explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2262: Parker Solar Probe

2020-03-12T08:53:36Z

172.69.69.70: /* Explanation */ "it's" means "it is"; "its" is the pronoun

{{comic
| number = 2262
| date = January 31, 2020
| title = Parker Solar Probe
| image = parker_solar_probe.png
| titletext = It will get within 9 or 10 Sun-diameters of the "bottom" (the Sun's surface) which seems pretty far when you put it that way, but from up here on Earth it's practically all the way down.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DEEP FRIED ROBOTIC SOLAR PROBE ON A STICK. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is an informative comic meant to represent the relative distances of astronomical objects relative to the {{w|Parker Solar Probe}}. It also shows where the probe will be in 2025 if its mission continues going according to plan.

The Parker Solar Probe is a robotic spacecraft launched by NASA in 2018 with the mission of repeatedly probing and making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It travels in an elongated orbit that passes close to the Sun and sometimes passes near Venus, arranged such that Venus nudges the orbit slightly in each pass to bring the probe's perihelion (the lower end of its orbit) closer and closer to the Sun. Two days before this comic was published {{w|Parker_Solar_Probe#Timeline|the probe again passed through perihelion}}, establishing new records for closeness to the Sun (0.12 {{w|Astronomical unit|AU}}) and speed (244,225 mph).[https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2020/01/29/parker-solar-probe-completes-fourth-closest-approach-breaks-new-speed-and-distance-records/] By the end of the probe's planned lifetime in 2025, it will pass within 0.046 AU (6.9 million km), or about 5 solar diameters, of the Sun's center, at a speed of 430,000 mph (690,000 km/h). The title text incorrectly states this distance to be ''9 or 10'' solar diameters measured from the Sun's ''surface''.

{{w|Helios (spacecraft)|Helios 2}} was a solar probe launched in the 1976 that formerly held the records for closest man-made object to the Sun and fastest man-made object. Both records were surpassed by the Parker probe in 2018.

[[File:Animation of Parker Solar Probe trajectory.gif|thumb|right|Animation of Parker Solar Probe's trajectory from August 7, 2018 to August 29, 2025 {{Color|magenta|Parker Solar Probe}} • {{Color|RoyalBlue|Earth}} • {{Color|Cyan|Venus}} • {{Color|Lime|Mercury}} • {{Color|#dbd81d|Sun}}]]

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are standing on Earth. The way this diagram is drawn, they look like they could fall off Earth toward the Sun -- hence the comment "Careful!" -- though the joke is that in real life they would fall toward the center of the Earth, not toward the Sun. Also the surprise for many people is that it is much harder to reach the sun than Pluto. Because we already travel so fast here on Earth, and to reach the sun this speed has to be reduced, which is a larger speed difference than the one needed to escape the Sun's gravity well. If you could "fall" off Earth, you would just keep the approximately same distance to the Sun, but drifting slowly away from Earth.

The title text says the probe will get within 9 or 10 Sun-''diameters'' of the Sun's ''surface''. This is a bit of a mistake: it will actually get {{w|Parker Solar Probe|within that many Sun-''radii''}} (only 4½ or 5 Sun-diameters) of the ''center'' of the Sun, which corresponds to 4 or 4½ Sun-diameters above its surface. The distance from the Earth to the Sun is approximately 106 Sun-diameters.
{|class=wikitable
! Object
! Perihelion [km]
! Perihelion [AU]
|-
| Earth
| style="text-align:right;" | 147,095,000 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.98 AU
|-
| Venus
| style="text-align:right;" | 107,477,000 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.72 AU
|-
| Mercury
| style="text-align:right;" | 46,001,200 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.31 AU
|-
| Helios 2
| style="text-align:right;" | 43,432,000 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.29 AU
|-
| PSP (now)
| style="text-align:right;" | 18,600,000 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.124 AU
|-
| PSP (2025)
| style="text-align:right;" | 6,900,000 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.046 AU
|-
| Sun Radius
| style="text-align:right;" | 696,342 km
| style="text-align:left;" | 0.0047 AU
|}

==Transcript==
:[A tall, but very narrow box with Earth at the top, with Cueball and Megan standing precariously "on top" of Earth on each side of the center, trying to keep their balance. At the very bottom is shown a slice of the Sun. Between Earth and the Sun the two inner planets and two spacecraft are depicted with relation to their distance from the Sun. The spacecraft closest to the Sun is shown two times at different times, as it moves closer and closer to the sun. All 7 objects have labels close to them. The largest distance is between Venus and Mercury, with the Earth-Venus distance the second longest. The distances between the objects below Mercury are much shorter. There is a caption above the slim panel:]

<big>Looking down toward the Sun</big> and the Parker Solar Probe 
(Distances are to scale, sizes are ''not'' to scale)

:Earth
::Cueball: ''Careful!''

:Venus

:Mercury

:Helios 2 (1976)

:Parker Solar Probe (today)

:Parker Solar Probe (2025)

:Sun (Not to scale)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space probes]]

Talk:2126: Google Trends Maps

2020-03-07T03:55:32Z

172.69.69.70:

I'm not quite sure I understand the comic. And no, the irony of saying that on a wiki dedicated to explaining them is not lost on me. Do the maps show which word/phrase is more common in google in each state by comparing only the options to each other or where they actually the top searched words/phrases at some point in time?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 10:28, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
:Pretty sure they're all top searched words/phrases in some states at some point in the past. It's just that Randall has merged maps from different time periods. For example in the first map, "heat stroke" and "frostbite" are two real results, but the former is likely a result that appeared in summer, while the latter is likely one that appeared in winter. By merging the two maps you get a map that doesn't make sense, as it looks like they were the top searches in the same time period while in reality they weren't. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 11:04, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
::I think that Randall is just clarifying that each map may be showing trends for a different time range (otherwise people might try to compare the maps to each other, which isn't the point of the comic). I don't think he's saying that the individual results in each map are from different time ranges. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 11:30, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
:::Yeah, if the results were from different time periods, you could pretty much manipulate them however you want. It would make it much less interesting. Not that statistician don't already manipulate data in any way possible...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 16:51, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
From what it looks like, these are year-long averages. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 12:17, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
:Here's one I just made using an example Randall is given: [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=frostbite,heat%20stroke Frostbite VS Heatstroke] It does appear to be either using averaging or summing over time to produce a map that is decently similar to Randall's [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.23|108.162.221.23]] 16:03, 21 March 2019 (UTC) Sam
::Randolph's matches the 5 year average exactly[[User:Whereisspike|Whereisspike]] ([[User talk:Whereisspike|talk]]) 21:27, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Here is an example for the Google Trends on the first example. [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=frostbite,heat%20stroke] It looks like he picked last 5 years for that one. There should be a table with links to all of them. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.142|162.158.59.142]] 17:48, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

For those that find the actual image to be mysteriously missing, that's because the image source URL is https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ad/google_trends_maps.png , and some ad blockers will silently block it because it looks like a path to advertising images. So maybe turn off your adblocker on this site? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.64|172.69.170.64]] 22:37, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
: Specifically, uBlock is telling me it matched <tt>ad/google_</tt>. [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 20:23, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does the sexting graph look like the midwest is "giving it" to the southeast, with Arkansas and Tennessee playing the naughty bits? I wonder if Randall did this intentionally or if I'm just a perv. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.108|162.158.186.108]] 01:37, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
: I'm pretty sure the best answer to the above is the last line of https://xkcd.com/960/ ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.50.52|172.69.50.52]] 04:40, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

I feel like "little dog" is most often entered by people searching for unusually small pets, not people wanting to learn about coyotes (which as far as I know are generally just called coyotes). This would still provide an amusing contrast with "big cats" (either the pet or wild versions). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.102|162.158.106.102]] 06:46, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
:Yes, I agree. People are very unlikely to look up "big cat" for a pet, but many people want or have small dogs as pets.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 03:55, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

I've just transcribed the maps by listing which states are in which colour (dammit, I mean "color", I'm trying to use US spellings here). I've left the "incomplete" tag on there, though, because there are things that others might want to review:
* I only did lists for the color(s) with the fewest states, leaving the longest list as "all other states". This makes it less extensive, but potentially less useful (for, say, searching for a state's name).
* I wasn't sure whether or not to list the District of Columbia. I'm not sure whether the maps include it or not, and if it is included, it's not easy to tell whether it's blue or gray. The only case where it definitely looks like it's present (because it's a different color to both Maryland and Virginia) is in the "Donald Trump/What do I do" map, where it seems to be red. However, I'm still not certain; it could just be an artifact of Randall's graphics process. (Compare Massachusetts on the same map, where the bit sticking out... Cape Cod? yeah, that... is clearly gray, unlike the rest of the state.) That said, it may be part of the joke that "What do I do" is a popular search in Washington, DC!
* I'm not American and may have made mistakes in identifying states.
-- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 09:57, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

My first thought on Mike Pence and Bigfoot was ... wasn't Mike Pence the one who did "Bigfoot Porn"? But no, that turned out to be the Virginia politician Leslie Cockburn. Still, I wonder whether that brought bigfoot to his mind.

[[User:Jensfiederer|Jensfiederer]] ([[User talk:Jensfiederer|talk]]) 16:55, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Who’s the Biologist who wrote the Little Dog, Big Cat explanation, because it seems way too scientific and has nothing to do with the TV show OR Coyotes. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 13:59, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

The Marco Rubio joke seems kinda lost on me. Did he have something to do with Alaskan politics or something?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.224|108.162.216.224]] 15:10, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-05T20:19:38Z

172.69.69.70: rm comma splice

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOOTBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The Super Bowl is the the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American gridiron football. In late January or early February each year, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) plays the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) to determine the champion. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, it is widely considered to be the single most important game of the year (of any sport), and over a hundred million people watch it worldwide, many of whom are not even fans of gridiron football. Some have parties centered around watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisement and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music.

By slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. Normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second. So if slowed by a factor of 2300 each frame would be shown for about 76 seconds Each frame can be discussed and analysed by the watchers. Each day in the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of real time. So when Megan comes down to rejoin the party (who have been watching all night) they can describe about 20 seconds of real time. The description refers to the offense taking the field after the initial kickoff was returned to the 26 yard line.

A ''cut'' means a change in camera angle. Cuts happen frequently during the broadcast, especially when the ball is not in play; thus Megan has a high probability of being right simply by chance that the next frame will be a cut, and has apparently been predicting it often.

The ads and halftime show are considered integral parts of the broadcast, and many advertisers debut elaborate commercials especially for game. Many people claim to watch the Super Bowl ''only'' for the commercial breaks. The end of February would correspond to about 14 minutes of real time.

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, just blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/</ref>

Cueball has previously explained that he now watches the [[1480: Super Bowl|Super Bowl]], despite [[60: Super Bowl|not being very interested in sport]]. A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[Time]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks into a room. Cueball and another Megan-like individual are sitting on a couch. Another Cueball sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground in front of a TV.]
:Megan: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan #2: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Cueball #2: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?
:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:American football]]

<references/>

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-05T20:18:54Z

172.69.69.70: /* Explanation */ add what a cut is

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOOTBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The Super Bowl is the the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American gridiron football. In late January or early February each year, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) plays the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) to determine the champion. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, it is widely considered to be the single most important game of the year (of any sport), and over a hundred million people watch it worldwide, many of whom are not even fans of gridiron football. Some have parties centered around watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisement and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music.

By slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. Normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second. So if slowed by a factor of 2300 each frame would be shown for about 76 seconds Each frame can be discussed and analysed by the watchers. Each day in the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of real time. So when Megan comes down to rejoin the party (who have been watching all night) they can describe about 20 seconds of real time. The description refers to the offense taking the field after the initial kickoff was returned to the 26 yard line.

A ''cut'' means a change in camera angle. Cuts happen frequently during the broadcast, especially when the ball is not in play, thus Megan has a high probability of being right simply by chance that the next frame will be a cut, and has apparently been predicting it often.

The ads and halftime show are considered integral parts of the broadcast, and many advertisers debut elaborate commercials especially for game. Many people claim to watch the Super Bowl ''only'' for the commercial breaks. The end of February would correspond to about 14 minutes of real time.

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, just blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/</ref>

Cueball has previously explained that he now watches the [[1480: Super Bowl|Super Bowl]], despite [[60: Super Bowl|not being very interested in sport]]. A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[Time]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks into a room. Cueball and another Megan-like individual are sitting on a couch. Another Cueball sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground in front of a TV.]
:Megan: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan #2: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Cueball #2: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?
:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:American football]]

<references/>

1951: Super Bowl Watch Party

2018-02-05T20:12:25Z

172.69.69.70: reorganize and expand first paragraph a little; expand bit about ads

{{comic
| number = 1951
| date = February 5, 2018
| title = Super Bowl Watch Party
| image = super_bowl_watch_party.png
| titletext = It's going to be weird near the end of May when the screen goes blank for over 18 hours.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FOOTBALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The Super Bowl is the the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American gridiron football. In late January or early February each year, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) plays the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) to determine the champion. Based on its wide-reaching cultural impact, it is widely considered to be the single most important game of the year (of any sport), and over a hundred million people watch it worldwide, many of whom are not even fans of gridiron football. Some have parties centered around watching the game. The full game lasts around four hours, including breaks for advertisement and a halftime, which includes a live performance of music.

By slowing the video down by a factor of 2300, the show would last a full year. Normal TV is broadcast at 30 frames per second. So if slowed by a factor of 2300 each frame would be shown for about 76 seconds Each frame can be discussed and analysed by the watchers. Each day in the slow video would cover just under 40 seconds of real time. So when Megan comes down to rejoin the party (who have been watching all night) they can describe about 20 seconds of real time. The description refers to the offense taking the field after the initial kickoff was returned to the 26 yard line.

The ads and halftime show are considered integral parts of the broadcast, and many advertisers debut elaborate commercials especially for game. Many people claim to watch the Super Bowl ''only'' for the commercial breaks. The end of February would correspond to about 14 minutes of real time.

The title text refers to how, during a commercial break during the 2018 Super Bowl, just blackness was broadcast for 28 seconds. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/02/04/super-bowl-nbc-equipment-failure-blank-screen-super-bowl-commercial/305623002/</ref>

Cueball has previously explained that he now watches the [[1480: Super Bowl|Super Bowl]], despite [[60: Super Bowl|not being very interested in sport]]. A slowly updating video is similar to the concept behind [[Time]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan walks into a room. Cueball and another Megan-like individual are sitting on a couch. Another Cueball sits in front of them, while Ponytail lies on the ground in front of a TV.]
:Megan: Morning. How's the game?
:Cueball: Eagles got to the 26-yard line around midnight. They've been walking across the field since then. Just entered a huddle.
:Megan #2: I bet the next frame will be a cut.
:Cueball #2: You always say that.
:Ponytail: Do you think the first ads will come by the end of February?
:[Caption below the comic:]
:I'm at a year-round Super Bowl watch party. We're playing the stream at 1/2300x speed, so it will end just as next year's Super Bowl starts.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:American football]]

<references/>

1947: Night Sky

2018-01-27T18:46:47Z

172.69.69.70: explain immediacy of questions; add missing space

{{comic
| number = 1947
| date = January 26, 2018
| title = Night Sky
| image = night_sky.png
| titletext = There's a mountain lion nearby, but it didn't notice you because it's reading Facebook.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERSIZED HOUSECAT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are going out for a nighttime walk, to "{{w|Digital detox|unplug}}" and get away from technology, to ask the "big questions." The questions they ask, however, are not grandiose but instead are increasingly immediate to their current situation. In fact they may have much preferred a walk ''with'' technology. Carrying a phone would help them with locating themselves using GPS and seeing where they are going using the phone flashlight, thus making them feel safer. They also fear mountain lion attacks, and a phone could also be used to call for medical help if they were injured, or in many other emergencies.

The title text claims that technology is so omnipresent that even the threatening mountain lion has a Facebook account and ready internet access.

The reference to mountain lions might be related to the declaration that [http://www.courier-tribune.com/news/20180126/once-common-in-nc-eastern-cougar-declared-extinct-last-sighting-80-years-ago Eastern Cougars were just officially declared extinct] the day before this comic was published.

==Transcript==
[Cueball and Megan are walking under the night sky.]

Megan: The internet is so overwhelming for me these days. It feels like everyone I know is yelling all the time.

[Frame is zoomed out. Stars are visible]

Megan: That's why it's so nice to unplug. Leave the phones at home, go for a walk, and look up at the stars.

Megan: It helps you focus on what really matters.

[frame is normal again.]

Cueball: Like "Where the hell are we?"

Megan: And "Why did I leave my phone at home? It has my map and flashlight."

Cueball: "Are there mountain lions around here? Did you hear a twig break?"

Megan: Yeah, the big questions!

{{comic discussion}}

1943: Universal Dreams

2018-01-17T23:19:52Z

172.69.69.70: [citation needed] is just so, so tired a joke

{{comic
| number = 1943
| date = January 17, 2018
| title = Universal Dreams
| image = universal_dreams.png
| titletext = "That's ... unsettling." "Yeah, those definitely don't sound like the normal drea– ＬＡＴＩＴＵＤＥＴＨＲＥＥＦＩＶＥＰＯＩＮＴ..."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DREAM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The first and second panel are a discussion between [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] about {{w|Dream|dreams}}. Megan mentions a dream or nightmare about failing to prepare for an exam despite not being a student for years. This is similar to the dream depicted in [[557: Students]]. Ponytail responds that certain dreams occur with surprising frequency among many people, dubbing them "Universal Dreams" (which is the title of the comic).

In the third panel, [[Black Hat]] describes an avatar of misfortune in the form of a horse appearing on a hill. This may be a reference to [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/ 2007 film Michael Clayton], which features a dream like sequence where the title character stops his car, gets out and approaches 3 horses on a hillside just minutes before his car explodes.

In the last panel, Black Hat describes having dreams where he receives specific information about the real-world, which seems closer to {{w|List_of_dreams#Prophetic_dreams|prophesying}} or {{w|Precognition#In_dreams|precognition}} than what would be considered a normal dream, as normal dreams do not tell the future. This may be a reference to the [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448011/ 2009 film ''Knowing''] where a child writes down the latitude and longitude of disasters (including earthquakes) that will occur 50 years in the future. Dreaming of latitude and longitude was also a topic of [[240: Dream Girl]], but in contrast the events in that dream did not come true.

In the title text, either [[Megan]] or [[Ponytail]] is responding to black hat when she unexpectedly interrupts herself with the first part of geographic coordinates- Latitude 35, just as Black Hat described, implying the whole comic might be another of Black Hat's dreams. 35 degrees North would include 31 major cities around the world, including 11 in Japan and 8 in the USA; the only major city within 35 degrees South is Canberra, Australia. This suggest an earthquake would happen soon in one of those major cities. The second half of the coordinates are most likely cut off to add uncertainty to the situation.

==Transcript==

:[Megan, Ponytail, and Black Hat are standing around.]
:Megan: I've been out of school for years, but I still get those dreams where I have an exam and I didn't prepare.

:[Ponytail shrugs.]
:Ponytail: I think that's one of those weird universal dreams— like forgetting your clothes or discovering rooms in your house you didn't know about.

