There’s some really good news that gives us cause for celebration, and there’s also some bad news that gives us cause for concern. First, the good news: We have made some solid strides in our fight against corruption. While preparing for a talk at the Asian Development Bank, I looked at Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from when it first started doing this index in 1995, and traced it through to 2014, for the Philippines, and for comparator countries. Here’s what I found:Our Corruption Perception Index(Various Years)Year(1) CPI Value(2) Country Rank(3) Percentile(4)1995 2.8 36th of 41 122000 2.8 69th of 90 232005 2.5 117th of 159 262010 2.4 134th of 178 252011 2.6 129th of 182 292012 34 105th of 174 402013 36 94th of 175 462014 38 85th of 175 51
30 years on death row but you're innocent. When you're freed, the prosecutor comes to apologize.
Unfortunately, this type of miscarriage of justice isn’t an isolated one-off case.According to researcher estimates, about 4.1% of death penalty convictions are erroneous. In other words, for every 100 people on death row, at least four people shouldn’t be there. And that’s not even looking at those wrongly convicted of smaller crimes with lesser penalties.Sadly, the people it usually happens to are those who can’t afford the most highly qualified defense attorneys and who can’t keep paying legal fees to appeal. And they’re mostly people of color. The National Exonerations Registry shows that as of 2015, 60% of exonerations after a wrongful conviction were for non-white defendants.
Source: 30 years on death row but you’re innocent. When you’re freed, the prosecutor comes to apologize.
Getting GVM to work in Windows using PowerShell
I’ve been trying to learn griffon and upgrading to the latest version I noticed that there is a nifty tool that can be used to install Groovy related stuff like groovy / grails/ griffon. I use ubuntu for my personal coding and was able to get it up and running quite easily.
GVM is inspired by a Ruby tool and copying such and awesome utility was a no brainer.
Having used it with my coding experiments at home I just had to have this for work.
The first set back is that the steps required an upgrade to PowerShell 3.0.
You just have to google PowerShell 3.0 installer and you would have to install. Just remember to pick the correct version for your OS. There are different versions for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2008. Remember to close any open Powershell consoles before starting the installation.
After installation you have to check the version of PowerShell installed by typing this command within Power Shell:
$PSVersionTable.PSVersion
This will display the version of the Powershell installed:
Major Minor Build Revision
—– —– —– ——–
3 0 – 1 – 1
Open as Administrator a PowerShell console and type this command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
This will allow you to execute scripts.
Run this command:
(new-object Net.WebClient).DownloadString(“http://psget.net/GetPsGet.ps1”) | iex
This will download the script from github.
Type this command to install the GVM module:
Install-Module posh-gvm
Import-Module posh-gvm
Type this command to test:
gvm help
Something like this should be displayed:
Usage: gvm <command> <candidate> [version]
gvm offline <enable|disable>
commands:
install or i <candidate> [version]
uninstall or rm <candidate> <version>
list or ls <candidate>
use or u <candidate> [version]
default or d <candidate> [version]
current or c [candidate]
version or v
broadcast or b
help or h
offline <enable|disable>
selfupdate [-Force]
flush <candidates|broadcast|archives|temp>
candidate : asciidoctorj, crash, gaiden, glide, gradle, grails, griffon, groovy, groovyserv, jbake, lazybones, sp
ringboot, vertx
version : where optional, defaults to latest stable if not provided
Surprising danger of being good at your job – Business Insider
All that leads to a problem: High-self-control people feel more burdened by their work relationships than their less-disciplined peers. They sacrifice more for the coworkers, the researchers found, even when those sacrifices come at the expense of their own goals. And that same dynamic plays out in romantic relationships. Being reliable is draining.Which doesn’t mean go-getters should stop go-getting. The benefits of high self-control still far outweigh the costs.But managers (and coworkers and romantic partners) should take note: If you take those high-self-control people for granted, you may risk losing them. While relying on go-getters might be a good short-term strategy — they’ll get stuff done — in the long run, Koval suggests, they “might become dissatisfied with this burden we’re placing on them.”Accordingly, it’s essential to recognize them for their (probably underestimated) efforts. They need to feel “a return on the effort they’re putting in,” she says.
Source: Surprising danger of being good at your job – Business Insider
How many slave deaths for the Qatar World Cup can Fifa put up with? | Football | The Guardian
To repeat: more than 62 per game. Perhaps players in every match could each wear 62 black armbands. Then again, that would probably contravene Fifa’s strict rules on what constitutes official kit, infringements of which it punishes ferociously. On infringements such as mass slave death, however, the evidence suggests it is more relaxed.
Source: How many slave deaths for the Qatar World Cup can Fifa put up with? | Football | The Guardian
How to use Predicate in java 8 – HowToDoInJava
In mathematics, a predicate is commonly understood to be a Boolean-valued function P: X? {true, false}, called the predicate on X. Informally, a predicate is a statement that may be true or false depending on the values of its variables. It can be thought of as an operator or function that returns a value that is either true or false. In java 8, Predicate a functional interface and can therefore be used as the assignment target for a lambda expression or method reference. So, where you think, you can use these true/false returning functions in day to day programming? I will say you can use them anywhere where you need to evaluate a condition on group/collection of similar objects such that evaluation can result either in true or false e.g. 1) Find all children borned after a particular date 2) Pizzas ordered a specific time 3) Employees greater than certain age and so on.. So Predicate seems to be interesting thing. Let’s go deeper. As I said, Predicate is functional interface. It mean we can pass lambda expressions wherever predicate is expected. For example one such method is filter() method from Stream interface.
rePost:America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich | Life and style | The Guardian
“I thought it was a brilliant idea, brilliant,” says Mitch Huhem, who is looking to buy a trailer park with his wife, Deborah. “These people need a place to live, and they don’t want to mess around.“They’ve got to live somewhere, so you combine them in a certain place. They don’t go out to hurt people. I think it’s a community service, because if not they will be in your neighbourhood. Now they’re all in one place, you can watch them all in one place. And they pay well and won’t mess things up. I mean, why would you not? I think it’s a brilliant idea.”
via America’s trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich | Life and style | The Guardian.
