Old School Tech has released a new article in the emergency solar Christmas light series, a topic of interest to self-sufficiency enthusiasts who need a little bit of extra light in those dark corners but don’t want to use valuable inverter capacity. This time, an easy-to-make test fixture is described which overcomes the quality problems often encountered with cheap Chinese lights. This is also a great project for a homeschool science class, as well as producing a practical and useful tool from easily available materials.
Three Blind Manassas Mice Agree To Training
As posted over at Leech City, Manassas city council members have finally relented and agreed to attend the state-mandated training for elected officials in the new year. We take full credit for this development. For years, the council members (Audrey solely excepted) had been steadfast in their refusal to attend this training. As such, this announcement is a marked sea change in their approach to this training which occurred since we launched Leech City.
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Product Review, Bestek 300W Pure Sine 12V Inverter
Old School Tech has released a product review for the Bestek 300 watt pure sine wave 12 volt inverter. Pros: this fairly rugged unit, for the price, produces a nice sine wave, albeit at a marginal no-load 109 volts, and is acceptable for small inductive loads or any small load over lengths of extension cords. Cons: the available output is a fraction of the rated 300 watt continuous / 700 watt surge, and was unable to start our 70 watt freezer. Also tested were a pair of NOCO battery adapters. The bottom line is that while it would be good to have such a unit on hand, a 24 volt array remains the preferred choice for any serious loads.
Exclusive Pixie Mafia Interview
Leech City has released an interview with the Pixie Mafia, a psyop article that is laced with triggers for the local crime and corruption syndicate. The most important trigger is the name itself. The local syndicate prefers to call itself the Dixie Mafia, which was a real thing along the Mississippi Gulf Coast before the feds dismantled most of it when I was growing up. Parts of it remain, but it is a remnant of what it once was. After I began interviewing the locals regarding the criminal organization in this area, and making fun of the cabal trying to hitch their wagon to that name, the cabal began using Pinetree Mafia instead, demonstrating that they are susceptible to being herded by public affairs. Other portions of that article are tuned to specific soft-spots revealed by our intelligence operations, simultaneously infuriating the guilty while emboldening the innocent.
One of the first active steps in taking down a cabal such as we face here, after gathering sufficient information to tease out the organization and its operating models, is to discredit criminals and corrupt officials in the eyes of the populace, especially by getting people laughing at them and their impotence. A next step will be to begin turning their edges up, gradually forcing them back into their citadels while liberating the surrounding countryside.
Leech City Update, City Attorney Resigns Again
Leech City has posted notes from the December Reidsville city council meeting, which we attended. Our regular readers will recall that Reidsville’s newly hired city attorney, B. Jay Swindell, who was the Manassas city attorney when that city’s mayor falsely accused me of criminal behavior during city council meetings, resigned that post a few months ago to take the position of Reidsville’s city attorney. We followed him there to check into Reidsville’s operations, and now we have been informed by the Reidsville city clerk that he has tendered his resignation there already. Rest assured, we will follow his career closely should he take another similar public position.
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Faithless Elector Update, 13 Dec 2016
Another week, and more breaking news in the faithless elector astroturf campaign. To keep this one short, we won’t repeat the background thus far, you can catch up here, here, here, here and here. The latest: Clinton campaign backs intelligence briefing for Electoral College electors (CNN), an attempt to paint the election as having been tainted by those damned Rooskies. This is yet another step in the plan to sway enough electors (or to provide cover to electors compromised by extortion and bribes); this time the justification is patriotism.
Extracting Potash
Old School Tech has released an article about extracting raw potash from wood ashes. Future projects will refine and use this raw product for interesting things. Not only does this project make a great homeschool chemistry lesson, it also sets the stage for some chemical processes of interest to self-sufficiency enthusiasts.
As mentioned in that article, we have been using the same roll of Hydrion pH paper for decades. At about $10 per roll, given how useful this paper is for a variety of processes, it makes sense to have a roll or two tucked away just in case.
Leech City Posts Open Meetings Requirements
Leech City has posted an article about Georgia’s Open Meetings Act and its requirements for how public officials are to conduct themselves while performing public business, including what constitutes an illegal meeting, which we call a clandestine meeting. Also important is the requirement to allow audio or video recording without permission. Although these laws vary from state to state, this article serves as a common point of reference for researching your local state laws. Future articles will build on this Leechwatching Tools series and provide specific local examples of violations.
Emergency Solar Christmas Lights
Old School Tech has posted an article about converting Christmas LED light strings into emergency DC lighting for use directly from an off-grid battery array, no inverter required. This kind of lighting is great for safety-critical areas and allows a reliable backup source of lighting when other sources fail. Annoying AC flicker is also eliminated. The linked article also discusses issues relevant to increasing the lifetime of the lights.
Faithless Elector Update, 6 Dec 2016
Once again, like clockwork, more faithless elector conditioning and trial balloons appear on or shortly before each Tuesday since the election, prompting my weekly article (despite my ongoing wish to be completely wrong about all this). Although the releases have been timed in a way to have the maximum social impact (1), and this discipline has been rigorously followed, the volume of information at each new release is accelerating. This week provides us a flood of new information. As usual, I’ll skip the detailed analysis and hit the high points, including new strategies emerging from the gloom, and previously unanticipated possible objectives in this astroturf campaign.