Facebook is planning a plot on Healthcare.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8sl6MqBeueIsRVKo43l7xiyiulkzso7WNPtrzyUu07lqM5Lel0kJW8ermFM-9lfpLie_1VQqW1E0Ia4Op3qAl0pkJ13Yt8dCIufRNWMG7R-ScGGl6hQN7ptlIPYu-McYU2UXapFS3K0_E/s1600/facebookNewsonhealth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8sl6MqBeueIsRVKo43l7xiyiulkzso7WNPtrzyUu07lqM5Lel0kJW8ermFM-9lfpLie_1VQqW1E0Ia4Op3qAl0pkJ13Yt8dCIufRNWMG7R-ScGGl6hQN7ptlIPYu-McYU2UXapFS3K0_E/s1600/facebookNewsonhealth.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <br />  #Facebook Inc already knows who your friends are and the kind of things that grab your attention. Soon, it could also know the state of your health.<br /> <br /> On the heels of fellow Silicon Valley technology companies Apple Inc and Google Inc, Facebook is plotting its first steps into the fertile field of healthcare, said three people familiar with the matter. The people requested anonymity as the plans are still in development.<br /> <br /> The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles.<br /> <br /> In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, the people said.<br /> <br /> Healthcare has historically been an area of interest for Facebook, but it has taken a backseat to more pressing products.<br /> <br /> Recently, Facebook executives have come to realize that healthcare might work as a tool to increase engagement with the site.<br /> <br /> One catalyst: the unexpected success of Facebook's "organ-donor status initiative," introduced in 2012. The day that Facebook altered profile pages to allow members to specify their organ donor-status, 13,054 people registered to be organ donors online in the United States, a 21 fold increase over the daily average of 616 registrations, according to a June 2013 study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.<br /> <br /> Separately, Facebook product teams noticed that people with chronic ailments such as diabetes would search the social networking site for advice, said one former Facebook insider. In addition, the proliferation of patient networks such as #PatientsLikeMe demonstrate that people are increasingly comfortable sharing symptoms and treatment experiences online.<br /> <br /> Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg may step up his personal involvement in health. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, a pediatric resident at University of California San Francisco, recently donated $5 million to the Ravenswood Health Center in East Palo Alto.<br /> <br /> Any advertising built around the health initiatives would not be as targeted as it could be on television or other media. Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, are prohibited from using Facebook to promote the sale of prescription drugs, in part because of concerns surrounding disclosures.<br /> <br /> PRIVACY CONCERNS<br /> <br /> Privacy, an area where the company has faced considerable criticism over the years, will likely prove a challenge. This week, the company apologized to users for manipulating news feeds for the purposes of research.<br /> <br /> But Facebook may already have a few ideas to alleviate privacy concerns around its health initiatives. The company is considering rolling out its first health application quietly and under a different name, a source said. Market research commissioned by Facebook found that many of its users were unaware that photo-service Instagram is Facebook-owned, the source said.<br /> <br /> Facebook's recent softening of its policy requiring users to go by their real names may also bolster the company's health plans. People with chronic conditions may prefer to use an alias when sharing their health experiences.<br /> <br /> "I could see Facebook doing well with applications for lifestyle and wellness, but really sick patients with conditions like cancer aren't fooling around," said Frank Williams, chief executive of Evolent Health, a company that provides software and services to doctors and health systems.<br /> <br /> People would need anonymity and an assurance that their data and comments wouldn't be shared with their online contacts, advertisers, or pharmaceutical companies, Williams said.<br /> <br /> It remains unclear whether Facebook will moderate or curate the content shared in the support communities, or bring in outside medical experts to provide context.<br /> <br /> Facebook declined to comment on its health care plans.<br /> <img src="https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10384524_665496833564207_6549968401409498540_n.jpg?oh=5c2c4c8aa9ccc3d235155d25d2064ea1&oe=54DB1370" /><br /> <br /> posted by ettefreeguy</div>

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Facebook is planning a plot on Healthcare.

