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Thailand cave rescue: all 12 boys and coach successfully rescued
- bitcharmer 8y agoI was so glad to learn about it. This was such an unlikely rescue mission and amazingly heroic effort from everyone involved. If I was religious I'd say this was a miracle. Just very happy every one is ok.
- sametmax 8y agoThe amazing part to me is that it was 12 kids and one adult. Between the fear and the biological needs, I wonder what kept them alive for so long. First, the first time I fasted I was quited stressed about it, and it was in controlled, cozy environment. Second, they didn't know if anybody would come. Not even if somebody could come. For 9 days without eating and living in their own shit in the dark, they wondered. I'm awaiting for the unavoidable book/movie, hoping they don't try to make it epic and get into real details about this.
- koolba 8y agoI bet literally being a team helped out. It's not just a random group of people. They all know each other, they know each other's personalities, and there's a natural cohesion to win (i.e. not die!) together.
- sametmax 8y agoPossibly, especially since they were with a coach. He if kept it up, then it could have helped a lot.
- ryanmercer 8y ago>I'm awaiting for the unavoidable book/movie. Hollywood producers are already on the ground http://www.newsweek.com/hollywood-producers-head-thai-cave-rescue-site-plan-blockbuster-movie-1015501 http://www.newsweek.com/hollywood-producers-head-thai-cave-r...
- meowzero 8y agoIt'll probably take place somewhere in the US and white wash it with white actors. Maybe they'll make one of the kids (a girl) Asian to give a little nod to the original story.
- pepy 8y agoand that girl will be helping hand - because when she grows up, she wants to be a doctor
- bprieto 8y agoThe coach then will be an american living in Thailand, half the team will be girls, the sport will be american football instead of soccer, one of the rescuers will be a woman who happens to be an ex-girlfriend of the coach, there will be a bad guy from the government or some company that wants to leave them in the cave because it's cheaper... and Elon Musk's device will save the day.
- arkitaip 8y ago...And it's already made 400M.
- vinkelhake 8y agoThe rumor is that The Rock is going to play the coach. Kevin Hart will play all 12 boys.
- ryanmercer 8y ago>The rumor is that The Rock is going to play the coach. Kevin Hart will play all 12 boys. I would actually pay to see this.
- Reedx 8y agoHa, you nailed it. I hate how plausible this is.
- sangnoir 8y ago
- rusk 8y ago> For 9 days without eating and living in their own shit in the dark Not to mention the cold. There's a hero-story about the coach that's yet to be told I reckon.
- _Microft 8y agoSomewhere it was mentioned that the temperature in the cave was about 23°C (73°F).
- rusk 8y agoOh wow. I wouldn't have expected that deep underground in a flooded cave at all!
- SimbaOnSteroids 8y agoCaves are generally the average yearly temperature of the area they are found in, also given that the water was rainwater and not spring water I’d imagine that unless the boys were like waste deep in water the entire time they were probably rather warm given the tropical location of Thailand.
- booleandilemma 8y agoA story Mark Wahlberg will be happy to tell.
- sillysaurus3 8y agoThe coach. He shared what little rations they had, and his condition was visibly worse than the children by the time they were found. He also helped them by teaching them meditation, so as not to focus on their hunger.
- sametmax 8y ago> He also helped them by teaching them meditation, so as not to focus on their hunger. Learning meditation is hard. Learning meditation when you are scared, hungry and in such a bad situation is extra hard. So if the guy pulled it off with 12 terrorized famished kids for 9 days, he deserves his own temple.
- bad_user 8y agoPeople in general are able of amazing deeds under the threat of death. Unfortunately it's why we are able to wage war. Was watching a documentary on the Vietnam war the other day and one guy was describing how he felt like an automaton that was focusing only on survival, which kept him from going insane, while another guy was describing how he felt no pain from his bullet injuries while trying to stay alive alone in the jungle for 3 days, only feeling pain after he was rescued. But yeah, this coach is a hero for sure, I'm so glad they made it out.
