Rogue Medic's inviting avatar

In stark contrast to Tactical Pants Blog, Rogue Medic has mucho gravitas.

Infusing dozens of citations and studies, blogger Tim Noonan provides deep, meaningful analysis of processes and procedures in the EMS field.

To be honest, some topics discussed on his blog go right over our head — but not all. Noonan’s use of charts, tables, quotes, sources and commentary helps even dilettantes embrace medical research.

While he has only blogged for a little over two years, Noonan’s paramedic experience spans almost two decades. Last year his blog was even nominated as a Fire/EMS Blog of the Year. He kindly took a moment away from his growing body of study to answer a few questions for us.

Why did you start blogging?

I have been writing on various email listservs for a while. One of the medics I know from the listservs started a blog and has been very successful. A Day in the Life of an Ambulance Driver. I blame him.

What is the inspiration behind it all?

Writing on a blog allows me to format the topic in a way that may help me to make my point more easy to understand. Or it can allow me to just write something that is long and tedious. I do both. I don’t really try for long and tedious, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

Your blog is extremely thorough and at times pretty research heavy. Have you always been interested in formal research?

Pretty much. I find that the most effective way to convince medical directors to change protocols is with well-done and relevant research. I am trying to let people know what research is out there.

By looking at the research and understanding what conclusions can be drawn from any particular study and what may be reading too much into a study, we make progress in providing the best care for patients. If we aren’t doing this to provide the best care for the patients, then we might as well just go home and consider a different line of work.

How did you become a part of Research Blogging?

Research Blogging has their own rules for participation. As long as you follow their rules, you can blog through them.

Basically, they are looking for posts that provide some commentary on a study; something more than just reprinting the abstract or cutting and pasting from the paper. If you look at some of what others write for research blogging, they tend to be shorter than mine, which is not surprising.

I also write for Paramedicine 101, which is run by Adam Thompson. He asked me if I wanted to participate and maybe it was the way he phrased it, maybe it was that I was in a social mood, I don’t know. I try to post once a week there. Sometimes it works out to once a month. Other times it works out to several in a week. I have posted for some blog carnivals: Normal Sinus Rhythm, The Handover and Skeptics’ Circle.

I do not have any specific posting schedule. I try to post something two or three times a week on my blog. I also occasionally participate in some podcasts EMS EduCast, EMS Garage and MedicCast.

You list many quotes on your page—what is your all-time favorite?

I don’t have any particular favorite. I tend to add quotes now and then.

I put a new quote at the top of the blog, since I am trying to focus on pain management research for a while. It is an old quote from Albert Schweitzer: “We must all die. But that I can save a person from days of torture that is what I feel is my great and ever-new privilege. Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself.”

One thing I like about quotes is that they get people to think about things differently. Many times people think of Nobel Prize winners as serious people who would never encourage any kind of “disobedience.” But the truth is that they often came up with the concept that earned them the Nobel Prize by being disobedient, non-conformist and rebellious.

For example, teachers are frustrated by hearing constantly that Einstein did not do well at math, yet look at his success. They might be more upset by this quote: “Never memorize what you can look up in books.” But what Einstein was saying is that we need to understand, rather than memorize. It does not matter how much we memorize, if we do not understand how to use what we have memorized.

I like to use quotes to get people to think. Too much of EMS is about discouraging thinking and just following orders. Do you know anyone who says, “I want a THOUGHTLESS EMT/medic/nurse/doctor”? The same is true for any of the emergency professions. Fire fighters, HazMat, police, FBI, any branch of the military, et cetera.

The thoughtless person is the customer service person, who takes up an hour of your time for a simple fix but provides the wrong fix. These are the people who provide material for comedians. This is not being all you can be. This is not what we want our children to grow up to be. This is not what we want when we have to deal with an emergency.

That may summarize my blog. I try to get people to think about things differently. It is only by seeing things differently that we develop the insight to make truly significant changes. The only time we can claim that we do not change is when we are dead. I will be there soon enough. I don’t need to treat my mind as if it is already dead.

