Chiranjeevi, the Megastar of Tollywood today, was born on 22nd August of 1955 in Mogalturu, a small village in ‘West Godavari’ District in Andhra Pradesh to Sri Venkat Rao and Anjana Devi. He grew up in his native village with his grand parents, while his family was elsewhere because of his father’s occupation. The sense of discipline and hard work which he still embraces were introduced at a very young age in his life and the tough childhood he had, being the eldest in his family, have helped him to handle many such events of higher proportion with great expertise in the later stages of his life.
Little did he imagine, even in the wildest of his dreams that he would, one day, be a Megastar and rule the Telugu Film Industry. Years later, this youngster, dearly called “Chiru” in the Film Industry, with his hard work and dedication to his profession could make it really big in the field hitting the limelight, with an unparallel fan following emulating his every act, word, dress and dance. What makes this ordinary human being such an extraordinary one - Hardwork and Dedication!Varaprasad’s education was nomadic accounting to his father Venkat Rao’s frequent transfers to Ongole, Bapatla, Chirala, Nellore etc, which didn’t really defer Vara Prasad as he gained a great friend circle wherever he was. Varaprasad is really fortunate for his father has constantly encouraged him after having discovered the undaunted liking of his son towards cultural activities.
Varaprasad did his schooling in Nidadavolu, Gurajala, Ponnuru, Mangalagiri and Mogalturu. He also won first prize for his first performance as Parandamayya Panthulu. After high school, Varaprasad joined Bi.P.C in P.R.Sharma Jr. College at Ongole. Following that he finished his B.Com from Narasapur college.After graduation, Varaprasad moved to Madras to seek a career in his chosen field of acting in the Film Industry.
To get himself ready for the camera, he joined in a film institute. This was in 1977.Varaprasad was offered the lead role in the film Punaadi Raallu, produced by Sheikh Abdul Khadir in the direction of Raj Kumar, which has laid the foundation stone to the acting career of Vara Prasad as Chiranjeevi. Even though Punadi Raalu was his first movie, it was Pranam Kareedhu that was his first release. Pranam kareedhu directed by K Vasu was released on September 22nd, 1978. The second movie to release was Manavuri Pandavulu from which Chiranjeevi started gaining recognition as hero among the spectators.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Unique ocean voyagers at sea in small boats
At least three small boats are plying the Pacific with environmental missions as you read this.
Two of them are single-handed efforts, the other having a two-person crew.Japan sailor Kenichi Horie, 69, is bobbing the Pacific between Hawai'i and Japan, a 4350-mile trip, aboard his boat Suntory Mermaid II. He left Honolulu March 16, 2008.The twin-hulled vehicle has a pair of aluminum fins under the bow that convert the power of waves into forward movement.
So his "engine" uses no fossil fuels.Meanwhile, long-distance rower Roz Savage left San Francisco May 24 and is nearly two weeks into an attempt to row her aluminum boat from the West Coast to Hawai'i.Her attempt last year was cut short when she was repeatedly rolled over in rough weather. This year her boat is outfitted with 200 pounds of lead in the keel to be more stable.
A few hundred miles south, another unique boat is waiting out the storm in at San Nicolas Island after departing Long Beach Sunday (June 1) before heading across the ocean to Hawai'i.
This is one of the stranger boats you'll see. It is made of trash. Its hulls are constructed of 15,000 plastic bottles encased in netting. Its cockpit is an old single-engine Cessna 310 airplane body.
The deck appears to be supported by a framework of old sailboat masts.The boat's name is Junk. The crew is Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal. They plan to sail downwind to Hawai'i behind a big square sail, which is used. Their goal is to bring more attention to the issue of ocean pollution and marine debris.They expect the voyage to take six weeks, which should put them in Hawai'i in mid-July.
Two of them are single-handed efforts, the other having a two-person crew.Japan sailor Kenichi Horie, 69, is bobbing the Pacific between Hawai'i and Japan, a 4350-mile trip, aboard his boat Suntory Mermaid II. He left Honolulu March 16, 2008.The twin-hulled vehicle has a pair of aluminum fins under the bow that convert the power of waves into forward movement.
So his "engine" uses no fossil fuels.Meanwhile, long-distance rower Roz Savage left San Francisco May 24 and is nearly two weeks into an attempt to row her aluminum boat from the West Coast to Hawai'i.Her attempt last year was cut short when she was repeatedly rolled over in rough weather. This year her boat is outfitted with 200 pounds of lead in the keel to be more stable.
