And you thought those Russians in the submarine had it bad.

August 17, 2000 1:15 PM

And you thought those Russians in the submarine had it bad. I'm trying to decide which of the two would be the worse way to snuff it. Yuck.
posted by ookamaka (10 comments total)

Theres a book by Tom Clancy that talks about a russian submarine that dropped down to the bottom of the ocean and could'nt get up. Now theres a whole debate whether a russian submarine should always be carrying nuclear weapons, and that its odd that they don't. I found this out last night on conan.
posted by worth at 2:06 PM on August 17, 2000

My grandfather fell in a tank of shit once while working at a sanitary district in Illinois. Luckily he was fine after a hot shower. Unfortunately, he did die years later from simply being old.
posted by milhous at 2:13 PM on August 17, 2000

Stupid is as stupid does. Times three.
posted by quonsar at 3:17 PM on August 17, 2000

Stupid is as stupid does. Times three.
posted by quonsar at 3:22 PM on August 17, 2000

How sweet....
posted by milhous at 3:53 PM on August 17, 2000

Quonsar, the tank was nearly empty. The first man doubtless thought he was safe, and the other two just wanted to help the first one.

Methane is insidious stuff. In high school I knew a kid whose father died in a similar situation; the vent fan in a manure storage tank got stuck, and a hired hand went in to fix it. He collapsed and the kid's father then went in after him. Both died from the fumes. Is it really fair to call them stupid? No doubt they thought they could quickly get in and out while holding their breath. It's not smart, but it's not any dumber than running a red light, something that most of us have done at least once.
posted by wiremommy at 4:55 PM on August 17, 2000

Shouldn't they have figured though? Grabbed a gasmask or something before venturing in there after the other two did not return? Methane is dangerous and I'm sure they all knew that, being farmers and all. Holding ones breath whilst climbing in to a tank to carry ut two other guys and then climbing out again doesn't seem like a good plan. (and it obviously wasn't).
posted by dabitch at 6:17 PM on August 17, 2000

The lack of sensitivity here sometimes amazes me. Or is it just lack of experience? 
Imagine people you care about going in someplace and not coming out, it's quite natural to investigate and seek to help them. Ignorant, it was, stupid, it wasn't. To say that dying over a period of 5 minutes in a methane cloud is comparable to being buried alive for days while you contemplate your approaching death and hope for a rescue is just entirely obtuse.

posted by greyscale at 7:02 PM on August 17, 2000

Stupid is as stupid does. Times three.

Stupid is as stupid does. Times three.

Man, that would have been really funny if you'd posted it three times in a row.
posted by daveadams at 8:16 AM on August 18, 2000

What amazes *me* is that no one's bitching about the insensitivity of the original link to the families of the sub crew.

Understand: *I'm* not, either. I just expected *someone* would...
posted by baylink at 11:04 AM on August 18, 2000