This week on Dezeen, Zaha Hadid Architects completed a skyscraper with the world's tallest atrium and revealed itsplans for a high-speed train station in Estonia.

The 45-storey Leeza Soho skyscraper, designed by the late Zaha Hadid before her death in 2016, contains the world's tallest atrium twisting through its centre.

Located in the Fengtai business district in Beijing, China, the 172,800-square-metre tower is a response to demand from small and medium-sized businesses in the city for flexible and efficient office-space.

Dezeen also reported on Zaha Hadid Architects' reveal of visuals for the multimodal lemiste terminal in Tallinn, Estonia, which will be the beginning of an electrified 540-mile-long railway connecting the Baltic states with Poland.

The new terminal will form part of the Rail Baltica high-speed rail network, and will create links between the city's bus, tram and rail routes and adjacent airport.

Elsewhere in architecture news, we continued our high-tech architecture series by taking a look at Norman Foster's Renault Distribution Centre in Swindon and the inside-out Lloyd's building in London by Richard Rogers.

A film showing the impact of Venice's recent floods was also popular with readers this week, created by architectural filmmakers Ila Bka and Louise Lemoine.

The footage forms part of the duo's two-minute trailer for their latest movie, and shows tourists and shop owners wading through the streets of Venice under water, after it was hit with its worst flood since 1966.

Over in the US, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris revealed a shipping-container housing development in Oklahoma called Squirrel Park, comprising four two-bedroom homes built on a 2,500-square-metre site with a budget of $1.1 million (850,000).

Olson Kundig also unveiled plans for an after-death facility in Seattle where human bodies will be composted and turned into soil as an alternative to cremation and burial.

In the design world, a host of exhibitions opened their doors this week in London, including a new retrospective at the V&A that explores the impact of cars on popular culture over the last century.

At the Royal Academy of Arts, the Eco-Visionaries exhibition brings together the work ofartists, designers and architects who are confronting environmental issues in a bid to rethink our relationship with nature.

While over at the Design Museum, a project that unpacks the human labour and natural resources that go into our electronic devices won Design of the Year 2019.

Other projects popular with Dezeen readers this week included a stone villa in Portugal with a bright-red adjoining cabin, a permanent home for the Rain Room installation in Sharjah, and a golden cube-shapedkiosk by OMA installed outside the K11 Musea in Hong Kong.

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This week, Zaha Hadid Architects completed a skyscraper and unveiled plans for a train station - Dezeen

9 Innovative Practices Redefining What Architects Can Be

Wherever there is a center, there is by necessity a periphery. This in itself should not generate any headlines; we live in a world of centers, and peripheries that continually stretch those centers, whether it be politics, countries, or societal norms. It also applies to architectural practice. In a complex, interconnected world,members of thearchitectural profession around the world are constantly expanding into new peripheries, generating new visions for how practice should operate, influenced by technological, political, cultural, and environmental changes.

With that in mind, we have compiled nine examples of networks, groups, collectives, and offices that represent different professional experiences thatdepart fromconventional architectural practice. These examples seek to break predefined notions of what an architect is, how they work, where they work, and who they work with. Offeringanarchitecturalethos reflectiveof issues like decolonization, feminism, homosexuality, and antiracism; the groups below challenge the hegemonic practices and disciplinary conventions in the architectural field through the study of the local and social complexity. The list further demonstrates how engaging in societal flows goes beyond the conventional design of a medium-size building, and intersectsresearch, methods, experiments, participation, and diffusion of professional, regional and social edges.

Matri-Archi(tecture) seek to empower African women in the design and writing fields. The network is supplied by content related to architectural, political, and identity issues, with the aim of includingnot only African woman, but all people that reflect the African sense of place and being.

FuturePlus is an informal academy that integrates research, development, education and practice in Chinas urban and rural areas. Itcombinescritical, design and systematic thinking to research urban-rural planning using alternative planning and construction methods to improve the quality of rural and urban life. The group is formedof students, professionals, managers, and enthusiasts that are willing to leave their comfort zone and are committed to improving our future quality of living.

