Hello!

        It's been quite a while since my last newsletter. I've been busy-- but who hasn't? 

        This fellow, Menário Costa, definitely has. He's a scientist (Ph.D. holder in ecology)-turned singer/songwriter (LOVE IT!!) who won this year's "Dance Your Ph.D." contest sponsored by Science magazine.

    His winning entry? A video using an eclectic array of dancers of all styles, from ballet to hip hop to jazz to swing, performing their signature styles on the Australian grassland in a performance representative of the social life behaviors of kangaroos.

    Kangaroos, it turns out, have vividly distinct personalities but also (like humans) are prone to modify their behavior in group settings so as to conform. Costa studied kangaroos in Australia for his doctoral thesis and, with his artistic sensibility, thought their unique ways of being kangaroo-like were akin to the many ways of being a dancer. And that no matter what your own particular inclination may be, at heart, we're all kangaroo. 

        Now that you're thinking about dance and far away countries, I'd say it's time to book a flight on Air India just to see their inflight safety video. Except you don't have to, because it's on YouTube!

    If you've tuned out every safety demo or video on every flight you've taken since... always... you've got to see this one.

        Air India's video features dancers performing eight of India's classical and folk dance forms on locations showing some tantalizingly neat locations around the country. Indian dance's characteristically expressive hands, faces and arms make it perfect and very effective for getting the crucial information across! 

        It's really beautiful, with a touch of humor that I bet will make passengers pay attention, for once.