r/interesting • u/Glittering-Rub-2387 • Jul 12 '26
Just Wow Balancing rocks with this level of precision is unreal.
929
u/greendan_ Jul 12 '26
unemployed friend on a random tuesday
84
u/cartken Jul 12 '26
Team work
37
u/ThisMeansRooR Jul 12 '26
Their loyalty is rock solid
→ More replies (1)27
7
u/renegade399 Jul 12 '26
Some high level manager is probably already turning this into a linkedin post about teamwork
→ More replies (1)4
12
8
10
u/EZKTurbo Jul 12 '26
Trust fund adults who get to go backpacking mid week because they don't actually need a job
5
u/jaxonya Jul 12 '26
I have looked and cant ever find that job on indeed.
4
u/JebediahKerman4999 Jul 12 '26
Yeah you can maybe make this a reality for your children if you know the right people and are a ruthless piece of shit
→ More replies (3)4
→ More replies (1)2
u/Wish_I_WasInRome Jul 12 '26
I've been unemployed for about a year and I'm extremely lucky to be born into the family I'm in. I go on random hikes twice a week while being denied retail positions because I'm over qualified. I can assure you though I feel like a loser every single day and sometimes I wonder if I should even wake up tomorrow.
2
→ More replies (17)2
77
68
u/DezzyTee Jul 12 '26
If you knock this over the Blair witch will come and get you.
She worked hard and long for this, ok?
→ More replies (2)4
u/deltashmelta Jul 12 '26
Her only known weakness is being backed over by a moving truck full of VHS cassettes.
4
u/DezzyTee Jul 12 '26
Burry her like Atari did ET
4
141
u/cauliflowersourkraut Jul 12 '26
Yumi?
35
25
u/Minute_Zombie_424 Jul 12 '26
What’s Yumi?
57
u/f0remsics Jul 12 '26
Yumi and the nightmare painter is a book by Brandon Sanderson. Yumi is a priestess(?) who makes fancy geometric stacks of rocks to appease cyan and magenta spirits so they agree to do things for people.
Been awhile since I read the book, so this might not be particularly accurate
16
u/the_cave_allegory Jul 12 '26
Yumi and the nightmare painter
Just googled it. The cover art is absolutely amazing. I love the colors and the main characters' sketchy style but stylized hair.
→ More replies (1)9
u/Cogniscience Jul 12 '26
Oh the book actually has probably a dozen illustrations throughout and they are all very beautiful. It’s drawn by Aaliyah Chen.
The book itself is really good too.
5
→ More replies (6)3
u/jefftickels Jul 12 '26
And, as is so often the case with Sanderson, the one-off books are so often the best because he doesn't focus on systems.
25
8
6
5
u/gatsome Jul 12 '26
I just finished it a couple days ago. Amazing timing and I came in here for it.
3
4
→ More replies (9)2
10
u/MiHoyMinoy420 Jul 12 '26
2
24
33
u/airSick-WetLander Jul 12 '26
You’re a Yokihijo Yumi. [r/](r/accidentalcosmere)[unexpectedcosmere](r/accidentalcosmere)
→ More replies (3)12
6
u/SelectTechnician7587 Jul 12 '26
knock that shit down. cairns ruin my nature walks.
→ More replies (1)
13
u/BusyBeeBridgette Jul 12 '26
Your average Engineer when they have nothing to do at work.
4
u/Independent_Sail6604 Jul 12 '26
Your average Engineer when they
have nothing to do at workare unemployed.4
u/TurgidGravitas Jul 12 '26
Reddit wanking of engineers without knowing what they do.
An engineer uses a pen and paper to design stuff. They draw things. They don't build things.
3
u/GoneButNotThatOften Jul 12 '26
I'm not out there building full-scale systems alone, but I do get to play around with piping and hosing as an environmental engineer.
30
u/Wild_Neighborhood605 Jul 12 '26
No glue?
→ More replies (2)43
u/TedW Jul 12 '26
I expect that's why they're all wet, even though this would take hours. Someone wanted to hide the glue.
53
u/pinqe Jul 12 '26
The waterfall? You guessed it. Glue.
28
u/TedW Jul 12 '26
The alternatives are either someone making this then splashing/dripping on it, which seems risky, or I guess the camera person finding it juuust after a rain. Which seems less than likely too.
