How rural Alaska gets its food

How rural Alaska gets its foodfrom Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/how-rural-alaska-gets-its-food-delivered/2014/06/28/796b2c72-fee3-11e3-b57b-a7a0ebc8dd2d_video.html?tid=hp_mm&hpid=z2

Logistics like this to remote locations poses issues somewhat like the Red Cross or World Food Program faces delivering to remote areas of Somalia, Haiti, etc. although in those countries obviously the infrastructure is not as developed.

How marsupials got to Australia

It is well known that Australia is home to many marsupials, but what I did not know until recently is that marsupials arrived from South America crossing Antarctica. As Pangea (200 mya) was breaking up around 150-100 mya, marsupials seem to have been plentiful in South America and used then-unfrozen Antarctica as a bridge to get to Australia. Placental mammals still had not reached Australia by the time it broke off from all other continents, so marsupials never had to compete with placentals.

Today there are actually still over 100 types of marsupials in the Americas, largely possums.

See the graphic below off wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial#Evolution

And it is strange that on a continent with such unusual species, humans would raise millions of cows, sheep, and pigs; but then again that's true in South America as well. And they do have kangaroo farms and eat kangaroo meat.

Great article by Bob Strauss
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/otherprehistoriclife/fl/Marsupial-Evolution.htm

Tastes of Southeast Asia

Tastes of Southeast Asia

Snake Hunting on Tonle Sap - BBC Human Planet
Tonle Sap is a Lake/River system in Cambodia with many endemic species and many people living around and even on it in floating villages.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f134k

Young Barry Obama's Jakarta - A visit to the elementary school he attended in Indonesia to chat with his friends and teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNWV6utcifE

Rama by Ella - Malaysian rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSllHsU7OGA

New species thrive in the Mekong River - Discovery news-Mekong River is the core river of mainland SE Asia with over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdGXGlfE080

Welcome to Guam! Where America's day begins
Guam is a territory of the US, part of Micronesia, and part of the earliest time zone in the US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP4I0CsieD8

Looking for snails - Journey Vietnam with Luke Nguyen
Luke Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Australian who has a popular cooking show in Australia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCND55zahak



Boat tour of Bangkok, Thailand's klongs (canals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL7beS09clY)

Naturalist intelligence--do you have it?

People high in Naturalist Intelligence (part of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences) are drawn to some aspect(s) of nature: birds, rocks, plants, mountains, food, even humans like human body types and human nature. They notice all the subtle differences and distinctions among breeds, types, classifications. They also love field trips, even field trips by themselves, to go and interact directly with nature. These field experieces are often "crystallizing experiences" meaning they realize that they have this strong attraction to the natural world.

Naturalist intelligence is an aid to survival. It helps tell us what animals, plants, and foods are safe and dangerous, what weather patterns will help crops grow, when rivers will flood, when storms will come, etc.

Charles Darwin is often given as a textbook example of Naturalist intelligence. His voyage around the world on the Beagle at age 21 was a massive field trip and crystallized his drive to study to the natural world, which his family thought was more of a distraction and a waste of time.

Are you high in Naturalist intelligence? If you are teaching and/or have kids, it is important to recognize if they have high Naturalist intelligence so you can steer them toward crystallizing experiences that can help them recognize their gifts.

By the way -- there is another variation of Naturalist intelligence, an "urban" naturalist intelligence i.e. "jungle smarts" i.e. street smarts -- understanding the natural processes that go on in highly urbanized areas. This also is a survival skill.

How ISIS militants plan to draw map of the middle east

Militants plan to dreraw map of the middle eastWall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/articles/islamist-militants-aim-to-redraw-map-of-the-middle-east-1402620168?mod=WSJ_hp_RightTopStories

This article has a good overview of the major dynamics of the middle east, specifically the ethnic regions:

"The conflicts unleashed in Iraq and Syria have merged to become the epicenter of a struggle between the [Middle East's] historic ethnic and religious empires: Persian-Shiite Iran, Arab-Sunni Saudi Arabia, and Turkic-Sunni Muslim Turkey."

In others words, in this neighborhood the big struggle is between the Arabs, the Turks, and the Persians, and these ethnic struggles regularly run over country borders which are "porous and ineffectual." ISIS wants to create a new state by unifying parts of neighbors Iraq and Syria into one continuous region.

Veterans walk the entire Appalachian Trail

Veterans walk the entire Appalachian TrailWashington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/in-a-trek-from-georgia-to-maine-a-group-of-veterans-aims-to-walk-off-the-war/2014/06/12/de8dbbc6-f1b7-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217_story.html

trekkers helping stop human trafficking in Nepal

Nepal leads the world in human trafficking which goes mostly to India over an open border. Because many remote Nepalis are not aware of the issue, the organization Friends of Maitin helps spread the word through trekkers passing through.

Friends of Maitin
http://www.friendsofmaitinepal.org/trekkers-spread-the-word.php