popular logistics

This suggests an exceptional organizational agility. Ellen Perlman of Governing.com has this piece, “Crazy Cool in L.A./A fire department taps into microblogging to keep itself on top of situations,” published in the November 2006 issues of Governing magazine.

Last May, Los Angeles firefighters had their hands full. A blaze was spreading through 800 acres of Griffith Park but they only knew what was happening from the side of the fire where their trucks were parked. To get a sense of the extent of the conflagration, firefighter Brian Humphrey sent messages to strangers on the other side of the fire — explaining who he was and asking them to call him right away.

How did he know whom to contact? Humphrey twitters.  

If every elementary school in the country had a Photovoltaic Solar system installed onthe roof, then in a ‘Katirina like event’ each school would be an emergency shelter with power. If terrorists took one out, there’d be another one a short distance away.

Solar Panels work when the sun shines. Period!

The money we are spending on the war in Iraq - currently estimated at $2.4 Trillion - would pay for for 300 gigawatts of PV Solar generating capacity - at full retail, and about 800 gigawatts of offshore wind electric capacity. (Solar is about $8.00 per watt, offshore wind is about $3.00 per watt.)

Which would make this country more secure?

David Stephenson , who has done outstanding work on the issues which concern Popular Logistics, has noticed that in a report using 23 criterai to evaluate the Department of Homeland Security, GAO entirely omits the promotion and recruitment of citizen responders.

Here’s Stephenson’s post.  I’m now not sure if reading this particular GAO report is worth the candle.

I regret not earlier posting about Stephenson’s important piece, written with Eric Bonabeau, Expecting the Unexpected: : The Need for a Networked Terrorism and Disaster Response Strategy, published in the Homeland Security Affairs Journal.

Our position on citizen response is this - any plan that doesn’t regard citizen response as central might contain useful tactics - but we submit that no such plan conceivably constitutes a useful strategy.