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Read The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler!
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I'm Coming In

One weekend I was watching a few movies. At least two of these movies had a scene where someone punches through a glass panel and reaches in to open a door. Having a glass panel within reach of a lock is foolish, but it is commonly done. Your own door may be of this sort.
Chris from UKBumpkeys has passed on an excellent video on ways to bypass locks without lock picking. It is quite long, but well worth a watch.

 

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Phillosoph

DePugh on Wilderness Food and Gear

A friend of mine had some questions about food, and this reminded me of a section in Robert DePugh’s book “Can You Survive?”.
DePugh was on the run for seventeen months, and estimates that  about twelve of these were spent in the American wilderness.
Can You Survive? was written after this, and his insights into what was and was not useful makes interesting reading.
Not surprisingly, the need to avoid detection and capture influences his choices:
“Clothing has already been mentioned and the first aid kit will be considered in a following chapter. This leaves a long list of items that might be labelled “miscellaneous.”
In our previous list, we included a nylon cord. This item I would still retain but not more than 20 or 30 feet. A climbing rope is nice to have if several members together are working their way through mountainous terrain but unless some definite need is anticipated, I would leave such heavy and cumbersome items at home.
In our previous list of materials for the backpack we included such food items as these: dehydrated meals for at least 14 days, boullion cubes [sic], coffee or tea, sugar, salt and pepper, vitamins, halazone tablets, malt tablets and chocolate. Of all these items only one that I would include in a backpack survival ration today would be the halazone tablets—but I would include an abundant quantity of them. The dehydrated foods are fine so far as weight is concerned but I am more convinced than ever that cooking must be kept at an absolute minimum. There are times perhaps when it may be essential to cook certain vegetable items to guard against toxic substances or to cook animals that have been captured and might be infected by some disease. Except for these necessary occasions, even the smallest fire places such a traveller in great danger of being discovered by the enemy. For these reasons, the coffee, tea and boullion cubes are also out. Sugar can best be carried in the form of candy that cannot be spilled or be easily ruined by moisture. Most medical authorities agree that the American people eat more salt than is healthy for them. Ordinary foods contain all of the salt that a person normally needs for good health. Pepper, of course, is one of those niceties of civilization that are best left behind along with your cigarettes and pipe.
Of those foods that are readily available, the best in my opinion for emergency survival rations would include canned meats and cheese, peanut butter mixed with sugar packed in plastic containers, and various types of candy that are customarily sold in small pieces and in plastic bags. All of these items are very low in water and therefore contain a high proportion of nutritive value and they can be eaten with knife and fingers out of the container in which they are carried. For the person who may be required to flee for his life at any time, survival foods beyond the amount he can carry in his pack are a very dubious investment.
Our previous equipment list also included several items for cooking such as a nesting set of cooking utensils, heat tabs or sterno, knife, fork and spoon, plate, cup and scouring pad. Of these I would make do with my canteen, canteen cup and a good hunting knife. Such cooking as may be essential can be done in the canteen cup. If you know where to look, tinder is always available for starting fires. Sand can be used to clean your canteen cup thus eliminating the scouring pad. Under desperate circumstances, good table manners do not justify the extra weight of a fork and spoon.
Other items from our previous list which I would now eliminate include candles, shovel, ax, wire, rubber tubing, folding saw, pliers, wirecutter, screwdriver and file. Items which I would retain include matches in a waterproof container (I'd carry along a lot of these); a flashlight is good so long as the batteries will last; a sharpening stone is worth the weight; compass, maps, ground cloth, thread, safety pins, needles and extra buttons are well worthwhile but since they weigh very little a few fish hooks, line and sinkers might be included though I have grave doubts as to their practical value. Except in the high mountains I would say that a good insect repellent is worth its weight in gold.
A small towel or washcloth has many uses that justify the weight involved. Soap and toothbrush are essential. For men, a razor and blades may be necessary to avoid looking conspicuous on those occasions when contact with other civilians is unavoidable. Other desirable miscellaneous items include a small magnifying glass, paper and pencils.
The dangers of shooting or trapping wild animals while trying to evade hostile forces has already been referred to. In this regard a good slingshot might be worthwhile in killing small game silently as the opportunity presents itself. In capturing wild game, beware of those animals that are caught too easily. They may be diseased and therefore, unsafe to eat without cooking.”
Does “canned meat and cheese” mean canned cheese? Canned cheese may sometimes be found, and would make a change from the tinned meats. Presumably he does not mean the spray can cheese, which would be mass inefficient. Many uncanned cheeses keep fairly well if kept dry, including the often maligned processed cheeses.
Eating boiled leaves with a hunting knife sounds like a chore, so I think a spork is worth the weight.
Trail mix may be worth carrying for a little variety.
One can get a little more creative with the peanut butter.
A quick browse of the internet turns up two-ingredient cookies (peanut butter and syrup), three-ingredient cookies (peanut butter, sugar, egg), four-ingredient cookies (+baking soda), no-bake cookies and oat-squares (peanut butter, honey, rolled oats).
These probably do not have the shelf-life of peanut butter and sugar but can be used on shorter trips.
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Phillosoph

