US Botanic Garden in December 2014 - Part II

We made our annual holiday trek down to the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC on the last Sunday of the year. I posted about the holiday display earlier here. This post is about the best of the rest.

It was too cold to enjoy sitting around outside the building but I did appreciate the artistry of the butterfly benches as we walked toward the building. As we were standing in line for the model lighthouse/train exhibit, I noticed the faces above the windows: serene and grotesque.

I also noticed the cornerstone for the building; the building was built in the year my parents were born!

Inside we enjoyed the steamy warmth of tropical rooms. The orchids are always beautiful…and fragrant.

I’ve started looking for cycads in every conservatory I visit and noticed three in the US Botanic Garden. They all looked very robust. Maybe sometimes we mistake them for palms…but not for long. A closer looks and it is obvious they are very different plants/trees.

We wander out of the steamy warmth to the dry room….and cactus. I love the patterns of these plants: the vertical  line of dots on the rib (1), the center ‘Spirograph’ pattern (2), the thorns spiking from the accordion pleats (3), the muted pink at the tips fading into the green at the base (4), and the grouping of small and slightly larger cushions in a snug crack (5).

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 3, 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.

2014 in Numbers: Huge Valuations, Shocking Security Stats, and a Big Climate Deal - Factoids for the year. The last one was the one that caught my attention the most 4.4 zettabytes = all digital information in the world….and it is growing by 40% per year!

2014: An amazing year in space exploration - Philae, Orion, SpaceX Falcon 9, and Mar Rover Opportunity setting off-Earth, off-road distance record.

2014 in Materials: Rhubarb Batteries, the Gigafactory, and Printing Body Parts - It’s hard to keep up with all the innovations. How fast can any of these really get to market and be affordable?

Researchers create method that recovers high value metals for industries while protecting the environment - A step in the right direction. Hopefully the metals recovered will be valuable enough to drive the technology from the lab to application.

The Year in Pathogens - Ebola tops this list from The Scientist.

2014 in Computing: Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence - Seeing the aggregate for the year….2014 was quite a year for AI in a number of areas.

2014 in Energy: The Year in Energy and Climate Change - Increased urgency of warnings….only slow progress. Frustrating.

Young entrepreneurs innovate in green energy with an in situ organic waste digester - Kudos to the young Mexican entrepreneurs….and the company that is implementing their innovation.

American cities are many times brighter at night than German counterparts - The US could learn from German….and help us all see more stars in the sky too.

Social Media Sites Offer a Nice Sampling of Winter Scenery in Parks - Winter brings a different perspective.

Coursera - January 2015

The beginning of January is the lull period for Coursera courses just as it is winter break/between semesters for the universities that provide the content. I did two on-demand courses during the lull. I’ve finished all the videos for Introduction to Sustainable Development from Columbia University and am enjoying the first modules of the Astrobiology course from the University of Edinburgh.

The Sustainable Development course more about ‘why’ we need to do it rather than ‘how.’ It meshed well with the course from National Geographic about Water and the US Food System course from Johns Hopkins earlier this year. It is almost overwhelming how the big issues of our time are so interrelated.

The Astrobiology course also links well with other courses: The cosmology section of Philosophy and the Sciences (also from University of Edinburgh), Origins (from University of Copenhagen) and the Exoplanets course (from University of Geneva) that I finished last summer.  Having some of the same evidence discussed from a slightly different perspective deepens my overall understanding.

I struggle a little with the accented English of the lecturers in the Recovering the Humankind’s Past and Saving the Universal Heritage from Sapienza University of Rome…but I am still filling in some gaps in my knowledge.  It too links to some other courses from earlier this year - particularly The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia from Emory University and Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets from Brown University.

Two new courses will start in January. Both are quite different that the courses I have taken recently….and are from universities new to my Coursera experience.

2015 Begins

Beginnings are so full of potential. I always celebrate on the 1st day of the year for that reason. If there is a beautiful sun rise - it just feeds into the celebration. It is easy to get up early enough to see it since we are not that far past the solstice.

I’m starting another ‘tradition’ this year: a hike. Many state parks are hosting hikes but my husband and I are planning something short because it is so bitterly cold. I’ll get to experiment with my new monopod/walking stick.

I’ve decided on a theme for this year (rather than a resolution): to live more sustainably. I have not figured out all the ways I’ll change over the course of 2015…just that I will.  I already know it will be a learning experience.