Gleanings of the Week Ending June 20, 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.

Soft Tissue Detected in Millennia-Old Dino Bones - New ways of looking at very old bones reveals unanticipated results (but not DNA).

Far From Sterile, Some Hybrids May Start New Species - Coyotes in the eastern US are quite different than their western counterparts and they are beginning to fill the niche left by wolves. Maybe they will help control the too large deer population!

Renewables Reach Highest Share of U.S. Energy Consumption since 1930s - Historical stats about renewable energy...with emphasis on the 1990-2014 time period.

Two similar articles: Why doctors should treat the healthy too and Interventions among healthy people save the most lives - The challenge is that most doctors are trained to treat illness and disability…not help people retain their health.

Data scientists find connections between birth month and health - The data for the study was from 1985-2013…1.7 million patients treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/CUMC. It interesting result but the researchers point out that the risk related to birth month is relatively minor compared to the more influential variables like diet and exercise.

The Weirdest (And Most Violent) Ways That Plants Release Their Seeds - Short videos. As with so many things botanical…I could not resist including it in the gleaning list. It includes how violets disperse their seeds and I’ve just started noticing the seed pods this year (I have several locations where I am watching the plants to see the seeds disperse).

Global freshwater consumption crossing its planetary boundary - Scary result.

Biodiversity reduces human, wildlife diseases and crop pests - Another reason to worry about the extinctions happening in the world right now.

Sunrise and Sunset Photos Capture Stunning Wildlife Silhouettes - Ending with some great images…and a reminder of the special light at the beginning and ending of the day.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 13, 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.

18 beautiful houses for tiny people - Photographs of doll’s houses …inhabitants and furnishings too.

How past Native-American settlement modified Western New York forests - Larger nut-bearing trees were more abundant near settlements!

Rebuilding Sandbars in the Grand Canyon - I had learned about the attempts to rebuild sandbars in the recent Coursera offer on Water in the Western US…so this acted to remind me of the class, probably locking in what I learned through a surprise repetition.

Ultrasound is making new waves throughout medicine - Ultrasound is being used for more and more imaging these days….and is more portable than a lot of the other imagining technologies.

10 Ways to Save Pollinators - This is not just about honey bees….it’s about all pollinators.

Multi-tasking: Benefits on exercise - So doing something else while you exercise may not be such a bad thing!

Beyond Automation - Five paths toward employability is an automated…augmented world of the future.

Sewage Pollution: The Next Great Threat for Coral Reefs - 96% of places that have both people and coral reefs have a sewage pollution problem (85% of the waterwater entering the sea in the Caribbean is untreated). Sewage that reaches corals includes: fresh water, endocrine disruptors, heavy metals, pathogens, toxins. Ewww! Not good for human health either.

The Shifting Sands of the Sahara Are a Lesson in Dune Dynamics - Illustrations of dune patterns (seen from above)

5 Ways to Make Environmentally Conscious Food Choices - I had thought of all 5…but this is post is a good summary to: support good companies, buy local, storing your food, growing your own, and choose less packaging.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 06, 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.

Everything We've Learned about Mummies Using 21st Century Technology - Mummies fascinate just because we know they are often from the distant past…new technology adds elements to that fascination.

It’s Time to End the Gar Wars - Learn something new about native fish….and the history of conservation.

Why Kids Need to Dig in the Dirt Again - Play in the outdoors….not such a common thing for children as it used to be. Sad.

What Dose of Nature Do We Need to Feel Better? - Evidently there is a lot of research right now about the health benefits of spending time in nature….not just for children either.

New U.S. Water Rule is Crucial for Clean Drinking Water and Resilience to Droughts and Floods - As water supplies shift (too much and too little), the clarification will become more important. I was surprised that prior to the clarification, drinking water for 1 in 3 Americans came from streams without clear protection from pollution and degradation. Sustaining or improving the quality of water supplies is a key component to a sustainable planet.

Monarch Butterfly Conservation Series - I’m putting these videos on my ‘to do’ list.

Watching the Simultaneous Release of 11,000 Marbles - Mesmerizing.

Why you want Google Photos - Something new I am looking into.

