International Dialects Of English Archive

IDEA, or the International Dialects of English Archive, collects recordings of people talking in English.

The "India" section has recordings of English speakers from Lucknow (who, we are told, "exemplifies the lack of aspiration on initial [p], [t] and [k]"), Hyderabad, Chennai, Trivandrum, Gujarat and someone from "Northern India".

You know what would be really cool? Sound recordings of all Indian languages and dialects. There are Indian languages such as "Yakha" and "Kok Borok" and "Pankhu" and I have *no* idea how they sound.

(IDEA's homepage)

Before And After

Beautiful portraits of a very unusual nature: before and after the subject's death.

Maybe I remembered the deaths of some loved ones, or maybe it's this fear of my own mortality*, but I found some of the accompanying words incredibly hard to read. Here's an example of what I mean.

*All you vicenarians, stop your snickering now. The thirties are different.

(Found on MeFi)

Yes, But What About Our Bhelpuri Supplies?

This is super scary.

In 1979, at the height of the Green Revolution euphoria, per capita availability of cereals and pulses had gone up to 476.5 grams per day. The corresponding figure in 2006 was 444.5 grams per day, according to provisional government statistics.

In 2005, it was still lower at 422 grams. In the case of pulses, per capita net availability today is almost half of what it was five decades ago - 32.5 grams per day in 2006 compared with 60.7 grams per day in 1951.

Full story here. (Link to ToI)

Weatherman Caught Cachinnating

A very short clip that's all over the Web today. I don't know why it's funny but it's funny.

Yes, "cachinnating" is a real word. Look it up.

The Starving Heartland

AID's newsletter mentions this rather alarming fact:

Chhattisgarh, known as the rice bowl of India, is home to more than 22,000 varieties of indigeous rice, nurtured by generations of farmers. And yet, today Chhattisgarh is among the most food insecure states of the country. Median Body weight and Body Mass Index figures seen in rural Chhattisgarh are worse than Sub-Saharan Africa.

(Emphasis mine.)

Weighs 8 Tons And Takes Great Pictures

What a cool hack:

"He fixed webcams to four elephants. One carried a "trunk-cam" - a device resembling a huge log concealing a camera which could be held in its trunk and dangled close to the ground.

Another had a "tusk-cam" hooked over its tusk. The elephants moved so steadily that the images are pin-sharp. Other log-cams were left on the forest floor.

The high-definition cameras were created by inventor Geoff Bell for a documentary in the remote Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh in the heart of India."

The BBC, which is producing this 3-part series (narrated by, who else, Sir David Attenborough) has the story.

Producer/director John Downer has more information (and video) on his production company's website. (via MeFi)
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Speaking of photo hacks, India's Ullas Karanth used the "camera-trap" technique to great success. I found a terrific blog dedicated to "camera-traps" and it has a very good profile of Mr. Karanth. Browse through the blog for examples of camera-trap photography.

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Link to Pench National Park (why oh why can't Indian national parks have their own websites?)

Link to Pench's Tiger Reserve website.

A Face Only A Mother...

Check out Matt Borruso's strange art. (Via WFMU's Beware of the Blog)