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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE
GUWAHATI, SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2009
Page
3
us, at least some who have survived our brutal assault at least for the time being. Most
of us seldom see a frog, the obvious reason
being the drop in their numbers. Apart from
that another astounding reason being that,
we never pay any attention to them. Are
these animals really so dull and unworthy of
notice? Frogs come in various shapes sizes
and colours. Some may attain a size of more
than a foot, whereas some are barely visible
already extinct. Thus they are in the most
deplorable condition amongst all vertebrates.
If immediate measures are not taken the
ongoing process of elimination of species
may reach even greater heights creating a
void in the ecosystem which may never be
filled up. The catastrophic effect of which
will have to be borne by humanity as well.
Some of the measures which we can take
in this regard before it gets too late are:
with a size not more then a centimeter. The
biggest frog around us is the Indian bull frog,
locally known as ‘bamun bhekula’, with a
weight touching almost half a kilo. There
are some burrowing frogs which are shaped
like a small blown up balloon. While the
king of jungle comes in only one colour,
these little creatures fill up most of the
colours of a spectrum, but still we don’t care.
Our lack of awareness is pushing some of
these creatures to the brink of extinction and
some are under immense pressure. According to International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) already 33% of all amphibian population worldwide is under some
kind of threat and as much as 39 species are
n Save wetlands; they are the breeding
ground for these animals
Save ever decreasing forest cover
Report illegal trade of these animals
Spread awareness regarding them
Acknowledge their existence and importance and many more
Unfortunately, because of lack of work
done in this field, not much scientific data is
available regarding these animals. The
northeastern part of India is a rich zone in
terms of biodiversity. The amphibian fauna
of this region is remarkably high with a record
of more then 100 species. With more research work more data can be expected
shortly which certainly will help in improving the position of these animal. Herpetological lab of Arya Vidyapeeth College is
one of the premier labs of the region dedicated to the study of amphibians. The lab
also specializes in the study of reptiles. This
lab is headed by Dr Saibal Sengupta. Apart
from other contribution related to conservation of amphibians, the lab is also credited
with discovery of new species of frogs such
as, Kaloula assamensis and Amolops assamensis from Assam. But still, a handful of
scientists cannot on their own create magic.
Until and unless a mass involvement and
interest is generated in this field, the future
of these animals will be in murky water.
We have the power to contribute to the
cause and if it’s not us then who will? Since
we do not have the power to generate a
new species, we at least can hold on and
take care of the ones coexisting with us.
Jayaditya Purkayastha
F
rogs, for many, are just slimy creepy,
crawly creatures, very insignificant to
be noticed. For some, even their
thought is repulsive. For many
others, they are a source of nightmare.
Frogs also are associated with various myths
which add to their enigma. But the fact is, to
nature they are as much important as we
human beings are, maybe even more. They
inhabited this planet when there was no trace
of humanity. Frogs came to the earth more
then 360 million years ago, much before us.
Frogs are actually nature’s unsung heroes.
They contribute to environment and even
humanity itself at various levels. A world
without them is quiet unthinkable. They
maintain a balance in nature. If we consider nature to be a multistoried building, the
frogs form its foundation and we know a
building cannot endure for long without a
strong foundation. While talking of wildlife
the first thing that comes to most people’s
mind is big mammals, the huge, illustrious
and self imposing organisms, having the
capacity to draw people. To see them we
make long journey and even spend good
money and time. But we hardly have the
time to look around us; if we did, we would
not fail to notice that on summer evenings
after an occasional shower, most of the
areas near water filled spots buzz with sound.
Most of these sounds are produced by
our ignored friends, the frogs. No, they are
not calling for rain or even predicting rain.
The situation may be a case just reverse of
the ongoing myths which says frogs are har-
Nature’s
unsung heroes
bingers of rains. Frogs actually call to attract mate whereupon after mating they will
lay eggs, most of their eggs are laid in water and the puddles of water are formed
only after a rain. The eggs after a period of
time hatch to give rise to tadpoles which
live in water and breathe through gills as
does a fish; after a period of time their body
metamorphose to give rise to the adult form
which predominantly lives on land and
breathe through lungs as we do. Frog can
even breathe through their moist skin.
Since the frogs, to complete their life
cycle, passes through two phases of life,
one in water (tadpole) and one on land
(adult), they are under a group of interesting animals known as amphibian meaning
having two modes of life. This is the reason that pollution in either land or water
has a direct adverse effect on these animals.
