Zotero entries from this week

I started using Zotero a year and a half ago to track botany research and Quaker resources. Over time, i expanded my use to where i am recording much of my reading, particularly when there's an interconnection but not a direct outlet. For example, this week's research into what to grow over a septic system is not reflected here.

For your amusement, this week's entries from Zotero:

* “CardioZen : Cardiac Coherence Everywhere | Apps | 148Apps.” Accessed April 9, 2016. http://www.148apps.com/app/593054863/.
** This app is related to the Huffington post article about the vagus nerve and vagal tone.

* Cordeiro, Monivette. “How an Orlando Data Scientist Is Helping #BlackLivesMatter Make the Case against Police Violence.” Orlando Weekly, March 23, 2016.
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/how-an-orlando-data-scientist-is-helping-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-make-the-case-against-police-violence/Content?oid=2478826.
** I think i'd run across this article earlier, and was finally bookmarking it. More in the efforts to fill the data gap about police violence.

* “Focus-Stacking Season.” In the Moment: Michael Frye’s Landscape Photography Blog, April 11, 2016. http://www.michaelfrye.com/landscape-photography-blog/2016/04/11/focus-stacking-season/.
** I've been using focus stacking for macro photography, but here i learn a well respected photographer uses it in landscape images. He also recommends software other than photoshop's stacking tool -- and my latest efforts with photoshop and focus stacking have been highly manual.

* Harris, John. “Should We Scrap Benefits and Pay Everyone £100 a Week?” The Guardian, April 13, 2016, sec. Politics. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/13/should-we-scrap-benefits-and-pay-everyone-100-a-week-whether-they-work-or-not.
** I'm fascinated by this idea (Universal Basic Income, UBI), and had no idea it is a thing. There's a bit in the article about job loss due to automation: see Derek Lowe.

* Hill, Kashmir. “How an Internet Mapping Glitch Turned a Random Kansas Farm Into a Digital Hell.” Fusion. Accessed April 11, 2016. http://fusion.net/story/287592/internet-mapping-glitch-kansas-farm/.
** I have worked one one application that uses the MaxMind software, and have some GIS training. The technical challenges MaxMind faces in design and how users interpret the software aren't discussed in any detail; this is a lesson in design decisions and unintended consequences.

* Hoffman-Andrews, Jacob. “The Why and How of HTTPS for Libraries | Library Information Technology Association (LITA).” Accessed April 11, 2016. http://www.ala.org/lita/https-for-libraries.
** I just wanted to save the reference documents; i did a little presentation myself on https some time back at a local code4lib meet up.

* Lowe, Derek. “The Algorithms Are Coming.” In The Pipeline, April 12, 2016. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2016/04/12/the-algorithms-are-coming.
** It's somewhat embarrassing to have an organic chemist's blog on my reading list and no physicists, but DL writes well and covers a wonderful breadth of topics. I saved this one, though, because of the interrelation of automation and the reading earlier in the week about the Universal Basic Income. Once upon a time there were jobs for people to do the calculations now done by calculators: here's another broad swathe of work that may be replaced.

* Mellichamp, Larry, and Will Stuart. Native Plants of the Southeast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 460 Species for the Garden. Portland, Or: Timber Press, 2014.
** This is saved just as a book i might want to get out of the library in NC or buy used. I have no excuse to buy this new.

* Munz, Philip A. A California Flora. Berkeley, Calif: Univ. of California Press, 1973.
** This is one of my surprisingly large collection of flora (systematic books on all the plants of a region). I don't quite have one cubic foot of them. Once upon a time i was advised that having multiple flora is helpful in identifying plants, because one author will focus on a distinction that another won't. Since weedy nonnatives can be just as hard to distinguish (filarees come to mind) and they may be found on either coast, taking 50 lbs of California flora back to NC isn't that crazy. (Once in a box, books now have an easily estimated dollar cost. $50 to ship the cubic foot collection of floras, another for the graphic novels/comics, and the moving estimator expects we have 60 boxes of books.... )

* Russell, Gerard. Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East. First Trade Paper Edition edition. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
** On the books to get list, linked to a review, see below.

* “Scientists Hacking Our Nervous System Discovered Something Incredible.” The Huffington Post. Accessed April 9, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/29/hacking-the-nervous-syste_n_7469526.html.
** Click bait titles are SO embarrassing. This is about how the vagus nerve plays a part in immune system responses. Intriguing.

* “The Great God Pan Still Lives | The Revealer.” Accessed April 9, 2016. http://therevealer.org/archives/20527.
** Review of Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms

* “The Irish Friend, 1837-1842: Excerpts from the Pioneer Quaker Newspaper,” n.d.
** I received an email invitation to buy this book. Not sure i want it -- i ought to read the actual Quaker periodical to which i subscribe first! Nonetheless, an interesting document, so i saved the sales blurb.

* “Viewpoint: Why Bathrooms Matter to Trans Rights.” BBC News. Accessed April 13, 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36000356.
** Helpful education piece

* “We Asked Cops How They Plan to Enforce North Carolina’s Bathroom Law.” Mother Jones. Accessed April 11, 2016. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/north-carolina-lgbt-bathrooms-hb2-enforcement.
** Keeping track of NC's HB 2

* Whoriskey, Peter. “A Man’s Discovery of Bones under His Pub Could Forever Change What We Know about the Irish.” The Washington Post, March 17, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/17/a-mans-discovery-of-bones-under-his-pub-could-forever-change-what-we-know-about-the-irish/.
** Interesting discovery that feeds into my general curiosity about genetic genealogy and human migrations.

(no subject)

I didn't take my antidepressants today, and that's probably had a part to play in my sense of the blues.

Still, there's something to the feelings about the packing that i think are independent of chemistry.

I packed a great deal of NC pottery today, and my mind oscillates between "too much stuff" to my delight in the handicraft of my home state. (I suppose it is an adopted home state, since i wasn't born there.) Then there's the sense of how stuff has been crammed into corners and places away from where it could be enjoyed. We've been living so tight for so long, i think i'm feeling some regret about the years of being packed in. Will there be a way to enjoy all the stuff in the new home? Christine and i were talking about the CD collection (now just under 300 shelf inches) and how it's compact storage has meant that it wasn't browsable -- and so we haven't enjoyed it (except for the occasional forays into ripping CDs). We purged it today, so Christine will have 1.5 cubic feet of CDs to take to the used music store.


I'll feel better tomorrow. The guilt about owning stuff i don't take care of may ebb. The regrets of living the way we have for so long may ebb too. The worry that we won't take care of this investment we are making may linger. Am i a grown up yet and am i able to have grown up things, like a house?

It's a lovely evening here. Creamy gold wispy clouds are in the blue sky, and a hummingbird visited many of the flowers on the deck. The nasturtium, sage, and scented geraniums all seemed to delight it.

(no subject)

Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note5.