 #Facebook Inc already knows who your friends are and the kind of things that grab your attention. Soon, it could also know the state of your health. On the heels of fellow Silicon Valley technology …

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

The dreaded story behind Syria war refugees

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> <img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10689889_665627810217776_7312435455054818414_n.jpg?oh=664f2173c0ad1cc520f5ef7f642bda8f&oe=54E50113&__gda__=1423807525_0ceb6a1970f17d5ecb0d4296579799c6" /></div> <br /> The al-Hassan family are among more than three million Syrian #refugees<br /> As Syria's civil war has become more difficult and dangerous to report, it has become a story told increasingly through the experiences of the refugees who left their country to save their lives.<br /> The trouble is that in Jordan those Syrian families are joining previous generations of families who have been fleeing wars across the Middle East for the last 70 years.<br /> <br /> So Jordan has welcomed Palestinian, Libyan, Iraqi, Lebanese and Yemeni refugees amongst others, and even has a Somali community in one suburb of the capital, Amman.<br /> <br /> <br /> Many of them have been in camps for years waiting to go home - notably the Palestinians, who fled the fighting that surrounded the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Syria was one of the countries in which they sought refuge.<br /> In Jordan, traditionally receptive to desperate migrants, a historian can tell the story of the Middle East through the layers of refugees of different nationalities just as a geologist can tell the story of the earth through the different layers of rock.<br /> Leila Tokhan Al-Houda from the Jordanian Red Crescent Society says simply: " We are the largest refugee hub in the area, if not the world… this is the price you pay when you're a safe country. If we weren't safe and secure, nobody would come."<br /> Chaotic kaleidoscope<br /> Inside Syria the practical difficulties of reporting the war are making it harder and harder to be sure what is happening on the front lines.<br /> Broadly, the forces of Bashar al-Assad and militias drawn from the ethnic and religious communities who support them are fighting a shifting constellation of rival Islamist groups and secular rebels who are also fighting each other.<br /> <br /> Iran, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf monarchies and the United States are all trying - with varying degrees of intensity and varying degrees of success - to tilt the battlefield in favour of the groups they support. But it is a chaotic kaleidoscope from which it is hard to extract a clear narrative.<br /> It is no bad thing though that we are forced to tell the story of the war through the voices of the refugees - their broken homes and broken hearts after all are the real measure of the cost of the fighting.<br /> And the Syrian crisis will not really end when guns fall silent - it will end when the refugees feel that it is safe to go home.<br /> As the prospect of Syria emerging the conflict as a single unitary state diminishes and the scale of the destruction continues to grow, most of the refugees are coming to realise that will not be for years - perhaps more than a decade.<br /> 'More refugees than citizens'<br /> <br /> In the Middle East, refugee crises are coped with and contained - but the underlying problems which created them never seem to be solved.<br /> Nowhere do you see that more clearly than in Jordan, which has a population of about six-and-a-half million and within whose borders there are said to be more refugees than citizens.<br /> The Zaatari facility in Jordan is the world's second-largest refugee camp<br /> The vast bulk of them are Palestinians, who fled in waves triggered by the wars of 1948 and 1967 and have been here ever since.<br /> Some still live in camps, and Amman we found a Syrian family - the al-Hassans from Homs - living alongside Palestinians in the Hussein Camp.<br /> It began as an encampment of canvas tents but has evolved over the years so that these days it looks like any other scruffy, bustling concrete suburb of the city.