Sports Cheat Sheet

Explanation:
Randall presents a "cheat sheet" which is a handy reference guide for something that is generally expected to be memorized or known by someone familiar with the knowledge domain. Cheat sheets are commonly used in mathematical applications to list important formulas or for measurement conversions; but they may also be used in other applications.
This cheat sheet allows Randall to figure out what sport other people are arguing over on the basis of the time of year and where the argument is occurring. The chart is based on the annual seasons (periods when the top professional and college leagues play) of each sport.
In the United States, the chart is divided among baseball , basketball and American football . Hockey is not shown, suggesting that he may not consider hockey a sport to compare with the three listed, he does not encounter arguments about hockey (of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the NHL is significantly behind the others in terms of attention as its appeal is traditionally limited by geography to Canada and the northern United States), or that he perhaps does not need a chart to determine when the argument is about hockey (they may be obvious for countless reasons, including the physicality of typical hockey confrontations). Also, golf is not shown as well implying Randall may not think it's an important sport. The chart suggests that football is the most popular of the three sports, or at least more popular to argue about (of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL generally has the most attention).
The NFL football regular season generally runs from September to December with playoffs in January and early February. Overlapping this period of time, NCAA college football is also occurring, from September to December, with their bowl games in December and January. Almost all of this period, sports arguments are likely to be about football. The NBA basketball regular season runs from late October to mid-April with playoffs in April and into June. NCAA college basketball starts in November but peaks in March with the NCAA Basketball Tournament ( March Madness ). According to the chart, the arguments about basketball don't begin until the football season is over. They continue through the end of April, but start again at the end of May during the playoff finals. The MLB baseball regular season runs from April through September with playoffs in late September and October. When the baseball season begins, arguments shift from the ongoing basketball season to the new baseball season. As mentioned, the NBA Finals create some basketball arguments again for a few weeks. Similarly, the start of the NFL season in September makes it more likely arguments then will be about football. Baseball takes over briefly during the playoffs in October.
One of the punchlines is that outside the US, all sports arguments are about association football (soccer) all year round. The two types of football are noted on the chart by an icon showing the ball used in each sport.
The title text continues on the theme of this chart being for someone who doesn't know anything about sports. Randall imagines a Twitter feed where you receive a salient sports opinion each day, presumably so that you could repeat the opinion to your friends and appear knowledgeable about sports. As the feed is for those uninformed about sports, there are clarifications of important terms in brackets.
The suggested Twitter message mentioned in the title text is accurate for the date of the comic. On September 11, 2012 the baseball team Boston Red Sox played the New York Yankees and won, 4 runs to 3.  The Red Sox were already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs (meaning they needed to win more games than remained in the season to qualify). The Yankees were at the top of the standings, but were in a close race for the playoffs with the Baltimore Orioles (both teams had a win-loss record of 79 wins to 62 losses, with 21 games each remaining to play). To be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, the Yankees had to win more of their remaining games than the Orioles. Losing to the Red Sox made this task harder. (For those wondering, both the Yankees and the Orioles made to the playoffs, but neither made it to the championship round, the World Series.)
Traditionally, the Red Sox and the Yankees have a long-standing rivalry , especially among fans. Many Red Sox fans consider a loss by the Yankees nearly as good as a win by the Red Sox (and the Red Sox beating the Yankees the best of both worlds). If the Red Sox can't win the World Series, then at least they can help prevent the Yankees from winning it.
This strip is one of several in which Randall attempts to trivialize sports (see for instance 904: Sports , 1480: Super Bowl , 1507: Metaball and 1859: Sports Knowledge ).
[A three-column table. Months are arrayed down the first column, the second and third columns show sports, with the divisions in partial months rather than lined up with the ends of months.  American football and association football (i.e. soccer) are differentiated by small icons in brackets depicting the respective balls used.]
Which sport are they arguing about? -My cheat sheet-
[The second column, reproduced using approximate dates.] US: Football [ovoid ball drawn in brackets]: January 1 - February 10 Basketball: February 10 - April 20 Baseball: April 20 - May 25 Basketball: May 25 - June 15 Baseball: June 15 - August 20 Football [ovoid]: August 20 - October 5 Baseball: October 5 - October 20 Football [ovoid]: October 20 - December 31
[The third column, reproduced using approximate dates.] non-US: Football [truncated icosahedron, 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons]: January 1 - December 31
The idea of a website that supplies sports talking points to non-fans was previously used in a 2008 episode of the sitcom The IT Crowd , which might be where Randall got the idea. There, the site (Bluffball) focused on UK football, and offered the lines "Did you see that ludicrous display last night?", "What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early?" and "The trouble with Arsenal is they always try and walk it in."


Cautionary Ghost

Explanation:
This comic is a parody of Charles Dickens 's A Christmas Carol , where Scrooge is replaced with someone who insists on calling people out on their incorrect usage of the word "literally", and speaks to the irrelevance of correcting people's speech.
In "A Christmas Carol", the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future awaken the main character in the middle of the night to show him the negative causes and effects of his selfish and uncharitable behavior. In this comic the ghost wakes up a man who is intent on correcting people's usage of the word "literally." People often use "literally" as emphasis or exaggeration to a figurative statement, when the word's original meaning was that something had happened exactly as described. A statement such as "I literally ate 40 lbs of chocolate" might be said, when the person might have only actually eaten half a pound. A more correct statement would be "I ate a large amount of chocolate."
The ghost shows the protagonist two futures, one where he keeps correcting people, and one where he stops. That the two "different" futures are exactly (i.e., literally) the same suggests that the man's struggle to get people to stop using "literally" incorrectly will have no meaningful effect on the world, and so the man (and by extension, everyone else) may as well stop wasting time and energy on it.
Ironically, the title text indicates that a second apparition encouraged the man to continue the fight on a different grammatical issue, the use of the phrase "if it were," which is frequently incorrectly substituted with "if it was." "Were" is correctly used in a hypothetical condition, when referencing something that may not be true. The ghost of subjunctive past references the ghost of Christmas past and the 'Subjunctive past tense' . The following sentences illustrate the correct usages:
Another xkcd comic, 725: Literally , also refers to the overly mocked usage of "literally."
A similar ghost is seen in 1393: Timeghost , where it reminds Cueball about the passing of time.
The comics Cyanide & Happiness and The Oatmeal offer examples of this sort of derision.
[A man wakes up to an apparition hovering over his bed.] Apparition: ooOOOOOOOOOOooooo Man: A ghost!? Apparition: I bring a cautionary vision of things to come!
Apparition: This is the future: [Two people are standing between a pair of houses. There is a tree. An airplane flies past.]
Apparition: And this is the future if you give up the fight over the word "literally": [Two people are standing between a pair of houses. There is a tree. An airplane flies past. The cynical might suggest the panel is copy pasted.]
[Back to the man in bed.] Man: They looked exactly the same. Apparition: ooOOOOOOOOOOOooo Man: Ok, I get it. Apparition: Seriously, this is duuuuumb.


Refrigerator

Explanation:
Randall proposes the idea of a refrigerator with conveyor belts tuned to different speeds such that food is moved along to the right (main compartment) or left (door) as time passes, with the time appropriate markings letting you know how much time is left until it spoils. When the expiry date is reached, the food will have reached the rightmost part of the refrigerator and conveniently fall into the "Bad" tray at the bottom right of the fridge.
The title text is a reference to Simon Stevin's proof of a problem of equilibrium consisting on balancing a weight on an inclined plane by another weight hanging off the top end of the inclined plane. Stevin, also known as Stevinus, had the proof inscribed on his tomb, and as such the proof is commonly known as the " Epitaph of Stevinus ". Randall expresses his interest in having his own ostensibly brilliant idea likewise engraved on his own tombstone.
[Open fridge with four conveyor belts, three in the main compartment and one on the door. There are two more containers on the door, and an ice-box underneath the second conveyor belt in the main compartment. There is a bin at the bottom of the fridge where the conveyor belts all lead to labelled "Bad."] Top conveyor belt : 3 days ^ 2 days ^ 24 hours ^ 12 hours ^ Middle conveyor belt : 1 W ^ 5 days ^ 3 days ^ 2 days ^ 1 day ^ Bottom conveyor belt : 3 M ^ 2 months ^ 1 month ^ 2 weeks ^ Door conveyor belt : 3 days ^ 1 week ^ 2 weeks ^


