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I have had a terrible suspicion that much cancer might be treatable or preventable but cancer treatment is such a huge industry that there is not a lot of incentive to do anything about it. Infusing poisons into human bodies and hoping that poison kills the cancer before the human dies seems pretty much as barbaric as bleeding for a treatment. When even more expensive gene manipulation therapy replaces chemo we might start to see real results.

You listed a first aid kit that was put together by your wife. The contents would be interesting. Do you carry a 'padded aluminum splint'? I have one and small rolls of Gorilla tape to secure it if the need arises. I believe smaller padded aluminum splints are made for pets. Today I picked up a 'flash-bang pistol' made for entertaining bears. Made by 'Orion'. Have not tested it yet.

Okay, just added some ATN gear. Binox HD 4x-20x night vision binoculars. Quality is good and the IR spotlight is powerful. Image is as clear as I remember on Gen4 PVS7’s. I think they will work out well. Second is the Thor 4 1.25x-5x thermal scope. I am quite impressed with the image quality straight out of the box without even messing with the settings yet. Now I have to figure out how to work all the menus. Lol I am working on getting back out to the field sometime in the next week. I will take some videos and figure out how to upload them! When I worked for the PD, I picked up a rescue knife that I always kept on me. It has a glass punch and seatbelt cutter. That knife is always in my pocket and goes in the center console when on trips. I will do a separate write up for the vehicle. I’ve basically turned my Jeep Commander into an RV. Lol. I even have a wi-fi pan/tilt baby cam with a dedicated monitor that includes night vision and recording. I am very strongly considering mounting it on the roof with a magnet. Lol. I have an iPad mounted in the console that I use for maps and navigation. I could theoretically use the pan/tilt camera to check the campground at night remotely from the iPad OR set it facing forward as a sort of dash cam while cruising the trails.

My old ship the Coast Guard Cutter Sweetbrier. Someone put this slide show together and just happened to be when I was on it, I'm actually in a couple of the photos. We would take care of the whole Prince William Sound repairing navigational lights and bouys. We would also rescue fisherman who needed help during rough seas. One of the most adventuresome time's in my life.

I don't recall where I got this .. well, I do, it was a member of a group I used to camp with, but I don't recall where he got it. MIB

Hello hiflier-- I was able to attend the conference, and heard Dr. Disotell's talk. I did a post about the first day of the conference on my Strange Maine blog, and will hopefully get the 2nd day typed up and posted this weekend. Basically, what he had to say was tremendously exciting. I'll cut and paste that part of the post and tweak it a little for all you guys here (and add a few details that I know you'll be interested in too): His talk focused on the potential for researchers to utilize the recent advances in DNA technology to accomplish species surveys. Using environmental DNA drawn from topsoil, local bodies of water, etc, labs can now determine what species are in a given area, and how long ago they were there in the case of past or transient populations. Of course we leave traces of our DNA everywhere we go, and so does every other species on earth. This new methodology, environmental DNA metabarcoding, is transforming how we survey animal and plant communities. With this and other tools, Disotell urges us: "Those of us in the cryptozoology field need to do way better than we have done up to now." Up until now, he states, he has seen "zero data to convince [him] of the existence of legendary cryptids," but he is hopeful that access to new DNA technology will advance efforts, especially as the cost has plummeted now. (in answer to your question, hiflier, it sounds like either they haven't crunched the samples you refer to yet, or the data turned out not to be anything indicating an unknown hominid. He was aware of why people were asking about his results up to now.) In other words -- work hard, learn well, and use new tools -- and always keep in mind that DNA is the keystone of species identification. The process involves utilizing either local water samples or local dirt samples, and filtering them to separate all the trace DNA types present or having passed through a given area. In the case of dirt or physical debris from the topsoil, etc, the material is pulverized for analysis. He mentioned that rather than doing footprint casts, it would be more useful to cull the topsoil from the area of the print and submit that for testing, as it would undoubtedly contain trace DNA from whatever had left the print. He said that he is willing to do analysis for people, but "don't just mail me material." Initiating contact with him (his lab) to find out parameters and costs in advance would be the way to go. He said that the process costs a couple grand, but out of that you get hundreds of results, whereas the old systems cost even more and then only gave you results for a single physical specimen sample. You get a full picture of all wildlife, etc, that traverses or inhabits that region now and in the past (depending on how deep the sample digs). I hope that's helpful! I had a chance to give my own talk about what I've learned about Bigfoot in Maine from the eyewitnesses I've spoken to for the first time, which was an interesting exercise in summarizing a diverse quantity of reports in a wide range of eras into a digestible whole. Cheers from Portland, Michelle Souliere