Yet another Hacker News

The St. Helena 5 pence coin shows Jonathan, a roughly 190 year old tortoise

53 points schleck8 2 hours ago 10 comments

Razengan 1 hour ago | parent

We should elect him as president

berlam 1 hour ago | parent

> In July 2023 there was a fight between David and Fredrik which resulted in Fredrik being turned onto his back and left to die, in an area where his plight would not have been visible from the house or the tortoise viewing area. Fortunately he was spotted in time by visiting vet Joe Hollins, who turned Fredrik the right way up with no long-lasting ill effects. This is apparently not the first time recently when a tortoise has been turned over, though in the other occasion it was David who finished the wrong way up, not after a fight but after an unsuccessful attempt to mount Emma for mating purposes…

His companions. Never thought tortoises have such a wild life.

https://sainthelenaisland.info/jonathan.htm

hilsdev 26 minutes ago | parent

Life would be so much more magical and special if attempting to penetrate your mate could result in a slow death of dehydration and starvation, if not being torn to shreds by a passing bird of prey.

hilsdev 25 minutes ago | parent

Although these days sometimes women will post your text messages on twitter, which may in fact be worse

Insanity 14 minutes ago | parent

If they do, you dodged a bullet lol.

mberning 47 minutes ago | parent

It is my dream to someday travel to St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha.

bruce511 35 minutes ago | parent

St Helena has "recently" (inside last decade) got an airport and a weekly service from Johannesburg, South Africa via Walvis Bay, Namibia.

Before that it was only accessible via an infrequent ship which took 3 days out of Cape Town, South Africa.

But given the air link it is a lot more accessible now.

Tristan is still only accessible via sea, and even if you make it there, there's no guarantee you can land. There is no port, so ship-to-land transfers are via small boat, so the whole process is very weather dependent.

Both islands though have a really interesting history, and are well worth reading about, even if you never get there.

And these days you can get a flavor of local life via the local newspaper online. https://sthelenaonline.org/st-helena-independent/

trallnag 11 minutes ago | parent

Always like to scroll through available properties in such remote places

brcmthrowaway 24 minutes ago | parent

Is this where Napoleon was exiled??

forkerenok 7 minutes ago | parent

Yes, this is mentioned a couple of times in the article and in Jonathan's birthday song featured in one of the videos on the page. :)