Questions of Good and Evil

"The view of economists is that each individual seeks to maximize his benefit. The only problem with this is that we cannot precisely define what the optimal benefit is for us. We don't know what we want. That's why we need comparisons, examples and suggestion. Try imagining an object of your desire, a beautiful woman, for example. It doesn't work as an abstract idea, because the imagined image in your head is volatile. You need a photo, a description, a model. Someone has to tell you what you think is so great that you find it irresistible -- society, neighbors and colleagues, but also the advertising and entertainment industry, ads, films and books. All desires that exceed our basic biological needs are determined by culture. We want to live as if we were actors portraying ourselves."


Great interview with Tomas Sedlacek: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,822981,00.html

Hamartia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamartia

Yeah. I'm still thinking about the Tyler Clementi story.

The Tyler Clementi story

"Still, the death defined the trial, turning what might have been a peeping Tom case or, as the resident assistant said, “a roommate issue” into something far more grave."

The original article stayed with me for a while. Ian Parker writes beautifully and shows the layered personalities of Dharun and Tyler. Dharun, with the callousness and emotional conscience of a 13 year old, stumbles through mistake after mistake. A few less than exemplary actions, some with the potential to be far more serious (luckily no footage was captured!), end in disaster. But the sum of the actions don't seem to equate to the gravity of consequence. The laws of cause and effect seem off.

The case was concluded last week and Dharun was found guilty on all charges but the verdict was not the most important part of the story. Why do I feel like something was lost here? There is some message about human isolation and emotional seperation here which I can't seem to put my finger on.

I imagine myself in Dharun's shoes, a victim of my own stupidity, sacrificing my empathy for cheap laughs, until one day an event brings significance to every action making me the bigot I so despise. Crippling self loathing. Guilt unbearable. Life ruined.

And on this whole Kony thing

Bloody hell. I'm don't even...

Here's what other, more educated and articulate people have said:

1. SERIOUS: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
2. SERIOUS: http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/
3. SERIOUS: http://securingrights.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/lets-talk-about-kony
4. SERIOUS/FUNNY: http://boredinpostconflict.blogspot.com/2012/03/credit-to-real-white-knight.html 
5. FUNNY: http://i.imgur.com/K3mgn.jpg
6. FUNNY: http://imgur.com/pd6B2
7. FUNNY: http://i.imgur.com/gD992.png

Stop posting the youtube video as your facebook status. You look like an idiot.

Top three pieces of work - Part 3

Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here.

I find it easier to write when my mood is a bit pensive and even, dare I say it, existential. Writing (and not all is for this blog) is an indulgence during those moods. Volumes of writing have spewed (i think the verb is apt) forth during periods "not so cheery". Things have been on the up and up of late giving me little to no time, or enthusiasm, to write.

But I promised three top pieces of work so here we go.

HP donation and data management at EID lab - In Part 1, I discussed the setup of the EID lab. Now that we are doing 7000 tests a month, we have a significant amount of data being collected at the lab. There are multiple things we wish to do with this data:
-  Analytics to inform decisions - As an example, the data can be mined to understand EID testing coverage across the various regions and target ones with poor coverage.
-  SMS printers - Send results back to sites using 'SMS printers'. Effectively, this involves the central lab sending test results via SMS to the remote sites where they are printed on a battery (rechargeable, of course) operated devices. This will reduce the turnaround time by almost 2 days.
-  SMS reminders - Since we are now collecting the phone numbers for all the mothers, we can send an SMS to the mother asking her to return for her baby's results. This will reduce the loss to followup discussed in the Part 1
- Future enhancement - Online results? Online portal for reports and analytics? Centralised patient records?

Additional IT capacity is required to support these at the central lab. HP approached CHAI with a desire to get involved in this space. CHAI identified this gap as one where HP could add the greatest value. HP is donating, and CHAI is managing, the construction of a data centre at the central lab. This is a data centre with the works - raised floor, closed control cooling, cctv and access control, redundant servers and core switches and storage and backup devices.

In addition, we are working with the local university, Makerere, to create internship opportunities for students to assist with the development of some of these solutions.