I recently came across an interesting study which noted personality changes among bilinguists when switching languages. I’ve noticed before that my Swedish roommate sounds a bit more aggressive when conversing in his native tongue, but I always assumed it was because of the language itself. Not that I would consider myself fluent, but when I [...]
Poke London has come up with a creative way to encourage giving. They’ve created the Global Rich List, where you can input your salary and see where your prosperity falls in the global perspective.
Even someone living the US poverty level– $10,400 for 2008— lands in the top 13% of the world.
The site is moving people [...]
“Government is an industry with a really high barrier to entry,” he said. “You basically need to win an election or a revolution to try a new one. That’s a ridiculous barrier to entry. And it’s got enormous customer lock-in. People complain about their cellphone plans that are like two years, but think of the [...]
What a wonderful way to start my week! Back in August, I made my first kiva loan to Mrs. Sopath Mao in Cambodia. Less than one year later, and she’s paid back the loan! So I made another loan, to a Women’s Group in Uganda. Microlending is the most exciting and [...]
apparently it would take three mother earth’s if everyone lived my lifestyle. The American Public Media jumped on the 2.0 and the green bandwagon at the same time and ended up with this site, to help you calculate your impact on the earth. I don’t buy-in to their algorithm, but it’s a good [...]
today I was stopped by the commotion of a protest. it’s the 5-year anniversary of the war.
non violent protesters laid down across market street– stopping traffic for the afternoon. many people were arrested, including the nun pictured below.
Ebay has a new pet, MicroPlace, which facilitates micro-loans from folks like us to the world’s working very poor. I’m a fan of micro-lending both because it empowers people to break the poverty cycle through independent entrepreneurship and it’s more fun than making a generic donation. But how does it compare to Kiva?
I [...]
-good magazine
this is a poster from one of the middle school teams from the World Affairs Competition. I had an incredible time volunteering as a judge for this event. the world savvy organization is a non-profit that works to fill a gap in education by providing resources for teachers to more easily bring [...]
that reminds me, I still need to do mine. Anyways, I came across this interesting comparison of income tax around the world. It’s an imperfect representation, since it doesn’t include local, state, or sales tax. Perhaps a more meaningful comparison would be government revenue per capita?
One hundred years ago today, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. Now this date is celebrated by women around the world, to promote women’s rights and international peace.
From [...]
This challenge is a partnership of architecture for humanity (an incredible organization that focuses on sustainable developments in communities) and 50by15 (another cool org with the mission to provide 50% of the world with affordable internet access by 2015). The challenge gives architects, designers, and students the opportunity to design sustainable technology facilities in three [...]
“Suman Dodia, a pregnant, baby-faced 26-year-old, said she will buy a house with the $4,500 she receives from the British couple whose child she’s carrying. It would have taken her 15 years to earn that on her maid’s monthly salary of $25.”
I figured the time would come. It started with textiles, then IT and BPO. [...]
Another reason to hate this store. Teenager whistle blowers exposed a Wal-Mart factory in Guangdong that employs children as young as 12 and forces them to work for 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, to make christmas ornaments. Not only are they paid at half of China’s minimum wage (which is 26 cents/hour), [...]
sushi + traditional Danish smørrebrød = SMUSHI
available at The Royal Café, Amagertorv 6, 1160 DK-Copenhagen;
these women dress in pink and go by the name “gulabi gang” (pink gang)
From the India Daily: “The gang not only fights for women but also for the untouchables and the poor who can’t afford to fight for justice. They shun the lousy officials, corrupt politicians, and even the lecherous and money hungry husbands who [...]
There have been several times in my life where I have caused my father “to lose a lot of sleep”
1. when I was 14 and wanted a boyfriend (no one won)
2. when I was 17 and wanted to go to college in NYC (he won)
3. when I was 18 and wanted to study something in [...]
freerice.com is a fun site that allows you to play vocabulary games for a great prize– feeding someone who’s hungry! The largest food aid agency, the United Nations World Food Program, distributes the rice to people in over 75 countries. The advertisers, who appear in unobtrusive thumbnails on the bottom of the screen, are [...]
As with any new technology, the complainers have already begun filing complaints about the OLPC, now called the XO Laptop. However, I’m finding that their complaints are irrelevant because, well, this laptop isn’t made for them. Of course this machine doesn’t compare to the features of your MacBook Pro. This laptop was [...]
Actually, two laptops.
One will go to a child in a developing nation. The other will be delivered to me (!) where my friends and I will play on it for a couple of days, take some pictures, then give it to a student in the bay area.
As we sit here on our computers all day [...]
Thank you, Miss Teen South Carolina, for substantiating the level of cultural fluency and intelligence of U.S. Americans to the rest of the world, especially in South Africa and the Iraq.
I’m officially a lender! Today I made my first loan to a woman in Cambodia using kiva.org. Kiva is an innovative micro-financing non-profit that aggregates micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries by leveraging technology and social networking. I love this idea. I get to follow her progress as she buys flowers [...]
Can you guess which country has the most vacation time? I wasn’t surprised when I saw that the US came in second to last only to Vietnam…. but I was surprised that there are people who vacation more than our lovers in France or Italy.The country with the most time off is Finland– with [...]
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