Tag: travel

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Baltic crusades adapted by Nazi expansionism

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Crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last Pagan societies in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Led by Catholic rulers, churchmen, and most importantly of all, the warrior monks of the Teutonic Order, they sought to expand Christendom through conquest and conversion. In the process they forged a new world with a profound legacy that resogates into the present. Aleksander Pulskowski, professor of medieval archaeology at the UK’s university of Reading, explores how the construction of castles and towns, and the introduction of new languages, technology, monetary economies, and … Continue reading Baltic crusades adapted by Nazi expansionism

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Booms and busts covering six decades

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Jeremy Grantham entered the investment business in the ’60s, when he brought the thrifty Quaker values and Yorkshire Independence he had been raised with. While other money managers were focused on blue chip stocks, he studied the stock market history and constructed by hand the first indices for small-cap and value stocks. Charting their ebb and flow, he could see clearly the powerful force that would become central to his investment philosophy: mean reversion, “the heartbreaking principle that good times always revert back to more boring, more ordinary times.” In the early ’70s Grantham was a pioneer of index investing. … Continue reading Booms and busts covering six decades

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Amur Tigers

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In the forests of northeast Asia home to fish owls, brown bears, musk deer, moose, wolves, raccoon dogs, leopards and tigers, and by the end of Cold War, only a few hundred tigers stepped quietly through the snow of the Amur Rive basin. Soon, the Soviet Union fell, bringing catastrophe, without the careful oversight of a central authority, poaching and logging took a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species Amur Tiger. Slaght in his book Tigers Between Empires, dealing with the isolated population inhabiting the Amur  basin in Siberia, parts of the river separate inland China from Russia’s eastern … Continue reading Amur Tigers

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Recipe for success of culinary hotspots

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In 1990, Great Britain was mocked for its bland food and over-boiled vegetable but by 2000 all that has changed, as the country was on its way to being one of the world’s most exciting culinary hotspots. From White Heat to Wagamama, Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears,  is the inside story of the explosive decade that eating out in Britain forever. Former Good Food Guide editor Andrew Turvil’s in-depth delving into our world of food, hospitality, tasting Marco Pierre White’s three Michelin starred food, clocking Jamie Oliver’s first TV take, Sally Clarke, chef and restaurateur, and fielding volcanic phone calls from … Continue reading Recipe for success of culinary hotspots

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HOSPITALITY – the act of being friendly and welcoming to visitors

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Whether you are a business person or someone browsing to  learn about and garner new technology or takes on making hotel stays as more and more of an exciting and comforting experience, The Independent Hotel Show at London, Olympia is a great event.  After the show’s two day show, staged close to buzzing Kensington High Street,  London, I have gathered information which should be of interest to our readers  with contact details if you wish to research my findings for your own enjoyment and information. Winning Moves – winningmoves.co.uk selling Monopoly and card games.  Monopoly is available in a variety of genres including a Ritz Hotel version. … Continue reading HOSPITALITY – the act of being friendly and welcoming to visitors

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SattarBuksh wins trademark case against Starbucks

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Sattar Buksh, a Karachi-based café owner famous for his humorous menu items like the “Besharam Burger”, LOC Pizza, got into trademark branding dispute with Starbucks. The multinational claimed that the resemblance in logo and name could confuse customers, dilute its brand and potentially infringe on trademark laws. When you think Starbucks, the multinational, you picture the iconic green siren. In Karachi two Pakistani entrepreneurs Rizwan Ahmad and Adnan Yousuf, opened a café called Sattarbuksh,  (buksh, meaning servant). They think it is parody not piracy. Although at first glance their logo resembled like a cheeky twin of Starbucks, except instead of mermaid, … Continue reading SattarBuksh wins trademark case against Starbucks

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Vanishing skills and traditions

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Craft Land Britain was once a craft land and for generations what we made with our hands shaped our identities, built our communities and defined our regions. Historian and fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, James Fox travels the length of Britain to seek out the country’s last great craftspeople in Craftland and chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that used to govern every aspect of life on these shores. Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and Coopers, thatchers, bellfounders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life, one that is not yet … Continue reading Vanishing skills and traditions

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Onam celebration at Barking, London

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Over 350 Malayalees  and their families gathered at St Thomas Moore Catholic Church Parrish Hall, Barking, East London, organised by Kirali UK East London Unit. Kirali UK, is a UK-based cultural platform aiming to promote progressive thinking, has over 43 branches all over UK. Onam sadya (feast with over 27 curries) on with Onam musical event. Organisers from the Kigali UK East London, Arun Raj (President) Secretary Anaz Salam, Treasurer Lailaj also attended the event. Onam is not only for us to enjoy for a minute, but also it is an experience which unites us irrespective of your religious beliefs. Onam is … Continue reading Onam celebration at Barking, London

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Ending reign of the Spinach King: “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime”

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Life magazine’s photo on Seabrook Farms in 1955 New Jersey, calling it the “biggest vegetables in the US, stood triumphantly in front of 5, 000 workers and his father Charlie (CF) Seabrook, known as the Henry Ford of Agriculture.  “Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn’t bear to tell it himself”. This is the story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family from the bean fields of southern New Jersey who became as wealthy and powerful as aristrocrats – only to implode in a storm of lies. … Continue reading Ending reign of the Spinach King: “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime”

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How can we love, or make sense of our lives?

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One night in August 1977, ten-year-old, Louisa and her father take a walk on the beach. He’s carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later Louisa is discovered suffering from hypothermia and half-drowned found washed up by the tide, barely alive. Her father is gone, presumed drowned. Despite prolonged searches no trace of her father and the pair’s sandals remain side by sided where they were placed at the end of jetty. They become the objects of a temporary shrine of rice bowls, flowers, fruit and trinkets donated by local people, until they are washed away. What is left following this … Continue reading How can we love, or make sense of our lives?