Flora Laney Thornton, a renowned philanthropist and music enthusiast who gave her name to the Thornton School of Music, died May 7 of pulmonary disease. She was 96.
Thornton was known for her lifelong passion for the arts and played a vibrant role in the Los Angeles cultural community.
Friends described Thornton as passionate, timeless and elegant.
"She was dignified and classic with a great sense of humor," said former Thornton Dean Larry Livingston.
In 1999, Thornton donated $25 million to the USC endowment that benefits student scholarships and facility funds. Thornton's modesty almost hindered the naming of the music school, but after some convincing from the university, Thornton accepted the honor of having her name represent the school, Cutietta said.
Thornton's generosity and love for the school was unique, Livingston said.
As an honorary member of the Board of Trustees and a member of the Keck School's Board of Overseers, Thornton attended regular meetings at the university. Although Thornton's health weakened in recent years, Cutietta said, she remained a visible figure in university life.
In addition to regular meetings at the university, supporting the Los Angeles Opera, funding cancer research and contributing to a number of charities, Thornton often attended student performances on campus.
"She saw in our students a young version of her when she first moved to New York and tried to make it in her career," Livingston said of Thornton, who performed in two Broadway musicals in the 1930s in New York City.
In February 2006, Thornton donated another $5 million to the music school for new facilities the school desperately needed, Cutietta said. The music school plans to name its new garden in honor of Thornton.
"She was a lover of the arts. She was really passionate about education. She was really passionate about the students," Delgado said.
In fall 2009, Thornton donated the lead gift to help commemorate the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the music school.
"I really believe that the reason behind [her involvement] was her love for the school. It was her school and she just loved coming," Delgado said.
Thornton is survived by her second husband, Eric Small, sons Charles and Laney, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.


Anacreon (Greek: Ἀνακρέων) (born c. 570 B.C.E.) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his songs, hymns, and personable poems celebrating the lighter side of life. Like Archilocus, Anacreon is notable for writing about personal matters drawn from life, in sharp contrast to the predominantly mythological and historical poetry that dominated most of ancient Greek literature. Although only fragments of Anacreon's oeuvre has survived to the present day, it is clear that he was highly influential figure due to his inclusion in the group of the nine canonical poets of ancient Greece by later scholars. Anacreon would not be rediscovered until the 16th-century, when his surviving works were compiled, translated and published in France and England. Like other poets of ancient Greece, Anacreon would exert a considerable influence on the development of Classicist poetry in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries throughout Europe; like Sappho and Archilocus, Anacreon's contribution to the progress of Western literature endures even though his works are almost entirely lost.
Anacreon was born at Teos, an Ionian city on the coast of Asia Minor. Little more is known of his life.
It is likely that Anacreon fled into exile with the mass of his fellow-townsmen who sailed to Thrace when their homeland was attacked by the Persians. There they founded a colony at Abdera, rather than remaining behind to surrender their city to Harpagus, one of Cyrus the Great's generals. Anacreon seems to have taken part in the fighting, but by his own admission he did not distinguish himself in battle.
From Thrace he moved to the court of Polycrates, King of Samos. He is said to have acted as tutor to Polycrates; that he enjoyed the king's confidence we learn on the authority of Herodotus (iii.121), who depicts the poet as sitting in the royal chamber when an audience was given to the Persian herald. In return for his favor and protection, Anacreon wrote many complimentary odes upon the subject of his patron. Like his fellow-lyric poet, Horace—who was not only one of his great admirers, but in many respects a kindred spirit—Anacreon seems to have been made for the society of courts.
On the death of Polycrates, Hipparchus, who was then in power at Athens and inherited the literary tastes of his father Peisistratus, sent a special embassy to fetch the popular poet to Athens in a galley of fifty oars. Here he became acquainted with the poet Simonides, and other members of the brilliant circle which had gathered round Hipparchus. When this circle was broken up by the assassination of Hipparchus, Anacreon seems to have returned to his native town of Teos, where—according to a metrical epitaph ascribed to his friend Simonides—he died and was buried.
Anacreon was popular for a long time at Athens. His statue was seen on the Acropolis, together with that of his friend Xanthippus, the father of Pericles. On several coins of Teos he is represented holding a lyre in his hand, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing.
Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early lyric poetry, it was composed to be sung or recited to the accompaniment of music, usually the lyre. Anacreon's verses were primarily in the form of monody, which means that they were to be performed by a single voice rather than by a chorus.
In keeping with Greek poetic tradition, his poetry relied on meter for its construction. Metrical poetry is a particularly rhythmic form, deriving its structure from patterns of stress within and between the lines of verse. The stresses in Anacreon's poetry, like all the Greek poetry of the day, are found in the use of "long" and "short" vowel sounds. The Ionic dialect also had a tonal aspect to it that lends a natural melodic quality to the recitation.
The Greek language is particularly well-suited to this metrical style of poetry but the sounds of the verses do not easily transfer to English. As a consequence, translators have historically tended to substitute rhyme and poetic forms for the style of the originals, with the primary, sometimes only, connection to the Greek verses being the subject matter. More recent translators have tended to attempt a more spare translation which, though losing the sound of the originals may be more true to their flavor. A sample of a translation in the English rhyming tradition is included below.
Anacreon had a reputation as a composer of hymns, as well as of those bacchanalian and amatory which are commonly associated with his name. Two short hymns to Artemis and Dionysus, consisting of eight and eleven lines respectively, stand first amongst his few undisputed remains, as printed by recent editors.
A collection of poems by numerous, anonymous imitators was long believed to be the works of Anacreon himself. Known as the Anacreonteia, it was preserved in a tenth-century C.E. manuscript which also included the Palatine Anthology. The poems were later translated into French by Henri Estienne, known as Stephanus, but little is known about the origins of the manuscript. Salmasius reports seeing the Anacreonteia at the library in Heidelberg in 1607. In 1623 it was given to Pope Gregory XV after the sacking of Heidelberg. It was later taken from the Vatican City by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797, who had it rebound as two separate volumes. One of those volumes was returned to Heidelberg but the other remained in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
In the seventeenth century, Abraham Cowley translated the verses into English. The poems themselves appear to have been composed over a long period of time, from the time of Alexander the Great until the time that paganism gave way in the Roman Empire. They reflect the light-hearted elegance of much of Anacreon's genuine works although they were not written in the same Ionic Greek dialect that Anacreon used. They also display literary references and styles more common to the time of their actual composition.
Typical of most efforts at translation, this nineteenth-century one by Walter Headlam (1866-1908) takes the subject matter of Anacreon's verses and works them into a rhyming style typical of the English poetry written in Headlam's day. What remains is the subject of the poem, Anacreon complaining that a young woman, whom he compares to a Thracian filly, doesn't recognize his amatory skills.
Todd, Mike. "The Star-Spangled Banner." An American Encylopedia. Details the connection between the above poem and the national anthem of the United States.
This page was last modified on 17 March 2016, at 16:13.


I was using GNS3 0.8.2.
I rather hope you do possibly same for asa 8.4(2), It consumes about half of my computer ressouces, and noway to run 2 ASA for a failover ACTIVE/ACTIVE or ACTIVE/STANDBY.
Networking doesn't work fin in a good multiple mode ASA 8.0.2.
Does this full tuned ASA support interface bvi, bridge group mode.
ERROR: Unable to read security context mode from flash.
ERROR: % Invalid input detected at '^' marker.
no bvi interface in every context, in system too.
Any chance of getting one similar for ASA 8.4. I waste a lot of time everytime trying to just get the Activation key right.


