Gleanings of the Week Ending July 13, 2024

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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.

Pair of Resting Cuckoo Bees Wins the Royal Entomological Society’s Insect Photo Competition – Wonderful images of insects. My favorite is the Wavy-lined Emerald Moth (“A forest gem”).

The Role of Commons in Our Future Resilience - The climate and biodiversity crises will make collective land and water resources the source of future cooperation and conflict. If our commons aren’t governed well, we can have a “future of global violence.” Balancing the needs of local communities and conservation and restoration will require strong relationships between governments and the people who depend on commons for their livelihoods and culture.

Study shows how liver damage from stress and aging might be reversible – The study showed that aging exacerbates non-alcoholic liver disease by creating ferroptic stress, and by reducing this impact, we can reverse the damage.

Extreme Heat’s Far-Reaching Impacts - In addition to the expected impacts — dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke — heat can also endanger pregnant women, impact sleep patterns, and increase irritability, depression, and suicide rates. Heat is also associated with higher rates of violence and aggression, including intimate partner violence and gun violence.

The chemistry of Polaroid photography – The technology behind taking a picture and printing it instantly.

Cooling Solutions for Cities That Lower Surface & Air Temperatures – Some productive and appealing ways to cool urban heat centers.

Funny Early Entries of the 2024 Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards – Images that will make you smile!

Climate change and sea level rise pose an acute challenge for cities with combined sewer systems - Some 40 million people currently live in areas served by combined sewer systems (in places like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston) that are at increasing risk of being inundated by untreated sewage during floods.

Ancient Egyptian Scribes Were Worked to the Bone - Scribes sat in cross-legged or kneeling positions for long periods of time, hunched over paper and ink. Such activity was bound to overload the jaw, neck and shoulder regions. 30 skeletons of scribes from a northern Egyptian cemetery were examined. Much of the damage was found on the skeleton’s right sides, with the right knee being an especially common point of osteoarthritis, possibly because scribes repeatedly squatted on their right legs, the researchers theorize. And ancient Egyptian iconography commonly depicts scribes writing with their right hands. The posture impacted scribes’ backs.

Pronghorn Place: Preserve Protects Wildlife Migration Route – About the Flat Ranch Preserve on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park…what has been learned about the Pronghorns migrating through. It reminded me of the pronghorns I saw at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (New Mexico) in 2018.

First Americans Museum

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My daughter and I visited the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City at midday on July 4th. It was a hot day, but I walked around the circular courtyard outside the entrance. I took pictures of the front and back of each of the columns on the outer rim of the courtyard – fire and water are the ones I picked to show below. I realized it was too hot to do much else outside. I’ll come back sometime when it is cooler to find out more about the mound.

The restaurant was not open (although we did pick up some recipe cards at the door); we had lunch at the café….at tasty turkey with cranberries and greens wrap and cheesecake. There is a building with a sun symbol on the side…lots of construction in the area…it will be changing a lot in the next few years as projects are completed.

Beginning our stroll through the exhibits…I enjoyed different media and the messages of tragedies…and survival…of the cultural heritage that emerges in modern form.

The film of creation stories for the tribes that were in the pre-Colonial area that is now Oklahoma was particularly well done. I took some quick pictures with my phone.

There are images on the walls that are memorable. The first one has a lot of detail (click on the image below to see a larger version) including a silhouette of a space shuttle! The second one is a repetitive motif that is used on items like key chains and mugs and glasses in the shop. I bought a mug because I liked the motif so much!

There is much to learn in this museum that is sobering and sad…but also uplifting. It is worth visiting more than once.

Then and Now – Strategies for Reducing Food Costs

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Many of the strategies for minimizing food costs my mother applied in the 1960s are still applicable today. The goal is to get the best nutritional value for your expenditure….and waste nothing.

  • Minimize out-to-eat meals. It always costs more to eat in a restaurant – even a fast-food place. In the 1960s there were not as many options as we have now; takeout and delivery of prepared food was not as common. My mother made our hamburgers at home; I didn’t have a ‘fast food’ version until I was a teenager. I remember getting grilled cheese sandwiches and a cherry limeade at the drug store…but not frequently. We took picnics when we made road trips to see our grandparents. I eat out more now than I did for most of my growing up years…although not as much as I did during my career. One way to reduce the bill at a restaurant it to drink water with your meal. Another is to eat half your meal…have the rest for another meal (i.e. spread the cost to 2 meals rather than 1). I try to avoid the poor nutrition options that seem dominate many fast-food chain menus.

  • Plan meals in advance. My mother wrote out her menus for a week or two at a time; I remember them on legal sized paper posted on the refrigerator. I don’t write menus now, but I do know what I have ingredients to make. I usually give my husband a choice for our big meal of the day each morning since he is harder to please than I am.  The focus is on nutrition – enough protein and other nutrients – and avoiding high sugar/fat, ultra-processed foods.

  • Have ‘backup’ meals in the pantry or freezer. My mother always had a well-stocked panty – canned goods (soups, vegetables, fruits, and meats (chicken, tuna, salmon)), nuts, potatoes, onions, peanut butter, bread. These days we eat fewer canned vegetables/fruits – skew toward frozen versions which I can buy in larger packages than fresh since they will last long enough for us to eat the whole package. My mother bought larger packages of raw meat and froze the part that she wasn’t using immediately. I still do that.

