10 crazy hangover cures used by our drunken ancestors

It’s January 1st, and I need a hangover cure, so I thought I would go back in time to see what our ancestors used.

10 crazy hangover cures

Number 1 – The resin of the Commiphora tree (myrrh) and ground-up bird beaks. Yummy!

Number 2 – Pickled sheep’s eyeballs. You see where I’m going with this now, don’t you?

Number 3 – Lick your own sweat. Now that’s a salty treat.

Number 4 – Snort tree Ivy juice. Why not? You probably snorted worse last night.

Number 5 – Prairie oysters. Now that’s something I can do, raw eggs in a shot glass with whiskey and Tabasco.

Number 6 – Raw owl’s eggs and sheep’s lungs. Nope, I like number 5.

Number 7 – Rabbit dung. You can thank the American cowboy for this one. Yippee-ki-yay!

Number 8 – Skull dust, dried viper, and spirit of hartshorn. You can’t make this stuff up, and the skull has to be from a freshly hanged criminal.

Number 9 – Bull penis soup. Good luck with that one.

And finally, Number 10 – Fried canary. Now that’s just mean.

I hope you enjoyed this little look at the hangover cures of our drunken ancestors. Now go get some aspirin out of your medicine cabinet and be thankful.

Down feathers, how birds keep you warm

A bird’s down is a layer of fine feathers located beneath the tough exterior feathers that help keep it warm.

Those down feathers can keep you warm, too, if you buy a sleeping bag or coat that uses them for insulation. The loose structure of the feathers traps air, which helps insulate against heat loss.

In the United States, any product labeled “100% Down” must contain only down feathers. In contrast, products labeled “Down” can contain a mixture of fiber and feathers. Also, products labeled as “Goose Down” must contain at least 90% goose down, 10% goose feathers.

Down insulation is rated by fill power, which is the number of cubic inches displaced by a given ounce of down (in3/oz). Eider-down has the highest fill power, at 1200. However, even down with a fill power as low as 550 still provides reasonably good insulation.

Higher fill-power downs insulate better than lower fill-power downs of the same weight.

Most sleeping bags and coats range from about 400 to 900 fill.

Down rated 500–650 fill is warm enough and light enough for most conditions.

Down rated 800–900 fill is very lightweight and suitable for frigid weather.

Cared for down will retain its loft up to three times longer than most synthetic fill; however, there are downsides:

1 – When down gets wet, the thermal properties are virtually eliminated.

2 – Down forms clumps when wet and will mildew if left damp.

3 – Down will absorb and retain odors.

4 – Most down is collected after the birds are killed for meat, but in a few countries like Poland, Hungary, and China, the live-plucking of birds still takes place. The cruelty of this method should not be tolerated, so buy from companies that do not support this or by a synthetic fill.

A ride from Boston to New York in 1704

The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York in the year 1704, by Sarah Kemble Knight, is a free ebook on Google Play that will take you back to a time when there was no power.

I started reading it and got hooked. It will make you appreciate the things we take for granted today. Here is an excerpt.

When we ride about an how’r, wee come into a thick swamp, wch. by reason of a great fogg, very much startled mee, it being now very dark. But nothing dismay’d John: he had encountered a thousand and a thousands such swamps, having a universall knowledge in the woods; and readly answered all my inquiries wch. were not a few.

Sarah’s journey took five months to complete there and back in the wintertime, crossing many rivers in the process; a trip that would today take about 10 hours.

I think you will enjoy reading her manuscript and might even learn something about a time without power. A time we could find ourselves in again if the grid goes down.

This is not a work of fiction, it is a real-life experience.

The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York in the year 1704, by Sarah Kemble Knight

Preparation is what we have left when the plan falls apart

“Preparation is what we have left when the plan falls apart. Acquiring the skills necessary for survival is a part of this preparation. However, it takes much more than the knowledge and skills to build shelters, find food, make fires and travel without the aid of standard navigational devices to live successfully through a survival or evasion situation. Some people with little or no survival training have managed to survive life-threatening circumstances. Some people with survival training have not used their skills and have died. A key ingredient in any survival situation is the mental attitude of the people involved. Having survival skills and proper preparation are important. Having the will to survive is essential.”
U. S. ARMY CORPS, NAVY, AND AIR FORCE, U.S. Military Pocket Survival Guide: Plus Evasion & Recovery

Survival is a game of calories

Survival is a game of calories. You are constantly trying to mitigate calorie loss and look for sources of calories that make sense. If you spend an hour trying to grab a small fish in a frigid pool of water, you’ve lost hundreds of calories to gain just a few calories (and that’s assuming that you catch the little fish). It just doesn’t make sense. Sure, you’re hungry and bored, but the reward has to justify the expense. Stay mindful of your calorie intake and expenditures, and you’re more likely to make smart choices.
TIM MACWELCH, “3 Tricks for Staving Off Hunger in a Survival Situation”, Outdoor Life, June 20, 2017

An earthquake scale

An earthquake scale can give you a general idea of how much damage an earthquake is capable of.

