After The Math

[curt]

....or, how to deal with the inevitable aftermath of the approaching collapse of the US and with it, the World economy. We had a thread like this going good over at the first RBC...remember, the one we all moved to from other cyber places like The Smirking Chimp and Project for the Old American Century ?? Those were the days. We were hot on convincing people the USA is fascist. Life was rough. Nobody listened. We screamed our lungs out, some of us. Still, nobody listened. The Bush bashing took the front seat of most every discussion. No time for reality. No "Blick in die Zukunft" (view in the future). Tough titty, too late, the train is gone and now we have to look around for "a place to sleep". (after a personal experience as a young GI in Frankfurt. Life sucks when you realize you blew it big time by not listening to people's warnings)

Quoting Bo......(from a mini crusade he was on today);

"Well, here's your future discussion topic: The USA is dead.

The body's been burned to a crisp, hung from a bridge, and the limbs are falling off.

The RBC is now making plans to survive the aftermath. That's the reality we need to prepare for now."

So bring 'em on, those survival techniques. Copy & Patse from the other other RBC too. What good will it do us o'er there when the damn place (TribeNet) collapses ?

[waldopaper]

Peep this "solar generator," basically a 40 watt panel-inverter box with a 60ah battery (for 879 US phoneys). Other links on the site I haven't looked at yet. Still unclear on watts, amp hours, etc.. .. but here's a tutorial and other stuff available on this site.

Did anybody like the post-peak electric vehicle idea... using the Worksman frame with the Crystalite Phoenix hub motor? The idea is minimum post-peak shelter with minimum transport. Something you could set up anywhere... and maybe the idea of "owning" the land should be abandoned. Hexayurt... Grancrete... all that? Is this "realistic?"

[curt]

Realistic ? Is freezing your ass off in the cold realistic ? Is sleeping in the rain realistic ? The cold wind ? No food, no water and no means of travelling far enough to get some ? You can bet your bottom phony (dollar) Hexayurt and Grancrete are realistic. Own the land you "camp out on" ? No need to. All borders drop except the ones *temporaily* drawn by ammunition stockpiles which again, are a very dangerous sort of pillow to lay thy head on.

Water purification anybody ?

How can I generate heat...chemically ? You know, those little heat em up diddy for your pocket....I'll have to ask my sons. They saw the same TV show I saw but their memories are better than mine is.

[curt]

translation must wait......this is the handwarmer solution in German language ;

"kristallwasserhaltiges Natriumacetat- Trihydrat"

"Der Trick an der Ganzen Geschichte ist, das die Lösung von dem Acetat, die Du herstellst, eigentlich übersättigt ist. das heisst: eigentlich müsste das Acetat ausfallen und kristallisieren. Dieser Vorgang ist aber kinetisch gehemmt, die Lösung ist "metastabil".
Durch das umknicken des "Knackfrosches" stellst Du nun in der Lösung Kristallisationskeine her (Im Grunde wohl irgendwie durch die Schockwellen, die davon ausgehen) und das Kristallisieren beginnt. Das dies im Fall dieses Salzes ein Exothermer Vorgang ist, wird das Ganze dann schön warm ..."


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Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions

Introduction:
This demonstration illustrates how chemical reaction can either give off heat (exothermic) or absorb heat (endothermic). The crystallization of a supersaturated sodium acetate solution is an exothermic process that is available commercially is the form of hand warmers. This demonstration can also be carried out in a large flask by seeding the supersaturated solution with a small sodium acetate crystal.

To demonstrate an endothermic process, Barium hydroxide (octahydrate) and Ammonium nitrate are mixed (in a 2:1 ratio) in a small beaker. This reaction displays the endothermic process and illustrated the interaction between changes in enthalpy and entropy is spontaneous chemical reactions. For a process to take place spontaneously at constant temperature and pressure, the change in free energy must be negative. An endothermic reaction may thus be spontaneous at constant pressure if the positive value of the heat absorbed is offset by a sufficient increase in entropy (randomness). In the reaction between barium hydroxide octahydrate and ammonium nitrate, the large increase in entropy is related to the increase in the number of particles present and their states (remember that two solids are combining to form a solid product and some liquid). As the reaction below shows, there are three molecules that combine to form 13 product molecules.