C
Know the
Hence, they act as bio-indicator. The environmental status of a place can thus be
determined by its frog population.
Frogs contribute immensely to human life.
While the world is reeling under the disease
malaria and such other vector borne diseases, frog can be instrumental in dealing with
the situation. Frogs at their various stages
of life prey upon the larva of such disease
causing organism. Frog also controls the
population of various pests of agricultural
crops. Recent studies have shown that the
skin secretion of frogs may become a ray
of hope in our fight against deadly diseases
and disorders like AIDS, diabetes, cancer
etc. The skin secretion of some frog also
shows antimicrobial properties, which may
in future help us formulate antibiotics.
Even if we overlook all these, we still cannot ignore the fact that they coexist with
AN you guess there are how many
internet domain names the world over
today? Or for that matter, do you have
any clue as to the number of such domain
names in India alone? Here comes VeriSign
Inc of the United States of America with answers to
these queries, besides shedding light on other internet-linked aspects.
According to the latest Domain Name Industry
Brief
published
by
VeriSign, a trusted provider of internet infrastructure services for the networked world, there are
nearly 183 million domain
name registrations globally across all the top level
domain names (TLDs) till
the first quarter of 2009
— an increase of three per cent over the last quarter
of 2008, while a 12 per cent increase over the
same quarter from last year. In India, the total base
of domain names was 1.4 million as of March 31,
2009, with approximately 800,000 .com and .net
domain names.
Gauged by total registrations, .com remains the
most popular TLD category, followed by .cn (China),
.de (Germany) and .net, with an average of 2.4
million new .com and .net registrations added each
month. During the quarter, the overall base of .com
and .net domain names grew to 92.4 million domain
names.
The latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief also
spotlights VeriSign’s analysis of DNS queries and DNS
resolution. In addition to provisioning domain names,
a domain name registry operator enables users to actually reach those domain names by resolving the domain names to an internet address that serves the
WORD
Deva Kumar Das
content users seek.
VeriSign’s analysis reveals how the most queried
.com domain names – sites like Google.com and
Yahoo.com – are not necessarily the only domain
names Internet users rely upon. Rather, there are
infrastructure oriented domain names that support
DNS servers, hosting farms or even advertising
platforms and the number of DNS queries the infrastructure domain names receive can be in the same
Net
domains
L
ISTED below is your weekly words. How many
of them do you recognize? Find out. Match the
word in column A with its meaning in column B.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
A
B
Sordid
a) Make a low sound like the wind
Sorority
b) Utter unclearly
Fraternity c) Not good, not bad
Sotto voce d) Dirty, ungenerous
So so
e) Group of women students in
a university in the US
Sough
f) Group of men students
Mourn
g) In a low voice
Mutter
h) Of cooking
Utter
i) Feel or express grief
Culinary
j) Speak
ANSWERS
3. Fraternity
4. Sotto voce
5. So so
6. Sough
7. Mourn
8. Mutter
9. Utter
10.Culinary
A
1. Sordid
2. Sorority
f)
g)
c)
a)
i)
b)
j)
h)
B
d) Dirty, ungenerous
e) Group of women students in
a university in the US
Group of men students
In a low voice
Not good, not bad
Make a low sound like the wind
Feel or express grief
Utter unclearly
Speak
Of cooking
SCORES: All correct: Superior, Eight correct: Good,
Six correct: Average
Bornali Konwar
range as the
many popular
end
useroriented domain names with more familiar and
recognized domain names.
“As the authoritative registry for
.com and .net
domain names,
VeriSign has
a unique view
into the pulse
of the internet,”
says Jill Corso McNabb, vice president, Naming Services at VeriSign.
“DNS resolution truly comprises the backbone of what
makes the internet operate across the globe. DNS
becomes even more critical to the overall infrastructure of the internet not only as internet usage grows
but also as innovative products and services related to
the DNS proliferate.”
“WHAT do you mean by ‘the child is father of
violently angry and when you ‘get the boot’ you
are dismissed from your job!”
the man’?”
“Oh!”
“Well, it’s a proverb meaning that the nature or
character of a person is influenced by his or her
“Both of them are slang, which means you can
childhood experiences. This line is found in the
use them in very informal contexts only.”
poem ‘My Heart Leaps Up’ by William
“OK...”
