Good morning,
No post today. Enjoy the early Spring weather.
Next Tuesday, May 6, is Ohio’s Primary. Like me, you may only need to cast your ballot on one issue, but it’s important. 
Here’s a link to more information: Ballotpedia.org 
​See you next week!

…but the South Pole wasn't his home. He was a polar bear, and polar bears live in the North Pole.
Which is why he said goodbye and traveled 12,430 miles all the way back to the North Pole, where he belonged.
                                           written by Jean Willis
                                     illustrated by Peter Jarvis
                                  Nosy Crow/Candlewick, 2015
                                 accessed on YouTube 4/21/25

    Mom and Dad took us on day trips to interesting nearby places instead of long family vacations. Dad was an expert map reader. Mom was, too. My brother picked up the skill easily, but my sister got carsick so was excused. And I, well, left and right, directions like NSEW were (are) confusing. 
    Dad kidded me saying I could get lost backing out of the driveway. He was right, then. I always thought spatial relations was not my best thing. I’m lots better now, so maybe I just lived down to his expectations.
    Now, take the North Pole. Everyone knows the magnetic North Pole is different from the geographic North Pole. But I just learned that even though the geographic North Pole is stationary (even as Earth orbits and rotates), the magnetic North Pole strays.
    Magnetic poles (North and South) are located at the precise spot where the geomagnetic field is exactly perpendicular to the surface of the Earth. An imaginary line to the center of Earth’s core is called a dip pole.
    The imaginary line connecting the magnetic North and South Poles is not necessarily parallel to the imaginary one connecting the geographic Poles. Currently, the axis of the dip pole is inclined 9.32° compared to the rotational axis. This differential (that changes over time) only matters if a reversal occurs. That is unlikely and perhaps the topic for another day. 
    But where the Magnetic North Pole IS does matter. Back to that in a few minutes.
    In 1831, James Clark Ross (1800 - 1862), a British Naval Officer, located the Magnetic North Pole in the Canadian Arctic. It has been drifting slowly across the Arctic Plain and is now nearing Russia.
    You might wonder, as I did, Why does it move? Well, it’s complicated. Earth’s magnetic field is caused by Earth’s outer core. Unlike the solid inner core, the outer core is liquid. It is the movement of iron, nickel, sulfur, and oxygen sloshing around the huge solid core made of iron and nickel that creates the magnetic field. Think of opposite ends of a magnet. Opposites attract while like repels like.
    Since the magnetic field is constantly changing, so are the magnetic Poles. From 1831, when Ross first located it, to the 1990s, magnetic North drifted about 9 miles (15 km) per year. However, since the 1990s, it has been moving faster, lots faster.
    Using satellite measurements, scientists think they have figured out why. Information from the journal Nature Geoscience says “tussling magnetic blobs” in Earth’s outer core cause the ruckus. One blob is under Canada, and one is under Siberia. As they attract and repel each other, the magnetic field shifts. Here's an illustration from EarthSky.org. 
    Within the last 20 years, Magnetic North has been clocked between 30 and 50 miles per year, galloping South, toward Siberia.
    But about five years ago, movement slowed to between 30 and 22 miles (50 to 35 km) per year. EarthSky.org says, [it’s the] “biggest deceleration in speed we've ever seen.”
    GPS (Global Positioning System) Navigation depends on the accuracy of Earth’s magnetic field. Think of a magnet and a compass. Because Magnetic North is always moving, navigation is tricky.
    Experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meet with their British counterparts every five years to develop a more accurate World Magnetic Model (WMM). While emergency updates are done as necessary, those five years may be too long to wait.
    While we still watch objects in the sky to tell where we are in space and how to get somewhere else, satellites (for the most part) have replaced “navigation by the stars.” NOAA's website tells us we depend on “[o]ver 30 GPS navigation satellites [that] are whizzing around the world, orbiting at an altitude of 12,000 miles, to help us find our way.  
    The new WMM has been available since January 2025, and mapping companies, shipping agencies, logistics firms, and governments are busy making updates.
    Our smartphones depend on GPS, too, but those updates happen automatically.
    Climate scientists have been studying the effects of the increasing levels of CO2 on climate change since at least 2012. According to an article in physics.org, “[w]hile CO2 causes heat to be trapped in the lower atmosphere, it actually cools the upper atmosphere.” Using computer simulations, the scientists found that changes in Earth’s magnetic field (in the upper atmosphere) cause changes in global temperatures, with the “strongest warming … located over Antarctica” and all those icebergs.
    Today is Earth Day. Celebrate by planting a tree or two, our best allies to capture the carbon we are so wantonly inclined to spew into the air.

