What is a tree?
To a mathematician, a tree is a data structure, starting with the root or node at the top, branching out and terminating in leaves…
The Jungle
The Jungle
Trop Picks: Sarracenia purpurea
Why do we have a hard time getting our heads around the fact that carnivorous plants like Sarracenia purpurea are temperate?
The Line Podcast
The Line Ep. 16: The Ancestral Diet
Forget Paleo, Keto and Raw. Go home to grandma while she’s still around, and quick, transcribe all her traditional recipes. It turns out that…
The Jungle
Trop picks: Phalaenopsis venosa
To take this photograph of a Phalaenopsis venosa in flower in Sulawesi, I had to climb up on the shoulders of a hardy guide. A minute later, as I got back down on to what I thought was solid ground, I fell through a pile of debris on the forest floor into a deep hole. Luckily, I grabbed onto a nearby root, so I was not lost forever, although I did lose my lens cap.
The Jungle
Sulawesi: Where Continents Collide
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the above is a photo of the Scottish Highlands. In fact, it was taken in central Sulawesi.
Grobalization
Aziz Ansari’s Dev Shah- A Gandhi for Our Age?
Could American popular culture achieve what even Gandhi couldn’t? I’m taking of course about unity in the Subcontinent.
International Relations
Asia’s Unlikely Champions of Free Trade
Free trade was key to the rise of the mighty seafaring kingdoms of Southeast Asia, where a cultural predilection for pluralism, individual liberty and the primacy of contracts played an instrumental role.
The True Cost of Things
Trop Tackles: “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty, Chapter 1
In the first of a series, the in-house wonk at the Tropicalist will summarize and dole out, chapter by chapter, all the bits of wisdom from the landmark 2014 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty.
The Line Podcast
The Line Ep. 15: An Antidote to Nationalism
How do you imagine your countrymen? Are they the people who look like you? Think like you? Or simply live around you?
Material Culture
The Quran, Islam and Egalitarianism
Early Arab society, like the Quran itself, was strikingly egalitarian, until it came up against the reality of administering a large and multicultural empire.
Grobalization
The Tulip Age
The story of how the humble bulb became embroiled in the conflict between the forces of globalization and tradition.
International Relations
Of Tulips and Turbans
“Tulip” and “turban” are doublets, or words having the same etymological origin.
The Line Podcast
The Line, Ep. 14: Raising Excellent Sheep
A spirited discussion with a panel of experts reveals a link between the educational arms race and increasing class anxiety.
Material Culture
The Stories our Flowers Tell
The clues to a culture’s origins can often be found in its gardens.