26.12.10

Little Gandhi (11): a gift


Gustav: I would like to give you a gift: a ticket for the yearly Cannibal Anonymous meeting

Little Gandhi: thanks Gustav!

Gustav: You’re welcome Master, all of us are better people at Christmas

Little Gandhi: so… we now only have to taste one each other.

                                       ***

Gustav: Ho pensato di regalarti un biglietto per il meeting annuale dei Cannibali Anonimi.

Little Gandhi: grazie Gustav

Gustav: Prego Maestro, a Natale siamo tutti più buoni

Little Gandhi: dunque non resta che assaggiarci.

Pubblicato da WTA alle 26.12.10 0 commenti
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23.12.10

Little Gandhi (10): meaning


Gustav: In the dream I was happy because I had become a Zan master, but girls didn’t look at me any more because I only had one tooth

Little Gandhi: You should have explained them the meaning

Gustav: I was too late and the dream had already started when the dentist died

Little Gandhi: If you only have one tooth each time you eat something you need to develop a creative way to do that, you cannot do it automatically or in a repetitive way.

Gustav: Wait, now I’m trying to dream while taking notes

Little Gandhi: one tooth means one life

Gustav: this is The Zan Oral Way!

Little Gandhi: Zan says: use the only tooth you have with creativity.
                               
                                            ***

Gustav: Nel sogno ero felice di essere diventato maestro Zan, ma le ragazze non mi guardavano più perché avevo un dente solo.

Little Gandhi: Dovevi spiegargli il senso

Gustav: Ero in ritardo e il sogno era già iniziato quando il dentista è morto

Little Gandhi: Con un dente solo, di fronte a ogni cibo devi inventare un modo creativo per riuscire a mangiare, non puoi farlo in modo ripetitivo e automatico.

Gustav: Aspetta che adesso cerco di sognarlo mentre prendo appunti

Little Gandhi: un dente = una vita

Gustav: Ma questa è la Via Orale Zan!

Little Gandhi: Infatti lo Zan suggerisce: usa con creatività l'unico dente di cui disponi.
Pubblicato da WTA alle 23.12.10 0 commenti
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21.12.10

Jason Bourne, how to become

This is a list of the skills of Bourne:

tradecraft
hand-to-hand combat
firearms
knives
explosives
handling vehicles
languages


Follow WTA to discover how to develop these skills and then look more like Jason Bourne.

Pubblicato da WTA alle 21.12.10 0 commenti
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17.12.10

Little Gandhi (9): mistake




Gustav: Dicono che il cane sia il miglior amico dell'uomo e che ogni cane assomigli al proprio padrone.
Little Gandhi: Ti ho mai raccontato del cane della mia cara vecchia amica Signora Penrose?
Gustav: No maestro
Little Gandhi: Lo mangiai per errore scambiandolo per la sua padrona.

                                            ***

Gustav: It is said that dogs are man's best friends and each dog looks like his owner.
Little Gandhi: Have I ever told you about the dog of my dear old friend Lady Penrose?
Gustav: No Master
Little Gandhi: Accidentally I ate him… mistaking him for Lady Penrose.


Pubblicato da WTA alle 17.12.10 0 commenti
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15.12.10

Little Gandhi (8): wok experience



Gustav: Master, have you read this article?

Little Gandhi: I’m afraid, I have directly read the substantive.

Gustav: there still seem to be populations of cannibals in a remote area of South-East Asia. Master, what do you think about cannibals?

Little Gandhi: I've tasted them only once... at a wok party.

Gustav: Where?!?

Little Gandhi: In my garden...wonderful wok experience!

                                           ***

Gustav: Maestro, hai letto questo articolo?

Little Gandhi: Temo di essere passato direttamente al nome

Gustav: Sembra che esistano ancora delle popolazioni antropofaghe in una zona remota dell'Asia sud orientale. Maestro cosa ne pensi dei cannibali?

Little Gandhi: Li ho assaggiati solo una volta... a un wok party

Gustav: Dove?!?

Little Gandhi: Nel mio giardino...fantastica wok experience!


