Author: Organikos

You Probably Will Not Believe It

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The Atlantic‘s website for mobile devices has run an article with the graphic above under this headline:

Why Does Canada Have a Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve?

Yes, difficult to believe. So click the image above to get the full story:

On Friday, news broke that thieves had stolen $30 million dollars worth of Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserves. Much as the United States keeps a stock of extra oil buried in underground salt caverns to use in case of a geopolitical emergency, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers has been managing warehouses full of surplus sweetener since 2000. The crooks seem to have made off with more than a quarter of the province’s backup supply. (I personally suspect these guys.)

Yasuni Model Of Conservation

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Click the headline to go to the story:

In their first hour in Yasuni’s Amazonian forest, many people will see more creatures than they have seen in their entire lives, including some that have yet to be documented by science. To paddle up the Ayango creek that leads from the traffic and pollution of the Napo river into the most biodiverse region on Earth is to encounter a wall of noise, frequent bursts of colour and unimaginable combinations of life.

A tiger heron flaps lazily past our canoe, electric blue Morpho butterflies jolt the eye, spiders the size of an adult’s hand sit on branches, and kingfishers flash past. On a mud bank, a lizard suns itself, while high up in the tree canopy, we catch glimpses of flying monkeys and grunting Hoatzin “stinky turkeys” – prehistoric survivors with claws that grow into wings…

A Flux Of Thought From Sri Lanka

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Whenever we check in on The Smart Set we find something interesting, and today it was an essay by Stefany Anne Golberg — an artist, writer, musician, and “professional dilettante” who is also a founding member of the arts collective Flux Factory.  Click the image above to go to Flux Factory, but be sure to read her interesting take on a recent New York Times article about monkeys in Delhi:

It wasn’t so long ago that monkeys and people cohabitated in Delhi like monkeys and squirrels or people and people. They competed for space and food. They shared the same sky. Their lives were fundamentally commingled. This commingling is still common in less developed countries, such as Sri Lanka, where I am presently living.

Activist Art Collective

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Click the image above for more information on the group’s current activities, but their founding mission and recent past actions seem promising:

…We aim to free art from the grips of the oil industry primarily focusing on Tate, the UK’s leading art museum, and its sponsorship deal with BP. Continue reading →

Eine Kleine Teslacoilmusik

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Thanks to the Boston Museum of Science’s Theater of Electricity for this application of Tesla genius.  We should not be surprised if, by now it may have been patented and commercialized elsewhere by some outpost of the Edisonian tradition. So what. The Tesla tribe moves in mysterious ways, and eventually prevails.

Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd & The Rogue’s Gallery Of Nations After Him

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A woman with a Sea Shepherd tattoo, the organisation of marine conservationist Paul Watson (not pictured). Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

Quite a few of us contributing to this site have called Costa Rica home at one point or another and it is probably fair to say all of us admire and respect that country’s pioneering role in modern conservation schemes.  For some of us, it was literally the country that inspired us to do what we do.  But no country is perfect, and at least in one current affair Costa Rica seems to be playing the stooge.  Shame on Germany and especially Japan for their leading roles in this farce. Costa Rica’s official abandonment of its core values should not be winked at, even by those of us who otherwise love the country and its people.  Paul Watson deserves our attention and support (click the image above for his editorial in today’s Guardian, which has played its fourth estate role well in this affair):

I must serve my clients, the whales

I can do that far better commanding the Sea Shepherd fleet than I can defending myself from bogus charges by Japan

Largest Marine Park

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Click the image above to go to the story:

Two of the world’s smallest countries are to place nearly 2.5 million square kilometres of south Pacific Ocean in newly created marine protected areas.

The Cook Islands, nation of 20,000 people on 15 islands, formally announced on Tuesday the creation of the world’s largest marine park covering nearly 1.1m sq km, an area bigger than France and Germany.

“This is our contribution not only to our own wellbeing but also to humanity’s wellbeing,” said the prime minister, Henry Puna.

Ideas Shopping

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It is a snappy idea: selling ideas in the market place.  If they are worth something, how will we know?  They will be sold out (hopefully in a good way).

Bibliotherapy?   Never heard of it until now.  Snappy, again.

We do not normally pass along commercial messages, but on occasion we make an exception, as we do now; here is what the School of Life says about itself:

The School of Life is a new enterprise offering good ideas for everyday life. We are based in a small shop in Central London where we offer a variety of programmes and services concerned with how to live wisely and well.  Continue reading →

Field Guides?

