India Indian music music: 78 rpm discs shehnai
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Professor Nazir Hossain of Benares
Here is another excellent pair of shehnai performances, this time by “Professor” Nazir Hossain of Benares. From what I can figure out, he is the uncle and ustad of Ali Ahmed Hussain, whose music you can listen to here.
Raga Adana Bahar
Thumri
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 18: They Would, However, Vote To Burn Environmentalists.
The August 1 edition of Grist notes that Henry Waxman and Ed Markey have been keeping track of the Republican anti-environment pathology:
Reps. Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Edward Markey (Mass.), of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, have been keeping tabs on Republican votes to undermine environmental legislation. They say that since taking over the majority in January, Republicans have voted 110 times to block or weaken legislation intended to protect the environment.
Waxman says of the findings that “the new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era,” and Markey compared the GOP agenda to a rifle “pointed right at the heart of America’s clean energy future.” This is fairly colorful, but the thing is, you don’t have to take their word for it — they have a chart with all the votes! Nothing like solid data to confirm your notion that you should be under the couch crying about the future of the country.
What would Theodore Roosevelt think of the Republican Party today? The man who created our world-renowned national park system and helped bring today’s environmental movement into being would be justifiably outraged at the behavior of modern Republicans. It’s not just anti-environment legislation, though. The current crop of tea-party zealots are anti-science, anti-math, and anti-reality, as well as anti-Democrat. What this means is that even eminently sensible and desirable bills are doomed if they’re introduced by the GOP’s political enemies, as witness their steady opposition to anything addressing our country’s energy future with anything more nuanced than “drill, baby, drill.” While Teddy is no doubt spinning in his grave as members of the GOP eviscerate environmental protections, we can’t use the power he’s generating: since it would reduce profits for the multinational corporations who own American politics lock, stock and barrel, the bill would die in committee.
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs ghazal
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Kakoo Ram
Google offers me nothing about Kakoo Ram — but I enjoy both of these songs. So will you.
Bade bahaar do din ki hai
Rashke aadaa vakushon dil
environment Politics: glaciers media irresponsibility
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 17: Slippery When Wet.
Tuscon Citizen for August 1 ran a USA Today squib on the world’s melting glaciers:
Two of three Himalayan glaciers — both in humid areas of eastern Nepal — could disappear if present climate change patterns continue, a study released today predicts.
The Rikha Samba glacier, in a relatively arid area of western Nepal, showed little shrinkage in the past decade compared with the two prior decades, but the other two glaciers, known as Yala and AX010, show accelerated wastage over the last decade, according to the study.
The researchers say glaciers in humid environments can exist at lower altitudes, leaving them vulnerable to warming. They say that if climate trends observed since the 1990s continue, these two glaciers may disappear because ice masses will probably not receive enough snow to replenish the shrinkage.
After writing the letter I found they had no LTE mechanism at all…so I just left the beautifully crafted 150-word piece as a comment. The hell with it. Web comments don’t usually count as letters in my book, but I’m too tired to care at the moment. Posted August 1:
One of the most alarming aspects of the news that the world’s glaciers are dwindling rapidly under the onslaught of global climate change is that so few Americans are paying attention. Perhaps glaciers are too far away and unfamiliar, or the year of their projected final disappearance from the planet is still too remote. Perhaps people have more pressing concerns: jobs, the economy, healthcare. But ultimately there’s no greater issue than the survival of the environment; politicians’ attempts to frame it as an either/or debate are extremely misleading. Our aspirations to economic growth disregard the fact that we live on a finite world; continued expansion beyond the capacity of Earth’s natural systems is a fatally flawed aspiration. The melting glaciers are one of many indicators that the planet’s resources are failing. If Americans don’t pay attention now, we’re in for a series of very unpleasant surprises in the coming decades.
Warren Senders
India Indian music Personal Warren's music: travel notes
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More from Bharat…
…Here it is Tuesday night. I’m back at the cybercafe updating.
Mehfil in Mumbai went very well, with exceptionally supportive tabla playing from a young woman named Mukta Raste. A good audience, lots of appreciative daad — just the thing to get me in a good mood. I returned to Pune the next day and was promptly hammered with all the jet lag I’d been ignoring for days. I spent all Monday lying down, alternately napping and reading (Neal Stephenson’s “Quicksilver” if you’re interested). Rehearsed for Saturday’s Pune concert that night, then came back home and crashed spectacularly, falling asleep with my specs still on.
Today was a lazy day. I bought my ticket for Nasik; I will leave Thursday at noon, getting in around 5 pm. The concert there is on Friday night. Saturday night I am singing in Pune. That will be interesting, coming on top of a five-hour bus ride earlier in the day.
Now to shut down and head back home for dinner.
environment Politics: polar bears scientific method
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 16: If This Ends Differently, I Will Be Extremely Surprised. Extremely.
The July 31 New York Times reports on Charles Monnet, the scientist who (along with Jeffrey Gleason) wrote the “dead-polar-bear” report that stirred things up among the Bushies. He’s been suspended on “integrity” issues, with the inquiry focusing on the very same report. Gee. Why does this not smell legit?
The federal government has suspended a wildlife biologist whose sightings of dead polar bears in Arctic waters became a rallying point for campaigners seeking to blunt the impact of global warming.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement notified the biologist, Charles Monnett, on July 18 that he had been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation into “integrity issues,” according to a copy of a letter posted online by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Documents posted by the group indicate that the inquiry centers on a 2006 report that Dr. Monnett co-wrote on deaths among polar bears swimming in the Beaufort Sea.
