Photo credits: Shymon
In Kerala, sardines are always available fresh from the sea. Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, sardines are prepared in most households as a staple, especially as a fish curry. Sardine fish curry is one of the most popular dishes in Kerala, and it is not only very tasty, but very spicy too. Continue reading
One hundred and fifty years ago, on June 30th, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant Act, which passed through Congress and created the first protected wild land in the United States. The Yosemite Grant Act was the first step toward creating what is now the famous and highly popular national park, which eventually happened in 1906 under President Theodore Roosevelt. In the video below, you can see some nature and landscape photography and a couple videos I took during a recent visit to YNP.
Raxa Collective is fortunate to have classicist contributor, James, currently in the field with Seth in Costa Rica. Slacklining, occasional ichnologizing, and restoring a coffee plantation are (we think) the perfect prelude to a Ph.D. program in Classics. James will be in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the next few years, utilizing the Latin, Classical Greek and other languages he has already mastered, preparing to teach the next generation in the liberal arts. We never know, nor really need to know, where the liberal arts may take us. They are important for the sake of thinking and communicating effectively, in any walk of life, and we hope they remain alive and well in perpetuity for undergraduate university students.
We also hope that while he is in Costa Rica James has the chance to visit the home Seth grew up in, across the Central Valley from Xandari, where some of Raxa Collective’s contributors have had the opportunity to see the uniform of Seth’s great-great grandfather on display. More than a century old, and lovingly restored by a friend of Seth’s family who does museum restoration work, the uniform looks something like what Alexander the Great may have worn. After seeing it James may have more to say on this post by Joshua Rothman on the New Yorker website’s “New ideas from the arts and sciences” section:
Intellectual life thrives on mystery. When it comes to ancient Greece, one of those mysteries is the linothorax—the flimsy-looking, hip-length armor that you see warriors wearing on Greek vases. (Linothorax means, literally, “linen chest.”) Why go to war, archaeologists have wondered, in what looks to be a linen minidress? While a linothoraxlets you show off your muscular legs to great effect, it hardly seems like practical protection against the enemy’s swords and arrows. And yet, judging by how frequently linothoraxes are represented in Greek art, they were extraordinarily popular among soldiers in ancient Greece and around the Mediterranean between 600 and 200 B.C. Because no linothoraxes have survived—linen doesn’t last—no one knows why. Continue reading
Photo credits: Shymon
Kakkoor Kalavayal is one of Kerala’s famous festivals. The village, Kakkoor, is situated in Eranakulam district. Mud racing is a post-harvest festival celebrated by the farmers of Kakkoor and surrounding villages. A farmer controls his pair of bulls as they race through paddy fields. Continue reading
The roads and the things that inhabit them in India are evolving before our eyes. In good ways, we assure you. So, thanks to the New York Times for their commitment to India Ink and its excellent coverage of India and its changing circumstances:
“When the Ambassador car was born in 1957 to a newly independent India, it was the height of style and status,” Nida Najar wrote in The New York Times. ”It was standard issue to senior civil servants and government officials; its possession implied status, and its ubiquity was a sign of an earlier, seemingly simpler India.” Continue reading
I’ve posted before about flowers around Xandari. I thought I would continue to catalog the biodiversity of Xandari with another roundup of the incredible flowers Continue reading
Photo credits: Bobby Mathew
Munnar is one of the most popular hill stations in Kerala, nestled in the Western Ghats at an altitude of above 6000 ft. Its stunning expanses of tea plantations, mountains and valleys, and natural waterfalls play host to many exotic species of flora and fauna. Truly worth the visit! Continue reading
Assorted lionfish jewelry from Palovi Baezar, Punta Gorda, Belize
In Part 1 of this post I wrote about my recent visit to Belize to help with further development of the nascent market for lionfish jewelry; one of several market-based approaches to addressing the threat to Southwest Atlantic marine ecosystems posed by the invasion of this non-native species. I noted that the market is most advanced in the area around Punta Gorda, in Southern Belize, in large measure due to the support provided by ReefCI which has provided training on jewelry making to a group of local women and is supplying them with lionfish spines, fins, and tails as well as marketing assistance.
Lionfish spines, fins, and tails ready for jewelry
While ReefCI’s involvement has been instrumental in getting things started, further development and expansion of the market will require engagement with artisans and women’s groups in other parts of the country, particularly areas closer to major tourist markets. Interventions are also needed to develop a reliable and sustainable supply chain for lionfish jewelry production and sales. I was pleased to hear from one of the jewelry makers in Punta Gorda that a local fisherman had approached her about selling lionfish tails. This was music to my ears, as one of the motivations behind the lionfish jewelry idea has been to up return to fishers in order to create added commercial incentive for them to hunt lionfish (the fish cannot be caught using conventional fishing methods such as hook and line or nets, but must instead be speared or hand-netted by diving). Continue reading
Photograph by Antonio Zambardino/Contrasto/Redux.
Who knew? Diamonds, forever and ever the best friend of half of us, can be otherworldly:
The biggest diamond ever found on Earth, known as the Cullinan diamond, weighed three thousand one hundred and six carats before it was cut, or about one and three-tenths pounds. The biggest diamond ever found in the universe, whose discovery was announced this week, has no name, will never be cut, and weighs approximately a million trillion trillion pounds. This makes it as massive as the sun, and no wonder: it’s the corpse of a star that once looked very much like the sun, lying nine hundred or so light-years from Earth. Continue reading
A slackline at Xandari (photo credit: S. E. Inman)
2014 marks the 150th anniversary of the land grant that yielded Yosemite National Park (Seth will be talking more about this in a post on the topic). But why should this matter for a post on slacklining? Well, as it turns out, Yosemite was one of the early hotbeds for the development of this increasingly popular outdoor activity. In celebrating Yosemite’s anniversary, we can also take a moment to appreciate Continue reading
Photo credits: Jithin Vijay
Face painting is one of the most important parts of Theyyam, an ancient form of worship in certain parts of Kerala. Theyyam dance make-up should be made from as many natural materials as possible. Coconut leaves are used as brushes, and the make-up artist should have perfect knowledge of how to combine colours. Continue reading
Mysore, Karnataka
Photo credits: Shymon
Kottiyoor is an ancient Hindu pilgrim center, situated in the Kannur district of Kerala. This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and the Goddess Parvathi, and is located deep in the forest. Kottiyoor is a unique festival celebrated for 28 days, and it falls during the months of May and June. Continue reading
A ladybug relative nymph in the foreground and a mature individual in the background. The tiny thing next to the nymph might be a larvae.
Yesterday, as James and I were on one of our birding walks around Xandari, we ran into José Luis, who had a couple new things to show us about the gardens and orchard that he runs. At first, it looked like a ragged young tree, its leaves half-devoured and its trunk stained black. But we quickly learned Continue reading
Thevara Junction, Ernakulam
A great morning view of the Central Valley and opposing mountain range from the coffee field
The current batch of Xandari’s mountainside Bourbon coffee is all planted, and James and I have a slideshow of photos we sporadically took to celebrate it! Continue reading
Organikos 