Gleanings of the Week Ending August 16, 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.

Two items about women mathematicians this week: A Woman Has Won the Fields Medal, Math's Highest Prize, for the First Time about Maryam Nurzakhani and When Snails Lose Their Way from Vi Hart (she’s a web math geek!).

Two items about Tucson (where my daughter is): Place-based development and streetcar transforming downtown Tucson (something to ride from the University to downtown next time I visit) and Fire and Water Exact Tolls on Saguaro National Park (hope the part is not too damaged this season)

Photo Tampering throughout History - This was a web site referenced in a Coursera course (The Camera Never Lies). This page shows examples of ‘doctored’ images starting with an 1860 picture of Lincoln to the present.

How Sleep Changes as You Age, and Why You'll Need Even More of It - When my daughter was a baby it seemed like she was in REM sleep almost all the time and then it wasn’t quite as often. The table in this article starts with age 20 but shows that the decline continuing throughout life. Check the references at the end of the article of tips to improve sleep at any age.

Excavation of ancient well yields insight into Etruscan, Roman and medieval times - Lots of finds from one small place - bronze vessels, carved wood, gape seeds. Evidently in Etruscan religion, throwing items into a well filled with water was an act of religious sacrifice.

13 Things You Probably Don’t Know About the U.S. Water System (But Should) - I assume there will be a lot more ‘water education’ for the general public going on in the next few years. At some point we’ll need to do more than education.  It is disappointing to find out that leaky water pipes are so common.

Just How Bad Is California's Drought? - Looking at the state from 2011 to now graphically. The whole state is now in severe to exceptional drought status.

Natural light in office boosts health - I know that I rejoiced when I had a window office during my career…too bad there are a lot of office buildings that have a lot of interior offices with artificial lighting. Employees in ‘big box’ stores or warehouses have the same problem. Now that my only office is at home, I choose a room with lots of natural light (and good scenery).

5 Easy Ways to Use Tomatoes - I have lots of tomatoes….and am always on the lookout for new ideas. So far - I’m keeping up with the CSA bounty of tomatoes via salads, soups, topper to a stir fry, salsa….and tomato sauce to freeze as a last resort.

The Earth Looks like A Living Creature in This Amazing NASA Video - The film is just a little over a minute and depicts 7 days in 2005 of the earth and its clouds.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 15, 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.

10,000 years on the Bering Land Bridge: Ancestors of Native Americans paused en route from Asia - I’d always assumed that the ‘land bridge’ was narrower - just across the narrowest part of the Bering Strait.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #63 - I haven’t included one of these in my gleanings recently….doesn’t mean that I don’t continue to enjoy them. My favorite in this batch is the kingfisher with the little crab in its bill.

Is Daylight Savings Energy Efficient? No, Says Expert - Every spring and fall I hate the time change. Does anyone like it? Sometimes I think governments like the idea simply because it confirms that they have the influence to cause the population to do something in synchrony!

Nutrition Facts Label: Proposed Changes Aim to Better Inform Food Choices - The new labels are in a 90 day comment period from the FDA. What do you think? I like them. The revised labels include new info (added sugars, Vitamin D, and potassium) that I have missed in the past. I like the larger calorie count and the attempt to make the serving size the size of a real serving.

The Weight of Mountains - A short film (11.5 minutes) about how mountains are made….live…and die.

Mothers leave work because they don't want to behave like working men, study suggests - ‘Presenteeism’ (the notion that being at your desk until late is required, even if there is nothing to do) should not be a requirement for men or women….but it has the effect of driving women out of the workforce more often than men. What a waste of skills and education! Will the workplace change over time?

Deer proliferation disrupts a forest's natural growth - This study was done in Ithaca NY but Maryland has very similar problems. The deer are so prolific that they are eating all their preferred foods down to the ground.

NASA's Breathtaking Images of Space - The view from space….always awesome.

Women's jobs are poorer paid, less flexible, more stressful - My career was in a male-dominated field and was well paid. About 20 years in, I realized that while I did work longer hours overall than women in many other fields, the stress was generally positive and not brutal in duration….and the flexibility increased over the course of my career too! So - this research result meshes quite well with my experience from the mid-70s onward.

Honeybees reveal that evolution is stranger than you ever realized - Just how do sterile bees contribute to the fitness of their species? Kin selection. That’s why honey bees in Yemen have adapted to be excellent at air conditioning their hives in the hot desert air and Japanese have adapted to combat deadly wasps in a unique way.