Pubblicato da WTA alle 15.12.10 0 commenti
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The Private Life of Plants (BBC Nature) download

The Private Life of Plants is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 11 January 1995.
A study of the growth, movement, reproduction and survival of plants. Each of the six 50-minute episodes discusses the aspects of a plant's life-cycle, using examples from around the world. 


The Private Life of Plants (BBC, 1995)

Episodes

1. "Travelling"
2. "Growing"
3. "Flowering"
4. "The Social Struggle"
5. "Living Together"
6. "Surviving"

Pubblicato da WTA alle 15.12.10 0 commenti
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SERIAL AGE: Human Target season 01 download


Shekerando Bruce Willis, Mission Impossible e James Bond otterrete Christopher Chance, la super guardia del corpo protagonista di Human Target, una serie che non può non soddisfare gli amanti dell'Action puro.

Pubblicato da WTA alle 15.12.10 0 commenti
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Ninja, how to become

“ Ninja travelled in disguise to other territories to judge the situation of the enemy, they would inveigle their way into the midst of the enemy to discover gaps, and enter enemy castles to set them on fire, and carried out assassinations, arriving in secret."
Hanawa Hokinoichi 

A ninja was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations. The ninja, using covert methods of waging war, were contrasted with the samurai, who had strict rules about honor and combat.
The skills required of the ninja has come to be known in modern times as ninjutsu, but it is unlikely they were previously named under a single discipline. Modern misconceptions have identified ninjutsu as a form of combat art, but historically, ninjutsu largely covered espionage and survival skills.

NINJA TODAY

Today the best ninjutsu school is The Bujinkan an international organization based in Japan and headed by Masaaki Hatsumi. It is best known for its association with the ninja. The system taught by this group, called Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, consists of nine separate martial arts traditions.


Pubblicato da WTA alle 15.12.10 0 commenti
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14.12.10

Survival Books: The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency (free download)

"Commonly known as 'The Father of Self-Sufficiency', John Seymour lived a varied and fascinating life". 
(Carningli press)

John Seymour (12 June 1914 – 14 September 2004) was an influential figure in the self-sufficiency movement. Precise categorisation is difficult: he was a writer, broadcaster, environmentalist, agrarian, smallholder and activist; a rebel against: consumerism, industrialisation, genetically modified organisms, cities, motor cars; and an advocate for: self-reliance, personal responsibility, self-sufficiency, conviviality (food, drink, dancing and singing), gardening, caring for the Earth and for the soil.



Pubblicato da WTA alle 14.12.10 0 commenti
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The Life of Mammals, BBC -download-


The Life of Mammals is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 20 November 2002.
A study of the evolution and habits of the various mammal species. Each of the ten episodes looks at one (or several closely related) mammal groups and discusses the different facets of their day-to-day existence.

Documentary

The Life of Mammals (BBC, 2002)

Episodes

01. "A Winning Design"
02. "Insect Hunters"
03. "Plant Predators"
04. "Chisellers"
05. "Meat Eaters"
06. "The Opportunists"
07. "Return to the Water"
08. "Life in the Trees"
09. "The Social Climbers"
10. "Food for Thought"

Pubblicato da WTA alle 14.12.10 0 commenti
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B&B Jared Diamond

BIO
Jared Diamond is an eclectic Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began his scientific career in physiology and expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Among Dr. Diamond's many awards are the National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Prize honoring the Scientist as Poet, presented by Rockefeller University. He has published more than two hundred articles and several books including the New York Times bestseller "Guns, Germs, and Steel," which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

BIBLIO

1972 Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea, Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 12, Cambridge, Mass., pp. 438.

1975 M. L. Cody and J. M. Diamond, eds. Ecology and Evolution of Communities. Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

1979 J. M. Diamond and M. LeCroy. Birds of Karkar and Bagabag Islands, New Guinea. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 164:469–531

1984 J. M. Diamond. The Avifaunas of Rennell and Bellona Islands. The Natural History of Rennell Islands, British Solomon Islands 8:127–168

1986 J. M. Diamond and T. J. Case. eds. Community Ecology. Harper and Row, New York

1986 B. Beehler, T. Pratt, D. Zimmerman, H. Bell, B. Finch, J. M. Diamond, and J. Coe. Birds of New Guinea. Princeton University Press,Princeton

1992 The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

1997 Why is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality

1997 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Co.

