Small Wonders

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A Mayfly nymph. Photo by Daniel Stoupin, www.microworldsphotography.com

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

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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 →

Precipicial Parks

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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.

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

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Eric Post/Pennsylvania State UniversityGrazing and biodiversity: an adult male caribou in Greenland.

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 →

Aliens In Europe

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A red swamp crayfish. 'Alien' species cost the European economy €12bn a year, a study shows. Photograph: FLPA/Alamy

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

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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 →

Happy Birthday Ansel!

/ Amie Inman / 2 Comments
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite national park, California, about 1937

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

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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.

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 →

Kakkoor Kalavayal Race (Bullock Cart Race) – Kakkoor, Cochin

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Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor

Kakkoor Kalavayal is a traditional post-harvest festival celebrated by the farmers of Kakkoor and  the surrounding villages near Cochin. Legend has it that this is the annual meeting of the Goddesses of the villages of Edapra and Ambassery. The most exciting moment of this festival is the grande finale of the bullock race. Continue reading →

Le Macchine E Gli Dei

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Machines and Gods: Dionysus at MCCM

The Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini is an interesting place, to say the least: it combines Italian machinery of mammoth proportions from the Industrial Revolution with ancient Roman statuary. These statues include the monolithic “Fortuna Huiusce Diei” (“Fortune of This Very Day”), various Greek gods (Venus, Dionysus as pictured above, and others), Roman emperors, famous statesmen, and lesser known wealthy citizens; the machinery, on the other hand, consists in titanic pieces of metal that when whirring generated tens of thousands of horsepower. Continue reading →

Fisheries And European Responsibility

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Laura Leon for The International Herald TribuneGovernment inspectors, left, check out a fishing vessel off the Spanish port of Cádiz.

Laura Leon for The International Herald Tribune
Government inspectors, left, check out a fishing vessel off the Spanish port of Cádiz.

Thanks to Green Blog:

Two weeks ago, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to require that the 27-nation bloc’s fisheries be managed on a sustainable basis within a few years. Continue reading →

Birds-of-Paradise Project

/ Seth Inman / 6 Comments

Photo by Tim Laman.

We’ve written about the birds-of-paradise before, mostly to share great images of them. But all that is about to be topped by the same folks who brought us two out of the three links above: Tim Laman and Ed Scholes. On February 19th, a new website was released that contains over two hours of footage never seen before, specifically designed to serve as an educational base for anyone trying to learn more about the whacky birds.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology was one of the main funders for the project (others include the estate of Madelon G. and Robert Wehner, Conservation International, and the National Geographic Expeditions Council). According to their official press-release, the “website, videos, and interactive features were produced by the Cornell Lab’s Multimedia program with sound and video from the archives of the Lab’s Macaulay Library. Producer Marc Dantzker said the production team sorted through more than 2,500 video clips, almost 40,000 photos, and hundreds of sound recordings to find close-up examples of each adaptation, courtship pose, display feather, and dance move.”

So after eight years of painstaking research by Scholes and Laman, we get to enjoy this unforgettable imagery! Watch the video below of the King-of-Saxony, Continue reading →

Elephant Blessing – Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar Temple

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Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor

Elephants are important part of many temple ceremonies and festivals in India especially in the southern states. Frequently the temple elephant carries the idol of the Lord Ganasha and walks in procession around the temple grounds to receive offerings and give blessings in return by placing the trunk gently on the devotee’s bowed head. Continue reading →