text:
The Thattekad Diaries
Thattekad, located 65 kilometers from Kochi, Kerala is a bird sanctuary which is home to over 300 species of birds. It is part of the Western Ghats belt. The Periyar river, a major water source for Kerala, flows through it. We spent three days there this summer.
We were on our way to Thattekad from Kidangoor, Kerala. We passed by the traditional Kerala houses, some of them majestic in grandeur and some of them the small hut like tenements with hens and goats sharing the front yard. The majority of them had tiled roofs, typical of Kerala.
We stopped at a Karthikeyan Temple a few minutes after we left.
My vision was turned towards the heavens already, looking out for birds. There was a Champaka tree in the temple premises by the side of a wide river. The water was green, the trees around it were green, the moss of the side walls were green and the grass that seems to cover everything was green. All different shades of green. Kerala greenery is markedly tropic. Any little sunny gap that is not constantly treaded on, starts sprouting green. I hope it stays like that for ever.
Coming back to the Champaka tree that I was straining at, it was in full bloom. There was the raucous call of the treepie emerging from it. While I went closer to see, a majestic Asian Paradise Flycatcher flew out from it. It was a rufous morph female. The surprises the tree had to offer were not done. We saw Red-whiskered Bulbuls and Purple-Rumped sunbirds. A White-browed Wagtail was shaking its tail in the nearby temple roof along with it's relative the forest wagtail. There were rhythmic dance beats coming from inside the old temple building, may be a Kathakali class was in progress, and the wagtails seemed to be keeping in step. I was soaking in the scenery when an Oriental Magpie Robin tweeted nearby and provided the proverbial icing on the cake.
In spite of all urban development that is happening, man can stay with the birds around if we maintain a clean water source and a few trees. And may be an environment of prayer helps :)
OUR FIRST LIFERS
Well, moving on, we piled our things into the Jungle Bird Homestay and stepped out as soon as we had the sugar sweet tea. We saw 3 Cotton Pygmy-Goose on the way side. We met Eldhose, our guide, at the gate of the sanctuary and he took us to a different part of Thattekad. Apparently, wild elephants are found inside the main sanctuary and it is completely off limits. Eldhose is a soft spoken guide, residing in Thattekad. He was birding since his seventh grade in the same area. His first binoculars was gifted to him to by Sir David Attenborough during the late nineties. So until then, he had been birding with no visual aids and this has made him an expert on bird calls. I was excited. This is an area I need to work on.
We were on our walk. A raptor flying overhead for a brief second before disappearing behind a tree was identified as Rufous-bellied Eagle; the first lifer for me this trip. There was a harsh noise coming from a tree hanging above a shed; we inspected this and saw a pair of Heart-spotted Woodpeckers! A Common Iora was heard but despite our best efforts to locate it, it remained out of sight. Eldhose located three roosting Brown Hawk-Owls on a tree. (We saw these three many times roosted in the same tree).
We were walking through Teak wood forests and we found the leaves at the top eaten so much by moth caterpillars, that the tree leaves looked like sieves. The whole ground was covered with small round black caterpillar droppings. And we would suddenly find a black caterpillar straight at out eye level, seemingly hanging in mid air. They were of course the ones that have slipped from the tall teak trees and caught in the spider webs on the way down. These caterpillars could be the sustenance of so many birds in the area.
Down below, the earth had been well tilled by earth worms. I could not believe the size of some of the mounds of wet earth left by the worm. They were almost three inches high, and I had to knock down a mound, see the worm to actually believe that this is left by good old common earth worms.
TORRENTS AND TRAILS
I did not worry much when a few drops of rain hit the ground in the afternoon. But soon, the little drizzle became a torrential rain. We were supposed to meet Eldhose at three, and when the rain stopped, we were ready. All of a sudden, the rain started again and we were forced to wait till 4 before we went out to bird. In the pause between the two downpours, we could see the winged ants emerging from the crevices of the tiled roofs of the next door house. Many of these were getting caught by deft Loten's and Purple-rumped Sunbirds. We could see a few Lesser Whistling Ducks flying about, unperturbed by the strength of the downpour.
When we eventually started out on the walk, Eldhose took us outside the sanctuary. There was a bridge across the Periyar River outside, and we saw around 20 Whiskered Terns sitting on a wire.
On a bare tree on the other side of the river, we saw 3 Ashy Woodswallows, one eating a butterfly after disposing the wings. We went the other way, where there were some water bodies with lilies.We saw a Common Kingfisher, 2 White-browed Wagtails and a Darter on the branches of a tree in the water. The next water body had a surprise; a Stork-billed Kingfisher had got caught in a net and one of the forest officials had come to free it. When it was freed, it flew right past us.
After walking a little more, we had reached our destination; the Salim Ali Bird Trail. As we walked down it, we saw many birds; Jungle Babblers, Hill Myna, Oriental Magpie Robins, White-cheeked Barbets. Even an Orange-headed Thrush darted across us. We reached a watchtower, but couldn't go to the forest beyond that because the area had become waterlogged. We turned back, to see Lesser Whistling Ducks, Asian Palm Swift, Indian Swiftlet, Greater Flameback and Common Tailorbird.
We returned back and at around 6:30 PM, we went to one of the water bodies with Gireesh, the homestay's owner to look for the rare Great Eared Nightjar. We saw a Cinnamon Bittern and a Dollarbird, but no nightjar, probably because of the rain.
THE WOODPECKERS AND OWLS OF THATTEKAD
The second day started early at 6:15 AM. We got into Eldhose's jeep at the gate and he drove us to a rocky area, where we saw four Red-wattled Lapwings, and a Mottled Wood Owl being mobbed by Drongos. One of the Lapwings had built a nest on the ground, and it had four eggs in it. The eggs were creamy-white with black speckles. One of the eggs had a red patch on it. We tried to see if the remaining eggs had the same patch, but it was not there on the exposed surface. We definitely did not want to risk touching the eggs. Some boys playing in the area seemed to have noticed the nest before us and had surrounded it with rocks and pebbles.
Large group of Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters was our next good sighting. We reached a forest trail and we started birding there. Hawk-cuckoos called incessantly, their raucous calls filling the air. We saw Grey-bellied Cuckoo, Crested Treeswift, even 4 Rufous Woodpeckers! A solitary bird on a dead tree was Jungle Owlet, and a bird on a faraway tree was a Streak-throated Woodpecker.We saw Pompadour Green Pigeons, and soon, we reached a water body where we saw 2 Striated Herons flying past.
Eldhose told us that David Attenborough's Life of Birds had been shot here, and they looked for Rufous Woodpeckers' nests to film. Eldhose helped them, and Attenborough rewarded him with his first binoculars.
We saw our only Shikra of the trip on the way back.
THE FEEDING STATION
Eldhose has a feeding arrangement for the birds, and we returned to the area of the lapwing nest in time for it. Grated coconut, jaggery, rice and bananas were put out, and the birds just came.
22 Grey Junglefowl, mainly female, appeared hesitantly at first and confidently as domestic fowls soon.
Black-throated Munia sat in an orderly line on a bamboo pole and pecked rapidly at Ragi seeds.
Rufous Treepie, White-cheeked Barbet and Jungle Babblers went for the fruits. The treepies, in fact, were in such a rush that they knocked down the feeder.
Spotted Doves and grey jungle fowls ate the rice. I do not know if human interference is a good thing in this aspect; however I am happy that in the dry season of summer the birds are able to support themselves and thrive - as evinced in the feeding grounds.
After clicking plenty of photos, we left back to the homestay.
THE PHANTOM OF THATTEKAD
The birding of the day was far from over. My best was yet to come. We left again at 3:00 to a forest 14 km away, hoping to see the Ceylon Frogmouth, which I describe as 'The Phantom Of Thattekad' due to its elusiveness and camouflage, even if spotted at close range. Eldhose parked the jeep at the entrance.
At first, no luck was on our side; Eldhose tried a dozen different roosts without luck. We saw Grey-headed Bulbuls, but no luck with the Frogmouth. When I was pretty much giving up hope, Eldhose tried a new roost, and we were successful, with a male and female. Even with the bird right in front of us, we lost sight of it sometimes. The male was grey, the female was a slightly warmer brown, which makes them look exactly like dead leaves in a tree. It was a bird which I had never thought I would see in daylight, and there it was at a height I could reach, motionless, unblinking, trying it's best to make itself blend. The sighting will stay with me for long. Thank you, Eldhose sir!
On the walk back to the jeep, we saw a dung beetle trying to roll up some fresh cow droppings. It sensed our move and immediately flipped over and acted dead. In a patience competition, we miserably failed, the dung beetle continuing its act, while we had to move on.
Eldhose was explaining to us about the importance of the Ficus in the ecological balance of the forest. It seems that most trees in the forest bear fruit only during the right season for that species. At the same time, the Ficus (fig) tree can be found with fruits at odd seasons too. One year in July, the next year in October, then maybe even as late as February. So, when birds need a source of food when most trees are bare, they can always rely on the Ficus The Ficus is immune to lightning strikes, amazingly!
IDAMALAYAR
In a last attempt to get the remaining target species, Wynaad Laughingthrush and Great Hornbill, we decided to try Idamalayar Reserve Forest. On the way, we crossed Bhoothanthankettu, said to have been built by ghosts (Bhoothathan). There, we saw a single Asian Openbill, River Tern, and around 200 Brown-backed Needletails. We tried a patch of forest nearby before going to Idamalayar, and got Green Imperial Pigeon, Dollarbird, and plenty of Racket-tailed Drongos. Idamalayar gave us White Rumped Needletail, a lifer for me. We heard Malabar Whistling Thrush, Rufous Babbler and Malabar Grey Hornbill. The nesting season of the Hornbills were on, and Eldhose said sightings are better around December.
We were stopped by news of wild noisy elephants at the turn of the road. My mom started out towards the jeep as soon as she heard, displaying the same behavior to her offspring as the jungle animals do. Trying to herd us away from potential danger :) She was taking no chances even with an expert guide beside us.
We went the rest of the sight seeing on jeep. We got a clear sighting of oriental Honey Buzzard. A family of Emerald Doves decided to block our way, pecking away peacefully in the middle of the road. We were only too delighted to stop and watch.
At 6:30, we tried for Great Eared Nightjar, but ended up with Jerdon's Nightjar instead. We returned to the homestay, tired.
The next morning, my dad and I went to bird on the same trail as on the first day. We were welcomed by a noisy group; a Malabar Giant Squirrel, along with a few Hill Mynas. We didn't see too many species; we saw Common Kingfisher, Indian Cuckoo, and the last lifer of the trip; Orange-breasted Green Pigeon.
It had been some incredible birding at Thattekad over the past 2 days; we had seen 113 species, 25 of them being lifers for me. I hope to return back there some day.
You can see the complete bird list at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14067663
Posted by Krishna S. Girish at 2:33 AM 3 comments:
Birding in Lakedew Lake
(April 2nd 2013)
I live in a community called Lakedew Residency, and there is a lake in its center. So, it's only natural that we get to see flocks of Great Cormorants and Little Egrets flying above us in the evenings. However, it was around 5:00 PM, and a storm was fast approaching. The skies were gloomy and overcast, and before the rain actually beat down on us, we wanted to bird. So me, along with my sister, mom and dad, went to the lake side. There was an influx in numbers of birds, all the birds were eager to get a few tasty morsels before they went to shelter in the rain.