How long have you been a paramedic? What attracted you to the profession?
I’ve been a paramedic for 17 years. I was going to be a father and figured that I needed to know what to do to deal with emergencies. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to my daughter, and I could have done something to prevent it.

I had watched Emergency! in the 1970s and liked the show, but every time I was around an injured person, I would look worse than the injured person. I learned to deal with that and found that I like EMS.

What’s the most frustrating part of your job?

The useless limitations on appropriate care. The pay. The benefits. The respect. The hours. The working conditions. Depending on when you ask, I’ll give a different answer.

And the most rewarding?

Helping people. Whether it is helping a patient directly, helping a student/coworker to understand something better, so that they can help patients better, or helping to change protocols to allow for better patient care.

For an interesting perspective on this, David Konig has written This Job Is Not About Helping People.

We hear that some medics do, in fact, wear tactical pants on occasion. Do you wear them? What’s your uniform like?

Yes. 5.11 Tactical Series. These are my uniform pants, and I like them.

My uniform is tactical pants, a polo shirt, boots and a belt. And underpants—they’re tactical pants, not commando pants. I like this uniform. I have no desire to wear anything even remotely formal. I have spent too much time wearing a suit to ever want to wear one again.

When Facebook switched “become a fan” to “like,” we were admittedly devastated.

Becoming a fan of utterly random things such as ice cubes, bookmobiles and mustaches is what social networking is all about. Sure, it’s great to connect with new-to-the-Internet relatives and hi-remember-me folks, but we prefer pure irreverence. And declaring fandom of intimate objects seems too ridiculously pointless to be ignored.

If you’re an LEO or a just a huge LEO supporter, get your mouse clicker ready to “like” the following pages. But we’re going to still refer to you as a “fan.” So there.

1. Handcuffs – It’s no surprise this popular restraint devise has garnered 930 fans. While those who wear ‘em might not ‘like’ it, others surrounding them probably do. Latest post: “Cops never think it’s as funny as you do. They sent me a picture of me speeding, so I sent a picture of a check… so they sent me a picture of handcuffs.”

2. Canine Police Unit – Life on the canine police unit isn’t easy street. And with zero fans currently, it’s up to you to show this page some love. Latest post: “Just passed a police training seminar in the parking lot of the scottish right building parking lot, a police station and a cop canine unit. Scottish rite? Seriously? Yes.”

3. Badges – Flash this page to your friends, and they’ll think you’re really something. With a respectable 412 fans, you might become the only fan who actually owns one. Latest post: “Badges dress up day today at Hooter’s! I’ll be Mrs. Officer tonight…come see me lol!!!”

4. Parking tickets – Truthfully there were two fan pages for these little love notes. We chose the page with 70 fans because of its page description: “Parking tickets are the roads way of suggesting to idiots to learn how to read. Pictures make it so you don’t even need to know the language!” And you thought getting a ticket was shameful enough.

5. Police officers – Only 240 fans?! Come on LEO world, represent! Latest post: “169 dollar speeding ticket grrr.. God Bless Eagle County for having the most polite and HOT police officers in all the land…at least it wasn’t all bad.”

6. Dunkin’ Donuts – OK, OK … totally stereotypical. However, who doesn’t like donuts? They have more than 1.4 million fans. Hello, it’s time to join the crowd. Latest post: “I Found a Dunkin Donuts in Kuwait Got pics of me in front of it. there should be one on Sabattus st in Lewiston Maine so I wont have to go that far anymore )”

7. Flashlight – Nothing will equip you better in the heat of the night than this handheld light, which is apparently called “torch” outside of the U.S. Latest post: “Crazy morning today! The kid’s school had no electricity and I was sent back and asked to come back with a flashlight among more crazyness!”

8. Tactical Pants – Betcha didn’t see this one coming! The one and only spot on the ‘Book that celebrates uniform pants. Latest post: Reader’s Poll: ‘How much are you willing to spend on tactical pants?’”

9. Police Baton – Another essential piece of equipment. Unfortunately this page only has one fan! C’mon, doesn’t anyone else out there like twirling a baton? Latest post: “I <3 my police baton. The end.”

