4 ms·
That's really cool. I had assumed they always sacrificed the bird and I can't imagine everyone being OK with that over time. Regardless of the cost, most peop
by mdip 4y ago
That's really cool. I had assumed they always sacrificed the bird and I can't imagine everyone being OK with that over time. Regardless of the cost, most people don't relish the idea of killing an animal even if it means their own survival so it doesn't surprise me that an invention like this exists.
As the article states, I can imagine the miners responsible for this duty became attached to the birds (especially after they had a way to keep it alive).
There's a detail that got lost in the shuffle there, though. While it had been possible to detect CO presence since -- I think -- the 20s or 30s, they didn't become common until the 80s. My Dad used to fly a private plane across the country selling CO detection solutions provided by his company to factories and businesses until the late 80s (from a little company in Ann Arbor, MI). Of course, come the mid-90s, most of us had devices that could detect presence and (to a lesser degree) levels in our homes.
- ClarityJones 4y agoThe symbolism is important too. If the company is dedicated to reviving the canary, then that helps miners believe that the company also cares about their lives and will work to rescue them in case of a disaster. If they don't care about the death of the canary in the coal mine...
- bee_rider 4y agoHuh, so the physical canary in the coal mine is also a metaphorical “canary in the coal mine” with respect to the company’s level of prudence. Is there a word for something which is analogy for itself?
- MichaelZuo 4y agoA recursive analogy? Though a quick verbatim google search reveals no precedent in linguistics... so I may have just invented that one.
- bobkazamakis 4y agoor they don't use the word recursive to describe two meanings, rather than recursion.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoUnless I misread it, it seems to be the same meaning in both cases?
- hnuser123456 4y agoSo, a missing canarie can mean a lack of good air, or lack of employer caring about non-human (and to some extent human) health.
- ZhangSWEFAANG 4y ago[flagged]
- DiggyJohnson 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Be kind. Don't be snarky.
- mdip 4y agoI'm not sure what he made, but it was his first job so I'd imagine it was pretty terrible. Actually, I think he would have moved on from that job a lot earlier except that the owners paid for him to get his pilots license and then paid him to fly -- something I know he really loved. He eventually created his own startup outfitting (mostly automotive) manufacturing plants with ... just about anything. His company (being that it was actually his) also paid him to fly to various far flung (often rural) automotive plants -- it was often a business advantage that my Dad could drive 30m to the airport where his plane was stored and fly to a plant in any of the bordering states in as little as 30 minutes. I recall a story where one of the plants was 2-3 hours from any airport you could get a commercial flight into, and you always had to connect at Chicago O'Hare[0]. The only way to get there for day shift was to take the earliest flight out, but that flight was always cancelled and everyone was tossed on the next flight that left 2 hours later. Some days took 10 hours flying commercial ... it's like a 12 hour drive from here. When the plane was available[1], there was a small landing strip 10 minutes from the plant. I'm guessing it was 3-4 hours in the air (and a lot of time over Lake Michigan) in the Piper Cherokee but I have no idea ... it no more than 40 minutes of driving, though! [0] Which, apparently, was folly at every turn. [1] He shared it with a few other men but his company was the one using it the vast majority of the time.
- diydsp 4y ago> most people don't relish the idea of killing an animal even if it means their own survival 1,743 animals are killed for food per second(1) which aren't even required for their survival. And their deaths are celebrated(2) (1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33656480 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33656480 (2) https://www.google.com/search?q=i+love+animals+they+are+delicious https://www.google.com/search?q=i+love+animals+they+are+deli...
- shadowgovt 4y agoKilling at arm's length is very different from bearing witness to the death of an animal one has cared for.
- HellsMaddy 4y agoIt might feel different to a human, but it’s the same for the animal either way. Similar to hiring a hitman, it’s no more moral to kill at an arm’s length. I believe it is less moral because there’s an additional victim (the person performing the killing).
- shadowgovt 4y agoAgreed, but the topic was feelings of humans. > most people don't relish the idea of killing an animal even if it means their own survival When people stop and think about factory farming, they hate what they think about. The trick most people employ is to not think about it.
- HellsMaddy 4y ago> When people stop and think about factory farming, they hate what they think about. The trick most people employ is to not think about it. Exactly, this is known as "cognitive dissonance".
- Retric 4y ago
- thatguy0900 4y agoI think this is something that everyone just adopts society's views on. I would wager most of the miners didn't care about the canaries at all. In early America people shot bison from trains for the hell of it. "The railroads began to advertise excursions for “hunting by rail,” where trains encountered massive herds alongside or crossing the tracks. Hundreds of men aboard the trains climbed to the roofs and took aim, or fired from their windows, leaving countless 1,500-pound animals where they died." https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-the-buffalo-no-longer-roamed-3067904/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-the-buffalo-no-...
- jollyllama 4y agoThe duality of man.