Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

spotthedrowningchild.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 424 posts

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#221

Post by ben7799 »

bane wrote: post #118

There's a youtube channel of these videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnERyC7dwJwTvEyzYz6uxHw For those not deeply familiar with U.S. structural issues regarding race, a random viewing of the video will show the unfortunately, the victim/rescued person is likely to be African-American. The reasons for this are complex and sad. Anecdotally, as a child, my family wasn't well off (and at least once homeless), and…

This is a great response. When I was a Water Safety Instructor I spent part of my time teaching at a special inner city program that was designed to try and counteract the disadvantages you are discussing.

Another place I worked was in a very privileged town at a very large country club. They did a lot of corporate events where the pool was hired out by a company for their party. We would never get through corporate events without multiple rescues if the company had a lot of employees who lived in the city without access to pools & swim lessons.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#222

Post by ben7799 »

mcv wrote: post #29
jasode wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don't recommend children wear any armbands/floaties/waterwings: https://www.google.com/search?q=children+armbands+pool+dange... In other words, if the small child supposedly needs armbands, they shouldn't be in the pool at all because the inflatables can easily slip off the arms.

They can be in the pool, but the parent needs to be in the pool with them. There's no substitute for direct adult supervision, or swimming lessons, of course.

If you're in the pool with them they don't need armbands.

Armbands are dangerous and hinder learning.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#223

Post by matthewowen »

AstralStorm wrote: post #199
keanzu wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had severe cramps in my legs/feet many times in deep ocean water with no-one around. If you drown from a foot cramp you are not a strong swimmer.

Or you're incorrectly trained. You should always be able to flip and float on your back if push comes to shove, and in that position you can swim just using your arms.

"incorrectly trained" is what people typically mean when they say "not a strong swimmer". anyone who has swum alongside 10 year olds on swim teams will understand that you can swim quite strongly even without being "strong" in the muscular sense.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#224

Post by keanzu »

killjoywashere wrote: post #214
keanzu wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow people don't realize the danger that pools possess. Swimming is one of the few activities that children engage in which can go so wrong as to end up in their death. I would suggest that it is borderline negligence for a parent to put a child in such a dangerous situation without proper precautions (supervision). I wouldn't let a small child I am responsible for go into a pool alone regardless of the presence…

> I wouldn't let a small child I am responsible for go into a pool alone You would. Let me give you the scenario: you're home alone with the three kids, you've been chasing them around, doing laundry, cleaning up spilled grape juice, telling Jenny to stop cutting Tommy's hair, etc. Finally, you think everyone is down for a nap. You turn on the game. 5 minutes later, 5 minutes, you think "It's too quiet...". You get u…

I have a pool.

I have a fence.

A friend's son was visiting, also four years old, vanished for just a second and suddenly I thought Oh god, the pool. Sure enough there he was stuck outside the fence trying to get to the pool but frustrated that the latching mechanism can only be operated by someone at least 5 feet tall.

I wouldn't let a small child go into a pool alone. Pool safety is life and death. Get a fence.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#225

Post by mcv »

ben7799 wrote: post #222
mcv wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can be in the pool, but the parent needs to be in the pool with them. There's no substitute for direct adult supervision, or swimming lessons, of course.

If you're in the pool with them they don't need armbands. Armbands are dangerous and hinder learning.

I'm not advocating armbands during swimming lessons; there's a good reason they don't use them there. But when just playing around, they are incredibly useful, and keep the kid's head above water.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#226

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ben7799 wrote: post #213
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Floating on your back is only possible for a subset of the population. There are plenty of people who simply sink when on their back, and must kick or more their arms constantly to stay afloat. FWIW

This is improper training. (Former WSI here) Especially in the ocean. The Salinity in the ocean makes it very easy for a well trained swimmer to float. People who sink on their back haven't been trained to maintain enough air in their lungs and/or use minimal arm/leg effort to assist. Also they are probably not leaning their head back far enough. (Head position being a massive component of the problem for non-swimmer…

And at Scout Camp each year we always had some. It doesn't go away with training. Whether its body fat or lung capacity, whatever, they simply sink to the bottom no matter how big a breath they take or the 'head position' explanation. They can be 'swimmer' and still not be physically capable of floating on their back.

The ocean is a different matter I'm sure.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#227

Post by razakel »

pmarreck wrote: post #180
buckminster wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making fireworks that closely resembled pipe bombs (almost blew leg off)

oh jesus. yeah, exactly! I had a pyromaniac phase. Once set a field on fire. Things could have gone extremely worse.

Peter Thiel mentions in his autobiography that, out of the six co-founders of PayPal, four of them made bombs in high school.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#228

Post by notRobot »

fho wrote: post #137
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most depictions of things in movies are like that. Films must show you something interesting, and watching somebody do trial and error painfully on a bash script for 6 hours is not as fun as a fast pace keyboard murder while screaming "i just passed 3 firewalls" with beautiful animations rendering on the screen. If there is a camera, what you see is a lie. The difference between a national geographic documentary and…

Even national geographic documentaries are probably "lies" ... I just had the chance to get some basic insights in to evolutionary biology ... and boy is bloody mauling and devouring of prey just the tip of the iceberg. Intraspecies rape and infanticide is pretty common out there. (Look up the penis of drakes (male ducks) and why it looks the way it does at some point) Siblings competing for food with only a small pe…

> The female tit (the bird ... not what you think) basically cheats so much that there is a possibility that none of the offspring is actually of the male that feeds them ...

Pretty sure "cheating" and infidelity are largely human concepts. That's normal and natural behaviour for many species.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#229

Post by chrisgd »

iamthepieman wrote: post #129

My kids wear type III PFD's until they pass their level 3 swim class. If I am swimming actively with them in close proximity they may go without. If I'm on the shore/side of the pool though, they have their PFD on. Armbands and toy flotation rings are not safety devices. Although me and my family love the water in all forms, going to the pool, lake or ocean is always a little stressful for me. I cannot have a thought…

Always on a swivel! It is so stressful.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#230

Post by jrwr »

ralphhughes wrote: post #220
darkFunction wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are paralympic swimmers with no arms or legs who can swim a length faster than me, and I'm a competent swimmer. I wouldn't worry about your foot size.

I parsed that on first read as "no (arms or legs)" instead of "(no arms) || (no legs)" and was very surprised!

I did the same thing..

Found the programmer :)

Post reply on HN