Gleanings of the Week Ending February 24, 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.

Surprisingly vibrant color of 12-million-year-old snail shells – Polyenes (includes carotenoids) preserved almost unchanged…and found in fossils.

Asbestos: The strange past of the 'magic mineral' – Asbestos was woven into textiles fit for kings and used for party tricks. One 18th-Century philosopher even slept in a night-cap made from it. It was also used to make the funerary shrouds for monarchs; because it didn't burn, it helped to keep their ashes separated from the rest of the pyre. An account from Ancient Greece describes a golden lamp made for the goddess Athena, which could reportedly burn for a whole year without going out and had a wick made from "Carpathian flax" – thought to be another name for asbestos. In 1899, an English doctor recorded the first confirmed case of a death linked directly to the material – a 33-year-old textile worker who had developed fibrosis of the lungs. In the UK, all asbestos was banned in 1999, but much of the asbestos added before this date remains in place – as buildings degrade, it is posing a significant health risk.

Rise of Peru’s Divine Lords – Hilltop sites in the Andes…early examples of divine lordship - a form of leadership that would endure in Peru for more than 1,000 years.

Amid Record Drop in Fossil Power, Europe Sees Wind Overtake Natural Gas - The E.U. power sector is undergoing a monumental shift - fossil fuels are playing a smaller role than ever as a system with wind and solar as its backbone comes into view. Coal generation fell by 26 percent, while gas generation fell by 15 percent.

Student Design Competition: Integrating Solar and Agriculture - Some 2.8 gigawatts of agrivoltaics exist across the U.S. Many combine solar energy with pollinator habitat and sheep grazing. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is looking for new design proposals from graduate and undergraduate landscape architecture students to push the agrivoltaics envelope!

The Moon Is Shrinking, Causing Moonquakes at a Potential NASA Landing Site - Researchers examined data on moonquakes detected by lunar seismometers, which have been on the moon since Apollo program astronauts left them there more than 50 years ago. They also used mapping data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to identify the telltale creases on the moon. Through modeling, they linked these faults to seismic activity.

Texas Reservoirs Reach Dangerous Lows - In Corpus Christi, on the south Texas coast, authorities last month stopped releasing water aimed at maintaining minimum viable ecology in the coastal wetlands, even as oil refineries and chemical plants remain exempt from water use restrictions during drought. On the lower Texas coast, the Rio Grande has not been flowing consistently, and Colorado River water releases have been minimal as that river faces shortages farther upstream.

Extreme Birding: Gull Watching at the Landfill - You can find gulls around North America (and many parts of the world), including in interior states. At least 28 gulls can be seen in North America, with additional vagrant species showing up from time to time. Individual species look different depending on age and other factors. A gull goes through three feather molts in its first year.

Poisonous Seed Stash Discovered in the Netherlands – Black henbane contained in a hollow goat (or sheep) thigh bone sealed with a plug of black birch bark…from AD 70-200.

Ocean Sponge Skeletons Suggest a More Significant History of Global Warming Than Originally Thought - An analysis of six sea sponges—centuries-old creatures with an internal chemistry that holds secrets about climate history—points to global temperatures already having increased by 1.7 degrees Celsius due to human activity --- that’s more than scientists currently agree upon….so there is a flurry of activity to corroborate the finding.

Golf Courses of the Early 1900s

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I enjoyed browsing the illustrations of golf courses in Britain published in 1910 (available on Internet Archive). It was authored by Bernard Darwin and illustrated by Harry Rountree. According to Wikipedia, the author was the grandson of Charles Darwin; he was the first journalist to cover golf on a daily basis…and he was a high-standard amateur golfer too. The illustrator (according to Wikipedia) was born in New Zealand but moved to London to pursue his career as an illustrator in 1901; he became well know for animal illustration…and British golf courses/golfing caricatures. Enjoy browsing this ‘book of the week.’

The Golf Courses of the British Isles

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 17, 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 lost art of the death mask – In the late Middle Ages (after 50% of the population was wiped out in 4 years by plague), death masks were created by molding wax or plaster over the face, and were a useful way of copying the features of deceased relatives, so that sculptors could use them as a reference for the lifelike portraits displayed at funerals. Then in the 18th Century, something unexpected happened: people began to value death masks for their own sake. Many death masks were turned into spooky heirlooms, while some became souvenirs that command six-figure sums to this day.

Rapa Nui’s Rongorongo Tablets in Rome Radiocarbon Dated - In the nineteenth century, Roman Catholic missionaries took four wooden tablets bearing rongorongo glyphs from Easter Island. They have recently been radiocarbon dated; three of the tablets were made from trees cut down in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries; the fourth tablet came from a tree felled sometime between 1493 and 1509, some 200 years before the arrival of Europeans in the 1720s.