Click and Drag

Explanation:
This comic is a take on how vast and rich the world is, and on the thrill of exploring it. The world can be described as sad, as well as it can be described as wonderful, even if this seems a bit contradictory, just because it is so big and there are so many different things happening in it all at once. Cueball comments about this while hanging from a balloon, which brings to mind the expanded perspective over the landscape attained by early experimenters in overland flight.
The title text is the same as the comic title, and both of these invite the reader to Click and drag the inside of the last panel, with their mouse, and by dragging, explore what is hidden outside that panel. The image displayed at first turns out to be part of a huge landscape, filled with big or small things, humorous details, people here and there, cave mazes, things floating in the air, jokes and references, unexpected things, relaxing views, etc.
The fact that we only see a small part of the landscape at once refers to the idea that we cannot in real life comprehend the whole world altogether, but only what is around us and/or in the range of our understanding at the time. The click-and-drag process, in which it is impossible to go as fast as we would want to, also draws a parallel with the fact that exploration is always done gradually, step by step, and trying something (i.e. here dragging in a certain direction) always has a cost. This click-and-drag exploration reproduces the thrill of discovering new horizons, getting lost sometimes, finding unexpected things, seeing beauty, humor, desolation or happiness here and there... which can easily captivate an xkcd reader for a long time (and as such qualifies as nerd sniping ).
In comic 1416: Pixels you zoom, by scrolling, until every pixel in this image turns into new pictures, and this can be continued again and again. Once you have zoomed in, you are able to click and drag the picture just like in this comic.
And in 1608: Hoverboard exactly the same idea is used again, but instead of dragging the image you fly/float around in the image with Cueball on a hoverboard . This gives a very different way to explore as he cannot go through walls or the earth etc. You also have to discover that there is a big world outside the initial play area; and where this comic tried to help people realize they should do something, both with the title and title text, Hoverboard directly tries to dissuade people from going outside with a warning message. Another major difference is that hoverboard is actually a game where you can collect coins (spread throughout the picture) and return them to the starting point to gain a score.
The book Thing Explainer that was the reason for the Hoverboard game, also has a direct reference to this comic, as Cueball is seen floating with his balloon outside the cockpit in the explanation for Stuff you touch to fly a sky boat .
In 1975: Right Click , the April Fools' day comic of 2018, the title is similar to this one, in that it gives away how the user should begin to interact with the comic. It is though nothing like this comic or Hoverboard.
[This transcript only covers the first four panels as they are shown here above (i.e. before you click and drag).]
[Cueball is narrating the story, all the text is written in boxes above and below him without speech lines connecting to him.] [Cueball is floating by holding onto a balloon with one hand.] From the stories I expected the world to be sad And it was
[Cueball has grabbed hold of the balloon with both hands.] And I expected it to be wonderful.
[The wind picks up and blows Cueball to the right.] It was.
[Full width panel where the scene opens up. You see Cueball is about a tree's-height from the ground. To the right there is a tall tree with no leaves on it and a broken limb. Below him are some rocks and grass. This is the initial view of the world, that can be clicked and dragged. It is part of tile named 1 North 1 East.] I just didn't expect it to be so big .
[The rest of the comic is transcribed below in the List of details and references section.]
Warning: there are cheating possibilities—people have implemented ways to explore that world more easily—but the best way to enjoy this comic is to play the game, explore the comic's world the way you're supposed to, get lost in the caves or in the sky, be startled by unexpected things or happy when finding some people after lengthy click-and-dragging through a repetitive landscape. If you didn't do that already, reading any below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic.
Though you can download the full view, the easiest way to browse it is through a Zooming user interface .
The 225 existing tiles are sorted by columns from West to East and from North to South in each column. (Note that this only includes the tiles that are not entirely white or black).


Premiere

Explanation:
This comic depicts an entertainment news television program. Hairy , as the news anchor , notes that "all Hollywood" is in town, meaning there are a lot of members of the film industry. The event is a movie premiere, a common place for reporters to interview celebrities, actors, and other people related to entertainment.
Megan represents the reporter at the premiere reporting for the television program. The red carpet is a tradition whereby a long red carpet is laid out leading to the entrance of a theater as a symbol of elegance. Movie stars are said to "walk the red carpet" when they arrive and do interviews and pose for photos along this carpet, most famously seen at the Oscars .
When asked the ambiguous question "How do things look?", instead of reporting on the premiere and the movie stars arriving, Megan reports on the bleak long-term outlook for the Earth as we know it. She states than in about 800 million years the Sun will become so hot that the Earth's oceans boil away . According to the Wikipedia article this will though first happen in about 1.1 billion years. But the 800 million years may have been the best estimate back in 2012 when this comic was released, see for instance this article from 2013 that states 850 million years. (The loss of oceans will still happen long before the sun turns into a red giant in about 5 billion years).
When Hairy then asks how the stars are reacting (meaning how the movie stars are reacting to this news about the oceans), Megan instead replies that the stars are reacting with hydrogen fusion , the nuclear reaction of actual stars like the Sun, thus again ostensibly mistaking the intent of the question. All astronomical stars eventually die when there is not enough hydrogen (or other heavier atoms) to continue the fusion process that keeps the stars stable.
Hairy then clarifies that he (of course) meant the movie stars, but Megan keeps being bleak in her reporting as she notes that they also won't last forever, and by the way no one else will. She is of course right as eventually everyone dies [ citation needed ] , just as the stars will eventually die, but of course much sooner for any living human, movie star or not. This reminding people that they will soon die is a common thing for xkcd, apart from the whole segment of comics to make one feel old , there is a specific example in 1393: Timeghost and even more so in 926: Time Vulture .
In the title text Hairy ask about the buzz about the film. The buzz here refers to ongoing discussion of the movie, analogous to a continuous humming sound. Megan exclaims that she hopes this buzz distracts people from the apparently grave news she has already reported.
Also, since "premiere" etymologically means "first", the title might be a pun on the comic number, which only consists of four ones (1111).
The joke of Megan answering a question in an interview in an unexpected manner was used again in 1302: Year in Review .
Megan had an existential crisis already in 220: Philosophy and later again in 1822: Existential Bug Reports . In the latter it was the Sun swallowing the Earth (not the oceans) that was her concern.
[The setting is a standard entertainment newscast. Hairy as the news anchor in the studio sits behind a desk, resting his hands on the desk, starts off the segment with an inset feed to the right where Megan can be seen in front of a crowd behind her. The title of this segment is shown below the feed.] Hairy: All Hollywood is in town for tonight's star-studded premiere! We go live to our reporter on the red carpet. Hairy: How do things look? Title: Red Carpet Report
[Megan switches to full-screen. Megan is standing in front of a full crowd of Cueball heads who are behind a line held up be sticks, one of which is visible behind her. She holds a large microphone up to her face.] Megan: Bleak. Megan: In 800 million years the aging, brightening Sun will boil away the oceans, and all this will be blowing sand.
[Switch back to initial framing with Hairy moving his arms further away from himself and Megan now with the microphone visible.] Hairy: Oh. Um. ...Sounds pretty grim. How are the stars reacting? Megan: Hydrogen fusion. But it won't last forever. Hairy: I mean the movie stars. Megan: They won't last forever either. None of us will. Title: Red Carpet Report


Think Logically

Explanation:
Chess is a centuries-old board game in which two players take turns moving one of their 16 pieces to try and checkmate the other player's king (one of the pieces). When one player is in a position to capture their opponent's king on their next move, and the opponent has no legal move available to avoid such capture, the opponent is said to be in "checkmate", and by definition immediately loses.
The game, with origins around the 6th century, and with the modern rules being essentially set in the late 15th century, has a significant amount of history. The rules and traditions are well established. The knight is a piece that can only move in an L-shaped pattern (two squares in one direction, and one square perpendicular), but has the unique ability to jump over other pieces.
The comic highlights two mistakes players often make in chess: complete fixation on the king at the cost of their other pieces, and failure to take advantage of the knight's movement patterns. At the same time this is a jab at how people sometimes oversimplify an argument when confronted with a topic they are not familiar with. Previously this was depicted in 675: Revolutionary and 793: Physicists . See also the Dunning–Kruger effect . The units in chess are widely agreed to be well-balanced, and Cueball's criticism of the knight shows an obvious lack of knowledge of the knight's potential.
Given the long history of chess, a significant amount of writing and research has been dedicated to the game and its strategies. This is inadvertently mocked by Cueball who naively suggests it would be trivial to make a list of all situations in which a piece would move backwards (called a "retreat" in chess). Such a list — at least a partial one — certainly does exist, as do lists of numerous other chess moves and situations.
Knit Cap (see the official transcript ) proceeds to demonstrate Cueball's lack of knowledge by beating him in four moves, which typically would only occur when an experienced player plays a novice. The checkmate depicted is the scholar's mate , being a classic early-game checkmate in chess. It is in fact extremely easy to defend against it, moving your knights in the two knights defense would do, thus proving Cueball's inexperience. Careful scrutiny of the board suggests a scholar's mate, something along these lines (using chess algebraic notation): 1.e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qh5 Nf6 4. Qxf7#.
Cueball, instead of admitting he underestimated the game, believes the failure is in the game itself. The title text indicates that Cueball attempted to suggest revisions to the rules of chess. Given that Cueball has no experience as a chess player, it is likely many of the changes are illogical or ridiculous. In the face of hundreds of years of history, it is not surprising that the chess community is ignoring them. The last major changes to the rules of chess occurred more than 400 years ago when, among other things, the pawn was given its two-space starting move and the queen was made into the most powerful piece (previously it was the weakest). The chess community's ties to the traditions of the game and their refusal to accept Cueball's suggestions are written off by Cueball as " emotional bias " suggesting his changes are logical, but that the community is letting their emotions cloud their rational decision making abilities, while in reality it is he who is being affected. If that can make Cueball feel any better, it could be pointed out to him that dozens and dozens of chess variants do exist out there.
The comic may also be a jab at competitive online games whose fans call for "buffs" (power additions) and "nerfs" (power reductions) to characters they believe to be underpowered or overpowered, often with inadequate knowledge of those characters. On the other hand, some online games and multiplayer computer games in general are unbalanced since they lack centuries of history to balance themselves, unlike chess.
Knit Cap is called knit hat guy in the official transcript . There are two other cases (after this comic) where a person with hair has been shown with a knit cap. The first was Randall's wife after chemotherapy in 1141: Two Years and the second time it was Knit Cap Girl in 1350: Lorenz . Two Cueballs have also been shown using knit caps in 1321: Cold .
[Knit Cap is sitting down at a computer touching the keyboard with one hand. Cueball is standing behind watching the screen.] Laptop: *Move* Cueball: Why'd you move your knight away?
[Knit Cap turns around and rests an arm on the chair looking at Cueball who holds out both arms.] Cueball: Just think logically . The goal is checkmate, so you should always move pieces toward the other player's king.
[Closeup of Cueball holding a hand to his chin.] Cueball: I guess occasionally you need to move backward, but it'd be trivial to make a list of those circumstances and-
[Knit Cap is leaning back in chair facing Cueball, panel is so slim that the lap top is not included.] Knit Cap: Have you ever played chess? Cueball: Not much, but— Knit Cap: Wanna? Cueball: Uh, ok.
[Knit Cap sitting and Cueball standing is playing chess with a board standing between them on a very small table or a four legged stool. The board extends quite far out on either side. Their moves are indicated above with four by Knit Cap and three towards Cueball. It is clear both from this and from the pieces visible on the board that Knit Cap is playing white] *Move* _____ *Move* *Move* _____ *Move* *Move* _____ *Move* *Move* Knit Cap: Checkmate.
[In a frameless panel Cueball is standing staring at the chess board, where there clearly are more pieces on his side of the board.]
[Knit Cap has turned back to the laptop with both hands on the keyboard. Cueball is standing behind the chess board holding a finger up in the air.] Cueball: This game isn't very well-designed. For starters, knights are too weak...


