[HN Gopher] "One Day Longer and Those 13 Boys Would Be Dead"
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       "One Day Longer and Those 13 Boys Would Be Dead"
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 340 points
       Date   : 2021-07-10 12:29 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.zeit.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.zeit.de)
        
       | jtchang wrote:
       | It's only after the rescue that they can give retrospectives on
       | exactly how difficult things were at the time. My utmost respect
       | goes out to each of these heroes for doing what needed to be done
       | even at the possible cost of their own lives.
        
       | sdfsadfjaslj wrote:
       | https://archive.is/j6410
        
         | dt3ft wrote:
         | Thank you.
        
         | wizzwizz4 wrote:
         | That's only one page.
        
           | chris_overseas wrote:
           | There's a link to page 2 at the bottom https://archive.is/o/j
           | 6410/https://www.zeit.de/wissen/2021-0...
        
             | wizzwizz4 wrote:
             | It redirected to a paywall when I clicked it. (But it was
             | that exact link, before the redirect. Strange.)
        
               | tpmx wrote:
               | Someone archived it too, eventually. Looks like
               | archive.is/archive.today rewrites links to URLs it has
               | archived.
        
           | detaro wrote:
           | and if you click the link to the second page you get to ...
           | the second page.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | sandebert wrote:
       | Season one of the podcast "Against all odds" is also about this.
       | 
       | https://wondery.com/shows/against-the-odds/
        
       | fab1an wrote:
       | The most harrowing thing I have read in a long time. I can't even
       | begin to fathom the immense bravery of these divers - and that of
       | the boys. I didn't really follow the Musk bit of the story, but
       | the fact that he had the audacity to shitpost about any of these
       | guys make me think vastly less of him (and I'm usually in the
       | Musk-respecter camp)
        
         | throwaway2048 wrote:
         | Lets not make this comments section about an idiots
         | disparagement of a hero.
        
         | camjohnson26 wrote:
         | Vernon Unsworth. He sued Musk for libel in the United States
         | and lost. Musk not only called him "pedo guy" on Twitter, but
         | implied he had married a child bride, when he hadn't, and later
         | hired a private investigator to dry to dig up dirt on Unsworth,
         | which found nothing. Musk also sent this letter to Buzzfeed
         | where he doubled down. He thought it was off the record, and
         | says some terrible things:
         | https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/elon-musk-thai-...
         | 
         | It came out later that the private investigator was scamming
         | Elon Musk, and lied to him about finding damaging information.
         | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/08/elon-musk...
         | 
         | Bizarrely, Unsworth's lawyer was L Lin Wood, famous for later
         | apparently having a mental breakdown and supporting conspiracy
         | theories accusing chief justice John Roberts of pedophilia and
         | murder, and being asked to undergo a mental examination by the
         | state bar of Georgia.
         | 
         | L Lin Wood's handling of the Unsworth trial was widely panned
         | as incompetent. Unsworth is clearly a hero, and Musk inserting
         | himself into that situation and permanently tainting Unsworth's
         | name was unconscionable.
         | 
         | https://reason.com/2020/12/31/pro-trump-lawyer-tries-to-impl...
         | 
         | https://reason.com/2021/01/31/treating-lin-woods-wild-conspi...
         | 
         | https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-defamation-win-mis...
        
           | FearlessNebula wrote:
           | This doesn't excuse Elon slandering Vernon Unsworth, but
           | didn't Vernon talk shit about Elon's good faith attempt at
           | making a submarine to try to rescue the people?
        
           | camjohnson26 wrote:
           | Musk's submarine was a joke. The video of it shows it was
           | clearly too large and too rigid to maneuver through the
           | caves. Musk said they would make a video showing the
           | submarine going from point a to b, but never did. Watch these
           | videos of Unsworth both after the rescue and the trial and
           | compare them to Musk's response. It was absolutely sickening.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/uDP6_4jUmiQ
           | 
           | https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-50698294
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHJZGcj5KHU
        
             | mseidl wrote:
             | I'll have to find the video, but he said that sub wouldn't
             | have made it through the first 50m.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | astoor wrote:
           | As well as completely transforming many people's view of Musk
           | (he ceased to be "the least bad billionaire" for many), the
           | case also reflected extremely badly on the US legal system,
           | showing that if you are rich enough you can get away with
           | pretty much anything.
        
             | tialaramex wrote:
             | "Least bad billionaire" is a weird tag to give Musk.
             | 
             | I mean, there are a bunch of people who either inherited a
             | billion dollars or married into it, and, not being
             | psychopaths, they just decided to spend that money doing
             | good and have done with it. That seems pretty easily to be
             | "less bad" than somebody like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or
             | Warren Buffett who set out to acquire wealth..
             | 
             | I guess if you've got a really out-there moral utility
             | function maybe saving the eyesight of a million children or
             | whatever counts for nothing while making a slightly better
             | toaster oven is a 100% goal achieved, but outside that I
             | can't see any way Musk could be the "least bad
             | billionaire".
             | 
             | Actually I can see a case for a different weird utility
             | function _if_ we also had some billionaires who got wealthy
             | from scientific discoveries or mathematical breakthroughs
             | or philosophical insights. If Martin Hellman had earned
             | $100M per year since the 1980s for licensing fees from DH
             | kex he could be a billionaire and we could argue about
             | whether that 's an important thing to give to the world. Or
             | if Judith Butler had become fabulously wealthy explaining
             | to people that gender is a social construct, she'd be a
             | billionaire and we could argue whether that was great. But
             | in reality we do not pay philosophers or cryptographers
             | billions of dollars, that sort of money goes to somebody
             | like Musk or Bezos.
        
