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For those who truly care about the environment many consider themselves eco-warriors and work countless hours in their chosen cause. As a retired entrepreneur from the car wash business I always understood how important clean water is. As a runner I always realized how important clean air is. So am I an environmentalist by profession, observation or choice?

Well generally I do not consider myself an environmentalist at all, although my action appear to point to that? Additionally in my retirement and the author of over 6000 online articles; I will often write on environmental issues and have been called a 24/7 Eco Warrior? Do I like this title? Well it is interesting that perception one might get from their observations of my various activities.

However as far as a 24/7 Eco warrior; I am a 24/7 type of guy indeed, Eco Warrior, well I am a realist and believe in the cycles, flows and patterns of the Earth Systems and realize it will take care of its self, while the little human ants upon its surface do their thing. The issue really is that we need to be wise and not exacerbate the pendulum swings of the normal cycle flows. And we must maintain clean water and air if we want our own bio-systems to work right.

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\\ tags: Humanities

I was at a school where racial segregation was the greatest thing since sliced bread. To them. Because the black girls had total control over our entire environment, and all the boys were in their section of the playground. The black girls were somehow in the spread out zone map of egalitarian war. I was the “journalist.” I wandered the playground, interviewing every segregated group on it. There were the black girls who jumped rope like it was goin’ out of style. There were the white girls who had to bow to that Goddess of Jumping, the master of the black girls. Everybody was into it funny. I didn’t cause any of the “events” that happened there, I just entered each girl section of the segregated girls playground, interviewing every one of them like I was Alex Hailey or something, the ghost writer who helped Malcolm X write his book.

I will never make it that far in life…

I even got my damn African glasses knocked off when I tried to go to the boy’s playground and interview them. They had a non-racist playground going. We had a racist, tallist, shortest, Jewest, Christian, fat girl segregated playground going, and somehow, if it meant something to us that we were evil incarnate, that worked for everyone else but me. Me? Nuh uh.

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\\ tags: Humanities

Fauvism began in 1905. It was a short-lived movement and included a group of artists who used deep, more intense color than the work of the Impressionists. With simplified lines the subjects were easy to decipher. Objects were painted in any colour and the perspectives exaggerated.

’Fauves’ means wild beasts in French. The finished look of the work was immaterial as the artists just painted what they visualized.

Leading the movement were Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. See Matisse’s 1908 ‘The Dessert’; and/or Derain’s ‘The Two Barges’.

Fauvism, had no concrete theories. Matisse’s aim was to use art as decoration. Seeing a work by Matisse one senses the feeling of d©cor, especially if harmonizes with the surroundings.

Rough and clumsy, intense, vivid, unnatural colour, distortion, was the emotional, driving force.

The movement was not popular and was subject to abuse. However, it gained some respect when art buyers began to show interest.

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\\ tags: Fauvism, Humanities

Five years ago when Tehelka.com introduced India to the concept of a sting operation, we were all jubilant.It showed us that finally transperancy was on its way.A very unfortunate Bangaru Laxman was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.And something that we had always known was proved yet again,namely,politicians are corrupt.But soon these optimistic musings were killed when most of those implicated by the sting operation continued their careers in active politics.Tehelka, just as its name implied, had started the age of sensationalism although accountability still seemed elusive.

Media gurus and spinmasters realised that the Indian psyche loved this concept of a sneak peek.This lead to many scandals which were bordering on obscenity and definitely in the realm of bad taste.From sting operations on B-grade Bollywood character artistes to unknown television artists, we saw it all.News channels covered these faux pas of the relatively rich and famous as though it was credible news.Obscene MMS’s regularly pop up featuring Bollywood starlets and the girl-next-door.I guess the decades of prudish media coverage lead to this voyeristic streak in all of us.

In all fairness,we cannot blame the media agencies alone for this turn of events, as they just supply the public’s demand. Our nation stands at this critical juncture in History with increasing global clout and also increasing global aspirations of its citizens.But as the values subscribed to by the mass media change, the public perceptions are confusingly muddled.

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\\ tags: Humanities

Today it is all gone except for Amtrak. Kids don’t see the big freights trains and steam locomotives. They are generally not exposed the railroads of today. The Freeway Highway System has moved away from the tracks of our railroads. In the past the highway was usually built next to or within visual sight of the railroads. Kids like me would look out of the car and see all kinds of trains.

From this kind of experience kids, boys in particular, would be looking for model trains at the local department store for birthdays or Christmas. It brought excitement when kids would see a model train at the local department store at Christmas. Children would want to see the latest catalogs from Lionel or American Flyer.

Visiting a train depot was always a great experience to see the new streamliners and other railroad equipment. Many children lived very close to the mainline of a railroad or roundhouse. They could see the operation of a railroad in action.

Many of my friends grew up in the Midwest where a large number of railroads existed. Many times a father or relative worked for the railroad giving kids a chance to see a big steam engine up close or even getting a ride once in a while.

This was a great learning experience for a lot of young people. Some of them became famous photographers of the steam age and trains in general. There have been several artist who lived in the 30’s through the late 60’s painted some of the most famous art work on trains any where in the World.

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\\ tags: Humanities

The art movement, Cubism, began in 1908 and strongly influenced art and sculpture in the early 20C.

Cubism dissected painted images, then reassembled them as abstract forms. Cubism showed images which could be seen from all angles. Subjects were painted in cube form, hence the name, Cubism.

French painters, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were foremost in introducing the movement. They worked closely until 1914. By 1910 cubism had become popular and was known as the”Cubist School.”

Other art movements began and new trends developed.

‘Analytical cubism’ displayed surfaces closely patterned with incomplete lines, which played the forms against one another. Often the works were painted in the same tone, making it difficult to identify images. Artists left clues, such as a pipe suggested someone smoking; also alphabetic letters, a newspaper or a bottle of wine.

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\\ tags: Cubism, Humanities

The beginnings of the Indian independence movement can be traced back to the Indian rebellion of 1857. Soldiers fighting for the British East India company’s rebelled against British rule. The revolt was harshly defeated creating a sense of injustice amongst the Indian elites. The late 19th Century also witnessed a resurgence in Indian culture and with it a sense of cultural pride. Foremost amongst these were people like the Debendranath Tagore and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Roy founded the influential Brahmo Samaj, which campaigned against the degradation of Hindu culture in particular they opposed superstitions such as Sati and idol worship. The religious revival of Hindu culture was also inspired by spiritual figures such as Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. In particular Swami Vivekananda became a hero of the Indian movement because of his exhortations for his fellow Indians to arise and transform the problems facing Indians.

In 1885 at the suggestion of a retired British civil servant a group of leading Indian elites formed the Indian National Congress. In the beginning the National Congress was a very loose relatively apolitical body. It professed allegiance to the British Raj. However over time Congress began to attract the attention of radicals such as Bipin Pal, and Tilak. These young revolutionaries were the first to call for complete Indian independence and in some circumstances advocated violent resistance. One weakness of Congress however was that it failed to attract any of the Muslim population, it was also weakened by division about what the goals of the Congress were.

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\\ tags: Humanities