explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2426: Animal Songs

2021-02-19T01:14:59Z

Namespacelandrush:

{{comic
| number = 2426
| date = February 17, 2021
| title = Animal Songs
| image = animal_songs.png
| titletext = Dr. Fauci is not permitted to have a cat, because as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, his petting one would be considered giving aid and comfort to an allergen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by DR. FAUCI IN PRIVATE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Another joke about professionals not being so professional in private; e.g. [[2401]], [[1463]]

{{w|Dr. Anthony Fauci}} is the government medical science guy{{Citation needed}} (Director of the {{w|National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases}}) who was largely responsible for informing the public in the United States on how to avoid spreading {{w|SARS-CoV-2}} in the beginning of the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}. The comic shows him singing a made-up song to his pet fish in order to memorise his daily routine, which Randall notes is a bizarre habit for an adult presented to the public as professional and having a prosaic "grown-up" manner.

In [[231: Cat Proximity]], it's presented as 'normal' for people to make inane statements and use {{w|baby talk}} near {{w|cat|cats}}, but here, Dr. Fauci is singing to his fish. The title text explains that, as he is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he is forbidden from owning a pet cat, because petting the cat would be "giving aid and comfort" to an allergen, which is (a reference to) one definition of {{w|Treason laws in the United States|treason under the United States Constitution}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Dr. Fauci is putting on a white lab coat and dancing. A fish tank stands on an end table to the right. Inside, there is a fish looking at him as well as a seaweed-like plant and a small castle. Music notes are scattered about Fauci's speech.]
:Dr. Fauci: ♫ ''Putting on my doctor coat'' ♫

:[Dr. Fauci is buttoning the coat. He is now to the right of the fish tank.]
:Dr. Fauci: ♫ ''It's the coat I wear'' ♫

:[Dr. Fauci is back to the left of the fish tank, looking himself in a mirror, and touching his face.]
:Dr. Fauci: ♫ ''so they know how good a doctor I am'' ♫
:Off-panel voice: Dr. Fauci? The press conference is in five.
:Dr. Fauci: Be right there!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's nice to think about how serious and important people probably ''also'' absentmindedly sing made-up songs to pets.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2426: Animal Songs

2021-02-19T01:14:18Z

Namespacelandrush:

{{comic
| number = 2426
| date = February 17, 2021
| title = Animal Songs
| image = animal_songs.png
| titletext = Dr. Fauci is not permitted to have a cat, because as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, his petting one would be considered giving aid and comfort to an allergen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by DR. FAUCI IN PRIVATE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Another joke about professionals not being so professional in private; e.g. [[2401]], [[1463]]

{{w|Dr. Anthony Fauci}} is the government medical science guy{{Citation needed}} (Director of the {{w|National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases}}) who was largely responsible for informing the public in the United States on how to avoid spreading {{w|SARS-CoV-2}} in the beginning of the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}. The comic shows him singing a made-up song to his pet fish in order to memorise his daily routine, which Randall notes is a bizarre habit for an adult presented to the public as professional and having a prosaic "grown-up" manner.

In [[231: Cat Proximity]], it's presented as 'normal' for people to make inane statements and use {{w|baby talk}} near {w|cat|cats}, but here, Dr. Fauci is singing to his fish. The title text explains that, as he is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he is forbidden from owning a pet cat, because petting the cat would be "giving aid and comfort" to an allergen, which is (a reference to) one definition of {{w|Treason laws in the United States|treason under the United States Constitution}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Dr. Fauci is putting on a white lab coat and dancing. A fish tank stands on an end table to the right. Inside, there is a fish looking at him as well as a seaweed-like plant and a small castle. Music notes are scattered about Fauci's speech.]
:Dr. Fauci: ♫ ''Putting on my doctor coat'' ♫

:[Dr. Fauci is buttoning the coat. He is now to the right of the fish tank.]
:Dr. Fauci: ♫ ''It's the coat I wear'' ♫

:[Dr. Fauci is back to the left of the fish tank, looking himself in a mirror, and touching his face.]
:Dr. Fauci: ♫ ''so they know how good a doctor I am'' ♫
:Off-panel voice: Dr. Fauci? The press conference is in five.
:Dr. Fauci: Be right there!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's nice to think about how serious and important people probably ''also'' absentmindedly sing made-up songs to pets.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2372: Dialect Quiz

2020-10-14T23:35:18Z

Namespacelandrush: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2372
| date = October 14, 2020
| title = Dialect Quiz
| image = dialect_quiz.png
| titletext = Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? If you use all three words, do they all have different meanings, all the same, or are two the same and one different?
}}

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

This comic is a parody of the many online quizzes that offer to determine the dialect of American English that the user speaks. These quizzes generally contain questions about word usage, names for certain objects, and pronunciations that vary between different regions of the US. There are also quizzes about broader English dialects, but this comic focuses on commonly cited differences between American dialects.

