Gleanings of the Week Ending November 19, 2022

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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.

Energy crisis: How living in a cold home affects your health – The coming winter is going to be very difficult for many – particularly in Europe.

Parks of the 21st century: new ways to reinvent abandoned land – Parks always are signs of hope…the greening of places that might have been eyesores in the past. I wondered how much toxic remediation had to occur for some of the sites they described; its encouraging that we can clean up the messes we’ve made in the past!

Alcohol caused one in eight deaths of working-age US adults – The data used from the analysis was pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the CDC has released data for 2019 and 2020 and it shows a larger-than-normal 26% spike in the alcohol-induced deathrate. In 2020, alcoholic liver disease and mental/behavioral disorders were the leading underlying causes of alcohol-induced deaths. Sad numbers….lots of people and their families impacted.

A field guide to the unusual raptors of the Southern US – I was pleased to see the snail kite in this article – a bird I saw on a birding trip to Florida in 2019.

Farmers in China, Uganda move to high-yielding, cost-saving perennial rice – Very positive results. Hopefully we will eventually have perennial forms of other grains (wheat in particular).

The weirdest places you can find wild turkeys – Wild turkeys have made a comeback since the early 1900s…a restoration success story. Part of the Thanksgiving vibe this week!

Breast cancer survivorship doubles – An analysis of Canadian data from the 2007-2001. The study also highlighted the long-term side effects in these survivors…the need for new therapies to improve the health of women after surviving breast cancer.

Permanent Standard Time Could Save Lives, Explained by A Sleep Expert – I don’t like changing to/from daylight savings time; before reading this article, I didn’t care which one we chose to make permanent. Now I am convinced that we should stick with standard time! There are too many negative health impacts to staying on daylight savings.

How to avoid bad choices – The article is about the research on how to teach children ‘decision-making competence’ – not just a measure of raw brainpower but how well someone is able to appraise situations. There are many approaches but the goal is to get children and adolescents to start thinking about risk and danger in a more analytical way….on the way to adulthood.

Blind spots in the monitoring of plastic waste – The amount of plastic waste in rivers could be up to 90% higher that previously assumed. The current measurements are mainly based on surface observations…but plastic can be suspended or sink! This study tracked 3,000 particles from 30mm to larger objects like plastic cup. Knowing where the plastic is helps guide where clean up would be the most effective.

Ritter Springs

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Ritter Springs is a park near Springfield MO – north of the city in a rural area. It was our first visit to the park (one of our exploratory day trips this fall). There is a one lane paved road a short distance into the park then a gravel parking lot. A gate blocked the gravel road down to a pavilion; near the gate there was a map of the park and its connections to other nearby parks via trails.  

The park would have been a lot more scenic a few weeks earlier before most of the leaves fell. When we were there, drives of leaves accumulated everywhere…filling any low areas.

Even so we enjoyed our walk through the woods along the road and on mowed trails – looking for photo opportunities. I spotted shelf fungus that were bright spots in the fallen leaves,

A buckeye butterfly in a sunny spot,

The torn end of a recently fallen branch,

Some red leaves still on a young oak…protected from the wind by the bigger trees,

And a tree top full of cones.

But probably the tree I got most excited about was the Osage Orange. The tree had a very limited range in pre-colonial North America but has been planted by settlers as a hedge where its thorns deterred free-range livestock from vegetable gardens and corn fields. It also has historical significance in plains states where is was widely planted in rows for windbreaks. This time of year it is easier to identify the trees with their huge fruits….or simply looking up after seeing one of the greenish orbs on the ground. There are a lot more of the trees in Missouri than in Maryland!

I took a closer look at one of the fruits.

Next time…we’ll go further into the park…maybe even all the way down to the Little Sac River!

Our New Neighborhood – November 2022

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The fall in our neighborhood peaked very quickly. It was already fading by early November but I still enjoyed trying to capture the remnants as I walked around the stormwater ponds. There were some leaves in the shallow water in the trough of concrete that feeds water into the ponds. I stopped to take some pictures looking down from the bridge.

