Author Archives: Jonathan Soroko

About Jonathan Soroko

Revived from the dead, 18-July-2013

Solar Stik: portable, rugged, solar (and wind) generation

Solar Stik, invented by Brian Bosley and in business for about ten years, sells easily deployable solar and solar/wind generators which can be easily daisy-chained into an array. We don’t think there are any other systems with these features.

Solar Stik 100 Terra

Chris Crosby of Solar Stik – a woman of nearly infinite patience, given the number of questions I asked more than once – explained that their systems have their origin in marine applications, and started out with water and wind resistance as baseline design parameters.

All of the non-marine systems (and, I gather, some of those as well) break down into Pelikan cases and can therefore be hand-transported.

The ability to interconnect relieves responders from constant monitoring of charging equipment during an emergency, like having many dishes on single burners with different cooking times.

The system can also accept power from marine/vehicle batteries, AC charging – so it can be kept ready with large reserves; the reverse is true – if the sun is shining and the wind blowing, the swappable Power Paks make it possible to harvest energy while it’s available for later use – and transport it and use the energy where it’s needed. In other words, the emergency power use isn’t limited to charging items immediately adjacent to the solar array – a charged Pak can be transported – that is, carried – to where it’s needed.

We’ll try to follow up on this in the next few days, including some comparisons to other systems. In the meantime, however, this gallery should illustrate some of the attributes of the Solar Stik system(s).

FEMA unveils nationwide phone tree

FEMA has unveiled a nationwide phone tree. From The Onion FEMA unveils nationwide phone tree:

WASHINGTON—The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday unveiled its new $48.2 million Phone Tree Response System, a program designed to alert every American in the event of a large-scale disaster. “The safety of our great nation is the responsibility of all 300 million of its citizens, so make sure you memorize the names and phone numbers of the three people you are supposed to call,” said acting FEMA administrator Nancy Ward, who assured reporters that, in the event of a chemical or biological attack, President Obama would be notified first so that he could inform Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Meredith Soto of Winslow, AZ. “Remember: If they don’t pick up, leave a message telling them there’s a national emergency, and then call the next name listed in the 176,935-page, 253-volume directory until someone answers.” According to FEMA officials, regular tests of the phone tree will be conducted on a semiweekly basis to identify any numbers that are no longer in service.

Via The Onion.

We’re relieved that this problem has been solved, allowing us to move onto the next pressing issue.

Louisiana Red Cross chief promoted to new national position

VIA DisasterAccountabiityProject. Steven Ward of 2theAdVocate reports about Vic Howell, CEO of the Red Cross for Louisiana:

Howell, who has been the CEO in Baton Rouge for six years, was named the American National Red Cross Division 4 vice president, said Kendall Hebert, spokeswoman for the area chapter, on Monday. Howell, 64, started his new job Monday. Howell will manage operations for 18 regions with a total of 74 Red Cross chapters in Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Illinois. “I’m very excited about the new job, but I made the decision to take it with mixed emotions,” Howell said Monday morning by phone while on his way to Washington, D.C. “I’m excited about the future but hate to leave the local chapter because of all the great working relationships we had with the state,” Howell said. Howell’s other local title was regional executive for American Red Cross Chapters in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles. Hebert said an interim CEO has not yet been named. Chief Operating Officer Bob Wortman will step up his daily duties and assist with chapter operations until a new leader is found. Patrick Mockler, the chapter’s board of directors chairman, was out of town Monday, but Hebert said Mockler will start to form a search committee today to fill Howell’s position. “This is a job we want to fill quickly, especially with the hurricane season coming soon,” Hebert said. Hebert said the chapter hopes to have a new CEO in place as soon as possible, but no date has been set. Howell, who said he will assist the local board in finding his replacement, said he will continue to live in Baton Rouge.

BR Red Cross chief gets national post By Steven Ward of The Advocate. 2theAdvocate is a joint internet project of WBRZ-TV and The Advocate (we believe the leading local daily print publication).

Steven Ward’s archive of work on 2theAdvocate.

Testing: Xmind – promising MindMapping application – plus more

Currently testing XMind, which is a mind-mapping application, but does more than that. We’re still on the upwards slope of the learning curve, and, like many new applications, the help files don’t necessarily anticipate beginners’ questions.(We’d like to see more “markers” – or icons, for instance. And if you can export to HTML, can you edit the HTML file – and how?).

But we think it’s very promising. The free version is very generous – and the paid version – $49/year or $6/month – does have some additional features. More on this as we have time to test it.

International Frequency Coordination for Disaster Responders

I had no idea that the United Nations has already propagated six frequencies (and six repeater pairs), three in VHF, three in UHF, for disaster responders. These frequencies are not, in my experience, common knowledge among commercial radio vendors in the United States, and don’t appear to be referenced on the relevant pages on the FCC website, so it’s possible that we’re not a signatory to the agreement.

Here’s what’s brilliant about this idea – within certain distances along radio bands, it’s critical to have agreed-upon frequencies. And the cost keeps decreasing, as crystal-less, programmable radios which often have 16, 32, 64 or many more “channels” (frequencies or “repeater pairs” – two frequencies combined for signal boosting without feedback). So an international standard for all disaster workers to have at least three channels in common is, in and of itself, excellent policy.

