This is a quote I particularly enjoyed from the book “The God Beyond Belief: In Defence of William Rowe’s Evidential Argument from Evil ” by Nick Trakakis. Actually it is quoted in the aforementioned book from a holocaust survivor in “The faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors” by Reeve Robert Brenner. It is an excellent lay men’s example of the argument from horrendous evil (something Rowe discusses at length).

“This is what I think: We were sent forth by humanity, by mankind,  although it was not even aware it was doing so, to find out once and for all if there’s a God. That’s the meaning of the camps. It was meant to bring Him out into the open if He existed at all. Nothing else or less significant could have brought Him out into the open, to respond and to act and show His face. It was a stupendous test; unconscious and unintentional but a test nevertheless. And God failed the test and proved His own nonexistence. And I, as part of the experiment, stopped believing in Him altogether. Just as certain laboratory experiments are conclusive and incontrovertible, so was this.
If  He wouldn’t come out then, during those times, when?
Now when man writes his history he can say there was a vast laboratory experiment conducted by man during the 1940’s to see if there is a God or not. The conclusion was no God exists. There were guinea pigs in the test and other kinds of experimental animals, but mainly guinea pigs- Jews of course. I know. I was one of them.”

Think seriously about this quote the next time you think to yourself that God answered your prayers for a good parking spot, a job promotion, or any other comparatively frivolous thing.

As homelessness is on the rise and the economy continues to drop, I decided a post on homeless survival might be an interesting topic. It seems obvious to me that bushcraft/wilderness survival skills would be invaluable to the homeless, but I am not and have never been homeless so I can only theorize. I found an interesting forum for the homeless here.  It has posts by people who were and are homeless and has useful resources. I have always wanted to give some free bushcraft training to some of the homeless, not because they are doing badly on their own, but because it could be a useful skill to add to their already extensive survival repertoire. So I’m curious what any readers think. Would this be useful? Would it be a good way for bushcraft groups to “give back” to their communities or would it make the forests “dangerous homeless hangouts”? Let me know what you think!

Here is my thought for the day. Think about it and have fun!

1) If God exists then God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent.
2) If God wanted humanity to know of his existence he would not hide his existence from humanity.
3) If God’s existence is not hidden from humanity intelligent, educated, fair, and honest individuals should agree upon the existence of God.
4) Intelligent, educated, fair, and honest individuals do not agree upon the existence of God.
5) Therefore, God does not want humanity to know of his existence.

I noticed that I get a lot of traffic on my earlier fire piston post. Most of the searches that find it aren’t looking for a video though. Instead they are looking to buy one or for information on how to build one. I have researched and constructed fire pistons for awhile now and since there seems to be some demand I’ll try to relay some useful information about them. In this post I’ll cover buying and design. I may also post at a latter date how to make one for yourself. If you’ve never heard of a fire piston check out this article.  Make sure to post any relevant comments, questions, or suggestions!
What do you need?
There are a variety of  fire pistons out there varying in size, material, craftsmanship and cost. Don’t be dazzled by unnecessary gadgetry or novelty in a fire piston. Most of it isn’t useful (such as the “ferro rods” many include, if the fire piston works so well why would you need this?).  Decide what you would find useful in a fire piston and then search for it.
Things to consider:
- cost
- hardwood, metal or plastic (avoid acrylic, it is too brittle and easily breaks)
- o-ring, rubber gasket or string gasket
- what are the tolerances, can they be adjusted on the fly
- what kinds of lubricants can it use (some materials can’t stand up to certain lubricants)
- how easy is it to remove the tinder
- how well will it hold the tinder
- is it easy to clean
- how big do you want it
- does it come with instructions, tinder, customer support
It seems like a lot so lets break it down.

Cost: Try ebay first, you’ll be able to comparison shop (use the advanced search tool to name a price, etc). You shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for one. I’d put the cap at $50.00. At that price it better come with other stuff too, like tinder and instructions, a lanyard or maybe even a tinder bag. Sometimes it is hard to find them cheaper then 50 dollars but be patient, the cheaper ones may not be listed yet. Many fire pistons, even some “exotic hardwoods” frequently sell for between 25 and 35 dollars on ebay.

