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February 10, 2025

Freeze Drying Started with NASA, Right?

Freeze Drying Started with NASA, Right?

Have you ever wondered how a pouch of dried stroganoff in your emergency kit can last decades? While many associate freeze-dried food with NASA's space program, the first widely commercial freeze-dried product wasn’t a meal—it was coffee. In the 1930s, Nestlé started experimenting with instant coffee using freeze-drying techniques to preserve excess beans, leading to the launch of Nescafé instant coffee in 1938. During WWII, freeze-drying became a critical industrial process for preserving blood plasma and penicillin, ensuring they remained viable for transport to field hospitals for wounded soldiers without refrigeration. This wartime application significantly expanded the use of freeze-drying beyond food and...

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February 04, 2025

Why Business Resiliency Needs to Evolve

Why Business Resiliency Needs to Evolve

There is a saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Nothing could be more accurate when planning to disaster-proof your business! My customer had a ‘bad player’ (hacker) in their systems for about 2 months. They slowly went through their network and started making configuration changes. One of the changes was duplicating the root admin account for their backups. When they initiated the encryption of their systems and demanded a ransom, the response team ignored it and started to recover their data. At the time, I suggested they perform an audit of all their...

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January 28, 2025

Adapting Emergency Plans: When Life or Location Changes

Adapting Emergency Plans: When Life or Location Changes

It had only been a month since the move. Sarah drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, watching the dark clouds roll in and the temperatures dropping fast on her car dash. After twenty years in Florida, the weather alert for an incoming blizzard felt very surreal. Scrambling to brace for several days of forecasted blizzard conditions, their carefully planned hurricane emergency kit and evacuation plans now seemed inadequate. The warnings of white-out conditions and ice storms along with her daughter's concerns on winter driving made Sarah realize their family's preparedness plan needed a serious update for their new life...

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January 21, 2025

Our New Normal: Smarter Living

Our New Normal: Smarter Living

Our grandparents weren't crazy. Having lived through wars, the Depression, and countless hardships, they understood the value of smarter living like a well-stocked pantry and the importance of practical skills. They gardened, canned summer vegetables, saved for rainy days, and kept emergency supplies; not out of fear, but from lived experience. We don't think of them as paranoid. Then came the Y2K stockpilers waiting for a computer code apocalypse, reality TV shows featuring elaborate bug-out plans for extreme scenarios, or militias causing a stir with their conspiracy theories and public exercises. Being prepared became less about wisdom, and more about...

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January 14, 2025

When the Emergency is in your backyard - what's your plan?

When the Emergency is in your backyard - what's your plan?

  Three minutes. That's how long the brain can survive without oxygen. For Laura, those statistics became very real on what started as just another day. It was a typical sunny Saturday afternoon in the neighborhood, with kids racing bikes up and down the sidewalk. Suddenly, Laura heard screaming from next door. She quickly headed that direction and found her neighbor's 8-year-old son Michael, wide eyed, clutching his throat and unable to speak or cough.  His teenage sister was crying and frantically trying to call their mom who was at the grocery store. Laura immediately recognized the signs of choking...

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