explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3044: Humidifier Review

2025-01-31T16:02:26Z

162.158.62.107:

Somehow, the text here makes me think of the air-source heat pump equivalent, i.e. ''Why shouldn't it be the case that humidifiers condense outside air and suck the water out of it, and then pump that water into the conditioned space and re-disperse it?'' Of course, the obvious answer is that doing so would be frightfully expensive and entirely unnecessary given the cost of that kind of condensation compared to the cost of water. And, of course, the capital cost for the minor plumbing to install a domestic water line to the humidifier is going to be far smaller than the capital cost of a heat pump apparatus (or whatever) to generate condensation outdoors and then pump it into the conditioned space. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 00:13, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
:Also it would still need that amount of water, just that the operator doesn't need to add it manually. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:43, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

This reminds me of the whole thing with the VTuber Sakura Miko where she was using a humidifier without knowing she had to fill the tank with water for at least a year [[Special:Contributions/172.70.223.184|172.70.223.184]] 01:10, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Related to that, just a week ago Sharp announced a humidifier collaboration with Sakura Miko, and as part of the PR they made a formal apology for "Not being able to use magic to make a waterless humidifier" {{unsigned ip|198.41.236.162|02:01, 30 January 2025}}

I'm waiting for the HydroPro High-Efficiency Electric Kettle™ which is connected to a heat pump to heat your tea water. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.170.192|172.71.170.192]] 04:39, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

: ''High-Efficiency Electric Kettle™ which is connected to a heat pump to heat your tea water'' You jest; but in the US we get hot water at the sink faucet. There is a push to do it all with heat-pumps, save a hundred bucks a year! (They say more, but I've compared our use.) But the heatpumps are $2K. A dumb resistor tank is $500. Payback is well in excess of 5 years. And it would make my cold cellar even colder, thus damper. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 06:17, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

:: A heat pump water heater would (if properly installed) make the cellar colder and dryer. Essentially, it's air conditioning the cellar and that's what A/C does. In detail water will condense on the cold coils (giving up latent heat which helps heat the water) and the condensate should go down a drain reducing the amount of water in the cellar.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.107|162.158.62.107]] 16:02, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

:: Just install a dehumidifier. And feed the water that the dehumidifier into the water heater. Infinite hot water! Also, enormous electric bills. Also legionnaire's disease. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 06:22, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
::: All dehumidifiers and all humidifiers must be connected together for the ultimate harmony! (If there turns out to be a net need/excess, we can work out what to do... We probably have a whole load of piping leading all over the planet, by this time, so we can find the most optimal source/sink.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.33|172.70.162.33]] 13:32, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Another device which is often getting negative reviews for not breaking laws of physics is car. Not only that, EU laws for 2035 are basically making against the EU law for a new car to not break laws of physics. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:08, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
: The only two transportation options that do not either break the laws of physics or ultimately prove either unfeasible or useless against carbon dioxide spiking and resulting anthropogenic climate change have five toes on each one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.87|162.158.42.87]] 15:34, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
:: Cycling burns about half the calories per mile as walking. Which one has the lower overall carbon footprint depends on a lot of factors, including the carbon created for food production, bicycle production, the lifetime and maintenance requirements for the bike, the health benefits leading to a longer life (and hence more carbon production) for the walker/rider, etc. But if you already have a bike, it's probably more efficient to ride than it is to walk. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.169|162.158.62.169]] 17:59, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
::: Except that this isn't how humans work. Just because you reduce your calorie expenditure on transportation doesn't mean you reduce your calorie expenditure overall - it will just get expended somewhere else. Besides which, calorie expenditure isn't tied to calorie consumption. Even if you were able to reduce your overall expenditure, it would make no difference at all to your carbon footprint. To do that you'd need to reduce how much you eat (or change its composition).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.7|141.101.98.7]] 09:33, 31 January 2025 (UTC)
:::: You would burn fewer calories if you cycled for a while (instead of walking) though. Maybe cycling a mile compared to walking it wouldn't really make any difference, but cycling 20 miles as opposed to walking that definitely would burn fewer calories. Walking 20 miles is already going noticeably over your regular calorie expenditure, which is going to require more food no matter what, so cycling instead would definitely require less food. Although the difference is probably not too big compared to what you would usually burn. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 10:09, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

Zero stars:

Dried out my house when I was already dehydrated

- BButton1869
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 20:42, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm not sure conservation of mass is the right law here. It would be possible to increase humidity without using water or violating the conservation of mass, such as by burning hydrogen. The relevant law here is the conservation of ''molecular quantity''. Except . . . that's not a law (hence my hydrogen combustion counterexample). What's going on here is that you cannot change the amount of water ''without a chemical reaction'', essentially by definition. So any humidifier that operates in a purely mechanical manner without reacting any chemicals will "conserve water" in this sense.

