Tag: DISASTERTECH

People are constantly incriminating themselves with poorly timed or damaging text messages, but one Iowa county is finally allowing people to get themselves out of trouble with their texting thumbs. According to the AP, the emergency call center located in the county jail in Waterloo, Iowa is the first in the nation to accept texts directed to 911. The responders can even reply to the emergency ...

What's the hottest accessory for your multi-million-dollar mansion? Televisions the size of SUVs are passé, and every one and their mother has a saltwater pool in the backyard -- why not invest in something useful, like a bomb shelter? That's right, they were all the rage during the Cold War, and now, Popular Mechanics reports that the bomb shelter biz is 'booming' once again. There's ...

Microsoft is distracting itself with yet another non-Windows, non-Office product. This time, Microsoft appears to be trying to take on Facebook and Twitter with an alert- and message-oriented social networking tool called Vine. Currently in beta testing in Seattle, Vine is squarely aimed at sharing emergency information and news feeds. A Vine widget sits on your desktop and displays a map of ...

The tragic events that took place in Mumbai last week have catalyzed widespread discussions concerning consumer technology and its evolving role on the world stage. Far from a militarily equipped force, the terrorist group that struck Mumbai last week coordinated the attacks with devices readily available to the public, as the Wired Blog points out. Communicating from their attack boat via ...

What would happen if a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Southern California? We certainly can't think of anything good, and our thoughts are echoed by the findings of a 300-page study from the U.S. Geological Survey, which detailed the likely resulting damage should such a disaster hit along the San Andreas Fault. That inspired the Institute for the Future and the Art Center College of Design to ...

Wouldn't it be nice to have a portable home without the stigma attached to RVs? That's sort of, well, not really, the idea behind this walking house, designed by Danish art collective N55 and MIT engineers. The domicile sits on six hydraulic legs that can move at walking pace over any terrain. The legs are controlled by a computer inside the house, each moves independently and three are always ...

There's a disaster somewhere; homes are burning, tornadoes are spinning, a shooter is on the loose, flooding is rampant -- something like that. Where do you turn? Most would click on the local news and sit through the commercials hoping for an update. Others would turn on the radio and wait for an emergency broadcast to tell them what they need to know. More and more people, however, are turning ...

While slightly less creepy than the idea of GPS-equipped school uniforms, the latest mandate by Montclair State University in New Jersey is bound to ruffle the feathers of some students. The new rule stipulates that studentsmust own and carry school-distributed cell phones with GPS. The idea behind the mandate is that the phones are designed with student safety in mind. If, for example, ...

We're more than a little sick of Verizon's "Can you hear me now?" commercials, but a new report from Consumerist puts such an interesting spin on the company's tag-line that we can't help but report it. It seems Verizon is making an effort to ensure that criminals can hear 911 callers from anywhere within earshot. The company is equipping some of its phones with loud alarms that are triggered ...

We reported yesterday about a few locals using instant status service Twitter to send updates about the Southern California wild fires burning wildly north and east of San Diego. Now it seems Google is getting in on the action, too, by offering up a list of the most popular custom Google Maps that have been created to track the fire. Top of the list is the San Diego County Fires map, provided ...

Southern Californians near San Diego are currently in the midst of a massive and (largely) out of control wildfire destroying houses and displacing many residents. When you're near such a spreading and unpredictable disaster, staying informed is about the most important thing you can do. Some posts made by users of the instant-status-update site Twitter are helping some keep ahead of the flames. ...