I just finished reading God of the Woods by Liz Moore. When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar disappears from her family’s exclusive overnight camp, it feels like a replay of the disappearance of her older brother. Camp counselors, a complicated past, and family intrigue work against a female detective, trying to establish her credibility, to unravel the “twin” mysteries, only to discover they are not as similar as they first appear. It’s long, but worth your time!
                                 Be curious! (and breathe deep)

Little Cloud drifted toward the clouds.
Then all the clouds changed into one big cloud and 
rained!
                                                    from Little Cloud
                               written and illustrated by Eric Carle
                                                          Philomel, 1996
    Part of my grandson’s fascination with clouds comes from his keen interest in weather phenomena, especially severe weather: hurricanes; tornadoes; cyclones. He got himself a small notebook that fit in his pocket and started studying clouds. He drew pictures of them and collected all his notes in one place. 
    He learned about different cloud formations and what kinds of weather they would bring. Needless to say, I was more than a little impressed with the quality of illustrated information and at least as impressed by the idea of the notebook itself.
    So when I heard an article on “Living on Earth,” last Saturday, I knew I had my topic. First thing I learned is how complex clouds are. Very. While they are all composed of either water droplets or ice crystals, cloud formation, height, size, and color are all important.
    In 1803, meteorologist Luke Howard classified clouds into four core types. 

• Cirro-form  high, whitish, and wispy clouds made of ice crystals.
• Cumulo-form  puffy with sharp outlines and usually a flat bottom. These are the ones that look like bunnies and butterflies.
• Strato-form broad and flat, like a blanket with scattered edges.    
• Nimbo-form  a combination of all three. Gray, heavy, and portend rain.

    But clouds usually form with some combination of features. 
    High-level clouds are white and delicate. Ice crystals gather to form cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. They glow in splendid sunsets.
    Mid-level clouds are usually made of water droplets. Altocumulus are the most common. Many different layers can appear at the same time and cover much of the sky. Altostratus are gray and layered. Sometimes, you can see streaks of rain (virga) in the distance, hanging diagonally from the cloud and even reaching the ground. Nimbostratus are thick enough to blot out the sun. They are ragged and full of rain or snow. They fall lower to the ground as the rain or snow continues.
    Low-level clouds are also made of water droplets. Cumulous clouds puff up like cauliflower on otherwise clear days, but cumulonimbus are thunderstorm clouds. They can also produce hail and tornadoes. Stratocumulus clouds are gray and honeycombed. They might look like rain is on the way, but most likely, it is not. Stratus clouds can produce drizzle, ice prisms (sleet), or snow grains (small hail).
    Our current climate crisis is an energy imbalance. It is defined as a physics problem where more energy is entering our planet than leaving it. 
    Jennifer Francis is an atmospheric scientist conducting her research at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. (woodwellclimate.org) 
    In her interview on "Living on Earth," Dr. Francis explained that shrinking ice coverage exposes darker ground and absorbs more heat, adding to global warming. Here’s a paradox, though. Cleaner air reduces the toxic haze of tiny airborne particles that reflect light. So cleaner air allows more sunshine to reach the ground, too. 
    The white sands of deserts reflect energy back to the atmosphere. So do the massive ice sheets. City sidewalks, light-colored rooftops, and buildings do too, to a lesser degree. 
    In an ideal world, the energy being absorbed by dark, rich farm soil, trees, crops, and plants using the sun’s energy for photosynthesis, and even asphalt would balance out the amount reflected.
    But, Earth is out of balance.
    Low, thick clouds, the cumulo-forms, reflect light. High, thin clouds transmit incoming solar radiation, and, at the same time, trap some of the infrared radiation, warming Earth’s surface even more.
    The balance between clouds’ effective heating and cooling depends on how high a cloud is, how big, and what it’s made of, ice or water. And what is under them.
    NASA scientists discovered the gap in our energy-in-energy-out equation is partially explained by clouds. 
    If it was only that easy.
    The scientists used satellites to measure wavelengths of energy coming from different cloud formations floating over different surfaces and marked the change over time.
    They discovered that clouds made of water droplets have a much stronger influence on the energy that is trapped or absorbed than those made of ice crystals. Those that blanket the sky are good at reflecting sunlight back to outer space. 
    But their study also suggests that cloud cover is becoming less, especially around the equator, due to air currents and temperature changes, so more light is getting through our atmosphere and adding to the warming.
    Dr. Francis confirms that “the last couple years were the warmest on record for the earth, probably going back 120,000 years…” 
    She adds that the cuts to NOAA and NASA, agencies heavily involved in interpreting data from their satellites, are concerning. Their scientists help us learn how much worse our climate crisis will get, where the most severe storms are occurring, and how we humans can intervene. 
    By cutting funding to these agencies, we are less able to predict weather patterns and less able to give people time to prepare or move out of a storm’s path. 
    Keeping all this in the back of my mind, I choose to concentrate on the next generation and the one after that. Those kids who draw pictures of clouds and fill notebooks with scientific information. The ones who put into practice what they’ve learned and show the rest of us how to follow their lead.

