The VLog

Installing MEEP on CYGWIN

2008-02-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

Well, after finding no online tutorial that explains how one can install MEEP on WinDoze using Cygwin, and being unable to edit the MEEP wiki page, I am posting this here.

On your windoze workstation, first install Cygwin. I used the cygwin setup to install all available packages which took a hefty few GB.

MEEP installation then pretty-much follows the original instructions, except for a few changes that could save major headaches later!

Create a folder MEEP in /home/username (where username is your current Windows login username) and download and extract all .tar.gz files here.

Compile and install BLAS, LAPACK. There is apparently something wrong with Cygwin's libtool repository. So MEEP won't compile unless the fix below is applied before installing harminv:

Change the last line in your /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/libg2c.la

from

libdir='/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/'

libdir='/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4'

Now compile and install harminv, Guile, libctl and HDF5.

In order to avoid an error message about an undefined 'timezone' variable while compiling HDF5 (see here), you may want to configure HDF5 as follows (thanks to Mark Hadfield):

CC=gcc CFLAGS=-ansi ./configure --prefix=/usr/local

make

Now compile and install HDF5, and finally of course MEEP (hopefully, it works?).

But then, Meep installation will fail as the HDF guys (NCSA) changed the programming interface incompatibly in HDF5 ver 1.8. For example, the prototype for the H5Eget_auto function changed and this causes compilation of Meep to fail.

Thanks to the workaround from Steven Johnson, Meep successfully installs by configuring it as:

./configure CPPFLAGS="-DH5_USE_16_API"

Although, I am having trouble doing 'make check' on Meep. This fails with the error:

> bragg_transmission.cpp: In function `double distance_from_curve(int, double, double*, double, double)':

> bragg_transmission.cpp:186: error: `infinity' undeclared (first use this function)

> bragg_transmission.cpp:186: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in.)

Apparently, INFINITY is originally declared in meep.hpp and so, if you hardwire INFINITY to be 1e-20 in the bragg_transmission.cpp, which is it's usual definition in MEEP, it may work.

Novaeseelandiae (Jun 9 - Jun 20, 2007)

2007-06-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Day 1

I flew from JFK into Auckland (via LA) at 4.45 AM. It was quite funny to see all the beagles they were using at the airport as sniffer dogs to sniff out that orange peel in your bag that you forgot to declare. Apparently they take Biosecurity very seriously indeed. I hit the ground running so to say. I took the AIRBUS into town and checked into the YHA. I hopped onto the Kawau Kat ferry at 9:00 to goto the Tiritiri Matangi, this open bird sanctuary off the coast of Auckland in the Huaraki Gulf.

Downtown Auckland

Sky Casino

Auckland has apparently some 20 denuded volcanic peaks.

Auckland harbor

A native 'takapu' Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator: Sulidae).

Spur-Wattled Plover (Vanellus miles: Charadriidae)

'torea' South Island Pied Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus: Haematopodidae)

The sea at Tiritiri Matangi was amazingly blue - almost tropical, not totally unlike Zanzibar.

Tiri turned out to be a veritable bird paradise. The 5 hour amble through the island was led by the able ladies from the Friends of Tiritiri Matangi, steeped in bird lore as they were. As soon as I stepped off the ferry, I began to tick off lifebirds. Here's the 'kotare' Sacred kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus : Alcedinidae), a native.

and a 'kakariki' Red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae novaezelandiae: Psittacidae), another rare native

Besides the birds, the island is also rich in flora. here's the majestic 'pohutukawa' (Metrosideros excelsa) NZ Christmas tree

'manuka' tea tree (Leptospermum scoparium) flowers

'ti kouka' Cabbage tree (Cordyline australis)

Tree ferns

One of the two extant species of the ancient clade of "wattlebirds", the 'Tieke' North Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus rufusater: Callaeidae). Only 5000 are left of this threatened endemic now extinct on mainland NZ, of which there are apparently 600 in Tiri.

The ubiquitous 'korimako' Bellbird (Anthornis melanura melanura: Meliphagidae), an endemic honeyeater. A male pictured here.

A male 'hihi' Stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta: Meliphagidae) It is apparently New Zealand's only known polygynandrous breeding bird. There are only some 3000 of this threatened endemic left in the wild, with ~100 in Tiri, but are now extinct on mainland NZ.

A Stitchbird nest.

Listen to the bellbird evenchorus.

'tiwakawaka' Grey Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa : Dicruridae)

'pukeko' Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus: Rallidae), a partially protected native

A flock of foraging 'popokatea' Whiteheads (Mohua albicilla: Pachycephalidae).

This is Greg, an eligible single male I should add, for those interested. Greg is an endemic 'takahe' (Porphyrio hochstetteri: Rallidae), an endangered endemic with only 243 left!

' toutouwai' North Island Robin (Petroica longipes: Petroicidae), another protected endemic.

'Tui' (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae: Meliphagidae), one of the 3 endemic NZ honeyeaters.

Finally we ambled past an open field to reach the gift shop for some complimentary tea, courtesy of the Friends of Tiritiri Matangi.

Returning to the "wharf", we bumped into the Brown Teal (Anas aucklandica chlorotis: Anatidae), yet another endangered endemic.

Day 2

The weather in the North Island turned out to be abysmal. I had originally planned to visit Tongariro or Egmont National Park to do at least one alpine dayhike, either the Tongariro crossing or climb Mt. Egmont/Taranaki (site of the Last Samurai), if not both, but they both got so much snow that even the year-round shuttle to Tongariro crossing was cancelled.

Lake Taupo on a miserable day

I decided to cut my losses as the weather looked all set to get worse. So I took the overnight bus to Wellington and then caught the 9:25 ferry to Picton the next day, as ironically the weather was fine in the South Island. But the local YHA wouldn't even let me hang out in the lounge even though I had stayed in the Auckland YHA only the night before. However, they had such generosity to let me store my backpack in a coin-op locker. So I had a nice Thai entree (Lotus Thai Restaurant) despite the abrupt service, wandered in Taupo till 10pm, got back just in time to the YHA to catch Meet the Fockers, and then I was off on the 1AM Intercity bus to Wellington.

Day 3

en route from Wellington on the Picton 9:30 ferry.

The views were breath-taking and the sea was so blue.

I got into Picton around 13:00 and my first stop was the visitor center and then the Dept. of Conservation (DOC) office to plan for the next step. I have to say that in general the Maoris who predominantly work in the visitor center are a bit gruff and disgruntled for the right reasons, decades of oppression and assimilation. But the DOC office populated by the pakehas are a bit on the friendlier side for the most part. It was clear that the only place to head to was the Nelson/Marlborough Sounds area with its 270+ days of sunshine. Nelson Lakes National Park seemed like an attractive choice, however, my hopes of staying overnight in an alpine hut (Angelus Hut) were dashed, as I didn't have ice axes or crampons and more importantly any previous experience hiking in alpine environments.

In Picton, I stayed in what is easily the best youth hostel in NZ - the Sequoia Lodge, run by a friendly bloke Peter, the only place so far to offer complimentary breakfast and everyday social events.

