Gleanings of the Week Ending July 12, 2014

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.

How baby names spread across the US - interactive map - What fun! The map is set with a search box (enter a name) and then the historical preference for that name by state begins to play.  Some names spike and then ebb….others stay about constant.

Geothermal Heat Melting Road Surface of Firehole Lake Drive in Yellowstone National Park - Wow! I’m sure we probably drove this rode when we vacationed in Yellowstone. Hope they can figure out how to fix the road.

Fossil Interests Attack Clean Energy Politics: State-By-State Map - The ‘fossil interests’ would be appreciated more for delivering quality in their own products (reducing costs, reducing or eliminating environmentally damaging byproducts, etc.) than when they attempt to trash their competition.  American consumers are getting savvier all the time about how energy costs come about.

Rewriting the history of volcanic forcing during the past 2,000 years - New data from detailed analysis of Antarctica ice cores about volcanic sulfate emissions in the Southern Hemisphere over the past 2000 years is feeding into climate module simulations. The research was done with 26 cores from 19 sites and has taken more than a decade of collaborative ice core collection.

The Alien Brains Living on Planet Earth - Learn something new…about octopi.

Never-Before-Seen Photo of Europa Shows Rivers of Red Ice - A natural wonder than could pass for a work of art!

Babies born to healthy moms worldwide are strikingly similar in size - Focusing on baby born to health, well-educated and well-nourished mothers….this was a large study too: 60,000 pregnancies from 8 urban areas around the world (Brazil, China, India, Italy, Kenya, Oman, the UK, and the US).

Made from History - A site started in May 2014 that collects and organizes historical materials. The main collection areas are World War I, World War II and Civil Rights but there is a search capability as well. I did a search for ‘Little Bighorn’ and article called ‘The Top 7 Military Mistakes in History’ was the result.

Radio-burst discovery deepens astrophysics mystery - There is still a lot to learn about the universe….in this case, the new data confirms observations from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia (there had been speculation that it was a fluke of the Parkes instrument rather than an actual observation prior to this new observation from Arecibo).

Mutations Pervade Mitochondrial DNA - More than 500 point mutations in mtDNA have been implicated in diseases….and there may be a linkage to aging as well. This is deservedly a hot area for further research.