When the World Ends, You’ll Need The Knowledge (Book Review)

Geek Dad blog ^ | April 17, 2014 | James Floyd Kelly

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[Telepathic Intruder]

We’re in some real pretty **** now man. Game over.

[Lurker]

Interesting. Thanks, Kart.

[Veggie Todd]

And I feel fine. R.E.M.

[nascarnation]

Very interesting.

One thing I know for certain, when TSHTF and it becomes hard labor to stay warm in the winter, the entitlement army will head south.

[null and void]

At the end of The Time Machine, Herbert George Wells invited us to ask ourselves what three books would we select to rebuild civilization.

I was never able to settle on three...

[VRWC For Truth]

Book #1.

[snooter55]

bflr

[ronnyquest]

We might need this knowledge before too much longer. Things are coming to a head; who knows the outcome? Better be ready for anything.

[steel_resolve]

How things work, volumes 1&2. Can get them on amazon for cheap.

[ronnyquest]

"One thing I know for certain, when TSHTF and it becomes hard labor to stay warm in the winter, the entitlement army will head south."

And the survivors will head straight for what is yours. If we're lucky, they'll just head straight into Mexico, but I don't see that happening.

[DuncanWaring]

[clee1]

Most of the entitlement army will be dead within weeks of TSHTF, and the rest will when they get to the south and find us prepared to defend what we have built/saved/prepped.

[steel_resolve]

Correction: ‘the way things work’

[tbw2]

Open Source Ecology’s Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) (a set of machines buildable in any low grade machine shop, all run off steam or human power, can be built with standard steel pipes and beams if not wood) is probably a better solution long term.
http://opensourceecology.org/

They even have instructions on how to build your own 3D printer.

[meatloaf]

When you look at recent civilization and what has eliminated hard labor and enabled people to live in otherwise inhospitable places it was the centralization of electrical energy production thanks to Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. If we had continued with the decentralized DC model of Edison the grid would have never developed as it has.

I was fortunate in 1981 to spend a day with an old tool maker that had worked in the era when you made all of your tools. If you needed a drill bit, you made it. It was fascinating to hear his recollections.

If I was to make a choice, it would be the early Audel books for the trades.

[Marcella]

“I was never able to settle on three...”

That’s easy:
1. “Encyclopedia of Country Living” (think that’s the name, have it somewhere) huge book, early methods of living from early settlers on - with detailed instructions.
2. “King James version of The Bible.”
3. “An engineer extended family friend.” His mind is an encyclopedia of modern technology and older technology and knows how to build it all.

[PowderMonkey]

"One thing I know for certain, when TSHTF and it becomes hard labor to stay warm in the winter, the entitlement army will head south."

I'm betting they die out in 7-10 days, immobile, waiting for the gummint' to do something, and clinging to their EBT cards like magic talismans. From what I saw of NOLA after Katrina, those people had lost the knowledge to make fire. And, though dying of thirst, when the rains came, none had sense enough to lift a used styrofoam cup or discarded coffee mug to catch rainwater to drink. The "Great Society." Three consecutive generations dependent upon government largess = high potential for extinction during any cataclysmic event.

[verga]

Who is the author of that, David Macaulay?