Saturn — 2012 — The 21st Century Matriarch

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

The Diet-Proof Holiday Meal: Seven Ways to Stay On Track This Season - Tips for the holidays…in time for Thanksgiving

10 Predictions about Information Technology - from the Gartner Symposium

11 stats that suggest our world may not be as globalized as we think - Text and video from TED

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #25 - Which one is your favorite? I like the peacock in flight

How to use a paper towel - TED talk

Intercontinental Insect Migration - You’ve probably heard about Monarch butterfly migration but there are other insects that migrate: painted lady butterflies and dragonflies.

How to Stop Winter from Weathering Your Skin: Top Ten Tips for Preventing 'Winter Itch' - Not too early to have you plan for winter!

On Saturn, Cassini Observes Huge Storm, Causing Incredible Temperature Spike - complete with a short video

Self-Medicating Animals - even woolly bear caterpillars fight parasitic flies

How to Make Droplets Levitate on Water - I watched the YouTube version of the video (link in 5th paragraph of article

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Live stream of Blue Heron nest at Cornell Ornithology Lab - There are 5 chicks…two cameras. I leave it on almost all the time. I love having bird noises in my office and they are so interesting to watch. The chicks are growing fast so don’t wait to take a look. The adult male has the extra plummage on his head (the female lost hers in a battle with an owl) and a missing toe on his right foot. They take turns on the nest.

New Saturn video created from Voyager and Cassini spacecraft images - Video and music

New Reservation System In Place For Firefly Viewing At Great Smokies June 2nd—10th - The fireflies that flash synchronously have become so popular that a ticketing system has been put in place. Good to know if you plan to see them this year.

About One Baby Born Each Hour Addicted to Opiate Drugs in U.S. - very sad

Arabic Records Allow Past Climate to Be Reconstructed - Weather in Iraq/Syria in the 816-1009 time period…a time with lots of cold waves in that area of the world

Yellowstone Super-Eruptions More Numerous Than Thought? - yes, it’s still a super volcano

The Library of Utopia - Another try to create the giant online library

10 Emerging Technologies - A list from Technology Review. It has a pull down so you can look at their list from previous years too

Is automation the handmaiden of inequality? - Productivity per hour has continued to climb while the hourly compensation flatten sometime in the 1970s. Manufacturing jobs in the US have declined precipitously since around 2000 while the manufacturing output has continued to increase (and this in spite of outsource manufacturing to other countries too!). Blog post + comments to get lots of interpretations of the data.

Breakthroughs in glass technology - and they’ll come on line in the next few years...I like the idea of having wall sized screens!