It has been a very long time since we have done a dating post. So, we figured that we would research some topics on dating. During this research we found a lot of interesting tidbits relating to dating. Some of the facts we found were so shocking and so interesting we decided to create this post to talk about six of the most shocking things we learned about dating.
1. 90% of rebound relationships are doomed to fail.
According to this article 90% of rebound relationships are doomed to fail. A rebound relationship is a type of relationship that forms directly after a person has been in a long term relationship.
2. People are obsessed with teeth
Teeth were one of the top traits that people said they judged potential partners on. According to Match.com 58% of men said teeth were important to their decision on whether to date someone or not. With women this is even higher, as 71% say the same.
3. Speed dating was invented by a rabbi
A rabbi from Los Angeles invented speed dating in 1991. It is based on a common Jewish tradition where there are chaperoned gathering of Jewish singles.
4. The most common ways to meet someone new.
The most common way to meet someone new or a potential dating partner is through a friend. According to this infographic 22% of singles met through a friend. This is followed closely by people who met a date through an online dating site at 20%.
5. Kissing on a first date.
73% of singles find it appropriate to kiss on their first date. 83% of singles find it appropriate to hold hands on the first date as well. 66% of people find it’s ok to cuddle on the first date.
6. Facebook plays a huge role in breakups.
Apparently Facebook is one of the leading reasons that couples can break up. Of the men who have cited Facebook as a reason for a breakup, 55% say that it was due to their partners pictures. Women on the other hand cited that their main reason for a Facebook breakup was due to their partners post on someone else’s wall.
Including CONDOMS in survival kits is not a new idea.
People have been packing them in mini survival kits for as long as I can remember – using them primarily as an expandable WATER CONTAINER. Don’t worry, I’ll get into details later. While a little taboo, I’ll ask that you set aside any preconceived notions you might have about condoms. In this post, I’ll argue that as far as multi-functional survival uses are concerned, the condom offers an incredible BANG for your buck. Sorry – I couldn’t resist.
I’ll break down the many uses within each CORE SURVIVAL CATEGORY.
WATER
As I’ve mentioned, including condoms in survival kits is not a new idea. They make amazing compact water containers that can hold as much as 2 liters of water if handled properly. They are, after all, designed to be water tight. The elasticity of latex condoms is SHOCKING.
These little suckers will stretch to sizes that will surprise you. Check out how big this one got?
However, while it excels in elasticity, it lacks in durability. The thin latex walls are very susceptible to sharp objects and puncture. Especially when filled with water, the slightest prick (even from a blade of grass) will split it open almost instantly. Then, you’ve lost your water AND your container. No fear – there is a strategy for carrying water in a condom. The easiest I’ve found it to take off your sock and fill the condom inside of your sock. Not only does the sock provide stability but it also provides protection. It still needs to be coddled like a little baby but it’s not AS delicate. Other options are to wrap it in a t-shirt and even fill it inside a backpack or helmet. It helps to stretch the condom a little bit first – kind of like you do when getting ready to blow up a balloon. Condom balloon animals anyone?
A Condom is easier to fill when water is falling into it versus just sweeping it through the water. In nature, if you can find a little water fall or fast moving water it will make your life a lot easier. Tie the mouth of the condom off around a stick about the diameter of your thumb. This way, you can fairly easily untie it. Just knotting it off with no stick makes it very difficult to open back up again. You may need to use it over and over again so don’t rush it.
Just because you’ve collected and contained water doesn’t mean it’s OK to drink. Once your condom is full, you must now consider purification options. Boiling is not an option unless you have a metal container. But, maybe you have a metal container and you’re just using the the condom to transport MORE water from point A to point B. If so, great. If not, you can purify the water chemically with Iodine, Bleach (Chlorine) or store bought water purification tablets. Learn how to purify water with bleach in this POST I WROTE HERE. If you are packing condoms in a small survival kit, be sure to include a handful of purification tablets for a complete water purification system.
FIRE
The most obvious way to use a condom to aid in survival fire is to protect DRY fire tinder. Just because the weather is great NOW doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way. Finding dry fire tinder in wet and rainy conditions can be very difficult. Protecting dry fire tinder during inclement weather is very easy – when you have a condom. Simply stuff the condom with your best tinder and tuck it away for a rainy day. No rocket science here.
One condom even protects this entire bracket fungus – which contains a load of excellent natural tinder.
The condom ITSELF also makes excellent fire tinder. With an open flame such as a match or cigarette lighter, a latex condom will ignite almost instantaneously and burn furiously for several minutes – allowing you plenty of time to build your fire. Below is a quick video I shot to demonstrate how well a latex condom burns:
But what if you don’t have an ignition source? Fire requires 3 elements: IGNITION SOURCE (HEAT), FUEL and OXYGEN. If you don’t have matches or a ferro rod, then I guess you can fill the condom with water and use it as a magnifying glass on a sunny day like this guy did:
Anyone ever tried this? It’s fall here in Indiana and the sun isn’t hot enough this time of year to make it work but you can guarantee next summer I’ll try it. But, I’m not going to let NO SUN stop me from getting a fire by using a condom so I resorted to a more primitive method – the thumb loop hand drill. The hand drill is probably the hardest of all primitive fire starting methods. Without practice, it can be very difficult to get the right combination of pressure and spindle speed to generate enough heat to create an ember. However, thumb loops really help facilitate this process. Thumb loops allow the user to apply more pressure on the spindle and also spin their hands in pretty much one place. Below is a video of how I used condom thumb loops to help generate a coal with a hand drill set.
I also used a handful of condoms as a engine for a traditional Bow Drill Fire Set. Notice in the video below that the condom engine replaces the typical BOW in BOW Drill. I call this the CONDOM DRILL FIRE by FRICTION SET:
Any other ways you can think of to start a fire using a condom?
FOOD
Seriously, how can a condom provide you with survival food? In more ways than you might think actually…
I’m a huge fan of sling shots. I’ve been working on a small game hunting post featuring sling shots for several months and this was the perfect opportunity to test out an idea I had – the Condom Small Game Hunter Sling Shot. Sounds funny, right? Condoms aren’t that much different from the latex bands that come stock with most small game hunting sling shots. Remember, your ability to improvise is your most valuable survival skill!
I started my build with a natural tree fork.
After a little detailing and carving I ended up with a nice little pocket sized Sling Shot Frame.
Next, I used 3 condoms on each fork to provide the force necessary to kill small game. I put the condoms inside each other with a little wad of cattail fuzz at the bottom and used duct tape to hold each condom band on the frame. The wad of cattail fuzz prevents the condoms from pulling out of the duct tape.
I decided rather than launch imperfect rocks with a leather pouch, I would use a loop of bank line as a anchor point to nock a hand-carved mini dart. I wrapped the other end of the condoms around the loop of bank line and again duct taped it in place.
Below is a maple branch I used to carve some of the mini dart projectiles.
As you can see, some of the darts are tipped with a Honey Locust thorn using Pine Pitch. It’s not necessary, but I’m really digging how deadly these darts look, aren’t you? To see how I make an all natural Pine Pitch Glue, read THIS POST.
Those are some sick looking little arrows aren’t they? I know what you’re thinking. Cool looking sling-shot, but there’s no way you can actually kill small game with it in a survival scenario. Oh, ye of little faith.
In the 1 minute video below, you can see the condom sling shot in action.
FIRST AID
Worse case scenario, a condom can be used as a crude rubber glove while dealing with any first aid related issues. It will protect the wound from your nasty hands as well as protect you from the wound if you’re dealing with someone else.
MISCELLANEOUS
Protect Your Muzzel
I’ve heard 1st hand accounts from soldiers who’ve attended courses at Willow Haven that they used condoms to protect their rifles while serving in the Middle East. They would cover the muzzle of their rifle to prevent sand/mud/water from getting inside – very simple and effective.
Fishing Bobber
While there are many natural options for a fishing bobber, a make-shift condom bobber is pretty darn effective. I’ve found that rather than just tying off an air bubble in the condom, it works a little better if you stuff in some cattail fluff (called ‘cattail down’) instead. Cattail down is naturally buoyant and also water-resistant so it’s the perfect bobber filling. Did you know that life-jackets used to be filled with cattail down before synthetic materials were invented? You may need to know that if you ever want to construct a survival life-jacket! The cattail down adds a little weight to prevent your bobber from just blowing around in the wind.
Companionship
Anyone ever seen CAST AWAY with Tom Hanks? Remember his little buddy WILSON? I’ve got a survival companion too. I just call him Lil’ Cody. He debuted in the sling shot video above when I put a mini-arrow through his face. He’ll keep you company when you are alone, starving and freezing in the woods while trying to make a Condom Sling Shot.
I have to say, I did feel a little pressure to perform when he was watching me carve out the Condom Hand Drill set below. I always do better in front of an audience anyway. I think there’s something to this “WILSON” idea.
So, it is totally apparent the everyone is Zombie crazy these days. And by the ratings success of TV shows like The Walking Dead it’s here to stay, at least until the series ends.
