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Cultural Caviar
Twilight of the Godless
Richard Hoste
Feminism is a Darwinian blind alley. In biological terms, there is nothing that identifies a maladaptive pattern so quickly as a below-replacement level of reproduction; an immediate consequence of feminism is what appears to be an irreversible decline in the birth rate. Nations pursue feminist policies at their peril.
~Katarina Runske
It's no secret that Western man has given up breeding. A society needs to have 2.1 births per woman in a lifetime if it's going to maintain a steady population. Besides the U.S. and Iceland, no western nation is even close.
Putting the problem in chart form may help to illustrate its enormity. Here are some of the fertility rates for western countries and their projected white populations by 2050, not counting migration. I estimated 4.9 million nonwhites for the UK and knocked that out of the population, 6.4 in France, 1.7 in the Netherlands, 2.5 in Germany, and 10 million for all other EU countries. The total EU white population is 491.5 million- 25.5 million nonwhites = 466 million. Also, the TFR was adjusted from the official number of 1.51 to 1.45 due to the higher nonwhite birth rate. Canada has around 2.7 million nonwhites. Their overall TFR is 1.58; I estimated the white number at 1.5. Russia is about 20 percent nonwhite.
^EU member
*ex Soviet state, non EU member
It can be projected that the total number of white people lost from the EU, Canada, Switzerland, the Balkans, Norway and the ex-Soviet states including Russia will be around 279,000,000. To put that in perspective, that's more than the losses due to World War I, World War II, the Nazi regime and all communist governments in history combined. Of course, deciding against having children is not equivalent to starving people in gulags. Still, whatever the causes of the birth slump, the result is hundreds of millions of lives not existing that otherwise would have.
Perhaps low birth rates are not a cultural phenomenon and the number of children people have is based more on economic considerations. Looking at birth rates for the world as a whole casts doubt on that possibility. The top five countries are Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger and Afghanistan. Not exactly places known for their prosperous middle-classes. Even within first-world countries, if there's a correlation between wealth and fertility, it's negative. In the U.S., black and Hispanic households are worth about one tenth of what white household are. But according to estimates, Hispanic women have 3.0 children each, blacks 2.2, and whites 2.0. Ukraine's nominal GDP per capita is less than $4,000 a year while its TFR is indistinguishable from that of Italy ($39,000), Spain ($35,000) or the Czech Republic ($21,000).
We must conclude that there is something besides economics that is going on here. If you find a white population somewhere, it's almost certain that it's not going to be reproducing itself enough to survive.
There is one major exception.
After the 2004 presidential election, Steve Sailer famously analyzed Caucasian fertility rates in Red (those that voted for the Republican candidate) and Blue (those that voted Democratic) states. He found that the top 19 states in fertility (and 25 out of the top 26) voted for George W. Bush. Amongst the 50 states and Washington, DC, the correlation between white fertility rate and the Republican share of the white vote was 0.86 (0.84 in 2000).
Sailer hypothesizes that the lower cost of living in Red States makes child bearing more feasible.
In a tempting contrast, the cost-of-living calculator provided by Realtor.com says that a $100,000 salary in liberal Manhattan buys only as much as a $38,000 salary in conservative Pinehurst, North Carolina. Likewise, a San Francisco couple earning $100,000 between them can afford just as much in Cedar City, Utah, if the husband can find a $44,000-a-year job"€"and then the wife can stay home with their children. Moreover, the culture of Cedar City is more conducive to child rearing than San Francisco.
While this kind of thinking is on the right track, it doesn"€™t address why some women choose cariers and others families as much as it does why those with particular characteristics end up in one place rather than another. After all, those from New York are free to move to Idaho and vice versa. But it does show that we"€™re dealing with a cultural issue—one of the soul, not the pocketbook. Utah, the only majority Mormon state in the Union, has a 2.45 TFR. That's pretty impressive, especially considering Utahans watch the same TV and listen to the same music (both of which encourage libertinism and nihilism) as the rest of America. While cost of living considerations may explain some of the difference in TFR between New York and Utah, they do less to shed light on the disparity between Utah and the rest on the socially conservative and sparsely populated heartland.
Taking an international perspective, there seems to be two ways to have a replacement fertility rate in the modern world.
A) Be really religious.
B) Be really r-selected.
Since Europeans aren"€™t Africans, that leaves option (A) as the only proven method for replacement Caucasian fertility. The potential success in this area of any secular philosophical system is speculative. Remember that next time you see Bill Maher on TV foaming at the mouth about those stupid Christians who won"€™t bow before the god of evolution. The ultimate irony is that championing Darwinism has, as Katarina Runske wrote of feminism, been a Darwinian dead end.
Put bluntly, liberal secular humanists are on the verge of extinction.
To get an idea of the cluelessness of the evangelical Darwinians, look not further than Richard Dawkins's recent article "What Use is Religion?" The author begins by distinguishing between proximate and ultimate causes. To get an idea of what he's talking about, think of a moth that flies into a lamp and kills itself. The proximate cause is that the physiology of the insect and physical properties of light cause the moth to behave in a suicidal way. An ultimate cause is evolutionary: in the conditions in which the insect evolved, the only light in the night sky was the moon, which the moth was able to use as a compass without ever running into it.
Saying we believe in religion because it feels good is a proximate explanation, the same way that saying we eat sugary foods because they taste good is. The evolutionary "€œwhy"€ just isn't there.
Dawkins"€™ answer to "what use is religion?" has something to do with children, but nothing to do with the likelihood of having them.
My specific hypothesis of the necessity of religion is all about children.
More than any other species, we survive by the accumulated experience of previous generations. Theoretically, children might learn from experience not to swim in crocodile-infested waters. But to say the least, the child whose brain includes this rule of thumb will be at a selective advantage: Believe whatever the grown-ups tell you. Natural selection builds child brains just this way.
In addition, this very quality automatically makes them vulnerable to infection by mind viruses. For excellent survival reasons, child brains trusts parents and elders whom their parents tell them to trust. An automatic consequence is that the "€œtruster"€ has no way of distinguishing good advice from bad. The child cannot tell that "€œIf you swim in the river, you"€™ll be eaten by crocodiles"€ is good advice but "€œIf you don"€™t sacrifice a goat at the time of the full moon, the crops will fail"€ is bad (or at least, unnecessary) advice.
Dawkins compares religion to an Internet virus in this way. A good computer does what you tell it. That makes it a wonderful machine capable of doing spreadsheets, but also likely to follow harmful instructions. To Dawkins, religion is a late arriver like the artificial light which kills the moth that is behaving in ways that in other conditions were evolutionarily adaptive.

The problem with using that explanation for religion is that spirituality has been around for too long. There has been plenty of time for evolution to preserve the positive results of blind obedience and do away with what's harmful and wasteful. For similar reasons, Harpending and Cochran theorize in The 10,000 Year Explosion that Jewish intelligence was a recent adaptation. The Jews have unusually high intelligence and a susceptibility to a group of similar diseases. The genes for disease may have not had time to be selected against. They are around because they are part of the package that includes traits which are adaptive and make up for the fact that the carrier is more likely to die from a particular group of illnesses. Had Jewish intelligence been around for much longer—Harpending and Cochran say it reached its abnormal level in the Middle Ages—then evolution would"€™ve had time to create a healthier high-IQ race. If man's spiritual side goes back tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years, it's unlikely that he couldn"€™t have evolved to both obey elders as a child and as an adult only believe things that he has empirical evidence for, if such a thing was adaptive. After all, evolution does produce secular, empirical-minded men (Dawkins and I among them). We simply haven"€™t been able to outbreed believers.
Since man's been talking a lot longer than he's been writing, it's hard to date the birth spirituality or belief in life after death. As good a guess as any for the start of religion is when humans started taking the trouble to ceremoniously bury their dead. That's been happening for at least 100,000 years. We may trace spirituality even further. OriginsNet.org has put together the evidence for religiosity in the great apes in their "Appendices for Chimp Spirituality." As the article recounts, after a 10-year old female bonobo was killed by a leopard, the tribal elders encircled the body almost immediately, some making loud displays and calls, others sitting in solemn silence. The body was eventually groomed and cared for, and the high-status apes wouldn't allow any other apes access to the body. Surely if these alpha apes could talk, they would"€™ve declared themselves a priesthood and said they were praying for the poor child's soul!
There's also evidence that animism and a certain reverence for nature has a very long lineage. Jane Goodall observered that at the onset of thunderstorms, chimpanzee males would often perform spectacular aggression displays, charging, swaying back and forth, and brandishing and shaking branches. Goodall sensed that the Chimpanzees were expressing something like the emotion of awe.
Religion may have evolved to protect us from slipping into hedonism, or to instill a sense of duty in order to go bear the difficulties of childbearing. It may simply be that those who thought God was on their side exterminated the prissy atheist cavemen (who probably also believed their women should be "€œliberated"€ and hunt for themselves.) The issues of the evolution of religion and exactly why it's good for the fertility rate in the modern world are outside the scope of the article. There isn"€™t even an established theory on the evolution of the brain yet. (I"€™m partial to Geoffrey Miller's belief that it has something to do with sexual selection, but I wouldn"€™t bet a week's salary on it.)
