Experts in Russia believe a shortage of hares and rabbits in the
nearby mountains has led hungry wolves to prey on Sakha’s reindeer
pastures. Reports say that a total of 16,111 reindeer were killed by
wolves last year, amounting to $5 million in losses for herders. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20932461
Recent research has shown the influences of rampant corporate commercialism and celebrity are having a massively negative effect on girls. This new book "Raising Girls" by Steve Biddulph is a guidebook and a call to arms for parents...there has been a sudden and universal deterioration in girls' mental health, starting in primary school and devastating the teenage years.
"We are in the process of making our schools an extension of the HR departments of big corporations and allowing into education the constant testing and pressures that are destroying girls' lives."
The west's dwindling connection with the natural world puts it in increasing peril, says a distinguished anthropologist (Jared Diamond) in his new book The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? Many of the practices of tribal cultures can help us to rediscover our way. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jan/06/jared-diamond-tribal-life-anthropology
"Why did the Vikings perish in 16th-century Greenland while the Inuit flourished? Why did the ancient Mayans wreck their own ecology by stripping their lands of forests, thus triggering the soil erosion and starvation that caused the collapse of their civilisation? And, most poignantly of all, why did the people of Easter Island chop down every tree on their remote island and so maroon themselves in the middle of the Pacific, where they eventually descended into civil war and cannibalism?"
This movie was AMAZING, largely thanks to the miniature force of nature named Hushpuppy! http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/ New York Times Review: "Hushpuppy, the 6-year-old heroine,
has a smile to charm fish out of the water and a scowl so fierce it can
stop monsters in their tracks. The movie, a passionate and unruly
explosion of Americana, directed by Benh Zeitlin, winks at skepticism,
laughs at sober analysis and stares down criticism. Made on a shoestring
by a resourceful New Orleans-based collective, it is animated by the
same spirit of freedom it sets out to celebrate. If, as the Fourth of
July approaches, you find yourself craving an antidote to anger and
cynicism, a bracing reminder of the meaning of independence, and a
helping of homegrown art to go with your hamburgers and watermelon, then
this may be just what you need."
Had the good fortune to see "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" this week. My only complaint was that I felt it was a bit too long at 170 minutes. Two hours (120 minutes) would have been a good length without losing any of the impact....a definite case of LESS WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE. Title character Bilbo
Baggins is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf
Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug.
Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds
himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary
warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild;
through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs
and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Ian McKellen towers above the rest of the cast as Gandalf the Grey. Richard Armitage stands out as Thorin Oakenshield - he's an actor I will look out for in the future.
"Emma Orbach, 58, has spent 13 years living with no electricity in her self-built roundhouse in West Wales, generating her own power and growing her own food. Her daily chores involve tending to her vegetable plot, looking after her three goats, seven chickens and two horses and chopping firewood. Her evenings are spent in the glow of her stove, playing her Celtic harp." [Daily Mail] Is it just me or does this lifestyle sound rather appealing....
