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'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

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Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#101

Post by Zanni »

iron_ball wrote: post #62
aspaceman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve liked the interpretation that high luck isn’t necessarily good. It just means highly improbable events happen to you more likely...

Teela Brown from Ringworld. She was the result of a selective breeding program intended to create the luckiest human alive... but it turned out the _real_ lucky ones were all the "failures" who did _not_ get recruited for an impossibly dangerous mission.

As I recall (spoiler), that was speculation by one of the other characters after they crashed on Ringworld, later reversed because Teela met the love of her life due to the crash. The real take away was that Teela's luck was in no way transferable to the rest of the party; it only looked out for Teela.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#102

Post by jaclaz »

ryantgtg wrote: post #76
travisjungroth wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not the “swallowed” part. It’s the “bound to happen” part. He didn’t even know the whale was around.

In the ocean, the whales stick within the designated Whale Zones, marked by vast rings of starfish holding hands (??). When you cross the starfish, as Packard must have, then you’re clearly in the Zone. At that point you have no one to blame but yourself when you get accidentally swallowed.

Naah, that is the old way/conception of confinement, in modern, eco-zoo-friendly, countries whales are allowed to roam freely in the ocean, it is the swimmers that must wear high visibility vests with a sign "I am not a snack!" written in whalish.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#103

Post by lumberingjack »

KMag wrote: post #93
aeortiz wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giraffes are dangerous right? I wouldn't want to be near one (or a Hippo, or an Ostrich, etc...)

Giraffes can kick lions hard enough to kill them, or at least injure them enough to prevent lions from returning to effective hunting before starving to death. In my very limited experience (4 or 5 day safari in Kruger), Giraffes are pretty shy, but you really want to avoid startling them or otherwise putting them in a situation where they feel a need to defend themselves or their young.

Yeah but everyone thinks that lions are badass but they fail like 77% of their hunts so they're more like huge failures.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#104

Post by lumberingjack »

Barrin92 wrote: post #39

I was relieved when the article said the esophagus was too small to actually be swallowed. Like what do you do if a whale actually swallows you, try to crawl out the other end? Like the Shawshank Redemption but way worse

Most whales esophagus are only the size of their prey and they all eat really small stuff largest esophagus of a whale size of a grapefruit. Jonah was supposably swallowed by a big fish that's what it says "fish"

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#105

Post by ryan-allen »

teeray wrote: post #28
dylan604 wrote: post #7

After the worst day of meetings, after not being to track down the most elusive bug, at the end of that day, I absolutely do not have to worry about being eaten whole. So I guess there are worse jobs.

Well, unless you’re a developer at a certain theme park featuring genetically engineered creatures…

No expense spared! Still a classic.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#106

Post by dotancohen »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #90
ukyrgf wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is saying his "luck" skill is maxed out, so he is +10 while others could be having a real -10 of it.

maybe he sucks up all the available luck in the area, a kind of luck vampire, and everyone else dies because out of luck! I'd write the story but evidently we are already background in it.

Yeah, that's addressed in the fine article as well:

  > For years, he was an abalone diver on the West Coast in
  > an area with great white sharks that have a history of
  > attacking divers; he lost some friends to the predators.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#107

Post by dotancohen »

lumberingjack wrote: post #103
KMag wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giraffes can kick lions hard enough to kill them, or at least injure them enough to prevent lions from returning to effective hunting before starving to death. In my very limited experience (4 or 5 day safari in Kruger), Giraffes are pretty shy, but you really want to avoid startling them or otherwise putting them in a situation where they feel a need to defend themselves or their young.

Yeah but everyone thinks that lions are badass but they fail like 77% of their hunts so they're more like huge failures.

To be fair, what I'm usually hunting I don't eat, but I fail much more than 77% of the time. Probably most men do.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#108

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

aeortiz wrote: post #67
ashtonkem wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swimming near whales isn’t unsafe at all. They’re not particularly aggressive, a lone human is too small to worry about, and we operate on completely different sections of the food chain. This was more akin to getting stepped on by a giraffe that didn’t see you there. Total accident.

Giraffes are dangerous right? I wouldn't want to be near one (or a Hippo, or an Ostrich, etc...)

Giraffes: not really dangerous. They graze on the tops of trees. I don't know much about it, which leads me to think that "giraffe danger" isn't a thing that gets talked about because it's not much of a thing.

Ostrich: They're not bright - the bird's eyeball is bigger than its brain. Last ostriches that I saw were a whole herd that came up to the fence with open mouths in anticipation of snacks, which was kinda cute. I guess a large male could get aggressive and the kick would be very nasty?

Hipppo: Very dangerous. They may be herbivorous but they're aggressive and territorial. They will flatten you if they're in a bad mood, and they're almost always in a bad mood. A hippo is 2 tons of bastard; and don't bother running, they're faster than you, on land or in water. Best to avoid them entirely.

I'm not joking, google "most dangerous large animal in Africa", read about hippos and how they kill more humans than any other African animal larger than a mosquito.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#110

Post by huhtenberg »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #90
ukyrgf wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is saying his "luck" skill is maxed out, so he is +10 while others could be having a real -10 of it.

maybe he sucks up all the available luck in the area, a kind of luck vampire, and everyone else dies because out of luck! I'd write the story but evidently we are already background in it.

The whale seems to have survived. So there's that.
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