The Big Igloo and why it's a horrible idea

With recent political instability in America, there has been increasing discussion of various forms of civil disorder.

What political instability, I am asked?

Impeachment.  But that's just a symptom.  The current political mess has a lot in common with cancer, and those of us with technical expertise in politics may talk about the details of the melanoma and the immune system response, but that's not the conversation I'm having today.

What civil disorder?

That depends on who you talk to.  A lot of liberals are worried about being the targets of political violence from right wing people, but also from government violence (which to be fair, has been a concern for minority groups basically forever).  A lot of conservatives are worried about 'incivility' from liberals, but are ironically enough also afraid of governmental violence, mostly in the form of "we're coming to take your guns."

The irony here, of course, is that the threat doesn't have to be real for people to feel afraid and conduct themselves accordingly.

Flash mobs, fifth generation warfare, a generation of Americans trained in insurgency skills, militarized police, a political scene as polarized as anything we've seen in our history ... there's a lot to worry about.

Now I have to get dirty.  I had genuinely hoped that I would never have to talk such foul language.  But I think it's only fair to my readers (and those of an acronymic persuasion) to lay out the problem, trying my best not to add to it.

That's the problem with memetic warfare.  If I talk about nuking cities, and I talk about the specifics of how to build a backpack nuke, and where to place it, I make it fractionally more likely that it could actually happen.  If 100,000 people get it in the shorts because Spider Robinson talked at length about nuclear peace terrorists in one of his books, and Spider's thoughts are only 1% to blame, that's still a thousand dead to his name.  (And if some ahole finds that book because I wrote about it here, and does the thing, and I am just 1% of that to blame, that's still ten dead to my personal karmic account.  No.  Thank.  You.)

So some subjects are best not talked about.

But when so many people are already talking about it, and it's starting to crest into the popular consciousness, and the concepts are being actively PUSHED by people who either should know better, or to quote one influencer, "Just want to watch the world burn," I have to say something.

There is a meme which to their credit, the social media folks have been trying to suppress.  It's been hybridizing for a while in various forms.  It can be recognized by the terms boo-gal-oo (without dashes) or Big Igloo (to avoid keyword recognition).  It is hideously dangerous, and falls into the 'lemming effect' and 'moral panic' categories of social memetics.

(Note: Disney did not film lemmings going over the cliff on their own.  They drove them over the cliff.  Lemmings sometimes do this themselves, but the timing wasn't good for filming, so the filmmakers did it themselves.  HINT.)

The approximate concept is that there will be at some point an Armageddon like social breakdown, that will pit the prepared (booghadeen) versus the forces of social order versus everyone else.  The tame, censored version is zombies.  

If you're still reading, and you know what I'm talking about, you can go away.  You are not my audience today.  (Keep reading, you know you will, but I'm keeping it simple.)

For everyone else, there are two parallel questions, one philosophical, one survival oriented.

The philosophy: what one thing will you grab from your burning house?  What will you do if you stick your head out the door and the trucks stop rolling, the store shelves are empty, the ATMs no longer work, and people wearing Pikachu suits carrying flamethrowers are playing at kebab?

That's an interesting philosophical question, because it lets you know what you value.  

The survival oriented question: you die.  If you're lucky, you die quick.  If you're less lucky, you die horribly over a course of hours.  If you're really, really unlucky, you take years at it ... and what remains of your fading years to nurture a fragile hope of the resurgence of civilization, squashed by some future bandit's boot.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's look at the _actual_, not fantastical, effects of the bo0g@loo meme.

It makes civil war and civil disorder more likely.  It does not cause general society breakdown.  But it makes people prepare for general breakdown, and this diverts effort and resources from resilience to preparedness.  To the extent that this is dual use, this is good.  But that silver lining of good is overshadowed by the odds of making it all worse.

The recent flap over the Virginia National Guard is a great example.  Politician says, send the cops to go get guns.  Cops say, nope, not doing that.  Politicians say, then we'll send THE NATIONAL GUARD (dum dum DUM!) to go get your guns.

Remember what I said about the right wing being afraid of the government?  Playing on your opponent's fears is not a good strategy.

First of all, there's considerable overlap between the National Guard and local law enforcement, and between both and law abiding gun owners.  You're going to send someone to arrest himself?  Not smart.

The proud and brave folks of the National Guard signed up to defend their community and their nation.  They did not sign up for door to door stuff.  So some people will not be enlisting, and will not be re-enlisting when their terms come up -- MARKEDLY WEAKENING THE GUARD.

Then comes the police wondering what they will do if a Guard unit comes knocking.  And the Guard doing what they will do if they get door knocking orders.  And cops who are not guardsmen looking oddly at cops who are guardsmen.  And guardsmen who are not cops getting twitchy when pulled over for speeding.  And the would-be self styled boogalunatics posting memes about L shaped ambushes, Pikachu carrying flamethrowers, and (for some reason) wearing $20,000 worth of fourth generation night vision equipment while firing a cannon out of a shed.

Now I need to add some things.  This is VIRGINIA.  (Not Sparta, which only had wells ... Virginia has mine shafts.)  Mountain folk, of whom I flatter myself I know a little about.  A Southern state in temperament.

Where is the CIA headquarters?  What is the Army of Northern Virginia?  If you are a soldier or a player, and you work with or against the US government, and you need to be in commute range of DC, where do you live?

This is exactly the wrong group to set a memetic fuse burning within.

Or the right group.  If you're an enemy of America.  If you can play both sides against the middle, have access to memetic warfare experts, and really badly want to weaken America.

Talking about certain things makes them worse.  But the motto of the University of California is "fiat lux" or "let there be light" for a reason.

Sometimes you light stuff up and in the bright lights, people see it for what it is.

Paraphrasing Bujold, every life lost and every round fired in civil conflict is pure loss, and a victory for your foreign enemies.

There is no Big Igloo.  There will be no general mass society breakdown.

But there can be horrific events.  There can be people killed needlessly out of confusion.  There can be stupid lunatics who do stupid and hope that they light a fuse with their worthless fizzles of a life.  There can be another dead cop because two tangos lit him up thinking he was a threat to them.  https://police.mit.edu/memory-sean-collier

Don't fall for it.  Don't believe in it.  

Take reasonable and prudent measures to protect yourself, your famiy and your community from all hazards.  But don't fall for people selling fear to sell you an idea, a belief system, or night vision equipment.

Trust your eyes.  Build relationships with your neighbors.  Trust your friends.

Now think about a certain politician, notable in the impeachment, who said (no kidding, and shades of the first Civilization game to boot), "You may have guns, but the government has NUCLEAR WEAPONS."

I'm not naming him here.  But there was a time when he'd have been forced to resign in disgrace, for the hint that he'd be willing to murder millions of his fellow Americans.

How do you think the Army of Northern Virginia took his words?  People who know what a Bent Spear is, who have spent their lives getting into and out of facilities, and exactly what it takes to marry a warhead to a platform, activate a Permissive Action Link, and [CENSORED].

This is one of the patches on my morale vest.  There's a reason.  

We live in a time when silly words can kill cities, one way or another.  And however you feel about Mad King Orange, the same fingers with which he Tweets ... never mind.  I hope you get the point.

We need a lot less silly and a lot more prudent, quick.  We have bigger problems than booger-a-loos.

If not you, then who?

If not now, then when?

If not here, then where?

"We are this season's people.  There are no other people this season.  If we blow it, it's blown." - Stephen Gaskin

Public Safety Power Shutoffs

As is not uncommon, my thoughts about the current PG&E Power Safety Power Shutdown (PSPS) are quite complicated.

I am not going to insult your intelligence by telling you what to do about power failure(s) that may last up to five days. Figure it out. If you really need to, ask, and I will be nice about it. But handle your business.

I am going to insult everyone's intelligence by talking about cascading systems failures.

Playing chicken with a complex system is generally a bad idea. It will clock you from unexpected angles.

PG&E's Web site was hammered hard. This isn't a power failure issue per se, the data centers were not browning out, but someone should have anticipated millions of people wanting to look at the PG&E Web site.

Numerous vehicle collisions (NOT ACCIDENTS) have been caused by people ignoring dark traffic signals instead of treating them as four way stops, as required by law.

We noticed an increase of unkind people hanging out in retail stores, especially liquor stores, waiting for the power to go out. I am told that this became interesting and some stores closed early and kicked the would be looters to the curb.

From the perspective of system resilience, an increase in _individual_ and _community_ preparedness can only be a good thing.

