Brahman Industries announced it has received seed funding of up to $125,000 from Estabrook Ventures, a Waltham, Massachusetts venture fund. Brahman is developing an innovative tsunami and flood shelter system that promises to revolutionize how governments and industries address these natural threats.

The proceeds will be used to advance the development of the final engineering designs and to seek partners worldwide. The company also announced plans to conduct research and development and prototype testing in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“We are very pleased to be able to invest in this venture at this important stage of the company’s development and at this critical time because the world still needs a much better solution for natural disasters,” said Thomas F. Farb, Principal at Estabrook Ventures. “Investing in Brahman Industries is a great opportunity to create significant value, while fostering economic development and positively impacting the world. The potential at hand is quite compelling.”

The STATIM (acronym for Storm, Tornado And Tsunami Interconnected Modules) Shelter consists of an enclosable hull comprised of a series of precast, lightweight concrete modules, similar to very large concrete pipes. Once assembled, it provides a water-tight environment with buoyancy and self-righting capability.

Inside, the shelters are equipped with secure seating for an average of 50 occupants, ventilation, and various options of survival supplies capable of sustaining the occupants during and after a disaster, and until rescue resources can assist. It is the equivalent of an “inland life boat”. This cost-effective technology, capable of being produced in mass, has been issued a U.S. patent, with 14 international patents pending.

A variant of this technology, the STATIM Genset Pod, is being designed to provide for a resilient emergency power generating source capable of surviving the most extreme conditions, including fire and an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Applications for this variant include many critical infrastructure such as communications and nuclear power facilities.

“There are thousands of islands, communities and coastal resorts around the world where topography, proximity faults, remoteness, or lack of vertical evacuation alternatives make them extremely vulnerable to the devastation of such events,” explained Miguel Serrano, CEO of Brahman.

“The STATIM Shelter is a feasible solution for their safety and peace of mind. It is a straight forward approach which already represents a major breakthrough in natural disaster preparedness.”

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rendym/

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Lutheran World Relief is providing emergency water services to families who still have no access to clean drinking water more than a month after a devastating typhoon ripped through the Philippines island of Mindanao, killing 1,257 people and affecting more than a million.

The storm, which hit on December 16 and destroyed more than 14,000 homes, also disrupted water supply in the city of Cagayan de Oro. Repairs to the water supply system are underway, but families in the western part of the city will not have access to piped water until at least the end of January.

“I do not know where to get water now,” said Maryann Lagara, 24, a mother of two in the affected area, who lost her home in the storm. Speaking to an LWR staff member in early January, she reported that without assistance, she would be forced to get water from the nearby river, which is not safe to drink.

Thanks to a $31,500 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, LWR is now delivering water to 230 families in an impoverished area in western Cagayan de Oro through the end of January. Each family will receive 15 liters per person per day for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene, in accordance with Sphere standards, the generally accepted best practices in humanitarian response. Families will also receive jerry cans for water storage and training on how to properly clean and care for the cans.

“These are very poor families, many of whom lost their means of earning a livelihood as the result of the storm, so they have no way to purchase water even if it were readily available,” said Joanne Fairley, LWR’s regional director for Asia and the Middle East. “Thanks to this grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, they will have access to clean water until the city water system is repaired.”

In addition to emergency water delivery, LWR is reaching out to flood-affected communities with emergency cash assistance to buy food, medicine, and other necessities. LWR is also distributing Quilts, Personal Care Kits, and School Kits from its warehouse in Mindanao, as well distributing other critically needed items to flood-affected families.

LWR is also planning a longer-term response that will include cash-for-work programs, provision of clean water, building shelter, and rehabilitating homes for more than 900 families.

Lloyd Smith / Shutterstock.com

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Twitter is an excellent tool for sharing news. It has the power to turn topics viral, which can be very helpful for bringing publicity to a company or Twitter page. It can also bring a lot of traffic to businesses. When topics go viral on Twitter and are creating a buzz, they are known as trending topics.

For those who are not familiar with Twitter trending topics, they are breaking news that people are sharing and commenting on. A “#” may appear in front of the phrase or word, those are called hashtags, which categorize it into a topic that people can converse about it. It is a great way to promote your page.

They are listed on the right side of the Twitter homepage where the timeline appears. It can also be localized, rather than having a list of trending topics worldwide, Twitter allows users to narrow down the topics to local areas, so users can see what is going on in other countries.

Here is a list of examples for some of the trending topics in early 2011:

• #swineflu – for Swine Flu
• Cairo – capital of Egypt
• #prayforjapan – sentiment following the March earthquake and tsunami
• Libia/Libya – site of an ongoing civil war
• Fukushima – Japanese nuclear power plant
• William & Kate – Newly-named Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
• Gadafi – Libyan political leader

Here are some topics relating to pop culture:

• Rebecca Black – pop singer of the song “Friday”
• Femme Fatale – newly-released Britney Spears album
• Charlie Sheen – actor from Two and A Half Men
• #tigerblood – hashtag made popular by Charlie Sheen
• Nate Dogg – rap artist
• Queen Gaga – referring to artist Lady Gaga

Here are a few for the end of the year that highlights some of the key events that took place recently:

• #London Riot- For the riots that happened in London
• #OccupyWallstreet- for what’s taking place in Wallstreet
• #Irene- for Hurrican Irene
• #VMA- For Beyonce’s news about her pregnancy
• #Thingslongerthankimsmarriage- from Kim Kardashian’s news on divorce
• #osamadead, #osamabinladen, #osama- Osama Bin ladens death

And of course, one that got so many reactions:

• #RIPStevejobs, #SteveJobs, #iHeaven, #iSad, #ThankyouSteve- for the passing of Steve Jobs

When Hurricane Irene hit in late August, #Irene became a popular hashtag and received over 1 million tweets that were related to the hurricane. TGDaily said it was a weak storm but a social media superstorm.

