Gardens and Greenhouses

(available to visit)

Long Hill in Beverly, open all year, no admission fee; mostly outdoors. Gardens and woodlands.

The Mount (Edith Wharton's home) in Lenox, gardens are open all year, no admission.

Tower Hill Botanic Gardens in Bolyston, gardens open year round, short week; $12 admission; they have several greenhouses

Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, open May through October; $15 admission

Dudley Greenhouse in Roxbury, emphasis on providing fresh produce

Lyman Estate Greenhouses in Waltham; open Tuesdays, no admission fee

Wellesley College Botanic Gardens include the Margaret Ferguson Greenhouses are open according the the school calendar

UMass Boston has a greenhouse, don't know if they are open to visits

New England Wild Flower Society, Garden in the Woods in Framingham 

Museum of Science

Isabella Steward Gardner Museum

Franklin Park Zoo Tropical Forest

The Butterfly Place in Westford, open February through October

Massachusetts Gardens
Boston Public Market

Colonialism and Imperialism, part 2

I came to this topic while thinking about developments in the changes in fuel use over time. Rapid changes began in the early 1800s. And I wondered if what I was finding reflected an American (USA) bias. Broadening the topic to industrial innovation --- again led me to London and the USA. Realized that China was pretty closed at the time, and Africa and India and the Middle East were dominated by a few European countries - and the connection between industrial innovation and Imperialism was made. And Imperialism is really about capitalism (wealth) competition between countries. So, who were these countries where so much industrial innovation was occurring? Imperialism gave countries wide access to natural resources, and getting as much out of those resources pushed technological innovation. (While often the USA is seen as less involved in Colonialism and Imperialism, someone pointed out that our (the USA government) history with the native Americans and Central America does seem to qualify as I&C.)


Who were some of the leading figures in the construction of the oil empires and in their expansion and/or demise?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_oil_shale_industry
http://www.worldsocialism.org/english/what-capitalism
https://hbr.org/2011/03/capitalism-for-the-long-term
http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/backgrounds/colonialism-and-imperialism/benedikt-stuchtey-colonialism-and-imperialism-1450-1950

Colonialism and Imperialism, part 1

Please bear with me - I've just made a connection between this topic and spread of "industrialization" activities. Probably not a new idea for you. But one more example of the limitations of my history education. This connects to arguments against phrases like "Columbus discovered America". That phrase reflects a certain point of view - and attributing it to the natural expressions of "Western Civilization" seems to mask the nasty side of things. Dare I connect this "industrialization" to capitalism?


Shut the Front Door: I've just now had a shudder, and understand more than ever before, and in my bones, what all the bru-ha-ha is about capitalism. I do tend to agree with my dad who declared it far from good but it is the best we humans can do.

 Capitalism without restriction leads to something like a dictatorship. And this gives me pause - as Trump is still leading (among which people I always wonder) and Carson still going strong (but slipping due to his recent nonsense). In looking for current rating info - found these charts: and Rubio is not pulling out ahead as much as his standing is improving:
HuffPost: current political polls    fascinating

I agree  that fiscal responsibility (one of the generalized Republican positions) is important. I learned through practical dorm governance work that free things cause disruption and waste. Ridiculous low prices instead lead to responsibility among the vast majority of the crowd. Two examples.
Sunday Brunch (whole dorm)
Back in the day, dining commons were closed weekends and getting some breakfast on Sunday meant a long walk on Sunday morning, not what we all wanted after our weekend fun. Tried various options to meet this need on a break-even financial basis (it was to build community as well as solve a practical need). The best was to charge a flat fee for a hot breakfast (usually coffee, scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon). And we required all customers to bring their own plates, cups, etc. Only want coffee? Sorry one fee. What we found - we had no mess to clean up (folks took their stuff with them, lots of customers as the food was decent. And because we were subsidized by food service, we made money. I think we charged a dollar to reduce making change to simplicity. We made a lot of money. Because we had so many customers.
End of year party (3 large dorms+)
To get rid of the money (any left over funds at the end of the year rolled back to the university), we hosted a movie night, with hot dogs and drinks. We did provide the cups and all that. Some of us wanted it all to be free. Some of us had learned that to reduce waste we had to charge something. So, we sold tickets. The movie was free. We hung a sheet out of some windows, I think. Borrowed a projector? This was back in the mid seventies. So, hot dogs were a nickel, drinks maybe a dime. Out of the hundreds that came, we had no issues with destructive, messy, or wasteful behaviors. We all had a blast - enjoying a party with such cheap food. Almost no food was wasted. If it had been free? I'm guessing there'd be lots and lots of half eaten hot dogs all over. Free stuff, unless in times of crises (which should be of short duration) isn't as valued.

Chasing the dark

Maybe I've been thinking about this as we're just a few days after leaving 'daylight savings time'. It seems we've (humans, at the least) have been working forever at chasing away the dark - or making it possible to work inside (and not just simply go to sleep when it gets dark). Some think the first lamps were mini-fires which burned grasses and other found stuff as fuel - using animal fats as fire starters -or even as fuel. Think: bees wax, whale oil (poor whales - with beeswax and lanolin the animals were stolen from not hunted fiercely). We've used fuel for maybe 2 million years. That's basically forever.

