Try as we may to accentuate the positive, from time to time there seems to be a hot hand of unpleasantries reported in the news. Rather than hide our head in the sand, we thank Scientific American yet again:
As they used to say in New England: Continue reading
Thanks to Scientific American and its excellent blog posts, this video above is set up with some context. The video shows what will likely be the one chance most of us get to see of this animal. Continue reading
If your life has a certain soundtrack and you read American literary fiction, you may have already encountered the novels of Michael Chabon. Click the image above for a snapshot interview with him. When he announced at the beginning of this year that he was working on a new novel, it was seen by many in a blog post split over two days. A turn of phrase in the middle of the second post resonates with the small group of people who form Raxa Collective:
…thanks to Wax Poetics, one unexpected but maybe not unforeseeable result of the decision to have some characters own a shop together selling battered old things that are beautiful and valuable only to a small number of randomly assorted Geeko-Americans has been the joyful return to my life of hip-hop…
Things that are beautiful and valuable only to a small number: those are the things we are focused on here. See all of Salim’s recent posts for examples. Milo’s too. Chabon’s new novel may focus on the culture of hip-hop, which you will not likely encounter on our pages, but the underlying idea has both profound and light-hearted implications. Continue reading
A beautiful origin, thanks to OED for reminding us, of a word that has come into the possession of statisticians, demographers, political scientists and such:
1. A rounded bend or circuit of a stream.
c1630 T. Risdon Chorogr. Surv. Devon In the trend of Touridge,‥stands Meeth. Continue reading
One of our favorite phrases comes to mind upon seeing the news that Umberto Eco, whose book on experiential travel is as must-read as it is little-known, is curating an exhibition on lists at a museum. Long live the difference: the man of letters, whose academic work on semiotics even many scholars are challenged by, can write trash-free page-turners as well as travel books and, why not, curate a museum exhibition. Long live the difference: the museum that resists the trashy blockbusters can invite a man such as this to open his cabinet of curiosities. Continue reading
We have a soft spot for unusual geniuses, whether formally defined, or recognized in other ways, so it is with pleasure that we discovered this book (click the image to the left), its author, and a TED talk (after the jump) to boot.
For the past fifteen years, acclaimed science writer Margaret Wertheim has been collecting the works of “outsider physicists,” many without formal training and all convinced that they have found true alternative theories of the universe. Jim Carter, the Einstein of outsiders, has developed his own complete theory of matter and energy and gravity that he demonstrates with experiments in his backyard‚-with garbage cans and a disco fog machine he makes smoke rings to test his ideas about atoms. Captivated by the imaginative power of his theories and his resolutely DIY attitude, Wertheim has been following Carter’s progress for the past decade.
Click the picture to the right for a podcast that gives a nifty overview of the book. Click here for a review of the book from a great blog connected to Columbia University’s math department. Click here for an excellent review in a once great and occasionally still good newspaper’s website. And click here for a review from an always great magazine’s website.
Flame vine is an evergreen climbing shruby vine that blooms in winter and spring with spectacular reddish-orange flowers which is also called as Flaming trumpet.
These photos were taken by one of our guests at Gavi, the western section of Periyar Tiger Reserve
Black Leopard (panther pardus)
Western travelers to Kerala at first can be startled by the frequent use of this word, which has been replaced by the word indigenous in other parts of the world, but whose noun form has special mention in OED:
A member of a tribal community (usu. in pl.). Chiefly Indian English.
1958 New India: Progress through Democracy iii. vi. 378 Illiteracy is almost universal among tribal peoples.‥ Tribals are being trained as teachers.
1964 Economist 18 Apr. 261/1 More are arriving daily, among them Christian and Buddhist tribals.
1979 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) 28 Dec. 3/1 Teams of mountain tribals are to join the search for three Singapore Air Force Skyhawks which disappeared over the northern Philippines eight days ago.
The word has no “tone” to it, at least not perceptible to foreigners living in Kerala. Continue reading
Guest Author: Denzel Johnson
Ecuador today doesn’t seem to have industries that might make you think it could be a strong world contender, especially when it comes to foods. Little known to the outside world though, is the small village of Salinas de Guaranda which sits several hours south from the capital Quito. Salinas used to be one of Ecuador’s small mining villages but today represent a booming industry which began due to community run initiatives that are now templates for other parts of Ecuador.
My time in Salinas was unplanned, suggested by some professors at one of Quito’s top Universities, USFQ. Continue reading
In the world’s largest democracy, there are a diversity of ideologies that would make any other democracy blush in modesty. Today, on the streets of Cochin, you could have had a very small sense of that. Continue reading
Guest Author: Nicole Kravec
Photo: Milo Inman
The thought of academic expeditions, leeches and Asia brings a smile to my face. I just read a thought-provoking (and pun filled) article in The Economist about conservation in India with a froggy focus.
The article focuses on Mr. Sathyabhama Biju Das’ amphibian affinity and makes the overall point tha while growth damages the environment, it also nurtures a countervailing force: rising green consciousness. Continue reading
These youngsters are often to be found on a warm afternoon sitting in this exact spot, discussing something important in Malayalam; but ever polite, when a passerby of foreign appearance says hello, they break into English. Continue reading
In our neighborhood, 8am on a weekday implies children of all ages preparing for a walk or ride to school Continue reading
In the lovely monsoon season, one of our Contributors wrote about crossing the border from Kerala into Tamil Nadu. The writing took the man from mars perspective: a South Korean observing two distinctly different cultures and landscapes within southern India, writing with a sense of wonder and backed up by great photographs.
Lately things are different. Sung would not be able to make that same journey. The politics of water–actually the politics of politics superimposed on the politics of water, or vice versa–seem to be the problem. Another of our Contributors, writing seven weeks prior to Sung about the same cross-border excursion, hinted at the problem seen today, with martian prescience. Continue reading
We have made references to this word and its relatives on several occasions but as yet failed to formalize it. According to the OED it is defined as:
1. Unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others.
And, a bit of a surprise:
2.Animal Behavior. Of or pertaining to behavior by an animal that may be to its disadvantage but that benefits others of its kind, often its close relatives.
Organikos 