Killed in Action

Explanation:
The comic plays with the TV and film trope of Retirony , in which a cop is killed in action only a short time before (often the day before) retirement, usually producing a sense of even greater tragedy in the timing of the death. The humor of this strip arises from the notion that, given so many policemen are killed the day before retirement, retiring cops could be sequestered in a secure facility on the day before their retirement to avoid retirony. Unfortunately this merely results in tragedy when a cop is killed the day before being sequestered.
The title text is a reference to the reactionary nature of security procedures often put in place in the aftermath of an incident, and how they typically fail to address the root cause of the problem. If the logic expressed in the title text was followed repeatedly, eventually the number of days police officers spent in the secure room would encompass their entire career.
A certain similarity could be drawn between this and the US Army's problematic policy of only having combat troops serve for a single year in combat during the Vietnam war (unlike during WWII, when combat units were put into the front line and left there until the war was over, with losses being made up with a constant flow of individual replacements, which was even more problematic). Having troops only serve for a single year led to a far lower rate of troops "broken" from constant combat stress, but it also led to soldiers increasingly avoiding risk
once the halfway point of their year was passed and their time to go home got closer; not only that, but the stress of the last few months, knowing one was almost "home safe", yet forced into danger repeatedly could also psychologically damage men. It also created an incentive to just make it alive through the war, no matter what it took, unlike a situation where a soldier knows they are stuck there until the war is over; this can be a great incentive to fight harder, or at least to just give up any real hope that you'll live long enough to see the end anyway. They later revisited this "combat year" approach also, and tried yet another new idea.
See also the paradox of the "unexpected hanging" .
[An old lady, a woman and Cueball are standing in the background by a coffin. A policeman and the policewoman Ponytail are standing in the foreground.] Ponytail: Good cop. It's a real shame— Ponytail: He was just one day away from getting put in the locked, heavily guarded room where all cops stay for the last day before they retire.


Metallurgy

Explanation:
The comic explains how weapons would really behave if they were made out of unusual materials. In fantasy stories, using unusual materials for weapons traditionally makes the weapons more powerful and cooler despite limited explanation for exactly why materials of extraterrestrial origin are so superior to their earthen counterparts. The salesman in the comic is Beret Guy which appears with a beard for only this comic.
The first panel is a reference to a fairly common fantasy trope: the use of iron meteorites for making weapons and armour (for example the sword "Brisingr" of the Inheritance series, "Anglachel" in the Tolkien Legendarium or the panserbjørns' armour in Pullman's Northern Lights). The quality of such metal can be rather hit-and-miss. On one hand, iron from meteorites was often mixed with "terrestrial" iron in the early stages of human development to create relatively high quality steel for swords. Undeveloped metalworking techniques at the time meant that extraterrestrial metal was often more refined and plentiful than man-made metal ingots. With that in mind, however, research has shown that meteorites have an abundance of the chemical element Antimony (Sb) which by itself is a very brittle metal and therefore swords forged from metals harvested from meteorites may not be as strong as lore would have one think.
The second panel is a reference to stories set in Middle-earth where swords such as Orcrist, Glamdring or Sting (the swords of Thorin, Gandalf and Bilbo/Frodo) glow blue when Orcs are near. The dagger in question, though, glows because of the radioactive properties of Actinium (Ac) which is also highly toxic. Definitely not a dagger you would want to carry around for your every day battles.
The word "Eldritch" in the third panel means sinister, ghostly, or magical.
The fourth panel mentions that the weapon gives a +2 to a player's attribute. This is a reference to role-playing games in which it is common to find items that are able to improve one's character by increasing desirable attributes.  In this case, however, +2 to cancer risk, a consequence of the dagger's radioactivity, would definitely not be considered a desirable attribute to increase. This would hit harder on Randall due to his now-wife being diagnosed with breast cancer.
In the title text, the salesman tries to sell Cueball another meteoric blade, this one made from a carbonaceous chondrite . Carbonaceous chondrites are rocky meteors that generally don't contain a lot of metallic iron. The salesman is either stating that the blade is simply a bunch of nonferrous meteor fragments glued together in the shape of a sword, or stating that the iron he got out of the meteor is so full of impurities that it may as well be gravel. However, because it's made of extraterrestrial material he seems confident he'll still be able to sell it on novelty value alone.
[Cueball and Megan are in a weapon store talking to a bearded salesman wearing a hat.]
[Salesman holds up a sword.] Salesman: This sword was forged from a fallen star. Antimony impurities make the blade surpassingly brittle and weak .
[Salesman holds up a dagger.] Salesman: And this dagger is made of metal from a far-off kingdom. It glows blue. Off-panel: When orcs are near?
Salesman: No, always. Radiation from the Actinium content. Megan: ...Does it have Eldritch powers?
Salesman: It gives the wearer +2 to cancer risk. Cueball: I think we should find another shop.


Sky

Explanation:
This comic is about the fact that much of the way we see the world is relative. Which way is left or right, for example, depends on the direction one is facing, so different people can give different answers and both be correct. (Contrast this to absolute directions, such as East and West, which do not change based on one's orientation.)
Which way is 'down' is a little more complicated, as both the absolute and relative direction use the same word (owing to the two directions usually being the same on Earth): it can be defined as 'whichever way gravity goes / the direction things fall', but it can also be defined as 'the direction one's feet is'. In space particularly, the latter definition tends to be used as the former is rather hard to deduce. It is possible, though not too useful, to simply say that 'down' in space is 'whichever way Earth is', or perhaps even 'whichever way is opposite to the Sun'.
However, even on Earth, the direction of 'down' can get muddled. Humans rely a lot on vision to determine which way is down, so in an enclosed room with no references, one can easily convince themselves (accidentally or deliberately) that down is in a different direction to gravity. Forcing yourself to think in a different perspective changes a lot of things that are usually thought of as mundanities.
Beret Guy convinces himself that down is toward the sky. Megan asks him why he is clinging to the ground. He responds that he is holding on to the ground so that he does not fall into the sky. Megan at first dismisses this but later looks up, gets scared and is found by Ponytail , clinging to a mailbox afraid of falling up (down?).
The title text continues this idea, where  Megan "drops" a bird into the sky, and never hears it hit the "bottom". As birds can fly, and captured birds often fly away when released, its flight appeared to Megan as the bird falling upward. "Didn't hear it hit bottom" would normally mean that the pit is too deep for the sound of impact to make it back up, although in this case as the 'pit' is genuinely bottomless the bird would never hit 'bottom' even if it didn't move.
[Megan is looking down at Beret Guy, who appears to be doing a handstand on a grass lawn, with grass tuft drawn several places, including where his hands touch the grass. His hands can be seen in the grass like he is holding on to the grass. Both his legs are moving around above him, as indicated by movement lines.] Megan: What are you doing? Beret Guy: Clinging to the ceiling of a bottomless abyss.
[Megan walks past Beret Guy, whose legs are still moving. She is still looking down at the grass.] Megan: You are very odd.
[In a frame-less panel, Megan walks towards a mailbox looking down at it. There is grass around the base of the mailbox pole.]
[As Megan passes the mailbox, she looks up towards the sky and seems to stop.]
[The last panel is upside down with the grass at the top and the mailbox pointing down. Megan is clinging to the mailbox, sitting on the grass with her head under the mailbox. Ponytail approaches her, walking on the grass with her head pointing down. The text is written in the sky below them.] Ponytail: What's wrong? Megan: I looked down.


