DIY wild plant guidebook on your smartphone

I've been playing around with photo apps on my iPhone to save and categorize photos of wild plants. This helps me memorize the plants and also remember how to use them in the field. Recently I've been using an app called "Over" that lets you type information directly on the image itself. Here's an example:

As you can see, I've typed in the plant name in large font. Then in smaller font I've listed that it goes by another name, "hollyberry," followed by common ways the plant can be used.

I shoot the photo in the field. Later I add in the useful info after consulting one or more guidebooks. This way, in the future, I won't have to tote various guidebooks in my pack, and I can include only info in the photo that's important to me.

The "Over" app costs $1.99, and it allows you to choose different fonts, sizes, move the fonts around, add graphics, and lots of other stuff. You can also change the font color, which may be helpful so the words stand out against the photo. There are similar free apps, and some are available for both iPhone and Android phones. For a review of several, click here.

I was never a big fan of bringing my phone along on hikes. But this kind of tool has made it worthwhile. Now I usually put the phone on "airplane mode" so nobody can bother me in the woods, and yet it's still with me in case of emergency.

I think these apps are worth a try to create a custom guidebook to your local plants and critters.

Scott Russell Sanders: How to be the change

Graffiti in a Sacramento alley.

"If you begin by asking yourself how you can be sure of solving this or that global problem or creating this or that utopia, you'll soon give up. Instead, ask yourself what action most faithfully expresses your deepest values and affections, right here and now in this concrete situation, and you will always be able to act with courage and purpose. We make the path by walking."

– Scott Russell Sanders, from an interview in "ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment," Spring 2013, published by Oxford University Press.

Back to the future: Vintage rail bike

Sometimes the best ideas come from history. Here's one I stumbled across recently: the Teetor bicycle rail car, introduced in the U.S. in 1895 and produced for many years thereafter.

This conveyance is similar to the hand cars that were used by train crews to conduct track maintenance. But for some reason, this bicycle-powered version, though probably far more efficient, is far less well known.

The two-seater show above weighed 75 pounds, and a single-seater was also offered that weighed only 60 pounds. The possibilities represented here are significant. Such a vehicle would be easy to move on and off the rail when necessary, and could be pedaled with ease, given the low rolling resistance between wheels and train tracks.

Imagine this device upgraded with the modern materials and engineering in today's bicycles. It could be far lighter, perhaps collapsible for easier transport, adjustable for different track widths, and geared for better climbing.

Of course there would be legal problems with actually using such a bike on train tracks today, which are all controlled by private railroads and government transit systems. But maybe someday, when fossil fuels are are all spent, this is how we'll travel.

The above photo is borrowed from "A History of the Railroad Hand Car" by J.H. White Jr., a pamphlet published in 1972 by The Railroad & Locomotive Historical Society Inc. at Harvard Business School. Special thanks to Bernard Mergen for the reference.

 

Too late to wait?

Global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels set a record level in 2012, driven largely by rising demand in China and Japan's decision to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency. (U.S. emissions declined 3.8 percent, Europe by 1.4 percent.)

This prompted the IEA's chief economist, Fatih Birol, to warn that the planet risks eclipsing a goal of containing global temperature increase to 3.6 degrees F above pre-industrial levels. This is regarded as a safety limit beyond which global warming is likely to become catastrophic.

Birol said the world risks hitting a temperature increase of 9 degrees F if it chooses to wait for a new climate treaty. Intead, he said, nations must take action now to control carbon emissions.

 

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Coffee makes you crazy

I did something about a month ago that I never thought would enter my mind as a possibility. I gave up coffee. Pretty much cold turkey.

Now comes a determination by the American Psychiatric Association that caffeine withdrawal is an actual mental illness. It has been officially listed as such in their professional bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

They don't mean withdrawal that results from giving something up. They mean the symptoms a caffeine addict experiences whenever the customary caffeine level in their system declines. Such as around noon, after the morning cuppa wears off. Or when you get home from work, when the afternoon pick 'em up cuppa is hours behind you.

If you drink more than two or three cups of coffee a day, you may experience withdrawal symptoms including headaches, grumpiness, trouble sleeping and difficulty focusing. Also:

People with this level of intoxication will show five or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushed face, diuresis, gastrointestinal disturbance, twitching, rambling thought or speech, tachycardia, arrhythmia, periods of inexhaustibly, or psychomotor agitation.

I gave up coffee after more than 25 years because I began to notice it was affecting my mood and my sleep. My addiction also affect my habits. For instance, on short dayhiking trips I would go to great lengths to bring along the necessary gear to be sure I could prepare a cup of hot joe on the trail. And I often had to mold my work schedule around that afternoon cup.

Frankly, I didn't think I could live without coffee. But the quitting process was surprisingly easy. There was only one hard day, about two or three days after I quit, when it felt like my system "crashed." I was in a kind of stupor, incapable of much activity or focused thought. But the very next day, I was fine.

I must note that I did not give up caffeine entirely, only coffee. I now drink mostly green tea, which has about a third as much caffeine.

This is all relevant because climate change may wipe out Arabica beans, which account for 70 percent of Earth's coffee production. So as I see it, the sooner we humans can wean ourselves of this addiction, the better off we'll be. I never thought I'd say that.

My stuff: Climate change may wipe out 82% of native CA fish

That includes numerous species of salmon. By contrast, only 19 percent of nonnative fishes will be lost.

"We'll be making choices," says Peter Moyle of UC Davis. "Either we have these species around for the future, or we don't."

Published in The Sacramento Bee on May 31, 2013.

 

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Solar energy breakthrough?

Maryland inventor Ronald Ace claims to have made a breakthrough in solar thermal energy generation that could eliminate mankind's dependence on fossil fuels. The "solar trap" design is promising because Ace claims it captures nearly 100 percent of the sun's energy, which no other technology has even come close to achieving. Details are sketchy, but expert reviews are underway and a patent has been filed.

 

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