Bagger 288!
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN mostly drops it as a joke whenever giant machines or huge ships and excavators come up.
What it is
A short, absurd happy-hardcore song and animation celebrating the Bagger 288, the enormous bucket-wheel excavator, in dramatic over-the-top terms.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites fragmede · 2025-10 · on “New England's last coal plant has stopped operating, according to its owners”
You should see this one! [this video] It's a bit dated (completed in 1978) and cost approximately $100 million. At one point it was the heaviest land vehicle, clocking in at 13,500 tons. It's since been succeded, but this bucket-wheel excavator needed only five people to operate. Those five people could mine 240,000 tons of coal[8] or 240,000 cubic metres of overburden (rock/soil on top of the coal) per day . That's 2400 coal wagons! After totally tapping out all of the coal at the Tagebau Hambach mine, in 2001, it took a crew of 70 together to move it 14 miles to the next mine. This move cost 15 million German Marks. (Just watch the linked documentary.)