From: Boris Nikolic Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 2:46 PM To: Jeffrey Epstein Subject: FW: Press Snapshot: Monday, August 26th, 2013

See good arti=le re balmer below.

Still awaiting for call reply

Sent from my Windows Phone

From: John Pinette
Sent: 8/=FD26/2013 4:17 PM
To: Bill Gates
Cc: DL-Press Snapshot
Subject: Press=Snapshot: Monday, August 26th, 2013

Hea=line

Jou=nalist

Out=et

Ful= Text

Energy

Nuclear Operator Raises Alarm on Crisis</=> Hiroko Tabuchi
New York Times<=i>
Article text
The New Nuclear Craze
Mark Bittman
New York Times<=i>
Article text
Pipeline-Capacity Squeeze Reroutes Crude Oil
Russell Gold
Wall Street Journal
Article text
U.S. Electrical Grid on the Edge of Failure <http://www.nature.com/news/us-electrical-grid-o=-the-edge-of-failure-1.13598>
Jeff Tollefson
Nature
Article text

Technology<=pan lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial"=,"sans-serif"">

Ballmer Departure From Microsoft Was More Sudden Than Portrayed by the Company
<http://allthingsd.com/20130825/ballmer-departure-from-=icrosoft-was-more-sudden-than-portrayed-by-the-company/> =/span>

Kara Swisher

All Things D

Article text

The Decline of E-Empires <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/krugman-the-decline-of-e=empires.html>

Paul Krugman

New York Times<=i>

Article text

As Amazon Stretches, Seattle's Downtown Is Reshaped <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/us/as-ama=on-stretches-seattles-downtown-is-reshaped.html>

Kirk Johnson & Nick Wingfield

New York Times<=i>

Article text

State Budgets and Heal=hcare Costs

How to Charge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater

Nina Bernstein

New York Times<=i>

Article text

State= scramble to get health-care law's insurance marketplaces up and running<=a>
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/states-scramble-to-get-health-care-laws-insurance-marketplaces-up-an=-running/2013/08/24/8c3b5d12-0c0a-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html>

Sarah Kliff and Sandhya S=mashekhar

Washington Post=/i>

Article text

80 House members: Shutdown better than Obamacare

Charles Babington<=p> Associated Press

Article text

Berkshire Hathaway

4

Philanthropy

Philanthropy: the givers club <http://www.livemint.com/Specials/vMhPPk6gIoLwmWwfSpmW3N/Philanthro=y-the-givers-club.html>

Cordelia Jenkins</=> Livemint and the Wall =treet Journal

Article text

Global Health and Deve=opment

Pat on the back or force for good: what purpose do development awards serve? <http://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2=13/aug/26/development-awards-prizes>

Mark Tran

Guardian blog</=>

Article text

Education</=>

A Chance at Learning <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/nyregion/a-chance-at-learning.ht=l>

Ginia Bellafante</=> New York Times<=i>

Article text

Obama goes for college ‘datapalooza’ <http://www.washingto=post.com/local/education/obama-goes-for-college-
datapalooza/2013/08/23/b93=0194-0bfc-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html>

Nick Anderson

Washington Post=/i>

Article text

Massively Online And Offline Too: How MOOCs Will Evolve In The Physical World
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/giovannirodrigu=z/2013/08/25/massively-online-and-offline-too-how-moocs-will-evolve-
in-the=physical-world/>

Giovanni Rodriguez=/p> Forbes

Article text

Women and Children

Indian Police Arrest Suspects in Two Gang Rapes
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014241=7887324906304579034600607425892.html>

Sean Mclain and Khushita =asan

Wall Street Journal

Article text

Is there any space in the development debate for African experts? <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-
professionals-net=ork/2013/aug/23/aspen-new-voices-africa-fellowship>

Andrew Quinn

Guardian blog</=>

Article text

Child marriage campaigners in south Asia receive $23m cash injection <http://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2013/aug/23/child=marriage-india-bangladesh-nepal>

Mark Tran

Guardian blog</=>

Article text

ARTICLE TEXT

Energy – Full text a=ticles

Nuclear Operator Raises Alarm on Crisis <http://www.nyt=mes.com/2013/08/24/world/asia/nuclear-operator-raises-
alarm-on-crisis.html=>

Hiroko Tabuchi – New York Times

=

The operator of Japan's=tsunami-hit nuclear power plant sounded the alarm on the gravity of the de=pening crisis of containment at the coastal site on Friday, saying that there are more than 200,000 tons of radioactive water in makes=ift tanks vulnerable to leaks, with no reliable way to check on them or an=where to transfer the water.

The latest disclosures ad= to a long list of recent accidents, leaks and breakdowns that have unders=ored grave vulnerabilities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site more than two years after a powerful earthquake and tsuna=i set off meltdowns at three reactors.

They come two weeks after=the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, promised that his government would take a =ore active role in the site's cleanup, raising questions over how seriously he has taken that pledge. Mr. Abe's government has co=tinued to push for a restart of the country's nuclear power program, and=he heads to the Middle East on Saturday to promote Japanese exports to the=region, including nuclear technology.

Mr. Abe also plans to lea= Tokyo's delegation to Argentina for the International Olympic Committee=92s final vote, set for Sept. 7, on the host city for the 2020 Olympics. Tokyo, 150 miles south of the stricken nuclear power plant, is ore of three finalists competing to host the games. The others are Istanbul =nd Madrid.

Opposition lawmakers here=have demanded that Mr. Abe stay home and declare a state of emergency.

"The nuclear crisis is =eal and ongoing, yet the government continues to look the other way," sa=d Yoshiko Kira of the opposition Japan Communist Party, which made significant gains in parliamentary elections last month.

"The government should =eclare a state of emergency right now, and intervene to stop the outflow o= contaminated water," Ms. Kira said at an anti-nuclear rally outside Mr. Abe's office in Tokyo.

Mr. Abe remains popular, =nd it is uncertain how large a liability the crisis at the Fukushima plant=will become for him.

But it has become increas=ngly clear that the latest problems may be too large for the plant's ope=ator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, to handle.

Tepco has built nearly 1,=00 tanks at the sprawling complex to store as many as 335,000 tons of cont=minated water, the product of coolant pumped into the reactors to keep their cores from overheating, and groundwater pouring into their b=eached basements at a rate of 400 tons a day. This week, Tepco said one ta=k had sprung a huge leak.

On Friday, Tepco presente= an even starker view of the situation, acknowledging that as much as 220,=00 tons of that water is stored in makeshift steel tanks similar to the one that is leaking. The operator said the 36-foot-tall cyl=ndrical tanks, meant as a temporary repository for the growing amount of r=diated water at the complex, used vulnerable rubber sealing and that their=ability to withstand radiation was not tested.

The tanks are susceptible=to leaks at the seams and through their concrete base, said Noriyuki Imaiz=mi, the acting general manager of Tepco's nuclear power division. A nearby drain can carry any leaked water to the sea, Mr. Imaizumi said, a=d high radiation readings along a section suggest that water has already t=aveled through the drain to the ocean.

The makeshift tanks also =ack water level gauges, making it difficult to detect leaks. Only two work=rs are assigned to checking nearly 1,000 tanks on two-hour patrols twice a day, Mr. Imaizumi said.

The Nuclear Regulation Au=hority, which the Japanese government ordered to more actively advise and =onitor Tepco's activities at the plant, had told the company to begin transferring the water from the makeshift tanks to better-built v=ssels. But after visiting the plant on Friday, an authority commissioner, =oyoshi Fuketa, said the vast quantities made doing so quickly "unrealist=c."

A series of pits Tepco du= to store some of the water also began leaking earlier this year, forcing =orkers to transfer the water into the steel tanks.

Experts have said they su=pect that more contaminated water is seeping out from under the melted-dow= reactors into the groundwater and the Pacific. Elevated levels of radioactive cesium in surrounding waters seem to confirm those s=spicions.

Tepco has said those leak= are not directly from beneath the reactors, but from maintenance tunnels =hat run along the coast and remain contaminated from the early days of the disaster.

But it also acknowledges =hat the water beneath the reactors is extremely contaminated, and experts =ay that if it does get into the ocean, it will surpass even the leaks that occurred in the disaster's early days.

"That prospect scares m.," Michio Aoyama, a senior scientist in the Oceanography and Geochemistr= Research Department at the government-affiliated Meteorological Research Institute, said in an interview this month.

"It's the ultimate, w=rst-case scenario," Professor Aoyama said.

Back to=top

The New Nuclear C=aze <http://opinion=tor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/the-new-nuclear-craze/>

Mark Bittman - New York Times

=

There is a new discussion=about nuclear energy, prompted by well-founded concerns about carbon emiss=ons and fueled by a pro-nuclear documentary called "Pandora's Promise." Add a statement by James E. Hansen — who famously sounded th= alarm on climate change — and, of course, industry propaganda, and pres=o: We Love Nukes.

Before we all become pro-=uclear greens, however, you've got to ask three questions: Is nuclear po=er safe and clean? Is it economical? And are there better alternatives?

No, no and yes. So let'= not swap the pending environmental disaster of climate change for another=that may be equally risky.

Despite all-out efforts a=d international cooperation, Fukushima, which scared Germany right out of =he nuclear power business, still isn't under control. Proponents of nuclear power promise new and safer technology, but these discussions a=e filled with "coulds"; no such plants exist. Nor would they reduce th= risks of proliferation. (Oh, that little thing.)

Nor would they do much to=mitigate the all-too-infrequently discussed dangers of uranium mining, whi=h uses vast amounts of water in the West — an area that can ill afford it — and is barely regulated or even studied. Thousands of ur=nium mines have been abandoned, and no one seems to know how many remain t= be cleaned up. The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxp=yers, not industry.

Then there's disposal o= spent fuel, which is not contained at the same safety level as active fue=, itself a scary thought. Decades into the nuclear age there remains, incredibly, no real plan for this; a patchwork scheme by the Nucl=ar Regulatory Commission, which appears to be even more industry-friendly =han most federal agencies, was rejected by an appeals court last year, and=the Obama administration is standing by its campaign promise (shocking, I know) to abandon the nuclear reposito=y at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The economic viability of=nuclear power is no more encouraging. Plants continue to close and generat=on rates continue to drop. Operators may indeed continue to make money on reactors, but that's only because federal subsidies are=enormous. Insurance costs are limited. Loans are guaranteed (the Solyndra =oan guarantee was half a billion dollars; in contrast, loan guarantees for=new nuclear plants may run $8 billion); cost recovery and return on investment are also assured for decades, and s=me operators are able to collect costs from ratepayers (and pay dividends =o shareholders) years before plants come online — even if they never com= online.

