explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1735: Fashion Police and Grammar Police

2016-09-21T12:14:47Z

FourViolas: Undo revision 127480 by FourViolas (talk) urgh. duh

{{comic
| number = 1735
| date = September 19, 2016
| title = Fashion Police and Grammar Police
| image = fashion_police_and_grammar_police.png
| titletext = * Mad about jorts
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, two groups of angry protesters are presented and labeled. They should not be seen as protesting side by side, but rather like two similar groups protesting about different things even though they are in many ways similar.

The left group represents the '''Fashion Police''' with [[Cueball]] holding a sign saying {{w|Crocs}} not allowed (by showing a pair of Crocs shoes in a circle with a strike through it). Crocs are a type of {{w|Clog|clogs}} made of foam. There may be some ergonomic advantages to these special looking shoes, but they will {{w|Crocs#Fashion|never become fashionable}}. It is not the first time [[Randall]] mocks a special type of shoes (although here it may not so much be himself that are against Crocs, but rather he just chose something easy to recognize that the Fashion Police would hate). Previously in [[1065: Shoes]] Randall was after shoes that ''has those creepy individual toes'' like {{w|Vibram FiveFingers}}. They will also never be a hit with the Fashion Police.

The right group represents the '''Grammar Police''' with another Cueball holding a sign with three commonly confused words beneath each other: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/their Their] (belongs to them), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/they%27re They're] (contraction meaning "they are"), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there There] (a location). The words are written on the sign to explain that there is a difference between these three almost identically-sounding words as many people confuse them with each other, and then the Grammar Police ''have'' to correct them (see [[386: Duty Calls]]). See the [https://twitter.com/_grammar_ Grammar Police on Twitter] and also {{w|Grammar Police|Linguistic prescription}} which comes up on Wikipedia when searching for Grammar Police.

The two groups look similar, standing in similar poses and apart from one Cueball holding signs in each group, one [[Megan]] is also in the front line of both groups. [[Hairy]] is only shown with the fashion police, together with yet another [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Cueball-like guy]], while [[Ponytail]] is only shown with the grammar police together with a bald man with glasses.

Both types of police are groups of people who make fun of others who wear or say something that doesn't meet their criteria of "good". Fashion police are people who make fun of others who wear clothing that is mismatched, out of style/{{w|fashion}} or straight-up "ugly" to them. Grammar police are people who are "sticklers" to {{w|grammar}} rules and get mad or contradictory if someone uses non-standard grammar in a sentence. The comic explains how the two groups are similar to each other by listing eight points (plus a ninth in the title text) that can be used on both groups. See explanation in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]].

In the caption below the comic Randall notes that he just realized that these are literally the same people because they both exhibit the listed traits. The use of "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/literally literally]" to emphasize a statement is considered by the grammar police as a dread crime that should be pointed out as such, although the dictionaries already include this definition as acceptable. However it would likely be more appropriate to say figuratively the same people, see [[725: Literally]]. On the other hand, fashion police is known for overusing "literally" in the way the grammar police finds disgusting.

Since it seem like a safe assumption (see [[1339: When You Assume]]) that there are more grammar pedants (see title text of [[1652: Conditionals]]) than fashion police people who read xkcd, and it also would seem likely that many xkcd readers would dislike the Fashion Police (more), it seems likely that Randall is actually mainly targeting the Grammar Police people reading xkcd, than the fashion people who do not. They will not like to be compared to the Fashion Police! Ponytail also represented the grammar police in [[1576: I Could Care Less]], where Megan puts her in place after she polices her sentence. Thus this shows what Randall thinks about such police work and supports the assumption above. Literally was also used here in the title text.

Randall is, with regards to language, definitely one of those that can belong in this group: ''To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well.''

The title is a ninth point on the list with the star in front representing one more bullet (see the last entry in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]]):
*Mad about jorts.

==Table of individual items==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Explanation of individual items in the list
!list item
!Explanation
|-
|Judgemental and Smug || Both types of police will look down upon those who violate their 'laws'.
|-
|Angry about something deeply arbitrary || Both grammar and fashion are, essentially, made-up human constructs.
|-
| Strong opinions backed by style guides || Grammar has ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}'', fashion has fashion magazines.
|-
| Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted is your responsibility || Your choices in both grammar and fashion affect how people see you, and it would be silly to disclaim responsibility for what is essentially your own actions.
|-
| Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own || This means that even if you deliberately choose to not listen to the fashion gurus, then you are actually making a fashion statement anyway, as opposed to those that just don't realize they have a horrible style (and are not dressing wrongly on purpose). Both types can thus be harassed by the Fashion Police. Same goes for those who deliberately do not try to follow the grammar rules. They have thus taken a stance anyway as opposed to those who just do not know how to use grammar correctly. And both types can be harassed for it by the Grammar Police.
|-
|To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well || Deliberately violating fashion or grammar rules gives off a particular 'casual' vibe, distinct from those who violate the rules out of ignorance.
|-
|Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class || "Proper" dress and "proper" language are often defined in terms of how high class people dress and speak. But since "high class" in much of the Western world has generally meant white, alternative ways of dress (e.g. the Afro) or alternative ways of speaking (e.g. Ebonics or Pidgin English) are treated as somehow objectively "wrong", rather than simply as alternatives. Furthermore, dressing or speaking poorly are often marks of "lower class" people who for whatever reason cannot afford fashionable clothing, or don't have access to quality education. So when we judge people for their clothing or their speech, we are often indirectly judging them for their race and class. Randall identifies this fact as "uncomfortably transparent".
|-
| Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you|| This may have to do with the human tendency to view the morality of an activity differently when applied to oneself compared to a stranger.
|-
| Mad about jorts (Title text) || "{{w|Shorts#Jorts|Jorts}}" is a {{w|portmanteau}} for a pair of jeans that are made into shorts.

The fashion police would be mad about jorts for being unfashionable.

The grammar police would be mad about the word 'jorts' being an inappropriate portmanteau of jeans and shorts, and also for the fact that the sentence could be misinterpreted as if someone like jorts, as in being mad about something in a positive way.

{{w|Sentence_clause_structure#Incomplete_sentence|Also a fragment}}, with no subject (properly it would be "I am mad about jorts"). Randall has [[:Category:Portmanteau|often used]] portmanteaus as part of his jokes.

It is also possible that the Grammar police are indeed "mad about Jorts" in the positive sense, i.e Grammar Police love Jorts.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beneath two headings to the left and right are shown two aggressive-looking groups of people with only the four people in the front clearly shown for each group. Behind them five other people can be seen, but they are not drawn with the same solid line and are only partly shown behind the first four, but legs from all five in each group can be seen along with some heads (all Cueball like) and arms etc. The front of the left group consist of Hairy holding a fist up towards left, Megan with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, straight up above his head and another Cueball-like guy to the right is holding up a broken branch in one hand toward right. The person behind this last person is shown to hold up his fist towards right like Hairy does to the left. The sign shows a Crocs shoe in a circle with a strike through it going above the Crocs from top left to bottom right. The front of the right group consist of Megan holding both her arms over her head hands folded into fist while looking towards left, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, towards the right and up above Ponytails head, she is raising one hand in a fist to the left and finally a bald guy with glasses is brandishing a short sword in one hand toward right while holding his other hand palm up. The sign has three similar words written beneath each other.]
:Left: Fashion Police
:Right: Grammar Police
:Sign:
::Their
::They're
::There

:[Below the two groups are eight points with bullets:]
:*Judgemental and smug
:*Angry about something deeply arbitrary
:*Strong opinions backed by style guides
:*Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted ''is'' your responsibility
:*Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own
:*To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well
:*Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class
:*Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I just realized these are literally the same people

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1735: Fashion Police and Grammar Police

2016-09-21T12:13:57Z

FourViolas: /* Table of individual items */ add ironic grammatical error

{{comic
| number = 1735
| date = September 19, 2016
| title = Fashion Police and Grammar Police
| image = fashion_police_and_grammar_police.png
| titletext = * Mad about jorts
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, two groups of angry protesters are presented and labeled. They should not be seen as protesting side by side, but rather like two similar groups protesting about different things even though they are in many ways similar.

The left group represents the '''Fashion Police''' with [[Cueball]] holding a sign saying {{w|Crocs}} not allowed (by showing a pair of Crocs shoes in a circle with a strike through it). Crocs are a type of {{w|Clog|clogs}} made of foam. There may be some ergonomic advantages to these special looking shoes, but they will {{w|Crocs#Fashion|never become fashionable}}. It is not the first time [[Randall]] mocks a special type of shoes (although here it may not so much be himself that are against Crocs, but rather he just chose something easy to recognize that the Fashion Police would hate). Previously in [[1065: Shoes]] Randall was after shoes that ''has those creepy individual toes'' like {{w|Vibram FiveFingers}}. They will also never be a hit with the Fashion Police.

The right group represents the '''Grammar Police''' with another Cueball holding a sign with three commonly confused words beneath each other: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/their Their] (belongs to them), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/they%27re They're] (contraction meaning "they are"), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there There] (a location). The words are written on the sign to explain that there is a difference between these three almost identically-sounding words as many people confuse them with each other, and then the Grammar Police ''have'' to correct them (see [[386: Duty Calls]]). See the [https://twitter.com/_grammar_ Grammar Police on Twitter] and also {{w|Grammar Police|Linguistic prescription}} which comes up on Wikipedia when searching for Grammar Police.

The two groups look similar, standing in similar poses and apart from one Cueball holding signs in each group, one [[Megan]] is also in the front line of both groups. [[Hairy]] is only shown with the fashion police, together with yet another [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Cueball-like guy]], while [[Ponytail]] is only shown with the grammar police together with a bald man with glasses.