Tribe Making Play to End Oil Development at Big Cypress National Preserve - The National Park Service took charge of the land 50 years ago, which is a haven for some of Florida’s most endangered wildlife species, such as the Florida panther — but not the mineral rights under the land. Those are owned by the Collier Resources Company, which has from time to time dispatched oil companies to the preserve to look for black gold.

Bird Alert: The Search for Local Rarities – The joy of birding close to home!

Archaeologists discover oldest known bead in the Americas - At the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming. Made of bone from a hare. Almost 13,000 years old.

Stunning Macro Photos Pay Homage to the Frozen Beauty of Winter – A good reminder to check ice as a subject for winter photography!

Ancient pollen trapped in Greenland ice uncovers changes in Canadian forests over 800 years - The onset of the Little Ice Age around 1400 and the arrival of European settlers and subsequent intensive logging practices around 1650. The pollen in ice can be dated almost to the year it was deposited!

Back Pain Explained - Many people with degenerated discs feel no pain at all….but others have severe pain. It appears that when aging or under degenerative stress, a subset of cells in the center of the disc can release a cry for help, a particular signal that causes outside neurons to extend their axons within, allowing the brain to feel the pain inside. This work could inform future treatments for discogenic lower back pain!

PACE Makes it to Space – NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) was launched February 8…preparing to move into operational phase soon.

How our drinking water could come from thin air - The solar-powered hydropanels work by using sunlight to power fans that pull air into the device, which contains a desiccant material which absorbs and traps moisture. The water molecules accumulate and are emitted as water vapor as the solar energy raises the temperature of the panel to create a high-humidity gas. This then condenses into a liquid before minerals are added to make it drinkable. There are several startups with other approaches to produce water from air too. And they all work even with dry air.

Eva March Tappan

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I recently browsed Eva March Tappan books available on Internet Archive; she was a prolific author from the early 1900s.  According to the Wikipedia, she graduated from Vassar in 1875 and taught for many years before embarking on her writing career – writing primarily for children. Enjoy these books (including their illustrations) this week!

The world's story; a history of the world in story, song and art V1 - China, Japan, and the islands of the Pacific,  1914

The world's story; a history of the world in story, song and art V2 - India, Persia, Mesopotamia and Palestine,  1914

The world's story; a history of the world in story, song and art V3 - Egypt, Affrica and Arabia,  1914

The world's story; a history of the world in story, song and art V4 - Greece and Rome,  1914

Lake Springfield – February 2024

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It was a warm day in February when we opted to visit the Lake Springfield (Missouri) Boathouse area. The meadow has been mowed….no standing vegetation from last summer that might have included interesting seed pods. There were people in small boats on the water.

The most numerous birds were Canada geese although there was an occasional duck.

I enjoyed the exercise walking along the paved trail even though there was not much to photograph – savoring that there probably would not be too many February days as balmy.  Then I decided to try some experiments with my Canon Powershot SX-70 HS bridge camera using the top of a large sycamore at the edge of the lake as my subject

I experimented with the Creative Filters mode using art bold, water painting, and grainy black and white. The filters make quite a difference! The art bold is supposed to ‘make subjects look more substantial, like subjects in oil paintings.’ It certainly differentiates the colors in the bark of the sycamore.

A landscape showing the lake with a few geese also looked quite different using the art bold effect.

Overall – a good outing for exercise…and OK for photography too!

Wigeon at Nob Hill Greenbelt

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I stopped at a neighborhood park in Carrollton TX on my way from my parents’ house where I had been cleaning up and my niece’s. It was the first foray to find other places that might be worthwhile visiting as alternatives to Josey Ranch. It was called the Nob Hill Greenbelt and included a Carrollton hike/bike trail along a stream (Furneaux Creek) that eventually feeds into the Elm Fork Trinity River…part of the network of greenways in Carrollton built as flood control.

The ponds were not as large as Josey Ranch. I only saw two bird species – a great egret (frequently seen at Josey Ranch) and American Wigeon – which I’ve seen at Josey Ranch but not consistently. Maybe they prefer this park instead…having the ponds to themselves!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 10, 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.

Sleep tight: A curious history of beds through the centuries – From 4,500 year old ‘beds’ at Skara Brae (Scottish island of Orkney…rectangular enclosures, around the length of a human…made from slabs of cold, hard stone…with tall headboards and raised sides) to Durrington Walls near Stonehenge (spectral outlines of long-vanished wooden bed boxes, where the builders of that monument may have once slept) to a clay figurine of a woman slumbering peacefully on her side, one hand under her head, on a simple raised platform to the gilded wooden bed in King Tut’s tomb (including a rigid, raised headrest rather than a soft pillow) to mats of dried leaves or animal skins to box beds to the ‘tick mattress’…hints of beds of the past.

