One year old - Katherine Alma

I still can't believe it.

From June 2010

Looking for new sci fi

I love books and am completely addicted to science fiction. But, I feel like I have hit the wall. I have read all of the scifi books available at our local library, except all of those knock-off Star Trek and Star Wars novels that should never have been published.
The Huxley Library is pretty good for a small town, but has a clientelle that devours Mennonite romance novels. There is a whole wall of shelves for it and two racks of sci-fi - Appalling. Every time I go I request new books to add to their collection. It is an uphill battle.

This is what I am up against:

I have reread all of the Garth Nix books until I don't even try to start at the beginning any more. I just pick up one of the Abhorsen series and flip to a random spot and begin. The next day I do the same. It takes longer to finish a book that way. It is like bootstrap reading. I am out of new Connie Willis novels also. Ursula LeGuin added some new Earthsea novels that are quite good, but I bought those. I also read the Left Hand of Darkness three times this year.

From regular fiction my standby's also seem stale. I still bring Chaim Potok's The Chosen with me when I travel (Not science fiction - more like orthodox Jewish fiction). I haven't seen anything new out of Mark Salzman recently. I really like Chabon's Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay - about Jewish comic book illustrator's in the 50's. Some scenes were pretty racy, but beautiful writing.

I tried getting some nonfiction and branching out into the real world, but I still am hunting for something to fill the fictional part of my reading diet.

Any suggestions? I need something new to devour.

Chicken coop

This is the chicken coop that I built for the infamous Huxley 6 chickens:

From June 2010

During construction

It is a 4'x8' A frame with the nesting boxes and roost in the top of the triangle. The bottom is open so the chickens can peck around in the grass.

From June 2010

The roof sides are removable for cleaning the coop and the ends also open on hinges to access eggs and the chicken run below.

From June 2010

Entertaining the neighborhood

From June 2010

The runway into the top of the coop can be opened and shut from the outside. It is hard to see, but there is a wire that runs to the bottom that goes through an eye at the top of the coop and then out the side.

Anyway, the most complicated of my woodworking projects - lots of angles and no table saw or miter saw. I am embarrassed to admit but I basically threw a temper tantrum when I started it because it seemed too big of a project to get done and the chickens were getting big and smelly in the garage. So I am publicly apologizing to my wife and children for growling at them while working.

Dam to Dam Run

From June 2010

This last Saturday I ran the 20K Dam to Dam race. I have been running again since I discovered I wasn't getting in shape sitting at my desk answering emails and going to meetings. I did a 10K last fall in Huxley when I wasn't really prepared and felt like I was going to die. I kept running through the whole race, but I was 2nd to last to finish and the ambulance followed me the last three miles. The ambulance drivers kept calling out encouraging comments and laughing. I knew deep down they were just waiting for me to finally keel over so they could take me in.

I run most nights after the kids are in bed in the dark along the trail or to the high school track. We also splurged and bought an eliptical excercise machine and I have used it while watching netflix movies in the basement. I also bought cross country skis and went out this winter some along the same trails.

If I had better self control I would go to bed early and get up early to run in the daylight before work. The stars shine bright in Iowa once you get out of town though, except for a distant glow from Des Moines in the South and Ames in the North, like a false dawn. It is quiet on the country roads and when the moon is out it is so bright that I cast a shadow. With a new moon, I find myself jumping over puddles that aren't there and dodging branches from my imagination and usually head home before I hurt myself in the dark. Some nights I stop and look up and try to imagine the prairie is still there in the dark.

I am slow still, but steadily increasing. During the race, I was wet and tired. It started raining as I was running to the starting line and continued till the very end. The last two miles I barely could put one foot after another. The day after the race I hurt so much I slid downstairs on my bum instead of lifting my feet each step. But three days out, I feel ready to go running again.

Hawaii

I learned something about myself while I was in Hawaii. If everyone else was jumping off of a cliff, would I do it too? Yes, I would And, I will lose my glasses and rental car keys at the same time. Luckily, a kid swimming nearby spotted them in the sand under the cliff and dove for them.

From Personal

I went to Hawaii to visit the winter nursery site where I had three projects nearing harvest. I spent a couple of days taking pictures of the germplasm increases and taking notes.