  • Scrutinize protein sources and amount. Meats are an expensive item. My mother was a fan of eggs as a protein source; eggs are easy to prepare and they are the least expensive source of protein that we all liked – and not just for breakfast; she didn’t serve them daily…but it was close. I don’t eat eggs as often now (and I have added frittatas and quiche to the way I prepare them), but they are still a relatively low cost source of protein. We generally only have meat once a day and utilize other lower cost sources to add up our daily protein requirement for example, peanut butter, milk, eggs, mushrooms, beans, nuts, bread (not the ultra-processed variety), protein drink/powder.

  • Go to the grocery store with a list…and only buy what is on the list. You want to buy what you need when you shop, avoid another trip to the store for something that was forgotten. In addition to the expense, the spur-of-the-moment purchases are often not healthy choices. It was a special occasion when my mother bought chips or popsicles or oreos or soft drinks or chocolate bars….and I shop the same way now. The strategy is to avoid all ultra-processed foods most of the time.  They may seem inexpensive…but they often have no nutritional value; from your body’s standpoint they are a hinderance rather than a benefit.

  • Leftovers. My mother always used leftovers (i.e. no food waste); they were usually small amounts so we would have a ‘cafeteria day’ and clean out the refrigerator. Sometimes she would combine or add new ingredients to achieve the nutritional value needed for a meal. We do the same now. Nothing goes bad in our refrigerator!

There is a new way I reduce my grocery bill now that didn’t exist in the 1960s: I shop for myself…don’t pay extra for someone else to do shopping or deliver it. I did during the height of COVID-19, but that was a special situation.

Previous Then and Now posts

Fireworks on July 4th

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My daughter and I were traveling on July 4th. Our original plan had been to enjoy the fireworks in a park in Norman, Oklahoma but it started raining around 6 PM and it didn’t look like the rain would clear until much later; the program was going to be delayed, at least.  

The radar indicated that it wasn’t raining in Oklahoma City so after dinner we headed into the city to see the Oklahoma City National Memorial at the site of 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. The museum was closed…we went to see the grounds: the 168 empty chairs representing the people that perished (small chairs for the children), the reflecting pool, the gates of time (the peace before the blast at 9:01 and 9:03 the first second of recovery), the Survivor Tree (an American Elm), and tiles made by children…sent to Oklahoma City after the bombing. The sun was getting closer to the horizon and it began sprinkling as we were getting ready to leave. It was a poignant place…flags had been placed by each chair in celebration of the 4th of July.

As we drove back to Norman, there was harder rain, lots of lightning. We began to wonder if the lightning would cause the city to cancel the events that were planned in the park. It was very dramatic – cloud to ground and cloud to cloud. We were glad to get back to the hotel.

We enjoyed the lightning show from our hotel window. The rain tapered off, but the lightning continued…with almost no thunder. We started to see some fireworks – not professional shows but clearly people that had planned their own fireworks event. Looking at the map – we expected to see the fireworks in the park at some point but the time it was schedule came and went. Lightning was still lighting up the sky. We decided that the show must have been canceled. About 5 minutes later we heard a barrage of fireworks sounds…we looked out the window again and it was obviously the fireworks in the park – high, loud, a steady stream of bursts for at least 15 minutes! I took pictures through hotel window. Toward the end, it was obvious that there were a lot of smoke in the air from the fireworks…they began to look like science fiction images of explosions inside a nebula.

I’m seeing more stories about how environmentally unfriendly fireworks can be…impacting air quality and then the remnants of the explosions (some toxic) drifting down over a wide area. And many pets are panicked by the sounds of fireworks. Evidently some places are moving toward drone light shows rather than fireworks. Maybe I’ll find one of those shows next year. I appreciate the effort Norman, Oklahoma put in for their event this year…even though I ended up observing it from my hotel window!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 6, 2024

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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.

Extended maternal care central factor to human other animal, longevity – In species where offspring survival depends on the longer-term presence of the mother, the species tends to evolve longer lives and a slower life pace, which is characterized by how long an animal lives and how often it reproduces.

The 'gene deserts' unravelling the mysteries of disease - Less than 2% percent of the human genome is dedicated to coding for genes which produce proteins, while much of the remaining 98% has no obvious meaning or purpose. But scientists are slowly managing to accrue information about the ‘gene deserts’ apparent purpose and why they exist.

These Stunning Butterflies Flew 2,600 Miles Across the Atlantic Ocean Without Stopping – Painted Lady butterflies spotted in French Guiana where they are not usually found. Sequencing the butterflies’ genome revealed that they were related to African and European painted ladies – not North American. And looking at weather data revealed that wind conditions in the weeks prior to the sighting were favorable for the butterflies moving from Africa to South America.

Simple test for flu could improve diagnosis and surveillance - Fewer than one percent of people who get the flu every year get tested, in part because most tests require trained personnel and expensive equipment. The current version of new test is a low-cost paper strip that distinguishes between influenza A and B and subtypes H1N1 and H3N2. It works at room temperature…takes about 90 minutes. They are working to reduce the time to 15 minutes.

To Save the Red Knots, Look to Blue Carbon – Red Knots migrate over 9,000 miles to the Arctic to breed. Along the way they stop for meals of mussels and clams in coastal areas. This post highlights 6 projects from around the world that are restoring those area…for the red knots and the health of the planet.

