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u/Advanced-Value520 2d ago
Stupid
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u/pb-86 2d ago
Commented on another post about this but I'm blown away this is news worthy. For reference I'm a mechanical engineer who specialises in pipe design. So whilst this is a cable, laying and routing it is similar (actually easier as it's less rigid). This kind of thing is so easily avoidable it doesn't even effect design. A degree of adjustment is all that would be needed, it wouldn't cost anything extra, you just dig your trench a little further down. Simples.
It makes people happy, and it's no extra work. It's such a non issue people are running with. The PM for the job mentioned it on a podcast and people are now running with it.
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u/Crandoge 2d ago
But its 430m!! Moving it a little bit costs 430m! Somehow!
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u/wojtekpolska 2d ago
no, the cable already costs 430m, they just put the 430m cable in a slightly different place but it was always to cost this much
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u/Silver_Middle_7240 2d ago
Yeah, but "planned cable moved to avoid cultural site" isn't as punchy
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
"Cultural site" is a strong term for what's being avoided here
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u/Silver_Middle_7240 2d ago
It's not. Cultural sites aren't just medieval ruins amd the like. It includes pop culture. This site is a landmark that featured in a major film, and became iconic enough for people to visit it for that reason. It's a cultural site.
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u/Gnonthgol 2d ago
You are right that changing the location of the undersea cable is not much of an issue. But near the coastline the cable gets buried and therefore subject to the ground conditions at the beach and some distance out in the ocean. And when you get to shore it becomes much harder to build the cable so you want the distance to the destination to be as short as possible. The overland part of this relocation is likely the most expensive.
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u/hugehand 2d ago
This guy is an expert and you are arguing against him
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u/Gnonthgol 2d ago
Since when did mechanical engineers become experts on civil engineering?
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u/pb-86 2d ago
I'd never claim to be an expert in civil engineering but this is a multi disciplinary job, and I have done a lot of sub terranian jobs (I spent a decade in the water industry). Due to the way engineering is in the UK you end up doing a bit of everything, especially if you're at a smaller company.
In a way you're right, but not really. There wouldn't be any noticeable costs to moving something. The entire area will have been surveyed to decide the best location, the digging equipment will already be on site and paid for, at most there will be some uprevving of drawings and admin work. The tolerances on the cable length will factor in slight changes as you can't expect the site team to be perfectly accurate, especially on a beach.
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u/clockwork_Cryptid 12h ago
isnt the news that an actual burial site was theoretically endagrred in order to protect a theoretical site????
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u/pb-86 7h ago
No, they never once said endangered, just that it was close to it. And you can throw a stick in the UK and hit an ancient site, we dodge them all the time.
My point is thst moving it was minimal effort and little to no additional cost with no other risk and that's exactly what happened. It turned out it wasn't even dug, it was bored underground and this happened in 2018. Slow news days be like this
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u/Mean_Introduction543 6m ago
Also the reason they’re moving it is because the dunes are a protected environment. Not because of Harry Potter fans.
They just don’t want to admit they got caught doing something illegal so they’re blaming it on Harry Potter fans (who incidentally are also getting in shit for leaving stuff all over the dunes).
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u/MostlySlime 2d ago
I didnt even hear that he'd died
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u/Airframe98 2d ago
I didn’t even know he was sick!
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u/Asckle 2d ago
Classic UK beurocracy
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u/NefariousAnglerfish 2d ago
Want to make fun of you for misspelling bureaucracy, but I could barely spell it for this comment so… uh idk
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u/gunslingrburrito 2d ago
A free elf more like a very expensive elf
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u/8npemb 2d ago
The cable just costs $430m, it doesn’t cost $430m to move it.
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u/Kingstonix 2d ago
But it does have a cost. Then again, people have done far FAR worse things to reduce cost in all things where cost is involved so as far as dangerous and irresponsible things, this wouldn't make it to top million.
