Archive for November, 2007
Philosophia Naturalis #15
Welcome to the 15th mostly-monthly installment of the Philosophia Naturalis blog carnival — home of the best blog posts in the natural sciences that you’ll find! There’s all sorts of good reading material for you to choose from, so let’s get right to business…
Philosophia Naturalis — a slight delay
For those waiting for the next installment of the Philosophia Naturalis blog carnival, I’ve got to announce a slight delay — rather than today, I’ll be posting it tomorrow. Due to some work commitments pouring over into my home time, I haven’t quite had the free time I’ve needed to do the job well.
I’d rather be a bit late than produce a shoddy product; thanks for your patience…
Carnivalia
Here’s this week’s crop of blog carnival goodness (a bit skinnier than usual, folks must still be sleeping off their Thanksgiving dinners)…
Googlediving, hybrid vehicles, and energy consumption
A recent thread of discussion (namely, some comments on the hybrid cars podcast episode) brings me to remind you of the wisdom of cross-checking ostensibly “scientific” things you hear in conversation, or see mentioned in print or online somewhere. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy these days to check things using the internet. When I run across something that seems to be questionable, I’ve gotten into the habit of doing a quick bit of checking things out with Google. I call this “googlediving” — it’s essentially the information equivalent of dumpster diving but doesn’t leave you all smelly when you’re done. Best of all, it usually takes just a few minutes to run a quick check.
Let’s look at the recent discussion as a good example….
Chaco Canyon
One of the advantages of rearranging your house is that sometimes you’ll find a long-lost treasure in the process. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been going through a big in-house reshuffle to make better use of space, and I stumbled across some old slides I took on a visit to Chaco Canyon decades back.
Sadly, [...]Casual Friday — Steam Trek: The Moving Picture
You don’t have to know much about the original Star Trek TV series / movie to appreciate this hand-made parody. 9 minutes and 53 seconds long, and originally made in 1994 on Super-8 movie film, I don’t know why it took me so long to post this…
Episode 14 — Hybrid Cars
If you’re like many people, you’d like to help do something about climate change through the choices you make and the way you live. Celebrities and the mass media (among others) are presenting hybrid vehicles as a big step forward in this regard.
But left out of this rush to technology is any discussion of the fact that not all hybrids are equal. Some are little different from conventional cars, and consume fuel with equal gusto. Others offer dramatic improvements in fuel economy, but may not appear at your local automotive dealer’s showroom floor for years.
What’s a well-intentioned, but budget-minded potential car buyer to do?
Listen in to this episode, and I’ll give you a quick education in hybrid vehicle technologies. You’ll be able to tell series from parallel, and electric from hydraulic with aplomb — and more importantly, understand some of the challenges that lie ahead for this technology, and how to tell when a hybrid vehicle’s price premium makes it a worthwhile investment.
This episode is the first in a series on ways you and I can help fight climate change.
Carnivalia, and a Call for Submissions
This week’s selection of (mostly) science-related blog carnivals:
Accretionary Wedge #3
Carnivalesque XXXIII
Carnival of Education
Carnival of the Green #104
Change of Shift: Vol. 2, Number 11
Carnival of Space 29
The Four Stone Hearth #28
Friday Ark #165
Gene Genie #20
I and the Bird # 62
Oekologie #11
Skeptics’ Circle #74
Also, don’t forget that I’ll be hosting the 15th installment of the Philosphia Naturalis [...]Casual Friday — What Kind of Reader are You?
What Kind of Reader Are You? Another silly quiz for Casual Friday…
Carnivalia
This week sees another great selection of (mostly) science-related blog carnivals available for your reading pleasure:
The Boneyard # 9
Books Carnival
Carnival of Education
Carnival of Space #28
Encephelon #35
Friday Ark #164
Grand Rounds – Volume 4 number 8
History Carnival 58
Skeptics’ Circle #73
Tangled Bank #92
