected by airflow. However, there were single cases of people being ejected or sucked out of a passenger airplane; in such case a parachute could by arguably useful. Famously, [[:Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper|D.B. Cooper]] jumped from an airplane in-flight with a parachute.
|-
|Wing glue
|Probably to repair wings in the event of damage, potentially in a crash. Would be tricky (but not necessarily impossible) to apply mid-flight. This the first of several items that are potentially useful to the flight crew or maintenance teams, but would not be useful or appropriate for passengers to bring aboard.
|-
|{{w|Air horn}}
|An air horn uses compressed air to make a very loud noise very easily. This may be important for drawing attention to yourself in the event of a crash. Typically, emergency lifejackets on a plane are provided with a light and whistle for this purpose. The noise of an air horn might prove more effective for this purpose than a whistle, but it would become useless as soon as the compressed air ran out. Its inclusion is probably meant to suggest that the word 'air' in its name indicates that it's designed for use in an aircraft. Using one in a non-emergency situation would infuriate everyone else on the plane.
|-
|{{w|Sextant}}
|In combination with star charts, a sextant can be used to determine your position based on the location of stars in the night sky. Alternately, in combination with an accurate clock, a sextant can be used to determine the position of the sun relative to the aircraft to determine the vehicle's position. In a crash, you could use this to find your way to a safe place, but sextants are rarely used, and most people not trained on how to operate one. GPS will also allow you to find your position, is built into many phones, and is faster and easier to use than a sextant. If you've got a homing beacon, it probably makes more sense to just activate that and wait for help to arrive.

Until the early 1980s, long-range airplanes had a {{w|Air_navigation#Flight_navigator|flight navigator}} who used sextants and {{w|celestial navigation}} to determine the position of the airplane. Interestingly, it was much more accurate than early {{w|inertial navigation systems}}, and the accuracy of celestial navigation is still useful today. What made the sextant redundant was the INS' lower workload - the error accumulated by the INS during a long oceanic flight could always and easily be mitigated by other means, for example with {{w|VHF omnidirectional range|VOR}}/{{w|Non-directional beacon|NDB}} radio beacons.
|-
|Nose plugs and goggles for pressure
|Nose plugs and goggles are commonly used in swimming but would be useless for dealing with cabin pressurization or depressurization. Since your mouth and nose are interconnected, nose plugs would be useless on their own. Trying to hold your breath in a sudden depressurization event will cause lung damage, so nose plugs wouldn't be a good thing, even if you could also seal off your mouth. Goggles would also not be useful. During depressurization, the air would just seep out. During pressurization, they would just become uncomfortable and difficult to remove.
|-
|Airplane shoes
|Airlines typically don't require the use of special footwear for passengers, nor do they provide special shoes. Before emergency egress, certain shoes (like high heels) must be discarded, though. Aircrew are also prohibited from wearing such shoes.
|-
|Navigation crystal
|Mystical form of navigation, presumably either for navigation during flight or to help you get home after a crash.
Crystals that polarize light can be used as a compass [http://www.polarization.com/viking/viking.html].
|-
|Spare batteries in case the plane runs out
|Airplanes will generally use more power than any battery small enough to be easily packed in a bag can provide. They will generally use either 115V AC at 400Hz or 28V DC, both of which are very uncommon outside of aviation. The plane will almost never use its own batteries in-flight anyway, getting its electric power from the main engines, the APU, or, in emergencies, the ram air turbine or similar generating device. The batteries are generally only used on the ground when the engines are not running.
|-
|{{w|Birdseed}}
|So one can attract birds. In practice, this wouldn't work for multiple reasons (high speed, altitude, and sealed windows being some of most obvious ones) and would pose a significant hazard of birds getting stuck in an engine if it did. On the other hand, spreading birdseed before boarding would be seen as misconduct by airport authorities, as it may pose a danger to aircraft by attracting birds. Alternatively, birdseed can be used to attract birds after surviving a crash, e.g. to catch them for food.
|-
|{{w|Homing beacon}}
|Once activated, a homing beacon will send out a continuous radio signal so that rescuers can find your location. These can be very useful in a plane crash, but airplanes already carry them ({{w|Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon}}s), so you don't need to pack one yourself. Incidentally, the {{w|COSPAS-SARSAT}} system for locating distressed airplanes and ships was a cooperation started by the United States and the Soviet Union, and it was an elegant and simple solution that uses the {{w|Doppler effect}} of radio signals for accurate location - long before the {{w|Global Positioning System}}.
|-
|Meteorite antidote
|Meteorites are pieces of space rocks that make it all the way to the ground. They can cause injury but they aren't poisonous{{Citation needed}}, so an antidote would not help.
|-
|USB wing connector
|This is a just a wire connector, but because it has wing in the name is on the list. Alternatively, the plane wings connect by USB, and this can be used to reattach wings. Airplanes rather use the {{W|ARINC 429}} protocol instead of USB protocols to facilitate electronic communication between flight computers and the engines, for example.
|-
|Emergency siren
|USE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
|-
|Spare flaps
|Flaps can be moved to adjust the lift/drag ratio of a wing, generally during takeoff and landing. Flaps are very large and mounted on the wing, outside the passenger compartment, so bringing spares would be very difficult and completely useless. Flaps failing to come down can also usually be remedied by just landing at a longer runway.
|-
|{{w|Mouthpiece (brass)|Mouthpiece}} (pandemic restriction; airlines still provide the trumpet)
|A part of a brass instrument like a trumpet. Randall jokes that trumpets are provided on airplanes (which would be very obnoxious to other passengers), but due to the pandemic you cannot use a shared mouthpiece.
|-
|Luggage ballast
|Likely to make plane more balanced. While balancing weight in a plane is indeed a real problem, it's solved by rearranging luggage and adjusting engine power slightly. Introducing ballast would mean additional weight for no real reason.
Alternatively, while a common passenger issue is to have hand- and/or hold-luggage that exceeds the airline's personal allowance, this person has ''under''weight baggage and does not wish to 'waste' the difference, so bulks it up. (Noting that someone already with the rest of the items on this list is unlikely to suffer this 'problem'.)
|-
|Flag (international flights)
|To identify your country of origin. Other flags are also used to communicate between boats without electricity, in the event the boats are in distress, so they could be used in the event of a crash.
|-
|Decoy tickets
|Maybe these would used as a distraction so you can sneak onto the plane without paying?
But also a typical trope for fictional (and real life?) attempts to evade being tracked or followed. Buy tickets for one destination, that one assumes the opposition will be fully aware of, but also arrange for another set (probably with a 'clean' identity) for your intended destination and switch to using those once in the chaos of the departure-lounge.
|-
|Keys to the plane
|Though some pushed for it after a plane was stolen in the {{w|2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident}}, planes do not require keys to start the engine(s) like a car does. Likewise, plane doors are not locked with a key. Instead, they are rather sealed - if a seal is broken, the plane is thoroughly checked for any wrongdoing.
|}