This non-profit entityhas been operating since 2011 in Medelln in the fields of architecture, design and cultural production, seeking to propagate criticalpositions and actionsfor the problems of space and the city. The multidisciplinary workmanifests through conversations, workshops, neighborhood meetings, and community gatherings, forming a network of collective spaceson a neighborhood scale. The team is made up of architects, designers, communicators, and restless citizens, constructing collaborative circuits that allow them to explore professional and spatial limits.

This collective works in a transdisciplinary way to structure a dwelling with more purpose. The objective is to create spaces allied to its inhabitants through a participatory methodology, organized in workshops, projects and construction. The on-demand constructiontakes place with the support of future inhabitants, using drawings, physical models, digital mockups, and other expressive tools, ensuring the office proposals do not become a mere byproduct of an automatic and functionalist way of life.

The Funambulist is a platform and magazine that engages with the politics of space and bodies. The aim is to establish a space where activist/academic/practitioner voices can meet and build connectionsacross geographical areas. The magazine archive is constantly supplied by articles, interviews, artworks and design projects as a way to strengthen anticolonial, antiracist,LGBTQ, and feminist struggles. The print and online magazine is published every two months and operates in parallel with an open-access podcast and a blog.

Anupama Kundoo, founder of the architecture Indian office of the same name, seeks the production of an architecture that has low environmental impact and is appropriate to the socio-economic context through material research and experimentation. The work is based on research that the architect developed through her career about rapid urbanization and materials applied to design and urban planning projects.

The collectivebegan in 2008 and is composedof architects, designers and enthusiasts from different academic and disciplinary areas. Thegroup functions as an open, malleable and symbiotic system;with a multidisciplinary nature allowing it to approach the integral management of work at different scales and perspectives.

The design and creative process of Al Borde is based on the involvement of the community in all phases of planning and construction, allied to the systematic exploration of the local context. The members believe that the strength of a project lies in the ultimate autonomy of its users.

The W.H.Y Project supports women in the architecture field through the development of monitoring mutual relations. The abbreviation stands for We Hear You, the vision of architect Kirsty Ronne that, through the network, promotes debate, discussion, lectures and projects aboutwomen in architecture.

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9 Innovative Practices Redefining What Architects Can Be - ArchDaily

Renzo Piano's archive, knowing the past to create the architecture of the future | LifeGate

Archiveshave recently become the object of a historical and scientific debate involving more than just experts and professionals. Not only are archivesspaces devoted to the memory and conservation of materials from the past, they're also vehicles for experimentation, research, relationships and organising content, as well as maps and cultural systems. Knowing what has come before us is essential in designing the present and future. The story of the archive dedicated to the projects of architect Renzo Pianoin his home city of Genoa, in Italy, is the subject of the documentaryThe Power of the Archive: Renzo Piano Building WorkshopbyFrancesca Molteni and Fulvio Irace, the first in a series on great contemporary architects.

There's a moment in which we realise that the memory of things has left a mark. Like when you have to clear out your house because you realise you've accumulated too much stuff. It can't be helped. The time comes when it has to be done.Renzo Piano

From the documentary The Power of the Archive: models of the Shard in London designed by Renzo Piano Building Works RPBW

The building site of the California Academy of Science in San Francisco, California in 2012 RPBW

The Astrup Fearnley Museum of contemporary art in Oslo, designed by Renzo Piano in 2012 Patrizia Scarzella

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Renzo Piano's archive, knowing the past to create the architecture of the future - LifeGate

Andrew BurtonGetty Images

Of all the many reasons to oppose the Keystone XL pipelinethe continent-spanning death funnel and conservative fetish objectthe utter bad faith of TC, the Canadian energy giant formerly known as TransCanada, is right at the top of the list. It is a truism in this shebeen a) that pipelines leak, and b) that, when an inevitable leak happens, the companies that build and own pipelines will lie about it.

