jawoo’s posterous

jawoo koo / washington, dc

CIAT is not...

Mr. Hargrove, an agronomist, "specializes in rice," Mr. Morse says. "He goes around the world working on food problems. He felt very comfortable with his counterparts in Colombia. It was a total shock to be cast as a bad guy by the people who kidnapped him. He took a wrong turn and became a hostage for 11 months. . . . The initials of the company he worked for were CIAT. When the terrorists saw that, they chose to believe he was a CIA agent. The company essentially abandoned him. They were afraid that if they ransomed Tom, employees in other parts of the world would be kidnapped. He doesn't work there anymore.
via davidmorse.org

It happened in 1994, and later filmed as "Proof of Life", starred Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe.

Thanks for trying, Google Voice..

Bonny left a message yesterday, in Korean, “Daddy, what time are you going to come home? Can we go to swimming together?”. Then Google kindly interpreted the voice message for me, in English, like this. Well, what can I say? Thanks for trying!

Spatial data modeling

... and the legendry master raster and raster fairies are born. Long live SPAM!

Random off-line tweets from Tanzania trip

  • During the workshop at Morogoro, received a question from farmers that who are the biggest CO2 emitters. Lucky that I kept #GapMinder AIR handy! It's a must app for those traveling in areas with virtually no Internet (yes - that's more commonly found than you think).
  • Getting harder and harder to avoid all the spoilers on the #Lost Finale. Gotta catch up at Hulu quick..
  • Starbucks at AMS: Ordered "Doppio over ice" and got a puzzled look and saying "yes we can do, but don't know if it would be good." Thanks, it was great.
  • @KLM How come every other flight suffers this mid-air crisis on the entertainment system that requires total reboot.
  • Adding to my list of IFPRI Wonders/Wishes: We (IFPRI and/or HarvestChoice) need stickers. Harry (at #ZALF) showed me photos of village kids put cute #BetterIS project logo sticker on them.
  • To be a cool project: Clever acrononym with trend wording. Domain with ORG (NET and INFO acceptable, but no COM please). Pretty logo. And now sticker. Long way to go. Ah, research too?
  • Visited the best chicken grill place in Tanzania: Chacha Grill in Morogoro. Harry discovers their secret recipe. Garlic, pepper, etc, etc, and red color #3..?!
  • Asked farmers in household survey, on bio-fuel crops. What's changing in this village these days? Dancing style.
  • My favorite HH survey Q&A. How to cope with risks in farming? Drinking beers.
  • One more reason to love #WriteMonkey. Instead of the never-helpful random "Did you know?" tips that no one cares, it splashes sweet quotes like this classic one "Insanity is just a sate of mind". Perfect for motivated minds to write something useful!

Ah, that's a nice rhyme

Found while driving around Sokoine University of Agriculture and
University of Dar es Salaam campuses (thanks Till for taking this!).

The most thrillful 1-hour road ride in my life

.. on the highway from Chalinze to Morogoro in Tanzania
http://bit.ly/bidoOm on the back of the truck with Steffen, in the
pitch black night.

Another vehicle broke down, so this was the only way to make it. It
was, well, refreshing, but I think I'll never do this again. ^^;;

       
Click here to download:
The_most_thrillful_1-hour_road.zip (233 KB)

Attending the SPAM day meeting

Earned my daily dose of SPAM slice. Heated discussion..

"Comments on Ken Giller’s paper on Conservation Agriculture" - International Conservation Agriculture

The following comments have been made regarding the recent paper published by Ken Giller. Ken E. Giller, Ernst Witter, Marc Corbeels, Pablo Tittonell. 2009. Conservation agriculture and small holder farming in Africa: the heretics view. Field Crops Research 114 (1) 23-34. The debate resulted in a number of excellent comments that we would like to share through this blog. I am managing this debate by listing word for word the comments made so far. Hopefully this will be an educational and constructive debate.
via conservationag.wordpress.com

Amazing collection of thoughtful comments on the status/issues of adoption/non-adoption of conservation agriculture in Africa. About 50-page when printed out - but must read!