Brigada

There are four simple buttons and four distince modes:*** Alert 9-1-1, a distress alert with location that goes to a emergency control center*** Help, which sends a text message and/or email to up to four individuals to let them know you’re ready for pick-up or whatever you’ve prearranged*** SPOTchecking, which notifies pre-set friends as to [...]

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All these services are subscription-based. Currently you’ll pay $99 for standard service plus an additional $49 per year for SPOTcasting. And … don’t forget to throw in the $8 extra for the helicopter extraction. :-) Oh … and you have to buy the unit itself for about $150 or so. Find it at Amazon or [...]

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The perfect scenario would be a worker who regularly travels out to a remote mission location… say a village or a jungle area, where cell towers are spotty and dangers are many. Turn on your Spot Messenger, velcro it to the dashboard, and watch the wife and kids relax, knowing they will have 10-minute by [...]

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It would be a great help. It’s rated for 30 minutes in up to a meter of water. So basically… if you fall overboard with Spot on your belt or if your motor blows a head gasket or even if the boat capsizes… as long as you’re conscious and afloat, Spot will get you help. [...]

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Think about it… for the cost of a 5-minute satphone call, with this device, you get coverage for helicopter extraction. What local church wouldn’t want to pick up one of these devices for a short-term team headed into a far-flung location. Can you imagine the prayer warriors and family members back home, being able to [...]

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First you order the device. Pick your spot. Do your shopping. If you find it for less than $123.08, buy it there. If, after you search, $123 sounds as good as any place, and if you don’t have a preference, get it from Amazon and they’ll pitch in something like $2 for Brigada:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000YTZV74/teamexpansiononl If you [...]

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It’s not too late to comment on any of the cool tools. Just click on the permanent link for a particular item, then once you see it on the web, look underneath the item to find a “comment” link and let the world know about how you’ve worked through a similar problem. Or if you [...]

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One of the most often requested “Back Page” editorial “reprints” is the collection we did in 2007, entitled, “Cool Tools for the Road”. In this issue of Brigada, we reprint that list exactly as it appeared in 2007, with the hopes that Brigada participants will help us *refresh* the list with up-to-date offerings, as needed. [...]

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It occurred to me last week, as I was traveling through Bosnia, that more than one person has asked me about some of the tools I use for “the road.” I thought I’d just go ahead and do a series on some of the tools that have become dear to me over the past nearly-30 [...]

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How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m jet-lagged.” They usually are referring to the disorientation and “heavy eyelids” one feels after switching 4 or more time zones. The human body seems to have a kind of “memory” for the previous time zone. So when the individual arrives at the destination, it takes him/her [...]

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Memorize it. Then traveling transoceanic on those 8-hour (and sometimes 16-hour) flights, if you’re headed eastbound (e.g., from the USA to Europe), get to sleep as quickly as you can. Flights tend to depart around 6pm. Settle in, eat, then hit the sack. Remember, it really doesn’t matter if you sleep or not. The truth [...]

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My own philosophy is — no sleeping pills. I have this theory that you need to be in charge of tricking your body. If you turn that power over to a drug, you’ve given up control. Besides, what if an emergency occurs and you need to be at your best. (For example, what if someone [...]

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[Note I said "herding" not "hurting" :-) ] Truly, this is a heartbeat item, as is evidenced by the email I recently received from a faithful Brigada participant from Taiwan, who wrote, ” In my experience… when a small child has jet lag… EVERYONE has jet lag… no matter how much I *believe* that my [...]

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