Gleanings of the Week Ending April 20, 2024

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.

Tax Burden by State – A comparison done by WalletHub that compared the 50 states on 3 types of taxes - property taxes, individual income taxes, and sales and excise taxes - as a share of total personal income in the state.

See a Restored Ancient Roman Helmet—and Two Shiny New Replicas – 2,000-year-old helmet made of silver-gilded iron.

Solar Savings in the US – Looking at the numbers….

Feral Hogs to Be Removed from Congaree National Park – My husband and I visited Congaree in 2008 and I vividly remember the feral hogs. Evidently action is being taken to remove them. They have become a pervasive problem to both the park and surrounding landowners, routinely causing widespread damage to land and water resources both within and outside of the park. Recent observations have shown that they have begun to cause more extensive damage to areas near the Harry Hampton Visitor Center, including areas where synchronous fireflies are active and where restoration of longleaf pine is ongoing.

What four decades of canned salmon reveal about marine food webs - The cans contained fillets from four salmon species, all caught over a 42-year period in the Gulf of Alaska and Bristol Bay. Researchers dissected the preserved fillets from 178 cans and counted the number of anisakid roundworms -- a common, tiny marine parasite -- within the flesh. The parasites were killed by the canning process but still visible… counting them is one way to gauge how well a marine ecosystem is doing.

Texas Solar Power Growth Changing the Shape of Daily Electricity Supply in ERCOT – Looking at the changes between 2022 and 2023…easy to see graphically.

Functional capacity in old age is like an ecosystem that may collapse when disrupted - In old age, a tighter interlinkage between different domains of functional capacity may indicate a loss of system resilience. When functional capacity domains are tightly interconnected, a disruption in one domain can affect others and lead to a collapse in functioning.

Ming Dynasty Tomb Found in China's Xinfu District – Part of excavations before nearby highway construction begins.

I spy with my speedy eye: Scientists discover speed of visual perception ranges widely in humans - The rate with which we perceive the world is known as our "temporal resolution." Though our visual temporal resolution is quite stable from day to day in general, a post-hoc analysis did suggest that there may be slightly more variation over time within females than within males.

Study Reveals Vast Networks of ‘Ghost Roads’ in Asian Rainforests - An extensive analysis of satellite imagery has uncovered thousands of miles of unmapped roads slicing through Asia’s tropical rainforests - “ghost roads” may be laid down by miners, loggers, poachers, drug traffickers, and land grabbers, often illegally.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 1, 2023

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.

Climate change threatens spring wildflowers by speeding up the time when trees leaf out above them – Evidently the trees and wildflowers in eastern North America are the ones getting the most out of sync.

The mystery of Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) – AIWS (or Todd’s syndrome) affects the way people perceive the world around them and can distort the way they experience their own bodies and the space it occupies. There are 40 types of visual distortions that characteristic of the syndrome. It was formally described as a distinct syndrome in 1955. Up to 30% of adolescents reported mild or transient experiences. Cough medicines and illicit hallucinogenic substances are also known to trigger it.  Sometimes medical conditions like strokes or brain tumors can cause the syndrome as can infections.

Chinook salmon fishing season canceled off coasts of Oregon, California – Dwindling numbers of Chinook salmon in the states’ largest rivers following years of drought.

In Florida, an invasive snail is helping save an endangered bird – We heard about this during a birding trip to central Florida pre-pandemic. It probably is one of the few examples when an invasive species has produced a positive outcome.

Garbage to Guts: The Slow-Churn of Plastic Waste – Lots of microplastics in the world…and they are in our food chain. Ongoing exposure decreases beneficial gut bacteria and increases pathogenic species. A lot more research needs to be done since, right now, we don’t know very much about impacts of microplastics – not just to the overall environment but to our own bodies.

 With Heat from Heat Pumps, US Energy Requirements Could Plummet By 60% - Thinking about heat….and the ‘rejected energy’ (mostly heat) in our current energy consumption. The idea is to use heat pumps to dramatically reduce ‘rejected energy’ in future energy consumption.

Entire populations of Antarctic seabirds fail to breed due to extreme, climate-change-related snowstorms – Evidently the December 2021 - January 2022 breeding season for south polar skua, Antarctic petrel, and snow petrel was so disrupted that there were almost no young produced.

Why don’t humans have fur – Interesting…but we really don’t know. The genetic research associated with the question could have practical application for people that need to stimulate hair growth (like after chemotherapy or balding).

2021 Was A Very Good Year for Nesting Wading Birds In The Everglades – Hurray! Some good happening in the Everglades. There are so many stories about the impact of invasive species (like Burmese pythons) that this is welcome news.

