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Bird brains more precise than humans'
(Phys.org) —Birds have been found to display superior judgement of their body width compared to humans, in research to help design autonomous aircraft navigation systems.
A University of Queensland (UQ) study has found that budgerigars can fly between gaps almost as narrow as their outstretched wingspan rather than taking evasive measures such as tucking in their wings.
UQ Queensland Brain Institute researcher Dr Ingo Schiffner said previous research showed humans unnecessarily turned their shoulders to pass through doorways narrower than 130 per cent of their body width, whereas birds are far more precise.
"We were quite surprised by the birds' accuracy – they can judge their wingspan within 106 per cent of their width when it comes to flying through gaps," Dr Schiffner said.
"When you think about the cluttered environments they fly through, such as forests, they need to develop this level of accuracy.
"When they encounter a narrow…
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September 22, 2014 at 6:18 am Sharada Balasubramanian Leave a comment
My conservation education experience with children
In 2013, I took up something I never did before. Though journalism is and always be my first love, there was something that was going on in my mind when it comes to conservation. How can we tell the children the importance of forests and its links to the water we get everyday?
In South India, almost 69 rivers originate from the Western Ghats. The mountains absorbs the rains during monsoon and reserves it. Then it slowly releases the water-drops of water form small rivulets, then a stream flows, and finally the river gushes, giving us our daily supply of water.
The film that portrays this in its best is Save our Sholas by Shekar Dattatri.
A bit about the film:
Titled 'SOS – Save Our Sholas', the 24-minute film, narrated by celebrated conservationist, Valmik Thapar, showcases the rich biodiversity of the southern Western Ghats forests and the problems…
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April 7, 2014 at 5:58 am Sharada Balasubramanian Leave a comment
Banned pollutants are still found in sparrowhawks
High levels of polluting chemicals which are used as flame retardants have been detected in the livers of sparrowhawks in the UK.
So-called PBDEs (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers) are a group of 209 closely related chemicals – some of which are toxic.
They are used as flame retardants in electronics and a wide range of products, including furnishings and cars, but they are released into the air during the lifetime of the product and can also flake off and become airborne as dust. PBDEs can accumulate on the feathers of the birds, which end up eating them when they preen.
Previous studies have shown these pollutants can be detected in sparrowhawk eggs. But this new research has characterised contamination levels in the birds themselves and shows that adult birds have higher levels in their livers compared to juveniles. The higher level in adult birds suggests the toxins accumulate over time.
The work also shows that if the bird was malnourished, then concentrations of PBDEs in the liver can be up to fifteen times higher than in the level seen in chicks or well-fed birds.
Professor Richard Shore from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, co-author of the study, explained that birds with poor nutrition accumulate dramatically higher levels of these toxins in their liver. This is because PBDEs may be found in fat stores and other tissues which a bird remobilises as it goes through starvation and, in addition, the liver shrinks in size.
'These birds have the same amount of chemicals inside them as non-starved birds, but a smaller amount of tissue to store them in. So, even though the amounts are the same, the concentration is higher,' he says. This has emphasised the need to look at an animal's body condition if liver concentrations are used as a way of monitoring persistent organic pollutants, like these.
Scientists don't currently know how high the concentration of these PBDEs needs to be to prove harmful to birds. But even at relatively low concentrations they can disrupt hormones and affect the reproductive success of the species.
Because of this, many PBDEs have already been banned. But levels of these banned toxins don't appear to be lowering in sparrowhawk populations, unlike in other birds.
'What we found happened with gannets was that levels of PBDEs rose sharply in the early 1990s when usage increased but they also fell very sharply when they were banned. We didn't see this with sparrowhawks,' says Shore.
'It's possible that since gannets are seabirds there is something in the marine system which metabolises these toxins, which we just don't have in the terrestrial system,' he explains. 'We know some fish are capable of metabolising PBDEs, but perhaps there is no equivalent in the terrestrial system.'
Shore stresses that the ban has been effective, but as these compounds are phased out, a range of newer compounds are being introduced in their place. 'A main focus on future work is to continue to monitor and analyse new compounds to see if they are entering the food chain, and if they are having any adverse effects,' he says.
April 29, 2013 at 10:35 am Sharada Balasubramanian 3 comments
Urban noise leads to less songbird diversity: Study
A team of Canadian researchers has found that anthropogenic noise (noise created by people that impacts other species) in urban areas leads to less songbird diversity. In their paper published in the journal Global Change Biology, the researchers describe how in studying songbird diversity in and around the city of Edmonton, they noted that songbirds that sang in low frequencies tended to have difficulty in communicating when having to compete with urban noise, leading to less mating and offspring production.
Many cities around the world have begun to implement plans to host songbirds—they are seen as an attractive feature in parks and other semi-natural settings. Unfortunately, such efforts have not lived up to expectations in many areas as diversity has been much lower than anticipated. Seeking to discover why, this new research effort focused on the idea that many songbirds may have trouble competing with urban noise, and as a result, fail to thrive.
The researchers surveyed 113 natural sites in and around the city of Edmonton Canada, noting the richness of songbird diversity, as well as elements commonly associated with their habitat, such as vegetation, food source etc. In analyzing their data, the team found a correlation between high urban noise level and songbird diversity—the more noise, the fewer the number of species. More specifically, they found that those songbirds that sang in low frequencies were more adversely impacted by urban noise, which they note generally comes from traffic, which also creates a lot of low frequency noise.
The researchers suggest that interference from low frequency traffic noise could cause interruptions in mating songs in addition to general communication problems between the birds, leading to less mating, and fewer offspring. The result is urban environments that favor songbirds that sing in high frequencies, at the expense of those that are more heavily impacted by noise in their environment, i.e. less diversity.
The team also studied seven particular species of songbirds to see if their numbers decreased as the level of noise around them increased, and found that the three species that sang in low frequencies did indeed show smaller and smaller population levels as the level of urban noise in the area increased.