<br /> It was depressing for the al-Hassans to come here. Imagine all the miseries of the refugee experience - the chaos and terror of fleeing your home and then the humiliations and uncertainties of life in a new country.<br /> And then imagine that you arrive to find you are living alongside refugees who fled fighting nearly 70 years ago and who still cannot go home.<br /> <br /> Fear and anxiety<br /> The al-Hassans have settled well - their children are doing well in the refugee schools - but the truth is that they do not find their Palestinian neighbours friendly.<br /> The head of the family - Abu Ismail al-Hassan - understands that is about a deep-seated fear in the older refugee community that their needs might come to seem less important than the needs of newer migrants whose plight is still making headlines around the world.<br /> We'd like one day to go back to our own country and for the Palestinians to go back to theirs<br /> Abu Ismail al-Hassan, Syrian refugee in Jordan<br /> Sadly the world's generosity - and its attention span for the sufferings of others - are not infinite.<br /> Still Mr al-Hassan does not see why his family should bear the brunt of those anxieties.<br /> "They're really not good to us, to tell you the truth," he said. "I don't know why. After all, the Palestinians have been refugees before in most of the other Arab countries so they should know our situation. They should feel for us. Some of them have treated us badly."<br /> <br /> Still, even in the depths of all this uncertainty, Mr al-Hassan, sitting surrounded by his wife, four of his daughters and 10 of his grandchildren, does his best to be positive.<br /> <br /> "We don't want to be refugees here," he told us. "We know Jordan is a poor country and we're very grateful. We'd like one day to go back to our own country and for the Palestinians to go back to theirs."<br /> <br /> A young Syrian woman I met in a refugee training centre was less hopeful.<br /> She said bluntly: "No issue will be resolved in the Middle East until Syria is resolved - not Palestine and not Iraq. And all the destruction in Syria will have to be fixed - we don't even have homes to go back to any more. It will take years to repair all the damage."<br /> <br /> Dream of return<br /> Jordan's record on the refugee issue is impressive and of course it relies on the money and know-how of international agencies like the UNHCR and Unwra to deal with the problems of managing the refugee populations and providing housing, healthcare and education - all this in a country which has few natural resources of its own and hardly enough water for its own people.<br /> Syrians face becoming refugees for generations, like many Palestinians<br /> But while the world's record of coping with the needs of refugees in the Middle East is pretty good, its record at resolving the underlying political circumstances that forced them from their homes is dismal.<br /> Plenty of Lebanese who fled the civil war never went home, and while Iraqis who fled the fighting in 1991 may have returned, you can still meet Iraqis who have arrived in Jordan within the last few weeks, this time fleeing the threat posed by Islamic State militants.<br /> <br /> Labib Qumhawi, a Palestinian who fled Nablus during the war of 1967, remains proud of his origins and his identity.<br /> But he knows very well how difficult life as a refugee becomes in the long term.<br /> When asked what it would mean for the Syrians themselves if they were stuck in Jordan for many years, he said simply: "They'll be raised in Jordan, they'll get education in Jordan, they'll know nothing but Jordan.<br /> "Their fathers and their grandfathers might talk about the good old days in Syria - the fruit, the wealth, the water and the beauty. But all they'll have is the dream that all refugees have - of one day returning to the homeland."<br /> <br /> Unless something changes quickly for the Syrian refugees who now find themselves alongside all those previous generation of migrants in Jordan, it is sadly easy to imagine that poignant vision of the future coming true.<br /> You can hear more about Kevin Connolly's Syrian refugee story on The World</div>

