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Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’ (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach

Update: further information by @BigDiction@lemmy.world in the comments below

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[–] 158 points 3 months ago*

In the end, he said, “we went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains, but we avoided Dobby’s grave”.

The Bronze Age remains include urns associated with human burial.

Priorities are in order!

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    [–] 35 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I was dragged along to see this by my kids. Having never seen the movies or read the book, I was expecting something substantially more than the pile of rocks with some old socks.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    It's not about the destination but the journey

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    • [–] 58 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    This is actually a win. The original site was going through an ecological sensitive area. People fought to protect the "grave" of a fictional character but accidentally protected a delicate ecology. That is more important than protecting the dead, real or not.

    Fans of the wizard series come to leave stones reading “Here Lies Dobby” despite being asked not to by the land owner, the National Trust, because the beach is an ecologically sensitive site.

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  • [–] 54 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Gotta love that a fictional character created by a transphobe carries more weight and concern than the further destruction of our biosphere.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago*

    People are leaving rocks at the site of the "grave", which they've repeatedly been told not to do, specifically because of concerns about harm to the environment. So they might have accidentally helped in some respect, but it doesn't exactly mean much when they're showing up themselves, and fucking it up anyway

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago

    The HP obsessive are also littering that sensitive sight with a bunch of socks.

    Also the cable was for sharing load between grids to account for variability in power generation in renewables. It was literally being built to support further decarbonization of the grid.

    Oh and now the cable might have to go through a Bronze Age burial site.

    Like, this is not a win, this is idiots making a good project more expensive and difficult and potentially causing the destruction of an archeological site.

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    • [–] 126 points 3 months ago (23 children)

    This is fucking pathetic

    At least no actual harm was done to a site of archaeological significance to placate a bunch of fucking nerds

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  • [–] 40 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    a bunch of fucking nerds

    Lol Harry Potter readers being nerdy kids may have been true in the late 90s or early 00s. Most fans of the movies are normies.

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  • [–] 35 points 3 months ago* (6 children)

    It wasn’t even true then. Harry Potter was the flagship of the Scholastic book fair at the time along with books like Animorphs.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

    Have you read Animorphs? Those books were bought entirely by people judging them based on their cover. They have kids on them turning into a different animal on each. That just looked cool. If I had had the money for it, I too would have collected them, entirely based on the animals on the cover (I'll take the dog, the hawk, and the dolphin, thanks). 99% of kids who bought them would have done so for the exact same reason.

    The actual story is some of the least kid-friendly I've ever heard. It's filled with body horror, cosmic horror, guerilla warfare and espionage with child soldiers, children losing their bodies, children losing their minds through torture, kids having existential crises after witnessing and participating horrific acts of war, countless murders of loved ones, planet scale genocide, etc. It's not for normies. I don't know anyone personally that has actually read the whole series, including myself. I have watched a guy on YouTube go over the plot in summary and... holy fuck. Those books are darker than anything I've read as an adult.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I don't know anyone personally that has actually read the whole series, including myself.

    I think I have? There might be a side book or two I missed, I think I only read one of the choose your own adventure ones. But I read the main series all the way to the end and the ‘main’ side stories (Hork-Bajir Chronicles, etc). I enjoyed the hell out of it as a kid, it definitely influenced a lot of my anti-war feelings.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    You can get the ebooks for free with the author's blessing. I started reading them as a kid when they were new but couldn't find the books readily enough. Found them again as an adult and read the whole series. It's far better written than anything Rowling has ever penned and has the added benefit of Applegate being an actual decent human being.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    I was a kid back then so I definitely read some of them. Though I have no memory of them having a related story or a contiguous plot line, or really of any of the plot lines anyway. I vaguely remember that there were more books later on, I’m pretty sure the ones I read were like the first few published.

    I definitely remember there being Animorphs posters in our school library and shit and the software used to make the cover was very popular, at the time it was also used in several TV shows and such.

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  • [–] 103 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    Tasteless transphobic nerds.

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  • [–] 54 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    This is so frustrating. My sister loves HP and refuses to discuss Rowling. While still buying merch that directly supports her.

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  • [+] 12 points 3 months ago (4 children)
    [removed by mod]
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  • [+] -12 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    The Bronze Age burial site is nerdy, to bury the dead in the first place and to study it a thousand years later is nerdy, that is to say the product of a complex mind. Perhaps over-complex but that is beyond the scope of this post, enough to say its all a bit nerdy.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    If burying one's dead is nerdy, we might throw the concept out entirely lol.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    It is nerdy in the sense it is the product of complex thought, same as fiction, same as prehistoric burial sites which came about because someone dreamt the sun god said that appeases him and honours the dead. It is all the same box of tricks.

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    • [–] 246 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    Fans of the wizard series come to leave stones reading “Here Lies Dobby” despite being asked not to by the land owner, the National Trust, because the beach is an ecologically sensitive site.

    But apparently not so ecologically sensitive that an undersea cable couldn't run through it.

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  • [–] 225 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    You only have to lay a cable down once and it'll work for however many decades. People trudging through on a regular basis to leave rocks would be an ongoing concern.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    This assumes a lot of things about the installation and longevity of the cable and its jacket, and forgets that some of these things have been so magnetically interfering to their surroundings that sharks have bitten them.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    To be fair, sharks bite a lot of things.

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    • [–] 18 points 3 months ago

    Cult behavior.