The title text reference a common debate regarding reclining in airplanes. About half of the people think that reclining is rude as it takes up the space of the person behind. The other half think that seats recline for a reason and the person in a seat has the rights to the space behind them. That has resulted in actual physical fights. Here Randall sides with the anti-recliners, presumably because it would prevent him from playing the trumpet, the person in front will certainly argue that playing the trumpet is annoying, to which Randall could reply that because the trumpet is provided by the airline, he has the right to play it, adding a new layer to the debate.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

<big>Air Travel Packing List</big>

If you haven't flown in a while, you might not remember what you need to bring. Use this handy checklist to pack!

[Two columns of lists of items. Each item is preceded by a checkbox.]
*Seat cushion
*Parachute
*Wing glue
*Air horn
*Sextant
*Nose plugs and goggles for pressure
*Airplane shoes
*Navigation crystal
*Spare batteries in case the plane runs out
*Birdseed
*Homing beacon
*Meteorite antidote
*USB wing connector
*Emergency siren
*Spare flaps
*Mouthpiece (pandemic restriction; airlines still provide the trumpet)
*Luggage ballast
*Flag (international flights)
*Decoy tickets
*Keys to the plane

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:20: Ferret

2021-10-03T12:12:12Z

141.101.77.84:

The wings are gonna have to be waay bigger if that plane is gonna fly. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:23, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

I wonder if the flying ferret has anything to do with Richard Bach, a noted aviation author who published a series of flying books called "The Ferret Chronicles" in 2002-2003? --[[Special:Contributions/144.92.241.6|144.92.241.6]] 21:58, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

