Best products from r/natureismetal

Move somewhere remote. Build a really protected house, like a concrete dome. Have a store room with enough food & supplies to get you, your family and maybe a few friends/neighbors alive for several years.

Stock up on some valuable essentials such as salt, sugar and sodium-chloride. You'll want the bleach in it's dry form because once it's mixed with water it has a shelf life of roughly 6 months. Stock up on dry goods that have a very long shelf life. Examples would be rice, beans, flour, grains etc. Store them in air tight containers and don't store them all in the same container. Grain beetles/moths will ruin your day. Don't just buy them and never use them either. Actually eat them regularly but eat the oldest stuff first and don't let your stocks run low. It's a cheap way to eat.

There's about 1700 calories in 1lb of dry white rice. So one 50lb bag could keep a single adult reasonably well fed for about 2 months. About 1400 calories/day. Obviously supplement that with other stuff ideally.

Have a way to cook it too. A camp stove along with a couple 20lb propane tanks (like for grills) will keep you going for a good while.

You might want to consider one of those insulated thermal cookers to reduce energy needs for cooking. It's a pot that you get heated up then you stuff it into an insulated case and it'll stay hot enough to keep cooking for an easy 20 hours. Cuts your energy usage down to like 10-20minutes.



A decent air filtration system with some washable reusable filters isn't a bad idea either.

I could go on but you get the idea.

Norman Davies is basically the better version of Jared Diamond. He's an actual historian, and does a good job of balancing depth with accessibility.

I really recommend both Europe: A History and The Isles: A History. They are both quite dense tomes, but Davies does a really great job of creating a narrative of the entirety of European/British history (from prehistory to modern times) while challenging our biases and subconscious notions. Instead of a tedious listing of events over 10000 years, he uses narratives and environmental/geographical analysis, interspersed with 'windows' where he goes into several key events in detail.

There seems to be an argument over whether snakes chase humans in this thread, this is misinformation and here's the proof.

The truth is many people don't know much about snakes, so like all things we don't understand -- they're scary. This is just a side effect of ignorance. A vast majority of the population aren't herpetologist so anytime you defend a snake you will be drowned out by the majority around you. Majority rule isn't indicative that something is right. In your fight or flight response, you're likely to mistake a display of self-defense as being chased by a snake, but you've made an oversight.

The media, through its own ignorance, also vilifies these animals. Most of the time they can't even identify the snake properly but they still run the story. The latest viral picture is this guy standing 8 feet back to make this snake look like the prehistoric Titanoboa. Don't get me wrong, it's a big snake, but in reality, it's just a forced perspective trick used to fear monger. Here's a great example of how using camera tricks can make a small snake look HUGE. It's disgusting. Can anyone here even identify the snake in the viral picture?

As long as a person or media outlet gets their 15 minutes of adulation they don't care what the social repercussions are. If a person is poking a rattlesnake with a stick and he gets bit the news story is, "snake attacks man" but that is foul. If I'm minding my business and you start hitting me or step on me, and I clean your clock, I didn't attack you, I defended myself. That's how our legal system works too, you'd be at fault -- not me.

As a human, you stomp all fee-fi-fo-fum into the snakes' safe place and the snake is just as, if not more startled than you are. The snake is ~ 4inches off the ground, it's almost like you've come out of the 4th dimension. Watch this explanation by Carl Sagan of the 4th dimension and see if that makes sense.

You could literally step on its head and kill it. Snakes defend their territory or slither away if they think they're outmatched. The same way you'd defend your home or coward in the corner if you brought a knife to a gun fight. When you're 4 inches tall, and you see a 3x2 foot gap between a humans legs, that's a wide enough margin to escape. It's not chasing you, it's trying to get away from you! Remember: the perspective of being 4 inches tall.

Almost all snakes are ambush predators, they sit and wait for prey to walk by...days, weeks, even months at a time. That's not to say they will not hunt for food, but they are built for surprise! From camouflage scales to burrying themselves in the dirt, even a wicked cool technique called caudal luring where they use the tip of their tail as a form of mimicry to lure a prey item! Super cool video.

A large amount of people cannot identify the snakes in their back yard let alone one they may encounter randomly. Pupil shape, head shape, even rhymes like "red on black," are all false somewhere in the world. Which one of these snakes will kill you? Left? Right? Both? None? What are their names? (Side note in case any snake nerds are in here, the snake on the left is mine. Handsome fella, eh?)

Ignorance isn't anything to be ashamed of. We are all ignorant toward everything until we are taught. I don't know much about a lot of things, but this is one of the things I'm passionate about.

Humans, in general, take the term ignorant as a disrespect rather than an opportunity to learn. Ignorance is an opportunity, not a flaw. Often we are only willing to admit ignorance once we've triumphed over it.