Both types of police are groups of people who make fun of others who wear or say something that doesn't meet their criteria of "good". Fashion police are people who make fun of others who wear clothing that is mismatched, out of style/{{w|fashion}} or straight-up "ugly" to them. Grammar police are people who are "sticklers" to {{w|grammar}} rules and get mad or contradictory if someone uses non-standard grammar in a sentence. The comic explains how the two groups are similar to each other by listing eight points (plus a ninth in the title text) that can be used on both groups. See explanation in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]].

In the caption below the comic Randall notes that he just realized that these are literally the same people because they both exhibit the listed traits. The use of "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/literally literally]" to emphasize a statement is considered by the grammar police as a dread crime that should be pointed out as such, although the dictionaries already include this definition as acceptable. However it would likely be more appropriate to say figuratively the same people, see [[725: Literally]]. On the other hand, fashion police is known for overusing "literally" in the way the grammar police finds disgusting.

Since it seem like a safe assumption (see [[1339: When You Assume]]) that there are more grammar pedants (see title text of [[1652: Conditionals]]) than fashion police people who read xkcd, and it also would seem likely that many xkcd readers would dislike the Fashion Police (more), it seems likely that Randall is actually mainly targeting the Grammar Police people reading xkcd, than the fashion people who do not. They will not like to be compared to the Fashion Police! Ponytail also represented the grammar police in [[1576: I Could Care Less]], where Megan puts her in place after she polices her sentence. Thus this shows what Randall thinks about such police work and supports the assumption above. Literally was also used here in the title text.

Randall is, with regards to language, definitely one of those that can belong in this group: ''To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well.''

The title is a ninth point on the list with the star in front representing one more bullet (see the last entry in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]]):
*Mad about jorts.

==Table of individual items==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Explanation of individual items in the list
!list item
!Explanation
|-
|Judgemental and Smug || Both types of police will look down upon those who violate their 'laws'.
|-
|Angry about something deeply arbitrary || Both grammar and fashion are, essentially, made-up human constructs.
|-
| Strong opinions backed by style guides || Grammar has ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}'', fashion has fashion magazines.
|-
| Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted is your responsibility || Your choices in both grammar and fashion affect how people see you, and it would be silly to disclaim responsibility for what is essentially your own actions.
|-
| Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own || This means that even if you deliberately choose to not listen to the fashion gurus, then you are actually making a fashion statement anyway, as opposed to those that just don't realize they have a horrible style (and are not dressing wrongly on purpose). Both types can thus be harassed by the Fashion Police. Same goes for those who deliberately do not try to follow the grammar rules. They have thus taken a stance anyway as opposed to those who just do not know how to use grammar correctly. And both types can be harassed for it by the Grammar Police.

Ironically, there's a grammatical error in this sentence: context and the conjugation of "understand" imply the plural subject "both grammar police and fashion police", but "attempts" is conjugated to agree with a third-person singular subject.
|-
|To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well || Deliberately violating fashion or grammar rules gives off a particular 'casual' vibe, distinct from those who violate the rules out of ignorance.
|-
|Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class || "Proper" dress and "proper" language are often defined in terms of how high class people dress and speak. But since "high class" in much of the Western world has generally meant white, alternative ways of dress (e.g. the Afro) or alternative ways of speaking (e.g. Ebonics or Pidgin English) are treated as somehow objectively "wrong", rather than simply as alternatives. Furthermore, dressing or speaking poorly are often marks of "lower class" people who for whatever reason cannot afford fashionable clothing, or don't have access to quality education. So when we judge people for their clothing or their speech, we are often indirectly judging them for their race and class. Randall identifies this fact as "uncomfortably transparent".
|-
| Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you|| This may have to do with the human tendency to view the morality of an activity differently when applied to oneself compared to a stranger.
|-
| Mad about jorts (Title text) || "{{w|Shorts#Jorts|Jorts}}" is a {{w|portmanteau}} for a pair of jeans that are made into shorts.

The fashion police would be mad about jorts for being unfashionable.

The grammar police would be mad about the word 'jorts' being an inappropriate portmanteau of jeans and shorts, and also for the fact that the sentence could be misinterpreted as if someone like jorts, as in being mad about something in a positive way.

{{w|Sentence_clause_structure#Incomplete_sentence|Also a fragment}}, with no subject (properly it would be "I am mad about jorts"). Randall has [[:Category:Portmanteau|often used]] portmanteaus as part of his jokes.

It is also possible that the Grammar police are indeed "mad about Jorts" in the positive sense, i.e Grammar Police love Jorts.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beneath two headings to the left and right are shown two aggressive-looking groups of people with only the four people in the front clearly shown for each group. Behind them five other people can be seen, but they are not drawn with the same solid line and are only partly shown behind the first four, but legs from all five in each group can be seen along with some heads (all Cueball like) and arms etc. The front of the left group consist of Hairy holding a fist up towards left, Megan with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, straight up above his head and another Cueball-like guy to the right is holding up a broken branch in one hand toward right. The person behind this last person is shown to hold up his fist towards right like Hairy does to the left. The sign shows a Crocs shoe in a circle with a strike through it going above the Crocs from top left to bottom right. The front of the right group consist of Megan holding both her arms over her head hands folded into fist while looking towards left, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, towards the right and up above Ponytails head, she is raising one hand in a fist to the left and finally a bald guy with glasses is brandishing a short sword in one hand toward right while holding his other hand palm up. The sign has three similar words written beneath each other.]
:Left: Fashion Police
:Right: Grammar Police
:Sign:
::Their
::They're
::There

:[Below the two groups are eight points with bullets:]
:*Judgemental and smug
:*Angry about something deeply arbitrary
:*Strong opinions backed by style guides
:*Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted ''is'' your responsibility
:*Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own
:*To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well
:*Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class
:*Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I just realized these are literally the same people

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T12:55:01Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ fmt {{cn}}

{{comic
| number = 1676
| date = May 4, 2016
| title = Full-Width Justification
| image = full_width_justification.png
| titletext = Gonna start bugging the Unicode consortium to add snake segment characters that can be combined into an arbitrary-length non-breaking snake.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|hasty & impatient placeholder. Still an early draft; needs citations, fact-checking, and it also needs the Wikipedia links to be fixed.}}
The comic refers to an irritating problem in laying out text to fit from edge to edge, the problem of {{w|justification (typesetting)|justification}}. Sometimes, as before a long word like "[[:wikt:deindustrialization|deindustrialization]]," there's no universal good way to make the typography work. It is a difficult problem to make text look good and be easily legible especially in a narrow space, with the biggest issue being how to handle words that are too long to fit nicely.

The comic shows several solutions to this problem, some realistic and others less so, but each unsatisfying. "Giving up" is ugly, leaving a line break which doesn't fit with the rest;spacing looks pretty confusing as people may think it is an acronym. hyphenating is confusing in English because its spelling requires full-word recognition ("deindus-" looks like an independent, unfamiliar word, pronounced "dayn-duss"); stretching is unnatural, probably hard to code or render, unfamiliar and quite ugly; adding "filler" words, a radical solution, makes the writing worse (in the case of the example, making the tone too informal); and adding a meaningless snake image, just long enough to fill the extra space, is a novel (and quite bizarre) solution which probably wouldn't actually be used by a serious typographer.{{Citation needed}}

The title text suggests that in order to facilitate this last method of "solving" the problem, the {{w|Unicode Consortium}}, the organization in charge of the common text standard {{w|Unicode}}, should add "snake-building characters" (similar in concept to the existing {{w|Box Drawing}} block), to allow variable-length snake images to be used as filling. The use of the phrase "non-breaking" in the title text is a play on {{w|non-breaking space}} and implies that an automatic line break could not be inserted after a snake segment; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added{{Citation needed}}, and always require a good reason{{Citation needed}} before adding a character or set of characters to the standard. Strange decisions by the consortium have previously been referenced in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]], [[1513: Code Quality]], and [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]].

Note that in Arabic, it is common to stretch the lines connecting letters as a relatively elegant and satisfying resolution to this problem. This trick is called "{{w|kashida}}" (كشيدة). There does in fact exist a Unicode character, U+0640: (ـ), to help with this: using it to extend "كشيدة" would result in something like "كشـــــــــــيدة".

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panels:]
:Strategies for full-width justification

:[Below the caption is a column with six boxes, each showing a different "strategy" for justification which is annotated beside it. Here the anotation is written at the top and the text below. The top and bottom of the text is cut of in the middle, but as it can be "read" this is written anyway. Only for hyphenation does an extra word appear at the end. In the last with snakes, a snake is drawn to cover the entire space from the end of between to the right border.]

:Giving up
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Letter spacing
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::b  e   t   w   e  e   n
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Hyphenation
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between deindus-
::trialization and the
::growth of ecological

:Stretching
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::<big><big><big>between</big></big></big>
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Filler
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between crap like
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Snakes
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between [a snake filling the gap]
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

==Trivia==
*The full text (with alternate changes) reads:
::''...their famous paper on the relationship between [crap like]/[ 🐍 ] deindustrialization and the growth of [ecological]...''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T12:54:11Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ note that Unicode character for this actually exists in Arabic

{{comic
| number = 1676
| date = May 4, 2016
| title = Full-Width Justification
| image = full_width_justification.png
| titletext = Gonna start bugging the Unicode consortium to add snake segment characters that can be combined into an arbitrary-length non-breaking snake.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|hasty & impatient placeholder. Still an early draft; needs citations, fact-checking, and it also needs the Wikipedia links to be fixed.}}
The comic refers to an irritating problem in laying out text to fit from edge to edge, the problem of {{w|justification (typesetting)|justification}}. Sometimes, as before a long word like "[[:wikt:deindustrialization|deindustrialization]]," there's no universal good way to make the typography work. It is a difficult problem to make text look good and be easily legible especially in a narrow space, with the biggest issue being how to handle words that are too long to fit nicely.

