Going With The Flow

/ Amie Inman / 1 Comment

Anyone who has ever driven (or been driven) in India knows well the experience of chaotic flow that can be overwhelming to a newcomer.  When we first arrived here some 18 months ago I was given the helpful advice to “just look to the side”.  The experience is unsettling in a variety of ways: firstly, unless you hail from either Japan, or one of the “Commonwealth Countries” your vehicle is on the “wrong” side of the road.  But secondly (and umpteenthly) your vehicle, and all the neighboring vehicles are on every side of the road.   Continue reading →

Lion King in Real Life

/ Katrina Lee / 2 Comments

As a kid, I loved watching the Lion King. Either on the Disney Channel, VHS or live on Broadway, I was hooked. For me, safari in the Masai Mara is story of The Lion King coming to life: The whole gang was there- Simba, Nala, Pumba, Timon and even Rafiki!

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Wordsmithing: Zoo

/ Organikos / Leave a comment
It is one of the words that most children associate with wildlife. Does it qualify as a word?  OED shows the etymology of these three letters as:
c1847    Macaulay in Life & Lett. (1878) II. 216   We treated the Clifton Zoo much too contemptuously.
1886    C. E. Pascoe London of To-day (ed. 3) iv. 65   The ‘Zoo’ in time past was as favourite a fashionable resort as Rotten Row.

Bumbling Back From The Brink

/ Organikos / 1 Comment

Cockerell's Bumblebee. (Credit: G. Ballmer, UC Riverside)

While news related to species loss seems almost always seem to be coming in at us like floodlights, occasionally there is a glimmer of hope shining outward in the headlines:

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) — A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico. Continue reading →

Thinking, Fast And Slow

/ Organikos / 5 Comments

Speaking of awesome intelligence it was intended to make a small point (pop culture is not as kind to intelligence as it is to glossy, gossipy stuff) and later highlight that intelligence itself.  While the accolades of scholars–those whose own work has been influenced by Kahneman–are interesting to read, so are those published by reviewers advising lay readers to read his most recent book.  For example, last month in FT:

There have been many good books on human rationality and irrationality, but only one masterpiece. That masterpiece is Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. Continue reading →

A Campo Weekend

/ Adrien de Bontin / 1 Comment

The weekend before last I was fortunate enough to be invited to the estancia of an artist with whom I am collaborating with on a joint project.  A well established painter here in Buenos Aires, Marta Diez has had many exhibitions here in the city, as well as some abroad, most notably at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris last year.  Her estate is still in the province of Buenos Aires, and yet is located a good 650 kilometers south from the city center, near a town called Bahia Blanca.

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Thekkady’s Streets

/ Milo Inman / 1 Comment

Although I thoroughly enjoy viewing street photography for its spontaneity, diversity, and ability to display the flow of life of any culture, I generally refrain from partaking due to a generally awkward disposition and inhibitions around strangers. Being unusually tall (to Indians) and quite white, I also get a lot of stares as it is, and waving a camera around at people certainly does not make me go unnoticed. However, in areas more frequented by ‘foreigners’ such as Thekkady, a tall Caucasian isn’t all that exciting, and many locals are in fact enthusiastic to have their pictures taken.

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What More About Picasso?

/ Organikos / 1 Comment

We had mentioned in an earlier post encountering this source of interesting observations, and now another from the same (click on the image for the full thought and information about the exhibition):

The idea of Picasso always precedes the experience of seeing Picasso’s art. Looking at drawings from the artist’s early years in the Frick Collection’s cramped basement, I wondered what we can say about Picasso that hasn’t already been said. I’ve previously encountered this question with artists whose reputations (and market value) are in such high esteem that it is almost impossible to see the work as separate from the artist’s image. Even in this small show, with works that look decidedly un-Picasso, I found it difficult to view the drawings as anything other than work of this great artist.

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Flourishing Fynbos

/ Amie Inman / 4 Comments

 

Although it may seem counterproductive to conservation, there are quite a few plant and tree species that require the heat of fire to allow their seeds to germinate.  The Lodgepole Pine is one such example, where the heat of the fire burns off the resin that normally seals the seed laden cones.

The South African Fynbos is another.   Continue reading →

World Development and South America

/ Organikos / 2 Comments

Guest Author: Denzel Johnson

The world is a big place, but each location is different and separated in such ways that can’t be explained merely by distance. What I mean by that is how people in the world are separated and so different yet so important to how each other person lives.

Let me introduce myself; I’ve lived in England for most of my life and have grown up in London. Life there has always increased my interest in travel, especially with my background in Geography. Continue reading →

Popular Culture Celebrating Awesome Intelligence

/ Organikos / 4 Comments

Michael Lewis, a great journalist working for a glossy publication, popularized a smart baseball manager in a book and more recently a film adaptation of that book.  A great 2003 interview with him can be found in podcast form here.  Unique intelligence, it seems, is not as celebrated in popular culture as it should be (and is not, usually, in Vanity Fair or other glossy publications).  But credit where due: Lewis recently followed up his success with that book and film giving credit where he saw it due.  And celebrating an even grander unique intelligence in that very same glossy:

It didn’t take me long to figure out that, in a not so roundabout way, Kahneman and Tversky had made my baseball story possible. In a collaboration that lasted 15 years and involved an extraordinary number of strange and inventive experiments, they had demonstrated how essentially irrational human beings can be.

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Arctic Circle, Stop Motion

/ Organikos / 2 Comments

Imagine being talented enough to make that short, brilliant piece.  Now imagine being that talented and having the opportunity to share the stage with the master:

I recently took part in a presentation at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox and had the opportunity to screen The Arctic Circle for Tim Burton. After the screening, I had a few minutes on stage to get his reaction and ask a few questions.

The art is the thing, but watching the young artist on stage with the master is fun too…

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The United Nations Meet Las Defensoras Populares

/ Megan Currie / Leave a comment

As a new face here at Raxa Collective, I thought I’d take a minute to introduce you to all to the organisation I’m volunteering for here in Costa Rica. It’s called MUSADE, which stands for Mujeres Unidas en Salud y Desarrollo, and its function is to provide support for women who have suffered intra-familiar violence. MUSADE has a lot of great programs going on, but today I’d like to talk to you about some exciting news for our Defensoras Populares.

This banner was made to commemorate MUSADE's 25th anniversary this coming Tuesday.

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