Gleanings of the Week Ending November 17, 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:

Fresh Cranberry-Orange Relish - Something a bit different to do with cranberries this year. I already blogged about it earlier this week….great recipe

What we die of - data is from the UK…interesting data and way of presenting it

Preschoolers' Counting Abilities Relate to Future Math Performance - counting….not just rote memorization of numbers

Do we only use 10% of our brains? - a medical myth

Face-Washing Tips for Healthier-Looking Skin - from a dermatologist. Sometimes we do too much.

The Bifurcation of Bling - spending shift from ostentatious product to ones less visible to the world as individual/people get richer

Earlier End of Life Care Discussions Are Linked to Less Aggressive Care in Final Days of Life, Study Shows  

In Australia, A Total Solar Eclipse - video from 11/13

Second Most Common Infection in the U.S. Proving Harder to Treat With Current Antibiotics - Urinary tract infections from resistant bacteria increased over 30% between 1999 and 2010….high levels of antibiotic overuse in the southeastern part of the US during the same time period.

Answers to the Fall 2012 eBird/Swarovski Photo Quiz - you can take the quiz or just look at the pictures and read the notes about the clues to identify the bird

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 22, 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:

Another Way to Think about Learning - from Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop per Child Foundation

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #22 - from the Wild Bird Trust

Antlion  - otherwise known as doodlebugs…find out what the ‘bug’ at the bottom of that conical pit really looks like?

Antietam 'Death Studies' Changed How We Saw War - 1862…. photography of the aftermath of the battle at Antietam

Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

New Test House to Generate More Energy than It Uses - a stereotypical suburban house that can generate as much energy as it needs to run

U.S., Russia Move Closer To Sharing Their "Beringian Heritage" - Beringia National Park in Russia to be linked with Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alasak

Crews Uncover Massive Roman Mosaic in Southern Turkey - 1,600 square feet of mosaic….from a Roman bath

Rx Guide for High Blood Pressure - BP medications are currently failing millions. The author of a new book on the topic says “Despite their best intentions many physicians continue to place their hypertensive patients on blood pressure medications, drug combinations or doses that may not be the best treatment available to them”

Give peace (and quiet) a chance - Is there any place to hear the early morning bird song without the backdrop of traffic?

Learning Something New

/

Our learning expectations for children are huge…consider setting a similar expectation for yourself. It’s quite a challenge to come up with something as significant as learning to read. Everything else seems like a less significant step but, just like learning to read, it is not as hard as it appears as first. So - forge ahead with the audacity of youth toward whatever new thing you want to learn.

Here are some examples from my own experience:

  • Sometimes learning is enhanced my multi-media. What started out as an interest in botanical prints from the 1800s - looking at books from that era on Botanicus and the Internet Archive, has been supplemented by trips to gardens and classification sites. What a glorious thing the Internet is for finding just the piece of information you are looking for.

  • Sometimes learning is a physical thing. Years ago I decided that it would be better to use my mouse with my left had rather than my right so that I could have a notepad and pen on the right side of my work area (I am right handed). It took about a week to get good at it and a month to be entirely comfortable. Now if feels odd to use a mouse with my right hand.
  • Sometimes learning is via experience. You just have to try it. I’d never dug up iris rhizomes before. I knew in theory how to go about it. The sheer number I found in the old flower bed was a surprise but one I simply dealt with by adjusting the amount of time I took to complete the task. I am looking forward to enjoying the flowers next spring.

The bottom line is that continuing to learn new things all the time is an integral part of living. It’s the way we become resilient to whatever changes come our way!

Quote of the Day - 04/04/2012

/

We are not unlike a particularly hardy crustacean....With each passage from one stage of human growth to the next we, too, must shed a protective structure. We are left exposed and vulnerable, but also yeasty and embryonic again, capable of stretching in ways we hadn't known before. - Gail Sheehy in Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life

~~~~~

What do you think about the analogy made in this quote…that the passage to the next stage of human growth requires shedding of our ‘shell’ like a crustacean?

For me - the most recent passages have been more gradual and not like the abrupt shedding of an entire ‘protective structure.’ I was able to anticipate the passage and do practice stretching before it happened. Instead of a single physical milestone there were more complex and multiple psychological milestones.

Still - I like the analogy of the crustacean in the sense that being aware of the protective structures we have and noticing when they restrict our growth is probably key to our continued development whether or not it is a ‘passage from one stage of human growth to the next.’  

How aware are you now of the components of your ‘protective structure?’

Quote of the Day - 03/31/2012

/

Litter the world in which you live with opportunities to learn. - Chip R. Bell in Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning

~~~~~

This quote contains one of the few instances I’ve seen of ‘litter’ representing something positive. And maybe the negative aspects we sometimes associate with ‘litter’ carry into this context as exactly what we are after for ‘opportunities to learn’: 