Traffic Lights

Explanation:
This comic is an animated gif which features an array of traffic lights which are lighted signals posted at intersections to control vehicular traffic. The standard North American traffic light has three solid lights: red, yellow and green (meaning, in simplistic terms, "stop", "warning: the light will be changing to red" and "go" respectively). More complicated lights sometimes have additional signals such as arrows indicating go or stop for a specific direction such as left or right turns.
However, as in the strip, sometimes an intersection has multiple lights with certain of them designated to apply solely to a specific lane or specific direction of travel. A common one is a left-turn light that allows the lights to stop or allow left-turn traffic independent of the rest of the traffic. Another common example is a light that applies only to public transit like streetcars that run on tracks on the city streets.
There are also other rules and features that tend to be unique to different localities as noted in the Wikipedia article for Traffic-light signalling and operation .
In this comic, Randall is commenting on the confusion that can be caused by having too many lights with multiple rules attached by creating an exaggerated example.
In this strip, the right light has a sign indicating that the light and the right lane are for left turners, while the 3rd-from-left is a straight or right turn lane and the 2nd from left is right turn only. In normal course, right turns would be permitted from the right lane and left turns from the left lanes. The system in this comic would have turning traffic crossing each other, as well as the straight-ahead traffic and would cause chaos (and require very complicated traffic light phases to control). The left-most light on the post has a sign indicating that left, right and straight travel are all prohibited, which is even more confusing.
The comic, as an animated gif, cycles through various phases, at first appearing somewhat normal, but then adding unusual phases. The animated gif takes about 90 seconds to cycle through the 32 discrete panels before repeating. The left post light has (unusually) left and right arrows, later becoming up and down arrows. At times the light completely shuts off, and at other times, has conflicting signals.
The third-from-left light has red and yellow, and later all three lights come on at the same time, then all three lights go yellow, and then reverse with green at top and red at bottom. The bottom light then becomes an arrow.
The fourth-from-left traffic light switches from a green light to a purple light at times.
The right light only lights red in each position.
The second-from-left light and second-from-right lights do not appear to have any quirks other than changing phases in unusual patterns.
At frames 21 and 22 (see below) the colors of the latter five lights correspond to the color sequence of the letters in the Google logo. Only the first letter of the logo, which is blue, is not reproduced on the first traffic light.
The title text mentions a straightforward intersection that allows going forward but not turning. Even though Randall is confused, in some places, a red light and a forward green arrow permits going forward but disallows turns.
The following is a breakdown of all of the frames of the animated gif comic.

The following is a closeup on the lights, and the bird. The lights from left to right are here shown top to bottom. Time advances to the right.

Originally, the second light had a couple frames near the start that were different. The closeup of this was as follows:


My Sky

Explanation:
This comic seems to be a follow up to 1115: Sky .
Last panel refers to cloud computing and specifically cloud storage , and looks like a follow up to 1032: Networking . The obvious joke is that, instead of “cloud” (Internet-based) storage, Beret Guy 's business is literally storage of clouds.
The title text is a further statement, that his first words came while looking up at the sky. Apparently, Randall just has a good grasp on what in this universe is awe-inspiring.
There are some connections with both 908: The Cloud and the title text of 1444: Cloud .
[The panel is upside-down. Beret Guy is holding onto the "ceiling", there is an upside-down cloud at the bottom of the panel.] Beret guy [to the solitary cumulus cloud.]: Oh—Hello down there! Welcome to My Sky!
[The panel is now oriented in the conventional sense with the ground at the bottom. Beret Guy is standing on his feet too, and the sky now shows a second cloud.] Beret guy: It's pretty good. I like it. It's not the same color as anything .
[The sky is now blanketed by alto-cirrus clouds.] Beret guy: "Wow! There are a lot of you! Good thing it's so big.
[The scene now depicts a party, where Beret Guy is talking to Ponytail.] Ponytail: "And what do you do?" Beret Guy: "I'm in the cloud storage business."


Microsoft

Explanation:
In the late 1990s Microsoft started bundling its web browser, Internet Explorer , with its Windows operating system. This effectively destroyed the Netscape company, who up until then had the most market share with its browser, Netscape Navigator . Microsoft was involved in a legal case against the U.S. government, which required Microsoft to allow IE to be uninstalled among other remedies. Removal of Internet Explorer has no clear solution as libraries and utilities associated with Internet Explorer are used across other Windows applications.
The comic sarcastically states that this stopped companies from creating a monopoly on software practices. Unfortunately, platform developers such as Apple, Sony, and Microsoft have restricted third-party software distribution over the internet via their own curated online stores in recent years, and will come full circle with the introduction of Metro Applications on the Windows 8. The comic also mocks the triviality of browser debates compared to current antitrust cases concerning privacy and price fixing .
Apple bundled a browser in on both its desktop and mobile platforms.  Apple also requires all iOS developers to sell their apps only through the iTunes app store, paying sizeable commissions to Apple, and Apple can refuse to sell any app. In some instances, Apple has developed its own versions of popular third-party apps. [1]
On Android , Google bundles in a mobile version of Chrome web browser (as of version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich ), but you are allowed to change the default browser. The company has a majority market share in web search engines, being the most popular search engine available. On Facebook , users face difficulties in accessing or removing their profiles and personal information, among other issues . Recently, this has been mitigated by the ability to download a zip file of all content ever posted to Facebook, but it still remains difficult to delete data from Facebook.
Apple has been widely criticized for trying to force all users of Mac OS or iOS to run only content approved by Apple and distributed through the Apple App Store, each sale from which gives royalty payments to Apple.
The title text refers to mocking Microsoft as Micro$oft or M$ for attempting to take too much money from consumers, and jokingly suggests that the inability to easily do this with other companies' names (Fa¢ebook? Appl€? Goog£e?)  is how they succeeded at amassing power where Micro$oft failed.
Megan: Remember when we prosecuted Microsoft for bundling a browser with an OS? Imagine the future we'd live in if we'd been willing to let one tech company amass that much power. Ponytail: Thank God we nipped that in the bud.


Undoing

Explanation:
The comic (another in the My Hobby series) is a play on how energy from natural resources (wind, sun, water) gets turned into electricity. Wind turbines convert the windpower into rotational energy, which can then be used to produce electricity. The one seen in the image is the most commonly known wind turbine, which sees use on wind farms. Wind turbines provide a renewable resource for homes and cities and a common method for sustainable energy. Turbines have been referenced before in xkcd, in 556: Alternative Energy Revolution .
In this comic, Cueball has rigged it so that the wind turbine powers a fan . He cut the power cable attaching the turbine to the power grid and spliced it with the power cord of a giant fan. The nailed-together 2x4s that form the "tower" for the fan further indicate the " jury-rigged " nature of Cueball's work. The electricity generated from the windpower is then used to power the fan, which in turn produces wind. This is in reference to the complementary nature of wind turbines and fans, which was also covered in 1378: Turbine .
The undoing part refers how Cueball is using this fan to restore the wind that was used to turn the wind turbine back to the original wind flow.
Wind turbines have a theoretical limit of 59% of the portion of wind captured. You can see the wind not captured detailed in the image as dotted, turbulent curly lines; turbulent flow. Cueball has placed the giant fan in the direction of the wind so that the wind it produced combines with the windpower not captured by the wind turbine. This is indicated by the lines smoothing, like they were at the start. Thus, not only is the electrical benefit undone, but also the change in natural wind currents.
The title text explains that he performs the same undoing process with solar cells, where light energy is converting into electricity using photovoltaic cells , which is then used to power lightbulbs for producing light on the area below them that the sun would normally illuminate. Solar panels only convert 20-25% of the energy captured from the sun into electricity. However, Cueball points out that he sees this as a 20% gain rather than an 80% loss. Since it is Cueball's hobby to literally waste time and energy, this makes perfect sense.
Incandescent light bulbs only convert at most 5% of the electricity provided into light, the rest is lost as heat energy. Thus less than 1% of the energy absorbed from the original sunlight will be released as light from the bulb. LED bulbs can do quite a bit better, approaching 90% efficiency, releasing around 17% of the original sunlight, though in different frequencies.
In the case of the wind turbine and fan, the wind will unfortunately be moving at a much slower velocity than at the start as energy was lost in converting windpower to rotation energy, then to electricity, then back to rotational energy, then back to windpower. However, in the solar panel and lamp case, the light will be moving at the same speed as it entered the panel thanks to the constant nature of the speed of light, but be less bright instead.
[Caption above the panel:] My Hobby:
[A large wind turbine is spinning but the electric cord has been severed and rewired to a large fan.]
[Caption in large text below the panel:] Undoing
A similar understanding of the difference between a wind turbine and a fan is presented by Megan in the later comic: 1378: Turbine .
This comic may be a continuation of Randall's mistrust of modern electric wind turbines (see 556: Alternative Energy Revolution ).


Blurring the Line

Explanation:
A metaphor is a comparison which may be used to emphasize, explain or embellish a point, as seen in this comic when Cueball likens himself to Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is a famous basketball player who is well known for being one of the very best basketball players (this saying was used before in 1027: Pickup Artist ).
White Hat is analyzing a movie about movies when Cueball compares White Hat's description of the movie to masturbatory navel-gazing , a comment combining two expressions used to refer to a pointless activity or effort, but also specifically self-referential activity. "Mental masturbation" and "navel gazing" are relatively common terms to dismiss work that is regarded as self-indulgent, overly introspective, and self-referential. Calling navel gazing, or introspection, "masturbatory" is a metaphor speaking of it in terms of the physical act of masturbation .
White Hat then defends the movie by saying that it is about blurring the line between metaphor and reality, commenting that Cueball doesn't understand art. To this Cueball retorts by likening his ability to meld metaphor and reality by using a metaphor comparing himself to Michael Jordan. He then proceeds to actually blur the line by throwing a basketball at White Hat. This can also be understood as another reality metaphor, passing the "conversational ball" to White Hat, or acting like Michael Jordan by playing basketball.
The last frame is also a graphic illustration of blurring the line between metaphor and reality, where a much more "real" depiction of a basketball intrudes into the colorless stick-figure world which serves as an abstraction of our shared reality.
The title text blurs the line between metaphor and reality by dragging both metaphors in the term "masturbatory navel-gazing" into reality and pointing out that literally staring at your navel is not going to be very effective at physical sexual self arousal, which is the goal of masturbation.
Another comic that blurs the line of a metaphor is 1320: Walmart .
[White Hat and Cueball are walking.] White Hat: ...No, but see, it's a movie about movies. Cueball: Sounds like masturbatory navel-gazing.
[Close-up of White Hat.] White Hat: No, it's about blurring the line between metaphor and reality. White Hat: You just don't know much about art. Cueball: Seriously?
[White Hat and Cueball are standing.] Cueball: I know all about blurring the line between metaphor and reality. I'm the goddamn Michael Jordan of blurring the line between metaphor and reality.
[White Hat is now standing alone in the panel.] White Hat: ...Huh?
[A basketball appears from nowhere and hits White Hat in the head.] BONK


