When you’re dialling 000, you’re probably not thinking about the technology behind the scenes that relays your call and manages disasters from the small scale to the world shaking. Keeping emergency responses ticking along is a high tech effort these days, as these pictures from inside Queensland’s Emergency Operations Centre show. More »
As if you didn’t have enough to worry about this weekend, Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan is warning of a pending Zombie apocalypse. And she hasn’t even been fired yet! Actually, it’s a pretty good idea. More »
Kyodo News agency and several other Japanese outlets are reporting that crisis engineers now fear a breach in the core vessel of nuclear reactor 3 at Fukushima Daiichi, as radiation levels have skyrocketed. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano just announced that all emergency personnel has been evacuated from the plant because of this new incident and have suspended operations. The explanations come as a new cloud has been spotted rising from the plant. Operators initially said that it may be steam. [Kyodo News and AP]
I’ve seen “extreme weather warning” alerts beep-beep-beep across my TV during a show, but someone playing a video game might not. That’s why NY state officials are intending to also send those Emergency Management Office issued alerts over gaming networks. More »
Intended for nurseries, hospitals and Angelina Jolie, the BabyScatt Evacuation Device is a cart that can safely hold six infants or four toddlers in case of an emergency.
With the press of a button, your life will surely change for the negative.
The Houdini and Houdini Pro are two emergency car tools that improve your chances of not dying when faced with a crashed or sinking car. It’s much like the seatbelt cutters and window shatterers that have been on the market for a while, but also comes with a safety whistle and LED light. The Pro upgrades the seat belt cutter to the big boy status that can get you out of automotive messes that leave you upside down. They’re $US25 and $US40 respectively. Until the days when your kung fu training enables you to punch out a window with your fist and clip your seatbelt with “scissor fingers”, we’d go with these. [Houdini Tool via Gear Diary]
This pocket-sized mobile charger from Brando not only juices the most common mobile devices on the market–including all iPhone and iPods, any mobile phone by a major company, and handheld gaming consoles–it also acts as an emergency torch if you suddenly find yourself in the dark. The light will last about 5 hours and is charged via USB. If you think you’re headed toward a blackout of some sort in the future, pick one up from Brando’s store for $US32 (with free shipping this holiday season). [Brando]
The days of being asked whether some dodgy looking stranger can use my mobile to send a text message because they’ve run out of credit are finally numbered. Optus has today announced their emergency credit service, which will let their prepaid customers borrow $3 worth of credit by texting ‘IOU’ to 468. The money will automatically be deducted from their account the next time they recharge their account. This is an awesome service, if only because it means I don’t have to fear for my life the next time I tell that massive bogan wanting my phone, “no”.
You know how it is: you’re camping in the wild, and your iPhone suddenly runs out of juice, just as you get bored stiff with the music selection you’ve got aboard it. Previously you’d've had to carry a bunch of stuff around to sort this out, but Macally’s PowerLink has come to the rescue. With USB plug on one end and 30-pin iPod connector on the other, it acts as a sync cable, but has a battery inside to give you a squirt of extra power if you’re in a pinch. It also packs a 2GB flash drive, but you’ll need to get mp3′s off that via iTunes, sadly. No info on how long the battery lasts, but as a 3-in-1 gizmo it’s pretty useful. Out “soon” for US$49.99. [OhGizmo]
