About Jared Wade

Jared Wade is a freelance writer and former editor of the Risk Management Monitor and senior editor of Risk Management magazine. You can find more of his writing at JaredWade.com.

Incredible Dog Leads Rescue Workers to Fire

This is just incredible.

A dashcam video from the Alaska State Troopers shows a dog leading them through winding back roads to a blazing fire at his owners’ property.

The video on the troopers’ website shows the German shepherd running to meet the trooper’s vehicle, then racing to the house on Caswell Lakes on April 4.

Troopers say Buddy and his owner, 23-year-old Ben Heinrichs, were in the family workshop when a heater ignited chemicals. Heinrichs told Buddy: “We need to get help.”

The dog eventually found a trooper responding to a call about the fire.

Dogs have been aiding rescue and security work for years and can help in everything from finding survivors to locating bombs. And all this makes me wonder if canines, more so than technology, are the answer for better security in airports and providing an invaluable resource for disaster first responders. (At least the good doggies that study up and pass their tests.)

Technology is great and all, but I’m not sure it will ever be able to do this.

How the National Weather Service Uses Weather Balloons to Predict Disasters

It’s great to see FEMA embracing online video and pumping out so much interesting disaster-related content. As the agency reiterated recently, education and awareness are the keys to preparedness and, these days, there is no easier way to get the message out then with free-to-distribute online media.

Well done, FEMA.

This one is about how the National Weather Service helps predict disasters by using weather balloons. It clearly wasn’t direct by Matin Scorsese, but it is interesting and gives a nice, behind-the-scenes look at how NWS does its job.

SEC Watchdogs Watching Porn, Not Wall Street

SEC porn XXX

According to an internal investigation, 33 SEC employees or contractors have been watching porn on company time and company computers. Not only are these obvious and widespread violations of SEC policy — and hopefully, the policy of every company outside of that specific industry — but the transgressions all occurred at a time when the financial companies that the watchdog was supposed to be watching were, ya know, busy burning down the global economy and all.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had this to say:

“It is nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse … This stunning report should make everyone question the wisdom of moving forward with plans to give regulators like the SEC even more widespread authority. Inexplicably, rather than exercise its existing regulatory enforcement authority, SEC officials were preoccupied with other distractions.”

Exactly how widespread were these “distractions”? In at least two cases, it was certainly impairing regulators’ ability to do their jobs.

A regional office staff accountant tried to access pornographic websites nearly 1,800 times, using her SEC laptop during a two-week period. She also had about 600 pornographic images saved on her laptop hard drive.

Separately, a senior attorney at SEC headquarters admitted to downloading pornography up to eight hours a day, according to the investigation.

“In fact, this attorney downloaded so much pornography to his government computer that he exhausted the available space on the computer hard drive and downloaded pornography to CDs or DVDs that he accumulated in boxes in his office,” the inspector general’s report said.

For its part, the SEC issued this response:

“We will not tolerate the transgressions of the very few who bring discredit to their thousands of hardworking colleagues,” he said.

Depending on your moral sensibilities, the news may be worse for what it represents (employees who clearly aren’t fully committed to doing their jobs for 8 hours a day) than for what actually happened.

Either way, not a good look for the agency — both figuratively and literally.

“Bjork” Speaks on Volcanic Ash

Pretty funny stuff from Saturday Night Live this weekend, as they brought on fake Bjork to represent Iceland and share her thoughts on the eruption/disruption with fake Larry King.

Larry King: “Now, let me get this straight. First, Iceland’s economy collapses, and you ruin all the banks in Europe.

buy cymbalta online desiredsmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/cymbalta.html no prescription pharmacy

Now, your volcano erupts, and you ruin all the airports.”
Bjork: “That’s right. We’re a tiny rock that is destroying the world.

buy proscar online desiredsmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/proscar.html no prescription pharmacy

Later…

Larry King: “Now, Bjork, has anything positive come out of this.”
Bjork: “Yes. Iceland is now the world’s number-one exporter of volcanic ash. Previously, our main exports were reindeer bones and giggles.

buy imodium online desiredsmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/imodium.html no prescription pharmacy

We also get an appearance from Sir Richard Branson and lullaby to the volcano from Bjork. Well played, SNL. Almost as good as the time Bjork joined Charles Barkley on Iconoclasts.