What we can say with certainty is that Dawkins's idea that religion brings nothing to man, or, indeed, harms him, is patently false, whether we see things from the perspective of how long faith has been around or what's happening today to people without it. A quick look at the CIA Factbook proves that Dawkins is very wrong when he claims, "religion has no survival value for individual human beings, or for the benefit of their genes."€ If, in the end, all evolution cares about is survival, it's liberalism that must be considered the virus. Our ancestors who had religion survived while those of us without it might not.
The two most evolutionarily successful men in written history were probably Genghis Khan and the Prophet Muhammad. But only the latter invented a religious justification for his conquests. Now his ethny (loosely defined) continues to claim land while the Mongolians are a measly five million and dwindling. Among whites, the two most fertile groups are by far the mentioned Mormons and the Anabaptists. Though the Old Testament ignores the afterlife, the Hebrews' great reward for pleasing God was that the they could spread their genes. Millennia later, God's chosen are still around, while the Canaanites exist only in word.
There may be nothing we can do to stop the current trends. Whites may simply not be fit for the world they created. Perhaps the few that are have already become religious fanatics and simply need time to expand their numbers. We won"€™t know until there's a white elite that doesn"€™t declare war on the traditional beliefs of their people. Russia may be providing a test case (albeit not a perfect one. The government may have started to encourage nationalism and religion, but there's still the poisonous effects of the Western-American media).
Even if it was granted that the modern world, with its feminism and secularism, produced all the happiness one can imagine, it cannot last. A baby born today may live to see the extinction of the Lithuanians (projected to be a population of 760,000 by 2100, possibly all assimilated into other ethnicities). Any philosophy that guarantees that those that adopt it will be gone within a few generations can only be embraced by nihilists. The patriarchal and god-fearing will inherit the earth, one way or another.
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In Chicago, Minneapolis and Kansas City, traders watched from the pits early last summer as wheat prices spiked amid mediocre harvests in the United States and Europe and signs of prolonged drought in Australia.
But within a few weeks, the traders discerned an ominous snowball effect ? one that would eventually bring down a prime minister in Haiti, make more children in Mauritania go to bed hungry, even cause American executives at Sam's Club to restrict sales of large bags of rice.
As prices rose, major grain producers including Argentina and Ukraine, battling inflation caused in part by soaring oil bills, were moving to bar exports on a range of crops to control costs at home. It meant less supply on world markets. even as global demand surged. Prices for corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, rice and other grains began shooting through the roof.
At the same time, food was becoming the new gold. Investors fleeing Wall Street's mortgage-related strife plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into grain futures, driving prices up even more. By Christmas, a global panic was building. With fewer places to turn, and tempted by the weaker dollar, nations staged a run on the American wheat harvest. Major domestic U.S. mills in turn jumped in with their own massive orders, fearing that there would soon be no wheat left at any price.
"Japan, the Philippines, [South] Korea, Taiwan ? they all came in with huge orders, and no matter how high prices go, they keep on buying," said Jeff Voge, chairman of the Kansas City Board of Trade. "Prices are going up more in one day than they have during entire years in the past."
Governments In Turmoil The food price shock now roiling world markets is destabilizing governments, igniting street riots and threatening to send a new wave of hunger rippling through the world's poorest nations. From the beginning of 2005 to early 2008, prices jumped 80 percent, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.
The convergence of events has thrown world food supply and demand out of whack and snowballed into civil turmoil. After hungry mobs and violent riots beset Port-au-Prince, Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis was forced to step down this month.
At least 14 countries have been racked by food-related violence.
The U.N. World Food Program fears that the crisis will plunge more than 100 million of the world's poorest people deeper into poverty, forced to spend more and more of their income on skyrocketing food bills.
Prices for some crops ? such as wheat ? have already begun to descend off their highs. As farmers rush to plant more wheat now that profit prospects have climbed, analysts predict that prices may come down as much as 30 percent in the coming months.
But that would still leave a year-over-year price hike of 45 percent.
Few believe prices will go back to where they were in early 2006, suggesting that the world must cope with a new reality of more expensive food.
The Cost Of Coping People worldwide are coping in different ways. For the 1 billion living on less than a dollar a day, it is a matter of survival ? downgrading to cheaper foods, cutting out meals.
Countries that have driven food demand in recent years are now grappling with the cost of their own success ? rising prices.
Although China has tried to calm its people by announcing reserve grain holdings of 30 to 40 percent of annual production, anxiety is still running high. In at least one province there are reports of grain hoarding.


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Posts of 2014
Noam Wiess 31/12/2014 00:00
Eilat - The Birding Home
This is going to be kind of personal. My name is Noam Weiss and I am back to my birding homeland, Eilat, this time as the director of the international birding and research center of Eilat. I have returned to the "thing" that was always about the most professional birding for me. I call Eilat a "thing" as it is far more than a place for me.
Eilat is where 30 years ago I had learnt that there is a lot more about birding than what is in the identification guide. That there is so much more to learn than just compare the bird you see and the illustration in a book. It is where we learnt about birds and birding by researching in an unknown territory of knowledge and there was so much more to discover.
Hadoram Shirihai was our mentor. Showing us birds that nobody knew how to identify or expect them anywhere near Eilat. It was the days of the discovery of the Buff – bellied Pipits Japonicus that were totally unknown around Europe and the Middle East, the days we had learnt the difficult plumages of some Sylvia warblers, the first Crested Honey Buzzards and the exiting raptors surveys. Eilat was magical, with the numbers of migrants, the fantastic diversity and the discoveries that were beyond any possible birder's imagination.
After some years back in Jerusalem as a business man (the worst kind - securities underwriter) I was back to my dream land for 5 years of bird ringing, guiding and research, surveying Hume's Owls in the desert nights and falling in love with the barren mountains and colorful canyons. And now I'm back to be the one to continue the learning, to be your ears and eyes and to share with you the wonders of this place. And if you come along, you'll get a coffee too.
I'm back here after Yael Lenhardt did a great job solidifying the research, connecting the community of Eilat to the birding park and a lot of guiding. Tzadok made the birding park an exciting place to visit and a very comfortable one too.
My dreams are to open it up to the public and birders by moving the ringing station to be accessible and open to you birders, and to become the information center for the birders visiting Eilat. I will try to resume the intensive bird monitoring in Eilat like in the good old days, discover new birds, find new challenges that birds face here and remove them, and safeguard the birds of Eilat.
The past 3 weeks I've been here have already been exciting. Autumn comes late to Eilat but it's already full of good birds and activities. The ringing station catches up to 150 birds per day and the diversity is very high. The best birds until now have been a young Rosy Starling and 3 Scarlet Rosefinches.
Barred Warblers are caught every other day and a Little Bittern, Wood Warbler, Curlew Sandpiper, Levant Sparrowhawk, some Lesser Grey Shrikes, many Namaqua Doves, and a few Scops Owls have joined the party here.
Interesting to note it has been a good year for the Red-backed and Masked Shrikes (up to 23 caught per day). Another surprise has been the Blackstarts, that find refuge in the irrigated areas of the bird sanctuary from the difficult and dry conditions in the desert wadis. Up to 4 of them were observed and a few got marked.
In the Field the most impressive is the daily take off of Levant Sparrowhawks in the early mornings. We have them now almost every day with numbers moving between 50 and 1,000. The peak was on the 29/9 morning with 4,000 of them swarming above the bird sanctuary.
These Hawks are probably missed by the main Raptor survey in Kfar Kasem. The survey's crew speculated that these Hawks end up passing in Eilat on days with strong westerly wind. I'm not so sure this is actually the case as their usual route is passing about 150 KM west of us, very few are reported between Eilat and the main route and these Hawks are seen here year after year.
I would like to believe that the Hawks that are seen as if they come from the east, belong to an easterly population, maybe from the Caucasus mountains. This is still to be checked one day. It's on the list with talking to some Jordanian birdwatchers and may be tracking some of these Hawks with GPS transmitters.
In the field here Shachar Shalev reported a Crested Tern (very rare) and a Lesser Crested Tern on the 22/09 at the north beach. They were not relocated but that's how the north beach works - it is very dynamic. A Spotted Crake was noted in the bird sanctuary and a new Sooty Falcons nest was found in the mountains. The first Rollers and some Lesser Kestrels have been reported from a few sites. Common Cranes travelling towards Africa started passing above us too.
That's all for now.
Stay posted.
Black flags from the East
History repeats itself, historians say.
We birders know it of course and wait with anticipation for the "eastern 2 weeks" of the second half of October, bringing with it birds from the Asian steppes.
But even though it never fails to come, it always catches us by surprise. Although we know it's coming for us birders the greatest enjoyment for is to rediscover it all over again, year after year. That's what we live for - rediscovering the cycle of nature, as if it has never happened before.
