The Island Where People Forget to Die – NYTimes.com.
Ask the very old on Ikaria how they managed to live past 90, and they’ll usually talk about the clean air and the wine. Or, as one 101-year-old woman put it to me with a shrug, “We just forget to die.” The reality is they have no idea how they got to be so old. And neither do we. To answer that question would require carefully tracking the lifestyles of a study group and a control group for an entire human lifetime (and then some). We do know from reliable data that people on Ikaria are outliving those on surrounding islands (a control group, of sorts). Samos, for instance, is just eight miles away. People there with the same genetic background eat yogurt, drink wine, breathe the same air, fish from the same sea as their neighbors on Ikaria. But people on Samos tend to live no longer than average Greeks. This is what makes the Ikarian formula so tantalizing.
If you pay careful attention to the way Ikarians have lived their lives, it appears that a dozen subtly powerful, mutually enhancing and pervasive factors are at work. It’s easy to get enough rest if no one else wakes up early and the village goes dead during afternoon naptime. It helps that the cheapest, most accessible foods are also the most healthful — and that your ancestors have spent centuries developing ways to make them taste good. It’s hard to get through the day in Ikaria without walking up 20 hills. You’re not likely to ever feel the existential pain of not belonging or even the simple stress of arriving late. Your community makes sure you’ll always have something to eat, but peer pressure will get you to contribute something too. You’re going to grow a garden, because that’s what your parents did, and that’s what your neighbors are doing. You’re less likely to be a victim of crime because everyone at once is a busybody and feels as if he’s being watched. At day’s end, you’ll share a cup of the seasonal herbal tea with your neighbor because that’s what he’s serving. Several glasses of wine may follow the tea, but you’ll drink them in the company of good friends. On Sunday, you’ll attend church, and you’ll fast on Orthodox feast days. Even if you’re antisocial, you’ll never be entirely alone. Your neighbors will cajole you out of your house for the village festival to eat your portion of goat meat.
Elon Musk, the 21st Century Industrialist – Businessweek
After reading this feature had that 5 second thought to write him an email saying I’ll work for you for free just feed me.
On the assumption that people will be living on earth for some time, Musk is cooking up plans for something he calls the Hyperloop. He won’t share specifics but says it’s some sort of tube capable of taking someone from downtown San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. He calls it a “fifth mode of transportation”—the previous four being train, plane, automobile, and boat. “What you want is something that never crashes, that’s at least twice as fast as a plane, that’s solar powered and that leaves right when you arrive, so there is no waiting for a specific departure time,” Musk says. His friends claim he’s had a Hyperloop technological breakthrough over the summer. “I’d like to talk to the governor and president about it,” Musk continues. “Because the $60 billion bullet train they’re proposing in California would be the slowest bullet train in the world at the highest cost per mile. They’re going for records in all the wrong ways.” The cost of the SF-LA Hyperloop would be in the $6 billion range, he says.Musk is also planning to develop a new kind of airplane: “Boeing just took $20 billion and 10 years to improve the efficiency of their planes by 10 percent. That’s pretty lame. I have a design in mind for a vertical liftoff supersonic jet that would be a really big improvement.”After a few hours with Musk, hypersonic tubes and jets that take off like rockets start to seem imminent. But interplanetary travel? Really? Musk says he’s on target
via Elon Musk, the 21st Century Industrialist – Businessweek.
Corazon Aquino: Person of the Century, December 30, 1999 « The Philippines Free Press Online
The FREE PRESS’s 1952 editorial saw what was coming: “The country has had its entertainment; now the country must pay for it. It was a fine show, while it lasted. This is not to blame Quezon; he was the political leader the country wanted. He did his best to give the people what they wanted. Had the people demanded more, Quezon would doubtless have given it to them; he was too good a politician not to give the people what they wanted. But as water cannot rise above its own level, the politician cannot rise above the people’s. The people wanted him, got him. Now they have what they have.”
via Corazon Aquino: Person of the Century, December 30, 1999 « The Philippines Free Press Online.
Daily Kos: Transcript of Michelle Obama's remarks as prepared for delivery, Democratic National Convention
Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much.
They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did…in fact, they admired it.
They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you don’t start out with much, if you work hard and do what you’re supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids.
That’s how they raised us…that’s what we learned from their example.
We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make…that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.
We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters…that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules…and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.
We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean…and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.
Those are the values Barack and I – and so many of you – are trying to pass on to our own children.
That’s who we are.
via Daily Kos: Transcript of Michelle Obama’s remarks as prepared for delivery, Democratic National Convention.
