Gleanings of the Week Ending March 31, 2012

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

Wind map - a (nearly) current map of winds in the continental US. This is an artwork and quite a learning opportunity for how the winds change over time...I find myself looking at it several times a day. 

Step inside the millennium seed bank - a video that walks through the science facility that stores seeds from 10% of the world’s plants

The Beginnings of Dr. Seuss - An Informal Reminiscence - A short piece done for Dartmouth (where he went to college) and made available online recently.

13 Nature Photos with water reflection - Enjoy! My favorite is the spoonbills (the second one).

Nature and Wildlife Photography Tips Center - from National Wildlife Federation

The Psychological Effects of Global Warming in the US - More people will experience weather extremes than ever before…and many more will develop anxiety disorders

Wind Farm in San Gorgonio - A striking picture of wind turbines in a pass in the mountains east of Los Angeles

Regular Chocolate Eaters are Thinner, Evidence Suggests - Just more data that supports my 2 squares of dark chocolate for breakfast habit!

How Animals See the World (infographic)

First Day of Spring (40 pictures) - From around the world

New inverter design shrinks size/cost of connecting solar panels to the grid - Company that created them will start selling them in May. Could shave $0.15/watt from a solar panel installation. There is a lot happening in the solar energy field right now. It's very exciting.

Re-inventing the toilet (turning human waste into power) - A Gates Foundation project. Watch the video.

Quote of the Day - 03/29/2012

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. - Thomas Jefferson

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This quote is on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial. It reminds that us the founding fathers - and Jefferson in particular - realized that ‘with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times’ and they built a system that included a balance of power across three branches of government to allow that to happen. Over the course of US history, there have been a lot of changes and the system has sometimes worked better than others. One thing we know in our government as well as our personal lives: we can’t ever turn back the clock to an earlier time and start over. Decisions to change - or not change - can only impact the present and future.

Today - note news items that document our continuing struggle to achieve ‘laws and institutions…hand in hand with progress of the human mind.’

Quote of the Day - 03/28/2012

Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe. – John Milton in Paradise Lost

~~~~~

It’s hard to remember this when ‘overcoming by force’ is easy - which is the goal of most militaries throughout history. Somehow the expedient of exercising physical or military might is very alluring even if there is an understanding that there is more that will eventually have to be overcome. How the ‘other half’ is overcome may be more defining of us and our nation in the long term than the force applied.

Next time you are reading through headlines - note the ones about actions taken relative to ‘foes’ and categorize them as force or other…think about which actions will likely have the most significant positive impact over the long term.

Blue Tulip Glassware

I’ve had my Blue Tulip Glassware for a little over a month now. It appealed to me when I first saw it back in December and my appreciation of it continues to grow because its appeal has so many perspectives.

It is beautiful. The blue color of the glass depends on the lighting - all the way from turquoise to a pale Copenhagen blue. The smooth parts are tulip shaped but the nobs often give the impression of sunflowers; at first I thought the pattern was ‘sunflower’ and, based on some questions I noticed on some web sites, others may have made the same mistake. I started a project to photograph the sugar (a cup with two handles) 100 times; 10 of the best images are below.

It has history. Blue Tulip is Depression Glass. It was manufactured by the Dell Glass Company in the 1930s and 1940s. Most of the pieces that I have now were a wedding present given to an Oklahoma couple in the 30s. The set was purchased from the widow many years later by a couple that has known me all my life as they added to their collection of Depression Glass. They added some pieces they found at other places as well. When I visited them last December they commented that they were thinking about selling some of their collection and I offered to buy all the Blue Tulip. They gave me an excellent price for the antiques and it arrived in a big professionally packed glassware box in early March. Sometimes I think the glass is infused with all the happiness around it for the past 70+ years and somehow it rejected any unhappiness; it always seems to speak of home and long term relationships (both general and specific).

It encourages smaller portion sizes. The sherbet cups are a good size for ice cream or custard….any dessert served in a bowl. My husband and I have started using them frequently. The small plates are smaller too; a single muffin fits better than two. The dinner plates are the normal size but I find that the pattern encourages me to put less on the plate - so I can still see the pattern.

It fits the spring and summer season. I love the coolness of the blue color in spring and am anticipating I will like it even more during the summer.

Quote of the Day - 03/25/2012

The 18th century presents an anomaly, long recognized by historians. Rightly labeled the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment, it nevertheless came to an end with an act of national violence, the French Revolution, and the ascendancy in Europe of a ‘man on a white charger’ – Napoleon Bonaparte. - John L. Beatty and Oliver A. Johnson in Heritage of Western Civilization, Volume 2 (From Revolutions to Modernity) (9th Edition)

