Gleanings of the Week Ending September 14, 2024

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 Mysterious Turkish Megaliths That Predate the Pyramids - Göbekli Tepe or “Potbelly Hill” in Turkish…it may be the world’s oldest calendar.

Planes, trains and monster diggers: The vehicles pushing the limits of electric power - BBC Future Planet recently went on a hunt for some of the biggest electric vehicles in the world – by size and weight. There is no shortage of impressive examples, from giant mining machines to trains and cargo ships. Often the largest excavators are connected to an electric power source by a cable, rather than using an on-board battery. But in terms of weight, heavy goods vehicles are among the largest EVs you might find yourself sharing the road with. Volvo's FH Electric truck, if you include its double trailer and load, is among contenders for the heaviest battery-powered electric road vehicle. Though research suggests we might one day see electric passenger aircraft capable of carrying as many as 90 people. The biggest electric planes today can accommodate a maximum of around nine passengers. The most powerful electric train in the world is perhaps the Shen24 in China. It is capable of carrying more than 10,000 tons – of coal – at up to 120km/h (75 mph).

Maine! Ghost Flower, the inside view – I’ve seen Ghost flowers a few times…but never the inside of the flower.

Crested Rats & Hairy Porcupines: Meet 7 of the World’s Coolest Rodents – The only one of the 7 I’ve seen is the Capybara (at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, MO).

A photographer captures life in America’s last remaining old-growth forests – What a great project photographer David Herasimtschuk had undertaken!

Plankton mark seasons in the sea, just like leaves and flowers on land – The seasonal flux of phytoplankton and zooplankton. The photo of diatoms (algae) in this post was what caught my attention; I’ve always enjoyed finding them in water samples.

14 Extraordinary Highly Commended Photos From the 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest – My favorite was “Leaving the Nest” …two tawny owlets.

The Ancient Temple Carved Out of a Single Rock - Kailasa Cave, one of 34 in the Ellora Caves complex that has been cut and dug from the basalt rock of the Deccan plateau. 100 feet high and 300 feet long would make it the world’s largest—with all four sides liberated and sculpted into pavilions, halls, vestibules, towers, and courtyards by 800 hardy monks over 150 years beginning in the 7th century BCE. It was once painted white to mimic the Himalayan peak.

Thracian horseman’s grave unearthed in Bulgaria - The man was buried wearing clothing decorated with gold appliqués. A gold necklace, a gold diadem, a gold ring, and a knife decorated with gold and semiprecious stones were recovered from the burial, in addition to the remains of a horse and full battle gear, including a breastplate, sword, scabbard, and other knives and spears

Microplastics Found in Human Brains - The brains of people who suffered from dementia contained significantly more plastic than the brains of healthy people. Troublingly, the new study found more plastic in brain samples gathered in 2024 than in samples gathered in 2016.

Venturing Out and Weekly Gleanings

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

A Zentangle Prompt

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Inspiration for a pattern can come from our environment. Sometimes creating a pattern is relatively straightforward. The prompt for today is to create your own pattern based on the picture of tiles to the right. Hint: start with a grid of squares. Use your pattern in a tile. Other patterns in the tile are tangler’s choice (i.e. whatever you want).

Here are some tiles I made based on yesterdays prompt: Make a tile using the gingo pattern.

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It is one of my favorite patterns for mono-tangle tiles.

Venturing away from Home

I went to Howard Country Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant to record a Facebook Live Zentangle session. It was the first time I had driven my car in May! It was also my first volunteer gig since early March – and a good experience – but I realized how out of practice I have become with getting out and about. There was a ‘newness’ to my car even though I’ve had it for a few years. Mt Pleasant is a place I know very well but hadn’t been there since January; it felt unfamiliar.

I was glad the flip chart pad and gallery board were wrapped in plastic trash bags because it was raining heavily when I got there. It took two trips to get into the building and I was glad I had worn a windbreaker and waterproof boots.

The mask that I wore during set up did not stay in place as well as I wanted. I need more experience with securing it and being certain that I can breathe well enough through the layers of fabric. It’s a good ‘lesson learned’ before I venture out to try doing my own grocery shopping in June.

The materials I had prepared ahead of time worked well…minimizing the amount I had to create while I was talking.

The Facebook Live session lasted about 20 minutes and made a three-part tile using TIPPLE, CRESCENT MOON, and either MEER or POKEROOT. I missed not being able to create a mosaic of the student tiles at the end. Here are tiles I made with the patterns after the session.

I’m not sure how any of my volunteer gigs will be possible anytime soon but I’ll probably do some hiking at Mt. Pleasant…on a sunny day…another small ‘venturing away from home.’

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

Gleanings of the Week

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.

Soak in the Details of the Moon with this High-Definition Photo – A backyard astrophotographer with a lot patience.

Record conservation study of Tutankhamun's tomb solves mystery and raises new questions – Teasing out more history from a much-studied place.

Top 25 birds of the week: Bright Colours - Wild Bird Revolution – It’s a gray rainy day as I write this….I am appreciating the colors!

New Thoughts on Turkey’s Oldest Temple Complex - Archaeology Magazine – Gobekli Tepe…built by hunter gatherers over 11,000 years ago….requiring hundreds of people to construct. I first learned about it in a Coursera course a few years ago.

NASA's ICESat-2 measures Arctic Ocean's sea ice thickness, snow cover -- ScienceDaily – ICESAT-2 was launched in September 2018; I learned about it during visits to NASA Goddard during my HoLLIE class in spring 2018. It’s good to get an update on it now.

The ingredients for a longer life - BBC Future – Study of populations where many live to 100…focusing on eating habits, social connection, a few cups of tea or coffee, sweet potato and bittersweet melons, landscape…and moderation.

Saving energy and lives: How a solar chimney can boost fire safety -- ScienceDaily – If a building has a solar chimney, it will suck smoke out of a building during a fire…giving people more time to escape!

Risks of Clutter, Tips for Decluttering Your Home | Berkeley Wellness – I had intended to spend some of the ‘stay at home as much as possible’ time de-cluttering. But I moved on to other projects. Now I am returning to the idea just as I am beginning to tentatively venture out. The clutter in my house is not enough to make it unsafe…but I do have a lot of stuff that I no longer need.

Tracing the human genetic history: Every tooth tells a different story – Another data point for forensics when DNA is not available. Teeth often survive for longer than other parts of the body.

New evidence of watery plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere – I’m missing Charles Cockell’s Life in the Universe Pandemic Series. This article is about new analysis of data collected by the Galileo mission flyby of Europa in 2000.  The ESA Juice mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2022, will study the potential habitability and underground oceans of three of Jupiter’s moons: Ganymede, Calisto, and Europa.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.