In the real world, every humidifier works this way, and it would rarely make sense to do it any other way. In fact, you are more likely to see oxygen made from water (e.g. in a submarine or space station) than vice-versa. However, if you have a natural gas furnace, that will produce water, and in principle, there's no reason that produced water could not be fed into a humidifier, thus saving on the water bill. Highly efficient furnaces capture the water without letting it out the flu, not because they want to salvage the water, but to increase efficiency. Still, the water is there, so this isn't a physically or even practically impossible demand. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 01:28, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

: "''...a natural gas furnace, that will produce water, .....could ...be fed into a humidifier,''" There are gas appliances, cookers and room heaters, also gas clothes dryers, which can vent damp exhaust directly to the room. But even when I paid for water, I never fretted about the cost of humidity. And I already run a dehumidifier 7 months a year. And the hi-eff gas burners and the dehumidifier in a damp basement already force me to maintain a non-ignorable pump infrastructure to lift water out of the cellar. -- So unlike the joker in the cartoon, I am hyper-aware of my humidity.--[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 04:39, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

2950: Situation

2024-06-24T22:48:40Z

162.158.62.107: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2950
| date = June 24, 2024
| title = Situation
| image = situation_2x.png
| imagesize = 578x306px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're right under the flight path for the scheduled orbital launch, but don't worry--it's too cold out for the rockets to operate safely, so I'm sure they'll postpone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Shark, the iceberg of the sea - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic depicts a situation involving multiple pieces of infrastructure: a ship, sailing towards icebergs, which is tethered to an airship flying next to a power plant towards a bridge. Each of these are labelled with details that clearly reference famous disasters, all which were caused (at least in part) by design failures. All of these incidents are common case studies for engineers studying how things can go very wrong. The implication is that, by putting them all together, most engineers would be highly concerned with the potential for catastrophe.

- "Unsinkable Ocean Liner" refers to the RMS ''{{w|Titanic}}''.

The ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner which famously {{w|Sinking of the Titanic|sank}} on its maiden voyage in 1912. It was the largest ship in operation at the time, and was called "unsinkable" due to its size and much-lauded design features. The ship struck an iceberg on the fourth day of its first voyage, breaching the hull and ultimately causing it to sink, resulting in 1,496 deaths. Multiple design inadequacies, including too few life boats and inadequate steering ability, were afterwards identified as contributing to the ship sinking and to the high loss of life.

- "Hydrogen-filled [Airship]" refers to the {{w|Hindenburg Disaster}}.

The {{w|LZ 129 Hindenburg|''Hindenburg''}} was a German airship which used hydrogen as a lifting gas. In 1937, during a landing in New Jersey, the ship caught fire and the inflammable hydrogen quickly ignited, causing the ship to crash and resulting in 36 deaths. While the origins of the fire are still debated, the dangers of using large amounts of inflammable gas in airships were made dramatically clear.

Ironically, the hydrogen airship appears to have been commissioned for the purpose of mitigating iceberg risks, unless 'iceberg spotting' is for the purpose of steering the 'Unsinkable Ocean Liner' into icebergs.

- "Soviet Era Nuclear Reactor Undergoing a Turbine Test" refers to the {{w|Chernobyl Disaster}}.

The {{w|Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant}} is located near the city of Pripyat, in Ukraine under the Soviet Union. On 26 April 1986, a reactor core partially melted and caused an explosion, causing a massive release of radiation. This incident remains the worst nuclear accident to date. The number of fatalities from the disaster are difficult to calculate; two people died from the initial damage, twenty-eight more from acute radiation sickness, and fifteen people who were directly exposed developed terminal thyroid cancer. The radiation, however, spread far beyond the plant itself and the number of premature deaths ultimately attributable to subsequent exposure can't be calculated directly, though most estimates are easily in the thousands.

- "Bridge Prone to Aeroelastic Flutter in High Winds" refers to the {{w|Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940)|Tacoma Narrows Bridge}}.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a suspension bridge in the U.S. state of Washington, was initially built in 1940. From the time of its construction, the bridge was observed to sway and {{w|Aeroelasticity#Flutter|flutter}} in high winds. About four months after opening, the bridge fluttered so violently in 40 mile-per-hour (64 km/h) winds that it collapsed into the river. There were no human fatalities, though several people were injured. This collapse is frequently used to demonstrate the dangers of harmonic vibration in infrastructure, particularly structures exposed to strong winds. The bridge was eventually rebuilt, with a redesign intended to prevent such fluttering.

- The title text refers to the {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster}}.

The {{w|Space Shuttle Challenger|''Challenger''}} was an American space shuttle which broke up shortly after its orbital launch in 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard. The disaster was caused by a failure of O-ring seals on one of shuttle's rocket boosters and subsequent leak of fuels. The likely cause of these failures was because the weather was much colder than normal in the launch area, causing the seals to be well below their design temperature range in the immediate lead-up to being exposed to launch conditions, and were then unable to maintain their integrity. Engineers for the company that had built the boosters raised this concern and recommended postponing the launch, but were overruled.

In this comic, is it unclear how the nuclear reactor turbine test is being performed, but if it causes a large amount of wind to be expelled in the direction of the bridge that could cause the wind-related design flaws of the bridge to be activated (bridge collapse). On the other hand, if it directs severe wind and/or heat into the sky it could affect the stability and/or integrity of the airship (airship explosion). Maybe the airship explodes (from violent wind/heat expelled by the vertical smokestack), and the shock waves from the explosion cause the nearby bridge to collapse. With the airship gone and no longer looking for icebergs, the ship hits the icebergs ahead and sinks, and the nuclear reactor is destroyed by the airship explosion and falling debris from above.