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Myriad of sources on the topic & many more available if you choose to search

http://www.edistoserpentarium.com/myths.cfm

http://www.snake-removal.com/chase.html

http://www.capesnakeconservation.com/snakes-chase-humans

http://wildliferemovalusa.com/snakechase.html

http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Care-For-Beginners/Snake-Myths-And-Facts

Do Snakes REALLY Chase People?

Snakes don't chase people - here's proof!

Proof that dangerous snakes don't go out if their way to chase people

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*I expect to get downvoted, but I put a lot of time into this reply so I hope it helps change someone's mind.

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Edit: I have only received gold 1 time on Reddit and it was for a joke. So thank you so much for the platinum, golds, silvers and kind words. I feel like Michael Phelps. I figured this comment would be downvoted to hell by anecdotal stories. It's my birthday weekend and the interest in this comment is the best gift a snake nerd could ask for.

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Don't take my word for any of this. Check out these guys, look at their research; they have devoted their lives to this.

Not all of these guys are friends. That said I think they all have carved out a spot worthy of recognition in the reptile/snake community whether it be research, venom collection, abstract study, or the pet trade.

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Bill Haast [legend] (12.30.1910 – 6.15.2011)

Director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, a facility near Miami, Florida that produces snake venom for medical and research use. Haast extracted venom from venomous snakes.

• Website
  
• Facebook
  
• Bill Haast, Snake Man: An American Original
  
• Catching and milking a 13ft King Cobra
  
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  Bryan Grieg Fry 'Venom Doc'
  
  
• Website
  
• [Twitter] (https://twitter.com/BryanGFry)
  
• BrisScience - Venomous reptiles and their toxins (lecture)
  
  Books
  
  
• Bryan Grieg Fry - Venom Doc: The Edgiest, Darkest, Strangest Natural History Memoir Ever
  
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  Al Coritz 'ViperKeeper'
  
  "Keeping venomous reptiles is an unforgiving hobby requiring proper training and lots of experience, one simple mistake can be the difference between life and death. Remember, the most venomous snake in the world is the one that just bit you. There are no venomous snakes with training wheels, just because you see ViperKeeper handle snakes a certain way does not mean you should try it too."
  
  
• Website
  
• Facebook
  
• Youtube
  
  This video went viral on the internet and Reddit. Al Coritz was/is very upset that this video got the attention it did. His intent was misconstrued. It was supposed to be a promo video deliberately made exciting. In fact, I'm sure he won't be thrilled I'm spotlighting it again.
  
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  Tom Crutchfield 'Tommy'
  
  Tom is very controversial, and he even did real prison time for reptile/snake smuggling, but his contribution to the reptile world is undeniable like everyone on this list. He has a farm in Homestead, Florida with all his reptiles.
  
  
• Wiki
  
• Personal Facebook
  
• Business Facebook
  
• Youtube
  
• Locked Up Abroad: Snakes on a Plane.
  
  Books
  
  
• Bryan Christy - The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers
  
• Jennie Smith - Stolen World
  
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  Pets
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  Brian Barczyk 'BHB Reptiles'
  
  Brian produced the first scaleless Ball Python (captive). This was very controversial, scaleless snakes in general cause a vast schism in the reptile community.
  
  
• Website
  
• Facebook Personal
  
• Facebook Business
  
• Youtube AnimalBytesTV If you're a long time viewer you remember the name SnakeBytesTV.
  
• Youtube Vlog
  
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  Jay Brewer 'Prehistoric Pets'
  
  
• Website
  
• Facebook Business
  
• Facebook Personal
  
• Youtube
  
  Jay had this video go viral on the internet and Reddit
  
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  Other Cool Resources
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  The Reptile Report
  
  
• Website
  
• Facebook
  
  Fauna Classifieds
  
  
• Forums
  
  Reptiles Magazine
  
  
• Website
  
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  Notes
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• I had to cut out 3,000 characters so my edit so it would fit.
  
  Names not included because of character limit. I assume these guys were popular enough that they needed no explanation.
  
  
• Steve Irwin
  
• Steve Backshall
  
• David Attenborough
  
  Intentional omissions
  
  
• Rian Gittman (Underground Reptiles)
  
• Ben Siegel (Ben Siegel Reptiles)
  
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  TL;DR Snakes and reptiles are super cool, and all the well qualified professionals presented in this comment would confirm that a snake isn't going to chase you.
  
  Everything I have supplied in this comment is public information.
  
  

Interesting. No doubt you're right that some mammals have awful stamina and some reptiles have good stamina, but couldn't it still be true that mammals have greater stamina in general? My original comment was based off this passage in Nick Lane's book Life Ascending (page 210)

> What exactly is it that we have but the reptiles don’t? It had better be good.  