16 Photographs of Animals Caught in the Rain - My favorites are the tricolor heron and monarch butterfly chrysalis photos.

These Maps Show Just How Screwed China Will Be After Sea Levels Rise - This is if all the ice melts….which may be a possibility if the world continues on current trends….and even if the ice does not melt completely, there are a lot of people living in coastal areas that are very close to sea level.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 30, 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.

Quiz: Can you tell these 16 cities by their skylines? -  I got 12 of the 16!

The Great Tuskers of Matusadona - Matusadona National Park in northern Zimbabwe….with lots of elephants and an organized anti-poaching group that (so far) appears to be sustaining the park wildlife.

Supreme Crispy Quinoa Vegetable Burgers - I don’t think I would actually eat this on a bun - since I general decide that I don’t like buns well enough to justify the calories. But I am always on the lookout for other ways to use quinoa since its nutritional profile is so terrific (and it tastes food too)…definitely worth the calories.

An El Nino connection to the floods in Oklahoma and Texas? - Map and narrative about El Nino and its impact on US weather patterns (using recent weather as an example).

These Are the Most Distinctive Popular Foods in Every State - Does it make sense for your state? Crab Cakes is listed for Maryland and that sounds about right.

See This Baby Flamingo Take Its First Few Steps - I knew that baby flamingoes were white (had picked up that bit of trivia somewhere along the line) but I hadn’t ever seen one. I was surprised at how big its legs were. The adult flamingoes seem very attentive to the baby too.

Insane Solar Jobs Boom About To Get $32 Million More Insane - Renewable energy stretching toward the goal of becoming competitive with fossil fuels.

There are No Shortcuts to Birding Nirvana - I was surprised that the Merlin app (from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology) was not mentioned. Maybe because it only includes 400 North American birds. It has the advantage that it is very easy to use even for new birders. I like it.

Designed for the Future: Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World - Take a look at the gallery (link below the picture). These are structures that exist - not drawings or plans.

Hidden Lead in Your Home - It isn’t just old lead pain on walls…there are more sources. 

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 23, 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.

New Battery Technology Will Fundamentally Change the Way the Grid Operates - Cost effective storage of energy seems to be on the near horizon. It could overcome the complaint about the intermittent nature of solar and wind power generation.

The Chemistry of Permanent Hair Dyes - There are probably still a lot of people covering grey hair with permanent hair dyes…not me. I’d rather enjoy my natural salt and pepper!

A Gorgeously Detailed View of Antarctica's Churning Ocean Currents  and Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf Will Likely Disintegrate by Decade's End - Two recent articles about Antarctica. The first one is a visualization of simulations done at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  The second article is bad news since it means global sea level rise will be increasing as glacial ice enters the ocean faster.

From Snapshot to Science: Photos of Biodiversity as Useful Records - Learn about National Geographic’s Great Nature Project. The Belmont BioBlitz observations have become part of the project!

The Birth of a Bee - A short video…well worth watching.

Recommended levels of activity rarely achieved in busy workplace environment - Many workplaces are quite sedentary. This study looked at 83 employees in a hospital. Only 6% of the participants reached the 10,000 steps per day goal even though the jobs of 53% of the participants were assumed to require ‘high’ levels of activity! I know when I started wearing a Fitbit I had to focus on getting steps in after my workday. Now that I am retired, it is easier to get the steps in throughout the day rather than focused at the end of the day.

China Coal Use Continues To Fall “Precipitously” - Now if this trend will continue….

First fully warm-blooded fish: The opah or moonfish - And now we discover that there is an exception to something we all learned in school….fishes are not all cold-blooded.

A Map Showing the "Most Distinctive" Causes of Death by State - It is a very colorful map…but does it mean very much. The most distinctive form of death in Maryland seemed strange to me…and ‘tuberculosis’ was listed for Texas.

How Machines Destroy (And Create!) Jobs, In 4 Graphs - I was somewhat surprised that the ‘services’ sector is not even larger. Looking at the graph historically - white collar jobs became the highest percentage and number of jobs in the 1950s and the trend continues.

