Syringe Reusing - why you should stay away from injections in less well- managed countries.

Syringe Reusing:

Syringe reusing is a serious problem in developing countries and it is one with long term costs as one who is infected through infected syringes and contracts Hepatitis B may never show the symptoms till 10 years.

It is even more intolerable when often we hear that doctor is only second to god - how much trust did the patients put in the doctors and nurses only to be infected.

It also again made me realise how fortunate I am to be a Singaporean and how I must avoided injections as much as possible when I am sick overseas.

Check out this TED video to witness syringe reusing in a Indian Hospital:

Can you wait so long to design?

What is amazing and admirable about Marc Kokas is not only that he designed a product that will save millions but also the process of how he got there:

He took 3 entire years to understand the problem and refused to design

a single thing in that period.  The result?

He has only one design - the first and only one that worked.

As he puts it, many startup all sell similar ideas and solutions. The difference is that 99% does not understand the problem thoroughly enough.

He chose to understand and think through completely, hence making sure his syringes met the following criteria:

• Same price as the current syringes
• Similar design so that it can be manufactured on existing manufacturing equipment
• Similar usage method so that all the nurses need not be trained again.

Many comments on TED talk reflected the view that such an invention will not work because the auto disenable syringe is not cheaper than conventional syringes.

However, as Marc mentioned in the Potential Power podcast:

Syringe is actually a loss maker, to install a brand to sell other

more expensive products medical products by the syringe producers. 

Hence there is actually not much room to cut and make syringes even cheaper.

He said price of syringe is not the reason why they are reused, cause they are cheap in the first place!  However, maybe all this is relative in a developing country.  

There were also comments that by not injecting completely, the K1 Auto Disenable syringe will not be auto disenabled and hence can be reused again!  However, that should not be the case cause the medication inside will cost more than the syringe. 

For all the disputes, let us just end with respect for a man who is patient and throughout and in so doing, made a real dent in the world!

Using Social Media – Returns on Investment and Attention Talk

Immediate Relevance to ICCS:

Like the Tasir above with Big Eyes, Ears and a small mouth - the way organisations use social media should be to see more, listen more and speak very little. 

That was the main takeaway from the "Using Social Media – Returns on Investment and Attention Talk" organised by SG Cares given by Andrew Shaindlin.

Hence what is the purpose of ICCS social media strategy?

- To create a sense of community or as another avenue to announce events?

ICCS  already enables the involvement of the community because the Facebook settings are that everyone can post to ICCS timeline - it is not one that only the administrator can post. 

Oh, by the way, even if we need to use to announce events, do it a casual tone. People didn't sign up to facebook to get another official email like update.

However, if the purpose is simply to create a greater conversation about ICCS especially through Facebook, it is already happening because I know of groups like Oscar who used Facebook to share their pictures. 

Unless, it is our aim to direct people to the ICCS Facebook Page (so that from there they can learn more about the organisation/cause), then we may want to like to inform organizers that they could upload one photo and tag one friend on the ICCS Facebook page as homework.  

The reason being that the ICCS community may not be aware that they can post on the ICCS Facebook page in the first place. 

Other Notes:

First theme: Change in the direction of flow in information

1. Publish first and then filter later

2. Control of filter is passed down from higher levels to lower levels communications.

3. Members can now send information to each other without going through the center of command.

Hence: Your messages should not be crafted as an announcement but as a message that will get discussion started.  It should be something that friends will say to each other.

Second theme: Learning from our audience

Now it is easier to hit reply to organizations and that gives the organisation a change to learn quickly from its audience.

Now there is a listening post. Listen for clues about what really matters to our audience.

Hence: Now, instead of only publishing things that you are interested in,  you now have a chance to learn what your audience is interested in and publish things that they are interested in.

The metaphor of your social manager is a Tasir: Listen more, see more, speak very little.

There is no need to response to every single negative comment, but don't speak down to your audience as an authority.   Communicate as an equal, as they are on social media to talk as friends.

Third theme: Return of investment?

We can easily get caught in the motion that we must have an online presence.

IBM director of Linkedin was asked:”How do you measure the value of your Internet linkedin presence.”

