Man Survives 300 days with knife, pig

mrmaigo said:
Why is the fact that he has a knife important to the story? Sorta like saying "man saves baby from fire, owns gun"

I might like an axe instead of a machete
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Because we are talking about it on a Forum devoted to knives?

GerardSamija said:
I just looked with Google's satellite view myself... and I suppose one could call significant patches of logging and what looks like some follow-up agriculture 'nothin' but it seems a bit of a stretch to me. The zoom level isn't quite what Google offers for some more habitated islands, but I found at least 3 and perhaps 5 rectilinear structures around the perimeter, each nestled in logged areas. So cabins, storage huts? Perhaps some shelter, reading material, tools, even food? I'm not quite buying this story. While he may not have run into any other humans during the 10 months, chances are if he wandered around the island at all he did find human artifacts, and that sort of diminishes the 'nothing but two knives and a pig' thing a little.

Still, it'd be a fun exercise. Maybe even dangerous. Being vegetarian myself, the challenge to keep nutrition up to safe levels might prove more difficult than for a guy who eats pigs and fish. Unless there were some tasty roots and nuts... which I'm bettin' there are there in plenty.
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You've a better eye than I. I saw no structures.
 
knarfeng said:
Because we are talking about it on a Forum devoted to knives?
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Well yeah, that's why WE'RE talking about it, but the article it's self is titled "Man Survives 300 days with knife, pig". Nothing about him having a gps and a 'help i've fallen' button. The knives are the LEAST of his actual survival equipment but are the only thing that gets attention. I'm going to send them an angry letter! :rolleyes:

And what's wrong with the rest of you? Don't want to talk about knives, you'd rather look at his pants. And I thought gun people were weird. :D
 
knarfeng said:
You've a better eye than I. I saw no structures.
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This is the clearest one I saw, down in the SouthEast corner. Note the larger square-ish structure and the smaller rectangular one beside it in a small clearing. These are East of a fairly significant, though far from the most clear and certainly not the most recent, logging site. North a bit on the East side of the island are a range of small clearcut lots, ranging from I'd guess 10 years old to only a few months before the photo was taken at most. Tropical jungle reclaims bare earth FAST. No way is some of that bare earth, in rectangles, natural in origin.

Tofua.jpg


I'm not saying with certainty that Xavier hung around with loggers, nor that he was even competent enough to 'discover' human outposts on this remote volcano. I'm just saying it's not exactly Gilligan's Island in terms of uncharted nature, and that the odds would seem to favour his having run into someone or at least a building or a clearcut. He may well have sat on a few acres along the North shore and not found anything... but if he did, he picked the most barren part outside the volcano's cone to hang out. The foliage up North looks rather bleak compared to the lush jungle further South on all sides.
 
mrmaigo said:
And I thought gun people were weird. :D
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Gun people ARE weird. Just don't let them hear you say so... or at least don't publish your home address. Doh! My number and address are listed and that's my real name! I'm doomed! Oh well, at least I didn't say 'gun people are stupid.' Then I'd really be in trouble. ;) I actually know a 'gun person' who almost killed her husband when he showed up very late from work one night. Heard sneaking around in the house and thought it was a burglar. A loaded handgun pointed at the door greeted a tired husband trying not to wake his wife while looking for a late night snack in the kitchen... That kind of story is all too common. People coming just a gesture away from killing their loved ones, and often worse, with far too many fatalities from 'accidents.' Further to the weirdness; home burglaries are motivated more by stealing guns than most any other reason in the US. Sad how the preposterous manufacture of guns continues when all they bring is trouble. I vote for melting them all, making up some bitchin' damascus and handing it out free at government knife-making supply shops. Get people motivated to take up a real craft, something tied into ancient human history - the knife. Like this Xavier nutter was after. There, see, I stayed on topic!
 
GerardSamija said:
I vote for melting them all, making up some bitchin' damascus and handing it out free at government knife-making supply shops. Get people motivated to take up a real craft, something tied into ancient human history - the knife. Like this Xavier nutter was after. There, see, I stayed on topic!
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The Britis and the Aussies tried that, then they melted down the nice knives to make sporks, still cool but not AS cool ;)
 
Any links to cool sporks? I've seen quite a few, from the cheapo Coleman camping kit stuff to some custom made models at craft shows... but never a spork nice enough to merit a coolness ranking. Now a spife, I've seen just one of those which actually looked cool. Kind of scary for taking big bites of cereal, as in the risk of slicing open one side of one's face seemed unreasonable... but still, it was a nice design, clean lines and good handle. No picture, sorry.

Brit knife laws are silly. Period. Have you seen the no-stab knife making the news lately? hilarious, in a bad way. For context though, the British government recently enacted legislation controlling deep frying. I can't remember the details, but somehow they're trying to stop people from coming home ripped in the wee hours, frying up some chips, and dumping hot oil all over their stupid selves and setting their houses and families on fire in the process. Some sort of anti-spill thingy? Maybe banning stove-top friers? Can't remember. Just remember thinking 'wow, are drunk Brits really THAT stupid in those kinds of numbers?'
 