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! # !! Question !! Answers !! Explanation
|-
! 1
| How do you address a group of two or more people?
|
* A) You
* B) Y'all
* C) I have not been around two or more people for so long that I can't remember
| Reference to a usual dialect quiz question: "How do you address {{w|You#Informal_plural_forms|a group of two or more people}}?" (with options often including "you all", "you guys", "y'all", etc.). Option C references the significant decrease in human interaction and social contact during the COVID-19 pandemic.
|-
! 2
| How do you pronounce "Penelope"?
|
* A) Rhymes with "Antelope"
* B) Rhymes with "Develop"
| In English, the only correct way to pronounce this name is "pe-NELL-o-pee", which is not listed as an option. Neither Option A's "PEN-e-lohp" and Option B's "pe-NELL-up" are a typical pronunciation of this name beyond mispronunciations.
|-
! 3
| What do you call the scientific field that studies the stars?
|
* A) Astrology
* B) Agronomy
* C) Cosmetology
| The actual answer is {{w|Astronomy}}, which is not listed. {{w|Astrology}} is the pseudo-scientific study that includes horoscopes (often confused with Astronomy due to its similar name), {{w|Agronomy}} ''is'' scientific but instead studies agriculture, and {{w|Cosmetology}} is the study of cosmetics and makeup (with a name close to {{w|Cosmology}}, a branch of Astronomy).
|-
! 4
| How do you pronounce "genre"?
|
* A) Gone-ra
* B) Juh-neer
* C) Jen-er-uh
| Reference to a usual dialect quiz question: "How do you pronounce ''genre''? ZHAHN-ruh, or JAHN-ruh?"

A majority of English speakers pronounce "genre" as either "'''ZH'''AHN-ruh" (beginning with the "zh" sound found in "trea'''s'''ure") or "'''J'''AHN-ruh" (beginning with the "j" sound in "justice"). Neither of these are listed, and none of the quiz's pronunciation options are common.
|-
! 5
| You pronounce "Google" with a high-pitched yelp on the...
|
* A) First syllable
* B) Second syllable
| Reference to general questions regarding differences in pronunciation of words. "Google" is not generally pronounced with a high-pitched yelp on either syllable{{Citation needed}}.
|-
! 6
| What do you call the thing on the wall at school that you drink water from?
|
* A) Gutter pipe
* B) Drainpipe
| Reference to a usual dialect quiz question: "What do you call the thing you drink water out of at school? Drinking fountain, water fountain, or bubbler?" However, this question implies that schoolchildren (or at least the quizmaker) drink out of gutter pipes or drain pipes.
|-
! 7
| How do you pronounce the name for a short silent video file?
|
* A) Animated give
* B) Animated gift
| Reference to the "{{w|Gif}}" pronunciation debate, with people split between pronouncing it "gif" (with the hard G sound in "girl") or "jif" (with the soft G sound in "giraffe").
|-
! 8
| What do you call the baseball-sized garden bugs that, when poked, glow brightly and emit a warbling scream?
|
* A) What?
* B) Lawn buddies
| Reference to a usual dialect quiz question: "What do you call those {{w|Armadillidiidae|small bugs}} that curl themselves up in a ball if you poke them?" (options including "roly-poly", "pill-bug", "potato bug", "doodle bug", etc.). However, there are no common "baseball-sized garden bugs".{{Citation needed}}
|-
! 9
| What do you call the misleading lines painted by disgruntled highway workers to trick cars into driving off the road?
|
* A) Prank lines
* B) Devil's Marks
* C) Fool-me lines
* D) Fauxguides
* E) Delaware lines
| Reference to the fact that many quiz questions ask about road features, such as "verge/berm/parking strip/curb strip" and "roundabout/traffic circle". However, these particular road lines, if they have ever been made, aren't common enough to warrant different names.
This also may just be a dig at Delaware.

Misleading lines on the road were also mentioned in [[1958: Self-Driving Issues]].
|-
! 10
| What do you call the blue-green planet in the outer Solar System?
|
* A) Uranus
* B) Neptune
| This question references the two common pronunciations of Uranus: "UR-ah-nus" and "Ur-AY-nus" (which sounds like the phrase "Your anus", a favorite joke of little kids). It also references the fact that Uranus and Neptune are both blue-ish colored planets in the outer solar system and are often confused by people who don't know much about them. Neither Uranus nor Neptune are green however.
|-
! 11
| (image of a claw hammer)
|
* A) Banger
* B) Nail axe
* C) Wood mage wand
* D) I'm familiar with this tool but have no specific word for it
* E) I have never seen it before
| The only name most people would ever call this tool is a "hammer".

The last two options reference common dialect quiz answer options of "I'm familiar with this thing but have no specific word for it" and "I am not familiar with this thing". These may appear as options to questions that ask about something that might not exist everywhere, or something which many may not have a word for (for example, some areas of the United States have a name for "sunshowers", while most don't). However, it's a bit absurd for these options to be present for this question (and this question alone), as most users would be expected to know what a hammer is.
|-
! 12
| What do you call a long sandwich with meats and lettuce and stuff?
|
* A) A long sandwich with meats and lettuce and stuff
* B) A longwich
* C) A salad hot dog
| Reference to a usual dialect quiz question: "What do you call a {{w|Submarine sandwich|long sandwich}}?" with options typically including "sub", "hoagie", "hero", etc.

The hot dog answer could refer to the common online discussion: "Is a hot dog a sandwich?"
|-
! 13
| What do you call the scaly many-legged animal often found in attics?
|
* A) Lightbulb eater
* B) I have no special name for them
* C) I've never looked in my attic
| Another reference to the frequent appearance of quiz questions asking what users call various creepy crawlies.
This question may be referencing the fact that spiders often live in attics, but Randall's creature doesn't seem to be quite the same as a normal spider since they usually aren't scaly and don't eat lightbulbs.
|-
! 14
| What do you say when someone around you sneezes?
|
* A) "What was that?"
* B) "Oh, wow."
* C) [Quietly] "Yikes."
| Reference to a usual dialect question on which of several words/phrases you say in response to a sneeze, with usual answers including "bless you", "God bless you", and "{{w|Gesundheit}}" (from the German word for 'health').

