I think everyone by now is at least passingly familiar with the hand drill method for making fire. man using a hand drill It’s a pop culture trope that has been in circulation for decades: a poor‚ bedraggled survivor or a primitive tribesman kneeling over a board with a stick‚ furiously rubbing it between his hands to generate enough friction to start a fire. And believe me‚ it’s not just a conceit in storytelling: The method actually works‚ and has been around since ancient times. It’s nice to know that you can start a fire using nothing more than a couple of pieces of wood‚ but I will warn you it isn’t easy‚ and it requires tons of practice and endurance in equal measure. Nonetheless‚ it is a great skill to have in your survival repertoire. Keep reading and I’ll tell you how to build a fire using the classic hand drill method. Tools and Materials You don’t need much to make both parts of a hand drill system. A couple of choice pieces of wood‚ a cutting tool‚ and of course tinder and fuel for the fire. Hardwood Stick: you need a good‚ hardwood stick that is about 24 inches in length and the diameter of your pinky to serve as the drill itself. This stick should be as straight as you can find and also as free as possible of imperfections like knots‚ broken branches‚ and so forth. Remember that you’ll be spinning this stick between the palms of your hands over and over again at a high speed‚ so any blemishes can quickly turn into hot spots and then blisters. Softwood Plank: you need a flat piece of softwood that is about ½ an inch thick to serve as the hearth. That’s a fancy term for the piece of wood that you will drill your stick into. If you can find a suitable piece‚ great‚ but if not‚ you can make one by batoning or chopping a rough board from a large branch or smaller tree trunk. Knife: a sturdy camp or field knife is all you will need to gather‚ carve‚ and then refine both components of your hand drill. Sharp is better‚ as is a knife with a nice‚ fine point because there are a couple of steps that require close control and intricate carving. Hatchet (Optional): if you don’t have a knife‚ you can handle all of these tasks with a hatchet. Even if you do have a knife‚ a hatchet is very useful for splitting a branch to make the hearth. Tinder: as always‚ you need tinder to start a fire effectively. In the case of a hand drill‚ it is vital because you’ll want the coal to spill off of the hearth and directly into your tinder bundle for ignition. Firewood: if you’re going to have a fire‚ you’ll need firewood or some other fuel. Use whatever is at hand and build it in the way that is best for you. Just make sure your fuel is good‚ set and ready to be ignited by the tinder. This is a labor-intensive process‚ and you won’t get a do-over if you mess it up. And that’s it. Assuming you have the tools‚ you’ll be able to gather everything else you need easily and quickly. Now‚ time to get on to business. Making a Fire with a Hand Drill‚ Step-by-Step The following steps will walk you through crafting and then using a hand drill to start a fire. Step 1: find the right stick. Remember‚ you’re looking for a hardwood stick to serve as the drill. Ideally‚ it should be about 2 feet long‚ the diameter of your pinky‚ completely straight and very smooth. measuring stick against pinky Test the wood with your thumbnail if you aren’t sure what kind it is; hardwood is unlikely to dent under pressure. Step 2: smooth the drill. Using your knife‚ remove any rough bark‚ knots‚ raised spots‚ branches‚ and anything else that will interfere with use or facilitate blisters. Step 3: carve blunt end on drill. Using your cutting tool‚ carve a blunt end on the drill. This should be a rounded surface that’s something like a pool cue in shape‚ and mates very closely in the depression you just carved in the hearth in the previous step. Take your time‚ get this right‚ and try to maximize the surface area contact on both. This will greatly increase friction and heat generation. Step 4: prepare the hearth. Assuming you couldn’t find a suitable piece of wood‚ you can use your knife or a hatchet to make one from a thick branch or small trunk. The hearth should be about a foot and a half long and no thicker than ½ inch where you’ll be drilling. Step 5: carve notch in hearth. Using your cutting tool‚ carve an even‚ v-shaped notch on one long side near the end. On the opposite end‚ make sure there is enough room for you to plant a foot to keep it stable. Step 6: carve bowl. Using the tip of your knife‚ carve a shallow‚ smooth bowl-shaped depression at the point of the V you carved in the previous step. This bowl should be a little wider than the width of your stick‚ but not so wide that it allows the end of the stick to skitter around. Step 7: Place tinder. Prepare your tinder bundle and place it on a thin piece of wood or sturdy bark immediately beneath the notch you carved in the hearth. This will allow your ember to spill out of the notch and directly into the tinder‚ hopefully igniting it. Make sure you have a way to safely handle it when it ignites. See pic for details. IMG_3009 Step 8: prepare firewood. Get your firewood set and conveniently nearby‚ because you’ll be taking the tinder to it straight away after it catches. Make sure everything else is in order. Step 9: start drilling. Place the rounded end of the drill in the corresponding depression on the hearth: Kneel