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Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like antitrust, redundancies and donation.blood. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was perplexed.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!
Switzerland offers cash prize to get munitions out of lakes
BBC News – Imogen Foulkes – 18th August 2024
Interesting (and alarming) that climatic change is bringing about unusual problems such as this. A fascinating read, thanks!
Hollywood Execs are furiously jotting down "Add landmine avalanche to the film 2012" for whenever they get their time machine, don't worry.
The ask is concerning but so far crowdsourcing has been used to help stomp out the Spotted Lanternflies which is a productive way of going about on addressing some rather challenging problems.
The question is, @mycketforvirrad, would the best approach not to send a boat onto the lake playing the Imperial March?
The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit.
A riveting read, but don't expect too much wisdom from this modern day recluse.
I have felt weird about this guy for... well, according to the publication date... at least a decade now. The discourse surrounding him at the time, as evidenced by the linked GQ article was so fawning, so mythic - Look at this man who survived on his own, fully on his own terms, for almost three decades! The articles are always a little shy of fully addressing the scope of his theft. There's a line in the GQ article about how everything he owns was stolen - save for his glasses - and, while that's a nice acknowledgement, it doesn't really dig much deeper that, yeah, all he did was steal. He stole some nice pants, a really nice coat... a game boy and Pokemon. Yeah, he was relatively "roughing it" but the reality is that he just chose to live a hard life on the backs of others in what otherwise would have been "his community." Conversely, the community is mostly a well-off vacation-y town. He was able to break in while no one was home so easily because so many of the houses are vacant for much of the year. I can't say that I feel that he caused much tangible harm - sure there was the psychological harm of being burgled - to those in the community. So, how much can I actually care about one guy just kind of existing in the woods. I suppose, as an "outdoorsman" myself, I do care that he, like Christopher McCandless before him, exists to inspire other unprepared (largely white and male) individuals to follow in his footsteps and venture into the woods. While it arguably worked out for this guy - and in a dark way, I guess for McCandless - it so very often doesn't work out for others and that ends up stretching the already thin-stretched search and rescue departments even thinner.
I guess I have a lot of feelings on this guy.
It sounds like you might enjoy the book "Good morning midnight" which is about a couple who moves from the city and homesteads in the forests. It was quite an emotional read for reasons I won't spoil.
But yeah, this case is an odd one. He caused some small economic harm to people who could absorb it. He also caused fear and anxiety which is less absorbable. But on the spectrum of wrongs committed in the world, it's pretty minor.
But it's also not a great story about the ruggedness of the human spirit overcoming through grit. He mooched, but not enough to be comfortable. I'm sure he has some hard winters. I've had hard winters doing winter expedition climbs in remote parts of northern Canada, so I can imagine what it's like day in day out as supplies get low.
But he also seems like what you would expect from a poorly educated, poorly socialized recluse. He didn't plan the winters particularly well. Clearly didn't spend a lot of time philosophizing. He just kind of floated on the periphery of society.
This is a weird connection to make, but it is the offbeat thread, so maybe more apropos than not. I just finished reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and it delves into these ideas a little (stealing to live). I'm not saying it will rock your world or anything, but it was an interesting perspective and a fairly short read.
"...don't expect too much wisdom..."
This seems too easily dismissive.
From the article:
This is a man who understands mindfulness, perhaps from first principles. He speaks as though he found anatta: "no self"; that we don't exist apart from what we observe. Buddhism says this path is the path to enlightenment: the path to freedom. 2014 culture wouldn't see this; mindfulness meditation was only just beginning its penetration of the West, after years on the fringe.
Well, I largely referred to his laconic nature.
That said, it's the part just after that that I found the most wise. "Get enough sleep." 😂
I've spent months at a time in the back country. Forested mountainous terrain, giving way to glaciated peaks. I understand the experience he is saying, when you blend into the surroundings and measure time by the shadow of the peaks falling across an alpine lake, and the pristine wonder of crossing a glacier under moonlight with no other light and the sound of crunching snow and rustling hoar frost. But I don't take that as mindfulness. Maybe it is, to people who have never experienced such things. I don't know. It just happens when you sync up with the wilderness. Your self and your context are driven entirely by your surroundings. But I have often used the phrase "I'd rather be in the mountains thinking about God, then in church thinking about the mountains.
I haven't read many texts from Buddhism, but have read the bhagavad gita from Hinduism, and a few short Buddhist texts, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with Eastern beliefs. I just didn't get a spirtual vibe from the guy. More troubled or lost.
I'm glad you see something in it though!
I see it as multiple paths to arrive at the destination. I'm fairly certain the Buddha himself, if he actually existed, would not insist that there is one and only one path!
Going out in the wilderness alone, to live life as a hermit, seemed to lead to enlightenment for some, from the stories I've heard and read.
Unrelated, Thoreau, "dilettante" 😂😂😂😂😂
He definitely has Thoreau pegged as far as I'm concerned, lol.
I remember reading Walden Pond, and the part where Thoreau convinces the farmer who has been toiling in the fields to try his hand at fishing for food instead of breaking his back in the fields. The guys wife convinces him to try so he and Thoreau go fishing, where upon Thoreau catches a bunch of fish and the farmer comes up empty handed, and I don't think Thoreau shared any fish.
I mean, you have this well off guy cosplaying as a commoner scratching a living out of the wilderness while once a week going to town for supplies and a good meal, giving advice to a straight up land serf farming a small plot he's allowed to farm because he farms the owners larger plot.
What a tool bag.
He looks like Larry David...
17th Century Europeans were coked-up, which explains a lot about the 17th Century in Europe.
I've always assumed that in South America this is true, but wasn't expecting this info. It's funny how the definition of what is known as drugs in today's time were used in history. I suppose anything that makes you feel good, must be good so that's an easy definition.
I started reading Sherlock Holmes books after reading about cocaine usage in the 1800's and how it was perceived as classy. I keep being surprised by things that completely blew by me in books I read as a kid.
Sphen, Penguin Whose Gay Love Story Earned Global Fame, Dies
Best love story of all time, prove me wrong.
Pie in the Sky: Pizza Pirate Impersonated Popular Miami Restaurant, Police Claim
I encourage people to read this article just for the last few paragraphs. Actually got an audible "what the...?" from me.
Also:
I genuinely wonder if he will show up to court, given police may not know where he actually lives.
I’m glad you liked it. The quotations alone are chef’s kiss.
It starts off as “it’s just a prank bro” and veers heavily into weird territory.
You ain't kidding here, my god:
This is a whole different Florida Man than I've previously encountered.
Still the world's shittiest superhero.
You are not lying.