Material: Metal- I have never seen a good metal fire piston on ebay. They are usually poorly made or are too narrow to be comfortable (imagine hitting the head of a nail full force a few times to start your fire, not pleasant).
Plastic- If it is made of acrylic it is brittle and it will break and if it is clear is is probably acrylic.  If they don’t say specifically what type of plastic it is don’t buy it. I inquired about a black plastic fire piston and all the seller would tell me was that it was a space age polymer (yeah, real useful buddy). My guess is the plastic isn’t meant for outdoor temperature extremes and scratches easily (thus why they wouldn’t tell me the type of plastic). If you feel the need to buy a plastic one don’t pay more than $30.00 dollars for it, it costs almost nothing to make them and they probably won’t last (even though the plastic itself will last hundreds of years in a landfill).
Wood: Make sure it is a hard wood. If it isn’t it won’t work without a liner and it will dent and scratch easily. Beware of liners, they can conceal poor craftsmanship. A good example are the ones made by “DEEP FOREST CREATION’S” (I love names that yell at you). The tinder holder is a knock off of ebprimitives’ design, it is made of poplar (a cheap hardwood) and uses a brass tube liner. The liner ensures that the maker doesn’t need to work too hard to get acceptable tolerances (the device looks like they just drilled a hole and installed a liner on a sanded dowel . . . real difficult). This may be fine though if all you want is a cheap fire piston. If a brass liner is used and they don’t seal the bottom it probably won’t work very well (something to watch out for). If you are concerned about the deforestation of rain forests find out where the “exotic hardwoods” some sellers offer came from, not all are equal. Also with wood, make sure it has a good finish (not just stained) poor finishes not only look bad but will allow the wood to rot, breakdown in the sun and possibly crack.

Seals and Lubricants: Most o-rings are made from buna-N. This particular kind of rubber resists petroleum well and (from my experience) makes a good o-ring material. On the other hand, I have a fire piston with a gasket made from generic rubber sheeting (not buna-N) which after about a year or so was visibly degraded. If your fire piston uses inferior o-ring or gasket material consider upgrading it yourself or buying another fire piston. More  importantly, even more than o-ring/gasket material, is tight tolerances (tolerance is the acceptable deviation from a specific size. Ten thousandths, .010,  would be acceptable).  For this reason if you are going to buy a fire piston that uses either an o-ring or a gasket, make sure it is adjustable on the fly (in most cases this is done with a screw on the end). A friend of mine bought one that was not adjustable and it hardly worked because the manufacture had held such poor tolerances. Another very important point to consider with any kind of seal is whether or not it can be stored closed. Because fire pistons compress air at the bottom they will (if properly made) push the piston back up making it difficult to carry (i.e. it won’t close). Some fire piston makers solve this by making the o-ring/gasket adjustable on the fly, others use a string to break the seal, the former is preferable but the latter works as well. Classic designs utilize a string gasket. I currently have no experience with these. My intuition tells me that if these are properly made they are probably superior because they will soak up lubricant, keeping them from needing to be lubricated as often as modern materials do. Another useful property is their ability to be fashioned in the bush should it break.

How does it hold the tinder/coal: Probably 90% of fire pistons use some kind of cup/hole to hold the tinder. This is because it is easy to manufacture and it is traditional. This works fine but you will need some sort of prick to remove tinder once it is lit. Often times this can be accomplished with a narrow twig, sharpened at one end. You might even be able to get away with a knife on some designs but this isn’t practical for the majority of fire pistons because the hole is too deep and you’d easily gouge the wooden cup. Preferably the fire piston would come with a prick but this is rare; it would be easy to make one on your own anyway. An ebay seller that goes by the handle Ebprimitives’ sells fire pistons that actually use the grooves in phillips head screws to hold the tinder, which works well enough.

How easy is it to clean: Some sellers include some sort of device (usually a modified stick) to aid in cleaning the fire piston out. This doesn’t need to be done very often but cleaning will improve the life and functioning of a fire piston. See if the seller includes any cleaning device or instructions on how to clean it. This isn’t essential but would be nice.

How big do you want/need it: Size is important to consider. If it is too large you won’t want to take it with you. On the other hand if it is too small it will be hard to use. Try to find a fire piston about as long as your palm is wide. I find this to be a good balance between the two extremes. This may even be a little small for some users so find a stick that is comfortable in your hand and play with it being different lengths. This should help give you a good idea of the exact dimensions that work best for you.

