[HN Gopher] The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood ...
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The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto
Author : igonvalue
Score : 94 points
Date : 2021-06-27 01:02 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| bombcar wrote:
| It never occurred to me that Palo Alto means Tall Stick(Tree)
| even though I knew Alto meant tall.
| [deleted]
| jacquesm wrote:
| Pole in English = Paal in Dutch = Palo in Spanish
| kurofune wrote:
| Not really, "palo" means "stick" in spanish.
|
| Pole = Poste.
| aljg wrote:
| "Pole" in English is derived [1] from the Latin palus (from
| whence "palo"). The archaic English word "pale" (also
| meaning stick or stake) survives in the expression "beyond
| the pale."
|
| [1]https://www.etymonline.com/word/pole
| kurofune wrote:
| That's a neat etymological fact I wasn't completely aware
| of, but in today's spanish "palo" doesn't mean "pole" nor
| "poste", it just means "stick".
|
| I believe we are talking about two different things,
| because I'm only clarifying the current meaning of the
| word.
| emmelaich wrote:
| Same! Even though I knew the words palisades, impale, the
| phrase "beyond the pale" (beyond the fence).
|
| All the same derivation.
|
| https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pale#Etymology_2_2
| guipsp wrote:
| If it makes you feel better, it never occurred to me either,
| and I know the meaning of both Palo and Alto
| [deleted]
| noodlenotes wrote:
| Just wait until you see the Stanford logo.
|
| http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_N...
| quercusa wrote:
| I grew up on the East Coast, so my first trip to Big Basin
| Redwoods State Park [0] was awe-inspiring. I'm glad to see this
| tree surviving so far from its preferred environment.
|
| [0] http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=540
| dmckeon wrote:
| Big Basin is mostly closed just now after the CZU fire, but I
| can recommend Henry Woods [1] if you are visiting Mendocino.
|
| [1] https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=438
| drdeadringer wrote:
| I also grew up on the East Coast.
|
| My first "real" job out of University had me pinball around the
| continental US, which eventually lead me to California.
|
| When I drove down from Washington [state], I passed through a
| grove of Redwoods. Having never been to California and never
| seen live and in person Redwood trees before, I took a few
| minutes to pull over and chill.
|
| Clearly an experience I still remember.
| vidarh wrote:
| The Seattle Times appears to host a copy of the same article
| without a paywall (at least I'm not getting one):
|
| https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/the-unlikely-survi...
| clpm4j wrote:
| I used to live in a condo building directly across the street
| from El Palo Alto. Walked by it every morning. Like the article
| says, it's in a small park right next to the Caltrain tracks, and
| you probably wouldn't take notice of it unless you already knew
| about it. I didn't know a lot of the history that this article
| provided, though... I love the thought of a >1k year old living
| thing just standing there inconspicuously.
| jonshariat wrote:
| Ditto! Man that was a great spot to live so much to walk to
| nearby and you have a caltrain stop right there.
|
| I remember walking through that tiny park reading the usual
| signs when I read the Palo Alto one. Its very unassuming and I
| was so surprised I had to look it up and verify I had it right.
| contemporary343 wrote:
| Walked by it every day! I remember reading that if high speed
| rail ever does materialize (and that's a big, big if..) they'd
| have to do something about the track positions and the tree.
| batsy71 wrote:
| I live right next to this tree. Interestingly, the city of Palo
| alto also has some electrical plumbing attached to this tree. Not
| sure if it's for the tree's health or just some connections for
| the nextdoor train tracks.
| icedistilled wrote:
| The article actually talks about a misting system set up a few
| decades ago for the tree since coastal redwoods can take in a
| lot of their water from fog. It didn't make clear what the
| current status of that system was or I missed that part.
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(page generated 2021-06-29 23:01 UTC)