Emergency heat!!!

FYI, I did NOT come up with this myself, the original URLs will be provided as attribution.

So you are in your apartment, it's freezing cold, and your heat goes out. For some people the options aren't good. They may not know anyone near by they can stay with, and going to a shelter(if you can even find one) to hang out with strangers isn't very appealing. An alternative is an emergency heater, here are a couple of options.

Coffee can heater

Hello, all! I live in an all-electric city apartment in central Connecticut, and my partner and I (along with hundreds of thousands of others) lost electricity for almost a week after the Halloween blizzard a few weeks back. Of course, I was very well-prepared where things like batteries/lanterns/light and no-cooking-necessary food was concerned, and we had running water, but our main problem was heat: we have no fireplace or wood stove, no kerosene heater or other portable fuel generator (and, quite frankly, due to CO poisoning concerns, I don't WANT one), no electrical generator because we have no outdoor space to set one up.

But I was able to get our apartment up to 66 degrees at night -- even when outdoor temps were in the high 20s -- and I will tell you how I did it: I made makeshift heaters out of coffee cans and metal-cup tealight candles.

It's very easy: take an empty METAL coffee can, make sure the inside is clean and contains no coffee grounds, and rip off the label from the outside (because it is a potential fire hazard). Then, make sure you have some tealight candles, the kind that come in little disposable metal cups. IKEA stores sell bricks of 100 tealight candles for $4; if you're not near an IKEA, you can still find inexpensive tealights in the candle section of pretty much any discount or department store. Each IKEA tealight burns about four hours before running out of wax.

Depending on how cold it was, I put anywhere from four to six tealights in the bottom of each coffee can. The sides of the can would get warm to the touch -- but not hot -- however, the heat coming out the top of the can was hot enough that you could not hold your hand directly above the can's opening without burning yourself.

During the actual blackout I only had three coffee-can heaters; I burned other candles on metal trays and other fireproof surfaces, but tealights in a coffee can seem to generate far more heat than the same number of tealights on, say, a metal or mirrored tray. The coffee can "focuses" the heat, in a way. Since the storm my partner and I have been saving our empty coffee cans -- my ultimate goal is to have an even dozen on hand; as of this morning we have seven -- and after the blackout ended and tings went back to normal, I spent $52 plus tax on 1300 IKEA tealight candles. I figure that would provide two weeks of heat in a situation like the blackout -- freezing nights, but daytime temps above freezing. In a super-cold snap, where temperatures stayed below freezing even during the day, those 1300 candles would provide heat for a week.

Your mileage may vary depending on variables -- how well-insulated is your home, how many cubic feet do you have to heat, etc. For my place, we shut all the bedroom doors and heated only the bathroom and common areas -- roughly 1,000 cubic feet, with thickly insulated walls. And I noticed that burning 40 candles made the interior temperature rise by about 20 degrees. (So, presumably, if it were REALLY cold, 80 candles would raise the temperature by 40 degrees in a thousand-cubic-foot space.)

The coffee cans not only amplify the heat of the candles, but greatly reduce fire hazards: even if you spill wax from a candle, the melted wax will stay in the metal can. And, since the candles are made of vegetable wax, there's no danger of CO emissions (though the smell when you extinguish 30 or 40 such candles at once is, I confess, not very nice. I had to take the battery out of the smoke detector before I blew out the candles, then put the battery back after the smoke dissipated.)

Ad, of course, some standard safety guidelines: DO NOT leave candles burning when you are asleep, or not home. DO NOT keep an active coffee-can heater near paper or anything else flammable. Set the cans on non-flammable surfaces: metal stovetop, metal washer/dryer top, etc. I took the rotating glass dish from off my microwave carousel, which was big enough to hold two cans.
- Last Edit: December 04, 2011, 06:04:34 PM by Jennifer -

You can also make one from a flower pot.

Fukushima rad poisoning - No it's NOT like an airplane flight...