And they are here.
The Steppe Eagles have started passing in better numbers (not more than ten's per morning yet, but larger numbers should follow in the next few weeks), a nice young Daurian Shrike was ringed, 4 Common Rosefinches ,a Vociferus type Black winged Kite and our Willow Warblers now look much greyer and longer winged now.
Red-breasted Flycatchers have been reported from Eilot, Neot Smadar and the ringing station and 4 Blue cheeked Bee eaters spent an afternoon in Holland Park (Lars Andersen). Barred Warblers are still around too.
We got a bit puzzled with a "strange" wave of unusual looking Black-eared / Pied Wheatears that looked very much like Pied but made us wonder at the ringing station.
Black-eared Wheatears usually pass in early September and are not seen most of October, whilst Pied do come in mid-October. Suddenly a wave of rather grayish looking young Wheatears showed up, all with pale fringes to the mantle feathers - all good signs of the Pied Wheatears, and our hopes were raised for something good.
The first to be caught in the ringing station was not much of a help as all the measurements and the wing formula were in the overlap zone of the two species. Its white mantle fringes were obvious but the color tone was "not cold enough" for a Pied. It had some warmer brown buffy tones at the sides of the neck and flanks which made the mantle appear not pure grey.
The mantle was maybe 80% grey, 20% brown. We released the first one as a Black-eared because of these slightly warmer tones that made it up to the mantle, but frankly, I wasn't sure at all. In the following days we saw some more of these Wheatears in the field and one more was caught. It seems like they all had some brown tones. Not like the Wheatears we have seen in September in the past but also not like a text book Pied. We resolved the issue as "Eastern" Black eared Whetears, but who knows…
On the local birds front we had some good findings too. No less than 6 Hoopoe Larks were seen and photographed by our crew during their usual monitoring activity, on the main way to Evrona Well last week (3 KM north of the KM20 saltpans). A report of 2 from the same location came from the local ranger 3 days later.
It might be a winter gathering but maybe it's the first sing of damage from the construction of the new Eilat international airport at the Hoopoe Larks old stronghold of KM 32. At the same area were Hooded and Desert Wheatears.
The most exciting observation that brought a hint of a tear to my eyes happened on my day off (I visited the ringing station anyway… just to say hi…) when I took my lovely wife to hike in Shchoret Canyon, deep in the Eilat mountains.
Between the colorful sandstone and Granite Mountains I had an encounter with an old friend. It was "Yoggi", my Yellow Green tagged White-crowned Black Wheatear. It lost its green plastic ring but was sitting on its usual rock just like in old times when I was researching these Wheatears and placed some color rings on their legs.
Only that this bird has now been at the same spot at least from the 02/03/2008 when I first caught it. It was already an adult then, making it at least 7 years old now.
One of the most interesting results of the research was that these amazing birds can survive the driest and harsher years in this extreme desert (sometimes 4 years without any rain) without changing locations.
They had learnt to use the shadowed corners of their habitats to find food (this is how they choose their habitat - shadow percentage) and had also learnt to rely on human travelers camp sites as a preferred foraging areas and to drink from the water dripping off cars that had their air-condition on and stopped.
We also had an interesting visit by Ikram Zuheir from the Palestine Wildlife Society and a great communal event that gathered some 2,000 participants to hear bird tales and observe them in the bird sanctuary, so it was a very busy week.
Our black flags from the east - the adult Steppe Eagles, passing just now above my head is a reminder of what is happening east of us now. The black flags of the Islamic State (ISIS) are raised and with the name of God in their mouth, slaughter people who fail to answer a questionnaire they had made to check who is a true Muslim.
As a scholar of Islam myself I can't avoid the symbolism used by ISIS lifting the same flags that were raised by the Abbasid revolution that was "clearing" Islam from the "wrong paths" it took, bringing it back to what Islam was "supposed" to be. Only it got equally corrupted and cruel.
We birders know that history repeats itself. These Steppe Eagles passing so silently overhead now just came from Iraq, flying above these horrors. The British Air force is taking off from the nearby Aqaba airport, right next to our ringing station to try and stop it. But would it change a twisted mind?
Waiting for some good news from the east.
This week was all about preparations for the future.
Me, preparing a new generation of birding guides in Eilat and preparing for winter and spring tasks in the bird sanctuary, and the migratory birds, continuing to collect food, fat and courage in preparation for crossing the vast Saharan desert on the way to Africa.
The most dominant event was the birding guide's course that we conducted for the new fresh guides arriving to Eilat for the next year or two. The course was nothing less than cool and exciting, with 15 young people who had no idea that they liked birds that soon became bird lovers. Out of my "birders arrogance" I was thought for quite long that it is impossible to teach birding, bird identification and how to guide a bird watching trip without being a birder.
You never know what you're going to see with a group so you can't really prepare. You have to identify the bird perfectly without the time for a really good view, you have to understand the movement of the bird to assess if the group will actually be able to see it, wait for a specific behavior and be able to explain why it didn't work this time but usually works perfectly…
but these young guys proved me wrong. After 5 days of hard work they could identify almost every bird I showed them, look it up in the Bird Encyclopedia ,find the juicy details, and make a story out of it to guide on.
They also learned how to extract birds from the mist nets, love every bird they had touched and appreciate their ability to migrate so far. It was great fun to spend some time in the field. One particular morning started with 3,000 Cranes passing over-head along with tens of Steppe Eagles, some Steppe buzzards, Black Kites and Booted Eagles.
Later on at the KM 19 ponds we had the show of a lifetime with an Osprey catching fish just in front of us, Squacco Herons sneaking after fat dragonflies and catching every single one in the area, Caspian Terns diving for fish, and a Barbary Falcon playing with the pigeons. But mostly I enjoyed their company.
Some good birds showed up too this week with 6 Thick-billed Larks and tens of Bar-tailed Larks in Uvda valley (Itai Shani and Shachar Shalev), 3 Oriental Skylarks and some Richard's Pipits in Yotvata fields (Itai Shani) and a Bailon's Crake along with a Little Crake shared a pool with a Sacred Ibis that looked young but will still be marked as a possible escape in Yotvata sewage pools (Itai and the IBRCE crew).
In Eilat 2 Hawfinches were seen in the bird sanctuary (rare so deep in the desert) and tens of Bluethroats everywhere. The ringing station is quite busy with lots of Bluethroats, Chiffchaffs and Common Redstarts. Red-backed Shrikes are still around with some more Reed and Savi's Warblers. Several Cetti's Warblers, a rare winterer and 2 different White breasted Kingfishers were ringed too.
We are also starting to build the monitoring plan for the next spring. Our main focus will be on a raptor migration survey that we haven't done for many years. Past data has shown passage of almost 1 million birds of prey with the main species being Steppe Buzzards, Honey Buzzards and Levant's Sparrowhawks.
These magnificent birds alongside with 20 more species of raptors pass in a relatively narrow corridor between the slopes of the Eilat Mountains and the red sea. Our main focus this time will be on the rare and probably declining Steppe Eagles who pass here in late autumn (peaking in November but can be seen going south until the middle of December) just to come back in early March (some are already seen going northeast in January).
We feel that there is a big gap of knowledge regarding this species. It is suggested in the literature that the Asian population from Mongolia and Kazakhstan migrates to India and the European ones move to Africa, but clearly our birds in autumn come from the east and very few follow the rest of the eagle species route from the north. It is also suggested that the young eagles stay in Africa for a few years but we see lots of 2nd calendar eagles going east in spring.
We are also interested in the correlation between wind conditions here and in crucial passage points south of us, on the way to Eilat, and how this affects eagle migration. We are creating a team to count these raptors between February and May and we will probably do some trapping too.
For the ringing station we are looking for trained ringers that are willing to come for at least 2 months. I can promise a ringing adventure of a lifetime and hard work. If you are up to it please contact me.
That is all for now. November is on the door step bringing the rare wintering species and eastern migrants, so stay posted.
nbayda@yahoo.com
Eilat's kind of winter
In Eilat you can tell it is winter only by the changing diversity of birds.
With early November temperatures reaching above 30 Celsius almost daily, only the birds tell us that something is changing to the north of us. Rare shadows of clouds sometimes indicate that Jerusalem is under heavy rain, but the birds never fail to signal the change of weather, it's just a change that happens elsewhere…
Winter marked itself this week with new arrivals that included some more Hawfinches (up to 4), Song Thrushes, Dead Sea Sparrows, Imperial and Greater Spotted Eagles and some more Oriental Skylarks (up to 4).
Water, Red-Throated and Meadow Pipits are growing in numbers too and the usual end of October Stonechat blend of Common, Siberian, Caspian and Armenian are all present in good numbers.
The best bird of the week was the female Black crowned Sparrow Lark that was found by Yael Schiff in Yotvata northern circular field.
Yael realized that the lark is "not what she is used to seeing" and had sent pictures to Itai Shani who identified it, unfortunately too late to allow relocation of the bird.
