I'm trying a new semi-weekly project where I keep track of any posts on the Steem blockchain which I've found worth reading. I've gotten a good response to my first attempt, so let's try it again. Here's the stuff I've enjoyed reading since last Thursday.

STEM

"Smart Technology Series" : APPLICATION OF IoT IN AGRICULTURE (SMART FARMING) — Steemit by @mrbreeziewrites

Hi everyone, it’s with great pleasure that I welcome you to my blog. I once again would like to appreciate your continued support and contributions.
Today, I’m back with the Smart Technology Series. I believe you followed the first series where I introduced the concept of IoT to us. There, I focused on the Smart Home technology that has been enhancing life for us in the home.

Clickbait From 1935 (And Yes This is Science Related) — Steemit by @procrastilearner

I found this one while researching for my latest post and just had to share it. I hope it brings a smile to your face.
Even back in 1935 newspapers wrote 'click-baity' titles for their articles to draw in their readers.
This one was in the New York Times and tries to make Einstein's issues with Quantum Mechanics seem dramatic.

The Art and Science of Successful Scientific Grant Writing - Part 1 — Steemit by @davidrhodes124

Introduction
Every scientist will, at some stage in their career, have to write a grant proposal. For undergraduates there are opportunities to submit proposals to federal granting agencies to fund their subsequent Ph.D. research (graduate fellowships). For Ph.D. students at many institutions it may be a requirement to write a grant proposal for their "Preliminary Examination" or "Qualifying Examination". Ph.D. students may also have to develop and submit a proposal to a federal granting agency for a post-doctoral fellowship to pursue their scientific career. Post-doctoral fellows hired as assistant professors in academia will then be expected to submit proposals to fund their research, and their promotion and tenure will likely depend substantially upon their success in this endeavor. Scientists entering industry, rather than academia, may also find themselves needing to write proposals to compete for interal funds to pursue novel avenues of research of potential benefit to their company. Thus, grant writing skills are important tools in the scientist's tool box. These skills are acquired skills, meaning that it takes patience, persistence, and much practice. The first grant proposal that you prepare may be a daunting and painful challenge, but it does get easier with time!

See also Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4, and Part 5

When the bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) cleans another fish to remove its parasites, it also increases their cognitive performance according to new research — Steemit by @valth

Cleaner wrasses (Labroides sp.) are a type of fish that lives in symbiosis with other fish by eating parasites from their skin. The recipient of the grooming service provided by the cleaner wrasses are typically larger, often predatory fish that has a lot of surface area that needs cleaning.

From flame and ash - the recovery of a fynbos field site — Steemit by @holothewise

About a month ago, I posted about our field site here in the Western Cape fynbos being ravaged by fire. As I mentioned then, fire is a natural part of fynbos ecology, however in terms of a field project, this untimely inferno was devastating. Or so we thought… The field site after the flames looked like this:

’Welcome to Mordor,’ was my first thought on the morning we encountered this

The smell of the ocean - dimethylsulfide — Steemit by @davidrhodes124

A recent news article in Nature Microbiology (Curson, A. DMSP synthesis in phytoplankton unravelled (2018): https://naturemicrobiologycommunity.nature.com/users/84434-andrew-curson/posts/30656-dmsp-synthesis-in-phytoplankton-unravelled) includes the following informative image describing the role of the compound dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) in the ocean environment:

Scientists and their especial type of Humor - A fiery Example — Steemit by @mountain.phil28

Hier geht es zur deutschen Version.
Dear #steemstem Community!
Here I present you a small but rather genius pearl of the extraordinary humour of us scientists!
As you may know, sometimes people say that we scientists are also human beings with feelings, but since I have not yet found any general, positive proof for this thesis, I have to doubt it for the purpose of scientific progress. However, surprisingly even within the scientific community we find circumstantial evidence which seems to support this assumption. Examples include profession of love or marriage proposals, which were cleverly woven into our specialized literature. (@aboutcoolscience: Love and science)

Geopolis photo contest entries - Start voting! — Steemit by @geopolis

https://steemit-production-imageproxy-thumbnail.s3.amazonaws.com/U5drjDriMoYsb7pWL6eCc1FMesBuPHb_1680x8400

Last week some interesting entries were submitted and now it is time to decide who is the winner! There were exactly 3 entries so every author will be rewarded with SBD. The only question is who will take home the first prize? You can read how to vote below the entries. Don't hesitate to do this as the authors will be grateful.

