Category: Uncategorized

  • Real Beauty Stays With You

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    Daniela
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    Originally posted on The Dish: Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah draws a distinction between the “pretty” and the “beautiful”: I think Kant was right in that beauty is a word that belongs to sensation. It has to strike the senses, whether it’s the ear or the eye. And I think he was right in that it’s…

  • Photo of the Day

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    Mumbai born, Brooklyn based photographer Manjari Sharma is on a mission to create contemporary photographs of ancient spiritual figures. The complex and colorful visual stylings, normally rendered from the depths of mythology and the imagination, take unprecedented physical shape before Sharma’s camera lens. Her photographs, composed from scratch, measure at a whopping six feet high, their grand…

  • The Climate For Chaos

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    Daniela
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    Originally posted on The Dish: Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell see evidence that climate change and drought helped cause the Syria conflict. Here’s Femia: We found it very interesting that right up to the day before the revolt began in Daraa, many international security analysts were essentially predicting that Syria was immune to the Arab Spring. They…

  • What Would It Take To End World Hunger?

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    Daniela
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    Originally posted on The Dish: Sarah Sloat doubts that new technologies will be enough: In his “silicon gospel” (as it’s described by the Los Angeles Review of Books), Byron Reese considers agricultural technologies like genetic engineering and automated farms as the way to feed every starving mouth. The idea that increased food production—made possible by new inventions…

  • Beautiful Translucent Snail Discovered in Croatian Cave

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    Daniela
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    Found these beautiful images and information about a new species of snail discovered in Croatia on the EarthSky website: Scientists discovered a new species of a peculiar cave-dwelling snail in one of the 20 deepest cave systems in the world, Lukina Jama–Trojama in Croatia. The newly discovered species belongs to a genus of minute air-breathing…

  • British Scientists Set to Release Genetically Modified Insects into Environment

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    Daniela
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    When I read this headline my first thought was “are you kidding?” On the Collective Evolution blog, Arjun Walia makes the case against releasing thousands of genetically modified insects into the environment. Thousands of Genetically Modified (GM) insects developed by British scientists are set to be released into fields across Europe as an alternative to…

  • Tremor – Huella feat. Micaela Chauque

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    Daniela
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    Buenos Aires based “digital folklore” trio Tremor returns to the forefront of modern South American music with a brand new album on Nickodemus’ Brooklyn based Wonderwheel Recordings. After playing some of the most important festivals and venues worldwide including Roskilde Festival in Denmark and an official WOMEX showcase, the new album entitled Proa continues Tremor’s use of South American folklore traditions and regional instruments…

  • Yet Another Reason to Buy Local

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    Daniela
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    This is another reason to be picky about where your meat comes from.  Better yet, stop eating meat altogether: From the Daily Kos: Put down your ham sandwich before you read this one, folks. The US Department of Agriculture is hoping to expand a pilot program replacing half the USDA inspectors in meat plants with…

  • Photo of the Day

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    Daniela
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    Shiota takes objects-wooden chairs, hospital beds, musical instruments, a woman’s dress-and shrouds them in a thick, dark web of thread. Her art, which she’s been producing for more than a decade, and which is currently on display at the Museum of Art, Kochi, in Japan, emphasizes how the accretion of cobwebs marks time. It makes you…

  • Etymology of ‘Simpleton’

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    Daniela
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    The Oxford University Press blog has a weekly etymology series.  This week Anatoly Liberman researches the origin of the word “simpleton” and finds it’s not so simple. Simpleton is an irritating word. At first sight, its origin contains no secrets: simple + ton. And that may be all there is to it despite the obscurity of…