Blackberry REACT October NewsletterPhil Stripling, Editor
Quick ClicksOutdoor Retailer reviewOutdoor Retailer is a convention for, uh, retailers of outdoor gear. Equipped to Survive has a review of several of the items, including a personal tracker sold by Globalstar satellite phone company, water purifiers and filters, crank-to-power keychain flashlights, LED lights, survival kits, tools, and much more. Since my estimation of survival after a big earthquake in the Bay Area is that it will be similar to New Orleans after Katrina but with no opportunity for pre-event evacuation, my concerns are for water and long-term cooking, two of the issues addressed in the page linked to above. I assume we'll have plenty of water flowing by in streams, but that it will not be safe to drink without some treatment. Osmosis kit to treat saltwaterEven if we don't have fresh water, we'll have lots of seawater near at hand. This company provides an osmosis kit to remove salt from seawater, making what they refer to as a 'life-saving drink.' It's not pure water, as the osmosis process requires chemicals in the reservoir to drive the osmosis, resulting in a liquid that is similar to a sports drink with sugars and electrolytes. The kit is expensive, limited in uses, and slow. The big draw, according to the maker, is that it requires no effort on the part of the user. Just put the syrup in the drinking side, saltwater in the other side, and wait for hours. Grab-and-go bagsLifeHacker asked people to post photos of their go-bags; this is the link to the second request; you can find the first series of photos from this link. Most people do actually carry bags, but there are some go-pants; and go-vests: (one vest includes M-16 magazines, the other has make-up - necessities vary, it seems). Amazon has an emergency-preparedness sectionwhere you can sign in to customize for your specific needs or just browse for ideas. Items include furniture straps for earthquakes, generators, water filtration, flashlights, and the inevitable more. Emergency strobesLouise and I were at Burning Man over the Labor Day week, and we had several dust storms blow through. One year we had a dust storm which reduced visibility to four feet during the day. This means you can see the ground when you're standing on it. This year's storms were never that bad, but visibility was very reduced. We walked home at night during a storm, looking for our amber flashing light on top of a 16- foot painters pole, and we couldn't find it. Eventually we stumbled across our camp, and I stood directly below the pole, looking up - no visible light. Dang! I thought. What a time for the battery to poop out. The next day I took the light down to change the battery, and it was still flashing. We just couldn't see it during the dust storm. (A quick video of a mild dust up. You may notice people driving by, riding bikes, and sitting in our camp having a chat - nothing stops Burning Man. Similarly, nothing will stop life after a disaster - being prepared makes that life a little more bearable.) After seeing the dust that resulted after the collapse of the buildings at the World Trade Center, I expect lots of dust in the debris after a major earthquake. I also expect fire, with lots of ashes. Any strong winds in the Bay Area will pick the dust up, and we live downwind of downtown San Mateo. I expect to have no street lights at night, and the word from New Orleans is that looters and gangs removed street signs to hamper cops from responding to crimes in progress. A nice strobe might help us find our way back home in the debris, assuming we still have a home or other shelter. The following sites sell strobes (you may have to scroll around to get to them) which run on batteries:
Better than duct tape?3M sells VHB tapes, which I've read are extremely strong and will fix materials of different materials together: wood, metal, plastic, and glass, for example. I haven't had a chance to get some and try it, but my understanding is that after you have taped two things together, the result should be considered permanent. Tactical Radio CarrierTac-Comm has a $60 slotted box to carry your radio. Well, it's not actually a box. It has a slotted bottom and two sides, no front, no back. You bolt or strap your radio in the box, which has two rubber feet. If you have two or three radios, put each in a TRC-1, and the rubber feet nest in the top sides of the radio below, so you have a stack. Each carrier has a flip-down bail so your radio slants up and you can read the LCD and operate the controls. Each TRC-1 has a bottom that is 10.5 inches deep and 7.5 inches wide. The sides extend from 2.6 inches to 4.8 inches high. The carriers provide no protection from dirt and damp, but do provide a handy way to stack radios and move them around. You can also use the carriers for SLABs, power supplies, and other gear that fits within the dimensions. The Web site has lots of photos, templates of the unit, and a FAQ. Charging box with power switchesThis guy saw an earlier how-to on making a box to hold all your individual rechargers without the rat's nest of cables, and he decided he needed one where he could turn on individual chargers and not waste electricity. He uses an Ikea (or is it iKea?) box, but of course any box will do. Comments suggest using LEDs to show the state of each switch (I'd think you could see the state of each switch by looking at it, but these guys are geeks), smart switches so that an occupied cradle turns itself on, and so on. The drawback is that it only holds four. :-) 90-second charge for screwdriverThis rechargeable screwdriver uses a capacitor (like most external camera flashes) instead of batteries, and it charges from zero to full in 90 seconds, according to Coleman. The Specs page refers to a battery, but the article on Popular Mechanics says it doesn't use a battery, it uses a capacitor. Popular Mechanics says a comparable lithium battery powered driver lasts for 37 screws, while the Coleman lasts for only 22. However, the recharge time for the battery-powered tool is hours. Got any 5.4V radios you want a quick recharge time on? If you have two power units, you may be able to stay on the air indefinitely with one unit charging for 90 seconds while you're on the air with the other. Assuming you have power. Duracell Mobile ChargerDuracell announced on October 3 (am I current or what?) a mobile charger for its batteries. The charger plugs into a wall or into your car's cigar lighter. The unit has a USB socket and will power an iPod or similar device while plugged in and charging batteries. But the neat trick is, if you have fresh batteries in the charging unit and plug a USB device in, the device will receive power from the batteries even if the charger is not plugged in to external power - so you can recharge your cell phone, iPod, or similar device having a USB plug. Projected manufacturer's price is $25. The unit is so new it's not yet listed on the Duracell website. Events
UpdatesJon and Howard continue to crank out grant requests. The latest is by Howard for $15,000 from General Mills. |