The Bolt Depot

The Bolt Depot, Nuts and Bolts by the piece, box, or bulk.

Bolt Depot began as J.T. Cazeault and Sons; a family-owned hardware store. The doors opened in 1949 with a focus on marine and industrial fasteners.

J.T. Cazeault and Sons was located on a road known as "Gasoline Alley" because of the number of repair shops in the area. This flurry of fix and repair activity combined with the owner's interest in nuts and bolts and the needs of a local fishing fleet created an ever expanding fastener selection. The store earned a reputation in the south shore of Boston for stocking a large variety of fasteners.

Construction later began on a large chain hardware store down the street. Jordan Cazeault, the son of the original owner, knew that something would need to be done to make up for the expected loss of foot traffic. He came up with an idea: BoltDepot.com

In the summer of 2000, Michael Åhs, a friend of the family, joined and together they developed and launched BoltDepot.com. Since then, it has exceeded all expectations. Doing more business than the hardware store ever did, the hardware inventory was completely phased out and the focus shifted exclusively to fasteners.

True to its roots, Bolt Depot continues to maintain its family owned atmosphere and commitment to service.

If you need a fastener, the odds are BoltDepot will have it.

If you are unsure of the teminology of the various fasteners, check out their Charts and Tables with useful fastener information.

Also make sure to try the free Printable Fastener Tools.

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Brute Force and Ignorance

Brute Force and Ignorance is the Solarflower blog. The Solarflower is an open source solar energy collector which can be made very easily from common recycled and salvaged materials, using basic tools and skills.

It can be made almost anywhere, is portable, involves no inputs or emissions and has no real limit on how much power it can produce.

Applications include electrical generation, water purification, cooking, bio-char and charcoal, heating, gasification, and whatever else heat can be used for.

The blog covers a LOT of alternative things, from Solar showers to super-simpkle greenhouses to home-made Sporks and is worth a look for anyone interested in off-grid living.

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Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor

Chaos Manor: Mr Pournelle is ALWAYS worth reading. His SF novels are superb, and his musings and commentary on modern life and technology give a clearer picture of events than anyone else I have found. Found here are extensive discussions on technology and civilization, education, the space program, the future of freedom, etc. With contributions by a lot of smart people.  In general this site assumes interest in rational discussion of technology and civilization. 

When I greet someone with "Welcome to Chaos!" as they enter the store, I am paying homage to JP.

 

 "This is my personal journal and day book. Subjects include civilization and technology, strategy, climate, energy policy, space access, and other issues that interest me. The Mail section is very wide ranging and one of the best on the Internet. For computer related reviews and mail, see Chaos Manor Reviews, which is a continuation of the old BYTE column I began in 1980 with BYTE Magazine."

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World Nuclear News

The World Nuclear News. If it's nuclear and in the news, it's covered here -- and in more depth than the MSN gives. It is an all-facts, no BS, site.

WNN is the free online service dedicated to covering developments related to nuclear power. Established in 2007, WNN has grown rapidly to welcome over 40, 000 individual readers to the website each month while free daily and weekly emails both reach more than 17, 000 people.

The goal of WNN is use plain English to place comprehensive coverage of nuclear power in context using background information, expert commentary and links to relevant authoritative sources. Articles are researched from original sources and written in-house by experienced journalists.


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Alex Jones' Prison Planet

Prison Planet is talk show host Alex Jones' website. Jones has been called a right-wing, conservative, conspiracy theorist but describes himself as a libertarian and not a right-winger. He has also called himself a non-partisan paleoconservative.

In any case, PP is a news site and does highlight some items and issues that the MSN skips over. Most of the content is straight news reporting with a separate commentary section where he and other Libertarian give their slant on things.

There are also new flashes like this:
"We are getting numerous reports from readers that stocks of potassium iodide, which is used to protect the body against the effects of nuclear fallout, are completely sold out across the United States. Checks of health supplement websites in the U.S. also confirmed that stocks are completely exhausted."

Yeah, it is worth a read, and maybe worth bookmarking.

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The Consumerist, Where Shoppers Bite Back.

The Consumerist is a consumer affairs blog owned by Consumers Union and featurng editorial posts and posts from regular daily contributors. The blog's focus is on consumerism and consumers' experiences and issues with companies and corporations, concentrating mostly on U.S. consumers.

Some of the topics of its blog entries are originated by the editors, but most come from reader-submitted tips and complaints.

 Shopping tips, exposés of rip-offs, financial trends, great deals, horror shopping stories and pranks are the meat of the site. It is educational and interesting, and can help you save money.

The three latest headlines as I write this:

Florida Motorists Illegally Detained For Paying With Large Bills

Warner Bros. Starts Renting Movies Through Facebook

Subway Tops McDonald's To Become Largest Fast-Food Chain


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TrailCam Photo Captures from the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Wild  put more than 200,000 wildlife photos from seven worldwide projects taken with camera traps -- automated cameras with motion sensors -- into one searchable website.

All of the photos are untouched and appear exactly as they did when they were taken from the cameras. The website includes both still photos and video clips of more than 200 species of mammals and birds. The site also provides reference links from each photo to corresponding species pages at the Encyclopedia of Life, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s own “North American Mammals” page.

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The Energy Bulletin -- And A Lot More!

The Energy Bulletin has a dry and innocuous name, and is mainly a clearinghouse for information regarding the peak in global energy supply, publishing news, research and analysis about energy production statistics, models, projections and analysis, peak oil & energy, geopolitics, climate change, ecology, population, finance, urban design, health, and even religious and gender issues.

