Ready Blog

InSTEDD is the brainchild of Google.org’s executive director, epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant, who conceived of it nearly two years ago when he won the TED prize, a grant-making wish foundation that helps raise funds for humanitarian projects. They are now the main benefactor in the “Predict and Prevent” category of Google’s foundation which uses technology to address changes in global situations.

At the time, Brilliant said: “My dream for InSTEDD (a name that plays off the TED conference) is to fulfill the much-needed role of an independent agent bringing the technological, medical, and organizational skills necessary to help the humanitarian aid community accomplish (early detection of public health threats and disasters), and ultimately help them to make the world a safer place.”

InSTEDD is receiving funds from a Google.org charitable foundation donation. One of several grants from the foundation to help fund research on communication and health disaster management and disease surveillance. Identifying early threats and sharing information to help manage “hot spots.”

Part of the research includes building a communication based tool on a Twitter-bot framework to send SMS messages from remote areas or in an overloaded network. Social media that we use everyday, making changes in communication. Awesome.

Original article at http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9852369-7.html

Every culture has valued salt for preparing and preserving food. We too often hear about how salt is bad for your diet. Let’s consider some of the reasons the Roman soldiers were partially paid in salt. For them, it had a very measurable and real value. Not to be worth one’s salt was also an insult not easily overcome. Salt was one of the primary movers of economy and development. Salt allowed civilizations to preserve food beyond typical growing and hunting seasons.

Today, salt is readily available and often hounded as a detriment to our near sedentary society. Lower your salt intake is a standard line from medical and diet specialists. In many ways it is true, we have too much salt in our overprocessed diets. If it has been processed, it may have much more salt than a healthy diet requires. So, I am trying to figure out is salt still valuable, especially in the city where getting paid with salt seems unlikely?

Out in the country, it is used for more than just a salt shaker. If you hunt or have livestock, white salt blocks are a regular item at the feed store. Yes, I stuck my tongue on one, I couldn’t resist! It’s salty. Water softener for well water and even in the city for RO systems are big 50 pound bags of rock salt. Don’t want to fall and bust something if you are in a northern climate? Sprinkle on the salt. I guess there are quite a few modern uses, but would we still preserve with it? Do we still need it in our body?

Edible salt is a necessary balance to control electrolytes. Curing salt enables the production of items like prosciutto, salt cod, pepperoni, lox and other delicacies. Vegetables are also cured and include some pickels, olives, and tofu. I have no idea how to start curing meat or vegetables with salt, but it is something I would like to learn. This winter, I am totally enjoying the slices of a special holiday Jamon Serrano or Spanish Ham that was a family gift. It is air cured and dryed and salt seriously made it into the process somewhere.

I can see where salt makes bland meals enjoyable and I have also recently discovered the flavours of sea salt over normal table salt. Cautious with my intake, but I am totally enjoying the benefits of salt. Knowing that we keep a few items at home for basic cooking and preparedness without electricity or common amenities, I will be making sure salt and seasonings are added to the list. The current cost is minimal and could make a huge difference in comfort and food preparation. I am looking for new ways to rediscover this valuable mineral.

A few month’s ago, we traveled out of town to volunteer for a charity event. During the 3 days, I loaned my travel first aid kit to a colleague and we lost track of it during the closing ceremonies. He promised to find it and send via mail. While looking for it, he commented it came in handy several times to help during the physical endurance event we were crewing. Yes, there were volunteer medical teams, but sometimes they were not immediately available. The bandages, gauze, sterile wipes and even butterfly closures and steri-strips helped a few skinned knees and blisters get to the medical tents.

In tracking down the lost and found kit, we found it traveled to a different volunteer’s house back in Houston. During Thanksgiving, he accidentally sliced his hand pretty seriously while sharpening the knife in preparation for carving a turkey. Hmm.. wonder if they still ate Turkey? He owned several first aid kits at his house and for his own travels, but needed a few extra items out of mine as well. Again, the kit came in handy. Mr. Turkey Carver has since had surgery on his hand to repair some of the damage to his cut (giving you an idea of the severity). We quickly compared notes on what worked and what was missing in our kits.

