Category: Features

Bangladeshi items that have GI status -Fatema Tania

GI status means geographic indication, which is very important and financially beneficial for any country. The World Intellectual Property Organization is assigned to provide GI recognition to different products from different regions. Bangladesh has gained GI status on 15 products. The GI status of any product is the only way...

Dhaka, dirt, disgust and dengue -Moinul Alam

Bangladesh has been witnessing the deadliest dengue outbreak since its inception back in 1999. The first case was detected in 1960 when it was called ‘Dacca Fever’. The fever is also known as break bone fever due to the extreme pain experienced by patients. This viral disease is spread by...

Spread Happiness and Kindness Around You

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” – Albert Schweitzer “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” – Amelia Earhart A very simple way to...

When People live underground

On the long road towards central Australia, as you travel 848km (527 miles) north from Adelaide’s coastal plains, is a scattering of enigmatic sand-pyramids. Around them, the landscape is utterly desolate – an endless expanse of salmon-pink dust, with the occasional determined shrub. But as you venture further along the...

Wildfires Changing the Mediterranean landscape

Wildfires Changing the Mediterranean landscape

The contrast is stark – where vast swathes of land were once rich with life, they are blackened and smouldering ruins, decimated by fire. In just 12 days, 135,000 hectares (521sq miles) of land were left burnt in southern Europe after fires broke out in mid-July. Italy and Greece were worst hit, including...

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

Even though most of us try not to, we’re all guilty of comparing ourselves to others. We can make comparisons like, “I wish I dressed like so-and-so,” or, “I wish I were as rich as them.” This is often unconscious, but it’s important to try to train ourselves to stop....

Guardians of North Sentinel Island -Zaidul Hasan

In the heart of the Indian Ocean, ensconced on the remote North Sentinel Island, resides a tribe that has stood the test of time—the Sentinelese people. With an unbroken history of habitation stretching back an astounding 60,000 years, they offer an intriguing glimpse into an ancient way of life. Comprising...

Unearthing the Enigmatic Maya Civilization

Nestled deep within the lush jungles of Guatemala lies a realm untouched by time, a world shrouded in mystery the realm of the Maya civilization. Every step through the dense vegetation requires careful navigation, as we wind our way around towering trees, step over twisted roots, and duck under low-hanging...

PUT KNWOLEDGE INTO ACTION

Knowledge is one thing, but putting that knowledge into action is another. Knowing what is “in our own best interests” is the easy part. If you exercise regularly and have a well-balanced diet, you will be healthier. That’s knowledge, but it’s not much use unless it is partnered with wisdom,...

Modernizing Mosque Architecture 15 Inspirations -Zaidul Hasan

In a rapidly changing global landscape, the art of mosque architecture is undergoing a remarkable evolution. Traditional Islamic aesthetics are meeting cutting-edge design concepts, resulting in awe-inspiring structures that honor heritage while embracing innovation. This feature showcases 15 contemporary mosques from around the world, where architectural brilliance, innovative use of...

A Diverse Yard Can Reap Big Environmental Benefits

When you walk through a neighborhood, what do you see? In the United States, it will likely be a few trees and shrubs amidst large areas of grassy lawns. These big green carpets might look pretty. But a plain expanse of grass is an ecological wasteland. It’s filled with just one type...

How Many Shipwrecks are There in the Oceans?

When Elias Stadiatis descended into the indigo-blue water, he had a normal day of searching for sponges ahead of him. Weighed down in a copper diving suit, surrounded by a tangle of breathing tubes, Stadiatis eventually reached the seafloor. As he squinted into the dim, he took in a haunting...

Cognitive Skills to Speed Up Learning

Learning how things are done the right way and mastering them are what hugely contribute to empowering yourself as a person and being competitive in areas you are interested in excelling. However, when it comes to grasping information and understanding it, we often have trouble following what we are trying...

Saving An Ancient Fruit with Solar Power

On a warm late winter morning, Antonio Lancellotta, a 35-year-old farmer, shows me around one of his family’s unorthodox 1.8-acre (7,280 square metre) greenhouse in Scalea, southern Italy. Rows of lush citron trees (Citrus medica), heavy with white flowers fill the space. Yet, above the trees, at about 12.5ft (3.8m)...

Why Making Fake Moon Dust

Even with the walls of a volcanic crater looming behind the white-washed single-storey buildings, it would be easy to miss the sleepy town of Tao. It only takes a few moments to pass through it as you drive along the LZ-20 highway that cuts across the middle of Lanzarote, in...

World’s First Climate-Resilient Nation

On a sunny Monday morning in September 2017, 67-year-old Faustulus Frederick, an artist and former teacher who served his people as Kalinago Chief when he was just 25 years old, was adding the finishing touches to a traditional wooden sculpture at his home in Salybia, on the Caribbean island of...

Stepwells in India -Zaidul Hasan

Water, the essence of life, has been a scarce resource in many parts of the world since ancient times. Nowadays, technological advancements have mitigated the scarcity of water, but in the past, water management posed one of the greatest challenges for civilizations. The question remained: how could a large group...

How the cellphones have changed our lives

The year was 1973. Joel Engel, an American engineer who had worked on Nasa’s Apollo programme, was leading an effort to create the world’s first handheld mobile phone. Research at Bell Labs, where Engel worked, had several decades earlier contributed to the development of clunky, car-phones that allowed calls to be made...

Why AI Remains a Mystery to Humans

In 1956, during a year-long trip to London and in his early 20s, the mathematician and theoretical biologist Jack D Cowan visited Wilfred Taylor and his strange new “learning machine”. On his arrival he was baffled by the “huge bank of apparatus” that confronted him. Cowan could only stand and watch...