:[Zoom-in on Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Yeah! Or when you're having a normal dream, but then a horse appears on a distant hilltop, and it means that the dream is about to turn bad!
:Ponytail or Megan (off-screen): I... What?
:Black Hat: I have that one like every night.

:[Megan and Ponytail look at Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Or those ones where you're talking to someone, and they start repeating a latitude and longitude over and over, and then you wake up that morning and there's an earthquake there.
:Black Hat: Haha, dreams, right? So weird!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Dreams]]

Talk:1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T22:43:11Z

172.69.69.70: reply for 162.158.202.76

;Why now?

So why are we getting this map now instead of a year ago? Has something significant to this area just happened in the U.S.A.? (I am a Canadian so might well have missed something.)
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 16:42, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm from the midwest in the US and I'm really confused as well... I also don't find anything particularly funny or poignant in this. So yeah, color me confused in the US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 16:52, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam

: At a guess, because we're coming up on the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 23:26, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think the idea is that this map, while interesting as an object, still sort of fails as a map - it doesn't provide the sort of easily digestible information that a map of this variety is supposed to show. Conceptually, I don't think it's that different than #1138 (Heatmap) - the map more or less shows population density and fails to easily communicate party alignment. As to why it's showing up in the first year of 2018, my best guess is that mid-term elections are this year...? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.238|172.69.69.238]]

My friend I showed the comic to thinks it could be a general political commentary on the uselessness of these kinds of maps. 1. the map is a year old: useless. 2. there are no numbers: useless. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 17:04, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam.

I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission.html Trump just disbanded the commission on voter fraud]. I think I heard somewhere that this commission was to "prove why Trump should have won the popular vote". I think the map relates to the whole popular vote versus electoral college discussion.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 17:17, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think it might be claiming Trump only won because very many people failed to vote? Either that, or as already mentioned, it's about how useless these maps can be. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 17:20, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

The point of the map is that the standard choropleth map for the 2016 election shows the vast majority of us area voting for Donald Trump. (shown on this link http://brilliantmaps.com/2016-county-election-map/) The comic is criticizing the visual accuracy of chloropleth maps in giving a strong understanding of election results (as the majority of voters voted for Hillary). ---- {{unsigned| Widea}}

If this map is really so correct (as stated in the caption) then it has been a huge job to collect the data so precisely and calculate how to split voters across borders when not fitting. This says to me that this is a very big issue for Randall. Of course he has made it clear many times that he is [[1756: I'm With Her|against Trumps election]] and more or less [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|anything he does]]... I believe there is a lot to learn from this map as opposed to those he mentions in the title text --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:33, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

If this map is correct, then there are 252 Trump guys on it and 263 Clinton guys on it, a difference of 11 guys. I don't know how many "other" guys are on it. Just in case someone would like to know. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.4|198.41.230.4]] 20:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

One thing that the map does clearly show is that voters of Clinton were clustered in heavily urbanized regions (New England to Delmarva, Miami region, Chicago region, Houston and Austin, and coastal California in particular). Those same Clinton clusters are also home to the most third-party voters. Meanwhile, Trump voters were spread out more evenly and in isolated pockets, and there are very few third-party voters living out in the boonies.
I think the takeaway is that Democratic voters are underrepresented because they are grouped so closely together, and those same populations are also prone to giving rise to anti-two-party sentiment. These two factors combined work against liberalist movements in the United States. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.225|162.158.74.225]] 20:23, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I never realized until now just how few people live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.46|108.162.241.46]] 20:25, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I also think Randal needs a lesson in rural/urban voting, as the placement of many of the red figures on this map are, well, a bit off.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 22:46, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: Not necessarily. Each figure represents 250,000 votes, and as someone who grew up in a rural area, it takes a lot of land to get that many people. Take those two red figures in northwestern-ish Pennsylvania. Counting only people who are of voting age, assuming about 2% are ineligible to vote, with a state voter turnout of 70%, and the fact that only ~60-70% of the voters in those counties voted for Trump, it takes all '''18 counties''' in that region--every single county north of Pittsburgh and west of State College (the blue figures beside those two red ones)--to come up with about 500,000 Trump voters. That matches up exactly with the map. (The total population of those 18 counties, if you're curious, is a little under 1.5 million, with Erie being the largest at 280k and Cameron the smallest at 5k.) [[User:Eosa|Eosa]] ([[User talk:Eosa|talk]]) 17:19, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The claim about Trump being "obsessed" with how red the map appears seems to just be added to be inflammatory. As far as I know, he just gloated about the map a bit on Twitter on the days following his election. He definitely hasn't kept sharing red maps one year later like Randall, and I think we don't consider Randall obsessed. I'm removing it, and I'd rather this not be added back without a source that clearly shows such an obsession. [01000101] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.25.112|172.68.25.112]] 21:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: I'm reinstating it. In April, Trump [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html gave reporters a printout of the counties map], saying at the time, "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us." He later [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 framed and hung a similar map in the West Wing]. In a speech in June, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red." He has mentioned the election—which keep in mind he only won because of the Electoral College, not because of the popular vote—one out of every five days over the last year. He is clearly obsessed. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 22:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
:: I toned down the language a bit, to hopefully address concerns about the potentially controversial use of the word 'obsessed'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 08:59, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::: I'm fine with the change, even if I personally would stand by the word. Based on his actions (immediately announcing his bid for reelection and holding rallies, etc.) and statements he has made and continues to make nearly a year into his actual presidency, I think a reasonable case can be made that he genuinely dislikes the job of being president and is clinging to the one time when he was really happy—when he was campaigning. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:55, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

I count 31 "Green" folks, in addition to whoever counted the red and blues. That means our total is 546 little stick figures. I'm not sure why he picked that number, but it could be the correct number of folks to stick one on the small states of Alaska, Hawiaii, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. He also took the unusual step of counting VOTES instead of population. It'd be fun to have a version with non-voters on it.

I think Randall has always been a map enthusiast. I read this as an alternative map. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.28|108.162.237.28]] 21:54, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

;136,669,237 votes in 2016
To all the guys who are counting the Cueballs in the map: 546 Cueballs multiplied by 250,000 is 136,500,000 votes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

My count agrees. Red = 252, Blue = 263, Green = 31 [[User:Ansarya|Ansarya]] ([[User talk:Ansarya|talk]]) 00:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The title text is probably referring to this map on wikipedia:[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartlinearlarge.png] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.106|108.162.249.106]] 06:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

"the small impact of the low-population states" Shouldn't it be "high impact"? The vote of a person living in a low-density state has a higher weight than the vote of a person living in a high-density state.
Right? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:21, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
: Actually, Randall's map doesn't show much of anything as regards the relative influence of the states, because it only shows popular votes, and not Electoral College votes, which give proportionately higher representation to the lower population states. So I'd say that sentence should just be removed, or at least completely rewritten to state this as a deficiency of Randall's map (though criticising it for not showing something that it doesn't purport to show in the first place would be a bit unfair).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 09:20, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The table looks weird on a mobile device. The first number column has a way bigger font than the other two. Can be reproduced on a PC by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I (in Chrome), selecting "Nexus 5X" (or similar) at the top and reloading.

--- Assuming the text above is correct, the count is as follows:

<source>
$ for color in red blue green; do ( cat text | pcregrep -o1 "(\d*) $color" | awk -v c=$color '{s+=$1} END {print c, s}') ; done
red 252
blue 264
green 30
</source>[[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 12:38, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

I think that this comic might have something to do with [[1902: State Borders]]. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

; rounding error
Randall's political leanings are obvious, but are we to believe that he picked a ceiling rounding just to get one extra blue guy? One figure is not be noticeable on such a large map. Its an effect of about 0.0018%. Its more likely an artifact of trying to distribute figures across states or an honest mistake. I think that paragraph should be reworked.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.40|108.162.237.40]] 15:25, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:I reworded it to state what the exact figure would be and included a note that he rounded both figures up, which I think is interesting trivia in both cases. I don't think anything should be mentioned about a potential bias, for the reasons you state. No one would notice that it's (arguably) off by one unless they obsessively checked every little thing about the map. Randall's choice to round up or down doesn't affect the overall accuracy of the map or whatever point he's trying to convey. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::I added a possible unbiased reason for the use of ceiling rounding (avoiding the inclusion of partial Cueballs.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 15:43, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:::Regular rounding, which gets to whichever integer is closest (whether up or down), would also avoid broken people, but it would give Clinton one less guy. I removed your sentence, but added that it could be either due to Randall's political leanings or in order to achieve a better fit in a specific state. It's true that it is hard to point to either without further analysis. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.154|198.41.230.154]] 16:19, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:::: I know this wiki is in love with speculation, but this is such an insignificant detail about this map that there is no need to make guesses about Randall's motivations (political or otherwise) for rounding the way he did. Just state the facts. If a reader wants to draw their own conclusion, that's up to them. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 18:52, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::::: Couldn't the additional guy also be a result of using regular rounding for each state separately? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.76|162.158.202.76]] 21:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:::::: Possibly, but the text on the map specifically states that "votes are distributed by states as accurately as possible while keeping national totals correct." [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 22:43, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

As one of those Americans who doesn't like either major political party much, I'm disappointed that there wasn't a third color for voters who voted independent. More people voted independent in 2016 than any other recent Presidential election—that should be enough for at least two or three little yellow guys somewhere, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.166|162.158.75.166]] 15:47, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:Is green not enough? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:05, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

As a somewhat red-green color blind person, I have a hard time seeing the green Cueballs on this map. If I zoom in, I can see whether an individual Cueball is red or green, but I can't look at the map as a whole and easily see where all the green ones are. I wish Randall had instead made them dark green, dark brown, or even black so that seeing them wouldn't have been an issue for people like me (~6% of males). [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 21:22, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T18:52:34Z

172.69.69.70: cut it out with all the speculation

;Why now?

