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Opinion: Obama Pulls a Reagan on Missile Defense
Editorial page editor Paul Gigot on the Obama administration's reversal on missile defense. Photo: Associated Press
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... welcome to Opinion Journal I'm Mary Kissel ... the Republican National Committee issued a scathing analysis of the party's electoral failures today ... you were to dissect that document shortly but first week I editorial page editor Paul GBO here ... to talk about another big news event it did not get that much attention ... the Obama administration's you turn on ... missile defense and Paul ... gotta love it when the administration trucks big news on a Friday ... of more than on ... the upgrade for us journalists on what provokes this a change of heart on the missile defense ... well I think that the recognition that ... there's a growing threat from high CPMC nuclear tipped perhaps from ... from the likes of Iran ... and North Korea ... and down to how we have to dress that percentage increase in not an immediate to the whole plant ... but to ... move many analysts believe that North Korean missiles can already target Alaska ... and why he ... is only a matter of time before ... it looks like they will have ... the ability to put nuclear weapons on those missiles ... Amma for too long it will be able to go one better Continental so we have to meet the press so it's it's not just the west coast of the nine states and also our allies in Asia Pacific ... Japan ... and Australia which is very very far south also within ... the range here so defense Secretary Cable says he's installing ... fourteen additional ground based missile interceptors in Fort Greeley ... on and on the Buffy Alaskan and the ... California site will be next between the two is how we should be doing here or is there more we do know my type of pay cash ... I mean this administration basically stopped those deployments in two thousand I remember these two sites in California Alaska were developed under the Bush administration ... Obama came in and said well that's it we don't need any more he's never been a plan to add on ... the additional missiles that additional interceptors and a plan to deploy a third site isn't in your ... and he discovered that ... I am done as well as the behest of content ... well it was part of the negotiation with good we do the prudent didn't like those sites ... others are radar site and an interceptor site ... Seoul based ... got rid of those and did that led the way to the arms control deal led to negotiate with with Putin's part of the reset of relations with Russia ... aam but yes there's more we could do I'm happy to talk about one more week ... of school and cutting back so that the Reagan era and Star Wars for space based interceptors War ... II you don't like that that you when you're the technologies that we can deploy here to protect the lexical well there are some missile defenses theater missile defenses that are based on Aegis cruisers we've got some in the Northern Pacific I mean the northwest Pacific and we got some and I think we've got one in the eastern med to Japan a godsend to Japan so that and and that's ... he won a layered defense that's what we can use it the first layer doesn't get a second third can ... I think we need do more and boost phase is that we get missiles not while they're ... coming down ... kind of a last ... ditch effort ... the weather going on ... aam we should do more on space technology ... but I think fundamentally we also need a third site in East and East Coast ... and asked for block against of potential strike from Iran to ... the site in Europe was designed supposed to be back on a protection ... but now the missed ration also announced on Friday it's not that it's not good deal ... it's not going to deploy that ... defense against inter continental ballistic missiles ... to well past twenty fourteen we need a bigger effort in an earlier effort ... on the East Coast is the one hand I can until I think the yellow where we're sitting in your no not yet but it's developing and it has I forget the exact range but do they have their missile ... ranges include value up much of Europe ... I and I think it's gonna grow over time and of course they want to get the ability to strike United States they would love nothing better ... than to be able to say ... you want to stop us from invading this or that country ... your own capital cities are up ... are at risk okay well at least a positive development ... at the White House wants to talk about


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Notes from a Biographer
The Late, Great Theodora KeoghBy Joan Schenkar
For the last fifteen or sixteen years I've been making portraits of people (in rich, resonant, analog sound) with an old cassette recorder: spoken-word portraits.
In my library in Paris are hundreds of magnetic tapes stacked in their fragile, transparent cases. Each tape carries the specific testimony of a single person who has lent time, presence, and a few vibrantly unreliable anecdotes to my experiments in biography.
Like Ortega y Gasset's definition of culture—culture is what remains after you'd forgotten everything you've ever read—these tapes are an archive of minds and memories reduced to their absolute essences. Every one of them is worth a thousand photographs to me.
Which is why I'm kicking myself that I never recorded the voice of my wonderful friend, the late, great Theodora Roosevelt Keogh. Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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Cesar arrives at Dodgers Stadium with his family, all ready for the big day ahead.
The soft crack of a home run ball being blasted over the ballpark walls, the smell of freshly cut grass carried on a late-summer's breeze, and the calls of vendors yelling, "Hot dogs! Cracker Jack, here!" These are the senses and sounds of baseball; the exact recipe for a sensory concoction capable of making any day a special one loaded with memories.
Today, Cesar celebrates the Los Angeles Dodgers' 9-2 victory over the San Diego Padres with his family. To some, baseball is only a game, but to a family like Cesar's, baseball is a way of life.
Wearing his prized Hanley Ramirez jersey, Cesar arrives at Dodgers Stadium with his family, all ready for the big day ahead. Dodger staff members greet them with smiles and hats, but like true Dodgers fans, the whole family has come with their own hats and excitement.
As they make their way to the field through the stadium, Cesar passes the trophy case that holds the achievements of his many heroes. He gasps in awe as the fact begins to set in that he will soon meet the very men he watches so intently on television every day. Most days, it is the Dodgers that give Cesar strength and joy. But little does Cesar know, today, it is he who will serve as the source of inspiration for an amazing Dodgers triumph.
When they pass through the final tunnel, the sunlight becomes visible and Cesar is on the very field that he has dreamed of seeing in person his whole life. The Dodgers are taking batting practice, and as this begins to end, Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez walk over to greet Cesar and his family. They autograph hats and jerseys for everyone and talk baseball with Cesar. Puig even signs the bat he used moments before in batting practice, and hands it to Cesar.
Cesar must have been Puig's good luck charm because that very night he had four hits and two stolen bases! But Cesar's magic did not stop there. Adrian Gonzalez went on to hit two home runs that night after meeting with Cesar and shaking his hand. The Dodgers may want to consider keeping Cesar close to the dugout at every home game.
This story makes me feel
Joseph B.
What a great story. God Bless Cesar and his family.
April 08, 2014 - 1:27 PM
Roman, Melissa, Jeffrey, Ben, John and Duncan
I wish to go to the MLB All-Star Game
I wish to have a baseball field in my backyard
I wish to meet Albert Pujols
Stay in Touch!
Sign up to receive email from Make-A-Wish.


