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.

Brookside Gardens Lotus Blossom - July 2012

On Friday (7/20/2012) when we made our trip to Brookside Gardens - the only Lotus blossom was facing into some leaves and too far away to photograph…but there were buds.

On Sunday (7/22/2012) when we returned - after almost 24 straight hours of rain - one of the buds had opened fully. I took a number of pictures and noticed that there seemed to be a lot of bees coming and going from the flower.

The only way to see inside the flower was to reach as far as I could and point the camera into the flower from above (in other words - taking the picture without being able to see the screen of the camera at all). The best one is below. It clearly shows that bees love lotus flowers! I think there are 6 bees visible!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 21, 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:

Jared Ficklin video - (TED talk) sound visualization

Photos: Big sunspot kicks ball of energy toward Earth - views from the STEREO Ahead spacecraft and the Solar Dynamics Observatory over the past year

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #16 - from National Geographic

Brits Top Energy Efficiency Ranking; US Ranks 9th (Out of 12) - Wow! Even China is ahead of us. How can we be competitive with so many of the major economies of the world ahead of us in this arena

States Lead in Freeing the Grid for Small-Scale Renewable Energy - How well is your state doing?

New Metric for Obesity Strongly Correlated to Premature Death - A Body Shape Index (ABSI) is a combination of Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference

Web Quiz Tells You Which Presidential Candidate Best Fits Your Worldview - Interesting quiz

Cassini Spots Daytime Lightning On Saturn - Seen for the first time on the side illuminated by the sun

Green Plants Reduce City Street Pollution Up to Eight Times More Than Previously Believed - and they look good too! Green 'billboards' of vines or grass may be more effective than trees.

Storm Scents: It's True, You Can Smell Oncoming Summer Rain - Just what are you smelling before, during and after a summer rainstorm? Here are some answers from Scientific American

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.

Life without Electricity

We were without power from Friday, June 29 about 11 PM to Wednesday, July 4 about 4 PM - that’s 4 days and 17 hours or 113 hours. This posting is a first installment about the experience.

This is the longest time I’ve ever been without electricity at home and the first time to have a prolonged outage when the temperature was getting above 90 degrees Farenheit every day. The first few days were quite difficult because the outage was widespread. On Saturday morning we bought ice at a grocery store that was running a small part of the store on generators and bringing out pallets of ice. The next morning they didn’t have ice so we went to another store that seemed to be fully operational but they must have been on generators since all the stores around them were without power. We settled into a rhythm to go out to buy ice every morning before 7:30 getting more frustrated with our situation every morning; by Wednesday we knew that we were in the last 10% to be restored. The refrigerator items went into ice chests on Saturday morning and the freezer items (minus ice cream which had to be trashed) went into ice chests on Sunday. We managed to save everything except 3 eggs that broke (out of a dozen), the tortillas that got waterlogged from ice melt, and the cherries that absorbed water and cracked/burst. I’m in the process of cooking all the meat. Yesterday I cooked a brisket in the crockpot, barbequed pork chops in a casserole dish in the oven, and a meat loaf. Today I have to do something with the chicken. The ice chests have dried out and I’ll put them away today.

There were some things I came to be grateful for: 

• We have a finished basement. It never got above 78 degrees Farenheit although it was humid and the air was very still.
• We are on city water and never had a problem with water pressure. People with wells had quite a challenge.
• We have a gas hot water heater. It was so hot, cold showers would have been tolerable but it was nice to have the heat.
• The grocery stores made a valiant (and successful) effort to make ice available.
• I had a good supply of physical books to read. 

I always go into some level of self-analysis during and after an abrupt change like this. How resilient was I? In some areas I did well: switching my reading to physical books rather than e-books, staying still and drinking more water and herbal tea in an attempt to stay cool, and doing what had to be done to preserve our food. My daily sleep/wake cycle was almost unchanged.

So - looking back to the outage days - the two things I can point to as ‘accomplishments’ are 

• 9 books read (and 2 partials)
• Majority of food from refrigerator/freezer saved 

Falls Creek Falls and Cumberland Mountain State Parks - Tennessee

A few weeks ago when I was in Tennessee - I enjoyed several state parks in the area between Nashville and Knoxville. The first one was Falls Creek Falls which is located near Pikeville, TN. It has shady trails and water falling over rocks and over cliffs. The rhododendrons were blooming when we were there. The trails are well maintained and labeled - but prepare for some up and down hills if you want to see the waterfalls really well. Many trails don’t require a long hike and hikers can take advantage of the water to cool off (wading…some swim) once they make the trek.