From Personal

Almost every night I ate sushi for dinner at Morio's sushi. It is run by him and Junko - the waitress and maybe had room for 12 people. Each night I got a seat outside or in the corner because the rest were reserved. They sat empty until the reservers arrived. Meanwhile, Morio sent reams of people away that walked in looking for somewhere to eat. The food was very good, fresh. Each meal comes with complimentary miso soup and salad. Some nights they brought me edamame beans also. No drinks at all on the menu - no soda pop, no lemonade, no alcoholic beverages. Some customers brought their own sake and beer.

From Personal

I went snorkeling while I was there. I am not the best swimmer, but when I have a snorkel I feel like I can swim all day. Somehow the rhythm of holding my breath and lifting my head to breathe I get off kilter and occasionally take in water. Once that happens I continue to take on water till I feel like I am half drowned. But, give me a snorkel in the ocean with fish, coral and wildlife to look at and I am in heaven. I saw a bunch of tropical fish, two large sea turtles, some crabs, starfish, but I didn't find any squid or octopus.

I went to Shark's cove on the north shore and Hanauma Bay near Waikiki. Hanauma Bay is a national water park. It is full of wildlife just off shore, but is full of tourists. Sharks' Cove had just as much to see, but it is far from Honolulu and was almost deserted. There is more surf just outside of the tide pool area, but the tide pools would have been fine for even kids to swim around in.

From Personal

I had to hurry when I went to Hanauma bay on Saturday. I ran down to the water, swam across the bay and back, and then raced up the mountain and down again to my car. I had an appointment to meet my Dad for lunch. I hadn't seen him for almost 20 years. My parents were divorced when I was 12 and he came to visit when I was 13. He wrote us letters once after that and once he called when I was almost 14.

It was like he died. He didn't send money, visit, or call. His parents didn't have any contact with him either. None of his old friends knew about him or his disappearance. I went back to visit Teton when I was 19 and all of his old friends were dumbstruck to hear that he had disappeared so completely. Not one could believe that he left us and never came back.

From Personal

Apparently, he has been living in Hawaii for the last 8 years. Before that he was travelling around the southwest doing who knows what. A friend of his contacted Anna last year after he had a stroke. She was concerned that if he died there would be no next of kin to notify. She gave us his number and I called him a few times. It was very odd to talk to a ghost that sounded so eerily like my older brother Marc. He changed cell numbers without telling any of us and disappeared again after we moved to Iowa. So when I got to Honolulu, Anna got me his friends number and I asked her to tell him I was was in town.

He called me back Friday before I was due to leave and we agreed to meet for lunch on Saturday at his favorite cafe near his house. When I came in the hostess, said "You must be Gary's son - He is over there." I went over to the booth and sat down. He doesn't look like I remember. For one thing, he is shorter than me now, grey hair, and had gained weight and then lost it. I would not have recognized him if I past him in a crowd.

We talked pleasantries and small talk. He then said he couldn't imagine why my Mom would have wanted to divorce him. He doesn't remember things like they really happened. In his mind he was the one that was abandoned and rejected. None of it was his fault and he did nothing wrong. I told him that since he had left without any money or contact that divorce was inevitable and reasonable. The silence was awkward enough that Bill, the Bahai pastor that Dad had asked to come along for support, came over from the next booth and we spent the rest of the time sharing pictures of my family and talking about children, work, etc.

It wasn't quite what I envisioned as a reunion with my long lost father. But it wasn't as bad. I would have like to have an apology of some sort for the years of silence, but I can live without it.

Loving New York

For spring break we went to visit our friends the Cooks in New York City. Doug is a professor at NYU-Abu Dhabi, but is teaching this year in New York. I never really thought I would like such a big city, but there is something about NY that even after just a week made me wish that I could move in and make myself at home. According to this site, it is stereotypical for me to like Manhattan, and now Brooklyn. I should add that Roosevelt Island is the best of both.

The kids and I at the Manhattan Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge from the park

Central Station at night

Me at Times Square along with more tourists than I can count, but no one from NY

The Queensborough Bridge - The view from our friends apartment

Earthquake in Chile Pictures

Doing well in Chile

We have electricity, phones, internet, but limited gas as of today. The earthquake was sure a jolt - first my bed started to jiggle a little and I thought - what are the people next door doing? Then the whole room started to shake hard. I started for the door and gave up and sat against the wall until the shaking ended. The lights went out and we stumbled into the dark streets. The whole city was up and driving around or walking. Rumors were rampant.

