Title text:
We definitely put the pool in a mine for shielding. It was absolutely not to hide it from the funding people.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3249/
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
400 points (99.0% liked)
xkcd
16477 readers
628 users here now
A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
not only a giant pool, but it's in a batcave and it looks like an album cover
One of my favorite things about tech stuff is lights.
What I mean is, those lights, and most lights, only serve a human purpose, but some lights are for a non-human reason (like for plants or testing conditions), and its fun (to me) to disentangle which is which.
In this case they almost certainly cause active problems for the ultra-sensitive neutrino detectors, and they have to scrap the data from whenever they are turned on. In some cases they inhibit growth of the target organism (good or bad). In others, like lights in brewery brite tanks, they don't matter or are for cleaning purposes.
I enjoy asking about the lights, whenever I get a chance. Its always a question that gets a “huh, never thought about that, actually”, but I just find the human need element fascinating, because it dramatically impacts the whole machine. I wonder what we’d know if visible light wasn't our primary sense.
That’s one of the nearest things humans have ever built.
Definitely a top 20.
The nearest thing humans ever built is My underpants. Followed closely by My socks.
False, those are actually quite far away from me as I can not even see you.
I have to assume they meant neatest, which interesting enough your underwear and socks are still #1 and #2
I did, I even proof read it and missed it
Good gosh, did you just win the Innernet for today. oO