If You Happen To Be In New York City

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Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 9.36.32 AMClick the image at left to learn more about two performances which, if you happen to be in New York City or close by this weekend, you might enjoy if you are a danceophile, Indophile, or both. Thanks to New York University for hosting a sample of our home country culture:

Following unforgettable performances by Shantala Shivalingappa and Rama Vaidyanathan in 2011, and Nrityagram Surupa Sen & Bijayini Satpathy in 2013, Dancing the Gods weekend festival highlighting classical Indian dance returns in 2014 with more striking artists.

“…both briskly exciting and exacting, [Dandekar’s turns are] a wonder…” THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Small Ukrainian Museum’s Outsized Support Keeps Tradition Alive And Well

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pysanky-easter

 

This qualifies as an unexpected form of entrepreneurial conservation, except among a few with insider knowledge. Several Raxa Collective contributors are amateur pysankyists, some bordering on master level, so this post is a tribute not only to a great museum which these contributors know well, but to the many non-Ukrainians who are inspired by this tradition enough to keep a Ukrainian art form alive and well:

Vegans, avert your eyes while the rest of us consider the egg. We’ve finally reached its season, at least as far as symbolism goes: spring, birth, something that the Theosophical Society calls “the origin and secret of being”—and that’s just the beginner-level stuff. What the grain of sand was to William Blake, the egg has been to just about everyone else. Brahma emerged from an egg, and so did the Tahitian god Ta’aroa and Pangu, the Chinese creator. The ancient Greeks practiced oomancy, divination by boiled egg white. Continue reading →

Backwaters Of Kerala

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Photo credits : Shymon

Photo credits: Shymon

The backwaters of Kerala offer a perfect blend of scenic attractions and tranquility. Houseboat tourism is the most popular activity in Alapuzha’s extensive  network of canals and lagoons. The area is famous for its unique practice of paddy farming below sea level. Continue reading →

Welcome Back, Dot Earth

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An illustration from a children’s book published in 1888.

An illustration from a children’s book published in 1888.

Out of nowhere, a few days back, Andrew Revkin and Dot Earth came back from who knows where. In our first year or two they were among our most consistent sources of excellent reportage on environmental issues. Then, nothing. Now, something, sneaking into view within the Opinion pages of the New York Times (really, we need their old excellent reporting more than we need opinion, but…):

dotearth_postENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

No Time to Waste: Students Pursue Environmental Progress Instead of Exam Grades

By ANDREW C. REVKIN APRIL 22, 2014, 12:13 PM

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Old Fashioned Cinema

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Cinema Machine in the days

Old-fashioned Film Projector

Not many youngsters will recognize this machine but in the olden days it was the only source of entertainment for people other than the dramatic theatrical dances of Kerala. This huge, elaborate machine is the predecessor of the portable devices we now can plug into a laptop to entertain ourselves at our convenience. Years ago this beast of a machine was installed in movie theaters also called a cinema. Continue reading →

Brown University Keeps Giving

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Ackerman-290We have a tradition of honoring Brown University from time to time because of the many gifts to the world that come from that place. The letter to the Editor (the New Yorker‘s) below is one of those. Why? Mainly, just because. It is about the quality of writing, in this case. If you read it and do not feel it is worthy, no problem. Tempting to think one must have read the original piece to appreciate the letter in full, but not really. Professor Ackerman has simply written the perfect pithy paragraph:

Re “All the Letters That Are Fit to Print,” April 10th online: Of course, I am delighted with Andrew Marantz’s piece about me. But I have three small bones to pick. First, he quotes me as saying, “I then decided that I would probably live longer if I was less fat.” He also says I speak “hypergrammatically.” So I certainly hope I said, “if I were less fat.” Continue reading →

A Minor Detraction From Aging’s Major Detractors

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old-tree

Thanks to Roberta Kwok for her ever-concise summaries of remarkable scientific findings on Conservation‘s website, this one following the theme of a companion post with regard to aging organisms:

SCORE ONE FOR THE REALLY OLD GUYS

Aging is generally associated with slowing down. But scientists have found that trees actually grow faster as they get older, making them star players in a forest’s carbon storage. In fact, one old tree can fix as much carbon in a year as the total amount of carbon in a “middle-aged” tree. Continue reading →

Collaboration On Oldest Living Things

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Thanks to Jonathan Minard for the short film above presenting Rachel Sussman , Carl Zimmer and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and the book that they collaborated on:

Since 2004 artist Rachel Sussman has been researching, working with biologists, and traveling all over the world to photograph continuously living organisms 2,000 years old and older. The work spans disciplines, continents, and millennia: it’s part art and part science, has an innate environmentalism, and is driven by existential inquiry. She begins at ‘year zero,’ and looks back from there, photographing the past in the present. Together, her portraits capture the living history of our planet – and what we stand to lose in the future.

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Taste Of Xandari At 51

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10155003_752610181446587_5118148078119598173_nRecently we passed a quarter million views on this site. We have no clue whether that is wow-alot or woeful-low; what metrics indicate how well we address the interests of both contributors and readers other than by comparing the performance of individual posts versus other posts? Carbon Emissions Series: Vacationers’ Diets, approaching 10,000 views and our most popular post, tells us alot about what our readers care about.

