Gleanings of the Week Ending May 25, 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.

Shasta Lake Filles Up Again - After consecutive wet winters in Northern California, Shasta Lake filled up for the second year in a row, in time for summer 2024. The healthy cache of water in back-to-back years was a welcome turnaround from drought conditions and low lake levels in 2019–2022.

The chemistry of hydrangea colors – This works for the Asian hydrangeas….not the North American natives (oak leaf and wood hydrangeas).

Are there long-terms health risks to using Botox? - Botox is the most common cosmetic procedure performed worldwide, with nearly three million injections estimated to take place each year. It works by blocking signals from the nerves that control the facial muscles. The muscles relax, and fine lines and wrinkles disappear. Very little is known about the long-term health effects of taking Botox, as most clinical trials only follow up on patients for six months or so. However, some studies have found that long-lasting cosmetic use of botulinum toxin can trigger permanent changes in facial expression, with persons no longer able to flex their facial muscles.

How a Small Herd of Romanian Bison Is Locking Away Thousands of Tons of Carbon - European bison were reintroduced to the Țarcu Mountains, at the southern end of the Carpathian range, in 2014. Now numbering 170, the bison are reshaping the mountain landscape in ways that are helping clean up emissions: the Țarcu grasslands are capturing roughly 10 times as much carbon as they were before bison were reintroduced.

Preserving The Thermal Springs And Bathhouses Of Hot Springs, Arkansas – This post from National Parks Traveler came out while my daughter and I were in Hot Springs. I saw it after I got home.

How Can You Stop a Disease-Carrying Mosquito? – Hawaiian honeycreepers are dying of avian malaria spread by mosquitos. Now there is a project that is releasing male mosquitoes (they don’t bite and don’t spread diseases, females are the ones that bite/feed on blood) that causes breeding to fail – thus causing the mosquito population to crash. Even if this is successful, there is more to do for the birds to thrive: forest restoration, keeping weeds out, eliminating invasive pigs, some captive breeding of the birds.

Blood pressure drugs more than double bone-fracture risk in nursing home patients - The medications tend to impair balance, particularly when patients first stand up and temporarily experience low blood pressure that deprives the brain of oxygen. Interactions with other drugs and low baseline balance in many nursing home patients compound the problem. A combination of less medication and better support could significantly reduce the problem.

Hurricanes, heatwaves and rising seas: The impacts of record ocean heat - Every day since late March 2023, global ocean surface temperatures have set new records for the hottest temperature ever recorded on that date….and the repercussions are already beginning.

Fewer Than 100 Cigar Orchids Found In Big Cypress National Preserve - A months long search for rare cigar orchids in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida has turned up 85 of the plants the state of Florida considers endangered. No plant had produced any fruit in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Lead Pipes Make Up Nearly One Tenth of US Water Service Lines - Improvements to the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule proposed in late 2023 could finally require water systems to provide accurate information and enforce the replacement of lead pipes. However, a proposed exemption would give cities like Chicago an extension, letting them take multiple decades to replace infrastructure.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 4, 2023

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.

Milk packaging influences its flavor – Light blocking containers are best….and plastic/glass is better than paperboard. So why aren’t paperboard cartons being phased out (they are also harder to recycle than plastic milk cartons).

Clean Energy Saw as Much Investment as Fossil Fuels for the First Time in 2022 – Good! And hopefully this will continue to be the case…and we don’t allow any fossil fuels to be counted as ‘clean.’

What Secrets Lie Beneath This 17th-Century French Aristocrat’s Smile? – Decaying teeth and an ivory prosthesis (in front) held in place with gold wire….and a woman kept her smile and place in society.

A curious Colorado bear strikes a pose for 400 selfies on a wildlife camera – A bear that noticed the camera!

Leprosy: the ancient disease scientists can’t solve – There is treatment…but diagnosis is complicated and there is no cure. And we still don’t know how it is transmitted.

Researchers find rare 17-pound meteorite in Antarctic ice – A team spent a week and half in the Antarctic summer (14 degrees Fahrenheit…so still very cold) sleeping in tents and riding snowmobiles to search for meteorites. They found small ones….and a big one!

New mosquito repellents that work better than DEET – Maybe the next generation mosquito repellent?

In 2021, 20% of electricity in the US was generated from renewable sources – And wind surpassed hydroelectric in 2019 as the predominant renewable source. Hopefully, the percentage of electricity from renewables will go up quickly in the coming years.

Three grizzly bears tested positive for avian flu in Montana - The animals were euthanized in the fall; suspected to have rabies, they tested negative. But they were positive for avian flu. The bears were ‘in poor condition and exhibited disorientation and partial blindness, among other neurological issues.’ So – the current outbreak of avian flu that has impacted wild and domestic birds (more the 52 million have been killed or culled to contain the virus) is impacting more than birds.

Drone video of moose shedding its antlers – Wow – it happened so quickly; the video is only 16 seconds! The moose just shakes its body, and the antlers fall off. It seems to want to leave the scene quickly once they are off too.

Texas Morning

I kept checking the sky at sunrise all during the time I was in Texas. The sky was clear for most days and the sunrise color washed out. Then there was a day of light clouds that reflected the color. I noted that the palm that had looked ruined after last winters deep cold has recovered.

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My parents’ backyard has changed since one of the large mulberry trees was cut. The cosmos flowers are large and blooming profusely.

The naked lady lilies are not as numerous and will probably shift to the shadier parts of the garden. They were the thickest around the old tree but now the area is too sunny for them.

There are still mulberries in the yard. They are well trimmed and will probably last a few more years. The one closest to the house has leaves sprouting from the trunk! I sat in a comfortable patio chair and took some zoomed pictures. There are even some high key pictures in the mix.

I turned a bit and noticed that the moon was still up. I balanced my camera on my knee. That was steady enough to get even the highly zoomed image!

The pecan tree that used to be between 2 mulberry trees is growing rapidly now that one is gone. The tree trimmers had done a good job in taking off lower branches and the tree will quickly become the dominate tree in the garden. It might get above the remaining mulberry this year!

It was a great morning to be outdoors photographing the garden…until I noticed a mosquito buzzing around me. A sign that it was time to go indoors…