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World & Universe

Geographer Alastair Bonnett’s picks shine.

A map of the Laniakea Supercluster. MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY


GeoTech

Cool OSM Site

OSM (Open Street Maps) from various services.

Who Wants to Compete?

ArcGIS 2024 StoryMaps Competition

BioGeography / Rewilding

Fungus Amongus

While some of the content below is focused on Oregon this is definitely a world-wide topic. I know Jim has been doing some Citizen Science with lichen, which is cool. Maybe he’ll share more about that with us. Merlin Sheldrake’s book below illustrates how unusual lichen are as well as there evolutionary place. I’ve been exploring mycorrhizae through some reading and interesting OPB shows. I highly recommend any content from Merlin Sheldrake or Paul Stamets. Interesting points: A plant that does not photosynthesize, fungi distribute nutrients and even information across plants the amazing mycelial networks, and that fungi are more closely related to animals than plants.

Seen from Space

Beavers and rewilding is pretty well documented. Here’s a story about them in general and a specific example of the largest beaver dam known.

Human Diffusion

Oceania

Carl Johanessen was right. Jared Diamond was wrong

Carl was a University of Oregon Geography professor and a favorite of several of us on this list. He espoused pre-Columbian contact between the America’s and Asia/Oceania. I had a graduate seminar with him on diffusion. My topic choice was the sweet potato, a South American native cultivar that made it to Oceania long before European contact. How? A new article in Nature shows that Ancient Rapanui (aka Easter Island) genomes carry about 10% Native American admixture. They also found genomic evidence to reject the ecocide theory espoused by Jared Diamond in his book “Collapse”. Though there are other flaws in that book it is still an excellent read. They estimate the Native American admixture event(s) “occurred about 1250–1430 ce”.

Europe

Causes for the Disappearance of Neanderthals

New genetic analysis shows that late European Neanderthals were quite isolated from other populations.

Slimak, Ludovic et al. Cell Genomics, Volume 4, Issue 9, 100593


PNW

Unauthorized Logging

A story about unauthorized logging in Canada. https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-logging-without-authorization-map/

US

AI and anti-Gerrymandering

Not sure I’m as optimistic about AI helping to reduce Gerrymandering. I think it will be equally effective to increase it - depending on who is in charge of it. Without the human intent it is just a tool and it’s quite clear that US humans have no intention of fixing the problem of Gerrymandering at this point.

Bats and Kids Correlate

Because the spread of white-nose syndrome in bats is well researched and has a specific “front” of the contagion it was a good target to look at how an increase in insecticide use had an impact on infant mortality. There are references to other similar species population reductions and impact on humans.

In June, Frank and another researcher estimated that the collapse of India’s vulture population may have resulted in 500,000 human deaths – because without the scavenging birds to eat rotting meat, rabies and other infections proliferated. The findings on pesticide use also echo previous research, including a study of Taylor’s. In the US, cicadas emerge en masse at intervals of 13 to 17 years. Taylor found that pesticide use increased in cicada seasons, as did infant mortality. People born in cicada years had lower test scores and were more likely to drop out of school.

Rust Belt

Why does Springfield, OH need Haitians

All of the news about the GOP campaign and Haitian immigrant lies made we want to look into more info on Haitian immigration. Migration Policy Institute has excellent summaries and data.