Disclaimer: “As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases.” Adsense and Infolinks were no help at all.

If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.

Read The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler!

Category: Phillosoph

Categories
Phillosoph

Army Mess Kits

In a recent post I mentioned "Camping and Woodcraft" by Horace Kephart. This is a book that has a lot to teach the modern outdoorsman.
In one chapter, Kephart reflects on the difficulty in designing an acceptable, effective cooking kit for just a single traveller.
The kit he suggests has a frying pan and a pair of quart-sized billies.
The billies are carried in a bag, bottom to bottom so that no soot and fuel contaminated vessel nests within another. The interior of the billies are filled with bags of food such as flour and rice so effectively they occupy very little space.
Each billy has a lid to keep dirt and insects out and to retain heat. Each lid has a folding ring allowing the lid to be lifted with a stick, knife or other implement when they are hung over a fire.
The frying pan is a full sized utensil of 8 or 9" diameter. Kephart expects the traveller to bake his own breadstuff and one of the ways to do this is in the frying pan.
The pan also needs to be big enough to cook any game or fish that are caught.
The handle is either folding or detachable, and there is provision to attach an extension piece when cooking over a large bed of coals.
A tin cup and a deep plate or bowl for eating from complete the outfit.
If you choose wisely, the plate can fit in the stowed frying pan and even act as a lid when inverted.
 Kephart’s suggestions seem logical but actually meeting these specifications proved to be more involved than I expected.
Most “camping billies” available on sale are nothing of the sort.
A true billy has a bail handle so it can be suspended above a heat source. This also allows it to be used as a bucket to fetch water.
The billies that you can find are generally much bigger than the one quart/two pint/one litre size suggested.
Camping frying pans, on the other hand, tend to be too small.
My own efforts to create a similar kit to Kephart's will be the subject of a later post.

 Many people interested in survival or bushcraft tend to take their cues from the military.

When it comes to field cooking, the circumstances of the solitary traveller are rather different from those of a soldier.

For many armies the mess kit has cooking as only a secondary function. Meals are prepared by a field kitchen or catering unit, and the mess kit is mainly used to receive the finished product.

Since World War Two, the use of ration packs has become widespread and mess tins are mainly used for warming up the precooked items.

Modern soldiers make much less use of mess kits than previous generations.

Nowadays MREs are supplied with flameless cooking pouches, so many troops in the field do not carry any cooking equipment other than a canteen cup.

Larger field catering units often use disposable tableware instead.

The most basic military mess kit is probably the rectangular British Army “1937 pattern”. This has two rectangular cooking vessels, one slightly smaller than the other so they can nest. Capacity is approximately 1 litre and 1.3 litres (or 2 and 2 ½ pints).
On the plus side, the 37 pattern mess tins fit nicely in a pouch or side pocket of a pack. The SAS Survival Guide shows one used as a container for a variety of useful items in a “survival pouch”.
On the downside, the basic set has no lid. You can use the larger one as a lid for the smaller.
A number of companies make lids/plates for the larger pot. Some versions of lid have a sliding or folding handle, allowing the lid to be used as a small rectangular frying pan. They even offered a variant with a non-stick coating.
The 37 mess tins are not by any stretch of the imagination billies. They work well enough on many stoves but if you are cooking using natural fuels you will have to have a good bed of coals or get creative improvising a pot support.
The smaller one fits inside the larger so you will need to get the smaller very clean if you want to avoid contaminating your next meal with soot or fuel residue. That is not always possible out in the field. Placing the smaller in a bag to keep the larger clean is prudent.
For receiving a dollop of whatever from the field kitchen or heating water to warm ration tins, “boil in the bag” items, or make tea the 37 are adequate enough.
The British Army mess tins have been around a long time and are widely used. This has spawned useful accessories and variants such as lids and non-stick coated tins.
On the downside, there are sub-standard knock-off copies out there. Running out of clean cooking pots, I once used a mess tin to brown some flour on my kitchen stove. Liquid metal resembling solder appeared!
I have been told a genuine tin should have a bit of spring to it. If you push on the side with your thumb it should pop-back.
Other armies have taken different approaches to the same requirements.

The Germans, Russians and a number of other armies have issued a mess kit that looks a little like a binoculars case. In fact, as a boy I thought these items on my toy soldiers were packed field glasses!

The basic item has an oval or kidney-shaped cross section.

The bottom part is a deep pot, often provided with a bail handle. The lid is deep enough to also serve as a cooking vessel and provided with a folding side handle. It is neither pot nor frying pan really but makes a reasonable (if unconventionally shaped) cup.

Such mess kits formed a compact package that could be carried in a pack or pouch or attached directly to a belt or the outside of a knapsack.

Some versions have other components such as dishes or  bowls that fit inside.

The German water canteen fitted inside a pair of aluminium cups of similar design to the mess kit.

To put these kits in context, they were often used in conjunction with field kitchens, and some soldiers of previous generations had more modest expectations when it came to food. If they got hot soup, coffee and fresh bread they considered themselves well off!

A small field kitchen such as the German horse-drawn models widely used in both wars had an oven and two big boiling vessels. One for coffee and the other for a hearty soup, stew or pasta dish.

A mess tin bottom full of soup and the lid filled with hot coffee was just what a fighting man wanted.

 Two variants of this basic pattern are deserve a special mention.

The first is the Swedish Army Mess Kit.

This has an oval section billy for the bottom and a lid that also serves as a pan.

Lid capacity is about 550 mls, the lower section holds 1.3 litres.

The handle of the lid has two folding rings of an arch-shape. A stick can be inserted through these if you need a longer handle or one that will not conduct heat.