Belmont BioBlitz

This is the last day of the Belmont BioBlitz! About 400 middle school students have participated over the 4 days. The first day was very hot…the second day was humid…the fourth was breezy but near perfect otherwise. The forecast for today has a higher probability for rain (hopefully it will hold off until the Bioblitz is over and the students have boarded their buses after a picnic lunch).

A red-tailed hawk was in the area on the first day - on the roof of the building housing the ‘tech’ for the Bioblitz and then on a high branch of a sycamore that was well within the range of the spotting scope.

A mockingbird that has a nest in a nearby river birch used the same roofline more frequently and griped at the ‘too many people’ in the area.

I was responsible for helping student identify what they found. The reference books were spread out on outdoor tables near enough of wi-fi reception where they could sync their iNaturalist observations while working on identification and then go into the tech room to make sure all the data was recorded.

Several insects visited my tables - and student made some last minute observations!

Some of the animals from the nature center were popular. Katrina - the diamond back terrapin usually in a large tank of water in the nature center - was out and about in the grass.

Maize the corn snake was also a new experience for many of the students.

And at the very end of yesterday - a plant that we haven’t identified yet. I need to quiet time with the books!

In the end - success is more about the new perspectives many of the students have demonstrated than the details of one particular observation.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 16, 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.

New app puts the world's biodiversity in the palm of your hand - The Map of Life app makes it easier to identify local wildlife. It’s a location specific reference for amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, turtles, bumblebees, butterflies, dragonflies, and trees. The down side is things you find that are normally in that locality. I’ve already experienced one - a bigleaf magnolia growing in the woods in Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. It is a tree that usually grows further south. The app will still provide information but it is not quite as easy as plants/animals that are ‘normal’ for the area.

What happens to our bodies after we die - Maybe some of the concepts in the article are a little familiar from all the CSI programs on television these days….but it’s hard to separate fact from fiction in those programs. This post from the BBC is on ‘fact’ side.

Idle Electronics and Appliances Waste $19 Billion Annually, Study Says - A study done with 70,000 residential customers in California found that 23% of home electricity usage was from always-on but inactive devices. That can’t be good. Appliance designers need to work on reducing that….and maybe consumers need to be content with stoves and microwaves that don’t have clocks!

Harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay are becoming more frequent - Ugh! Even with all the work being done to reduce the nutrients going into the bay…the growing population of people and animals is overwhelming the progress made.

Everybody Dies: How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy - It is not just about preserving your legacy…it’s also to whoever will be handling things for you. Wills need to include more than they did 50 years ago!

11 Ways to Increase Electric Car Adoption - My next car might be electric. For my day to day driving it would already be acceptable. It would not work for road trips - and that is a problem even though it is only a few weeks a year.

Long-term study on ticks reveals shifting migration patterns, disease risks  with a larger version of the infographic here (click on the image to make it even larger) - Maryland has the dog tick, Lone star tick, and deer tick ---- and Lyme disease…not good. One of the places where I lead hikes is part of a study to identify the diseases ticks carry in the area.

Maryland and Food Self-Sufficiency - More and more people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from and some are attempting to become locavores. The findings for Maryland are probably pretty typical. The three foods Maryland produces in enough quantity for our entire population are: chicken, lima beans, and watermelon!

Forests at Valley Forge National Historical Park Coming Back After Deer Culling - There are quite a few areas along the east coast that have an overpopulation of deer. I know the forest behind our house has very few small trees because the deer eat the saplings before they grow taller than the deer can browse. I appears that the Valley Forge National Historical Park is having some success with their program…but they are still monitoring to verify that the forest is indeed sustaining itself.

Real Plants and Fungi That Look Like Something from the Monstrous Manual - A series of videos. The Venus Flytrap film is dramatic!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 9, 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.

How to Make Fresh Ginger-Lemon Tea - I modified the recipe a bit - made a slurry of the ingredients (with less water) in a smoothie maker then boiled it. After cooling - I strained the liquid into ice trays and am savoring a few cubes at a time for ginger-lemon flavored water.

No-Bake Breakfast Cookies - An option to try instead of purchasing breakfast bars? This way - I would know exactly what is in them.

