Hacker News Reader

Comment by sharkweek | Hacker News Reader

I’m nearing 40 and when I’m at any beach with sand you better believe I’m gonna see how deep I can dig a hole. Brings back a lot of that childhood joy of being absolutely certain I was almost about to dig through the earth’s crust once it started to get hard.

Only about 19.999 miles short if we’re talking about averages.

View on HN

I’m in the same age bracket and hole-digging enthusiasm bracket as you but recently became aware of the dangers of this whimsical pastime! [1]

That’s not to dissuade you or anyone else from doing it (I have continued!), but I think everyone should be aware of the very real danger. As they say, knowing is half the battle!

1 - https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1100068725/beach-holes-sand-c...

People digging holes on public beaches should fill them up again so other people don't risk getting injured.

Absolutely, I had a near-death experience myself.

We have different definitions of "real danger"

I mean, I’m just saying the danger exists (which is what “real” means to me) and people should be aware of it. Not that people shouldn’t dig big holes. I thought that was clear in my original comment but evidently not.

Real danger is something that is likely to happen. The sorts of things that end up on "top ten weird deaths" youtube videos aren't in that category.

The fact that digging a hole on the beach somehow summons children and adults both out of thin air excited about the project and offering to help is something I love oh so much.

The best I've done was a three tier well rounded circle about 15 feet across and it took the better part of two days for an entire house party size crew to dig. In tiers because it was sunken seating around an even more sunken firepit, to keep it out of the wind and solve the smoke-in-faces problem. While sitting on the first level your shoulders would be level with the surrounding ground. Far enough back to be above the tide, and when not in use we put traffic cones around it so it would be at least a little obvious in the dark and not a death pit. Filling it in at the end of our trip was a ballache but the only proper thing to do.

Building a dam on a stream can be like this too.

For 10 years I’ve been building hotspring pools at one spring. The material you add gets coated in limestone deposits pretty quickly. So it really feels like building a legacy for my young ones to play in when they’re older.

Careful, generally, diverting or otherwise messing with the flow of waterways is illegal. Got a talking to from a DNR officer when I was a kid.

Not just illegal, the potential impact on a waterbed is huge. I spoke at length with a BLM hydrologist about this, artificial deepening of discrete hot spring pools can and has caused entire areas to wash out into a uniform warm muck.

Y’all realize they change all the time, right?

I'm sure you know much more about natural rates of mineral deposition and erosion and the potential effects of altering them than a literal industry professional with decades of experience.

Those terrorist bevers must be stopped at all costs.

You’re joking, but there is concern about the environmental damage beavers cause.

https://courses.hamilton.edu/beavers/conservation-and-destru...

Christ, enough of the anti-beaver comments. Beavers co-evolved with species and their environment for a long time and (were) part of the eco system before we nearly eradicated them like we did many other species. From the article you linked:

> Even though the beaver destroys life, its actions give way to new life and help conserve the overall environment. The positive effects of the beaver on its environment far outweigh the negative effects.

That depends how much alternative space there is in the ecosystem. Just because the species could evolve together in an entire wilderness doesn’t mean they can co-exist in every square kilometer.

Ok I'll bite.

How did the world survive for millions of years with bevers around before we killed most of them on every continent?

Just to play devil's advocate: the first algae were extremely damaging to the environment by releasing toxic oxygen. Of course, that took millions of years to take effect.

So beavers could in principle also be damaging, but taking a long time to kill. (And, of course, nowadays a lot of organisms have come to depend on the once-toxic emissions of algae. Beavers might have a similar effect on the ecosystem.)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

Killing off nearly all the wolves, mountain lions, lynx, bears, coyotes, foxes, etc, is probably a good chunk of the problem when talking about small mammal populations.

The environment causes environmental damage as part of the natural cycle of life.

They must be stopped!

Relevant: https://lettersofnote.com/2012/07/12/regarding-your-dam-comp...

You say 'generally', but then talk about officials of one very specific country?

Yes, probably only relevant to 80% of his potential readers. What tosh!

Less than 50%, actually, though I doubt that it's true that it only applies to the US. Children usually get a free pass because their meddling is ineffective or impermanent.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230515211304/https://toolhub.t...

Right, we didn't get a ticket. But a handful of 13 year old boys can move some pretty big logs and trees.

It was made very clear that we were not to fuck with the creek or any other waterways, and it was serious business. We had to rip the dam apart and he told us to never do it again.

And furthermore, they're too busy writing tickets to the beavers, who are doing the real damage.

Not on this forum. The industriousness of the hacker news kids is legend.

Fascinating data, thanks!

We’ll build trenches from the waterline to see how far into the beach can make water flow.

A good mash-up in building beach holes and water play.

I'm past 40, my older child is 9.

First time I went to the beach with her, I had this sudden memory blast: we should dig a hole. It is indeed a weirdly satisfying feeling which I had forgotten.

If you dig it right, you might end up on the news as a “cosmic event”!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hole-dublin-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com