Gleanings of the Week Ending September 6, 2014

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.

Training your brain to prefer healthy foods - Research on people that participated in a weight loss program. It appears that the program changes what foods are tempting to people (based on MRI analysis)…toward healthier diet. Of course, even if this is true there is an uphill battle with all the media pushing food that is not healthy (low nutritional value). Has our culture (the media, social interactions, vending machines, etc.) been training our brains to eat poorly?

Who Should Rule These Scottish Islands? - The intricacies of politics in Orkney….desiring greater autonomy.

Growing mushrooms in diapers - Mexican scientists are designing technology (and running small scale proof-of-concept trials) to degrade disposable diapers. Mexico is the third largest consumer of disposable diapers globally but worldwide there must be a huge number of diapers going to landfills. They will not be a simple to recycle as glass or plastic jugs or milk cartons….but anything that is still a major component going to landfills needs to be considered for re-processing rather than burying. Making it economically feasible is a challenge.

Why Doesn’t Honey Spoil? – The Chemistry of Honey - An infographic and article. It’s antibiotic properties are due to its low water content and pH….details in the article.

Brown marmorated stink bug biology, management options - It seems like there are a few of them around all the time now and sometimes there is a marked increase in their numbers…even inside the house.  The full article is available from here.

Humiliation tops list of mistreatment toward med students - It is not just med students….this happens to other grad students too. There is a significant amount of institutional hazing of students if they choose to continue beyond their undergraduate studies in academia.

Exposure of pregnant women to certain phenols may disrupt growth of boys during fetal development and first years of life - Scary result. Are OB/GYNs educating their patients about these results? There are still some products with parabens and triclosan which could be avoided. Even though more research needs to be done, most women would err on the side of caution during their pregnancy and after the child is born too…if they were provided the information.

Housing America’s Older Adults - From the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and AARP Foundation.  The housing needs of the US population are changing faster than the available housing can change.

Top 10 Solar Energy States per Capita (US) - The full report (downloadable via a link at the bottom of this article) has data for other states. The top 10 have a lot higher

Exceptionally well preserved insect fossils from the Rhône Valley found - An aquatic bug that would have thrived in brackish water.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 5, 2014

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.

How Did This Ancient Civilization Avoid War for 2,000 Years? - This article linked well to the Paradoxes of War course I am taking right now….one of those little serendipities of life. There are hints of other cultural norms that were so different from our own that we can’t quite fathom how they worked.

Oklahoma earthquakes induced by wastewater injection by disposal wells, study finds - I saw a story about the Oklahoma earthquakes on the evening news that featured a home owner from Prague, OK whose house had been badly damaged. I have a family connection to the area: my great-grandparents farmed in the area and my one of my grandmother’s first memories was of their house blowing away. They worried about tornadoes rather than earthquakes. I’m glad there are studies being done to understand why the dramatic increase in earthquakes is happening….and help us make better decisions about wastewater disposal.  On the positive side for Oklahoma, at least they had data available that could be used to determine the problem. Now the question is - what action will result? And what about China’s Dirty Pollution Secret: The Boom Poisoned Its Soil and Crops? Both of these instances seem to be cases where the price of ‘development’ is becoming unexpectedly high - and maybe it is going to get higher over time.

Chemist with Visual Flair Answers Burning Food Science Questions - A high school chemistry teach in the UK has a flare for chemistry info graphics. The ones collected in the NPR post are about food but he has others at his open web site: Compound Interest.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #69 - I have to include one of these periodically. Which is your favorite? Two near the end are mine: the egret and peacock (and I can't resist including one on my own peacock pictures with this post).

Why Online School? Why Full Time? - A survey to find out why parents and student use online schools full time. The two reasons are “want a change from their local school” and “require or want greater flexibility.”  The survey was of parents of students of Connections Academy, an online school.

Slow media - Sometimes the alternative to ‘fast’ is what we need!

Ancient baby boom holds a lesson in over-population - A case study from the American southwest: farming and food storage resulting in high birth rate until there was a drought which caused the crash.

4 New Energy Maps Show A Lot about Renewables - Wind, solar, biomass and geothermal…the US has a lot of potential.

New study from population and development review finds flaws in mortality projections - There is good news and bad news: The good news is that the decline in cigarette smoking will almost certainly result in longer-living older populations. The bad news is that current public policy around the world has not included that change in mortality projections (i.e. governments are underestimating the number of older people for the next decades…and were already struggling with the shifting demographics).

50 States, 50 Spots Natural Wonders - From CNN. There are a lot of natural wonders is virtually every state I’ve visited….too hard to pick just one…but fun to think about.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 26, 2014

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.

20 Cities Leading Rooftop Solar Revolution - It’s good to see the technology gaining momentum across the US. The report this article references is here.

Five Volcanoes Erupting at Once - On Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.  And some other views from above gleaned by Dan Satterfield from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites: sand and soot in NW China, Sahara sand blowing north into Greece and the Balkans, the green view of the Nile delta and the Suez Canal, and a sea breeze front along the Florida coast.

For The Children's Sake, Put Down That Smartphone - I’m glad this topic is being brought up more now. Children need the attention of the adults in their lives.

Finding turns neuroanatomy on its head: Researchers present new view of myelin - The higher in the cerebral cortex one looks -- the closer to the top of the brain, which is its most evolved region -- the less myelin one finds. Not only that, but "neurons in this part of the brain display a brand new way of positioning myelin along their axons that has not been previously seen. They have 'intermittent myelin' with long axon tracts that lack myelin interspersed among myelin-rich segments.”

Cheap, high-quality lenses made from droplets of transparent silicone - Wow - this will make the type of photography I am currently doing with a loupe even easier! I’m going to watch for these new lenses to become commercially available.

Spectacular Macro Details Reveal the Intimate Life of Snails - Beautiful images from a Ukrainian photographer.

Top 10 functional food trends for 2014 - Meeting nutritional needs with food….what a concept! It appears that a lot more people are becoming savvy about food and the food industry is trying to keep up.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Teff Cookies - I have some teff flour in my refrigerator…..this might be a good recipe to try although I prefer peanut butter alone rather than with chocolate chips.

An Interactive Atlas of the Valley of the Kings - This is the intro article from the ‘Free Technology for Teachers’ site. The Atlas itself is available from the Theban Mapping Project.

Dozens of Virtual Tours and Webcams on One Google Map - This is another pointer from the ‘Free Technology for Teachers’ site for a great resource.  The Google Map is here.  Some of the links are broken. The Lascaux Caves one was fabulous!