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The same emergency services that force volunteers to take mandatory certificate classes to do things like firefighting.

Nope. Running a radio gateway is nothing like firefighting. It requires a ham license, but if you think the FCC is going to force people to buy fully redundant hardware to run a radio gateway you're nuttier than a loon. If you think that buying fully redundant PC hardware is going to solve the problem, then sit back and watch as both systems choose to update at the same time, installing the same broken patch that makes the systems crash. Redundancy bought you nothing.

Well okay, but I don't know what that had to do with what I wrote. I was writing about the ARES, Ares level 2 and ARES level 1 certifications. Then there is the CERT classes https://www.ready.gov/communit... , and their 8 extra modules, SkyWarn http://www.cert-emcomm.net/sky... . Then we go down the FEMA rabbithole. https://training.fema.gov/is/c...

Emergency comms are no different. Certification after certification. Background checks, including financial.

Excuse my French, but you are full of shit.

Oh you poor poor sad man. Try to get into our center without a background check. Allow the evidence..... Here is a pdf from York County ARES Races emcomm group. It is typical of most. http://www.w3hzu.com/content/e....

Here is the relevant text

1. Applicants must undergo a Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record check (no cost). This is Criminal Record only, not a financial check. Minimum age for this application is 18. YOU must request a background check via PATCH using the following link: You fail, you simply do not get in.

Next up the Red Cross, who do have a financial background check http://www.redcross.org/local/...

In this case, the relevant text is:

Background checks have been part of the American Red Cross volunteer process for many years. After the hurricanes of 2005, mandatory background checks for employees and volunteers were instituted. Red Cross continues to affirm our accountability to the American public. The background check initiative will help us achieve a more efficient and safer work environment for our employees and volunteers.

There are many more links if you care to Google.

You wrote with great assurance and authority:

There are no background checks of any kind, much less financial, and no certification other than a basic amateur radio license, required to operate the gateways I am talking about.

You are wrong. You are not even wrong. I have had many background checks in my situation as a technical advisor to an emergency communications group. Required even. Certifications likewise. It makes for a problem with volunteers with time, as well as many do not like the instant "thanks for volunteering, but we think you might be a criminal or a pedophile". The tests used to be sent in by the agency, but were changed to the individual being investigated to try to help with the falloff in volunteers. The idea was that if you flunked the background investigation, you could just keep it to yourself, instead of having the whole town hear about it through the grapevine. It isn't working, probably because volunteers don't like that in addition to all of the certifications..

Seriously Obscufant, do a little background searching before you embarass yourself, and compounding it witth scatological insults just makes you look pretty bad.

Self- or battery-powered AM/FM radios are typically included in any "hurricane survival" preparation list.

At $1 plus a bottle (plus the almost always not recycled plastic bottle), why don't people just get a Britta filter for home or office?

Because bottled water is a standard quantity of packaged, sealed, and tested water. Unlike water you package up yourself with your Britta filter, you can safely store bottled water for a long time (until the "Use By" date). Water you bottle yourself, you can at most keep for six months, and even that only if you do everything right.

Yes, even the US government recommends bottled water for that reason: http://www.ready.gov/water

You do realize that for less than the cost of a burger and fries you could stop by a dollar store and pickup a half dozen headphones and distribute them throughout your life (home, work, car, etc) in case of emergency? No doubt that the chances of it actually being necessary aren't all that high but I can't think of any cheaper method of disaster preparation either. By the way a radio is #3 on the FEMA disaster preparedness kit right behind Food and Water.

http://www.ready.gov/kit

I was just as underwhelmed as you when I heard "coldest temperatures since... 1995!"

That said, last summer was particularly hot:

* Historical Heat Wave Expanding Across the West (June 2013)
* Death Valley Heat Breaks All-Time US June Record
* Heat Wave July 2013
* What’s Behind the Heat Wave

And in December, we did see dramatic weather extremes:

* The temperature in New York's Central Park topped out at 71 degrees on Sunday, breaking a 1998 record of 63 degrees
* The temperature had reached 65 degrees in Central Park on Saturday, breaking a 2011 record of 62 degrees.
* Temperatures in Philadelphia reached a record 68 degrees on Sunday.
* In Washington D.C., the temperature was hovering "about 40 degrees warmer than normal,"
* New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were pummeled by an ice storm
* In Nelson County, Kentucky, three drowning victims were pulled from a submerged vehicle
* A tornado touched down in the city of Redfield, Arkansas
* Widespread damage from the storm system was also reported near Dermott, Arkansas ... "We are thinking it was a tornado,"

Tornadoes in December?

