The Rim Trail from Bright Angel to Hermit’s Rest hike is one of the best-kept secrets on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The well-maintained and easy to follow Rim Trail winds along the western section of the South Rim, stopping at every marked vista point and making it’s way past dozens of others that aren’t on the map. The hike is flat, away from the crowds, and away from the cars (the road next to it is only open to shuttle buses). And if you get tired at any point, you can just hop on the shuttle bus. If you want to do a Grand Canyon hike that doesn’t include hardcore hiking down into the canyon, but do want a peaceful and spectacular experience on the trail, this hike is for you.
Security overload leads to apathy. How often do you hear a car alarm go off and roll your eyes hoping the owner would disable the blasted thing before the incoming headache comes a knocking? The primary objection I have to such systems is they work too well. Every week I hear an alarm being triggered […]
The following has been contributed by Anonymous Prepper
One of the most discussed topics that I’ve seen over the years is related to starting fires. While some people go as far as learning the bow drill method so they can start one under any circumstances, others say they’re going to use a simple lighter to achieve the same result. It’s pretty funny whenever I see such replies on the survivalist boards.
I’m not going to take sides here, I’d rather do something better and let you know of all the ways to start a fire. This way you can decide for yourself which ones you should pack into your BOB or learn.
#1. Using a Lighter
This is by far the easiest way to start a fire. The vast majority of people go for either Zippo or Bic. (You can follow the debate here).Suffices to say it’s good to have lighters everywhere: inside your car, your survival bags, your pockets, inside the pouch attached to your bike – you name it!
#2. Using Matches
Matches are the next best thing for starting a fire but, just to make sure they work, you should get the waterproof kind. If not, you should at least put them in waterproof containers. Some people like to have a fire starting kit, usually a small waterproof pouch.
#3. Using a Blastmatch
The blastmatch is a very cool device whose beauty consists in the fact that you can use it with only one hand. Very useful in case you get injured and can’t use both of them. Not many preppers consider the likely scenario of them getting injured.
Here’s a video showcasing how to use it:
#4. Using a Ferro Rod
They work when you scrape off some of the rod by means of a sharp striker, thus generating sparks. The actual rod is, in fact, made mostly of iron (along with some other metals) and only has a small percentage of magnesium. Not to be confused with magnesium firestaters.
Here’s a quick youtube video showing how to scrape some tinder and then use a ferro rod to light it:
#5. Using the Flint and Steel Method
The things you use for the flint and steel method are completely different than those used in the ferro rod method. It can be a little confusing, I know.
The steel can be anything, such as piece of a high carbon, while the flint rock is something you should be able to find while bugging out. Quartz ricks will work and they are easy to find along rivers. Good video showing how to find a rock that has quartz and then use it to generate some sparks:
#6. Using a Magnesium Block
IF you have a magnesium block (from Amazon, for example, it’s really cheap), you can use the back of the blade of your knife to scrape it off for 15-20 seconds, then use the same knife to run it along the block and get those shavings to spark using friction.
Quick video on how this works as well as further explanations:
#7. Using Steel Wool and a 9V Battery
This is a lot easier than using flint and steel, magnesium or a ferro rod. The sparks come very quickly, but make sure you keep the two separated inside your backpack to avoid a disaster. All you have to do is touch the steel wool with both ends of the battery and have some tinder ready.
Tip: consider packing devices that use 9V batteries. This way, you won’t have to pack the battery for the sole purpose of starting fires.
#8. Using a Lens
The best lens you can have in your bug out bag is a small magnifying glass. If that’s something you don’t want to pack (some preppers avoid small items such as this one because every ounce counts), you can use other things to achieve the same effect: a transparent plastic bag filled with water, a Fresnel lens (they have them the size of a credit card), or even a block of ice.
The thing that makes the lens work is its focal point. Put it between tinder and the sun in such a way that the rays are focused into a single dot. The smaller the dot, the more likely it will combust.
#9. Using the Bow Drill Method
Wikipedia explains it better but, in essence, this is a last resort means of starting a fire… for when you’ve got no lighter, no steel wool and no Sun to use your magnifying glass. In essence, you need a small bow, a bearing block and a spindle. You can see a video demonstration here:
Final Word
OK, so I didn’t tell you ALL the ways to start a fire, but do you really need to know them? I doubt you’ll use potassium permanganate during your bug out. Stick to 2, 3 or even 4 from the ones above and you’ll be more than prepared to start a fire than anyone.
