On the 8 Spot

Nice article/story , read the whole thing!

Amid ‘The Great Flood,’ the kindness of strangers

MARK MERUEÑAS, GMANews.TV

10/01/2009 | 04:20 AM

The genius Isaac Newton was more than correct when he posited: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This was true, even, when what we can now consider “The Great Flood” of Luzon rampaged through the country’s National Capital Region and the neighboring provinces of Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite.

A multitude of flood victims were stranded in the floods, driven out of their homes or trapped in them. But in a robust reaction, countless other people rose to the occasion and tried to to save lives and shelter the lost and helpless, like me.

via Amid ‘The Great Flood,’ the kindness of strangers – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.

The plaintext version… sorry. — Chris You are smart. No one else knows much. In fact, most people are pretty stupid. Everything except what you’re doing *right now* is stupid. Django is stupid. Zope is stupid. Twisted is stupid. Setuptools is stupid. The GIL is stupid. Pylons is stupid. TurboGears is stupid. Guido is stupid. PJE is stupid. Ruby on Rails is a total hack. And oh my god, all these people in IRC are clearly mentally challenged. Why do they keep arguing with you? I get it: it’s not easy being a genius. So, if you don’t mind, I have a request. Given that it would certainly not tax you professionally, because it’s all so simple and obvious, do you think that you could contribute something to Python or some Python-related project that demonstrates your immense base of knowledge and helps other people? Ah but wait! You have. I’ve seen that one package you keep talking about that you wrote and released six months ago. It has a couple of users, even. But look… uh… oh dear.. this is awkward. I don’t mean to be negative here. But there’s a couple problems. You may be a genius, but at 33% test coverage, you better be almost omniscient. I’m personally not a genius, so I need to rely on something so banal as package test coverage metrics to make decisions about what to use. Look. Let’s be frank. I know you were the smartest guy in your high school class. I realize that in your circle of peers, you are the one who most often actually knows what he’s doing. I get the fact that you like puzzles, and you’re good at solving them. I realize you believe you are hot shit, and a few other people might too. But if I may be so bold, here are some suggestions: – Shut the fuck up. I mean this in the kindest, and gentlest of ways, as maybe a friendly uncle might tell you to “shut the fuck up”. – Work on your capacity to talk with other people without being a complete, utter cock. We’ve already adjusted our expectations, with you being a programmer and all, we realize you’re constitutionally straightforward. But there’s a difference between being straightforward and being a dick. Your profession and your history as “the smartest guy in the room” doesn’t excuse you from displaying basic courtesy. – You don’t need to prove anything to me or anybody else. I could care less. It’s not always about you. – Write some code that works all the time, every time that lots of people find useful. Maintain that code for 5 years. At this point, you will have something to be proud of. Thank you.

via .

The Presidential Palace was partially opened to allow volunteers to pack supplies for affected areas and some food was handed out to those lucky enough to hear about the aid distribution.

But by the time we arrived, hundreds were waiting outside with a growing sense of disappointment, as they realized they had gotten there too late. In reality, the use of a couple of rooms in the museum of the Presidential Palace was nothing more than an attempt to give local TV stations something to film.

With some 2 million people affected by the flooding, it will take more than biscuits and potato chips to get a grip on the storm and flood aftermath.

via In the Field: Hear from CNN reporters across the globe Blog Archive – Misery in Manila after the floods « – Blogs from CNN.com.

In one recent study examining money’s effect on happiness, Kahneman, and others, have found that people with a relatively high income, although more satisfied with their lives, are barely happier at any given moment than those with a significantly lower income. The age-old myth that money buys happiness needs to be refined, as does the competing myth that wealth does not matter.What he’s found in comparative studies of nations is that both the level of corruption and the degree of trust in society are important predictors of well-being. “Corruption is a measure of trust in society, and trust, it turns out, should be essential to well-being.”

Countries where the level of trust in society is very low have a lot of difficulty thriving economically—so you need a certain level of trust to get moving.

“But even when you look at the Western world where GDP is more or less constant, you find large effects of trust, and that’s why Northern Europe always emerges as the best place to be in the world in terms of well-being research.”

Can this be applied in developing countries? “If there is a way of encouraging increasing trust in society—and that should probably start with trust in institutions—that is going to make a contribution to GDP through the rule of law, respect for property, and so on. It will have an extra contribution to human welfare because happier societies are ones where people trust each other and spend a fair amount of time catering to social needs.”

via Finance & Development, September 2009 – Questioning a Chastened Priesthood.

Palace to do repacking only; long lines irk Arroyo

And they wonder why everyone who doesn’t benefit from their largess hate them. Didn’t they learn this in politician school. Plastic 101: how to convincingly show fake compassion.  Although if this article wasn’t about the fake president I suspect that this would have been labeled a better press corp please. A Big FU ma’am. I have Nightmares just thinking about how you sleep at night (Do Vampires sleep?).

