Tuesday, October 31, 2006
It's starting to get hot down here: otherwise entitled the reason (among others) to make friends with one's neighbors
Note my house, circled in red. It seems to be the only one without a pool on my block :)
My neighbors to the right (my landlord) also have a piano. Perhaps they should be first priority.
Monday, October 30, 2006
For the love of....
I finally bit the bullet and shelled out for a renewal of my subscription to The Economist. Unfortunately, my subscription does not take effect until the Nov. 4th edition, and the idea that my wish to read the economist online would be instantly gratified with my Mastercard was not instant enough for my American desire for truly instant gratification.
The Portuguese translation of Tom Sawyer I bought last week (is that sacrilege? buying a copy of a Mark Twain novel that has been intentionally translated out of its language of genius which I can read easily into another language?) sat forlorn on my windowsill all weekend. Because, on Saturday, I spent several hours successfully locating two Oct. editions of the Economist in a bookstore downtown. I have spent much of my time since then catching myself up on the news that the rest of the world has already processed and reacted to. No matter: it is a delightful indulgence. Mark Twain will just have to wait until I make it through the second one.
here are two photos from my trek to find The Economist: the first from the Praça da Liberdade where a teenage couple on a park bench indulged me by taking my photo, the second of some very bright and lovely colonial architecture on the way to Savassi from the Praça.
Other:
Lula does it again! Brazil chooses to keep their president.
Protection for American farmers and....condom manufacturers?
I think I would like to hear some statistics on effectiveness and quality--this would be my primary motivator for product choice, in this case. Job preservation comes second.
Yesterday while walking around the lake I saw a couple of amusing things:
one: a couple using what appeared to be an emergency gas bag to fill the gas tank of their VW beetle. Now, it seems to me, that a plastic bag is not a very safe way to store an emergency gas supply. Even if it were ethanol, wouldn't a plastic bag be corroded by either of these two? Somebody help me out.
two: a group of guys on bikes who had been fishing were leaving with their stock of fish, their nets, and their bamboo poles. Somehow, the net of the guy on the bike in the lead attaches itself to the bike of the guy behind, nearly causing a bike (not to mention the subsequent traffic) collision. Fishing net is not the easiest thing to untangle from the spokes and brake cables of a bike, and five minutes later when I pass again, the whole group is still struggling to untangle bike 1 from bike 2. Sigh, the complications of alternative transportation.....
I have a three-stall organic market on Saturdays that is a block from my house!!!!!! Swwweeetttt.
P.S.--Here I have been thinking that Heineken is the only readily available imported beer in Brazilian grocery stores--then, I read the label. Heineken is tricky--they do some brewing in Brazil. No wonder it is only slightly more expensive than its 'brazilian' counterparts.
Friday, October 27, 2006
A note about my job.
As a consultant for the WHRC, I am mostly responsible to one Frank Merry. Frank was a member of my committee for my master's research, and also works on various projects with Greg Amacher, my major professor from Virginia Tech. Because Frank works directly with Greg, this means that I am also, indirectly, still responsible to Greg. Just to give you a taste of the two fine personalities that I work for, when I mentioned to Frank that I was doing some literature review and reading about cattle markets, he replied by saying that we should get the timber supply model out of the way, and...
"One thing you could do with cattle is go to the super market and learn the cuts."
Right. My job is diverse.