Manny Villar on SM vs. Ayala, MVP vs. Ramon Ang – PERSPECTIVES By Wilson Lee Flores – The Philippine Star » Lifestyle Features » Sunday Life
By the way, I never got to ask you before where exactly is the address of your childhood home in Tondo, Manila?It’s at 500 Moriones Street corner Santa Maria Street, Tondo, Manila. It’s near the North Harbor. I recently bought this property — at three years to pay terms —with a lot area of 270 square meters. It is two stories with a mezzanine. When I was a child, seven families were renting there. Our family was on the top floor; there were three families living there on the top floor.Your “rags-to-riches” life story is similar to that Andrew Tan’s; he told me his family used to rent an apartment tenement in Hong Kong shared with five other families when he was a kid. Your success secrets or tips?Be persistent. Continue improving what you’re doing. Focus. Work hard. Overcome crisis with guts and determination. My worst crisis as an entrepreneur was the 1997 to 1998 period. I persevered because I had no choice, sanay na ako sa bakbakan I’m used to fighting for survival — it’s either you end up with suicide, a heart attack or you will make it.
via Manny Villar on SM vs. Ayala, MVP vs. Ramon Ang – PERSPECTIVES By Wilson Lee Flores – The Philippine Star » Lifestyle Features » Sunday Life.
rePost::A 13-Year-Old's Slavery Analogy Raises Some Uncomfortable Truths in School – Education – GOOD
In her essay, which was written for a contest, Williams reflected on what Douglass heard his slave master, Mr. Auld, telling his wife after catching her teaching Douglass how to read. “If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him,” Auld says. “It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
Williams wrote that overcrowded, poorly managed classrooms prevent real learning from happening and thus produces the same results as Mr. Auld’s outright ban. She wrote that her white teachers—the vast majority of Rochester students are black and Hispanic, but very few teachers are people of color—are in a “position of power to dictate what I can, cannot, and will learn, only desiring that I may get bored because of the inconsistency and the mismanagement of the classroom.”
Instead of truly teaching, most teachers simply “pass out pamphlets and packets” and then expect students to complete them independently, Williams wrote. But this approach fails, she concluded, because “most of my peers cannot read and or comprehend the material that has been provided.” As a result, she continued, not much has changed since the time of Douglass, “just different people, different era” and “the same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man.” Williams called for her fellow students to “start making these white teachers accountable for instructing you” and challenged teachers to do their jobs. “What merit is there,” she asked, if teachers have knowledge and are “not willing to share because of the color of my skin?”
via A 13-Year-Old’s Slavery Analogy Raises Some Uncomfortable Truths in School – Education – GOOD.
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? | This is A Crazy Planets | SPOT.ph
(SPOT.ph) THAT we have lying, thieving morons still in our midst and noble, dedicated, decent men tragically snatched away from us seems like proof of an absurd universe. And that the only way to deal with such senselessness is suicide, so said some smart French writer who died—tragically, as well—in a car crash. A few days after Robredo’s confirmed death, the national consciousness was gripped with one question: “Lord, Bakit siya pa? Bakit hindi na lang si (INSERT NAME OF MOST HATED POLITICIAN)?” We all have a list of names that we’d like to see get involved in ghastly vehicular mishaps. Except that we seem to have already resigned ourselves in the belief that the assholes of this world live eternally.
via Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? | This is A Crazy Planets | SPOT.ph.
Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? – NYTimes.com
As external conditions change, it becomes tougher to meet the three conditions that sociologists since the 1950s have considered crucial to making close friends: proximity; repeated, unplanned interactions; and a setting that encourages people to let their guard down and confide in each other, said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology and gerontology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is why so many people meet their lifelong friends in college, she added.
via Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? – NYTimes.com.
The alternative to boycotting China | Inquirer Global Nation
“Even though I was also born in San Francisco, I feel the same burning love for the Philippines that my father had,” said Rudy, the Executive Director of the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center and the Commander of the Bataan Post of the American Legion.
via The alternative to boycotting China | Inquirer Global Nation.
rePost::Learning to breathe underwater
Every problem contains within itself the seed of its own solution. The solution to flooding is really very simple: Give the excess waters a place to go. That is the function of wetlands, ponds, and lakes.
But what have we done? We have paved with concrete all available lands – including wetlands, low-lying, and flood-prone areas – and turned them into housing subdivisions and commercial centers. In other words, where there used to be water, we built our human settlements. And then we complain that there is water in the form of floods. Sino ang tanga d’yan? Ang tubig o ang tao?
via Learning to breathe underwater.