               | shawabawa3 wrote:
               | JK Rowling is a good example. She became a billionaire
               | from writing Harry Potter but didn't stay one for long as
               | she donated most of it
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | anonymousiam wrote:
             | Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla July 10, 1856 - January 7, 1943
             | 
             | https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/nikola-tesla-birth-
             | ann...
        
           | mcguire wrote:
           | " _Bizarrely, Unsworth 's lawyer was L Lin Wood, famous for
           | later apparently having a mental breakdown and supporting
           | conspiracy theories accusing chief justice John Roberts of
           | pedophilia and murder, and being asked to undergo a mental
           | examination by the state bar of Georgia._
           | 
           | " _L Lin Wood 's handling of the Unsworth trial was widely
           | panned as incompetent. Unsworth is clearly a hero, and Musk
           | inserting himself into that situation and permanently
           | tainting Unsworth's name was unconscionable._"
           | 
           | Bizarre! I saw his suits when I went digging through the
           | post-election hootenanny. Incompetent would be the gentlest
           | way to describe them.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
         | When Musk first appeared I was hugely supportive. Definitely a
         | fan of what he was doing both with SpaceX and Tesla.
         | 
         | I'm still a fan of what those companies are doing but Elon has
         | destroyed my view of him with his own behavior and words. We
         | should stop turning a blind eye to his labor practices.
         | Likewise, we should give the engineers and other workers that
         | are actually accomplishing these things more credit, vs
         | pretending it's one lone genius. Tom Mueller in particular
         | deserves far more credit.
        
           | _tulpa wrote:
           | I don't really see what Elon actually does beyond cultivating
           | public image and having money.
        
             | jamiek88 wrote:
             | Let's not go too far the other way now.
             | 
             | He's chief engineer at spacex for starters.
        
               | heavyset_go wrote:
               | He's also the Technoking of Tesla. The titles don't mean
               | much when he can make them up and give them to himself
               | whenever he feels like it.
        
               | delecti wrote:
               | Edit: I can admit when I'm wrong. I stand by my assertion
               | that it's absurd to call him a founder of Tesla, but his
               | position in SpaceX seems to be legit.
               | 
               | ~~He may be _credited_ as chief engineer at SpaceX, but
               | that doesn 't mean he's meaningfully contributing to
               | actual engineering efforts.~~ He's also _credited_ as a
               | founder of Tesla, despite not actually being involved in
               | the founding of that company.
        
               | kiba wrote:
               | Elon Musk is a real engineer, especially if other
               | engineers said he's an engineer.[1]
               | 
               | Whatever his history is with other people or whatever his
               | personality flaws or weakness, he's the real deal.
               | 
               | [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0t
               | a/eviden...
        
           | sx_throwaway wrote:
           | I used to work at one of the Musk companies. He was a huge
           | mark in the "cons" column when I was deciding whether or not
           | to take the job. He is embarrassing and he made me a little
           | ashamed to say where I worked. I did my best to ignore him
           | and I suspect others did too. No one ever talked about him.
        
           | heavyset_go wrote:
           | > _We should stop turning a blind eye to his labor practices.
           | Likewise, we should give the engineers and other workers that
           | are actually accomplishing these things more credit, vs
           | pretending it 's one lone genius._
           | 
           | We also need to hold him to account when Musk tries to ruin
           | the lives of his employees who speak up about what goes on in
           | his companies. He even tried to frame one of them as a mass
           | shooter to police[1] in an effort to get them SWAT'd.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-13/when-
           | elon...
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | tedivm wrote:
           | Gwynne Shotwell deserves far more of the credit for SpaceX
           | than Musk does.
        
             | s5300 wrote:
             | And Musk _repeatedly_ publicly gives this to her /says this
             | himself.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Most large companies have people that deserve more credit
             | than the sitting CEO. However, that's part of the role of
             | CEO is to be the one people look to as being in "charge".
             | 
             | Musk definitely doesn't shy away from that part to his
             | detrement (clearly he doesn't see it that way). But I'm
             | firmly with the previous poster in that I like what
             | Tesla/SpaceX are doing and attempting, but think Musk is a
             | bit of a tool. The irony is not lost on me that sometimes a
             | calmer figurehead might not have been able to lead to
             | success a company like Tesla and/or SpaceX.
        
           | mcguire wrote:
           | Musk first appeared as what eventually became that
           | universally loved company, PayPal. Which he was booted out
           | of. Twice.
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | No one here turns a blind eye to his labor practices.
           | Everyone here at HN knows to steer clear. It's everyone that
           | doesn't frequent this website that needs enlightening.
        