With respect to the timber supply, my job is to do the dirty work in the stats program: we use a program called limdep. The code for a piece of an input file tends to look something like this:
regress; lhs = ltagval; rhs = one, lyrs, lfam, lcapit, credit, lcdis,
lttime, ladco, lhrdry, lhrwet, lhire; hetero; keep=fitlagvl $
reject; fitlagvl=-999 $
dstat; rhs = vmpla, yronl, famsz, valci, , ctydis,
adco, pastar, tvalag, ltp2, wealth, exogin, ASST, BLOT, SQLOT, SQASST, DEFTIT $
?CALCULATING SHADOW WAGE
create; fmvpw=(1.65112579*exp(fitlagvl)/hrdayw) $
create; mvpw=(1.65112579*tvalag/hrdayw) $
dstat; rhs = fmvpw, mvpw $
create; lfmvpw = log(fmvpw) $
create; if(sdefor>0)sdefor=1; (else)sdefor=0 $
create; if(sforst>0)sforst=1; (else)sforst=0 $
create; if(sdefor=1 & sforst=1)newwood=3
;if(sforst=1 & sdefor=0)newwood=2
;if(sdefor=1 & sforst=0)newwood=1
;if(swood=0)newwood=0 $
logit; lhs = newwood; rhs= one, lyrs, lfam, lcapit, lwatr, credit, lexogin,
lcdis, lfor, lpast, lfmvpw, ltagval, ltp2, deftit; hetero; marginal effects;keep=psoldnew $
Basically, I run a bunch of regression models based upon some guidelines from Greg and Frank, and then I send them to Greg for feedback. 'Feedback' takes the following forms:
Greg Amacher, 10-27
1. why are wet and dry labor variables in the ag production function...is wet season labor important to production of crops? If dry season L is negative (not good), then maybe combine all labor into one variable.
2. Value of ag production should not be an explanatory variable in the sold wood equation and is correlated anyway with the shadow wage, which should be present in the sold wood equation. The presence of value of ag production is probably reducing the significance of the shadow wage in the regressions due to the correlation. The same goes for other wood sales regressions.
Greg Amacher (2) 10-27, Maria receives an email entitled:
"P.S. on my previous PS....I like the multinomial model....wow, about to have a heart attack from excitement...more inside"
Yesterday, Greg and Frank and I had an exchange about a diagram of my study area for the paper which we are hoping to publish from my master's thesis.
Frank: "Maria: have him (Paul) take out the communities and include only the surveyed communities, using dots for the icons"
Greg: "Don't agitate the dots damnit! Are you agitating the dots?"
Frank: "it just seems a bit messy at the moment. Did you have caffeine this morning?"
Maria: "That message certainly did sound caffeinated....Hope you haven't crossed back over to using the tools the rest of us need to be productive"
Greg: "Sorry, I thought you both knew about the FEDEX T.V. commericial where the guys are at a computer watching and talking to the "dots" (i.e., FEDEX trucks). Hey, I found it on the web, it's totally funny now given the Tapajos map thing. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19rVKy_pfFU
So, no caffeine but just a keen sense of humor on my end!"
Greg: "P.S. oh, it is a nextel commerical...."
Monday, October 23, 2006
Up in smoke--but the memories will remain.
For my first two years of college, I spent holiday breaks in the humble abode of my dad and my soon-to-be stepmother, affectionately dubbed "poo palace." The exceedingly old and probably unsafe farmhouse made strange creaking noises in the summer, boasted hiding places in the foundation and under the porch, and had fly strips hung everywhere (many a time I got my hair caught in the one hanging over the toilet in the one functioning bathroom). Cold water showers were a must in the winter, because the hot water pipes would freeze. There was a vintage seventies wardrobe in rotting cardboard boxes, deemed unworthy of removal by the previous owner, and dad and laura could speak to Jared through holes in the wall.
Poo palace is no more--after dad and laura built their new place, they sold that piece of the property. The current owners, with no fond memories, saw only a crumbling old farmhouse, and chose to eliminate it, much to our sadness. These are a few pictures from the weekend, provided by my dad. Jezebel and Bad-Bad (Leroy Brown) would be rolling over in their graves.
You win some, you lose some: other weekend highlights
Beers by the lake after a ferris wheel ride.
The loss: Magic Flute was sold out. Maria walks away from Palacio das Artes very crestfallen and feeling silly for not having procured a ticket in advance.
Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo...