And if you want to take things further, why not assemble a fire starting kit for your BOB? Keep everything related to fire starting (including tinder) inside a single MOLLE pouch. You’ll have everything in one place and, if need be, you can give it to someone else to carry it for you. If you can get one that has MOLLE webbing, you’ll be able to strap it to a backpack that’s compatible (that has the same webbing).
In March 2018, I was playing volleyball and broken my 5th metatarsal, a small, weight-bearing bone in my foot. When I went into for an X-ray, the doctor told me that it was the most frequestly broken bone in the foot and that “95% of people heal up just fine in about 3 months.” I felt pretty good knowing that I just had to reduce my use of the foot, go to PT, and wait.
Three weeks later I returned to his office for another X-ray of the broken bone. My doctor looked at it for a bit, turned to me, and said, “No worries. 85% of people heal up just fine in about 3 months.”
85%? I thought it was 95% three weeks ago?
It turns out, I’m in that top 5% of people. Yay me.
Present Day
Months went by and the X-rays continued to show no healing of the bones so we scheduled surgery to put a small screw into my foot. And YES, like a true geek, I asked for the screw to be made out of Vibranium or Unobtainium so that I could get some super powers. Unfortunately, the doctor had not heard of either of these metals (sorry Marvel Universe).
I’ve used forearm crutches for years and know their pros (easy and quick) and cons (hurts arms/hands, can’t carry anything, and is exhausting). When I first broke my foot, I borrowed a knee scooter from a friend. While it worked, my thighs and back hurt from using it, I couldn’t carry anything, and I almost face-planted after taking corners too quickly several times.
The iWALK 2.0 is a knee crutch (shown below). It straps onto your leg and allows you to move around like you are on a “pirate peg leg”. I bought one and, within 5 minutes (I was a natural!), I was walking around on it.
I cruised around the office with it on but…but…it was missing something….BLING!
The Bling
The truth is that I knew I was going to be in this iWALK during the BSidesLV, BlackHat, and Defcon cyber security conferences and that I’d be around a large number of, well, geeks like me. So I wanted something technical to point at.
Some lights.
Some…sounds.
Something. Anything!
Adafruit.com is my preferred site for “electronic bling”! I have come to love their products and the helpful tutorials they have to get me started.
I wanted to add lights and other things to the iWALK but didn’t want to go full Raspberry Pi on it. I was not thrilled coding up an Arduino for the task either so I scoured the Adafruit web page hoping for inspiration. It did not disappoint.
Oh, I was in heaven. Did you see the 10 NeoPixels that are built-in to the device? Sound and light sensors. Accelerometer! Speaker! All for $25?
I was happy and resigned myself to learning the Arduino code necessary for this device…but wait. The Circuit Playground CAN be programmed using Arduino code. But it also can be programmed using CircuitPython and via a web page (https://makecode.adafruit.com/). Hmmm…. via a web page. Let’s look into this more.
See, I love Python as much as the next person, but in my creations, I love being able to explain to “normals” (non-geek people like my family and people I meet outside of work and cons) how things work. So not having to show them IDEs or Vim and long lines of text code is helpful to backing up my claim that “anyone can do this”.
The “Programming” Web Site
Let me show you how absolutely easy Adafruit has made programming these Circuit Playgrounds. In a separate tab or browser window, go to https://makecode.adafruit.com/.
Press the “New Project” button (shown below).
Now you are at the simulator screen. You don’t even need to buy a Circuit Playground Express to play around with it!
Arrow 1 below shows the simulated device that you can press the buttons on, watch the LEDs light, and listen to.
Arrow 2 shows how you drag a puzzle piece from the palette over to arrow 3 in the code area. Adafruit has a huge number of blocks that can be used. If you (or your kids) have ever used MIT’s Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/), then you will be right at home dragging puzzle pieces from the left to the right and putting them in loops and button press objects.
If that isn’t enough for you, you can customize what your code does using Javascript. Arrow 4 translates the blocks to Javascript code (and translates Javascript to Block code).
Oh this was not only going to be fun but easy too!!!!!! Every time I made a change to the web page code by dragging objects into the loops on the right, the simulator on the left reset and I could run the code in the virtual environment.
The Circuit Playground Express was nice as the heart/brains of my creation, but I needed other things.I wanted to be proud of this creation. I wanted LOTS of lights, sounds, WiFi, and so much more!