~~~~~

Why do we seek to name periods of time with such glorious phrases? Calling a period ‘the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment’ implies that the whole period can be characterized in a sound bite when, obviously, there were a lot of other things happening during the time period that do not fit with the words at all. It is always a simplification and simplification is only good if we remember that it is just that.

It works for summation but presents a challenge when we want to dig deeper. In the example of the Age of Reason - Why did it end in the bloody violence of the French Revolution and ignore (or promote) the profiteering in human trafficking taking Africans to the Americas? There was darkness to the Age of Reason that runs counter to the words.

What about names for other historical periods of western history? What do they mean to you and how aware are you of elements of those time periods that are not represented by the names? (Note: I’ve intentionally sorted them rather than listing them in chronological order. They are all easily findable on Wikipedia. 

• Age of Discovery
• Age of Sail
• Between the Wars
• Classical antiquity
• Dark Ages
• Little Ice Age
• Medieval
• Modern Contemporary
• Neoclassicism
• Pre-Socratic
• Renaissance

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 24, 2012

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

Fundamental Steps Needed Now in Global Redesign of Earth System Governance - the argument of 32 scientists and researchers that some fundamental reforms are needed to avoid dangerous changes in the Earth system

How Monarch Butterflies Recolonize Northern Breeding Range - About 10% of the Monarchs in Canada have come all the way from Mexico. 90% were born en route mostly in the central US.

Feeding Habits of German Wolves - Less than 1% of their prey is livestock

The Physics of Cooking (Science and Cooking) - Videos from Harvard that talk about the mechanics of various culinary techniques (there are 42 hours - 26 segments - of videos on the topic!)

America’s First Cuisines - A chapter from the book that focuses on produce that came from the new world

A brief history of solar energy - Beginning in 1767….

Monarch butterflies down again this year - The scene from Texas - 30% fewer monarchs this year

Surface features on Vesta (giant asteroid) - New pictures from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft

Civic Engagement and Local e-Government: Social Networking Comes of Age - a study of how local governments are using social media…a ranking of the 75 largest cities in the US

What is your Water Footprint? - A calculator of how much water your lifestyle takes