I do believe it / I do believe it’s true…
Going to the zoo is one of those things th
Given this context, perh
I could ponder whether the d
My confession to you is th
Free to le
Free to w
Free to giggle with nervous excitement
The found
Friday, October 20, 2006
University Jerky makes the News.
How cool is it that I have a friend who has started a beef jerky business?
"how many is a brazillion?"
Donald Rumsfeld was giving President Bush his
Monday, October 16, 2006
The Opera.
I can't even contain my excitement for the Magic Flute--either this wknd or the next. If you aren't already aware, Mozart is one of my musical idols---
Below you see depicted, from left to right, my housemate Ehidee, (me) and Ehidee's sister, Adriana. In front of some very large spool-like fixtures made of wood that were part of an art exhibition in the Palacio das Artes in Belo Horizonte. I think the guard thought I was insane, wanting to have my picture taken with two women in front of a large spool----
A few visuals.
I
Serving
My sm
I h
Re
Other triumphs: I h
Oh yes, and the view from my verandah:
Thursday, October 12, 2006
They talked my ear off, the two of them, for about an hour--
and I left feeling more fortunate in this life at the moment than I can even express to you.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
moving towards a sense of place.
Monday, October 09, 2006
on babies.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
a new one.
incidentally, I am watching some passionate kissing going on in the courtyard between a man who must be about the age of my father and a girl who is probably my age. Not to fault them--it would be a good day to stay in bed and....right.
Friday, October 06, 2006
LBA-ECO
My presentation took place this morning, and was very well received by the somewhat intimidating group of academic colleagues that were also presenting in my section. I have many reflections about the international research community, but I think it pretty much suffices to say that we are a group of rather odd birds. Some painful presentations that lacked cohesion, some stellar presentations that really make you want to be an academic, and everything in between.
The most important message to take from this posting is that you should rest assured that even though the glaciers may be melting, the oceans warming, and the climate changing, there is a very dedicated group of researchers that are working on saving you from yourselves, at least if you live in Brazil. Since we all know that deforestation in Brazil is the single most important factor responsible for sending the world into a downward spiral ;)
Monday, October 02, 2006
"O que está fazendo uma gatinha como voce na praia solzinha?" (otherwise entitled: the most humorous moment of my wknd)
A Brazilian man in a speedo power-walks determinedly past me--I pay him no mind. On his way back down the beach, however, he speaks. "O que está fazendo uma gatinha como voce na praia solzinha?" (Translation: "What is a kitten like yourself doing alone on the beach?") If I had had an ounce of wit, I would have responded: "Eu soamente estou esperando até um tigre forte como voce me leva para sua casa" (Translation: "I am but waiting for a strong tiger like yourself to take me home to his house") I am, unfortunately, not witty enough to say this with a straight face, and fortunately not--for he may very well have taken me at my word.
Brazilian man proceeds by offering to sunscreen my back; I allow him this indulgence which he enjoys a bit too much. He then sits down a little too close to me and begins to make conversation--I'm from rio, why are you here by yourself, yadda yadda--and then: "Lhe posso dar um bezinho?" (May I kiss you?) An innocent enough question, to which I respond "Não pode, não" or, NO you may not. He takes the hint, and shortly thereafter leaves me alone with lingering kisses on the cheek. Perhaps I should count it a potential missed opportunity to have ended my latest stint of celibacy---but I think it's better written off as the most amusing moment of my weekend.
Colocando os pés na terra da FLONA Tapajós
Ailton, my guide from the IPAM office in Santarém, enjoyed telling the households we visited with that this was my opportunity to "colocar os pés na terra" (get my feet on the ground) and to not just work with numbers, And, indeed, it was.
Here, you see the beaches of the Tapajós river during the dry season.....
And, below---well, self explanatory. They killed it because, well, it is poisonous (supposedly). They were quite proud of the number they did on it.
It was our good luck that brought us upon this family that was fishing on the way to our third village--we subsequently offered to pay them for the fish and we feasted on them for lunch. Below, you see me (unsuccessfully) trying to extricate a very spiny fish from a net.