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    [–] 17 points 3 months ago

    wow this sucks

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    [–] 67 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    y'all i was a mega harry potter fan growing up and even i think this was pathetic; READ ANOTHER BOOK

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  • [–] 29 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I'm starting to think there's a correlation between cults and the inability to read more than one book...

    Although in saying that, most Christians I've met haven't actually read their book so that theory falls through pretty quickly. Nevermind!

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    • [–] 15 points 3 months ago

    Who the fuck cares about Dobby's grave!

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    [–] 42 points 3 months ago*

    "How did Donald Trump win in the US? How could so many people be so stupid and out of touch with reality?"

    Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’

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    [–] 63 points 3 months ago (16 children)

    I don't give a fuck about HP Whatshercunt, but I do love this story. Because it shows that collectively we have more power then these companies. If we could get our shit together and stop fighting each other we could bully them into litterally anything we want because THERE ARE MORE OF US. It's so dumb that we have let a tiny group of people convince us, the larger group that massively outnumbers them, they have all the power in the relationship.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago*

    It was a … power cable. To connect the Irish grid to the welsh/English grid. To allow for more efficient transfer of power between renewable generation to the respective grids based on availability and need.

    It was actually a good project? Like unironically. It was going to allow for further decarbonization. Now it’s been delayed and going to cost a lot more, and may have to go through a Bronze Age burial site now.

    The people who blocked the project were also disturbing the local environment by leaving huge amounts of synthetic fiber socks at the beach.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 months ago

    Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach

    Just another story about people making the real world a little worse because they're disconnected from reality.

    Do you also applaud antivaxxers get together and bully people? Same thing isn't it? People disconnected from reality bullying people.

    Sorry, but people disconnected from reality aren't capable of making any improvement in the world.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago* (12 children)

    "Sorry, too busy attacking political allies for disagreeing with me on a point or two."

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  • [+] -10 points 3 months ago (11 children)

    Which two points are you talking about? Would it happen to be:

    1. Blocking strikes
    2. Supporting genocide

    Because people who support those things are not allies.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I feel like you over-specific'ed my meme into an apparent attack on me or my position(s)?

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  • [+] -9 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I don't see an answer to my question anywhere in this comment.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    It didn't seem like a good faith question so I didn't bother answering, but it seems at least one person in the shadows thinks it was, so I'll answer it:

    I was thinking of people who think the Uyghur genocide is fake news, the Holodomor was an accident and Ukraine ought to be a Russian territory again, and the DPRK is a wonderful place to live. If you disagree with that on the fediverse, there tends to be much gnashing of teeth from certain people who otherwise make sane political arguments about the biggest evils we currently face, at least in my country (e.g. Epstein Class Bad, Trump Bad, Fascism Bad).

    As for your two points, I haven't met anyone who supports genocide or the blocking of labor strikes, so I don't know why you thought those up.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (7 children)

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (6 children)

    A brief glance at their profile shows they mostly spend their time on the fediverse dropping incendiary comments in politically charged threads; we may never get clarification.

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  • [+] -6 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    I'm here. Just waiting for you to answer the question.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago* (4 children)

    It didn't seem like a good faith question so I didn't bother answering, but it seems at least one person in the shadows thinks it was, so I'll answer it:

    I was thinking of people who think the Uyghur genocide is fake news, the Holodomor was an accident and Ukraine ought to be a Russian territory again, and the DPRK is a wonderful place to live. If you disagree with that on the fediverse, there tends to be much gnashing of teeth from certain people who otherwise make sane political arguments about the biggest evils we currently face, at least in my country (e.g. Epstein Class Bad, Trump Bad, Fascism Bad).

    As for your two points, I haven't met anyone who supports genocide or the blocking of labor strikes, so I don't know why you thought those up.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    You accuse me of asking a question in bad faith and then act like you're living under a rock? Labor issues and genocide support are at the forefront of current political discussions. I can't remember the last time an American politician mentioned the Uyghurs.

    As for your two points, I haven’t met anyone who supports genocide or the blocking of labor strikes, so I don’t know why you thought those up.

    Joe Biden went around congress twice to ship weapons to Israel in support of their genocide. Joe Biden, 44 Democratic senators and 36 Republican senators passed a bill to block the rail strike in 2022. Were you unaware of this?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, I totally get it, you're trying to wrestle control of the wheel to divert the discussion into something you want to talk about instead. That's called a "Red Herring."

    But look at how red this herring is! How can you deny this?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    I made it very clear what I wanted to talk about in my first comment.

    I find it interesting how much you don't want to talk about those two subjects. Is that because you support blocking strikes and Israel's genocide?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    I made it very clear what I wanted to talk about in my first comment.

    Yeah I know, and my point this entire time has been that's not what the rest of us were talking about, so it's bizarre to see you ignore the topic at hand to divert discussion to yours.

    Ironically, you've kinda made my point by trying to fight me with zero information to go on.

    I find it interesting how much you don’t want to talk about those two subjects. Is that because you support blocking strikes and Israel’s genocide?

    Nope.

    Can't help but notice that you haven't mentioned you dislike child predators once this entire comment chain. I find that very interesting. Is that because you're on the Epstein List?

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago*

    Yeah, it's a pretty wholesome story about a group of fans caring about something fun, the company playing along ... and everyone ended up happy in the end.

    Well, not entirely ... one small comment section of indomitable lemmies still holds out against the joy!

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