Surfing the web it becomes apparent that outdoor gear is indeed, a very important part of what outdoor enthusiasts look for; it also becomes apparent that outdoor apparel has become fashionable. That's okay, as long as the main point of getting gear and equipment is not missed: You don't guy gear to look cool, but to be more comfortable and safe.

Of course, we are free to purchase whatever we want, and if you are not a pilot you are still entitled to get a flight jacket if that's what you like; what would be bad is to believe that you are actually a pilot just because you bought that jacket, and while this example might sound a little bit outlandish or extreme, such things do happen, for example, when someone interested in mountain climbing but with relatively low experience buys climbing gear and attempts to use it in ways that go well-beyond his or her skill level believing that using such stuff depends just on buying it.

In the case of some outdoor or extreme activities people know where the limit are; for example, regular pilots generally know and assume that they should not get into the cockpit of a plane designed for aerobatics without proper training. That is so because the whole learning system in aviation is constructed on the basis of getting licenses to use increasingly complex aeronautical equipment. You can buy a plane all right, but you will not be able to use it if you don't get first the proper license. Something similar happens in the case of nautical activities and a few others, but there are many fields in which, while it may be discouraged to act without proper training, it is actually very easy to do so: If you have a brand-new plane sitting on the tarmac at your local airport, it would be hard to attempt to fly it without a license because airports are generally filled with people - even small ones - and someone in a position of authority will probably stop you, but who will take a look at what climbers or hikers or kayaking enthusiasts do?

Don't forget that the single, most important piece of equipment that you have is your own intelligence; if you are getting started in something like mountain biking, kayaking, climbing, etc. it is fundamental that you don't try to do more than you are capable of. Getting new gear is great, but sometimes it could lead to a false sensation of security when experience is somewhat lacking.

Source: Pablo Edronkin, Andinia.com

Additional, suggested searches:

Bibliography.

Related Products.

More about this topic at Andinia.com.

Debates about this in our forum.

Related games and entertainment.

Germany and the Netherlands will organize a workshop on "Environmental future outlooks and their military implications" at the NBC School of the German Armed Forces in Sonthofen, Germany, from 9 -11 February. The event is organized under the umbrella of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Committee and with the participation of Allied Command Transformation (ACT).

For three days NATO experts as well as participants from Defence Ministries and other institutions will look at future environmental developments and trends and their direct implications for strategic military planning. The discussions will include findings of the "Multiple Futures Project 2030" that has been conducted by ACT in 2009 with the aim to enhance the Alliance's understanding of the complex new security challenges and its capacity to deal with threats across the full spectrum of conflicts.

While the consequences and implications of environmental changes for the tasks of the Armed Forces are currently being studied by individual nations, there has been little exchange of this knowledge among NATO Member and Partner countries until now.

Some of the objectives of the workshop are to establish a repository of available studies on the future environmental situation, compare the contents of the national studies, establish similarities and differences and create a network of experts and organizations.

The outcome of the discussions will serve as a basis for future long-term defence planning. They will also help to evaluate existing long term defence plans, influence concept and strategy development and improve training and threat analysis efforts, both on a national level as well as in the NATO context.

Source: NATO News

Additional, suggested searches:

Bibliography.

Related Products.

More about this topic at Andinia.com.

Debates about this in our forum.

Related games and entertainment.

A few days ago, the presence of armed men clad in camouflaged clothes near the Panex nuclear facility near Armadillo, Texas, caused an alarm and lock-down in the plant until the situation could be properly assessed.

It was a scary event; after all, armed men wearing camo clothes near a nuclear installation does sound scary and it is perfectly understandable that the plat and local authorities preferred to play safe. In the end it was a false alarm provoked by the presence of two men hunting legally with the corresponding permits in a neighbouring property, about three kilometres away from the secure installation. They were employees of the plant itself with a day off, and they were not doing anything illegal, but were they doing the correct thing?

The first conclusion of this strange incident is that it is indeed better to be safe than sorry and that the preventive measures taken were right. Until a real measure of the dangers implied in any sort of emergency is obtained, in such cases it is better to assume the worst-case scenario. That would be, a terrorist attack in concoction for which consequences could be far worse than a technical inconvenience.

But on the other hand, acting just legally will not save these hunters from the wrath of their bosses, who lost probably a small fortune due to the plant lock-down and will in all certainty, receive one or more inspections in their nuclear facility. And having said that, in the end, the incident was provoked by what could be understood as a series of mistakes committed by employees of the plant itself. Enjoying a day off doesn't excuse them from not having reasoned properly, and that could easily translate into questions that inspectors and investigators would put forward to the plant's managers: Do they have employees in such an industry that have little or no common sense?

Three kilometres might look like a great distance; you cannot say that someone is marauding around your home if he stays three thousand metres away, but consider this: Many anti-tank missiles, capable of inflicting serious damage in most types of protected or shielded structures, have such and even larger action ranges, meaning that three kilometres could be interpreted as a comfortable distance from which to point and shoot a lethal heavy weapon in order to perpetrate a terrorist attack.

This shows the difference between a simple employee, even if he or she enjoys a comfortable position at work, and a leader. Our culture turns employees into little more than human machines that perform tasks that robots and computers are still unable to do; the price that is paid for that is lack of independent, intelligent decision. This doesn't mean that employees are fools, rather that they have been domesticated and turned incapable in seeing further than their cubicles. More should be expected from employees, but also from their leaders that shouldn't turn them into mere machines.

These employees didn't tell anyone about their intentions simply because they did not think about the issue; putting safety first wasn't or isn't part of their minds despite the fact that they work in a maximum-security installation. They seem to have been acting thorough their lives as Homer Simpson when he goes to work at Springfield's nuclear power plant. They didn't say anything about what they were going to do simply because nobody asked them to and because they do not have the initiative required to say that on their own.

Moreover: Someone who goes outdoors to climb, hunt, hike, fly or sail should tell someone about his or her plans, just in case. So, in the case of people that should be very careful in their workplace and should have assimilated the same care in their daily actions, such an omission is hard to forgive.

Source: Pablo Edronkin, Andinia.com

Additional, suggested searches:

Bibliography.

Related Products.

More about this topic at Andinia.com.

Debates about this in our forum.

Related games and entertainment.