I’m reading The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult (Emily Bestler Books/Atria, 2013). The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor learns that her neighbor was a Nazi war criminal. My takeaway is a clearer understanding of the power of Story, that we are all storytellers, and everyone’s story is an important piece of a cohesive society. WARNING: Graphic violence is depicted throughout, but especially in the grandmother’s memories of her time in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Recommended.
                                Be curious! (and keep looking up)

    I feel the need to correct myself: The little library is not “mine.” Libraries are meant to grow, and to be shared.
                                             from The Lost Library
                      written by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass
                                              Feiwel & Friends, 2023
                                                       (read on Libby)
    
    When I was growing up, my library was about four miles from my house, too far away for six-year-old me to walk by myself, and I wasn’t big enough to ride my bike yet, so Mom took me. Sometimes my sister came, too. Sometimes my brother did. But library time was my time with Mom. She loved to read and so did I. (I still do.)
    The library was in the converted mansion of William E. Telling. The Cuyahoga Library System bought the building and the property in the 1950s. It was my library until I grew up and moved away. I took my kids there, too, when they were babies.
    The Cleveland Heights library was closer, and when I got a little older and better at bike riding, I rode there. The whole basement floor was a kid’s room.
    We had a library in our elementary school where we learned about the Dewey Decimal System. It makes so much sense in a non-mathematical way. 
    In 1883 Melville Dewey became the librarian of Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New York City. He founded the world's first library school there in 1887.
    But libraries have existed in the world since ancient times. Probably, the most famous is the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. Opened during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, between 286 and 285 BCE (Before the Common Era) it survived a prolonged period of decline, finally closing in the third century CE (Common Era).
    Greece, Turkey, and Morocco served their people with libraries. So did China with its Cave of the Thousand Buddhas, where, according to HistoryHit.com, a “system of 500 temples stood at the crossroads of the Silk Road.” In the early 20th Century, over 50,000 documents were discovered there, written in a “large variety of languages.” 
    According to the American Library Association, “Public libraries—and indeed, all libraries--are changing and dynamic places where librarians help people find the best source of information whether it's a book, a website, or database entry.”
    Besides public libraries, other libraries serve their clients’ needs every day. School libraries, academic libraries, and special libraries including medical libraries, law libraries, and research libraries are some examples.
    In January 2025, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS, launched its first-ever National Museum Survey. From its website, “The [IMLS] is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums.” The survey was designed to find the greatest need, the most used resources, the most important programs, and other places where libraries and librarians as well as museums and curators serve the public and common good. 
    On April 1, 2025, NPR reported that the entire IMLS staff was put on paid administrative leave. They were notified by email. Employees turned in government property and their email accounts were disabled.
    How can a society retain its culture without its libraries and museums? 
    Keith E. Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labor, is now the president’s pick for the new acting director of IMLS as well. He was confirmed on March 20, 2025. Sonderling is quoted in his acceptance speech on the IMLS website. “…We will revitalize IMLS and restore focus on patriotism, ensuring we preserve our country’s core values, promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country in future generations.”
    I can only imagine what libraries will look like after this “revitalization” and “preservation” takes place.
    How can a society retain its culture without its libraries and museums? Will Mr. Sonderling get to decide what is important to keep available for public use?
    Some states and communities also support their libraries, but many libraries will be unfunded if the IMLS is gutted.  
    National Librarian Day is April 16, 2025. While the day was first sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1958, it wasn’t until the ALA called attention to it in a 2004 campaign to “raise awareness and appreciation for library staff.” It’s been celebrated on April 16 ever since.
    Some ways you can thank your library staff include attending a library program. Libraries offer everything from Baby Storytime to Chair Yoga. Craft programs, music programs, how to file your taxes, how to design a garden, how to use a computer (from beginning learners to experienced). All are offered for free. 
    Materials to support all these activities are available to borrow. 
    Spring is a great time to de-clutter. Take all those books you promised yourself you’d read again but never did to the library’s book sale. The Friends of the Library use the money they raise to support their library in countless ways. 
    Consider volunteering or donating to their group.
    In Ohio, the House Of Representatives is working on its next two-year budget. Their current proposal will eliminate the Public Library Fund (PLF) and replace it with a line-item appropriation which will cut funding by $100 million compared to the governor’s proposal.
    Libraries in Ohio are funded at the same level as 2000, with no adjustment for inflation. Through its line item, the House’s budget would eliminate the requirement that a portion of the state’s General Fund be dedicated to libraries. Their proposed new distribution formula would cut funding to 39 counties of our 88. 
    That’s besides what’s going on with the IMLF in Washington DC.
    How can a society retain its culture without its libraries and museums?
    What can you do? 
    Ohio Library Council (OLC) suggests that you contact your State Representative and Matt Huffman Speaker of the House, TODAY. 
    Scroll to the bottom of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County’s blog to find a script you can use or adapt. Or check your library’s website for alternate scripts, but please act today. 
    The survival of our culture depends on all of us working together.
    -—stay curious! (and find answers, entertainment, and information at  your library)