           | exporectomy wrote:
           | > We should stop turning a blind eye to his labor practices.
           | 
           | Aren't there legal systems to make sure that's being done
           | right? Is "we" some labor inspectors?
           | 
           | If you want to give credit to engineers, where does it end?
           | There are millions of engineers in the world doing important
           | things. Crediting that many people will dilute the value of
           | it all.
        
             | heavyset_go wrote:
             | > _Aren 't there legal systems to make sure that's being
             | done right? Is "we" some labor inspectors?_
             | 
             | "We" can be past, current and future employees, who might
             | not contact or work with labor inspectors out of reverence
             | to "the mission" or Musk himself.
        
       | uoaei wrote:
       | What the fuck is this dark pattern? You must agree to ads before
       | later revoking consent?
        
       | happynacho wrote:
       | Non-paywall?
        
         | jauhar wrote:
         | you can view the article if you click the green "i agree"
         | button
        
       | janci wrote:
       | I still don't get it. The tunnels were too narrow near the
       | ceilling, but wide near the floor. The divers could not keep at
       | the floor because they could not navigate due to zero visibility,
       | zero communication and no tether points.
       | 
       | Would not a sonar help? A full spacesuit-like helmet with air to
       | be able to talk via radio? Laying down some flexible tunnels that
       | could be inflated with air or maybe just pumped with clear water
       | to gain visibility? So many ideas come to mind, but they chose
       | the most difficult transport of sedated and tied up kids ever. I
       | assume they had a good reason, but still do not understand it.
        
         | brazzy wrote:
         | > Would not a sonar help?
         | 
         | Portable sonar systems with in-helmet displays were put in use
         | by the US Navy only last year: https://www.navalnews.com/naval-
         | news/2021/03/us-navy-teams-w...
         | 
         | > A full spacesuit-like helmet with air to be able to talk via
         | radio?
         | 
         | Would fuck up your buoyancy, but there are systems where you
         | have only an air pockt around your mouth. But the range would
         | be so low as to be nearly useless inside a cave.
         | 
         | > Laying down some flexible tunnels that could be inflated with
         | air or maybe just pumped with clear water to gain visibility?
         | 
         | Even assuming that you had those already available, laying them
         | would be a very slow process, and they would be a hindrance
         | rather than help in very narrow passages.
        
           | bccdee wrote:
           | This may be a somewhat silly question, but why couldn't they
           | just have used flashlights? I'm sure there's an obvious
           | reason, but I don't know what it is.
        
             | biasedbrain wrote:
             | Mud
        
             | jgwil2 wrote:
             | I assume it wasn't just darkness they were dealing with,
             | but also that the water was so muddy it became opaque, in
             | which case lights wouldn't have helped them.
        
             | ben0x539 wrote:
             | I assumed it's not just darkness but mud.
        
         | lamontcg wrote:
         | > Would not a sonar help?
         | 
         | I'm not even sure what you're envisioning but something
         | lightweight and not bulky that is capable of producing sonar
         | images similar to whatever the detectors were in Aliens doesn't
         | exist. And it was zero viz and in completely zero viz you can
         | barely see your hand in front of your mask, assuming you have
         | illumination.
         | 
         | > A full spacesuit-like helmet with air to be able to talk via
         | radio?
         | 
         | That creates a dead space that fills up with CO2, you'd need to
         | actively pump that out through the rebreather which now creates
         | more things to bash into rock and fail and kill you, plus
         | generates more bulk which is the last thing you want into those
         | tight caves.
         | 
         | You can use a full face mask (FFM) that has comms with a
         | rebreather but in a single file cave there's no point and cave
         | divers know how to communicate in single file in zero viz by
         | touch contact. And there's not much to communicate since either
         | you're moving or you're temporarily stuck and the person behind
         | you can't really help you much. With a rebreather you can also
         | talk pretty well in water if you're just close enough to each
         | other. I've also managed to communicate effectively by talking
         | into a normal scuba regulator as well, without having to write
         | anything down.
         | 
         | > Laying down some flexible tunnels that could be inflated with
         | air or maybe just pumped with clear water to gain visibility?
         | 
         | That would probably take weeks and you'd be fighting the
         | pressure of the incoming water inside of the cave. Air probably
         | wouldn't work at all, you'd need to build a pressure
         | differential airlock so that's likely impossibly complicated.
         | Water might work if you built a reservoir at a higher altitude
         | to gain pressure, but them you need to pump the water up there
         | and you need flexible inflatable tubing that can hold a couple
         | atmospheres of pressure and is large enough for a human, and I
         | think I'd prefer to be surrounded by rock rather than by saran
         | wrap that could fail and I'd get entangled it in the shredded
         | plastic and drown. No thanks. As evidenced by the successful
         | recovery, zero viz can be dealt with.
         | 
         | > So many ideas come to mind, but they chose the most difficult
         | transport of sedated and tied up kids ever. I assume they had a
         | good reason, but still do not understand it.
         | 
         | They're all trained at more or less doing that, they've been
         | through the environment, and they've all been through rescue
         | training to drag an unconscious buddy out of the cave.
         | Strapping the kids down, giving them sedatives and putting a
         | FFM on them solved all the problems of taking someone out of
         | the cave that wasn't trained in diving at all. It gives you the
         | smallest package to drag out of the cave along with giving you
         | access to the kids. The coffin that Musk was proposing was more
         | or less just that. By trying to keep the kids dry, now you have
         | CO2 problems, you need a scrubber in the coffin and you need
         | strong enough walls to deal with the pressure differential,
         | that creates bulk and makes it more difficult to move through
         | the restrictions, and if anything goes wrong the kids suffocate
         | and die and there's no access to them at all.
         | 
         | From the perspective of a trained cave diver the solution that
         | they used was nearly perfect.
        