- jvzr 8y agoThe Vietnam War, by Ken Burns? Watched that episode with the South Vietnam veteran recalling that episode where he was left for dead (literally, by his own allies AND adversaries), crawled through the jungle for 3 days and only then felt the pain and smelled the nasty odor of the rotting flesh.
- vinceguidry 8y agoNot to belittle his accomplishment, but it's the times of great hardship where the search for meaning flourishes. See Viktor Frankl. It is the gift hidden in the horror.
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- senorjazz 8y agoWhen contact was first made, they had no idea how long they had been in there and asked "how long have we been here". Sat in the dark, with no night and day, the bodies internal clock gets shot to pieces. They would have had no idea whether they had been there 3 days or 30
- sametmax 8y agoNot being able to quantify doesn't mean you don't sufer from it.
- cubano 8y agoPeople can live over 60 days without food, so maybe that part isn't so unexpected. Water of course is a different story..I believe after 48 hours severe dehydration sets in...after 3 days...kaput.
- sametmax 8y ago> People can live over 60 days without food, so maybe that part isn't so unexpected It's not a physiological problem. It's a psychological one. When you ate everyday all your life, not eating is scary. > I believe after 48 hours severe dehydration sets in...after 3 days...kaput. You can live more than 3 days without water. Either with training, of because the conditions help (you don't move much, temperature and humidity are favorable, you don't eat, etc). There are cases were human lived for 9 days without water. But they had water near them so that was out of the equation.
- jcranmer 8y ago> The amazing part to me is that it was 12 kids and one adult. Between the fear and the biological needs, I wonder what kept them alive for so long. You can go a few weeks without food. The cave is likely at a consistent enough temperature that you're not going to freeze to death (sweating is more likely to be your real issue), so the only real constraint is potable water. It's also been commented that the children had no idea they were trapped for as long as 9 days. Quite likely, without any source of natural light, they lost track of time, which certainly would help ease some of the panic.
- ryanmercer 8y agoAwesome! I love how the global diving community came together to rescue them, it's unfortunate that Petty Officer Saman Gunan died after doing a run of oxygen tanks to the caves though. I even liked how Musk came out of left field "grab that tube, we're making a rescue pod!" and then hopped on a plane with it when it was tested and ready. While it didn't really matter I like that sort of thinking outside of the box and how he just dropped everything he was doing and set people to work on it and then took it over anyway in the event it will ever been needed in the future, I really wish more people had that go-the-extra-mile attitude.
- bmmayer1 8y agoMusk had no business being involved. Really, 'inventing' a MVP prototype of a submarine which he 'tested' in a swimming pool and then intended to test for real on live children, when an existing rescue effort underway was working? This was egoism at its finest, taking public credit for 'helping' with a rescue he wasn't invited or asked to help with. And the media ate it up hook, line and sinker.
- sillysaurus3 8y agoYeah, how dare he try to help.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI don't know what went down but I think he should have asked the people on location what they need. Maybe he did... If he didn't it's just pretty arrogant to spend a little time on a problem you know nothing about and then publicly exclaiming you know a solution. A good idea now would be to send money to the family of the driver who died. That would be helpful.
- yani 8y agoHe connected with the officials and the rescue teams before starting anything.
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- thewizardofaus 8y agoAwesome news. But how long until Hollywood capitalizes on this event and makes a movie? "... Based on a true story, starring insert big name actor here..."
- ryanmercer 8y agoThey already are http://www.newsweek.com/hollywood-producers-head-thai-cave-rescue-site-plan-blockbuster-movie-1015501 http://www.newsweek.com/hollywood-producers-head-thai-cave-r...
- los_angeles 8y agoActual quote from the source article, literally by Michael Scott: >Pure Flix films managing partner Michael Scott told AAP in Chiang Rai, “I see this as a major Hollywood film with A-list stars”.
- yani 8y agoThe film crew are already in the cave filming. It is not a bad thing since everyone trapped is out. They have to collect as much data as possible while everything is still fresh
- dmix 8y agoInteresting stories (like this) are extremely valuable to our species. The movie about the Chilean miners [1] being trapped was an amazing film and I learned much about the conditions of miners and mine safety from viewing it and reading up on it later. It also shined a light on the local Chilean politics at the time. It's hardly just mere Hollywood money grabbing IMO. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2006295/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2006295/
- bdjdnsbcf 8y agoAnd Elon Musk once again made a fool out of himself.
