Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Coffee and Provocation


The Fire Down Below
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh analyzed radar scans of the West Antarctic Rift System and found 138 volcanoes hiding under the thick ice sheet. Distribution of the volcanoes roughly aligns with the jagged continental rift.

Where’s Jumbo?
Real-time tracking collars are now being used to keep tabs on 325 elephants in 10 countries.

Let There Be Cheap Light
From the beginning of history  through the 1850s, light was really expensive. Today? Not so much. By 1992 the cost to light a room with a compact fluorescent bulb was about 1/250th of what it was 1855 and 1/83rd of what it cost to do the same with a Coleman lantern. Since then, the switch to LED lighting has been swift and transformational. The best LED bulbs cut electricity use by 85 percent compared to incandescent light bulbs, and by 40 percent compared to fluorescent lights.

Trees Don’t Like to Touch
“Crown shyness" is the phenomenon where leaves and branches of individual trees don’t touch those of other trees, forming gaps in the canopy.

How Do You Move a Giant Sequoia?
In Boise, Idaho they moved a 105-year old, 10-story tall Giant Sequoia that grew from a seed collected by John Muir. The tree and root ball weighed more than 800,000 pounds.

Can We Re-Gift It?
Hundred-year-old fruitcake found in Antarctica has been deemed to be in "excellent condition".

Folding E-Wheels... at a Price
Brompton has released a new folding e-bike with 50 miles of range. The cost is a sobering $2,900 to $3,400. An electric Razor is much cheaper at only $250.

Solar Eclipse by Zip Code
Here's what the solar eclipse will look like in your zip code.

Genetic Testing for White Supremacists
White nationalists are flocking to genetic ancestry tests, but some don’t like what they are finding. For example, White supremacist Craig Cobb found out on a daytime TV show that DNA testing revealed his ancestry to be “86 percent European, and . . . 14 percent Sub-Saharan African.”

The FHA Was Created to Keep Minorities in Ghettos
NPR reports that "Federal housing policies created after the Depression ensured that African-Americans and other people of color were left out of the new suburban communities — and pushed instead into urban housing projects, such as Detroit's Brewster-Douglass towers."

Adios Glen Campbell
Glen Campbell died this week at age 81 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. This song was from his last studio album, Adios, released in 2017.

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