Gleanings of the Week Ending June 15, 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.

Exploding Glass (Prince Rupert’s Drop) - Video

Feds issue guidelines for self-driving cars like Google's - Speeding up the advent of self-driving cars?

The City and the Sea - A survey of the landscape and politics of New York, post-Sandy - Analysis of what was discovered about New York due to Hurricane Sandy

Essential Friends + Gateways: Take A Long, Slow, Ride Along The Natchez Trace - This is something I’ve been thinking about doing for the past few years. This post has some good references when I get serious about actually taking the drive!

Here's what Pangea looks like mapped with modern political borders - A visualization to understand the first continent…and where the pieces are today.

WWII Drug: The German Granddaddy of Crystal Meth - It was used to keep pilots and soldiers alert

Butterflies tell UT climatologist about climate - An interview with Camille Parmesan

Nutritional Weaklings in the Supermarket - More color often means higher nutritional content

The Physics of Ferocious Funnels - Several visualizations to explain how tornados form and the historical tracks of tornados in the US.

Best Diets Overall - From US News and World Report

World Life Expectancy - Data presented mostly on maps. There is a portion of the site for USA Health Rankings.

Fish Oil - Info page from NIH

Blue Zones - Lessons learned from people who’ve lived the longest

Around our (Maryland) Yard in June 2013

The irises have bloomed profusely and the chives have gone to seed by early in June. The pyranantha has tiny green berries that will be brilliant orange by fall.

The dahlias and lilies are very green; at least the lilies have a few buds that the deer have missed. Hopefully there is enough other greenery now for the lily buds to go unnoticed and July will be a riot of color in the front flower beds - yellow and orange and red.

There are tiny bits of color in the sea of green - a wild strawberry and overly sweet smelling flowers on one of our bushes. The bees were finding the white flowers very attractive!

The big surprise of the walk around the yard this month was the turtle shell with a big hole that was in the backyard. There were bones rattling around on the inside but the soft parts were long gone. There was a turtle that put in an appearance in our back garden several times a season for at least the past 10 years or so; the empty shell probably means that the turtle continuity for our garden has ended.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Jack-in-the-pulpits are one of the spring wildflowers I look for wherever I go in late April and May in Maryland and Virginia. I never saw them as I was growing up in Texas so I was delighted to see them growing in forest mulch when we moved to the east coast. They were a plant I’d only seen in pictures previously and always thought they were odd looking; I thought the same about Indian pipes and horsetails.

The Jack-in-the-pulpits seem to have become more numerous over the course of 30 years that I have found them. Maybe I just am more likely to go to the forests at the right time or I am looking for them with more experience. They often blend in with the other low green vegetation (like May apples and poison ivy!). There are often clumps of them ---- perhaps the patch happens to be the perfect place in the forest for Jack-in-the-pulpits. Other times they are all alone. The stripes come upward from the base and extend over the hood.

But you have to catch them quickly. Their window of glory for the year is only a few weeks each spring! 

Houses of the Future - A Wish List - Part II

Today's post is from the perspective of configuration. There are certain type so floor plans that appeal to me for the future. The technology that makes a house generative and sustainable must be packaged in a way that faciliates the lives of the people that make it their home.

