Necessary Equipment for a Crisis Kit—for Vehicles or Grab Bags

Necessary Equipment for a Crisis Kit—for Vehicles or Grab Bags

You never know when a sudden evacuation may be required. The current political landscape is erratic, and calamities don’t follow a timetable; stores frequently close during occurrences like wildfires or civil unrest. By the start of 2026, the Western United States could experience heightened wildfire threats due to unprecedentedly low snowpack levels, contributing to diminished water availability in spring and summer.

Authorities advise assembling an emergency kit ahead of time to guarantee your family’s security during hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, blizzards, wildfires, or man-made disasters.

Nevertheless, not every disaster is the same. Jonathan Sury from Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness highlights two main scenarios for which families ought to prepare.

At times, a rapid exit with a go bag equipped with essentials like a three-day water reserve, purification tablets or water filters, a quality flashlight, and batteries is crucial, especially during an imminent wildfire. In other situations, such as snowstorms, it may be necessary to remain indoors without water or electricity, hence the need for power banks. Long-term planning is also important for regional wildfires, considering smoke and possible power outages.

“Consider the likelihood of power failures,” stated National Weather Service preparedness lead Charlie Woodrum. “Power may be out for multiple days or an entire week, and water could be limited.” He made these remarks in January, foreseeing a historic winter storm season throughout the United States, which could apply to disasters like earthquakes or fires.

Here’s a guide on how to prepare for a short-term crisis and what supplies to gather. This is not a manual for civil conflict or the end of the world but rather guidance for safely navigating natural disasters such as storms, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires, as well as failures in water or power systems.

Heed the insights from colleague Adrienne So on the significance of connecting with your neighbors for emergency readiness, and WIRED’s Guide to Surviving Extreme Weather, along with its recommendations for sourcing reliable emergency information amidst decreasing federal assistance. Worried about job security? Review WIRED’s guide to a digital go bag for unforeseen employment disruptions.

Update April 2026: I have included tips from University of Oregon wildfire authorities Heidi Huber-Stearns and Amanda Stasiew.

Google Translate now allows you to practice your pronunciation

Google Translate now allows you to practice your pronunciation

Google Translate has reached its 20th anniversary, and in honor of this milestone, the company has introduced a new capability that allows users to practice their pronunciation and articulation of words and phrases in various languages.

Upon translating a word, sentence, or phrase, you can access the “Practice” menu to locate a “Pronounce” button, which provides you with phonetic guidance that you can vocalize to refine your speaking of the translated content.

The application then evaluates your pronunciation and provides feedback, such as “Certain sounds were somewhat ambiguous.” You also have the option to hear the application’s pronunciation of the text.

This feature is being introduced in the U.S. and India, supporting English, Spanish, and Hindi at this time.

This functionality is similar to Duolingo in that it allows users to practice articulating words and phrases.

Last month, the firm launched its live headphone translation feature on iOS and broadened its accessibility on Android devices to Germany, Spain, France, Nigeria, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, Bangladesh, and Thailand.

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Jack Dorsey-supported Vine revival Divine is now available to the public.

Jack Dorsey-supported Vine revival Divine is now available to the public.

A fresh initiative to revive Vine’s six-second looping clips is now accessible for download on the App Store and Google Play. Named Divine, this Vine reimagining provides access to an archive of approximately 500,000 Vine videos, retrieved from a backup of the original platform, and enables creators to share new Vines once more.

Divine received funding from “and Other Stuff,” a nonprofit established in May 2025 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. This nonprofit aims to support innovative open source projects that have the potential to reshape the social media environment. Dorsey’s support for Divine doesn’t categorize him as a conventional investor as he seeks no financial return. Instead, he aims to rectify a previous error made during his tenure as CEO of Twitter: the closure of Vine.

To develop Divine, Evan Henshaw-Plath, an early Twitter team member and participant in “and Other Stuff,” delved into the Vine archive. Henshaw-Plath, known online as “Rabble,” clarified that a significant portion of Vine’s material had been preserved by a community archiving endeavor called the Archive Team.

Image Credits:Divine

These videos had been archived as substantial, 40-50 GB binary files, necessitating Rabble to develop large data scripts to understand the functionality of the files and how to reconstruct them, alongside the user interactions such as views, likes, and comments linked to the original videos.

While not every piece of data could be recovered, significant strides have been achieved. The app initially debuted for testers last November with around 100,000 of Vine’s top videos, then expanded to roughly 300,000 videos just before today’s launch, Rabble informed TechCrunch. Currently, the app features about 500,000 videos from nearly 100,000 original Vine creators as it launches to the public for the first time.

This initiative has garnered interest from various early Vine creators, including Lele Pons, JimmyHere, MightyDuck, and Jack and Jack, among others. (Divine user profiles can be viewed on the web, even if users do not possess the Divine mobile app.)

Image Credits:Divine

Rabble mentioned that the initial strategy was to promptly launch the app after some preliminary testing, but early Vine creators urged the team to postpone.

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“It was actually the Viners who were like ‘no, no — this is far more significant than just nostalgia,” he notes. The users expressed a desire for something akin to Vine that would reset social media and eliminate AI clutter. “They urged us to take our time and ensure we did it right. And that’s exactly what we did.”

The team engaged deeply, revisiting and reworking portions of the code, and concentrating on the app’s layout.

The version of Divine premiering today is a product of those efforts, featuring options like compilation mode, which mirrors how much of today’s youth grew up watching Vines. With this function, users can curate their own video lists to form compilations.

To utilize compilations, users can navigate to a hashtag, like #cats, and a stream of relevant Vine videos will autoplay. Users can halt the stream to engage with the content, such as reposting or liking the videos, or simply relax and enjoy the viewing.

Image Credits:Divine

Another significant element of Divine’s appeal is its exclusion of AI-generated content.

“I resolved to eliminate AI content because I personally dislike encountering it. I dislike the feeling of being deceived,” Rabble expresses. “I find it unsettling that vast quantities of content can be produced rapidly with minimal human involvement or thought.”

To maintain the platform free of such disallowed content, often dubbed “AI slop,” Divine mandates users to either film videos within the app or confirm how uploaded videos were generated using C2PA, an open industry standard that defines the origins and modifications of digital materials.

In addition to restoring Vine, the app aims to promote open protocols — aligning with Rabble’s vision of reclaiming social media from major tech corporations. Divine itself operates on the open social protocol Nostr, and the team is exploring the incorporation of the open source AT Protocol, which fuels Bluesky. Looking ahead, Divine may also integrate with the ActivityPub protocol, which supports alternative social networks like Mastodon and Flipboard, and is integrated into Meta’s Threads.

Divine lacks a conventional revenue model and is established as a public benefit corporation. However, Rabble is optimistic that it could empower digital creators to regain some control over their online identities, which they could monetize through brand collaborations or partnerships, similar to current practices. He also appreciates the Patreon model for supporting creators directly and is contemplating the notion of a Pro account that would offer extra features.

“A lot of us came from Vine, and it marked the start of everything,” remarked OG Viner, Lele Pons, regarding the app’s revival. “An iconic application. It was such a crucial moment in my own journey and in internet culture; it brings me immense joy to see these early classics revived and to have the opportunity to create new ones.”

Divine is available as a complimentary download on the App Store, Google Play, and the Nostr-powered Zapstore. Initially, it will grant access to users on the waitlist and gradually allow others in through the use of invite codes.

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