this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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xkcd #3210: Eliminating the Impossible

Title text:

'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.

Transcript:

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

Source: https://xkcd.com/3210/

explainxkcd for #3210

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[–] capuccino@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

you people are bad at finding things

[–] muzzle@lemmy.zip 34 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Sherlock is always right only because he's the protagonist. That's what always annoyed me.

[–] Lauchmelder@feddit.org 22 points 4 days ago

they just write down the cases he actually solves

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Also, Arthur Conan Doyle was a greedy cunt that believed that copyright should be permanent

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

And that selfish son of a bitch even died before I could pirate his work.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Doyle observed that Bell seemed to be able to diagnose patients from little information, noticing minute details: "Dr Bell would sit in his receiving room, with a face like a Red Indian, and diagnose people as they came in, before they even opened their mouths. [...] He would tell them their symptoms and even give them details of their past life, and hardly ever would he make a mistake." This ability led Doyle to model his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes on Bell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bell

[–] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thanks! I had assumed it was all fantastic fictional fluff. Really interesting to learn there's a grain of truth behind it

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Very tiny grain - I feel like Doyle was a bit of a dreamer who was easily misled by confident adults and even children

[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I tried reading sherlock holmes and it annoyed me how sure he was of every observation. Like guessing someone's height to the millimeter from distances between steps.

Easiest way to commit a crime and never get caught by him would be wearing clown shoes while you do it.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

That's why Batman is the best he uses ~~AI~~ The Batcomputer which totally isn't cooled by an aquifer feeding Gotham.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago

I wonder if they realize that not everybody has the exact same proportion of leg to torso...

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

It not being in the car is the most improbable thing tho...