Earthquake and fires in Bhutan

Mark LaPrairie, a Canadian who is the World Bank representative to Bhutan, has posted some stories about recent earthquakes and fires in Bhutan:

• First Month on the Job in Bhutan: Trial by Earthquake
• First Month on the Job in Bhutan: Trial by Fire

Mark has also posted this video about the destruction of these two events:

Engineers Serve The World

The typical refrain of Engineers is “ERTW”: “Engineers Rule The World”, but Engineers without borders is trying to change this to “ESTW” – Engineers Serve the World”:

100 Open Lectures All About Africa

When I have some time, I plan to go through this fabulous list of open lectures about Africa.

“As the world become an increasingly interconnected and truly global marketplace, it becomes ever more important to learn and understand the history, culture and economic roles of nations around the world. Africa is no exception, and this collection of lectures, many from renowned scholars, researchers and innovators, will help you better understand the many varied regions of Africa and the continents changing role in the world marketplace.”

Beer for Data Sharing in Afghanistan

The Taj in Jalalabad, Afghanistan is indeed an oddity. Not only is it the only bar in eastern Afghanistan, it is also the location where an ingenious “Beer for Data” program began. Put simply, if visitors to the bar have useful data (gps plots, imagery, technology white papers…) they can trade this information for a beer.

source: Human Technology Network

Evergreen Line

So Stephen Harper was in town recently, and was found giving a press-conference announcing that “The Rapid Transit (Sky Train) Line To Coquitlam will be built”. Unfortunately Glen Clark promised the same thing in 1999 (check out this 1998 news release talking about a “Broadway-Lougheed-Coquitlam-New Westminster” sky train route. Hopefully this time we can trust the politicians.

Zimbabwe introduces $50 billion note

Zimbabwe’s central bank will introduce a $50 billion note — enough to buy just two loaves of bread — as a way of fighting cash shortages amid spiraling inflation.

source: CNN

Lao and Malaysia Pictures

Pictures of my April trip to Lao and Malaysia are now online at www.suwala.com. Indonesia pictures still to come.

	April 2008 – Malaysia Trip (145 pictures)
	April2008-LuangPrabang (65 pictures)

Dissolution of Social Networks

Andreas Kluth (San Francisco correspondent for The Economist) talking about real and virtual campfires, and predicts the dissolution of standalone social networks (such as FaceBook and MySpace) as we know them.

Anyone interested in the next generation of internet technology really needs to listen to this podcast. Its clear, concise and really gets at the heart of many social graph issues and human behavior.

the World Bank on "Intangible Wealth"

Two years ago the World Bank’s environmental economics department set out to assess the relative contributions of various kinds of capital to economic development. Its study, “Where is the Wealth of Nations?: Measuring Capital for the 21st Century,” began by defining natural capital as the sum of nonrenewable resources (including oil, natural gas, coal and mineral resources), cropland, pasture land, forested areas and protected areas. Produced, or built, capital is what many of us think of when we think of capital: the sum of machinery, equipment, and structures (including infrastructure) and urban land.
But once the value of all these are added up, the economists found something big was still missing: the vast majority of world’s wealth! If one simply adds up the current value of a country’s natural resources and produced, or built, capital, there’s no way that can account for that country’s level of income

Read the entire article here: http://www.reason.com/news/show/122854.html