Into The Wild

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Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

nigga crab pollock posted:

the poison berries he ate were actually seeds from the wild potato plant which up until like 3 years ago were considered edible but some biochemist guy read his journal and figured out that the seeds were actually highly toxic with an alkaloid that prevents your body from metabolizing other proteins if you don't cook them

quote:

As Krakauer points out, McCandless' field guide did not warn of any dangers of eating the seeds, which were not yet known to be toxic. Krakauer suspects this is the meaning of McCandless' journal entry of July 30, which states "EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POT[ATO] SEED. MUCH TROUBLE JUST TO STAND UP. STARVING. GREAT JEOPARDY."[23]

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 16:58

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 03:54

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

food court bailiff posted:

Wait I thought this was the dude who got eaten by fuckin' bears, but he just ate some poison seeds? Weak as hell.

Nah you're thinking of grizzly man by Werner Herzog which is a much more humanizing perspective on a similarly dumb person with an easily avoidable death

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 17:03

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

spank my snatch posted:

Virtually anything on wilderness survival. His research consisted of being a big Thoreau fan and that's about it.

Probably one of the worst people to hold up as an example of a survivalist

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 18:11

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

cool new Polack jokes posted:

Freezing to death is one of the least painful ways to die I've heard, but I dunno how they know for certain. You just kinda go to sleep before your body actually shuts down its other processes, so technically you don't feel anything after you've already reached that point (but that is surely to be painful to get there)

Numerous people have "died" a frozen death and been resuscitated minutes and hours later.

Here's a good story written from the perspective of someone who freezes nearly to death.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-death

quote:

This situation, you realize with an immediate sense of panic, is serious. Scrambling to rise, you collapse in pain, your ankle crumpling beneath you.

As you sink back into the snow, shaken, your heat begins to drain away at an alarming rate, your head alone accounting for 50 percent of the loss. The pain of the cold soon pierces your ears so sharply that you root about in the snow until you find your hat and mash it back onto your head.

But even that little activity has been exhausting. You know you should find your glove as well, and yet you’re becoming too weary to feel any urgency. You decide to have a short rest before going on.

An hour passes. at one point, a stray thought says you should start being scared, but fear is a concept that floats somewhere beyond your immediate reach, like that numb hand lying naked in the snow. You’ve slid into the temperature range at which cold renders the enzymes in your brain less efficient. With every one-degree drop in body temperature below 95, your cerebral metabolic rate falls off by 3 to 5 percent. When your core temperature reaches 93, amnesia nibbles at your consciousness. You check your watch: 12:58. Maybe someone will come looking for you soon. Moments later, you check again. You can’t keep the numbers in your head. You’ll remember little of what happens next

Toadvine fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Mar 28, 2017

# ¿ Mar 28, 2017 23:20

Toadvine: Mar 16, 2009; Please disregard my advice w/r/t history.

donkey salami posted:

I read the book. Main thing I remember is the guy just wouldn't listen to locals anywhere.

In Alaska, they told him he was coming at the wrong time of the year to do it.

Don't show up just as the thaw is happening.

This doesn't make sense. You thaw food before you can eat it.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2017 19:48

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