–By Nathan Schoenkin–
January 19, 2010
When beginning the development of Business Continuity Plans (BCP) it is important to decide how long each process can be out of operation before causing your company serious damage. If your company manufactures a product, or serves as a call center for technical support, a decision has to be made as to how long your company can maintain itself without completing its essential tasks. The length of time before your company will have suffered irreversible damage to its image and financial stability is known as the …

-Continuity Central-
There seems to be an inevitable trend of business continuity becoming more structured – more technology dependent, more regimented, more compartmentalised.
When talking about ‘people’, BS25999 uses terms like ‘defined responsibilities’, ‘accountability’, ‘authorities’ and ‘competencies’. My concern is that we are forgetting the unpredictable human element of a response to any incident, and starting to think of people as just another resource or dependency. This kind of detached planning – planning in a vacuum – misses a fundamental point: people are highly complex composites, with multi faceted and malleable personalities …

–who.int–
Weekly update
8 January 2010 — As of 3 January 2009, worldwide more than 208 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 12799 deaths.
WHO is actively monitoring the progress of the pandemic through frequent consultations with the WHO Regional Offices and member states and through monitoring of multiple sources of information.
Situation update:
The most active areas of pandemic influenza transmission currently are in parts of central, eastern and southeastern Europe, North Africa, and South Asia.
In Europe, pandemic …

–whitehouse.gov–
Introduction
We are experiencing an unparalleled period of advancement and innovation in the life sciences globally that continues to transform our way of life. Whether augmenting our ability to provide health care and protect the environment, or expanding our capacity for energy and agricultural production towards global sustainability, continued research and development in the life sciences is essential to a brighter future for all people.
The beneficial nature of life science research is reflected in the widespread manner in which it occurs. From cutting-edge academic institutes, to industrial research centers, to …

–December 30, 2009–
–by Eric Holdeman–
Ed Wall recently assumed the role of Wisconsin’s emergency management administrator. State directors come in many shapes, sizes and backgrounds. Wall comes with a law enforcement background. This might suit him well as he integrates emergency management and homeland security within his department.
Wall started his public service career in 1982 while in college in Connecticut working full time as an EMT. As a college senior he was hired at the Meriden, Conn., Police Department. He worked almost four years there as a patrolman, then five as …