Don't Carry a Rucksack (If you can help it)

A friend of mine e-mailed me recently and told me he felt it was impractical for him to carry his bug-out gear in a rucksack. There was just too much, he said.
I pointed out to him that others had been managing this for centuries, and that it wasn’t actually a “bug-out kit” if he couldn’t move it anywhere. Same friend often e-mails me wonderful, must-have gadgets that he has found. The two facts may not be unrelated. 🙂
Your core bug-out kit should be man-portable. What is lost on many people is that you should not be carrying it on your back if you can avoid it!
This is something we seem to have inherited from the military. A fundamental of military training is marching long distances with heavy loads. As well as the physical conditioning this provides it also improves traits such as self-discipline, determination and resolve. Unfortunately there is a downside to the old adage that “You fight as you train!” Lost on many officers is that long marches with heavy rucks’ may be great training but in an actual operation are to be avoided whenever possible. Most combat theatres are “vehicle-friendly”. Infantry may need to operate on foot, but gear they do not immediately need may be carried on vehicles and brought forward once an area has been pacified. Many soldiers during the Second World War learnt to operate effectively in “light order” and many modern “irregular” fighters do the same. Many armies need to relearn this. Current efforts are towards exo-skeletons and robot mules that will increase the weight that can be carried. The opposite strategy may be more productive.
As an individual prepper or survivalist you may not have a support unit that can bring your heavier equipment and supplies forward for you. Additionally you may be in “vehicle-proof” terrain where the operation of conventional or military vehicles is not possible or very restricted. Military forces sometimes find themselves in the same situation, of course.

A tried and tested solution is shown below. Porter-bikes were modified to carry heavy loads. When fully loaded they could not be ridden. A pole extending the handlebars allowed one or more individuals to push the bike along by walking beside.

For bugging out a bike has a lot to recommend it. On terrain where it is difficult to ride you can push it, and use it to carry your pack rather than your back. Overall load should be kept in the man-portable range since there may be obstacles you will have to carry bike and pack across.

Another interesting option is found on this site and others. Its inventor calls it a “travois” but it is actually a hand-cart (or possibly a “man-cart”?)

As an aside, a real travois is an option you should always consider if you have to move something heavy over relatively soft ground.

Handcarts were once not uncommon in armies. After WW2 the “big ruck” mentality seems to have taken hold and they become rarer. In the early days of ATGWs some models were offered with golf-trolly-like contraptions so a dismounted infantryman could move them. Nowadays a few mortars are provided with trolleys, but in most forces they are unknown. If a skier can tow a pulk, why not a a walker a cart?

The wheeled travois has been designed with ease of manufacture in mind. I would suggest making the poles a little longer so that if necessary the cart can be carried over an obstacle like a stretcher. For ease of use in vehicle-proof terrain I would suggest reducing the width so that it can be used on narrow paths and trails. Bicycle wheels may be a good source for the wheels. I particularly like the net that forms the bed of the cart. With a bit of ingenuity this might double as a camouflage screen.
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Vanishing Infantry