Gauze patches with a slick-no stick cover slide and are a pretty useless. They slide when wet from sweat, moisture, or especially with an unusual amount of blood. Ick! (stuff that visual back down in my brain) Cloth tape works almost better than duct tape. It sticks to just about anything. Steri-strips and butterfly closures need a clean surface, but will then stick and hold. The other item that might have been helpful would be one of the new emergency coagulants such as Celox. Does all this sound like overkill? Maybe, but ask the people who received relief during an endurance event, and the home emergency that we think will never happen to us. Or even more likely, most of us know we need a first aid kit, may even have one, but plan on getting around to adding to it and organizing it better “some day” maybe.

Sure, calling 911 or going to the Dr. is the ultimate answer. But, what we do in the interim can make a difference on how quickly someone recovers, how much damage and just plain basic comfort. Do you have an emergency first aid kit in your house beyond a few band-aids and Hydrogen Peroxide? Is there one in your car? at work? do you travel with your own kit? How about a power outage during a storm when you or your neighbor is injured and the emergency medical personnel are slow to respond due to emergencies all over the city. What would you need?

The basic lost and now found (on it’s way back to me when Mr. Turkey Carver recovers) kit measured only about 4 x 6 in a pouch, but included basic things like antibiotic creams, burn creams, extra pairs of gloves to deal with blood, various tape, bandages, and strips for wound closure and management, scissors to easily cut tape. It packs lightly and any medications such as advil or antihistamines were kept up to date. I have a larger home kit, but they even seem unwieldy in most cases. Adventure Medical makes some of the most comprehensive kits for their size I have seen. If you want to get started making your own check out Adventure Medical or Chinook Medical for a strong basic kit, then add items you might need for your particular activities.

Let me know what is in your kit. What have you found worked or didn’t? I knew the scissors in my kit would be helpful, but never thought that a person trying to help themselves with a hand injury would need them so seriously. Think about trying to tear your own gauze or tape with one hand and teeth? It could be done, but having the correct tools made the job easier.

Most of all stay safe and learn basic first aid before you need it!

The questions keep getting harder to answer. What is better for the long term good of both Mother Earth and people? An article in Time and CNN indicate that a Food Crisis may well follow on the heels of our current oil crisis. If 1 and 6 people in this world are hungry today, then is switching crops to biofuels seems rather limiting. But, renewable fuels must be considered. Read more here:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1684910,00.html

I use quite a bit of technology in both my daily life and career. Watching some of the events unfold in California with the wildfires this week has again brought the collision of technology and disaster to the forefront.

This article about Twitter and disaster communications among social media is worth a read to see how information is being shared in an immediate fashion.

Excuse me while I geek out for a moment here. We have been having discussions of late regarding the Oasis standard for CAP or Common Alerting Protocol among other emergency responses.

Actually, we have been having general discussions about emergency response and disaster preparedness as an underlying theme for some time now. CAP is just one way of communicating in a emergency situation. In an emergency, a message sent using the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) can mean the difference between your warning being delivered with the needed information or getting lost. Think about past experiences where cell phones, internet and more modern means of communication have crumbled under the extreme load. But often, text messaging and radio were still effective due to the small packet size and simple delivery methods. If you work with a first responder organization, or have a need to implement a warning system that is compatible with other emergency systems, the protocols for the EDXL - Emergency Data Exchange Language are worth investigating.

No, it is not the answer for all time yet. But, it is worth discussing to enhance and push the development.

There is advance progress. I say advance, but isn’t this kind of long overdue? CAP integrates completely with pre-existing warning systems, including:

• NOAA Weather Radio
• Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME)
• Emergency Alert System

The major fault I see with most emergency responder systems is not the technical aspects, but the lack of everyday usage. BrandtoBeDetermined has a great post about pop-up readiness. His understanding. It doesn’t work. The question becomes how to build something that can be utilized as part of every day scenarios. There must be a system enough people use consistently and on a near daily basis to be effective during a more chaotic time. We don’t have all the answers, but a step closer each day and thinking about the safety of others will get us there.

If you or your organization are researching and working with response systems, let us know what you are working on.

Freeze Dried foods are produced in a process where moisture is removed from the frozen product using a very low temperature and a vacuum. If it’s done correctly, only about 3% moisture remains in the product at the time of packaging. The end product weight is reduced by over 90%, while the volume stays the same. This process concentrates the fresh product taste, natural color, and texture of fresh product in it’s freeze dried state. Freeze Dried and Dehydrated products are less expensive than wet pack food because you are not paying for all the water. They take less room to store and area easier to carry while backpacking or relocating and the removal of water increases shelf life. Most of all, NO PRESERVATIVES are required.

