Savoring 2014

As 2014 winds down, I am savoring my favorite memories of the year - for every month and then some aspects of continuity across the months of the year.

January

The year started out particularly cold. The high points of the month were photographing ice crystals while I waiting for my daughter to finish up the last sessions of a conference (and yes - I am savoring her January visit too!).

February

February was the month I rediscovered the joy of microscopy. I took the 40 year old microscope out of its wooden case and began looking at insect wings, onion skins, and feathers. It was a time to stay warm inside and savor the continuous interest over a lot of years.

March

It was our first time to enjoy The Philadelphia Flower Show. I savor the memory of the day because it was full of spring color weeks before the outdoors was warm enough flowers. I also savor the super gardening gloves I bought from one of the vendors which I wore frequently over the summer and into the fall.

April

Seeing the cherry blossoms are a spring tradition for us in the Washington DC area. I enjoy them every year!

I went to Dallas last April and saw the Klyde Warren Park in downtown for the first time. This may become something I want to do every time I go to the area!

Looking back through my notes for April - I remembered seeing the Wood Frogs, and am remember them as a sight and sound of spring as well.

May

Every May, I keep a special lookout for fiddleheads and Jack-in-the-Pulpits. 2014 was not a disappointment. There were plenty to see!

Longwood Gardens is beautiful in the spring as well. I particularly enjoyed the tulips; they are always flowers I want to see in profusion.

Last May was my first experience with Letchworth Falls State Park in New York. Now that I am thinking about it again - I want to go back!

June

This was our first year to see the lotuses blooming at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.

The dragonflies were an added photographic opportunity of the place.

July

Mid-summer is an excellent time for enjoying fireworks! Some years they are rained out or we miss them .... but this year the weather was great, we found a good vantage point at the last minute and enjoyed the display.

I also made a trip to Dallas just in time to catch the Naked Lady Lilies blooming in my parents' garden.

August

While I was in Dallas, we walked around a small lake near my parents' several times and observed a swan family - with one cygnet that was almost as large as the parents.

There were also a profusion of sunflowers in Dallas and I now have seeds from those plants to grow some of my own next spring/summer.

September

September was a good month to walk around the Maryland side of the Great Falls of the Potomac. Lots of water coming over the rocks. Maybe we'll go again sometime this winter.

October

At the beginning of the month I was in Newport, RI with one of my sisters - touring mansions and gardens...walking the cliff walk. Great memories.

November

Chincoteague and Blackwater Wildlife Refuge are some favorite fall destinations for us. This year we were a tad early for the winter birds but there were lots of herons and gulls that made photography worthwhile.

Catoctin/Cunningham Falls was another fall destination - for foliage and shelf fungus!

December

December has been full of things to savor - the poinsettias, solstice hike, decorations, pomegranates and the US Botanic Garden. I'm going to skip adding pictures since they are too numerous (and still very fresh in memory).

Themes

There are themes for the year too that I'm savoring:

• The sweet potato I grew in a trough pot from January to October. The leaves were good as salad greens...and the sweet potatoes were baked then eaten with butter and cinnamon.
• All the Coursera courses I took. I was looking back through the list and trying to decide if I had a favorite. There are ones that were thought provoking...others that caused me to change the way I do things...others that were just a joy to learn.
• Visiting Brookside Gardens. I go there frequently and savor the parts that are available while renovations are occurring.
• Being a Volunteer Naturalist for the Howard Country Conservancy. It is a thrill to lead nature hikes for elementary school field trips.
• Community Supported Agriculture. 2014 was my first season to belong to a CSA from June-October and I'll probably continue for as long as there is a CSA near where I live.

That's it for the trip down memory lane for 2014. I enjoyed it....but anticipate 2015 will hold just a much that I'll be savoring next year on December 31st.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 27, 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 the Ancient Romans Made Better Concrete Than We Do Now - Article include the ‘how’ plus some information about how the scientists worked out the details. Roman concrete is ‘better’ in terms of durability and its production releases a lot less carbon into the atmosphere.

The Greenland Ice Sheet: Now in HD - The article is a story from Ohio State University. Some of the imagery is available here.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #74 - As usual - I can’t resist looking through these collections of bird pictures.