- jeandejean 8y agoWant to know where Elon Musk will be in 2 secs? Follow the Internet buzz!
- dang 8y agoPlease stop posting unsubstantive comments.
- epx 8y agoIt was a near tragedy, a man died in the process, but someway it is comforting to see everybody concentrated on a problem like this, trying to help fellow people, than waging war etc.
- StavrosK 8y ago"Near" tragedy? A man died.
- rusk 8y agobut not for nothing - he was instrumental in saving 13 lives
- sillyquiet 8y agojust this. It's trite to say it, and I'm sure it's cold comfort to his family, but we all die, and this person went out saving lives, young lives with lots of years to save, and in service to others. His death is somber and sad, but not tragic.
- ryanmercer 8y agoNot only did he die saving lives, he died doing (apparently) what he loved, being a frogman. I imagine he didn't hesitate to show up and get in the water fully knowing his life was at as much risk as theirs, those guys are a different breed altogether.
- jonbarker 8y agoWith all due respect lets all be wary of the 'cult of sacrifice' which often takes hold when someone dies to save someone else. Any time someone dies to save someone else, I suggest the appropriate reaction is that we should simply regret among ourselves that we didn't develop a technological solution to the problem before the problem presented itself, not engage in hero worship (please don't read this as diminishing what this person did, it was a sacrifice, and those kids owe it to him to live good lives now).
- sillysaurus3 8y agoCan anyone explain how the heck they found the children in the first place? Seriously, I can't wrap my head around it. The kids were stranded 2.5 miles inside the cave. All anyone knew was that the kids didn't return form their hike. How does that lead to "Hey, let's dive into the cave and maybe we'll find live children"? I guess they were expecting the worst, but still.
- kikowi 8y agoThey found their shoes in front of the cave.
- rusk 8y agoFrom what I recall, they used knowledge of the caves coupled with predictions of where they might reasonably have gone to escape the rising flood waters. It wasn't so much a stab in the dark, but it was still a very difficult and dangerous search, in the dark.
- ltc5505 8y agoThey were signing their names on a wall of the cave, which was stated to be a tradition in the news reports that I read. So I think if was more like "why isn't [child] back from [explicit cave] yet?"
- Puer 8y agoThe kids were known to explore that cave regularly. Presumably they had followed a consistent path into the cave (or had a destination in mind) but never got that far. Some caves are also fairly linear, but that may not have been the case here.
- taejo 8y agoThey actually went much deeper into the cave than they intended, trying to escape the flood waters (which had already blocked their way out).
- shawabawa3 8y agoThis article explains it: https://www.mamamia.com.au/how-did-the-thai-boys-get-stuck-in-cave/ https://www.mamamia.com.au/how-did-the-thai-boys-get-stuck-i... One of their class mates knew they'd gone to the cave, apparently as an initiation to the team, writing their names in the wall. Their bags were found outside the entrance They only went into the entrance of the cave but sudden monsoon rains blocked it and forced them further in as the water rose, all the way to 2.5km in to an elevated section
- jeandejean 8y agoI'm more surprised by the fact that they went that far into the cave in the first place! The coach should be in prison now for putting so many kids in danger and be the cause of a rescue diver death!
- 0xcafecafe 8y agoApparantely they were forced to retreat deep within the cave due to the rising water from the rains which arrived early.
- acomjean 8y agoYou are being down voted (probably too glib), but among all the excitement of everyone getting out, there is a rescuer who did die. There have been discussions about what responsibility people who act recklessly and put the rescuers in harms way should take (unprepared mountain climbers/ people who don't evacuate storms). I too was transfixed by the maps and cave cross sections and did wonder how they got in that far. The parents public statement to the coach was not to assign blame. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/07/parents-boys-trapped-thai-cave-tell-coach-dont-blame-yourself-rescuers-race-against-time https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/07/parents-boys-tr...