Right outside the park was a trading post where I found some great earrings and bracelets at very reasonable prices. It was a spur of the moment stop but it was probably the best shopping of the entire week.

The next day we went to Cumberland Mountain State Park near Crossville, TN. The 7 arch sandstone bridge that was built by the CCC is relatively dry with the lake lowered to rebuild another bridge. We hiked to get several vantage points of the bridge; the quality of the work overall and the drainage structures from the road bed were impressive. The slide show below is from our hike. After enjoying the park we toured one of the houses built as part of the Cumberland Homestead project in the 1930s.

There is a brochure that has a blurb on all the Tennessee state parks that is available at Tennessee rest stops and parks; another good source is the Tennessee State Parks web site.

10 Years Ago – In July 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 July 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.   

1. "Power Nap" Prevents Burnout; Morning Sleep Perfects A Skill
2. AIDS will claim 70 million by 2022
3. U.S. millionaire Steve Fossett became the first solo balloonist to circle the globe nonstop
4. The monuments of ancient Egypt may have stood for thousands of years in the desert sands, but now they face a new threat -- from rising groundwater.
5. There are approximately 100,000 more wild flowering plants in the world than previously thought
6. Sesame Street to introduce HIV positive muppet
7. Weeks into the state's effort to kill every deer in part of southwest Wisconsin to halt an outbreak of chronic wasting disease, wildlife officials still don't know how they're going to dispose of the tens of thousands of carcasses.
8. Glowing lava set trees afire and oozed into the ocean before dawn Saturday as thousands of spectators braved Kilauea Volcano's scalding spray to witness the spectacle.
9. Sea temperatures around Australia's Great Barrier Reef reached record highs this year, doing major damage to the world's largest living entity
10. During excavations last week at a Roman era palace in Butrint, Albania, researchers working in an upper level reception hall found a tiny ivory object dating to 465 AD. They believe it is Europe's oldest known chess piece.

As usual - the list is heavily skewed toward science and technology although the two about HIV/AIDS reflect how prominent that topic was in the news 10 years ago this month.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 30, 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:

Karen Bass: Unseen footage, untamed nature - TED Talk

Put a Cork in It: Research Details Quiet Composite Material - positive results using cork instead of synthetic foam in sandwich structures…250% improvement in dampening performance with no sacrifice of mechanical properties

A Virtual Telescope Turns Back toward Earth - a blog about the WorldWide Telescope software and virtual tour

A smart-phone add-on enables at-home diagnosis of ear infections - remote diagnostics still have a doctor in the loop but no trip to the office

Louie Schwartzberg: Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. - TED Talk (time lapse photography)

Researchers Catalog Your Microbial Zoo - microbial cells outnumber human cells 10 to 1 in our bodies. An NIH study seeks to increase our understanding of them.

The Scientific Case For A Return To The Moon

First fledge from Cornell Great Blue Heron Nest - 6/26/2012 at 9:18 AM EDT…and then the next two about 30 minutes later. A summary slide show up to mid-June has also been posted by Cornell. I made a donation to support the cameras in celebration.

Waterproof butterflies mobile - made with recycled paper and coated with wax. These could work for Christmas ornaments too (or would they be too messy with the potential of wax rubbing off)!

A game that heals: Jane McGonigal at TEDGlobal 2012 - psyching yourself to emotional (and physical) health

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 23, 2012

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

Mars Weather Report: Size of Particles in Martian Clouds of Carbon Dioxide Snow Calculated - Using several years of data…and multiple data sources

Get the Most from Your Skin Care Products: Sequence in Which You Apply Skin Care Products Influences Their Effectiveness - Cleanse, treatment/medication, moisturizer/sunscreen, makeup….but using several products at the same time may negate the benefits and irritate the skin

Antibacterials in Personal-Care Products Linked to Allergy Risk in Children - Another study that suggests that children need exposure to common pathogens to build healthy immune responses…or the immune system can become overactive to food, pollen or pet dander

Million-Year-Old Groundwater in Maryland Water Supply - Wow…Even no-so-dry places are using up ground water faster than it can be replenished

Birding In The National Parks: Top 10 Birding Spots In The National Park System - I’ve been to 4 out of the 10!

5 solar myths busted - infographic

Pralines - Follow the link in this piece if you want to try making your own pralines!