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It was in an airless room, in the bowels of the Bernabéu, that we learned a little more about the young guy with the sloping shoulders and Tintin haircut who had picked his moment well to turn down the volume on his critics.
"In Spanish we call it cresta cabeza," Eric Steele, the goalkeeping coach who has taken almost paternal care of David de Gea at Manchester United, explained. It means, literally, quiff-head. "Any criticism goes off that quiff. That is the great thing about him. He's able to say: 'Right, fine.' He might have dark moments but he keeps them away from the training ground. If he is ever hurt, he doesn't show it."
Steele can pass off a little Spanish because he has been learning the language to help the lines of communication. De Gea's English is evidently improving, too, on the back of his twice-weekly lessons. On Tuesday, sitting beside Sir Alex Ferguson in a news conference in Madrid, he had wanted to show it off. "He was disappointed he got only two questions," Steele disclosed. "He was ready to answer some in English."
It is a brave man who is willing to try a new language in front of the world's media but, if there is one thing we are coming to learn about De Gea, it is that the 22-year-old is not short of courage.
There have been lapses, as might be expected of a goalkeeper his age, and it is a brutally two-faced media when the people stampeding to bury him a few weeks ago are now trampling each other out of the way to lavish him with praise.
Steele has said himself that De Gea was "slightly disappointed" with his first season in Manchester but perhaps now it is clearer why Ferguson, a manager who has described a goalkeeper's best attributes as maturity and experience, was prepared to replace Edwin van der Sar with someone half the Dutchman's age.
It was, Steele admitted, a calculated gamble. Van der Sar was 34 when he made his United debut and nearly 40 when he left. Peter Schmeichel was 27 when he signed. Fabien Barthez was 29 and Tim Howard 24. De Gea was 20 when he arrived in Manchester from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £18.9m. "The manager missed out on Petr Cech when he was younger and he didn't want to do that again. Joe Hart was the other one. The manager just said if this guy is as good as we think and we have scouted him strongly, then we don't want to miss out on him like we did with Petr Cech."
It has been a difficult journey at times. "You bring a boy into the Premier League at 20," Steele said. "It's not easy. He's learning in the toughest environment in the world. But the one thing he has is fantastic inner strength. We teach him that the calmest man on the field has to be the goalkeeper. And one of his great strengths is his calmness.
"There have been dark moments but he has his family close to him. He doesn't read the press. All the other mediums are there, which he knows about. But everything that has been going on around him for the last four or five months … trust me, he's very mature for his age. He's had to be because you're not just replacing a goalkeeper in Edwin, you're replacing a legend.
"It's not just about the shot-stopping. There's more to it. Put it this way, if you think about what David has been through, he has to have inner strength. He has dealt with it. And he's such a likable lad. He hasn't come in swearing and squeaking. He's just got on with his job."
What a job he did, too, against José Mourinho's team. As Steele put it: "He was born in Madrid, played for the enemy. There were all these different pressures on him – but you wouldn't have known."
De Gea had left the Bernabéu saying merely that he was "very happy" with his performance. Ferguson had described him as "superb", making "three or four top saves" and sparing United a potential ordeal with that slight yet decisive touch, at full-length, to turn Fábio Coentrão's shot against a post early on.
Steele blew out his cheeks in admiration. "That was the one. If we go one-nil down to Real Madrid after five minutes at the Bernabéu, that makes things a lot harder. He saw it late – one of their boys might have been offside in front of him – but he got a finger to it. Some [goalkeepers] may have had the anticipation. David also had the speed of the first-step movement and that great long reach to get enough on it. That's the fine line for a goalkeeper. That's why a goalkeeper can be a hero one moment and zero the next."
The key, of course, is consistency. De Gea will almost certainly slip back again at some point and the scrutiny will not let up, as it never does at a club of United's size.
"It's the variation of the Premier League," Steele continued. "We knew he had to go to places like Stoke, Birmingham, Wolves. That's what he's having to learn: each week is a different challenge. He's still growing physically. He's working hard on that. He'll get stronger physically and that will help."
It helps, too, that De Gea is in a working environment where they shelter their players. Ferguson and his staff have retained their trust in the Spaniard, accepting there will be mistakes, just as there were when Schmeichel, the greatest of them all, first arrived in England.
"We have a staff that closes ranks, stays together," Steele said. "We know what we have. We bring in a lot of young players here. The manager has always done that and, if you're bringing in young players, you have to have confidence in them and let them build and thrive. We just put the shield up. You're there to be shot at but that's fine, you deal with it. And David will be fine. He has always been a goalkeeper. He believes he was born to be a goalkeeper."


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My friend has suggested the following gang sign greeting for all of us bloggers.
Everyone practice - this one you have to WANT!
MAD PROPS to Scott for the BLOG sign, dog! You're one whack boyeeeee! Ahhhhight? Check it out!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
And One For My Homies........
1 comments:
- Christine said...
It looks like that person is managing to flip someone off three times.
- Sun Aug 26, 07:23:00 PM


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BAYOU CORNE, LA (WAFB) - Issues continue to pile on crews working on the growing sinkhole in Assumption Parish.
Texas Brine, the company that owns a failed salt cavern blamed for the sinkhole says it will comply with new orders.
Texas Brine continues clean up Monday, but is limited to skimming as boats will not be allowed in the sinkhole due to the activity of removing hydrocarbons from the cavern. This is for the safety of workers as the removal of the hydrocarbons may cause pressure changes that could affect the sinkhole.
The current size of the sinkhole is just under four acres.
State officials are ordering further testing along with monitoring and removal of natural gas trapped underground.
Residents are still evacuated; they left their homes in early August.
Copyright 2012 WAFB. All rights reserved.


