r/xkcd • u/jetpackswasyes • Apr 04 '11

Probability

http://xkcd.com/881/
251 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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10

u/aWombat Apr 04 '11

Can someone explain this (I'm confused)?

18

u/benitohoover Apr 04 '11

The first two frames are showing probability of survival at a given number of months.

14

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.

18

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.

11

u/kutuzof Apr 04 '11

He stopped updating for a while due to health issues in the family. No one knows more than that.

3

u/benitohoover Apr 04 '11

I see, sadly, I'm no help on that.

4

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?

3

u/benitohoover Apr 05 '11

Indeed it does say years. I'm pretty sure the point is the same though.

1

u/Kardlonoc Black Hat Apr 04 '11

I am pretty sure those say years....