Homework 11: Trend Analysis, Weather Prediction, and Zombies

1) Under the heading "Question 1," "1," "Answer 1," or anything like that, discuss briefly the applicability or inapplicability of the discussion from Monday 10/26 to your project.

Answer 1:
Trend Analysis would likely be used during the initial outbreak. I’m sure the CDC would be using it to track the spread of the disease. After civilization breaks down I’m not sure any one person could obtain enough data to be conducting trend analysis.

2) Under the heading "2" or something like that, discuss briefly the applicability or inapplicability of the discussion from Wednesday 10/28 to your project.

Answer 2:
Once the grid shuts down weather prediction, control, and software bugs won’t really exist any more. Well, survivors are likely to try to predict rain, but weather prediction like we have now will not be possible. Funny that we can predict the weather better now, then in the situation where it would really matter.

3) Advance your project. Under the heading "3," etc., place the new things.

Research on apocalyptic technology that can keep us alive and healthy:

Solar Cooking and Clean Water:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-cooking1.htm

Humans need cooked food. We don’t process raw food efficiently and raw meat makes us sick. Without the grid how will we survive? With solar cooking works. We can use sunlight instead of gas or electricity to cook our food. Now of course, sunlight isn’t hot enough on its own. We need a box cooker. A box cooker is basically a sun-powered oven. The inside of the box needs to be dark so black material should be used. We also need a piece of glass or transparent plastic for the top. Additional metallic or mirrored reflectors are often placed around the oven to direct more light into it. Oh, its works best if the box is airtight.

Now to cook, all we have to do is place a pot of food in the box. The sunrays will pass through the glass top, hit the dark materials inside the box, which will absorb the heat, trapping it inside the box. The box cooker can reach temperatures of 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

An alternative is the parabolic cooker which is a little better as it can reach temperatures of 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Basically, you use a reflector shaped a bit like a satellite to direct sunrays at a single point. A pot is suspended above the reflector at this point. And wala! Dinner is severed!

Only one drawback: won’t work without the sun. So no cooking at night, or on cloudy or rainy days.

Doug and I will be creating a solar cooker over Thanksgiving Break to test this technology. We’ll bring it with us to the presentation and let you know how it went.


Starting a Fire:
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-start-a-fire.htm

During a zombie apocalypse I would think we would have access to lighters and matches. However, during the initial chaos much of Little Rock’s resources would be stolen and destroyed. We may need to make-do without. So how will we start a fire without lighters or matches?

First, we must pick a good location. A good location is defined by:

Dry
Flat
Wind protected
Close to our fuel
Close to our shelter
Close to our water source
(In the case of our urban fire) cleared of things that can catch fire
Inaccessible to zombies

For those who do not know the basics of building a fire: you need tinder, kindling, and fuel. Tinder is your easily ignited fire starter (think newspaper). Kindling is a bit bigger (think bits of broken wood and twigs). That goes on next to help the fire grow. Once you have a nice little fire you add your fuel (think logs).

Again, we can use the sun. If we have a lens or a highly polished surface that will do the job. All we would need to do is direct sunrays at our tinder. We could also use a battery to create sparks over the tinder.