• The concept of ‘single family’ should change to be three generations in the house: children, their parents, and grandparents. Today almost all houses are originally built for two generations and then retrofitted to three as needed. With the demographics of the population shifting older and young people continuing to live with their parents longer, the trend in new housing should be to accommodate at least two adult couples…with three being even better. There are many ways this could be accomplished:
  • Using the same basic colonial house floor plan with walk out basement: increase the sound proofing between floors making the second floor for a couple with children, the walkout basement for a second couple; instead of a living room/dining room make a bedroom/sitting room for a single adult or a guest room. This arrangement could be a retrofit for an existing home.
  • Imagine a hexagon shape that contains a kitchen, eating area and den; this is the core of the house. There are wings from 3 of the six sides (evenly spaced around the hexagon); each wing includes a bathroom and bedrooms, home offices, etc. I’ve drawn a rough diagram below. The plumbing for the house would all be in the hexagon or the walls the wings share with the hexagon. There could be many variations of this basic design:
    • Basement under the hexagon only
    • Basement throughout
    • Some wings with two stories with outdoor bridges between the upper floors of the wings
    • A garden on top of a single story wing reached by the bridges from other wings and/or external stairs
    • One wing could have a laundry room and garage on the first floor and then have the rooms for living above
    • Various lot shapes and sizes could be accommodated by different lengths of the wings.
  • Keeping an overall rectangular shape, it is easy enough to achieve separate space for two adult couples. The shared areas - den, kitchen and eating area are in the center of the house and the separate space is on the sides. An outdoor area - side yards - can also be non-shared space. Again - there are variations of this design:
    • Configure this arrangement as a U instead of a rectangle. The inside of the U often becomes the shared garden area because it is primarily accessed from the core of the house.
    • The living space one side can be smaller to make room for a garage.
    • Basement - or not.
    • One side two stories - particularly the one that includes a garage. 

I’m sure over time I will think up more to add to this wish list....and I'll post them as a part III!

Part I of the series is here.

Houses of the Future - A Wish List - Part I

Single family houses have been the main places I have called home. There were a few apartments I lived in between the ages of 19 and 25…and an apartment we rented while we waited for our third house to be vacated so that we could move in; I always thought of the apartments as temporary and that is what they turned out to be. Of all the housing types available, the single family houses come closest to what I want in the future although I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what would make them better. Some of the items are possible now while others will require technological advances. Here’s my wish list:  

• All external surfaces need to be productive. They need to generate power or grow food. The paint, brick, siding, and shingles we’ve been using for years protected us from the elements but that is not sufficient for a house of the future.
• External surfaces and structural integrity need to be sufficient for the environment. In areas of high wind, heavy rain or snow, or extreme temperatures - houses need to be built to survive and remain habitable.
• Plan for older inhabitants. At least one suite and the main core of the house (den, eating area, and kitchen) must be accessible without stairs. The bathroom needs a large shower that is easily entered. Doors need to be wide enough to easily accommodate mobility devices (i.e. wheel chairs, walkers).
• A gray water system collects ‘slightly’ used water from sinks, showers, bathtubs, dishwashers, and clothes washers and then the water is used in toilets and for watering gardens reducing the water going into the sewer.
• The driveway and patio - any concrete or asphalt surfaces - need to be pervious pavement so that water soaks through rather than drains away too rapidly. If water drains from roof surfaces, it should be collected and used for gray water purposes. Again - this reduces the water that goes to the sewers.
• Yards have grass in areas where it is needed recreation (for example, a play area for children). Otherwise - the yard is either in native vegetation that does not need to be mowed/watered or used to grow food (vegetable garden, orchard) mixed with flowers.
• The inside of the house can be easily reconfigured as the needs of the inhabitants change over time. The number of internal walls is minimized; permanent walls are only built where they are needed for structure, sound proofing or privacy. Screens, storage units or sliders could be used a movable room dividers.
• Closets include shelves and racks to allow productive use of the space all the way to the ceiling.
• All rooms have some form of overhead lighting and ceiling fans.
• Heating and cooling is done to keep the temperature at comfortable levels in rooms that are in use at the time and the system is tunable for a particular person (for example, the room where an older person is located might be warmer in the winter time).
• Heating and cooling is done in the most efficient way possible for the area. In areas where geothermal (buried pipes) heat pumps are possible, this may be the way to go….or maybe there will be other technologies that will be even better. The classic gas (or heating oil) furnaces and electric air conditioners are not what we should be building in the future.
• Lighting is on when the room is occupied and it is needed. Otherwise the lighting turns itself off.
• Window coverings adjust based on temperature and are linked to the heating and cooling system. For example, on a  the window coverings will allow direct sunlight to shine in to warm the inside on a cold day to the temperature preferred by the person in the room.
• Kitchens need to function well for several people cooking at once.
  • If there is room for a center island, it needs to be counter space - not a stove top.
  • Ovens - microwave and conventional - are combined into one unit.
  • Water for drinking (and ice) is filtered.
  • Over counter cabinets go all the way to the ceiling to maximize storage space.
  • Task lighting is installed under the over-counter cabinets and comes on automatically when needed.
• At least one wall of each room is a ‘screen’ that displays art or functions as a computer display.
• Work from home is a growing trend - particularly for workers performing their jobs via computer. The house needs to be adaptable to support a work environment for everyone in the house.
• Modular construction may be a way to make new technology more accessible at a reasonable cost. The idea of a core of rooms (kitchen, eating, den) with all the utilities connected being built first with modules of rooms that plugged into those utilities is appealing both to allow for 'starter' homes and then enlargement of the house later by the addition of modules.
• No more items that are merely for ornament like shutters that don't close or dormers that provide no space on the inside. 