More humans reside in urban areas than at any other time in history. Protected urban green spaces and transportation greenbelts support many species, but diversity in these areas is generally lower than in undeveloped landscapes. Habitat degradation and fragmentation contribute to lowered diversity and urban homogenization, but less is known about the role of anthropogenic noise. Songbirds are especially vulnerable to anthropogenic noise because they rely on acoustic signals for communication. Recent studies suggest that anthropogenic noise reduces the density and reproductive success of some bird species, but that species which vocalize at frequencies above those of anthropogenic noise are more likely to inhabit noisy areas. We hypothesize that anthropogenic noise is contributing to declines in urban diversity by reducing the abundance of select species in noisy areas, and that species with low-frequency songs are those most likely to be affected. To examine this relationship, we calculated the noise-associated change in overall species richness and in abundance for seven common songbird species. After accounting for variance due to vegetative differences, species richness and the abundance of three of seven species were reduced in noisier locations. Acoustic analysis revealed that minimum song frequency was highly predictive of a species' response to noise, with lower minimum song frequencies incurring greater noise-associated reduction in abundance. These results suggest that anthropogenic noise affects some species independently of vegetative conditions, exacerbating the exclusion of some songbird species in otherwise suitable habitat. Minimum song frequency may provide a useful metric to predict how particular species will be affected by noise. In sum, mitigation of noise may enhance habitat suitability for many songbird species, especially for species with songs that include low-frequency elements.
Journal reference: Global Change Biology
How human language evolved from bird songs?
"The sounds uttered by birds offer in several respects the nearest analogy to language," Charles Darwin wrote in "The Descent of Man" (1871), while contemplating how humans learned to speak. Language, he speculated, might have had its origins in singing, which "might have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions."
Now researchers from MIT, along with a scholar from the University of Tokyo, say that Darwin was on the right path. The balance of evidence, they believe, suggests that human language is a grafting of two communication forms found elsewhere in the animal kingdom: first, the elaborate songs of birds, and second, the more utilitarian, information-bearing types of expression seen in a diversity of other animals.
"It's this adventitious combination that triggered human language," says Shigeru Miyagawa, a professor of linguistics in MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, and co-author of a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
The idea builds upon Miyagawa's conclusion, detailed in his previous work, that there are two "layers" in all human languages: an "expression" layer, which involves the changeable organization of sentences, and a "lexical" layer, which relates to the core content of a sentence. His conclusion is based on earlier work by linguists including Noam Chomsky, Kenneth Hale and Samuel Jay Keyser.
Based on an analysis of animal communication, and using Miyagawa's framework, the authors say that birdsong closely resembles the expression layer of human sentences — whereas the communicative waggles of bees, or the short, audible messages of primates, are more like the lexical layer. At some point, between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago, humans may have merged these two types of expression into a uniquely sophisticated form of language.
"There were these two pre-existing systems," Miyagawa says, "like apples and oranges that just happened to be put together."
These kinds of adaptations of existing structures are common in natural history, notes Robert Berwick, a co-author of the paper, who is a professor of computational linguistics in MIT's Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
"When something new evolves, it is often built out of old parts," Berwick says. "We see this over and over again in evolution. Old structures can change just a little bit, and acquire radically new functions."
A new chapter in the songbook
The new paper, "The Emergence of Hierarchical Structure in Human Language," was co-written by Miyagawa, Berwick and Kazuo Okanoya, a biopsychologist at the University of Tokyo who is an expert on animal communication.
To consider the difference between the expression layer and the lexical layer, take a simple sentence: "Todd saw a condor." We can easily create variations of this, such as, "When did Todd see a condor?" This rearranging of elements takes place in the expression layer and allows us to add complexity and ask questions. But the lexical layer remains the same, since it involves the same core elements: the subject, "Todd," the verb, "to see," and the object, "condor."
Birdsong lacks a lexical structure. Instead, birds sing learned melodies with what Berwick calls a "holistic" structure; the entire song has one meaning, whether about mating, territory or other things. The Bengalese finch, as the authors note, can loop back to parts of previous melodies, allowing for greater variation and communication of more things; a nightingale may be able to recite from 100 to 200 different melodies.
By contrast, other types of animals have bare-bones modes of expression without the same melodic capacity. Bees communicate visually, using precise waggles to indicate sources of foods to their peers; other primates can make a range of sounds, comprising warnings about predators and other messages.
Humans, according to Miyagawa, Berwick and Okanoya, fruitfully combined these systems. We can communicate essential information, like bees or primates — but like birds, we also have a melodic capacity and an ability to recombine parts of our uttered language. For this reason, our finite vocabularies can generate a seemingly infinite string of words. Indeed, the researchers suggest that humans first had the ability to sing, as Darwin conjectured, and then managed to integrate specific lexical elements into those songs.
"It's not a very long step to say that what got joined together was the ability to construct these complex patterns, like a song, but with words," Berwick says.
As they note in the paper, some of the "striking parallels" between language acquisition in birds and humans include the phase of life when each is best at picking up languages, and the part of the brain used for language. Another similarity, Berwick notes, relates to an insight of celebrated MIT professor emeritus of linguistics Morris Halle, who, as Berwick puts it, observed that "all human languages have a finite number of stress patterns, a certain number of beat patterns. Well, in birdsong, there is also this limited number of beat patterns."
Birds and bees
The researchers acknowledge that further empirical studies on the subject would be desirable.
"It's just a hypothesis," Berwick says. "But it's a way to make explicit what Darwin was talking about very vaguely, because we know more about language now."
Miyagawa, for his part, asserts it is a viable idea in part because it could be subject to more scrutiny, as the communication patterns of other species are examined in further detail. "If this is right, then human language has a precursor in nature, in evolution, that we can actually test today," he says, adding that bees, birds and other primates could all be sources of further research insight.
MIT-based research in linguistics has largely been characterized by the search for universal aspects of all human languages. With this paper, Miyagawa, Berwick and Okanoya hope to spur others to think of the universality of language in evolutionary terms. It is not just a random cultural construct, they say, but based in part on capacities humans share with other species. At the same time, Miyagawa notes, human language is unique, in that two independent systems in nature merged, in our species, to allow us to generate unbounded linguistic possibilities, albeit within a constrained system.
