[HN Gopher] Government planned it 7 years, beavers built a dam i...
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Government planned it 7 years, beavers built a dam in 2 days and
saved $1M
Author : croes
Score : 58 points
Date : 2025-02-04 21:13 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.voxnews.al)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.voxnews.al)
| wtcactus wrote:
| I think this is the most beautiful example I have ever seen of
| how inefficient, wasteful and unnecessary is almost all of the
| government.
|
| If the beavers built it in two days, it means that half a dozen
| men could have easily built it at an extremely low cost in a
| week.
|
| Instead, they were planning it, fighting bureocracy and wasting
| money for years.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| I dont know, this is literally what beavers do. I think you are
| really selling the beavers short here.
|
| I mean they've been evolving and being naturally selected to
| optimize for this specific activity for eons.
|
| You wouldn't expect the government to be better at making honey
| than bees? Better at swimming and catching fish than a dolphin?
| Better at making silk than silk worms?
|
| If I was going to be #2 at Dam building I'd want to be #2,to
| beavers.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| Yeah. You could argue that nature has been planning this dam
| for 2.4 million years. (Though, granted, it spent no money
| doing so.)
| wahern wrote:
| Nature's currency is blood.
| ok_dad wrote:
| It's time, actually. Natures currency is a butt ton of
| time.
| baerrie wrote:
| Friction in government is a good thing, otherwise the will of
| the few would outweigh the many and catastrophic projects would
| be allowed all of the time. Yes men could have done it but they
| wouldn't maintain it like the beavers and they certainly
| wouldn't have done it in a way that fits with natural cycles
| like the beavers did. This is more of a case for fewer nature
| altering projects and more restoration of ecosystems
| jncfhnb wrote:
| I challenge you to build a beaver dam in 30 days.
| stickfigure wrote:
| "Start with two beavers..."
| fastasucan wrote:
| >If the beavers built it in two days, it means that half a
| dozen men could have easily built it at an extremely low cost
| in a week.
|
| Not at all.
| david_allison wrote:
| Any reliable sources on this?
| kseistrup wrote:
| There's a Czech source that some seems to refer to:
| https://english.radio.cz/beavers-build-planned-dams-protecte...
| teekert wrote:
| I suddenly found myself to be a consultant, part of the
| assignment was to construct a governance model. I found it such a
| vague unsticky term that I developed the mantra: "Governance: How
| decisions are being made". And it opened my eyes because in so
| many places there is no process for how decisions are being made,
| and they are just not being made.
|
| Yeah I know, but I'm just a molecular biologist, it's easy to see
| how a bacterium decides to move up a food gradient. But Humans...
| oh boy.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Is there a way to direct or coax beavers into building exactly
| where you want?
| FaridIO wrote:
| You'd probably have to go through a similar set of bureaucratic
| steps to get that done.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| Sort of! Beavers build dams as an instinctive response to the
| sound of running water.
|
| If you have pet beavers in your house, and down put a phone
| playing the sound of running water, they'll start dragging
| stuff over to where the phone is.
| teruakohatu wrote:
| How common are beavers as indoor pets ?
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| In the US at least I don't think it's legal anywhere
| without a permit. I've seen videos like op has posted, it's
| usually rescue animals being looked after not actual
| housepets
| anotherhue wrote:
| Are these undocumented beavers?
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(page generated 2025-02-04 23:00 UTC)