There were plenty of white patches on the other side of the lake.The Eurasian Coots were numerous and generally stayed close to the hyacinth; my sister counted thirty-one. Then, it dawned upon us that the white patches were actually Little Egrets! There were a few Great Egrets along with the sixty-three Little Egrets. Kites; both Black and Brahminy, swooped around the lake.
There were eight different-looking kites, a sort of border line between both species. Then, after an examination of the species with binoculars, I realized that they were Black Kite-Brahminy Kite hybrids. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good picture. The numerous Black Kites had hybridized with the Brahminy Kites to form individuals with generally a Black Kite's colour, but with patches of the cinnamon brown of a Brahminy on the mantle, and a pale throat, like the Brahminy.
As we observed he hybrids, three huge birds flew in. They flew right past us, and landed near a patch of vegetation. I realized that these were Painted Storks; an amazing sighting for this lake! There were three of them, and they probed around with their bills in the mud, looking for underwater food hidden under the mud. They were quite far away, and using the camera, we were only able to get a pretty grainy picture.
We noticed that a Black Kite-Brahminy Kite hybrid and perched itself atop a tree on the other side of the lake, so my dad and I went in the car to photograph it. There is a running track on that side, where a fisherman lives along with a pack of dogs. As soon as we entered, the dog ran up to my dad, and peed on his pant. But going to the other side was in vain; the kite had already flown off and was gone. Near a fruiting Singapore Cherry tree, we got a glimpse of four Purple-Rumped Sunbirds chirping. On the way, we saw an Indian Golden Oriole chasing another. The rain was beginning, and we got home just in time.
The rain poured down in torrents; our roof even started to leak! No birds were sighted, of course, but the rain was nice to see; providing a large amount of relief from the oppressive summer heat. Truly a good day in Lakedew Residency, a day where 20 different species were sighted. This is my list:
Purple-rumped Sunbird (4)
Jungle Myna (2)
Rosy Starling (Rosy Pastor) (15)
Indian Golden Oriole (2)
Purple Swamphen (7) NOTE: Breeding season for Swamphen, we observed males fighting for nesting territory
Brahminy Kite (14)
Black Kite-Brahminy Kite hybrid (8)
Indian Pond-Heron (5)
Purple Heron (2)
Gray Heron (1)
Little Cormorant (1)
Great Cormorant (8)
Painted Stork (3)
Little Grebe (Dabchick) (16)
We saw these birds on 2nd April 2013.
Posted by Krishna S. Girish at 9:08 PM No comments:
Bangalore Bird Race 2013
Having signed myself up for the Bangalore Bird Race, which was set to take place on the 20th of January 2013, I prepared by reading about the birds of Bangalore and bought new binoculars after the old ones got lost. Bangalore Bird Race is a day-long event where birders from all over Bangalore travel within a 50 km radius of the city in order to see who can see the most number of bird species. This year, seven of the thirty-six teams participating decided to go birding together, and my team, Team Ibis, was one of them. This was our plan:
1) Madiwala Lake- Look out for Bluethroats and Spot-billed Pelicans
2) Bannerghatta National Park- Check for Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers and Larks
3) ThippaGondanahalli Lake- Look for Asian Openbills and others
4) Ramanagaram- Look for Long-billed Vultures, and Peregrine Falcons
All the teams met at Bannerghatta Road at around 5:15 in the morning. Since the sun wasn't still up, so we had to drop the plan to bird at Madiwala Lake. We proceeded on to Bannerghatta National Park. We were in the parking area near the pond when we started. Birds were numerous. We saw Pied Bushchat, Red-wattled Lapwing, White-breasted Kingfisher, Red Avadavat, and Rose-ringed Parakeet amongst others. As we proceeded into the scrubland, towards a Flame-of-the-Forest tree, we saw a huge flock of Rosy Starlings and three Eurasian Hoopoes. The Flame-of-the-Forest tree was a 'bird magnet'. We then proceeded to the main Bannerghatta Zoo area to look for flycatchers. We saw a Black-naped Oriole inside the zoo, and saw a male Asian Paradise Flycatcher flitting from a post to a fence and back over and over again. Then we went to what Deepa Mohan, one of the birders along with us called 'Flycatcher Avenue'. I spotted a well-hidden Verditer Flycatcher and our team saw an Asian Brown Flyatcher and a White-browed Bulbul in the foliage. A single tree provided Tickell's Blue-flycatcher and Black-hooded, Black-naped, and Eurasian Golden Orioles. We then stopped for breakfast at a dosa camp. After that, we drove down to Thippagondanahalli Lake, popularly known as TG Halli Lake, where we observed Little Ringed Plover, a huge colony of Indian Shags and a lot of Asian Openbills. We tried for the difficult Small Pratincole near a few rocks near the lake, but we were unsuccessful. We drove to Ramanagaram and, with great difficulty, we located a juvenile Long-billed Vulture on a small ledge. We saw some people just climbing up the rock face for fun and we tried to stop them, but they did not heed our warning. We hoped nothing would happen to the juvenile vulture, as the Long-billed Vulture is a critically endangered species, and very rare. We had hoped to also see Peregrine Falcons and Indian Eagle-Owls, both resident in the area, but these weren't sighted. I had an exam the next day, so we couldn't make it to the awards ceremony, but my teammates told me that we finished 4th, 5th or 6th, with 112 species. Truly a tiring but rewarding day.
(Bangalore Bird Race on Jan 20, 2013)
Birding in Chennai
CHENNAI BIRDING
It was my cousin's first birthday, and they lived in Chennai, so, we went there to celebrate his birthday. Over there, we decided to go to the Muttukadu Backwaters, an inlet of water where, when we visited last time, had given us over 20 Caspian Terns, Great Crested Terns, Little, Gull-billed, and a wide variety of other terns. This time, the driver, from Chennai Taxi, took us through a route double the length, where we skipped going past Pallikaranai Wetlands, where we saw plenty of Purple Herons (not to mention a Crab-plover) last time. We stopped a marsh on the way, and that was a good place to stop. We saw around 15 Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, lots of Great and Median Egrets, and to our surprise, Curlew and Terek Sandpipers! It was another 1/2 hour before we reached Muttukadu. Over there, in the boating area, we saw Heuglin's, Pallas's, Yellow-legged, Brown-headed and Black-headed Gulls, Caspian, Little, Gull-billed, Common, Lesser Crested and White-winged Terns, Painted Storks, Great Egrets and Spot-billed Pelicans amongst others. In the fishing area, there were hundreds of waders, which we identified to be a variety of different species; Common Greenshanks, Spotted and Common Redshanks, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlins, just to name a few. On the way back, we took the regular path back through Pallikaranai, and saw a large variety of waders there as well. Some of the species we were able to identify were all lifers for me; Broad-billed Sandpiper, Swinhoe's, Common, Jack and Pintail Snipes, and others. We went back after totally seeing 67 different species that day. This is the list:
Pied Kingfisher
Indian Roller
Black Kite
Jungle Crow
Common Myna
White-breasted Kingfisher
Asian Palm Swift
Common Coot
Pintail Snipe
Swinhoe's Snipe
Eurasian Curlew
Spotted Redshank
Common Redshank
Common Greenshank
Marsh Sandpiper
Terek Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Temminck's Stint
Broad-billed Sandpiper
Eurasian Oystercatcher
Black-winged Stilt
Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Pacific Golden Plover
Grey Plover
Common Ringed Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Greater Sand-Plover
Lesser Sand-Plover
Red-wattled Lapwing
Yellow-legged Gull
Heuglin's Gull
Pallas's Gull
Brown-headed Gull
Greater Crested Tern
White-winged Tern
Little Grebe
Western Reef-Egret
Spot-billed Pelican
Painted Stork
My dad's camera wasn't working, so here are a few pictures of the birds we saw (not our pictures!)
(Trip on 26th Jan 2013)
Posted by Krishna S. Girish at 6:16 AM No comments:
Sholas And Shortwings; A Birding Trip Report by Krishna Girish
SHOLAS AND SHORTWINGS
It seemed weird the day when my sister came up to my mom and started complaining that she had never seen a zebra, lion, tiger, or giraffe in her life. This was out of the blue; we had just gone to Mysore Zoo a few years ago, and I remember her enthrallment when she saw the giraffes there. Since Bannerghatta, Bangalore's local zoo, didn't have giraffes, we decided to go to Mysore Zoo. Anyway, it was the Dasara vacations, and there was a solid week left. I gave a suggestion that we go to Wayanad in Kerala from Mysore, driving all the way!
The entire family agreed, and so, the itinerary was made. We were to start driving at 9:00 AM and go to Mysore, then go through Bandipur forests into Kerala, to a town called Thalapuzha, and then to a resort called 'FringeFord'. And so, we began, taking stops to stretch at various places. Our hotel in Mysore, 'Ginger', was reached and we stayed there. A tiring day was spent at the zoo, which had various crowd-pullers like giraffes, lions, tigers, and yes, you guessed it, zebras, much to the delight of Medha. We went to sleep in 'Ginger' and then woke up the next morning. We picked up our stuff, packed them in the car, and bid adieu to our room at Ginger. My dad had maps printed, and following that, we were on our way. Bandipur was the biggest excitement at the beginning of the trip but turned out to be the biggest disappointment. We reached there at the peak of the afternoon and so, all the birds had gone into hiding. We drove through. Kerala was at its usual; tall coconut trees and houses with earthen tiles. I observed the names of each town we passed through, and I found some weird names (these are translated from Malayalam);
Kooduthummal:Too much sneezing
Pannamaram: (actually Panamaram) Bad Tree
Talapoya: If your head goes
Meenangadi: Fish Market
In addition to these, we also saw a bus called Daliya, which was a dish my mother makes!
Thalapuzha was a small town; we went to a Bharat Petroleum Bunk on its outskirts and were soon met by Shabbir, the owner of FringeFord, who led us to his house and told us that we couldn't take our car there; we had to leave our car in his house and we would go 10 more kilometres to FringeFord. We readily agreed; little did we know what was in store for us. Shabbir's car was a big one; it accommodated all our luggage and most importantly, us. The seemingly little 10 kilometre road to FringeFord was, undoubtedly, the worst I've ever had in my life. The road was INCREDIBLY BUMPY; and we were tossed about like crazy. The scenery was the only actual compensation for the 'road that never should be traveled'. We caught our first sights of FringeFord only when we had around a kilometre-and-a-half left to go; tiled roofs; and a dense cover of trees covering the mountains around it like a carpet of green, with an occasional flash of red leaves coming into view. FringeFord didn't have much; two rooms for visitors, a kitchen, an open dining hall, an office, a hammock, and a house for the guide to sleep. Even more surprisingly, only four people organized the entire place; a cook, Muthuswamy, who had worked for 45 years as one, Shabbir, the owner, Shaji, the experienced guide, and a helper who put the food on the table and called us to eat. It was relaxing for my sister, who spent most of her time there in the hammock. It was me who encountered the first danger of the few days we were spending there. I was lying barefoot in the hammock when I looked down at my shoe and saw a tiny wriggling thing. "Look!" I called, "There's a worm in my shoe!" The guide, Shaji came and told me that was no worm but a leech!!! He took a salt stick and knocked off the leech to the ground, killing it. The evening was productive and we went birding for the first time. The route we came seemed much better on foot than by car. The birding was good, and we saw species like the elusive Emerald Dove, Vernal Hanging-parrots, Malabar (blue-winged) Parakeets (endemic), Malabar Grey Hornbill, the incredibly hard-to-find Indian Pitta which appeared only for a second, and the noisy Black Bulbul, amongst others. Without going out of Fringeford, evening birding was superb, Shaji and me seeing species like the Large and Malabar (black-headed) Cuckooshrike, Greenish Warbler, Forest, Yellow, Grey and White-browed Wagtails, Yellow-throated Bulbuls, and Jerdon's and Gold-fronted Leafbirds. Brown Shrikes were fairly common. My dad birded with Shaji and me, having no work to attend to as there was no mobile coverage. We noticed a small bluish bird with a rufous belly hopping around in cardamom plants, its call nothing like Shaji had heard in a long time. When we returned to FringeFord, we consulted the all-knowing 'Book of Birds of South India', me having left my Birds of Indian Subcontinent Field Guide back at home, and as Shaji flipped through the pages, he mimicked the call he had heard, just to be sure. Then, he finally opened a page and said, "It's this one." I gasped. A Nilgiri Blue Robin!
