notes-survivalism

Misc short-term tech knowledge

In ancient Mesopotamia, "physicians and scribes were kidnapped and forced to serve as highly specialised slaves". So if you have expertise you may want to hide the fact. -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2590879/Your-best-bet-apocalypse-golf-buggy-THE-KNOWLEDGE-HOW-TO-REBUILD-OUR-WORLD-FROM-SCRATCH-BY-LEWIS-DARTNELL.html

Golf carts are useful b/c "the batteries of golf carts last for ages and can be repeatedly drained and re-charged without any problem. " -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2590879/Your-best-bet-apocalypse-golf-buggy-THE-KNOWLEDGE-HOW-TO-REBUILD-OUR-WORLD-FROM-SCRATCH-BY-LEWIS-DARTNELL.html

Some technological knowledge to be passed down

“If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.” -- Richard Feynman

"germ theory — the notion that contagious diseases are not caused by whimsical gods but by invisibly small organisms invading your body. Drinking water can be disinfected with diluted household bleach or even swimming pool chlorine. Soap for washing hands can be made from any animal fat or plant oil stirred with lye, which is soda from the ashes of burned seaweed combined with quicklime from roasted chalk or limestone. When settling down, ensure that your excrement isn’t allowed to contaminate your water source — this may sound obvious, but wasn’t understood even as late as the mid-19th century. " -- Lewis Dartnell, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/civilizations-starter-kit.html

"In the longer term, you’ll need to remaster the principles of agriculture and the ability to stockpile a food reserve and support dense cities away from the fields. The cereal crops that have sustained civilizations throughout history — wheat, rice and maize — are fast growing, perfect as fodder for livestock or, after processing, for human sustenance.

The millstone grinding grain into flour is a technological extension of our molar teeth. And when we bake bread or boil rice or pasta, we wield the transformative power of heat to help break down the complex molecules and release more easily absorbed nourishment." -- Lewis Dartnell, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/civilizations-starter-kit.html

"glass — a wonder material that is somehow relatively strong and yet perfectly transparent. The recipe to create it is simple enough and uses some of the same ingredients as soap: a handful of silica (pure white sand, quartz or flint), some potash or soda ash (extracted by soaking wood or seaweed ash in water, straining the water and then boiling it down) and quicklime (roasted chalk or limestone); mix them together and bake in a kiln. Once the substance is fluid and bubble-free, you can form it into jars or bottles or window panes." -- Lewis Dartnell, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/civilizations-starter-kit.html

"Glass also happens to be a crucial material for understanding the world, in the form of thermometers and test tubes, and even for manipulating light itself, when shaped into lenses for microscopes and telescopes" -- Lewis Dartnell, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/civilizations-starter-kit.html

working together

the background on the comic book page

http://warofwinds.com/what-it-takes/?comic_id=415

gives what sounds like some good advice: