Hmm, I don't know if I'd trust my wife to pick out her successor if she were terminal. My daughters might come up with more viable options. I think the wife would probably rather see me go down with the ship.

Oh, alright, back to the Naughty Corner I go...

The more I look into solar powered emergency refrigeration, the more frustrating it is getting. Specifically the cost of the 12V DC powered freezer/fridge when comparing AC powered refrigeration to DC powered and even the design of the units themselves and the lack of flexibility for multiple electrical power options i.e. a DC refrigerator just needs a switch mode AC-DC PSU to power the DC motor. The SunDanzer refrigerator seems to be a remarkably efficient design but even with this Freezer, I would want the SunDanzer freezer to have the facility to operate as a refrigerator as well (especially for the asking price) due to the fact that the temperatures they operate should be programmable i.e. a simple PIC based, 3 term controller be implemented for variable temperature control would only cost a few dollars to implement. This would allow the Freezer (-18C) to operate as a refrigerator (+2 to +6C) if solar power outputs are limited. (it would allow the Freezer contents to be consummed within 3-4 days during a major power grid failure then allow the Freezer to be operated as a refrigerator with a 60 Watt PV solar panel and Xantrax 300 portable powerpack battery. This would help reducing the spoilage of food)

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/chest_fridge.pdf

I cannot even find a supplier for the SunDanzer or even an equivalent design within the UK. Surely its not beyond most manufacturers wit to use a DC motor with an optional AC-DC PSU (for grid use) instead of an AC motor just for the added flexibility in the chest freezer design. Even an easily made cosy down bag designed to fit over a cheap conventional chest freezer retrofitted to act as a fridge with a baffled zip around the edge of the top lid might be worthwhile to save energy costs and increase efficiency (to reduce thermal fridge losses) for Solar PV operation in an emergency. (although a pure sinewave battery inverter might be required for the AC motor)

That makes a dang lot of sense and should be easy for a manufacturer to do. It may have just never occured to them.

-Blast

After having lurked on the forum for quite a LONG time, I registered today solely to add my support to this bit of wisdom, which I see was lost in subsequent 8 pages of postings. Sometimes we forget to live while we are thinking about living.

Also, a big thanks to the board. Most of your posts have been very helpful to me in my own planning.

Different strokes for different folks.
We aren't doom and gloom, at least I don't consider myself that for sure... I may enjoy a trashy survival novel here and there but IMHO 1 Second After was not that.

Either way I disagree with the other poster who thinks you are "programmed" and can never over come that. THat's like saying you are programmed to kill your neighbor if he takes your goat... and since your grandfather's grandfather did that you have to too...

I enjoyed my scouting trip for my possible walk home because I rode my motorcycle. Scouting gave me a route to explore and a reason to do it. Motorcyle is a fun way to accomplish it.

Who says preparing can't be fun as well?

I have to say that I don't see this Group as, "Doom and Gloom" I see this group as the type of people that are willing to look into the darkness and really look into what people don't wish to face or accept as possible.

I see this group of people as people who are seeking ways to ensure that things that would cause the average person a major issue become nothing more than a moment of difficulty. Where the average person carries very little on them in there vehicle and at there home, always expecting people to be there to help them, we are willing to take responsibility for ourselves.

This is a group that I see as light hearted and serious. Often I see people take themselves lightly but what they do seriously.

I know I for one don't sit in a darkened room sharpening my knives, and eating MRE's just surviving. I live a very very full life and take my level of preparedness as a challenge and a responsibility. May I add a responsibility that I feel many people don't wish to own up to take on or even look into.

I read for topical as well as contemporary content. I finished reading all of the classics I cared to a long time ago. They may be well written, but they lack the necessary interest that would captivate me and provide value of thought. While quite a bit of the current production is want for good, wholesome plot perhaps, it contains material I can better relate to, find more relevent to modern times, and stimulate the creative processes enough to keep my attentions.

This is not to say that we can't gain from reading of the adventures of Ulysses, or Gremio, or even a more recent Huck Finn. Surely much of the classic literature contains veritable sagas of the human condition and lessons which are ageless. I find that the more modern the writing, the more compelling the message in general, simply because it is often more relevant, and therefore more interesting to me. Critically it may not approximate the caliber of the classics. I attribute this decline in literature mainly to the expeditious nature of modern life, and the diminished standards by which our recent talent have been educated in the language arts. Good writing is timeless in quality, but often superceded by more current events.

"Classic" literature might not be the best term here. A lot of people probably struggle with true classic literature because they lack the necessary background and education. The present educational system getting ever more "lightweight" doesn't help either. But if you do invest the effort to decode the writing style and history behind the classics you will be rewarded with an unbelievably rich experience.

Classics are called that way for a reason, and not just because some old bespectacled ivory tower scholar decided so. They're that timeless source of human experience and knowledge that no Oprah Show 5-minutes-of-fame paperback bestsellers will ever come close to. Reading Chanson de Roland and Saxo the Dane and the Nibelungenlied might seem difficult at first. Once you digest them though, you'll laugh when somebody tries to sell you Tolkien (who was incidentally pilfering from those very same works, though couldn't quite match the talent of their authors). And that's just on example of many.

But it's not a matter of classic (old) vs. modern literature at all. It's just good vs. badly written literature. When I mentioned James Jones, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut, they are modern/20th c. authors, writing about human experience many of us could easily relate to. I think any of their books would be a far better read than some amateurish survivalist fiction. At least those guys knew how to write and didn't struggle with grammar. BTW, if a writer has problems with something as basic as grammar I wonder just how competent he could be about EMP - being practically semi-literate?

I've known a lot of engineers who weren't big on writing. They were technically very competent but just not interested in writing style. That's one of those books and covers things you shouldn't judge.