Remembering America's POWs / MIAs

"They're Americans. Bring them home!"

Many people are unaware of just how many Americans involved in combat operations are now confirmed held as prisoners of war (POWs), listed as missing in action (MIA), or for some other reason as yet unaccounted for. On this Memorial Day, and with 400,000 motorcycles in town for Rolling Thunder XXIV, I tried to find out the actual number of American POWs and MIAs. The bottom line is that from WWI until today, there are roughly 85,500 Americans still unaccounted for.  Please see Defense POW MIA Office for more information about 13 Americans accounted for so far this year.

• Of approximately 80,000 American dead in WWI, some 1,600 have never been identified. 
• The bulk of our MIAs are from WWII where over 400,000 died. Not counting those deliberately buried at sea, there are 73,792 missing. Of that number, perhaps as many as 35,000 could be recovered if found. The remainder are entombed in sunken vessels or lost at sea. 
• From Korea, we have 8,001 missing.
• From the Cold War, there are 127 still missing, down from 165. These are mostly flight crews, and the number is declining as crews are discovered and their remains repatriated.
• From Vietnam, we have 1,689 still missing. It is thought that some MIAs are still held alive in secret POW camps, mostly in Laos. 
• During the 100 hour Gulf War, there were 49 captured or unaccounted for, including then-Major Rhonda Cornum, now a Brigadier General in the Pentagon. With the identification of M.S. Speicher’s remains in August 2009, 47 Americans have been rescued, released, or recovered. The remains of 2 naval aviators were lost at sea.
• In the Global War on Terror, we have 2 POWs. Specialist (now Staff Sergeant) Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie was kidnapped Oct 2006 by Shi’ite militants in OIF. He is being held for ransom. The Army has promoted him twice in absentia and, while refusing to negotiate with his captors, continues to search for him. Private First Class (now Specialist) Bowe R. Bergdahl was captured in June 2009 by Taliban in OEF. The Army promoted Bergdahl in absentia and is still searching for him. Bergdahl is being held for $1M and the release of 21 Afghani prisoners.  

Rolling Thunder started in 1987 to educate people about the plight of many Vietnam-era POWs and MIAs, and to increase public pressure on the government to get a full accounting of all Americans. Some of our Vietnam families have endured the purgatory of uncertainty for over 45 years. The mission expanded to prevent Gulf War combat troops and their families from facing the same uncertain fate. Since 1987, Rolling Thunder has continued to educate the public about POW / MIA issues and pressure the government for action on all POW / MIA cases. 

Today I'll remember the fallen, the captive, and the missing. And I support all efforts to rescue, or recover and repatriate all our POWs / MIAs. 

The motto of the Joint POW / MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is, “Until they are all home.” 


Amen to that!

Numb3rs Math Activities

If you are a fan of the CBS series, Numb3rs--or, if you just like math, check this out: Numb3rs Math Activities

The main page is a list of each episode in the first 5 seasons of Numb3rs. You can click on any episode and see the problem and Charlie's mathematical solution. There is a link to the series webpage, and another link where the episodes are sorted into the math topics covered.

Worthy.


Hat tip to Nathan

A New Gauge Helps to See What’s Beyond Happiness

Marty Seligman replaces "Authentic Happiness" with "Flourish," a more holistic view of well-being.

“Well-being cannot exist just in your own head,” he writes. “Well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships and accomplishment.”

A New Gauge Helps to See What’s Beyond Happiness - NYTimes.com

L.I.N.K.S. that Lure, Intrigue, Nurture, Kindle, or Stimulate, Part 4

This collection of L.I.N.K.S., fourth in the series, has a theme: building informed and engaged organizations, teams, and individuals. There are three links for each of the three levels. Please comment on these or share your favorites.

1. Organizations can be corporations or cities--large, complex groups of people with many constituent sub-groups. Here, the goal is to recognize and understand diversity, and promote peace and understanding in the pursuit of mutually beneficial objectives.