Photography In the National Parks: Two Cave Parks Above and Below – Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. Full of ideas for photographing inside caves and above them! My first thought was to see if there is a trail that goes over the top of Sequiota Cave and Spring near Springfield MO (we did a boat tour of the cave last spring).

Surprising phosphate finding in NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample – Remembering when we went to the launch of the mission in September 2016.

Swift Parrots and the Heartbreak of Rare Species – Endangered Australian parrots…with only an estimated 500 birds left in the wild. “We conservationists bear witness to so much loss: of species, ecosystems, and the places we know and love. Often, it feels like we’re watching extinction in real time, powerless to stop it. But there is value in staring these losses in the face. Value in bearing witness to a rare parrot with an uncertain future, knowing full well I might mourn its extinction in a few years time. If the worst happens, at least I will have cherished it while it was here.”

A Big Picture of the US Housing Market - High interest rates, supply constraints and growth in home insurance premiums (particularly in states like California and Florida) are all driving housing costs. There is some news that’s more positive. Nearly 450,000 new apartments were finished in 2023, the highest rate in about three decades. However, average rents remain above pre-pandemic levels in most markets.

Sheep & Solar: A “Beautiful Symbiotic Relationship” - When solar farms use sheep instead of mowers for vegetation management, they minimize burning fossil fuels, and costs associated with labor are also reduced. Investment costs for a solar farm might include water tanks, troughs, a small water pump to fill the troughs, predator-proof fencing, and dividing into sections for rotational grazing. The sheep eat the tall grass, weeds, and clover, and their chomping inhibits the vegetation from blocking the panels. Their steady consumption of forage on the land prevents grassy plants from growing high enough to block sunlight from reaching the panels, maintaining the productivity of the array. Sheep are the most appropriate ruminant species when it comes to vegetation management on solar farms because they are too small to damage the panels when rubbing against them, and they are not predisposed to chewing on wires or jumping on the panels.

eBotanical Prints – June 2024

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print book collection in June - available for browsing on Internet Archive (and the new-to-me New York Public Library Digital Collection where I found Pomona Britannica). The whole list of 2,903 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. Click on any sample images to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink to view the entire volume.

So many botanical print books available…and so beautiful. I’ve stopped thinking that I am about to run out of books. It seems likely that finding 20 that I haven’t seen before to share every month won’t be ending anytime soon.  Enjoy the June 2024 eBotanical Prints!

Wildflowers * Blanchan, Neltje; Dickinson, Asa Don (adaptor) * sample image * 1926

Pomona Britannica * Brooksaw, George * sample image * 1812

Annales d'horticulture et de botanique V1 * Socit royal d'horticulture des Pays-Bas * sample image * 1858

Annales d'horticulture et de botanique V5 * Socit royal d'horticulture des Pays-Bas * sample image * 1862

Annales de la Société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand V1, 1845 * Morren, Charles (editor) * sample image * 1845

Annales de la Société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand V2, 1846 * Morren, Charles (editor) * sample image * 1846

Annales de la Société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand V3, 1847 * Morren, Charles (editor) * sample image * 1847

Annales de la Société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand V4, 1848 * Morren, Charles (editor) * sample image * 1848

Annales de la Société royale d'agriculture et de botanique de Gand V5, 1849 * Morren, Charles (editor) * sample image * 1849

Fuchsia * Morren, Charles; Fusch, Remaclus * sample image * 1850

Lobelia * Morren, Charles * sample image * 1851

Pear Growing in California * Weldon, George Percival * sample image * 1918

Icones plantarum novarum vel imperfecte cognitarum floram Rossicam V 1-2 * Ledebour, Carl Friedrich von * sample image * 1830

Icones plantarum novarum vel imperfecte cognitarum floram Rossicam V 3-4 * Ledebour, Carl Friedrich von * sample image * 1833

Icones plantarum novarum vel imperfecte cognitarum floram Rossicam V 5 * Ledebour, Carl Friedrich von * sample image * 1834

Icones Plantarum V1 * Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1837

Icones Plantarum V2 * Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1837

Icones Plantarum V3 * Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1840

Icones Plantarum V6 * Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1843

Icones Plantarum V30 * Hooker, Joseph Dalton; Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1913

Then and Now – Pattern of Days

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During my growing up years in the 1960s, my days were largely determined by school – at least during the school year. Now, there is nothing equivalent to that structure. The lack of externally caused structure now is somewhat like the summer days when school was not in session - when I had more self-determination of how I would spend my time.

I have always been a morning person although I get up earlier now  than I did in the 1960s (5ish rather than 6ish). By the mid-60s I chose to shower in the morning rather than take a bath at night. I was the one that got the paper from the front porch and read the parts I wanted before anyone else. My family had breakfast together and it was never the same two days in a row. These days I still shower in the morning and browse through news feeds in my office on two screens while I have a light ‘1st breakfast’ – something with caffeine and some supplements. By 8ish I am ready for something more substantial. Right now, peanut butter on toast is the dominant ‘2nd breakfast.’

I spend the morning in my office now and there is quite a similarity to things I did in the 1960s – reading and writing and art and science and PE. The difference now is I control how much time I spend walking (PE), native plant gardening (science), Zentangle tiles (art), or volunteering…and how much a computer or a phone is part of almost every activity now. At least once a week, I mow my yard during the growing season (battery powered); there is no corollary to that in the 1960s although I remember a few times that I helped use the riding lawn mower (gas powered) to mow my parents’ yard. Another day, I shop for groceries; I always had list just as my mother did (even though mine is electronic and hers was on a piece of paper) and am generally more successful than she was at only going to the store once a week!

