Chinese Culture Fades in Washington's Chinatown
http://www.voanews.com/content/chinese-culture-fades-in-washington-chinatown/2986062.html

I always wondered how many Chinese people actually live in Chinatown...

"[Chinatown's] Chinese population has shrunk from a high of 3,000 to around 300 today."

They have actually been squeezed out by high rents, even as the local businesses use the "Chinatown" theme. Subway, Chipotle, McDonald's and dozens of other businesses have their names written in Chinese, lest total confusion break out on the street.

The future of farming

Very interesting cover story this week in Newsweek that discusses many of the innovative farming methods we have talked about like the Green Revolution, hydroponic farming and something I never heard of aeroponic farming, vertical farming, urban and indoor farming. Also discusses overcoming land scarcity and the need to make even basic modernizations in farming in some regions of the world where people are "still farming as though its 10,000 BC."

To feed humankind, we need farms of the future today
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/30/feed-humankind-we-need-farms-future-today-385933.htm

Taiwan, an island of green in Asia

Taiwan, an island of green in Asia
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/travel/taiwan-an-island-of-green-in-asia.html

I had thought of Taiwan as the article describes it in 1991, an island of "lush green mountains obscured by clouds of smog." Looks like things have changed: air quality is much better and the island has embraced an environmental perspective:

“The biggest shift is with the attitude of Taiwanese people,” Mr. Crook said. “The countryside is no longer seen as backwards and boring, but rather a place where people can relax, exercise, learn about ecology and better understand what makes Taiwan Taiwan.”

Solar-paneled Beitou Library in Taipei

A new Biological Corridor across the Amazon?

Martín von Hildebrand has a plan for a new Biological Corridor across the Amazon combining national and local parks and indigenous reserves in a continuous chain of protected areas from the Andes to the Atlantic, see map.

An Audacious Plan for the Amazon
http://ensia.com/interviews/martin-von-hildebrand-an-audacious-plan-for-the-amazon/


Biological Corridor Triple A: Andes-Amazon-Atlantic

Paris, the city of... underground mushrooms

The famous underground catacombs of Paris attract thousands of tourists each year, although only 200 can go in at a time.

However, the catacombs also provide an environment which lends itself to raising Champignons de Paris aka button/Portobello mushrooms.

Champignons de Paris: the famous mushroom and their city farmers - France Today
http://www.francetoday.com/articles/2015/03/16/champignons_de_paris.html

Video: French chefs champion the return of traditional mushroom farming - AP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGEqzac0saM


Angel Moioli of Champignonnière Les Carrières growing mushrooms

Kīpuka

What's a Kīpuka?

In volcanic areas like Hawaii, a Kīpuka is an area of land that gets surrounded by lava, forming an "island" or hole in the lava that remains intact. It provides an island of life, surrounded by sheer black rock, where many species often thrive. Often, the Kīpuka area is a raised bump or has some other topographic irregularity that kept lava from covering it. Kīpukas can be just a few feet or can be several square miles.

Kīpukas also provide a source organic material which can be used to recolonize the lava-covered areas around it. Seeds and spores from the Kīpuka can blow or wash over onto lava, restarting life there through primary succession.

Ongoing eruptions from Kīlauea volcano, shown in the example below, cover 90% of the volcano's surface every 100 years. The plant community has adapted to bounce back very fast through primary succession.


Kīpuka on Kīlauea volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi in Hawaii


Craig Childs showing primary succession by ferns on lava next to a kīpuka
http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2014/11/12/what-destruction-has-wrought/

USGS - see lower section on kīpukas
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/archive/1999/99_01_21.html

Craig Childs on Kipukas
http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2014/11/12/what-destruction-has-wrought/

Kipukas - NPS
http://www.nps.gov/crmo/learn/nature/kipukas.htm

China's migrant children

China's migrant children - The Guardian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_clX1WACZ6Y

A poignant look at the children of Chinese rural migrants to Beijing. China's hukou household registration system, often said to be China's caste system, requires people to register as rural or urban dwellers, but many rural people migrate to cities. Problem is, they and their children do not get benefits from government when they are away from their registered home.