So they're economical a= long as you're the owner, because historically, subsidies for nuclear p=wer have been more than double the expense of power generation itself. While estimates of the costs of power generation vary wildly — a=lowing both proponents and detractors of any given power technology to mak= their cases — few of them take externalities (costs to the environment =r to public health, for example) into account. And nuclear power's externalities could exceed those for any ot=er form of power generation except coal.

That's why we're redu=ing coal usage — if we had a strong climate policy it would be gone in a=couple of deades, and nuclear should be right behind it. It's likely that no new nuclear plants will be built before true renewables are able t= take the place of scary, highly damaging energy sources.

Which brings us full circ=e: the new proponents of nuclear power say that since nuclear power is arg=ably preferable to coal, maybe we should subsidize the building of new plants.

If those were the only op=ions, maybe that argument would be a sound one. But they're not. Energy =fficiency (remember that?), natural gas (imperfect, yes, but improvable) and wind are all cheaper. Even solar is already less expensive=than nuclear power in good locations.

Some studies show that re=ewables can generate 80 percent of our electricity in 2050, using current =echnologies, while reducing carbon emissions from the electric sector by 80 percent. Climate change fears should be driving not old and d=sproven technologies but renewable ones, which are more practical. These t=chnologies remain relatively small — non-hydro renewables were around S =ercent of the total last year — but they're growing so fast (wind and solar use have quadrupled in the last =ive years) that just this week the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulato=y Commission predicted that solar power could soon begin to double every t=o years.

Utilities are afraid that=solar power will be to the electrical grid what PCs were to mainframes, or=e-mail to the Postal pro=it-making Service: power a technology grid with that it. will That's simply all to kill our its benefit. predecessors. Coal and nuclear power are both doomed, and the

Back to=top

Pipeline-=apacity Squeeze Reroutes Crude Oil
<http://online.=sj.com/article/SB10001424127887323838204579003093413317418.html>

Russell Gold — Wall Street Journal

More crude oil is moving =round the U.S. on trucks, barges and trains than at any point since the go=ernment began keeping records in 1981, as the energy industry devises ways to get around a pipeline-capacity shortage to take petroleum =rom new wells to refineries.

The improvised approach i= creating opportunities for transportation companies even as it strains ro=ds and regulators. And it is a precursor to what may be a larger change: the construction of more than $40 billion in oil pipelines =ow under way or planned for the next few years, according to energy advise= Wood Mackenzie.

"We are in effect re=plumbing the country," says Curt Anastasio, chief executive of NuStar=Energy LP, NS +0.58% a pipeline company in San Antonio. Oil is "f=owing in different directions and from new places."

U.S. oil production has r=ached its highest level in two decades, while imports have fallen dramatic=lly. A system built to import oil and deliver it to coastal refineries has become ill-equipped to handle rising production in Texas, N=rth Dakota and Canada's Alberta province.

"All of the pipes ar= pointed in the wrong direction," says Harold York, an oil researcher=at Wood Mackenzie. "We are turning the last 70 years of oil-industry history in North America on its head, and we are turning it on its head in=the next 10 to 15 years."

With oil prices persisten=ly above $100 a barrel, companies drilling new wells don't want to forgo r=venue while they wait years for new pipelines. That leaves them with trucks, trains and barges to move an increasing amount of crude.=/span>

Oil delivered to refineri=s by trucks grew 38% from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Infor=ation Administration, while crude on barges grew 53% and rail deliveries quadrupled. Although alternatives are growing rapidly, pip=lines and oceangoing tankers remain the primary method for delivering crud= to refineries.

In the Eagle Ford, a larg= four-year-old South Texas oil field, production has grown to more than 50=,000 barrels a day, from less than 1,000 in 2009, according to state statistics. Getting that torrent out of the sparsely populated re=ion has required modifications to the oil-delivery system.

For example, last year Nu=tar reversed a 16-inch pipeline built to carry crude imported from Africa =nd Europe northward from the Port of Corpus Christi. Now, the pipeline flows south, taking delivery from hundreds of trucks that fil= up at individual wells. Some of the 175,000 barrels a day moving through =he pipe is loaded onto barges at Corpus Christi and towed toward refinerie= near Houston.

Earlier this year, Philli=s 66 began putting some of this crude on ships for a 2,200-mile journey ar=und Florida to its refinery in Linden, N.J.

The heavy trucks moving E=gle Ford crude are causing headaches for residents and local officials, ri=ping up roads and causing traffic tie-ups.

"These are rural roa=s built for 10 cars an hour, and now it's 100 vehicles an hour, and 75 of =hem are 80,000-pound trucks," says Tom Voelkel, president of Dupre Logistics LLC. The Lafayette, La., company started hauling crude in Eagle =ord in November 2011and has more than 100 drivers full time in the region=

The Texas Legislature app=opriated $450 million this year to repair and improve roads in oil-produci=g counties. "It doesn't even begin to reach where it needs to reach," says Daryl Fowler, the chief elected county official in Cu=ro, Texas, about a hundred miles southeast of San Antonio.

"We've seen a fourfo=d increase in congestion around here," he says. "The roads are c=umbling."

In July, the Texas transp=rtation department decided to convert 83 miles of state road in six oil-bo=m counties from pavement to gravel, to reduce repair costs and slow traffic.

Trucks filled with Eagle =ord crude are also heading 100 miles west to a barge canal. The first barg= of crude departed in September 2011, heading south toward the Gulf of Mexico and refineries near Houston. Now the canal moves 1.6 mi=lion barrels a month, says Jennifer Stastny, executive director of the Por= of Victoria.

"It's like putting y=ur 5-year-old to bed one night and he wakes up the next morning as a 16-ye=r-old, with the appetite and demands of a 16-year-old," she says.

In North Dakota, trains m=ve 69% of the state's 800,000 barrels a day of crude, according to state f=gures. Energy companies say they value rail's ability to deliver crude to the highest-paying markets.

But the deadly runaway cr=de train crash in Canada's Quebec province in July, which incinerated a sm=ll town and killed at least 47 people, highlighted the risks of the mile-long crude trains crisscrossing the country. The U.S. governme=t is imposing new regulations on oil shipments by rail.

Some state regulators won=er if their local efforts leave them prepared for a train accident, in par= because federal railroad rules pre-empt state and local control over trains.

In Washington state, &quo=;we can't say (to train operators) you have to have oil-spill contingency =tans in order to operate," says Curt Hart, a spokesman for the state's Department of Ecology. "We do that for oil tankers, barges, l=rge commercial vessels and refineries."

spill-response Home to five officials refineries, and inspectors. =he state The levies tax a doesn't per-barrel apply tax to on rail crude shipments. delivered by tankers and barges,=which pays for

The American Association =f Railroads says it is prepared for growing crude shipments because it has=long carried hazardous cargoes. In 2008, major U.S. railroads carried 9,500 carloads of crude, the association says, and are on pace thi= year to carry 389,000.

Most industry analysts be=ieve that while crude on trains will last, truck and barge traffic will de=line once new pipelines come into service.

Environmental groups have=criticized some pipeline projects, including the Keystone XL, meant to mov= Canadian oil to Gulf Coast refineries. The federal government is still studying the Keystone pipeline and has yet to issue needed permit=.

Steve Kean, president and=chief operating officer of Kinder Morgan Inc., KMI +0.30% one of sever=l interrelated companies that own or operate 82,000 miles of North American pipeline, says government agencies thoroughly vet new proje=ts.

Falling imports, infrastr=cture investments and increased manufacturing are just some of the benefit= of newly abundant energy supplies, he says. "This has got to be one of the best things that has happened in our economy in the past =0 years. It is better than the iPad."

Back to=top

U.S. Electr=cal Grid on the Edge of Failure <http://www.nat=re.com/news/us-electrical-grid-on-the-edge-of-failure-1.13598>

Jeff Tollefson — Nature

=

Facebook can lose a few u=ers and remain a perfectly stable network, but where the national grid is =oncerned simple geography dictates that it is always just a few transmission lines from collapse.

co-author That is according Shlomo Havlin to a ma=hematical of Bar-Ilan University study of in spatial Ramat-Gan, networks Israel, by physicists says that the in Israel research and builds the United=States. on earlier work Study by inc=rporating a more explicit analysis of how the spatial nature of physical n=tworks affects their fundamental stability. The upshot, published today in=Nature Physics, is that spatial networks are necessarily dependent on any number of critical nodes whose f=ilure can lead to abrupt — and unpredictable — collapsel.

The electric grid, which =perates as a series of networks that are defined by geography, is a prime =xample, says Havlin. "Whenever you have such dependencies in the system, failure in one place leads to failure in another place, whi=h cascades into collapse."

The warning comes ten yea=s after a blackout that crippled parts of the midwest and northeastern Uni=ed States and parts of Canada. In that case, a series of errors resulted in the loss of three transmission lines in Ohio over the c=urse of about an hour. Once the third line went down, the outage cascaded =owards the coast, cutting power to some 50 million people. Havlin says tha= this outage is an example of the inherent instability his study describes, but others question whether the =eam's conclusions can really be extrapolated to the real world.</=>

"I suppose I should be =pen-minded to new research, but I'm not convinced," says Jeff Dagle, an =lectrical engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, who served on the government task force that inve=tigated the 2003 outage. "The problem is that this doesn't reflect the=physics of how the power grid operates."

Critical order

Havlin and his colleagues=focused on idealized scenarios. They found that randomly structured networ=s — such as social networks — degrade slowly as nodes are removed, which in the real world might mean there is time to diagnose and =ddress a problem before a system collapses. By contrast, the connections o= orderly lattice structures have more

critical nodes, which increase the i=stability. The problem is that such orderly networks are always operating near an indefinable edge, Havli= says. To reduce that risk, he recommends adding a small number of longer =ransmission lines that provide short cuts to different parts of the grid.<=span>

Benjamin Carreras, a phys=cist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who has conducted simil=r work2, says that network theory can be useful for providing insight into electric grids but must be complemented with more complex mod=ls that attempt to represent both the physical realities and the responsiv=ness of the modern electric grid. Although in some cases adding long lines=can benefit the overall stability of an electric system, Carreras' work suggests that in certain circumsta=ces such an approach allows problems to propagate even farther.

"More connections may s=abilize some processes, by, for instance, increasing the number of paths t= generators, but also may destabilize others," Carreras says. "One cannot make generic statements on this topic."

Although local outages ca=sed by falling trees knocking down distribution lines are common, large-sc=le failures within the core ne transmission lines rarely occur on a modern electric grid. Before 2003, the last major blackout in t=e United States had been on the west coast in 1996, and more recently an o=tage has struck in the San Diego area.

Dagle says that the 2003 =lackout stemmed from a combination of bad vegetation management — the fi=st three lines tripped after sagging into trees but were all within their load rating — and a series of monitoring and communications=breakdowns. Vegetation requirements have since been standardized, and a ne= generation of sensors is providing grid operators with more information a=out what is happening across the grid at any given moment.

