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camisoledadparis · 4 months ago

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HIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … January 1

I hope you are enjoying This Day in Gay History. It was started out as a reposting of White Crane's daily newsletters in early 2011 has gained a life of its own and grown out in many directions, in particular, gaining a international identity. The postings now come from many sources, some of them credited in the masthead, but also from tips and suggestions from members. As we move into a new year, you will find you have seen many of the postings before, but always check them out, because there will always be something new, especially as so many public figures are now coming out of the closet. Your Admin

1533 – Italy: Michelangelo writes a love letter to Tommaso de Cavalieri, devoting "the present and the time to come that remain to me."

Rare snapshot of Charles Kains Jackson

1857 – Charles Kains Jackson (d.1933) was an English poet closely associated with the Uranian school.

Beginning in 1888, in addition to a career as a lawyer, he served as editor for the periodical the Artist and Journal of Home Culture, which became something of an official periodical for the movement. In it, he praised such artists as Henry Scott Tuke (to whom he dedicated a sonnet) and Henry Oliver Walker. He also befriended such similar-minded contemporaries as Frederick William Rolfe, Lord Alfred Douglas and John Addington Symonds.The homosexual and pederastic aspects of the Artist declined after the replacement of Kains Jackson as an editor in 1894. The final issue edited by Kains Jackson included his essay, 'The New Chivalry', an argument for the moral and societal benefits of pederasty and erotic male friendship on the grounds of both Platonism and Social Darwinism. According to Kains Jackson, the New Chivalry would promote 'the youthful masculine ideal' over the Old Chivalry's emphasis on the feminine. Jackson's volumes of poetry include Finibus Cantat Amor (1922) and Lysis (1924).

Kains Jackson was a member of the Order of Chaeronea, a secret society for homosexuals founded in 1897 by George Ives, which was named after the location of the battle where the Sacred Band of Thebes was finally annihilated in 338 BC. Other members included Samuel Ellworth Cottam, Montague Summers, and John Gambril Nicholson.

1879 – E.M. Forster (d.1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society.

Forster was born into an Anglo-Irish and Welsh middle-class family in London. England. He attended the famous public school Tonbridge School in Kent as a day boy. The theatre at the school is named after him, and later studied at King's College, Cambridge, between 1897 and 1901.

After leaving university he travelled in continental Europe with his mother. He visited Egypt, Germany and India with the classicist Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson in 1914. By that time, Forster had written all but one of his novels. In the First World War, as a conscientious objector, he volunteered for the International Red Cross, travelling to Alexandria, Egypt.

Why didn't EM Forster write much of anything in the second half of his life? According to a new biographer, Wendy Moffat, who has had access to Forster's private papers, what knocked him off track was losing his virginity in his late 30s.

He slept with a wounded soldier in Egypt, in 1917 - "losing R [respectability]" he called it in his private diary. After that, he set about making up for lost time. "I should have been a more famous writer if I had written or rather published more," he later explained, "but sex prevented the latter."

Back in England Forster divided his time between his mother in the Home Counties and gay friends and bisexual boys in his London flat. Homosexuality in Britain was aggressively persecuted then and Forster wisely centred his affairs on officers from Hammersmith police station.

One of them, Bob Buckingham, became the love of Forster's life. Bob was bisexual and soon married, however, he never abandoned Forster. As for writing novels that stopped with the development of his homosexual life.

Forster developed a long-term loving relationship with Bob Buckingham, and his wife, and included the couple in his circle, which also included the writer and arts editor of The Listener, J.R. Ackerley, the psychologist W.J.H. Sprott, and, for a time, the composer Benjamin Britten. Other writers with whom Forster associated included the poet Siegfried Sassoon and the Belfast-based novelist Forrest Reid.

In the 1930s and 1940s Forster became a successful broadcaster on BBC Radio. He was a humanist, homosexual, and lifelong bachelor.

Forster had five novels published in his lifetime. Although Maurice appeared shortly after his death, it had been written nearly sixty years earlier. A seventh novel, Arctic Summer, was never finished. The earlier novels are Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), and Howards End (1910).

Forster achieved his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924). The novel takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj. Forster connects personal relationships with the politics of colonialism through the story of the Englishwoman Adela Quested, the Indian Dr. Aziz, and the question of what did or did not happen between them in the Marabar Caves.

Maurice (1971) - his one novel to deal head-on with homosexuality - was written some years previously, though it was published only after his death. His posthumously-published novel tells of the coming of age of an explicitly Gay male character.

Maurice is a homosexual love story which also returns to matters familiar from Forster's first three novels, such as the suburbs of London in the English home counties, the experience of attending Cambridge, and the wild landscape of Wiltshire. The novel was controversial, given that Forster's sexuality had not been previously known or widely acknowledged. Today's critics continue to argue over the extent to which Forster's sexuality, even his personal activities, influenced his writing.

Forster's two best-known works, A Passage to India and Howards End, explore the irreconcilability of class differences. A Room with a View also shows how questions of propriety and class can make connection difficult. The novel is his most widely read and accessible work, remaining popular long after its original publication. His posthumous novel Maurice explores the possibility of class reconciliation as one facet of a homosexual relationship.

Sexuality is another key theme in Forster's works, and it has been argued that a general shift from heterosexual love to homosexual love can be detected over the course of his writing career. The foreword to Maurice describes his struggle with his own homosexuality, while similar issues are explored in several volumes of homosexually-charged short stories. Forster's explicitly homosexual writings, the novel Maurice and the short-story collection The Life to Come, were published shortly after his death.

Forster died of a stroke in Coventry on 7 June 1970 at the age of 91. at the home of his policeman friend and his wife, the Buckinghams.

1895 – Although never elected to any office, J. Edgar Hoover (d.1972) wielded tremendous political power in the United States government for almost five decades, and through eight presidencies, as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Under his leadership, the Bureau developed from a weak and ineffectual collection of political appointees into one of the most efficient police agencies in the world.

It also developed into an undercover secret police that frequently used illegal means to gather damaging information, not only on criminals and political dissidents, but also on political leaders as well. Although Hoover was always in the front lines of government attempts to harass homosexual liberation movements, rumors that he himself was gay followed him throughout his career.

Hoover went to work for the Justice Department in 1917 as a clerk, but moved up quickly by virtue of his efficiency and his vigorous action against Communists and radicals during the late 1910s and 1920s. He supervised the deportation of foreign-born radicals in the great strike wave of 1919.

In 1924, he was appointed head of the Bureau of Investigation of the Justice Department (renamed Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935). Hoover immediately began to tighten up the slack Bureau. New agents were hired and promoted based on merit and strict performance reviews. He used his library experience to re-organize records and files, and he began amassing his famous "secret files," confidential information, often illegally obtained, which he kept to use against anyone who might threaten his power or tenure.

Hoover soon became both famous and feared for his zealous campaigns against such criminal and "subversive" groups as the Communist Party and the Ku Klux Klan. During the prohibition era, his "G-men" hunted down and caught many prominent gangsters, such as Al Capone and John Dillinger.

During the 1950s, he participated fully in the McCarthy witch hunts, zealously seeking out Communists and fellow-travelers.

Along with pursuing Communist sympathizers, Hoover also led a campaign of harassment directed at the new "homophile" groups such as the Mattachine Society, which sprang up to protest mistreatment of gay men and lesbians. F.B.I. agents took pictures and license plate numbers at demonstrations and infiltrated meetings and conferences of the fledgling homophile groups.

Many believe that Hoover took this anti-gay stance to cover his own homosexuality. Although he constantly (and violently) denied it, whispers about his sexuality followed Hoover throughout his career. For example, a 1943 internal F.B.I. memo reported claims that the director was homosexual.

Hoover's lifestyle fit many gay stereotypes: he was a sharp, dandified dresser, known for his white linen suits and silk handkerchiefs, who collected antiques and lived with his mother until her death when he was 42. He was never known to have even one date with a woman, yet he had several intimate relationships with men, notably a more than forty-year relationship with the handsome Clyde Tolson, his second-in-command at the F.B.I.

Hoover and Tolson rode to work together, ate lunch and dinner together most days, and took vacations together. Many observers described their relationship as marriage-like. Although some commentators believe that Hoover's rigid morality and strict religious beliefs would not have permitted him to have a physical relationship with a man, the rumors of his homosexuality were accelerated by the appearance, after their deaths, of photographs of Hoover and Tolson in drag, photographs that were allegedly Mafia blackmail pictures.

If Hoover and Tolson were homosexual, as seems more and more likely, their roles as persecutors of other homosexuals casts into bold relief the nightmare-like quality of the McCarthy era's war on homosexuality.

Hoover remained in charge of the F.B.I. until his death from a heart attack on May 2, 1972.

1927 – Maurice Béjart (d.2007) was a French born, Swiss choreographer who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He was the son of the French philosopher Gaston Berger.

Perhaps the preeminent descendant of Sergei Diaghilev and Serge Lifar, Maurice Béjart was a significant presence in late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century dance as an innovator with a radical vision. Central to his reinvigoration of classical ballet was his creation of palpably homoerotic dances that celebrate male beauty.

