We are dismayed when we find that even disaster cannot cure us of our faults. --Vauvenargues

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (6 August 1715 – 28 May 1747) was a minor French writer, a moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire (20 years his senior).

Futuristic Cyborg Implantable Organ Makes the Human Body Need Dramatically Less Water

The Water Bottle Of The Future: A Cyborg System That Keeps You From Needing To Drink

If the world runs low on water, we all may be forced to make our bodies consume less water. How would that work? A Japanese company has the answer.

The Japanese design studio Takram was asked to design a water bottle for people to use after a hypothetical future environmental disaster. Takram, imagining what a world would be like with rising sea levels and radioactive disasters, thought that we probably wouldn’t be carrying around water bottles. Instead, they designed an entirely new organ system, to be implanted in the body, that would mean we used less water in the first place.

Its solution, called the Hydrolemic System, involves both harvesting more moisture from the air than our current un-modified bodies are capable of, and also doing more to retain the water we have. The company imagines that system would require us to drink 0.1 cups of water a day.

READ MORE...

Printing Handcuff Keys with a 3D Printer

This opens up whole new dimensions for lock-picking enthusiasts and burglars... Last Word Press would be interested in publishing a book on this subject and similar threads... curious about key molding and making other pick tools using new technologies... contact the editor at lastwordpress@gmail.com for more information.


http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/06/01/handcuff-keys-3dprinter/
Posted on June 1, 2012 by Klint Finley

From a 2009 post on the lockpick/encryption/RF site Blackbag:

German SSDeV member Ray is known all around the world for his impressive collection of handcuffs and his fun ways of opening most of them. On top of that he gives great presentations and always manages to add a lot of humor into them!

At HAR he pulled another stunt: He used a 3D printer to print handcuff keys. And not just any ordinary handcuff key … no, it’s the official handcuff key from the Dutch police!

Full Story: Blackbag: Printing police handcuff keys

What’s more, Ray released an STL file (the standard format for 3D printing and prototyping) of the key.

Ray ended up clarifying various points in the comments on Bruce Schneier’s blog.

(via Cat Vincent)

In a Low-Tech, Post-Apocalyptic World, What Would You Want Your Job to Be?

Feel free to comment here and I'll forward your responses along to Technoccult, or check out Klint's original post for some interesting reader feedback.


http://technoccult.net/archives/2012/05/25/open-thread-in-a-low-tech-post-apocalyptic-world-what-would-you-want-your-job-to-be/

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Klint Finley

I asked this on Twitter last night, but thought it would make a good cross-platform discussion:

What would you want your job to be in a low-tech post-apocalypse?

I think I’d go with “messenger.” I don’t have a lot of practical skills, but I can run long distances and convey information. I haven’t read David Brin’s The Postman, but I think starting a postal service would be up my ally.

My comment:

Sky Cosby says:

June 2, 2012 at 11:00 am

Klint - I think I would still want to be a bookdealer, or whatever form of information broker was around in that new age. Though I do have a nice varied arsenal of primitive skills I’ve picked up… but honestly, depending on the nature of collapse, I think choosing one’s position/job would be even more of a luxury than it is now. I would, by default, and in no particular order, be: a farmer, a hunter, a father, a lover, a pro-creator, a handy-man, a scavenger, a teacher… you get the picture.

And I highly recommend The Postman. I finally read that one last year, to further round out the ridiculous dozens of disaster novels I’ve digested over the decades. It was quite entertaining… and somehow I’d managed to avoid watching the film all these years, so that was a treat to watch Kevin Costner butcher the role after such a good book. There should be a term for that…

anyway, enjoy it when you get to it. i’m going to steal your post for Last Earth Distro, I’ll let you know if anyone comes up with anything interesting.