“Many more utilities ha=e much more data,” Dagle says. “The next phase of our voyage is to mak= better use of that data.”

Back to=top

Technology – Full te=t articles

=/a>Ballmer Departure From Microsoft Was More Sudden Than Portrayed by the Company
<http://allthingsd.com/20130825/ba=lmer-departure-from-microsoft-was-more-sudden-than-portrayed-by-the-compan=/> =br> Kara Swisher – All Things D

According to sources close to the situation,=the departure of CEO Steve Ballmer from Microsoft last week was more sudden than was depicted by the company in its announcement that he=would be retiring <http://=Ilthingsd.com/20130823/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-to-retire-within-12-monthsk within the next year in a planned smooth tran=ition.

It was neither planned nor as smooth as port=ayed.

While the decision to go seems to have technically been Ballmer's, i=terviews with dozens of people inside and outside the company, including many close to the situation, indicate that he had not aimed to l=ave this soon and especially after the recent restructuring of the company=that he had intensely planned.

Instead, sources said Ballmer's timeline had been moved up drastical=y — first by him and then the nine-member board, including his longtime partner and Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates — afte= all agreed that it was best if he left sooner than later.

That was due to a number of increasingly problematic issues on the imm=diate horizon — including a potentially nasty proxy fight, continued business performance declines and, perhaps most of all, that Bal=mer's leadership was becoming a very obvious lightning rod.

Interestingly, Ballmer actually indicated that he had planned on stayi=g in his letter about his imp=nding departure <http://allthingsd.com/201.301323/steve-ballmers-memo-to-employees-=nnouncing-his-retirement-from-microsoftk noting: "My original thoughts on timing woul= have had my retirement happen in the middle of our transformation to a de=ices and services company focused on empowering customers in the activities they value most."

That sentence spurred much chatter inside the company, including the p=rsistent rumor that Gates had dropped the bomb on Ballmer. That sentiment was further underscored when Ballmer's letter contained n= reference or thanks to Gates, with whom he has been tightly tethered over=the last several decades. Its absence has been much discussed internally a= Microsoft, where it has been seen as an unusual slight and a sign of a rift.

Gates also did not reference his longtime business partner in any cele=ratory manner in Microsoft's announcement. "As a member of the succession planning committee, I'll work closely with the other memb=rs of the board to identify a great new CEO," said Gates, in the entiret= of the quote about Ballmer's retirement. "We're fortunate to have S=eve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties."

Other sources cautioned that it was not indicative of tensions between=the pair, but was done to minimize "lame duck concerns" that might arise if Ballmer was portrayed as already out the door.

Those sources also insist that Gates never asked Ballmer to step down =ooner, although they acknowledge that he also did not — as Gates had in the past — disagree that it was best that he move on.

"Did Gates instigate it? No," said one source with knowledge of th= situation. "But was he as supportive of Ballmer as he had been in the past? Maybe not."

That was still a big change, of course. Gates — who has always been =nd remains the key decision-maker on Microsoft's board — had always been Ballmer's major backer, despite increasing pressure both ext=rnally and from other directors for him to step down.

Gates had rejected such suggestions for years. That included former di=ector and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who many sources said had been one of the first to urge that the company replace Ballmer as CEO,=as well as from a spate of Wall Street investors complaining about the com=any's declining value in the Ballmer years.

As AllThingsD's John Paczkowski=wrote on Friday <http://allthingsd.com/20130823/steve-ballmer-just-made-769- milli=n/> : "Here's one metric by which Ballmer will b= judged harshly. On the last day of 1999, the day before he took over as CEO, Microsoft's market capitalization wa= $600 billion. On the day before he announced his intention to retire, it =as less than $270 billion."

That's a damning number, of course, coupled with a widespread sentim=nt that Ballmer had missed critical trends in tech under his tenure. Despite a strong growth in revenue, investors and others had long =oncluded that Microsoft had <http://allthingsd.com/20130823/for-ballmer-resistance-was-futile=> thr=ved when .=/p> Gates was CEO and waned under Ballmer's rule

Still, until recently, there has been no signal from the company indic=ting any change in top leadership. In fact, the management reorganization backed strongly by the board a month ago had essentially pl=ced Ballmer at the center of the structure under a plan described as “One Microsoft.”=/span> <http://allthingsd.com/20130711/one-microsoft-ballmer-finally-ann=unces-far-reaching-realignment-around-devices-and-services/>

And, at the time of the restructuring announcement in July, Ballmer’s definite–and clear message <http://allthingsd.com/20130711/heres-microsofts-strategy-essay-a-d-reorg-announcement-memos/> was that he was there to stay:

"Lots of change. But in all of this, many key things remains the sam=. Our incredible people, our spirit, our commitment, our belief in the transformative power of technology — our Microsoft technology —=to make the world a better place for billions of people and millions of bu=inesses around the world. It's why I come to work inspired every day. It=92s why we've evolved before, and why we're evolving now. Because we're not done. Let's go."

Though early in its rollout, the changes have been jarring and created=a level of chaos at the company that has led to much grumbling internally. It also did not help that the restructuring was quickly follow=d by a dismal Q4 performance by Microsoft.

<http://allthingsd.com/20130718/liveblogging-microsoft-q4-earning=-a-surfeit-of-surfaces-and-the-post-pc-era-troubleh As more. I wrote In addition, in mid-July the tech : giant "Microsoft took a had $900 a bad millio= fourth charge quarter, related mostly to having because to cut many the people=are price of its Surface not using RT PCs tablet, any

which had — as you might imagine — an =mpact on results. Missed profit expectations, missed revenue, missed all o=er the ying-yang."

With the prospect that the next quarter could be weaker still and with=numerous reports of late that there has been slowing of adoption from its new flagship Windows 8 offering, Ballmer and the board finally al=gned to move his departure date sooner.

Most critical to that decision, source said, were increased board worr=es that recent pressure from activist investor <http://allthingsd.com/20130603/microsoft-ponders-major-restructu=ing-amid-renewed-wall-street-focus-on-stock/> Va=ueAct — which has a large stake in the company — had a good=chance of succeeding in its efforts to obtain a seat on the board of Micro=oft, especially if Ballmer stayed in place.

And even if the software giant was able to thwart that from happening,=said several sources, such a public fight is untenable for the company, since it was likely to attract even more scrutiny to Ballmer=92s performance and perhaps even more investor action.

ValueAct has until August 30 to notify Microsoft if it plans a proxy b=ttle, and sources said it still wants more that Ballmer's retirement. In talks, said sources, it has asked for an aggressive stock buyback and a=so a dividend increase, which might assuage its efforts to garner a board =eat.

Ballmer denied any pressure =rom ValueAct
<http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2021676856_ballm=rboardxml.html> specifically in his decision in
an interview with =he Seattle Times, though sources said that was simply bluster.

And, even with mounting pressure on him, Ballmer definitely portrayed =he change as his decision in an interview he gave to=ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley <http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-ballmer-on-his-biggest-regret-th=-next-ceo-and-more-7000019810/> last week, after his retirement announc=ment.

"I would say for me, yeah, I've thought about it for a long time, =ut the timing became more clear to me over the course of the last few months," he insisted.

When asked if Gates asked him to stay or go, he said no, apparently to=both. "Bill respects my decision. I mean, it's one of these things when if it's — you know, ultimately these kinds of things have =o be one's own personal decision."

That statement also struck many inside the company as a quick shift. B=Ilmer, said sources, had been jumping enthusiastically into business review meetings, as part of the new structure, over the last mont=. In addition, he had expressed to many employees his excitement at being =art of the changes he had initiated.

But, in meetings after the announcement, numerous sources inside the c=mpany said Ballmer seemed uncharacteristically chastened and quiet, in contrast to his usual confident and forceful manner.

"He was definitely not leaving and then he suddenly was," said one=source. "Even if today's Steve made the choice, it was a choice yesterday's Steve did not want to."

Another source, close to the board, perhaps explained it best: "If V=lueAct got on the board, I think Ballmer finally realized that meant it was going to be the hard way from then on out until he left and h= did not want that for a company he clearly loves and has been his life.=94

Now, those inside the company are turning to what comes next. While no= everyone on the board thought that Ballmer should step down without a new CEO in place, it's moot now as Microsoft turbocharges the =rocess — in place for several years now — to select its next leader.</=pan>

But, though the committee is headed up by John Thompson, CEO of Virtua= Instruments and the former CEO of security software giant Symantec, most expect Gates — as usual — to be the key decision maker =n that choice, too.

A Microsoft spokesman declined comment.

Back to=top

<=span>

The Decl=ne of E-Empires <http://www.nyt=mes.com/2013/08/26/opinion/krugman-the-decline-of-e-empires.html>

Paul Krugman — New York Times

&nb=p;

Steve Ballmer's surpris= announcement that he will be resigning as Microsoft's C.E.O. has set of= a huge flood of commentary. Being neither a tech geek nor a management guru, I can't add much on those fronts. I do, however, think = know a bit about economics, and I also read a lot of history. So the Ball=er announcement has me thinking about

network externalities and Ibn Khaldu=. And thinking about these things, I'd argue, can help ensure that we draw the right lessons from this part=cular corporate upheaval.

First, about network exte=nalities: Consider the state of the computer industry circa 2000, when Mic=osoft's share price hit its peak and the company seemed utterly dominant. Remember the T-shirts depicting Bill Gates as a Borg (part of th= hive mind from "Star Trek"), with the legend, "Resistance is futile= Prepare to be assimilated"? Remember when Microsoft was at the center o= concerns about antitrust enforcement?

The odd thing was that no=ody seemed to like Microsoft's products. By all accounts, Apple computer= were better than PCs using Windows as their operating system. Yet the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers ran Windows. Why?

The answer, basically, is=that everyone used Windows because everyone used Windows. If you had a Win=ows PC and wanted help, you could ask the guy in the next cubicle, or the tech people downstairs, and have a very good chance of get=ing the answer you needed. Software was designed to run on PCs; peripheral=devices were designed to work with PCs.

That's network external=ties in action, and it made Microsoft a monopolist.

The story of how that sta=e of affairs arose is tangled, but I don't think it's too unfair to sa= that Apple mistakenly believed that ordinary buyers would value its superior quality as much as its own people did. So it charged premium =rices, and by the time it realized how many people were choosing cheaper m=chines that weren't insanely great but did the job, Microsoft's domina=ce was locked in.

Now, any such discussion =rings out the Apple faithful, who insist that anything Windows can do Appl= can do better and that only idiots buy PCs. They may be right. But it doesn't matter, because there are many such idiots, myself=included. And Windows still dominates the personal computer market.=/p>

The trouble for Microsoft=came with the rise of new devices whose importance it famously failed to g=asp. "There's no chance," declared Mr. Ballmer in 2007, "that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share."

