Archive for December, 2006
Cemburu
Cemburu by Dewa 19
I like watching MTV in Indonesia as they play more rock compared to rest of the region. I like this Indonesian band Dewa 19. Cemburu (pronounced chemburu), i think means jealousy.
Also check out Dewa 19’s version of I Want To Break Free.
Setting Up a Google Co-op Search
Learners are increasingly being asked to go online to look for information in addition to the content provided in their courseware. One big criticism of this method is that the search results may lead the participants to off-topic sites. The latest offering from Google is a cooperative search engine where you can create a customized search engine that searches within a pre-select set of sites that deal with your focus area.
Some examples listed on Google’s co-op search page. The first search engine searches within sites related to Macintosh computers and the second limits the searches within sites dealing with economics.
Here is an example from Globalvoicesonline site. You can search within Global Voices editor’s blogroll.
Building your own co-op search engine
Start with the webpage www.google.com/coop/ . You will need to have a google account in order to go further. You can create one if you don’t have one on this page.
Read the rest of this entry »
Checking out the OLPC
I am here in Delhi and this morning we got to play with the OLPC 100$ laptop. SJ Klien, the director of content for the One Laptop per Child association brought one of this along.
Daudi checking out the OLPC with Jacky and SJ Klein.
Close up with OLPC, has two USBs, and a built in video camera.
Oldest Ritual
As a traveler and a sort of amateur anthropologist I am interested in the origins of religions and rituals. 
At the Qing Yang temple in Chengdu, Western China
Read this article on the discovery of earliest known ritual in the world.
Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, can now show that modern humans, Homo sapiens, have performed advanced rituals in Africa for 70,000 years. She has, in other words, discovered mankind’s oldest known ritual.
Magazines Across East Asia
Earlier this year, in Bangkok I found street side magazine vendors selling photos of this young person.
This person is the Bhutanese crown prince Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck. He attended the Thai King’s 60th Anniversary celebrations along with royalty from several other country.
His youth and charm made him the idol of girls all over Thailand.
Several magazine tried to cash in on his popularity running articles on the prince with details of his life.
One nice thing though is that Thai’s now know a lot more about Bhutan. Incidentally, Thailand is the one of few places where the Bhutanese national carrier Druk air flies to.
Now we look at this magazine for Thailand’s neighbour Myanmar. This one is called the Yangoon Times.
And here you find an article on Korean actors. Korean TV dramas and movies are very popular in Myanmar. The state controlled broadcasting service runs some Korean dramas and apparently streets go empty whenever these dramas are playing on TV.
Talking about Korea, some enterprising Korean residents in Singapore have started this magazine called Korean World for Koreans in Singapore.
Something on the lines of several Japanese magazines you fine in South East Asia or the expat magazines in China. This magazine has ads from language schools specializing in English teaching, travel agencies, Korean restaurants etc. But what surprised me the most was the last page. This page was in English and has this article supporting Korean territorial claim on Dokdo islets. Dokdo is know as Takeshima in Japan and Japn also claims these islets.