He answered: “I don't know , how do you measure the value of your phone system in your organisation.”

Quantifying the exact value of your social network may not be a good use of your time.

Maybe we shouldn't use ROI, but ROA - return of attention.

Instead of getting more people to follow us, increase the value of current followers.

The measure is not how many people liked you on Facebook, but what is the rule of the result achieved of these people liking you on Facebook.

I rather be a eunuch rather than to be dead

This NUS study shows how certain male spiders self- castrate rather to be eaten by the female spider.

In “ Why is sex fun”,  Jared Diamond covers why male spider is eaten by the female spider during copulation.

As he puts is,

” This cannibalism clearly involves the male's consent, because the male of these species approaches the female, makes no attempt to escape, and may even bend his head and thorax toward the female's mouth so that she may munch her way through most of his body while his abdomen remains to complete the job of injecting sperm into her.
.....

Suppose that opportunities to transmit genes arise unpre-dictably and infrequently, and that the number of offspring produced by such opportunities increases with the female's nutritional condition. That's the case for some species of spiders and mantises living at low population densities. A male is lucky to encounter a female at all, and such luck is unlikely to strike twice. (1) The male's best strategy is to produce as many offspring bearing his genes as possible out of his lucky find. (2) The larger a female's nutritional reserves, the more calories and protein she has available to transform into eggs. If the male departed after mating, he would probably not find another female and his continued survival would thus be useless. Instead, by encouraging the female to eat him, he enables her to produce more eggs bearing his genes. (3) In addition, a female spider whose mouth is distracted by munching a male's body allows copulation with the male's genitalia to proceed for a longer time, resulting in more sperm transferred and more eggs fertilized. "
.....

In Summary,

“Sexual cannibalism in spiders and mantises is favored by the ecological variables of low population densities and low encounter rates, and by the biological variables of a female's capacity to digest relatively large meals and to increase her egg output considerably when well nourished.”

So what do we make out of this case when the male spider actually chooses to make an escape.  Here are some questions:

• Does the male spider grows back his reproductive organ?  If yes, then this is simply an evolutionary development to have the best of both worlds - leave his reproductive organ to continue to transmit his sperm while growing a new one to impregnate another day.

• If the male spider does not grow back his reproductive organ, this is where everything breaks down and we have to relook the 3 clauses that I highlighted above.

By detaching his reproductive organ and leaving , the male spider continues to enjoy clause 3 of longer copulation time as his sperm continued pumping through the apparatus lodged in their reproductive organs.

But I think the article actually explains why such behaviour evolved:

•  “ the group found that the palps had delivered only a-third of their sperm after the females stopped copulation ...... and there is female-controlled short copulation, and ultimately the female's frequent cannibalism.

Therefore, from the male spider point of view, even if I am willing to be eaten, she copulates for such a short time that perhaps only a third of my sperm is used.

In addition, 

“ the detached palp can prevent other males from mating with the female, thus ensuring the paternity of the self-castrating spider. The eunuch also becomes more aggressive and guards the female from competitors while the sperm is being transferred.”

Facebook and Facebook

Something about Facebook:

Google - spearheaded targeted advertising but only based on your search query and emails,  Facebook - allows peer pressured advertising.  

It's a shift from wisdom of the crowds in Google and other review websites to wisdom of friends. 

The friends, the connections, the likes are all produced by us. Facebook is just the ultimate enabler.

Making it social:
In 2005, Facebook entered photo sharing, there was Flickr, Photobucket. It was like bring a knife to a gun fight. Facebook resolution of photos was not good enough to print and there was no real organising capabilities.

But you can tag photo - that was it. Facebook made photosharing social.

Chance to make a dent in the universe:

Everyone at Facebook was a star somewhere else.  It is the chance to make a real difference - " You get at most one shot... in your life time to actuallly truly affect the course of a major piece of evolution." Sam Lessin.


Mark is a guy who is so sure of himself and self- control is so total that he drives an Acura when he could afford a Bentley.

"It isn't, and never has been, about the money" Mark.