10. Gun Holsters – We admit to making this page ourselves specifically for this post. But gun holsters are awesome, so can you blame us? Latest post: “Gun Holster Basics: The basic function of a holster is to secure and hold a firearm, or another object, in a location where it can be easily accessed.”

11. Guns – To go along with gun holsters, of course. Except this page has 38,632 fans. Very impressive. And a little scary. Latest post: “Guns are safe, smart, and fun for the whole family.”

12. COPS – It’s everybody’s favorite TV show. And it’s one of the longest-running shows in American history. Latest post: “cops raided, plants pulled!!! ”

13. Police Scanner – How can a cop not like the police scanner? OK, don’t answer that… Latest post: “my mom just tolld me the police scanner was blowing up during the parade most streets we were on had atleast one person call the cops they were trying to track us down with calls”

Next week we’ll follow up this post with the top 10 Facebook pages for police departments and law enforcement-related foundations… promising to be a little more useful but a little less fun.

Did we leave any pages out? Let us know what Facebook pages are your favorite in the comment section below!

(Images via Wikimedia)

Suzi Brent a.k.a. Nee Naw

When compared to the U.S., there are some major contrasts with emergency medicine in the United Kingdom. There’s the service funding, the public heath care and even the number you call. (Note: Dial “999″ for help—not “911.”)

Despite the differences, people are generally the same. Everywhere.

It was those very people who drove London native Suzi Brent to the blogosphere in 2005. Not everyone irked her—just those who rang “999″ as if it were a personal butler service. Working as an emergency medical dispatcher, Brent typed out her adventures in the busy London call center a few times a month at Nee Naw, her blog inspired by Tom Reynolds’ Random Acts of Reality.

Now the blog has been turned into a book.

Published by Penguin Books, Nee Naw: Real Life Dispatches from Ambulance Control is a 320-page, behind-the-scenes narrative that covers three years of Brent’s life. We caught up with the author via e-mail and discovered that U.K. emergency medical dispatchers do indeed wear tactical pants, though they call them combat trousers. Oh, and they’re green!

What was your inspiration for writing the book?

I started writing the blog because when I was taking “999″ calls it struck me how little people knew about the emergency ambulance service and the “right” way to make a “999″ call. Of course, it’s not appropriate to start lecturing people about how the system works when they’re in the midst of an emergency, so I hoped that if I wrote about my experiences, people would see it and be better prepared when the time came to call us.

What do you hope people learn from reading your book and blog? If you don’t mind us asking, how much of it is exaggeration versus the truth?

There were two main things I hoped people would learn: That they should only call for an ambulance when they really need one, and how to be a good caller and help us to help them.

All of the stories in the book are true. While I’ve changed some details to protect confidentiality and for the sake of confidentiality used a little poetic license, I wouldn’t say any of them are exaggerated. There are so many weird, shocking and horrific calls to deal with that I don’t need to exaggerate!

When you decided to become a medical dispatcher, did you ever imagine writing a book about it? Have you always been a writer?

I’ve always written as a hobby—at school I constantly carted a diary around with me detailing the minutiae of my existence. I guess the blog was really just a continuation of this. I never expected it to get the amount of attention it did or that it would become a book. Because I know how much competition there is in the world of publishing, I was amazed and delighted when Penguin told me they were interested.

We’re sure you get this all the time, but tell us about the strangest call you’ve ever received.

Just one? It probably has to be the lady who had a chili pepper inside a very delicate orifice, and rang us for advice for what she should do. Well, taking it out would be a good start…

You haven’t posted to your blog since the end of 2009. Will you start posting again regularly? Did you take a hiatus because of the book?

I was promoted last year, which means I don’t take “999″ calls any more—I’m now the person who makes decisions about which ambulance goes where and suchlike—and felt my stories were becoming less personal. The publication of the book seemed like a natural end to the blog, but I haven’t given up writing. Nee Naw may return one day, especially if my career takes a different turn at some point in the future.

Do medical dispatchers wear tactical pants? What is your uniform like?