The comic shows several solutions to this problem, some realistic and others less so, but each unsatisfying. "Giving up" is ugly, leaving a line break which doesn't fit with the rest;spacing looks pretty confusing as people may think it is an acronym. hyphenating is confusing in English because its spelling requires full-word recognition ("deindus-" looks like an independent, unfamiliar word, pronounced "dayn-duss"); stretching is unnatural, probably hard to code or render, unfamiliar and quite ugly; adding "filler" words, a radical solution, makes the writing worse (in the case of the example, making the tone too informal); and adding a meaningless snake image, just long enough to fill the extra space, is a novel (and quite bizarre) solution which probably wouldn't actually be used by a serious typographer.[Citation needed]

The title text suggests that in order to facilitate this last method of "solving" the problem, the {{w|Unicode Consortium}}, the organization in charge of the common text standard {{w|Unicode}}, should add "snake-building characters" (similar in concept to the existing {{w|Box Drawing}} block), to allow variable-length snake images to be used as filling. The use of the phrase "non-breaking" in the title text is a play on {{w|non-breaking space}} and implies that an automatic line break could not be inserted after a snake segment; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added{{Citation needed}}, and always require a good reason{{Citation needed}} before adding a character or set of characters to the standard. Strange decisions by the consortium have previously been referenced in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]], [[1513: Code Quality]], and [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]].

Note that in Arabic, it is common to stretch the lines connecting letters as a relatively elegant and satisfying resolution to this problem. This trick is called "{{w|kashida}}" (كشيدة). There does in fact exist a Unicode character, U+0640: (ـ), to help with this: using it to extend "كشيدة" would result in something like "كشـــــــــــيدة".

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panels:]
:Strategies for full-width justification

:[Below the caption is a column with six boxes, each showing a different "strategy" for justification which is annotated beside it. Here the anotation is written at the top and the text below. The top and bottom of the text is cut of in the middle, but as it can be "read" this is written anyway. Only for hyphenation does an extra word appear at the end. In the last with snakes, a snake is drawn to cover the entire space from the end of between to the right border.]

:Giving up
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Letter spacing
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::b  e   t   w   e  e   n
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Hyphenation
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between deindus-
::trialization and the
::growth of ecological

:Stretching
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::<big><big><big>between</big></big></big>
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Filler
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between crap like
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Snakes
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between [a snake filling the gap]
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

==Trivia==
*The full text (with alternate changes) reads:
::''...their famous paper on the relationship between [crap like]/[ 🐍 ] deindustrialization and the growth of [ecological]...''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T04:49:55Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ expand a bit

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T04:43:20Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ quick explanation and cool cross-cultural observation

Talk:1576: I Could Care Less

2015-09-11T17:33:23Z

FourViolas: titletext

Another excellent comic by Randall. In case of interest to anyone a different perspective, David Mitchell did a wonder rant on this... "Dear America... | David Mitchell's SoapBox"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.98.100}}

The only people who complain about this phrase are pedantic morons who have never heard such things as "head over heels".

Here, I've composed a list of common vernacular/slang idioms which are valid, clear, and diametrically opposed to their original meaning:
* "Head over heels"
* "Break a leg"
* "It's the shit"
* "That's bad"
* "She's phat"
* "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
* "Irregardless"{{unsigned|Cwallenpoole}}
:The reason I dislike "I could care less" is because it just grates me. It disrupts the flow of parsing language in my brain, throwing up a "wait, what?" exception that I have to expend far more mental energy than usual to correctly interpret the meaning of something in my head. I'm not being pedantic for the sake of uptight rule adherence and feeling superior (I play around with language and use it in non-standard forms all the time), I'm pedantic because it causes my brain real difficulties in processing the meaning of what a person's said. I mean I'm a woman with Asperger's (and a British one at that) so maybe things are a little different for me, but that's just why I personally strongly dislike this usage. The things on your list though are all different in some way to "I could care less", at least for me, for example:
:* "Head over heels" - How is this an opposite meaning, exactly? Doesn't it give a rather nice metaphor for being giddy about something? Being hyperbolic and metaphorical doesn't make it an opposite meaning.
:* "Break a leg" - This is closer to being an opposite, but the exact opposite to wishing an actor good luck would be to wish them bad luck. The mutation to a slightly absurdist statement marks it out as having a different meaning, especially as "break a leg" isn't really used in any other context than to wish a person good luck. While it may be the case that "I could care less" is rarely (if at all) used in its literal form, there's still nothing to mutate it and obviously mark it out as a linguistic special usage case. It's also still how I'd expect someone to phrase it if they were actually telling me they could care less about something.
::: The "Vaudeville theory" on this page is where I got my understanding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_a_leg --EE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.135|108.162.216.135]] 13:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:* "It's the shit" - Again, this is mutated. People aren't saying "it's shit", the word "the" handily tags it for my brain parser to handle differently.
:* "That's bad" - Well, you've got me here actually. I mean, context (and tone) makes the meaning obvious but I can't objectively understand why this phrase doesn't cause me the same sort of difficulties at all. Perhaps because I grew up in the 80s, and a big part of my musical upbringing was Michael Jackson. ''♬ A-hee-hee! Hoo! ♬''
:* "She's phat" - This is completely literal, "phat" is a slang term meaning excellent or attractive. It may be a mutation of the word "fat" or not, its etymology is uncertain, but it is indisputably a very different word now (much like how "orchids" means a species of flower rather than testicles, and "sinister" hasn't meant left in centuries).
::: I understand it's an acronym: Pretty Hot And Tempting. --EE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.135|108.162.216.135]] 13:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:* "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" - This is also completely literal, Freud meant that while he believed many things ''could'' have hidden, psychosexual meanings... that while sometimes a person might be puffing on a cigar due to some suppressed phallic desires... they could also just be puffing on a cigar because they're enjoying a nice cigar. That is to say, not everything has a hidden subconscious meaning, and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, not a substitute object to fellate.
:* "Irregardless" - Well yes, the suffix added to "regardless" here would usually invert its meaning, but "irregardless" isn't actually a word that existed before it came into use with its current meaning so it's not like saying a previously established and defined word (or phrase).
: Anyway, while I do believe language is flexible and mutable, this particular phrase fails the easily interpretable test for my brain. I try not to be too uptight about it, but it really does irritate me in a way I can't help. Obviously my opinion is not the only one, so that's just my 1.29587 British pence on the matter :D [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]] 12:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
::(In response to Cwallenpoole, not 141.101.98.195, who makes good points that I didn't actually read first!) "Head over heels" is of course "head over (and down), heels (upwards) (...and continue this rotation to its logical conclusion)"; "Break a leg" has {{w|Break_a_leg|a number of possible origins}} (I always assumed wishing luck was unlucky, thus the inverse, but several "the leg not being yours" versions also ring true); "It's the shit" is using a somewhat unfortunate object (certainly if you miss out the "the") that is a short-cut off-colour superlative like "the dog's bollocks"; "bad==good" I always assumed was "what's bad to the establishment is good for our own clique"; "phat" is far too modern for me, but probably arises a similar positive superlative with some counter-culture anti-standard spelling; Cigars being cigars don't sound diametrically opposed, to me, although who knows ''what'' went on in Freud's head!; "Irregardless" is an obvious portmanteau/malapropism blend that is so easy to create. - Or so I would personally explain these.
:: Here's an additional one, though, if you care for it: "Cheap at half the price". It sounds wrong if you dig deep and work out that it must mean "It is not more than or equal to twice the actually fair price you should have been asking" (i.e. it's less than double the price). But I've always internally rationalised it as really saying "If this figure you mention actually were only half of the full price you are ''truly'' asking for, the real price would still be considered cheap" (i.e. it's less than half price). Or it could just be obfuscated salesman patter, i.e. telling the truth (still making a profit, but less than a 100% mark-up) but using weasel-words and terminology that create misleading imagery in the listener's mind. i.e. No crime, no foul, should Trading Standards happen to come-a-visiting, one day... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 13:21, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:::''Actually'', to follow-up on myself: "It's cheap(, it being in this instance) at half the price (I would normally charge)" works best. Why has that only just occured to me? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 13:33, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

'I couldn't care less' is the standard formulation in the UK, for one. I always assumed that the US version was originally a variant on this which was later contracted, eg 'I could care less, but not much'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.106|141.101.99.106]] 07:10, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Given that xkcd is so pro-science, I don't think the analysis here should endorse the peeve that there's anything wrong with "I could care less" (or use of "literally" as an intensifier), since most actual linguists, experts on how language works, think it's fine. See for example the list of posts dealing with the question here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=21170#more-21170 And of course, the comic itself points out how petty an besides the point this kind of "correction" is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 07:43, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