This question may also be referencing the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}} in answer C (and possibly answer B). Sneezing isn't a primary symptom of COVID-19, but most people are hyper-aware of possibly contracting the disease from the people around them so sneezes are treated with suspicion and it's seen as rude to sneeze openly.
|-
! Title Text
| colspan=2 | Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? If you use all three words, do they all have different meanings, all the same, or are two the same and one different?
| Phrased similarly to common questions like "Do you pronounce the words 'marry', 'merry', and 'Mary' differently?" (options including "all the same", "all different", or "two are the same and one is different").

{{w|Shallots}} and {{w|scallions}} are both types of onions (the former somewhat resembling garlic cloves, the latter being long green/white stalks also called spring onions). {{w|Scallops}} (either pronounced
''skollops'' or ''skallops'') are invertebrate marine animals similar to oysters and clams, frequently harvested for food (also what potato fritters are called in some regions of the UK and Australia). The three sound somewhat similar, but are quite different.
|}

==Transcript==

[Box with title at the top]
:Dialect Quiz
[Smaller subtitle underneath]
:Compare answers with your friends!

[Quiz is divided into two columns. Answers to questions are indicated by a letter followed by a closed parentheses, such as A). These letters are greyed out]

[Column 1:]
 
How do you address a group of two or more people?
:A) You
:B) Y'all
:C) I have not been around two or more people for so long that I can't remember

How do you pronounce "Penelope"?
:A) Rhymes with "Antelope"
:B) Rhymes with "Develop"

What do you call the scientific field that studies the stars?
:A) Astrology
:B) Agronomy
:C) Cosmetology

How do you pronounce "genre"?
:A) Gone-ra
:B) Juh-neer
:C) Jen-er-uh

You pronounce "Google" with a high-pitched yelp on the...
:A) First syllable
:B) Second syllable

What do you call the thing on the wall at school that you drink water from?
:A) Gutter pipe
:B) Drainpipe

How do you pronounce the name for a short silent video file?
:A) Animated give
:B) Animated gift

What do you call the baseball-sized garden bugs that, when poked, glow brightly and emit a warbling scream?
:A) What?
:B) Lawn buddies

[Column 2:]
 
What do you call the misleading lines painted by disgruntled highway workers to trick cars into driving off the road?
:A) Prank lines
:B) Devil's Marks
:C) Fool-me lines
:D) Fauxguides
:E) Delaware lines

What do you call the blue-green planet in the outer Solar System?
:A) Uranus
:B) Neptune

[Image of a claw hammer]
:A) Banger
:B) Nail axe
:C) Wood mage wand
:D) I'm familiar with this tool but have no specific word for it
:E) I have never seen it before

What do you call a long sandwich with meats and lettuce and stuff?
:A) A long sandwich with meats and lettuce and stuff
:B) A longwich
:C) A salad hot dog

What do you call the scaly many-legged animal often found in attics?
:A) Lightbulb eater
:B) I have no special name for them
:C) I've never looked in my attic

What do you say when someone around you sneezes?
:A) "What was that?"
:B) "Oh, wow."
:C) [Quietly] "Yikes."

==Trivia==

*The xkcd Twitter account posted a [https://twitter.com/xkcd/status/1316484953480323072 series of Twitter polls] asking the questions in this comic.
*Shallots, scallops, and scallions ran against each other in [[1529: Bracket]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2365: Messaging Systems

2020-09-29T17:53:20Z

Namespacelandrush:

{{comic
| number = 2365
| date = September 28, 2020
| title = Messaging Systems
| image = messaging_systems.png
| titletext = SMS is just the worst, but I'm having trouble convincing people to adopt my preferred system, TLS IRC with a local server and a patched DOSBox gateway running in my mobile browser.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VAGUELY MODERN SMS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Messaging systems suffer from the {{w|network effect}}, as in order to communicate, both parties need to be using the same system.
Though relatively ancient by modern standards, {{w|SMS}} is supported by almost every mobile device (unless you're using a [https://forward.com/news/157544/packing-stadium-for-anti-internet-message/ kosher mobile phone] or still on a {{w|DynaTAC}}) that has a phone number attached, which means if you want to send a message to someone, but aren't sure if you have a messaging protocol in common, you can be sure at least they have SMS.

The comic mentions many other communication systems, which offer various advantages in either security ({{w|end to end encryption}}) and or a bunch of general improvements filed under the label "vaguely modern", such as longer character limits and the ability to share media such as images in-service.

The messaging systems are shown in a {{w|Venn Diagram}}, with the categories corresponding to these three advantages. The intersections between the categories are very minimal: there are a few systems that have both E2E encryption and are modern, but no intersections with "supported by everyone", and SMS is the only system in that category. So when choosing a method of communication, you're usually faced with a compromise.

The title text proposes an alternative, absurd mingling of technologies in the vein of [[1636: XKCD Stack]]. IRC is Internet Relay Chat, a similarly antiquated messaging service that may also never die, as suggested in [[1782: Team Chat]]. {{w|DOSBox}} is an emulator that recreates the operating environment of {{w|MS-DOS}}; part of the absurdity is that DOSBox is intended almost solely for video games.

Various other comics have referenced the issue of chat services, including [[1810: Chat Systems]], [[1254: Preferred Chat System]], and [[1782: Team Chat]].

=== Vaguely Modern ===
'''Slack'''
* {{w|Slack (software)|Slack}} is a workplace messaging service that offers the ability for administrators to create channels in order to organize the discussion. It is asynchronous, which means that conversations can occur out of time, hours apart from each other. It also keeps track of every message, and everything in a public channel stays there forever for everyone to see. It is not encrypted and has been moving towards being less privacy-focused for end-users over the years as corporate demand for employee surveillance has prompted the company to offer ever more invasive services to administrators. Overall, it is a popular service with some large companies and non-profit organisations but does not yet have universal adoption.