The dreaded story behind Syria war refugees

The al-Hassan family are among more than three million Syrian #refugees As Syria's civil war has become more difficult and dangerous to report, it has become a story told increasingly through the exp…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

German Military out to salvage war prone zones/countries

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> <img height="200" src="https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10339730_667386606708563_1416584989949347853_n.jpg?oh=f9d3b661809e3c7c385a932bbe5003b7&oe=54E2AEC8" width="143" /></div> <br /> War is not something you tell the population to do, and the population goes into a war shouting 'hurrah!'<br /> <br /> When asked, Cpl Stephen Giese, 21, who has been in the German Army a year and a month, what he thinks of those #Germans who died in the two world wars.<br /> "I'm very proud of how they served the army considering the circumstances and knowing that the war was probably lost anyway.<br /> "I think today you can't approve of it, but their courage and steadfast duty is impressive," he said.<br /> It is a welcome relief from the two-dimensional world of the tabloids where heroes are always on the right side and their opponents are bad, or mad, and always cowardly. His reflective, thoughtful approach to war is very German.<br /> Looking forward<br /> But the young soldier is also determined that his country's past should not hamstring its future.<br /> "It is part of the education [of a potential officer] to be sent overseas. I think it is our job and our duty to protect the liberty and democracy of our own country and I'm ready to do so.<br /> "I think there are regions in this world where it is necessary to fight, because talking isn't enough or people wouldn't agree on talking.<br /> <br /> "But the first step should always be a verbal exchange and no fighting."<br /> In Berlin, history is never far away.<br /> A short walk from the celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate is the Holocaust Memorial, itself not far from the unmarked spot where Hitler's bunker once was.<br /> The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe is overwhelming and unsettling, as it is meant to be.<br /> You walk down an uneven surface, deeper and deeper into rows of looming stone blocks. They mark the pitiless murder of millions from many countries by the leaders of one country.<br /> If nations define themselves, and their sense of history, by what they choose to remember, and what they choose to forget, then Germany is unique.<br /> <br /> It chooses to remember with dogged determination its darkest sins, rubbing its own face in the mess of its past, to teach itself a lesson.<br /> But history does not stand still.<br /> Ever since the fall of the wall there has been a debate about when Germany can become a "normal" country.<br /> It is sometimes rather more philosophical than political.<br /> But now the debate has reached a tipping point - what more can the richest and most powerful country in Europe do in a very uncertain world?<br /> Time to move on<br /> Earlier this year German President Joachim Gauck made a rare political intervention.<br /> He said the country could not continue to hide  behind its  past.<br /> He warned that there were "people who use Germany's guilt for its past as a shield for laziness or a desire to disengage from the world".<br /> <br /> If Germany was to change its leadership style and tell other European countries what to do on Ukraine or Syria, it is not going to work<br /> Neils Annen, Social Democratic Party<br /> Forcefully, he added: "At this very moment, the world's only super power is reconsidering the scale and form of its global engagement.<br /> "Europe, its partner, is busy navel-gazing. I don't believe that Germany can simply carry on as before in the face of these developments."<br /> The foreign minister and the defence minister have followed suit, arguing that Germany should do more.<br /> The times, some say, demand it.<br /> This time last year, the thought of fighting in Ukraine would have sounded like a sick fiction.<br /> Now former  leaders and important  think tank stalk of a return of the Cold War.<br /> The war in the Middle East is hot enough to have melted the map, and created a new enemy<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1798103_665729876874236_8916310426339561888_n.jpg?efg=eyJvbGF0IjoxNjB9&oh=6029e017cd407491635a592d5cbe630c&oe=54DAE408" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">danglingarmy<br /></td></tr> </tbody></table> .<br /> Volker Perethes, the director of the influential German think tank the Institute for  Foreign and  Security  Affairs, told me this cannot be ignored.<br /> "If you want to be a co-leader in Europe it is not enough to concentrate on economics and finance.