RenoVous

Astronaut Suni Williams just completed the longest spacewalk time for a female. Part of her mission, along with astronaut Butch Wilmore, was to swab the surface material around the airlock and outside the Destiny laboratory. The ISS External Microorganisms investigation has been ongoing - with previous samples collected back in June. There are life support vents outside the Destiny module, and scientists want to examine whether a spacecraft releases microorganisms, and if so, how many and how far they may travel.  Can they survive, even thrive, out there? Lichens, bacteria, tardigrades and more have been shown to be able to withstand the harsh space conditions - no air, lots of cosmic radiation, and temperatures from about 250 to -250 degrees F.  

  Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on this day in 1948. In 1964, a group in Spain started this day to be celebrated in schools across the globe, with one general message: Universal love is better than egoism.  Non-violence is better than violence.  Peace is better than war. Just 15 days ago was the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr, another proponent of peace and love who was assassinated. A sad reflection on our humanity when our best are beaten. But it is their heart that perseveres, their intentions. "Ideas are bulletproof." For Gandhi, it was Satyagraha, non-violent resistance which translates to "truth force."  His goal was for the India of his dreams, but it's something we can all look to. India of My Dreams

  Enter the Year of the Wood Snake! Each year alternates between Yin and Yang - last year's dragon was Yang Wood, "a rigid, divisive and often angry nature," whereas this year's Yin Wood is associated with flowers, "easygoing, flexible and diplomatic." The snake also contains Yin Fire, predicting a "highly creative, collaborative and exciting year." The snake itself is most commonly associated with intelligence, resilience, and love.  A potential for self-cultivation, shedding bad energy.

 Daisies were once considered a weed, but then their beauty became appreciated along with their medicinal qualities.  Some varieties are edible, eaten in salads or used to decorate cakes. Wild daisy tea can be used to treat cough, kidney problems, bronchitis, inflammation and problems with the liver.  Daisy extracts have been used for arthritic joints and aches as well as childbirth pain, and can be applied to healing wounds and scrapes.  Ox-eye daisy can be applied directly to the skin to treat pain, swelling, and burns. Daisies were popular in ancient Egypt, depicted in some artwork from 1550 BC. The first daisies in art appear in carvings from 3000 BC. Vase with Daisies and Poppies, Van Gogh, 1890.

  Marion Cotillard Olivia Colman Michelle Yeoh Naomi Watts Cynthia Erivo Best I can do this week.

 The waters of Lake Natron in Tanzania have the ability to mummify animals that die within. Deposits of sodium carbonate - once used by Egyptians - flow into the lake from surrounding hills. This includes Ol Doinyo Lengai, which is the world's only active carbonatite volcano. The magma is rich in alkali elements, and those travel into the waters.  The lake has a pH as high as 10.5 But there is a thriving ecosystem of salt marshes, wetlands, tilapia, and algae.  Lesser flamingos nest here for breeding season.

  Also, awesome notepad, right? I recently came across an article about the National Archives needing people who can read cursive. More than 200 years worth of U.S. documents need transcribing and/or classifying, and the vast majority are from the Revolutionary War era. That is some antique penmanship. Can you read and write cursive?  Do you like your handwriting?

  It was on this day in 2012 that Adele's album, 21 , surpassed records set by The Beatles and Pink Floyd.  Sgt. Pepper's and The Wall  had both enjoyed 15 weeks at number one on the American charts.  But Adele went for 16. It is the best selling album of the 21st century.  Three of five singles released in its promotion became international number one songs. Weeks after recording with Rick Rubin, she learned of her ex's engagement, and returned to the studio to record the final song.  The label wanted more production, but she argued to keep her arrangement, stating the song was personal to her and that she wrote it to "free herself." And the third #1 song. For this album, Adele became the first woman to top all three categories from Billboard: Artist of the Year Album of the Year Song of the Year

 One of the most common animals that people see on a regular basis, it's the Western gray squirrel here in the Sierra, and we saw a few on Saturday while walking in the park. We also saw lots of acorns - a critical food for squirrels as they are high in oil and moderately high in carbs.  They make numerous caches of food, using their sense of smell and memory to locate when needed.  This scatter-hoarding contributes to seed dispersion. Did you know? Squirrels can turn their ankles 180 degrees while climbing, and can leap 10 times the length of their own body. An Arctic squirrel can lower its temperature to below freezing to help survive the longest hibernation, over 8 months. Assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University has been studying these squirrels for the past 15 years in Alaska, and says their hibernation patterns are changing with the changing temperatures though. "Our data shows that the active layer, the soil layer above the perm...