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The Koch brothers are going rogue.
For years the political network funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch funded politicians on the right, laying the foundation for the libertarian causes the two support. Their support has gone almost exclusively to Republican candidates, with rare exception.
But in the era of Trump, what it means to be on the "right" is changing, and the Koch network's tactics are changing to reflect new realities.
For the first time, the LIBRE Initiative — the Hispanic outreach arm of the Koch network — is putting money behind efforts to praise Democrats on the federal level, and doing so with control of Congress on the line in the midterm elections.
"This stands out. People when they talk about the Koch network ... they point at areas like tax reform, where we've worked very closely with Republican members," said Wadi Gaitan, a spokesman for the LIBRE Initiative. "Here on this issue, we have Democrats where we want to make sure that their constituents are aware that they are working on a permanent solution for DREAMers and on border security. So it certainly is a unique effort."
It's a novel approach for a network that has made a name for itself for funding causes on the right — and has only very sparsely praised anyone in the Democratic Party.
But the Republican Party under the Trump administration has not moved closer to the libertarian philosophy favored by the Kochs: The White House has pursued foreign tariffs, taken a hard line on immigration, and approved a massive spending bill that would increase the deficit.
As the Republican Party moves further away from the Kochs' ideals, it appears that their network has begun investing in bipartisan efforts that unite members of both parties.
In recent years the Koch network has pursued issues such as criminal justice reform, letting terminally ill patients try experimental medical interventions, and protecting DREAMers — immigrants in the U.S. who were brought to the country as children — which draws interest from both sides of the aisle.
"Even when Congress agrees that action is required, members tend to focus on petty differences rather than getting the job done," James Davis, a senior official in the Koch network, wrote in a recent op-ed. "Our fervent hope is that even isolated agreements won't just advance good policy but will also help tear down the walls of mistrust and bitterness that have degraded our politics and turned Americans against one another."
The LIBRE Initiative's new effort takes place within that context. They will send mailers to more than 100,000 homes, thanking Democrats and Republicans for their work on a legislative fix for DREAMers.
Democratic Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, as well as Democratic Reps. Raul Ruiz and Pete Aguilar of California will be the recipients of this political ad push, as will Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. Luján is the chairman of House Democrats' campaign committee.
Republicans still make up more than half of the beneficiaries of this ad blitz — six GOP House members and three GOP Senate lawmakers will get kudos from the Koch network. They have already pledged to spend nearly $400 million in 2017-2018 to back the Koch Network's policy goals in various states and the federal level, including the free market policy gains achieved by the Republican-controlled Congress.
"Thank you Sen. Coons for supporting a permanent solution for Dreamers," one mailer reads. "More than 90% of Americans want protection for the Dreamers."
The LIBRE Initiative declined to say precisely how much it would be spending on this effort, except to note that it was part of a larger seven-figure project on finding a fix for DREAMers. This project includes television and digital advertisements, congressional advocacy, grass-roots mobilization and educational programs.
"In order to get this through the House and Senate, it is important for Democrats to be at the table ... for us, it's how do we achieve the goal?" Gaitan said. "And what we said is we're willing to work with whoever to make sure that we're getting good policy through Congress."
The Koch brothers are billionaire libertarians who have spent massive amounts of money to support Republican candidates and causes over the years, pushing a pro-business, small-government agenda.
Now the Koch brothers are making a push to praise some Democrats in this midterm year, as well. It's part of their support of a legislative solution for DREAMers. These are immigrants to this country who arrived as children illegally.
GREENE: Let's bring in NPR political reporter Tim Mak with some reporting he's done on this. Hi, Tim.
TIM MAK, BYLINE: Hey there.
GREENE: OK. So what are the Koch brothers up to? What is their political network doing right now?
MAK: So I think you put your finger on it earlier. The Koch brothers are libertarians. They're not conservatives. So they clash with the president in a number of ways, especially the direction of the Republican Party. So where the president wants tariffs, they want free trade. Where the president wants a hard line on immigration, they want a fix for dreamers. Where the president has decided to sign a spending bill that would increase the deficit, the Koch brothers have really opposed that from the start. So what are they doing now? The Hispanic outreach arm of the Koch network is doing something they've never done before, and that is to spend money praising Democrats at the federal level who they've worked with on a solution, on a legislative solution, for these DREAMers.
GREENE: Who exactly are they praising? Which Democrats have they chosen to single-out here?
MAK: So they're going to send out about more than a hundred-thousand mailers to various people in the districts of five Democrats. We've got Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. We've got Democratic Congressmen Pete Aguilar and Raul Ruiz of California and Democrats Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico. Now, it's notable that one of these folks is the chairman of the House Democratic campaign arm in a midterm year. We also want to note that there are nine Republican lawmakers. So they're not going all in with Democrats. It's just notable that this is one of the first times they're actually spending money to praise Democrats.
GREENE: I mean, being someone who's covered the Koch brothers and followed their influence over the years, I mean they're so known for Republican loyalty, right? I mean, even though you said they're not necessarily conservative, you have Democrats who will bring them up all the time as some evil force. I mean, is this really a moment where we can say, wow, the Trump era has really changed the political landscape?
MAK: The Republican Party really does appear to be moving further away, not closer, to the philosophies that the Koch brothers have espoused for a really long time. And I think one thing that's changing is not what the Koch brothers believe. That's remained pretty consistent. But they're changing their tactics, right, to reflect the nature of the Republican Party and where it's going. So they're trying to emphasize the bipartisan efforts they're engaging in that's consistent with their philosophy. So they're working on things like a second chance for felons as part of their efforts on criminal justice reform. They're working on this immigration reform issue. They're working on legislation that would let terminally ill patients try experimental medicines and medical procedures. Still, we have to conclude that they have a lot still in common with the Republican Party. They're still going to be spending big in the midterms to help Republicans keep Congress. That's a priority for them. They're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. And, let's not forget, they were a big fan of the tax cuts that were supported exclusively by Republicans in the House and Senate, and they're going to be using that as a central message in their midterm push over the next six months.
GREENE: Interesting background on the Koch brothers. NPR's Tim Mak. Thanks a lot.
MAK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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The health worker shortage in Africa: are enough physicians and nurses being trained?
Pénurie de personnel de santé en Afrique: forme-t-on assez de médecins et d'infirmières?
Escasez de personal sanitario en África: ¿se está formando a suficientes médicos y enfermeras?
Yohannes KinfuI, * ; Mario R Dal PozII; Hugo MercerII; David B EvansIII
ISchool of Population Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld., Australia
IIDepartment of Human Resources for Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
IIIDepartment of Health Financing, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
OBJECTIVE: To estimate systematically the inflow and outflow of health workers in Africa and examine whether current levels of pre-service training in the region suffice to address this serious problem, taking into account population increases and attrition of health workers due to premature death, retirement, resignation and dismissal.
METHODS: Data on the current numbers and types of health workers and outputs from training programmes are from the 2005 WHO health workforce and training institutions' surveys. Supplementary information on population estimates and mortality is from the United Nations Population Division and WHO databases, respectively, and information on worker attrition was obtained from the published literature. Because of shortages of data in some settings, the study was restricted to 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
FINDINGS: Our results suggest that the health workforce shortage in Africa is even more critical than previously estimated. In 10 of the 12 countries studied, current pre-service training is insufficient to maintain the existing density of health workers once all causes of attrition are taken into account. Even if attrition were limited to involuntary factors such as premature mortality, with current workforce training patterns it would take 36 years for physicians and 29 years for nurses and midwives to reach WHO's recent target of 2.28 professionals per 1000 population for the countries taken as a whole - and some countries would never reach it.
CONCLUSION: Pre-service training needs to be expanded as well as combined with other measures to increase health worker inflow and reduce the rate of outflow.
OBJECTIF: Estimer de manière systématique les flux entrants et sortants de personnel médical en Afrique et déterminer si les effectifs actuellement formés dans la région avant l'entrée en activité suffisent pour répondre à ce grave problème, compte tenu de la croissance démographique et de l'attrition de la main-d'uvre résultant des décès prématurés, des départs à la retraite, des démissions et des licenciements.
MÉTHODES: Les données sur les effectifs actuels du personnel médical, les différents types de personnels de santé et les effectifs sortant des programmes de formation proviennent de l'enquête de 2005 de l'OMS sur la main d'uvre au service de la santé publique et les établissements de formation. Des estimations démographiques et des données de mortalité supplémentaires ont été fournies respectivement par la Division de la population des Nations Unies et par les bases de données de l'OMS et des informations sur l'attrition de la main d'uvre ont été tirées de la littérature publiée. En raison du manque de données pour certains pays, l'étude n'a porté que sur 12 pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne.
RÉSULTATS: Les résultats obtenus laissent à penser que la pénurie de personnel de santé en Afrique est encore plus grave qu'on ne l'estimait auparavant. Dans 10 des 12 pays étudiés, les effectifs actuellement formés avant leur entrée en activité sont insuffisants pour maintenir la densité d'agents de santé existante une fois toutes les causes d'attrition prises en compte. Même si cette attrition n'était due qu'à des facteurs involontaires comme la mortalité prématurée, il faudrait, avec le rythme actuel de formation de la main d'uvre, 36 ans dans le cas des médecins et 29 ans dans le cas des infirmières et des sages-femmes, pour atteindre l'objectif récemment fixé par l'OMS de 2,28 professionnels de santé pour 1000 habitants pour l'ensemble de ces pays - dont certains sont dans l'incapacité de réaliser un jour cet objectif.
CONCLUSION: Il faut développer les formations avant l'entrée en activité et mettre en uvre parallèlement d'autres mesures pour accroître le flux entrant de main d'uvre et réduire le taux de départ.
OBJETIVO: Estimar sistemáticamente el ritmo de incorporación y abandono en puestos de trabajadores sanitarios en África y determinar si el nivel actual de formación previa al empleo en la región es suficiente para afrontar ese grave problema, teniendo en cuenta el aumento de la población y la disminución natural de trabajadores sanitarios por muerte prematura, jubilación, dimisión y despido.
MÉTODOS: Los datos sobre el número actual y el tipo de trabajadores sanitarios y la cantidad de personas capacitadas en los programas de formación proceden de las encuestas de 2005 de la OMS sobre el personal sanitario y las instituciones de formación. La información complementaria sobre las estimaciones de población y la mortalidad procede de las bases de datos de la División de Población de las Naciones Unidas y de la OMS, respectivamente, y la información sobre la disminución natural de los trabajadores se extrajo de diversas publicaciones. Debido a la falta de datos en algunos entornos, el estudio se limitó a 12 países del África subsahariana.
RESULTADOS: Nuestros resultados llevan a pensar que la escasez de personal sanitario en África es aún más grave de lo que se creía hasta ahora. En 10 de los 12 países estudiados, la formación previa al empleo es hoy día insuficiente para mantener la actual densidad de trabajadores sanitarios una vez consideradas todas las causas de disminución natural. Incluso si esa disminución se debiera sólo a factores involuntarios, como la mortalidad prematura, manteniendo el actual ritmo de formación habrían de transcurrir 36 años en el caso de los médicos y 29 años en el caso de las enfermeras para que pudiera alcanzarse la meta reciente de la OMS de 2,28 profesionales por cada 1000 habitantes para el conjunto de los países, y además algunos países nunca alcanzarían esa cifra.
CONCLUSIÓN: Es necesario expandir la formación previa al servicio y combinarla con otras medidas si se desea incrementar la incorporación de trabajadores sanitarios y reducir la tasa de abandono.
Recently, considerable attention has been focused on the apparent shortage of health workers in countries with the poorest health indicators, and the potential impact of the shortage on countries' ability to fight diseases and provide essential, life-saving interventions.1-3 According to recent WHO estimates, the current workforce in some of the most affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa would need to be scaled up by as much as 140% to attain international health development targets such as those in the Millennium Declaration.4 The problem is so serious that in many instances there is simply not enough human capacity even to absorb, deploy and efficiently use the substantial additional funds that are considered necessary to improve health in these countries.
Health worker shortage in sub-Saharan Africa derives from many causes, including past investment shortfalls in pre-service training, international migration, career changes among health workers, premature retirement, morbidity and premature mortality.5,6 Yet the dynamics of entry into and exit from the health workforce in many of these countries remain poorly understood. This limits the capacity of national governments and their international development partners to design and implement appropriate intervention programmes. In this paper, we fill some of this information gap by providing the first systematic estimates of health worker inflow and outflow in selected sub-Saharan African countries.
For reasons of data availability, our analysis is restricted to two groups of health workers - nurses and midwives combined, and physicians - and to 12 countries for which the relevant data were available.
The analysis required information on the stock of health workers in each country, as well as annual inflows and outflows. Inflows are associated with the number of new workers hired each year, either graduates of training institutions, migrants or people re-entering the workforce. Outflows are caused by premature deaths among health workers, dismissals, resignations (e.g. to migrate or change career) and retirement. Much of this information is not available in many countries, so this study focuses on 12 African countries where information was available on the size, age and sex distribution of the health workforce as well as on graduations from training institutions: Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.