After studying with Léo Staats, Lubov Egorova, and Madama Rousanne (Sarkissian) in Paris, he performed with Mona Inglesby's International Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet and sealed his reputation as industrious and disciplined before creating dances for his own path-breaking companies.

Symphonie pour un homme seul (1955, with a score by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry), featuring the first electronic score to accompany ballet, established Béjart as an innovator with a radical vision.

After presenting an electrifying interpretation of The Rite of Spring (set to the classic Igor Stravinsky score) informed by myth, sexual heat, and stage flash in 1959 at the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, he founded The Ballet of the Twentieth Century, a company that had a major influence on the European Dance Theatre movement.

Nijinsky: Clown of God (1971, set to a score combining music by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and Pierre Henry), a dreamlike meditation on Vaslav Nijinsky and his legacy, is only one prominent example of Béjart's personal identification and connection with his choreographic subjects.

Many times that connection, as in Nijinsky: Clown of God, was palpably homoerotic. In addition to reimagining Ballets Russes classics such as The Firebird (to the original Stravinsky score), Pétrouchka (to the Stravinsky score) and The Specter of the Rose (to a score of a piano piece by Carl Maria von Weber, orchestrated by Hector Berlioz) to spectacular effect, he also derived inspiration from such gay icons as Prometheus, Dionysus, Orpheus, and Saint Sebastian.

Collaborating closely with many extraordinarily handsome men (Argentine Jorge Donn and Italian Paolo Bortoluzzi among them), Béjart consistently created dances celebrating male beauty and eroticism, not the least of which was the all-male variant of his Boléro (1960, to the throbbing score by Maurice Ravel).

Audiences and critics were either enthralled or enraged by later offerings such as the celebratory Ballet for Life (1997, set to a score combining classical Mozart with pop-rock Queen), in response to the AIDS-related deaths of his friends Jorge Donn and Freddie Mercury of the rock group Queen; and Bolero for Gianni (1999, set to his all-time-favorite Ravel score), a tribute to the murdered Gianni Versace, who had designed the eye-popping costumes for that 1997 dance.

Although beset by kidney problems and other illnesses in his final years, Béjart continued working until the very end of his life. He died on November 22, 2007.

1944 – Eloy de la Iglesia (d.2006) was a Spanish screenwriter and film director.

De la Iglesia was an outspoken gay socialist filmmaker who is relatively unknown outside Spain despite a prolific and successful career in his native country. He is best remembered for having portrayed urban marginality and the world of drugs and juvenile delinquency in the early 1980s. Many of his films also deal with the theme of homosexuality.

Born in Zarauz, Guipúzcoa into a wealthy Basque family, he grew up in Madrid. He attended courses at the prestigious Parisian Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, but he could not enter Spain’s national Film School because he wasn't yet 21, the minimum age required for admission. Instead, he began to study philosophy and literature at the Complutense University of Madrid, but on his third year he abandoned it to direct children’s theater. By age twenty he had already written and directed many works for television sharpening his narrative skills. He established himself as a writer of children's television programs for Radiotelevisíon Española in Barcelona.

De la Iglesia made his debut as film director when he was only twenty-two years old with Fantasia 3 (Fantasy 3) (1966), adapting three children’s stories: The Maid of the Sea, The three hairs from the devil and The Wizard of Oz. While doing mandatory military service, he wrote the script of his second film, Algo Amargo en la Boca (Something Bitter Tasting) (1968). Algo Amargo en la boca, a sordid melodrama, and de la Iglesia’s next film, Cuadrilatero (Boxing Ring) (1969), a boxing story, faced problems with the Francoist censors and failed at the box office. His films did not attract widespread notice until his fourth effort, the critically acclaimed thriller El Techo de Cristal (The Glass Ceiling) (1970).

The dismantling of the Francoist censorship allowed Eloy de la Iglesia to increase sexually charged tones in his works. This approach became apparent in his films: Juego de amor prohibido (Games of Forbbiden Love) (1975) and La otra alcoba (The other bedroom) (1976). In the late 1970s Eloy de la Iglesia, associated with journalist and screen writer Gonzalo Goicoechea, tackled former taboo subjects in Spanish Cinema. Los placeres ocultos (Hidden Pleasures ) (1977) focused on homosexuality. El diputado (Confessions of a Congressman) (1979), follows the story of a politician who is blackmailed due to his secret homosexuality and El sacerdote (The Priest ), also released in 1979, deals with a conservative catholic priest whose sexual obsessions leads him to self-mutilation.

Like many of the young protagonists of his films, Eloy de la iglesia became addicted to drugs such as heroin and he stopped making films for fifteen years. Claiming that his addiction to cinema was stronger than his drug problems, de la Iglesia eventually kicked his habit and resumed his career making Los novios bulgaros (The Bulgarian Lovers) (2003), a film based on the novel of the same title written by Eduardo Mendicutti.

Stricken with kidney cancer, he died on March 24, 2006, age sixty two, after surgery to remove a malignant tumor.

1959 – Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after leading a revolution that drove out dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro then established a Communist dictatorship. Although homosexuality was illegal under the Batista government the laws were largely ignored in fun loving Cuba. Since Castro, tens of thousands of gays have been rounded up and imprisoned.

1967 – The Los Angeles Police Department raid the New Year’s Eve parties at two gay bars, the Black Cat Tavern and New Faces. Several patrons were injured and a bartender was hospitalized with a fractured skull. Several hundred people spontaneously demonstrate on Sunset Boulevard and picket outside the Black Cat. The raids prompted a series of protests that began on 5 January 1967, organized by P.R.I.D.E. (Personal Rights in Defense and Education). It’s the first use of the term "Pride" that came to be associated with LGBT rights and fuels the formation of gay rights groups in California, well before the Stonewall Riot.

The popular notion that the Stonewall Riots marked the very first time that LGBT folks "fought back instead of passively enduring humiliating treatment,” is false. Other critical moments in LGBT History that pre-date Stonewall include:

New Year's Ball Raid in San Francisco (1965)

Gene Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (1966)

Cooper Do-Nuts Riot (1959)

1968 – Joey Stefano (d.1994) was an American pornographic actor who appeared in gay adult films. Born Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr., Stefano grew up in the Philadelphia area (Chester, Pennsylvania). His father died when he was 15. After several years of prostitution and hard-core drug use in New York City, Stefano moved to Los Angeles and quickly became a star in gay pornography. In addition to his good looks, his persona as a "hungry bottom" (sexually submissive but verbally demanding) contributed to his popularity.

His image and success caught the attention of Madonna, who used him as a model in her 1992 book Sex.

During his lifetime, he was the subject of rumors (some of them spread by himself) regarding his relationships with prominent entertainment industry figures who were known to be gay. At a May 1990 dinner and interview with Jess Cagle (Entertainment Weekly) and Rick X (Manhattan Cable TV's The Closet Case Show), Stefano discussed an alleged series of "dates" with David Geffen, who at one point implored Stefano to quit using drugs. After the videotaped interview appeared on Rick X's show, OutWeek Magazine "outed" Geffen, who went on to announce his homosexuality at an AIDS fundraiser.

He was HIV positive. According to a subsequent biography Stefano died of speedball overdose (cocaine, morphine, heroin, and ketamine) at age 26 in the shower of a motel on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. His body was taken back to Pennsylvania where he was buried next to his father.

Stefano's life is chronicled in the book, Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stefano by Charles Isherwood. His life is also the subject of a one-man-play, Homme Fatale: The Fast Life and Slow Death of Joey Stefano, by Australian playwright Barry Lowe.

1976 – (Daniel L.) Dan Kloeffler is an American television journalist. Since 2010, he is an anchor of ABC News Now, a cable-news channel of the ABC broadcasting network.

He worked at WSTM-TV - an NBC-affiliated television station in Syracuse, New York - prior to joining MSNBC, a cable-news channel. While at MSNBC, he anchored overnight MSNBC Now news updates as well as MSNBC's First Look and broadcast network NBC's Early Today, both early-morning news programs; Kloeffler left MSNBC in 2009. In 2010, he became a freelance anchor and correspondent for ABC News, where he anchors on its ABC News Now channel.In response to the news that actor Zachary Quinto had come out as gay, Kloeffler publicly came out on the air in October 2011.

In a statement on the ABC News website, he wrote that a series of suicides by gay youth also led him to hope his being publicly out would help encourage young gay people struggling to accept themselves.

2008 – Queen Elizabeth II makes actor Ian Mckellen a Companion of Honor, one of only 65.

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fatehbaz · 1 year ago

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Just in case. Some might enjoy. Had to organize some notes.

These are just some of the newer texts that had been promoted in the past few years at the online home of the American Association of Geographers. [At: aag dot org/new-books-for-geographers/]

Tried to narrow down selections to focus on (1) Indigenous, Black, Latin American, oceanic/archipelagic geographies; (2) imaginaries and environmental perception; (3) and mobility, borders, carceral/abolition geography.

