They will need more than just a D20. Give them a bag with a D20, some percentiles, and 3 D6 dice, some roll-sheet and some other tables to which to add the random noise to. Granted it will cost a bit more but would provide much more useful information and probably similar to quality to what we currently have. That gives me an idea for a website called D20weather.com although I probably wouldn't get around to doing anything with it as I have too many projects already so if someone else wants to take a run at it.

For some reason this joke never gets old with me.

Hell we were doing those experiments in my 7th grade chemistry class where chemistry was basically like a cook book with little understanding. We would have a test tube with acid in it, drop in some aluminum foil, put a balloon over it to fill it with hydrogen. Tie off the balloon attach a string so it floats up and touch with a lit match on a yard stick and have a little chuckle at the pop and fire.

Was it black powder or a more modern nitro cellulose based one? While I didn't get to do those exact things there were some rather fun "experiments" we did. There was the create 1 mol of a random precipitate where the teacher screwed up and my partner and I got one that didn't precipitate but instead made the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide (I think that was it I could be wrong as it was a long time ago). It was only after we had started the reaction that the teacher announced that whom ever had that one to not do it. We piped up that we had run the experiment and didn't get a precipitate but a bad smelling yellow liquid and were going to try a different method. The teacher pulled the fire alarm and everyone got the rest of the day off of school. There was also the thermite demonstration where the rock in the bottom of the flower pot melted and molten iron came spilling out the bottom onto the table and floor setting the carpet on fire that the teacher did. I do wonder if the frozen puddle of iron is still there. Finally there was the figure out what a random salt was and we got one that had some rather violent reactions that broke some glassware, sent a cork shooting up to brake a ceiling tile, and had combustion that seemed to border more on detonation. All in all it was a good class and it wasn't a great lab unless something ended up on fire.

You must have missed it. There is a popular political phrase that should offer some insight on this subject:
"Never let a crisis go to waste."

Never looked into them but it would seem that they would avoid the issues around stale fuel, water in the fuel (especially with the modern oxygenated fuels), and varnish in the carb that plagues gasoline ones that aren't cared for. I think even with then you would still be wise to fog the engine and change the oil (if it was run for a few days) after use so it is ready to go next time.

I suggest seeing if there is a place that sells dry ice near you. Then before a big strom that might knock stuff out go buy a block and drop it in your chest freezer (I have a similar sized one as I get meat by the 1/4 of the critter) as that will go a long way to keeping things nice a cold for several days. I end up doing that about once a year and haven't needed it but then you have a giant block of dry ice to play with when everything is done.

As far as small engine care goes don't leave fuel in the tank, clean the carb before putting it away, put in clean oil, and fog the cylinders (pull the spark plugs and spray some fogging oil in them). I do this will all my small engines before putting them away for the season and have never had a problem.

Pack them with cotton balls. That is what I do to those overly loud speakers in kids toys. If you pack enough in there they won't make or pickup any noise.

From the sounds of it they probably don't know how to properly take wild game, field dress it, butcher it, or preserver it. Nitrogen packed oatmeal give me a break. I have run into a lot of preppers who don't understand the basics of long term survival but are more than willing to dump money into prepackaged crap. There is one person at my work who is a prepper and keeps on asking me what kind of gun they should get just in case and then likes to go on about the amount of silver and gold they have so they can be ready when the dollar collapses. This is not someone I would trust with a firearm as they seem to believe a real gun is just like the ones in all the 3d shooters they have played.

Make sure they are seasoned well, coat the bottom with four, lay our pizza dough spread out in the middle, cover the dough with sauce, and topping. put on coals with the lit on, put some coals on the lid, wait ~20 minutes, retrieve you freshly baked pizza and enjoy. Did it all the time in scouts when I was younger. Same thing with baking bread but put it over and cover with fewer coals and leave it for a longer time. If you have a large enough dutch oven you can put a bread pan in it, or just make round loafs. I have made Irish soda bread in them as that seems to work really well.

Easy use a dutch oven, and that is a really nice big one there are smaller cheaper ones as well. to use one set it on some hot coals push some up around the sides and set a few on top of the lid. We made pizza all the time when I was in boy scouts when camping. You can do slow roasting, bread baking, etc in them as well just like are regular oven only smaller. It does take some practice to get it right but they are fairly easy to use once you get the hang of them.

I do some of the couponing but I buy in bulk if possible (fractions of animals) or when thing are on sale. If it looks like there is going to be shitty weather that might knock out power for a while I go an buy a block of dry ice and drop it in the deep freeze so if I loose power for a few days it isn't a big concern, and if I don't loose power then the kids and I have some dry ice to play with out in the back yard. I also have a bunch of canned food, stews, sauces, veggies, pears, meat, chile, etc. as it is a great way to take care of the excess from the garden and what is left of the previous year's meat when new meat is coming from the farmers I know. The canned stews and chile I take into work for lunches as it is really easy and cheap. Things that don't go bad (dry pasta) I stock up when it goes on sale for 4 for a $1 (this is getting rarer and a good deal is 2 for a $1). Given that and with rationing my family could probably go a few months. If things get really bad I can always can the existing food in the house that would otherwise perish in the fridge and freezer.

How about instead of creating more stupid laws we start enforcing and prosecuting existing ones. It is sad when a child finds a loaded gun that isn't locked up and kills someone or themselves with it, so why not fucking prosecute the dumb shit parents for negligent homicide. I really don't believe in accidental shooting but I sure a hell believe in negligent shooting. Granted there probably is the 1 in 1,000,000 truly accidental discharge of a firearm (the gun went off and you weren't touching the trigger) that ends up shooting someone (off of a ricochet as you should be practicing muzzle control and have it point in a safe direction) but those are so rare that it isn't worth mentioning.

It wasn't that hard for me to pickup, after about a day I had some passable one and a few days later I was making some really nice one. The hardest part was getting it so I wouldn't burn the metal as I am working with material that is at the very bottom end of what can be welded with the smallest Hobart with non flux core wire. On thicker material it is much more forgiving. Granted there is probably a lot of feel that would be hard to quantize so you may be correct on what is needed for a computerized welder. Even then I would think a fixed set of values would probably work in most cases provided the same welder model is used as wire speed and output shouldn't vary much.

Go to more rural areas and you can buy ammo at a gas station, at least in Minnesota. Also those out state hardware stores sell it as well. There is also the option of mail order ammo.