Gleanings of the Week Ending February 17, 2024

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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.

The lost art of the death mask – In the late Middle Ages (after 50% of the population was wiped out in 4 years by plague), death masks were created by molding wax or plaster over the face, and were a useful way of copying the features of deceased relatives, so that sculptors could use them as a reference for the lifelike portraits displayed at funerals. Then in the 18th Century, something unexpected happened: people began to value death masks for their own sake. Many death masks were turned into spooky heirlooms, while some became souvenirs that command six-figure sums to this day.

Rapa Nui’s Rongorongo Tablets in Rome Radiocarbon Dated - In the nineteenth century, Roman Catholic missionaries took four wooden tablets bearing rongorongo glyphs from Easter Island. They have recently been radiocarbon dated; three of the tablets were made from trees cut down in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries; the fourth tablet came from a tree felled sometime between 1493 and 1509, some 200 years before the arrival of Europeans in the 1720s.

Tribe Making Play to End Oil Development at Big Cypress National Preserve - The National Park Service took charge of the land 50 years ago, which is a haven for some of Florida’s most endangered wildlife species, such as the Florida panther — but not the mineral rights under the land. Those are owned by the Collier Resources Company, which has from time to time dispatched oil companies to the preserve to look for black gold.

Bird Alert: The Search for Local Rarities – The joy of birding close to home!

Archaeologists discover oldest known bead in the Americas - At the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming. Made of bone from a hare. Almost 13,000 years old.

Stunning Macro Photos Pay Homage to the Frozen Beauty of Winter – A good reminder to check ice as a subject for winter photography!

Ancient pollen trapped in Greenland ice uncovers changes in Canadian forests over 800 years - The onset of the Little Ice Age around 1400 and the arrival of European settlers and subsequent intensive logging practices around 1650. The pollen in ice can be dated almost to the year it was deposited!

Back Pain Explained - Many people with degenerated discs feel no pain at all….but others have severe pain. It appears that when aging or under degenerative stress, a subset of cells in the center of the disc can release a cry for help, a particular signal that causes outside neurons to extend their axons within, allowing the brain to feel the pain inside. This work could inform future treatments for discogenic lower back pain!

PACE Makes it to Space – NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) was launched February 8…preparing to move into operational phase soon.

How our drinking water could come from thin air - The solar-powered hydropanels work by using sunlight to power fans that pull air into the device, which contains a desiccant material which absorbs and traps moisture. The water molecules accumulate and are emitted as water vapor as the solar energy raises the temperature of the panel to create a high-humidity gas. This then condenses into a liquid before minerals are added to make it drinkable. There are several startups with other approaches to produce water from air too. And they all work even with dry air.

May Yard Work

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There is a noticeable uptick in yard work in May….always something to do. The temperature is warm enough – and there is sufficient rain – for the grass to need to be mowed (weed eating/edging) weekly. Most of the time my strategy is to do the front yard one day and the back the next. In the back I am realizing it was a mistake to plant alliums in the grass since they are not done yet….so there is a patch of taller grass along with them.

There was one week that had a lot of rain in the forecast, so I opted to mow everything in one day before the rain. I took a little break after I used up the batteries…only a little left to go and I needed some down time anyway. When I started again, the most robust pine in our yard was in my path. When I bumped it – yellow pollen swirled through the air – and I diverted to give it wide berth. Some of the grass near it did not get mowed! The allergic reaction didn’t start until somewhat later – one of the worst of the year so far; I didn’t even realize I was allergic to pine pollen until now.

One of our other pines is problematic. It is leaning toward other landscaping and our house – the ground freshly heaved upward. The arborist says it can’t be saved so they will come soon to take it down.    

Both rose bushes appear dead. They are older but the landscaping fabric/rocks were added by the previous owner before she put the house on the marker and they might have caused them a problem. I’ll start cutting them up and burning the sticks in my chiminea fire pit soon – a better solution than cutting them up and taking them to the recycling center (yard waste) since the thorns making handling hazardous.

I cleared away rocks and landscaping fabric from an area and planted sunflowers, black eyed susans, cone flowers, gladiolus, and a wildflower mix in the big plan and some mini-pumpkin seeds in a smaller area nearby.

I sprinkled the area with spent flowers and empty edamame pods as a kind of celebration of the bed after I finished. I’ll be collecting seeds from the things that grow this year (except for the gladiolus) to plant in other areas next year. Creating places to plant has been hard  work (rock is heavy and landscaping fabric is tough).

Realizing that the weight of the rocks might be a problem for some of our other plants, I raked rocks away from the small cedars that have looked sick from the beginning. And there are more plants that might need the same help. Always something else that needs to be done in the yard!