Baseline health worker numbers by age and sex were obtained from a WHO survey of health workers conducted in African countries in 20057. This survey is also the source of the data on health worker training institutions, including the number of trainees by type of worker and year of graduation. We use the number of graduates as the maximum possible level of new domestic graduates hired each year. No data on in-migration of health workers or on the number rejoining the workforce annually were available for any of the countries, though we expect in-migration to be limited to those countries whose health workers are recruited by richer countries.
Information on the outflow of health workers is also difficult to obtain. There are patchy data available on the mobility and mortality of health workers as distinct from the rest of the population, but they are limited in scope and rigour.8,9 Thus, we preferred to use age- and sex-specific mortality rates for the population as a whole, as they are usually of good quality,10 and to assume these rates also applied to health workers. These data were also used to estimate the numbers of health workers retiring each year. In the absence of country-specific information on retirement ages in the public and private sectors, we applied an age of 60 years to all settings on the assumption that all health workers who survive to that age then retire.
Data on out-migration, resignation before retirement age and dismissals were also not available for most of the countries under study. Migration data, for example, are not collected routinely by occupation in either "supplier" or recipient countries and, even when pieces of the puzzle are available, they tend to be either incomplete or of indeterminate time scale.11-13 As a result, for the present analysis we adopted rates obtained from two separate case studies in Mozambique and Zambia that provide time-specific data on spatial and career mobility.14-16 Both studies focused on public sector health workers. In Mozambique, 2.3% of the workforce left service each year due to resignation (including for migration) or dismissal, while in Zambia only 1.5% left. Because we cannot say if these rates are typical of other countries, we report two sets of figures based on the two rates.
Finally, taking into account available information on inflows and outflows, we compared the estimated net growth rates of the health workforce to population growth rates estimated for the respective countries by the United Nations Population Division.17 This allowed us to assess two important outcomes given current trends. The first was whether the net growth rate of the health workforce is faster than that of the population, allowing health worker density to increase over time. The second was the extent to which the workforce would need to grow in each country to attain the minimum density of 2.28 health workers per 1000 population. This was the yardstick developed and reported as being necessary to achieve desired levels of coverage of key health interventions in the World Health Organization's The world health report 2006.1
Table 1 presents the estimates of the density of physicians per 1000 population and the annual inflows and outflows per 1000 physicians currently employed. Rates of inflow (also known as workforce regeneration rates) were obtained by dividing the annual number of medical graduates by the total stock of physicians in each country. This is a useful way to understand the proportion of the current workforce that is being regenerated each year. The rate of outflow includes all causes. As explained, premature mortality and retirement rates are country-specific. Scenario I then adds the rate obtained from the Zambian study to calculate resignations and dismissals, while scenario II uses the higher rates observed in Mozambique. Table 2 reports the same estimates for nurses and midwives.
The results for all 12 countries combined show that, for every 1000 physicians practicing in these countries, 59 medical graduates are produced each year. The rate is slightly higher for nursing and midwifery, at 66 new graduates per 1000 practicing nurses and midwives.
The regional average, however, masks the diverse patterns in the study countries. For instance, in 9 of the 12 (the exceptions are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone) the rate at which new graduates enter the system is actually higher for physicians than for nurses and midwives. Moreover, countries that have a relatively high graduation rate for one type of health worker do not necessarily have a relatively high rate for the other. For example, Côte d'Ivoire has the highest graduation rate for physicians (14%) but ranks only 7th in the regeneration rate for nurses and midwives (2.7%).
Generally, in all countries outflows are slightly lower for nurses and midwives than for physicians because age-specific death rates are typically lower for women than men and the proportion of females is higher among nurses and midwives than among physicians. For the 12 countries as a whole, each year the health sector is expected to lose some 2.4% of its physicians and 2.1% of its nurses and midwives to premature mortality, and about 4-6% of both due to all causes combined.
Although the 12 countries as a whole are training sufficient physicians to replace outflows when inflows and outflows are considered together, this is not the case in at least one of the outflow scenarios for 6 countries. The situation is even worse when it comes to nurses and midwives, with only 3 countries (Ethiopia, Liberia and Sierra Leone) unequivocally training sufficient workers to replace those leaving the workforce.
However, even in the countries where training is above replacement rates, it is not clear that they will soon be in a position to meet current unmet needs or the increasing demands of an expanding population. Table 3 shows current density per 1000 population for physicians, nurses and midwives combined, with the net rates of increase (or decrease) under the two scenarios and the rate of population growth. Only 6 countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone and the United Republic of Tanzania) show net rates of increases under both scenarios. In the others, the absolute numbers of physicians, nurses and midwives seem to be declining. This decline is even more serious when considered alongside the relatively high rates of population growth in most of these countries.
Even among countries with positive net growth rates, only two (Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopia) stand a chance of meeting some of the current unmet demands in the future by virtue of unequivocally having a faster-growing number of health workers than inhabitants. Nonetheless, the rate of health worker increase is much slower than that required to increase the density to the WHO target of 2.28 health workers per 1000 population in a relatively short time. The column on the right shows the rate of health workforce growth required for each country for the target to be achieved by 2015, the year set for the achievement of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Not even these 2 countries are expanding health worker supply fast enough to achieve this aim.
Previous work on health workers in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on the numbers available and on the numbers leaving the workforce at a particular point in time.2,5,6 The results have clearly shown that the current number of health workers is insufficient to meet population health needs at that point in time. This study, which was the first to examine whether current pre-service training can improve the situation, took into account population increases and attrition due to premature death among health workers, retirement, resignation and dismissal. Although each of these components requires separate and careful analysis, the larger picture of workforce dynamics emerges only when they are considered together.
Training capacity insufficient
Our analyses suggest that workforce shortages in the countries under study are even more alarming than suggested by the existing literature. Not only are current numbers insufficient to meet health needs but, in at least 6 of the 12 countries, pre-service training is insufficient to maintain absolute numbers even at their current levels. Current rates of training are sufficient to increase health worker densities in the other 6 countries but, in 4 of them, not enough to keep pace with population growth. This will lead to a drop in health worker availability per person in those countries. Even the 2 countries where current rates of training will increase health worker density will not be able to meet the target level of 2.28 physicians, nurses and midwives per 1000 population until well after 2015.
Future direction
Boosting pre-service training is clearly important but is a longer-term solution because putting in place the infrastructure (human as well as physical) that is needed in these countries will take a long time. Hence, a variety of complementary, shorter-term responses must be considered. For instance, shifting some tasks from people requiring longer-term training to those requiring less intensive training will enable more services to be made available in a shorter time.18,19 Aggressive retention policies, such as improving the remuneration and working conditions of health workers, addressing unemployment, using telemedicine, and encouraging short-term in-migration from surplus to deficit countries, may also be possible, perhaps with donor support.20-22 Preventing AIDS will reduce premature mortality among health workers in the longer-term, while providing antiretroviral treatment for health workers who need it will enable them to work longer. The issue of workers resigning to migrate or to change careers is also vitally important, and several international efforts are under way to address this complex issue.23
While these shorter-term options should be considered, it is important not to ignore the more expensive, longerterm issue of pre-service training. Only by addressing all of these facets together can solutions be found to the current health worker crisis in Africa. While considering the policy implications, it is also necessary to be aware of the limitations of the study, the most important of which is the difficulty in obtaining accurate figures for the numbers of health workers in a country. Ours come from a questionnaire sent to WHO country offices. The questionnaires were completed with the help of any official records that were available, including professional registers of members, though these might not be totally accurate or up to date. In addition, estimates of the annual number of graduates from training institutions were sometimes obtained by contacting each of the known institutions. The figures on outflows associated with reasons other than death were taken from two in-depth country studies. Data limitations also prevented us from focusing on other workers besides physicians, nurses and midwives.
We acknowledge, therefore, that the estimates presented in the study might not be exact and highlight the need for more investment in collecting the basic data necessary for informed decision-making. The fact that outflow estimates for dismissal and resignation were derived from two case studies that may not be representative in themselves also calls for caution. However, to address these data problems, we have tried to make the most conservative assumptions possible. For example, we assumed that all graduates from training institutions would immediately enter the workforce. There will be some immediate loss of potential health workers at this stage, so our estimates probably overestimate the ability of current training institutions to replenish supply. It is also important to acknowledge that with current attention being focused on health worker shortages, some of the countries under study may already have scaled up training and taken other steps to alleviate them, and this would not be captured by our figures. It is, therefore, necessary for countries to take appropriate action to promote the collection and analysis of data on entry and exit from the health workforce.
Yohanes Kinfu worked at WHO at the time this research was conducted.
Competing interests: None declared.
1. The world health report 2006: working together for health. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2006.
2. Chen L, Evans T, Anand S, Boufford JI, Brown H, Chowdhury M, et al. Human resources for health: overcoming the crisis. Lancet 2004;364:1984-90. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17482-5 PMID:15567015
3. Narasimhan V, Brown H, Pablos-Mendez A, Adams O, Dussault G, Elzinga G, et al. Responding to the global human resources crisis. Lancet 2004; 363:1469-72. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16108-4 PMID:15121412
4. United Nations Millennium Development Goals [Home page]. Available from: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ [accessed on 23 January 2009] .
5. Zurn P, Dolea C, Stilwell B. Nurse retention and recruitment: developing a motivated workforce [Issue paper 4]. Geneva: International Council of Nurses; 2005. Available from: http://www.icn.ch/global/Issue4Retention.pdf [accessed on 23 January 2009] .
6. Mullan F. The metrics of the physician brain drain. N Engl J Med 2005;353:1810-8. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa050004 PMID:16251537
7. Dal Poz MR, Kinfu Y, Dräger S, Kunjumen T. Counting health workers: definitions, data, methods and global results. [Background paper for World health report 2006: working together for health]. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2006. Available from: http://www.who.int/hrh/documents/en/ [accessed on 23 January 2009] .
8. Buve A, Foaster SD, Mbwill C, Mungo E, Tollenare N, Zeko M. Mortality among female nurses in the face of the AIDS epidemic: a pilot study in Zambia. AIDS 1994;8:396. doi:10.1097/00002030-199403000-00023 PMID:8031526
9. Cohen D. Human capital and the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Geneva: International Labour Organization; 2002.
10. Life tables for WHO Member States. Geneva: World Health Organization. Available from: http://www.who.int/whosis/database/life_tables/life_tables.cfm [accessed on 23 January 2009] .
11. Connell J, Zurn P, Stilwell B, Awases M, Braichet J-M. Sub-Saharan Africa: beyond the health worker migration crisis? Soc Sci Med 2007;64:1876-91. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.12.013 PMID:17316943
12. Clemens MA, Pettersson G. A new database of health professional emigration from Africa. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development; 2006.
13. Ngulube TJ. Impact of HIV/AIDS on human resources for health in Zambia. Lusaka and Brazzaville: Government of Zambia and World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa; 2005.
14. Ferrinho P, Omar C. The human resources for health situation in Mozambique. Washington, DC: The World Bank; 2006 [Africa region human development working papers series, no. 91] .
15. Human resources for health: a synopsis of the current staffing crisis and outline proposals for action. Lusaka: Ministry of Health (Zambia); 2004.
16. Huddart J, Furth R, Lyons JV. The Zambia HIV/AIDS workforce study: preparing for scale-up. Bethesda, MD: University Research Co., LLC; 2004.
17. World population prospects: the 2006 revision. New York, NY: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; 2006. Available from: http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm [accessed on 23 January 2009] .
18. Allen SM, Ciambrone D. Community care for people with disability: Blurring boundaries between formal and informal caregivers. Qual Health Res 2003;13:207-26. doi:10.1177/1049732302239599 PMID:12643029
19. Gilks CF, Crowley S, Ekpini R, Gove S, Perriens J, Souteyrand Y, et al. The WHO public-health approach to antiretroviral treatment against HIV in resource-limited settings. Lancet 2006;368:505-10. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69158-7 PMID:16890837
20. TeleHealth20. national program in support of primary health care, Brazil. 2007. Available from: http://www.telessaudebrasil.org.br [accessed on 23 January 2009] .
21. Vassallo DJ, Swinfen P, Swinfen R, Wootton R. Experience with a low-cost telemedicine system in three developing countries. J Telemed Telecare 2001;7 Suppl 1;56-8. doi:10.1258/1357633011936732 PMID:11576493
22. Scheffler RM, Liu J, Kinfu Y, Dal Poz M. Forecasting the global shortage of physicians: an economic- and needs-based approach. Bull World Health Organ 2008;86:516-523. doi:10.2471/BLT.07.046474 PMID:18670663
23. Clark PF, Stewart JB, Clark DA. The globalization of the labour market for health-care professionals. Int Labour Rev 2006;145:37-46. doi:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2006.tb00009.x
(Submitted: 28 January 2008 - Revised version received: 11 June 2008 - Accepted: 14 July 2008 - Published online: 10 February 2009)
* Correspondence to Yohannes Kinfu (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).


