Survivorman

The talk on the news about Katrina's anniversary reminds of a TV program I saw on the Science Channel called "Survivorman: Surviving Urban Disasters" with Les Stroud. I really like this guy's problem solving and self-control. He really makes a lot of sense and you can learn from him too. If you never saw the show Survivorman he is in different natural settings. For example, one time he is in the Canadian Rockies surviving by himself, and another time he is in a Costa Rica jungle surviving. The show even had him on a inflatable life raft in the Caribbean Sea. Basically, he has to survive a whole week by himself in a natural setting. All he has is 50 pounds of camera equipment and other equipment he can choose to bring along. Of course, since this is a TV show the producers won't let him die and he can contact them, but the challenge is to survive by himself. He really epitomizes self-control and problem solving.

In the "Urban Disaster" episode he shows the viewers how to survive a flood in a house, car, and office building during a hurricane. In a house for instance, you can sterilize fish with lemon juice. He said it has to be lemon juice because of its high acid content (orange juice will not work) and lemon juice will only work on fish--not meat or chicken. Also, he showed how you can distill water that has been contaminated. In a car he said you put coins or something hard in a sock to break the window of a car to get out. Then you use one of the car's floor mats to drape over the window slot so you don't cut yourself when crawl through the window. Now, that is clever but easy to do. If you are in an office building and the electricity goes off you can role tissue paper up real thin and soak it in alcohol and make a torch out of it. Again, clever and not very hard to do. One other thing I learn is that three of anything is a distress call. What I mentioned is some of his advice. His general advice is not too panic and think what can you use to help yourself survive.

It really goes to show what self-control, knowledge and problem solving skills can do.