Live data from Hacker News

‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

longreads.com

1–10 of 474 posts

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#4
Do your research before getting into rivers. My local river has several gauges and hotlines you can call to get dam releases. They also have a chart of the water release amounts and if you could paddle/float/canoe/kayak etc. It even has a turbidity gauge that will show you if any harmful bacteria is present, we have issues with fertilizer runoff and e-coli. It's a rather mundane river in an area not as known as Glacier National Park.

>The river was swollen with alpine runoff.

Red flags right immediately.

If you ever hear 3 horns blasts, get out immediately. A dam might release.

I would NOT go down any side forks. Just like the author I have been messed up and thrown off my kayak by downed trees on a fork. Luckily the water was waist deep and I could stand right away.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#5

Because of modern civilization we have a rose-tinted view of nature and take it for granted. Raw nature is scary and easily able to kill you.

...and the more we try to legislate away any possible source of danger we might encounter in our day-to-day lives, the less prepared we will be for places where nature is left to fend for itself.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#6
post #4

Do your research before getting into rivers. My local river has several gauges and hotlines you can call to get dam releases. They also have a chart of the water release amounts and if you could paddle/float/canoe/kayak etc. It even has a turbidity gauge that will show you if any harmful bacteria is present, we have issues with fertilizer runoff and e-coli. It's a rather mundane river in an area not as known as Glaci…

Acquaintance did some suburban kayaking and didn't see a 3ft drop (some kind of dam or culvert under a bridge) until too late. The fluid mechanics of that drop are such that there is a vortex at the base that makes it difficult to get out. He was able to stand but just barely - scary to think how close a call that was in a pretty innocuous looking setting.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#7
post #5

Because of modern civilization we have a rose-tinted view of nature and take it for granted. Raw nature is scary and easily able to kill you.

...and the more we try to legislate away any possible source of danger we might encounter in our day-to-day lives, the less prepared we will be for places where nature is left to fend for itself.

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me as an argument. "We need to keep life more dangerous in general so that when we hit special cases it'll be easier to deal with" strikes me as generally doing more harm than good because our day to day is going to cause more harm and those special cases are always going to be special.

Unless you have specific examples that you're thinking of here.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#8
post #4

Do your research before getting into rivers. My local river has several gauges and hotlines you can call to get dam releases. They also have a chart of the water release amounts and if you could paddle/float/canoe/kayak etc. It even has a turbidity gauge that will show you if any harmful bacteria is present, we have issues with fertilizer runoff and e-coli. It's a rather mundane river in an area not as known as Glaci…

Acquaintance did some suburban kayaking and didn't see a 3ft drop (some kind of dam or culvert under a bridge) until too late. The fluid mechanics of that drop are such that there is a vortex at the base that makes it difficult to get out. He was able to stand but just barely - scary to think how close a call that was in a pretty innocuous looking setting.

Yeah those things are notorious for that. Place I grew up in had a lot of small rivers you could pretty much wade across most of the year. But you'd still hear of drownings every once in a while and if it wasn't a small child it was always someone going over a low head dam.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and the more we try to legislate away any possible source of danger we might encounter in our day-to-day lives, the less prepared we will be for places where nature is left to fend for itself.

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me as an argument. "We need to keep life more dangerous in general so that when we hit special cases it'll be easier to deal with" strikes me as generally doing more harm than good because our day to day is going to cause more harm and those special cases are always going to be special. Unless you have specific examples that you're thinking of here.

I don't think he was making that argument. Someone who climbs mountains every week is less likely to be hurt in a given mountain climb than someone who doesn't but that doesn't mean that the best idea for safety is to climb mountains often.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#10
post #5

Because of modern civilization we have a rose-tinted view of nature and take it for granted. Raw nature is scary and easily able to kill you.

...and the more we try to legislate away any possible source of danger we might encounter in our day-to-day lives, the less prepared we will be for places where nature is left to fend for itself.

The author made decisions to put herself in dangerous situations. What does that have to do with seatbelt laws or food inspection guidelines?
Post reply on HN