So why are we getting this map now instead of a year ago? Has something significant to this area just happened in the U.S.A.? (I am a Canadian so might well have missed something.)
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 16:42, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm from the midwest in the US and I'm really confused as well... I also don't find anything particularly funny or poignant in this. So yeah, color me confused in the US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 16:52, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam

: At a guess, because we're coming up on the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 23:26, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think the idea is that this map, while interesting as an object, still sort of fails as a map - it doesn't provide the sort of easily digestible information that a map of this variety is supposed to show. Conceptually, I don't think it's that different than #1138 (Heatmap) - the map more or less shows population density and fails to easily communicate party alignment. As to why it's showing up in the first year of 2018, my best guess is that mid-term elections are this year...? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.238|172.69.69.238]]

My friend I showed the comic to thinks it could be a general political commentary on the uselessness of these kinds of maps. 1. the map is a year old: useless. 2. there are no numbers: useless. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 17:04, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam.

I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission.html Trump just disbanded the commission on voter fraud]. I think I heard somewhere that this commission was to "prove why Trump should have won the popular vote". I think the map relates to the whole popular vote versus electoral college discussion.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 17:17, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think it might be claiming Trump only won because very many people failed to vote? Either that, or as already mentioned, it's about how useless these maps can be. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 17:20, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

The point of the map is that the standard choropleth map for the 2016 election shows the vast majority of us area voting for Donald Trump. (shown on this link http://brilliantmaps.com/2016-county-election-map/) The comic is criticizing the visual accuracy of chloropleth maps in giving a strong understanding of election results (as the majority of voters voted for Hillary). ---- {{unsigned| Widea}}

If this map is really so correct (as stated in the caption) then it has been a huge job to collect the data so precisely and calculate how to split voters across borders when not fitting. This says to me that this is a very big issue for Randall. Of course he has made it clear many times that he is [[1756: I'm With Her|against Trumps election]] and more or less [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|anything he does]]... I believe there is a lot to learn from this map as opposed to those he mentions in the title text --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:33, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

If this map is correct, then there are 252 Trump guys on it and 263 Clinton guys on it, a difference of 11 guys. I don't know how many "other" guys are on it. Just in case someone would like to know. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.4|198.41.230.4]] 20:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

One thing that the map does clearly show is that voters of Clinton were clustered in heavily urbanized regions (New England to Delmarva, Miami region, Chicago region, Houston and Austin, and coastal California in particular). Those same Clinton clusters are also home to the most third-party voters. Meanwhile, Trump voters were spread out more evenly and in isolated pockets, and there are very few third-party voters living out in the boonies.
I think the takeaway is that Democratic voters are underrepresented because they are grouped so closely together, and those same populations are also prone to giving rise to anti-two-party sentiment. These two factors combined work against liberalist movements in the United States. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.225|162.158.74.225]] 20:23, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I never realized until now just how few people live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.46|108.162.241.46]] 20:25, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I also think Randal needs a lesson in rural/urban voting, as the placement of many of the red figures on this map are, well, a bit off.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 22:46, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: Not necessarily. Each figure represents 250,000 votes, and as someone who grew up in a rural area, it takes a lot of land to get that many people. Take those two red figures in northwestern-ish Pennsylvania. Counting only people who are of voting age, assuming about 2% are ineligible to vote, with a state voter turnout of 70%, and the fact that only ~60-70% of the voters in those counties voted for Trump, it takes all '''18 counties''' in that region--every single county north of Pittsburgh and west of State College (the blue figures beside those two red ones)--to come up with about 500,000 Trump voters. That matches up exactly with the map. (The total population of those 18 counties, if you're curious, is a little under 1.5 million, with Erie being the largest at 280k and Cameron the smallest at 5k.) [[User:Eosa|Eosa]] ([[User talk:Eosa|talk]]) 17:19, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The claim about Trump being "obsessed" with how red the map appears seems to just be added to be inflammatory. As far as I know, he just gloated about the map a bit on Twitter on the days following his election. He definitely hasn't kept sharing red maps one year later like Randall, and I think we don't consider Randall obsessed. I'm removing it, and I'd rather this not be added back without a source that clearly shows such an obsession. [01000101] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.25.112|172.68.25.112]] 21:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: I'm reinstating it. In April, Trump [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html gave reporters a printout of the counties map], saying at the time, "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us." He later [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 framed and hung a similar map in the West Wing]. In a speech in June, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red." He has mentioned the election—which keep in mind he only won because of the Electoral College, not because of the popular vote—one out of every five days over the last year. He is clearly obsessed. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 22:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
:: I toned down the language a bit, to hopefully address concerns about the potentially controversial use of the word 'obsessed'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 08:59, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::: I'm fine with the change, even if I personally would stand by the word. Based on his actions (immediately announcing his bid for reelection and holding rallies, etc.) and statements he has made and continues to make nearly a year into his actual presidency, I think a reasonable case can be made that he genuinely dislikes the job of being president and is clinging to the one time when he was really happy—when he was campaigning. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:55, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

I count 31 "Green" folks, in addition to whoever counted the red and blues. That means our total is 546 little stick figures. I'm not sure why he picked that number, but it could be the correct number of folks to stick one on the small states of Alaska, Hawiaii, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. He also took the unusual step of counting VOTES instead of population. It'd be fun to have a version with non-voters on it.

I think Randall has always been a map enthusiast. I read this as an alternative map. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.28|108.162.237.28]] 21:54, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

;136,669,237 votes in 2016
To all the guys who are counting the Cueballs in the map: 546 Cueballs multiplied by 250,000 is 136,500,000 votes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

My count agrees. Red = 252, Blue = 263, Green = 31 [[User:Ansarya|Ansarya]] ([[User talk:Ansarya|talk]]) 00:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The title text is probably referring to this map on wikipedia:[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartlinearlarge.png] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.106|108.162.249.106]] 06:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

"the small impact of the low-population states" Shouldn't it be "high impact"? The vote of a person living in a low-density state has a higher weight than the vote of a person living in a high-density state.
Right? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:21, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
: Actually, Randall's map doesn't show much of anything as regards the relative influence of the states, because it only shows popular votes, and not Electoral College votes, which give proportionately higher representation to the lower population states. So I'd say that sentence should just be removed, or at least completely rewritten to state this as a deficiency of Randall's map (though criticising it for not showing something that it doesn't purport to show in the first place would be a bit unfair).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 09:20, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The table looks weird on a mobile device. The first number column has a way bigger font than the other two. Can be reproduced on a PC by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I (in Chrome), selecting "Nexus 5X" (or similar) at the top and reloading.

--- Assuming the text above is correct, the count is as follows:

<source>
$ for color in red blue green; do ( cat text | pcregrep -o1 "(\d*) $color" | awk -v c=$color '{s+=$1} END {print c, s}') ; done
red 252
blue 264
green 30
</source>[[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 12:38, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

I think that this comic might have something to do with [[1902: State Borders]]. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

; rounding error
Randall's political leanings are obvious, but are we to believe that he picked a ceiling rounding just to get one extra blue guy? One figure is not be noticeable on such a large map. Its an effect of about 0.0018%. Its more likely an artifact of trying to distribute figures across states or an honest mistake. I think that paragraph should be reworked.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.40|108.162.237.40]] 15:25, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:I reworded it to state what the exact figure would be and included a note that he rounded both figures up, which I think is interesting trivia in both cases. I don't think anything should be mentioned about a potential bias, for the reasons you state. No one would notice that it's (arguably) off by one unless they obsessively checked every little thing about the map. Randall's choice to round up or down doesn't affect the overall accuracy of the map or whatever point he's trying to convey. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::I added a possible unbiased reason for the use of ceiling rounding (avoiding the inclusion of partial Cueballs.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 15:43, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:::Regular rounding, which gets to whichever integer is closest (whether up or down), would also avoid broken people, but it would give Clinton one less guy. I removed your sentence, but added that it could be either due to Randall's political leanings or in order to achieve a better fit in a specific state. It's true that it is hard to point to either without further analysis. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.154|198.41.230.154]] 16:19, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:::: I know this wiki is in love with speculation, but this is such an insignificant detail about this map that there is no need to make guesses about Randall's motivations (political or otherwise) for rounding the way he did. Just state the facts. If a reader wants to draw their own conclusion, that's up to them. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 18:52, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

As one of those Americans who doesn't like either major political party much, I'm disappointed that there wasn't a third color for voters who voted independent. More people voted independent in 2016 than any other recent Presidential election—that should be enough for at least two or three little yellow guys somewhere, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.166|162.158.75.166]] 15:47, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:Is green not enough? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:05, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T18:45:43Z

172.69.69.70: remove unnecessary speculation; just state the facts

{{comic
| number = 1939
| date = January 8, 2018
| title = 2016 Election Map
| image = 2016_election_map.png
| titletext = I like the idea of cartograms (distorted population maps), but I feel like in practice they often end up being the worst of both worlds—not great for showing geography OR counting people. And on top of that, they have all the problems of a chloro... chorophl... chloropet... map with areas colored in.
}}

*A [https://xkcd.com/1939/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The way the map was made, as explained in gray text is not yet discussed. Title text: Problem with the pronunciation of the word not mentioned as well as the other type of maps, cartograms (distorted population maps), has not been mentioned either. Also, the ref to these type of maps and the pronunciation problem should be below the main explanation of the map, as that is what is the typical way of the explanation of the title text. Also, this map is explicitly not either of those two types of map as they are no good for what they try to show, which is the entire point of the comic! Wikilinks could be added to the data on the counting table.}}

A {{w|choropleth map}}, referenced in the title text, is a map that uses shading or colors to show information about a geographic area, such as a 'normal' election map that shows districts/states colored to the party that won them.

