explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

783: I Don't Want Directions

2022-05-04T19:11:56Z

Realqwerty64: Undo revision 241222 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 783
| date = August 23, 2010
| title = I Don't Want Directions
| image = i_dont_want_directions.png
| titletext = Yes, I understand that the turn is half a mile past the big field, but my GPS knows that, too. This would be easier if you weren't about to ask me to repeat it all back to you.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] wants to use his {{w|GPS navigation device|GPS device}} to find an individual's house, and therefore needs the house's address. The person on the phone is giving him directions, something that is useless because by giving Cueball the address, the GPS can give directions to the address, possibly better than the ones he is getting over the phone. Cueball then decides to tell the person that he would like to mail something to their house, hoping they will give him the address, because you must have the address to mail something.

The title text is a continuation of the comic's joke. By the end of the comic, Cueball has got the information he needs, and has just ignored the directions he did not want. However, if the person on the phone insists on checking Cueball has remembered the directions correctly, Cueball has to be able to learn the useless information he did not want in the first place, and has been mostly ignoring, at least well enough to repeat it once.

Judging by the roads mentioned in the comic (Highland Rd and presumably {{w|Interstate 495 (Massachusetts)|I-495}} and {{w|Massachusetts Route 18|MA-18}}), the person on the phone lives somewhere around [http://goo.gl/maps/tXFbF southern Lakeville, Massachusetts], and Cueball is starting from the Boston area.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball on phone.]
:Cueball: Looking forward to seeing your new place! What's the address?
:Cueball: Mm hmm. Yes, I'm taking 495, but I have a GPS, so I really just need the street address.

:[Close up.]
:Cueball: ...then south on 18, okay, but I have a GPS, so if you just want to skip to the street address, I can...

:[Full body shot, facing other direction.]
:Cueball: Thanks, I'm glad to know Highland Road comes a mile after the big intersection, but I keep saying I ''have a GPS'', can you tell me the street address?
:Cueball: ...
:Cueball: Technically that's just more information on how to get to your place, not the address itself. If you could-

:[Close up again, Cueball writing on pad.]
:Cueball: ...I appreciate that you want to help, but I'm ''ignoring'' you and just waiting for the...
:Cueball: Listen, I just remembered I need to mail you a letter. What's your address?
:Cueball: Mhm... okay...
:Cueball: Great, thanks! I'll see you in an hour!

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

22: Barrel - Part 3

2022-05-04T18:05:44Z

Realqwerty64: Undo revision 241251 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 22
| date = October 24, 2005
| title = Barrel - Part 3
| image = barrel_whirlpool.jpg
| titletext = A whirlpool!
}}

==Explanation==
In the first two comics in the Barrel series, the boy is floating in the ocean in a barrel, making fairly innocent points about life's uncertainty. In this comic, the view has zoomed out considerably, and the boy is seen to be on the edge of a gigantic {{w|whirlpool}}. Thus, there is now a palpably heightened sense of danger, though the boy's reaction continues to be innocent wonder.

The comic's visual composition is reminiscent of {{w|File:Maelstrom-Clarke.jpg|a classic 1919 illustration}} by {{w|Harry Clarke}}, made for {{w|Edgar Allan Poe}}'s 1841 short story "{{w|A Descent into the Maelström}}." In the short story, the main character escapes from drowning by using a barrel to escape The Maelström.

This is the third in a six-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features a [[:Category:Barrel|character]] who is not consistent with what would quickly become the [[xkcd]] [[stick figure]] style. The character is in a barrel.

After Randall released the full [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070207052159/http://www.xkcd.com/barrel.html The Boy and his Barrel] story on xkcd, it has been clear that the original [[Ferret]] story should also be included as part of the barrel series.

The full series can be found [[:Category:Barrel|here]]. But below they are listed in the order Randall has put them in his collection linked to above:
* [[1: Barrel - Part 1]]
* [[20: Ferret]]
* [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]
* [[22: Barrel - Part 3]]
* [[25: Barrel - Part 4]]
* [[31: Barrel - Part 5]]

==Transcript==
:[A large and deep vortex is in the center; spinning water covers the whole panel. A boy in a floating barrel is near the edge, apparently about to be sucked in.]
:Boy: wow!

== Trivia ==
*This was the 23rd comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[40: Light]].
**The next was [[23: T-shirts]].
*Original title: "Monday's Drawing"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "The saga of the boy and his barrel continues! ([[1: Barrel - Part 1|Part 1]] and [[11: Barrel - Part 2|Part 2]])"
**There are links to the pictures of the two first parts.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 23]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Barrel|04]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Barrel 04]]

999: Cougars

2022-05-04T17:50:33Z

Realqwerty64: Undo revision 241262 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 999
| date = January 4, 2012
| title = Cougars
| image = cougars.png
| titletext = If you're lying in bed tonight and you see yellow eyes glinting in your window, are you being stalked by a puma, a mountain lion, a panther, a catamount, or a cougar? Trick question--in North America, they're all names for the same species, Puma concolor! Isn't learning fun? Anyway, sleep tight!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is giving reason number 58 why he should not have children. We see fictitious "father [[Cueball]]" talking about the Wikipedia entry for "{{w|List of fatal cougar attacks in North America}}". As stated, many of the victims were young children near their home.