From: 

1.  How Facebook Is Redefining Privacy

By Dan Fletcher Thursday, May 20, 2010

Link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1990798,00.html

2. Person of the Year 2010

Mon 22 Jun 2009: 6.30pm – “Darwin, Wallace, and Evolution: Celebrating a major paradigm shift in science” « The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

Mon 22 Jun 2009: 6.30pm – “Darwin, Wallace, and Evolution: Celebrating a major paradigm shift in science” « The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

One of the most pertinent points from the talk:
# Many fossils were found with extinct living things, if God created them (good enough to design), why did he allow them to go extinct?
# Fossils were progressive - from simple plants long time ago then to animals.
# Humans fossils were found only in the upper layer

Skin Colour of Humans and some discrepancies by Jared Diamond.

 

In this article,Race without Colour dated November 1994, Jared Diamond wrote :

“ Among tropical peoples, anthropologists love to stress the dark skins of African blacks, people of the southern Indian peninsula, and New Guineans and love to forget the pale skins of Amazonian Indians and Southeast Asians living at the same latitudes. To wriggle out of those paradoxes, anthropologists then plead the excuse that Amazonian Indians and Southeast Asians may not have been living in their present locations long enough to evolve dark skins. However, the ancestors of fair-skinned Swedes arrived even more recently in Scandinavia, and aboriginal Tasmanians were black-skinned despite their ancestors' having lived for at least the last 10,000 years at the latitude of Vladivostok. “

He goes onto in the article to argue hence it is sexual selection is the reason for our skin colour difference.  It is covered here in a more succinct  article.

I just like to point out though in Chapter 17 of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond points out  that the present residents of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaysia had come from ancestors who arrived from  Taiwan.

This is the reason why present Indonesians and Filipinos have light skins although the presence of the famous Java Homo Erectus fossils proved that humans have occupied at least western Indonesia for a million years – long enough to evolved tropical adaptations like dark skin. Now only the Philippines  Negritos have dark skin like the New Guineans

Maybe it is just a case  of updated knowledge since Guns. Germs and Steel was wrote many years later.

To answer why the Tasmanians remained dark despite 10,000 years at a high latitude, this page has some answers:

“John suggests that the low genetic variation common among island peoples might be the factor behind why the folks of Oz remained dark. Certainly in the New World there is some variation in skin color among the indigenous peoples, but the tribes of the north remained far darker than equivalent Old World groups (and similarly those of the equatorial regions do not rival Africans, South Indians or Melanesians in complexion).”

Chasing pleasures of life

Often, according to Victor E.Frankl inn “Man’s Search for Meaning”, and repasted from the following post:
http://www.paulstips.com/brainbox/pt/home.nsf/link/18052006-Find-something-to-live-for
A doomed prisoner would suddenly refuse to get up and leave their hut for work in the morning. They would simply lie on the floor in their own filth, and no amount of beatings or persuasion could get them to move. However, such prisoners could often be seen smoking a cigarette while lying there.
Even when they had chosen to give up on life, they still sought bodily pleasures.
While this is an extreme example, you can see echoes of it in the problems of many people today. Despite finding no real reason to live, many still continue to pursue cheap thrills. They take drugs, engage in loveless sex, and consume violent entertainment.
In fact, those who can find no meaning seem to chase such gratifications with a kind of desperate energy - as if they're trying to fill the emptiness inside.

Why read?

Days ago, I was sitting in Peida’s car and started questioning myself in front of him. Questioning why I should read so much into what we may occasionally termed as not really useful stuff.
I think in general, people can accept without much opposition to say that literature or philosophy may not have much practical use in life. However, personally, I find that it is kind of sad that many of us out there also view topics such as “the origin of life”, “how the mind works” and “how did human history evolve as it did” as a waste of time. It is important to be professionally proficient and to be financially savvy, but those questions of “What is life” and “What should I do with my life” is also important.

Even more interesting, I get such vibes more from my RI friends. Why is that so? Maybe it is because the others that I shared these with were simply more polite even though they are bored. That is when as a sharer, seeing the lack of interest from people, you know it is time to shut up.

