explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2330: Acceptable Risk

2020-07-09T06:02:13Z

173.245.52.73: /* Explanation */ added the COVID Tag and began editing the description of the comic

{{comic
| number = 2330
| date = July 8, 2020
| title = Acceptable Risk
| image = acceptable_risk.png
| titletext = Good thing I'm not already prone to overthinking everyday decisions!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS PRONE TO OVERTHINKING. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

This comic shows [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], who are nervous to spend time in close proximity while the coronavirus is still widespread, and while lockdown procedures are still in effect across the world. Despite taking many precautions, such as masks and physical distancing, they still fear the effects of the virus, and attempt to weigh the value of actually seeing each other versus potentially catching the virus. This is a dilemma faced by many, as the United States enters the fourth month since stay at home orders began.

Their screaming actually increases the risk of the interaction; this is why [https://www.wsj.com/articles/reopened-theme-parks-ban-screaming-on-roller-coasters-riders-are-howling-11594222278 Japan recently banned screaming on amusement park rides].

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

:[All of the panels depict the same two characters seen from a long distance, making them difficult to recognize. However, they appear to be Cueball (on the left) and Ponytail (on the right). They are each wearing a mask.]

:Cueball: Okay. Based on the local virus prevalence, our careful quarantines, and the steps we've taken to reduce transmission risk,
:Cueball: I ''think'' it's okay for us to hang out.
:Ponytail: I agree.

:[Cueball and Ponytail get closer to each other.]
:[Cueball and Ponytail get still closer.]

:Cueball: Hi.
:Ponytail: Hi.

:Cueball: ''Is this social interaction good enough that it's worth risking our lives and the lives of others?!''
:Ponytail: ''I don't know!''
:Cueball: ''AAAAA!''
:Ponytail: ''AAAAAA!''

:[Cueball and Ponytail stand much farther apart.]
:Cueball: Healthy socializing was hard enough ''before'' the pandemic.
:Ponytail: Let's just try again in 2021.

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

Talk:850: World According to Americans

2018-02-18T20:54:15Z

173.245.52.73:

NB: Paupa (sic!) New Guinea
[[User:Leob|Leob]] ([[User talk:Leob|talk]]) 20:10, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

:You're right, there's a typo in the comic! Good catch ;) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:10, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

::The group did come from the geography bee, not the spelling bee. --[[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 15:22, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

98% of American's would only be able to locate about 4 countries so this is way too generous ~JFreund

Made a typo with Phillipines. It's Philippines. @JFreund No stereotyping, please. I can list 51 or 52 countries and I'm not even in middle school. Add a bit more thinking and I've got to 58.[[User:Randomperson4000|Randomperson4000]] ([[User talk:Randomperson4000|talk]]) 01:59, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

@JFreund: That's not true... I'm a seventh grader who can't stand geography for the life of me, yet I can name a good twenty or so.
And as a very very simplified example, most fifth graders can easily name America (duh), Mexico, Canada, Russia, and England.
That is rather, for lack of a better term, racist of you. ~jazz14456

@jazz14456 Well for comparison I'm an seventh grader from europe(We call it year eight there) and I can name 64 off the top of my head, that's 320% more. Therefore the point of the comic and @JFreund 's point still stand. ~Samarthwiz

:Your brand of negativism, as well as the additional above, does nothing to advance any sort of constructive dialogue. Please check your misconceptions, generalizations, and inaccuracies about entire populations at the door. They're not welcome in communities of thinking people. [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 12:25, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

::While the petty point scoring is of no value, it is worth noting that Europeans have an advantage when it comes to the trite 'How many countries can you name' or 'How many countries have you visited' competitions. You can quite easily spend a day driving through Europe and visit (drive through) 5 countries. As an example: England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany. The fact that an American can do this across different states, or may be able to name all 50 states in addition to however many countries, or have travelled far and wide within the states doesn't seem to carry any weight. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:03, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

:::I wholeheartedly agree. They are regions with their own flags and laws and geography too only one slight criticism is that most of them call it America. So they want to be classed as an whole continent or two, a country that is more correctly called the USA and they want credit for knowing where Delaware or Rhode Island is.