"Human language is not just freeform, but it is rule-based," Miyagawa says. "If we are right, human language has a very heavy constraint on what it can and cannot do, based on its antecedents in nature."
Source: http://web.mit.edu/press/2013/how-human-language-could-have-evolved-from-birdsong.html
February 22, 2013 at 1:56 pm Sharada Balasubramanian Leave a comment
Have you cleaned your ear yet?
Often in the urban jungles, the voices of birds get muffled by the sounds of cranes (machine) and noise pollution. In such a scenario, how can we 'listen' to the voices of nature?
There are some scientists who are working on acoustic ecology to bring out these nature sounds for people. Apart from scientists, even musicians are making an attempt to revive nature sounds, like Troels Folmann, who is trying to raise awareness about music with bumblebees.
Acoustic Ecology is a term coined in the early 1970s, emerging largely from the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. The writings of R. Murray Schafer, most notably A Sound Education and The Tuning of the World (reissued asThe Soundscape), have provided a foundation from which several distinct yet related threads have grown.
Prominent themes in acoustic ecology today are:
- The effect of soundscapes on humans, in cities, nature, and buildings, including urban planning and architectural design that takes sound into account.
- Ways to become more aware of the sounds we are making, so we can make these choices more consciously.
- Reflection on the soundscapes we encounter day to day.
- The effects of human sounds on wildlife.
- The "right to quiet," which comes into play in wild lands recreation debates about motorized use, as well as in urban settings.
- The idea of acoustic windows or acoustic niches, employed by various species in a given habitat to avoid masking each other's vocalizations.
Source: http://www.acousticecology.org
Some researchers are attempting to find how people react to different sounds and how various sounds in daily lives impact them.
In the world that we live today, sounds of nature can actually heal us. Are you listening?
December 22, 2012 at 2:53 pm Sharada Balasubramanian 1 comment
Idaho – the worst place in the world for wolves
Is Idaho the worst place in the world for a wolf to live right now? Evidence suggests it is following the state killing nearly 400 wolves out of a population of less than 1000 in the 2011-2012 hunting season and then becoming the focus of a media storm after a wolf was caught in a leghold trap and then illegally shot at and injured by passers-by. The trapper, known as Pinching is a US Forest Service employee, and photos of him smiling triumphantly and posing with the injured and then the dead wolf were subsequently posted on www.trapperman.com. The photographs show a wolf with its hind leg in the trap and the snow around the wolf stained with its blood in a large red circle. The poor animal looks completely dejected, exhausted and, from its stance and demeanour, you can see it has suffered greatly, and is in pain. The images were quickly removed but not before they went viral after a shocked and horrified audience voiced their protest at such gruesome scenes, and the accompanying comments on the trapper forum that evidently showed the wolf had been tortured over a three day period.
You might ask why such animal cruelty is still going on in a civilised nation in the 21st century, but Idaho has very weak animal cruelty legislation according to the Humane Society. Their website states that: "Idaho's animal cruelty laws are some of the weakest in the country, as one of only three states with no felony level penalties for egregious animal cruelty". Furthermore, its policy-makers, including Governor, CL "Butch" Otter, have made no secret about waging a war on wolves, and with trapping and snaring being legal, and trappers given carte blanche to get away literally with murder of charismatic wild species, it is easy to see why Idaho, despite its vast wilderness and excellent habitat, may be the worst place to be for the wolf.
The comments from other trappers on the forum also indicated that this is not an isolated incident and they are also at complete odds with the Mission Statement on the trapperman.com website which talks at length about their goal of ethical trapping. The site states: "It's imperative that we show the public who we are and the good we are doing for wildlife." Did I miss something here? How can torturing a wolf, and revelling in the fact ever be equated with "doing good for wildlife"?
Perhaps more worrying is that someone apparently from the trapping community then issued a death threat against a Montana woman on an anti-trapping forum speaking out against the brutality that has been meted out to this particular wolf. This is thuggery at its most vile, and demonstrates a level of psychopathy that ought to be of serious concern to Idaho government officials. It is widely documented that animal abusers are often abusers of family members too.
What allows this war against wolves to continue, and which also provides the legal framework for the continuing violence against wolves and other wild species, is the power that minority groups have to shape policy and legislation. According to Safari Club International there are 259,000 hunters and anglers in Idaho; a state that has a population of 1.42 million living in 83,557 square miles. Hunters and outfitters complain bitterly and vociferously that elk numbers are declining, and many claim this is due to wolf predation. However, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the state's authority on ungulates, doesn't agree that the sky is falling on elk numbers. "We're having trouble in some areas, but overall things are looking pretty good," big game manager Jon Rachael recently told the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Female elk numbers meet or exceed objectives in 21 of 29 elk management zones and are below objectives in eight zones. Bull elk meet or exceed objectives in 20 zones and are below objectives in nine zones.
Idaho is breaking its pledge to manage wolves like other game species
During the March 21st public hearing at Idaho Department of Fish and Game, commission chairman Tony McDermott repeated the claim that Idaho is adhering to its public commitment to manage wolves like cougar and bears. But, compare how these species are managed and judge for yourself if this is true.
Cougar and bear cannot be sport trapped or snared in Idaho. Wolves can. Cougar and bear are managed for abundant populations. There are approximately 3,000 cougar and 20,000 black bears in Idaho, whilst wolf numbers are approximately 548 adult wolves remaining in Idaho after the state allowed hunters and trappers to kill almost 400 wolves in this season alone.
Idaho has reduced its wolf population by nearly half since wolves were exempted by a congressional rider on a budget bill, and yet it has just approved a hunting plan that will allow more wolves to be killed in the next season. There is no quota that sets a maximum number of wolves allowed to be killed.
Instead of managing for a healthy population of wolves, Idaho is only interested in maintaining less than 200 wolves in the entire state. If bears or cougar populations fell to that low level, there would be an immediate halt to hunting and actions taken to restore their numbers. And while the Idaho state government doesn't seem to value wolves, the state is essential to a healthy wolf population in the West. The state is the prime habitat for the core western Gray wolf population and crucial for the recovery of wolves to the Pacific Northwest and expanded range in the Rockies.
