Google’s Crisis Response team has a landing page for the Gulf oil spill featuring overlays for Google Maps/Earth. This joins their pages for other recent natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China. Some support ‘crowsourcing’ by allowing people to upload information, data and queries.

Google Crisis Response page for the 2010 Gulf oil spill

“Working with the input of subject matter experts and in conjunction with like-minded organizations and the development community at large, Google Crisis Response facilitates the development and refinement of crisis response technology—with the ultimate goal of helping victims help themselves and helping first responders/relief agencies/governments/citizens help victims.

When a major disaster strikes, the Google Crisis Response team collects fresh high-resolution imagery plus other event-specific data, then publishes this information on a dedicated landing page.

Google Crisis Response Mission

To develop, maintain, and optimize a worldwide, rapid-deployment protocol to speed the dissemination of situational information and increase the efficacy of rescue and humanitarian aid activities in response to quick-onset disasters.

Google Crisis Response will:

• Coordinate with other platforms, organizations and teams
• Build tools to surface near-real-time data
• Support response/relief organizations
• Respond in times of crisis

There doesn’t seem to be a list of these pages online, but here are a few:

• Typhoon Ondoy
• Chile earthquake
• Haiti earthquake
• Qinghai, China
• Gulf oil spill

I was cleaning my laptop today and found an old document that I made last summer before leaving for college. The document was a list of things that I wanted to experience in college. There were quite a couple of interesting things on the list, especially under the dorm cooking section. This section composed of some interesting recipes I gathered from cookbooks or online. I thought it might be fun to share a few for anyone (who is daring enough) to try in case he or she was tired of the same Oreos and Chee crackers at Outtakes and in the mood for some fun creations. These sugary treats are college environment tailored, so they are laziness friendly! Gather the ingredients, cook in the microwave, hit the timer, open the orgo book, and your snack is ready!

Microwave Baked Apples

Ingredients

Apples

Butter or Margarine

Cinnamon

Brown Sugar

*Nuts

*Caramel

1. Core the apples and place them in a deep dish

2. Stuff each apple with Margarine (amount base on personal preference) , a pinch of brown sugar and 1/4 spoon of cinnamon

3. Warp the apples in Saran Wrap, poke few holes to allow heat to escape

4. Microwave for 12 minutes. If the butter has melted, heat for few more minutes. Experiment with the time a little bit because it can vary with the size and number of apples.

Brownie in a Mug

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
dash of salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
1/3 teaspoon vanilla * optional
small handful of chocolate chips *optional

Small handful of Marshmallows*optional

Chopped Nuts* optional

Unsweetened coconut * optional

1. Whisk together dry ingredients in a coffee mug, standard size (11 oz. The size of the dinning hall coffee mugs) with a spoon or a fork.
2. Add oil, water, and vanilla and mix thoroughly–make sure the bottom and the sides are well blended as well.
3. Mix the chocolate chips (or chopped nuts/marshmallow/coconut)  if you prefer.
4. Microwave on high for one to two minutes (check when one minute is up ). The finished product should be soft-ish and chewy like a brownie!
   Cool and enjoy!

courtesy of http://www.squidoo.com/fiveminutebrownie

- Hua