- bluGill 8y agoOne factor in this discussion on what do to about "idiots" is: if it weren't for those people who do "stupid things" and require rescue, the rescue organizations would have to hire people to simulate real rescue conditions. There are always situations that require rescue that are not the fault of the victim. We thus need prepared rescuers, and the best preparation is real situations. The problem with a simulation is it is unethical to send someone out without enough food/shelter to potentially survive. Thus you never get a real race against the clock where you have to make life or death decisions without enough information.
- briandear 8y agoThat’s like saying we should send soldiers to go fight people if there isn’t a real war happening becuse there might be one in the future. Suggesting that this incident was a good thing because it helped the rescue teams train is a bit odd.
- laurent123456 8y agoThat's good news, but I don't see how it's relevant to HN. The FAQ even says it: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
- astura 8y agoPulling off a successful cave rescue takes tremendous skill and planning and involves the world's domain knowledge experts - its not an idle task. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. >Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it.
- tgb 8y agoWhy wasn't the death of Saman Gunan more widely publicized? I barely heard about it - in the NYT article on this it's a single sentence 2/3rds of the way through the article. I'd have thought that the concept of someone sacrificing themselves for the recovery of 12 children would have been a major story. The Guardian's liveblog (or whatever this is) doesn't mention it in the first couple pages, nor do the responses of any of the world leaders and celebrities quoted mention it. Elon Musk's participation is cute but has gotten way disproportionate response compared to the lack of acknowledgement that I see this guy getting.
- rusk 8y agoThis was front page news in Ireland.
- jonhendry18 8y agoThe BBC gave him plenty of coverage. The man's death probably isn't a big focus of the Guardian's live coverage because it happened a while ago. There may have been an article just about him, I don't recall.
- dgritsko 8y agoIt was all over Reddit when it happened (which is where I heard about it).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- datburg 8y agoUnfair life. I am glad the children are out of the nightmare. I feel crushed because a young man (navy seal) with bravery focused on helping as much as possible without thinking twice. RIP our hero. God, if those children were doing an initiation endangering themselves. Remember the newborns dying in Syria, Africa and other places. I wish the 13 well.
- pcnix 8y agoIt was something that happened last week, and was very widely publicized then. I remember reading it on the front page of every newspaper site I visited.
- msvan 8y agoIt turns out that if your suffering is spectacular enough, people will come save you. Maybe if we throw all the poor children of the world into caves people will start caring about them.
- nerdponx 8y agoHow much did this rescue mission cost?
- yani 8y ago1 human life
- yani 8y agoand US$3m
- yani 8y agoMost of the money and equipment were donated.
- chrisan 8y agoWhile it may be true, not really the point GP was getting after. Cost or donation, can we expect the same for every child in need?
- empath75 8y agoEspecially in a place like Thailand where there is a lot of real poverty still.
- aljungberg 8y agoCan we expect 1 person to sacrifice their life for every 13 children in need? Helping every child in poverty requires a long term paced effort rather than a one time heroic one. As inspiring as this rescue was, it doesn't scale.
- sdiq 8y agoBeen following the Guardian and their Thai based journalist, Michael Safi. But, was their any other non-TV English language media house that was covering the event minute by minute?
- stephen_g 8y agoABC (Australia) have had a live blog going the whole time - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-10/thailand-cave-rescue-live-blog-operation-continues/9962796 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-10/thailand-cave-rescue-l...
- agumonkey 8y agominus one diver, don't forget that
- davidw 8y agoI wonder if it'd be possible to use some of the momentum and talent from this to mount a rescue attempt to save the children trapped in cages in the United States.
- stingraycharles 8y agoHonest question: what are you talking about?
- mayankkaizen 8y agoTrump. Immigrants' children. I'm not from US and never been to US either. But many of these stories are heart-breaking.
- stingraycharles 8y agoAh, right, that makes sense. Not from the US either, but have seen it in the news; couldn’t connect the dots. Thanks for the info.