Yes, we do wear tactical pants, although we call them combat trousers! In fact we wear exactly the same uniform as paramedics (green trousers, green shirt and fleece, steel toe-capped boots), which I find a bit odd as our working conditions couldn’t be more different and most of the time the people we speak to wouldn’t know if we were sitting answering the phone wearing our pajamas and sporting large pink Mohawks!

What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming an emergency medical dispatcher?

See a psychiatrist! No, seriously—I’d tell them that it is one of the most rewarding jobs you can do, that you can go home feeling like you really achieved something and that you have the ability to change people’s lives forever despite only having a few minutes’ contact where they never see your face or learn your name.

It’s not an easy job but if you can cope with the long hours, the verbal abuse, the frustration of dealing with time-wasters and the horror of dealing with some unimaginable tragedies, the day you deliver your first baby or assist in your first successful resus will stay with you and change your life forever. It really is an amazing job.

Now that you’ve heard from Brent about her experiences as an EMD, share yours. Tell us about the most rewarding and/or challenging part about your job.

For $40, these pants can be all yours!

Oh, how we love Craigslist. It brings together the many wonders (and weirdos) of the interweb to form one old-school yet exceptionally useful site.

Earlier this week we encountered a real steal on the site.

Someone in Seattle is selling four pairs of 5.11 tactical pants for $40. That’s $10 a pair for pants that typically retail for $49.99. Basically you’d spend $200 for the same pants if they were brand new.

According to the post, the trousers are “in good cond no rips/holes,” which we assume means that they are near perfect. In other words, this is a pretty awesome deal. That is, if you’re in the market for four pairs of pants.

Oh, and they are different colors. There’s a black pant, midnight blue, gray and green. The picture on the right was taken from the actual listing. No khaki though—sorry traditionalists!

This is the second time we’ve seen a post about 5.11 pants on Craigslist. While we’ve applied for jobs on Craigslist (hey, who hasn’t?!), we’ve never purchased items (let alone pants) there.

What experiences have you had buying merchandise off of Craigslist? Would you recommend it to a friend? Let us know!

We all make on-the-job blunders. But when that oh-no moment occurs and the cameras are rolling—that’s the real mistake. Witness more than a dozen law enforcement officers have that similar stomach-dropping experience, especially when they discover someone is watching.

1. The Dancing Cop – You know you’ve done it to … just when you think nobody’s watching.

2. Where’d the Bad Guys Go? – These thieves almost get caught, but the key word here is *almost*. UPDATE: Scratch that. We hear this footage is actually from a movie. What a relief!

3. Boo! – We guess this trick would scare the bejesus out of anyone—even a law enforcement officer.

4. Police Bust Fail – Just like they say, nothing beats a rookie’s first day.

5. Insane Parking Job – There’s not much a cop can do when in pursuit of speed racer.

6. Cop vs. Cop – This really is no laughing matter though nobody was seriously injured.

7. Gun Pro – Ah, an infamous video with those ironic last words: “I’m the only one in the room professional enough that I know of to carry this Glock.”

8. Parking Break Fail – Instead of hunting down criminals, this cop is chasing after his patrol car. Warning: This has NSFW language.

9. Cat vs. Cop – We don’t know who deserves more sympathy—the annoyed cop or the needy kitty.

10. The Jogger – If you escape from prison and tell a cop you’re just out for a run, clearly you’re a criminal mastermind.

11. Dog vs. Cop Car – We posted this one a few weeks ago and obviously cannot get enough.

12. The Nonchalant Car Thief – Never assume that someone won’t steal something just because a cop is standing nearby.

13. Bike Cop – This one borders on pathetic. Sorry!

Did we leave one out? Share your favorite links to other police bloopers in the comments section.

Gray Powell - "4G" iPhone = Lifetime of Tactical Pants!!!

It’s easy to misplace your cell phone. It could happen to anyone, really.

But when you’re an Apple software engineer, and your phone is a prototype of the next iPhone … well, calling it a “mistake” is a nice way of putting it.

This mishap has turned Gray Powell into an overnight celebrity. And here at TacticalPants.com headquarters, we want to make sure he never has to go through the stress of leaving a fourth-generation iPhone in a San Francisco bar again.