The Swedish Mess Kit comes with its own stove. This is a sturdy windshield that fits over the outside of the packed mess kit. Inside it at two folding pot supports and the kit also includes a spirit burner of similar design to that used on Trangia stoves.

The stove could also be used with other heat sources such as hexamine blocks,  alcohol gel or natural fuel such as woodchips and pinecones.

The kit is completed by a plastic bottle marked with the Swedish triple crowns and the legend “RÖDSPRIT ELDFARLIG GIFTIG” (Methylated Spirit Inflammable Toxic). The bottle is of a size that it conveniently fits inside the mess kit but this practice is not recommended since leaks will contaminate your cooking vessels.

Keep your fuel bottle elsewhere and fill the interior of the mess kit with a brick of Supernoodles, some Oxo cubes, teabags etc.

I have used my Swedish Mess Kit several times. It is of a size and shape convenient to carry in a daysac.

If anything, it could be a little smaller. When you are hiking and the snow is on the ground it is been nice to stop and quickly heat up a quick hot snack of instant noodles.

Yugoslavian mess tin set

The third kit I will discuss today is usually marketed as a Yugoslavian mess kit or “Eight piece” mess kit.

This differs from those of other armies in that the lower metal pot has a side handle rather than a bail.

The upper part is made from plastic so is more of a rectangular section bowl than a cooking vessel. The bowl is designed so that it slots onto a hook on the end of the handle, allowing both containers to be held in one hand.

Such arrangements are seen in a number of other mess kits and are intended to make handling the kit easier when queuing in a mess line.

The interior of the Yugoslav mess kit is used to store a plastic water bottle, which comes with its own rectangular beaker that fits over the top.

The final components are a carrying pouch and a metal knife, fork and spoon(KFS) set. The spoon and fork store in the handle of the knife. The knife also has a bottle opener cutout.

These Yugoslavian kits can be found at very reasonable prices. You only get one cooking vessel, but it is generously sized.

A detachable billy handle could probably be made by drilling holes near the rim at the point of balance.

I intend to acquire one of these kits soon so expect a more in depth review.

If nothing else the kits seems a good source of components that can be incorporated into a larger kit. Some camping KFS sets or water bottles cost more than this entire kit!

Categories
Phillosoph

Digging the Hoes

If you ask most people to name a digging tool they will probably say “spade” or “shovel”. A couple of them may have said “Entrenching tool” but they were probably thinking of a spade or shovel based implement.
Some time back I was watching a nature program that was discussing how well designed badgers were for digging. They have powerful chest muscles and their claws rake the earth and throw the spoil between their legs. Many other animals use the same method. The program also discussed the mole. The mole uses a swimming motion to move through the earth that pushes the earth to the sides. The mole uses a breaststroke rather than a doggy-paddle action, but the basic mechanism is the same: pull down the earth and scoop it away.
If we once again consider the shovel, it will become apparent that it generally does not use these actions.
Shovels are mainly used to lift and move materials rather than pulling them and letting gravity assist.
Many experienced gardeners and labourers will tell you that the shovel is not their digging implement of choice and that their preference is the pick, hoe, adze or mattock.
I have been told that the most efficient way to dig a foxhole is with a three-man team. One man breaks the soil with a pick, the other two use spades to remove the loose soil. The fourth member of the fire team stands watch and these duties are rotated to minimise fatigue and get the job done in the shortest time.
The entrenching tools issued to most armies have generally been some form of spade.
A notable exception was that of the British Army in the Second World War. This was the '37 Pattern tool, a evolution of the Sirhind 1908 pattern.
While this is not as elegant as some one-piece or folding tools it is very cleverly designed. When assembled the head of the tool is at right angles to the shaft, forming a pick and a very wide-bladed hoe.
The head on its own could be used as a shovel to move loose soil, the pick part sometimes wrapped in a sandbag as a grip.
The end of the wooden handle had a fitting so that a spike bayonet could be fitted to form a serviceable mine probe. The handle itself could be used as a truncheon.
For completeness I will point out that this wasn’t the only entrenching tool issued to British infantry. If the 37 Pattern has one flaw it is that it is a somewhat bulky and unwieldy shape to carry assembled so was not the best choice as close combat weapon.

The modern infantryman typically has a spade-type entrenching tool. It may be folding and capable of using the head in a mattock/hoe configuration and it may or may not have a pick fitting to break up hard soil.
Alternately a fire team may carry a selection of tools such as a pair of shovels, a pick-mattock and a hand axe.
Most outdoorsmen do not need such extensive earth-moving capability unless they are in certain climates or environments. Most of the time an outdoorsman’s digging requirements are simpler: cat holes and Indian wells.
What tools most effectively meet these needs?
The simple hand-trowel is the first solution that springs to mind. You can get these at the local garden centre or hardware store, or certain outdoor suppliers will sell you a lightweight polymer/plastic example. While these are an option they are somewhat limited if the ground is hard or you need to dig a bigger hole than you anticipated.
Personal security is always something you should consider, so I’d like a tool that can also provide me with some defensive capability if needed.

A web-search for “hand-hoe” or “hand-mattock” turns up a number of interesting tools, many of them under a pound in weight and small enough to be carried in a daysac. Some of these are small varieties of pick-mattock while others, intended for gardening combine a hoe with fork tines.
For general camping (as opposed to military needs) my preference is more towards an example that combines a hoe blade with a flat hammer face that can be used for knocking in pegs and stakes. Such a tool can also be used as a useful prying-device, lever or hook for extracting stubborn pegs too.
My preference would also be for a hoe blade with a point, like a trowel but I have yet to see any examples that have this combined with a hammer surface. The “camping hoe” is a possible niche in the market I suspect.

Categories
Phillosoph

Are You Ready to Go?