Tirohanga track.

Bird's eye view of Picton harbour from a lookout on the Tirohanga track, a "fairly strenous" 6km roundtrip hike with 300m ascent/ 1.5 hours. The track was lush with bellbirds, and 'tauhou' Silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis lateralis: Zosteropidae?), but it rained all day without any respite :(

Day 4

The next day I caught the first bus (nakedbus.com can get you NZ$1 fares if booked early) from Picton to the sleepy hamlet of St. Arnaud (pronounced Arnard) perched at ~800m ASL on the foothills of the Southern Alps. En route I passed several vineyards such as the one below. It was a glorious sunny day for a welcome change.

Hobbitonesque or not, I pretty soon got disgusted at the scenery - endless rolling sheep pastures - and at the mindless destruction of habitat, thanks to the pakeha settlers.

Interface I. How many interfaces can you detect in this picture?

The northern tip of the Southern Alps.

South Island Pied Oystercatchers on an impressive backdrop!

The eroded north face of Mt. Robert (~1500m) seen from the state highway 63, St. Arnaud.

I got into town around 13:30 and my first stop was the DOC office where I unloaded non-essentaial stuff into a smaller backpack and stored it. The DOC guy assured me that my best bet was the relatively "easy" 700m ascent to Bushline hut almost on the summit of Mt. Robert, but warned that the track was icy above the snowline. But by the time I made arrangements for my onward travel at the Yellow House backpackers, where I booked a NZ$1 online ticket for the bus back to Picton, it was already 2:45 PM. I walked over to the St. Arnaud alpine village store - the combined convenience store and petrol (yeees, Kiwis are more British) station - and bought some exorbitantly priced water to augment my meager supply. It was 3PM when I officially started the hike. I took a bit of a detour along the Peninsula Walk to catch some birds and beautiful vistas of Lake Rotoiti (literally mini Rotorua), and crashed over towards the Mt. Robert Car Park. Apparently it is an hour to the car park from the DOC office and a 2.5 hour hike to the Hut via Lakeside and Paddy's track. And this being close to the winter solstice, the days were extremely short - just 9 hours - and it gets dark by 17:15. So it was really stupid of me to try to make it up to the hut with poor light and with snow on the track, but I had no other choice and I am far too determined and hardy than you might otherwise think.

The aptly named Bushline hut can be barely seen at the left of Mt. Robert, just where the bush starts.

A panorama from the shores of L. Rotoiti.

The hike was through a dense Manuka and Kanuka growth full of bellbirds, tuis, robins and fantails.

Welcome Swallows (Hirundo tahitica neoxena: Hirundinidae) self-introduced from Australia, apparently unwelcome in New Zealand.

A couple of couple of Grey Fantails gleaning off insects disturbed by trampers like me.

Bird's eye view of L. Rotoiti from Paddy's track.

You can see that it was getting dark. The winding track never seemed to end, but I finally reached the hut at 18:15 when the stars had already risen, aided by my torch and the albedo of snow. Thankfully, as snow reflects almost all the light that falls on it, I was able to discern the snow free areas on the path where I can safely trod. Nevertheless, it was hard going on the slippery ice with a large backpack though. I wasn't alone at the hut, there was a young German couple and a bunch of Kiwi high school kids on a summer camp who were merry playing "scum" (their polite version of Arschloch). It was toasting inside thanks to the wood-burning kiln and I had my meager dinner consisting of a Clif Bar and Fig Newmans. There were pretty comfy mattresses on the bunk beds and with a down mummy bag, I was cozy and would have slept like a log, but for the Stentorian snoring of the kids!

Day 5

There was about 6in to a foot of snow around the hut.

Sunrise!

A panorama at sunrise from Bushline hut.

I waited for the Sun to rise sufficiently high enough to melt away some ice on the track and it was 8:30 AM when I finally set out on what promised to be a day of long hike. The summit of Mt. Robert was supposedly just another half-hour from the Bushline hut, but I didn't bother as the track got a bit too icy. I got back down to Lakeside track by 10AM keeping well ahead of the kids who were racing to beat me via Paddy's track. Lakeside track as the name suggests, follows the lake all the way around to Coldwater Hut at its head on the West Bay where the Travers river flows into the lake. The track winds its way through the beautiful beech forests crossing several alpine streams and the Whiskey Falls.

Another view of L. Rotoiti from Paddy's track.

Racing to keep ahead of the kids.

Paradise Shelducks, with Black Swans in the background.

At the head of L. Rotoiti, the lake gives way to a flat tussock habitat and the braided river bed of Travers river. I reached Cold Water Hut around 13:00 and had my CLIF bar resting on a table overlooking the lake and the small kayak jetty.

I was told at the DOC office that there was a footbridge to cross the Travers river to get over to the Lakeside Hut. I had planned my day on this. I come to find out that the bridge was actually another 1.5 hours further down. I was aghast as it was already 14:00 when I got to the supposed river crossing and there was no way to use the foot bridge to get to Lakeside hut as it will be dusk by then. So I decided to cross the river barefoot, but not only was the water freezing but it was also impossible to walk across the rough gravel. Fortunately the river was not swift and only knee-deep in places and so I finally reached the Lakeside hut at 14:30. I refilled my bottles and I changed into a fresh pair of socks that immediately got sodden, as my "breathable" DRILEX boots were completely soaked. I set off at 3PM with a wet feet, racing to get to St. Arnaud before dusk. I would have stayed at the Lakeside hut except for the fact that it was already cramped with a bunch of American collegers and that I didn't buy a permit to stay in the hut overnight.

view from L. Rotoiti, east bay.

South Island Robin (Petroica australis australis) now considered a separate species from the North Island Robin.

An eroded face of the St. Arnaud Range.

I finally reached Yellow House at 6PM after 10 hours of hiking. I warmed up after a nice hot shower, but it was just a great relief to get the backpack off my back. My dinner would have consisted of dry bread with Marmite, except that my debut with Marmite produced consequences of a nauseous nature.

Day 6

Still Life: Silvereye at the backpackers.

The guardian spirit of L. Rotoiti. The Maoris believe that this ancestor of theirs dug a hole in the ground that filled with water forming the lake.

I caught the noon Southern Link K-bus service to Greymouth. There's basically only two options to get out of St. Arnaud, either to Greymouth or back to Picton. I really wanted to goto Rakiura National Park in Stewart Island, the only place to watch untranslocated Kiwis in the wild. But since I missed my bus to Picton, it became nigh impossible. But it turned out to be for the better in retrospect, for it would have entailed a 20+ hour bus travel (Picton - Christchurch, and an overnight Knightrider bus to Dunedin or Invercagill and then a ferry to Stewart Island the next day) and would have barely given me half a day at Ulva Island where I would have stayed overnight and then a sprint back to Christchurch the next day to be in time for the opening reception of the Evolution meeting. Not to mention that all this was entirely contingent on fine weather and on timely bus connections.

The road from St. Arnaud followed the course of the amazingly blue Buller River and then the Grey River near Greymouth. It was beautiful with the river on one side and the mountains on the other.

