Two subcultures meet. A moving story

This http://projects.latimes.com/homeboys/ came from a Vietnam vet of Mexican descent. A serious juxtaposition of LA Homeboys with Alabama Poorboys.  What a difference exposure to other worlds makes. It takes one's breath away or at least makes one gasp to remember that severe poverty, lack of education and ignorance on the part of folks who can and ought to get involved to change the situation still exists in the U.S.

I can understand it's existence here in Peru to some extent. But STILL in the US? Guess I've just been gone too long.

Do take a look at all the links in the piece as well.

DARPA -MIT win all around! Cool. Recio.

The wonder Adriana von Hagen and I experienced our first time really surfing the www some 15 years ago is still there!!

in reference to:

"And if I could add, from our point of view, what the message of this was. I think it's important to point out that there's a tremendous scientific opportunity in all of this, and from our side, we were never in it for the 10 balloons. Of course, that was the challenge, and that was exciting. But from a broader scientific perspective, we were in it to understand how to mobilize the vast resources of the human network, to face challenges and explore opportunities in living in such a connected society. And as a footnote to that, I think some of the applications that might come out of this would be: Can we use this technology we've developed to find missing children or something along those lines where there's an incentive for people to really participate and help out? Often, the police will offer a reward for finding a missing child. Can we restructure that in a way that we tap the vast resources of this network? Again, maybe you don't live in the state where a child was abducted, but maybe you know someone who does. Or during an emergency, maybe we need to find 10 people in a region who can operate heavy machinery, maybe a building collapsed. And how can we use these new tools to solve those challenges to help society? That's kind of the broader message that comes out of this from our side."
- MIT floats ideas in DARPA balloon challenge (Q&A) | Digital Media - CNET News (view on Google Sidewiki)

News, democracy and Google

I can only hope that Schmidt keeps up his drumbeat and that other CEOs begin to form a chorus behind it. News investigations as a linchpin of democracy is not being talked about enough.
For me Skype's the answer. I deposit $10 in my Skype account and as i use it to call fixed phones in the US it goes down in 2-3¢ per minute. I'll be glad to plunk down an amount into a "fund" that I can use for newspaper articles that cost very small amounts and always be aware of how much I've spent, as i can easily see on Skype. Yeaaa, Google! Just do it!

in reference to: Eric Schmidt: How Google Can Help Newspapers - WSJ.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

slight paranoia: 8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight

This is quite extraordinary. Where's the MSM?
slight paranoia: 8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight

Solar Impulse image - Solar Impulse aircraft flies, briefly (photos) - CNET News

Cool. Just too cool. God bless inventors!!
Solar Impulse image - Solar Impulse aircraft flies, briefly (photos) - CNET News: "The first plane designed to fly day and night without fuel, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA lifted off for its maiden flight on December 3 from its home at Dubendorf Airfield, near Zurich, Switzerland."

Gates at it again...

..."Now the foundation is taking unprecedented steps to spend millions to influence the way the federal government distributes $5 billion in grants to overhaul public schools."
And, "Another concern is that as a private foundation, Gates doesn't have to disclose the details of its spending like the government does.

The big teachers' unions dispute some of the goals shared by Obama and the foundation. They say student achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test and that it's a mistake to rely so heavily on charter schools."

in reference to:

"Another concern is that as a private foundation, Gates doesn't have to disclose the details of its spending like the government does. The big teachers' unions dispute some of the goals shared by Obama and the foundation. They say student achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test and that it's a mistake to rely so heavily on charter schools."
- The influence game: Bill Gates pushes education reform - USATODAY.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Is Gates $12.9m for education or Microsoft?

I'm wondering how much of this is to aid Microsoft vis a vis Google, or to recruit new users for Microsoft products to be employed more in community colleges for science and math.

in reference to: Gates Foundation commits $12.9M to college technology - USATODAY.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

The team image - Digital cloud set to hover above 2012 Olympics (photos) - CNET News

This is my favorite of the 8 pix on C/Net!!

The team image - Digital cloud set to hover above 2012 Olympics (photos) - CNET News

2012 Olympics showpiece: Big bubbles in the sky | Planetary Gear - CNET News

Google just never stops. Fascinating.
2012 Olympics showpiece: Big bubbles in the sky | Planetary Gear - CNET News: "Carlo Ratti, head of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a team leader on the project that includes experts from across the world and Google as a partner. Ratti is known for his work on a textualizing waterfall at the Zaragoza World's Fair in 2008, the Real Time Rome population-tracking project, and the EyeStop bus shelters throughout Florence, Italy."

Google "good's" better than Microsoft

Note today Dec. 1, 09 Google's home page and compare it with Microhard's. Doing "good" is simply not in Microsoft's genetic code.
Google: World AIDS Day: Learn more about how you can help; Microhard? Business as usual.
Kudos to Google's effort that goes beyond "image" to being "useful," i.e., reminding people and leading them to more info on Aids.
Microhard doesn't "get it" because they' lack and will never have "it," a sense of the common good. Yeeaaaa, Google! (And no I don't own stock in it, darn it!)

in reference to: Microsoft Corporation (view on Google Sidewiki)

NYT reviewer of Googled

Appears the author of the Googled review did not know about Auletta's discourse on the book at Google with intro by CEO Eric Schmidt. No animosity detected, but he didn't pull any punches either. Can be seen on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHE5ynGcSPc

in reference to: Book Review - 'Googled - The End of the World as We Know It,' by Ken Auletta - Review - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Well done, Fareed

Re US education. Here's hoping that your well-placed boot will help our country's leadership realize that they have to constantly encourage parents, teachers and neighbors to themselves encourage, push and cajole young people to accomplish in life.

