The Beauties of Early Fall

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As we walked around the Smithsonian Mall and the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC, the plantings were representative of ones that are truly at their best in this area just before the leaves turn and then fall. The roses like the cooler weather. The grasses have full seed heads. The asters show their blue and purple color liberally. The dogwoods lead the color change and the winterberry has bright red berries that contrasts with the green leaves still on the bush. There may not be as many butterflies but the ones that are still around may be easier to see because they don’t flutter as rapidly in the cooler temperatures. Enjoy the slide show of these beauties of early fall and celebrate fall!

10 Years Ago – In April 2002

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Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the April 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.   

  1. Wildfire scorches parts of New Mexico
  2. A new census in the solar system doubles the number of large asteroids thought to lurk between Mars and Jupiter.
  3. Despite decades of legal protection, the billion or so monarch butterflies that overwinter in Mexico are losing the cloudbelt forests they depend on
  4. China tops list of world executioners
  5. Thousands of mummies, most of them from the Inca culture five centuries ago, have been unearthed from an ancient cemetery under a shantytown near Lima in Peru,
  6. Huge colonies of Earth microbes are living off of hydrogen gas released by common rocks, raising the possibility of similar life forms on Mars
  7. Adventurer Thor Heyerdahl dead at 87
  8. Cooking tomatoes -- such as in spaghetti sauce -- makes the fruit heart-healthier and boosts its cancer-fighting ability
  9. Four whooping cranes taught to migrate by human trainers have completed the return trip to Wisconsin from Florida on their own
  10. Being the firstborn child in a family may make a person more likely to develop coronary disease

As usual, my interests are reflected in these top 10: space exploration (2 and 6), earth systems and exploration (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9), food/health (8 and 10).

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 24, 2012

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Fundamental Steps Needed Now in Global Redesign of Earth System Governance - the argument of 32 scientists and researchers that some fundamental reforms are needed to avoid dangerous changes in the Earth system

How Monarch Butterflies Recolonize Northern Breeding Range - About 10% of the Monarchs in Canada have come all the way from Mexico. 90% were born en route mostly in the central US.

Feeding Habits of German Wolves - Less than 1% of their prey is livestock

The Physics of Cooking (Science and Cooking) - Videos from Harvard that talk about the mechanics of various culinary techniques (there are 42 hours - 26 segments - of videos on the topic!)

America’s First Cuisines - A chapter from the book that focuses on produce that came from the new world

A brief history of solar energy - Beginning in 1767….

Monarch butterflies down again this year - The scene from Texas - 30% fewer monarchs this year

Surface features on Vesta (giant asteroid) - New pictures from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft

Civic Engagement and Local e-Government: Social Networking Comes of Age - a study of how local governments are using social media…a ranking of the 75 largest cities in the US

What is your Water Footprint? - A calculator of how much water your lifestyle takes

10 Years Ago – In February 2002

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Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the February 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.

  1. Intellectual Resources May Help Soldiers Stave Off Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
  2. Second space tourist to take stem cells, HIV experiment
  3. The recent discovery of two giant Roman water-lifting machines near St. Paul's Cathedral in London
  4. Study shows the average sleep for Americans of seven hours per night is safest
  5. Texas A&M Clones First Cat
  6. Enormous Iceberg May Be In Its Death Throes; Collisions With Another Large Berg
  7. Plague fears spark panic in India
  8. A cold front that killed about 250 million Monarch butterflies in central Mexico last month may reduce next year's migrations.
  9. Glacier melting could contribute 0.65 feet or more to sea level this century
  10. One of the odd possibilities that could emerge from global warming is that much of Europe, robbed of the ocean current patterns that help keep it warm, could rather abruptly enter a deep freeze and have a climate that more closely resembles Alaska than the modest temperatures it now enjoys.

Notice that weather and climate figure prominently in this list (6, 8, 9, 10) since it must have been and area of interest to me in 2002. The last blurb must have been from a story about global weather models; I wonder if the low temperatures in Eastern Europe this year are going to happen with increasing frequency.

Item 8 about Monarch butterflies was a turning point in our summer activities. For several years before 2002 we had collected Monarch eggs and caterpillars from the milkweed behind our house, feed them well while they were caterpillars, and released them when they hatched from their chrysalis. There were not enough Monarchs in our area of Maryland from 2002 onward.