: As a linguist, regarding the claim that most actual linguists think it's fine, I'd have to respectfully say HELL NO! There is a difference between acknowledging the pragmatic implementation of the phrase, that is, its use in common parlance and the general acceptance and understanding of it, and the question wether or not it is "fine". The comic exemplifies a rather extreme version of the idea "Whatever people use is proper language" - in other words, as long as everybody involved in a conversation gets what is meant, there is no point in arguing semantics, grammer, etc. This is, however, neither the only, nor the dominant approach to language and linguistics. For exapmle, it doesn't answer the question how such an ostensibly paradox use of this phrase came to happen, where (geographically, socially, etc.) the phrase might have originated, and other puzzless regarding the origin of the phrase; this attitude also dismisses any inquiry into how humans process (or ignore) such discrepancies between literal meaning and actual use, and in general, how humans organise, structure, and conecptualise language. Additionally, this comic adds a radical deconstructional (and maybe existential) twist to this perspective by basically saying, "We're all alone, and can never really know or understand anybody else".
: Such an attitude of total relativism ("Every experience ist entirely subjective and unique") makes my skin crawl. It is by far more presumptious than being a little pedantic about grammar and the use of expressions.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.176|162.158.114.176]] 11:35, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Agreed. Words have meanings and reducing the amount of trust you can place in those meanings decreases the value of the language. "You could never understand me, so I might as well not even try to make myself understood" is a cop-out. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.23|108.162.219.23]] 15:22, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

As it's currently written, the explanation seems to suggest that "I could care less" is the American form and "I couldn't care less" British. In fact, both forms are in use in the US, and it wouldn't surprise me if "I could care less" occurs occasionally in British English as well. There are also other English-speaking countries in the world. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 07:47, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:As a Brit, I can't think of any time I've heard a fellow Briton say "I could care less", it's always seemed very much an American phenomenon. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]] 12:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

:Another American chiming in here to say that I never, ever, ever say "I could care less" when I mean "I couldn't care less". Characterizing it as "*the* American form" is incorrect. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

As for the title text, I'd disagree with "The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that literally or figuratively, the speaker could or couldn't care less." I think that Randall is pretty clear here: he ''should'' ('could' as in polite request) care less about irrational idioms instead of wasting time drawing comics about it. But he just can't resist. And without him doing so, we wouldn't be here. So in fact, it is nonsense for Randall to care less, and this contradiction is the point of the title text joke. But then again, I'm not native English speaker, and even less of a thought reader to understand what was on his mind. -- kavol, [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.224|141.101.96.224]] 08:30, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:I had an alternate take on the title text. Since I could care less literally means I care some but could stand not to care as much, I took it to mean that for all the comic says about the true spirit and nature of communication and the evils of forcing linguistic absolutism onto other people, at the end of the day Randall still does care about people using correct phraseology. Yes, language is so much more than words and sounds but without clear grammatical usage rules communication could descend into chaos. This is actually one of the pivotal points in Jet Li's movie Hero which is a great commentary on this comic's profundity. The deep resonating pools of meaning that communication stores is only useful for peace and coexistence if we can all understand each other and come together as one. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:48, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
::I'm solidly with the IP. Randall is saying that, evidently, this is something which is important to him, and something he's put a lot of thought into. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 17:33, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

I think "I could care less" is completely unheard of in Britain - I had to come here to find out what this was all about! In the UK the correction wouldn't be seen as pedantic, but rather that you had said something really rather odd, possibly for effect. I'm guessing in the US this doesn't stand out, and the phrase is "familiar" so the brain will run with it, but it just sounds really weird and jarring to me. That's not being pedantic, we toss double negatives around all over the place. Randall's point is that it how you interpret the words, rather than exact rules. So if ponytail is British then she is genuinely just trying to check that it wasn't a slip of the tongue and not meant for effect. To experience how odd it sounds its like a similar phrase "I don't give a s**t", but someone saying "I do give a s**t" (unless you guy's say that as well?!). {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.205}}

: You're right, the British National Corpus has essentially no hits for "could care less" [http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/]. However, Ponytail's "correction" doesn't sound like she's unfamiliar with the expression, but more like the common pedantic objection to it, so I doubt that she's intended to be British, or that it's anything other than "showing off how well she knows some mental checklist." The Lawler link above ([http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/giveadamn.html]) discusses the example "They could give a damn about Whitewater" (as in they '''don't''' actually give a damn about it). I think you could get away with "I give a shit?" or "[Like] I give a shit!" (with the "like" elided) as implicitly negative, but no, you can't put in an affirmative "do." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.19|162.158.92.19]] 10:05, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

I'm fighting a long lost battle, I know, but can I mention my fight against the (long-standing) misuse of Decimation when the speaker/writer probably means Devastation? These days it's often assumed to be its own mathematical complement (around ~10% survival, rather than the intended ~10% depletion). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 13:47, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

I am right with you on this one. Although I don't think the users are mistaking the Dev- for the Dec-, they have just forgotten or never learned that "decimate" had anything to with percentages. Heck, many English speakers don't grasp that percent has anything to do with percentages. [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 15:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Either one works, depending on how the sentence is finished:
* I could care less...about this than other things.
* I couldn't care less...about this than I already do.
--EE [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.135|108.162.216.135]] 13:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)
:Indeed, but "I could..." also begs the question "...but will I?" and so does not actually affirms that "I ''will'' care less (than with other things)", whilst "I couldn't..." is more imperative as in "...and therefore I wouldn't". (Unless you want to read the latter as "I couldn't care less because I actually care quite a lot already and I know that this will never change", I suppose! Oh dear, we uregently need to start using one of those totally-umambiguous ConLangs based upon predicate logic!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 15:48, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

On a different note: The way the panels are set up is pretty interesting. Anyone a idea, why he set it up like that? Does he want to tell us something? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.196|162.158.92.196]] 17:20, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1572: xkcd Survey

2015-09-02T20:51:40Z

FourViolas: cmt

Mildly interesting to note that the ordering of most of the checkbox/radiobutton lists randomise each time the survery is loaded. Also, there is at least one other comic where Randall comments about not having figured out HTML imagemaps. Anyone remember which? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:52, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:It was in one of his "under the logo" news bars, about him starting What If, iirc --[[User:Aescula|Aescula]] ([[User talk:Aescula|talk]]) 11:28, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
I wonder how many people, on reading 'Type "cat" here:', typed '"cat" here:'? I know I did... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 11:58, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Guilty...--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:08, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: Me too... However you could have typed '"cat" here:', as well... (/edit: I wonder how many different entries the survey's result will reveal) (/edit2: I did not read properly... sorry. I typed '"cat"' not '"cat" here:' -.-)[[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:27, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: I typed meow -[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.86|141.101.105.86]] 12:41, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
Not sure if it was just me, but the comic wasn't a link at all! The cursor changed into a No cursor for me everytime I mouseover'd the comic. I went to survey using the "Bonus Link!" below the comic page. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:01, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Never mind, this was probably due to the WebComics reader extension that I have in my browser. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:03, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
From hearing people on reddit comment about not being able to completely fill the text box (not just the visual box) with the error "Answer too long", it's caused by a 10k character limit. Presumably by Google Docs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.192|108.162.249.192]] 13:18, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

Can we get a note on the title text? Something about the [[1493]]-like vacuousness of "Big Data for a Big Planet". Also, I added a defn for "revergent"; future researchers, anyone who knows that one is probably a fern biologist. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 20:51, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
==Validation==
The validation choices are interesting.
* "Enter a number between 1 and 100" rejects numbers outside this range (e.g. -1) but also reject valid responses (e.g. π).
* "Enter your age" and "Enter the number of $SIBLING" accept invalid responses such as -1. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 13:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:I (with ''fairly'' honest intention) tried to give non-numeric answers to the two Think Of A Number questions and my the age one (honestly, I had to actually think about that one, for a moment) and found them restricted to numbers only. So obviously Randall's not ''so'' subversive as to allow free text. (BTW, I've ''only'' driven 'stick shift', though an old friend of mine has just gotten an automatic, I think for the first time, which said was rather posh of him.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 15:55, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
I used an HTML inspector tool to create a unique response to one of the radio button questions. The form claimed to submit successfully; it should be obvious in the results if it worked. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

==Identification==
"it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses"
Then why send those informations to Google ? I find the idea of thee survey interesting but why Google doc ? There are other options like Lime Survey. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 13:37, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: Given the stated intention to make the collected dataset available publicly, there's no information-security reason to prefer another survey tool over Google. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 14:21, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

==Not a transcript==
This is mildly interesting, but it is not a transcript. Transcripts are meant mainly for blind people and search engines. Different letter sizes and a frame are not needed. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 12:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:{| style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid;"
|| Introducing '''THE XKCD SURVEY''' A search for weird correlations Note: This survey is anonymous, but all responses will be posted publicly so people can play with the data. '''Click here to''' '''take the survey''' Or click here, or here. The whole comic is a link, because I still haven't gotten the hang of HTML imagemaps. 
|}
::The transcript is not only for blind people. And an enhanced layout doesn't harm them but instead it would help them. A speech synthesizer would tell them something like "headline" or "small text at bottom" so that the impaired people would get a much better feeling of the comic. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:12, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I wonder how many people included "battery, horse, staple, correct" in the five random words box.
:I typed ');drop table survey; -- at the end of the random characters text box. I must have been the first person to think of that because the survey was still working. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 13:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I wish it was funny. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.148|108.162.241.148]] 16:20, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

== Tables Vs Bulleted List ==

The list of questions and possible responses has been added to the explanation by myself and xhfz, in different formats. I went for a wikitable, xhfz used a bulleted list. Rather than just overwrite each other, I think we need to have a discussion on which is the best choice. The reasons I believe a wikitable is the best option:
:*Far better expandability, in anticipation of survey results
:*More structured and neater presentation
In general I tend to lean towards tables, but it is probably a constructive discussion to have for the wiki as a whole. I would be interested to hear opinions of bulleted list vs tables in these types of situation.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