I came across the interesting photo sequence shown here. Some time ago I made a post about the Vietnamese use of a framework on the back for camouflage. Here we see its use in action:
This is a Viet Minh force from the Indochina war. This trick was still in use in the Vietnam war.
Possibly at the sound of an aircraft, the men have moved off the road and dropped down. As the threat passes men “grow” first from one side of the road and the other.
The final image is a close-up. Interesting is that their uniforms appear to be beige rather than the green associated with the later NVA. VM Regular uniforms have been described as “khaki-drill” but apparently light-green, khaki and a variety of other drab shades were used.
According to Osprey Men at Arms 322, “The French Indochina War 1946-54.”:
“Viet Minh Regulars, and many Regional units, were first class; it is clear that they had successfully made the mental transition from guerrillas to soldiers. Neutral journalists who managed to spend time with Regionals were impressed by their discipline and preparedness. Throughout the VM attention to tactical detail was excellent, both in camp and on the march – great emphasis was laid on camouflage, night movement, dispersal and reassembly in the face of the enemy, and endurance with the simplest rations and minimal medical care and comforts.
“The VM were skilled at concealed cross-country movement in the worst terrain, carrying all essentials with them. This gave them significant advantage over motorised French troops, whose more complex logistical needs kept them tied to the inadequate and vulnerable road network. Generally only the best French paratroop units could match their cross-country speed in the jungle hills, and that for only limited periods. It was rare for French aircraft to inflict much loss on Regular units on the march, though their supply lines suffered much worse (e.g. in 1954, during the huge effort to supply the Dien Bien Phu siege army 500 miles from Viet Bae bases)…
“…Reports speak of Regulars carrying a wire mesh panel on their backs when on the march; at each halt the soldier changed the foliage camouflage of the man in front to match the locality exactly.” 
Some WW2 British Manuals advocate the use of net or chicken wire screens for troops to hide behind or under. The back-screens described above could thus serve more than on application.

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Blanket-Coat

Often I come across something I want to place on the blog but don’t get around to it until much later. I seem to have two speeds: immediate and much, much later.
This is something I came across when I was discussing ponchos or cloaks, I think. It has some relevance to the recent post about simple ways to create a smock.
As you can see, construction is very simple:
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More On Camouflage Ponchos

Today’s post is a follow-up to my blog on camouflage capes.
Shortly after writing that post I acquired a length of camouflage cloth and set about creating a camouflage cape. Since cloth comes in 1.5 metre widths and I am quite a big lad, I brought two metres, with the intention that it should be about a metre at the front and 1.5 at the back, so could drape over a pack if necessary. Making a cape is a relatively easy sewing task, run a hem an inch or more from the edge to arrest any fraying. Cut the cloth on the outside of this into tassels. Doesn’t matter if these fray, it adds to the disruptive effect. Similarly,your sewing does not need to be particularly neat. Irregular and non-uniform is good for real camouflage.
Good camouflage is three-dimensional, so the most time consuming phase of production was attaching the textilage. I suspect this process could be speeded up with a staple gun, but have yet to try this.
Once I finished, I realized there was a bit of a problem! I cannot really photograph this to show you. You cannot really judge personal camouflage unless it is on a human form. Lying it on the ground or over a chair does not really tell you anything, and I do not have a mannequin or taylor’s dummy. Use the girlfriend? She is petite and shapely, while I am big and ugly, so showing you something made for me on her is not accurate. And we get little chance to be together these days, so I’ve not been able to get her and myself in the same place as cape and camera.
I can, however, pass on some of the lessons learnt while constructing this. The first is that it may be a little long. I could have made it a little shorter without much loss of performance. Secondly, underestimated the effects of the textilage so the base cloth could have been a lighter shade. I could have probably used a monocolour of beige or similar since the textilage adds quiet a lot of shape disruption.

Next time I would not opt for a cape design. Regular readers will recall the “Endor poncho”. Recently two other sci-fi sources have reminded me of this. One is the series “Krypton”. Sagitari on the moon Wegthor wear a brown poncho. While it is not intended as camouflage it does make the wearer appear less of a conventional humanoid shape. The second is season six of “The 100”. The “Children of Gabriel” wear camouflage that uses textilage. Octavia and Diyoza wear examples too. and in their scenes it can be seem the basis is a poncho/ apron overhead garment.

One could easily construct an over-garment that combined the features of a short-poncho and a smock. The poncho part should be of a width to reach the elbows. Cut the edges into tassels. Don’t bother with a hood since the brush can catch such things. A properly camouflaged helmet or boonie hat camouflages your head. You can add a rectangle of cloth to make a collar for the neck opening if you wish. This can be used to show rank-insignia.

