What pissed you off today?

[Chino]

The trick is to introduce and/or protect wolves. In pretty much every region in the US where we've gotten wolf populations to rebound after over-hunting them, roadkill and traffic accidents caused by animals drop by huge factors. It saves states millions of dollars per year in response and repair efforts as well. I think I've read that some counties end up saving something like 30X more than what the wolf conservation efforts cost.

Interestingly enough, the deer count doesn't actually drop all that much. Their behavior changes and they don't spend as much time in open yards, farms, and fields (commonly near roads) because of the predators. They retreat to the woods.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

we introduced wolves in the mountains of CO and it's been going well

[Chino]

we introduced wolves in the mountains of CO and it's been going well

The cool thing about wolves (K9s in general I guess) is that they can adapt to virtually any environment as long as they have a food source and access to running water. You can put them just about anywhere they won't freeze to death, and they'll find a way to get by. You could take those wolves out of CO and set them loose in the woods near a bayou in Mississippi, and they'd probably do just fine. 

[lordxizor]

Minnesota has the most wolves of any state in the lower 48 and it's for the most part gone pretty well in the northern half of the state. The hunters hate it though because there are fewer deer for them to shoot. My wife's uncles have openly said they shoot wolves when they see them, which is highly illegal. Bizarrely at one point the wolves were taken off the endangered species list since they were doing so well, and there was talk of a wolf hunting season. To me, you hunt either the predators, or the prey, not both. Hunt that one that is overpopulated.

We gotta get rid of all the excess deer up here somehow since we killed off all the predators. It's either hit them with our cars or hunt them.

From what I saw it didn't look to me like hunting them was an option. I drove through OH, MI, IL, and IA a few months back, and the amount of roadkill was simply astonishing. Ohio in particular. You couldn't drive more than a quarter mile without seeing a huge, spinning blood trail across the highway leading to a carcass. I've never seen anything like that shit before. Might be time to skip hunting and go directly to poisoning. Hell, that's probably why Harmony's insurance is going up so much.

Yeah, the roadkill is pretty nuts in the upper midwest. There's a dead deer every few miles. Racoons are even more common.

[Glasser]

This Covid crap is kicking the shit out of me. 3 days in: completely stuffed nose, cheeks are red and hot but no fever, body aches, coughing up mucus non stop. I'm wondering if its Covid with a side of nasty allergies. Make it stop!!!!!! 

Aaaand... I was supposed to go to Cape Cod for a long weekend with the Mrs.   

[ReaperKK]

That sucks Glasser, I hope you feel better soon. I just got over covid from last week and had a lot of the same symptoms.

[wolfking]

This Covid crap is kicking the shit out of me. 3 days in: completely stuffed nose, cheeks are red and hot but no fever, body aches, coughing up mucus non stop. I'm wondering if its Covid with a side of nasty allergies. Make it stop!!!!!! 

Aaaand... I was supposed to go to Cape Cod for a long weekend with the Mrs.   

Damn, that blows mate.

[gmillerdrake]

Seeing/Reading headlines like this a dozen times a year:

"State senator Doug Larsen's death was confirmed Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators. The small plane crashed Sunday evening around 8.30pm after taking off north of Moab. 'Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah"

I find it extremely selfish to put your kids and even your spouse on one of these small planes that people learn to fly. I get it....it's a hobby and people like to fly....great....then do that at your own peril. This dude just killed his wife and kids and IMO it's just selfish. Fly alone to get your fix. There's absolutely nowhere they were heading they couldn't have gotten to by a car, bus or train that would have been safer, or at minimum had a greater chance of survival if there was a crash.

Those poor kids, led to their death by no choice of their own.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

simple darwinism IMO, lol. if people wanna fly dangerous planes or experimental submarines i say let 'em. it's a free country

edit: missed the part about family dying with him. the spouse is a grown person and can make their own decisions, but it sucks to see kids died. hopefully the senator and their spouse enjoy burning in hell for ending their childrens' lives. if i had my way, their estate would be penalized (in whatever way possible/reasonable) for it, but i doubt that will happen

[gmillerdrake]

simple darwinism IMO, lol. if people wanna fly dangerous planes or experimental submarines i say let 'em. it's a free country

edit: missed the part about family dying with him. the spouse is a grown person and can make their own decisions, but it sucks to see kids died. hopefully the senator and their spouse enjoy burning in hell for ending their childrens' lives. if i had my way, their estate would be penalized (in whatever way possible/reasonable) for it, but i doubt that will happen

I don't know if I'd go that far with how much this aggravates me....being a Father of three I'm sure the panic and horror that he and his wife shared in the moments before them crashing just thinking of their kids in that moment was worse than any hell they would experience.