Buller River

Grey River near Greymouth

Sunset across Greymouth from my YHA room.

At the YHA, I made arrangements to goto Franz Josef glacier the next day with this nice Quebecois lad Pierre-Luc. After a tasty pizza at the Bonsai cafe, and trying out a few local brews (Monteith's Original, and Dark), I was ready to call it a day.

Day 7

The next day Pierre-Luc and I got picked up from the YHA at 7:00 by Atomic Shuttle. We got into Franz Josef around 10:00. My first stop as usual was the helpful and usually well-stocked DOC office. But they were out of stock with the trail map I was interested in. So I photographed the "type" maps on display instead.

The endemic 'miromiro' Tomtit (Petroica macrocephala: Petroicidae) at the DOC office in Franz Josef.

I checked into the YHA there and wandered out to get some energy bars at the convenience store, but instead got whisked into the 10:45 shuttle van that drops hikers at the trailheads. The next shuttle was only at 13:00. I decided not to do a guided glacier walk ($150) or a heli-hike ($300) for the obvious reason that I was on a shoe-string budget and it certainly cuts down on my carbon footprint somewhat by refraining from the heli-flights, even though I flew 10, 000 miles to get here, right? I decided instead to go on the 8-hr return strenuous sub-alpine Alex Knob track with its spectacular views of the glacier. I have had only a modest breakfast that day and I was starting to catch a cold and worst of all, I had only 6 hours of daylight to complete an 8 hour hike, so I decided to go easy and time myself. I decided to go as far as I can until 14:00 and then turn back giving me ample time to catch my scheduled return shuttle at 17:00. Besides, neither did I have a torch, nor leave an intention form with the DOC office for the unlikely event of needing a search and rescue. But the shuttle driver kindly decided to pass on my hiking plans to the YHA and the DOC, should I get delayed or lost.

The threatened endemic 'kereru' New Zealand Pigeon ( Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae: Columbidae)

The Alex Knob track started out as a pretty flat gravel affair and soon became hard going, but it was uplifting to be tramping in a dense pristine forest.

And once above the snow line, of course there was snow on the ground

The Franz Josef glacier is named after the Austro-Hungarian Emperor by the explorer and geologist Julius von Haast. This is apparently one of two places in the world where the glacier comes so close to the sea (level), the other being in Argentina. In the 19th century, the glacier used to extend all the way to where the approach road to the Alex Knob trailhead is, but has receded dramatically now.

Franz Josef Glacier from the Rata Lookout (zoomed in).

A glacial stream

At the Christmas Lookout.

I was a bit far from the glacier but with a 12x zoom camera and a pair of Zeiss binoculars, nothing could be too far. I was even able to appreciate the blueness of the ice.

The helicopters were whizzing past, back and forth - it was quite annoying both to me and the birds.

The west coast from Alex Knob track.

This is not a seething mass of worms, but some kind of epiphyte!

This is probably the most memorable moment of the hike, besides the glacier views. I was keeping my eyes peeled for geckos, when I noticed some movements in the bush. But the movement was persistent and in the same spot. It turned out to be an endemic South Island Kaka (Nestor meridionalis: Psittacidae) directly overhead peeling barks to expose insects.

I was able to do almost 80-85% of the hike to the top and I got back down at 16:30, which gave me enough time to goto the car park and do a short hike to the Peter's Pool giving spectacular reflections of the glacier. And the timing couldn't have been more perfect: Sunset.

I got back totmüde and with a nasty cold. But then the local Priya Indian Restaurant was a lifesaver. I surfed for a while at this rather cool old party bus converted into an internet cafe with thumping techno, before crashing.

Day 8

The next day I got on the 9:25 Atomic Shuttle service to Greymouth and then on the 13:00 bus to Christchurch.

The picturesque town of Hokitika en route to Greymouth from Franz Josef.

We passed through Arthur's Pass from Greymouth to Christchurch. The views were breath-taking for want of a better word. But it was starting to snow. Apparently even buses need chains to get through in the winter.

I could almost picture the Riders of Rohan gathering here!

I got into Christchurch at 17:30 just in time for the Opening reception of Evolution 2007 at the Christchurch Convention Center!

Days 9-12

The conference was fun, well organized, probably the best conference one could ever goto. They fed us amazingly good food twice a day. They even had gluten-free food, let alone vegetarian or vegan. The conference began with a traditional Powhiri ceremony. It is the bizzare yet beautiful ceremony of encounter to assess the visitor's intent intersperesed with haka and music. Puny and most awkward looking president of the SSE, and local conference organizers took the challenge that ended with the hongi or a gentle pressing of noses. My talk was very generally well received. I even got a strange request from an electronica music composer to send him some of my bellbird vocalizations.

I stayed with my main hombre Jon Marshall at the Stonehurst hostel on Gloucester St. It was the worst accomodation thus far. We paid some 60$ for a super-cramped double room and the heat stopped working. As it is, the heat turns off after 15-30 minutes but having to go without even this was terrible indeed. And as it turned out, the environs was a bit seedy with hookers on the prowl nearby. The one mitigating aspect was the proximity to this cool bar, Winnie Bagoes.

Christchurch and Auckland were both cool cities. Everything was very walkable. The younger Maoris I met were all chill. They usually streaked or bleached their hair and looked like Bené from Cidade de Deus (City of God). I was surprised to find that there were so many Japanese in the big cities that even the Telecom booths and some other public places have multilingual text in Japanese as well.

There was this cool evolution themed art exhibition in a private art gallery, with free beer (they had great 1/2 litre micro-brewed Pilsner!) and wine tasting. Alas, none of the evolutionary biologists at the conference came. Casting pearls at swine, I should say. On display were cool but weird bird-cat combo skins such as this by Claire Hobbs and a kitten with wings dubbed "pegapuss".

Christ College, Christchurch - the most elite school in town. Very reminiscent of Cambridge.

The native 'tarapunga' Red-billed Gull (Larus novaehollandiae scopulinus: Laridae)

A female ' putangitangi' Paradise Shelduck (Tadorna variegata: Anatidae)

A male Paradise Shelduck.

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos: Turdidae), introduced from England

The Christchurch Botanic gardens had an excellent collection of native and non-native flora. It was weird to find a cherry blossom tree in bloom in the winter.

They even had a few massive Sequoia trees.

The quaint Christchurch Arts centre, once the University of Canterbury.

Rutherford's Den. The very classroom where young Ernest had history lessons.

The 'Chalice' sculpture in the backdrop of the Cathedral. Apparently since it was dedicated in the week of Sep. 11 terrorist attacks , it became a symbol of 911.

The Cathedral

The stylish Christchurch Art Gallery.

Interface II. Inside the Christchurch Art Gallery.

Overall, my impression is that the Kiwi society is very Anglicized and apparently not as Americanized as Australia, but way progressive than any other English-speaking country. But you have McDonald and KFCs and the usual crap every corner you turn in all big cities. And not surprisingly both the people who work or those who eat there were obese or overweight, go figure. I didn't see very many homeless on the streets, although I feel Maoris in general still do not have access to good education and high-paying jobs, barring those rugby players. But irrespective of the way the Maoris may languish, at least the government makes a gesture by adopting Maori as an official language and most official mottoes are in Maori like the DOC's - Te papa atawhai (The Land is for the People or somesuch triteness - ironically the people in question are the pakehas). In spite of all this, things are at least somewhat better than Australia, IMHO.

