How To Get To And From Kerala
As FAQs go, the one we answer most often at Raxa Collective is: what is the best way for me to get to Kerala? As answers go, we could not do better than refer you directly to the video above and for that we give thanks to our colleagues at Kerala Tourism. Try not to smile every time the narrator says the name of the capital city…
Kamal Mahal – Hampi, Karnataka
Photo credit: Ramesh Kidangoor
Hampi is a World Heritage Site village located on the southern bank of the river Tungabhadra in Karnataka. Kamal Mahal is one of Hampi’s secular or non-religious structures Its unusual design blends elements of Muslim and Hindu architecture. The building’s function is not exactly known but the quarters are believed to have been used by Hampi’s female guards.
Speaking Of Science Journalism
“This is our artificial sun,” Joel Ager said, as he gestured with mock grandeur toward a metal box about the size of an old computer tower. A glowing lens, which looked like it was transplanted from a projector, shined out of a hole in its side. It was aimed at a beaker filled with water sitting a few inches away. Ager’s colleague produced a metallic toothpick-sized stick, alligator-clipped it to electrodes, and dunked it. Under the light, the submerged stick became a luminous red.
And this is Annalee Newitz, Andrew Revkin said, as he got on with down-to-earth reporting at his Dot Earth blog. She writes clearly. She looks funny (as in, she has a sense of humor, which is equally clear from her writing). This is Annalee Newitz in her own words.
And this is Annalee Newitz, in her own words, on the topic of the end of the world as we know it (click the image above, or here, to go to the full version of her recent post on the New Yorker website) in her new book:
This speculative and hopeful work of popular science focuses our attention on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet of extinction—and suggests practical ways to keep doing it. From bacteria labs in St. Louis to ancient underground cities in central Turkey, we discover the keys to long-term survival. This book leads us away from apocalyptic thinking, into a future where we live to build a better world.
Science reporting is an art as much as it is anything else. Facts are an essential ingredient (along with humor and others) in our daily doses of information-sharing.
Science Journalism And The Dynamics Of Democratizing Commentary
Wellcome Images
Lovely, thoughtful, radical stuff happening over at this old school publication as it navigates the new world of social media (click the image above to go to the source):
Comments can be bad for science. That’s why, here at PopularScience.com, we’re shutting them off.
It wasn’t a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter. Continue reading
Zombie Ants
African ant (Pachycondyla sp) attacked by an insect eating Fungus (Cordyceps sp) Guinea, West Africa. Photo © PIOTR NASKRECKI/ MINDEN PICTURES/National Geographic Creative
A few years ago I wrote about a curious and very specific relationship between some beetles and their wood-eating fungus symbiotic partner, and we’ve also shared other work on crazy parasitic creatures that can alter their hosts’ behavior, sometimes pretty radically (warning, creepy video). Believe it or not, the photo above isn’t some weirdly-antlered African ant–well, actually it is, but the antlers aren’t part of the ant’s body, they’re the spore-spreading apparatus of a parasitic fungus. Read on for more about the real-life World War Z that has been going on between ants (as well as other insects) and a family of zombifying fungi for millennia.
Earlier this week I went to a lecture hosted by Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior titled “Zombie Ants: the precise manipulation of animal behavior by a fungal parasite.” The lecturer was David Hughes, Professor of Entomology at Penn State University, whose faculty webpage provides PDF links to most of the articles that he has contributed to if you’re interested in checking out the actual journal pieces on this topic. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Ruddy Ground-Dove (Gamboa, Panama)
World Tourism Day 2013
Photo credit: Ranjith
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) invites people world wide to participate in World Tourism Day on September 27 every year. Kerala enjoys unique geographical features that have made it one of the most sought after tourist destinations in Asia. Continue reading
Little Wonder
Thanks to the Science section folks at the New York Times, who have added to an already excellent Tuesday paper section with lots of excellent online resources such as this (click the image to the left to go to the video):
SCIENCE
ScienceTake: A Frog’s Secret to Sticking
Nature is full of animals with amazing abilities that scientists are trying to understand, and the torrent frog is one of them. True to its name, it lives stuck to waterfalls.
Bird of the Day: Sunbird
Thekkady, Kerala
Resurgence Research
European bison (Bison bonasus) Bialowieza forest, Poland, Poland
I am just now downloading the study (link is below), so have not read it in detail yet; but it looks promising:
Wildlife Comeback in Europe study released
The Eurasian beaver, European bison and White-tailed eagle have all been highlighted as species that have made a remarkable comeback in Europe over the past 50 years, according to a first ever in-depth report released today (26 September).
Scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) worked with experts from across Europe to gather relevant data about the distribution and abundance of selected species. The resulting report, ‘Wildlife Comeback in Europe’, describes how, why and where 37 mammal and bird species have recovered over the past 50 years, providing important lessons for the conservation of these and other species.
