DefenseTech reports on a proposed set of robot rules of war.

Does this one look law-abiding?

Neighbors – please help – we’re trying to collect data on storm drain performance in Brooklyn today during the flood alert.

Look for the tab marked “Submit Stormdrain Info” at the top of the page – it’ll take you to a simple form – tell us when and where – we’ll try to get it into a map later.

We hope, by the next time we have the opportunity to gather this or other similar data, to have a usable Google Maps (or other) GIS interface available. Please bear with us as we travel upwards on the learning curve.

JS

T/ A new type of life-saving robot: PRE-HOSPITAL CARE ROBOT

This new prototype robot was developed specifically for the AICHI EXPO 2005 in collaboration with Kyushu University.
Visitors to the EXPO who felt ill, were able to utilize this robot to get medical assistance at the theme parks and public facilities that were hard to get to by ambulance. This experimental robot immediately relays information to hospitals and first-aid rooms as soon as someone sits it. Then it, automatically, takes readings of the vital signs like, taking the pulse, measuring blood pressure, heart beat rate and blood oxygen.

In emergencies, doctors can administer first- aid by giving instructions directly to the robot or through a speaker and microphone system to bystanders.

We don’t have a decent photo of the pre-hospital care robot – but we do

have two of the T-52 Enryu Rescue Robot.

Our understanding of the state of robotics in use in the United States for emergency work is that they’re largely limited to EOD (explosive ordinance and demolition) work – as applied in the domestic context, evaluating, transporting, and disarming suspected explosive devices.

Via Toolmonger.  Whom (who?) we thank not only for pointing this out to us, but for their superior journalism (superior to me , in any case) by being willing to point out that, function aside, these robots are, in their words, “just cool.” Which they are.

The non-pictured pre-hospital care robot transmits diagnostic data ahead to the hospital.  

Here’s the limitation of this equipment: in the context of large, horrible, hard-to-solve incidents, they’ll  save lives. And save the lives of first responders. But in mass incidents – and when circumstances make them hard to transport – their function is less limited.

I’m as prone to fall in love with shiny new technology as the next person. Or more so. But the policy question might be – given a choice between one million-dollar robot – or ten forward-cached containers of medical supplies – which would be the better first use of financial resources?

without hesitation – especially for people who want an excellent overview. Calm, intelligent, well-reasoned – and well-written. We wish we’d written it – Popular Logistics was envisioned for people who’d gotten as far along as Dr. Redlener will take you – the details of the logistics that support robust community preparedness.

We’re going to give you each of Redlener’s Eight Principles – and try to add some useful detail.

#1. Stay Healthy and Fit. 

S.L.A. Marshall – in his seminal essay The Soldier’s Load (a primary inspiration for this blog), makes two principal arguments:

• fear makes us tire more easily;
• physical fitness makes us more resistant to fear

In other words, fear and physical exhaustion on the one hand, and physical conditioning and preparedness on the other, are antagonists, Be prepared mentally and physically – you’ll not only be able to help yourself, you’ll be in a position to help others – and need less help for others.

But  – where to start? What particular goals should we be training for, and how to go about it?

Here are physical standards for firefighters

• In London
• Excerpts from the United States Wildfire Firefighter job description:
  • Participates in fire suppression activities in rugged mountainous terrain from sea level to over 10,000 ft. elevation. Uses a variety of hand tools, power saws, and pumps. Exposed to long and irregular working hours under exhausting conditions, including adverse weather conditions required to maintain physical performance over long periods of time.
    
  • FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
  •  Heavy lifting, 45 pounds and over
  •  Heavy carrying, 45 pounds and over
  • Pulling hand over hand (8 hours)
  • Reaching above shoulder
  • Walking (16 hours)
  • Standing (16 hours)
  • Kneeling (3 hours)
  • Repeat bending (12 hours)
  • Climbing, legs only (8 hours)
  • Climbing, use of legs and arms
  • Ability for rapid mental and muscular execution simultaneously(emphasis added)
    

  The International Association of Firefighters/IChief “Candidate Physical Assessment Test (excerpt)

During the entire test the candidate must wear a 50 lb. weighted vest (simulating the weight of a fire fighters protective clothing and equipment). The eight events are:

• • Stair Climb (climbing stairs while carrying an additional 25 lb. simulated hose pack),
  • Ladder Raise and Extension (placing a ground ladder at the fire scene and extending the ladder to the roof or a window),
  • Hose Drag (stretching uncharged hoselines, advancing lines),
  • Equipment Carry (removing and carrying equipment from fire apparatus to fireground),
  • Forcible Entry (penetrating a locked door, breaching a wall) and
  • Search (crawling through dark unpredictable areas to search for victims).
  • Rescue Drag (removing victim or partner from a fire building),
  • Ceiling Pull (locating fire and checking for fire extension)

We’ll be coming back to this. In our neck of the woods – Brooklyn – we’re trying to construct a confidence course (obstacle course) that will be fun – and also help us build cooperative skills, increase fitness – and that will be fun enough that it’ll be an aid to recruitment.

Stay tuned for more from Dr. Redlener – his excellent advice – and we’ll provide as many recipes as we can.

Seems a reasonable question – although in my case, it commits the error which people in my line refer to as “assuming a fact not yet in evidence.” Which is to say – I didn’t know that it took so long to evacuate on ocean liner until I read this nice piece by Michelle Tsai in Slate.  Turns out an ocean liner sank of the coast of Greece last week. And I think I’m so well-informed. From Tsai’s piece:

A cruise ship

, the Sea Diamond, ran into a reef off the coast of Santorini, Greece, on April 5, tearing a hole in the hull that sank the vessel 15 hours later. The nearly 1,600 passengers and crew didn’t get off the ship for three hours. Why does an emergency evacuation take hours?

Slower evacuations are safer. According to the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea guidelines, the crew of a ship must be able to lower all the passengers in lifeboats within half an hour, once everyone onboard has been “mustered,” or gathered from throughout the ship. But captains don’t always evacuate that quickly, because a hasty exit can be dangerous. Panicky passengers can injure themselves as they run, shove one another, and collide in the chaos of flight. Evacuees aren’t their normal selves; one study (click for PDF) found that 70 percent of passengers are bewildered with impaired reasoning after serious maritime incidents, 15 percent exhibit irrational behaviors like uncontrollable weeping, and only 15 percent remain calm and alert.

These dangers might be acceptable in a critical emergency; for example, if a ship were quickly taking on water and about to sink. But in less dire situations, the ship’s master will tend to use all the available time to ensure a safe evacuation. Even with the Sea Diamond‘s three-hour evacuation, though, some passengers suffered broken arms. The captain might also hold up the evacuation while he or she gathers more information about what’s happening. A captain won’t abandon a vessel unless it’s sure to sink, since even a damaged ship offers more protection than a life raft.

Tsai’s done a good job of explaining a complicated problem (it’s part of a series called The Explainer; we’re given to believe that in the Bush White House, the Explainer position has been  eliminated, but we’re sort of sorry they did) and has clearly done her homework.

Let me recap – and draw an inference or two:

• speed is dangerous  – especially in things you’ve not practiced
  
• It’s hard to drill things in places where the population changes every week or two – like a cruise ship
• which might mean that – with transient populations – the setting of standards perhaps ought to be different – than, say, for evacuating an aircraft carrier full of disciplined, good-physical-shape, high level of esprit de corps types

I’m not taking the position that the SOLAS standards are inadequate. Also – despite being a big Battlestar Galactica fan – the proportion of the world population in transit on cruise ships at any given time being relatively small – I’m a bit more worried about my own neighborhood, and others like it.

For instance,

• how long does it take to evacuate a subway station with only one exit?
• why are subway emergency exits not always well-marked (answer – in part because the authorities are concerned about homeless people – in part because they’re concerned about people like me at an earlier age – well past the statutes of limitations, folks, rest assured 

  – who like to check out underground spaces.