Adding sleeves to your ponchoette is simple. You just need two tubes of camouflage cloth. These need a generous width since they will have to fit over other garments. Trouser legs from old combat trousers can be used, or you can make simple tubes from any suitable cloth. If doing the latter put the hems on the outside, like the Langdon-Davies smock design and tassel them. Anchor the sleeves to the inner side of your poncho. The bottom parts of the poncho can be sewn together or you can apply other fastenings such as poppers. Leave generous side vents for freedom of movement and so you can access pocket or equipment on your trouser belt. As can be seen, the basic garment is formed from three or four rectangles

Your poncho/smock will need textilage. Some of this will be from the cloth you have left over. Use any other scraps of camouflage or suitable materials too. Apply to the sleeves and shoulder parts. The chest area does not need so much if you wear webbing or a chest rig. Apply the textilage to this instead.
Continue reading "More On Camouflage Ponchos"
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Camouflage and Surface

One of my readers/sponsors has reminded me that it has been a while since I wrote about camouflage. As it turns out, I have a few thoughts to share.
A mnemonic often taught is the “Five S’s of Camouflage”.
These are usually Shape, Shine, Shadow, Silhouette and Spacing. There are variations on this, some schemes adding extra factors. These may include Smell, Speed, Sound, Skyline and Smoking.
Some even fly in the face of alliteration and suggest “Movement” and “Aircraft!”
Skyline can be considered an element of Silhouette.
Smell is something that is sometimes neglected. A human’s sense of smell may be inferior to that of many animals but can still prove useful if the brain interprets to significance of a familiar or out of place odour.
Sound is not just obvious things like talking or gunfire. One of the reasons for the ninja covering his face was to muffle the sound of his breathing if he had exerted himself.
The noise of chewing gum or tobacco may tip off an attentive enemy or prey. Give up both habits.
Smoking is another habit to drop. As well as being an aiming point and location signal at night, the smell of the smoke and on your clothes may give you away.
Many smokers are litterbugs and a discarded cigarette butt can tell a competent tracker many things.
Shade/Shadow is something I found myself considering the other night while watching a movie.
A cowboy rides ahead of a posse to scout a valley. He really should not ride straight down the middle like that, I thought. He could have easily swung into the big patch of shadow cast by the cliff on one side.
Shadows in your environment can be very useful.
If you have to cross a forest road follow the shadow cast by a tree. You may be under aerial observation.
If you are attempting to conceal something, the shadows cast may negate your efforts. Remember that the angle and direction of light will vary with time.
Another factor to consider is texture, or in keeping with the theme “Surface”.
This is an element that seems to be often neglected these days.
You can paint your vehicle in different colours but it will still be an object with many flat, smooth surfaces, most of them vertical or horizontal.
Back when camouflage was taken more seriously, I can recall Land Rovers covered in nets and hessian, sometimes looking like mobile blocks of heather.
They still looked a bit boxy but viewed from the air they could easily be overlooked if they were static and positioned irregularly.
You can still see similar examples, although oddly this seems more common on soft-skins than on actual fighting vehicles.
Stowing gear under the nets can make the vehicle shape less regular. This is a variation of the old idea of placing balls of grass under a helmet net.
Surface is also the problem with most modern camouflage clothing.
As has been discussed elsewhere, many current patterns lack the element size and contrast to disrupt body shape.
Even when this is not the case, the garments conform to the easily recognized shape of the human body.
Smooth surfaces are not that common in nature.
A good camouflage pattern is only the foundation upon which personal camouflage is built. Let me provide some illustrations:
These US troops are fairly typical.
A patterned cloth cover does not camouflage a helmet, it remains a distinctive shape. No attempt has been made to paint or cover the distinctive black NVG brackets. These could at least be made in brown.
Breaking up the shape of the helmet is perhaps moot when you have an uncamouflaged rosy-pink face beneath it.
Note that none of these individuals have scarves they could use to veil their faces or make the head and neck area less distinctive.
Other clothing has no attempts at shape disruption. If it was looser it would be more comfortable, better ventilated and more irregular in shape.
Troops need a smock that fits over body armour and trousers that fit over the outside of knee-pads.
Also note that there are not even temporary measures to conceal the distinctive shape of their weapons.
Next are two photos of British troops.
These guys have camouflaged their helmets. One pair has used natural materials from their surroundings, the other appear to have used artificial materials (“textilage”). But they have stopped there.
Notice also how the camouflage pattern of the clothing blobs out and becomes effectively a single colour at just a few metre's viewing distance.
No materials added to the webbing, packs or pouches to break up their regular shape. No textilage added to the upper arms and shoulders to break up the shape. This would have also broken up the smooth appearance of their clothing, which takes us back to Surface.
Even if you are in a desert or urban environment with very little apparent vegetation, adding some texture to your helmet, clothing and gear can make you harder to see, and harder to target.
Personal camouflage is an important defence against snipers and observation.
Conventional forces assume they will always enjoy air superiority, but modern technologies such as drones may negate this on a local level.
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Don't Use Your Word Processor!