And a few colorful leaves are still on the trees.

The oak leaves were thick at the edge of one pond…some wild asters growing through them…floating on the top of the water. I didn’t notice the fish swimming from under the leaves and water plants until I looked at image on my computer screen!

A red eared slider poked its head out of the water a little further away.

On the loop back toward my house, noticed a little color on along the path

And some brilliant red seedlings at the edge of the pond (will they survive to become trees?).

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 12, 2022

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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.

America’s largest transit bus charging station & microgrid open in Maryland – The headline caught my eye because I lived in Maryland for over 20 years – 8 of those in the county where this is happening! I hope other states have the same sorts of projects in the works.

NASA Finds More Than 50 Super-Emitters of Methane – Finding them is only the first step….how many of them will be situations we can reduce or stop the emission?

Iron induces chronic heart failure in half of heart attack survivors – This study prompted testing of iron chelation therapy to remedy or mitigate the effects associated with iron in hemorrhagic myocardial infarction patients.

Unique Bronze Age belt discovered near Opava – Half my ancestors came from the area that is now the Czech Republic…I am drawn to articles about the history of the region.  The belt is quite beautiful…but was it a practical item of apparel?  

What happens if our circadian rhythms are out of whack? – WHO has proclaimed that disrupted circadian rhythms are a probable carcinogen. The study discussed in this post was about the mechanism that circadian rhythm disruption triggers lung tumors.

View 16 Breathtaking Images from the Nature Conservancy’s Annual Photo Contest – Take a little break….look at awesome images of our world.

Mississippi River Basin adapts as climate change brings extreme rain and flooding – This year the stories about extreme weather seem to be more frequent – and wide ranging in terms of water. The Mississippi was low enough for barge traffic to be impacted because of drought…yet there were floods along part of the river just last summer.

Eye-opening discovery about adult brain's ability to recover vision – An unexpected success…opening new ways to treat a vision impairment (LCA) and maybe prompt a re-look about how the adult brain can re-wire itself relative to vision.

The World’s Whitest Paint May Soon Help Cool Airplanes and Spacecraft – A way of making paint that was previously too thick/heavy for things that move. The thicker version works for homes and buildings. We’ll need this technology to reflect heat without expending energy!

Greater cloud cover may be narrowing the gap between daily high and low temperatures – Simulating clouds explicitly. Trying to understand why nights are heating up faster than days across the globe.

Kittens! – Month 3

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Month 3 included a big milestone for our 3 kittens: they handled minor surgery well; Sooty (the male) was neutered and Puma and Pooky (the females) were spayed. They were a little less active for a few days after the surgery but resumed their more boisterous activities within a few days. We had our big cat tree turned on its side and put away the wand toys that encourage jumping until the females got their stitches out a week after the surgery. All three had their claws trimmed before their surgery; that might have discombobulated them more than then surgery…they couldn’t grab onto carpet as they raced around the house or their scratching posts (or things they are not supposed to grab onto!).

My husband is still enticing them into their suite for the night with a late evening snack. Restricting their access to 2 rooms has helped keep the odd thumps in the night to a minimum. They adjusted to the time change without incident although my husband updated a lamp in their suite that was on a timer to not change to new time which might have helped.

Sooty (the male) is still the largest of the three. He is the only one that likes the cat bed that my daughter gave us since her cat didn’t use it.

They all like to sit (sometimes nap) in upholstered chairs – usually one at a time rather than sleeping in a cuddled group as they did when they were younger. Pooky is shown in an old rocker recliner. She is the only one with different colored digital pads.

Pooky and Puma weigh the same…but Puma looks bigger because her fur stands out more.

Puma might have the loudest purr; I hear her more often than I do the others.

I am trying to train all three kittens to not jump onto the kitchen counters. I have a magazine that I used a few times to gently nudge them off….and usually now I simply pick up the magazine and they exit the counter. They still seem to enjoy watching the action in the kitchen from the back of the couch!

