Worlds And Distant Times Apart, Bridged By Ideas (Or Ideology)

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Future Shlock

The New Republic is not a magazine we scan often, because its focus rarely intersects with our focus; even its Must Reads are to us, not-often-must; but occasionally we stumble on something of interest.  Perhaps because the first link of today had a technology component, we got on a roll thinking about the relationship between technology, ideas, culture. This particular article is worth reading simply for the quality of both content and style:

The sewing machine was the smartphone of the nineteenth century. Just skim through the promotional materials of the leading sewing-machine manufacturers of that distant era and you will notice the many similarities with our own lofty, dizzy discourse. The catalog from Willcox & Gibbs, the Apple of its day, in 1864, includes glowing testimonials from a number of reverends thrilled by the civilizing powers of the new machine. Continue reading →

Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary

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Photo Credits: Roji Antony

Photo Credits: Roji Antony

Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary is one of south India’s famous national parks, nestled amidst the Nilgiri Hills Biosphere in Tamil Nadu. This sanctuary is situated at the tri-junction of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala near the Mysore plains. With an area of 321 sq km of natural forest, Mudumalai is famous for Elephant, Wild Gaur, Tiger, Leopard and Deer, as well as being home to over 200 species of bird. Continue reading →

Technology, Globalization And Over The Top To Do’s

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Courtesy of Ravi Sinha/Lucky Malhotra Photography. Ravi Sinha preparing grilled vegetables to be served with saffron rice and romesco sauce, at a wedding banquet in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Courtesy of Ravi Sinha/Lucky Malhotra Photography. Ravi Sinha preparing grilled vegetables to be served with saffron rice and romesco sauce, at a wedding banquet in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Saritha Rai provides important insight into technology’s impact on the cultural practices of one community in India, and in particular with regard to their most sacred affairs:

Ravi Sinha, an entrepreneur in Bangalore, innovates constantly, tracking all the latest trends and occasionally outsourcing to outside specialists. Research and development are critical to his profits, and globalization has helped shape his business. Continue reading →

Basket Cases

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What strange growths protrude from this tree? Photo by Seth Inman.

There are birds around the world that use strands of different materials to craft marvelous woven nests that hang from tree branches — if you’re lucky enough to see them!

Yellow-rumped Cacique in Avian Architecture by Peter Goodfellow © Princeton University Press 2011. p95

Of course, in some circumstances it is not hard to find these pendent, or hanging, nests, as with many species of caciques and oropendolas in Central and South America (birds related to the North American blackbirds, orioles, and cowbirds). That’s right, the photo above isn’t of some weird fruit tree, but a tree-wide colony of oropendolas at Las Isletas, in Nicaragua!

Caciques, close relatives of Oropendolas, often nest beside wasp nests; orioles, only slightly more distant relatives, frequently nest near Eastern Kingbirds and Great Kiskadees. Wasps and these large flycatchers all help defend against nest predators. Yellow-rumped Caciques like the one pictured on the right start their nest building with a loop in a tangled mass of fibers that surrounds the end of a branch. Continue reading →

“Often I am permitted to return to a meadow”

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Some places are of no use. They remind us that not everything in life needs to be of use. Take poetry.  The meadows near Cardamom County remind me daily of this poem by Robert Duncan.

Flowers in the meadow credit Ea Marzarte - Raxa Collective

Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow
as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,
that is not mine, but is a made place,

that is mine, it is so near to the heart,
an eternal pasture folded in all thought
so that there is a hall therein Continue reading →

Western Hill Banana – Ensete superbum

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The Western Hill Banana is a large succulent herb that naturally grows in the rocky slopes and cliffs of South India’s Western Ghats. These plants are commonly growing in the forests above 1000 meters. The fruits of this plant is used in many traditional medicines. Continue reading →

Coffee and biodiversity

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I’ve grown addicted to my colleague Anitha’s cold coffee since I got here (sorry guys but hers is just perfection). Ice cold, 70% arabica/30% robusta, locally grown coffee. India may not be known for its coffee, but in the Western Ghats of Southern India, you’ll find coffee plantations on hills and misty mountains between 800m and 1500m above sea level. One of the challenges here has been to integrate biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods for farmers. Continue reading →

On Language, Travel And Imagination

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The snow-covered mountains and punctual trains of Montreux, Switzerland, summon childhood train sets, and the daydreams that accompanied them. (Harold Cunningham/Getty)

The snow-covered mountains and punctual trains of Montreux, Switzerland, summon childhood train sets, and the daydreams that accompanied them. (Harold Cunningham/Getty)