The arguments put forward for managing wolves at such low levels are that wolves kill livestock and compete with humans for elk. These arguments however don't merit the discriminatory manner in which wolves are managed. Wolves kill fewer livestock than disease, bad weather, birthing problems, noxious weeds, rustlers and other native predators. Wolf losses are the lowest they have been since 2004 with less than 200 cattle and sheep depredations confirmed statewide.
At the meeting, wolf advocates outnumbered those against wolf conservation by 3 to1, and yet the voices of the wolf advocates were totally disregarded and dismissed, with a further meeting being held the following morning to push through the motion to continue hunting and trapping wolves and increase the limits. One of the commissioners even went as far as calling the wolf advocates "crazy environmentalists", which I find quite unbelievable and shocking in this day and age. In that room there were scientists and professionals speaking out for the conservation of wolves. To call them crazy environmentalists only serves to highlight the arrogance that exists in those who hold power in the state, and who now seem to want to pursue only their own interests rather than the interests of all Idaho's citizens.
The Idaho war against wolves not only ignores the science behind wildlife conservation, but clearly also blatantly ignores the majority public opinion.
A Human Solution for a Human Problem
The real problem, just like anywhere else there is human/wildlife conflict, is a human one. It is the human perceptions of wolves, but the real conflict is between human groups with different and greatly polarised perspectives.
In Europe, there are the same problems, but it would seem that wildlife management is way ahead of Idaho when it comes to "grown-up" thinking about co-existing with wolves and other large mammals. In Bulgaria, a country that has also had a history of widespread hatred of wolves, perspectives have started to change with the development of a wolf management plan. The process surrounding the planning has brought together all the different groups and actors including foresters, farmers, livestock growers, hunters, rangers, policy-makers, conservationists and wildlife managers. Bear in mind, that this is also a country with a large ratio of hunters in the population.
In Bulgaria, wolves have never been extirpated Although Bulgaria is a mountainous country, with highly developed extensive livestock breeding, its farmers have always shared the mountain pastures with large carnivores, and there has never been any really extreme opposition to wolves and bears. Older shepherds remember the times when they had large flocks of sheep and always said: "There was enough for us and for wolves."
Poisoning and trapping of wolves occurred many decades ago, but in the late 1970s, when wolf numbers had decreased to around 200 individuals in Bulgaria, the species was included in the National Red Data Book as "endangered". In 1991,Bulgaria was one of the member countries which ratified the Bern Convention, which prohibits most of the previous methods of hunting for all game species, among which was the use of poisons and traps. These "hunting" methods became illegal!
Today, the wolf population in Bulgaria is estimated at around 1000 individuals, in a country territory with only 111 000 sq. km of territory (less than half the size of Idaho which complains that even a few hundred wolves are too many). Recently, the BALKANI Wildlife Society initiated a process for the development of a Wolf Management Plan and invited all interested groups to work together over a period of time to discuss the future management of the species so that it is preserved for the future generations in Bulgaria and the Balkans. Officials, foresters, hunters, farmers, scientists, conservationists worked closely together over many months to develop the plan and agree the main issues for the future conservation and management of the species. The whole process operated on the basis of reaching a consensus, which meant compromises had to be made from all sides and an understanding reached. As a result, all parties did finally reach an agreement that Bulgaria would implement a three month period of protection for the wolves during the months when wolves reproduce and the young pups are very dependant on their mother (April, May, June). This is a major leap forward in a country where hunters and farmers previously had a history of hating and fearing wolves, and where there was? a significant bounty offered for wolves killed that is equivalent to two weeks wages.
Bulgaria is not the first nor the only country to adopt such a mature and effective approach towards the conservation of its large wild mammalian species – Croatia, France, Italy to name a few others, are also adopting a more ecological approach to conservation.
So, what lessons can Idahoans learn from their counterparts throughoutEurope? It takes foresight and courage for policymakers to really make a difference in protecting their wild heritage. Idahohas never engaged its stakeholders in a meaningful conflict resolution process. At the moment Idaho's governor and state officials appear to the rest of the world to be failing miserably in this respect. There needs to be some sensible dialogue taking place and not the mud-slinging and fear-mongering and revenge killing of wolves that is the current default position.
Governor "Butch" Otter of Idaho, the world is watching, and you are being judged on how you treat your wild species. ''The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated ~ Mahatma Gandhi' (1869-1948)!
The situation in Idaho is directly due to the inadequate delisting criteria approved by the federal US Fish and Wildlife Service. Wildlife scientists around the world should protest any plan that allows all but 100 – 150 wolves to be killed in a state likeIdaho. Unfortunately, the Service and the Obama administration failedIdaho's wolves and are soon to approve a plan allowingWyomingto followIdaho's lead in reducing wolf numbers to ecologically unsustainable levels.
Links to other articles about wolf trapping incident and the media storm it has created:
Wolf Conservation in the UK
This article was written for Wolf Print, an international magazine published by the UK Wolf Conservation Trust which is run largely by volunteers who work tirelessly to help wolves in the wild. Although the UK lost its last wild wolf in the 17th century, conservationists here are keen to see that wild wolves elsewhere don't suffer the same fate and enjoy protection not only because of the vital role they play in the ecosystem but also for future generations to enjoy.
Suzanne Stone provided additional information for this article and is the Northern Rockies Representative for the Defenders of Wildlife. She has worked tirelessly for the conservation of wolves for 24 years including serving as a member of the USA – Canadian wolf reintroduction team for Idaho and Yellowstone. For the last 12 years, she has worked closely with ranchers and farmers to help them co-exist with wolves by adopting non-lethal control methods and livestock protection through better animal husbandry. She grew up in Idaho and still resides there today.
Elena Tsingarska is a biologist and Project Leader for Balkani Wildlife Society in Bulgaria. She has studied wolves in the country for many years and has been the driving force behind the recent successful Wolf Management Plan process. She has also been one of the leaders in the team behind the building, development and equipping of the Large Carnivore Education Centre based in Vlahi in the foothills of the Pirin Mountains. In the past ten years, the project has provided outreach education programmes to over 10,000 children throughout the region, as well providing workshops and seminar programmes for adult learners on the conservation of wolves, bears and other wild species in Bulgaria.