Lunch is the largest meal of the day for me now and it is about 1 PM; I plan the menus and do most of the cooking while my husband cleans up afterward. We often watch news or a series on television while we eat sitting in comfy chairs. In the 1960s I either ate in the school cafeteria or took a lunch from home during the school year; lunchtime happened between 11:30 to 12:30 depending on the schedule for the school. In the summer, the schedule was roughly the same at home; often we helped prepare part of the meal with my mother….and had part of the cleanup job too. We ate at a table at school and at home.

After lunch, is more of the same….both in the 1960s and now. Overall – I determine more what I do than in the 1960s. I sign up for classes I am interested in rather than keep to a curriculum like I did in the public schools of the 1960s. Some of my classes cost something rather than being free but I often benefit from discounts because of my age.

In the 1960s, the evening meal was between 5:30 and 6 PM and was the same or larger than the mid-day meal. In general, homework was completed before that. My mother limited our television viewing to an hour a day or less. The evening was family time. Now –  our evening meals are always lighter than our lunches – a smoothie being my preference for summertime evenings; it is the time of day when family phone conversations usually happen.

The pattern of days is the baseline, but a lot happens that is outside the routine of the pattern. Some are similar between the 1960s and now: road trips to visit family, seasonal events like Christmas lights, local events like fairs and festivals, and out-of-town family members visiting us. I thought I was busy in the 1960s, but when I look at what I get done now, it seems that I accomplish more!

Previous Then and Now posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 29, 2024

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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.

The Electric Revolution of Gardening Tools is Here – Hurray! We’ve been completely transitioned to battery powered yard tools for a few years now. I wouldn’t be mowing my own yard without our electric mower. Our old gas-powered one was noisy and my throat got scratchy from the fumes. Now I think of mowing the yard as a challenging exercise rather than a negative impact on my hearing and lungs!

US Cities Ranked by Vehicle Miles Traveled – As I read the article, I wondered where Dallas/Fort Worth fit since they were not on the top 10 list. I went to the source cited in the article and found that Dallas/Fort Worth was 19th.  Other Texas cities are high too – San Antonio at 14, Houston at 18 and Austin at 22.

See Frida Kahlo in Her Element in a New York Show of Rare Photographs – There is a picture of her (and Diego) viewing a solar eclipse in 1932 (Detroit)!

The apple detectives hunting for lost varieties - Apple fanatics across the UK are now taking samples from very old apple trees in hopes of learning more about antique varieties, and perhaps making some surprising discoveries. That's because there are apples, documented in 19th-Century books like Robert Hogg and Robert Bull Graves' The Herefordshire Pomona, that have slipped through people's fingers.

In North Macedonia, an Ancient Lake Faces Modern Threats – Lake Ohrid - 19 miles long, nine miles wide and 945 feet deep, teeming with fish, snails, leeches, flatworms, phytoplankton, crustaceans, and more. Of the lake’s roughly 1,200 known native species, 212 of them are endemic, occurring nowhere else. It faces growing threats, including from overfishing, nutrient pollution, invasive species, booming tourism, unregulated building, official neglect, and perhaps the most inexorable challenge of all, global warming.

Rare White Bison Calf Born at Yellowstone National Park - Photographed on June 4, as a group of bison crossed a road with traffic stopped.

A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels - This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds. They haven’t come to the Walmart near me yet…I’ll be looking for them every time I shop there.

A new way to measure aging and disease risk with the protein aggregation clock - Although there are other "clocks" to measure ageing and health, most of them are based on nucleic acids like DNA. A biological clock based on proteins could be a useful complement to these existing clocks, as proteins are among the most abundant molecules in cells and are crucial for all cellular functions. With the help of such a protein aggregation clock, scientists and doctors might move one step closer towards helping people age healthily and preventing age-related diseases.

Tiny beauty: how I make scientific art from behind the microscope – Great illustrations…worth scrolling through.

New metric for blood circulation in brain to better understand dementia - By accurately measuring how pulsatility is transmitted in the brain, researchers can better understand the underlying mechanism of brain conditions (including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia) and potentially guide development of new treatments.

Restoring Ancient Bronzes eBook

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Henry W. Nichols’ Restoration of ancient bronzes and cure of malignant patina was published in 1930 and documents the process used by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History to restore ancient Egyptian bronzes (and some from Mesopotamia too) in their collection. They used the Fink electrochemical process which was inaugurated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The author was the curator with a geology and chemistry background responsible for the work on a total of 360 bronzes from 1926 to 1929. The before and after images contained in the book are dramatic. The book is available from Internet Archive.

 Restoration of ancient bronzes and cure of malignant patina

Then and Now - Progression in Health Issues

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There are lots of changes in my perception of health between the 1960s and today.

Allergies. Hay fever sneezes were a big part of my life during the growing season in Wichita Falls. TX in the 1960s. I remember learning to swallow pills as a young teenager so I could take over-the-counter medication! Now I almost never need to take anything for allergies. Perhaps better air filtration indoors overcomes the pollen and mold I experience outdoors….and maybe the areas I frequent now are not a challenging for people with hay fever tendencies.