These texts feature concepts/subjects like: Indigeneity and "geographies of time" in the Ecuadorian Andes. "Migration and music in the construction of precolonial AfroAsia." The "practice of collective escape" and "reimagining geographies of order." The "making and unmaking of French India." The "literary geography" of the rubber boom in Amazonia. "Coercive geographies" and mass imprisonment. "Anti-fatness as anti-Blackness." The "(un)governable city" of colonial Delhi.

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New stuff, early 2024:

A Caribbean Poetics of Spirit (Hannah Regis, University of the West Indies Press, 2024)

Constructing Worlds Otherwise: Societies in Movement and Anticolonial Paths in Latin America (Raúl Zibechi and translator George Ygarza Quispe, AK Press, 2024)

Fluid Geographies: Water, Science, and Settler Colonialism in New Mexico (K. Maria D. Lane, University of Chicago Press, 2024)

Hydrofeminist Thinking With Oceans: Political and Scholarly Possibilities (Tarara Shefer, Vivienne Bozalek, and Nike Romano, Routledge, 2024)

Making the Literary-Geographical World of Sherlock Holmes: The Game Is Afoot (David McLaughlin, University of Chicago Press, 2025)

Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Cartographies (Anahit Behrooz, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024)

Midlife Geographies: Changing Lifecourses across Generations, Spaces and Time (Aija Lulle, Bristol University Press, 2024)

Society Despite the State: Reimagining Geographies of Order (Anthony Ince and Geronimo Barrera de la Torre, Pluto Press, 2024)

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New stuff, 2023:

The Black Geographic: Praxis, Resistance, Futurity (Camilla Hawthorne and Jovan Scott Lewis, Duke University Press, 2023)

Activist Feminist Geographies (Edited by Kate Boyer, Latoya Eaves and Jennifer Fluri, Bristol University Press, 2023)

The Silences of Dispossession: Agrarian Change and Indigenous Politics in Argentina (Mercedes Biocca, Pluto Press, 2023)

The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Dueterte (Vicente L. Rafael, Duke University Press, 2022)

Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908 (İlkay Yılmaz, Syracuse University Press, 2023)

The Practice of Collective Escape (Helen Traill, Bristol University Press, 2023)

Maps of Sorrow: Migration and Music in the Construction of Precolonial AfroAsia (Sumangala Damodaran and Ari Sitas, Columbia University Press, 2023)

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New stuff, late 2022:

B.H. Roberts, Moral Geography, and the Making of a Modern Racist (Clyde R. Forsberg, Jr.and Phillip Gordon Mackintosh, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022)

Environing Empire: Nature, Infrastructure and the Making of German Southwest Africa (Martin Kalb, Berghahn Books, 2022)

Sentient Ecologies: Xenophobic Imaginaries of Landscape (Edited by Alexandra Coțofană and Hikmet Kuran, Berghahn Books 2022)

Colonial Geography: Race and Space in German East Africa, 1884–1905 (Matthew Unangst, University of Toronto Press, 2022)

The Geographies of African American Short Fiction (Kenton Rambsy, University of Mississippi Press, 2022)

Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland (Ruth Rogaski, University of Chicago Press, 2022)

Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment (Jessica T. Simes, University of California Press, 2021)

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New stuff, early 2022:

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-fatness as Anti-Blackness (Da’Shaun Harrison, 2021)

Coercive Geographies: Historicizing Mobility, Labor and Confinement (Edited by Johan Heinsen, Martin Bak Jørgensen, and Martin Ottovay Jørgensen, Haymarket Books, 2021)

Confederate Exodus: Social and Environmental Forces in the Migration of U.S. Southerners to Brazil (Alan Marcus, University of Nebraska Press, 2021)

Decolonial Feminisms, Power and Place (Palgrave, 2021)

Krakow: An Ecobiography (Edited by Adam Izdebski & Rafał Szmytka, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

Open Hand, Closed Fist: Practices of Undocumented Organizing in a Hostile State (Kathryn Abrams, University of California Press, 2022)

Unsettling Utopia: The Making and Unmaking of French India (Jessica Namakkal, 2021)

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New stuff, 2020 and 2021:

Mapping the Amazon: Literary Geography after the Rubber Boom (Amanda Smith, Liverpool University Press, 2021)

Geopolitics, Culture, and the Scientific Imaginary in Latin America (Edited by María del Pilar Blanco and Joanna Page, 2020)

Reconstructing public housing: Liverpool’s hidden history of collective alternatives (Matt Thompson, University of Liverpool Press, 2020)

The (Un)governable City: Productive Failure in the Making of Colonial Delhi, 1858–1911 (Raghav Kishore, 2020)

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains: Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border (Edited by Alex Oehler and Anna Varfolomeeva, 2020)

Urban Mountain Beings: History, Indigeneity, and Geographies of Time in Quito, Ecuador (Kathleen S. Fine-Dare, 2019)

City of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763-1856 (Marcus P. Nevius, University of Georgia Press, 2020)

#abolition #ecology #multispecies #landscape #tidalectics #indigenous #ecologies #archipelagic thinking #opacity and fugitivity #geographic imaginaries #caribbean #carceral geography #intimacies of four continents #reading list #reading recommendations #book recommendations #my writing i guess #indigenous pedagogies #black methodologies

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rjzimmerman · 3 months ago

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Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

The tiger population in India doubled between 2010 and 2022 — from 1,706 tigers to approximately 3,682 — through conservation efforts focused on protecting them from habitat loss and poaching; making sure they have enough prey; increasing community living standards close to tiger areas; and reducing human-wildlife conflict, a new study has found.

India is now home to approximately 75 percent of the world’s tiger population, according to estimates from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, as The Associated Press reported.

“Recovery of large yet ecologically important carnivores poses a formidable global challenge. Tiger (Panthera tigris) recovery in India, the world’s most populated region, offers a distinct opportunity to evaluate the socio-ecological drivers of megafauna recovery,” the authors of the study wrote. “Tiger occupancy increased by 30% (at 2929 square kilometers per year) over the past two decades, leading to the largest global population occupying ~138,200 square kilometers. Tigers persistently occupied human-free, prey-rich protected areas (35,255 square kilometers) but also colonized proximal connected habitats that were shared with ~60 million people.”

The researchers found that some communities located near tiger habitats have benefited from an increase in tigers due to the foot traffic and revenue generated by ecotourism.

The study, “Tiger recovery amid people and poverty,” published in the journal Science, said India’s success shows that conservation can benefit biodiversity as well as local communities.

#India #tigers

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jeannereames · 9 months ago

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How many love interest did Alexander have in all of his life? I just recently found out he had an affair with a prostitute named Camaspe and apparently she was the one who was the first to have a physical relationship with him although not for long.

Love your work! 💕

Alexander’s Reported Lovers

Just an FYI … Kampaspe (Campaspe in Latin, also Pancaste) is a character in the second volume of Dancing with the Lion (Rise), as I wanted a second female voice and also a slave’s perspective. Even better that she was born to privilege, then lost it. She was reportedly a Thessalian hetaira from Larissa, which was handy as the Argeads had a long history of ties to the city of Larissa. I wrote about her before in a post from the blog tour the publisher had me do when the books first came out. You can read it HERE.

That said, she’s probably a Roman-era invention, mentioned only by late sources (Lucian, Aelian, and Pliny) all with one (repeated) story: Alexander as Super-patron. Reputedly, he gave her to his favored painter Apelles when, commissioned to do a nude, Apelles fell in love with her. Alexander kept the painting, Apelles got the girl. You bet I’ll have some fun with that. Kampaspe will remain a major character throughout the series…but not as Alexander’s mistress.

When trying to figure out how many sexual partners Alexander had, we must ask which were invented—or denied. Remember: ancient history wasn’t like modern (academic) history. It was essentially creative non-fiction. It inserted speeches, dialogue, even people and events to liven things up and/or to make a moral point. Or it obscured people and events, if that worked better.

Modern readers of ancient sources must always ask WHO wrote this, WHEN was it written, and what POINT did the author intend? Also, especially with anecdotes, look at the wider context. People are especially prone to take anecdotes at face value and treat them as isolated little tales. Yet CONTEXT IS KING.

A lot of our information about Alexander’s love life comes from Plutarch, either in his Life of Alexander or his collection of essays now called the Moralia. Another source is Curtius’s History of Alexander. And finally, Athenaeus’s Diepnosophistai or The Supper Party (really, The Learned Banqueters). All wrote during the Roman empire and had tropes and messages to get across.

Of the WOMEN associated with Alexander, I’m going to divide them into the historical and the probably fictional, or at least their relationship with Alexander was fictional.

Of the certain, we can count one mistress, three wives, and one probable secret/erased liaison.

Barsine is his first attested mistress for whom we have ample references across multiple sources. Supposedly, she bore Alexander a son (Herakles). Herakles certainly existed, but whether he was Alexander’s is less clear to me. As the half-Persian, half-Greek daughter of a significant satrap, she had no little influence. Monica D’Agostini has a great article on Alexander’s women, btw, in a forthcoming collection I edited for Colloquia Antiqua, called Macedon and Its Influences, and spends some time on Barsine. So look for that, probably in 2025, as we JUST (Friday) submitted the last of the proof corrections and index. Whoo! Anyway, Monica examines all Alexander’s (historical) women in—you guessed it!—their proper context.