'''Facebook Messenger'''
* {{w|Facebook Messenger}} is {{w|Facebook}}'s messaging app for phones, but not everyone has a Facebook account, or uses Facebook regularly.

'''Hangouts'''
* {{w|Google Hangouts}} is a messaging service that can be accessed through the online Gmail client, as a separate web page and a standalone app for the phone. Theoretically, that means everybody has access to it, but modern usage patterns mean that most people do not use the attached web client and don't bother downloading the app. It allows users to upload significantly degraded images, links, and other media along with text with a copy-paste.

'''Discord'''
* {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}} is a communications program that offers both direct messages and "servers", membership groups with a variety of voice and text channels. Discord was initially designed to serve the needs of online gaming communities, but is now used by many other groups.

'''Various DMs'''
* A {{w|Personal message|DM}} (direct message) is a private message between two or more users. The term DM originated from {{w|Twitter}}, but is now broadly applied to any user-to-user messaging feature within a larger service.

=== Vaguely Modern & E2E Encrypted ===

'''Signal'''
*{{w|Signal (software)|Signal}} is an encrypted messaging service, popular among protesters and hackers who wish to remain anonymous. Signal allows for highly secure messaging and for messages to be deleted after a period of time.

'''iMessage'''
*{{w|iMessage}} is the instant messaging service for Apple devices. iMessage features end-to-end encryption; however, it only works between Apple devices, so users of Android devices are not able to receive or send messages through iMessage.

'''WhatsApp'''
*{{w|WhatsApp}} is a messaging service owned by Facebook. It is popular in multiple countries, namely Latin America and India.

=== E2E Encrypted ===
{{w|End-to-end encryption}} is another messaging system where only the communicating users can read the messages posted. In principle, it prevents potential eavesdroppers – including {{w|telecom provider}}s, {{w|internet provider}}s, and even the provider of the communication service – from being able to access the {{w|cryptographic key}}s needed to decrypt the conversation.

'''PGP Email'''
*{{w|Pretty Good Privacy|PGP}} (short for "Pretty Good Privacy") is an encryption protocol for privacy and authentication developed in 1991. PGP can be used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting data. It is used to ensure the validity of the nature of the sender of the message (ie. to make sure you got the email from the sender and not from someone else pretending to be someone else with malicious intent). PGP was also featured in [[1181: PGP]].

'''Various Obscure Projects'''
*Randall is probably referring to the multitude of projects similar to those listed here that had end-to-end encryption but never went far.

'''Skype I Think'''
*{{w|Skype}} is a video conferencing service owned by Microsoft released in 2003; thus Randall does not consider Skype "modern". He is unsure if Skype is end-to-end encrypted or not. Skype used to be E2E encrypted, but that was changed and now {{w|Skype security|it does not have E2E encryption}}.

'''Jabber + TLS'''
*{{w|Jabber.org}} (based on {{w|XMPP}}) is a communications protocol based on XML that was developed in 1999. The Jabber protocol could be used with {{w|Transport Layer Security}} (TLS) to have a secure communications service.

=== Supported By Everyone ===
'''SMS'''
*{{w|SMS}} (short for Short Message Service) is a text-messaging service formally defined in the {{w|GSM}} standard in 1985 and first used in 1992. It limits messages to 160 characters, text-only. SMS has been extended by {{w|Multimedia Messaging Service|MMS}} (first used in 2002), which allows for "multimedia", including short videos, images and audio. MMS is also supported by most modern phones, but does not have any security features and is less powerful and less reliable than other messaging apps, making it less modern.

==Transcript==

A Venn Diagram is shown, framed in a box. It has three components:

Vaguely Modern, E2E Encrypted, Supported By Everyone

'''Items Solely in the Vaguely Modern category are:'''

:Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, Discord, Various DMs

'''Items In both 'Vaguely Modern' and 'E2E Encrypted' categories are:'''

:Signal, iMessage, Whatsapp

'''Items Solely in the E2E Encrypted category are:'''

:PGP Email, Various Obscure Projects, Skype I think, Jabber + TLS

'''Items Solely in the 'Supported By Everyone' category is:'''

:SMS

All other categories are empty.

[Caption below the comic]: Why SMS refuses to die

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

1729: Migrating Geese

2020-08-12T03:27:38Z

Namespacelandrush: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1729
| date = September 5, 2016
| title = Migrating Geese
| image = migrating_geese.png
| titletext = "Hey guys! I have a great idea for a migration!" "Dammit, Kevin."
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Bird migration|Migrating}} refers to the changing of a habitat, which happens every year with birds like {{w|geese}} that travel long distances to avoid cold seasons and get back to the food in the summer time. When geese fly to their new habitat, they tend to fly in a very clear {{w|V formation}}. The V formation improves the efficiency of flying birds, particularly over long migratory routes. All the birds except the first fly in the upwash from one of the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead. The upwash assists each bird except for the "leading" one in supporting its own weight in flight, saving them up to 20% of the energy needed.

It should be noted that geese do have family structures with adult geese in "alpha" positions, but not a strict ranking order. An individual's position in formation flights is coincidental and constantly changing, so that the goose at the point of the formation can pull back and rest in the V wings while others "lead" the swarm. Popular earlier beliefs about an "alpha goose" heading a formation for the entire flight is a myth, easily disproven by watching geese formations in flight.

This comic shows such a formation with 20 geese, with several geese and areas in the V formation labeled, giving different roles to the geese and assigning these areas a new meaning. See the [[#Table of labels|table below]].

