Sunday, January 19, 2014

The development dilemma: give a man a fish or teach him to fish? | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

The development dilemma: give a man a fish or teach him to fish? | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional:

On a recent trip to Washington DC, I delivered a presentation (pdf) on mapping the informal settlements of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana. I was asked a question: "By uniformly mapping and addressing properties in these slums, are you endorsing illegal homes and other buildings?" My response was: "In Sekondi-Takoradi, only about 24% of property development conforms to the city's layout or plan. We either map the city in its fullness or we produce something useless. If we only map the 24% legal buildings the map is of no value."
Although the answer I gave was very straightforward, the question cut to the core of one of the quandaries we face in development today. I am currently overseeing a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which involves mapping the whole of Sekondi-Takoradi, a Ghanaian city the size of Edinburgh, as well as subsequent street naming and property addressing. We have named 3,440 streets and alleys, from Galaxy Street to Jerk Close, numbered all of the properties, and mapped them using GIS technology. This is a tremendous advance for the city. But we address properties to get somewhere, not as an end in itself.

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Friday, January 17, 2014

The development dilemma: give a man a fish or teach him to fish? | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

The development dilemma: give a man a fish or teach him to fish? | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional: "On a recent trip to Washington DC, I delivered a presentation (pdf) on mapping the informal settlements of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana. I was asked a question: "By uniformly mapping and addressing properties in these slums, are you endorsing illegal homes and other buildings?" My response was: "In Sekondi-Takoradi, only about 24% of property development conforms to the city's layout or plan. We either map the city in its fullness or we produce something useless. If we only map the 24% legal buildings the map is of no value.""

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The mayor who rose from poverty to transform a Georgia town - The Daily Nightly

The mayor who rose from poverty to transform a Georgia town - The Daily Nightly: "In 2007, Wynn-Dixon ran for the office of mayor of Riverdale, Ga., a city of around 16,000 people at the edge of Atlanta. She was 58 years old at the time and had no political experience. After a campaign that cost $2,318.57, she was elected. Wynn-Dixon’s first term lasted until 2008, and during her second term, which runs until 2016, she ran unopposed."

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

40 more maps that explain the world

40 more maps that explain the world:

Maps seemed to be everywhere in 2013, a trend I like to think we encouraged along with August's 40 maps that explain the world. Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. You might consider this, then, a collection of maps meant to inspire your inner map nerd. I've searched far and wide for maps that can reveal and surprise and inform in ways that the daily headlines might not, with a careful eye for sourcing and detail. I've included a link for more information on just about every one. Enjoy.
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Saturday, January 11, 2014

How Silicon Valley Became The Man - Justin Fox - Harvard Business Review

How Silicon Valley Became The Man - Justin Fox - Harvard Business Review:

I think there’s always been a tension between the countercultural rhetoric of Silicon Valley and its insurgent but ultimately corporate ethos. It’s much easier to claim a kind of insurgent stance when you are in fact a brand-new industry and you’re taking on groups like Microsoft. At this point, Google is not a small player. It may have come on the scene quickly, but it’s huge, as are Facebook and a number of other local players. So the irony is that they’ve entered a place of corporate dominance with a rhetoric built from an era of business insurgency. That’s an irony that we’re living with at the moment. But I do think that there’s always been a tension between being a liberating force and being The Man. And that goes back to the counterculture.

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Friday, January 3, 2014

Drug-test policies end in failure | MSNBC

Drug-test policies end in failure | MSNBC: "the Republican governor had a theory: the state could save money by forcing drug users to withdraw from the public-assistance system.

At least, that was the idea. In practice, the policy failed spectacularly – only about 2 percent of applicants tested positive, and Florida lost money when it was forced to reimburse everyone else for the cost of the drug test, plus pay for staff and administrative costs for the program."

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How Language Seems To Shape One's View Of The World : Shots - Health News : NPR

How Language Seems To Shape One's View Of The World : Shots - Health News : NPR: "If you want to learn another language and become fluent, you may have to change the way you behave in small but sometimes significant ways, specifically how you sort things into categories and what you notice.

Researchers are starting to study how those changes happen, says Aneta Pavlenko, a professor of applied linguistics at Temple University. She studies bilingualism and is the author of an upcoming book on this work."

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6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com: "For the rest of you, I want you to try something: Name five impressive things about yourself. Write them down or just shout them out loud to the room. But here's the catch -- you're not allowed to list anything you are (i.e., I'm a nice guy, I'm honest), but instead can only list things that you do (i.e., I just won a national chess tournament, I make the best chili in Massachusetts). If you found that difficult, well, this is for you, and you are going to fucking hate hearing it. My only defense is that this is what I wish somebody had said to me around 1995 or so."

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