Alexander also married three times: Roxane, daughter of the warlord Oxyartes of Sogdiana, in early 327. He married again in mid-324 in Susa, both Statiera (the younger), daughter of Darius, and Parysatis, youngest daughter of the king before Darius, Artaxerxes III Ochus. Yes, both at once, making ties to the older and the newer Achaemenid royal lines.

Out of all these, he had only one living son, Alexander IV (by Roxane)—although he got his women pregnant four times. If we can trust a late source (Metz Epitome), and I think we can for this, Roxane had a miscarriage while in India. Also, Statiera the younger was reputedly pregnant when Roxane, with Perdikkas’s help, killed her just a few days (or hours!) after Alexander died.

That’s 3 …who had baby #4?

Statiera the Elder, Darius’s wife. Netflix’s proposal of a liaison between them was not spun out of thin air. Plutarch—the same guy who tells us ATG never even looked at her—also tells us she died in childbirth just a week or three before the battle of Gaugamela, Oct. 1, 331. Keep in mind, Alexander had captured her right after Issos, Nov. 5, 333. Um … that kid wasn’t Darius’s. And if you think ANYbody would have been allowed to have an affair with such a high-ranking captive as the Great-King’s chief wife, I have some swampland in Florida to sell you. More on it HERE.

Now, for the probably fictional….

Kampaspe, I explained above.

Kallixena was supposedly hired by Philip and Olympias (jointly!) to initiate Alexander into sex, because he didn’t seem interested in women. (Yes, this little titbit is also in Rise.) Athenaeus reports the story as a digression on Alexander’s drinking, and how too much wine led to his lack of sexual interest. But within the anecdote, the reported reason for his parents’ hiring Kallixena was because mommy and daddy feared Alexander was “womanish” (gunnis).

Thaïs was linked to him by Athenaeus, almost certainly based on her supposed participation in the burning of Persepolis…which didn’t happen (or not as related; archaeology tosses cold water on it). Thaïs was Ptolemy’s mistress, and the mother of some of his children.

Athenaeus also mentions a couple unnamed interests, but all illustrate the same point: Alexander is too noble to steal somebody else’s love. Two are back-to-back: the flute-girl of a certain Theodoros, Proteas’ brother, and the lyre player of Antipatrides. The last is a boy, the eromenos of a certain Kalchis, a story related apart from the women, but with the same point.

Even more clearly fictional are his supposed encounters with the Amazon Queen Thalestris and Queen Kleophis of the Massaga (in Pakistan). Reportedly, as Onisikritos was reading from his history of Alexander at the court of King Lysimachos (who’d been a close friend, remember), Lysimachos burst out laughing when Onisikritos got to the Amazon story, and asked, “Where was I when this happened?”

Now, when it comes to his MEN/BOYS, the ice is thinner as no names are definitively given except Bagoas (in a couple sources, chiefly Curtius and Athenaeus). We also have a few generic references to pretty boys, as with Kalchis’s boyfriend mentioned above, and some slave boys offered by a certain Philoxenos, who he turns down, a story told by both Plutarch and Athenaeus.

Curtius alone suggests two more, but at least one is meant to show Alexander’s descent into Oriental Corruption(tm), so it’s possible Curtius made them up. At the very least, he used them for his own narrative purposes. Sabine Müller has a great article on this, albeit in German. Still, if you can read German: “Alexander, Dareios und Hephaistion. Fallhöhen bei Curtius Rufus.” In H. Wulfram, ed., Der Römische Alexanderhistoriker Curtius Rufus: Erzähltechnik, Rhetorik, Figurenpsychologie und Rezeption. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2016, 13-48.

Romans had a certain dis-ease with “Greek Love,” especially when it involved two freeborn men. Fucking slaves was fine; they’re just slaves. Citizen men with citizen boys…that’s trickier.

Curtius labels two youths “favorites,” a phrasing that implies a sexual affair. One is mentioned early in the campaign (Egypt) when Alexander is still “good”; the other after Alexander begins his slide into Persian Debauchery. These are Hektor, Parmenion’s son (good), and Euxinippos, described as being as pretty as Hephaistion, but not as “manly” (bad). Curtius employs Bagoas similarly, even claims he influenced imperial policy for his own dastardly goals. Gasp!

Yes, of course I’m being sarcastic, but readers need to understand the motifs that Curtius is employing, and what they really mean. Not what 21st century people assume they mean, or romantically want them to mean. (See my "Did Bagoas Exist?" post.)

What about Hephaistion? I’ve discussed him elsewhere in an article, but I’ll just remind folks that it’s nowhere made explicit until late sources, in large part because, by the time we meet Alexander and Hephaistion in the histories, they were adults, and any affair between them would be assumed to have occurred in the past, when they were youths. (See my “It’s Complicated” and a reply to them maybe being “DudeBros.”)

This is why we hear about Alexander’s interest in youths, not adult men. It would be WEIRD to the ancient mind (= Very Very Bad) if he liked adult men. In fact, by comparing Hephaistion to Euxinippos, Curtius slyly insinuates that maybe he and Alexander were still…you know (wink, wink). That’s meant to be a slam against Alexander (and Hephaistion)! Therefore, we cannot take it, in itself, as proof of anything. Alexander’s emotional attachment to Hephaistion, however, is not doubted by any ancient source.

So, all those people are attached to Alexander in our sources, but over half may not be real, or at least, may not have had a sexual relationship with him. There may be (probably are) some that simply didn’t make it into the surviving sources.

Yet I’ve mentioned before that we just don’t find sexual misconduct as one of Alexander’s named faults. Even Curtius and Justin must dig for it/make up shit, such as claiming Alexander actually used Darius’s whole harem of concubines or held a drunken revel through Karia after escaping the Gedrosian Desert. (Blue Dionysos and drag queens on the Seine at the Paris Olympics got nothing on his Dionysian komos!)

Drink, anger, hubris…he sure as hell ticked all those boxes. But not sex. In fact, a number of sources imply he just wasn’t that randy, despite his “choleric” temperament. Some of the authors credit too much drink (bad), others, his supreme self-control (good). He’s more often an example of sexual continence—as in the stories from Athenaeus related above. He also didn’t rape his captives, etc., etc.

Make of that what you like, but I find it intriguing.

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covid-safer-hotties · 5 months ago

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Also preserved in our archive

By: Himani Chandna

In India, experts said symptoms attributed to long Covid such as fatigue and concentration issues may overlap with common paediatric conditions like stress, anaemia, or viral syndromes, leading to underreporting

Children experience weakened immunity and bacterial infections after suffering from long Covid-19 syndrome, a study published in the medical journal Nature has revealed.

Persistent fatigue was the most common symptom in children with long Covid syndrome, while the majority of children often complained about anxiety.

The study conducted in Budapest, Hungary, investigated children affected by long Covid. The researchers found significant differences in their immune function, which they believe were caused by the Covid-19 infection.

“Neutrophil dysfunction in children with Long Covid syndrome (LCS) may be part of the disease pathogenesis or a predisposing factor," concluded the authors of the study published on November 27.

The researchers focused on a type of white blood cell called neutrophils, which plays a crucial role in combating infections, particularly bacterial ones. They discovered that children with long Covid had neutrophils that were functionally impaired.

“For instance, their ability to attack and swallow harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus was impaired. This might correlate with the rise of multiple bacterial infections that were reported in Western nations among children after the onset of the pandemic," explained Rajeev Jayadevan, chairman, research cell, at the Indian Medical Association’s Kerala wing.

“After an expected drop following lockdowns, Group A streptococcal infection among younger children had surged in 2022, some of which turned severe. Whether this immune dysfunction accompanying long Covid was responsible for these additional infections is unclear."

What does the study say? To enhance the accuracy, the authors included both healthy children and those who had recovered without complications from Covid-19. Among the children with long Covid, seven of 10 experienced fatigue, while half had a loss of interest and difficulty concentrating. There was no difference in long Covid symptoms between vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

Long Covid Syndrome (LCS) children experienced significantly more symptoms, impairing their quality of life and functioning compared to CG+ group or convalescent children who have recovered from something like a febrile illness.

“Neutrophilic granulocyte dysfunction was found in LCS children, with decreased superoxide-producing activity and phagocytosis compared to CG+. The number of children with LCS complaints correlated significantly with altered neutrophil effector functions," said the study titled ‘Long COVID syndrome in children: neutrophilic granulocyte dysfunction and its correlation with disease severity’.

Neutrophilic granulocyte dysfunction is a problem with a specific type of white blood cells called neutrophils, which are important for fighting infections. These neutrophils are called granulocytes because they contain granules that help them destroy pathogens.

The neutrophils in children with LCS produce less of a molecule called superoxide, which is a chemical used by neutrophils to kill bacteria and other pathogens. Hence, it means that these neutrophils are less effective at destroying and cracking down on harmful invaders like bacteria.