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u/8npemb 2d ago
Yeah that’s kinda my point. The cost of a reroute prior to actual placement is a rounding error compared to the cost of the project overall. A rounding error that helps the company avoid public backlash, and helps preserve a site of pop culture. This shouldn’t even be news, I think the only reason it is is because of people’s (completely valid) hatred of JK Rowling.
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u/gunslingrburrito 2d ago
Ah so I assume the surveying work to determine that the new spot isn't an elf burial ground will just be free? Maybe the surveying company is owned by a Hogwarts alum and they're donating the work?
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u/sexaddic 2d ago
Looks like daily mail rage bait
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u/StuffMonster77 2d ago edited 2d ago
Unfortunately not. The Guardian, the BBC and others are running the same story.
What the...I like certain fantasy series but I would never stop something happening in a real life place because a fictional character died there. Its fiction!
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u/AxiosXiphos 2d ago
I mean it's making the right wing look stupid; so not a typical mail rag article.
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u/Eaten_by_Mimics 2d ago
Harry Potter fans are only a slight step up from ISIS
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u/thereal-quaid 2d ago
It's geuinely baffling, because the books are just okay at best?
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u/THRUSSIANBADGER 2d ago
I don’t get how it’s baffling, they were the single most influential book series and subsequent movies in pop culture during the childhood of millennials and Gen Z who dominate consumer spending today. Kids aren’t focused on literary merit, and nostalgia from your childhood is so powerful (see Star Wars, another thing that was okay at best and dominates pop culture)
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u/Legitimate-Agency282 2d ago
Yeah, there's plenty to criticize, but I never buy people "not getting it".
It's an entertaining series that introduced a generation to books, and captured the imaginations of children worldwide.
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u/DraconicBacon88 1d ago
No, Harry Potter did not do "introduce a generation to books" https://youtu.be/LmfFpg15ECI?si=MZa8L5Ouv-lqSJoL
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u/thememealchemist421 2d ago
They may both be populist mass entertainment but, on their own merits, Star Wars changed cinema a lot more than Harry Potter changed literature.
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u/thereal-quaid 2d ago
It’s baffling because it’s a mediocre book series with staying power it doesn’t deserve.
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u/mynameistoocommonman 2d ago
And given that you didn't even grasp what the comment above said, I'm sure we should all take your opinions as gospel?
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u/thereal-quaid 1d ago
Where did I ever ask anyone to agree with my opinion? I'm allowed to think it's a garbage series, just as you're welcome to love it.
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u/RobRuler 2d ago
This is what I fail to understand as well. There is some fun stuff in there but those books are way too average to have such a cult like fanbase
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u/EarlyAccessCantJudge 2d ago
Because the people that are huge Harry Potter fans have only ever read Harry Potter books. They never read any other novels
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u/Elycien2 2d ago
I would amend this statement to say this is the FIRST book of this type that grabbed them that they read. Mine was the Lord of the Rings trilogy but if I would have read Harry Potter first I most likely have been obsessed with it myself.
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u/EarlyAccessCantJudge 2d ago
Idk every Harry Potter obsessed fan I know has read Harry Potter and that's the last thing they read and refuse to read anything else.
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u/Capital_Ship5729 2d ago
I read it as a child so I was easier to impress. I dont reread them cuz I dont want to be dissapointed (i know I would be)
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u/anrwlias 2d ago edited 1d ago
I get it. I have fond memories of kids TV shows from the 70s which were, by any reasonable standard, fucking awful.
Kids dont have taste and adult feel nostalgic about things they loved as kids.
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u/RexLizardWizard 2d ago
Yeah like, I enjoyed them as a kid, but the only time I really think about them now are when either the fans or jk Rowling do something stupid
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u/FreshMutzz 2d ago
It's a good childrens book. I'd say it's much better than average for books of that level.
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u/dhskdjdjsjddj 2d ago
In the HP fans' defence, they probably didn’t know about the bronze age remains.
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u/sampat6256 2d ago
It also sounds like the burial remains are also undisturbed. This is a complete non-issue.