The Complete History of Earth in One Tidy Infographic - As usual for infographics…lots of data packed into one page. It is worthwhile to read the text then expand the infographic to take a closer look. I am taking the Origins course so it was a nice coincidence that this graphic came out recently.

Top 10 Public Health Stories of 2014 - We are getting to the end of the year and a number of sites are compiling top stories. This one is about public health.

Over two hundred interesting new species in 2014 - We are still finding a lot of new species in the world - even while we know species are going extinct too. How will we ever know the magnitude of the extinctions when we don’t even know all the species on Earth?

Mosaic Design Gets Assist from Robotics and Enterprise Software - I’ve always enjoyed mosaics and now it appears that robots are being used to create them. Will that make them less expensive (and thus more popular)? I hope we see more mosaics in public places - and in homes too. I’ve noticed several airports with mosaics (one of the newer terminals at DFW and Tucson).

Photography in the National Parks: Looking Back On 2014 - So many good places to take pictures…

2014’s Big Advances in (Biological) Science - A list from The Scientist.

A Video Tour of Yellowstone National Park - A 5 minute video about the geysers of Yellowstone.  It’s a reminder to go back to Yellowstone - soon.

Personal History via Christmas Ornaments

Every year when I decorate for the holidays, I enjoy the personal history the ornaments represent.

From the 1960s, there are red tree shapes with gold braid (my mother gave them to be years later when she was cleaning out Christmas ‘stuff’),

A ceramic candle holder of carolers given to me by a friend from early elementary school, and

A Madonna and Child from an elderly neighbor that lived across the street when I was in late elementary school.

From the 1970s, there are handmade felt birds. I made two of each kind. In recent years they have decorated banisters rather than the tree.

From the 1980s, the collection includes angels left behind by the previous owner of the house we bought in Virginia,

Some heritage glass ornaments from the Smithsonian,

Dough bears made by my sister just before we got pregnant with our daughters (her first, my only), and

Ornaments that my mother-in-law bought during her first Christmas with us.

In the 1990s, my daughter chose a white artificial tree (the cat is from the 2000s and is not a Christmas ornament) and

Homemade ornaments (my favorite is the purple eggshell).

By the 2000s, the tree was already full. One of the few additions were copper coated leaves that my daughter bought as a gift to us while she was away at college. I like them so much I put them in the window as sun catchers.

In the2010s, I added an owl cut from light wood that I bought on our trek down the east coast to Florida in fall 2013 for the Maven launch.

I’ve also wrapped the small boxes (empty) we’ve accumulated over the years to put in a sleigh beside the tree - they are my latest ‘decoration’!

Coursera - December 2014

Several courses finished in November: Modern and Contemporary Poetry from University of Pennsylvania, What Future Education from University of London, and Childbirth: A Global Perspective from Emory University. It is hard to compare them because they were so different. I enjoyed the variety of them…and looked forward to each week of new material. Earlier in my life, I chose courses largely based on the ‘fit’ toward my career goals. Now - the decision is based totally on my interests and I am discovered that my interests are very broad!

Two of the courses that started in October, continued through all of November and into December as well.

Water: The Essential Resource from National Geographic Society. The course is focused on teaching the topic to 4th-8th graders. I’ve learned some new things about the topic and about teaching.

Philosophy and the Sciences from the University of Edinburgh. The first part of the course was about cosmology and the second is about cognitive science. The presentations are informative about the science and thought provoking about the relationship between science and philosophy in these two areas.

Two new courses started in November and continue into December.

Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth, and Life from University of Copenhagen. The Cosmology section of the Philosophy and Sciences course dovetailed very well with the first weeks of the Origins course. Both presentations were very well done. At this point of the course, the discussion is on the ‘life’ part.  The snowball earth theory, impact of mass extinctions, and new DNA/molecular analysis to compare life forms are all new since I got my undergraduate degree in biology!

