Live data from Hacker News

For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

blogs.smithsonianmag.com

181–190 of 256 posts

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#181
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I had edited my comment so that your quote doesn't apply any more- apologies) This is an apples and oranges comparison. In your example, people were saying quite specifically that "you can run as fast as a man, and men tend to be faster runners than women". The OPs post said nothing of the sort. You are inferring that they were referring to strength, but there's nothing to indicate that. Living by yourself in the wo…

> Living by yourself in the woods is apparently manly. Yes, men are more likely to live in the woods by themselves than females. I haven't looked up this fact anywhere, but I guarantee I can find you a reference if you want one. > But saying that she is "more of a man"... ... means she is better than most men at something they typically perform "better" (in a quantitive sense, mind you) than females. Which is complet…

It should be pretty self evident that that particular Twitter reply was sarcastic. And I would say that my view is highly normal, but I suspect that we will never agree with each other.

Attributing gender as a broad label is sexist because it creates a gender definition where there is not one. There are women stronger than the average man, it does not make them "more of a man", it makes them "stronger than the average man". There is an important distinction.

Again, nothing would have been lost if the original post described her as "strong" instead of "more of a man".

(And yes, I understand American English perfectly, thank you. It is not difficult.)

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#182

Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion. It's interesting that they stumbled on the persistence hunting technique so naturally. Indirect evidence to support the Endurance running hypothesis ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis ).

I'm shocked that this could work on the Tundra. It was always my understanding that endurance running required a hot climate so that humans' superior cooling system could win out.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#183
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While creative and highly independent, Proenneke was by no means self-sufficient. I agree 100%. He also had a rifle, canoe, hiking boots etc that all would have been replaced from the outside world over the years. I loved his comment about solo canoeing in his lake: "I always knew that to swim was to die, but I never had a problem". The water is so cold up here, you'll be dead in less than a minute if you swim in t…

It's actually possible to swim in very cold water -- "polar bear" swimmers do this regularly, and Lynne Cox notably has swum for extended times in 40F and 25 minutes in 32F water during her Antarctic swim. She seems to have a unique ability to maintain core temperatures despite a very cold environment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Cox The two biggest dangers are panic and shock when you first enter the water, h…

The SS Empire Howard, though it was after they fell asleep. See http://books.google.se/books?id=2Zc9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA73&#38... .

The story you read was likely from Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods", which talks about 12 Danish fishermen, but that story doesn't seem to be correct in its details.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#184
post #175
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome, I'll have to keep a lookout for one. I rode my bike in yesterday at around -45C. The snow drifts were too big today, so I walked for 35 minutes instead.

I'm curious, do you use mountain bike tires to get more traction in the snow, or are you able to use the small, thin street tires so long as the snow is sufficiently slushy/salted/shovelled?

I ride a mountain bike, though my tires are only normal width. I did put studs in my tires to help with icy conditions.[1] So far I've had a good winter of riding.

I don't think anyone would ever ride a road bike in the winter, it would not be possible with the snow the way it is (deep, often drifting, rarely cleared)

Tons of people up here ride "fat tire" winter bikes with up to 4.5 inch tires. They ride the downhill trails right through winter.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI-fR2tXR_8 (I used a cordless drill and just drove them through - took 30 minutes all done)

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#185
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is welcoming compared to winter. Trust me, when summer finally comes and there are actual green things an animals and berries around, mosquitoes can be tolerated (I live above 60 degrees north - it's well past -40 here today)

That sounds quite extreme... What do you do for living?

I'm a Software Engineer, so I'm inside all day.

I also ride my bike to work every day, and I ski patrol at the local mountains on the weekend.

I went camping in -35C two weekends ago, it was great!

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#186
post #31

The daughters spoke a language distorted by a lifetime of isolation. "When the sisters talked to each other, it sounded like a slow, blurred cooing." It's interesting how isolation does to a spoken language in only one generation. I'm guessing they had nobody but themselves to talk to, so any mispronunciation would be greatly exaggerated.

My husband & I lived in Vienna and we were the only people who spoke out loud to each other on a daily basis (especially in English), and we understand each other very very well in any case, and we got the point where we often didn't even speak in complete sentences over a mere matter of months. When we traveled abroad for a month in an English-speaking country, it took me several days to feel like I was making sense…

I found that my own English changed after being in Sweden for a few months. I learned to pronounce 'r's and 't's and make a few other changes so that local people could understand my American accent better. Then upon returning to the US I had to unlearn those habits.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't that hard to see satellites in the sky. The ISS, in particular, can be very bright, to the point where you can see it in daylight ( http://www.hobbyspace.com/SatWatching/ , http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2009/06/18/how-to-se... ) The 1950 ones would have been a lot harder to spot, of course, but might at times have reflected the light of the below-the-horizon sun.

There weren't any man made satellites until 1957. And I don't think there were any that stayed up for very long until the mid to late 60s/70s, though I could be wrong on that.

The fourth artificial satellite, Vanguard 1, was launched on 17th March 1958 and is still in orbit.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandfather was born in Abakan, and published several books on the history of the region. He visited Agafia several times by helicopter with my uncle, after the other members of her family had passed. When I was around 15, he showed me a video of their first encounter with her, and to this day I cannot get the image of the pure terror on her face out of my mind. She had multiple visitors before, but something abou…

> 'steal her soul.' That's a bit Crocodile Dundee isn't it?

It isn't just "a bit Crocodile Dundee" - it is a genuine and persisting phenomenon (which happened to be mentioned in Crocodile Dundee).

Indigenous Australians to this day have very different beliefs about photography and filmography than most hn users would. Even though many of them live fairly modern lifestyles, it is considered fairly offensive in their culture to show images of people who have since passed away. Television broadcasts which include film of aboriginal people who have passed away are usually accompanied by a disclaimer that viewers may not want to watch.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'steal her soul.' That's a bit Crocodile Dundee isn't it?

It isn't just "a bit Crocodile Dundee" - it is a genuine and persisting phenomenon (which happened to be mentioned in Crocodile Dundee). Indigenous Australians to this day have very different beliefs about photography and filmography than most hn users would. Even though many of them live fairly modern lifestyles, it is considered fairly offensive in their culture to show images of people who have since passed away.…

This is actually common in many cultures. In South-East Asia I have heard this many times, that people have/had this belief that taking pictures of them "steal their souls". You can see it mentioned in a movie from Wong Kar Wai, Chungking Express, if I remember correctly, when the protagonist talks about his father.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#190

The last 'first contact' with a group of Australian Aboriginals was made in 1984. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/lost-tribe-happy-i... I had heard a version of that story where the brother who returned to the traditional life was believed to still be out roaming the desert, and if they saw smoke in the distance they knew it to be him but they'd stay away and leave him be. That version of the story also had…

I lived in the Philippines for two years and while it seems a good majority of the population are used to seeing white people I had a few instances where I was the first white person they had ever seen.

Some children were absolutely horrified and ran away screaming and crying! They have a very superstitious culture and have many different types of 'aswang' which translates roughly to 'monster'. We had learnt the local dialect(s) and that terrified them even more, oddly enough, at first. Most of them warmed up to us pretty quickly though not all.

Post reply on HN