A book for children published in 1927…
Rhymes and verses by Clara J. Denton and illustrations by Garnett Cheney, published by Albert Whitman & Co. in Chicago.
I enjoyed the illustrations…thinking about how books for children have changed over the years. The different clothes in the depictions of the children are a sign that these are from an old book, but they still are charming hints at a commonality among childish interests that continue.
Available from Internet Archive.
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 Britain's taste for tea may have been a life saver - The explosion of tea as an everyman's drink in late 1700s England saved many lives - the simple practice of boiling water for tea, in an era before people understood that illness could be caused by water-borne pathogens, may have been enough to keep many from an early grave. Sometimes people's existing behaviors can make more of a difference to their health than an explicit intervention might.
Carbon-Based Paleolithic Paintings Found in France - The carbon-based drawings were detected with visible light and infrared photography, X-ray fluorescence, and spectroscopy underneath previously known images. The discovery could allow for precise radiocarbon dating of the artwork. Most of the Paleolithic paintings in the more than 200 caves in the region were made with iron and manganese oxides, which cannot be directly dated with radiocarbon dating technologies.
Winners of the 2023 International Landscape Photographer of the Year Contest – Wonderful views. I wish more of them were annotated (where they were taken…comments from the photographer, etc.). One of my favorites was the Winner for Snow and Ice by Thomas Vijayan of Canada.
Which zoo animals are most active in winter and what times are best to see them? – Author commenting about zoos in the UK…but most of the comments are relevant to zoos in the US too. I particularly enjoyed the last recommendation – going to the Reptile House to warm up! My daughter gave us a membership to the local zoo for Christmas…and we’ll probably bundle up and go soon (but not while the weather is in the 20s)!
Photos of the Week – December 24, 2023 from the Prairie Ecologist – Great reminders that there are interesting subjects for nature photography in winter.
103-Year-Old Artificial Christmas Tree Sells for Over $4,000 – A sliver of history: The tree originally belonged to Dorothy Grant, whose family purchased it for their Leicestershire, England, home in 1920. When she first saw it, the 8-year-old girl was “wildly excited.” She decorated its branches with cotton wool that resembled snow, as baubles were an “extravagance” at the time. Grant cherished the tree for the rest of her life. When she died at the age of 101 in 2014, her 84-year-old daughter, Shirley Hall, inherited it. She decided to part with it to honor her mother’s memory and to ensure it survives as a humble reminder of 1920s life—a boom-to-bust decade.
Photography In the National Parks: 2023 In Review – Rebecca Lawson’s favorite shots from 2023 from Yellowstone, Glacier, Mount Rainer, Lake Chelan, Yosemite, Death Valley, and Banff National Parks.
Honeycrisp, Cosmic Crisp usher in banner year for U.S. apples - Growers report that apple production in the United States hit levels in 2023 that had not been seen since the 2014-15 season. Washington State was the largest grower, producing some 90% of the nation's crop. Of all the varieties, Honeycrisp, Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Fuji make up 76% of the total apple holdings. The big winner this year was the Cosmic Crisp apple, which experienced a 41% year-over-year growth, with 9.5 million bushels harvested.
Millions of mysterious pits in the ocean decoded - Most of the depressions in the seafloor in the German Bight are created by porpoises and other animals in search of food, and then scoured out by bottom currents. The researchers showed that the marine mammals leave pits in the seafloor when they hunt for buried sand eels.
2023 was a year of big anniversaries – 20 years ago the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas…the Concorde made its final flight, 30 years ago the World Wide Web launched into the public domain, 50 years ago hip-hop began, 60 years ago March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (“I have a dream” speech)…JFK assassinated, 75 years ago Israel declared independence, 80 years ago Casablanca opened, 150 years ago blue jeans patented.
Twenty more books were added to the botanical print collection in December– available for browsing on Internet Archive. They were almost the only books I read/browsed in December; I was overwhelmingly busy caring for my parents.
The publication range for this group is 1629-1959 – a lot has changed in those 300 years!
The whole list of 2,781 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the December 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.
Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the December 2023 eBotanical Prints!
