Better Government Officials :: Praise ::Comelec cancels P690-M contract for ballot folders – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News

Praise for Sen Pimentel (inching towards redemption from his conduct at the Villar senate investigations, Why is it that people I admire greatly seem to sell themselves for a pittance during the twilight of their lives.)
Fail for the Comelec official who rail roaded the purchase order without bidding.
Praise for Commissioner Melo for not signing.

Amid allegations of overpricing, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday canceled the awarding of the P690-million contract for the supply and delivery of the ballot secrecy folders that will be used in the May 2010 polls.
The decision was announced a day after Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. revealed that the poll body bought nearly two million ballot secrecy folders at an overpriced rate of P380 each.
via Comelec cancels P690-M contract for ballot folders – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.

CDF :: Crazy Deranged Fool

the pic is here

This print is the logo for an earlier incarnation of this newsletter, which I called “Crazy Deranged Fools”.
A CDF is my term for somebody like me, i.e. somebody who actually has the temerity to TRY to do what he loves for a living, as opposed to shlepping for his daily crust.
I'd say most of the people who read my work on a regular basis would consider themselves CDFs. The desire to “unify work and love” is a powerful driving force in society, and I see it getting more powerful by the day. The days of just turning up and getting paid well for it are over. The world is just too interesting and competitive now.
And Thank Goodness for that….
via .

You have to join Hugh’s Daily Cartoon here http://eepurl.com/gvoK

rePost :: New Comelec rules disallow election complaints at precinct level – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News

This would speed things up greatly but I fear for places where people are running against the incumbent this will test the the determination and honor of the local comelec officials. This would also level the playing field for candidates with less money (read:: less corrupt) because incumbents have enough cash to put lawyers in each clustered precinct. Local politicians usually use the lawyers to slow the pace of voting in the precincts whose voters they do not own. In some ways you can think of these lawyers as thugs or as protectors of the sanctity of the ballot because they either impede you or protect your vote, a true double edged sword.

Candidates can no longer complain about possible anomalous election documents at the precinct level and instead, wait for the winners to be proclaimed first, according to new rules promulgated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) over the weekend.
Comelec Resolution 8804 says that candidates, political parties, and party-list groups can only question documents that they deem to be suspicious – such as election results, for instance – and challenge the results before the proclamation of winners if there is an “illegal composition of the board of canvassers (BOC)” and “illegal proceedings of the BOC.”
via New Comelec rules disallow election complaints at precinct level – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.

Praise :: Better Government Officials Please :: Comelec cancels P690-M contract for ballot folders – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News

Praise for Pimentel, Fail for Comelec!!!!!

Comelec cancels P690-M contract for ballot folders

KIMBERLY JANE T. TAN, GMANews.TV

04/05/2010 | 07:12 PM
Amid allegations of overpricing, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday canceled the awarding of the P690-million contract for the supply and delivery of the ballot secrecy folders that will be used in the May 2010 polls.
The decision was announced a day after Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. revealed that the poll body bought nearly two million ballot secrecy folders at an overpriced rate of P380 each.
via Comelec cancels P690-M contract for ballot folders – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.

Ponder This :: The commuting paradox – (37signals)

Most people travel long distances with the idea that they’ll accept the burden for something better, be it a house, salary, or school. They presume the trade-off is worth the agony. But studies show that commuters are on average much less satisfied with their lives than noncommuters. A commuter who travels one hour, one way, would have to make 40% more than his current salary to be as fully satisfied with his life as a noncommuter, say economists Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer of the University of Zurich’s Institute for Empirical Research in Economics. People usually overestimate the value of the things they’ll obtain by commuting – more money, more material goods, more prestige – and underestimate the benefit of what they are losing: social connections, hobbies, and health. “Commuting is a stress that doesn’t pay off,” says Stutzer…Commuting is also associated with raised blood pressure, musculoskeletal disorders, increased hostility, lateness, absenteeism, and adverse effects on cognitive performance.
via The commuting paradox – (37signals).

rePost :: Letters of Note: You must know again my reluctance to marry

This is part of the letter Amelia Earhart wrote to her then Fiancée.  I loved reading the letter. It seems extremely truthful to me. Humming someday you’ll know while typing this!

Please let us not interfere with the others' work or play, nor let the world see our private joys or disagreements. In this connection I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage.
I must exact a cruel promise and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no happiness together.
I will try to do my best in every way and give you that part of me you know and seem to want.
A.E.
via Letters of Note: You must know again my reluctance to marry.

rePost :: Failure, success and neither :: Seth's Blog

Loved reading this short post from my favorite Seth Godin.

Failure, success and neither

The math is magical: you can pile up lots of failures and still keep rolling, but you only need one juicy success to build a career.
The killer is the category called ‘neither’. If you spend your days avoiding failure by doing not much worth criticizing, you’ll never have a shot at success. Avoiding the thing that’s easy to survive keeps you from encountering the very thing you’re after.
And yet we market and work and connect and create as if just one failure might be the end of us.

via Seth’s Blog: Failure, success and neither.

rePost :: Adventures in online advertising, part I | Innovations for Poverty Action

Read the whole thing!

Adventures in online advertising, part I
by Dean Karlan
We at IPA have recently been delving into the world of online advertising to help us spread the gospel of rigorous impact research. Being who we are, we could not resist this opportunity to run a field experiment. We designed one that would help us optimize our advertising strategy while also settling an important score: which academic institution's rep pulls the most weight in cyberspace? Our ad was simple:
Poverty Research
Breakthroughs to Fight Poverty
By [randomized] Researchers
via Adventures in online advertising, part I | Innovations for Poverty Action.

rePost :: What's in a name? Six coders can do anything and there is nothing six coders can't do. – The 6coders Blog

Reading this was very comforting for me.

You get the point.  You don’t need anymore than six coders and that makes today’s world a wonderful one to be creative in.  And that’s where it’s at.  Success isn’t technical-guru-ninja-backflip nonsense — not now, not ever — it’s about creative solutions to unsolved and badly solved problems. If you’re really lucky (or visionary), it’s about creative solutions to problems people don’t even know they have until you point it out to them.
Cheers.  If you can code in 2010, the world is your oyster.
via What’s in a name? Six coders can do anything and there is nothing six coders can’t do. – The 6coders Blog.

rePost :: antala at kaligta: The Great Fudgee Complex: Almost Famous

Jayson pa nakaw.

Lester Bangs: That’s because we’re uncool. And while women will always be a problem for us, most of the great art in the world is about that very same problem. Good-looking people don’t have any spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we’re smarter.
William Miller
: I can really see that now.
Lester Bangs: Yeah, great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing and love disguised as sex, and sex disguised as love… and let’s face it, you got a big head start.
William Miller
: I’m glad you were home.
Lester Bangs
: I’m always home. I’m uncool.
William Miller
: Me too!
Lester Bangs
: The only true currency in this bankrupt world if what we share with someone else when we’re uncool.
via antala at kaligta: The Great Fudgee Complex: Almost Famous.