<br /> "You have to co-operate with others to take care of the geopolitical environment. That is not in our political DNA.<br /> "We don't start by thinking about the military when we think about international relations. But what has changed is that we are no longer excluding the military."<br /> <br /> Call for intervention<br /> Any decision will be taken in one of my favourite buildings in Europe, the Reichstag.<br /> Holocaust Memorial: a reminder of a grim past<br /> It is something of a symbol of Modern Germany - partially destroyed in what many believe was a Nazi arson attack in 1933, it was rebuilt in 1999 not by lovingly recrafting the past, but by defiantly topping it with the very modern and very beautiful Norman  Foster domein glass and steel.<br /> Melding historical caution and future forays into foreign affairs may be more problematic. But things are on the move.<br /> One sign is that that even some in the Left Partywant more intervention.<br /> The fourth largest party in the country, its roots are in the ruling East German communist party, and it is still anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist.<br /> But the party's Stefan Liebich, a member of the foreign affairs committee, told me the situation in Syria merits action.<br /> <br /> "I think there can be situations where you need even German intervention and there are situations, like Kobanein northern Syria, where the Kurds are fighting for their life, where I'd strongly recommend the UN support them with military action."<br /> What about the German air force going in, I ask. "No," he says, with a little laugh.<br /> "So someone else should do it?"<br /> "The permanent five of the UN Security Council have a strong responsibility," he says.<br /> This ambivalence has a real impact.<br /> <br />                          'Big hammer'<br /> German spends just 1.3% of GDP on its armed forces, well short of the 2% demanded by Nato.<br /> A recent  reportto parliament indicates that helicopters, fighters and tanks are in a serious state of disrepair.<br /> Many of those I spoke to cautioned me: Germany would be doing more, but that didn't automatically mean taking military action.<br /> This is an important point for the rest of us - as Obama put it, "just because you have a big hammer, doesn't mean every problem is a nail."<br /> But the past haunts not only the use of military force but the very idea of leadership.<br /> There is no doubt Germany has been forthright and firm during the economic crisis - and the Social Democratic Party's Neils Annen wasn't the only one to point to the result.<br /> "If Germany was to change its leadership style and tell other European countries what to do on Ukraine or Syria, it is not going to work.<br /> "When Mrs Merkel introduced austerity programmes, we saw pictures of her with theHakenkreuz- the swastika, the old images of Germany almost immediately emerging.<br /> "So you cannot design German foreign policy without knowledge of your history."<br /> <br />                    Ingrained caution<br /> It is clear that if Germany overcomes its hesitancy and guilt, it will not overcome caution and a different approach to violence.<br /> The many divisions between Britain and continental Europe are sharpest when they come to World War Two.<br /> For most countries, aggressors or victims in that war, it is a source of shame.<br /> For us, it was our finest hour, proof positive that standing up forcefully, heroically, against all the odds can lead to victory.<br /> <br /> British politicians are a product of a history that sees force as a solution, and pain as a price. In Germany the haunting ghosts may transmogrify into better angels.<br /> There is no better example than the tall, genial, thoughtful man in camouflage, the red eagle of Brandenburg on a shield on his uniform.<br /> Lt Col Uwe Nowitzki tells me: "It is right for us Germans not to forget our past and that comes up every day in the normal life of a soldier."<br /> How? I interject.<br /> <br /> "You are thinking about it. And if you are on a mission then you are thinking very carefully whether an operation is right this way or that way, are there other solutions, are there on the ground diplomatic solutions that we could look at, are there any other ways than fighting?"<br /> I put it to him that Germany's soldiers have been mocked for their rules of engagement, with one Nato officer apparently calling them "an aggressive camping organisation".<br /> He says: "Of course we have rules given by the parliament and that is what I want to stress, the final decision is done by the parliament.<br /> "They talk before they send our sons, our daughters into a war where they might lose their life.<br /> "War is not now something you tell the population to do, and the population goes into a war shouting 'hurrah!'<br /> <br /> Germany will never shout "hurrah" at war and it still hopes that it will not have to do more of it.</div>

