Learning Log – November 2015

October provide a variety of learning opportunities.

Two Coursera courses that I had worked on in September continued and completed. The Tibetan Buddhist Meditation and the Modern World course is the first of a series from University of Virginia. The first course was intense but worthwhile so I am watching for the next one to become available

Forests and Humans from University of Wisconsin-Madison was larger in scope that I had initially assumed. It became clear that to understand forests at all – one has to know something about the Earth systems that enable forests to exist – to thrive or decline. The mix of lecture, interviews, and readings was well done.

I’ve completed the first week of a new course: Ancient Egypt: A history in six objects from University of Manchester. The organization of the core material is very good…and that makes the references (there are quite a few very good ones they provide) easier to use.

Change always brings opportunity for learning. There were two instances that seemed more significant this past month:

The annual enrollment for health insurance. There are always a few changes that require study and choices have to be made. The package is as big as a small book!

I decided to experiment making Zentangle patterns on soft drink bottles to decide if I could transfer what I did on flat tiles to a curved surface (and maybe follow through to make the patterns on spherical balls for our Christmas tree). It was a learning experience…enjoyable but not enough for me to forge ahead with the higher cost project.

Travel learning is somewhat like the opportunities change brings: we tend to do different things when we travel away from home. Our fall foliage trip was my first Star Party so everything was new…and something I want to do again. The places we went in West Virginia were repeats but different enough to be learning experiences too; for example – there could have been puff balls at Beartown when we were there in 2001 but I would not have recognized them!

Sometimes a ‘travel’ type experience happens close to home too. I finally got a tour of the farmhouse at Mt. Pleasant farm…and learned about how the house had been enlarged around the original long cabin. The continuity of a family living there and modifying the house to meet their needs over the years was more interesting than many of the houses of wealthier people I’ve toured over the years.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 24, 2015

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.

Why being single is much more than handling just loneliness – Even though the number of singles has been increasing in many places (sometimes to over half the adult population), the market has filed to understand the commercial experience of singles by always skewing to the ideal life centered on couples and nuclear families.

The rapid and startling decline of world’s vast boreal forests – Boreal forests are Earth’s single largest biome…up to 30% of the globe’s forest cover. An indicator species of this biome are moose and their numbers in Minnesota have dropped so quickly that some groups want to list them as endangered in the Midwest. The Boreal forest may be shrinking…dying…changing. The boreal forests are warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. There could be a near term tipping point. Many trees are dying already.

Sweden is on track to becoming the first cashless nation – I’ve noticed in recent years that I use a lot less cash…but not quite cashless. The US has a ways to go.

The Chemistry of Superglue – A little about the history of superglue…and how it works.

The end is in sight for reading glasses – I hope this works! The idea of replacing natural lenses with liquid crystals is also applicable to helping people that have cataracts.

Chaco Culture National Historic Park – Another Dark Sky Park. Now that I’ve been to one star party….I’m looking for other places in the US that have as good or better dark skies! I’ve been to Chaco once….during the day…and thought the isolation of the place made it easier to imagine the people that lived there long ago.

A nap to recap: how reward, daytime sleep boost learning – As I read about the study – I wondered what the results would be with a meditation break rather than a sleep break.

Winners of Nikon's 2015 Small World Contest Reveal the Microscopic Beauty of Our World – Images of things you can’t see so easily with just your eyes.

Orange lichens are potential source for anticancer drugs – Parietin in a pigment in orange lichens and rhubarb…that has the potential for treating leukemia without toxicity to human blood cells.

Study compares traditional, modern views of aging – There seems to be consensus that older people are more respected and perceived as wiser than younger people. However, traditional societies think older people have better memories and modern societies think older people have poor memories.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 16, 2015

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.

New app puts the world's biodiversity in the palm of your hand - The Map of Life app makes it easier to identify local wildlife. It’s a location specific reference for amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, turtles, bumblebees, butterflies, dragonflies, and trees. The down side is things you find that are normally in that locality. I’ve already experienced one - a bigleaf magnolia growing in the woods in Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. It is a tree that usually grows further south. The app will still provide information but it is not quite as easy as plants/animals that are ‘normal’ for the area.