The United States elects its president not directly by popular vote but by an Electoral College composed of a number of electors, partially proportional to population, from each state. Presently, a "winner-take-all" system is used in most states: the winner of the popular vote in each state receives all of the electoral votes for that state. Though, strictly speaking, the electors are not required to cast their ballots according to this system, many states impose penalties on them if they don't. Technically, the popular vote in each state is to elect a slate of electors who in turn elect the President.

The news media commonly use maps to represent the progress or results of the election. Because of this winner-take-all system, states won by the Democratic candidate are typically portrayed in one color (blue is currently in wide use), and states won by the Republican candidate in another (currently red). In recent years, this distinction has gone far beyond electoral maps, and states are often referred to as "blue" or "red" by their political leaning in many contexts.

A choropleth map has many shortcomings. For example, many large Western states have small populations and thus don't make much difference to the electoral vote count, but look like a broad swath of red or blue on the map. The map overall can have the appearance of being very red or very blue, suggesting to the eye an overwhelming victory, when in fact the election can be extremely close. Donald Trump has [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html repeatedly] [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 emphasized] how red the map appears, especially when broken down by county, even though he actually lost the popular vote. In a speech on June 21, 2017, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red."

In this cartoon, [[Randall]] seems to be pointing out the shortcomings of the choropleth map (or perhaps this overall red-state/blue-state mentality). His map shows more clearly the small impact of the low-population states, as well as how combination of the winner-take-all system with the typical election maps fails to show the sometimes large number of opposition votes in a given state. This map also combines all third-party or independent candidate into one type of marker (green), making it clear that a substantial number of votes went to these candidates.

A similar map was actually used during the 2016 election [https://ig.ft.com/us-elections/results by the Financial Times] ([https://www.ft.com/content/3685bf9e-a4cc-11e6-8b69-02899e8bd9d1 discussed here]). It made similar use of colorless states for geographic information and color in proportion to population for electoral information. However, the FT map is based on the electoral college, not the popular vote. It in turn is similar to a 2013 map used [https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/interactive/2013/sep/06/australian-election-results-map by The Guardian] for the 2013 Australian election ([https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/sep/06/better-election-results-map discussed here]). Other compromise maps of geographic and electoral information exist, such as maps of geographically accurate but re-scaled states: a 2016 election example [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElectorScaledUS2016.svg is here], indirectly inspired by [https://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9178979/united-states-population a similar vox.com map].

Shortly after the election Randall made [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several comics]] that could indicate his emotions regarding the result, but references to the election have become fewer and farther apart.

With a stick figure representing 250,000 votes, Trump would have exactly 251.918544 stick figures and Clinton would have exactly 263.37844 stick figures according to the [https://splinternews.com/here-is-the-final-popular-vote-count-of-the-2016-electi-1793864349 final results]. The map shows 252 Trump stick figures and 264 Clinton stick figures, meaning Randall used ceiling rounding instead of conventional rounding, which would have shown Clinton with one fewer stick figure.

===Table===
{| class = "wikitable sortable"
!State
!Red
!Blue
!Green
!Total
|-
| Alabama || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Alaska || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Arizona || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10
|-
| Arkansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| California || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 35 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 58
|-
| Colorado || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10
|-
| Connecticut || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Delaware || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4
|-
| Florida || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 38
|-
| Georgia || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16
|-
| Hawaii || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Idaho || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| Illinois || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 13 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 23
|-
| Indiana || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11
|-
| Iowa || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Kansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Kentucky || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Louisiana || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Maine || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| Maryland || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Massachusetts || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12
|-
| Michigan || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 18
|-
| Minnesota || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12
|-
| Mississippi || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Missouri || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11
|-
| Montana || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2
|-
| Nebraska || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| Nevada || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4
|-
| New Hampshire || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2
|-
| New Jersey || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16
|-
| New Mexico || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| New York || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 20 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 34
|-
| North Carolina || align="right"| 10 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 20
|-
| North Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Ohio || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 21
|-
| Oklahoma || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 6
|-
| Oregon || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 8
|-
| Pennsylvania || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 24
|-
| Rhode Island || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| South Carolina || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| South Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Tennessee || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11
|-
| Texas || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 16 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 37
|-
| Utah || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 4
|-
| Vermont || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Virginia || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16
|-
| Washington || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 14
|-
| Washington DC || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| West Virginia || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Wisconsin || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12
|-
| Wyoming || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-class="sortbottom"
! Total || align="right"| 252 || align="right"| 264 || align="right"| 30 || align="right"| 546
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Could benefit from reformatting, feel free to remove though if it's finished.}}
:[A map of the United States, with Hawaii and Alaska offset, is shown. Across the states red, blue and green Cueball like stick figure are scattered about, much more on each coast, and very few in the central parts, especially in the mid west. There are about the same amount of red and blue stick figures. There are not many green, but they are represented almost in any state with more than 10 stick figures. Above the map there is a large bold title. Below that there is a legend description explaining the red, blue and green Cueball stick figure with labels of who they represent next to them. Below this, in light gray text, are two lines of explanation of how the map was created:]
:<big>'''2016 Election Map'''</big>
:Each figure represents 250,000 votes
:[Red stick figure:] Trump
:[Blue stick figure:] Clinton
:[Green stick figure:] Other
:Votes are distributed by states as accurately as possible while keeping national totals correct.
:Location within each state is approximate.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Politics]]

Talk:1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T15:55:12Z

172.69.69.70: reply for 141.101.76.16

;Why now?

So why are we getting this map now instead of a year ago? Has something significant to this area just happened in the U.S.A.? (I am a Canadian so might well have missed something.)
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 16:42, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm from the midwest in the US and I'm really confused as well... I also don't find anything particularly funny or poignant in this. So yeah, color me confused in the US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 16:52, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam

: At a guess, because we're coming up on the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 23:26, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think the idea is that this map, while interesting as an object, still sort of fails as a map - it doesn't provide the sort of easily digestible information that a map of this variety is supposed to show. Conceptually, I don't think it's that different than #1138 (Heatmap) - the map more or less shows population density and fails to easily communicate party alignment. As to why it's showing up in the first year of 2018, my best guess is that mid-term elections are this year...? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.238|172.69.69.238]]

My friend I showed the comic to thinks it could be a general political commentary on the uselessness of these kinds of maps. 1. the map is a year old: useless. 2. there are no numbers: useless. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 17:04, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam.

I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission.html Trump just disbanded the commission on voter fraud]. I think I heard somewhere that this commission was to "prove why Trump should have won the popular vote". I think the map relates to the whole popular vote versus electoral college discussion.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 17:17, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think it might be claiming Trump only won because very many people failed to vote? Either that, or as already mentioned, it's about how useless these maps can be. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 17:20, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

The point of the map is that the standard choropleth map for the 2016 election shows the vast majority of us area voting for Donald Trump. (shown on this link http://brilliantmaps.com/2016-county-election-map/) The comic is criticizing the visual accuracy of chloropleth maps in giving a strong understanding of election results (as the majority of voters voted for Hillary). ---- {{unsigned| Widea}}

If this map is really so correct (as stated in the caption) then it has been a huge job to collect the data so precisely and calculate how to split voters across borders when not fitting. This says to me that this is a very big issue for Randall. Of course he has made it clear many times that he is [[1756: I'm With Her|against Trumps election]] and more or less [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|anything he does]]... I believe there is a lot to learn from this map as opposed to those he mentions in the title text --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:33, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

If this map is correct, then there are 252 Trump guys on it and 263 Clinton guys on it, a difference of 11 guys. I don't know how many "other" guys are on it. Just in case someone would like to know. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.4|198.41.230.4]] 20:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

One thing that the map does clearly show is that voters of Clinton were clustered in heavily urbanized regions (New England to Delmarva, Miami region, Chicago region, Houston and Austin, and coastal California in particular). Those same Clinton clusters are also home to the most third-party voters. Meanwhile, Trump voters were spread out more evenly and in isolated pockets, and there are very few third-party voters living out in the boonies.
I think the takeaway is that Democratic voters are underrepresented because they are grouped so closely together, and those same populations are also prone to giving rise to anti-two-party sentiment. These two factors combined work against liberalist movements in the United States. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.225|162.158.74.225]] 20:23, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I never realized until now just how few people live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.46|108.162.241.46]] 20:25, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I also think Randal needs a lesson in rural/urban voting, as the placement of many of the red figures on this map are, well, a bit off.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 22:46, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: Not necessarily. Each figure represents 250,000 votes, and as someone who grew up in a rural area, it takes a lot of land to get that many people. Take those two red figures in northwestern-ish Pennsylvania. Counting only people who are of voting age, assuming about 2% are ineligible to vote, with a state voter turnout of 70%, and the fact that only ~60-70% of the voters in those counties voted for Trump, it takes all '''18 counties''' in that region--every single county north of Pittsburgh and west of State College (the blue figures beside those two red ones)--to come up with about 500,000 Trump voters. That matches up exactly with the map. (The total population of those 18 counties, if you're curious, is a little under 1.5 million, with Erie being the largest at 280k and Cameron the smallest at 5k.) [[User:Eosa|Eosa]] ([[User talk:Eosa|talk]]) 17:19, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The claim about Trump being "obsessed" with how red the map appears seems to just be added to be inflammatory. As far as I know, he just gloated about the map a bit on Twitter on the days following his election. He definitely hasn't kept sharing red maps one year later like Randall, and I think we don't consider Randall obsessed. I'm removing it, and I'd rather this not be added back without a source that clearly shows such an obsession. [01000101] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.25.112|172.68.25.112]] 21:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: I'm reinstating it. In April, Trump [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html gave reporters a printout of the counties map], saying at the time, "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us." He later [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 framed and hung a similar map in the West Wing]. In a speech in June, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red." He has mentioned the election—which keep in mind he only won because of the Electoral College, not because of the popular vote—one out of every five days over the last year. He is clearly obsessed. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 22:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
:: I toned down the language a bit, to hopefully address concerns about the potentially controversial use of the word 'obsessed'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 08:59, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::: I'm fine with the change, even if I personally would stand by the word. Based on his actions (immediately announcing his bid for reelection and holding rallies, etc.) and statements he has made and continues to make nearly a year into his actual presidency, I think a reasonable case can be made that he genuinely dislikes the job of being president and is clinging to the one time when he was really happy—when he was campaigning. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:55, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

I count 31 "Green" folks, in addition to whoever counted the red and blues. That means our total is 546 little stick figures. I'm not sure why he picked that number, but it could be the correct number of folks to stick one on the small states of Alaska, Hawiaii, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. He also took the unusual step of counting VOTES instead of population. It'd be fun to have a version with non-voters on it.