What many people dont realize is that TC already owns and operates the Keystone 1 pipeline. Last month, because it is a pipeline and pipelines leak, the Keystone 1 loosed almost 400,000 gallons of oil onto the landscape of North Dakota. And, because it is a pipeline company, TC is now accused of low-balling the extent of the damage. From CNN:

Honest to blog, enough with these people. There is no reason in the world to allow this company to run so much as a filling station at this point, let alone allow it to build and operate a death-funnel that transports the dirtiest fossil fuel ever discovered through some of the most delicate and valuable farmland on the planet.

Leakers and liars, all of them.

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The Company Behind the Keystone Pipeline Shouldn't Be Allowed to Run a Gas Station at This Point - Esquire.com

Allison Watkins, Special to San Angelo Standard-Times Published 6:40 a.m. CT Nov. 24, 2019

Thanksgiving is a great time of year to start a compost bin if you dont have one. There are fallen leaves to rake up to get it started, and plenty of fruit and vegetable scraps like potato peels, apple cores, and coffee grounds.(Photo: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service)

A compost pile or bin is something that should be in every home landscape.

Its not an attractive addition that makes a good a focal point, but its important to have an out-of-the-way spot in the yard to put fallen leaves, plant trimmings and vegetable scraps in to decompose.

Organic matter is a critical part of soil that plants need to grow well, and yard waste like leaves and grass clipping shouldnt be wasted by going into the landfill with the trash to take up space.

It all becomes "black gold" when broken down, decomposed and turned into compost that can be used in the landscape.

To get good quality compost, keep a good balance of oxygen and water, as well as the right balance of nitrogen and carbon.

A compost bin needs to have open sides to allow air flow to provide oxygen, and if it gets dry it needs to be dampened.

To provide the good balance of carbon and nitrogen just add the right plant-based waste materials.

High carbon materials are nicknamed browns and are things like fallen leaves and twigs - materials that are tougher and slower to decompose.

"Greens" have a higher nitrogen ratio, and are softer-tissue things like grass clippings and fruit and vegetable scraps. Dont add meat, dairy or fats. Turn the pile weekly to speed up decomposition and create great compost to use in the landscape.

Remember the phrase "compost once, mulch forever" when starting a new bed or planting project, till up the soil and apply a three-inch deep layer of compost, then mix in as deep as possible.

This provides immediate improvement to the soil structure and helps plants grow better. After planting apply a three-inch deep layer of wood-based mulch and keep it replenished to three inches from then on.

As the mulch gradually decomposes, is also adds good organic matter to the soil. Except for when planting desert plants and those that prefer lean soil, compost helps gardeners be more successful.

Thanksgiving is a great time of year to start a compost bin if you dont have one. There are fallen leaves to rake up to get it started, and plenty of fruit and vegetable scraps like potato peels, apple cores, and coffee grounds.

To learn more, visit the website earth-kind.tamu.edu and view the publication on composting.

Allison Watkins is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent for horticulture in Tom Green County. Contact her at aewatkins@ag.tamu.edu.

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Every home can benefit from a compost pile - Standard-Times

Theres just one week left in the 2019 college football regular season. The time has flown by.

And that means that conference championship weekend is just two weeks away. And theres still a lot in flux as we head to the last weekend of the season. Just four of the 10 conferences know who its title game participants will be. The seven others wont until the final week of the regular season is over.

Heres a look at how each conferences title race is playing out with our best guess for the matchups in the conferences still looking for division winners.

East: No. 19 Cincinnati clinched the division with a win over Temple on Saturday night.

West: No. 18 Memphis clinches the division with a win over Cincinnati on Friday. If Memphis loses and Navy beats Houston, Navy wins the west.

Likeliest conference championship game: No. 18 Memphis vs. No. 19 Cincinnati.

Atlantic: No. 3 Clemson clinched the division with its win over NC State earlier in November. The Tigers were off on Saturday.

Coastal: Virginia and Virginia Tech play on Friday. The winner of that game gets to lose to Clemson in the title game. The Cavaliers beat Liberty on Saturday while Virginia Tech posted a shutout against Pitt and knocked the Panthers out of the division race in the process.

Likeliest conference championship game: No. 3 Clemson vs. Virginia. The Cavaliers get the edge because theyre at home, snapping a 15-game losing streak to the Hokies.