With this reaction, temperatures of -20o C can be achieved. Both of these demos can be done hands-on by volunteers from the audience.

Materials:

* Flask of supersaturated sodium acetate
* Sodium acetate seed crystals
* Handwarmers (one for each or every other student)
* Approximately 32g of barium hydroxide octahydrate
* Approximately 17g of ammonium nitrate
* 125 mL Erlenmeyer flask
* Glass stirring rod
* Small piece of cardboard
* Squeeze bottle of water



Exothermic Reactions

Procedure:
Handwarmers can be passed out among the audience (for smaller groups there should be enough for each or at least every other student). Have the student click the metal disk inside the handwarmers to activate the crystallization. They should notice that the crystallization will begin at the metal disk and spread outward though the whole package. As an alternative, the large flask containing the sodium acetate solution can be used. To activate the crystallization, add a single seed crystal of sodium acetate. If the solution has been regenerated properly you should observe a long crystalline spike run out from the seed crystal and eventually spread through the whole solution. As the solution crystallizes, the system will give off heat.



Endothermic Reactions

Procedure:
Place a pre-weighed amount of solid barium hydroxide octahydrate and ammonium nitrate into a Erlenmeyer flask and stir the two components together. Within about 30 seconds the odor of ammonia will become evident and the liquid product will begin to form.

Within a few minutes the temperature of the flask will drop to about -20o or -30o C. If a small amount of water is placed on a small piece of cardboard, the flask will freeze the water and the cardboard will sti

[waldopaper]

Curt- da wood gassification stove is da bomb. Google "wood gassification stove." Haven't field-tested one yet... BUT I know from experience that if you have a small (especially well insulated) space... small heat sources are great... and the wood gassification stove cranks out mad BTUs... and it burns fucking twigs and leaves.

A Coleman Lantern keeps you warm in a Eureka Timberline at below-zero F. Know that from experience... and I don't think the Eureka! is shit compared to the Springbar.... which (I bet) aint shit compared to a PENTAyurt.

Problem: because wood-gasification cranks out the BTUs, it's also an Oxygen-devouring SOB. I wouldn't use one in a closed space. So there's your "design problem," Bo. What kind of chimney/ venting system can be portable (or "buildable" on-the-spot)? Coleman fuel (white gas) is space-eating and heavy... even if it is maximum efficient. I wouldn't fuck with storing or carrying it unless I had to. Better to spend space and weight on something that can burn twigs... unless you're "mountaineering."

I think that might cover "warm."

[BO]

"Bo. What kind of chimney/ venting system can be portable (or "buildable" on-the-spot)?"

Haven't a clue....er...flue.

Hows about a Tee-Pee? (The original Hexayurt.) Built outta republican hide.

[curt]

Ah hell, Sonman says a good wood fire is easier and lasts longer. I say, where there is fire, there is smoke. Where there is smoke, people swarm. Not all people are good people.

[pan]

Perhaps the sum total won't be zero. The USSR collapsed and another government grew in its place - as well as a very organized and violent crime syndicate. We migh not be left with anarchy that demands rugged individualism (hmmm.....interesting that we revert to the most popular mythos of USA) but, rather, totalitarianism. The camps are being built, the surveillance installed, the Constitution is being breached.... Just as an individual sells their soul in bits and pieces, the collapse of USA has been cranking along bit by bit so the frogs in the water won't notice the rising temperature.

The question might not be how to survive but how to avoid being arrested, tortured, and put into slave labor. The USA was built on cheap labor and cheap energy - when cheap energy is gone the fatties will go back to cheap labor in a big way to stay in that top 2%. The penal industry is a growing concern. And, just like Stalin's purges and Mao's Cultural Revolution, the one's who spoke up, the one's who cared, the one's who didn't keep their heads down in an attempt to maintain invisibility are the first ones who will be denounced in order to justify the enslavement.

