I need some new safety gear for my motorcycling- generally daily commuting but a good number of long rides here and there. I also need the gear to double for my side-job as a professional badass, I have a slimline bulletproof vest that protects my organs, but it won't do the job against baseball bats or knives. All the gear should fit snugly underneath my clothes, or at least under my Ultimate Long Coat Of Asskicking.So, essentially I need some good elbow/forearm, knee/shin, and chest guards that can protect against slashing and blunt trauma.What are your thoughts, gentlemen and ladies? Steel or Carbon Fiber? Kevlar? What is the best Bang (reducer) for my buck?In case you don't know why I'm so paranoid about preparing for all of this: Good. Let's not worry about that.
Some smoke detectors run on a battery only and some run on 110 volt household current with a battery as a backup in case the power goes out. A smoke detector will give an audible beep if the battery is low and some will also give the same beep if the 110v power is off to tell you it is running on the battery. If you are confident the power is on and or the battery is good, and you have held down the test/reset button and the alarm sounded, but still beeps regularly, then the smoke detector should be replaced. The average life of a detector is 5 to 10 years and lightning loves to reek havoc on the electronics. **If your detectors are 110v and you replace it yourself and don't call an electrician, you MUST make sure you buy the same brand and that the model numbers are compatible with the old ones or else you could be plagued with false alarms or damage to all of the smoke detectors.
Yes and I think the key word in your question is habit. People learn to react to such situations based upon prior experience, and as the vast majority have never had to escape from a real fire/bomb threat situation and have only known false alarms, then they behave according to what they think the reality is. It is very similar to the boy who cried wolf mentality, combined with it's not my problem It is a very difficult mindset to overcome. Just look at how most people in city areas react when a car alarm goes off at night outside their building (especially in places with many apartment buildings and parked cars). Basically they ignore it, believing that someone's alarm has false-triggered which is a boon to car thieves! Out in the country, however, where if you hear a car alarm it would likely be yours or a near-neighbor's the reaction is very different, so environmental factors do play a part. I doubt that there is a viable short-term solution to this problem, but certainly, public education programs would help to change this it can't happen to me/I don't care mindset. This was part of the thinking behind road safety campaigns and their effectiveness is reflected in the drop in road accident fatalities in recent decades. But on the practical side, most building owners are wary of conducting full, surprise drills because if some customers/residents get injured in the evacuation then they might sue. True, people also might sue if there is a real emergency and the evacuation doesn't go smoothly, so it's a huge dilemma.