Baylor is heading to the Big 12 Championship Game. (AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez)

The Big 12 title game is set. No. 9 Oklahoma will play No. 14 Baylor. Both Oklahoma and Baylor have one loss in the conference. Every other Big 12 team has at least three conference losses. Oklahoma beat TCU on Saturday night 28-24 in a game that was unexpectedly close and tense in the fourth quarterwhile Baylor easily dispatched Texas on Saturday afternoon.

East:No. 2 Ohio State clinched the East with a 28-17 win over No. 8 Penn State on Saturday.Had Penn State won, the Nittany Lions could have clinched the East with a win over Rutgers on Saturday. Instead, Ohio State only has bragging rights on the line against No. 13 Michigan on Nov. 30.

West: No. 10 Minnesota plays No. 12 Wisconsin on Saturday. The calculus there is simple too. The winner takes the division and plays Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. The Gophers beat Northwestern on Saturday while Wisconsin beat Purdue.

Likeliest championship game: No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Minnesota. Like Virginia, Minnesota gets the edge because its at home.

East: Florida Atlanticwins the division with a win over Southern Miss on Saturday. If FAU loses, Marshallcan win the division with a win over Florida International.

West: Lets get crazy. UAB beat Louisiana Tech on Saturday. Both teams are tied with Southern Miss atop the division. If all three teams have the same result in the final weekend, UAB wins the tiebreaker. If two of the teams are tied at the end of the season the tiebreaker is head-to-head between the tied teams.

Likeliest championship game: FAU vs. UAB

East: Miami (Ohio) clinched the division with a win over Akron on Wednesday.

West: Western Michigan and Central Michigan are tied atop the division. Westernbeat Central earlier in the season and owns the tiebreaker. If WMU beats Northern Illinois on Tuesday, it wins the division. If WMU loses, CMU can win the division with a win over Toledo on Friday.

Likeliest championship game: Miami (Ohio) vs. Western Michigan

The Mountain West title game got determined late Saturday night. No. 20 Boise State beat Utah State to clinch the Mountain division while Hawaii beat San Diego State to clinch the West division. The two teams will play in two weeks for the conference title.

Story continues

North: No. 6 Oregons loss to Arizona Statedidnt do anything to its chances of winning the North. The Ducks had the division wrapped up before Week 13.

South: No. 7 Utah controls its own fate. A win against Colorado in the final week of the season means Utah is in the title game. A loss means USC wins the division.

Likeliest championship game: No. 6 Oregon vs. No. 7 Utah

LSU is No. 1 and will meet No. 4 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Like the Big 12, the SEC championship game is set. No. 1 LSU won the West with a victory over hapless Arkansas on Saturday. No. 4 Georgia clinched the East with a win over Auburn in Week 12 and beat Texas A&M on Saturday. LSU ends the season against A&M in Week 14 while Georgia plays Georgia Tech.

The Sun Belt title game was figured out on Saturday. No. 24 Appalachian State locked up the East with a win over Texas State while Louisiana won the West with a win over Troy.

Here are this weeks winners and losers.

Virginia Tech: After Virginia Tech lost 45-10 at home to Duke on Sept. 27, there were legitimate questions about Justin Fuentes job status especially on the heels of a losing season in 2018. Since then, however, the Hokies have completely flipped the script and are now in a position to go to the ACC title game. Saturdays 28-0 win over Pitt was the sixth in seven tries since the Duke loss. On top of that, it was the final game at Lane Stadium for longtime defensive coordinator Bud Foster and he went out with a shutout. How cool is that? It marked the second straight shutout for the Hokies. The program hadnt accomplished that since 2005. The ACC Coastal champion will be decided next week against rival Virginia. The Hokies have won 15 straight in the series.

Michigan is 9-2 and plays Ohio State in Week 14. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

No. 13 Michigan: Michigan has really hit its stride in the month of November. Since losing to Penn State on Oct. 19, the Wolverines have reeled off four straight victories in dominating fashion. The latest was a beatdown of Indiana, 39-14, in Bloomington. Shea Patterson had another huge outing in the win, throwing for 366 yards and five touchdowns to help his team improve to 9-2 with archrival Ohio State visiting Ann Arbor next weekend. The second-ranked Buckeyes improved to 11-0 and clinched the Big Ten East by beating Penn State on Saturday. Michigan hasnt knocked off OSU since 2011.