- briandear 8y agoThis “Trump” obsession drives me crazy. Trump could write a check to NAACP and the news story would be how the check wasn’t large enough and because of that, he’s racist. Here is Jeh Johnson talking about the separation of kids from their arrested parents: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/obama_dhs_sec_jeh_johnson_we_detained_children_it_was_necessary.html https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/obama_dhs... But several years ago nobody really cared, which tells me, nobody really cares that much now — it’s just yet another tool to generate the rabid hysteria necessary to bolster midterm elections prospects. Every week it’s literally another outrage, while the previous week’s outrage is quickly forgotten. This shouldn’t be a political thread, but since someone seems to be following the “outrage playbook” by making a comment about the detention of those arrested for illegal immigration under Trump, but likely never said anything when it happened under prior administrations —- it is important that we call out political manipulation when we see it. Perhaps if those opposing Trump had actually protested about kid-detention years ago when it started, maybe I might consider their outrage genuine. But now, people are using detained children for political gain, which is pretty disgusting in my opinion. It’s fasionable to pretend to hate Trump, I get it. But it’s funny how people seem to fall all over themselves to express how “woke” they are. Implying that before Trump they were all sleeping? Because in the case of detained children, they sure as hell were sleeping — because their guy was in the White House.
- dekhn 8y agoMeanwhile, Elon Musk is jumping up and down saying "pay attention to me! Pay attention to me!"
- the_spacebyte 8y agoAnd what did you do to help? He was asked if he could do anything and tried.
- dekhn 8y agoI didn't do anything to help- I don't think saving 12 people in a Thailand cave means a lot, globally speaking. Why do you say he was asked to do something? He offered to help. More realistically, however, he should have chosen to stay out of the way- he didn't get his device to the site until the rescue operation was already half completed. It wouldn't have worked anyway- it wasn't fit for the purpose. Getting a bunch of PR for somethign that wasn't really asked for and doesn't work seems pointless attention getting.
- the_spacebyte 8y agoHere https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015105500105412610 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1015105500105412610 Yes it was not an official call for help, but someone asked. He even acknowledged that experts were already on the field, and his first reaction was to just send goods there before advancing with engineering ideas. Following your idea why were there so many civilian divers? Why not let the Thai military do the job? That's just PR. Those attention-seeking bastards. The guy likes solving problems and has a good team to do it as well, he did it on is own dime, so why all the fuss? "I didn't do anything to help- I don't think saving 12 people in a Thailand cave means a lot, globally speaking." yes that's the thing you're just a neckbeard who cares shit about others and feels smug about pointing fingers on the internet. Who cares if its Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Jon Doe, if they have the resources and will, why shouldn't they try to help?
- nAwYz 8y ago
- mapcars 8y agoWhy is this on hacker news?
- ryanmercer 8y ago13 people were rescued from 2 something miles inside a cave by an international effort that involved engineers, possible plans for a drilling effort, master divers and even had people repurposing spacecraft parts and accessories to attempt to make a rescue pod in time to be of use. Humans came together to find a solution to a difficult, life or death, situation. That's why.
- hansthehorse 8y agoThey were 1.5 miles in (2.5km as the story states) not that it's important, just a units crusade. This could have been so much worse if the rains hadn't held off as they did.
- JorgeGT 8y agoLessons showcased here about planning, risk management, international cooperation, decision-making, etc. can be extrapolated to many other aspects of human endeavor. This operation is valuable knowledge for everyone.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 8y agoBecause hackers have hearts and some of us have kids.
- cubano 8y agoAmen.
- elvirs 8y agoRIP hero Saman Kunan who gave his life for them.
- throwawayqdhd 8y agoYou really have to love Wikipedia. It's barely a week old and you already have a page with so many references and detailed information. Thank you, all the anonymous contributors.
- akuji1993 8y agoYet there are still people claiming the site is not good for anything. Of course, you shouldn't base your phd paper on it, but I'll use it for any information first checkpoint, all the time.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- typon 8y agoWikipedia is the best website for following: 1. Current events. 2. Sports tournaments. The information entropy level is quite high, with basically no ads, extremely good formatting (relevant tables, charts etc.), and relatively unbiased. This doesn't even mention the benefit of getting simple background information on the subjects with just a simple click (or even a hover these days) It's really a treasure.
- roystonvassey 8y agoI find it even good for medical conditions, condensed history of major events, understanding geography and biography of actors, sportspersons and politicians. Actually, isn't it the * best * first website to learn about anything?
