If you are new to survival and preparedness it is a great place to get information, make friends and perhaps have a chance at winning some great gear and supplies.

It is unknown at this time how long the Trojan has been in the software, but can be as long as its release three years ago.

According to Symantec "The Trojan still operates whether this device is found or not, so a USB charger doesn't need to be plugged in for the Trojan to be functioning."

US-CERT has issued a Vulnerability Note VU# 154421 with more details. Here is some information from that report:

The installer for the Energizer DUO software places the file UsbCharger.dll in the application's directory and Arucer.dll in the Windows system32 directory.

Arucer.dll is a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access via accepting connections on 7777/tcp.

The movement was tracked by GPS sensors along with analysis from Ohio State scientist Mike Bevis who has been using the system to record crust movements in Chile since 1993.

According to the article other cities also shifted, including Buenos Aires which moved an inch and is located approximately 800 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.

For the full article with illustrations please see refrences below.

Yet during a disaster it is something that becomes very important. Where are you going to go? Is water available to flush? Will you be taking precious potable water for your sanitation purposes? Can you keep it away from your food supplies? What about the smell?

Again, not the most pleasant subject matter, but extremely important since this is something if not done properly can quickly spread disease compounding an already difficult situation.

Another important factor to consider is how many people you have, especially if you are in the workplace or anywhere you have a large number of people. For instance a good rule of thumb is one portable toilet for every seventy-five occupants.

If you are in a location such as your home, or small office and you do not have enough water to both sustain your daily water intake needs and your sanitation needs consider setting up the following type system.

Convert a 5 gallon bucket fitted with toilet lid. Use heavy duty garbage bags and double bag for each use. After using, if available add a chemical agent to both reduce smells and aid in braking down the waste to the bag, and close the bags to avoid spillage. Remove tha bags and place them into either a metal (preferred) garbage can with tight fitting lid or a heavy duty plastic barrel with a tight fitting lid. This will keep the smell levels low, and reduce insect and rodent issues.

Clearly mark the garbage cans human waste so that anyone tasked with removal can readily identify them without having to open the containers.

If you are in a workplace environment, or apartment complex they should as part of their contingency planning have a vendor lined up to bring portable sanitation in, and provide for its removal. This should be done ahead of time so that it makes for fast and easy response from the vendor.

One last thing. Make sure you get all these supplies and vendors lined up ahead of time, otherwise it will be too late if you need them and don't have them if a disaster strikes.

With the release of a book written by Ayatollah Mezbah Yazdi, a senior Iranian theological figure and President Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor in which he wrote: "Iran must independently produce 'the certain special kind of weapon' already in the hands of other countries."

The book was published in 2005 and gives some stunning insights and disclosure into how the Iranian leaders are pursuing nuclear weapons.

If you're still not yet convinced here are some quotes from the book:

"We have to produce the most advanced weapon inside the country, even if our enemies don't like it. There is no reason that they have the right to produce a certain special type of weapon, but that other countries not have that right" (The Islamic Revolution - Surges in Political Changes in History, p. 337).

"In seeking to acquire the [necessary] technology Iran must be patient and not be deterred by economic shortages: Divine, messianic support has been the determining factor in the success of the Iranian regime during the various trying periods which have plagued it since its foundation...We cannot be broken because of temporary difficulties, they will pass, and Muslims must be patient and not be deterred by material or economic shortages, because if they do, it may lead them to be separated from [Islam]."

 For more information on this story please visit ThreatsWatch.org and Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Hayden, also stated that Iran seems "hell-bent" on obtaining the weapon. He goes on to say that this really worries him, and could destabilize the entire region.

Below is a video excerpt of the interview.

Two people were taken to the hospital in allegedly unrelated medical emergencies.

At this time no word on what the substance is, no other details about the event are available.

UPDATE: Substance found at Utah site not Hazardous. No Word as to what the substance was.

We've all heard the stories in the news about a young boy or girl who dials 9-1-1 and saves the life of their parent. Unfortunately most of us think something like this will never happen to us, until it does.

The most important part of this is teaching your kids to call nine-one-one rather than nine-eleven, and teach them when they should call.

Here are some important tips when calling nine-one-one:

• Teach them to call from a house phone (land-line) not a cell phone, unless there is no house phone available.
• Teach them that once they call not to hang up
• Make sure the child knows how to give their name, address, and if possible their phone number.
• Teach them when they might need to call nine-one-one (especially if someone has health issues)
• Teach them they can get police, fire and or an ambulance when they call

If possible have your child practice by unplugging the phone and having the child dial the numbers and the parent acting as the 9-1-1 call operator.

You can also visit this kidshealth.org on How to Use 911

If you have to evacuate quickly due to a disaster or other event you may have a limited amount of time to gather important documents before you have to leave. In addition to limited time, it is also easy to forget something while you are preparing to leave.

While you are fleeing there is a good chance that items may become lost, damaged etc. Having the items stored digitally gives you an advantage of having the information at your finger tips to read off to someone, and in some cases you may have an easier time replacing the documents.

If possible store a digital copy of the document in pdf format and use notepad to enter important information about the documents such as ID numbers, and other important information for each document.

The reason for this is you may not have access to a computer that can easily open the digital document, but you should at least be able to find a computer that will allow you to read the text based documents.

The main idea here is to speed up your ability to replace the documents should you need to do so, and proving it is you will speed the process up a bit.

If you can also include recent and updated photos of each family member in case you become separated.

This point made clear again from the events yesterday morning when a small plane struck a tower that was a single point of failure which carried electricity to the Palo Alto power grid.

The loss of power disrupted roughly 28,000 customers which included, 240 startups and high tech companies such as Facebook headquarters (the Facebook site was unaffected), VMware, and HP. At least Two medical facilities were on back-up generators and had to cancel elective surgeries and re-route emergency patients to other area hospitals.

At least two cell towers were not working, and some land-line services were disrupted, and the areas banks had to activate their contingency plans.

Authorities were asking people not to call 911 regarding the outage, and to reduce water usage.

You can see more on the City of Palo Alto site.

Tesla Motors suffered the worst loss. The three people who died in the plane were employees of the company, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them, their business, and family members who are affected by the loss.

If any good might come from such a tragedy I hope that it makes people aware how vulnerable we are to events such as this, both in our personal lives and from the point of view of business.

AP News Video