Saturday, June 19, 2021

Juneteenth - Cake?

›
Juneteenth So, Drew, what do you want to say about Juneteenth? In the 1860s we had a little discussion about slavery in America. The disc...
Friday, July 10, 2020

Rethinking Cities - A Brainstorming Session

›
Rethinking Cities - A Brainstorming Session If we were doing science fiction conventions this year, this would be a panel idea. We're...
Sunday, April 5, 2020

Deck Chairs, Titanic

›
This is not going to be a numbers post.  Nor is this going to be a statistics post.  This is however going to be a science post, of the hard...
Thursday, December 19, 2019

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 instab...
Thursday, October 10, 2019

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 in...
Wednesday, May 15, 2019

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...
1 comment:
Sunday, April 7, 2019

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 blo...
Thursday, April 4, 2019

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...
Tuesday, April 2, 2019

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 s...
Monday, April 1, 2019

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....
Friday, March 29, 2019

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 ma...

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 co...
Sunday, March 24, 2019

[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...
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

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 securit...

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 glor...
Saturday, March 16, 2019

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 at...
Friday, March 15, 2019

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 t...
Wednesday, March 13, 2019

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 h...
Tuesday, March 12, 2019

[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 resp...
Monday, March 11, 2019

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...
Sunday, March 10, 2019

Rant: Futuristic Criminology

›
About two decades ago, I was studying criminology.  In between mind numbing memorizations of theories of crime and society, brutally scienti...

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 batter...
1 comment:
Friday, March 8, 2019

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...
Thursday, March 7, 2019

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 ...
Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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 wo...