Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods: Unless you’ve got a crystal ball handy, it’s probably going to be tough to predict when a natural disaster is going to strike. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared for when Mother Nature does indeed choose to make a spontaneous, aggressive visit. If you’re a pet owner, taking your four-legged friends into consideration should be an integral part of making an emergency game plot.

Consider the impact of recent disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. More than 250,000 pets, including cats, dogs and fish, were left stranded by this storm and the subsequent flooding by owners who thought they would have returned in a few days but were unable to do so.

It’s a staggering number, and one that should motivate pet parents to reckon ahead. Let’s look at some of the precautions that can be taken in advance, as well as what to do when time is truly nonexistent and spur-of-the-moment decisions must be made.

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There are many different situations that could lead to a survival scenario, and any of them could happen to you. It’s not always the extreme skier that’s gone off course or the trail runner that’s been injured in the middle of the wilderness. Your vacation tour group may have accidentally left you behind. Or maybe your car has simply run out of gas on a desolate stretch of wintery road. The question isn’t whether you could find yourself alone or stranded in a potentially life-threatening situation. It’s whether you’d be equipped to deal with it.

Having a well-stocked emergency kit in your car is a excellent place to start if you’re taking a road trip. If you’re camping or hiking, you’ll want some survival supplies in your pack. The ancient saying holds right — it’s better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it. On the following pages, we’ll walk you through the 10 items that should go in every survival kit.

Getting an education is one of life’s fantastic accomplishments, and, just like many valuable things, it’s not cheap. Before we pick our major and wonder about our dorm roommate’s weird habits, most of us have to reckon about how we (or our parents) will pay for college, and most of us will need some type of financial aid.

Financial aid can come in the form of student loans, grants or scholarships. Some financial aid requires that you pay it back after you end school, while other help doesn’t have to be paid back. Grants or scholarships can be based on financial need, excellent grades or just about anything else. The bottom line is that there are a lot of opportunities out there, and if you find what’s right for you, you can get a fantastic education without having to live on ramen noodles from now until retirement.

Read on for 5 tips for successfully riding the financial aid roller coaster.

• Improved performance during video editing
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• Video monitor zoom and tracker outside the monitor window
• Effects masks: Apply video effects to selected areas
• Optimized memory usage on 64-bit systems
• and much more...

Let’s say it together — autobahn. The harsh German syllables contradict the images the word conjures in the mind of speed freaks the world over. Fueled by on-line videos of turbo-powered Porsches, drivers see themselves pushing 200 miles per hour (321.9 kilometers per hour) on smooth ribbons of highway through the Bavarian heartland. It’s a vision that would warm any racer’s soul and get the secret racing heart of a soccer dad beating just a small quicker.

But it’s only a pipe dream, really. Or at least most of it is, anyway. Instead the autobahn, or Bundesautobahn as it’s known in German, is simply a federal highway system. Most German drivers consider it point A to point B transit, kind of like the U.S. Interstate System without the speed limit.

And that’s the allure, the siren song, the attraction — no speed limit. If your car can top 150 miles per hour (241.4 kilometers per hour), or even 200 miles per hour (321.9 kilometers per hour) or more, then feel free to mash the accelerator and feel the G-force crush you into the seat.

Just make sure you’re on the right autobahn — there are three national systems, after all. And with less than a quarter of the total federal highway system open to unlimited speed, make sure you’re not breaking a law by zooming through a construction zone, an urban area, a convergence or divergence, or exceeding a safe limit as imposed by weather conditions.

The autobahn might be the stuff of dreams, but the reality — where the rubber meets the road, so to speak — is really the stuff of every day.

Keep reading to learn about the allure of the autobahn, as well as why it’s just another road.