Josey Ranch – October 2022

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The work to replace the decking on the boardwalks around the cattails end of the lake at Josey Ranch has been completed.

The damage to the concrete walkways from the drought and the maintenance trucks is still there and is evidently not going to be repaired anytime soon.

My visit toward the end of October was later in the morning, and I didn’t see as many birds as usual. There was one female grackle…not the larger crowd that used to be at there all during the year with raucous calls.

The Great Egret that I see almost every time was still there.

The Snowy Egret was new this time. It was on the other side of the lake in the grass at first then moved to the new decking on one of the boardwalks. The wind ruffled its feathers.

The swans were asleep on the bank.

There were a lot of white feathers in the water and in the grass. I took a series of pictures. Many of the feathers looked relatively fresh, and I wondered if they were from normal preening or a disaster that befell some white bird.

I saw some small birds on the water and walked closer to see them. The Ruddy Ducks were either passing through on migration or maybe they will stay for the winter!

These are diving ducks so it takes some effort to photograph them if they are feeding!

As I walked back toward my car, a turtle was poking its nose out of the water. The lake has been cleared of snags that the turtles could use for sitting on cool days, unfortunately.

Overall – the winter birds had not shown up yet at Josey Ranch by late October. I expect to see more in November.

Spoils of Halloween

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My son-in-law always hosts a pumpkin carving party for his research team before Halloween. This year, 10 pumpkins were purchased for the event; it took two carts to get the pumpkins from the store to the car.

My daughter missed getting a group picture of the results…sent pictures of the three they had on their steps for Halloween (with and without the lights inside).

Like last year – the squirrels are enjoying the spoils of Halloween pumpkins! They start with the carved parts…enlarging the eyes and mouth…small bites until there is almost nothing left to go into the compost! They apparently started with the pumpkin on the top step.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 5, 2022

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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 Tucson, Arizona is facing up to a 1,200-year drought – Harvesting rain!

The demented gift American politicians handed to China – About electric buses….and more. The suggested acronym by the author: GAGA (Give American Greatness Away).

New clues into a serious neurodegenerative disease – So many sources of cognitive decline….and we are just beginning to understand some of the mechanisms (and thus effective treatment). The research described in this post is about frontotemporal dementia.

World headed in wrong direction one 5 key mechanisms of climate progress – And the 5 are: share of unabated fossil gas in electricity generation, carbon intensity of global steel production, share of kilometers traveled in passenger cars, mangrove loss, agricultural production of GHG emissions.

Researchers reveal why shingles can lead to stroke - The risk of stroke is elevated for a year after having shingles. This study found that prothrombotic exosomes which can cause blood clots are found in those with shingles…and persist after the outward symptoms of shingles are gone. Using antiviral agents longer with the addition of antiplatelet and anti-inflammatory agents could help reduce the risk of stroke.

Will we ever…. live in city sized buildings? – Maybe. But would it be pleasant? Maybe an apocalyptic event would force us to do it to survive.

Vitamin D deficiency linked to premature death – The study evaluated 307,601 records from the UK Biobank. Take away message from the results: ensure that vulnerable and elderly maintain sufficient vitamin D levels throughout the year.

Omicron keeps finding new evolutionary tricks to outsmart our immunity – Variants within a variant!

Powerful Aerial Photos Show the Consequences of Drought on the Colorado River – The dry situation in the western US.

Cats react to ‘baby talk’ from their owners, but not strangers – And does this mean we are more than just a food provider in their world?

Springfield Conservation Nature Center

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A few days after the first hard frosts of the year in Springfield MO, we took a short hike on the Springfield Conservation Nature Center trails. The morning was cool and sunny – a near perfect fall day to be outdoors. The forest was full of color. One surprise: there seemed to be more green leaves on the ground than usual; perhaps the trees were caught by the frost before they could change color.

We spotted a young turtle sunning on a log…warming up.

A larger turtle climbed up on the same log. It went back in the water rather than joining the smaller one.

There were ducks preening/snoozing on a log in the water. Their legs and webbed feet looked very bright in the morning sun.

