The Scout Report -- Volume 25, Number 19

In recent years, scientific studies have led to concern about the health of honeybee and native pollinator populations. Launched in 2008, the Great Sunflower Project is a citizen science project that began "as a way to gather information about our urban, suburban and rural bee populations and to give you the tools to learn about what is happening with the pollinators in your yard." While this US-based program initially focused on pollinator visits to Lemon Queen Sunflowers, it has since expanded so that people throughout the country can participate by counting and reporting pollinators they observe visiting any type of plant. Those curious about what this project has revealed thus far will find maps and graphs in the explore section, as well as information on pollinators and resources for teachers. Readers interested in participating can register for free online and a quick start guide and instructions for counting can be found under the site's about section. To aid in identifying the different kinds of bees and other pollinators, a number of downloadable identification guides are also available as are printable data sheets. The Great Sunflower Project is directed by ecologist and conservation biologist Gretchen LeBuhn, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University. [JDC]

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Although comic books and graphic novels were once widely disregarded as a legitimate literary form, in recent years comics have captured the attention of an increasing number of scholars and academics. Readers interested in this field of study (or comic aficionados in general) may want to check out The Comics Grid, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that aims "to promote comics scholarship within academia and the general public with contributions that present specialised knowledge in an accessible language." This digital journal publishes scholarly research articles focused on comics, as well as reviews of books in this field. Many articles are also part of special collections that focus on themes, such as the role of comics in science communication, interdisciplinary approaches to jazz music and comics, and the intersections between comics and issues of law and justice. Currently in its ninth volume, The Comics Grid is published by Open Library of Humanities (see the 7-20-2018 Scout Report) and is indexed by SCOPUS, Google Scholar, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and other services. [JDC]

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Released online on April 22, 2019, the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2) "provides a current state-of-the-science assessment of the carbon cycle in North America (i.e., the United States, Canada, and Mexico) and its connection to climate and society." Produced once every ten years, this comprehensive report was authored by more than 200 scientists from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and "provides information to inform mitigation and adaptation policies and management decisions related to the carbon cycle and climate change." Readers may wish to begin with the highlights of SOCCR2 (which are also available in Spanish, Chinese, and French) and its executive summary, which gives a condensed overview of the report in plain language. The full report is organized into four interconnected sections: Synthesis; Human Dimensions of the Carbon Cycle; State of Air, Land, and Water; and Consequences and Ways Forward. In addition to viewing the interactive web version of SOCCR2, those interested may download individual PDFs of its 19 chapters, as well as the full 880-page document including appendices at the above link. This report was produced under Congressional mandate in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990. [JDC]

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In April 2019, the Pew Research Center released this extensive report that examines views on diversity, gender equality, the role of religion, and family ties in 27 countries around the world. This 45-page report, which is based on Pew's Spring 2018 Global Attitudes Survey, asked 30,133 people to give their assessment of how their country has changed in the past 20 years with regards to these four social and cultural aspects, as well as whether they think those changes are good or bad for their country. A median of nearly 70 percent of respondents said that diversity and gender equality has increased, while a median of nearly 60 percent said that family ties had weakened. Regarding religion, a median of 27 percent said that religion now plays a more important role in their country, while about 37 percent said religion plays a less important role. For all four aspects, roughly 20 percent of respondents perceived no change. Readers interested in more details can view or download the report in full at the link above, where they will also find helpful graphs and the report's top-line questionnaire results. This report was authored by Jacob Poushter, Janell Fetterolf, and Christine Tamir. [JDC]

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This historical collection by the USDA is a great source for those interested in researching the history of dietary guidelines in the US, or anyone curious to trace what we have collectively thought of as healthy foods over the last 100 years. Using its collection of historical nutrition education materials, the National Agricultural Library (NAL) has digitized and organized more than 1,200 items to create the Historical Dietary Guidance Digital Collection, which now includes posters, recipes, transcripts of radio broadcasts, and some current nutrition education materials. The collection can be searched or browsed by subject. Included in the collection is a transcript of the USDA "Housekeepers Chat," a radio show dated September 3, 1931, on how to examine the labels of canned mushrooms, which is an interesting read from our 21st-century perspective. This 20th-century lesson concentrates on how to determine the quality of the canned mushrooms and their place of origin. The Food Guide Pyramid was released in the 1990s; to find earlier versions, search on guidelines or dietary guidelines to retrieve historical advice going back to the 1960s, often published in "Food & Nutrition," a newsletter published by USDA beginning in 1971. On many materials, NAL provides the helpful reminder: "These documents are historical; please do not assume this content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices." [DS]