As ineloquent as I am, I thought that maybe the following lines from Steven Pinker can illustrate why is it important to learn more about the world at large:

“Missing from the report is a sensitivity to the ennobling nature of knowledge: to the inherent value, with consequences too far-reaching to enumerate, of understanding how the world works. For one thing, it is a remarkable fact that we have come to understand as much as we do about the natural world: the history of the universe and our planet, the forces that make it tick, the stuff we’re made of, the origin of living things, and the machinery of life, including our own mental life.

I believe we have a responsibility to nurture and perpetuate this knowledge for the same reason that we have a responsibility to perpetuate an appreciation of great accomplishments in the arts. A failure to do so would be a display of disrespect for our ancestors and heirs, and a philistine indifference to the magnificent achievements that the human mind is capable of.

Also, the picture of humanity’s place in nature that has emerged from scientific inquiry has profound consequences for people’s understanding of the human condition. The discoveries of science have cascading effects, many unforeseeable, on how we view ourselves and the world in which we live: for example, that our planet is an undistinguished speck in an inconceivably vast cosmos; that all the hope and ingenuity in the world can’t create energy or use it without loss; that our species has existed for a tiny fraction of the history of the earth; that humans are primates; that the mind is the activity of an organ that runs by physiological processes; that there are methods for ascertaining the truth that can force us to conclusions which violate common sense, sometimes radically so at scales very large and very small; that precious and widely held beliefs, when subjected to empirical tests, are often cruelly falsified.

I believe that a person for whom this understanding is not second-nature cannot be said to be educated. And I think that some acknowledgment of the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge should be a goal of the general education requirement and a stated value of a university.“

Personally, I think learning that King Constantine had a big role in affecting the contents of the Bible and that without Han WuDi, Confuciusim may not have risen to be overriding philosophy of East Asia, affects me deeply about my ethical values and religion choices.

Breakthrough of session with Ms Lien Siaou-Sze (ex vice president of HP Asia Pacific) and Mr. Richard Lim (co- founder of The Simply Group)

The following is from a talk by the above 2 important persons in 2006:

I think that we have heard from enough successful people to note that passion for what you do is the most important and it is to hear that again “live” from 2 very corporate people. After all, previously I learn that principle more from people who lead a more alternative path, like being an entrepreneur or a world changing figure like Che Guevara.


A little tease for me was that the speakers both mentioned that watching TV is a waste of time. It is definitely a very insignificant thing against the backdrop of all that was discussed, but it was remarkable to hear 2 persons who have achieved so much say so. As Richard Nixon said, “Television is the opiate of the modern society.”

Perhaps, another appealing insight was the analysis that Ms Lien did about how important it was to get an engineering degree as your first degree because it is easier to get the other types of degrees in the later part of your life (of course, doing an engineering degree myself helps! Ha-ha). Mr. Richard Lim's emphasis of having a corporate background before you strike out on your own also worth noting. He probably viewed that having a corporate background was important because this training gave him the framework as to how to run his business.

He did mention though that having a corporate culture is important UNLESS you are really a person with very extraordinary capabilities. I think this advice together with Ms Lien's advice of doing an
engineering degree as your first degree is really excellent advice for people who are keen on entrepreneurship after all the hype about it but don't have a core passion in their life.

As for myself, I think the greatest lesson that was reinforced to me in this whole period in China is human relations and building a strong team. Previously, I had this chance to meet with Isaac Mao – who is one of the top bloggers in China and run a venture capitalist business. To him and I think Mr. Frankie ( another venture capitalist) as well, the critical factor that determines whether to invest in a firm or not is not how good the idea, but how strong is the team of the firm.

Of course, Mr. Isaac Mao was using this reason to push why you should blog – to find people who share your passions because in his opinion, your unique idea is most probably not that “unique”. Of the so many people in the world, someone else must have thought of it as well, unless you have a “Newton” or “Einstein” idea. But hey! Two people thought evolution at the same time – Darwin and
Alfred Wallace.

Most importantly, as you progress through higher education, you also come to realise you can't do everything best. It is better to find someone who can do it better than you, after all, if you spend all
the time being the best in so many things, you definitely have no time to balance your life and you only live once.