text: Since we are all into gaming how do you guys feel about having a sticky with each weeks gaming deals? I'll start it off (and I know some of you won't believe what I'm going to post). 20% off coupon on any used PS3 games at Gamestop. Expires 7/23/09 http://www.ebgames.com/gs/newnews/fsi/images/EBC3009832.jpg


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Penn State Harrisburg surpasses THON fundraising goal
Penn State Harrisburg surpasses THON fundraising goal
Penn State Harrisburg student volunteers raised $53,186.51 for THON, the Penn State student dance marathon that benefits the Four Diamonds Fund and pediatric cancer patients, families and researchers at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital. Totals were announced Feb. 17 at the conclusion of the 46-hour, no-sitting, no-stopping marathon. The Harrisburg amount eclipsed last year's by some $22,000 and set a new record for the campus, contributing to THON's overall total of a record-breaking $12,374,034.46 raised this year.
[To see a photo slideshow from THON, click here]
Students Joe Sadusky, of Fairless Hills, Bucks County, and Hana Suders, of York Haven, were among the 710 dancers on the floor at the Bryce Jordan Center this past weekend. At times weary, the two persevered, thanks in large part to support from their moralers -- students whose job at THON is to keep up dancer morale -- and to energy boosts that come with THON traditions such as the Saturday Pep Rally, Mail Call (when dancers get cards and letters of encouragement), and the hourly Line Dance, a special song choreographed to a mash-up of the year's most popular music.
These, and timely physical breathers such as a leg massage, foot care or a brief walk around the Jordan Center hallways, help dancers to endure. About 36 hours in, Suders had blisters, had gotten her sore toes wrapped, had rested each foot on an ice pack and finally had both of her feet wrapped. At that point, she said, her feet felt like she had just started. Suders is like most THON participants, motivated simply by the thought of helping children with cancer – "For The Kids" or "FTK," as the THON motto goes.
"My best friend danced last year, and I was by her side the whole time," Suders said. "Just seeing that was an amazing experience, and I knew then I wanted to experience it myself."
Senior Andrew Mather, who last year danced for Penn State Harrisburg and served as the overall co-chair, chose a different role this year. He was the morale chair, coordinating the people and activities designed to keep the dancers going, and helping all of the other committee chairs throughout the year. Though he was reminded that being an organizer can be stressful, at hour 38 he said, "As soon as I see that number (the grand total amount raised, revealed in THON's final hour) though, all of those emotions will be tempered. When I see that number, it will have all been worth it."


