Gleanings of the Week Ending September 11, 2021

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.

Wind Energy Accounted for 42% of New US Power in 2020 – And solar was 38% of the new energy. And 8 east coast states have large offshore wind projects in the works in the years ahead. Hurray! It’s a good trend and it looks like the slope of the trend will keep increasing for wind and solar (decrease and go to 0 for new natural gas).

How people respond to wildfire smoke -  Another reason to slip on a mask.

Devastating Rain in Tennessee – A map of the change in soil moisture between August 20 and August 21. The floods on August 21 in Tennessee (area circled on the map) killed at least 22 people. I was surprised that there was an area of Illinois (to the north and a little west of the flash flood circle) where the soil moisture increased even more; perhaps that area floods frequently and the area is managed with flooding in mind.

New analysis reveals Vesuvius Victims’ diverse diets – From analysis of Herculaneum skeletons. Men got more of their protein from seafood. Women ate more meat grown on land, eggs and dairy products.

Eye provide peek at Alzheimer’s disease risk – Amyloid plaques can form in retinas of the eye. Does their presence there provide a visible biomarker for detecting Alzheimer’s risk?

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild Birds! – Bird photography…..challenging and beautiful subjects for our cameras.

Have you seen a weasel lately? – There is a suspicion that weasels are in the decline…but the data is circumstantial. These are not predators that have been widely studied. The post points to a role for citizen scientists!

Dispatches from a world aflame – Reviews of two books about the recent fires…and the relation to climate change.

Preemption of Green Cities in Red States – At a time when we need to get serious about addressing climate change – a drive by some states to keep local governments from taking any action. There is a cognitive dissonance between historically arguing for local control then usurping that control when the state government does not agree with it. I like local control but acknowledge that higher up the governance hierarchy could make sweeping changes easier. Perhaps some of these state governments will redeem themselves by quickly taking strong action toward climate change reduction and mitigation – soon. The top issue for me when I vote these days has become climate change!

Climate Change Is The Greatest Threat To Public Health, Top Medical Journals Warn – Another reason that actions to address climate change must be at the forefront of our thinking about the future. Medicine cannot make up for the injury we are making to ourselves and every living thing on the planet.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 20, 2018

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.

Water-based, eco-friendly and energy-saving air-conditioner: All-weather friendly cooling technology works without mechanical compressors or chemical refrigerants, and generates drinking water -- ScienceDaily – This is one of those technologies I hear about…and hope it lives up to the potential talked about.

New Website Explores the Women in Architecture Your History Books Didn’t Teach You About | Smart News | Smithsonian – A little history.

The Ultimate Winter Wildlife Guide: Enjoy and Understand Creatures in the Cold – Cool Green Science and How Does Extreme Winter Weather Affect Wildlife? – Cool Green Science – It has been a cold January for us. The second article mentions that Carolina Wrens often don’t handle very cold temperatures; I did notice that I didn’t see or hear any on the extremely cold days and have only seen one since it has warmed up a little.

If Birds Left Tracks in the Sky, They’d Look Like This – Another instance where photography allows us to see our world in a way that we can’t do with our eyes.

Archaeologist debunking myth that most people died young prior to modern medicine - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) – Looking at teeth of 300 people buried in Anglo Saxon English cemeteries between 375 and 625 AD…and finding some that were older than 75! It is probably true that average life expectancy was short…but there were some that lived to reach old age.

Frozen Bubble Photos Capture the Amazing Beauty of Ice Crystals – I don’t think I am patient enough for this type of photography – but I can enjoy someone else’s work!

Revelations in the Way Poison Frogs Care for Their Young – National Geographic – There is a video of a parent frog getting tadpoles on its back…taking them to a new pool of water!

Face of Ancient South American Queen Reconstructed – Pictures and short video of the facial reconstruction from the woman’s skull. She was at least 60 years old when she died….and died some 1,200 years ago.

Bones of the victims at Roman Herculaneum - HeritageDaily - Heritage & Archaeology News – Skeletons were found in ‘boat houses’ where they were buried under thin mud….preserving the bones. There are enough of them to understand more about the population of the town…like the frequency of pleural inflammation causing rib lesions, skull depressions from excess irritation and scratching attributed to head lice and age demographics.

DNA confirms the Two Brothers’ relationship | Egypt at the Manchester Museum – I remember the Two Brothers from a course on Ancient Egypt and was interested in the DNA analysis that showed they were half-brothers (same mother, different fathers).

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 28, 2017

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.

Get Stuck on Band-Aid History | Smart News | Smithsonian – Patented in 1926….and still basically the same!

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition 2017 Winners – The amazing natural world too small for us to see without technology…captured in photographs.

Beyond Biodiversity: A New Way of Looking at How Species Interconnect - Yale E360 – Going beyond simply counting species…understanding their role and importance to the ecosystem.

Pompeii vs. Herculaneum - Mountain Beltway - AGU Blogosphere – Both destroyed in AD 79 by an eruption of Vesuvius but excavated differently...body casts in Pompeii, skeletons in Herculaneum. Lots of pictures of both places.

Derinkuyu Underground City, the World’s Deepest Subterranean Metropolis – Discovered in 1963…an 18 story underground city that once houses up to 20,000 people in Turkey’s Cappadocia region. Started in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE….flourished in the Byzantine period from 780 to 1180….but there are alternative theories. There are over 200 other subterranean cities in the area!

BBC - Future - The great thaw of America’s north is coming – What happens when permafrost thaws? Infrastructure (houses, roads, airports, etc.) can crack or collapse. Whole villages will need to move…an expensive undertaking and it’s not clear that they would not have to move again when the new area became unstable.

Tower of human skulls found by archaeologists in Mexico, throwing Aztec history into doubt | The Independent – A tower of skulls was mentions in writings of the Spanish conquistadores. It was believed that the skulls belonged to male warriors killed in inter-tribal combat. Now that the structure is found and being examined with modern techniques – it is revealed that the skulls of women and children are included in the tower.

Do You Live in One of the Happiest American States? – I always enjoy looking at the graphics and trying to understand how the data was rolled up. However - I am always suspicious: summing up data about ‘well-being’ is not all that important because it is not something I would use to decide something for myself or my family.

Kitchen of the Future: Smart and Fast but Not Much Fun - The New York Times – I enjoy cooking….not sure I want or need something that prompts me for every step. Most of what I cook does not take very much time as long as the ingredients are in the house. I wonder how much of the technology mentioned in this article will become reality.

Guide to Greener Electronics 2017 - Greenpeace USA -My laptop manufacturer is a C+; smartphone manufacturer is a D-; and Amazon is an F. I have started keeping my laptops for a longer time but they are not built to last. My oldest laptop has a somewhat broken case so it no longer is no long moved from its place in my office.