I think Randall has always been a map enthusiast. I read this as an alternative map. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.28|108.162.237.28]] 21:54, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

;136,669,237 votes in 2016
To all the guys who are counting the Cueballs in the map: 546 Cueballs multiplied by 250,000 is 136,500,000 votes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

My count agrees. Red = 252, Blue = 263, Green = 31 [[User:Ansarya|Ansarya]] ([[User talk:Ansarya|talk]]) 00:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The title text is probably referring to this map on wikipedia:[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartlinearlarge.png] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.106|108.162.249.106]] 06:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

"the small impact of the low-population states" Shouldn't it be "high impact"? The vote of a person living in a low-density state has a higher weight than the vote of a person living in a high-density state.
Right? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:21, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
: Actually, Randall's map doesn't show much of anything as regards the relative influence of the states, because it only shows popular votes, and not Electoral College votes, which give proportionately higher representation to the lower population states. So I'd say that sentence should just be removed, or at least completely rewritten to state this as a deficiency of Randall's map (though criticising it for not showing something that it doesn't purport to show in the first place would be a bit unfair).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 09:20, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The table looks weird on a mobile device. The first number column has a way bigger font than the other two. Can be reproduced on a PC by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I (in Chrome), selecting "Nexus 5X" (or similar) at the top and reloading.

--- Assuming the text above is correct, the count is as follows:

<source>
$ for color in red blue green; do ( cat text | pcregrep -o1 "(\d*) $color" | awk -v c=$color '{s+=$1} END {print c, s}') ; done
red 252
blue 264
green 30
</source>[[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 12:38, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

I think that this comic might have something to do with [[1902: State Borders]]. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

; rounding error
Randall's political leanings are obvious, but are we to believe that he picked a ceiling rounding just to get one extra blue guy? One figure is not be noticeable on such a large map. Its an effect of about 0.0018%. Its more likely an artifact of trying to distribute figures across states or an honest mistake. I think that paragraph should be reworked.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.40|108.162.237.40]] 15:25, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:I reworded it to state what the exact figure would be and included a note that he rounded both figures up, which I think is interesting trivia in both cases. I don't think anything should be mentioned about a potential bias, for the reasons you state. No one would notice that it's (arguably) off by one unless they obsessively checked every little thing about the map. Randall's choice to round up or down doesn't affect the overall accuracy of the map or whatever point he's trying to convey. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
::I added a possible unbiased reason for the use of ceiling rounding (avoiding the inclusion of partial Cueballs.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 15:43, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

As one of those Americans who doesn't like either major political party much, I'm disappointed that there wasn't a third color for voters who voted independent. More people voted independent in 2016 than any other recent Presidential election—that should be enough for at least two or three little yellow guys somewhere, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.166|162.158.75.166]] 15:47, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T15:45:18Z

172.69.69.70: spelling

Talk:1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T15:41:31Z

172.69.69.70: reply for 108.162.237.40

;Why now?

So why are we getting this map now instead of a year ago? Has something significant to this area just happened in the U.S.A.? (I am a Canadian so might well have missed something.)
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 16:42, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm from the midwest in the US and I'm really confused as well... I also don't find anything particularly funny or poignant in this. So yeah, color me confused in the US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 16:52, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam

: At a guess, because we're coming up on the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 23:26, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think the idea is that this map, while interesting as an object, still sort of fails as a map - it doesn't provide the sort of easily digestible information that a map of this variety is supposed to show. Conceptually, I don't think it's that different than #1138 (Heatmap) - the map more or less shows population density and fails to easily communicate party alignment. As to why it's showing up in the first year of 2018, my best guess is that mid-term elections are this year...? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.238|172.69.69.238]]

My friend I showed the comic to thinks it could be a general political commentary on the uselessness of these kinds of maps. 1. the map is a year old: useless. 2. there are no numbers: useless. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 17:04, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam.

I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission.html Trump just disbanded the commission on voter fraud]. I think I heard somewhere that this commission was to "prove why Trump should have won the popular vote". I think the map relates to the whole popular vote versus electoral college discussion.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 17:17, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think it might be claiming Trump only won because very many people failed to vote? Either that, or as already mentioned, it's about how useless these maps can be. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 17:20, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

The point of the map is that the standard choropleth map for the 2016 election shows the vast majority of us area voting for Donald Trump. (shown on this link http://brilliantmaps.com/2016-county-election-map/) The comic is criticizing the visual accuracy of chloropleth maps in giving a strong understanding of election results (as the majority of voters voted for Hillary). ---- {{unsigned| Widea}}

If this map is really so correct (as stated in the caption) then it has been a huge job to collect the data so precisely and calculate how to split voters across borders when not fitting. This says to me that this is a very big issue for Randall. Of course he has made it clear many times that he is [[1756: I'm With Her|against Trumps election]] and more or less [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|anything he does]]... I believe there is a lot to learn from this map as opposed to those he mentions in the title text --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:33, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

If this map is correct, then there are 252 Trump guys on it and 263 Clinton guys on it, a difference of 11 guys. I don't know how many "other" guys are on it. Just in case someone would like to know. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.4|198.41.230.4]] 20:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

One thing that the map does clearly show is that voters of Clinton were clustered in heavily urbanized regions (New England to Delmarva, Miami region, Chicago region, Houston and Austin, and coastal California in particular). Those same Clinton clusters are also home to the most third-party voters. Meanwhile, Trump voters were spread out more evenly and in isolated pockets, and there are very few third-party voters living out in the boonies.
I think the takeaway is that Democratic voters are underrepresented because they are grouped so closely together, and those same populations are also prone to giving rise to anti-two-party sentiment. These two factors combined work against liberalist movements in the United States. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.225|162.158.74.225]] 20:23, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I never realized until now just how few people live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.46|108.162.241.46]] 20:25, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I also think Randal needs a lesson in rural/urban voting, as the placement of many of the red figures on this map are, well, a bit off.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 22:46, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: Not necessarily. Each figure represents 250,000 votes, and as someone who grew up in a rural area, it takes a lot of land to get that many people. Take those two red figures in northwestern-ish Pennsylvania. Counting only people who are of voting age, assuming about 2% are ineligible to vote, with a state voter turnout of 70%, and the fact that only ~60-70% of the voters in those counties voted for Trump, it takes all '''18 counties''' in that region--every single county north of Pittsburgh and west of State College (the blue figures beside those two red ones)--to come up with about 500,000 Trump voters. That matches up exactly with the map. (The total population of those 18 counties, if you're curious, is a little under 1.5 million, with Erie being the largest at 280k and Cameron the smallest at 5k.) [[User:Eosa|Eosa]] ([[User talk:Eosa|talk]]) 17:19, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The claim about Trump being "obsessed" with how red the map appears seems to just be added to be inflammatory. As far as I know, he just gloated about the map a bit on Twitter on the days following his election. He definitely hasn't kept sharing red maps one year later like Randall, and I think we don't consider Randall obsessed. I'm removing it, and I'd rather this not be added back without a source that clearly shows such an obsession. [01000101] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.25.112|172.68.25.112]] 21:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
: I'm reinstating it. In April, Trump [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html gave reporters a printout of the counties map], saying at the time, "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us." He later [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 framed and hung a similar map in the West Wing]. In a speech in June, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red." He has mentioned the election—which keep in mind he only won because of the Electoral College, not because of the popular vote—one out of every five days over the last year. He is clearly obsessed. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 22:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
:: I toned down the language a bit, to hopefully address concerns about the potentially controversial use of the word 'obsessed'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 08:59, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

I count 31 "Green" folks, in addition to whoever counted the red and blues. That means our total is 546 little stick figures. I'm not sure why he picked that number, but it could be the correct number of folks to stick one on the small states of Alaska, Hawiaii, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. He also took the unusual step of counting VOTES instead of population. It'd be fun to have a version with non-voters on it.

I think Randall has always been a map enthusiast. I read this as an alternative map. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.28|108.162.237.28]] 21:54, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

;136,669,237 votes in 2016
To all the guys who are counting the Cueballs in the map: 546 Cueballs multiplied by 250,000 is 136,500,000 votes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

My count agrees. Red = 252, Blue = 263, Green = 31 [[User:Ansarya|Ansarya]] ([[User talk:Ansarya|talk]]) 00:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The title text is probably referring to this map on wikipedia:[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartlinearlarge.png] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.106|108.162.249.106]] 06:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

"the small impact of the low-population states" Shouldn't it be "high impact"? The vote of a person living in a low-density state has a higher weight than the vote of a person living in a high-density state.
Right? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:21, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
: Actually, Randall's map doesn't show much of anything as regards the relative influence of the states, because it only shows popular votes, and not Electoral College votes, which give proportionately higher representation to the lower population states. So I'd say that sentence should just be removed, or at least completely rewritten to state this as a deficiency of Randall's map (though criticising it for not showing something that it doesn't purport to show in the first place would be a bit unfair).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 09:20, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The table looks weird on a mobile device. The first number column has a way bigger font than the other two. Can be reproduced on a PC by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I (in Chrome), selecting "Nexus 5X" (or similar) at the top and reloading.