Identity

Explanation:
Cueball lost the server password and is asking Megan what it is. Megan correctly comments that she can't be sure through text-based messages that it's really Cueball asking for the password; it could be someone impersonating him attempting to socially engineer access to the server. Cueball answers by starting to develop a cryptographic protocol they can use for proof of identity, probably something like OTR Messaging as implemented in many XMPP chat clients or Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme . In reality, it would already be too late for that — they should have prepared something beforehand. Before he even finishes, Megan answers "It's you", meaning that no one else is so geeky that they would answer like that. Cueball, dismayed at the fact that his geekery has become a defining characteristic of his and also at a lost opportunity to devise his protocol, shouts [texts?] "NO!".
In the title text, Randall suggests that this is, in fact, his own personality, and that anyone reading the comic can now impersonate him. For a bonus, he notes his own fascination with the fact that birds are just modern dinosaurs , which one could use to impersonate him as well.
Cueball: Hey, I lost the server password. What is it, again?
Megan: It's— ...Wait. How do I know it's really you?
Cueball: Ooh, good question! I bet we can construct a cool proof-of-identity protocol. I'll start by picking two random— Megan: Oh good; it's you. Here's the password... Cueball: NO!


Electoral Precedent

Explanation:
During election season in U.S. presidential elections — and especially in election night coverage — it is common for the media to make comments like the ones set out in the first panel of this comic. Randall is demonstrating the problem with making such statements, many of which simply come down to coincidence.
After the first panel the next 56 panels in this comic refer to each one of the 56 presidential elections in U.S. history before Obama's re-election in 2012. The panels depict a pre-election commentator noting a quality or condition that has never occurred to a candidate until one of the candidates in that election broke the streak. In other words, one can always find at least one unique thing about a candidate who has gone on to win (or in some cases, lose) or the circumstances under which they won (or lost) that is unique from all previous winners (or losers). It's worth noting that some of these 'firsts' were truly precedent-setting (such as the first incumbent losing, the first president to win a third term, the first Catholic president, etc.), but the fact that they hadn't happened was no assurance that there wouldn't be a first time. As the years pass on, these 'streaks' become more and more nested and complicated, and then brought by Randall to the point of absurdity by pointing out very trivial things, such as "No Democratic incumbent without combat experience has ever beaten someone whose first name is worth more in Scrabble " (1996).
The flaw made by pundits while reporting such streaks is that there will always be something that has never happened before in an election, and they purport to suggest that these things are related to the candidate's win or loss. Randall considers this a logical flaw. A common one is, as noted in several panels, candidates can't win without winning certain states. The question, however, is one of cause or effect .
Given that there have only been 56 elections, there are always going to be things that haven't happened before. If you go out looking for them, you're sure to find some. There is no magic about why these events haven't happened. In most cases, it is merely a coincidence.
In the last two panels, two more statements like the previous are given. They were both true before the election in 2012 on November the 6th. The comic came out in the middle of the campaign on October the 17th. The statements were constructed so that the first predicts that Obama can't win over Mitt Romney , and the second that he cannot lose. As Obama won the election he thus ended the streak Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers whereas the other streak is still valid.
The title text refers to the fact that Twitter was founded in 2006. Obama won in 2008, so at the time of the comic it was true that no white male person mentioned on Twitter had ever gone on to win the presidency; although certainly some former presidents, all of whom were white males, have subsequently been mentioned on Twitter. This streak was broken in the next election year when Donald Trump won the 2016 election.
During these last four weeks before the election, Randall posted no fewer than four comics related to this election. The others are: 1127: Congress , 1130: Poll Watching and 1131: Math .
In 2020, Randall posted an update to this comic: 2383: Electoral Precedent 2020 .

Please have someone else validate your row, as to make sure the table is accurate
The problem with statements like "No <party> candidate has won the election without <state>" Or "No president has been reelected under <circumstances>"
[Each statement below has its own panel. The year is in a caption, the precedent is stated by a standing Cueball in the main panel, and the president who broke it is below the panel.] 1788... No one has been elected president before. ...But Washington was. 1792... No incumbent has ever been reelected. ...Until Washington. 1796... No one without false teeth has become president. ...But Adams did. 1800... No challenger has beaten an incumbent. ...But Jefferson did. 1804... No incumbent has beaten a challenger. ...Until Jefferson. 1808... No congressman has ever become president. ...Until Madison. 1812... No one can win without New York. ...But Madison did. 1816... No candidate who doesn't wear a wig can get elected. ...Until Monroe was. 1820... No one who wears pants instead of breeches can be reelected. ...But Monroe was. 1824... No one has ever won without a popular majority. ...J.Q. Adams did. 1828... Only people from Massachusetts and Virginia can win. ...Until Jackson did. 1832... The only presidents who get reelected are Virginians. ...Until Jackson. 1836... New Yorkers always lose. ...Until Van Buren. 1840... No one over 65 has won the presidency. ...Until Harrison did. 1844... No one who's lost his home state has won. ...But Polk did. 1848... As goes Mississippi, so goes the nation. ...Until 1848. 1852... New England Democrats can't win. ...Until Pierce did. 1856... No one can become president without getting married. ...Until Buchanan did. 1860... No one over 6'3" can get elected. ...Until Lincoln. 1864... No one with a beard has been reelected. ...But Lincoln was. 1868... No one can be president if their parents are alive. ...Until Grant. 1872... No one with a beard has been reelected in peacetime. ...Until Grant was. 1876... No one can win a majority of the popular vote and still lose. ...Tilden did. 1880... As goes California, so goes the nation. ...Until it went Hancock. 1884... Candidates named "James" can't lose. ...Until James Blaine. 1888... No sitting president has been beaten since the Civil War. ...Cleveland was. 1892... No former president has been elected. ...Until Cleveland. 1896... Tall Midwesterners are unbeatable. ...Bryan wasn't. 1900... No Republican shorter than 5'8" has been reelected. ...Until McKinley was. 1904... No one under 45 has been elected. ...Roosevelt did. 1908... No Republican who hasn't served in the military has won. ...Until Taft. [The precedent takes up the entire panel this year. Consequently, there is no Cueball.] 1912... After Lincoln beat the Democrats while sporting a beard with no mustache, the only Democrats who can win have a mustache with no beard. ...Wilson had neither. 1916... No Democrat has won while losing West Virginia. ...Wilson did. 1920... No incumbent senator has won. ...Until Harding. 1924... No one with two Cs in their name has become president. ...Until Calvin Coolidge. 1928... No one who got ten million votes has lost. ...Until Al Smith. 1932... No Democrat has won since women secured the right to vote. ...Until FDR did. 1936... No president's been reelected with double-digit unemployment. ...Until FDR was. 1940... No one has won a third term. ...Until FDR did. 1944... No Democrat has won during wartime. ...Until FDR did. 1948... Democrats can't win without Alabama. ...Truman did. 1952... No Republican has won without winning the House or Senate. ...Eisenhower did. 1956... No one can beat the same nominee a second time in a leap year rematch. ...Until Eisenhower. 1960... Catholics can't win. ...Until Kennedy. 1964... Every Republican who's taken Louisiana has won. ...Until Goldwater. [The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1968... No Republican vice president has risen to the Presidency through an election. ...Until Nixon. [The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1972... Quakers can't win twice. ...Until Nixon did. 1976... No one who lost New Mexico has won. ...But Carter did. 1980... No one has been elected president after a divorce. ...Until Reagan was. 1984... No left-handed president has been reelected. ...Until Reagan was. [The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1988... No one with two middle names has become president. ...Until "Herbert Walker". [The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 1992... No Democrat has won without a majority of the Catholic vote. ...Until Clinton did. [The precedent takes up the entire panel this year. Consequently, there is no Cueball.] 1996... No Dem. incumbent without combat experience has beaten someone whose first name is worth more in Scrabble. ...Until Bill beat Bob. 2000... No Republican has won without Vermont. ...Until Bush did. [The panel is zoomed in on Cueball's head in this frame.] 2004... No Republican without combat experience has beaten someone two inches taller ...Until Bush did. 2008... No Democrat can win without Missouri. ...Until Obama did. [This year has two panels.] 2012... [Panel one] Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers. [Panel two] No nominee whose first name contains a "K" has lost. [Text under panels] Which streak will break?