Gastro-intestinal bugs. I remember having short duration ‘stomach flu’ in the 1960s. My mother gave us chipped ice, fizzy liquids or apple juice until we could graduate to saltine crackers and slowly back to other food. It never lasted very long. Strangely enough – I don’t remember any recent instances!

Blisters. I remember getting blisters from my shoes as I was growing up. It was probably because my heals were too narrow for most of my shoes…so the shoe tended to move around somewhat independent of the foot and rubbed when it did. I had a pair of sandals in the late 1960s that rubbed a blister on my big toe that was sustained enough (because I continued to wear the shoes) to create a scar. I guess I learned to buy and/or wear my shoes more effectively because I haven’t had a blister in a very long time.

Sunburns. Sunscreen was not available in the 1960s although I do remember thick white zinc oxide that lifeguards at the pool used on their noses. In general, people talked more of building up a tan early in summer to avoid burns later. Now – of course – sunscreen is very big deal for me…and wearing hats and sun-block shirts.

Cuts and scrapes. I had my share of skinned knees and minor cuts growing up…nothing bad enough to require stitches or an extra Tetanus shot. Some of them produced scars that have faded over time. These days I am more likely to get a paper cut than anything else although I am consciously eliminating as many fall hazards around my house as I can. My last scraped knees happened almost 10 years ago when I tripped over a chunk of asphalt at a star observing gathering in Hawaii (in the dark…the chunk of asphalt did not show up at all) and those scars are relatively new and very white. The response is very similar between the 1960s and now: clean the wound (soap and water), stop the bleeding with pressure, antibiotic ointment, bandage if oozing (otherwise give it air).

Foot/leg cramps. My feet have always been prone to cramps. In the 1960s, the cramps were most frequently arch related but sometimes involved the toes as well. In retrospect, they might have been mostly caused by dehydration. The same happens occasionally now but less frequently in my feet/toes more…in my ankles and calves. If I pay attention to my hydration before bedtime…they usually don’t occur!

Exercise. I remember tennis and softball and playgrounds in the 1960s; we walked to elementary school; hiking was one of the activities with Camp Fire Girls. I didn’t consider myself athletic and I still don’t, but I am more conscious of getting a baseline of ‘steps’ every day and sometimes longer walks as well. Mowing the yard and doing other gardening also counts as exercise for me now. In my current stage of life, exercise is one of the pillars to sustain mobility and health.

Coordination. I was growing fast in the 1960s, struggling to improve my coordination enough to dance or swim, play a musical instrument, or perform the tasks of living. Coordination now involves the challenges of intermittent aches in my back and joints…I move differently to keep from hurting! So far, I haven’t curtailed any activities, but I can envision a time…hopefully years in the future…when that could happen.

There is a contrast between growing up years and the being 70ish – but I also realize that it is not as substantial for me as it is for others. I have been fortunate.

Previous Then and Now posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 22, 2024

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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.

Life in a heat dome: The American West is figuring out how to keep cool – Summer in US cities…strategies to mitigate the hotter temperatures caused by climate change.

Statins for heart disease prevention could be recommended for far fewer Americans if new risk equation is adopted – Not a lot of details in this article although I have suspected for some time that statins were being over-prescribed.

10 States Where the Gas Tax Is Highest – This post prompted me to compare gas taxes in the states I drive through to on my frequent road trips to Dallas (Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas)…and the decision to always buy the tank of gas required in each direction in Oklahoma!

Creating a throw-away culture: How companies ingrained plastics in modern life – Aargh! Despite growing public pressure, companies increased their use of new plastic by 11% between 2018 and 2022!

What happens when you take too much caffeine - When we consume caffeine, it's quickly absorbed into our bloodstream, where it out-competes adenosine by preventing it from connecting to these receptors and doing its job to make us feel tired. This is why consuming caffeine can make us feel more awake and alert. Caffeine can also boost levels of other neurotransmitters like dopamine and adrenaline, which can make you feel more stimulated. Research has associated caffeine consumption with up to a 60% reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's. One explanation for this is that caffeine improves blood flow to the brain. While caffeine enters the gut quite quickly, its effects can take hours to wear off. Scientists recommend having your last 'dose' of caffeine eight hours and 48 minutes before you go to bed.

Why do 1 in 10 Americans get eczema? Is it too much salt? - Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic disease that causes dry, itchy skin. It's one of the most common skin conditions, affecting more than 31 million people in the U.S., and one in 10 people will develop it at some point. It has become increasingly common in recent years, especially in industrialized countries, implicating environmental and lifestyle factors like diet.

A fierce battle is being fought in the soil beneath our feet – and the implications for global warming are huge - In some parts of the world, increased CO₂ means tiny bugs in the soil “hold onto” their phosphorus, making less available for trees.

Rock Art Found in This Saudi Arabian Cave Offers ‘Rare Glimpse’ Into Ancient Human Life – Sheep, ibex, and goats on the walls of a lava tube.

Depressive symptoms may hasten memory decline in older people – 16 years of data from 8,268 adults with an average age of 64. This study shows that the relationship between depression and poor memory cuts both ways, with depressive symptoms preceding memory decline and memory decline linked to subsequent depressive symptoms. So – interventions to reduce depressive symptoms might slow memory decline.