--- Assuming the text above is correct, the count is as follows:

<source>
$ for color in red blue green; do ( cat text | pcregrep -o1 "(\d*) $color" | awk -v c=$color '{s+=$1} END {print c, s}') ; done
red 252
blue 264
green 30
</source>[[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 12:38, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

I think that this comic might have something to do with [[1902: State Borders]]. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

; rounding error
Randall's political leanings are obvious, but are we to believe that he picked a ceiling rounding just to get one extra blue guy? One figure is not be noticeable on such a large map. Its an effect of about 0.0018%. Its more likely an artifact of trying to distribute figures across states or an honest mistake. I think that paragraph should be reworked.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.40|108.162.237.40]] 15:25, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
:I reworded it to state what the exact figure would be and included a note that he rounded both figures up, which I think is interesting trivia in both cases. I don't think anything should be mentioned about a potential bias, for the reasons you state. No one would notice that it's (arguably) off by one unless they obsessively checked every little thing about the map. Randall's choice to round up or down doesn't affect the overall accuracy of the map or whatever point he's trying to convey. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-10T15:34:28Z

172.69.69.70: reword bit about exact number of stick figures versus rounded number to state it in an objective way

{{comic
| number = 1939
| date = January 8, 2018
| title = 2016 Election Map
| image = 2016_election_map.png
| titletext = I like the idea of cartograms (distorted population maps), but I feel like in practice they often end up being the worst of both worlds—not great for showing geography OR counting people. And on top of that, they have all the problems of a chloro... chorophl... chloropet... map with areas colored in.
}}

*A [https://xkcd.com/1939/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The way the map was made, as explained in gray text is not yet discussed. Title text: Problem with the pronunciation of the word not mentioned as well as the other type of maps, cartograms (distorted population maps), has not been mentioned either. Also the ref to these type of maps and the pronunciation problem should be below the main explanation of the map, as that is what is the typical way of the explanation of the title text. Also this map is explicitly not either of those two types of map as they are no good for what they try to show, which is the entire point of the comic! Wikilinks could be added to the data on the counting table.}}

A {{w|choropleth map}}, referenced in the title text, is a map that uses shading or colors to show information about a geographic area, such as a 'normal' election map that shows districts/states colored to the party that won them.

The United States elects its president not directly by popular vote but by an Electoral College composed of a number of electors, partially proportional to population, from each state. Presently, a "winner-take-all" system is used in most states: the winner of the popular vote in each state receives all of the electoral votes for that state. Though, strictly speaking, the electors are not required to cast their ballots according to this system, many states impose penalties on them if they don't. Technically, the popular vote in each state is to elect a slate of electors who in turn elect the President.

The news media commonly use maps to represent the progress or results of the election. Because of this winner-take-all system, states won by the Democratic candidate are typically portrayed in one color (blue is currently in wide use), and states won by the Republican candidate in another (currently red). In recent years, this distinction has gone far beyond electoral maps, and states are often referred to as "blue" or "red" by their political leaning in many contexts.

A choropleth map has many shortcomings. For example, many large Western states have small populations and thus don't make much difference to the electoral vote count, but look like a broad swath of red or blue on the map. The map overall can have the appearance of being very red or very blue, suggesting to the eye an overwhelming victory, when in fact the election can be extremely close. Donald Trump has [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html repeatedly] [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 emphasised] how red the map appears, especially when broken down by county, even though he actually lost the popular vote. In a speech on June 21, 2017, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red."

In this cartoon, [[Randall]] seems to be pointing out the shortcomings of the choropleth map (or perhaps this overall red-state/blue-state mentality). His map shows more clearly the small impact of the low-population states, as well as how combination of the winner-take-all system with the typical election maps fails to show the sometimes large number of opposition votes in a given state. This map also combines all third-party or independent candidate into one type of marker (green), making it clear that a substantial number of votes went to these candidates.

A similar map was actually used during the 2016 election [https://ig.ft.com/us-elections/results by the Financial Times] ([https://www.ft.com/content/3685bf9e-a4cc-11e6-8b69-02899e8bd9d1 discussed here]). It made similar use of colorless states for geographic information and color in proportion to population for electoral information. However, the FT map is based on the electoral college, not the popular vote. It in turn is similar to a 2013 map used [https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/interactive/2013/sep/06/australian-election-results-map by The Guardian] for the 2013 Australian election ([https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/sep/06/better-election-results-map discussed here]). Other compromise maps of geographic and electoral information exist, such as maps of geographically accurate but re-scaled states: a 2016 election example [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElectorScaledUS2016.svg is here], indirectly inspired by [https://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9178979/united-states-population a similar vox.com map].

Shortly after the election Randall made [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several comics]] that could indicate his emotions regarding the result, but references to the election have become fewer and farther apart.

With a stick figure representing 250,000 votes, Trump would have exactly 251.918544 stick figures and Clinton would have exactly 263.37844 stick figures according to the [https://splinternews.com/here-is-the-final-popular-vote-count-of-the-2016-electi-1793864349 final results]. The map shows 252 Trump stick figures and 264 Clinton stick figures, meaning Randall used ceiling rounding instead of conventional rounding.

===Table===
{| class = "wikitable sortable"
!State
!Red
!Blue
!Green
!Total
|-
| Alabama || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Alaska || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Arizona || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10
|-
| Arkansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| California || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 35 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 58
|-
| Colorado || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10
|-
| Connecticut || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Delaware || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4
|-
| Florida || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 38
|-
| Georgia || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16
|-
| Hawaii || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Idaho || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| Illinois || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 13 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 23
|-
| Indiana || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11
|-
| Iowa || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Kansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Kentucky || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Louisiana || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Maine || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| Maryland || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| Massachusetts || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12
|-
| Michigan || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 18
|-
| Minnesota || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12
|-
| Mississippi || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Missouri || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11
|-
| Montana || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2
|-
| Nebraska || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| Nevada || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4
|-
| New Hampshire || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2
|-
| New Jersey || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16
|-
| New Mexico || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| New York || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 20 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 34
|-
| North Carolina || align="right"| 10 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 20
|-
| North Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Ohio || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 21
|-
| Oklahoma || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 6
|-
| Oregon || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 8
|-
| Pennsylvania || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 24
|-
| Rhode Island || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3
|-
| South Carolina || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8
|-
| South Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Tennessee || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11
|-
| Texas || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 16 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 37
|-
| Utah || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 4
|-
| Vermont || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| Virginia || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16
|-
| Washington || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 14
|-
| Washington DC || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-
| West Virginia || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5
|-
| Wisconsin || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12
|-
| Wyoming || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1
|-class="sortbottom"
! Total || align="right"| 252 || align="right"| 264 || align="right"| 30 || align="right"| 546
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Could benefit from reformatting, feel free to remove though if it's finished.}}
:[A map of the United States, with Hawaii and Alaska offset, is shown. Across the states red, blue and green Cueball like stick figure are scattered about, much more on each coast, and very few in the central parts, especially in the mid west. There are about the same amount of red and blue stick figures. There are not many green, but they are represented almost in any state with more than 10 stick figures. Above the map there is a large bold title. Below that there is a legend description explaining the red, blue and green Cueball stick figure with labels of who they represents next to them. Below this, in light gray text, are two lines of explanation of how the map was created:]
:<big>'''2016 Election Map'''</big>
:Each figure represents 250,000 votes
:[Red stick figure:] Trump
:[Blue stick figure:] Clinton
:[Green stick figure:] Other
:Votes are distributed by states as accurately as possible while keeping national totals correct.
:Location within each state is approximate.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-09T22:54:15Z

172.69.69.70: add year

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-09T22:52:49Z

172.69.69.70: Undo revision 150626 by 01000101; reinstate this with citations per talk page

Talk:1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-09T22:48:02Z

172.69.69.70: reply for 01000101

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-08T19:46:24Z

172.69.69.70: add bit about Trump's obsession (I wonder if that obsession was any inspiration for creating this map)

1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations

2018-01-03T21:04:26Z

172.69.69.70: fix and link fhqwhgads

{{comic
| number = 1937
| date = January 3, 2018
| title = IATA Airport Abbreviations
| image = iata_airport_abbreviations.png
| titletext = IATA stands for International AirporT Abbreviation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Expansion needed. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is making fun of the three-letter codes assigned to mostly all {{w|IATA airport code|airports}} in the world. These codes are overseen by the {{w|International Air Transport Association|IATA (International Air Transport Association)}}. Some airport codes are very intuitive, taking letters from the city name (e.g., DEN for Denver). Other codes are somewhat intuitive, taking a letter or two from the nearby city name but adding an additional letter (e.g., LAX for Los Angeles). Other codes make seemingly no sense at all (e.g., ORD for Chicago's O'Hare International, due to it formerly being named Orchard Field). In many cases, the airport codes appear to have been chosen (or invented) because they are also common abbreviations and acronyms.

If we use the table provided, Randall's friend is flying into Edwards Air Force Base and then down to whatever. This is not a typical flight. In actuality, the friend is flying into Newark tonight and Detroit tomorrow.