If we have a table we need colspan instead of rowspan. On the other hand a table is very difficult to maintain. In addition, the table didn't have space for explanations (another column, maybe). [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:If you used colspan, questions like "How many of these 20 words do you know" would be excessively wide. Perhaps a combination of colspan and rowspan, or simply a single cell with the responses listed as comma seperated list. As far as adding a column for explanations, its pretty trivial. What I'm getting at is that perhaps the format of a table would need to be optimised, but that is entirely feasible.
:I agree with you as far as tables being more intimidating to edit and maintain, but once set up they aren't that bad.
:Bulleted lists (to me at least) look messy, and tend to lack a coherent structure. As more information is added, sub-levels and sub-sub-levels are added without much thought as to the overall intent. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

By colspan I mean this:
{| class="wikitable"
!Question
!Possible Answers
|-
|colspan="2"|When you think about stuff on the internet, where do you picture it being physically located? Even if you know it's not really how things work, is there a place you imagine websites and social media posts sitting before you look at them? If so, where is it?
|-
|
|''Multi-line text box''
|-
|colspan="2"|Which of these words do you know the meaning of?
|-
|
|Slickle
|-
|
|Rife
|-
|
|Soliloquy
|-
|
|Fination
|-
|
|Stipple
|-
|
|Peristeronic
|-
|
|Modicum
|-
|
|Trephony
|-
|
|Tribution
|-
|colspan="2"|Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too?
|-
|
|Yes
|-
|
|No
|-
|
|I did the throwing out thing, but didn't talk to everyone about it
|-
|
|No, but I'm totally doing that now
|}
[[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 14:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

: Yeah, if someone just did that, that would be great. [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 18:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

==Missing questions==
Something notably missing which would have greatly helped later analysis was a question about where someone is - Country and/or State. Some of the questions and answers will be differently understood because of that (eg meaning if 'sandwich') --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 14:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:I think that is the whole point though, to provide a data set that actively attempts to ''prevent'' the obvious simple analysis. There are plenty of statistics on how people from place A are more likely to do thing B. What I want to know is "How many people who would class a taco as a sandwich and can drive stick shift are able to juggle?". Also, is it true that most people think they are above average drivers? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:09, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

== Subsections were added for ease of editing ==

You can delete the subsections later. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:30, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Ok, I agree on that. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

== I think we shouldn't force the reader to go to Wikipedia ==

I added explanations in "Activities" and twice they were deleted. Why? [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572:_xkcd_Survey&diff=prev&oldid=100879] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572%3A_xkcd_Survey&diff=100921&oldid=100920] [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:39, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:Personally, I think those activities are so easily understood, that adding an "explanation" is not necessary. I think wiki links are sufficient, so that if somehow people don't know what the activities are, they can go look. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:45, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

::I know 20,000 words in [http://testyourvocab.com testyourvocab.com]. I also know soliloquy, modicum, amiable and salient. I had never heard of dunk, sheet bend, bowline, or stick shift, but I know the meaning of manual transmission without going to Wikipedia. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:47, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:::For the record, it wasn't me who deleted the explanations. The fact that Randall included those words in his survey without any explanation shows that they are fairly common words. In the context of the question, the meaning becomes clearer (Tie a sheet bend or bowline = its very likely those are knots), and if people still don't know, they can click on the wiki link. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:::From a different perspective, I ''understand'' a number of the words and terms, even though they aren't the ones I'd use, locally. i.e. gas/petrol, stick-shift/gears, cell phone/mobile phone, soda/pop (and where would cordial, to be diluted with water, sit in that list of drinks..? either way, I chose "fruit juice" so maybe that covers it). Also I think I would call an "open-faced sandwich" a {{w|Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord|'Smorgasbord'}}, but that seems to be a childhood misunderstanding of what the scandinavian term actually represents (the whole buffet, not any individual item bread-and-topping construct that you end up with on your platter). "Condiments" obviously means something differently, too. For me that's the likes of salt, pepper and vinegar - along with other chopped herbs at a push - but from context it sounds like it includes dips such as mayonnaise, and/or sauces like ketchup/brown/tartar. A different world, truly! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 17:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

1572: xkcd Survey

2015-09-02T20:46:01Z

FourViolas: /* Difficult words */ defn of "revergent", a fern geek's word if there ever was one

{{comic
| number = 1572
| date = September 2, 2015
| title = xkcd Survey
| image = xkcd_survey.png
| titletext = The xkcd Survey: Big Data for a Big Planet
}}
*The comic links to http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First attempt. There is probably more to come.}}

As the comic image states, it links to a survey created with [https://www.google.com/forms/about/ Google Forms], containing a series of questions. The questions range from mundane typical survery questions such as “Do you have any food allergies?”, to rather strange, such as “Fill this text box with random letters by randomly mashing keys on your keyboard.”

The stated goal of the survey is to “create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with”. A strange data set is a ripe opportunity for a sampling of readers. As the image claims this is “a search for weird correlations” – presumably the goal is to be able to say things like “people who have been skydiving are (more/less) likely than average to dislike cilantro”.

This explanation will doubtless expand when the data comes in.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_map#Client-side_image_map HTML image maps] are a technique for marking up areas of an image on a web page, such that each area can be a link without the whole image being a link. Randall could use image maps to make only the “Click Here to Take the Survey” button be a link, and none of the rest of the image.

=[http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The Survey]=

The Survey starts off with the following statement.

<nowiki>This is an anonymous survey. After it's done, a database of everyone's responses will be posted.
There's no specific reason for any of the questions. The goal is to create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with. (This is obviously not going to be a real random sample of people, but in the interest of getting cooler data, if you're sharing this with friends, try sending it to some people who wouldn't normally see this kind of thing!)

WARNING: This survey is anonymous, but your answers WILL BE MADE PUBLIC. Depending what you write, it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses. None of these questions should ask about anything too private, but don't write anything that you don't want people to see. If you're not comfortable answering a question, just skip it.</nowiki>

====Plane====
Have you ever been in a plane?
*No
*Yes

====Skydiving====
Have you ever been {{w|Parachuting|skydiving}}?
*No, but I might someday
*Yes
*No

====The Dress====
*When you first saw {{w|The dress (viral phenomenon)|The Dress}}, what color was it? — Also see [[1492: Dress Color]].
**White and gold
**A color combination not listed here
**I don't remember
**Blue and black
**What dress?
====Popular food====
*What's a really popular food that you don't like?
====Floaters====
When you look at a blue sky, do you see those swirly {{w|floater|floaters}} in your vision?
*Yes, constantly
*I'm not sure what things you mean
*Yes, occasionally
*No

====Running out of gas====
Have you ever had a car run out of gas while you were driving it?
*Yes
*No

====Animals====
*Name the first five animals you can think of
====Weather====
*What's the weather like where you are right now?

====Activities====
Which of these can you do reasonably well?

(Check all that apply)
*{{w|slam dunk|Dunk}} a basketball — A "slam dunk" or simply "dunk" is the act of jumping up and putting the ball through the net with a lot of force
*Tie a {{w|sheet bend}} or {{w|bowline}} — A sheet bend is a knot that joins two ropes together; A bowline is a knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope
*Roller skate
*Drive a stick shift — See {{w|Manual transmission}} of a car
*Solve a {{w|Rubik's cube}}
*Dive headfirst off a diving board — See {{w|Springboard}} and {{w|Diving platform}}
*Ice skate
*{{w|Skateboarding|Skateboard}}
*Walk on {{w|stilts}} — Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person to walk at a height above the ground
*Ski
*Cut vegetables with a knife
*Swim
*Ride a horse
*{{w|Unicycle}}
*Change the oil on a car
*Do a back {{w|Handspring (gymnastics)|handspring}} — A handspring is an excercise in gymnastics in which you jump through the air landing on your hands, then again landing on your feet
*Juggle — {{w|Toss juggling}} (the most recognizable form of juggling) consists in throwing objects into the air and catching them.

====Spelling====
What word can you never seem to spell on the first try?
====Condiments====
Do you eat condiments directly out of the fridge as a snack?
*No
*Yes

====Thermostat====
When you adjust a thermostat that was set by someone else, it's usually because you want the room to be ...
*Cooler
*Warmer

====Clothing====
What color is the shirt/dress/upper-body-clothing you're wearing right now, if any?

====Colds====
*Do you get {{w|Common cold|colds}} often?
**No
**Yes
====Number====
*Pick a number from 1 to 100

====Spelling====
*On a scale of 1 to 10, how good at spelling are you? (Note that the question does not specify which end of the scale is good or bad.)

====Myers-Briggs====
Do you know your {{w|Myers–Briggs_Type_Indicator|Myers-Briggs type}}?
*No
*Yes

====Astrology====
*Do you know your {{w|astrological sign}}?
**No
**Yes

====Siblings====
*How many older siblings do you have?
*How many younger siblings do you have?
*How many twin/etc siblings do you have?

====Sleepiness====
*Do you feel sleepy a lot?
**Yes
**No

====Movie star====
*Name a movie star
** ''Text box''
====Time in sun====
*Do you spend a lot of time in the sun?
**Yes
**No

====Broccoli====
*Does {{w|broccoli}} taste bitter to you?
**Yes
**I've never had it
**No

====Wakefulness====
*Do you regularly stay awake much later than you meant to?
**Yes
**No

====Keyboard mashing====
*Fill this text box with gibberish by mashing random keyboard keys
**''Multi-line text box''

====Driving====
*On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is terrible and 3 is average, how good a driver do you think you are?
====Allergies====
*Do you have any food allergies?
**No
**Yes

====Thunder====
*Have you heard thunder or seen lightning in the past year?
**Yes
**No

====Flavor preference====
Which do you prefer?
*Chocolate
*Vanilla

====Number (reprise)====
*Pick another number from 1 to 100

====Internet====
*When you think about stuff on the internet, where do you picture it being physically located? Even if you know it's not really how things work, is there a place you imagine websites and social media posts sitting before you look at them? If so, where is it?

