posted by
takyon
on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:15AM
from the that's-what-secret-service-is-for dept.
from the that's-what-secret-service-is-for dept.
US President Barack Obama will trek through the wilderness in Alaska this week with British TV adventurer Bear Grylls, the NBC channel has announced. He is due to tape an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls to observe the effects of climate change on the area, it said. He is the first president to appear on the show, to be aired later this year.
President Obama is on a three-day tour of Alaska aimed at highlighting the pace of climate change. It is part of his administration's efforts to build support for new legislation significantly capping carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the US, as well as raise attention to the ways climate change has damaged Alaska's natural landscape.
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Obama to Test Survivor Skills on Bear Grylls Show
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:16AM
Obama the Anti-Reagan neglects public service to become a celebrity on the TV box. Americans should be so proud that their Prez has nothing better to do with his valuable time while their country circles the fucking drain.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by BasilBrush on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:33AM
Climate change is the most important issue facing humanity in the 21st century. His political power in this regard is limited due to the huge opposition funded by the fossil fuel companies. So he's highlighting the issue via the media. First the interview with David Attenborough, now this.
It's got fuck all to do with chasing celebrity. He's already one of the most famous, and the most powerful man in the world, he doesn't need to chase celebrity.
I approve heartily.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:38AM
He's been the only president since the show began...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_Wild_with_Bear_Grylls [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:59AM
Only US president, perhaps. There are other countries in the world you know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:12AM
Fine, we can use the general meaning of president. Then the first president on the show was during the first episode which featured Zac Efron, who played a president in a movie that was out at the time:
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/movie_news/2014/05/zac_efron_relates_to_role_as_wild_fraternity_leader [bostonherald.com]
Still wrong.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:05PM
Today is the first ever September Wednesday since 2014.
"journalists" drive me nuts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:22PM
This is why you failed Journalism 101....
"According to Ocean Data Climate Models, Today is the Hottest ever September Wednesday since 2014!"
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:20AM
I'm sure there are some Obama haters who hope that Bear and Obama run into a real bear and get eaten for performing such a stunt.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:03AM
Seriously, Biden needs to be ready in case something happens. Is Biden ready?
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:09PM
Nah.... he could never be ready. Oh, he could do the job well enough, but Hillary could mop the floor with his balding pate come election time. She's a much more powerful politician in every sense.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:44PM
Having the general election be Hillary vs. Anybody-at-all is all but guaranteed to generate 100% Republican turnout.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:54AM
How could they encounter a bear when they're nowhere near the wild [youtube.com].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Oakenshield on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:13PM
That kind of staged tourist destination crap is why I no longer take Bear Grylls seriously; well, that and the junk "survival" gear he puts his name on. It's funny that he behaves as though he is in mortal danger constantly, yet the cameraman is at his side, doing everything that he is doing, AND holding the camera on him at all time. The cameraman is the REAL hero...
As Obama's approval ratings continue fall, he is increasingly going after stunts like this to pander to his cheerleaders.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:16PM
As Obama's approval ratings continue fall, he is increasingly going after stunts like this to pander to his cheerleaders.
Better watch those approval ratings! At this rate he'll never get re-elected.
(Score: 1) by Oakenshield on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:50PM
I know. And it's a good thing he doesn't have to worry about getting anything through Congress for the next year and a half either.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:15PM
why I no longer take Bear Grylls seriously;
So that implies that you at one time did take it seriously?
Clue: You will never see anything on a scheduled series that was not staged.
At least you remembered the camera man. But what about the camera man's assistant, the sound man,
the engineer, the lighting guys, the guys in the truck with the generators and video storage gear, the caterer, the chopper
crew and the chopper - always close in case somebody trips and falls into the devils's club?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Oakenshield on Wednesday September 02 2015, @08:59PM
I see you have never watched any Survivorman. Les Stroud carries his own camera gear (80 lbs worth) and sets up his own shots, although he has a rescue team a few miles away that he can contact through satellite phone in case of emergency. His crew drops him off in the wilderness with very little useful gear and returns after a week. None of the survival shows except Bear Grylls attempt to create the illusion of imminent peril and excessive risk taking adrenaline rushes. Most stress the importance of avoiding those situations. I did give Grylls the benefit of the doubt when Man vs Wild debuted, but he quickly lost credibility despite being an alleged special forces soldier. He is only good for shock value like drinking his own piss, taking a dump while hanging from a vine, and eating rotted dead animals immediately after being dropped by helicopter straight from the airport. He is little more than a buffoon as another poster said.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:58PM
(Score: 1) by tannasg on Thursday September 03 2015, @02:51AM
Meh
Neutral on Obama (I'm not American), but would pay good money to see that idiot Grylls get his comeuppance from one of his nicknamesakes..all part of the great circle of life, Grylls eats crunchy frog, Grizzly eats crunchy 'Bear'..