- jonathanpoulter 8y agoI find learning mathematical concepts from Wikipedia very difficult
- devrand 8y agoHave you tried simple Wikipedia? I find it way easier to conceptualization the topics there and then move onto the main Wikipedia to get more detail, as needed.
- throwawayqdhd 8y agoStory of the year for me. Just goes to show what we can accomplish together. Hopefully it will go as a +1 in our ledger if the fate of our species is ever decided
- kadenshep 8y agoThankfully Lord Musk was there to help. Unlike Saman Gunan. In all honesty, please remember and keep repeating Saman Gunan's name. He gave his life for these kids. Musk reused a part of his rocket that his company didn't even build, in a situation where it would never work. It was so obviously a PR stunt it's disgusting. He even personally showed up to the cave site as if he was ever going to actually contribute something. I can only imagine how much of a nuisance this was to the people running the rescue operation, doing the true blue work that resulted in these kids being saved. >"Even though their equipment is technologically sophisticated, it doesn't fit with our mission to go in the cave," said rescue chief Narongsak Osotthanakorn. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/44755093?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=5b44778ec8d4550682f92157%26Elon%20Musk%27s%20mini%20submarine%20was%20not%20needed%26&ns_fee=0#post_5b44778ec8d4550682f92157 https://www.bbc.com/news/live/44755093?ns_mchannel=social&ns... I already saw Musk being referenced in a positive manner in these comments so we're going to put that to rest immediately. The guy in charge of the operation basically called their presence there completely useless in the most PC way imaginable.
- inteleng 8y agoYou don't need to bring Twitter's relentless schoolyard bashing here. The escape tube was a misfire - nobody used it, and it was too late, and Musk promoted it way too much on Twitter - but would you have preferred Musk ignore the people who messaged him to help out? You point out two people. Both sacrificed things selflessly - for Kunan, it was his life. For Musk, it was a little money and a few hours. You do not need to negate one sacrifice in order to celebrate the other. Your sarcastic attitude is incredibly unpleasant, and I would personally never hire or contract someone that converses in the manner you have. It obviously gave you a dopamine rush to write that little diatribe, but good luck turning that temporary feeling into genuine goodwill or income.
- perilunar 8y agoElon Musk replied to the BBC report here: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785 Direct quotes from one of the dive team leads: "please keep working on the capsule" and "it is absolutely worth continuing with the development".
- kev6168 8y agoMan vs. nature, we are still bugs. What are your thoughts on how technology advancement in the next 30 years would change the way of this kind of rescue mission? Say in 2040, can a group of robots finish the mission in one day with ease? That will be awesome, people can be rescued from bad situations much sooner.
- RugnirViking 8y agoI cannot imagine how robots could be used for this kind of rescue in the near future. Each situation like this is too unique to allow for a generic 'life-saving robot'. Even if we were to really try to develop a state-of-the-art cave diving rescue robot, what would we use it for in this case? We still would have to have people working crisis psycology and sitting with the kids as they were extracted, and some way to get the status of the robot as it is kilometers underground with no signal and no easy way we can have a 2km cable. We would still have to figure out how to get the people actually out, which was only really accomplished in this case by getting the best of the best to teach the kids to get themselves out. A robot would not be able to help a child fit through a tiny hole underwater in the dark
- kev6168 8y agoI agree with you taking care of people psycologically is probably the weak point of a robot task force. But in terms of pure technology advancement, I 'll just throw some random possibilities here for discussion. Remember even as of today AI can compete on a high level of huge video games, face recognition, natural language processing, playing Go/Chess game, etc. Imagine in 30 years, all the robots, armed with AI and made of materials a few times stronger than whatever we have today, should be able to scan, learn, adapt and go. Another minor point, the robots can probably carry some heavy machines (or laser guns) and just pound hard on the cave's narrow sections to make the passage wider. Etc.
- avar 8y agoIt'll probably change things so it'll never happen in the first place. By that time even poor kids in rural Thailand will be carrying smartphones on them at all times. Those, combined with location-based awareness will warn them just as they're about to enter the cave "uh, are you sure you want to do that? Look at the current weather forecast....".