{| class="wikitable"
|'''IATA Code''' || '''Actual Assigned City/Airport''' || '''Description in the comic''' || '''Explanation'''
|-
| AMD || {{w|Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport|Ahmedabad}} || {{w|Amsterdam }}|| Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. Its airport (called Schiphol) has the IATA code AMS. "AMD" is also a brand of computer processors.
|-
| ANC || {{w|Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport|Anchorage}} || Ankh-Morpork || Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state featured in {{w|Discworld}}.
|-
| ATL || {{w|Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport|Atlanta}} || Atalantë || Another name for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island of Númenor (which is in turn a reference to the sinking of Atlantis). This may also be an intentional misspelling of "Atlanta".
|-
| BAE || {{w|Barcelonnette – Saint-Pons Airfield|Barcelonnette}} || {{w|Beijing}} || Beijing is the capital of China. Its airport has the IATA code PEK (possibly from Peking, alternate former spelling of its name). "Bae" is a slang term meaning girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other.
|-
| BLT || {{w|
Blackwater Airport|Blackwater}} || {{w|Baltimore}} || A "BLT" is a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
|-
| BUF || Buffalo || Sunnydale || {{w|Sunnydale}} is a fictional California city that serves as the primary setting for '''''Buf'''fy the Vampire Slayer''.
|-
| CLT || Charlotte || [CENSORED] || The censored word may be "clitoris." Randall has used this word in the comic before ([[243: Appropriate Term]]), but it is censored here for comic effect.
|-
| DFW || Dallas/Fort Worth || Down For Whatever || "Down for Whatever" is an expression used to indicate that one is okay with doing whatever his or her friends are doing in a social situation, or whatever comes up during a social situation.
|-
| DTF || not assigned || Dartford || "DTF" is an acronym used to indicate "Down To Fuck". Dartford is a town in Kent, UK, about 10 miles SE of London.
|-
| DTW || {{w|Detroit Metropolitan Airport|Detroit}} || Down To Whatever || See "DFW". "Down to Whatever" could indicate that one is getting on a plane with the intention of being fine with whatever the plane's destination turns out to be.
|-
| DWI || not assigned || Delaware International || "DWI" is an acronym for "Driving While Intoxicated" or "Driving While Impaired." Randall notes in the ''what if?'' book that Delaware has no airports.
|-
| EWR || Newark || Edwards Air Force Base || Edwards Air Force Base (which has the IATA code EDW) is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles (24 km) east of Rosamond.
|-
| FFS || not assigned || Flagstaff Station || "FFS" is an acronym for "For Fuck's Sake".
|-
| FHQ || not assigned || FHQWHGADS || The string "fhqwhgads" appeared as the first part of the sender name in the email "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lml_AKkhCVY i love you]" sent to Strong Bad in the {{w|Homestar Runner}} cartoons; Strong Bad ended up [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=votBDwhTu1E writing a song] dedicated to the "character".
|-
| FYI || Fresno Yosemite International || Fayetteville || "FYI" often stands for "For Your Information". Fresno Yosemite International also has the code FAT
|-
| HGM || not assigned || Hogsmeade || {{w|Places_in_Harry_Potter#Hogsmeade|Hogsmeade}} is a fictional location in the ''{{w|Harry Potter}}'' series.
|-
| HSV || Huntsville || Huntsville || This is one where Randall and the IATA agree. HSV is better known as the Hue-Saturation-Value color space or German soccer club Hamburger SV. It is also Herpes Simplex Virus, a venereal disease.
|-
| IAD || Washington (Dulles) || Idaho (Boise) || IAD is the symbol for Dulles Int'l Airport (which was originally "DIA" but it was felt that could be confused when hand-written with "DCA", the sign for nearby {{w|Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport}}). The Idaho Falls airport is IDA, while Idaho (Boise) is BOI, so it's unclear why BOI was chosen instead of IDA.
|-
| IUD || Doha || Washington (Dulles) || An "IUD" is an "IntraUterine Device," or form of birth control. Doha is the capital of Qatar in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.
|-
| JFC || not assigned || Jefferson City || "JFC" is an acronym for "Jesus Fucking Christ." JFK is John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York's main airport and one of the most famous in the world.
|-
| KUL || Kuala Lumpur || Kingdom of Loathing || Kingdom of Loathing is an online, browser-based RPG. It contains an [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Elemental_International_Airport International Airport], previously lacking a three digit code.
|-
| LAX || Los Angeles || Las Angalas || "Las Angalas" is a "Los Angeles" with every vowel replaced with an "a" character. It's sometimes used as a joking nickname for "Los Angeles."
|-
| LOL || Lovelock || Louisville || "LOL" often stands for "Laughing Out Loud".
|-
| MDW || Chicago, IL (Midway) || Midway Atoll || Midway Atoll was the site of one of the most significant World War II Pacific naval battles. Its actual IATA code is MDY.
|-
| MIA || Miami || Colombo, Sri Lanka || MIA is a rapper who is of Sri Lankan heritage. It also frequently stands for "Missing In Action".
|-
| OMW || not assigned || Omaha || Eppley Airfield in East Omaha, Nebraska, has an IATA code of OMA. "OMW" is an acronym for "On My Way."
|-
| ORD || Chicago, IL (O'Hare) || Orlando || O'Hare was once known as Orchard Place/Douglas Field, hence ORD
|-
| PDX || Portland || Pordlanx || Consider how LAX has a random "X" at the end. And "ORD" is an actual IATA code. Randall messes with "Portland" here in much the same way.
|-
| PHL || Philadelphia, PA || Pittsburgh || Pittsburgh International Airport has a IATA code of PIT. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the two largest cities in Pennsylvania and are at opposite ends of the state.
|-
| SAN || San Diego || San Diego San Juan San Jose San Francisco San Antonio || San Diego International Airport has SAN; nearby airports include Montgomery Field (MYF), MCAS Miramar (NKX), NAS North Island (NZY), Brown Field (SDM), and Gillespie Field (SEE) There are several cities named San Jose. Their airport codes: Puerto Rico: SJU and SIG. Argentina: UAQ. California, USA: SJC. Costa Rica: SJO. Mexico: SJD. Philippines: SJI SFO SAT 
|-
| SEA || Seattle/Tacoma or SeaTac || [Indicates Water Landing] || This is possibly a reference to the fact that "SEA" could be interpreted as "Sea". Like some other major airports (e.g., {{w|San Francisco International Airport}} and {{w|LaGuardia Airport}}), SEA is very close to a large body of water, in SeaTac's case {{w|Puget Sound}}: thus, missing the airport may end up in a water landing. SeaTac is also a city in WA, adjacent to the airport.
|-
| SMH || Sapmanga || Smithfield || "SMH" often stands for "Shaking My Head".
|-
| STL || St. Louis || Silent Hill || Silent Hill is a fictional city appearing in the series of video games and movies with the same name.
|-
| SWF || Newburgh, New York || Sherwood Forest || .swf is the file extension for ShockWave Flash files. "SWF" can also stand for "Single White Female" in personal ads. Sherwood Forest, mentioned in the comic, is known as the forest where Robin Hood's hideout was located. According to the legend among his band of Merry Men there was a single white female, the Maid Marian.
|-
| TBA || Tabibuga || Tribeca || "TBA" often stands for "To Be Announced". Tribeca (original styled TriBeCa) is an area in New York City. Angie Tribeca is an American comedy television series.
|-
| TMI || Tumlingtar || Turkmenistan International || "TMI" often stands for "Too Much Information".
|-
| YYY || Mont-Joli || Toronto Downtown || The small airport in downtown Toronto is Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, which has an IATA code of YTZ.
|-
| YYZ || Toronto || Toronto Pearson || This one is correct. The band Rush is from Toronto and named an instrumental song after the airport call sign. See {{w|YYZ (instrumental)}}
|-
|}

The title text is a pun about the abbreviation ''IATA'' stating it stands for '''I'''nternational '''A'''irpor'''T''' '''A'''bbreviation. This is wrong as everything else here because the real ''International Air Transport Association'' is not an organization only responsible for abbreviations in aviation.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A list with abbreviations and their meaning is shown in two columns.]

:[On top left the header reads:]
:Confused by those airport abbreviations used by your friends who fly a lot?

:Just memorize this list!

:[On top right some social media conversation is shown:]
:I'm flying into EWR tonight, then DTW tomorrow.
:[Answer (in blue, two message bubbles):]
:Ok, cool
:I definitely know what those mean without Googling

:[The list:]
:{| class="wikitable style=border:none;"|
|-
| AMD || Amsterdam
| TMI || Turkmenistan International
|-
| BAE || Beijing
| LAX || Las Angalas
|-
| ORD || Orlando
| EWR || Edwards Air Force Base
|-
| IAD || Idaho (Boise)
| PHL || Pittsburgh
|-
| JFC || Jefferson City
| SWF || Sherwood Forest
|-
| IUD || Washington Dulles
| KUL || Kingdom of Loathing
|-
| FYI || Fayetteville
| STL || Silent Hill
|-
| LOL || Louisville
| BUF || Sunnydale
|-
| ATL || Atalante
| TBA || Tribeca
|-
| HGM || Hogsmeade
| SMH || Smithfield
|-
| OMW || Omaha
| BLT || Baltimore
|-
| ANC || Ankh-Morpork
| YYY || Toronto Downtown
|-
| HSV || Hunstville
| YYZ || Toronto Pearson
|-
| SAN || San Diego
| MIA || Colombo, Sri Lanka
|-
| SAN || San Juan
| CLT || Censored
|-
| SAN || San Jose
| FHQ || Fhqwhgads
|-
| SAN || San Francisco
| FFS || Flagstaff Station
|-
| SAN || San Antonio
| DTF || Dartford
|-
| DWI || Delaware International
| MDW || Midway Atoll
|-
| DFW || Down for Whatever
| PDX || Pordlanx
|-
| DTW || Down to Whatever
| SEA || Indicates Water Landing
|-
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Puns]]