If you tell a child about something dangerous, but without giving them necessary context to feel protected from it, you are likely to cause nightmares, sleeplessness, or other fear-related issues[citation needed]. In most, if not all, cases this would be considered bad parenting, hence a person who enjoys doing so should perhaps not have children.

The title text demonstrates that not only is Cueball sharing factual information, he is intentionally adding hypothetical detail (e.g. "yellow eyes glinting in your window") to make the danger seem even worse. The child is unlikely to agree that learning this is fun. Incidentally, a panther is not an actual species but rather a term for either leopards or jaguars with melanistic conditions. Mountain lions themselves are rarely called panthers.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer; a child is standing behind.]
:Cueball: Whoa, ever seen Wikipedia's list of people who were attacked and killed by cougars?
:Cueball: Crazy how many of them were kids who were just playing outside their houses.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Reason #58 I should never have children: My love of learning and sharing knowledge about the world.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

Talk:1273: Tall Infographics

2019-03-13T17:33:00Z

Realqwerty64:

Its 2019...--[[User:Realqwerty64|Realqwerty64]] ([[User talk:Realqwerty64|talk]]) 17:32, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Still nothing.

[[File:Example.jpg]]I'm not really sure how to transcribe an infographic... Sorry. Saibot84 04:17, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:I tried to expand on it a bit, sorry if it's not the best. ollien 04:20, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
For anyone wondering if the "FORMAT" frequency graph is self-referential to the entire comic... no, or at least not on actual explicit instances of the letters (certainly nowhere near 26 Ts, and even proportionally the As are vastly the most frequent and Fs the ''actual'' least, the rest almost identical), but I wouldn't put it past Randall having taken into account cummulative font-size, or something like that. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.253.80|178.98.253.80]] 07:23, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:It's by position in the alphabet (F=6, O=15, R=18, M=13, A=1, T=20). [[Special:Contributions/67.183.134.13|67.183.134.13]] 07:38, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
::Gah, I'm an idiot. The "26" should have clued me in. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.253.80|178.98.253.80]] 17:20, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
It's a reference to cellphone screen aspect ratios![[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 10:48, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

I think this comic might be inspired by [http://www.symantec.com/connect/sites/default/files/users/user-2935611/zeroaccess_blog_infographic.png that infographic] which was recently published regarding an attack against a botnet. (At least that was my first association - and I, too, found that graphic a little unsuitable when I saw it in the news) -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 12:42, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:Search for "infographics" at google images and you will find thousands other examples.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:50, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

I think there is more to the explanation: Big Data mostly will be analyzed statistically, so we will get diverse diagrams and infographics as result. The trend will be an increase in the number of cases where informationen is presented in this way. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.98.211|178.26.98.211]] 14:23, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

: Note that Big Data is used nowadays as a ''buzzword'', even if you don't have that much data. Remember: if your data cannot be processed by Excel, [http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2013/hadoop_hatred.html it isn't big]. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 14:47, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
::More accurately: Just because your data cannot be processed by Excel, that doesn't make it big.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.21|108.162.216.21]] 13:16, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

I read the Venn diagram to mean that data would be either clear OR concise, if you took it literally.[[Special:Contributions/75.120.198.118|75.120.198.118]] 08:38, 6 October 2013 (UTC)gonzo

:I don't think that's quite right. The Venn diagram is intended to be just as superfluously self evident as the other graphics. The set of all things "Clear" intersects with the set of all things "Concise" in the region "And".
[[Special:Contributions/111.69.237.202|111.69.237.202]] 09:06, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

:: it's a Venn diagram? D'Oh! Of course it's a Venn diagram. I thought it was the Mastercard logo! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.71|141.101.104.71]] 19:33, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

:: I think you mean "if your data ''can'' be processed by Excel, it isn't big". [[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 00:07, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

:: Or maybe "if your data cannot be processed by Excel, it isn't necessarily big." Because it might really ''be'' big - you wouldn't know. [[Special:Contributions/121.74.169.237|121.74.169.237]] 00:21, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Another take on infographics: http://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/05/how-to-make-a-shitty-infographic/ --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:40, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

"In the pie chart, the areas represent the proportion of letters in each word." - this isn't right; the area for "will" is three times the size of the area for "be". It could be comparing the number of consonants in each word. {{unsigned ip|86.128.6.174}}
: "will" and "be" are both forms of the verb "to be". "Be" is therefore merely the infinitive, while "will" is both a conjugated form (3rd person singular) and in the future tense. Therefore "will" has three levels of meaning to "be"'s one... ;) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.122|108.162.229.122]] 12:49, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

Could the part where Megan is saying "Communicated" to Hairy and Hairy responds with an enthusiastic "Yes!" possibly be a reference to some other infographics about preventing sexual assault by making sure to have consent first? I remember seeing a lot of those around my high school and college, so I could just be assuming this based off my surroundings and whatnot. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 07:14, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

I make infographics, myself, and recently have given up and switched from using square, 4:3, or 16:9 to using 3:4 (making the image taller than wide) to deal with the fact that a snowballing proportion of my hypothetical audience is viewing the image on their phone, and can't even easily resize a wide graphic to see the whole thing comfortably...and that the ones who see it on the computer have far greater ability to view an image regardless of its aspect ratio. 
/me sighs — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 15:30, 16 December 2016 (UTC)

Fortunately, this, like that whole weird thing with the Mayans, is another doomsday prophecy that did not come to pass. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.178|162.158.75.178]] 02:09, 18 January 2019 (UTC)