Photo Credit: Mr. Vijay Mampilly
Bird of the Day: Little Egret (Cardamom County, Thekkady)
Photo Credit: Mr. Vijay Mampilly
From Behind the Wheel: Bulk Pickup
Bastian Street, Fort Kochi
Hello From Ghana
I have been in Ghana for five days, and this image above tells most of the story of the week that I have time to share in this post. Since 1980 when I first met someone from this country, I have been looking forward to this visit. A young man named Kwaku, his first time traveling outside Ghana, had just arrived in a southern Illinois August heatwave and was in the same 10-day soccer training camp as me. During the previous two years I had captained an undefeated high school soccer team, had sat in a stadium watching Pele play his last professional game, and respectfully thought I knew something about the sport. Continue reading
If You Happen To Be In Washington, DC
From our friends in the north comes our favorite kind of cultural festival–all mixed up. It is reviewed in this podcast and explained on the Kennedy Center’s website:
About the festival
February 19-March 17, 2013, the Kennedy Center presents Nordic Cool 2013, a month-long international festival of theater, dance, music, visual arts, literature, design, cuisine, and film to highlight the diverse cultures of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as the territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Áland Islands. Continue reading
Beauty Of Kerala
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
During the monsoon paddy fields are sub-merged in water and no farming can be done. At this time Lotus and Water Lilies grow abundantly, creating one of lowland Kerala’s most beautiful views.
Bird of the Day: Narrow-billed Tody
Parque Valle Nuevo, Dominican Republic
Rainforest Primer
Statistics:
- .03% of the world’s surface with 5% of the world’s biodiversity.
- 130 species of freshwater fish
- 160 species of amphibians
- 208 species of mammals
- 220 species of reptiles
- 850 species of birds, including 52 species of hummingbirds alone
- 1,000 species of butterflies
- 1,200 varieties of orchids
- 9,000 species of plants
- 34,000 species of insects
- twelve climatic zones
- 5 types of forest: mangrove, rain forest, cloud forest, lowland tropical dry forest, deciduous forest
- Landmass of 19,730 square miles – approximately the size of West Virginia
But statistics only tell a rather 2 dimensional story. Continue reading
Small Wonders
A Mayfly nymph. Photo by Daniel Stoupin, www.microworldsphotography.com
Yet another fascinating view of the world from Aeon, whose very name conflates the single into the infinite, making everything a matter of perspective.
When the Dutch cloth merchant Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked at a drop of pond water through his home-made microscope in the 1670s, he didn’t just see tiny ‘animals’ swimming in there. He saw a new world: too small for the eye to register yet teeming with invisible life. The implications were theological as much as they were scientific. Continue reading
Temple Gopurams
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
The word Gopuram refers to the monumental tower built at the entrance of South Indian Dravidian temples. These Gopurams are multistoried structures decorated with painted sculpture and carvings depicting Hindu mythology.
Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Red-throated Bee-eater (Mole National Park, Ghana)
From Behind the Wheel: Anthropomorphic Automobiles
Ernakulam
Periyar Sightings: March 22, 2013
Mr. Senthil, a cardamom planter in Kerala, went for a forest trek yesterday and experienced one of his best trips in the Periyar so far. He was happy to share some of his photos. Continue reading
Precipicial Parks
Associated Press. Services will be reduced at places like the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park if automatic cuts in the federal budget take effect next Friday.
Wilderness areas are among the innocent victims of dreary political gamesmanship in a country with some of the most spectacular, and vulnerable, protected areas in the world:
Unless Congress can reach a budget agreement by March 1, the country’s national parks will be hit by a $110 million budget cut, resulting in shuttered campgrounds, shorter seasons, road closings and reduced emergency services, a parks advocacy group reports. Continue reading
Herbivores, Unite
Eric Post/Pennsylvania State University
Grazing and biodiversity: an adult male caribou in Greenland.
Thank you, Green Blog:
In the unending quest for effective ways of adapting to climate change, it seems that musk ox and caribou may have some of the answers.
According to a study published this week, the large herbivores that inhabit Greenland and other regions in the far north can play an important role in maintaining biodiversity in a warming climate. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black Drongo (Bandipur National Park, Karnataka)
Aliens In Europe
A red swamp crayfish. ‘Alien’ species cost the European economy €12bn a year, a study shows. Photograph: FLPA/Alamy
The Everglades are not the only location where invasive introduced species are causing harm:
Animals and plants brought to Europe from other parts of the world are a bigger-than-expected threat to health and the environment costing at least €12bn (£10bn) a year, according to a study published on Thursday. Continue reading
River Nila – Bharathapuzha
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
The Bharathapuzha is the second longest river in Kerala. It takes its origin from the Western Ghats and joins with the Arabian Sea after a long journey of 209 kms. Considered as the Nile of Kerala it is also known as ‘Nila”. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Pine Warbler
Parque Valle Nuevo, Dominican Republic
Happy Birthday Ansel!
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite national park, California, about 1937
Ansel Adams has become almost synonymous with the environmental movement in general and Yosemite National Park in particular. He first visited the park when he was 14 and the impression he had at that age would last a lifetime. His photographs played a seminal role in convincing Congress to place that amazing landscape under federal protection.
Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters…
— Ansel Adams, The Portfolios Of Ansel Adams Continue reading
Happy Mother Language Day
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times. A sign in Bangla language in the front window of a shop in Astoria, Queens, in this March 7, 2001, file photo.
From our friends at India Ink:
I take pride in the fact that despite being born and raised in New York City, I speak Bangla fluently. I credit this mostly to my Bangladeshi parents for being brutal in their approach to teaching my younger sister and me a language that that was so violently fought for. Feb. 21 is recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as International Mother Language Day in honor of linguistic diversity, Continue reading
Organikos 