Quote of the Day - 03/22/2012

Lost cities, erased from living memory – for centuries even their names were forgotten.  After the splendors of their golden age, in the 9th century the Maya cities suffered the ravages of famine, war, and depopulation and then were finally abandoned.  The forest returned.  Roots wrapped themselves around the stelae, bringing them crashing to the ground.  Thrusting branches weakened the temple walls and forced their way through the roofs. - Claude Baudez and Sydney Picasso in Lost Cities of the Maya (Discoveries)

~~~~~

We tend to think of the buildings and houses we inhabit having a kind of permanence that they really don’t have. If we walked away - even buildings of stone would not last long. Would what we leave behind be enlightening to someone finding the ruins 1,000 years from now? Probably - but would their understanding resemble the way we think about ourselves at all?

Consider the people that left the Mayan ruins behind. Maybe many died in an epidemic or civil war…or maybe they simply rejected what the buildings represented and reverted to the way they lived before the stone edifices were built. We are curious about everything that has gone before us and the pieces of a puzzle that we may be able to solve holds our attention. It is the seeker in us that is keen to discover the secrets of the ruins in the forest.

I find the image of the forest ‘bringing them crashing to the ground’ fascinating by itself. It’s a good reminder - what a difference there is in biologic time (plant life times/our lifetimes) and geologic time. Our creations have a lifetime closer in length to our own.

Quote of the Day - 03/21/2012

 Man likes to simplify things, to find single causes to find an order in nature that corresponds with an orderly arrangement of ideas in his own mind. This is surely one of the great drives of thought, leading to many of the great ideas of philosophy, religion, and science.  But nature is also frighteningly complex, perhaps too complex ever to be “understood” through the processes of our limited brains – and our fondness for single causes has probably got us in trouble more often than it has helped us. - Marston Bates in The Forest and the Sea: A Look at the Economy of Nature and the Ecology of Man

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The quote today is from a book written in 1960 by a zoologist.The book be read not only for its topic (rain forests and seas) but as a ‘history of scientific thinking.’ It answers the question - “What did we know about rain forests and seas in 1960?”

Interestingly enough - the aspect of the book that interested me the most was the realization that we haven’t made much progress over the past 50 years in our tendency to want to simplify - particularly about nature. If we analyze the political discourse that happens every day around the world, we may even notice that we’ve become even more extreme in our desire. If it can’t be communicated in a sound bite or tweet - we tend to get bored.

Another thought prompted by the book - Most of us spend much less time outdoors in direct contact with nature than people did 50 years ago. In 1960 - air conditioning was not as prevalent and houses were not so well insulated; even indoors, the noises of the outdoors were heard. We are losing whatever intuitive understanding we had of nature - even it if was a simplified understanding.

Finishing on a positive note - the development of computers over the past 50 years has enabled models that may help us overcome the obstacle that nature is ‘perhaps too complex to be “understood” through the processes of our limited brains.’ The question then becomes - will our penchant for simplification allow us to use the results of those models to guide our actions that impact our world.

Quote of the Day - 03/17/2012

The best of life, what is it but white moments? - Katherine Lee Bates in The Retinue, And Other Poems

~~~~~

What does ‘white moments’ mean to you?

My first thought was the time just on the brink of the present that is still full of potential…when it is still up to us to make the meaning of it. Seeing those moments clearly and delighting as we live them…yes - I could agree with Katherine Lee Bates that they are ‘the best of life.’

Katherine Lee Bates was the author of the words to the anthem “America the Beautiful.” She lived mostly on the east coast but the lyrics she is most known for were written in Colorado.

This book is available to be read online here.

Quote of the Day - 03/15/2012

The Mississippi never lies at rest. It rolls. It follows no set course. Its waters and currents are not uniform. Rather, it moves south in layers and whorls, like an uncoiling rope made of a multitude of discrete fibers, each one following an independent and unpredictable path, each one separately and together capable of snapping like a whip. - John M. Barry in Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

~~~~~

John Barry’s imagery of the Mississippi River reminds us that it is ultimately untamable; our influence has limits and a high price (both for the creation of levees and channels…and for their occasional failure). Have you seen the model of the river at Mud Island in Memphis? The panorama of life and commerce along the length of the river is portrayed…and the enormity of this river ‘snapping like a whip.’

Notice that this quote focuses on the river alone rather than the natural systems that provide the context for the river. It’s a simplifying assumption we often make because the natural system (or system of systems) seems too complex to consider. Perhaps it is still impossible to understand those systems well enough to be 100% accurate in our predictions of what will happen when we seek to control some aspect as the Mississippi ‘moves south in layers and whorls.’ It is important to consider as much of the system as we can to avoid an unpleasant surprise like 

• Fish dying,
• Farmland not getting replenishment of soil nutrients or
• Proliferation of invasive plants/animals. 

Instead of starting from the perspective of ‘how do we control the river’ we should think instead of how we utilize the natural ‘system of systems’ (that includes the river) in a way that sustains the benefits for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren….and onward into the future. 

Quote of the Day - 03/11/2012

A bony forest of iron and steel scratch against the blue of the sky. - Nevada Barr in Liberty Falling

~~~~~

Nevada Barr writes mysteries set in National Parks - in this case, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island.

I haven’t visited Ellis Island so the sentence above dredged up another image for me: the ruins of the World Trade Center after 9/11/2001.

Quote of the Day - 03/10/2012

Dreams and desires haunted the mesa the way they haunted the rooms in old houses. Traces of unfinished lives caught in the ether. - Nevada Barr in Nevada Barr Ill Wind

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Nevada Barr writes mysteries set in National Parks - in this case, Mesa Verde.

We do feel ‘traces of unfinished lives’ in places that we know people lived before us whether or not we believe the place is ‘haunted’ or approach it more analytically with the tools of an archaeologist…or just our own curiosity and imaginings.