No. 10 Minnesota: Minnesota bounced back from its first loss of the season and is another step closer to winning the Big Ten West. The Gophers knocked off Northwestern 38-22 behind a four-touchdown performance from Tanner Morgan, three of which went to Rashod Bateman, the Big Tens leading receiver. With the win, Minnesota improved to 10-1 on the year. The Gophers reached the 10-win mark for the first time since 1905 and got to seven Big Ten wins for the first time ever. Next week, Minnesota will host Wisconsin with the Big Ten West on the line and College GameDay in town.

Kedon Slovis, QB, USC: No. 23 USC closed out its regular season with three straight wins, capped off by Saturdays 52-35 victory over UCLA. The Trojans were dominant offensively, and freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis led the way once again. Slovis completed 37-of-47 passes for a program record 515 yards and four touchdowns in the win. It marked Slovis third straight game with at least 400 passing yards and four touchdowns. Not bad for a true freshman, huh?

USC finishes the season at 8-4. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Navy: Navy kept its AAC West hopes alive with a come-from-behind victory over SMU on Saturday. The Midshipmen trailed 21-10 at halftime but stormed back to win, 35-28. The winning score came on a 70-yard burst from speedy QB Malcolm Perry. Perry carried 38 times for 195 yards and two scores in the win. He also had 162 yards and a touchdown through the air. With the win, Navy can win the division if it beats Houston next week and Memphis loses to Cincinnati, who clinched the AAC East by beating Temple, 15-13. Now 8-2, Ken Niumatalolo has engineered quite a turnaround after going 3-10 in 2018.

Cal: Cal finally won the Big Game, and it did so in dramatic fashion. The Golden Bears dropped a nine-game losing streak to rival Stanford by pulling out a 24-20 road win on Saturday. Cal fell behind 20-17 with 2:23 to play, but responded by going 75 yards in just six plays to take the lead on a Chase Garbers touchdown run with 1:19 to go. The Cal defense then stuffed Stanford on fourth-and-short on the ensuing drive to seal the win and clinch bowl eligibility. The Golden Bears can clinch a winning record with a road win over UCLA next week.

Charlotte: Charlotte is bowl eligible for the first time in program history. The 49ers have only been playing since 2013, but reached the five-win mark three separate times. But it took the first season under Will Healy to get to win No. 6. That came on Saturday in a 24-13 victory over Marshall. Charlotte trailed 13-10 entering the fourth, but two Victor Tucker touchdowns one on the ground and another through the air gave the 49ers the victory.

Zach Hintze, K, Wisconsin: Want to see one of the longest field goals in Big Ten history? Of course you do. Wisconsins Zach Hintze blasted a school-record 62-yarder as time expired in the first half. It is tied with two others for the second-longest field goal in Big Ten history. Pro Football Hall of Famer Morten Andersen holds the record. He booted a 63-yarder at Michigan State back in 1981.

Ohio coach Frank Solich: Ohio probably hasnt played as well as it expected this year, but it still had reason to celebrate its 66-24 win over Bowling Green on Tuesday night. The win was No. 111 for Frank Solich at the school, setting a Mid-American Conference record. Solich, 75, has been at Ohio since 2005. He previously was the head coach at Nebraska.

LSU coach Ed Orgeron: LSU crushed Arkansas on Saturday night. The Razorbacks havent won an SEC game since beating Ole Miss on Oct. 28, 2017. Thats a span of 18-straight games. So what Orgeron said after the Tigers win isnt untrue.

Miami: Miami had been playing really well in the second half of the season until Saturday. The Hurricanes, winners of four of their last five, were upset 30-24 by Florida International at Marlins Park in a miserable performance, one of the worst in recent memory. FIU led 13-0 at halftime and 23-3 early in the fourth quarter. Miami managed to make things interesting, cutting the lead to 23-17 with 3:10 to play, but FIU put the final nail in the coffin after a failed Miami onside kick. FIU, led by former Miami coach Butch Davis, clinched a bowl berth with the win. The Hurricanes dropped to 6-5.

