The Pageman in Kabul

All this from NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite.

If you are in these areas – I have two words for you – PRE-EMPTIVE Evacuation.

to confirm these areas: 1. Download the latest Google Earth and install on your computer and 2. Save the .kml files and view via Google Earth

you can go to this links:

• http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications_dir/potential_landslide.html
• http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications_dir/potential_flood.html
• http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/affinity/download_kmz.html

Once you are on the pages, download the .KML files, here’s some:

• http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_rain/Events/trmm_google_hydro_model_b.kml
• http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_rain/Events/trmm_google_landslide.kml
• http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_rain/Events/30_day_anomaly.kml

Click on the pictures for higher resolution!

FLOODING MODELS:

LANDSLIDE MODELS

30 DAY RAIN ANOMALY (BLUE is bad news!)

You can also download the KMZ file from the OndoyManila mappers!

you have to see IT to BELIEVE IT! photos courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory:

Here’s a more detailed picture (click the photo for a BIGGER pix):

If you’re curious how STRANGE and ANOMALOUS the recent RAINFALL was, you can check the RAINFALL ANOMALY images here:

I first encountered PARI/GP when lumyk posted a solution for Project Euler Problem 258:

“A sequence is defined as:

• g_k = 1, for 0  k 1999
• g_k = g_k-2000 + g_k-1999, for k 2000.

Find g_k mod 20092010 for k = 10¹⁸.”

One solution was using matrix multiplication in 19 hours (!!!) and I was curious if lumyk’s claim that PARI/GP could solve it in 2s (!!!) was true.

so I tried it.

yup. 2 seconds. Now, that’s very, very fast. Once you’ve solved the problem, you can check out the forum for other algorithms for this lagged Fibonacci problem.

originally posted at the QuadraForte blog

Our CEO Franklin Naval has been doing a yeoman’s job of updating the maps that are featured on the “Help for Typhoon Victims in the Philippines” landing page hosted by Google. The Philippines is now bracing for the onslaught of a category 5 typhoon named “Pepeng” (international code name: Parma) just right after “Ondoy” (international name: Ketsana) it devastated not only the Philippines but Vietnam, Cambodia and even Laos. I don’t think Franklin can go on forever updating the maps so I’ll go through a walkthrough to show everyone HOW EASY this is and if we distribute the load to 20-40 people who know how to blog, this will be over in 10 MINUTES TOPS!

NOTE: Click on the photos for high-resolution

The first step is to have access to the spreadsheet (make sure you have an invite to EDIT via a GMail address – twitter me @pageman or @franknaval to get an invite). You’ll see the spreadsheet like this:

The cells with red circles are the relevant information needed – the last two cells on the right under On Map? and Who? indicates if the missing persons have been mapped already (NOT YET) and who mapped it (BLANK FOR NOW)

To find the Missing Persons Map, you can just Google “Ondoy” and you should be able to see the Google landing page for Ondoy – you should see several layers – what is of interest to you would be the Missing Persons Layer

Once you click on “Missing Persons” it should bring you the Typhoon Ondoy Missing persons page

You’ll have to scroll down and locate the “Disaster Coordination Tool (Typhoon Ondoy)” link

You will now be on the update page – try to put in the location details and the click the “Find” button until you can approximate the location where you want the marker to be (you might need to do some trial-and-error but you’ll get used to this after a few entries.

For this example, we’re trying to place the marker for “Sta Barbara, San Mateo, Rizal” which Google Maps actually finds – once you’re satisfied where the marker (yes! the red coloured teardrop-shaped thingie) is – go ahead and fill out the details on the left side (you can get the info from the spreadsheet!)

Once you’ve put in all the relevant information, click on “Report” – the page will now prompt you to double-check your entries

Double-check your entries and if you’re happy that everything is in order, click on “Ok” and it will be sent. You should see the next page that says:

“Successfully saved your report.
Please report as much information for the authorities.
Thank you!”

