Relief for the Phillipines

Because of the catastrophic natural disaster, Hurricane Haiyan, that destroyed much of the Pacific Islands, such as the Philippines, food and water has become the top concern next to the rising toll of casualties. According to CNN, airports have been ruined and traveling the roads is next to impossible.

As a personal brainstorming process, I would say that money should be spent on high protein and high nutrient food products, water purifiers, and transportation. Purifiers are more practical than carrying large water jugs because they weigh much less. Because airports and roads are not traversable, I would think that ships could be of use. They are able to anchor out in the deeper waters, and require smaller boats to get to shore.

Donations can't just be made directly to the Filipinos; the money has got to be sent to well trained and equipped charities that specifically work with disaster relief. For example, UNICEF is pairing up with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to help the affected people of the area. According to UNICEF's home website, different donation amounts help pay for different costly supplies. I noticed the website said an $80 donation can allow for 24 mosquito nets.

I'm not quite sure I can come up with a new and improved invention for disaster relief, but I do really like the idea of the personal straw water purifier. They run about $15-20 each and allow for someone in need to drink directly from any water source without getting sick!

Watergate-White House Plumbers

Although the provided name White House Plumbers sounds uninviting, the group is far from the suggested occupation. The White House Plumbers was a secret organization formed under President Nixon in 1971. The job of the Plumbers was to discover the source of confidential leaking information and do whatever it took to prevent possible damage to President Nixon's re-election campaign. They were directly ordered by the President of the United States to bend the laws of the country and illegally carry out their assignment. Some of the men included in the group are G. Gordon Liddy, John Paisley (a member of the CIA), John Erlichman and E. Howard Hunt.

The first order of business for these men included breaking into the psychiatric office of Daniel Ellsberg's therapist, Dr. Lewis Fielding, in Los Angeles. Daniel Ellsberg had leaked important information about a bombing in Cambodia, initiated by Nixon, to the New York Times in documents known as the Pentagon Papers. The Plumbers were to break into Dr. Lewis' office to discover the personal files of Ellsberg and manipulate them to discredit Ellsberg and ruin the allegations. The operation started after three men waited for the last cleaning lady to leave the office, and broke in to find the files. They left pills on the floor to make it appear as though the break-in was for drugs. Below is a picture of poor Daniel Ellsberg.

Pentagon Papers

Members of the White House Plumbers also took part in other researching missions, like Ted Kennedy's involvement in mysterious incidents. For example, they looked into the assassination of a South Vietnamese President that Kennedy might have been involved with.

Ted Kennedy

Later on, a few of the plumbers were recruited to join the Committee of Re-electing the President, also known as the CRP. The CRP took part in illegal money laundering to fund the secret manipulations to re-elect Nixon. The CRP was then directly responsible for the Watergate Scandal in 1972. The Scandal was a break-in by Nixon officials to wiretap telephones and make copies of top secret documents. However, according to Wikipedia, it's still unknown what exactly the CRP was looking for. The burglary was caught and traced, and the plumbers, Hunt and Gordon, along with others, were sentenced to a number of years in jail based on charges of conspiracy and illegal tapping into government property. Ultimately, these scandals ended in President Nixon's resignation from office in 1974.

President Nixon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Plumbers
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?nixon_and_watergate_tmln_pentagon_papers=nixon_and_watergate_tmln_ellsberg_break_in&timeline=nixon_and_watergate_tmln
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_Complex
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall06/Weiner/pages/People/plumbers.htm