In 1977, researcher Bill Ballantine got the New Zealand government to declare a five square kilometer (two sq. mile) patch of sea near his laboratory as a marine reserve, so he could study the effects of excluding fishers. For ten years after that, not much happened. The bare, trawled seabed slowly started to re-grow its … Continue reading
The Veranasi Ghats, Seen from the Ganges April 20, Varanasi, Walking to the Ganges Returning from the Ganges after the evening rituals, I work my way through the crowd and am accosted by a young boy selling postcards for 100 rupees. I assure him I have no money, which is true. Most thefts occur in … Continue reading
On May 11th, 2013, in the middle of rural Missouri, The Spark documentary team will build a tractor from start to finish to donate to Our School at Blair Grocery in the lower 9th ward of New Orleans. Right now they are raising money toward the goal of 13,500.00, which covers the construction and transportation … Continue reading
”Inspiration and Aspiration” by Solon Borglum, in the garden of St. Mark’s of the Bowery, commissioned by William Guthrie Christianity remains the most acceptable, best-known and officially sanctioned religion in America, but American Metaphysical Religion has intersected and in many ways transformed Christian belief and practice. The brothers Guthrie are an excellent example of the … Continue reading
Director: David O. Russell Writers: David O. Russell, Matthew Quick (novel) Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver If, as existentialist psychologist Rollo May claims in “Cry for Myth”, the American dream of coming out number one died with The Great Gatsby, Silver Linings Playbook pitches an idea for how to make … Continue reading
People first arrived in America from Eurasia a minimum of 12,000 years ago and became what we nowadays call the Native Americans. The first European to land in North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus, was to be the Norse explorer Leif Ericson (970–1020). According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse … Continue reading
Train Station, New Delhi Jaipur The Maharajah of Jaipur died the day before we arrived and everything in the whole state has shut down for two days of mourning. After lunch, we walk downtown and come upon a funeral filling the center of town. There are floats pulled by pick-up trucks, brightly painted elephants, musicians … Continue reading
In the ancient Middle East, it was shocking and dangerous if a woman left her family and went off traveling with outsider men. That sort of thing could get people killed. But in the gospel accounts, it says that Jesus “went journeying from town to town and village to village … [and] with him were … Continue reading
from the In Vitro series by Ayad Alkadhi In the very early 2000s while I was struggling with my own identity as an artist I met a man who deeply touched my soul. My struggles were based on the fact that most of my work up until that point had been directly autobiographical – a … Continue reading
Four time mayor of a Midwestern town, publisher of the American frontier’s only periodical devoted to Plato, Thomas Moore Johnson was also president of the central council of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, a mystery school that taught sex magic (though their version of it wasn’t as sexy as you might think). Voters also elected … Continue reading
