Links I liked

I'm in the middle of reading through my blogroll after a very long time. I've just been inundated with work, and am finally able to make the time to catch up on my reading. Here are some of the best of the links I've seen so far:

1. Interesting Q&A session with popular development economist and author of "The End of Poverty", Prof Jeffrey Sachs

2. Diagnostics continue to be the bottleneck for most healthcare in the developing world. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that this particular cheap diagnostic test out of Vietnam is causing ripples.

3. Around a fifth of global science papers are now freely available online, a study finds, with Latin America and India leading the pack!

4. Ask a garbologist questions. Fascinating potential discussion and amusing writeup.

5. Belgium is considering resomation...would you want to be resomated after you die??

6. How "easy" do you think this award-winning "easy latrine" is??

7. Alaskan water being shipped to India...(seriously!)

Links I liked from my two month backlog: Part I (Business)

After two months of internet drought, I'm actually reveling in the past 12 hours of high speed internet access in a nice, clean place. When you are trying desperately to line up your next job contract and don't have access to the net, it can be incredibly frustrating.

Anyways, I've largely used the past 10 hours to catch up on my reading, which has been woefully behind.

Here are some of my favorite links (in NO particular order) from the backlog:

• Tips on how to figure out The Perfect Interview Test...
  

• Video of the six most important principles of good management

• The Top 5 Blogging Misconceptions and how to fix them.

• The wisdom of Peter Drucker from A to Z

• The entrepreneurs of the Decade (2000-09), by Inc magazine

Links I liked

1. Brilliant aerial photographer (another of my heros) Yann Arthus Bertrand's Home project has premiered today. Its an ABSOLUTE must-see.

2. A picture from the recent Indian election that describes the state of India and its politics in one fell swoop. Ironic, Funny, and sad.

3. A case for why to stop envying millionaires and only envy billionaires(!!)

4. Finally there is evidence to show that poverty does not equal stupidity (duh!)

5. I'm not a huge fan of blind copying, nor would I ever recommend it. But I thought this post was interesting.

Garden Tutors, poop for food, cruelty and poverty

I wanted to put these in "Links I liked" but had a short commentary to add with each one. So I made a separate post of them all.

1. PSFK put up this great post about Garden Tutors. It got me thinking about what if we gave more educated farming tutorials to farmers in India and other parts of the world, to both start kitchen gardens of their own (so that they have something to eat during the year that is nutritious), as well as to teach them better farming techniques to survive the drought and pests. "Agricultural Tutors" of sorts.

I just loved this Garden Tutors program and how people are signing up madly. I'm a bit of an amateur gardener and I think working with the earth really makes you want to protect and take care of it better.


2. This post from Wronging Rights, downright cracked me up. When nuts rule the world, this is the kind of nonsense we can expect.


3. I found this post from the PSD Blog about the differences in the way women and men are approached in terms of entrepreneurship to be fascinating. My own personal view from my fieldwork has been that women face a myriad of pushback in terms of entrepreneurship, particularly if they are poor. Firstly their lifestyles are such that they have very little time to build a business --- between motherhood, housechores (which take a LOT of time), their job, and taking care of their demanding families (husbands and in-laws)--- the playing field is not even. Women who often speak of starting a business get shot down quickly by their families, by their communities and of course by banking institutions (though micro-credit is changing this a little bit).

4. Alanna Shaikh in Blood and Milk, muses about whether poverty causes cruelty or inequality?? I had to really pause and think about this. I have to disagree with both of these. I know plenty of people who have been extremely poor, harboring the several injustices and inequalities that are unpardonable, and I've never seen them be cruel. Cruelty comes from a lack of morals, and human weakness or greed. Cruelty happens irrespective of socio-economic circumstances, religions, castes or cultures. And in this case, i had to ask for a definition of cruelty. It seemed so unfair to label someone as "cruel" who had unknowingly given his child up as a servant (and she had ended up as a prostitute instead). This is one of those hard questions to answer.

