u/MaxNerd115

Just had a shower thought:

I've been in EMS for 7 years and my department like many others within the US issues the typical duty Navy Blue tech pants and uniform shirts. We dont wear any metal badges or pins on our uniforms just printed or sewed on patches of our logos, the US Flag, EMT patch, etc. EMS duty belts are optional, in my area mostly Medics wear them cause its an easier way for them to carry their narcs and IV pouches.

Anyway I can't even count the amount of times people have mistaken me or my coworkers as cops even while standing right in front of them, even without any gear on our belts, in clear daylight and also with completely sober and alert patients/bystanders. I feel like agencies or other countries where EMS either only ever wears some sort of high vis, brightly colored, or just a drastically different color and style of uniforms than their local police don't have this issue.

While there are a ton of pros and cons to someone thinking your a cop in today's political climate I feel like its more of a con and a scene safety concern especially since we are not police in anyway shape or form (unless your a police/tactical medic) and other than soft or chemical restraints (if your an ALS crew) we have no other official/protocol form or tools to protect ourselves.

So with that in mind should EMS in the U.S. start leaning away from the dark navy blue uniforms and try to make ourselves look drastically different from police? Everyone can instantly recognize a firefighter but no so much with non-fire EMT's and Medics.

Edit: there have been a few calls where the patient was either afraid of or not cooperative with the police or anyone in what looked similar to a police uniform and my medic partner happened to be wearing a bright baby blue fleece jacket and when he walked in and let the patient clearly see his uniform and realize he wasn't a cop they immediately cooperated.

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Design Advice needed: I've been wanting to get a space flight/rocket ship tattoo design on my forearm for a while but can't decide on any similar designs I've seen online.

Some background: Im a bit of a space nerd/enthusiast with a personal connection to the Apollo and the Space Shuttle missions. My grandfather was an electrical engineer who worked on the navigation and communications equipment for both, when I was a kid I was always building and launching model rockets and I've even gotten to meet 1 of the former NASA Administrators who was also a Space Shuttle Astronaut. However I wound up going the medical career route and am currently in Paramedic school while working on a degree in Applied Sciences. My grandfather is no longer with us so this tattoo would be super important and meaningful to me and I also want it to be as historically/scientifically accurate as possible in terms of any schematics or illustrations of any rockets/space ships.

Any genuine suggestions, ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I just had a PC hardware shower thought. How come the internal components of PC's, laptops or smartphones of all kinds painted white to help with reflecting off some heat to help with cooling?

Would this actually help at all or would it just reflect the heat into another internal component?

Just had an EMS call for an accidental Medical Alert activation because they supposedly dropped it and they didn't even realize it got activated because the alarm company never called them to ask if they were ok. I understand this happens all the time in EMS but this was the 1st time I had a patient get mad at us for showing up. It's not our fault their medical alert is over-sensitive or that the company never attempted to make contact with them like they're supposed to before automatically activating 911. And we explained to him saying "we don't work for the company, they call us on your behalf so if your having issues call the company".

If what they're saying is true then I can understand their frustration but 1 don't take it out on us and 2 wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry and have us show up and it be turn out to be nothing? it's not even like they're getting a bill from us because we treated it as a no patient found.

I have a 2016 Cherokee Limited Edition with 70,000 miles. Apparently it really doesn't like idling especially in the cold. Since this winter I've had to replace 3 completely burnt out spark plugs even after cutting down on how often I let it idle. Besides continuing to be careful on how often I let it idle is there anything else I can do to it so I don't have to worry about this issue as much?

Im looking for a good comfortable pair of light to medium weight hiking boots that would be good for the late spring, summer, and early fall that will last a long time. They don't have to be fully waterproof but some water resistance for walking on muddy trails and shallow puddles/streams would be nice.

I live in the North Eastern U.S. and my price range is anything under $600, I also have high arches on my feet, Im 6ft tall and about 230 pounds if that helps.

Im looking for a good comfortable pair of light to medium weight hiking boots that would be good for the late spring, summer, and early fall that will last a long time. They don't have to be fully waterproof but some water resistance for walking on muddy trails and shallow puddles/streams would be nice.

I live in the North Eastern U.S. and my price range is anything under $600, I also have high arches on my feet, Im 6ft tall and about 230 pounds if that helps.