Violence, personal safety and security are all contextual, which is why a rules-based approach to violence prevention doesn’t work e.g., there may be a time when your safest option is to walk down a dark alley – to avoid a potential threat in front of you - even though every top ten list of safety tips says that you shouldn’t do this. This is why personal safety should be taught as a “mindset” rather than a list of “do’s” and “don’ts” etc. Unfortunately, many instructors lack both the experience...(Click Here To Read The Article)
Often when I’m teaching a women’s self-defense seminar or a corporate personal safety event, I’ll be asked if women are more likely to be the targets of crime than men. With certain types of crimes such as rape and sexual assault, women are more likely to be targeted than men, but generally, men are more likely to be both the perpetrators and the victims of violent offenses. However, there is one group/demographic that is generally at a greater risk of crime and being exploited, and that is the ...(Click Here To Read The Article)
There is a saying that “good” is the enemy of “best”, which is probably a paraphrase and re-working of an older proverb most famously phrased by Voltaire - “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien” i.e., “The best is the enemy of the good”. Whilst the first statement argues that being satisfied by something being “good enough”, prevents people from striving to achieve something that could be better, Voltaire’s statement is a warning against perfectionism. Insisting on the “best” (or endlessly improving) ...(Click Here To Read The Article)
In 1995 a small-time crook name McArthur Wheeler, with an accomplice, robbed two banks having sprayed his face with lemon juice believing it would make him invisible to security cameras; just as lemon juice could be used as “invisible ink” on paper, he believed that the same thing would happen on a CCTV tape. He was so confident in his belief that he deliberately looked up at a security camera and smiled. His reasoning came from the fact that lemon juice can be used as invisible ink, only becomi...(Click Here To Read The Article)
Many people are aware of the “Invisible Gorilla” experiment (Simons & Chabris, 1999). The experiment involved individuals watching a video of people playing basketball having been given the task of counting the number of passes. In the middle of the video, a man dressed in a gorilla suit walks on to the center of the screen, beats his chest, and walks of again. About half of those watching the video failed to notice the person in the gorilla suit. The experiment was an update on what Ulric Neiss...(Click Here To Read The Article)
This is not a political post, in that I believe the things I want to talk about are applicable to all those who engage in any form of mass protests/demonstrations regardless of their political persuasion. I’m a believer in mass demonstrations for forcing political and regime changes e.g., it was mass rallies, demonstrations and peaceful protests that were largely responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall in 1989, and for getting the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, and Gandhi, showed/demonst...(Click Here To Read The Article)