         | cirrus3 wrote:
         | > I still don't get it.
         | 
         | Clearly not. Why does someone always have to assume they know
         | better?
         | 
         | > they chose the most difficult transport
         | 
         | What are you even basing this statement on?
        
           | janci wrote:
           | I do not assume I know better. I am just asking why any of
           | these ideas would not work.
           | 
           | > What are you even basing this statement on?
           | 
           | As I understand it, the transport was immensely difficult.
           | The divers and the rescued kids were at great danger. It is
           | unbelievable to me they managed to save them without any
           | special solution.
           | 
           | I'm sorry if my comment was misunderstood.
        
             | fastasucan wrote:
             | How do you know that this wasn't the easiest/only option?
             | (Since you said it was the hardest).
        
         | fastasucan wrote:
         | Im amazed that you come to the conclusion that the people who
         | work with this and risked their lives didn't have these obvious
         | ideas rather than there is reasons why they wouldn't work that
         | you dont understand.
        
           | anonydsfsfs wrote:
           | What? The GP didn't come to that conclusion. It's pretty
           | clear to me they're trying to understand the thought process
           | of the rescuers and why they rejected the obvious ideas.
           | Asking an expert why they decided against something is a
           | great way to learn what works and what doesn't work. It
           | doesn't mean you're insinuating the expert is an idiot.
        
         | heisenzombie wrote:
         | I've had very limited experience of low/no visibility diving -
         | it's hard to overstate how incredibly difficult it is to
         | accomplish anything. You can't see anything, you can only hear
         | your own loud disorienting breathing, you can't feel gravity,
         | your sense of time goes completely out of the window. It makes
         | moving very short distances hilariously slow. You constantly
         | have to keep yourself oriented in full 3D space. If I had
         | dropped something 10 centimetres from my face, I may have never
         | found it. Trying to map out alternate routes through kilometres
         | of unknown cave system with incredible time pressure? It's a
         | miracle they found even one route.
        
         | McDyver wrote:
         | A sonar wouldn't help in such a pressing situation. The sonar
         | would only provide a map that would still need to be
         | interpreted, and wouldn't solve the actual problem of
         | transporting the boys.
         | 
         | Those "helmets" exist, but helmets as such are used in
         | commercial diving with a tether to the diver. Not very
         | practical to have it running along the cave for multiple
         | divers. The full face masks that allow that are mainly used in
         | open circuit diving and are bulky. I don't know if the
         | pros/cons would make a huge difference.
         | 
         | At one point I believe Tesla or just Musk were planning and
         | developing a pod to carry each boy, but the tunnels and sumps
         | were so narrow that they wouldn't be able to make the turns.
         | 
         | Having tunnels with compressed air to inflate them would have
         | similar issues with the bends. Not to mention the amount of gas
         | and pressure needed to displace all that water.
         | 
         | I guess they took the most direct and logistically available
         | option. I'm sure it will be a case study for the future.
        
       | laingc wrote:
       | What is outrageous is that the divers got at most an MBE - on the
       | same New Years Honours list where heroes such as Michael Palin
       | and Twiggy received knighthoods.
       | 
       | I have never seen anything really deserving of a knighthood than
       | what those divers did.
        
         | pmyteh wrote:
         | The two lead divers (Richard Stanton and John Volanthen) both
         | got the George Medal, the UK's second highest civilian award
         | for gallantry. I think the knighthood is seen more as a kind of
         | national treasure long service award these days.
        
       | bastawhiz wrote:
       | This man showed some extreme self restraint in not even bringing
       | up Elon Musk beyond a casual mention of the submarine idea. If
       | Elon had called me a pedo because I didn't use his spaceship
       | submarine I don't think I'd have held back quite as much.
        
         | tpmx wrote:
         | Musk wrote that tweet about a separate UK diver.
         | 
         | Still, this Finnish diver did show remarkable restraint here.
        
           | muthdra wrote:
           | I respect Musk more than many commenters you see around. I
           | understand he's not the billionaire savior many people seem
           | to believe. I remember him mentioning something about how the
           | sub couldn't go wrong because if the kids got there and the
           | water rose, it should get where the kids were. How feasible
           | was it, really?
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | It was never even remotely feasible. Musk's design was
             | simply too large to fit through the restrictions in the
             | cave. It's the kind of nonsense that only someone with no
             | real diving experience could come up with.
        