Things are quickly returning to normal though. Hopefully we will fly out on time.

Choices

I had a strange series of dreams last night. It started as I lay awake listening to the baby fuss. As I drifted back to sleep, I was thinking about key choices in my life and somewhere in there I think I drifted off to sleep. In my minds eye, I could clearly see my life like a tree with decisions at each joint and like flashes skipped from end branch to branch until I landed where I am now and I awoke almost shaky from the trip.

I saw myself living in different cities, doing different jobs, sometimes my family was different, sometimes I was different. In one flash, I was teaching in a community college in LA. In another, I stayed home with the kids. In a few, I wasn't married or didn't have kids. One track I was still in Indiana, another I was teaching in Texas, another working at some office building in Boise.

There are three main branching decision points to my life I realized. The first was to go to BYU. A difficult choice - I broke out in hives when I was making it and spent many a sleepless night worrying and debating it internally. At the time, I wanted to get away from all those Mormons and I had a scholarship to Oberlin College. After talking to Dr. Mooney - Looney Mooney my highschool English teacher, who pointed out that it seemed to him that the decision wasn't about schools but about who I wanted to be. Then it was clear.

The second was to go on a mission. Another internal struggle. I fought and cried and didn't want to go. I worried about whether I had the strength of character and belief to be really able and worthy to go. But I felt pushed again. It felt right.

The third was to get married. An easy decision. Scarily easy. I realized tonight that was because my future had shifted the moment I stepped into that first day of Genetics. Somehow the decision was made as I sat down next to Leila and began to talk. I didn't realize I had made any choice other than where to sit down. Because of that moment, I changed majors, got a job in a plant genetics lab, met Leila, started studying with her, hanging out with her. Who I am changed in that second.

At the end of that year, my roommate and best friend, Craig, was engaged to be married on Aug. 13th. I had told my sister, who was also engaged and probably doesn't even remember, not to get married on that date because I wanted to be in Utah for his wedding. So one night, Mom calls me and tells me that Anna is going to be married on the 13th of August. Oh, I was mad. I couldn't believe it.

That night I was out with Leila. I told her I thought she should come home with me, and we would tell my family that Anna couldn't get married on that date because we had secretly been engaged and planning on getting married the same day as Craig too. That would show them.

Leila cocked her head and said, "No, the 20th would work better for me."

The next morning she stopped by as I was packing to go home to visit before I started my internship in Florida and let me know her family felt like the 20th would be a fine date for a wedding.

So it was decided. So it happened. Which was crazy. And ten years have flown by. Four children. A funeral. Moving from Utah to Texas to Indiana to Iowa. As I lay awake thinking about the different visions of possible lives, I realized that none of the alternatives I wanted. They didn't feel right. Just this one.

I guess I will now get off the computer, maybe clean up our messy house, or maybe I will go cross country skiing, maybe I will make Emily breakfast, maybe I will get dressed and go get Leila flowers for Valentine's day. Either way, that decision will probably have impacts I can't understand. But, right now I feel like for some reason I am where I want to be.

Summer garden plans

The best thing about February is planning for summer. We get stacks of seed catalogues normally, although some haven't found us at our new address yet. Someone once asked me how you get a seed catalogue. I just can't figure out how to get off of the list. Once they have you on the meta-gardener mailing list you can never get off. It is like moving to a new area to escape from the church. Somehow those hometeachers will just keep finding you.

So I have big plans for summer gardening.

1. Add 50-100 strawberry plants to our front flower beds.
2. Replace the bushes devoured by japanese beetles with berry bushes.
3. Expand tilled garden area behind the garage.
4. Re-lay the brick around the raised beds. - need to put sand down and a border edge.
5. Build a container for compost heap - I never have gotten compost heaps to work well so I am looking at methods that help to rotate the compost. Maybe one of the round barrel types or something.
6. Plant peppers and herbs in any empty space in flower beds
7. More bulbs - we NEED more daffodils. Desperately. I planted 100 tulips this fall.
8. Decide which patches of phlox to encourage this year and which to tear out.
9. Rake out leaves left in the flower beds from last year.
10. Get some more mulch for inner flower beds, again.
11. Trim bushes, again.
12. Decide what to do with the front corner that last year went to weeds - maybe eggplants and geraniums? with lettuce borders?
13. Remember to put iron and phosphorous on the roses along the side of the house
14. Divide some of the hostas?
15. lettuces, spinach, basil, sage, oregano, parsley, peas, carrots, tomatoes, onions, endive, rosemary. Am I forgetting anything?