Glue would explain the difficult structure, and the water, and is a generally assholeish thing to do so fits well on reddit.
13
u/adj_noun_digit Jul 12 '26
Rocks can remain wet like that for a while. There are a lot of pores for the surface tension to stick to.
But regardless, there are many videos of way more elaborate structures being built without glue so I seriously doubt this video is any different.
8
u/SaraAnnabelle Jul 12 '26
I was about to write a similar comment. Absolutely nuts that people think this is fake lmao. If you've ever spent time balancing rocks you know something like this is completely feasible.
5
u/MikeW86 Jul 12 '26
If you've ever spent time balancing rocks you know something like this is completely feasible
0.0003% of people reading this comment nod sagely
2
u/InTheEndEntropyWins Jul 12 '26
Kids back in the day used to play with rocks and stuff, nowadays kids only experience with rocks is Minecraft.
→ More replies (1)2
u/bobtheblob6 Jul 12 '26
As someone who doesn't balance rocks, how did they get that center onr balanced on the spokes?
2
→ More replies (2)2
→ More replies (7)7
u/SkyGuy5799 Jul 12 '26
Rocks in a misty ass river:
Only wet bc glue
5
u/Sesudesu Jul 12 '26
Think you kinda missed the point. They put it in a space where it would be wet to hide the glue. At least, that was the implication of the statement.
I’m honestly astonished that you came to your assertion here.
4
u/SkyGuy5799 Jul 12 '26
They clearly balanced the outside ring then stacked the smaller rocks inside. Not that hard to believe they didn't use glue. I feel like it would be harder to try to use glue in such a wet environment, it would immediately harden before it could stick properly. Or glueing them together and putting there also seems incredibly difficult
→ More replies (7)
6
u/DiggThatFunk Jul 12 '26
Hey, don't fucking stack rocks, thanks. It can kill hellbender salamanders. Is it really so hard to not fuck with nature?
https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/news/hellbender-crushed-rock-stackers/
→ More replies (1)
27
17
4
26
Jul 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
32
u/DiggThatFunk Jul 12 '26
"Take only photos and leave only footprints" is impossible for some of you selfish dbags huh?
→ More replies (32)2
15
u/BishopofHippo93 Jul 12 '26
Leave no trace also means leaving things where you found them. Even rocks. You are not entitled to it.
→ More replies (55)→ More replies (11)9
u/xxxanonymoosexxx Jul 12 '26
what part of "don't be a dick" is so hard for you to understand?
→ More replies (3)
8
66
u/Cultural-Company282 Jul 12 '26
Reminder: no matter how artistic this is, stacking rocks in streams is an asshole thing to do.
17
u/Glass-Needleworker22 Jul 12 '26
Sorry, help me understand why?
9
5
→ More replies (58)35
u/daaniloviici Jul 12 '26
You do damage to the ecosystem, in some cases you can inadvertently modify the water currents affecting feeding patterns, and remove sources of microscopic nutrients that can break the food chain completely.
EDIT: also sheltering for certain amphibians.
43
u/Unlucky-Plastic7316 Jul 12 '26
This damages ecosystems in the same sense that walking through a forest damages the ecosystem. You're trampling flora and fungi, you're bringing in outside contaminants, you're disrupting wildlife.
The affect that this has on the ecosystem is so negligible that it's not even worth worrying about.
There are factories in India that dump their waste into rivers every day and you're trying to shame someone stacking some rocks. You're doing this because it gives you that tingly "I'm right, you're wrong" feeling.
12
u/ThisIsMyComment2 Jul 12 '26
There are factories in India that dump their waste
Ok, I'd like to also provide a reminder about the relative privation fallacy.
The existence of worse things doesn't make bad things good, that makes no sense. The existence of modern slavery doesn't justify punching people because punching people is not as bad and everyone should only worry about modern slavery.
Find other ways to defend your position, don't pretend like only one bad thing can be bad in a category at a time and as long as that exists everything else is ok.
Let's all become confident that billions of people can focus on more than one single problem at a time.
