Ghetto Kolo

This is what we now refer to as a ‘Ghetto Kolo’. To see legitimate Kolo comics, click this not-so-suspicious, and less than menacing link: Kolo Comic!

Army Changing Camo

Seems that the Army is finally taking it’s camouflage seriously. It will be abandoning its Universal Camouflage Pattern. The Army is now looking to field two new uniform patterns, to better handle the range of backgrounds within which the soldier could be moving. MARPAT has held up well to many environs and climes and will be the baseline that the Army will be using as it looks for a new pattern, along with Navy NWU (Navy Working Uniform), which is basically MARPAT running vertical. There was talk of the Army just outright copying MARPAT for its own use, which needless to say, caused a bit of consternation among the Marine Corps brass. I think MultiCam was a good stop gap for Army use (Army started using MultiCam in AfPak cause UCP wasn’t cuttin’ the mustard), and seeing it continuing use wouldn’t be a bad thing. There are many good competitors vying for the new contract though, and I am glad to see the Army fielding for a new camo.

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Ref: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/07/army-backs-off-talk-using-marine-camouflage-pattern/

Images courtesy of the US Army’s Flickr page, the Navy’s NWU page, and wikipedia. (None endorse this posting.)

Advanced Disaster Life Support AAR

ADLS hosted free-of-charge by Region 2 South of Michigan.
Location: Simulation Center of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit
Timeframe: 16hrs between April 29-30, 2011
Prereqs: Basic Disaster Life Support

Consisted of didactic lecture and practical exercises.
Lecture topics covered included: Mass Triage, Mass Fatality Management, ICS review, Legal Considerations, Media Comms, Medical Decontamination, Hospitals and Disaster Planning, Meddrun & Chempak procedure, Mark I & Duodote kits, Smallpox immunization

Exercises: Tabletop exercise, Triage Skills/Disaster Drill, PPE/Decon – Tent/PAPR Training, Patient Simulator (x2), Disaster Patient Simulator

Thoughts: Very good course. Covered lots of good stuff, and put me out of my element. Got to do a needle decompression of tension pneumothorax and run a hose through a chest cavity, which is out of my scope of practice. Gave me a fair amount of information that I did not know, and had some well thought out exercises.

Additional Notes: Class is very hard to get into as the registration fills up about 2-3 hours after it opens.

ICS 300 & 400 After Action Review

Incident Command System courses for emergency management, here in Metro Detroit, MI.
ICS 300 – Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents for Operational First Responders
2.5 day course
Prereqs: Completion of ICS 100, 200, 700, 800.
Covered: Incident management at the “tactical level”, including basic ICS forms that need to be completed, how command supports operations, how to deal with an incident as it expands, developing Incident Action Plans (IAPs), and a tabletop simulated exercise of a Type 3 incident (county/state level) for application of ICS. Course is concluded with a multiple choice, open-book test.
Review: Good course, a bit dry in some places. The exercises built on what you learned, and the previous exercises, to help you grasp the material and gain experience using ICS.

ICS 400 – Advanced ICS – Command and General Staff – Complex Incidents
2 day course
Prereqs: Completion of ICS 300.
Covered: Incident management at the area and federal command levels, including management challenges associated with major incidents, circumstances for establishing area command or implementing a multiagency command (MAC), and a comprehensive exercise.
Review: Very good course. The class was heavily student driven. Our class was one of the pilot’s for the new course design. It included a series of videos that gave us our scenario and updated sitrep for Type 2/Type 1 incident. Final exercise was comprised of four groups, each acting as major incident commands for the scenario (University hospital, area command, state command, and federal command). Course is concluded with a multiple choice, open-book test.

New Puppy!

Her name is DeDe. She’s a 3 month old American Pit Bull Terrier. Very energetic. We’re going to keep her crated for a while, just to get her used to it, and house trained and all that good stuff.

