• ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    One of my favorite examples of the difficulty in idiot-proofing things comes from a national park ranger talking about the difficulty of designing a bear-proof garbage can. He said “There is considerable overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest humans.”

    • Fermion@feddit.nl
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      8 months ago

      A bear has time and motivation to keep trying over and over again to get into the garbage. People are generally much less determined to figure it out.

      • Carnelian@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I used to see people charitably, much like you do, until very recently. After witnessing for myself people staring into the sun and injuring themselves after being repeatedly warned, I now realize there are a substantial number of people who simply have rocks clattering around inside their skulls instead of brains

        • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Nobody lives forever. Seeing the eclipse with your own naked eyes, even for one second, is something you’ll never be able to do again before you’re dead and there’s no chances left. Think of it as a spiritual experience. People run across hot coals for spirituality and you aren’t here scolding them. Nobody posting screenshots of google trends for “why do my feet hurt?”*

          Warn people not to look directly at an eclipse, yes. But when they do it anyway, at least give them credit for having a reason why.

          [*] I will admit, if you look directly at an eclipse and then don’t know why your eyes hurt, you’re pretty dumb.

          • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            There’s a pretty big difference between temporary pain and permanent damage though.

            Unless you royally fuck up walking on coals you get some pain, fuck up a little and you just get some blisters.

          • Carnelian@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Being able to see properly is also something they’ll never be able to do again, so, I hope that one second was “spiritual” enough for them lol

            • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              You know that you can look directly at an eclipse and not immediately go blind, right? That’s also true of the naked sun in the sky, btw. I’d hate to think you were here to scold people without even understanding what the danger actually is.

              • rtxn@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Being able to see properly

                immediately go blind

                You’re immediately taking the argument to the extreme. You won’t immediately go blind, but it will damage your retina in ways you sometimes don’t notice because the brain compensates for it. It happened to my uncle when he was a welder, he had a second blind spot where he couldn’t see sharply, but it didn’t really affect his quality of life.

          • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            If I had someone run through hot coals I would scold them, sure. Much like for being angry about others not believing in zombie carpenters or letting quacks give their kids overpriced sugar pills. But that’s jot the context right now, is it?

          • Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml
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            8 months ago

            The partial eclipse is nothing special. Any given location gets one every few years or so.

            Totality is the really neat and special thing, and it isn’t damaging to your eyes. (assuming you don’t pre-empt or overshoot the timing)

        • ggppjj@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I genuinely had someone stop and ask me why you can’t see the moon during an eclipse because “it’s got light in it right”.

          They’re soon to replace our HR manager.