2001 The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, & Biogeography (with Ernst Mayr)

2005 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking 
Books.

2010 Natural Experiments of History (with James A. Robinson). 

Pubblicato da WTA alle 14.12.10 0 commenti
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Strings From Prehistory

The works of the artists of the caves include the code, the universal message that still allows us to describe the reality: the universe is binary.
The pairs of opposites represented by horse and bison, male and female signs found in the caves, are just the beginning of the story of how we think about the world as dominated by opposite forces. It is this history that led Homo sapiens from Prehistory to the strings of 0 and 1 of the computer languages.

BOOK
  
"Why would the Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers of Europe expend so much time and effort to penetrate into deep, dark, and dangerous caverns to paint amazing images of animals?"

Amir Aczel, The Cave and The Cathedral, Wiley, 2009.

trad ita: 


Join researcher and scientist Amir D. Aczel on a time-traveling journey through the past and discover what the ancient caves of France and Spain may reveal about the origin of language, art, and human thought as he illuminates one of the greatest mysteries in anthropology.

Pubblicato da WTA alle 14.12.10 0 commenti
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13.12.10

Little Gandhi (7): ideas




Gustav: Master, I’m thinking about the future
Little Gandhi: perhaps also the future is thinking about you
Gustav: How can I know it?
Little Gandhi: Well, what impression do you think it got of you when you met?
Gustav: I didn't know that I met the future.
Little Gandhi: You meet it whenever you catch its attention and you convince it that it’s worth going back to the present for a walk.
Gustav: And when does this happen?
Little Gandhi: Whenever you have an innovative idea
Gustav: ...
Little Gandhi: ...
Gustav: I have an innovative idea!
Little Gandhi: one of those without a future
Gustav: I was bluffing...

                                                 ***

Gustav: Maestro, stavo pensando al futuro
Little Gandhi: ... forse anche lui ti sta pensando
Gustav: Come posso saperlo?
Little Gandhi: Beh, che impressione pensi di avergli fatto quando vi siete incontrati?
Gustav: Non sapevo di avere incontrato il futuro
Little Gandhi: Lo incontri quando catturando la sua attenzione riesci a convincerlo che valga la pena tornare indietro a fare quattro passi nel presente
Gustav: E quando questo accade?
Little Gandhi: Ogni volta in cui hai un'idea innovativa
Gustav: ...
Little Gandhi: ...
Gustav: Ho un'idea innovativa!
Little Gandhi: una di quelle senza futuro
Gustav: ...bluffavo


Pubblicato da WTA alle 13.12.10 0 commenti
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12.12.10

download National Geographic & Jared Diamond (travel book+video)

Understanding the roots of global inequality

Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet?
Why didn’t the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead?
Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East?
Why did farming never emerge in Australia?
And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?

BOOK

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years, W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.

trad ita: Jared Diamond, Armi, Acciaio e Malattie, Einaudi editore, 2005.

The book attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (including North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while attempting to refute the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. 

"Guns, Germs and Steel lays a foundation for understanding human history, which makes it fascinating in its own right. Because it brilliantly describes how chance advantages can lead to early success in a highly competitive environment, it also offers useful lessons for the business world and for people interested in why technologies succeed."—Bill Gates

VIDEO
National Geographic – Guns, Germs and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a thrilling ride through the elemental forces which have shaped our world and which continue to shape our future.

Episodes:
Part 1: Out Of Eden 
Part 2: Conquest
Part 3 : Into The Tropics


Pubblicato da WTA alle 12.12.10 0 commenti
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11.12.10

Outdoor Training: Kurt Hahn

Kurt Martin Hahn (5 June 1886 – 14 December 1974) was a German educator and a key figure in the development of experiential education and Outdoor Training.