What happens to our bodies after we die - Maybe some of the concepts in the article are a little familiar from all the CSI programs on television these days….but it’s hard to separate fact from fiction in those programs. This post from the BBC is on ‘fact’ side.

Idle Electronics and Appliances Waste $19 Billion Annually, Study Says - A study done with 70,000 residential customers in California found that 23% of home electricity usage was from always-on but inactive devices. That can’t be good. Appliance designers need to work on reducing that….and maybe consumers need to be content with stoves and microwaves that don’t have clocks!

Harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay are becoming more frequent - Ugh! Even with all the work being done to reduce the nutrients going into the bay…the growing population of people and animals is overwhelming the progress made.

Everybody Dies: How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy - It is not just about preserving your legacy…it’s also to whoever will be handling things for you. Wills need to include more than they did 50 years ago!

11 Ways to Increase Electric Car Adoption - My next car might be electric. For my day to day driving it would already be acceptable. It would not work for road trips - and that is a problem even though it is only a few weeks a year.

Long-term study on ticks reveals shifting migration patterns, disease risks  with a larger version of the infographic here (click on the image to make it even larger) - Maryland has the dog tick, Lone star tick, and deer tick ---- and Lyme disease…not good. One of the places where I lead hikes is part of a study to identify the diseases ticks carry in the area.

Maryland and Food Self-Sufficiency - More and more people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from and some are attempting to become locavores. The findings for Maryland are probably pretty typical. The three foods Maryland produces in enough quantity for our entire population are: chicken, lima beans, and watermelon!

Forests at Valley Forge National Historical Park Coming Back After Deer Culling - There are quite a few areas along the east coast that have an overpopulation of deer. I know the forest behind our house has very few small trees because the deer eat the saplings before they grow taller than the deer can browse. I appears that the Valley Forge National Historical Park is having some success with their program…but they are still monitoring to verify that the forest is indeed sustaining itself.

Real Plants and Fungi That Look Like Something from the Monstrous Manual - A series of videos. The Venus Flytrap film is dramatic!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 04, 2015

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.

Disturbingly little known about microbeads, plastics in the Great Lakes - Microbeads and small plastic debris may be a bigger environmental problem than anticipated.

Scientists Urge Museums to Cut Koch Ties - Do sponsors of exhibits at places like American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History influence the content of the exhibits they sponsor? An uncomfortable reality of modern America?

Watch Plants Sprout and Grow In Seconds, In These Astonishing Timelapses - There is a lot of sprouting going on in the springtime. I enjoyed this collection of videos showing acorns, mung beans, and chia seeds sprouting.

15 subway-style maps that explain everything but subways - Some of these maps work well…some are a stretch. Just because the style of map works for subways does not meant it is good for everything. It is fun to see the various subjects depicted this way.

What Creatures Can You Identify In This Fossilized Sea Floor? - How good were powers of observation?  Maybe a larger image would help?

Solar Shingles’ Electricity: Interview with Integrated Solar Technology - I’ve always thought solar shingles would be appealing - if this price was right they should be part of the roof on every house!

Lessons of the world’s most unique supercentenarians - More and more people are living into their 90s…and even past 100. Researchers looking at people over 85 are discovering that chronological age may not be a valid form of measuring health at all.

Good luck and the Chinese reverse global forest loss - Over the past 20 years - China has tree planting projects, there is been more rain in Australia, South America in Africa savanna areas, and Russia/former Soviet republics have regrowing forests on abandoned farmland. That has offset the vegetation loss in the Amazon forests and Indonesia.

With 'Single-Stream' Recycling, Convenience Comes at a Cost - This is frustrating. We have ‘single stream’ recycling in our area. It’s easy but it may mean that more that we ‘recycle’ actually goes to the landfill.

Exercise largely absent from US medical school curriculum, study shows - More confirmation that in the US we train doctors to help sick people….not to help people sustain (or regain) health.

Universities on the Brink of a Nervous Breakdown - Really? Isn’t it healthy for organizations to evolve rather than be static?