I couldn’t resist some macro images of late flowers…a few insects…even at caterpillar!

Our last ‘find’ of the morning was in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave: a praying mantis making its way across the asphalt!

A morning well spent….

Red Cabbage

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My rule of thumb is to always buy the more colorful version of veggies when they are available – so I always buy the red cabbage rather than green (unless the red is not available)! The extra nutrients in the red cabbage make it worth the little bit of extra cost. However - red cabbage always looks more purple than red to me.

The outer leaves come off easily enough – to roll and then cut into thin slivers for slaw, but the leaves quickly are so tightly wrapped together that they cannot be separated; I cut cross sections through the head and then cut the pile on the board until the pieces are small enough for slaw. I am always fascinated by the patterns of the white and red/purple in the cross sections.

Of course, I never use the whole head at once…and I’ve saved pieces for a few days to see how the patterns change as they age. They shrink a little as they dry…and the purple color may deepen! The white part gets bumpy and begins to look spongy!

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2022

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Ten little celebrations for October 2022 – selected from the ones I logged throughout the month. About half the little celebrations are from my trip to London, Ontario!

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory. Our only sight-seeing stop on our road trip to London, Ontario was at a conservatory. It was just right – interesting for botanical photography and history….close to our route…and the weather was perfect. I celebrated that the stop was a great as I expected it to be!

French cheesecake. I celebrated that it tasted as good as it looked (and the Lactaid tablet enabled me to avoid a tummy ache).

Harvest festival (outdoor and indoor music at Covent Garden Market). A crisp fall day…an outdoor picnic court decorated with winter squashes…country music ---- then indoor for a salad at a bistro table on a balony above the market shops and music from a strings duo. Celebrating fall with my daughter!

The fall color in the first 2 hours of our drive (the Canadian part). The very first hours of our drive toward home from London, Ontario were the best fall foliage of the trip: maples and sumac were at their peak redness in the morning sunshine. Another celebration of the season!

Being home again. Returning from more than a week away….always brings a celebration of home….appreciating where I live.

A sunny day at home. We had two very cold days – but they were sunny. I celebrated the sun streaming in the windows…realized there were certain times of the morning that the sun shines onto my hands on my computer keyboard if the blinds are raised --- vowed to enjoy that as many mornings as possible this coming winter (and celebrate how great my Missouri house is!)

Finding a large bag of daffodil bulbs. The first place I looked for bulbs only had small bags….so I celebrated when I found one with 40 (and many of them were doubles). I am planting them in flowerbeds and around trees in our Missouri yard.

Haircut (short and neat). Celebrating my first haircut in Missouri…I should have done it earlier.

My new floaters are evidently not anything serious….probably just some normal aging. I had a scary experience --- noticing a flurry of new floaters in one eye and some of them seemem to be very bright. They were already reduced by the time I got to an eye doctor a day later…and he confirmed (after some testing) that they were probably normal and would continue to decline. I celebrated that they were not caused by some serious eye problem.

So many good books. I appreciate the online sources of books – particularly Internet Archive. This October it seems like every time I finish a book – or a series of books – there is another one that is just as interesting. I celebrate the ‘stacks’ in virtual libraries that are so huge they would not ever fit on a night stand or even in my house (much less be affordable to purchase). There is always something on hand to read these days!

Zooming – October 2022

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17 images in the zoom slideshow for October 2022. They are from Carrollton TX, Detroit MI, London ON, and Nixa, MO…maybe more locations than any month since before the COVID-19 pandemic!

October is a transition month with leaves beginning to turn colors and fall…more to come of that into November.  For now – enjoy some late blooming flowers and animals active on warmer days.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 29, 2022

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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 an asteroid impact would transform the food we eat – Thought provoking…and scary. Right now, I am beginning to wonder how the level of drought in the US is going to change the food we eat…or will we eat the same way but pay much higher prices.