When compared to the CG+ control group who did not have long Covid, their neutrophils did not show these problems.

The number of children with LCS complaints correlated significantly with altered neutrophil effector functions, which means that the severity or presence of symptoms in children with long Covid was closely related to the dysfunction of these neutrophil activities (superoxide production and phagocytosis). In other words, the more severe the symptoms of long Covid, the more likely there was an issue with the neutrophils’ ability to perform these critical immune functions.

However, in India, experts said they are not encountering many such cases in their clinical practice.

“We are not encountering such cases in large numbers. It likely reflects the low prevalence or a shift in disease dynamics," said Dr Maninder Dhaliwal, an expert in paediatric pulmonology at NCR-based Amrita Hospital.

“Another side to the story is that symptoms attributed to long Covid (e.g. fatigue, concentration issues) may overlap with common paediatric conditions like stress, anaemia, or viral syndromes, leading to maybe underreporting."

However, doctors pointed out that this study doesn’t translate to actionable diagnostic tools, therapeutic strategies, or preventive measures, but seems currently to serve more as academic knowledge.

“However, for children presenting with lingering fatigue, brain fog, or other long Covid symptoms, this knowledge may prompt closer monitoring or referral to the right specialists (e.g., immunology, neurology)," Dhaliwal added.

#mask up #public health #wear a mask #pandemic #wear a respirator #covid #covid 19 #still coviding #coronavirus #sars cov 2 #long covid #covid in children

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iphigeniacomplex · 1 year ago

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লিখি লোৱা, মই এজন মিঞা ("Write Down 'I am a Miyah'", 2016) by Hafiz Ahmed, translated from Assamese to English by Shalim M. Hussain, began a movement of resistance poetry among Assamese Muslims of Bengali descent, referred to as Miya Poetry after a slur used to describe this community. From Abdul Kalam Azad, for Indian Express ("Write...I am a Miya", 2019):

This poem went viral and other young poets started responding to him through poems. The young poets also started reclaiming “Miya”, a slur used against us, as our identity with pride. This chain of Facebook posts continued for days, reiterating the violence, suffering and humiliation expressed by our community. As time passed, more poets wrote in various languages and dialects, including many Miya dialects. The nomenclature ‘Miya Poetry’ got generated organically but the poets and their associates have been inspired by the Negritude and Black Arts movements, and queer, feminist and Dalit literary movements, where the oppressed have reclaimed the identity which was used to dehumanise them. The trend transcended our community. Poets from the mainstream Assamese community also wrote several poems in solidarity with the Miya poets while some regretted not being poets. Gradually, this became a full-fledged poetry movement and got recognised by other poets, critics and commentators. The quality and soul of these poems are so universal that they started finding prominence on reputed platforms. For the first time in the history of our community, we had started telling our own stories and reclaiming the Miya identity to fight against our harassers who were dehumanising us with the same word. They accused us of portraying the whole Assamese society as xenophobic. The fact is we have just analysed our conditions. Forget generalising the Assamese society as ‘xenophobic’, no Miya poet has ever used the term ‘xenophobic’ nor any of its variants. The guilt complex of our accusers is so profound that they don’t have the patience to examine why we wrote the poems.

Amrita Singh, writing for The Caravan ("Assam Against Itself", 2019), detailed the political backlash against Miya Poetry, in particular the above poem.

On 10 July this year, Pranabjit Doloi, an Assam-based journalist, filed a complaint at Guwahati’s Panbazar police station accusing ten people of indulging in criminal activities “to defame the Assamese people as Xenophobic in the world.” Doloi claimed that the ten people were trying to hinder the ongoing updation of the National Register of Citizens, a list of Assam’s Indian citizens that is due to be published on 31 August. The premise of Doloi’s complaint was a widely-circulated poem called, “Write down I am Miya,” by Hafiz Ahmed, a school teacher and social activist. “Write. Write down I am a Miya/ A citizen of democratic secular republic without any rights,” Ahmed wrote. The police registered a first information report against Doloi’s complaint, booking all ten persons for promoting enmity between groups, among other offences. [...] At the press conference, Mander emphasised that people in Assam are in distress because of the NRC’s arbitrary and rigid procedures. “One spelling mistake when you are writing a Bengali name in English … that is enough for you to be in a detention center, declared a foreigner,” Mander said. “If you are not allowing this lament to come out in the form of poetry, then where is this republic of India going?”

Ahmed's poem is influenced in structure by "Identity Card", a 1964 poem by by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish which uses the symbolic figure of the Palestinian working man to confront Israeli occupiers. Darwish's identity card, a symbol of Israeli subjugation transformed into a cry of Palestinian national identity, is reshaped by Ahmed into the National Register of Citizens for Assam and the accompanying fear of statelessness and disenfranchisement for the Miya people.

This solidarity between writers from oppressed groups is, of course, not one that ends with Darwish and Ahmed, nor with the Black, queer, feminist, and Dalit influences of Miya Poetry. As long as there is oppression, there will be companionship and recognition reflected in art and activism. On December 13, 2023, Black Agenda Report reprinted Refaat Alareer's "If I Must Die", acknowledging the connection between Alareer's poem and "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay, written in 1919 in response to the Red Summer white supremacist riots. In 2000, Haitian community activist Dahoud Andre translated "If We Must Die" into Kreyòl, and the Black Agenda Report editorial honors Alareer in a similar way, reprinting "If I Must Die" with an accompanying Kreyòl translation. (POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023.)

Transcripts under the cut.

[Hafiz Ahmed Transcripts (Assamese and English):

লিখি লোৱা, মই এজন মিঞা

লিখা, লিখি লোৱা মই এজন মিঞা এন. আৰ. চিৰ ক্রমিক নং ২০০৫৪৩ দুজন সন্তানৰ বাপেক মই, অহাবাৰ গ্ৰীষ্মত জন্ম ল’ব আৰু এজনে তাকো তুমি ঘিণ কৰিবা নেকি যিদৰে ঘিণ কৰা মোক?

লিখি লোৱা, মই এজন মিঞা পতিত ভূমি, পিতনিক মই ৰূপান্তৰিত কৰিছোঁ শস্য-শ্যামলা সেউজী পথাৰলৈ তোমাক খুৱাবলৈ মই ইটা কঢ়িয়াইছোঁ তোমাৰ অট্টালিকা সাজিবলৈ, তোমাৰ গাড়ী চলাইছোঁ তোমাক আৰাম দিবলৈ, তোমাৰ নৰ্দমা ছাফা কৰিছোঁ তোমাক নিৰোগী কৰি ৰাখিবলৈ, তোমাৰে সেৱাতে মগন মই অনবৰত তাৰ পিছতো কিয় তুমি খৰ্গহস্ত? লিখা, লিখি লোৱা মই এজন মিঞা গণতান্ত্ৰিক, গণৰাজ্য এখনৰ নাগৰিক এজন যাৰ কোনো অধিকাৰ নাইকিয়া মাতৃক মোৰ সজোৱা হৈছে সন্দেহযুক্ত ভোটাৰ যদিও পিতৃ-মাতৃ তাইৰ নিঃসন্দেহে ভাৰতীয়

ইচ্ছা কৰিলেই তুমি মোক হত্যা কৰিব পাৰা, জ্বলাই দিব পৰা মোৰ খেৰৰ পঁজা, খেদি দিব পাৰা মোক মোৰেই গাঁৱৰ পৰা, কাঢ়ি নিব পাৰা মোৰ সেউজী পথাৰ মোৰ বুকুৰ ওপৰেৰে চলাব পাৰা তোমাৰ বুলড্‌জাৰ তোমাৰ বুলেটে বুকুখন মোৰ কৰিব পাৰে থকাসৰকা (তোমাৰ এই কাৰ্যৰ বাবে তুমি কোনো স্তিও নোপোৱা) যুগ-যুগান্তৰ তোমাৰ অত্যাচাৰ সহ্য কৰি ব্ৰহ্মপুত্ৰৰ চৰত বাস কৰা মই এজন মিঞা মোৰ দেহা হৈ পৰিছে নিগ্ৰো কলা মোৰ চকুযুৰি অঙঠাৰ দৰে ৰঙা সাৱধান! মোৰ দুচকুত জমা হৈ আছে যুগ যুগান্তৰৰ বঞ্চনাৰ বাৰুদ আঁতৰি যোৱা, নতুবা অচিৰেই পৰিণত হ’বা মূল্যহীন ছাইত!

Write Down ‘I am a Miyah’ Hafiz Ahmed, 2016 trans. Shalim M. Hussain

Write Write Down I am a Miya My serial number in the NRC is 200543 I have two children Another is coming Next summer. Will you hate him As you hate me?

write I am a Miya I turn waste, marshy lands To green paddy fields To feed you. I carry bricks To build your buildings Drive your car For your comfort Clean your drain To keep you healthy. I have always been In your service And yet you are dissatisfied! Write down I am a Miya, A citizen of a democratic, secular, Republic Without any rights My mother a D voter, Though her parents are Indian.