Here are some stylish ways to carry your next Zombie lunch:
Okay, the first thing you’re going to have to do is get your hands on a cart. Metal ones are the only ones worth grabbing. I say, grab the biggest one you can find (but then I’ve never tried a small one.) Once you have that, you just grab yourself a hacksaw, and cut the basket off the bottom half of the cart. Just cut the four legs as close as you can to the basket. We also took the plastic handle off the cart, so that whoever originally owned the cart wouldn’t come after us trying to get it back. Take off any identifying marks, even if you dumpstered the thing. (rather than finding it on the side of the road or in a vacant lot or something.)Next you’re going to need an adult sized bike to attach the cart to. I would highly suggest a women’s bike, since they’re much easier to get on and off of. I would also highly suggest that it be a 10 speed, since you’ll be happy to have the extra gears when you’re trying to pedal a basket full of groceries (or bricks, or people, or whatever) uphill.
Here’s a list of other things you’ll need to complete this project:
6 or more small U-clamps (about an inch across)
1 large U-clamp (big enough to fit around the head tube of your bike)
2 matching front wheels & coinciding forks. (I would suggest at least 26inch wheels)
2-4 hose clamps
1 tin can
Take the forks and wheels and position them on the sides of the cart. You can screw around with this and try to figure out where they work best, but we found that the forks should stick past the bottom of the cart a couple inches, and should be pretty close to the back. One reason for this is that most of a cart is composed of weak little bars. If you attach the forks to those, the little welds will break, and it won’t be very strong. There are only a few strong bars that forks should be attached to. We chose a point near the back where some of the main supports are. Two of these strong bars crossed each other, and we put the U-clamps there. Put the U-clamps on, and tighten them down a bit. Make sure the cart sits level, and then tighten everything up. (I’ve highlighted the strong bars red, so they’re more visible in the picture. Notice the clamps (circled in yellow) are all attached to at least one of these.)
Now, pull the front wheel off your bike. Remove the front brake, and both the brake handles. Now spread open the neck and remove your handlebars. (You’ll want to leave the neck, as you’ll be using it later. Also, using the handlebars to spread the neck open will make the job easier later on.)
We tried to file the dropouts on the fork wide enough to accept the bar that runs across the bottom of the back of the basket, but gave up as we were in such a hurry to get the thing done. It evidently didn’t need to be done, but I think it might be a good idea anyway. So then you just turn the forks around, so they’re backwards and center them on the bar that runs across the bottom of the back of the cart. Use a U-clamp on each side of the fork near the bottom to attach it to a strong part of the back of the cart. Then use your big U-clamp to attach the neck to the back part of the cart. To make the attachment just a little more secure, we spread open the neck, and twisted the two pieces of the handle with a channel locks so they would slide into it, then tightened it up. To get a really tight fit, we would have needed some old tubing or tin can strips or something, but we left it as is. We also attached our gear shifters to the neck. Because the backs of most carts flap open, you’ll need to use a few hose clamps to hold it shut. We put a couple on the bottom, and a couple on the sides.
Now you’ve kind of got a choice with the brakes. You can just leave off the front one, and attach the back handle to the cart like we did. Or you can put brakes on both the forks attached to the cart, and have them up in front where all the stopping power is. This is what I would have done, but the bike I was using didn’t have any brakes, and I had trouble scrounging up even one. This is where that tin can will come in handy. You’ll have to cut strips of it to wrap around the cart handle, so you can tightly attach the brake handles. In the pictures, it looks like we duct taped ours on, but that’s just there to cover the edges of the tin can. Some grips would make the handle a bit more comfortable. (maybe some of those foam 10 speed ones or something)
I haven’t gone into every single detail about putting one of these together, because every single bike/cart combination is going to be different. With each you’ll encounter your own special brand of problems along the way. If you’ve never worked on a bike before, this might not be the project for you. Probably learning to adjust your brakes & gears, and change your tires is a good place to start. If you’ve done some work on bikes, this should come pretty easy for you. The hardest part for us was coming up with the basic design, and doing it without any welds. We’ve fixed that problem for you. Now go to it!
Just to let you know, our concern about the forks moving was well founded. Our forks do move a bit, but if the bike is moving forward, and especially with a load, the problem is self-correcting. It has yet to be a real problem. These things are pretty difficult to drive. I found that it’s much easier to steer by leaning, than by trying to turn the cart. The problem is that you have to shift your weight the opposite of the way you want to go. It’s sort of difficult to explain, but once you have yours built, you’ll see what I mean. It’s definitely not built for speed. In order to keep control, you have to move sort of slow. It’s good for getting loads of stuff (like groceries) but I wouldn’t want to use it as an every day bike (unless I was hauling a lot of stuff every day, and then I would build a trailer.)
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