Dawn Chorus Day

TV back...out in the Sahara....about Rhinos on Animal Planet...rock drawing of rhino...oh..Wild Kingdom...

I read about the Dawn Chorus in the Chronicle..I think...a few weeks back...and was much taken with the story...as every Memorial Day when I get up before dawn for my hike...the Birds in the backyard...are singing and give me a send off!...and I filed away to look Dawn Chorus up...and last night after posting...I looked it up...and lo and behold...May Fourth is Dawn Chorus Day!....so I got up at four am and did...what I suppose everybody does to celebrate this day...listen for the Birds....it's a neat thing to do...and very glad I found the tale...brb...

quotes

Dawn chorus of birds makes spring really sing
Jerry George
Saturday, April 12, 2008

If you want to experience one of the great treats of nature, take yourself to any tree-shrouded waterway an hour before sunrise. Don't cheat on the time. The chorus is best experienced when you hear the whole show.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/12/HOC21030E8.DTL&feed=rss.homeandgarden

International Dawn Chorus Day is the worldwide celebration of Nature's daily Miracle. This year there will be more opportunities than ever to join in the excitement. In the run up to the event events from all over the world and across the UK will be listed on this website, so visit us regularly to see what's planned in your area.

http://www.idcd.info/

unquotes

I was a little late!...to register...but will be better prepared next time!...now...I'm curious what'a up in blogdom and youtubers...Dawn Chorus wise...brb...oh..now I have note telling I'm unhooked from blogger...now it's saved!...hehe..anyway..brb....well...here's one blog...this is really cool by the way that the blogs are reporting!...search google blogger "dawn chorus"...

http://woodmousesdiary.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-dawn-chorus-day.html

I'll have a look at youtube now and grab one!...brb...well...that one's not so simple...there's a song titled Dawn Chorus that skews the search...dawn chorus birds youtube brings things up...and this one has more links...I'd like to find just a little one to link!...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2008/04/10/dawn_chorus_jersey_feature.shtml

well...I'll just link myself!...

http://treeinthedoorvideo.blogspot.com/2008/05/dawn-chorus.html

but let me find someones'...brb...

oh...this is very good!

quote

hen American explorers Lewis and Clark navigated the Columbia River in 1805, they first heard the roar of the Pacific Ocean 29 km from the coast--a distance so great that many historians have questioned its accuracy. No such doubts trouble Gordon Hempton, a 45-year-old professional sound collector who won an Emmy Award in 1992 for his Vanishing Dawn Chorus, a recording of the sounds of sunrise from around the globe.

A Voice Crying In The Wilderness
By DAN CRAY /LOS ANGELES

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980727/cover_story.a_voice_cryi24.html

here's link to Hempton's site...

http://www.soundtracker.com/

brb...here's one...finally!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igp7zRrppXY

went to youtube...then searched...dawn chorus birds...of course there's some others!

well...I could go on..but sleepy!

DavidDavid

Hidden Hand

TV still broke....y'know...last night looking up after posting some more on 'spontaneous conspiracies'...I found myself reading Adam Smith and his bit on the 'hidden hand'...since the economy is in the news...an appropriate thought thread!!...brb...

quote...quoted in another blog!..

As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. [The Wealth of Nations, IV.2.9]

http://evolvethought.blogspot.com/2005/12/adam-smith-versus-or-with-darwin.html

unquote

dont know but some 'hidden hands' are way too busy blogging!

anyway..what I was thinking...well first I recollected that movie The Postman and the notion of a 'headless conspiracy'...brb...

quote

The year is 2013 and war has crippled the earth. Into this apocalyptic wasteland comes an enigmatic and initially nameless drifter (Kevin Costner), with his mule named Bill and a talent for Shakespeare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman_(film)

unquote

brb...

well..I'll have to watch the movie again to remember how I derived "headless conspiracy' from it...and actually there's one going on right now..the enemy Taliban with bin Laden have somehow managed to decentralize themselves so that they crop up spontaneously here and there..."it's like they get together for pick up basketball" one tv panel talker put it...exactly...shooting at US has become a kinda sport.

Anyway...somewhere from all this I'm trying to articulate the notion of conspiracies that have no top down hierarchies...or hard links between members...but rather just sprout up...like fads..hoola hoop like....fans of RockandRoll singers dont think of themselves conspiring...but to critics of the movement...dastardly record burners!...they see the whole pop culture as a conspiracy...and indeed....'from a distance'...fandoms are very conspiracy looking...

