A long sweaty day in a stuffy internet cafe later – a treat.
Check out todays blog page by Rachel Hulin at a Photography blog. Always a treat.
Today. Birds - and out of interest, see the last comment on the Andrew Zuckerman piece.
I have to agree.
But it is beautiful.
And be sure to spend some time following the rest of those links. Some good stuff.
Now I’m running outside for fresh air. And just maybe, a cold beer.
It makes me happy to have Desmond Tutu on the job; I’m a little more hopeful.
Watch this video from Earth Touch (be sure to give their downright stunning website a go-over too) about corals and climate change, directed at the decision makers at Copenhagen.
Coral reefs and climate change, a message for Copenhagen from Earth Touch on Vimeo.
For detailed and up to date news on the ground at Copenhagen, check out this blog from Repower America.
Finally, a great slideshow called “Our sinking earth” from the Daily Beast.
About 80 million years ago Madagascar settled into its spot in the Mozambique Channel, 79 997 500 years later (approximately…), people arrived, from SE Asia and not long after, form Mainland Africa. (Although the possibility of earlier civilisations is being investigated.)
Over time kingdoms flourished and Madagascar became an important link in the Western Indian Ocean trade routes, culminating in the almost countrywide Merina kingdom around 1800.
Europeans stumbled on it in the 1500s (and presumptuously named it), began trading with the Malagasy kingdoms – it also became a favourite hangout for pirates and slave traders – until the French decided to take it over at the end of the 1900s and banish the Merina monarchy.
60 Years later Madagascar became independent with Philibert Tsiranana becoming its first president. Because he maintained close ties with France and given preferential trading status, the economy grew. (Meaning that some people became richer…) However, because of those same ties, he was overthrown in 1972 as popular protest demanded true independence from France.
In 1975, Didier Ratsiraka stepped into the vacuum and would remain there – with only a brief interruption – until 2002. He enacted staunch Marxist policies – complete with little red book – but like most, promised power to the people, but delivered centralised decision making.
Marxist economic policies and aggressive nationalisation saw the economy flounder, hitting a crisis point in 1981/2. Internal unrest locally and the possibility of external funding lead to Ratsiraka liberalising and by 1992 he had instituted a multiparty ‘democracy’. In 1993, due to popular dissatisfaction, a new president, Albert Zafy was elected.
Not long after, Zafy was widely viewed to be incompetent and was impeached three years later, which was followed by a further three years of interim government and 1996 saw Ratsiraka return to power.
In 1999 an incredibly successful, self-made business man, Marc Ravolomanana become mayor of Antananarivo and gained huge popularity – enough to take the top spot away from Ratsiraka in the 2001 elections. A glowing moment for democracy, followed by eight months of severe political unrest as Ratsiraka’s supporters tried to barricade the capital and the seat of Ravolomanana’s power, which lead to a collapse of the tourism industry and the destruction of massive amounts of infrastructure.
Late in 2002 the Ravolomanana government was locally and internationally recognised and the country stabilised and the economy grew. However the 2002 election and the disruptions around it – which, depending on who you speak to may have been a coup attempt or simply a suggestion by army generals that Ravolomanana step down – showed that the general population was not receiving much benefit from this growth. Much was rumoured to simply be enriching TIKO, Ravolomanana’s company, and the inevitable few elites around the country.
In 2009, the mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, started gaining popular support on the back of an ongoing lack of improvement of the majority of people’s lives and a few bad moves on the part of Ravolomanana, including an ill-timed purchase of a jumbo jet and an attempt to sell scarce agricultural land to South Korea. In January and February, Rajoelina’s supporters took to the streets of the capital and during one protest more than 100 people were killed by Ravolomanana’s private guards. By mid-March Ravolomanana had stepped down, with power first passing to the generals, then to Rajoelina and currently, to a tentative and much argued and altered interim government made up of representatives from each of the four past presidents’ parties with an eye on an election mid 2010.