If you wish kill me, drive me from my village, Snatch my green fields hire bulldozers To roll over me. Your bullets Can shatter my breast for no crime.

Write I am a Miya Of the Brahamaputra Your torture Has burnt my body black Reddened my eyes with fire. Beware! I have nothing but anger in stock. Keep away! Or Turn to Ashes.

]

[Mahmoud Darwish Transcripts (Arabic and English):

سجِّل أنا عربي ورقمُ بطاقتي خمسونَ ألفْ وأطفالي ثمانيةٌ وتاسعهُم.. سيأتي بعدَ صيفْ! فهلْ تغضبْ؟ سجِّلْ أنا عربي وأعملُ مع رفاقِ الكدحِ في محجرْ وأطفالي ثمانيةٌ أسلُّ لهمْ رغيفَ الخبزِ، والأثوابَ والدفترْ من الصخرِ ولا أتوسَّلُ الصدقاتِ من بابِكْ ولا أصغرْ أمامَ بلاطِ أعتابكْ فهل تغضب؟ سجل أنا عربي أنا اسم بلا لقبِ صَبورٌ في بلادٍ كلُّ ما فيها يعيشُ بفَوْرةِ الغضبِ جذوري قبلَ ميلادِ الزمانِ رستْ وقبلَ تفتّحِ الحقبِ وقبلَ السّروِ والزيتونِ .. وقبلَ ترعرعِ العشبِ أبي.. من أسرةِ المحراثِ لا من سادةٍ نُجُبِ وجدّي كانَ فلاحاً بلا حسبٍ.. ولا نسبِ! يُعَلّمني شموخَ الشمسِ قبلَ قراءةِ الكتبِ وبيتي’ كوخُ ناطورٍ منَ الأعوادِ والقصبِ فهل تُرضيكَ منزلتي؟ أنا اسم بلا لقبِ! سجلْ أنا عربي ولونُ الشعرِ.. فحميٌّ ولونُ العينِ.. بنيٌّ وميزاتي: على رأسي عقال�� فوقَ كوفيّه وكفّي صلبةٌ كالصخرِ... تخمشُ من يلامسَها وعنواني: أنا من قريةٍ عزلاءَ منسيّهْ شوارعُها بلا أسماء وكلُّ رجالها في الحقلِ والمحجرْ فهل تغضبْ؟ سجِّل! أنا عربي سلبتُ كرومَ أجدادي وأرضاً كنتُ أفلحُها أنا وجميعُ أولادي ولم تتركْ لنا.. ولكلِّ أحفادي سوى هذي الصخورِ... فهل ستأخذُها حكومتكمْ.. كما قيلا!؟ إذنْ سجِّل.. برأسِ الصفحةِ الأولى أنا لا أكرهُ الناسَ ولا أسطو على أحدٍ ولكنّي.. إذا ما جعتُ آكلُ لحمَ مغتصبي حذارِ.. حذارِ.. من جوعي ومن غضبي!!

Identity Card Mahmoud Darwish, 1964 trans. Denys Johnson-Davies

Put it on record. I am an Arab

And the number of my card is fifty thousand I have eight children And the ninth is due after summer. What's there to be angry about?

Put it on record. I am an Arab

Working with comrades of toil in a quarry. I have eight children For them I wrest the loaf of bread, The clothes and exercise books From the rocks And beg for no alms at your door, Lower not myself at your doorstep. What's there to be angry about?

Put it on record. I am an Arab.

I am a name without a title, Patient in a country where everything Lives in a whirlpool of anger. My roots Took hold before the birth of time Before the burgeoning of the ages, Before cypress and olive trees, Before the proliferation of weeds.

My father is from the family of the plough Not from highborn nobles.

And my grandfather was a peasant Without line or genealogy.

My house is a watchman's hut Made of sticks and reeds.

Does my status satisfy you? I am a name without a surname.

Put it on record. I am an Arab.

Color of hair: jet black. Color of eyes: brown. My distinguishing features: On my head the `iqal cords over a keffiyeh Scratching him who touches it.

My address: I'm from a village, remote, forgotten, Its streets without name And all its men in the fields and quarry. What's there to be angry about?

Put it on record. I am an Arab.

You stole my forefathers' vineyards And land I used to till, I and all my children, And you left us and all my grandchildren Nothing but these rocks. Will your government be taking them too As is being said?

So! Put it on record at the top of page one: I don't hate people, I trespass on no one's property.

And yet, if I were to become hungry I shall eat the flesh of my usurper. Beware, beware of my hunger And of my anger!

]

#it speaks!#re: the tag on my last reblogged post. decided to make that point its own post!#this is long obviously and im employing proper capitalization for ease of reading #obligatory im monolingual disclaimer & cant vouch for translation quality; i chose the johnson-davies translation because ->#<- it is the one i see most commonly spread. i take responsibility for any deficiencies.#going to use some tags because im personally interested in this poetic movement & connection & maybe other people will be too!#palestine #palestinian poetry #assam #miya poetry #political poetry #poetry #in translation

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orlissa · 17 days ago

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Anytime a vaguely set-in-the-past, vaguely romantic piece of fiction is labelled as "perfect for the fans of Bridgerton," I get a step closer to my villain era.

Do you have any period novel romance recs though? (Genuine question)

Of course!

Evie Dunmore: A League of Extraordinary Women (4 books, I've read 3 so far) Set in England in 1879 and onward, the series is about a group of suffragists centered in Oxford (starting when Oxford started to accept female students), with each book focusing on a different member of the group. It's half-romance, half-history of women's rights, with very meticulous research and some spice (note: actual vote for women is waaay off at this point, the characters are fighting for a law that would recognize married women as individual legal entities, seperate from their husbands).

Laura Wood: A Single Thread of Moonlight and The Agency for Scandal series (3 books) This is a bit complicated, but: these four books are set in the same universe, A Single Thread of Moonlight was published first, but chronologically it's the third out of the four books. Set in the late Victorian period (1897-1900), a Single Thread of Moonlight is a Cinderella meets The Count of Monte Christo story, where an heiress, who was thought to be dead, returns to her family's estate to get her inheritance back from her stepmother. The other three books (The Agency for Scandal, A Season for Scandal, A Game of Scandal) are about an all-female detective agency, the Aviary, who help women get out of sticky situations. Each book is about a girl employed by/associated with the Aviary solving a case. They are very funny and witty. with a big dash of romance. YA, no spice.

India Holton: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (If you don't mind some fantasy elements.) Also set in the late Victorian period, about very prim and proper society ladies... who also happen to be pirates with flying houses, who think you are only worth your salt if you have had an assassin sent after you. Hilarious and satorical, with some spice. (There are two more books in the series, but I haven't read them yet.)

Sophie Irwin: A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting Humorous Regency romance. Kitty is left alone with her sisters and a mountain of debt, and there is only one way to save her family from ruin: making a good match. So she throws herself into the London social season with wit, scheming and single-minded determination to make someone, anyone with a fortune, hopelessly fall in love with her. (It's been a while since I read it, and now I wanna read it again. No spice. There is one more book in the series, A Lady's Guide Scandal, and a third one, How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days, coming out this summer.)

#ask #orlissa reads

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 3 months ago

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Supercomputer simulations of giant radio galaxy formation challenge current theoretical models

Enabled by supercomputing, University of Pretoria (UP) researchers have led an international team of astronomers that has provided deeper insight into the entire life cycle (birth, growth and death) of giant radio galaxies, which resemble "cosmic fountains"—jets of superheated gas that are ejected into near-empty space from their spinning supermassive black holes.

The findings of this breakthrough study were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, and challenge known theoretical models by explaining how extragalactic cosmic fountains grow to cover such colossal distances, raising new questions about the mechanisms behind these vast cosmic structures.

The research team—which was led by astrophysicist Dr. Gourab Giri, who holds a postdoctoral fellowship from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory at UP— consisted of Associate Professor Kshitij Thorat and Extraordinary Professor Roger Deane of UP's Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences; Prof Joydeep Bagchi of Christ University in India; Prof DJ Sailkia of the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, also in India; and Dr. Jacinta Delhaize of the University of Cape Town (UCT).

This study tackles a key question in modern astrophysics: how these structures, which are larger than galaxies and are made up of black hole jets, interact over cosmological timescales with their very thin, gaseous surroundings.

"We mimicked the flow of the jets of the fountains in the universe to observe how they propagate themselves over hundreds of millions of years—a process that is, of course, impossible to track directly in the real cosmos," Dr. Giri explains.

"These sophisticated simulations enable a clearer understanding of the likely life cycle of radio galaxies by revealing the differences between their smaller, early stages and giant, mature stages. Understanding the evolution of radio galaxies is vital for deepening our knowledge of the formation and development of the universe."

"While such studies are computationally expensive," Prof Thorat adds, "the team embarked on this adventure informed by the exciting, cutting-edge observations carried out by new-generation radio telescopes, such as the South African MeerKAT telescope, which has been instrumental in providing us with the details of the structure of these cosmic fountains."

