Author: Daniela

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Lovers of Urdu poetry will be delighted to know there is a website that provides access to more than 8,000 ghazals and 1,000 e-books. Its promoter said: “I am happy to say that the website has more than 8,000 ghazals, 700 nazms and 1,000 e-books from across 700 poets,” Sanjiv Saraf, an IIT-Kharagpur graduate and…

Sunday Prayer – Mast Qalandar!

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Nicholas Schmidle relates his experience at the annual three-day festival marking the death of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar at Smithsonian.com. Every year, a few hundred thousand Sufis converge in Seh- wan, a town in Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province for the festival. In the desert swelter of southern Pakistan, the scent of rosewater mixed with a waft of…

Photo of the Day

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This, from MMM, “Viewed at an astounding magnification of over 250 times, tiny grains of sand are surprisingly colorful and extremely unique. Each piece is either a fragment of crystals, spiral fragments of shells or crumbs of volcanic rock.” You can view more images here.

In Memoriam: Carter Camp – An American Indian Warrior

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Neeta Lind (navajo) posts a beautiful tribute to Carter Camp who walked on the afternoon of Dec. 27, 2013. Much has been written about Carter, but many have not heard of him. He was one of the original organizers of the American Indian Movement, a pan-Indian movement sparked in part by the civil rights movement of African…

Plants Can Talk

Jan 10, 2014

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Originally posted on The Dish: Sort of: It turns out almost every green plant that’s been studied releases its own cocktail of volatile chemicals, and many species register and respond to these plumes. For example, the smell of cut grass — a blend of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and esters — may be pleasant to us…

Amiri Baraka – Another Great Artist Gone

Jan 9, 2014

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Amiri Baraka, the militant man of letters and tireless agitator whose blues-based, fist-shaking poems, plays and criticism made him a provocative and groundbreaking force in American culture, has died. He was 79. Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note Lately, I’ve become accustomed to the way The ground opens up and envelopes me Each time…

ECOFEMINISM – A weekend with Dr. Vandana Shiva

Jan 9, 2014

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For Your Entertainment

Jan 8, 2014

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Polar Vortex Rap:

Earth Reaches Perihelion on January 4th

Jan 8, 2014

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On Jan. 4 at 8:00 a.m. EST (12:00 GMT), Earth reached its perihelion for 2014. The perihelion of a planet’s orbit occurs when the planet is at its least distance from its star during a particular orbital cycle. The perihelion date varies between Jan. 1 and Jan. 5, while the aphelion date varies between July 2 and…

“We are not protesters, we’re protectors”

Jan 7, 2014

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