If anybody cared to look in my toolkit for functional incompetency, they would find among other treasures one that advises the user to stay away from hype. It is a great way not to think and be right 95% of the time, on matters of hype, that is.

But when somebody became interested in building Faraday cages around everything, I agreed to read Bill Forstchen’s One Second After. I quit reading the book after the fourth day, as I was getting horrifically nauseous. Math and physics books are so much more humane. Frankly, I expect forces capable of manipulating the value of currency would cause widespread havoc before an enemy detonates a high-altitude atomic bomb.

As suspected, the technological explanations are hand-wavy at best. But the book does give good advice for preppers, like storing food, fuel, cash, and medicine, except the government won’t let pharmacies fill backup prescriptions. He also recommends making friends with one’s neighbors; especially the influential ones like him. Oops.