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Yellowstone Park accident victim dissolved in boiling acidic pool (bbc.com)
32 points by Twirrim on Nov 17, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 13 comments


This reminds me of a related incident that happened in May 2016 when a bunch of people walked off the boardwalk at the Grand Prismatic Spring [1].

A lot of people have a very cavalier attitude about this stuff. They'll deliberately walk off the track, ignore prominently displayed warnings, feed wildlife... basically do the opposite of what has been instructed. And worse, make you feel stupid for following the rules.

In some cases, they are only hurting nature, in others, they are literally jeopardizing their own safety.

[1] http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/online-filmmakers-...


> In some cases, they are only hurting nature, in others, they are literally jeopardizing their own safety.

I find that phrasing odd. The former is much more serious than the latter. Feeding wildlife, for example, is an excellent way to ensure negative interactions with humans in the future. By disobeying posted rules, these people are putting others' lives in danger in addition to damaging the animals.


I think he phrased it that way because most people are much more concerned with their own well-being than with others'. As such, you'd think they'd at least take care because of that, but they clearly aren't.


You got it.

Of course, we should obey these instructions for the greater good (of nature, of others etc.) but when you are with the kind who can barely watch out for their own safety and well-being, it's hard to convince them out of their own stupidity.


Iceland had some pretty clever warnings for their geysers that iterate multiple times, "no really, it will burn you."

https://innovationonearth.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/warnin...


Warnings don't apply to the Instagram generation. This one of many incidents of people filming themselves doing something stupid in Yellowstone.


The problem is this is the first generation to grow up with warnings about swallowing cutlery and bathing in battery acid.

If you're bombarded with stupid warnings you get into the habit of tuning them all out. I once worked on a military base where every door and wall was festooned with warnings and prohibitions. Don't do this, don't do that. No running. No walking on the grass. No talking about classified information. Warning: wet floors are slippery. Etc, etc.

A few years after I started there about 98% of the warnings were removed. They'd done some research and realized nobody was going to read that blizzard of signs, particularly when the most obvious ones were prohibitions against things only morons would do anyway. It worked, too - you notice a big red sign when it's the only one on the door.


There are many instances of people doing stupid things at Yellowstone that long predate Instagram. http://www.yellowstonepark.com/cautionary-tale/


The book by Whittlesey mentioned in the article is an interesting read.


They kinda bury the lede on that one.


Yeah, I kinda think the distance to the nearest hospital should be the first and last in the list.


Seems more like a Darwin award rather than an "accident" (as a bad outcome should be fairly predictable when you do something like this). I'd also be worried about the high temperatures.


Terrible story.

What are the odds the underlying motivation was a selfie or glamour shot for social media?




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