               | TheParkShark wrote:
               | The restrictions were in the upper part. The article
               | explains the boys walked in through a much larger path
               | underneath.
        
               | freeopinion wrote:
               | Musk had no diving experience, and no knowledge of these
               | caves. He was working from incomplete knowledge and
               | intuition.
               | 
               | Almost all of Musk's critics in the matter were working
               | from no knowledge of the caves and little to no diving
               | experience. Some of Musk's critics were working from the
               | best available knowledge in both areas.
               | 
               | But this diver points out exactly what Musk intuited.
               | There was a much easier route for all those boys to have
               | hiked into the cave. Musk's submarine would probably have
               | worked over that route. But nobody had knowledge of that
               | route at the time.
               | 
               | One solution would have been for Musk or somebody to
               | build little robots that could explore the caves in zero
               | light with sonar mapping equipment. The robots would need
               | to navigate and operate underwater and abovewater in very
               | difficult terrain. It seems like an impractical pursuit
               | under the circumstances. Why even mention such a
               | ridiculous idea? Well, why not? Why not put all options
               | on the table. You can dismiss the "Have Scotty beam them
               | out" stuff immediately. But they were talking about
               | establishing supply lines for months to keep them alive
               | until the water went down. They were talking about
               | drilling holes 1km+ to hopefully tap the chamber where
               | those kids were. They were talking all sorts of stuff.
               | 
               | And yes, somebody was talking body-sized submarines. And
               | somebody might have been talking about dive robots. And
               | sonar mapping.
               | 
               | I was glued to my news feed with a bag of potato chips
               | and so were almost all of you. I don't know diving and I
               | don't know those caves.
               | 
               | I think the divers who rescued them are mental. I mean
               | really crazy. I mean, seriously, who in their right mind
               | would do stuff like that? I think the effort just to find
               | the kids was risk-taking at a scale that terrifies me.
               | Their brains do not work like mine. Thank goodness.
               | 
               | Musk's brain doesn't work like mine, either. I'm not
               | going to criticize the divers. They are clearly heroes.
               | Musk doesn't come off as a hero in this story. But I'm
               | not going to criticize him either. His intuition was
               | right. He did more than click reload on his browser for
               | two weeks. Nobody else liked his idea. Isn't that the
               | story of his life?
               | 
               | In the end, his idea was one of many that were rejected.
               | Instead they went with the crazy idea to tie everybody
               | up, knock them out, and hope they don't accidentally
               | knock their masks off. Who's bright idea was that? Well,
               | it worked.
               | 
               | Let's not bag on the people who made tremendous efforts
               | to rescue the kids. And let's not bag on the people who
               | made some efforts that didn't produce results. And please
               | don't bag on me, who did nothing.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Please let's all show the same restraint.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | except that elon did not initiate the exchange of words. Elon
         | proposed his submarine. He was told by the diver Vern Unsworth
         | to 'stick his submarine where it hurts'.
        
           | krapp wrote:
           | Elon Musk is a grown man, not a child, and he should be
           | capable of tact and self control. "He started it" is not a
           | valid excuse for his public, slanderous little temper
           | tantrum.
        
             | LegitShady wrote:
             | capable != required
             | 
             | If he seriously proposes to help and is told to stick it
             | where he hurts, he can choose whether or not to respond
             | with 'tact and self control' but he isn't required to.
             | 
             | The diver is the one without tact and self control, but you
             | slag elon for responding in kind instead of the diver. You
             | expect more from musk but musk owes you nothing - not even
             | tact. He doesn't have to accept abuse from someone else out
             | of fear of losing your good opinion. It literally doesn't
             | matter to him at all.
        
               | bwship wrote:
               | Musk is still a dick for the comment. He was butt hurt,
               | because his stoner idea of a tiny submarine was met with
               | the "umm, WTF" that it should by actual people saving the
               | kids lives.
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | I don't disagree but he wasn't a dick in a vacuum -
               | someone was a dick to him, he was a dick back. Your
               | expectations that musk should just take it on the chin
               | without responding in kind are your expectations and
               | honestly nothing to do with musk. This guy was rude to
               | him, he was rude back, you're disappointed in musk, musk
               | doesn't care, you're still fixated on the response rather
               | than what set the tone - the original rude message.
               | 
               | I don't see why musk should care about being nice to
               | someone who started off being rude.
        
               | detaro wrote:
               | Yes, that was his excuse, "back home calling someone a
               | pedo was just a normal insult", but Musk did a bit more
               | than "was rude back". Hiring a PI to dig up dirt? Sending
               | further lies about the guy to media?
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | its why I don't start fights with billionaires who can
               | afford to look into you without effort. I wouldn't do it,
               | but once it became a thing I'm 100% every billionaire has
               | a firm who looks into people who start fights with them.
        
