The priest-king has died. Shadows of grief all around. The Moched king was a demi-god to his subjects, half ma and half god. When the king passed by, no one dared to look up at him. Everyone kept their heads down. Every moment, the subjects worshiped the Moched king in front. The hearts of the...
Giordano Bruno was born in Naples, in 1548. His parents, Furless Avrlino and Giovanni Brunno, named him Filipo Bruno. The baby boy grew up influenced by Thomas Aquinas, Everroes, John dun Scores, Marcello Ficino, Plato, Copernicus, Nicolas of Cusco, Raymond, Lully, platonism, Renaissance, etc....
A piece of heaven on Earth, a stone with such hypnotic beauty that it has left everyone an admirer and yearning for more, Lapis Lazuli is perhaps a stone so popular that it has been recorded through most of human history. Dating back to antiquity, Lapis Lazuli, more than a stone, is an enigma,...
Among foods that have survived and thrived through eons, potatoes are one of the top contenders. They are stem tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, which is a perennial plant in the Solanaceae family. They appear in various different shapes, colours and sizes. Boil them, mash them, roast them,...
As a classic children’s English nursery rhyme, to which we all have grown up knowing ‘ Ring-A-Ring-A- Roses’ there’s more to the meaning than the fun we might have enjoyed whilst playing as a child. But how many of us actually know what is the history and meaning of it? Let’s find out!...
Yin and yang (or yin-yang) is a complex relational concept in Chinese culture that has developed over thousands of years. The philosophy is at least 3,500 years old, discussed in the ninth-century BCE text known as I Ching or Book of Changes, and influences the philosophies of Taoism and...
Coco de Mer, commonly known as the sea coconut, or double coconut, Lodoicea is a monotypic genus in the palm family. The only species, Lodoicea maldivica, is endemic to the islands of Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles. The coco de mer palm has separate male and female trees, unlike the...
Almost 6,000 years ago originating in China, Feng Shui referred to as ‘Chinese Geomancy’ is a pseudoscientific traditional practice. “Feng” means wind and “shui” means water. The philosophy of feng shui is a practice of arranging the pieces in living spaces in order to create balance with the...
Spending time in nature good for our bodies and minds. From the fresh air, to the gentle sounds of nature, to the feel of sunlight on our skin, keep our feeling refreshed, restored and revitalized. The art of slowing down in nature has a name. Forest bathing, or shinrin yoku as it is called in...
Black holes are the strangest objects in the Universe. A black hole does not have a surface, like a planet or star. Instead, it is a region of space where matter has collapsed in on itself. This catastrophic collapse results in a huge amount of mass being concentrated in an incredibly small area....
The Aztecs called it xocolātl (meaning "bitter water"), but it should have been called ambrosia. The Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the God of wisdom, and the seeds had so much value they were used as a form of currency. Cacao has been used in Mesoamerica since...
Never has a plant fooled so many. It’s called a vegetable but is really a fruit; it was once thought to be poisonous but is enjoyed by millions; today it is mostly red, but originally it was yellow. The tomato is a native fruit of South America, specifically the Andes region of Ecuador, Bolivia...
Few vegetables are as versatile as the potato, another native of the Andes with an ancestry extending back to around 8000-5000 BCE in Peru. You can have them boiled or broiled, fried or mashed, with meat or fish. Potatoes were first introduced into Europe following the Spanish conquest of the Inca...
There was a king who believed that he would not fail if he knew the answers to the three questions: 1. What was the right time for every action? 2. Who were the right people to be with? 3. What was the most important thing to do? The king announced that he would give a great reward to the person...
I Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. “Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!” he said. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. II “Forward, the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismayed? Not though the...
Home they brought her warrior dead: She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry: All her maidens, watching, said, "She must weep or she will die." Then they praised him, soft and low, Call'd him worthy to be loved, Truest friend and noblest foe; Yet she neither...
Khichuri is one of the most common dishes made in our households, for special occasions or maybe even for day to day consumption. It is not only a savoury dish but it also used in various sweet delicacies. We know it as khichuri, people in Karnataka call it bisibele bhat, and the Tamils name it...