Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

January 19, 2013 – INDIA – The Queen of the Hills, as Shimla was fondly called by the British, recorded the highest snowfall on a single day January in the past eight years, a Met official said here Saturday. Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office here, told IANS that the town recorded 38.6 cm snow in the past 24 hours, the highest in the first month of the year since 2005. “The maximum snow in a day in January was recorded was in 2005. It was 33.2 cm Jan 18,” he said, adding: “On two consecutive days (Jan 17 and 18 this year) the town got 63.6 cm.” Singh said snow and heavy rain in the region in the past two days was mainly due to induced cyclonic circulation with the western disturbances. As per records of the Met office, there was no snowfall at all in Shimla for…

Understanding Atmospheric Deposition in Tampa Bay(3 page pdf, Bay Region Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (BRACE))

Also discussed here: From the Tailpipe to Tampa Bay: Air Pollution Research Reveals Impact of Cars(Bradenton Times, Dec. 17, 2012)

Vehicle emissions not only cause harmful health impacts for people near them but they also affect the quality of the water near urban areas by adding nitrogen dioxides to the water off the coast which promotes algae growth, starving the fish of oxygen. Today we review a report from Tampa on the amount of nitrogen oxides reaching the water from the atmosphere, mainly from vehicle emissions that pollute Tampa Bay. Many of the same strategies for improving urban air quality on land apply here as well for water quality: more low emission vehicles, more monitoring of dry deposition and reestablish atmospheric monitoring stations. As EPA notes: “driving a car is a typical citizen’s…

This weekend, there is national garden bird count in the Netherlands.

Every participant counts garden birds for half an hour.

In the garden where I counted this morning, not so many birds then: one great tit and three wood pigeons.

The national results so far today:

Total counts so far in the Netherlands: 10.932

House sparrow 52.158 Great tit 37.826 Blackbird 32.353
4		Chaffinch	29.116
5		Blue tit	23.247
6		Jackdaw	16.203
7		Collared dove	14.081
8		Starling	13.184
9		Wood pigeon	13.052
10		Robin	10.910

Related articles

• Woodpecker visits new bird feeder (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Woodpecker and snow on the balcony (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Great tits under threat: Garden bird species hit by deadly virus which causes warty growths (mirror.co.uk)
• South Wales Days Out: Look out for the birds in the Big Garden Birdwatch (walesonline.co.uk)
• Great tits ‘more susceptible’ to new avian pox than other British birds (guardian.co.uk)
• Blackcaps, real ‘angry birds’

The semi-desert region of Shekhawati ( in the western state of Rajasthan) is a colourful fantasy having a fascination of its own. An open air museum famous for its plethora of painted “haveli” ( urban mansion). Shekhawati means “the land of Shekha’s clan”. It derives its name from the king Rao Shekha ( 1433-1488), a scion of the ruling family of Jaipur ( then the capital of a powerful kingdom, now the capital of Rajasthan), the Kachhwaha.

The first frescoes were painted at the beginning of the 18° century but most of them have been painted between 1750 and 1930 especially on the walls of “haveli”, but also on the walls of forts, temples and cenotaphs ( the golden age being between 1830 and 1900).That’s the way the rich merchants used to display their wealth. ( Indeed, Shekhawati was one of the routes used by the caravans carrying merchandises between Europe, Africa, the Middle-East  and…