Peak tornado season in the southern states is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer.

Just two weeks later, it's a cold snap: Chicago already broke it's record low -- more to follow.

Maybe you'll get thrown into one of the FEMA death camps so no one has to suffer your posts anymore.

FEMA would be happy to have you do some training so, in the event of an emergency, you'll be prepared to assist more effectively.

Be Informed! Make a plan! Build a kit! Get involved!

I tried to discuss disaster preparedness with my friends: they balked and reared like I was going to bunker down with an ammo and gold cache in Montana. Why do people spend more energy arguing against preparedness than it would take to buy some jugs of water and a box of non-perishables? My wife and I took a CERT training course and point anyone who'll listen to http://www.ready.gov/ and http://72hours.org/. I backup non-confidential medical records on Google Health (www.google.com/health/ - useful when going to different providers) and put my pets' records on an old thumb drive.

Making preparations for emergencies and disasters gives you a greater margin to survive. You might not be getting any help any time soon, if ever. Consider the fact that the states knew that they were responsible for taking care of incidents for four days before FEMA stepped in, and the botched responses by the city of New Orleans (epic fail), the state of Louisiana (epic fail), and ultimately the federal government in Katrina. Not a shining moment for the United States.

However, many police, fire and EMS organizations from outside the affected areas were reportedly hindered or otherwise slowed in their efforts to send help and assistance to the area. FEMA sent hundreds of firefighters who had volunteered to help rescue victims to Atlanta for 2 days of training classes on topics including sexual harassment and the history of FEMA.[12] Official requests for help through the proper chains of command were not forthcoming due to local and state delays in engaging FEMA for federal assistance, even after approached by such authorities. Local police and other EMS workers found the situation traumatic; at least two officers committed suicide, and over 300 deserted the city after gang violence and "turf wars" erupted around the city.[13] A report by the Appleseed Foundation, a public policy network, found that local entities (nonprofit and local government agencies) were far more flexible and responsive than the federal government or national organizations. The federal response was often constrained by lack of legal authority or by ill-suited eligibility and application requirements. In many instances, federal staff and national organizations did not seem to have the flexibility, training, and resources to meet demands on the ground."[14Criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina]

Think at least five basic scenarios, not all of which you may believe is necessary to prepare for, and you can do it in steps.
- Trouble on the road (breakdown on deserted road, trapped by blizzard or flood)
- Quickly evacuate from home indefinitely (hurricane, tornado, fire, flash flood, industrial accident, terrorist attack)
- Trapped at home for 1-4 weeks with loss of some services (massive blizzard, floods, loss of power, flu epidemic)
- Massive civil disorder (LA riots, Katrina looting & gang activity)
- Society changing event (deadly pandemic, EMP bombs destroy all electronics, major disruption in society)

Preparations can start small:
- For the car: a first aid kit, a couple of space blankets and plastic ponchos, some matches, steel mugs, a few granola bars, a can/bottle opener, bottled water, small tool kit, knife, duct tape, and flashlight.
- For the home: 3 days supply of food and water set aside, a first aid kit, flashlights w/ batteries, battery operated radio, some emergency cash, a fire extinguisher, a small repair kit/tool kit
- Start pulling your documents together in a safe place

Over time, you can build up to prepare to the level you believe necessary, including a one year supply of food for long term storage (just an example - many other vendors / options).

Ready America
Are You Ready? - An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness
How to Disaster-Proof Your Life
How to Survive Anything Mother Nature Throws at You
Blackout Survival Guide
4 Facts You Need to Know About D

Most modern phones are probably much too power hungry to be get enough energy from audio vibrations, even you manage to ramp up the efficiency close to 100%, which is unlikely to ever be practical.

Where this could be useful is in specialized low-power devices that get bundled into emergency survival
kits.

OTOH, future cellular devices might incorporate enough improvements into power efficiency (e.g., e-ink displays), such that you could significantly extend battery life and perhaps even power a very basic subset of the phone when the battery runs out.