The Universal Label

Ingredients: Hydrogen, Time

Explanation:
All matter in the universe (heavier than lithium-7 ) was created through nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms inside stars over the 13.8 billion years that have gone by since the Big Bang . A detailed explanation (for the lay person) of this process is available in this article about Making Atoms .
From this article (and from the wiki article on Big Bang) it is clear that our universe began not only with hydrogen. Although the majority of atoms produced by the Big Bang were hydrogen, lots of helium and traces of lithium were also produced. Actually about 25% of the non-dark mass in the universe comes from helium created shortly after the Big Bang. In stars, however, helium is also created directly from hydrogen atoms. So it would have been enough to just start out with hydrogen in the early universe. Given enough time, all the other elements would have been created inside these originally hydrogen-only stars. To make elements heavier than helium some of the elements created by hydrogen, will have to fuse subsequentially. And in order to make elements heavier than iron, a supernova explosion is needed. But in either case it is still products of hydrogen that fuse together.
In many countries, food products must have their ingredients displayed somewhere on their packaging. Because all the ingredients in any food are either hydrogen or heavier atoms created through stellar nuclear fusion from hydrogen over time, the ingredients of any items can technically be described fully as only being made from hydrogen and time. Thus this label would be the universal label. A pun on two of the meanings of the word universal . Any food is of course universal as in a part of the universe. But the label can also be a universal label as in a common label for all food or any other product in the universe, as well as the universe itself for that matter .
The title text first makes it clear that this works both for any grocery as well as any non-grocery, which as described above simply means anything else. It then goes on to making a pun on the words thyme (a herb) and time , as the two words are homophones . "H" is the chemical symbol for hydrogen thus completing the pun by noticing that the word "thyme" can be made by adding the letter "h" to "tyme" which would be a homophone even closer to the word time.
Randall previously made a joke on the fact that thyme and time are homophones in 282: Organic Fuel .
Ingredients: Hydrogen, Time


Law of Drama

Explanation:
The comic comments on how often people who label themselves as an innocent party in a debate are often far from it. Essentially, Randall seems to be graphically stating that people who claim to hate and want to avoid drama are invariably associated with it. Since correlation does not imply causation , it might be a leap — at least scientifically speaking — to actually surmise that they're the cause of it.
The title text suggests that the person's attitude towards drama is wrong. Supposing that "'Drama' is just 'people being upset'", then ignoring drama is a very bad way to deal with it. By ignoring people's problems, you certainly won't be able to help them, and are at risk of causing further problems through ignorance.
[A Cartesian graph labeled 'How often someone declares that they hate "drama" and always avoid it' on the x-axis and 'Rate at which they create drama' labeled on the y-axis. The graph is a slightly exponential curve sloping upwards.]


Objects In Mirror

Explanation:
"Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" is a required, although marginally ridiculous, "safety warning" required to be engraved on passenger side mirrors of motor vehicles in the USA, Canada and Korea. These mirrors in these countries are typically the only ones that are slightly convex, making objects appear smaller (and farther away) than their true size. Other countries often have convexity in driver-side and passenger-side rearview mirrors to give a larger field of view, at the cost of natural distance proportions of the mirror image, without making any statements about it on the mirror itself using engravings.
This comic is a reference to the phenomena known as redshift / blueshift . Due to the Doppler effect , objects that are moving toward an observer appear bluer than they actually are (known as blueshift). Objects moving away from the observer (e.g. objects viewed in the rear-view mirror of a moving vehicle) appear redder than they actually are (known as redshift), and thus the objects are in reality bluer than they appear. This is generally relevant only in terms of high speed motion such as observation of the expansion of the universe in astrophysics. The joke is that the relative speed of any object visible in a side-view mirror would create an insignificant and unobservable redshift.
Another possible explanation is that the redshift refers to the actual reflection itself.
As photons are reflected in a mirror, momentum is transferred and thereby they lose a very small amount of energy. This loss of energy results in a slight redshift of the light. (This effect is similar to compton scattering .)
Edwin Hubble was an astronomer credited ( amid some controversy ) with " Hubble's Law ," which states that a Doppler shift can be observed for objects in deep space moving with relative velocity to Earth and that their velocity is proportional to their distance from Earth. Probably the most famous application of the law was measurement of relative velocities of galaxies, such as those seen in the picture known as Hubble Deep Field , taken by the Hubble Space Telescope . The results proved that most galaxies keep getting farther apart as a result of expansion of the universe. This is one of many pieces of evidence supporting the Big Bang theory.
The title text references that we see the universe as it was in the past (due to the distances involved and the speed of light), when it was smaller than it is today. It may also be a reference to comic 1110: Click and Drag .
[View of a car mirror and outside view of landscape, with clouds and mountains. The mirror reads "Objects in mirror are bluer than they appear."] [Caption below the panel:] Edwin Hubble's car


Epsilon and Zeta

Explanation:
This comic seems to be a parody of songs such as The Ballad of John and Yoko that tell the story of two people falling in love, with the noticeable variation that the 'protagonists' are hurricanes instead of people.
The Atlantic hurricane season normally runs from June to November. Randall is imagining the situation in the National Hurricane Center when the 2005 season was extended more than a month by the appearance of Hurricane Epsilon and Tropical Storm Zeta . He imagines the situation as NOAA meteorologists watch with amazement (and increasing annoyance as they were presumably unable to move off to other things such as post-season analysis) as Hurricane Epsilon and Zeta continued to exist far beyond the normal end-of-season date (November 30).
The monospaced text in most of the panels is material taken from actual NHC reports from that season. The commentary has been edited to fit the comic's format, but it's otherwise faithful to the actual reports. While the only change to Forecaster 1 is when he's celebrating New Year's Eve, Forecaster 2 is visibly losing it after the appearance of Zeta in late December, with unkempt hair and an unshaven beard.
The last report of the 2005 season was issued on January 6, 2006.
A full analysis of the 2005 hurricane season can be found here .
NHC reports on Epsilion and Zeta:
Randall has discussed the seemingly erratic nature of hurricanes before. This may, however, have been a response to the recent Hurricane Sandy .
The text also seems to be a parody of horror stories/movies, and their theme of writing.
THE SAGA OF EPSILON AND ZETA The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season saw devastating storms like Katrina and Rita. But less well-remembered is just how strange the season got toward the end. The forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are the best of the best. Their predictions are masterpieces of professional analysis. But in November 2005, out in the center of the Atlantic — far from any land — the atmosphere stopped making sense. And the forecasters — who'd expected the season to be long over by now — started to get a little...unhinged. This is their story, as seen through the actual 2005 NHC Advisories:
[Two men, one bald and one not, sit looking at their respective computers, at separate desks, back to back. The advisory is printed above them in caps small-caps Courier type.] Tuesday, November 29th, 2005: Tropical Storm Epsilon ... The 26th named storm of the apparently never ending 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
[The same scene, different text.] 10 PM Wed: The window of opportunity for strengthening should close in 12-24 hr. 4 PM Thu: Slow but steady weakening is expected to begin in 12-24 hours.
[The man with hair now has questions marks above his head.] 4 AM Fri: Epsilon does not appear weaker. 10 AM Fri: Epsilon has been upgraded to a 65-kt hurricane.
[The two still sit back-to-back.] 4 PM Sat: Epsilon has continued to strengthen against all odds ... [but] can not maintain the current intensity much longer since the environment is becoming increasingly unfavorable.
[The two still sit back-to-back.] 10 PM Sat: Epsilon might or might not still be a hurricane ... but in any case it likely will not be one on Sunday. 4 AM Sun: Epsilon is downgraded to a tropical storm.
[The two still sit back-to-back. The man with hair's fists are clenched.] :10 AM Sun: Morning satellite images indicate that Epsilon has restrengthened.
[A closer view of just the balding man at his desk.] There are no clear reasons ... and I am not going to make one up ... to explain the recent strengthening of Epsilon and I am just describing the facts. However ... I still have to make an intensity forecast and the best bet at this time is to predict weakening ... Epsilon will likely become a remnant low. I heard that before about epsilon ... haven't you?
[The two men still sit back to back, but the man with hair is now turning his head toward the other man, with his arm resting on the back of his chair. The bald man is leaning forward in his seat, toward his computer while typing.] 4 PM Mon: The cloud pattern continues to be remarkably well-organized for a hurricane at such high latitude in December.
[The other man has turned back to his own screen.] 10 PM Mon: We have said this before ... but Epsilon really does not appear as strong this evening as it did this afternoon.
[Just the bald guy now.] 4 AM Tue: I have run out of things to say.
[The two of them again.] 10 PM Tue: The end is in sight. It really really is. But in the meantime ... Epsilon continues to maintain hurricane status. 4 AM Wed: The end is in sight ... yes ... but not quiet yet. I thought I was going to find a weakening system and instead I found that Epsilon is still a hurricane.
[The two of them still.] 10 AM Thu: Convection has vanished and Epsilon is now a tight swirl of low clouds. I hope this is the end of the long lasting 2005 hurricane season.
[This panel is blank and just reads: Nope.] NOPE.
[The men are still at their desks. The bald man is leaning back on his chair and staring at his screen, taking his keyboard out of his desk; the other man's hair is noticeably disheveled, and he has started growing a five o'clock shadow.] Enter Tropical Storm Zeta. Friday, December 30th, 2005: An elongated area of low pressure ... which had its origins in an old frontal trough ... began developing organized convection overnight. Advisories are initiated on the 27th tropical storm of 2005.
[The men are still at their desks, the man with hair is even more bedraggled-looking.] Any new storms would be in the 2006 season. 4PM Fri: Although the atmosphere seems to want to develop tropical storms ad nauseam ... the calendar will shortly put an end to the use of the Greek alphabet to name them.
[The bald man is now wearing a party hat and has a party horn in his mouth, and there is confetti in the air.] But 2005's wouldn't end until Zeta did. 10 PM Sat: Zeta appeared on the verge of losing all of its deep convection a few hours ago ... but since about 21z the convection has been on somewhat of an increase again.
[A close view of the man with hair at his desk.] 10 PM Sun: This is like Epsilon all over again. Most of the conventional guidance suggested that zeta should have been dissipated by now ... well ... zeta is pretty much alive at this time. I have no choice but to forecast weakening again and again.
[The two of them again.] 4 AM Mon: By 24-36 hours ... a significant increase in westerly winds ... should act to shear away most of the associated convection ... and finally bring the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season to a merciful ending. 4 PM Mon: It is hard to conceive that a tropical cyclone will be able to survive for very long in such a hostile environment. therefore I have not backed off on the forecast of weakening.
[The two of them again. Both men have clenched fists rested back from their keyboards, frustrated.] 10 PM Mon: Zeta is stronger than yesterday. 10 AM Wed: As you can see... I ran out of things to say.
[Both men put up their keyboards...] 4 AM Thu: Satellite intensity estimates have decreased. Zeta is downgraded to a 30 kt tropical depression.
[...only to start typing on them again.] 10 AM Thu: Shortly after the previous advisory had been issued ... regretfully ... the intensity ... increased to 35 kt and Zeta is a tropical storm once again.
[The two of them again.] 10 PM Thu: Although it seems as if Zeta will never die ... the forecast continues to show weakening.
[Both men are now leaning back in their chairs, exhausted, their keyboards put away.] 4 PM, Friday, January 6, 2006: Zeta no longer meets the criteria of a tropical cyclone... which means that both it and the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season have ended. This is the national hurricane center signing off for 2005.
[The bald man still sits at his desk, the man with hair is no longer in his chair.]
[Again, we see the bald man at his desk and the other guy's empty desk.] Bald guy: Actually, Zeta's cloud pattern is... Hair guy: (out of panel) NO . Bald guy: Ok.