Niger flora; or an enumeration of the plants of Western tropical Africa * Hooker, William Jackson (editor) * sample image * 1849
Bouquet de Melastomataceae Bresilieannes * Cogniaux, Alfred; Saldanha del Gama, Jose * sample image * 1887
Bryologia javanica V1 * Dozy, Francois; Molkenboer, Julian Hendrik; Bosch, Roelof Benjamin Van Den; Sande Lacoste, Cornelius Marinus van der * sample image * 1855
Bryologia javanica V2 * Dozy, Francois; Molkenboer, Julian Hendrik; Bosch, Roelof Benjamin Van Den; Sande Lacoste, Cornelius Marinus van der * sample image * 1855
Chung-kuo chu yao chih wu tʻu shuo.ho bien Nan-ching ta hsüeh, Shêng wu hsüeh hsi [ho] Chung-kuo kʻo hsüeh yüan, Chih wu yen chiu so. * Keng, I-li * sample image * 1959
Collection d'orchide - esaquarelles originales. * Missouri Botanical Garden * sample image * 1900
Contribuciones al conocimiento de la flora ecuatoriana * Sodiro, L. * sample image * 1905
Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen * Sprengel, Christian Konrad * sample image * 1793
De plantis exoticis libri duo * Alpini, Alpino; Alpini, Prosperi * sample image * 1629
Descriptio?n de l'Egypte recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont ete faites en Egypte pendant l'expedition de l'armee francaise * Raffeneau-Delile, Alire * sample image * 1824
Description des plantes de l'Amerique * Plumier, Charles * sample image * 1693
Descriptionum et iconum rariores et pro maxima parte novas plantas illustrantium * Rottboll * sample image * 1773
Die Coniferen * Antoine, Franz * sample image * 1840
Phyto-iconographie der Bromeliaceen des kaiserlichen königlichen Hofburg-Gartens in Wien * Antoine, Franz * sample image * 1884
Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Sudsee * Lauterbach, Karl; Schumann, Karl Moritz * sample image * 1900
Nachtrage zur Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Sudsee * Lauterbach, Karl; Schumann, Karl Moritz * sample image * 1905
Die pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrikas und der nachbargebiete * Engler, Adolf * sample image * 1895
Flora Brasiliae meridionalis * Saint-Hilaire, Auguste de * sample image * 1825
Flora Java - Volume 2 * Blume, Carolo Ludovico * sample image * 1828
Flora Peruviana, et Chilensis Plates 1-152 * Ruiz, Hippolito; Pavon, Jose * sample image * 1798
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.
Fevered Planet: How a shifting climate is catalyzing infectious disease – The geography of disease is also changing as novel pathogens affecting plants, animals and humans increase their range. New beetles are heading north and devastating Siberian forests, Alaskan mammals are struggling as new ticks arrive and human habitations in northern Norway are infested by new insects.
‘Green Roads’ Are Plowing Ahead, Buffering Drought and Floods - Designing roads to capture water through strategic channels, culverts, and ponds and divert it for agricultural use. Nearly 20 countries have either implemented Green Roads for Water or plan to begin soon, and thousands of kilometers of roads, worldwide, have already received Green Roads interventions.
Photos of the year (2023) from the Prairie Ecologist (part 1 and part 2) – Lots of great nature photos.
How Fire-Prone Communities Can Reduce Their Risk - Playbook for the Pyrocene, which offers 20 community planning and design strategies that can be applied by landscape architects, planners, homeowners, and developers. “The questions we are trying to answer here are not so much where to build, but rather how to build better within the context of wildfire broadly.”
Giant Goldfish Are Bad News for the Great Lakes - In the Great Lakes, abandoned goldfish and their kin are known to root up plants, contribute to harmful algal blooms and consume native vegetation.
Nine breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2023 you may have missed – Yes – I missed some of these!
Parts of China’s Great Wall Are Protected by a ‘Living Cover’ of Biocrusts – Lichen, moss, and cyanobacteria!
Fresh water from thin air - Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH). The need for more affordable options has spurred interest in ‘passive’ AWH systems that use moisture-hungry sorbent compounds to collect water. The small amounts of power that such systems require could, ideally, be supplied by the Sun. Typically, these sorbents are exposed to the air overnight, when temperatures are cooler and moisture is more abundant. They collect the airborne moisture as liquid in a process known as adsorption. When day breaks, the sorbents are transferred to a device that uses solar energy to drive the release of water. This water is then condensed and collected. And there are abundant opportunities beyond simply producing drinking water. For example, a harvesting system that piggybacks on existing photovoltaic solar panels, using the waste heat and energy from these panels to power water production9; the resulting water helps to cool the panels and therefore improves their efficiency
Archaeologists Discover Brutal ‘Bakery-Prison’ at Pompeii - The cramped space provided minimal light, as windows to the outside were small, high and barred.
William Edgar Geil is believed to be the first American to have traveled the entire length of the 2,500-kilometer-long Ming section of the Great Wall of China. The book he published about that adventure was published shortly afterward in 1909 and is available on Internet Archive. It is illustrated with photographs taken by the author…documenting the wall as it existed at the time.
So much has happened in China over the intervening years…and the Great Wall seems to be something that is simply ‘always there.’ I remember two stories about it recently that reminded me that the wall is changing too: it was breached with construction equipment and a study that showed that the encrustations (lichen, moss, cyanobacteria) actually slow down erosion of the wall.