In short, they seem to love reading about good food that is also good for the environment and is healthy. This tells us why readers have also responded well to our posts about Xandari. To get a sense of the love, you can read a bit; to feel it, there is no choice. You must visit the resort. In case that is not in the cards in the near future, how about a taste?

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 4.07.00 PMIn Kerala, visit the Mattanchery neighborhood of Fort Cochin and stop in at 51 to sample one of the best-loved salads at Xandari. Since both Kerala and Costa Rica are situated within the tenth parallel north, chefs in both locations have many of the same farm-fresh ingredients to work with.

Flavours Of Kerala – Mambazha Pulissery

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Photo credits : Jithin

Photo credits: Jithin

Mambazha Pulissery is a classic Kerala sweet and sour ripe mango curry. Traditionally it’s made using ripe, small mangos cooked in their own juice. The main ingredients are small mango fruit, turmeric powder, red chili, grated coconut, green chili, cumin seeds, coconut oil and curd. Continue reading →

Jackfruit, Kerala’s Mega Food

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Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) growing in Kerala, India. Photograph: Olaf Krüger/Corbis

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) growing in Kerala, India. Photograph: Olaf Krüger/Corbis

Based in the epicenter of jackfruit habitat, we did not need to know this news (thanks, Hindu) to enjoy this season when these giants come down from the trees, but it sweetens the taste just a bit to know how much more important they may become:

It’s big and bumpy with a gooey interior and a powerful smell of decay – but it could help keep millions of people from hunger.

Researchers say jackfruit – a large ungainly fruit grown across south and south-east Asia – could be a replacement for wheat, corn and other staple crops under threat from climate change. Continue reading →

Humayun’s Tomb – Delhi

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Photo credit : P Salim

Photo credit: P Salim

Humayun’s Tomb was built over a 7 year period starting in 1565 AD by Haji Begum, the widow of Humayun, the 2nd Mugal Emperor. Located in the Indian state of Delhi, the Tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 and was beautifully restored by Aga Kahn Trust for Culture in collaboration with the Archeological Survey of India. Continue reading →

Congratulations, Xandari, On Five Years Of The Highest Praise–It’s Called Love

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___08LOGO-R&SSeveral La Paz Group team members and early contributors have been loving Xandari for most of the two decades since it began operations. Great expectations are not new to us.

XCNT

Others within our community are just getting familiarized. Click the image above and other links here to feel the love. We do not shy away from your having great expectations too.

The Platinum Circle

These Gold List superstars—including hotels, resorts, and cruise lines—have made the list every year for the past five years running. Click here to view the 2014 Platinum Circle.


 

 

Flash Folio Exhibition at Cornell–Happy Birthday Will!

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shakespeare

I spent my university years lugging around the weighty Riverside Shakespeare, the volume that has held the status of “definitive Shakespeare” text in academic circles since its first publication 30 years ago. Having never minded the moniker Shakespeare nerd–I could not help the stab of jealousy at missing the opportunity to experience Cornell’s flash exhibition of 4 rare folios in honour of the Bard’s 450 birthday.

For one day only, the Library is putting all four folio editions of William Shakespeare’s plays — the earliest published collections of his work, all printed in the 17th century and now among the most important books in all of world literature — on display to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birth.
All the world may be a stage, but Cornell is fortunate to be one of the few places in the world that can put all four folios on display for its community of readers and researchers.

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A Story About The Wind And The Cloud

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MidAmerican Energy's wind farm in Adair, Iowa. Facebook is working with MidAmerican to build a similar wind farm near Wellsburg, Iowa, where it will help power Facebook's planned data center. Courtesy of MidAmerican Energy

MidAmerican Energy’s wind farm in Adair, Iowa. Facebook is working with MidAmerican to build a similar wind farm near Wellsburg, Iowa, where it will help power Facebook’s planned data center. Courtesy of MidAmerican Energy

Thanks to National Public Radio (USA) for this story about sourcing power for the special needs of modern technology:

You hear the term “the cloud” or “cloud computing,” and you picture something puffy, white, clean and quiet. Cloud computing is anything but.

Even from a distance you can hear the hum of a modern data center. Last week, I visited one of the largest in Santa Clara, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s called SC1, is owned by DuPont Fabros Technology and is about a quarter-mile long.

“It’s about the same size and length as a Nimitz aircraft carrier,” says Paul Hopkins, a regional vice president for the company, shortly after buzzing me through the door.

The entrance is guarded, and employees need fingerprint scans to get in and out. Hopkins has agreed to show me around. Continue reading →

Old Spice Market in Mattanchery, Fort Kochi, Kerala

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Bazar Road

Bazar Road, Mattanchery

The Spice market in Mattanchery has retained its status as an important center of spice trade in India. The exotic fragrance of the finest ginger, cloves, cardamom, turmeric and pepper, also known as black gold, emanate from the spice warehouses lining both sides of the street that our new property, Spice Harbour, calls home. Continue reading →