.
Teknaf, Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees on an improvised raft are towed across the Naf river to reach Bangladesh.: photo by Susana Vera/Reuters, 2 December 2017
Teknaf, Bangladesh. Rohingya
refugee Amina Khatun, 55, rests at the bank of the Naf river after
crossing it on an improvised raft to reach Bangladesh. She said that two
of her sons were killed by gunfire when her village was attacked by the
Myanmar military.Rohingya refugees on an improvised raft are towed across the Naf river to reach Bangladesh.: photo by Susana Vera/Reuters, 2 December 2017
Rason, North Korea. A
general view of daily life is photographed from a public square in
Rason at the northeastern tip of North Korea, where the isolated,
nuclear-armed country meets its giant neighbours China and Russia.: photo by Ed Jones/AFP, 2 December 2017
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A
supporter of Salvador Nasralla, presidential candidate for the
Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, stands near a burning
barricade during a protest over the delayed vote count for the
presidential election.: photo by Jorge Cabrera/Reuters, 2 December 2017
Nairobi, Kenya. Police
intervene during a stampede outside the Kasarani stadium as supporters
of Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, try to get into the venue to
attend his inauguration ceremony.: photo by Simon Maina/AFP, 2 December 2017
and not only that - Bibi even got Jared's bed, Jared had to sleep in the basement with the bottled holy water brought in overnight by the fake renegade monks (shrinkwrapt Vonky) - plus which -
#Israeli army strikes #Gaza after alleged rocket fire: image via ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) @anadoluagency, 30 November 2017
Israeli army storms W. Bank town, demolishes home: image via ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) @anadoluagency, 1 December 2017
Israeli army arrests 7 Palestinians in occupied W. Bank: image via ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) @anadoluagency, 30 November 2017
Palestinian man killed by Jewish settlers in West Bank : image via ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) @anadoluagency, 30 November 2017
#Israeli troops, #Palestinian mourners clash in West Bank
Clashes occur one day after Palestinian man is shot dead by #Jewish settler: image via ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) @anadoluagency, 1 December 2017
A
Palestinian throws back a tear gas canister at Israeli soldiers during
clashes in Qusra in the occupied West Bank near Nablus. Photo
@Abbasmomani: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 December 2017
holy water
Feminist author and speaker. @GuardianUS columnist. My bitch face never rests. : image via Jessica ValentiVerifiedaccount @JessicaValenti, 1 December 2017
Vaughn Monroe and Orchestra: Ghost Riders in the Sky (Stan Jones, 1949)), live in concert 1965
ReplyDeleteLos Babys ft Alejandro Marcovich y Paco Huidobro: Jinetes en el Cielo (Ghost Riders in the Sky), live
Glen Campbell & Roy Clark: Ghost Riders in the Sky, live on Hee Haw
Duane Eddy: Ghost Riders in the Sky, live 1996
The Highwaymen (w Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson): Ghost Riders in the Sky, live 1990
10 June 2017 Runaway Ghost comes from the outside to put away Serengeti @Santa Anita
Right then. That's a lot of horse.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete58.14 seconds of beautiful work I'm sure you'll all agree, never mind the obvious coercion of an animal who obviously had other plans of his own. Still, just saying.
2 year old Bay Colt by Ghostzapper (USA) - Rose's Desert (USA) (Desert God (USA). Foaled 2 March 2015.
Some guy whose heroes were men - what was that about?
Catching up:
Southern California trainer Mike Machowsky was beaming with joy in the winner’s circle after his star 2-year-old, Runaway Ghost, recorded a seven and a half length romp in the $50,000 Golden Nugget Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
“We’ve always been really high on him,” said Machowsky. “He’s got plenty of talent and he loves training. He broke his maiden at Santa Anita and then got sore shins so we gave him time. He has come back strong.”
Jockey Aaron Gryder, aboard the Kentucky-bred son of Ghostzapper, was impressed with the 2-year-old colt’s effort.
“There was never a point in the race when I didn’t feel I was on the best horse,” said Gryder. “There was a lot of horse underneath me and I felt very confident. He has a lot of talent.”
Runaway Ghost, owned and bred by Joe Peacock, paid $3.80 to win, $2.60 to place and $2.20 to show. He completed the six furlongs in 1:09.71 seconds.
The race did not go without controversy. At the five-eighths pole, Runaway Ghost was in tight with three rivals to his inside: Soul of Discretion, Intimidate and Generally Lucky. Soul of Discretion and Intimidate got the worst of it, both having to steady multiple times, while Generally Lucky was able to avoid major issues and crossed the wire third. After a lengthy inquiry, the stewards ruled that La Waun, the unofficial second place finisher, drifted in and caused the chain reaction. La Waun was disqualified from second and placed back to last for the interference. Generally Lucky was placed second and Go Bobby Go, the unofficial fourth place finisher, was moved up to third.
Said Abel Cedillo, the rider aboard Intimidate, “There was a lot of pressure from the outside and if I didn’t take my horse back, I would have gone down. I took him back and tried to save something for the stretch but he gave up at that point. I didn’t rush him and saved something for next time.”