This hasn't been a real disaster so far, just a painful training exercise.

My heart goes out to the people who are medically power dependent. This was your warning. Next time you're just dead. Our society has once again failed the vulnerable.

The fire issues so far have been easily managed by a massively mostly behind the scenes commitment of personnel and resources.

The patchwork nature of these outages has made it possible for people to vote with their feet (or gas pedal) and go somewhere where there is power.

We will see what happens when PG&E turns the stuff back on.

Please, please don't take your frustrations out on the PG&E line and field crews! They are doing important work on an impossible schedule. One lineman's shirt reads "Even firefighters need heroes" and it's exactly right. When electrical goes sideways, the fire services call the power company "on expedite."

Welcome to the new normal.

Disaster isn't something that happens to someone else somewhere else.

You're soaking in it.

Individual Preparedness and Resilience

Today's rant is brought to you by a combination of factors.  Unseasonable rainy weather, getting ready for fire season, watching certain trends both overseas and at home, trade war with China, the list goes on and on and on ...

But instead of talking about all these things, I'm going to talk instead about resilience.

Resilience is basically the quality of a system subjected to an insult, and its ability to bounce back.

Your car has a flat tire.

You and your car are a system - a means of transportation, to get from Point A to Point B.  Note that while the car is a system, it is interdependent with the driver.  That would be you.

The flat tire is an insult.  Not in the "your mother is a hamster" sense, but in the sense that the transportation system won't work for the moment.  (You can drive on a flat tire, slowly, for a short distance, but driving at high speed for more than a minute will destroy the rim, then the wheel, then set your car on fire.  Watch some police chase videos to see the process.)

Resilience is your ability to do something about the flat tire.  (Note: there are cars that can do something themselves about it, but even if your civiilan armored car is equipped with auto inflation, you typically have to flip a switch or push a button, so the driver is still in the loop.)

For most people, you call a tow truck.  This is an external dependency.  You need a working cell phone, a working cell network, available tow trucks in the area, and either the money to pay or the foresight to sign up for a towing service such as AAA.  Let's throw this out for a moment; I'll explain why later.

Relying solely on your own wits and what you have in your car, can you safely change a flat tire?  Or repair the tire you have.  Your options may include:

• A full service spare, letting you get the tire repaired or replaced at your convenience.
• A limited service spare, which can run at 50 MPH for 50 miles -- long enough to get to a tire shop or gas station.
• A can of "Fix A Flat" or a sealant cartridge with an inflator; which tire guys hate because it's a goopy mess to get off the rim and makes the tire unfixable (if it was fixable before), but might get you back on the road for the same short distances.
• An inflator and tire patch kit, the latter available at WalMart for under $10, with some rubber strips and a coring tool to fix your own hole in the tread.  Requires some skill.

Now we get to an internal dependency.  Only one of these options ("Fix A Flat") lets you do anything without having to use a jack to lift the vehicle, a tire iron to take off the lug nuts, and physically lift the old and new tires a couple times.

Not everyone can do this... and it's not just a matter of knowing how.  It's a safety issue too.  On the side of a freeway, you can get killed changing your own tire -- and having a tow truck driver come do it for $89.99 up to three times a year starts looking cheap by comparison.

Hopefully this conversation has prompted you to think about your car, your tires, what repair tools you carry in your car, etc.  Go look at your owner's manual.  Think about it.  Many modern car drivers go look for the spare and discover that due to modern fuel economy regulations, there isn't one.  Oops.

But back to the main subject.  The resiliency of the car-driver system faced with a flat tire depends on:

• The provisions made by the manufacturer as part of the car's design and basic equipment.
• Any additions made by the car's owner / operator.
• The knowledge and as applicable, physical abilities of the driver.
• The relationships with third party services such as tow companies, repair shops, etc.
• The financial resources of the owner, operator and/or driver.
• The underlying options for tow trucks, AAA service, repairs, etc. in the geographic area.  (LA is pretty good; the SF Bay Area is better; Death Valley is aptly named.)

Now I'm going to throw a monkey wrench in the works.  (Or a box of screws into rush hour traffic... don't try this at home, kids, and if you do, say hi to the fusion center task force for me, you ******* terrorist.)

The tow trucks are a system.  The tire repair shops, and their ability to get tires in various sizes from their vendors, are a system too.  So is the dealer network.  And a little further down the pike, the rental car companies and the highway patrol and the Freeway Service Patrol, etc.  These systems have numerous interdependencies, ranging from the obvious one of the phone network, the less obvious one of the credit card processing network, the interstate trucking system, etc.

Individual preparedness contributes to system resiliency.

This is a fancy way of saying the more people fix their own flat tires, the less the system has to handle those who do not or cannot.

Now let's consider disaster preparedness.

In Paradise last year, if you had a flat tire, the thing to do was either 1) apply Fix A Flat, 2) roll on rims as long as you dare, and/or most likely 3) combat loss your vehicle and hitch a ride out or shelter in what the pros call a Temporary Refuge Area.  No time to change a tire, no way to call a tow service, because they aren't coming, even if the cell network is up which it wasn't because the cell sites were being impacted by overrun and power loss.

There's a reason I am pushing individual preparedness so hard.  I can't do anything about the larger systems on which so many human lives depend.

But if you, the person reading this, can handle your own business, you free up others to take care of those who can't or won't take care of themselves.

That may save others.

That WILL save YOU.

And spend a few minutes thinking about those tires, OK?

 

A Modest Proposal - Healthcare

[AdSense turned down this blog for a second time for "not having enough content."  Very well.  Given some of the other AdSense blogs out there, it's clear that Google wants nothing to do with my thoughts.  Shopping for new platforms.]

This post is brought to you by the search for Universal Healthcare.

Once upon a time, I napkin sketched a three tiered system for health care and spent some time trying to push it.  Crickets.  

This is the 0.02 version:

1) we have two decades of case law defining minimum health care for prisoners.  Give this to everyone, at government expense, period.  It would literally pay for itself in preventing emergency care, continuity of care for criminals and homeless and veterans and elderly and disabled ...  

2) The government is the largest purchaser of health care in the world.  Use that buying power to establish a standardized manual of rates (like your auto shop uses) for emergency care and common medical conditions.  Any US person or insurer or other provider can then buy care at the USG negotiated rate from their provider of their own choice, or use their USG coverage (Tricare! VA! Medicare!) to buy from their provider of choice rather than being stuck with a single provider.  The idea is that some people have their health care paid for by the government, and the USG should be paying a standard rate for that care, instead of all over the place.  Then anyone else who wants to buy that care should be able to tag along at the USG prices.  

3)  Additional health care beyond the legally mandatory minimum and the government negotiated rates, is free market ... allowing for innovation, adding it someday to the rate book in 2), and a robust private network to keep the public networks honest.  This also cushions the shock to our present health care bureaucracy and gives them new frontiers to pursue in actual patient care rather than creative billing.

Anyone have an opinion?  Bueller?

Appropriate Technology: Grabber Tools

Today's post is dedicated to the lowly arm extender, or grabber tool.



We bought two good ones from Costco for $4.50 each. Details here:
http://costcocouple.com/birdrock-home-grabber-tool-set/

One of them broke today.

On close inspection, the small cable was held to the grabber claws by a tiny plastic part one-quarter the size of my smallest thumbnail.

Design. Fail.

This is where I normally get them, Harbor Freight Tools, for the low low price of $2.99

Unless you use a 20% off coupon, or a free item coupon (*current expiration 6/3/2019*).

Our friends at Daiso, the wonderful Japanese more-than-a-dollar ($1.50) but worth it store, actually carry two.

One is their $1.50 version (shown in bulk on their Web site).

The other one is $6

Dollar Tree, of course, has one for their signature price of $1.

Why does any of this matter?

Appropriate Technology is useful and grabber tools are very, very useful for:

• short people picking up things out of reach, especially up high (carefully)
  
• tall people picking up things on the ground
  
• picking up garbage without touching it - and sometimes, the appearance of an area directly affects both retail sales and actual physical security
  
• really helpful for people with limited mobility
  

Wouldn't live without several.

Disclosure: at this time 4-3-2019, I am not signed up for affiliate programs for any of these links and make no money from any of them.

Appropriate Technology: Shovels

Today's Appropriate Technology post is brought to you by one of the oldest human tools.

First produced in the US in 1774, the Ames shovel is still being made today.

Notice there are a LOT of different kinds of shovels out there, and each one is for a specific purpose.