Texas: What was supposed to be a big season for Texas just keeps getting worse. The Longhorns dropped to 6-5 with a 24-10 loss at Baylor on Saturday. And the game wasnt as close as the final score may indicate. Texas wouldnt reach the end zone until there was just one second left in regulation. The loss was another underwhelming performance from Tom Hermans offense, and now the Longhorns need to beat Texas Tech just to ensure they finish with a winning record. Herman has a lot of work to do to get his program back on track.

Maryland: A miserable season for Maryland may have hit rock bottom. The Terps dropped their sixth straight game on Saturday, falling at home to Nebraska in embarrassing fashion. Final score: 54-7. Yikes. Nebraska entered the game on a four-game losing streak of its own, but it managed to absolutely demolish the Terps at Maryland Stadium. The Terps, who mustered only 57 passing yards against Nebraska and are now 3-8, have been outscored 165-28 in the month of November.

Maryland head coach Mike Locksley looks on prior to an NCAA college football game against Nebraska, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019, in College Park, Md. (AP Photo/Will Newton)

SMU: SMU had a chance to get the ball back one last time in the final minute against Navy, but a boneheaded mistake doomed the Mustangs. Leading 35-28 with 1:05 to go, Navy brought its offense out onto the field at its own 31-yard line on fourth-and-2. There was no way Navy would risk giving the ball back to SMU deep in its own territory, but Ken Niumatalolo decided to try to draw SMU offsides. Remarkably, it worked. SMUs Rodney Clemsons jumped offsides, giving Navy a first down. From there, the Midshipmen took two knees to run out the clock and wrap up a win.

Kansas: Kansas put up a really good effort against Iowa State, but ultimately fell 41-31 in Ames. The Jayhawks took a 31-27 lead with 10:42 to play, but ISU scored twice in the final five minutes to pull out the victory. The loss dropped KU to 3-8 on the year, and also clinched a remarkable stat. Kansas went the entire decade without winning a conference road game. Thats an 0-43 mark. Yikes.

NC State: NC State might be the worst team in the ACC. The Wolfpack fell 28-26 to Georgia Tech on Thursday night, dropping to 4-7 overall on the season with a 1-6 mark in conference play. NC State staged a comeback after trailing 28-10 late in the third quarter, but still came up short against a Yellow Jackets team in its first year under Geoff Collins. It was the fifth straight loss for the Wolfpack, who will miss a bowl game for the first time in five seasons.

North Texas: North Texas had the chance to keep its bowl hopes alive, but instead it lost to a one-win Rice team, 20-14. Rice jumped out to a 20-0 halftime lead and was able to hang on for its second straight victory after an 0-9 start. With coach Seth Littrell back in the fold alongside heralded QB Mason Fine, this was supposed to be one of the better teams in Conference USA. Instead, the Mean Green are just 4-7 on the year.

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Winners and Losers: What the conference championship landscape looks like heading into Week 14 - Yahoo Sports

By Emily Moran, University of California, Merced

If you have oak trees in your neighborhood, perhaps youve noticed that some years the ground is carpeted with their acorns, and some years there are hardly any. Biologists call this pattern, in which all the oak trees for miles around make either lots of acorns or almost none, masting.

EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

In New England, naturalists have declared this fall a mast year for oaks: All the trees are making tons of acorns all at the same time.

Many other types of trees, from familiar North American species such as pines and hickories to the massive dipterocarps of Southeast Asian rainforests, show similar synchronization in seed production. But why and how do trees do it?

Benefits of synchronized seeds

Every seed contains a packet of energy-rich starch to feed the baby tree that lies dormant inside. This makes them a tasty prize for all sorts of animals, from beetles to squirrels to wild boar.

If trees coordinate their seed production, these seed-eating animals are likely to get full long before they eat all the seeds produced in a mast year, leaving the rest to sprout.