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We all know that manmade dams change water availability in the areas surrounding their construction, but could they also alter the weather patterns and climate in these areas? Wired reports on new research suggesting they might. According to the article, dams' "reservoirs could be increasing the intensity of extreme rainstorms in their immediate vicinities."
Hydrologist Fasial Hossain of Tennessee Tech University studies whether dams and their reservoirs accelerate or intensify heavy rainfall patterns, worrying that the dams themselves might cause storms that will "exceed [their] capacity" and make them potentially unsafe. The changes to weather patterns could occur because the large bodies of water change the evaporation/condensation cycles for the area, not to mention changes in irrigation which "transform the land in the area, possibly leading to local climactic impacts."
Currently, the research shows a large variance among areas around the world where mandmade dams have been built. Wired mentions that some areas on Africa or Europe have noticed 20 percent increases in "extreme precipitation events" whereas some American dams have only shown one percent increase. Even this small change can be catastrophic, however, since dams lose storage capacity with time as silt builds up and leaves less room for water. Hossain notes this could pose a danger for the dams overflowing and suggests perhaps keeping the water level of the reservoirs lower to make room for rainwater.

subset: commoncrawl


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Everybody loves a clown.
Comedian Red Skelton (I Dood It) personified and embodied FUN. Those who grew up with his long-running, highly popular TV variety show know this, but if you've never seen the man in action before, prepare for a jolt of giddiness you'd previously never imagined possible without copious amphetamine assistance–and legend has it the man was a tee-totaler.
Loaded up on pure love, was Red: his usual opening line was "I feel good tonight!" delivered while bouncing on his feet. His enjoyment of the audience and of the people he shared the stage with was palpable, but should all others depart, ol' Red was ready and willing to keep on going. A world-class pantomime, he adorned each show with a solo "Silent Spot," that for many, marked the apex of the Skelton experience.
Some of the jokes were too corny, some of them too topical for modern audiences to get the references–and thus, the punchlines–of, and given Red's penchant for mincing and mugging, I'd advise you not to try binge-watching, but there's one thing you can't take away from him: Red Skelton gave his all to every show; there was no phoning it in for this clown, and I'm not being derogatory here–it's as a clown the man wished to be remembered. Most episodes found him signing off–drenched in sweat, no less– with a hearty "God bless," and if he didn't mean it, well, he sure fooled me!
I was too young to have any memories of this show during its original twenty year run (from 1951-1971) but judging from the amount of laughing out loud I did while screening this set, I'd have to concede that The Red Skelton Hour officially qualifies as timeless entertainment. My only disappointments were in the incomplete nature of these episodes, which generally ran from forty to forty six minutes–a bit too short for hour-long shows of that era. Doubtless, the biggest losses were musical (most likely owing to licensing trouble; you know the drill) and it's a certified shame to be missing such footage, but barring a miracle, I really don't anticipate this problem being resolved and so I figured it was better to enjoy what there was than despair what there wasn't.
The title of this set: The Red Skelton Show: In Color: Unreleased Seasons continues to vex me; those last two words, in particular. The twelve segments corralled for this three disc set come from five different seasons and all of this material was previously released in at least one earlier collection. I've listed the program here in order to save you from needless double-dipping:
Disc One
Show #2516– "When Nuthood Was In Flower" Guest: Milton Berle Original Air Date: January 4, 1966
Show #1906–"Autograph Hounds" Guests: John Wayne; Julius Wechter and the Baja Marimba Band. Original Air Date: October 28, 1969
Show #0701–"Hippies Days Are Here Again" Guests: Tim Conway; Nancy Ames; Jackie Coogan. Original Air Date: October 31, 1967
Show #1804–"He Who Steals My Robot Steals Trash" Guests: Boris Karloff; Vincent Price; Ed Sullivan. Original Air Date: September 24, 1968
Disc Two
Show #0601–"Eenie Meenie Minee Schmo" Guests: Mickey Rooney; Simon & Garfunkel. Original Air Date: September 20, 1966
Show #621–"Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Dumb" Guests: George Gobel. Original Air Date: February 14, 1967
Show #721–"Dial M for Moron" Guests: Phyllis Diller; Lou Rawls. Original Air Date: January 23, 1968
Show #1801–"The Revenge of Prudence Pennyfeather or Wide Saddles in the Old Corral" Guests: Martha Raye. Original Air Date: October 15, 1968
Disc Three
Show #614–"The Fastest Cuspidor in the West" Guest: Robert Goulet. Original Air Date: December 13, 1966
Show #1524–"The Red Skelton Scrapbook" Guest: John Wayne. Original Air Date: March 1, 1966
Show #1817–"The Best Thing to Get Out of Marriage Is to Get Out of Marriage" Guests: Audrey Meadows; Ted Mack. Original Air Date: January 14, 1969
Show #2516–"If At First You Don't Succeed. Forget It" Guest: Merv Griffin. Original Air Date: March 18, 1969
As you've come to expect with Time Life releases of classic variety television shows on DVD, The Red Skelton Hour: In Color: Unreleased Seasons features some technically iffy moments in addition to those aforementioned edits. That said, these full-frame presentations look much better for the most part than I expected them to and as I said earlier, these are probably the best we'll ever get of 'em. Sure, the original mono sound hasn't aged all that well and English subtitles would've helped immensely, but there are none available.
Technically, there are two extras: brief interviews with singer Bobby Rydell and Vicki Lawrence. They're nice enough, but pure fluff and together add up to less than ten minutes.
On a happier note, with this set, you'll also get a chance to see several of Red's beloved, recurring characters, including: Sheriff Deadeye, Freddie the Freeloader, Clem Kaddiddlehopper, Bolivar Shagnasty, Cauliflower McPugg, Willie Lump Lump and of course, those chatterbox seagulls, Heathcliff and Gertrude, the Seagulls. Worried about exposing your children to any of this material? Don't! There's nothing but good clean fun here, folks.
Nawt Guilty.


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I have had a few times in my life had discussions about rape and its prevalence in the world. One of the things that I always used to say was "I know like 4 people that I know were raped, imagine how many people whom I know were raped that I'm not aware of." Because I was aware that most rape goes unreported, and I'm sure in lots of cases it goes relatively unremarked upon.
Yesterday, I started seeing "Me too" on people's Facebook posts. Now, I'm aware that there is a large variety of sexually predatory actions that take place, such as sexual harassment, assault, and rape, and others. I don't always know the specific distinctions, and I don't want to talk about the differences, what I want to talk about is the scale to which we're seeing these "me too"s.
I'm torn, because honestly, I wish there were none. I wish I was hearing about it about as a movement, but that all of the women I know were honestly able to not write anything (not that victimizing women I don't know isn't bad, but hopefully you understand what I mean). It has been gut wrenching for me every time I've seen one. Too see that all of these women have had this feeling of insecurity or danger, of disgust and invasion.
I'm disgusted, and I'm sorry to all of you that it happened to. I really do wish this movement had no momentum, because I wish it was a problem that wasn't clearly systemic.
I want to share two things personally with you on this topic.
The first thing, is #metoo. When I was in eight grade (14 years old), a young man who was bullying me, would grab my butt and my genitals through my pants, and whisper in my ear "do you like that faggot?" I only remember it happening a couple of times, although the bullying lasted longer.
Now, personally, this young man was younger than me, but was physically stronger, more aggressive, and more popular, and so I felt I had no power to stop it. I'm 33, so this was 19 years ago, and I'm not sure that I am over it, but I don't feel any anger towards him. I've spoken to a therapist, and family, and something that I've come to the conclusion of, was that he was likely having some kind of similar issue, and didn't know how to process it.
Now, I'm lucky, my father found out that my bullies were 'pants-ing' me, and immediately went to my school and made it clear that it was over, and over night, it was better.
Now the second thing that I want to talk about. Is that without meaning to, I am sure that I have contributed to this problem. When I was younger (12-26) I was desperately trying to find love. I had crushes on girls, and I was usually pretty clear about that. From about 12-14, I would ask girls out, and I was unable to understand that when they would say things like "Um… I have plans that night" or whatever polite excuse they had, that they were trying to be nice and let me down easy. I thought they genuinely had those plans, and that if I were able to find a date more accommodating for them, that they would be willing to go out with me. The truth is, they didn't like me.
At this point in my life, I was significantly bigger than the other kids my age, and I had acne, and I'm sure that there was a degree of me looking like a big oaf, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was intimidating to the girls I was asking out, especially when I kept asking. At that point in my life, it wasn't sexual, I wanted to hold hands, maybe kiss, the idea of having sex with them had really never entered my brain, but if you're a young woman already becoming aware of the dangers of the world, 12-14 year-old me had to be setting off all the alarms. Even if they knew I was pretty innocent intention-wise, I probably looked like Lenny from Of Mice and Men to them. So for that I'm sorry.
Thank you to all the women who are coming forward to show us that this is such a real problem. I hope that we as a society can make this better, I hope that this can become 'fringe' issue that some of us would like to believe it currently is.