Recovering the Humankind’s Past and Saving the Universal Heritage from Sapienza University of Rome. This course has just started and is the only course that will continue through to January. I am already bracing myself; it will seem odd to only have one course for a few weeks! The first week of the course was thought provoking - pointing out the indications we have that people have not always viewed history or remains of prior cultures in the same way.

Coursera Experience - November 2014

There are a lot of courses that are continuing into November from September and October.

Modern & Contemporary American Poetry. The most time-consuming of the courses. The close reading videos of the instructors and TAs are worth the time. I may not like all the poetry styles but the course has broaden by awareness of poetry that either had not been written or was not presented when I was in college in the 1970s.

What future for education? - I am enjoying the interviews that are the core of the videos for the course but the big item I’ve learned from this course is about the importance of reflection before and after learning experiences. I’ve changed by behavior to include reflection before and after Coursera videos for each course. Sometimes the instructors have prompting questions that make it easy and sometimes I have to invent my own. I’ve also incorporated the idea into my nature hikes for children: asking what they know about the topic of the hike before we set out….and then prompting question about something new they learned or why it was important.

Childbirth: A Global Perspective - This course has a very good mix of summary statistics and case studies for individual countries around the world. The big take away for me has been how linked childbirth issues are related to other issues like the status of women in the society, the medical infrastructure, and obesity (the overabundance of food) or malnutrition (too little food).

Water: The Essential Resource - There is a lot of interest in water around the world - and where the amount of water is changing either because of climate change, pollution, or depletion. The class focuses on a curriculum for California schools but is broadly applicable. There are great resources for case studies.  I’ve already been able to apply some of the ideas in nature hikes for school children about soil/erosion and water runoff around schools.

Philosophy and the Sciences - I’m always impressed with the way University of Edinburgh brings together instructors with complementary backgrounds to present the material in their MOOCs. The course is divided into two sections to demonstrate the relationship between philosophy and the sciences: cosmology and cognitive science. We are still in the cosmology part of the course. Last week half the lecture was done with the instructor writing on a white board….just like in a physical class (but without having to peer around the head of the person in front of you!).

Fortunately - three of the courses will be ending in November because two more are starting!

Recovering the Humankind Past and Saving the Universal Heritage - This one is just now posting materials.

Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life - I didn’t realize when I signed up that this course would mesh with the Philosophy and Sciences course!  It will be starting about the time the segment on cosmology ends.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 01, 2014

We had 4 large bags of candy ready for trick-or-treaters last night and handed out 2 --- no tricks. This Halloween was a low in terms of children in the neighborhood for the 20 years we've lived in our neighborhood. The rest of the candy will be given away next week at the places we work or volunteer. Maybe next year I’ll try to figure out what to give away rather than candy.

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.

Tap into the Potential of Taproots this Fall - There are a lot of root vegetables to try. This article highlights jicama, parsnips, beets, carrots, and celery root.  Carrots are a veggie I always have on hand. The CSA prompted me to try beets and no I have Fruit Beety in the freeze for a pretty and tasty dessert. The other three I’ll probably try this fall. What about adding turnips, radishes and sweet potatoes to the list?

Your Life on Earth - A web site from the BBC that explores what has changed in your lifetime.

New Energy Efficiency Ranks Released - How the states rank based on a score card. Massachusetts  is the best, Maryland is 9th, Arizona is 15th, Texas is 34th.

The Chemistry of the Colours of Blood - Did you know that blood can be red, blue, green or violet? And all the molecules look complex. They all contain iron except for the blue bloods - which contain copper.

The Future of Lifelong Learning - I was a little disappointed that the infographic did not pick up on my demographic and learning rationale a bit more. I think people that are post-career are significant participants in the MOOCs particularly and they are motivated by personal interest primarily. They are often learning for the joy of learning something new. The application may be when they travel (i.e. taking an architectural course then noticing more architectural features when in a new location) or volunteer (i.e. applying ideas from an education course when leading a nature hike for children). But there may not be any application at all. It’s not about graduation or certification either. Educators need to internalize this when they are evaluating their offerings.

Does having children make us any happier? - My husband and I fit the ‘older parents’ and ‘more educated’ demographic....and we sustained the higher level of happiness after our daughter was born over 20 years ago just as the study found.

