10 Years Ago – In October 2002

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 September 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10. 

1. A Florida man who was lost at sea for more than two months was rescued 40 miles off the coast
2. Canada plans to create 10 huge new national parks and five marine conservation areas over the next five years to protect unique landscapes and animals 
3. Enrollment at major Canadian schools by U.S. citizens has risen by at least 86 percent over the past three years, to about 5,000 students.
4. King Tut - an abnormal curvature of the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae, a condition associated with scoliosis and a rare disorder called Klippel-Feil syndrome, which makes sufferers look as if they have a short neck.
5. Sniper keeps D.C. area on edge
6. Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize
7. Peruvian archeologists have discovered a complete mummified human skeleton in the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu
8. Bacteria found in a 2,000-year-old piece of cheese could be the final evidence that this food was a continuous source of infectious disease in the ancient Roman world.
9. All 115 hostages killed in the raid that ended a Moscow theater standoff died of health problems stemming from the gas used by Russian forces to end the siege
10. About 150,000 years ago, an anomalous ice age was triggered by an increasingly salty Mediterranean Sea, a development that's occurring today and may start new ice sheet growth in the next few decades

10 Years Ago – In August 2002

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 August 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.    

1. Overfishing of shark prey in the Atlantic Ocean means sharks are coming closer to shore to find food
2. A quest for oil in the North Sea has turned up an ancient well-preserved impact crater
3. Global warming is causing squid to grow abnormally large and speeding up their breeding cycles,
4. Archaeologists have discovered an Egyptian birth-brick. It would have been one of pair used to support a woman's feet during childbirth.
5. Maryland to poison pond to kill Snakehead fish
6. A dense blanket of pollution, dubbed the "Asian Brown Cloud," is hovering over South Asia
7. Prague prepares for the worst as waters rise
8. 100th birthday celebrations of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl
9. Nearly one million volunteers and soldiers in China's Hunan Province are racing against time to stop what could become the biggest flood in decades
10. An ancient skull found on a London riverbank with a large hole in it shows that brain surgery was performed at least 3,750 years earlier than thought. The skull dated by English Heritage to 1750 B.C. 

As usual - the list is heavily skewed toward science and technology.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 28, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Colorful Science Sheds Light On Solar Heating - visualization from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. There is a short video to explain how they do the color coding.

You May Never Need to Clean Your Car Again, Thanks to New Coating Technology - estimated 6-8 years to production. If it works - it will be used on many more things that cars

Radiant creatures and their fluorescent proteins - DayGlo color from living organisms. Also take a look at the slideshow.

Insider Tips From The Grand Teton National Park Foundation - This is a recent post about Grand Teton but the site includes posts on all the parks…check it out as you plan a visit to one of them

Mad About Moths – National Moth Week! - Butterflies tend to capture more attention….but moths are interesting too!

A California jail offers a glimpse of the economic and environmental benefits of locally generated energy - microgrids already are cost effective in some parts of the country particularly for organizations that require very reliable power (hospitals, prisons, data centers, etc.) and their cost is coming down

Chris Helzer - Prairie ecologist and photographer - video that shares photos from the prairie; there’s a lot there to see

The Devil’s Pool - The swimming hole at the top of Victoria Falls (video)

Massive Ice Melt In Greenland - 97% of the Greenland ice sheet has surface melting. Last time it occurred was in 1889 based on ice cores. It went from 40% to 97% in 4 days!

Treatise on Landscape Painting in Water-colours - by David Cox and C. Geoffrey Holme and published in 1922. The images are not in color but they are detailed and still evoke stories of place. The link above is directly to the beginning of the image section in the ‘read online’ double page format that I prefer for books like this; the image below is what that format looks like and the green arrows show how to ‘page forward’ . To view the book in a different format, start with the main entry for the book on the Internet Archive here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 14, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Way out in a barren Chilean desert, the biggest telescope ever made is taking shape - Photos from the construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array

High-Tech Tools Give Researchers New View Of Yellowstone Thermal Features - Thermal maps of popular areas within the park

Electricity Storage - Wow - there are a lot of new ways out there and the idea of ‘storage’ of electricity implies a more robust infrastructure for reliable power than we have now

12 stats that matter to digital publishing - the number of people reading electronically rather than from paper is growing….and what/how they read is changing too

Heron Cam 2012 Highlights - All 5 have fledged from the Sapsucker Woods nest!