There was not as much time for photography this past month; I am combining macro (getting close) and zoomed (optical magnification) images in this post.
The macro images go first. The yellow cosmos were part of a small bouquet I cut and put in mini-vase for the middle of my parents’ breakfast table. They enjoyed the enlarged view that I showed them just after I photographed them. The leaves are probably the last new ones of the season on a rose bush that has been blooming next to their garage for over 30 years!
The leaves on a millet plant (came up under the bird feeder!) are interesting as they begin their end-of-season decline.
The zoomed images for December included some birds and plants at Josey Ranch, fall foliage, and zoomed images of glass orbs in yard art…the last flowers in the garden.
In the coming months – the stainless steel iris will be the highlight of the garden!
In the coming months – the stainless steel iris will be the highlight of the garden!
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.
Houses built to survive floods - The Manobo indigenous people live and thrive on a vast wetland in the Philippines – despite dealing with dozens of storms and floods per year. Their homes are built on floating platforms as a traditional way of coping with regular floods and storms, and the method proved resilient even in the face of aexceptionally powerful typhoon.
Hunter-Gatherer Childcare Studied - The infants of ancient hunter-gatherers were likely to have received attentive care and physical contact for approximately nine hours a day from about 15 different caregivers. Working with modern hunter-gatherers (the Mbendjele BaYaka who now live in what is now the Republic of Congo), researchers found that the children often have more than 10 caregivers, and sometimes more than 20. These people, including older children and adolescents, support the mother in responding to more than half of her baby’s cries, resulting in improved maternal rest and well-being and thus enhanced maternal care.
Why Does Everything Taste Like Chicken? - Comprised of white muscle fibers, chicken breast and wings rely more on glycogen than myoglobin since they are specialized for more sporadic and brief energy demands. Likewise, unique meats such as frogs and alligators are also considered white meat. They boast a leaner meat profile, a palatable flavor, and a chicken-like texture.
Socio-cultural practices may have affected sex differences in stature in Early Neolithic Europe - Biological effects of sex-specific inequities can be linked to cultural influences at least as early as 7,000 yr ago, and culture, more than environment or genetics, drove height disparities in Early Neolithic Europe.
People Can Be Prescribed “Photography” as a Mental Health Treatment in the UK – “Once a GP or healthcare professional refers a patient to the “Photography on Prescription” program, they will be granted access to photography equipment and masterclasses by Wex, with the intention of giving them the tools to improve their mental health.” What a great idea! It appears that the classes from Wex are available on YouTube!
Gelatine: The ingredient with the wonder wobble - Gelatine, made from the connective tissues of animal parts, is an unlikely staple ingredient. A thousand years ago in Iraq, when the cookbook containing the recipe was written, party guests might have welcomed a slice of the jiggling substance, much the way the attendees of a Tupperware party in Omaha in 1963 would have tucked into a brilliant green molded Jell-O larded with canned mandarin orange slices. Gelatine is made by boiling the bones and connective tissue of animals, breaking down the protein known as collagen. The proteins released by the process will cling together at room temperature, but if they are mixed with hot water and then allowed to cool, the water is threaded through the network they form. Different concentrations of the proteins will yield different firmness of the final gel.
Massive Ancient Mosaic Floor Discovered in Turkey - A large floor mosaic covering some 6,400 square feet has been uncovered in central Anatolia, in a Roman villa dated to the fourth century A.D.
These Are the Best Northern Lights Photos of 2023 – Color in the sky. My favorite is the one full of greens titled “Circle of Life.”
How ancient civilizations dealt with trauma - Just a year after the Norman conquest, a group of bishops got together to create an unusual list - a set of instructions for those who had participated in the bloodshed – setting out the repentant actions they should perform to atone for their deeds. To help veterans avoid trauma and give them tools to deal with it, medieval societies relied heavily on religion. There were prayers and blessings from priests before battles, and penances allowed veterans to absolve themselves of any atrocities they had committed. Later, during the Crusades, people were told that entering into war was a holy act itself, and could do away with all your previous transgressions. the Ancient Romans invested heavily in getting the proper permission from the gods for their wars. In the ancient world, as today, war often spilled over into the world of the general public – leading to rape, torture, slavery, theft, murder and the mass displacement of people, with entire cities razed to the ground.
Incredible Winners of the 2023 Environmental Photographer of the Year Highlight Our Planet’s Climate Struggles – Some of these are disturbing. “Corals at night” is my favorite and is the closest to a nature photography picture.
This week’s collection of books from Internet Archive are from The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. The first two are books published in the 1960s. The rest are bulletins from 1929 to 2003. So many things to browse! I primarily looked at the images but some of the articles caught my attention as well. These volumes are a mix of history and art….from a part of the world I have never visited…but enjoy from afar. Enjoy the sample images from each volume!
