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Constructing Human Towers in India
by Amanda Arnold | August 23, 2011
According to Hindu faith, when Lord Krishna was a little boy, he looooooved butter. (And can you blame him?) Unfortunately for Krishna, buttermilk was stored in clay pots that were hung high above the ground — out of a little tike’s reach. So, Krishna did what any kid with an intense food craving would do: He gathered a group of friends to build a human pyramid, and via this pyramid, Krishna climbed to his beloved butter.
Most people are well aware of humanity’s constant struggle against famine and food insecurity. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 925 million people across the globe went hungry in 2010. The number is staggering, but it’s still down from over 1 billion in 2009. To make this horrific number a little [...]
Recently, on Stuff Mom Never Told You, Molly and I have covered the Western obsession with tanning and the Eastern custom of skin lightening. In both episodes, we focused largely on women since we’re stereotypically more attentive to our personal appearance and more willing to alter it via makeup, tanning, hair styling, etc. But in [...]
Free Toaster When You Open a PennyPincher (TM) Goat Savings Account
by Josh Clark | November 18, 2010
If money is the root of all evil and goats are the incarnate of evil, then why not use them interchangably? Well, you can. Some enterprising entrepreneurs in rural Korawan, India have established a bank that maintains goats as currency. It makes utter and complete sense — don’t say it doesn’t, Western Yankee.
NDTV reports of a woman named Prema and some of her fellow villagers have assembled some goats that they loan to woman in the village looking to make extra cash for their families selling goat’s milk.
Monarch butterflies may look fragile, but every year, hordes of them fly thousands of miles to special wintering grounds in Mexico. In this episode, meet millions of these ethereal orange-and-black travelers in the butterfly sanctuaries of Michoacan.
Last night, when I was procrastinating working on something else, I ran across an article about how the government of India has announced that it’s releasing a $35 tablet. I don’t remember exactly which media outlet I saw it in, but it’s been covered in many places, such as this article in Bloomberg Businessweek by John Ribeiro.
Taj Mahal: Perfect Symmetry, Almost
by Amanda Arnold | July 15, 2010
Our brains like things that are symmetrical. Even an infant will fixate longer on a face with two perfectly aligned eyes than one that looks like a Cyclops, according to Scientific American. If you ask science, it’ll tell you we’re attracted to symmetrical facial features because they indicate good health. If we mate with that person, our offspring will thrive (our brain thinks).
What I’m saying is that we can’t help but like the look of something — anything — that’s symmetrical. And that’s one reason we find the Taj Mahal beautiful. Just look at the pictures. Not only are the structure’s features symmetrical, but that symmetry is reflected rather symmetrically in the pool of water in front of the building.
Just about everyone has heard about the Taj Mahal, but few know many details about it. And the details of this 460 year old building really are fascinating…
I can think of things I’d rather do than drink after a rat.
And yet at Rajasthan’s Karni Mata Temple, which is populated by about 20,000 rats, barefooted visitors lap up water from rats’ bowls and eat crumbs the creatures have driveled on the floor. In most parts of the world, rats are regarded as filthy and diseased. The same is true for most of India, where the vermin aren’t exactly revered. But inside the walls of Karni Mata near Binaker, the rat is a holy animal. And to eat or drink after the rodent is considered a blessing.
One of the best things about being a part of Stuff Mom Never Told You, without a doubt, is the mail that we receive from our listeners. And this week our listener mail took a turn for the wonderfully weird, as we’ve started receiving photographs of the beards, mustaches and the other forms of facial hair that defy description that our listeners sport. That’s because Wednesday’s podcast posed the question: What does facial hair say about men?
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