Baroque organ performance of works by Johann Sebastian Bach - Listen to the music….and watch how a German baroque organ looks and is played!

This Is How Fast America Changes Its Mind - Some historical perspective…but there are always portions of the population that do not change their mind for many years afterward.

As the river rises: Cahokia's emergence and decline linked to Mississippi River flooding - I have visited Cahokia…and realized there is still a lot to learn about the site.

The Lake Mead Water Crisis Explained - The drought is causing the late to drop lower than it has ever been. At some point the lake will not be able to provide the water allocation to Nevada and California and Arizona…and it won’t generate as much electricity either.

Can Elon Musk's battery really cut your power lines? - The technology may or may not be ready for prime time and cost effective…..but I cheer that the discussion is happening and hope that we are reaching a tipping point where the majority of people in the US realize that we need to move off fossil fuels as fast or faster than the rest of the world or we will lose whatever competitive edge our society has at present. And another story about solar power policy: MIT says solar power fields with trillions of watts of capacity are on the way.

The first self-driving 18-wheeler hits the highways - The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles granted it a license to operate on public roads in the state! It is self-driving but not driverless. Drivers are still required for exiting the highway, on local roads and in docking for making deliveries.

A Brief Guide to Atmospheric Pollutants - A nice summary (click on the graphic to enlarge) from Andy Brunning at Compound Interest.

Record global carbon dioxide concentrations surpass 400 parts per million in March 2015 - Not good. This article provides a history of how and where the 400 ppm gets measured.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 2, 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 Best Vegan Milk (Non-Dairy) Alternatives - A good reference about how the non-dairy ‘milks’ are made. My current favorite in unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Babies as young as 6 months using mobile media - Wow! This is scary. A lot has changed in 25 years. Then again - a lot changed in the 25 years before that. How many 3 year olds watched television on a daily basis in the 1950s…almost none. There were cartoons on Saturday morning by the 1960s. Quite a few children were watching shows like Sesame Street (and other shows too) almost daily 25 years later. Has mobile media replaced television or is it in addition to television?

A New 'Livability Index' to Help Americans Age in Place - AARP has a new tool that takes a number of factors into account to assess ‘livability’ (tool is here….enter your zip code in the box in the right side frame of the page.

Every Breath You Take: State of the Air 2015 - Read the post and then go to the State of the Air site and put in your state. Most cities get an ‘F’ which does not bode well for the health of a majority of the US population.

7 things we've learned about Earth since the last Earth Day - This was posted for Earth Day but I saw it a little late. I’m sure it was hard to choose 7 things…the ones picked were pretty significant.

 Gut Microbes Influence Circadian Clock  and Circadian Clock Controls Sugar Metabolism - Two articles about circadian clock importance to the way our bodies handle food. I’ve noted these articles more since I took a Coursera course on the circadian clock.

The Octopus’ Birthday: Understanding an Intelligent & Elusive Marine Creature - These creatures are so different that they evoke almost the same fascination as dinosaurs with children…and maybe adults too. Did you know that the age of an octopus can be determined by counting the rings in its stylet (rudimentary shell); the number of rings = the number of days the octopus lived.

Why the Tiniest of Fossils Mean Big Things to Scientists - A 6 minute video from the American Museum of Natural History about foraminifera….how beautiful they are and what they tell us about Earth’s past (and maybe the future too).

Living to 100: Lifestyle advice for would-be centenarians - The results from a study of 855 men born in 1913…10 of them lived to 100.

Seven of the Most Beautiful Botanical Mazes on Earth - A collection of videos of mazes.

Coursera - May 2015

Both of the courses from April are finishing up and I’m determined to not load myself up with new courses in May because I have so many outdoor activities planned for the month.

I did enjoy both of the April courses. Maps and the Geospatial Revolution course is immediately applicable to a Tree Tour I am doing as a project for my Master Naturalist certification. It will include a map, of course.

