Paris, 26 May 2008


EFITA newsletter / 363 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


EFITA 2009 / Joint International Agricultural Conference – Call for abstracts
See: http://www.jiac2009.nl/.
Contact: Ramon DE LOUW
E-mail: r.p.m.de.louw(a)minlnv.nl


ECEL 2008 - 7th European Conference on e-Learning
6-7 November 2008 - AGIA NAPA, Cyprus
See: http://www.academic-conferences.org/ecel/ecel2008/ecel08-home.htm


Tour de France and agrotourism offers
This year again I will develop some Google maps showing the stages of the Tour de France 2008.
You can see the first steps on: http://www.hotels-in-france.nl/index.php/Le-Tour-2008.html
The map is online since 20 may 2008.
The markers on the map have infowindows. Agrotourism companies can add their accommodation on this map in one of the infowindows.
Contact: Rene HUSKEN
E-mail: r.husken(a)home.nl


AgriFeeds has a new Global Issues section!
AgriFeeds has recently introduced a new functionality to provide customised multilingual feeds on current Global Issues. This service provides ready to use news feeds on subjects of current interest such as  Biofuels, Avian Flu, Transboundary Diseases and Hunger. AgriFeeds, the agricultural news and events aggregator, can be used to browse and filter news and events from several agricultural information sources. Furthermore, it allows creation of customised feed that can be easily read with a feed reader or embedded into one's Web site.
See: http://www.agrifeeds.org/en/global-issues
Contact: Gauri SALOHKE
E-mail: gauri(dot)salokhe(at)fao(dot)org


Agriregionieuropa
We started four years ago with an Electronic quarterly review in Italian on agricultural economics and policy aimed at bridging between research on agricultural economics and the actors, stakeholders and policymakers as well as between the international dimension and the regional and local (this is why we choose the name “agriregionieuropa”). Presently we register around 11,000 contacts per month and have a mailing list of around 20,000 Italian persons interested in agriculture. After we started other services: the “Windows” (on CAP and WTO), the “Events” (workshops, seminars, round tables, etc.), a “Glossary”, the “Publications” aimed to disseminate PHD final reports, and so on. Recently we started with the “E-Learning” and presently we manage two courses: a “E-L course for agricultural entrepreneurs” and a “E-L course on the CAP” (the latter with a support by the European Commission). Everything is on-line and the access is free. Unfortunately for those who do not understand Italian, it is in Italian. We would be very interested in spreading our experience in other Countries and in other languages. We are ready to assist those who would know better our experience and eventually start a similar experience. The aim is creating a virtual European network.
Agriregionieuropa is managed by the Associazione “Alessandro Bartola” which is a non profit NGO hosted by the Department of Economics of the Polytechnic University of Marche – Ancona Italy.
See:  http://www.agriregionieuropa.it/
Direct access to the E-L course on the CAP.
See: http://agriregionieuropa.univpm.it/elearning/moodle/login/index.php .
Contact: Franco SOTTE
E-mail: f.sotte(a)univpm.it


New Words for 2008

SALAD DODGER: An excellent phrase for an overweight person.

SWAMP-DONKEY: A deeply unattractive person.

TESTICULATING: Waving your arms around and talking bollocks.

BLAMESTORMING; Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

ARSEMOSIS: The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.)

SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.
What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".

SINBAD: Single working girls. Single income, no boyfriend and desperate.

AEROPLANE BLONDE: One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE.
The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file.
Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" - needless paperwork and processes.

GOING FOR A McSHIT: Entering a fast food restaurant with no intention of buying food, you're just going to the bog. If challenged by a pimply staff member your declaration to them that you'll buy their food afterwards is known as a McShit with Lies.

404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found" meaning that the requested document could not be located.

AUSSIE KISS: Similar to a French Kiss, but given down under.

OH - NO SECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all').

GREYHOUND: A very short skirt, only an inch from the hare.

JOHNNY-NO-STARS: A young man of substandard intelligence, the typical adolescent who works in a burger restaurant. The 'no-stars' comes from the badges displaying stars that staff at fast-food restaurants often wear to show their level of training.

MILLENNIUM DOMES.
The contents of a Wonderbra, i.e. extremely impressive when viewed from the outside, but there's actually naught in there worth seeing.

MONKEY BATH
A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: "Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!".

MYSTERY BUS
The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the Toilet after your 10th pint, and whisks away all the unattractive
people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in.

MYSTERY TAXI
The taxi that arrives at your place on Saturday morning before you wake up, whisks away the stunner you slept with, and leaves a 10-Pinter in your bed instead.

BEER COAT: The invisible but warm coat worn when walking home after a booze cruise at 3:00am.

BEER COMPASS: The invisible device that ensures your safe arrival home after booze cruise, even though you're too drunk to remember where you live, how you got here, and where you've come from.

BREAKING THE SEAL.
Your first pee in the pub, usually after 2 hours of drinking. After breaking the seal of your bladder, repeat visits to the toilet will be required every 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the night.

TART FUEL: Bottled premixed spirits, regularly consumed by young women.

PICASSO BUM: A woman whose knickers are too small for her - so she looks like she's got 4 buttocks.


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