Here’s what we know: A small northern Russian village had an unpleasant visitor last week. A polar bear wandered through town and considered having a local woman for a snack. The name of the town hasn’t surfaced yet, nor has the woman’s name or the extent of her injuries.
In the clip you can see the animal clawing at her and flinging her body into the air like a rag doll before the polar bear is finally scared away. The bear retreats after one bystander makes a great shot, hitting the bear in the face with a can.
Would you rush toward a burning vehicle with a random group of bystanders in order to lift that vehicle off a man trapped underneath? Would you do so if there was a very real danger that the burning car could explode at any second?
One lucky motorcycle rider had better start working on a good way to say “thank you” to a group of a dozen good Samaritans who performed the dangerous and heroic task of lifting the burning, 3,800-pound car to pull him to safety. Remarkably, the whole rescue was caught on video by a Utah State University graduate student.
Being a traditionalist, I have always been a map-and-compass guy when it comes to navigation. But that was before I found out how easy navigation can be with Bushnell’s D-Tour GPS. No, I’m not planning to throw my compass away, but I have warmed up to the usefulness of this user-friendly navigation device.
This handy little guy is a bantam weight at 6 ounces, but it gives you digital compass, clock, thermometer, altitude reading, walking speed, distance covered and it provides latitude/longitude coordinates. I know you’re probably thinking, “Where’s the catch?” If there is a problem, I haven’t found it.
To operate the D-Tour, all you have to do is:
• Mark the spot where you start your trip with the push of one button
• Go anywhere
• Get back to where you started by simply following the big, easy-to-read arrow
Power crews have restored electricity to much of the southwest today, a day after a freak power outage left millions in the dark throughout Southern California, Arizona and across the border in Mexico.
The authorities spent the day trying to figure out how this massive outage could have been caused by the mistake of a single Arizona Public Service Co. worker making a simple repair in Yuma. Although the heat and high electrical demand during hot days could have played part in this grid hiccup, the outage is being attributed to the electrical worker removing a piece of monitoring equipment at a power substation in southwest Arizona, according to APS officials.
"This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic," said Daniel Froetscher, an APS vice president. "That work should not have caused this," said Damon Gross, who is a spokesperson for the Phoenix-based utility.
The regional officials have asked residents to ease the strain on the system by doing without major electrical hogs like big appliances, and even air conditioners, despite the late-summer heat. Homeowners and businesses alike were warned that the electrical grid was still fragile after this outage.
As we get ready for hunting season, it's time to consider the survival gear that we will be taking along with us. And as we wander off the beaten path, we should be carrying the equipment to handle the most common emergencies that we could face in the field.
1) If you need daily heart medicine, blood pressure pills, insulin or any other vital meds, bring an extra supply of them on all your outdoor trips. Also bring any event-related medications like asthma inhalers in case of an attack, or epinephrine pens if you are allergic to bee stings or certain foods.
2) A fully charged cell phone or 2-way radio in a waterproof container could be your ticket home.
3) Wear appropriate clothing and outer wear. Skip the cotton in most conditions, unless you are trying to activate your life insurance policy.
The berries are Autumn Olive (no relation to actual olives). Look tasty, don’t they?
Berries are one of the most mysterious and alluring wild foods to the average forager. There are usually plenty of these eye-catching foods (and some harmful look-a-likes) that ripen during the fall season. To help you out, here are some quick guidelines, “rules” and shortcuts to help you discern which berries are edible.
At the end of the day, the best policy for dealing with berries is to learn each genus and species for its own benefits and dangers. This means no shortcuts; you have to do the homework.
Ask any police officer or soldier how long they can stay on high alert, and you’ll get pretty much the same answer from all of them: Not too long. The body’s adrenaline runs out, the mind loses its sharpness, and since nothing has happened, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that nothing will happen.
We can look at emergency preparedness in the same way. You put yourself on alert, then, after nothing has happened for a while, you find yourself numb, burned out and no longer concerned at all.
I have heard many of my survival students who have military and law enforcement backgrounds express to me how hard it is to stay on high alert for days or weeks at a time. But I never expected to hear it on the 5 o’clock news from someone who was tired of preparing for disasters. Yet there it was last week. Someone who had battened down for what the news was predicting would be the “Storm of the Century,” and then experienced no damage, was explaining to the reporter that he was tired of preparing for all these emergencies. He wasn’t going to bother anymore.
If there ever was a time to survive in the wild off of nuts, berries and twigs – autumn is it.
As animals begin their annual feast to fatten up for winter, nature puts out a buffet of high calorie, nutrient dense wild foods that both man and beast can enjoy.
Tree nuts represent the most food value of the annual fall harvest. You can crack open and enjoy many different types of tree nuts like Black Walnut, Butternut Walnut, Pecan, Hickory, Beechnut, Hazelnut and even Pine nuts. The best part is that you can eat each of these nuts as is – with no processing – other than to get them out of the shell. Just get them before the squirrels. Those rascals really like the Beechnuts and sweeter Hickories, trying to devour those nuts before any foods.
With the fatal grizzly bear attack inside Yellowstone National Park last month, and more than a dozen non-fatal grizzly bear attacks in North America so far this year, you’d think that the average Yellowstone visitor would be a little more cautious than normal. However, a recent video shows a number of park visitors within feet of a free-roaming grizzly bear, and acting as if they were at petting zoo.
Much of the Eastern seaboard, still rattled from the unexpected and rare earthquake on Tuesday, is now bracing for the impact of another force of nature—Hurricane Irene. Many eastern Governors have declared States of Emergency due to the imminent Category 3 Hurricane, which is expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Friday night.
Hurricane Irene is predicted to first hit the coast around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on Friday night and slam into the rest of the mid-Atlantic region by Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Evacuations have been ordered in many mid-Atlantic coastal areas and barrier islands like North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Some areas are expecting severe coastal flooding from waves up to 15 feet tall (expected path of Irene).
Irene is predicted to weaken some as it travels up the coast, but this Category 3 storm is still expected to deliver winds of 50 to 70 mph when it reaches New York City on Saturday. This will be the first hurricane to hit New York since September 6, 2008, when Hurricane Hanna struck Long Island with winds up to 52 mph.
New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered nursing homes and five hospitals in low-lying areas evacuated beginning Friday, and said he would order 270,000 more people moved by Saturday if the storm stays on its current path.