====Roll tongue====
Can you {{w|Tongue rolling|roll your tongue}}?
*Yes
*No
*What?
====Toes====
Can you pick things up with your toes?
*No
*Yes
====Age====
How old are you?

''Single line text box''
====Walls====
What color are the walls around you right now?

''Single line text box''

====Cell phone====
What kind of cell phone do you have?
*{{w|iPhone}}
*{{w|Android (operating system)|Android}}
*Other smartphone
*Non-smartphone
*I don't have a cell phone
====Eating====
What's the last thing you ate?
*''Single line text box''

====Difficult words====
Which of these words do you know the meaning of?

Some of these words don’t appear in any of the following dictionaries: the Oxford English Dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary, Wiktionary, or Dictionary.com. These words were probably made up by Randall. Perhaps the goal is to people feel like they have a weak vocabulary because they don’t know many of the words, until they try look up the meanings and realize they have been tricked.

[http://dictionary.reference.com/ Dictionary.com] has an index of difficulty (measured in pixels, with class name <code>difficulty-indicator</code>). We add it at the right of the words that have it. N/A means that a word isn't present in Dictionary.com, or that it doesn't have an index.

*Slickle – not in any dictionary, but a suggested planet name in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rife Rife] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rife 117]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soliloquy Soliloquy] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/soliloquy 150]
*Fination – not in any dictionary
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stipple Stipple] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stipple 144]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peristeronic Peristeronic] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peristeronic N/A]. Randall used it and defined it for readers in [[798: Adjectives]].
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/modicum Modicum] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/modicum 120]
*Trephony – not in any dictionary
*Tribution – not in any dictionary
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phoropter Phoropter] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phoropter N/A]
*Unitory – not in any dictionary
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/amiable Amiable] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amiable 123]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salient Salient] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/salient 69]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/regolith Regolith] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/regolith 162]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lithe Lithe] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lithe 105]
*Revergent – technical word from {{w|fern biology}}, referring to the edges of fern leaves which curl back on themselves (see [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00985044 Schölch, 2000])
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hubris Hubris] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hubris 117]
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fleek Fleek] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fleek N/A]
*Cadine – not in any dictionary
*[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apricity Apricity] – [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apricity N/A]

====cat====
Please type "cat" here:

''Single line text box''

====Dreams====
Do you usually remember your dreams?
*No
*Yes

====Text editors====
Do you have strong opinions about text editors? — See {{w|Editor war}}
*Yes
*No

====Emoji====
How do you feel about {{w|emoji}}?
*Negative 😠 — Unicode 1f620 Angry face
*Positive ☺ — Unicode 263a White smiling face
*Neutral 😐

====Snow====
*Does it ever snow where you live?
**No
**Yes

====Taste of food====
Do you strongly dislike the taste or texture of any of these things?
*Eggs
*Chocolate ice cream
*Beer
*White wine
*Carbonation — Fizz
*Red wine
*Cilantro
*Coffee
*Tomatoes
*Yogurt
====Beverages====
Which of these do you regularly drink?
*Caffeinated soda — e.g. Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper
*Noncaffeinated soda
*Coffee
*Fruit juice
*Milk
*Beer
*Wine
*Tea
*{{w|Maple syrup}} — This is a joke because maple syrup is not normally drunk
*Water

====Random words====
Type five random words

''Multi-line text box''
====Flying====
Are you nervous about flying?
*Yes
*A little
*No

====Favorite number====
On a scale of 1 to 5, which number is your favorite?
*''Buttons to select from the integers 1 through 5''

====Sandwich====
*Which of these would you consider a {{w|sandwich}}?
**{{w|Submarine sandwich|Sub/Hoagie}}
**{{w|Open-faced sandwich}}
**{{w|Cheesesteak}}
**{{w|Calzone}}
**{{w|Quesadilla}}
**{{w|Taco}}
**{{w|Hamburger}}
''Multiple selections allowed''

====Animal affinity====
*Which of these describes you?
**Dog person
**Cat person
**Half-cat half-person
**Part of a subterranean race of dog people
**Literally named "Catherine Person"
''Multiple selections allowed''

====Sense of direction====
*Would you say you have a good sense of direction?
**Yes
**No

====Socks or underwear====
Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too?
*Yes
*No
*I did the throwing out thing, but didn't talk to everyone about it
*No, but I'm totally doing that now

==See also==
*[[882: Significant]] is also about finding presumably-spurious correlations between unrelated data.
*The blag of the webcomic, [http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ Color Survey Results], 2010-05-03

==Transcript==
:Introducing
:'''THE XKCD SURVEY'''
:A search for weird correlations
:Note: This survey is anonymous, but
: all responses will be posted publicly 
:so people can play with the data.
:'''Click here to'''
:'''take the survey'''
:Or click here, or here.
:The whole comic is a link,
:because I still haven't gotten
:the hang of HTML imagemaps.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]

1570: Engineer Syllogism

2015-08-29T02:04:08Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ unpack what's going on in the title text

{{comic
| number = 1570
| date = August 28, 2015
| title = Engineer Syllogism
| image = engineer_syllogism.png
| titletext = The less common, even worse outcome: "3: [everyone in the financial system] WOW, where did all my money just go?"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|It can be improved.}}
A {{w|syllogism}} is a logical argument where two or more propositions lead to a conclusion through {{w|deductive reasoning}}. For example, one of the best-known syllogisms is:
# All men are mortal
# Socrates is a man
# Therefore, Socrates is mortal

In this comic, [[Cueball]] is an engineer who is attempting to make the following syllogism:
# I am good at understanding "numbers" (i.e., mathematics)
# The stock market is made of numbers
# Therefore, I am good at understanding the stock market

Since most engineers are purportedly good at math, proposition 1 seems to be true. It is also loosely true that the {{w|stock market}} is made of numbers, but only in the sense that every system can be given a post-hoc numeric characterization; the dynamics of the stock market are primarily human-driven. In this comic Cueball thinks that his skill at math will help him beat the stock market. Little does he know that the system can be unpredictable, so he ends up losing money as the financial instrument he's invested in loses value. This is due to the financial markets being largely controlled by humans making emotional decisions and not some calculable reason or logic. The fact that humans make emotional decisions is alluded to in the [[title text]] of [[592: Drama]].

Even if the propositions "I am good at understanding numbers" and "The stock market is made of numbers" were true in Cueball's interpretation, and even if the implicit premise that understanding a system's components implies understanding the system held, Cueball would still be wrong to conclude that "I am good at understanding the stock market": this would be a {{w|fallacy of the undistributed middle}}. The problem is that proposition 1 seems to say "I am good at understanding all math". However, the "all" is not present, so Cueball may not necessarily understand the math underlying the stock market.

This comic may also refer to the 1998 movie {{W|Pi (film)|Pi}} where the main character repeats to himself several times his assumptions that the world is all numbers, and thus he, a great mathematician, should be able to predict the stock market, which is all numbers.

The title text refers to an alternative scenario in which Cueball does, in fact, figure out a way to extract large quantities of money from the stock market, causing a sudden, major decline in everybody else's wealth. This could be a reference to the recent {{w|2015 Chinese stock market crash}} which largely affected most other world financial markets, particularly during the week of August 24–28, during which this comic was published, or more broadly to economic depressions in general. Alternatively, Cueball could cause a global stock market crash if he is an engineer responsible for vital stock-market-related software and/or hardware. Another alternative meaning behind the title text would be a reference to high-frequency quantitative trading, which relies more on financial technology engineering than sophisticated financial knowledge, which significantly contributed to the {{w|2010 Flash Crash}}.

==Transcript==

:[An white frame with text inside an underbrace and an overbrace]
:An engineer
:syllogism.

:[Cueball is at his desk in front of his computer, with his hands on his knees, thinking.]
:Cueball, thinking: 1: I am good at understanding numbers.

:[Cueball takes one hand to his chin, still thinking.]
:Cueball, thinking: 2: The stock market is made of numbers.

:[Cueball lifts both arms from his legs, still thinking.]
:Cueball, thinking: 3: Therefore I-- ''Wow'', where did all my money just go?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Logic]]

873: FPS Mod

2015-08-06T12:50:30Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ +hippie novel in which this strategy is used

{{comic
| number = 873
| date = March 16, 2011
| title = FPS Mod
| image = fps mod.png
| titletext = Wait, that second one is a woman? ...wait, if that bothers me, then why doesn't... man, this game is no fun anymore.
}}

==Explanation==
FPS stands for {{w|First-person shooter|First Person Shooter}}, which is a type of video game (like {{w|Halo (series)|Halo}} or {{w|Duke Nukem}}) in which you are looking at the world from the first person perspective of the character you are controlling. [[Cueball]] mods the game which is short for "modify".

FPS games are controversial for their encouraging killing (especially of human beings). One point of the controversy is that, while virtual enemies are just pixels on a screen, real enemies have actual lives, emotions, and the like. In the games, there is a disconnect between the act and its emotional cost, thus leading to the controversy that FPS encourage wanton killing (or violence in general) to solve problems instead of considering the other party. Cueball makes reference to this by adding a mod that gives biographical snippets of the enemy you shoot in the game, thus giving him the perspective of the enemy he just shot. However, the disconnect between the act and the emotional cost fades away, causing Cueball to feel for the enemies he has shot, thus removing any enjoyment he gets from the game.