Meet the sargassum belt, a 5,000-mile-long snake of seaweed circling Florida - In the open sea, sargassum can soak up carbon dioxide and serve as a critical habitat for fish, crabs, shrimp, turtles, and birds…all positive. But when sargassum gets close to shore it can smother coral reefs, alter the water’s pH…and then onshore it begins to rot within 24 hours releasing irritants like hydrogen sulfide which smells like rotten eggs or manure and can cause respiratory problems. And it often contains significant amounts of arsenic so not a great addition to a compost pile. The mass of sargassum has been increasing since 2011 --- probably in response to elevated nutrients (runoff from fertilizer, burning biomass, increasing wastewater from cities, etc.) we have released into the ocean. Sargassum has come ashore in Yucatan and Key West recently.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 4, 2023

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.

Can clothes ever be fully recycled? – Evidently a lot of progress has been made in the past few years – translating processes from small to large scale production. But recycling is not the only thing that needs to change about the fashion industry. ‘Fast fashion’ is cannot the future!

A simple thing you can do to benefit backyard birds and bees – Wait until it is 50 degrees to do spring cleaning around your yard. Those leaves and dead stalks harbor insects….and birds need insects, particularly when they are raising their young! I have a big tuft of ornamental grass which I am waiting to cut. Last summer it was full of insects and I except some eggs/larvae are there now.

An incredible journey – Chinook making their way up the Klamath River in the spring and fall. (infographic)

Nearly 30 dangerous feedback loops could permanently shift the Earth’s climate - A change….triggering more change…a cycle. Our planet is full of complex connections that are often not well understood.

As Millions of Solar Panels Age Out, Recyclers Look to Cash In – Hopefully solar panels, and a lot of other end-of- life products, can become part of the ‘circular economy’ rather than going to landfills.

See Thousands of Sandhill Cranes Gather in Nebraska – Maybe next year we’ll plan to go to Nebraska to see the crane migration!

The beautiful flowers that bees can’t use – Nectar deficient hybrids (like double petal petunias) or non-native plants often don’t provide food for pollinators…even though people find bigger, brighter flowers appealing. The article also provides a link to a free book: Pollinator-Friendly Parks which might be useful for homeowners who want to support pollinators.

Anti-dust tech paves way for self-cleaning surfaces – Wouldn’t this be nice…my computer screens seem to attract dust!

'The Great Displacement' looks at communities forever altered by climate change – A book review that documents people surviving a hurricane in the Florida Keys or a big fire in California (and other climate change related disasters) and making decisions in the aftermath. A quote from the author, Jack Bittle: "In the United States alone, at least twenty million people may move as a result of climate change, more than twice as many as moved during the entire span of the Great Migration."

A Long Low Tide Dries Up Venice’s Smaller Canals – Wow…we usually think of Venice being more prone to flooding.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 26, 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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #101 and #102 – 50 bird pictures this week! My favorite in the first group is the barn owl (and the other owls in this group). My favorite in the second group are the two pictures of spotted owlets! --- I am drawn to owls this week for some reason.

Voyager: Inside the world’s greatest space mission – The two Voyager space craft were launched in 1977…and are both sending back messages to earth.

Trees with ‘crown shyness’ mysteriously avoid touching each other – I haven’t observed this phenomenon in our Maryland forests…but now when I am in a forest, I’ll always look for it!

Time Spent – Who Americans spend their time with (from Richard Watson’s blog). It changes with age. The last chart shows that as we get older we spend more and more time alone.

Air pollutions ranking in 32 cities –  LA ranks 24; Washington DC, San Francisco and New York are 26-28; Boston is 31. Delhi, Beijing, and Cairo are the top three.

Trees and shrubs offer new food crops to diversity the farm – Ongoing research from the University of Illinois trying to mimic the habitat features, carbon storage, and nutrient-holding capacities of a natural system with a farming method that incorporates berry and nut bearing shrubs/trees with alley cropping (hay or row crops)….to be economically and environmentally sound.

AWEA releases map of every wind farm and factory in America – There is a link to the interactive map. The red diamonds are manufactures and the blue dots are the wind farms themselves. It’s easy to see that manufactures happens a lot in areas other than where the wind farms are located….that the center of the country has a lot of installed wind turbines! We saw some of them in Iowa on our way to and from the solar eclipse last Monday.

Diversity Lacking in US Academia: Study – Under-representation of African Americans, Hispanics, and women in STEM faculties at public universities. There is a similar lack of diversity in PhD programs. On a positive note: the assistant professor is more diverse (more Asians, Hispanics and women) that the associate or full professor rank.  Unfortunately, this positive finding is not true for African Americans. Overall – still a challenge….and it impacts the broader labor market as well.

More than 300,000 Atlantic Salmon Spill into Pacific – Oh no! Hopefully this is not catastrophic in the long run. But – Why are they growing Atlantic salmon in pens in Puget Sound anyway?

Thanks to Co-op, Small Iowa Town Goes Big on Solar – Kalona, Iowa – not far from our route to the eclipse! It comes down to local self-reliance and economic development that made sense for this small town. Somehow a pointer to this article (from last February) was in a blog post I looked at when I returned home and I noticed where the town was…small world.