How could Microsoft have =een so blind? Here's where Ibn Khaldun comes in. He was a 14th-century l=lamic philosopher who basically invented what we would now call the social sciences. And one insight he had, based on the history of =is native North Africa, was that there was a rhythm to the rise and fall o= dynasties.

Desert tribesmen, he argu=d, always have more courage and social cohesion than settled, civilized fo=k, so every once in a while they will sweep in and conquer lands whose rulers have become corrupt and complacent. They create a new d=nasty — and, over time, become corrupt and complacent themselves, ready =o be overrun by a new set of barbarians.

I don't think it's mu=h of a stretch to apply this story to Microsoft, a company that did so wel= with its operating-system monopoly that it lost focus, while Apple — still wandering in the wilderness after all those years — was =lert to new opportunities. And so the barbarians swept in from the desert.=/span>

Sometimes, by the way, ba=barians are invited in by a domestic faction seeking a shake-up. This may =e what's happening at Yahoo: Marissa Mayer doesn't look much like a fierce Bedouin chieftain, but she's arguably filling the same fun=tional role.

Anyway, the funny thing i= that Apple's position in mobile devices now bears a strong resemblance =o Microsoft's former position in operating systems. True, Apple produces high-quality products. But they are, by most accounts, little if =ny better than those of rivals, while selling at premium prices.

So why do people buy them= Network externalities: lots of other people use iWhatevers, there are mor= apps for iOS than for other systems, so Apple becomes the safe and easy choice. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Is there a policy moral h=re? Let me make at least a negative case: Even though Microsoft did not, i= fact, end up taking over the world, those antitrust concerns weren't misplaced. Microsoft was a monopolist, it did extract a lot of m=nopoly rents, and it did inhibit innovation. Creative destruction means th=t monopolies aren't forever, but it doesn't mean that they're harmle=s while they last. This was true for Microsoft yesterday; it may be true for Apple, or Google, or someone not yet on our =adar, tomorrow.

Back =o top

State Budgets and Heal=hcare costs – Full text articles

How to Cha=ge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html/>

Nina Bernstein — New York Times

It is one of the most com=on components of emergency medicine: an intravenous bag of sterile saltwat=r.

Luckily for anyone who ha= ever needed an IV bag to replenish lost fluids or to receive medication, =t is also one of the least expensive. The average manufacturer's price, according to government data, has fluctuated in recent years from 4= cents to $1.

Yet there is nothing eith=r cheap or simple about its ultimate cost, as I learned when I tried to tr=ce the commercial path of IV bags from the factory to the veins of more than 100 patients struck by a May 2012 outbreak of food pois=ning in upstate New York.

Some of the patients' b=lls would later include markups of 100 to 200 times the manufacturer's p=ice, not counting separate charges for "IV administration." And on other bills, a bundled charge for "IV therapy" was almost 1,000 tim=s the official cost of the solution.

It is no secret that medi=al care in the United States is overpriced. But as the tale of the humble =V bag shows all too clearly, it is secrecy that helps keep prices high: hidden in the underbrush of transactions among multiple buyer= and sellers, and in the hieroglyphics of hospital bills.

At every step from manufa=turer to patient, there are confidential deals among the major players, in=luding drug companies, purchasing organizations and distributors, and insurers. These deals so obscure prices and profits that even particip=nts cannot say what the simplest component of care actually costs, let alo=e what it should cost.

And that leaves taxpayers=and patients alike with an inflated bottom line and little or no way to ch=llenge it.

A PRICE IN FLUX

In the food-poisoning cas=, some of the stricken were affluent, and others barely made ends meet. So=e had private insurance; some were covered by government programs like Medicare and Medicaid; and some were uninsured.

In the end, those factors=strongly (and sometimes perversely) affected overall charges for treatment= including how much patients were expected to pay out of pocket. But at the beginning, there was the cost of an IV bag of normal sa=ine, one of more than a billion units used in the United States each year.=/span>

"People are shocked whe= they hear that a bag of saline solution costs far less than their cup of =offee in the morning," said Deborah Spak, a spokeswoman for Baxter International, one of three global pharmaceutical companies that ma=e nearly all the IV solutions used in the United States.

It was a rare unguarded c=mment. Ms. Spak — like a spokesman for Hospira, another giant in the fie=d — later insisted that all information about saline solution prices was private.

In fact, manufacturers ar= required to report such prices annually to the federal government, which =ases Medicare payments on the average national price plus 6 percent. The limit for one liter of normal saline (a little more than a =uart) went to $1.07 this year from 46 cents in 2010, an increase manufactu=ers linked to the cost of raw materials, fuel and transportation. That wou=d seem to make it the rare medical item that is cheaper in the United States than in France, where the price =t a typical hospital in Paris last year was 3.62 euros, or $4.73. One-lite= IV bags normally contain nine grams of salt, less than two teaspoons. Muc= of it comes from a major Morton Salt operation in Rittman, Ohio, which uses a subterranean salt deposit fo=med millions of years ago. The water is local to places like Round Lake, 1=1., or Rocky Mount, N.C., where Baxter and Hospira, respectively, run thei= biggest automated production plants under sterility standards set by the Food and Drug Administration.<=p>

But even before the finis=ed product is sold by the case or the truckload, the real cost of a bag of=normal saline, like the true cost of medical supplies from gauze to heart implants, disappears into an opaque realm of byzantine cont=acts, confidential rebates and fees that would be considered illegal kickb=cks in many other industries.

IV bags can function like=cheap milk and eggs in a high-priced grocery store, or like the one-cent c=llphone locked into an expensive service contract. They serve as loss leaders in exclusive contracts with "preferred manufacturers" =hat bundle together expensive drugs and basics, or throw in "free" med=cal equipment with costly consequences.

Few hospitals negotiate t=ese deals themselves. Instead, they rely on two formidable sets of middlem=n: a few giant group-purchasing organizations that negotiate high-volume contracts, and a few giant distributors that buy and store med=cal supplies and deliver them to client hospitals.

Proponents of this system=say it saves hospitals billions in economies of scale. Critics say the mid=lemen not only take their cut, but they have a strong interest in keeping most prices high and competition minimal.

The top three group-purch=sing organizations now handle contracts for more than half of all institut=onal medical supplies sold in the United States, including the IVs used in the food-poisoning case, which were bought and taken by tr=ck to regional warehouses by big distributors.

These contracts proved to=be another black box. Debbie Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cardinal Health, =ne of the three largest distributors, said she could not discuss costs or prices under "disclosure rules relative to our investor=relations."

Distributors match differ=nt confidential prices for the same product with each hospital's contrac=, she said, and sell information about the buyers back to manufacturers4=pan>

A huge Cardinal distribut=on center is in Montgomery, N.Y. — only 30 miles, as it happens, from th= landscaped grounds of the Buddhist monastery in Carmel, N.Y., where many of the food-poisoning victims fell ill on Mother's Day 2012.<=span>

Among them were families =n 10 tour buses that had left Chinatown in Manhattan that morning to watch=dragon dances at the monastery. After eating lunch from food stalls there, some traveled on to the designer outlet stores at Woodbury C=mmons, about 30 miles away, before falling sick.

The symptoms were vicious= "Within two hours of eating that rice that I had bought, I was lying on=the ground barely conscious," said Dr. Elizabeth Frost, 73, an anesthesiologist from Purchase in Westchester County who was visiting t=e monastery gardens with two friends. "I can't believe no one died."=/span>

About 100 people were tak=n to hospitals in the region by ambulance; 5 were admitted and the rest re=eased the same day. The New York State Department of Health later found the cause was a common bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, from =mproperly cooked or stored food sold in the stalls.

MYSTERIOUS CHARGES=/p>

The sick entered a health=care ecosystem under strain, swept by consolidation and past efforts at co=t containment.

For more than a decade, h=spitals in the Hudson Valley, like those across the country, have scramble= for mergers and alliances to offset economic pressures from all sides. The five hospitals where most of the victims were treated are a=I part of merged entities jockeying for bargaining power and market share =97 or worrying that other players will leave them struggling to survive.4=pan>

The Affordable Care Act e=courages these developments as it drives toward a reimbursement system tha= strives to keep people out of hospitals through more coordinated, cost-efficient care paid on the basis of results, not services. But the bi=ling mysteries in the food poisoning case show how easily cost-cutting can=turn into cost-shifting.

A Chinese-American toddle= from Brooklyn and her 56-year-old grandmother, treated and released withi= hours from the emergency room at St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital, ran up charges of more than $4,000 and were billed for $1,400 — the hosprtal's rate for the uninsured, even though the family is covered by a hea=th maintenance organization under Medicaid, the federal-state program for =oor people.

The charges included "1= therapy," billed at $787 for the adult and $393 for the child, which surgests that the difference in the amount of saline infused, typically less than a liter, could alone account for several hundred dollars.=/p>

Tricia O'Malley, a spok=swoman for the hospital, would not disclose the price it pays per IV bag o= break down the therapy charge, which she called the hospital's "private pay rate," or the sticker price charged to people without ins=rance. She said she could not explain why patients covered by Medicaid wer= billed at all.

Eventually the head of th= family, an electrician's helper who speaks little English, complained t= HealthFirst, the Medicaid H.M.O. It paid $119 to settle the grandmother's $2,168 bill, without specifying how much of the payment war for the IV. It paid $66.50 to the doctor, who had billed $606.

At White Plains Hospital,=a patient with private insurance from Aetna was charged $91 for one unit o= Hospira IV that cost the hospital 86 cents, according to a hospital spokeswoman, Eliza O'Neill.

Ms. O'Neill defended th= markup as "consistent with industry standards." She said it reflected="not only the cost of the solution but a variety of related services and processes," like procurement, biomedical handling and storage, appar=ntly not included in a charge of $127 for administering the IV and $893 fo= emergency-room services.

The patient, a financial =ervices professional in her 50s, ended up paying $100 for her visit. "Ho=estly, I don't understand the system at all," said the woman, who shared the information on the condition that she not be named.<=p>

Dr. Frost, the anesthesio=ogist, spent three days in the same hospital and owed only $8, thanks to i=surance coverage by United HealthCare. Still, she was baffled by the charges: $6,844, including $546 for six liters of saline that cost =he hospital $5.16.

"It's just absolutely=absurd." she said. "That's saltwater."

last fall, I appealed to =he New York State Department of Health for help in mapping the charges for=rehydrating patients in the food poisoning episode. Deploying software normally used to detect Medicaid fraud, a team compiled a chart o= what Medicaid and Medicare were billed in six of the cases.

But the department has ye= to release the chart. It is under indefinite review, Bill Schwarz, a depa=tment spokesman, said, "to ensure confidential information is not compromised."