The most recent meeting to be held in Maputo, to discuss the ministerial posts which are supposed to be distributed, six posts each, between the four members of the transition government, was boycotted by Rajoelina. The three remaining ex-presidents went ahead under the mediation of the former Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano. After they proceeded to make all the necessary distributions of posts, Rajoelina released various statements accusing them variously of attempting a coup (…!), high treason and an attack on national sovereignty…
Very few people are optimistic about a smooth election next year and an easy transition back to a popularly elected government.
Next week, How politics and the environment have played bedfellows over the past 20 years…
trong>
…So I just wrote out a whole bunch of links to some more or less interesting things. And once published all I got was the ‘trong>’ above
Irritating, but I quite like it.
If my memory serves me:
A new project from the website called the exposure project – Graphic intersections.
I like the idea of word association; I love the idea of visual associations. Some of the pictures / associations made me smile – and I’m not generally a fan of this kind of fine art photography – but even more, I like thinking what I would have done.
Who ever said playing with yourself is less fun.
Also, here is a new blog I’ve set up for ReefDoctor, the NGO I’m working for here in Mada – once it gets going with contributions from all the various quarters, it should give you a good insight into what life’s like here.
Finally, for today, heres something I got from a friend (thanks fox) that made me smile – a little piece of genius:
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” is a grammatically correct sentence. brilliant.
Think about it for a while, then let wikipedia show you how to read it.
And wingtips.
A fun new hobby. One day I’ll get the whole bird, but I’m worried that’s going to spoil the fun.
Also…
Take (about) 25 minutes out of your day and watch this short film. And tell me about it – cause I my internet connection just laughed at me when I tried to play it.
But I have seen enough ‘this is the best short film I’ve ever seen’ comments attached and attributed to this one, that I reckon it might be worth a peek.
Treat youself!
Thanks to googlebooks and LIFE magazine for putting their entire print run online – 1860 issues from 1936 – 1972. Heaven. Now if only they could get that new magazine smell…
And continueing with online archives, all the World Press Photo winners since the contests beginning in 1955 ahve also been digitised for your pleasure.
I’m going to go lose myself for a while.
I grabbed my improvised broomcrutch, long lens and tripod. Hobbled and swayed down the beach, my camera hanging around my neck and beating me savagely with every one-legged crutch-jump.
Happy though.
I’ve never seen this again, a simultaneous moonset and sunrise.
Good reading:
I can’t give you a link (my internet connection will never, ever load the flashy NGM website) but go over to National Geographic’s website and search for piece called, “The end of plenty” a special report on the Global food crisis. It was in the June 2009 issue.
Superbly photographed and beautifully written, and something to sit a while and ponder on.
Think: moderation.
I am particularly taken with the ideas their ideas concerning what is being dubbed agroecology.
An intelligent, cheap and environmentally sound alternative to the fertiliser fueled Green Revolution II being pushed by massive agribusiness and well-funded, short sighted and occasionally well intentioned donor organisations.
Also, I have just been treated to another superb set of photos by a truly top of the class photojournalist and a favourite of mine, Randy Olsen. Genius.
Google him and treat yourself.
It started just seeing other people doing it.
And it seemed like they were having a good time.
It looked so relaxing.
Recently I tried it, and it is; it transports you, just for a little while, away, to a very happy place.
I’ve been doing it every day since that first time.
There are four of us doing it now.
Two more will probably give in soon.
It’s getting all out of hand.
It hasn’t started to interfere with our work yet, I hope we can control it.
None of us can stop though.
It’s just too good.
I don’t want to stop.
I like this monkey on my back,
my afternoon naps in my hammock.
Its lucky that there is an understanding here,
that Madagascan afternoons are creatures not to be taken lightly, trifled with.
They should be approached slowly and well rested.
Meet Halomitra pileus, commonly known as Neptune’s Cap.
It’s part of the Fungiidae family and a relative of the well known, free-living Mushroom coral that is very common on most reefs in the Indo-Pacific region.
If you look carefully at the second and third picture you can see the individual coral polyps’ / beasties’ mouths (the white, slightly overexposed bit…)Each mouth is a single animal and all the others are usually genetic duplicates of an original polyp which grew from a larvae. As they grow, multiply and begin to deposit the limestone skeletons which define them as ‘hard corals’ the individual becomes a colony of anywhere from 10’s to millions of animals. In the case of the guy below, you can see in the lines running parallel to each other, this suggest that it grew from a fragment of another colony which had broken off.
