rePost::One inch equals $30,000 in online dating world Boing Boing

I’m doomed. hehe.

One inch equals $30,000 in online dating world
By Mark Frauenfelder at 11:38 AM February 17, 2010
A Duke University study analyzed data from 22,000 online daters and found that “women put a premium on income and height when deciding which men to contact.”
For example, the study showed a 5-foot-9-inch man needs to make $30,000 more than a 5-foot-10-inch one to be as successful in the dating pool.
via One inch equals $30,000 in online dating world Boing Boing.

rePost::Endangered species condoms :: Boing Boing

To portray the message that rapid human population growth is pushing other animals out of the habitats and causing specie extinction, the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity has created a series of condom wrappers featuring an endangered animal and catchy slogans like “Wrap with care… save the polar bear” and “Hump smarter… save the snail darter.”
via Endangered species condoms Boing Boing.

rePost::The thrill of the bespoke | JessicarulestheUniverse

I’ve been wanting to buy a Moleskine for years, but I’ve always felt a tinge of guilt right before I’m going to buy them. It just reeks excess and in hugh macleod these things are pillars we use to hide behind. Although carrying a pocket notebook has been a very good experiment for me.

As a Moleskine user I am shocked, Shocked at all the colors and variations on my beloved black carnet. First there were those silk-covered notebooks for the Van Gogh Museum, then all the commemorative stuff—Woodstock, Helvetica, and so on. In soft cover! What is this world coming to! Must those young whippersnappers defile the classics with such impunity?
That’s my fuddy-duddy tone. I like this: the limited edition My Pilipinas notebook, a collaboration between Moleskine, Collezione C2, and National Bookstore. The notebooks are now available at Collezione C2 and National Bookstore branches—P995 for the pocket notebook, P1480 for the large notebooks. My one complaint: it’s only available in soft cover.
via The thrill of the bespoke | JessicarulestheUniverse.

Learned Today::Study: Lack of morning light keeping teenagers up at night Boing Boing

Now I just need to wake up earlier than usual to get some sunlight and exercise!!! although my problem with waking up early has always been about having my creative times between late nights and early mornings.

The new research has applications for more than 3 million shift workers and Alzheimer’s patients who suffer from lack of a regular sleep pattern.
Studies have shown that this lack of synchronization between a shift worker’s rest and activity and light/dark patterns leads to a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, seasonal depression and cancer over decades.
via Study: Lack of morning light keeping teenagers up at night Boing Boing.

Quote::The Introvert's Corner blog: "We Gotta Fight for our Right Not to Party" Boing Boing

I think people around me find this hard to believe but for introverts like me social interactions are welcome but are extremely taxing on our strengths and psyches. It really takes great effort to interact. I hope not a lot of people think that I’m some kind of snob.

The Introvert’s Corner blog: “We Gotta Fight for our Right Not to Party”

By Mark Frauenfelder at 2:21 PM February 17, 2010

As a semi-introvert, I was happy to discover Sophia Dembling’s Introvert’s Corner blog.
A woman who read one of my essays on introversion said that when she explained her introversion to her family, her brother said, “We didn’t know you were an introvert. We thought you were just a bitch.”The Introvert’s Corner: How to live a quiet life in a noisy world
via The Introvert’s Corner blog: “We Gotta Fight for our Right Not to Party” Boing Boing.

Better Press Corp Please::Covering Washington like Kabul | FP Passport

This post should be titled better press corp and better electorate please. This is because the two sides are at fault for how lousy the coverage of elections has been. The blame goes to the people who now thinks of politicians as entertainers and vice versa (if I hear another question about Noy and Shalani  I’m going to puke.)
Where are we really. Let’s see.
We have the world’s longest ballot, with electronic elections that is unprecedented. We have 7.1 % unemployment rate. a 19.1% underemployment rate, we have what thousands of OFW in some of the most hostile social environments in the world, we have an education system in rambles, our general populace is scared whenever we see a check point. Our policemen/military can’t seem to understand that belonging to a political/ideological party is not a crime (bearing arms is). We have a few dozen warlords in the poorest provinces whose people are locked in a cycle of poverty , corruption and abuse.
And the question you would like to ask Villar is “Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?”. Fuck, you people have no right to claim being the Fourth Estate or rather it is sad that maybe this is what or how the fourth estate should be if left to the devices of people who do not have any noble belief towards their profession.
In a better world media should be asking Gibo what he has done as Department of Defense? What Gordon did with the ZTE-NBN deal investigation ? Executive success of Noy? and the Peace and Order understanding of Manny Villar?
PS :: Mild Migraines again so grain of salt guys.
PS1: Prior to the C5 road scams my problems with Villar is that our economy may do well with his stewardship but that the Ampatuans and other rumored warlord families would only strengthen their grasp.

