Notes

Posted byRandall 272 Comments on Notes

I had a lot of fun putting together today’s comic. Anyone who likes strange charts like this should check out Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. It’s long been one of my favorite books. Thank you to my friend Tina for color advice, and to my brother Ricky for some Lord of the Rings detail corrections.

Also thank you to Olga and Noam for the lovely animated version of comic #442.

272 replies on “Notes”

  1. @Braedon

    The linked Primer timeline is fundamentally flawed (I think several essays could be written on that point), but its the best example out there of a diagrammatic explanation to the film. šŸ™‚

    I attempted doing my own once……..

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  2. Woah and ‘I’ was impressed on getting a good synopsis for 12 Angry men in IMDB! And now, we have graphical representations hehe!

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  3. For all the people who seem to be upset over the fact Randall followed Jackson’s movie version instead of Tolkien’s book: that’s why it’s called MOVIE narrative charts. Sure, he could’ve gone with the animated version, but that’s like picking the prequel trilogy over the original trilogy when it comes to Star Wars, imo.

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  4. Yes, I know it’s the film version. The differences are interesting, actually. It would be nice to have two charts to compare and contrast.

    This must have taken a hell of a lot of work. I’m impressed.

    TRiG.

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  6. I like your blog a lot, you have some interesting posts on here. I myself have a site that provides inspiration and guidance to people all around the world. However, I need some help in spreading the word, because the site is new. I was wondering if you wanted to exchange links so we can spread the word about both of our sites. Let me know.

    Jason
    TheWISDOMWALL.com

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  7. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve changed the hidden text for the Orbitals comic. I’m curious – why did you do it?

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  8. Excellent!

    One nitpick which I don’t see anyone have picked up on yet is that Aragorn was in command of the Army of the West at the Black Gates, not Gandalf.

    And.. Would anyone like to take a stab at all of the episodes of Back to the Future?

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  10. @ Vakkanal, I also noticed he changed the alt-text. I liked the old version better! Why did you change it?

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  12. Love today’s comic (first?). That’s exactly my take on the issue, and… Actually it doesn’t seem like a joke. Unless there’s something more to the “organ doner” punchline I’m missing.

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  14. I have to point out that 12 angry man is technically wrong. During the filming of the film to increase the sense of claustrophobia and pressure they slowly reduced the size of the set, so technically the lines should get slightly closer together as they progress.

    I refer to the original here. While I don’t know of any remake,while reading the fora to see if anyone had pointed this out already I saw a suggestion that there was one.

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  15. Was I the only one to notice that on Jurrasic Park the “Grant” & “Sattler” lines start out in one position and then change name placing when you get to the next naming convention?
    Or, mayhap there’s a reason for that, which I’m not privy to.

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  17. The moment I saw it I was reminded of the “Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia” chart in Tufte’s book.

    I believe that Tufte’s books , particularly “The Quantitative Display of Information” should be made a mandatory part of schooling from an early age.

    I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat thorugh seminars when I wanted to go up front and beat the presenter about the head and shoulders with a copy.

    I also believe there should be criminal penalties for horrible infographics and chartjunk, too …

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  18. I really want the Movie Narrative Charts in a poster any way of getting it in the store by x-mas so i can request it from my wife?

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  19. I know this is another nit-picking, but no ewoks? Orcs made it, but ewoks didn’t

    Or are we all trying to forget them………..

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  21. I totally have nothing to add but that todays (mon9th)’s comic made me very very happy. So funny.

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  22. I see a lot of comments of disappointment that the film version of LOTR was used rather than the book, but I don’t see any regarding Crichton’s Jurassic Park. After all, it did come first as well, and there were several differences.

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  23. The “two party system is bad” argument *is* valid, as it severely limits what candidates are available to vote for (Independents never win, and third parties have to jump through hoops, and also never win). However it does seem to be a “be-all, end-all” argument in the eyes of some, which is a shame.

    Recaptcha: “today biassed”???? The internet is wise to your plot! šŸ˜›

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  25. I would agree with Phaedrus that the two-party system is highly imperfect, but a lot of those people on the Internet speak as if such a system were established by fiat; in reality, it’s the natural consequence of plurality voting, reinforced by the advantages that incumbents enjoy over their challengers.

    Also, there’s nothing saying that the Republicans and Democrats have to be the two major parties forever, or in every jurisdiction; for a long stretch of American history, the Whigs were a force to be reckoned with. Likewise, the Know-Nothings appeared and vanished in the span of twenty years, but Massachusetts had a Know-Nothing governor (Henry Gardner) from 1855 to 1858. If we really wanted it badly enough, the main political parties of the 2032 election could be Bull Moose Revival and the Oprah Collective.

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  26. True; also, once you pass the initial hurdles of getting on the ballot in most states and of overcoming the “kook” image associated with most third party candidates, one can make quite a difference. Look at Ross Perot; he managed to pull 20% in the presidential election in 1992. 20%! People forget that. We need something like that again, if not for the sake of a third party candidate then at least as a warning to the two established parties: you are not permanent fixtures.

    If I had to choose between the Bull Moose Revival and the Oprah Collective, I would choose the Greenocialarian party because the others are just two sides of the same coin! (that coin being a Canadian quarter)

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  27. Great comic, really interesting chart idea haha

    I’d also buy it if it popped up in the store.

    And I’m kind of curious to see whether or not the Star Wars chart would get more complicated than the LOTR chart if you added the prequil trilogy…

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  32. XKCD on Lawrence Krauss’s talk on the origin of the universe!

    at 0:49:30

    Holy crap!

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  35. This.
    I can’t even tell you how awesome this is.
    Exactly what I was thinking about two days ago, except, you did it.
    I hope your wife/girlfriend realizes how awesome you are.
    And I’m sure she does.
    Because you are awesome.

    p.s. now do Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!

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  36. Is 200 lines alot of code or a very small amount? (I’m a COBOL programer so my outlook on these things is a little skewed)

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  37. It’s a fair bit of work, but not a ton. I think my half-way finished Galaga remake got up to 700 lines in Python before I ran out of steam. But I was an inexperienced coder, so…

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  38. @Hetnikik & Phaedrus

    We don’t know what fictional problem the character is solving, but given that he refers to his solution as “the most beautiful code of [his] life”, I think that what’s supposed to be impressive is that he did it in *only* two hundred lines – implying that his solution is elegant, streamlined, algorithmically efficient, etc. In other words, not only did he solve an impossible problem, and not only did he do it in 48 hours, but he also did it using the most efficent code conceivable.

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  39. I printed this out 11×17 and put it on my office wall — I wish I had thought of this!

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  40. Ah, but whether “200 lines” is a lot depends on, 200 lines of what? “Assembly” gives a very different view from “APL”….

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  41. Does anyone else wonder if Randall will be participating in the reddit secret santa? I hope you do, Mr. Munroe.

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  42. I don’t believe it, because those cans on the desk are insufficient to keep his BAC up for 48 hours.

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  44. A nitpick correction – R2D2 should’ve been with Luke when he returns to Dagobah. I don’t remember if he’s shown, but it’s presumed Luke returned in his X-Wing, which he needs R2 to fly.

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  45. This comic immediately reminded me of the Napoleon’s March graph that Tufte likes so much. I highly recommend convincing your employer to send you to his one-day course.

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  47. Today’s comic is comic #666. No celebrations?

    (Also, is it just a coincidence that Black Hat should appear in it or is that the celebration I was looking for?)

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  49. Remember the boom-de-yada song? It’s back on discovery channel! Surely it must be in response to this wonderful comic bringing it up!

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