Peru’s High-Altitude Hunter-Gatherers Ate Mostly Plants – Wild potatoes and the root vegetables made up 80% of their diet.

Rethinking Monarchs: Does the Beloved Butterfly Need Our Help? - The Xerces Society has published a joint statement signed by 10 top monarch biologists warning against the captive rearing and releasing of monarchs by backyard and commercial breeders. Such activities, they wrote, “promote crowding and disease spread.” The monarch is not in peril since the winter population in Mexico has shown no continued decline for the past 10 years. --- But there are some that still argue for continued ‘help.’

Deceptively Beautiful Invasive Plants – Avoid Lessor Celadine, Mimosa Tree, English Ivy…..Today, we have the opportunity to make gardening choices that benefit both the aesthetics of our gardens and local wildlife by removing invasive species and replacing them with beautiful and wildlife-friendly native alternatives. 

See the World Through the Eyes of Animals with These Stunning New Videos - To “see through” animal eyes, the team uses two cameras—one sensitive to ultraviolet light and one sensitive to visible light. Together, they capture light in four distinct wavelengths: blue, green, red and ultraviolet.

New genetic variants found in large Chinese mother–baby study - Mothers with higher blood pressure give birth to lighter and shorter babies than do mothers with lower blood pressure. This was just one of a multitude of links between maternal health and fetal development observed in a large genetic analysis of Chinese parents and their babies, which included some unexpected results. The researchers sequenced genetic data from blood samples taken from the parents and umbilical-cord blood of the infants and collected physical information about the mothers and their babies, including height and weight. The researchers identified discrepancies in the effect of some genetic variants on the same trait between mothers and their babies. For example, some variants were associated with altered cholesterol levels in infants but not in their mothers, and vice versa.

Preserving History at Bandelier National Monument – Two videos that show recreations of what the structures looked like in use based on archeological findings.

The 4-Second Nap: Unusual Sleep Habits of Animals - The killer whale, which can go a month or more without sleeping. Or the chinstrap penguin, which researchers recently discovered sleeps in four-second microbursts. Compare that to the koala, which conks out for most of the day.  When dolphins are sleeping with one hemisphere, one eye closes and one remains open. They sometimes rest motionless near the surface of the water or swim slowly, still able to breathe when needed. African elephants sleep for the least amount of time recorded of any land mammal.  The domestic horse sleeps just under three hours on average each day, and the domestic pony sleeps about three hours and 20 minutes. 

How a walk in nature restores attention - The study, conducted in 2022 between April and October, analyzed EEG data recorded on each of 92 participants immediately before and after they undertook a 40-minute walk. Half walked through Red Butte, the arboretum in the foothills just east of the University of Utah, and half through the nearby asphalt-laden medical campus. The participants that had walked in nature showed an improvement in their executive attention, whereas the urban walkers did not.

Climate change is causing a pothole plague. Are robots and self-healing pavement the solution? - In the United States, about 44 million drivers reported damage to their vehicles from potholes in 2022, which was a massive 57% increase over 2021, according to AAA. New developments offer hope for addressing potholes more effectively amid climate change, and are attracting investors….but innovations take time to be implemented.

Bailey’s Cyclopedia of Horticulture

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Liberty Hyde Bailey edited the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture from 1916-1919; the six volumes are available from Internet Archive. According to Wikipedia, he had retired from his career at Cornell (1988-1913) to become a private scholar. These volumes must have been one of his post-retirement projects. His daughter, Ethel Zoe Bailey, had graduated from Smith College in 1911 and evidently worked alongside her father on these volumes. His most significant and lasting contributions were in the botanical study of cultivated plants.

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol I

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol II

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol III

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol IV

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol V

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol VI

I enjoyed the illustrations of familiar plants that were being grown in the early 1900s. Most of the illustrations are black and white photographs but I chose sample images from the few that were in color. The produce aisles of our grocery stores have a more limited selection!

The first decades of the 1900s were when a lot of Colleges of Agriculture were formed. Bailey formed Cornell’s College of Agriculture and secured public funding in 1904. Agriculture was rebuilding for the future – trying to get more production of fertile lands farmed, in many cases, by immigrants that had arrived in the prior 50 years. One side of my family tree arrived from Europe in the 1890s. They wouldn’t have seen these books, but they were assisted by the agricultural extension services, the 4-H movement, parcel post, and rural electrification that Bailey helped initiate.

Transition Trips to Carrollton TX

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I’ve now made two trips to Texas since the beginning of the year and am planning a third. They are very different than before my parents moved to an assisted living group home.

