tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164432662024-03-19T04:41:38.899-07:00weltanschuuangweltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.comBlogger796125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-5940216467995378762024-03-15T12:00:00.004-07:002024-03-15T12:28:39.955-07:00Lactic Acid in Health and Disease IntroductionLactic acid is produced for energy when mitochondria can't use oxygen for aerobic respiration. Lactic acidosis develops when you have too much lactic acid in your body. Athletes monitor their blood lactate levels as a way to pace their training. Chronic resting lactate levels greater than 2 mmol/L represent hyperlactatemia, whereas lactic acidosis is generally definedweltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-11168441357943115902024-02-06T10:15:00.004-07:002024-02-06T10:15:51.829-07:00A Health Supplement Dosed IncorrectlyA supplement with promising anti-aging results* is dosed too low by all supplement companies. This review article by Life Extension (LE), contains lots of good information and citations about a fisetin. Source: https://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2021/2/fisetin-senolytic-benefitsFisetin is a promising senolytic that is found in low concentrations in strawberries. Itweltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-49038330871659309612024-01-05T09:47:00.001-07:002024-01-05T09:47:37.890-07:00Land Development Releases Greenhouse GasesLand use change releases stored carbon and should be counted under Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting. Example of a wildflower meadow (left) that was bulldozed to create a parking lot (right). This land use change results in direct emissions of stored soil carbon and plant biomass, as well as continuing opportunity costs: the meadow can no longer accumulate sequestered carbon. If this weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-39774654767370402972024-01-02T11:02:00.002-07:002024-01-02T15:08:14.506-07:00UV Florescence iNat has a great project dedicated to UV florescence. Fluorescence generally means you’re absorbing one wavelength and emitting another. most UV flashlights emit light that is mostly invisible to humans, except for maybe a little that folks would describe as purple or pale blue.So if you shine a UV light on something and see other colors emerge, you’ve almost certainly got weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-46633685553192477982023-12-22T08:43:00.001-07:002024-01-02T10:22:43.433-07:00Saving Biodiversity is Essential to Stop Global WarmingThis simple message -that we can't save the Earth without saving the actual physical, water-and-soil-and-plant Earth- needs to be said and re-said until everyone understands. We've been disappointed by the scientists, leaders, and especially the "environmentalists" (like Sierra Club, Audubon, Union of Concerned Scientists, etc...) who have decided to advocate for industrial "renewable"weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-27500144659753828562023-11-05T07:57:00.005-07:002023-11-05T08:21:00.995-07:00Which State has the MOST ticks? Ticks spread a number of diseases, plus they are disgusting and annoying. But which areas have the most? Where do hikers need to take precautions? Models have attempted to create "heat maps" showing when and where ticks are most abundant. Another approach uses citizen science data: where do people report seeing the most ticks?I used iNaturalist data to compare weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-63982358978819010442023-10-16T14:53:00.001-07:002023-10-16T14:53:05.675-07:00ESA-Listed Species in AZ: Status and NeedsNotes from Alexandra Permar's research into the current status and needs of ESA listed species in AZ.Candidates Species for ListingMonarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/9743 Species with T/E Listing Status and Active Recovery PlansUte ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis) (Threatened, G2): https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/2159 | https://swbiodiversity.org/weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-62490633584332112852023-09-21T14:10:00.003-07:002023-09-21T14:10:18.873-07:00Finding the Greenest Place in Arizona I love plants, and I love places where plants are happy. But how can I find the greenest places, especially when I live in Arizona?In the Southwest deserts, plant phenology and growth are dependent on intermittent rains. But the rains can be variable between nearby areas. Rainfall totals and percent of normal can be viewed using https://water.weather.gov/precip/ This uses weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-60043803424395811392023-09-05T12:13:00.004-07:002023-09-06T02:22:04.263-07:00How Advocates Stopped Aerial Insecticide Spray in NMAPHIS (a U.S. Government agency) routinely broadcasts insecticides across millions of acres of the Western U.S., in an attempt to control populations of grasshoppers. Climate change (warmer winters, drier summers) has led to an increase of grasshoppers over the last decade, and APHIS has tried to keep pace. https://acis.cals.arizona.edu/community-ipm/weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-57434680332364032832023-08-24T08:47:00.000-07:002023-08-24T08:47:06.835-07:00"Trying to define the undefinable": are taxonomists too focused on species?A recent article in the New Yorker includes a good overview of why identifying species can be problematic: "You Name It: Carl Linnaeus and the effort to label all of life" by Kathryn Schulz, August 21, 2023 Extended quote from article:"What Linnaeus sought to do was organize nature according to its fundamental, intrinsic divisions--to carve it at the joints, in Plato's famous weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-50929499021248313872023-07-11T08:40:00.001-07:002023-07-11T08:40:10.777-07:00Xeriscaping or Zero-scaping? Xeriscaping is a low-water user landscaping practice in the desert Southwest. Typically gravel or rock is used as the major groundcover, with desert-adapted plants interspersed. Herbicides are generally used to control unsightly weeds in the gravel areas. Zero-scaping is when landowners skip all of the landscaping and just use herbicides to maintain dirt lots. weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-40136866144586204952023-07-10T07:27:00.002-07:002023-07-10T07:27:24.577-07:00Are Pollinators Necessary for Food Production?Pollinator enthusiasts claim that "1 in 3 bites of food are dependent on pollinators", but the reality is that many crops have been bred to self-pollinate. For example, soybeans produce bean-like flowers, and many wild beans do require insect pollinators, but soybean flowers never open; they self-pollinate. In the wild, 70-90% of flowering plant species (angiosperms) do require weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-53220700963674053252023-05-16T08:32:00.002-07:002023-05-16T08:32:29.277-07:00Biodiversity in the United