I was also disappointed, that most of the souvenir stuff was made in China, and even more puzzling is why Helen Clark's labour government is interested in signing "free" trade deals with the US and China. It is about time the Labour stopped calling themselves "Labour" worldwide, now that they have stopped representing their constituents.

In the end, I didn't see a Kiwi, a Wrybill, Penguins, or even a Kea and didn't get to do the best one-day hike in NZ, the Tongariro crossing. I, however, did see a congener of the Kea, a South Island Kaka. But was the three grand I spent overall worth it? The jury is still out on this...

Here's my bird list from New Zealand:

Spring in New Haven

2007-05-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

Confucius towers, Chinatown.

Brooklyn

Grand central

May Day with Howard Zinn

Wooster Square Cherry Blossom season, and yes I live half a block away from the park.

Magnolias!

Birding in East Rock Park

A turkey vulture, commonly known as buzzard

Black-and-white Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Black-throated Green Warbler

Scarlet Tanager

Veery

Baltimore Oriole

Wood Duck

Skunk Cabbage

Hammonnasset state park
nice size comparison, eh?

Howard Dean addressing YPU. What a lacklustre speech. terribly disappointing

Payday dinner with the Powell/Prum Lab hustlaz!

Aren't they cute?? Piping plovers at Milford Point

Aren't they cute?? Piping plovers at Milford Point

Selling Indulgences: Carbon Offsets are a Greenwash, if there ever was one!

2007-05-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

I stoutly refuse to support Carbon offsets (Carbon Neutral). It is just a convenient way for capitalist Western leaders and enterprising greenwash outfits to endorse and condone the unsustainable decadent extravagant livestyle of the Hummer-driving, McDonald loving, callous rrrepublican soccer moms living in suburban gingerbread box homes, all the while proclaiming that all is being done to salvage the situation. Do you seriously believe that they will not plant trees in India/Indonesia if you haven't intervened through a carbon neutral company to plant trees. there. At the end of the day, all the trees that you plant and all the solar panels you install in the formerly plundered countries would hardly matter, in relation to counter the Western consumption.

The problem should be addressed at the root, not its symptoms. Whatever happened to the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle)? If the NO IMPACT MAN can do IT in New York, so can we!

Read what Monbiot has to say on Carbon offsets trading:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/10/19/selling-indulgences/

SELLING INDULGENCES

The trade in carbon offsets is an excuse for business as usual

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 18^th October 2006

Zanzibar, un deja vu!

2007-05-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Spice invaders

Everyone who visits Zanzibar - the island with the most poetic name in the world - wants to be the only person there. Trouble is that more and more of us are going, says Ed Vulliamy

The Guardian, Saturday May 12 2007.

Door to the past .. Zanzibar's famous white sands. Photograph: Remi Benali/Corbis

My adventures in Jambiani Beach, Zanzibar:

I support the War on Embarassment

2007-05-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

To fry the smallest fish

A recent case suggests that the war on terror has been superseded by the war on embarrassment

Duncan Campbell
Saturday May 12, 2007
The Guardian

A man accused of blowing up an airliner and killing 73 people, who has already admitted to bombing hotels with fatal consequences and who has a conviction for a failed assassination attempt on a head of state, was freed on a technicality in a Texas court this week, and can look forward to a quiet retirement in Florida.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2078058,00.html

More ominous than George Orwell's imagination!

2007-04-26T07:57:00.001-07:00

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

from Naomi Wolf's The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot will be published by Chelsea Green in September.

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

Although things are not that worse yet and in spite of the article verging on a slippery slope at times, there is some truth to her laments.

Fab Feb and March Madness '07

2007-03-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

There was this cool exhibit at the MET on German artists from the 1920s Weimar Republic. Images that were perhaps inspirational to Lou Reed's Transformer?

My favourite Caravaggio - The Denial of St. Peter (1610)!

The Long Island Ferry

No seasoned birder calls 'em "seagulls."

Eli Whitney Museum East Rock Park Entrance

complacent Mallards, the weather was ~0 F

This reminds me of Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh, Scotland

Hammonnasset State Park.

cool icicles on the underside of a sea-splashed rock

Great size comparison, in case you didn't notice - Sanderlings with Herring Gull.

The Great Freeze

The Cube

2007-01-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm no geek, but I recently switched to Ubuntu linux, thanks to the encouragement of Stephen a.k.a "blackrim" and my own necessity and my disgust with Microsoft. More recently I installed the fluxbox (courtesy Stephen again) desktop manager and it just takes 2 seconds for the logon. Its un-f***ing-believable! Even more recently, I installed the kuhl Beryl manager that turns the desktop into a cube, that you can play with and adds all kinds of eye-candies to the desktop and windows. so check it out:

Dead Birds Society

2007-01-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

The Yale Peabody Museum VZ collections:

A Passenger Pigeon, extirpated for food. You can still apparently guess at their former roosting ground by the sheer amount of guano that lays buried underneath.

the extinct Carolina Parakeet, only parrot native to eastern US - last known record in the early 20th cent.

The evasive Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the largest ever woodie in Nordamerika. And the quest continues...

This is what kiwi feathers look like - with reduced feather morphology - mainly barbs with no barbules.

My own private Kiwi!

These Ploceus Weaverbirds look so majestic in their repose more so than even King Tut!

Collared Sunbirds (Anthreptes collaris)

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola r.)

Brilliant!

Ohio 2007

2007-01-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

Oops! The trip was not uneventful, but I got to Ohio and back in one piece.

My alma mater!

Beautiful stained glass at Slocum Hall.

The former Slocum library, now reading room.

The infamous 2-headed calf at the zoo. museum.

The new science center

I used to be a CAHkid

before I defected to the Tree House. Oh, those was the dayz!

The student observatory, used to be in my backyard (when I was living in the Treehouse)

Mark, in their new house in Cinci.

Pistol Pete

At the McDermott's

The incredibly cute kitty Nomi that bit everything that moved.

New Year's in the City

2007-01-20T23:46:00.000-08:00

Musical light-show at Grand Central terminal

The empire state building

This is a quintessential NY by night picture with the cabs hustling by.

A glimpse of the Times Sq. Ball!

Wall St.

Beautifully lit NY Stock Exchange

Da Brooklyn bridge

No points for guessing this...

So we took the Staten Island Ferry and decided not to tackle the Times square madness. So we watched the fireworks from a safe distance. Although the ferry was still packed and the weather abysmal - cold and rainy, apparently the first new year's since the late 19th cent. when there's been no snow in NYC.

Times Sq. at 4AM - the city doesn't sleep, esp. not on new year's eve!

A random Hongkongese Xmas eve party

2007-01-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

I ended up spending christmas eve with some Chinese (Hongkongese) folks I've never met before in my life. We ate steamed veggies and exotic shrooms all night long.