What does a shovel do?

It moves dirt.

"But even tools like shovels are different now. A shovel used to be like this. Shovels have gotten bigger and every year they get more powerful." - Al Gore

Size matters.

So does appropriate use.

How do you use a shovel? I mean, it's easy, just dig, right? Nothing complicated about it.

Or is there?



Each of these parts has a name and a purpose, for a reason.

Our friends in Canada have a detailed guide to shovel use. It's worth a read.

A round point long handled shovel is one of the best possible firefighting tools. It is classified as a 'scraping tool' but can be used for scraping, smothering, beating (tamping), cutting light fuels and throwing dirt.

Remember that the fire triangle is made up of oxygen (air is 21% O2), heat and fuel.



Most of what you can do with a shovel involves separating fuel from the fire. Digging a "fire line" down to "mineral soil" is a great example.



You can also keep the air away from the fire by shoveling soil on top of it. You can literally beat embers or flame out with the flat of the shovel, or cut or lift a flaming bit of vegetation away from the rest.

Our friends at CalFire (in 4205.4.tlp.doc) had this to say:


2. Grip: Firm enough to prevent slippage
b) Strong hand at end of handle
c) Weak hand down handle for leverage
3. Stance
a) Firm, balanced footing
b) Strong side foot back, weak side foot forward
4. Digging
a) Use thighs for leverage
b) Use weak side foot on heel of shovel for digging
5. Smothering
a) With dirt
b) With shovel
6. Scraping
a) Use thighs for leverage
b) Tilt shovel onto cutting edge
7. Cutting
a) Cut small limbs and stems
b) Use forward half of cutting edge
c) Short chopping motion
8. Throwing dirt
a) Over the shoulder
1) For hitting distant or high targets
b) Side arm
1) For scattering dirt as when extinguishing a grass fire
c) Underhand
1) For moving dirt, as to a pile for someone to throw


While you're thinking about it, sharpen that shovel! "Sharpen starting 1 in. (25 mm) from heel on each side of blade until subtle point is formed at blade tip."

The heavy equipment equivalent of a shovel in firefighting is a bulldozer. Dozer operators are crazy.


(picture courtesy San Bernardino Fire)

There's a few lessons here.

1) Just because it looks simple, doesn't mean it is.

2) Just because it looks easy, doesn't mean it is.

3) Some simple things are very useful, if you know how to use them.

References:

• https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/shovel.html
  
• https://training.nwcg.gov/classes/s130/508%20Files/071231_s130_m6_508.pdf (also how to sharpen a shovel, pp. 10)
  
• https://www.coloradofirecamp.com/suppression-tactics/fireline-construction.html
  
• http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/for/for67/bmp12.pdf
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth (bring a grain of salt)
  
• https://www.nps.gov/articles/wildland-fire-fireline-construction.htm
  

Appropriate Technology? - Angry Heat Engines

Today's appropriate technology post has a huge question mark on it.

The reason why will shock you!

OK, OK, enough memetic trolling.

This post is devoted to Angry Heat Engines or AHE. Click the link if you prefer to find out in visual form what I am talking about.

For the other two of us, an angry heat engine is a specialized type of internal combustion piston engine that does not operate in a cycle, but comes apart (by design) during its expansion process.

The piston is flung away from the rest of the engine at considerable and dangerous velocities. More details here.

I find it extremely useful at times to separate my discussion of concepts from the often fraught baggage carried by terms and phrases in more common usage.

It might help if I were to say that angry heat engines are protected by one of the pieces of the Bill of Rights, after the 1st and before the 3rd.

Oh my.

Notice your own emotional reaction at the point where you figured this out!

I am not interested (here) in discussing the politics of angry heat engines. I am confining myself to two technological discussions.

Technology discussion #1: how people feel about angry heat engines

I loaded my dice by selecting the term 'angry' to describe them. That's a deliberate tactic.

I am much more interested in having you notice how you feel, rather than discussing any particular feeling. They run the gamut, based on education, training, life experience, exposure to mass media and entertainment (if you can tell the two apart, let me know!) ... but my goal is just to get you to notice.

Technology discussion #2: what angry heat engines are good for.

This is a much more interesting discussion, but I'm going to link to someone else instead.

My friends over at Backwoods Home ("practical ideas for self reliant living") have been digging in the spot marked 'appropriate technology' for over twenty years now. Here's their long version.

Same thoughts, summarized in visual form:



At a much more interesting level, remembering that Appropriate Technology must always be USEFUL:

• small caliber angry heat engines are useful for pest control, including small animals when appropriate and legal
  
• larger angry heat engines can be useful for self defense, which is a complex subject in any remote area
  
• the longer ranged ones can be used for hunting
  

Three significant uses, two of which apply more to rural areas and one that applies anywhere two legged predators can be found. Note that crime is at an all time low but that is cold comfort if you join the statistics. (Note: neither sport nor target practice are technological uses in this sense. Hang gliding is a fun means of transportation, not a terribly useful one.) However, angry heat engines are a complex and dangerous tool, and as such pose certain serious safety hazards:

• Negligent discharges can be prevented by STRICT adherence to four safety rules. They are: 1. All AHE are always loaded. 2. Never point a AHE at anything you are not willing to destroy. 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target. 4. Be sure of your target.
  
• Suicide with an AHE is a risk that can be minimized through realistic education.
  
• Violent crimes committed with an AHE ... including domestic violence ... are best prevented by not living with abusive people. The presence of an AHE is a significant risk factor for homicide. My personal opinion is that you should separate others from the dangerous person (you know, where the bars are open all night), but if you are stuck with a dangerous person, you need to keep them from laying hands on an AHE.
  
• Safe storage of AHEs can prevent many harms, including theft when you are not home (a main way in which criminals obtain AHEs) and use against you by an intruder when you are home. This also reduces the potential misuse of AHEs by children. Specific technology includes cable locks (which can be obtained free!), locking cabinets and safes.
  

Wow, that's a lot of risks. Each can be reduced by training and technology.

Hopefully, my use of the AHE language has made this subject more accessible to those who have a visceral reaction to the term Golf Uniform November. (phonetic)

Now you know why my Appropriate Technology header had a big fat Question Mark ? next to it.

This is a decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

There are times when the AHE is the absolutely right technology for the situation.

There are times when you really, really don't want an AHE present. Even if you are the one carrying it.

Be safe out there. Because even where they are totally illegal, AHEs are a technology that is here to stay.

Philosophy of Technology

In my last post (which could save your life), I briefly touched on the philosophy of technology.

I am fond of using the dictionary to map out an approach to complex issues. I am aware that there can be some issues with this, and don't care much.

philosophy, a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means

technology, the practical application of knowledge

Searching for a short definition of philosophy is like eating one third of one potato chip.

So when I say the 'philosophy of technology," I am not looking for technology to give me values. This way lies madness. (Several thousand words of explanation cheerfully skipped; I may come back later.)

I am looking to instead apply values - specifically, moral values - to technology.

moral, of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior

So when I say "Appropriate Technology," I am putting a value judgment on the technology discussed. This is good stuff.

When I apply the modifier "[In]" as in "Inappropriate Technology," I am putting a similar value judgment on the technology, but backwards. This is dangerous stuff, and in my personal and biased opinion, is more dangerous than beneficial.

I enjoy the take that the Amish have on this issue. They use a lot of technology ... but they reject a lot of it too.

Here's another YouTube video to enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg "Amish Paradise"

If you get a minute, think about it.

Appropriate Technology: 'Push' Emergency Notification Systems

If you've followed along thus far, you may have intuited that I have an uneasy relationship with technology.

This is not precisely correct, but I forgive you for thinking so.

In the sense that technology is a collection of techniques and tricks for Doing Stuff, I love tech.

The problem is tech without ethics.

This quote is from the movie Star Trek VI. It is no less accurate for being in a science fiction movie.

"Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily follow that we must do that thing."

So today I am going to talk about a technology that I unhesitatingly embrace, and encourage all of you following along to embrace as well.

"Push" emergency notification systems.

This is the difference between flashing lights and a siren on an emergency vehicle.

The flashing lights require you to be looking in the correct direction.

The siren, you can hear from any direction, with immediate feedback if it is getting louder or quieter.

These systems go by many names. "Code Red," "Alert [name of community]," "Reverse 911" are some of the more common. The Weather Service has one called WEA, Wireless Emergency Alerts.

What they tell you is very simple.

There's something going on that you need to know about, that could hurt or kill you.

