Category: Elink 8

Posted on

rePost:: There is now substantial evidence that the health and schooling of children can be raised by empowering women, and this is precisely what Tunisia did when it raised the minimum age for marriage, revoked the colonial ban on imports of contraceptives, instituted the first family planning programme in Africa, legalized abortion, made polygamy illegal, and gave women the right to divorce as well as the right to stand and vote for election. :: Dani Rodrik's weblog: The unsung development miracles of our time

I score this one against the moralist forces in our country. They are basically against what other countries find successful.

What was their secret? Determined policies to expand educational opportunities and access to health along with a willingness to depart from the conventional wisdom of the day and experiment with their own remedies. Even though all three North African countries are Moslem, empowering of women seems to have played an important role as well:

There is now substantial evidence that the health and schooling of children can be raised by empowering women, and this is precisely what Tunisia did when it raised the minimum age for marriage, revoked the colonial ban on imports of contraceptives, instituted the first family planning programme in Africa, legalized abortion, made polygamy illegal, and gave women the right to divorce as well as the right to stand and vote for election.

What is somewhat puzzling, as Rodriguez and Samman also note, is that these countries have not made nearly as much progress in democratization.
These new “facts” substantially enrich our understanding of the development landscape over the last four decades.
via Dani Rodrik’s weblog: The unsung development miracles of our time.

Posted on

rePost:: Best Read::All the lonely people – Roger Ebert's Journal

Nice post read the whole thing.

When I was a child the mailman came once a day. Now the mail arrives every moment. I used to believe it was preposterous that people could fall in love online. Now I see that all relationships are virtual, even those that take place in person. Whether we use our bodies or a keyboard, it all comes down to two minds crying out from their solitude.
via All the lonely people – Roger Ebert’s Journal.

Posted on

Musings 2010 09 16

  • It started sunday night and ended yesterday night, my John Hughes Marathon (Teen flicks + Planes Trains and Automobiles).

Some thoughts:
There is a light that never goes out

Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people
Who are young and alive
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one anymore
Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh please don’t drop me home
Because it’s not my home, it’s their home
And I’m welcome no more
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine
Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere, I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
But then a strange fear gripped me
And I just couldn’t ask
Take me out tonight
Oh take me anywhere, I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one
No, I haven’t got one
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes in to us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out

  • Pretty in Pink released in 1986 used a single from “The Queen is Dead” 1986 album of The Smiths in its sound track. It’s a joy pausing the credits to look at the soundtrack of JH films, specially when the music is this good.
  • Found Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) could have been more effective if it wasn’t for the fact that I found Watts more attractive than Amanda. This may either be because I really find Watts more attractive or I was feeling for her character, the  ever I love her but she loves another may be the real reason.
    • For the life of me I can’t help but think that Keith was stoned the whole time.
    • We have our share of this, from 27 year old actors playing a highschool student (Yep thinking of glee right now) to a teenager playing a much older woman (the 15 y.o. clubber  in bad boys 2 comes to mind). I believe for women its more acceptable but for men please please please don’t play freshman highschool students when you already have a receding or thinning rag
  • from Rilke : For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
    This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.
  • loved this TED Talk by TED curator Chris Anderson about Crowd Accelerated Innovation:
  1. Crowd
  2. Light – Open Visibility of what can be done
  3. Desire

  • The LXD (League of eXtraordinary Dancers) shown fleetingly at Chris Anderson’s TED Talk!!!!

Posted on

Nice Stuff I've Read 2010 08 08

On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new research suggests — make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.

Why did Greg and I do something so ludicrous as sneaking into an eight-billion-dollar corporation to do volunteer work? Apple was having financial troubles then, so we joked that we were volunteering for a nonprofit organization. In reality, our motivation was complex. Partly, the PowerPC was an awesome machine, and we wanted to show off what could be done with it; in the Spinal Tap idiom, we said, “OK, this one goes to eleven.” Partly, we were thinking of the storytelling value. Partly, it was a macho computer guy thing – we had never shipped a million copies of software before. Mostly, Greg and I felt that creating quality educational software was a public service. We were doing it to help kids learn math. Public schools are too poor to buy software, so the most effective way to deliver it is to install it at the factory.
Beyond this lies another set of questions, both psychological and political. Was I doing this out of bitterness that my project had been canceled? Was I subversively coopting the resources of a multinational corporation for my own ends? Or was I naive, manipulated by the system into working incredibly hard for its benefit? Was I a loose cannon, driven by arrogance and ego, or was I just devoted to furthering the cause of education?
I view the events as an experiment in subverting power structures. I had none of the traditional power over others that is inherent to the structure of corporations and bureaucracies. I had neither budget nor headcount. I answered to no one, and no one had to do anything I asked. Dozens of people collaborated spontaneously, motivated by loyalty, friendship, or the love of craftsmanship. We were hackers, creating something for the sheer joy of making it work.

here :

Their business, started four years ago, bears all the markers that would seem to point toward collapse and extinction in a recessionary economy. It’s founded on idealism and emotion. It’s riddled with huge and unavoidable inefficiencies. And it tenders a high-end product that asks buyers to take risks and have faith.

