• Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io
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    13 hours ago

    LoL. I do have a lot of respect for those SCUBA cavers. I had a friend in school who was so disappointed when I didn’t say sphygmomanometer, and I love words so much that I try to use the longer/ less used ones when I can get away with it. :-D

    • sem
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      11 hours ago

      You can use the words you want, although in most situations people will understand you better if you say “blood pressure monitor” – unless you’re in the medical field and need to be more specific.

      The caving one bothers me because people talk about a sport they don’t do or their friends don’t do with a word only outsiders use. It shows you don’t want any connection to the actual people who do it and who sometimes die in accidents.

      • Entropywins@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        You do this whole thing and never once tell us the super secret proper word for spelunking…

        Disregard saw your other post…it’s called caving…

        • sem
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          2 hours ago

          Sorry if that wasn’t clear. I’m honestly curious how “spelunking” got to be such a popular word.

          If you want to see some fun caving content, and also the world’s first proto-creepypasta, check out Ted’s Caving Page. https://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/

          • Entropywins@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            I have gone to a couple lava flow caves and went to one in Central Oregon that I had to crawl through a tiny hole for about 5-6 feet not too bad but it opened up to this amazing little geode room thing…out of the ten of us only 4 of us went in there it was terrifying but worth it…turning off your flashlights in caves is something else!!!

            • sem
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              2 hours ago

              Dude that sounds awesome!! I’ve explored one small cave in NY with some coworkers – was sort of tricky to get into, you had to go in sideways leading on your back, but it opened up into a big room with a way to climb further down a bit. I have some friends who were way more into it, had the gear, made maps, researched living things they found inside, etc, but I didn’t get into it at the time.

              That thing about going further when others stay back-- or the feeling of turning off the lights and waiting for your eyes to adjust but still you can’t see anything – pretty cool!

              Someday I’d like to go to Mammoth in KY or one of those caves in NZ with the glow worms!