Scientific History and the Lessons for Today's Emerging Ideas -  A look back at what was happening in the 1890-1910 time period…lots of theories…some are threads to current theories, others are on the trash heap

Bridges for Animals - All around the world…this is an idea being tried to reduce road kill on highways

The 10 most pristine places on earth - none are in the US

Yama no sachi - A Japanese book from 1765. Read it on the Internet Archive. Use page down (or up) to browse through the book. It has illustrations of flowers, insects, and animals. My favorites are the peony (at right) and the poppy.

Drought leads to declaration of natural disaster in 26 US states - That’s more than half the states!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 7, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article:

Paint-On Lithium Battery Can Be Applied to Virtually Any Surface - Storage for energy from paint-on solar panels?

Atrazine, a continued concern for all - herbicide banned in the EU but still used in the US….and in our water supply

Good News for Aging Eyes: Debilitating Eyesight Problems On the Decline for Older Americans - Hurray!

Photos of fire damage in Western States - Scary and sad

Pictures: 25 new reef fish found - from National Geographic

Ocean Leaders “Shake Up” How We View the Seas - “Consider the ocean as the blue heart of the planet. How much of your heart would you save?” - Sylvia Earle

Wanted: Vision and Leadership to Ensure a Sustainable Water Future for America - It’s pretty scary what we don’t know about our water resources

What’s Behind the Record Heat? - Map showing temperature anomaly. My immediate area does not look too bad…but Colorado is having a very hot year.

Defuse Summer's TICKing Time Bomb - 10 tick prevention tips and a picture of what the Lyme’s Disease bullseye looks like.

Drought Monitor Shows Record-Breaking Expanse of Drought Across United States - The area where I live is ‘abnormally dry’ but there is a lot of country that is in drought conditions. Enlarge the map for a closer look.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 9, 2012

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

Animals Benefiting From Climate Change - a slide show from Discovery News

Dark Chocolate Could Prevent Heart Problems in High-Risk People - Evidence keeps mounting re the benefits of 60-70% dark chocolate

Things That Go Bump—or Hoot—in the Night: 5 Animals You May Hear While Camping in Your Yard - pictures and recordings of sounds they make

Discover Life - free on-line tools to identify species, share ways to teach and study nature’s wonders, report findings, build maps, process images, and contribute to and learn from a growing, interactive encyclopedia of life

How much energy does the internet use? - about 2%...quite a bit is by huge data centers and the article discusses the methods used/proposed to reduce their consumption

Brainmail Bonanza - Richard Watson’s (accidental futurist) newsletter highlights

Horseshoe Crab are blue bloods - their blood is copper rather than iron based

'Safe' Levels of Arsenic in Drinking Water Found to Compromise Pregnant/Lactating Mothers, Offspring

Top Wind Power Countries per Capita

After three months of trying to contact the Mars rover, NASA is calling it quits - Goodbye to Spirit

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 19, 2012

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

Scientists 'Read' Ash from the Icelandic Volcano Two Years After Its Eruption - A description of how data was collected immediately following the event and how it is now being used to improve model for predicting dispersion of particles - particularly from volcanic eruptions

Sulfur Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism - looking at the Earth as a giant living organism…sulfur in the ocean, atmosphere, and land

Study in Rats Shows High-Fructose Diet Sabotages Learning, Memory - what you eat has an impact…this study says reduce high-fructose and make sure you have enough omega-3 fatty acids

Statistical Analysis Projects Future Temperatures in North America - map that shows the temperature change expected by 2070 for the US.

First Gene Therapy Successful Against Aging-Associated Decline: Mouse Lifespan Extended Up to 24% With a Single Treatment - Research from Spain. Treatment has been found safe and effective in mice. The effectiveness was shown in ‘health span’ not just life extension.

List Of "Most Endangered Rivers" Flows Through National Parks - the Potomac is #1 on this list…that’s pretty close to home for me

Yosemite Nature Notes: Water - 6.5 minute video - waterfalls, churning water, gently flowing water, rainbows in the mist…and then it’s trek all the way to the coast of California; narrated by park rangers

Evolution Of A Glasshouse: From Colonial Glassmaking To Decorative Arts - Jamestown Colonial National Historical Park includes a glassworks!

