Gleanings of the Week Ending December 29, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Daphnia micrograph - a stacked image of a water flea

12 Things to Know about Mistletoe

2013: Hello. Goodbye. - from Richard Watson. How many things on the goodbye list are already gone for you?

6 top health benefits of kale

Top 25 Photographs from the Wilderness #3 - my favorite is the next the last one - the backlit leopard

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #32 - the first one is my favorite

Is Your Fridge Eating your Savings?

The Joy of Salt Licking: Contest Turns Farm Animals into Fine Artists - Cows and their salt licks

Geography in the News: Lake-Effect Snow - from National Geographic

Characteristics of US Science and Engineering Doctorates Detailed in New Report

2012: The year in space - My favorite is the Space Shuttle Endeavor making its final journey across the US

2012: The year in weather - from around the world. My favorite picture of this group is the mother of pearl clouds in Scotland 

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 25, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

The Secret Life of a Cardboard Box - infographic

Developing Economies At Highest Risk of Climate Change Disasters - resilience outranks risk

3D-Printed Exoskeleton - Engineers at the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Philadelphia used a 3-D printer to make a lightweight plastic exoskeleton for a 2-year-old girl named Emma Lavalle.

Slideshow: Echoes of the Ancients - large file but wonderful images of Mesa Verde and other Southwestern US National parks

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #20 - learning about more birds from around the world with each of these postings

Sunflower Party Time - great pictures of the plant and some insects

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano (pictures)

Easy whole grain pumpkin-banana bread - sounds yummy….but I would just double the recipe to use up the whole can of pumpkin

Make Room for (the New) Daddy - Essay and slide show from Marlo Thomas

Renewable Energy’s Growth Over the Past 15 Years - infographic

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 28, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Colorful Science Sheds Light On Solar Heating - visualization from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. There is a short video to explain how they do the color coding.

You May Never Need to Clean Your Car Again, Thanks to New Coating Technology - estimated 6-8 years to production. If it works - it will be used on many more things that cars

Radiant creatures and their fluorescent proteins - DayGlo color from living organisms. Also take a look at the slideshow.

Insider Tips From The Grand Teton National Park Foundation - This is a recent post about Grand Teton but the site includes posts on all the parks…check it out as you plan a visit to one of them

Mad About Moths – National Moth Week! - Butterflies tend to capture more attention….but moths are interesting too!

A California jail offers a glimpse of the economic and environmental benefits of locally generated energy - microgrids already are cost effective in some parts of the country particularly for organizations that require very reliable power (hospitals, prisons, data centers, etc.) and their cost is coming down

Chris Helzer - Prairie ecologist and photographer - video that shares photos from the prairie; there’s a lot there to see

The Devil’s Pool - The swimming hole at the top of Victoria Falls (video)

Massive Ice Melt In Greenland - 97% of the Greenland ice sheet has surface melting. Last time it occurred was in 1889 based on ice cores. It went from 40% to 97% in 4 days!

Treatise on Landscape Painting in Water-colours - by David Cox and C. Geoffrey Holme and published in 1922. The images are not in color but they are detailed and still evoke stories of place. The link above is directly to the beginning of the image section in the ‘read online’ double page format that I prefer for books like this; the image below is what that format looks like and the green arrows show how to ‘page forward’ . To view the book in a different format, start with the main entry for the book on the Internet Archive here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 21, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Jared Ficklin video - (TED talk) sound visualization

Photos: Big sunspot kicks ball of energy toward Earth - views from the STEREO Ahead spacecraft and the Solar Dynamics Observatory over the past year

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #16 - from National Geographic

Brits Top Energy Efficiency Ranking; US Ranks 9th (Out of 12) - Wow! Even China is ahead of us. How can we be competitive with so many of the major economies of the world ahead of us in this arena

States Lead in Freeing the Grid for Small-Scale Renewable Energy - How well is your state doing?

New Metric for Obesity Strongly Correlated to Premature Death - A Body Shape Index (ABSI) is a combination of Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference

Web Quiz Tells You Which Presidential Candidate Best Fits Your Worldview - Interesting quiz

Cassini Spots Daytime Lightning On Saturn - Seen for the first time on the side illuminated by the sun

Green Plants Reduce City Street Pollution Up to Eight Times More Than Previously Believed - and they look good too! Green 'billboards' of vines or grass may be more effective than trees.

Storm Scents: It's True, You Can Smell Oncoming Summer Rain - Just what are you smelling before, during and after a summer rainstorm? Here are some answers from Scientific American

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 9, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Animals Benefiting From Climate Change - a slide show from Discovery News

Dark Chocolate Could Prevent Heart Problems in High-Risk People - Evidence keeps mounting re the benefits of 60-70% dark chocolate

Things That Go Bump—or Hoot—in the Night: 5 Animals You May Hear While Camping in Your Yard - pictures and recordings of sounds they make

Discover Life - free on-line tools to identify species, share ways to teach and study nature’s wonders, report findings, build maps, process images, and contribute to and learn from a growing, interactive encyclopedia of life

How much energy does the internet use? - about 2%...quite a bit is by huge data centers and the article discusses the methods used/proposed to reduce their consumption

Brainmail Bonanza - Richard Watson’s (accidental futurist) newsletter highlights

Horseshoe Crab are blue bloods - their blood is copper rather than iron based

'Safe' Levels of Arsenic in Drinking Water Found to Compromise Pregnant/Lactating Mothers, Offspring

Top Wind Power Countries per Capita

After three months of trying to contact the Mars rover, NASA is calling it quits - Goodbye to Spirit

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 14, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

The Amazing Trajectories of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth - What happens to the ejection of rocks/water from big impacts?

