Retail business owners have to take many factors into consideration when it comes to starting or maintaining a profitable business, from the products you choose to sell all the way down to how you secure your property. You need to protect your bottom line by introducing good security practices and sticking to them.
One of the best ways to protect your goods from theft, be it from patrons or employees, is to utilize security cameras both hidden and not. The reason you want both types is to assure you are seeing the whole picture since the view of known cameras can be obstructed or avoided in order to facilitate a theft.
When deciding on which visible cameras to buy, you should consider using a combination of standard color cameras and vandal proof dome cameras all of which should have night vision capabilities.
You will want to place the standard cameras in highly visible areas so that anyone that enters can see that security cameras are in use which will help to deter some crime. The dome cameras can be used both inside and out so you can place them right near your entrance and back doors to ensure you get the face of anyone that enters or exits.
Be sure the dome cameras you choose are vandal proof so that they cannot be easily tampered with and rendered useless. The main purpose of the visible cameras is to not only capture or preferably deter crime but it will also help to keep your employees honest.
Now that you have your standard, visible cameras in place and operational you should consider your hidden camera options. One prime location you should consider installing a hidden camera is directly over the counter area where the register is located. This will allow you to verify all of the cash handed over by a customer makes it into your register or cash box.
You have many options when deciding on which hidden camera to use right over your register. Some good options are the smoke detector and sprinkler head hidden cameras. They are items generally found in any business and go virtually unnoticed by most people.
Another location you should be utilizing a hidden camera is in your office area. This is true whether you share your office area with your employees or not. If you keep your camera recording station and safe in an area other than your office you will want to place visible and hidden cameras in that location as well.
The amount of money you can save in just stopping a good portion of the petty thefts of your products and cash by employees alone should pay for your initial camera investment and increase your bottom line.
As the warmer weather approaches more women will find themselves able to enjoy the outdoors and all of the activities associated with warm weather fun. But with this additional outdoor activity we will also see an increase in attacks on women.
By following a few simple tips and using your common sense, you can drastically lower your odds of falling victim to attack.
• Never wear your earphones in both ears. It makes it far too easy for some criminal to sneak up and attack you before you know it. Criminals love people who make easy victims and not being able to hear them coming up from behind would make you a much easier target.
• Carry some type of self defense weapon. It could give you the edge you need to get away from or outright repel an attacker. You could use a device like the Mace Hot Walkers. They are 1 pound walking weights that contain a hidden pepper spray. Not only will they help you get a better workout, they provide you that extra edge should the need arise.
• There really is safety in numbers. It is not a guarantee but it sure does not hurt. So if at all possible, try to find a workout partner that enjoys the same type of outside activities that you do.
• Stay aware of your surroundings. Your goal should always be to look like a bad victim. You want the criminal to simply move on to an easier target. You can do this by being aware of anyone near you and what is going on around you at all times.
• Avoid being out during dusk or dawn hours. Many criminals prefer the cover of darkness to hunt for victims and this includes the dusk and dawn hours where light is fading quickly.
• Make sure someone knows exactly where you are going and when you plan on returning just in case something happens to you while you are out enjoying your day.
As you can plainly see, there is nothing on this list that is expensive or overly complicated to accomplish. With that said you have to decide what your safety is worth to you and then act accordingly.
In the past, most of the options for a pepper spray delivery system were limited to just canisters. As time progressed you could find it hidden in benign appearing items like lipsticks, batons and pens as well.
Thanks to the fine folks over at Mace, we have yet another option in the form of the Mace Pepper Gun. This handy little device has quite a few features that are not available with the other delivery methods.
The Mace Pepper Gun uses their patented Bag-in-a-Can Technology. This allows the device to maintain a constant stream even when turned on the side or upside down! Not only that, it shoots up to twenty five feet away which is about twice what the other delivery methods will do.
As for ease of use, it does not get much easier to operate than the Mace Pepper Gun. Once loaded with a pepper canister, you simply aim and shoot. To simplify the process they even included a LED light for the weapon.
This LED light affords three main benefits:
1. Wherever you shine the light is where the pepper spray will land. This makes aiming for the face very simple. Shine the light directly in their eyes and blast away and continue to do so until he is screaming out in agony from the burn!