Mary Jane Veloso and being on different sides of the elephant
Who did what?
I first found out about Mary Jane’s case in January 2015, long before Filipinos knew who she was. This means I’ve been talking to the Philippine embassy officials about her case even before Migrante and NUPL knew about it.
At the time, they were preparing her first case review. They shared the background and the plans with me – to raise the translator issue – but asked me not to publish anything yet because they didn’t want to prejudice the upcoming case.
This is an indisputable fact: The Philippine government hired Indonesian lawyers to appeal Mary Jane’s case, but they did not publicize what they were doing at the start.
I’ve raised my concern several times about the lack of publicity over Mary Jane’s case, but the embassy insisted they believed the legal route will have a better chance of saving her than publicity, which at the time was backfiring on the Australians.
via Mary Jane Veloso and being on different sides of the elephant.
BINAYARAN WATCH::Makati Home Ville: Where lies the truth?
The article tries to fact check the testimony of the witnesses but instead becomes a he said she said article.
It fails to ask the right questions and instead muddies the issue. Trash journalism.
Let us give a simple example of the enclosed excerpt.
In the article the issue of the housing of relocation is a statement by Binay that :
‘Binigyan na kayo ng lupa, gusto n’yo pa ng bahay?” (He said, “You were already given lands, you still want to be given houses?”).
The article then quotes a resident:
“Hindi totoo ‘yan (That’s not true)!”
“Yung mga may kaya na magtayo nang sarili nila, okay lang na magtayo. Yung di kaya magtayo, lilipat sila sa pabahay, (Those who have the means, they may build their houses. Those who can’t, will be moved to the housing units),”
The issue was how unapologetic nay entitled Binay’s wording was. It was as if a King/Queen was telling his subjects you are alive what more can you ask for.
While the quoted person was addressing not what was said but the options the people in Homeville had.
And the the stupid reported didn’t have the sense to ask. Where does one live for 6 months while the HomeVille housing was being constructed while you are already here in Calauan?
WTF this is probably an overmatched intern or a paid hack.
EntitlementLani claimed, “Ang mga tao, takot lang magsalita. Siyempre, Binay ito. Kung paalisin sila? (The people here are just afraid to talk. Of course, this is Binay’s. What if they get evicted?)”To outsiders, the relocation site is Binay Compound. But to residents, it’s Makati Home Ville, and the 40-hectare property was purchased by the city government of Makati.Before the Senate committee, Edison recalled asking the Vice President about his alleged promise of providing them shelter: “Sabi niya, ‘Binigyan na kayo ng lupa, gusto n’yo pa ng bahay?” (He said, “You were already given lands, you still want to be given houses?”).Lopez outrightly dismissed this: “Hindi totoo ‘yan (That’s not true)!”“Yung mga may kaya na magtayo nang sarili nila, okay lang na magtayo. Yung di kaya magtayo, lilipat sila sa pabahay, (Those who have the means, they may build their houses. Those who can’t, will be moved to the housing units),” Zeny explained.THOSE WHO ARE ABLE. Residents with the means to build their own houses are encouraged to do so. Those who can’t, will move to the housing units.The housing units in Phase 3 were completed in March 2013. But it took 4 years since the first relocatees were moved to Makati Home Ville before the housing units were finished. They weren’t occupied until 6 months later.
via Makati Home Ville: Where lies the truth?.
DILG: A bright future awaits 4Ps graduates | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines
DILG: A bright future awaits 4Ps graduates
Posted on April 9, 2015
From the Department of Interior and Local Government
Thousands of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) high school scholars gathered together with Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas and other cabinet members in the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on Thursday, to celebrate their graduation.
“Marami ang tumulong, marami ang nagsakripisyo para tayo ay makatuloy sa pag-aaral. Anuman ang marating natin, hindi tayo solo-flight dito,” said Roxas.
According to Roxas, the 4Ps project is an investment to elevate the situation of the students and families living in the poverty line.
Roxas also asked the students and their parents to continue reaching for their dreams, even if it meant sacrifice and hardship.
“Tandaan ninyong hindi kayo nag-iisa. Nariyan ang Maykapal. Anuman ang mangyayari sa inyo, anuman ang mangyayari sa ating bansa ay nasa sainyo,” Roxas said.
Help also continues for beneficiaries in the form of internships, college scholarships and skills training programs from the government.
Secretaries Corazon Soliman (DSWD), Armin Luistro (DepEd), Rosalinda Baldoz (DOLE), Commissioner Jose Sixto ‘Dingdong’ Dantes (NYC), and the supporters of the 4Ps were also present in the program.
More than 4.4 million poor Filipino families receive regular cash grants from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a poverty reduction strategy that gives Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) to poorest households, provided that they comply with the conditions set by the program.
This program also ranks as the 3rd largest conditional cash transfer program in the world, next to Brazil and Mexico.
dilg.gov.ph
via DILG: A bright future awaits 4Ps graduates | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines.