Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 2020

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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.

Top 25 birds of the week: Diet and Birds in Groups - Wild Bird Revolution – Catching up with collections of bird photographs. Some species appear in both sets!

Older adults share fewer memories as they age -- ScienceDaily – As I read about this study – I remembered that my grandmother often seemed surprised when I asked her about her memories of school…of what she remembered from her life before marriage…when my father was born, etc. She even asked why I was interested. Once she was reassured that I was…and that I wanted to take some notes…she was more than willing to share her memories which were often quite vivid well into her 90s.

Breathtaking Photos of Farmers Harvesting Lilies from the Mekong Delta – How beautiful! Near us – this type of water lily harvesting was done at Kenilworth Gardens in the first part of the 1900s.

Death and Drama Among the Cicada Killers – I remember collecting two cicada killers for my insect collection during the summer before my sophomore year in high school. I saw one go into a hole and put a jar over the hole….and two cicada killers came up into the jar. This article helped me understand what I found. First – they both had stingers, so they were females. Second – one of them had dug the hole…and the other was trying to covertly lay her eggs on the cicada the other had brought to the hole!

The hidden risks of cooking your food - BBC Future – There are benefits too….

Putting Communities at the Center of Freshwater Conservation – Cool Green Science – This type of thinking needs to be more prevalent re US freshwater resources as well. There are some parts of the country that are a drought away from severe water shortage just for the human population (particularly if water for agriculture is included as that allocated for humans)…nothing left for wildlife or riparian landscapes.

Tongue microbes provide window to heart health -- ScienceDaily – Maybe a new tool for detecting and treating heart failure.

The astonishing vision and focus of Namibia’s nomads - BBC Future – Detecting visual and attention changes caused by modern life.

Is It Possible to Shower Too Much? - The Atlantic – There is hygiene critical to health….and going beyond that might be harmful.

Climate Change Tied to Increased Pregnancy Risks, Analysis Finds - Yale E360 – Air pollution and heat exposure are linked with negative pregnancy outcomes in the US…..and both of are increasing in the US. And the impact of air pollution and excessive heat is problematic for babies too.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

2 fawns. For the past few days, we’ve had two fawns in the back yard in the morning – after my usual early morning hour on the deck. Sometimes the doe is close to them…one morning she stayed back in the forest while the fawns wondered around. One day the flies were bothering them; they are particularly noticeable on the doe. It’s not unusual for deer to have twins. It seems like it is the norm for the ones we see in our backyard during the past few summers.

Fashion as Design office hours. The Fashion as Design Coursera course from last April provided two Zoom based sessions this week. Both provided references that update the course relative to the current crises in the US. I managed to open many of the links posted to the chat during the office hours and am passing some of them along:

  • Design Emergency – Instagram Live sessions that explore design’s role in the COVID-19 crisis. A collaboration between Paola Antonelli (design curator at MoMA) and Alice Rawsthorn (design critic). I am going to work my way through the videos on this site.

  • That Time When We All Fell Back in Love with Nature | British Vogue – From the August issue of British Vogue.

  • Kerby Jean-Raymond on Defunding the Police: “Anything else isn’t worth talking about” – Jean-Raymond is a designer that was one of the people featured in the course videos. Recently he drafted a list of actionable demands that the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) members and its associated companies could be held accountable for. He was interviewed for the latest  edition of Frontpage. His bottom line: “Now all you can do is pick a side — and if you don’t pick a side, that means you picked a side.”

  • The Tuxedo Redefined – Virtual Exhibition from earlier this year curated by NYU Costume Studies Graduate Students.