  • Ubiquitous
  • Sometimes messy
  • Spontaneous
  • Varied
  • Attention getting
  • Recyclable/reusable
  • Trash (maybe still a negative…but it’s hard to tell with learning opportunities)

 

Quote of the Day - 03/27/2012

/

The fuel of life is new information - novelty - ordered into new structures.  We need to have information coursing through systems, disturbing the peace, imbuing everything it touches with new life. - Margaret J. Wheatley as quoted in Michele Bechtell in The Management Compass (AMA Management Briefing)

~~~~~

It is very easy to get a lot of new information and novelty these days. Our technology has removed many of the barriers to information dissemination so now we find ourselves honing skills to avoid being overwhelmed by the ‘fire hose’ of new information made available every day. The trick is to somehow recognize the misinformation (i.e. recognize information unsupported by data of any kind and/or intentional falsehoods), decide if ‘opinion’ is indeed information too, cull information that is relevant/actionable and then get the highest quality new information ‘ordered into new structures.’ We want the ‘imbuing everything it touches with new life’ not a frenzy of circular motion that produces no discernible outcomes!

The quote is from a management book but applies to our individual lives as well. What positive role does new information/novelty play in your life? Trace a new information/novelty to the change it caused you to make. Realize that learning something may be a step you take to order information so that it can be applied or may simply be a storing away of information is almost raw form.

learning and applying.jpg

A recent example for me: I was cooking a big pot of pinto beans to use for homemade refried beans when it occurred to me that maybe beans could be used in other things - like muffins. This is an example of seeking novelty. I did a quick search on the web, found several recipes, picked one, and baked it. I’ll share the results tomorrow!

Quote of the Day - 03/01/2012

/

The most promising words every written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita - unknown territory. - Daniel J. Boorstin in The Discoverers

~~~~~

The unknown. It is appealing and a little scary at the same time. There are so many areas ‘on the map of human knowledge’ that are still unknown. New bacteria...planets and stars…how the complex chemistry of the human body actually works. As a society, we still have a lot to discover.

On a more individual level - there is our own personal ‘unknown territory.’ Focusing on it requires us to retain the curiosity of our younger selves for our whole life; it is the drive that keeps us learning new things. What ‘unknown territory’ are you exploring today?

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 25, 2012

/

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

 

 

Quote of the Day - 2/23/2012

/

Here, write it, or it will be erased by the wind. - Isabel Allende in Of Love and Shadows: A Novel

~~~~~

The ephemeral ‘it’ captured in writing thereby becoming something longer lasting and sharable across space and time. 

Have you ever noticed that you remember better if you take notes during a lecture/presentation or jot down a few sentences about something you did? It is certainly true for me even if I don’t look at what I wrote ever again. There is something about the physical act of writing that aids memory or learning. It is the bulwark against erasure ‘by the wind.’

Quote of the Day - 2/16/2012

/

Many of us would just as soon have our choices made for us but the heroine, when at a juncture, makes her own choice. - Joan Anderson in A Year by the Sea

~~~~~

When there is a choice that is truly important to us - either for right now or for our future - we should make our own choice. The challenge is recognizing when a choice is truly important. Maybe it isn’t too hard to make the determination if the impact of the choice will happen right away or in the near term. It’s the choices that are more strategic - have an impact months or years away - that are hard to always recognize. The best approach may be to always participate in choices (rather than abdicating) so that the results are still our own too. Only children are allowed to not be fully responsible for their selves.

Remember the old notion of a ‘grown up?’ The implication was that a ‘grown up’ was someone that was not growing/changing in contrast to children that were doing both. While I do know a lot of people that are trying hard not to grow larger, I don’t know anyone that is not changing. Change happens to us all even if we do nothing. Many people have discovered that change and continued learning is just the way they want to live. And that brings us back to the idea of the quote “when at a juncture, makes her own choice.”

Quote of the Day - 2/12/2012

/

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. - Albert Einstein

~~~~~

The glorious complexity of natural systems…balanced…resilient to change (up to a point)…sustained. There are so many perspectives from which to ‘look deep’ and, in doing so, understand even more than the area of focus. Why does that happen?

For me, it happens in several ways.

 

  • Nature is a system of elements so closely linked that a change in one has a ripple effect in another. For example - once I start looking closely at my garden, I notice not only the plants but the insects and frogs and (argh!!) the deer. There are so many threads to follow and explore….to understand.
  • Looking deep into nature also encourages me to think more deeply in other areas as well. Being outdoors - having a ‘green hour’ - is stimulating and calming at the same time. It is like a clearing of cobwebs. Understanding grows when we give ourselves time to think!