Links I liked

1. An amazingly nimble 83 y/o grandma. Prepare to be awed. :-)

2. via Owen Abroad, TheBraveNewTraveller outlines six people you will meet at an expat bar. I usually avoid expat bars. My point of going into the field is to listen to and hang out with the locals, and the people outlined here are exactly why I avoid expat bars.

3. Chris Blattman and Alanna Shaikh's combined "How to get a job in international development." I would add one more...just show up. I've done that before; they were surprised, but willing and I started a(n unpaid) job...that has ultimately led to me writing to you here! :-)

4. I've been wondering for sometime why even in wealthier parts of the developing world, the sewage treatment is beyond bad. This article will explain why!! On one hand, it could lead to more innovation; on the other, with no enforcement, its leading to mega mega problems.
Governance at its worst.

5. Finally someone is saying it...MBA = Most Bloody Awful. I am SO happy that someone is finally calling it what it really is, a degree for some of the most overrated people in the world.

6. 500 Million Indians are flipping each other off, in what will easily be the world's largest election. Why?? You'll laugh....

7. Via Boing Boing, http://doihavepigflu.com/

Links I liked

1. A BRILLIANT article on how to use social marketing effectively for non-profits (/NGOs).

2. The normally space-geek blog, the LaunchPad took the time to take it back to the basics and talk about the magic-makers and the joys of being creative-minded.

3. Oil Rigs have a second life as luxury hotels. I thought this was a super innovative idea, though the environmental footprint/impact does need to be thought through!

4. A proven easy way to save money; apparently it works.

5. The art of being a good neighbor, a beautiful story about community in action.

Links I liked

1. These guys are fast becoming my favorite environmental show hosts.

2. Finally even Harvard agrees that water scarcity means business scarcity (duh!)

3. A vegetarian diet can mitigate climate change-related issues by 70%!!

4. China goes to Africa, in pictures!

5. Sustainability, comic style.

Links I liked

1. Great Entrepreneurs should build "tribes."

2. The case for public medicine.

3. 10 interesting alternative non-profit funding models.

4. The real story behind Amazing Grace.

5. Stunning pictures from everyday life in Pakistan, in the big picture.

Links I liked

1. Chinese Bluegrass (hat tip: Boing Boing)

2. Time to invest in Whiskey Distillaries

3. How countries in the developing world stack up against the economic crisis.

4. How many gallons does it take to go 350 miles in various modes of transport (this I found to be particularly fascinating!)

5. A Serbian Photographer's memories of Belgrade before the war.

6. The rise and fall of Khmer Rouge in pictures.

7. Ten Fortune500 Companies that started with close to nothing.

Links I liked

1. Great Entrepreneurs should build "tribes."

2. Seriously cool workplaces, and 12 ways to pimp your office .

3. Floating wastewater treatment plants for floating villages in Cambodia.

4. Slums as a model for development??

5. Evidence is showing that open access is the way to truly enhance development. Others agree as well.

6. I just loved this growing idea of Science Cafes.

7. Twipple: Twittering with Loving Acts of Kindness

Links I liked

1. The Harvard Admission Process: How Harvard gets its Best and Brightest

2. Outside of Romeo Dulaire, Alison Des Forges was the Rwandan Genocide's most outspoken critic. A wonderful role model for journalists. Read Slate Magazine's beautiful tribute to her.

3. 17 Career Lessons from IDEO's David Kelley.

4. Big Boys Do Cry: the Tears of Grown Men.

5. Is pub culture really destroying the Indian Fabric?? You may not know this but this past valentine's day brought this topic to the front. Hindu extremists are turning increasingly hostile towards the "modernization" of India and what it brings with it. This piece was in response to that.

Links I liked

Here are my favorite links from the week:

1. They are digitizing the soils across Africa which I thought was absolutely fascinating, and a project with tremendous potential for agro-development. Truly gargantuan, but important!

2. The Places We Live is a really well-done site (accompanies the book) about slum life around the world. Read/view and be moved!

3. Ranking Rich Countries in the World and their giving. This was pre-Obama, remember!

4. The Destiny of Girls, an article in the Washington Post about the inequality of women in India.

5. Solvatten has been making waves in the blogosphere. What do you think??