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 01
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 02
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 03
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 04
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 05
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 06
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 07
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 08
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 09
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 10
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 11
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 12
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 13
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 14
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 15
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 16
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 17
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 18
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 19
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 20
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 21
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 22
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 23
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 24
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 25
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 26
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 27
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 28
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 29
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 30
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 31
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 32
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 33
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 34
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 35
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 36
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 37
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 38
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 39
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 40
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 41
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 42
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 43
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 44
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 45
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 46
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 47
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 49
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 50
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 53
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 54
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 55
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 56
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 57
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 58
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 60
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 61
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 62
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 63
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 64
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 67
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 68
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 70
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 71
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 72
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 World’s Oldest Living Land Animal, a Tortoise Named Jonathan, Turns 191 – He lives on St. Helena (the small island in the Atlantic where Napoleon Bonaparte died). He has lost his sense of smell and is virtually blind from cataracts, but his appetite is good!
Extreme Weather Inflicting Higher Costs but Fewer Deaths – Improved warning systems have been key to reducing the loss of life from cyclones, floods, and fires. Kudos to the governments that have implemented them. Hopefully Africa will be able to increase their weather stations and early warning systems…catch up with other parts of the world.
25 Incredible Photos in the Running for Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award – Which one is your favorite? Mine is the ‘happy turtle’ with the dragonfly on his nose.
Here’s What Can Cause Itchiness – Interesting….Staphylococcus aureus could the culprit for some people with eczema….maybe resulting in effective treatment/relief.
Nēnē: The Recovery of the Hawaiian Goose - Today, there are some 3,200 nēnē in the wild. By almost any measure, it’s a stunning conservation success. The threats of habitat fragmentation and invasive predators are omnipresent, so the birds need constant attention from conservationists and wildlife managers. Currently, there are populations on Hawai’i, Kaua’i, Maui and Molokai.
Secrets of the Catacombs - A subterranean necropolis offers archaeologists a rare glimpse of Rome’s early Jewish community. More than 60 catacombs, amounting to hundreds of miles of passages, have been identified beneath the Rome; they were the common approach to burial from the second through fifth century AD. Villa Torlonia, discovered in 1919, was the sixth, and so far the last, Jewish catacomb to be found in Rome and is one of just two accessible today. The catacomb’s passageways are lined with nearly 4,000 shelves carved into the walls to hold the dead. Many of the names of the deceased are still visible, generally painted on or carved into stucco used to seal the graves, along with blessings to rest in peace and other inscriptions. In a few places, the catacomb’s narrow passageways open into atriums where colorful frescoes decorate the vaulted ceilings and many of the arched recesses. In addition to menorahs, these frescoes feature Jewish motifs such as a holy ark to house Torah scrolls; shofars, ram’s-horn trumpets blown on religious holidays; and lulavs, palm branches waved during the festival of Sukkot, which celebrates the harvest season. There are also geometric designs and illustrations of peacocks, roosters, flowers, and fruit trees, possibly meant to depict paradise.
Wild Kiwis Born Near New Zealand’s Capital for the First Time in More Than 150 Years – Another bird conservation success in this week’s gleanings!
New Thoughts on Neanderthal Hunters - Neanderthals may have gathered in large groups to hunt and consume an elephant, and they may also have been able to preserve and store such a large amount of food.
Rare, White Alligator Born at Florida Wildlife Park - The leucistic reptile was born at Gatorland, a 110-acre park located south of downtown Orlando. The new gators are descendants of a group of leucistic alligators found in a Louisiana swamp in 1987. Since 2008, three of those Louisiana gators have been living at Gatorland.
500 year old hand grenades (China) – 59 spherical projectiles discovered in a storeroom along the Great Wall near the popular Badaling section. They were made of stone and had been drilled with holes that could be filled with gunpowder and sealed, creating an explosive effect when hurled at an enemy.
Project Gutenberg has the 1912 version of Clement C. Moore’s Twas the Night Before Christmas illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith. The Santa is more elf like….short, very round…and not dressed in red and white! A little perspective on how the vision of Christmas has changed over the last 100 years….
My parents’ neighborhood is getting a refresh of infrastructure (water, sewer). Streets, sidewalks, and alleys are being repaved too. There was a notice taped to the door shortly after Thanksgiving about a mini-project replacing a sewer line that ran along their property line (from street to alley) and it started a few days later. They estimated it would take 3-4 days. They started before 8 on the 1st morning.
We watched the big equipment remove half the sidewalk in front and then dig a big hole where the old manhole cover had been at the edge of the yard….at the edge of the bed with red yuccas. The construction would use a pipe bursting technique (which we never did fully understand) so that only a hole at both ends of the pipe would be required (i.e. no long trench).
