A rocket stove is a wood-burning firebox shaped like the letter J or L. You push sticks into a short feed opening, the fire burns in a horizontal channel, and the hot gases escape upwards through an insulated vertical channel. Its proper name is the heat riser, and in this article I simply call it… Read More »

If you’re wondering which trekking boots to take on the trail, you’ve come to the right place. In this article you’ll find out what to look for when buying them, which types of footwear work best in which weather, which models are versatile, and which do better in winter or in summer. Let’s get to… Read More »

[UPDATE 2026] I wrote the first version of this article at the beginning of 2022, and the introduction below dates from that time. Since then, a blackout has stopped being something out of a film: on 28 April 2025 the power went out across the whole of mainland Spain and Portugal, and on 4 July… Read More »

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a very short, violent burst of electromagnetic energy that induces voltages in wires, antennas and circuits many times higher than the ones electronics are built to run on. The strongest one comes from a nuclear explosion high above the Earth, and a powerful solar storm has similar, though slower, effects… Read More »

It has been known since the dawn of time that there are four basic geographical directions: east, west, north and south. These are the so-called cardinal directions. In this article you will learn a little more about the points of the compass and how to work out directions when you only have limited resources, for… Read More »