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The podcast and radio show Science for the People offers listeners "a long-format interview podcast that explores the connections between science, popular culture, history, and public policy." Based in Edmonton, Canada and intended for general audiences, this podcast shares conversations with scientific researchers and science writers covering the full spectrum of science topics, both present-day and historical. Recent themes include household microbes (and other critters), the fascinating science of krill, genetic testing and its associated ethics and technology, and a discussion of plastic in the oceans (recorded with a live audience). With more than 500 episodes in its archives (most around an hour long), this long-running show originally launched in 2009 under the name Skeptically Speaking before broadening its focus to become Science for the People in October 2013. As of this write-up, Science for the People is produced by Rachelle Saunders, a web developer by day who also hosts the show, along with Bethany Brookshire, Anika Hazra, and Marian Kilgour. Episodes can be streamed on the show's website and those interested can also subscribe via Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms. [JDC]

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Women in history are often overlooked and ignored, which is something Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider aim to address through their podcast The History Chicks. The podcast has been around since 2011 with new episodes generally published twice per month. The most recent episode features Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished female athletes of all time. Featured historical women include well-known women (such as Frida Kahlo, Queen Nzinga, and Harriet Tubman, to name a few) and some you may not have heard of (such as Mary Anning or Wallis Simpson), with each figure accompanied by a biography and plenty of pictures on The History Chicks website. Occasional episodes have featured fictional female characters, eras, and groups of women (Mrs. Claus, 1950s Housewives, and the Romanovs, for example), which explore the historical narrative and folklore surrounding those women. In addition to The History Chicks, Graham and Vollenweider produce a second podcast called The Recappery, during which they recap and discuss shows and movies prominently featuring historic women. Currently, The Recappery has explored the shows "Anne with an E," "Little Women," "The Crown" season two, and the movie "Marie Antoinette." The History Chicks also has a very active Pinterest board, which gets updated with new material with every new episode. Most episodes are around one and a half to two hours; The History Chicks can be streamed directly from their website or listeners can opt to listen via their favorite podcast app. [JLB]

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Many of us are surrounded by technology with little thought given to how it may be affecting us or our society; new technologies enter the market on what can seem like a daily basis. Launched in February 2019, Should This Exist? is a new podcast that "drops listeners into the minds of today's edgiest entrepreneurs and guides them through the journey of foreseeing what technology might do to us, and for us." Topics explored in this podcast's roughly 45-minute episodes thus far include chatbot virtual therapists powered by artificial intelligence, open-source drones that can be used as tools for good or as weapons, and supersonic airplanes that could travel at twice the speed of sound. Should This Exist? is produced by WaitWhat in partnership with Quartz and hosted by Caterina Fake, a Silicon Valley leader and co-founder of the photo-sharing website Flickr. Visitors can stream episodes and access transcripts on the show's website, and those interested can subscribe via platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. [JDC]

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National Public Radio's (NPR) Tiny Desk has been featuring music performances at the desk of All Songs Considered's host Bob Boilen for over a decade. All songs are recorded live in Washington D.C. and are truly in the setting of the radio host's desk - listeners who watch the performances rather than only listen can experience the juxtaposition of a desk full of figurines and knick-knack-filled bookshelves with an emotional R&B performance or whimsical folk song, to name a few genres. Recent Tiny Desk performances feature the Scottish band Karine Polwart Trio, led by singer and essayist Karine Polwart who performs the songs "Ophelia," "I Burn But I Am Not Consumed," and "King of Birds." Other recent performances include Georgia Anne Muldrow, Weezer, &More (Chill Moody and Donn T). Tiny Desk also hosts Tiny Desk Family Hour, featuring performances at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX (adult listeners should preview the performances before including a tiny audience). Aspiring musicians may want to take part in the annual Tiny Desk Contest, which invites listeners to record themselves performing an original song for a chance to perform it live at their own Tiny Desk concert. Performances are generally released twice per week and listeners have a few options to hear performances. Those interested can listen directly from the website; subscribe to the NPR Music Newsletter (available from the site's homepage); listen via the NPR One app; or download the podcast individually via Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or any other podcast platform. [JLB]

