Category: Rant

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Better Government Regulators Please!!!! :: (UPDATE 2) MTRCB suspends 'Showtime' for 1 month | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

Better Government Regulators Please!!!!

(UPDATE 2) MTRCB suspends ‘Showtime’ for 1 month

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 03/26/2010 3:49 PM

MANILA, Philippines – The Movie & Television Review & Classification Board (MTRCB) has ordered a 1-month suspension of ABS-CBN’s hit talent show “Showtime.”
In its ruling, the MTRCB said the uncalled for utterances of actress Rosanna Roces in the episodes aired on January 4 and 7, 2010 violated its rules and regulations.
The suspension also applies to “Magpasikat, the show that temporarily replaces “Showtime” when it’s not on air, and any other similar shows.
The MTRCB also directed the filing of criminal charges against Florida Tan, ABS-CBN vice-president for programming, and other officers “responsible for the violation.”
In an official statement sent to abs-cbnNEWS.com, Bong R. Osorio, head of ABS-CBN’s Corporate Communications said the MTRCB’s decision is not yet final. He said the network will appeal the decision before the Office of the President.
He said the penalty cannot be enforced yet, despite the fact that the decision states it is “effective immediately.”
“The decision was not totally unexpected. The MTRCB committee hearing the case could not have contradicted the Chairman, who had earlier issued a preventive suspension order of Showtime,” Osorio said.
“ABS-CBN questioned the validity of the preventive suspension order and filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against the MTRCB chairman for violation of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.”
“The MTRCB decision is not final and executory. ABS-CBN disagrees with the decision and will appeal such to the Office of the President. Meantime, SHOWTIME goes on!,” Osorio said.
via (UPDATE 2) MTRCB suspends ‘Showtime’ for 1 month | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

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rePost:: I Demand Better Vampires – Vampires – io9

I just wish there were any other plot. One vampire wants to be nice and only eat cows and every other vampire is harshing their squee. They want to be as much like a human as possible. Except vampires are humans now, except hot and immortal. Literally no other difference. But they’re acting out the same old plots like they’re Bela Lugosi. It’s way postmodern, if anyone noticed onscreen, which they don’t. Like 19 year olds acting out stories about their grandparents radical activities in the 60s when they in fact live in a world where all those issues are passe.
via I Demand Better Vampires – Vampires – io9.

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rePost::Learning “Just in Case” versus “Just in Time” – Preparation – Lifehacker

This is a nice post. Read the whole thing.
The competing vs running was an excellent dichotomy. If you do not learn something before hand you will be hardpressed to say where you are going to use it. You use it because you know it. You can think of where you can make use of it because you already understand it. I can still remember a lot of the ugly code I’ve written because I didn’t know of some technique or some abstraction. I can still remember how it feels to code around a problem because your current toolset doesn’t have the necessary tools to help you solve the problem. In academe there is this saying “Publish or Perish”, in the world we call corporate at least for programmers there is nothing equal so I propose “Learn or Burn”. The basic structure of how my profession is organized allows the companies to have the upper hand. They don’t give you enough time to study, this allows them to devalue your skills as time goes by. Don’t let the companies have the upper hand. “Learn or Burn”

What do you learn just in case you’ll need it in the future, and what do you learn just in time when you do need it?
In general, you learn things in school just in case you’ll need them later. Then once you get a job, you learn more things just in time when you need them.
When you learn just in time, you’re highly motivated. There’s no need to imagine whether you might apply what you’re learning since the application came first. But you can’t learn everything just in time. You have to learn some things before you can imagine using them. You need to have certain patterns in your head before you can recognize them in the wild.
Years ago someone told me that he never learned algebra and has never had a need for it. But I’ve learned algebra and use it constantly. It’s a lucky thing I was the one who learned algebra since I ended up needing it. But of course it’s not lucky. I would not have had any use for it either if I’d not learned it.
via Learning “Just in Case” versus “Just in Time” – Preparation – Lifehacker.

