Very Inspiring Blogger Award, thanks Tazein!


Very Inspiring Blogger Award

After all the bloggers who were so kind to nominate Dear Kitty. Some blog for awards, now another award.

Thank you so very much, Tazein of transcendingbordersblog, for nominating my blog for the Very Inspiring Blogger award!

The rules are to thank and link back to the blogger who has nominated you, then post the award logo to your blog, write a post on the nomination and nominate 15 other very inspiring bloggers. Notify them; and tell 7 things about yourself.

Seven things about myself:

1. Where did visits to my blog mainly come from today so far?

Country Views
United States FlagUnited States 52
United Kingdom FlagUnited Kingdom 15
Canada FlagCanada 14
Tunisia FlagTunisia 12
Netherlands FlagNetherlands 10
Australia FlagAustralia 8
India FlagIndia 8
Philippines FlagPhilippines 7
South Africa FlagSouth Africa 6
France FlagFrance 5
Bahrain FlagBahrain 4
Germany FlagGermany 4
Singapore FlagSingapore 4

2. Where did visits to my blog mainly come from, ever since February 25, 2012, when WordPress statistics about that started?

Top Views by Country for all days ending 2013-06-20 (Summarized)

Country Views
United States FlagUnited States 78,906
United Kingdom FlagUnited Kingdom 33,892
Canada FlagCanada 13,274
Netherlands FlagNetherlands 9,189
Greece FlagGreece 6,547
Australia FlagAustralia 6,195
India FlagIndia 5,840
Romania FlagRomania 4,699
Germany FlagGermany 4,509
Jamaica FlagJamaica 3,956
France FlagFrance 3,934
New Zealand FlagNew Zealand 2,793
Sweden FlagSweden 2,569
Italy FlagItaly 2,511
Belgium FlagBelgium 2,423
Spain FlagSpain 2,202
Armenia FlagArmenia 2,007
Philippines FlagPhilippines 1,977
Singapore FlagSingapore 1,838
Ireland FlagIreland 1,816
Tunisia FlagTunisia 1,606
Indonesia FlagIndonesia 1,532
Bahrain FlagBahrain 1,274
Saudi Arabia FlagSaudi Arabia 1,240
Brazil FlagBrazil 1,233
South Africa FlagSouth Africa 1,107
Switzerland FlagSwitzerland 1,065
Pakistan FlagPakistan 1,029
Japan FlagJapan 1,008
Turkey FlagTurkey 959
United Arab Emirates FlagUnited Arab Emirates 952
Poland FlagPoland 943
Norway FlagNorway 892
Malaysia FlagMalaysia 891

3. Where did the fewest visits to my blog come from, ever since February 25, 2012, when WordPress statistics about that started?

Niger FlagNiger 3
Dominica FlagDominica 3
Uzbekistan FlagUzbekistan 3
Martinique FlagMartinique 3
Kiribati FlagKiribati 3
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the FlagDemocratic Republic of the Congo 3
Monaco FlagMonaco 3
Holy See (Vatican City State) FlagVatican City 3
Burundi FlagBurundi 2
Netherlands Antilles FlagNetherlands Antilles 2
Somalia FlagSomalia 2
Vanuatu FlagVanuatu 2
Tonga FlagTonga 2
Timor-Leste FlagTimor-Leste 2
Montserrat FlagMontserrat 2
Cape Verde FlagCape Verde 2
Mauritania FlagMauritania 2
Sao Tome and Principe FlagSao Tome and Principe 2
Tajikistan FlagTajikistan 2
Togo FlagTogo 2
Guinea-Bissau FlagGuinea-Bissau 2
Comoros FlagComoros 2
Liechtenstein FlagLiechtenstein 1
Falkland Islands (Malvinas) FlagFalkland Islands (Malvinas) 1
French Polynesia FlagFrench Polynesia 1
British Indian Ocean Territory FlagBritish Indian Ocean Territory 1
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines FlagSaint Vincent and the Grenadines 1
Cook Islands FlagCook Islands 1

4. Which blog posts attracted most visits so far today?

Title Views
Bahraini absolute monarchy and Al Qaeda in Syria 18
Home page / Archives 17
Bahraini king’s sexual harassment of Lebanese singer 10
Greek media censorship continuing 9
Zambian lioness Lady Liuwa update 8
‘New’ prehistoric lizard called after Jim Morrison 5
Svalbard king eiders and phalaropes 5
West Virginia’s 150th birthday 4
Costa Rican turtle conservationist murdered by death squad 4
Film festival in Sheffield, England 4

5. Which blog posts attracted most visits, ever since my blog moved to WordPress in December 2011?

Top Posts for all days ending 2013-06-20 (Summarized)