 BUT . . . In its pages you find such gems as how to hook implements to older tractors, composting, edible landscaping, wood heat, farming, political unrest, book reviews, survival, current events, homesteading  and barter.

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CNN "This Just In"

Smoke fills the air in the badly damaged town of Yamada, Japan, in Iwate prefecture one day after the earthquake and tsunami.

 “This Just In” is CNN's news blog. This is where you will find the latest news and information from CNN’s correspondents and sources around the world. Fresh stories big and small – stories that are breaking, developing or otherwise driving the collective daily conversation, along with some items that are interesting and worth sharing. The main blogger is Mallory Simon of CNN.com, with major assists from the staff of the CNN Wire and colleagues around the network.

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Economic Collapse

The Economic Collapse is what this blog is all about. It ain't cheerful, and one hope that it is not accurate, but it paints a grim picture of the present and the future.

Since the site links to a lot of things for "end times" investment I might question their altruism, but the facts and statistics they quote seem to be spot on for accuracy of the current world picture.


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FEMA: "We Will Be There For You, eventually!"

FEMA - the Federal Emergency Management Agency - offers a better website than they seem to offer in the way of real-world aid. Their site offers a number of helpful checklists, suggestions and ideas for folks who might be involved in a disaster in the near future.

Note that they suggest that you have survival kits, personal, home and vehicle, on hand and that you should be prepared for at least a few days of self sufficiency when your world comes apart.

The site also offers some decent links for self-help, sections on recent emergency and disaster declarations, and aid applications and links for disaster survivors.
 
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Fortean Times, to Satisfy Your Taste for the Bizarre

The Fortean Times  – "The World of Strange Phenomena" – is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort, available in print or online.

The magazine's current regular contents includes:

• Three or four feature articles
• Strange Days, a wide-ranging overview of odd and interesting stories mostly culled from the world's newspapers. Some feature in particular sections, including:
  • Science,
  • Archaeology (usually by Pauls Sieveking and Devereux),
  • Ghosts, in a column titled Ghostwatch
  • Alien Zoo, Dr. Karl Shuker's regular discussion of cryptozoological matters
  • Necrolog, obituaries of Fortean-relevant individuals
  • Strange deaths, a long-running round-up of the odd manners in which some people meet their ends
  • The UFO Files: "Flying Saucery", is Andy J. Roberts and Dr. David Clarke's "regular survey of the latest fads and flaps from the world of ufology"; "UFOcal Points" is Jenny Randles' "round-up of sightings and hot-spots from around the world"

Clippings for most of Strange Days' stories are requested from, and supplied by, the readers of FT

• Mythconceptions, which debunks modern myths, Old wives' tales, etc. (in a similar manner to, among others Snopes.com)
• Classical Corner, in which Barry Baldwin reviews Fortean events from ancient times
• Fortean Bureau of Investigation, which typically revisits and reassesses older Fortean cases
• Forum, featuring three or four shorter articles on diverse topics
• Reviews of Fortean, science fiction/fantasy and related Books, films and computer games
• A letters page, incorporating:
  • Simulacra Corner, photographs submitted by readers of (typically) naturally occurring objects which appear to be in the shape of something else
  • "it happened to me...", readers stories of strange personal occurrences
• Fortean Traveller, a guide to various sites of interest to the travelling Fortean
• Phenomenomix, a comic strip by Hunt Emerson

(Information source: Wikipedia)

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Tiny Houses

TinyHouse is for the person who thinks McMansions and conspicuous consumption are just wrong. Small size, efficient use of space and comfort are the focus here, and the appeal is to people who want to downsize their lives.

There are a lot of intersting concepts, good ideas and interesting constructions here.

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Chomp for Apps

Chomp is, simply, the best search service to use when you are looking for an app for the Iphone or Android. You search for apps by type, which makes the Android Market easier to sift through.

“We’ve developed the algorithm that really stands out on Android since search is so bad,” Keighran says. “It learns the topic and function of every app in the store. And using AI and machine learning, it builds a whole new database of apps,”



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Google eBooks

Google eBooks: three million books and still growing. There are both free and purchasable books, many of them carry reviews and a lot of them can be sampled.  It is all about choice, so you can use just about any device you own to read any book, anywhere.All of this is tied into your Google account.

Access all your ebooks wirelessly, no matter where you go. Google eBooks stores your library in the digital cloud, so you can read all of your favorite books using just about any device with an Internet connection. They can also be downloaded. Google eBooks is compatible with Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, web browsers and many supported eReaders. Whenever you open one of your books, we'll pick up right where you left off. Learn more. 

 With millions of books to choose from in every imaginable category, finding what you want to read on Google eBooks is easy. You can check out the New York Times best sellers list or discover up-and-coming authors. Read nearly 3 million free ebooks and hundreds of thousands of titles that are ready for purchase; with Google eBooks, you have access to the world's largest selection of ebooks and unlimited storage in the digital cloud. Learn more.

Get your favorite ebooks from the Google eBookstore, or buy Google eBooks from a growing number of independent booksellers and retail partners. No matter where you buy your Google eBooks, you'll enjoy the same access and usage rights and privileges. Learn more.

• Biographies & Memoirs
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Thingiverse

Thingiverse is a place for you to share your digital designs with the world. We believe that just as computing shifted away from the mainframe into the personal computer that you use today, digital fabrication will share the same path. Infact, it is already happening: laser cutters, cnc machines, 3D printers, and even automated paper cutters are all getting cheaper by the day. These machines are useful for a huge variety of things, but you need to supply them with a digital design in order to get anything useful out of them. We're hoping that together we can create a community of people who create and share designs freely, so that all can benefit from them.

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