At the extreme silly end, a certain California city has implemented Mountain Lion alerts. The odds of being hurt by a mountain lion are vanishingly small.

At the more likely end, weather alerts are common.

Wildfire alerts can save lives and protect property. Right now, the only way to get a wildfire alert in California is to use the Ready For Wildfire Mobile App (for Android and iPhone equivalent.) You can set it to send a text message to your phone even if you are out of data range.

California is even working on earthquake alerting systems that can give eight to fifteen seconds warning of an earthquake about to happen - long enough to pull over in a safe place, slam open fire station doors (to keep apparatus from being locked in) and protect your head from debris.

In the state of California, these systems are provided by the local governments, the counties and cities. If you really want to geek out on this stuff, go here [PDF] for a decade old list.

What I would like you to do instead is:

Visit your local government's Web pages, find out if your community has a 'push' emergency alert system, and do one of two things:

1) If they have one, sign up for it.

2) If they don't have one, contact your local government and politely demand that they implement one at once!

Here's why.

The United States telephone system is well designed to make outbound calls from the 911 emergency services to wireline phones. But the wireline phone is a vanishing breed. And this is the only form of notification which is mandatory, meaning that you cannot escape getting a call.

To get emergency messages by cell phone, text message and/or E-mail (and I encourage AND rather than OR), you need to 'opt in' and actually sign up for these services.

If you work on a large college or corporate campus, your organization may also have a mass notification system. If not, I hope they have a PA system, or someone has a bullhorn and an AM radio.

Take a few minutes and look into this.

In last year's deadly Camp Fire, mass notifications would have been vital. They weren't sent. So there's still no substitute for paying attention to what is around you.

What you don't know can definitely hurt you, and mass notification systems can only help.

[In]Appropriate Technology: Government Census

Fair warning: this post is going to be straight up odd and presume a lot of esoteric knowledge.  Please feel free to ask questions.  But don't assume I am off my rocker on this one.

I recently started re-reading one of the more controversial books in recent genocide scholarship, IBM and the Holocaust.  The book I had read; recent updates in a reissued version I had not.

The US Constitution requires that the executive branch of our government carry out an enumeration, a census, of the population.  This data collection is used for many purposes, most notably counting the number of people in the country to correctly apportion seats in the US House of Representatives.  The Trump presidency hs proposed to add a question to the census asking about whether the answer is an immigrant.  This has all sorts of interesting implications, most notably that immigrant heavy states (such as California) are afraid that fewer people will answer the census and therefore CA's voting power will be reduced.  Also, some conservatives protest that we should not be counting non citizens, conveniently forgetting the infamous 3/5ths rule that gave slave states disproportionate voting power to attempt to forestall a Civil War.  (It didn't work.)

In 1942, punch card machines designed in the US were cheerfully whirring their way through some interesting problems:

• the manpower needs of the US government in fighting World War II
• the continuing military mobilization of the Nazi German regime
• the consolidation of the Nazi takings in Poland, France and Denmark; specifically, rooting out and rounding up the Jews
• the rounding up and internment of Japanese Americans in the US West

Last but not least, however, according to this book (which is extensively annotated and documented, accepted as solid scholarship by the entire Holocaust community):

• the tracking, enslavement, deaths in custody and ultimate extermination ("evacuation" on trains with only one destination) of the European Jews and any other undesirables, neatly coded in sixteen categories for easy analysis of various efficiencies
  

The data that made all of this possible was drawn from census data as conducted repeatedly in Germany, once in each conquered territory ... and in the United States in 1940.

I have seen with my own eyes the 1940 census record that was used to intern my father in law and mother in law.

On the German side, every camp had its records department and submitted its data to central punch card analytics.  Concentration camp inmates knew they were about to be murdered when their card was retrieved ... when a library gets rid of a book, the book's card in the catalog is pulled.

The technology may be different from place to place and time to time, but the horrifying potential for misuse is the same.

"I am not a number, I am a free man!" cries The Prisoner.  "I will not be folded, stamped, numbered, indexed, folded, crimpled, stapled or mutilated!"

Indeed, the opening shots of that TV series show his index card being removed from his employer's files ...

Details matter.  In the Rwandan genocide, the state issued identity card had a place for 'race' ... and to have the marking for Tutsi was to join the 800,000 brutally massacred.  Machetes are as efficient as gas chambers, only slower ... speaking of inappropriate technology.

Take out your own government issued ID card and look at it.  Anything on there you might not like?  Or someone else might not like you for?  Some states are beginning to offer, as an option, either ''veteran" or "disabled."  Something to ponder.  Especially as today's option is so easily tomorrow's requirement.

Now reflect on the databases behind the scenes, the modern technologies that make those punch card machines look like beads on strings.

Long, long before we should be amending the Constitution for other reasons, I feel that it is time to get rid of the US Census.  It is too powerful a tool to entrust to anyone.

What do you think?

Appropriate Technology: Really Cheap Hotels

I occasionally have to stay at really cheap hotels.

For the average traveler, this is Motel 6, an Accor chain.  Reliably clean, weak security, won't steal your credit card info, lukewarm water and tiny towels.

Now go lower.  Pay cash.  Get a hard key knowing others may have a copy.  Bed may still be warm.  Likely not changed.

I have a "crash kit" for these situations, all from your dollar store:

• Mattress cover, plastic.
• A knit cap.
• Roll of duct tape.
• Door stops, note plural.
• Padlock with length of chain or cable.
• My own hand towel.
• Quart size "Ziploc" bags.
• Leftover bars of soap, shampoo, utensils from current or prior trips.

What you are paying for is a safe place to sleep in a hostile city.  The mattress cover is for the bed bugs.  Knit cap to stay warm when the heater is broken.  The duct tape is for the hole in the curtain, the peephole in the door, the rip in the screen.  The door stops are to make sure that even with a key, you will be woken up when someone breaks in.  The padlock is so someone can't easily run off with your dump bag of clothes when you are out of the room.  I leave the bags and towel to common sense.  Doing laundry in the sink is something I have also done too many times.

The security threat is overrated.  They want repeat business.  The one time I had hard trouble in such a place, the management refunded me my room night in the morning.  Cheap given that I'd interrupted a robbery.  No paperwork was my favorite part.

Obviously this type of travel is not for fun.  It's for when you're poor or on the job.  But any traveler should have these tricks up their sleeve.  You never know.

Don't sleep on the street in a hostile city.  Just don't.  You will be robbed, as the local bad actors know the game better than you do.  Don't be the New York cop robbed in Las Vegas: lost $500 and a gun he was fond of.

Appropriate Technology: VOIP Softphones

I am just getting into running VOIP clients on Android smartphones.

I have used Serval Mesh in peer to peer applications, but this is a glorified walkie talkie app.

Google Voice Dialer is more powerful with its integration directly to Google Voice.

However, what I now need is a decent SIP client to bring my own phone numbers and use them over Wi-Fi networks.

I will keep experimenting and bring back what I find.

Meanwhile, I can safely say that this is not yet a "this just works" technology.  You can't download it, configure it and just be done ... there are many small pitfalls and finicky settings.  That makes it unreliable for important uses.  

Not that making a phone call could ever be that important.

Appropriate Technology: Seat Belts

Tonight I'm going to briefly wax poetic about the one behavior you can adopt to most reduce your chances of dying horribly.

Got your attention?  Good.

It's simple.  It's easy.  It's also the law.

Wear your seatbelt.

Even if you're only going a short distance.  Even if you're just moving your car.  Even if you're not going out on the public road.

Wear your seatbelt.  Every time.

Make it a habit.

It costs you nothing, only a few seconds.

It could save you everything.

When you hit the steering wheel with your chest, and you are restrained by a seatbelt, and you get badly hurt, it is usually abdominal injuries.  These can be treated promptly and surgically.

Without a seatbelt, at a much lower speed, you hit your head on the inside of the windshield and discover the life altering joys of traumatic brain injury.  Or you can hit the steering wheel with your unrestrained chest and take your pick: flail chest and drown in your own blood, or aortic separation and just plain bleed out internally in less than a minute.

Now that you know the choices, wear your seatbelt.

There are endless reasons for not wearing your seatbelt.  They are all bogus.  I won't list them here, except one.  

There is a myth that you might be trapped in your vehicle by your seatbelt.  If it worries you, get a very sharp folding knife or EMS shears, keep the tool safely in your center console or secured by a lanyard to your seat, get a seat belt out of a junked car and practice cutting one.  Seat belt cutters sold to consumers are mostly junk.