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Justin Case on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:40AM
Bear Grylls plays a survivor on TV. Cody Lundeen is the real deal and has been for decades.
An open letter to President Obama from Cody Lundin:
Dear President Obama,
My heart sank when I learned that you will appear with Bear Grylls on a
hyper-scripted television show. Your decision to “learn” survival skills
from an actor who plays a survival instructor on TV has further muddied the
water for people wanting to learn factual skills to keep themselves and
loved ones alive during emergencies. Outdoor survival instruction is a real
profession, a profession in which people’s lives depend upon the training
given. It is not a joke or a cheap PR stunt.
You have worldwide influence. An opportunity was wasted to educate millions
of people to be safer and more prepared in the back country. This same
self-reliant mindset and preparedness learned in the outdoors translates
directly into our towns and cities. A better prepared, more resilient and
stronger citizen is an advantage to us all. This is the intention of
authentic survival training.
You had an opportunity to train with a genuine outdoor survival instructor
in Alaska; there are several of us nationwide. You chose instead to further
perpetuate the dangerous misinformation that networks continue to spew out
regarding the outdoor survival skills profession. This misinformation can
and has killed people. Your appearance on this show further justifies this
misinformation, and makes it that much more difficult for professional
survival instructors to do their job and save lives. Tragic and
unnecessary.
In closing, when Edward tries to convince you to drink your own piss,
instead of the sparkling bottled water in the production cooler off-set…
don’t.
Cody
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday September 02 2015, @12:19PM
Next up a complaint that hollywood sometimes gets computers and internet wrong. And engineering and physics and ...
Do they get anything right, ever?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 02 2015, @07:56PM
Yeap... accounting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday September 03 2015, @02:27AM
Do they get anything right, ever?
Yeap... accounting.
Accounting in the loosest sense of the word. Have you ever seen the numbers they throw around in regards to piracy?
(Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:16PM
> an actor who plays a survival instructor on TV
An actor doing a show with a politician? If there's one profession that's involves more simulation than acting, it's politics.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RedBear on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:02AM
My wife and I went on a road trip up north a couple of summers ago. We went to the Seward area and drove out to see Exit Glacier. We kept seeing these funny little brown signs by the roadside, with white lettering. We couldn't figure out what they were for. They didn't seem to be mile markers. They were just numbers, no units. Four-digit numbers.
Turned out they were years. Marking the position of the edge of the glacier since about 1790. It's been receding the whole time, and the receding is accelerating. Before long it will be gone, just like most of the glaciers on the planet. Our grandchildren will not understand what a glacier is, because there won't be any to see.
There's an incredible documentary called "Chasing Ice" that really brings home the monumental scale and speed of glacial ice loss that's going on. Watch it. We're losing glaciers that have been essentially stable for thousands of years.
It's exasperating living in a nation where half the population puts on blinders and pretends there's absolutely nothing wrong with the climate, and that nothing bad will ever happen. I may be in the minority but I think the President going to this extent to highlight the negative effects of climate change that are already happening, especially here in Alaska, is one of the best possible uses of a few days of his time. But that's just me.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:43AM
What nation is that? Im from the US and have never heard that position.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @02:34PM
They are called conservatives. The idea that the status quo, or what once was the status quo, is plenty good enough for the foreseeable future is conservationism... Okay, they are more like ~45% of the population in the US.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @02:42PM
Can you find one person claiming to be a conservative (or even anyone at all) that claims "nothing bad will ever happen"?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 02 2015, @08:00PM
You are so right! The usual mantra is: "Everything is bad enough already, will get even worse, can we go back to Reagan's era?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Zinho on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:12PM
Please be careful not to conflate Conservatism with Conservationism. They look a lot alike, and philosophically come from the same roots; however, a Conservationist is much more likely to be aligned with the Green Party and the Sierra Club than the GOP.
A Conservationist is concerned about the sustainable maintenance of our natural environment, and can frequently be found advocating recycling, permaculture, and wildlife diversity protections. We've only got one planet, and I want my Grandchildren to be able to live on it, too.