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Ikea's $20 USD solar/LED lamp

Ikea Sunnan Solar/LED lampIkea is now selling its Sunnan lamp, designed by Nicolas Cortolezzis, which is powered by 2 rechargeable AA batteries, included in the $19.99 price. It has the limitation common to consumer solar-powered lighting devices: 9-12 hours of charging on a sunny day will yield 3-4 hours at 400 – 500 lux (Ikea’s product description is ambiguous, and also says that it will then operate at 300 lux).  However, even in winter, it should provide enough light to get through a few hours’ reading or homework – but perhaps not studying for finals.

Thought of another way – thrree or four of these sitting on the most exposed windowsill all day will provide emergency lighting in several rooms. If they’re placed near mirrors – a common practice with lamps before the advent of electricity – their yield will be increased. And even the best emergency flashlight is ill-suited for reading or working.

The market – despite the absence of government encouragement for eight years – has delivered a reasonably priced emergency household light. IKEA, for its part, doesn’t even mention this use. We’d like to see them price them even lower in bundles. (The Sunnan lam is available in stores and not via the IKEA website).

And it’s ready now – no need to wait for a smart grid, or your local utility to go green, or the government to provide interest-free loans for a PV panel on your roof.

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Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorized

Via Cryptome. This statute has been reauthorized. Our limited understanding is that it makes the United States government the guarantor of insurance company losses due to terror atttacks over certain threshold amounts. Whether there’s a moral hazard – discouraging insurers and insureds from taking preventive and mitigating measures – we don’t know. We hope to return to this issue shortly. Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization.


					

Tom Mouat: MapSymbs application for military GIS

Symbol frame for hostile units.png

Tom Mouat has produced current NATO map symbols as a font set called MapSymbs which is in fact used by NATO member countries. Popular Logistics editor and artist/animator/engineer Garry Osgood (Particular Art; site under construction) is currently experimenting with the construction of an icon set to be used as tools for planning and communication for disaster planning, modeling, and response. Initial efforts – since our focus is on social networks – is to use the conventions of the Universal Markup Language. [Because it’s not a “web-safe” font, the following images are not taken directly from MapSymbs.

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Congratulations to Belmar, NJ’s first CERT team

Belmar, New Jersey has just graduated its first CERT class, and has started to recruit a second. Belmar, sensibly, takes an approach that makes it easy for participants to complete the one night per week/eight week program, apparently also providing gear rather than making new volunteers find their own (and, alas, often get fleeced in the process). The next class will start in the fall – anyone interested can contact the CERT head, Dennis Ryan on this page.

Interestingly, Belmar has added CPR and defibrillation to the curriculum, not normally part of the standard program (on the assumption that CPR and defib are best used when there is an expectation of imminent hospital and/or ALS ambulance care – often absent in mass casualty incidents.

We note that with its first class of 27, if it graduates and holds four equal-sized classes, Belmar will equal San Francisco in per capita participation in CERT/NERT by citizens and residents.

Swine Flu Outbreak coverage

For the  lion’s share of urgent posts here – reports about contemporaneous threats – I;m lucky to have good access to a  number of physicians, medical  personnel epidemiologists and other informants. cynthia-rowley-cdc-photo-influenza-10072

But the single most useful resource is the blog The Pump Handle What’s more, Liz Borkowski and  Celeste Monforton, two of the Pump Handle Posse,  have been generous to us,answering questions and helping us out.

Ms. Borkowski is recommending Effect Measure’s coverage of the current influenza outbreak. We may yet be able to add some detail as things develop –  but if you want to stay on top of the issue – get on over to Effect Measure’.

Gore proposes 10-year plan to produce entire U.S. energy consumption via renewables

Via Ron Fournier of the Associated Press, Gore sets ‘moon shot’ goal on climate change, dated today (16 July 2008). An excerpt:

Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.

The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are “way ahead” of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.

[We haven’t examined either candidates’ positions on these issues carefully – but we take Senator Gore’s implicit  point – that the necessity will be present whoever wins the election – Eds.]

–  snip –

The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan group that he chairs, estimates the cost of transforming the nation to so-called clean electricity sources at $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion over 30 years in public and private money. But he says it would cost about as much to build ozone-killing coal plants to satisfy current demand.

“This is an investment that will pay itself back many times over,” Gore said. “It’s an expensive investment but not compared to the rising cost of continuing to invest in fossil fuels.”

Excerpted from Gore sets ‘moon shot’ goal on climate change. By Ron Fournier of The Associated Press.

We understand – or believe – that the AP has been concerned about excessive use of their reports. We believe the above excerpt complies with the “fair use” doctrine. Also – Fournier’s lead – the comparison to the space program – is particulary apt, and should be useful in public discussion.

Disaster Blogging Resources – Part I

In conjunction with two blogs I’ve just set up – NewYork.PopularLogistics.com and EmergencyInformation.us – links to excellent articles and resources about blogs as communications tools during disasters:

Blogging: reaching a global audience easily and affordably – from anywhere

,” by Teresa Crawford on Humaninet. Humaninet seems to have been an early adapter in using blogs as information toools by NGOs during disasters with this blog – humaninet.blogspot.com. Via Beth KanterContinue reading