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Responding to a Diagnosis
On this Page
Within the Medical Home and the Portal
Although the Medical Home Portal is not designed to help with making a diagnosis, it does offer resources for the steps that come after learning your child's diagnosis. Your child's primary care physician or medical home provider should be the best resource for determining your child's diagnosis. When you have a child whose development is delayed or who has chronic medical problems, not knowing the cause or not having a diagnosis can be frustrating, but once your child has a diagnosis, there will be new emotions to deal with, as well as new roles for parents and other family members.
Reactions to and Coping with Diagnosis: An Overview
The initial period of evaluation for a suspected chronic health care condition is often very difficult for parents and family members. It may take weeks or months of testing and subspecialist evaluations before a diagnosis is made. In some cases, testing does not provide a formal diagnosis. When a diagnosis is made, parents and family members often experience shock and disbelief.
Most physicians make every attempt to deliver sensitive diagnoses in a compassionate manner, but some styles of communication may lead to misunderstanding of a child's condition and increase family stress. Caregivers may misinterpret written materials presented to them. Parents should review information they have read with their physician or specialist before making assumptions regarding a potential complication or prognosis Parents may have questions about how to cope with their child's diagnosis on an emotional level, and sometimes the emotional impact of a child's medical problems can be challenging for parents and family members.
Common Reactions
Though each child's situation is unique and parents' reactions will vary, some common feelings include anger, sadness, disappointment, fear, denial, rejection, guilt, and sometimes even a feeling of complete lack of control. No matter what emotions family members may experience, it's important to know that those reactions are normal.
Depending on their age, children may experience many of these feelings. Remember to acknowledge the importance of self-expression to them and that it is normal to have these feelings.
Each family member may have a different reaction, which is why it's important to be patient and understanding with spouses, siblings, grandparents, and others.
Single parents may find it difficult to wade through the emotions surrounding the diagnosis process alone, but it's important to know that support is available.
Siblings of a child with a chronic or terminal illness often experience much of the same reactions as parents. Siblings have a special bond with one another and when one isn't well, the other(s) may be deeply affected. Siblings may also experience a kind of loss when they realize the expectations they have for life with their sibling will have to give way to new expectations.
Talking about reactions and experiences with support groups or professionals can be very helpful, not only for parents, but also for siblings, and even extended family members. The first step in accepting a diagnosis in the family is the realization that parents and family members are not alone in their experiences. The next step is learning how to cope and thrive.
Coping and Thriving
No matter the reaction you and your family may have to your child's diagnosis, your child is still your child, not just a diagnosis. Never give up hope for your child. While the initial plans you had may change with a diagnosis, that doesn't mean you can't have new plans, dreams, and goals for your son or daughter.
Good mental coping skills may sound simple, but when faced with a tough diagnosis it can be easy to forget these everyday tools, such as using your imagination and looking for the humor in complicated or overwhelming situations. Although life has changed and taken an unexpected direction, there are still positive outcomes to be expected for you and your child. Approach problems head on, and realize that sometimes you may have the answer but, if you don't, it's never a bad idea to seek out help.
For more information, go to Taking Care of Yourself and Your Family
The Relationship between You and Your Child's Primary Care Physician
The role of the primary care physician for a child with special health care needs is exceptional. It is important to establish a working relationship with your child's physician, as he or she will be responsible for providing health care, information on your child's diagnosis and treatments, coordinating the care provided by others, and supporting you as parent and caregiver. Make sure you are comfortable with your child's primary care physician as a medical expert and as someone you can communicate with and trust. Building a Medical Home involves collaboration among parents, physicians, and other care providers on the child's behalf.
It's essential that you take an active role in your child's health care. Ask questions and make it a point to stay informed about your child's condition and treatment options. It is a good idea to ask your child's physician about information you've read concerning the diagnosis, treatments, and other related problems. Even the most committed physician faces difficulties in keeping up with the latest scientific and practical information, especially about conditions that are uncommon. Give your physician time to review material you bring to his or her attention before expecting an in-depth discussion. Your physician and other health care providers should welcome the information you share and be appreciative of your willingness to help them help your child.
Resources for Medical Information
Much information about specific conditions and their care is offered in the Medical Home Portal's "Diagnoses and Conditions" section. Although that section is written primarily for physicians, we hope that families will also take advantage of its information. The menu of the diagnoses for which Modules have been developed can be viewed at Diagnoses & Conditions.
In addition to the Medical Home Portal, the links below can be trusted to offer high quality information on various levels - the first 5 are best for those just beginning to learn about a diagnosis and the last is for those seeking a more extensive understanding of the condition.
MedlinePlus Understanding Medical Words
Tutorial created by the National Library of Medicine to learn about medical words with examples.
MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
From the National Library of Medicine and A.D.A.M.; a comprehensive medical encyclopedia aimed at consumers, with lots of photographs and illustrations
Healthy Children (AAP)
Offers information and advice about child development, health topics, safety and injury prevention, various medical conditions and educational issues, and parenting; American Academy of Pediatrics.
National Organization of Rare Disorders (NORD)
Provides advocacy, education, and other services for people affected by rare diseases.
KidsHealth is the largest and most-visited site on the web, providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. This site offers numerous easy-to-read articles on kids' health, written for parents, teens and kids.
Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD)
GARD provides access to experienced information specialists with current and accurate information - in both English and Spanish. Created in 2002 by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the Office of Rare Diseases Research (ORDR) - two agencies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Genetics in Primary Care Institute (AAP)
Contains health supervision guidelines and other useful resources for the care of children with genetic disorders; American Academy of Pediatrics.
Where to Go from Here
Parents who are equipped with good information about their child's diagnosis and condition are better able to actively participate in the medical home team, ensuring that their child receives the best care possible. The Finding Quality Information page will help in understanding how to find quality information about how to move along with caring for your child with special needs.


