Happy Nirvana

A vibrant flea market in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Image courtesy of Hester Street Fair There’s something for everyone at the Hester Street Fair, whether you’re a thrifter, local foodie, antique hunter, or otherwise. The only outdoor vendor fair in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, founded by SuChin Pak and Ron Castellano, houses up [...]

Most nutritionists will tell you that controlling calorie intake is the key to losing weight (or avoiding weight gain.)  But a new animal study indicates that some calories are far more fattening than others! A six-year study at Wake Forest University, (published in the journal Obesity) found that monkeys fed a diet high in trans [...]

Illegal logging is on the increase in the Terai, the lowland areas of Nepal. Photo: Librex via flickr. A quickie on a seriously shocking situation: As Mongabay and BBC News report, Nepal has announced a two month temporary ban on all logging in the country. This comes as forestry officials learned that in the past [...]

Boreal Forest Losing the Most Ground A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) concludes that over a million square kilometers of forest were lost around the world between 2000 and 2005, and that both the U.S. and Canada had higher percentages of forest losses than even Brazil (a country [...]

Even coral that looks the same, new research shows, may be part of a completely different species. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons Some types of coral are abundant across reefs—turning up in a wide range of depths. Researchers have long assumed that this demonstrated versatility of the species—something that could be useful when rebuilding reefs damaged [...]

Open borders, free trade, population growth, and wealth are all serious drivers for the spread of invasive species. Image credit: Kecko/Flickr The open borders of the European Union, it is argued, make the natural shift of populations&mash;from places with few jobs to those with more opportunities—a simpler prospect. Plant and animal species, of course, have [...]

The AMA will today appear before the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee to discuss the AMA’s views on the COAG health reform agreement and its potential impact on Australia’s health system. AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said that while the reforms provided additional investment, there was no guarantee that the reforms themselves would [...]