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Quote :: Doing The Part We Enjoy

I actually do this a lot.  I try to minimize the pain I have with any task I have to do. This means  exchanging merienda/lunch so that I don’t have to go through the trudgery of testing some bits of code that I find extremely boring.  This is what we should do. Find the happy bits in our life and maximize the fun. Sometimes this means finding a new job, sometimes this means letting go of some of the comforts we enjoy, sometimes this means having to take less money (ehem), sometimes this means taking on bigger more challenging projects (ehem), and it obviously means knowing yourself and being flexiblre about yourself enough to be able to change and to be able to be inflexible.
Most everything about happiness in this life is about knowing oneself, controlling for the fear and want for comfort we have that is preventing us from doing what would make us happy. This blindness is the blindness of fear and the least action. If we can get through this hump, this fear I believe this is the easy 80% of happiness we get if happiness obey’s the Pareto Principle.

Ah, we all think we get paid to be brilliant, funny thing is that we usually enjoy the stuff we are brilliant at.
It’s the drudgery that exacts its price on our souls.
Wouldn’t we all take a pay cut if it allowed us to only do the bits of our job that we enjoyed? I would.
-Hugh McLeod of GapingVoid.com


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rePost :: Law Degree for Sale | Mendelson's Musings

If you are going to be something don’t do it because it’g going to be a stepping stone to somewhere.
See few people really know what the real  stepping stone to where they want to be.
Based on my obviously worthless observations during the long trudge towards our dreams, we get more information. This information helps us to have a clearer view two ways. It shows us if where we are dreaming of being is really where we want to be. It also shows us if where we are currently walking/traveling would bring us any closer to our dreams.
This makes me realize that stepping stones are not really that bad.  It’s just that stepping stones limit your choices because we have to choose , excluding other paths. It is this that really irks me.  It is this blind-sidedness some people have towards what they do with their lives.
We only have one and we have no idea how long our stay here would be, barring any 4-5 sigma medical advance we are not going to live forever.
You should at least try to live. No I have to repeat. You have to LIVE in all caps.

Law Degree for Sale
Some enterprising lawyer in San Francisco has decided to sell his law degree on Craigslist.

Awesome stuff.
From the sale description:
“After several years of practicing law I have come to the conclusion that my law degree is useless and I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Though I spent over $100,000 on it I am willing to sell it for the bargain basement price of $59,250, which is the current value of my remaining student loan balance.
This priceless collectible will permit you to be surrounded by hobby-less assholes whose entire life is dictated by billing by the hour and being anal dickheads. Additionally, this piece of paper has the amazing ability to keep you from doing what you really want to do in life, all in the name of purported prestige and financial success. Finally, girls in the Marina will swoon with retarded thoughts of sugar daddy when they hear you went to XXX prestigious law school and are a lawyer.”
I love bitter lawyers. Nicely done.
via Law Degree for Sale | Mendelson’s Musings.

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rePost :: It’s really bad and frightening | Filipino Voices

Whilst the whole media is happily covering the election fever, the suffering that our countrymen in the north is experiencing is heart wrenching. This is why countries like the US and Japan have extensive agricultural insurance. The practice of agriculture is especially dependent on many factors that are beyon the control of the farmers. This is a humanitarian problem in the making. This may not end well. I pray my fear are just that fears.
READ THE WHOLE THING.

The current ENSO and its agricultural effects has environmental scientists worried. On the human health side, many Filipinos have no experience of prolonged hot and dry weather. This is revealed that for many of us, the experience of extremely hot weather is limited to “Holy Week” and that really only lasts for 4 days! Extended periods of having 38 C or more temps in Metro Manila may result in a higher death rate among the elderly and those with cardiovascular health problems similar to what was experienced in the European summer heat wave of 2005, when an estimated 10,000 people or more died. The Europeans were not used to having prolonged spells of temperatures above 33 C. While PAGASA may forecast Manila to have 34-35 C temps, our heat island research points out that the real temps due to the effects of a built -up environment can be 3-4 C more than the forecast temperature. So we can have extended periods of having 39-40 C temperature. People living in desert climates are used to this and have behavioral adaptations to cope with this, but I doubt if we Filipinos have these adaptations.
But as a wag told me, we Filipinos are particularly adapted to talking about politics. (FV posts are a supreme example!)
But seriously, the food security situation is beginning to look dire and it is just the end of February. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may turn over the presidential palace to her successor on June 30 with a famine on her train. Ask any of your grandparents who lived through World War II. They would tell you that the Filipino people experienced famine within the last century only during the Japanese occupation and that was not due to climate change but to colonial master change!
The next President of the Philippines should now be aware that even as a candidate poverty or corruption are not the immediate problems but food security. Surely these are problems but their solutions will take more than one presidential term. Food security can be immediately addressed at the start of the term.
via It’s really bad and frightening | Filipino Voices.