If you are instead ejected from a vehicle, the chances of being zipped into a body bag instead of loaded into an ambulance go up only four hundred percent or so.

It's simple.  But on the statistics, it's the #1 think you can do to improve your odds of dying of something other than a vehicle collision.

Active Murderer Response

If you're reading this, you likely follow me on FB and saw my post stating that I'm not talking about this on FB.

Last night I was teaching a (counter) terrorism course and a student asked, "So, what do you teach about active shooter aka active murderer defense?"

I feel that I've already adequately covered that talking about nuclear weapons.

BE. SOMEWHERE. ELSE.

So I'm going to break this up into 1) places not to be, and 2) how to survive if you are in a place not to be.

This is not an invitation to an argument.  If you are curious about the facts backing all this up, please ask.  If you argue with me, I will smile and ignore you.

PLACES NOT TO BE

• Places of mass assembly.  If the location is crowded enough to have fire regulations and maximum capacity signage, that's a place of mass assembly.  School, church, restaurant, etc.
  
  
• Places it is prohibited by law for licensed ordinary people to carry handguns.  In a 'free' state, this could be prohibitory signage.  Don't eat at California Pizza Kitchen.  In a less free state or country, pay attention!
  
  
• IMPORTANT EXCEPTION: if the place where it is prohibited to carry a handgun is protected instead by an effective on site security plan backed up by rapid police response.  The problem is, how do you know?  If it's your work or school, you ASK.  Otherwise you do some math and some research.

The #1 determining factor in survival rates in an active shooter event is the response time of armed rapid reaction.  I'll say that again another way.  The murderer depends on 'free play' in his macabre game of pop up targets.  When that first bullet of return fire goes past his ear, he is no longer in free play mode, and the free play clock is over.

HOW TO SURVIVE

Run, Hide, Fight.  Run Hide Fight video courtesy Ready Houston

Watch that video.  Then watch it again.

I'm going to add some profanity, because the subject absolutely demands it.

Run. The. Fuck. Away.  You hear gunfire, you go _elsewhere_, unless you have a moral or legal duty to respond and have training in same, and are willing to risk your life.  Take others with you.  Simplify the scene.  

HIDE.  Pissing yourself is optional but understood.  Death walks among you and he will come back and finish off the wounded.  Barricade yourself.  While hiding, work on an escape plan.  Silence your phone.  Call 911, more calls are better than none.  If anyone with you is hurt, STOP THE BLEED with cloth and direct firm pressure - but only if you are barricaded and can't run away.

If you cannot run and you cannot hide, time to die.

I'm sorry, Drew, I don't think I heard that right.

I'll say that again.

If you do not RUN and you do not HIDE, you will DIE.

There is only one question left.

Do you want to die alone or do you want to take a murderer with you and save some lives before you go?

When you have no choices left, you FIGHT.  But you fight like a dead man.  No time for goodbyes, last thoughts, final words.  You are already a casualty of this critical incident, your toe tag and body bag are being brought to the scene.  Valhalla has your ride request in queue and the next available Valkryie is responding.

Even for those of us with a lot of tactical training, this is a bit of a cognitive switch.  To go above the fear and the fury, the grief and the rage, and to make your last moments FUCKING COUNT, that's hard.

You stop when you see the murderer's spilled brains or you see nothing because your blood pressure has fallen to zero.

You're already dead.  Getting shot _hurts_.  But that doesn't mean anything after you're dead.  Keep fighting.

Anything can be a weapon.

A weapon is a device for concentrating energy in space and time.

The human body is shockingly tough but incredibly fragile.

An active murderer has chosen the bat (guns and knives), the ball (the bodies of your friends) and the playing field (someplace you thought was safe).  But what he forgot to bring was any rules.  Help him with this.

Only do these things if you yourself see with your own eyes an atrocious act.  You don't want to hurt a good guy, an off duty (or on duty) cop, or a someone just like you.

• Discharge a fire extinguisher at him.  Then hit him with it, in the head, over and over again until you see brain.  The bottom edge is often sharp.
  
  
• Run him down.  Bicycle, Zamboni, forklift, truck, whatever you have.  CRUNCH.  Then HIT. HIM. AGAIN.  Until you see brain.
  
  
• Topple a vending machine or bookcase on him.  Then kick him in the head until you see brain.
  
  
• One to the chest, two to the head.  You will see brain.
  
  
• Any long object such as a broomstick, pipe, crowbar, two by four.  Hit him .... where?  IN THE HEAD  How many times?  UNTIL YOU SEE BRAIN.

You get the idea.

I can make you only one promise.  You will be remembered.  You will in that moment become a brother or sister in the fraternity of heroes.  We will speak your name with honor and respect.  And you might even live.

Not so much for the active murderers.  I am a big believer in the "Some Asshole Initiative."  Some Asshole Initiative

They may be forgotten, their insane mutterings may be safely ignored except by the handful of professions who sift the midns of monsters, and their 'manifestos' and 'videos' may be mocked and derided.

But if you can instead, and especially if you have things to do in this lifetime yet, please HIDE.  Or better yet, RUN.

And don't be afraid.  Your chances of being on the spot marked X are vanishingly small, even smaller if you avoid danger spots.

Love life.  Reject hate.

Your life is worth defending.

Appropriate Technology: Handwashing

Handwashing is one of those simple, simple technologies that saves thousands of lives every year.

Herewith, a simple guide to washing your hands, depending on what you have available.

The key concept to remember is that it is neither soap nor hot water that cleans your hands of bacteria, but rather the mechanical scrubbing action of your preferred method.

A Sink With Soap & Water

Wet your hands, with water (as hot as you can stand, if available, cold otherwise).  Use soap if available to lather up.  Get not just your palms, but your fingers (and between them), the backs of your hands and up to the wrists.  If you need your hands especially clean, scrape under your fingernails and get the top of each individual nail bed.  ("Little petri dishes" is what one microbiologist friend calls them.)  Scrub briskly but not hard for at least twenty seconds, the 'Happy Birthday' song twice.

"Happy birthday to germs, happy birthday to germs, don't want to take you home _to my family_, happy birthday to germs."  Twice.

Then rinse.  From this point forward, try not to touch anything in the sink area.  Turn off the water with an elbow or a paper towel.  Use an air dryer if available.

Just Water

Pour a little on your hands to wet them.  Then pour a little more water as if the water were soap.  Follow the advice above.  Rinse one last time.  Shake your hands a little to air dry.

Hand Sanitizer

Hand sanitizer is awesome, but it does not take the place of washing your hands.  Hand sanitizer on particles of poop is now scented poop.  Your hands need to be clean first.

Nothing

Think for a minute.  Is there any water around?  How about a piece of cloth?  Or a napkin or paper towel?  You can scrub your hands with any of these without water.  You wipe more, but not as hard.

Really, Nothing

Look for clean sand or soil.  You can scrub your hands with either.  It may sound strange to 'clean' your hands with dirt, but presumably there is a reason you are needing your hands clean, and clean dirt is better than some other things that routinely get on your hands.

This is particularly important before meals, after using the restroom, before working with clean or potable water, before (if possible) and always after first aid, and whenever removing medical-type nitrile or latex gloves.

A few cheap ways of having water around, if you don't have a sink:

• A plastic bottle of water, refilled from tap or from collected rain water.  This can be a small bottle or a big one.  If you plan to use it only for handwashing, mark the bottle somehow to avoid cross contamination.  Cost about $1.
  |
• There is a standard 2.5 gallon water jug sold at stores that has a built in pull-out tap.  There is a little divot in the top intended to make a small vent hole with the point of a knife.  These are not supposed to be refillable, but you can cut a larger flap in the top after the store bought water is used, presumably for drinking, and refill through that.  Cost about $3.
  
  
• A 5 gallon jug with a mechanical pump.  This totals under $20 at WalMart.  This is the best option for a field handwashing station.  Label the jug accordingly if there is any danger someone might drink from it.
  
  
• Of course, there are custom sink systems out there for campers.  A typical RV uses a 12 volt battery to run a pump to provide water on tap that drains to a 'grey water' tank.  You could build such a system with aquarium parts if you really wanted to.

Note: water used for drinking, brushing teeth, and shaving (as this creates micro breaks in the skin) should be potable drinking-quality water.  More about this in future posts.

