Gleanings: Early December '20
Some happenings and factoids from the big, interesting, perplexing home planet
So here we are again with conversations I once would have had with friends (remember them?) over coffee (remember coffee shops?) So now, dear reader, you are my coffee shop conversation partners, and here’s what’s cool and current, according to the one who gots the Talking Stick. Please take your turn in the comments. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
🌎 The World’s Most Influential Values, In One Graphic - Visual Capitalist
It's worth a minute to see how American values and ideals set us apart--for better or for worse. Some of this is surprising. Some, sadly, not so.
IMPACT OF THE INTERNET
Especially now when the digital world has largely supplanted the in-the-flesh version we were once used to, it's important to think about how this has changed our way of thinking, remembering, reasoning and creating. Here are some gathered links.
🌎 Our parents warned us the internet would break our brains. It broke theirs instead.
🌎 Much of the U.S. Could Be Uninhabitable by 2050
That climate parameters (like heat and moisture) are beyond our control (even if we did everything today that we know would be needed to halt the very worst outcomes.) And so it is prudent to plan for what is very likely ahead. Get out your maps here that show the climate patterns your children's children will inherit from us.
First glance: a sigh of relief. The Appalachians are not overly hot in 50 years. But wait. If the breadbaskets of the country are burned up, being cool while starving is small comfort. Doh!
🌎 Niobium: the mighty element you’ve never heard of – Rest of World
The edge is somewhat off the blush of pride for the First Household in having 32 solar panels now in our yard. Every "alternative energy" has costs that are invisible in their manufacture and operations--quite often involving rare earths that are extracted from underneath what used to be somebody's back yard.
🌎 A snake-like hammerhead worm is popping up in Georgia - CNN
I had to laugh. Snake like. Indeed. A casual glance could tell these flatworms are not snakes. I used to see these come in (or close relatives) when I was teaching biology. I'd make my students do the legwork for extra credit--like a nature scavenger hunt. They brought me all sorts of oddments (which they were required to return to the source location) and included another odd "snake"---the really really odd horsehair worm.
🌎 Microbiome study could change the way doctors diagnose depression
This thread could take up entire chapters here. The microbiome. Infinitely interesting to me. The legion of tiny beings that make us who we are. And even make us think and feel the way we do?
Educational Eye Candy from the European Space Agency. I have this one bookmarked for my Walter Mitty moments.
🌎 Universe in a Nutshell App – in a nutshell – kurzgesagt
Another suggested bookmark for edu-tainment: a remarkable series under the heading KURZGESAGT which I suppose is a word meaning something to those who are able to pronounce it. I’m sending this series to both my home-schooled grade schooler grandkids. I kind of learn lots too, but don’t tell THEM!