Comment by lotusleaf1987 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lotusleaf1987 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Please reread the comment "To my eye I couldn't tell what the effect was--religious was my first guess, but what you're saying makes sense." Which is pretty inconsistent from what you said "made strong claims with no evidence (religious motivation for the walls); the stronger the claim, the more support it needs."

I made no claim whatsoever, I divulged my first guess/naive speculation and said at first glance from my uninformed perspective I did not know exactly what the intentions were behind the architecture, but that I thought maybe it had to do with religion--him being a religious extremist.

I replied to the parent comment because I thought maybe the architecture was designed with the goal of producing vortex rings--making it harder for a helicopter to allow to allow people to repel.

You're also a hypocrite considering the comment you made previous to the one I'm replying "This is kind of off-topic, but I've always wondered...:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2515028

How is that any different than what I did, if not worse?

Sometimes HN is just looking to be overly critical and point out flaws that only exist if you obsess over being pedantic.

Because you are making a couple leaps of logic. The compound definitely has a purpose to its shape? Maybe that is just the shape of the property they could buy. My property is kind of a trapezoid instead of a rectangle, thats just the way I bought it. And I highly doubt the walls were made to create vortex rings in helicopters. More plausible explanations are preventing people from seeing the inhabitants and slowing down ground based assault. I'm sure Osama knew that SOF can fast rope in on the inside of the walls, but the wall makes them either come up and breach (giving the defenders more time to react) or forces the SOF to drop in from a helicopter right over the property which gives the defenders an oppurtunity to shoot down the helicopter with small arms fire or an RPG. Not to mention the courtyard is overlooked by a 2 story building that makes it a shooting gallery. Those are far more likely reasons for the design than thinking Osama fired up some CFD program and designed his stone walls to mess with the rotors of a helicopter.

Reading comprehension.

So you have never speculated on something which there is no definitive answer for?

I said yes there was some purpose behind the shape, look at it, and like you said, it could be just the plot that was available, but... like I said the very first comment it was a "guess" so it's really not a leap of logic and my point was he had a hard to breach compound located conveniently near a military base--a highly suspicious coincidence."Those are far more likely reasons for the design than thinking Osama fired up some CFD program and designed his stone walls to mess with the rotors of a helicopter" Strawman much? Did Osama fly the planes into the World Trade Center? No. My point was the Pakistan military could have provided the safe-house. I never said I knew whether the walls were designed to make vortex rings, or conceal OBL, or make it harder to breach by a commando team, or if it was religious--but clearly it's not a randomly designed shape.

My point is people, like yourself and prewett, get off on down-voting people, arguing over some minutia in an attempt to achieve a superiority high, and wasting everyone's time arguing about some inconsequential aspect of their comment. I never said all along I was certain I said it was a "guess" so please spare me your smug high and mightiness about "making a couple leaps of logic."

Why don't you try reading a comment in its entirety next time?

Suggestions from one of your downvoters:

1) Keep it civil.

2) If you are going to make large jumps of logic like the one you've made, then that's fine. Just spell out what you are saying and why you are saying it because as it stands, I agree that your original comment seems very offtopic.

1. Did you even read my previous comment?

2. I made no "large jumps of logic" like I said, it was open speculation. Now please get off your high horse and quit repeating things that have already been said--everything you assert in your second point is proving wrong in my previous comment.

Do you not realize you're just discouraging people asking questions? That's essentially what you're advocating.

1) Yes I read your previous comment, that's why I'm telling you that you should be more civil.

2) You asked for an explanation, so I gave you an honest one. If you don't want to hear it, don't ask next time.

In the end, isn't the compound just oddly-shaped because whoever built it bought an oddly-shaped piece of land to put it on?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com