               | cycomanic wrote:
               | If someone is derailing an important rescue, by making
               | useless suggestions to please his own ego, what in your
               | view is the appropriate response.
               | 
               | What in your opinion should we say to spectators at
               | accidents you hinder the rescue workers, by e.g.stanfing
               | next to them and giving advice?
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | The question is the tone - this person was rude first,
               | and got a rude reply, and the fixation is on the rude
               | reply rather than the one that set the tone.
               | 
               | The tangent about 'hindering rescue workers' has nothing
               | to do with reality. they were exchanging messages on
               | twitter - it's nonsense to equate that to anything like
               | you are.
        
             | dehrmann wrote:
             | Musk actually won the defamation case because--my words--
             | you can't take anything he says seriously.
        
               | hef19898 wrote:
               | Ah, the Tucker defence!
        
               | busterarm wrote:
               | Correction, the Rachel Maddow defense.
               | 
               | You have to pick the person to use it first.
        
               | techrat wrote:
               | Terrible attempt at a "No, u, lib" retort.
               | 
               | https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-karen-mcdougal-
               | case...
               | 
               | > A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit against
               | Fox News after lawyers for the network argued that no
               | "reasonable viewer" takes the primetime host Tucker
               | Carlson seriously, a new court filing said.
               | 
               | https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-
               | cant-...
               | 
               | >Now comes the claim that you can't expect to literally
               | believe the words that come out of Carlson's mouth. And
               | that assertion is not coming from Carlson's critics. It's
               | being made by a federal judge in the Southern District of
               | New York and by Fox News's own lawyers in defending
               | Carlson against accusations of slander. It worked, by the
               | way.
               | 
               | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-tosses-suit-trump-
               | affair-...
               | 
               | > The judge said that lawyers for Fox "persuasively"
               | argued that "any reasonable viewer 'arrive[s] with an
               | appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statements"
               | Carlson makes, according to a court filing.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | hef19898 wrote:
               | From the law suite: A reasonable viewer would not
               | actually think OAN is paid Russian propaganda, instead,
               | he or she would follow the facts of the Daily Beast
               | article; that OAN and Sputnik share a reporter and both
               | pay this reporter to write articles," Bashant wrote.
               | "Anything beyond this is Maddow's opinion or her
               | exaggeration of the facts."
               | 
               | Source: Variety
               | 
               | Reads different from the Tucker defence:
               | 
               | A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit against
               | Fox News after lawyers for the network argued that no
               | "reasonable viewer" would take the network's primetime
               | star Tucker Carlson seriously.
               | 
               | Source: Business Insider
               | 
               | Saying some opinion wouldn't be take. serious is _very_
               | different from saying the person having thay opinion
               | wouldn 't be taken serious.
        
               | kevmo wrote:
               | Musk won the case because he had the most expensive
               | lawyers in the world.
        
             | Helloworldboy wrote:
             | The slander case was dropped because the diver was indeed a
             | pedophile
        
       | indigodaddy wrote:
       | " Together with Finnish journalist Johanna Elomaa, I wrote the
       | book "Sukellus Valoon" (Diving into the Light) about my
       | experiences during the rescue mission and how it changed my life"
       | 
       | ^ From page 2 of the article. I Googled for this book but wasn't
       | able to find anywhere to buy it. Supposed to have been published
       | in 2018. Perhaps no English version yet... was anyone able to
       | find the book?
        
         | homarp wrote:
         | https://www.johannaelomaa.com/books/sukellus-valoon/#mctmp
        
           | indigodaddy wrote:
           | Ah thanks! It's unclear whether there is an English version
           | yet. From all indications on that page it appears perhaps
           | not. Also the "Order here" link appears non-functioning (at
           | least on iOS Chrome).
           | 
           | I'd bet an English version will be not too far in the future
           | (I hope!)
        
             | tpmx wrote:
             | http://kontextagency.com/non-fiction/diving-into-the-light
             | 
             | Looks like there's only a Finnish original issue and a
             | Swedish translation published so far.
        
       | trackofalljades wrote:
       | paywalled
        
       | wintorez wrote:
       | I wish there was a way to flag behind pay wall links.
        
       | chha wrote:
       | There is a couple of other stories that comes to mind,
       | unfortunately both of them were about recovering the dead.
       | 
       | "Raising the Dead" is about the accidental discovery of a diver
       | in SA, and the recovery efforts there. [1]
       | 
       | "The cave divers who went back for their friends" is about a trio
       | of finns who went back into a Norwegian underwater cave system to
       | recover two friends who got stuck and died there. [2]
       | 
       | [1] - https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/water-
       | activi...
       | 
       | [2] - https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300
        
         | pontifier wrote:
         | 4 friends of friends died in a flooded cave in my home town.
         | 
         | https://www.deseret.com/2005/8/23/19908025/4-drown-in-cave#8
         | 
         | I had been hearing about the cave, and had been invited to go
         | there a couple of weeks before this happened. I decided not to
         | go because it didn't sound safe. I was concerned about the
         | oxygen content of the air pocket and decided it was too
         | dangerous.
        
         | goodcanadian wrote:
         | This one is more a story of dumb luck, but there was a case of
         | a crew member surviving for 2.5 days in an air pocket in his
         | sunken ship:
         | 
         | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-25205914
         | 
         | He was discovered by divers hired to investigate the sinking
         | and recover the bodies.
        