The grounds of the circular field were full of other great birds. 2 Bimaculated larks, 1 eastern type Lesser Short toed Lark, 4 Oriental Skylarks and a Richard's Pipit.
In the air worth noting was a Crag Martin, a Little Swift and a second Black-winged Kite to the one seen the same day in Eilat. At the sewage ponds Itai and the southern Arava birding club found the first Yellow-Browed Warbler for the season and the Sacred Ibis was still present.
Uvda valley looked good too with new arrivals of wintering larks. The best were 9 Temminck's Horned Larks that joined the usual Bar-tailed and Desert Larks. There was no sign of last week's Thick-billed Larks but the area is large (Itai Shani).
I decided to break my weekly long drive to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for meetings at the Heimar reservoir, next to the southern part of the Dead Sea.
This reservoir is a dam built to catch the flood waters and prevent them from polluting the Dead Sea ponds that harvest potassium and magnesium. The place is a vast reed and tamarisk grove with some water and it swarms with birds. The best this week were 200 Dead Sea Sparrows that breed here and gather in winter, and all 4 Crakes of Israel - Water Rails (5), Spotted Crake, Little Crake and also the rare Baillon's Crake, were seen on the mud, along with Jack Snipe, 5 Kingfishers and tens of Bluethroats. 5 Clamorous Reed Warblers that breed here and are seen year round were sighted and heard too. It's a great spot and it is only a matter of time until something mega will show up there.
During a family picnic in the huge sand-stone cliffs of Nimra we heard a Pharaoh Eagle Owl, not for the first time, and during a day trip a Mangrove Heron surprised me in the small man-made lake of Timna park, fishing in the smog of barbeque clouds. As a result of a vegetarian wife I only got to smell it (the barbeque of course). The Wheatear's status in Timna park was interesting with 8 different White Crowned, 5 of them first years, no less than 12 Blackstarts and 1 young male Hooded.
The concentration of them and the number of young birds is exceptional. I have done a long term survey of these amazing desert birds and it is very interesting to see how in long drought years (4 years without any substantial rain) the numbers of Wheatears drop sharply and young birds are absent, whilst in good years with some rain you get much more young birds. Also the correlation of these Wheatears to irrigate and/or dense human activity is very interesting. This research is yet to be published, perhaps after the next breeding season.
At the ringing station the numbers of Chiffchaffs grows constantly and during a wader ringing evening a Whiskered Tern was ringed along with the usual Little Stints, Dunlins, Curlew Sandpiper, Redshank, Ruffs and Ringed Plovers (altogether 40 birds). A Barn Swallow that was ringed at the north Dead Sea site of Ein Fescha was caught in Eilat 5 days later.
Birding stuff down here gets warmer and exciting, so stay posted.
The Oriental Club
Stormy weather north of us resulted with a fall of migrants in Eilat.
The ringing station was kept busy with tens of Bluethroats and Chiffchaffs and exciting reports from the field. The bird of the week was a young Oriental Turtle Dove that was first found by the IBRCE team in Yotvata southern circular field, but lack of a photo and the speed of the observation left it out of the official list until the Dove was relocated by Itai Shani 3 days later at the same spot.
In the same field it was joined by a locally rare bird, a Stock Dove, and the usual gatherings of Desert Finches (30) plus hundreds of Red throated pipits. 3 Cream colored Coursers were an additional nice decoration for the site.
Closer to Eilat a shiny adult Imperial Eagle showed well in Km 19 alongside the usual Osprey and Marsh Harriers. In the Bird Sanctuary in Eilat a Mangrove Heron surprised us in the lake making it 2 individuals in odd places in a week (I saw 1 in Timna Park lake last week). This cannot be a coincidence.
The nice story of the week started with a phone call from the lifeguard in the north beach (and yes, people still swim here in the sea in November, it's 33 Celsius down here) reporting a drowning Heron. Our team (Nesia, Juan and Euan) arrived at the scene and located a Great Egret that couldn't fly. Nesia jumped in and rescued it. It was entangled with fishing lines attached to a giant shark hook threatening to do serious damage.
The bird was swiftly released from the lines and after warming its body temperature and drying it we released it in our lake. In the first 2 days it was catching fish like crazy, then started to fly and will probably leave very soon. The local media showed some interest in the story and Nesia will undoubtedly become a local hero in a few days when it is published.
The sad side of the week belongs to our neighbors the Jordanians and Palestinians. This Monday is the 20th anniversary of the Israeli - Jordanian peace agreement.
It was due to be celebrated in a nice event in Jerusalem and I was invited to present a project I was in charge of - a cross border cooperation project using Barn owls as pest controllers in the fields.
It was very successful as farmers in Israel, Palestine and Jordan dramatically reduced the amount of rodenticides implemented just by putting Owl nest boxes in their fields.
The project also resulted in a network of experts and farmers from all 3 countries starting talking and cooperating in other areas of environmental protection and agriculture. I'm also involved now with a nice project that is giving Palestinians the ability to survey nature, build and maintain nature reserves and guide wildlife watching tourism.
I had great hopes to be able to use the event not only to meet good friends from the other side of the border, but also to promote a new project that will unite Eilat and Aqaba (Jordan) to work together and to raise awareness of the environment on both sides of the border, and to cooperate solving problems that our shared coral reef, deserts and migratory birds face.
But it was cancelled.
A sequence of incidents in Jerusalem that included Palestinian extremists driving into crowds of people, the subsequent manhunts and the usual inciting claims that the mosques in the Temple Mount are in danger, raised the tension to unbearable levels and the celebration was cancelled.
Also our Jordanian partners in Aqaba have backed off for now.
So sad that in a place where peace creating projects are so desperately needed, they are cancelled because of the lack of peace and tension. If we had peace and everything was fine we wouldn't have the need for projects like these.
It's days like these we need to show the light of hope and highlight our peace making projects, not follow an agenda that is dictated by extremists that have no plan of a better life for anybody. We birders and environmentalists in this troubled area know we have to wait for the wave to pass and continue working together, but a good opportunity has been lost because of the wrong reasons.
So the birds of Eilat and Aqaba, as well as the great coral reef we share with Jordan and Egypt, will have to wait before we safeguard them in a united regional action that is needed here so very much.
The Wheatears valley
The Uvda valley is just a great place to be.
It is cooler then Eilat and has a soft landscape of the round hills with sandy small streams, covered with the softest sands that flow into a very wide plain, with dense desert vegetation.
This is how the desert becomes alive. In the one event of flood, that comes once in a few years, the small streams fill up with water that directs them to the wide valley.
Because the wide valley rarely fills up, the water is collected there until they find the way out of the valley downstream. In the meanwhile, the water, carrying seeds collected from all over the area and percolate in the thirsty ground. When the sun comes back, it is just a matter of time before it blooms, sometimes in beautiful colors. And then the birds come.
Local, migratory or the desert wanderers, they flood the valley, months after some water had passed here.
So following May rains 6 months ago and another short rain last month that woke up the seeds on the ground, I took the enthusiastic volunteers of the IBRCE, Euan (Scotland) and Juan (Spain) to check it up. Already on the way we could feel it will be a great day. Nubian Ibexes and a Red Fox were easy to notice by the road. Juan saw an almost adult Imperial Eagle so when I went out of the car to photograph it, it was diving into the hill next to us, crashing a pigeon to the ground and easily collected it and flew away. I managed to take one good photo in spite of the still weak light. Entering the Valley, the dominance of Wheatears was overwhelming. I don't think I ever saw so many Wheatears in one spot.
Along the valley we counted 25 White Crowned, 5 Hooded, 10 Desert and another 12 Morning Wheatears. What was also notable was that all of the 25 White crowned Wheatears were young. These Wheatears live in the most remote and dry desert areas. They had learned to use shadow that collects some moisture during the nights and creates small niche eco systems that creates their food.
This way they always prefer canyons or areas with big rocks. But the desert is harsh and the food is scarce, so the young birds, who don't have to keep a territory, find their way to the valley. The story of the morning Wheatears is different. They migrate from the Negev highlands, each time to a different location where water was flowing. The Desert and Hooded wheatears gathered here also to enjoy the ease to find food.
The valley also attracted the nomad birds. These are birds that breed in a different place every year. They wander around the deserts of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi and Israel looking for a valley like ours. Of these birds we located 25 beautiful Temminck's Horned larks, about 30 Bar-tailed Larks, 60 Desert Larks and 12 Spotted Sandgrouses. Many more local desert birds such as tens of Trumpeter Finches, A Cream Colored Coursor, Sand partridges and Brown Necked Ravens filled the valley with their calls.
In addition to that some migratory birds found the opportunity and stopped to feed. Among them were tens of Red-throated and Water pipits, some Skylarks, Blue Throats, Corn Buntings and Spanish Sparrows. A single male Hen Harrier was trying to hunt who ever came here, whatever his reason was.
The Uvda valley will stay lively all the winter.
