No Halloween show. What a bummer!

So, I’m glad that the Stirling can be feasible… Now the question is, could I design one and make my own solar tracking system…… Great show, and your kick in the butt to the guy with Diabetes was kind of a kick in mine… Thanks Jack.

Yeah but I’m the guy hiring these next gen’ers and they are so stupid. Without Tech they are helpless. They often have no idea how to solve problems face to face because there whole lives are online.

Resisting government for a guy like me in his upper 30’s isn’t that hard. In my community I research the laws and then stuff them in the face of the building department, police, my neighbors, and thus far anyone else that has tried to stop me from operating within the confines of the current laws. Before I do any thing I find the law and presidence and sometimes in the case of renewable energy projects or agriculture or live stock projects will present legal rulings and university research and if needed kindly remind the AHJ that I don’t mind tieing up the legal system and making them spend a bunch of money because it’s already been demonstrated that the state or federal ruling is likely to be on my side.

A zoning official said to me “… looks like you had this well planned out! I guess it’s good to have the state on your side. You won’t hear from us again.”

In one incident I was even able to convince the police to relocate his vehicle away from my house and park a block away and walk back to my house to talk to me.
When he pulled up in front of my house I noticed he had a license plate scanner on his trunk and asked him if he was here looking for a stolen car. When he said no I told him I had just read a report from the ACLU about license plate scanner data being used to track the movement of American Citizens and create data profiles and that since they where not here in search of a stolen vehicle it was a violation of my personal privacy and an infringement on my liberties to use this device in front of my home. Would you please pull down the street and then I’ll ne more than happy to speak with you. To my surprise he got in his car and drove down the street.

To this day they will not stop their cars directly in front of my house. I have an asshole neighbor that calls the police on me all the time about laws I HAVE NOT broken. The police have to respond but every other branch of enforcement won’t take this assholes calls anymore. Poor Police get sent to a sentinels house!!!!(or maybe I’m just a DICK)

Jack mentioned the standard Levis jacket as a good option for CCW today. Another would be the classic Carhartt Detroit Jacket with an internal breast pocket. Warm and relatively inexpensive.

Rather than trying to use a sterling engine (which is just an external combustion engine) you could use one of the little thermoelectric generators. These, at least in a small size, are easily bought online and are starting to be seen in many little gadgety products, Basically there is a union of 2 the right dissimiliar metals, then get one side hot, the other cold and you get an electric current, kind of like a solar electric panel in the sun. Doubt it would be real cost effect for a large scale project, but lots of fun and inexpensive to experiment with for smaller stuff (This effect is used for little electric coolers that you plug into your cigarette lighter in the car, working the other way, apply current and get a temp difference…; the fans you sit on top of your wood stove that make a current based on stove top temp vs air temp; the fancy little biolite rocket stove that rechargers your cell phone while cooking your food…)

Regarding the pensions, lets just look at Detroit. Last I read 16 cents on the dollar, and we both know in 20 years we’re going to see ALOT of Detroits.

Regarding diabetes; Knowledge Weighs Nothing happened to post this on Facebook today. “Disaster preparedness for Diabetics.” It is a link to a series of articles by Dr Bones. Among other things he gives a list of vitamins, minerals and herbals to stockpile. If insulin dependent also consider stockpiling Metformin. http://knowledgeweighsnothing.com/disaster-preparedness-for-diabetics-2/

Whew! For a minute I thought that Jack had missed something, but at the last minute he said that the gent with diabetes should figure on two scenes, one with and one without meds. MUUUUCH better!

As for the diabetic, if it hits the fan in the winter time his insulin should stay fresh. So, if he stockpiles some, then it should be good all winter long, at the end of which he might have gotten something worked out. It is true that a skinny person needs less insulin than a heavy one, so he might be able to decrease his need for insulin, but there is a limit as to how skinny a person can get and still function.

If the gent looses refridgeration in the spring or Fall, he might be able to keep the insulin by putting it in a jog wrapped in wet cloth, and setting it in a hole to take advantage of the insulating properties of the soil. Farm workers used to keep their jugs of water cool that way. Depending on the temperatures that might not be enough, but then again it might.

I will probably always be able to get my own meds, but possibly not. Without meds I would be in bad shape. I know of a couple of spices that help a little, but I carry no illusions that that will be enough.

On the one hand, I assume that I can get the meds, which will mean that my family will help me garden because I cannot do a larger garden alone. After one season of working with me, and of helping me in the kitchen, my family should know enough to be less dependent on me. This would be ideal. I can do some but not all of it.

If I cannot get my meds, then I have written down a few important recipes and I have told my family where they are. I do not for a minute think that they remember that, but it will probably not come to that. Recipes like tortillas and spaghetti sauce are, at any rate, good to have even if you are broke. So it is a thing worth doing, regardless.

Personally, if I lose access to my meds then I will volunteer for a trial for new meds, as I would have nothing to lose. Spices are not enough. For me, civilization does not have to end to get me into trouble, if I lose my insurance I have a big problem. I have multiple sclerosis and my meds cost a couple of thousand a month, and while the company will assist some people with no insurance there is no guarantee that I will be one of them.

No matter. It is a problem I either will or will not have to deal with. I have figured it out both ways.

I just saw this video of a guy who built a sun-tracking 3-d printer that prints by melting sand using sunlight through a fresnell lense…. seems cool, and maybe a good example of how sun tracking can be accurate enough? It made me think back to this episode of the podcast.
https://vimeo.com/25401444