I was thinking about a news report on Fukushima and some bullshit the pro nuke shills were unsuccessfully trying to get me to gag down.

They claim that the average exposure was less than you get from flying on a plane. Now, that in itself is probably a bald faced lie, but lets for sake of argument say that part is true. Here is what they left out. When you go on a plane or get x-rays, you get irradiated for a set time period, then it stops.

Fukushima BLEW UP! When that happened radioactive particles got spread out all over the place. Some of these particles have a looooong half life. People near that plants explosion most likely either breathed in or ingested some of those particles. Instead of the short term radiation exposure of an airplane flight or x-ray, someone with one of those particles cooking in their lungs gets continually exposed. So after 15-20 years of this, HELLOOO CANCER! Of course the long time period from being exposed to the contaminants to the cancer gives the pro nuke scums all the deniability they need.

Urban survival, a big river changes things

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Self defense with a knife, never say never

There is a poisonous philosophy going around the knife carrying world that a knife should never be used for self defence. They give a lot of reasons and sometimes better alternatives, but never is an absolute, and absolutes are almost always, at some point and time, wrong.

Replace never, with "last ditch only" and you would actually be giving good advice. With last ditch only you try all the other alternatives first. Usually they will work, but usually is not always, and when everything else fails lying in a ball getting beat into a hospital or morgue isn't a better alternative than pulling your edc knife.

Lets go down the alternatives, and their fail points.

• A gun/pepper spray/taser is better.
  
  Well, yeah, especially the first one, gun. But hold your cowboy hat Texas, there are states/cities especially in the Northeast that either force you to try to get a "may issue"(meaning they don't have to give it to you) license or an outright ban on one of the above.
  
  
• It's the law, you'll get arrested and assraped in jail!!
  
  Again, going to the hospital/morgue NOW, or possible jail later. This is not rocket science.
  
  
• You can run
  
  Absolutely, if you are fast on your feet, near help, this can be a good solution! If you can make this work, DO SO! However, unlike what the anti knife defense crowd wants you to believe, this is NOT a 100% success solution, I would say not even close or the hoods would go out of business. Running is a MOVE, the same as a martial arts block, a punch, or pulling a gun. Moves don't always work and you need to have more than one in your bag of tricks. While running might work great for a 20 something or even an older person who jogs a lot, it's chances drop when someone is 50 and not in the greatest shape. It also drops when there are multiple opponents.
  Also, where are ya gonna run to on a train/bus?
  
  So run if you can, just don't assume that will always get you home free.
  
  
• Just give them the money
  
  Sure, try that, but I can't tell you how many news stories I've read about people who handed over the money and then were beaten/killed because the crack/meth head loser either didn't think they gave him enough, or was just vicious.
  
  
• If he has a knife, you'll get cut
  
  See "give them the money" above. If they are not happy with the money you turned over and you can't out run them how are you not going to get cut? Your chances are better if you let them know by showing your knife that they are going to get cut.
  
  
• YOU'RE WRONG, YOU'RE WRONG, because Joe Karate at iknoweverythingselfdefense.com said so!
  
  OooooOo, Hong Kong Phooey said I was wrong, gotta concede immediately...not!
  
  I think some of these martial arts guys have been doing it so long they are not factoring in that everyone isn't like them. Sure Karate Dan can head kick someone and then run, good for him, but he's not considering that most likely some 50 year old guy can't do that and can't run very fast or long either.
  
  Just because some expert says something doesn't mean they are always right, and in the case of self defense if they are using the word never take that advice with a huge grain of salt.
  

So my advice on knife defense is of course try the alternatives first, but never, say never.

Welfare vs Jerkwork

Hmm, Joe Sixpack high school grad has a dilemma. Which should he do, walk 100 miles to the welfare office, or down the street to start an exciting career at Macci D's! Let's do a comparison of welfare, and jerkwork.

