Mark,

I use a few different configurations, depending on what I'm doing. I always wear a paracord (2 ft) necklace, that has a micro photon on it at all times, and I add a whistle when I'm out in the wilderness. That's minimum for me.

I've also got a beefy lanyard that's part of my edc, that I wear when I'm in the wildreness. On a break-away lanyard, I have: a whistle (jet scream), an LED light (streamlight keymate), a knife (I just changed out my gerber clutch for a SAK), and fire (fire steele or mag block, and a mini bic).

When I'm Scouting/hiking not far of the pavement, I wear a lanyard with a fox 40 and a micro photon. (It's also got a mini star wars LED light sabre on it, but that's more for entertainment purposes.)