Interview with Janet Echelman - This is an recent interview. There is also a TED talk from 2011 by this artist available here that I had watched previously. It was good to get an update on what she has been doing since the talk.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins - I collect pumpkin muffin recipes. I like this one because it has a lot of pumpkin…but maybe I’ll use honey or maple syrup instead of the sugar. Sometimes I substitute butternut squash or sweet potatoes for the pumpkin (it has to be something yellow/orange!).  I bought another pie pumpkin at the grocery store this week since they all seem to disappear right after Halloween.

Is There A Limit To How Big Vegetables Can Grow? - And one more item about pumpkins - huge pumpkins.  I can’t image one that would weigh 2,323 pounds! Are they edible?  If they are that would be a lot of pies and muffins!

What School Should Be: The Strength of Student Voice - Results from a workshop for high school students about the way schools are/should be.

Newport RI - Day 1

Our first day in Newport RI in a nutshell: sunrise and 3 mansions!

I was up early enough to catch the sunrise colors on the horizon and water from the balconies of our rooms. It was very quiet compared to the party noises from the night before along the waterfront. The forecast was for a near perfect day for walking around Newport.

There are a lot of architectural features in houses,

Churches,

And buildings that are much easier to scrutinize on foot rather than driving/riding.

Many structures have been restored and other others seemed to be in the process of being restored; crews were getting a head start as the tourist crowds thinned and the weather was still reasonable.

My favorite of the three houses we saw on the first day was the Isaac Bell House. The porches and interesting roof line probably clinched it for me but the guided tour through the empty rooms - showing how restoration is done - was more interesting that the overwhelming opulence of many other Newport mansions.

Kingscot was too Gothic for me but it was fun to learn about the ‘weeping’ trees that were deemed by landscapers of the time to be in keeping with the architecture. The brow over the windows was to deflect water!

The Elms was the last house on the first day. We took the tour of the house just before closing time and decided to go back another day to look at the gardens. I enjoyed the small preview of the sculptures and clipped hedges on the quick walk through on the first day.

3 Free eBooks - September 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for September 2014.

Calvert, Albert Frederick. Southern Spain - Painted by Trevor Haddon. London: A&C Black. 1908. Available from the Internet Archive here. I particularly liked the images of courtyards….beautiful outdoor spaces.

Moore, Frederic. The Lepidoptera of Ceylon. London: L. Reeve & Co. 1890. Three volumes from the Internet Archive: one, two, three.  The author was very active in India as well. I’ve looked at all the volumes for Ceylon and have started the ones for India. I wonder how many of the species still exist?

Brown, Leanne. Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. New York. 2014. Available from the author’s website. You’ll get hungry just looking at recipes in this book!  I got caught on the first one (tomato scrambled eggs)…made it for lunch before I finished the rest of the book!

Enjoy some wonderful images (and some good food ideas)!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 9, 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.

5 Important Tips for Keeping Your Eyes Healthy - The tips come from the National Institute for Senior Health but are good for all ages. Start early to keep your eyes health for life!

Behold These Incredible Works Of Architecture Made Out Of Living Trees - I am not patient enough for a project like this but I’m glad that some people are!

How to Freeze Garden Vegetables and Fruits - Timely article. I am sure there will be CSA or deck garden bounty that I’ll not be able to eat immediately.

Want To Improve Your National Park Photography? Catch This Webcast from the Parks - I plan to watch these live classes in late August. I haven’t been to either Olympic or Mount Rainier National Parks so I’ll enjoy the scenery along with some new photography techniques.

Turnips, Kohlrabi, Radishes, and Other Odd Vegetables: Are They Our Key to Survival? - Getting produce from the CSA this summer has sharpened by awareness of these vegetables. Surprisingly the one I knew the least about before the CSA (kohlrabi) is now my favorite - and it even comes in several colors!

More crop per drop: Reducing water footprint of cultivated herbs - Hopefully this type of research is going on in the US too since water is becoming an increasing issue in many parts of the country.

Society bloomed with gentler personalities, more feminine faces: Technology boom 50,000 years ago correlated with less testosterone - Was the change relatively sudden or did it happen over many 1000s of years….and is the trend continuing?

