|Friday Web Round-up

Psychology

• Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice (Stephanie Pappas, Live Science)
• 5 Habits Of The Most Creative People (Drake Baer, Fast Company)
• Exploring the Myths of Human Nature (Agustin Fuentes, UTNE)

Adventure

• Dirtbag Diaries: Live from 5Point Vol. 5 (Fitz & Becca Cahall, Patagonia)

Humor

• 20 Hidden Jokes in Arrested Development (Rudie Obias, Mental Floss)
• The World's Most Awkward Taxidermy (io9) [click on HIDE to remove numbers]

Health

• Some of My Best Friends Are Germs (Michael Pollan, NY Times)
• Research Reveals Yeasty Beasts Living On Our Skin (Rob Stein, NPR)
• Book: The Urban Homestead (Coyne & Knutzen)

Games

• GeoGuessr

Life

• 1930: Rare footage of Helen Keller speaking with the help of Anne Sullivan. (Soul Pancake)

Environment

• Drop in U.S. underground water levels has accelerated -USGS (Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters)
• Obama Administration Approves ALEC Model Bill for Fracking Chemical Fluid Disclosure on Public Lands (Steve Horn, Truth Out)
• Vincent Stanley (Huck Magazine/Three Mystic Apes)

MORE

• Social Ethics/Action
• Christian Ethics

|Friday Web Round-up

Adventure

• Wallpaper (Adventure Journal)
• Pooping In The Outdoors: A Flow Chart (Semi-Rad)
• Best Adventure Photographers (Enthusio)
• Top 8 Tech Tools to Stay Light, Fast & Connected (Jimmy Chin)
• Three months breaking ice (Three Mystic Apes)

Environment (Nature + Sustainability) 

• Marianne Thieme — Party for the Animals (Adventist Activism)
• PH278x: Human Health and Global Environmental Change (HarvardX)
• Fracking is draining water resources, especially in the West (John Platt, Mother Nature Network)
• New Concerns About Plastic Pollution in Great Lakes ‘Garbage Patch’ (Lisa Borre, National Geographic)
• Introducing “$20 Million & Change” and Patagonia Works – A Holding Company for the Environment (Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia)
• Grafting for a Tree Makeover (Lee Reich, Mother Earth News)
• A Road Built Out Of Solar Panels, To Charge Our Cars (And Everything Else) (Fast Company)
• Researcher decodes prairie dog language, discovers they've been talking about us (Stephen Messenger, Treehugger)

Health

• Yoga To Handle Life’s Curve Balls (Prana)
• To Be Healthier, Happier, And More Productive, Stand Up From Your Desk Right Now (Fast Company)
• True Story: From Oil Exec to Career Yogi (Brenda Blanco, Elephant)
• Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets (Philip J Tuso, MD; Mohamed H Ismail, MD; Benjamin P Ha, MD; Carole Bartolotto, MA, RD, The Permanente Journal)

Finances

• Debt and mental health issues go hand in hand (Denver Post)
• And Then We Saved (blog) 

Humor

• 21 Kids Who Sold Out Their Parents (BuzzFeed)

MORE

• Religious Ethics
• General Social Ethics

|Visit by Sandhill Cranes

You know that I like sandhill cranes (one, two, three, four). Well, this afternoon we got our first visitors. First they were between us and the neighbor:

A few minutes later, I opened the blinds in our bedroom, and the couple was just outside at the feeder:

I've heard they sometimes have offspring in this area. I hope to share pictures of said peeps later...

|House Wren Family on the Way

A couple of house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) are building a home just outside our apartment. They keep carrying twigs and other materials into the bushes below this dark purple lilac tree (?).

And here is one of the wrens in the lighter-colored tree that's closer to our window [click to enlarge]. I took this picture from inside the house, sitting on the chesterfield, I mean, the davenport or veranda.

At least I think they're house wrens, and I think those are lilac flowers. I really don't know what I'm talking about. But I do know I like their song.

|White-crowned Sparrow

This white-crowned sparrow was doing all it could to warm up--fluffing its feathers and catching the morning's earliest rays of light (low 30s or high 20s last night):

A few weeks ago, our resident tunnel maker also warmed in the morning light in nearly the same spot:

Both pictures were taken through our living room window.