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Elink Video ::"It's a good talking point, but it doesn't actually answer the underlying question"


In a discussion of insurance market reforms, President Obama asks Republican Senator John Kyl to move away from talking points and focus on finding common areas of agreement. The President responds to Kyl: “Any time the question is phrased as ‘Does Washington know better?’ I think we’re kind of tipping the scales a little bit there, since we all know that everybody is angry at Washington right now it’s a good talking point, but it doesn’t actually answer the underlying question, which is do we want to make sure that people have a baseline of protection?'”
angol here: I believe that what’s mostly said in Presidential forums can be classified as ”

“It’s a good talking point, but it doesn’t actually answer the underlying question”

“

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Musings On Philippine Healthcare 2010 20 26

I can guess that we probably have a high coverage rate in the Philippines. This is because unlike the US in the Philippines if you have work you have PhilHealth,SSS and GSIS. This leaves two groups of people out. The rich people who don’t “work” (own business , etc), and the very poor who can’t but it. Of the rich, they obviously have cash to burn but I suspect if in the USA one of the major causes of bankruptcy is medical emergency/conditions then the rich of the Philippines may not have it any much better. The poorest of the poor have healthcare if they live in Makati and Muntinlupa and during elections government officials such as the soon to be former president distribute PhilHealth Cards.
What I’m trying to say is that during the happy moments that my mind wanders towards the Philippine Government I see PhilHealth, SSS and GSIS, without the same kind of fight that the US encountered in trying to enact them. What I see is a Davao where I saw less people smoking because of too many restrictions (that I agree with). What I see is a Makati where Jejomar Binay is showing the Philippines what can be done by the local government for it’s constituents. What I see is a President (GMA) who has shown just how powerful the presidency can be with the right incentives.  We have a people whose trying to learn about the candidates.  We have the BIR harrassing Shell which shows we aren’t as controlled by corporations as the US (Although I don’t agree with what they are doing, this is almost extortion).
There is hope. The Philippines is not that far away from where it could be!!!

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rePost :: National Juries :: Overcoming Bias

Read the whole thing by clicking through the overcoming bias blog!!!
Would something like this work for the Philippines? No as long as the Education System is in shambles we cannot do anything as radical as this.

National Juries

By Robin Hanson · February 25, 2010 12:00 pm · Discuss · « Prev ·

The reason so many bad policies are good politics is that so many people vote. … Ignorant voters … are biased towards particular errors. …

The best way to improve modern politics? … The number of voters should be drastically reduced so that each voter realizes that his vote will matter. Something like 12 voters per district … selected at random from the electorate. With 535 districts in Congress … there would be 6,420 voters nationally. A random selection would deliver a proportional representation of sexes, ages, races and income groups. This would improve on the current system, in which the voting population is skewed … the old vote more than the young, the rich vote more than the poor, and so on.

To safeguard against the possibility of abuse, these 6,420 voters would not know that they had been selected at random until the moment when the polling officers arrived at their house. They would then be spirited away to a place where they will spend a week locked away with the candidates, attending a series of speeches, debates and question-and-answer sessions before voting on the final day.  All of these events should be filmed and broadcast, so that everyone could make sure that nothing dodgy was going on.

More here.  This logic is simple and strong enough for most folks to both understand and accept.  Yet most would still prefer our current system – why?
via Overcoming Bias : National Juries.