Massive volcanic outbursts on Jupiter's moon Io: More common than thought? - Even as we learn more about exoplanets…there is still a lot to learn about our own solar system.

Get Ready For Monarch Migration - We don’t see many monarchs in the area near our house although they were quite plentiful 15 years ago. I miss them. The milkweed around the field near us is gone too - a victim of the ‘Round Up Ready’ farming done there. I hope there are places in Maryland where the butterflies find a safe haven.

Atlantic warming turbocharges Pacific trade winds - Another example of how the earth’s climate is a system that involves the whole world rather than something that occurs locally.

Coursera Experience - August 2014

Quite a few courses ended in July:

• Diversity of Exoplanets (University of Geneva)
• Preventing Chronic Pain (University of Minnesota)
• Paradoxes of War (Princeton University)
• An Introduction to Global Health (University of Copenhagen)

I enjoyed all of them but there were times I thought I had started more than  I could possible finish. It is incredibly difficult to forego a course on a interesting topic; I need to develop more will power!

As I start August, only two courses are in session and I am enjoying the reduction. It is challenging to keep up with the classes while I am traveling….but I have succeeded in listening to the lectures. I’ll have to catch up with the discussion forums and assignments later. The two courses are:

Globalization and You (University of Washington). I just finished the module on Money last week. The history of monetary policy and outcomes was very well done. It may be the best module of the course!

Social Psychology (Wesleyan University). Every week there is something that surprises me....and quite a lot that is very applicable to everyday life. The forums are lively in this one ---- worth the time to peruse and participate.

I have one course that will be starting up in August after I am back home!

Beauty, Form, and Function: An Exploration of Symmetry (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). I am looking forward to this course for several reasons: it is a very different topic area from other courses I’ve taken, it is offered by a different university that other courses, and I anticipate that this topic will benefit from the cultural diversity what will be part of the MOOC students.

3 Free eBooks - July 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for July 2014.

Petrie, W. M. Flinders. Roman Portraits and Memphis (IV).London: School of Archeology in Egypt, University College and Bernard Quaritch. 1911. Available from Internet Archive here.  Because most of the portraits are the face and shoulders - they often have a timeless quality. The report is from Petrie’s work in 1910-1911; it is impressive how quickly the work was published after the dig!

Bayon, Felix (text); Casals, Lluis (photography). The Alhambra of Granada. 2000. Available from Internet Archive here. The book is 191 pages - with a tremendous number of photographs. Take a look at this book with the largest monitor you can find.

Goodale, George L. and Sprague, Isaac. The Wild Flowers of America. Boston: Bradlee Widden. 1886. Available from the Internet Archive here. I can’t resist botanical books from the 1800s. There were a lot of familiar plants in this one. I’ve included a clip of the cone flower page from the book in this post.

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.

On Grocery Stores

Going to the grocery store has been part of my weekly routine for over 40 years. Recently - I thought about how it has changed over that time.

The stores have always been box like - with aisles. They have gotten physically larger over the years and many of them now have exposed structure in the ceiling, polished concrete floors rather than frequently scrubbed linoleum, and pallets of merchandise stacked on some of the aisles making the store take on the appearance of a warehouse. There displays that expand into the aisle and cluster in front of the cash registers have increased over the years. The refrigerator units with soft drinks in front of each aisle are relatively recent additions.

It’s not just the refrigerator units near the checkout lines that are new. Forty years ago, soft drinks were most frequently in glass although the ring top aluminum cans were becoming available. There was already almost a whole aisle dedicated to them. Much of the produce was locally seasonal - except for things like bananas which were always from far away. I lived in Texas in the early part of the 40 years, and lots of the fruits and veggies came from the Rio Grande Valley - now the sources for the produce section are worldwide although some stores are realizing that people do equate locally grown with fresh. Many stores have sections in their produce section for ‘local.’ 

The basic configuration of the checkout line may not have changed much but the advent of the scanners to the cash register made it possible for every checker to be as fast as the really good checker in the pre-scanner days. It was always amazing to me that some checkers in grocery stores 40 years ago knew the price of everything and could enter it very rapidly. The hiccups these days are caused by things that don’t have bar codes (usually produce) or the computer going down.