The Water in the Western US course was good on a number of levels. There was a segment on how they are adding sediment back to the water flowing into the Grand Canyon to rebuild the sandbars there (and it seems to be working)….brining back memories of the place from earlier this year. One memorable and scary factoid from the course: The Central Valley of California has subsided significantly since the 50s and 60s and is now below sea level; levees are all that separate it from San Francisco Bay….all the fresh water in that area (water supply for San Francisco) could become saline within days if an earthquake caused those levees to fail!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 25, 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.

Greenland continuing to darken - In the Water in the Western US course I am taking via Coursera they mentioned snow darkening as it melted because layers of dust that has originally been blown on a fresh surface of snow accumulated as the layer of snow melted and left the snow behind….and then I saw this article about Greenland on the same day!

Video Diary: One Tiny Hummingbird Family - If you have never had an opportunity to watch a hummingbird nest, this is an opportunity.

Milkweed and Monarch Concerns – 2015 -   Plant Milkweed for Monarchs - The key message in this post is to plant milkweed that is native to the area where you live. That’s

Welcome to Oklahoma, the State of Denial - The graphics caught my eye in this article. There were a lot of earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2014….and evidently since this article was written the state government has started to acknowledge that they are likely manmade.

The Growing Outdoor Recreation Economy - National Parks contributed $26 billion to the economy in 2014 and the outdoor recreation economy is estimated at $646 billion and included 6.1 million jobs. Along a similar trend, another article….The Science of Valuing Nature Becoming Business as Usual.

Nest Cam of the Month: Barred & Barn Owls - I take look at the nest cams. Owls are popular right now.

Putting Technology in Its Place - Technology is not always the answer…or the total answer. Often it falls short of our expectations - particularly in places that need help the most.

Ten Favorite Trees for Wildlife - A very good list. Pick ones that are native to your area.

Excessive use of dietary supplements linked to increase cancer risk - It appears that dietary supplements are too much of a good thing. The bottom line coming out of more and more studies appears to be that its best to meet nutritional needs via food rather than supplements.

Three Lighthouses

On our first full day in North Carolina, we saw three lighthouses! The first was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. It was early enough in the day that the fog had not burned off and we were the only people around. The lighthouse and cottage were in excellent condition judging from the outside and I read later that the latest restoration had been completed in 2013.

Further south along the barrier islands was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This lighthouse was in the news a lot in the late 1990s. It was moved over the dunes and further inland at that time because the shore had eroded to within a few feet of its base. It appears to have survived the move quite well. Both the Bodie Island Lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse are open seasonally - but we were there a few weeks before that so did not climb either one.

The third lighthouse was near the other end of the barrier island - the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. This one is different than the other too in that it is located in a more settled area and has many trees around its base…and it is also unpainted. Evidently it was never painted. Architecturally it is similar with brick façade and iron structure at the top to hold the ‘light’ source and lens. My husband climbed the steps to the outdoor gallery and discovered that it was very windy at the top! I discovered when I was preparing this blog post that Google Maps has a view from the top of this lighthouse!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 18, 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.

10 Geological Forms we’ve studied for Years and Still Don’t Understand - Some of the forms we thought we understood….only to discover additional mechanisms played a role (in canyon formation, for example).

Why the FDA Has Never Looked At Some of the Additives in Our Food - In the past 5 decades, the number of food additives has skyrocketed from about 800 to 10,000….and many of them have come to market under the ‘generally recognized as safe’ provision in the FDA safety-review process. Some of them have caused severe allergic reactions or long term health effects. This is a scary aspect to our food system. The article prompted to look more closely at the processed foods I buy and try to skew my food purchases to whole foods that I prepare myself.

Hawksbill Turtles: A Rare Good News Story for a Species on the Brink - Hurray!

This Elevation Map of Mars Makes the Red Planet Much More Colorful - From the German space agency

This 19th Century Art Is Made Entirely Out Of Butterfly Wings - I’d much rather see live butterflies!

A Chart Showing You How Much Water It Takes To Grow All the Food You Eat - Were there any surprises on this chart?  Each circle represents the gallons of water per ounce of a food. I found myself wanting more; I wanted to compare whether soymilk (on the graphic) took more or less water than almond milk (not on the chart).

Exceptionally preserved fossil gives voice to ancient terror bird - The fossil is from South America of a bird flightless that was 4 feet tall and is the most complete ‘terror bird’ discovered with 90% of the skeleton preserved.

