As someone who has built airplane models since I was a kid (and still do when I can) I am always fascinated and intrigued by books on the early days of airplane technology.

The people who built and flew these early rickety and fragile machines were either incredibly courageous or incredibly foolhardy and insane… perhaps a combination of all three.

I’ve just added a few more books on building aeroplanes as they were called early on. These are specific books on the construction and design of aeroplanes that pretty much encompass everything that was known in the first decade or so of the 1900s.

I’ve updated the Category ZIP file and finally found the code that was excluding the .ZIP files. WHY I excluded them originally I have NO IDEA but it’s now fixed

The Librarian

I just added 20 new Sliderule books to the Sliderules Category. Nothing major just some more instruction manuals I have run across for various makes and models of sliderules.

To me one of basic essential supply for long term survival are some sliderules tucked away. Keep any eye out at yard sales and estate sales. They can often be picked up for a couple dollars. Alternately you can print out some of the Slide Rule Images in the Category and make your own.

Truth is pretty much any manual for any sliderule can teach you the basics of how to use one. Some makes and models have unique tables on them for particular functions that another might not but once you grasp the basic functions of one you can use pretty much any other.

The circular sliderules are a bit different than a standard straight one since the tables wrap around and allow some functionality that a straight line one doesn’t. That is quite specialized however and if you look at any of the thousands of pictures of NASA Engineers working on getting man to the Moon it’s rare to see a circular rule.

As to what sliderules have to do with anything… there won’t be any calculators after an EMP or other collapse that takes out the grid. Sliderules however got us to the Moon. They built Hoover Dam and the Interstates and pretty much every airplane and automobile prior to the 80s. They are simple, robust and basically just a couple pieces of wood with printing on them… yet powerful enough to design spaceships and airplanes and massive industrial infrastructure. They were really only abandoned in the 70s and 80s as they were replaced by Electronic Calculators.

The Librarian

p.s. The Zip file in the Category has been updated too though for some reason it doesn’t show up in the Last 30 Days pages. Looking into that.

We had to travel up to Duke University yesterday to consult with a Doctor there. It’s about a 2.5 hour trip, Interstate to within a couple miles of the destination and no big deal except navigating the narrow, twisty streets around Duke itself. I used the map app on my phone which is something I actually only started doing about a year or so ago. Prior to that I plotted out routes and printed paper maps as I have my whole life.

We stopped at a Rest Stop on the way and I noticed that the only map there was on a wall behind plexiglass. I remembered so many trips over the years when I’d always grab a State map when at a Rest Stop. Every Gas station had a map display with local State maps and maps of surrounding States. My car ALWAYS had multiple maps in a pouch and I remember many episodes of sitting in a parking lot or on the side of the road poring over the unfolded Map to plan the next route or to get back to where I SHOULD have been before the wrong turn (which of course was ALWAYS my wife’s or kid’s fault).

We laughed about the fact that without the Internet and Google Maps most People today would be totally lost and unable to get ANYWHERE outside their local neighborhood. Then it struck me that since starting to use that app I too no longer had any Maps in the car. It actually sent a chill up my spine to realize I was over 100 miles from home and had NO paper maps in my possession or readily available even though I knew the rest of the way home on Interstate 40.

So I’m ordering paper maps of North Carolina and neighboring States today. In the short term I’m printing out the North Caroline Map on Ledger Paper on my wide format printer and taping the pages together so that I once again have at least ONE paper map of the region in which I live.

After looking only a few minutes I did find this site where you can order Free Paper Maps of most States.

Free State Maps & Travel Guides

Get some!!!

The Librarian

I got into a discussion a couple days ago with someone who firmly and sincerely believes that a Carrington Event level EMP (or something else that collapses our current civilization) will  finally usher in the advent of PERMANENT, TRUE, AUTHENTIC Socialism among the survivors.

I has to disagree with him but he remains fixed in his belief. I freely admit that within a Nuclear Family there is often a sort of Socialism as there is among some small tribes and other small groups.

Most American “Communes” from the 60s eventually transformed into Corporations if they developed a marketable product or service. They ones that didn’t almost all ultimately failed.

Israel’s Kibbutzim often practiced a sort of “Socialism/Communism” and some maintained that system for a long, long time. However… most abandoned it as it became clear that the standard of living they produced came no where near what those outside enjoyed. They also had the special advantage of being able to expel anyone who failed to contribute sufficiently and members could choose to leave that any time. Both benefited from there being an “outside” to which members could move or to which members could be expelled.

The Kibbutzim model of “Socialism/Communism” just like the Amish model of simplicity and disengagement from modern Society is only possible in the context of a larger industrial society which provides the infrastructure and services upon which both depend.

