# ­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:** 244
**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, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4863 "2025-08-12T15:33:45Z")
NSFW! ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4864 "2025-08-12T15:54:44Z")
Unix programmer: `fork()` ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4865 "2025-08-12T16:04:41Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > 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. Great cite. Thank you. I’m on your side with this one. The other POV is equivalent to saying that an air cushion vehicle AKA hovercraft isn’t flying. Admittedly that’s not exactly “flying” like an airplane or helicopter does it, but heck, neither of those flies how a blimp or dirigible flies either. And none of those four kinds of machines fly like birds do. Building a car that can drive upside down based on forces generated only by static airfoils would be a different, and IMO harder, achievement. But this is far from nothing. ---
**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, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4866 "2025-08-12T16:44:50Z")
I _do_ have a t-shirt that says ‘Geologists: we know what makes the bed rock’ ---
**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, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4867 "2025-08-12T16:49:00Z")
My son is studying Geology this fall. I should get him a similar shirt. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4868 "2025-08-13T21:19:53Z")
> **[Thread Meeting](https://xkcd.com/3128/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/thread_meeting.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/thread_meeting.png) “Hey, so did you ever finish your video series about Cassie and the caterpillar morph? I loved the first three, but never … no, sorry, I get it, this isn’t the place. Sorry! Sorry.” ---
**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 13, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4869 "2025-08-13T21:32:29Z")
I tend to use different anonymous names on different forums, so that hasn’t happened to me as far as I know. I did run into my cat-sitter at a pinball and classic gaming convention recently. I was polite but flat out didn’t know who she was in the moment aside from knowing I knew her. Had to rack my brain for minutes after until I made the connection. Just too weirdly out of context (I’m bad at names/faces in the first place). ---
**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 15, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4870 "2025-08-15T14:27:23Z")
A few years ago at the annual [VNSA book sale](https://vnsabooksale.org/) when I was waiting in line for our turn to go in I struck up a conversation with the people adjacent then after about ten minutes the camp daddy for my camp at Burning Man came by pulling a wagon load of supplies – he was a volunteer for the organization. We had no problem recognizing each other and after a quick minute or two he got back to work. I shop there every year but the event is so huge we’d never seen each other until that time. “Do you know _everybody_ here?” the people I’d been talking to asked. “I doubt I know anybody else in the building.” Likewise, I bumped into one of my large fellow campers who was working security at the annual Arizona Renaissance Faire one year. I can’t recall meeting any soley online acquaintances in another corner of the interweb, though. ---
**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 15, 2025, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4871 "2025-08-15T14:48:35Z")
I worked with another doper for _years_ - same office and everything - before finding out he was, in fact, one of the - what, 4 at the time - other Cape Town dopers. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4872 "2025-08-15T14:54:28Z")
> **[Archaeology Research](https://xkcd.com/3129/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/archaeology_research.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/archaeology_research.png) “The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry.” ---
**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 15, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4873 "2025-08-15T15:05:49Z")
“My latest breakthrough: Adding a little tin to the purified copper ore. I’m gonna patent it.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4874 "2025-08-15T15:14:09Z")
I’ve seen that Mort Sahl guy on two other forums. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4875 "2025-08-15T15:41:16Z")
You should go straight to smelted iron. Anything else would be no brains, all bronze. ---
**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 18, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4876 "2025-08-18T00:30:30Z")
Welcome to [Bronze Orientation Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyu4u3VZYaQ)! ---
**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 18, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4877 "2025-08-18T00:35:09Z")
I found Der Trihs on a different forum, but only because they plagiarized one of their own posts and avatar graphic. So not quite the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4878 "2025-08-18T21:11:24Z")
> **[Predicament](https://xkcd.com/3130/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/predicament.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/predicament.png) “I dropped my phone while trying to search, and I tried to unlock it from up here, so can you also search for screen repair places?” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4879 "2025-08-18T21:18:48Z")
I don’t suppose the following would be any help: “Do you remember how you got up there?” “Yes.” “Okay, just do that backwards.” ---
**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 18, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4880 "2025-08-18T21:27:43Z")
You don’t get down from stilts, you get down from ducks. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4881 "2025-08-18T23:28:25Z")
I propose “Just close your eyes. You’ll be down within 30 seconds, and probably more like 10.” ---
**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 18, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/4882 "2025-08-18T23:32:24Z")
_shakes head_ A **classic** case of stilted dialogue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=243) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=245)