Back to=top

States scramble to get health-care law's insurance marketplaces up and running<a>
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/states-scramble-to-get-health-care-aws-insurance-marketplaces-up-and-running/2013/08/24/8c3b5d12-0c0a-11e3-89=4-f97ab3b3c677_story.html>

Sarah Kliff and Sandhya S=mashekhar - Washington Post

=

With a key deadline appro=ching, state officials across the country are scrambling to get the Afford=ble Care Act's complex computer systems up and running, reviewing contingency plans and, in some places, preparing for delays.

Oct. 1 is the scheduled l=unch date for the health-care law's insurance marketplaces — online si=es where uninsured people will be able to shop for coverage, sometimes using a government subsidy to purchase a plan. An estimated 7 minlion people are expected to use these portals to purchase health coverage =n 2014.

The task is unprecedented=in its complexity, requiring state and federal data systems to transmit re=ms of information between one another. Some officials in charge of setting up the systems say that the tight deadlines have forced =hem to take shortcuts when it comes to testing and that some of the bells =nd whistles will not be ready.

"There's a certain le=el of panic about how much needs to be accomplished but a general sense th=t the bare minimum to get the system functional will be done," said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid=Directors. "It will by no means be as smooth and as seamless as people e=pected."

Oregon announced this mon=h that it will delay consumers' direct access to its marketplace, openin= the Web site only to brokers and consumer-assistance agents in order to shield consumers from opening-day glitches.

"Even though we're to=ting now, once you actually have the system up, you don't know what the =ugs will be," said Amy Fauver, spokeswoman for Cover Oregon, the state agency implementing the law there.

In California, which has =he nation's largest uninsured population, health officials have begun hi=ting that they may have a similar problem.

"It's a complex syste=, and there's a lot of navigation that needs to happen," said Oscar Hi=algo, a spokesman for Covered California. He said the agency will know by early September whether the system will be ready in time.</=>

If not, he said, customer= will still be able to log on to the Web site and peruse insurance plans a=d view prices. When they get to the final step, however, they will not be able to sign up. They will have to contact a customer ser=ice representative to complete the final enrollment step.

Officials with the Distri=t of Columbia's Health Link decided to put off building a Spanish versio= of its Web site until later this year, giving its staff bandwidth to complete other tasks they see more critical to the launch.

Until then, the District =ill have bilingual call-center workers and in-person helpers who will be a=le to help Spanish speakers navigate the site.

The hiccups are troubling=to advocates, who worry that there will be mistakes that result in people =eing erroneously rejected by Medicaid or denied subsidies to which they are entitled. They are concerned that impediments will disco=rage the uninsured from signing up for coverage.

"There will be somethin= up and running, but there will be serious, serious difficulties with it=94 that could result in delays and errors initially, said Robert H. Bonthius Jr., a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. "It's=an extremely ambitious program, well-intentioned, that is going to be very=difficult to accomplish, and it's going to be months and maybe years bef=re it really gets sorted out."

Much of the difficulty st=ms from the information the federal government needs to determine who qual=fies for which health-law program, including data on citizenship, income, residence and employment. State systems will need to communicate s=amlessly with a federal data hub that pulls in information from the Depart=ent of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service, among others.</=pan>

President Obama has predi=ted "bumps" and "glitches" in the initial launch of the exchanges.=Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has acknowledged a very tight time frame that has required the government to test the hub i= imperfect conditions, but she has said it will still launch on time.

"Ideally what you would=do if you were building a data hub that needs this kind of information, yo='d put a piece together and test that. You test it, if you will, sequentially," she said in an interview. "We have to build and t=st simultaneously. ... It's a big operational issue, but a=l systems are a go for the first of October."

Sixteen states decided to=build their own health-insurance marketplaces, with the rest leaving all o= much of the task to the federal government. Those states are now in the process of, or have completed, testing to share data back a=d forth with the data hub.

"There were times when =he hub had to be taken offline... . So we couldn't test un=il they got it back online," said Jon Hager, executive director of Nevad='s Silver State Health Insurance Exchange. "But I think the end result, and=everything I've seen, says it will be ready."

Hager has invested signif=cant time preparing contingency plans for his state, including one for a s=tuation in which the federal data hub does not work, though he said he believes that to be a relatively unlikely scenario.

"If there's a new rul=, that could throw us into a quandary," Hager said. "You could have, I=don't know, a disaster or a fire. I think we've got backup and conting=ncy plans for everything."

The federal government ha=dles all testing of these connections for states that did not build a port=I and chose instead to rely on the federally facilitated marketplace.

State Medicaid programs, =hich typically serve low-income individuals, are also undergoing testing w=th the federal data hub. At least one state, Arizona, has not begun that work. It will start testing in September, a late start that=worries the executive director of the state's marketplace.

"It's a concern that =e're testing this late," said Tom Betlach, who runs the Arizona Health=Care Cost Containment System. "Usually when you do testing, you have to go ahead and address any changes. Given the October 1st start date, I d=n't know much of it will be an iterative process."

Back to=top

80 House member=: Shutdown better than Obamacare
<http://seattle=imes.com/html/healthcare/2021668926_houseshutdownxml.html>

Charles Babington — Associated Press

More than one-third of Ho=se Republicans urged their leader Thursday to trigger a government shutdow= rather than pay for the implementation of the health-care law they call Obamacare.

A letter from 80 Republic=ns asked Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to resist any spending bills that w=uld accommodate the new health-care law, which is nearing a critical stage of signing up millions of Americans for health coverage.<=span>

Because it's virtually =ertain that President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate would rejec= such demands, leaders of both parties say the standoff likely would result in a partial shutdown of the federal government, similar to t=ose that occurred in 1995 and 1996.

The letter is mixed news =or Boehner and other GOP leaders who view a government shutdown as politic=lly unwise.

The federal 2013 fiscal y=ar ends Sept. 30. New money must be appropriated by then to avoid a shutdo=n of countless government offices and agencies.

Voters chiefly blamed con=ressional Republicans for the mid-1990s shutdowns, and the fallout boosted=Democratic President Clinton. Ever since, many establishment Republicans have urged the party to avoid using shutdown threats as a barg=ining tool.

But a new generation of t=a-party-backed conservatives rejects the advice. They say "Obamacare" =97 officially the Affordable Care Act — is so unpopular and unworkable that it justifies extraordinary tactics to block it.

A possible solution to th= budget impasse, often used in past years, would involve a "continuing r=solution" to keep funding the government at current levels. Many top Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, sa= it's impossible to carve out money for Obamacare in any appropriations =easure.

The House letter was auth=red by Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. It urges Boehner "to affirmatively de-f=nd the implementation and enforcement of Obamacare in any relevant appropriations bill," including "any continuing appropriations bill.=94

At least a dozen Senate R=publicans have signed a similar letter.

In recent years, Democrat= and Republicans in Congress repeatedly have failed to reach major comprom=ses on spending.

The impasses led this yea= to automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, whic= have hampered some federal agencies and helped shrink the deficit.

Back to=top

Berkshire Hathaway —=Full text articles

No breaking news

Back to=top

Philanthropy — Full =ext articles

Philanthropy: the givers club <http://www.liv=mint.com/Specials/vMhPPk6gloLwmWwfSpmW3N/Philanthropy-the-givers-club.html=>>

Cordelia Jenkins — Livemint and the Wall Street Journal

&nb=p;

On Friday, around 60 pros=ective philanthropists attended the "First Givers Club" summit in Delh= run by the online philanthropic donation forum Givelndia. While the club has existed in Mumbai since 2010, said Dhaval Udani, Givelndia'= CEO, this was their first foray into the capital city. Mint was the media=partner of the event.

"With this club, we wan=ed to create a platform for like-minded individuals to build a community o= donors who share knowledge and vision; it will also help to facilitate giving effectively," Udani told his audience. "Our aim is t= help you get more exposure and awareness of the different aspects of phil=nthropy; over the last three years this club has helped channel more than =s.18 crore to the lives of more than 10,000 underprivileged in India."

Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vic=-chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, along with speakers=Anu Aga of Thermax and Amit Chandra of Bain Capital gave their perspectives on how and where to give effectively and on the future =f Indian philanthropy. Edited excerpts:

Rakesh Mittal set up the =atya Bharti school programmes in 2006. The aim was to set up 500 primary a=d 50 secondary schools of its own with a corpus of Rs.200 crore. After that, state governments began reaching out and Bharti began a=opting government schools, creating a public-private partnership in delive=ing quality education to rural children.

"Given the new companie= Bill, which has been passed by Parliament, I assume within the next two t=ree months the rules will be finalized; there is going to be a mad rush for seeking funding. Already, I get a letter every other day fo= supporting a cause...If I see corporates have been very powerful instrume=ts and drivers of philanthropy, this comes from the wider wealth creation =nd management role which they do in their businesses. Today they are looking at doing more beyond business,=not because the government is forcing them, but because we cannot have isl=nds of wealth. You cannot take this country forward if we are just worried=about what I have and what I need for me and my family, and the ecosystem and the society around is crumblin=. This country will not move forward."

"If I go back a few cen=uries giving had been a very rich tradition; it used to be that 10% of you= income would be kept aside for a cause. During those times more money went into either building temples or temples of learning, which=are the schools and colleges. Pre-1990, Indian corporates were not giving =hat much, including the individuals, and there was a reason because we did=not have sustainable wealth creation opportunities, either for ourselves, our families, or our large stakeholde=s as we were running the companies.

"This all changed in th= post-1991 year of liberalization. In the last two decades, more and more,=new age economies moved this country to prosperous economic growth and suddenly you saw people wanting to give back to society because=now you have a model which was creating sustainable wealth for yourself.=94

"There are individuals =ho may give money and their time, but there are also entrepreneurs, young =ntrepreneurs who produce products which are low in cost but make a huge impact for the people who use it. This is the brief India is I=oking at in the landscape today and this will be a stepping stone for the =uture."

"Giving at Bharti has a=ways been part of our DNA, it was always our endeavour to make a differenc=. At the beginning, in the mid-70s, we were more interested in creating businesses which could impact society at large. If I look at t=lecom, retail, agri and food processing we wanted to make a difference and=not a buck. In 2000 we set up Bharti Foundation with the sole objective of=supporting the youth of India and enabling the underprivileged to come and compete with anyone.

"We started writing che=ues and one day I felt that was not the purpose, the fact is there are 320=million children in the age of 6-16, we talk of demographic dividend—absolutely yes, if we nurture this potential, but if we don't=do justice to these children there is a disaster which is waiting to happe=.

"The way things are goi=g I am not feeling very positive. I am a born optimist; we are spending bi=lions of dollars but is that being delivered efficiently? The answer is no, all of us know that, and that's why we keep going back to =he government; public-private—partnerships is going to be the key to mov= forward, you have the resources we have the management expertise let's =oin hands. And it has started moving."

