# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 243
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4843 "2025-08-11T22:40:46Z")
> **[Where Babies Come From](https://xkcd.com/3127/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/where_babies_come_from.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/where_babies_come_from.png) Historians: Contemporaneous documentation of the initial events is often sparse, and in fact people often get testy and uncooperative when we urge better documentation for the historical record. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4844 "2025-08-11T22:45:30Z")
Physicist: inelastic scattering event. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4845 "2025-08-11T23:45:15Z")
Oh, I think it’s pretty elastic. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4846 "2025-08-11T23:51:23Z")
If it were elastic, there wouldn’t be a baby! Elastic scattering is said to be the greatest source of infertility in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4847 "2025-08-12T01:38:41Z")
Ooh, this could be a fun game. Tax advisor: capital gains, to be offset by future deduction opportunities. (But I am not a tax advisor). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4848 "2025-08-12T01:42:52Z")
The geologist’s explanation sounds like Michelangelo’s technique for carving David: “I just chipped away everything that didn’t look like David.” ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4849 "2025-08-12T02:06:37Z")
IT Tech Support: a one-off unexplained glitch. Try turning it off and back on. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4850 "2025-08-12T03:10:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Given that Jackson was already a fan of the books Say what? As I recall, Jackson had not even read the book when he started the film project. He said he tried to but found the book “boring”. I think he read it later. (To me, his contempt for the book is vividly evident in the film.) ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4851 "2025-08-12T03:23:40Z")
That is absolutely not true. The factual bit. I’ll allow your opinion, of course, even if it’s wrong. 😝 ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4852 "2025-08-12T03:41:31Z")
I stand corrected. Jackson [says](https://variety.com/2021/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-peter-jackson-risky-trilogy-1235123548/) he did read the book, but was not an “avid fan”, contrary to Chronos’s statement. > “I read ‘Lord of the Rings’ first as a 17-year-old,” Jackson told _Variety_ . “I wasn’t one of those avid fans who read it every year. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4853 "2025-08-12T05:15:42Z")
Chronos just said he was a fan, which it sounds like he was if he read the books as a teenager. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4854 "2025-08-12T06:26:36Z")
Philippa Boyens was the über-fan in the LOTR writer’s room (not sure about Fran Walsh) and even she was only an every-few-years reader. Jackson’s talking about your Qadgop-level fanperson, there. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4855 "2025-08-12T06:31:27Z")
I take a slight quibble here - he’s clearly only talking about sedimentologists and geomorphologists as though they were all geologists. Other flavours of geologists might favour differential fractionation and aggregation in a confined chamber or … something about two large tectonic bodies colliding but make it sound lewd… _I don’t know, I’m not a writer._ ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4856 "2025-08-12T07:25:13Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Philippa Boyens was the über-fan in the LOTR writer’s room (not sure about Fran Walsh) and even she was only an every-few-years reader. On set, when he was there, Christopher Lee was their go-to guy, having read the trilogy almost every year since it was published.. I doubt even he was a QtM-level scholar, though. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4857 "2025-08-12T11:31:26Z")
In a world where movie makers slap on a title stolen from a book when their lawyers realize that their creative new project is a little too close to a classic (or their marketers realize that they could have a hook for their ads), I think “contempt” is a bit strong to attribute to someone who actually intended from the beginning to film “The Lord of the Rings.” But this is a matter of opinion of course ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4858 "2025-08-12T12:29:02Z")
Prolix horny outdoorsy couple: > “MOIST GROUND LEVEL TURBULENT MIXING” ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4859 "2025-08-12T12:35:05Z")
This. If Peter Jackson truly had contempt for the books he would’ve accepted the proposals to do the whole thing in only one or two movies and not invested the effort he invested in getting it right. What is true is that sometimes the effort was not enough because PJ missed some things about the books, he seems to me be a bit of a surface thinker, some deeper themes and subtleties completely pass him by. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4860 "2025-08-12T14:19:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > there is a team that’s working to build a car that can do just that. I’m not sure how close they are, or if they’ve even maybe already done it by now. There is this: > **[Watch: McMurtry is the world's first car to drive upside down](https://newatlas.com/automotive/mcmurtry-speirling-pure-vp1-drives-upside-down/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body)** > > The debate has been raging for decades: can a Formula 1 car drive inverted from downforce alone? No one ever asked if a McMurtry Spéirling could ... turns out, it's no problemo. Some say that fans that suction you “down” (even if down is above you) are kind of cheating and that only spoiler downdraft should count. I personally don’t mind fans. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4861 "2025-08-12T14:36:27Z")
[Here’s the thread about the attempt I mentioned](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someones-going-to-drive-a-race-car-on-the-ceiling-really/991412/53), and a bit of poking around doesn’t show any updates since a year and a half ago. It looks like the big expense that’s catching them isn’t the car itself; it’s building the track. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4862 "2025-08-12T15:25:40Z")
Rule 34 [![](https://i.chzbgr.com/original/4763650560/h34361B81/africa-hilarious-image-rule-34-south-america-4763650560) ](https://i.chzbgr.com/original/4763650560/h34361B81/africa-hilarious-image-rule-34-south-america-4763650560) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=242) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=244)