I’ll post the coninutation of my wish list tomorrow.

The Joys of Mint Gardening

I have several different kinds of mint growing on pots on my deck: spearmint mint, chocolate mint and citrus mint. My largest patch is in the 20+ year old turtle sand box. One of the eyes is partially missing to the turtle always looks sleepy to me. It is a good size for a mint garden and it pleases me that the old sandbox is still useful. 

Mint is very easy to grow….maybe too easy. It will spread via runners to fill its space and beyond. It often spreads beyond its bed. That is why I like it in a container. From one little plant - it will grow enough to crownd out weeds within a very short period of time. 

Another reason I like mint in a container on the deck, is its proximity to my kitchen. I can easily go out and cut a couple of sprigs to add to a smoothie or salad. Mint makes so many other foods taste even better. And it is just like an additional small serving of green veggie in terms of vitamins and minerals!

2013 Dogwoods

Dogwoods are one of my favorite trees. I like the way they move in the understory of a forest. The branches seem to float in the air currents during the summer. The leaves turn red early in the fall. In the winter the branches look fragile. Come spring the white or light pink flowers are among the largest of the spring blooms. Their green centers mature to reddish orange seeds by fall. This is my 2013 posts celebrating dogwoods.

I first became familiar with dogwoods about 30 years ago when we moved to the east coast. We had one that grew under the oaks in our backyard, leaning over the patio. They are not fast growing trees; that one may have been older than the house. We have moved several times since then and now my favorite place for dogwoods is the Brighton Dam Azalea Garden in Maryland.

I thought I might be too late to capture the dogwoods and the azaleas when I finally found time to get over the garden on May 15th. Fortunately for me, the weather was cooler than usual in late April and early May. The white dogwoods were already past their prime but the pink tinted ones were still very beautiful. Enjoy the slide show of dogwoods in spring below!

My 2012 dogwood post is here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 8, 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.

Chameleon eye - A colorful and informative ‘image of the day’ from The Scientist

City Lights - An article from The Architects Newspaper about light in urban design. Appealing but counter to the idea that dark skies are nice too.

Do your hair and fingernails grow after death? - The short answer is ‘no’ but there may be a reason they appear to

Slow Motion Hummingbirds - Video of hummingbirds at a feeder

Costa Rica's Self-Sustaining Tree House Community - A community of tree houses complete with indoor plumbing and zip lines

Bees in the bush working hard! - Photos of insects coming to a wildflower south of Nairobi (hint: more than bees) from National Geographic

Mapping the Great Indoors - A microbiologist/ecologist looks at what is growing inside an ordinary house.

Finger Knitting ….and Tents - Reminds me of day camp projects from many years ago.

Real animals that you didn’t know existed - How many of these have you heard about before?

What’s so Great About a World Flight Paths Map? - Comments about a visualization by Michael Markieta (showing the visualization too)

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #43 - My favorite in this batch is the very first one. The bright pink of the flowers and the yellow of the bird really stand out.

Huntington Beach

The vacation in South Carolina was coming to an end when we walked around Huntington Beach State Park in late April. It was the last day before we all headed for home. The park has a beach (obvious from its name) but also includes a boardwalk over the swamp and pine woods. Each one of the areas has something to offer.