The Nilgiri Blue Robin, Myiomela major, initially, along with the White-bellied Blue Robin, was called the White-bellied Shortwing. Both the Blue Robins are endemic to the Shola forests of the Western Ghats and are, according to the IUCN Red Lists, are classified under ENDANGERED.
Quoting Wikipedia,
The Nilgiri Blue Robin (Myiomela major) refers to a kind of bird endemic to the Shola forests of the higher hills of southern India, mainly north of the Palghat Gap. Both the White-bellied Blue Robin and this species were once treated as sub-species of a single species (Brachypteryx major) and in 2005 were elevated again to full species by Pamela C. Rasmussen, a treatment that is followed by a few lists. The genus placement remains uncertain. This small bird is found on the forest floor and undergrowth of dense forest patches sheltered in the valleys of montane grassland, a restricted and threatened habitat. It requires an altitude of above 1200m.
Dark-fronted Babblers were numerous. As I went to sleep at 8:00 PM in pitch darkness, I thought about how many birds I'd have to update to my life list. It would definitely be more than ten, enough to see 200 in India alone. My eyelids dropped, and I was awake at 6:00 AM the next morning. FringeFord had come alive with raucous calls of Black Drongo, Black Bulbuls and White-cheeked Barbets. Paddyfield Warblers chirped in the branches of the lone mango tree in Fringeford.
Shaji told us that we were to go on an 8-km jungle trek to a waterfall. Shaji had showed me the last night pictures of his previous treks to the waterfall. He had seen Blue-capped Rock-thrushes, Mountain Imperial-Pigeons, and many others. I wanted to see all those, and so, agreed to come. My sister also came with my mom and dad. Hill Mynas were seen at the beginning of the trip. As we progressed, the air became slightly thinner but the vegetation did the opposite. Brown Shrikes, Little Spiderhunters, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Asian Brown and the uncommon Rusty-tailed and Brown-breated Flycatchers were just some of the birds seen. A large wild Gaur was also seen for a brief second. Upon nearing the waterfall, a tall tree gave us a huge surprise, a Malabar Trogon sat on a branch, showing us its red stomach. Nilgiri Flycatchers were found in large numbers along with a few Verditer Flycatchers as we got near the waterfall. The waterfall was big, very big. Medha found a black and yellow frog on a rock as we neared the waterfall, and Shaji, holding it in his hand, observed it carefully and finally declared that this was a new species, not known to science. He took plenty of pictures, then let it free near the waterfall. As we proceeded on the journey back, two Black-and-Orange Flycatchers, a Black-throated Munia, and an Eurasian Golden Oriole were part of the crowd of birds seen. The Mountain Imperial-Pigeon decided to stay hidden and one of the birds I wanted to see was not seen on the waterfall trek. As we reached back, a Crested Goshawk patrolled the skies. That evening, when I was lying tired in the hammock, a Mountain Imperial-Pigeon flew across the skies far. I was thrilled, but the evening had one last surprise to come. An investigation of a chirping noise from a bush resulted in the sighting of another endemic of the region; a Broad-tailed Grassbird! Junglefowls called to send the sun down, and I thought I was done; the next morning was the morning of our departure.
A lie in the easy chair the next morning resulted in the close-up of a Malabar Parakeet and another endemic; the Malabar Barbet! A Common Flameback pair also sat on another tree.
The time to go made us all sad. For me, it meant no more endemic birds; for my father, it meant back to building a house; for my mother, it meant no more relaxing, and for my sister who had the gift of prophecy, it was another bumpy ride! Medha was right; the road was as bad as it was three days ago. We went back to Shabbir's house and went into our car. While coming back, we went through Nagarhole, the other route back to Bangalore. Nagarhole was a super place; we saw plenty of Chital deer and three elephants, all wild. There were two female elephants and one male 'tusker'. A Greater Racket-tailed Drongo and a Black-rumped Flameback were seen in unison in this forest. Large Grey Babblers and Jungle Prinias were also seen. We had a VERY late lunch; at 3:00 PM at Kamat Lokruchi in Ramnagaram. We touched down in Bangalore, tired but happy, and went back home, reminiscing about the few incredible days that had just passed.
(We went to Wayanad on 29 and 30 September 2012)
Sholas And Shortwings; A Birding Trip Report by Kr...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
27/03/2018 — Revaim
Interview with ANTICONQUISTA
[ANTICONQUISTA is a pan-Latin American communist organization dedicated to revolutionary anti-imperialism and serving the Latin American and Caribbean diaspora. If comrades would like to learn more, check out their site, or help contribute.]
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM): We understand that your organization considers itself to be a third-worldist, communist organization, that emphasizes the parasitic relationship existing between the Third and First World as a primary contradiction driving resistance and revolution under modern capitalism-imperialism. How exactly does this affect your politics, and what do you consider to be the basis of third-worldism as an element of communist theory and strategy?
ANTICONQUISTA (AC): At its roots, ANTICONQUISTA is a communist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, Third Worldist and pan-Latin American and Caribbean political party. We agree that there is a parasitic relationship between the Third World and First World that serves as the primary contradiction of modern capitalism-imperialism.
The First World (North America, Europe, Australia, Japan) forms a minority of the world's population but owns the majority of the world's wealth. Meanwhile, the Third World (Asia, Africa, Latin America) forms a majority of the world's population but owns a minority of the world's wealth. Although there are economic disparities that exist between poor and rich people in Third World countries and First World countries respectively, this margin is minimal compared to the broader margin of difference between the average wages of Third World and First World people overall. Dr. Zak Cope explains the mathematical foundation for this in his groundbreaking work "Divided World Divided Class."
For ANTICONQUISTA, Third Worldism is a method of communist praxis that takes into consideration the new material conditions of economics that exist today (the ones mentioned above). We understand that those who have been most oppressed by colonialism, imperialism and capitalism (Third World people) are most likely to overthrow these same systems. We've clearly seen this in history with the vast number of revolutions and uprisings that continue today across the Global South. On the other hand, there has never been a successful anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist revolution in the First World because their governments have appeased their domestic populations with the spoils of imperialism stolen from the Global South.
If there were a global redistribution of wealth, the standards of living in the First World would decrease and the standards of living in the Third World would increase, given that there are only a finite amount of resources on the planet. This is something that many in the First World fail to understand. That's why reparations, something which we fully support, is such a touchy topic among First World "leftists."
Ultimately, we believe that by providing capital, resources and political support for our people in the Third World (more specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean), we have a better chance at overthrowing capitalism-imperialism as a whole. That's the best we can do as Global South people living in the diaspora who have more access to capital. And for white anti-imperialists living in the First World, we believe opening their wallets and providing tactical support for Third World revolutions is the best form of praxis at this moment. Holding a banner for three hours on a town square in the Global North doesn't materially do anything to eradicate capitalism-imperialism. We have to abandon this 1960s-era mentality of revolutionary praxis and adapt new methods of struggle.
RAIM: You have called for the building of a Communist Party for the peoples of the Latin American and Caribbean diaspora, what is your intention on this question? Further, what role do you think multinational communist organizing should have in the international communist movement today?
AC: ANTICONQUISTA was founded as the Communist Party of the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. Our name reflects the very nature of our political work: we are the force opposing the conquest of our lands, people and resources, just like our heroic Black and Indigenous ancestors.
The purpose of our party is to organize our people living in the diaspora, mainly in the First World, in order to help our sisters and brothers back in the motherland. We want to organize our people away from liberal/Democratic Party/Labour Party politics that promote the integration of immigrants from the Global South as junior partners and participants of imperialism. We don't believe in the "American Dream" or support the Queen. We are radically opposed to First World imperialist governments.
There's the famous expression "living in the belly of the beast." We want to destroy the beast from within, not eat the remains of what the beast devours. Our allegiances lie with oppressed women, workers, campesinos, Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ people in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Third World, not Washington nor London.
Our goal is to help raise capital for revolutionary groups in Latin America and the Caribbean that are under attack, leading revolutionary change and desperately need funds to continue their work. We don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on banners, busses and other equipment for ineffective demonstrations within the First World. We want that capital to go directly to the oppressed masses in the Third World who can better utilize them toward revolution.
During the Cuban Revolution, the role of the urban revolutionaries fundraising money for the guerrillas in the jungle was extremely important toward the broader victory of socialism. That's an example of the role we can play as revolutionaries living in the Global City (First World) assisting our sisters and brothers in the Global Countryside (Third World).
RAIM: What type of skills and resources might comrades reading this contribute?
AC: In terms of contributing to our party, all skills are welcome. Whether that's writing, creating art, creating videos, organizing events or making educational memes. Resources like money for revolutionary groups we support or supplies for impoverished people (like diapers, water, clothes, food, etc.) are welcome.
RAIM: There are many in the world today who would say that communism is a spent force, and that the events of 1989-1991 prove this. Most of the people who say this of course are arch conservatives and standard liberals, but some say they are "moving past" communism to something better, or at least that is what they believe. Intellectual trends like "post-leftism" and "postmodernism" are correcting what they see as a "dangerous universalism" in Marxism. What are your thoughts about this type of thinking? Why do you still say that Communism is what will lead humanity forward?
AC: Unfortunately, the idea that communism is a spent force is common not only among arch conservatives and standard liberals, but also some sectors of Latin American, Caribbean, Asian and African immigrants living in the First World.
We've been taught that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 signaled the collapse of communism. This couldn't be farther from the truth.