Prosthetic Retina Offers Simple Solution for Restoring Sight - just one of the promising technologies to address the problem of age related macular degeneration; I hope one of them is practical and effective by the time I need it

Backyard Color of the Week: Yellow - last week it was blue….this week is yellow

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 28, 2012

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

Red-Rock Splendors of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks (video)

Anti-depressants likely do more harm than good - How many other drugs would come out like this is reviewed from a whole system perspective?

A serving a day of dark chocolate might keep the doctor away - A study that showed 50 grams of 70% dark chocolate was good for you. I love having it for breakfast (although I usually have only eat 20 grams)!

Surging Seas - a site that gets specific about the expected impact of rising sea level by 2020.

Almost Seven Million Birds Perish at Communication Towers in North America Each Year - a study that documented the problem…and some possible solutions (for example - making the red lights blinking rather than solid would reduce mortality by 45%!)

Building Muscle Without Heavy Weights - more repetitions with lower intensity also works!

If the food’s in plastic, what’s in the food? - Maybe we need to know more about the packaging of the food we eat

NASA Landsat Satellites See Texas Crop Circles - An image and a bit of history about irrigation and Landsat

Psychologists use social networking behavior to predict personality type - Some research results that prompts more questions than it answers

Less invasive scoliosis treatment - A rod system that is manipulated with magnets - marketed by a California Company - being tested in Hong Kong because of the difficulty getting technology approved for testing in the US

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 21, 2012

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

Trekking Poles - A comparison of 3 hiking sticks. I am eventually buy a pair

Innovate or Evaporate commentary - from Norm Augustine - After a major study of the ever widening education gap, Management Consultant McKinsey and Co. concluded that "if U.S. youth could match the academic performance of students in Finland, our economy would be between 9 and 16 percent larger."

4 feet of hail near Amarillo TX on 4/11 - Wow…and then came flash flooding when it melted

Traveler’s Checklist: Petrified Forest National Park - Things to do and see

1000 Days of Infrared Wonders - 10 images from the Infrared Array Camera aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (there is a ‘tornado’ nebula!)

Magnifying the Universe - Click on the graphic…and start looking at the relative size of things…from the observable universe to a hydrogen atom

Space Shuttle Discovery Flies Over the National Mall - En route to its museum home on 4/17

Atul Gawande: How do we heal medicine (TED talk)

The Worrying Consequences of the Wikipedia Gender Gap - Almost half the readers of Wikipedia are women but they make up only 13% of those that contribute…and it appears to be impacting the content

State of Flux - NASA’s images of change…mining growth in Chile, Dead Sea, plus more…in time for Earth Day on 4/22 (look at the bottom to see more before and after images…there is a series of pictures of the Dallas-Fort Worth area from 1974 to 2003)

15 Earth Day Tips that Really Make a Difference

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 17, 2012

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

Visualizing the Growing E-Waste Epidemic - a graphical view of the way we dispose of computers, cell phones, televisions, monitors, printers. Maybe we should change the scenario.

NASA Scientist: Will We Leave Our Children a “Climate System Spiraling Out of Control”? - (video)

Energy stats from Germany - In 2011, 40% of their nuclear power capacity was phased out….and they still remained a net power exporter!

Recent Generations Focus more on fame, money than giving back - Data collected from the American Freshman survey over the past 40 years on 9 million young adults…unexpected results.

Lenticular Cloud - A wonderful photograph

Air Pollution Could become China’s Biggest Health Threat - lung cancer and cardiovascular illnesses already rising

How Packaged Foods Makes Girls Hyper - Why is BPA still in our food chain (the resins that line cans of food, packaging, drink containers)?

‘Invisible Wires’ for Transporting Electricity on SolarWindows - How long will it be before this technology (or something equivalent) is ready for market…and then used in virtually all new windows?

The Secret Powers of Time - A Philip Zimbardo video

WolfQuest - a 3D wildlife simulation game that challenges players to learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park

 

10 Years Ago – In February 2002

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.