March 2006 Blog Archive
Friday, March 31, 2006
2005 saw massive coral bleaching that was worse than the previous
twenty years combined. See the NOAA
report and Yahoo
news summary.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
I've often recommended the excellent and highly readable books Where There Is No Doctor and Where There Is No Dentist.
You can get both of those books online
from HealthWrights. See the online
Where There Is No Doctor and the online
Where There Is No Dentist. Also available online there are
several books I've recommended before for people with disabilities
in the "undeveloped" world which would be very useful
in a collapse context.
Another useful online book is the Ship
Captain's Medical Guide. It is a manual published by the British
government for ships with no doctor on board. It discusses medical
actions people without advanced medical training can take can
take when medical attention may be significantly delayed.
All those books are in PDF format with a file for each chapter.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
My booklet Tools for Gridcrash is
about to become a full-fledged book. I've signed a contract to
publish it with Lyon's Press, an imprint of Globe
Pequot. They want to call the book Peak Oil Survival:
A Guide to Life after Gridcrash. Questions:
Why did you change the title?
Authors don't actually get to pick the title except in very unique
situations. The title is largely viewed as a marketing device
in the publishing industry. In this case I had at least some input.
That title is a compromise between me and the publisher.
Why did you decide to publish it commercially?
I didn't actually look for a publisher or submit any manuscripts.
Lyon's Press saw Tools for Gridcrash here on the website,
liked it a lot, and offered me a contract.
I accepted for a few reasons. First, I feel that it will bring
this project, and the ideas in it, to a larger audience. It will
also provide me with the income that I need so that I can work
on this project rather then spending all my time at a wage job
-- donations are a minimal source of income right now and won't
pay for the supplies I need for the upcoming series of illustrated
how-to's this summer. (Of course, donations are still needed and
welcome!) And having a book published will also make it easier
to get certain other things done for the project.
Also, since they book is ultimately very useful during an actual
gridcrash, it makes sense to have someone make lots of dead-tree
copies and strew them around homes and bookstores across the continent.
I don't have the resources to do that.
Are you selling out on us?
No. The contents of Tools for Gridcrash are available for download
now, as they have been for close to a year, and the contents of
hypothetical future books by me will continue to be shared here
as they are written. This information is important and people
should be able to access it regardless of whether they have the
money to pay for a book or not. That's why the original booklet
is still available for you to download, archive, and share.
Did anyone help with this?
Yes. I want to thank my good friend Derrick Jensen for walking
me through the process of publishing my first book. Thanks to
Anthony Arnove for taking time from his busy schedule to give
contract advice. And thank you to MM for invaluable help in distributing
Tools for Gridcrash in the meanwhile.
I also want to thank everyone who helped with the original Tools
for Gridcrash: MM, Tammy T., Melissa, Edward, Emily, Andrea,
Pig Monkey, Wabbit, Lori, Ken McWatters, Alex, Jen, and several
anonymous contributors. This would not have happened without all
of your help.
How much will it cost?
It should cost about $10 US. That means it will be slightly more
expensive then the current booklet. However, it will be slightly
longer and will be distributed through regular bookstores, meaning
that you won't have to worry about postal costs. If you want to
by a version of the original now at the cheap cost, there are
still about two dozen copies left. I'm not doing another printing
of those so if you do want any of those you should order them
before they run out.
When will it be available?
I understand that they are aiming to have it out this fall, and
I'll let you know when I know more.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Take it apart .net is a blog about how to take various pieces of technology apart.
Pretty useful if you plan on modifying them or scavenging parts
to improvise something else.
The
oil in your oatmeal is an interesting article which examines
the oil and energy required to make your average breakfast.
The article notes that about 40% of the oil used to make an average
breakfast goes into keeping the ingredients cool ingredients and
cook and prepare it. You can reduce the amount of energy you need
to cool and cook food with some of the cheap suggestions in Tools
for Gridcrash, such as a haybox or solar cookers, or various
methods of low-energy cooling.
If you want a more detailed examination of the energy content
in food, check out the informative article The
Oil We Eat.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Warning of a potential US invasion to control Venezuela's oil,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that he and his people
will kill "gringo" invaders with
bows and poison arrows. This is warning is part of a larger
Venezuelan project to create a massive
reserve army of people trained in guerilla warfare:
The oil-rich state aims to teach up to two
million volunteers, from the unemployed to office workers, shop
assistants and housewives, basic military skills such as marching
in step or shooting to kill.
If it reaches that size, the force will be
the largest civilian reserve army in the Americas, double the
size of Washington's reserves.
... Mr Chavez has been buying military hardware,
including Russian helicopters, 100,000 AK-47 rifles and Brazilian
and Spanish equipment he says Venezuela needs to defend itself.
I find it very interesting that Chavez would arm Venezuelan people
this way, since many governments would be reluctant to give a
people the skills to overthrow them.
Chavez isn't a saviour for people who care about ecology and
indigenous rights, however.
... [incomplete] |
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