Category Archives: Security

Security

Emergency Response Acronyms

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There are many acronyms to choose from, when it comes to emergency response; illustrated nicely by the Family Disaster Plan Resources (FDPR) for the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG):

Berkeley Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Cupertino Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Corte Madera Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NEAT)
El Cerrito Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NEAT)
Foster City Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT)
Fremont Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Larkspur Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT)
Mt. View Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Citizens of Oakland Respond to Emergencies (CORE)
Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activity (PANDA)
San Francisco Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT)
San Jose Prepared!
San Mateo Neighborhood Emergency Service Team (NEST)
San Rafael Disaster Area Response Team (DART)
Santa Clara (city) Home Emergency Assistance Team (HEAT)
Southern Marin Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Sunnyvale Neighborhoods Actively Prepare (SNAP)

Aside from NERT (just because it’s fun to say) my favorite in the above list is Palo Alto (PANDA), as it only takes a little work to turn it into something slightly different:

Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activity Monitoring of Natural Incident Un-preparedness Managament (PANDAMONIUM)

Notice San Jose bucking the trend? Wonder what the effect of people wearing “Prepared” logos on their jackets would be…hard to know why they used the past tense, which could be like a slap in the face after a disaster: “I was prepared, were you?” I guess it is still better than “HEAT”, which seems a bit like an insensitive reference to the great San Francisco quake, or perhaps a subtle attempt to assert their relationship with law enforcement.

Ah, what’s in a name, anyway (AWIANA).

Food, Security

Consumers unaware of mercury poisoning risks

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The water quality risk, caused by the externality of the chemical herbicide and pesticide industries, as well as other weakly regulated industries that dump waste on people, may also become known as the mercury poisoning of America. The AP has a telling story today about the lack of awareness that not only allows companies to continue poisoning and evade cleanup accountability, but also the susceptibility of consumers to harm on a daily basis:

“We don’t test a lake or river and not find some level of mercury,” [environmental scientist for the North Dakota state Health Department] Ell said. “It’s pretty widespread across the state. We don’t have levels that are high enough to issue any kind of bans, but some lakes have concentrations where, in some species of fish, we just advise people to limit their consumption to smaller fish.”

Mercury is a toxic metal that can cause nerve damage in humans and is particularly dangerous to children, developing fetuses and women of childbearing age.

Lists are starting to emerge from the private sector watch groups as the US government lags not only in stopping the causes, but addressing the symptoms and regulating dangerous levels of mercury sold over the counter:

Oceana says that without in-store signs, most consumers lack the knowledge for good choices.

Its report says stores in Hawaii, the District of Columbia and Alaska are doing the best job of educating consumers, and it put 15 companies on its “green list,” including Safeway, Trader Joe’s and Albertson’s.

Most of the grocery chains that serve West Virginia were on the more than 50-member “red list,” including Kroger, Food Lion, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, IGA, Giant Eagle and Save-A-Lot.

Jeff Lowrance, spokesman for North Carolina-based Food Lion LLC, said there is no state or federal law requiring supermarkets to post such information.

Thanks to weak environmental (read: infrastructure security) regulation, sustainability will decline as the cost of living increases dramatically. In other words, if you are in America, don’t touch the water and don’t eat the fish unless you bring a chemistry set to identify the toxicity; or just outsource your supply to someone who understands the risks.

Security

Wikiview

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I love those scenes in sci-fi movies where a goggle or robotic eye prints out a set of data. And I vaguely remember something about an MIT student who was able to get his notes to appear on a portable screen when he attended class (using geolocation and time calculations his “wearable” computer knew which class he was in and when). Only a matter of time before someone tried to squeeze Wikipedia into our view:

one site plots geotagged Wikipedia entries on to Google Earth (www.webkuehn.de/hobbys/wikipedia/geokoordinaten/index_en.htm). If these Wikipedia entries could be sent to us as we passed through the corresponding areas, it would be like having a tour guide in our mobile phone

Mobile phone? Handhelds are so Star Trek. I’m thinking Robocop Visor or Terminator Sunglasses. Talk about the emerging struggle for control over eyeballs…

Security

US military accused of illegal recruiting

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…as opposed to recruiting illegals. From a letter by Senator Boxer sent to Francis J. Harvey, Secretary of the Army on November 3rd:

According to an ABC News report, nearly half of the recruiters profiled in an undercover investigation knowingly provided misleading information to potential recruits about the risks of enlisting in the U.S. Army. In one particularly shocking clip of the investigation, a recruiter is seen telling a recruit that the United States is “not at war,� and that the “war ended a long time ago.� Another is seen telling a recruit that “we are bringing people back� from Iraq.

The war ended a long time ago? I have not seen the report, but the only thing worse that I can imagine is a recruiter telling a recruit “don’t worry, we’re only at alert level orange”.

Sorry I do not have more details to point to online, but all I have is a copy of the letter sent to me via email.