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German Military out to salvage war prone zones/countries

War is not something you tell the population to do, and the population goes into a war shouting 'hurrah!' When asked, Cpl Stephen Giese, 21, who has been in the German Army a year and a month, what h…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

United State FTC asking Apple about health data protection

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> <img height="133" src="https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p240x240/10447847_666227303491160_3249517427667841424_n.jpg?oh=e30c626eacf3570be38c9c3955deb392&oe=54D31DB5" width="200" /></div> <br />  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is seeking assurances from #Apple Inc (AAPL.O) that it will prevent sensitive health data collected by its upcoming smartwatch and other mobile devices from being used without owners' consent, two sources told Reuters.<br /> <br /> The two people, both familiar with the FTC's thinking, said Apple representatives have met on multiple occasions with agency officials in recent months, to stress that it will not sell its users' health data to third-party entities such as marketers or allow third-party developers to do so.<br /> <br /> Apple said it works closely with regulators around the world, including the FTC, to describe built-in data protections for its services. "We’ve been very encouraged by their support,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Reuters.<br /> <br /> Apple developed its new HealthKit platform, which manages data from mobile health apps, to give consumers control over how their information is used and shared. "We designed HealthKit with privacy in mind," said Muller.<br /> <br /> There are no indications that the FTC intends to launch a formal investigation or inquiry into the matter, but the dialogue underscores the agency's interest in how the increasing wealth of consumer-generated health and fitness data will be safeguarded.<br /> <br />  The FTC declined to comment.<br /> <br /> The FTC is paying particularly close attention to Apple's upcoming smartwatch, which can track a user's pulse and potentially store health-related information, the two sources said.<br /> <br /> Apple hopes its upcoming Apple Watch and HealthKit platform will become the lynchpins in a broad push into mobile healthcare, a potentially lucrative field that rivals Google and Samsung are also exploring.<br /> <br /> FTC Commissioner Julie Brill in May said the agency is concerned about the risks of health data that flows outside of a medical context, such as information collected via wearables and mobile health apps.<br /> <br /> The agency also requested that Congress enact legislation to make the practices of data brokers more visible.<br /> <br /> Most data that consumers store in mobile health apps is not covered by privacy rules known as HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. But the FTC has stressed that this data is still highly sensitive and is keen on investigating how any consumer-generated data gathered is shared, exchanged, and protected.<br /> <br />  The agency has made it a priority to examine whether mobile health developers marketing apps on Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms are taking precautions to safeguard user privacy, the sources said.<br /> <br /> The FTC also concluded in a recent study that many developers share or sell health data. The study found that developers of 12 mobile health and fitness apps were sharing user information with 76 different parties, such as advertisers.<br /> <br /> Apple is turning to a team of outside experts, including health data protection lawyer Marcy Wilder, to respond on health issues, said one of the sources and another person familiar with the matter.<br /> <br /> The company also is considering appointing an in-house health privacy czar, the sources said.<br /> <br /> Some experts say Apple is setting a strong precedent for health data privacy. Apple requires that users must give consent before app developers are granted access to their health information, and that data logged by its smartwatch is encrypted on the device.<br /> <br /> In late August, Apple tightened its privacy rules to ensure that personal data collected through HealthKit would not be used by developers for the purposes of advertising or other data-mining purposes. It also said apps that access HealthKit are required to have a privacy policy, although it remains to be seen how Apple will enforce this rule.<br /> <br /> FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez praised Apple for taking a step critical to maintain consumers' trust.<br /> <br /> Posted by ettefreeguy</div>

United State FTC asking Apple about health data protection

 The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is seeking assurances from #Apple Inc (AAPL.O) that it will prevent sensitive health data collected by its upcoming smartwatch and other mobile devices from being u…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

Ebola: Chinese team arrives Liberia

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> About 160 #Chinese health workers arrived on Saturday in Liberia, where they are due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.<br /> China, Africa’s biggest trade partner, had come under fire for the level of its response to the Ebola crisis. But it said this week it would send 1,000 personnel to help fight an outbreak that has killed over 5,000 people in West Africa.<br /> <br /> “Up to now in Liberia, China is the only country which provides not only the construction of an ETU (Ebola treatment unit), but also the running and operation and the staffing of an ETU,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yue told Reuters.<br /> The United States has pledged more money and personnel than any other nation pitching in to fight the worst Ebola outbreak on record. But its response is based on building clinics and training locals to run them.<br /> <br /> Zhang said the new team in Liberia included a mix of doctors, nurses, technicians and engineers.<br /> “They experienced SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). They are very knowledgeable in this area,” he said, referring to the contagious illness that was first identified in China in 2002 and killed several hundred people across the world.<br /> <br /> On arrival, the Chinese health workers had their temperature taken and were made to wash their hands, a ritual adopted across the region as part of efforts to stem the disease.<br /> Zhang said the establishment of the clinic in Liberia brought China’s contribution to the anti-Ebola effort in the country to $122 million.<br /> <br /> Before China’s pledge to send 1,000 personnel, Cuba was the largest contributor of medical contingents to the crisis.<br /> Both nations will see their teams work closely alongside the U.S, which is providing much of the infrastructure of the international response.</div>

Ebola: Chinese team arrives Liberia

About 160 #Chinese health workers arrived on Saturday in Liberia, where they are due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign interventions, is being built and fully ru…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

