Disaster Tip of the Week: Learn Several Methods for Starting a Fire

During a survival situation knowing how to start a fire can be the key difference in staying alive.

Fire is not just good for staying warm, boiling water and cooking food, but provides a great psychological boost.

If you have studied survival techniques and situations like I have you know that much of your survival also relies on your state of mind (I'll get more into this in an up coming post), and anything that can give you that edge including having a fire can improve your odds.

The method you use to start a fire, doesn't really matter as much s the success of actually starting one and there are many methods for doing so.

The one main point to take away from this post is to learn multiple methods, if you can practice them and stick to the ones that seem to work best for you.

The most obvious choice would be to have a reliable lighter or water proof matches but it is important to know what to do when these fail or if you are stuck without them.

Another interesting method is creating fire from forming clear ice into a lens, the best resource for this method the site Wilderness Survival Fire from Ice.

H1N1 Vaccine Recalled in Canda After Severe Side-Effects

Doctors have been advised to stop giving the H1N1 Vaccine in Canda after an unusually high number of reactions in patients occurred.

The reactions range from skin rashes, elevated heart rates, and dyspnea (difficulty breathing). About 1 in 20,000 people have had various anaphylactic reaction to the vaccine which is made by GlaxoSmithKline.

172,000 doses of SmiGlaxothKline's Aperanix vaccine are being recalled and the company has asked doctors to stop giving the vaccine to patients.

The company has declined to say at this time how many people have been given the vaccine at this time.

Global Economic Collapse Predicted by Société Générale

Societe Generale recently released a report titled "Worst-case debt scenario" which highlights three possible outcomes of the current economic crisis.

The report, meant to provide deeper insight and clarity into the next phases of the global economic crisis so that clients can take steps to protect their investments.

It is well put together and provides an excellent view of FRM (Financial Risk Management) and suggests selling off the U.S. dollar (a recurring them as of late, but that is another story), buying Government Bonds, and Cherry Picking certain equities and commodities (read buy gold).

They are also predicting a spike in gold prices as high as $6300 or possibly more in the next ten years. Gold today as I write this is over $1100 and climbing.

Since the report is calling for further posible economic collapse I thought I would add it here. The report is below.

Société Générale Worst Case Debt Scenario Fourth Quarter Nov 2009

Disaster Tip of the Week: Backup Your Files

I've been telling people to back up their data for almost fifteen years now, and I wrote about it in one of my first articles The Importance of Data Backups back in 2005. However, I still constantly run into people and businesses that fail to make frequent data backups and see stories in the news about data loss all the time.

The recent Sidekick and Snow Leopard issues that I did a post on recently also show how vulnerable we can be when we do not properly make these data backups.

Manually backing up your data can save you a lot of headaches in the long run, including issues with compliance and regulatory requirements.

Back when I wrote the article above, someone sent me an email stating that when they have a data loss, they just have the chance to do it all over again and do it better. This may be a great outlook to have, but not a very practical or cost effective one.

According to The Cost of Lost Data, a Pepperdine University report updated in 2003 (Pre-Sarbanes-Oxley) Dr. David Smith estimates the average cost of irrecoverably lost data at more than $10,000 per megabyte lost. This does not take into account the value of the lost data which on average is about $3,400.00 per incident.

In addition to backing up your data, I would also recommend making copies of your Vital records, and other business documents essential to your operations (electronically if you can) and store those off-site as well.

You also don't need an expensive solution, even if you are a small business, indivdual, or on a shoestring budget there are still steps you can take to save and backup your data without having to break the bank.

Fore More excellnet Statistics on Data Loss see this whitepaper from HP & Score:   

Impact on U.S. Small Business of Natural & Man-Made Disasters

Rock Slide Shuts Part of Highway 64

A series of rock slides shut down U.S. Highway 64 in Tennessee, and officials are saying it may take up to a week to clear the debris which include rocks as large as some cars.

The route is a major highway in the area and the Tennessee Department of Transportation has set up detours by using I-75 and U.S. Highway 74.

For more information on this or any other TDOT road construction project, or for weather-related road closure information, visit the TDOT Web site's dynamic TDOT SmartWay Information System or travelers in the local area can call 511.

Video of the Second Rock Slide in Tennessee

Events such as these can cause disruptions to your business, make a plan today.