REFDESK a good place to start…

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.”- Bertrand Russell

Taken for the REFDESK site.  Check it out…

ANA Recruiting issues

Here you go Chuck, I just seen this.

There hasn’t been a single recruit in a month and a half. 

Update:  Wrong link.  Updated to correct link.

Recruits for the Afghan Public Protection Force are usually sent to Laghman to be trained by American Special Forces. “There hasn’t been a single recruit for more than a month and a half,” General Agha said. “More than a hundred people were rounded up and sent to the training centre, but the commander in charge told me they ran away. Iran opened the border [in the west] and they all thought it was better to go abroad.”

Gold Star moms words to the President

There is an old quote. Not sure who it is from but it is “When in doubt empty the magazine” That is what you have to do. Empty the magazine. Put all we have into this fight!  We started a job and we must finish it or it will simply be left to the next generation.

Read the whole thing.  It’s important.

Mudville Gazette has some funny pics for Valour IT

Teamwork baby

Project Valour IT….. If your gonna give, give to something worthwhile…..

 

One Tribe at a time – Blackfive UJ

Another interesting post.  This concept is interesting although I don’t know if the higher ups would ever buy into.  From a SF Teams perspective it works but regualar army?  Something to think about.

There is an amazing paper out by a Special Forces officer MAJ Jim Gant about how to win in Afghanistan which Grim references in the post below. It comes from his team’s personal experiences and it is absolutely spot on. All of his ideas are well-grounded in reality and all of his strategic concepts reflect the best possible solutions to an incredibly difficult problem. I only wish there was a chance in hell they would be adopted. You can read his paper here and I highly recommend it.

Check out Uncle Jimbos post then the paper. 

Captains Journal has some good posts

I’ve been pretty remiss lately in linking to the sites I visit.  So since I’ve made a few comments on their site.  Please check out Captains Jounal and their analysis. 

Plus your find my comments over there simply brilliant..  (yes I’m kidding)

Afghan Army issue

Strategypage and an interesting outlook on why we can’t grow the Afghan Army.  Give it a look.

Then there is the illiteracy problem (most recruits, like most Afghans, can’t read). Afghanistan is finding that illiteracy is a growing problem in the army. Only about 25 percent of recruit are literate. While this can be ignored for the lower ranking troops, NCOs need to read. Illiterate recruits also take longer to train, and more effort to work with. The U.S. has provided an intensive literacy course for troops, which gets most of them to basic (“functional”) literacy within a year. In addition to being able to read signs and maps, the newly semi-literate troops are taught to sign their names, and write out the serial number of their weapon. Illiterate troops selected for promotion to sergeant (NCO), are given more literacy training. That’s because being able to read and write has long been a critical asset for any army. The Roman Empire, at its height 1800 years ago, had an army over 100,000 troops, a third of which were literate. But with modern armies, an abundance of technology makes literacy even more necessary. The Afghans can get by without it, but can do a lot better with it.

Having been there and worked with the ANA it seems pretty accurate and something not often heard in the everyday analysis of Afghanistan.

Humm H1N1…. interesting

•  After repeated attempts made by CBS News asking the CDC to provide state-by-state data of swine flu testing before they halted individual testing and tracking, Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC Director was asked directly at a recent news conference.

• (CBS) 

If you’ve been diagnosed “probable” or “presumed” 2009 H1N1 or “swine flu” in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.

In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That’s according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.

The ramifications of this finding are important. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Britain’s National Health Service, once you have H1N1 flu, you’re immune from future outbreaks of the same virus. Those who think they’ve had H1N1 flu — but haven’t — might mistakenly presume they’re immune. As a result, they might skip taking a vaccine that could help them, and expose themselves to others with H1N1 flu under the mistaken belief they won’t catch it. Parents might not keep sick children home from school, mistakenly believing they’ve already had H1N1 flu.

Interesting no????

Where do you get good mortality numbers on H1N1?

Ok here is the task for the week.  Try to find good stats on the mortality rate for the H1N1 virus.  It so far has been quiet a challenge.  I’ve checked the World Health Organization and the CDC plus national and local news and find good numbers hard to find. 

It will be difficult as many who catch the H1N1 flu may not ever report or know they had it.  But still with all the hype one would think reasonable numbers would be possible to find. 

So if you see good numbers anywhere let me know. 

I figure we’ll all get it before a vacine is ready anyhow but would be interesting to know. 

Best numbers I could find so far where from WHO with 399232 laboratory confirmed H1N1 cases and 4735 deaths as of 11 Oct 2009.  Mortality rate somewhere around .011

Does this sound right?  How does that compare to normal Flu? 

Just wondering today as the temperature and snow drop.

UPDATE / NOTE:

The WHO numbers can be misleading as many who contract this virus will never know they have it without seeing a doctor and even then it may not be reported if they don’t actually test for H1N1. 

We took our son to the doctors for a check up and the doctor said he’s seen hundred of cases (North Colroado Springs) with only two that needed to be hospitalized.  He said most kids ran a fever for a week then it was over.  Local news reported 14 Deaths in Colorado with a pretty even number in all age groups but without any idea how many had underlying conditions. 

The virus does appear to be getting around it’s just hard to tell how bad it is.

Why can’t Joe run for president?

Look I don’t know what political affiliation Joe Arpaio has but it’s hard not to like this guy.

Tell me what you think?

Ariz. sheriff launches immigration sweep

By JACQUES BILLEAUD (AP) – 21 hours ago

SURPRISE, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday, a half day after officials in Washington limited his powers to make federal immigration arrests.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the rebuff from Washington won’t stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

"It doesn’t bother me, because we are going to do the same thing," said Arpaio, whose deputies had arrested 16 people by Friday evening on unspecified charges. "I am the elected sheriff. I don’t take orders from the federal government."