And all over the country the awful self similar shooting and mayhem and gangland culture that is besetting...looks...like a conspiracy...but...it's headless...

there is a military tactic...a gureilla war sorta things...that is exactly like this...brb...

well..I just cant recollect and too late to go through old posts that have it!...meanwhile...wiki provides a list!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories

a pinpoint

quote

he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

unquote

well...that is very much what the critters do!...they pursue without wavering their own lives...yet somehow they contribute to the wider 'ecosystem'...which 'from a distance'...appears as God's handiwork....the Ultimate Conspirator I'd say!...and all this is likely why Muir had the notion that God made Creation...and then let Creation go it's way...which I kinda like too...anyway..

a conspiracy can motivate people..for good or bad...from a wide range of inputs...some so subtle and fleeting that it's very hard to pin down if they are indeed an influence...on say.... someone's need to collect baseball cards!

Bette Midler on youtube "From a Distance"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDSh5wUtXt4

One should read Adam Smith with Baseball Cards in mind!!

another pinpoint

quote

By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.

unquote

which makes me wonder if I should just chuck it all and 'follow your bliss'....

sigh...

DavidDavid

Spontaneous Conspiracies

Well...the TV is still out....and I got to talking over lunch with my friend...who I can talk to with historical things!...not many of those about...and unloaded the whole tale of Two Gun Cohen...and during all the while they smiled and said yes...it's all a conspiracy...the Founding of Israel is kinda the capstone of Two Gun's career...oh...I rambled on about many things....how's it go...cieling wax...brb...

quote

The Walrus and the Carpenter

Walked on a mile or so,

And then they rested on a rock

Conveniently low:

And all the little Oysters stood

And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings."

unquote

Now...how in the world did that pop into my head just now!!....it's a conspiracy I tell you...

lemego see if anything new on web about Two Gun..brb...here's wikipedia's take...and not bad!...left out the founding of Israel part...mostly...if I remember...it was fund raising...and elaborate schemes to unhorse the British which were fantasies....the real deal was the likes of the Stern Gang...where the lunch discussion began!...brb...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Sternhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Stern

well...I hadn't read that tale!...which reminds me of the British Mayor of Jerusalem....

http://books.google.com/books?id=IyjwwgxrNHkC&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=R.+M.+Graves+jerusalem&source=web&ots=dZXAAOZaAD&sig=jt0B_FZqI7yYnVzb6QdQupLuUZE&hl=en

brb

well anyway...here's Robert Graves brother, Philip..and his take on the Protocols of Zion...I thought the mayor was related too...brb...and that's mentioned in book bits of R M Graves...but the book is always gone!...I[m pretty sure he's a relation...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Graves

a curious and talented family...

and..well..here's a page with the whole business in a nutshell...

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1918575

DavidDavid

Psalm

Oh...I got an assignment....look up Psalm 137...Oh..I said..that's was the one on TV...which still isn't working tonight...I'm gonna get a Dish..hmmph...anyway...

I dont like things to get...be...I dont know...tagged...the Political Squabble might taint the verse...taints are very hard to deal with...save that for a "somtime" post!...anyway...brb...

quote

During his return journey, near the Mekong River along the Cambodian coast, he was shipwrecked, saving his manuscript but losing his Chinese lover.

Luís de Camões

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_de_Cam%C3%B5es

He wrote a poem about the Psalm...which is a poem...and as it happens...HAS a tag..or taint...it's last line...I was forewarned!...but wont quote it here...it is a very good poem...

Once I wanted to read to Pop from the Bible...but it all seemed so grim and hardly in keeping with the travails of his illness...something cheerful on TV did better...and so much of the Bible is serious...well TV is too..but it gets glossed over!..."not a smile or laugh anywhere"...Graves...something like that!...I've never been able to plow through the whole thing...

and I tried to turn the conversation to Graves' Hebrew Myths...and why is it!? that Greek stuff and Hebrew stuff is so modern...and Egyptian stuff and Sumerian stuff..just wierd!...brb...oh..Graves wrote the book with Raphael Patai...and on Amazon it says Patai wrote a book called Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times...b r b ...

