| Tonight on TDS, Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security; and on TCR, India's Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. |
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I do hope that Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano doesn't warrant a two-segment interview tonight. Although that'd give me time to do the dinner dishes. Or entertain the cats. Or something.
A quick GoogleNews survey doesn't have any surprises -- reform of immigrant detention centers, Al-Qaeda-style terrorists are in US, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been ordered to stop looking for illegal aliens. Here's a nice change, though -- Reuters headline (it's a press release):
Amnesty International Encouraged by Secretary Napolitano's Decision to Identify New Detention Practices
However, human rights organization cautions that the law must be changed for
real reform to occur
And the DHS wants to hire 1000 cybersecurity experts. Turns out she's in NY because of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (damn, I bet I left that one out of the poll). Here's the press release:
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will travel to New York City on Monday, Oct. 12, to meet with cybersecurity stakeholders from the private sector to discuss coordinated efforts to protect the nation’s cyber infrastructure and promote cybersecurity as a shared responsibility.
Secretary Napolitano’s visit comes as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month—designed to educate all citizens and key public and private sector partners on how to guard against cyber threats at home, work and school.
Secretary Napolitano will also appear on The View and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart while in New York City.
I know there's some joke there about immigrants vs. cybersecurity. Maybe it'll turn up by showtime...
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Stephen's got two guests tonight. First up is Shashi Tharoor, who I guess is stopping back in to chat, being in the neighborhood and all. And apparently his twitter presence is just enthralling...
And Not-the-Surgeon-General Sanjay Gupta is here to chat about his book, Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles That Are Saving Lives Against All Odds. Barnes & Noble has the reviews -- here's Kirkus:
In this followup to Chasing Life (2007), neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Gupta illustrates just how fuzzy the line between life and death can be, and explains what medicine and science are doing to blur it even further. When the heart stops, when tests indicate "brain death," when a patient hasn't breathed for an hour or more-these have long been understood as hard-and-fast markers of death. Gupta uses real-life stories to reveal how ambiguous these situations actually are: a skier who was successfully resuscitated after spending more than an hour frozen underwater; a man who emerged from a coma unscathed after having been declared a "vegetable"; a 22-week-old fetus whose damaged heart was repaired in utero. These stories and the science behind them are rounded out with a look at those who seek to cheat death even further. Researchers challenge the status quo on CPR, doctors experiment with "therapeutic hypothermia" and scientists seek to induce suspended animation in injured soldiers by mimicking the chemistry of hibernating animals. Gupta always presents fascinating information, even if the prose is occasionally clumsy and the storytelling inelegant. The author tries to bring a balanced perspective to each issue. The chapter on "Cheating Death in the Womb," for instance, includes a much-needed counterpoint by a sociologist who emphasizes that pregnant women are patients in their own right, not simply fetal "heart-lung machines." Because Gupta focuses only on the "medical miracles," however, he misses an opportunity for an important cost-benefit analysis of the highly risky and often-unsuccessful attempts to "cheat death."Well-informed and accessible, but incomplete.
I expect at least a little bit of 'you stole my title!' entertainment
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(Wanna buy the books? Try indiebound or bookfinder.com.)