The strongest feeling I’ve ever had of this ‘traces of unfinished lives’ was a Chaco Canyon. It was early spring and quite cold. There were not many people around and most of the sounds were made by wind in the ruins. It was easy to imagine the walls roofed and clay plaster on the walls - decorated with designs seen elsewhere pecked into rocks. It could have been comfortable in those rooms even on a cold day. The wind sounds were mournful and gave the place a very lonely emotional impact.

Where do you feel the ‘traces of unfinished lives’ the most?

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 10, 2012

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

Nutrition Data - a site that has the regular nutrition facts label with added graphics: nutritional target map, caloric ration pyramid, estimated glycemic load, inflammation factor, nutritional balance, and protein quality. Type your favorite food in the box labeled ‘enter food name’ on the right side of the banner line to see how it measures up.

Bed Bugs (infographic) - dramatic increase in this problematic bug in the US…everywhere

Images of Earth from Envisat - beautiful images from a satellite that has lived twice as long as planned…is starting its second decade this month.

Birdcast - a project of NOAA and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology…bird migration and weather forecast. Updated weekly.

Solar Grid Parity (with Incentives) - an animated map showing when electricity in major metropolitan areas becomes cheaper using rooftop solar than utilities (include the current tax credit). Lots and lots by 2020!

Top 10 Benefits of Green Smoothies - Better for you than juice

3 great ways to use salsa - a short video…sparks even more ideas of ways to use salsa

Penguin CAM - Penguin antics 24 hours a day through March and April

13 National Historic Landmarks Added - lots of variety….Frank Lloyd Wright buildings at Florida Southern College…Deer Medicine Rocks in Montana…a parish church in Virginia

25 Wild Bird Photographs - National Geographic is posting a set weekly….this is the most recent

Quote of the Day - 03/09/2012

After the printing press was invented in 1436, paper became affordable to nearly everybody. It took on a variety of uses – paper table coverings instead of fabric tablecloths, edgings for shelves, paper dolls, makeshift curtains, even Christmas tree ornaments. The Victorians really immersed themselves in the paper craze. As photography had not yet been invented, they cut out silhouettes of each other that functioned as pictures. Paper doilies became extremely common. - Emilie Barnes in The Twelve Teas of Christmas

~~~~~

These days - the amount of paper in our house is actually decreasing. We read more books and magazines electronically. Books we only need to read once have been sold or given away. We read news online rather than in a newspaper. There are still lots of catalogs that come in the mail but maybe not quite as many as several years ago; they are the bulk of the recycled paper. We don’t print documents we are working on very often - sometimes they only exist in electronic form.

What about those other uses of paper? Haven’t we all made paper ‘snowflakes’ or cut hearts at valentines? Or folded paper to make an origami swan or geometric shape? For a look at elaborate stories cut in paper - watch the Béatrice Coron: Stories cut from paper TED talk video. 

Quote of the Day - 03/08/2012

On April 13, 1360, while Edward’s soldiers marched toward Chartres, the skies went dark. The air became bitterly cold. The heavens opened, and an apocalyptic storm sent hail stones the size of pigeon eggs smashing into Edward’s army. Tents were shredded. Luggage carts were swept away. Lightning electrocuted knights in their armor. Hundreds of men and more than a thousand horses died. - Bryn Barnard in Dangerous Planet: Natural Disasters That Changed History

~~~~~

The event described above resulted in the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years War….significant enough that it was judged to be a natural disaster that ‘changed history.’

What about the more frequent weather disasters that we hear about in the news and may even experience? They change lives of individuals and give virtually every family a cache of weather disaster stories that builds up over the years.

Hail has a place in my family history. My dad’s parked car was totaled by a hail storm in the early 1950s - a cautionary tale in the family supporting the ideas of parking cars in the garage and keeping yourself inside during hail storms…and having good car insurance.

In the mid-1960s I remember being in the backyard of our house on a semi-sunny day and hearing what I immediately thought was hail (not sure why I thought that it was) and ran to the cover of the large porch with my sisters just seconds ahead of the hail cloud coming overhead…and watching the small ice balls dropping on the yard from safety. It was over almost as quickly as it arrived.

