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It is 2007. It is summer. The sky is blue. The sun is shining again over central florida and you are enjoying one of Orlando's beautiful spa and resorts. The kids have met Mickey and Minnie, Pluto and Donald, Shamus and every character in Universal Studios. You know because you have had to walk every inch of every park. As you nestle in for a much deserved evenings rest you turn on the weather Channel and there before you are the two red flags with those ominous black squares. Hurricane!

Your mind races. What do you do?

You are miles from home. All your worldly possessions are safe but your most precious possession, your family, is here.

Are you prepared? I have a disaster plan for home. You followed the D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. acronym. * You know how to detect.
* You know how to find out who is In charge.
* You know how to be Safe.
* You know how to assess the situation
* You know how to get support.
* You understand the concepts of Triage and Treatment, how to decide what is most important and how to get help if I need it.
But
* You do not know how to Evacuate.
* And you are not part of any Recovery plan here.

You are just a tourist.

At home you are R.E.A.D.Y.
* You know what you Rely on.
* You have Educated yourself and your family.
* You have learned to Appreciate those around you and those who will help you.
* You have Drilled, Drilled and Drilled again.
* But in the end any disaster plan comes down to You and here you are in a strange place far from everything that you need; everything that you rely on; everything that is familiar.

The P.L.A.N. acronym is all you have left. You have to start all over again. You need a new plan. * Take inventory of the people participating, your family. Prepare each person for the disaster. If you have small children, you may need to talk to them about what is happening, and reassure them that everything will be all right.

* If instructed to Leave, when and how will you leave (evacuate)? Where will you go and how will you get there? Will your family or fellow evacuees meet before you leave or when you arrive at your destination? The decision to leave makes communication and your contacts outside the disaster zone critically important. How will you communicate while you evacuate and after you arrive at your destination? What are you going to do if you get separated? Operate on a buddy system; no one should be left alone. When you and your family or business associates become mobile, make sure everyone knows the plan.

* Anticipate plan failures and plan for the what ifs. This is a chance to brainstorm. Make a list of all the possible failures. What if the phone lines go down? What if your basement floods? What if you get caught in traffic? No what if is too extreme to consider. The only possibility that you cant plan for is the one you didnt think of. Once youve brainstormed possible failures, you need to Adapt to each one with an alternate plan. If the phone lines go down, can you use your cell phone? If your basement floods, can you seek shelter with a neighbor or in some other nearby location?

* Make sure you account for all your Needs for seventy-two hours. Be prepared to be self-sufficient during this time. Each one of your family members must have personal identification and photos of all others in your plan, one quart (liter) of drinking water, seventy-two hours of food, seventy-two hours of clothes, two weeks of medications, two weeks of toiletries, a supply of cash (credit/debit cards cant be verified if phone lines go down), a flashlight, a portable radio, batteries, a signal whistle, white/silver duct tape, a first aid kit, prepaid calling card, and a list of emergency phone numbers.

Take heart my traveling friend. As a professional speaker as well as a disaster responder, I travel every week. I can tell you that you are better prepared on the road than you are at home.

first, you are already packed. All those worldly possessions that you could not bring with you are waiting safely at home and all the things that you need to get through a trip whether for pleasure or disaster are already in conveniently packaged in suitcases, backpacks, duffle bags and we hope not a steamer trunk. What you need is right there.

Second, everything else you will need is conveniently located in one place, the nearest pharmacy. Flashlights and radios are easily obtained at any of the local drugstores and even at the local attractions. Stay away from candles. While they are safe at home where you know the environment and you control the environment, in a hotel you might get wet and not from the hurricane but from a sprinkler system. An inexpensive first aid kit is also a quick and easy item to obtain while on the road. Again a simply trip to the pharmacy and you have what you need.

Dont forget water. You might be on your own for as much as 72 hours. Most hotels have water in the room at an obscene price but while you are at the pharmacy or drug store picking up your handcranked radio and flashlight, your toiletries and filling any medications that you may need to have transferred in from back home, do not forget to pick up a liter of water per day per person and then you are ready to go.

pack it all in your suitcase and give up the items that may not be so important. Leave them for the hotel to take care of.

Third, make contact with the hotel. Find out what their disaster plan in. I assure you they have one. they are responsible for you. they no more want the bad press or the liability of someone getting hurt than you want to be that someone who is hurt. Ask them if their staff is trained in Disaster life support, the CPR of disaster response. This training is available throughout the united States. It is offered nationally by high alert, LLC and several major universities. Here in florida, this training is offered by national Disaster life support of florida and several state universities.

Rely on your hotel. they will provide for you. Our central florida hotels provided their guests extraordinary service and comfort during the last two seasons of hurricanes. There is no reason to believe it will be any less so now. In fact every facility is more prepared now than they were two years ago. There was even a major medical convention last year during Hurricane Wilma and the convention went off without a hitch. So will your vacation.

Finally, resist the urge to try to go home. Do not jam the airport full. The airport is the last place you want to try to hunker down through a hurricane. If you can get out and get on, do so. check out by phone after you get home. This way you have a hotel room to come back to. If your hotel checkout is already preplanned and the storm is some distance away, consider leaving for home early, before the travel rush. Whatever you do, dont rent a car and try and drive out of the state of florida. Unfortunately there are only a few major highway exits from our state. We have been credited with the largest traffic jams in world history during the last several years hurricane seasons. Only Hurricane Rita misplaced us from that number one position as houston evacuated 1.2 million people over 48 hours on the highway. If the airport is a bad place to weather a storm, a rental car is worse.

So enjoy your vacation. Stay. see the sites. When the weather turns bad listen to what the officials tell you to do.

We are good at this. Trust in the people that have made the pleasurable part of your trip so great and remember in central florida the sun always shines again. The sky is always blue again and we are always here to welcome you with open arms after the storm.

Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez is the founder and president of the consulting firm high alert, LLC.. He serves on expert panels for pandemic preparedness and healthcare surge planning with Congressional and Cabinet Members. Board certified in multiple specialties, Dr. Ramirez is Founding Chairperson of the american Board of Disaster Medicine and serves the nation as a Senior Physician-Federal medical Officer in the national Disaster medical system. Dr. Ramirez has a new book: You Can Survive Anything, Anywhere, Every Time. His website is http://www.High-Alert.com

Atlantis is often described as paranormal or mythical, but is it really? In two of Plato's great works, the Timaeus and the Critias, Plato describes an Athenian civilization in diaglogue between Critias, Socrates, Timaeus and Hermocrates. (Predating Plato by 9,000 years, or 9,600 BC) Atlantis, according to Critias, was a great Athenian city which, by the hand of mankind, met with cataclysmic destruction. By his (Solon) grandfather's education, Critias retold the story of an Athenian civiliation. Critias claimed that Solon (not only his grandfather, but a Greek traveler and historian from Egypt), stayed and interrelated with great Egyptian priests. The recordings from Solon were then given to Plato by Critias. Because Plato's works are considered historical fact, one can only assume that Atlantis DID indeed exist.

According to Plato's historical literature, Atlantis was an organized , massive military state that at the end of its realm, met with great, natural calamity during the planning stages on an assault on Egypt.

Agriculturally, the Athenian nation was well educated and able to create herbal remedies from plants. Their irrigational skills were very advanced, as they constructed muliple canals to irrigate their plains and farmlands. Due to their superior intelligence, reservoirs and buildings like the Metropolis were constructed, hydraulically-engineered machines and bridges were built, literary pieces and laws were written; and most often, their objects were coated with bronze, copper or gold.

Based on a monarchy and systemized class, the Atlantis civilization also held a valuable status for women. Historically thought to be the greatest of all nations, Atlantis ruled all surrounding land with their emperiorical laws.

Apart from being an advanced civilization, Atlantis (according to Plato), was a massively-sized continent. By Critias' measurements, Atlantis would have been about 3,400 x 2,300 miles in size - this is larger than some, major oceanic basins. Critias accounts that Egyptian priests told of Atlantis being located beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar); this, where the Atlanic Ocean and the Mediteranian Sea intercede one another. Today, some evidence has been provided that denote underwater walls and roads, and a set of islands resembling the shape of Atlantis in the Caribbean Sea. Another possible theory would be that Atlantis could possibly rest on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, (a beneath-ground mountain range); while some researchers believe that Atlantis could be in the Azores, Crete or the Canary Islands.

Unfortunately, (according to the Egyptian priests), Atlantis was continually pounded by catastrophic earthquakes and floods until one day when the whole continent sunk beneath the sea and disappeared. They were also quoted as saying that where Atlantis vanished, became an area in the ocean that was impassable and undiscoverable. The theory behind the sinking of Atlantis was that mankind had become so corrupt, that by their own hands, created their own demise.

In closing, Atlantis brings to mind the biblical stories of Sodom and Noah. It also interrelates with the continental shifts throughout the ages of the earth's history, but could Atlantis really have existed? The evidence, whether circumstantial or philosophical literature, the fact remains that Plato only wrote historical truth. This being said, what message was Plato trying to convey to the future of mankind? To the reader, I conclude this article with a quotation from Critias, from the literature of Plato, "There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes." A thought to ponder.

2003

C. Bailey-Lloyd is a professional writer of poetry books, poetry and informative articles on many subjects. More in-depth biographical information can be found at Somewhere Along the Beaten Path at MySpace.com.

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Feng shui is a term commonly thrown about in popular culture. Here is an introduction to this practical Chinese philosophy.

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese tradition involving the placement and arrangement of space and belongings. The goal is to achieve balance with the environment. The spiritual aspects of feng shui align with spiritual components of Chinese medicine. Ancient Chinese philosophy believed that mankind needed to find balance between the yin (feminine) and the yang (masculine). In Chinese medicine, this means that you find balance in salty and sour or hot and cold. In feng shui, the polarity is also related to finding balance between the spaces of the living (yin) and the spaces of the dead (yang), as well as creating balance between the elements of nature and the movements of man.

Achieving equilibrium through feng shui allows a persons chi, or energy, to flow. While there is a spiritual aspect to feng shui, it is also a practical practice that aligns with the sciences of architecture and engineering. Just like the architect, practioners of feng shui consider concepts of space, astronomy, and weather. Those advanced in the practice of feng shui also consider gravity and geomagnetism.

Boiled down into a practical Western model, feng shui deals with creating spaces that increase energy or inspiration or relaxation, depending on the intended use for the space. For example, your bedroom, designed along feng shui principles would be arranged and decorated to promote peace and relaxation whereas your home office would be designed to increase energy and productivity. In addition, there are some general rules in the Western models of feng shui to promote general well-being and success. An example of this is that people are advised to leave their toilet bowls and bathroom doors closed so their financial energy wont be sucked down the drain.

Also simplified in Western practice is the Bagua. The Bagua is a diagram overlaid on a room or floor plan. It deals with direction, season, function and color. Most Westerners will use this more simplified model: black relates to career/life path; silver/gray relates to helpful people and travel; white relates to creativity and children; pink relates to love and marriage; red relates to fame and reputation; purple relates to prosperity and wealth; green relates to family and foundation; and blue relates to wisdom and knowledge.

Feng shui is an ancient practice but in its modern incarnations it has many schools and conflicting practices. Consumers should be careful that any feng shui consultants they hire are legitimate.

Get more feng shui information at http://www.FengShuiMonk.com .