Where are you on the internet?

From the Opte project: A visual map of the internet from 2005

When I started college in 1996, I had a telnet and a gopher account to go online. I remember just a few websites that had pictures and no movies. When I got back from Nicaragua, the inventor of Napster came to talk at BYU about the future of the internet and intellectual property. Ironically, around that same time, I watched a pirated version of the Lord of the Rings someone from the lab had downloaded from the internet before it came out in theaters.

The internet has grown and grown. It has infiltrated almost every home and cell phone in the US and across the world. This is a universe of information that for the most part is freely accessible. I did almost all of my research for my last paper sitting at my desk and querying databases and the internet. I have 1000s of .pdf files saved on my harddrive that just a few years ago I would have printed out and bound.

I get emails now from friends in Nicaragua that live in towns where we struggled to find a telephone and had electricity only part of the day. Crazy.

I was just thinking today as I was reading a sci-fi novel that our present didn't turn out like the future depicted in the book: No flying cars, no fusion powered vacuum cleaners, no settlements on mars or the moon, no aliens with consulates in Chicago, no interstellar travel. Now none of that seems plausible for our future, but if someone had described the internet to me 20 years ago I would have thought that was pretty absurd also. So who knows. Maybe.



from xkcd.com - illustration map of the internet



From Discover magazine 2006- diagram of how data moves around the world on the internet. with representation of the world as a flat disc.

Solution for Afghanistan or Heart of darkness?

I read this fascinating article in the Washington post online.

Jim Gant was special forces in Afghanistan in the tribal areas. While he was there he made the decision to embed himself in the local tribe and make a deal with them to fight alongside them. To fight in their battles. To die for them if necessary.

He is arguing for a personal relationship with each one of the tribal warlords. One where American soldiers live, fight, kill and die with the tribal leaders. This has the potential to make true allies where we have none. But, and there is a big, but there is a great potential for abuse. By choosing sides, we may be choosing the wrong side. American fatalities will rise. Special knowledge of language and cultures will be required.

It appears that his proposals are getting some attention in military circles. Let's just hope he isn't like Mr. Kurtz.

Freezing in Iowa . . . And happy about it

When I heard about the winter storm watch yesterday I was excited. We were expected to have 8-10 inches of snow with 35 mile an hour winds, and the storm delivered. Schools were closed today. Visibility was low and it never got about 0, again. We have had three weeks of below 0 F weather.

Amazingly, I have not complained and I will be sad to see the winter go. Since we moved from Texas and to the frozen midwest I have whined and complained all winter long. Cold dark days filled with snow and freezing temperatures make me antsy for spring when the garden is growing and it is warm. I love the heat and humidity of the summer. I rarely complained in Texas even when it was 105, 90% humidity, and sweltering. Leila dreaded it because she hates the feeling of sweat beading up on her brow as soon as she stepped outside. I rode my bike to work and spent most of the summer in a cotton field and my winters in a 95 degree and humid greenhouse. I don't think that I sweat normally or something.

So what has changed? Iowa is colder than ever.

1. Long underwear - I now have a full complement of very long, very warm long underwear. I am warm when everyone else is shivering for once.

2. Wool socks - Even my feet are warm.

3. More weight - although I grumble to Leila, the last ten pounds I gained I think have helped me stay warm in the cold.

4. No animals to take care of in the cold - although I miss my little farm constantly, it is nice to not have to worry about water freezing, snow in the barn, keeping the chickens from getting frostbite, moving hay, finding the cows and pigs at the neighbors barn, and all of the other winter chores. This may also explain the extra ten pounds. Gotta do something about that.

and last but definitely not least:

From early january 2010

5. Cross country skis - I bought them off of ebay, they have old three pin bindings and I have had to repair the shoes already, and I ski like Goofy in that instructional cartoon, but I look forward to getting out in the snow every night. The cold isn't so bad if I get to flail about on skis every night.

From early january 2010

New Years Resolutions

I don't know why doing things that are good for you is hard. I have no trouble reading all the books I get from the library in one sitting or watching too much TV or eating that one last piece of cake.

