[ExI] organic olympics, was: RE: the myth of the US "liberal media"

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Kelly Anderson
Subject: Re: [ExI] organic olympics, was: RE: the myth of the US "liberal
media"

>Hey Spike! Maybe you would like the Spartan Death Race...

>http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/surviving-spartan-death-race-13973215

>This race is diabolical, held in Pittsburg, Vermont... each year. They have
no idea how long the race will be...
This year, it was 72 hours or so... No sleep for three days! -Kelly

The reason I designed the game for specifically in July in the desert is
that I didn't want to make it a contest of who can go the longest without
sleep.  Under those conditions, one can drain through as much water as one
can carry on the back in a only a day.  

It also makes an interesting optimization problem.  If you decide to rest in
the shade during the day and walk only at night, you lose water as a
function of time, while not making any progress.  So the game starts at
dawn, when the participants decide if they want to walk only in the morning,
evening and night, then sit out the heat of the day (probably advisable.)  I
have seen it hit 100F by 0800 out there.

The whole exercise should be sobering and educational.  We had a desert
search and rescue because of a bad habit of city dwellers wanting to come up
there and play in the wilderness.  It was common for touristas to go for a
hike, then suddenly stop, look around and realize everything appears
identical in every direction.  Lost!  Feet leave no tracks in the gravelly
soil.  People can wander around and die of exposure within a mile of their
car if they don't know how to reckon using the sun, or failing that, wait
until dark and navigate on the north star.  You don't have much time out
there in the summer if you don't have food and water.  The desert is a
remarkably dangerous place.

spike