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

:[An airship flying, labeled:]
:Hydrogen-filled scout airship for iceberg spotting
:[The airship is chained to a ship, going along a river, labeled:]
:Unsinkable ocean liner
:[In the background on the coast a nuclear power plant, labeled:]
:Soviet-era nuclear reactor undergoing a turbine test
:[The boat and airship are steering towards a bridge, labeled:]
:Bridge prone to aeroelastic flutter in high winds
:[Two unlabeled icebergs are on the water on either side of the bridge.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In retrospect, we should have noticed how nervous the situation was making the engineers.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Space]]

2425: mRNA Vaccine

2021-02-15T19:58:41Z

162.158.62.107: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2425
| date = February 15, 2021
| title = mRNA Vaccine
| image = mrna_vaccine.png
| titletext = To ensure lasting immunity, doctors recommend destroying a second Death Star some time after the first.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a THERMAL EXHAUST PORT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The death star is a wild political computer virus that uses machine learning and falsified orders and is devastating communities internationally.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2421: Tower of Babel

2021-02-08T20:44:40Z

162.158.62.107: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2421
| date = February 5, 2021
| title = Tower of Babel
| image = tower_of_babel.png
| titletext = Soon, linguists will be wandering around everywhere, saying things like "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" and "more people have been to Russia than I have," and speech will become unintelligible.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COLORLESS GREEN IDEA. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The story of the {{w|Tower of Babel}} is the Biblical explanation for the existence of different languages in the world. In the story, humans endeavor to build a tower reaching heaven. Their arrogance angers God and prompts him to sabotage the project. He does this by "confounding their speech" (commonly interpreted as giving everyone their own language), inhibiting their ability to work together.

In this retelling, however, the tower is actually finished. God is happy to receive the human visitors, and offers them a reward.

The party that ascends to the top of the tower consists of [[Cueball]], [[Megan]] and a curly-haired woman, who may be the linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} as she was depicted in [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]].

When the curly-haired woman expresses her love of words, God offers to create a panoply of languages. Megan immediately sees the problems with this, but the word-loving woman is enthusiastic. Instead of a punishment by God, linguistic diversity is presented as a well-intended challenge. Megan then states "We should not have brought a {{w|linguist}}." This is a paradox, since before this day there where only one language, and thus no true linguists. Of course the curly haired-woman may have studied their own current language, which would technically make her a [https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/grammarian grammarian]. But with only one language this could be said to count as a linguist.

{{w|Phonology}}, a part of linguistics, is the study of the sound system used in a language or dialect, or of the systems that languages use to organize sounds. {{w|b:Conlang/Advanced/Grammar/Alignment|Morphosyntactic alignment}} is the grammatical relationship between the noun arguments to a verb — for example, between the two arguments (in English, the subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument of intransitive verbs like ''the cat ran away''.

The title text expands the joke by suggesting that the miscommunication caused by the Tower of Babel is not due to language barriers, but instead because of intentionally meaningless sentences created by linguists to illustrate points about grammar, and identifies two famous examples of such . "{{w|Colorless green ideas sleep furiously}}", coined by linguist {{w|Noam Chomsky}} in 1957, is an example of a sentence that is structurally correct but contains paradoxes and meaningless comparisons: something cannot be both colorless AND green (see {{w|Invisible Pink Unicorn}}), ideas do not sleep, and sleeping is not generally done furiously.{{Citation needed}} That said, the sentence "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is so well known in linguistics that a competition to make the sentence meaningful was held in 1985 and {{w|Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously#Attempts_at_meaningful_interpretations|attracted a number of entrants}}.

"More people have been to Russia than I have" is a well-known example of {{w|comparative illusion}}. It sounds like it means something but, upon actual analysis, does not, although it could be interpreted as there being more people to visit Russia than the speaker owns, or has in their household.

==Transcript==
:[The Tower of Babel is shown. It has a broad two sectioned base and above that extends straight up out of the top of the frame, with 10 identical segments. This is seen from afar, so the three people standing at the base of the tower is very small. But Cueball and Megan can be easily identified. They are standing on either side of a woman with big curly hair (which is first clear in the next panel). The text spoken is written over the tower in white sections that hides the tower. But the tower can be seen above, between and below these two text segments:]
:Cueball: The Tower of Babel is complete!
:Megan: Let's go meet God!

:[Cueball, the curly haired woman and Megan are now standing at the top of the Tower of Babel. The top is made of bricks, but the part of the last segment before the top looks like those shown in the first panel. God is represented by an off-panel voice coming from a star burst at the top of the panel. The three people look up in that direction.]
:Cueball: Hi God!
:God (off-panel): Wow, nice tower!
:God (off-panel): You did a great job! I'm so proud!
:Megan: Thanks!