A few hundred miles south, another unique boat is waiting out the storm in at San Nicolas Island after departing Long Beach Sunday (June 1) before heading across the ocean to Hawai'i.
This is one of the stranger boats you'll see. It is made of trash. Its hulls are constructed of 15,000 plastic bottles encased in netting. Its cockpit is an old single-engine Cessna 310 airplane body.
The deck appears to be supported by a framework of old sailboat masts.The boat's name is Junk. The crew is Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal. They plan to sail downwind to Hawai'i behind a big square sail, which is used. Their goal is to bring more attention to the issue of ocean pollution and marine debris.They expect the voyage to take six weeks, which should put them in Hawai'i in mid-July.
Global energy and global limits
We've come to an interesting zero-sum kind of place on the planet.That is to say, interesting, in the sense of the purported Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”Opportunities for extracting resources are no longer limitless, and the planet's various reserve capacities appear in many cases to be tapped out.Natural systems at one time presumably had a capacity for handling short term changes in inputs.
A pulse of carbon dioxide could be absorbed by plants and marine life, as an example. Today, the absorption seems at capacity, and a pure chemical relationship has taken over—as we dump more carbon dioxide in, increasing levels of carbon dioxide dwell in the atmosphere; oceans grow more acid.Humans don't have much opportunity for pioneering, for leaving civilization and going to never-inhabited places and tilling never-tilled soil.
Polynesian voyagers ran out of new islands a millenium ago. American pioneers ran into a western ocean within the last few centuries. Virtually all the habitable lands on the planet are inhabited. It means that in many cases, if you're gonna do something new, you've got to shove something old out of the way.The global food budget that suddenly seems limited. Where once we were assured that the American farmer had reserve capacity to feed the world.
Now, take some acreage out of food grains for fuel, and there are shortages, price hikes.Which leads to a thought about the carbon-neutrality of biofuels.In theory if you sequester carbon dioxide in a corn plant or oil palm, and then convert it into fuel, and then release the same carbon dioxide in burning the fuel—well then, it's a balance. As much carbon in as out. No net impact on the atmosphere.
A pulse of carbon dioxide could be absorbed by plants and marine life, as an example. Today, the absorption seems at capacity, and a pure chemical relationship has taken over—as we dump more carbon dioxide in, increasing levels of carbon dioxide dwell in the atmosphere; oceans grow more acid.Humans don't have much opportunity for pioneering, for leaving civilization and going to never-inhabited places and tilling never-tilled soil.
Polynesian voyagers ran out of new islands a millenium ago. American pioneers ran into a western ocean within the last few centuries. Virtually all the habitable lands on the planet are inhabited. It means that in many cases, if you're gonna do something new, you've got to shove something old out of the way.The global food budget that suddenly seems limited. Where once we were assured that the American farmer had reserve capacity to feed the world.
Now, take some acreage out of food grains for fuel, and there are shortages, price hikes.Which leads to a thought about the carbon-neutrality of biofuels.In theory if you sequester carbon dioxide in a corn plant or oil palm, and then convert it into fuel, and then release the same carbon dioxide in burning the fuel—well then, it's a balance. As much carbon in as out. No net impact on the atmosphere.
The lasagne forests of Hawai'i
The key value to forests is their ability, according to a new federal report, is to manage water, and the native lasagne forests of Hawai'i are a key example.That's lasagne in the sense of layered, not food, since much of the Hawaiian forest is not particularly edible.A new federal study is saying that water is perhaps the most product of a forest. The online journal Science Daily today (July 21) issued a report under the title “Greatest Value Of Forests Is Sustainable Water Supply.”
"Historically, forest managers have not focused much of their attention on water, and water managers have not focused on forests. But today's water problems demand that these groups work together closely," said Oregon State geosciencies professor Julia Jones, vice chair of a committee of the National Research Council, which released the report. She was quoted in Science Daily.
Hawai'i resarchers have figured this out, and water departments work alongside wildlife managers and conservation groups on watershed management teams across the state, to protect native forests.What's special about Hawaiian native forests as opposed to, for instance, woodlands of non-native species?One way to determine this is to walk through a woodland in Hawai'i.
The planted loblolly pine forests of Kōke'e on Kaua'i have very little other growth under them. Eucaluptus stands in Maui's Upcountry area prevent other species from coming up in their shade. Miconia forests on the Big Island are often nearly entirely miconia, with very little other vegetation able to survive.When a heavy rain pounds these woodlands, muddy water can flow from them, as the rain erodes the unprotected soil below.