::::I think it's sad that I'm an American in eighth grade and the only reason that I can name 87 (88 if you count Vatican City as its own country) is because I play Call of War and Conflict of Nations--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.73|173.245.52.73]] 20:54, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 18:48, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

BTW, the Robinson drawing in the comic is '''much''' too accurate to be pure freehand. He probably used tracing or grid point marks. -- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:46, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

*Randall considers this to be 'good at geography'?! They only named, like, 30 or so countries... There's 197!* [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.184|173.245.56.184]]

It's probably sarcasm too that "Tibet" is incorrectly labelled on Xinjiang. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.223.47|108.162.223.47]] 01:20, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

"Aral sea (??Toane" is probably "Aral sea (gone)" {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.60}}
:This is a wiki. Edit it in yourself next time (done it for you this time).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.11|141.101.104.11]] 05:32, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

I added some comments/explanations. The distance between Afrcia and USA was measured by google maps. I tried out several spots. If someone finds a shorter distance, fell free to correct :) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:01, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

The annotation regarding the poor labelling of Africa needs more/better explaining, especially what it means by it 'speaking volumes'. Although I've put that it lends weight to the 'Ignorant American' viewpoint, my feeling is that there is actually a more widespread ignorance amongst the rest of the world towards Africa (in general, not just geographically). While I could probably name a few more countries in Africa, I wouldn't be able to place them within the continent. I have an average knowledge of world geography, but the big hole in my knowledge would definately be Africa, and I suspect that the majority of people I know would say the same. I could come up with all sorts of theories as to why it is Africa I know so little about, but this comment is already too long! --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:49, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

: Done, I think. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 17:47, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure if it's necessary to include all the other not yet mentioned/explained areas, such as Western/Eastern Europe and others. We ''could'' make lists of which countries belong to that regions similar to the "Various former soviet states"-area, but that would simply result in a list of all nations of the world. If you agree, we could remove the incomplete-tag, I think. If not... well... there are a lot of countries ;) On the other hand, I'm not quite sure, if the colors may have a special meaning... But I think most likely not. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 17:47, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

: I've added a bit more detail on the title text. Personally I don't think we need to add all the labels, unless there is something specific on this comic which can be explained about that label. Like you say, it would turn into a list of countries with no relevant additional information. As far as colours go, I can't see any obvious pattern behind their assignment. I vote we remove the incomplete tag, in my view any other additions serve to enhance the article rather than to complete it. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:23, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

The opening paragraph is inaccurate; the comic satirises portrayals of American geographical ignorance (X% of Americans can't locate Y on a map!) rather than jokey maps about cultural stereotypes.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.84|141.101.99.84]] 09:56, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Please improve the explanation for India. It is not clear, and the mostly Hindu/Muslim regions seem to be referring to the countries India and Pakistan. I tried editing, but someone reverted it claiming that it was not Pakistan. {{[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.229|162.158.154.229]] 08:48, 19 April 2017 (UTC)}}
: That was me. Pakistan is obviously included in the part labeled as "Afghanistan & Pakistan". If you compare the red area of India in the comic's map with an actual map of India (e.g. this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Political_map_of_India_EN.svg) you'll see that the red area actually _is_ India. Ofc, the border drawn in this comic is not 100% accurate, but that is true for almost all borders. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:18, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

explain xkcd talk:Explanation Completion Project

2016-10-18T11:24:06Z

173.245.52.73:

==Progress==
"That's twice this thing has failed now. Do we just not have a big enough following for this to work, or is this not a good idea? If it fails again, I'll probably discontinue this" 
:No, it's totally working, we just need a judge to check each page at midnight to actually remove the incomplete tag, because NONE of us are comfortable doing it ourselves [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.66|199.27.128.66]] 21:18, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
::I can totally do that. I'm checking all these anyways at the changeover. It'll just take a wee bit longer to read them. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:24, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

== Sisyphus ==
This page is wonderful! Every time a comic gets a complete explanation two more get classified as incomplete.