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EU News
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Consumer Safety – Check Product Recalls Worldwide in a Few Clicks!
A new international portal was launched in Brussels recently, which will allow authorities across the world to exchange information about unsafe products that have been taken off the market. The 'Global Recalls Portal' is a project developed jointly by the EU and OECD countries including the US, Australia and Canada. It was unveiled by the Director General in the Directorate General for Health and Consumers of the European Commission (SANCO), Paola Testori Coggi, the OECD Deputy Secretary General, Rintaro Tamaki, and US Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman, Inez Tenenbaum, as part of International Product Safety Week.
Consumers are increasingly buying on the world market, online and offline. In this larger global market, they want to be sure that no dangerous products have slipped through the net. How can they find out whether the baby-carrier or the bike made outside the EU complies with European and international safety requirements? They can look it up in the "Global Recalls" portal. With an expected 3000 product recall notices per year, consumers, businesses and authorities will have access to a remarkable pool of information on recalled products, enriched on a regular basis by the EU (through RAPEX, the EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products), US, Canadian and Australian authorities.
The portal, whose data is in searchable format, will contribute to boosting consumer safety across the world and will enhance consumers' awareness and confidence in buying global.
SANCO Director General, Ms Testori Coggi, OECD Deputy Secretary General, Mr Tamaki and US Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman, Ms Tenenbaum expressed their satisfaction with the Global Recalls portal which will foster information sharing and contribute to efficient protection of consumers on the global marketplace. They agreed that this new data pool will help government regulators, consumers and businesses search for information on consumer product recalls across the world. This is a case for joining forces to better be able to tackle product safety issues. The three representatives encouraged businesses and consumers alike to become regular users of Global Recalls. They also called upon countries around the world to participate in the portal, so that the largest possible market is covered.
Find out more about the Global Recalls Portal at: globalrecalls.oecd.org/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EU_Consumer


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This is the first year that the boys have picked out their own Costumes and, yes, I will admit that I think picking out costumes is fun for me too. I find Halloween to be a fun holiday - my kids will ask me "What is Halloween for?" and I will always reply, "Free Candy!" . I would like to decorate my hard a little bit but I think I need to play a little earlier for that :-/
Anyway, Nate told me he wanted to be a dragon and Josh said a ghost. We went to Party City and looked at what they had. Josh quickly changed his mind and wanted to be a Pirate (which I was glad because I didn't want to have to make a ghost costume HA). We tried on the one dragon costume but it did not fit Nate at all. Nate picked out another pirate costume but was a little disappointed. The next day I went onto the website and found a dragon costume and, so I could be mother of the year, ordered it. When it came, Nate was so excited, tried it on and seemed to like it but then . . .looked at me and said, "I really don't like this, I want to be a Pirate". Seriously? Oh well!
So, here are my two Pirates. :-)


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Doing the gluten free diet on your own is a difficult thing. Alone is difficult, period. That's why I think there are so many support groups when people are overcoming something difficult: alcoholism, medical treatments, etc. The list could go on forever. I never got into a support group after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I'd feel somewhat silly, seeing as how I refuse to wear most of my emotions on my grubby sleeve.
But I do have a support group, in a way. A one on one counselling service. My boyfriend. I figured there were three phases (generally) when it came to how he dealt with my Celiac Disease, so I'll outline them here...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Ready to raise baby plants
I grew up in a greenhouse run by my grandpa. He's got the greenest thumb of anybody you'll ever have met. And since he only has one thumb, it's a super concentrated green thumb.
I'm assuming that my dad got a little bit of the genetic green thumb (but he's never gone outside long enough to garden. Us pale folk are delicate creatues in the sunlight). My mom has a tad of the brown thumb. She can kill tomato plants like it's an art. Mix my parents together, and I think I got a brownish-green thumb.
I've always loved growing plants. And now I live in a house that has a garden, and I signed the lease for another year. I'm going to garden. But I hate germinating plants in expensive peat moss planters, or those plastic things. I want something cheap. Then I read "Grow Great Grub", which suggested using cardboard tubes to germinate plants. Awesome. But the bottoms were left open in the book. And the whole tube was used. And then I read this article that I found on craftgawker:
And my first thought was "I need to do this right away". So I put on a few episodes of Eureka, and found my happy place to make a few dozen baby planters. I'll show you how. Let's gather our materials.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Fire > BBQ > Oven
Even though I live in the middle of a city in the middle of the Canadian prairies, I love water and I love camping. I specifically love camping at a site that you can only reach by water (on a canoe). So, eight months into my relationship with The Boyfriend, I decide to test the waters (literally) to see if he likes my favourite and adored pastime.
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Our HouseCheck team of experienced and professional home inspectors is backed by years of experience in South African property. Each inspector has been trained by SAHITA (the South African Home Inspection Training Academy) to the best international standards and we use internationally tested and approved reporting software – this enables HouseCheck to provide quick (within one working day), accurate reports of a consistent high quality to our clients.
Every home inspector has been trained to inspect all major elements of the property and to provide an objective opinion on its present condition, operation and function. SAHITA courses have been based on a combination of the National Building Regulations, the manuals of the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) and manufacturers' specifications as the guideline to minimum acceptable standards.


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No products
Prices are tax excluded
The Flight for surfers who want to fly.
Availability date:
6'8 FLIGHT Bio Sap Epoxy.
Fin System: Centre box and FCS Side Biters
6'8 x 21 1/4" x 2 7/8"x 44 litres
The Flight has a sleek outline and rocker that ouse speed and control. A board will love surfing in medium to big waves, or for a lighter surfer, happy to scratch a waist high pocket.
The bottom shape features single to deep double concave with slight 'V' in the tail, giving the Flight control and drive. Shaped with ample volume under your chest to get the Flight down the face of the wave for critical take off and set you up for the fast walled up section. Enjoy surfing a fully committed cutback into the steepest of sections, there is always so much speed to enjoy. For 2016 the Flight will feature wing pintail with low thin rail in the tail full mid rail and higher rail in the nose. The Flight is a true modern take on a classic design.
The bottom and rails of the blank were painted yellow, laminated with Bio Sap resin on a Homeblown blank. I shaped this one by hand as a prototype for the Sustainable Surf Conference where we laminated it live in a hotel ball room, so the board has some history before you even put it on the water..
When using this Homeblown PU/Bio Sap Epoxy laminate we qualify for the Sustainable Surf Org icon which means that we are doing our best to make our boards as environmentally clean as possible at the moment. Still a long way to go but we are making a start.
If you want to come and try a Flight or any other of our models we look forward to seeing you, just give us a call or send a email first to ensure that the board you want is available.
No customer comments for the moment.


