Prof Wiesel advices Pinoy academics that these S&T incubators will only deliver its promise if the academics themselves adopt a more daring interdisciplinary view of things. This would imply a major shake up of how university bureaucracies are run which at present promotes departmental isolation. He suggests that academic departments and even the various UP campuses be daring enough to set up shop at the technohub (which should facilitate departments to collaboratively how to hatch projects). He gives the example of UP Manila’s health sciences research units. Medicine should not limit itself to clinical research but look into the potential of basic science research which can be incubated as new medical technologies. The best place to do that is in UP Diliman’s technohub since UP Diliman is strong in the basic natural sciences like physics, chem, biology and environment.
via Merienda with a Nobel Laureate | Filipino Voices.
Elink Video:2010 Presidential Election Watch: Noy tries to Rap
It is said that the reform wing of the NoyMar Campaign is running things. If this is true maybe we should get the not so reformist wing to run their campaign. The ads are simply not cool. Kailangan nakaka LSS. The tune needs to be catchy. How do you know this? Simple demo a jingle to friends. Wait a day. Ask if anyone can sing the tune, or still know the lyrics (don’t ask superbrains they won’t forget the words and the tune) if no one can the tune/lyrics/melody is just not good enough.
Philippine Politics::Manifesto For Positive Campaigning | Filipino Voices
Of all the candidates I believe Gibo wins the person I’d love to hang out in a coffee shop with!
Manifesto For Positive Campaigning
January 27th, 2010 by Paula Nocon
We, the supporters, volunteers and friends of former Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, vow to uphold the principles of POSITIVE CAMPAIGNING this election season. These principles shall unite us and guide us through this adventure that has brought us all together, inspire us throughout this journey, and lead us to victory.
We recognize, we believe, we affirm:
– that we have chosen our CANDIDATE because he represents what is best and excellent in all of us, because he champions our greatness rather than our mediocrity, because he is a visionary of means and not just a dreamer of ends, because we recognize the potential in him just as we recognize the potential in ourselves;
– that our VOTE is sacred. We do not take our vote for granted, for we are aware that millions around the world do not enjoy the privilege of electing their own leaders, and therefore do not have a say in mapping out their own destiny. Our vote ennobles us, reminds us that we can choose, we can decide and we can exercise our freedom to evolve our democracy to greater heights, as we give our full support to leaders who can serve the highest ideals of democracy;
– that this is a CAMPAIGN that does not stop with our candidate, nor does it end on Election Day. It is a deeper movement, a paradigm shift, that calls for the raising of awareness of every Filipino, the enlightenment of our entire race, so that we may pull ourselves out of a culture seeped in negativity and divisiveness, and enjoy the benefits of higher consciousness;
– that we align with POSITIVITY rather than negativity. We focus on our country’s innate wealth, rather than endemic poverty; we choose to be balanced, rather than extreme; we see opportunities in every problem; we are constructive and not destructive; we would rather defend than attack; we do not manipulate or persuade, but we educate; we do not struggle, but we strive; we see the long view rather than the immediate. We choose our words carefully, because through thought, act, deed and speech we convey our compassion, our sincerity and our tolerance, and our capacity to heal our wounded nation;
– that we are in this endeavor because we love our COUNTRY, and we are eager to find our true place in the world. Our sense of country is not limited to just our islands, but to the Filipinos found in every corner of the globe, for the influence of the Filipino is actually planetary. Our sense of “what is Filipino” goes beyond region, dialect and citizenship, and deeper into what we can do for our country, more than what it can do for us, what we can do for the world, than what the world can do for us;
– that the ENVIRONMENT is the most pressing underlying factor behind the exigency of our present cause; that we are the Green Team; that we support Life and never exploit Life; that we shall always consider the preservation of our natural resources, the cleanliness of our surroundings, and the love of Nature in every exercise of our campaign, for it is our positive mindset which is needed to save our planet from irreversible destruction;
– that GOD, or a Higher Power, inspires us in all these things; that the victory of a President is not just prescribed by the number of votes garnered or the efficiency of his campaign, but by the guiding hand of destiny and invisible forces we cannot fully explain; and so we fully align ourselves with this Power, which is embodied in Truth, in Justice, and in Peace, because this is what prevails, and we shall, absolutely, prevail.
SO HELP US GOD.
via Manifesto For Positive Campaigning | Filipino Voices.