Bull-sh!t, I cannot speak for the Poms, but the germs in charge over here did not melt them down....they bloody well cut them up.

And the Gerard character can stick his anti vote up his arse...bloody turkey.
 
... and Aussies, apparently... doomed...

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Didn't some mayor or other in New York take a barge-load of guns out into the ocean and just dump them? I recall an amnesty story years ago, and seeing a whole barge just brimming with everything from Saturday night specials to big ol' shotguns and AK's. Seemed sad, all that finely worked tech getting chucked in the chuck, and really, most of the folks sane enough to donate them for this exercise in polluting would be unlikely to commit crimes with the things anyway. So long as guns are made anywhere, thugs will have them, no matter what silly laws are passed. It's like eating flesh. Until every farmer agrees to use his/her land more sensibly, providing 8 to 10 times the volume of high quality food as compared to meat production per unit of land, the slaughter and waste will continue. There, tidied it up with almost everyone hating me. Except India maybe, where vegetarians are apparently in the majority.
 
I was also intrigued by some other stories on the same AU site:
"My dog ate my g-string"
"Surge in unwanted guinea pigs"
 
And then there was that Aussie guy who evaded police for almost an hour one recent evening, driving strangely all over country roads... until they caught him, got him out of his old beater car... and found that he was still wanking. There's video of it somewhere. Kept at it while they tried to handcuff him... Not representative of the general intelligence level of Australians, I know. Heck, I'm related to some Aussies! Or does that just dig me in deeper?
 
I would definately take a swiss army knife, the large swiss champ for sure. As for a large knife. Being a CRK nut, I would consider the Shadow I, if I wanted a larger knife than that, my Busse NMFBM would fit the bill for a large machete type knife. For a medium type knife, it would be a toss up between the Shadow I or the Sarsquatch........BUT, I don't know if I could leave my sebenza at home....It would definately be a true endurance test for any knife you chose !!!
 
Interesting story, thanks for that.

As for those who immediately start to look for ways to prove he wasn't alone,.. they amuse me.

And aren't there enough of those discussion with "what one knife would you take for the rest of your life after nuclear destruction zombie attack in year 2000?"? Take anything you like the best.
 
A.L. said:
As for those who immediately start to look for ways to prove he wasn't alone,.. they amuse me.
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Then you are easily amused. Nice for you. (Finns hate me now - YAY!)
But perhaps you misconstrue the purpose behind the cynicism and suspicion. My impulse on reading Xavier's news piece was to think wow, what a neat adventure. I could really go for something like that. A complete cessation of responsibilities except to myself (and my family and anyone else who worried that I might not survive, but hey, we're talkin' little boy fantasies here), the ultimate vacation! But in the wilderness, without other human contact? That seemed to be the central point of the article (knives and vidcam notwithstanding - those were mere props to colour the blurb), so it raises almost automatically the question, was he truly alone? And what defines solitude these days, when there is almost nowhere on the planet without cellphone coverage and human settlement? I would like further detail on his adventure. Perhaps I'll search for this guy's blog and see if he elaborates a bit more.

A.L. said:
And aren't there enough of those discussion with "what one knife would you take for the rest of your life after nuclear destruction zombie attack in year 2000?"? Take anything you like the best.
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Like the solitary man on the deserted island itself, the 'which two knives would you take with you?' question is interesting for the ways in which it inspires introspection, reflection on what we really understand about ourselves and our habits and needs. Hardly an idle question really, considering how useful the answer might prove to be should any of us find ourselves one day lost for days or weeks. Planes crash in the bush and people survive sometimes. Cars get stuck miles from help. A lot can happen, even on what starts out to be a short walk. Take the kid from England who went out for a day hike, a 10 mile hike in one Australia's many hilly, forested regions, far from town. Meant to be back by evening. Wasn't found for a 'fortnight' whatever that is (10 days maybe?). Extremely hungry, as he'd been munching on seeds and leaves. Thirsty as heck. Did he bring a knife? Did he bring the right one? Did he know what to use a knife for, in matters of survival? Or was he just extremely luckly? It was reported just a couple of days ago on the BBC News site, so easily searched out I'm sure. These make for interesting discussions and personal reflection. If you don't agree, well, I'd venture to suggest you lack somewhat in imaginative potential. Or you're just being grumpy.
 
A fortnight is two weeks, now you've got people who know words against you.
You should just stop
 
GerardSamija said:
Lot's of text
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Wow.
Maybe I was grumpy.

Yes, I have been thinking what I would take with me if I went out there, many times. It's just that it has been discussed for so many times, and add to that it's quite personal eh?

It's quite unrealistic, atleast here, that you would really get so far away from town that you would need to start eat berries and hunt squirrels to survive. Perhaps in major conflict when you supposedly want to get as far as possible from humanity as possible..

And I understand your point on scepticism with the 300 day trip, I was thinking that later when I wrote my post. One thing makes me wonder, if he was blogging, where did he get the juice for his laptop?

Anyway, cheers.
 
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