Astronomers study galaxies for more than just the stars they can see, Dr. Giri says. "We also look at many, often interrelated, phenomena. One of the most amazing things to see is when a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, which is relatively tiny in size compared to the galaxies they grow in, 'wakes up' and starts eating up lots of nearby gas and dust. This isn't a calm, slow or passive process.

"As the black hole pulls in material, the material gets superheated and is ejected from the galaxy at near-light speeds, creating powerful jets that look like cosmic fountains. These fountains emit radio signals as the accelerated high-speed plasma matter generates radio waves. These signals are detected by very powerful radio telescopes, built through the collaborative efforts of multiple countries working together."

"With the recent advent of powerful and sensitive radio telescopes—such as MeerKAT in South Africa, the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in Europe and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India—astronomers are now detecting these fountains even in their faintest stages," Dr. Giri adds.

"These advanced telescopes can capture the weakest signals from dying or fading parts of the jet, leading to new discoveries of more such extended sources that were previously undetectable."

The study also implies that these giant jets may be more common than previously thought.

Since the discovery of these high-speed fountains in the 1970s, astronomers have been curious about how far the ejected matter travels before eventually fading out. The answer was astounding as they began to discover that cosmic jets travel vast distances—some reaching nearly 16 million light-years (nearly six times the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda).

"I took on the challenge of developing theoretical models for these sources, rigorously testing the models with the advanced capabilities of modern supercomputers," Dr. Giri says.

"This computer-driven study aimed to simulate the behavior of giant cosmic jets within a mock universe, constructed according to known physical laws governing the cosmos. Our primary focus was to answer two questions: Is the enormous size of these jets due to their exceptionally high speeds; or is it because they travel through regions of space that are nearly empty of surrounding matter, offering minimal resistance to the jets' free propagation?"

The UP-led study presents evidence that a combination of these considerations is a key aspect in the formation of these giant jets.

With the help of the supercomputing power of the Inter-University Institute for Data Astronomy (a collaborative network consisting of UP, UCT and the University of Western Cape), the international research team was able to analyze the vast quantities of simulated data, effectively spanning millions of years.

"These computer-based models, which simulate jet evolution in a mock universe, do more than explain the origin of most giant radio galaxies," Dr. Giri says.

"They're also powerful enough to address puzzling exceptions that have confused astronomers in this field. For example, they help explain how some cosmic fountains bend sharply, forming the shape of an X in radio waves instead of following a straight path, and clarify the conditions under which giant fountains can still grow in dense cosmic environments." These findings can be tested further by radio astronomers using advanced telescopes.

"Studies like this lead the way in formulating our understanding of these wonderful objects from a theoretical perspective," Prof Thorat adds. "This provides a complementary picture to deep-sky observations by telescopes like MeerKAT and the upcoming SKA, making simulations a key tool along with artificial intelligence techniques and high-performance computing to maximize the discovery space and optimize the scientific understanding of these and other 'exotic' objects."

Prof Sunil Maharaj, Vice-Principal for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education at UP, noted that the University is proud of the rapid growth of its radio astronomy research group.

"This was enabled by strategic investment in the Inter-University Institute for Data Astronomy and key personnel focused on science with world-leading African telescopes," he says.

"It's just one example of UP's leadership role in harnessing cutting-edge technology that increases Africa's contributions to pushing scientific frontiers while developing the next generation of researchers on the continent. The research we are doing today is opening up new worlds and possibilities for the future."

TOP IMAGE: An artistic representation of what a giant cosmic jet the size of the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda could look like (image for illustrative purposes only). Credit: University of Pretoria

CENTRE IMAGE: Depiction of the scale of a cosmic fountain ejection. Credit: University of Pretoria

LOWER IMAGE: Simulation "GRG_lp_min" (low-powered jet propagating along the minor axis of the environment) showcasing the structure of the evolved GRG at the highlighted age. Top-left panel: x − y variation of (ρ/ρ0), accompanied by contours of velocity (0.1c for white, 0.01c for black). Credit: Astronomy & Astrophysics (2024). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451812

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics

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arminreindl · 2 years ago

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Venkatasuchus: Aetosaur from India

Once more I come bearing croc news. For the second time this year we are getting a new type of aetosaur, you know, those weird stem-crocodiles that somewhat converged with ankylosaurs? Yeah those guys. Much like Kryphioparma from just a few months ago, this new genus Venkatasuchus is a member of the Typothoracinae and known only from osteoderms. Thankfully, in the case of Venkatasuchus a lot more of them at least.

I mean sure 8 associated osteoderms plus the connected lateral elements is not that much, but it sure beats the few remains of Kryphioparma.

Anyhow, Venkatasuchus is from the middle Norian to Rhaetian stages of the Triassic of India, more specifically the Lower Dharmaram Formation in the east of the subcontinent. This is actually quite significant as aetosaurs are generally rare in Gondwanan parts of the world and the Dharmaram Formation actually has two: Venkatasuchus and an as of yet undescribed desmatosuchine. Furthermore, the formation actually represents a melting pot of Laurasian and Gondwanan fauna. The aetosaurs and phytosaurs are of Laurasian origin, but the dinosaurs of the formation are Gondwanan lineages.

Much to my surprise, there is ALREADY an illustration of this guy online courtesy of Scott Reid on Twitter, fantastic art, love how he cheekily hides the head and focuses on the armour.

Venkatasuchus - Wikipedia

Of course I jumped at the opportunity to write its wiki page, so far I do believe I managed to cover every new genus published this year.

#aetosaur #aetosauria #aetosaurinae #typothoracinae #paratypothoracini #venkatasuchus #triassic #india #palaeoblr #paleontology #prehistory #pseudosuchia #stem croc #croctober

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darkmaga-returns · 6 months ago

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Originally posted Jan 2023.

The medical community and the media hang their hats on the use of ‘double-blind, placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed studies published in legacy journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In a future substack, I will go into detail about the fallacies, and even the scam, of peer review and why it should not be held out as sacrosanct.

For today’s discussion, let’s examine why all vaccine research should be questioned. Yes, ALL of it. If you read enough studies, you’ll see the patterns described below. For this substack, I’ll use this study on the safety of hepatitis B vaccination in children in India as an example. The vaccine used, Revac-B, contained both 0.5mg of aluminum and 0.05 mg of thimerosal, considered to be safe.

1. Vaccine trials can be quite small and include only healthy children.

Every study begins with ‘selection criteria’ that describe including only healthy individuals. This is from the hepatitis B study example:

All 60 subjects included in the study were in good health and had a negative history of hematological, renal, hepatic, or allergic diseases. All were screened and found to have normal blood panels, including normal liver enzymes.

When a vaccine trial has been completed and the vaccine is approved for use by the FDA, the vaccine is recommended for ALL children, regardless of their health condition, family history, or genetics. In fact, the new shot is most ardently pushed on children with underlying health concerns, such as seizure disorders, cardiac anomalies, and conditions such as cystic fibrosis or Down’s syndrome. These children become the next round of experimentation because the vaccines were never tested for safety on these groups and others.

2. Vaccine studies follow side effects for a short period of time.

Most clinical trials monitor for side effects for a paltry 21 days, often less. In some studies, such as in the example we are using, children were monitored for 5 days by study monitors and 5 days by cards given to parents. If no reactions occur, the shot is deemed to be ‘safe.’

However, it can take weeks to months for immune and neurological complications to appear. These arbitrary deadlines, allowed by the FDA, prohibit making the connection between vaccines with chronic health disorders. If an illness emerges later, of course, the doctors will say it has nothing to do with the vaccine.

3. Most vaccine safety studies do not use a true placebo.

The gold standard in medical research is the "placebo-controlled" trial. A placebo is an inactive or inert substance, such as a sugar pill or a shot of saline. In the trial, the placebo is given to one group, while the treatment group is given the experimental product. The placebo arm is used to ‘blind’ the study so the investigator doesn’t know if the subject received the Real Thing or the Inert Substance to minimize interpretation bias.

When reading a published vaccine trial, the substance used as the placebo is often not identified; it is simply called ‘placebo.’ For example, in this study for a new hepatitis B vaccine to treat chronic hepatitis B, the word ‘placebo’ is used 22 times, but we don’t know what placebo was used.

And that’s a problem. The substance used as a ‘placebo’ is often not inert; it may even may be another vaccine. For example, I remember reading a study where the meningitis C vaccine was used as a placebo because it was considered to be non-immunogenic and non-reactive. Or, in the instance of the Gardasil (HPV) vaccine, the ‘placebo’ was an injection of aluminum.

All studies for the Gardasil vaccine were said to be placebo-controlled and the total population that received a placebo included 9,701 subjects. The placebo was an aluminum adjuvant in all studies except study 018 (pre-/adolescent safety study), which used a non-aluminum-containing placebo [and we don’t know what that placebo was]

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ghostpoetics · 9 months ago

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The Picture of Dorian Gray is interesting. Oscar Wilde was a part of aestheticism, or "art for art's sake." This was pretty big because in Victorian England, art was often meant to serve a function; this isn't a new idea. Often, the function was to be didactic, or to prescribe a moral lesson.