  Keke Palmer Cameron Diaz Lucy Liu Monica Barbaro Phoebe Dynevor Keke again Jamie Foxx Timothee Chalamat Adrien Brody

  1st Place for the 2024 BCI Award has gone to an international team who have encoded complex touch sensations into a bionic hand. "We conveyed tactile sensations related to orientation, curvature, motion, and 3D shapes for a participant using a brain-controlled bionic limb," explains lead author, Professor Giacomo Valle. In patients with paralysis caused by spinal cord injury, the electrical signals that would normally carry tactile information from the hand to the brain are blocked.  With the brain-computer interface, patients are able to experience the feel of objects.   We tend to focus more on our senses of sight and hearing, but touch also provides abundant data about the world around us.  Not to mention the importance of human touch - another study has developed temperature sensing prosthetic limbs. But in this case, the limb is extracorporeal, attached to a wheelchair.

 There are a lot of dragon books in the fantasy genre, and while Smaug from The Hobbit  may be the most famous, it was a different series that inspired the day. In 2004, Donita K. Paul released her first in a series, The DragonKeeper Chronicles. I have not read a single one, or really much fantasy at all, but I've always liked the representation of dragons, the mythology. They appear in the folklore of many cultures.  In the Western, they're typically winged, horned, and fire breathing.  In Eastern, they are wingless, four-legged serpentine creatures.  They appear as far back as in ancient Mesopotamian art. The "mushussu" was actually a hybrid - a scaly animal with hind legs resembling the talons of an eagle, lion-like forelimbs, a long neck and tail, two horns and a snake-like tongue. Considering the origin of the term is "draco" for serpent, and that many depictions are serpentine and reptilian, anthropologist David E. Jones suggests humans create them as ...

  Launched on this day in 2001! Jimmy Wales and Lawrence Sanger first failed with Nupedia in 2000, which only allowed peer-reviewed and edited content written by experts.  With Wiki being open to anyone, they found success. Within a year, they had 20,000 articles in 18 languages. There were questions of reliability, of course, and I remember being told to use it as a source for a school paper would be detrimental.  But I've mostly found that people want to adhere to the principal of an accurate, online encyclopedia. A 2005 investigation by Nature  magazine found that scientific entries came close to those of Encyclopedia Britannica.

 Mahayana is a branch of Buddhism, and today they reflect on the past year. Also known as Vesak, the holiday commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha. In the Mahayana belief, anyone can attain enlightenment through practice, wisdom and compassion. Anyone would be welcome to the temple for prayer sessions, meditation, and lectures. I see "Joyful Chanting" on our local's calendar. It is also a day for charity and community, the sharing of good wishes and kindness with others.

  Michelle Yeoh Marianne Jean-Baptiste Ariana Grande Kieran Culkin Cynthia Erivo Nicole Kidman Anna Sawai Danielle Deadwyler With the wildfires in California, there has been a lack of the usual events this time of year. The Critics' Choice Awards have been postponed.

 In the last 20 years, the Saiga antelope population in Kazakhstan has recovered from 40,000 to 2.8 million. That's why the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative was awarded the 2024 Earthshot Prize for ecosystem restoration. The efforts restored 75 million hectares of grassland, wetland, and desert.  Saiga are considered a keystone species, pivotal in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, and one that's relied on by steppe eagles, sociable lapwings, kulan, and the Przewalski's horse (the world's last living wild horse species). They went extinct in the wild during the 60's, but conservation efforts have also helped recover their populations on the plains of Central Asia. The Earthshot Prize provides funding and expert support, as well as partnership and coaching opportunities through Global Alliance Partners. RSPB

We ended up randomly in the desert because weather wasn't working for us. Too windy at Spencer. Too snowy at Big Creek. And our attempt to reach Twelvemile was derailed by a muddy road, so we just enjoyed the scenery as we drove around the state.