:[Same settings but Megan has turned towards the curly haired woman holding an arm out towards her. The woman has taken one hand to her chin.]
:God (off-panel): I'm going to give you a reward.
:God (off-panel): What do you like about the world?
:Curly haired woman: Hmm. Words are really cool.
:Megan: No, wait-

:[Same settings, in a broader panel. The curly haired woman lifts her hands up curled into fists. Her yell comes from a starburst over her head, to indicate the difference to normal speech. Megan has taken her arm down.]
:God (off-panel): Great! I'm going to give you lots of languages to study, each with its own phonology, word ordering, morphosyntactic alignment...
:Curly haired woman: '''''YESSSSSS!'''''
:Megan: We should '''''not''''' have brought a linguist.

==Trivia==
In [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]], sentences spoken by Gretchen McCulloch do not have periods at their ends, a fact which she mentioned on Twitter. However, in this comic, she uses periods, so her previous periodlessness might be a coincidence and not a trait of her character on xkcd.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Language]]

2421: Tower of Babel

2021-02-08T20:43:42Z

162.158.62.107: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2421
| date = February 5, 2021
| title = Tower of Babel
| image = tower_of_babel.png
| titletext = Soon, linguists will be wandering around everywhere, saying things like "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" and "more people have been to Russia than I have," and speech will become unintelligible.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COLORLESS GREEN IDEA. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The story of the {{w|Tower of Babel}} is the Biblical explanation for the existence of different languages in the world. In the story, humans endeavor to build a tower reaching heaven. Their arrogance angers God and prompts him to sabotage the project. He does this by "confounding their speech" (commonly interpreted as giving everyone their own language), inhibiting their ability to work together.

In this retelling, however, the tower is actually finished. God is happy to receive the human visitors, and offers them a reward.

The party that ascends to the top of the tower consists of [[Cueball]], [[Megan]] and a curly haired woman, who may be the linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} as she was depicted in [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]].

When the curly haired woman expresses her love of words, God offers to create a panoply of languages. Megan immediately sees the problems with this, but the word-loving woman is enthusiastic. Instead of a punishment by God, linguistic diversity is presented as a well-intended challenge. Megan then states "We should not have brought a {{w|linguist}}." This is a paradox, since before this day there where only one language, and thus no true linguists. Of course the curly haired woman may have studied their own current language, which would technically make her a [https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/grammarian grammarian]. But with only one language this could be said to count as a linguist.

{{w|Phonology}}, a part of linguistics, is the study of the sound system used in a language or dialect, or of the systems that languages use to organize sounds. {{w|b:Conlang/Advanced/Grammar/Alignment|Morphosyntactic alignment}} is the grammatical relationship between the noun arguments to a verb — for example, between the two arguments (in English, the subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument of intransitive verbs like ''the cat ran away''.

The title text expands the joke by suggesting that the miscommunication caused by the Tower of Babel is not due to language barriers, but instead because of intentionally meaningless sentences created by linguists to illustrate points about grammar, and identifies two famous examples of such . "{{w|Colorless green ideas sleep furiously}}", coined by linguist {{w|Noam Chomsky}} in 1957, is an example of a sentence that is structurally correct but contains paradoxes and meaningless comparisons: something cannot be both colorless AND green (see {{w|Invisible Pink Unicorn}}), ideas do not sleep, and sleeping is not generally done furiously.{{Citation needed}} That said, the sentence "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is so well known in linguistics that a competition to make the sentence meaningful was held in 1985 and {{w|Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously#Attempts_at_meaningful_interpretations|attracted a number of entrants}}.

"More people have been to Russia than I have" is a well-known example of {{w|comparative illusion}}. It sounds like it means something but, upon actual analysis, does not, although it could be interpreted as there being more people to visit Russia than the speaker owns, or has in their household.

==Transcript==
:[The Tower of Babel is shown. It has a broad two sectioned base and above that extends straight up out of the top of the frame, with 10 identical segments. This is seen from afar, so the three people standing at the base of the tower is very small. But Cueball and Megan can be easily identified. They are standing on either side of a woman with big curly hair (which is first clear in the next panel). The text spoken is written over the tower in white sections that hides the tower. But the tower can be seen above, between and below these two text segments:]
:Cueball: The Tower of Babel is complete!
:Megan: Let's go meet God!

:[Cueball, the curly haired woman and Megan are now standing at the top of the Tower of Babel. The top is made of bricks, but the part of the last segment before the top looks like those shown in the first panel. God is represented by an off-panel voice coming from a star burst at the top of the panel. The three people look up in that direction.]
:Cueball: Hi God!
:God (off-panel): Wow, nice tower!
:God (off-panel): You did a great job! I'm so proud!
:Megan: Thanks!

:[Same settings but Megan has turned towards the curly haired woman holding an arm out towards her. The woman has taken one hand to her chin.]
:God (off-panel): I'm going to give you a reward.
:God (off-panel): What do you like about the world?
:Curly haired woman: Hmm. Words are really cool.
:Megan: No, wait-

:[Same settings, in a broader panel. The curly haired woman lifts her hands up curled into fists. Her yell comes from a starburst over her head, to indicate the difference to normal speech. Megan has taken her arm down.]
:God (off-panel): Great! I'm going to give you lots of languages to study, each with its own phonology, word ordering, morphosyntactic alignment...
:Curly haired woman: '''''YESSSSSS!'''''
:Megan: We should '''''not''''' have brought a linguist.

