Category: rePosts

Article on Mahatma Gandhi never winning a nobel peace prize.
May I just say that this is like a Hall Of Fame without Michael Jordan.
I didn’t know this till today, you just tend to assume these things, and I always assumed he had one, this is saddening, but Gandhi was bigger than the Nobel.

Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate
by Øyvind Tønnesson
Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000
1 December 1999
introduction
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been the very man to be selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?
These questions have been asked frequently: Was the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee too narrow? Were the committee members unable to appreciate the struggle for freedom among non-European peoples?” Or were the Norwegian committee members perhaps afraid to make a prize award which might be detrimental to the relationship between their own country and Great Britain?
via Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate.

Congratulations to President Obama, though I have a feeling health-care reform would have been a much loftier achievement!

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 awarded to President Obama Print E-mail
Image The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2009 to US President Barak Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons..
The Nobel Peace Prize is an international prize which is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee according to guidelines laid down in Alfred Nobel’s will. The Peace Prize is one of five prizes that have been awarded annually since 1901 under the auspices of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm for outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. Starting in 1969, a Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has also been awarded.
Whereas the other prizes are awarded by specialist committees based in Sweden, the Peace Prize is awarded by a committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting. According to Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is to go to whoever “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. The prize includes a medal, a personal diploma, and a large sum of prize money (currently 10 million Swedish crowns).
The Nobel Peace Prize has been called “the world’s most prestigious prize”. The Prize is awarded at a ceremony in the Oslo City Hall on December 10, the date on which Alfred Nobel died.
(NRK/Nobel Committee)
Rolleiv Solholm
via The Norway Post – The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 awarded to President Obama.

Still, without Brouwer’s suggestion I would never have gotten myself to engage intensively with your book because it is written in a language inaccessible to me. The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. … For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong … have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything “chosen” about them.
….
A. Einstein
via Letters of Note: The word God is the product of human weakness.

read the whole letter from the link

I think Umberto Eco tackled this in Foacolt’s Pendulum.

In a series of new papers, Dr. Proulx and Steven J. Heine, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, argue that these findings are variations on the same process: maintaining meaning, or coherence. The brain evolved to predict, and it does so by identifying patterns.When those patterns break down — as when a hiker stumbles across an easy chair sitting deep in the woods, as if dropped from the sky — the brain gropes for something, anything that makes sense. It may retreat to a familiar ritual, like checking equipment. But it may also turn its attention outward, the researchers argue, and notice, say, a pattern in animal tracks that was previously hidden. The urge to find a coherent pattern makes it more likely that the brain will find one.
via Mind – How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect – NYTimes.com.

pointer from MR:

Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2008
Out of 513 challenges as reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom
1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
via ALA | Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2008.

Please remember the people who text you nonsense and unverified reports so you know which person deserves a dose of skepticism whenever you are told anything by them!

Pagasa belies reports Pepeng will hit Metro Manila Friday night
By Katherine Evangelista
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 20:02:00 10/02/2009
Filed Under: Weather, Disasters (general)
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has denied reports typhoon Pepeng (international codename: Parma) will hit Metro Manila Friday night.
“Definitely that will not happen,” said Pagasa director Prisco Nilo, referring to text messages saying that Pepeng will bear down on disaster-struck Metro Manila at 9 p.m.
But he advised residents to prepare as the typhoon was forecast to dump more rains.
As of 4 p.m., Pepeng was seen over 150 kilometers north northeast of Virac, Catanduanes packing maximum sustained winds of up to 195 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of up to 230 kph.
It was forecast to move west northwest at 13 kph headed for northern Luzon.
via Pagasa belies reports Pepeng will hit Metro Manila Friday night – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

This sentiment is good but look at the research on incentives and this would actually reduce the number of volunteers. Nice thoughts but not a good idea when coupled with what we know about the motivations of people when they volunteer!

Give student volunteers extra credits in class, solon urges
By Lira Dalangin-FernandezINQUIRER.netFirst Posted 19:52:00 10/02/2009Filed Under: Ondoy, Education, Flood, Disasters generalMANILA, Philippines—College students who have done volunteer work in helping the victims of storm Ondoy international codename: Ketsana deserve extra credits in class, a lawmaker proposed on Friday.Muntinlupa Representative Rufino Biazon said the student volunteers could earn extra credits in their National Service Training Program NSTP.“The work they have done to help in the relief efforts are more than enough to earn credits in their NSTP or CMT classes,” he said.
via Give student volunteers extra credits in class, solon urges – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Damn, lots of relief operations are closing up and we still have 400,000 people in evacuation centers, typhoon pepeng is coming and I don’t know who will deliver food to the evacuees in the middle of the typhoon. I hate to say this but we need to borrow some amphibious vehicles from the US government.
If the Philippine government can’t get it’s act together, I feel that 2010 is really too long a time to wait for the removal of these DAMNED people in power! Tangina Ninyo!
An excerpt of the excellent article by de quiros. Hope you read the whole thing.

Three, indeed to this hour, what government we have is courtesy of the private sector where voluntarism has sprung like wildflowers. That is the bright spot in all this, the light amid the darkness, the blazing sun after the storm. Truly the Filipino rises to his finest self during trying times, the more trying the times, the finer the rising. Or it is in times of disaster that the Filipino ceases to be a disaster, thinking of others first before self.
It’s especially heartening to see the kids go en masse on relief mode. Many of the kids in my neighborhood have done so, teeners who normally while away the holidays playing basketball, flipping rollerblades, and drinking beer in the stores. They’ve enrolled themselves to help without thought of pay, without thought of recompense, without thought of reward. Just the thought of doing something nice for a change, just the thought of doing something to make things better.
It rekindles memories of the July-August floods of 1972, when students also went in droves to places in Greater Manila no longer traversable by land, or indeed outside the metropolis where they were greeted by a greater ravaging. But then there was activism to fuel, or goad, or flagellate the youth to idealism. Well, there was also the prospect of meeting a cool chick or a cool cat while on your best form. Today, there’s just spontaneous goodwill to do the trick. And the prospect of meeting a cool chick or a cool cat while on your best form. The kids come home happy, comparing the welts and bruises on their arms from lifting crates while drinking beer in the stores.
Makes you wonder what on earth you need government for.
via Three – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.