A Learning Laboratory (Stop Motion Video!)

Yesterday, Jonathon, Siobhan, Milo, and I moved into one of the new Raxa Collective properties under development. As the four of us huddled silently under our covers, the backwaters of Kerala’s nighttime accompanied Jonathon’s ghost stories…

Instead of spooky tales, though, today I want to share with you another story Jonathon narrates, Raxa Collective presents “A Learning Laboratory.” It’s a short video, Jonathon (narrator), Sunnie (illustrator), Siobhan (director), and I (producer) put together with the help of all the staff and summer interns to highlight some of the best anecdotes of how Raxa Collective’s Cardamom County ecolodge has acted as a “learning laboratory” for its staff, international trainees, and summer interns.

Enjoy!

Nebulaic Beauty

The telescope, wrought of tax dollars and scientific vision and that allowed this photograph to be taken, is a wonder in itself. But in the photo, to state the obvious, is evidence of wonder taken to a different order of magnitude.  Click the image above to go to where we encountered this celestial beauty, in The Atlantic‘s ever more useful website:

This is a nebula we used to think was a star. Located in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, astronomers long called this object 30 Doradus, and labeled it a star. It wasn’t until the mid-18th century that Nicholas Louis de Lacaille detected that it was, in fact, a nebula. We now sometimes call it the Tarantula Nebula.

There’s no color enhancement or significant doctoring in this image: Unlike many astronomical pictures, everything shown is in the visible light spectrum. The Hubble Space Telescope took the photograph.

Beauty of Munnar

The hill station Munnar lies 1600 metres above sea level, making it the perfect summer resort of the British Administration in South India before independence. Now famous for its tea plantations Munnar retains its colonial charm. With its sprawling estates, rolling hills, sparkling waterfalls, picture postcard hamlets and undulating valleys, Munnar has all the makings of an idyllic holiday destination.

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Dhobi’s Kerchief (Mussaenda Glabrata)

Dhobi’s Kerchief is native to the Western Ghats, thriving in forested hilly tracts. Although the shrub flowers during mid- monsoon and early winter, the white bracts may be seen on the plant throughout the year.  Its leaves and fruits are used in traditional medicines, and the shrub is the food plant for the commander butterfly.

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Green Walk

There is nothing quite like waking up in the morning knowing that you are about to enjoy a beautiful hike through the incredible Periyar Tiger Reserve.  Sign up for the Green Walk and experience not only this wonderful feeling but also the sights and sounds that make Periyar so special.  A three-hour hike, the Green Walk takes you through some of the most amazing habitat the reserve has to offer.  With Great Hornbills flying overhead and langurs calling from the trees, the Green Walk is certainly a hike to remember.

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Religion, India, & Timeless Observations

Click the banner above to go to this literary-intellectual online magazine edited by Russell Bennetts. Click the image after the jump to go to their reprinting of an item by a lion of letters from another era, writing about a place familiar to us, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. It was first published in 1885 in the short story collection What Men Live By.  Thank you berfrois and thank you Leo!

The Coffee-House of Surat

by Leo Tolstoy

In the town of Surat, in India, was a coffee-house where many travellers and foreigners from all parts of the world met and conversed… Continue reading

Marigold (Calendula)

Marigold is a tropical plant found widely throughout south India. The beautiful flowers are mainly cultivated for commercial purpose as temples offerings. It comes in different colors, yellow and orange being the most common. This flowers has a strong pungent odor that is not only used in cosmetics and herbal medicines but in gardening as a natural pest deterrent.

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Galápagos Ultimate

Every Monday and Wednesday evening, starting at 8:30PM, a group of Puerto Ayora residents gathers at Parque San Francisco to play Ultimate Frisbee together. About half of these 25- to 35-year olds are teachers at Tomás de Berlanga, and others work at the Charles Darwin Foundation or around town.

Parque San Francisco is a long and fairly narrow stretch of land between Charles Darwin Avenue and the shore, and to walk from Baltra Avenue (the main road that crosses the whole island from north to south) to the main pier one has to walk through the part of the park that skaters, Ecua-volley players, and Frisbee players use at different times of the day: youngsters anywhere between eight and eighteen years old are constantly skating on the cement space enclosed by steps lengthwise, a stage on one end, and a large cement ramp on the other. Metal rails are often laid out to practice rail-grinds or hopping over the rail while the skateboard rolls under it. Skaters dominate this part of the park (the other parts are a sandy playground and some benches shaded by trees lining the coast) for most of the day, until 4:30PM or so when the volleyballers come out to set up two courts on one of the rectangle. These Ecua-volley players (who deserve their own post) then share half the park with the skaters, with the occasional stray ball or board, until the late evening, when volleyball stops and the skating continues on.


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Novel Approaches To Environmental Concern

Click the image below to go to the interview, in two parts, with one of the English language’s best living writers, who with this other great writer shares a deep concern for issues facing our planet’s environment and that writer’s uncanny ability to personalize it, as he talks about

the inspiration for Michael Beard, the anti-hero in his comic novel Solar about climate change. The idea came to McEwan when he attended a gathering of 35 Nobel prizewinners, all men of a certain age, ‘big beasts’ in the scientific world who were nevertheless ‘living in their own shadow’ with their most creative years behind them.

Earliest Inhabitants

Tribals have been an integral part of the Wayanad district for thousands of years. Its earliest settlers were the tribes of Adivasis, which are divided into various sects such as Paniyas, Kurumbas, Adiyas and Kurichyars. It is currently estimated that nearly 400,000 tribal people live Wayanad.  The sects are physically distinguisable with their dark skin and stout builds. Tribal dwellings recreated on the adjoing grounds of the wildlife sanctuary offer a glimpse into their traditional life.

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Delicious vs. Tasty & Cardamom Calm

Guest Author: Neema Morajevi

I work at a computer.  Too much.

It stresses me out.  And I run the Calming Technology Lab at Stanford.  Ironic?  Well, I started the lab for a reason; I am my #1 client (my students are #2).

I want the productivity and efficiency of technology but I don’t want the stress usually associated with it.  And I am not alone.

I’m trying to figure out how to live sustainably in an always-on world.  One foot in the browser, the other on the grass. But which one is supporting the bulk of my weight?  It varies hour to hour.

When my wife and I decided to travel for several months, starting in India, I was more explicit in my desire to “unplug”: surely I’d be able to disconnect if I leave the country… right? Continue reading

Aesop’s Wisdom

From Science (click the image to the left for the full story) a short piece about the wisdom of not being too rational:

A thirsty crow comes across a pitcher partly filled with water but can’t reach the water with his beak. So he keeps dropping pebbles into the pitcher until the water level rises high enough. A new study finds that both young children and members of the crow family are good at solving this problem, but children appear to learn it in a very different ways from birds.

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is located in Lake Vembanad, the largest fresh water lake in India and second largest in south Asia. Set against the backdrop of rich green paddy fields and still grey waters, the 14 acre sanctuary is the home for many species of birds.

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Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary

Located on the southern tip of the Deccan plateau, Wayanad is packed with scenic beauty. The region includes  sub-tropical savannahs, thickly wooded hills, evergreen forests, rolling paddy fields in the valleys and verdant spice plantations in the heights. Blasted by wind and lashed by rain, Wayanad spreads across 2,132 square kms of the lofty Western Ghats and is recognised for its biodiversity. Continue reading