Paracord Bracelet

My first attempt/practice run at a paracord bracelet. I only had a carabiner handy and I cut the cord too short. However, the necessity of me having to use that pencil for a makeshift closure, has me thinking about using one of those small self defense spikes as a closure…

Thanks to ITS Tactical for the teachings!

FCC and Net Neutrality

For those of you who are unfamiliar with net neutrality, let us look towards the standard of the English language, UrbanDictionary:

“An idea whereby all access to the collective Internets is equal. Where no limits on different throughputs or access to services are placed.”

That’s a pretty good definition right there. Now, some are concerned with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) position on net neutrality, because it would require the FCC attaining more power. However myself and many others are quite pleased with what they want, and how they mean to get it.

Basically, the big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) want to have their way with your bandwidth and charge you based upon how much you use the internet. They also want to control the load times of websites based upon how much that particular site is willing to pay for premium service. Now, if you know me, you know I ❤ Capitalism, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be a dick about it.

What the FCC wants to do, is treat the internet like a phone line, and regulate how you (and the websites) are charged. The FCC does NOT want to censor any of the content (much in contrast to previous actions of the FCC in regards to TV & Radio). They want to keep the internet the way it is, probably because the US currently dominates the shit outta the net and the FCC wants to keep it that way. If you introduce this douchebag price/service structure, people are going to say “fuck it” and host their sites and businesses on foreign servers. I don’t have a good way to end this post, so fuck it, the end!

University of Michigan Board of Regents Meeting

Today, I attended the UM Board of Regents meeting that was for all three campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint). The thing stretched on for 3 hours, so I felt a need to take notes to make it worth my time. Here’s what happened:

Opening Presentations

1) There was a report regarding finding new revenue streams for the University. Apparently up in Ann Arbor they talked around, and got 530 ideas from 350 people.

2) There was talk of preparing the University of Michigan Health System for the new health care bill objectives and statutes. Also spoke of preparing for the bill to be changed in the near future.

3) Scholarship of Engagement, regarding the U of M – Dearborn’s Women & Gender Studies program. Discussed how the program has been supporting women’s education at all levels. Talked about the Women in Leadership and Leadership (WILL) program, that is aimed at increasing women in those positions, and the acceptance thereof.

Reports

1) The engineering program at UM acquired something on the order of $50 million so that they can teach NROTC students the aspects of naval engineering (a required class for NROTC students, as previously researched) and naval architecture.

2) A 3% increase in the 2010-2011 University Housing Residence Hall rates and a 1% increase in the Northwood Community Apartment rates was approved by the board.

3) Chris Armstrong from the Michigan Student Assembly said that they were preparing for the fall 2010 elections by getting students registered to vote. They are also having some kinda hippie celebration for the Peace Corps’ anniversary. MSA is pushing for Teachers for America fund backing from Congress. They are starting a ‘Get Involved’ campaign to promote student involvement on campus and a broader base of activities. His last remarks were for the Regents to consider accessibility to education when considering tuition increases.

4)  There is a plan in place for a North campus chiller plant (I’m assuming in Ann Arbor)

5) The University Hospital put forth a plan for expansion and increased emergency services.

6) $2.5 million is to be spent on a practice golf course…. yea.

7) Approval was attained for an improvement of the 2012-2013 course calendar.

Public Comments

1) Douglas Smith (alumnus, Ann Arbor), expressed concern regarding the Department of Public Safety (DPS). He stated that the administration was misusing and mismanaging the DPS for the elimination of unwanted faculty/students, and the fact that there was currently a lacking oversight committee that is required.

2) Bill Kauffman (Professor, retired, Department of Aerospace Engineering) spoke about the corruption and plagiarism running rampant through the University/administration. He also commented on the lack of a real election on the Board of Regents, as there is no primary; the members running are selected by their peers. His most intriguing points were in regards to the ChiCom invasion of education and industry in the United States, most distressingly at the University of Michigan. He ran out of time, but when I spoke with him, he said that the FBI had requested a meeting with Mary Sue Coleman in regards to her support and allowance of advanced rocket and nuclear technology education of Chinese nationals, but that she had refused to meet with them.

