Gleanings of the Week Ending April 19, 2025

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.

Survey: US Public Spaces Not Meeting Community Needs – Funding for maintenance and basic improvements seems to be the key issue.

I tested some of the most popular ways of meeting new people. Here's what I found – The author engaged in 4 ‘hobbies’ and assessed their effectiveness in fostering social connection: team sports, bouldering, creative writing sessions, and a life drawing course. Evidently, they all worked for her! For me – my volunteer activities (with Missouri Master Naturalist and my county’s Friends of the Library) are the way I meet new people; I tend to like the triadic interactions (attention both to each other, and to an object or activity of mutual interest) that volunteering provides.

These Unassuming Artifacts from King Tut’s Tomb Could Tell a Remarkable Story – Originally the 4 small unbaked earthen dishes were thought to be stands for the nearly four-foot high gilded wooden staffs…but a new study proposes that the clay troughs would have held libations, most likely of water, aimed at the purification and rejuvenation of Tutankhamun in the afterlife, a rite known as the Awakening of Osiris.

Cuts to the National Weather Service May Have Serious Impacts on National Parks – And for everywhere else too. Weather impacts everybody.

New research boosts future whooping cough vaccines – My father – now in his 90s – almost died from whooping cough as a young child. Deaths have become less common since the vaccine although they are still in the double digits in the US. In 2024, several outbreaks left public health officials and hospitals scrambling to accommodate a sudden influx of patients, primarily infants, who are often too young to be vaccinated and suffer the most severe symptoms. I’m glad that a new vaccine may be more effective and longer lasting than the one we have now.

Study Reveals Mercury-Poisoned Industrial Age Child – A three- to four-year-old child died in France sometime in the 18th or 19th century. The youngster suffered from rickets and scurvy likely caused by poor living conditions during the Industrial Revolution. But there were also high levels of mercury in his bones and teeth. The study ruled out sources of mercury contamination and concluded that the child had been administered the toxic metal as a cure for his ailments, which ultimately killed him.

At 97, Endangered Tortoise Becomes Oldest First-Time Mom of Her Species with Four New Hatchlings – Four Galapagos tortoise hatchlings at the Philadelphia Zoo!

Celebrating Seeds – From The Prairie Ecologist. So many obstacles must be overcome for a seed to become a mature plant producing seeds….continuing the cycle of the species.

Antarctic Sea Ice Plunged in Summer 2025 - In 2025, summer sea ice in the Antarctic tied for the second-lowest minimum extent ever recorded in the 47-year satellite record. It’s not yet clear whether the Southern Hemisphere has entered a new norm with perennially low ice or if the Antarctic is in a passing phase that will revert to prior levels in the years to com

Global Economy More Vulnerable to Warming Than Previously Thought - By rattling supply chains, future storms and heat waves will also send ripples throughout the global economy, inflicting costs far higher than models currently show. No country is immune.

Then and Now – Vaccinations

When I was growing up in the 1960s, there were a lot fewer vaccinations…but I remember my mother was keen for my sisters and I to get all the ones that were available: Diphtheria – Pertussis – Tetanus (DPT) and smallpox, and then polio when it rolled out in the mid-1960s (I remember lining up at the elementary school to get the sugar cube). My father had almost died as a very young child and my mother always thought, based on his mother’s description, that the cause was probably whooping cough (pertussis) which was before the vaccine was widely available. The ‘childhood diseases’ (measles, chicken pox and mumps) required another strategy for mothers of that era: expose their children to those diseases to develop immunity to them by being sick with the disease. It was a risk but, in many cases, not as great a risk as having the diseases as an adult. I can remember being very sick with rubeola --- missing a few weeks of kindergarten. One of my sisters had a memorable case of mumps with a lot of neck swelling – but I didn’t have any symptoms at all which worried my mother because she had no way of knowing if I had developed immunity or not; years later in the 1980s, I got tested for mumps immunity during a pre-pregnancy appointment and evidently I had immunity (so no need to get a vaccination that did exist by that time).

In the 1960s at least 2 of my grandparents had pneumonia and were hospitalized. Would the vaccine we have today made it less severe or prevented it? There was a lot less antibiotic resistance in the 1960s so perhaps antibiotics were more reliable to helped them recover.

Now there are new forms of the old vaccines (except for smallpox which is no longer a circulating disease as it was in the 1960s) and new ones too. A lot of the childhood diseases are easily prevented. There are vaccines that are honed for older people too – applicable to my life stage: flu, shingles, pneumonia, RSV and COVID. I appreciate these developments since I am concerned about antibiotic and antiviral resistance; I prefer to stay well --- reduce the times I need treatment for an illness and vaccinations are a way to do that…along with maximizing the nutrition I am getting from my diet (with some supplements). Another strategy is to avoid or mask in times and places where I am likely to encounter people that are sick (indoor crowds particularly in the wintertime).

I am grateful that that are vaccinations available to prompt my immune system…so that I don’t have to be sick to gain immunity!

Previous Then and Now posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 8, 2020

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.

Abstract Aerial Photos of Iceland's Rivers Look Like Watercolor Paintings – A little art photography to start out the gleanings this week.

Tomb Containing Three Generations of Warrior Women Unearthed in Russia | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Evidently research is revealing that warrior women were the norm, not the exception, in Scythian culture. Scythians lived in small tribes, wore trousers (practical since they were on horseback much of the time) and fought with bows and arrows.

Protecting the Sonoran Pronghorn from Extinction – It’s complicated….lots of agencies involved….an international border that is becoming a migration barrier.

Is Notre-Dame Too Fragile to Be Saved? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Removing the scaffolding that was melted by the fire is evidently going to be a big challenge.

Whooping cough evolving into a superbug -- ScienceDaily – The research was done in Australia…but it probably applies to the US as well. Bottom line: we need to be developing an improved whooping cough vaccine.

One Reason Colorado Playgrounds Are Looking Way More ‘Natural’ | Colorado Public Radio – I like the new types of playgrounds….more than swing sets and slides…bringing in some natural elements.

White Sands National Monument Redesignated As A "National Park" – A beautiful and unique place. I’ve only been there once…but it was very memorable. The biggest surprise for me was that even on a hot day in June, the sand was not hot! Being white really does reflect the heat up and away.

2019 Year In Review: Some Great Photo Tips – So many beautiful places to photograph….take some time in a natural place (National Parks are awesome…but there are other places that are great too).

Striking Portraits of Rare and Endangered Birds by Tim Flach – I tend to like bird pictures from the wild…but these are amazing portraits. Virginia Cardinal – I was surprised to see it in this grouping…as far as I know they are not different than the Northern Cardinal. Cornell’s Allaboutbirds doesn’t have a listing for them.

Mealworms safely consume toxic additive-containing plastic -- ScienceDaily – Not an answer to the plastic problem…more like basic research that could be incorporated into a partial solution. The biggest gain comes from dramatically reducing single use plastics.