 "…an eminent man challenged me to explain what sailing in a schooner could do for international education. In reply, I said we had at that moment the application before us for a future king of an Arab country to enter Gordonstoun. I happened to have at the school some Jews...If the Arab and one of these Jews were to go out sailing on our schooner. . .perhaps in a Northeasterly gale, and if they were become thoroughly seasick together, I would have done something for international education."
Kurt Martin Hahn

 Hahn's educational philosophy was based on respect for adolescents, whom he believed to possess an innate decency and moral sense, but who were, he believed, corrupted by society as they aged. He believed that education could prevent this corruption, if students were given opportunities for personal leadership and to see the results of their own actions. This is one reason for the focus on outdoor adventure in his philosophy. Hahn's educational thinking was crystallized by World War I, which he viewed as proof of the corruption of society and a promise of later doom if people could not be taught differently.

Six Declines of Modern Youth

1. Decline of Fitness due to modern methods of locomotion
2. Decline of Initiative and Enterprise due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis;
3. Decline of Memory and Imagination due to the confused restlessness of modern life;
4. Decline of Skill and Care due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship;
5. Decline of Self-discipline due to the ever-present availability of stimulants and tranquilizers;
6. Decline of Compassion due to the unseemly haste with which modern life is conducted or as William Temple called “spiritual death”.

Hahn not only pointed out the decline of modern youth, he also came up with four antidotes to fix the problem.

1. Fitness Training (e.g., to compete with one's self in physical fitness; in so doing, train the discipline and determination of the mind through the body)
2. Expeditions (e.g., via sea or land, to engage in long, challenging endurance tasks)
3. Projects (e.g., involving crafts and manual skills)
4. Rescue Service (e.g., surf lifesaving, fire fighting, first aid)



Pubblicato da WTA alle 11.12.10 0 commenti
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The Life of Birds (BBC series) -download-

“Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control.”
David Attenborough

This Magnificent series celebrates the incredible variety of the world’s best loved creatures and provides fresh insight into their fascinating way of life. Three years in the making, David Attenborough travelled around the globe, visiting 42 countries from the Arctic to Antarctica to uncover the private life of these conquerors of the air. The Life of Birds is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 21 October 1998.

Documentary

The Life of Birds (BBC, 1998)

Episodes

01  "To Fly or Not to Fly?"
02. "The Mastery of Flight"
03. "The Insatiable Appetite"
04. "Meat-Eaters"
05. "Fishing for a Living"
06. "Signals and Songs"
07. "Finding Partners"
08. "The Demands of the Egg"
09. "The Problems of Parenthood"
10. "The Limits of Endurance"


Pubblicato da WTA alle 11.12.10 0 commenti
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10.12.10

What's BIG HISTORY?

"Big History is the attempt to understand, in a unified and interdisciplinary way, the history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life and Humanity." 
(International Big History Association, 2010)

How is the creation of stars like the building of cities?

A Grand Synthesis of Knowledge
Arising from a desire to go beyond the specialized and self-contained fields, Big History answers that question by weaving a single story from a variety of scholarly disciplines. Like traditional creation stories told by the world's great religions and mythologies, Big History provides a map of our place in space and time. But it does so using the insights and knowledge of modern sciences such as biology, astronomy, geology, climatology, prehistory, archeology, anthropology, cosmology, natural history, and population and environmental studies.

Getting the "Big" Picture
Big History looks at the past on all time scales, from the Big Bang to modernity, seeking out common themes and patterns, seeking the "shape" of the past. Thanks to this grand perspective it is possible to uncover the remarkable parallels and connections among disciplines. How is the Big Bang like the invention of agriculture? These are the kinds of connections you'll discover with Big History.
Pubblicato da WTA alle 10.12.10 0 commenti
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BIG HYSTORY bibliography


Brown, Cynthia S. (2007). Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present. New York: The New Press.

Bryson, B. (2005). A short history of nearly everything, London: Transworld.

David Christian (2005). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, University of California Press.


Fred Spier (1996). The Structure of Big History: From the Big Bang until Today. Amsterdam University Press.
Pubblicato da WTA alle 10.12.10 0 commenti
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BBC Beautiful Minds: Offbeat Thinkers -download-

A three-part Series in which three of Britain's most influential and respected scientists explain how their unique scientific perspectives have redefined how we think about the world around us.
Who are the modern men and women who will be remembered for the brilliance of their minds? What are their legacies and what can their extraordinary discoveries tell us about the nature of science and the nature of truth?