Congress

Explanation:
It appears that the (at the time) upcoming 2012 election has put Randall into a political state of mind, as this is the second comic in a few weeks that has dealt with political history ( 1122: Electoral Precedent ). As with that comic, this comic goes through the entire history of the U.S. Federal Government . Also notably, Randall makes a number of observations that are akin to the type of observations Randall denounces in 1122 (e.g. for 1928, Randall notes that no Republican has since won the presidency without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket). Just around the election he posted two more comics related to this: 1130: Poll Watching and 1131: Math .
In the U.S. Federal Government , one of the checks and balances is a bicameral United States Congress , which consists of two "houses": the Senate , its "upper" house; and the House of Representatives ("the House"), its "lower house". The Senate consists of 2 senators elected from each state (thus 100 total), while the House consists of 435 voting representatives (a number decided upon in 1911 by law) whose apportionment is split between the states proportional to their population; although each state gets at least one (the House also has non-voting representatives from non-state territories like Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia ). Every ten years, the House is reapportioned based on the latest census. The most populous state as of 2012 is California which has 53 seats in the House. Senators serve 6-year terms with elections held every 2 years for one-third of the seats. Members of the House (called Representatives or Congressmen/women) serve 2-year terms with all of the seats contested every 2 years.
In order for a bill to become a law, it must be passed by both the House and the Senate. In a way, this theoretically ensures that the bill is supported both by the majority of states (the Senate), and the majority of the population (the House). The President may then sign the bill into law, he may "veto" the bill, or he may do nothing, in which case it becomes a law if and only if Congress is in session after a waiting period of 10 days (not including Sundays).
In politics, there is a scale that represents the political beliefs of a politician. The scale goes from " left " to " right " of "center" — which generally describes a balancing point of beliefs (sometimes called "left-wing" or "right-wing").
The "left" is a general belief in social justice, and is sometimes associated with socialism . Modern left-wingers generally prioritize equality, and support policies like welfare and government-subsidized healthcare. This trends toward having a larger federal government. In the U.S., "liberal" is a term often used to denote left-leaning tendencies.
The "right" generally believe in personal responsibility and individual liberty, which is often termed conservative . This trends towards having less regulation and thereby a smaller federal government. The goal is to keep the nation stable, and reducing the interference by the government with a person's wealth. This ostensibly means lower taxes, because the government does not provide as much.
Politicians typically align themselves into groups of similar beliefs and positions called "parties". In the U.S., there have generally been two dominant parties, although there have been times where three or more parties have shared roughly equal influence and support. In today's politics (which is apparently known as (the second part of) the fifth era of political parties, or Fifth Party System , as noted on the outside edges of the comic) of the two current primary U.S. political parties, the Democrats are the left-leaning party, and the Republicans are the right-leaning party. The dominant parties are generally considered "moderate" in their left- or right-wing leanings, as either party appears to requires the support of a majority (or a few percent under) of voters to win. However, this is complicated by a process called gerrymandering where election boundaries are redrawn to allow a political advantage to the party currently in power. Thus a popular majority state wide or any ratio of votes to representatives will not necessarily be reflected in delegates awarded, an example being the Republicans' REDMAP 2012 report ( [1] ). Smaller parties often run candidates with more extreme views, but such candidates rarely win, due to a more limited number of possible supporters ensuring that even a relatively large minority would have zero chance of representation. (see Duverger's law ).
The comic effectively consists of three separate charts: The left- and right-hand charts are the main charts; they represent the Senate and House respectively, and purport to show the left- and right-wing leanings of each legislature through U.S. history. There is a legend on the right that sets out fairly clearly how the charts work, but basically Randall has split each wing into three levels including the very moderate or "Center" right or left, and the more extreme or "Far" right or left, as well as the average left and right without prefix. A dotted yellow line represents the balance of power in each legislature, and white lines represent the leanings of certain notable people including presidents.
Some presidents are not indicated, because they were never senators or congressmen (most of these were state Governors, such as Clinton , Bush and 2012 candidate Mitt Romney ). As may be noted from the chart, Barack Obama is considered "left" while Paul Ryan is considered "far right". It's also notable that the "center right" ideology appears to be completely eradicated from the House and is waning in the Senate (although a similar trend is shown around 1900 with the centrists making a comeback thereafter).
On either side of these charts, there are descriptions or explanations for expansions and contractions of each ideological group.
The center chart appears to primarily act as a timeline. Each president is listed with their leanings indicated by a left or right arrow. Wars are shaded in grey. Other notable events are also indicated. On either side of the center chart (although somewhat mixed in with the aforementioned Senate/House explanations), there are also references to the primary parties of each era showing how they evolved (left-leaning parties on the left, and right-leaning parties on the right).
Finally, there's a little extra commentary on the right side, below the legend.
The title text refers to two political parties in American history: the Federalists and the Jacksonians.
Note that this means the two parties are not strictly contemporaries. There are features of both the modern Republican and Democratic parties in each, so depending on the topic presented, it may take a long time to figure out that they are not these modern parties until the topic of discussion changes. They do, however, make a nice dichotomy.
The Federalists are one of the oldest political parties in American History. Federalists were seen as conservative in their time, and similarly to modern Republicans much of their support came from bankers and businessmen and they were committed to a fiscally sound and government, but on the flip side they favored a strong central government, regulation of industry, a national banking system, and were protectionistic.
The Jacksonian party is one of the four branches of the Democratic Party that developed during the political chaos after the Federalist party died out in the War of 1812. The Jacksonians were considered liberal for their time, they believed in one man, one vote, regardless of standing, and their mascot was a donkey and they're the ancestors of the modern Democratic Party, but on the flip side they did not want a strong national government and believed that the government should have limited impact in the regulation of industry, going so far as to end the bank of the United States, and were fiercely expansionistic.
Network news channels regularly feature talking heads , supposed 'experts' who offer their opinion on the topical political stories. Where these talking heads are strongly aligned with a particular party, and are unconcerned with anything other than winning, they could be described as a partisan hacks .
A history of The United States Congress Partisan and ideological makeup
[The comic is divided into three massive sections, SENATE, PRESIDENCIES, and HOUSE. Timelines run backwards down the page between each section. In the HOUSE and SENATE sections, shifting, curving red and blue areas of different brightness illustrate the shifting balance of power between "Members of Left-Leaning Parties" and "Members of Right-Leaning Parties". Under PRESIDENCIES, different administrations are labeled and wars are shaded in gray. There are notes throughout all sections.]
[There are additional notes on the right.]
LEGEND [Square containing ribbons of color merging upwards with larger areas] : Branches join in when new members enter Congress and cause an ideological bloc to grow. (Note: If the new member is elected as another retires from the same ideological bloc, no change is shown.) [Square containing ribbons of color splitting off from larger areas] : Branches split off when members leave Congress, causing their ideological bloc to shrink. (Note: If the new member is elected as another retires from the same ideological bloc, no change is shown.) [Square showing yellow dotted line crossing from red to blue area] : The yellow line marks the midpoint, which indicates which side has control of the chamber. [Square in which curve briefly separates from blue area] : If a bloc loses members in one election and gains them in the next, the exiting stream may rejoin. This does not necessarily mean the same people returned. [Square showing white dashed line labeled Lyndon Johnson on top of ribbon merging with main area] : Future (and past) US Presidents who served in Congress are shown with white dashed lines. Other noteworthy members are shown with thin solid lines. [Square in which tinted area marked "Whig" sits over mix of red and blue areas] : Tinted white outlines mark the approximate membership of some of the smaller political parties.
HOW IDEOLOGY IS CALCULATED Each member of Congress is assigned to an ideological category using DW-NOMINATE, a statistical system created by political scientists Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal. This system rates each member of Congress's ideological position position [sic] based on their votes. DW-NOMINATE is purely mathematical and involves no judgement on the content of bills. Instead, members of Congress are placed on a spectrum based on how consistently they vote together. While people argue that ideology is many-dimensional, Poole and Rosenthal found that nearly all Congressional voting behavior - especially in the modern era - can be accurately predicted by using just one ideological variable. This variable turns out to roughly correspond to position on the classic economic liberal/conservative spectrum. Because members of Congress have served in overlapping terms with past members in a chain back to the first Congress, the system allows comparison of ideology across time - even accounting for individual members' ideological drift. (Note: Scores are comparable across time but not between chambers.) For more detail, see Poole and Rosenthal's website, voteview.com.


