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Comment by RA2lover | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what happened to literally everyone else present at this situation. That's beyond "Yikes!" territory.

Yes, I also dislike the culture in which this can be called a funny story. Such culture will cause more incidents. Worked in a laser lab for 5 years without incident in a time when eye safety goggles were not used for visible light.

Sometimes a funny story is one that helps you remember about safety.

Yeah, emotions are a positive factor for a memories forming. Add some emotions to a fact, and it will be remembered better and for longer. Some things are remembered for life without any repetition, and mostly it happens for things that trigger your emotions.

No. That only says something about you, not “the culture”. It’s incredibly common to laugh at the absolute absurdity of a situation. It doesn’t mean that people are making light of it. It doesn’t mean that they don’t grok how serious it is. They just react differently to you.

I agree there is more to it than yes/no making a joke of an incident. I associate it with a macho culture in which people do not feel safe to speak up in case of unsafe circumstances. Same for IT security.

If the Germans can joke about it, anyone can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ_86lxP36I

This version of Forklift Driver Klaus is much clearer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJYOkZz6Dck

> in a time when eye safety goggles were not used for visible light.

Also Yikes. Even with my low(ish) 1w-5w handhelds, it's self-evident that eye protection is needed when the beam travels less than a few yards.

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