Welfare/SSI is the door to the magic kingdom of government handouts. Why welfare over a jerkwork job? Well

• With welfare you are eligible for food stamps, with a minimum wage full time jerk job you "make too much money"
  
• Wefare recipient is eligible for discount/free housing via section 8 or public housing, full time jerkwork guy "makes too much money"
  
• Welfare leech gets free phone, jerkwork dude, you guessed it "makes too much money"
  
• Program may have been discontinued, but for a while welfare leech got a free car, jerkwork dude has to buy his own of of his peanut paycheck, then its $$$$$ in auto repairs if it doesn't pass picky Mass inspection
  
• Welfare leech gets free health care, under Obama care jerkwork dude is considered to "make too much money" for any government assistance, and will be forced to pay $50 to $100 A WEEK for private insurance or face penalties.
  
• Of course free money - Welfare leech doesn't even have to pick up a check, they get a credit like ebt card and the account gets refilled every month. Jerkwork dude works a MIN of 40 hours a week for a peanut paycheck, while welfare leech watches Maury on cable tv.
  
• Pity vs ridicule - The same liberals who so pity the welfare leech that they even oppose pictures on the ebt cards to root out fraud look down on jerkwork dude with scorn and derision.

Welfare wins! No surprise there, lol.
Maybe a little more help for low income WORKING people and A LOT LESS handouts to welfare leeches would change that.

Fucktardia in the schools

Zero tolerance for guns in the school system. What exactly does that mean? I guess first off no rifle teams like they had in the 50's, WHEN NO ONE GOT SHOT AT SCHOOL. A reasonable person would conclude that any firearm IE real gun that shoots bullets is banned, with students caught with them on school grounds being expelled or at least suspended for a long time. You could even add airsoft, bb, and pellet guns to the list as they are capable of causing harm to people.

But here is where things get absurd. School systems are applying the no tolerance regulation to ANYTHING that has the word "gun" in it, or even slightly resembles a gun. There is no reason, logic or thought process to this, just a bunch of panicky handwringer fucktards who are incapable of differentiating between a little girl with a hello kitty bubble gun and the Sandy Hook shooter. The little girl made this statement

I'll shoot you, you shoot me, and we'll all play together

referring to shooting her friend with the bubble gun, which for clarity, shoots bubbles, not bullets. For this she got suspended for making a "terroristic threat". She's five years old. So now in panic America five year old girls with pink plastic bubble guns are the new terrorists. Anyone with even the TINIEST bit of common sense would see this as absurd. That little girl has NOTHING in common with real terrorists. If this was just one isolated case it would be bad enough, but the anti - anything that even resembles a gun hysteria repeats itself ad nauseum.

• Threatening a five year old boy with suspension for making a toy gun from legos.
  
  
• Forcing yet another "toddler terrorist" to apologize to the bus driver for playing with a lego gun the size of a quarter. He got detention too. Bad boy.
  
  
• Suspending a 5th grade girl for having a paper gun. Even worse searching her in front of the whole class. Who is the criminal, a little girl with a paper gun or an adult pervert feeling her up?
  
  
• Now the panic pussies are harassing a three year old deaf kid. They don't like the fact that his name sign looks like a gun, so they tried to force him to change it. For ONCE reason prevailed, enough people screamed at them so they backed down. What's next, making someone who's last name is Gunn get a name change?
  
  
• A school in Maryland interrogated a five year old capgun cowboy for two hours with no parents or advocate present until he pissed himself.
  
  
• Suspending a seven year old pastry perp for shaping his pastry into what looked like a gun.
  
  
• Suspending a 12 year old boy for playing airsoft in his own yard. WTF, schools get to dictate how kids play in their homes now?
  
  
• A 12 year old boy was suspended for bringing a quarter sized toy keychain gun to school. He's a real badass, throw the book at him.
  
  
• This juvenile delinquent had the AUDACITY to bring a plastic butter knife to school. Good thing alert school officials made everyone safe by suspending this West Side Story wannabe.
  