- factsaresacred 8y agoGreat thread covering all of the volunteers here: https://twitter.com/duduang2/status/1016301667380224000 https://twitter.com/duduang2/status/1016301667380224000 Highlight: > "This man...drove more than 200 km just to give ice-cream to the rescue team" While this level of selflessness and generosity can be found almost anywhere, the Thais are truly some of the most gracious people you'll meet. That country is a gem. The society is currently torn apart politically (similar, but different, to the polarization in the US) so good to see something unite the nation. And with such a happy ending, too.
- XalvinX 8y agowow, some actual good news for a change
- bdz 8y ago"If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost, just as many volunteers turn out. Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature—a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price. Weakness? It might be the unique strength that wins us a Galaxy." (Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein)
- theossuary 8y agoWhat a great book, just finished listening to it. Afterwards I heard a lot of people thought it had a pro military/war bent; I don't think they read the book
- joejerryronnie 8y agoFantastic book. And I'm pretty sure it's a staunch anti-war critique.
- luckydata 8y agoNo it's not, but the movie was. Just check the wiki page, he wrote it himself (under Major Themes, Militarism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers
- joejerryronnie 8y agoInteresting, I'll have to re-read as it's been several years. My original takeaway was that the surface level pro-military engagement aspect was meant as deep irony and that the user was encouraged to draw their own conclusions. Mine was that war is horrific, even if done for the right reasons.
- Udik 8y ago"Yeah, war is horrible, but we have to do it." That's militarism.
- why-el 8y agoIf they recover in time would be cool to see them at the World Cup final.
- damontal 8y agois there some way to have a diving mask that can see in murky water? something like night vision - only it identifies solid objects and maps them for the diver?
- LastZactionHero 8y agoI feel like we all really needed this story. For once, there's nothing political or divisive. There's no one to be mad at. It's not "us or them". The world's top experts came together, volunteered for a dangerous mission, sacrificed, and pulled it off. Ra! Ra! Humanity! Feels like a brief moment of redemption.
- chrisper 8y ago>There's no one to be mad at. Except at the soccer coach who thought it was a good idea to endanger 12 children by going into a cave during monsoon season which also led to the death of an innocent person?
- GavinMcG 8y agoRemember that two weeks ago, monsoon season hadn't started yet.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- thieving_magpie 8y agoThe monsoon season starts in July. They went in at the end of June. All warning signs in front of the cave are about July through October. There's a risk there sure but you're giving out bad information here needlessly.
- 67_45 8y ago"the end of June" Otherwise known as july
- anothergoogler 8y agoThe news cycle sure thought we needed it.
- hndamien 8y agoSome people still decided to get mad at Elon.
- mancerayder 8y agoIt's very odd that this somehow made it to all the media headlines. Sure, a happy ending and so forth, but in a world of ~7.5B, including indescribable tragedies on a daily basis, it makes you wonder how they knew the daily drama would lead to such ad dollars.
- mancerayder 8y agoI suppose it's not a global headline and discussion point unless Silicon Valley finds a way to market itself and its technical prowess in a Musk. To wit: "At least 155 people have died in floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain in western Japan, says the government. It is the highest death toll caused by rainfall that Japan has seen in more than three decades. Rescuers are now digging through mud and rubble in a race to find survivors, as dozens are still missing. About two million people have been evacuated from the region after rivers burst their banks." (BBC, "Japan floods: 155 killed after torrential rain and landslides", 10 Jul 2018)
- Reedx 8y ago"Kids stuck in well" stories have a history of success for the news.
- InclinedPlane 8y agoHow do we save x million children from poverty, disease, etc? Well, we need to mobilize huge trans-national organizations, we need to drive systemic changes, we need multi-year disease intervention programs, etc. How do we save a dozen kids trapped in a cave? If we put together some resources we can save all their lives within a week or so. Also, starving kids have traditionally motivated enormous outpourings of effort, so your hypothetical straw man comparison isn't very accurate.
