Click the image for today’s Sunday New York Times, our annual favorite edition, dedicated to Food and as recently more and more is the case, particular attention is paid to the intersection between food and wellness:
The Food & Drink Issue
Yes, Healthful Fast Food Is Possible. But Edible?
By MARK BITTMAN
Time to supersize your bean burger and sweet potato fries.
Photo Credit: Ramesh Kidangoor; Near Mysore
Brain fatigue is reduced by strolling through a park, The New York Times reports:
Researchers have long theorized that green spaces are calming, requiring less of our so-called directed mental attention than busy, urban streets do, but it had not been possible to study the brains of people while they were actually outside, moving through the city and the parks. Continue reading
Click the image above to go to the video at the website of London’s Natural History Museum, and click here to go to an excellent podcast of an interview conducted by the Guardian‘s Camila Ruz with the exhibition’s curator, Blanca Huertas. The exhibition is now open:
In the exhibition, butterflies are everywhere, so take care… they may even land on you or on the paths where you walk. Continue reading
Photo credits: Shanavas
Most temples in Kerala have a sacred pond, or Theerthakkulam, outside the temple wall. Normally the pond is located on the North- East corner of the compound. The sacred water is used by devotees to wash their hands and feet before going into the temple . Continue reading
San Francisco Bay Trail, CA
A Boat in the Sea by Arkhip Kuindzhi, c.1875. Oil on canvas.
We tend to favor action as a general rule on this site, but without contemplation where would we be? Two choice paragraphs from a recent philosophical musing in one of our newly favored and now reliably interesting online publications:
…After three years, I was no wiser than when I started. Did we choose freely? Or were we just victims of larger historical, social and biological forces? It was impossible to tell. What I did realise was that philosophers had been struggling with such questions for thousands of years, but were no closer to understanding the answer than they were when they started out. Continue reading
The Sabi Sand Game Reserve is injecting non-lethal chemical mixtures into rhino’s horns. Photograph: David Smith/Sabi Sand Game Reserve
We have only occasionally mentioned the facts surrounding the epidemic slaughter of rhinoceros, mainly because the stories are hopelessly hopeless almost (but not all) all the time. This one may be either another case in point, or a perverse example of innovation in times of extreme need. Click the image above to go to the story in the Guardian:
A game reserve in South Africa has taken the radical step of poisoning rhino horns so that people risk becoming “seriously ill” if they consume them.
Sabi Sand said it had injected a mix of parasiticides and indelible pink dye into more than 100 rhinos’ horns over the past 18 months to combat international poaching syndicates. More than 200 rhinos have been poached so far this year in South Africa, driven by demand in the far east, where horn ground into powder is seen as a delicacy or traditional medicine. Continue reading
Photo credits: Nidhin Poothully
The road leading to Wayanad is smooth and even and surrounded by greenery from deciduous forest to soaring bamboos. The sanctuary around Wayanad is rich in fauna and flora. Elephants are the most common wildlife sighting, sometimes even amidst the the thick bamboo groves flanking the road en route to the sanctuary. Continue reading
Feather Hill flowers are hybrid orchids in the Cymbidium family. Up to 15-25 butterfly-shaped white flowers adorned with light pink spots hang gently on the strong stems. Cymbidiums grow widely in Kerala’s Western Ghats above 1500 meters. Continue reading
Gokarnam, Karnataka; Photo credit: Ramesh Kidangoor
The dawn of my Easter Holiday experience in Kerala started with this unique communion bread served with Molasses sauce to represent the wine. The beautiful church nearby the resort was filled beyond capacity but I fully enjoyed the Sunday service together with other worshippers standing across the street. There I stood, not understanding any of the words (the service was in Malayalam) but following all the rituals with the same sense of peace as in my own church in Accra, Ghana.
After a good lunch and the sleep of the blessed I had my road to “Emmaus” experience by going on the 3 hour Green Walk in the Periyar Tiger Reserve with one of the naturalist guides. Continue reading
Outskirts of Bangalore, Karnataka
From this week’s Sunday New York Times an article by Susan Dominus in which the:
organizational psychologist Adam Grant argues that the key to hyperefficiency is tirelessly helping others. Continue reading
Photo Credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Aihole was the capital of the Chalukyan Kings, who between the 4th and 6th century A.D began experimenting with the idea of constructing temples with stone blocks. Aihole has over 125 temples, all intricately carved and rich in detail. Durga temple has a semicircular apse and a sanctum, encircled by a richly carved colonnaded passageway. Durga temple is roofed in the usual flat Early Western Chalukyan manner. The niches in the circumambulatory passage around the sanctum are filled with statues; notable among them are splendid images of Durga and Shiva. Continue reading
Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) is a description, a name, a trend we have mentioned plenty of times in so many words, but not previously using this acronmyn. If you have not already seen it, you can expect to see it more now. We appreciate its blog, which you can sign up for by clicking through from this article in it (click the LOHAS banner image in this post):
…In the improving but not yet booming economy of 2013, Patricia Aburdene, author of the New York Times bestseller “Megatrends 2000” and most recently “Conscious Money” (Atria Publishing; $16 paperback), predicts priorities and values will play a bigger role in shaping spending decisions. Continue reading
Photo Credit: Zack Wareh
Looking through this publisher‘s catalogue, we see they give attention to a wide variety of charismatic flora and fauna. For example, this book (click the image above to go to the source):
Birds of the World: 365 Days gives this perennially popular subject the 365 treatment: ornithologist and conservationist Philippe J. Dubois presents a “day in the life” of a year’s worth of species from five continents. The stunning images of birds in action, taken by some of the best avian photographers in the world, illustrate the text beautifully. Continue reading
Photo Credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Known as the commercial capital of Kerala, Ernakulam is the one of the largest cities in the state. Ernakulam refers to the eastern part of the twin cities Ernakulam-Kochi. Alive and throbbing with people, shopping centers, cinemas, hotels, offices, plush buildings, and restaurants; the factors that come together to create the quintessential city life can be experienced here with an International Airport an hour away. Ernakulam is the only city in Kerala where one can experience the conveniences of an urban lifestyle that is now increasingly prevalent in the larger cities of India, in addition to the criss-crossing backwaters that make the area famous. Continue reading
Organikos 