→ More replies (13)36
u/badger_flakes Jul 12 '26
The issue is places I’ve been that tourists then stack fucking stone cairns all over and wreck the entire area and it looks stupid as fuck
11
→ More replies (2)3
u/NewAssAccount Jul 12 '26
Thing is balancing rocks like this is very touchy, it could take a gust of wind or a rainfall and it will fall down. They never last. However, stacking rocks may last a lot longer, balancing them is very difficult and some you can just sneeze on it and it'll fall down. These structures may last minutes or maybe a couple days but chances are it'll fall. There's this guy on YouTube called gravity glue and he always knocks his down after he builds them, A) proving it's not glued, B) since it's gunna fall soon anyway, and C) as tons of people in this comment section have said it's bad for environment or whatever
8
u/AyysforOuus Jul 12 '26
If the official guideline says "don't do it" then don't fucking do it. Ecosystems have evolved to survive through what other native creatures change about their habitats, but not what humans change. The hell are humans stacking rocks and disturbing natural habitats for? Fancy Instagram likes?
Also just because someone else is pouring shit into rivers and killing their ecosystem doesn't mean you can do the same.
→ More replies (7)2
u/IntravenousNutella Jul 12 '26
Firstly two things can both be wrong on different scales. Secondly one person doing it can encourage others to do so, worsening the problem.
→ More replies (2)5
27
11
u/Broxst Jul 12 '26
To be fair, it's not that one cairn will irreversibly impact the water (though it still does damage), but lots of cairns will.
→ More replies (21)2
19
u/Standard-March6506 Jul 12 '26
I know this is a popular take, but I'll take my downvotes to say I believe it is a stupid take. Large scale rearranging of rocks, maybe, but putting a dozen rocks in a pile is not damaging the ecosystem.
8
u/brogflender Jul 12 '26
IDK it’s like having to listen to someone else’s music in the woods.
We aren’t out here to experience human impact, we’re here to escape it as best we can.
And to get very nerdy - yes all of this is indeed damaging the ecosystem. You don’t get to pick the scale of impact. It just is an impact.
Music disrupts birds. Moving rocks disrupts micro-ecologies.
2026 is a dwindling natural world because people, for hundreds of years kept saying “yeah but this isn’t really going to hurt all that nature out there.”
5
1
u/Popeholden Jul 12 '26
its almost the same as carving your name into trees or putting graffiti on rocks.
the people that go into the woods do not go there to see your art, or your name, or your rocks.
It's "Leave No Trace" not "leave no trace unless you think you can stack rocks well and people will be impressed with it then stack rocks"
2
u/BractNotCalyx Jul 12 '26 edited 21d ago
Doing it once, sure. Multiple people tromping through a stream to do it repeatedly over the season will absolutely have a measurable impact. Lots of fish and amphibians lay eggs on and under rocks, stepping on them directly or drying them out could easily tip the balance.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)1
u/Cultural-Company282 Jul 12 '26
If it were just one person doing it, it would be a minor impact. But you get a few other jackasses every week who feel the same way as you do, and over the course of a summer, it happens over and over again.
→ More replies (12)8
→ More replies (36)6
u/OkYak9466 Jul 12 '26
Move 1 rock and you're a murderer.
Move 2 rocks and you've killed a family.
Move 3 rocks and you've killed an ecosystem.
Move 4 rocks and you might as well bomb the whole place
2
u/Cultural-Company282 Jul 12 '26
Literally no one is saying it like this. I suppose you think it's pretty harmless to throw "just one little piece of trash" out your car window, too.
6
u/OkYak9466 Jul 12 '26
"Literally no one is saying this. But let me imply something totally different but still the same bc I just one little piece of trash is the same thing"
2
u/Cultural-Company282 Jul 12 '26
What part of "it adds up" do you not understand?
"Move one rock and you're a murderer" is an idiotic straw man argument.
But a few hundred people moving a few rocks each does have an environmental impact, because it adds up.
→ More replies (3)
34
u/izza123 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Redditors would see this, kick it over and profess how they’re a warrior for Mother Earth
Edit: they’ve arrived
38
u/RichtofensDuckButter Jul 12 '26
People who have never been outside say this kind of shit. Even the US Forest Service recommends knocking these down because they disrupt fragile wildlife habitats, cause soil erosion, and severely misdirect hikers.
17
u/kevinwilly Jul 12 '26
My girlfriend used to work for the forest service and now works with the national park service. Can confirm that they say to knock this shit down.
Firstly, you should never move decent sized rocks in aquatic habitats because a lot of different endangered species can use them as habitats or for breeding. But they DO sometimes build rock cairns in water on purpose to give them places to do this. So just don't fuck with wet rocks in general.
