Open Source Homeland

Strong Angel III | Strong Angel III
THE DEMONSTRATION

What will happen? Organizations and individuals participating in Strong Angel III are volunteering their time and resources to explore innovations in humanitarian response capabilities. This is not a trade show or a technology fair, with vendor booths, demos, and product literature. Nor is it an Exercise in the usual sense, with teams of first responders and a highly-scripted scenario. Instead, SA-III will focus on simulating those aspects of post-disaster conditions that specifically impact communication, information sharing, and coordination. The week-long demonstration will consist of a series of collaborative technical and non-technical experiments based on both lessons learned in past disasters and on emerging requirements for integrated operations. They are designed to test the interoperability, reliability, and flexibility of proposed social and technical solutions. Strong Angel III is a chance for vendors, humanitarian practitioners, First Responders, the military, and community leaders to explore capabilities, inter-operability, usability, and deployment with the specific intent that the solutions proposed be accessible globally. Strong Angel will provide an adverse environment designed to maximize learning, sharing and experimentation.

Ferry boat captains and passengers helped in pulling all crash survivors to safety:

All 155 survive plane crash in NYC’s Hudson River – Yahoo News
The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows when rescuers in Coast Guard vessels and ferry boats arrived, opened the door and pulled passengers in yellow life vests from the aircraft, whose fuselage appeared intact. The plane was sinking in the near-freezing water on one of the coldest days of the year, with the mercury around 20 degrees.

Would love to be at this:

DIY Survival: Projects for the Apocalypse: ETech 2008 — OReilly Conferences, 03/03/2008 – 03/06/2008, San Diego, CA

Whether it’s a red button, volcano, avian bird flu, meteor, cosmic superhighway or economic collapse, this lecture will give you the information you need to make things that will help you survive. Bre Pettis will present a broad array of projects both handmade and over-the-top that will be practical and humorous.

 Here’s a handy tool you’d might like to have around on the Day After:

VentureBeat » Trulite to release handy fuel cell for consumers
Trulite, a Houston, Texas company, has developed a portable fuel cell for the consumer, contained in a box that powers everything from computer, to fridges and construction site power tools.

Costing around $2,000 initially, the environmentally friendly hydrogen fueled device measures a trim 7 inches wide, 18 inches tall, and 18 inches deep.

It is much cleaner than alternatives, producing water and heat as its only byproducts. It will hit the market during the second quarter of next year. It will be one of the first consumer fuel cells on the market. It is designed to replace regular gas generators people have used until now, which are noisy and polluting.

Here’s an amazingly clear-headed and complete list of things you should put in your car in case of an emergency. Snip:

For heating water inside your vehicle or on a car hood, you will need a metal container of “canned” heat, typically sold at grocery stores to keep food serving trays hot. If you have the space, keep several handy, but one should last several days and is reusable, thanks to an air-tight cap.