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Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, May 20, 2017.

  1. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    You mean the mild-tempered idli-slurping South Indian elephant is nonplussed at the aggression of the kebab-licking African counterpart. Hmm, I am thinking. I see your point, how dietary tastes regulate our temper. Tonality of the voice reminds me of the classic study on the vervet monkeys.

    Excerpt from an article: When vervet monkeys, for instance, spot a predator, they don’t just generically scream. They use distinct vocalizations, different “proto-words,” where one means, “Aiiiiii!, predator on the ground, run up the tree,” and the other means, “Aiiiiii!, predator in the air, run down the tree.” It’s mighty useful to have evolved the cognitive capacity to make that distinction. Who would want to guess wrong and dash up to the top of a tree when the problem is a raptor swooping down?

    For such distinct “Aiiiiii” vocalizations, they better sharpen their vocal chords to tap into the right pitch. Who knows, one wrong octave, and they are the dinner. No one should be destined for a dinner plate just because they got the tonality wrong.
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2017
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  2. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    In that 8-week expansion outcome, I would have campaigned enough for a week's stretch as I recoil in horror having noticed my sloppy writing, albeit late, "abolish [tion] of a gender"
     
  3. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Sometimes I do add links to say "Don't take my word for it, see for yourself ...", but most of the time it is to share something interesting, on the assumtion that you will enjoy reading about it as much as I did.

    And now, continuing in that spirit:
    You know, this has been looked at as well. The fascinating thing is that they don't communicate! This behavior is what is known as an 'emergent property'.

    Here's some more 'bird homework' for you!:lol:
    Bird 'Flight-Flocks'
    Why Birds Fly in a V Formation
     
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  4. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    There is a folklore about a Yaksha being cursed by his boss that from then on he should keep talking nonstop and if he stopped even for a second, his head would burst into a million pieces. So this guy started talking and as days passed, he was surrounded by a number of Yakshas joining him in his incessant chat. As the crowd of chatters grew day by day, the boss came and pleaded with them to stop uttering even a word and if they didn't stop talking, their head would burst into a billion pieces.
    During my childhood, my dad had arranged for a visiting tuition master for me as I was not paying much attention in the class which brought much disrepute to the family. This tuition master and I got on very well in the beginning when I was asking him questions for which he had answers. But when I crossed the border and started asking him about things of which he had no clue, he labelled me a 'Chatterbox' !
     
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  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    Cheeniya suppresses a shudder and asks Ira 'Are you sure this post would not irritate him?'
    Ira takes off her hankie and wipes Cheeniya's tears saying there would be no problem and if there is any she would handle it. Cheeniya heaves a sigh of relief.
     
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  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @sokanasanah
    From time immemorial, more things are communicated among humans through word of mouth than through books and documentary evidences. Your words are good enough for me! In my youth when there was no computer and things like that, the more studious students went to the University and Connemara Public Libraries to sharpen their intellect while the rest of us visited movie theatres!
     
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  8. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Relax! (she hands him another hankie and tosses aside the drenched one)

    Listen you alternating man, a senile rambler and a flamboyant chatterbox are hardly a noticeable irritation to him. For all I know, he would lament, "these scruffy coots need a bath and shave once they are done playing with reptiles and chewing mice, and dinner to be served only on completion of the passerine homework."

    Don't tremble at his bloodshot eyes and fixed gaze in the avatar picture. Contrary to his fierce stature, he is benign and has a soft corner for ramblers, more so for curly-tailed ramblers. His intentions are good to discpline us to follow sense and draw upon facts in our ramblings. But the wayword coots that we are, and now that we resolved the mystery of the inflight vocals, we should next investigate whether the kuchipudi waggle dance of the Indian bees is translated by the Maori haka-trained Australian bees. You can be assured that sokanasanah would softly guide us in the process.

    Hey, you, the birdman, the links are informative. I've few doubts on the aerodynamic manoeuvre of the v-shaped squadron. Keep the brain in the vat hydrated. Catch you in gabfest.
     
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  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Hold your horses...wait! I thought there was only rakshasa, now you are telling me there is yaksha tribe also in Indian mythology. I looked up our yaksha and came across,

    In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist texts, the yakṣa has a dual personality. On the one hand, a yakṣa may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the yakṣa, which is a kind of ghost (bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the rakṣasas.

    So, there are yakshas, bhutas and rakshasas. This is all very interesting and new to me. More amusing is the disparity in portraying these mythical creatures.

    In Indian art, male yakṣas are portrayed either as fearsome warriors or as portly, stout and dwarf-like. Female yakṣas, known as yakṣiṇīs, are portrayed as beautiful young women with happy round faces and full breasts and hips.

    Why are yakshas dwarf-like and yaksinis the sirens? I don't like such gender bias. If artists are rendering women gorgeous, then men should be rendered as Errol flynn and not with an ungainly walk and a grotesque face. No wonder the hapless and gullible yakshas turned out to be so malleable, one moment they are cursed and the next moment the same curse is reversed. They must form a labour union and revolt against such discrimination and unjust treatment meted out to them. If yakshas were thus manipulated, what happened to the fanged but clumsy rakshasa clan. They probably are still eking out a living in a godforsaken cave lest their head bursts into a billion pieces if they ever risk bathing in the daylight. The lies we humans sold them!
     
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  10. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Iravati
    If you are curious about the sound I just made, know it to be my sigh of relief. The storm has passed Chennai towards gabfest, I mean, northwest. Another storm may not be in the offing until I develop low pressure!
    So say you but my fear is quite deep rooted to be cured by your flowery words. This fear is, of course, good for me. I will not embark on any factual adventures knowing that the 'all-seeing eye' is watching me!
     

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