With less than 100 days left before the May 2010 elections, the implementation of the automated election system or AES of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) continues to tread in dangerous waters. Volunteers from the Computer Professionals Union (CPU) witnessed the field test of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) in Pateros and Taguig on January 29. We are sharing the following excerpts from the CPU volunteers’ report.

Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has been handed a job in the United Kingdom to make public data truly public: by putting it in the Internet. This move is similar to the US government’s decision last December 8 to make “high value, machine readable datasets” generated by the federal government available to the general public. Data catalogs, geographical data and the tools to read it are downloadable in their respective sites with free access for private or commercial reuse.

Last Monday, the College of Science and the School of Economics of the University of the Philippines held a cross-disciplinary symposium titled “Darwin’s Impact on Science and Society” to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s ground breaking and world shaking book On the Origin of Species.

A Decade of Making Science and Technology Serve the People!

GREETINGS TO AGHAM ON ITS 10TH YEAR!

Good people are like lighted candles.
The darker the night, the brighter they shine.
They don't make noise about their brightness and don't lose theirs by sharing it with others.
Let nothing overwhelm your light.
Keep on burning and inspiring others.

Cora Jazmines
Founding Member of Agham

While the global economic crisis refuses to yield to any of the fixes, bailouts and crisis management of the governments of the top industrial countries, Third World economies remain vulnerable to the hiccups of the international market. This underlies the dire situation of having an economy that is heavily dependent on external markets rather than on a stable domestic one. In the Philippines, we depend mainly on our export products of raw or semi-processed mineral ores and agricultural goods while buying finished consumer items and even food as imports.

Quirino Grandstand

m2
total count

					AREA		count
Quirino Grandstand central area		41369.72	165478.89
Quirino back area			3483.86		13935.46
Quirino roxas blvd			25083.82	100335.28
Rizal Park exposed until orosa		10730.3		42921.2
quirino inner road ½			6874.82		27499.3
quirino inner road ½			6874.82		27499.3
quirino left/right			8361.27		33445.09
quirino left/right			8361.27		33445.09

Quirino Grandstand + Rizal park total	111139.91	444559.63


Liwasang Bonifacio

Liwasang Bonifacio			AREA		count
central area				2090.32		8361.27

Crowd estimates figure in most news reports after a big mobilization or event. Every time a sizeable mass action has been conducted, whether in Mendiola, Ayala, or Edsa, conflicting estimates are issued that either downplay or magnify the data. The politics of the count is obvious as strength in numbers is a statement in itself.

Is there some way to effectively quantify the size of the crowd in a mobilization?