Perks: A good seller will give you more than just a fire piston. At the very least it should include tinder and instructions. If it doesn’t it better be less than $20. Some sellers include other perks as well such as a extra o-rings, lubricant, etc. One important perk to look for is customer support. A good seller will stand by their product and offer a lifetime guarantee.

The following are ebay sellers I would suggest taking a look at:
-ebprimitives: I’ve personally bought one of his fire pistons and was impressed with the low price, good quality, and lots of perks (including tinder, lubricant, extra o-rings, instructions, cleaning stick, and a tinder starter container). You can find him here.

-FirepistonsRus: I have not purchased from this seller but I was impressed with his clever designs and apparent quality. Both this seller and ebprimitives have been reviewed by outdoors magazine but I was unable to locate the articles. You can find him here and on ebay.

Yes, you can ferment tea. It is apparently quite popular among health-food types. It is called kombucha. I’m not a health-food type nor would I recommend brewing this drink because of it’s dubious health benefits. I recommend brewing it because it is cheap (my first gallon totaled around 12 dollars), fun, and a good first step into the world of homebrewing. I got into homebrewing by homebrewing beer but I like brewing all kinds of things; basically if it involves yeast I will probably give it a shot (sourdough, beer, kombucha, you name it). Kombucha (unlike beer), only requires black tea (unflavored), sugar, distilled water, a gallon glass container to hold it, and “dish soap sanitation”. It also requires one other ingredient . . .  the mother. The mother is the term used to describe a white, gelled mass that forms on top of the tea and turns it into kombucha. Most places on the web recommend buying one or getting it from a friend but I didn’t know anyone who had one and I wasn’t real enthusiastic about buying one. Luckily I found a video here. I actually felt stupid it didn’t occur to me since this is the same idea as culturing your own yeast for homebrewing beer. But I digress . . . I thought today I’d give a brief tutorial on how to brew kombucha for under twelve dollars.

Bill of Materials:

-  1 gallon Jar (I bought a pickle jar and ate all the pickles) [Aprox. $5]
- 6 packets of plain Black tea (don’t substitute other teas) [Aprox. $2]
- 1 gallon of distilled water [Aprox. $1]
- 1 small kombucha beverage from your favorite hippie coffee shop [Aprox. $4]
- 1 cup of sugar (preferably white cane sugar) [free from neighbor]
-1 stirring stick
- 1 pot w/heat source
-  1 thermometer

Step 1:
In homebrewing sanitation is essential to a good brew. Since we are only making kombucha our sanitation doesn’t need to be as strict as in homebrewing beer, but it is still important. Wash everything that will come in contact with the brew (i.e. your hands, and gallon jar) with soap and water (you don’t really have to do this to the stirring stick or the pot as they will soon have boiling water in them).

Step 2:
Add roughly half of the gallon of distilled water to the pot and bring to a boil.

Step 3:
Pour in 1 cup of sugar, slowly stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Step 4:
Remove from heat and add the tea bags. You can leave them in as long as you would like (check here for recommended steeping times if you prefer).

Step 5:
Add the other half gallon of distilled water then check the temperature. if the water is above 95 degrees (F) let the mixture cool down to around 75-80 degrees (F). If the mix is above 100 degrees (F) and you add the kombucha you bought, you will kill your yeast friends and it will be all over (until you go back to the hippie coffee shop).

Step 6:
After making sure the proper temperature has been reached pour in the contents of the kombucha beverage you got at the hippie coffee shop.
Warning! If you pour hot water in the wrong kind of glass it can crack and break. Canning jars are made of the right kind of glass, store bought pickle jars probably aren’t. So make sure the water is below 80 degrees (F) before putting in the jar.

Step 7:
All you have to do now is cover the jar with a light cloth (I just used paper towel) and place in a warm room, out of direct sunlight. The brew will take between 1 and three weeks to brew. I let mine go about 2 weeks, or when the brew starts to smell vinegary. After the first week a thin film should begin to form on top of the brew. This is your “mother” and will be needed to brew future batches so don’t get rid of it! It may look gross but it is perfectly safe (as long as you don’t let it mold, which is not very likely given the acidity of it). If you wait much longer then two weeks the PH will fall below 2 and not really be much good for drinking; it could be used like vinegar though. If you have any questions or comments feel free to post.