Covering Washington like Kabul

Posted By Annie Lowrey

On his New Yorker blog, George Packer takes aim at the “devastatingly unremarkable” bloviation of Beltway journos. He cites Washington Post columnist (and “dean” of the Washington press corps) David Broder’s analysis of a recent Sarah Palin speech as “[showing] off a public figure at the top of her game — a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself.” He also offers up the New York Times‘ Adam Nagourney’s coverage of a recent Republican leadership conference: “Here in Honolulu, the strains within the party over conservative principles versus political pragmatism played out in a sharp and public way.”
These two characterizations from two top writers for the United States’ two leading papers, Packer argues, are but purple guff — in the words of Michael Kelly, examples of how the “idea of image” is “faith in Washington.” The journalists follow the same, strange, well-worn routine. They take the mundane comings and goings of major political figures, interpret them according to prevailing partisan winds, and write them up in the overheated, undercooked language of a harlequin novel. The result is airy nonsense that fervently insists on its trenchancy.
Packer further demonstrates the absurdity of this journalistic convention by satirically recasting the Palin passage about Afghan President Hamid Karzai: “Speaking at the presidential palace in Kabul, Mr. Karzai showed himself to be at the top of his game. He skillfully co-opted his Pashtun base while making a powerful appeal to the technocrats.”
The point is that Washington coverage of major political figures is not just bizarre stylistically, but dead substantively. To discuss for hundreds of words how Palin is at the top of her game is to spend hundreds of words not discussing her actual relevance to the fractured conservative scene. Foreign correspondence on major political figures needs to be more explanatory than illlustrative — and it would be better if coverage of Washington were more like the clear-eyed, clean-written analysis of Kabul.
via Covering Washington like Kabul | FP Passport.

rePost::How to write an essay – Chris Blattman

With blogging, my poor essay writing skills have deteriorated to what can only possibly be called high school level.
It can’t even be called prep school level but rather the average high school in an average community level.
Linked are some good advice to bolster your essay writing skills.

Students (grad students too) should read this essay closely, then read it again. I give tips to my students on writing, but Farrell’s are more and better (and better written).
Below the fold, from my undergrad African development course, the 10 tips I give my students for writing an essay (in their case, a book review).
via How to write an essay – Chris Blattman.

rePost::David Kamp on John Hughes | vanityfair.com

Sweet Bard of Youth
After a wildly prolific decade of screenwriting and directing that made him the king of teen comedy, John Hughes receded from the cinematic landscape, his legend preserved by the classic 80s trilogy of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Following Hughes’s sudden death, at age 59, last summer, the author delves into his intense connections and sudden breaks with his Brat Pack actors, as well as the essential anomaly of his brief Hollywood reign.
via David Kamp on John Hughes | vanityfair.com.

rePost::The painful truth about age discrimination in tech

I’m officially scared!

The persistent devaluation of experience and skills. Any developer can tell you that not all C or PHP or Java programmers are created equal; some are vastly more productive or creative. However, unless or until there is a way to explicitly demonstrate the productivity differential between a good programmer and a mediocre one, inexperienced or nontechnical hiring managers tend to look at resumes with an eye for youth, under the “more bang for the buck” theory. Cheaper young 'uns will work longer hours and produce more code. The very concept of viewing experience as an asset for raising productivity is a nonfactor — much to the detriment of the developer workplace.
According to one 20-year telecommunications veteran who asked to remain anonymous, when high-tech companies began incorporating more business-oriented managers into their upper tiers, these managers were not able to accurately assess the merits of developers with know-how: “It is nearly impossible to judge quality work if you never did it yourself,” he says. “The latest fad was the idiotic belief that management was generic, a skill that could be taught at school and could then be sent anywhere to do any management job.”
Another way in which experience is actually seen as a flaw rather than a virtue: Hiring managers are unable to map how 10 years of experience in one programming language can inform or enhance a programmer's months of experience with a newer technology. Instead, they dismiss the decade of experience as a sign of inflexibility or being unable to keep up — an assumption that penalizes IT pros for being present during the last 10 years of their jobs.
As former Intel CEO Craig Barrett once said, “The half-life of an engineer, software or hardware, is only a few years.” With this kind of attitude at the top, there's no cultural incentive to foster a hiring strategy that rewards experience or longevity.
via The painful truth about age discrimination in tech.