Here is a question to ponder over this weekend : Are you ready to go?
Suppose, you are told at short notice that you need to go camping, leave the country or evacuate before the zombie swarm reaches you. How organised are you? How effectively can you lay your hands on things you might need?
Regular readers will know that recently I had to prepare for a trip abroad on very short notice. This was relatively painless since most of the things I needed were already packed in my big black rucksac. I didn’t take that rucksac on this trip, but it was useful that I just had to reach into one pocket for my wash kit, another for the medical kit and so forth. Even some of my “holiday clothing” was stored in this pack. (We will, of course, ignore the fact that at first I could not find this rucksac because I had forgotten I had stored it in my flatmate’s room!)
 My girlfriend wanted to borrow a tent for a girls-only camping trip the other weekend. All my tents and sleeping bags are on top of a wardrobe and easily accessed. My preferred “SHTF” kukri is already mounted on a belt along with a Puukko utility knife.
On the other hand, last night I was looking for a mess kit and stove I wanted to show someone and this involved digging at the bottom of a cupboard for ten minutes. All the bits of the kit were together and I had a supply of fuel readily to hand to fill the fuel bottle, but was this kit truly “ready to go?” Not really! The interior should have had a brew kit, some Oxo cubes and a couple of blocks of instant noodles. The kitchen cupboard was also deficient of these items. I really should keep more food in the home for emergencies!
This weekend I want readers to think about their level of preparedness and how easily they can gather necessities together at short notice. The useful tool of “Uncle Phil’s List” can be used to give us some guidelines here.
Uncle Phil’s List, with Comments:
1) Shelter.
If you own more than one tent, store them together and ensure each packed tent has sufficient pegs, poles and lines, with spares as necessary. When you buy a tent is often comes in just one bag. It is often prudent to place the inner and outer in separate bags and/or carry the poles separately. Place all the components in a larger storage bag or devise some other means that ensures components of different tents do not get mixed up.
Other shelter items such as basha sheets, bivibags and such are probably best stored with the tents. You can thus choose the shelter best suited to expected conditions.
Emergency shelter items such as survival bags may already be packed in rucksacs or emergency kits. Similarly you might choose to keep one tent in your car or with your bike.
2) Sleeping.
Sleeping bags, sleeping bag liners, kipmats, blankets and related items should probably be stored with your tents. When not travelling sleeping bags should not be stored in their stuffsacs. Keep the stuffsacs close to the bags so they can be quickly packed when needed. Some of my stuffsacs are tied to loops on the appropriate sleeping bag. My tents live on top of a wardrobe along with several of my larger rucksacs. The sleeping bags are laid over the top of these.
3) Clothing.
I will admit that my clothing needs to be better organised. My summer and winter hiking boots are at the bottom of the wardrobe. Easily located but may take some digging out. Not being a total idiot I have tied the laces together so if I find one I can soon find its sibling.
To prepare for a quick bug-out you should probably have a set of clothes suitable for rough travelling stored with your boots. Don’t forget warm items, waterproofs, gloves and hats. You will need a hat suitable for sun and one for colder weather. A boonie hat, headover and some bandanas or keffiyeh are ideal. Some of my wet weather items live permanently in various rucksacs or daysacs.
4) Fire.
My emergency kit/ pouch contains several ways to make fire, including a source of tinder (Vaseline-soaked cotton wool). Many of my packs or daysacs have a disposable lighter tucked into a pocket. A lighter should also be in a pocket of your bug-out clothing.
5) Water.
My larger Platypus bottle with the drinking tube either lives in my black daysac or the big black holiday rucksac. Various plastic bottles (ex-soda bottles) live in other packs. My emergency kit/pouch holds water purification tablets and a plastic bag that can be used to carry and sterilize water. There is room for improvement here. My canteen cup was hibernating in a bag of miscellaneous outdoor items! I need to organise something where my cooking utensils are all gathered together and more readily accessible.
Activities such as camping may require items such as a folding bowl or larger volume water storage.
6) Food.
I should really keep more food in the house! I injured my back recently and could not leave the house for several days. I need to stock up on dry goods. I don’t generally eat tinned food but I should really have some in the cupboard for emergencies.
7) Hunting and Fishing.
Means for hunting, trapping and fishing are included in the emergency kit/ pouch. Actually having some food I can carry out with me would be more practical!
8) Cooking Equipment.
Over the years I have acquired a variety of mess kits, camping cookware and stoves. I need to gather these together in one place so that I can easily choose the items most suited to the anticipated journey.
9) Medical and First Aid items.
My main travel medical kit sits ready in a pocket of the big black rucksac so is easily located. I should probably make sure that my suncream and insect repellant are in the same pocket. They currently ride in another pocket of that pack. My personal medications are in my bedroom so an appropriate supply can be gathered at short notice. The emergency kit/pouch contains some additional medical supplies. Some of my other rucksacs contain more basic medical kits (ie, plasters, alcohol wipes and painkillers).
10) Tools.
I have lots of these, and I really need to separate the genuine working items from the various curios and collectables. As mentioned already, my field kukri and a companion knife are already on a belt in the same cupboard that stores a big chunk of my other gear. The machete, golok and entrenching tools should probably join these. Blades should be sharp and ready for use. Other tools such as my telescopic walking poles should also be here. Some items such as the penknife and mini-leatherman are always on my person.
11) Navigation.
My best compass is with my emergency kit/ pouch. It actually has its own pouch attached to the belt of the main pouch. A small Suunto Clipper compass is always with my penknife and mini-leatherman. If you have any other compasses distribute them to useful locations such as the pocket of your bug-out clothing or in the pack you usually use for hiking. A map or street atlas of the local area is not a bad idea.
12) Signalling.
A compact whistle rides on my keyring. The emergency kit compass mentioned above has a plastic whistle on its lanyard. One of my daysacs includes a little gizmo that combines a whistle, magnifier, compass, LED light, mirror and thermometer. Got it from a 99p store and it mainly serves as the tag of a zipper, but it has the potential to be a useful spare. Any spare whistles can be added to other packs or attached to your bug-out clothing.
I guess the category of signalling these days also includes mobile phones. Most of you will count this as an item you always have with you. Hopefully you are not one of the people that seems incapable of going more than two minutes without it in your hand! Your travelling kit may need provision to keep your phone charged. I have one of those handcrank gizmos but the lead does not fit modern phones. There may be more up to date versions available. Your phone charger may be an item in everyday use. Make a note on your travel checklist so you do not forget to pack it.
In some parts of the world signal gear may mean CD radios, satellite phones or pyrotechnics. The first two will require charged batteries or means to charge them.
13) Light.
No matter how civilized the location of your trip may be take a light source. It is amazing how readily useful items such as room keys find nice dark places to hide! My keyring always has a Photon II LED on it. Several of my packs have torches in them. My mini-maglight got lost in the tent fire at Leeds Festival. I now have a couple of the Chinese-made hand crank LED flashlights. While not as robust as “survival flashlights” their ability to hold a charge is impressive and I don’t need to worry about dead batteries. If you do opt of a battery powered design either store it with the batteries separate or block one contact with folded paper. Even with this precaution, check occasionally for signs of corrosion.
Larger or more specialised light sources should be stored with your tools so you can readily select them. This includes candles and nightlights, useful for camping in the darker months.
14) Toiletries/ Wash kit.
I will describe the contents and rationale of my wash kit and related items in a future post. These occupy a pocket in the big black rucksac so are easily located when needed. Deodorant is usually an everyday item so it is easy to overlook packing this in the rush to get going. Make a note on your checklist or buy a stick to ride in your kit permanently.
A roll of toilet roll has its own plastic bag to keep it dry. This item is duplicated in some of my daysacs. Numerous uses including blowing your nose and as tinder.
15) Documentation: Passport, Visa, Books, Tickets, Money and Writing material.
Some trips will need visas, passports, healthcare entitlement forms, tickets, boarding passes and foreign currency. You may want something to read too and I like to travel with a notebook. As always, make sure this items are organised so they can be readily located.
Some of these items will need to be checked or prepared in advance, which brings me to another point. Make yourself a checklist and use it! It is easy to overlook something or take something for granted. Use your checklist and refine it with experience.
16) Rope and Cordage.
The emergency kit/ pouch has a hank of paracord created as described here. I usually put a hank of string or even a whole ball into a pack for more mundane tasks.
17) Repairs : sewing kit, tape, glue, spares.
The sewing kit is a component of the emergency kit/pouch. On my recent trip space considerations prevented me taking the full emergency kit so I added the sewing kit to my medical kit. A small plastic bag contains more general spares such as rucksac buckles, electrical tape and superglue.
18) Specialist Items.
What these will be will depend on your intended trip. It includes defensive weapons, climbing gear, cameras, gift for hosts etc.
19) Packs.
Now that you have decided what to take, you need to decide how to carry it. As you will have already gathered, most of my packs are all in the same place so I can choose which is most appropriate.