Posted on

You must read this!!!! :: Market Manila – Income Levels / Poverty in the Philippines – General

This is probably one of the top 5 posts I’ve read about the Philippines this year.

Marketman’s Running Survey
In the survey I am running (or if you read this later, survey that I ran), it seems some 40% of readers actually think the Philippines is POORER than it is, in other words, a fairly negative sentiment. Some 24% of you got it right, with roughly 86-88% of the families earning less than PHP25,000 per month for a family of 5. But approximately 36% of you were varying degrees of being overly optimistic, and believed that many more families earned more than they actually do. Okay, so hold this thought for a moment. Roughly 87% of all families in the Philippines, representing 75.7 million people, are living on less than PHP5,000 (USD110) per month per person on average in income.
via Market Manila – Income Levels / Poverty in the Philippines – General.

Okay a little too over the top. but I really wanted you to read this!!!

Posted on

Elink :: Worldometers – real time world statistics

This website is awesome. Data wonks WOOT!!!
Worldometers – world statistics updated in real time

World Population
Current World Population
Births this year 1
Births today 2
Deaths this year
Deaths today
Net population growth for today 3
1) “this year” = from January 1 (00:00) up to now
2) “today” = from the beginning of the current day up to now
3) “net population growth” = births minus deaths

via Worldometers – real time world statistics.

Posted on

rePost::Google takes on Apple

Meanwhile, rumors swirl that Apple is planning something involving a black turtleneck and “one more thing” on Jan. 26 [13]. Then again, maybe the company is finally bringing the Beatles to iTunes. Or maybe Steve Jobs will announce he’s had the rest of his internal organs replaced with cybernetic equivalents [14]. Still, a lot of Apple fanboys are hoping their dreams of an Apple Tablet will finally bear fruit.
The most interesting part of all of this — again if those persistent Web rumors are to be believed [15] — is that Google plans to offer an unlocked, unsubsidized version of the Nexus One (or whatever it’s called) to consumers. In other words, Google may be entering the consumer hardware biz, thus competing directly with Apple.
In other words, forget Microsoft, Yahoo, or MicroHoo [16]. The battle for world domination will boil down to Apple vs. Google — with a few minor players like Amazon in there to raise the ante.
Oh they won’t be alone. Like a wildebeest at a watering hole, Microsoft will eventually stick its nose in the air, catch a whiff of what Apple and Google are doing, and strong-arm its hardware partners into producing their own Windows Live Tablets — two years late and burdened by a slow, complex-yet-condescending interface. Sony will quietly release a product that does almost everything people want, price it too high, market it poorly, and totally fail. A few minor players will jump in, and eventually tablets will become a commodity like everything else eventually does.
The real innovation, though, will come from a no-holds-barred catfight between the Googlers of Mountain View and the Appletons of Cupertino. That ought to be fun to watch.
Will all this really come to pass? We'll know in just a few weeks. Probably.
via Google takes on Apple.

The blog’s going to get noisy, I’ve had it with delicious not letting me save as much as I want!!!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted on

rePost::Nick Perlas and the Missing Manual of Maria Clara

I’ve never thought of Don Quixote as a geek. This framing of Nick Perlas as the geek suitor help me make the connection. This was a nice article, read the whole thing, tis really short. The funny thing is if we use his way of thinking what would Manny Villar be? the rich suitor? Eddie Villanueva would then be the suitor that speaks of spirituality and purity? Gibo would be the intelligent talented guy who doesn’t have much charm? Erap would be the Bad Boy?
What scares me with this is that my jaded ecxperience tells me that the nice guys finish last and ; It’s either the Bad Boy or The Rich Guys who get the girl.
I’m rambling. Once you get blogging into your system, you sometimes just have too. Okay vacation mode again!!!!!!!!

Think about Nick Perlas as the quintessential geek, neither flashy nor fancy.
The geek is plain. He is ordinary. He isn’t in it for the money or the honor or whatnut. He wants to solve problems that he is presented with. He is geek and like all geeks, a woman throws him into a recursive loop.
The geek is like that reliable knight who does Maria Clara’s will, and the perfect confidant. The geek is the guy who shields her as best he could and picks her up when she falls. He stands by her when no one does. But seduction is not in the geek’s repertoire.
And Nick Perlas the candidate is as exciting as the wrapping of bond paper.
Noynoy Aquino is the Trojan horse, the least expected and unlikely suitor/hero of the story who comes riding to save the day. He isn’t evil. He comes from a good background. He is not a genius and knows he cannot surpass his own parents’ success. In fact, of the list seeking her sweet approval he is the one best-shot Maria Clara has at happiness.
(And yes, how ironic since Mr. Aquino is a bachelor).
via Nick Perlas and the Missing Manual of Maria Clara.