"Historically, forest managers have not focused much of their attention on water, and water managers have not focused on forests. But today's water problems demand that these groups work together closely," said Oregon State geosciencies professor Julia Jones, vice chair of a committee of the National Research Council, which released the report. She was quoted in Science Daily.
Hawai'i resarchers have figured this out, and water departments work alongside wildlife managers and conservation groups on watershed management teams across the state, to protect native forests.What's special about Hawaiian native forests as opposed to, for instance, woodlands of non-native species?One way to determine this is to walk through a woodland in Hawai'i.
The planted loblolly pine forests of Kōke'e on Kaua'i have very little other growth under them. Eucaluptus stands in Maui's Upcountry area prevent other species from coming up in their shade. Miconia forests on the Big Island are often nearly entirely miconia, with very little other vegetation able to survive.When a heavy rain pounds these woodlands, muddy water can flow from them, as the rain erodes the unprotected soil below.
Polynesian chickens in Chile? New furor, but they still look Polynesian.
A towering scientific furor has arisen over...chickens. Specifically, whether Polynesian voyagers introduced chickens to South America before the first Europeans showed up...carrying their own chickens.We'll get into some detail later, but the short version is this:It still looks clear that voyaging canoes from the Polynesian culture of the Pacific carried chickens to the Americas well before Christopher Columbus, despite a great deal of rancorous comment and competing scientific papers in the esteemed journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists (PNAS).
Here's the longer version.In 2007, researchers led by Alice Storey of New Zealand published a paper on the dating and DNA analysis of chicken bones found at the El Arenal archaeological site in southern Chile.They found that 1) the bones dated to before Europeans first arrived in the Americas, and 2) the chickens were closely related genetically to early chickens found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in the Polynesian Pacific.
The inescapable conclusion was that the El Arenal chickens came from Polynesia, and since Polynesians, not South Americans, were a voyaging culture, that those chickens arrived on Polynesian voyaging canoes.Storey's paper was published in the PNAS in mid-2007. The same journal this week (July 28, 2008) published another chicken paper that challenges the Storey results.
It is: “Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA,” by Jaime Gongora, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Victor A. Mobegi, Han Jianlin, Jose A. Alcalde, Jose T. Matus, Olivier Hanotte, Chris Moran, Jeremy J. Austin, Sean Ulm, Atholl J. Anderson, Greger Larson, and Alan Cooper.In this one, Australian researcher Jaime Gongora argued that it might be premature to attribute those El Arenal chickens to a Polynesian voyager's introduction, in part because Gongora's team can't find Polynesian chicken DNA in modern South American chickens
Here's the longer version.In 2007, researchers led by Alice Storey of New Zealand published a paper on the dating and DNA analysis of chicken bones found at the El Arenal archaeological site in southern Chile.They found that 1) the bones dated to before Europeans first arrived in the Americas, and 2) the chickens were closely related genetically to early chickens found in Hawai'i and elsewhere in the Polynesian Pacific.
The inescapable conclusion was that the El Arenal chickens came from Polynesia, and since Polynesians, not South Americans, were a voyaging culture, that those chickens arrived on Polynesian voyaging canoes.Storey's paper was published in the PNAS in mid-2007. The same journal this week (July 28, 2008) published another chicken paper that challenges the Storey results.
It is: “Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA,” by Jaime Gongora, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Victor A. Mobegi, Han Jianlin, Jose A. Alcalde, Jose T. Matus, Olivier Hanotte, Chris Moran, Jeremy J. Austin, Sean Ulm, Atholl J. Anderson, Greger Larson, and Alan Cooper.In this one, Australian researcher Jaime Gongora argued that it might be premature to attribute those El Arenal chickens to a Polynesian voyager's introduction, in part because Gongora's team can't find Polynesian chicken DNA in modern South American chickens
Viewing distant islands--O'ahu from Kaua'i
I looked out across the ocean east of Kaua'i yesterday, and saw O'ahu.It sat there on the horizon, a dark hump in the distance, with a low shelf off to the right side. Not clear enough to pick out gullies from ridges, but clear enough to know it was real.This isn't unheard of. Kaua'i residents who live in Kalaheo and Wailua Homesteads report that on special days, they sometimes spot the island from their highland vantages.
And other folks say they'll spot it from time to time even from Lihu'e.But being able to see O'ahu from Kaua'i or vice-versa is rare.I've never seen a photo of one island taken from the other, and even on this day, it was still hazy enough that while my eye could pick the shape of the island out, my camera could not.O'ahu folks know how hazy Moloka'i can be in the distance, across the Kaiwi Channel.