OK - fuel is stuff that has stored energy - chemical energy to be more specific. The stored energy is potential energy.  So, being smart about fuel is about physics AND chemistry. The lighting comes from the combustion of the stuff. Most of what we've used are hydrocarbons. Can be solid, liquid, or gas. All coming from plants or animals (really?). Which means I'm excluding batteries. Charcoal (was once wood) has been found to be used since maybe 8000 years ago. Gas extracted from coal became useful in the 1800s.

Fossil fuels are more concentrated than other hydrocarbon sources, whence the huge interest in them as we proceeded beyond the Industrial Revolution. As fossil fuel use now comes with many complaints with respect to huge social problems (and this includes impacts on accelerating climate warming). This has spurred interest in what is called biofuel. Still hydrocarbons.

Lamps first (maybe) were some sort of small bowl to contain the mini-fires. Humans work on lamp design follows human development of fuels. Improving one means the other in also improved. Unimportant to me which comes first. (Also ignoring torches - those are just a sub-category, right?). Improvements include changes to maximize output while minimizing fuel use - and also thinking about safety and control. And, the aesthetics. Today, the price range at Pottery Barn is from $1700 to $200, with most around $400 (maybe). Electric lamps - well, electricity is derived from other energy including hydropower, wind, and nuclear fuels in addition to hydrocarbons.

Using gas fuels started in the early 1800s, which meant that gas fuels were delivered to the end users. I have to learn about the piping of gas into homes for lighting. Wondering if our old house was fitted with gas pipes / fixtures during or after its construction (around 1840).

Next for info on various technological developments around lamps and fuels, which occurred rapidly and launched the Industrial Revolution. And, this means a foray into Colonialization and Imperialization.





3 fossil fuels = coal, natural gas, crude oil (petroleum)
coal was once plants
petroleum was one plants and animals, thought to be plankton and zoo plankton
petroleum gas = butane, propane (derived from petroleum)
natural gas = methane
petroleum = naturally liquid material found in rocks

Interesting Reading and some Sources:
Coal and Oil Formation (animation) 
Illuminating Engineering Society 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel
History of Gasification (hope my text is easier to read)

Music! Amazon! Alexa!

So, so, so excited. And have done a bit of spontaneous dancing --- which I when it happens and it just happened. No money involved! (though this happened because (1) I have an Amazon Prime account - since 2005 and (2) got an Amazon Echo / Alexa and gave it to my hubbie.

Been wanting to play music by voice command - and found out Amazon has just allowed two folks to share one Echo. Since I buy most of the family's music - being able to access my music is huge!

So, So, So Excited!

Here's the article that told me it could be done: from TechTimes.

Minimizing fluff

to maximize satisfaction & joy. I have no interest in a minimalist life yet these two gents share an approach that I'm going to start with now. It has taken me weeks to take care of their Day One. I needed a spot to record this - and written notes don't do it for me. I must be able to find it on the web. Using blogger I can do - using Evernote would take more time. So blogger, here I go.

My Must List (for fixing my current frustrations)
I must go to bed earlier. It's been a focus all summer and fall so far.
I must drink enough water.
I must do some yoga nearly every single day.

Done with Day One. Finally.

Update (11/21/15): So, it was all about Day One other than Day 15, Finances (The other days offered nothing new for me). Strange but this is where I found info about cutting back on what I call junk mail. And with the Christmas holiday approaching, the amount of catalogs coming is sky rocketing. Keeping the junk so I can opt of the catalogs here:  DMAChoice.org
 

 

Trying skin

Trying is so trying!

Skin

Life gets trickier when skin is unhappy. Have been spending lots of Internet research in efforts to get smarter. And so this post is to save some of that knowledge.

Skin has an ACID MANTLE. It's pH is at or below 5.5.  Not a lot of info. If you have some, do let me have it.

(All of this was launched with my skin everywhere itching about

Brief history of oil (petroleum)

Intro
I say too much. Maybe, rather, I say so much. I become deeply interested in topics others haven't or it takes me a lot of work (writing or talking) to work through some topics that others 'just get'. Maybe because I'm still influenced my earliest years as a 'real' adult' were

Oil Seeps

"While my guitar weeps"

La Brea has always fascinated and confused me. Oil needs wells, derricks, and general hard work to get. It also just forms puddles on the ground all on it's own??
Wikipedia let me know about the transition to asphalt from oil ---- I no longer need to wonder how an asphalt pit can relate to my confusion on oil weeps, oops, seeps:

"Tar pits are composed of heavy oil fractions called gilsonite, which seeped from the Earth as oil. In Hancock Park, crude oil seeps up along the 6th Street Fault from the Salt Lake Oil Field, which underlies much of the Fairfax District north of the park. The oil reaches the surface and forms pools at several locations in the park, becoming asphalt as the lighter fractions of the petroleum biodegrade or evaporate."

How did the mideast oil drama start?

This has been one of my large curiosities for quite a bit of time. It hasn't helped that phrases such as 'oil wasn't discovered in Saudi Arabia until 1927' are often found. I took that literally until I started learning about the details of T.E. Lawrence's work during WWI. During WWI, Britain had access to oil (from Persia - in the Zagros Mountains and other locations). Russia had a supply from the Baku