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Friends of Orchha, India
With every new Green Traveler Guides article (click to read … seriously, I think it’s one of my better reviews) …. I write about my travels, I can only think of the stories I have yet to write. Remembering Orchha, I think about my friend, Canada Mike, a deeply spiritual seeker from a blue-collar working class … Continue reading
How to Start a Revolution
Question: What do Ukraine, Syria, Serbia and Venezuela have in common? Answer: A frail 82-year-old professor from Boston. Meet Gene Stark. When he’s not tending his rooftop orchid garden, Stark is analyzing and distilling the lessons from the world’s non-violent revolutions. The result is From Dictatorship to Democracy (buy the book, or download the free .pdf … Continue reading
An Open Letter to Everyone who eats
An Open Letter to Everyone who Eats “Safe beyond a reasonable doubt” should be the new regulatory standard for evaluating Genetically Modified Foods The U.S. government has failed to take reasonable measures to protect our food supply – specifically, Genetically Modified foods (also known as GM, GMOs, GE, Bovine Growth Hormone, etc). The Obama administration should … Continue reading
Introducing Cosmic-Soup.com!
Traveling has been, as you can imagine, eye-opening. But nothing – not trekking in Mongolia, or the glue-sniffing kids on Kathmandu’s streets, not even witnessing the oppression of the Burmese government on indigenous peoples – prepared me for the path I’m now traveling … Somewhere along the way – 15 months, 12 countries and an … Continue reading
Mysteries of Life #539 – Pozies, not Prozac
Mom liked to garden. It calmed her nerves. She needed it, too. Most people don’t know that part about mom – how she’d flip out whenever the farm’s finances were discussed; how she’d combat insomnia by watching late night episodes of Murder, She Wrote and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) fights; how she’d bury herself in environmental … Continue reading
“Gratitude” – video by Louie Schwartzberg
Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer – presented at TedX-San Francisco in June, 2011.
Ich bin ein … Dual Citizen
I arrive early for my 11am meeting. Though years of Americanization had long ago erased nearly all of my dead-father’s Germanic punctuality, I knew better than to be late for a meeting at the German Consulate. Ursula slid the single, green tinted 8.5“ x 11” sheet of paper across our corner of the vast conference … Continue reading
Hurricane Irene – a short Nepali – Culture Shock
It’s a strange, surreal morning here in Petaluma: CNN, MSNBC and all the networks are … flooded … with Hurricane Irene. Anderson Cooper is giving a history lesson about previous hurricanes. Another reporter battles furious winds to provide viewers with breaking news on how a house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is leaning … Continue reading
Smiling Budha – a cautionary tale
On an overnight snorkeling trip to the black-sands beaches of Amed, on Bali’s east coast, I again succumb to culinary curiosity, unable to resist investigating a string of Smiling Budha street signs proudly proclaiming “Local Organic Food.” It’s around 4pm as I wander into the restaurant, after driving on my little Honda rental scooter … Continue reading
Int’l Petition: Stand with Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi
Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s movement for democracy in Burma is hanging in the balance this week, with the regime threatening a brutal response to her call to free political prisoners. Activists have appealed to the world for help, saying international pressure is crucial to tipping the balance. Let’s stand with Suu Kyi and … Continue reading