After meditation

Today, I went for a talk by Singapore first Googler - Tan Chade Meng
The most relevant of the talk for me ( because I was already familiar with Google) was when Meng finally shared about his plans to save the world:
- To develop research of medidation into such a level such that its benefits are as equally recognised as exercise, such that
meditationis to bring as well practised as common people wants to exercise.

As he pointed out, meditation will bring about more self awareness. When he first mentioned that Daniel Goleman in his book "Emotional Intelligence" only raised the idea of emotional intelligence and not how to attain it, I wanted to disagree initially. This is because i know that in his book, Daniel Goleman did cover a couple of courses that are covered by schools to teach students to manage their emotions. Also, he also outlined the 3 stages of emotional intelligence - Self awareness, Self mastery then it is Interpersonal Mastery. I believe there is a fourth one but I cannot remember.

Then again, perhaps, meditation is a clear method to mastering self awareness. One thing that Meng brought out that was particularly interesting was that so far efforts to ensure world peace is from outside and not working from the inside. As one mediates, hopefully compassion and love for a greater world will also emit out.

This is actually kind of cool as a concept and I am not justifying Meng's idea by this sloppy writing. However, if you think about it again, this is actually something that Daoism and Buddism has been trying to do? Then again, if he is able to raise meditation to such a proven scientific and popular level as exercise, we probably have a greater shot at world peace and have more compassionate people around the world. Just as no matter how people how beneficial is exercise, there are still lots of people who don't exercise, I suspect it will be the same for meditation.

Another thing I brought away from this talk is again the reinforcement of " Screw it, Just do it!"
Ideas are cheap, implementation is the tough part. So similar for my job searching, instead of applying local jobs that I think I stand more chance but not really completely aligned to my long term goals, I should start with the overseas jobs and work the other way around, also to have more time to pursue my " Convenient Truth " idea.

Meng, you won me back to mediate again. To use mediate as a little break instead of my TV. Maybe I should add for your meditation course, you may want to consider solitary confinement. Anwar Sadat, Nehru and Ghandi all went through that and came out with stronger soul..

Last but not least, I have to end with this: Thanks to Shane, she is the one that reminded me to ask the question to Meng at the beginning of the FAQ though I only ask it right at the end.. Hahaha..

She is probably the person who "complements" (Can't think of a better word. Can't say 知我者， but something along those lines) me best, same frequency and intelligent girl whom I can share some things I read about with. Then again, with interpersonal skills of her level, she probably is the "complement" of many people.

Helen Rowland:
" A good woman inspires a man; a brillant woman interests him; a beautiful woman fascinates him and a sympathetic woman gets him"

TED talk: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Let's have a deeper discussion on aid

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, previous finance minister of Nigeria and a director of World Bank talked about:
1. If you are the person in need, you don't care if it is aid. It is not shameful at all. It is important. Here , she accounts her own story of the shortest 10km walk of her life.
2. Lots of individual wealthy foundations are going in to help, but there is no coordination or consultation with local parties what they really need. After 10 years of efforts, it may still come to nothing. This may be unlike certain bodies such as World Bank etc, which has certain regulations to ensure proper projects. She is encouraging more dialogue from all the helpful wealthy individuals and the parties on the ground.
3. Africa need infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure and discipline. While certain bodies may view China's entry into Africa as exploitation of Africa's resources, but the fact is they are welcomed because while western aid may be keen to build schools and medical facilities, the Chinese will not shy away from building infrastructure such as roads when asked. Help Africa help itself.


The 2 most important points perhaps is:
1. Not only aid, but you need aid, debt relief, private captialism - a mixture of means and methods to help Africa.
2. Lend the money to the women who needs the money to continue helping themselves. Microloans and just say again, how much more trusthworthy women are to men!

Vengeance and government

Article:

Vengeance Is Ours

What can tribal societies tell us about our need to get even?

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_diamond#ixzz1espXeR2T

In short, Jared Diamond tells the story from the tribal fighting in Papua New Guinea. From there, and by relating back to his own's father-law's experience in WWII, where he did not personally avenged his family; Jared Diamond learns about the importance of human vengeance as a human feeling - ranking as high as love, anger and grief.