3D printer for the case (although later I found out that Icebreaker Mints cases are the perfect size for this!)
USB phone chargers – 4, 2600mAh (I wanted them to be able to be cycled in and then recharged)
The Plan
I figured I’d:
Mount the NeoPixel Jewel in the middle of the front of the brace.
Cut the 1m of NeoPixel strips into 2, .5m strips and run them along either side of the front of the brace.
Mount the USB power supply on top with the switch facing up so I could power on and off easily.
Mount the ESP8266 next to the USB power supply as there was nothing to really do to that aside from turn it on.
Mount the Circuit Playground Express in the 3D printed case I modified from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2585702. I used the tinkercad.com web site to add some holes to the walls of the case to allow for wires to pass through.
The M3 screws, bolts, and stuff were to secure the wires from the various NeoPixels up to the Circuit Playground Express.
Create a program where I could control the different light sequences and such from the buttons on the Circuit Playground Express.
The Outcome
I had so much fun playing around with this over weeks. I still tinker with pieces of it or the code. Here’s a short video with some of the features displayed.
What else does it do?
There is a sound meter that listens on the Circuit Playground Express and then graphs the sound levels down the NeoPixel strips on the legs (louder sounds go closer to the ground).
It makes the Mario Bros “cha-ching” sound that Mario makes when he collects a coin when I step (generate a G-force > 1G).
The ESP8266’s sole purpose is to broadcast a WiFi access point with a specific name. Not going to tell you what it is. Hopefully, people at the cons I’m going to will see it and come find me.
I have it configured so that the last 10 lights on each NeoPixel strip light up white to act as a headlight so I can see where I’m walking at night or in clubs.
The code for this got quite complicated but I stuck true to my “I wanna do it all in the makecode website”. Below is a picture of the code and a link to it (https://makecode.com/_by6Prk8ptioK). As I mentioned, this is a work in progress, and I’m constantly tweaking the codes. That link and the pic below are for a static set of the code.
Pictures of the project pieces are below.
The Conclusion
I’m looking forward to showing these technologies off to people over the coming 8 weeks of use. Hoping I’ve maybe inspired you to go grab a Circuit Playground Express or write some MakeCode. Let me know!
Instead of driving to the attractions on the South Rim, here’s a great easy hike that you can do instead. You’ll follow the paved Rim Trail away from the crowds at the Visitor’s Center to take in Mather Point, the Geology Museum, the Trail of Time, Verkamp’s, Hopi House, and all the Bright Angel attractions. In between the sights, the Rim Trail meanders along the South Rim, with dozens of unique vistas and viewpoints where you can take in the majesty of the Canyon. At the end of the hike, you hop on a free shuttle bus back to your car at the Visitor’s Center.
Mice are disturbing critters that ever living in your house. Mice can bring many problems in your house. Mice can chew all subtle items like electric cable, food, and even wood that will cause...
Located far away from the South Rim crowds, this hike on the Hermit Trail to Dripping Springs is one of the great Grand Canyon hiking adventures. The Hermit Trail is an engineering marvel, once paved with sandstone slabs when it was built in 1911 for tourists. At the end of the hike you reach a unique hanging garden spring, tucked into a remote corner of the Canyon. It’s not a very long hike but it’s challenging, with steep climbs and narrow sections.
Following their outstanding success in the 2018 RoSPA Health and Safety Awards (a Gold Achievement, Best New Entry and a Guardian Angel Award), the #1 global beauty company L’Oréal Group took the 2019 Awards by storm.
As well as creating with RoSPA, the popular Safe@Work-Safe@Home Award which is open to all Gold Award winners, L’Oréal also achieved 2 Gold, 2 Silver and a Bronze award as well as the Best New Entry – International trophy.
L’Oréal’s strategy is to encourage individual sites or regions/countries to apply for the RoSPA awards and then cascade the impact and pride of being recognised for their local systems and performance.
Following the success of L’Oréal sites across the Americas (or L’Oréal Americas) in 2019, we discussed with Dr Jay Harf, Vice President of Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability, Zone Americas, the reasoning as to why they choose the RoSPA Awards programme.
Why did you enter the awards and why is achieving a RoSPA Award important for your organisation?
Consumers’ expectations are higher than ever and are increasingly supporting companies that look after people as well as the planet. To be an employer of choice, it is important to care for your employees and their health and safety. It is important that our efforts and performance be validated by others and it’s not just patting ourselves on the back. RoSPA recognition provides our employees with a sense of pride, knowing our policies and initiatives are perceived as world class.
