Gleanings of the Week Ending September 21, 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.

19th Century London Street Photography by John Thomson - Photographs of people in the streets of London during the later 1800s. I noticed the children in particular. John Thomson published his pictures in books and one of them is available on the Internet Archive: Street Life in London published in 1877.

The Geography of American Agriculture - Follow the link to the county-by-county crop maps from USDA to find out about where different food grows in the US.

Detailed Digital Flowers Radiate with a Magical Glow - I like flowers….event digital ones!

Obese Stomachs tell us diets are doomed to fail - Research has revealed that the mechanism that tells our brains how full we are is damaged in obese people…and it does not return to normal when they lose weight. Aargh! I’m not sure that means that diets are doomed to fail but it does mean that a person that has been obese may have to consciously limit the amount they eat for the rest of their lives rather than relying on their stomach-brain mechanism to tell them when they are full.

Mt. Zion dig reveals possible second temple period priestly mansion - Layers of structures and sorting out what it might mean - from a bathroom to a large number of murex shells to a cistern with pots and a stove in the bottom under rubbish.

Once-Majestic Cities That Sank Beneath the Ocean - There are quite a few - and some great pictures of the underwater remains: Alexandria, Egypt; Heracleion (or Thonis), Egypt; Canopus, Egypt; Yonaguni Jima Island, Japan; Saeftinghe, Netherlands; Port Royal, Jamaica; Baiae (Campania), Italy; Pavlopetri, Greece; Atlit, Israel; Lion City (Shi Cheng), China; Samabaj, Guetamala;

U.S. Drops in Share of Publications - Another indicator of globalization of science. The US is still producing 28% of the world’s share of manuscripts…but the percentage has been sliding in recent years (the absolute number of papers is holding steady).

They’re Taking Over! - The ‘they’ in this case are jellyfish. The New York Review of Books reviews Lisa-ann Gershwin’s book Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean.

Giant Prehistoric Elephant Slaughtered by Early Humans - From 1000s of years before Neanderthals…from layers 420,000 years old…found along the route of a rail link from the Channel Tunnel to London and excavated in 2004.

Beautiful Glowing Portraits of a Bobtail Squid - Photograph by Todd Bretl.