I recently watched again the live video interview Kerry and I did with MATTHEW STEIN - the author of the excellent book When Technology Fails - via Skype on a large screen at the Brussels Conference in October 2009.
I was profoundly impressed with Matthew and realized that this interview - which is not on YouTube (which I will correct soonest) - is potentially extremely important.
...which is a detailed, how-to encyclopedia (no better word for it) that explains in simple terms exactly how to make things work if the infrastructure should fail around you.
Matthew tells the story of when, with a background in engineering and mountaineering, he suddenly received a 'download' of instruction to write the book.
At first reluctant, he ended up warming to his task - which eventually changed his life.
The result of many years of in-depth research is a high quality manual that, besides standing easily on its own merit, is a most solid and valuable complement to Holly Deyo's well-known book Dare to Prepare.
I come from a place that is dangerous enough, weather wise, that we always told someone when we were leaving the house to go to someplace else. Even if it was just 'calling ahead'. It was done for the purposes of safety. Even if it was simply walking across town. People who are not raised with such things in their lives (or not having experience with in the direct daily sense, even for just a while) have no idea how dangerous the world can get, if one is not paying attention to lines of communication and lines of knowledge, specifically that of availability and plausibility of (gaining or obtaining) materials and information required for basic survival.
22nd September 2010 16:28
Beth
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Thanks Bill, I've actually been thinking to myself that I would like to get a book regarding this type of thing. Pretty synchronistic then I must say so I'm going to check this out and his site.
22nd September 2010 17:27
Fredkc
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
perhaps a good place to post a link to the thread where many of the old FoxFire books can be got. Fred
22nd September 2010 17:34
Swami
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
When technology fails
ISBN 978-1-933392-45-5
22nd September 2010 17:40
Solphilos
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Quote:
Posted by Fredkc
perhaps a good place to post a link to the thread where many of the old FoxFire books can be got. Fred
Excellent books for sure, highly recommended by me. I always take mine off the shelf just for a bit of nostalgia.
22nd September 2010 20:04
Dale
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Quote:
perhaps a good place to post a link to the thread where many of the old FoxFire books can be got.
The FoxFire books are great. I highly recommend them. I'll have to check out Matthew Stein's book, as well.
22nd September 2010 21:10
sunflower
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Interesting. Yesterday I recalled his advice on purifying stored water. Leave a glass bottle in the sun for seven hours then it's potable.
Thanks for posting the video, Bill. I 'll watch it and then order the book.
23rd September 2010 00:43
Ethereal Blue Being
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
This authors heart is in the right place.His family has suffered greatly with the molds they brought from their former home in Hawaii to their current home. (he's solved that problem) His MIT engineering background and woodsman (Vermont) upbringing has made him a great combination of old and new survival. His suggestions of herbal remedies, water purification, colloidial nano silver , technologies etc, etc. this book must be a fountain of doable information. He said his book covers what to do if it is a couple of days or a few years. I need to get this to add to my Deyo book and others as well.
23rd September 2010 03:28
Lost Soul
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Go backpacking. You learn how to make do with minimal equipment.
If you want to learn how to really rough it, take up longhunting (Daniel Boone era hunting) or rendezvous (fur trade era reenacting). You'll learn how to make fire with flint and steel (get a fire piston, it's easier), how to build shelters and other outdoor skills. Backwoodsman Magazine is a good place to start (or the series of Firefox books).
23rd September 2010 20:20
Victoria Tintagel
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Tom Brown's Tracker School, 30 years if tracking, awareness & survival education.
Hi Avalonians, I highly recommend Tom Brown as a teacher and a writer on living in the wilderness. Had a great time reading 2 of his books "The Vision" and "Grandfather" www.trackerschool.com
And here's a link to find info on a week-teaching by Tom Brown, in Holland. http://www.trackerschool.com/class_t...012&tid=1&id=2
***Please note that this class is in Austerlitz, Holland, not in Germany as the website suggests. We are working on fixing this.***
Austerlitz is near Utrecht, where I live, anyone who needs a place to sleep is welcome to use my guestroom, Tint.
Tom will be in Austerlitz, Holland this fall to teach a Philosophy 1 class from November 15 – 21, 2010. The class will be held outside Amsterdam and we are hopeful that this site will be the home for Tracker classes in Europe. We hope to get a minimum of 50 students for this class and if successful we will expand the classes we will teach in Europe in 2011.
23rd September 2010 21:11
42
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Here's some thoughts on the "economic" impact of CME's...
I`m watching the interview right now. He seems to be a nice guy, but the things that he said about population growth are wrong. I mean, what about about the demographic progress right now? It seems that his world view is very very negative, (or he is just preparing for the worst).
24th September 2010 06:14
fifi
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
This thread together with another one about Nasa upgrading its warning about Solar storm give me a feeling that maybe we should prepare for something "unexpected" coming soon? Should I? Anybody feels any intuitive warning? Please share. I am not scared or fearful, just want to be open and prepared.
Thank you,
fifi
24th September 2010 07:58
Luke
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Whatever happens happens.
We are in uncharted territory right now. If cycle repeats or we move further is question, all else are consequences.
That said, knowledge and skills is sole investment I'm 100% bullish on.
Way I see it situation will be rapidly changing on many levels. If you go static, you will put yourself on way of forces unstoppable on our level. It's highly possible that all "fixed" points will be gone, and we would need to work with what we know and can do.
On the other hand, there is high possibility of "long slump", like one in Argentina - slow death current paradigm, but with more and more increasing tension and uncertainty, with lots of political quackery and economic blunder.
Those two completely different scenarios will happen simultaneously in different parts of the world, with region going in and out of it.
Point is, we are approaching node last travelled in 476 AD ... sequence is in place, but "timing" .. anything from 2 years to 300 is within realm of possibility.
No-one knows what precisely will happen, what gamechangers will take place, if any.
Destination is what matters though.
24th September 2010 08:06
john.d
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Im a big fan of Matthew Stein , i watched the vid a while ago and read the book which is wonderfull and full of jems . Got quite a few good tips out of it ...... and think the word essential is quite apt :)
"Our 3D visualizations clearly show that solar storms can be deflected from high solar latitudes and end up hitting planets they might otherwise have missed," says lead author Jason Byrne, a graduate student at the Trinity Center for High Performance Computing.
STEREO-A and STEREO-B are widely separated and can see CMEs from different points of view. This allowed the team to create fully-stereoscopic models of the storm clouds and track them as they billowed away from the sun.
One of the first things they noticed was how CMEs trying to go "up"—out of the plane of the solar system and away from the planets—are turned back down again. Gallagher confesses that they had to "crack the books" and spend some time at the white board to fully understand the phenomenon. In the end, the explanation was simple:
The sun's global magnetic field, which is shaped like a bar magnet, guides the wayward CMEs back toward the sun's equator. When the clouds reach low latitudes, they get caught up in the solar wind and head out toward the planets—"like a cork bobbing along a river," says Gallagher.
24th September 2010 10:56
Wood
Re: Matthew Stein : WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS
Thank you. I was aware of this book for quite some time but I've just bought a copy now.
I've seen there is a kindle edition (an ebook reader), isn't that ironic?