5 Tupac Shakur's lyrical philosophy has come to reality (secret)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p118x118/10448230_665755803538310_1969741850369938990_n.jpg?oh=6a52ea6adc0e5964050b955e60921c21&oe=54E1892A" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">danglinglegend<br /></td></tr> </tbody></table> #Tupac Shakur has always been regarded as an urban prophet. The Cali rapper was known for his prolific bars, and when he died in 1996, his presence was still so powerful that no one believed he was gone.<br /> His Makaveli project, The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory fanned those rumor mill flames, as Pac assumed the role of Italian philosopher Machiavelli before passing; Machiavelli suggested one faking one's own death as a way to trick one's enemies.<br /> <br /> But despite any theories we have about Tupac's passing, his rhymes reflected some cryptic points. danglingmedia.blogspot.com has tallied five of them that actually came true in light of recent reports of Tupac's last words, plus the above Entertainment Weekly interview clip from 1994 about Pac wanting his homies to smoke his ashes (and they did)<br /> <br /> —"Worst case, in the cemetery, not the cemetery, sprinkled in ashes, smoked up by homies," he says when asked about where he will be in 10-15 years.<br /> Check them out.<br /> .<br /> .<br /> .<br /> .<br /> .<br /> .<br />                 "Under Pressure"<br /> Lyrics: "Right before I die, I'll be cursin' the law / Reincarnated bitch, even worse than before"<br /> <br /> <br />                  (i)  Story:<br />          "Against All Odds"<br /> Lyrics: "Promised a payback, Jimmy Henchman, in due time / I know you bitch niggas is listenin', The World Is Mine / Set me up, wet me up, niggas stuck me up / Heard the niggas guns bust but you tricks never shut me up"<br />                     (ii) Story:<br /> Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond Confesses To His Involvement In The Quad Studios Tupac Shooting<br /> <br /> <br /> "God Bless The Dead"<br /> Lyrics: "Rest in peace to my mothafucka Biggie Smalls / That's right boy, it's goin' on right here / Thug Life, God bless the dead"<br /> <br />                (iii)  Story:<br /> New Information Emerges In Notorious B.I.G. Murder Investigation<br /> [Editor's Note: While there has been speculation as to whom Tupac referenced in this song—some sources say it was Biggie Smallz, and not the Notorious B.I.G.—the timing of Tupac's line with regard to the passing of the Notorious B.I.G. shortly thereafter is enough to consider this line a premonition.]<br /> <br /> <br /> "Niggas Done Changed"<br /> Lyrics: "I been shot and murdered, can't tell you how it happened, word for word / But best believe niggas' gonna get what they deserve"<br /> <br />                    (iv)  Story:<br /> Former Detective Greg Kading Clarifies His Shocking Allegations Regarding The Murder Of Tupac Shakur<br />  "Changes"<br /> Lyrics: "And although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to see a Black President"<br /> <br />                  (v)  Story:<br /> Barack Obama's "I Have A Dream" Speech?</div>

5 Tupac Shakur's lyrical philosophy has come to reality (secret)

danglinglegend #Tupac Shakur has always been regarded as an urban prophet. The Cali rapper was known for his prolific bars, and when he died in 1996, his presence was still so powerful that no one be…

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dangling Virus, Ebola: Between Stigmatisation and Misinformation

