Strategies for Beating the Summer Heat

We had some hot days recently and I’ve been utilizing every strategy I can think of to beat the heat. The easiest is to stay in an air-conditioned place, of course. But that isn’t always possible.

I keep bottles half-filled with water (and sometimes a splash of lemon juice) in the freezer that I can fill just before I got outdoors…helping stay cool (and hydrated) by always having cold water with me.

If it’s sunny, hats help. My favorite has a wide brim all the way around so it protects my face and the back of my neck from sunburn. Taking a little shade around with me is worth the price of hat hair for the rest of the day.

Wearing skirts rather than jeans or capris or shorts is cooler. It’s not practical for hiking in tick infested area…I wear thin pants that I can tuck into my socks for that. Sandals or flip flops are my shoes of choice if I can’t go bare foot

If the humidity is not high, taking a spray bottle to mist my face and arms helps (and I can use it to enhance spider webs and flowers for photographs). It’s not helpful at all if the humidity is high.

Ice packs on my neck or shoulders are helpful and I have some fabric covered ones that I keep in the freezer for hot days. They work even if the humidity is high!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 22, 2017

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.

View and Print 3D Models of Smithsonian Artifacts – An article about Smithsonian X 3D – a website worth browsing through – a museum available from home!

Deepest dive ever under Antarctica reveals a shockingly vibrant world – From National Geographic – great pictures as usual.

The one trillion-ton iceberg: Larsen C Ice Shelf rift finally breaks through –  Lots of ice…leaving the Antarctica ice shelf.

Periodic Table in Pictures and Words – Hopefully this is use in intro to chemistry courses rather than the older form of the periodic table.

Can the Monarch Highway help save a butterfly under siege? – Making I-35 the safe corridor for Monarch migration. It won’t help the situation in Maryland where the Monarch population as dropped dramatically over the past 10 years.

The Chemistry of Frozen Desserts – Thinking about cool foods for summer heat…

Photography in the National Parks: Favorites for each season – National Parks are always good bets for photography…but going at the right time of year can make them even better.

Preeclampsia: New study documents its enormous economic and health burden – Rates of preeclampsia are rising…driven in part by maternal age and obesity….and it costs a lot. Hopefully continued research will improve prediction and treatment.

Birds around the world in 31 incredible photos –  From National Geographic….Celebrating the diversity of birds.

Study: Bumblebee Species Declining Worldwide – Researchers evaluated 40% of the 260 identified bumblebee species worldwide…and 30% of those evaluated were dwindling. Species that inhabit small geographical ranges appear to be at higher risk…and more vulnerable to warming climates.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 4, 2017

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.

Face of 9,5000-year-old Man Revealed for First Time – A mummy from Jericho. The skull was covered in plaster…with eye sockets containing sea shells. Now just the skull inside, a probably face has been revealed via digital imagining, 3D printing and forensic reconstruction.

Site Diary: What we found inside the Morecambe Urn – A cremation urn…with fragments of bone…painstakingly sorted. At first they thought there was too much bone to be just one individual, but the analysis of the fragments they were all from the same person: young adult, relatively healthy.

Magical Photos of the World’s Oldest Lake Frozen Over – Eye candy….but educational too.

New Publication Reveals Birthplaces of Eastern Monarchs – The whole region east of the Rockies contributes to the Monarchs that make their way to Mexico. I’m glad that so many people are planting milkweed appropriate for their area of the country!

How solar may save Ukraine’s nuclear wasteland – What to do with the area around Chernobyl. There is a project to start installing solar panels. The electric power lines are already there so getting the electricity generated to the power grid.

Eye-opening Photos Capture the Terrifying Beauty of Melting Polar Ice Caps – It’s winter even though we haven’t had any substantial snows in Maryland yet…I’m enjoying photos of ice instead for their beauty but realize that this is an indicator of a warming planet. Some of these lakes are formed from very old ice.

TED Dialogues: An urgent response to a dangerously divisive time – I’ve signed up to be notified of the events. The first one will be on 2/15 at 1PM EST. The speaker for the first one will be Yuval Noah Harari. I enjoyed his class on Coursera – A Brief History of Humankind.

Seven heart-health habits could save billions in Medicare Costs – $14 billion per year in Medicare costs could be saved if all beneficiaries achieved ideal levels in 5-7 heart-healthy habits (the 7 are: cigarette smoking, physical activity, diet, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels). Of course – it all starts before you get to Medicare age. How many of the 7 habits are you achieving?

What Peter Pan Teaches us about Memory and Consciousness – Barrie was an astute observer of how we learn to think.

Peacock colors inspire ‘greener’ way to dye clothes – 3-D colloidal crystals (polystyrene nanoparticles and polyacrylate for mechanical stability. It does not produce contaminants…but are the particles themselves problematic? The article didn’t say but microbeads and plastics have been in the news as problems in the oceans – already.