           | skhr0680 wrote:
           | That video is classic. My favorite part is when the diver
           | sees the man and "mission control" thinks the diver is
           | panicking from seeing a corpse and tries to get him to calm
           | down, then the swearing while they're trying to figure out
           | what to do.
        
             | djmips wrote:
             | How about "What is your rank?" "I'm the cook" "You're the
             | cook?" "Yes sir" "They always survive..."
        
         | mongol wrote:
         | There is a great documentary about the Finnish cave divers.
         | "Diving into the unknown":
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_into_the_Unknown
         | 
         | "Last breath" is also a really good documentary about rescue
         | under water
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Breath_(2019_film)
         | 
         | Both of these I rate 5/5
        
           | 34679 wrote:
           | I'm just going to toss this here because I really enjoyed the
           | audiobook:
           | 
           | Shadow Divers - The True Adventure of Two Americans Who
           | Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World
           | War II
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Divers
        
             | gpanders wrote:
             | This book is absolutely incredible. I just read it
             | recently. I didn't expect to like it that much (the
             | description doesn't sound _that_ interesting), but Kurson
             | is such an excellent author that he totally hooked me.
             | Highly recommended.
        
       | pleaser wrote:
       | page 1 https://archive.is/j6410
       | 
       | page 2 https://archive.is/d6i50
        
       | pan69 wrote:
       | > ...as a teenager, I caused the death of a friend and that
       | accident has marked my life. I had largely blocked it out until
       | this mission in Thailand.
       | 
       | Whoo. This guy must have gone through so much mental stress
       | during this time.
        
       | locallost wrote:
       | It's difficult to find the right words. Just reading this felt
       | like a million times more intense than anything I ever
       | experienced. I felt the stress and claustrophobia the whole time
       | as I was reading it. Just wow.
       | 
       | Except Elon Musk is a total juvenile jackass. Those words are
       | easy to find. It's a pity he has no shame.
        
       | stanrivers wrote:
       | Good lord, I am hyperventilating just reading this. The people
       | that went in and saved these boys are amazing. I am glad the
       | author took the time to pull this together to share the story of
       | the divers as well. Absolutely amazing - mind-boggling amazing -
       | what dedicated, skilled, selfless people can do.
        
         | lilSebastian wrote:
         | > what dedicated, skilled, selfless people can do.
         | 
         | Save lives and earn the accolade 'Peado guy' from Elon Musk for
         | having the audacity to do so.
         | 
         | Edit: the Musk fanboys are heavy on the down votes today.
        
           | arcticbull wrote:
           | Yea haha I was going to remind folks of that too. Elon was
           | building a submarine that everyone involved told him was a
           | terrible idea and to please leave them alone because he was
           | hampering the effort, and Elon responded by calling one of
           | the lead rescuers a "pedo guy" and got sued over it.
           | 
           | I believe his defense was that "pedo guy" was a common insult
           | in South Africa.
           | 
           | Simpler times haha.
        
             | marvin wrote:
             | It's probably not worth the effort providing any form of
             | defense of any part of Musk's role in this, but his team
             | did ask the British lead divers whether they should carry
             | on working on the sub (well, underwater transportation
             | tank) project, and they received the response that the lead
             | divers wished them to continue as a contingency.
             | 
             | Also, one should obviously not falsely accuse someone of
             | being a pedophile, including if they tell you to shove your
             | submarine up your ass.
             | 
             | But really, this whole thread shows up every time the cave
             | story is mentioned, and I think the whole thing just
             | detracts from the fantastic international act of heroism
             | that the rescue was. It was really a beautiful achievement
             | where no adversaries had to be hurt, the kind of uniting
             | against the cruel laws of nature that I wish the world
             | would see a lot more of.
        
             | lilSebastian wrote:
             | Simpler times... 3 years ago...
        
               | arcticbull wrote:
               | "Before the war" if you will haha - as in before COVID,
               | which has distorted at least my perception of time
               | greatly.
        
             | bambax wrote:
             | Musk showed his true character.
        
               | Karsteski wrote:
               | It was an asshole thing to say, but I don't think someone
               | being an asshole means that that moment defines their
               | "true character"
        
               | detaro wrote:
               | He afterwards paid someone to dig up more dirt and
               | emailed media with further lies about the guy. At that
               | point it kind of stops being "heat of the moment".
        
               | lilSebastian wrote:
               | An expert in the field risks their life to save children,
               | is accused of being a peadophile. That's a long way from
               | being an a-hole.
        
               | adamisom wrote:
               | Yeah if every harmful thing constituted the "true
               | character" of someone, we'd all be sinners. Granted, if a
               | lot of harm is done, then it might be fair. (Cue the
               | knee-jerk "isn't dragging a hero's name through the mud a
               | lot of harm?"; I don't know, can you tell me what _wouldn
               | 't_ qualify as a "lot of harm" under your worldview?
               | Everyone knows the diver was a hero and if you have
               | evidence his life is affected, pls share)
               | 
               | It's just negativity bias; considering the negative to be
               | "more true" or accurate than the positive.
        