Top 5 Interesting Nests in North America - It’s the time of year for birds to be building their nests in our area….and there are some interesting ones in this post.

These Knotted Cords Are a Sophisticated Ancient Counting Tool - The Inca’s knotted counting system…that we still don’t completely understand.

Greatest mass extinction driven by acidic oceans, study finds - A key in the past to understand the impact of ocean acidification.

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 April 04, 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.

Disturbingly little known about microbeads, plastics in the Great Lakes - Microbeads and small plastic debris may be a bigger environmental problem than anticipated.

Scientists Urge Museums to Cut Koch Ties - Do sponsors of exhibits at places like American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History influence the content of the exhibits they sponsor? An uncomfortable reality of modern America?

Watch Plants Sprout and Grow In Seconds, In These Astonishing Timelapses - There is a lot of sprouting going on in the springtime. I enjoyed this collection of videos showing acorns, mung beans, and chia seeds sprouting.

15 subway-style maps that explain everything but subways - Some of these maps work well…some are a stretch. Just because the style of map works for subways does not meant it is good for everything. It is fun to see the various subjects depicted this way.

What Creatures Can You Identify In This Fossilized Sea Floor? - How good were powers of observation?  Maybe a larger image would help?

Solar Shingles’ Electricity: Interview with Integrated Solar Technology - I’ve always thought solar shingles would be appealing - if this price was right they should be part of the roof on every house!

Lessons of the world’s most unique supercentenarians - More and more people are living into their 90s…and even past 100. Researchers looking at people over 85 are discovering that chronological age may not be a valid form of measuring health at all.

Good luck and the Chinese reverse global forest loss - Over the past 20 years - China has tree planting projects, there is been more rain in Australia, South America in Africa savanna areas, and Russia/former Soviet republics have regrowing forests on abandoned farmland. That has offset the vegetation loss in the Amazon forests and Indonesia.

With 'Single-Stream' Recycling, Convenience Comes at a Cost - This is frustrating. We have ‘single stream’ recycling in our area. It’s easy but it may mean that more that we ‘recycle’ actually goes to the landfill.

Exercise largely absent from US medical school curriculum, study shows - More confirmation that in the US we train doctors to help sick people….not to help people sustain (or regain) health.

Universities on the Brink of a Nervous Breakdown - Really? Isn’t it healthy for organizations to evolve rather than be static?

Master Naturalist Field Trip - Part 2

After the hike along Trolley Trail between Banneker Historical Park and Museum and Ellicott City on Saturday (previous post), our group headed to the Avalon area of Patapsco Valley State Park. The Thomas Viaduct - a railroad bridge that crosses the Patapsco River and Valley just inside the park. It was completed in 1835 and still carries railroad traffic!

In our previous Master Naturalist classes we had learned about the history of the area from colonial times. Where the sign talks about Elkridge Landing as a port looking unimaginable today; the silt and dams have changed the river tremendously since colonial days when Elkridge Landing was a significant port.

The CCC built building in the park and we visited one. It was built of stone and there was an interesting nest (wasps?) near the ceiling of the porch. The inside is evidently riddled with termites - beyond repair.

There is a sewer pipe is exposed along the river. It was uncovered during the flood caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 - and there is not stable way to cover it again. The river was stocked a few days before our hike; a little boy was fishing with his day and joyously held up a fish they’d caught for us to see as we were walking on the swinging bridge over the Patapsco.

We saw a couple of skunk cabbage just poking up from the leaves.

The main green was moss. This log with green cap was a welcome relieve from the brown leaves.

There was some color in the rocks too if you looked closely…a lot of big crystals in pegmatite.

And what’s not to like about water tumbling over rocks…and down to the river. It was a good last ‘uphill’ for the day. We’d been out and about since 8:30 and it was 4:30. The Master Naturalist field trip was history.

Coursera - April 2015

My Coursera workload in March was light because of the Master Naturalist course workload during the month. It will pick up a little in April.

