Another fun fact... my dad used to fly one of the water bombers that was in the show Ice Pilots... this exact one: It's called a Canso, and that's what I named my cat.
And this is one of my all-time favourite videos... I can sit here and watch this guy do his job all day... most people have absolutely no clue at all just how good he is to be doing what he was doing.
Watching that full basket of water swing around gave me the heebie jeebies. I can’t even imagine the rotational forces it put on the aircraft and how difficult that is to control for the pilot. Dude is having to masterfully pilot not only a helicopter, but also he’s having to masterfully pilot that bucket too. Think about what one input into the aircraft is gonna create that far down at the bucket level, and you have thousands of those on any one trip.... and then steer that thing with pinpoint accuracy. The only thing I can compare that to is the videos I’ve seen of the helicopter loggers. Or the ones who pilot their helicopter to allow electricians to work on high wire lines.
And God said unto the masses... “Safe spaces? Safe spaces!? I’ll give you all some motherfucking safe spaces!” (said in the voice of Sam Jackson)
A 4.6 earthquake, depending on how far it is underground, isn’t too bad. I was in a 4.6 in Hawaii that was fairly shallow and right off shore. While it was pants shitting terrifying, it did exactly zero damage and the tsnuami monsters didn’t come to get us. The winds though, they’re straight fucked with that. I can’t even begin to imagine how the firefighters would try to contain that. You’d just have to do the best you can and hope nature decides to eventually put it out for you.
It’s obvious that God is mad about all the sodomy down there. That’s why you never hear about an earthquake or forest fire in Wyoming, because they’re decent people.
There's no side-stepping this one... this is run the fuck out of the way as fast as you can territory. I don't think a lot of people really understand just how fast fire travels... so many people have died trying to outrun fire. Worst is trying to outrun it uphill... you won't. I think it's every 10° increase in inclination, the fire doubles its speed of travel.
Forest fires travel basically the rate an explosion moves in a 90’s action movie. I mean... one acre per second, Usain Bolt is not out running that shit. And the entire thing is such a senseless, useless destruction that has no silver lining. What sort of aid measures are currently being taken, government-wise?
Of all the natural disasters, fire is the one thing that truly scares me. You can do things to mitigate the others. Building an underground shelter for tornadoes, hurricanes you can get out of dodge early, earthquakes, well just don't build on fucking fault lines. Fire though, if that shit is close enough when it starts, you're dead. You can only out-run it depending on the circumstances, and building defensible space just means you cook slower if nature is truly pissed. Seriously, fuck fire. I can't think of a worse way to die than being burned alive (well, technically I guess you'd die of asphyxiation, but whatever).
It's also provided me with one of the most incredible pictures I've ever seen... For those of you unfamiliar with the pic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk_Bath Basically, the photographer was an employee of the Forest Service at the time he took the picture, so they maintained the rights to it, and it quickly became one of the most popular and famous wildlife pictures ever, and he got nothing for it.
Those elk were fucking trump voters I promise you. I've spent the past 20 min or so searching for a place that sells posters of that image but can't find any. What I do before I get a tattoo is, I get the image on a poster, and hang it on my wall for half a year. I've been in search for something showing the power of nature, and that one would be incredible on my back..... or at least in a frame.