Go back to the spreadsheet and then under the column “On Map?” mark it “Yes” and on “Who”, put your name in. If there’s not enough info to locate the marker you can just mark it with “Needs More Info” and then sign your name

You should then be able to see your mapped “Missing Person” on the “Missing Persons” layer in the Google Landing Page after you Save the spreadsheet and close it

You can zoom in to check your entry

The whole system was put up to cover a whole swath of disaster area comprising of several cities. This can be built on a baranggal level so that there’s enough granularity to account for every citizen. The great thing is that this can be hosted on the cloud and can complement existing disaster management systems like http://sahana.kahelos.org and HISG’s International Disaster Response Network. Some of my IS students in Benilde were able to update these maps in a few minutes with minimum instructions – it should be something straightforward and simple enough for everyone else.

If you want to put up your Disaster Response and Management Systems in the cloud or even be trained about it – give us a buzz on @quadraforte

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

SweetSpot@Saguijo

presents

CITIZEN SAFE
a series of gigs under one campaign

We demand better training for law enforcers
We demand more efficient crime investigation methods
We demand a swifter justice system

CITIZEN SAFE gigs are in celebration of the life of RockEd Radio’s Alexis Tioseco, Nika Bohinc, Ariel, Peng and Adrian Eguid. This is also our expression of outrage over their untimely deaths and a plea of justice for them from the authorities.

CITIZEN SAFE will give us a chance to share our ideas on how we can support and protect each other against crimes. Discussions in between sets encouraged

DATES

September 30 – Locked Down Entertainment
October 2 – SweetSpot
October 9 – Helter Shelter
October 10 – Revolver Productions
October 13 – RockEd Radio
October 15 – Admit One

with

Dream Carousel
Action Pact
Subscapular
The Late Isabel
Sanctus
Tether
Encounters with a Yeti
Beatbox Philippines
and Jack Rufo’s newest band – Persephone!

150php gets you in!

That’s just in front of our school! Waah!

Where is Gibo Teodoro? He had a grand total of 3 posts on Twitter – maybe he’s really doing his job – but you’d think he’d reassure his constituency by providing timely updates? Check your email ….

Maybe he’s not into Twitter – maybe he’s into Plurking?

The last few weeks – what’s in the news, aside from the early campaigning of our would-be and wannabe political leaders are the violent deaths of Alexis Tioseco, Nika Bohinc, Adrian Coderes, Mark Reyes and now the Eguid Family – Ariel, Pilar and Adrian. Add to that the supposed digital camera shooting from a Cebu political scion and what do you have? An atmosphere of lawlessness? I think you need to find a stronger word for it – and the word that comes to mind is antinomianism.

A quick scan of Wikipedia gives the definition:

“in theology, is the idea that members of a particular religious group are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality, and that “Salvation” is by predestination only.”

Most people would have no problem with the 2nd part if they believe in a “calling” from God but to pursue the logical conclusion on believing the first part is what will lead us to this sense of lawlessness that pervades our society today. I lived in Afghanistan for a few years and you could understand why lawlessness exists in a society where there are competing warlords and there are were no real laws for many years. But when you are supposedly in the only Christian nation in Asia and the first Asian republic – the question begs to be asked – what exactly is happening and why is there a sense of helplessness in seeing justice quickly and rightfully served? If you were not a religious person (call yourself an atheist/agnostic/free thinker) then even Eric Hobsbawm’s commentary on communities not having an obligation to obey any set of rules qualifies as a commentary on how antinomian our society has become.

I’m going to write more on this – but here’s my observation – if we perceive our leaders to be antinomian (or “pasaway” in every sense of that word) – it goes without saying it would encourage or even license the private citizen to become more so. It behooves our leaders to be the epitome of a law-abiding Filipino to reverse this trend in our society

I ran across an HN post (again) on Piotr Wozniak:

“The reason the inventor of SuperMemo pursues extreme anonymity, asking me to conceal his exact location and shunning even casual recognition by users of his software, is not because he’s paranoid or a misanthrope but because he wants to avoid random interruptions to a long-running experiment he’s conducting on himself. Wozniak is a kind of algorithmic man. He’s exploring what it’s like to live in strict obedience to reason. On first encounter, he appears to be one of the happiest people I’ve ever met.”