The ultimate flaw inherent in Socialism is quite clear and obvious… Human Nature. At the Family Level the main Provider (I’ll say HE… feel free to substitute HER if you like) quickly discovers that no matter how hard he works he cannot better his family’s standard of living. His priority will ALWAYS be the wellbeing of his Family and not the “Common Good”. Few Fathers or Mothers will sacrifice the wellbeing of their children for the good of others. That fact of Human Nature has not changed in millennia.

Every individual discovers that doing the minimum amount of work required produces the same results as working hard. In most larger Socialist Societies like the Asian and European Countries mired in it during the 20th Century workers indeed discovered that they could and WOULD usually be punished by co-workers if they worked harder than necessary as it often resulted in everyone being expected to work harder.

The biggest flaw of all was when the concept of “according to one’s Needs” was interpreted by those with the power to manage what people receive… they ALWAYS determined that those with that power deserved more.

So yea… Socialism DOES work… in small groups where the goal is simple survival and no one actually expects to receive more than minimal subsistence. Once a society grows beyond that simple subsistence level it begins to fail… and usually brutally and violently.

After a collapse I suspect most of the people who survive will be nuclear Families as they have the best chance. If not Nuclear Families by blood then small Tribal groups that trust and support one another. Once a number of those small groups begin to coalesce into villages and towns Capitalism and Self Interest will reemerge as the driving economic model…. again… HUMAN NATURE.

Feel free to disagree with me but study History before you do.

The Librarian

Now that I have the Print Shop a bit better organized I’m wondering if there is any interest in bound copies of the 1901 McGuffey Reader 1-5 and the Ray’s Arithmetic 1-8? (I’ll be adding the Ray’s Arithmetic books soon.)

I looked on Amazon and the prices on each set is over $100 which strikes me as a bit extreme. I think I can print and bind them for significantly less than that. If there is any interest please let me know since it means spending a few days sitting at the computer formatting and cleaning up the image files for printing.

I could also make the print sets available to those interested though I would have to do some tinkering and experimentation because while the Book of the Farm prints well on 8.5″x11″ paper the McGuffeys and Rays are really formatted for about a 5.5″x6.8″ though I imagine 5.5″x8.5″ would work.

The Librarian

Sorry about that. I added the new Category but forgot to create and add the zip file for it. It’s there now.

The Librarian

Our schedule has calmed down a bit and become more predictable over the long term so I have more time to spend on the site now that our time is more settled. I’ll be active again and working on the site as time is available.

I’ve added a new Category named History_World. These are some files I have been working on now and again and I realized that I had them complete except for one. There is one more but it needs some serious reformatting. I’ll get to that one as I have time too.

The modern “Histories” of the world that I’ve looked at have little or no resemblance to the history we were taught back in the 50s and 60s. Most modern “Histories” have been rewritten to support and promote specific Political and Ideological Agendas. Sometimes  reading modern Histories is like reading a SciFi novel of an alternate world like Phillip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle”.

Some of them are so far out there as to be ludicrous like Zinn’s “People’s History of America” which borders on the intellectually obscene. There are some seriously sick people out there rewriting our history. It’s no wonder so many people hate the country and our entire culture.

Regardless the New Category is there or you can just use the Last 30 Days search to see them.

The Librarian

p.s. I have about 20 new SlideRule Manuals to add after a bit of cleanup.

And most of you probably saw in various news reports there was an X-5 Flare yesterday which produced a significant CME that arrived at Earth last night just as two other, smaller, CMEs arrived.

The result was a some rather spectacular Northern Lights that were seen as far south as here in North Carolina. We personally couldn’t view them as we live in the woods and would have had to drive to the beach late at night to get a clear view of the Northern sky. Plenty of people are posting images of them in every Social Media network.

I ran across this article this morning while drinking my tea and thought I’d post it. What’s notable about it, at least to my mind, is the lack of real understanding of that which he is writing about. Sort of in line with “Oh look a two headed calf!” It has a decent write up of what flares and CME are and even references the Carrington Event so the writer did so his research.

What really struck me though was the line…”We are, quite literally, one severe solar storm away from living off-grid.”

“Living off-grid”?… Not… a Total Collapse of Technological Civilization? Not… the death of 95% of the the Human Race? Not… a worldwide collapse into barbarism and anarchy?

“…living off-grid.” Sounds almost…. Romantic.

Still, all in all it’s a decent article, which does address the issue well up to that point.

https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/11/11/solar-fury-what-the-suns-x51-flare-means-for-earth-n4945887

The Librarian