But no more! This year I am determined to do all of those things that I haven't been doing that I want to do. That is the odd thing. I want to have done them, I just don't like doing them. Or I do like doing them, but it is easier to do nothing instead.

To commemorate my determination here is a poem by Ogden Nash:

Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man
By Ogden Nash

It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,
That all sin is divided into two parts.
One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important,
And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant,
And the other kind of sin is just the opposite and is called a sin of omission
and is equally bad in the eyes of all right-thinking people, from
Billy Sunday to Buddha,
And it consists of not having done something you shuddha.
I might as well give you my opinion of these two kinds of sin as long as,
in a way, against each other we are pitting them,
And that is, don’t bother your head about the sins of commission because
however sinful, they must at least be fun or else you wouldn’t be
committing them.
It is the sin of omission, the second kind of sin,
That lays eggs under your skin.
The way you really get painfully bitten
Is by the insurance you haven’t taken out and the checks you haven’t added up
the stubs of and the appointments you haven’t kept and the bills you
haven’t paid and the letters you haven’t written.
Also, about sins of omission there is one particularly painful lack of beauty,
Namely, it isn’t as though it had been a riotous red-letter day or night every
time you neglected to do your duty;
You didn’t get a wicked forbidden thrill
Every time you let a policy lapse or forget to pay a bill;
You didn’t slap the lads in the tavern on the back and loudly cry Whee,
Let’s all fail to write just one more letter before we go home, and this round
of unwritten letters is on me.
No, you never get any fun
Out of things you haven’t done,
But they are the things that I do not like to be amid,
Because the suitable things you didn’t do give you a lot more trouble than the
unsuitable things you did.
The moral is that it is probably better not to sin at all, but if some kind of
sin you must be pursuing,
Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.

Winter in Iowa

While Leila was gone at her sister's wedding, I was bored. Sometimes I complain that I don't get much done, but the truth is that I enjoy not getting anything done with Leila around. Much better than productivity while alone.

So, as part of my grand plan to keep myself busy, I searched the internet for plans for a workbench. I have pretensions of doing woodwork. There are a few things I learned again about myself in the process:

1. I cannot cut a straight line. No really. I measure twice, cut once, sand, cut again, sometimes with a new board.

2. I don't really like power tools. I much prefer hand tools. The kids can be in there playing while I work that way, and I cut crooked lines slower and have a better chance of correcting it before finishing.

3. I am an overacheiving perfectionist. If I could cut straight lines, I would dovetail every joint. But, I don't have a lot of patience with myself. I remember making pinewood derby cars when I was a kid. In my head I had a vision of this sleek, shiny car that would speed down the track. Instead in my awkward hands I usually had a rather blocky thing whose wheels fell off halfway down. When I start a project now I still have a platonic ideal of what I want in my head and when it begins to fall short I get frustrated with myself rather quickly.

4. I enjoy planning as much or more than the execution. I spent hours looking at pictures of peoples benches and plans on the internet. We looked through plans and designs and I tried to force myself to simplify my designs to something I could actually make.

5. I may not have all of the skills developed yet, but I can sure make stuff sturdy.

6. Working with Aleah is great for the ego. She continually says things like, "That looks gooood, Brian. That is a goooood cut." - As a side note, she still continually calls me Brian, instead of Dad.

The design I settled on was a simplified version of this bench:



I took the dimensions, put in butt joints instead of dovetails, designed a frame for the top instead of joined maple, removed the tool hollow, left room to add a bench vise, and planned to build it out of cheap lumber I could find at Menards. I decided to build the top out of 2.5" hardwood plywood. This is pricey stuff, but they make thick plywood planks for using as floor or roof joints. They are thick, heavy, full of resin, and seemed to be made of mostly hardwoods, and much much cheaper than even the 3/4" plywood. So I got a 10"x 12' board and cut it in half for the top.

I also found Spax lag screws. They are supposed to hold up to 5000 lbs of force and have serrated edges that are supposed to help drive them in and grip without splitting the wood. I was concerned and so still drilled guide holes. But, they sure hold tight.



So this is the finished bench:

From from phone

Here are the girls trying it out. Note, Emily in the future is likely to be embarrased by her hair here. In my defense, I did make her brush her hair while Leila was gone, and I did bathe them. She wears this hooded sweater nonstop and it kinda makes her head a static magnet.