Trending topics are excellent way to follow news and keep updated on events. It is also a great way to share thoughts relating to that topic. It can lead to debate or even bring out a project to help others. An example would be the riots that took place in London. After the riots, a #riotcleanup hashtag was started which led to a Twitter page devoted to helping those affected by the riots.

Twitter was the first to report Osama bin Laden’s death, even before President Obama’s broadcast. Country singer Keith Urban tweeted hearing about the death from a credible source and soon after Twitter was receiving over 4000 tweets per second.

Twitter trending topics are very useful for promoting an event or any news in general. It is important to promote your hashtag so users will know the official hashtag for whatever it is that is being promoted and can join  in on the conversation.

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Most often than not you wonder if the very people in whose hand we have left the management and of our countries and world in general are worth the honor. You wonder if those at the helm of affairs are there to serve the people or to fulfill their selfish interest.

I have harbored a pain in me for such a long time but after seeing the lackluster attitude with which our “caring” leaders are attending to the situation in Somalia, I think it is time to speak.

The end of the human race begins the day we fail to see other humans as people worth helping. What is happening in Somalia is a serious world problem the needs serious attention and quick response but unfortunately the very people in whose hand we have entrusted our world do not see it as such.

The horn of Africa has been hit by severe drought affecting Kenya, Ethiopia and especially Somalia. Somalia has been hardest hit by the drought, which is the worst in 60 years, because it is a poor country, trying to work its way out of war since 1991. This has placed 11.3 million people in need of aid. Currently there are 800,000 children at risk of starvation and the drought is not expected to end before October.

Children some as young as a few months old are made to go days without food and sometimes without water too. The death toll is believed to have reached triple figures though there is yet to be an official release — yet our leaders look on with little concern just because they and their families are full. They fail to see the urgency of the situation.

The most disheartening of all is the fact that there is still fighting in the country between the government army, backed by African Union forces, and the Al-Shabab rebels which on Thursday resulted in the death of 25 people and more than 50 wounded in Mogadishu, the capital. Presently, there are about 1.5 million people internally displaced in the country with over 800,000 already in refugee camps in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia.

It is a shame that we all, especially those in a position to help, have turned the bling eye. The people of Somalia did not choose to be born there — neither have they called for a famine. This is an issue that can happen to any country especially those of the third world and the earlier we help the better it will be for us all. We should count every soul that perishes in this famine as a shame to the human race because they die as a result of our inability to interpret their need as an emergency.

With this piece, I am sending an appeal to the world in the name of God to help Somalia if you can. Let us be remembered for posterity not through our inaction but as a people who acted wisely when the hands of time called on us to. Somalia is not only their Somalia but our Somalia too.

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A Taiwanese blogger is under suspicion for conspiring to defraud people by predicting that a natural disaster will hit Taiwan and split the country in two. The self-proclaimed prophet, identifying himself as “Teacher Wang”, has predicted a magnitude-14 earthquake on 11 May and his message has caused panic on the Island. This could be another example of malicious exploitation of the anxiety caused by the high-profiled natural disasters of 2011 – namely Christchurch and Fukushima.

In February, the New Zealand Herald could report the surfacing of several fake emails and websites inciting people to donate money to relief funds. One scam in particular was highly sophisticated, mimicking the Red cross and directing people to a fake website where they could enter their credit card details. Another used the face of a legitimate UK-based charity called Donate4Charity NZ. The fraudulent email asked New Zealanders to accept overseas donations for Christchurch earthquake victims, and to manage a bogus branch of the charity in return for financial compensation.

The same pattern emerged after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami disaster. The security firm Symantec, could by mid-March, report that scammers were appealing for donations to fraudulent charities through a so-called ‘419-style fraud scam’. A “419” scam is a con that tries to persuade its victims to advance funds in hopes of realizing a much larger sum. The name originates from its related section in the Nigerian criminal code. In a company blog post, Samir Patil, a security researcher at Symantec warned: “Within the first few hours of the earthquake and tsunami, Symantec researchers observed more than 50 domains with the names of either ‘Japan tsunami’ or ‘Japan earthquake.’ These domains are either parked, available for sale, or are linked to earthquake sites. Don’t be surprised if you see these domains being used in phishing and spam attacks.”

Virtual criminals were reportedly unusually quick to exploit the disaster. To reporter Gregg Keizer of online magazine Macworld.co.uk, Chet Wisniewski, a security researcher with Sophos explained; “What’s surprising this time is how quickly they picked up on the news. We knew [scams] were coming, but they started appearing in record-breaking time, less than three hours after the earthquake.”

With these instances in mind, the prophecies of the Taiwanese blogger “Teacher Wang” could be another elaborate example of fraudsters, preying on people in the Asia-Pacific region’s fear. Wang advised people to live in containers if they wanted to survive the disaster, but local police are investigating if the blogger is working with a container business to defraud worried citizens. As of May 1, more than 100 cargo containers had been discovered in Nantou county, and were in the process of being fitted with doors, windows and air conditioning, according to the BBC’s correspondent in Taipei.

Despite the fact that Taiwan is in a quake zone, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau has stated to the BBC that there is no basis for the doomsday prediction and that quakes cannot be reliably predicted. A weather bureau spokesman added in the Pretoria News that “Issuing unauthorised forecasts on earthquakes is punishable by a fine of up to Tw$1 million ($35000).” So far, the police have been unable to trace “Teacher Wang” but his message has been deleted from the web.

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