  
• Update - Its gotten even worse, an 11 year old boy was suspended from school for just talking about guns.
  
  
• Oooops, there they go again. OooOOoo, a 5th grader pointed his finger at another kids head and said BOOM!! I'm just so scared I SHIT MYSELF!
  
  
• Look out!!! This teen terrorist had the audacity to leave a FOLDING KNIFE in his car on school grounds. He is being charged with a felony on what used to be at MOST grounds for suspension. Way to go school admins and pigs, great job ruining this kids life.
  
  
• OMG this boy TWIRLED HIS PENCIL "like a gun". Some pussy reported him because they claimed they "felt threatened".
  
  
• He killed a dinosaur!!!
  
  
• Yet another capgun cowboy.
  This bad hombre tried to rustle a school bus! Good thing the cops showed up to bring that six year old scofflaw to justice!
  
  
• Flasssssh, Gordon! This 10 year old got suspended for pointing his finger and making ray gun sounds. Who's the principle, Ming the Merciless?
  
  
• ONE RING, TO RULE THEM ALL!! Mindless hysteria in the schools isn't just for guns anymore! Those Texas cowboys sure showed that wicked wizard wannabe whose boss!


• 4 year old brings "shotgun bullet" to school! Gangstahz get younger every year.

How has it gotten so bad that adults are disturbed by three year old deaf kids? Mindless panic in the wake of incidents like Sandy Hook solves nothing. Just how are school systems harassing these kids making things safer?

The next REAL school shooter isn't going to give a fuck about a school systems zero tolerance gun policy and he won't be showing up with a quarter sized lego gun.

A message to democrats

Enough already. Stop wasting time trying to pass gun control and amnesty for illegal aliens. FIX THE ECONOMY!!! The economy has been rotten since George W Bush and has not improved. People have been out of work for so long their unemployment money has run out.

Stop LYING to people with bogus inflation figures that claim it's not that bad. The inflation index doesn't count food and gas, and both of those have skyrocketed. Yes Virginia, there IS an inflation-Claus.

Stop blaming the republicans for not giving you a blank check, you are NOT going to spend your way out of this with bogus Keynesian economics. The old tax and spend won't sell, especially with so many people being out of work.

The republicans want you to cut welfare, do so. But insist that any cuts in welfare for people be accompanied by massive cuts in corporate welfare. If republicans heel drag, go to the media and appeal to the public. A refusal to cut corporate welfare when welfare for people is on the table is pure pandering and should not be hard to point out via the media. Pour on the shame.

It's time to start punishing companies who outsource all their labor. You want to raise taxes, forget about hitting Joe Sixpack with a tax increase, he can't afford it. Pass a nice, fat tax penalty on all the companies that are contributing to the jobs deficit here. You want to "fix" the country, forget about partisan BS, it won't work for you or the republicans. Do everything possible to bring back manufacturing. You think that you can squeeze water from a stone by jacking up the taxes. That's not the way to economic recovery. There are many people with high school only education, as well as people in their 50's who can't find work in their profession. If you brought back manufacturing these people would have a much better option than struggling for low pay/benefit service jobs like McDonald's. Making a higher wage would, not incidentally, put them in a higher tax bracket, so the government you love so very much would be raking in more tax income without a tax increase.

Last but not least, dump the morality cop mentality. Legalize drugs, sports gambling, and prostitution. Not only will the government RAKE in money from all the tax revenue, it will save millions, if not billions by dumping the police state apparatus currently in place to enforce such laws.

But you won't do any of that. Instead you'll continue the same old dirge of trying to push through more gun control, higher taxes, and amnesty for illegals. The republicans will continue to try to give breaks to corporations who'll give NOTHING in return for them, oppose abortion, while continuing to claim the failed war on drugs is a good idea.

I guess there is bi-partisanship of a weird sort. You, and your cohorts the republicans, are destroying the country.