When humans speak up, the little African birds called honeyguides listen—and can understand, a new study confirms for the first time.
Honeyguides in northern Mozambique realize that when a man makes a special trilling sound, he wants to find a bees’ nest—and its delectable honey.
Birds that hear this trill often lead human hunters to a nest, receiving a reward of honeycomb.
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“Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey the signals. If it does not tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.” – Lydia M. Child
My Thoughts – I’m a strong believer in that inner voice / gut feeling and feel it has helped me make some crucial decisions in life. Certainly in a survival or emergency situation I would rely upon it every time.
“The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall” -Vince Lombardi
My thoughts – falling or failure are sometimes looked upon with negativity, but the route to success is generally through failure, therefore falling or failure is essential to become better. We should understand this more as a society and stop wrapping everyone up in cotton wool to protect them from falling, and applaud those who fall and get back up.
“The proverb warns that “you should not bite the hand that feeds you.” But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself. ” – Thomas Szasz
My thoughts – whilst the meaning of the proverb is regarding being disrespectful to those that provide for you, not all situations of being provided for are good, human reservations and government benefits are two examples that comes to mind, everything provided for at the cost of suppression and control, leading to depression, crime and low self worth, Sometimes that hand needs to be bitten!
“In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it” Lao-Tzu
My thoughts – as the rain lashed down here today, thoughts about flash floods and crossing rivers streams, 2 ft of water can move a car, 6″ of water can knock you of your feet.
Having discovered a new podcast this week, Paul Kirtley at episode 15, it was great to listen to Paul interview John Rensten on Urban Foraging, John had a good sense of humour and really connected you to the aspects of foraging in the most unlikely places in London.
Episode 14 Paul interviewed Mark Kalch who has “made it his mission to paddle the longest river on each of the seven continents – seven rivers on seven continents”, one word review WOW! I have been blown away by the interview and was hanging onto every word of Mark’s stories of his adventures. True expedition survival from someone who lives this.
I would also recommend checking out Mark VLOG’s on his YouTube channel
Looking forward to listening to the remaining episodes on Paul’s Podcast and would highly recommend anyone with an interest in Bushcraft, Survival, Foraging and outdoor pursuits to do the same.
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die” – G.K. Chesterton
My thoughts – Having seen first hand the courage of another person fighting to survive cancer, I can fully respect the attitude and will required to live with the readiness to die. Also listening to a couple of stories recently of explorers, soldiers and adventurers who find themselves facing life threatening dangers and having the courage to stop, think and with rational make decisions that allowed them to survive – it makes you question, would I have courage in the same situation? I hope so!
“If water is scarce, travel at night with a slow steady pace to keep from sweating”
My comments: Perspiration wastes water, it can be reduced by wearing the correct clothing, lack of water intake, dehydration, is a serious life threatening condition.
I’ve been handed the “survivalist little book of Wisdom” that’s apparently been sitting on my mums bookshelf for the past 20 years! By David Scott (USA), no idea how it ended up here but could have been from my late father, who, just maybe was a Prepper just like me – I’d like to think that anyway.
So for a bit of fun I’ll share some wisdom from the book, with my comments added.
“Reading a good book on survival does not guarantee you will live through a survival situation”
My comments: Something that we all need to be aware of in any subject, practise, use your gear, the first time you do does not want to be in a survival situation, make sure it functions and you are proficient in its use.
Around December 2015 we went through a traumatic time with health, as it turned out luckily it wasn’t anything too serious, but it made us think seriously about diet. As an avid follower of Jack Spirco’s podcast I was vaguely familiar with Paleo diet and had heard Jack and Gary Collins (The Survival Podcast expert council member and creator of the primal power method) discuss the benefits of the diet. Not a big fan of the term diet which conjures up fads, quick weight loss and going hungry only to pile the weight back on in a few months once all of the will power is drained!
Paleo however is more of a lifestyle change, a bit like when people say that they are vegetarian or vegan. Having already made contact with Gary Collins, the first stages of becoming paleo was to understand what was involved, starting with Gary’s three books.
I started the change to Paleo in March at a starting weight of 105kg (231lb), It took a few weeks to get used to the change in foods, not so much the eating and digestion but more the method of purchasing / acquiring. Luckily I have a very understanding wife who see’s the benefit of the change and was supportive, after all it was her who would suffer the change the most being the food shopper of the family.
What is Paleo? I’m a beginner so I’ll refer you to the experts Paleo-Diet-Food-List-Infographic is a concise visual of the do’s and don’ts of the diet.The simple concept is that we eat how our ancestors ate, whilst according to official sources “Limited data exists on the metabolic effects on humans eating the diet, though the available data suggest following this diet may lead to improvements in terms of body composition and metabolic effects as compared to the typical western diet” The fact that we, as humans, have been around in the our current form for 200,000 years is proof enough. Really its only in past 60 to 100 years that the human race health has deteriorated. In my lifetime I have seen allergies and obesity problems increase. This is most likely down to the additives and methods of processing our foods to make them last longer with no real thought or care of the long-term effects on the human race, Monsanto chemicals added to pretty much anything that’s grown commercially ends up in our bodies.
I have held off discussing this topic until i can see the effects of the change, however since March to now (June) I have reduced my weight down to a steady 96kg (211lb) a loss of 20lb (1.5 Stone). Moreover the digestive reactions that I used to have seem to have gone? As a precaution I went and had my cholesterol levels checked at the beginning of the change and at that time they were not good, high bad levels but this remained unchanged from a previous test around 10 years ago, so it will be good to check it again 6 months later to see the change.
If this subject is of interest please follow me on my journey as I discuss my experience in paleo and introduce exercise to the lifestyle change and ask the questions of food storage from a preparedness standpoint on the paleo diet.
Prepare to Survive 