UPDATE: Here's a picture I just took of a goldfinch outside our bedroom window. The feeder is too far away for my little camera to capture well. The second below is later in the day. A real camera and an open window would make beautiful things possible.

|Local Bird Action

Today we were visited by a number of bird species--tufted tit-mice, black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, cardinals, downy woodpeckers and these colorful friends:

Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)

Bonus

These pictures have not been cropped or altered in any way. This is the best I could do taking pictures through a closed window with my point-and-shoot.

EXTRA BONUS:

|Friday Web Round-up

Culture

• Conceptions of Beauty across Cultures (Sociological Cinema)
• Photoshop Disasters

Adventure

• Expedition Denali: Inspiring Diversity in the Outdoors (Kick Starter)
• 35 (Three Mystic Apes)

Psychology

• Creativity and the Everyday Brain with Rex Jung (On Being, NPR)
• MIT Brain Scans Show That Entrepreneurs Really Do Think Different (Fast Company)

Health

• Alli Rainey: Stepping Stones (Part 3) -- Celebrating National Physical Fitness and Sports Month (1): 10 Steps to Help You Craft a Healthier Lifelong Eating Plan (Prana)

Sustainability & the Environment

• 5 tiny home design ideas worth stealing (Mother Nature News)
• 5 Acre Abundance on a Budget (Geoff Lawton) [may need to register to view this permaculture video]
• A tale of two Earth Day heroes: Tim DeChristopher and Sandra Steingraber (Bill McKibben, Grist)
• Eating Less Meat Is World's Best Chance For Timely Climate Change, Say Experts (Michelle Maisto, Forbes)
• Comment Now to the EPA to Protect Bristol Bay, Alaska's Priceless Watershed (Save Bristol Bay)
• Fracking Ourselves to Death in Pennsylvania (Ellen Cantarow, Truthout)
• A Fist In The Eye of God: Reflections on the genetic manipulations of life (Barbara Kingsolver, Mother Earth News)
• Variables (Three Mystic Apes)

|Friday Web Round-up

Humor

• Home Planet (The New Yorker)
• Before Instagram (Punk Kimono Tumblr)
• Infomercial GIFs -- Life is so hard.

Psychology

• Enneagram Values Mind Map (Rob Fitzel)
• Introduction to the Enneagram (The Enneagram Institute)

Health

• Is Organic Better? Ask a Fruit Fly (Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times)
• The Longevity Project: Decades of Data Reveal Paths to Long Life (Veronique Greenwood, The Atlantic)

Natural World

• Yosemite: Range of Light (Three Mystic Apes)
• Watershed (Three Mystic Apes)
• 12 most amazing time-lapse videos of stars, landscapes, and urban scenes (Treehugger)

Environment / Sustainability

• The Curse of Fertilizer (Dan Charles, National Geographic)
• Colorado River is Nation’s #1 Most Endangered River (Amy Souers Kober, The Cleanest Line)
• A Million Comments Against Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline (The Cleanest Line)
• TNF: Operation Sustainability
• Bringing it Home (Three Mystic Apes)
• MMM Challenge: Anti-Automobile April (Mr. Money Mustache)

Featured Blog: three cameras, three perspectives, learning across the miles…

|Friday Web Round-up

It seems I'm not writing much these days, just posting links. So here are more:

Adventure + Travel

• Africa-Americas Rowing Voyage – Four Guys in a 29-Foot Boat Rowing from Senegal to Miami (Hillary Fleming and the crew of the James Robert Hanssen, The Cleanest Line) 
• Uncharted Waters (Three Mystic Apes) 
• Kayaking the Great Bear Rainforest (Three Mystic Apes) 
• NRS – Walk on Water (Three Mystic Apes) 

Animals

• Six Animals with Pets of Their Own (MNN)
• Kittens vs. Eggs
• Animal Odd Couples (Nature, PBS)

Health 

• My Wife’s Fight With Breast Cancer (Storms of Silence) 
• Green tea‚ coffee lower risk of stroke (Himalayan Times) 

Environment

• Enjoy* (Three Mystic Apes) 
• Choose Organic Cotton (Three Mystic Apes)