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❮ Back | ×
From a custom Hanukkah banner to hang outside the synagogue to announce the date of the Menorah lighting to personalized favors as small as a mint tin or as big as a cookie tin, you'll find everything you need to create a fun, festive and meaningful Hanukkah celebration. Start with a great personalized invitation. You can begin from a blank slate and create something uniquely your own. Customize the message and use the invitations as Hanukkah greeting cards, too. With the careful coordination across all our Hanukkah party supplies, it's easy to carry the same design and look throughout your event, from the banner to the favors, even if your celebration involves all eight nights.
Notify me when this product is back in stock.Email:
Our Party Supplies By Color search makes it easy to find all the tableware and decorations you need to make your Hanukkah party a stylish event. Simply click on blue, white or silver and you'll see our entire inventory in those shades. You'll even see what candy we have in those specific colors, which is a good if you're looking for a way to fill favor containers in theme-appropriate colors. Check our winter party supplies for additional décor ideas. You'll find glittery snowflake balloons in Mylar or latex, along with the weights and curling ribbon you need to create fabulous bouquets. You'll find everything from natural-looking pines to candles to gleaming LED pines in our holiday boutique, many in wintery hues of white and crystal that are perfect for a Hanukkah celebration.
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Bonded cladding: making the 'impossible'possible!
Rooted in innovation and historical 'first' today Tweha is at the forefront of the ever-inventive, increasingly demanding architecture found across the globe. New, or remedial, straightforward or complex, Tweha deliver results for a wide range of application challenges.
Once deemed too risky to employ without safety mechanisms, freestanding bonded-cladding-projects are now accepted industry practice thanks in large part to Tweha's essential role in the construction of the world's first bonded cladding projects without any safety mechanisms. It's long history of market 'firsts' and transformative milestones forever changed modern day construction; Tweha's Bonding Products have been used on awe-inspiring structures since 1992.
Bonding Technology
Tweha has access to a wide range of key technologies in the area of functional organic materials cladding technology. The properties of our products are clearly in tune with customer requirements regarding production technology and product design.
In the area of bonding, the focus is on bonding components with a view to making them impermeable to humidity, water, gasses or chemicals. This is achieved by giving the sealants suitable physical properties, and by creating a bond on the surfaces of the components. Such products also allow components to move relative to one another.
Adhesion is a bonding technology, meaning that the most important function of adhesives is the transferral of forces between the bonded materials. Adhesives may be expected to meet quite different requirements depending on the objectives concerned. The flexible adhesives from our product groups reduce the load on substrates thanks to their rubber-like properties that prevent peaks of stress.
Structural adhesives from our product groups make it possible to achieve a high degree of rigidity, permitting the transfer of large forces over small areas.
When bonding facade panels, the foremost requirement is for rigidity to develop extremely quickly in order to avoid the need for fixing aids, and to allow fast production cycles.
Adhesives should generally have little to no effect on substrates. Our bonding adhesives PanelMate, StoneMate, GlassMate and MetalMate make specific use of substrate properties in order to achieve extremely strong bonds between the joined parts and the adhesive.
Due to their high modulus, our structural adhesives permit a high degree of rigidity and a great degree of stability.
In order to obtain the maximum benefit from this advantage, this type of adhesive is normally applied very thinly. In comparison with other joining methods, adhesion allows the load to be distributed over the surface, without reducing the stability of the materials being bonded.
Due to the specific characteristics of our bonding products they do not become brittle and therefore do not lose any of its outstanding strength characteristics.
When dimensioning structural adhesives particular attention must be paid to the distribution of stresses in the adhesive, as materials with a high modulus can only attenuate peaks of stress to a limited extent in areas of high stress concentration. The maximum local tensions should not affect the stability of the adhesive bond, taking into account reduction for aging through changing loads, chemical and physical factors, and the safety factor. Therefore a static calculation is needed always!


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I am feeling such an itch to perform, but I have zero extra time.
Perhaps I am going to have to get creative in my performance.
I know this is kind of ridiculous, but I'm feeling like I want to be funny. But I'm not one of those people who just says funny things that makes everybody laugh.
The antidote to my depression really seems to be in keeping happy (duh!). In keeping active. In distracting my depression with silliness and fun and funny.
I'm just going to fan this fire a little and see if any ideas come to me…


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She Started Selling Abortion Pills Online. Then the Feds Showed Up.
What happened when one woman tried to make safe and cheap abortion pills available through the mail.
Chelsea Conaboy
Mother Jones - March/April 2019 Issue
For two years, before she headed off to her full-time job as a web developer, or after she put her daughter to bed at night, Ursula Wing ran a business selling abortion pills from the bedroom of her New York City apartment. The 40-year-old single mother would fill orders that had been submitted through her website, dropping a piece of inexpensive jewelry into a mailer with a return address for "Fatima's Bead Basket." Hidden behind a panel taped inside were one tablet of mifepristone and four tablets of misoprostol.
continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/she-started-selling-abortion-pills-online-then-the-feds-showed-up/


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I'm Not Afraid (CD) & T-shirt Bundle
For a limited time get I'm Not Afraid (CD) and the Neon Sign, USA made t-shirt for one low price! Please select your t-shirt size in the drop down menu.
1. After All I've Done
2. Dream Last Night
3. I'll Give You More
4. Holes In Our Skin!
5. I'm Not Afraid
6. A Hundred Orchards
7. Broken
8. Control
9. That's What You Do
10. I Won't Win (If I Let You In)
T-Shirt: American Apparel 100% Cotton


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The Five Things Long Term Disability Carriers Try To Do To Complicate And Even Deny Your Long Term Disability Benefits
I'm sure that you purchased your long term disability policy to provide peace of mind if you became disabled. You may have every intention of returning to work but simply continue to be disabled while you're recovering.
Don't think that the long term disability carrier is sitting idly by while you're collecting disability benefits. There are five things that long term disability carriers can do to delay or even deny your long term disability benefits. These include:
1. Obtaining an Independent Medical Evaluation (IME) by a physician who has been paid to say that you are not disabled;
2. Having a field investigator knock on your door, unannounced, for the purposes of taking a statement about your Activities of Daily Living;
3. Seeing strange vehicles in your neighborhood following you to and from doctor's offices, the grocery store or even to the children's school and securing surveillance of your activities;
4. Contacting your neighbors and even your co-workers about your hobbies and daily activities;
5. Having the long term disability carrier's peer reviewer or consulting doctors call your attending physician in an effort to convince your doctor that you're capable of engaging in part-time employment.
What you should do to protect yourself
One of the quickest ways to provide yourself with peace of mind is to secure the services of an experienced long term disability attorney who can:
1. Help you complete the Activity of Daily Living forms submitted to you by the disability carrier;
2. Provide advise on what to expect and how to handle field representatives, surveillance and vocational evaluations used by disability insurance companies to deny claims;
3. Provide disability advice on what to expect and how to handle an independent medical evaluation (IME) or a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE);
4. Advice on how you should communicate with your physician about your occupation and how to fill out the disability forms;
Getting the go-to book
You should also order the no obligation copy of my book, "The Smart Long Term Disability Consumer Guide For Preparing For Your Statement and Field Visit – See more at: https://caveylaw.com/the-smart-long-term-disability-consumer-guide-for-preparing-for-your-statement-and-field-visit/" that explains to you the games that long term disability carriers play in disability claims.
Be prepared and be forewarned. You should be ready to take on insurance companies so that you can get the disability benefits you deserve. Call today at 727-894-3188 for a complimentary consultation.


text: Hallowe'en at Winterbourne LocationWinterbourne House and Garden DatesSaturday 29th October 2011 (11:00-16:00) Download the date to your calendar (.ics file) ContactTelephone 0121 414 3003 or visit www.winterbourne.org.uk A fun day for all the family complete with a black cat garden trail, spooky stories, pumpkin carving and tasty seasonal treats. See the garden in all its autumn splendour! Standard entry to the house and garden applies.