  • I am not staying at their home. On the first trip, I stayed at a hotel relatively close to their group home. The second trip I stayed with my niece. The hotel turned out to be high stress because the deadbolt on my room was jammed (i.e. the chain was the only extra locking on the door). Staying with my niece was low stress for me but probably high stress for her.

  • Visits with my parents were short…not 24/7 like previously. I anticipated that change…but it still feels odd…like I am missing a lot. At the same time, I am much less anxious about how they are doing when me or my sisters are not there.

  • My sisters and I worked to get the house cleaned out and listed for sale. This is the first time I’ve been guiding the sale of a house that is not my own…and I am glad that the technology is there to allow for me to do part of it remotely. We got 2 full price offers on the 1st day it was on the market and have accepted one of them. We still have the garage and storage sheds to clear. We have the milestone of the closing by the end of the month. There is still the physical and emotional work of cleaning out items collected over my parents’ lives that they no longer need. The unseasonably warm weather has helped.

  • I stopped at Hagerman once…went to Josey Ranch twice…but didn’t spend as much time there. I stopped at a greenway park I hadn’t noticed before on the second trip. The places I get out into nature in Texas are going to be changing to parks closer to where my parents are living now…in Dallas rather than Carrollton.

  • We had joked about observing the 4/8 eclipse from my parents’ driveway…but the house will that theirs by that time. I am realizing how many family events centered on the location over the past 30+ years. It will feel strange to not go there anymore.

The transition is happening so quickly with their move to assisted living in early January and the sale of their home finalized at the end of February. It is hard emotionally and physically, but it is also not a prolonged agony. My sisters and I are looking forward to a new normal in March!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 3, 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.

5 Ways Power Sectors Worldwide Can Drive Down Emissions - The coal-to-clean transition is complex — how effective it ends up being hinges on ensuring ambitious climate action integrates priorities around energy security, affordability, reliability, and meeting growth in electricity demand.

The 'dark earth' revealing the Amazon's secrets - Amazonian dark earth(ADE), sometimes known as "black gold" or terra preta, is a layer of charcoal-black soil, which can be up to 3.8m (12.5ft) thick, and is found in patches across the Amazon basin. It is intensely fertile – rich in decaying organic matter and nutrients essential for growing crops, such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. But unlike the thin, sandy soils typical of the rainforest, this layer was not deposited naturally – it was the work of ancient humans. Now businesses are attempting to capitalize on this ancient method, in a quest to help farmers to improve their soil and combat climate change at the same time.

Rusting Rivers - Researchers suspect that thawing permafrost is the cause of dozens of Alaskan streams turning orange. Along with the strange appearance of the water, they have found it tends to be higher in iron, lower in dissolved oxygen, and more acidic than nearby rivers that run clear. The dramatic shift in water quality may be felt most acutely in the villages that rely upon rivers originating in permafrost regions for fish and drinking water.

World’s Largest Green Hydrogen Plant Will Take a Poke at Russian Gas - Mitsubishi is putting up $690 million to help build the world’s biggest green hydrogen plant, to be located in the Netherlands. It will help patch up some holes in the energy independence plan of Europe, where Russian gas has been clinging to a foothold despite sanctions.

Greece Reopens the Palace Where Alexander the Great Was Crowned - The 2,300-year-old Palace of Aigai—the largest building in classical Greece—had been under renovation for 16 years. At 160,000 square feet, the Palace of Aigai was classical Greece’s largest structure. Built primarily by Alexander’s father, Phillip II, in the fourth century B.C.E., it was the home of the Argead dynasty, ancient Macedonia’s ruling family. It was destroyed by the Romans in 148 B.C.E. and endured a subsequent series of lootings.

Predictions For Heat Pump Adoption Trends In 2024 - With $8,000 rebates for space heating heat pumps, and $1750 for water heating heat pumps, the IRA is helping accelerate adoption of this technology.

Miners Discover Seven-Foot Mammoth Tusk in North Dakota - Coal miners in North Dakota have uncovered a seven-foot-long, 50-pound mammoth tusk that’s been buried for thousands of years. Paleontologists have found more than 20 additional mammoth bones so far, including parts of hips, ribs, a tooth. and a shoulder blade.

The new drugs that may bring an end to constant itching - One in five of us will experience chronic itch lasting weeks or months. Fortunately, there might be treatments that address the problem.

Global groundwater depletion is accelerating but is not inevitable - This study shows that humans can turn things around with deliberate, concentrated efforts. Fine resolution, global studies will enable scientists and officials to understand the dynamics of this hidden resource.

Syphilis microbe’s family has plagued humans for millennia - Remains of people who lived on the eastern coast of South America nearly 2,000 years ago have yielded the oldest known evidence for the family of microorganisms that cause syphilis.

eBotanical Prints – January 2024

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Twenty-one more books were added to the botanical print collection in January – available for browsing on Internet Archive. I did my browsing while I was at home and had the luxury of my big monitors rather than just the laptop screen; they were part of my ‘back to normal’ activities.