The types of products I buy at the grocery store have increased over the years. There are more non-food items. There are many reasons. Early on things like toilet paper and shampoo were available at the grocery store but they were more expensive so I always bought them elsewhere. Grocery stories have expanded to include what used to be in a drugstore: a pharmacy, first aid supplies, over-the-counter medications, and toiletries…..and the prices are often comparable.  They carry more cooking supplies now too: Pyrex and stoneware casserole plates, smoothie makers, and grill accessories. There is a seasonal aisle as well - coolers for summer, Christmas decorations in November and December.  I did my a glass bowled bird bath at the grocery store last year when it went on sale….and a peacock stake for a pot in my deck garden this year. I don’t remember when stores started having greeting cards and school supplies and magazines. The space allocated had increased over the years. Now the space for greeting cards is decreasing. Last week I noticed a display of earrings. Is that a trend?

Even the carts have changed. For a long time they were big metal almost rectangular baskets with a front section that flipped back to make a seat for a small child. There were some small changes: seat belts were added for the child and sometimes much of the basket was plastic rather than metal. Recently a new style of basket has been introduced: shorter in length with two tiers and no seat for a child.  The cart holds almost as much as the old style cart but is more maneuverable….and I notice just about everyone that does not have a child using the new style.

Bags have changed too. Starting out there were the square bottomed paper bags. Then the thin plastic bags came along and stores defaulted to use them although the paper bags were still available. Once recycling started, I would periodically get paper bags to hold our recycled paper at home and bring bags of the plastic ones back to the store for recycling there. In the past few years I’ve started using my own bags. I tried to make the switch for produce but that was tougher; the stores don’t have an alternative for the plastic bags in the produce section. I’ve solved the problem for this summer by going to the Community Supported Agriculture...but will probably accumulate the plastic produce bags again in the winter.

When I started writing this post, I had only thought of a few changed….but now I realize that quite a lot has changed in grocery stores in the last 40 years!

Coursera Experience - July 2014

Following the general schedule of the brick and mortar universities that offer courses through Coursera, there were a lot of new starts in June. It made for a grand total of 5 courses on my ‘to do’ list by the end of the month:

The Diversity of Exoplanets (University of Geneva) - The course has provided a good framework for me to understand the news items on the topic….and there are quite a lot of them these days!

Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach (University of Minnesota) - The Systems Biology course I finished last month prepared me for the most technical module of this course!  Since I don’t have chronic pain at this point in my life, I am truly focused on the ‘preventing’ aspect of the curse. The biggest action I’ve taken so far is to broaden the amount and kind of stretching I am doing.

Paradoxes of War (Princeton University) - This course has been thought provoking both from a historical and more general societal context. Since there has been some time sequence to it - we are now in the years of my life and I am appreciating the different perspectives of what happened in the 60s and 70s.

An Introduction to Global Health (University of Copenhagen) - There is so much to be done and, while there have been strides, there are set backs too. The people that are the most vulnerable are in the least healthy situation and their pliant is often impacted by disasters (floods, earthquakes, wars). At the same time, we are facing the reality that many in the developed world had chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are sapping medical resources too (and now the NCDs are increasing in the developing world too).

Globalization and You (University of Washington) - The course divides Globalization (political) from globalization (interconnectedness) and encourages students to research how each impacts them directly. I am already behind in the reading and the participation! Strangely enough - a lot of what I’ve been learning in some of my other classes seems feed into this one (the ones that come immediately to mind are Global Health, US Food System, How to change the world).

By the end of the month I should begin to recover. Several courses will end and the only one that will start in July is:

Social Psychology (Wesleyan University) - The course is advertised to focus on ‘research findings that are easy to apply in daily life.’ What a great course to enjoy with air conditioning in August!

3 Free eBooks - June 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for June 2014.

Birds, Illustrated by color photography. Chicago: Nature Publishing Company. 1897. Fourteen volumes are available from Project Gutenberg here. The image of the kingfisher is from volume 1, no. 2.  I am slowly working my way through all the volumes. I’ve enjoyed the first 4 so far.