StatesSummaryNatureServe's Map of Biodiversity Importance (MoBI) is actually 4 main maps and 53 supporting maps.The four maps showcase different aspects of biodiversity in the United States using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. The maps are all based on data from NatureServe, which aims to assess the status and distribution of biodiversity across the United States. Each map uses a weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-89734363508934600762023-03-27T12:58:00.000-07:002023-03-27T12:58:56.408-07:00AI Developments... and Predictions I've been watching the AI developments... and the bloggers writing about the AI "foom".Scott Alexander on the feeling of being on the verge of AI Apocalypse.Scott Alexander on the new Janus-faced AI simulators, a weird new breed of alien intelligence we didn't expect.Erik Hoel on why we shouldn't be cavalier about the potential impact of super-intelligent AI. (Item 4 of 9 on the page)weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-24278109896284111962023-03-24T10:16:00.002-07:002023-03-24T10:16:18.347-07:00In These Cheatgrass-Infested HillsMatthew Miller, The Nature Conservancy writer/editor, has written a beautiful article about coming to grips with beautiful yet non-native landscapes.In my opinion, there are too many conservationists lost in a dream of pure "native" nature, unable to see the flawed-but-still-beautiful world around them. I empathize with his struggle to learn to love degraded places, even the hard-to-love weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-74076993824806077602023-03-23T08:22:00.002-07:002023-03-23T08:22:34.197-07:00Climate Prediction SkillThe US Climate Prediction Center issues forecasts beyond the normal National Weather Service's 10-14 day window. They provide weekly and monthly forecasts out to 3 months. Given the timeframe and the fact that their forecasts cover the entire contintental US, its not surprising that the forecasts are often wrong. But how wrong? And is their skill improving over time?I weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-63919029688013119112023-02-24T07:18:00.001-07:002023-02-24T07:18:11.721-07:00Rare Plants and High Quality Ecosystems Mapped in Washington State The new HDMS mapper from WNHP shows rare plants as well as Ecological Integrity Assessments (EIAs) for a wide range of ecosystems.For example, here are the rare plant areas East of Renton:And here are the natural ecosystems with an "A" rating:weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-54981526620680204912023-01-01T11:25:00.043-07:002023-03-13T11:36:07.528-07:00Science & Technology - 2022 Year in ReviewAI 2022 was the big year for Artificial Intelligence, the year when AI became a household word. The image generators were first, like Dall-E, but by the end of the year the latest GPT release (Chat-GPT) had taken over. Overview of some of the big AI releases: linkSpaceBig milestones in space included the successful first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWSTweltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-66218491684677193142022-12-22T10:38:00.001-07:002023-03-20T17:22:36.965-07:00Plant-Pollinator Interactions in Yavapai County, AZ IntroductionPollinators visit plants seeking
nectar and/or pollen. Pollinators include insects (e.g. butterflies, moths,
beetles, bees, wasps, flies), bats, and birds. In any geographic region, native
and non-native pollinators visit native and non-native plants.
Pollinators
may be specialists and/or generalists who visit plants for different reasons.
For example, some pollinators weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-77134093316965711762022-12-11T09:04:00.003-07:002022-12-13T10:41:13.457-07:00High Mowing's 2023 Organic Seed Catalog Things I learned from High Mowing Organic Seeds's 2023 CatalogGrafting: in vegetables, only used for tomatoes. Instead of transplanting, graft onto established roots.I remember hearing some drivel about how tomatoes aren't vegetables, they're a fruit. But, botanically, half of the vegetables are fruits. Beans, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers, pumpkins, squash, weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-26346815740509391922022-11-15T10:07:00.005-07:002022-11-15T10:07:37.809-07:00Introduced versus Native Species Like almost all categories in nature, there are exceptions and ambiguities. How do we really know a species is non-native? It might seem like an obvious category, but if you think about it, the "evidence" of absence before a certain date is just absence of evidence! I know taxonomists who don't agree that certain species, widely regarded as non-native, are actually weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-17705971050491325182022-11-15T07:52:00.000-07:002022-11-15T07:52:09.537-07:00What is Mitigation?Different people have different definitions of "Mitigation" in the context of natural resource management, endangered species protection, and wetland permitting.Technical DefinitionsTechnically, Mitigation (as defined by CEQ and DOI) includes avoidance, minimization, and compensatory mitigation. The mitigation hierarchy also adopts an inclusive definition of mitigation that includes a weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-47321425237920776282022-11-11T09:26:00.009-07:002022-11-16T08:35:31.342-07:00Popular plants for Monarch butterflies in Northern Arizona**Updated 11/16/2022 As of November, 2022, there were 260 observations on iNaturalist of monarch butterflies in the northern half of Arizona - basically everything north of Phoenix. I analyzed these observations to try to identify which plants are most important nectar food sources.iNat link.I filled in the Life Stage annotation for all larva and pupa. There are 62 weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-89267792594046264162022-11-10T09:58:00.004-07:002022-11-10T09:58:31.120-07:00Is measuring biodiversity possible for non-experts?I’m trying to measure pollinator biodiversity using iNaturalist, but I’m having doubts as to whether this is even possible for a non-expert.Over the last five years I’ve photographed insects on flowers in my area, with the goal of creating a summary of total pollinator species per plant species per month. I'm using an Observation Field to associate the plant species with the insect Observation:&weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16443266.post-35186536214317906682022-11-07T13:56:00.000-07:002022-11-07T13:56:02.606-07:00Tree Risk - notes Notes from Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) class taught by Kevin Eckert for the Arizona Community Tree Council. October 2022 About 25 people are killed each year by falling trees in U.S.Removal should only be an option when mitigations are not sustainable. We have an ethical obligation to do no harm. The benefits of trees are important. A risk is weltanschuuanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10371715990047689781noreply@blogger.com0