YouTube Videos

I used to be a “spelunker” many years ago (back when “LED” was only alert indicators on control panels, not illumination devices, and we had both incandescent bulbs and carbide lamps). I had a little group who’d all head out and explore together. But we did about 4 caving sites and then our group never found time to get back together. I will never forget one trip we went through a cave channel called “the gun barrel.” It was a really tight squeeze. The channel was sort of shaped like a giant vulva, with another small channel that could be used for your feet. But if you weren’t careful, you could end up wedging your feet. One guy ahead of us did. And then after like 10 mins I was starting to get tinges of claustrophobia. There was another person behind me and he started to consider backing out. And just as we started that about 5 feet, the guy up front freed himself and then we were all able to move forward. I will never forget that experience!

Btw, quick search… yep, Knox cave in upstate New York. LINK. The guy who wrote that article mentions that lower crevice.

Anytime you cave you ALWAYS err on the side of safety. Never make a decision lightly or spontaneously. Everything is planned out. Last minute deviations are a recipe for doom.

There was (of course) another MrBallen video of these kids who went into a cave that was known to have an underwater(!) channel that would open up to a big chamber with air-pocket that you could go and chillax for a while. So a bunch of them did, and one kid luckily chickened out and “stayed guard” outside waiting for them. No one came out for way way too long, so he went to get help, and all of those that went inside got drownded.

Turned out they were chillaxing just fine, but when they were done and went to get out, they all went through at once, single-file as it was a tight squeeze, and the first one got stuck somehow, and all the others who bunched up behind now got stuck as well, and there was no way to communicate with the others behind to back out, so they pretty much all just couldn’t hold their breaths anymore, and…

By the time help got there, it was way way too late.

Watched the Gunbarrel vid… man, that looks like a MrBallen video just waiting to happen. :laughing:

It looks more narrow than it feels in person. Of course, I did it when I was like 20 years old and I was a good bit thinner then. :person_facepalming: :smiley: I’m not a claustrophobic person by nature, but there was a point where I started to feel “tinges” of it beginning to come on… which I then rationalized away. But I expect if the blockage lasted longer, it would’ve been harder to keep it at bay. It was a really fun exploration. I had a blast.

I have a very distant vague recollection of that story. There are so many easily made bonehead moves in caving. What you cited was a perfect example. Always stagger the passageways if constricted or challenged. It’s so sickening to think of these young kids, their lives cut so short by a bonehead move like this.

Speaking of which… I just read a really tragic story about two young girls, 19 and 21, who were fast asleep in their parent’s vacation summer house in Noyack Bay (near Sag Harbor, Long Island). They went to bed late so they were particularly “lights out”. Well, the house caught fire. Smoke alarms didn’t go off. The parents were sleeping downstairs, the father awakening to the sound of breaking glass. They leapt up yelled for the kids and bolted out, expecting to see them. The young boy was upstairs and bailed out of his fire escape. The two girls? They didn’t hear or smell a thing. Father went to go rescue them but the fire was so intense, he couldn’t enter the house. They all yelled… firefighters arrived and made a mad dash for the 2nd floor. They were too late. The girls had suffocated from the thick smoke. CPR was unsuccessful. GONE. All that life potential, extinguished…

Mightta been CO that put ’em out, and thus didn’t wake up from the smoke. Tragic no matter what the cause.

Soon -
The Robot Apocalypse

The T001-Beta celebrates it’s soon to be link with SkyNet….
Asks the eternal question - Do You Love Me?

Why yes, yes we do - Please spare me in the coming Judgement Day…

All the Best,
Jeff

BTY,
Spot - The yellow dog like thing is currently available for purchase starting at around $75,000.
Supposed to have a 90m or so battery life.
I’d get one in a heartbeat if I had a spare 75K$ burning a hole in my pocket.
What a hoot to take for walks in a local dog park.
Can you imagine the amount of therapy both the owners and the dogs would have to go through?
All the Best,
Jeff

Nominated for the next Darwin award…
All the Best,
Jeff

Runner-up nomination since neither shif-4-brains nor giggles died. But they came close.

Take my 12L 300 BAR dive bottle past its test pressure, to burst pressure, and i am sure things will be rocked :partying_face:

Filling out some papers today for a permit to import a silencer, i found a funny permit, seem like if you want to import / procure 3 certain chemicals in larger quantities, you need a permit for that too these days.
I remember as a kid armed with knowledge from suspicious books ordered in the US, we kids ( aged 14-15 years ) had no problem getting said chemicals in a store in town, though they did lift a eyebrow. but we got what we needed to make holes in the ground, mind you small holes only.

Also looking at import duties on various product categories, well funny think though there have never been nuclear power in Denmark, just a very small test / research reactor, it seem like you can import a used reactor, there is a duty price for it at least.
But you probably also need a import permit for that.

I swear, Clown Country.

Better keep the recipe for tannerite away from those guys, there have been plenty of guys going too far with that already, and also very damn near lost their head

I’m always amazed at people’s choice of work shoes or lack of—- Cool Video though

httphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zqs1lnOYxw&ab_channel=BelkoWood://youtube.com/watch?v=

Wonder what would you could do or build with those large slabs?

There is a lawn service guy in my neighborhood that operates his mowers and weed-eater while barefooted too.

Wow, that guy gets paid good money to do very little!

That's impressive.

(I don't think that his job would go over very well in the U.S., but it seems to be working well in Japan.)

Raised crosswalks? Jay-walking legal everywhere?

These concepts are alien to the American mind!

Oh, I looooove the SLC crossing flag idea.

’Though I’d be worried for being taken as a pumpkinsexural waving one-a those around.

“driver compliance”.
it’s a Dutch thing.
not around here.

drivers hit speed bumps at high speed
to video how far they “grab air”.
cars AND bikes.

There are some cool clips called the "Speed Bump Olympics" that show up occasionally in car-crash videos.This one road has back-to-back to bumps, and if you don't slow down, you're guaranteed get some air, and hit hard—with a significant possibility of damage!—on the landing.

And then you hit the second speed bump...

Whee!