The visit of the Calliope Hummingbird (Stellula calliope)

2007-01-20T21:21:00.001-08:00

This vagrant western hummer, flew to the east coast, instead of migrating down to Western Mexico. I hope he made it to Mexico somehow for his own sake. This is a life-bird for me and the first sighting for the entire state of Connecticut.

New Haven from Lighthouse park

A Boston Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-01-20T21:21:00.000-08:00

A cool building in Genetown, boston.

A kewl Boston skyline!

Need I say more?

The cool Harvard EEB building

At the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ)

I bet you that's the cutest cub that ever was.

Brilliant Morpho butterflies at the MCZ

Departmental Retreat at Water's Edge, CT (Nov. 21 2006)

2007-01-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

a lighter moment at the banquet

The afterparty starring the Tennessean

A choreographed scene, of course!

pretty coast, barring all the "development".

Rick caught in mid-sentence during his sexual selection talk.

Shimon Peres - The Hawk in Dove skin? (Nov. 11 2006)

2007-01-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Protesters outside Woolsey hall.

Remember Rachel Corrie?

Shimon Peres came to Yale thanks to the efforts of the Caravan for Democracy (a Neocon outfit?) and spoke to a packed audience. Of course, I wanted to test if he was a "hawk" masquerading as a "dove." After all he is still part of the government that committed grave excesses this summer (read Lebanon). I asked him what he thought of Mordechai Vanunu, and if he would use his power as Vice-Premier to free him of restrictions and stop his future detainment, but basically Peres accused Vanunu of being a traitor and that he deserved his predicament. I leave you to judge if Peres is a dove. I'm basically getting annoyed by the idea popular that only the right-wing can bring lasting peace. But more importantly, hardly anyone in the audience knew who Vanunu was, and I had to explain who he was to some in the front-row. The average American is well informed thanks to Rupert Murdoch.

My big fat Greek birthday party (Nov. 5, 2006)

2007-01-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

The gangstaz (Moi, Krzysztof and the Reddy).

καλωσόρισμα...

Aris and the women.

Poker Nite at Mike's

2007-01-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed... Poor John Dawg.

The game ain't going my way.

Jonas - are you bet-hedging?

Summer 2006 BirdList

2006-11-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

Most of these species below are "life-birds" for me. Species listed with a (A) are ones for which I did not get a visual.

DAR to Amani

Bishop sp. (Black-winged or Southern Red Bishop?)
A long tailed bird (Paradise Whydah or Pin-tailed Widow-bird?)

Amani Nature Reserve

Accipiter (imm. Sparrowhawk)?
African Citril
African Crowned Eagle
African Dusky Flycatcher
African Green Pigeon
African Palm Swift
African Paradise Flycatcher (F)
African Sparrowhawk
African-pied Wagtail
Apelis sp.
Black Saw-wing (Rough-wing)
Black-and-white Mannikin
Brown-hooded Kingfisher
Cabani's Bunting
Collared Sunbird
Common Buzzard?
Common Drongo
Common Fiscal
Fisher's Turaco (A)
Green Barbet
Green-headed Oriole
Little Greenbul
Little Swift
Mountain (Long-tailed) Wag-tail
Olive Sunbird
Silvery-cheeked Hornbill
Speckled Mousebird
Spotted Eagle-Owl? (A)
Tawny-flanked Prinia (A)
Trumpeter Hornbill
Verreaux's Eagle
Waller's Starling
White-breasted Alethe
White-naped Raven
Yellow-vented (Common) Bulbul

Lesser-masked or Dark-backed Weaver nest

Tanga

House Sparrrow
Pied Crow

Bububu Beach, Zanzibar

House Crow

Chumba-Jozani Forest Reserve, Zanzibar

Cattle Egret
Crested Hornbill (A)
Intermediate Egret
Red-eyed Dove (A)
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird (A)

East Coast Visitor's Inn, Jambiani, Zanzibar

African Golden Weaver
Dimorphic Egret (black-phase)
Green Wood-Hoopoe
Grey Heron
Lesser-crested Tern
Ruddy Turnstone

Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

African Fish Eagle
African Skimmer
African Wattled Plover
African White-backed Vulture
Bare-faced Go-away-bird
Bateleur
Black-chested Snake Eagle
Black-faced Sandgrouse?
Black-winged Stilt
Buff-breasted Bustard?
Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater
Common Sandpiper
Common Scimitarbill
Crested Barbet
Crested Francolin
Crowned Plover
Egyptian Goose
Eremomela sp.
Goliath Heron
Grey-wren Warbler?
Hadada or Glossy Ibis?
Hammerkop
Helmeted Guineafowl
Hooded Vulture
Jackson's Hornbill
Lappet-faced Vulture?
A Lark/Lapwing-Plover like bird with black face, crest and bib?
Laughing Dove
Lilac-breasted Roller
Long-crested Eagle
A long-tailed Drongo?
Madagascar Pond Heron?
Marabou Stork
Martial Eagle?
Namaqua Dove
Pearly-spotted Owlet
Pied Kingfisher
A Drongo/Bobolink-like bird with a white crown-patch (Pied Wheatear or White-crowned Starling or White-crowned shrike?)
Red-bellied Firefinch?
Red-billed Hornbill?
Red-billed Oxpecker
Red-tailed Chat?
Ringed Plover
Ring-necked (Zenaida-like) Dove?
Ring-necked Dove?
Saddle-billed Stork
Scaly Francolin
Slate-coloured Boubou
Southern Ground Hornbill
Superb Starling
Three-banded Plover
Von der Decken's Hornbill
White-browed Coucal
White-browed Robin-Chat?
White-headed Buffalo Weaver
Yellow-billed Stork
Yellow-collared Lovebird?

Jive Rock, Iringa

Black-backed Puffback?
White-bellied Tit

Bungoyo Island

Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Lesser-crested Tern?
Red-eyed Dove?
Sacred Ibis
Sanderling?

DAR-Botanical Gardens

Pavo cristatus
Grey-headed Kingfisher?
Little Bee-eater

Bar-headed Goose
Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Magpie
Sand Martin

Veracruz, Mexico

Frigatebird (F. magnificens)
Arctic Tern
Black-and-white Flycatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue-gray Tanager
Brown Pelican
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ferruginous Spotted Owls
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Great-tailed Flycatcher
Great-tailed Grackle
Green Parrot
Inca Dove
Kiskidee
Laughing Gull
Osprey
Sanderling
Sandwich Terns
Spotted Sandpiper
Sterna sp.

Cardel Hotel Bienvenido

American Kestrel
Baltimore Oriole
Black Vulture
Broad-winged Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Scissor-tailed Flycathcer

Chichicaxtle

Altamira Oriole
Empidonax sp.
Mexican Sheartail
Rough-winged Swallow
Scrub Euphonia
Swainson's Hawk
Tropical Parula
Vermillion Flycatcher
Wood Stork
Zenaida sp.