over it‚ placing one foot on the hearth to hold everything still. Now‚ starting at the top of the drill‚ put your hands together like you are praying‚ then rub them back and forth like you’re trying to warm them up as you slide them down the length of the drill. When you get to the bottom‚ immediately go back to the top and repeat the process. Step 10: keep on drilling! Maintaining downward pressure on the drill at all times as you repeat Step 9‚ keep your senses alert: If you smell burning wood‚ that’s a good sign‚ and likewise‚ you should see dust start to accumulate‚ turn brown‚ then black. You cannot stop! Step 11: observe for ember and smoke. Look closely and see if you can spot a tiny‚ glowing ember just ahead of the drill. This will usually be accompanied by some thick curls of smoke. Once you think you’ve got it‚ move on‚ but don’t stop drilling until you do. Step 12: dump ember into tinder. Depending on where precisely the ember formed on the hearth‚ you might need to carefully dump the glowing ember into your tinder. Step 13: blow on tinder. Carefully‚ gently cup the tender around the ember and then blow on it to feed the fire. Work quickly but carefully so you don’t smother it or blow it out. Step 14: Place tinder in firewood. Once the tinder has caught‚ carefully and quickly move it to your firewood and place it where it is needed. Use a little bit of kindling or extra tinder until the fire is going properly. Step 15: finished! Congratulations‚ you have successfully created a fire using one of the oldest primitive methods known to man. You’re probably a sweating‚ gasping mess by this time but at least you aren’t going to die of exposure in the night. Helpful Tips Endurance is Everything It’s difficult to overstate just how taxing this method is when it comes to fire starting. Believe me; you’ll look at your lighter with new appreciation! Accordingly‚ if you aren’t fit or are easily winded this isn’t a method you can depend on to save your life. Make Sure Your Wood is Dry There’s so much that can go wrong with this method that it pays to make sure everything is perfect. Your stick‚ your hearth‚ your tinder‚ and your firewood should be perfectly dry for best results. Don’t Overreact A common mistake I see with this method is that people get excited when they spot an ember and then they overreact‚ spilling it into the grass‚ losing it‚ putting it out accidentally‚ or generally just fumbling and fouling things up. Remember‚ keep your wits about you and move quickly but smoothly and delicately. That ember can easily die if you aren’t careful! That means you have to start all over… The post Making a Fire with the Hand Drill Method appeared first on Survival Sullivan.

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Join Patriot Nurse in this critical analysis shedding light on the looming storm heading into the 2024 presidential election in the United States. With recent events in Israel and Gaza rekindling BLM riots and familiar Marxist unrest‚ a concerning pattern emerges. This insightful discussion delves into the resurgence of chaos orchestrated by these forces and emphasizes the urgent need for preparation. Learn how to safeguard against potential chaos and brace for what may culminate in a civil war. Discover vital insights on how to protect yourself and your loved ones in these uncertain times. SIGN UP for Herbal Preparedness Online Course: https://www.thepatriotnurse.com/pages/herbal-preparedness-course Foundations of Medical Preparedness Online Course: https://www.patriotnurseacademy.com/the-patriot-nurse-academy Herbs and Essential Oils For Sale: https://www.thepatriotnurse.com/collections/herbal-supplies Paypal: https://bit.ly/39hs23m Patreon: https://bit.ly/2D9IIfJ Subscribestar: https://bit.ly/2RESD4S Bitcoin: 3FxJWbSL9nFSMRgymSsicniPxTPd26Kuvj Ethereum: 0x5134d6f2700Fa21cEcE6ED1ABDE240b3B320bDDd Litecoin: MC1qkabuDXGCrjNcXwxvz5qgtsFGVpXYKF Take my CLASS: https://bit.ly/2U36EpA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepatriotnurse Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePatriotNurse Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePatriotNurse

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Funny how we keep hearing stories about the rich and powerful preparing for Armageddon all while telling people like us that there is nothing to worry about and even censoring those of us that dare to tell the truth. LINK: https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-inside-hawaii-compound/ cash.app/$pinballpreparedness Pinball Preparedness PO Box 93 Sharps Chapel‚ TN 37866 pinballpreparedness@mail2world.com #zuckerberg #bunker #prepping #SHTF #war