quote

Raphael Patai. The Children of Noah: Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times. Assisted by James Hornell and John M. Lundquist. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1998. Pp. xix, 227. $24.95.
It took more than sixty years to research, write, and publish this fascinating work on ancient Jewish seafaring. Raphael Patai began working on the subject as a graduate student in 1933 (he subsequently changed his dissertation topic). Soon after receiving his Ph.D., Patai returned to his research on ancient Jewish seafaring and published a book in Hebrew titled Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times (1938). In 1944, Patai translated this book into English and sent it to an American scholar, James Hornell of Utah (who had written an article on seafaring in antiquity), to request Hornell's opinion of the translation. Hornell urged Patai to publish the work, but Hornell died in 1949, when Patai was already working on another of his thirty books. It was not until 1993 that he resumed his work on ancient Jewish seafarers. Patai died in 1996, two years before publication of this monograph, which in some ways is both his first and last book. The genesis of the volume is so remarkable that it is almost as interesting as its contents, which include—in honor of Hornell's encouragement—an appendix by John M. Lundquist entitled "Biblical Seafaring and the Book of Mormon."
1
Patai's book, well constructed and written with clarity, exhibits exemplary knowledge of the sources. Hebrew sources include the Bible, the Mishnah, and the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. The ancient writers of Greek and Latin—such as Josephus and Plato, Livy, and Varro—were also studied, as well as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew inscriptions. Patai has used recent archeological discoveries extensively, such as the 1986 excavation of an ancient fishing boat on the shore of Lake Kinneret.

http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/105.1/br_170.html

unquote

very cool!...bought the book!...and now gotta go get a couple of Klein knit hats!

last night's post gave me nightmares...gotta do some 'untainting' of my own!

DavidDavid

Parasites

I took a pic yesterday of a Brown Headed Blackbird...and then looked it up...and then read how it lays eggs in other birds' nests...it doesn't build it's own nests and has been known to invade over one hundred and fifty different songbirds' nests...lemesee if I got that right...brb...

quote

Brown-headed cowbirds are brood parasites. They deposit their eggs in nests belonging to birds of other species. Some of the birds they parasitize remove the eggs from their nests or cover them with new nest material so that they are not incubated.

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/107/_/Brown-headed_Cowbird.aspx

unquote

Which all reminds me of Clifflord Stoll's Cuckoo's Egg...brb...here's wiki's take

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Stoll

what's a klein bottle?..brb...

http://www.kleinbottle.com/

http://www.kleinbottle.com/klein_bottle_hats.htm

dont know but that I might get one of the hats...a puzzling hat for a puzzled head!

anyway...Cuckoo's do the same with their eggs as the Brown Headed Cowbirds...and in that behavior I saw a metaphor for rapacious things...like what the Nazi German's did to their neighbors France, Russia, Sweden, Spain, etc. during the years between the world wars...they made front industries...but that's a long long 'take'...maybe for another 'sometime'!

and that whole thought thread tonight got sidetracked by a friend bringing up a rotting corpse in an old Greek tragedy...Clytemenstra?...we thought...neither of our memories good for old Greek names!...but we love those old myths!...my friend has been to the Parthenon replica in Tenessee!...anyway...lemefind the old Greek story...well no...Clytemnestra isn't it...but it might have something I lost...but for later...I think the one about the corpse had to do with Seven Against Thebes...brb...well..it's Antigone...and that search brought that recollection..so I was close..or closer!....but the conversation reminded me of another corpse...and it's another grim Greek tale...brb...

Oh...I had that one almost right too...I did search Penethesia...which went nowhere...and the name is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penthesilea

oh..and this too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penthesilea_Painter

brb...

quote

In the Pseudo-Apollodorus Epitome of the Bibliotheke[5] she is said to have been killed by Achilles, "who fell in love with the Amazon after her death and slew Thersites for jeering at him". The common interpretation of this has been that Achilles was romantically enamored of Penthesilea [6] (a view that appears to be supported by Pausanias, who noted that the throne of Zeus at Olympia bore Panaenus' painted image of the dying Penthesilea being supported by Achilles).[7] Twelfth-century Byzantine scholar Eustathius of Thessalonica postulated a more brutal and literalist reading of the term loved, however, maintaining that Achilles actually committed necrophilia on her corpse as a final insult to her.

unquote

It's...it's kindof a shocking story..but the tale has a kindof ring to it...as does Antigone...and too Achilles dragging Hector about...well..the Greek's understood something the Marine's are famous for...recovering their fallen from the battlefield...brb...

quote

Although it later emerged that L Cpl Ford had been shot and killed during the operation, four of his colleagues strapped themselves to the wing-stubs of Apache attack helicopters and returned in a bid to recover him.

http://www.4rfv.co.uk/nationalnews.asp?id=58349

unquote

British Marines in that instance...people can get very emotional over the dead...last night a road killed Grey Squirrel I picked up by the tail and removed to some fallen branches and leaves beneath a Black Oak.

