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Testing for Food Allergies

By Scott | Published: June 6, 2012

Like many Americans, I have some food allergies. Despite suffering from them for years I was not even aware of them until recently. My only symptoms were a partially stuffed nose, which is why I never paid it much notice. Added to that was the fact that I usually consumed all of the four foods I was allergic to on a daily basis. This practice ensured the symptoms were constant, and I had mistakenly assumed they were due to airborne allergens.

Food Allergy Testing

While I had identified the foods to which I was susceptible by myself, I was looking into ordering a blood test to add to my sparse knowledge. The most popular type of food allergy testing is based on measuring for a marker called IgG. It is a fairly mainstream test, and multitudes rely on it to determine their food allergies and adjust their diet according to its results. Tragically, research has shown that this test has little basis for validity, and there is considerable clinical evidence that it not only is ineffective, but even plain wrong. This means that foods that show a response on the test may actually be foods a person can tolerate well.… Read the rest

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Make Your Own PCB
  1. Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board - An Overview, part 1
  2. Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board - An Overview, part 2

Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board – An Overview, part 2

By Scott | Published: May 19, 2012

In the first part of this article, we covered the extensive subject of imaging a design onto a blank board and the best way to etch that board. After completing these steps, you will have a PCB almost ready for assembly. I will now explain the remaining steps. Some are essential and some not so much. As usual, each has their own set of problems to overcome.

Drilling

Now that you have a nice shiny PCB with your traces and pads imprinted on it, you need to drill the holes for thru-hole components and vias. The easiest way to do this is with a desktop drill press. Since I don’t have a dedicated PCB fabrication setup, I found another easy method for drilling holes at home. Harbor freight sells a 12v powered Dremel-type tool. While this tool is way under-powered for most tasks, it turns out to be a virtue when drilling small PCB holes. I simply chuck up a #60 bit and the hole already etched in the copper pad provides a nice indentation to hold the bit steady. The low power prevents the drill from getting squirrelly and jumping out of the indentation. You can probably get similar … Read the rest

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Make Your Own PCB
  1. Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board - An Overview, part 1
  2. Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board - An Overview, part 2

Making Your Own Printed Circuit Board – An Overview, part 1

By Scott | Published: April 30, 2012
PCB Image Transfer

If you start tinkering with electronics, eventually you will want to make your own printed circuit board, or PCB as it is generally called. In the olden days, this subject was pretty straightforward. You went down to your local RadioShack, and bought an etching kit. You drew your single sided design using a marking pen and some supplied stickers. The board was fairly big, and it had only a few simple through-hole components.

Those days are now pretty much gone. Now most electronic projects are much more complex, the boards are much smaller, and you need to deal with 2 layers, surface mount components and vias. In this overview, I will tackle the different problems you may encounter and the methods available. I won’t cover PCB layout software or commercially made boards. I’ll deal with those topics in separate articles.

Basic Steps

Making a PCB involves several steps. Today’s PCBs require a lot more steps than they used to, but for your own use, these later amenities can be omitted. The steps involved are:

  1. Imaging your design onto a blank PCB
  2. Etching
  3. Drilling
  4. Amenities – solder mask, silk screen, tin plating
  5. Vias
Each of the steps can be fairly involved
… Read the rest
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Medical Studies – Fail!

By Scott | Published: March 28, 2012

Almost daily we read of some new medical study which declares a certain food or substance to be beneficial to our health, and then several months later we read another report that claims the same substance is not beneficial or even harmful. These all too common events beg the the following questions:

  • How can supposedly scientific studies contradict each other?
  • Are scientific studies reliable?
  • How can we determine the truth?

Modern double-blind studies are the gold standard of medical science today. As a result most Americans place unqualified faith in them, including medical professionals, government and court officials, and the members of the press. Is this faith well founded? Are double-blind studies truly reliable? This article will answer those questions and more – you will learn for yourself how to determine what is best for your own health.

Living organisms are exceedingly complex. As a result, it is difficult to devise a study to reliably show the health or harm of any given substance. It is even more difficult to remove human bias from the interpretation of the study. The fact that unqualified trust has been placed in modern double-blind medical studies has resulted in the suppression of many natural … Read the rest

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The Safety of Microwave Cooking – Revisited

By Scott | Published: February 20, 2012
Microwave Oven

In response to my article regarding the safety of microwave cooking, I recently had reader submit the following request:

Thanks for your comments that it is safe but I am not sure I am convinced. The preponderance of articles I read comment on how unsafe microwave cooking is. There is even an article stating that a women died from a blood transfusion where the blood was thawed in a microwave. More evidence supporting your thesis would be appreciated.

Here is my response:

1) I agree that there is a large body of articles against microwave cooking. It does not mean that they are correct. People are often afraid of things they don’t understand, and since microwave cooking certainly ranks with some of life’s mysteries, people’s fears are understandable.

I have examined quite a few of these articles. They all say the same thing, quote each other, and never offer anything that can be substantiated. Until I am shown something that provides some sound basis, I believe it is a safe form of cooking.