Mahabalipuram, the Shore temples of South India (Aug. 2006)

2006-11-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

I was grounded in India, as I waited for my US VISA to arrive. But, I made the most of my stay by visiting the 7th century Pallava port of Mahabalipuram which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its shore temples.

I look like I came down from playing volleyball.
Well, I couldn't help but remembering Pulp fiction:


                              THE WOLF

                   Perfect.  Perfect.  We couldn't've

                   planned this better.  You guys look

                   like...what do they look like,

                   Jimmie?



                              JIMMIE

                   Dorks.  They look like a couple of

                   dorks.



You know what I'm talking about!

This is a contemporary light house, but the Pallavas had their own lighthouse back in their day (8th cent.?)

Panorama showing the new and the old lighthouses!

The famous Mahisasuramardhini scene (Goddess Parvati decapitating the bull-headed demon) from Hindu mythology in exquisit bas-relief.

The Pancharathas (5-chariots) carved from monolithic stones.

My main man.

Veracruz, Mexico (2-8 Octobre, 2006)

2006-11-05T23:35:00.000-08:00

The final leg of my journey this summer took me to Veracruz, Mexico for the fourth North American Ornithological Congress.

Old town Veracruz - localo o central?

At the Constitution Plaza

Centro de historio, Veracruz.

A 16th century citadel. Ironically, the hotel guys told us there aren't any cool things to see in the old part of the city and that all the buildings are quite recent.

This is what a flock of birdpeople looks like!

The World Trade Center, our conference venue. The whole area was very upscale. It reminded me of being somewhere in the US, not in Mexico.

at the Hawk Migration Watch place in Cardel

A kettle

A kettle of hawks (mostly Swainson's, Broad-winged and Black Vultures) just forming. We must have seen about 20,000 hawks in just under 2 hours! It was a veritable river of migrating hawks.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, Scotland (15-21 August, 2006)

2006-11-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

I had days to kill in the UK, so off I went to Scotland. It was the peak of the Edinburgh festival and the tattoo was in full swing. I was lucky to find any student youth hostel accommodation at all! I went to the Edinburgh Castle of course, hiked to Arthur's seat, before I left for Glasgow where I stayed at Univ. of Glasgow Murano street student village which is in a somewhat shady neighborhood. I used Glasgow as a base to visit Stirling Castle. Highlights include the Elephant House, the famous cafe where J. K. Rowling got her inspiration (Edinburgh), and some of the finest Indian cuisine in Glasgow, the curry capital of the world: the Dhabba, which, untrue to its proletariat etymology, was extremely expensive. I got a real flair for the common folk at Glasgow. Unlike the touristy Edinburgh with its quaint "closes", parts of Glasgow are extremely sketchy and can be littered, but it gives one a sense of association with the local working class. Unsurprisingly, parts of Glasgow are extremely gentrified too.

Festival mob at Edinburgh

The beautiful St. Giles Cathedral or the High Kirk of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile.

The Castle

Beautiful stained-glass window in the oldest building in all of Edinburgh - St. Margaret's Chapel, a tiny Norman building which has been intact for more than 900 years!

The Scottish National Parliament. Cool looking but at a whopping 400 million pounds, ten times its original estimate!

Palace of Holyroodhouse

A tarn en route to Arthur's Seat

Arthur's Seat. No connection with the legendary King Arthur!

Glasgow Cathedral

The crypt where Glasgow University was founded

The adjacent Neoclassical ruins of the Necropolis, a crumbling but beautiful cemetery.

George Square, Glasgow

Of course, can anyone go to Scotland and not have Haggis (in my case, vegetarian) and IRN-BRU?

(MacKintosh) Willow Tea Room on Argyll St.

At Stirling Castle

Apparently they discovered a piece of wall with this ugly-colored coat intact and so they spoiled the look of the castle by painting it.

Ambleside and Great Gable, English Lake District (24-25 August, 2006)

2006-09-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

From Scotland, I finally reached the idyllic Lake District to present a talk at the Rank Prize Symposium on Metamaterials in Nature and Technology. I stayed at Storrs Hall right on the shores of L. Windermere. Legend has it that W. Wordsworth once had a public recital of Daffodils here. After being pampered at the conference, I reluctantly left for Ambleside, where I did some local hikes. The next day, Claire met me and we drove up to do some hiking near the lovely hamlet of Wasdale Head, home of England's greatest liar, Will Ritson. I did get a taste of the local brews that this side of England is famous for, at the Wasdale Head Inn pub.

My room at Storrs Hall, overlooking the lake (unfortunately the window is overexposed on my disposable Kodak camera).

Lake Windermere, Ambleside

High-res photos courtesy: Claire M.

Claire and me atop the Great Gable (899 m/ 2949 ft).

It started out as a bright sunny morning, unusual for England. But it got quite cold once we reached the summit. Thanks to Claire's excellent sandwich, we had reserve energy to burn to keep us warm.

I have to say I had my first (veg.) vindaloo at Leeds and I probably met my match - it was too hot even for me...

A Rough Guide to London (August 2006)

2006-09-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

In London, I spent a lot of time in the British Museum as you could tell from the pictures below, however disgusted I became at the extent of the British Empire's plunders. I did cover the traditional touristy spots as well - Trafalgar Sq., the Tower of London, Tate Modern, National Art Gallery, and St. Paul's Cathderal. It was fun to catch up with Trent and Deise. And thankfully I made backups of all my photos at Trent's, for my camera got stolen in Edinburgh. In the UK, I was paying through my nose all along and it is some claim to fame that I visited London and Cambridge, the two most expensive cities. It was however, cool to find decent Naan at a store like Tesco's. Wish the American chains would learn.

Southwark Cathderal.

Tower Bridge at night

Tower of L.

St. Paul's

Colossal marble lion from the funerary monument at Halikarnassos in the foreground

Ram-in-the-thicket

The Standard of Ur

An intricately carved Ostrich egg

Augustus Caesar

A bust of Julius Caesar. Note, the other half is missing.

The famous 10th cent Lewis Chessmen

Roman copy of the Discobolus with the head restored the wrong way

A piece of the beard from the Great Sphinx at Giza

The hall of Egyptian sculptures

Seal of the East India Company. Sword and ring of Tipu Sultan.

The Rosetta stone

An Assyrian using an animal's bladder for flotation

Royal Assyrian Lion Hunt. Ashurbanipal strangling a lion with his bare hands. No wonder there are no more lions left in the region!

The Assyrian black obelisk that helped to decipher the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions

Parthenon pediment

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and ?

East Frieze, Parthenon Marbles. Hermes, Dionysos, Demeter and Ares

South Metope XXVIII, Parthenon Marbles. A centaur prances in triumph over a fallen Lapith.

South Frieze (slabs X and XI). Parthenon Marbles. Riders in procession

North Frieze, Parthenon

Need I say more!

Nereid Monument, Xanthos (Modern Turkey)

The inside of a mummy

Waga sculpture, Konso, Ethiopia

The facade of the British Museum

Shabti figure and Canopic jars - Hall of Mummies, British Museum

I stayed off of Baker St. Tube and there was a cheesy Sherlock Holmes Museum, no less. The actual door number isn't 221 but they tried their best with a 221B added on.

