John Davidson

How fat are you? Or more accurately what is the ratio of fat to body mass. Clinicians have a fast way of calculating a person’s body mass index or BMI. They calculate the BMI as the ratio of your mass to height squared.

Body type should also be taken into account. Ectomorphs are big-boned and muscled people. Both muscle and bone are denser than fat. So the BMI should be rounded down for an ectomorph. Endomorphs are the slim, light-boned people. Here the BMI should be rounded up. I’m a mesomorph, so the BMI should be a pretty good indicator.

BMI = mass in kilograms / height in metres squared

my mass is 73 kilograms
my height 1.7 metres

BMI = 73 / 1.7 ^ 2 = 25.2

The clinical definition of being overweight is having a BMI of 25 or more. Obesity is defined as having a BMI over 30 and morbidly obese of having a BMI over 40.

So my BMI is a little high, I should change my life-style a bit to lower it, I say change my life-style instead of go on a diet. Because diets tend to lead to yoyoing body weight., whereas lifestyle change can lead to permanent BMI changes.

A good target for me is a BMI of 22.5 which works out to 65 kg or about 140 pounds.

You can die from exposure in 3 hours, dehydration in 3 days and starvation in 3 weeks.

Always tell someone where you’re going and when you intend to get back.

On the wet Pacific Northwest Coast first priority is to protect yourself from hypothermia. Goretex is your friend. A poncho is great for keeping you dry.  Have a tarp,  a painters drop sheet or even a plastic shower curtain from a dollar store will do to protect you from the wind. Remember that snow makes a good insulation so you can make a tarp shelter and then shovel snow on the outside as an insulation layer. A smaller shelter will heat up quicker from body heat.

Have a few ways to start a fire; waterproof matches and a lighter. In the Rockies, the  lower branches on evergreen trees make good tinder.

Next up water – you can survive on a litre of it a day. Always have a few litres in your pack. I also like to bring a kettle a metal cup and a bit of coffee too.

You have three weeks before you’ll die of starvation – it’s pretty rare not to be found in that time.

This guy has made several youtube videos about making cedar shakes from beachcombed cedar logs on Lasquetti Island.  He has a couple of different usernames on Youtube; LasquettiSpice and LasquettiDude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn38ElGz2i4

How to make wood shingles using handtools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpOikUgdh4w

The government of BC issued a license to a second outlet for beachcombed logs in 2009.

http://leas.ca/BC-government-issues-licence-for-beachcomber-cooperative.htm

Here is the part of the BC Forestry Act that applies to beach-combing.

http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/28_220_81#section4

Growing up in North America it’s hard not to internalize the dream of having power and the biggest chest of gold as being the ultimate. Al Dunlap a successful businessman might be the ultimate role model.

Jon Ronson (Author of Men Who Stare at Goats) writes about Al Dunlap in his book, “The Psychopath Test.” He argues that psychopaths share many of the qualities necessary to achieve the American Dream.

Dunlap lives in a mansion in Florida with his wife. He earned the nicknames Chainsaw Al and Rambo in pinstripes for his ruthless management style. His yard is filled with statues of predatory animals. The house has a huge picture of Dunlap with his wife and two dogs. Dunlap’s bodyguard joins Dunlap and his wife during the interview with Jon.

You can read more about Al Dunlap in this wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_J._Dunlap.

Dunlap is the American Dream personified. Living in a big house, lots of money to spend on toys protected by walls and a body-guard from the outside world. A huge picture of himself to admire on the wall.

My image of the good life is not living in a castle surrounded by a moat and being able to buy everything in the store, even the store itself.

Even if I was super-rich I’d live in a small space. A big house means stress of keeping everything maintained and updated to the latest standards.

Shopping is not all that satisfying.

I like beach-combing, sitting in front of a comfortable fire talking with friends, skiing, brewing beer and fixing bikes at the Bike Coop.

Living in a Japan I was exposed to a different way of living that needed much less space tha I was used to. The Canadian dream is to own the biggest house possible, I prefer to live in the small spaces. Why?

The biggest advantage is you start to conscously choose what you put in your space. You need to focus on what’s important, choose. Rather than thinking I have this giant box that I can fill with as much junk. Leads to a different way of shopping. I can remember visiting my friend’s monster house in California. We parked in the driveway in front of his three car garage. Why don’t you park in the garage. HE said let me show you why. He opened the door and it was over-flowing with stuff.

A small space means less money for maintenance, heating and electricity. Less furniture to buy. Less time spent paying for all those.

Less time to clean the place.

Less time to mantain the space. Fewer weekends arguing with tradesmen unplugging the plumbing, trimming hedges, ….