A Field Guide to Unexpected, Out-of-Place Wildlife – Why wildlife shows up in the ‘wrong’ place… I had read about the shifting range of armadillos last spring (was reminded of it by the reference to the Virginia opossum in this post).

State Of the Birds Report: More Than Half of U.S. Bird Species Are Declining – Sad….another indicator that the Earth is changing.

Economic losses from hurricanes become too big to be offset by the US if warming continues – I’ve been wondering about this since Hurricane Harvey and finally there is some analysis of the data…but, so far, it does not seem to be changing the way we deal with the aftermath of these catastrophic storms. The dominate idea still seems to be ‘rebuild.’

Life expectancy improves in some countries after big drops in 2020 – but US and others see further falls  - The life expectancy at birth in the US was 79.8 in 2019 and was down to 77.4 in 2021. It might take a few years until the impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy is fully understood. It seems to me that there are other cultural changes that happened concurrent with the COVID-19 pandemic that could impact life expectancy in the US into the future: reduced vaccination rates, reduced trust in medical professionals, increased belief in whatever is said on social media and conspiracy theories, increased stress/mental health challenges, etc.

The Clean Water Act at 50: Big Successes, More to Be Done – The Act was passed the year I graduated from high school. I had done a project about algae as pollution indicator in the streams around Dallas, Texas in the fall before so I was aware of water pollution issues of the time. It is frustrating that there is still so much to be done….

New model of Alzheimer’s as an autoimmune disease – A new perspective….maybe leading to new therapies in the future.

Ancient Maya Cities Were Polluted with High Levels of Mercury – The Maya coated surfaces (walls and floors and bodies) with cinnabar…and the mercury from that leached into the water supply and soils. Chronic mercury poisoning causes tremors, weakened vision and hearing, and paralysis! The contamination at some sites is high enough that archaeologists need to use mitigation techniques and protective gear.

Young kids avoid one learning trap that often snares adults – Young kids are not as good at focused attention as adults which means they notice new things happening away from a ‘focus area’ more quickly…..but focused attention can also mean learned inattention in adults which might not be the best strategy in all situations.

After Three Summers, Man Finally Gets Photos of Hummingbird with Rainbow Wings – Beautiful pictures. They prompted me to look up why hummingbird feathers can show the colors of the rainbow. I found a Science Daily post from back in 2020 that offers an explanation.

Unique Aspects of Days – October 2022

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Unique aspects of October….

Border crossing (US to Canada). This was not the only time I crossed the boarder from the US to Canada…but the first time in more than  decade…so rare enough to be unique for me. It was the first day of their new policy to no longer require documentation of COVID-19 vaccination….probabay made it a little faster than it would have been the day before.

Buying a baby present in Canada. Two aspects of uniqueness of this one: deciding that having a baby in my exended family is unique enough to buy an ad hoc present and enjoying shopping during vacation …wanting to buy something (and not always something for me).

Discovering that the fireplace vent was leaking cold air into my office and the hearth room upstairs. There was cold air from the bottom of our gas fireplace doors (the vent area) during our first cold weather of the season. The magnetic strip I ordered from Amazon has fixed the problem…and I am glad I noticed the problem so quickly.

Dry Cleaners. I hadn’t been to a dry cleaners in years. I probably could have taken the jackets I had been wearing for a couple of years several years ago…but then the pandemic stopped our being out and about. I aired the jackets and continued to wear them occasionally. When I went to a dry cleaners near our new house, I was the only customer…and the racks didn’t look very full either.

Exploding broccoli. I was pleased to find a cup of carrots, cherry tomatoes, and broccoli in one of the places we stopped on our way back from Canada. I had not anticated that the lid would be so hard to get off. As my daughter was pulling us out of the parking lot, I was working on the packaging…finding it a bit of a challenge…when the lid suddenly came off and broccoli flew out into my lap and onto the center console! I ate it anyway…and the other veggies too!

Hail. We had quarter sized hail at our house for a brief time. I’m glad our cars were in the garage. In Maryland we never got hail above pea sized (and it was slushy). This hail bouced and stayed around on the ground longer!