I know families do this all the time....people get their pilots license and there are thousands of flights a year by these amateur plots that are successful and we only hear about these tragedies. BUT....it's just so unfair to the kids who are trusting that thier parents are making the best decisions for their safety.

I worked for a guy years ago who had his license and would always ask me to go flying with him. And I always declined. He's never crashed or anything like that but I didn't want to be a headline.....

[El Barto]

I think people are probably overestimating the danger of civilian aviation. Statistics don't really work for comparing it to driving, but it's not some dangerous hobby people get their kicks off of. Much like driving, the safety is with the driver. Shitty drivers get their kids killed all the damn time and we don't rant about it. I know a fair amount about GA accidents, and 9 times out of 10 they happen because somebody makes a bad decision. Usually one that gets them in over their head.

I worked for a guy years ago who had his license and would always ask me to go flying with him. And I always declined. He's never crashed or anything like that but I didn't want to be a headline.....

I've considered this quite a bit, and my stance is that I'll fly with somebody if he was/is a military or commercial airline pilot. If it's somebody that learned on his own I'm a hard pass. The difference is that the former guys were trained to not make decisions on their own, but to follow basic guidelines. You either have enough fuel or you don't take off. The landing conditions are either good for your aircraft or you don't try to land. Things are either working alright or you declare an emergency and get on the ground. There's no questioning your decisions. Amateurs tend to try to rationalize things and that's how people crash their aircraft.

In this case, Larsen was a Lt. Colonel for the NG, and was in charge of an air wing. Safe bet he was a military pilot with a whole lot of flying hours, and flying his Apache/Aztec was probably as natural to him as driving a car is to either of us. This isn't a guy likely to make stupid decisions, and in and of itself simply flying your family to visit the folks isn't one.

[gmillerdrake]

I think people are probably overestimating the danger of civilian aviation. Statistics don't really work for comparing it to driving, but it's not some dangerous hobby people get their kicks off of. Much like driving, the safety is with the driver. Shitty drivers get their kids killed all the damn time and we don't rant about it. I know a fair amount about GA accidents, and 9 times out of 10 they happen because somebody makes a bad decision. Usually one that gets them in over their head.

I worked for a guy years ago who had his license and would always ask me to go flying with him. And I always declined. He's never crashed or anything like that but I didn't want to be a headline.....

I've considered this quite a bit, and my stance is that I'll fly with somebody if he was/is a military or commercial airline pilot. If it's somebody that learned on his own I'm a hard pass. The difference is that the former guys were trained to not make decisions on their own, but to follow basic guidelines. You either have enough fuel or you don't take off. The landing conditions are either good for your aircraft or you don't try to land. Things are either working alright or you declare an emergency and get on the ground. There's no questioning your decisions. Amateurs tend to try to rationalize things and that's how people crash their aircraft.

In this case, Larsen was a Lt. Colonel for the NG, and was in charge of an air wing. Safe bet he was a military pilot with a whole lot of flying hours, and flying his Apache/Aztec was probably as natural to him as driving a car is to either of us. This isn't a guy likely to make stupid decisions, and in and of itself simply flying your family to visit the folks isn't one.

I considered that and obviously that is probably the reason why he thought it was not big deal to load his family in and go. I just go back to the 'if' there is a failure or whatever the chances of survival are so bad in craft like that....I don't know that I'd put my kids in that situation.

Totally understand that it's not a fair comparison to driving....but....like I said....I just see it as there is a better chance of survival 'if' there is an accident. Maybe I'm just being sensitive to it thinking about those kids as the plane went down.....and the parents.....the sheer horror when the moment of realization hit that they were all going to die. ugh.....



And, my old boss was just a wealthy guy who owned a leather furniture and garment repair shop who did it as a hobby. There was zero chance I was climb into aboard that plane he flew. I don't recall the make/model of it as this was circa 2003 but it was a single prop plane....and those things are always on the news about crashing into some farm field or something.

[El Barto]

I think people are probably overestimating the danger of civilian aviation. Statistics don't really work for comparing it to driving, but it's not some dangerous hobby people get their kicks off of. Much like driving, the safety is with the driver. Shitty drivers get their kids killed all the damn time and we don't rant about it. I know a fair amount about GA accidents, and 9 times out of 10 they happen because somebody makes a bad decision. Usually one that gets them in over their head.