Categories
Phillosoph

Backpacks : Is Less, More?

Several decades ago I was visiting a friend in Tennessee.
While I was there I brought myself a daysac. It was black and made by North Face. Simple in design, it had a zipped main compartment and a zipped front pocket. The shoulder straps were nicely curved for a more ergonomic fit and the back section was well padded. There was a small snap-link inside the pocket that proved to be a handy place to attach a pouch with a mini-maglight. Another permanent occupant of the daysac was my all-weather blanket, purchased at the Kennedy Space centre on a previous holiday.
I used that daysac extensively at home and abroad for more than 20 years and on three continents (possibly four, I don’t recall if I had it in Brazil).
This faithful travelling companion was to have an ignominious end.
My girlfriend borrowed the pack to camp out at the Leeds festival. A bunch of lads were allowed to run riot and set fire to a number of tents, including my girlfriend’s. When she complained they threatened to throw her in the fire!
The worst part about this incident was that the local police force sat by and let this happen. When my lady complained, a police officer told her “Everyone knows it gets a bit wild on the last night” and “You are from Brazil, worse things happen there”. A sterling piece of public service! I don’t know how those officers can look at themselves in the mirror.
My much loved daysac was to perish in that fire, along with some money that my girlfriend had worked very hard to save.
I needed to find a new daysac, and money was now in shorter supply than my single days. Looking online I found a pack that looked promising, similar to the one shown below. This had heavy duty zips, PALS straps and numerous compartments including one ideal for my Platypus water bottle.
I spent a weekend or so gathering a few small items to add to the pack, such as a small medical kit, a hand-powered torch, a keffiyeh and some emergency gloves.