In the first part, Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell describes how she discovered pulsars, the by-products of supernova explosions which make all life in the universe possible. She describes the moments of despair and jubilation as the discovery unfolded and her excitement as pulsars took the scientific world by storm. Profoundly reflective about the nature of scientific discovery, she shares her thoughts on the connections between religion and science and describes how she see science as a search for understanding rather than a quest for truth.

Great minds don't think alike. In fact, offbeat thinking has led to some of the greatest scientific discoveries of our age.

In the second episode James Lovelock explains how his maverick way of thinking led him not only to technical breakthroughs in atmospheric detection systems on Earth and Mars, but also to Gaia - a new way of thinking about the Earth as a holistic, self-regulating system. He tells of his struggle against the scientific consensus of the day, the ridicule of his peers and his passionate belief that the mainstream scientific establishment stifles intellectual creativity.

In the final part of this series Sir Tim Hunt (Nobel Prize for his discovery of the mechanism of how cells divide) recalls moments in his life that provided inspiration for his career as a scientist, from his father's intent scholarship which shaped his early methods to his mother's battle with cancer and the influence of this on his current position at Cancer Research UK. In his own words, Hunt reveals his own opinions on the thought processes, both logical and emotional, that led to his extraordinary discovery.
(source: www.BBC.co.uk)



Pubblicato da WTA alle 10.12.10 0 commenti
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Little Gandhi (6): friends




Gustav: I'm sorry Master, but the water was quite wet and I've lost time
Little Gandhi: Ah... so you had found it?
Gustav: Found what?
Little Gandhi: The time that then you lost
Gustav: Mmm... this may have been the case, but I have not noticed it
Little Gandhi: Oh great! This is Zan, good guy.
Gustav: But what have I done?
Little Gandhi: You have found something without looking for it and then you have lost it without looking for it. You've left it free to go also to other friends.
Gustav: Seems cool
Little Gandhi: There is only one time out of time: the time of communion.
Gustav: What's that?
Little Gandhi: The time you spend with your friends
Gustav: Uuh... but I don't have any friends
Little Gandhi: Mmm... then the time you spend with your... seafood soup
Gustav: Uuh... but I don't have any seafood soup
Little Gandhi: Mmm
Gustav: Master! Would you be my friend?
Little Gandhi: Come here... let’s wait together that it comes back
Gustav: Time?
Little Gandhi: Rain.

                                             ***

Gustav: Mi dispiace Maestro ma l'acqua era abbastanza bagnata e ho perso tempo
Little Gandhi: Ah... quindi l'avevi trovato?
Gustav: Cosa?
Little Gandhi: Il tempo che poi hai perso
Gustav: Mmm... dev'essere andata così ma non mi sono accorto
Little Gandhi: Oh, bene! questo è Zan, bravo ragazzo
Gustav: Ma cos'ho fatto?
Little Gandhi: Hai trovato una cosa senza cercarla e poi l'hai persa senza cercarla. Hai lasciato che andasse anche da altri amici.
Gustav: Sembra figo...
Little Gandhi: C'è un solo tempo fuori dal tempo: il tempo comunionale
Gustav: che roba è?
Little Gandhi: Il tempo che passi con i tuoi amici
Gustav: Uuh... ma... io non ho amici
Little Gandhi: Mmm, allora il tempo che passi con la tua... zuppa di crostacei
Gustav:Uuh... ma... io non ho una zuppa di crostacei
Little Gandhi: Mmm
Gustav: Maestro! Vorresti essere mio amico?
Little Gandhi: Vieni qua, aspettiamo insieme che torni
Gustav: Il tempo?
Little Gandhi: La pioggia.


Pubblicato da WTA alle 10.12.10 0 commenti
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9.12.10

Jason Bourne Genesis (part 2)

WTA has been to Cambodia on the tracks of Jason Bourne. 
See below all the truth about the past of the hero.