I worked for a guy years ago who had his license and would always ask me to go flying with him. And I always declined. He's never crashed or anything like that but I didn't want to be a headline.....

I've considered this quite a bit, and my stance is that I'll fly with somebody if he was/is a military or commercial airline pilot. If it's somebody that learned on his own I'm a hard pass. The difference is that the former guys were trained to not make decisions on their own, but to follow basic guidelines. You either have enough fuel or you don't take off. The landing conditions are either good for your aircraft or you don't try to land. Things are either working alright or you declare an emergency and get on the ground. There's no questioning your decisions. Amateurs tend to try to rationalize things and that's how people crash their aircraft.

In this case, Larsen was a Lt. Colonel for the NG, and was in charge of an air wing. Safe bet he was a military pilot with a whole lot of flying hours, and flying his Apache/Aztec was probably as natural to him as driving a car is to either of us. This isn't a guy likely to make stupid decisions, and in and of itself simply flying your family to visit the folks isn't one.

I considered that and obviously that is probably the reason why he thought it was not big deal to load his family in and go. I just go back to the 'if' there is a failure or whatever the chances of survival are so bad in craft like that....I don't know that I'd put my kids in that situation.

Totally understand that it's not a fair comparison to driving....but....like I said....I just see it as there is a better chance of survival 'if' there is an accident. Maybe I'm just being sensitive to it thinking about those kids as the plane went down.....and the parents.....the sheer horror when the moment of realization hit that they were all going to die. ugh.....



And, my old boss was just a wealthy guy who owned a leather furniture and garment repair shop who did it as a hobby. There was zero chance I was climb into aboard that plane he flew. I don't recall the make/model of it as this was circa 2003 but it was a single prop plane....and those things are always on the news about crashing into some farm field or something.

Odds of surviving a light air crash are surprisingly high. That dude's family were definitely the exception and not the rule. And considering the speeds even light aircraft operate at that's quite remarkable. His Piper had a cruise speed of 172, and won't be going slower than ~85 unless it's on the ground, yet the odds of dying after a crash are quite low. The other thing is that aircraft like that like to stay in the air. So long as you have altitude to work with your odds of being in a crash, as opposed to an ugly landing, are pretty low. Things just went bad for him very immediately after taking off, so he didn't have that altitude.

For what it's worth, either of the two most likely scenarios mean that the amount of time from the first "uh-oh" to them smashing into the forest was probably a few seconds, tops. There wasn't much terror onboard that plane, if any at all.

[TAC]

Gary, I appreciate the family sentiment of what you're saying. It's your responsibility to keep them safe. I get it.

I didn't get on a plane for years and put my family through dozens of auto trips to Florida, and I often wondered if, despite my fear of flying, if I was doing the "right" thing, as we would walk into some strange rest area bathroom with the kids.

It's funny, because I used to say, WTF is the plane goes down, and my wife always had the same response, at least we'll be together...WUT? That's no consolation. 

[Glasser]

Gary, I appreciate the family sentiment of what you're saying. It's your responsibility to keep them safe. I get it.

I didn't get on a plane for years and put my family through dozens of auto trips to Florida, and I often wondered if, despite my fear of flying, if I was doing the "right" thing, as we would walk into some strange rest area bathroom with the kids.

It's funny, because I used to say, WTF is the plane goes down, and my wife always had the same response, at least we'll be together...WUT? That's no consolation. 

[El Barto]

Gary, I appreciate the family sentiment of what you're saying. It's your responsibility to keep them safe. I get it.

I didn't get on a plane for years and put my family through dozens of auto trips to Florida, and I often wondered if, despite my fear of flying, if I was doing the "right" thing, as we would walk into some strange rest area bathroom with the kids.

It's funny, because I used to say, WTF is the plane goes down, and my wife always had the same response, at least we'll be together...WUT? That's no consolation. 

I NEVER TOSS OFF! NEVER!   

[coz]

Gary, I appreciate the family sentiment of what you're saying. It's your responsibility to keep them safe. I get it.

I didn't get on a plane for years and put my family through dozens of auto trips to Florida, and I often wondered if, despite my fear of flying, if I was doing the "right" thing, as we would walk into some strange rest area bathroom with the kids.