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Back to Blogging and a Freebie
Hey guys, it's been a while hasn't it? Without really planning it, I ended up taking a much needed 3 month break from blogging. I guess I just needed some time away! It's been a tough year for me for a lot of reasons and it's also been one of the craziest in terms of doing new things. I had a couple deaths in the family and at the same time I've been working like crazy on CourseCraft. Between family and CourseCraft, I just felt like I had nothing left to give. CourseCraft has been an incredibly exciting project for me and full of learning experiences. Running your own business (as a lot of you know) is full of ups and downs. If what you're working on is from the heart, those downs can be really tough. Everytime you get a rejection or something does pan out, it feels really personal. If your business isn't moving at the pace you think it should be, it can feel like you're a big fat failure sometimes!
I don't have any secret trick for getting rid of those feelings of doubt or a magic potion to give you more energy, I'm just trying to take things one day at a time now. Staying focused on my long term goals helps me a lot. If there's a day where I'm not feeling particularly ambitious, I try to focus on the overall goals for my life. I'm talking dream goals like, eventually upgrading to a bigger house, going on a fancy vacation, being written about in a major news publication, or being able to hire an employee. When I think about those wildest dreams I just know that I have to do at least one thing today that will help me get there. If I can do something every single day to further my progress towards my goals, I know that one day I'll eventually get there. Even if it's been baby steps the whole way!
As a thank you for sticking around (or coming here for the first time!) I created a little free printable. I've been fooling around with patterns lately and while it's not perfect, I think this little mushroom pattern is pretty darn cute! I used it on a card with a little space for a personalized message. Say thanks, happy birthday, thinking of you or anything else. I hope you like it!


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August 14, 2018United States
This article was originally published in Foreign Affairs. In the age of Donald Trump, it often feels as though one individual has the power to chart the United States' course in the world all by …
September 25, 2018Monetary Policy
Improbably, the Federal Reserve is surviving the Trump era with its integrity intact. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chairman since February, is quietly emerging as a skilled Washington operator.
November 15, 2018United States
PDF Version. A review of Michael Beschloss, "Presidents of War" (Crown Books, 2018). *** The U.S. Constitution vests the president with "executive power" and provides that "The President sh…
November 26, 2018United States
In 2018, CFR once again hosted high-level discussions of global affairs, from U.S. election security to the Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry to the artificial intelligence race.
October 25, 2018Iran
At many banks, Nov. 5 will be a scary day. That's when broad U.S. sanctions are set to be re-imposed on Iran, thereby placing new pressure on its struggling economy and increasing the regime's desper…
November 29, 2018Cybersecurity
When the Democratic National Committee realized they had been hacked in April 2016, they turned to experts from a private company: the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Within a day, the company had id…
December 7, 2018Financial Markets
Subjective pricing and a tradition of anonymity make it attractive to money launderers.
February 27, 2019India
Countries that wish for peace must press Pakistan to make better choices and uphold its obligations as a UN member state.
April 30, 2019Trade
U.S. president struggling to squeeze tough deal out of Japan.
July 29, 2019Middle East and North Africa
The United States should stop treating the region as secondary to the rest of the Middle East.


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Episode 206 of The CyberJungle is about 48 minutes long. You can hear it by clicking on the flash player below. You may download the file directly – great for listening on many smartphones. Or, you may go to the listening options page and browse for other ways to hear the show. The interviews start at about the 38:05 mark.
To listen to Episode 206 via the flash player:
RIM caves in. Blackberry maker bows to political pressure and removes the DUI checkpoint app. The app maker says the app will save lives by scaring people out of their cars when they have been drinking. We talk to Joe Scott, the CEO of Phantom Alert.
Our Take on The Week's News
Big Brother crawls up your nose: The state's war on cold medicine continues, driven by the federal effort to curb its use as an ingredient in methamphetamine. Read more about how law enforcement and the drug companies have teamed up to database everyone who purchases decongestants. Read more at the Reasonable Reporter.
Iranian hackers obtain fraudulent HTTPS certificates: How close to a Web security meltdown did we get? Detecting Certificate Authority compromises and web browser collusion. How-to guide for browser changes to block revoked digital certificates.
Have the inmates have taken over the asylum at RIM?
Tales from the Dark Web: This ain't logistics. That shipping alert in your email might have more than a tracking number. How a successful old attack is making a comeback. An excellent, detailed dissection of the attack on the WebRoot blog.


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Lesson 7: Summary of Questions to Determine Learning Outcomes Achievement
- What does it mean to be a ____________ major?
- What should a _____ major know?
- What should a _____ major be able to do?
- What type of attitude and values should a _____ major have?
- What level of knowledge, performance and attitude attainment is acceptable to be able to graduate?
- What types of learning opportunities should be provided to enable students to attain the learning outcomes determined above?
- What assessment methods should be used to determine whether or not students have attained the outcomes established for the program?
"The starting point for understanding a curriculum is often the same place as the starting point for assessment. Faculty begin by agreeing on the overall focus of their academic program and on their goals and objectives (e.g., learning outcomes) for learning. If clear statements of learning [outcomes] do not exist already, faculty must carefully consider their expectations for their graduates. If statements do exist, faculty should review them to ensure they are reasonable and up-to-date." (Palomba & Banta, p. 274)
Center for Teaching Excellence
TLC Building
400 N. Capitol, Suite 324
Lansing, MI 48933
Phone: (517) 483-1680
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Additional contact information
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Monday - Friday: 9 am - 5 pm
To send an APPLEGRAM online,
fill-out the Applegram form.