2. The other added benefit of the LED light is that when you do shine the light it his eyes it will help to disorient him for the second or so it will take the pepper spray from the Mace Pepper Gun to make him wish he was elsewhere. After it starts to kick in the fight is over and he will not be able to see you so you can escape to safety.
3. The fear factor. At night when you pull this out it will be tough to tell exactly what you have in your hand and could potentially scare off the attacker or at least distract him long enough for you to take a deep breath and use the device.
So I am sure you can see that there is not much to absorb when it comes to learning how to use the Mace Pepper Gun. You load it, point the light and squeeze the trigger. That really is all there is to it!
One more benefit that Mace provided with their Pepper Gun is that they sell practice canisters. They are filled with water and allow you the chance to test out the device without wasting your precious pepper spray.
One of the best things you can do for your body, mind and soul is to learn martial arts. You can lose tons of weight, become more limber than ever before as well as increase your self esteem and take control over your life. Unfortunately, if you live in an area without training facilities or simply cannot afford to pay it can make it hard to get yourself trained and enjoy the life enhancing benefits of martial arts.
The good is news is that you can learn martial arts from home which allows you to include your family and friends. You will find that it is a great way for you to spend some quality time with your loved ones as well as allow them to enjoy the health benefits.
So how do you do it? It is easy if you are rich and famous or at least rich because you can simply pay for a Sensei to come out to your home and train you one on one. Now for the rest of us we have to go a different route.
The most cost effective way to learn martial arts at home is by the use of instructional videos. There are many great videos you can choose from covering various martial arts disciplines and hand to hand combat styles. This allows you to pick what you think will suit you and your family the best.
So if your interest in learning martial arts from home is strictly for defense and not actually embracing the lifestyle you may want to choose a training video that just teaches you defense. In fact there are a few that have only a few moves total but those few moves are devastating to your opponent.
Just remember that all of the moves taught in these videos are for self defense purposes only and should not be used to initiate a fight. The moves taught are meant to cause bodily harm to your opponent and you better have a good reason why you went to this level.
Of course, defending yourself or someone else can qualify as a good reason. To steal a line from the Spiderman movies “with great power comes great responsibility” so be sure to use common sense and good judgment when unleashing your new found skills.
If you are a parent with a child that attends school and is at the age to hang outside with friends, safety should be of the utmost importance to you. Someone can grab your child and be gone in a matter of seconds in the right situation. This means that just like you should practice fire safety, you should practice self defense techniques designed for kids.
You may need to be trained yourself so you could learn martial arts with your child which would be the perfect opportunity for some real quality time. Not only will you and your child learn the self defense skills that could save both of your lives, you will become more confident, healthier and you even get to spend some time with your child that doesn’t involve sitting in front of the television set. It really is something you should consider.
Besides martial arts, there are some basic self defense moves for kids that you can practice with your child that could save them from being taken by a stranger. Here is a great video showing a basic set of self defense moves you can show to your child http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wMHyrtr6UU.
You may also want to think about some type of self defense device that is suitable for use by children. There really are only two that come to mind: the Kubotan and the Personal Alarm.
A Kubotan is small metal, wood or plastic rod that is carried on a key chain. They can come in both blunted and pointed forms which serve different purposes.
The blunted Kubotan is designed for use on bony parts of the body such as the sternum, hands, elbows, shins, knees, jaw and cheeks just to name a few bony strike points.
The pointed Kubotan is designed to do the most damage on fleshy parts of the body and is great for attacking the eyes, stomach, groin and throat of an attacker.
A Personal Alarm is also perfect for even smaller children and should be accompanied with some instructions on what you want your child to do after they utilize their Personal Alarm. The obvious instruction should be to try and run for help while screaming stranger.
Bear in mind though, that both of these items are meant for your child to use while they are not under your direct supervision. They may or may not be allowed to be in your child’s possession within school grounds so do your due diligence and verify with the school.
With self defense for kids the goal here is not to raise a paranoid child but instead to raise a well informed and prepared child. Bad things happen to kids every day and many could have been averted but using just a little prevention.
