That's a great system, I am currently in Alaska and right now there is a massive SAR mission on near Katmai for a missing float plane (with government employes on it). Most of that is the Coast Guard flying (as are many SAR missions up here). We have a system for giving to non-profits that allows you to give on your PFD application (that's the big check we Alaskans get every year from a deal the state made with oil companies), you can choose any 501c3 and many of the SAR and EMS groups are listed.

AK is such a small state, I am going to mention that to someone who knows someone. The best we have right now is Workers Comp for all volunteer rescue personnel on a rescue mission.

Yeah, see I was always looking forward to that Mad Max future. I thought with Y2K we really stood a chance, but now I have to wait for some global pandemic and hope I survive.

Ah, the myth of "unpredictability of nature and the inherent hazards". No such thing. Chance favors the prepared mind. I have been lost and injured in the backcountry and I am a wilderness search and rescues, woodcraft and survival "expert". I have crossed chest deep class IV streams when the air temp was below freezing. If you have knowledge and a fire starter (or can start one, I can with my cellphone, in fact I have seen a fire started on a log in a stream with nothing but a condom filled with water and sunlight).

Ok, I am going to get off my high expert horse, it's probable getting annoying.

Having rescued and recovered people from a dirt bike breaking to death in a hole on a glacier with half their head missing because they did not have their crampon on right (100+ man hours on a glacier in the middle of the night in the worst conditions imaginable using helo's in blackout with the pilot flying an Astar by NVG). bottom line: I don't think people should be charged for wilderness rescue. I am one of the ones on the sharp end of the rope. The morons who press 911 on their spot because their water tastes funny; They should be charged.

However the last caveat is that the PJ's use wilderness rescue opportunities to practice their job, which is Combat Rescue. I think it's pretty important for them to practice in the real world prior to entrance to a combat zone.

They do that on Denali. $10,000 rescue bond. I think it's pretty widely accepted practice world wide on the big mountains. I know it is in the Alps, Himalayas, on Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya

You are WAY off. Ambulances that are dispatched by 911 are generally operated by your local fire/rescue. There are thousands of private ambulance services in the US, these handle non life threatening or lower priority patients. Your right that the patient does not get to pick, but for the most part the 911 folks know what they are doing. I am an EMT, the ambulance service I VOLUNTEER with DOES NOT CHARGE to provide service. We work at sport events, public events, fairs, that sort of thing. No matter what we do; band-aid to back-boarding there is no charge. However, if we hand you off to the FD for transport, they may charge you.

A while back, before EMS provided treatment and did primarily transports, many private services vied for business, but now the emergency medicine is in it's own right and qualifications are becoming more and more intensive the requirements for an ambulance service are pretty demanding and you will see less and less "for profit" EMS services. 2011 the EMT course requirements increase by something like 60 hours.

I have been in wilderness search and rescue and wildland fire for 18 years in 5 states, I have yet to see a bill go out with one exception. Denali National Park; If you climb Denali and need to be rescued you MAY get a bill. I have not worked up there but I know some of the mountaineering rangers and guides.

In the USA other then some of the resources like helicopters, pilots, law enforcement (rangers), training and grants, much of the rescue work is done by professional, trained volunteers supplying there own gear and time. I have been on many rescue calls for people who made bad decisions and a good number did not make it.

You look at it like this: You are not doing it for them, you at doing it for their family and friends.

If you have a brick and mortar business and you open your doors with a bank loan (pretending you can get one) or your life savings and you operate at a loss for the first year or two you still have to have a business license and pay wage taxes. Just because you are making a pittance doesn't mean your not operating a business.

I say drop the adds and don't pay the fee.

Not the teachers union, they are a factor (teaches arrive 2 minutes before my kids at 8:58 and the room is locked at 3:32). The biggest issue with the "education system" is the one size fits all approach to learning and the importance of standardized test scores and matching funding to test scores, teachers de-facto teach to the test and the kids lose. Here's a little story. In bush Alaska at the "worst" (lowest score) elementary school in the USA (I have direct knowledge of this area. The village in question is either Sleetmute or Aniak, I can't remember, they are both on the Kuskokwim). all 12 of the K-8 students were asked what the "suburbs" were. All answered that it must be a truck like the Suburban. If you don't know about village life: You can only get there by air or by the river, This was the only truck in town, everyone uses 4 wheelers or snow machines (what most people call Snow Mobiles) to get around. There is no pavement, no cop, no store (that would be recognized as such) and gas is pumped out of a raised 1000 gallon tank and costs $12 a gallon. The mail comes once a week via plane and the air strip is unpaved.

I call moo. If you have placed a script on your phone I don't see you kicking in the door to some skells apartment (It wouldn't be the first time I was wrong though) after getting a GPS fix. Are you going to give it to the cops? What are they going to do, they might not even know what a GPS is and they would have to get a court order and some experts to look at your script and proof of ownership. That is, unless you are the rare type of geek and have an OTV with SAPI plates and a M1014 JSCS AND know how to use them. (I know there is no way to show I have that stuff in my locker downstairs, mine is an FNH not a JSCS, but oh well). I am all for it if you can pull a Buckaroo Bonzai :)

Doesn't mean they can't do it right now.

I can't see how NOT cutting down trees and having huge overhead eating printing presses is costing publishers profits, but hey I only have a small business. Then I would argue that not a whole lot of books printed each year are anything but crap. That leads me to the last bit. Unlike music and movies, used books have always had a market. They are portable, do not require power, are very durable, and work in almost all conditions you would find yourself from the subway to mcmurdo station. You will also find most of the good ones are in this format and there is an insurmountable number of them found all over the world (no need for special incoding if you read english)

There is no such thing as analog and digital, only electricity and gravity.

Anyone who uses "cab sav" couldn't possibly be classically trained in wine flavors or what ever

I know, I am one to talk. I have an PS3, a old MacBook with HDMI out and a 1T drive with movies and my stupid DVR (where I live if you want the fastest download of 6MPs and no cap you MUST have a DVR and cable, there is no competition). I think I have 5 remotes on the back of my couch.

If your uberleet why do you need to run an alt OS on PS3? Why don't you have a beowulf cluster in your closet or some mutant linux box made of parts you scavenged for free from the local mega-corporations recycle bin?