               | dafelst wrote:
               | I have a friend of a friend who worked directly under
               | Musk at one of his big ventures. Can confirm that Musk is
               | a giant egotistical asshole, albeit a brilliant one.
        
               | pjc50 wrote:
               | Lots of people say dumb things in the heat of the moment.
               | Choosing to stick by it and not apologize is the
               | confirmation dialogue for showing your character.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Oh, but it wasn't just that one thing. It's just layer
               | upon layer with that guy. This one was pretty damn bad
               | though
        
               | s5300 wrote:
               | Just like when he gave tens of thousands of kids in Flint
               | Michigan safe drinking water the U.S. government has been
               | denying them for decades.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | >I believe his defense was that "pedo guy" was a common
             | insult in South Africa.
             | 
             | This is also what Luis Suarez said about his comment that
             | got him in trouble that his comment is common where he's
             | from. Just because it's what is said in one place does not
             | mean that it is acceptable anywhere else (if even in the
             | one place).
        
         | iforgotpassword wrote:
         | I was wondering how far they had to dive as soon as I started
         | reading, and then when they finally revealed it I was like
         | "holy hell!"
         | 
         | It was mentioned that one of the drivers damaged his gear going
         | in, and that's the case where it's something attached to your
         | body, which you can develop a fair amount of feeling for, like
         | you get used to driving a car and just know how wide it is. I
         | can't imagine how it must feel to drag along a sedated human
         | when you can't see anything. There must have been situations
         | where you accidentally hit some obstacle with one of the kids
         | and then this dreaded feeling of not knowing if you displaced
         | the mask and are now dragging a kid drowning in it's sleep
         | across the mud for another hour.
         | 
         | As cheesy as it might sound, this is one of these rare stories
         | that restore faith in humanity. Absolutely amazing.
        
       | jonplackett wrote:
       | Is there a film being made of this yet?
        
         | cududa wrote:
         | No idea why you got downvoted so much, but yes it's out, it's
         | called The Cave
        
           | jonplackett wrote:
           | Yeah, seemed like a fairly reasonable question!
           | 
           | Thanks! I wonder if it gives as chilling a representation as
           | this article. I will go find out!
        
       | mongol wrote:
       | What effect did the sedation have? Were they still conscious?
        
         | dingusthemingus wrote:
         | Yea this sounded pretty strange to me,
         | 
         | Im aware sedation slows breathing down, so some oxygen can be
         | saved if human attached to tank is not hyperventilating for
         | hours,
         | 
         | Pretty crazy the kids were sedated and hands bound and feet
         | tied!
        
           | thatguy0900 wrote:
           | The divers said why, they had previously rescued two adults
           | from that cave in a much easier tunnel, but the adults
           | panicked underwater and ripped their masks off. The people
           | you're saving can easily kill you too if they hit your mask.
        
             | lamontcg wrote:
             | Yeah just in Open Water rescue course you learn that people
             | will panic and reject all their gear, including the
             | regulator that could keep them alive, and will start to rip
             | your gear off and try to take you with them.
             | 
             | One of those things that you have to consider, particularly
             | if you don't know the person that you're trying to rescue
             | is at what point you're basically going to wind up fighting
             | back and possibly intentionally drown the other person so
             | that you survive. If the person is on the surface of the
             | water and you have working scuba gear this can be as simple
             | though as just descending and they'll stop trying to kill
             | you. I've thought about the problem if you're in a cave and
             | someone is nearly OOA and panicking and what would have to
             | happen, but that's unlikely enough of a situation that
             | hopefully I'll never have to worry about it.
             | 
             | Its real obvious to me why the kids were strapped down and
             | pumped full of happy drugs.
        
           | tokai wrote:
           | From wikipedia:
           | 
           | <<The effect of ketamine on the respiratory and circulatory
           | systems is different from that of other anesthetics. It
           | suppresses breathing much less than most other available
           | anesthetics.[29] When used at anesthetic doses, ketamine
           | usually stimulates rather than depresses the circulatory
           | system.>>
        
           | janoc wrote:
           | Probably the last thing you would want is an untrained kid to
           | panic during the rescue. They would most likely kill both
           | themselves and their rescuers in the process.
        
             | masklinn wrote:
             | Yes especially during cavediving, it's difficult enough for
             | an experienced diver, and panicking / flailing individuals
             | can drown would-be rescuers in pools.
        
           | VistaBrokeMyPC wrote:
           | The purpose of the ketamine vs other analgesics is you don't
           | need to intubate or monitor respiratory system nearly as much
           | as you do for say, propofol.
        
         | ianlevesque wrote:
         | I don't think so, towards the end the diver stated:
         | 
         | > If need be, we were to give them another shot of ketamine in
         | case they were waking up.
        
           | gameswithgo wrote:
           | being on ketamine while trapped in a cave would be
           | ammmmaaaaazzziinnngg (ly terrifying)
        
             | goldenkey wrote:
             | There's a difference between a k-hole and being sedated..
        
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