Category: Equip

Estream

Every now and then a new product comes along that seems to obvious in retrospect that you’re surprised no-one had thought of it before.  I wrote earlier about the nifty BioLite electricity-generating stove that couples the gasification principle with the thermoelectric effect (real space probe technology!)

The Estream is another great example. Estream is a portable hydroelectric generator that fits in your backpack. Simply dunk the mini-turbine into a fast flowing stream or river, and the device will convert the energy of the moving water into electricity to charge-up on the internal battery. This stored energy can then be used to charge any USB devices, or even power the integrated light as a hangable lamp.

Perfect for taking on camping trips, or making a big difference to off-grid living and providing for yourself if civilisation ever did collapse!

Also check out The Knowledge posts on How to convert a washing machine motor into a generator, How to convert a ceiling fan into a wind turbine, and How To make your own wind turbine.

You can support Estream on Kickstarter here.

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Humble Bundle – Survive This

Humble Bundle currently have an amazing offer for their Survive This deal. Every month Humble Bundle offers a collection of related games or books, and this month the theme is  games based on survival and resource utilisation in unforgiving environments. All related to The Knowledge and the topic of starting again from scratch, this bundle offers some great sandbox games. These include titles such as Rust where you need to hone your primitive survival skills like building shelters, hunting, and teamwork with other players to prevail in a wild landscape; and PlanetBase, a strategy game where you must build a successful self-sustaining colony on another world and gather everything you need to survive: collect energy, extract water, grow food and mine metal.

You can choose to pay what you want for this incredible bundle, and you’ll also be supporting worthwhile charities like Action Against Hunger and WaterAid.

The bundle offer runs until 23rd August.

Click here to buy from the Humble Bundle website.

HumbleBundle

 

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Walking Dead magazine

The Walking Dead magazine

I have written a feature article for The Walking Dead magazine, about ‘What Comes After‘.

You’ve survived the zombie apocalypse, fallen in with a supportive group, and been able to clear-out a safe zone to begin settling down. Now what..?  You can’t keep scavenging from the leftovers of the fallen civilisation for ever. What practical skills would be most useful, how can you apply a little scientific understanding to keep yourself and your group alive and healthy, and how could you go about rebuilding a capable society for yourself?

The magazine is OUT NOW in newsagents and online

Tying in with this article, The Walking Dead magazine is running a competition. Enter for your chance to win one of five signed copies of The Knowledge. Details on The Walking Dead Facebook page.

TWDM

 

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

BioLite electricity-generating stove

BioLite The Biolite woodstove is an incredible supereffficient design that will not only boil water in minutes but even charge your phone while it does it. The stove uses a small electric fan to get started and drive fierce combustion using nothing more than twigs as fuel; so there’s no need to carry heavy fuel with you. When it’s going at full-burn it will boil water in a matter of minutes. And even better than that, the stove will even recharge your phone or other device through the USB cable. To do this, the Biolite woodstove incorporates a themoelectric generator to convert heat to electricity – the same technology employed by the Curiosity Mars rover. The whole thing is no bigger than a 1 litre Nalgene waterbottle and weighs just a kilogram. And the stove isn’t just for camping, and the electricity it generates could be vital for keeping devices charged when the power goes out in a storm or other natural disaster. The Biolite woodstove is available here

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Is this the best survival device yet?

One of the things I’ve been on the look-out for is a ruggedised, shock-proof, water-proof e-reader that you could load-up with all of the most useful texts and documents, and keep re-charged indefinitely with an integrated solar panel.

Well, meet Earl.

Earl is described by the developers as a backcountry survival tablet, and is absolutely stuffed with practical functionality. If civilisation ever were to collapse, you’re certainly going to want to have one of these in your pocket.

Earl

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The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

WikiReader

WikiReader_PocketWonderful on-line information resources like Wikipedia are only useful if your computer or mobile device has an active internet connection to access them. And if civilisation were ever to collapse, such vast reserves of human knowledge would evaporate within days as blackouts hit the servers and the internet collapses. This ingenious little device offers the perfect solution.

WikiReader is a compact handheld device that provides instant access to Wikipedia no matter where you are, and without needing any connection to the internet. The integral SD card stores the text of three million articles, and regular updates to this database can be downloaded for free. The monochrome display is easy to read, and the touch screen interface allows you to scroll through articles with the stroke of a finger, or follow hyperlinks with a simple tap. You can browse through at your leisure or find particular keywords using the dedicated Search button. History and Random buttons are also included. The ultra-low-power system means you can run it for months before needing to recharge the internal AAA batteries. WikiReader is compact and lightweight, perfect for keeping with you for looking up things while you read or travel, and can be slipped into a bug-out bag.

Buy WikiReader here

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

US competition

The US publishers of The Knowledge, Penguin Press, are running a twitter competition to celebrate the launch of the book. We are giving away five post-apocalyptic survival book packs, consisting of The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch, along with James Rawles’ excellent prepper book How to Survive the End of the World as we Know it and Sam Sheridan’s personal exploration The Disaster Diaries.

PrizeBooks

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The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Win tickets to How To Academy

The UK publishers of The Knowledge, Bodley Head (Random House), are running a twitter competition to win a pair of tickets to the book launch event. The ‘How to Rebuild after the Apocalypse’ event is this Thursday (April 10th) at the How To Academy in Soho, London. Further details on the event at the How To Academy website

To enter for your chance to win, simply Retweet the below message and tell us your answer using the #KnowledgeUK hashtag:

 

Closes 2pm Tuesday 8th April. More competitions to follow – keep your eye on The Knowledge homepage and Twitter feed @KnowledgeCiv for details.

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The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.