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Better get real good life insurance. I think most people fail to see all the dangers in this project. This thing terrifies me and wouldn't be within 40 feet of

by baldfat 11y ago

Better get real good life insurance. I think most people fail to see all the dangers in this project. This thing terrifies me and wouldn't be within 40 feet of those capacitors. Electricity doesn't always behave the way we intended it, and this would probably be fatal if it discharges incorrectly or accidentally.

trymas 11y ago
+1 Even though this project was very cool to watch, but it looked super dangerous to me, especially the capacitor bank - it looked very ghetto.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
You're right, of course. I was making a joking remark here. I had enough mishaps with small HV capacitors in my childhood to know how incredibly dangerous this stuff can be (as if wasn't obvious from the sparks of molten metal on every animation there), especially that you're going to stack the capacitors to ramp the voltage up to dozens of kilovolts.
ceejayoz 11y ago
> Better get real good life insurance. I strongly suspect this sort of thing is exempted in most life insurance coverage (like skydiving and flying general aviation planes usually are).
grecy 11y ago
> This thing terrifies me and wouldn't be within 40 feet of those capacitors. Good for you. Sailing around the world hundreds of years ago was dangerous. Going to the moon 45 years ago was dangerous, tons of things are still VERY dangerous. Just because it's beyond your personal level of safety-acceptance, it doesn't mean there are not hundreds of people lining up to do it. You mentioning it's dangerous adds absolutely nothing to the discussion or possible learning opportunities. All you're doing is detracting from someone who's actually doing something. Rather than being so negative, why don't you go out and do something and document it as well as this guy and share it for everyone like he has?
- jscheel 11y ago
  All you're doing is getting pissy at someone who has pointed out legitimate safety concerns. You think sailing around the world didn't involve planning and safety considerations, or that going to the moon did have a safety talk or two? Yeah, there are always people lining up to do things. And sure, plenty of risks were taken. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with thinking about safety. They didn't say they wouldn't do it, they said they would maintain a safer distance.
  - grecy 11y ago
    > They said they would maintain a safer distance And I like tofu. Neither of those pieces of information add anything useful to the discussion.
    - jscheel 11y ago
      Why doesn't it? There are plenty of instances where bad safety practices with high energy have led to injuries. In fact, the parent comment had more information relevant to the discussion than yours did. By your measure, your comment brought absolutely nothing to the discussion, and you would have been better to simply ignore the comment you didn't like. Policing what people say in that manner is subjective and tends to lean more towards your personal dislike for the comment than for any stringent criteria of quality. All that said, I like tofu too. Maybe we can find a tofu discussion on HN to carry on in.
      - grecy 11y ago
        It bugs me that so many posts on HN immediately get shot down with "It's not safe", which is not constructive at all. (see: self driving cars, drone delivery, etc.) Just saying "it's not safe" is not useful, and I suppose I wish people would do it less. Yes, safety is a consideration for sure, so a comment that talks at length about how to make it safer is useful. Simply saying it's not safe is not constructive. We should have a HN tofu meetup
        11y ago

by baldfat 11y ago

trymas 11y ago

+1 Even though this project was very cool to watch, but it looked super dangerous to me, especially the capacitor bank - it looked very ghetto.

TeMPOraL 11y ago

You're right, of course. I was making a joking remark here. I had enough mishaps with small HV capacitors in my childhood to know how incredibly dangerous this stuff can be (as if wasn't obvious from the sparks of molten metal on every animation there), especially that you're going to stack the capacitors to ramp the voltage up to dozens of kilovolts.

ceejayoz 11y ago

> Better get real good life insurance. I strongly suspect this sort of thing is exempted in most life insurance coverage (like skydiving and flying general aviation planes usually are).

grecy 11y ago

> This thing terrifies me and wouldn't be within 40 feet of those capacitors. Good for you. Sailing around the world hundreds of years ago was dangerous. Going to the moon 45 years ago was dangerous, tons of things are still VERY dangerous. Just because it's beyond your personal level of safety-acceptance, it doesn't mean there are not hundreds of people lining up to do it. You mentioning it's dangerous adds absolutely nothing to the discussion or possible learning opportunities. All you're doing is detracting from someone who's actually doing something. Rather than being so negative, why don't you go out and do something and document it as well as this guy and share it for everyone like he has?

jscheel 11y ago
All you're doing is getting pissy at someone who has pointed out legitimate safety concerns. You think sailing around the world didn't involve planning and safety considerations, or that going to the moon did have a safety talk or two? Yeah, there are always people lining up to do things. And sure, plenty of risks were taken. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with thinking about safety. They didn't say they wouldn't do it, they said they would maintain a safer distance.
- grecy 11y ago
  > They said they would maintain a safer distance And I like tofu. Neither of those pieces of information add anything useful to the discussion.
  - jscheel 11y ago
    Why doesn't it? There are plenty of instances where bad safety practices with high energy have led to injuries. In fact, the parent comment had more information relevant to the discussion than yours did. By your measure, your comment brought absolutely nothing to the discussion, and you would have been better to simply ignore the comment you didn't like. Policing what people say in that manner is subjective and tends to lean more towards your personal dislike for the comment than for any stringent criteria of quality. All that said, I like tofu too. Maybe we can find a tofu discussion on HN to carry on in.
    - grecy 11y ago
      It bugs me that so many posts on HN immediately get shot down with "It's not safe", which is not constructive at all. (see: self driving cars, drone delivery, etc.) Just saying "it's not safe" is not useful, and I suppose I wish people would do it less. Yes, safety is a consideration for sure, so a comment that talks at length about how to make it safer is useful. Simply saying it's not safe is not constructive. We should have a HN tofu meetup
      - 11y ago