Category: Uncategorized
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The Bow Knot
Joshua Maloney As a tree climber, I rely on knots to suspend my weight high in the canopy. Bowlines, anchor hitches, and prussics all serve a specific purpose and are good at what they do, but each has limitations. Some knots cannot be untied once loaded (anchor hitch), while others will come free after a…
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Friction Hitches
Arborists can act like Batman and quickly ascend and descend ropes using a friction hitch. A friction hitch is a knot used in climbing to attach one rope to another or a carabiner. In a climbing situation, the climber ties into the carabiner. All friction hitches are based on the simple Prussik, and many friction…
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Endless Ringing
tih-NITE-us or TIN-uh-tus There is a constant ringing, buzzing, or eeeeeing in my ears. It is the sound of a struck symbol between the hit and its slow reduction in reverberation, but tinnitus doesn’t go away. There is constant din at the shore as waves crash, but that sound is peaceful; tinnitus irritates. Tinnitus reminds…
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Creating our own Wilderness
My friend Charlie is training now for sea-kayaking solo around Ireland. The passage will take weeks. Charlie will paddle 10-15 hours a day, camp … Creating our own Wilderness
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Books
I read a lot. Well, I listen a lot and read when I can. As a child who couldn’t sit still long enough to read and was diagnosed with ADD, which led me to special classes for much of my childhood, I find audiobooks a much more productive way to read. I chop wood, do…
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Sorry I Tased You
At 1145, December 31, 2013, I started work like any other night. Sometimes, holidays are hectic to work as a police officer, but sometimes, they are eerily quiet. Having completed the Plymouth Municipal Police Training Center in December 2011, I had already finished the hundreds of hours the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires to be a…
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From Biological Control for the USDA to Tree Climbing
In the summers of 2021 and 2022, I took an opportunity to intern with Umass’s Department of Conservation at the United States Department of Agriculture. I worked at the Forest Pest Methods Laboratory (FPML) on Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC), which is part of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), chiefly APHIS’…
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From Birds(?) to Birds(!)
From Birds(?) to Birds(!) 2012 Ending patrol for the day at 7:45 AM, I was in my last field training phase to become a Barnstable Police Officer. One of the only tasks I needed to have signed off on was the “Unattended Death.” During our initial training, Michael the white-haired long-time training commander, would speak…
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Texas Tower Number 4 vs. the North Atlantic
Texas Tower Number 4 vs. the North Atlantic – We Are The Mighty Texas Tower Number 4 vs. the North Atlantic Joshua Maloney and Charles Daly Posted on July 02, 2021 11:42:00 “Would you like to spend 30 days on an island where the fishing is good, food is excellent, housing quarters are modern and…
Joshua Maloney 