It was too cool to wiggle our toes in the water but we picked up shells and I enjoyed the seaweed that was drying out on the beach. There were browns and reds and green. I liked this bit of green on the sand.

From the boardwalk we saw many birds. The egrets were the most common and I’ve posted a lot about them recently so I’ll include two different ones in this post. The robust looking Double Crested Cormorant was surveying the swamp from a piling.

The green heron was on the boardwalk and the supports for it. Green herons are shape shifters. The neck contracts and expands - changing the bird’s look dramatically.

In the woods, we heard a woodpecker and, after some searching, found it working on a dead pine tree. It is a red-bellied woodpecker.There must have been many insects in the tree because it was focused on a relatively small area of the tree for quite some time - allowing for picture taking.

Charles Towne Landing

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site is across the Ashley River from Charleston. I visited in late April and just realized I had not posted about the place. It is the earliest colonial settlement in what is now South Carolina - started in 1670. There are exhibits in the museum and from archeological digs throughout the site that help visualize what it was like. There is a replica of a 17th century sailing ship to tour as well.

There is a statue of a Native American situated in the trees. How strange they must have thought the colonists coming in ships and taking command of the land.

The camellias were near the end of their season but a few bushes still had blooms.

Looking out over the marshy land - the Ravenel Bridge is visible in the distance and pelicans are seen frequently.

The place is wild enough to still have raccoons under the trees.

It had been dry enough the few days before we were there for some of the resurrection fern growing on the oaks to be withered (top image) but other limbs still had green fern - allowing for comparison.

This is a place to walk and absorb the history of the place while savoring the outdoors of South Carolina in the spring before it gets too hot.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge was pretty cool and breezy the day we were there in mid-May on our way to Chincoteague. The new visitor center is under construction - and evidently has been for years. The birds were still plentiful and seemed to pose for pictures.

There was a pair of barn swallows that had built their nest in the bird-watching blind. It took us a few minutes to realize that they were trying to get us away from their nest by chattering and glaring at us from just outside the entrance to the blind.

A great blue heron walked in the shallows - unperturbed by our picture taking although he did walk sedately up onto the sandbar farther away from us eventually.

The mallards were preening. It took patience to get them both with their heads in a photogenic position.

We saw bald eagles that were too far away, or moving too fast, to photograph but we managed to notice an immature eagle within range. Blackwater was the first place I saw a Bald Eagle in the wild (over 20 years ago) and it is reassuring that the population of the birds has continued to thrive and increase over those years.

And last but not least there was an osprey nest with a little drama while we watched. We heard the bird on the nest calling and then saw two other birds nearby. The calls brought the mate to the nest and screeching ensued between all four birds with the one on the nest never moving out of position and mate standing just beside. The intruders left and the mate flew away. All calm again at the osprey nest.

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

I’ve posted already about the vultures and egrets at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and the sunset/sunrise at the Assateague Island National Seashore. This post is a collection of other aspects of the place that I photographed on our visit in May.

There were ducklings that suddenly appeared from behind a clump of grass with the momma and proceeded to bathe in the water. Some of the ripples in the picture above are actually more ducklings that have temporarily submerged! Hours later it occurred to me that it would have been an excellent time to try testing out the video function in my camera.

There is a new visitor center at the refuge. The skylights are on top of chimney like structures. They provide light to the inside but not direct sunlight. Good design.

Does everyone that goes to the beach take at least one bird picture like this one to the left?

We didn’t seen any of the famous Chincoteague ponies in the refuge but there were two mares with colts in the corral next to our inn that were available for adoption. These ponies did not seem as scruffy as I remembered from previous visits when we had seen them in the marsh.

The light house was being renovated but we walked around to see it through the trees. I managed to use the zoom to take a close up of the top with the cables attached to support the renovation work.

On the way back to the car from the lighthouse - trying to walk faster than the mosquitoes and midges - I managed to notice and photograph a frog beside the path. It seems like 9:00 AM was the wake up time for the insects and nothing deterred them!