Yesterday I came across the advice “Don’t use a word processor to write!” This seemed like an odd idea but as I thought about it the wisdom behind it became apparent.
Often I have been using a word processor when the program has “done something weird”. I then spent twenty, perhaps forty or more minutes trying to fix it. At the end of this the creative flow has usually stalled! In addition to this, on my home machine both MS Word and Open Office have a tendency to freeze up when saving new documents.
A lot of what I write ends up as a webpage. Most of the features of a word processor have very little effect on the final appearance. I have written a couple of ebooks, and again, the layout from the word processor has very little effect on the final product. One of the epub creators I used was very fussy. It would not accept Open Office documents and the MS Word version had to be extensively edited and formated before it was accepted. I suspect if I had had a plain text version I might have saved myself considerable time. Often I will draft an email in a word processor and then paste it into the messenger. The only WP feature I am actually using is the spell checker.
Many of us use complex word processors for jobs that actually only needed a simple text editor.
My “weapon of choice” has become Notepad++. I had already been using this program to code my HTML. Rather than pasting text in from a word processor I will now type the text in directly, adding HTML tags as I go. I can do the latter very quickly since Notepad++ gives you an easy system of creating custom macros. My personal experience of Notepad++ is that it is a robust and relieable program. It saves when I click save, opens quickly and so far has not crashed or frozen on me, unlike some WP programs I could mention. I made a few “tweaks” to improve Notepad++ for its new responsibilities. Firstly, make sure you have the Spellcheck and DSpellcheck plug-ins installed and activated. I also recommend that you install the Autosave plug-in. This should be the one from Franco Stellari with the version number 1.6 or higher beside it, not the one labelled “Autosave2”, which is apparently more an auto-copy. Download the .dll files into the plug-in folder, then use the plug-in manager (if your version has one) to tick the boxes and install.
A text editor cannot fully replace a word processor, but you may find using the “right tool for the job” saves you both time and effort.
An offshoot of this idea got me thinking about how many files I had stored in .doc format. I suspect I can save myself some disc-space if I convert some of these into .txt or simple HTML pages.
Written and edited with Notepad++.
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EDC Shopping List

