I agree and would like to add 2 more point ...i.e "population" and "education" .... countries with high population has high corruption because gap between rich and poor increases along with heavy unbearable weight on providing food, housing, education and other infrastructure ....
same goes with literacy rate: highly literate society has low corruption ...
Just wondering whether there is any REGULAR electric bike (100cc-200cc engine) - that would be an instant HIT in the developing countries like India and China ....
That's a terrible website. Sigh. I went there and I still don't know anything about it, except its marketed at women only. And I can't tell if they have any other electric bike - their links are broken.
whats app has a huge privacy & security issue and their user are realizing it now so i hope BBM become their next choice .... it would be great if someone introduces true encryption though :)
its not about whether elite is saved or not ... its about whether you're healthy or not ....
Imagine you have two groups of people: Group A and Group B. Group A is living longer but unhealthy and Group B is living shorter but extremely healthy , which one do you pick - I rather pick Group B ... dont know whether Calico will be about living longer or living healthier - its not a easy thing to crack but I hope they succeed ...
I've heard good thing about work done by AKDN and AKF ... they are so reputable that they leverages every dollar received through matching grants from leading donor agencies and partners, including the U.S. government, to create a multiplier effect that stretches resources and amplifies the impact of every donation....
"Our Academies programme is rooted in the conviction that effective indigenous leadership will be the key to progress in the developing world... "
I like this attitude. A lot of our accelerator clients ask us with a kind of cultural change, from bring protective of ideas, to being open and inclusive. This is easier when there's a local community of experience tech founders to connect - so we can include the new founders and they feel safe sharing.
I'm wondering how/if AKDN has a similar goal, or if they look for existing, indiginous attitudes that help others take on the right attitudes...
i liked the purpose of the whole story and concern ... movies portray most impractical things of life ... they take you to Lala-Land which doesn't exist .... they sell dreams - when you realized that your love life is nothing like hero and heroine in the movies then you're heartbroken and then life goes down the spiral ... especially in Bollywood movies - they take your emotions to the highest point with no real life conflict ... dancing in the rain and/or Switzerland scenic beauty is not love ... in real life, the dance starts with the conflicts and arguments and debates for every small thing which you just cant figure out how to resolve because in your head you're still that hero/heroine looking for that ever sacrificing spouse :(
India is also in similar situation where many dont speak Hindi - its like a Britain or American cant speak English ... being multi dialect/language country shouldn't be an excuse of not being able to speak the national language - i guess past and present government is to be blamed...
The second sentence is a fallacy: it's NOT like a Britisher or American not being able to speak English. It's like a Spaniard not being able to speak Italian. Before unification each part of India was its own political entity.
Also read up on the debates in the constituent assembly. There were heated debates on the topic of Hindi as "national language", "only language" etc.
Also, I am pretty sure you are not aware of this, but the national education/language policy of the 1960s said that Hindi speaking areas will learn a non-Hindi language in school in addition to English. The so-called three-language formula of 1968.
It might be worth reflecting on why the three-language formula is not being adhered to.
That's because Hindi is no-one's native language, it's an artificial language that was invented by a committee.
Mandarin is almost the same situation, except that it is very very close to the native language of Beijing and Northeast China. So it's almost like they're forcing the entire country to learn Beijing dialect.
> That's because Hindi is no-one's native language, it's an artificial language that was invented by a committee.
More accurately, Modern Standard Hindi (like Modern Standard Urdu) is a committee-standardized register of the Hindustani (also known as "Hindi-Urdu") language. (prior to standardization, "Hindi", "Urdu", and "Hindustani" all referred to the same language, apparently.)
> Mandarin is almost the same situation, except that it is very very close to the native language of Beijing and Northeast China.
Also those people are purely native speakers, meaning people whose first language is Hindi - while there are many whose command over Hindi is very strong but their first language is Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi etc.
If you count all those people who can speak/write Hindi then the count goes way over 500 Million ....
Artificial language? :) it is not a language cooked in someone's kitchen :-) it was widely spoken before independence - though Sanskrit would have become more acceptable ...
The thing about languages is that they are constantly changing from generation to generation. Any official attempt to standardize a language effectively fossilizes it, and the disparity between the standard and the actual language that people actually speak, will grow greater and greater over time. And then if you're creating a standard for a large dialect region, the effect is even more exaggerated. So the standard is actually highly artificial--just through the process of standardization, you are artificially creating a language that no one actually speaks natively.
1. having accent is ok as far as you can make others understand your point in english ...
2. bad english (i mean really bad) will be turn-off anyway with or without accent .... so it is not accent but its all about english as a language i guess ...
I've seen people with english and no bad accent but still having trouble in making other people understand :) and they are either Dumb OR they're P.hd holders (not generalizing though)...
I hope Loom founders are reading this comment :-) ...
I want a feature of removing duplicates automatically with help of raw-meta-data hiding behind every digital pics/movies .... is there any such service?
BTW why YC keep funding this kind of startup all the time ... I guess they are getting awesome exit as some big boys will acquire eventually even if you have only one nice features that you get traction with ...
same goes with literacy rate: highly literate society has low corruption ...