Anu Aga led Thermax Ltd f=om 1996.2004, after retirement she remains on the company's board of dir=ctors. The chairperson of TFI (Teach For India) was nominated to Rajya Sabha in 2012.

"My giving actually sta=ted when I lost my son, who was 25 and died in a car accident. Having stud=ed abroad, poverty really bothered him. We who live in India, we become quite insensitive to seeing poor people, but he kept saying a su=stantial part of our wealth has to go to charity."

"It started in a very s=all way, it's not as if I gave away crores and crores at once. It starte= with me getting personally involved and I like that model very much, I'm not very happy with just writing a cheque and not getting invo=ved. I was involved with Akansksha and then I was invited to join their bo=rd—it ran centres for slum children and I brought it to Pune.

"We have six schools, n=w this is done by the CSR wing of Thermax, but Shaheen (Mistry) then start=d Teach For India, which personally I support.

"From the family wealth= it's my daughter and I who decide on things. The bulk of our giving is =o Teach For India and Akanksha, but we also give to an institute called Parivaar in Calcutta, which is for the poorest of the poor. In Biha= we are giving to a school run by an ex-police officer for the rat-eating =ribe. The main underlining thing is credibility. Giving without being invo=ved does give me that little fear, but at the same time I would rather make a few mistakes than mistrust ever=body.

"There is a lovely body=called Caring Friends in Bombay, where a few hundred people meet informall=. It's not an NGO, the two people who started it incubate NGOs which are new from their own money, and after a few years when they become=credible, bring it to the others and ask for money from them."

Amit Chandra is managing =irector of Bain Capital and responsible for the firm's India initiative.=He is also chairperson of the Akanksha Foundation that works in the field of education for less privileged children.

"Even though I came fro= a lower middle class family, we were always taught as children to give an= share whatever we had. For me the big inflection points were as I was working at DSP Merrill Lynch and I rose through the ranks, I got =uccess relatively early. I was running the firm before I was 35 but there =as still a sense of unease that I had with everything I saw around me. I t=ink the unease was on two counts, one was that by virtue of running what was the largest investment bank at =hat time I got to work with a lot of families and I realized that wealth d=d not necessarily translate into happiness when you really got to know a l=t of these people individually.

"In fact, wealth built = sense of entitlement amongst the next generation, it built a sense of ext=eme bitterness amongst siblings, and it often was a source of great degree of unhappiness. And another thing, having had the opportun=ty to study in the West, I realized that when you look at leaders with leg=cy, a very vast percentage of leaders who had any degree of legacy where t=e ones who had given back to society. These issues were beginning to bother me.

"My wife and I were ins=ired by what Chuck Feeney (Irish-American businessman and philanthropist a=d the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies) did. We decided to cap the amount of wealth we wanted to have as a family, and so my wife =nd I walked into a lawyer's office, and I transferred how much she thoug=t was needed for her, my daughter, and to support my living, and we said f=om this day onwards everything else basically goes to charity.

"What that did for us w=s actually incredible because our constraint after that point in time was =o find good causes that could be scaled up. That's where the Givelndia team came in extremely handy because we've set a budget every =ear for ourselves which is higher than the previous year with the objectiv= really being to effectively give away all our income every year.</=>

"I think giving your ti=e is critical to being able to scale up giving your money. The two things =ave to go hand in hand. There is no substitute to actually giving time and approaching it the same way you would approach businesses =nd investments. The biggest network we use is the Givelndia network. Worki=g with their team allows us to screen and monitor, before that we were abl= to support a handful of NGOs. Now we have a reasonable portfolio across all the areas we are interested =n. I don't think that scale up would be able to happen if we hadn't le=eraged the Givelndia team."

Back =o top

Global Health and Deve=opment — Full text articles

Pat =n the back or force for good: what purpose do development awards serve? <http://www.the=uardian.com/global-development/2013/aug/26/development-awards-prizes>

Mark Tran — Guardian blog

=

Divyesh Thakkar has just =eturned from refugee camps in Ethiopia, where he was surprised to see port=ble solar lanterns designed by his company still in use three years after their distribution.

The batteries for the pro=otype lamps were expected to last only two years, but were still functioni=g at the Jijiga camp near the Somali border.

"It's amazing they'r= still working and to see them changing lives," said Thakkar, who is =ased in Leicester. "People are going to university thanks to the lamp="

The solar lantern, which =ooks like an old-fashioned kerosene hurricane lamp, won an innovation awar= last year at AidEx, an annual trade show bringing together suppliers and buyers of products for the aid industry. The lamp has a buil=-in solar panel to charge its four AA-sized batteries.

The lantern has an obviou= advantage over kerosone-fuelled equivalents: with no flame or smoke emiss=ons, it is safer and more environmentally friendly. The batteries are made for 500 cycles, or about two years, but the longevity of the lamp= in Ethiopia has come as a pleasant surprise. In a novel twist, the lanter=, which costs $38 (£24.50), can also be used to charge mobile phones.

The award provided a huge=fillip for Thakkar's company, Sunlite. As word spread, relief agencies pla=ed increasingly large orders. About 100,000 of the lamps have been (or are being) used after emergencies in Japan, the Philippines,Thailand and Syria.

Sunlite makes 15,000 lamp= a month at two plants in India, including one in a special economic zone =n Gujarat state.

Next month, there will be=a new winner at AidEx in Brussels, the third year of the award. The innova=ion award sits alongside a crowded field of honours in the development world, although AidEx is geared more towards humanitarian need=.

Awards seem to be prolife=ating. Last month, 53 finalists met in Washington to showcase ideas to sav= the lives of mothers and newborns in developing countries. The award is given by the Saving Lives at Birth partnership, launched in 2=11, which includes USAid, Norway, Grand Challenges Canada, backed by the C=nadian government, the UK's Department for International Development, and =he Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In October, the Mo lbrahi= foundation will announce its prize for achievement in African leadership,=established in 2007. Past winners include presidents Joaquim Chissano and Festus Gontebanye Mogae, of Mozambique and Botswana respectiv=ly, although the prize is not awarded if no one meets the criteria.=/p>

Sceptics may wonder wheth=r these accolades contribute meaningfully to development, or exist only to=make donors feel good while sidestepping more fundamental, structural issues. For instance, the Gates foundation awarded $100,000 to =he California Institute of Technology last year for designing a solar-powe=ed toilet that breaks down water and human waste into hydrogen gas for use=in fuel cells.

The competition was for &=uot;next-generation" toilets to improve sanitation in the developing =orld. Would that money have been better spent on supporting community-led total sanitation — a project to end open defecation that has had conside=able success?

Calestous Juma, internati=nal development professor at the Kennedy school of government and a nomina=or, judge and promoter of new types of prizes, sees awards as part of a complex ecology of financing innovation that includes many ot=er instruments. He believes there should be more prizes for humanitarian w=rk and development.

"Doing humanitarian =ork may look like a thankless job. Yet it is driven by the instinct of emp=thy that makes us human," said Juma, author of The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa. "Honouring, rewarding, celebrating=and inspiring work in this area is more needed today than ever. This is an=area that can use more societal recognition, especially at a time when the=whole aid industry is under scrutiny."

However, Juma says prizes=need to be carefully thought out. "Many organisations are launching t=em without thinking carefully about what prizes can do or cannot do."

The AidEx challenge's lea= judge, Michael Pritchard, inventor of the Lifesaver water bottle, says th= award is not so much about the money — E2,000 — as validation, although the publicity can be a much-needed boost.

"The validation goes=an awfully long way to get the product developed and provides a big leg-up=into getting it into the market," he said. "It gets written up all over the world and gets the oxygen of publicity."

As for Thakkar, he says w=nning the AidEx award has been a positive experience: "Winning the aw=rd made a huge difference, it increased publicity. People look more favourably on us and [that) gives us an extra edge. We don't have to =ell it as much. But we don't want to be just appreciated, we want the lamp=to be used extensively."

Back to=top

Education — Full tex= articles

A Chance at Learnin= <http://www.nyt=mes.com/2013/08/25/nyregion/a-chance-at-learning.html>

Ginia Bellafante — New York Times

&nb=p;

This year, a study admini=tered by researchers at Harvard and Stanford drew significant attention fo= what it revealed about how inadequately low-income students are represented at selective colleges and universities. Only 34 percent of=the highest-achieving high-school seniors whose families fell in the botto= quarter of income distribution — versus 78 percent in the top quarter =97 attended one of the country's most selective colleges, based on a list of nearly 250 schools compiled by Barr=n's.

In New York City, where a=neighborhood like Bushwick, in Brooklyn, can seem like a satellite campus =f Wesleyan and a prewar apartment building on the Upper East Side can feel like an Ivy League dormitory for 46-year-olds, there has bee= considerable philanthropic attention, of the kind other cities ought to e=vy, paid to finding the most gifted low-income students and putting them o= a similar path.

In 1978, Gary Simons, a B=onx teacher, founded Prep for Prep with the goal of identifying talented s=udents of color in the city and readying them for attendance at private schools like Dalton and Groton and so on. Hundreds of the progr=m's alumni have gone on to law, medical and business schools, and employ=ent at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Time Warner.

A decade ago, hoping also=to advance the best students attending public high schools, Mr. Simons and=others founded another organization, Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, or LEDA, which draws exceptional children from

arou=d the country, regardless of race, almost entirely from families who make =ess than $55,000 a year. Applicants are required to be in the top 10 perce=t of their class, having taken the most difficult courses their schools offer. The 60 who gain entry to t=e program each year spend the summer before 12th grade at Princeton, study=ng ethics, political theory and public policy, and preparing for standardi=ed college entrance exams.

In a wondrous righting of=the current disequilibrium, however small its scale, they are tutored for =hose tests by the same instructors who work with some of Manhattan's wealthiest teenagers: the staff of Advantage Testing, whose =ervices cost parents up to $795 an hour. Arun Alagappan, the founder and p=esident of Advantage and a major benefactor of LEDA, provides his employee= (whose résumés typically resemble those of the people at Google or McKinsey) pro bono.

LEDA has been very succes=ful. Of the 500 or so students who have graduated from the program, three =uarters have gone on to top-tier colleges, 30 percent of them to the Ivy League. Among LEDA's 2012 graduates alone, 19 gained adm=ssion to Princeton, 11to Georgetown and 6 to the University of Pennsylvan=a.

Last week I took a walk a=ound Red Hook, Brooklyn, with Joshua El-Bey, a LEDA graduate who was leavi=g in a few days for his sophomore year at Yale. His family struggled as he grew up, moving often and ultimately landing in the Red Ho=k Houses, the borough's largest public housing development. His first me=ories of book learning, he told me, were the readings his mother delivered=from Genesis when he was 2. What was disconcerting about Mr. El-Bey's otherwise incredibly inspiring traj=ctory was how much of his success had depended on opportunities outside th= public education system.