The sky, the Sahara and the sea!

Hinc lucem et pocula sacra (August 11-14, 2006)

2006-09-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

I flew back to London and tried in vain to get my Schengen visa. I decided to pay a visit to my friend Stelios Neocleus at Cambridge. I was surprised to find out that the trains do run on time in the UK. What's the big fuss then? Coming from Yale, I quite enjoyed Cambridge, after which many Yale buildings are unabashedly copied. I even got a behind-the-scenes tour of the vertebrate zoology museum collections, courtesy of Dr Michael Brooke. I was quite taken aback as most if not all colleges at Cambridge charge visitors to come take a look. This is ridiculous. I thought this was after all an educational institution.

Stelios and me at Larissa's

This is one of the newer colleges of the 31. Quite nondescript and nothing spectacular about it.

King's college Dining Hall. Apparently Harry Potter was filmed at Trinity's?

Punting on R. Cam, which I didn't get to do. Go figure!

King’s College Chapel (partially obscured by the Gibbs’ Building), seen from the Backs

King's College

King's College Chapel

The medevial Great Gate, Trinity College. Note the sceptre held by the Henry VIII has been replaced with a broken chair's leg by a clever student.

Stelios at St. John's

At Pepys Library, Magdalene College

One of the few surviving specimens of the Great Auk at the VZ museum collections, where they even have some Geospiza specimens dating back to the 1835 Beagle expedition.

The cool-looking interior of Judge Business School

The Gate of Honour, Gonville and Caius (pron. Keys) college, through which graduating students pass on their way to the neighbouring Senate House to receive their degrees.

Iringa and Dar es Salaam, The Final Leg (2 Aug - 7 Aug, 2006)

2006-09-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

The pack dwindled down to me, Georg and Sevvie. Georg and I were waiting at Iringa for the Scandinavia bus to take us to Mbeya to reach Lake Nyasa/Malawi. But then, we realized it takes 3 days to get to the northernmost shores of Nyasa (1 day to Mbeya, 1d to Tikuyu, and 1d if you were lucky to catch the bumpy ride on a pickup to Matema Beach) and then 3 days back and I would either miss my flight or have half a day to spend in L. Nyasa. We got our tickets changed to Dar and came back to find Sevvie in what appears to the lone Wazungu haunt in Iringa: the Hasty Tasty (true to its name or were we too hungry to notice?) unaware what had transpired to poor old Sev. Severine had braved a daylight robbery and there she was at the cafe contemplating the day. We left for Dar together the next day and spent a day idling in Dar and checked out Bungoyo island halfway between Dar and Zanzi, before we parted ways.

I was quite taken aback to see a primate evolution poster say that there are "5 human races", without any disclaimer that this is a colonial era poster and that they do not endorse this view - or maybe they do?

Hermit Crab

A marine crab

How could it escape my attention? Al-Jazeera on a Coke banner!! Our bus stopped here from Iringa en route to Dar.

We hiked to Jiwe rock on the advice of a friendly American peace core guy we had met at Hasty Tasty. Apparently the place has some rare flowers, but this one, it turns out, is pretty common.

Sunset atop Jiwe

View from my room MR hotel in Iringa

Oh, btw: here's an interesting BBC article on China's ambitions in Africa, esp. Tanzania

A safari at Ruaha (July 30 - Aug. 1, 2006)

2006-09-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Alas! The Fellowship of the Ring was never to be. Only Rhiannon, Sevvie, Georg, Wayne, and Moi were the ones who got to shoot some big game, albeit with cameras. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania's second largest, turned out to be quite a good choice after all and our budget safari was more than successful. Ruaha gets one tenth of the folks that throng Serengeti, but has all the Big Game, including some 10,000 elephants! We arranged the safari with the MR Hotel's travel agent, and our driver Gabriel doubled up as an excellent guide as well. He was so excited that we had to actually restrain him from going off the road a few times, perhaps that's what wazungus before us had wanted him to do. We bought supplies at Iringa and it ended up to be damn cheap ~$5 for 6 meals! We made pasta, some kind of curry, as it were, but it was quite humbling to eat out of plastic bags. We checked out Mdonya, Mwagusi river road, Jongomero camp trails and did a walking safari down the stream by Msembe HQ. We got all of the BIG FIVE save Rhinos. And more importantly, we made it back with all our limbs intact, despite the walking safari. Some of us did however get bit by a few Tsetse flies as we were cruising through the Miombo woodland, but I believe the infection rates must be really low, I hope or else I am just narcoleptic.

I can't wax eloquent but the skies defy description. And the remoteness was punctuated by the lack of electricity and signs of human development, except for the school in the middle of nowhere. Our banda was right by the water and so all the big game came to us. I will always remember (so will I think Sevvie) the charge of the hippo, the daily visits of the crazy bull elephant that blocked our way back to the bandas and the lions crossing the stream by night.

We visited a couple of luxury tented camps, to stretch with varying degrees of welcome. One place was run by an Italian couple, who were so kind that they offered us drinks and even gave a guided tour of the $200/person/day camp!! Whereas at the other outfit, we were promptly sent off at the gates by this rude (for want of a better word) South African. We learnt from him that their safaris had gone without spotting a single lion over days, whereas we were graced by its august presence on several occasion. Perhaps, it serves him right!

I couldn't get my lone acacia in the middle of the savanna, however cliched it may sound. This was my last-ditch effort as we were leaving the park.

An avenue of Baobabs

They don't look all that threatening, do they?

A troop of Yellow Baboons scattering away to the sound of motor.

Waterbuck

Yeah, but what if the elephants come to you (see below). A crazy bull elephant that pays daily visits to the banda at night, decided to come check us out in daylight, I reckon!

Is he in (-side the banda) or is he out?

The invincible walking safari crew complete with our armed Askari (sans Rhiannon!)

Euphorbiaceae

It is crazy to think that some of these majestic Baobabs could be some 1000 years old. Note the elephant damage on the trunk.

Pearl-spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum), a diurnal hunter in riparian habitats.

Euphorbiaceae inflorescence

Euphorbiaceae

Nile Crocodile

Red-headed Rock Agama (Agama agama)? Ironically I spotted him on the floor of the forest office, not in the savannah proper.

Thanks to my keen eyes! We actually saw these cheetahs hunt imapalas but they didn't kill any, but were merely testing their prowess.

I finally got to see my first monotypic African family, Scopidae (Hammerkop: Scopus umbretta)

Lesser Kudu

A Dik-Dik

No, I didn't go nowhere near 'em. 'Tis another marvel of digiscoping...

A confusion of Helmeted Guineafowls (Numida Meleagris)

A rock hyrax sliding on what appears to be a rock! It is hard to see how these are the closest living relative to elephants. Also seen partly is a mongoose on the top of the rock.

Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudata)

Equus quagga?

A pair of Saddle-billed Storks (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis) roosting

African Wattled Plover (Vanellus senegallus)

Greater Kudu

Von der Decken's Hornbill (Tockus deckeni)

Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus)

Impalas

Baobabs with wart-hogs in the foreground

This crazy seemingly-innocuous hippo that charged just a metre from where I was washing my hands by the banda, as soon as we got to Ruaha. What was he thinking?