Water used for handwashing or body washing can be of lesser quality, such as fresh rainwater, tapwater stored without paying attention to quality, or bottled water that has sat in plastic for six months or more, but should not have been exposed to chemicals, 'gray water' or worse.  Note that some field handwashing stations are labled "NON POTABLE WATER, DO NOT DRINK."  These are usually filled with a garden hose and the idea is to avoid cross contamination.

Happy handwashing!

[IN]Appropriate Technology: Nuclear Weapons

I am occasionally reminded that generations who grew up after the 1980s do not appreciate the dangerous situation the planet is in with respect to nuclear arms.

Anything with a yield in kilotons (thousands of tons of explosives) is a horrifically devastating weapon.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki were kiloton weapons in the two digit range.

The line weapons of the major powers have yields measured in megatons (_millions_ of tons) of explosives.

Only the very largest natural phenomena, such as hurricanes and wildfires, rival a single detonation of these weapons.  The effects of setting off hundreds of them are too horrific to be easily imagined or explained, and call into question the survival of humanity on this planet.

The only defense is to run away.  (I will spare you a discussion of ABM, MAD, etc.  The acronyms of nuclear war are hopefully a demented wargamer's fantasy.  But there are hundreds of military officers in each of the major nations for whom this is their day job, their bread and butter.)

I don't agree with our friends at the International Red Cross that these weapons should be banned.  Mostly because bans don't work.

But I hope they are never, ever used again in anger against human beings.

YouTube: "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath

Appropriate Technology - Knit Hats & Space Blankets

One axiom in survival is that you can live without air for 3 minutes, without heat for 3 hours, without water for 3 days, without food for 3 weeks, etc...

This brief post is about staying warm with simple supplies.

You lose 40% of your heat out of your head.  An inexpensive knit cap keeps this heat where it belongs.

Mylar metallicized plastic blankets, aka 'Space Blankets' can be purchased for between $0.75 and $4 in many places, but especially Daiso, REI, WalMart and Target.  Wrapped around your body (and head!) they can keep you warm and dry.

In whatever Go Bag or kit you have, take a moment and add a space blanket and a knit cap while you are thinking about it.

Future you, bitterly cold, will thank you.  And it might just save your life.

Rant: Futuristic Criminology

About two decades ago, I was studying criminology.  In between mind numbing memorizations of theories of crime and society, brutally scientific study of both qualitative methodology and complex adaptive systems theory, and the academic grunt work expected of apprentices in a rigged system, I had time to do some thinking.

I see that the last of my predictions came true today.  The local rag, the Murky, reported that local police are starting to use predictive software to target patrols and other police activity.

Herewith, the list, from _1995_:

• Cameras required on both police vehicles and on the bodies of police officers.  
  
  
• Gunfire detection systems using acoustics in both fixed mounts and on police vehicles.
  
  
• The use of software to allocate police activity to avoid accusations of discrimination.
  
  
• The increasing militarization of police resulting in the widespread, routine adoption of military weapons and tactics including select fire weapons and excessive use of force against suspects.
  
  
• The routine electronic fingerprinting of all suspects.  The gathering of DNA from all felony suspects.
  
  
• Police aircraft equipped with weapons systems for stopping suspect vehicles.

If I stretch a point (the Coast Guard being part of DHS and thus a police agency), all six have come true in spades.

You get no points for being right too soon.  There is bittersweet satisfaction in knowing that my C- paper is a retroactive A.

But I have to live in the society thus made.  And, so do you.  Enjoy.

Appropriate Technology - POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)

I grew up in the 1980s.

I remember when I saw my first mobile phone.  It was the size of a large purse, weighed several pounds, had a battery pack itself the size of a modern tablet, and large light up keys.  It cost over two thousand dollars and service was priced per minute.

When I first had 24/7 management responsbilities, I used a numeric pager.  Later I forwarded E-mail to an alphanumeric pager.  I had my flirtations with the first generation Blackberry and with Pacific Bell Mobile, the first PCS cell phones.

But there is one telecommunications technology that predates them all, and is still very valuable today.

POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service.  Copper line.  

Advantages:

- works without power

- easy to troubleshoot

- transmits your physical address correctly when you call 911

- only service that guarantees Reverse 911 functionality, i.e. you don't have to sign up to get Reverse 911 calls, you just get them

- less likely to overload during major events or disasters

- ease of use for those born before 1990

Disadvantages:

- no messaging

- caller ID requires a powered phone and/or a separate device

- "STAR codes" are needed to either allow caller ID to go out *82 or block them *67

- relatively expensive compared to VOIP or mobile phones

- billing information is tied to physical address of installation

One esoteric detail of POTS is what we call the REN, or Ring Equivalence Number.  The wired phones draw power from the line itself, which can cause quality issues if you have too many phones plugged in.

I like cordless phones.  But they rely on power.

If you still have a POTS line, make sure you have an ordinary wired phone plugged in, and test it every once in a while.

If you don't have a POTS line, and have decided to have VOIP or 'Internet Phone' instead, do your homework on how this interacts with 911, Reverse 911 (which you must now sign up for!) and how it works if you or your Internet provider lose power.

Sometimes Appropriate Technology is about what is simple and works.  POTS met this definition in the 1980s and still does today.

Appropriate Technology: The Dollar Store

My first paid job ever was in a discount retail store, a so called 'five and dime' where the five was a nickel.

Prices have gone up, and these stores are now called 'dollar stores.' Except for local variations such as Daiso (the $1.50 Japanese themed stores in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California), they price most items at $1 each. These include Dollar Tree and the $0.99 Cent Store, "open 9 days a week." [neat trick]

How is this an Appropriate Technology post? Because the mechanism by which these stores operate is itself a fascinating piece of tech, and understanding it can save many, many dollars.

Everything at the dollar store varies in actual price. That sounds strange when everything costs a dollar, but it is quite true. The difference is the _quantity_ not the numerics.

I comparison price shop constantly. This is a skill that should be taught as part of basic financial literacy in elementary school. Not high school. Elementary school. Because kids who know how to buy good food cheap get better nutrition, and all too many kids have to shop for their families.

Your local grocery store may have a pack of 100 tea bags for $3.99 when the big box store (Walget or Talmart, you figure it out) has the same product for $2.99. The dollar store has 20 tea bags for $1.

Price per each, the grocery store charges $0.04 per individual tea bag. The big box store charges $0.03 (and that 25% savings can add up.) The dollar store charges $0.05 and is actually the most expensive option of the bunch!

Unless you only need 20 tea bags. The ability to buy smaller quantities, titrated to what you need, is where the dollar store shines.

Note: an outlet store may sell you a thousand tea bags for $12.99 which sounds great. Break it down per each, and you are paying only $0.013 per bag. But will you drink a thousand cups of tea before the package goes bad, and do you have that much storage?

Unless you are deliberately stockpiling, or anticipate a major change in prices (always up), it is more efficient to buy what you need when you need it. This is especially true when it has an expiration date.

More about expiration dates soon. And also what retailers call "velocity."

Rant: Mountains, Bad Drivers and Ugly Weather

I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains. "We don't drive on the left side of the road, we drive on what is left of the road."

It turns out that when you insist on installing a road net in earthquake country on the sides of steep hills prone to mudslides and collapses, then string that road net liberally with power and comm lines, with trees all over the place ... there tend to be problems. Who knew?

Now add the infamous California driver. This timid but aggressive beast believes he is an above average driver, has no idea where the true limits of their vehicle can be found, and cheerfully multitasks while drive the speed limit on a wet road in heavy rain. Add obliviousness to concepts such as hydroplaning, friction, rockfall and "a safe and prudent speed for the conditions." Now add being totally lost.

Fortunately, the Santa Cruz mountain resident is often equipped with a wide variety of tools to face this challenge.

• community groups on Nextdoor and FaceBook with up to the minute road information, some of the latter secret
  
• the numbers for CalTrans Road Conditions, County Roads, local CHP offices and one's elected public officials
  
• a modest supply of basic mountain emergency equipment, such as a chainsaw, tow chains, shovels and rakes
  
• a ready list of excuses to use with work for being late
  
• a cellphone with camera to use as a dashcam and/or documentary proof of why one couldn't get down the hill, or had to drive alternate routes
  
• traffic and emergency information apps such as Cruz511, CalTrans, Citizen Connect and PulsePoint
  
• navigation apps such as Google Maps and Waze
  
• last but not least, emergency caffeine, because the nearest Starbucks is not on the nearest corner
  

We're not road warriors. We're road barbarians.

Locals will get the multiple jokes embedded in this picture. "Valley go home."