With the release of the alleged Mel Gibson rant tapes it has left many people wondering just how someone could record a phone conversation without the other person knowing about it. To be honest, that is very easy with all of the new technology out there. You can buy Digital Phone Recorders that can plug right into your phone or some that can act as your home phone while being ready to record should the need arise.
The more popular of the two main types of Phone Recorders would be the small Digital Recorders. They simply plug right into the headphone jack of your home or even cell phones and then you hit the record button and it will record until you stop it or it runs out of space.
They also can be used to record sound from within a room either using the built-in or an external microphone and some of the better models even have a voice activated feature so it will only record when it “hears” voices.
The less popular type of Phone Recorder can only record phone conversation that come through itself which means that you could not use it to record your cell phone or even a phone from another room. They also do not generally have the ability to record sounds from within a room either which would account for the lack of popularity.
So as you can see recording a phone conversation is quite easy these days and the person on the other line would never know unless you tell them but that is another issue you must consider.
You see many states have what they call a “two party consent” law which requires both parties be aware that they are being recorded. You need to know what the law is for your state should you decide to start recording phone conversations so you do not wind up getting yourself into hot water with the law enforcement community of your area.
To see whether your state has a “two party consent” law or not you can look here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws.
If you live in a “two party” consent state then you may want to reconsider the use of a phone recorder or at the very least consult an attorney to know exactly what you can do without breaking the laws of your state.
The addition of a good Wireless Outdoor Security Camera can be a very inexpensive yet effective way to help protect your home from criminals. Unless there is some compelling reason for them to risk the added trouble of dealing with your security setup they will just pick an easier target.
At the very least, should some criminal either not notice or disregard your security camera you will hopefully have all the evidence the police will need to track down and prosecute the crook.
You have a few options when choosing your Wireless Outdoor Security Camera and one of the main things you will want to decide is whether you want the camera hidden or not. It makes a big difference in where you would want to install the camera as well as the effect it will have on criminals.
Remember that if it is hidden it will only really be useful for gathering evidence against the criminal unless you display placards that cameras are in use and at that point you may as well have used visible security cameras.
One of the best hidden wireless outdoor security cameras you will find is the Spotlight Hidden Camera. It is a motion activated spotlight with built in camera and DVR so there is no need to worry about buying a separate recording device.
Since it is a super bright spotlight with 80 LED lights it can easily light up the area to ensure you get a really good video of the criminals face as he is startled by the light. It has a view range of around 90 feet so you can see them from a distance should they not run off.
The Spotlight Hidden Camera is one of the easiest wireless outdoor security cameras you can use. After you install it where you need to protect you simply check the video whenever you want by removing the SD card.
You then can place that SD card into any card reader to review the video as well as transport the information to the authorities so they can use it in their investigation and prosecution.
For a standard Wireless Outdoor Security Camera you will need to have some type of recording device. The wireless receiver is attached to your recording device so it can feed in the signal coming from the camera.
As far as motion activation, generally it is controlled by the recording device you are using and not the camera itself. The camera is always sending a signal and motion activation just determines whether it is recorded or not.
You want to be sure any standard Wireless Outdoor Security Camera you may decide to install is weatherproof and infrared capable. It is usually a good idea to install these types of cameras in a visible area that has a good view of the area to protect.
Remember another benefit to this type of camera is the deterrent effect it can have by being visible. Most criminals prefer the path of least resistance and since there are no guarantees you can only hope to lower your odds by making things more difficult that it is worth to some two bit criminal to rob you.
The need to worry about hidden cameras has increased over the years because the technology is now so readily available and widely used. You can buy a camera hidden in just about anything these days, from books to watches and everything in between. They are getting more difficult to recognize even up close and this is where a good Hidden Camera Detector can make all the difference.
Hidden Camera Detector technology has improved over time just like cameras so you can easily protect yourself from having your privacy invaded. This should be something you think about whenever you use a public restroom, changing or locker room since a video of that event could wind up on the internet being viewed by thousands of perverts for years to come.
Hidden cameras can be wired, wireless or even self recording. This means that whichever Hidden Camera Detector you choose needs to be able to detect all three if you want maximum protection.