For trees like oaks that depend on having their seeds carried away from the parent tree and buried by animals like squirrels, a mast year has an extra benefit. When there are lots of nuts, squirrels bury more of them instead of eating them immediately, spreading oaks across the landscape.

Getting in sync

Its still something of a mystery how trees synchronize their seed production to get these benefits, but several elements seem to be important.

First, producing a big crop of seeds takes a lot of energy. Trees make their food through photosynthesis: using energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into sugars and starch. Theres only so many resources to go around, though. Once trees make a big batch of seeds, they may need to switch back to making new leaves and wood for a while, or take a year or two to replenish stored starches, before another mast.

But how do individual trees decide when that mast year should be? Weather conditions appear to be important, especially spring weather. If theres a cold snap that freezes the flowers of the tree and yes, oaks do have flowers, theyre just extremely small then the tree cant produce many seeds the following fall.

Harm to the trees flowers in spring doesnt bode well for the acorn crop come fall. Image via almgren/Shutterstock.com.

A drought during the summer could also kill developing seeds. Trees will often shut the pores in their leaves to save water, which also reduces their ability to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

Because all the trees within a local area are experiencing essentially the same weather, these environmental cues can help coordinate their seed production, acting like a reset button theyve all pushed at the same time.

A third intriguing possibility that researchers are still investigating is that trees are talking to each other via chemical signals. Scientists know that when a plant is damaged by insects, it often releases chemicals into the air that signal to its other branches and to neighboring plants that they should turn on their defenses. Similar signals could potentially help trees coordinate seed production.

Investigation of tree-to-tree communication is still in its infancy, however. For instance, ecologists recently found that chemicals released from the roots of the leafy vegetable mizuna can affect the flowering time of neighboring plants. While this sort of communication is unlikely to account for the rough synchronization of seed production over dozens or even hundreds of miles, it could be important for syncing up a local area.

Mastings effects ripple through the food web

Whatever the causes, masting has consequences that flow up and down the food chain.

For instance, rodent populations often boom in response to high seed production. This in turn results in more food for rodent-eating predators like hawks and foxes; lower nesting success for songbirds, if rodents eat their eggs; and potentially higher risk of transmission of diseases like hantavirus to people.

If the low seed year that follows causes the rodent population to collapse, the effects are reversed.

The seeds of masting trees have also historically been important for feeding human populations, either directly or as food for livestock. Acorns were a staple in the diet of Native Americans in California, with families carefully tending particular oaks and storing the nuts for winter. In Spain, the most prized form of ham still comes from pigs that roam through the oak forests, eating up to 20 pounds of acorns each day.

So the next time you take an autumn walk, check out the ground under your local oak tree you might just see the evidence of this amazing process.

Emily Moran, Assistant Professor of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Explanation of masting: the pattern of trees for miles around synchronizing to all produce lots of seeds or very few.

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Tons of acorns in your yard? It must be a mast year - EarthSky

Leaf Burrito Reusable Yard Debris Bags

Multiple Leaf Burritos get the job done!

Leaf Burrito

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Have you heard of a Leaf Burrito Reusable Yard Debris Bag? It is an innovative and eco-friendly reusable yard-debris bag invented, designed and manufactured in the USA. Leaf Burrito makes collecting and transporting yard debris easier, quicker and safer and its unique design opens completely flat then zips up like a sack. It is helping the Green industry, Landscapers and homeowners save time and money, as well as replace short-lived tarps and single-use plastic and paper bags.

Gone are the days of lifting heavy tarps, burlap and brown paper bags, now there is a solution called Leaf Burrito. People working in landscaping, grounds management, horticulture, and all areas of the Green industry now have a revolutionary option to speed up their lawn and landscaping work. It is easier, safer, more efficient and better for the environment as compared to methods being used currently.

Leaf Burrito was designed to solve several problems at once:

Robert Daniels, owner of Cherry City Landscape, attests: Leaf Burrito saves me a ton of time. I did an 8-hour job in 4 hours by using Leaf Burritos. Every landscaper should have these bags on their truck. It definitely helps my labor problems by making my crews more efficient.