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Click the image at left to go to the source.

We have a strong connection on this site to the world of birds, birding, birders and the guides who intersect on each of those.  Salim took the lead in helping us decide to put more attention on birds.  We were convinced it was a good idea with the following Vijaykumar established among serious birders visiting this site.

Our efforts picked up steam when Martin joined in the fun and Seth started reporting from Ecuador; after Ben saw his thousandth bird while in Kerala we were hooked.

Now that we are, we seem to notice more and more interesting resources related to the world of birding.  Interpretive guiding has been important to several of us for our entire adult careers and this article tells a great story about the books that help one subset of all that field guiding.

Onam The Festival Of Kerala

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The most spectacular event of all Kerala festivals, Onam epitomises a new found vigour and enthusiasm about everything. The festival celebrates the return of King Mahabali, who is said to visit his subjects each year. To convince their beloved King that Kerala continues to be prosperous land of milk and honey people decorate their homes and celebrate to the fullest sometimes even faking prosperity to present a happy and flourishing facade to their King. Continue reading →

Infrared Elephants

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Click the image above for the story called “Forest Elephant Chronicles” in this month’s American Scientist, about new technology for understanding elephant behavior in the wild:

…What inspired your team to try thermal imaging?

Acoustic monitoring has allowed us to study elephant behavior, without bias, over 24-hour cycles. Their activity cycle is nearly equally distributed day and night, but they prefer to enter forest clearings at night. This is where we can observe the elephants directly. We suspect that different types of interactions occur at night because the types of calls differ then. But we have only the beginnings of an understanding of what the acoustic signals mean. We need to investigate this with visual observation. Also, important behaviors may not have identifying sounds associated with them, and we need to know what these are….

Continue reading →

Support Plan Bee

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Click the image above to see more about Plan Bee and their tools for connecting bee-keepers in urban and rural areas around the world (strongest in their home base, the UK but awaiting your participation elsewhere):

Our Plan Bee campaign aims to address the decline in pollinators such as bees, butterflies and moths.

Continue reading →

Welcome Back, Gorky Park

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So glad to have the green space, named for one of Russia’s greatest writers, back to its beautiful self.  Click the image for the story:

“Many people make money in Moscow, and many people spend money here, but there are very few people who smile at one another,” said Sergey Kapkov, who was promoted to head the city’s culture department after overseeing the renovation of Gorky Park.

Overseeing the renovation of parks across the city has been his most visible achievement, an initiative launched by Sergei Sobyanin, who was appointed mayor in 2010.

Purposive Fun

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He is probably already famous in geek world, but Matthew Inman (if you click through to his profile, scroll half way down the page to the Quizzes, Widgets, & Gadgets links on thoughtful subjects) just came to our attention because of our interest in underdogs, in creative communication, and in humor.  Matthew is, in this regard, a trifecta.  After reading the Tesla “comic” (all the way to the end, you should) click back out to the main site where he says he puts most of his time and energy these days. Brighten your day with a good laugh.

Questions About Conservation At 100

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First, congratulations are in order for the birthday of such conservation efforts in Britain.  And thanks to The Guardian for the provocative question and discussion that follows:

This pristine four-mile spit of shingle and sand in Norfolk is, of course, far older, but its purchase by the National Trust 100 years ago marked the beginning of a radical movement in Britain: instead of protecting specific species, the new environmentalists recognised that entire “reserves” must be created to save our wildlife. As the country’s first coastal nature reserve, Blakeney was also the British birthplace of the science of ecology, the urge to understand how species relate to each other.

Burmese Python Invasion

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Click to the left to go to the 38 seconds of video on a topic we first posted about here.  It has a bit of ick factor, but the topic is of enormous consequence for the original ecosystems where these wild animals come from, not to mention the innocent creatures they encroach on in their new habitats.

If You Happen To Be In Washington, DC

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There was a remarkable new museum connected to books that we posted about not long back.  Now, an exhibition in one of the world’s great libraries answering the question (so to speak): do books matter?  You still have more than one month to catch it in person (but if you cannot catch it in person take half an hour with this podcast about the exhibition).  Click the banner above to go to the exhibit’s website, which notes:

Books That Shaped America

June 25–September 29, 2012

Books That Shaped America marks a starting point—a way to spark a national conversation on books and their importance in Americans’ lives, and, indeed, in shaping our nation. The titles featured here (by American authors) have had a profound effect on American life, but they are by no means the only ones.

Read more about Books That Shaped America »