Around each mouth you can see their little tentacles and the tiny bumps on each tentacle are the nematoicytes or stinging cells which the coral uses to sting passing zooplankton, which are collected on the tips of the tentacles and then plopped into the waiting mouth.
This commonly happens at night for most corals (which is why night diving on coral reefs becomes a whole new universe), but certain species have their tentacles extended day and night. For this particular fellow it is very rare for its entacles to out during the day – except for juvenile colonies, which this one seems a bit large to be – or maybe I just got lucky as on the particular day I took the photo the water was full of near microscopic little beasties and lots of corals seemed to be feasting.
Despite the whole elaborate setup with the tentacles, most corals only recieve 10% of the nutritional needs from such active feeding, the rest comes from the photosythetates from the sybiotic zooxanthellate algae that lives in the walls of each polyp. These little fellow are what give most corals their colouring and thus what are expelled when corals become bleached. The coral then slowly starves to death after bleaching unless conditions return to a situation which is suitable for the algae to return.
Some corals are azooxanthellate, so without the symbiotic algae, and thus relay solely on active feeding – this means they are slower growing, but can live anywhere without the restrictions of access to light the other corals have.
There we go, Intro to corals 101.
The family Scorpaenidae has to be one of most fascinating of reef fish – its members ranging from visions of prehistoric dragons to the humble, slightly overgrown rock.
We’ve got the rather flamboyant lionfish, medusa-like Chinese dhows, gently floating around. There are the masters of camouflage, the Scorpionfish – with the Leaf scorpionfish mimicking the colours, shape and even movement of a leaf or macroalgae. Genius.
And a personal favourite, the Stonefish.
There are about 10 species in the subfamily Synanceinae, with the most common being Synanceia verrucosa, the Reef stonefish. Like the rest it’s an ambush hunter, it just takes things that one step further – it is theorised to secrete a kind of mucus which encourages algae and even certain small invertebrates to grow and live on its body. It will stay completely motionless for extremely long periods of time until it is certain its prey is perfectly within reach and then it strikes by extending its jaw, making a huge vacuum cleaner like mouth and disappearing its prey – all in about 15 milliseconds. It hangs out between coral rubble or buried in sand, where it is virtually invisible and is able to change colour depending where it decides to rest.
And its 13 dorsal fins contain the most toxic venom of all known fish species which is involuntarily expelled when pressure is exerted on it. The spines can even pierce rubber soled shoes. The two phrases most associated with descriptions of human injuries from the Reef Stonefish are: excruciating pain and can cause fatalities.
And last week I stood on one.
Turns out that July is their breeding season and so larger numbers than usual move closer to the shore than usual…
It was a very low tide last Sunday and we had to park the boat a little way away from the beach requiring some careful tromping through some seagrass. Three-quarters of the way I was carefully tromping, the last quarter was a high speed hobble-limp.
They are right about the excruciating bit.
Kind of like someone slowly but enthusiastically forcing a spear through your foot.
For hours.
Turns out that I got lucky though, they say the pain can last for days, depending on the dosage.
Lucky… being very much a relative term.
No harm done it seems though, I’ve gained a new appreciation for pain, my foot has deflated from a pink throwaway prop from the Nutty Professor set to near normal, I walk only a little funnily, and got to lay in bed nearly all week being served food and hot drinks at my whim.
Could always be worse.
Not only are they fascinating to sit and watch for a while, and they’re the cause of those quirky ‘Beware of the dung beetle’ signs inAddo Elephant Park that make such great humour pictures to show your friends on facebook… but they also made it into the scientific limelight recently:
Readit. Learn something.
Still roadtrippen
now thats a verb for you, to roadtrip
nearly done with the panorama’s,
its just a phase, I’m sure I’ll get through it.
But really, what else are you going to do on the top of the Swartberg pass, as of now, one of my favourite places in the country.