DavidDavid

Nostalgia

I head this word defined...it's origens I mean...on a talk show awhile back...I think it was a CNN newscast...brb...

quote

The term was newly coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer (1669-1752), a Swiss medical student. The word is made up of two Greek roots (νόστος = nostos = returning home, and άλγος = algos = pain/longing), to refer to "the pain a sick person feels because he wishes to return to his native land, and fears never to see it again". This neologism was so successful that people forgot its origin. Homesickness is often given as a synonym for nostalgia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia

unquote

Went to Mariposa for a day...and that's all it takes to be homesick for the Valley...it's always a pinch myself and to see if it's real when the Bus crosses Pohono Bridge...and I see the 'falls'...

Carrier was on again....PBS....then Nat Geo with a scary bit on gangs...a kinda "evil"-lution tale....now one on about remarkable self rescues...'super human strength'......

There's another pic from that USS Augusta site I want to snag...both of these...this one and the crew one before...were on ebay and I tried to get them...I read so much studying out the Panay...much of it things being offered on ebay...photos and memorabilia from Old Shanghai...of the 1930s...and there's a strong sense of Nostalgia that emanates from those years...not sure why...some of it is in the Indiana Jones movies...anyway...going to get the pic..brb...

and this is the tale of Truman aboard the Augusta...when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped...

http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/truman/index.htm

The lower pic may not be in Shanghai...from this site...

http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/crew/photos.htm

DavidDavid

Little Bads

By way of apology...often in the baseketball game...after a flub...a player might pat his chest and say, "My bad..."....and the game continues...

Over Breakfast a friend related this story..."My friend's kid looked at us while we were smoking cigarettes...and said, 'Cigarettes are bad'...and then said..."You're bad." "No no no..." we said..."we're not bad."

I dont remember how the conversation got to there...but from there I chimed in with a lecture on how little things, while not bad in the singular moment...in accumulated moments can be very bad indeed...and my friend agreed..."Yeah...like cancer."

Now... tonight PBS had 'Carrier' on...and a young sailor was reporting on being disciplined for drinking...and said something to the effect..."It's a small bad...but here small things have big importance."

Now the Fugitive is on...which is all about discipline too...the Fugitive trying to right a very big bad while being thought a bad person.

Oh...he lectures the gathered dinner crowd...

The officers disciplining the sailor said..something like...'They're not a bad sailor...that's not what this is about...we want everyone to understand the importance of shipboard discipline...make mistakes like this and you endanger...and let down.... your shipmates".

And later...this is good....on beginning pilots....'When they mess up...we try to give them some slack...after all...it costs a million dollars to train one...a few extra flights and they might get it....otherwise...they're washed out."

Well...those are all paraphrases...but the discipline of the warship...becomes a "culture"...and it's not surprising the varied work units become 'many as one'...and wearing the different colors they do glues each group together...it's almost like 'evolution at work'...

And needless to say, from the Captain on down, the orders received are the prevailing..order...without question.

And what I thought of all this 'little things adding up to big things...or thing..." is how difficult it was for John Muir to get across that the Valley was formed by Glaciers....that the slow movement over long period of time...wore away so much stone...it's hard to believe..but to see glacier polish at Cathedral Lake...well...it makes one a believer!

Small things over time can accumulate to make big changes.

And it's very hard to see how a small thing can be part of a large scale event...it's the old 'can't see the forest for the trees'....the disciplining of the sailor was to have them see the 'forest'...and the enthusiasm of individuals for their work unit..their group...is because they see the 'forest' and..well...what did the pilot say?...'We start to all think alike".

I'll have to think on this some more...with regard to so many movies that play on the idea that one individual goes against the grain...not for their own interest, but for the self same group that they've left..for it's interest. Is that right!...a difficult thought...for another time...I'll keep an eye out for a plot that illustrates...well... Hamlet does...but one more contemporary!

quote

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 10, 1989: When he [Manute Bol] throws a bad pass, he'll say, "My bad" instead of "My fault," and now all the other players say the same thing.

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2006/02/the_origin_of_m.html

unquote

quote

USS Augusta (CA-31)
"I have the greatest pride in commanding this fine ship and her 100% loyal Brotherhood of the Sea." --- Captain Chester W. Nimitz, Commanding Officer (1933-35)

http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/index.htm

unquote

now...lemessee if I can find the crew pic...brb...pics from here:

http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/crew/photos.htm

The Carrier in the PBS show was named after Nimitz.

And here a fine story...

http://ussfoote.blogspot.com/2008/04/freddie-john-falgout.html

DavidDavid