10 ms·

The most remote tree in the world

79 points by tshtf 17y ago

houseabsolute 17y ago
So, just because the driver was drunk doesn't mean it was an accident. In fact, the odds against it being accidental are enormous considering how remote the area is.
- cruise02 17y ago
  You'd have to be pretty drunk to accidentally hit the most remote tree in the world. I can't decide if I'd have to be more or less drunk to do it on purpose.
  - brisance 17y ago
    This is actually a pretty likely occurrence when navigating. The tree serves as a landmark and if there are no objects in the field of view to serve as a visual reference one can lose all sense of perspective and collide with it.
- jayair 17y ago
  "This was not the tree's first encounter with a truck." If only the tree could talk...
  - JacobAldridge 17y ago
    "Go left. Go Left. Left. Left. GO LEFT. FUCK!"
ajam 17y ago
In a random walk through wikipedia for 5 minutes, I stumbled on this other piece of six sigma tree news: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurugaoka_Hachiman-gū http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurugaoka_Hachiman-gū A thousand year old ginkgo was knocked down yesterday... I wonder how often 1000+ year old trees are felled?
- docgnome 17y ago
  :-O I wonder if they could get a cutting from it at least.
- akkartik 17y ago
  One of my favorite episodes of Nova is about the scientist who picked a tree at random to cut and count rings. He was shattered when he found it was the oldest tree of them all, almost 5000 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_%28tree%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_%28tree%29 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah
Dalgar 17y ago
I'm pretty pissed somebody knocked that tree down, and it is on the other side of the world. I can't imagine how pissed the locals were. Sure hope, for his sake, the guy sobered up soon enough and got out of there before they found out who did it...
- karl11 17y ago
  I have the same sentiments. I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read.
  - camccann 17y ago
    I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read. Approximately 150,000 people died yesterday. In fact, another dozen or so probably died while you were reading that sentence. If you were in a room with all the people dying at any given moment, you wouldn't even have time to meet their gaze to say "goodbye" fast enough to keep up. That's a dozen thinking, breathing people, each with their own hopes and fears, memories and regrets. Many with friends and family who loved them deeply; children who'll never again see their mother's smile, wives who'll never again embrace their husband. Scores of people now grieving, and all kinds of friendships ended as each life fades into the night. But, yeah. Shame about that tree, eh? I don't mean this as a criticism of you personally; I had the same reaction to the destruction of the tree. It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly.
    - RevRal 17y ago
      It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly. Brings back memories of people getting upset about the dogs being killed in Wolfenstein 3D, but not the humans.
    - iamwil 17y ago
      Perhaps none as unique as that tree.
Luyt 17y ago
Well, at least they replaced it with a 'metal sculpture resembling the tree', that'll learn the next drunken driver who drives over it on purpose!
harisenbon 17y ago
"the most isolated tree on Earth[3] — the only one within more than 200 kilometres" "The tree was allegedly knocked down by a drunk Libyan truck driver in 1973. " Hitting the only tree in over 200km? That's pretty damn drunk.
- ellyagg 17y ago
  I'm pretty sure drunkenness contributed more to being an asshole than clumsy driving in this case.
- redcap 17y ago
  There's a 100 kilometre or so stretch of road on the Nullarbor plain (null arbor - no trees) that's completely straight. There's also a solitary tree along that long straight stretch, and it's been crashed into a large number of times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain (no mention of the tree though)
duck 17y ago
I've always liked this wallpaper and now I know the whole story: http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?teneretree http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?teneretree
deleted 17y ago
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79 points by tshtf 17y ago

So, just because the driver was drunk doesn't mean it was an accident. In fact, the odds against it being accidental are enormous considering how remote the area is.

cruise02 17y ago
You'd have to be pretty drunk to accidentally hit the most remote tree in the world. I can't decide if I'd have to be more or less drunk to do it on purpose.
- brisance 17y ago
  This is actually a pretty likely occurrence when navigating. The tree serves as a landmark and if there are no objects in the field of view to serve as a visual reference one can lose all sense of perspective and collide with it.
jayair 17y ago
"This was not the tree's first encounter with a truck." If only the tree could talk...
- JacobAldridge 17y ago
  "Go left. Go Left. Left. Left. GO LEFT. FUCK!"

ajam 17y ago

In a random walk through wikipedia for 5 minutes, I stumbled on this other piece of six sigma tree news: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurugaoka_Hachiman-gū http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurugaoka_Hachiman-gū A thousand year old ginkgo was knocked down yesterday... I wonder how often 1000+ year old trees are felled?

docgnome 17y ago
:-O I wonder if they could get a cutting from it at least.
akkartik 17y ago
One of my favorite episodes of Nova is about the scientist who picked a tree at random to cut and count rings. He was shattered when he found it was the oldest tree of them all, almost 5000 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_%28tree%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_%28tree%29 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah

Dalgar 17y ago

I'm pretty pissed somebody knocked that tree down, and it is on the other side of the world. I can't imagine how pissed the locals were. Sure hope, for his sake, the guy sobered up soon enough and got out of there before they found out who did it...

karl11 17y ago
I have the same sentiments. I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read.
- camccann 17y ago
  I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read. Approximately 150,000 people died yesterday. In fact, another dozen or so probably died while you were reading that sentence. If you were in a room with all the people dying at any given moment, you wouldn't even have time to meet their gaze to say "goodbye" fast enough to keep up. That's a dozen thinking, breathing people, each with their own hopes and fears, memories and regrets. Many with friends and family who loved them deeply; children who'll never again see their mother's smile, wives who'll never again embrace their husband. Scores of people now grieving, and all kinds of friendships ended as each life fades into the night. But, yeah. Shame about that tree, eh? I don't mean this as a criticism of you personally; I had the same reaction to the destruction of the tree. It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly.
  - RevRal 17y ago
    It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly. Brings back memories of people getting upset about the dogs being killed in Wolfenstein 3D, but not the humans.
  - iamwil 17y ago
    Perhaps none as unique as that tree.

Luyt 17y ago

Well, at least they replaced it with a 'metal sculpture resembling the tree', that'll learn the next drunken driver who drives over it on purpose!

harisenbon 17y ago

"the most isolated tree on Earth[3] — the only one within more than 200 kilometres" "The tree was allegedly knocked down by a drunk Libyan truck driver in 1973. " Hitting the only tree in over 200km? That's pretty damn drunk.

ellyagg 17y ago
I'm pretty sure drunkenness contributed more to being an asshole than clumsy driving in this case.
redcap 17y ago
There's a 100 kilometre or so stretch of road on the Nullarbor plain (null arbor - no trees) that's completely straight. There's also a solitary tree along that long straight stretch, and it's been crashed into a large number of times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain (no mention of the tree though)

duck 17y ago

I've always liked this wallpaper and now I know the whole story: http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?teneretree http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?teneretree

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]