• The John L. and James S. Knight Foundation for Informed and Engaged Communities http://www.knightfoundation.org/about_knight/
• The Gallup organization conducts polling at the local, National, and even global levels to identify and analyze trends http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
• The Hub - A Resource Center for Community-Based and Nonprofit Journalism http://www.npjhub.org/organizations

2. Teams can be business units, companies, sports teams, tactical military units, home owners associations, and so on. As opposed to larger, more diverse organizations, teams usually are organized around a smaller number of mutually agreed upon goals and objectives. Individuals in teams usually have a role to play and are accountable to teammates and others who rely on them.

• Pew Research Center conducts polls to understand individual awareness, information flow, and the role of the press in helping people gain awareness. (See note below about polls and poll design.) http://people-press.org/
• The Consulting Team for leader development and building better teams http://www.theconsultingteam.com/W-BuildingBetterTeams.htm
• Meredith Belbin identified nine essential roles each effective team must include (Belbin Team Roles) http://www.belbin.com/

3. Individuals are people, each with his own unique skills, knowledge, and abilities. Individuals also have their own motives, needs, preferences, and ways of looking at the world. As people change over time, their goals and objectives also change. 

• Civic Source is a web portal for encouraging individuals and leaders to get involved in civic engagement  http://www.civicsource.org/about/
• The Jean and Steve Case Foundation for democratizing philanthropy and connecting philanthropists with causes http://www.casefoundation.org/
• The Gallup organization uses Clifton's Strengths Finder research to help align people to other people and to organizations based on individual strengths http://www.strengthsfinder.com/home.aspx.

Note about polls and poll design, and why I grouped Gallup and Pew in different levels. Public opinion polls reflect the aggregated opinions of individuals. The data can be disaggregated into constituent subgroups as well. Two types of polls are trend and flash. Trend polls are designed to show trends over time (e.g., the President's Approval Rating). For these, the same questions are asked to the same sample group on a recurring basis. In contrast are flash polls, designed to show responses to a particular question (e.g., predict who will win an election). Gallup and Pew conduct both types of polls. In my experience, Gallup has made more of an effort to aggregate poll results to national and even global levels, and Pew has more often disaggregated results to illustrate important distinctions between subgroups. Illustrative examples include  Gallup's survey of the world's Muslim population, and Pew's recent political typology study, in which people are sorted into a political bin based upon their answers to 20 questions. I grouped Gallup with Organizations and Pew with Teams to reflect this perceived difference in respective poll designs and intent. Check them both out!

Doane's Razor

We've probably all heard of Occam's Razor. (If not, a primer is HERE.) Bottom line: make your argument as simple as possible, but no simpler. If two competing explanations are both correct, chose the one that makes the fewest assumptions or takes the fewest steps. Occam's Razor is sometimes called the Law of Parsimony.

There is something to be said for being concise.

I often employ another "razor" in my thinking. I employ it so often, in fact, that I feel my razor should have a name and maybe even its own wiki page. Let me run it by you and let's see what you think. Here it goes:

Would the world be a better place if everyone (insert a description of the behavior in question)?

When considering a law or policy decision, think about the behavior you are trying to influence. Would the world be a better place if everyone observed Meatless Monday? If everyone allowed one car length of following distance per every 10 mph of speed? Abstained from smoking? Prayed?

If not, maybe the law or policy is not really that important. If so, you probably just wrote one of the 10 Commandments.

The idea of Doane's Razor is to promote the greater good, not to turn everyone into carbon copies of each other. If everyone recycled, the world would indeed be a better place. So promote recycling. If everyone drove more safely, observed common courtesy, and learned a second language, the world would indeed be a better place.

But if everyone were patient, if everyone remained calm, would anything ever get done?

Think about it.

Doane's Razor: good idea? If not, why not?

Installing Motorola Droid Motherboard - iFixit

photo by iFixit

This was fun!

Tore my Droid down and reassembled it in under an hour. Some special tools are required. Step-by-step illustrated instructions are available at iFixit.

Photo illustrates Step 18: using a spudger to pry the keyboard ribbon connector from the motherboard 

Great way to learn about how the Droid works. Don't worry, it's only a $600 hi-tech gadget!

Installing Motorola Droid Motherboard - iFixit

National Cancer Research Month

The AACR acknowledges May as National Cancer Research Month.

In recognition of high quality, innovative cancer research, the United States Congress declared May National Cancer Research Month in 2007 and 2011.

Cancer research saves lives!

National Cancer Research Month