Also, harnessing vibrations efficiently might be very useful in surgically implanted medical devices where replacing the battery can be rather inconvenient.

nothing more than an official (I don't even think it was Tom Ridge) recommending duct tape as part of an emergency kit to have around

Hiding under a desk or picnic blanket will provide protection in the event of a nuclear attack.

Or just go around the corner and down the street.

First case? According to GWB, our entire country is in a permanent SOE. I know the media has stopped trying to make it the focus of our every second on this earth, but it's still there:

http://www.ready.gov/

did you already forget about our "threat level"...?

Similiar articles has been on slashdot earlier.

You should have a backpack, preferably black as it dont get as easy dirty and allows for stealth, and black looks good on no matter what color of clothes you wear. ;)

There are USB memory sticks made of rubber. I assume they can be handled pretty rough and are water proof.

For compressing/archiving there are many formats, .7z provides good compression and also AES-256 encryption.
For encryption you can also use PGP, TrueCrypt, or many other tools. Maybe it is possible to have a Steganographic (StegFS) partition?

In your backpack you should also have a flashlight, there are some that dont require battery, you simply charge them by shaking them.

Matches or a lighter is also good to have.
And a multi-tool knive with knive, screwdriver, scissor, etc.

Glow sticks are also good, they dont produce any heat and can be used under water and many difficult situations.

Also see http://www.ready.gov/index.html

Homeland security has a website called www.ready.gov that has built a whole website about preparing for emergencies. They also have an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit that includes a nice form that consolidates all the personal information you might need in order to get financial services in an emergency.

After getting the basic emergency kit ready, fill out and print this form and put it in your kit. Then, encrypt it and put save on internet, maybe mail it to your gmail account.

Homeland security has a website called www.ready.gov that has built a whole website about preparing for emergencies. They also have an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit that includes a nice form that consolidates all the personal information you might need in order to get financial services in an emergency.

After getting the basic emergency kit ready, fill out and print this form and put it in your kit. Then, encrypt it and put save on internet, maybe mail it to your gmail account.

I'd check out the Red Cross website or something. Or perhaps you could check this out, some good ideas there.

I suppose you had more information than the president by Tuesday morning about how bad it really all was. You have a crystal ball, right?

Well, tuesday morning I had the knowledge and common sense to know that when New Orleans gets hit by a category 5 hurricane becoming a category 4 hurricane, and the levees are designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane, and there are people still inside the city, you have a serious problem needing immediate, drop-everything attention.

So yes, apparently tuesday morning I had more information than the president of the united states had.

This is not because I have a crystal ball. This is because I have common sense. On Sunday I was on the telephone with my mother, who is a republican campaign contributor who has voted republican for as long as I have been aware of, and we were talking about the news about the hurricane-- and how we were both absolutely baffled that the evacuation order for New Orleans was not mandatory, and absolutely baffled that plans were being made to shelter tens of thousands of people in the superdome but no plans were yet being made to get these tens of thousands of people food or water. So that's at least two people who as of Sunday had apparently more information than the president had tuesday morning-- specifically the information that the known situation in New Orleans from Sunday to Tuesday morning was a bigger and riskier one than the preparations were sufficient for. There are probably many more people who had at least this same level of information. I do not think me and my mother are the only people in the united states with common sense, or at least crystal balls.

Oh, just to remind everyone, the department of homeland security would like to remind you that September is national preparedness month

I'd put money on this work being completely bogus. There's quite a bit of funding going to researchers from Fath^H^H^H^HHomeland Security. I'm pretty astonished by the types of reserach these people are doing which really has no practical applications whatsoever. But on paper it makes it look like the department are investing in our security. This sounds like a prime example of such a project. There simply isn't a situation involving bacteria that is both (1) something we can model on a computer and (2) relevant to combating bioterrorism. Sure, we might be able to qualitatively model a population in a petri dish, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality of a terrorist releasing bacteria into the atmosphere, say. But the ignorant politicians working at the department have no way of understanding this for themselves and fund it anyway. Remember, these are the same people who think this is useful.

So...politicans might be taken in by BS about the applications of these methods, but there's no need for /. readers to be decieved the same way.