A Conservative is all about "I want to do things like my Grampappy did them"; if that includes open-pit strip mines, chopping tops off of mountains to support mining operations, and dumping coal ash into rivers then the Conservative will vigorously advocate all three.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:41PM
If you specifically go back to 1850 or so, a large part of the difference is due to the ending of the "Little Ice Age". In some winters towards the end of the 18th century, New York harbor froze solid. The Little Ice Age officially ended around 1850. Sure, people have an influence on the climate, but it is easy to forget that nature plays a huge role as well.
In any case, this is the next "stupid political trick". Whenever a politician does something like this, you have to ask: what is he really after? Watch the money - someone, or some company, or some organization is intended to benefit from this. Professional politicians don't do anything "for a good cause".
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:10AM
Let me get this straight. After campaigning and winning on a position of CHANGE, The Holy Bama has made a two-faced about-face and is now advocating AGAINST CHANGE? Why should anyone believe the LIAR-In-Chief now?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday September 02 2015, @12:31PM
Bear Grylls? Really?
First off, the guy isn't an American. Why wouldn't the president of the United States partner with a citizen of his own country who is a trained survivalist? It's insulting that he would pick a foreigner to "teach" him survival in his own country. And second, Bear Grylls is not a survivalist. He is an actor and from what his Wikipedia page says, an adventurer. His show is a farce. That is what makes this PR stunt especially insulting.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @02:44PM
> First off, the guy isn't an American. Why wouldn't the president of the United States partner with a citizen of his own country who is a trained survivalist?
Because he is not promoting survivalism, he's promoting conservation and he's looking for the show with the most eyeballs.
> That is what makes this PR stunt especially insulting.
Only for people looking to be insulted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @02:45PM
> That is what makes this PR stunt especially insulting.
Only for people looking to be insulted.
You must be new here! This is the internet. There's enough butthurt to go around!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:18PM
Because the "citizens of your own country" seem to like this guy better for "survival skills teaching"
TV Ratings matter, man!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:38PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5wHRryA2aw [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:19PM
Here it is...
ROFLMFAO!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:51PM
Prima facie, my reaction to this is about the same as when Bush made monkey faces while dancing on stage with performers in Africa.
Hey, Obama, if you want to make an actual difference on climate change, how about implementing carbon credits? Or, if you want to take action without having to talk to the intransigent Republicans and Democrats in Congress, how about working purely within the executive branch and mandating that all new federal buildings meet LEED standars and that all vehicle fleets use EVs or PEVs at minimum? How about mandating federal workers take public transportation to work (as they do in Japan)? There's a whole lot you could do without involving Congress at all, that would make a significant difference because of the size of the Executive Branch.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:53PM
Les Stroud of Survivorman would have been a superior choice. Bear Grylls is a buffoon that will get people killed with his "advice." Jumping into a stream of water that's disappearing into a glacier? Excellent way to wind up dead, NOT a sound survival tip.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:12PM
From my above post, Les Stroud would be much more welcome as:
A. He is a trained survivalist.
B. Sure he's Canadian, but the USA and Canada are neighbors with many cultural ties.
C. Alaska is geographically part of Canada. So it's not unfamiliar to Stroud.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @08:31PM
Maybe Les Stroud was asked...and decided that hosting the Prez *and* all his secret service staff, was going to cause too much ecological damage.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:37PM
I wouldn't be surprised to see Putin hosting his own survival show. He pretty much does it already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:06PM
Well, Putin did just release his own workout video [vox.com] with all the production quality you would expect from the USSR.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday September 02 2015, @08:42PM
That explains a lot. Putin and Medvedev are obviously gay lovers.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @02:11AM
based on that video they may be gay, but all the passion is gone
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday September 03 2015, @04:27AM
Mate Putin is a Survivor (and a bunch of other things)... one has to be in order to scale the heights he has in Krelim and maintain it as long as he has. He doesn't need to host a survival show, he's already up on stage in one already.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:45PM
Obama will probably use this show to tell the Americans: "Come and live in Alaska! There's room here!"
BTW what happens to roads when the permafrost under them melts?
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday September 02 2015, @08:45PM
Hey!...with global warming Alaska might turn out to be a decent place to live.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:58PM
The wealthy will live in Alaska from September through March, and jet to Antarctica for the rest of the year, when Alaska will be too hot.