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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

#161
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ha! "I was completely inside" What else needs to happen for you to think there might be an element of being unsafe? If a thing happens once, you decide it's categorically unsafe? Not a freak accident? Must be rough for you to actually do anything, given the how many possibilities there are to accidentally die doing basically anything.

You call diving in the ocean and swimming near whales "basically anything"? Diving itself is pretty high risk and the fatality rate isn't as low as you might think. You comparing essential daily activity to recreational diving in whale infested waters as equals is a quite mind boggling.

Diving is risky, whales are not.

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

#162
post #151
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how many "An X Year Old Person Died in This Intersection This Year" signs I pass just going about my day, I don't think the fatality rate of essential daily activity is as low as you might think.

You're confusing essential with recreational activity.

Assuming that every mile is essential is quite a leap.

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

#163
post #151
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how many "An X Year Old Person Died in This Intersection This Year" signs I pass just going about my day, I don't think the fatality rate of essential daily activity is as low as you might think.

You're confusing essential with recreational activity.

These are mostly recreational walks.

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

#164

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.

Remember Steve Irwin aka The Crocodile Man? The guy was picking up venomous snakes and wrestling with crocodiles. Then got killed by a "harmless" stingray that operated on a totally different section of the food chain...

Freak accidents happen. If you start drawing conclusions about the risk of various activities and animals from literally one incident, you’ll end up with all kinds of erroneous and silly opinions about what is dangerous and what is not.

Focusing in on Stingrays, the number of confirmed deaths by stingrays is maybe as high as 30 ever. Yes, Steve Irwin was one of them, but that doesn’t magically move the statistics, it just makes it more salient.

For comparison, coconuts kill 150 or so people per year. In a real, measurable way, taking a nap under a coconut tree is more dangerous than swimming with a stingray.

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

#165
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.

That’s a pretty ridiculous way to measure predator success. Hunting is a high risk high reward endeavor; a predator can fail to kill in most hunts and still be a very successful species.

For the record, it’s estimated that American deer hunters have a success rate between 6-13%, depending on the method and state. So lions are apparently more consistently successful hunters than humans with guns.

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

#166
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> To be fair, what I'm usually hunting I don't eat, Well, you don't know what you're missing, and it might be part of your problem. Just say'n.

:)

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are also probably hunting alone. Lions cooperate.

Do you have plans for this evening?

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

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As soon as he got out of the whale, he swam up to his wife to ask, "did you get it?" What has social media done to our brains that this is often the first thing people think to say after a near-death experience?

Is it a near death experience? It seems to me to be just a wild thing to happen. Maybe he didn’t perceive serious danger?

If you find yourself inside an animal's mouth and you don't perceive serious danger then you have at least two problems.

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

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember Steve Irwin aka The Crocodile Man? The guy was picking up venomous snakes and wrestling with crocodiles. Then got killed by a "harmless" stingray that operated on a totally different section of the food chain...

Freak accidents happen. If you start drawing conclusions about the risk of various activities and animals from literally one incident, you’ll end up with all kinds of erroneous and silly opinions about what is dangerous and what is not. Focusing in on Stingrays, the number of confirmed deaths by stingrays is maybe as high as 30 ever . Yes, Steve Irwin was one of them, but that doesn’t magically move the statistics, i…

I forgot what this conversation was about, giraffes or something? Anyway, thanks for the tips, I'll make sure to stay away from coconut trees!
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