To use freeze dried foods, you can eat in this state as a snack in the example of fruits. Toss some freeze dried strawberries on your cereal or keep a handful nearby as a natural healthy alternative for the afternoon blahs. Rehydrate others such as onions and other vegetables to use as you would in normal cooking recipes. Once rehydrated, the food returns to it’s normal size and shape with little or no loss to the original texture. My favorite vendor for freeze dried food is Honeyville Grain and Food Products who only charge a one-rate shipping fee. That seriously makes this a economical bulk purchase for those trying to be frugal.

There are tons of tips, guides, diy articles on survival and preparation on the Interweb. I even list a few on this site. They come in all flavors. Find what works best for you and your level of needs as YMMV (Your mileage may vary) for each set. Below is a practical approach to planning for everything from economic hardship to tougher natural disasters such as my hurricane prone Southern states.

1. Don’t believe everything you read. Check that at the door. 90% of the information you read is good but every once in a while something goes around that is just complete fanaticism or unresearched rumour and if you apply any of the information you could get into serious trouble or unintentionally cause harm.

2. Be frugal or conservative in your spending. If you don’t have a need for an expensive item or any knowledge how to use that fancy piece of gear, then you don’t need it. There will always be something better that you could use that will cost a lot less and may be easier to use. Do you need the latest roof-top car rack for driving in inclement weather or will an inexpensive set of straps and water-proof garbage bags inside old duffel bags work in a pinch? If you HAD to make do, would you figure something out or leave it behind? I imagine most of us would figure something out. So, buy when it is necessary, not just cool.

3. Start small and work up to the large scale planning. As you gather some stuff and knowledge, you will know what you need and what you don’t. Start with an easy walk out the door backpack or basic supplies if the power went out for a day. The initial cost to your budget is minimal. I managed this in an easy weekend and rummaging through my house and garage for most of it. Once this was done I had the minimum of what was needed. Then you can start on items for a longer period of time.

4. Make all of your plans work for you and your family. If your spouse and children are not 100% on board than you may have to think of their needs and prepare for them. Not fun. Especially if it involves children in a stressed situation. Try to engage them by making preparations fun. The first time you have a major power outage or severe storm and everyone is in a panic, calmly break out some of your basic convenience items and assure everyone it will be okay and to stop worrying. You will have quietly won the battle for future steps.

5. Make friends. You can’t do it alone no matter how prepared you think you are. Knowing who you can count on will be worth their weight in gold. Know your neighbors and take the time now to introduce yourself and learn their habits. Can they be trusted to return a shovel on a regular weekend? Can you trust them when the power has been out for three days to work side-by-side to clear the street of fallen trees after a storm? Knowing ahead of time will make it easier on all involved.

Local businesses are also valuable allies when crunch time comes. This can make the difference when it comes to getting that needed item that you neglected to get when things were good. Be generous with the shop owner and render any help he or she may need. Never ask for anything in return for your help. People who are grateful will thank you and will remember you. A lasting impression goes along way when the time comes when you may need the help.

6. Lists, lists, and more lists. You will go insane trying to keep track of everything without a list. If you are an electronic list maker, print that stuff out! If the power goes out or the hard drive gets damaged, it won’t do much good. Label boxes with what is in them by tools, first aid or such. Not everyone knows what’s in a bag or box if they didn’t help pack the bags or boxes.

7. Assemble a good Library. One of he best places to find what you need is all of those used book stores. Don’t be snubbing old books because of the print date. Some of the classic books teach proven principles on repairing homes, plumbing, basic first aid, basic gardening, etc. Some ideas don’t really change.

8. Check your RSS feed daily. I can’t say enough about this one. Just trust me on this one, it is a must. You can’t visit every site to see what is updated every day. Stay on top of information or it will control you. Even missing it a couple of days and you will be sitting in front of your computer for a few hours trying to catch up on your reading. This will cost you time when you could be doing other things.

9. Take each day and read, study and apply your practical and planning knowledge. Read a book on any subject that can help you to survive or learn more. Learn a skill and perfect it, so you can use this skill. Learn things for practical everyday living, not just how to start a web 2.0 business.

10. Learn what you need and use what you learn. Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. Go camping for a weekend in your own house. What is it like to live without electricity for a weekend? What did you need that your forgot? What did you think would be a life saver and you never unpacked it? You won’t know until you put yourself and family through the pace. Practice.

There is more and other lists. As mentioned, there are even more lists and guides on this site. This is just a basic approach to thinking about planning. Follow it, apply it or change it and make it work for you and yours.