Oil and Conventional Gas Extraction Can Cause Earthquakes Too - evidently biggest risk of earthquakes is when the wastewater from those operations is pumped back down into deep sandstone or other formations for permanent disposal

Non-Antibiotic Approach for Treating Urinary Tract Infections - Promising approach….could eventually be used for other types of infections as well?

What America Spends on Groceries - Comparison between 1982 and 2012

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 16, 2012

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

Wood ducks - duckling paratrooper video. The ducklings leave the nest high in the tree when they are about 24 hours old.

Body Hacks for a Longer Life - infographic

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #15 - birds…and more birds

A Century of Learning About the Physiological Demands of Antarctica - severe exercise, malnutrition, hypothermia, high altitude, sleep deprivation

There Are Two Kinds of “Busy.” Is Yours the Good Kind? - excerpt from “It Takes an Egg Timer” book

Bamboo, A Beautiful and Versatile Material - It can grow 1.6 feet per hour!!!!

Does This Look Infected? Medical Procedures Then and Now - electroshock therapy, bullet removal, inflammation and the common cold, pain relief

50 Future Ideas You Really Need to Know - from Richard Watson

Top Solar Power Countries - The US is 22nd in terms of total solar power per million people, 31st in total new solar power per million people…..seems like this could result in a challenge to our long term competitiveness in the world

Solar Panel Technology Advancements - infographic

10 Years Ago – In June 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 June 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.     

1. Centuries-old oak toppled in Maryland storm
2. A wildfire raging in the Pike National Forest
3. Archeologists doing maintenance at the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu have found new stone terraces, water channels, a rubbish dump and a wall dividing the site's urban sector from its temples
4. A moderate earthquake shook a wide area around southern Indiana
5. A 4,600 year-old Egyptian tomb, glued shut and with its original owner still inside, has been discovered by archaeologists working near the Giza Pyramids.
6. Ann Landers, the columnist whose snappy, plainspoken and timely advice helped millions of readers deal with everything from birth to death, died Saturday. She was 83.
7. Hundreds of people were killed or injured as an earthquake and a series of aftershocks rocked northern Iran
8. FBI searches apartment in anthrax probe
9. An Argentine icebreaker prepared to leave on a mission to rescue 107 people aboard a ship stranded off Antarctica.
10. The consumption of forests, energy and land by humans is exceeding the rate at which Earth can replenish itself 

My interest in science is reflected in 7 of the 10 (archeology in 3, 4; botany in 1; climate/ecology in 2, 10; geology in 4 and 7).  The others fit into a people/places/politics category.

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 June 2, 2012

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

The World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant - Built in the dessert outside Las Vega. When finished it will generate 370 megawatts of electricity on sunny days.

Ultra-efficient Solar - solar cell technology is getting better all the time…and approaching the point of producing electricity more cheaply that fossil fuels

Perspectives on the Geothermal Energy Association Showcase in DC - The US has the greatest installed base of geothermal energy in the world but investors and entrepreneurs are developing elsewhere because of policies/politics

Too Much Vitamin D Can Be as Unhealthy as Too Little, Study Suggests - Based on a quarter million blood tests in Copenhagen.

21st Century Bloodletting Reduces Cardiovascular Risk - a study done of obese people donating blood… with a positive result for them

The 10 Ways to Know Whether Your Job is Meaningful - this is an older post…but I just found it.

Seven Ways to Save on Health Care Costs - Some practical suggestions from Fidelity

Pocket marvels: 40 years of handheld computers - a slide show of history. I was disappointed that they didn’t include the early TI calculators.

The Evolution of Solar Technology - It all started in 1839!

California and American West Top 2012 State Clean Energy Index - 6 states now generate more than 10% of their utility-scale electricity from wind, solar, and geothermal…twice as many as in 2010

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 26, 2012

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

Lyrids meteor shower and Earth - as seen from the International Space Station

Unique Gold Earring Found in Intriguing Collection of Ancient Jewelry in Israel - jewelry from 1100 BC found in jug

Toxic Mercury, Accumulating in the Arctic, Springs from a Hidden Source - the rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the Lena, Ob, and Yenisei are the main ones) turn out to be more significant than the atmosphere

Equifax Eyes Are Watching You--Big Data Means Big Brother - They know more than your credit score.

European Physicists Smash Chinese Teleportation Record - This is all about the next generation global communications network. The race is between Europe and China. Yikes! No player from the US.