As fate would have it, for the next couple of years I had no need to use this daysac.
Fast forwarding. we come to this year and a combination of situations mean that it is necessary for my girlfriend’s son to leave the country for a week. On short notice, we book a week in Kos.
My girlfriend makes all the arrangements and books us on a flight where we can only take hand luggage. This proves to be an interesting challenge when it comes to packing and it becomes apparent that my new daysac is far too small! It looks about the same size as the old pack but too much of its interior space is taken up by padded dividers and such.
My pack is made by “Mil-Tec”, and I later discovered they offer the same design in two different capacities. I think mine is the 20 litre size rather than the 36. The 36 litre version may be worth a look.
I suspect that many of the similar looking packs that claim to be 30 litres are not, judging by the given external dimensions. Caveat emptor! 
Mil-Tec 20 litre MOLLE backpack
My flatmate comes to the rescue with a canvas bag he had purchased at the local army surplus shop. This had three external pockets, a drawcord top and a flap that buckles down with vintage style ladder buckles. He thinks this bag is an ALICE pack  or a copy and it certainly looks similar. This bag takes enough clothing for a week, my washkit, medical kit, notebook and most of the other things I will want. The weather on Kos played to our favour here since there was no need to pack jackets or jumpers.
My friend's bag gave good service over the following week but the experience did get me thinking. When it comes to packs, is less sometimes more? In a previous blog I mentioned the Russian Veshmeshok, possibly one of the simplest packs to ever see widespread service. My friend’s bag reminded me of the very simple packs that Horace Kephart advocates in his classic book, such as the Whelen, Nessmuk and Duluth (pg.129). I’ve seen a few Austrian rucksacs of similar design on my travels. Rather than having an internal frame and padding the packsacs of Kephart’s day were padded with a folded sleeping blanket against the back. A sleeping bag might be used in the same manner and this might prove a more space efficient method of carry than bundling it up in a stuff-sack.
All this has given me food for thought and I will share any ideas that arise from my experimentation along these lines. First order of business will be to scrape together some money to buy a pack like my friend’s.
Categories
Phillosoph

Spears and The Hidden Fortress

Last night I had the treat of watching Akira Kurosawa's “The Hidden Fortress”. This movie is probably best known as one of the influences on Star Wars.
One thing that struck me about this movie was that it was a samurai film where swords played very little part in the action. The two major close combat sequences feature spears. The spearplay in this movie is well worth watching. Toshiro Mifune’s character (Makabe Rokurōta) makes frequent use of the hanging guard with his spear. There are a number of incidences when spears are swung to strike or deflect rather than just thrust and even swinging motions using just one hand. The movie is well worth a look if you want to refine you staff fighting and improvised weapons skills.

Here is a link to the duel sequence.More on the use of the staff and other weapons in my books.

Categories
Phillosoph

Future Money


“I prefer hard cash. If you can’t scratch a window with it I don’t accept it”.
Roosta: The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Fit the Eighth)
Regular readers will know that on Fridays blog posts here tend to stray a little from the usual topics of self-defence and preparedness. Today is no exception and probably diverges even more than usual. It is, however, a logical progression from the recent post on the design of money.
Recently I was watching a certain sci-fi series and two of the characters offered another character a bribe. What was notable about this is that you saw them physically offering money. The money offered was only seen at a distance and appeared to be coloured plastic cards.
While money is often discussed in science fiction shows, I cannot recall that many incidences when you actually see the physical cash. (One exception to this that springs to mind is Pluto Nash and “the Hillarys”)

Hillary Clinton Banknote

What kind of form might a future hard currency take?
The above example did illustrate that cash did not have to be paper, or even flexible polymer. When you might be on another planet to the mint, there is something to be said for an exchange medium that is more durable.
Chinese Coin
Coins are one of the oldest mediums of exchange.
The Chinese seem to have used the same basic design for more than a thousand years. The square hole in the centre seems to have been introduced as part of the production process, allowing a batch of coins to be threaded on a square rod for filing into their final shape. It had the added advantage that coins could be threaded on a string for easier bulk handling. This also resulted in the wide use of coins as ornaments or charms.
Coins from other countries show more variety but nearly all are circular or circle-like equilateral polygons.
Coins are convenient to carry in a pocket or pouch and can be stacked for bulk handling. Their shape also makes them suitable for vending machines and other coin-operated apparatus.
On the downside, coins are relatively heavy, which can be significant if handling large quantities.
The US military uses paper coins (technically “gift certificates”) in certain deployment areas. The use of these “Pogs” is to avoid the need to air-transport large quantities of coins. (The military might like to also consider removing chewing gum from the MRE packs and inventory in general as a non-productive item to save air-lift weight).
The weight of coins might not be a problem in an environment where most transactions are conducted electronically, since there would be less need to handle large quantities of physical cash.
I will discuss the implications of “e-cash” further in a moment.
A money exchange company designed some “space money” as a publicity stunt a few years back.
“The Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination – or Quid for short as interplanetary vernacular demands – had to be completely free of sharp edges, such as would be found on coins. Magnetic strips and electronic chips such as are found embedded within our credit cards would be also prove useless as they would be fried by cosmic radiation.

“In addition, the currency had to be completely independent of itself, unlike electronic banking, which would be useless in space due to the great distances signals would have to travel for confirmation, making for some rather lengthy check-out times.”

Very attractive, but somewhat bulky and they do not look like they will stack.
An alternative or supplement to coins might be a card-shaped currency as shown in the TV show I was watching.
Casino chips, for example, are supplemented by “plaques” for high denominations. Does a card-shaped currency need to use something the size of a credit card? No, it doesn’t.
A smaller card would allow more to be carried. The optimum size might be something like a stick of chewing gum, or more conveniently, the size of a Kimball tag, approximately 1" x 3". For want of any better term, let us call this format a “Kimball Note”.

A small plastic card along these lines would offer a number of advantages.

The obvious one is that it was inspired by a punched card and would readily lend itself to various types of mechanical handling ranging from counting machines to vending devices.

If you have ever tried feeding a bank note into a ticket machine you will know that they can be rather fussy in their diet. A rigid plastic card would be much easier to use.

The vending machine industry has sometimes suffered because their machines could only take small denomination coins. This new format of money would prevent this problem.