Peppermint honey. I bought some peppermine infused honey in Canada…and it is yummy!

Sitting in a sunny window like a cat. A very nice place on a cold morning while I was in Canada.

Tator tots. I hadn’t had tater tots in a lot time….and they were a big disappointment…so the event will probably be unique.

Went to the doctor’s office but the doctor had called in sick. I was signing in for a doctor’s appointment when the nurse came from the back and informed the front desk that the doctor had called in sick! I ended up making an appointment with another doctor since she was so fully booked it would be more than a month before I could be worked into her schedule!

Our New Neighborhood – October 2022

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It’s our first fall in Nixa, Missouri. The trees around the ponds in our neighborhood are full of fall color although they may be more muted than some years because of the dry summer we had. Still – there are plenty of reds and yellows that have been added to the greens still left from summer.

I am glad that there are maples around that are as brilliant as the ones we left behind in Maryland. My favorite time is when the tree has a lot of different colors!

At the edges of the ponds, I noticed some honey suckle blooming…and seed pods.

In the water there were two different turtles. Ones was a red-eared slider.

But I’m not sure what the other one was. It was larger than the red-eared slider…had very different markings and shell. Too bad I didn’t get better pictures. It’s good to know that there are at least 2 kinds of turtles in our neighborhood!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 22, 2022

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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.

US National Integrated Drought Information System – 68.4% of the US is abnormally dry…46% is in moderate drought…27% in severe drought. Use the location tab of this page to select state or county level maps color coded for their drought status. Where I live, we are in moderate drought.

Autumn in the Adirondacks – Leaf color has not been impacted by the drought in the Adirondacks. The pictures are from the Landsat 9 satellite. I’m enjoying the color from the ground – even with the drought here in Missouri making it not as colorful as it probably was in prior years.

Why cork is making a comeback – The main product mentioned in the article was cork stoppers….but I thought of the calm I felt when I walked into the University of Michigan’s Law Library with a tour group and realized how much the cork floor muffled our footsteps. It was the highpoint of the trip with my daughter when she was considering the school for her undergraduate studies.

Blue fibers found in dental calculus of Maya sacrifice victims – Analysis of more than 100 sacrifice victims found blue fibers in the mouths of 2 of them. Are the fibers from blue gags left in the mouths of victims over and extended time? Similar pigment called Maya blue has been found in other sites where it may have been used to paint the bodies of sacrificial victims. Another archeological mystery…

See the buzzworthy winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition – Eye candy for the week.

Millions of Americans are losing access to maternal care. Here’s what can be done – 36% of the counties nationwide – largely in the Midwest and South – constitute “maternity care deserts,” meaning they have no obstetric hospitals or birth centers and no obstetric providers. That does not bode well for the health of mothers and the next generation.

These stunning satellite images look like abstract art – and they reveal much about our planet – 8 images selected from US Geological Survey satellite images of the Earth’s surface.

Engineers weave advanced fabric that can cool a wearer down and warm them up – Maybe the ‘cool down’ of this technology (if it can be developed) will help us deal with climate change more effectively. There are already beginning to be more heat related deaths and there will be some occupations that will become impossible without technology to cool the body in outdoor environments.

Rainfall is becoming more intense in most of the US – East of the Rockies…there is increasing precipitation intensity. Water resource management is more challenging. Flooding risk is going up too.

USGS Public Lecture Series – A wide range of topics including volcanoes in Alaska, earthquake early warning for all, migratory big game, droughts and groundwater quality, modernizing the national water information system….and many more. I am beginning to work my way down this YouTube playlist.

The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten

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Oliver Herford’s The Rubáiyát of a Persian Kitten is available from Internet Archive…it was published in 1904 with his drawings….showing that the antics of kittens were as amusing more than 100 years ago as they are today. The swatting of the ink bottle on the desk might date one of the sample images I selected, but the motion of the kitten is familiar… and equally disastrous for any small breakable/spillable object on a counter or table…as we experience every day with our 3 kittens.

