You Can Never Get Too Much Education

Summer is here and my calendar is full of upcoming classes, conferences, seminars and and other training programs. There is always more to learn, new skills to try out, and different survival/preparedness areas to take a look at. Generally you will find some redundant information as can be expected from classes in this niche area, but overall this is an excellent time of year to polish up your abilities and update your repertoire of preparedness/survival skills.

One course I will be taking this summer is a four-day trauma medic skills class. Although I have no plans to work either in trauma care or as a medic, you really can never get too much education. Preparedness is not just about having a first aid kit, stockpiling a year's worth of food or knowing how to shoot a gun. Preparedness encompasses so many disciplines that you could actually take a course a day for the next decade and still not be completely prepared for everything. Preparedness is, and always will be, learning as much as possible, practicing as much as possible and playing the "what if" game in every conceivable situation...then getting yourself ready for the possibilities.

This Is a Joke...This Is Only a Joke...

Bruce Schneier is one of those genius types. His blog is a fascinating read for everyone from scientists to people who just want a good laugh such as this one (of course I am partial to gallows humor)...

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/05/joke_thatll_get_1.html

The only part that actually concerns me is some of the comments made by posters--their fear and paranoia as expressed in their comments is a good barometer of how far our government and media's brainwashing campaign has come over the past half dozen years. Lighten up folks!

Finally Some Publicity About Military Body Armor

I was pleased to see the Dateline story on Dragon Skin body armor this evening. The controversy over using this type of body armor by our military members as opposed to the "officially approved by the US military" body armor has been dragging on for quite a while but I guess the powers-that-be required a public media shaming in order to get this type of body armor re-evaluated for use by our military members. Common sense, requests from the troops, and factual data seemed to have failed to persuade our military leaders to consider approval of Dragon Skin for the regular troops (although interestingly enough it could be used by certain members of the Special Forces...go figure). Anyway, let's hope that public pressure will overrule all of the behind-the-scenes dealings and allow our troops to use the best possible products to increase their safety on the battle field.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18720550/page/3/
http://www.sftt.org/bodyarmor.html