History

France: Becoming a Nation in the Middle Ages — Steemit by @ravenruis

France was becoming more and more clearly defined as a nation after the Hundred Years War. The Ancien Régime was being replaced by a more centralised structure of rule, through the monarchy, but the integration of territories into a centralised system was a slow and fractured process. For a long time it remained an area of social, economic, linguistic and governance diversity. There was more resistance to the prospect of integration by the people in some territories, and less resistance in others. Some territories merged into the new ‘main’ territory of France more quickly than others. This process of integration and absorption into one solid nation involved asserting one dominant system into structures such as economics, law, rulership, and the recognition of what was ‘quintessentially French’ about the nation in areas of society, religion, language, loyalty and national pride. By the end of the Hundred Years War, in 1453, there was not yet a solid ‘nation’ of France, but there was the impetus by both the monarchy and parliament to solidify the territories into one centralised state, to be ruled by the king of the French people, and identified as a nation both nationally and internationally.

POLIS: The Trial of Socrates - Graphic Novel Update - Page 18 Colored — Steemit by @jpgaltmiller

Watch the history of ancient Greece come to life!
A historical graphic novel that examines the events leading up to the trial and execution of Socrates in ancient Athens.
In this scene, the leader of the Thirty Tyrants condemns one of its own members to die, but Socrates tries to stop it.
Here's the finished page of Socrates' entrance! The earlier pages in the scene were pretty much taken from Xenophon's Hellenica but Socrates' entrance here is pure fiction. Hey -- it's a story about Socrates, right? Check it out and let me know what you think:

The Tomb of the First Emperor of China |Qin Shi Huang| by @seltkirk

According to legend, in 211 BC, a great meteor dropped in the area below the Yellow River. Someone wrote on that rock that fell from the heavens,

"The first emperor will die and his land will be divided,"

...after which, the first emperor Qin Shi Huang tried to learn more about this unusual prophecy. After no investigation found out the culprit of the murky words, all who lived near the place where the meteor had fallen were imprisoned and later executed. As early as next year, during the trip to eastern China, the first man to rule a united kingdom of China died. According to some allegations, the cause of his death was a mercury pill that was supposed to make the emperor immortal.

Gridcoin

How it works - Boinc Account Managers — Steemit by @deybacsi

Before we dive deep into to the magical world of the Boinc client communication protocols, I must tell you some things. Maybe it will be boring, I don't know. If you aren't interested in stories, then feel free to jump to the next part.
TL;DR - We will be looking into the depths of the Boinc communication. If you aren't interested in tech things from a coders perspective, then this post is not written for you.

Games, Art, and Geekery

Be the Worm in Earthworm Jim Special Edition for Sega CD – Today in History – March 15th, 1995 — Steemit by @triverse

New intellectual properties (IP) are hard to get off the ground, this has been true for most of human consumer history. What do you do when you have a hit though and there are multiple platforms to available? You make a special edition that features extras not in other versions. Movie buffs know this as the “Director’s Cut” while gamers are used to seeing “Special Edition” or “Collector’s Edition”. That is exactly what we have with the latest game to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Earthworm Jim Special Edition for Sega CD.

My reimagining of a classic X-Men Cover — Steemit by @zugart

A bit of cover art. black and White for now - Color is coming!

Venomsaurus rex project — Steemit by @saywha

This is the complete rough draft of my venomsaurus rex figure project I am working on
So hanging out with my friend @charleschop (yeah he joined but lost his pass immediately) we decided to collaborate on a custom figure together. He has been making custom action figures for a few years now, and is amazing at his craft. He made my custom Punisher figure as well.
"Old Man Logan" is one of my absolute favorite comic runs, and has so many outstanding characters, and frankly just has amazing art throughout. When I saw the t-rex taken over by a symbiote I lost it, it was just about the coolest thing I had seen in a comic ever.

For the kids

Toddler Education: Popsicle Paint — Steemit by @sweetpea

While we are heading into cooler weather here in South Africa, much of the rest of the world is anticipating and preparing for the warmer summer months – so this ice “cool” activity is definitely for you and if you have kids, do yourselves a favour and add this to your summer bucket list. What am I talking about here? Ice painting, of course! Round up the kids and prepare to get creative!

Homesteading and farming

Challenges in farming — Steemit by @sayee

The above picture is of banana trees being cut off because a certain type of bug had destroyed it completely. It was cut off before the bug destroyed the banana tree next to it, also. Only when the tree is dropping and the leaves are dry, we will be able to know that the base has been affected badly. We use only organic manure like cow dung and no insecticides. So, such instances are common.

The Fruits Of Our Labor - My First Time Making Jelly and Canning! — Steemit by @apanamamama

My mom has always made fun of me for my inability to follow a recipe exactly. Yesterday, when I made blackberry jelly, was no exception! I had to improvise in a few places, but I am happy to report that the end result was pretty tasty. We now have 6 tiny jars of blackberry jelly from blackberries we have picked over the last few months from our neighborhood. This was my first time making jelly and my first time canning and I think they both went pretty well!