It is interesting to note that the following 2 points:
1. "It’s true, of course, that twentieth-century state societies, having developed potent technologies of mass killing, have broken all historical records for violent deaths. But this is because they enjoy the advantage of having by far the largest populations of potential victims in human history; the actual percentage of the population that died violently was on the average higher in traditional pre-state societies than it was even in Poland during the Second World War or Cambodia under Pol Pot."
2. "This question of state government’s recent origins, and, conversely, of its long failure to originate throughout most of human history, is a fundamental concern for social scientists. Until fifty-five hundred years ago, there were no state governments anywhere in the world. Even as late as 1492, all of North America, sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific islands, and most of Central and South America didn’t have states and instead operated under simpler forms of societal organization (chiefdoms, tribes, and bands)."

Thereafter, Jared Diamond lists down the 2 reasons that cause societies of tribes to form into a state government, while noting that "No people has ever freely organized itself into a state in the absence of external pressure, and people have always been understandably reluctant to cede power over themselves to some other entity. "

1. " Sometimes external pressure from an encroaching state has placed a people under such duress that it ceded individual rights to a government of its own that would be capable of offering effective resistance."

2. "More frequently, chronic competition among warring non-state entities has ended when one gained a military advantage over the others by developing proto-state institutions"

To end:
" ethnographic studies of traditional human societies lying largely outside the control of state government have shown that war, murder, and demonization of neighbors have been the norm. Modern state societies rate as exceptional by the standards of human history, because we instead grow up learning a universal code of morality that is constantly hammered into us: promulgated every week in our churches and codified in our laws."


"Why, then, didn’t New Guineans give up a way of life that obviously made their lives miserable? A striking feature of New Guinea’s history is that New Guineans traditionally practiced unchecked violence against each other, yet they offered only limited resistance to the imposition of state government and the ending of that violence by European colonial powers. That wasn’t just because Europeans had guns and New Guineans didn’t; the number of armed Europeans involved in “pacification” was often absurdly few. Daniel’s view points to another reason: as more New Guineans were exposed to the benefits of state-administered justice, they saw that they were better off living without the constant fear of being killed, though, of course, no tribe could ever have followed that course of peaceful dispute adjudication unilaterally."

"My conversations with Daniel made me understand what we have given up by leaving justice to the state. In order to induce us to do so, state societies and their associated religions and moral codes teach us that seeking revenge is bad. But, while acting on vengeful feelings clearly needs to be discouraged, acknowledging them should be not merely permitted but encouraged."

The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race

Is Agriculture. Or rather choosing to increase food production over limiting growth.

According to Jared Diamond, when our hunter gatherer society start to grow in population at the end of the ice ages, we chose agriculture to feed increasing number of people rather than limiting our population growth. This move has created problems that we still haven't learnt to solve, while the continued presence of hunter gatherer societies after tens of thousands of years proves the viability of the model.

So what are the problems that agriculture has caused for us for it to be the biggest mistake? - Lower nutrition level /less variety of food leading to more health problems/ smaller body builds. (according to archeological finds) - Risk of starvation as we depends on less and less variety of crops - Agriculture leads to crowding and vice versa which lead to the spread of spread of parasites and infectious disease

More importantly, agriculture allows the accumulation of food (impossible for hunter gatherers who have little or no stored food, and no concentrated food sources like farms), which then lead to class division: The appearance of a non food producing elite over the masses of disease-ridden people.

Also the inequality of sexes:

"Freed from the need to transport their babies during a nomadic existence, and under pressure to produce more hands to till the fields, farming women tended to have more frequent pregnancies than their hunter-gatherer counterparts-- with consequent drains on their health."

So why the heck did our ancestors choose agriculture over hunting gathering?

Because a hundred malnourished farmers can still outfight one healthy hunter.

Farming allows us to support more people, though with a lower quality of life. Our mistake was to choose farming over birth control. To most of us, the above argument seems ridiculous. However we belong to the elites: who are dependent on oil and minerals that must often be imported from countries with poorer health and nutrition.