Some 10 years later my husband and I were on a canoe trip; we were camped by a river. A storm came through during the night with howling winds. The tree tops were whipping around and it was raining very hard. We heard the canoes banging around but the stakes were holding them to the shore. The next day as we canoed on down the river we immediately noticed uprooted trees and debris along the banks. Later we heard that tornados have come through the area. The bluff we had camped beside had evidently protected our campsite.

Quote of the Day - 03/06/2012

When I was 6 weeks old my father and mother went to Ireland on business and I went along in a bureau drawer of the old Cunard liner Umbria. - Thomas Barbour in Naturalist at large

~~~~~

I know my grandmother used a drawer pulled out of the built-ins of her bathroom - padded with a blanket - when a small grandbaby was visiting and I always thought it was a clever idea. The quote from Thomas Barbour reminded me of it.

Would we buy something special for the baby now…even if it would only be needed temporarily? How much ‘stuff’ could we avoid accumulating if we thought of re-purposing what we already have first?

Quote of the Day - 03/05/2012

Beautifully illustrated books were prized possessions at the courts of Islamic rulers, and during the 15th century Herat (in modern day northwestern Afghanistan) became the center of book production. - Nicola Barber in Islamic Art & Culture (World Art & Culture)

~~~~~

It is easy to lose historical perspective in the bombardment of current news. Then a single sentence prompts some quick research. This was such a sentence for me.

Found in a book for late elementary school children, it reminded me of the different perception the west has had of Persia and Afghanistan. Now our perception is of religious fanatics and isolationists - a people that do not want to move toward a future that is like the West. We forget that while knowledge bled away in Europe after Rome fell, the Middle East and Islamic world retained and embellished the legacy so that it was available to filter back as the foundation for the European Renaissance.

Can we develop a vision of the future where the diversity in the world can be a positive element rather than a source of conflict and atrocities?

Quote of the Day - 03/04/2012

So, before the eyes of history has come a nation, from whence is unknown; nor is it known how it scattered and disappeared without a trace. – Nicholas Roerich, 1926 as quoted in Elizabeth Wayland Barber in The Mummies of Urumchi

~~~~~

We challenge ourselves to learn about a nation from the artifacts they left behind. It is a mystery we set for ourselves to unravel. How like us were they? Were they healthy and long lived or did their bodies wear out very quickly? We overlay our values onto the artifacts and tell their story. It is the best we can do - but not enough. The artifacts are only a snap shot and the hole in our knowledge that implies that ‘it scattered and disappeared without a trace’ means that there is still something we have not found or do not understand.

Knowing there are unknowns means we have the opportunity to be discoverers.

10 Years Ago – In March 2002

Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the March 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.  

1. NASA To Try To Contact Pioneer 10 Spacecraft Once Again – 30 years after its launch
2. Shuttle grabs Hubble telescope for repairs
3. Mars Odessey Spacecraft Detects Ice on Mars
4. NASA Drops Women's Spacesuit Plans
5. Dino Fossil Shows Feathers Predated Flight
6. Kmart cutting 22,000 jobs
7. Air Pollution Causes Healthy Blood Vessels To Constrict
8. A government survey of 139 streams in 30 states turned up small quantities of a host of manmade chemicals, including antibiotics, other prescription drugs, veterinary drugs, hormones, steroids and fire retardants.
9. Arthur Andersen LLP charged with obstruction of justice Thursday for shredding Enron Corp. documents
10. British Queen Mother dies at 101 

Notice that the first 4 are all related to space exploration. I am drawn to that topic because it aligns with the most strategic thinking we do as a society.

Items 5, 7, and 9 are about understanding our world - what has happened in the past and how what we do may have unintended consequences.  We know more about these topics 10 years later but have not made substantial changes in our behavior in the past 10 years. We are more talk than action.

Items 6 and 9 are economy related. There were stories from 10 years ago that indicated the candle was burning at both ends…but the stories did not get a response from our government or institutions to avoid the crash a few years later.

And finally - the story about the British Queen Mother.  She was a public person that I had known about for all my life. I came to think of her as a grandmotherly figure as I’m sure a lot of other people did. 

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?