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8:30 AM Tuesday, September 6, 2005: Are you prepared for a disaster? Check the Internet. Disaster has become big business. There are a zillion purveyors of advice and kits. I read a bunch. They try to solve everyone's situation with a generic kit. Everyone is different. This is my thinking:

+ Will you stay home? If so, do you have sufficient supplies if your home has no gas, no electricity, no water and the supermarkets and the roads are closed? You need a generator and gas to power it with. Gas deteriorates with time. To store gas, you need to add a special chemical which you get at your local automotive supply store.
+ Do you have a radio that can be handcranked -- so you can hear news.
+ Will you leaving by car, foot or bicycle? This affects how much you can take.
+ Do you have a second home, a relative or friend you can head for and meet your family at? Is that place stocked?
+ How well are your finances secured? Do you know where all your monies and important documents are? Call it your financial inventory. It's good to have copies of everything in a waterproof bag you can take.

You'll need:
+ Water
+ Food
+ First aid kits, with drugs you take regularly
+ Tools
+ Sanitation stuff
+ Warm clothing and bedding (sleeping bags)
+ Things for family members with special needs, e.g. infants or grandparents
+ A family disaster plan.

I'm not a disaster "freak." I don't plan to hole up in the hills and become Harry the Hermit. Our family has had two mini-disasters: Our house in the country was cut off from the world for several days by a huge snow storm. We had no electricity and no phones. We also had 9/11 in New York City. Today I'll do two things:

+ Buy a waterproof envelope and put my financial inventory in -- along with $2,500 in cash.
+ Buy a couple of simple backpacks and fill them with water, food, first aid stuff and warm clothing. I'll put them somewhere I can grab them fast.

For the Red Cross's Family Disaster Plan, click here.
For FEMA's Family Disaster Supplies Kit, click here.
For Harvard's suggestions, click here.
For kit suggestions from the Montana Disaster and Emergency, click here.
For a long Earthquake and Disaster Preparedness Kit, click here.
For Yahoo! Canada's extensive list, click here.
For some commercially sold kits -- from LifeKit, click here.

Dumb Blackberry. I like my Verizon Blackberry. It's overkill for what I need. But it has its uses. One disadvantage is that it searches the web from Canada. Go to Google, you hit Google Canada. You get to Google America by hitting the link "Go to Google.com" at the bottom of Google Canada.To find that link took a while. It's not in any of anyone's literature.

Perfect Logic
Two blondes were filling up at a gas station and the first blonde says to the second, "I bet these awful gas prices are going to go even higher."
The second blonde replies,"Won't affect me.......I always just put in just $10 worth."

Recent column highlights:
+ US Tennis Open TV Schedule. Click here.
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+ NovaDel Biosciences appeals. Click here.
+ Hana Biosciences appeals. Click here.
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+ Steve Jobs Commencement Address. The text is available: Click here. The full audio is available. Click here.
+ The March of the Penguins, an exquisite movie. Click here.
+ When to sell your stocks. Click here.

Harry Newton

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look mighty interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. That money will help pay Claire's law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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