Phnom Penh

What's behind Jason Bourne? (PART 2)

Medusa 
The top-secret and government-funded project codenamed Medusa is a vital part of David Webb's life. Taking place during the Vietnam War, Webb was recruited into Medusa by friend and CIA agent, Alexander Conklin after the death of Webb's wife and children. At the time, Webb was furious and wanted revenge against the people that presumably killed his wife and children, the North Vietnamese. The reason why Medusa remains top-secret is because the members of Medusa were all criminals, who were hired by the American government during the war to do its dirty work. They were considered a death squad.Working in Medusa, Delta (David Webb) became well known as a ruthless person, with little regard for orders, but succeeding in all his missions.

One member of Medusa was a man by the name of Jason Charles Bourne. During a mission  it was found out that Jason Bourne was a double agent born in Australia. When Delta discovered Bourne's status as a double agent, he executed Bourne in the jungles of Tam Quan. Bourne's murder by Delta was never exposed due to the Top Secret status of Medusa.

Phnom Penh

Treadstone
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed called Treadstone 71 and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and the creator of Medusa (nicknamed The Monk). At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity of Jason Bourne due to the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer that had a long criminal record. The point of all this was to turn Jason Bourne into something more than he really was, a contract assassin who would be known all over the world for terminating the lives of just about anyone. The assassin's alias was Cain. The reason to create such a myth of Cain was to create competition for a well known assassin named Carlos, who at that time was considered the world's best assassin and a danger to the USA.
With the myth of Cain, the USA Government focus was to drive Carlos out in the open and capture him.
Pubblicato da WTA alle 9.12.10 0 commenti
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What's BRAIN WALKING?

Brain Walking: Italian Innovation in the world of outdoor activities.

Pubblicato da WTA alle 9.12.10 0 commenti
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Brain Game: Tangram exercises


 Test your skills with Tangram



See Tangram: a brain game from legend 
Pubblicato da WTA alle 9.12.10 0 commenti
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Good to Eat: Travel Book + Video



BOOK

Title: Good to Eat - Riddles of Food and Culture
Author: Marvin Harris
Publisher: Waveland Press (July 1998)

trad. ita: Buono da mangiare - Enigmi del gusto e consuetudini alimentari, Einaudi editore.

Why are human food habits so diverse? Why do Americans recoil at the thought of dog meat? Jews and Moslems, pork? Hindus, beef? Why do Asians abhor milk? In Good to Eat, best-selling author Marvin Harris leads readers on an informative detective adventure to solve the world’s major food puzzles. He explains the diversity of the world’s gastronomic customs, demonstrating that what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, economic, or political necessity. In addition, his smart and spirited treatment sheds wisdom on such topics as why there has been an explosion in fast food, why history indicates that it’s “bad” to eat people but “good” to kill them, and why children universally reject spinach. Good to Eat is more than an intellectual adventure in food for thought. It is a highly readable, scientifically accurate, and fascinating work that demystifies the causes of myriad human cultural differences.

Table of Contents
1. Good to Think or Good to Eat? / 2. Meat Hunger / 3. The Riddle of the Sacred Cow / 4. The Abominable Pig / 5. Hippophagy / 6. Holy Beef, U.S.A. / 7. Lactophiles and Lactophobes: Milk Lovers and Milk Haters / 8. Small Things / 9. Dogs, Cats, Dingoes, and Other Pets / 10. People Eating / 11. Better to Eat
(source: waveland.com)


VIDEO

Title of the Series: Ray Mears' Wild Food
Author: Ray Mears
Production company(s): Discovery Channel, BBC


In Wild Food, Ray presents an informative guide to cookery, travelling across the world to demonstrate traditional cooking skills and cuisine.



Pubblicato da WTA alle 9.12.10 0 commenti
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8.12.10

Jason Bourne Genesis (part 1)

WTA has been to Cambodia on the tracks of Jason Bourne. 
See below all the truth about the past of the hero.


WTA On The Road in Phnom Penh

What's behind Jason Bourne?

The character named Jason Bourne has a long and mysterious past. First off, his real name is David Webb. He was a career foreign service officer, specifically a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in Identity, Webb had a wife and two children in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.