Capitalism, an unsustainable economic system built on profit and private property, has created endless war, famine, poverty and violence. Capitalism in its highest stage (imperialism) is the same system that facilitated the rise of mass migration from the Third World to the First World, creating immigrants and the diaspora to begin with.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, imperialist powers like the United States and NATO have remained virtually unchallenged in their imperialist endeavors, bombing, colonizing and destroying countries like Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and dozens of African countries. The only counter-balance to this in recent years has been Russia and China, which have opposed interference in Third World sovereignty within the diplomatic realm.
Today, under unbridled capitalism, the world is becoming increasingly poor and violent while literally disintegrating before our eyes with climate change. Capitalism's archaic and anarchistic mode of planning has created this mess, thrusting us into uncertain and turbulent times.
Only socialism, a system based on workers' rights, environmental protection and a centrally-planned economy, can solve this mess. Only socialism and eventually communism, it's higher stage, can lead humanity forward and save the planet from being destroyed by imperialist capitalism.
RAIM: What are your thoughts concerning the recent developments in the Bolivarian revolution? Specifically on the relationship between the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which has been, especially as of late, rather rocky as the two navigate independent ideas of socialist development. The PCV have a great many friends in the PSUV, certainly, but they have criticized the limited scope of reform and action—or lack of action entirely—on the part of the PSUV in the state. Further, what do you think of the development of the "communist tent" within the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), which represents the alliance between the PCV and the most left-wing and sympathetic elements of the GPP toward a radicalization of the Bolivarian process?
AC: First and foremost, ANTICONQUISTA fully supports President Nicolás Maduro, deceased former President Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. While our political and economic philosophy most closely resembles that of the PCV, we also support the PSUV and applaud the party for all of its accomplishments since the early 2000s.
We agree with the criticisms made by the PCV about the urgent need to eradicate bourgeois and counter-revolutionary elements in Venezuela that have betrayed its people, resources and lands. We agree that more industries still in the hands of First World-backed white settlers should be immediately confiscated and nationalized. We agree that far-right terrorists like Enzo Franchini Oliveros (a white settler who burned a Black Chavista alive) should be sent to labor camps, if not immediately executed.
We believe, however, that these decisions are up to the Venezuelan people. And as long as the Venezuelan people are objectively combatting capitalism-imperialism, we will be there to support them, regardless of whether it is social democratic, democratic socialist, Marxist-Leninist or Maoist in nature.
We also believe that the development of a communist tent within the Great Patriotic Pole is a positive development and necessary toward combatting opportunism, careerism and bureaucracy that exists within certain state institutions.
As Latin American and Caribbean people living in the diaspora, our primary responsibility is not to decide the political course of Venezuela's revolutionary movement according to our specific beliefs. Our duty is to fight the capitalist-imperialist governments imposing sanctions on Venezuela, debunking mainstream media lies about the socialist process there and getting ready to fight the beast attacking Venezuela from within its bowels.
RAIM: There are many critics of the Bolivarian revolution and other similar revolutionary processes as necessarily "reformist" or as otherwise reactionary and liquidationist. In their view, revolution must necessarily look a certain way, regardless of what it does. What would you say to these people?
AC: Going back to the last question, we believe that true socialist revolution is a violent rupture with the capitalist-imperialist status quo. The bourgeoisie are not to be negotiated with — they are to be eliminated. This is what history has taught us with all previous revolutions.
However, as mentioned earlier, it is up to the Venezuelan people to decide their path. We, as immigrants living semi-comfortably in the First World, cannot decide their path for them.
Ultimately, it is their struggle and whatever force challenges the capitalist-imperialist elites most passionately and effectively, we will be there to offer them critical support. Even if they don't subscribe to our political ideology 100 percent.
We also believe white leftists have no right to criticize Venezuela, since the revolutionary people there have done more in practice to build revolution than they have. Their role is to offer financial and moral support.
RAIM: Of the many international calls made by progressive and socialist anti-colonialist, Indigenist and anti-imperialist activists throughout the world, one that has gained a surprising amount of traction has been the call for reparations. Those who have joined this call range from liberals, sometimes even conservatives, to socialists and communists. Are there limitations to calls for reparations? How do you think such a program, if it were to be instituted, be administered and what would its goal be?
AC: ANTICONQUISTA fully supports reparations. We applaud the work conducted by organizations like the African People's Socialist Party dedicated to paying back the wealth stolen from African people and other Third World people.
However, most organizations frame reparations solely within the context of their respective countries and not the world as a whole. We believe the First World as a whole should pay reparations to the Third World as a whole. Let's not forget that all of the value accumulated in New York, London, Montreal, Berlin, etc. was stolen in its entirety from our resource-rich nations. But, as communists, we understand that the First World won't give up it's privileged economic position, and so we know that it has to be forcefully taken from them in the form of revolution.
On a practical level, ANTICONQUISTA is embarking on a program of revolutionary reparations. We are collecting funds not only from our own members, but also from patrons, who recognize the need to give back stolen wealth to our people. We are directing these funds to revolutionary groups in Latin America and the Caribbean that have a mass following and can potentially win power in their countries, liberating themselves from the constraints of Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange. For us, Latin America and the Caribbean is a good place to start while our comrades in similar organizations are doing similar work for their people in Africa and Asia.
Ultimately, we don't just want to throw money at our people. We want to provide them with the funds necessary for them to successfully carry out their revolutionary political work so that they can liberate themselves.
RAIM: Ours is an era of conflagration, marked by the decay of neoliberal imperialism, with so many peoples fighting to shake off world powers that appeared, to those of us who have grown up in the shadow of amerikan unipolarity, to be permanent, irreplaceable realities. Those responsible for challenging the absolutism of western imperialism are diverse, and in many ways contradictory. The adversaries of imperialism range from communists to progressive liberals and even conservative and Islamic ones. What do you believe are the prospects for building unity between the various disparate forces pushing back against the west's shrinking imperial vigor? To what extent is it possible to bridge these ideological gaps and build broad united fronts?
AC: As students of Marx, Lenin, Mao and other communist revolutionaries, we understand that imperialism is the primary contradiction in society. Regardless of a Third World country's religious background or political system, imperialism still affects them.
The U.S. is just as vehemently anti-Iran as it is anti-DPRK and anti-Cuba, even though the two latter nations come from a Marxist-Leninist background as opposed to Iran, which comes from a revolutionary Shia background.
ANTICONQUISTA believes there are tremendous prospects to unite all nations and movements under attack by imperialism simply on the basis of being attacked. Once the imperialist West's attacks against the Third World are neutralized, then we can debate ideological and religious differences.
Here's an analogy. Say you're stuck in a burning house with three other people. Rather than spending hours deciding who is best fit to put the fire out based on individual tactics, all four people should come together and decide on one transitional tactic to put the fire out. Based on the practical experiences of putting the fire out, a new theoretical basis of fire extinguishing can be established. Practice comes before theory — this is the mindset we should have with combatting imperialism.
Iran, for example, does not conform to a Marxist political system, but has fought tirelessly against imperialism since its heroic revolution in 1979. Iran can teach communists a thing or two about how to successfully fight imperialism.
RAIM: With the shrinking of amerikan military and hegemonic power, the playing field has been opened to other imperial competitors. Europe now exercises more autonomy than ever before, having risen to compete on the world stage both economically and militarily as a distinct imperialist bloc. Although they remain sympathetic overall to u.$. imperialism, they now pursue their interests irrespective of its impact on amerikan interests. Russia and China are also pursuing—very successfully—their own imperial ambitions, and maintaining increasingly unpredictable relationships with the western imperialists. Even powerful regional allies of western imperialism are flexing their muscles, like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, for instance. The result has been an incredibly unstable situation, with intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry and escalating world tension. What would you say are our most immediate tasks pending the wars of redivision that appear to be just over the horizon? Does multi-polarity have a silver lining beneath all the danger it poses?
AC: First, we should clarify our position on imperialism. We believe that the United States, Canada, Europe and to a lesser extent Japan and Australia are the primary forces of imperialism in the world and are the enemies of humanity.
Though Russia and China have developed significantly throughout the last few decades, we would never put them on an equal footing as the aforementioned imperial forces. We are not naive to the possibility of these two nations becoming imperialist powers, but they are not imperialist at this moment. One only has to look at their military and trading history with Third World countries.
We also believe that states like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel are junior partners of Western imperialism and are not as powerful as their overlords. They are, however, still enemies.
Our most immediate tasks given rising inter-imperialist conflict are to oppose our own governments' crimes in imperialism and fight them from within. If you live in the United States, oppose U.S. imperialism; if you live in the United Kingdom, oppose U.K. imperialism, etc.
We can't predict the future in terms of which power will do what next, but we can predict that capitalism-imperialism will become more unstable as time progresses. This gives us ample opportunity to educate our people on socialism and how communism can later bring dignity, stability, development, environmental harmony — and perhaps more importantly, peace — to our people.
RAIM: We thank you comrades for taking the time, and congratulate you on your excellent work. Solidarity now and always.
AC: Down with Yankee and First World Imperialism!
Long live Latin American, Caribbean and Third World unity!
Long live communist revolution!
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12.12.18Every Suicide is Murder: Capitalism and Mental Illness
11.18.18Mao: On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party
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Latin America, National Liberation, News and Analysis, Uncategorized
anticonquista, diaspora, Interview, National Liberation