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIG-w8tRkLQG-F6O7N5apS22IBCb-PyJnm6OTE3z6ySe0Yvte0JEGr4miUYJ9ObsSjgGayh-BfqPC0UBny9NK8rZ-CaGBXWrvf6QMLpNU24CeDAGtbrXcYnwIeNwn2sboPa_4DQTN5_cH/s1600/More.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIG-w8tRkLQG-F6O7N5apS22IBCb-PyJnm6OTE3z6ySe0Yvte0JEGr4miUYJ9ObsSjgGayh-BfqPC0UBny9NK8rZ-CaGBXWrvf6QMLpNU24CeDAGtbrXcYnwIeNwn2sboPa_4DQTN5_cH/s1600/More.jpg" width="199" /></a></div> <br /> I was quite young when I learnt about HIV/AIDS. From the popular TV show “I need to know”, several WHO and #UNICEF sponsored awareness and a host of adverts on the electronic and print media illustrating the virus, its causes and its mode of spread, I had understood its nature, severity and control measures. With lots of genuine information that was and is still made available to the public on HIV/AIDS, one could hardly feign ignorance about its spread and fatality.<br /> However, this awareness was not confined to the bad sides of the disease, they also addressed its management and preventions. More so, they emphasised that HIV/AIDS was bad, but there was a worse killer: stigmatisation.<br /> <br />  The phrase “stigmatization kills faster than AIDS” is one we can hardly forget. Of course, the fear of stigmatisation still killed a lot of people faster than the AIDS virus itself.<br /> Today, many years after the advent of AIDS the world is experiencing a recurrence of another viral outbreak- the Ebola virus. Now peculiar to other viral infections the Ebola virus is easily transmittable and very deadly.<br /> <br />  Also unlike HIV/AIDS it has a very short incubation period of about three weeks and kills just as fast as it infects. Worse still the Ebola virus has no known cure and the world is still experimenting on several treatment methods.<br /> The Ebola virus, dreaded as it may seem has been surrounded by too many myths. Stigmatisation and misinformation, factors that seem very mild have surprisingly overthrown Ebola in terms of fatality in recent times. Misinformation took its first toll on Nigeria. Many Nigerians would recall how they heralded a new dawn with text messages and updates on social media that kola nut could now cure Ebola.<br /> <br /> The kola nut sellers had a swell time as it was bumper sales for them. Kola nuts that sold for just about N20 began to sell for the price of N50 and above. Nigerians failed to verify the sources of the information and more people did not consider the fact that excessive consumption of kola nuts was also a form of drug addiction. In this computer age and in Nigeria a country with the highest users of internet in Africa, I was disappointed at the vulnerability of our people.<br /> <br />  Luckily for us Nigerians no fatality was recorded as a result of our initial show of ignorance.<br /> But misinformation got its second chance when another round of misleading information reached the social media. This time, it was warm salt water that would prevent Ebola. Some of the updates ridiculously stated that people should have their bath with warm salt water and even use salt as body lotion and of course drink as much salt water as possible. Not a few fell for the bait. More surprising was the fact that even some educated health workers, people we would ordinarily meet for genuine information, were also among the peddlers of such false information. Sadly some Nigerians paid for their ignorance this time, and they paid the ultimate price. About five people reportedly died due to excessive consumption of salt water during that period.<br /> <br />  Misinformation proved it’s “worth” taking almost the same number of lives that Ebola took in Nigeria.<br /> Stigmatisation came next and is fast finding its feet. The sad thing about stigmatisation is that it kills slowly, painfully and yet indirectly. Most people live with it for so long before they decide they’ve had enough and most of the victims of stigmatization end up taking the painful decision of committing suicide.  And so it was that recently a Liberian woman was found dead hanging on a tree early in the morning in Magodo, a suburb of Lagos. Reports revealed that she had been stigmatised in the area where she lived because she was Liberian, her fellow countryman had brought Ebola into our country and the outbreak had not yet been successfully contained in her country.<br /> <br />  Nobody could risk contracting Ebola, and as a result her immediate society moved back to the ages of pre-civilisation and treated her like an outcast. With no family or friend to run to for succour, she committed suicide.<br /> <br /> (The late nurse, Justina Ejelonus fiancés story is not less bad, though he’s lucky to be alive and free from Ebola. The virus took away his fiancée and stigmatisation took away his job, friends and almost his dignity in the society).<br />  A lot of families have been ejected from their homes and more people discriminated against because of their connection with some Ebola patients or even a survivor. With stigmatisation, it is painful to die but it is even more painful to live.<br /> With misinformation and stigmatization, Ebola has found strong competition and until we break free from their shackles, we might lose more lives and more importantly our sense of humanity. Luckily, Nigeria has been declared free from Ebola, but whether we like it or not, there may still be viral outbreaks in future and our immediate reactions to it determines says a lot about our understanding of empathy. The government has a role to play and it is in fact commendable that the Lagos state government invited all the Ebola survivors to the government house, a step I believe would go a long way in addressing stigmatisation.<br /> <br /> However, we have a greater role. The social media is one of the fastest and most efficient means of disseminating information. Hence we should post information from legitimate sources and verify messages sent to us before taking them hook, line and sinker. We must understand too that viral outbreaks respect no one, even the best doctors and nurses have died from viral infections. It could be anybody. And so, we should not in the name of precaution end up being cruel to people because of their medical condition.</div>

dangling Virus, Ebola: Between Stigmatisation and Misinformation

I was quite young when I learnt about HIV/AIDS. From the popular TV show “I need to know”, several WHO and #UNICEF sponsored awareness and a host of adverts on the electronic and print media illustra…

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com