this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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xkcd #3284: Geology Building

Title text:

The administration thinks it's weird, but the geologists say it looks normal.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3284/

explainxkcd for #3284

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[–] celeste@kbin.earth 50 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I would love to see a building like this in real life

[–] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We've got something in Wellington but I believe it's just the outer wall

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's the building called? I'd love to see a picture of the weird looking wall.

[–] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Try this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/KFQykQyqwwg1GQu4A

Ya kinda need to pan around so you're looking east... Here's the little crack I used to climb up as a kid

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh, neat! Thank you for looking that up. Is it an art thing?

Yeah, I think so? It's completely intentional, the gap is wide enough to sick your feet in, etc

Only on that wall, sadly. I think its from the 90s

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I swear that one of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums is like this.

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

That's the one!

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As a public university it is everyone's fault.

That's a gneiss pun.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 18 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Smh, no one understands the difference between a king's time of ruling and the little ropes he uses to control his horse anymore.

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So you're saying people confuse his kingdom for a horse?

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Or free rain. English is such a wonderful language isn’t it.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If you're worried about homophones, don't study Japanese

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Obligatory RRJ link. Warning: if you know any Japanese this might undo a lot of it.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

Some times I wonder if some cosmic aliens had a debate about how many collisions one language can have. One of them probably said: “Hold my beer. Give me a planet and 10 million years. I’ll prove you wrong.”

All that stuff about pyramids being built by aliens was probably just that one alien trying to win a bet by messing around with earth. Maybe Japanese was the end result of that bet.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Huh.

I honestly don't think I've ever read that particular phrase before. Free rain. It implies the existence of costly rain.

I'm not sure how anyone would manage that, but it's fun to ponder :D

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Sounds very cyberpunk.

Did you think you can just look at the sky, feel the wind on your hair, or experience the rain on your face? Open up that wallet, because none of that is free, especially the rain. Maximum capitalism…

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Ha, I was half expecting your post to start quoting Roy Batty!

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Space balls was way ahead of its time.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

Totally forgot about that one. 😂
What a work of art!

[–] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago

Or constrained rain.

all i can say is that my life is really strange

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago

"I rein in my horse because I reign in the saddle"

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Looking at it again now...he fixed it. Huh.

[–] topherclay@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

The pun in the alt text has a chance of being too oblique for some people to catch.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That quake was nothing compared to this one.

Shit, overcorrected. Let me dial in a new setting, captain!

[–] evidences@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago
[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

I hope this pattern flows into the interior design.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Maybe they don't give a schist

[–] Geobloke@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Needs an uncomfortably between floors. And I'd love to see a good xenolith in the walls

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

My main university building is essentially made up of ~~seven~~ ~~eight~~ nine different buildings built in different times with different architectures all joined together in a circle. Whenever you move from one part to another, all the floors shift around and you have to take a few steps up or down (or take a tiny elevator that moves you less than 2 meters).

Edit: I lost count. It's a lot and the borders between them are sometimes fuzzy, sometimes abrupt.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

It was torn down years ago, but back in the day Manhattan department store S. Klein's was built that way. They brought all the buildings on one block, tore down all the non-essential walls on the first floor, and threw up a façade to make it look like one big building. Prices were low, but if you went to the third floor for toys you had to go back to the first floor to get to the third floor cookware section.

[–] Geobloke@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's pretty cool! It feels very geology adjacent, I hope they left the walls exposed so you can see the differences

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah, both the outside and the inside is still distinctively unique for each of the buildings parts.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I didn't even think of the inside of the building. Every single last trade on that jobsite would be cursing the architect's name.

[–] Geobloke@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago

It might be easier to just finish the building, hire some drunk business men to haphazardly knock it down then rebuild on top of the ruins

So you're saying it would be their...fault?

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

https://youtu.be/tfCrd0ArwG8

I can't believe I was the first to think of this.