I’m sure most of us are ready to believe that the dog is man’s best friend. But did we know that they actually seem to understand us even better than our closest relatives (no, not those ones) the chimpanzee? Oh yes, they do. And we understand them right back.

Studies of the eye movements of dogs when they look at us show that they do so in exactly the same way as humans do with each other – they look slightly more at the left side of the face. They respond easily to our instructions, emotions and needs. When they recorded different barks and played them back to people, there was remarkable unanimity on what those barks meant; for example, give me the ball, who’s this stranger on the other side of the fence, untie me, etc. But how did dogs get to be so tuned in to human beings? Is it that they’re socialized wolves and foxes? In fact, would wolves behave the same if they’re kept as pets?

This BBC Horizon documentary takes a good long look at dogs and us. Not only is it really nice to watch because you see so many dogs but also because of the interesting facts and studies that would add to your understanding of these lovely companions.

The name of the film is of course all wrong, but I’ve become used to every second documentary from the top channels being secret this and secret that. If you get a chance to see this documentary – or should I say, dogumentary – catch it. Oh wait a minute, here it is on youtube.

As if it weren’t bad enough that an Air India flight caught fire not so long ago, and a bunch of the top pilots went on strike not so long after and a rat made itself at home on the Maharaja’s airline, now we have the crew involved in a game of fisticuffs in the aisle? Excuse me?

This illustrious timeline probably makes aviation history, for heaven’s sake. While I fully respect the beleaguered airline’s right to go ahead and dig its own grave, I do hope it doesn’t plan on taking its hapless passengers along with it.

Who cares what the crew was scuffling about. Who cares what interpersonal dramas were bubbling under the surface. Who gives a single hoot about the crew’s behavior and sense of decorum? All I can say is thank god the auto pilot held out. If one little thing had chosen to go wrong during those ten whole minutes, they’d have all made it to the next episode of Nat Geo’s Air Crash Investigation.

There are a dozen theories of what really ails Air India and who’s to blame, but what worries me is the sneaky thought that the shameful scuffle incident could just be the symptom of an overall malaise up in our not-so-safe skies. Why is it that the crew of Flight IC884 came to be so uninhibited in their expression of conflict? Are they overworked? Underfed? Under-trained? Or just plain unhappy? What prompted this ready air rage?

What I find even more alarming is how the fact that everyone has been drawn into the who-did-what first drama. Police complaints and cries for justice are all just detracting from the one question everyone should be asking: what would happen if an emergency were to happen along right then? An air accident is usually a whole chain of events, each problem spiraling into the other and a combination of factors finally resulting in disaster. Well, to me, the whole crew slugging it out while the aircraft flies itself definitely sounds like it could be one of the events in a lethal combination. If the auto pilot were to go off, like it did for another plane in long ago aviation history, the Maharaja’s chief guest, the rat, would have to do the job.

Thanks to Rania Bosonis for discovering and sharing this mad birdie.

Oh my god, that bird is not a one off. Thank you, Dina

And this is the ultimate. Having a wonderful time, shakin it to Britney Spears, singing along… oh my god

Irresistibly funny

And this dog is doing the best he can!

Another advanced tribal fusion video, this one looks like the next step on from Anasma’s 2-dicc set. I’m not likely to be able to do any of it – I haven’t even worked on any of the combos from the beginner tribal videos, for that matter. But I do like looking at them and when possible, working with the isolations.

Rubylooks beautiful as she dances, and she also looks like she knows what she’s talking about. I’m not a hundred percent sure I can manage a lot of floorwork, but I like the look of her approach and conditioning.

Thank you, Dina, for this alert. This looks quite fun!

Well, this intresting looking DVD is due for release soon. From the preview, it looks pretty much like it takes World Dance’s tribal fusion line several notches further into advanced territory. Moving on from isolation drills, which we’ve seen in all the previous DVDs so far, this one gets into styling and interesting techniques like contrasing fluid with percussive moves. And there’s a whole choreograhy here too! Yes, it’s definitely time for full-fledged choreographies.

One of the toughest things with exercising enough for it to make a difference is “routine-izing” it. So here’s a what one could try out. Assuming, of course, that you are a) clued in on what exercise to do and b) have the equipment you need and c) have the place to exercise in. I’m also assuming that will be at home.

I strongly recommend using one of many excellent exercise videos available spanning cardio, aerobics, dance, pilates, yoga, weights, fitness ball, kickboxing – and just about everything else, really.

First, just spend some time figuring out when and where you’ll exercise. And for how long. Now, each day when that time arrives, get your exercise stuff together and be in the place you plan to exercise in. Don’t plan on actually doing any exercise yet. This is so you don’t start out on an over-ambitious burst of exercise which is guaranteed to fail – and then feel horribly guilty about it all. Just get your stuff together and look at getting any obstacles to eventually exercising out of the way.