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|Perl: the Markov chain saw
Re: MOPT-03 - identification, part 1by djantzen (Priest)
|on Dec 27, 2002 at 04:49 UTC ( #222467=note: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
Poor ascii art follows, but I found it helpful to map this out a little bit (pls /msg me if the formatting appears munged):
Scope is created by the abstraction barrier insofar as variables and functions defined within the entity itself are inaccessible without, i.e., a lexical variable within a subroutine is accessible only within that subroutine, not to the caller or to other subroutines called from within that unit of encapsulation.
An identifier or name is bound insofar as it merely points to an entity, whereas a name refers if it points across the abstraction barrier to a specific value or summary of the entity.
To dereference is to pull a value or summary across the abstraction barrier to access it directly (or step across the barrier to it, which I guess is an equivalent metaphor), so my $array_ref = [qw/foo bar/] puts the array itself safely behind the barrier, making $array_ref[0] a violation of encapsulation. Instead, we must say $array_ref->[0] to cross the boundary. Actually, now that I think about this, talking about Perl references muddies the water, doesn't it? Rather, we just mean the use of any variable which results in a taking-hold of the value referenced. So, a better example might just be ordinary string interpolation.
I suppose that means then that a closure is a way of exposing a scoped variable without bringing it across the abstraction barrier.
I'm still confused about what a summary/value is though. Could you provide a concrete example? Also, does object permanence mean "the same entity" in terms of memory location or content? From the discussion, I'm thinking it's the latter. Or maybe that's just the difference between the entity and it's summary?
In any case, great write up; IMHO the best so far!
In Section Meditations


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A health aide at a Tampa elementary school was arrested on felony drug charges Monday night after police officers responding to a burglary at her home found a stash of drugs, cash and drug-dealing paraphernalia, authorities said.
Keila Benitez Casellas, 40, is charged with felony possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
She has been suspended from her job at Crestwood Elementary School.
In a home that Casellas shares with her husband, police reported finding 0.19 ounces of cocaine, 0.13 ounces of marijuana and nearly $4,800 in cash, along with plastic bags and scales.
Her husband, Steven Casellas, 41, was arrested on the same charges.
About 10:15 p.m. Monday, Tampa police officers responded to a report of a burglary in progress at the house at 3023 River Grove Drive, near Robles Cemetery.
No one was home at the time, but police found that someone had broken into the house through a rear window.
While checking inside, officers spotted the evidence in plain view, said police Sgt. Jim Contento.
The couple was arrested about 11 p.m. Monday and was released on bail Tuesday morning.
The Hillsborough County school district suspended Casellas with pay pending further action from the School Board, spokesman Stephen Hegarty said.
Casellas has worked for the district since 1999 and has been at Crestwood since July, he said.
Steven Casellas was convicted of felony cocaine trafficking in 2000 and served about 3-1/2 years in a Tarpon Springs work-release facility, state records said.


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Our world is dynamic and three-dimensional. Understanding the 3D layout of scenes and the motion of objects is crucial for successfully operating in such an environment. I will talk about two lines of recent research in this direction. One is on end-to-end learning of motion and 3D structure: optical flow estimation, binocular and monocular stereo, direct generation of large volumes with convolutional networks. The other is on sensorimotor control in immersive three-dimensional environments, learned from experience or from demonstration.
Biography: Alexey Dosovitskiy received his Specialist (equivalent of MSc) and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics (functional analysis) from Moscow State University in 2009 and 2012 respectively. He spent 2013-2016 as a postdoctoral researcher at the Computer Vision Group of Prof. Thomas Brox at the University of Freiburg in Germany, with research focus on deep learning, specifically unsupervised learning, image generation with neural networks, motion and 3D structure estimation. Since January 2017 Alexey works on deep learning and sensorimotor control at Intel Visual Computing Lab led by Dr. Vladlen Koltun.


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Intel on Thursday released the third generation of its solid-state drive monitoring and management firmware SSD Toolbox 3.0, which offers many of the same tools as previous versions but with a simpler interface.
The SSD Toolbox, which is available on Intel's website , has a simpler graphical user interface (GUI) for Intel 's Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) technology. SMART can perform diagnostic scans of SSDs, providing drive information such as the amount of free capacity and the estimated life remaining. It also has a health scale, illustrating whether the drive is functioning optimally.
In 2009, Intel's first SSD Toolbox release was focused on optimizing the performance of its X25-M consumer-class solid state disk (SSD) drive with the Windows 7 operating system.
Intel's SSD Toolbox 3.0 interface
Like the first iteration, Toolbox 3.0 allows firmware updates to SSDs under Microsoft Windows instead of DOS. The new firmware also uses a simpler GUI and offers a "System Information" icon to help guide users to tech-support troubleshooting.
Toolbox 3.0 can also perform secure erase of a secondary Intel SSD, ensuring all data is cleaned from the drive before it is installed in a secondary system. The utility also allows users to set up automatic TRIM function, which cleans up all data already marked for deletion, putting the capacity back into play.
As with previous versions of the Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox, the free utility provides a system tuner that makes system configuration recommendations for the user's PC for optimal SSD performance. It will detect whether SuperFetch/Prefetch should be disabled and whether ready/boost, defragmenter or Intel's Device Initiated Power Management (DIPM) should be turned off. Since SSDs do not behave like hard disk drives, some of these services, such as disk defragmentation, are designed to make an HDD faster but they aren't needed and can even impede the performance of an SSD.
The Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox also now comes in 11 languages besides English.
Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed . His e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com .
Read more about storage in Computerworld's Storage Topic Center.


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Here come the dog days. Time to get the heck outta town and do as little as possible. This month we found the speaker you'll use to pump up the jams at the beach, the water gun you'll use to cool off, and the headphones you'll listen to on the way there.
For the full list of Gizmodo favorites, head over to the complete Best Gadgets
The Best $200 Headphones
When it comes to $200 pairs of cans, there aren't many that can top the Harman Kardon CLs. Are there better sounding headphones out there? Of course, but they're all likely bigger and bulkier, more expensive, or open-air. The CLs are a near-perfect combination of price, design, portability and sound quality. More »
The Best Gaming PC for $1500 or Less
The Origin Bitfenix Prodigy system small enough to sit unobtrusively on top of your desk, but spacious enough that you should be able to upgrade parts without having to find your Operation tweezers. Powerful gaming performance aside, it's a great PC, too, owing to its SSD. You can't beat this machine for the price. More »
The Best Portable Power Pack
The HyperJuice Plug is the only charger you need. The stalwart brick will power up an iPhone and your iPad simultaneously, and filling them both up without running itself dry. The manufacturer claims it can charge a phone 12 times before it goes dark. In a little over an hour, the Plug zipped the iPhone from 29 percent to a full charge. Meanwhile, it was also nourishing the iPad, which went from 39 percent to max power in an hour and a half. And the HyperJuice still had more power left in it. More »
The Best $100 Bluetooth Speaker
The Soundfreaq Sound Kick is a winner not because it's the most ultra-portable, but because it sounds so darn good. It delivers BASS-that's not something we're used to hearing from a Bluetooth speaker. Awesome, satisfying, music-enhancing bass. Delicious. More »
This Summer's Best Water Gun
The Water Warriors Colossus does super soaking better than Super Soaker because it doesn't try to be some kind of 21st century supertoy. In fact, it looks a lot like the Super Soakers of yore-offensively colored, a big bubble tank in the back, and a pump mechanism up front. It feels a little chintzy, but once you pull the trigger, it's anything but. More »
The Best Cheap Bluetooth Speaker
See ya later Braven 625s. You are too expensive!


text: Soon Santa will take a super long journey, on Christmas Eve, so you can just imagine that he will need all the strength and energy he can get for bringing lots of gifts to kids all over the world! How about cooking him some super tasty, delicious desserts that will instantly fill him up with energy and set him in the right traveling, present-sharing mood? Get the cooking for Santa skills game started and don't leave those moth watering sweets our of your sight!