Education

Optimism and Opportunity

/ Meg Chatham / 2 Comments

Many of my posts reflect my outlook to err on the upside of life’s circumstances.  I try to drown out my inner (and often powerful) pessimism by surrounding myself with positivity and optimism.  I find that this is a careful balance of being hopeful while remaining realistic.  Today, when I was taking a break from my coursework, or the slightly negative part of my day, I watched an encouraging Ted Talk that I think demonstrates hopeful realism.

Johan Rockstrom suggests that the earth is at a point where major transformation must occur.  He optimistically recommends that we use and continue to use crises as opportunities and local initiatives to transform and sustain life.  Also, he makes a realistic statement that climate change is not our biggest problem only a symptom of our land use.

I found this talk engaging and thought-provoking.  I agree that I transformation is soon to happen and I look forward to being a part of it.

Golden Dewdrop (Duranta erecta)

/ Salim.E.I / 2 Comments

Golden Dew Drop is an ornamental plant which is a fast growing shrub that can easily reach 5-10ft tall. The clustered flowers are light blue or lavender in color grows and bloom almost all year long. The fruit are like golden balls that hang off the branches. Continue reading →

Universities Pushing Boundaries

/ Organikos / Leave a comment

The University of Minnesota has a website devoted to environmental issues, and we immediately enjoy its spirit and perspective.  Click the image to the left to go to one brief article in a series titled “What would it take?”, in this case featuring an interview with Solomon Prakash.  He is asked a series of questions around the specific theme “What would it take for social entrepreneurship to make inroads to poverty?”  His answers conclude with:

I think the next 10 years will be the decade of social entrepreneurs. I see lots of talented people who want to solve social problems making serious career changes. Some mainstream design firms have actually set up a whole branch around social innovation. Consulting companies are looking at hybrid models of social change. Increasingly, companies are saying it’s no longer possible to look at customers just as consumers. More and more people understand that social change is no longer a marginal activity. The opportunity is huge to solve problems and to come up with interesting commercial models that can be sustainable.

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Needing Mr. Miyagi

/ Meg Chatham / 2 Comments

Anyone who has ever been to ski slopes may have experienced small, pint-sized, infant skiers buzzing down the hills.  As a veteran skier of 18-years, I proudly proclaim that I was once one of these daring children.  However, I learned this past weekend that through the years I have lost this fearlessness when I was challenged to try snowboarding.  I would love to boast that my first run was very similar to this video, but the aching of my entire body keeps me truthful as if to say, “Ha!  You wish, Meg!”

Several times I met the side of the mountain and regardless of the many parts of my body that hit, the solid surface was resilient to my attacks; in fact, the bruises that continue to surface would argue that it fought back with increasing firmness.  The absence of soft, powdery snow brought my awareness to this season’s lack of typical winter weather, and it drew my attention to the resort’s snow-making cannons.  Continue reading →

Travel, Writing & Games

/ Organikos / 3 Comments

This series has always been worth reading, whether you are an American looking through the eyes of a fellow American, or otherwise intrigued by a niche of American perspective that is not quite representative of that culture as a whole.

First things first: sometimes a book, a music recording or other item is only available from the mainstream online retailers such as Amazon or iTunes, but whenever possible we promote the purchase from independent sellers.  So click the image to the right if you want a link to independent booksellers in the USA, provided by the ever-entrepreneurial American Booksellers Association.

Now, the side show: the series editor Jason Wilson is also a contributor to a site we refer to on occasion, and he wrote an interesting item a couple of years ago that began:

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Positively Happy

/ Meg Chatham / Leave a comment

My high school chemistry teacher always said, “Don’t be negative; be positive.  Multiply the love and divide the hate,” while she used her hands and fingers to represent each mathematical symbol.  This phrase would surface in my memory occasionally, but I must admit I rarely took it to heart.  However, I was preparing for a presentation about affirmations when I stumbled across a Ted Talk that affirmed this old saying.

I found this short speech relatable, funny, and surprisingly thought-provoking.

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Leading From Behind

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We avoid politics as a rule, and weapons even more so; but from time to time there are reasons for exceptions.  The photo above represents one such occasion.  Click it to go to the source, which captions the photo:

President Obama reacts as 14-year-old Joey Hudy of Phoenix launches a marshmallow from his “Extreme Marshmallow Cannon” during the White House Science Fair.

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Cinnamon (Cinamomum zeylanica)

/ Organikos / 2 Comments

Most of the people in India have enjoyed the sweet and pungent taste of Cinnamon. Also known as “Sweet Wood” in some countries, Cinnamon is one of the species native to the hills of Kerala and Sri Lanka.

Cinnamon Bark is widely used in cooking as a flavoring spice in both sweet and savory recipes. Cinnamon is main flavor in Indian dishes like Briyani, chicken curry etc. Continue reading →

While The Sun Shines

/ Organikos / 4 Comments

The festival has the kind of illustrious history that makes it interesting enough on its home turf in Wales; its more recent evolution is a sign of creativity in motion.  Take a look at this story from the most recent iteration of the festival in Kerala, and then after the jump see more on one of the festival’s participants in Colombia last week. Continue reading →

New Symphony Of Science

/ Organikos / 2 Comments

Although we are partial to the Carl Sagan & Cosmos origins of this series, John D Boswell’s latest gift may be his best yet.  Only a few minutes long each, the music-video-remix of scientific explanations is a novel approach to getting the hook in.  This one is about evolution.