Birds will come and move on until the seeds and insects are all eaten. If we will be lucky, and another rain, even slight, will hit our valley, some will stay to nest, hoping for the migratory painted lady butterflies that will arrive in early next spring, to lay here eggs and produce the caterpillars needed for feeding their chick's.
If you come to Eilat this year or next spring, don't miss the valley. It is outstanding, and so interesting.
The oil leak disaster
The 3rd of December will be remembered as one of the worst days the Eilat area has ever known. A giant oil spill hit one of our most beautiful and important nature reserve, The Evrona Acacia forest.
I live in Beer Ora. It's a small and good looking settlement, 20 km north of Eilat. Every day over the past few months I passed next to a huge hole in the ground at the settlement's entrance.
Workers, experts and heavy machinery were working together on fixing two giant oil hoses. It didn't look like they were making much progress as the number of experts and sophisticated devices kept increasingly congregating around the hole. It seemed as if the work would never be completed. It just wouldn't connect.
Eventually it probably did connect and they let the oil flow into the hose. I'm not sure what happened, but where they were working for all these long months just didn't hold and 3 million liters of oil erupted.
The radio said that it took 2 hours to close the taps and all the fail-safe systems had failed. My phone got a short text saying that exiting the settlement was not possible and the wildlife ranger's cars were rushing out. The rest of the settlement was sound asleep, about to wake up to a black morning.
The Evrona Acacia reserve is so fragile and sensitive with its centuries old trees and unique biodiversity. Every time the staff of Eilat's birding center passes by on its weekly monitoring mission we slightly pat the bushes as we pass, and make sure we don't leave too much footprints on the soil.
The birds here and the herd of Gazelles always look cheerful and everything is so clean. All this beauty is now contaminated with the black filth flowing in all the small streams and the stench is terrible.
The next morning the reserve was chaotic. Vehicles of the oil pipeline company, police, wildlife rangers, oil container trucks and tens of tractors of every possible kind were moving around in all directions.
During the night they managed to build dams and collect a lot of oil in small black lakes. Many of the trucks were stuck deep in the sand.
Only later on they realized that first they would have to pull everyone from the roads, build them new and continue. Now the movement of trucks and tractors started to make sense and work was more efficient.
At the same time the Jordanians that had no clue of what was happening, and reported more than 80 people had been hospitalized. The smell gave them breathing difficulties and rumors said that there had been some kind of explosion in Israel, as the word for leak and explosion in Hebrew is the same. They just translated the Israeli websites headlines incorrectly (I guess google translate did it again...).
Airplanes were already in the sky by 08:30 to learn the true picture of the disaster, and things started to get into an efficient routine. The fatigue of the people working was hidden behind mountains of adrenalin and only the Eilati sense of humor kept us all going.
The Evrona reserve is a very special one. Along with hundreds of old and giant Acacia trees live more than 200 charming Dorcas Gazelles.
The bird population here is unique and very healthy. Desert Larks, Blackstarts, Scrub Warblers, Little Green Bee-eaters and Arabian Babblers are the common species. Hooded, Desert and Morning Wheatears and the Southern Grey Shrike are also common visitors in winter along with the rare Asian Desert Warbler.
Recently 6 Hoopoe Larks were seen there in the making 3 new territories in the reserve after years of scattered observations. These Larks are very rare in Israel and the population is probably no more than 10 pairs.
Also the Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse breeds here sometimes (the population of this rare bird is probably under 30 individuals).
The Arabian Warbler was also seen here until a decade ago. Along with the birds and the Gazelles a healthy population of mammals such as Porcupine, Red Fox, Wolf and Hyena and some unique species of rodents live here.What makes this habitat so rich and important are the flourishing Acacia trees and everything that lives of them.
This morning, also the birds and Gazelles were moving in the same chaotic way as the people. The Gazelles were observed far from their usual places but the birds remained in their usual spots. We did not find any contaminated birds.
The gazelles were clean and untouched too. Even the proud Acacia trees were in bloom and green. The bushes were more directly damaged, drowning in the black gold. These will die for sure.
It is all about the main natural resource of the reserve, the Acacia trees. If they will die, the whole eco-system will follow. We are all hoping for a miracle, but deep inside us we know the blow is hard, and probably fatal for the trees. The oil is highly toxic for them and even a touch of it is enough to destroy a tree, hundreds of years old. The closest thing to a forest in the Eilat area is dying and with it everything that lives there.
Looking for a miracle we hang to every spark of optimism. The oil did not percolate into the soil more than 3 cm in the clayish areas and 20 cm in stony spots, so if all of it would be pumped and the contaminated soil removed carefully, we could limit the negative impact and the reserve will renew itself with the time.
We also appreciate the joint efforts of everybody here – the pipe-line personnel, wildlife rangers, society for the protection of nature staff, Eilat's birding center, police, ministry for the protection of the environment, journalists and the truck and tractor drivers. Everyone has been doing there maximal efforts, regardless of whom is to blame and who could do more, exhausted, dusty and with the terrible smell around, trying to save what is left to save.
The Arava people are mourning this giant loss. Nature is a part of us. You can see people hugging trees, walking and crying between the dying plants and sadness is everywhere.
Doron Nisim, the district manager of NPA summarized the first evening describing it as an: "orange sunset on a black soil". The beautiful sunset on the Arava when the mountains are colored red, Sunbirds and Wheatears are singing and the Acacia trees are blooming all gives the impression that nothing has changed.
The heart wouldn't believe it, resting on memories of the beloved land and waiting for a miracle, but the mind knows. We got a harsh blow to our beating heart. The Evrona reserve will never be the same again. This damage is here to stay.
With tears of sadness
International Birding and Research Center - Eilat, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
The Lesser Whitethroats of Eilat
The Lesser Whitethroat is an abundant migrant in Eilat. Their main passage occurs in September and again in March. They are tick-tacking from every bush and tree, especially ones with yellow pollen that this species is so fond of here.
Because Eilat is a bottle-neck of migration routes for birds coming from as far as west as the UK and as east as Siberia and central Asia, we seem to get all kinds of Lesser Whitethroat, and some look very different to each other. In the main season they pretty much look the same, but in November and May, which is outside their usual passage time, we get the strange ones. In the past few years calls for different splits among this group had been raised, but as with many other species, they are not always easy to tell apart.
The knowledge and tools to identify them looks sufficient in the literature with the monumental work of Hadoram Shirihai in his Sylvia Warblers book, giving tail patterns, wing formulas, measurements, detailed plumage descriptions, drawings and pictures, and the recent chapter in Martin Garner's "Challenge series - Autumn" that shows some different features of wing formula, tails and descriptions.
But when you get the bird in the hand it is sometimes far from clear, with some birds having impossible combinations of mixed characteristics that make no sense within the literature.
Some yellowish pale toned Lesser Whitethroats are not uncommon, mainly late in the season. If they are adults, they usually have an all-white outer tail feather. Bills are slenderer too, all fitting the Halimodendri / Minula group.
These warblers feel very distinctively different from the others. It's their measurements that make the confusion rise. Some are short winged approaching the Minula subspecies and some longer that might be Halimodendri. But how can one be sure where is the clear cut border between them?
The Lesser Whitethroat in the picture was caught on the 10th of November and had a very short wing (60mm), short primary projection (40-50 % of tertials). The wing formula showed 2p. = p.7-8. It had strong yellowish sandy tones and a lot of white in the tail. All good for Halimodendri.
A most probable Mountain Lesser Whitethroat (Althaea) from May was even more striking. With such sooty dark uniform upper parts could it be anything but Althaea? Measurements were good but not diagnostic (wing 69mm) and the young age of the bird made the tail pattern not useful. The picture shows the suspected Althaea and a European Lesser Whitethroat.
I hope to give some attention to these warblers this coming spring. I'm sure it will be fascinating.
Other than that, autumn is gone and just a few last migratory birds are still around, and it's time to adjust to winter (20 degrees Celsius).
Our fantastic ringers, Euan from Scotland and Juan from Spain are now in the air flying back home. It's now time to discover what kind of winter birds have settled in the area. The exciting wintering species will be found one by one and every year brings its special surprises.
Our winter specials, the Oriental Skylarks and Buff-bellied Pipits are already here in Yotvata fields and so are the Temminck's Horned and Bar tailed Larks in Uvda.
The first Desert Warblers were already recorded in Evrona salt marsh (And it looks like 2 pairs of Hoopoe Larks are forming early territories there too).
It is already obvious that it is a good year for the Imperial Eagles with at least 4 around the southern Arava and Booted Eagles, Common Buzzards and a Bonneli's Eagle are localizing themselves around us too. First reports of Sinai Rosefinches in various places in the Eilat Mountains are arriving, but sightings of the Cyprus Warblers and Pale Scops Owls are yet to come.
All these species are seen annually, and it's the real rarities such as Red-flanked Bluetail or even an Albatross or Long-tailed Duck, all of which have been reported in the past, that we're waiting for.
A good and warm winter is ahead of us.