Bullied in middle school =or his studiousness, Mr. El-Bey hoped to gain admission to one of the city=92s elite specialized public high schools, but he did not do well enough on the entrance exam. The free tutoring provided by the city f=r the test was insufficient, he said.

He ended up at Edward R. =urrow in Midwood, Brooklyn, a good school whose academics were nevertheles= surpassed by the supplemental training he received as a scholar at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, an organization begun 50 =ears ago by Manhattan lawyers and advertising executives as a mentoring pr=gram to get poor minority students into good colleges. Today it essentiall= provides a shadow education. In school, Mr. El-Bey told me, he simply learned to "regurgitate facts."<=span>

Programs like LEDA and 5.=.O. are popular with wealthy, supremely educated donors, precisely because=of outcomes like Mr. El-Begs. Just this May, the financier Henry R. Kravis pledged $4 million in matching gifts to S.E.O.

And in a city as dense wi=h talent and money as New York, the effects of such philanthropy can be ef=ortlessly observed. Walking through his neighborhood, Mr. El-Bey ran into another alumnus of S.E.O., Luis Hernandez, who was about t= begin his freshman year at the University of Southern California. In a pr=cocious accomplishment more typical in other

neighborhoods, Mr. Hernandez =ad won a screenwriting contest for a film about obesity that had already made its debut on the Showtime c=ble channel.

As a society we have begu= to pay increasing and essential attention to gaining access to the top, b=t the brightest among us might do well to apply equal focus to how we might enhance the middle.

Most students, rich or po=r, will not go to Harvard, while plenty of working-class and poor students=will go to colleges that serve them not nearly well enough. Not long ago, our son's caregiver, who is taking classes at LaGuardia Co=munity College in Queens, showed me a paper she had written for a class in=English composition taught by a teacher who was consistently late and twic= absent. It was on Ibsen's "A Doll's House" and my husband had helped her. It incisively analyzed the play'= theme of 19th-century marital oppression and was impeccably written.

When our nanny received h=r grade, she was shocked not to have done as well as she had expected. Her=formatting had been imprecise, the teacher told her. And there was a problem with spacing. Content seemed not to matter much at all=

Back =o top

Obama goes for college 'datapalooza' <http://www.was=ingtonpost.com/local/education/obama-goes-for-college-datapalooza/2013/08/=3/b9320194-0bfc-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html>

Nick Anderson – Washington Post

&nb=p;

In President Obama's pl=n to overhaul higher education, which envisions using new federal ratings =f colleges to determine levels of student aid, there is a deep faith in the power of information and innovation to catalyze change in col=eges and universities.

Ultimately, the belief is=that these forces will make college more affordable.

Yet academia has witnesse= and taken part in many waves of innovation in the past half-century, and =ffordability remains elusive.

The administration's fa=th is encapsulated in a word the White House used this week in a fact shee= about the plan: "Datapalooza." Here's the reference:

"New college ratings wi=l help students compare the value offered by different colleges," the fa=t sheet said. "The Department private-se=tor tools, of services, Education and will apps enlist to help entrepreneurs students evaluate and technology and select leaders college=. with The a 'Datapalooza' effort will be complemented to catalyze new by earnings information by college that =ill be released for the first time on [the] administration's College Scorecard this fall."

What is a datapalooza? Ap=arently, it is a festival of, or related to, data. The White House and the=Education Department hosted such an event Oct. 9. Students and parents are arguably awash in data now, much of it conflicting and con=using. Some would say more is better.

Few would argue that bett=r data would be best of all for the consumer.

The yen for better data i= shared not just by Obama but also by some colleges. Start with graduation=rates.

Now, the federal governme=t measures how many students graduate within four years or six years of st=rting college. But it only measures that for students who are first-timers, who are enrolled full-time and who don't transfer from=one institution to another, omitting a huge share of the college populatio=. Millions of students are part-timers. Community colleges with excellent =ecords of getting students into prestigious four-year schools are not rewarded for their efforts if those students fai= to pick up an associate's degree before they transfer. Nor are four-yea= colleges that give transfer students or former dropouts a second chance a=d help them get a bachelor's degree.

The Association of Public=and Land-grant Universities, which represents schools such as the Universi=y of Maryland, is spearheading an effort to improve this flawed metric, using not only federal data but also information from the n=nprofit National Student Clearinghouse to track degree completion for stud=nts who move from one school to another.

One question Education Se=retary Arne Duncan will face, as he confers with colleges to create a rati=gs system within the next two years, is what kind of graduation rate the government will use. Another is what kind of data the government =ill report on income of college graduates.

All we know about the fed=ral rating metrics at this point are rough sketches from the fact sheet, h=ghlighting these potential factors: "access, such as percentage of students receiving Pell grants; affordability, such as average tuition,=scholarships, and loan debt; and outcomes, such as graduation and transfer=rates, graduate earnings, and advanced degrees of college graduates."

The plan envisions that r=tings will be tied to student aid formulas by 2018, if Congress agrees. Th=t is a big if. It's also a year after Obama's term ends.

There is nothing in the p=an that would force states to give more funding to public higher education= one of the key cost drivers in tuition. The president recognized the issue, touting a proposal that he has made before — a "Race to the=Top" incentive fund of $1billion for higher education. This fund would =im to spur state reforms and reward states that maintain strong higher edu=ation funding, much as an identically named fund for K-12 education did in 2009 and 2010. But it is unlikely to =in congressional approval.

Obama's plan highlights=innovation. The president gave a major shout-out to a movement to award de=rees based not on how much time students spend in class but on how well they master their material, citing an experiment under way at =outhern New Hampshire University and one that is about to launch at the Un=versity of Wisconsin.

"So the idea would be i= you're learning the material faster, you can finish faster, which means=you pay less and you save money," Obama said Thursday in a speech at the University at Buffalo. This notion is indeed revolutionary in acade=ia because most degrees are awarded based on the concept of a credit hour =97 which is a rough measure of the time a student spends doing work in and=for a course.

Obama also underscored th= online learning movement, which has gained steam in recent years, saying =hat it holds out the promise of reducing costs. Carnegie Mellon, Arizona State and Georgia Tech universities won coveted presidenti=l mentions in the speech. So did the University of Maryland, in the fact s=eet. Fans of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, took heart from this.<=span>

What exactly can the admi=istration do to hasten technological innovation besides hosting datapalooz=s? The fact sheet points to two proposals: one that requires money, and one that doesn't. A "First in the World" fund of $260 mil=ion, presumably requiring congressional approval, would "test and evalua=e innovative approaches to higher education that yield dramatically better=outcomes." Education officials liken this to a $650 million "Investing in Innovation" fund created under the 200= stimulus law that has been used as seed money for experiments in K-12 edu=ation.

And the Education Departm=nt could cut regulatory barriers to innovation, whatever those might be. E=ucation officials said Friday that they plan to solicit ideas from colleges on what government rules are hindering innovation. Many educ=tors might say that red tape gets in the way of experiments in distance le=rning and degree programs not organized around the traditional credit hour=

The fact sheet asserts: "The Department will use its authority to issue regulatory waivers for experimental sites' that promote high-quality, low-cost innovations in higher education, such as making it possible for students to get financal aid based on how much they learn, rather than the amount of time they spend in class."

Back =o top

Massively Online And Offline Too: How MOOCs Will Evolve In The Physical World
<http://www.for-es.com/sites/giovannirodriguez/2013/08/25/massively-online-and-offline-too-how-moocs-will-evolve-in-the-physical-world/>

Giovanni Rodriguez – Forbes

&nb=p;

I was at the airport abou= this time last Sunday, when I overheard a conversation that's becoming =uite commonplace. One person was explaining to another what a MOOC was, but he couldn't remember what the letters stood for. A= someone who regards himself as an amateur, ad-hoc, in-the-moment teacher,=I felt compelled to help him out: "Massive. Open. Online. Course."&nbs=; He thanked me. He had been struggling to remember the "open" part of the MOOC message. And, even more interesting, he ha= been struggling to remember the word "course."

Over the past few months,=more and more clients and partners have been coming to me to deconstruct n=t just the acronym but also the attributes of MOOCs. So often in fact that I have decided to write a short series on the subject.&=bsp; There are many things to say about both the true impact and hype abou= MOOCs in the larger narrative that’s emerging about disruption in educa=ion. But from where I sit, what’s most important to note about MOOCs in 2013 is something that the acronym does n=t yet capture: the massive disruption we’re seeing in education wi=l be online and offline, too.

Experience

There are at least three =easons for this. And each of these reasons deserves at least one pos=, but I'll be super brief here. The first is that the online experience of MOOCs will almost certainly evolve in a way that teachers, s=udents, and staff will look to find ways to meet with one another. T=is will either happen by design (by intent and with care) or it will happe= organically. Almost certainly, the producers of MOOCs will look to do this with some sense of design, while l=veraging the organic power of networks to grow by themselves. And if=you have been following the evolution of MOOCs, you already know that the =nline experience is still a work in progress. My business colleague, Chris Bennett — a behavior design=r and gamification expert — and I recently spoke about this: many =re stuck in the old paradigm of delivering education to the consumer, rath=r than leveraging the greatest assets of the new medium (co-creation, crowdsourcing, collaboration). By redesigni=g the online experience to become more interactive, innovators in the MOOC=world will see the possibilities for offline experience.

Inventory

Another reason for thinki=g about physical space: while the world ponders the impact that the =osts of higher education will have on schools that are struggling to compete, the inventory of quality physical space that becomes available=will appeal to organizations that need it. A couple of years ago, I =ad the privilege of serving as an advisor to a White House initiative that=traveled the country meeting with leaders in large spaces in a network of state and community colleges. =s a former theater producer, I was impressed with the availability and qua=ity of these spaces. In theater — and other kinds of shared, quasi=spiritual, transformative experience — physical space is everything. Innovators in the MOOC world will get wise — 4 they haven't already — to the existence of networks of spaces (there=are many different networks, as I will show in a later article) and make t=em come alive for their clientele.

Opportunity

And I use the word client=le to make a final point: innovation in the MOOC world will not just=come from educators, but from any organization that sees the value of massive online and offline courseware. As my own clientele have c=me to realize, education in the 21st century is not just something you do =efore you become an adult but a modality of experience that empowers you t=roughout your entire life. No reason for schools to own the entire market for those kinds of experiences. =But I expect the most enterprising schools — especially those with great=or underused physical inventory — to partner with organizations that now=have the opportunity to rethink themselves for the education market. In the meantime, it may be time to reasses= the MOOC acronym to make the opportunities more obvious. "Massive=Online Offline Communities" seems more like it. And unlike the onl=ne communities of the past, these communities are learning communities, driven by the new lifelong modality of transformativ= experience. Expect a land grab for branding and positioning. The di=ruption in education is just beginning, and the players are just becoming =isible.

