SURVIVAL: How to NOT survive, don’t be ‘exhausted and ill-prepared’

Monday, November 18, 2024

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-search-team-rescues-hikers-19894482.php

Bay Area & State
Calif. search team rescues ‘exhausted and ill-prepared’ Mount Whitney hikers
By Sam Mauhay-Moore, Trending News Reporter Nov 7, 2024

*** begin quote ***

Inyo County’s Search and Rescue team has once again taken to social media to scold a set of hikers who needed assistance after being unable to summit Mount Whitney on Saturday. 

The two hikers began their trek on Friday evening with the intent to summit the mountain on Saturday, Inyo SAR posted on Facebook. Equipped with “150lbs of newly-purchased gear plus 5 gallons of water,” the pair made it 2.7 miles before stopping to camp on the trail at about 3 a.m. “They were exhausted, and one subject had two blisters and a bad headache,” Inyo SAR wrote. They later woke up to snowfall, with their shoes full of snow. 

The “exhausted and ill-prepared” hikers then called the search and rescue team for assistance, Inyo SAR wrote. 

*** and ***

Inyo SAR listed several things that went amiss before and during the incident, the first being the hikers “attempting Mt. Whitney without prior experience, proper preparation, or essential items such as a map, weather forecast, and bear canister.” Weather forecasts for that weekend predicted up to two feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada, and the U.S. Forest Service warns that fall conditions on the Mount Whitney trail often include hazardous pockets of snow and ice that require hiking with gear like crampons and ice picks. The Forest Service also recommends hikers train extensively before attempting to summit Whitney, as the 22-mile round trip hike is notoriously gnarly and includes over 6,000 feet of elevation gain. 

*** end quote ***

Did they say 150# of newly-purchased gear plus 5 gallons of water?

For the uninitiated in “survival”, 5 gallons of water is about 40#.   Go to your local supermarket and carry FOUR 10 pound sacks of spuds just to the checkout and you’ll get a sense of what that really means.

There’s a reason that USAF survival school, as well as private one, spend a lot of time talking about “weight”.  In a survival situation, you are urged to review everything you THINK you need and pare it down to what you must absolutely have.  Then take a short hike  —  in the military that’s FIVE miles  —  in the USMC that’s 20 or 30 miles  —  then reassess what you are carrying.  That’s why Amazon hawks “extra light weight” stuff of campling.

I’m glad the hikers survived and perhaps their story will educate everyone else.

Once again, I question “Who pays?”.   Certainly, it shouldn’t be the Taxpayer.  Perhaps, at these “attractive locations”, “rescue insurance” should be sold with big sign as to what an uninsured rescue will cost.  Maybe then we will have a lot less “rescues” needed!

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CRYPTO: It may have been fraud, but savers did NOT diversify

Sunday, November 17, 2024

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/life-savings-of-an-entire-small-town-recovered-from-the-depths-of-a-cryto-scam-by-fbi/

Life Savings of an Entire Small Town Recovered from the Depths of Cryto-Scam, Thanks to FBI
By Andy Corbley – Nov 7, 2024

*** begin quote ***

A Wichita courtroom rang out with sobs and cheers when over two dozen people learned that their life savings had been recovered after being lost by a local bank.

Over $8 million in children’s university funds, retirement accounts, funds for eldercare, and bequeathments to children and grandchildren were returned after the FBI located and seized a cryptocurrency wallet linked to an account in the Cayman Islands.

The bank’s founder Shan Hanes, claims he had unintentionally lost it all by investing in a sophisticated cryptocurrency scam, though he ultimately lost his defense and received 24 years in prison for defrauding depositors and investors.

In August, Heartland Tri-State Bank was put into receivership by federal regulators after being drained of cash. The FDIC paid out $47 million to everyday depositors and other investors, but the rural, community-owned bank had 30 shareholders who had carefully planned long-term accounts that were not insured.

*** end quote ***

While I am happy that the insured depositors were made whole, they should have diversified their deposits.

One lady had 250k$ in one IRA account.  That far exceeds the risk she should be taking.  Four partial roll over accounts of 50k$ each would have mitigated her losses.  She was lucky to get it back.  Yeah, it makes for more paperwork, but look at the alternative,

There are accounts available with private insurance up to ¼ million last time I looked.

In short, having large sums of money requires you to take a modicum of care.

Don’t trust anyone.  (Even me!)  Verify!  Lawyers and accountants may seem expensive, but are cheap in the long run.

YMMV but I know what I do and preach.  