Captain Marvel: A Spoiler Free Review

By special arrangement I have seen the latest chapter in the Marvel saga, Captain Marvel.

This review is spoiler free.

I find this a worthy addition to the series, neither the worst nor the best. The themes of empowerment are a little heavy handed, but it is the right time in the cultural zeitgeist to make these points.

The massive support for the movie by a certain government's military is blindingly obvious even well before the end credits.

Of course, one must take care to respect the kitty. Nick Furry fans will rejoice. (sic? or was that hic?)

Obviously stay for both cut scenes, as this is a Marvel movie.

There is a touch at the very beginning that die hard fans will greatly appreciate.

Keep those membership cards, folks, you never know when you might need to rent a video.

What is it with Marvel and security guards, anyway?

I thought the heel face turns were blindingly obvious from the previews. I was only partly correct.

Go with an open mind and enjoy.

Appropriate Technology: The Lowly Reusable Water Bottle (and Daiso)

Tonight's Appropriate Technology post is brought to you by the lowly water bottle.

I'm going to make two assumptions before we start: 1) your dependence on the Card survival option is not such that you just go around buying fresh disposable water bottles wherever you go, and 2) you're in an urban area, as getting water in rural settings (i.e. not from a municipal water system) is a whole different ballgame.

The recyclable plastic water bottle can be reused for a day or two, but is a pain to clean even with the right equipment, can absorb odors and should probably be discarded everyday or two.

A reusable water bottle can be reused indefinitely if cleaned properly. I personally find that scrubbing once a day and washing with soap and hot water once a week is more than adequate. Your mileage will vary. Your choice of materials will vary: various plastics, metal, glass, etc. (So an option if you need to be cheap is a glass bottle with a reusable lid, such as an iced coffee bottle.)

The chain stores will cheerfully sell you a water bottle for prices ranging from larcenous to outright obscene. But you can do better. Your town has a secondhand store, a thrift shop or a dollar store ... and any of these can provide a water bottle with any desired characteristics. You will want to wash your bottle in any case, from any source.

I will mention Daiso for those who are on the West Coast, but especially the San Francisco Bay Area. Daiso is a Japanese dollar store carrying Chinese products made and labeled for the Japanese market, at the standard cost of $1.50 each. Of course this includes water bottles. Daiso carries a very wide array of cleaning brushes for any bottle you care to name, and tiny brushes specifically for cleaning reusable straws.

I have found for myself that the lowly baby bottle brush is the best deal for cleaning water bottles at an American dollar store.

Either can sell you detergent if you need it.

The last step is to get frequent access to a tap to get drinking water, and less frequent access to a sink to wash your bottle.

The world is now full of soda machines. One variant of soda machine is a standing upright console with a touch screen that offers over a hundred different Coca Cola(TM) products. And also Water, labeled as such.

On more conventional soda machines, there is a small white lever, sometimes labeled sometimes not, that dispenses water. (Once in a while, there are two white levers. The other one dispenses unflavored soda water.)

I encourage caution when using restroom sinks to wash and fill bottles. This is a common cause of cross contamination, unfortunately with fecal matter. Wash the faucet and the handles, wash your hands, wash the brush, wash the bottle with hot water, rinse the bottle with cold, wash the brush and put it away. Wash your hands again. Then if you can, find somewhere else to fill the bottle. If you can't, do what you need to do. If you pay attention to where you put your hands and bottle and brush, it's perfectly safe.

The corporate world is full of break rooms, where sinks and water filters and water dispensers and microwaves abound. If you have a cold water tap, a microwave, and a microwave safe container such as a ceramic mug or small microwave safe plastic bowl or cup, you have hot water shortly.

The lowly gas station and convenience store often have a small hand sink in the customer area. Be discreet and buy something, but that's an option in an unfamiliar area.

Santa Clara County, in a rare rush of brains to the head, is encouraging the public installation of not just drinking fountains but water bottle fillers. These hybrid machines are most commonly found in gyms, but in Santa Clara County are becoming standard in public buildings such as government offices and libraries, but can also be found in many public parks.

There is a next to last resort: to buy water from a vending machine. Note that they sell water in 1 gallon increments, sometimes for coins, sometimes for dollar bills, and occasionally in a grocery store with any payment method the register accepts. I'd suggest buying a disposable 1 gallon water bottle and refilling that as needed, for less than a week or so.

I won't get into survival situations, except to point out that recycled water (usually labeled as such), water that has sat in garden hoses, and such should not be trusted for drinking. Also, the use of needlenose pliers or a faucet wrench to open a locked water hydrant can be considered theft, and is properly considered as a survival strategy when the choice is between that and literal dehydration.

I hope these tips and tricks are useful. Do you have any you'd like to share?

Appropriate Technology - Go Bags, EDC & Cards

Appropriate Technology - Go Bags, EDC & Cards

Definitions first. A "go bag" is something you carry that contains what you need to survive. EDC is an acronym for Every Day Carry, or what people carry on their person or in their pockets to get through daily life. Card: one of the most used, and least thought about, possessions of modern life is the lowly card, whether credit or debit. Until you misplace one.

All three are solutions to one of life's most basic problems - how do you keep yourself warm, dry, watered, fed and in reasonable health while going where you need to go and what you need to do.

The Go Bag is this concept to an extreme, carry all the stuff you need because you might need it suddenly. A money card is the exact opposite: the world is full of waterproof ponchos, toothbrushes, bottles of water and tasty meals, you just have to find a pile of them next to a cash register and help yourself. Every Day Carry is somewhere in the middle ... those things you choose to carry with you, useful enough to not be disposable.

All three strategies have their merits. The goal here is to start thinking about what you carry, what skills you have, what ability you have to access goods and services, etc.

Note that I haven't talked (yet) about disasters, natural or otherwise. That changes things. If you can't find anyone to take your card or cash, that's not a good approach. If desperate people help themselves to your Go Bag, or a mugger relieves you of the contents of your pockets, that $40 you tucked in a sock might get you out of a jam.

I've used all three approaches, in my home town and on the other side of the country.

My suggestion is merely that people think more about not merely what they put in their Go Bags, carry in their pockets, or are ready to buy with their credit cards from the gas station -- but also think about being ready to shift strategies if your card is stolen, you leave your jacket at the restaurant, or your Go Bag suffers sudden integrity failure and dumps its contents on a busy sidewalk.

Flexibility trumps preparedness sometimes.

Appropriate Technology - Appropriate Technology

Someone asked me, "Hey, I saw your post on Appropriate Technology. What's Appropriate Technology?"

Good question, glad you asked.

Sometimes I forget that I know things that not everyone knows. Appropriate technology is one of those things.

Let's break this down. Yes, I am a big believer in the dictionary. That rant will be in a minute.

"Appropriate," especially suitable or compatible.

"Technology," a capability given by the practical application of knowledge.

Appropriate Technology is using the right tool for the right situation in the right way.

There is an engineer's joke:

- Measure With Calipers (a very precise measuring tool)
- Mark With Chalk (a less precise marking device)
- Cut With An Axe (a much less precise cutting tool)

This is the opposite of appropriate.

In particular, in Social Ecology, the idea of Appropriate Technology is using exactly that technology suitable for the purpose, no more and no less.

In the early history of spaceflight, astronauts and cosmonauts needed to use some sort of tool to make marks in space. An ordinary pen simply wouldn't work.

NASA commissioned a pressurized ink cartridge pen that would flow smoothly in any conditions, including microgravity, and these 'Fisher Space Pens' made their inventor a small fortune.

Russia used pencils. But the small bits of graphite that break off when you use a pencil collect in microgravity, and can get into electronic circuits - and in a worst case, start a fire, which on a spacecraft is generally not survivable.

Both are examples of Appropriate Technology.

First it has to work. If it doesn't work, it's not appropriate.

Then it has to be elegant. In engineering terms, something elegant is simple, efficient and beautiful. Think of a stainless steel sink.

The opposite of elegance is - despite their advertising - anything to do with an internal combustion engine automobile, especially one of German manufacture.

The car is a great example of a Rube Goldberg gadget in which flaws are disguised by systems to address those flaws, and then systems on top of systems, creating a level of nightmarish complexity around which entire industries necessarily revolve. (There may be a panel about this at Baycon...)

The one saving grace of a car is that it works, that it gets you from point A to point B.

Recently a Tesla electric car collided with a Lime electric scooter. The comment in our local rag, the Murky, was "The most Silicon Valley thing ever!"