When Cordelia Thorn ventures to Summer Green, Wisconsin, for a reunion with some old college friends, she finds trouble in paradise. Twenty-plus years have definitely changed things. Soap opera star Diana has become an alcoholic. Curt and Annie's marriage is falling apart. Orson is hostile and surly. And Theo, the most passionate of them all, suddenly dies - of an apparent heart attack. Alarmed, Cordelia sends for her old friend Jane Lawless to do some quiet snooping. Together they follow their hunches - into the not-so-carefree past and back to the troubled present, where they find a single match could blow up all their lives.... Also check out the other Jane Lawless mysteries.


text:
Het Wereldkampioenschappen kunstschaatsen junioren 2008 werd van 25 februari tot en met 2 maart gehouden in Sofia, de hoofdstad van Bulgarije.

Medailles waren er te verdienen in de volgende disciplines: jongens individueel, meisjes individueel, paarrijden en ijsdansen.

Historie
De allereerste Wereldkampioenschappen kunstschaatsen junioren vonden plaats in 1976 in Megève (Frankrijk), onder de officiële naam ISU Junior Skating Championship. Ook in 1977 zou het toernooi onder deze naam in Megève worden gehouden. In 1978, ook weer in Megève, werd de officiële naam gewijzigd in World Junior Skating Championship.