I finished up the video/reading portion of Australian Literature: a rough guide (University of Western Australia) in March. I appreciated the approach of selecting readings to demonstrate contradictory perceptions: coast and center, home and away, justice and injustice…all with the backdrop of Australian landscape and history. I was surprised at how deep the historical context turned out to be in a short course but perhaps any course about a literature fitted into a national boundary has to bring that nation’s history to the fore.

I started one course during March: Maps and the Geospatial Revolution (The Pennsylvania State University) and it will continue though most of April. It has a linkage to the project I am doing for my Master Naturalist certification - involving a map, of course.

Water in the Western United States (University of Colorado Boulder) is the next course to start (today!). In Maryland, our challenge is more often water quality rather than quantity…in the Western US, the challenge is both.

Now that I have successfully ramped down my Coursera activities so that I could focus on the Master Naturalist class - I’m thinking about the way I want to enjoy Coursera offerings going forward. An annual cycle of activity is beginning to emerge for my volunteer and vacation activities - with peaks in the spring and fall. Should I try to make the peaks for Coursera workload in winter and summer? Is it even possible? It is so hard to not sign up for a course that interests me whenever it is offered!

Master Naturalist Field Trip - Part 1

Last Saturday was the day-long field trip for our Master Naturalist class. It was very cold but everyone bundled up and headed out from the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum. We saw a replica of the type of cabin that would have been on the property when Banneker lived there and marveled that the property was purchased with 7,000 pounds of tobacco. Dried tobacco is very light so we assumed it must have still been green…but that is still a lot of tobacco.

One of the first stops was the Banneky House built in the mid-1800s - long after Benjamin Banneker’s time. Our focus was the rocks on its exterior! This wall showcases Ellicott City Granite with the small, very dark pieces being amphibole.

We started to walk down the pathway of the park to the Trolley Trail that would take us into Ellicott City. The trolley stopped in 1959 and the rail to trail occurred in the 1990s. The forest was not an old forest and there were some houses (some very new ones in the mix) built fairly close to the water. The weather has been too cold for wildflowers to be blooming but there were other things of interest. I always stop for shelf fungi and these with gray/white/rust rings were nestled into some green lichen….the color and texture was eye catching.

There was water trickling everywhere…and the most seemed very green against the backdrop of rocks and brown leaves left over from last season.

The bed of moss has fruiting bodies! Note that the height of the whole plant is only about 2-3 inches.

We saw frogs eggs - but the frogs were silent in the cold (and probably burrowed somewhere to keep warm).

There were swirls in some of the rocks beside the trail. Thinking about the metamorphosis of rock under pressure requires a conscious effort to understand a timescale that is beyond our normal comprehension.

We get down to Ellicott City in time for lunch. The decision to eat at a restaurant (and warm up) rather than picnic was welcomed by all.

I noticed the cairns in the little park across from the restaurant. At least two types of rocks were easy to spot!

The post that marks the water level above the normal river height during various floods is at the river end of Main Street in Ellicott City. The one in 1868 is at the very top of the bridge railing. That would have flooded two floors of the buildings! At that time the area would have been heavily farmed - most of the forests would have been fields so the water would have run off quickly from a storm. The 1972 mark is from Hurricane Agnes. Some forest had grown back but there was beginning to be a lot of housing development. More has been built since then. What would happen if a storm like Hurricane Agnes happened again today? A lot of impervious pavement has been added to the watershed. Are there enough forested buffers and rain gardens to slow down the flow of stormwater during a big storm?

After lunch, our group carpooled to the Avalon area of Patapsco Valley State Park. I’ll post about that part of the field trip later this week.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 28, 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.

A Visual Guide to Chemistry Glassware - A vocabulary lesson in glassware!  Probably everyone knows the difference between a test tube and a beaker…but what about a conical flask and volumetric flask?

From soda bans to bike lanes: Which 'natural experiments' really reduce obesity? - Which changes have made an impact? Studies that included longer follow-up periods after a change showed stronger results. Two examples of changes with strong impact were trans-fat bans and active transportation infrastructure improvement.

