The darker side of rural farming: They’re alive, and the driver fully intends to ride them between villages.
Slightly Disturbing Picture
Month: January 2011
Exploring Kampong Chhnang
We took the day off from work and drove from Phnom Penh up North to Kampong Chhnang, a small town on the Tonle Sap river. The town is known for its floating villages – small groupings of houses that float on the banks of the river, and rise and fall with the unpredictable river movements during the monsoon season. The best part of the trip was spending a couple hours with a bunch of kids we met along the riverside. We all played with origami animals and paper airplanes, and it was a blast. I had read that many kids in Cambodia love to see themselves in photographs and movies. So we shot a few pictures and short videos on
Quite Literally Nothing To Do
Later this week I’ll be visiting some rural villages with a local development organization to learn about effective agricultural, sanitation, and water purification technology dissemination strategies. The trip is likely to include a number of stops at some pig farms, and one of the places I might visit is a town called Svay Rieng. Here’s what my guide book had to say: “Svay Rieng is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it provincial capital that many travelers whistle past when making the journey between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City. There is quite literally nothing to do here.” Well, uh, Lonely Planet must not know about the pig farms!
Worlds Smallest Home
“Ever imagined what it would be like to live inside a giant egg?” From China Daily: “Dai Haifei, 24, a newly graduated architect, decided to make his own egg-style home after being unable to afford Beijing’s sky-high rental prices. The two-meter high house with two wheels underneath is made from sack bags on the outside wall, bamboo splints on the inside and wood chippings and grass seeds in between. ‘The seeds will grow in the natural environment and it’s cold-proof,’ Dai explained.” “He moved the house steps away from his office where he would stay until midnight before going to sleep inside the ‘egg’.” Well, at least the commute sounds great.
X-Ray Vision
This is really cool. From MIT, a camera that can see around corners: “A photographer taking a picture of someone standing out of sight in a room with a half-open door might aim the camera at the door. Light from the flash would be reflected off the door and onto both the person and the walls behind that person. Some of this light would then travel back to the door and be reflected into the camera.” Sounds dangerous.
The Best Iced Coffee in Phnom Penh
There were rumors about a local legend who’s been selling some of the best tasting iced coffee in Phnom Penh’s Russian market for more than 20 years. He’s even got his own facebook page. A few of us went to check it out: Once we ordered, he began an elaborate brewing process where he filled a fine mesh net with ground coffee, poured hot water through it, and then collected the coffee in a pot. He then repeated the process by taking the resulting coffee and pouring it through a second mesh net containing more freshly ground coffee beans. And then he did it a third time! The entire process took more than 10 minutes. This guy’s not messing around:
Facebook, Bubbles, and Nigerian Scams
Lots of interesting speculation about the Facebook-Goldman deal: Simon Johnson thinks it’s a taxpayer subsidy that is setting the stage for another bubble and subsequent financial crisis. Justin Fox describes why going public is no longer such an attractive option, why Facebook may do a better job than Google at avoiding an IPO, and how some SEC rules are being bent along the way. And the WSJ likens it to a Nigerian scam.
There’s a Gecko in our Refrigerator!
The Jersey Shore As An Economic Indicator?
Kid Dynamite writes: “I couldn’t help but thinking, as I watched portions of MTV’s New Year’s Eve coverage which featured the cast of the Jersey Shore, that it’s hard to be bullish on America. Why? Simple answer: Jersey Shore Season 3 – the mere fact that it exists. That alone is bearish.” Anyone have any other examples of discouraging pop-culture indicators? Shouldn’t be too hard. He then links to an older posting titled “Issac Newton, Mean Reversion, and Momentum” which I found to be a particularly insightful view on market psychology and effective investment strategies.
Angkor What?
I just had my first Cambodian beer, an ice cold Angkor. This appears to be the mainstream, mass-distributed “beer of Cambodia.” It’s a lightly-hopped, 5% pale lager. In the grand scheme of beers, this one doesn’t stand out in any way, but after a long day, it definitely hit the spot. It did get me thinking – many tropical climate countries seem to have one mass-produced national beer to compliment all of the imports. And they all tend to be VERY similar. Costa Rica has Imperial. Panama has “Panama” beer. The Bahamas sport Kalik. Guatemala has the infamous Gallo (rooster). What’s the story behind these? Are they all owned by a multi-national company that has tapped the “domestic” beer market