It was a day that could’ve been really bad
if not for the kindness of a few cool beans.
                                                from The Cool Bean
                                               written by Jory John
                                          illustrated by Pete Oswald
                              Harper/HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019
                                   (accessed on YouTube 3/30/25)


    When I looked up the definition of “kindness,” I was more than a little disappointed. Merriam-Webster online defines kindness as “the act of being kind.” Hmm, I kept looking.
    On their blog, InspireKindness defines kindness as “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. And also acknowledges that “kindness” means much more than that. It’s seen and felt. It is intentional. It is thoughtful.
    Meaning that kindness begins with a thought. It’s not the idea of what can be done, though, it’s the actual doing.
    My mom used to tell me “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It’s what she said when I failed to follow through on a helpful or generous or loving idea. It might have been a phone call to check on my grandma if she wasn’t feeling well. Or sending a birthday card to my cousin who lived in a different state. Or playing with my little brother even when I didn’t feel like it.
    It goes without saying that not everyone is kind. But sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and other healthcare scientists know this: kind people are happier than those who are unkind.
    In a recent article in Healthbeat, a publication of the Harvard Medical School, Tyler VanderWeele, the co-director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says, "There's compelling evidence that kindness is linked with a number of aspects of health and well-being.”
    He goes on to say that genuinely kind people are kind intentionally. They always look for ways to make life better for someone and find ways to contribute something positive to another person. 
    Humans are naturally social beings, but kindness comes more easily to some of us than others. Dr. VanderWeele suggests we purposefully do kind acts, five different acts in one day for six weeks. He says that will help form a habit, and kindness (and happiness) will grow from the “outside in” rather than the inside out.
    Here are some of VanderWeele’s suggestions to try:

• compliment the first three people you see
• run errands for a friend or neighbor 
• leave a bigger-than-usual tip for a service worker 
• listen, really listen, to a friend or colleague who is having a bad day
• do an unpleasant household chore when it’s “not your turn”
• donate to a worthwhile charity
• let someone check out ahead of you in the grocery store 
• volunteer 

    The General Assembly of the United Nations has set March 20 each year as the International Day of Happiness. It’s when they present their World Happiness Report, a list of countries rated on the achievement of 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The goals are the epitome of kindness. The high correlation of happiness with striving to reach these goals is not surprising.
    And it turns out that being kind is not only good for the recipient of your kindness, you, the kind person, also benefit. These benefits include not only a feeling of well-being but actual health benefits that can be measured, too.
    In her TEDxDeerfield talk presented on May 16, 2018, Reagan Hill introduced a study done by Emory University. It illustrated that the brains of participants doing kind acts lit up as if they were the ones receiving the kindness. 
    Doing acts of kindness releases serotonin into the bloodstream. Serotonin is known for its ability to heal wounds, calm the nervous system, and elicit happiness. Oxytocin is also released, counteracting cortisol and relieving excess stress. Oxytocin is protective of the heart by decreasing blood pressure. And it strengthens our immune system. Studies have shown that due to its stress reduction benefits, kindness slows aging.
    Ms. Hill listed three parts of being kind: harmlessness; humility; and honesty. Click the link above for her enlightening 12-minute discussion.    
    We live in a scary, grief-filled, and angry world. In not so many words, Mom used to tell me that I’d get what I expected. It felt appropriate to have those words come to mind when I again feel overwhelmed by factors beyond, way beyond my control.
    That’s not to say that our world is rosy. It is not. But in recognizing our reality, we can choose, over and over, to be kind, to do kind and meaningful and helpful acts for the people of our world, in our communities, and in our families.
    We can, like Anne Frank, choose to believe that “[d]espite everything, … people are really good at heart.”
    Being kind is good for the world and good for each of us.

I just finished reading Half-Moon Summer by Elaine Vickers (Holiday House, 2023). It is a middle-grade fiction title about two kids choosing to run a half-marathon, both for different reasons, and both with strong connections to their respective families. The story shows the power of friendship as they hope the race will help them find meaning in the challenges their families face. Recommended. 
                                              Be curious! (and kind)