Participating in the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards and being recognized reaffirms that we are on the right path in protecting our people but it also benchmarks us against other companies. It is vital in today’s society to be able to demonstrate to our employees and customers that the health and safety of our employees and visitors is a real core value. The RoSPA Awards and recognition that comes with it allows us to do that.
What do you think entrants could do over the year to keep drafting an awards submission simple?
The best advice that I can give is to be continually collecting relevant evidence that can be included in your RoSPA Health & Safety Award application. In doing so, you can ensure that you are keeping your submission current, and building off your baseline. This will mean that what you submit in year 1 you can build on in year 2, 3 and 4. Demonstrating day-to-day, month-to-month safety operations are important, so take notes and collect this evidence throughout the year.
I would also like to add that the careful selection of the proof provided is vital. Take the time to select the proof that supports the text you have written and please do not give more than eight pieces of proof…. the 9th and beyond will not be considered!
Have you used the reflective practice involved in drafting a submission for Career and Professional Development (CPD) purposes?
The RoSPA Awards application process is a great tool for CPD because it forces our team to step out of their routine and think clearly about where we are at in our journey towards zero accidents and even further by creating a positive safety culture. This reflective practice helps us improve processes, generate ideas and move forward. Being able to benchmark our progress through the peer-to-peer view is invaluable.
Which innovative approaches, risk assessment practices and/or control measures to manage health and safety are you particularly proud of?
Over the last few years, we have streamlined many of our processes at L’Oréal in the Americas in order to be more sustainable and digitally-minded when it comes to health and safety reporting. A key component of this is that we have moved a lot of monitoring over to apps that can capture data in real time. This allows us to make faster and more informed decisions on safety and focus on what matters and that is on the ground safety and talking to employees about their safety and their concerns.
Recently, we launched the Corporate Safe@Work-Safe@Home and LIFE programmes which we helped to develop. The former promotes spreading our culture outside of L’Oréal and we have seen our employees working in the community to promote safety more widely. In the USA, we are particularly proud of our schools’ program that has successfully passed on lessons relating to all aspects of safety (fire, road, home…). At the fire (fire safety) sessions, we have seen employees teach kids, in a fun way, how to plan an evacuation of a building and use a fire extinguisher – vital training which may very well save lives.
How has working with RoSPA, inspired you and your sites/regions to continually improve health and safety management?
Attending the RoSPA Awards ceremony in Glasgow this year was a revelation and gave my team and I a fantastic opportunity to network and learn from other health and safety professionals from a diverse range of companies. We came back from Glasgow with ideas for improvement as well as a hunger to do even better in 2020.
I am personally convinced that any organisation that wants to get the reassurance of where they are in their health and safety journey and what are the next steps of improvement should participate in the RoSPA Awards. Each year, if companies take on board the feedback on their application I am convinced that everyone will make progress and that this progress will be recognised. That has to be good for the company as well as for all the employees, contractors and visitors.
I walked out of the door at the end of a great evening and I made a single promise: we will be back! See you next year in Birmingham for the 2020 Awards.
Click here to find out more about the Safe@Work – Safe@Home Award, sponsored by L’Oréal. To read more from our RoSPA Awards ‘Meet the Winners’ series, click here.
In the event of a major collapse, there are a number of skills that most people will need to relearn in order to survive. #urbansurvivalsite #survivalskills #basicskills #shtf #collapse
Gold Award winners, L’Oréal also achieved 2 Gold, 2 Silver and a Bronze award as well as the Best New Entry – International trophy.
companies that look after people as well as the planet. To be an employer of choice, it is important to care for your employees and their health and safety. It is important that our efforts and performance be validated by others and it’s not just patting ourselves on the back. RoSPA recognition provides our employees with a sense of pride, knowing our policies and initiatives are perceived as world class.
Recently, we launched the Corporate Safe@Work-Safe@Home and LIFE programmes which we helped to develop. The former promotes spreading our culture outside of L’Oréal and we have seen our employees working in the community to promote safety more widely. In the USA, we are particularly proud of our schools’ program that has successfully passed on lessons relating to all aspects of safety (fire, road, home…). At the fire (fire safety) sessions, we have seen employees teach kids, in a fun way, how to plan an evacuation of a building and use a fire extinguisher – vital training which may very well save lives.