The other day I had cause to look in one of my boxes of outdoor gear. Various containers that I thought might prove useful. Items brought out of curiosity or sometimes just for their novelty. Gifts from friends.
Some are milestones from my path of understanding.
Most of it I will never use.
Either I have acquired better alternatives or my requirements have changed.
So much money spent over the years that I could very much use now. Sadly most of this stuff has very little resale value.
“If I knew then what I knew now” I could have saved myself so much time and money.
This inspired me to think about the idea of a prepper/survival shopping list. If you have just come into the field, what should you be looking to buy first?
Hopefully my article on “Foundation survival kits” has proved a good start. A fire kit, bottle for carrying water and bag of toilet paper will have been easy to acquire. A poncho and liner or blanket will have cost a bit more but probably did not break the bank. You may be saving up for a good survival knife, but have hopefully bought a machete or hatchet to serve in the meantime. 
Most of the items suggested for the foundation are relatively bulky, however. They are “bag” items rather than things you can keep on your person all the time.
If you have a good “skin-level survival EDC” what you can find in your environment or in your pack is a bonus.
The good news is that you can build up a good EDC without a great outlay of cash. My article on skin-level gear mainly listed my personal items.
I have been asked for a more general list, so this might as well be a shopping list. As before, I will concentrate on the items you carry and save a discussion of clothing for another day.
Pocket Knife: This will probably be the most expensive item on this list.
In an emergency, this may be the only knife you have available, so it makes sense to get a good one. That said, as a cash-strapped youth I carried a Chinese-made penknife. It had a really good assortment of tools and the only trouble it ever gave me was a corkscrew straightening out.
Customized Swiss Army Ranger with pocket clip
With my first full-time pay-cheque, I brought a genuine Swiss Army Knife. In my personal list you will note I also have a mini-Swiss Army Knife (SAK), a Leatherman Squirt and a number of other tools. Some redundancy and backup is always wise.
My preference is a Swiss Army Knife, but many of you will be tempted by full-size multi-pliers/multi-tools. My SAK and Squirt together weigh several ounces less than many full-size multi-pliers, but the choice is yours.
Put a loop of cord on your knife so you can secure it to belts or snap-links when necessary.
If you wear glasses and opt for an SAK, buy the mini-screwdriver that fits in the corkscrew.
Optional is a small sharpening implement. Mine is a small metal card with diamond dust on one side. Small whetstones and other devices are alternatives.
Knives are not designed for prying, especially folding ones. A pocket prybar is a good addition to your EDC.
Lighter: The most basic fire kit is to carry a lighter. Get the type with a wheel. Even if empty, it can still be used to create sparks. Multiple disposable lighters can be brought in budget stores for about a buck.
Optional: Wrap the outside of your lighter with a few inches of duct-tape. Duct-tape is flammable and a small piece may be lit with the lighter and used to get a fire going.
Bandana: Bandanas can also be found for a modest price. Multiple uses. Have one in your trouser pocket.
Hat: Whether it is to keep my head warm, keep the sun off or keep the rain off my glasses, I am seldom without a suitable hat close to hand. A hat can make all the difference to your comfort. Gloves and a scarf or keffiyeh are worth carrying too.
Space Blanket: These can be found for very reasonable prices, which is good since they are one of the most important survival items that you can carry.
Bulk-buy and place one in your EDC, and one in each bag or outdoor coat you have.
Flashlight: Flashlights can get really expensive, so it may be sometime before you save up for the one you want, especially if you want a tactical, waterproof kubotan that will survive a nuclear attack.
In the meantime, small LED lights such as copies of the Photon II can be found on ebay. Carry one on your keyring. If you wear dog-tags, add one here too.
Whistle: A whistle is another useful addition to your keyring. Budget stores and ebay have these.
If you live or travel where temperatures often drop below zero make sure your whistle is non-metallic. Another useful addition to your dog-tags.
Cordage: Cordage can be put to many uses, but how much for EDC?
About two metres/a fathom/an armspan of paracord is probably a good start. Carry two such pieces orr you can carry a spare pair of long bootlaces. I like to carry a few additional cords of different diameters and materials.
A six span length of braided fishing line has a number of applications.
Buying a hank or roll of paracord is probably prudent. You will need it for some of the other items.
Dental floss: For lighter cordage I carry a compact container of dental floss. This fits in my pocket pouch of medical items. A hank of braided fishing line or kite-string is an alternative.
Pencil with tape: Another “non-medical” addition to my pocket pouch is a short pencil, wrapped in a length of electrical tape. A detachable eraser protects the point.
Sharpie/Permanent Marker: Writes on nearly anything. Obvious applications for leaving messages or warnings. If you have to apply a tourniquet, write the time of application on the patient's forehead with your sharpie.
Chalk: Chalk is useful for marking trails or leaving messages. Half a stick of white or light-coloured, half a stick of dark. Bag the different colours separately.
Safety Pins: Useful for failed zippers and other wardrobe malfunctions. May be used to drain blisters or possibly as improvised fish-hooks. Mine ride in a little plastic bag with a couple of hair pins and paper clips.
Needle and Thread: At skin-level, this is a single needle, already threaded with about a metre of “invisible” thread.
Experiment with magnetizing the needle. I carry a small, powerful magnet with my Swiss Army Knife.
You will need to select a method for protecting you from the point. Mine used to ride in a “sheath” made from a drinking straw. Now I have taped it to the side of the pencil.
Compass: If starting out, avoid tiny button “survival” compasses. They like to hide in the corners of pockets and pouches. I have to keep my larger clipper compass in a container to avoid this.
For about a buck or two you can find budget baseplate compasses on ebay. These are good entry-level items and you can use them to teach yourself some mapwork. They weigh about an ounce and you should be able to find room for one in your EDC. Add a lanyard so you can secure it to your person.
A whistle is a good addition to a compass lanyard. I prefer to use non-metallic whistles on compass lanyards.
Tweezers: Handy to have. If you have a Swiss Army Knife, you probably carry some already.
Condoms: Condoms have a number of survival uses. Keep them away from your needle!
First Aid Kit: Your skin-level medical kit is for immediate treatment of minor injuries, i.e. actual “first-aid”.
For longer duration problems, have a more extensive kit in your bag. When you have the option, use the items in your bag before your EDC.
Budget stores and ebay sell little first-aid pouches that will fit in a trouser cargo pocket. Often they come with some medical items included. The contents may need a little tweaking but you can create a very useful pocket first aid kit for very little outlay.
Many of the items listed above can be fitted in the pouch. I even got my space blanket into mine.
Personal Medication: This will vary with the individual. In some environments this would include a supply of anti-malarials.
Sunglasses/Spectacles: These can protect you from bright light, stray branches and other threats. Carry a means to improvise a retention cord when needed.
Tissues or Toilet Paper: A ziplock bag with a few metres of toilet paper.
Obviously, have a larger supply in your pack and use that in preference to your “emergency” EDC supply.
If you have a cold or nosebleed, the tissue paper saves your bandana.
Paper can be used as tinder and the plastic bag used to carry water.
The entire package can be useful padding for other items in a cargo pocket.
If, like me, you seem to accumulate lots of paper napkins from takeaways, use these instead.
A very useful addition to your kit that costs virtually nothing.
For low-level use I carry a small bag with just a few paper napkins. I add a larger bag should I plan to stray from civilization. 
Carabiner: A carabiner makes a very practical keyring and has a number of uses.
Several of the items listed above can be conveniently carried on your keyring.
If your gear has loops or rings it can be temporarily attached to the carabiner when you need your hands free. I sometimes use mine to carry shopping bags.
That concludes our basic list. A number of items but many of them can be acquired at very reasonable prices from sources such as ebay. Many of the items you may already have around the home.
In my previous article, I suggest several EDC items that “up-level” your readiness. Where practical these should be stored together in the same small pouch which can easily be added to your pocket contents. Another of the budget first aid pouches can be repurposed for this.
Up-Level Pouch contents include:
  • Fire Kit: Additional lighter, tinder in container, one or more candles. Fresel lens if you have one.
  • Fishing Kit with Snares
  • Optional: About two thirds of a metre of cooking foil, ideally the heavier duty “turkey” foil. Carefully folded and rolled.
  • Optional: Additional space blanket.
  • Optional: Larger compass, with spare whistle. Using a firesteel necklace as the lanyard is an option to consider. Add a small snap-link and Photon light.
  • Optional: Elasticated bandage. This came with one of my medical pouches. I don't include it in my daily EDC, but it is a useful addition to the higher readiness inventory.

