The man who posted himself to Australia | Hacker News Reader

The man who posted himself to Australia

bbc.co.uk

269 pointsbreitling23 comments

He went on to become a drug smuggler [1]. Given his talent, I suppose it was an obvious career choice.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Spiers

Some other ways to get around for cheap: http://www.vergemagazine.com/travel-intelligence/budget-trav...

I looked into hitching a ride on a C-130... not nearly as free or fun as you might think. You can if you are a journalist (or blogger!) and want to write a positive piece about the military.

In light of this story I will no longer bitch about coach. But travel does suck, and I can't wait for quantum transport to be a thing.

Another way: get a job interview with a company at your desired location. Works best for big cities, like New York City.

If you have moral qualms, only apply at banks. They deserve it.

The only people hurt by that will be the HR workers, who would possibly be fired if too many people did this, or future workers who may not have an opportunity because the bank had been burned too often.

The banks themselves won't even notice it.

Tongue in cheek.

>I looked into hitching a ride on a C-130... not nearly as free or fun as you might think.

Can you elaborate on that at all? The link you posted doesn't mention military hitchhiking, which sounds interesting to say the least.

Before you pursue this further, ask someone who's spent hours sitting in one of the nylon seats on a C-130. Decidedly uncomfortable. Go for a C-5 or C-17 instead.

C-5 will just end up broken down on the runway for days. Take the C-17.

Perhaps they mean commerical C-130s because military C-130s (or any other kind of cargo aircraft) are not available to members of the general public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-A_travel

Also, I took a trip once in a (military) C-130H. Very loud (we had earplugs though), nylon mesh seating, but I was comfy and I slept or read most of the trip.

Someone I knew had done some advising to a part of the military. He liked to play it up as a a "I could tell you, but i'd have to kill you" kinda deal.

If anyone in the office had been travelling and then complained about their flight he'd say "Be glad it wasn't a C-130!" (or some military plane). I'm sure it would have been more practical to take commercial flights, but he loved the whole faux-spy thing of turning up at military bases and taking non-commercial flights.

If it was really quantum you wouldn't need to travel because you could be everywhere at the same time - although some locations would be much more likely than others.

I wonder where the box was stored during flight.

I have read many articles that stowaways face a delicate balance of hypothermia and their body shutting down the need much breathing, thus able to deal with the thin (unpressurized) air. Sometimes it works out in their favor, sometimes not. If they survive they wake up dazed and confused.

This story doesn't sound like that. Why?

Here is a kid in a wheel well: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2609270/BREAKING-NEW...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wheel-well_stowaway_fli...

Perhaps the boxes are stored in a place where people and animals can easily survive?

The wheel well's on the outside of the pressure hull, while the cargo hold's on the inside, so is pressurised. Or at least so I gather. It may not be heated very well, mind.

Some random searching on the internet shows that the temperature of a cargo hold is about 10°C, and on at least one model of plane is (partially) heated by waste air from the cabins. Allegedly there's a flight deck switch which redirects the waste air overboard, which causes the temperature in the hold to plummet. This is known as the 'puppy snuffer' switch...

This guy was in the unpressurized cargo hold. They didn't touch on how many times they landed along the way, except that the journey from London to Paris was so short he was panicky when the descent began. Then from Paris to Bombay is a bit longer, and Bombay to Perth is 12+ hours. If he were flying at 30,000 feet perhaps hypothermia would have been a concern, though TFA also indicated he'd seen animals shipped in just this way.

Great story. Sad little addendum at the end though.

That was a long time ago though - he's been out of jail for 20+ years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Spiers

I'm not sure if that Wikipedia article helps make things any less sad:

> In 2011, Spiers's daughter Jane was convicted on counts of manufacturing a controlled drug, and one count of doing so for sale

Could have been worse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_(The_Velvet_Undergroun...

That box could have been quite a macabre birthday present for his daughter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-YiaWDgB4 (The Velvet Underground - The Gift)

This strikes me as a nice little hack of the system, and I'm glad that it seems like in this case the attitude was "no harm, no foul". It's not a particularly elegant hack, but that's one thing that epitomizes hackers to me: use what you know and have at hand to make it work.

Not only did he acquire drug convictions but his daughter went on to get one too.

I wonder if she was the same daughter who's birthday it was that he was trying to get back for.

The biggest problem nowadays would be the X-ray check, which could turn out quite unhealthy. And then perhaps air pressure and temperature.

It's amazing that they could have the following sentence: "Built to Spiers's specifications, the crate allowed him to sit up straight-legged, or lie on his back with his knees bent." and then have that graphic where his torso takes up nearly the whole 5ft length of the box. That ridiculous graphic seems unnecessary given that that sentence explains just how he fit into the crate.

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