2) The case regarding the women dying is very instructive. I looked it up, and found an interesting discussion here. I also looked at the court … Read the rest

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The Ultimate Makers Guide to Android Apps – Buy $1000 of equipment for $30

By Scott | Published: February 15, 2012
Samsung Acclaim

How would you like to buy dozens of gadgets and other useful equipment totaling over $1,000 for only $30?What’s the catch? There is no catch. It is simply the tremendous inherent value in today’s smart phones. Because of their built-in sensors, clever developers have created a large collection of apps, that replace a whole slew of equipment. Best of all, the controls and displays of all this equipment is far superior, often includes data logging and is completely self-contained in a small gadget that fits into your pocket.

My Story

I have wanted a tablet computer for over twenty years. Now that they have finally arrived I have been viewing them with a keen interest, but high-end tablets are too expensive for me. The looked really attractive, but I recently discovered an app that I couldn’t live without that requires bluetooth (more on this app later), which the Kindle Fire lacks. Mulling it over, I had an idea – what if I put the tablet on hold for a while, and instead see if I could buy a cheap, used Android phone.

I have heard about all the amazing things people could do with iPhones and Android phones, but … Read the rest

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Solar Insolation – Understanding & Measuring

By Scott | Published: February 6, 2012
Solar Insolation Map of the US

If you do anything at all with solar energy, you keep running across this term solar insolation. Note the spelling “insolation”, and not “insulation”, which is the stuff you put into walls to keep your house warmer. So what is solar insolation, how is it measured, how can I find out the solar insolation for my location, and how can I used this information in my solar application?

What is Solar Insolation?

If ever there was a confusing term, this one is it. Of course you can always consult the invariably comprehensive Wikipedia, but you may end up even more confused. According to this site, the strange term comes from the phrase: “INcidnet SOLar radiATION“. It is the amount of energy from the sun over a given time period. In contrast, solar radiance is the instantaneous power coming from the sun. While both are typically measured in kW/m2 , radiance is an instantaneous measure, while insolation is a measurement over time. Therefore, it is only correct to state insolation as kW-hrs/m2 .in order to show the cumulative time measurement.

There is another complication – … Read the rest

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Using Alternative Fuels

By Scott | Published: January 25, 2012
Canstove

One of man’s most fundamental needs is for fire – for both cooking and heat. With modern furnaces and electric cook-stoves, we no longer appreciate how important these things are – until we are without. In the true ProvideYourOwn spirit, I am always looking at how to use things at hand to meet these needs.

In that vein, I have been curious how various fuels compare regarding volatility and ignition points.  It is a useful thing to know if you want to understand, or possibly discover, new ways of making cooking or heating stoves or starting fires. We can expand our thinking by asking some of the following questions:

  • What kinds of fuel can I use for a camping/backpacking stove?
  • If I have to cook my food in a pinch, what sort of materials are available?
  • How can I make my own waste motor oil burning stove?
  • How can I use alternative fuels for my needs?
  • What can I use for fire starting besides newspaper?

and make better use of the materials we have on hand, design new types of cooking and heating stoves that better suit our needs, and make better fire-starters.

Temperature Points

To do any of these … Read the rest

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The Hybrid Approach – A Little is Better Than Nothing

By Scott | Published: January 18, 2012

Whenever we set ourselves a goal to “go off grid”, whether the grid means electricity, water, food, or something else, we face a task that is in all probability high unlikely to be accomplished, and maybe impossible, at least at in the short-term. When we finally face that reality we usually become discouraged and just give up or file it along with our other pipe dreams. I have been there. I have also been learning an important principle – a little is better than nothing.

We must stop thinking in terms of “getting off the grid” and more in terms of gaining some measure of independence, no matter how small and then go from there. At first glance, this idea seems ludicrous. After all, if we are still attached and dependent on an electric grid, food supply grid, etc., we are still dependent on them. That is true, however, we must consider the level of dependence as well. When we account for that factor, we begin to see that any measure of independence, no matter how small, will not only lead to greater independence in the future (progress toward our goal), but also vastly increases our security by decreasing our … Read the rest

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Some Winter Tips

By Scott | Published: January 8, 2012

I have been coming across various tips on dealing with wintertime issues. Some of them are pretty good. Some are not. I have done some investigation and can pass along some tips that you can trust.

De-Icing Windshields

Sometimes, it is better to use a commercial product than a DIY alternative. De-icing windshields is such a case. Alternative recipes abound on the ‘net, including ones using vinegar or rubbing (Isopropyl) alcohol mixed with water. These products can de-wax or otherwise damage your car’s paint. Commercial products are inexpensive and safe for your car. It is penny-wise and pound foolish to not use a common inexpensive product on a multi-thousand dollar car.

Some other tips include:

  • Raise your wipers when you come home at night. It makes the windshield that much easier to scrape.
  • Pre-warm your car several minutes with the defroster running before going out with the scraper.
  • Cover the windshield when you come home.

Starting Fires the Easy Way

Starting a fire in a wood stove is somewhat of an art. We have found that if you surround the small kindling fire with large blocks of wood (basically making a wall surrounding the fire), it reflects the heat and … Read the rest

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