Ocean surface currents animation from NASA - using data from June 2005 to December 2007

A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway - online version from the popular Victorian illustrator

What is a Vegan Diet? - Pointers to good references. “Even if you have no intention of going vegan yourself, anyone can benefit from enjoying a completely plant-based meal from time to time.”

Baking with Whole Grain Flours - A goof reference for if you’re in the mood to experiment with some of those exotic flours that are finding their way into your grocery store - amaranth…buckwheat…quinoa

Smart grids (info graphic) - lots of technology being integrated…coming soon (click on the graphic to enlarge it)

Top 25 US Cities for Energy Star Buildings - Los Angeles and Washington DC are the top 2; Dallas-Fort Worth is 8th

Obesity Accounts for 21% of US Health Care Costs - One more reason to achieve/sustain a normal weight

Birding in the National Parks - Spring time and bird migration

Paleo-Birding: What Birds Looked Like 125 Million Years Ago - Photos of bird fossils with commentary

Know where your food comes from - An interactive map…type the name of a food and see where it comes from in the US

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 17, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Visualizing the Growing E-Waste Epidemic - a graphical view of the way we dispose of computers, cell phones, televisions, monitors, printers. Maybe we should change the scenario.

NASA Scientist: Will We Leave Our Children a “Climate System Spiraling Out of Control”? - (video)

Energy stats from Germany - In 2011, 40% of their nuclear power capacity was phased out….and they still remained a net power exporter!

Recent Generations Focus more on fame, money than giving back - Data collected from the American Freshman survey over the past 40 years on 9 million young adults…unexpected results.

Lenticular Cloud - A wonderful photograph

Air Pollution Could become China’s Biggest Health Threat - lung cancer and cardiovascular illnesses already rising

How Packaged Foods Makes Girls Hyper - Why is BPA still in our food chain (the resins that line cans of food, packaging, drink containers)?

‘Invisible Wires’ for Transporting Electricity on SolarWindows - How long will it be before this technology (or something equivalent) is ready for market…and then used in virtually all new windows?

The Secret Powers of Time - A Philip Zimbardo video

WolfQuest - a 3D wildlife simulation game that challenges players to learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park

 

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 18, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Which countries grew the most GM crops in 2011? - US, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada…the post includes a nice graphic

A 3-D Printed Jawbone - For an 83 year old woman. Made from 1000s of layers of titanium dust melded with a laser

Zebrafish May Hold Key to Repairing Serious Eye Conditions - Lots of research on approaches to help people with macular degeneration and glaucoma. This is one.

Motherhood 'Detrimental' to Women's Scientific Careers, Study Concludes - It’s not biased hiring or evaluation…it is outdated policies that are the key stumbling block now. How much progress can really be made as long as there is an underlying assumption that an academic has a stay-at-home spouse?

Alexander Graham Bell and Mabel Gardiner Hubbard’s Love Story in Photos - posted by National Geographic for Valentine’s Day

Raining rainbows - a messy but pretty project

Crock Pot Ideas - Does everyone have a crockpot? This site will encourage you to use it more. Applesauce Chicken sounds good to me. (My crockpot (see photo at the right) is almost 40 years old and still turning out great meals!)

Obama Hikes Royalties on Oil Industry by 50% - Bringing the fees for oil drilling on public land up to those for offshore drilling and for renewable energy generation on public lands. The royalties paid to the government had not increased since the 1920s!

NASA Map Sees Earth’s Trees in New Light - a map that show the height of the world’s forests

Nanoparticles in Food, Vitamins Could Harm Human Health - Think exposure to nanoparticles is something that may be a future problem? Maybe it is already happening

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 31, 2011

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

To those who are lonely at Christmas - a poem from Joanna Paterson....it applies to other special holidays as well.

Birding in the National Parks - National Parks Traveler summary of articles on this topic during 2011

eBird - A site hosted by the Cornell Ornithology Department and National Audubon Society. I found it via a ‘Birding in the National Parks’ article. The site is well organized and useful for serious birders as well as more casual observers.

Holiday Guide to Ruse and Recycling - Now that the holiday is waning….time to clean up.

Was 2011 the Year of the Mega-Fire? - A retrospective the large fires of 2011 and a look at the future potential for mega-fires

7 Actions for Becoming More Like Yourself in 2012 - Food for thought as you plan your 2012

Visualizing Asian Energy Consumption - Good graphics showing worldwide energy consumption.

Traveler’s Checklists for 11 National Parks - If you are planning a trip to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Kings Mountain National Military Park, Crater Lake National Park, Fort Sumter National Monument, Zion National Park, Wright Brothers National Memorial, Gettysburg National Military Park, Cape Lookout National Seashore, Petersburg National Battlefield or Jefferson National Expansion Memorial…these can help you get the most from you visit.

Circumnavigating the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Circle - Longish post with lots of pictures and associated commentary