On 8/17/2015 3:35 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Ashton Crusher:
From 1985 to 2010 there are roughly 1000 times more cell phones. If
in your morning commute in 1985 you were endangered on your 20 mile
commute by 5 people with car phones, by 2010 you would be endangered
by 5000 people with them. The roads should be awash in blood.

Maybe it's analogous to cigarette smoking.

The official anti-tobacco spiel is all about cancer and other negative
health effects... but I have to think that 90% of the people who got
onboard with banning cigarette smoking in the workplace just wanted
relief from the stink. I certainly did.... could care less if somebody
chooses to addict them selves and ruin their health... I just wanted the
stink to go away.

With cell phones: Ok, the official talk is all about safety and that may
or may not be all well and good... but I for one can get behind the idea
of a ban just so I don't have to cope with people yakking on the phone
while they wander back-and-forth over the line and back up traffic by
cruising the hammer lane.

While I dislike driving around people talking on cell phones, I hate
going hiking and have to listen to someone on the phone. Or you want a
quick bite to eat, but the person in front of you can't put the damn
phone down long enough to order.

On Mon, 17 Aug 2015 20:06:49 -0500, SeaNymph wrote:

While I dislike driving around people talking on cell phones, I hate
going hiking and have to listen to someone on the phone.

Where I go hiking, I almost never run into people, period.
http://i.imgur.com/CuX9ufu.jpg

But, as Jeff knows, I live in the Santa Cruz mountains, where there are
plenty of off trail ways to get around, since the loggers bulldozed trails
all over the hills a hundred years ago (which I specialize in following).
http://i.imgur.com/26TaZBL.jpg

Most of these logging roads washed out in the ravines about fifty years
ago, and the cliff hangers all fell into the valleys - but they're
still navigable on foot.
http://i.imgur.com/hBbECHG.jpg

So, a lot has to do with *where* you're hiking, since I think I never
once ran into anyone on the trail, in the past five years of weekly
hikes in the hills (we use rope to get across the ravines, so these
aren't hikes for little old ladies).
http://i.imgur.com/eMGpOJo.jpg

Here are some pictures of an easy cross just last week for example.
http://i.imgur.com/RYMSJ0y.jpg

PS: The black splotches on the gloves and clothes is poison oak,
which is called "urushiol", which basically means black lacquer
in Japanese origins. If you don't have black splotches all over
your clothes, then you haven't been in poison oak or ivy.

On 8/18/2015 11:27 PM, ceg wrote:
On Mon, 17 Aug 2015 20:06:49 -0500, SeaNymph wrote:

While I dislike driving around people talking on cell phones, I hate
going hiking and have to listen to someone on the phone.

Where I go hiking, I almost never run into people, period.
http://i.imgur.com/CuX9ufu.jpg

But, as Jeff knows, I live in the Santa Cruz mountains, where there are
plenty of off trail ways to get around, since the loggers bulldozed trails
all over the hills a hundred years ago (which I specialize in following).
http://i.imgur.com/26TaZBL.jpg

Most of these logging roads washed out in the ravines about fifty years
ago, and the cliff hangers all fell into the valleys - but they're
still navigable on foot.
http://i.imgur.com/hBbECHG.jpg

So, a lot has to do with *where* you're hiking, since I think I never
once ran into anyone on the trail, in the past five years of weekly
hikes in the hills (we use rope to get across the ravines, so these
aren't hikes for little old ladies).
http://i.imgur.com/eMGpOJo.jpg

Here are some pictures of an easy cross just last week for example.
http://i.imgur.com/RYMSJ0y.jpg

PS: The black splotches on the gloves and clothes is poison oak,
which is called "urushiol", which basically means black lacquer
in Japanese origins. If you don't have black splotches all over
your clothes, then you haven't been in poison oak or ivy.



Except for the point oak or ivy part, it all sounds pretty rough but fun
for the major hiker.

--
Maggie

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:23:31 -0500, Muggles wrote:

Except for the point oak or ivy part, it all sounds pretty rough but fun
for the major hiker.

Unfortunately, you can't hike off trail in these mountains without running
into poison oak by the hundreds of yards. It's just part of nature.