They discovered that the sewer connection for my parents’ house and the house next door was not on the alley end of the sewer line as expected. They put a camera through the pipe to determine where the connections were…and communicated with us about where they would dig in the yard. Fortunately, it was a small part of a flower bed near the fence and then a grassy area that was not included in the sprinkler system. (They told me a story of a similar situation elsewhere in the neighborhood where they had discovered a connection that was directly under a big tree….not sure how they resolved that one.)
We were able to get bulbs/rhizomes (spider lily and iris) out of the flower bed that would be disturbed by the hole in the yard before it was dug on the 2nd day. The bulbs/rhizomes that are now in buckets and bins will be planted in my garden in Missouri!
The hole in the yard was done carefully to reduce damage to the yard. A panel of fence was removed to allow entry of a smaller machine to dig the hole and a tarp was spread over the grass where the dirt pile would accumulate. Within 24 hours – the hole was made, connections were made, the hole filled, and iris rhizomes that had been disturbed (that we hadn’t gotten out previously) were replanted in neat rows by the crew!
Also on the second day – they put the new concrete pipe (where the manhole cover would be) into the ground. It was impressive how the crew aligned everything, chains were attached to the pipe and the big arm of the machine what would lift it and set it down perfectly into place.
The crew seemed to be in a very good mood as they filled the hole. The man in the big backhoe seemed to have a smile on his face every time the machine swung around where I could see him!
I was left with the impression that the crew has worked together for some time…and they enjoy what they do. They want the project to be successful even if they discover something different than expected and have to tweak the plan to make it so.
I was also impressed with the personnel from the city that made sure we understood what needed to happen. It’s good the city is proactively replacing/renovating the infrastructure in the 50+ year old neighborhood!
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.
Restored Glass Negatives Capture Daily Life in 19th-Century New England – Photographs taken from the 1860s to 1930s….Massachusetts…different photographers.
As Temperatures Rise, Dengue Fever Spreads and Cases Rise – The mosquitos that carry dengue viruses are extending their range. There were 0.5 million cases in 2000…5.2 million in 2019. In recent years, dengue has popped up in places it had never been seen, including Afghanistan, parts of Southern Europe, and, this year, Chad. An additional 2 billion people would be at risk of dengue exposure by 2080, compared to 2015. Areas unfamiliar with dengue may be hard hit even if case numbers aren’t high as people won’t have immunity from previous exposure to the virus, and public health systems may not be strong enough to cope with dengue outbreaks.
The World’s Largest Iceberg Is Drifting Three Miles Into the Ocean Each Day - The world’s largest iceberg, which had been grounded on the seafloor since the mid-1980s, is moving away from Antarctica and picking up speed. It could disrupt the foraging of seals, penguins and other seabirds. Called A23a, the iceberg measures around 1,500 square miles—more than 20 times the size of Washington, D.C.—and it’s roughly 1,300 feet thick, making it two and one-third times the height of the Washington Monument. It weighs nearly one trillion metric tons.
Landscape Photography Awards Rewards Authenticity in Photography – My favorite was “Little Leaves”….maybe because it didn’t have time to see a lot with fall foliage this year.
Expansive Alexander Calder Exhibition Opens in Seattle – Take a look at the museum’s site for the exhibit at well.
Bird Photography Contest Celebrates the Unique Diversity of Australia’s Wildlife - Nine winners were singled out for their work, rising above more than 6,000 images that were submitted. My favorite of this group is “Jambalaya on the Bayou.”
Volcano Monitoring Can Be A Risky Business: How Scientists Work Safely - Common PPE used in the field by HVO staff include respirators to filter volcanic gases, gas badges to monitor sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations, along with helmets and eye protection. When molten lava sampling, crews will carry a face shield, fire-resistant clothing, and gloves to protect the wearer from radiating heat.
Best of 2023: Top 42 Photographs From Around the World – I have two favorites in this group of photos: the bald eagles and the dancing mantises!
African Penguins Tell Each Other Apart by Their Polka Dot Patterns – Evidently the chest plumage is unique to each bird….and the birds recognize the dots of their partners!
Photographer Chronicles the Enchanting Life of a Wild Red Fox for 8 Months – A Hungarian photographer’s project at his cottage in the forest after he noticed a fox running under the window one night.
Twenty-four more books were added to the botanical print collection in November – available for browsing on Internet Archive. More than half the publications this month contain color images; I’m always pleased when I find new-to-me botanical books with images like these.
The publication range for this group is 1727-2012; it is interesting the think about how the technology behind publication of books such as these changes over that 200+ years.
The whole list of 2,761 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the November 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.
Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the November 2023 eBotanical Prints!