Bay Bridge Crossing the Chesapeake Bay

The Bay Bridge (William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge) crosses the Chesapeake Bay via 2 spans that are over 4 miles long. It is full of hefty metal compared to the newer Ravenel Bridge that I posted about after my trip to South Carolina. What a difference 40 years makes! 

I took pictures from the vantage point of Sandy Point State Park on the western side of the bridge and then as we drove across the bridge going to (east span) and coming back (west span) from Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. It was a misty and cool day on the eastward journey. The pictures from Sandy Point (the first three in the slide show), captured the mood of the day. There is still some morning color penetrating the moisture in the air. On the way back, the day was sunny.  

Pieces of Shell

Back in April, I picked up shells while watching the sun come up at Surfside Beach, South Carolina. I posted about the sunrise but am just getting around to photographing the shells. Even broken shells attract attention.

Their ridges in gentle, fanning curves

The smooth surfaces worn by water and sand

The bumps where sea urchin spines once anchored

The spirals that have broken open

And some that are still tight.

All of these shells will find a new home around plants in a pot - souvenirs from a spring day at the beach.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 1, 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.

Have You Ever Heard Virginia Woolf Speak? - A few minutes from a radio broadcast made in 1937.

Two Volcanoes Erupting in Alaska: Scientists Are Monitoring and Providing Alerts On Pavlof and Cleveland Volcanoes - Broader than just about the two eruptions….explains the way the USGS monitors volcanoes overall

Technique to Detect Breast Cancer in Urine Developed - Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this really works and can replace routine mammograms?

Image gallery: frost - From the Weather and Climate page of the Royal Meteorological Society. Use the frame on the left to look at other image galleries. There is also an interesting animation of Hurricane Katrina under ‘Resources’

Cicada Swarmageddon! - Our area of Maryland is on the edge of Brood II of the 17-year cicada which is due to make an appearance this year. We haven’t seen or heard any yet but I enjoyed learning about the less visible parts of the insect’s lifecycle in this video.

Picnicking Through the Ages - We are more likely to use an ice chest and canvas tote rather than a basket….find a picnic table in a park rather than spread a blanket. We still enjoy eating outdoors as we travel. Recently it appears that parks are encouraging people to take home their own trash rather than providing trash cans...a return to pre-park etiquette of picnicking.

First Drug to Significantly Improve Heart Failure Mortality in Over a Decade - Coenzyme Q10….a supplement that is a drug. And other drugs for heart failure depleting the Coenzyme Q10 that the body makes on its own….maybe a feedback loop that, over time, actually made those drugs less helpful to the individual with heart failure.

Resources for Scenario Planning and Futures Thinking - From Richard Watson…pointers to two recent papers. The summary graphics are thought provoking. I spent more time on the second paper - the Cyber Game Board.

Skin Health for all - Confronting the Silent tragedy of Skin Disease - Video of a lecture given at Royal Society of Chemistry earlier this year.

Little White and the Three Toxins - A new species of mushroom…a new toxin?

May 2013 Doodles

It was a slow month for doodles….but I enjoyed producing them as always. I like the blue and black color combination the best this month.

Enjoy the collage!

Egrets at Chincoteague

In the early morning, egrets gathered in the shallows at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The gathering was quite close to a place we could park and we were thrilled that they ignored the noise we made getting out of the car. There were two different kinds. The Great White Egrets are the ones that look calm and sedate in the picture above. They are larger and have yellow beaks. Do you see the two of them in the image?

The other birds are snowy egrets. They have black beaks and yellow or red near the eye. The red is the breeding coloration. They were anything but sedate. The squabbles went on and one with lots of fluffed feathers and then some calming seconds to find a snack or strike a pose. Their feathers often look punkish during breeding season.

The Great White Egrets were more focused on food. They generally ignored the Snowy Egret ruckus but sometimes would be forced to move out of the way. My husband caught two sequences (back and front) of the birds landing after a short flight. The pictures show the wings turning up at the end and the way the wings fold as they are landing - with one last flap before finally settling.