Well, the Ka'ie'iewaho Channel more than twice as wide as the Kaiwi. Sixty miles from closest point to closest point. On a normal day, there's nothing at all sitting on the horizon.I'm assuming the island was visible because the air was unusually clear. There had been a couple of days of calm, which let the ocean spray settle down. And the trades had just returned, lightly, to push the vog away.
As the wind picked up on the ocean, the island grew more faint, and by midday it was gone again.I have sailed between the islands, and normally have been able to pick Kaua'i out on a voyage from O'ahu at a range of 40 miles to about mid-channel, depending on ocean conditions. For those cogitating on the issue, viewing these islands does not require any special bending of light.
And other folks say they'll spot it from time to time even from Lihu'e.But being able to see O'ahu from Kaua'i or vice-versa is rare.I've never seen a photo of one island taken from the other, and even on this day, it was still hazy enough that while my eye could pick the shape of the island out, my camera could not.O'ahu folks know how hazy Moloka'i can be in the distance, across the Kaiwi Channel.
Well, the Ka'ie'iewaho Channel more than twice as wide as the Kaiwi. Sixty miles from closest point to closest point. On a normal day, there's nothing at all sitting on the horizon.I'm assuming the island was visible because the air was unusually clear. There had been a couple of days of calm, which let the ocean spray settle down. And the trades had just returned, lightly, to push the vog away.
As the wind picked up on the ocean, the island grew more faint, and by midday it was gone again.I have sailed between the islands, and normally have been able to pick Kaua'i out on a voyage from O'ahu at a range of 40 miles to about mid-channel, depending on ocean conditions. For those cogitating on the issue, viewing these islands does not require any special bending of light.
Hawaiian lobelias--all from a single original immigrant
The Hawaiian archipelago is not renowned for its spectacular native flowers, but it has them, and some of the most breathtaking examples are in the lobelia family.From amazing spires of ivory blooms that rise from low rosettes of green to drooping delicate lavender showpieces that dangle from tree forms.Purples and pales are the lobelias' favorite colors, but the range is enormous.So, where does all this diversity come from in an island chain so isolated.
From a single introduction, 13 million years ago, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, “Origin, adaptive radiation and diversification of the Hawaiian lobeliads.”Its authors are Thomas Givnish, Kendra Millam, Thomas Paterson, Terra Theim, Jillian Henss and Kenneth Sytsma, all of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Austin Mast of Florida State University
Andrew Hipp of Illinois' Morton Arboretum, James Smith of Idaho's Snake River Plains Herbarium, and, in Hawai'i, Kenneth Wood of the National Tropical Botanical Garden.Their research updates earlier arguments that lobelias in Hawai'i must have come from multiple introductions.The lobelia's 126 species in six distinct genus groups, represent an eighth of all the native plant species in Hawai'i.
And, say the authors, “have long been viewed as one of the most spectacular examples of adaptive radiation in plants.”Perhaps the most spectacular.“The Hawaiian lobelias are the most species-rich radiation of plants derived from a single colonist to be resolved on any single oceanic island or archipelago,” the authors write.Looking into the genetic material in Hawaiian lobelias, the researchers concluded that the first one arrived long before any of the existing main Hawaiian Islands were even formed.
From a single introduction, 13 million years ago, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, “Origin, adaptive radiation and diversification of the Hawaiian lobeliads.”Its authors are Thomas Givnish, Kendra Millam, Thomas Paterson, Terra Theim, Jillian Henss and Kenneth Sytsma, all of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Austin Mast of Florida State University
Andrew Hipp of Illinois' Morton Arboretum, James Smith of Idaho's Snake River Plains Herbarium, and, in Hawai'i, Kenneth Wood of the National Tropical Botanical Garden.Their research updates earlier arguments that lobelias in Hawai'i must have come from multiple introductions.The lobelia's 126 species in six distinct genus groups, represent an eighth of all the native plant species in Hawai'i.
And, say the authors, “have long been viewed as one of the most spectacular examples of adaptive radiation in plants.”Perhaps the most spectacular.“The Hawaiian lobelias are the most species-rich radiation of plants derived from a single colonist to be resolved on any single oceanic island or archipelago,” the authors write.Looking into the genetic material in Hawaiian lobelias, the researchers concluded that the first one arrived long before any of the existing main Hawaiian Islands were even formed.
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