Cailliaud, Frederic. Voyage a Meroe. Paris: L’Imprimerie Royale. 1826. Two atlas volumes are available from the Internet Archive: volume 1 and volume 2. I just finished a Coursera course on The Art and Archeology…and was thrilled to find these books online. They have drawings of some things that have been degraded between 1826 and not - either through simple ravages of time or rising water from dams built on the Nile.

Versailles et les Trianons : vues photographiques. Versailles: Moreau. 1880. Available from the Internet Archive here. It’s been a draw for tourists for a long time….and people bought souvenirs in the 1880s like this book!

Coursera Experience - June 2014

May was a relatively easy month from a course load perspective. I finished two courses:

• The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (Tel Aviv University) - I was surprised at how little I understood of even the events that have occurred in my lifetime. I generally keep up with news but I clearly needed more context than the news stories provided…..or maybe the passage of time has brought enlarged perspective of historians.
• Introduction to Systems Biology (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) - Probably the hardest course I’ve taken on Coursera so far.

And only had one that continued on for the full month.

• The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia (Emory University) - This one has short videos and then pointers to reading. I am supplementing the recommended reading with items from the Internet Archive and some books I got via paperbackswap. This one will be over by the end of June - which is a good think because I have so many more that are starting!

There were two that started right at the end of May.

• The Diversity of Exoplants (University of Geneva) - I am taking this course to understand more about what my daughter’s research is all about in graduate school.
• Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach (University of Minnesota) - I am fortunate to not currently have chronic pain….but prevention is always easier than recovery. And there are others in my family that do have challenges caused by pain.

The challenge increases in June as three more courses start up. There are just so many good courses being offered that I can’t seem to resist.

• Paradoxes of War (Princeton University) - Every course I have taken from Princeton has been excellent….and I’m looking forward to this one.
• An Introduction to Global Health (University of Copenhagen) - This course and the next one on the list are part of my trend to think more globally about issues. There seem to be so many areas that transcend the boundaries of nations and governments.
• Globalization and You (University of Washington) - It will be interesting to find out how this course meshes with the one on Global Health.

It’s going to be quite a course load by the end of June!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 24, 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.

Ten Fabulous Facts about Butterflies: A Wildlife Garden’s Best Friend - Now that the weather in our area is getting warmer…..we’ll be seeing more butterflies. They’re one of my signposts of summer!

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2014 - The list is from the editors of MIT’s Technology Review (and they include a pointer to past lists too).

Diatoms on Display - Fan shaped - they reminded me of stylized papyrus images.

Why Do Americans Hate Lives of Leisure? - The article went a different direction than I anticipated. It really was not about ‘lives of leisure’ but about why we tend to feel we have too little or none at all.

Blocking pain receptors extends lifespan, boosts metabolism in mice - It is appealing to find that something done to improve the quality of life (like blocking pain) might also extend lifespan. Of course - it may not work the same in humans as it does in mice.

Super-power Chia Bread - My routine breakfast is a tablespoon of chia seeds in almond milk - but I have been noticing more recipes that include chia recently and this is one I plan to try. It would be a lot easier to eat ‘on the go.’

London’s Greatest Scientific Experiments - An interactive tour.

On the shoulder of a giant: Precursor volcano to the island of O'ahu discovered - My daughter is in Hawaii on a geology field trip right now so this article captured my attention.

A Map of National Landmarks That Are Most Vulnerable to Climate Change - Time to plan a vacation to see some of these? We were at the NASA Kennedy Space Center and Canaveral National Seashore last fall.

Visualizing the Ocular Microbiome - The surface of our eyes is yet another complex ecosystem and it has some unique properties. Modern molecular diagnostic tools are increasing our understanding of what it takes to sustain ‘health.’

Filigree Floral Sculpture Produced with Innovative 3D Printing - This one is added to my list for the week because of beauty and the use of technology.

Free eBooks - May 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for May 2014. This month I’ve selected 3 books that are multiple volumes - totaling 35 ‘books’ in all.