Medaille verdeling

Uitslagen

Jongens / Meisjes

Paren / ijsdansen

Externe link
 Complete uitslagen op isu.org

Junioren 2008
Kunstrijden in 2008
Kunstschaatsen
Sportevenement in Sofia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Disputes & Litigation
Estate Disputes
Inheritance Disputes & Rights
Mary C. Burdette
Elliott E. Burdette
Robert R. Bell
Bradford K. Burdette
John B. Peyton
Cyndi L. Watson
Dallasprobateattorneys.com Announces Update to Attorney Robert R. Bell Page Focused on Trust, Estate, and Guardianship Litigation in Dallas
Lee McDonald2020-09-30T18:11:24+00:00
News Dallas Probate Attorney, Texas, Trust Attorney 0 Comments
Dallasprobateattorneys.com, a cooperative association that brings together a team of highly motivated probate, trust, and estate dispute attorneys in Dallas, is proud to announce an update to the information page for attorney Robert R. Bell. Mr. Bell is an experienced litigation attorney and the new update highlights his extensive experience.
"We are excited about the update process to our entire website, including Robert R. Bell's specific page," explained Elliott Burdette, managing director of the cooperative. "Robert brings a wealth of experience to our team with decades of litigation concerning trust, estates, and probate. Interested persons should not only check out Robert's information page but reach out for a consultation on any probate litigation they may face."
Interested persons can find the website at https://www.dallasprobateattorneys.com/. On the website, they can then click on the "attorneys" tab and drill into Bell's specific page at https://www.dallasprobateattorneys.com/about/robert-bell/. That newly updated page highlights his experience over the years as a key litigator. Representative cases can be reviewed there.
A TEAM OF HIGHLY MOTIVATED PROBATE ATTORNEYS
The cooperative of dallasprobateattorneys.com brings together six attorneys who work in the Dallas, Texas, area on all issues regarding probate, estates, and trusts. Each attorney has his or her own unique focus and brings his or her unique expertise to the team. On the newly updated website, users can view each attorney and learn about his or her experience. By visiting the web page for each attorney, the interested user can browse the profile and learn about his or her experience. They can also browse the practice areas that are relevant, and then reach out for an attorney consultation. The website's goal is to match the best probate attorney for estate, trust, and probate disputes with a person in need of competent legal advice.
It should also be noted that the site has many specific information pages. For example, the page on "Dallas will contests" can be found at https://www.dallasprobateattorneys.com/practice-areas/will-contests/. The interested person can read that page or reach out to one of the attorneys for a consultation.
ABOUT DALLASPROBATEATTORNEYS.COM
Dallasprobateattorneys.com brings together a team of driven attorneys in the Dallas Texas area, the members of which have decades of experience and top academic and professional credentials. Individuals looking for an attorney to contest a will in Texas, persons who face complex trust, estate, inheritance or guardianship disputes or even litigation, or perhaps are confronting a potential trust or estate lawsuit and need a team of seasoned probate lawyers, should visit the website.
Web. https://www.dallasprobateattorneys.com/
Dallasprobateattorneys.com Announces Website Reboot Focused on Probate, Trust, and Estate Disputes and Litigation in Dallas Texas
Dallasprobateattorneys.com, a cooperative association that brings together a team of highly... read more
Dallasprobateattorneys.com Announces New Information Page on Will Contests in Texas and the Need for Attorney Representation
Dallasprobateattorneys.com, a cooperative that brings together a team of highly motivated... read more
Dallasprobateattorneys.com Announces New Attorney Bios Focused on Probate, Trust, and Estate Disputes in Dallas Texas
Dallas, Texas - September 30, 2020. Dallasprobateattorneys.com, a cooperative that brings... read more
24Nov November 24, 2020
Dallasprobateattorneys.com Announces Post on Remedies Against an Undutiful Fiduciary under Texas Law
Dallasprobateattorneys.com Announces Successful Launch of YouTube Channel Focused on Will Contests, Probate Disputes, and Other Issues
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Will Contests under Texas Law: 1190 Talk Radio Interview
Righteous Remedies Against An Undutiful Fiduciary
Trusts, Estates, and Probate under Texas Law: 1190 Talk Radio Interview
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Q: How to calculate multiple R coefficients at one time? I have a dataset (PAEscore) of 1672 entries per column (38 participants, 44 observations per participant). I want to look at Fraction_Value vs. Subject_Fraction, and code part of a script that will give me the R coefficient for each subject. In the data I have loaded, I have a column for subject number, a column for fraction value, and a column for subject fraction. So far, I have a code that will give me a plot and R value for the combined data of all 38 participants:
fit1 <- lm(Fraction_Value ~ Subject_Fraction)

summary(fit1)

plot(Fraction_Value ~ Subject_Fraction)
abline(fit1)

However, I am having a lot of trouble running a loop that will give me a table containing the individual R values for each participant. I've tried this and it doesnt work.
PAEcoeff = matrix()

for (i in levels(PAEscore$Subject_ID)) {
  # Create temporary data frame:
     PAE_tmp  <- PAEscore[PAEscore$Subject==i,]
  # Perform regression:
      reg_result <- lm(PAE_tmp$Fraction_Value ~ PAE_tmp$Subject_Fraction)
 # Get coefficient:
      tmp_coef   <- coef(reg_result)
  # Store coefficient:
     PAEcoeff[as.numeric(i)] <- tmp_coef[2]
}

Do you guys have any tips on what I can do to fix it? I don't get any errors when I run this, but I just get an empty table. What am I missing? Or, is there an easier way to do this?

A: My answer is assuming that PAEscore$Subject_ID is readily a factor rather than a character (otherwise levels(PAEscore$Subject_ID gives NULL and your loop does nothing!)
Your loop counter i is through levels, so it will be a character string. Coercing it to numeric with as.numeric(i) gives NA.
To fix it. Outside the loop, initialize
PAEcoeff <- setNames(numeric(nlevels(PAEscore$Subject_ID)), levels(PAEscore$Subject_ID))

Then inside loop, use PAEcoeff[i].

Is there an easier way to do this?

You are fitting a linear regression by group. I suggest you read Linear Regression and group by in R. My answer here is just to fix your error.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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FOSCAM's 4.0 megapixel outdoor camera FI9901EP will come to market recently. This high-end cloud camera provides crisp video feed which is sharper than ever. As an outdoor network camera, FI9901EP has other features like night vision, IP66 weatherproof rating, motion detection, 6X digital zoom and WDR 2.0 for better image under a wide range of lighting conditions.
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The causes of climate change can be classified into two types; natural and anthropogenic.
Both of these factors can change the climate of earth. Before the influence of human activities, climate change resulted from natural causes like volcanic eruptions, changes in the orbit and solar activity.
Climate change is a burning environmental issue and it is now surer than ever that humans are the main cause behind the changing climate. The disability to retain this change will effect every life on this planet and soon result on their annihilation.
The effects of climate change is seen in different parts of the world. It is important for people to realize the reality of this global issue. Many people still think that climate change won't have significant effects on their lives. But there are real, damaging implications of climate change.
Climate patterns shape natural ecosystems and affect everyone on the planet. The changing climate has effects in several aspects of the human lifestyle like food production, health and availability of resources.
There is an overwhelming body of evidences showing the implications of change in the global climate because of human activities, from melting glaciers to rise in sea levels.
Water is a basic need for our survival and hence it should be in our best interest to keep our water resources free from pollution.
Water pollution can be reduced from a personal level to national and international level. The crucial solutions to this problem ultimately come down to personal responsibility because every one of us is to be blamed for the pollution of water.
You wouldn't think you could kill an ocean, would you? But we'll do it one day. That's how negligent we are.
Water is a vital resource required for survival of all kinds of life forms found on the earth. Pollution of this resource threatens the existence of life.
Water resources around the world are being exploited by human activities. We must be conscious about the pollution of water resources considering that water is a basic need for our survival. Water pollution is a serious threat to our health, the ecosystem, and the natural environment.
The contamination of our water resources such as rivers, streams, groundwater, seas and oceans because of introduction of various pollutants is known as water pollution.
Water pollution is a serious threat to the every living organisms on this planet. The main source of this pollution is human activities and few may be natural like emission of natural gases and chemicals.
Water pollution. the gravest of pollution that affects each and every living organism. Identifying and eliminating the source and cause is must for life to exist and extend on this planet of ours.