Professor Jonathan Baillie, ZSL’s Director of Conservation says: “It is essential that we both celebrate and learn from major successes in conservation. This study helps us understand the interventions and conditions necessary for a broad range of species to experience similar recoveries.” Continue reading
Chimmini Lake – Thrissur
Photo credit: Ion Appan
Located near Thrissur, Chimmini is only a two hours drive from Cochin. The huge lake is surrounded by Chimmini Wild life Sanctuary, established in 1984. The 10 sq kilometer lake spreads across the middle of the sanctuary, surrounded by dense forests. Continue reading
Cats And Dogs And The Golden Rule
When we posted about a unusual collaboration between cheetahs and shepherd dogs, we started watching for more news on the same. This website tells a different story about feline-canine common interests, with a clear reminder about the human interest in behaving more empathetically toward our neighbors:
CHEETAH AND AFRICAN WILD DOGS NEED LOTS OF SPACE: Of all the large carnivores of Africa cheetahs and wild dogs need lots of space. Recognition of this led to the RANGE WIDE CONSERVATION PLANNING PROCESS bringing together all sectors of society to develop frameworks under which all stakeholders – government, community and private – can work together to ensure the survival of these iconic species. Use this website to learn more about this innovative approach, the distribution of the two species, who is working to help them and what is being done on the ground. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black Oystercatcher (Portland Island, British Columbia)
Hoteliers, Collective Action, And Outcomes As Yet Unwritten
Raxa Collective has a commitment to the locations in which we operate our hotels, resorts and houseboats: we strongly prefer to hire, train and employ local community members. Recently this sign has been visible in Thekkady, near Cardamom County. It is meant to attract hotel workers to join the union representing the hospitality labor force across the state, and hangs in front of one of that union’s offices. Without any irony or sarcasm, this photo was snapped by one of our contributors to stimulate conversation among several other contributors. Continue reading
Flavours Of Kerala – Dum Biryani
Dum biryani
Dum biryani is a baked rice dish layered with meat (chicken, mutton or beef ) that first originated in the Mugal cuisine of the 16 th -19 th centuries. It was a festive dish, costly to prepare and eaten mainly in the royal courts. Traditionally the biryani pots were sealed with dough before baking then cracked open at the table in a technique called Dum. Continue reading
Popularity Contests Some Will Never Win
Whale shark. (Thomas Peschak / University of Chicago Press)
We note from time to time the tallies of our most popular posts and writers. Seth still has the record for “most instantaneously viral” with Volcano Sandboarding (3,000+ views in the first couple days after it was posted); Tim’s Carbon Emissions Series: Vacationers’ Diets is by far the most viewed with nearly 9,000 readers to date; Salim is by far the most widely read of our contributors, just having passed the 50,000 mark for views of his daily series on the natural and cultural heritage of south India (Thiruvathira Kali (Traditional dance of Kerala) being the most popular with nearly 3,000 views).
Phil’s most recent post has been a runaway hit, and rapidly approaching 1,000 views within a couple weeks it is on pace to put him in the ranks of our most popular contributors. So when we saw the photo above, we thought of Phil’s series with the hope he contributes another post soon. Dr. Tenner’s book review, from which that photo comes, provides an essential reminder of facts, as well as visual testament to the beauties and tragedies associated with sharks, to counter whatever perverse attention those Shark Week shows purvey:
…Thomas Peschak makes an eloquent visual case for the sublimity of sharks—and also for their conservation. He notes that the media still devotes far more attention to rare shark attacks than to the urgent need to protect them from human depredation, especially the shark fin trade. He might have noted that Peter Benchley, who became wealthy through the 1970s novel and film Jaws, regretted the fear he had sown and became a shark advocate. In the long run, though, China’s removal of Mao Tse-Tung’s ban on shark fin soup as bourgeois decadence in 1987 may have resulted in more shark slaughter than all the horror books, films, and news items together. Great conservation photography like Peschak’s, one must hope, will have the power to change attitudes globally…
Bird of the Day: Canyon Towhee (Colorado National Monument, CO)
Localism, Activism And The Future Of Retail In The Bay Area
San Francisco, California, USA — A view of the city lights of San Francisco, just after dusk, from Yerba Buena Island. — Image by © Ed Darack/Science Faction/Corbis
An important word on localism and activism, combined, in a post on the New Yorker‘s website about a San Francisco effort to support local retailers and resist formula retailers:
Jefferson McCarley, a forty-two-year-old San Francisco resident, used to work at Gap’s headquarters, coördinating the logistics of moving merchandise to the shelves of Gap and Old Navy stores. Like the city itself, he has a knack for reinvention. He told me that when Gap laid him off during the recession, he became the general manager of a sleek independent bike shop in the city’s Mission District. Soon, he was voted vice-president of the local merchants association, and joined a group of mom-and-pop-business owners called Keep Valencia Local, which works to stop chain stores from opening locations on the street of that name. Back in 2009, merchants on Valencia Street had helped to kill American Apparel’s bid to move in. Continue reading
Eravikulam National Park – Rajamala, Munnar
Photo credits: Nobi Paul
Eravikulam National Park stretches over 97 kilometers in the tea growing region of Munnar between the picturesque Kannan Devan Hills and Anamudi. The park covers virgin grasslands and wooded valleys that include the spectacular flower called Neelakurinji, which blooms only once every 12 years. Continue reading
Organikos 