Wireless cameras are the easiest to detect because of their RF or Radio Frequency. This is a signal that the wireless camera gives off the entire time it is powered on. Your Hidden Camera Detector should easily alert you to the presence of the RF signals and then you just need to either leave or if you want proof, narrow down the location. This can be done by the use of the signal strength meter on your Hidden Camera Detector. The closer you get to the source, the stronger the signal.
Wired and self recording hidden cameras do not give off RF signals like the wireless cameras so they are a bit tougher to locate. This is where the eyepiece of your Hidden Camera Detector comes into play.
You simply look through the specially made eyepiece and any video camera lenses within a few feet will flash red so you will know exactly where they are located. At that point you can contact the authorities and put a stop to their bad behavior.
Out of the 3 types of hidden cameras, the wired and self recording models are most likely the types of camera you will run into in public settings. Wireless cameras are best suited for situations where you are not able to run a wire and are usually used in private homes.
This is the reason you would be best served by purchasing a Hidden Camera Detector that can handle all 3 types of cameras so you are ensured the maximum protection when out in public.
Training yourself to become a better fighter doesn’t necessarily mean that every weekend you are encouraged to frequent sports pubs and engage in physical altercations. In fact, becoming involved with close combat training can effectively enhance your ability to defend yourself in those unexpected situations.
I think we all understand which situations I’m speaking; the one where you’re simply minding your own business on a street corner when somebody approaches you with demeaning words and unwarranted anger – this is where learning how to defend yourself physically can come in quite handy, because it’s almost certain that this person advanced with the intention to fight.
In short, MMA or mixed martial arts is defined as a full contact combat sport, and it permits a large variety of fighting methods, including those of tradition and non-tradition. This means that grappling, as well as striking, is allowed. Most fights actually end in a grapple, followed by a submission move (i.e. arm bar). Congruently, this is why learning mixed martial arts for self defense is so beneficial. It’s true that most physical altercations, whether they are during after hours at a town bar or in the parking lot outside of a gym, almost always end up on the ground in a furious jostle for position.
But if you truly want to subdue your attacker, you must learn the various styles and techniques of handling your opponent while you’re both on the ground. A take-down is typically followed by the most common hybrid of “ground and pound,” where you have your foe on his back while sitting on top of him throwing devastating punches. But MMA ground fighting isn’t always defined by clinching mixed with knees, elbows and punches to the face. In fact, it’s what’s known as “submission grappling” that gives note to a well rounded MMA fighter.
When I say submission grappling, I mean putting your adversary in a choke-hold and/or any of the following:
• Joint locks
• Arm-locks
• Leg-locks
• Clinch holds
• Compression locks
• Pain compliance
• Pinning
There are a few intricate others, including the “Grapevine”, but these are the top categories that define submission holds. These are a part of many different disciplines including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Catch Wrestling, Judo, Sambo, Shootwrestling, Pankration and more.
Let’s not forget one of the most important elements and differentiators to boxing; kickboxing/Muay Thai. Certain MMA fighters specialize in areas like kickboxing provided they’re strongest in that area. The same goes for clinching and ground and pound – fighters will determine their strong areas during practice and routine, effectively mastering their most powerful kick and/or submission move. This is evident while viewing any MMA fight. You’ll notice that some MMA fighters almost always strike at the hips, venturing into a takedown and eventually ending the fight in submission while others enjoy staying on their feet and throwing lots of punches.
Nevertheless, all of these traditional styles and disciplines mixed with a combination of modern or non-tradition styles envelope what we commonly refer to as Mixed Martial Arts today. The sport is growing in popularity. Congruently, more people are taking an interest into learning some of these self defense techniques. Not only does engaging in such activity come with the ability to defend, but it naturally enhances fitness.
___________________________________________________________ By: Brent Jacobs of MMA Industries, distributor of extreme MMA Gear and MMA T-shirts.
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It seems that no matter where you live as long as you have neighbors, you will have a neighbor that has at least one vicious out of control dog. You know the ones that always get loose and either come after you while you are in your own yard or when you try to walk by yourself or with your dog on a leash.