• How many New York City high-rises actually do fire drills which involve actually evacuating the building – and not just all meeting at the elevator landing?

According to Treehugger, the Colorado Rockies have added a solar array to their stadium.

Via Treehugger. 

We’re reminded that “Colorado Rockies” is the name of a sports team (perhaps baseball) – and not, in this context, a reference to the mountain range which so moved John Denver that he wrote at least one song about it.

“Rocky Mountain High” is now one of the official songs of the State of Colorado.

See Denver Post article – Jennifer Brown, “‘Rocky Mountain High’ now 2nd state song/John Denver’s 1970s ballad gets OK as second state song”, Denver Post, March 13, 2007. Link here.

I’ll take this opportunity to note that I’ve always been partial to John Denver’s cover of “Please, Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas, whose lyrics include the following:

Just last year when I was only seven
And now Im almost eight as you can see
You came home at a quarter past eleven

Fell down underneath our Christmas tree

(chorus)

Please Daddy, dont get drunk this Christmas
I dont wanna see my Mumma cry
Please Daddy, dont get drunk this Christmas
I dont wanna see my Mumma cry

Words and music by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. Lyrics here. 

By Sally Adee, in GeoTimes:

On Feb. 15, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unveiled its new design of the international symbol for radiation. Dozens of accidental exposures to radiation motivated this change. In 1987, for example, four people in Brazil died when they dismantled an abandoned cancer treatment machine, and in 2001, four men fell ill after they disassembled generators at a Russian nuclear-powered lighthouse.

“Too many people are injured each year by finding large sources of radiation and not understanding what the trefoil — the international symbol for radiation — means,†says Carolyn Mac Kenzie, a radiation source specialist with IAEA. “Many people are either injured or killed in these events.â€

Initiated in 2001, the project was intended to supplement the familiar radiation symbol, the yellow-on-black three-cornered trefoil, which was designed to be simple and conspicuous to prevent it from getting lost among the plethora of easily ignored warnings. But IAEA discovered that simplicity presented problems. Children all over the world consistently identified the radiation hazard symbol as a propeller.

The new triangular sign features the trefoil with radiating waves, a skull and crossbones, and a running man against a bright red background. Graphic designers and radiation experts spent five years refining the symbol to give a clear warning to anyone who might stumble across a radioactive device. The Gallup Institute tested the new design on 1,650 people in 11 countries to confirm that all population groups, regardless of age, sex or level of education, knew immediately that the symbol conveyed danger. The symbol is intended to be universal, and to especially protect individuals whose cultural backgrounds have not prepared them to fear the trefoil, or even radioactivity, Mac Kenzie says.

IAEA intends to place the symbol on all new small radioactive sources, such as food irradiators and cancer treatment machines. The sign will not be plainly visible on the outside of these machines to avoid alarming people in everyday settings; instead, it will be apparent inside the machines if dismantled.

The new radioactive symbol is not slated for use on nuclear waste drums or nuclear waste storage sites, such as the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico that houses military radioactive waste. For these long-term storage facilities, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy have been working with archaeologists, linguists and astronomers, among other varied experts, on a symbol that might suggest danger 10,000 years from now — not an easy task. Like the new IAEA symbol, the overarching goal is to come up with a symbol that would convey danger to people who could not read nor understand common languages. “It is probable that [the new radiation symbol] would be incorporated†into that design, says Roger Nelson, chief scientist at WIPP.

 

Diesel fuel, delivered to United States troops on the field in Iraq. In this post At Defense Tech, Haninah Levine discussed the friction created by the cost of delivering fuel in the field – and the alternatives – including portable solar and wind generators.

No reference of the Navy’s Solar Eagle proposal – to use networked solar panels – on the roof of every building in Iraq – to make the Iraqi power grid more robust and resistant to insurgent attack. You can find a link to the proposal at FAS (the Federation of American Scientists).

And a thoughtful discussion of the Solar Eagle proposal here on the Kaedrin weblog.