I have a dance room so the place part is quite decided for me. Time, often remains a troublesome parameter. Even though I have a place totally set aisde for ecercise, a few things do get in the way. One of them is the number of things I have to take there. Water, knee and ankle supports, phones, laptop, external hard disk, exercise clothes. It isn’t surprising to think about forgetting the whole thing and watching TV instead! So, I’ve started leaving some things in the dance room. Or, putting them there a good while before the exercise time. Basically, I try to separate the nuisance of carrying everything there from the exercise session itself.

The next step would be to get to the place on time and just watch the exercise DVD. Do nothing else. It helps tremendously to watch really carefully before you start the moves because when do finally do begin, you don’t have to keep stopping to check. If you’re not using a video, look at how the exercises are done on the internet or use a book.

Then, move up to doing a few moves. Don’t tire yourself out on any account. Just play with a few moves, practice the precision. Get them picture-perfect. If you have a mirror, check them out real carefully for form. Just a handful of exercises. Done slowly. Even if it’s cardio, focus on how the move travels doing it really slowly so that the form is perfect.Focus a lot on the foundation safety moves and breathing. For example, in Pilates that would be imprinting, holding the powerhouse in and the breathing format. For yoga, you might want to also practice breathing in the yoga method because every asana is empowered with the correct breathing sequence.

Now go on to learning the moves full time. Take your time doing this. Proceed segment by segment. Take one bunch of moves, and make sure you learn them well and actually do them for a round or two. So, if you have a 40 minute workout divided into 4 (as is usual), do just 10 minutes.

Add the next 10 minutes and the next, until you’re doing the whole workout. By this time, it won’t hurt and it won’t be a nuisance because you do the exercises in auto pilot.

I’ve often mentioned this brilliant, brilliant photographer (and writer), Sridhar Sankar. He works at the same company I do, but his heart and soul seems to be permanently in Ladakh. In fact, he shoots off there at the slightest opportunity and comes back (rather reluctantly) with stunning photographs, each of which looks like a painting. That’s the most common response I get when I show his photographs to someone: Is this a painting? Or, has this photograph been edited in some way?

The truth is these are untouched photographs of an untouched land. Only in recent years has humankind begun to pluck at it with its insistent and destructive tentacles. For now, the beauty of the land holds. And it’s almost unreal.

The amazing thing is that Hasselblad Masters, the most coveted photography award among creative and professional photographers, has announced the list of 2009 finalists. Among the top ten in the UP and COMING category is Sankar Sridhar!

For the first time this year, Hasselblad has opened the final judging to the public. So the final winner will be chosen as much by the panel of judges as by general visitors to the site. To view his entries, visit http://www.hasselblad.com/mastersPublicJury and vote for him. If he wins, he would be the first Indian photographer to do so!

Photographs like that need to be seen by the world – a world which needs to wake up and understand that this beautiful land needs to be protected.

I’m toying seriously with the idea of taking a holiday from dancing. Not to do nothing and not because I’m bored of it (that can’t happen) but because I want to focus on yoga and pilates for a while. If I try to do both, I end up spending so much of the time on the warm up and conditioning and a bit of dancing that there’s no time left to do the real killer pilates exercises. After many attempts to make various formats and set definite times to each part of the dance and exercise sessions – I give up. I’ll just take a week to ten days and learn the yoga and pilates exercises. Oh, and the fitness ball exercises too.

While I’ve done some yoga before, any of the poses you ignore become rusty. The only ones that are gradually improving are the ones that feature in the warm ups. The pigeon pose, for example. I’ve tried a tiny bit of pilates before too, but that’s really little and tends to get dropped because the learning curve (for the muscles, not the brain) is a steep one. Getting the basic right like not allowing the back to arch off the mat or breathing correctly is so important that it really needs special focus, not just a hurried ten minutes after a dance session. Ditto the fitness ball, which I have to learn to work with from scratch. It’sa killer too. If you don’t watch it, you could topple off it in any pose and hurt your back good and proper. So, that too needs careful focus and training.

I’m working with the theory that if I spend a good chunk of time on yoga, pilates and the ball, I’ll be able to later add it to my routines with not too much effort. If I’m not busy dying over any of those moves, I won’t have too much problem giving it 20 or 30 mins.

I’ve found a wealth of exercise routines online – so I’m probably good to go!  If I manage 30 mins of exercise-learning, I’ll reward myself with a dance session!

…it means something. But what? A good cat-owned person should know. But if you’re clueless, find out at the Infinite Cat Project site. Also read lots of other cat tales.