How do we plan to accomplish such a feat?

While some have offered to help Powell drown his sorrows, we’re giving him something better: A lifetime supply of tactical pants! Just think, with the always-trusty cell phone/mag pocket, he needn’t worry about top-secret gadgets slipping away.

He’ll receive one pair for the next 20 years, which in tactical pants years, we estimate that’s about 4,000. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

Do you think Powell would have found himself in the same situation if he’d just worn tactical trousers to the bar? We think not.

(Image via Gizmodo)

Apparently so. While this picture was attached to an e-mail that came from someone else inside TacticalPants.com headquarters, it certainly wasn’t our workspace.

And apologies for being so quiet this week, but we’re hard at work completing the Tactical Pants Buying Guide — a comprehensive look of all the major tactical pants players out there. Slated for release sometime next week, the guide will cover every aspect of tactical pants that you’ve ever dreamed of knowing.

Here is a sneak peek from the guide … a snippet from an intense interview with Fernando Coelho, EOTAC’s founder and lead designer.

“There’s a big difference between just taking a pair of pants and slapping pockets on it and saying its tactical. If I want that, I can walk into Kohls or Macy’s or hell even Wal-Mart. There are brands out there that are selling like Dockers-style pants with cargo pockets that aren’t much different then what our tactical world is trying to sell as tactical. Your pant has to fit correctly. The pockets have to be in the right angles. They have to accommodate the right equipment. They have to have a certain level of durability. These are all critical things.”

If that doesn’t get you on the edge of your seat, then we don’t know what will!

• When a search warrant goes sooooooo wrong. (Trigger Pull Tactical)
• How police respond to those ubiquitous flash mobs. (The Crime Map)
• Is the Easter Bunny somehow connected to the police department? (Hott Cops)
• Lion Apparel launches a technical footwear line for the U.S. fire service. (Firefighter Hourly)
• Chronicles of EMS’ ‘A Seat at the Table’ discusses EMS and social media. (Medic 999)
• Ambulance Driver gets his social media on over at Facebook. (Day in the Life)
• Steps for a successful EMS book launch. (Everyday EMS Tips)
• Does everyone know what bogus treatments are? (Rogue Medic)
• The Handover Blog Carnival lives again with “Respect.” (Life Under the Lights)
• Amazing visual from the Coachella Valley after yesterday’s 7.2 earthquake. (Firefighter Blog)
• Happy blogiversary to me! (Motorcop)
• Are cats to blame for messing up a San Francisco crime lab? (Officer.com)
• Look out: Happy Medic has a new mascot. (The Happy Medic)

Every product needs a slogan. A catchphrase. Something that has a ring to it. The kind of ring that makes you want to repeat it to your friends. And family. And strategically place in the punch lines of jokes.

Nike has “Just do it.” Budweiser? “This bud’s for you.” So that got us thinking … what do tactical pants have? A whole bunch of nothing. This specific product category hasn’t even garnered a second glance until very recently.

As luck would have it, we came across an advertising slogan generator at precisely the same time as our catchphrase epiphany. With its help, we were able to come up with 16 totally unoriginal, nonsensical (yet utterly hilarious) potential slogans for future tac pants campaigns. Can you come up with a better one?

(Image via Flickr)

Woolrich Lightweight Tactical Pants

It’s not every day you see someone giving away spiffy pairs of tactical trousers. Well, Armslist isn’t exactly just handing out the pants. Much like anything nowadays, there’s always a catch. The good news is this contest is pretty transparent.

If you have an extensive network of friends and followers who click on every link you post, then this Woolrich Elite Lightweight Operator pant can all be yours. The site, a classified listing for guns, equipment and outdoor gear, is determining its winners by measuring how many visitors each contestant brings to the site.

Five people will win the 7-ounce, 100 percent cotton ripstop trousers along with an Armslist T-shirt. Currently Dirt Rich is in the lead with 2,476 clicks just a week into the contest, which runs through the end of April.

To enter, simply sign up on Armlist.com, get your unique URL and start promoting.

(Via Say Uncle)