From from phone

From from phone

Me with the fam, not getting work done while Leila was back:

From from phone

Broken computer, broken camera, busy = few posts

I am afraid Leila and I both have posted very little over the last month. Part of that is I have been busier than expected at work. The other part is our computer hard drive started making strange sounds and then sometimes wouldn't spool up. The operating system wouldn't boot and it just sat at the Compaq startup screen for as long as you sat there.

I took it to Best Buy and they said if the hard drive was dead it would cost 1500 dollars to recover our pictures and files from my dissertation that we desperately wanted to keep. The guy at the desk said that if I put the hard drive in the fridge and hit it on the corner with a hammer just right it would start working again, for a little while. So I put it outside in the cold and then hit it on the side of the desk. I got it to start up and then took it back to Best buy for them to transfer it to a new external hard drive. I am still amazed at how advanced computer storage has become. The smallest one they had was 320 gb! I still have my laptop I bought in college that has less than 200 mbytes of total memory.

The camera is broken also. So no pictures and only a computer if I bring my work laptop home. We are still here and we will try to post more often. Heaven knows I have opinions and stories about my kids.

Fall Gardening

When my mom was here visiting this August she helped us plant a small garden by the kids playground. She planted a circle of lettuces, a mix of greens, two lines of carrots, two lines of spinach, some onions, and a pumpkin plant. I planted some cabbages and collard greens later. It is now November and we are still harvesting lettuce and small carrots. It has been particularly easy since most of the weeds are done for the year.

We also are trying to grow greens and herbs in our sunroom this winter. So far the lettuce and the cilantro are thriving but the basil is weak and spindly.

So the plan right now for next year is to replace some bushes in the flower beds with berry bushes, finish the raised beds, replant our fall garden space, and put peppers and strawberries in the flowerbeds. I think kale and cabbages look great in flower beds also.

It is odd not having the little farm in Indiana. I still miss it. I miss the idea of it maybe even more than the actuality of it. The simplicity of a smaller yard with established landscaping is so much easier. And I do so love our house here in Iowa. No pig to root up the yard, or cows to round up, or worrying about raccoons and the chickens. But at the same time, I was very proud of dealing with all of our farm problems.

Maybe I will get bees. Or try to farm chickens under our porch or out of our shed. Or buy a cow and put it in a rented pasture.

Why parents are always tired:

I read stats blogs like Leila reads quilt blogs - looking for good graphing techniques so I can make my stuff look good.

One of them had a link to a hilarious article from the New York Times

Here is just a few of Christoph Niemann's explanations for why it is hard to get a good night's sleep:



Perception vs reality of ease of sleeping and being awake.


Why sleeping with a child in bed = not sleeping and no procreation.




Summary of nightime distractions

The summer is coming to an end

But I wish it wouldn't.

Chris complains that photos without captions are mostly meaningless. Too true, but here are a few of what we were up to the last month in a slideshow, without captions.

To appease Chris, the corn is a white sweetcorn from Seminis that is my new favorite called "Devotion." And I now am a devoted fan. The hands are Aleah's with her collection of caterpillars from the sweet corn. I think she had 10 or so at one time. The rest speak for themselves.

Remembering Norman Borlaug

I just learned that Norman Borlaug has died. He was at Texas A&M while I was there, although he didn't teach classes and was constantly travelling, speaking at conferences or to politicians. He was in his late 80s and early 90s when I met him, yet he still worked harder than most of the professors.

He had a yearly discussion with the plant breeding students where he would reflect on his past and tell us stories about starting CIMMyT, travelling through India, his efforts to establish farm to market roads in Africa, and his ideas about what we need to do to continue to feed the world.

He was one of the greatest men of our age. Most people don't know who he is, even though he won the Nobel prize, the world food prize, the congressional and presidential medal of honor.




Norman Borlaug developed semidwarf wheat, which shortened the plants while increasing yields. Simultaneously introducing disease resistance and eliminating photoperiod response helped make his varieties adaptable around the world. Using his ideas semidwarf rice and sorghum are also grown worldwide. He wasn't alone in this effort, but because of that worldwide yields have more than doubled. I read once that yields in parts of India and Central America have increased 5 times because of Norman's work. He also was an unwavering advocate for mechanization, chemical fertilizer, development of genetic pest resistance, and use of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Modern agriculture reflects his views. The modern world exists because his ideas worked.



My 2005 post after meeting him at A&M.

The Wikipedia entry on Norman Borlaug.