Medical botany; or, illustrations and descriptions of the medicinal plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeias: Comprising a poular and scientific account of poisonous vegetables indigenous to Great Britain V1 * Stephenson, John; Churchill, James Morss; Burnett, Gilbert Thomas * sample image * 1834
Medical botany; or, illustrations and descriptions of the medicinal plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeias: Comprising a poular and scientific account of poisonous vegetables indigenous to Great Britain V2 * Stephenson, John; Churchill, James Morss; Burnett, Gilbert Thomas * sample image * 1834
Medical botany; or, illustrations and descriptions of the medicinal plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeias: Comprising a poular and scientific account of poisonous vegetables indigenous to Great Britain V3 * Stephenson, John; Churchill, James Morss; Burnett, Gilbert Thomas * sample image * 1834
Medical botany; or, illustrations and descriptions of the medicinal plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeias: Comprising a poular and scientific account of poisonous vegetables indigenous to Great Britain V4 * Stephenson, John; Churchill, James Morss; Burnett, Gilbert Thomas * sample image * 1834
Flora and pomona, or, the British fruit and flower garden * McIntosh, Charles * sample image * 1829
On buds and Stipules * Lubbock, John * sample image * 1899
George Engelmann :botanical notebook 38 : Yucca (Agavaceae) * Engelmann, George * sample image * 1851
On Welwitschia :a new genus of Gnetaceae * Hooker, Joseph Dalton * sample image * 1864
Annales Musei botanici lugduno-batavi V1 (1863) * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm (editor) * sample image * 1863
Annales Musei botanici lugduno-batavi V2 (1866) * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm (editor) * sample image * 1866
Annales Musei botanici lugduno-batavi V3 (1867) * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm (editor) * sample image * 1867
Annales Musei botanici lugduno-batavi V4 (1869) * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm (editor) * sample image * 1869
Cycadeae quaedam americanae, partim novae * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm * sample image * 1851
Monographia cycadearum * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm * sample image * 1842
Monographia generis Melocacti * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm * sample image * 1840
Stirpes Surinamenses selectae * Miquel, Fredrich Anton Wilhelm (compiler) * sample image * 1851
Botanicon parisiense * Aubriet, Claude; Boerhaave, Herman; Vaillant, Sebastien; Verbeek, H.; Verbeek, J.; Wandelaar, Jan * sample image * 1727
Botanical review, or the beauties of flora * Donovan, E. * sample image * 1790
Botanical Report * Eduran, Elias; Hilgard, Theod. C. * sample image * 1855
Astragalogia, nempe astragali, biserrulae et oxytropidis * Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de; Didot,; Garnery, Joann. Bapt.; Redoute, Pierre Joseph * sample image * 1802
Botanique (atlas from Astolabe Expdeition 1837-1840) * Hombron, Jacques Bernard; Decaisne, Joseph; Dumont d'Urville, Jules-Sébastien-César; Jacquinot, Charles Hector; Montagne, Jean François Camille * sample image * 1845
Text-book of structural and physiological botany * Thome, Otto Wilhelm; Bennett, Alfred William * sample image * 1877
Khawa karpo :Tibetan traditional knowledge and biodiversity conservation * Moseley, Robert K.; Salick, Jan * sample image * 2012
Advances in legume biology * Stirton, C.H.; Zarucchi, Jame Lee * sample image * 1989
I made stops at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge on my way to and from Carrollton all during the year. On the way down, I arrived around noon; on the way home, it was just after sunrise.
Seeing/photographing birds is the big draw for my visits. I spend an hour or so moving slowly down the central wildlife tour road…sometimes taking a side road. I use my car as a blind and roll the window down when I see birds. My camera is on a monopod collapsed down to its shortest length. Most of the time I brace it in the cup holder between the front seats…tilt the head to get the image I want.
In the winter there are flocks of snow geese (and Ross’s geese) along with Northern Shovelers and Pintails. White Faced Ibis and American White Pelicans are seen during migrations. Egrets (snowy, cattle, great) are numerous in the spring and summer; I enjoyed an early morning seeing/hearing them on one of the ponds where they had obviously spent the night. Great Blue Herons are around all the time although are most numerous in the summer when the young are beginning life on their own. Red-winged blackbirds are year-round residents but murmurations of the birds are seen in the fall as they move about eating the mature seeds of the prairie plants. I saw Neotropic Cormorants for the first time this year.
Of course there are other things to photograph too – prairie type flowers, drift wood, insects, sunrise. This year I noticed a cluster of Queen butterflies in July…didn’t see many Monarchs until the fall when they were probably migrating. The butterflies were photographed in the butterfly garden near the refuge’s visitor center – along with a grasshopper! I was surprised to see a dragonfly perched on a plant so close to the car that I was able to photograph it during my drive down the wildlife loop!