Apart from a "twin engine" goose in the bottom right arm of the V the only part of the formation that would not normally be seen is Kevin, who flies off at a 45-degree angle. In that direction there is no aerodynamic help from the other birds, and in the title text the rest of the geese also exclaim, "Dammit, Kevin" when he (again?) tells them that he has a great new idea for a migration (maybe referring to the new direction). This is either a reference to the fact that migrating birds manage to consistently arrive in the same general area every year, or to the way that vacations are sometimes suggested (by humans): "I thought of an idea for a vacation..." This was only the second time the name Kevin was used in xkcd for a fictive person, see more in [[1795:_All_You_Can_Eat#Kevin|this trivia]].

===Table of labels===
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Explanation
|-
|Head Goose
(4th in line to the British throne)
|Supposedly, this goose is in line to become the newest monarch of the United Kingdom after the deaths of the three (humans) who are ahead it (Charles, Prince of Wales; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Prince George of Cambridge[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_British_throne]). In actuality the current fourth in line to the British throne is {{w|HRH}} {{w|Princess Charlotte of Cambridge}}. In North America, the best-known goose migration is that of {{w|Canada goose|Canada geese}} to the US east coast. Canada used to be part of the {{w|British Empire}} and remains a member of the {{w|Commonwealth of Nations}}, so a "Canadian" goose would be well situated to stand within the succession (excepting, of course, for the fact that it's a goose). As the main rules of {{w|succession to the British throne}} are being Protestant and directly related to {{w|Sophia of Hanover}}, who died in 1714, the line of succession is long. [http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2011.html Very long.] The head goose being fourth in line may be mocking the length of the line of succession.
|-
|Quarterback
|A {{w|quarterback}} is a position in {{w|American football}}, usually placed in the second row of an American football formation, just like the associated goose. On nearly every non-kicking play, the quarterback is the player who stands behind the center and receives the ball to start the play. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually considered the leader of the team, and is often responsible for calling the play.
|-
|Comptroller
|A {{w|comptroller}} is a position in many corporations and some governments. An officer of this title is responsible for the oversight of financial operations and ensuring that accounting is conducted accurately.
|-
|Migration abort goose
|This might be a reference to launch abort capsules used in rockets to safely land astronauts in the case of a critical stage failure. Or it could be operated like an abort button aborting the entire migration for all geese.
|-
|Twin-Engine Model
|This goose has two tails offset on each side of the center of the goose, instead of one tail in the middle like the rest. The "tails" also extend beyond the wings, which makes it look like a Twin-Engine aircraft, which has two motors: one on each wing instead of one in the nose. Later Randall made no less than eight plane/birds combination like this in [[1824: Identification Chart]].
|-
|CIA Informant
|A person, usually a criminal, that surreptitiously provides information to the {{w|Central Intelligence Agency}} (CIA), a foreign intelligence agency of the United States federal government. If these geese are from Canada, the CIA might have inserted an informant to be kept up to date on their activities.
|-
|Backups
|These are geese that are not used in the formation so they can replace other geese in their positions in case they have problems performing their task. This may also be a pun/joke about technology/data "migrations" where backups should be taken liberally due to risk of data loss.
|-
|Shock Front
| A shock front is the front boundary of a {{w|shock wave}} created by either a {{w|sonic boom}} or another explosion in a fluid/gas. It can also refer to the shock wave itself. A V-shaped shockwave called a '{{w|Bow shock (aerodynamics)|bow shock}}', similar in appearance to the V-shaped goose formation, is genearted by a supersonic object. Since geese fly subsonically in normal circumstances {{Citation needed}}, they do not generate a shock wave. But of course, this set of geese may be somewhat different considering the involvement of CIA and stealth technology.
|-
|Missing Valence Geese
|In Chemistry, {{w|Valence (chemistry)|valence}} electrons are the electrons in the outermost "layer" which change places when chemical reactions happen. As there is an optimal number of electrons in a layer, if there are missing valence electrons, atoms which can fill in these gaps tend to react with the atoms having the missing electrons. In case of "electron sharing" (aka covalent bond) molecules result from such an encounter. The comic suggests a second geese formation that has proper "valence geese" in the appropriate position could bond (=merge) with this one into a larger formation. A normal geese V formation like the one in the comic has one side longer than the other and this is possibly Randall's explanation for the phenomenon.
In reality, geese do form V-shaped flocks, since the rear geese can profit aerodynamically from the vortices created by the front geese, and that way the overall flock requires less energy. So there is actually some evolutionary sense for additional geese to fill the "valence holes". It is thus a little weird that there are two backup geese close to these valence vacancies, as they should then have filled them up...
|-
|Stealth cargo being escorted
|The formation is forming a protective surrounding around an empty space in the middle which in a military formation could contain protected cargo. As there is no cargo visible in the geese formation, it is titled "{{w|Stealth technology|stealth}}". This would be a nice [[:Category:Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theory]] to spread.
|-
|Kevin
|Also mentioned in the title text. It is unclear what the name refers to. It may refer to:
* The "go-to name" for [[Randall]] at the time of this comic's release, as he also used the name in [[1719: Superzoom]], ten comics before this one; as well as What-If #83 as a placeholder name for the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. This was thus the only second time the name Kevin was used in xkcd for a fictive person, see more in [[1795:_All_You_Can_Eat#Kevin|this trivia]]. Here is also mentioned the only four real Kevins that has been mentioned by name in xkcd. (None of those are mentioned here below).
* An {{w|Eddie Izzard}} skit about migrating birds (Eddie Izzard - Religions, Cats & Migrating Birds). A group of birds are following Kevin, assuming that he knows where he is going. But he is lost and they end up in the wrong place.
* Kevin McCallister from the {{w|Home Alone}} movies, who gets separated from his parents a lot. (see [[1164: Home Alone]]).
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/219w2o/whos_the_dumbest_person_youve_ever_met/cgbhkwp Kevin of reddit fame], the dumbest person ever.
* One of the {{w|Minions (Despicable Me)|Minions}} from the "{{w|Despicable Me}}" franchise ([http://despicableme.wikia.com/wiki/Kevin Kevin]), who leaves the main Minion group in search of a new master.
* The intelligent and playful bird [http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Kevin Kevin], from the Disney/Pixar movie {{w|Up (movie)|Up}}.
* [https://youtu.be/OyqdoxTEmdg Kevin] from {{w|South Park}}. Especially the "Dammit Kevin" mentioned in the title text could arise from this.
* [http://the321penguins.wikia.com/wiki/Kevin Kevin] from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-2-1_Penguins! 3-2-1 Penguins!], who "will answer questions and save planets without even knowing he could."
* {{w|We Need to Talk About Kevin}}, a book and drama film about a deranged child.
* Kevin Beckman, the dimwitted receptionist from the 2016 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters:_Answer_the_Call Ghostbusters] movie.
* The internet meme (especially in Europe) according to which being named Kevin connotates being the village idiot. Kevin is usually urged to stop talking, ironically congratulated, etc. It’s due to the fact that this name was given [https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-name-Kevin-have-so-many-negative-connotations-in-modern-Germany-Is-it-really-because-of-Kevin-Costner mainly in low socioeconomic class] (so Kevins will probably have poor education) and possibly because it was [https://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fprenoms.doctissimo.fr%2Ftop-prenoms-annee-1991.html&edit-text=&act=url way too common around the ’90s].
* Just a random name, as the only of the birds that actually has a personal name acts alone instead of following the other birds.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:Understanding Migration of Geese