Title Views
Home page / Archives 37,194
British Thatcher aide accused of child abuse 5,781
After 35 years, wounds of Vietnamese napalm girl Kim Phuc still hurt 2,296
About 2,120
Bahraini king’s sexual harassment of Lebanese singer 1,838
Günter Grass poem on Greece and austerity, English translation 1,638
Boy raped by priest, then castrated 1,628
Zambian lioness Lady Liuwa update 1,045
Thatcher’s Downing Street child abuse scandal 1,029
Stop whipping of raped Maldives girl 891
Thai women’s escape from Bahraini forced prostitution 880
Long-tailed tits, owls, and flowers 871
Britain: Tony Blair’s own Watergate scandal 853
Poisonous caterpillars infest Spurn Point in England 776
Big new spider species discovery in Sri Lanka 759
New African monkey species discovered 753
Dinosaur discovery in France 704
BBC: Pope Ratzinger ‘covered up paedophile priests scandals’. Like US Republicans 682
Greek nazis burn Roma people’s homes 666
USA: ancient Egyptian sarcophagus as corporate boss’ plaything 648
Will US soldier escape punishment for rape of Dutch girl? 636
Scotland: giant centipede, crocodile, and other fossils brought back to life 634
Dutch war crimes in Indonesia, photos 601
Pompeii: ancient Roman brothel restored. Roman plants 582
Blog of the Year 2012 award, thanks dogdaz! 562
Bronzino painting restored after prude censorship 547
Ghanaian women’s forced prostitution in Bahrain 537
King of Spain, elephant killer, petition 523

6. To which other Internet sites did this blog mainly refer, ever since moving to WordPress in December 2011?

URL Clicks
gravatar.com 871
en.wikipedia.org 698
21stcenturywire.com 254
aangirfan.blogspot.com 177
avaaz.org 169
socialistworker.co.uk 163
morningstaronline.co.uk 155
mirror.co.uk 155
focus.de/kultur/buecher/europas-schande-das-gedicht-von-guenter-grass-im-wortlaut_aid_758777.html 130
dearkitty1.files.wordpress.com 125
r.zemanta.com 120
actuable.es/peticiones/que-rey-juan-carlos-i-deje-ser-presidente-honor-de 114

7. Which sites referred mainly to my blog, ever since it moved to WordPress in December 2011?

Referrer Views
Search Engines 108,922
WordPress.com Reader 8,779
Facebook 2,681
mail.yahoo.com 2,270
WordPress Dashboard 1,724
topix.com 1,578
Twitter 1,552
2012indyinfo.com 1,058

Here come my fifteen nominees … err… sixteen nominees :)   :

1. iarxiv

2. That is how I see the world…in photo and writing

3. Loc mai bun

4. euzicasa

5. Ekostories

6. misseychelles

7. rabirius

8. CaPtuRE LiFe

9. Șic și clasic – “Chic & Classic” luxury fine arts, handmade work, original design

10. Jörg David Photography

11. Vicky Nanjappa

12. Teacher as Transformer

13. A Solitary Torture

14. outdoorpictures

15. Grow your innerself

16. Wildersoul Colouring Book

Spitsbergen Arctic tern research


This is a Dutch video about Maarten Loonen’s Arctic tern migration research on the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic.

This video, with English subtitles, is also about that research.

Translated from an e-mail from Groningen university in the Netherlands:

Dear bird lover,

Thanks to the support of many donors, ecologist and polar researcher Maarten Loonen has been able to purchase forty geolocators at the end of May. Very soon, he will affix these tiny data recorders on Spitsbergen to the legs of forty Arctic terns. At least 33 birds will fly under the names which generous sponsors gave them, like Suzanne, Federico Segundo, Arctic Jewel and Guusje.

But we are only halfway through! The ultimate goal is to raise € 40,000 so that the research will be able to continue for several years. Therefore, the crowd funding campaign has been extended by one month.

On the site www.rugsteuntstern.nl (tab ‘updates‘) Martin tells more about his research. With the information he collects he hopes, inter alia, to be able to understand the impact of climate change on the Arctic tern. This ‘champion of migratory birds’ year after year travels 70,000 to 90,000 kilometers.

We would like to ask you to support Maarten Loonen’s Arctic tern research by sharing this with friends and acquaintances. For more information, see www.rugsteuntstern.nl.

In this Dutch video, from 30 May 2013, Maarten Loonen talks about the crowd funding campaign. Then, 27 terns would get a sponsor’s name, and 13 other birds would be anonymous. Meanwhile, the number of sponsored birds has risen to 33.

This video, recorded in the Netherlands by Maarten Loonen says about itself:

June 9, 2013

I am joining Derick Hiemstra and Klaas van Dijk in the Eeemshaven to observe and ring Arctic Terns. In this industrial area, activity is low and Arctic Terns have started breeding. On this location the world champions [of] migration distance were equipped with a geolocator two years ago and recaught one year ago. Today Derick and Klaas are doing their normal checks. They read colour rings but also metal rings from terns. Then, we continue catching and ringing some breeding pairs. All this is part of my preparation for this summer’s field season on Spitsbergen.

