As a boy there was a common game that friends would play, which was -- if Newton were to come back today, what technology would he be most shocked about. I found this quote interesting, and I think shows how hard it may be to predict such things: "What amazed him most of all," Peskov recorded, "was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!'"
My grandfather was born in Abakan, and published several books on the history of the region. He visited Agafia several times by helicopter with my uncle, after the other members of her family had passed. When I was around 15, he showed me a video of their first encounter with her, and to this day I cannot get the image of the pure terror on her face out of my mind. She had multiple visitors before, but something abou…
For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
121–130 of 256 posts
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
How so? Humans survived for quite some time indeed without the concept of hiding sexuality from children. I would imagine in prehistory, the birds and the bees was explained through visual observation of your elders or just by figuring it out when the urge arose. Sex doesn't really need to be explained or defined unless you have a need to put it into context of cultural acceptance (which doesn't matter in this case).…
> How so? Because of the incest taboo.
Depending on how their created civilization viewed sexuality, there might not be this created taboo. There might be the natural aversion to incest, or there might not be. Since they were religious, there might be religious reasons to abstain. If the kids are that heavily religious that they are terrified of modern technology etc, it seems doubtful they would struggle too much with resisting temptation.
That's just my take on the matter.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#123As a boy there was a common game that friends would play, which was -- if Newton were to come back today, what technology would he be most shocked about. I found this quote interesting, and I think shows how hard it may be to predict such things: "What amazed him most of all," Peskov recorded, "was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!'"
My grandfather was born in Abakan, and published several books on the history of the region. He visited Agafia several times by helicopter with my uncle, after the other members of her family had passed. When I was around 15, he showed me a video of their first encounter with her, and to this day I cannot get the image of the pure terror on her face out of my mind. She had multiple visitors before, but something abou…
That's supposedly an urban legend (re: the Train). But you can see the film for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6i3uccnZhQ
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is welcoming compared to winter. Trust me, when summer finally comes and there are actual green things an animals and berries around, mosquitoes can be tolerated (I live above 60 degrees north - it's well past -40 here today)
Note: -40C == -40F, so grecy doesn't need to specify the units[1]! [1] Unless he's using Kelvins.
If he's using Kelvins, I sense a Nobel.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is welcoming compared to winter. Trust me, when summer finally comes and there are actual green things an animals and berries around, mosquitoes can be tolerated (I live above 60 degrees north - it's well past -40 here today)
Note: -40C == -40F, so grecy doesn't need to specify the units[1]! [1] Unless he's using Kelvins.
With a reading of -40, I'm fairly certain* he's not using Kelvins.
[*] Sometimes negative temperatures are used to represent temperatures ABOVE infinity. That's when high-energy quantum states are MORE populated than low-energy quantum states... it's useful for things like making a laser. But I still think it's unreasonable to believe that the temperature outside is -40 kelvin.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article doesn't mention the age of the mother when the family went into isolation in 1936, but judging from the age of the father and the age of the oldest child, she would have been somewhere between her mid/late 20s and late 30s. That could be one reason why she only had two kids in isolation. Also, the family experienced famine, which affects fertility negatively. And the family lived in one room. The lack of…
Which may have also been true during the era 200,000 to 10,000 BC: famine, war, political disturbances, persecution, poor nutrition.
You posted this three times, so two of them were auto-killed.
It was not actually true historically, most of the time people did not have poor nutrition. Sure during "events" like war etc, things got bad.
But most of the time it was not so.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#127This is absolutely amazing. This woman is more of a man than any man I know, living in some desolate valley for all of those years now absolutely ALONE? One word: Wow.
Not to start drama, but that's a bit sexist, isn't it? Can't she just be 'stronger than any person you know'? There's nothing inherently 'manly' about being a strong independent person.
> Not to start drama, but that's a bit sexist, isn't it?
There's absolutely nothing sexist at all about the post. It was a compliment, geez.
> Can't she just be 'stronger than any person you know'?
No, men are generally stronger than women; it's why we have different classifications in sports. Would you rather we lumped them together?
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
The documentary is called "Alone in the Wilderness" - I highly, highly recommend it. His woodworking skills are hard to imagine. Part 2 was just released in 2012, and PBS have said they will release Part 3 this year or next. Outwardly it sounds like he lived a lonely existence, though in part 2 we learn his brother was a bush pilot in Alaska, and they would spend summers together flying around, camping and hiking. Di…
YouTube has at least a portion of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3NRdZ8J24Q Dick's capabilities (he had been a carpenter when living in civilization) were amazing, though he remained in periodic contact with the rest of civilization, including receiving regular supplies. It's also interesting to note his reliance on steel tools that he wasn't capable of replacing: saw…
> While creative and highly independent, Proenneke was by no means self-sufficient.
I agree 100%. He also had a rifle, canoe, hiking boots etc that all would have been replaced from the outside world over the years.
I loved his comment about solo canoeing in his lake:
"I always knew that to swim was to die, but I never had a problem".
The water is so cold up here, you'll be dead in less than a minute if you swim in the middle of any lake - about 5 people die up here every year like that.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to start drama, but that's a bit sexist, isn't it? Can't she just be 'stronger than any person you know'? There's nothing inherently 'manly' about being a strong independent person.
> Not to start drama, but that's a bit sexist, isn't it? There's absolutely nothing sexist at all about the post. It was a compliment, geez. > Can't she just be 'stronger than any person you know'? No, men are generally stronger than women; it's why we have different classifications in sports. Would you rather we lumped them together?
Complimenting a woman by saying she's like a man is pretty much the definition of sexism.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#130Dick Proenneke ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke ) did something similar in Alaska. He lived alone, but brought supplies in, had a wood stove, a rifle, and even spent the occasional winter in civilization. He wrote a book about his first couple years: http://www.amazon.com/One-Mans-Wilderness-Alaskan-Odyssey/dp... It suffers a little from some heavy editing, but is very interesting. There's also a vide…
Wilderness hacking at its finest. This guy is a total boss. Incredible wood working skills, and a passion for living in the beautiful wilds of Alaska. The Canadian side - the Yukon and BC are equally as beautiful. Go up north sometime - the beauty will blow you away.