It can get so bad that you have to drive to a different area just to be able to walk your dog or yourself without fear of attack from some crazed dog that should be secured so it can not get out. As such, you may find yourself in need of some way to protect yourself from dog attacks.
Thankfully there are some inexpensive products that you can purchase that will help to protect you from dog attacks. Here are just a few of these products:
• Mace Muzzle Canine Repellent – In simple terms, this is pepper spray that is specifically designed to be the most effective on canine breeds of all types. Much like pepper sprays for people, Canine Pepper Spray is meant to cause a lot of pain and disable the aggressive animal from being able to attack you. It shoots up to 10 feet away so you can spray before the dog gets close enough to bite you.
• Telescopic Stun baton – This option also uses pain to persuade an aggressive dog to go away but it also has the added effects of sight and sound. When you discharge the Telescopic Stun Baton, even just in the air, it is very loud and disturbing. Dogs can sense trouble and they know to run from electricity which is why most dogs go nuts during electrical storms.
• Expandable Steel Baton – Obviously with this you just want to start swinging and aim for the nose or mouth area of the dog. This should be a last ditch option as you can either cause serious damage to the dog if not outright kill it. This option should only be exercised when a human life is truly in mortal danger.
• Ultrasonic Dog Repellent – This is by far the most humane option of all the items on this list and would be the one I would recommend the most. It is a hand-held device about the size of a cell phone that emits a 130 decibel ultrasonic frequency that hurts the dog’s ears. It also uses bright flashing LED lights to help drive off an aggressive dog. It works up to 40 feet away so you can have plenty of time to act. The Ultrasonic Dog Repellent does not do any permanent damage but will convince a dog to head the other way. If you are a dog lover than this will definitely be your best option for protection from dog attacks.
No normal person wants to hurt a dog but there are situations where there is no other choice than to defend your own life from an attack by using some type of force. All of the options on this list with the exception of the Steel Baton are meant to simply scare off the animal without permanent damage.
If you know a young man that is either going to be or already is attending college than you need to consider his safety while he is away from home and help him to be prepared for anything life decides to throw at him. Too many people are under the misconception that the only victims are women and this is not the truth.
Besides the basic safety talk about avoiding drugs and alcohol as well as driving with idiots, you need to be sure he is thinking about his personal safety while he is out and about.
Here are just a few of the best self defense products for male college students that he can use to increase his level of safety while away at college:
• Diversion Safe – He can use one in his car and one in his dorm room to help hide his valuables from theft. Diversion safes come in all types of everyday products that people will not give a second look. They are very inexpensive and quite effective in hiding your items in plain sight.
• Door Brace – This can be used to secure his dorm room door without the need to permanently install anything you just extend it and brace it up against the door. Best of all the Door Brace is portable so he can take it with him as he travels to help provide safety in hotel rooms, apartments or any place he wants to make sure he can sleep without fear of attack.
• Pepper Spray – This is a great self defense device for both men and women. Even if he never needs to defend himself he made need to defend someone else and Pepper Spray can give him the edge he needs to do so safely.
• Expandable Baton – If you get the flashlight option he can keep it in his car to help with an emergency like a breakdown, an attempted car jacking or even a submerged vehicle. An Expandable Baton has many uses and for the price it is more than worth the money.
• Kubotan – This little device is very inexpensive as it is usually around five dollars. It can serve many purposes and does not really require any kind of training. A Kubotan is more of a use however you need it type of item since it can defend you from attack by using it as a stabbing device or flail. It too can be used in a car emergency kit as well since it can be used to break out a window if needed.
With the items on this list you can help to ensure your son has at least a fighting chance to defend himself or someone else should the need arise whether it be in his home or his vehicle.
You know it is sad that we have let things get so out of control in our country. Under the guise of free market capitalism, unscrupulous people driven by nothing but greed have polluted our food supply in order to line their pockets with boatloads of money.
Now whether they actually even consider our health is beyond me but I do know that they seem to ignore it if they do. The only way to really limit the amount of poisons we take into our body is by growing our own food without any chemicals at all.
You see, pesticides that are on our food wind up inside of us. Recently, researchers have found: “Kids with higher-than-average levels of one pesticide marker were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD as children who showed no traces of the poison.”