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Shrub and species roses are perfect for gardens with plenty of space. They're larger than other types of rose and are often used as part of a mixed hedge. The group is diverse with some varieties flowering once, and others repeat flowering.
More on growing roses:
- Rose types explained
- How to grow ground cover roses
- How to grow climbing roses
- Best rambling roses to grow
- Rose problems solved
- Trouble-free roses
- What to grow with roses
Shrub and species roses are an ideal planting choice for a natural-looking, romantic garden. Follow our start-to-finish Grow Guide, below.
Where to plant shrub and species roses
The majority of shrub and species roses enjoy a sunny spot but some, such as the rugosa types, will thrive in shade.
All shrub roses will grow in almost any soil as long as it is well drained – they thrive in a soil rich in organic matter. As they are vigorous, with strong roots, they need plenty of space. These boisterous roses are not ideal for container gardening due to their size and form.
How to to plant shrub and species roses
Container grown plants can be planted at any time of the year but must be kept well-watered if planted in summer.
In autumn and winter roses are often planted bare-root. Discover how to plant a bare-root rose. Shrub and species roses need plenty of space so be generous as growth is fast. Dig a hole at least twice the depth and width of the root ball and add in some well-rotted organic matter. Tease out the roots and drop the plant into the hole ensuring that the graft union is at soil level. Backfill and firm in place with your heel and water in well.
How to propagate shrub and species roses
Shrub and species roses are most successfully propagated by taking hardwood cuttings taken in autumn. Remove a piece of stem of the current season's growth that is pencil thickness and about 30cm long. Remove the soft tip cutting just above a healthy bud at an angle that is cut away from the bud as this will prevent water from settling around the bud and causing rotting (this will also help you identify the top of the cutting).
Dig a shallow trench in the garden in a sunny sheltered spot and place a layer of horticultural sand in the base. Insert the cuttings so that two-thirds of the cutting is below the surface and backfill. Ignore them and you should see sign of growth the following spring. Pot on the following autumn. Read more about taking rose cuttings.
Shrub and species roses: problem solving
Avoid planting roses in the same place as an old roses. Rose replant disease is a little understood problem but plants often struggle to thrive.
The most common rose disease is rose black spot. The spores are air borne and can be spread by using secateurs on infected plants and by the leaves fallen on the ground. Clear up fallen leaves and burn them to prevent the spread. Roses can also be affected by viruses, rose powdery mildew and aphids but the risk is lessened with good care. Rabbits and deer can also be an issue.
How to prune shrub and species roses
Shrub and species roses require very little, if any, pruning. The majority flower on old wood so if they are hard to reach or too thorny for comfort you can get away with leaving them.
If accessible, remove any dead, damaged or diseased wood and prune back to size just above a healthy bud in February or March once the show of hips has been enjoyed. Remove very old wood that is congesting the centre of the plant to let in light and if growth is slow rejuvenate the plants by cutting a few old stems to the ground to encourage a new flush of growth.
Those that only flower once in summer and don't offer impressive hips can be pruned after flowering by shortening side shoots by a third if required. Watch Monty Don prune shrub roses.
Bee-friendly roses
Single-flowering roses, such as the dog rose (Rosa canina) are beneficial to pollinating insects so perfect for a bee-friendly garden.
Great shrub and species roses to grow
- Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' – a vigorous species rose that enjoys a sunny spot and produces a mix of soft yellow and pink flower for months
- Rosa 'Helen Knight' – a modern shrub rose with bright yellow single flower set against attractive serrated foliage. Can cope in semi shade. Thorny.
- Rosa moyesii 'Geranium' – blood red single flowers followed by impressive red autumn hips
- Rosa 'Constance Spry' (pictured) – a beautiful rose with double flowers and a myrrh scent. It has an arching habit and can be trained as a climber
- Rosa canina – soft pink, single flowers followed by red hips. Ideal in a mixed hedge
- Rosa 'Buff Beauty' – clusters of apricot-yellow flowers. Repeat flowers. Strong fragrance


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Fellow developers, we rarely have to rally around immediate crises in our profession but an urgent one has come to my attention so I am broadcasting it here to spread awareness as much as possible.
We have a desperate shortage of keystrokes! Developers the world over have been treating keystrokes like they are a renewable resource. It's time to wake up and to conserve!
The Solution: Abbreviations
Thankfully we have a solution at hand: abbreviations. When writing code, never write an English word the way it's normally written. Always take an extra step to translate it into a different symbol. Single or double-letter abbreviations are ideal but any time u transform a recognizable word into something else, it's a win.
Abbreviations r especially suitable because:
- No one else ever reads ur code.
- You never read your own code again because it works perfectly on the first try.
- It's inherently easier to read code than to write it. That's why we call it "code".
- You may read code only once (if that) but you rewrite code dozens of times. For this reason u should optimize for making code-writing easier at the expense of code-reading.
Abbreviation Translation Table
Pls refer to this table for suggested abbrvtns when writing code. Note there is no reverse tbl because abbreviations r always obvious in meaning.
|Comprehensible Word
|any word
Functional Performance
It's not just about style—saving keystrokes actually has prf impacts on the functioning of code. This is mainly bc of memory limitations. Consider two of the most popular platforms today:
- the Apple //e has only 1 MB of RAM
- the IBM PC has only 256 KB of RAM
Extra keystrokes in variable names use up precious RAM leaving less memory available for program data.
Developer Exertion
More important than functional performance is the impact that saving keystrokes has on developers. Developer attention is the crtcl factor in modern productivity so it's particularly imprtnt to consdr ergonomics and physiology. Moving fingers small distances to press keys while sitting in a chair is physically exhausting. Surveys have shown that devs who save keystrokes through the use of abbrvtns have been able to smash thru the common six hour limit and now have enuf nrgy to wrk a full eight hour workday!
bonus strategy: use only lowercase letters
demonstrating the power of creativity when faced with challenging prblms, some devs have also dscvrd the incrdble conservation benefits that come from ignoring the shift key. progress has been made in enrolling non-developers nto the wisdom of a mono-case world. i recommend the following guidelines to ease ignorant people into this wisdom. suggest explicitly or simply imply that only lowercase is appropriate in the following situations:
- passwords
- email addresses (this is especially important when email addresses contain proper nouns such as people's names)
- domain names
- everything else
the use of uppercase letters is fine in the traditional contxt of handwriting but when usng a keyboard you shld always avoid pressng the
shift key. just look at how much bggr it is than the other kys. that's significant svngs!
pls sprd awarness of ths crisis n solns so tht togethr we cn keep r favort profession sustainbl.