Gleanings of the Week Ending March 31, 2012

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

Wind map - a (nearly) current map of winds in the continental US. This is an artwork and quite a learning opportunity for how the winds change over time...I find myself looking at it several times a day. 

Step inside the millennium seed bank - a video that walks through the science facility that stores seeds from 10% of the world’s plants

The Beginnings of Dr. Seuss - An Informal Reminiscence - A short piece done for Dartmouth (where he went to college) and made available online recently.

13 Nature Photos with water reflection - Enjoy! My favorite is the spoonbills (the second one).

Nature and Wildlife Photography Tips Center - from National Wildlife Federation

The Psychological Effects of Global Warming in the US - More people will experience weather extremes than ever before…and many more will develop anxiety disorders

Wind Farm in San Gorgonio - A striking picture of wind turbines in a pass in the mountains east of Los Angeles

Regular Chocolate Eaters are Thinner, Evidence Suggests - Just more data that supports my 2 squares of dark chocolate for breakfast habit!

How Animals See the World (infographic)

First Day of Spring (40 pictures) - From around the world

New inverter design shrinks size/cost of connecting solar panels to the grid - Company that created them will start selling them in May. Could shave $0.15/watt from a solar panel installation. There is a lot happening in the solar energy field right now. It's very exciting.

Re-inventing the toilet (turning human waste into power) - A Gates Foundation project. Watch the video.

January Extremes in Howard County, Maryland

Within less than a week, we’ve had the extremes of weather for January. The first was a few days in the 20s with wintery mix on the ground. As it started to slowly warm up there was lots of fog in the neighborhood and back into the forest. The deer were in the yards noshing on the grass and anything else that wasn’t covered by the ice.

The warming trend culminated in a day that was more like March than January; the temperature actually reached 60 degrees F and the flags were fluttering wildly in the wind as I walked into my local library. There is a new-to-me mural on the side of the building near the athletic fields. Looks like spring…but it’s not quite that time yet.