Aesthetics are always a matter of taste, so the particular style of music, the fast-cutting images, the lighthearted transition from the speaking voice of a well-known scientist to a singsong dub-repeat-dub–all may have their detractors.  Continue reading →

Collective Memory

/ Amie Inman / 1 Comment

Woodpecker specimens, Ornithology Department, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology

When the oldest birding group in  the U.S. gets together woodpeckers and their historical significance among endangered bird species are often the order of the day.  The Nuttall Ornithology Club held one of their last meetings of 2011 at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, excitedly taking advantage of such a rich resource that includes specimens that have both ornithological and historical value.

The Nuttall club goes way beyond the garden variety birding group. Qualification for membership includes examples of ornithological scholarly publication, education, research and conservation efforts. Roger Tory Peterson, (of guidebook fame) is an example of the group’s “high bar”.

 

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“They Aren’t Teaching These Issues At Business Schools”

/ Organikos / 1 Comment

Guest Author: Robert Frisch

Tomorrow I begin a weeklong course that precedes my second semester at the Johnson School at Cornell University called the “Sustainability Boot Camp”.  As a result, I have spent the last few days reading up on what some of the world’s greatest thinkers have to say about sustainability, development, energy, and poverty.  I came across this eye opening and inspiring speech by economist Chandran Nair online, and I’d like to highlight two quotes from the video.

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REMOC: Behind the Seams

/ Megan Currie / Leave a comment

This one was actually made by Ana's daughter Meli - it must be a family tradition!

I don’t know what I was expecting when Ana Teresa invited me to take a look at her studio. On the one hand, I’d seen the quality of the products on the shelves in REMOC, and thus knew that the craftswomen were not amateurs; but I also knew that many of them didn’t have high incomes or hours to invest in their business – one of the challenges of the trade, for them, is that they are making a living while maintaining a home for their families and fulfilling their duties as a wife and mother. So, despite knowing that the work they produce is ‘serious’, I was still impressed when Ana ushered me through a door I’d thought led to a garage, and I found myself in a real, fully equipped artisan’s workshop. Continue reading →

Tanzania: an enlightening experience

/ Organikos / 1 Comment

Guest Author: Lindsay Wilner

I recently returned from working as a Volunteer Consultant for TechnoServe in Tanzania. Coming in with limited agricultural knowledge, I left with what feels like an additional Master’s degree…which is to say, I learned a ton during my 3.5 months there. It’s difficult to imagine that I could have gone through two years of development-oriented studies during my MA in International Relations and very rarely touched the topic of Agriculture. I was even an Energy, Resources, and Environment concentrator! Why is this so surprising? Well, if not for anything else but that the economy of many African nations is primarily agrarian based. In Tanzania, agriculture provides jobs for 80% of the population.

My role as a Volunteer Consultant was to conduct an Industry Strategic Plan for the mango and potato industries. Continue reading →

Water, Dams, Kerala & Tamil Nadu

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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 →

Thinking, Fast And Slow

/ Organikos / 5 Comments

Speaking of awesome intelligence it was intended to make a small point (pop culture is not as kind to intelligence as it is to glossy, gossipy stuff) and later highlight that intelligence itself.  While the accolades of scholars–those whose own work has been influenced by Kahneman–are interesting to read, so are those published by reviewers advising lay readers to read his most recent book.  For example, last month in FT:

There have been many good books on human rationality and irrationality, but only one masterpiece. That masterpiece is Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. Continue reading →

Popular Culture Celebrating Awesome Intelligence

/ Organikos / 4 Comments

Michael Lewis, a great journalist working for a glossy publication, popularized a smart baseball manager in a book and more recently a film adaptation of that book.  A great 2003 interview with him can be found in podcast form here.  Unique intelligence, it seems, is not as celebrated in popular culture as it should be (and is not, usually, in Vanity Fair or other glossy publications).  But credit where due: Lewis recently followed up his success with that book and film giving credit where he saw it due.  And celebrating an even grander unique intelligence in that very same glossy:

It didn’t take me long to figure out that, in a not so roundabout way, Kahneman and Tversky had made my baseball story possible. In a collaboration that lasted 15 years and involved an extraordinary number of strange and inventive experiments, they had demonstrated how essentially irrational human beings can be.

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The United Nations Meet Las Defensoras Populares

/ Megan Currie / Leave a comment

As a new face here at Raxa Collective, I thought I’d take a minute to introduce you to all to the organisation I’m volunteering for here in Costa Rica. It’s called MUSADE, which stands for Mujeres Unidas en Salud y Desarrollo, and its function is to provide support for women who have suffered intra-familiar violence. MUSADE has a lot of great programs going on, but today I’d like to talk to you about some exciting news for our Defensoras Populares.

This banner was made to commemorate MUSADE's 25th anniversary this coming Tuesday.

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