Author Archives: Michael Straus
Building schools with plastic bottles
Walls made of plastic bottles instead of bricks. Given how mercilessly my nephews harass me (rightfully, regretfully) for my prematurely failing memory, I nonetheless remember clearly the first time I saw this remarkably simple-yet-innovative idea in action. Back in 2008, I was visiting the rainforest hippie enclave of San Marcos, accessible only by boat and … Continue reading
Occupy this moment
The ‘moment’ is infinitely small … no matter how you slice it, it just gets smaller and smaller. And yet, in that briefest flicker of time, since that’s all that there is, infinity exists in each and every moment. What a gift.
Star Trek, Cousin Alfred & Cancer Research
I’m exploring my 95-year-old cousin Alfred’s breakthrough cancer detection research from the 1970s, in which he applied electricity to a drop of blood sitting upon NASA-created liquid crystals, and took remarkable photographs of the resulting color patterns. Here’s Alfred in a 1982 “In Search of” TV episode, hosted by Leonard “Spock” Nemoy: In nearly all test cases, … Continue reading
Faces of Bali
My friend Joel Singer, an American artist now living in Bali, just finished his latest work. For me, it’s a lovely reminder of Bali, a place which I’ll soon be calling home.
Blessed are the cheese makers
Velveeta, Rondele and Laughing Cow. That’s what ‘cheese’ meant to me in the 1970s. Somewhat ironic, given that I grew up on a dairy farm that since has become emblematic of the sustainable, local and organic food movements. Once, I was embarrassed to admit to my city friends that I grew up shoveling shit. Today, farmers … Continue reading
Nobody dies in paradise
I met Kirill at the German Bakery in Arambol, the hippy-chic beach community in Goa. Mind you, there are dozens of German bakeries (all, invariably, named ‘German Bakery”) strewn across ex-pat neighborhood across India and Nepal, as if some entrepreneurial genius had created a German-style ‘Let’s bring “real” food to the East” Marshall Plan to … Continue reading
Occupy this wine!
Today, my friend Eric Cohen’s Shoe Shine Wine hit the market and, in addition to being thrilled to see all of his hard work come to fruition, I wanted to share a few things about Eric that you won’t read about in a press release. After twenty years of doing PR for ‘do-good’ companies, I can … Continue reading
Goa flashbacks
My latest travel article, Escape to Green Goa, was just published and, and it’s a bit shocking that it was already a full year ago that I first stepped foot on her sandy shores. It was in Goa that I taught myself to ride a motorcycle, despite the hoards of drunken Russians hell-bent on proving … Continue reading
Bookmarks of an incredible journey
Sacred Geometry. Spontaneous Remission. The conspiracy film Thrive. My web browser is quickly filling up with dozens of folders and scores of bookmarks – in the past few days, I’ve added wikipedia entries on fractals, lucid dreaming, geomagnetic reversal, quantum mysticism and Peru’s Nazca lines. I’ve watched a YouTube video in which a steady stream of … Continue reading
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