The first stars of the Universe were monstrous beasts. Comprised only of hydrogen and helium‚ they could be 300 times more massive than the Sun. Within them‚ the first of the heavier elements were formed‚ then cast off into the cosmos at the end of their short lives. They were the seeds of all the stars and planets we see today. A new study suggests these ancient progenitors created more than just the natural elements. Except for hydrogen‚ helium‚ and a few traces of other light elements‚ all of the atoms we see around us were created through astrophysical processes‚ such as supernovae‚ collisions of neutron stars‚ and high-energy particle collisions. Together they created heavier elements up to Uranium-238‚ which is the heaviest naturally occurring element. Uranium is formed in supernova and neutron star collisions through what is known as the r-process‚ where neutrons are rapidly captured by atomic nuclei to become a heavier element. The r-process is complex‚ and there is still much we don’t understand about just how it occurs‚ or what its upper mass-limit might be. This new study‚ however‚ suggests that the r-process in the very first stars could have produced much heavier elements with atomic masses greater than 260. R-process nucleosynthesis. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory The team looked at 42 stars in the Milky Way for which the elemental composition is well understood. Rather than simply looking for the presence of heavier elements‚ they looked at the relative abundances of elements across all the stars. They found that the abundance of some elements such as silver and rhodium doesn’t agree with the predicted abundance from known r-process nucleosynthesis. The data suggests that these elements are the decay remnants from much heavier nuclei of more than 260 atomic mass units. In addition to the r-process of rapid neutron capture‚ there are two other ways to create heavy atomic nuclei: the p-process where neutron-rich nuclei capture protons‚ and the s-process where a seed nucleus can capture a neutron. But neither of these can create a rapid build-up in mass necessary for elements beyond uranium. And it’s only in the hypermassive first-generation stars that r-process nucleosynthesis could have generated such elements. Thus‚ the study suggests that the r-process could create elements well beyond uranium‚ and likely did so within the first stars of the Universe. Unless there is an island of stability for some of these ultra-heavy elements‚ they will have long since decayed into the natural elements we see today. But the fact that they once existed will help scientists better understand the r-process and its limits. Reference: Roederer‚ Ian U.‚ et al. “Element abundance patterns in stars indicate fission of nuclei heavier than uranium.” Science 382.6675 (2023): 1177-1180. The post Ancient Stars Could Make Elements With More Than 260 Protons appeared first on Universe Today.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is already making great strides in helping us to unravel the mysteries of the Universe. Earlier this year‚ hundreds of rogue planets were discovered in the Orion Nebula. The real surprise to this discovery was that 9% of the planets were paired up in wide binary pairs. To understand how this binary planets formed‚ astronomers simulated various scenarios for their formation.  As their name suggests‚ rogue planets are wanderers. They do not orbit around a star‚ and they are not gravitationally bound to one‚ they simply wander around the cosmos. The first rogue planets were discovered in 2000 by the UK team Lucas and Roche using the UK InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT). They were discovered in the Orion Nebula but more recently‚ JWST has been exploring the region too.  Back in December 2021‚ JWST was launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.  It then coasted off to its destination‚ a point in solar orbit near one of the Earth-Sun Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometres away. Since then it has been exploring the universe and in particular‚ taking a look at the rogue planets in the Orion Nebula.  Artist impression of the James Webb Space Telescope The team led by Simon F. Portegies Zwart‚ from Netherlands‚ announced the discovery of 42 Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects (JuMBOs) in the direction of the Trapezium cluster in the heart of the nebula. Among the objects‚ their masses range from 0.6 times the mass of Jupiter to 14 times and their separations vary between 25 and 380 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun).  They also observed 540 single objects of similar ranging masses. These latter individual objects have been detected previously about twenty years ago but the JuMBO’s are new. Stars form out of the collapse of giant molecular clouds through gravitational instability and during their formation‚ disks form around their equator. The disks ultimately collapse to form planets with lower mass. There are current theories to suggest Jupiter mass objects may for independently but the consensus is that they are ejected from planetary systems. The team explore just how the JuMBO systems form. Artist’s depiction of a protoplanetary disk with young planets forming around a star. The right-side panel zooms in to show various nitrile molecules that are accreting onto a planet. To understand this the team ran simulations of star clusters similar to that found in the Orion Nebula. The model the team considered included those where planets form around stars and the simulation showed how many free floating planets could be formed but not enough pairs to match observations. When the team ran simulations with planet-moon systems orbiting a star‚ they found a much better result to match observations. It seems then that the JuMBOs are planet-moon systems that have been ejected from what might be considered a conventional solar system.  Source : The origin and evolution of wide Jupiter Mass Binary Objects in young stellar clusters The post What’s the Source of Binary Rogue Planets? appeared first on Universe Today.