Fifty Shades

Explanation:
Fifty Shades of Grey is a best-selling novel featuring large quantities of BDSM sex. Wishbone was a children's TV show about a dog who draws parallels between literature and real life in his dreams, reenacting many literary classics. The show was especially praised in its time for refusing to censor the more unpleasant aspects of its source work. Many people within Randall 's age group have experienced more literary classics through Wishbone than by actually reading them; this phenomenon lead to the formation of a Facebook group (now replaced by a page ) with over 70,000 members dedicated to that idea.
In the comic, Cueball claims to have learned all that he knows about Fifty Shades of Grey from the Wishbone adaptation of the book. Knowing the faithful nature of Wishbone' s adaptations, an episode on the book would likely involve age-inappropriate material for children, as the sounds emanating from the TV would suggest.
In the title text:
Part of the title text joke is that the latter two works would not likely be the subject of Great Illustrated Classics or Wishbone . However, the title text may be actually technically 100% correct, if Randall hasn't ever had an in-depth conversation about either of the latter two works.
The book was later made into a film which was referenced in 1585: Similarities almost three years later.
[Cueball is sitting on the floor watching his TV standing on a small table. He is leaning back on one arm resting the other arms hand on his knee. Light is coming out from the TV screen, as shown with nine small lines. A a high sound is shown above the TV in a starburst and the sound of a dog barking is coming out from the screen with a line indicating this. Above the drawings ther are two paragraphs of text:] As with most famous books, I've never actually read Fifty Shades of Grey. I only know the plot from watching the Wishbone version. Dog in movie: Bark! Dog in movie: Bark! Sound: Smack! Dog in movie: Bark!:


Cell Number

Explanation:
This comic references the pattern for US telephone numbers, which are ten digits in length. Unlike in other countries, there is no quick way to determine whether that number is for a land-line or mobile customer. In either case, the first three digits are referred to as the " area code ", a term dating back to before the proliferation of mobile phones, when specific codes were assigned to geographic regions. The next three digits had some rules based on the telephone exchange but as Randall says, those and the final four numbers are essentially meaningless.
In the early days of the mobile era, the geography-based numbering still applied to new mobile lines, so mobile phones would have the same area code as owners' home numbers. Late in 2003, US telephone service providers were required to support "number portability", meaning that customers could theoretically take their mobile phone number with them to a new provider, even when moving to a distant new location. In the early days this wasn't always very easy to do, but became commonplace within a couple years. Since most users opt to keep their numbers constant whenever possible, numbers generally stopped changing after about 2005, instead of shifting when people moved like they were forced to in previous years. Therefore, examination of a given phone number will likely tell you where its owner was living at that time, since their number would not have changed after 2005 due to the portability law.
"+1" is the international call prefix for the North American Numbering Plan.
Google Voice is an alternate voice over IP service. Upon signing up, users can choose any available new 10-digit number without regard to geographic area. Among other things, this allows the earlier users to choose "cool numbers" if desired, such as ones that correspond to phonewords or have a pleasing pattern. In the past, this "vanity numbering" was typically only available to businesses via toll-free numbers . Some mobile service providers began allowing similar customization after the portability law, but often still restricted new numbers by area code, keeping the availability of "cool numbers" low until Google Voice launched.
[10 boxes for 10 digits of a U.S. phone number. The first three are grouped by parentheses. A hyphen separates the second set of three and the last four.] [Label titled "Your seven random digits" pointing at seven empty boxes.] [Label titled "Where you lived in 2005" pointing at three empty boxes preceding the seven.] Structure of a US cell phone number.


Poll Watching

Explanation:
This is a comic about the 2012 U.S. presidential election , as it was posted the day before the election on November 6, 2012 ("this Tuesday"). It is the third comic on the subject, the previous two being 1122: Electoral Precedent and 1127: Congress . And the next comic 1131: Math continues the issue raised in this one.
In the comic, Cueball is glued to his laptop reading media coverage of the election. The offscreen character remarks that Cueball should take a break, suggesting that Cueball has been reading media coverage for quite a while.
Cueball is so caught up in media coverage that he is speculating on the effect that incumbent President Obama winning the election (and the resulting news coverage) could have on challenger Mitt Romney 's campaign. The joke is that the end-goal of Romney's campaign is to win the election. If Obama wins, the campaigning is already over, regardless of media coverage. Cueball is simply so invested that he overanalyzes potential scenarios and fails to see the big picture.
Specifically, he has become so concerned with following the polls that he's lost sight of their purpose as a predictive tool. After the election is over, polling becomes trivial since the result they are intended to forecast is already known (and so in reality will not be conducted at all). This is possibly intended as a rebuke to those pundits ( talking heads ) who seemingly care more about (or whose jobs are contingent on caring more about) the "game" of analyzing and predicting the politics of the race rather than caring about the actual policies the candidates are likely to pursue after coming into office.
The title text repeats this theme with Nate Silver , an American statistician, psephologist , and writer (among other things). He has a political blog called FiveThirtyEight which was originally written under a pseudonym. The Blog and its associated website primarily discuss tracking polls in respect to elections. Thus, the choices made on Tuesday (election day) will have massive and permanent effects on FiveThirtyEight's charts, which will obviously change to reflect the actual votes cast — but all the charts will have become trivial since the purpose of the blog is to predict the results. This is a parody of the bold statements often made during campaigns, such as that the choices made on election day could have massive and permanent effects on such things as your health care, the economy, your job, etc.
Polls and pundits are also referenced in the next comic, 1131: Math , published the day after the election.
[Cueball kneels on his desk chair, hunched over a laptop] Cueball: This Tuesday will be huge! Cueball: If Obama wins the election, it could generate news coverage devastating to Romney's position in the tracking polls! Offscreen character: ... Maybe you should take a break.


Math

Explanation:
In another election-themed comic (this one posted the day after the 2012 U.S. presidential election November 7, 2012)—(see also 1122: Electoral Precedent , 500: Election , 1127: Congress , and 1130: Poll Watching )—this comic shows a bar graph representing expected (see note below) electoral college votes in the election, including a dotted line indicating the 270 electoral votes needed to win, a span of projections ("Forecast"), and the actual result.
The forecast range is to the right of the 270 line, showing that the blue candidate Obama (the Democratic candidate is the blue candidate and the Republican candidate is the red candidate according to a convention used since the 2000 election) was always projected to win by statisticians like Nate Silver and others. The only question among these people was by how much he was going to win. (The Electoral College votes are expectations until each state's voting results are announced early in November, and the electors actually vote in December and may change the situation somewhat.)  Randall is attempting to use this particular election to imply that polling data accurately indicates the likely outcome of a presidential election.  However, the close match between prediction and result in this one election could be a coincidence; the outcome of U.S. presidential elections frequently differs from projections.  Notably, in 1948, the Chicago Tribune printed a headline which turned out to be false and in 2016, polling data indicated that Clinton would defeat Trump.
By contrast, most of the media was calling the election too close to call, with some news outlets actually projecting a Mitt Romney win. Essentially the large number of Republican pundits who helped increase the pressures of right wing self-referencing media denial, the tendency of media to give any issue at least two dramatically or fictionally equal voices (for supposed "fairness") regardless of the relative merits of the two sides, and the desire to present the election as a suspenseful "horse race" resulted in a lot of talking heads (i.e. pundits) disbelieving the polls. These factors shaped the "too close to call" narrative, leading to the punch line of this story:
You don't need to believe in science or statistics for it to effectively describe or predict reality. The progressively more radicalized elements of this era are known for disregarding scientific or statistical consensus which reflects reality but does not conform to their world view. However, many of them were correct in their belief (in defiance of statistical data to the contrary) that Donald Trump would be elected in 2016.
For those unfamiliar with the US Presidential electoral process : Unlike other political offices, the election for president is not a direct election. Instead, each state is apportioned a certain number of "Electoral College" votes based on the number of House of Representatives seats (which is based on population) and Senate seats. For the most part (and there is perennial discussion on whether this should be changed) the candidate that receives the most popular votes in a given state receives all the Electoral College votes for that state. With 538 electoral votes total, receiving 270 Electoral College votes ((half of 538) + 1) is sufficient to be declared president-elect. For this reason, sometimes one candidate actually receive more popular votes (more people voted for the candidate) but have fewer Electoral College votes. This happened three times in the nineteenth century with elections of John Quincy Adams in 1824 , Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and Benjamin Harrison in 1888 . Then it did not happen again until the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016 .
The title text is a subversion of what everyone else was saying at that time: that the election was unpredictable. Pundits often declare events to be "too close to call" when poll results are very close; Randall is saying that the only thing that is "too close to call" is the difference between the results and the predicted results, as the outcome is all but certain.
[A frame with a bar chart showing 58% blue and 42% red. A header shows a range between 53-63%] Forecast [An arrow below the chart is pointing at the line between the blue and the red sections of the chart with a heading] Result [Below the frame is a caption] Breaking: To surprise of pundits, numbers continue to be best system for determining which of two things is larger.