Optionals

Not really survival or vital items, I have added a few things that may be convenient.
Ingredients and instructions on packaging seems to be getting printed even smaller, and my eyes no younger.
To this end, I have added a small folding magnifying glass (actually a 10x loupe) to my money pouch where I carry my Suunto Clipper. This magnifier could be used to start a fire. I also carry a frensel lens within a folding pocket mirror.
The mirror could be used for signalling, or can redirect light to illuminate a deep hole.
In the same place, I have added a set of ear plugs. Ear plugs have proved so useful on some of my travels, it seems only prudent to have a set on my person as well as that with my travel bag.
The earplugs may not get used as often as, say, my Swiss Army Knife, but when I do need them I will probably really need them! Much to my amusement, both my girlfriend and her son have become firm advocates of carrying ear plugs!
Categories
Phillosoph

Survival and Likert Scales

In my last blog, I covered the topic of skin-level survival EDC and described what I carry, and how I could add to that.
This prompted a few friends to send me their own suggestions. Some of these were excellent, others..:P
For simplicity, my blog just covered the items I personally have. There are other alternatives, and some people will have other priorities. I will cover options on another day.
Some friends in particular (you know who you are!) will often send me a link to some survival gadget they have discovered.
While I enjoy seeing these, and hope that they continue to send them, my response is often rather neutral.
In many cases I often have the same capability in an item that I already have, which is more compact, more reliable, more readily available or cheaper.
The root of this is the need to distinguish between what is essential and what is just “nice to have”. Too many kit lists pile on lots of “may be useful” items without any real consideration of probability of need.
For example, I recently came across a list of suggested items for inclusion in a “survival necklace”.
One of the items was “alcohol hand sanitizer”.
Unless you work in healthcare, you should not need to carry this. Your average person does not need to clean their hands every twenty minutes. That is not how immune systems work.
For actual wounds, alcohol wipes are more compact and more practical.
“But you can start fires using sanitizer” you may protest. True, but it is simpler with some tissue, cotton wool, or many other, more versatile, EDC items I already carry.
A bottle of sanitizer is also pretty bulky for a necklace! I do have sanitizer, but it is in my pack in the middle of the bag of toilet paper, not skin-level EDC.
A friend of mine suggested a “wasp kit” as part of his EDC.
Other than your usual first aid items, I would not recommend this.
I leave wasps alone and they tend to return the favour.
If they hang around too much I can shoo them out the window, cover what is attracting them or trap them under a glass and release them out the window.
I don't do the silly dance some people do, nor the statue impression.
I have not been stung in well over 40 years. My chances of getting stung are extremely unlikely, so no “wasp kit”.
If I was allergic to wasp or bee stings, my EDC would include suitable items. The likelihood of being stung remains the same, but its consequences make these items more important.
My EDC includes a trio of lock picks, which have proved useful on certain occasions. Their weight is negligible.
I only carry my larger, more capable sets when I know I am going to need them. If you cannot pick locks, however, there is no point in carrying any picks.
What we need is a method to evaluate the usefulness of an item in the light of the probability of need and portability.
I have mentioned the book “Mind Hacks” by Ron Hale-Evans before.
Hack #44 has an interesting application for the Likert Scale.
In his example, he creates two seven-point scales, one for probability, the other for importance.
1 is “very unimportant” or “very improbable”. 2 is “improbable/unimportant”, 3 is “somewhat improbable/unimportant”, 4 is “neither important nor unimportant” or “neither improbable nor probable”. 5, 6 and 7 are correspondingly “somewhat probable/important”, “probable/important” and “very probable/important”.
The author arranges these in a 7 x 7 matrix to judge priority.
Using one of our previous examples, I judge the likelihood of my being stung by a wasp as “very improbable” so having a value of “1”.
If I was stung, it would be unpleasant, but for me personally it would not be life-threatening, so would count as unimportant in the greater scheme of things. A 2 or 3 at most, but perhaps a 1.
If I multiply my value for probability against that importance, I get a value of between 1 and 3. Doubling this for an approximate percentage gives me 2-6%, which confirms my decision not to carry specific items.
For a Likert matrix using five categories per side, quadruple the multiplied value for a percentage.
If I was allergic, however, the importance of being stung would be 6 or 7, 12-14%. If I was someone whose usual reaction to a wasp was to piss it off, probability would be higher.

Use these values as a guide, rather than something that must be strictly adhered to.
You will note that the distribution is atypical, “neutral” being only 32% and 50% “somewhat probable and somewhat important”.
There is no “set percentage” past which things automatically become essential or redundant.
Variables such as environment may change the scores you assign.
In most situations not being able to make a hot drink is a minor problem. In sub-zero conditions it is more of a priority.
The wasp sting did not score more than 14%, but if allergic it is potentially life-threatening so still something you should plan for.
Obviously, our survival equipment should prioritise items that are important and likely to be needed.
We can also easily create other Likert scales other than probability and importance.
Bulk and weight can be considered. Important/necessary items that are low in bulk/weight go into our skin-level EDC. Bulkier/heavier items that are less important/necessary go into backpacks etc.
Play around with this concept and see if it helps with your planning and kit selection.