Earthquake Magnitude Scale
2.5 or less is usually not felt but can be recorded by a seismograph.
2.5 to 5.4 is often felt but only causes minor damage.
5.5 to 6.0 can cause slight damage to buildings
6.1 to 6.9 can cause a lot of damage in a very populated area.
7.0 to 7.9 is a major earthquake with serious damage.
8.0 or higher is a great earthquake that can destroy entire communities.

As you can see, anything under 5.0 will not cause that much damage.

Surviving a catastrophic power outage

You may have read other articles about a December report put out by The President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), which is composed of senior executives from industry, state, and local government who own and operate the critical infrastructure essential to our modern life. In those articles, you may feel they sensationalized the report, so I am going to write this article using only quoted material from the report. If, after reading them, you are still interested, you can read the full report here.

“We found that existing national plans, response resources, and coordination strategies would be outmatched by a catastrophic power outage.”

“Imagin an outage that stretches beyond days and weeks to months or years, and affects large swaths of the country.”

“The scale of the event—stretching across states and regions, affecting tens of millions of people—would exceed and exhaust mutual aid resources and capabilities.”

“A catastrophic power outage may occur with little or no notice and result from myriad types of scenarios: for example, a sophisticated cyber-physical attack resulting in severe physical infrastructure damage; attacks timed to follow and exacerbate a major natural disaster; a large-scale wildfire, earthquake, or geomagnetic event; or a series of attacks or events over a short period of time that compound to create significant physical damage to our nation’s infrastructure.”

“Ultimately, all events, from small to large disasters, are local. This means that those closest to impacted areas are the true first responders during an emergency or disaster—from individuals to families to neighbors and local communities.”

“There remains an ongoing myth that the federal government will be able to provide assistance and resources directly after an event to help with response, and that is not always the case.”

I will stop here, the quotes speak for themselves.

We should all be prepared to live without power, and we should also be ready to deal with those who are not, which, in my opinion, will be the more significant threat.

A little southern snowstorm

Today I noticed people moving through the aisles of my local grocery store with concerned looks on their faces. I even overheard some of them chattering about a significant event that was to take place this weekend but did not catch what it was.

Had I missed something important on the news this morning. Puzzled, I quickly scanned the news app on my phone, but could only find a weather report about snow. Then it hit me, I live In the south and snow is a significant event, but not in a bad way. We like to get all fired up and pretend we’re in real danger. And those overblown newscasts, well that’s just icing on the cake. If we’re lucky, the governor will even call for a state of emergency and have a special news conference to tell us the roads are going to be slick. Ooooh scary, Thanks, governor.

As that storm approaches, we’ll watch its path as if it were a hurricane track saying things like, “I sure hope it misses us,” while secretly hoping for a blizzard so we can buy an “I Survived Snowmageddon” t-shirt.

When it does begin to snow, grandma will say, “Here it comes, boys.” Then after about ten minutes or so, some sleet will start hitting the roof, and uncle Bobby will chime in with a, “See, I told you it was going to be an ice storm.” Then things will really take a turn for the worse as the sound of rain takes its place. And we all know what comes after the sound of rain when the kids been expecting some snow; that’s right, crying like you ain’t never heard before.

So, let’s all pray for snow this weekend for the kids to play in. And if it doesn’t, let’s all pray for the weatherman. Bless his heart, he tried.

Be prepared to live without

Be prepared to live without if you want to survive a disaster, any disaster.

Be prepared to live without power, and you will not need gasoline, solar panels, or generators.

Be prepared to live without grocery stores, and you will not need to put yourself in danger while trying to find food.

Be prepared to live without transportation, and you will not need a vehicle.

Be prepared to live without a permanent structure, and you will not need a house to keep you warm.

Be prepared to live without police, and you will not need to call 911.

Be prepared to live without doctors, and you will not need a hospital.

Do I want to live without? No, but I’m prepared to if need be.

Are you?

Stuck in a crack, a humorus quote

“What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move, with no hope of rescue. Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won’t be troubling you much longer.” – Douglas Adams