> The single most compelling answer is ‘stamina’. Lizards can match mammals easily for speed or muscle power, and indeed over short distances outpace them; but they exhaust very quickly. Grab at a lizard and it will disappear in a flash, streaking to the nearest cover as fast as the eyes can see. But then it rests, often for hours, recuperating painfully slowly from the exertion. The problem is that reptiles ain’t built for comfort–they’re built for speed. As in the case of human sprinters, they rely on anaerobic respiration, which is to say, they don’t bother to breathe, but can’t keep it up for long. They generate energy (as ATP) extremely fast, but using processes that soon clog them up with lactic acid, crippling them with cramps.

No shit the percentages were pulled out of my ass. It is a literal computer simulation that demonstrates natural selection. The actual percentages merely change the ‘evolution rate.’ If you cannot recognize this, then you probably don’t understand evolution.

And it actually shows how evolution is the outcome of randomly generated traits being ‘selected’ for via an increased chance of achieving a certain outcome (adaption to the environment). This is the essence of evolution and natural selection that your explanation lacks.

Claiming the genetics are ‘trying’ out different things makes it seem as if the genetics go different ways in order to ‘adapt’ when this is demonstrably wrong. The adaption is the selection process, and this is the outcome of probabilistic phenomena.

Your type likes to given an illusion of understanding via using an analogy to ‘explain’ a concept, but then you end up explaining how the analogy works instead of the actual concept.

I proposed an actual model that explains evolution in a static environment with a single trait being selected for. This model can easily be expanded.

In fact, many don’t realize that truly understanding evolution requires the knowledge of advanced mathematics as it is a highly mathematical field.

Research mathematical population dynamics to get a taste for it.

Mathematical Population Genetics 1: Theoretical Introduction (Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1441918981/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_n7PbAbMRM7XRW

Elements of Evolutionary Genetics:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981519423/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MdQbAb4BA2DT8

Ever read The Secret Oceans? Beautiful fantasy for cetacean loving dreamers. I've grown wiser, though. I know their endgame now.

Those are great questions! I went looking to find the answers for myself and found this website that explains it all.

It also reminded me that I want to read The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century. Before the advent of automobiles & trucks, horses were indispensable as a source of power and transportation in cities everywhere. Cities had to deal with housing, care, manure removal, etc.

But I'm going to get it from the library and read it.

Molting looks like it feels sooooo good. I wish we did that. The closest we seem to have is Baby Foot.

SECTION | CONTENT

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Title | Joe Rogan Experience #942 - Dan Flores
Description | Dan Flores is a writer and historian who specializes in cultural and environmental studies of the American West. His recent books "Coyote America: A Natural & Supernatural History" and "American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains" are both available now via Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/American-Serengeti-Animals-Great-Plains/dp/0700622276/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9VRNEM68AF50K4W4WFHJ
Length | 2:24:50






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> Where is the place to share this sort of information? Asking for a friend.

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/

This photo is by National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen. I have his book of polar photos, it's gorgeous!
https://smile.amazon.com/Polar-Obsession-Paul-Nicklen/dp/1426205112?sa-no-redirect=1

It's from a show called Planet Earth. Which is amazing and I HIGHLY suggest watching if you haven't seen it.

[Here is the part I am talking about.] (https://youtu.be/EjxvrHDaxKc?t=5m38s)

That's an awesome pic! Unfortunately it's a composite. It's from Nick Brandt's "This Empty World" collection.

The Amazon description is below.

>Moving into color photography for the first time, this monograph of new work from photographer Nick Brandt is both a technical tour de force of contemporary image making and an ambitiously scaled project that uses constructed sets of a scale typically seen in major film productions.
>
>Each image is a combination of two photographs taken weeks apart, almost all from the exact same camera position. The starting point of each composition is always the animal photographed in its native savannah landscape. Brandt then designs and builds sets in the precise location of the original photograph depicting the human developments, such as gas stations, highway and bridge construction sites, and bus stations, that are invading the East African landscape. A second sequence is then photographed with the completed set, populated by a large cast of people drawn from local communities and beyond.
>
>The final images are powerful composites of the two source photographs, which presents the wild animals and the people as equal victims of the environmental―both now aliens in their once-natural, once-native habitat

​

I was introduced to this amazing bird at a young age when I read My Side of the Mountain. Wonderful book.

Made me think of “Thidwick - The Big Hearted Moose”, but this is more like “Sharack - The Dope Antelope”.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0394800869/ref=tsm_1_tp_tc

My cat actually practices this move on this toy. The inside is lined with a couple layers, so when his teeth puncture it, it sounds like bones are breaking. He breaks the neck of this thing a couple times a day. Best cat toy ever. Cats like practicing how to murder.

https://www.amazon.com/Madcap-Crunch-Wrestle-Catnip-Petstages/dp/B0107XUMJI/