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
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.
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…
Among our favorite topics, Paris is always a welcome reason to say something about the avant-garde, including with regard to serious environmental issues.
Continue reading
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.
The Pygmy Dartlet is a very widespread species of damselfly, surprisingly enough. Measuring about 16 millimeters, Agriocnemis pygmaea is undoubtedly the smallest damselfly or dragonfly I’ve seen. The species is known to have many different appearances, with both male and female displaying up to three or four different color combinations. The male is pictured above, and the female below. Continue reading
With a mission like this how could we not pay attention? The image above links to the story about two of our favorite subjects, brought together by The Caravan. The image is from a French magazine, which covered the Mahatma’s visit to Paris (and elsewhere) with reverence.
…somebody has been dropping glorious little paper sculptures into libraries and museums all over Edinburgh, Scotland, and we’ve just heard … that there are now three more…
It is easy to be skeptical about the relationship between buzz and art, where buzz is meant to be a synonym for meaningful discussion. At 2:23 in this clip one person eloquently suggests that this is art because it has generated discussion. But has it?
My first trip to Kenya was about two years ago; unfortunately, I never ventured outside the borders of Nairobi. This time, I pledged to experience the nation’s countryside firsthand. Above is a sample of what I saw from Lake Nakuru and the drive to the Masai Mara. Continue reading
It was an experience worth revisiting. Here’s one more the photo that Tal shared, Michael on that misty morning.
My last post introduced the problem of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, and I promised to start trying to answer that question. Today I’ll shed some light on some subsidies and federal policies that could be altered and bolstered in the right ways to stop nutrient-rich runoff from reaching the Mississippi River. I’m going to point out right away that although the most obvious way of preventing hypoxia is by reducing fertilizer use, this is also the most difficult and expensive tactic to implement. My goal is to start laying out elements of a more cost effective, pragmatic plan for ameliorating hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.
The agricultural subsidies that I discuss here are measures that can be implemented through various policy tools (e.g. direct payments, technical assistance, tax incentives) to reduce costs for producers and attempt to benefit the economy in doing so. One positive form of subsidy, known as a cross-compliance program, discourages creation of farmland from current wetlands or land that is highly erodible. Continue reading
Every year, some percentage of undergraduate students majoring in an academic discipline within the liberal arts, often aka Arts and Science, wonder: what’s next? As in, what will I do when I complete my degree? Many do not need to wonder because they are on a clear path–pre-med or pre-law for example. But for those wondering, we hope our site sheds some light on the variety of possibilities. For one example (click the image above for the source) we like the idea of literally combining art and science (so did da Vinci):
…a mysterious, nearly universal growth pattern first observed by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago: a simple yet startling relationship that always holds between the size of a tree’s trunk and sizes of its branches. A new paper has reignited the debate over why trees grow this way, asserting that they may be protecting themselves from wind damage.
Playa Ocotal, Nicaragua
In more than one earlier post, we might have given the impression that only fellows are out and about for snapshots in the neighborhoods we visit. Not so.