Aaron Gryder also commented on the incident.
“[La Waun] came over and all the guys inside of me were yelling,” replied Gryder, when asked by media personnel about the backstretch trouble. “A few of them had to get out of there and at that point, when my horse was clear, I decided to go on with it so I wouldn’t get shut off again.”
According to Mike Machowsky, Runaway Ghost is “possible” to run in the next 2-year-old stake race at Golden Gate Fields, The Gold Rush Stakes, which is a one mile route to be run next month. Runaway Ghost has now won 2 of 3 starts with career earnings of $73,550.
Cultural debate over harassment is a step in human evolution: Malcolm Potts, November 29, 2017
ReplyDeleteHogamous, higamous
Man is polygamous
Higamous, hogamous,
Woman is monogamous
A 20th-century tale recounted the story of a woman who awoke one night believing she had discovered the meaning of life. When she looked at what she had scribbled the next morning, it was the four lines of doggerel you see above. But perhaps the dream was more profound than she thought. Perhaps it can help us understand the cultural reformation around sexual harassment that is exploding around us.
Let’s begin not with dreams but by going to the zoo. Penguins are monogamous. Females lay a large egg and then return to the sea to feed. The male incubates the egg for many weeks. When he is nearly dead from hunger and cold, the egg hatches and his mate returns. She regurgitates food to feed the fledgling while he goes to sea to feed. Many bird species are monogamous because the two sexes can share in bringing up the next generation.
Most of the 4,000 species of mammals are promiscuous or polygamous. Carrying the fetus in the womb and breastfeeding the newborn is a huge burden. As a result of this asymmetrical investment in reproduction, most male mammals fight one another for access to females instead of helping females reproduce. Think of bull elephant seals on the California coast battling for the opportunity to inseminate a much smaller female. The antlers we see on Christmas card renderings of reindeer are not to amuse Santa but to battle other male reindeer.
Now look at ourselves. Without doubt, an observant zoologist from Mars who had studied other mammals would conclude that human beings are promiscuous or polygamous. Why? Monogamous animals, like penguins, are usually the same size. Even zookeepers cannot tell males and females until one lays an egg. Male polygamous animals are nearly always larger than the females of the same species. The enormous silverback male gorilla, weighing between 300 and 400 pounds, is much stronger than the females, which are half his weight. Men are about 15 percent bigger than women and have greater upper body strength. Reproductive success for polygamous and promiscuous males depends on their ability to fight off rivals.
Male chimpanzees are also larger than females. Chimps are promiscuous, sometimes mating several times in a day with any ovulating female. We had a common ancestor with chimpanzees about 7 million years ago, and we can be sure that that ancestor had multiple sexual partners. I taught the evolution of human sexuality at UC Berkeley for many years, and I always described human beings as “polygamous animals struggling to be monogamous.”
[continues]
ReplyDeleteAs we evolved away from chimps, we began to walk upright and excelled at long-distance running. To do so, we needed a strong, bony pelvis. But we also evolved a baby with an extremely large brain. Pushing a baby with a big head through a narrow bony passage became increasingly painful and dangerous. Even so, the human baby is relatively immature at birth, unable to even hold up its head straight. In addition, to grow the brain after birth required more than year of breastfeeding with nutrient-rich milk.
I’ve been lucky enough to watch chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, where Jane Goodall worked. Male chimps defend a territory, but they contribute nothing whatsoever to the upbringing of their offspring. When you watch the females, you soon appreciate that they are close to the limit of what it takes for one female to care for her infant alone. At some point in our own evolution, the burden of bringing up a helpless infant crossed a threshold, where a newborn’s survival was almost impossible without help from a partner.
Patterns of mating evolved. Not only was sexual intercourse used to reproduce, but it also began to express a new behavior — sexual love. All other mammals have no interest in sex unless the female is ovulating. Ovulation is commonly advertised in some way, as in female chimps where a huge swelling of the vulva indicates ovulation. In our species, ovulation is concealed — neither the man nor the woman knows when ovulation occurs. We are also unique in having sex on any day of the menstrual cycle. Given concealed ovulation, a Stone Age male could still have a one-night stand, but he would be unlikely to father a child — and, if he did, the infant might die without the additional care a woman needed and a man could offer. Not the best way to transmit your genes to the next generation — the ultimate metric of Darwinian evolution.
The alternative strategy was to have frequent intercourse with the same woman. Sooner or later the man would father a child. Now, bonded by sexual love, he would provide the extra nurturing the woman and infant needed to survive. Half of all American marriages end in divorce but, on average, they last long enough to conceive and secure the survival of at least one child.
The current recognition and condemnation of sexual harassment is one important step in the long journey from male-driven polygamy to female-driven monogamy. It is a revolution that will make the world a better place for men as well as for women. And most certainly for children.
Malcolm Potts is an emeritus professor at UC Berkeley and author, with Roger Short, of “Ever Since Adam and Eve: the evolution of human sexuality” (1999, Cambridge University Press).
Cultural debate over harassment is a step in human evolution: Malcolm Potts, 29 November 2017