Like a punched card, a Kimball Note has one corner cut off so mechanical devices can detect its orientation. The other corners would be rounded to facilitate being carried loose in a pocket.
Adding a few holes to distinguish denominations is a tempting idea, but it might be more useful to place raised bumps or unified braille on the note too for the convenience of the partially sighted.
Notches in the edge of the note might be another identification feature and would allow one to verify at a glance that all the notes in a stack were of the same value.
A barcode embossed on the surface might further increase the ease with which machines can handle the cash.
“What about electronic transactions?” some of you may be asking.
You might regard the above suggestions as somewhat superfluous because in the future we will be in a cashless society.
We seem to be advancing along this route.
In many cities buses and other public transport no longer accept cash. Instead you present a travelcard to an electronic reader. In the past few years it has been possible to also pay by touching a “contactless” credit/debit card to the same reader. You can also now use your phone instead of a credit/debit card.
Banking apps allow you to use your phone to send money directly to someone’s bank account. Nearly everyone now carries a phone or similar device so it is only a matter of time before it will be commonplace to transfer money “phone-to-phone” in face to face transactions.
A “cashless” or “e-cash” society could have some interesting potential aspects.
As you transmit payment to the street hotdog vendor is someone “eavesdropping” on your signal and duplicating the debit, effectively an electronic pickpocket?
Of course, your unauthorized payment to a person unknown is going to show up on your bank records.
Your banking AI may even be keeping a tally of who you have interacted with and know you did not make a payment to “XXX”.
Can you mug someone in an “e-cash” society?
You can take someone’s phone by stealth or by force but that will be of little use without a way around the security protocols, which may involve biometrics and AIs.
There is the option of kidnapping someone and forcing them to disable the security, but this is rather involved for many petty criminals and likely to attract significant police investigation.
Protocols to prevent this will soon become common. For example, a freezing of all transactions should the bank customer disappear for any length of time. Essentially we are considering the electronic equivalent of the dye-packs that have now made bank robbery a much rarer occurrence these days.
In all these cases, once you have the e-cash, what do you do with it? Sending it to your own bank account is effectively a confession. Electronic money laundering will probably be quite involved and leave the thief with very little, if anything for himself.
Bribery also becomes somewhat difficult in an e-cash society since the sudden unaccounted for debit in your accounts will be plain to see. Likewise, if you steal goods or other materials you do not really want payment in e-cash.
It seems likely that in a cashless, e-cash society some form of hard currency system is likely to manifest eventually.
This may start as a barter system, using some medium of exchange of mutual value, such as narcotics. Inevitably the bulk of materials involved will give rise to some form of exchangeable token system, or in other words, hard cash.
We are used to thinking of governments issuing money, but there is ample precedent for commercial and non-government organisations creating mediums of exchange, particularly when official coins and notes are in short supply in an area.
It is not a far stretch of the imagination to envision a future society where organized crime or corporations produce their own hard currency.
If you have watched the “John Wick” movies you have seen an example of such a system:
When watching the first film, I assumed the “gold coins” referred to were Kugerrands or similar.
In the second movie it is revealed that the gold coins are manufactured by the underworld. Early in the movie, Winston receives a shipment and compliments another character on the workmanship.
Categories
Phillosoph

Night Demons, Sleeping and Yoga

Regular readers will know that this blog is mainly concerned with survival and self-defence.
The blog does allow me to occasionally address more diverse topics that I like to think of as ways of surviving the rat race or defence against the perils of modern life.
The night before last was unpleasant.
I awoke in the early hours and experienced an episode of sleep paralysis. (Somewhat misnamed I have to observe).
As I awoke, I was disorientated and struggled to recognise where I was. I had a feeling that I might not be alone.
I tried to make a noise but no sound came out and I was unable to move. The feeling passed and I regained movement.
I tried to sleep again. As I lay there, a wave of “immobility” affected my feet and began to move up my body.
I felt myself dropping off into sleep but also had the feeling this was something being imposed upon me so fought against it.
The rest of the night I had difficulty remaining sleeping.
The next day I read up a little on sleep paralysis. Very interesting stuff.
Most people will experience a couple of episodes of sleep paralysis during their lives.
It appears that as the body’s physical motion is inhibited, one’s paranoia goes into overdrive and familiar surroundings and sounds will be interpreted as potential threats. Hence the feelings of fear and that there is another presence in the room.
Nature of the threat varies with the experiencer's cultural icons.
A friend told me he had an episode of sleep paralysis where he heard a demon whispering unintelligible words into his ear. The same friend is a long time sufferer of tinnitus, so it seems likely this was his paranoia perceiving the usual background noise differently. 
One of the things I learnt from the British NHS website was that if you are experiencing sleep paralysis, you should attempt to wiggle your fingers or toes.
I was also reading about related folklore.
Stories of supernatural creatures that sit on your chest during the night and stop you moving or make breathing hard are common to many cultures.
Interestingly, at least one tradition suggests you can drive the creature away by attempting to bite your thumb or wiggle your fingers! Or you should attempt to steal the creature's hat!
The NHS site yielded some useful information on improving sleep patterns.
A useful tip was to tidy my bedroom to create a less chaotic and more relaxing environment. If nothing else, I no longer trip over stuff as much when going to bed!
Most of us are aware that drinking coffee close to bedtime is not a good idea but many of us will overlook the ingestion of other stimulants such as smoking or caffeinated soft drinks.
Unusually for me, I had drank a can of coke after dinner that night, so wonder if this might have contributed to my unpleasant night?

Strenuous exercise close to bedtime is to be avoided, the exception being sex, the one form of exercise that can be both vigorous and sleep-inducing.
Not a particularly practical option for me currently, so I looked at the second best option, relaxing using yoga.
The yoga that I am most familiar with is the “Salute the Sun” sequence but it occurred to me a set of exercises intended to be performed in the morning might not be the best choice to relax me before bedtime.
I came across this set of exercises which you can even do in bed!
I didn’t do the full eight minutes for my first attempts but did find them quite effective.
I had not expected to fall to sleep very quickly last night given how stressful the previous night had been, but I did notice I did feel more relaxed and less restless while I was lying in bed.
I will persist with the yoga and see how it goes.
Update: Since I first wrote this, I have had a couple of minor events. My half-awake mind tries to counter-attack, and making a palm-strike has much the same effect as wiggling fingers or making signs against evil.
A similar reflex seems to wake me up if I dream of something particularly disturbing.