Hagerman has become one of my favorite places in Texas…and I will continue to stop there as often as I can.
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.
Scientists found hundreds of toxic chemicals in recycled plastics - More than 13,000 chemicals used in plastics with 25% classified as hazardous. Numerous studies show that hazardous chemicals can accumulate even in relatively close-loop plastic recycling systems. We need to rapidly phase-out plastic chemicals that can cause harm to human health and the environment.
Giant Sequoias Are in Big Trouble. How Best to Save Them? - Giant sequoias are, by volume, the largest trees in the world, indigenous only to California. Reaching heights of 300 feet, they occur in 80 groves or grove complexes along the western flank of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Central California. Many of these trees live for thousands of years: The oldest sequoia is more than 3,200 years old. In North America, only bristlecone pines grow longer. The 2020 and 2021 fire seasons were a wake-up call: flames had killed between 13 and 19 percent of all giant sequoias more than 4 feet in diameter, and many trees were far larger.
Batteries of the future? How cotton and seawater might power our devices - In markets where consumers appear to really care about the sustainability of the products they buy, appropriately sourced alternative battery materials might have more of a chance – whether batteries are made with biowaste-derived carbon or any other potentially more sustainable substance. The public could play a big role in really pushing that effort forward.
Designing cities for 21st-century weather – A data-driven model to predict how urban areas across the country will grow by 2100 found that how a city is laid out or organized spatially has the potential to reduce population exposures to future weather extremes. Carefully designed urban land patterns cannot completely erase increased population exposures to weather extremes resulting from climate change, but it can generate a meaningful reduction of the increase in risks.
Stunning 2,700-Year-Old Sculpture Unearthed in Iraq – 18 tons of alabaster. 2,700 years old. 12.5x12.8 feet. Largely intact except for its head which is missing.
Larger Beaks, Smaller Bodies: Could Climate Change Literally Change Birds? – A study analyzed 129 species of North American migratory birds collected over the prior 40 years and found bodies are shrinking and wings growing longer. Smaller species of birds, like tiny warblers or kinglets, shrink faster than bigger birds like robins and grackles, so their rate of change over the 40 years, is much, much faster. They’re able to maybe adapt to warming temperatures faster than these bigger birds.
A step closer to injection-free diabetes care: Innovation in insulin-producing cell – Potential this safer and more reliable way to grow insulin-producing cells from a patient's own blood could eventually allow transplants without the need for anti-rejection drugs.
The Life and Death of American Dams - Many dams are now poorly maintained, clogged with silt, and pose an increasingly high risk of catastrophic failure. The recent recognition of the damage dams cause and the movement to remove them is part of the rewilding of America, long overdue.
An exotic tick that can kill cattle is spreading across Ohio – Asian longhorned ticks. The size of a sesame seed in some life stages and pea-sized when engorged. Surveillance showed they returned the following summer to the farm despite the application of pesticides in 2021. Asian longhorned ticks' secret colonization weapon is the ability to reproduce asexually, with each female laying up to 2,000 eggs at a time -- and all 2,000 of those female offspring able to do the same.
How Urban Design Impacts Public Health – Urban planning and design affects everything from air quality to temperature to risk of injury on roadways. Often with developers of public spaces it’s a sin of omission rather than of commission. In many cases, what is rarely apparent is what the health cost is, because that cost is born in a different sector and often at a different time.
Hannah (Nannie) Hudson Moore’s 1905 book includes many examples of children in paintings. My favorites are not the princes and princesses (which seem to be the majority). I like the ones that depict children that were obviously well cared for…in poses that look like children! Children then must have moved the way they do now – learning to walk and run…being outdoors…having quiet time indoors. Often the clothes seem cumbersome. How did they play? From another perspective - I always wonder if the children in the pictures managed to grow to adulthood; life expectancy was shorter then with a lot of children succumbing to diseases that are not prevented by vaccines. The book is available from Internet Archive:
November 2023 was a month of contrasts…an increase in day trips (to the Springfield Botanical Garden and Butterfly Palace in Branson) and then the more confined views while a parent was in the hospital/recovering at home. Photography is something I enjoy in almost every circumstance. I am either trying to capture a moment or create an artistic composition. And the zoom feature on my cameras are almost always used!
Supporting someone in the hospital is high stress…but there is a lot of waiting that allows for contemplation as well. The blog post is gleaned from those quiet times between flurries of activity/trauma when my parent was in the hospital.
Observing medical professions – techs of various kinds, nurses, doctors – is always a learning experience. Going into learning mode is a better way to engage than adversarial….and expressing appreciation helps everyone through a difficult time.