To pilot using Leaf Burritos for your grounds or horticulture crews, they recommend you start with both sizes of the bags and determine which size works best for your applications and employees. Leaf Burrito recommends that every truck or trailer carry a 6-pack to replace tarps, garbage cans and wheelbarrows. Multiple burritos are also suggested because they can be zipped together to create a longer hedge-clippings drag or as a trailer cover for various trailer sizes.

Inventor Marc Mataya states, If ground crews are looking for a more sustainable and efficient solution for doing landscaping, our Leaf Burrito bags are going to be a great investment and your employees are going to love using our product. And, personalizing our bags with your logo makes your company stand above the rest.

If you want to learn more about how Leaf Burrito can make your company, hotel or university safer, more efficient, and more profitable, while achieving your zero-waste goals you may contact them at sales@leafburrito.com.

About:Leaf Burrito is a reusable yard-debris removal tool made in the USA of customized industrial-grade mesh and heavy-duty YKK North America zippers. Our product eliminates bags and tarps and preserves landfills. It has 10 strong handles for ergonomic loading and lifting onto trailers or trucks and comes in 5-foot and 7-foot sizes. For big cleanups or as a trailer cover, multiple Leaf Burritos can be zipped together. For various sized jobs and for linking them together, every landscaping trailer could be equipped with a 6-pack which stores compactly. Leaf Burritos goals are to reduce single-use plastics, make the arduous task of bagging leaves, weeds, grass, hedge and garden clippings a simple and eco-friendly experience.

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9fcee6d5-7858-47ca-8dc3-5da979f3e6e5

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Leaf Burrito, the Reusable Yard-Debris Bag, Saves Hours of Labor, Helps Prevent Injuries and Provides the Green Industry With a Zero-Waste Solution -...

That led Craig Folkedahl, Thief River Falls, Minn., to write of his experiences.

In the past, I have torn down several houses when the owners were planning to build new, Craig wrote.

In the walls, I have found many different types of material that was used as insulation.

The house I grew up in had only a sheet of tar paper between the studs for insulation. My sisters house had chicken feathers and straw. My wifes uncles had cord wood stacked between the studs.

I remodeled a house previously owned by a gentleman who owned a lumber mill. That house was built with full-dimension two-by-fours stacked flat from the foundation to the roof with an approximate 2-inch space, and then another wall stacked flat from foundation to roof. A very heavy house.

We used a chainsaw to cut window and door openings.

Another house I tore down, Craig wrote, had rolled-up newspapers in the walls. The first owner was a doctor in the town. He built the house, so there was no connection to the local newspaper. He had also put several rolls of newspaper in the eaves of the house. A small amount of straw was in the attic.

ARCHIVE: Read more of Bob Lind's Neighbors columns

Now lets go back to the original column about the old house in Fargo. A Neighbors reader said it was on 21st Street South, but no house number was given.

Kathy Faeth, Fargo, would like to know the specific address. Shes curious because, she writes, My family lived on 21st Street and my dad (Bob Faeth) worked for The Forum until he died.

Several of the guys from the composing room lived on that street.

Since Neighbors doesnt have that address, its asking if you can help Kathy out.

If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107, fax it to 701-241-5487 or email blind@forumcomm.com.

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Why was old newspaper used as insulation in this Fargo house? - INFORUM

Bleach is great for killing mold on nonporous surfaces such as grout and tile, concrete, or linoleum. However, it is ineffective for killing mold on porous surfaces such as wood or drywall because bleach cannot penetrate beyond the top layer of these materials, leaving the mold roots intact. It may temporarily look cleaner as the bleach will clean the surface, but the mold will soon return.

The Badger likes to use chlorinated bleach for tile, grout, and non-porous substances, but otherwise, prefers one of the alternative solutions listed below. This is because bleach is extremely caustic and can cause rust on metals, heavy vapors in the air (make sure the area is well ventilated), and can damage skin. If you do choose to use bleach, be sure to wear gloves, and use the instructions below.

To clean mold with chlorinated bleach:

Lastly, never mix bleach with Ammonia as it will create poison gas and YOU WILL DIE.

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Mold Removal Products and DIY Cleaning Solutions