The publication range for this group is skewed earlier than usual: 1763 to 1855 with 12 of the 21 books published before 1700.

The whole list of 2,802 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the January 2024 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 January 2024 eBotanical Prints!

Flora atlantica, sive, Historia plantarum quae in Atlante, agro Tunetano et Algeriensi crescunt * Desfontaines, René Louiche; Redouté, Henri-Joseph; Redouté, Pierre Joseph * sample image * 1798

Recueil de planches de botanique de l'encyclopedie. * Audebert, J. B.; Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de; Redoute, Henri Joseph; Seve, Jacques Eustache de; Smith, John Donnell * sample image * 1823

Flora fluminensis * Senefelder, A.; Velloso, Jose Mariano da Conceicao * sample image * 1827

Flora's Dictionary * Wirt, E. W. * sample image * 1855

Florae Austriacae, sive, Plantarum selectarum in Austriae archiducatu V1 * Gerold, Josephi Michaelis; Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Kaliwoda, Leopoldi Johannis; Scheidl, Franz Anton V. * sample image * 1773

Florae Austriacae, sive, Plantarum selectarum in Austriae archiducatu V2 * Gerold, Josephi Michaelis; Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Kaliwoda, Leopoldi Johannis; Scheidl, Franz Anton V. * sample image * 1773

Florae Austriacae, sive, Plantarum selectarum in Austriae archiducatu V3 * Gerold, Josephi Michaelis; Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Kaliwoda, Leopoldi Johannis; Scheidl, Franz Anton V. * sample image * 1773

Florae Austriacae, sive, Plantarum selectarum in Austriae archiducatu V4 * Gerold, Josephi Michaelis; Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Kaliwoda, Leopoldi Johannis; Scheidl, Franz Anton V. * sample image * 1773

Florae Austriacae, sive, Plantarum selectarum in Austriae archiducatu V5 * Gerold, Josephi Michaelis; Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph; Kaliwoda, Leopoldi Johannis; Scheidl, Franz Anton V. * sample image * 1773

Icones plantarum rariorum V1 * Jacquin, Nicolao Josepho * sample image * 1781

Icones plantarum rariorum V2 * Jacquin, Nicolao Josepho * sample image * 1781

Oxalis - Monographia iconibus illustrata * Jacquin, Nicolao Josepho * sample image * 1794

Miscellanea Austriaca ad botanicam, chemiam, et historiam naturalem spectantia * Jacquin, Nicolaus Joseph; Freiherr von * sample image * 1778

Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia * Jacquin, Nicolaus Joseph; Freiherr von * sample image * 1763

Nicolai Josephi Jacquin collectaneorum supplementum * Jacquin, Nicolaus Joseph; Freiherr von * sample image * 1796

Florae Senegambiae tentamen,seu, Historia plantarum in diversis Senegambiae regionibus a peregrinatoribus Perrottet et Leprieur detectarum * Guillemin, J. A.; Perrottet, G. S.; Richard, Achille * sample image * 1830

Flore d'Egypte, explanation des planches (plates) * Raffeneau-Delile, Alire * sample image * 1813

Flora Antillarum V1 * Tussac, Fr. Richard de * sample image * 1808

Flora Antillarum V2 * Tussac, Fr. Richard de * sample image * 1818

Flora Antillarum V3 * Tussac, Fr. Richard de * sample image * 1824

Flora Antillarum V4 * Tussac, Fr. Richard de * sample image * 1827

Zooming – January 2024

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January was a very light month for photography; I was recovering from the stress of being away from home and made 2 short trips to Carrollton very focused on helping my parents adjust to their new home and preparing to sell the house they had lived in for over 30 years. Even with fewer images to select from – I savor the 9 selected as the best for the month: birds and snow and sunrises….and a surprised flower (taken near the end of December just as the first hard freeze was sending the Carrollton TX area into winter). Enjoy the January 2024 slideshow!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 27, 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.

Can autoimmune diseases be cured? - After decades of frustration and failed attempts, scientists might finally be on the cusp of developing therapies to restore immune ‘tolerance’ in conditions such as diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis.

Good and bad news for people with low back pain - The good news is that most episodes of back pain recover, and this is the case even if you have already had back pain for a couple of months. The bad news is that once you have had back pain for more than a few months, the chance of recovery is much lower. This reminds us that although nearly everyone experiences back pain, some people do better than others, but we don't completely understand why.

Why diphtheria is making a comeback - While this present surge of diphtheria cases is indeed unprecedented for West Africa, it is really a symptom of larger issues in global health, including insufficient infectious disease surveillance, poor vaccination rates and scarcity of public health resources.