There is art in the most public areas of the hospital…and I always notice it…realize that I appreciate the snippets of beauty/uniqueness along the way in and out of the hospital that can, momentarily, distract me from the stress of the place.
The view from the hospital room is also a distraction. This time it included a helipad! My sister saw one land during the night (mostly heard it rather than saw it) but then I got to see one land the next afternoon. It was the big excitement of the afternoon…and that was a good thing.
Another view from the window included curves of the drive into the hospital and a major intersection near the hospital. The open area is appreciated since the hospital itself is a cluster of buildings and parking garages. It’s a big place. I figured out my route to my parent’s room and didn’t deviate!
Along the walk to and from the closest parking garage, there is a wall that reminded me of a Zentangle mosaic….and I made quite a few tiles during the waiting time at the hospital.
The up and down of the day at the hospital always seems more extreme that a normal day. I found that I never quite relaxed as much as I do during a normal day…but didn’t get any physically intense time….it was all mentally intense.
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.
20 Incredible Winners From the 2023 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest – Lots of natural beauty…captured in photographs.
A known environmental hazard can change the epigenetics of cells – Formaldehyde. It is a widespread pollutant - formaldehyde enters our body mainly during our breathing and, because it dissolves well in an aqueous medium, it ends up reaching all the cells of our body. It is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer (nasopharyngeal tumors and leukemia), hepatic degeneration due to fatty liver (steatosis) and asthma.
How forest schools boost children's immune systems – It seems the benefits go well beyond immune systems. Hopefully this type of school for 3 to 5 year old will increase in availability/popularity.
Circular Maya Structure Uncovered in Southern Mexico - Similar round structures have been found at the Maya sites of Edzná, Becán, Uxmal, and Chichen Itzá.
Health Care Workers Are Burning Out, CDC Says - The CDC researchers analyzed self-reported symptoms of more than 1,400 adults in 2018 and 2022 who were working in three areas: health care, other essential services and all other professions. Workers’ self-reported poor mental health days in the past 30 days was similar across all three groups in 2022, but health professionals saw the most significant jump, from 3.3 in 2018 to 4.5 in 2022. Reports of harassment at work also spiked among health care workers over the five-year period, going from 6.4 percent to 13.4 percent.
How To Bring Back the Prairie, a Tiny Bit at a Time – The use of “prairie strips” on farms in an effort to restore a portion of the Minnesota’s remnant prairie and to soak up polluted water.
These Ten Stunning Images Prove That Small Is Beautiful – From Nikon’s Small World Photomicrography Contest. My favorite was the cuckoo wasp.
Deforestation in Colombia Down 70 Percent So Far This Year - Since taking power last year, leftist President Gustavo Petro has enacted a slate of new policies aimed at protecting Colombian forests, including paying locals to conserve woodland. The recent gains in Colombia mirror similar advances in the Brazilian Amazon, where leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has cracked down on forest clearing; deforestation is down 50 percent through the first nine months of this year. In 2021, more than 100 countries, from Brazil to Russia to Indonesia, set a goal to end deforestation by the end of this decade, but so far forest loss has declined too slowly to stay on pace for this target.
European wildcats avoided introduced domestic cats for 2,000 years – About 50 years ago in Scotland, however, that all changed. Perhaps as a result of dwindling wildcat populations and a lack of opportunity to mate with other wildcats, rates of interbreeding between wild and domestic cats rose rapidly.
Why grazing bison could be good for the planet - The shortgrass prairie makes up 27,413 sqare miles of remote land straddling the US/Canadian border to the east of the Rocky Mountains. This rare habitat is in ecological decline. Plains bison co-evolved with the short-grass prairie. In the 12,000 years since the end of the Pleistocene, they have proven themselves to be potent ecosystem engineers. An adult bison eats about 25lb (11kg) of grass a day. The grasses adapted to their foraging. Vegetation across the plains uses the nutrients in their dung. Birds pluck their fur from bushes to insulate their nests. Bison also shape the land literally. They roll in the dust and create indentations known as "wallows" that hold water after rainstorms. After the bison move on, insects flourish in these pools and become a feast for birds and small mammals. Pronghorn antelope survive by following their tracks through deep winter snows. Replacing cattle with bison greens floodplains…setting the stage for beavers.
James Ward was an Irish artist known for his murals in Dublin City Hall. It turns out that he was also a writer of textbooks including two books about decorative art and ornament…including the use of color published in 1909 and 1914 respectively.
Historic ornament: treatise on decorative art and architectural ornament
The books present the history of decorative arts and are also a snapshot of how that history was viewed/applied at the time the books were written. I wondered how the field was impacted by the war, the roaring 20s, financial depression and WWII. These books were written in a ‘calm before the storm’ – before the faster and faster pace of the modern world was acknowledged.
Both books are available on Internet Archive.
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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