3 Free eBooks - December 2013

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for December 2013.

Zeller, Hannah. Wild Flowers of the Holy Land. London: James Nisbet and Co.1876. Available from Internet Archive here. I was taking a Coursera course about the fall and rise of Jerusalem when I happened upon this book. It seemed to fit my mood - thinking about that area of the world. How many of these flowers that grew wild there in the 1876 are still growing wild?

UNESCO. Egyptian Wall Paintings from Tombs and Temples. New York: The New American Library of World Literature, Inc. 1962. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book is recent enough that the images are color photographs. Many of the photographs are famous images but others were new to me and interested me more - particularly the ones that were show in the place they were originally found rather than in a museum.

Dimirov, Bojidar. Bulgaria - Illustrated History. Sofia, Bulgaria: BORINA Publishing House. 1994. Available from the Internet Archive here. I enjoyed both the older aspects of the history and the landscape illustrations in this book. The stratigraphic chart on page 10 shows periods of ancient material culture in the land that became Bulgaria. A portion of the chart is shown to the left.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 16, 2013

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

Researchers Regrow Hair, Cartilage, Bone, Soft Tissues: Enhancing Cell Metabolism Was an Unexpected Key to Tissue Repair - The key finding: enhancing mitochondrial metabolism can boost tissue repair and regeneration. This may become a foundational strategy for helping our bodies stay healthy as we age. It is appealing to think of treatments that address the root cause of age related issues ---- reducing or eliminating the need for medications that address the symptoms.

Purring Monkey? Flamboyant Lizard? New Amazonian Species Are Totally Wild - The variety of life on this planet….always fills me with wonder. Hopefully - we are not on a path of our own construction to be the last large species standing.

Gorgeous Turquoise Pools of Pamukkale, Turkey - I found an old tourist book about Pamukkale at a used book sale several years ago. It was from a time when people were still allowed to move all over the pools (there was not a single picture without people in it). I’m glad the access is more controlled these days and that the beauty of the pools is preserved.

A Mesmerizing Interactive History of the High-Rise - Take a different perspective on history - via interactive media….through a narrow lens. Think about how much the elevator changed thinking about how many floors a building could have.

Flower Research Shows Gardens Can Be a Feast for the Eyes – And the Bees - Tuck this idea away for your our planning your garden for next year: planting pollinator-friendly flowers is a no-cost, win-win solution to help the bees. The plants attractive to bees are just as cheap, easy to grow, and as pretty as those that are less attractive to insects.

Discovery of a 2,700-Year-Old Portico in Greece - A long, open structure that often housed shops and delineated public squares from the city…deserted after the area was conquered by Philip II in 357 BC. Over 450 students from University of Montreal have learned excavation techniques and analysis of archaeological material from this site….and the excavation is ongoing.

Amazing Hand-Tinted Photos of Egypt from the late 19th century - The annotations provide an indication of which ones were moved before the Aswan High Dam was completed in the 1960s. There is an image of sand up to the shoulders of an Abu Simbel statue.

Spectacular Lightning Show Over the Grand Canyon - Sometimes catching an image is about being in the right place at the right time….and having the skill to capture what is happening.

High Dietary Intake of Polyphenols Are Associated With Longevity - The headline was typical of many nutrition research articles. What I found more interesting was that this study used a biomarker (total urinary polyphenol concentration) rather than relying on study participants logging their food intake….a positive trend toward making nutrition related research more objective.

Civilizations Rise and Fall On the Quality of Their Soil - About 1% of global land is degraded each year. That can’t be a good thing if we want to feed all the people in the world.

The three waves of disruptive trends - Emerging…differentiating…business value - the waves just keep coming!