הזז ימינה הזז שמאלה
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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FOX31 & Channel 2 TV Schedule
Three-legged Oklahoma therapy dog now needs surgery for himself
OKLAHOMA CITY – A three-legged therapy dog who spends his free time helping others is now in need of some help of his own.
Tripod Petey is a 2½-year-old, three-legged therapy dog. Possibly the only three-legged pit therapy dog in the nation.
"He was run over by a car when he was somewhere between 4 and 6 months old," Dena Newlun, Petey's guardian, told KFOR.
Petey was left to die on the side of a road in Chandler, Oklahoma. He suffered fractures to his pelvis, ribs, and tail. His left rear leg had to be amputated.
While he had a rough start to life, he now spends many of his days at Mercy Rehab Clinic and other hospitals- spreading love to patients and of course staff members.
But recently Petey took a hard fall, which landed him in a little wagon.
"He fell on the amputation site and it caused that bone to go directly into his hip muscle. And at the time we realized he had other issues too. He's got a bone spur on his spinal column that's causing weakness on his remaining back leg," Newlun said.
Petey is already scheduled for surgery to remove the socket and femur at his amputation site. A necessary procedure to keep the bone from tearing into his muscle.
Even though he's in pain himself, that doesn't stop him from getting out to visit his friends.
"There are patients who are nonverbal and the minute they see him, they'll reach for him and they'll say, 'dog,'" Newlun said.
Petey even recently gained national attention as the winner of Pibborafi's stuffed animal contest.
"They will make them in the likeness of a rescue dog. He won a contest because of all the votes of his fans," Newlun said.
He'll now be made into his very own stuffed animal, which you can later purchase, with proceeds going to Oklahoma Alliance for Animals.
In the meantime, Petey will be resting up for his upcoming procedure, in hopes of getting better, so he can continue to bring smiles to those he visits.
"He's a hero in my book. He's just the sweetest, kindest boy and he deserves to not hurt anymore. He deserves to be recognized," Newlun said.
Petey's stuffed animal should be available sometime next February.
If you'd like to help out with some of Petey's vet bills you can donate directly to his veterinarian by dropping off, or sending your donation to Petey's vet at Holistic Pet Care Center of Oklahoma, 3001 Tinker Diagonal OKC, Oklahoma 73115. Or you can call in your donation at (405)605-6675 or (405) 273-5617. The vet will give you an invoice number.
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A Oregon man's gift to his 10 grandkids? A bus to take them all to school each morning


Well, the important thing is that I didn't lose money by trading in my truck for a Prius, and that there are other incentives for developing alternative fuel sources.
This past weekend I installed a hard tonneau cover on my Nissan Frontier pick-up truck. I had been meaning to do it for quite some time, but choosing the right cover has been a challenge.
Nissan sells both a factory hard tonneau and a soft cover tonneau but neither is cheap nor easy to install and remove. The many independent hardware vendors sell hard and soft covers which never quite fit my needs.
After several fits of research over the years, I found a company called Lazer Lite that makes a nice hard aluminum cover which opens with the help of a pair of hydraulic struts. It also removes easily and doesn't take up much room in the bed itself.
Cat ordered one for me as a surprise for my birthday, and although it took a while for Lazer Lite to build and ship, I'm pretty damn happy with the cover and the customer service we received.
If you're in the market for a tonneau, I highly recommend Scott and the folks at Lazer Lite.
Here's some before and after pics of the cover on my truck.
Joy. Today I made my final payment on my 2002 GMC Sierra. That sucker's all mine now.
Just got back from my road trip to the Open Source Convention in San Diego. I drove from New York City 5,500 miles round trip in a total travel time of 123 hours, which includes sleep and stops for gas.


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Lotus Chaat has a Street Cafe patio on 4th Street in the West End of San Rafael.
Lotus Chaat & Spices patio is a great place for outdoor dining in San Rafael especially on hot Summer days.
Want to tag along with yout pet, No Problem! It's also 100% pet friendly.
Come enjoy delicious healthy South Indian Street Food in a relaxed outdoor environment. Lotus Chaat is the only place in Marin County where you can enjoy Indian Street Food. When you're done with your streetside meal come shop at our Indian Grocery!
When in the San Francisco North Bay come get your Indian Street Food fix by dining out on the street at Lotus Chaat & Spices!


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Tag: Harry Turtledove
Who Was … William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley?
William Cecil is best known as Secretary of State to Elizabeth I, as well as Lord High Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal. He also served Edward VI as Secretary of State and then moved to look after Princess Elizabeth's properties before she became Queen. Cecil's role in the execution of Mary Queen of Scots is also questionable, and he was blamed in part by Elizabeth for it. He was responsible for the building of Burghley House and Theobalds.
Name: William Cecil
Title/s: 1st Baron Cecil of Burghley
Birth: 13 September 1520 in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England
Death: 4 August 1598 at Cecil House, London, England
Buried: St Martin's Church, Stamford, Lincolnshire, England
Spouse: Mary Cheke ?-1543 & Mildred Cooke 1526-1589
Children: Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter 1542-1623 / Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury 1563-1612 / Anne de Vere, Countess of Oxford 1556-1588 / Francisca Cecil / William Cecil 1559 / William Cecil 1561 / Elizabeth Wentworth 1564-1583
Parents: Richard Cecil c.1495-1553 & Jane Heckington ?-1587
Siblings: Agnes White c.1527-? / Margaret Cave 1523-1553 / Elizabeth Wingfield c.1525-1611
Noble Connections: William Cecil was Secretary of State to both Edward VI and Elizabeth I. He was also Elizabeth I's closest advisor for most of her reign. He also initially supported the reign of Lady Jane Grey in 1553. He is the founder of the Cecil dynasty which has produced 2 prime ministers including the 3rd Marquis of Salisbury.
Continue reading "Who Was … William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley?"
Author Helene HarrisonPosted on Sep 15, 2017 Jan 13, 2020 Categories Tudors, Who Was ...?Tags Baron Burghley, Burghley, C.J. Sansom, Cecil, David Loades, David Thewlis, Elizabeth I, Elizabethan, Harry Turtledove, Ian Hart, Philippa Gregory, Profile, Richard Attenborough, Rosalind Miles, Secretary of State, William CecilLeave a comment on Who Was … William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley?


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House committee launches investigation into Wells Fargo sales tactics
In the wake of the unauthorized accounts scandal at Wells Fargo, federal regulators are investigating sales practices and incentive pay policies at other big banks.
(Ben Margot / Associated Press)
By Jim Puzzanghera
Reporting from Washington —
The House Financial Services Committee has launched an investigation into improper sales tactics at Wells Fargo & Co., and plans to call the bank's chief executive to testify at a hearing this month.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the committee's chairman, said Friday that the probe would look into "alleged fraud that led to the opening of unauthorized customer accounts at Wells Fargo and the role of Washington regulators in monitoring and investigating this activity."
The panel's investigation comes as the Senate Banking Committee is looking into the matter and will hear testimony from Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf at a hearing Tuesday. The Justice Department also has started an investigation that could lead to civil or criminal charges.
The probes come after the bank agreed last week to pay $185 million to settle investigations by Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer and federal regulators.
The sales tactics, first uncovered by the Los Angeles Times in 2013, involved thousands of bank employees opening as many as 2 million accounts that customers did not authorize in order to meet aggressive sales goals.
Wells Fargo has fired 5,300 employees for improper sales tactics since 2011.
In a letter to Wells Fargo general counsel James M. Strother, Hensarling said that "the committee is very concerned by these serious allegations." He requested "all records related to the questionable sales tactics" that were produced or made available to Los Angeles and federal officials.
The committee also requested documents from the federal regulators involved in the settlement: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which imposed a $100-million fine on Wells Fargo, its biggest enforcement action ever.
Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Al Green (D-Texas) had requested Sept. 9 that Hensarling hold a hearing.
"We need answers as to how this happened and why this happened. We need answers about who's being held accountable for this fraud," Waters told reporters on a conference call Friday.
Wells Fargo said Friday in a statement that, "We welcome the opportunity to provide the committee with information on this matter and to discuss steps we have taken to affirm our commitment to customers."
In addition to calling Stumpf to testify at the hearing, Hensarling requested that four Wells Fargo executives be made available for interviews with committee staff.
They include Carrie Tolstedt, senior executive vice president for community banking, who headed the unit in which the unauthorized accounts were opened. Wells Fargo announced in July that she was retiring at the end of the year.
There have been calls for Wells Fargo to recover some of the money paid to executives involved with the scandal, including Tolstedt, who Fortune magazine estimated will receive $124.6 million in a retirement pay package. The process is known as a clawback.
Five Democratic senators wrote to Stumpf on Friday asking whether the bank would use clawback provisions to recover compensation paid to Tolstedt and other top executives.
"This was not the work of a few rogue employees over the course of a few weeks. Wells Fargo had a longstanding, systemic problem created by stringent sales quotas and incentives imposed by senior management," said the letter from Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
In response to the furor, Wells Fargo said this week that it would eliminate all sales goals for credit cards, checking accounts and other retail banking products starting Jan. 1.
Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said the bank also had invested $50 million to improve its monitoring of employees' activities, including adding a "mystery shopper program" to identify improper sales tactics.
At the same time, Shrewsberry and Stumpf sought to deflect blame for the scandal from upper management, with Shrewsberry saying the terminated employees were "really more at the lower end of the performance scale, where people apparently were making bad choices to hang on in their job."
Stumpf during an appearance on CNBC's "Mad Money" said he was fully accountable for the problems but does not plan to resign.
Also Friday, the public interest group Public Citizen said it had filed a shareholder resolution with Wells Fargo asking the board of directors to study whether the bank should be broken up because it is too large to be effectively managed.
"Rather than acknowledging a management breakdown, CEO John Stumpf blamed a minority of bad employees," the resolution said. "He claimed there was no reason for the employees to commit the fraud. … Taking CEO Stumpf at his word, then, we believe he effectively argues that his firm is so large as to be unmanageable."
The bank's shares fell 72 cents, or 1.6%, to $45.43 on Friday. The shares are now off nearly 9% since announcement of the settlement Sept. 8.
jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com
Follow @JimPuzzanghera on Twitter
3:50 p,m.: This article was updated with comment from Wells Fargo and additional background.
10:45 a.m.: This article was updated with information about a shareholder resolution filed by Public Citizen.
This article was originally published at 10:20 a.m.
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Stocks on Wall Street ended broadly lower Tuesday, breaking a five-day winning streak for the S&P 500 index. Tech companies took some of the biggest losses.


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Fadnavis Scraps 94 Irrigation Tenders; Pawar under Scanner
By Suraj	 On Sep 1, 2016
The Maharashtra government, under the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, discarded 94 irrigation project tenders worth Rs 6,000 crore on Tuesday. This has turned out to be a major setback for former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The tenders were a part of the multi-crore irrigation scam which is currently being reviewed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Pawar, who served as the Water Resources Minister from 1999 to 2009, cleared tenders amounting to Rs 20,000 crore in 2009 without following proper procedures. He did not even take any clearance from the Governing Council of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC).
The government tweeted about this and informed people. "Maharashtra Cabinet decides to scrap around 94 tenders of 14 irrigation projects in which anti-corruption bureau (ACB) has initiated a probe," tweeted under the account CMO Maharashtra. The scam was brought into focus through a letter to the chief minister in 2012 by the then Water Resource Department chief engineer Vijay Pandhare.
Earlier, nearly 128 irrigation projects have also been abandoned by the BJP and Shiv Sena alliance which were shown green signal by the former NCP-Congress government. The NCP has clearly tagged this as a conspiracy and political vendetta. They have questioned the current government that why did they keep mum about this for so long.
However, under the chargesheet filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Thane, Pawar's name does not exist in the top 10 leaders involving irregular activities.
Suraj 253 posts 0 comments
ShahRukh's Darr Being Updated into Web-Series on Cyber-Stalking
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I can't believe that the Autumn Challenge is almost over!! There is only one challenge left after today. Where does the time go?? It still seems like we just started the Spring Challenge!
My Harvest idea came from the idea of the crops in the morning, when the sun it's them and turns them all golden. The design is very out of the book, but I really like the end result.
I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss.
I then added 1 coat of China Glaze Harvest, but I seemed to have accidentally erased the picture. I also added Girly Bits Crunchy Leaves like a gradient.
I was going to stop with Crunchy Leaves but I really wanted to add a reddish color. I grabbed Hare Rusty Hearts and added it to my tips.
To blend everything together, and because it looked beautiful, I added some more Crunchy Leaves.
For my rays of sun I used BM301 and Essie Good as Gold. I also topped it off with 2 coats of HK Girl.
I love all the burnt golden tones in the design, so fall-y!
Pretty :) I'm so stumped on this one, not sure what I'm going to do for it! I love yours though!
This is really pretty! I'm still deciding what to do... maybe a cute turkey since it's Harvest/Thanksgiving though a turkey makes more sense for next week (Not for the challenge though).
This is beautiful! I love Rusty Hearts!
Ohhhhh i would love to have this one day!!


Choosing a healthcare provider is an extremely personal decision. Doctor-patient interactions are one of the most important relationships in a person's life.
The healthcare professional should know what is best for you when it comes to health and the well being of patients in their specific specialty.
The relationship with your doctor should be thought of like a sports team—when you work together, you get better healthcare.
While circumcision can be a sensitive subject matter to bring up to your health care provider, it is important you have a doctor you trust and can bring up anything that may concern you.
1. Why Did You Become a Circumcision Specialist?
Whether for cosmetic or health reasons, each family or person that chooses to pursue circumcision has a unique motivation and health needs.
It is important to voice these motivations to the healthcare provider so you can see if you make a good team.
It is also important to make sure that all healthcare professionals and facilities are properly licensed and credentialed.
2. What Surgical Unit Do You Use?
Hospital surgical units are readily accessible for performing circumcisions soon after birth in the more traditional timeline.
But, if families or men are deciding to have a circumcision after a longer time following birth or at an even older age, it can be difficult to have access to the unit as they are in demand for a variety of procedures.
Children's hospitals may not be set up or well equipped to perform circumcisions on older patients. Also, circumcision is not a routine procedure in a non-pediatric hospital due to the low demand for the procedure.
These issues create the need for a circumcision-specific clinic. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports the health benefits to circumcision outweigh the risks and recommend parents should be given all information so that they can decide what is best.
Families and potential patients can work with their primary care provider to be referred to a reputable circumcision clinic.
3. How Long Have You Been a Circumcision Specialist?
Circumcision clients can include newborn babies all the way up to adults, and a circumcision specific clinic helps provide an inclusive setting for all age ranges.
Gentle Circumcision is the most referred source in California for circumcisions for males and serving all age groups.
The clinic staff has more than 20 years of specialty experience, including over 15,000 procedures performed by the Cooperative of American Physicians – Mutual Protection Trust (CAP-MPT) physician members.
Gentle Circumcision is the most affordable clinic experience with advanced pain management with local anesthesia included in the cost.
Consultations and procedures are performed in one visit to keep the cost low.


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"Goo Goo Muck" by The Cramps
by Sabrina Chitty · Published December 2, 2022 · Updated December 2, 2022
The "goo goo muck", as relayed, is some type of a beast who is also a human teenager. When this song was originally dropped during the early 1960s, it would have been more acceptable for a mainstream band to release a track about actually transforming into some type of "monster" and prowling the night accordingly.
There is one line in the second verse which implies that said transformation may be metaphorical for the vocalist's horniness, if you will. But the rest of the song depicts him more generally along the lines of the young man being out, up to no good basically.
Obviously, judging by the nature of the title for instance, this piece is meant to more humorous than literal. But of course in contemporary times, the wording would likely be interpreted as being more sinister than perhaps originally intended. But in any event, the vocalist is actually warning the listener to basically be on the lookout for figures like himself. Or put otherwise, there are some "teenage goo goo muck(s)" out there, "cruis(ing) through the city" and looking for some type of trouble to get into, whether it be romance-oriented or otherwise.
When did The Cramps release "Goo Goo Muck"?
In May 1981, The Cramps released their second album which goes by the title "Psychedelic Jungle". The album contains a total of 14 tracks, including "Goo Goo Muck". And since this song was a non-single, it and the album have the same date of release.
That said, it should be stated that "Goo Goo Muck" was originally recorded and performed by Ronnie Cook. Owing to this, Ronnie is credited as one of the writers of the song. So is one Ed James.
Popular Usage
"Goo Goo Muck" has been featured in the following American TV series and movie:
Soundtrack of 1986 black comedy slasher movie "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2".
Pilot of drama series "Reprisal" in 2019.
2022 coming-of-age supernatural comedy horror series "Wednesday" season 1, episode 4. The track played during a school dance scene and Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) stole the show with her moves.
This song's usage in "Wednesday" created a lot of buzz to the point where it went viral. Fans are happy that both the band and this track are getting the recognition once again.
No matter how long you've been a fan of The Cramps, it's undeniable that Wednesday's weird dance has embodied the song perfectly, making it popular again.
The "Psychedelic Jungle" Album
"Psychedelic Jungle", a 14-track set, was released as a follow-up to The Cramps' 1980 debut project "Songs the Lord Taught Us".
This album is a product of I.R.S. Records, and its official release date was in May of 1981.
The members of the group were solely responsible for producing the entire album. On this project, the band featured various cover versions of songs by other artists, including "Goo Goo Muck". This album also features the band's cover version of Jim Lowe's 1956 hit single "Green Door".
Tags: Ed JamesGoo Goo MuckI.R.S. RecordsPsychedelic JungleRonnie CookThe CrampsWednesday


To start of with, an apology from Andrew, he had an epic dose of manflu and that's why we're so late with our latest podcast!
