Bird's eye view

Some notable astronaut quotes about earth from space:

"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small."
Neil Armstrong

"The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware of only one Earth."
Sultan Bin Salman al-Saud

"Now I know why I’m here, not for a closer look at the moon, but to look back at our home, the Earth."
Al Warden

"During the eight days I spent in space, I realized that mankind needs height. Primarily to better know our long suffering Earth — to see what cannot be seen close up. Not just to love her dearly, but also to ensure that we do not bring the slightest harm to the natural world."
Fan Twan

"We were flying over America and suddenly I saw snow, the first snow we ever saw from orbit. I have never visited America, but I imagined that the arrival of autumn and winter is the same there as in other places, and the process of getting ready for them is the same. And then it struck me that we are all children of our Earth."
Aleksandr Aleksandrov

"When I circled the moon and looked back at the Earth, my outlook on life and viewpoint of the Earth changed. You don't see Los Angels, or Boston, or even New York. You don't see boundaries or people, no Whites or Blacks, Christians, Jews or Muslims. The Earth looks completely uninhabited and yet you know that on Spaceship Earth there lives over six billion astronauts - all seeking the same things from life. We are all the crew of Spaceship Earth. Just like Apollo, the crew must work and learn together and manage the resources of this world with new imagination. The future is up to you."
Jim Lovell

since there is no chance of getting everyone of earth's 6 billion inhabitants into outer space to see that deeper/higher level truth, all we need now is a Martian attack. You know what I'm talking about, all these Hollywood movies when earth is on the brink of oblivion on the hands of some invading alien force, how peoples of the world unite to fend off the danger threatening their mother planet.

Best wishes for a happy and peaceful new year for all the people of the world.

$100 laptop, One Laptop per Child

The MIT Media Lab unveiled a working prototype of their $100 laptop at WSIS in Tunis last week. The project has been in the works for a few years now and it's the brain child of Nicholas Negroponte, the lab's chairman and co-founder. I encourage those of you who are interested, to browse through the website especially the FAQ section.

Mr. Negroponte has done work in places including Cambodia where a pilot laptop program was done in 2001. The idea for the $100 laptop came to him, when he realized the possibility for profound change, to the better, such a thing could bring to the lives and future of children in developing countries.

The laptops are made rugged to withstand heavy use, they do away with hard drives and their moving parts and use flash memory for storage instead. A new display had to be developed to replace LCD display technology that is both expensive and power inefficient, best of all the laptops can be powered by a crank handle! The laptops can be configured in tablet PC setup as well. They have Wi-Fi connectivity, and 4 USB ports. They will run Linux operating system, and use Open Source software.
Simply genius.

Initially, the laptops will be available to 6 countries that each needs to commit $100 million for a mass purchase of around 1 million units, the exact number will depend on the final production cost which can be slightly under/over $100. The lucky countries are Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Nigeria, and Thailand. Distribution is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2006 and then availability to other countries to come 6 months after that. The laptops are to be distributed to children just like textbooks, and the agreement with the participating countries insists that the children have ownership over the laptops rather than being given as loaners.

I really do hope Jordan jumps on this for the next batch of laptops when they will become available for smaller countries, it could be the best 50 or so million dollars Jordan ever spent.

$100 laptop

Avian flu economics

Amidst increased fears of the possible breakout of a bird flu pandemic, it was only a matter of time before someone's capitalistic instincts kicked in to attempt and make the most amount of money out of the whole ordeal.

When news first came out about the disease, it was pointed out that a single drug, Tamiflu produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, can be effective in fighting the flu. If you check the date on the Tamiflu link above, you can see that information about the drug's effectiveness was known since early last year. When worries about the disease escalated this fall, many reports came out about the lack of readiness of many countries, including the US, in terms of appropriate stockpiles of the known effective drug to fight the flu. Roche was still the only man
ufacturer and the news simply said that they cannot keep up with the large demand for the drug, that countries were on a waiting list, and the drug would be delivered on a first come first served basis.

Now kudos to Roche for owning Tamiflu, I'm all for them making large profits from their products, heck I even wish I would've bought some Roche stocks back in early 2004... but you need to supply enough drugs for the demand! It's only now that Roche is in negotiations to license production of the drug by other companies. But Taiwan, in true East Asian disregard to patent laws, took matters into their own hands and decided to copy the drug. "Taiwan officials said they had applied for the right to copy the drug - but the priority was to protect the public." I say, good for them.

The story won't be complete without mentioning the eBay connection, yes you've guessed it listings started to appear on ebay for selling the drug, it's the wonderful world we live in.

And to close on an even grimmer note, Tamiflu is not an answer-all drug for the flu, there have been reported cases of the virus resisting the drug.

The family dinner, and better grades?

Last month ABC news ran a story about a survey that found teens in families who have regular family dinners 5 times a week are more likely to have better grades at school, and are less likely to drink alcohol, smoke, and try drugs.

The results of the survey are interesting, of course the survey results speak more to the nature of a family who is a dedicated to a regular family dinner, rather than to the meal itself. Growing up in Jordan in the 80s, the family lunch (the main meal in Jordan) was considered something sacred, you'd only miss it if there were some extraordinary circumstances. People today are on such hectic schedules with working late, working multiple jobs, kids activities, that such an important daily event is often overlooked. This leads me to wonder, is the Jordanian family structure still as tightly knit as it used to be? Especially in the ever diminishing middle-class families.

There's just no making sense of it

I haven't watched the news since Saturday, I haven't even been to a news website, I just don't think I'm capable of taking any more bad news for now. When I wrote the previous post (I apologize if the profanity offended anyone) I wanted to add an Egyptian flag for show of solidarity, instantly, the thought of adding a British flag came to my mind. I paused for a second and remembered the conversation I'd just had with a Yemeni friend, and how horrified we both were over the fact that 39 people were killed and 50 injured in demonstrations against increase in fuel prices, hell they deserve to have their flag in there! After that thought, came the two issues that are always there, Palestine and Iraq... Where am I going with this? I'm actually not sure, but there is a lot of ugliness going on in the world right now. I'm trying to find hope, I'm trying to see the light but that just keeps getting harder and harder. The only chance of hope I can see are the children, hence the picture in the previous post. I call upon every person reading this, if you fail but to teach your children one thing, if you manage to implant only one value in them, please, I beg you please let it be respect for life.

Stop...

STOP THE MADNESS. STOP THE KILLING.
it's one fucking world we live in

Multicultural Group of Children Around Globe --- Image by � Gabe Palmer/zefa/Corbis