:[20 geese are shown flying in a typical migratory V-formation. As they are shown in silhouette it is not possible to determine if they are seen from above or from below. They are flying toward the top of the image with the first goose close to the top in the middle of the image. There is one head goose, and then there are 7 geese in the left arms and 9 geese in the right arm. Behind the left arm there are two stragglers that are not in line with the others, but closer to the middle than those above and not as close to each other as the rest but still flying in the same direction. Finally there is one goose at the bottom right corner flying at a 45 degree angle away from the other to the right. The first goose is flapping its wing, which is also the case with six other geese, no. 4 and 6 in the left and 3, 5 and 6 in the right arm as well as the middle of the two in the rear towards the middle. The rest are soaring with straight wings and all of these look the same except no. 7 in the right arm which has two tails, which both goes ahead of the wings, making it look like a plane with two engines. The head goose and 5 of the 9 geese in the right arm as well as the one bottom right are labelled with and arrow pointing to them from the label. The front goose has the label in front to the left, the other have it in front to the right, except the second last in the arm which has the label inside the V and one flying away which has the label right above it. The two behind and right of the left arm have one label behind them with two arrows from the label pointing at both geese. There is a thick curvy line in front of geese no. 3 to 5 in the left arm. In front of that line is a thinner broken line. In front of this is a label written with the same curvature. There are two areas surrounded by dotted lines. The first one is behind the last of the left arms geese, extending in the same direction for a distance of about two geese. It has a label above and left with and arrow pointing to it. The other area is in the middle of the V forming a loose triangular structure with a label inside.]
:Head goose: Head goose (4th in line to the British throne)
:Right no. 1: Quarterback
:Right no. 3: Comptroller
:Right no. 5: Migration abort goose
:Right no. 7: Twin-engine model
:Right no. 8: CIA informant
:Bottom right corner: Kevin
:Behind center: Backups
:In front of left no. 3-5: Shock front
:Empty area behind left arm: Missing valence geese
:Empty area in center: Stealth cargo being escorted

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:American football]]

2302: 2020 Google Trends

2020-05-05T18:47:01Z

Namespacelandrush: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2302
| date = May 5, 2020
| title = 2020 Google Trends
| image = 2020_google_trends.png
| titletext = As the 'exotic animals in homemade aprons hosting baking shows' YouTube craze reached its peak in March 2020, Andrew Cuomo announced he was replacing the Statue of Liberty with a bronze pangolin in a chef's hat.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BRONZE PANGOLIN STATUE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.

Randall wants to go back in time to show a 2019 person [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2019-05-05%202020-05-04&geo=US&q=sewing%20machine,webcam,andrew%20cuomo,flour,pangolin a Google Trends graph]. The coronavirus has massively impacted everyone's lives and what they search for. This graph shows how people have been impacted, albeit in a bewildering representation.

All of these trends are attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
* "Sewing machine" refers to people making their own {{w|cloth face mask}}s (a common search is "how to make mask without sewing machine").
* "Webcam" refers to the massive increase in virtual meetings and video conferencing.
* "{{w|Andrew Cuomo}}" is the governor of {{w|New York (state)|New York}}, the state hit hardest by the pandemic in the United States. He has accrued lots of media attention for his generally praised response to COVID-19
* "Flour" refers to an increase in baking due to people staying at home. This is also referred to in [[2296: Sourdough Starter]]. The little lump at the end of November and December can probably be attributed to people baking for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
* A {{w|pangolin}} is a mammal found in Africa and Asia. This search term refers to the claim that the virus originated in wild animals sold in {{w|wet market}}s in {{w|Wuhan}}, China.

