Hello,

We are writing you today in light of the unusual strain of swine influenza which has sickened at least seven people in the U.S. The CDC said that the virus is a new mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans. The World Health Organization said it was concerned about what it called 800 "influenza-like" cases in Mexico, and also about a confirmed outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in the United States. The Reuters story on this is copied below.

http://www.techleader.co.za/stevevosloo/2009/02/27/five-amazing-mobile-projects/

At the Web4Dev conference in New York I met with the founders, inventors and creators of some pretty amazing mobile-for-development projects. Below are my top five with some thoughts on how they could be used for education.

Ushahidi

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Open Collaboration Experiment around Emergency Alerts, Disasters, Market Recalls, and More...

We set up two open collaboration spaces around up-to-date notifications and alerts on the following:

- Emergency Preparedness & Response alerts, Recent Outbreaks and Incidents, Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA), and Public Service Announcements for Hurricanes from US CDC

- Recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts from the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/climate_change

What LEGO and Mobile Solutions Have in Common
There has long been discussions of using the current mobile app solutions to let end-users pick and choose between available services. Something like LEGO, where you pick and choose the right pieces that work for your particular need. A real toolbox of apps that actually work together, and can be connected easily by anyone, without the need of deep technological background.

On Apr 17, 2009, at 4:17 PM, david hastings wrote:

Dear Khun Dr. Surin,

I hope that, despite recent incidents, this message finds you in the best of health and spirits. I appreciate that you may be focused on next steps after these recent events. Thus I have copied Khun Dr. Termsak Chalermpalanupap on this message. Perhaps he can revisit the issue with you at an appropriate time, if you/he consider it worthwhile.

This message is intended to be upbeat, imagining a possible win-win by ASEAN (and perhaps yourself?) and ASEAN Members in an area which apparently interests you:

Date:8 April 2009
Source(s):Corporate Social Responsibility Asia (CSR Asia)

Helen Roeth reports that according to the Swiss Reinsurance Company Sigma report, catastrophes and man-made disasters caused 240,500 deaths in 2008, with economic losses up to 269 billion dollars - and numbers are expected to increase due to climate change factors and economic severity of catastrophes.

http://www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1308

Author(s): David A. Hastings
Economic Sector(s): (1) Global, regional and multisectoral economic and social development strategies and policies
UNESCAP Reference No.: WP/09/02
Division: Poverty and Development
Published Date: February 2009
Country: {Non-country Specific Publication}
Hard Copy Price: Online Copy Only

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: April 16, 2009
For at least 3,000 years, a drumbeat of potent droughts, far longer and more severe than any experienced recently, have seared a belt of sub-Saharan Africa that is now home to tens of millions of the world’s poorest people, climate researchers report in a new study.

The scientists warned that more such mega-droughts are inevitable, although there is no way to predict when the next one could unfold.

Talk on Evaluation and Social Entrepreneurship and how to affect profound social change

http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/events/podcast/video_SEC1.html

The MIDIR project

William Jelani Cobb says Somalia's piracy problem was fueled by environmental and political events.

For more information than the excerpt below, go to:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/19/cobb.somalia.piracy/index.html

By Javier Blas in Cison di Valmarino, Italy

Published: April 20 2009 14:03 | Last updated: April 20 2009 14:03
The Group of Eight leading nations called on Monday “for increasing public and private investment” in agriculture, but their communiqué after the first meeting on the subject acknowledged that efforts to tackle hunger were lagging.

Organized by UNICEF CEE/CIS, and Pan American Health Organization PAHO/WHO
April 15th, 2009

Good practices in using DevInfo: Recorded Knowledge Sharing Event