Curt will be a little better off but other nations will create their own versions in response to the increasing effects of global warming and loss of cheap energy.

[BO]

Pan, I think you're absolutely right.

Not that preparing for a disaster isn't prudent, but 95% of the problem is as you describe.

[curt]

76. Reading glasses ??

What about AAA batteries for my mp3 player ?

Seriously, I think it would be of benefit to be prepared for both scenarios, living off the grid and avoiding the KZs and the Poh Leece, Blackwater, the National Guard, the US Army, the brainwashed Marines, the Militia, any and all other armed dangbats, etc. In the USA, I know of a couple of places I would go in the event of some serious shit hitting the fan. But I don't think I would survive the way I could have when I was 16. I remember once digging a huge hole with drainage, food cache, built in toilet and camoflauged covering once. It was okay for the weekend. Nobody would ever find the thing without infrared glasses. Well, not even with, once I was in my hole. Back when I was 10 or so, my brothers and I slept in/under a cliff. It was a very small area right up in the wall with just enough room to lay down. We put rocks up to warn us of rolling the wrong way in our sleep. The fall would have caused serious damage even if it was only 10 or so meters. We got off on trying all the survival stuff out. We'd even try to get lost so we could find our way back. That never worked out.....the getting lost, i.e. Those days are over. These days I'm too cozy. Need my couch and a cold beer. The hillbilly in me has been in the city too long, I guess.

I never could hide from authority. Like a magnet, they're drawn to me. I don't even have to break a law and the fuckers are on me. It's been that way since I was a wee lad in grade school. I've been working on it and voila, I've learned to mix with the crowd. Hell, these days, I have so many poh leece around me, I've gotten used to it. They have too ! Is that a hint of some sort do ya thank ? Mebbe all we need is a swiss army knife ?!

curt was here

[BO]

Here's a pretty sad news item that I don't think you'll see play on the MSM. But it's definitely an 'After the Math' story:

120 War Vets Commit Suicide Each Week
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted November 26, 2007.

The military refuses to come clean, insisting the high rates are due to "personal problems," not experience in combat.

Earlier this year, using the clout that only major broadcast networks seem capable of mustering, CBS News contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from 45 of the 50. From the mountains of gathered information, they sifted out the suicides of those Americans who had served in the armed forces. What they discovered is that in 2005 alone -- and remember, this is just in 45 states -- there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120 every week for a year and an average of 17 every day.

Story continues here...

[waldopaper]

The Internet of Things: what is a spime and why is it useful? Bruce Sterling challenges designers... and mentions his book, Shaping Things. Waving his arms in the air trying to excite people who do things in the "real" world. Eh? Maybe this is why it's rumored that Google is contemplating the energy infrastructure. Well... duh. EEEP. After the math.

Unfortunately... we have run out of time. And we still have at least half the population stuck in the middle ages who not only refuse to leave... but want to drag the rest of us back there... feudalism and all... which is just fine with the fatties who are setting up their own fiefdoms right now. I still think an RBC spime is possible patterned on the Underground Railroad... pockets of enlightenment...

Perhaps established in the new Lakota Nation.

[waldopaper]

Today I remembered why I am "on strike." My daughter is trying to (re)sell her textbooks. Among them was a bioanthropology text... a fucking paperback... for which she had to pay 114 fucking $. The prof was apologetic... said the "department" had to "standardize" the text. Same thing happened to me... except I wasn't so apologetic... said it was a fucking rip-off... and that (wink wink) we "probably won't use this book very much" (translation: you don't have to buy the fucking thing). Just another part of the Culture of Looting.

Good video here : Pickaxe. ...and lecture here: Power and Potential of nonviolent struggle. The idea: stop putting on more wood.