Both are examples of Appropriate Technology. An electric car is very simple. (The batteries are not... and therein lies a tale, but not right now.) An electric scooter is even more simple - if the rider wears a helmet.

So when I post about Appropriate Technology, I will post about a way of solving a problem that I think is particularly suitable.

Ecology matters too. Why wash your clothes with a bucket when there are washers in the world?

A clothes washer needs to be supplied with power and hot water. The hot water needs to be supplied by a water heater. These systems spiral up in complexity and scalability. A gas 'flash' hot water heater is a simple gadget, but the production and distribution system to bring propane to your home is impressively monstrous, and the underground pipeline system that brings 'natural gas' (what a marketing triumph to call it that) even more so. Just ask anyone who had to file an insurance claim for a cooked home in San Bruno.

The computer I type this on is itself a marvel of the modern world. Made overseas, shipped to America, parts sourced from all of the world, ultimately to be shipped back overseas and torn apart by scrappers for its little bits of gold and add a little toxicity to China. Plugged into a network of fearsome complexity, hosted on servers that ravenously turn power into waste heat (and require more power for AC cooling) ... you get the idea.

Perhaps I should be writing this blog with a Fisher Space Pen. Or even a pencil.

But then, who would read it? And that would fail the first test. It has to work to be appropriate.

Rant: Techies, Free Work & Boundaries

Every now and then, I will indulge myself and my readers with a RANT.

Our friends at Webster define a "rant" as:

1 : to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
2 : to scold vehemently

Ranting may include profanity.

Here's my rant about technology people who don't know boundaries.

I use technology and I've studied formally the sociology of technology. I've done tech support. I occasionally get to apply XKCD's infamous approach to technology problem solving, the Tech Support Cheat Sheet.

But I've never had the delusion that all the technology in the world is mine.

I am very reluctant to allow other people to work on my tech stuff, at a level that approaches paranoia.

Because they break it.

Example 1: when I was away at college, I configured an old computer to serve as a E-mail tool for my not-at-all computer literate mother to communicate with me. We painstakingly walked her through how to use Eudora Lite, and she got pretty good with it.

A guy named Max, a friend of my mother's and self proclaimed amateur radio expert, nuked and paved the hard drive to install his own 'free' software from a company called Juno, because this was a 'better' E-mail tool. In his opinion. Never mind the E-mails that had already been sent and received; they had no value to him and were lost.

I couldn't get home for two months to fix it. Meanwhile, my mother had completely lost interest in computers.

She never sent another E-mail again.

The computer had no further value to me. I had set it up for the purpose of being able to E-mail back and forth with my mom.

Max still acted like he'd done me a favor for over a year. He even suggested at one point that I should pay him for his work. It took me telling him to go fuck himself, in front of witnesses, for him to understand that he and I were not on speaking terms.

When my mother passed, he was not invited to her funeral. I'm told that only then did he realize exactly how badly I felt that he'd fucked up. I didn't speak to him again, so I have to take their word for it.

That was when I started using passwords religiously even on computers that never left my control. Just in case.

That was also when I totally lost interest in amateur radio. If Max liked it, it must be shit, and that was good enough for me. It would be another twenty years before I went back to amateur radio.

Example 2: when I was helping a friend with a difficult situation, it proved to be convenient to live for a couple of months in her rented house while she fought to regain control of the two houses she owned. (She won one, she lost one, but it's amazing how quickly people stop harassing an elderly woman when her not-elderly friend answers the door with a handgun.)

I took advantage of the extra space to sort through and prune through some of the tech I owned. One of these pieces of tech was an ancient Dell desktop that had been configured with a Windows 2000 installation.

Another friend was staying with me. I will not name him because I'd like to stay friends. But while I was working two jobs, he discovered a need to use the Dell desktop for Web surfing.

So he installed not only Linux but a whole hard drive encryption program on the desktop.

I recently got out this desktop to set it up.

Password? ...

After a couple hours, I called him. He gave me a password. It didn't work.

"Just use a USB key to reformat the drive," he suggested.

The me of twenty years ago would have told him where to stick the key and in what orientation.

Instead, I asked him to walk me through how to put Windows 2000 back on the desktop.

He started working the problem. "OK, you need to download a CD, you need a key, you need a USB boot key, you need a boot loader ..."

"How long is this going to take?"

"Several hours ... probably not worth it, you should recycle the desktop and start over with another device."

"..."

That's when he got it. He had taken a working piece of equipment and made it into a doorstop. It now has a sticky note on it, "XXXX broke me." I plan to give it to him when I see him next.

I have many other examples, pretty much at a one for one of "Did I allow X to touch my tech gear?" "Shit."

A friend of mine tells a story about a bear and a hunter.

"You're not here for the hunting, are you?" the bear asks at the end.

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is one definition of insanity.

So I have to take some of the blame myself.

Tech support for free is worth rather less than what you paid for it.

Appropriate Technology: Bucket Laundry

Appropriate Technology: Bucket Laundry On one of the many off the grid groups I follow, there is a hot discussion of a spinning clothes washing gadget. It's basically an egg on a swivel mount with a closing lid and a hand crank. You put your 2-3 pounds of laundry into the egg, add a little detergent and some water, and spin. All this for the low low price of ... [redacted] Gadgets have their uses. Personally, I would rather buy time on someone else's washer and dryer. Coin operated laundries are right up there with sliced bread, cell phones and lubricant. (Kindly not in combination, please, although I have seen 'cell phone sandwiches' trying to get through a security checkpoint.) The even cheaper alternative is the lowly five gallon bucket. If you are so dirt poor that even $3 at Walmart or a $2 donation to your nearest Firehouse Subs is out of the question, a kitty litter bucket can often be found in apartment complex dumpsters. Make sure you get lids. At WalMart or your local dollar store, obtain a clean toilet plunger that has never been used, an important detail. Cut a hole in a lid just smaller than the diameter of the plunger handle. You now have a laundry bucket with built in agitator. Another alternative is to get a Gamma Seal type screw-on lid, typically under $10 at a big box hardware store such as Home Depot and _Low Es_teem (which I avoid shopping at after they crashed and burned Orchard Supply Hardware). These lids make any bucket into a air tight, water tight, almost rodent proof (*) enclosure. Either way, put your clothes _loosely_ into the bucket with warm or cold water and a little detergent. Either plunge the handle or put the sealed bucket in a vehicle. Two words about detergent: 1) Use very little, about one third what you would use on a small load of clothes, if not less. Be wary of the new concentrated detergents. 2) If you plan to pour it out anywhere but down a drain leading to a sewer or septic system, please choose a biodegradable detergent. I am fond of Dr. Bronner's myself. I leave rinsing (add more water) and drying (clothespins and line) to the reader.

Appropriate Technology - A Weather Map That Updates To Your Android Phone

I have a bit of an unusual background. I spent some of my formative years on a small boat. Think Gilligan's Island with a less competent captain and crew.

Along the way, I learned a lot of weird skills. I can tie up a boat, fight a shipboard fire, launch flares, inflate a Zodiac and a lifeboat, use a VHF radiotelephone, etc.

But what I really learned is the power of the weather. On a small boat, waves bigger than your boat is scary. Fish bigger than you are scarier even when they don't have vertical fins. (Cue "Baby Shark" thirty years too early.)

Now that I live in actual rain forest, when it is not flaming, I found a need to stop having the weather interpreted for me by the well meaning local AM radio station, weather.com, various weather services, or even our friends at the National Weather Service.

I wanted actual weather radar images I could interpret myself.

But I didn't want to have to click on links every time. I wanted the image files _right there_

Fortunately, your taxpayer dollars pay for these radar images, and they are at static URLs.

Now I needed a tool that could put them on my Android phone. I found one, showr. The paid version is long gone, but the freeware version still has a valid apk floating around.

https://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/wfo/mtr/ft.jpg

https://radar.weather.gov/lite/N0R/MUX_loop.gif

If you live in or near the USA and you want to borrow this trick, go through these sites for the images most appropriate to your area.

Other weather tools are legion. There is one that sends text messages to satellite communicators. There are many others that allow you to collect weather data at home. Sensors abound in the San Francisco Bay Area. Example: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCALOSGA226

This particular tool is invaluable to me, because the images are downloaded to my phone and stay available even when I am out of coverage range.

Technology is awesome. Unless the Pakistani and the Indians choose to throw some at each other. Then I get to write an article on trans-Pacific fallout and the weather becomes deadlier than ever.