29 Nov 2007
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Ethical Traveler has created a list of 13 tips that focus on travelers creating a positive impact by “by being open, informed, and willing to immerse themselves in other cultures”. A couple of them that I really like (the entire list is available here) :
Take the time to learn basic courtesy phrases : learn how to say “please” & “thank you” in the local language Remember the economic realities of your new currency : A US Dollar is worth 40 times an Indian rupee and a Euro is worth 70. A Rupee is couple of cents! Bargain Fairly : Especially in the third world. If the street vendor is selling you a handcrafted item for Rs 400, remember it is al of $10. For less than an hour’s parking in New York, you can get a chauffeur driven taxi for an entire day. Have a heart give the woman/man a tip! Understand and respect differences : You don’t have to agree with the local traditions and cultural practices but you can be respectful towards ‘strange’ cultures. Yours may be strange to them too! Be sensitive towards local social, political and environmental issues. Related Links:
Guidelines for Ethical Travel
Tips for responsible travelers
Continue reading →23 Nov 2007
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From Ahmadabad to Baghdad, from Bosnia to Calcutta, from Darfur to…. there is far too much warfare, crime, hatred and genocide than I would like. Steven Pinker, however has another take on this.
“ In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence… Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about.”
Continue reading →23 Nov 2007
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Research suggests that most clear hard plastic (your baby’s bottle, the bottles in the refrigerator, the sippers, the food jars on the kitchen shelf) contain a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is at the minimum toxic, but perhaps even carcinogenic (can cause some forms of cancer).
The Telegraph of UK explains what BPA is:
BPA is a synthetic version of oestrogen, the female sex hormone, and experts have suggested for more than a decade that chemicals in the environment and in consumer products may be contributing to male and female diseases, such as prostate and breast cancer.
Continue reading →29 Sep 2007
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The list of the worlds worst polluted place, compiled by the Blacksmith Institute is called the Dirty Thirty. The top ten ‘dishonors’ are shared by India (2), China (2), Russia (2), Azerbaijan(1), Peru (1), Ukraine (1), Zambia (1).
Click on the name below to read a profile of the place at the Blacksmith Institute website.
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan Linfen, China Tianying, China Sukinda, India Vapi, India La Oroya, Peru Dzerzhinsk, Russia Norilsk, Russia Chernobyl, Ukraine Kabwe, Zambia See all these places on the map
See pictures of some of these places
Continue reading →13 Sep 2007
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Talking of networks and ‘network effects’, Duncan J. Watts professor of sociology at Columbia University and the author of “Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age”, has written a very interesting piece in New York Times on why the business of ‘cultural’ is so unpredictable. He shows how the power of social influence is not just limited to ‘cultural’ products like music (visit his MusicLab project), but also to technologies, consumer products… perhaps anything where people have a choice and where these people are part of a society. What does that leave?
Continue reading →12 Sep 2007
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I just noticed (accidentally) that I am ‘connected to’ Barack Obama, US Senator and Presidential Candidate through three different people. Talk of six-degrees of separation! In the world networked through LinkedIn, Plaxo and others, my guess is that it may not be six any more.
BTW: If you haven’t been to Plaxo recently you should check out their new interface and tools.
Continue reading →03 Sep 2007
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I came very close to participating in a scam executed by an India ‘social networking’ site. Unwittingly, of course! It started when I received a mail from a site called yaari.com:
‘xyd wants you to join Yaari!… Is xyz your friend?… Please respond or xyz might think you said no’
Normally I completely ignore such messages, but this time I did not. Why? Firstly, I was curious (media has been giving some play to this site), and the curiosity was heightened by the fact that the company is named as Yaari LLC, and provides an Atlanta address on the invite. Then of course, I was curious what my good friend was doing on a site like this, perhaps there is more there than apparent from the name.
Continue reading →27 Aug 2007
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The Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), has created a powerpoint presentation that dispels many a myth and sheds light on what copyright protects and for how long, what is fair use, what is an infringement and what is not.
Some of the _ popular copyright myths _ it highlights include:
If an image is on the internet/Google it is in the public domain. If there is no copyright notice on the image, I don’t need permission. If I don’t profit from the use, I don’t need permission. If I remove the image after notice, I don’t owe any money to the copyright. If I alter the image X% I don’t need permission. If I only use a part of the image I don’t need permission. The presentation highlights that since March 1989: copyright notice is no longer required for published works – recommended but not necessary. The proper notice: © year, name
Continue reading →21 Aug 2007
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The class seven students of The Shri Ram School, DLF Phase 3, made a trip to the Yamuna to experience first hand the state of the river just before it enters Delhi from neighbouring state of Haryana, and the quantum of untreated sewage and waste matter that is released into the river once it enters Delhi. From a frolicsome dip in the monsoon-fed Yamuna to the sombre sight of the black stink coming out of the Najafgarh Drain that enters the river, the children had a lot to process on the trip. View album
Continue reading →18 Aug 2007
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Yossi Vardi commenting on Social Software suggests that ‘there are 3-4 major forces on the Internet:
• self expression
• communication
• sharing
• collaboration
You’d notice that money is not one of them. It is interesting when you consider that ‘that Google Answers, which paid people to answer other people’s questions, is out of business, but Yahoo Answers, which pays only in non-monetary points, had millions of users…’ Read the article here
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