==Trivia==
In [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]], sentences spoken by Gretchen McCulloch do not have periods at their ends, a fact which she mentioned on Twitter. However, in this comic, she uses periods, so her previous periodlessness might be a coincidence and not a trait of her character on xkcd.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Language]]

985: Percentage Points

2021-01-01T20:29:02Z

162.158.62.107: irrelevant garbage

{{comic
| number = 985
| date = December 2, 2011
| title = Percentage Points
| image = percentage_points.png
| titletext = Grayton also proposed making college scholarships available exclusively to sexually active teens, amnesty for illegal immigrants who create room for themselves by killing a citizen, and a graduated income tax based on penis size. He has been endorsed by Tracy Morgan, John Wilkes Booth's ghost, and the Time Cube guy.
}}

==Explanation==
Senator Grayton is a fictional character, made up for this comic, which is unusual for xkcd, which typically uses real-world references.

The issues that Grayton supports:

*Tax Breaks to Drunk Drivers: Grayton proposes giving those who have been convicted of a {{w|DUI}} or DWI (i.e. Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Intoxicated) money back on their taxes, when those infractions are typically severely penalized, as drunk driving has resulted in numerous deaths.
*{{w|Predator Drones}} and the {{w|Christmas controversy|War on Christmas}}: The War on {{w|Christmas}} is not a real war; it is simply the perception by some {{w|Christian}}s that non-Christians are trying to replace traditional Christmas imagery with more inclusive and generic holiday customs. No politicians have explicitly announced their support of the "War on Christmas," and the idea that one would not only do so, but would also want to use drones—ostensibly to harm or possibly kill people—in the effort is an absurd exaggeration of a relatively harmless culture war.

The term {{w|percentage point}} is used to overcome an ambiguity when comparing two percentages.

'''Reduction of a stated number by a percentage'''
:When the original value is given as a number, there is no ambiguity. In the statement below the only possible conclusion is that now only 162,000 people approve of Grayton.
:''Previously 200,000 people approved of Senator Grayton, and then his approval rating dropped by 19%.''

'''Reduction of a percentage by a percentage'''
:When the original approval rating is given as a percentage (20% in the comic), then a reduction of 19% has two possible meanings:
:1) Of the 20% who previously approved (200,000 people), 19% no longer approve. In this case the result is 162,000 as in the above example.
:2) Compared to the original results, 19% fewer of the entire original sample of 1 million people approve. In this case only 1% of the original 1 million approve, equal to 10,000 people.

If using the second method of comparing percentages, the approvals rating should be described as having dropped by 19 percentage points. In reality, the distinction between the two methods is often overlooked, leading to confusion.

The caption's issue with "percentage" versus "percentage points" is that if Grayton's 20% approval rating drops by 19%, that means that his support has only dropped 3.8 percentage points since 19% of 20% is only 3.8%. That would mean that even after all his outrageous statements, his support dropped only from 20% to 16.2%. However, if the news reports that his 20% approval rating dropped 19 ''percentage points'', that means his support has dropped to 1%, which appears to be more accurate given Grayton's egregious policy decisions and the description of his campaign as having "imploded."

The punchline to all this is that Randall is more bothered by the "percent" ambiguity than by Grayton's appalling policy plans.

References in the title text:

*{{w|Tracy Morgan}} is an actor who plays Tracy Jordan in the TV Show ''{{w|30 Rock}}''. He has been reprimanded for controversial comments on homosexuals and {{w|Sarah Palin}} (in separate incidents).
*{{w|John Wilkes Booth}} is the person who assassinated {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}. He was a {{w|Confederate}} sympathizer and supported slavery. The mention of his ghost could also be a reference to King Falls AM, an audio drama which features his ghost multiple times.
*"The {{w|Time Cube}} Guy" would be Otis Eugene "Gene" Ray. To put things ''very'' politely (as Mr. Ray was a very angry man with severe schizophrenia), he created a website known as Time Cube where he set out his personal model of reality, which he called Time Cube. He suggested that all of modern physics is wrong, in addition to claiming that religion is evil, specifically Christianity, and that the idea of family is poisoning children. Ray passed away in 2015.
*College Scholarships to Sexually Active Teens: Many people think adolescents should not engage in sexual activity, let alone be encouraged to do so by college scholarships. This is the opposite of {{w|Abstinence-only sex education|abstinence programs}}, which encourage teens not to be sexually active until marriage.
*Illegal immigrants who create room for themselves by killing a citizen: {{w|Illegal immigration to the United States|Illegal immigration}} is a highly controversial topic in the United States. One argument against illegal immigration is that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens. Proponents of immigration assert that this is not the case, since more people in the overall economy creates jobs and brings in more tax revenue. Neither group would be in favor of illegal immigrants murdering citizens even though it would not result in a net gain or loss in population.
*Graduated income tax based on penis size: Many men are sensitive about their penis size and would probably consider the measurement of their penises for tax assessment purposes an enormous embarrassment and invasion of privacy. Even the scenario in which those with relatively smaller penises would be levied less tax than those with larger penises would probably not be sufficient for them to accept this policy, and even if they did, those with larger penises would probably consider this policy to be unfair. And the alternative—a scenario in which ''larger'' penises pay less taxes—would be both unfair and incredibly demeaning.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in an armchair watching TV while listening to a news report coming from the TV as shown by a zigzag line.]
:Voice from TV: Senator Grayton's campaign has imploded following the candidate's promise to give tax breaks to drunk drivers and to authorize the use of unmanned Predator drones in the War On Christmas. Grayton had been polling at 20%, but his support has since plunged by 19%.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I hate the ambiguity created when people don't distinguish between percentages and percentage points.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Penis]]