Maybe that's why I don't run into anyone texting-while-hiking out here?

On 8/19/2015 1:15 AM, ceg wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:23:31 -0500, Muggles wrote:

Except for the point oak or ivy part, it all sounds pretty rough but fun
for the major hiker.

Unfortunately, you can't hike off trail in these mountains without running
into poison oak by the hundreds of yards. It's just part of nature.

Maybe that's why I don't run into anyone texting-while-hiking out here?


So, how do you keep from breaking out in poison oak/ivy rashes all the time?

--
Maggie

On Wed, 19 Aug 2015 09:38:28 -0500, Muggles wrote:

So, how do you keep from breaking out in poison oak/ivy rashes all the time?

I *understand* my enemy. I'm intelligent. And I'm trained as a scientist,
so I apply pure cold scientific logic to the problem.

In fact, I could write an entire book on how to handle poison oak (having
researched Epstein, et al, who are the eminent scientific urushiol experts
in the bay area).

I've probably read every single reference found in the first ten or twenty
pages of Google search results on poison oak, and much of what people say
is pure hogwash.

And, knowing chemistry and biology and physiology, I do a whole host of things,
both preemptive and retroactive, to ameliorate the risk.

As just a sampling, I don't shower before hiking, I sometimes pack on
bentonite driller's clay, I always wear cotton or leather long sleeves
and long gloves, I hose down my tools and boots and wash all my clothes,
I wash with Dawn dish detergent (long hot water showers, despite what people
say about opening the pores), I wipe with rubbing alcohol, tinged with a
drop or three of bleach, and I scrub latent spots with a mix of surfactant
and toothpaste (abrasive) on a toothpaste brush. I don't have a supply of
tiny surfactants such as non-oxyenol-9 (i.e., spermicide), which work even
better than Dawn dish detergent though. And, after I shower up, I don't
go back out into the poison oak fields unless I absolutely have to.

There's more to it, but, I do very well understand the immunology (it's
a type IV cell mediated immunology, so nobody is immune, although some
haven't gotten it yet - and it never gets better - it can only get worse,
since that's how type IV CMI works. Everyone who thinks otherwise doesn't
understand the science involved.

I could go on, but, that should give you an ad-hoc taste of how I approach
things.

On 8/19/2015 10:58 AM, ceg wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2015 09:38:28 -0500, Muggles wrote:

So, how do you keep from breaking out in poison oak/ivy rashes all the time?

I *understand* my enemy. I'm intelligent. And I'm trained as a scientist,
so I apply pure cold scientific logic to the problem.

In fact, I could write an entire book on how to handle poison oak (having
researched Epstein, et al, who are the eminent scientific urushiol experts
in the bay area).

I've probably read every single reference found in the first ten or twenty
pages of Google search results on poison oak, and much of what people say
is pure hogwash.

And, knowing chemistry and biology and physiology, I do a whole host of things,
both preemptive and retroactive, to ameliorate the risk.

As just a sampling, I don't shower before hiking, I sometimes pack on
bentonite driller's clay, I always wear cotton or leather long sleeves
and long gloves, I hose down my tools and boots and wash all my clothes,
I wash with Dawn dish detergent (long hot water showers, despite what people
say about opening the pores), I wipe with rubbing alcohol, tinged with a
drop or three of bleach, and I scrub latent spots with a mix of surfactant
and toothpaste (abrasive) on a toothpaste brush. I don't have a supply of
tiny surfactants such as non-oxyenol-9 (i.e., spermicide), which work even
better than Dawn dish detergent though. And, after I shower up, I don't
go back out into the poison oak fields unless I absolutely have to.

There's more to it, but, I do very well understand the immunology (it's
a type IV cell mediated immunology, so nobody is immune, although some
haven't gotten it yet - and it never gets better - it can only get worse,
since that's how type IV CMI works. Everyone who thinks otherwise doesn't
understand the science involved.

I could go on, but, that should give you an ad-hoc taste of how I approach
things.


I like your approach to things. If it were me I'd try to research all I
could via google, but would probably be frustrated that everything I
read really didn't work and I'd still end up getting the rash. You have
a really practical approach, which I do appreciate.

--
Maggie