popular logistics

Dan Kitchen reviews the BCB Mini Work Tool at Toolmonger:

The BCB Mini Work Tool looks like a miniature version of the ATAX tool that Toolmonger [photopress:BCB_miniwork_tool.jpg,thumb,alignright]featured a few weeks ago. This credit card-sized piece of stainless steel integrates 11 tools in its simple frame, including a knife, saw, bottle opener, flat screwdriver, and a hole that can be used as a wrench.

BCB Miniwork Tool [BCB Survival USA]

This bandage - in a shape designed to be useful in more than one configuration - was covered with language-free instructions for use. From the amazing (and amazingly wide-ranging) “Ideo Selects” exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt.

If you’re in or going to be visiting New York, the Cooper-Hewitt is at 2 East 91st Street - that’s at Fifth Avenue on the East side (just east of Central Park). Their number is 212.849.8400 - hours and directions here. To be candid - I love the Cooper-Hewitt - but I’m not sure why - as part of the Smithsonian, a publicly funded museum, it charges admission. But one suspects this is more a legislative/executive branch decision - the Smithsonian museum system, alas, not described in the constitution as a coequal branch (but it might be an improvement).

For our readers concerned with disaster preparedness, there are (at least) four other items in the Ideo show that are worth a look, and in at least one case, of substantial historical significance:

Leatherman has introduced the Skeletool and skeletool CX:

The Skeletool has a removable pocket clip - so it can be used with or without a sheath.

The Skeletool CX has carbon-fiber handles; Erik Sofge, in his Popular Mechanics review (link below) says that it’s got a particularly comfortable grip - no small asset for a tool that, almost by definition, one uses in less-than-ideal conditions. The CX also has some attachable bits stored inside the tool. (I’m not entirely sure how they both end up the same weight - this may be the result of my misreading the specs )

Link to Erik Sofge’s review at PopularMechanics.com.

I’ve been using the AllMedHi-Viz Rescue Vest for a few weeks. Happy to recommend it - worth every penny - although for CERT and other purposes I’d like to see a lower bulk price. For the record, we weren’t given a review sample - and regard this as money well spent. And I intend to assemble a bulk purchase soon. Here are some images.

[Show as slideshow]

It’s great - I’ve worn it every time I’ve been to the park with Lucy and Zoe before dawn, and my guess is that it exceeds ANSI Class III visibility requirements. (AllMed doesn’t make the claim - and for the moment, I’m saying again - it’s a guess). We’ll try to measure visibility soon.

And it has the feel of something well-made and well-designed - very sturdy but not at all uncomfortable.

And it’s got enough pockets that, by itself, it could function as a go-bag or jump bag with the “A” gear - the absolute essentials. We’re going to figure out how much we can stuff in the pockets.

Responders should, of course, add ID - name, units, etc. - but I’d urge anyone doing it to use Reflexite letters - what makes this vest unique is the combination of conspicuity and load carrying ability - i.e., pockets - don’t make it any less reflective if at all possible.

Product page here.

From Boing Boing Gadgets:

The “Moflow” water pack from Polarpak looks like a traditional back-mounted water carrier, but the inclusion of an air pump adds two useful features: you don’t have to suck on a hose to get a sip of water, as biting on the tip gives you a blast of pressurized liquid; the air pressure in the reservoir helps keep the water from sloshing around. You can add a shower head attachment as well for a little backwoods rinse down.It looks like a wonderful addition to the standard design, but I’d worry that the little hand pump, which isn’t integrated into the system, would be easily lost.

It’s selling at a suggested $32, but you’ll still need to purchase a backpack with a standard hydration pack slot.

Product Page [PolarPak.com]

From Joel Johnson  at Boing Boing Gadgets.

The existence of a “standard hydration pack slot” is, in our view, a very helpful innovation, and we’d like to know who came up with it. We hope to start reviewing light packs with these slots as candidates for g0-bags/jump bags - and the presence hydration slot should count for a lot.

We’ve been collecting and comparing go-bag lists for a while - since realizing that certain government agencies appeared to be making lists without ever assembling the contents and weighing them - thus violating S.L.A. Marshall’s prescription in The Soldier’s Load.

We’re not finished with the in-house research, but we’ll point out what we believe to be two critical points:

1. the first-line gear in any go-bag are non-fungible items - things you can’t get from anyone else without a physician, dentist, optician, dental lab, or pharmacist: medication, medical devices, glasses, and dentures.
2. Footwear counts as non-fungible because even if they fit perfectly, if they’re not broken in, properly. A crisis isn’t a good time for blisters, which can, by themselves, count as a personal crisis.
3. Duplicating the go-bag - the first-line items, or more than that - and keeping them somewhere other than home - removes the risk of being separated from the go-bag by the same condition which makes the go-bag necessary. Additional bags cached at a nearby neighbor’s - and one not so near, one at work - are all hedges against a disaster happening while you’re not at home - separating you from your go-bag.

Jim McDonald at Making Light has an interesting and practical post about go-bags - it’s an annotation and exegesis of lists he’s posted on his Emergency Kits page. Here’s McDonald’s explanation of his “Urban Bag”:

Urban bag

If you’re just going away for a little while, or you only need to get home from the office, and you’re in a built-up area, this has the supplies you need. If you can grab nothing else, grab this one. If you only have ten seconds, grab this one.

(Along with what’s in your pockets. I assume some pocket change, subway tokens, a pocket knife, ID, and so on.)