2402: Into My Veins

2020-12-25T06:01:17Z

162.158.62.107: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2402
| date = December 23, 2020
| title = Into My Veins
| image = into_my_veins.png
| titletext = "Okay, for the last time, the shot is free, so we can't--" "Shut up and take my money!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by PHILIP J. FRY. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic references both the {{w|COVID-19 vaccine}} and a common {{w|Internet meme|meme}} for when people are excited about something.

COVID-19 has inconvenienced some people,{{Citation needed}} so many are excited for the vaccine (which will hopefully end the pandemic). This comic shows [[Cueball]] receiving the vaccine reacting with "Inject it directly into my veins," a modified version of the phrase "just hook it to my veins" (from ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'') that Barney says after winning a movie making contest in the 1995 episode "{{W|A Star Is Burns}}". This sort of phrase is used to express enthusiasm for something, usually something which is not generally injected into any part of the human body. Like other vaccines, however, it is {{w|Intramuscular injection|injected into a muscle}}, not {{w|Intravenous therapy|directly into one's veins}}.

The title text references another such meme, [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-up-and-take-my-money "Shut up and take my money,"] which derives from the 2010 "{{w|Attack of the Killer App}}" episode of ''{{w|Futurama}}''. The COVID-19 vaccine is being provided free of charge to Cueball, so taking money is entirely unnecessary (and possibly illegal).

The attitude of the comic shows how badly many people want this vaccine, how frustrated people all over the experiences of the pandemic. The combination of memes ends up possibly comparing the experience of getting the vaccine to that of being a street drug addict.

==Transcript==

:Cueball: Yesssss
:Cueball: Inject this directly into my veins

:[Beat panel. Ponytail looks down at a clipboard.]

:[Zoom out to reveal that Cueball is standing by a stool, with Ponytail in front of him with a clipboard and syringe and Hairy behind him with a box of bandages and a first-aid kit.]

:Ponytail: Ok, but the vaccine is intramuscular...
:Hairy: Why do people keep ''saying'' that?
:Cueball: Sorry, sorry.
:Cueball: Just excited.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

2400: Statistics

2020-12-19T08:46:14Z

162.158.62.107: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2400
| date = December 18, 2020
| title = Statistics
| image = statistics.png
| titletext = We reject the null hypothesis based on the 'hot damn, check out this chart' test.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PLACEBO GROUP. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.

The main focus of the comic is a graph showing cases of COVID-19 versus time for two groups: one group was vaccinated and the other group was not. Graphs are ways to visualize data, and almost always indicate specific values. This graph does not; it simply has two lines. The higher line ("placebo group") rises in a steep curve. The lower line ("vaccine group") follows the first for a bit but then levels out to a much slower rate of climb. The caption eschews statistical analysis in favor of a holistic assessment: the vaccine is clearly working; just look how far apart those lines are.

This comic was released one day after the [https://www.fda.gov/media/144434/download FDA's Dec 17th briefing document for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine] was released. The document includes the following [https://www.zq1.de/~bernhard/images/share/mRNA-1273-trial.png chart]: [[File:FDA_Modena_Dec17.png]]. The charts draw the integral of the incidence data rather than the data itself ("cumulative" rather than "rate"): this results in changes in disease rate towards the left side of the chart, being added into the data on the right side, amplifying their difference. This technique for emphasizing the data is valid: the spread between the lines only continues to increase if the effect continues happening, such that the total spread at the right is proportional to the total effect the vaccine had. The charts do not show any information on other possible variables. Randall has described previously in his webcomics how very clear charts can be made to hide misleading data. The linked graph does not leave the numbers out [and this editor isn't a statistics major, but it looks like the numbers indicate the vaccine has a 95% change of being at least 91% effective at completely preventing the disease].

The advice here could be seen as the inverse of the "science tip" in [[2311: Confidence Interval]], in which the data was so ''bad'' that its error bars fell outside of the graph and were not shown.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Shown is a graph with the x-axis labeled "time" and the y-axis labeled "COVID cases." There is a black line on the graph labeled "placebo group", which has a roughly linear slope moving toward the top right corner. There is a red line labeled "vaccine group", which follows the black line for about an eighth of the width of the graph before leveling off.]
:[Caption beneath the graph]:
:Statistics tip: Always try to get data that's good enough that you don't need to do statistics on it

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Tips]]

Talk:2393: Presidential Middle Names

2020-12-05T00:32:38Z

162.158.62.107:

I wonder where Hussein comes in in the official rankings. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 04:16, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:I got a few of my friends to help me rank all of the presidents' middle names semi-democratically. Hussein came in at 4th. It would have been third if I hadn't exercised my veto powers as official list-writer to give Robinette third place over their objections--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.107|162.158.62.107]] 00:32, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Gamaliel sounds like an Elvish name...[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.128|108.162.216.128]] 05:03, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
: No, it's a {{w|Gamaliel_Ratsey|highwayman}}. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.24|162.158.155.24]] 10:54, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:I thought it sounds like an angel or daemon name. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 02:14, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