Come on. What’s more likely? A grossly corrupt scientist — or a bureaucracy that doesn’t know what the fuck it’s doing and is staffed with stupid vengeful people? Maybe I’m an idealist about scientists, but I’ve seen a lot more vicious bureaucrats than I have corrupt research scientists. Sent July 31:
When government investigates scientists, the results are often comical at best and Kafkaesque at worst. Whereas the mechanisms of law and administration are readily susceptible to egregious misuse, those of scientific research are far harder to corrupt. The allegations of misconduct against Dr. Charles Monnet are likely to prove a singular example of this fact. Dr. Monnet, whose work was terribly inconvenient for the previous administration’s corporate sponsors, is probably the victim of a toxic combination: a scientifically ignorant bureaucrat with a grudge. We’ve heard this story before; it’s “climategate” — with bears. Although repeated investigations totally demolished the East Anglia non-scandal, the lies about it continue to spread. Similarly, we can expect eventual inquiry to vindicate Monnet and Gleason’s findings while their names nevertheless endure continued calumnies from the ignorant and vengeful. All of us are the losers thereby, for the world needs good scientists more than bad bureaucrats.
Warren Senders
India Indian music music: 78 rpm discs shehnai
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Talim Hossain of Lucknow
Shuffling through stacks of discs in the hubbub of Chor Bazaar, how could I resist a pair of performances on “bagpipes”? Except that these are of course shehnai, oddly labeled. Talim Hossain of Lucknow plays two nice gats in Bhairavi. I love the little squeak at the beginning of each piece.
Here’s a tiny snippet of information:
Next to orchestra and band records, the gramophone company recorded ‘Shahanai’ which they called and labeled as ‘Bagpipe’. Most popular players that recorded shahanai were: Fazulal Pandit, Shaikh Munna, Hyderabad Pipers, Talim Hussain of Lucknow alias Ali Bux and Ustad Ali Bux (guru and maternal uncle of Late Ustad Bismillah Khan). Link
environment Politics: assholes idiots Republicans
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 15: Lord Of The Flies
The July 30 New York Times reports on further criminality from those crazy House Republicans, this time in the form of “riders” on other bills. Read it and weep:
While almost no one was looking, House Republicans embarked last week on a broad assault on the nation’s environmental laws, using as their weapon the 2012 spending bill for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. When debate began Monday, the bill included an astonishing 39 anti-environmental riders — so called because they ride along on appropriations bills even though they have nothing to do with spending and are designed to change policy, in this case disastrously.
Riders generally are not subjected to hearings or extensive debate, and many would not survive on their own. They are often written in such a way that most people, even many Capitol Hill insiders, need a guide to understand them. They are, in short, bad policy pushed forward through a bad legislative process.
A rider can be removed from the bill only with a vote to strike it. The Democrats managed one big victory on Wednesday when, by a vote of 224 to 202, the House struck one that would have gutted the Endangered Species Act by blocking the federal government from listing any new species as threatened or endangered and barring it from protecting vital habitat — a provision so extreme that even some Republicans could not countenance it.
These people are not going to be satisfied until there is nothing living in the wild, anywhere on Earth. Sent July 30:
Inserting anti-environment riders on unrelated bills is a flagrant corruption of the mechanisms of our government, but as we have seen time and time again, there is no abuse of the legislative process too egregious for the current Congress. Many of these attachments seem completely senseless until we recognize that they were written for our politicians by specialists from industries affected by environmental regulations. Since weakening of EPA or other regulatory authority translates into higher profits, industry-friendly riders are worth a lot of money.
There are some essential questions which all Americans need to ask when we learn about this practice: Should our laws be written by corporations for their own benefit? Is it possible to instill an ethic of collective responsibility in multinational corporations? Is a fixation on short-term profits the best guide for the business sector’s approach to environmental issues? The obvious answers: no, no and no.
Warren Senders
India Indian music music: 78 rpm discs genius shehnai
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: The Genius of Bismillah Khan
Bismillah Khan dominated the music world of the twentieth century. A prodigious improviser with masterful technique, he stood head and shoulders above other shehnai players, and was beyond any doubt one of the towering figures in all world music. Here are four sides that showcase his mastery. Enjoy:
Raga Jaunpuri:
Raga Hansnarayani:
Raga Basant Bahar
Dhun
environment: IPCC Rajendra Pachauri
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Year 2, Month 8, Day 14: Is Anyone Listening?
The July 27 Manila Bulletin lets Rajendra Pachauri tell it like it is:
MANILA, Philippines — The key facts on global warming are already known and leaders should not wait for the next edition of the UN climate panel’s report to step up action, the body’s top scientist told AFP.
The 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released in 2007, “is very clear,” Rajendra Pachauri said Monday in Paris, ahead of a five-day meeting of the body in Brest, France.
The fifth multi-volume assessment, which summarizes peer-reviewed science to help policy makers make decisions, is due out in 2013-2014.
“We have enough evidence, enough scientific findings which should convince people that action has to be taken,” he said after a round-table discussion with France’s environment minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.
“Based on observation, we know that there will be more floods, more drought, more heat waves and more extreme precipitation events. These things are happening,” Pachauri said.
Sent July 29:
It is beyond foolish to delay action on mitigating the effects of climate change any further. Rajendra Pachauri is entirely correct; the accumulated evidence overwhelmingly supports the idea that global warming is caused by human civilization’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Responsibility for the solution must be borne by all the world’s nations, for building a sustainable future that protects us all against the ravages of a radically transformed climate is a civilizational project. But consider the predicament of an island state facing physical elimination in consequence of rising sea levels triggered by the greenhouse effect. Because large industrialized countries have contributed far more to the problem over the past century, it is economically sensible and morally just that they should contribute proportionally to the solution. If the tables were turned, and a tiny nation’s actions threatened the existence of one of the world’s great powers, could anyone doubt the outcome?
Warren Senders