Category: rePosts

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rePost:: giving to help

I remember that during Ondoy there were people who tried to fool people who wanted to help. ELE is an excellent way to sieve where you are going to give your money.

giving to help
Many have already written about ways to help in Haiti. The needs there are so desperate that I’m adding my voice to the mix. If you need advice on ways to choose a charity, this, this, & this are helpful guides.
My general rule of thumb could be summarized as the ELE rule:
1. Is it an Established organization with a longtime in-country presence?
2. Does the organization employ, empower, and partner with Local individuals and organizations (eg, houses of faith, community groups)?
3. Does the organization have Experience in disaster relief and/or health care?
via Texas in Africa: giving to help.

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rePost::Lawyer's life lessons from Jollibee | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

Nice set of lessons, hope they can do a more indepth feature.

Lawyer’s life lessons from Jollibee
by Arnel Paciano Casanova | 01/14/2010 8:06 PM
(Editor’s note: Between slapping relish on Jolly Hotdogs, funneling Crispy Fries in carboard holders and pledging allegiance to a giant bee–working at a global fast food chain has its lessons.
Here are some nuggets of wisdom from a former rank-and-file Jollibee employee, who has since moved on to brighter things.)
Lessons I Learned from Jollibee
1. A Jollibee worker is a happy worker. When you do things with a smile, a heavy task becomes lighter. Then you discover that you can lift up the mountains in your life.
2. When your contract ends, it means a better job is waiting for you.
…
Atty. Arnel Paciano Casanova is the Executive Director of Asia Society in the Philippines and the youngest appointed General Counsel of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
He is a law graduate of the University of the Philippines with a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. He is a Philippine Legion of Honor Medal awardee, the highest non-combat merit medal in the country.
via Lawyer’s life lessons from Jollibee | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

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rePost:: How to brag

Do I brag a lot? I hope not. Nice read!! from MR!
I think save for the obvious name/school/gadget dropping we are largely ignorant of the times we brag about stuff. This presents us a problem when trying to control our bad habit. I suggest that the cliche advice thinking before speaking is one of the most useful advice that we could employ against bragging.

How to brag
No one likes a show-off. But to get ahead in this world, you're going to need to let at least some people know what you're capable of. Thankfully Nurit Tal-Or has arrived with a pair of studies that offer some insight into how to brag without coming across as big-headed.
….
The crux of it: context is everything when it comes to boasting. If Avi’s friend raised the topic of the exams, Avi received favourable ratings in terms of his boastfulness and likeability, regardless of whether he was actually asked what grade he got. By contrast, if Avi raised the topic of the exams, but failed to provoke a question, then his likeability suffered and he was seen as more of a boaster. In other words, to pull off a successful boast, you need it to be appropriate to the conversation. If your friend, colleague, or date raises the topic, you can go ahead and pull a relevant boast in safety. Alternatively, if you’re forced to turn the conversation onto the required topic then you must succeed in provoking a question from your conversation partner. If there’s no question and you raised the topic then any boast you make will leave you looking like a big-head.
via BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: How to brag.

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rePost::To Give To Haiti : Casaubon's Book

To Give To Haiti
Category: Haiti
Posted on: January 13, 2010 1:01 PM, by Sharon Astyk
It is always hard to grasp the magnitude of suffering in Haiti – a place that should not be so desperately impoverished, that should never be the victim of so much suffering has an almost unending depth of misery. And it has only gotten worse over the last few years, as high food prices have driven people to starvation, as hurricane after hurricane has battered Haiti, and now the earthquake has caused immeasurably more suffering. The best most of us can do is open our purses, and we should open them wide.
Where to? Well, all the usual suspects are good – The Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Unicef. But here are a couple others:
Haiti Children is a shoestring orphanage program for abandoned children (of which there are many) in Haiti. They put all the money to children's issues – and there will be more orphans now: http://www.haitichildren.com/
The Lambi Fund of Haiti is a fascinating grassroots organization founded by partners in Haiti and the US that focuses on democracy, micro-credit and environmental stewardship, as well as immediate relief issues: http://www.lambifund.org
Give now, given generously. I will.
Sharon
via To Give To Haiti : Casaubon’s Book.

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rePost::don’t worry if you don’t know “absolutely everything” before starting out | Gapingvoid

“DON’T WORRY IF YOU DON’T KNOW ‘ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING’ BEFORE STARTING OUT.”
That’s pro­bably the last thing you need…
A lot of peo­ple mas­si­vely post­pone their EVIL PLANS, for the sim­ple rea­son that they don’t have an ans­wer for every pos­si­ble contingency.
They don’t know enough about the industry. They don’t know enough peo­ple in the industry– espe­cially the A-Listers. They don’t know enough about where the mar­ket is going to be in five years. They don’t know enough about what could pos­sibly go wrong. They don’t know where EVERY SINGLE LAST POSSIBLE LANDMINE is buried.
So ins­tead of get­ting on with it, they spend the next few years kee­ping their Nowhe­res­vi­lle day job, whilst spen­ding their eve­nings sur­fing the web, scou­ring the trade maga­zi­nes, researching everything like crazy, trying to get a tho­rough, small-time Outsider’s view about what the big-time Insi­ders are currently up to.
And then they often com­pound this by also trying to get a handle on the even big­ger stuff. What will hap­pen to the American/Asian/European/Brazilian/Whatever eco­nomy in the next 2/5/10/25/Whatever years, and how will these BIG things affect their tiny, obs­cure niche.
They want to have ALL the ans­wers, before ever ris­king get­ting their feet wet. Hell, before even get­ting their little toe wet…
Agreed, a wee bit of pru­dence and infor­med cir­cums­pec­tion are lovely vir­tues to have, but over­doing it can be ulti­ma­tely unpro­duc­tive, for a variety of rea­sons. Here are my four favo­rite ones:
via don’t worry if you don’t know “absolutely everything” before starting out | Gapingvoid.

I’m not getting any younger, sometime I will have to make the plunge, I hope its soon. This was a nice read!!!

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rePost::No contact with Filipino UN peacekeepers in Haiti – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Pray they are well.

No contact with Filipino UN peacekeepers in Haiti
INQUIRER.net First Posted 11:01:00 01/13/2010 Filed Under: Diplomacy, Security (general), Americas – Canada
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Mission to the United Nations has received no word from the Philippine contingent in the UN peacekeeping unit in Haiti, which was just hit by a 7.0-intensity earthquake, INQUIRER.net learned Wednesday.
In an exchange of messages, Elmer Cato, first secretary, peacekeeping officer, and press officer of the Philippine Mission based in New York, said the mission is concerned about the safety of Filipino peacekeepers, composed of 157 troops and 22 police officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Lope Dagoy, as well as the estimated 500 Filipino civilian expatriates working there.
But, he said, “Knowing the Filipino peacekeeper, he will be the first to respond in situations like this. Our contingent is surely involved in search and rescue operations in Port-au-Prince right now.”
via No contact with Filipino UN peacekeepers in Haiti – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

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rePost::Conan O'Brien's Statement

Loved the opening paragraph!!!!!

People of Earth:
In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over “The Tonight Show” in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004, I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my “Tonight Show” in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.
Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the “Tonight Show” to 12:05 to accommodate the “Jay Leno Show” at 11:35. For 60 years, the “Tonight Show” has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the “Tonight Show” into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The “Tonight Show” at 12:05 simply isn’t the “Tonight Show.” Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the “Late Night” show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.
So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard, and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of “The Tonight Show.” But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet, a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the “Tonight Show,” I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.
Yours,
Conan
via Conan O’Brien Says He Won’t Host ‘Tonight Show’ After Leno – Media Decoder Blog – NYTimes.com.

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rePost::Complaining is like a drug. We get addicted to the euphoria of self importance, but inevitably it leaves us unfulfilled.

I have to confess that I know I’m a little less fun to hang with the past year, I was complaining a lot, I get irritated easily and I developed this passive aggressive  stance that I’m working towards eliminating. this was a nice read.

One reason is I (like most people) really enjoy complaining. It makes us feel more important. But like a drug, the high wears off and we are left with nothing truly accomplished. We also are afraid of making our goals less vague. If they remain vague and cloudy, then we can’t really fail at them, can we?
This year, I’m back on the path described above. Back to nixing this habit of complaining. Back to visualizing some future awesome accomplishments behind me. So far so good, and I’m happy again with the results.
via Inkling Corporate Blog – Business Intelligence Using Prediction Markets: Complaining is like a drug. We get addicted to the euphoria of self importance, but inevitably it leaves us unfulfilled..

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rePost::Does watching TV really kill you? : Cognitive Daily

If we are really concerned with the supposed population problem I believe giving TV’s to the poor would be a great bargain. First they’d have something more to do rather than sex and it increases the risk of death!!!! Of course I’m joking.

The graph plots mortality rate (per 1000 person-years) against TV viewing-time. The population averaged about 50 years of age, so over 6 or 7 years, you would certainly expect some of them to die, and that’s what you see. The error bars here are 95 percent confidence intervals, which means that plot points are significantly different when they overlap by up to about half the length of the error bars. That means it’s quite clear that people who said they watched four or more hours of TV per day were significantly more likely to die than people who watched no TV. Even when the numbers were adjusted for exercise, age, and waist circumference, TV-watchers were significantly more likely to die during this period than non-TV-watchers (though the relationship was now not quite as strong). Indeed, after these adjustments, there were significant differences in risk of death between the groups who watched 0 to under 2 hours, 2 to under 4 hours, and 4 or more hours of TV per day.
via Does watching TV really kill you? : Cognitive Daily.