Enjoy browsing this book online: The Rubáiyát of a Persian kitten!

London, Ontario: Carpenter Ant

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My daughter and I waited for the warmest afternoon to eat outdoors at Morrissey House near our hotel. Shortly after we sat down, a small insect flew onto the menu. A case of wildlife in the city of London, Ontario! I began to take macro images of it and then realized it was shedding its wings! It looked like an ant to me. My daughter commented that it could be a termite.

The sequence above happened over less than a minute! The waitress returned and took the menu – ending my photographic opportunity.  

A little research using the photos….and I concluded that it was a carpenter ant.

London, Ontario: Banting House National Historic Site

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At 2 AM, October 31, 1920, Frederick Banting woke up and wrote down a 25-word hypothesis becoming ‘the man who discovered insulin.’

It happened in the house in London, Ontario after he completed a literature review prior to preparing a lecture on the pancreas and metabolism for the new medical school at Western University. He only lived in the house for 10 months, returning to Toronto where he could access facilities for diabetes research. The transition from idea to clinical practice happened very quickly; he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923.

Banting House is open for tours with a focus on Banting’s life as a doctor and artist…and the impact his medical contribution had (and continues to have) for so many people. The room where he slept…and recorded his idea…is small with original linoleum and restored wallpaper…lumpy bed. The house was a rooming house for a time after Banting lived there but was always well-maintained.

The museum also exhibits artifacts donated by the family of Teddy Ryder, one of Banting’s first patients. He had Type I diabetes and was dying when he got his first insulin injection from Banting when he was 6 years old in 1922. At the time, each batch of insulin was tested for potency since the production was still being done by the researchers in a lab. Teddy lived to be 77 years old! There is an online exhibit about Teddy Ryder on the museum’s web site.

Painting was Banting’s method of escape and relaxation from his professional life and he was influenced by the Group of Seven….often travelled with A.Y. Jackson to paint the Canadian Landscape. One of the rooms of the museum exhibits some of his work. At the time of his death in 1941, Banting was anticipating retirement from medicine to spend more time on painting.

There is a small garden to the side of the house. There was black squirrel that seemed very accustomed to people.

There was an artsy wall I noticed on the walk back to my hotel….another good walk in downtown London, Ontario.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 15, 2022

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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.

Previously deployed military personnel show retained dust in lungs – The lingering impact of deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Rio Grande shrinks, El Paso plans for uncertain water future – Preparing for a year when there is no river water. Elephant Butte Reservoir that stores water for Las Cruces NM and El Paso TX, where I went on a birding field trip in November 2016, is currently at 5.6% of its capacity. So far – nothing has resolved the water insecurity of the region into the future.

Watercolor seas in the wake of Hurricane Ian – The impact of water surging and running off…natural-color imagery from NASA’s Terra satellite. There is also an image from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite detailing the coastline near Fort Myers.

Solar Community Slammed by Hurricane Ian: “Our Lights Stayed On” – And another Hurricane story…this one from the ground – Babcock Ranch, about 2 miles from Fort Myers.

Pre-Hispanic images revealed on early convent walls in Mexico – Hmmm….the building was not always a Christian convent?

Has the pandemic changed your personality? – Declines in extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness among adults were measured…particularly in young adults (ages 18-25). I found myself wondering whether the political upheaval that was happening at the same time contributed to the finding; the collective stress levels were probably heightened by more than the pandemic.

A field guide to Jackrabbits – An animal to look for in the west….next time I travel there.

Multiple health benefits of b-type procyanidin-rich foods like chocolate and apples consumed in right amounts – The study showed that peak benefits are achieved at mid-range doses rather than high or low doses. But it is not clear how to get the mid-range dose through diet…which made this article interesting but not actionable.

How did Vikings make glass beads? – Evidently by salvaging Roman and Byzantine mosaics as their raw material!

Scientists are finding fungi in cancerous tumors – A surprise…and lots of research still to be done to understand if the fungi are a correlation or contributor to the tumor.