Better Class of Politician::Villar ‘deeply hurt’ by Enrile’s ‘false story’ – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Because I always try to be impartial!!!
Villar ‘deeply hurt’ by Enrile’s ‘false story’
By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 21:20:00 01/26/2010
MANILA, Philippines—Senator Manny Villar has strongly denied offering help to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in exchange of any favors as the C-5 road controversy brews again at the upper chamber.
“I was not asking for any help and not offering anything. No help was asked and none was given,” Villar said in a statement Tuesday.
He said there was no need to ask help from Enrile because “I was confident that the documents, the records, the witnesses, and the rules will prove that the C-5 road project was not double-funded, overpriced or rerouted.”
via Villar ‘deeply hurt’ by Enrile’s ‘false story’ – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.
Better Class of Politicians Please::Roxas: Villar acting like GMA | ABS-CBN News Online Beta
I should have started an online betting pool of when the mud slinging will begin, but when come to think of it when did it even stop? A Philippines for Filipinos and not Politicians!!!!
Roxas: Villar acting like GMA
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/26/2010 4:29 PM
MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Manuel Roxas II on Tuesday likened Sen. Manny Villar to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for using the usual line of “politicking” to dodge allegations of corruption.
“Ito ang linya ni GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) 'di ba? Lahat ng mga accusation ng anomalya kay GMA, ano ang sagot ni GMA? Politika lang. Hindi sinasagot ang issue (This is GMA's famous line. All accusations of corruption against GMA, what's her answer? It's all politics. She does not answer the issue directly),” Roxas said in an interview over radio dzMM.
He urged Villar to appear before the plenary session on Tuesday to personally refute the charges.
Roxas said that instead of facing the issue of “corruption” head on, Villar and his allies have been trying to divert the issue by hurling allegations against other presidential candidates.
The senator was referring to the claim of Villar's camp that allies of Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III leaked the report of the Senate Committee of the Whole penned by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Roxas insisted that the presidential race has nothing to do with Villar's ethics case.
“The issue here is Senator Villar, as [then] Senate president and chairman of the finance committee pushed the [C-5 road] project and the road passed through his property,” he said.
via Roxas: Villar acting like GMA | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.
Research::The Dutch Disease Gets a Brazilian
I believe we can do the same study for the natural gas in malampaya (I think I’m not sure but the one that pays taxes to the Provincial Government of Batangas). I feel that the results would be similar. I hope they are not.
The Dutch Disease Gets a Brazilian
By Paul Kedrosky · Saturday, January 23, 2010 · ShareThis
The Dutch disease – the economic hollowing-out and corruption effects of domestic resource exploitation – has an interesting twist when it happens in Brazil:
Oil windfalls and living standards: New evidence from Brazil
Francesco Caselli, Guy Michaels, 20 January 2010
Does the “resource curse” exist? This column presents new evidence from Brazil. Municipalities that receive oil windfalls report significant increases in spending on infrastructure, education, health, and transfers to households. However, the windfalls do not trickle down and much of the money goes missing. Indeed, oil revenues increase the size of municipal workers’ houses but not the size of other residents’ houses. [Emphasis mine]
via The Dutch Disease Gets a Brazilian.
rePost:: Lodestar : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose
The loyalty of the people who serve PGMA always astounds me.
The very first time I set foot on the premises of the Batasang Pambansa was when then-Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo went before the House of Representatives during its “Question Hour,” and almost as much time separates that event from the time Joker finally disgraced himself utterly during the NBN-ZTE hearings, as has passed from the time Cory left office to the time she died. Within that period, the Joker who’d embraced accountability and scrutiny by submitting, as executive secretary, to the House’s questions, became the Congressman Joker who combated President Estrada, only to surrender to impunity by being a cranky sword and shield for President Arroyo and Senate President Villar.
The difference in fundamental attitudes have less to do with the individual choices of one man, and more to do with the approach of those at the top to power. The Joker Arroyo of today cannot possibly be really different from the Joker of yesterday; but it would seem his disgrace and those of the institutions in which he once served and in which he now sits, could only have been made possible by the realization of how powerfully personal example can influence behavior up and down the line. Cory, as the antithesis of Marcos, left people no choice but to try to live up to her example. Arroyo, on the other hand, liberated Joker to be himself.