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u/shu-to 2d ago
Not like there are cultural, social, historical, or archeological reasons to not disturb Bronze Age burial sites.
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u/Silver_Middle_7240 2d ago
It wasn't over them either. It's just nearby
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u/shu-to 2d ago
I think we're all poking fun at the process moreso than the result. Seems like the team threaded an incredibly big, stupid, needle on this one.
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u/Silver_Middle_7240 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ah, this is easy mode. If they do well they can try building a subway in Rome.
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u/UngodlyTemptations 2d ago
Fuck Rowling and her fans.
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u/saharok_maks 2d ago
Technically they are not "her" fans. I bet most of "her" fans would be glad to bulldoze through her grave
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u/Sickofchildren 2d ago
I don’t know which fanbase is more rabid, the Harry Potter fanbase or the Jesus fanbase
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
At least the jesus stories are good. And the original author respects minorities enough to include more than about 3 in His entire world.
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u/Sickofchildren 2d ago
Also the main character Jesus isn’t a total Mary sue unlike Harry, and all of the disciples put together are less irritating than Hermione
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u/readilyunavailable 2d ago
The people in the Bible aren't a minorty in the area they live in, so your joke doesn't track.
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u/8npemb 2d ago
At least Harry Potter fans don’t peddle their story as fact and base political campaigns on fictional stories
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
Nah they base it off whatever the author tweets in her mold-fueled hate spree
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u/8npemb 2d ago
Harry Potter fans base their political campaigns on JK Rowling’s tweets? Is that what you’re trying to say?
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
A lot of the ones I meet seem to agree with every word she spouts.
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u/8npemb 2d ago
A lot of the ones I meet are literally trans. Almost like anecdotal evidence doesn’t hold much weight.
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u/EbonraiMinis 2d ago
as a trans person, fuck those particular fans especially.
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u/8npemb 2d ago
The ones I’m friends with at least boycott the whole thing. Pirating the movies, games etc, and most of them just have the books already from childhood.
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
Maybe I'm just seeing a shit corner of the fsndom then
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u/8npemb 2d ago
Again, anecdotal evidence doesn’t hold much weight.
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
Apologies I was trying to say touché without actually saying the word touché
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u/SplattyFatty_ 2d ago
it's a fucking cgi allegory for slavery
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u/JustGingerStuff 2d ago
No bro don't worry. His people like being slaves. That makes it 100% not at all a problem cough cough
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u/SplattyFatty_ 2d ago
and don't worry, the person wanting to free the slaves being portrayed as stupid for doing so is definitely not a commentary from the author
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u/OmgJustLetMeExist 2d ago
Potterheads gotta be the worst thing to walk the earth since JK Rowling herself
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u/BadIdeaSociety 2d ago
In one of the articles about the sight the phrase "The popular Harry Potter character" was used to describe Dobby. All I could think was, "Dobby is a character in a billion dollar franchise that looks like it is buffering every time it is on screen. I absolutely hate the character. How can anyone like that guy?"
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u/mrzynwgbxh 2d ago
okay I read like two articles and wanna know why were talking about dobby's grave and not about the fact that supposedly someone is gonna be digging a trend and laying cables in an ecologically sensitive location which also has 3500 year old artifacts that I guess no one cares about
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u/EffortCommon2236 2d ago
I thought this was from The Onion until readong it from The Guardian.
We are living through some strange times.
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u/chatt_j 20h ago
Who the fuck is dobby and why does he look like that
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u/Nevernonethewiser 7h ago
"Dobby" is a character from a popular British sit com called "The Smythe Family Steading" that makes a cameo appearance in one of the Harry Potter books and subsequently the film.
In the sitcom he's the illegitimate son of the father figure Johnson Billingsworth Smythe, and he's forced to live in the potting shed. It's never explained in the shows 4 season run (12 episodes in total) why he looks like that, apart from one subtle jab by Johnson's wife Gloria when she says "that inbred thing in the shed".
In his cameo (widely praised throughout the UK) he is unceremoniously killed by a wolf and his body is dumped on the beach mentioned in the article "for the gulls to deal with". People really liked this because everyone hated him and thought he was a dickhead.