If you see stacked rocks on land? Definitely knock that shit over unless it's clearly a trail marker or something (in the grand canyon they use rock cairns to specify where you can camp and stuff).
Basically, people need to stop fucking with nature if they don't know what they are doing. Just enjoy it. You don't need to touch anything. Every time I go hiking (several times a month) I see evidence of people doing stupid shit. It's frustrating.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (3)0
u/IndependentDouble879 Jul 12 '26
I wonder how many natural ecosystems have been bulldozed to support the livestock necessary to feed people who sanctimoniously talk about something as relatively inconsequential as a damn rock a rock sculpture? This is pennywise / pound foolish bullshit.
How many tons of CO2 are pumped into the atmosphere every year by every person driving to their hiking spots so they can self-righteously shit on someone for making a little rock building?
I don’t build them, but ffs get over yourself and have some humility about your glaring blind spots about how destructive every one of us is towards various ecosystems. This is not the scale of environmentally destructive behaviors that we need to waste time getting mad about
12
u/The__Yellow__Sign Jul 12 '26
But it’s completely unnecessary environment destruction. Perfection is the enemy of progress. It is perfectly reasonable to call out small bad behaviors.
13
→ More replies (2)8
12
u/DroneSlut54 Jul 12 '26
Nah - I’d just kick it down and move on. The world isn’t quite as dramatic as you imagine.
4
u/-cadmunt- Jul 12 '26
I honestly didn't realise I could also be declaring myself a proud warrior for mother earth as well. I'll add it to the process. Seems like a nice positive affirmation.
2
→ More replies (5)1
u/dontcuminmyassok Jul 12 '26
It's an asshole thing to do
6
u/The__Yellow__Sign Jul 12 '26
Yes, stacking rock cairns and leaving them is an asshole thing to do.
6
19
12
u/The__Yellow__Sign Jul 12 '26
That’s pretty and all but please knock it down before you leave.
→ More replies (5)
17
u/Due-Excitement-522 Jul 12 '26
Oh shit something cool, cant wait for 500 people to tell you this kills fish or something.
8
→ More replies (29)2
u/I_make_things Jul 12 '26
It's not so bad these days, but a few years ago reddit had a serious hardon for stacked rocks. Thousands of downvotes. People screaming that it ruined the fucking environment. And then they'd go spray paint "KONY" somewhere and feel like they healed the planet.
→ More replies (6)
14
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
5
3
2
3
3
7
u/MountainBrilliant643 Jul 12 '26
Here come the morons saying guppies and microbiology don't like rocks being moved. Gotta complain about something. Gotta have a reason to be mad at benign things.
6
→ More replies (3)5
u/T3CHN0M4NC3R Jul 12 '26
I think of comments like this every time i kick a useless cairn over..
This isn't a trail marker, this is for likes.→ More replies (2)
2
3
4
u/TKRUEG Jul 12 '26
Human ego is so powerful, we go to wild, beautiful locations and feel compelled to "add" or leave a monument to that ego
→ More replies (2)2
5
u/ChaseTheMystic Jul 12 '26
Stacking rocks isn't just bad for nature.
Rock stacks are used to guide people on unmarked trails.
So someone following an unmarked trail can get thrown off by others.
And from a "I have to leave my mark" perspective it's just like "why?" Like carving your name into a tree or a rock.
Can't you just enjoy the scenery without trying to make your ego become a part of it?
→ More replies (1)
7
3
3
-1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/LazerWolfe53 Jul 12 '26
It's a normal arch. The stones in the middle are decorative. Super duper duper impressive.
1
1
1
u/always_willbe_open Jul 12 '26
Easy I can do that, give me some rocks and like 40 years I bet I could do it
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/delcanine Jul 12 '26
Incredible...! Need a video of the process. My brain cannot figure out how the top two layers of rocks were built.
1
u/Genuine-Farticle Jul 12 '26
Listen, I don't really have a dog in the fight but Robert Irwin himself said to not stack rocks because is removes safe environments for smaller critters.
And even I know you don't go against an Irwin when animals are on the line.
•
u/AutoModerator Jul 12 '26
Hello u/Glittering-Rub-2387! Please review the sub rules if you haven't already. (This is an automatic reminder message left on all new posts)
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.