The title text is a possible "guess" by the 2019 person for these search terms having an increase together: a YouTube craze of exotic animals (which includes pangolins) in homemade aprons hosting baking shows which leads to a response by New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

A recent prior comic that touches on the past's possible views on the present situation was [[2280: 2010 and 2020]] where the relative costs of cryptocurrency and hygiene supplies was considered unremarkable for entirely the wrong reasons.

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

:[A line chart plotting the popularity of various search terms from May 2019 through April 2020: sewing machine (blue line), webcam (red), Andrew Cuomo (yellow), flour (green), and pangolin (purple). The yellow line starts at the bottom of the chart, and rises about halfway up at the end of March 2020 before decaying to about 20 percent by the end of April. The purple line starts at the bottom of the chart, and has a small lump in February 2020 and a slightly bigger lump in March 2020 before trending back down. The blue line starts at about 10 percent up the chart, and then spikes up to 50 percent at the beginning of April before decaying to 40 percent at the end of April. The red line starts at about 20 percent up the chart, has a small lump in September 2019, and then jumps up to 40 percent in March 2020 before trending back down. The green line starts at about 30 percent up the chart, has a small lump in December 2019, and then spikes up to the top of the chart at the end of March 2020.]

:[Caption below comic:] I want to show someone from 2019 this Google Trends graph and watch them try to guess what happened in 2020.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]

1790: Sad

2020-04-24T19:31:14Z

Namespacelandrush:

{{comic
| number = 1790
| date = January 25, 2017
| title = Sad
| image = sad.png
| titletext = With the right 90-degree rotation, any effect is a side effect.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is about [[Cueball]] confronting [[Ponytail]] over her recent behavior and poor emotional state over the past few months. While Ponytail doesn't give any details on what's causing it, it can be inferred that she is referring to the {{w|United States presidential election, 2016|recent election of right-wing ideologue Donald Trump as President of the United States}}, which happened 2 months prior to the publication of this comic.

Ponytail has retreated to video games for solace to the point that her real life projects are suffering.
''{{w|Stardew Valley}}'' is a video game in which a player creates and manages a virtual farm. And when Cueball mentions that her projects have stagnated, she retorts that her farm in the game is doing great. A comic with the name of that game was releases only two weeks later, [[1797: Stardew Valley]], indicating that it is indeed Randall who has played this game excessively.

Cueball's statement about not being able to hide from everything is a common one to give to insecure people or to those trying to run away from their problems. Ponytail's reply is in the form of a {{w|PolitiFact.com|PolitiFact}} reply, claiming (possibly quite truly) that such assertions are ''mostly false'', one of the six options, but it is far from being the worst, thus acknowledging that you can't hide from everything, just mostly. Politifact.com was also the subject of an earlier comic, [[1712: Politifact]].

In computer programming, ''{{w|Comment (computer programming)|comments}}'' are pieces of non-functional, descriptive text that programmers include in their code. Typically, they are used as a form of documentation, to make the code easier for other developers to understand. This is why Cueball is glad that Ponytail is at least writing more comments; documentation is something that's often neglected by developers, despite its usefulness. Unfortunately, the comments that Ponytail is puitting in her code are not actually about the code at all; she is, presumably, commenting more generally on whatever is troubling her as a way of venting her issues.

Ponytail's reply to "write what you know" is a common piece of advice given to amateur fiction writers - it means that writers tend to write best when they are writing about something they personally know well, since they will have plenty of interesting and useful experience to draw from. However, since Ponytail's comments are full of obscenities, she is sarcastically suggesting that obscenity is all she currently knows.

''{{w|Subroutine|functions}}'' are reusable pieces of code which developers create to avoid repetition and make the code more organized. For example, if the code often has to calculate the distance between two points, it makes sense to place that calculation logic into a "calculateDistance" function, which can then just be called whenever it is needed. More generally, a function accepts inputs (eg. the coordinates of two points) and may ''return'' an output (eg. the distance between the two points).

Cueball notes, however, that all of the functions Ponytail has written are not actually doing anything with their inputs; they are just returning them straight back again and demanding that the calling code should deal with the problem itself. This makes the functions practically useless. Ponytail sardonically tries to justify this as a functional programming technique by saying that she is "avoiding side effects". A {{w|Side effect (computer science)|side effect}} is a situation in programming in which an isolated piece of code changes something about the global state of the program - this can be problematic, as there could be other parts of the code that were not expecting the change, and might behave differently as a result. Their different behavior is a ''side effect''. Sometimes side effects are intentional, but when they are not, they can be tricky to debug and fix.

{{w|Functional programming}} is a programming paradigm in which most or all computation is performed within the scope of self-contained functions, thus avoiding stateful behavior entirely. This removes the possibility of any side effects, since each function only knows what it is told via its inputs, and does not need to be concerned with anything happening outside of itself. Technically, Ponytail ''is'' adhering to this paradigm, but only in the sense that her functions are not doing anything ''at all'', and so cannot have side effects.

Cueball fairly makes this point by noting she is avoiding ''all'' effects, to which Ponytail [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/quotes?item=qt2959706 quotes] part of a famous quote from {{w|Ellen Ripley|Ripley}} in {{w|Aliens (film)|Aliens}}: ''I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the '''only way to be sure'''.'' By replying that it's the "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q only way to be sure]" she is thus indirectly saying better safe than sorry, but in reality she just doesn't care about her programming anymore because of her sad state of mind.

The title text is a pun, interpreting the phrase "side effect" literally. If you turn an object 90 degrees along the right axis you will place it on its side, so thus making it a effect of putting something on its side, or a "side effect." You can also turn 90 degrees (along another axis), facing what was previously your side.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking up to Ponytail who sits at her desk in an office chair typing on her computer.]
:Cueball: How are you doing?
:Ponytail: Hah.
:Cueball: You seem distant lately. For the past few months.
:Ponytail: Can't '''''imagine''''' why.