Um, it's been stuck on 503: Terminology for three days. Is something wrong? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.66|199.27.128.66]] 18:51, 12 December 2013 (UTC)
:Yeah, I had final exams and this slipped my mind. My bad, switch'd. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:08, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

::Can we do 256 soon? I've nearly got it done, but there's a few bits, like "The Lonely Island", "The Wet Sea" and "Chasm" which I'm really not sure if I'm missing something obvious. I can probably have the framework fully in place soon. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.149|141.101.98.149]] 05:13, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
:::I'm loath to do it so soon after chucking Online Communities 2 at people. I'll do it in a few days. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:36, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
::::<s>When ready, it's actually just a small bit more work to be completely done, which would be a rather good thing for one of the large images. =) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.235|141.101.99.235]] 05:42, 9 January 2014 (UTC)</s>
::::Finished it today. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.235|141.101.99.235]] 12:06, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

[[843]] should be the Incomplete Explanation of the Day for February 4th. It's just appropriate. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 00:45, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
:I don't know where this is coming from, but sure. Why not? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:55, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
::Oh, sorry. February 4th will be the first Tuesday of the month, and that's the specific day of the month that that particular comic references. Since that comic's page still had the incomplete tag, I thought it would be a fun sort of meta-humor. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 14:39, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
:::Aaah I'll be doing that then. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:41, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

== Things we can do after this is finished ==

Along with the 3 items already listed, should we add "explain" pages for each of the weekly "What If" pages on xkcd?
:This is requested a lot. I might make it a thing, but I'm reluctant to do so since they're already pretty self explanatory in themselves. Randall even cites all his sources and everything. I'm not quite sure what we could add to that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:24, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

=== Adding dates to every comic ===

The dates for every comic is in the tooltip for cominc 45 onwards on
http://xkcd.com/archive/
-- Some of the comics are related to current events and it would be worth having every explain page containing a date. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 14:37, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
:That's not limited to after we've finished every explanation though, we could do that right now if we had access to that information. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:52, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Agreed -- I have created this page [[explain_xkcd:xkcd_by_date]] with the data -- keeping it up-to-date should be a bot task, but at least this is a start [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 19:52, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
:::I don't see any need for this new page. At the [[List of all comics]] you can sort by date and much more. And I prefer two different date formats: ISO (2014-08-11) or easy readable for humans (August 11, 2014). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:41, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
:::: Humm.. good point, didn't see that page -- Im not sure how to delete it again. Davidy22? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:26, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
:::::Done and done. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:39, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

=== 100% completion? ===
It appears that there's nothing remaining in the incomplete explanations list. Assuming we can't explain comics head of time and before they exist, it might be nice to consider what else this site could need. As more comics go on, of course they will need explaining, but I'm just curious if there are any ideas (Other than, for instance, a new wiki called 'explain explainxkcd' where we go into detail as to every single explanation, give etymological background as to the words used, explaining the connotation of the html styling that the page expresses :p). [[User:Kirdneh|Kirdneh]] ([[User talk:Kirdneh|talk]]) 18:19, 15 June 2016 (UTC)
:The plan was localisation, but I found it very suspicious that all of our incomplete explanations were finished overnight and it looks like a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Contributions/David_Greener David Greener] just went through all the pages marked incomplete and deleted the incomplete tags. False alarm, we still have a ways to go. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:52, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

== Incomplete Explanation of the Day??? ==

"Incomplete Explanation of the Day" -- these are now staying around for weeks or a month without changing, so maybe they should be called something else, like "Incomplete Explanation currently needing attention" [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.6|199.27.133.6]] 02:59, 25 August 2014 (UTC)
:That would probably be apt. I'll change it next rotation. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:06, 26 August 2014 (UTC)
:As there are currently 17 different pages needing attention, what's stopping us from having the need of the day rotate among those different pages? [[User:Pmw57|Pmw57]] ([[User talk:Pmw57|talk]]) 00:12, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
::Partially laziness, partially the current one not being completed. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:01, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

== XKCD Fandom ==

It's time somebody said it.

XKCD needs a fandom name. {{unsigned|FandomsForever}}

== Congress ==

The full transcript would likely make the page overlong, so it's as complete as it can get. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.163|108.162.215.163]] 09:46, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

== Renaming ==

I've renamed this project because the name was becoming grossly inaccurate and people bring it up a lot. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:55, 26 March 2016 (UTC)