D-Day shipwrecks were a WW2 time capsule – now they are home to rich ocean-floor life – 80-year-old wrecks that line the coasts of Britain and France…reclaimed by sea life.

Bird Homes

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Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore published his Bird Homes book in 1902. It is illustrated with his photographs of nests and young birds – one of the earliest books on the topic with photographic illustrations. The book was published in the same year that he was elected to The Camera Club of New York and was noticed by Alfred Stieglitz (according to the Wikipedia article). The book is well worth browsing on Internet Archive. (There are also other books by this author available on Internet Archive.)

Bird Homes: The Nests Eggs and Breeding Habits of The Land Birds Breeding in the Eastern United States

 I was curious about what happened to Dugmore later in his life. He lived to 1955 but didn’t publish after 1930. I found an article about him from the Boone and Crocket Club but it didn’t document that period of his life either. Perhaps the gas injury from the trenches of World War I incapacitated him later in his life or maybe he decided that The Autobiography of a Wanderer (his book published in 1930) was a good finale.

Dickerson Park Zoo on Father's Day

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My daughter noticed that Dickerson Park Zoo was opening an hour early for members on Father’s Day and suggested we should visit as our celebration of the day since we’ve all joined. My husband and I picked her up (her house is ‘on the way’ for us) and we were at the zoo a few minutes before 8. The day was warming up…still pleasant rather than hot. We spent an enjoyable 2 hours at the zoo.

There were peacocks around the entrance. One on the roof of the entrance buildings displayed but didn’t have any of the long tail feathers!

Another male was very close once we passed the entrance so I took a portrait.

There was one that was walking up the stairs that didn’t have the typical topknot of feathers on its head. When it got to the top of the stairs, I noticed that it stood with toes crossed…and that peacocks have spurs!

In the flamingo enclosure the flamingos were relatively calm, but the roseate spoonbills were moving about and vocalizing

…and then two of them mated!

The daylilies were blooming in beds interspersed throughout the zoo but I also noticed stands of lambs ear, bamboo….and some very large catalpa trees.

The trumpeter swans vocalized…but not as often as the peacocks. There are only 2 of them. I like the swirls in the water around the swan….breaking up the reflection of big trees.

After seeing a lot of peacocks at the beginning of our visit (and continuing to hear them) …we saw a female with three peachicks about an hour into our visit. They moved away from us, but I managed to get close enough for some zoomed portraits.

The ostrich enclosure is viewed from above…but the deck’s wood most have supported some insect (?) that the bird found tasty because it spent a lot of time pecking at the wood directly below where we were standing! I managed a good picture of the head – large eye and nares.

There were two cheetahs moving around in their enclosure. The tiger was pacing and vocalizing nearby…seemingly upset at the keeper for sequestering him in his larger enclosure while his smaller cage with den was being cleaned.

The Crowned Cranes are always photogenic subjects. During this visit they were in an encloser where capybaras had been moved to control the grass that was getting too high…and the animals seemed to be gorging on the greens. Only one capybara had been left behind in the normal capybara enclosure which we saw as got close to the zoo’s exit.

The zoo turned out to be a good choice for Father’s Day!

Then and Now – Vaccinations

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When I was growing up in the 1960s, there were a lot fewer vaccinations…but I remember my mother was keen for my sisters and I to get all the ones that were available: Diphtheria – Pertussis – Tetanus (DPT) and smallpox, and then polio when it rolled out in the mid-1960s (I remember lining up at the elementary school to get the sugar cube). My father had almost died as a very young child and my mother always thought, based on his mother’s description, that the cause was probably whooping cough (pertussis) which was before the vaccine was widely available. The ‘childhood diseases’ (measles, chicken pox and mumps) required another strategy for mothers of that era: expose their children to those diseases to develop immunity to them by being sick with the disease. It was a risk but, in many cases, not as great a risk as having the diseases as an adult. I can remember being very sick with rubeola --- missing a few weeks of kindergarten. One of my sisters had a memorable case of mumps with a lot of neck swelling – but I didn’t have any symptoms at all which worried my mother because she had no way of knowing if I had developed immunity or not; years later in the 1980s, I got tested for mumps immunity during a pre-pregnancy appointment and evidently I had immunity (so no need to get a vaccination that did exist by that time).

In the 1960s at least 2 of my grandparents had pneumonia and were hospitalized. Would the vaccine we have today made it less severe or prevented it? There was a lot less antibiotic resistance in the 1960s so perhaps antibiotics were more reliable to helped them recover.

Now there are new forms of the old vaccines (except for smallpox which is no longer a circulating disease as it was in the 1960s) and new ones too. A lot of the childhood diseases are easily prevented. There are vaccines that are honed for older people too – applicable to my life stage: flu, shingles, pneumonia, RSV and COVID. I appreciate these developments since I am concerned about antibiotic and antiviral resistance; I prefer to stay well --- reduce the times I need treatment for an illness and vaccinations are a way to do that…along with maximizing the nutrition I am getting from my diet (with some supplements). Another strategy is to avoid or mask in times and places where I am likely to encounter people that are sick (indoor crowds particularly in the wintertime).

I am grateful that that are vaccinations available to prompt my immune system…so that I don’t have to be sick to gain immunity!

Previous Then and Now posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 15, 2024

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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.

