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

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

#81

Post by radlad »

newaccount74 wrote: post #68
emtel wrote: post #48

One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…

I've accidentally touched live electricity (230V) several times, and from speaking to other people it's not a rare occurrence. I think you actually need to be pretty unlucky to die from an electric shock at home.

I've never been hit by 240V thankfully, but when I was a kid I felt 120V when plugging a computer into the wall.

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

#82

Post by Waterluvian »

giantg2 wrote: post #54

Risk can be fun. I don't feel bad if someone gets hurt or killed doing an activity that is inherently dangerous. They died doing what they enjoyed and feeling alive. Don't feel bad for me if I go that way either.

I think it's basically an "informed consent" thing. If people are clearly informed and consciously aware of the risk, that's completely up to them (eg. free solo climbers).

Where it gets tricky, in my opinion is:

- we aren't convinced the person is currently capable of making rational decisions

- we aren't convinced the person is fully informed and equipped with an intimate understanding of the risk they're undertaking

I think both of these cases are about wanting what's best for the individual, but struggling with the balance of support vs. control.

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

#83

Post by Quillbert182 »

My family vacations growing up were often to National Parks, and Glacier is definitely my favorite.

On my first trip there, when I was hiking with my family on the Iceberg Lake trail, a couple appeared running back towards us with their bear spray pointed behind them. We were at first concerned that they were running from a bear, but a few moments later, a moose appeared behind them trotting down the trail. We turned around and booked it back down the trail until we found a spot where we could get off the trail behind some trees, and the moose ended up turning off.

That was quite a scare at the time, and it could have ended very poorly, but it makes for a great story now.

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

#84

Post by themaninthedark »

Loughla wrote: post #38
itsmemattchung wrote: post #26

Some tips on where to begin to learn more about nature and survive in the wild? Maybe an REI class? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that should I ever venture out into the wilderness, I would definitely not survive. I lack basic survival skills and nature would eat me alive. That being said, I always admired folks who could go camping for days (or weeks), who could cook up a warm (and edible) meal over a campfire.

Look to your local Community College or State University extension office. Many of them offer outdoors classes. The problem with private wilderness survival classes you may find in the community, even the light versions, is that they tend to come with a very particular political slant. And that slant tends toward the paranoid.

As long as the paranoia is about how nature is going to try and kill you at any chance it gets, sounds good to me!

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

#85

Post by citizenpaul »

emtel wrote: post #48

One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…

Nearly the same thing happened to me. Except instead of the car missing me my brain told me perhaps from tornado safety training in school? If I dropped into the narrow V shaped drainage ditch so the car would pass over me I would live. It did and I did. I can still remember the tire passing inches over my face in slow motion as the car flew into the trees.

I was fine. The driver was some kid that stole their parents car. The kid seemed uninjured. The parents were I guess chasing them in another car as they arrived only a few seconds after the wreck.

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

#86

Post by kibwen »

emtel wrote: post #48

One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…

> Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways.

The lesson here is this: lightning strikes twice (frustratingly, the usual idiom is as wrong as can be). In other words, if you observe an outcome and have no other data whatsoever about the conditions that produced that outcome, it is safe to assume that the conditions continue to exist to allow the outcome to happen again.

In this case, the existence of a car that has spun out around a curve is the clue that cars will continue to spin out along that curve.

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

#87

Post by psychphysic »

shagie wrote: post #79
jollyllama wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. A couple of girls got killed in Pittsburgh a few years back. They were kayaking down the river and didn't realize a dam was ahead. People die all the time in nature for lack of preparedness because they don't know the environment they are getting into and they don't know their limitations. This also endangers rescuers.

Practical Engineering has a video on the dangers of a lowhead dam - https://youtu.be/GVDpqphHhAE

What on Earth!? I just submitted Kyle Hills video on this early today to HN.

What an eery coincidence. I hope it's not a bad omen that I keep coming across this topic today...

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

#88

Post by JumpinJack_Cash »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #47

> I did other reckless shit with my own car. [...] Drove it 120 miles per hour just to see what it felt like. Admittedly this gave me a chuckle. Most people don't go that fast, but with the right kind of car this no big deal on the Autobahn.

It's not about the speed, it's about proximity with other vehicles.

On AutoBahn stretches old M3s and Mercedes E190 are capable of 150 mph and they do absolutely floor it. The only risk it's mechanical failure or tyre blowing up.

I still mantain that for those looking for kinetic adrenaline the big Cigarette powerboats are better, even though they are slower than cars you are essentially always surrounded by nothing and the feeling is more intense (even though they are slower than cars) because you are in the wind yourself and the jumping on the waves makes it seems even more kinetic.

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

#89

Post by j_mo »

kibwen wrote: post #86
emtel wrote: post #48

One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…

> Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. The lesson here is this: lightning strikes twice (frustratingly, the usual idiom is as wrong as can be). In other words, if you observe an outcome and have no oth…

They teach Motorsport marshals in the UK to always keep the car that has come off-track between yourself and live traffic, and never turn your back to the track.

Whatever caused the accident is just as likely to cause another car to go in, ie oil or coolant on track, or even debris from the current incident.

Same applies on the roads I guess, especially in poor conditions.

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

#90

Post by ip26 »

giantg2 wrote: post #54

Risk can be fun. I don't feel bad if someone gets hurt or killed doing an activity that is inherently dangerous. They died doing what they enjoyed and feeling alive. Don't feel bad for me if I go that way either.

In many incidents, people are completely misinformed on the degree of risk, or woefully unprepared, which does strike me as tragic. E.g. happy family who takes a pleasant hike a few miles from the car, except they weren’t thinking about the fact it was August in Utah and they only brought 8oz of water.

It’s also evident in her story about getting caught by the river. She thought, I’m not going to do anything crazy like those climbers- and then did something that seemed innocent but was actually far more dangerous.

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