The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver • Hacker News Board

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#61

Post by xevb3k » Sun, May 13, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #52

xevb3k wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the parent comment has been edited, because this comment seems to come out of the blue in relation to what the current parent comment says. My personal opinion is that if you’re going to make statements like this you should back them up. As a counter example, being a police officer would I imagine not be considered the safest of jobs. But 30% of police officers in the UK are women, and the number is steadily…

A better example would be a dangerous job where women are overrepresented, not underrepresented.

The number is steadily rising, and I’d expect it to be historically lower so it’s not unexpected.

However, I’m not making any strong assertion one way or the other. The parent I was replying to effective said “it’s because men and women are different” without providing any evidence whatsoever.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#62

Post by astura » Sun, May 13, 2018, 7:06 PM UTC

crispyporkbites wrote: post #45

technofiend wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unfortunate truth for some people is unless they are very careful, spending money behaves like a gas and expands to take all available volume.

Sure what is money for but to be spent

Saving money and having a big cushion allows you a certain freedom that living paycheck to paycheck doesn't.

Not only that but you can make the money you are not spending "work" for you to generate even more money.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#63

Post by mbrameld » Sun, May 13, 2018, 8:08 PM UTC

jsjohnst wrote: post #51

joeguilmette wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nitrox’s maximum operating depth is ~32m at 32%. Oxygen toxicity is a quick death. To go deeper you need to add helium and actually reduce the amount of oxygen in the gas.

To expand further, oxygen is toxic at 1.6ATA. For those unfamiliar, pressure doubles every 10m (33ft). So if I tried to breath 100% oxygen at 33ft (aka 2.0ATA), I’d die pretty quickly. At 66ft, that caps you at about 40% oxygen. At 99ft, you essentially can’t breath any higher oxygen concentration than natural air. As such, nitrox’s purpose isn’t to increase depth. It’s actually used to increase bottom time (at a los…

> For those unfamiliar, pressure doubles every 10m (33ft).

Does it? Or does it increase by one atmosphere every 10m?

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#64

Post by mbrameld » Sun, May 13, 2018, 8:14 PM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #57

vertex-four wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of training involved in going offshore, and if you're able to go through training to get out of poverty, there's a hundred other careers to go for that don't involve multiple weeks away from family.

Is it important for families to be together 7 days a week?

This feel like the setup for a false dichotomy...

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#65

Post by watwut » Sun, May 13, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #53

GordonS wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not so romantic if you have a family - and from the other side, as a kid, it wasn't nice for us having my dad away for weeks at a time.

It appears to be well paid. And as a kid that grew up poor if the choice was 3 weeks of parental non contact or mayonnaise sandwiches for dinner, well see you in a few weeks, mom!

It is not so much 3 weeks of non contact one time, but more of "parent is rarely there".

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#66

Post by watwut » Sun, May 13, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

crististm wrote: post #22

Xylakant wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying this is politically correct. The contentious issue is the question of why this is so. Is it because society shapes us in such a way that men are more inclined to take risks for money and recognition. This would imply things can change and women can be excellent saturation divers. Or is it because our genes shape us in this way, making it impossible for women to excel at diving.

What about the society makes a compelling reason for either men or women to take high or low risks?

Parents brag about boys taking risk, but never about girls.

To paraphrase real world office debates, basically man dying after they did dangerous "at least knew what he did it for" while woman "stupid did not knew the risk". Judgement without knowing details in both cases. I havent seen dumb female death framed in terms of bravery, but I have seen dum male death framed that way. (This difference likely hurts men more then women imo, most paid jobs are actually safe)

Imo, neither that man nor that women meant to be death.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#67

Post by NKosmatos » Sun, May 13, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

Nice read about the life of aquanauts. Strange that there isn’t a modern action/drama movie about them.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#68

Post by steve19 » Sun, May 13, 2018, 10:16 PM UTC

aksyn wrote: post #56

I got into diving a couple of years ago, and managed to combine the two passions - there's an Open Source diving computer[1], and it's fascinating to read through the source[2]. I was surprised on looking into it more that we're really just winging it algorithmically + safety margins, based on research done in the 60s. The empirical research basically consisted of the Navy et al. throwing people in at depth, and seei…

That dice computer looks great. Do you own one? Do like it?

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#69

Post by dsfyu404ed » Sun, May 13, 2018, 10:28 PM UTC

FabHK wrote: post #3

The decompression accident alluded to in the piece was the Byford Dolphin diving bell accident. The wikipedia description [1] contains this rather graphic paragraph: > [...] Hellevik, being exposed to the highest pressure gradient and in the process of moving to secure the inner door, was forced through the 60 centimetres (24 in) diameter opening created by the jammed interior trunk door by escaping air and violently…

Goodwin's law of pressurized gasses and liquids.

If someone mentions pressurized gas or liquid, someone will say pressurized gas is dangerous (duh, but it depends on the pressure and the volume), someone else linking the Wikipedia page on the Byford Dolphin accident, and/or someone will link a training video on pressure differential and/or someone will like a web-page on hydraulic injection and then it devolving into virtue signaling about safety around high pressure things.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#70

Post by wafflebear » Sun, May 13, 2018, 10:51 PM UTC

Xylakant wrote: post #31

yason wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe money and recognition aren't that valuable intrinsically and the industry is basically (ab)using men craving for those both. Maybe women are simply much smarter to not choose that line of job in the first place, or it would take a lot more of something else than money and recognition to convince them to take those risks.

That might be true but brings you back to the question why this is so. Are women intrinsically more intelligent due to their gender or does society place different expectations on the upbringing of boys, leading to a different selection of skills that develop. Or is it a mixture of both?

It is because the sex ratio is close to 1:1 at birth yet there need not be 1:1 men:women in adulthood. If men get themselves killed, it doesn't really matter.