If we failed to get you reading him here, shame on us. If you choose to ignore this short piece of his, well, you have only yourself to answer to. He has had a running series of blog posts on the Atlantic‘s website dealing with the frustrations and wonders of language acquisition as an adult, a phenomenon several of us at Raxa Collective can relate to perfectly well.  He captures some of the many benefits of the process and the outcome, especially the collaborative part, in short order here:

When I was about 6 years old, I started collecting model trains with my father. We would assemble the track in the attic, put a foam mountain with a tunnel over the top, and, through the magic of a transformer, watch the trains make their rounds. My dad took me to train shows, and for my birthdays back then, I always got train sets or trestles. I had books on model trains, and books on actual trains. Both kinds showed pictures of big mountains parted by trains, small towns bisected by trains, and trains adorning white Christmas-scapes. Continue reading →

Climbers, Sherpas And Everest

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We recently linked to a post at India Ink that gave some backstory to an incident that was mainly of interest to people who follow the “Everest culture”–a group of people enlarged enormously by one book (if you only read the original the updated version with a new afterword is worth the price of a new copy of the book)–and members of the climbing culture. Climbers and non-climbers alike will appreciate Nick Paumgarten’s article in the current issue of the New Yorker about the Swiss climber Ueli Steck:

…who made a name for himself climbing mountains at high speed with no ropes. In a recent climb, on Mt. Everest, Steck and his climbing partners got into a violent confrontation with Nepalese Sherpas…

Continue reading →

Diurnal bats

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The forest canopy of the Periyar Tiger Reserve is rich in fruit all year round and bats feel very much at home.  Out of the 119 species of bats found in India, 28 occur in Kerala. As many as six species of bat have been recorded in the Periyar :  the  flying fox, the shortnosed fruit bat,  the Great-Eastern horse-shoe bat, the Tickell’s bat, the Common yellow bat, and the Painted bat.

Bats usually roost in camps in the bamboo across the road from Cardamom County, hanging upside down all day and feeding on the abundant fruit in the area after sunset. However when I sighted this wide cloud of bats around midday on the rooftop of the restaurant, it got me wondering : what disturbed them during the day ? Continue reading →

Creative Collaboration For Laughs And More

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Carl Reiner and Brooks teamed up as a comedy duo in 1960, creating such now-legendary skits as "The 2,000-Year-Old Man." "Carl's still my best friend in the world," says Brooks.

Carl Reiner and Brooks teamed up as a comedy duo in 1960, creating such now-legendary skits as “The 2,000-Year-Old Man.” “Carl’s still my best friend in the world,” says Brooks.

You do not have to be a fan of his many genres of creativity to appreciate the fact that this man knows how to thank the people who have helped him be funny and successful.  The most famous of those collaborations is with his best friend of 60+ years, but in this Fresh Air interview he demonstrates the grace of gratitude for this and many other collaborations:

On Hitchcock and ‘High Anxiety’

“I wrote a letter saying, basically, ‘Dear Mr. Hitchcock, I do genre parodies and in my estimation you are a genre. I don’t mean that you’re overweight. I mean that you’ve done every style and type of movie, and that you’re just amazing, and I would like to do a movie dedicated to you based on your style and your work.’ And … he called me and he said, ‘I loved Blazing Saddles. I think you’re a very talented guy, and come to my office.’ Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In Sydney

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Down under, where there is no aurora borealis, the do-it-yourself creatives have taken matters into their own hands, using vivid colors to attract your attention–and thrown a big party to boot (May 24 – June 10 according to this press release):

…“Vivid Sydney is where technology, commerce and art intersect—delivering real business outcomes. With 37 per cent of Australia’s creative industries located in NSW, supporting creative industries through events like Vivid Sydney is key to the NSW Government’s strategy to grow the NSW economy,” Mr Stoner said. Continue reading →

Brindavan Garden, Mysore

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Photo credits: Roji Antony

Photo credits: Roji Antony

Brindavan Garden is one of the most celebrated gardens in India and is a tribute to early 20th century engineering. Its construction started in 1927 and was completed in 1932. The design is laid out in three terraces which contain water fountains, ficus trees and ornamental plants. Continue reading →

Iceland In The Air

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Lopez Williams, courtesy of FSG.

Lopez Williams, FSG

Our daily scanning of magazines, blogs, news websites, etc. for inspiration led us to the conclusion recently that Iceland has captivated a lot of minds.  We do not know why, but it is popping up everywhere.  For example, this portion of a wonderful post on Paris Review‘s website about a recent event at Scandinavia House:

…It’s a young crowd, trendy, expectant, giddy even, though I’m surprised to see so many empty seats. It turns out Scandinavia House closed their RSVP list weeks earlier, almost immediately after announcing the event, grossly botching the numbers and no doubt needlessly turning away scores of would-be attendees. But it’s no matter to those of us here—in fact it makes the evening feel all the more intimate. Continue reading →