Could the world famous Roman Baths help scientists counter the challenge of antibiotic resistance? – A diverse array of microorganisms were found in the hot waters of the Roman Baths. Tests showed 15 of the isolated bacteria -- including examples of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes -- displayed varying levels of inhibition against human pathogens including E.coli, Staphylococcus Aureus and Shigella flexneri.

The Changing Nature of Wilderness - The U.S. government has begun to acknowledge the Indigenous history of ‘wilderness’ areas and, in some (very few) cases, restored land to native tribes or created co-management agreements.

Nearly 25% of land in Africa has been damaged – What’s to blame, and what can be done - The “big five” drivers of land degradation globally and in Africa are:

  • biological invasions, where plant species have spread outside their indigenous area and disrupted the services provided by ecosystems

  • climate change driven events, such as intense droughts and severe fires

  • extractive activities, such as mining and over-harvesting

  • habitat transformation or fragmentation, including deforestation and poor agricultural practices

  • pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, and eutrophication – where algae and other plants take over plant life.

The Hunt: Genghis Khan’s Final Resting Place - His last wish was to be buried in secret, something his soldiers accomplished in two ways: by killing everyone they met enroute to the gravesite, and then trampling that site under the hoofs of their horses until no trace was left. Although tomb culture, inherited from the neighboring Chinese, was well-established by the time Genghis Khan was born, many were constructed underground, some at a depth of more than 65 feet. Most Mongolians today would prefer that Genghis Khan’s tomb stayed hidden. Not because discovering it would unleash an ancient curse—a superstition that was actually quite widespread in Soviet times—but simply out of respect for the historical figure’s dying wish.

Airplane noise exposure may increase risk of chronic disease - Research has shown that noise from airplanes and helicopters flying overhead are far more bothersome to people than noise from other modes of transportation, and a growing body of research suggests that aircraft noise is also contributing to negative health outcomes.

New fossils show what Australia’s giant prehistoric ‘thunder birds’ looked like – and offer clues about how they died out - While the birds had broad, short toes and hoof-like claws for moving across open ground between bodies of water, their partial reliance on freshwater and new plant growth would have become more difficult as ponds and lakes shrunk and disappeared.

Phoenix Heat Deaths Rose by 1,000 Percent in 10 Years - Relentless heat led to 645 deaths last year in Maricopa County, the most ever documented in Arizona’s biggest metropolitan area. Almost half of the victims last year were homeless — 290 people. Twenty died at bus stops, others were in tents, and an unrecorded number of people were found on the pavement, prone as if on a baking stone.

Warming Brings Early Bloom to Bulgarian Rose Fields – Bulgaria is a top producer of rose water and rose oil. To produce these goods, pickers must harvest the flowers early in the morning, when their petals are richest in oil. After a mild winter and warm spring, pickers in Bulgaria’s Rose Valley have headed to the fields around three weeks earlier than normal.

15 Awe-Inspiring Images of Our Galaxy from the 2024 Milky Way Photographer of the Year – From around the world.

See the Rare Neolithic and Viking Treasures Returning to Scotland for Display – Artifacts from the Isle of Lewis. The scoop or ladle made from horn is my favorite.

Ships eBook from the late 1920s

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Cecil J. Allen and John R. Hind’s My Book of Ships was published in 1928 in London – well after the Titanic sank in 1912. It is interesting that the Titanic is not mentioned in the book although page 47 is damaged (it appears that half a page was cut out) and is in the chapter about wrecks and salvage.

The book is illustrated with photographs and color illustrations. It is all history now but at the time it was published it was a little history but focuses on the state of the art for ships. It is well worth browsing!

My book of ships: their building and the wonders of navigation; illustrated and described for children

Sustaining Elder Care – June 2024

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A lot had happened over the past month.

A resident of the assisted living home came down with a respiratory infection but was getting better; then another one became sick and spent a few days in the hospital before returning. My dad didn’t get sick at all. The episode caused an uptick in anxiety for my sisters and I for a few days.  

One of my sisters was going to cut his toenails and discovered two small wounds on his leg. He didn’t remember how he’d gotten them and there was no incident reported by the staff. Fortunately, they were not infected and appeared to be healing.

With the staff turnover, we have realized that his medications are not being given as consistently as we assumed. One of my sisters reviewed the meds with a staff member and discovered that the supply of some supplements had be depleted and no one had told us more needed to be purchased! Most of what he takes are supplements, but now we are concerned about whether he has been getting his few prescription drugs reliably since his ophthalmologist discovered he had a small stroke near one of his optic nerves and can only see light and colors in that eye now; we will always wonder whether the assisted living staffers were giving him the eye drops prescribed to lower the pressure in his eyes.  

My dad complained of his front teeth hurting; we have known for some time that his lower teeth were loose and that there was not enough bone or other teeth to do any kind of restoration. The decision had been made to cut up his food and train him to avoid using those front teeth. But that was before they started hurting. My sister that handles most of his medical appointments contacted the doctor that comes to the assisted living home for most of his medical needs and discovered that they there is a dentist in their practice! Within a few days, the dentist came, got updated x-rays, and pulled two lower teeth! Both were not in much bone and were relatively easy to pull. Now the staff really will have to pay more attention and cut up his food consistently; even though the requirement has been in their document for him since January, they seem to lapse into serving him food that he can’t eat with the teeth he has (or rather doesn’t have).