I hope that this information has been of some interest or help to some of you. Pleasant dreams!

Categories
Phillosoph

The Medical Kit

Some of you found my suggestions about sewing kits useful, so I will continue this thread (!) with some details on the medical kit I took along too.
I don’t have the kit with me at the moment but since I replenished the contents just three days ago, I should be able to recall most of the contents.
Some medical kit lists can get very exotic! Keep in mind the basis of a good kit is aspirin and plasters. Make sure you have enough of each and most bases are covered.
The kit itself travels in a bag with two zipped compartments. The bag itself is kept dry by being carried in a “tuk-lok” freezer bag. This bag must be a good decade old but shows no signs of deterioration, nor have any of the seams opened. Freezer bags like this are worth looking into for stowing your gear.
I have replaced my original carrying bag with a new one more obviously holding a medical kit.

The outer pocket of the pouch has a pair of metal haemostats, one straight, one curved.
I have never used these to clamp an artery, and hope that I never need to. They are handy items to have for other purposes, however.
I have used them like pliers in the past or to clamp things together while I attempt repairs.
With them is a pair of needle-tipped forceps, still in its plastic wrapper. This can be used for finer work than is possible with the tweezers on my penknife. The forceps can be used to remove splinters or ticks. Thankfully I have never had to do the latter.
The final item in this pocket is a small bag of safety pins. These can be used to secure bandages (or broken flies!). They can also be used to drain blisters (flame the point for a second first).
The main pocket contains a number of items, many of them individually bagged to keep them dry or counter leakage.
One of the most useful items here is a bag of aspirin and similar pain-killers. Aspirin has multiple effects, such as reducing fevers as well as being an analgesic, so is worth carrying if you are not allergic. Some of the other painkillers contain paracetamol and caffeine.
Equally useful is a bag of plasters of assorted sizes. Some alcohol wipes are worth including with these.
There is a small bag of Imodium (loperamide) capsules for the more unpleasant kinds of stomach upsets. Also in the bag is a piece of the original box detailing the dosage and contents.
In addition to the plasters there is a roll of bandage. I added this after I hurt my ankle on a trip.
Travelling often involves carrying a rucksac or heavy load. You may wear different footwear to that you are accustomed to and the ground may be uncertain, even within a town. (Historic cobbled streets can sometimes prove treacherous!)
In short, there is an increased change of ankle injury and a roll of bandage can prove to be useful support if you do injure your ankle.
A recent addition is a roll of sticking plaster tape. This may be used for minor cuts to the fingers, or taping fingers or toes together if a break is suspected.
Given that survival and travel activities may involve edged tools, a roll of zinc oxide elasticated plaster, or “sport tape” is a handy thing to have.
Another recent addition is a measured scoop for making single glasses (200 ml) of oral rehydration solution. This scoop serves as a pull-tag for the main zipper.

My medical kit also includes a lice comb, added when I was contemplating a trip to India.
I’ve been bitten by a few cat fleas over the years but have never had lice. The comb is still a sensible precaution, however.
To use it, wet your hair to lubricate the passage of the comb and wipe the comb clean after each stroke. The comb pulls adult lice from the hair, usually breaking their legs. It will probably miss infant lice and the eggs (nits), so you will have to wet and comb at least once a day for several weeks to ensure the insects are gone.
The pouch also includes a bottle of Oil of Cloves and one of Oil of Olbas.
I’ve contracted colds on a couple of trips. Such things can spread through a hostel pretty rapidly. Olbas oil is well worth its weight, and can be used for other purposes too.
Clove oil is useful for toothaches.
The final container is a 50 ml plastic centrifuge tube of TCP.
It took me several attempts to find a container that closed sufficiently.
The first ones I used caused the kit to smell of TCP, demonstrating that they were not airtight.
I have removed the label from a glass bottle of TCP and taped it to the tube so I have the dilution information.
Applications include cuts, grazes, bites, stings, boils, spots, pimples, sore throats and mouth ulcers.
I prefer TCP liquid to ointment, since the ointment sometimes marks clothing and the liquid can also be used as a gargle if you have a sore throat. (Also, the ointment is no longer available).
The liquid can be used neat but for many applications it is better diluted, which makes your supply last longer.
TCP is great for mosquito bites, but if you do not have your kit nearby acidic solutions such as vinegar and lemon juice can provide relief.
The final item of the basic kit tends to ride outside of the pouch but within the plastic bag. This is a small tin of Vaseline. These are sold for chapped lips, but Vaseline has a number of other uses and can be applied to cuts, grazes, bites and chaffing. The little tin is easily refilled from larger containers.
These are the contents of my medical kit, but not the limit of my medical items.
Insect repellent and sun-cream are usually carried where they are readily available.
There are some additional plasters and painkillers in my emergency kit.
My washing kit contains standard bathroom soap which is one of the most useful antiseptics that you can carry.
I also carry a supply of blood pressure medication and the other varied tablets a man of my advancing years seems to need.
I have a tendency to migraine attacks so I intend to add extra diclofenac to my medical kits.
I might add some tampons to the kit. As well as the obvious use, they can be used with the plasters or bandage to staunch freely bleeding wounds.
If you are involved in activities such as hunting, then some field dressings and the knowledge of how to use them is advised. Carry them where they are readily accessible.
Categories
Phillosoph

Some Thoughts on Money

Money has been a recurring theme in this recent holiday.
Most obviously we were travelling in Greece, which is undergoing a financial crisis.
This required me carrying far more cash than I would usually do since for a while the cash machines were offering a limited service at best.
My own finances were also somewhat turgid, our trip being necessitated by my girlfriend’s son’s visa being about to expire. We had to spend a week out of the country even though recent other expenses had made this a bad time for me to be spending.
If you have been considering buying any of my books or using the donation button, now would be a good time, thank you.
One store in town had a counter top covered with a variety of foreign bank notes under glass. Quite an impressive collection.
I took my girlfriend and her son there to see a British one pound note (long since discontinued). There was also an American $2 note and another note with a grinning Saddam Hussein.