The search for life is tied to the search for liquid water. That’s why astronomers are so keen on detecting rocky‚ Earth-like exoplanets in their stars’ habitable zones. In a habitable zone‚ a planet receives enough energy from its star to maintain liquid water on its surface‚ given the right atmospheric conditions. But in our Solar System‚ we’ve found worlds with liquid water that are way beyond the habitable zone. Can we do the same in other solar systems? One way to find a subsurface ocean in an icy world is to detect plumes. We’ve found icy plumes erupting from Enceladus and Europa‚ two of our Solar System’s icy ocean moons. We have no possibility of seeing the same plumes on distant exoplanets to determine if they have oceans under ice. We’ve found cryovolcanic plumes on two of our Solar System’s frozen ocean moons. The image on the left shows cryovolcanic eruptions at the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The Hubble image on the right shows cryovolcanic plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image Credit Left: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Image Credit Right: NASA/L. Roth  But some NASA scientists think they may have found another way to determine which exoplanets might have interior oceans. Even though we know of more than 5‚000 exoplanets‚ we’ve never really seen any of them. There are some directly imaged exoplanets‚ but they’re little more than dots. They’re interesting‚ but we can’t learn much from them. We certainly can’t tell if they harbour oceans. This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light‚ as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. Though direct images of exoplanets like this are an important step‚ they don’t reveal much about the nature of the planet. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA‚ A Carter (UCSC)‚ the ERS 1386 team‚ and A. Pagan (STScI). While we can’t actually see exoplanets in the normal sense of the word‚ some research scientists have figured out a way to at least determine which exoplanets may have interior oceans under ice. There’s a vast number of exoplanets out there‚ and this type of work helps astronomers know what exoplanets to focus on. These results are in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal titled “Prospects for Cryovolcanic Activity on Cold Ocean Planets.” The lead author is Lynnae Quick from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt‚ Maryland. On an ocean world with an icy shell‚ tidal heating and the radioactive decay of elements in the world’s core provides the heat that keeps the buried ocean from freezing. Water should sometimes erupt through cracks in the icy shells on these worlds‚ creating cryovolcanic plumes like the ones on Enceladus and Europa. The trick is to figure out which exoplanets might have oceans under icy shells. The research team determined that 17 known exoplanets could be icy ocean worlds. They used albedo estimates based on Europa and Enceladus to identify the 17 exoplanets. The researchers also calculated the tidal heating based on their orbits and estimated the radiogenic heating from the decay of radioactive elements‚ partly based on the elemental makeup of asteroids in our Solar System. They also calculated the amount of geyser activity on each one. “Our analyses predict that these 17 worlds may have ice-covered surfaces but receive enough internal heating from the decay of radioactive elements and tidal forces from their host stars to maintain internal oceans‚” said lead author Quick. “Thanks to the amount of internal heating they experience‚ all planets in our study could also exhibit cryovolcanic eruptions in the form of geyser-like plumes.” Two often-studied exoplanets are at the top of the list for cryovolcanism: Proxima Centauri b and LHS 1140 b. This pair could have hundreds to thousands of times more cryovolcanic activity than Europa. Three of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are also among the 17. Readers who follow exoplanet news might recognize some others: Kepler-62f‚ Kepler-1652b‚ and GJ-514b. All of the planets on the list are roughly Earth-sized‚ with densities that suggest they’re not entirely rocky. Each of them could have considerable amounts of ice and water. Since they’re all much colder than Earth‚ it’s likely that their surfaces are frozen over‚ much like Europa and Enceladus. There are two ways that these planets can experience cryovolcanism‚ and it depends on the thickness of the ice shells. These ocean worlds with frozen crusts are not static. Planets with icy shells likely get almost all of their heat from internal sources‚ as most starlight would be reflected away. Tidal heating varies as a planet orbits its star unless its orbit is perfectly circular. This figure from the research shows the total internal heating for the 17 exoplanets‚ with Europa‚ Earth‚ and Io included for comparison. “Every planet that we have considered receives more heating from tidal and radiogenic sources than Europa‚ which is cryovolcanically and tectonically active‚ and maintains an ocean beneath its icy shell‚” the authors write. Image