The Prairie Ecologists Photos of the Week – January 22 2024 – Photographs from out in the cold.

The chemistry of meat alternatives – It’s complicated…..in the end are meat alternative ultra-processed food?

The strange reasons medieval people slept in cupboards – I can see how they might have been warmer….but also rather claustrophobic. And wouldn’t they be hard to keep clean?

In the time of the copper kings - Some 3,500 years ago, prosperous merchants on Cyprus controlled the world’s most valuable commodity. Beginning in the third millennium B.C., and especially during the second millennium B.C., copper was king and could make those who possessed it extremely wealthy and powerful. There was enough copper and tin on board the Uluburun ship (wrecked off the coast of Turkey) to produce 11 tons of bronze, which experts estimate could have been turned into 33,000 swords. Researchers have analyzed the Uluburun wreck’s copper and found that it all came from Cyprus. There is evidence of the surprisingly diverse nature of the community thriving there and that those Cypriots who controlled the production and distribution of copper, such as the shipment found off Uluburun, could become exceptionally rich.

Cicadas Are Coming: Rare ‘Dual Emergence’ Could Bring One Trillion of the Bugs This Year – We don’t live in the overlap area…but where we live in Missouri will see Brood XIX this summer….a great opportunity for cicada photography!

Incredible Winners of the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Contest – So many beautiful images. My favorite is ‘Spirit of Yucatan’ (drifting stems of lily pads in a Mexican freshwater cenote…the sky above).

Deepwater Horizon oil spill study could lead to overhaul of cleanup processes worldwide – Chemical oil dispersants combined with sunlight…made oil more toxic. Observations from after Deepwater Horizon, and being confirmed experimentally, to improve responses to oil spills.

Eloise Byington books for children

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Internet Archive has 3 books by Eloise Byington published by Albert Whitman & Company in Chicago around 1930. I couldn’t find anything about the author or the illustrators (Kathleen Stowell Frantz and Marguerite Jones); the copyright was by Albert Whitman & Co. so perhaps their work was contracted/paid by the publisher.

Mother Goose fun, more stories in rhyme(1931)

The wishbone children(1934)

The Pancake Brownies   (1928)

 The books captured my attention simply because of when they were published. My parents were both born in 1931 and as I browsed these books (particularly the illustrations), I thought about whether they would have ever seen these books in elementary school. Did their school have a library of children’s books that supplemented the books used in the classroom? I’ll have to ask my mother….see if she remembers.  

Staying Warm in Winter

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We had some very cold weather recently…prompting us to implement our strategies for staying comfortable.

Staying indoors is the primary strategy. We do things like closing insulating drapes and blinds…opening them if the sun is shining through the window. Opening or closing vents to help the heating system do its job. Small sources of heat like candles or halogen lamps are also something I am conscious of in the winter. They don’t do much, but I like the extra bright light and the glow of candles on a winter night. Maybe the extra warmth is purely psychological!

Warm food also helps. My winter favorites are:

  • Hot tea or milk (with water) to drink.

  • Homemade soups. They are so easy with bouillon for the broth then veggies and meats. Right now, I am doing a lot with pumpkin puree that I cooked/froze last November and frozen cranberries. I rely on my spice cabinet…or use salsa as one of the ingredients. Leftover meats or canned chicken or quinoa are my favorite proteins in soup. My favorite toppings are fried onions or pumpkin seeds. Another strategy for a winter soup: a well-seasoned spaghetti sauce from a jar, added sausage bits, and arugula. You could still eat it over pasta…but I usually eat it as soup these days.

  • Stir fry. I like chicken, bell pepper and onions a lot….then add whatever other veggies I have in the crisper or freezer. I am still savoring the flavor of cranberries with chicken – adding frozen ones from last fall to stir fries. I also like apple and raisins cooked in butter for a winter dessert. I generally make enough stir fry for a second meal – very quick heated up in the microwave.

  • Meat loaf. It’s not a bad thing to cook in the oven in the winter…no reason to not put a little extra heat into the house. Still – I try to fill the oven when I do. There is generally a baked potato for my husband (I enjoy the skin!) in with the meatloaf…and I usually cook a pumpkin custard or some cookies as well!

Clothing is important too.

  • We keep our house warm but not too warm. We wear jeans, sweaters/sweatshirts, and wool socks with shoes indoors during the winter.

  • Being outdoors can be a challenge but we both enjoy winter walks/birding. Over the past few years we’ve ramped up our gear.

  • My coat is filled with down and styled to reduce air leaks. It works beautifully for my head and body.

  • We both have snow pants that we bought them large enough to go over leggings/skinny jeans. They keep our legs very warm.

  • Wool socks help keep feet warm.

