Gleanings of the Week Ending April 11, 2015

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.

The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust - It’s in Inner Mongolia…a place that is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of ‘rare earth’ minerals. So sad that we can’t manage to build our tech in a way that is sustainable for the planet.

A Delicate Stone Bridge Creates a Mystical Passage with Its Reflection - After that last story - I needed to look at something beautiful for a bit...and this was it: a picture of a half-circle bridge reflected in water to complete the illusion of a full circle.

Bombing Range Is National Example for Wildlife Conservation - Elgin Air Force Base had 300 year old trees and is home to the last remaining old-growth longleaf pines in Florida…there is a natural resources visitor center and has 250,000 acres open for public recreation/wildlife habitat.

Erupting Volcanic Lightning! - A volcano on Mexico’s west coast.

A complex landscape has both vulnerabilities and resilience to climate change - Changes in the length of growing season and timing of rainfall will change the forests in Central Appalachia over the next century….and probably in the area of Maryland where I live too.

Can You Identify 20 Of The Most Common Birds in North America? - The quiz is here. Identify the bird pictured from the list - you’ll know if you got it right immediately. How many can you identify? I got 15 out of 20!

Theoretical study suggests huge lava tubes could exist on moon - So - how long will it take to have a mission to the moon to discover if the lava tubes exist?

Essential Spring Guide '15: On the Road to Castles of Stone and Wood Turned To Rock - This story brought back memories of the vacation to northeastern Arizona last January! My picture of Montezuma Castle is below!

Yellowstone by Moonlight - A 3 minute film that includes a series of time-lapse views of moonlit scenes in Yellowstone - including geysers and stars. I don’t have the patience for this kind of photography but I enjoy seeing the work of others.

MIT Climate CoLab Asks All For Impactful Climate Plans - Contests seeking high impact ideas on how to tackle climate change…submission due 5/16/2015. The Climate CoLab site is here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 31, 2015

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.

At 90, She's Designing Tech for Aging Boomers - She was a designer all her life! Good for her…for the company that is using her ideas…good for consumers.

Telescope to seek dust where other Earths may lie - This article caught my attention because my daughter recently was there for a ‘field trip.’ The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) is run by University of Arizona.

Sleep tight and stay bright? Invest now, researcher says - I am so lucky to be able to go to sleep easily and awake on my own after 7-8 hours. This study says (once again) that good sleep is linked to a lot of good health and mental outcomes. One of the joys of post-career is not waking up with an alarm clock!

The lip of the caldera - I couldn’t resist sharing this picture of the inside wall of Santorini.

Decorative and flexible solar panels become part of interior design and the appearance of objects - I enjoy technology that is functional and beautiful. So many times the engineers focus exclusively on functionality.  

Should arsenic in food be a concern? - The answer in this article was ‘no’ but I was frustrated that they focused primarily on plant foods and did not mention the status of nitarsone/histostat (an organoarsenic compound used in poultry production).

Boston's leaky pipes release high levels of heat-trapping methane - Not good for Boston and probably many other older cities….and worse is that there is little economic incentive to make the necessary investments to reduce the incidental losses from leakage.

What to do in a flu epidemic? Stay at home and watch TV - This was a study to assess the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during epidemics - particularly of flu.

The Chemistry of Highlighter Colors - Download the graphic (link at the bottom of the article) and take a look at how the colors are made.  Note how that they have a lot of ‘rings.’

Is Hospice Losing Its Soul? - My grandmother’s last few months were spent at home under hospice care; the hospice support to her and our family was invaluable. This article is troubling because the trend in hospice is toward standardization/institutionalization….not the tailored, compassionate practice that has been the strength of hospice from its inception. I hope there are enough people that will demand that hospice stay true to its roots.