Gleanings of the Week Ending May 04, 2013

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.

Lionfish Attack The Gulf Of Mexico Like A Living Oil Spill - Yikes! In 2 years, the reefs in the Bahamas lost on average 65% of their small prey fish…and 40% of the larger fish.

Comet Will Come Close but Most Likely Miss Mars Next Year - This could get pretty exciting.

Peel-and-Stick Solar Cells - Maybe solar cells will get tremendously easier to install

Science as Art: Nanoscale Materials Imitate Everything From Flowers to Frost - The beauty in the very small from the Materials Research Society

Digital Public Library of America - Opened on 4/18/2013.

Pearls and The Puzzle of How They Form Perfect Spheres

A visual look at 7 things that make us feel good about work - Infographic from TED

Video of the Week: Visualizing 150 Years of Health Data - and links to other visualizations and learning modules about visualizing data

Superstorm Sandy Shook the U. S., Literally - The storm had the impact of magnitude 2-3 earthquakes that went on for hours and hours

MandalaZone - Mandala’s by Peter Patrick Barreda

Amazingly Detailed Macro Portraits of Bugs - Flies and spiders and dragonflies and mantises.

3 Free eBooks - February 2013

The Internet has a growing number of online books…and many of them are free. This is my monthly post highlighting 3 that I have enjoyed most this past month.

Bulliard, Pierre. Flora Parisiensis Volume 2. Paris, P.F. Didot. 1776. Available here. This is a botanical text that was produced in France while the American Revolution was happening. Multiple volumes are available at the Internet Archive and all contain many color plates like the one to the left of a tulip. This must have been a very expensive book when it was produced!

Ernst, James A. Drawing the Line, Fine and Commercial Art. New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation. 1962.  Available here. Skipping ahead almost 200 years from the first book, this book does not contain color. It is a book that encourages action…it's a great way to build up your motivation to make some drawings. Any book that causes me to do something is one that goes on my favorites list!

The last item for this month is not a specific eBook. It is a reminder that many public libraries offer eBooks via their web presence that can be checked out for 2 or 3 weeks. Check to see what yours offers. Many libraries use the Overdrive service to drive their selections;  search the Overdrive list of participating libraries to see if your library is on the list. I’ve read over 100 books on my Kindle from my local library. Right now I am working my way through the mysteries written by Nevada Barr!