Royal Palace - Phnom Penh

 During the Vietnam War an aircraft strayed into Cambodia and dropped two bombs at a spot near the Mekong River unintentionally killing Webb's wife and two children. Due to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane since no one wanted to be responsible for the incident. Having nothing left, Webb went to Saigon and trained for a special top-secret unit called Medusa (many years later the unit and its actions would still remain top-secret). At this point, Webb turned into Delta, his codename within the unit.
(wordIQ.com)

Pubblicato da WTA alle 8.12.10 0 commenti
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TANGRAM: a brain game from legend

 

The Tangram Legend 

The legend says: “Thousands and thousands of years ago, Yu, the Great Dragon, lived among humans, who venerated him because he was 'yang', good, and was always ready to help them. One day, the God of Thunder, jealous of the offerings the men had brought to Yu, in a burst of anger, crushed the sky with his hatchet. So, the sky fell on Earth in seven pieces black like coal. Light disappeared taking with it all existing things.

At first Yu felt sad for the world, and then felt nostalgic. So he decided to collect the seven black pieces of the sky and, in memory of the former world, began to reassemble several kinds of shapes: animals, plants and human beings that had disappeared. But after finishing each shape, its shadow left it and wandered the deserted world crying about its misfortune. 

These complaints reached the ears of the God of Thunder who was touched and, to remedy the harm he had caused, he created from each shadow the body of a living being to repopulate the Earth. From that time on, our shadow faithfully follows every move we make and with the seven pieces of the sky, called Qi Qiao Ban (literally 'seven boards of cunning'), everything on Earth can still be shaped”.
Source: Almanacco del Matematico, © G. Sarcone, 2001


The game 

The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It was originally invented in China at some unknown point in history, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century.


Pieces 

Choose a unit of measurement so that the seven pieces can be assembled to form a square of side one unit and having area one square unit, the seven pieces are:

    * 2 large right triangles (see picture below: no. 1 and 2)
    * 1 medium right triangle (see picture below: no. 4)
    * 2 small right triangle (see picture below: no. 5 and 7)
    * 1 square (see picture below: no. 6)
    * 1 parallelogram (see picture below: no. 3)


Pubblicato da WTA alle 8.12.10 0 commenti
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7.12.10

Little Gandhi (5): the brain



Gustav: Master, why do they call you Little Gandhi?

Little Gandhi: ...because when I was at school and had to face difficult problems I used to lay on the floor.

Gustav: So...did you use to sleep in the classroom?!

Little Gandhi: Not exactly, I did non-violent protests

Gustav: ...protests...against whom?

Little Gandhi: Against my brain which was not able to solve the problem.

                                                                  
                                                          ***


Gustav: Maestro perchè ti chiamano Little Gandhi?

Little Gandhi: ... perché ai tempi della scuola per risolvere un problema difficile mi sdraiavo sul pavimento.

Gustav: Quindi... dormivi in classe?!

Little Gandhi: Non esattamente, facevo una protesta non violenta

Gustav: ... una protesta... contro chi?

Little Gandhi: Contro il mio cervello che non era in grado di risolvere il problema.


 
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Wild World Atlas: BBC complete collection -free download-

BBC Wild World Atlas: the complete series collection on WalkToAsk

List of the Series:

  










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Wild New World (BBC Nature) download


Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. 
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. 
Walk beside me that we may be as one. 
(Ute proverb)


Exploring the natural history of North America


Nature Documentary

Wild New World (BBC, 2002)

Episodes

1. Land of the Mammoth
2. Canyonlands
3. Ice Age Oasis
4. Edge of the Ice
5. American Serengeti
6. Mammoths to Manhattan






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Wild Pacific (BBC Nature) download

Land is permanent, man disappears.
(Maori proverb)


Exploring the natural history of the islands of the South Pacific region.


Nature Documentary

Wild Pacific (BBC, 2009)


Episodes

1. "Ocean of Islands"
2. "Castaways"
3. "Endless Blue"
4. "Ocean of Volcanoes"
5. "Strange Islands"
6. "Fragile Paradise"

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