“You see, one shouldn’t bottle up or suppress
Wordsworth.”
their anger, but violent reaction is not
“I see. You know, my brother is hypersensitive — he can become angry at
good.”
the drop of a hat. Since his
“Right.”
childhood he...”
“Well, what is your brother going
to do now?”
“OK, OK, so your brother would
“He says he will not join any job,
hit the ceiling at the slightest of
rma
a
h
S
pretext?”
but
will do some professional course
m
ti
Pro
“What ceiling?”
now.”
“Hit the ceiling. You can also say ‘hit the roof’.
“What course?”
“No idea. He is studying the options...”
Both the informal expressions mean ‘to suddenly
“Tell him to do one course. This will do him
become very angry’.”
“Yes... He is a very emotional person. The
good.”
other day he was very upset as he lost his job, and
“What is that?”
showed his anger by breaking everything in his
“A course on anger management!”
room.”
“Oh, he went bananas as he got the boot!”
Sudipta Das of Chabipool Bilpar, Guwahati
“Sorry? What banana and boot are you talking
has sent us this interesting message:
about?”
There is nothing impossible. Because
“Well, when you ‘go bananas’ you become
‘impossible’ itself says ‘I’m possible’!
Note: Readers can contribute anecdotes, funny quotations, puns or word play, and interesting bits of information
about the English language to MYE. Send contributions to: ‘Mind Your English’, Horizon, The Assam Tribune,
Chandmari, Guwahati-781003 or to: protimsharma@rediffmail.com. Contribute via SMS to: 9435055497.
tape
TALK
Devajit Chayengia
SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE, BY DEPECHE MODE, RS 395
HAVING witnessed chart-topping singles, multi-platinum records, band defections and
suicide attempts in the last nearly
three decades, the 1980s synthpop icons Depeche Mode, in a
show of strong resilience, now
come out with their 12th studio
release. In their latest offering,
the trio continues to exploit their
strong points – Martin Gore's
synth-heavy compositions and David Gahan's sultry vocals and unusual melodies. While they continue to stay
relevant by fusing classic synth-pop songcraft with productions that keep pace with advances in music technology, they also show signs of growing older, more mature, and more level-headed. Their growth in a saner
direction is amply reflected in the toned down nature of
the songs here. Tracks like In chains, Hole to feed,
Wrong, Fragile tension, Little soul, Peace, Jezebel, Miles
away, etc., show only past glimses of Depeche Mode,
not exactly glory. You folks may get into the Depeche
Mode for a hint of the 1980s stuff.
QUIET NIGHTS, BY DIANA KRALL, RS 395
SULTRY songstress and jazz pianist Diana Krall's 12th
album Quiet Nights is an intimate offering of ballads and
bossa novas from the same team that was behind the
Grammy Award-winning album
The Look of Love. The lush ensemble sound along with creaminess of Krall’s voice is meant to
caress the listeners’ emotions.
Krall here consciously stays true
to the bossa nova style coined by
Antonio Carlos Jobim by refraining from adding anything innovative or personal to it. As Krall breathes her way through
an entire album of songs about love and loss, the result
we get is sensuous & soothing stuff like – Where or when,
Too marvelous for words, I’ve grown accustomed to his
face, The boy from Ipanema, Walk on by, You’re my
thrill, Este seu olhar, Quiet nights, etc. Quiet Nights has
the potential to serve wonderfully as background music as
it never strays from its whispery, steamy territory. This is
music that helps to find yourself in the mood!
ROCK ON FOREVER!, COLLECTION, RS 199
THE catchline ‘the ultimate anthology of Indi Rock’
seems to say it all about this album. After remaining
under the shadows of their overwhelming western counterparts for a long time, the Indi
rock form has managed to carve
out a niche for themselves
among the GenNext listeners
of the subcontinent. Having
done that, there was no looking back for Indi rock. The following formidable double-CD
line-up aptly relates to the scene – I wanna rock - Karma
6; Aap ki dua - KK; Bandya - Khuda Kay Liye; Johnny
gaddar - Johnny Gaddar; Lamhay - Jal; Sham tanha Agnee; Kandisa - Indian Ocean; Dhaani - Strings; Alvida
- KK; Jana jogi de naal - Kailasa; Dooba dooba - Silk
Route; Bhula do - Raeth; Afterglow - INXS & Sona;
Akhiyaan - Fuzon; Zara sa - KK (Jannat); Eye of the tiger
- Survivor, etc. This one can bring cheers among the Indi
Courtesy: Planet M
rock fans!!