(Part 2) Top products from r/rva

Former REI guy, so I'm biased, but I think it's the best selection to check out and a really knowledgeable staff. We had 3 or 4 of us who had completed through-hikes of the AT working there, at the same time. Was hard to beat that level of experience. Also like Walkabout in Carytown.

I'd recommend trying out things and working on specs for what you'll carry rather than identifying a specific pack or other gear from a specific company. Once you narrow in on your specs, the right gear will become a little easier to identify. Going into the store would be a great opportunity to talk to people with experience and soak up what you can.

Good resources include the Awol's AT Guide (which I think is also available in a southbound edition), the Appalachian Trail Data Book, and The Complete Walker IV, which is kind of the granddaddy of hiking guides.

Wow, according to my goodreads account, I read The Dispossessed in 2016, but even after reading my review of it, I don't remember the details. That's a shame because I usually love le Guin's books. Have you read The Left Hand of Darkness? It's my favorite of hers. If you haven't, I have some strange advice. Before you read it, I highly recommend that you read the travel logs of both Shackleton and Amundsen for their South Pole expeditions. I just happened to have read those a few months before I read Left Hand, and it made the book so much richer for me; I have no doubt that le Guin was familiar with those travel logs before she wrote that book. I read those logs in this book.

Book club: it looks like no one caught the last post, we've selected two books for next time. The first was recommended by allsortsashenanigans and is Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal, a short literary work from a Czech writer that encompasses themes of censorship, the encroachment of automation, the preservation of art and knowledge. This was so short that we thought throwing in another one wasn't too bad an idea.

Liloving offered up In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper as our second book. This is a collection of short stories inspired by Edward Hopper's paintings, and it has some "for real" writers like Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King.

So READ 'EM!

Thanks! I went with Baby Animals and Sea Life Stained Glass.

Even if I can't make it on Sunday, these seem like they could be a fun time.

And because I'm a nerd in this type of stuff, here's an AWESOME piece from RadioLab on a case of rabies where they were able to actually cure the patient by lowering the body temperature and inducing a coma, though it's been disputed to some extent. This is also an excellent read about rabies if you're interested.

Some highlights, rabid animals fear water, foam at the mouth, and become super aggressive. These are all to help spread the disease. Without water, the mouth of the rabid animal doesn't get clean so there's more virus present. Foaming at the mouth also increases the number of virii in the mouth. The aggression is the rabies virus taking over telling the brain to bite something to spread the disease. It's bizarre when you think of it like that.

I'm cool with O'Tooles! I liked that place. The other China Mieville book we were talking about is Embassytown about human colonists living on a world with aliens that can only speak to genetically engineered pairs of twins, and who never discovered how to lie. Lots of cool ideas about biotechnology and what language can mean.

The real life story it's based on is a really good read.

http://www.amazon.com/In-Heart-Sea-Tragedy-Whaleship/dp/0141001828

Not sure about the movie that came out recently.

Could I reccomend a non fiction book I haven't read and would like too?

This is it

Read
https://www.amazon.com/Inquiry-Nature-Causes-Wealth-Nations/dp/0226763749

Essentially allow the laws of supply and demand work. I constantly hear on this community that all people want are bike/ mass transit centric housing. Let the government get out of the way of making that a reality.

I vote for returning to Legend. It can't rain every Tuesday, right??

I also will throw out The Girl in The Blue Coat by Monica Hesse for June's book.

You have time, consider purchasing this...or acquiring it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0817437967/ref=sr_1_2_np_1_main_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409771435&sr=1-2&condition=new

Read https://www.amazon.com/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin/dp/0465031471/

The crop-demands of the soviets were absurd. They literally exceeded the most optimistic yields in any nation by several magnitudes.

The USSR famines go beyond simple droughts/natural-disasters/etc. It was deliberate and the consequence of millions starving was simply an acceptable price to pay to urbanize the nation.


There are many incidents in history of short-sighted policies having unintended consequences (e.g. The Four Pests Campaign). But this isn't the case for millions of the victims under the USSR rule.

I am Murdered
http://www.amazon.com/Am-Murdered-Jefferson-Killing-Shocked/dp/0470185511

This is a big issue with SO MANY points to argue, you could write books, and many have.

So I'm just going to keep to a small subset of this big issue that I have personal experience. People who suffer chronic pain, and this pain could be from a palliative state such as terminal bone cancer, or just someone who on a daily basis and don't receive proper pain management... kill themselves, a lot.

Living and working in the family business (funeral home) back before my current career, I saw this a lot. It used to piss my father off to no extent when patients in end stage, horribly painful cancer were not given adequate pain medication, it was almost like they didn't want this guy who was gonna die in 4 days to get addicted to opioids, it make no sense.

So where am I going with this? People underestimate the effect of how constant pain ravages your mind and body, they just don't have a true understanding of it.

So if someone is in palliative care and the most extreme methods of pain management are failing, and they wish assisted suicide, then absolutely yes.

I'd also recommend a great book to truly attempt to understand the personal hell of pain:

The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering

Melanie Thernstrom

http://www.amazon.com/Pain-Chronicles-Mysteries-Prayers-Suffering/dp/0312573073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425919402&sr=8-1&keywords=Melanie+Thernstrom