This is the saddest strip of all! {{unsigned|Saijm4444}}

Jonathan Livingston Ferret. {{unsigned|anonymous}}

Could this comic be where the FlyingFerret IRC bot in #xkcd on foonetic.net was originally conceived? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.246|108.162.219.246]] 23:55, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Cueball could have let the matter drop with, "of course not." Instead, he deprecates both himself and his efforts while aligning himself with his friend's more pedestrian opinion. He makes a deliberate and public show of conformity. However, the last two panels show that, privately, he hasn't given up on the dream of wings for his ferret. Flight, especially in imagination or dreams, often represents freedom. Also, pets can sometimes be seen as extensions or representations of their owners. The dream of flight for the ferret could represent Cueball's desire for freedom from social strictures that he feels confine him. --[[User:David.poole.9000|DP9000]] ([[User talk:David.poole.9000|talk]]) 09:23, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

I think it would be a nice irony if the video game they went off to play involved a pet which flies e.g. dragon. Pet dragons seem to feature in multiple games.[[User:EditorGonk|EditorGonk]] ([[User talk:EditorGonk|talk]]) 09:50, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

Every time I see someone saying that first few hundred xkcd comics were the worst it hurts, mostly because of this one. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.84|141.101.77.84]] 12:12, 3 October 2021 (UTC)

2357: Polls vs the Street

2020-09-10T07:17:43Z

141.101.77.84: Remove unrelated link

{{comic
| number = 2357
| date = September 9, 2020
| title = Polls vs the Street
| image = polls_vs_the_street.png
| titletext = Other pollsters complain about declining response rates, but our poll showed that 96% of respondents would be 'somewhat likely' or 'very likely' to agree to answer a series of questions for a survey.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN APPRECIATIVE CAR. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic discusses getting data or opinions through a study (polls) or by getting them anecdotally (on the street). The phrase "voice on the street" is commonly used by news reporters who get opinions on issues by literally asking people walking by what they think, and has been previously mentioned (and derided) in [[756: Public Opinion]].

Many news organizations conduct polls (or pay polling firms to conduct polls) to assess the opinions of "the public". Many news shows also conduct "man-on-the-street" interviews (more formally known as ''{{w|vox populi}}'', "voice of the people"), to provide a human face of "the public" and engage viewers more. Many pollsters, pundits, and politicians worry about gaps between polls and ground-truth, as in the infamous "{{w|Dewey Defeats Truman}}" newspaper headline, and so White Hat is here extolling the virtues of interviewing [https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-to-Common-Folk "real people"] to get at that ground truth.

His first objection, that polls suggest "candidate X" is more favored, while the people on the street that White Hat interviews are more supportive of "candidate Y", sounds reasonable enough. (Based on when this comic was released, it may refer to the upcoming {{w|2020 United States elections}}.) In fact, it is already a topic of concern by pollsters, known variously as the "{{w|Bradley effect}}", "{{w|shy Tory factor}}", or "{{w|silent majority}}," where some people will publicly profess one preference to a pollster but then vote some other way on the ballot. However, it quickly becomes clear that White Hat's methodology is driven by his own biases. It seems that he is literally just talking to people on the streets of his own town (where it's logistically impossible for the majority of people to live or visit), and furthermore is conducting his conversations literally within the street itself, flouting traffic laws, rather than on sidewalks (perhaps a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic). It is true that he's getting "ground truth", but it's also true that he's only sampling a very small (and highly idiosyncratic) part of the whole population.

In the final panel, White Hat claims that, contrary to polls stating that playing in traffic is unpopular, everybody he meets on the street enjoys it. This is a joke about the phrase "on the street". Usually this phrase means people walking on the sidewalk beside a road, but White Hat is presumably taking the phrase literally and interviewing people he finds on the roadway. Most people have enough sense not to walk on the road for an extended period of time, but the ones who are found on the roadway must be those who have no qualms about darting around traffic on foot, despite the dangers. Hence the people he interviews enjoy playing in traffic.

The title text is a joke about {{w|selection bias}} and {{w|tautology}}. People who don't feel like taking surveys wouldn't get as far as answering a survey question about survey questions.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:White Hat: Polls are just numbers.
:White Hat: You have to talk to people on the ''street''.

:White Hat: Polls ''say'' most people support <Candidate X>.
:White Hat: But the people I talk to on the ''street'' support <Candidate Y>.

:White Hat: Polls ''claim'' most people don't live in my town and have never been here.
:White Hat: But the people I meet on the ''street'' tell a very different story.

:White Hat: According to ''polls'', most people don't like playing in traffic.
:White Hat: So why do I never seem to meet these people on the ''street''?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Politics]]