Hippo: The River Horse

It has always intrigued me how the name of the Hippo in Hindi/Urdu is the same as Greek

Engligh: Hippopotamus = Hippos (horse) + Potamos (river)
In Hindi/Urdu: Dariyai Ghoda = Dariya (river) + Ghoda (horse)

and I have always been interested in these animals, but the documentary below (ref: NinjaVideo) enlightened me about some more interesting facts, among others:
1. Hippos kill more humans than any other mammal in Africa!
2. Their sweat is Pink, and apparently is antiseptic and sun-blocking
3. An adult hippo has no known predator, except, of course, man.

'nuf said, watch this!



ciao!
-A

On Fundamental Similarity [and a Nature Video]

As part of my usual Feb 14 ritual, I ventured to my favorite extreme-right-wing Hindu website to see what the guys there had to say, and I must say, I was not disappointed.

Blended with the parts about the niceness of Hindu culture, and the horrors of public display of affection, were attempts at "rationalizing" their arguments using supremely incoherent arguments. For example, in a segment where they want us to be wary of "western influences", the "Hindu yuva" is shown wearing kurta-pyjama!!! Certainly a "western dress", for those like our beloved lord rama only wore dhotis. How dare they show a kurta pyjama as "Indian"!!
/sarcasm

Moving on, they talk about how "The saint himself was involved in the anti-national acts at his time, then how one can get any good result by celebrating the day on his name ?"

while the truth is that he was opposing a roman king who wanted him to denounce his faith. Interesting how those who want all Indian/Hindu youth to uphold their faith reserve such disdain for someone who died to protect his own.
BTW, there were more than one St. Valentine [ref: this page]

There are more examples in their detailed post.

Note that I am not a super pro-V-day activist, and I know many westerners who think that V-day today has become a charade to sell greeting cards and chocolates. However, I fully support the freedom of expression to those who _do_ want to celebrate it, and completely oppose those who seek to curb this freedom.

More so, while I disagree with my right-wing friends, I sincerely hope to be able to have a decent conversation with them, based on actual facts, and following the rules of reasoning. But when I read articles such as the one above, where in one breath they claim that the catholic church is evil, and in the next use the church's deletion of V-day from its list to prove their point, I feel very sad for those who write these posts.

The other funny[?] part is how their rabid anti-west sentiment mirrors those of the fundamentalist muslim groups that are supposedly responsible for _all_ of the world's terrorism, or the abortion-clinic-bombing fundamentalist Christians who hate the "modern immoral influences".

But then, I came across this wonderful piece by M.J.Akbar, where he shows how all fundamentalists are the same, aptly titled All religions are not same, but fundamentalists are

From the post (emphasis mine):

All religions are not the same; but all fundamentalists are. They share an aversion for modernity and a hatred of gender equality. It is entirely logical that the Ram Sene should find an ally in the Jamaat-e-Islami; their ethos is not dissimilar, no matter how different the imagery their rhetoric might contain. The same mindset persuades some maulanas to issue a fatwa condoning divorce through triple talaaq even when the husband is drunk. The very clerics who will damn you to eternal hellfire for touching alcohol are ready to rationalise any diktat that amounts to subjugation of women. Eminent Islamic scholars have repeatedly proved that instant triple talaaq is bad in Islamic law, and such variations even worse. Islam institutionalised the rights of women; such distortions are at variance to its liberating spirit. But the issue is not law: this is conservative, male domination over women.

...

India is one nation among the many who emerged from the ruins of the British empire capable of claiming the mantle of modernity. This is not because Indians are superior to their neighbours, but because the idea of India is better. Democracy, secularism, equality and freedom are an Indian's non-negotiable birthright. There is only one serious weakness: poverty has to be reduced at a much faster rate than the growth in prosperity. As long as we are burdened with this wretched malaise called poverty, we cannot call ourselves a modern nation. Economic equality is a fantasy; but an equitable distribution of national wealth is a compulsion. A civilised nation cannot divide its people by a hunger line. Citizens must live in various categories of a comfort zone, and the most basic comfort is a full stomach. Freedom is incomplete without freedom from hunger.

The poor are never unreasonable. They do not believe that there is any magic wand that can suddenly make them wealthy. But they have every right to economic justice. When they find India rising, but they are not rising along with their country, there is envy and anger. The young men who become the club-wielders of socially regressive organisations are motivated by more than one reason, but a principal cause is denial of the liberties and pleasures that a disposable income brings. They may not realise it, but they want what they seek to destroy. It is a familiar paradox.

Seriously, read the full article!

And as an aside, I think I will start sharing interesting nature videos I come across. Today's video is that of the bull frog, apparently a ferocious predator!



P.S. If you want the above as a pet, make sure you take care of it, as shown here.

Holy Windmills Batman!

Proving that there are no free lunches in this world, scientists have shown how windmills are killing Bats! [ref: Digg]



Apparently, the low pressure regions created by the spinning blades causes the blood vessels in the bat's lungs to explode!

So, what to do -- I suggest somehow warning bats no to get close to windmills. Perhaps by installing ultrasonic bat-repellants?

Can _your_ potato glow in the dark?

While appreciating the so-much-better tasting and oh-so-subsidized lunches at INRIA, I often think about the Genetically Modified [GM] food in the USA, and of the identical-looking tomatoes that are now available in Patna and elsewhere in India. I also note that my fellow labmates here lament the fact that even the vegetables in France are not safe from pesticides, and the occasional contamination from GM farm-lab pollen.

On that topic, I would like to draw your attention to two interesting news stories on the NPR front page recently.

The first is about Honduras, where farmers are embracing GM technology.

He pulls the husk from one ear and shows off the gleaming rows of white kernels. There are no worms in this corn, which is remarkable, because such worms are everywhere in this part of Honduras and Rubio hasn't sprayed any insecticides.

"No, the only thing we need here is the seed, the fertilizer and the herbicide," he says.

Remember that something similar happened in India with cotton, but there are issues [not including the fact that the husks cannot be fed to sheep anymore]

Others scoff at this prediction. Most farmers in Honduras, they point out, are too poor to spend much money on expensive corn seed or anything else that would boost their production, including fertilizer or irrigation.

The second news comes from China, where an ex-stockbroker has decided to farm organically. He has an interesting perspective on bugs:

Luo says he expects to lose one-third of his crops to bugs and another third to birds — leaving just one-third for him to sell.

"Those bugs have the right to stay here. They're part of the food chain. If we kill them, then there will be no birds on the farm," Luo says.

"Eventually, there will be only human beings on the planet — and it will be a silent spring," he says, evoking Rachel Carson's seminal book, which brought environmental concerns to the attention of a broad U.S. audience.

Sadly, he is not making a whole bunch of money, as expected:

For example, vegetables that have been grown without pesticides often sport holes in their leaves — where bugs have eaten. Luo says his customers know to expect that.

But such "imperfect" vegetables could "never be sold on the conventional market," he says.

Luo has about 50 buyers for his weekly market baskets. He used to make most of his money serving organic lunches to visitors. But that business plummeted after the May earthquake.

Lets see how it develops.
-A
P.S. Yay for the 'motherlode' of Gorillas recently found in Congo [with videos], and prayers that they will now not all be killed by loggers, poachers and Ebola :-|.