  • Our hiking boots keep our feet warm enough if we are moving. If we anticipate that we will be standing or sitting for very long outdoors (i.e. sometimes this happens when birding), we add foot warmers to the bottom of our boots.  

  • A tube scarf works well for me to cover my head and neck. The hood of my coat goes over it and keeps my head very warm.

  • We’ve discovered that the masks we have for COVID help keep our lower face and noses warm! We haven’t invested in goggles yet!

  • Gloves are still a work in progress. We have some battery powered ones that work OK…not excellent. Prior to that we used hand warmers in the palm of gloves. That worked OK but fingers still were cold when not wrapped around the warmer…and the outer part of the hand got none of the warmth. Mittens might work better but it is difficult (or impossible) to use a camera with mittens.

Overall – we’ve been comfortable this winter even when the temperature outside was below 0 degrees Fahrenheit recently.

New Orleans Vicariously

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My daughter attended the American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans last week with her research students. She sent a few pictures of the place that reminded me of the two visits I made to the city years ago…and something added to the skyline more recently.

She took a walking tour of the French Quarter…and took a picture on the river as it ended around sunset.

The next day she photographed the sunset from her hotel window. Her room was on an upper floor and the window was grubby…but it made the picture look ‘painterly.’

The second picture (only a minute later) highlighted a strange shape with a blue light on the horizon. It looked like a spy plane at first glance! I did some research. It is the Bollinger Canopy of Peace that spans across The National WWII Museum’s campus…built after 2015!

The next day my daughter and her students (and some others from the conference) did a late-in-the-day visit to the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans. It was established in 1990 – long after my last visit to New Orleans for a Computer Measurement Group meeting in December 1981 (the first visit was in Fall 1977 for a King Tut exhibit).

It was fun to get her impressions of the city. A lot has changed in over 40 years, but the French Quarter is still the hub – hotels and museums and walking tours cluster around it. I also savored that both of us have the experience of traveling to interesting places as part of our careers.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 20, 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.

Just how big can a snowflake get? It depends on what you mean by 'snowflake' - A snow crystal with six-fold symmetry is the kind of snowflake you might cut out of folded paper with scissors. But the word "snowflake" also can refer to white puffballs that drift down from the sky, which are made of many individual snow crystals that have collided and gotten entangled.

Treating tuberculosis when antibiotics no longer work - Substances that have a dual effect against tuberculosis: They make the bacteria causing the disease less pathogenic for human immune cells and boost the activity of conventional antibiotics.

Planning a city that gets people moving – Lake Wales, Florida has a plan to create a built environment that promotes mobility through walking, cycling, e-biking, or other means of transportation beside automobiles. One way to do that is through proximity—to a park, multiuse pathway, protective bike lane, or walkable destination. Another is to ensure that the environment is pleasant for walking or using a bicycle.

The qualities that are more attractive than our looks - When it comes to finding the right match agreeableness accentuates the benefits of other parts of our personalities. It really could pay to be kind after all.

Archaeologists Uncover ‘Exceptional’ Ancient Mural Near Colosseum - Crafted of shells, a special volcanic stone called pozzolana, marble, colored glass, and Egyptian tiles found in the remains of a house from more than 2,000 years ago. Its intricate designs show weapons and instruments hanging alongside ships and tridents. Archaeologists think a wealthy Roman officer commissioned it after a military success. Whoever the owner was, he may not have stayed wealthy for long. Evidence suggests that his family fell out of favor when the Roman emperor Augustus came to power. The building and its contents were later buried and replaced with a grain store built directly on top of it.

A Lake Born out of an Earthquake – Earthquakes can fundamentally reshape the landscape, reroute rivers, and even form new lakes. Consider the northwest corner of Tennessee in the early 19th century. Between December 1811 and February 1812, three earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 7 occurred in the New Madrid seismic zone, which encompasses southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, and neighboring parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. The last of these quakes, on February 7, 1812, centered near New Madrid, Missouri, was especially notable: It temporarily rerouted the Mississippi River, permanently dammed the Reelfoot River, and directed water to fill in a low-lying area to form Reelfoot Lake. More than two centuries later, Reelfoot Lake remains a persistent feature on the Tennessee landscape. An image from Landsat 9 shows the area in late 2023. The area of lake and surrounding wetlands is a state park and national wildlife refuge.

Cats Prey on More Than 2,000 Different Species - Scientists have long known that free-ranging cats—those that spend unsupervised time outdoors—can affect biodiversity by hunting and eating insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. Researchers sifted through hundreds of previous studies, books and reports to put together a database of every animal cats have been recorded eating, as well as the location. In the end, their list featured 2,084 species, which includes 981 birds, 463 reptiles, 431 mammals, 119 insects and 57 amphibians, plus 33 additional species from other groups. Some of the creatures that made the list—including humans—are too large for cats to hunt but reflect their scavenging tendencies. Though the findings are useful, some scientists say they distract from a much larger threat to biodiversity: humans.