This may explain why the number of kids diagnosed with ADHD is on the rise and it wouldn’t surprise me if they found out next that this is also why we have the increase in Autism.
These poisons work by messing with the nervous system of bugs but it has similar effects on humans and they are absorbed by the plants through runoff and penetration. This means we are ingesting this stuff!
We have to stop this “it’s all about the money” mentality. If it screws up the free market then so be it. It is better than the alternative of killing us all off. It is hard to make money on dead people!
Read the news story here – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37156010/ns/health-kids_and_parenting
It appears Texas is about to attempt to follow Arizona’s lead by reforming their current immigration laws.
What confuses me the most is that it isn’t already against state law to be an ILLEGAL immigrant since it is against federal immigration laws.
But everyone now is freaking out stating “there will be racial profiling” but there is such an easy fix that should have been in place all along.
EVERYONE should have to carry proof of citizenship and EVERYONE gets checked when they have police contact, period!
It is just that easy. That way there is no profiling because EVERYONE regardless of race, color, creed or religion will be getting checked. How hard is that? Not hard at all!
The fact that this is an issue amazes me. How dare we try and secure our borders and determine who is here criminally, hence the ILLEGAL immigrant moniker, right? I mean it isn’t like terrorists would ever use our wide open borders to sneak in and attack us, not on our soil right?
Living in Texas I can completely relate with Arizona’s desire to do something to fix this giant issue of illegal immigration. It is such a mess in these border states that unless you live here you may not realize.
I have nothing against anyone wanting to make a better life for themselves, that is what we all want for ourselves. What issue I have is with how they are going about it.
Entering our country illegally, no matter the reasoning behind it, is a crime plain and simple. Saying it is ok to do that is no different then telling someone it is ok to rob someone or sell drugs or steal to make a better life for their family.
Committing a crime is not an acceptable way to make a better life for you or your loved ones. It really is that simple.
I have said it before and will again, if you jumped the border and got caught in Mexico illegally it comes with a 2 year prison term followed by immediate and PERMANENT deportation for the first offense!!
Illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy and are a danger. Do you really believe that terrorists don’t realize they can just jump the border from Mexico to the US and get right by all of our precautions set up to keep them out? Our borders are wide open and we will pay for it in the long run.
As for the Mexican President’s remarks in regards to Arizona’s law changes he may want to keep him mind on his own issues. Mexico is a giant toilet and the Mexican President should be more concerned with getting his country back from the criminals and making it a place that it citizens don’t abandon like rats on a sinking ship.
He is spent more energy on making his country a better place we may not have such an issue with his people here to deal with.
Let me state this one more time though. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS = CRIMINALS hence the illegal in front of the immigrants! Their reasons do not matter at all as mine wouldn’t should I get caught jumping the border into Mexico or if I committed a crime to feed my family. Crime is crime.
This guy cracks me up. Talk about a true politician. He is grinding hard against the healthcare reform bill Obama passed and says “it is not partisan” driven.
Does he really think we are all that stupid? Some of us are but most of us are not. One of his motives I will bet is that he is planning on a run for the White house in 2012.
The other of course feeds off his big malpractice suit reforms. I wonder who is giving his new little Revere whatever group all the money to show commercials all day and night. I have seen the commercial at least a dozen times if not more.
Anyone else think it is the Insurance industry paying for and guiding this guy? It would explain his malpractice reform stance as well as his stance on the healthcare reform bill.
I mean why should doctors be held accountable for hurting someone through their own negligence, right? If doctors were more concerned with taking care of patients instead of running them through as fast as they can for the cash then they might not slip up so much.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. As for politicians, Republicans are all scumbag crooks and the Democrats are all spineless crooks.
None of what happens in our government is for OUR good. Everything done, no matter how they spin it, is done for themselves and their friends who put them in office with boatloads of money.
If we want to get, it is hard to say it, decent politicians then we need to stop letting money dictate who gets in. Right now it all comes down to who can raise the most money, not who is best for the job.
The bad part about letting money dictate who gets into office is that there is only a tiny percentage of people controlling all that happens to us. That is never a good thing!
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