And this is why Cory will forever be missed.
via The Long View: Lodestar : Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose.
rePost :: Microecon of Media
Some people really does have no business in voting.
But again, your primary complaint here should be about those shallow voters, not the advertisers. If you believe that some voters care so little about political outcomes that they are willing to sell their political beliefs to the highest advertising bidder, you should believe that such folks have no business voting! After all, preventing some folks from directly buying political ads may have little net effect – those folks may buy ads indirectly, or find other ways to buy voter beliefs. The key problem is that some voters care way too little about political outcomes.
via Overcoming Bias : Microecon of Media.
Rant:News Reports On Stock Movement:2010 01 24
I hate it when news segments say, “The stocks were down because…” or “The stocks were up because”.
Reporters/Editors really need to learn more about what they are reporting on.
Day to day movements of stock tend to be just noise. Ask a good trader. It seems to me that the traders you are asking are the less knowledgeable ones.
Why is this important? Because this reeks of trying to manipulate public opinion in a blatantly subtle way. This is a disingenuous way of hinting what is good or bad for business.
rePost::How America Lost the War on Drugs : Rolling Stone
frankly drugs scare me, it’s just that people on drugs cannot be reasoned with, they will probably kill you even if you do not have any plans on trying to fight back when being mugged, or the like. It’s like in poker, I actually don’t fear the rational players, it’s the irrational players who doesn’t have a lot of logic in their playing that is very hard to beat. This is because you get beaten by hands that you assume wouldn’t be possible because they would have folded already with such.
This is something concrete that can be asked to Presidential Aspirants. Do they even know of these almost 20 year recommendation? The Drug problem in the Philippines is worsening because poverty is worsening, producing a spiral of crime-poverty-addiction. We are a poor country and to not know what the most cost efficient way to combat the Drug Problem is a big question mark in any Presidential Candidates armor. We must be asking these questions.
PS: Legalize marijuana now!!!!
PSS: Notice that in a lot of our problems the Pareto Principle is at work 80-20 90-10;. For me at least someone worthy of leading our beautiful and somewhat seemingly damned country should know the those places where we could put the Pareto Principle to work.
“If you had asked me at the outset,” Everingham says, “my guess would have been that the best use of taxpayer money was in the source countries in South America” — that it would be possible to stop cocaine before it reached the U.S. But what the study found surprised her. Overseas military efforts were the least effective way to decrease drug use, and imprisoning addicts was prohibitively expensive. The only cost-effective way to put a dent in the market, it turned out, was drug treatment. “It’s not a magic bullet,” says Reuter, the RAND scholar who helped supervise the study, “but it works.” The study ultimately ushered RAND, this vaguely creepy Cold War relic, into a position as the permanent, pragmatic left wing of American drug policy, the most consistent force for innovating and reinventing our national conception of the War on Drugs.
When Everingham’s team looked more closely at drug treatment, they found that thirteen percent of hardcore cocaine users who receive help substantially reduced their use or kicked the habit completely. They also found that a larger and larger portion of illegal drugs in the U.S. were being used by a comparatively small group of hardcore addicts. There was, the study concluded, a fundamental imbalance: The crack epidemic was basically a domestic problem, but we had been fighting it more aggressively overseas. “What we began to realize,” says Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studied drug policy for RAND, “was that even if you only get a percentage of this small group of heavy drug users to abstain forever, it’s still a really great deal.”
Thirteen years later, the study remains the gold standard on drug policy. “It’s still the consensus recommendation supplied by the scholarship,” says Reuter. “Yet as well as it’s stood up, it’s never really been tried.”
To Brown, RAND’s conclusions seemed exactly right. “I saw how little we were doing to help addicts, and I thought, ‘This is crazy,'” he recalls. “‘This is how we should be breaking the cycle of addiction and crime, and we’re just doing nothing.'”
The federal budget that Brown’s office submitted in 1994 remains a kind of fetish object for certain liberals in the field, the moment when their own ideas came close to making it into law. The budget sought to cut overseas interdiction, beef up community policing, funnel low-level drug criminals into treatment programs instead of prison, and devote $355 million to treating hardcore addicts, the drug users responsible for much of the illegal-drug market and most of the crime associated with it. White House political handlers, wary of appearing soft on crime, were skeptical of even this limited commitment, but Brown persuaded the president to offer his support, and the plan stayed.
via How America Lost the War on Drugs : Rolling Stone.