Studying, thinking, creating, inventing, innovating must be seen as stimulating, inviting and ultimately rewarding both personally and economically for us to maintain the extraordinary standard of living that we have.

in reference to:

"The seed capital from past decades was strong enough to carry us for decades. We got talent from abroad to mask the erosion at home. We used financial engineering to substitute for the real thing. We borrowed to the hilt and sold each other our homes in an ascending spiral that made us all feel rich. And we kicked all the real problems we face down the road, hoping that someone else would solve them. This too has become part of American culture, a culture that desperately needs to change if we are to preserve American innovation and rekindle the real American Dream."
- Is America Losing Its Mojo? | Print Article | Newsweek.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Peru: a thought

The idea that bosses can treat people well only works if the worker bees are not out to do in the boss or otherwise lie, cheat, steal, to get something from the company. The leader here who believes that s/he can change a people's habits can change the culture into one attractive not just to investors but to the people living in it!

Habits spread wider and wider and eventually define a national characteristic. Therefore a culture's propensity towards an evil can be changed in the same way, replicating a good habit, spreading it ever farther in gently outward flowing concentric circles.

Solidarity groups make perfect cores of positive influence. It can be done.

News Phoenix rising?

NYT story about the Texas Tribune, a non-profit 12-person startup heralds what is probably the future of journalism under the First Amendment, i.e. to help citizens better exercise their franchise, with facts, knowledge and opinion. Worth keeping an eye on.

in reference to:

"On Thursday afternoon, when word came about the shootings that left 13 people dead at Fort Hood, just up the road from Austin, it seemed like a made-to-order test for The Texas Tribune, a brand new 12-person Web-based newsroom. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Erich Schlegel for The New York Times Evan Smith, left, and John Thornton at the Texas Capitol. They scrambled the jets, made plans, and then — stayed put."
- The Media Equation - Nonprofit Site, Texas Tribune, Begins as Big News Hits State - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Google's Schmidt - stronger quote

Carr quotes Schmidt on p2. but he expressed the stronger sentiment on Oct 1, to Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land. "Well-funded, targeted professionally managed investigative journalism is a necessary precondition in my view to a functioning democracy. And so that’s what we worry about. And as you know, that was always subsidized in the newspaper model by the other things that they did. You know, the story about the scandal in Iraq or Afghanistan was difficult to advertise against. But there was enough revenue that it allowed the newspaper to fulfill its mission." Amen!

in reference to: The Media Equation - What Would It Take to Support a Newsroom? - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tarnished Golden Rule

Public discourse in Peru is lively, ubiquitous, and wide. Politicians rule the media roost. And in this plethora of discussion you would think that just once in a while one would hear an opinion maker saying something...anything...about how people treat one another. For instance, I know of no program whatsoever, including sponsored by USAID which centers on making people more aware of their responsibility for good behavior or considerateness in their everyday ongoing actions. I'm more and more convinced that for developing societies, this is of huge importance. The tendency to do things to only benefit oneself, out of ignorance, desperation, arrogance or whatever condemns the rest of society to expend a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money. More anon.

Always drugs

Living in Peru for two decades, the ongoing topic of drugs is ever-present. The last year the public written conversation has had to absorb the actions of other Latin American (Latam) actions re the regularization or legalization of drugs. A blog in today's NY Times What Will Mexico's New Drug Law Do? highlights several 'thinkers' thoughts on the subject.
     I'm always troubled by the almost zero lack of information about the millions of drug users who are NOT addicted, who have done it for years, including alcohol use. How do they manage their non-habit? How did they learn to use drugs in moderation and keep it that way? Where are the surveys and polls of these people? I've searched including the MAP site, which collects articles on drug policy and can't find it. Is this not worthy of research and study?

Good Morning, Merry Sunshine!

Hi there! That's my morning greeting to friends, and frankly, just the saying of it at least puts me in a good mood! So that's why the blog title...in case anyone ever gets the urge to go back to this first post.

This post is written in Miraflores, Lima, Peru by an expat American who's lived here, or at least existed here (!), for 20 long years as a freelance journalist. That's good enough for now.

So why the blog? Well, beyond a couple of projects, my interests seem to roam at time far & wide, at other times very narrowly focused. I wind up plaguing my friends with emails generated usually from various web sources always hoping they are helpful, informative, but I think to corral them mostly all here is a much better idea, and less a burden on friends. I do have a blog oriented solely toward one project which you can note in the side column.

Obviously more personal notes, admonitions, observations I'll keep to emails personally directed (to the great relief of some friends.) Sometimes the posts will be of interest to any old friends, sometimes just to my Peruvian friends and colleagues. I'll be toying with the idea of putting up a parallel Spanish-language blog, but that will be a little further down the line when I've more time. So that's the intro. Anon.