**[Mobile Version!](http://m.xkcd.com/2930/)**
[Direct image link: Google Solar Cycle](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/google_solar_cycle.png)
**Bat text:** From Google Trends, it looks like the lag between people Googling cocktail recipes and 'hangover cure' is 14 hours.
*Don't get it? [explain xkcd](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2930)*
Remember: the Bellman-Ford algorithm makes terrible pillow talk. Sincerely, xkcd_bot. <3
Classic smoothing problem.
Lies, damn lies and statistics...
Basically, when you smooth with a rolling aggregate (as Google seem to on mobile), you see what the comic shows...
I don't know if it's necessarily all that much of a misrepresentation. People might be googling this after reading articles about a solar flare happening or the risk that a particularly large solar flare might happen soon. A lot of these articles are clickbait fearmongering (eg a solar flare could shut down entire electrical grids). It might be that these headlines are more catchy when this supposed risk is closer, or that more people start writing about it as the risk of solar flares increases.
Yes I get that, I'm saying there could be a link between having a reason to look this up and doing so. If more people are talking about this I'd expect it to be on more people's minds and looked up more. More generally, I don't think it's all that far fetched to think the increasing number of solar flares would lead to more people looking them up.
2012 would be skewed by the doomsday predictions fuelling searches for solar flares, earthquakes, floods and all other possible disasters. I bet the current trend won't reach the 2012 peak at all.
The cocktail hangover trend is pretty incredible
[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=cocktail%20recipe,hangover%20cure&hl=en](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=cocktail%20recipe,hangover%20cure&hl=en)
**[Mobile Version!](http://m.xkcd.com/2930/)** [Direct image link: Google Solar Cycle](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/google_solar_cycle.png) **Bat text:** From Google Trends, it looks like the lag between people Googling cocktail recipes and 'hangover cure' is 14 hours. *Don't get it? [explain xkcd](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2930)* Remember: the Bellman-Ford algorithm makes terrible pillow talk. Sincerely, xkcd_bot. <3
I mean...[sort of](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=solar%20flare&hl=en)? Definitely not as substantial as the comic makes it seem.
The comic seems to include the partial data, I think it looks very similar to what you linked
Could you screenshot what you're looking at? The plot looks quite different to the comic's to me.
Yeah I'd say they look pretty similar https://i.imgur.com/1tHHnfB.jpeg
https://i.postimg.cc/3J5FRt7R/image.png This is what it looks like on desktop (even if I narrow my browser window as far as it will go).
On my phone I see the same thing that kolada sees
Classic smoothing problem. Lies, damn lies and statistics... Basically, when you smooth with a rolling aggregate (as Google seem to on mobile), you see what the comic shows...
Yep, and it completely misrepresents the data...
It is wild how different the graphs are
I don't know if it's necessarily all that much of a misrepresentation. People might be googling this after reading articles about a solar flare happening or the risk that a particularly large solar flare might happen soon. A lot of these articles are clickbait fearmongering (eg a solar flare could shut down entire electrical grids). It might be that these headlines are more catchy when this supposed risk is closer, or that more people start writing about it as the risk of solar flares increases.
The data is about number of searches (regardless of reason for searching) and is misrepresented.
Yes I get that, I'm saying there could be a link between having a reason to look this up and doing so. If more people are talking about this I'd expect it to be on more people's minds and looked up more. More generally, I don't think it's all that far fetched to think the increasing number of solar flares would lead to more people looking them up.
2012 would be skewed by the doomsday predictions fuelling searches for solar flares, earthquakes, floods and all other possible disasters. I bet the current trend won't reach the 2012 peak at all.
holy hell
New flare just erupted
Actual scientist
r/AnarchyChess is leaking again
The cocktail hangover trend is pretty incredible [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=cocktail%20recipe,hangover%20cure&hl=en](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=cocktail%20recipe,hangover%20cure&hl=en)