50% Driving Ban for Paris Due To Air Pollution - Weather conditions in Paris cause spikes in air pollution this time of year. We normally thin of the larger cities in India and China having the worst air pollution problems. The World Health Organization estimated that air pollution contributed to the deaths of 7 million people in 2012…so it is not an insignificant issue for the world.

Science Photographer Reveals Beauty of the Microscopic World - Manipulation of light through the microscope: transmission, differential interference contrast, optical staining, or dark field contrast.

Adapting to climate change will bring new environmental problems - Can we adapt in a sustainable way…or will our adaptation be short-sighted - and bad for the planet in the long term?

Archaeologists discover Maya 'melting pot' - Evidently mobile groups of hunter gatherers came together with settled groups for construction projects and public ceremonies --- they interacted much more than previous thought. They eventually became more uniformly sedentary.

Genome Study Predicts DNA of the Whole of Iceland - The DeCode project has collected enough full DNA sequences from Icelanders to extrapolate to the whole population (because the people are related). From this analysis, they know that 2,000 people in Iceland have the BRCA2 gene….but cannot tell them. The ethics associated with new technology is complex. In this particular case there is a “right ‘not to know’ of genetic hazards.” With more and more genome data being collected - other nations will soon have the same issue Iceland is facing now.

The Last 200 Years Of U.S. Immigration In One Chart - Click in the upper left corner to enlarge the plot. The overall trend is as interesting as where people came from. World War II had quite an impact while World War I did not.

SolarCity to build its own power grids - The market for solar technology seems to be developing very quickly. There are so many more options now than there were 5 years ago. When will the tipping point come…when more people will have solar - or some form of renewable energy where they live and work.

Compulsive Behavior Sells - Habit-forming technology….a little scary. How quickly will people train themselves to realize that it is happening?

Master Naturalist Training - Week 6

Last Wednesday was the 6th of eight days of training to become a Master Naturalist in Maryland. We managed to go out for a short history walk at Belmont before the rain started. I noticed a lower branch of the English Elm on the slope in front of the house and got this close up of the buds.

Back inside we talked about native and invasive species in Maryland. I’m motivated to think about planting some ‘natives’ at the edge of the forest behind our house. The area has a lot of deer traffic so I may have to protect whatever I plant.  We have big trees but not many samplings because of the heavy browsing. I am starting with two items in a two small areas: ferns in the dampest area of the yard and a spicebush or service berry or winterberry to provide a shrub or understory level plant in the area where it has gotten too shady for grass to grow well. I still love the crocus, snowdrops and daffodils in the spring - even though they are non-native. Our neighbor has an expanding clump of daffodils at the edge of the woods and I enjoy them every spring. Maybe I’ll plant some bulbs next fall around my young understory tree.

In the afternoon the topic was fish. After a short lecture we did several classification exercises with various fishes on newspaper. I appreciate that gloves were provided…and that my pen worked just find to spread the fins and open the mouth! We headed out to the pond; it was cold and we did not get a single fish in the net although we did recognize scat (from our week 3 lecture on mammals). This one had a lot of hair - so a predator - and too big for fox - so probably a coyote. They seemed to frequent the area around the pond.

I also got some images of the bald cypress from the other side of the pond. See the people to the right of the tree…for scale.

Also near the pond are some trees that were planted in protective tubes that seem to be thriving. One had a delicate birds nest from last summer. The ornithology segment of the course is part of the last class.

I did some follow-up work at home from the week 4 lecture on microbes. I made a spore print with a baby bella mushroom I had from the grocery store. It is an easy process: 1) remove any remaining veil covering the gills on the underside of the mushroom and the stem 2) turn it gills down on a piece of paper 3) cover it with an upside down bowl to keep it from disturbed 4) come back in 12+ hours, carefully remove the bowl and mushroom…the spore print will be on the paper. I was surprised at how much moisture the mushroom leaked onto the paper…next time I’ll not used paper that has printing on the other side!

Another follow-up was from week 5. When we went to the stream - we scraped the rocks with a toothbrush and kept the sample of watery debris in the refrigerator for a week. There was no compound microscope in the building for week 6 as originally planned so I took the sample home to look at with my microscope. And there were living diatoms in the sample! I same two different kinds right away….and will look again sometime this weekend.