: I would assume his parents were thinking about someone a bit nicer. Perhaps {{w|Gamaliel|Raban Gamaliel}}, a famous Jewish sage, major contributor to the Talmud and Christian saint (in some churches). [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:57, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

For the record, this was his paternal grandmother's maiden name. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 09:18, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

My understanding of the title text is that Hayes was previously in 3rd position, but has been demoted to 4th and no longer appears in the top 3, not that he is at the bottom of the list.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.243|141.101.99.243]] 09:39, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:The title text literally says "The bottom of the list". How can you read that as not meaning "the bottom of the list"??? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.153|141.101.69.153]] 10:44, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
::Though I don't read it as this, you ''could'' take it as two separate statements:
::"The bottom of the list remains unchanged." <- there has been no shuffling at the 'worst' end.
::"Poor Rutherford Birchard Hayes." <- alas! For he has been shuffled out of the top three!
::Looking at the entire list of middle names with an arbitrary eye for 'Prettiness', I would definitely put "Birchard" in the bottom half, probably bottom handful, possibly indeed the bottom slot. But then I'd do much the same for "Fitzgerald" too. (That's on a 'prettiest' scale that is pleasant/ugly, not a decorative/plain axis, just so you know. And does contain subjectivities like Werty22's interpretation of "Delano".) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.155|162.158.158.155]] 14:27, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:::The list also literally only includes the top three, so my initial interpretation of the title text was that Hayes was previously in the 2nd position but is now off the list... perhaps due to a re-evaluation of the 'prettiness' of "Birchard". This would leave the bottom of the list (i.e. No. 3) unchanged.
::::I interpret "the list" as being the complete ranking, and he's just showing the top of the leaderboard. Since I think that Burchard could hardly be #4. Too bad this isn't a continuation of a series that he updates every time we elect a new POTUS, so we could see what it actually was previously. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 02:14, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

I think someone needs to do a survey; maybe run a bracket or something, to see if public opinion matches Randall's list. [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 11:33, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:This is a great idea.

Anyone anything meaningful to add? I think we can remove the incomplete-tag, no? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:21, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
: I "completed" it. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:38, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

I just wanted to say that Delano in Spanish sounds like "del ano" which means "from the anus". Not sure that was intended, but it's pretty funny. [[User:Werty22|Werty22]] ([[User talk:Werty22|talk]]) 13:00, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Does anyone else think Randall's jumping the gun a bit? I mean, I acknowledge that President-Elect Biden becoming President next month is by far more likely than any other scenario, but it still feels wrong to assume it's going to happen. (Also, I believe "Quincy", "Ulysses", and "Baines" should round out the current top five.) [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 13:55, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:lol [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.152|162.158.255.152]] 20:00, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:Since it's not yet 2021, yet the title says "Updated for 2021", I see this as a seeing-into-the-future piece, along one particular timeline. [[User:John.Adriaan|John.Adriaan]] ([[User talk:John.Adriaan|talk]]) 01:56, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

I figured it was important to add Harry Truman, since he does in fact have a middle name, even though it is only one letter long. [[User:Easwaran|Easwaran]] ([[User talk:Easwaran|talk]]) 18:23, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
: That probably makes his the coolest, even if it's not the prettiest. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 18:30, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
Should this comic be added to the "rankings" category? [[User:Hamjudo|Hamjudo]] ([[User talk:Hamjudo|talk]]) 20:44, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Just riffing on the idea of middle names. My father, Sam, had no middle name but routinely filled in forms that asked for a middle name with the letter E. He reasoned that made sense since people often called him Sammy, and he could never resist an opportunity to tell a joke. On the other hand, my middle initial is J and my middle name is Jay. Go figure. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 21:56, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
:My father also had no middle name, but used A whenever a form insisted on needing a middle initial. I don't remember why, and he's not around any more to ask. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 02:14, 4 December 2020 (UTC)
::When working at a particular job where various industry memberships and subscriptions were expected to be partaken of, for 'networking' reasons, I took the opportunity (lacking any 'middle' name) of registering as "Firstname A Lastname", "Firstname B Lastname", etc, per occasion. It was interesting to track and correlate what other unsolicited junk turned up with clear indication of where my details had come from. Mostly as personal entertainment, admitedly. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.128|141.101.98.128]] 02:48, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Surely Bush does not have a middle name, or do we apply the rule for calculating medians and average the two giving Berwal. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.96|141.101.98.96]]
:Why would that not be Bertwal? (Although Berwal is prettier.) And wouldn't a single Bush middle name be Walker? That is the middle of the three internal names of the two Presidents Bush. (George Herbert Walker Bush + George Walker Bush => Herbert Walker Walker => Walker)[[User:DaBunny42|DaBunny42]] ([[User talk:DaBunny42|talk]]) 13:08, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

1032: Networking

2019-11-07T05:17:42Z

162.158.62.107: /* Typo fix */

{{comic
| number = 1032
| date = March 21, 2012
| title = Networking
| image = networking.png
| titletext = Our company is agile and lean with a focus on the long tail. Ok, our company is actually a polecat I found in my backyard.
}}

==Explanation==
Obviously, [[Beret Guy]]'s [[1021|business plan]] worked.