Back =o top

Women and Children —=Full text articles

Indian Po=ice Arrest Suspects in Two Gang Rapes
<http://online.=sj.com/article/SB10001424127887324906304579034600607425892.html>

Sean Mclain and Khushita =asan – Wall Street Journal

&n=sp;

Indian police Sunday were=holding 10 men suspected of involvement in two highly publicized gang-rape=cases—one in urban Mumbai, the other in rural Jharkhand state—highligh=ing India's struggles with sexual violence.

In Jharkhand in eastern I=dia, police said they had detained five suspects in connection with the ra=e of a policewoman by a group of men who had set up a roadblock on a highway. The attack occurred Thursday, but wasn't reported to police =ntil Friday, they said.

Five other men were in cu=tody Sunday in the Mumbai case, in which a 22-year-old magazine intern tak=ng photographs of dilapidated buildings was assaulted Thursday in an abandoned textile mill in the city, police said.

The attacks come as the t=ial of five people accused in the December gang rape and murder of a 23-ye=r-old student on a Delhi bus entered its final phase. That crime sparked nationwide demonstrations and prompted the government to int=oduce harsher penalties for crimes against women.

Protesters took to the st=eets of Mumbai on Friday to decry the assault on the magazine intern in a =ity that has a reputation as a relatively safe place for women. In 2012, the incidence of rape in the Western Indian metropolis was=about half the national rate, according to the National Crime Records Bure=u.

"I've always felt mu=h safer in Mumbai compared to other Indian cities," said Sanika Prabh=, a television producer from Mumbai. "After this incident, I feel lik= I don't recognize this city anymore."

Mumbai police said the ma=azine intern was with a 21-year-old male companion when she was attacked T=ursday. The assailants tied his hands with his belt and raped the woman from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., an official at N.M. Joshi police stati=n said. Medical tests confirmed the rape, he said.

Under Indian law, rape vi=tims cannot be named in media accounts.

There were 24,915 reporte= rapes in India in 2012, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, i=cluding 233 in Mumbai. The victims in almost half the Mumbai cases were between 14 and 18 years old.

Activists say the number =f rapes is much higher, as many go unreported. India also has a poor recor= on convictions, with only around a quarter of alleged rapists convicted in 2010.

In Jharkhand, police said=the rape of the police constable occurred at around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday,=as she and her relatives were transporting the corpse of her brother-in-law for cremation.

"They were accosted =y five or six young men who had set up a roadblock," said S.N. Pradha=, a police official in Jharkhand. According to the criminal complaint, the men stole 40,000 rupees ($625) and then ordered the woman out of the v=hicle. "Then they took her to the bush and raped her one by one while=others stood watch," he said.

The rape wasn't reported =ntil Friday, when police—investigating reports of highway robbery—disc=vered a photo of a policewoman near where the thefts occurred. "The superintendent of police asked her why her photo was there and o=ly then did she report the rape," Mr. Pradhan said.

Back=to top

Is there any space in the development debate for African experts? <http://www.the-uardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/aug/23/asp-en-new=voices-africa-fellowship>

Andrew Quinn — Guardian blog

&n=sp;

At a 2012 TEDxChange conf=rence in Berlin, African women's development fund CEO Theo Sowa turned the=spotlight on an uncomfortable truth: African women may be the focus of many development campaigns, but they are rarely represented a= drivers of the discussion.

"When people portray=us as victims, they don't want to ask us about solutions. Because people d=n't ask victims for solutions," Sowa told the audience.

Of course, experts from A=rica and other parts of the developing world are pioneering solutions to a=vast range of development challenges on everything from improving maternal health to boosting sustainable crop output. Bringing their perspe=tives to light should be an integral part of development work, particularl= as the international community contemplates the next steps in the global =evelopment agenda beyond the 2015 MDGs.

Celebrity advocates, gove=nment officials and major funders all have ready-made platforms for spread=ng their views — the power of their brand is often enough to build an audience.

But for those without imm=diate recognition, the task is harder. The Aspen Institute's New Voices Fe=lowship, launched this year with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, is one attempt to start figuring out an answer b= providing both media coaching and contacts for development experts from A=rica and, eventually, other parts of the developing world.

Development experts, so f=cused on their endless and crucial work, often neglect this area. Yet find=ng ways to leverage yours or your colleagues' public visibility is not as difficult as it sounds. Media training can be expensive, but eno=mously beneficial. Persistence pays off. And above all, helping people to =hink like "thought leaders" can bring real results.

Our fellows represents a =rocs-section of the work under way in Africa today, from a Congolese docto= seeking to build a health system in one of the remotest parts of his country to a Ghanaian tech entrepreneur devising new strategi=s for expanding math and science education in rural communities. Each one =s an expert, and each one has a story to tell. Helping them to craft their=stories, and find an audience, have been our challenges.

The audience, at least in=tially, has been the easy part. The explosion of online and issue-driven m=dia over the past decade has created a wide range of outlets, many of which are eager to bring new voices to light. Development-focused =edia such as the Guardian's Global Development section, general interest a=gregators such as the Huffington Post, and geographic specialists such as =IlAfrica.com and Think Africa Press all represent potential platforms for fresh writing about development issu=s. Even mainstream outlets such as CNN and Al Jazeera are welcoming new co=tributors for their opinion sections, while professional community portals=such as Business Fights Poverty and the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network can open the doo= to engaged specialists who care deeply about the challenges ahead.=/p>

Add to this the increasin=ly crowded schedule of conferences and meetings ranging from the Clinton Grobal Initiative and Skoll World Forum to TEDx events held around the world and it's clear that there are a wealth of opportunities t= reach important audiences with new stories.

Crafting those stories ha= proved a little trickier. While the development-focused media has expande=, the standard for what makes a compelling blog, speech or opinion piece have not: clear writing and cogent argument backed up by sol=d evidence and examples. Putting the pieces together, and injecting the ri=ht personal note to make for a truly memorable piece, takes work, self-con=idence and practice.

For our first New Voices =ellowship meeting in Johannesburg in June, we set up a series of training =essions on how to handle media interviews, how to behave on camera, and how to build an online presence. But the most important par= of the curriculum turned out to be a crash course in confidence: how to b=lieve in the importance of what you have to say. For many of our fellows, =nused to thinking of themselves as "thought leaders", the leadership component was new territory= We learned that helping the fellows define their specific areas of expert=se, and to understand how that personal expertise can translate into impor=ant contributions to the global development discussion, was an essential starting point. One fellow, an expert on mate=nal health from Tanzania, found new confidence in the fact that alongside =er medical degrees she has personal experience as an African mother. Anoth=r, who specialises in poverty alleviation in Nairobi's slums, began to harness his own stories about growing up in t=ose slums to buttress his points about development in informal settlements=

These are exactly the typ=s of new perspectives that will inform and enrich development policy discussions. At Aspen, we will be recruiting our next class of New Voices fellows starting mid-September, and look forward to learning fr=m and working with other organisations which are committed to expanding th= dialogue about what works — and what doesn't — in global development.=/span>

Andrew Quinn is direct=r of the New Voices Fellowship at the Aspen Institute.

Back=to top

Child marriage campaigners in south Asia receive $23m cash injection <http://www.the-uardian.com/global-development/2013/aug/23/child-marriage-india-bangladesh=nepal>

Mark Tran — Guardian blog

&n=sp;

By the age of 17, Zeenat =ad been divorced three times after forced marriages. She first wed shortly=after puberty to a man who abused her, an experience that recurred in her subsequent marriages.

She became so isolated th=t she did not go to the hospital or ask for help. Neither had she heard of=lndia's Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005, which made her husband's violent outbursts not just wrong, but illeg=l.

Sadly, her story is all t=o common. Every year about 10 million girls become child brides, and one i= seven girls in the developing world marries before the age of 15.

Bangladesh, Nepal and Ind=a have three of the highest rates of child marriage, with 68.7%, 56.1% and=50% respectively of girls married before the age of 18. Child marriage is not just a question of poverty — although that is a critical=issue — but also of how girls are viewed in society.

"Even with higher le=els of income, there is the practice of child marriage," said Care In=ernational's gender director, Theresa Hwang. "It is an issue of status; girls are valued in a lesser way. In India, girls are not seen as 'added v=Iue'. The issue is squarely tied to gender equality and social norms."=

Care USA, the US arm of t=e anti-poverty NGO, and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) this week=received grants of $7.7m (E4.9m) and $15.3m respectively from the Kendeda fund to tackle child marriage in south Asia. Both organis=tions will use the money to support local NGOs.

Founded 10 years ago, the=Kendeda fund worked initially on environmental sustainability in the US, b=t last year created a girls' rights portfolio. AJWS will focus on India, Care on Nepal and Bangladesh.

All three countries have =aws against child marriage, but implementation has proved difficult. Civil=child marriage laws are not enforced, and religious or social customs prevail.

In Nepal, Care supports g=oups such as Chunauti, which seeks to spread its message against child mar=iage among schools and local businesses. The local NGO persuaded factories to put anti-child marriage slogans in their production materials= It also convinced a food catering business not to cater for child marriag= ceremonies.

For Care and AJWS, the lo=ical route is to work through local partners familiar with regional condit=ons and practices, and based where the pressure points are. For the local NGOs, it shows they are not working alone on a difficult pro=lem only now receiving the attention it merits.

The UN high-level panel a=pointed by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, to look at development t=rgets to replace the millennium development goals when they expire in 2015, has urged the recognition of child marriage as a key indic=tor of female empowerment. In another sign that child marriage is moving u= the development agenda, Girls Not Brides, the global partnership to end c=ild marriage, was formed in September 2011 to tackle the problem.

Empowerment can come thro=gh that catch-all term, livelihoods training. Groups such as Brac, the Ban=ladeshi NGO, for example, have created clubs in Uganda where young girls learn to develop confidence through storytelling and songwriti=g. They also learn more practical skills, from financial literacy and tail=ring to agricultural work.

Backed by AJWS, Mohammad =azar Backward Classes Development Society in West Bengal takes a similar a=proach. The organisation, which works with marginalised Muslim and tribal women and children in urban Kolkata, runs a school for girls as=well as vocational training for women in the rural area of Birbhum.=/p>

"We work to build gi=Is' aspirations, promote girls' ideas of themselves when they don't have a=pirations, and engage with key decisionmakers — parents, teachers and religious leaders," said Javid Syed, Asia programme officer for A=WS.

&MS helped change Zeenat=s life. It provided her with vocational training, allowing her to become f=nancially independent and diminishing the likelihood that economic need will turn her towards another abusive marriage. If Zeenat do=s marry again, the hope is that she will have the support of her family an= the ability to leave the marriage if she chooses, in full knowledge of he= rights.

Back=to top