Language Log

Slightly unfair, but funny

Today's xkcd:

Mouseover title: "The top search for every state is PORN, except Florida, where it's SEX PORN."

And the lesson doesn't just apply to maps, of course…

Andreas Johansson said,

June 2, 2017 @ 7:42 am

What bugs me is that it doesn't say what the colours represent.
Prim said,

June 2, 2017 @ 8:15 am

The colours represent half-remembered lessons in topology, perhaps? A well-known theorem states that no more than four colours are needed to ensure that every state in a map can be coloured differently from its neighbours. Randal's map also employs four colours but, alas, fails to illustrate the theorem.
Tobie Langel said,

June 2, 2017 @ 8:38 am

Prim: look again.
Draconaes said,

June 2, 2017 @ 8:39 am

I assume the colors are simply to make reading the words in the correct order easier. If there's some deeper meaning to them, it eludes me.
AnneB said,

June 2, 2017 @ 9:14 am

Finite clauses? Almost at least.
Thorin said,

June 2, 2017 @ 9:20 am

This is the first time I've ever found the mouseover text for an xkcd comic funny
Jonathon Owen said,

June 2, 2017 @ 10:29 am

This actually got me for half a second. I thought, "Wait—shouldn't every state's top word be 'the'?"
Lai Ka Yau said,

June 3, 2017 @ 12:00 am

@AnneB: 'by adjusting the methodology' isn't finite though… I think they're just lines.
ella said,

June 3, 2017 @ 3:46 am

I have strong doubts of whatever algorithm gave 'normalization' as Alaska's most used word.
Adam Roberts said,

June 3, 2017 @ 4:20 am

ella: … but look how polyvalent Canada's most used words are!
Frank said,

June 3, 2017 @ 6:46 am

Florida, the we state*