Autistic people experience loneliness far more acutely than neurotypical people -Small adjustments to lighting, acoustics, decor and wayfinding, among other sensory factors, can significantly reduce the burden on people with sensory processing differences and open up more social spaces to them.

Inhalable sensors could enable early lung cancer detection - The new diagnostic is based on nanosensors that can be delivered by an inhaler or a nebulizer. If the sensors encounter cancer-linked proteins in the lungs, they produce a signal that accumulates in the urine, where it can be detected with a simple paper test strip. It could replace expensive CT scans for lung cancer (and be more accurate…not as many false-positives).

This Photographer Captured One Image of Cambridge (England) Every Day for 13 Years - After 5,000 photos, Martin Bond has decided to conclude his project, which showcased the city’s mundane and extraordinary moments. “The best thing about street photography ... is that it is possible for the final viewer of a picture to see more than the original photographer—proof, if any were needed, that there is more going on in any moment than a single person can understand.”

Chinese Bridges

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I recently happened upon an article in The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities - Bulletin 75 published in 2003 about two Chinese bridges. One was built in 1594 and the other in 1640. Both still fulfil their original function.

Bridges somehow draw my attention.

  • Perhaps because they represent people working together on a project that required combined talents and skills…as physical manifestation of the level of communication humans are capable of.

  • Perhaps because their continued existence indicates that relationships have been sustained since bridges are often the first to be destroyed in war.  Since these bridges are 100s of years old that is significant.

  • Perhaps the artistry of the construction – the arches – over water (or low places) is their appeal.

Whatever it is – enjoy this week’s eBook pick for this article and others in the same volume. Quite of few issues of this periodical are also available on Internet Archive.

First Snow of the Winter

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I was home for a bit of snow last week; I don’t know that it was the first of the season overall…but it was the first for me! It started by covering the deck and railing…the cover of the gas grill.

I was hopefully that it would cover the tennis court so I could try out walking a pattern there…but it didn’t stick to the court since the temperatures before the snow had been significantly warmer. I’ll have to wait for another snow event. I used my camera zoom to photograph snow caught in the holly branches.

I celebrated being home for the snow!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 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.

What were the death tolls from pandemics in history? – The two most recent ones are COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS. Death from the 1918-1920 flu pandemic was larger than both together….and the population of the world was less then too.

Moments of hope and resilience from the climate frontlines – Drought then intense rains leading to rolling blackouts, damage to infrastructure, agriculture failures, mosquito spread diseases. Heat stress leading to deaths of people and wildlife, wildfires. Protecting and rehabilitating damaged habitats. A new normal….not anyone ready. Heat officers to help residents cope. Coastal erosion (caused by coastal development, rising sea levels and storm surges). Taking two years rather than one to dry firewood in Lapland. Solar panels positive impact on health care in India (and anywhere where electric power is unreliable). Crop irrigation required where it previously was not. Learning from our past, simpler lifestyles.

European Imports of Russian Pipeline Gas Dropped by Half Last Year - Europe has implemented measures to conserve energy and has ramped up wind and solar power. Last year, Germany, the largest economy in Europe, drew more than half of its power from renewables for the first time.

NASA Captures Stunning Images of Jupiter’s Moon Io on Closest Flyby in 20 Years – Image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Io is the most volcanically active planetary body in our solar system with 100s of volcanos.

Christmas Trees on the Beach – The innovative ways communities are using the cut trees after Christmas!

How humans have changed the Earth’s surface in 2023 – Overhead pictures tell stories of the past year. The picture of the drained Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine was startling.

Photographer Travels Europe to Document Incredible Starling Murmurations – I see smaller murmurations every road trip….never in a situation to photograph them! They are not always starlings. I remember seeing one in Florida that was tree swallows.

Could Climate Change Cause More Lakes to Turn Bright Pink? – Single-celled, salt-loving halobacteria. There is a new pink pond at the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge in Hawaii…but it has been happening in the Great Salt Lake’s North Arm for several decades.  The number of pink ponds could increase with warmer temperatures increasing evaporation (and increasing the salinity of waters).

Next Solar Eclipse, In April, Expected to Attract Upwards Of 4 Million Tourists - Great American Eclipse has developed a geographic model to estimate how many people will travel to see the April eclipse. This model predicts that between 1 and 4 million people will travel to the path of totality. Texas is expected to receive the majority of visitors, followed by Indiana, Ohio, New York, Arkansas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Oklahoma, Maine, and New Hampshire.

U.S. Dietary Committee considers if the potato is a vegetable or a grain - Agriculture officials say the average American consumes about 50 pounds of potatoes each year.