Fresh vegetables play a major role in Kerala’s cuisine. People at all levels of the economy use these traditional shops for buying their fresh vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, tomatos, beans, cucumber, bananas, chilies and drumstick.
Plowshares, Swords And Wildlife Conservation
Whatever your opinion about a military-industrial complex possibly running amok, you might agree that the state of endangered wildlife deserves some radical brainstorming. Today, sometimes the plowshares plunder while the swords save. It is slightly creepy to celebrate military tools, sponsored by corporations and conservation NGOs, being repurposed this way. But these are truly times that try men’s souls. We will chalk this one up as net-gain innovation.
Bird of the Day: Indian Cormorants (Lalbagh Botonical Garden, Bangalore)
Urban Agriculture
From today’s Green Blog, an interesting twister:
John Hantz says he has a dream: to purchase 140 acres of derelict land in the heart of Detroit and turn it into the world’s “largest urban farm.”
A Web site set up by Mr. Hantz, a wealthy entrepreneur, to advance his proposal says the farm would return the city “to its agrarian roots.” Continue reading
Flavours Of Kerala- Karimeen (Pearlspot)
Kerala’s extensive network of rivers and backwaters means that fish is plays a central role on any menu and Karimeen (Pearlspot) has come to symbolise that part of the cuisine. Karimeen is a bony fish, treasured for its taste. Its most famous recipe is Karimeen Pollichathu where it is marinated in masala, wrapped in a banana leaf and broiled. Continue reading
Friends In High Places
A judge is due to decide whether to authorise a fresh round of forced police evictions in Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Photograph: Jean-Sébastien Evrard/AFP/Getty Images
Alain, meet Miranda; Miranda, Alain. You both have done your part to reverse a long history of human unfriendliness to trees. Those efforts strengthen the likelihood of additional collective action:
The protesters, including farmers, locals and green politicians, argue that building a brand new airport for France’s sixth largest city, which already has an award-winning airport, is both an environmental disaster and a waste of public money during an economic crisis. Support groups have sprung up across France. Continue reading
If You Happen To Be In Kochi
Art and culture are about to explode onto Kochi at a season that is already filled with color and light. Biennales have been taking place for well over a hundred years, starting in Venice and spreading throughout the world.
Just as the lost port of Muziris had been a regional gateway for the world the Kochi Muziris Biennale, the first of its type in India, has the goal of reviving the vibrancy of Kochi as a meeting point of culture and trade. Spanning the calendar period of 12/12/12 and 13/03/13, the three month long exhibition is expected to draw high international visitation in what has been designed as a cultural strategy of self-renewal. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Square-tailed Bulbul
Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala
Ornithological Wonders In Heavenly Places
If you liked the photos in this post, and the short preview clip, then this full episode about birds of paradise will make your day.
From Behind the Wheel: Peek-a-boo Mickey
Writer Will Walk, We Will Watch
We will link to the updates as they arrive. For now, the plan:
It will be a journalistic assignment like no other. Call it “the longest walk”.
In what is probably the longest, most arduous piece of reportage ever undertaken, Paul Salopek, an experienced writer for the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic, is embarking on the astonishing task of retracing the journey taken by early man tens of thousands of years ago.
Beginning in the exotic surroundings of the Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, Salopek will take an estimated 30 million steps, reaching his destination seven years later, three continents away at the most southerly point of South America. Continue reading
Southern Rustic Butterfly (Cupha erymanthis)
Southern Rustic Butterflies are commonly found in Periyar’s forest areas, flying up and down and resting in shadowy places. Their wings are dark brown and yellow. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Shikara (Nagarhole National Park, Karnataka)
Folks Fight Feral Felines For Frigatebirds
A male frigatebird with the distinctive red sac on its chest that is inflated during courtship. Photograph: Derren Fox
Thanks to the Guardian‘s coverage of scientific and environmental issues for this story of success involving collective action on the part of British folk who decided to fix a problem they had inadvertently created starting back in the day when Darwin was voyaging on the Beagle:
…In the early 19th century, Ascension Island was home to more than 20 million seabirds, mainly masked boobies, black noddies, brown noddies and Ascension frigatebirds. The frigatebird was considered to be the most important because it was unique to the island. Continue reading
Profile Of Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award-Winner
Click the image above to go to another note of tribute, this one in the current Atlantic, for a remarkable leader in academia, this one at the beginning of her career:
Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute, a genomics research center affiliated with MIT and Harvard, has known Sabeti since the late 1990s, when she was an undergraduate advisee at MIT. Continue reading
Chamundi Theyyam – Ritual Dance
Theyyam are ritual filled performances of dance, music and religious worship of the people of Kerala. There are nearly 400 deities that are represented in this manner, with each Theyyam believed to be a physical manifestation of the particular god. One of the Theyyam performed in the northern regions of Kerala is Chamundi Theyyam, representing the god Durga Devi. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Streak Throated Woodpecker (Bandipur National Park, Karnataka)
Sometimes Science Says Otherwise
Among family, friends and colleagues everyone knows someone who has tried to kick the habit. Many succeed. Once the habit is kicked, where does it go? And for those who have not kicked the habit, and are still flicking the remainders about, where do those go? Apparently, both end up in bird land, and for reasons we might find acceptable:
We never actually established why birds suddenly appear every time you are near. It might just be because you are one of the terrible, horrible people who throws cigarette butts on the ground everywhere. When a little bird waddles out and picks one up and uses it to build a nest, though, you are sort of redeemed, in that the world becomes a better place for its bird family.
Research published today in the journal Biology Letters followed urban birds and measured the amount of cellulose acetate (from cigarette filters) in their nests. The nests with more butts had fewer parasites. Continue reading
From Behind the Wheel: It’s A Wash Up
Red Silk-Cotton Tree (Bombax ceiba)
The Red Silk Cotton is a fast growing tree growing widely in the Western Ghats forest areas. These trees can reach a height of 35-40 meters, and bear large red-orange flowers from December to March. The timber of the tree is very soft and used for making plywood and match boxes. Continue reading
Organikos 