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u/derwisch Apr 04 '11
Google for "The median is not the message". These figures look threatening, but the chance to live long is still pretty high.
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u/jeezfrk Apr 04 '11
I had some of the same graphs to look at, just after I'd married a wife with congestive heart failure... proceeding quickly to stage IV... endstage.
Thankefully.. she's got a heart transplant, but that merely meant a new set of rather horrible curves at first. Now we're riding strong 5 years later though and... for us ...it starts to level out nicely.
I hope you're doing good too, dude.
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u/Arlieth Apr 04 '11
This is one of the most poignant things I have ever read...
... And the xkcd forum discussion on this strip is one of the most aggravating things I have ever read. Seriously, some people really need to be slapped through the internet.
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Apr 04 '11
I often find xkcd unbearably smug. This strip reaches out in a way few have... Awesome, sad and will be used in my statistics lectures.
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u/Techno_Shaman Apr 05 '11
I recommend reading the earlier XKCD strips. It's a comic about romance, sarcasm, math, and language for a reason. (Emphasis mine.)
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u/vige Apr 04 '11
This is the first xkcd comic that brought tears into my eyes
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u/godofpumpkins Apr 05 '11
He wrote a dark fully shaded one a while back that was pretty depressing too. Something about staying up talking to a girl all night and her being with someone else now.
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u/aWombat Apr 04 '11
Can someone explain this (I'm confused)?
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u/benitohoover Apr 04 '11
The first two frames are showing probability of survival at a given number of months.
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u/aWombat Apr 04 '11
Got that. I just didn't understand the context or the tone. Is he sick? His wife/gf? I saw someone posted about some type of health issues, and I was seeing if that was it, or if anyone had insight to help explain the comic.
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u/arbuthnot-lane Apr 04 '11
I'm merely guessing here. But cancer is a very likely scenario. With a woman (his wife?) in the strip, and those survival rates, breast cancer sounds quite plausible.
I hope she has a magnificent recovery. I fucking hate cancer.10
u/kutuzof Apr 04 '11
He stopped updating for a while due to health issues in the family. No one knows more than that.
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u/froderick Apr 04 '11
Months? Then why is the X-axis in the first frame labelled years? And why does it say years in the second frame?
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u/jakash Apr 04 '11
This was incredibly solemn and somewhat eerie. I did not expect my Monday morning XKCD fix to begin like this dammit :'(
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u/InviDoll Apr 04 '11
The alt text punched me in the gut <.<
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u/priscellie Apr 04 '11
Devastating. I'm so sorry that you and your loved ones are going through such pain, Randall, and I hope your family beats the odds!
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u/runagate Apr 05 '11
Stephen Jay Gould wrote a great article that is relevant to this. The Median is not the Message
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u/nasdarovye Apr 04 '11
Dammit Randall, stop cutting onions!
Praying for you, and your family. (Might not be a popular opinion but hopefully it will help.)
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u/miyakohouou Apr 05 '11
It won't.
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u/ColdChemical ... Apr 07 '11
I don't care if this gets downvoted, you're right. I sincerely hope the best for all concerned, but praying will not do anything.
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u/ModernRonin Apr 04 '11
My friend is going through this right now. (His wife's dad had a recent bout with brain cancer...)
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u/scofus Apr 05 '11
That has to be about the sweetest, most thought-provoking stick figure drawing ever.
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u/binary_search_tree Apr 04 '11
Ah hell...xkcd isn't supposed to stab you in the heart.