It's funny, because I used to say, WTF is the plane goes down, and my wife always had the same response, at least we'll be together...WUT? That's no consolation. 

I NEVER TOSS OFF! NEVER!   

I kid you not, I was going to post the same exact thing!

[TAC]

I don't get it.

[faizoff]

I don't get it.

They're referring to this scene from the movie Weird Science

https://youtu.be/R-7gOI74-IQ?si=zTas6lLqtgiF3a9H&t=135

[TAC]

OK. I've never seen it, which is weird because the 80's was my time.

Not sure how it relates to what I posted though.

[King Postwhore]

Tim right now.

[Stadler]

Not sure why I picked the TMZ article, but Russ Francis.

Also, 100% agree with El Barto about the "military/commercial" pilot training.  I have two friends that fly to Block Island occasionally; one is a civilian pilot, the other a Colonel who retired a General in the Air Force that flew A-10s in combat.  I've only flown to BI twice despite being there 100's of times and you can guess who flew me both times.

[cramx3]

I'm not getting in a small civilian aircraft unless I need to.  A coworker of mine offered to give me a fly out in Denver since there's a small airport he can take his plane to next to where I'd go to work, but I declined.  Not just for safety, I just don't feel very comfortable being in a small aircraft in general.  I don't think I'd find any joy in that.

[Chino]

Yep. Unless it's life or death, I'm not getting airborne in a single-engine aircraft.

[El Barto]

In my case, I've spent so much time learning what causes plane crashes that I know what the risks are, and in light aircraft the number one risk by far is a cavalier attitude. With the right pilot there's just not much danger. With the right pilot even external factors (maintenance, weather) are largely mitigated. And this isn't to say that civilian pilots cannot be good and diligent, I'm sure most are, but the military and commercial airlines not only weed out the cowboys (at least after Fairchild), but they drill a certain procedural mentality into their pilots.

There's a reason I could never have been a pilot. I don't do procedure. In fact procedure tends to really piss me off. I'm always looking for the better way, and in certain professions that makes people dead before their time. The difference between a good pilot and a bad one is that the latter knows in his head all of the things to do, and the former takes the time to confirm that they've been done before even thinking about getting off the ground. 

As for the congressman, my way too early, amateurish opinion is that fatigue is likely what did them in. I think he crunched some numbers wrong, partly due to having just made a somewhat long flight, and partly due to go-fever. As is so often the case, this will probably come down to bad decision making.

[Ben_Jamin]

How would you guys feel about getting on a boat and travelling the ocean?

Life has risks and a lot of us are willing to take those risks to enjoy Flying, Driving, Boating.

It's just really unfortunate for that congressman he ended up crashing. Same goes for Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and also Kobe Bryant.

[El Barto]

How would you guys feel about getting on a boat and travelling the ocean?

Life has risks and a lot of us are willing to take those risks to enjoy Flying, Driving, Boating.

It's just really unfortunate for that congressman he ended up crashing. Same goes for Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and also Kobe Bryant.

As with all things you weigh the risk vs the reward. I'd probably pass on the ocean tour just because I'm a landlubber and the sea holds little appeal to me. Neither does catching giant fish. If I were the sort that got off on deep sea fishing or exploring remote islands then the risk would probably be worth it. In this case, between flying the wife and kids to visit the folks vs spending an entire day and tons of dough flying commercial, the risk might be worth the reward. If they weren't all corpses now they'd probably look back quite fondly on these trips, and that actually adds quite a bit to the reward tally.

[cramx3]

I have no interest in going across an ocean in a boat.  I dont know, but my gut tells me that's fairly safe, but sea sickness is an issue for me. Once again, I just see nothing fun about doing such a thing so I won't unless it's a necessity.

[Glasser]

Tim right now.

Chet! The wanker. 

[hefdaddy42]

How would you guys feel about getting on a boat and travelling the ocean?

No thank you.

[ReaperKK]

How would you guys feel about getting on a boat and travelling the ocean?

No thank you.

This is something I've always wanted to do. I love watching youtube videos of people traveling across the ocean in a sailboat.

[ProgMasterMind92]

there is a gratuitously large spider just hanging suspended in the middle of my bathroom and i am a baby back bitch and don't want to deal with it but need to shower

[Metro]

Aerosol can + Lighter + Good aim = Problem solved

[TAC]

Aerosol can and lighter is never a good idea. 

[Metro]

Sounds like someone doesn’t have good aim