Because it’s a much smaller space, you’re likely much closer to where you work, so you spend less time commuting. Instead of spending hours in a car, you can cycle or walk to where you’re going.

Because you’re active you are healthier and less stressed.

You have time to meet and interact with other people. So you develop a community.

You have more affordable rent so you don’t have to spend so much time working.

I live in an apartment complex with three buildings and over a hundred total units. Starting with nothing, over nine years I have a closet full of rarely used tools that I’ve purchased to work on my unit – a hammer, a plumbing snake, bike wrenches, socket wrenches power tools, level, square, mitre box. I have 3 different saws – a hack-saw, a buck saw, a coping saw and a mitre saw. In Ottawa I’ve accumulated a similar set of tools that resides in a dark corner of my parents’ basement.

Half the other people in the complex have closets filled with the same tools or most the same tools. What a waste! A waste for the environment because of all these duplicate tools, waste for each person because they have to pay for the tools that their next door neighbour has sitting around.

Why not have a tool lending library similar to the lending library for books.

Instead of buying the same tools over and over the community could buy better quality tools, or tools that we couldn’t afford to purchase individually.

Once the community started lending tools, they could expand into training people to use the tools, workshops, and bartering of services. This model would be better for the community and better for the environment.

How could I get started? Probably list a tool library on the coop web-site.

There are some organizational issues that need to be looked at – conflict resolution over tool scheduling, how to handle problems when someone breaks a tool, How handle tool maintenance. Also someone would need to chase down and get back the tools from people who don’t return them promptly. And we would need a place to store the tools with a spot identified for each tool. How would we handle liability issues –  perhaps a liability release form releasing the complex from any responsibility for injury due to negligence and so on.

Z= 2 x pi x f x L

where:
Z Complex impedance
f frequency 2.4 GHz = 2.4 x 10 ^ 9 cycles per second
L is the matching inductance (load coil) on my antenna

L= z / ( 2 x pi x f)

For a transmitter with a characteristic 50 ohm impedance
L = 50 / ( 2 x 3.14.59 x 2.4 x 10 ^ 9)
= 3.311 x 10 ^ -9

The inductance of the loading coil should be about 3.31 pico-henries to match a 50 ohm receiver.

For a transmitter with a characteristic 75 ohm impedance

L = 75 / ( 2 x 3.1459 x 2.4 x 10 ^ 9)
= 4.97 x 10 ^ -9

The inductance of the loading coil should be 4.97 pico-henries.

Inductance of an Air Core coil

L= (r^2 * N^2)/(9r+10l)

where:

L is inductance in micro-henries
r is the coil radius (inches)
l is coil length (inches)
N is number of turns in the coil.

Let’s make the coil diameter 1/4 inch, number of coils = 7 and solve for the length of the coil. Rearranging the formula above

5000 = (.0625 * 49)/(2.25 + 10l)= 3.0625 / (2.25 + 10l)
2.25 + 10l = 3.0625 /5000
10l = -2.25
l= .-.226

It looks likes the inductance is independent of the length and number of turns at high frequencies?

The WiFi band starts at 2.4 GHz or 2400 MHz.

The EMF wave travels at the speed of light. The length of a wavelength is the speed of light/frequency.

For 2400 MHz

(299 492 458 metres/second ) / (2400 000 000 cycles/second)
= 0.12491

A good choice for an antenna is a 1/4 of a wavelength or an odd multiple of a 1/4 wavelength. Let’s take 3/4 of a wavelength.

0.93685 or 9.37 cm should make a good length for the antenna.

http://www.instructables.com/id/WIFI-Antenna-Hack!/

The FM band is from 87.5 MHz to 108 Mhz, CBC Vancouver FM is at 88.1 MHz,

The EMF wave travels at the speed of light. The length of a wavelength is the speed of light/frequency.

For 87.5 MHz

(299 492 458 metres/second ) / (87 500 000 cycles/second)
= 3.4 metres

For 108.5 MHz

(299 492 458 metres/second ) / (108 000 000 cycles/second)
=2.8 metres

CBC Vancouver FM
(299 492 458 metres/second ) / (88 100 000 cycles/second)
=3.4 metres, the same as the start of the FM band

A ranldomn wire antenna is a length of insulated 12 to 14 average wire gauge (AWG) wire suspended high in the air.

A good length for the antenna is 1/4 of a wavelength. You want to avoid a length of half the wavelength or any multiple of a half.

For both the start of the FM band (87.5 MHz) and CBC Vancouver FM (88.1 MHz) 3.4 metres /4 = 0.85 metres = 85 cm would be ideal.

To cover the end of the FM band (108.5 MHz) 2.8 metres / 4 = 0.7 metres = 70 cm would be ideal.