61–70 of 474 posts
> I did other reckless shit with my own car. [...] Drove it 120 miles per hour just to see what it felt like. Admittedly this gave me a chuckle. Most people don't go that fast, but with the right kind of car this no big deal on the Autobahn.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, all the time people slip and fall on ice and then sue. You can see it, you walk on it, but you don't assume the risk and force the property owner to pay. I assume that most warnings are just there because someone got sued or doesn't want to get sued.
People do, it's true. The question I have is would a "Danger! Slippy ice!" actually stop people from hurting themselves? Because I don't think it would, it would just make the sueing harder.
One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…
My guess is that it went only through the one hand, and the sensation in the arm is just a side effect.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Acquaintance did some suburban kayaking and didn't see a 3ft drop (some kind of dam or culvert under a bridge) until too late. The fluid mechanics of that drop are such that there is a vortex at the base that makes it difficult to get out. He was able to stand but just barely - scary to think how close a call that was in a pretty innocuous looking setting.
I almost drowned on a beach without surveillance, jumping into the surf waist high, for fun, until suddenly the receding water pulled me just a few meters further away and now I couldn't touch the floor anymore, and was slowly being pulled further and further away from the beach. My girlfriend of the time was on the beach far enough away that she couldn't hear or grasp that I was struggling. By luck and after perhaps…
We also saw lifeguards retrieve a drowned child. They worked on him for about fifteen minutes in front of the parents before stopping, and the ambulance took him away.
The beaches were marked with red flags as far as the eye could see, along with signs in English and Spanish clearly indicating that this meant swimming was prohibited, as it was unsafe. Many people paid no heed to the warnings.
One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hypothetically I'd rather my kid learn her limits by breaking her arm in the playground at age 10, than doing so in the wilderness at age 20.
What limits are those? The "I shouldn't have fallen off the monkey bars" lesson isn't applicable to the wilderness, is it? What's the carry over? "Broken arms hurt"? I don't think people are unaware of that. Also, what will break your arm at 10 is different than what will break your arm at 20.
Some tips on where to begin to learn more about nature and survive in the wild? Maybe an REI class? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that should I ever venture out into the wilderness, I would definitely not survive. I lack basic survival skills and nature would eat me alive. That being said, I always admired folks who could go camping for days (or weeks), who could cook up a warm (and edible) meal over a campfire.
One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Acquaintance did some suburban kayaking and didn't see a 3ft drop (some kind of dam or culvert under a bridge) until too late. The fluid mechanics of that drop are such that there is a vortex at the base that makes it difficult to get out. He was able to stand but just barely - scary to think how close a call that was in a pretty innocuous looking setting.
I almost drowned on a beach without surveillance, jumping into the surf waist high, for fun, until suddenly the receding water pulled me just a few meters further away and now I couldn't touch the floor anymore, and was slowly being pulled further and further away from the beach. My girlfriend of the time was on the beach far enough away that she couldn't hear or grasp that I was struggling. By luck and after perhaps…
The ocean doesn't give a shit about your life.
How many people have road flares in their car? Or blankets? Or some sort of emergency heat source? These things don't take up much space, are cheap to acquire, and easy to maintain. They can save your life or someone else's.