Happy Nirvana

Image credit: Aaron Villescas/Flickr Typically, warm winters make life easier for wildlife. In Yellowstone National Park, however, a string of unusually mild winters has allowed a beetle to strip the region of whitebark pine trees—which are an essential source of protein for the park’s bears. Now, as the undernourished bears struggle to prepare for hibernation, [...]

Cave Troll from Lord of the Rings via Wikipedia Dan Blankenhorn of Smart Planet was thinking of his commenters when he suggested that “trolls die young”, based on a study researchers of the US National Institute on Aging. They looked at 5,614 Sardinians from four villages, and found that “those who scored high for antagonistic [...]

Photos of the “mobile ethnic garden” via Christina Cho. Compared to learning a new language or traveling to another country, digging into a plate of Chinese greens or whipping up a spicy serving of salsa may seem like a superficial shortcut to cultural understanding. But food, and the rituals surrounding it, is often so close [...]

International Assistance Mission, an international charity, informs that 10 members of one of their medical teams were murdered in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. The charity says they were members of the International Assistance Mission (IAM) eye camp team. The medics were in Nuristan after responding to an invitation by local communities. They had completed their medical work [...]

Bevacizumab (Avastin), a bowel cancer medication which is widely used off label to prevent AMD (wet age related macular degeneration), has been shown to be safe and effective – it is a much cheaper alternative to approved drug ranibizumab (Lucentis). Several large trials comparing the two medications are currently ongoing. Ranibizumab was not included in [...]

Two of photographer Antonio Briceño’s diptych portraits from Rwanda. Photos via Art Works for Change. The head of a cooperative of honey harvesters, a park guide, and a doctor who uses a garden of medicinal plants to treat asthma and other ailments are among the key “puzzle pieces” in preserving Rwanda’s biodiversity while providing its [...]