- mancerayder 8y agoRescue effort comparisons and news story priority comparisons aren't the same. I'm referring to the latter, while you're suggesting I'm doing the former. I gave a perfect example in the Japan floods. And sorry, now that you bring it up, rescue efforts aren't worth mobilizing for transnationally? Even for aid?
- merpnderp 8y agoI do my part in promoting captialism, which has done more to pull children out of poverty than any other program or charity in the world. Free market reforms in China and India have done just brain blistering amounts of good in reducing human suffering, from child malnutrition, suicide rates, longevity, and access to healthcare.
- c22 8y agoHow do you tease apart the effects of capitalism and industrialism? Or are they inextricably linked in your world view?
- dnautics 8y agoLook at the noncapitalistic countries that industrialized and compare outcomes.
- c22 8y agoCan you provide me one or two examples from this set? I found a list on Wikipedia [0] of currently non-capitalist countries and many of them sound like perfectly nice places, but I am not aware of when they all "industrialized" and what their socioeconomic climate was like at the time and it seems like drilling deeper is going to require a lot of research. So an example or two that you know about would be helpful. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-capitalist_and_communist_parties_with_national_parliamentary_representation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-capitalist_and_co...
- striking 8y agoNot all of these countries are "non-capitalist." This is a list of parties that are anti-capitalist/communist, some with only one or two seats in their country's parliament. The introduction to the article even makes this clear: > Of the 66 states listed here, 9 of them are republics ruled by a socialist, communist or anticapitalist party, five of them are official socialist states ruled by a communist party, of them four of them espouse Marxism–Leninism (China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam) while the fifth (North Korea) espouses Juche. You are probably looking for the current article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_state#List_of_current_socialist_states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_state#List_of_curren..., or the historical article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states.
- tiatia123 8y agoAnd Musk hat to brag about building a submarine. Don't want to call him an idiot, but as a start explore the caves of Sagada in the Philippines. Then talk about escaping in such a flooded cave with a tiny submarine. https://wikitravel.org/en/Sagada https://wikitravel.org/en/Sagada Diving in caves is dangerous as f.. and requires a special training. Not sure that cave diving is part of a Navy Seal training. I read the dive out of the cave takes five hours. Hands of to the SEALS and kids for pulling it off.
- tiatia123 8y agoI have to assume that everybody who downvoted this post has never ever made a real cave tour. A tour that involves hours of climbing up and down, diving and walking over tons of bat shit. Submarine my ass.
- 67_45 8y agoWhy is this here?
- 67_45 8y agoPeople literally have stepped over a homeless person to get a closer look at the shop window tv covering this story. It represents the worst of humanity -- TV news swarming the cave site because it's going to get them lots of money. People pretending to care about the welfare of others when it's really a morbid reality television show to them -- entertainment.
- armenarmen 8y agoI don’t get this attitude that I’m seeing in here. So many commenters “who cares about 13 when millions of kids are starving” JESUS be happy for once. “Oh it’s a lovely day outside” “easy for you to say but don’t you know it’s raining at someone’s wedding in Omaha”
- jefe_ 8y agoThis story has been a captivating lesson in the power of constraints. We have powerful drills and pumps, but adding the constraints of portability and time, we find fewer options. We have great mapping and tracking capabilities, but put them underground and everything changes. We have talented cave divers, but they aren't doctors or vice versa. When you start looking at all of the resources and all of the requirements, and then the thin slice of compatibility that was actually effective in locating, sustaining, and rescuing the team, it really was incredible.
- supergirl 8y agothanks elon
- jamaicahest 8y agoI'm grateful they were rescued, but how is this Hacker News material? I can go to Reddit if I want generic news articles.
- exolymph 8y ago> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- spreiti 8y agoA personal anecdote from me and my wife. The weekend before they found them my wife told me that a monk who was praying for them at the cave said that a ghost[1] was hiding them from the eyes of the divers until Monday[2]. They shouldn't be worried about the children and their coach as the ghost would take care of them. To my surprise they found them on that Monday. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/world/asia/ap-as-thailand-cave-goddess.html https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/27/world/asia/ap-as... [2] I don't have a source as my wife was just scrolling through her Facebook feed