The above can also be a reference towards making games more realistic. Giving the enemies a life above being mere targets definitely makes the game more realistic, but such a game would not be that enjoyable. This has been explored previously in [[772: Frogger]].

The title text talks about how gender is portrayed in games. It's often more emotionally affecting to kill a woman, as women are biologically weaker than men, and societal norms state that men must protect them. Gender equality is a highly debated topic with many different viewpoints, where one's conscious reasoned views may sometimes stand at odds to subconscious feelings. When a player becomes aware that killing women bothers one more than killing men, it exposes an inconsistency in the player's own logic, one that's very uncomfortable to confront.

In the 1993 post-apocalyptic novel {{w|The Fifth Sacred Thing}}, the eco-pacifist residents of San Francisco defeat an invading army using a similar tactic. Rather than engage in armed defense, the family and friends of each dead San Franciscan speak directly to the soldiers who killed them, saying, "My wife was the mother of five children, and I loved her dearly," or "My cousin liked baseball." Eventually the soldiers suffer psychological breakdowns and defect ''en masse'', rather as Cueball starts to do here.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is playing a video game.]
:''BLAM''
:Game: He once built a treehouse.
:''BLAM''
:Game: She has 110 unread emails that she was hoping to get to tonight.
:''BLAM BLAM''
:Game: He was the only one who took care of the plants back at base.
:No one liked my FPS mod that gives you three-second snippets from the bios of people you shoot.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T14:38:04Z

FourViolas: /* Transcript */ no need for textual note when we can keep nesting tags

{{comic
| number = 1559
| date = August 3, 2015
| title = Driving
| image = driving.png
| titletext = Sadly, it probably won't even have enough gas to make it to the first border crossing.}}

== Explanation ==
A {{w|self-driving car}} is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when [[Black Hat]] places the rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to {{w|Anchorage}}, {{w|Alaska}}, which is presumably far from where Black Hat and [[Cueball]] are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is the kind of evil prank Black Hat is infamous for.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. Black Hat expresses regret about this probable failure; presumably he was looking forward to the encounter between the border guards and the vehicle's "occupant". However even if the car does not go to Anchorage he will have created a serious problem for its owner. A typical car can travel 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1300 kilometers) on a tank of gas, and with no way to know the car was going to Alaska, the owner will have to search an area with that radius, and will probably fail to find the car before it is towed.

Nevada was the first state to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads. But there are now several states in the US (as well as several countries in Europe) that allows this type of test. It is thus not possible to place Black Hat and Cueball based on this, except that they are in mainland USA, Mexico, or Central America (the regions connected by overland routes to Alaska, but at least two border crossings away). At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where these cars could be used privately. So unless a tester left his car running (unlikely), then this comic must be set in the (near?) future.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, carrying a large rock, is walking toward Cueball. Small fragments (earth?) falls of the rock leaving a trail after Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?
:Cueball: What?
:Cueball: Uh, probably.

:[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]
:Black Hat: Great!

:[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.]
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Thump*
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Please fasten your seatbelt.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>click*
:Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska.
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Navigating''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>slam*

:[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball.]
:Car driving off:''Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr''
:Black Hat: I love self-driving cars.
:Cueball: ...Whose car was that?
:Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T14:35:25Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ "two" not specified

{{comic
| number = 1559
| date = August 3, 2015
| title = Driving
| image = driving.png
| titletext = Sadly, it probably won't even have enough gas to make it to the first border crossing.}}

== Explanation ==
A {{w|self-driving car}} is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when [[Black Hat]] places the rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to {{w|Anchorage}}, {{w|Alaska}}, which is presumably far from where Black Hat and [[Cueball]] are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is the kind of evil prank Black Hat is infamous for.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. Black Hat expresses regret about this probable failure; presumably he was looking forward to the encounter between the border guards and the vehicle's "occupant". However even if the car does not go to Anchorage he will have created a serious problem for its owner. A typical car can travel 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1300 kilometers) on a tank of gas, and with no way to know the car was going to Alaska, the owner will have to search an area with that radius, and will probably fail to find the car before it is towed.

Nevada was the first state to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads. But there are now several states in the US (as well as several countries in Europe) that allows this type of test. It is thus not possible to place Black Hat and Cueball based on this, except that they are in mainland USA, Mexico, or Central America (the regions connected by overland routes to Alaska, but at least two border crossings away). At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where these cars could be used privately. So unless a tester left his car running (unlikely), then this comic must be set in the (near?) future.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, carrying a large rock, is walking toward Cueball. Small fragments (earth?) falls of the rock leaving a trail after Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?
:Cueball: What?
:Cueball: Uh, probably.

:[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]
:Black Hat: Great!

:[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.]
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Thump*
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Please fasten your seatbelt.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>click*
:Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska.
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Navigating''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>slam*

:[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball. The R's in Vrrr... continues to get smaller. The last two is not really readable.]
:Car driving off:''Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr''
:Black Hat: I love self-driving cars.
:Cueball: ...Whose car was that?
:Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T13:32:10Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ Is the US the only place two borders from Alaska?

{{comic
| number = 1559
| date = August 3, 2015
| title = Driving
| image = driving.png
| titletext = Sadly, it probably won't even have enough gas to make it to the first border crossing.}}

== Explanation ==
A {{w|self-driving car}} is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when [[Black Hat]] places the rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to {{w|Anchorage}}, {{w|Alaska}}, which is presumably far from where Black Hat and [[Cueball]] are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is the kind of evil prank Black Hat is infamous for.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. Black Hat expresses regret about this probable failure, although even if the car does not go to Anchorage he will have created a serious problem for its owner. A typical car can travel 300 to 400 miles (500 to 650 kilometers) on a tank of gas, and with no way to know the car was going to Alaska, the owner will have to search an area with that radius, and will probably fail to find the car before it is towed.

Nevada was the first state to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads. But there are now several states in the US (as well as several countries in Europe) that allows this type of test. It is thus not possible to place Black Hat and Cueball based on this, except that they are in mainland USA (the only region precisely two international border crossings away from Alaska by land). At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where these cars could be used privately. So unless a tester left his car running (unlikely), then this comic must be set in the (near?) future.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, carrying a large rock, is walking toward Cueball. Small fragments (earth?) falls of the rock leaving a trail after Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?
:Cueball: What?
:Cueball: Uh, probably.

:[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]
:Black Hat: Great!

:[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.]
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Thump*
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Please fasten your seatbelt.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>click*
:Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska.
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Navigating''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>slam*

:[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball. The R's in Vrrr... continues to get smaller. The last two is not really readable.]
:Car driving off:''Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr''
:Black Hat: I love self-driving cars.
:Cueball: ...Whose car was that?
:Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T12:33:24Z

FourViolas: /* Transcript */ improve

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T11:15:56Z

FourViolas: /* Transcript */ nowiki

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T11:14:49Z

FourViolas: /* Transcript */ twk

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T11:13:29Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ add

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T11:10:53Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ ce

1559: Driving

2015-08-03T09:50:00Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ obviously -->apparently. Nobody has told us where BH and C live.

Talk:1557: Ozymandias

2015-07-29T10:55:04Z

FourViolas: quines?

Look upon this comment and despair! {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.164}}

So... [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Planepacked Planepacked]? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.145|173.245.50.145]] 05:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

The page seems to give a description, but not an explanation of the joke. I still don't get it! Why has Ozymandias been singled out for this treatment? Is there some way in which recursion is particularly appropriate or inappropriate in this case, or has it just been selected arbitrarily? Is the whole joke that recursion is inherently funny? Normally when recursion is used in XKCD it's making a larger point, or cleverly riffing on something in particular. This isn't just Describe XKCD, so I'd love to see an explanation of this comic. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.47|141.101.99.47]] 09:35, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:May it be that Ozymandias is chosen because of Smith’s poem, where at last London has vanished, suggesting that Shelley’s poem is the last remains of British civilization? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.193|162.158.91.193]] 10:04, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

In Germany, we have a childrens’ song „Ein Mops kam in die Küche“, which translates as follows (there are slightly different versions, though):

A pug came into the kitchen / and stole an egg from the chef. / Then the chef took his knife / and mashed the pug. // Then many pugs came / to his grave / and set a memorial for him, / where these words were written: // “A pug came into the kitchen …”

Maybe something similar exists in English? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.193|162.158.91.193]] 10:04, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Note that the recursion doesn't necessary be infinite. The list of travelers who met each other can have fixed length, for example 10. Imagining that the list is infinite is the joke. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:06, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Should we mention [[:en:quine]]s, which occur when lists like this end after two iterations, as "Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say/'Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say'!"

Talk:1556: The Sky

2015-07-27T14:58:15Z

FourViolas: Discussion: I think it's a painting. Gosh, Randall, so artistic!