Commission des sciences et arts d’Egyte. Description of Egypt. Second Edition. Paris: C.L.F Panckoucke. 1820. There are 5 volumes of plates about Antiquities, an atlas, 2 volumes of plates about the Modern State, and3volumes about Natural History. Available from the World Digital Library here. These are the volumes produced from Napoleon’s team in Egypt. I found them based on a reference in the Roman Architecture course I took on Coursera; they supplemented another course I finished recently on Cairo Architecture and the course I am taking right now on The Art and Architecture of Ancient Nubia. The drawings were very detailed.

Roberts, David. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia. 6 volumes available from the Internet Archive here. London: Day & Son. 1855. I found this series when I did a search for ‘Nubia’ in the Internet Archive. I haven’t tried to pair the drawings of the same ruin from 1820 (Napoleonic team) and 1855 but it probably would be possible. Some of the monuments were still partially covered with sand (and thus protected from erosion more than they are now) and the dams on the Nile had not been built to inundate the ones south of Aswan.

Wild Flowers of America. New York: G.H. Buek & Co. 1894. There are 18 issues available from the Internet Archive here.  Many of these flowers are recognizable. I’ve seen the columbine in many local gardens this year!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 10, 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.

Dynamic Paintings of Birds Capture the Essence of Flight - Appealing work.  I usually like photographs of birds in flight better than paintings….but these are an exception.

The Coming Antibiotic Crisis, Revealed in Maps - Will we eventually revert to infections that kill like in pre-antibiotic days?

Inside Turkey’s Top Archaeological Sites - From the Dialogue of Civilizations: Gobekli Tepe (oldest human-constructed ceremonial site in the world) and Zeugma (mosaics). Links are included to photos, galleries and virtual tours of the sites. There is also a link at the bottom of the article to other posts about the Dialogue of Civilizations.

10 Spring Cleaning to Dos for Your Digital Abode: Part II - I posted the Part I of this list a few weeks ago I my cleanings list.

Basic science finds corporate refuge - With funding from the US government declining, corporations are picking up some of the funding shortfall.

A History of Garbage in Space - In just over half a century, we’ve created 17000 objects in earth orbit. The majority of them are ‘fragmentation debris.’

What's Your Major? 4 Decades of College Degrees, In 1 Graph - This is a graphic to looks at - move the cursor over it to get numbers that correspond to the colors. Click on the one and a graph with just that major will appear. Physics is almost non-existent in the graph (higher in 1970 than now).

Watch Stunning First Simulation of Universe’s 13-Billion-Year Evolution - In a little over 4 minutes, a simulation of the universe from the beginning to now.

Ocean acidity is dissolving shells of tiny snails off U.S. West Coast - Scientists has previously thought it would be decades before this result of ocean acidification would be observed. It appears that this is one consequence of climate change that is happening faster than anticipated.

Neuroaesthetics - A relatively new field that studies the way humans process beauty and art.

Coursera Experience - May 2014

I finished up two courses in April:

• Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets (Brown University)
• Roman Architecture (Yale University)

They were both thoroughly enjoyable and the Discussion Forums held a rich assortment of pictures that is used as a ‘last hurrah’ for the course material. There are two courses that continue into May and one that starts just at the end of the month:

• The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (Tel Aviv University). I have read one of the reference books I found on Paperbackswap and still have another one to go. I also browsed The Architecture of Cairo course material from MIT which seemed to integrate some of what I was learning at the end of the Roman Architecture course and this one.
• Introduction to Systems Biology (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai). At first, I thought this course was going to take me way back to the biology courses I took as an undergraduate….but then I realized that it was going to do much more than that. This one is integrated biology with all the modeling and statistical analysis I did in my computer science based career!
• The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia (Emory University).  I could resist starting another archaeology related course!

And there are 2 more that start up at the end of May

• The Diversity of Exoplants (University of Geneva). I want to take this one since it is such a hot topic in my daughter’s field.
• Preventing Chronic Pain: A Human Systems Approach (University of Minnesota). There are several people in family that deal with chronic pain; I’m always interested in learning about the current state-of-the-art on topics like this.