3) Cardi DeMonaco (President, Student Association of Michigan/ UMD student) requested that the Board stop raising tuition (considering the EMU tuition freeze, and suggesting a reduction in power consumption and wasteful spending) and do something about the prices of books at the bookstore.

4) Bonnie Halloran (representing the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO)) discussed the LEO contract obligations. She was asking for: A) Whole benefits for part-time lecturers who met certain time in criterion. B) Compensation on par with that of at least high school educators with similar qualifications (Master’s degree). C) The reinstatement of Dr. Kirsten Harold, who was apparently wrongly dismissed from UM’s English department for her support of LEO. The Board responded with 1) File a grievance & 2) Step up negotiations on both sides.

5) Don Anderson (Professor, retired, UMD Political Science department/ represented the Committee on Retiree Health Benefits) simply asked the Board to maintain their commitment oh health benefits to retired faculty and staff. If it is found absolutely necessary to cut back benefits, he said it should be done gradually, and with much consideration.

6) Linda Martinson ( former accelerated nursing student) said that in October of 2007, she was without warning or provocation, warned of trespassing on campus at the University Hospital (this means that she was banned from the premises and not allowed to finish her program). The Vice President Harper authorized the charge of trespassing. Three weeks later, without her knowledge or presence, a hearing was held attempting to withdraw her from the University. Ties into Smith’s discussion of DPS misuse. Culminated with the University’s lack of integrity.

That’s all I got! 🙂 Thanks for lookin’!

Gays in the Military

There has been recent discussion of allowing openly gay members of the US Armed Forces to continue to serve. This is in contrast to the current policy of discharging those who are outed as homosexuals. I fully support gays in the military, and have been convinced that DADT is a policy that needs to be changed. Now, I think some delicacy is in order, however. I don’t want to see one god damn rainbow-colored humvee in country! 😉

Ordnance Denial

Now, I understand the need to minimize civilian casualties on today’s battlefields. It makes the populace happy. You lessen death on the battlefield to innocent parties. However, some shit just goes too far. In my humble opinion, the decision of General McChrystal in July 2009, to forbid air strikes except in “the most dire circumstances” is grounds for a drug test. The order severely restricts the operational effectiveness of the men on the ground. Coming under siege by Taliban forces, one can no longer be assured that the wings in the air will be allowed to lose a few hundred pounds of ordnance in some hadji’s colon. Officers are second guessing themselves, because they know that if they order an air strike, it has to absolutely be defendable as a necessary course of action and is subject to review.

The American military does not get enough credit for the great measures it goes to to minimize civilian casualties. Billions of dollars have been poured into making bombs and missiles more precise; using less explosives; and being selective about targeting options. People like to bitch and moan about civilian casualties in Iraq. Well, here:

Afghani Civilian Deaths: 8,165 (most caused by Taliban forces)

Iraqi Civilian Deaths: 95,158 – 103,819 (which I may note, are not wholly from American forces)

WWII German Civilian Deaths:  780,000

WWII Japanese Civilian Deaths: 672,000

Korean War Civilian Deaths (N. Korea): 1,000,000

I couldn’t find proper statistics for Vietnamese Civilian casualties. However, as is clearly evident, we have been able to greatly improve our ability to minimize civilian casualties in time of war. What I don’t get (and have never agreed with) is the restrictions put upon fighting men and women on today’s battlefield. Some of it stems from insurgent tactics, some of it comes from trying to please the international community. But this, this is too much.

P.S. I will admit Iraqi civilian deaths were higher than I expected. But I stand by my original statement. I would really like to find numbers for civilian casualties caused by American air power, but that’s probably a lost cause.

P.P.S. I found one bullshit figure from an antiwar website (1,366,350). This, especially compared with previous engagements casualty rates, is nonsensical. I would also like to point out that this particular antiwar website links to the Iraqi Body Count that I used in my above statistics, giving them a variance of 1,200,000 or so in count.