By Christian V. Esguerra, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 03:17:00 09/30/2009

Filed Under: Ondoy, Flood, Disasters & Accidents, Government Aid

MANILA, Philippines—She ordered the Palace thrown open to the common folk, and was annoyed at what she saw.

A long stretch of impoverished Filipinos peeking through the gates of the Kalayaan compound under the intense afternoon heat was the sight that greeted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a day after she issued her unprecedented order.

It was apparently the closest that her staff could get to the planned National Relief Operations Center on the Palace grounds to help victims of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana).

The President beheld the scene when she arrived at Kalayaan Hall at around 1:30 p.m. from a Cabinet meeting in Camp Aguinaldo. Her face turning sour, she ordered the Palace guards to immediately let the people in.

Hermogenes Esperon, Ms Arroyo’s chief of staff, tried to downplay his boss’ annoyance, saying: “She just didn’t want to see the people lined up outside.”

About an hour later, the number of people expecting relief goods swelled to around 500. Many of them were women and kids dressed in tattered clothes and slippers.

An old man in a wheelchair fell in line, at the end of which volunteers distributed nothing more than hamburger buns.

via Palace to do repacking only; long lines irk Arroyo – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Palace to do repacking only; long lines irk Arroyo

And they wonder why everyone who doesn’t benefit from their largess hate them. Didn’t they learn this in politician school. Plastic 101: how to convincingly show fake compassion.  Although if this article wasn’t about the fake president I suspect that this would have been labeled a better press corp please. A Big FU ma’am. I have Nightmares just thinking about how you sleep at night (Do Vampires sleep?).

By Christian V. Esguerra, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 03:17:00 09/30/2009

Filed Under: Ondoy, Flood, Disasters & Accidents, Government Aid

MANILA, Philippines—She ordered the Palace thrown open to the common folk, and was annoyed at what she saw.

A long stretch of impoverished Filipinos peeking through the gates of the Kalayaan compound under the intense afternoon heat was the sight that greeted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a day after she issued her unprecedented order.

It was apparently the closest that her staff could get to the planned National Relief Operations Center on the Palace grounds to help victims of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana).

The President beheld the scene when she arrived at Kalayaan Hall at around 1:30 p.m. from a Cabinet meeting in Camp Aguinaldo. Her face turning sour, she ordered the Palace guards to immediately let the people in.

Hermogenes Esperon, Ms Arroyo’s chief of staff, tried to downplay his boss’ annoyance, saying: “She just didn’t want to see the people lined up outside.”

About an hour later, the number of people expecting relief goods swelled to around 500. Many of them were women and kids dressed in tattered clothes and slippers.

An old man in a wheelchair fell in line, at the end of which volunteers distributed nothing more than hamburger buns.

via Palace to do repacking only; long lines irk Arroyo – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou

Illustrated by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna

347 pp. Bloomsbury. $22.95

Multimedia

Excerpt: ‘Logicomix’

Well, this is unexpected — a comic book about the quest for logical certainty in mathematics. The story spans the decades from the late 19th century to World War II, a period when the nature of mathematical truth was being furiously debated. The stellar cast, headed up by Bertrand Russell, includes the greatest philosophers, logicians and mathematicians of the era, along with sundry wives and mistresses, plus a couple of homicidal maniacs, an apocryphal barber and Adolf Hitler.

Improbable material for comic-book treatment? Not really. The principals in this intellectual drama are superheroes of a sort. They go up against a powerful nemesis, who might be called Dark Antinomy. Each is haunted by an inner demon, the Specter of Madness. Their quest has a tragic arc, not unlike that of Superman or Donald Duck.

via Book Review – ‘Logicomix’ – A Comic Book About Logic, Math and Madness – Review – NYTimes.com.

I feel this happens too often, and in the fantasy land of my mind, this happens to me (joke lang hehe)

An 18-year-old construction worker braved rampaging floods in the Philippines to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl and her mother who were being swept away on a styrofoam box.

Desperate relief effort amid rising death toll

Family members and people who Muelmar Magallanes saved have hailed the young man a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation centre near their destroyed Manila riverside village.

via Philippine man loses own life after saving dozens from floods.

In his books, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell has dissected many inspirational underdog victories, but his own triumph over the opposite sex could well be the most inspirational of all.

Eight years ago, on a balmy night in New York’s West Village, a darkly beautiful history grad was having a date with a 38-year-old writer. He was a little goofy looking and gesticulated a lot, but he was sweet and had theories about a million things, especially her. He was particularly interested in what made her special. When she revealed a passion for acting, he had a theory about that, too, and how to make it more special.

They drank some wine. They talked some more. He fluttered his long, slender fingers. He seemed so comfortable in his own skin, so authentic. He had this eerie feline self-assurance, and it was hypnotic. Forty minutes later, they were back at his place.

via The Love Guru – Page 1 – The Daily Beast.