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POLITICAL: Bill Maher makes some good points but misses a couple I’d have liked to hear

Saturday, November 16, 2024

https://nypost.com/2024/11/09/us-news/bill-maher-urges-kamala-harris-democrats-to-look-in-mirror-after-trump-presidential-election-win/

Bill Maher urges Democrats to ‘look in the mirror’ after Kamala Harris’ election loss
By Nicholas McEntyre 
Published Nov. 9, 2024, 5:08 a.m. ET

*** begin quote ***

Bill Maher slammed the Democratic party as “losers” and urged them to “look in the mirror” following Kamala Harris’ presidential election loss to President-elect Donald Trump.

Maher, who once predicted that Harris would win the election, revealed that he “did not vote for the winner,” but accepted the election results — unlike his late-night counterparts earlier in the week.

“We had an election,” Maher said during his “Real Time” monologue on HBO Friday night. “I did not vote for the winner, we’ll see what the winners do now. They won, now they have reality they have to deal with. We’ll see what they do.”

*** end quote ***

The lady Sarah Isgur made an excellent point about inflation. That everyone just breezed by and ignored. It is one thing to say “inflation is down”. But what is meant is that the rate is down. People are forced to look Iive with the inflated prices. Those prices n ever return to previous values. To real people see that is what they think of as inflation. As Bill Clinton famously told his team “it’s the economy, stupid”. And he was so right. People see the inflated prices as their economy. And the host and liberal guest just breezed by the crux of their “inflation problem”.  

Bil Maher made some other excellent points. 

  • The floating garbage in the ocean!
  • High stock market and low unemployment. 
  • The liberal condecension
  • The R’s became the party of the working man. 

But he did not:

  • The missing 15 million Biden voters proving the 2020 fraud
  • The perfidy of Harris and the D’s that Joe Biden was “sharp as a tack”
  • The media’s disinformation was against “We, The Sheeple”

Make no mistake Bill Maher is a liberal with whom I disagree a lot with.  But like Piers Morgan, I think he is an “honest” liberal who I can respect and listen too.  I don’t need an echo chamber.  Although where would a little L libertarian find one?  

There’s a meme going around Twitter and Facebook about political opinions.

Different opinions.Different opinions.

Now that I can get behind.  Different opinions but still can listen to what they say.

—30—

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POLITICAL: Address “taxes” as the first priority

Friday, November 15, 2024

https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2024/11/14/trumps-chance-to-change-taxation-n2647729

Trump’s Chance to Change Taxation
Cal Thomas | Nov 14, 2024

*** begin quote ***

If any constitutional amendment can be hated, it would be the 16th Amendment.

Passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified by the states in 1913, it allowed Congress to “levy income taxes without apportioning them among the states based on population.” At first the collection of revenue came from the very wealthy and in a small percentage, but World Wars I and II put the country in debt and Congress, using the power given to it by the 16th Amendment, began spreading the burden around until we arrived at our present moment when half the country and corporations are paying taxes (when state, local and other taxes are included, that amounts to more than half their income in states like California and New York). Half the people pay little or no federal income tax at all.

*** and ***

Younger workers would have freedom of choice (a phrase Democrats like when it comes to abortion, but oppose if it involves schools and the stock market). Workers could choose a new retirement system Forbes called Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs).

Under his calculation, in 1999, younger workers could deposit 4 percentage points of their Social Security taxes into their own PRAs and increased their contributions as follows:

  • In 2003 – 5 percentage points.
  • In 2004 – 6 percentage points.
  • In 2005 – 7 percentage points.
  • In 2006 – 8 percentage points.

Forbes wrote that if his idea had been adopted, a single working mother who was 25 in 2000 and retires in 2040 could have earned a nest egg of $1.2 million in her PRA. She could then purchase an annuity that pays her$100,000 annually, nearly twice as much as she would receive under Social Security. A high school graduate who was 18 in 2000, Forbes wrote, and retires in 2040, would have a nest egg of $2 million.

Among the reasons Democrats have refused to reform Social Security and Medicare, both of which are projected to become insolvent in the 2030s without reforms, is politics. If they solve the problem, they lose the issue.

*** end quote ***

Let’s do both:

(1) Repeal the 16th Amendment and substitute tariffs.  (The Taxpayer pays for either.  But it changes the incentives.)

(2) Let “We, The Sheeple” put a small portion of their Social Security taxes  into the proposed Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) and allow a tax free rollover to an annuity at any future date,

This way we’ll get the best of both suggestions.

And, let’s enact the Flat Tax while we are repealing the 16th.

Then, we can repeal the 17th too.

—30—

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INSPIRATIONAL: You can feel the emotions in this writing

Friday, November 15, 2024

https://daringfireball.net/2024/11/how_it_went

How It Went
By John Gruber
Friday, 8 November 2024

*** begin quote ***

My mom died at the end of June this year.

