Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

This product caught my eye. Its a hand-held power generator. Unfortunately, it is apparently a ‘concept’ idea for some company that wants to send it to Third World countries and is no doubt waiting for some charity to pony up the bucks to put it into production. Nevermind that theres a market already here….

Years ago I recall reading about this device with great hopes. Uunfortunately, this one too seems to have fallen off the radar and either gone out of production or was never really in production.

Handheld generators are kinda hard to find. If you dont mind something a little bigger, the military GN-58-type field generators seem like an ideal choice but the outputs are kinda specialized.

Of course, if you dont mind something a little bigger, theres no shortage of bicycle generator plans out there on the interweb.

And, naturally, for every “Id buy that” product there is also a “WTF?” product. This one seems like a smart idea but upon further consideration I think its just….not.

The Merrell Gatherer jacket has no insulation. You zip open its compartments and fill them with newspaper, leaves, or whatever insulative material is handy. Its a clever idea, I just cant imagine why you would need it. If the situation is dire enough that dead leaves seem like a good insulation option wouldnt you just stuff them between your shirt and your jacket? Why would you need a special garment for that? And couldnt you save yourself a hundred bucks and just take two old button down shirts, sew them together along the edges and add a few openings for stuffing things? Just not sure I see the point of this one. It reminds me of David Letterman’s popcorn vest…he took a mesh vest, filled it with unpopped popcorn and then when he wanted it insulated for warmth he would microwave it and the corn would op to fill the pockets.

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