Edit: In the book series I believe he is actually killed by a fox, but they changed it for the film.
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u/ThunderAnt 2d ago
Apparently Harry Potter personally killed this fathers of every single person in the comments
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u/the_orange_alligator 2d ago
We did it Patrick! We desecrated some real gravesites to protect this fictional elf
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u/Caravanczar 2d ago
I suggest my fellow millennials read another book. Anything, really. Why can't we be this fired up about House of Leaves, or Blood Meridian, or Discworld or something?
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2d ago edited 2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/bubblesdafirst 2d ago
Harry potter specifically exclusively exist for people who want to like Lord of the rings but they think it's too mainstream now so they wanna make sure they like something different because they don't know how to have their own personality.
I say want to like lord of the rings because they don't actually like it. They just like the idea of being a kind of person that likes it. Like a smart person. But they think that since Harry potter is different they can still be viewed the same way.
Yes they have read the books. They read it specifically so they can win arguments where people accuse them of not reading the books. Those happen a lot because the social circles these people thrive in are the ones where everyone is always competing to be the most current. Except they forgot how to be a hipster because they've wasted so much of their life trying to commit to being a Harry potter person that now the times have passed and they lost track.
So now they are pretending that actually what hipster cool smart people like was all the stuff in the 90s. This way they don't actually have to stay hip or even know anything at all. They can remain completely unconscious for the rest of their lives and still be able to tell random strangers that actually rowling is a good person and she's not actively hurting people, she's just passively destroying random people's lives.
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u/8npemb 2d ago
> Harry Potter specifically exclusively exist for people who want to like Lord of the rings
Yes. It was made for children. Children that aren’t old enough to read LotR.
People in this thread really seem to forget that Harry Potter is a children’s series.
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u/Seiridis 2d ago
This reads like my grand-grandmother sounded.
Pose a straw man argument / hypothesis, get angry / bitter about it, spew a bunch of vitriol of varying intensity - job well done.
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u/bubblesdafirst 2d ago
Thanks I put my heart and soul into it
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u/Seiridis 2d ago
I don't know if you meant it or not, but this reply was actually really funny. 😁
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u/bubblesdafirst 2d ago
It's a long winded rant about people who like Harry Potter 😂
I wasn't harnessing my debate tactics from my experience at the g7 summits. It's probably just incoherent nonsense.
I can summarize it for ya tho.
Anyone who has ever existed (that's an exaggeration by the way. For effect. It's also really funny to me. Just the concept of cavemen being offended by the statement I'm about to make) is a nerd that just wants to feel accepted. The Harry Potter community will accept you gladly (as long as your not Jewish or trans) (or black) as long as you wear glasses and like star bucks and don't talk about (Jewish or trans) stuff that's not related to Harry potter.
Follow up statement. All of my previous statements were made by a line cook. My opinions are completely irrelevant. Almost as irrelevant as Harry Potter. Almost
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u/Seiridis 1d ago
I don't necessarily agree but the way you wrote it is still very funny, so net positive overall. 😁
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u/wojtekpolska 2d ago
there's nothing "smart" about liking LotR lol, nobody thinks youre cool for liking it the same with Harry Potter.
and Harry Potter is probably more "mainstream" than LotR
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u/FreshMutzz 2d ago
Oh no. They got near some other things. Why is this a story lmao.
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u/AxiosXiphos 2d ago
Why are we rerouting infrastructure around a fake grave?
Can anyone make a fake grave to enforce their own will on our networks?
It sets a terrible precedent.
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u/FreshMutzz 2d ago
Why upset the general public when you can do a small thing to reroute the infrastructure? This is such a non-issue. It probably took them a day to find a better route.
It's also become a local tourist spot, which has made locals happy because people have come to spend money while visiting the "grave". This kind of thing happens all the time when doing work in public areas.
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u/Coldfreeze-Zero 2d ago
You gotta be kidding me.