'Personality Genes' May Help Account for Longevity - Positive attitude toward life is a trait shared by most centenarians

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #14 - Always a great selection…and you can look back to previous weeks as well

First Ladies: Grace Under Fire - Marlo Thomas provides a slide show featuring 12 first ladies

Avoiding bees, wasps, mosquitoes and ticks - tips for avoiding bites from the National Wildlife Federation as you are out and about this summer

Cost of Lighting - infographic comparing incandescent light bulbs, compact-fluorescent bulbs and light emitting diodes

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 May 12, 2012

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

Yosemite Range of Light (video) - Series of time lapse images of Yosemite accompanied with well selected music. Whether you’ve been to Yosemite or not…worth looking at. Double click to see it full screen (then esc to go back to smaller format)

Moon Jellies (photo) - an intersection of life and art

A Look at Solar Growth in the US - (infographic) show top 9 states (Maryland is 9th!) and the demographics on who is installing solar

Find out your city’s air pollution grade from the American Lung Association - infographic and tool using zip code or a map to search the data for your city

Encyclopedia of Life Reaches Historic One Million Species Pages Milestone - If you haven’t already discovered the Encyclopedia of Life web site, it is well worth a look

Carbon Disclosure Project - (infographic) what local governments are doing

Backyard Color of the Week: Blue - collection of photos of blue life (mostly birds)

Top Countries for Higher Education - the environment for higher education around the world....it’s a different look than we get from looking at single institutions

UK stat: growing population over 100 years old - tremendous increase projected between now and 2066. The picture is the best part of the post - implying that this increase in older population will benefit the youngest of us!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 5, 2012

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

Live stream of Blue Heron nest at Cornell Ornithology Lab - There are 5 chicks…two cameras. I leave it on almost all the time. I love having bird noises in my office and they are so interesting to watch. The chicks are growing fast so don’t wait to take a look. The adult male has the extra plummage on his head (the female lost hers in a battle with an owl) and a missing toe on his right foot. They take turns on the nest.

New Saturn video created from Voyager and Cassini spacecraft images - Video and music

New Reservation System In Place For Firefly Viewing At Great Smokies June 2nd—10th - The fireflies that flash synchronously have become so popular that a ticketing system has been put in place. Good to know if you plan to see them this year.

About One Baby Born Each Hour Addicted to Opiate Drugs in U.S. - very sad

Arabic Records Allow Past Climate to Be Reconstructed - Weather in Iraq/Syria in the 816-1009 time period…a time with lots of cold waves in that area of the world

Yellowstone Super-Eruptions More Numerous Than Thought? - yes, it’s still a super volcano

The Library of Utopia - Another try to create the giant online library

10 Emerging Technologies - A list from Technology Review. It has a pull down so you can look at their list from previous years too

Is automation the handmaiden of inequality? - Productivity per hour has continued to climb while the hourly compensation flatten sometime in the 1970s. Manufacturing jobs in the US have declined precipitously since around 2000 while the manufacturing output has continued to increase (and this in spite of outsource manufacturing to other countries too!). Blog post + comments to get lots of interpretations of the data.

Breakthroughs in glass technology - and they’ll come on line in the next few years...I like the idea of having wall sized screens!

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 April 14, 2012

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

The Amazing Trajectories of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth - What happens to the ejection of rocks/water from big impacts?

Ocean surface currents animation from NASA - using data from June 2005 to December 2007

A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway - online version from the popular Victorian illustrator

What is a Vegan Diet? - Pointers to good references. “Even if you have no intention of going vegan yourself, anyone can benefit from enjoying a completely plant-based meal from time to time.”

Baking with Whole Grain Flours - A goof reference for if you’re in the mood to experiment with some of those exotic flours that are finding their way into your grocery store - amaranth…buckwheat…quinoa

Smart grids (info graphic) - lots of technology being integrated…coming soon (click on the graphic to enlarge it)

Top 25 US Cities for Energy Star Buildings - Los Angeles and Washington DC are the top 2; Dallas-Fort Worth is 8th

Obesity Accounts for 21% of US Health Care Costs - One more reason to achieve/sustain a normal weight

Birding in the National Parks - Spring time and bird migration

Paleo-Birding: What Birds Looked Like 125 Million Years Ago - Photos of bird fossils with commentary

Know where your food comes from - An interactive map…type the name of a food and see where it comes from in the US