Networking, in business, is the act of expanding your group of contacts in order to help your career down the line. Here, in this comic, [[Beret Guy]] meets {{w|Chief Technology Officer}} (CTO, an executive level position overseeing development of new technologies) Connr Clark (perhaps a typo for "Connor" or perhaps a reference to common "Web 2.0" names like the businesses {{w|Flickr}}, {{w|Tumblr}}, etc.) and Beret Guy is as strange as he usually is: he introduces himself as a "business professional" rather than as someone with any kind of specific job, and then goes on to mention that he photocopied a burrito, which he presumably believes is the sort of thing business professionals do. He also has a business card; usually this would contain contact information, but his only says "This is my business card". He calls his briefcase, or suitcase, a "handlebox", and it is full of a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Then Beret Guy proceeds to eat Connor's business card. All of these things are not common behavior.{{Citation needed}}

"Networking" is often an over-hyped, empty affair. There are zillions of networking meetings of every description going on every day everywhere, and mostly people trade cards and continue to not make money. So that's the joke – Beret Guy does the networking {{w|schtick}}, badly, and yet is somehow making huge amounts of money at it.

The comic is also likely a joke on the idea that many people are excited about becoming a "business professional" who carries a briefcase, hands out business cards, and makes tons of money, without having an adequate plan for how to make those things happen, or possibly even knowing what their actual job would be. Beret Guy never says what he does, simply introducing himself as a "business professional," and explains his piles of cash with "I am a business grown-up who makes business profits!" In this world —and in people's dreams— when you "grow up" and start a business, money magically appears. Obviously, that's not how it works.{{Citation needed}}

The "Eusocial" in "Eusocial Media Ventures" is a reference to {{w|eusociality}}, the highest level of social cooperation found in the animal kingdom. Eusocial animals (termites being a common example) cooperate together to raise their young, have different generations living in the same colony, and have specialized individuals for reproductive and non-reproductive tasks.

The title text is a pun on three common business buzzwords: agile, lean and long-tail. An agile business is one that can change course quickly based on customer demands and the business environment. A lean business is one with minimal inventory or assets; nothing is idle or warehoused, so everything in active use or on the move. Long-tail describes the strategy of offering a large number of unique items with relatively small quantities sold of each – usually in addition to selling fewer popular items in large quantities. Netflix is a popular example of long-tail because they have (almost) every movie imaginable, including rare titles that only a few people would be interested in.

And of course, the pun here is one animal that is agile and lean with a long ''tail'' is a {{w|polecat}}.

Furthermore, although "agile" and "lean" do mean a quick, nimble, and efficient business, they also refer to specific practices, as in {{w|agile software development}}, {{w|lean manufacturing}} and {{w|lean Six Sigma}}. Many people think these terms have devolved to overused jargon. While agile development is supposed to be a highly structured method to get programmers to produce more working code quickly, when someone from the marketing department says "''agile''" it often means "''We don't know what we're supposed to be producing, so we'll just chuck some stuff together, and keep those bits that the customer says he likes. We'll then do it all over again until we've got something that he'll pay for.''" "''Lean''" is supposed to mean that a business keeps its costs as low as possible, employing one person to do marketing and PR, not really having a Human Resources department, etc. But, in practice it often becomes "''Keep as little stock as possible so that we don't have a lot of money tied up in it, and don't need a big warehouse; make stuff just before it is supposed to ship so that we don't have to store it either; make frequent prayers and virgin sacrifices to whatever gods we can find to ensure that nothing slips up anywhere along the line that our lawyers can't get us out of.''"

See also [[1117: My Sky]].

==Transcript==
:[A man approaches Beret Guy at a party and they extend arms to shake hands. Beret Guy is holding a metal briefcase. Ponytail is a waitress in the background, carrying a tray with a wine glass on it.]
:Connr: I'm Connr Clark, CTO at Eusocial Media Ventures.
:Beret Guy: I'm a business professional! Earlier I photocopied a burrito!

:[Connr hands Beret Guy a business card. Beret Guy takes it and hands Connr another business card. Beret Guy has put his suitcase on the floor.]
:Connr: You should check us out! Here's my card.
:Beret Guy: Here's mine! Networking!

:[Connr takes a closer look at the card, and Beret Guy holds up his case.]
:Connr: ...this just says "This is my business card!"
:Beret Guy: Do you like it? I have more in my handlebox.

:[Beret Guy puts his case on a table and opens it to reveal it is full of cash. Connr looks on in shock.]
:Connr: Uh, that's ok, I think I'll—
:Beret Guy: Here, have ten of them!
:Connr: —holy shit that thing is full of ''cash!''

:[Connr raises his arms in excitement. Beret Guy turns to face him and chews on Connr's business card.]
:Connr: Where did you ''get'' that?
:Beret Guy: I am a business grown-up who makes business profits!
:Connr: That's like a quarter of a million dollars!
:Beret Guy: Yay! Business is fun! Do you have more of your cards? They're ''delicious!''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]