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Readers who love podcasts but are more interested in finding episodes on specific topics rather than subscribing to a show's entire archive may want to check out Listen Notes. Launched in 2017, Listen Notes is a web-based, stand-alone podcast search engine that allows users to conduct keyword searches for individual podcast episodes on any topic, and the results list can be toggled to show episodes or entire podcasts. After finding episodes on their topic of choice, visitors can then curate those episodes into playlists using the site's Listen Later feature, which they can listen to online or add to any podcast app via RSS feed. Listen Notes offers several other ways to discover podcasts as well: a real-time display of what other visitors are currently listening to, podcast playlists curated by other users, Listen Alerts that send daily email notifications of new podcast episodes containing a user's search terms, interviews with podcasters, and more. As of this write-up, the Listen Notes database contains more than 44 million episodes from over 665,000 podcasts. Listen Notes is designed, built, and maintained by Wenbin Fang, a computer engineer and "avid podcast listener" who lives in San Francisco. [JDC]

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PhotoFlare is a cross-platform graphics editor that seeks to provide powerful image editing features behind a simple graphical user interface. Its documentation states that it is suitable for "a wide variety of different tasks and users who value a more nimble workflow." The basic tasks that it supports include cropping, flipping/rotating, and resizing of images. In the documentation, users can find step-by-step instructions that include animated demonstrations showing how to perform each of these tasks. More advanced features include color adjustments, creation of text overlays, and batch operations on folders of images. PhotoFlare is a free software, distributed under the GNU General Public License, with source code available on GitHub. Executables for Windows and Linux can be downloaded from the PhotoFlare website. Users that opt to support PhotoFlare financially receive early access to development versions of the next version of the software, but such support is not required to use the PhotoFlare Community Edition. [CRH]

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Sitting nearly stationary at one's desk for hours at a time can cause a remarkable number of aches and pains. Time Out is a program that will gently (or not so gently) remind users to take periodic breaks. In its default configuration, Time Out suggests 15-second "micro-breaks" every fifteen minutes along with a ten minute "normal break" once per hour. Users may configure any number of breaks with customizable timing. Users may also configure actions to happen before, during, and after breaks. In addition to the built-in actions, additional actions can be added from the Time Out extras page. In the exclusions section, users can configure a list of programs that will not be interrupted by a break. Time Out is available for macOS and can be downloaded either directly from the Time Out website or from the Mac App Store. [CRH]

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We last featured the Lonely Palette in the 6-29-2018 Scout Report and this podcast has continued to grow its archive. Recently discussed artworks include Wassily Kandinsky's Untitled (1922) and Ansel Adams' iconic The Tetons and Snake River (1942).

The Lonely Palette is a new podcast that may appeal to readers interested in learning a bit of art history one famous artwork at a time. Hosted by "art historian turned finance administrator turned independent radio producer" Tamar Avishai, each episode of the Lonely Palette is centered around a specific artwork, including a number of works held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (where Avishai works as an adjunct lecturer). Avishai opens each episode by interviewing museum visitors about the featured work of art, providing listeners with a rich variety of perspectives. Next, Avishai shares her own insights about the selected work of art and its significance. In doing so, Avishai hopes to make art and art history accessible to everyone. Featured artworks in this series include Yoko Ono's Cut Piece (1964); JMW Turner's The Slave Ship; Paul Gauguin's Where Do We Come From? Where Are We? Where Are We Going?; and Jackson Pollock's Number 10, to name just a few.

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