That said, I would argue that there is a theme in Dorian Gray about Victorian standards of beauty. There is a strong irony in Dorian being the epitome of (racist, white supremacist) beauty standards: fair skin ("looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose leaves"); "crisp gold hair"; "frank" blue eyes. The irony is because Victorians associated being beautiful with being a good person and being outside this standard with being a bad person. They often used phrenology and physiognomy (most evident in Stoker's description of the Count in Dracula) to tell the reader whether someone is good or bad. And of course, using someone's facial features and the size and shape of one's forehead, nose, etc. to determine whether someone is good or bad has its roots in racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism.

Therefore, there is a disruption of Victorian preconceptions when Dorian fixates on maintaining his youth and beauty and is assumed to be virtuous because of his appearance when he is a horrible, callous person.

That is to say that I think a take on Dorian Gray that explores the beauty/fashion industry would work very well, given how so many of these companies perpetuate unrealistic and negative standards. Dove was being applauded for its body positivity in an ad a while ago, alongside its insistence that it wants to promote self-esteem and good body image, but they reject potential models with any acne or too many freckles. While Dove speaks about being inclusive and promoting women of color, so many of these companies, including Dove, sell skin-lightening creams in countries like India; they promote the idea that light skin is more attractive than dark skin. Unfortunately, there are horrible ways the modern fashion and beauty industries mirror imperialistic Victorian values that, with the right creators, could be explored well in a contemporary Dorian Gray adaptation.

Unfortunately, I was already cynical about any and all Netflix book adaptations, and, regarding the author's biography and the book's themes, I feel like Dorian Gray cannot be removed from its queerness, despite statements such as the PinkNews article, which says, "While The Picture of Dorian Gray isn't explicitly queer, given that it was first published in 1890..."

I would take umbrage with the author's definition of "explicitly queer," given that the book was submitted as evidence of Wilde's "gross indecency" in the counter lawsuit that sent him to prison and shortened his life through years of hard labor and an injury he sustained that later developed into fatal meningitis. Despite Wilde's edits to "restrain" the book's queerness, it was explicit enough to be used as evidence to prove Wilde's homosexuality. I think it's a mistake that highly limits the history of queer art to reduce "explicitly queer" to only depictions of kissing and sex.

Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts about the Dorian Gray Netflix adaptation. Besides the brother thing, I was already skeptical because it's Netflix...

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santmat · 3 months ago

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Observations About Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, India, by James Bean (Sant Mat History Explored)

Sant Das Maheshwari mentioned in the book, Param Sant Tulsi Sahib: "Tulsi Saheb, too, has not written anything by way of himself introducing himself and his family. It is said that he was born in the Peshwa family in the city of Poona."

One may wonder just where exactly "IT IS SAID". The whole basis for that story came not from Tulsi himself but what others eventually said about him or came to believe after his death, in other words, the lore and legend that developed around Tulsi many years later. Where IS IT SAID? This business of associating Tulsi Sahib with Peshwas of Poona goes back to an introduction to Tulsi Sahib to be found in the edition of the Ghat Ramayan first published by Belvedere Press in 1911. I do hope those who contributed to that book did good research.

Everyone has been repeating this Peshwas of Poona back-story regarding Tulsi ever since as if it's true, but I don't know that it necessarily is true. I notice Mark Juergensmeyer in, Radhasoami Reality, used rather careful language regarding this back-story.

"The common account of Tulsi Sahib’s life is that he was born into a family of Maharashtrian royalty and renounced his status to wander in search of truth." (page 25) "The common account".

It occurs to me that the whole archetypal Prince Siddhartha-like story of Tulsi Sahib belonging to the royal lineage of the Peshwas, and then his running away from the royal court might simply be viewed as an apocryphal story composed by others after-the-fact without necessarily there being any actual historically verifiable basis for it. To do a Tulsi Sahibism here, in Tulsi Sahib parlance, only when I see with my own eyes some references by Tulsi himself will I believe Tulsi Sahib had some connection to the royal Peshwas of Poona.

The only real evidence we have for Tulsi Sahib's past associations and possible guru connections is provided internally in the books Tulsi authored: Shabdavali; Ratan Sagar, Ghat Ramayan and Padma Sagar. Examining the internal evidence in spiritual classics is the approach which is used, for instance, by Nag Hammadi scholars to analyse the textual, theological and spiritual influences upon the authors of those Gnostic gospels. This same critical analysis should also be applied to the writings of Tulsi Sahib. In other words, we can learn much about Tulsi's influences and affiliations by closely examining what he said about himself, what clues he left that we can notice, what writings he quoted from, what gurus he mentioned most frequently, what groups he was most critical of, the mystical terminology present in his writings and hymns, and what guru and Sant Mat lineage best matches or most closely resembles Tulsi's own Sant Mat path.

Shabdavali is a collection of the hymns of Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras. "Shabdavali ('shabds or poems') is a compilation of miscellaneous hymns and poems composed in different ragas, and it expresses different aspects of Sant Mat." (page 27, Tulsi Sahib - Saint of Hathras, 2017 edition)

Padma Sagar: "Padma Sagar means 'Ocean of Flowers'. It is a complete composition by Tulsi Sahib, in which he provides answers to spiritual questions posed by his disciple Hriday. In addition, he also explains the technique of uniting with the Shabd within." (page 28)

Ghat Ramayan: "Ghat Ramayan... is the story of the Lord within the body -- the inner spiritual journey." (page 20) The book is organized into two parts. The first section explores the treasure of spirituality within each human being, the mysteries of creation and the inner regions. The format of the second part of Ghat Ramayan consists of questions and answers, many discussions in the form of numerous dialogues between Tulsi and followers of various spiritual paths.

Ratan Sagar: "Like Ghat Ramayan, Tulsi Sahib's Ratan Sagar ('Ocean of Jewels') is a fathomless ocean of spiritual knowledge. In this composition he describes the state of existence before the universe was created, how this universe was created, the relationship of every soul with the Lord, how the soul became a part of this creation, the reasons why the soul continually wanders through the four khanis (modes of birth) and the cycle of transmigration, and the means of the souls emancipation." (pages 23 and 24)

Ratan Sagar and Anurag Sagar: "From a spiritual perspective, there is a significant similarity between Tulsi Sahib's Ratan Sagar and Kabir Sahib's Anurag Sagar ('Ocean of Love'). This similarity is most apparent in the various sections on spirituality and the manner in which they are presented. In Anurag Sagar, Kabir Sahib's disciple Dharamdas asks questions, and Kabir Sahib answers them. Similarly, in Ratan Sagar Tulsi Sahib's disciple Hriday asks the questions, and Tulsi Sahib answers. Both books are entirely based on a question-and-answer style." (page 25)

Tulsi Sahib's Q & A dialogues format, though rare in most Sant Mat publications, is the standard approach in much of the Sant Dharamdas Kabir panth literature known as the Kabir Sagar ('Ocean of Kabir'), a collection of around forty books attributed to, or written in the name of, "Guru Kabir". The Anurag Sagar that Tulsi Sahib comments on in his Ghat Ramayan is one of the volumes of this Kabir Sagar. Tulsi Sahib's understanding that Sant Dharamdas was the true "spiritual successor of Kabir", Tulsi's usage of the Five Names (Panch Naam) Guru Mantra (originating earlier in the Dharamamdasi branch of Sant Mat, in other words, in use prior to the time of Tulsi Sahib), his reverence for the Anurag Sagar, along with scores of references to a contemporary Satguru of his day from the Dharamdasi region of Bihar by the name of Sant Dariya Sahib are all suggestive of the primary spiritual influences upon Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras.

Here in the west, Mark Juergensmeyer was actually the first one to observe this connection between Tulsi Sahib and Dariya Sahib of Bihar to the Dharamdasis, the Kabir line of gurus going back to Sant Dharam Das (the People of the Anurag Sagar, the People of the Five Names) in his 1991 book, Radhasoami Reality.

"Although not considered normative sant teachings by those outside Radhasoami, the Radhasoami complex of sant-related concepts bears a coherent and distinctive stamp. Those within the Radhasoami community have not given it a specific name, but it might be called 'esoteric santism.' It is santism because the concepts are roughly comparable to those taught by the medieval sants, yet it is esoteric, since it makes each of the sant concepts part of a special system of interior spirituality. When and where did this esoteric santism arise?" (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality — The Logic of a Modern Faith, Princeton University Press, 1991, page 24)

"This connection between Dharamdasis, to which the Anurag Sagar has lead us, is confirmed by another set of writings venerated by Radhasoami leaders but little known outside of Radhasoami and Dharamdasi circles: the poetry of Dariya Sahib. Dariya Sahib was an eighteenth-century poet who lived in a Dharamdasi region of Bihar and referred to both Kabir and Dharam Das as his predecessors." (page 29)

#india #indian history #spirituality #satsang #sant mat #kabir #dariya sahib of bihar #sant tulsi sahib #james bean #blog #wordpress #radhasoami

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