I know, and I’m sorry — that’s a hell of a way to open a piece ostensibly about a depressing, worrisome, frightening election result. But here’s the thing I want to emphasize right up front: my mom’s death was OK. It really was. She was 78, which isn’t that old, but her health had not been great. She was hospitalized for several days in May, just a month prior, after she had collapsed at home, too weak to stand, and for days it wasn’t clear what was wrong. Then some more test results came back and we had the answer. She had ovarian cancer, bad. It had already metastasized. The prognosis was grim: months to live, at best. And those months, toward the end, would inexorably grow ever more painful and profoundly sad.

*** and ***

So, when my dad called me Tuesday morning, I thought it would be the election on his mind. It was all that was on my mind, that’s for sure. He had, in fact, just come back from voting, but it was something else. His voice was chipper, upbeat, but I could tell it wasn’t a good story. I know him too well.

Turns out, he had gone out to eat, by himself, Monday evening. In fact, at the very same restaurant where he and my mom ate their last meal together. He ate, drove home, and once home went to wash his hands before going to bed. That’s when he noticed his wedding band was missing from his finger.

It was lost.

He looked around to no avail, and went to bed without it. In the morning light, he retraced his steps. He felt certain he had it on while at the restaurant — not because he took any note of it while dining, but because he knows he’d have noticed its absence. If you wear a ring every day on the same finger, you know how true that is. He almost never took that ring off.

At some point when I was a little kid, my dad told me he had never once removed his ring since my mom put it on his finger at their wedding, the year before I was born. 

*** and ***

I told my wife about my dad’s ring and she almost burst into tears. She loves him so much. “He just lost your mom”, she said.

*** end quote ***

Maybe I’ve just had too much emotion this week.  A lot of deaths since last Thanksgiving, a lot of deaths of people near me, a lot of deaths of celebrities I “knew” as a child, and even deaths of fellow alumni I never knew.  Sigh!

In recounting the death of the author’s Mom, I could feel again the pain that it brings. Sadness can be overwhelming.

Not sure what lesson to take away from this.  

But one can NOT wallow in self-pity.  It happens to everyone everywhere in every age.

“My love, were it in my power, I would sadly grant thee this boon. But, we have to continue to follow His Plan for us. Let’s go forth and speak no more of this. Who ever is last will be last. It will be His choice; not ours. We’re but humble custodians of His temple on earth. It’s not our place to trump His plan. Whatever that plan be, know that I will be with you to my last breath.” — character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 399

That’s all I can say now. “Who ever is last will be last.”

—30—

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INTERESTING: The Japanese don’t give children tests until Fourth Grade.  Maybe they are on to something?

Thursday, November 14, 2024

FROM 1440

A Timeline for Teeth

Humans’ tendency toward long childhoods may have evolved earlier than previously thought, a new study found, potentially even predating our large brain sizes. The study challenges the prevailing hypothesis the two evolved simultaneously.

The study, published yesterday in Nature, centers on the 1.8-million-year-old fossil of a roughly 11-year-old child discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia. Researchers studied X-rays of the child’s molar teeth to identify stress lines and nutritional patterns, which they used to create a visual timeline of the child’s dental development (see video).

The study suggests the child experienced slow early dental growth, relying on milk teeth for the first five years of life. Because the child belonged to a Homo species with only slightly larger brains than modern chimpanzees, the authors say long childhoods—in which humans rely on parents, grandparents, and other adults for support—may have predated humans’ ability to grow larger brains. 

Learn about long childhoods and the human brain here (w/video).

# – # – # – # – # 

I found this an “interesting” factoid.  Not sure what to make of it or how we use it in child rearing.  Maybe children have to be allowed to be children a little longer.  I’ve read that the Japanese don’t give children tests until Fourth Grade.  Maybe they are on to something?

—30—

 

 

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IPHONE: IOS telling other iphones to reboot and lock up?

Thursday, November 14, 2024

https://www.androidauthority.com/confiscated-iphones-reboot-en-masse-3497803/

Mobile
Feature or bug? iPhones confiscated by cops reboot en masse

  • iOS in the BFU state is significantly more secure, making unauthorized data extraction much more challenging.

By Mahmoud Irani
5 hours ago

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2024-11-08>>

*** begin quote ***

TL;DR

  •     iOS 18 is reportedly causing confiscated iPhones to reboot after a day of inactivity or disconnection from the cellular network.
  •     After restarting, these iPhones seemingly send signals to other nearby iPhones to trigger the same behavior.
  •     It’s unclear whether this is a new iOS 18 security feature or merely the reboot bug that impacted certain iPhones a while back.