Stonetown and Jambiani, Zanzibar (July 23 - July 28, 2006)

2006-09-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

Rhiannon, Dee, Daniele, Sevvie, Georg, Wayne, Claire, Sophie and yours truly decided that a month at Amani was not enough. Besides getting ripped off by the ferry companies, going to Zanzibar was a great adventure. We hit up Bububu beach in West Coast Zanzibar, before setting out to Jambiani. I was doubtlessly struck by the azure skies and aquamarine waters of Jambiani (below). Stonetown had its moments too, with its friendly Rasta people who usually had something to sell, quaint little streets riddled with touts, the evening food fest at Forodhani Gardens (read Zanzibar Pizza). Surprisingly nobody ended up sick from the street food. It was quite ungodly almost to spend the days idling in this paradisaical place. Besides Georg's tumultuous experience with the sea food, things were uneventful. We played Wayne's (let me know if I have acknowledged him wrongly) animal mimicry game and arschloch or its British variant over the course of many Safari's. But it was cruel that I couldn't go snorkeling, thanks to my nonexistent swimming skills. We did get to see some cool endemic Red Colobus monkeys though.

However hypocritical as it may sound, I was disgusted by the fact that we tourists were part of the problem in Zanzibar. I couldn't find a single strip of the beach free of any man-made material. I could find at least one discarded water bottle every metre of the beach, either thrown by the wazungus or by the guys who run the resorts. But hey there might be some hope. check this out: BBC reports Zanzibar islands ban plastic bags!

And the weird thing is that the community has become so dependent on tourism, besides seaweed farming. Muslim women had no qualms to give back massages to scantily-clad wazungus! And everybody had something to sell including children hawking coconuts and shells, or they just simply asked for money (I guess this is a Tanzania wide problem).

A cool urchin! Notice the line of Royal Blue dots in a radial pattern?

Some kinda Man O' War? We found the beach literally littered with them one fine morning, while they were none on days before.

Ubiquitous sand crabs running into tiny holes as soon as you spot 'em.

African Golden Weaver (Ploceus subaureus) nesting on Casuarina trees by the beach at East Coast Visitors Inn, Jambiani

OK. The water isn't this blue. I took this through my polarizing glasses.

Dimorphic Egret (dark phase) (Egretta dimorpha)

Seaweed farms in Jambiani, Eastcoast Zanzibar.
Apparently seaweed farming is a major source of income to the locals besides catering to wazungus

Endemic Red Colobus monkeys at Chumba-Jozani Forest Reserve.
It was a totally weird experience. The guide said the troops are probably asleep when quizzed on why we hadn't seen any. He sent us on a trip to the nearby mangrove forests and by the time we got back, the monkeys were up and about. Did he wake em up? They were quite habituated and in fact a few passed through my legs. I wonder if they end up as bushmeat? I hope not!

Apparently, they are also called Kirk's Guereza, as this specimen from the Harvard MCZ:

Sunset, Stonetown, Zanzibar

Sunrise en route to Zanzibar from Dar

Amani Nature Reserve, Tanzania (June 23 - July 22, 2006)

2006-09-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

Well, what can I say? This summer I undertook my first ever backpacking trip! This is an attempt to reconstruct the events of the last 4 months using my fragmented memory and some cool photos. I wish I was in the habit of maintaining a proper diary! My trip to JFK on June 22nd was frought with danger. Danger of missing my flight. I had to PAY mi hombre to take me to the airport with just under 3 hours to spare would have left. I knew that I can always corrupt the Mormon with moolah.

I spent just a month at Amani Nature Reserve, a sub-montane rain-forest nestled in the East Usambaras, part of the Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania, but it feels like an eternity and it was probably the highlight of my summer travels. I was involved in TBA's tropical biology course. I truly gained an appreciation for natural history and it gave me a chance to think outside of birds. As it is, tropical forest bird densities birds are low, but coupled with winter and high elevation (~1000m), any hopes of working on birds for a project was "shot". The hornbills were conspicuous but too high up in the elevation, the barbets, always heard but seldom seen and the abundance of sunbirds depended on sunshine which was ephemeral. So I ended up working on vocalizations and territoriality of some cool frogs (Bufonidae: Nectophrynoides tornieri).

Sisal plantations en route to Muheza from Dar

If you know the nomenclature of any unidentified organism on this page, please post it as a comment.

Usambara soft-horned chameleon (Bradypodion tenue)? Most of the Chameleons that occur at Amani are supposedly endemic to the Usambaras.

Our brave nightly frog-walkers! Unfortunately, the waters in the swamp came chest high at places and or the waders had holes right at the toes. You were guaranteed to get wet one way or the other.

P. A. R. T. Y!!

The endemic African Violet (slightly out of focus)

Contemplating Life or watching Hornbills as they swoop across the expanse quite prehistorically!

Daniele in his rare burst of ecstasy upon the quite undeserved Italian World Cup victory, thanks to Zinedine Zidane!

Silvery-cheeked Hornbills in silhouette.

White-chested Alethe (Alethe fuellebornii )

Sunset from Mbomole hill viewpoint (1090 mASL).

A skeletonized leaf, shows the extent of leaf herbivory and detritivory are characteristic in a tropical rainforest!

You herp people out there! Is this Cecil the Caecilian or a deceptive legless skink?

Another beautiful sunset from Mbomole hill.

Ah! Some action from Amani Premier League - Amani FC vs TBA Wanderers. Notwithstanding the penalty awarded to my challenge, we lost overall, but by a single goal.

The Amani locals teaching us a few step-dancing tricks!

Drunkenness!

The 2006 TBA Gangstaz and Wankstaz!

My Panoramas

2006-09-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

Atop Mbomole Hill viewpoint (1090 MASL), Amani Nature Reserve, Tanzania

A typical tea-plantation at Amani

Sun-kissed beaches of Jambiani, East Coast Zanzibar

View atop Great Gable, Lake District

Belur, Halebid and Sravanabelagola, Karnataka IN (June 05)

2006-09-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

In June of 05, the Saranathan's took a trip to the Hassan district, in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Our first stop was Shravanabelagola, famed for its 10th cent. ~18m Jain statue, one of the tallest monolithic statues in the world.

This is the view from atop the hill of the temple tank or kulam.

This is the ornate 12th cent. AD Hoysaleswara temple in Halebid reflecting the resplendent Hoysala architecture. We were struck by the intricacy of the bas-relief sculptures, although most of them have been effaced through time and by vandals. ASI needs to get its act together. Apparently, the fine for effacing any piece of historical importance is just Rs. 200/- (~5 bucks). This most surely date from the colonial era.

Nandi or the bull steed of Lord Shiva.

mit meine Eltern!

These temples are known for their star-shaped plinth and often depicts scenes from Hindu myth in registers.

Chennakeshawara temple, Belur, 12th cent. AD. Mother is cross!

A bunch of Indian Shags (yep that's what these cormorants are called) roosting!