The only doctor he leaves the assisted living home to see is a dermatologist; a small skin cancer was removed this month. The visits are quite tiring for him…being in the car, waiting for the doctor…the procedure itself is very short. My sisters and I anticipate a time when he won’t be able to withstand that kind of medical appointment.

He is still doing puzzles – enjoying the shared project with anyone visiting him. He is joyous every time one is finished.

The flower beds at the assisted living home contain some of the plants from his previous home…planted by one of my sisters. They are doing well however, she is frustrated that one of the beds that she hasn’t work on, is full of Virginia Creeper; she is too allergic to do anything that bed.

The weather in Dallas has gotten hot enough that walking in the afternoon with Dad might not be a good idea. We all try to take him for neighborhood walks whenever the weather is cool enough. The walks will probably be more and more skewed to the mornings.

Dad seems to be adjusting to the upheavals well enough. He is more resilient that any of us anticipated.

Previous Elder Care posts

Quigley Castle

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We stopped by Quigley Castle on our way from Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge to Eureka Springs….and enjoyed it more than we anticipated! We were greeted by a granddaughter of the builders of the place and several very comfortable cats. The garden is full of plants and yard art made by Elise Fiovanti Quigley: bottle trees and aggregates of stones and other small objects on many different forms. She evidently started her collecting as a child and her husband moved the rock collection with them when they came to the farm that was near the lumber mill where he worked…and he helped her continue to collect too.

The house was built from lumber cut from their own property to Elise’s specification in the mid-1940s which includes 4 feet of soil between the edges of the living space and the walls making it possible to grow tropical plants that grow 2 stories high; the house has 28 windows. She worked for 3 years to cover the outside of the house with a collection of fossils, crystals, arrowheads, and stones; her work has proved to be very durable – the exterior of the house not requiring any significant maintenance.  She had parakeets that were free to roam through the plants (and her grandchildren have continued the tradition)!  Inside the house there are more aggregate covered surfaces...some with shells rather than rocks…and an insect collection in large jars and cover one wall in a bedroom. The moths had lost most of their color but some of the butterflies still look relatively fresh. There are original household items in the house too; the house has been continuously lived in since it was built. The granddaughter that handles most of the tours at the house lives there now (her rooms closed off from the places we walked through in the house).

Quigley Castle was a good finale to our Eureka Springs trip…and I’ll probably stop there again when I am in Eureka Springs.

Then and Now – Eye Care

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My third-grade teacher was the person that realized I needed glasses – when I couldn’t ever get the right answer during multiplication flashcard drills! That was in the mid-1960s. I remember my first frames were white plastic with tiny pink dots and the lenses were easily scratched. Later in the decade I was wearing rigid contact lenses (soft ones did not exist yet); they provided the best correction for me because they corrected astigmatism perfectly with their rigid surface. In the later 1970s I switched to soft contacts for comfort…but they were never as perfect as the rigid lenses.

These days I am wearing glasses except for close work. For photography – I often look over my glasses to the camera’s screen! I have two pair: single vision computer glasses and progressives with magnetically attached tinted lenses. Doing most of my reading on screens is easier for me than paper-based materials; the brightness of the screens is helpful.

At some point I will need cataract surgery. My dad had his cataract surgery in his mid-70s, but my mother didn’t need it until her 80s. One of my younger sisters had it recently so I know what to expect…however my eye doctor can still correct my vision to 20/20 with glasses so it might not be that soon. Whenever I have it – I hope to enjoy at least some years without having to wear glasses or contacts (except sunglasses); it will be a welcome break after 60+ years.

Previous Then and Now posts

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

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On our first day in Eureka Springs, we enjoyed the Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas excursion train and the Blue Spring Heritage Center. We had dinner at a local café (Sparks Roadhouse) and were at the hotel (Quality Inn Eureka Springs South) before the thunderstorms started. The hotel was different than I expected – more Victorian and with gardens. I took a few pictures as we packed up the car after breakfast.

My daughter had give us a Pride Membership to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge for Christmas and my husband made reservations for our morning tour (one of the benefits of the membership). Before the tour we walked around some of the enclosures. Taking pictures is challenging – requiring focusing on the cat rather than the cage; it’s possible to make the cage (almost) disappear!

In one enclosure there were two cats that were in motion. A staff member did a training session with one of them; using hand motions and sound to prompt the cat to move in certain ways…rewarding with a morsel of food (looked like chicken). This activity makes it easier to assess the animal’s health in the least traumatic way so is something they try with all the animals.

The tour is done on a tram with several parts; we were impressed that the sound system was very good and enjoyed the commentary about each cat.

Servals are not that much bigger than house cats…but they are evidently much more aggressive and spray frequently…they make awful pets. Evidently quite a few people have tried it and most of the rescues are from those failed attempts. They also have a serval – domestic cat cross; it is a bit smaller and looks more like a domestic cat…but has the behavior of a serval!

The enclosures have 3 areas – an enclosed ‘den,’ a night cage that includes the den and some area around it, and the larger enclosure. Most enclosures have two night cages to enable the refuge to house two cats in each (only one cat out in the larger enclosure at a time) to provide backup capacity for emergency rescues. When we were there, the cats (and the grizzly bear) were out in the larger enclosure…enjoying the morning sun.

The refuge offers several forms of lodging and we are considering going back in the fall for that adventure. The cats vocalize more at dawn and dusk!