High winds, whiteout conditions, new snow, and road closures means my overnight snowshoeing trip is canceled.

Despite the fact that small children lose body heat faster than adults, they often survive in the same conditions better than experienced hunters, better than physically fit hikers, better than former members of the military or skilled sailors. And yet one of the groups with the poorest survival rates is children ages seven to twelve. Clearly, those youngest children have a deep secret that trumps knowledge and experience. Scientists do not know exactly what that secret is, but the answer may lie in basic childhood traits. At that age, the brain has not yet developed certain abilities. For example, small children do not create the same sort of mental maps adults do. They don't understand traveling to a particular place, so they don't run to get somewhere beyond their field of vision. They also follow their instincts. If it gets cold, they crawl into a hollow tree to get warm. If they're tired, they rest, so they don't get fatigued. If they're thirsty, they drink. They try to make themselves comfortable and staying comfortable helps keep them alive... The secret may also lie in the fact that they do not yet have the sophisticated mental mapping ability that adults have, and so do not try to bend the map. They remap the world they're in. Children between the ages of seven and twelve, on the other hand, have some adult characteristics, such as mental mapping, but they don't have adult judgment. They don't ordinarily have the strong ability to control emotional responses and to reason through their situation. They panic and run. They look for shortcuts. If a trail peters out, they keep going, ignoring thirst, hunger, and cold, until they fall over. In learning to think more like adults, it seems, they have suppressed the very instincts that might have helped them.

-Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival, pg 170

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few.

-Shunryu Suzuki

Last night I went to a showing of Trudell, a film about John Trudell, the Native American poet/activist. He lead the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island for 21 months, and, following that, was the National Spokesman of the American Indian Movement during the Pine Ridge Shootout. After burning an American flag on the steps of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, his pregnant wife, three children, and mother in law were burned alive in a suspicious arson fire. In the words of the FBI “He’s extremely eloquent… therefore extremely dangerous.” Speaking of the FBI: he’s said to have one of the longest FBI files in history, at over 17,000 pages.

His music is interesting – it’s spoken word poetry set to traditional Native American music, with a little blues guitar thrown in for good measure.

He’ll be here speaking today, but I can’t go, as the pre-trip meeting for this weekend’s snowcamping trip is at the same time.

Democracy Now’s parent station, Pacifica Radio, has apparently been funded by the Ford Foundation – a CIA front.

Take Pacifica / DEMOCRACY NOW, an alternative radio network with annual revenues of $10 million in 2000, whose National Program Director was paid $63,000 in that year. In the early 1950s--when the CIA was using the Ford Foundation to help fund a non-communist "parallel left" as a liberal Establishment alternative to an independent, anti-Establishment revolutionary left--the Pacifica Foundation was given a $150,000 grant in 1951 by the Ford Foundation's Fund for Education. According to James Ledbetter's book Made Possible By..., "the Fund's first chief was Alexander Fraser, the president of the Shell Oil Company."

William Arkin sheds more light on the NSA’s recent move.

Aurora is already a reconnaissance satellite downlink and analytic center focusing on domestic warning. The NSA and CIA join U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) in Colorado. NORTHCOM is post 9/11 the U.S. military command responsible for homeland defense. ... According to Government Executive Magazine -- thanks DP -- "NSA is building a massive data storage facility in Colorado, which will be able to hold the electronic equivalent of the Library of Congress every two days." This new NSA data warehouse is the hub of "data mining" and analysis development, allowing the eavesdropping agency to develop and make better use of the unbelievabytes of data it collects but does not exploit.

Speaking of spying, according to the Army there is no absolute ban on [military] intelligence components collecting U.S. person information.

Psychologists who study survival say that people who are rule followers don't do as well as those who are of independent mind and spirit. When a patient is told that he has six months to live, he has two choices: to accept the news and die, or to rebel and live. People who survive cancer in the face of such a diagnosis are notorious. The medical staff observes that they are "bad patients," unruly, troublesome. They don't follow directions. They question everything. They're annoying. They're survivors. The Tao Te Ching says: The rigid person is a disciple of death; The soft, supple, and delicate are lovers of life.

-Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival, pg 85

When Mike and I were hiking around in the Arboretum a few months ago (the same day I fell off a cliff), we discovered a man-made shelter of sorts, hiding well off any trails. Yesterday, I went back there alone and took photos, along with some video and commentary for all to enjoy. Of course, I’m not going to say exactly where it is – I don’t want it to be destroyed – but, if you ask me, I’ll take you there.

Sometime in the spring, I may try to spend a few nights there.