Svalbard king eiders and phalaropes


King eider female and male, Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013. The king eider photo of earlier today was not the last one at the lake.

Barnacle goose, king eider female and male, common eider male, Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

The king eiders were in the company of common eiders and barnacle geese.

Reindeer not far away.

Purple sandpiper, in Adventdalen, 4 June 2013

A purple sandpiper.

Grey phalarope, Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

A grey phalarope.

Grey phalarope female  and male, Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

A grey phalarope couple.

King eider male, Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

Finally, a swimming king eider male, waving us goodbye … at least as far as 4 June is concerned, as there will be more on Svalbard on this blog.

‘New’ prehistoric lizard called after Jim Morrison


This video, in Spanish, is about the discovery of the fossil lizard Barbaturex morrisoni.

From The Sticky Tongue Project blog:

New Species of Lizard Discovered

A new species of lizard doesn’t come along every day. Even less common is a new lizard species named for a 1960s rock star. But that’s exactly what University of Iowa paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon and his co-authors reveal in an article published in the June 5 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. (The complete paper can be found here.)

The lizard was a plant-eater, like present-day iguanas, that lived in the jungles in Southeast Asia about 40 million years ago. At some 60 pounds and six feet in length, the lizard was one of the largest of its kind—making it a veritable “king” of land-dwelling lizards.

As for the name, “Barbaturex morrisoni,” the researchers say it just fit.

“Barbatus” is from the Latin, which means “bearded,” and “rex,” means “king”—so the name refers to the presence of ventral ridges along the underside of the mandible, as well as the giant size of the lizard, says Ciochon (pronounced sha-HAHN).

“The species name honors vocalist Jim Morrison,” Ciochon says. “We did take some liberty in naming the new species after rock legend Jim Morrison, who is known as the ‘Lizard King.’”

Because of the lyrics of his song Celebration Of The Lizard.

This music video from the USA is called Jim Morrison – Celebration Of The Lizard (Full Version).

Lead author Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says, “I was listening to The Doors quite a bit during the research. Some of their musical imagery includes reptiles and ancient places, and Jim Morrison was of course ‘The Lizard King,’ so it all kind of came together.”

Ciochon says the lizard itself was a product of its times, evolving about 40 million years ago when the climate was as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it is today. A warmer and moister environment would have encouraged the growth and evolution of subtropical vegetation, which would have provided resources allowing for larger reptiles and mammals. Likewise, it was probably climate change and cooler temperatures that altered the food supply and led to the eventual extinction of Barbaturex morrisoni, he says.

“Species that are adapted to narrow niches often go extinct when the niche changes or disappears completely,” Ciochon says.

Surprisingly, the research that resulted in Barbaturex morrisoni almost never came about because the discovery is based upon fossils that Ciochon helped find some 35 years ago in Burma and which had been stored in California for decades.

“The fossils were found on Dec. 25, 1978, on my second expedition to Burma (Myanmar) at the beginning of my career,” says Ciochon.

Ciochon and University of California, Berkeley, Professor Donald E. Savage, who died in 1999, collected many vertebrate fossils, including the primate fossils that were the focus of their expedition. The lizard fossils were stored in the University of California Museum of Paleontology and forgotten until about 15 years ago when another trip to Burma caused Ciochon to remember them. Eventually, Ciochon and colleagues contacted Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and requested his help in describing the find.

When Head first examined the fossils (a total of 10 specimens of the same species), he noticed the creature’s bones were characteristic of a group of modern lizards that includes bearded dragons, chameleons and plant-eaters like spiny-tailed lizards.

Head says: “I thought, ‘That’s neat. Based on its teeth, it’s a plant-eating lizard from a time period and a place from which we don’t have a lot of information.’ But when I started studying its modern relatives, I realized just how big this lizard was. It struck me that we had something here that was quite large, and quite unique.”

See also here.

Svalbard pink-footed geese, red-throated divers and king eiders


Pink-footed goose in the snow, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

4 June 2013. After we climbed down from the little auk colony rocks in Svalbard, two pink-footed geese on a tundra meadow.

Pink-footed geese, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

Once more, we take a look at little auks. A bit further, in the snow.

Little auk colony in the snow, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

Then, a pink-footed goose couple again.

Pink-footed geese couple, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

With a purple sandpiper.

Pink-footed goose and purple sandpiper, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

Will we see an ivory gull at last?

To find out, we go east.

Red-throated diver couple, lake in Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

In Adventdalen, we don’t see ivory gulls; but we do see a red-throated diver couple in the lake, like yesterday.

King eider male flying, Adventdalen, Svalbard, 4 June 2013

And we do see a flying male king eider.