Credit: Quick et al. 2023. On a planet with a thicker ice crust‚ liquid water can work its way into the ice shell as tidal heating conditions vary over time‚ forming pockets of liquid water that contain volatiles. Sometimes‚ these pockets of water can erupt through a weakness in the icy shell. On planets with thinner shells‚ the water can erupt directly from the ocean itself. This schematic from the research helps show how liquid water can erupt through an icy shell. The top panel shows water erupting through thin (<;10 km thick) ice shells by the exsolution of volatiles from water-filled fractures connected to a subsurface ocean. The bottom panel shows water erupting from isolated pockets of water in the ice on planets with thicker ice shells. Image Credit: Quick et al. 2023. The ice thickness helps determine the amount of cryogenic activity‚ and the researchers determined the likely thickness of shells for the 17 exoplanets. A planet’s temperature determines its thickness‚ and the researchers determined that surface temperatures for the planets in the sample were lower than thought‚ up to 33 degrees Celsius (60 F) lower in some cases. Proxima B’s icy shell is only about 58 meters (190 ft) thick‚ and LHS-1140b’s shell is only 1.6 km (1 mile) thick. On the other end of the scale is MOA 2007 BLG 192Lb with a shell about 38.6 km (24 miles) thick. For comparison‚ Europa’s icy shell is about 29 km (18 miles) thick. What does this tell us? “Since our models predict that oceans could be found relatively close to the surfaces of Proxima Centauri b and LHS 1140 b‚ and their rate of geyser activity could exceed Europa’s by hundreds to thousands of times‚ telescopes are most likely to detect geological activity on these planets‚” lead author Quick explained. We don’t have any images of Proxima Centauri b‚ only artists’ illustrations of what the surface of the planet could look like. Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser When it comes to Proxima Centauri b‚ there’s been a lot of uncertainty. The only thing we know for sure is that it’s firmly inside what astronomers think of as the classical habitable zone. Beyond that‚ we aren’t certain if it’s tidally locked to its star‚ though that may be likely. If it is‚ that changes everything about its temperature‚ atmosphere‚ and the state of any water it might have held onto. It could have planet-wide oceans or only smaller isolated bodies of water. It could be partially or totally frozen‚ with a liquid ocean underneath the ice. Or it could be all dry land. But if this new research is correct‚ then the search for habitable planets has a more viable target much nearer to Earth than we thought. Earth hosts communities of life at hydrothermal vents in its deep oceans‚ isolated from sunlight. It’s plausible that the same thing can happen on icy ocean worlds. “All of the planets considered in this study are large enough and experience enough internal heating for them to contain subsurface oceans at varying depths beneath external ice shells and for them to host active geological processes‚ notably cryovolcanism‚” the authors write in their conclusion. “If experience with the ocean worlds in our solar system is any indicator‚ the thin ice shells we have estimated for Proxima Cen b‚ Trappist-1f‚ and all of the Kepler planets in our study suggest that any eruption products vented into space during episodes of explosive cryovolcanism on these worlds would issue directly from their subsurface oceans.” That puts these worlds into the same category as Europa. And we’ve detected rocky particles‚ salts‚ and organic chemicals in Europa’s plumes. If we can detect plumes on any of these planets‚ they’ll contain direct evidence of the makeup of their oceans. New telescopes coming online soon will be able to see Proxima Centauri b. The Giant Magellan Telescope will come online in the next few years and will have the resolving power to easily see PCb. “The angular separation of the closest known exoplanet‚ Proxima b‚ from Proxima Centauri‚ is easily within reachof the GMT with adaptive optics‚” the GMT website says. It’s possible that the powerful telescope will detect any cryovolcanic plumes that escape from the ocean. This illustration shows what the Giant Magellan Telescope will look like when it comes online. This powerful telescope will be able to image some exoplanets‚ including Proxima Centauri b. Image: Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation Astronomy will change when the GMT and our other newer‚ more powerful telescopes come online over the next few years. And if the GMT can measure geyser activity on Proxima Centauri b and if it finds a lot of it‚ the search for life will change‚ too. Rather than focusing on the classical habitable zone around stars‚ we can consider planets further out‚ where life-supporting oceans might exist and persist under icy caps. If astronomers can figure out a way to detect more plumes and to measure what’s in them‚ then the search for life will take a giant step forward. The post 17 Known Exoplanets Could Have Oceans of Liquid Water appeared first on Universe Today.