Blue Grosbeak at Chincoteague

We pulled into a parking area in Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge beside the road to look down into the water where the egrets had congregated earlier in the morning. There were a few left that we had spotted. Then we notice a splash of color in the grass. I had the advantage - being in the passenger seat with my camera already in my hand. I rolled down the window and started taking pictures. The door helped steady by hold on the camera as I increased the magnification. After the two birds flew a short distance further way, I was able to get out of the car and follow for a few more minutes of picture taking.

As I took pictures, I thought the birds were indigo buntings. There had been pictures in the Refuge’s visitor center that I remembered from the previous day. An hour later when we were in back in the visitor center, I was not so sure. The blue grosbeak looked pretty similar. I could not be sure on the small screen of the camera and I had not looked at the birds with the binoculars; the beak would have been the key indicator if I suspected the issue while the bird was within sight.

When I got home, I used the All About Birds site while looking at the pictures on a larger screen. Confirmed - it was a blue grosbeak pair! And they were a lot prettier than the vultures I posted about previously.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2013

Back in August 2012, I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are some ‘little celebrations’ I’ve noted this month:

Peonies at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. The whole garden was special but the peonies were the highlight. See the post here.

Rhododendron at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Lots of beautiful plants and glass artwork…but the rhododendron were at their best. See the post here.

A balanced diet day that met 90% nutritional requirements from food. I started recording me food intake on cronometer.com and learned very quickly that there was room for improvement. First I got the protein/carbs/fat percentages aligned to the recommendation (when I started, fat was overwhelming carbs too frequently); then I started to improve the percentage of nutritional targets I achieved with food (from the low 80s to low 90s). It has be more of a learning experience than I anticipated - and a very positive one.

New camera. I am thoroughly enjoying my new camera (a Canon PowerShot SX280 HS). See some blog posts about it here and here.

Planting seedlings grown in egg shells. I planted some seedlings started in egg shells that are doing well in pots on the deck. See the gleanings post that gave me the idea.

Lowest weight of the year; highest stock market day of the year. These may seem like unrelated metrics but they are both items I monitor daily. It is a day to celebrate when they both move in the right direction on the same day.

Horseshoe crabs at Sandy Point State Park. The view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge would have been the highlight for me if the day had not been so misty. Instead I flipped over a horseshoe crab that had stranded itself upside down on the beach and celebrated that is crawled back into the water. I’ll be doing a post about the park in a few days.

Osprey, barn swallows, and immature bald eagle at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. I cannot pick which of the three birds I enjoyed spotting more! I’ll have a blog post in a few days.

Blue grosbeak and egrets at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. The surprise of seeing a purple grosbeak in the wild for the first time was quite a high point…but then the myriad egrets and their antics took the stage. Pictures will be posted in a few days.

Finding a surprise iris in my garden. I thought I had moved all the iris bulbs from the back garden that had gotten too shady to the front garden where they would get more sun. It worked - they are booming in profusely in their new flower bed but I found on lone flower in the back flower bed….a missed bulb that managed to bloom even in the shade. I celebrated its survival.

Vultures at Chincoteague

As I walked back to the parking area near the Marsh Trail at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, I noticed a vulture near the top of a dead tree. Pretty soon another bird joined the first. I decided to experiment with the zoom on my new camera. The results are in this post.

Vultures are probably the least beautiful of birds. The head is naked of feathers and their eyes look watery. The mouth is large. They hold themselves in a way that always has a somewhat sinister aspect - hunched, holding their wings in a way that appears to hide something in front of them, spreading their wings to dominate with their size. The two in the tree interacted very little but both spread their wings after a time - I assume to enjoy the warming sunlight on their wings. Many years ago, canoeing on the Guadalupe River in Texas after a night of rain, we saw a tree full of vultures with their wings spread in the sun. I think it was the first time I realized how big the birds are.

I try to convince myself that these birds fill a useful niche in the environment - cleaning up carrion more quickly than insects, mold, and bacteria can do the job. Still - they are not a bird I want around my neighborhood!