I’m going to try read up on this and see how SRS works. Apparently there are several tools that are available that make use of this technique:

• Anki
• Mnemosyne
• Gradint
• FlashcardDB
• Supermemo

There’s a nice graph that illustrates the idea on this in Wired.com’s article: “Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm”:

There’s a more complicated graph from Gradint:

What could be potential applications for this? Well if you’re a learner-centered facilitator, it might be helpful to know what are the upper and lower bounds of the intervals to facilitate better learning. As the Wikipedia entry on Spaced Repetition on Pimsleur’s Graduated-Interval Recall indicates:

“Graduated-interval recall is a type of spaced repetition published by Paul Pimsleur in 1967.^[9] It is used in the Pimsleur language learning system and it is particularly suited to programmed audio instruction due to the very short times (measured in seconds or minutes) between the first few repetitions, unlike other forms of spaced repetition which may not require such precise timings.

The intervals published in his paper were: 5 seconds, 25 seconds, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, 1 day, 5 days, 25 days, 4 months, 2 years. (emphasis mine)

By timing a Pimsleur language program with a stopwatch, it is possible to verify that the intervals are not followed exactly but have upper and lower bounds. A similar principle (graduated intervals with upper and lower bounds) is used in at least one open source software project (Gradint) to schedule its audio-only lessons.”

It might be worthwhile for me to actually read up on this, starting with the Frank N. Dempster’s “The spacing effect: A case study in the failure to apply the results of psychological research.” The abstract indicates:

“The spacing effect would appear to have considerable potential for improving classroom learning, yet there is no evidence of its widespread application. I consider nine possible impediments to the implementation of research findings in the classroom in an effort to determine which, if any, apply to the spacing effect. I conclude that the apparent absence of systematic application may be due, in part, to the ahistorical character of research on the spacing effect and certain gaps in our understanding of both the spacing effect and classroom practice. However, because none of these concerns seems especially discouraging, and in view of what we do know about the spacing effect, classroom application is recommended. (emphasis mine).”

Time to Start Reading!

Further References:

• The spacing effect: A case study in the failure to apply the results of psychological research. Dempster, Frank N. American Psychologist. Vol 43(8), Aug 1988, 627-634

I got a text from Mark Laccay (who did the sound re/design for Engkwentro) while I was in the middle of one of my missions fundraising gigs:

“It is done! Venice International Film Festival 2009 Orizzonti Winner ENGKWENTRO!!! Mabuhay ang Pinoy Film Maker! Ipagkalat at ikasaya natin lahat!”

Wow. It was just a few weeks ago when I was at the SweetSpot Studio documenting Pepe Diokno, Mark Laccay and their audio team doing the finishing touches for Engkwentro before it was shown in Cinemalaya, I was there shell-shocked when Cinemalaya didn’t give a SINGLE official award to Engkwentro, I was there outside the CCP smiling inside knowing, it took a lot of guts for the foreigner Cinemalaya juror to grab the microphone and give Engkwentro the first “unofficial” jury citation in Cinemalaya history, I remember choosing the Cory yellow-inspired poster for the Venice version and I remember having to FTP the Engkwentro soundtracks for the Venice red carpet while GMail was done via IMAP.

It’s all worth the roller-coaster ride and congratulations to Pepe Diokno who was ONLY 21 years old and a U.P Film undergrad (and still is I think) when he finished! Pepe Diokno’s Engkwentro is the second Filipino director to be in Venice (after Mike de Leon’s “Sister Stella L” in 1984- I have to disagree with Ricky Lo on this one since Engkwentro was already considered by Venice DURING Cinemalaya, so Brillante Mendoza becomes the third Filipino director to compete, although the first to compete both in Cannes and Venice)

MABUHAY NG PINOY FILM MAKER!

one last quote from Mark Laccay from his facebook:

“Engkwentro WINS 2 Major Award At the Venice Film Fest 2009!!!!! Orizzonti 2009 Award and The Lion Of the Future Award!!!! Mabuhay and Pinoy Independent Film Maker!!!!! Mabuhay ang Pinoy Talent!!!!!!!!!”

Photo Credits: (September 11, 20009 – Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe)