Over the last few weeks readers of both my book and blog have been asking me how they can get involved in some of the adventurous activities that I like to get up to in my own life. So over the next few weeks I’ll be writing a series of short articles that give you ideas on how you can join expeditions to the ends of the earth or learn how to jump out of planes, drive cars sideways or shoot guns.

To start let’s have a quick update from this year’s Explore at the Royal Geographical Society. Did you know there are more than 90 organisations on the RGS’s books looking for volunteers or staff to join their expeditions?

To give you a prime example, the gates have just closed for gap-year students with a lust for adventure and a passion for environmental science on The British Schools Exploring Society’s Extreme Arctic expedition to Svalbard this spring.

To find out more and search the database of organisations looking for people just like you, go here.

In the next two articles I’ll be profiling some of the opportunities available and giving you ideas for two years of space exploration, driving skills and tactical firearms on British soil.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be adding material to this site, and the web channel over at National Geographic, that’ll add a little bit of flavour to some of the chapters in the book. Here are three videos to begin with from the How to Beat Security Systems Chapter.

The first is to show you how easy some fingerprint scanners are to crack. As you’ll usually find it explained somewhere in the documentation on your home computer, they’re not security measures. First check out the guys at Mythbusters as they show you how easy it is to crack open a ‘secure’ locked doorway using nothing but a photocopier print out:

This is a tongue in cheek look at How to Hire a Hitman in online markets and the real world.  Just follow the link to read the chapter from the book How to Drive aTank… and Other Everyday Tips for the Modern Gentleman. 

And as promised to all readers of How to Drive a Tank…, you can also download a copy of the infamous book Hitman | A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors by clicking here or on the image below.

Hitman | A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors

This book was removed from circulation when it was found at the home of someone alleged to have used the information in the book in a triple murder. Fact or fiction? Well, that’s up to you to decide.