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2017 Best Original Song Academy Award Nominees: Who Should Win?
Black Label Media / Walt Disney Animation Studios
This morning, 2016 Best Actress Academy Award winner Brie Larson, 2007 Best Supporting Actress winner Jennifer Hudson, previous Oscar nominees Ken Watanabe, Jason Reitman and Emmanuel Lubezki, and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the nominees for the 89th Academy Awards, airing live on February 26, 2017 from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
One of the most hotly contest categories this year? Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Best Original Song), which sees selections from La La Land, Trolls, Jim: The James Foley Story and Moana vying for the Oscar this year.
From the joyful "Can't Stop the Feeling!" to the musical magic of La La Land's "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" and "City of Stars" (which took home the 2017 Golden Globe for Best Original Song), listen to all the songs that are nominated for Best Original Song at the 2017 Oscars ceremony below — and decide which one should win.
1. "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)," La La Land, performed by Emma Stone and composed by Justin Hurwitz
2. "Can't Stop The Feeling!" Trolls, performed by Justin Timberlake and composed by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Shellback
3. "City of Stars," La La Land, performed by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and composed by Justin Hurwitz with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
4. "The Empty Chair," Jim: The James Foley Story, performed by Sting and composed by Sting and J. Ralph
5. "How Far I'll Go," Moana, performed by Auli'i Cravalho (and Alessia Cara) and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Which song should win this year's Best Original Song Oscar? Place your vote below.
The 15 Best Soundtrack Songs of 2016:
Next: 30 TV Shows Based on Movies
Source: 2017 Best Original Song Academy Award Nominees: Who Should Win?
2017 Oscar Nominations: 'La La Land' Leads with a Record-Tying 14 Nominations
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NEW NOISE: THE MERCY BEAT
US three piece The Mercy Beat chat to us about the release of their debut EP, their international roots and how the UK differs from the US
If you haven't heard of US-based threesome The Mercy Beat, then get ready to. Their debut EP has recently dropped in the UK, and it's the perfect blend of West Coast falsetto vocals and lo-fi electronica – we're definitely on board. Singer Sam Endicott was previously better known as the frontman of the Bravery, which you may remember as the mid-2000s band responsible for An Honest Mistake. If not, that's ok, as this new project bears very few similarities, this time inspired by 60s R&B and 80s new wave. We wanted to know more, so we caught up with Sam to get the lowdown on the band, the EP and moving on from the Bravery.
Firstly, you all hail from various corners of the globe – how did you first meet?
Matt's old band toured with the Bravery in the UK and I thought he was a great guitarist, so when I had an idea for a new band he was my first call. Matt and Ian are best friends from back when they both lived in Hawaii.
When did the idea for the group come about?
The Bravery had just slogged through a particularly grueling winter tour and we had nothing to do for a week until the next show, so we were placed in a hotel in London somewhere I forget, and I sat there day after day in the room trying to write and coming up with absolutely nothing and it became more and more difficult to deny the feeling that I was just over it. I found myself listening to old 60's R&B to make myself happy, because I love that music and that era. Then after about 6 days in this hotel room banging my head against the wall it suddenly clicked that I should do something new, and do my take on that old music that I love.
How did you develop the sound? Was it a deliberate point of difference from what we heard with The Bravery?
I had been really conflicted about the Bravery for a long time. Since I was the principal songwriter, the band was pretty much defined as whatever I wanted to write, so how then could I do a different band where I was the principal songwriter? Wouldn't it just be the same thing with a different name? But then when it clicked in my head, I realized that I would love to do music in this new specific style and it absolutely would not make any sense as the Bravery, so it would necessarily have to be it's own thing. We don't specifically try to or try not to sound like the Bravery, the songs just follow their own paths, which is by their inherent nature a very different thing.
Did you approach this new project more cautiously after The Bravery's split?
What inspired you musically for the EP?
As I said, we draw a lot of influence from 60's R&B, like we're taking elements of the original dance music from back then and juxtaposing it with the influences we grew up loving, namely 80's New Wave. So I would describe the sound as a combination of those two eras.
Do you think the electro-pop scene differs in the UK from the US?
Is electro-pop what we do? That's funny. I'm not sure what that means any more, because all the genres of music have kind of blurred together. Every radio station I listen to I hear a 4-on-the-floor beat, regardless of what kind of music that station is supposedly playing. So in a way I'd say the US is become more like the UK; things used to be very clearly divided here into separate categories, but now I think people don't care as long as they like the song, and I think that's more of a UK thing. Radio One will play a garage rock song into a house beat; until very recently that kind of thing was unheard of in the States, but now that's changing.
What other bands or artists do you admire now?
There's a lot, I wouldn't know where to begin.
Will we get to see you live over here anytime soon?
What's next for The Mercy Beat?
Working on a bunch of songs.
New Noise
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LFW: Meadham Kirchhoff SS15
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Musical trio Avenue Beat talk new music, creativity in lockdown and blowing up on TikTok.
NEW NOISE: Bonjay
New Noise: Oh Wonder
NEW NOISE: LAST LYNX
New Noise: Holy Esque
New Noise: Pablo Nouvelle
NEW NOISE: SAF
NEW NOISE: Kwes
New Noise: Dreamshow
New Noise: SIROJ
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New Noise: Dorothy
New Noise: KYKO
NEW NOISE: 2: 54
NEW NOISE: Wild Belle
NEW NOISE: Seye
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New Noise: I CHING


Jumbo Bean Salad - 1# Johnny's Jumbo Flat Pod Romano Beans (cooked as desired, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces and chilled); 1/2 sweet vidalia onion (sliced thinly and chopped sparingly); toss with your favorite sweet vidalia onion dressing and serve (always chilled). You may substitute regular green beans but it is not near as much fun!
Thanks for the press on my beans!
Buona fortuna con la vostra fantastica fagioli!
Also thanks for the tip for next year on where to buy my seeds.
Also from Pittsburgh but with no fabulous Romano beans.


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Friday Jokes: September 6th
By cmdolan99 | September 6, 2019 September 6, 2019
An Air Force A-10C Warthog "unintentionally released" a rocket in the Arizona desert between Phoenix and Tucson. Multiple displaced jackrabbit families applied to FEMA for disaster relief.
Severe lung illnesses in e*cigarette users may be tied to an ingredient in cannabis-containing vape products, according to nurses working the medical tent at Phish shows.
Tom Brady expressed his support for USWNT soccer star Carli Lloyd becoming a kicker in the NFL, adding that he'd show her how to make the balls easier to kick by letting a little air out of them.
Kanye West purchased Wyoming's Monster Lake Ranch for $14 million. Wyoming had been considered one of the few remaining safe spaces from Kanye's music.
An American Airlines mechanic allegedly sabotaged a jet carrying 150 passengers so he could collect overtime fixing his own damage. He'll be tried separately from the catering service who sabotaged the passengers' stomachs when they bought food on board.
A 74-year-old Indian woman now holds the record for "world's oldest mom" after giving birth to twins following in-vitro fertilization. The twins also broke a record, becoming the youngest humans to speak a complete sentence saying "get me out of there."
Retired NFL star Marshawn Lynch said if he were NFL Commissioner, he'd legalize marijuana for players. And cheerleaders. And fans. And pretty much everyone.
Kylie Jenner told Ellen Degeneres that her sisters "tease her" about being a billionaire, and about having to learn serious math to know, like, how much a billion is.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced he will no longer run for U.S. President, saying he suffered a back injury that required three surgeries, caused by carrying his money around.
Facebook officially launched Facebook Dating – its long-awaited companion product to Facebook Cheating.
Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, officially debuted new blond highlights on her kids' first day of school. The world is now ready to learn goofy new British slang terms for blond hair.
Posted in Comedy, Jokes, Uncategorized and tagged as 74-year-old Indian woman "Worlds Oldest Mom", Air Force A-10C Warthog, American Airlines, Carli Lloyd, Duchess of Cambridge, Ellen Degeneres, Facebook, Facebook dating, jackrabbit, Kanye West, Kate Middleton, Kylie Jenner, lung disease from cannabis vaping, Marshawn Lynch, Mechanic sabotages jet, Monster Lake Ranch, NFL, Phish, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Tom Brady, Wyoming.