Erm, the paranoia and insecurity aren't gone. Case in point: http://www.ready.gov/

What's that little "DHS Threat Advisory" image in the top right doing there? Just a reminder that paranoia isn't a think of the past, the only thing that's changed is the thing we're supposed to be afraid of.

Terrorism -- the perfect invisible enemy for a nation consumed with fear. Do you enjoy being manipulated?

Oh bugger off. Mind you I completely agree with you and roll my eyes at this crap and all of the public service announcements about "being ready" and I would tend to agree that it does seem to be a scheme to keep the current politicans in office...

All that said... bugger off. What do you think is a higher priority for our limited law enforcement resources? Going after terrorists (despite my rant they are actually somewhat of a threat and we can't completely ignore them), the Ken Lay's of the World, or just your run of the mill rapist/murderer guy who has the heads of the three college girls he murdered last week in his freezer? Do you really think that going after people for copyright violations is more deserving of limited law enforcement resources then any of those things?

Your examples are sort of valid, but terrorism is usually associated with an agenda, and these weren't. Both of these were instances of some lone nutcase or small number of nutcases running around trying to cause harm for kicks. By that argument the Unabomber, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Morgana the Kissing Bandit, or El Barto could be considered terrorists.

I wouldn't say W is doing such a great job or the DoHS.

The bureaucracy is clearly lumbering to a slow start, and I think they've really dropped the ball in some aspects (like border security or cargo inspection). However, the lack of WMD's being set off in the U.S. counts for a lot in my book, because you know there are thousands or millions of Muslims that are having wet dreams about accomplishing just that.

Do you know what to do in case a Nuke goes off near you?

Before or after I'm vaporized...?

I don't... you would think they would set up guides for each situation they can think of and publish them. Last I heard I was to buy plastic and duct tape. i.e. duck and cover.

Well, let's see... /me goes off and Googles for five seconds:

http://www.google.com/search?q=department+of+homel and+security+what+to+do+in+a+nuclear+attack&start= 0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=o rg.mozilla:en-US:official

and I found this helpful link:

http://www.ready.gov/get_informed.html

I know you're upset, but that complaint is just sad.

OTOH They did do that handy color chart. I feel much safer with that around.

Yeah, the color code was really dumb. You notice they just completely stopped talking about it about six months ago.

The US has been prepared to be nuked for some time now.

Doesn't worry me...I'm Ready

Some god-forsaken police or fire department leader is going to get saddled with yet another fraglie and tempermental piece of battery-dependent equipment that will serve only to force him to talk to higher-echelon bureaucrats instead of doing his job.

The uses won't be nearly as ambitious. They won't push it that far. It'll serve as nothing more than a propaganda-pusher for the DHS. Each Friday at 16:00 the chief will spend a few minutes seeing what new and informative safety hints the feds have stuffed onto his hard drive that week.

It's a grandiose newsletter-engine, nothing more will come of it.

The Department of Homeland Security put out a PDF leaflet about the program, which contained their normal, almost incomprehensible pictograms like those on ready.gov

I thought they needed some better, and funnier, subtitles.

maybe you should ask why there is "anti-bush" sentiment in the world ?

USA used to be held high in esteem by nations as little as 2years ago, now we couldnt give a shit what happens to you why is that ? what caused that and what are you going to do to rectify it ? nothing just carry a bigger stick ? ok sleep well and be ready.

Ready.gov has plenty of useful information on radiation shielding. If you have a thick shield between yourself and the radioactive materials more of the radiation will be absorbed by the thick shield, and you will be exposed to less. Perhaps NASA could use some insightful advice from the Dept of Homeland Securty. I bet a couple rolls of duct tape and some plastic would be quite useful in Space!

and a fundamentalist facist country has emerged from its ashes along with the propganda,lies,corruption and terroism of its citizens that goes with it

stop convincing yourselves that you are free and democratic, you are neither and the sooner you and your 280 million sheep realise it the better for everyone (the 94% of the worlds population that currently dislikes you)

At least the US is trying to clean up one of the worst offenders.

The US is going to depose the tyrant Bush, a man with weapons of mass destruction and no democratic mandate?

How about the Shah of Iran? Definitely a non-democratic man, with a pretty awful record for human rights. Seems to have a lot of weapons lying around too. Wasn't he put in power by the US when they deposed the democratically elected leader of Iran? Funny that!

"a person who uses or favors terrorizing methods"

Touch