Typical, I think nobody's actually going to try to explain this, and I get Save Conflicted. My (wordier) version. In case any of it is useful.
:The sky is ever changing, and can often give interesting views such as that illustrated in the comic. Cueball and Megan seem to be agreeing about this, and its pleasing nature.
:As (ignoring particularly unusual viewpoints, severe topography and obscuring vegetation/architecture) the sky is pretty much the upper hemisphere of any external view, it is inded a "half". It would seem to be redundant to say it is "one of my favourite halves", as that indicates both a list of at least two items to choose from ''and'' more than one 'favourite'. Being in 'the top two of a list of two' actually means nothing. But the other half could be the ground ''or'' the sea, ''or'' a composite of the two, so conceivably there ''might'' be more than two 'halves' to choose from in this case. Not that the statement makes much more sense.
:The title-text acknowledges the fact that the other half can have snakes (the land), shipwrecks (the sea) and rocks (either), in a manner that sounds like justifications for any non-sky 'halves' being interesting too, to the kind of people Cueball and Megan seem to be. But it also suggests that by removing all of these you'd be seeing sky, below, that people on the other side of the 'rocks' (the whole Earth) had been seeing as their own 'sky above'. At least until the effects of entirely removing the substance of the planet start to show, of course.
...for what it's worth. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.168|141.101.98.168]] 11:57, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Maybe, maybe the comic is a slight refference to the recent observetory of plutos athmosphere. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 12:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this comic is related to comic [[1368]]? [[User:Gartenzaun|Gartenzaun]] ([[User talk:Gartenzaun|talk]]) 13:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
:Or this [[1524: Dimensions]]. Regarding the favourite of a small set.-[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I can't defend this position properly (other than by appealing to shipwrecks) but I'm pretty sure "the other half" is the ocean (or water in general) and that this is a callback to something in early XKCD (the halves thing.) I don't care enough to find the reference though, so FFTI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:18, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

My read on the "halves" bit is the Biblical Genesis bit where the world was split into sky and sea, "And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day." -[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.112|173.245.56.112]] 14:36, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Agreed, this appears to be a biblical reference - [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=GNT| this version]] explains it pretty clearly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.177|108.162.249.177]] 14:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

I can't tell if the sky is a photograph with a digital filter or a painting. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 14:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

:I'm pretty sure it's a digital painting. For one thing, there's a little artistic license in the transition from sunset at the left to evening stars at the top right. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 14:58, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

1556: The Sky

2015-07-27T11:36:12Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */okay, no refs

{{comic
| number = 1556
| date = July 27, 2015
| title = The Sky
| image = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

==Explanation==
The sky is nice, especially when full of various clouds and light as shown in the second panel.

The title text implies that the two "halves" in question are the Earth and the Sky. (Humans live at the interface between them.)

The title text refers to the fact that the Earth is round, so if you "moved it out of the way" you would find more sky on the other side.

==Transcript==
'''Cueball:''' I like the sky.

'''Megan:''' Yeah.

'''Megan:''' It's one of my favorite halves.
{{comic discussion}}

1556: The Sky

2015-07-27T11:35:41Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ explain. Are refs supported?

{{comic
| number = 1556
| date = July 27, 2015
| title = The Sky
| image = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

==Explanation==
The sky is nice,<ref>Cueball and Megan both agree</ref> especially when full of various clouds and light as shown in the second panel.

The title text implies that the two "halves" in question are the Earth and the Sky. (Humans live at the interface between them.)

The title text refers to the fact that the Earth is round, so if you "moved it out of the way" you would find more sky on the other side.
{{reflist}}

==Transcript==
'''Cueball:''' I like the sky.

'''Megan:''' Yeah.

'''Megan:''' It's one of my favorite halves.
{{comic discussion}}

1556: The Sky

2015-07-27T11:32:10Z

FourViolas: /* Transcript */ I think Megan is talking in second panel

{{comic
| number = 1556
| date = July 27, 2015
| title = The Sky
| image = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

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

==Transcript==
'''Cueball:''' I like the sky.

'''Megan:''' Yeah.

'''Megan:''' It's one of my favorite halves.
{{comic discussion}}

1556: The Sky

2015-07-27T11:31:32Z

FourViolas: add transcript

{{comic
| number = 1556
| date = July 27, 2015
| title = The Sky
| image = the_sky.png
| titletext = The other half has some cool shipwrecks, rocks, and snakes, but if you move those out of the way, it also has more sky.
}}

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

==Transcript==
'''Cueball:''' I like the sky.

'''Megan:''' Yeah.

'''Cueball:''' It's one of my favorite halves.
{{comic discussion}}

1493: Meeting

2015-03-03T03:28:21Z

FourViolas: fix typo left over from my wanton create. Also, we don't know who's talking off-panel

{{comic
| number = 1493
| date = March 2, 2015
| title = Meeting
| image = meeting.png
| titletext = Here at CompanyName.website, our three main strengths are our web-facing chairs, our huge collection of white papers, and the fact that we physically cannot die.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]]'s business, as previously seen in [[1032: Networking]] and [[1293: Job Interview]], is going well, although it is unclear why. The common theme in these three comics is that Beret Guy misuses common business cliches. The following are examples and phrases that [[Randall]] is likely making a joke about:

* "If you're reading this, the webserver was installed correctly." When a web server is installed automatically (like apache using apt-get), it typically comes with a minimal configuration meant to deliver a single page saying all is working fine. Usually, a company will then configure the web server to provide actual meaningful content. It appears that in this case Beret Guy's company kept the page as is, but also trademarked the sentence as the company's motto, and proudly displays it under the company logo.

* "Welcome to a meeting!" The usual way to start a meeting is to welcome the participants by telling them in which meeting they are (e.g. "Welcome to the meeting on ..."). Here, the complete lack of specifics in this sentence is an indication that the meeting has, in fact, no purpose at all, except to be just "A meeting". It could also mean that Beret Guy does not know the proper way to welcome people to a meeting.

* "I'm almost out of words so I'll keep this short." A common theme in the busy world of business is lack of time, so "I'm almost out of time" would be a valid reason for keeping a meeting short, rather a finite quantity words. Aside from the fictional movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Words_%28film%29 A Thousand Words] or people taking a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vow_of_silence Vow of Silence], people usually don't have a particular quota on the number of words they have or can use.

* "Just wanna touch bases." Often business professions will contact a customer to "touch base," meaning to check in for a status update. The use of the plural "bases" suggests Beret Guy does not know what this means. This could also be a word play on the expression "Cover some bases".

* "Self-driving car project" Google has been working on self-driving cars, which usually shouldn't be lost track of and found by the police. The statement "by accident during this morning's carpool" implies that the employees all somehow left the car while it was moving, and it kept moving until it somehow stopped (hit something, ran out of fuel, etc.)

* "Sales, any luck figuring out who our customers are?" In the real world, when companies want to find out "who [their] customers are", they are talking about learning more about their existing customers in order to more closely match these customers' needs, and to discover ways to attract more of them. Here, Beret Guy and [[Ponytail]] apparently use the phrase literally. In a normal enterprise, however, money doesn't usually appear from nowhere, and most businesses would be very unsettled if their cash flow was from an unknown source.

* "Cool red beetle in the hallway" Beret Guy might be referring to seeing an insect. But given his continually surreal world, he might have instead seen a red Volkswagen Beetle, meaning there is an actual car in the hallway. This also matches with the "self-driving car project", potentially explaining why the car is inside the building. Randall's all-caps lettering hides the "beetle" versus "Beetle" distinction.

* "Bug tracker" usually refers to systems used to track discovery, analysis, and fixing of software bugs, not the location of actual insects or Volkswagen Beetles which are also called bugs.

* "Web-facing" (title text) usually refers to software or a server that is connected to the internet using a web interface. However, in this case the term is applied to chairs placed in front of a computer with internet browsing capability.

* "White papers" (title text) are usually policy recommendations, but Beret Guy is likely talking about actual (near-worthless) blank white pieces of paper.

* "Main strengths" (title text) typically refer to one's skills, but "we physically cannot die" refers to the fact that incorporated companies are in a sense anthropomorphised—they're legally treated as "persons", with the ability to sue and be sued in civil courts. Or that Beret Guy is literally immortal.

There is an alternative explanation for the company portrayed: it is run by computers. This explains the misinterpretations of language, the empty chair, the non-traceable money (perhaps from other computers) and the self-driving car project.

==Trivia==
"CompanyName.website" is actually a domain name that was registered on 2014-11-20 and [http://companyname.website which redirects to xkcd.com]. Presumably, it is owned by Randall, for the same reason as in [[305]].

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is shown in silhouette. Above Beret Guy there is a black sign with white (and grey) text. Above this is his address to those in the meeting:]
:Beret Guy: Welcome to a meeting! I'm almost out of words, so I'll keep this short. Just wanna touch bases.
:[White text in the black sign (''.website'' in grey):]
:CompanyName.website
:''If you're reading this, the web''
:''server was installed correctly.''TM

:[Beret Guy stands in front of an office chair and a table talking]
:Beret Guy: First, a few updates. We've learned from the state police that the self-driving car project we launched by accident during this morning's carpool has come to an end about 90 miles outside of town. Very exciting!

:[Pony tail sits at the table.]
:Beret Guy [off-panel]: Profits are up. Sales, any luck figuring out who our customers are?
:Ponytail: Nope. Money keeps appearing, but we have no idea how or why.
:Beret Guy [off-panel]: Great!

:[Back to the situation from frame two]
:Beret Guy: Oh, and one last thing— I saw a cool red beetle in the hall. Can someone add it to the bug tracker?
:[person off-panel]: Just did!
:Beret Guy: Thanks!

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

1493: Meeting

2015-03-02T05:31:06Z

FourViolas: /* Transcript */ bolding speakers better

1493: Meeting

2015-03-02T05:29:55Z

FourViolas: added misformatted transcript

1493: Meeting

2015-03-02T05:22:24Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ oh, and bug pun

1493: Meeting

2015-03-02T05:19:31Z

FourViolas: /* Explanation */ Have fun fixing this! I found the website redirect