*** and ***

The company has long offered system-level features that prevent thieves and law enforcement officers from easily accessing user data on a locked iDevice. 

*** end quote ***

Well this seems like a good feature, since thieves seem to be everywhere and not all police have to obey a Fourth or Fifth Amendment rights, if they have them in their jurisdiction.

It’s a good admonishment to Users to restart their phones when thieves or police are about,

FWIW

—30—

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INTERESTING: Elephant demonstrates the use of a tool — not something seen in other than humans

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/11/this-elephant-figured-out-how-to-use-a-hose-to-shower/

An elephant never forgets

This elephant figured out how to use a hose to shower
Jennifer Ouellette – Nov 12, 2024 6:06 PM 

*** begin quote ***

An Asian elephant named Mary living at the Berlin Zoo surprised researchers by figuring out how to use a hose to take her morning showers, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. “Elephants are amazing with hoses,” said co-author Michael Brecht of the Humboldt University of Berlin. “As it is often the case with elephants, hose tool use behaviors come out very differently from animal to animal; elephant Mary is the queen of showering.”

Tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of it were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. Dolphins have been observed using sea sponges to protect their beaks while foraging for food, and sea otters will break open shellfish like abalone with rocks. Several species of fish also use tools to hunt and crack open shellfish, as well as to clear a spot for nesting. And the coconut octopus collects coconut shells, stacking them and transporting them before reassembling them as shelter.

*** end quote ***

It’s pretty funny to watch.  I wish I had a trunk like that for my showers.  And, the way she tosses it like a trunk extension is amazing to me.

Maybe we need to redefine “intelligence” or “human like”?

Certainly we shouldn’t be shooting them for any reason other than to alleviate suffering.  

We could learn “humanity” from animals.

—30—

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POLITICAL: Lessons from the DJT electoral landslide

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/11/has_the_left_learned_anything_from_the_election.html

americanthinker.com
Has the Left Learned Anything from the Election?
By Susan Quinn

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2024-11-07>>

*** begin quote ***

Trump’s election to the Presidency is a breathtaking achievement. So many thought he had too many issues working against him and were certain that the country would not elect a convicted felon or a man who “planned to be a dictator” on his first day in office.

But they were wrong.

It’s a worthwhile exercise to study the Left’s positions now that they’ve lost the Presidency. A major factor in their loss is that they ignored the people.

  •  The Left (which includes the legacy media) paid no attention to the desperation of the people when they cried out about the economy and inflation. Kamala Harris made some pathetic promises in her campaign to help the people, but at that point, I think that no one believed her.

*** and ***

  • Regarding legislation, the Republicans must stop agreeing to pass laws that increase our debts. If they want to pass another part of the legislation, they must free it from large financial commitments. Fiscal responsibility must become our goal.Regarding legislation, the Republicans must stop agreeing to pass laws that increase our debts. If they want to pass another part of the legislation, they must free it from large financial commitments. Fiscal responsibility must become our goal.

*** end quote ***

I’d say that the legacy lame-street media is dead.  Podcasts bypass the filters and take ideas directly to “We, The Sheeple”.

Further, I’d say that DJT4547 has a long list of things he has to do.  Day 1  — pardon all those unjustly imprisioned  — repeal ALL of the Executive Orders ever signed  —  Close the Department of Education and move the Department of Agriculture to Kansas.  Send Elon Musk and Ron Paul into the swamp to cut the size and shape of the Federal Gooferment bureaucracy.

Day 2  — make peace your number 1 priority.

—30—

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TECHNOLOGY: AI generated books are killing real authors?

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

https://www.survivalmonkey.com/threads/note-to-my-readers-ive-pulled-my-books-from-sale.72020/

FROM A POSTER:

*** begin quote ***

Have to sell books to make $$$.

The market is saturated with BS AI generated ‘survival ‘ books.

Last year I logged $37 in sales for the year…. 

*** end quote ***

AI generated books are killing real authors?

I guess that it is possible to generate a “book” by AI.  Not sure how it’s done, but if I knew I’d do it too.  It’s the old conundrum.  If the cost to “publish” an AI generated book is zero or negligible, then one could “generate” a million and post them.  Regardless of quality, if you can “sell” a few for a profit, then you might hit the mother lode and make some real money.

Argh!

Not sure how to exploit this finding?

Maybe take old blog content and “publish” “2001 Thoughts on Guns”, or “2012 Thoughts on Money”, or even “2007 Thoughts”. 

Could that work?

Opinions?

—30—

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