:[Cueball talks to Ponytail at her desk from off-panel.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Your projects have stagnated.
:Ponytail: But my Stardew Valley farm is doing '''''great'''''.
:Cueball (off-panel): You can't just hide from everything.
:Ponytail: '''''Fact check''''': Mostly false.

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball is seen standing behind Ponytail at her desk.]
:Cueball: I'm glad you're including more comments in your code, but it would be nice if they were comments '''''about''''' your code.
:Cueball: Or at least a bit less obscenity-filled.
:Ponytail: Look, they say to write what you know.

:[Cueball leans forward towards Ponytail at her desk (who has looked on the screen in the same position through the entire comic).]
:Cueball: All the functions you've written take everything passed to them and return it unchanged with the comment "No, '''''you''''' deal with this."
:Ponytail: It's a functional programming thing. Avoiding side effects.
:Cueball: You avoid '''''all''''' effects.
:Ponytail: Only way to be sure.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]

1844: Voting Systems

2020-01-30T14:15:18Z

Namespacelandrush: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1844
| date = May 31, 2017
| title = Voting Systems
| image = voting_systems.png
| titletext = Kenneth Arrow hated me because the ordering of my preferences changes based on which voting systems have what level of support. But it tells me a lot about the people I'm going to be voting with!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about types of single-winner voting systems:

# '''{{w|Approval voting}}''' has voters "approve" (i.e. select) any number of candidates. The winner is the most-approved candidate. It works with the same unranked ballot as plurality voting, but would allow a "compromise" candidate who is the second choice of a majority to defeat a candidate who is supported by a plurality but disliked by other groups.
# '''{{w|Instant-runoff voting}}''' (also known as Ranked Choice or Preferential Voting) has voters rank the candidates in order of preference. Ballots are initially counted for each elector's top choice. If a candidate secures more than half of these votes, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate in last place is eliminated and removed from consideration. Ballots that had this candidate as the top choice now have the second preference as the top choice (this is the "instant runoff"). The top remaining choices on all the ballots are then counted again. This process repeats until one candidate is the top remaining choice of a majority of the voters or all but one candidate have been eliminated. IRV's proponents have successfully implemented it in a few places, such as the city of San Francisco.
# A '''{{w|Condorcet method}}''' elects the candidate that would win a majority of the vote in all of the head-to-head elections against each of the other candidates. A candidate with this property is called the Condorcet winner. Due to the {{w|Condorcet paradox}}, an election with 3 or more candidates might not have a Condorcet winner, so Condorcet methods differ in the secondary set of rules used to handle that situation.
# Not directly mentioned in the comic, '''{{w|First-past-the-post voting}}''' (FPTP, aka '''{{w|Plurality (voting)|plurality voting}}''') is the method currently used in the US, Britain, and several other countries. It only allows voters to choose a single candidate. Experts on voting methods agree there are multiple reasons why FPTP is not the best way to implement democracy,<ref>http://www.d.umn.edu/math/Technical%20Reports/Technical%20Reports%202007-/TR%202011/TR_2011_4.pdf</ref><ref>https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voting-methods/#2</ref><ref>https://electology.org/blog/top-5-ways-plurality-voting-fails</ref> but they have made little progress in replacing it in the United States after decades of effort, although {{w|Maine}} recently adopted Single Transferable Vote for some elections.

'''{{w|Arrow's impossibility theorem}}''' gives a list of criteria for ranked voting systems and states that [http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q60ZXoXP6Hg no system] can satisfy all of them at once, despite that for each of them it may seem "obvious" that an electoral system ought to satisfy it. Some voting theorists (such as Cueball) dislike IRV because it {{w|Comparison of electoral systems#Compliance of selected single-winner methods (table)|fails more of the criteria}} than Condorcet does.

The primary joke in the comic is the premise that people who are pedantic or knowledgeable enough to find Arrow's theorem to be relevant will self-fulfill the theorem by being inclined to disagree on any effort to change the voting system. This is illustrated by Cueball's voting system preference that is contingent on the preferences of other people, which defeats their effort to produce a community-wide ranking.

A secondary joke in the comic is that often voters don't pick their favorite choice in a vote. Instead, they vote for a less favorable, but more likely electable, person as a way to prevent their least favorite choice from being elected. This is commonly called "spoiler effect"; in Arrow's parlance it is a form of {{w|Independence of irrelevant alternatives|IIA criterion failure}}. Cueball's strategic vote switch implies that they are using FPTP (which they dislike) to make the decision. If they were using any of the other methods, his behavior would not be necessary.

A third joke is the recursive self-referencing inherent in voting to choose a voting system.

The title text stipulates that Cueball has no fixed ranking of preference for human candidates, but makes this choice dependent on which voting system is favoured by the group. This exceeds strategic voting considerations as the ranking should have full information, whom Cueball prefers in each situation. Therefore Arrow's impossibility theorem and the analysis behind it assume the ranked preferences of an individual voter as a fixed given. To make them dependent on the voting system makes assessing the efficacy of the voting systems absurd or at least much more complicated to do as a general assessment. That is given as the reason why Arrow would wholeheartedly hate him.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on either side of Cueball who is talking while lifting one hand.]
:Cueball: I prefer approval voting, but if we're seriously considering instant runoff, then I'll argue for a Condorcet method instead.

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Strong Arrow's theorem: The people who find Arrow's theorem significant will never agree on anything anyway.

{{comic discussion}}

<references />

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