Enjoying Nature

Hudson River Valley Pictorial — Steemit by @agmoore

Bear Hill Preserve on the Shawangunk Ridge, in New York State. Image credit: JulianCotton on Wikimedia Commons. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
For those who have never visited the mountain regions of New York State, this pictorial will be an eye-opener. Most people have heard of the Sierra Nevada in California, highest point 14,505 feet, and the Rockies in Colorado, elevation over 14,000 feet. Most have heard of the Great Smokey Mountains, elevation 6,643 at the highest point. The mountains of New York State may not reach as high as these noble ranges, but they tell the story of the states' geological past. Shawangunk Ridge, about 2,240 feet, for example, in the picture above, soars above the surrounding landscape because of its quartz conglomerate composition. The conglomerate is made up of mostly quartz, some silica and a small amount of iron. It took millions of years to form. This durable rock formation resists erosion and allows the mountain to carve sheer cliffs in wooded landscape. Below the cliff, the softer siltstone and siliceous sandstone are more susceptible to erosion.

Steem and the blockchain

Rebooting SteemSTEM - Towards an engaged community on the STEEM blockchain! — Steemit by @steemstem

I assume all of you have read our rant 3 days ago. If not, you should. Please follow this link before reading on.
Essentially, it was all about engagement. But what is engagement?
Engaging with each other means acting as a community - and having fun! But fundamentally, creating the opportunities to have fun within that community.

Advice from one minnow to another - Part 2 — Steemit by @lucygarrod

It is tough when you keep churning out good content (whatever that is) but see no results of your hard work.
This is the story of most plankton and minnows on the platform. We’ve all seen well written posts (including our own posts) on steemit that get 8 upvotes, 0 comments and that famous $0.00 payout.

Steemgigs Development Report and call for contributions — Steemit by @jalasem

Steemgigs, as envisioned by @surpassinggoogle, is a platform where freelancers come to post their services called 'steemgigs', people who need to get a task done create steemgigs request and after a wonderful experience, write a testimonial post about it. It's a platform where "everyone has something to offer". Something that makes the platform awesome is the fact that anyone can earn from their post right from the time they posted it via upvote or sales/rendering of services.

How I'm giving back to Steemit: Mountain's Minnow Guide and New User Support — Steemit by @mountainwashere

Considering how much Steemit has done for me, I like to do something to give back to the community whenever I can. My favorite way of doing so is by hopping into the introduceyourself tag every couple of days and sharing my minnow guide with new users, as well answering any questions they might have. Retaining new users is one of the bigger challenges that this platform has- it can certainly be intimidating, to say the least. Not to mention the tiny payouts new users tend to get have a tendency to make them lose enthusiasm quickly. So I figure that even a little bit of help can go a long way.

Tips to Survive the Steem Dip! — Steemit by @jerrybanfield

When the Steem price drops 63% in one month from $4.50 to $1.70, yes it feels like the drop on a roller coaster. Like a roller coaster drop, I have experienced feelings of fear and anxiety today. A lot of us are programmed to deny or ignore these thoughts and feelings. After years of doing that, I find today owning up to them helps me move through them, stay rational, and avoid the self-sabatoge that comes from making decisions in the middle of feelings of fear.

So, what's all this then?

Inspiration

I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while, but the recent community involvement issues in steemSTEM spurred me into action, even though I'm not entirely happy with my approach yet. My goals here are to foster interaction on steem and provide visibility for good content.

Why not just resteem/vote

I do vote, but I'm like the tiniest minnow in the world (so far), so it really doesn't do much (yet). I want to do more. Gathering stuff all in one place is kind of nice and it will hopefully lead to more discussion.

I did used to resteem, but I have issues with massive amounts of resteeming. This is basically a UI issue; I've noted in my feed that some great accounts which resteem dozens of times a day tend to drown out other posts. Until there's a way to separate author-content from resteems in there general steem-verse (i.e. on Steemit), I don't like reseteeming much.

Criteria and format

The only real criterion I have is that the article should be something I was happy to have read. Ideally, it would be recent enough to still be active for 3 to 4 days after I post. A few other other things:

• There's no restriction on category, though I tend to read more STEM/nerdy stuff
• The list is not exhaustive (especially not for stuff from late Sun/Mon morning, as I spent that time writing this)
• If I left you off, it's not because I don't think your post was worth reading
• I'm still figuring out how to arrange topics
• Post order is like the point system on 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' - meaningless
• If you're a prolific author, I might only list one post in full format, then mention others
• If time allows, I may provide commentary on posts, but right now I'm letting them stand on their own merits.

Call to Action

I enjoyed compiling this list and you can do it, too. Even if your vote counts for nothing and you have 3 whole followers, start keeping track of what you actually liked reading and let the world know about it. I don't think there's a relevant tag yet, so let's go ahead and use #readinglog. If there is a better tag out there, let me know.

Remember, a community without interactions is just a bunch of people. Comment, vote, promote, even resteem!

Copyright Info

Logo modified from CC0 material on Pixabay by OpenClipart-Vectors, and released under the same.

Preview images are from the referenced posts and source information should be contained therein. Preview text is directly quoted from post and the property of that post's author(s).