back to article Database billionaire trampled by elephant

Tom Siebel has been seriously injured after being trampled by an elephant. Siebel was on a photo safari in Tanzania with a guide watching a group of elephants when one animal charged. The guide fired at the elephant but missed. The animal attacked the guide before going for Siebel, breaking his ribs, trampling one leg and …

COMMENTS

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  1. Hermes (nine inch) Conran
    FAIL

    How the hell..

    do you miss an elephant?

  2. Rod MacLean

    Elephant IT

    Perhaps the elephant is a disgruntled customer who has been waiting a long time for a chance like this?

    Maybe it has now migrated to SQL Server, mySQL or something?

    I am a little surprised he's not suing the elephant...

  3. Tim

    Trampled by an elephant

    Is exactly how I felt every week when I had to do my timesheets on Siebel.

    However, that is perhaps a bit mean spirited so I do wish him a speedy recovery and I hope the guide wasn't injured too badly either.

  4. The Indomitable Gall

    No apparent reason?

    Ok, maybe it's not readily apparent, but I'd bet 1 to 100 that the elephant or one of his family has been targetted at some point by poachers.

    Whether he was reacting to the presence of humans or the smell of diesel, the lesson is the same... stay away from elephants -- they don't like us any more.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    PostgreSQL

    Damn open source zealots, now they're resorting to violence...

  6. Jimmy Floyd
    Joke

    "...university and drug education programmes."

    I was under the impression that University WAS a drug education programme...

  7. Les Matthew

    @Hermes (nine inch) Conran

    Bet you'd have balls of steel with a pissed off twelve foot tall wild animal weighing six tons running towards you.

    I know what I'd be doing, it would involve the production of bricks.

  8. Lionel Baden
    FAIL

    missed !!

    Man even my wife first time shooting hit a couple of clays and those are alot smaller than some pesky pissed off elephant !!

    maybe the elephant was wearing a bullet proof turban ???

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hmmm

    Hadoop?

  10. Solomon Grundy
    Badgers

    Wild Animals

    There's a reason that the guide was carrying a gun - they were observing wild animals, in the wild.

    It's not particularly dangerous to watch elephants but there are risks, obviously. (And it's pretty easy to miss an elephant charging at you. Lots of people were killed like this when elephant hunting was en vogue).

    That's why they're called wild animals.

  11. Andrew 14
    Coat

    sleeping with ?

    After the trampling Larry Elephant admitted that he'd never forgotten Thomas's betrayal.

  12. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Coffee/keyboard

    Hadoop?!?!

    No, my coffee!!

  13. Richard 102
    Grenade

    @How the hell ...

    "do you miss an elephant?"

    Easy if you use French military rifles.

    Hope the guide's okay.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Best headline ever.

    That is all.

  15. Mark Grady 1
    Coat

    Databases ... elephants ...

    Maybe the elephant in question was encouraged to do it by PostgreSQL?

    OK, I'll get my coat ...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Hadoop & PostgreSQL

    haha.. Nice any others?

    What no elephant icon?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Attacking an American

    Doesn't the elephant risking extraordinary rendition to Gitmo, and waterboarding till he admits a plot of elephant kind to overthrow god and democracy.

    Seriously though hope everyone recovers, including the Elephant.

  18. Do Not Fold Spindle Mutilate
    Joke

    He missed because ...

    the elephant was not in his pyjamas. Good old Groucho Marx joke.

  19. foo_bar_baz
    Coat

    Next time

    Stay in the car.

    @ac 12:17:

    With the deadline approaching the guide decided on a hasty snapshot of the trunk. The commit failed and it was the elephant's tusk to roll back.

    Pole sana to Mr. Siebel.

  20. Richard 102

    @Do Not Fold Spindle Mutilate

    [Standing ovation]

  21. James O'Brien
    Joke

    Wait a second

    Hes married?

  22. James O'Brien
    FAIL

    @Myself

    DOH I should have read the end of the article more.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Do not fold, spindle or mutilate

    "Women are like elephants. I like to look at em, but I wouldnt want to own one."

    I expect the wrath of a moderatrix.

  24. Chris C

    No reason?

    "Siebel told the paper the two men were watching the animals from a distance of 200 yards: 'There was no apparent reason, nothing that should have made it feel threatened,' Siebel said. 'It was quiet, and then the quiet stopped...'"

    I do so love how, on one hand, humans say that animals are dumb and don't think like us and that's why we can kill them, and then on the other hand (like here), imply that animals do think like humans.

    Newsflash -- just because YOU didn't see a reason to feel threatened doesn't mean the elephant (or anything/anyone else, for that matter) won't feel threatened. It may have been the presence of people (since the animals likely equate all people with poachers -- you know, like how most "Western" people equate virtually all people of Middle Eastern descent with terrorists), it may have been the weapon the guide was carrying, it may have been a sound, a smell, or anything else. The article didn't mention, but maybe there was a baby/young elephant in the group, and the charging elephant was being (over-)protective.

    To put it into perspective -- how many people have killed animals (bears, mountain lions, alligators, snakes, etc) because those animals got "too close", even without the animal showing any interest in the person. And, of course, "too close" is relative to each person based on their fears, experiences, and tales from other people.

  25. Allan George Dyer
    Coat

    @How the hell..

    You turn up at the airport too later for security screening...

    no, wait, that's a Jumbo.

    OK, OK, I'm going

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