Something that came to my attention on this trip was the similarity between certain Euro notes.

Both the fives and twenties appear a blue colour, the tens and fifties a red.

They look distinctive in the above picture but in practice it was quite easy to confuse these if you were not careful.

Given that the Euro is a relatively new banknote design, it is a little surprising that more thought did not go into its design.

British banknotes, for example, are different colours. £5, £10, £20 and £50s are respectively blue, brown, purple and red. £1 notes were green and the £1 notes still issued by some regional banks are still this colour.

Some series of notes also featured a distinctive simple shape in this colour. For example, the £5 a blue circle, £10 had a brown/orange diamond, the £20 a purple square and the £50 a red triangle. (The current £20 seems to have dropped this feature)

These shapes were designed to further aide the partially sighted. Different denominations were also different sizes. I have been told that the visually handicapped were provided with a little gauge they could use to measure the length of a note to identify it.

The now discontinued Dutch Guilder notes took this a step further by providing raised tactile markings to assist the visually impaired (the dots and triangles).
One might have hoped the designers of the Euro would have drawn on these sources for inspiration, but apparently not.

Some Canadian notes have tactile markings for the visually handicapped and it is apparently planned for some US banknotes.

It would, however, be more useful if this became a universal feature. Next year the Bank of England plans to issue polymer banknotes. This would be a good opportunity to introduce tactile markings but I expect this will not be exploited.

An even better system would utilize unified braille, catering for partially sighted visitors not familiar with the local system of symbols.

"Ecotopian bills seemed comic when I first saw them. Yet three weeks later I find them more attractive than the greenbacks left in my wallet. Very romantic in style: lush, Rousseau-like scenes, almost
tropical, with strange beasts and wondrous plants. No images of famous Ecotopian leaders—when asked why not, people just laugh. Maybe it’s a consequence of their informal, utilitarian attitude toward money— they bundle it up into rolls and toss it to each other in an offhand manner I've only observed among gamblers."

"Ecotopia" by Ernest Callenbach.

Categories
Phillosoph

Back Blogging: The Sewing Kit

Back from my trip abroad!
In my last post I described how baggage restrictions limited what I could take with me.
Since we were restricted to cabin baggage only, I was unable to take along my Swiss Army Knife, mini-leatherman or even the little penknife and can opener that usually rides on my keyring.
I will admit that there were several times I missed these tools. I doubt a trip of more than a week would be practical without them.
For one thing, my nails grow rather fast and need regular trimming.
One item I did insist on taking was my medical kit, although I removed the haemostats from it just in case there were any objections.
Most of my general emergency kit remained at home but I did decide to take my sewing kit from it and stow it with the medical kit.
I think it is seldom that I have had a trip where the sewing kit was not needed. Something about being far from home seems to increase the likelihood of breakage.
For this particular trip, its use was more mundane.
My girlfriend wished to modify her bikini to reduce the area of tan lines.
She was initially dubious about the “invisible” thread in the kit but once she tried it was of the opinion that it was rather clever.
As an amusing aside: One restaurant we frequented showed videos from a fashion channel, often promoting bikinis and swimsuits.
My girlfriend is Brazilian, and what many fashion designers regard as “daring” and “sexy” my girlfriend considered “massive” and “suitable for grandmas”.
My little sewing kit fits in a plastic tube of about 1 cm diameter.
At the bottom are two generic white shirt buttons. It also contains five safety pins, one needle, one sailmaker’s needle, a piece of silk, and a length of invisible tread wrapped around half a used matchstick.
The sailmaker’s needle is magnetized so can be used as a compass. It is wrapped in the silk to keep it isolated from the other metal items and can be remagnetized by stroking it with the silk, or the magnet with my penknife.
The safety pins can be used as general pins to hold things together while sewing.
Since my sewing kit saw use this trip, I replenished it yesterday.
To each needle I added about a foot of doubled invisible thread so they are ready to use in the future without any fiddling about.
Sewing is easier if you keep a relatively short thread on your needles and you have less trouble with knots undoing if you simply double the tread and join the ends in an overhand knot.
Several metres of extra invisible thread were wrapped around a new used matchstick and added to the kit to replace that used by my lady.
A repair item that I did not have but would have liked is my little roll of electrical tape.
My hand-powered torch from the 99p store got dropped out of the bag and the plastic lens holder broke. Having some tape and/or a small tube of superglue, as found in my larger kit, would have been useful.
The medical kit did see some use.
My lady rather misjudged how much sun she got on the final day and was in considerable pain since the nearly empty after-sun lotion got left behind.
She had also had something of an allergic reaction to something she had encountered while horse-riding this trip.
We had to buy some expensive products at the Duty Free, one of which she informs me contains so much yogurt it is edible.
Using yogurt for sun-burn is something one of our new Greek friends had introduced me to that very trip!
The painkillers in my kit did provide some relief from her burns, and the TCP in the kit had some effect on the allergy.
I did suggest she try the Oil of Olbas on her skin too, but she stuck with the TCP.
More details on my medical kit and other topics in future post.