
World's tallest tropical tree discovered and climbed in Malaysian Borneo - Sujan
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/worlds-tallest-tropical-tree-discovered-climbed-borneo/
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mcqueenjordan
FYI: The world's tallest known tree (alive) is named Hyperion, in the
Californian Redwood National Park.[1]

Its location is kept a secret, but it's rumored that if you know the right
dendrologist, they might take you on a hike to it....

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(tree)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_\(tree\))

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callahad
This site claims to have photos, GPS coordinates, and hiking directions to
Hyperion:
[http://famousredwoods.com/hyperion/](http://famousredwoods.com/hyperion/)
...is that the correct tree?

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beat
My experience of the redwoods (the coastal redwoods in Humboldt county) is
that they are SOOOO tall in the tallest groves that "tallest tree" is just
incomprehensible. From the ground, the treetops are lost in the mist and fog.
From 350' away, you can't really see which one is five feet taller than the
other. So unless named trees are marked somehow, they're just... awe-inspiring
giant trees.

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coldcode
Ok the story about being covered by stinging bees and having to repel down
(with the bees still stinging) is pretty much my worst nightmare.

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waltbosz
You must be a creative dreamer.

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eliben
Nice article, but unfortunate hyperbole:

    
    
      climbs one of the potential candidates for the world's tallest tree
    

At 330 feet it's hardly a match for the world's tallest trees. California
redwoods routinely clock 370 feet and 330 is quite an ordinary occurrence you
can see on quick accessible hikes

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wnscooke
“Tropical tree”, not claiming to be tallest amongst all trees.

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mattpavelle
"If you fall unconscious whilst climbing a tree the chest harness prevents you
from slumping into a safe position—head lower than heart. An unconscious
climber in that position has only three minutes or so to survive and that
means the ground team must quickly get them down using an emergency extra
rope."

Does anyone know why they don't use a chest harness that slumps you into a
safe position? Or why falling unconscious is common enough to mention it?

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oasisbob
It's not common, but it's dangerous. The technical term is suspension trauma.
I climb solo quite often, and had to make my peace with the fact that if
something comes down from above and knocks me unconscious, it could very
likely be fatal.

I'm not sure it's accurate to say that hanging upside down is any better if a
climber is incapacitated. As a practical matter, a saddle that was trying to
continually flip you over would drive a climber crazy.

There's a bit of debate in the climbing community about the importance of
suspension trauma, and how long you have before you need to worry about it
during a rescue.

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mattybrennan
I'm not sure I understand why the tree had to be climbed to be measured. Isn't
that what trigonometry is for?

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oasisbob
Yes, and no. Trigonometry works if trees grow with a habit which matches the
assumptions of a right triangle.

Before laser rangefinders were cheap and accessible, the method used (angle
and an approximation of horizontal distance) would often grossly overestimate
the height of the tree.

The modern sine method is much better, but still had problems with leaning
trees, and will tend to underestimate height.

The most reliable method is to get someone up there and do a tape drop.

[https://www.nativetreesociety.org/measure/tree_measuring_gui...](https://www.nativetreesociety.org/measure/tree_measuring_guidelines.htm)

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thesausageking
Seems like a great job for a drone.

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xrd
Reading about this tree climber, I noticed how when he used the word
angiosperm, I was surprised by his intelligence, as if being a tree climber is
something less intelligent people do. I'm ashamed of that. And, to see how
dedicated he is to protecting forests and coming from such humble beginnings,
it made me further ashamed of my privilege and what I'm using it for. This
community on HN talks a lot about "changing the world": this guy is doing it,
truly, in such an important and unrecognized way.

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massive-tea
What does using the word angiosperme have to do with intelligence? I used to
work in finance and those guys used all the same words I used: algorithm,
runtime, microservice, you name it, but none of them had the foggiest idea
what any of it meant.

There's no correlation at all between vocabulary used and intelligence. More
intelligent people will actually use a _smaller_ vocabulary if anything.

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int0x81
Yes declarative knowledge is totally overrated. Procedural knowledge is the
hard part.

I think the "elites", who are of lower intelligence[1] and only fit for
parroting half understood declarative knowledge, have successfully managed to
manipulate public opinion that declarative knowledge is superior to actually
knowing how something works.

[1] They have high psychological/manipulative intelligence though, which is
needed to convince others to do the actual work.

~~~
beat
I'm always cautious about making assumptions of "intelligence" from the
outside, for people who have expertise or experience that I don't have.

Back in the Reagan days, it came out that his presidential decision-making
process for most things was to get it on a one-page memo with a yes/no
checkbox. Boy howdy, did we have a lot of fun mocking that idiot who didn't
know what he was signing! A lifetime later, I've come to realize that was a
_brilliant_ strategy on his part. He didn't waste time on deep study of every
little thing that needed his decisions all the time. He surrounded himself
with trusted advisors who could neatly sum up the pros and cons for him, so he
could focus on the decision, not the analysis.

I thought Reagan was an idiot, because I was an idiot.