On the plus side, it was worth the wait. Straight out of Citrix Summit, we had the absolute pleasure of catching up with the ever charming, fascinating and all round nice guy that is Christian Reilly, CTO of the Workspace Services Division at Citrix.
Christians impressive career so far.
Christians first year at Citrix.
What does Citrix's message of "Focus on Core" mean?
Citrix's new CEO Krill Tatarinov.
Workspace Cloud launch, success and feedback.
Christians first Citrix summit, how did it go?
The future of networking and Netscaler CPX.
Consulting the EUC crystal ball for the next 18 months.
the good old MDM vs MAM debacle and information management.
Gluing the pieces together to simplify the user experience.
Hints and Tips for Synergy.
Apprenticeships and Education in our sector.
A catch-up with Andrew Morgan – that guy that disappeared about a year ago.
A chat with Ingmar Verheij, Citrix Senior Sales Engineer and IoT rock star.
A chat with Guru Chahal all about Avi Networks.
@VDIHacker @BasvanKaam @Rorymon Happy to do round 2 any time. We look forward to it.
@bsuhr @JarianGibson @vhojan @vdidesignguide We got a bit behind but catching up. Have a few more coming out soon as well.


In java there are a number of standards and techniques to deal with JSON, GSON given by Google is the most commonly and easiest way of JSON implementation in java . In today's discussion we will come to know 'How to convert a JSON object to Java' and 'How to convert a Java object to JSON'.
GSON provides two useful methods and everything moven around these two methods.
In this tutorial we will see step by step explanation and implementation of parse JSON in Java using Gson.
This is the overall project structure for today's discussion. We have added a 'gson' jar under lib folder to make our project to use gson capabilities. 'JavaToJson.java' file contains code for converting java object to json and 'JsonToJava.java' file contains code for convert json object to java. 'json' folder contains 'student.json' file that we will be using to read and convert json from. We have added a domain class 'Student.java' this will be used to carry an object to convert to json and from json. Please make sure you have added 'gson' jar to project's classpath.
Convert java object to json is an easy task, all we need to do is having an java object and use a 'toJson' method from 'Gson' API.
This is a simple java domain class to obtain an object so that convert from java to json and json to java can be demonstrated.
This is a simple java classes which contains actual code of convert java object to json, we have added some data to Student objcet here. All we did here is obtain an object from Gson and called toJson() method on our student object.
This is generated json from student java object.
Convert json object to java is an easy task all we need to do is having an json file and reading json from there to convert to java.
This is sample json String written under 'student.json' file, we will read this in our code to convert into a java object.
We have read json from student.json file and passes the stream to 'fromJson()' method. Than we have iterated the object simply to see how to use data contained in json.
This is a screenshot from console, we will get an output like this after conversion is done.
This is nothing but a simple implementation class having main method, we have called our codes here to demonstrate actual conversion.
In this particular blog we learn how to parse json in java and came across 'How to convert json object to java using Gson' and 'how to convert java object to json using Gson'. In upcoming blogs we will come across more about json implementations in java and other useful stuff. Read more about XML & JSON under SAX & DOM & Xml parser in Java & JDOM2 & XML parser in Java JSON, and JAXB - Marshalling & Unmarshalling in Java categories.


This book is the story of Liesel, a little girl who is taken in by the Hubermanns in Nazi occupied Germany. The story of Liesel, the Hubermanns and others is told through the narration of Death. Yes, Death narrates this story, and there could not be a more appropriate or unique voice to do so. I thought at first that a book narrated by Death could be nothing but sad and tragic, but it gives the book such an interesting spin. The story is told by the one voice that witnessed humans at their best and humans at their worst.
The chapters are short and contain interesting snippets about characters, such as a list of facts we should know about a new character as he/ she is introduced, a different format than what I'm used to but it was easy enough to adjust to and easy to read. Liesel just stole my heart from the beginning and later Max would as well. Even though you know the outcome of the war, it is different to read of these particular characters. You just have to keep reading to find out what will happen to them and if they will survive the war.
And of course, underlying all of this is the desperation of one little girl to get her hands on non-Nazi literature during a time when books were being banned and burned. It really is a tale of the war unlike any other I've ever read. Many of you have very possibly already read this book, but if you haven't or if it's been on your "to-read" list too, then I highly recommend you pick it up – soon!


Does anyone have any advice about snakes?
Do't lose it in the house, or mother will 'lose it' in the house.
haha oh yeah i know!
Why would you do that to your sister? That is cruel.
Keep them away from planes.
well im not doing it because of her. i am doing it because i love snacks. and she does plenty of things wi th our room and what not that i can get a snake. its not to be cruel.
Know what you are getting into. Quite often little snakes grow into big snakes and be prepared for that. I had a boa and that was my favorite pet yet ever! It was the coolest pet until he got big-er! Have a secure cage is the biggest part to be concerned with and then the type of diet. Watching little mice get squeezed to death is not for everybody.
I would just do your homework and make an informed choice is all and talk to pet shop owners and check out reptile forums and ask there!
Snake!... it's what's for dinner!
Please remember that most snakes are rather long lived. So… if you are a teenager be advised that you will need to make provisions for your pet when you go off to seek your fortune. This can be problematic if you plan on going to college and living in a dorm room as most have rules about pets.
If you are already out on your own and don't have to worry about rules of the house in your living arrangements. Just remember that any potential future life partners will have to accept the snake along with you.
Yes, I speak from experience. When we were dating my wife nearly dropped a load on our bathroom floor when she opened the medicine cabinet and "Caesar", our house 6' boa stuck his head out to say hello. Fortunately, she got over her fear of Caesar, but it took awhile.
Getting over that first meeting must have told you that she was 'the one', I would imagine.
She is a remarkable woman in many regards.
@Cruiser, yes i very prepared for the snake to get bigger(: thats actually just what i want.
First, realize that to feed the snake, usually, is pretty costly. It will depend on the type, and how much it needs, but you will most likely need to regularly purchase small rodents to feed it with.
Second, don't loose it in the house. It could be forever until you find it again; but look in your basement if that happens.
And third, most snakes need a pretty picky environment; prepare to spend lots on heating lights and special aquariums.
Yes. I have kept snakes all of my life.
If you want to keep your snake alive, do your homework. Decide what kind of snake you want, buy a good book about the snake, and do even more digging. The mortality rate for snakes is very high due to bad husbandry. Also, snakes can live for about 3–4 decades.
Each snake has different requirements for husbandry. You can't just toss them in a tank. You have to have a proper enclosure for security, ability to clean, ability to temperature regulate.
Each species, or group of species, requires different environments. Learn what "you need a hot side and a cold side" means. Learn enough to know that heat rocks are not what you should use… ever. Learn what "substrate" means, which type of substrate you should use and why. If you don't know what I am talking about, don't get a snake.
Learn about the feeding habits of whatever snake you are considering. For instance Royal Pythons ("Ball Pythons") are notoriously picky eaters and, if you get one of these beautiful snakes, you might have to do things up to and including breaking the head of your prey item open to stimulate feeding response.
When people ask me what sort of type of snake to get as a first one, I customarily suggest a colubridae such as a king snake or corn snake… after I have given quite the lecture (you are getting the short version). They are less fussy in temperature than the boid and grow nowhere near as long as one. Get a cute little burmese python, and you could have a 200+ pound reptile on your hands if it is female… I had one that size, she was a rescue.
You also are going to get bitten. That is not a matter up to debate. Sooner or later you are going to do something stupid with your snake. My first Stupid Snake Error was to not wash my hands after prekilling my snake's rat. I reached in and got nailed. I said "well, damn I was an idiot," washed my hands, and got on with it.
Oh… prekill. Get your snake on prekill.
As a guy who loves snakes, I encourage you to think twice. This is not a pet you can just put in a tank and toss misc. food items at.
Doom: Should I play them in order?
How do you cope with grief when a beloved pet passes away?
How do I feed my snake correctly? Is this a good way..?
Small dog swallowed small chicken bone-now what?
How can I successfully locate the parents of this babygirl?


I've lived in Mobile, AL all of my life with the exception of college. I don't think there is any other place I would rather live. Believe me I've thought about it numerous times. My city has horrible traffic, bad neighborhoods, an education system that leaves a lot to be desired. It lacks a vision for future progress and new jobs that would attract younger, more educated people to our area. Shopping is horrible. We have a mall that's old, dirty and crowded with people who seriously look like they've done hard prison time. Don't even get me started on our grocery stores.
The thing is…none of those things really matter. Sure they're annoying and I really wish some intelligent people in our city will step up and solve some of our problems. But I think good people and great memories are what make home the best place on earth. The fact that I can look out on our polluted bay and not think about the fact that I might see a dirty condom floating around in the water*, but see how beautiful the sky and water look right around sunset. The fact that I can just sit anywhere near the bay and listen to the water and think of a time when I was little enough to fit on a rope hammock on our bay-house wharf with my daddy or any of my brothers and cousins. So I love this place. I absolutely love it.
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