NOVA -- Watch Online -- A few episodes are available online, some in part, some entirely. Segments range from 2 minutes (Lab meat -- growing edible meat in a lab culture) to 146 minutes (The Elegant Universe -- all about string theory). MIT OpenCourseWare -- Videos of complete lecture courses at the Massachusetts Institute of …
Month: January 2007
Eat well
From Scientific American Blog: The best dietary advice is fundamentally, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Not too complicated. Not very expensive. Not tied to the latest diet fad. Good for your heart, and your wallet. However, I'll still eat a good steak every once in a while. Grace and Peace
Science Videos #1
Thermite reaction - a chemical reaction that generates enough heat to melt iron. Alkali metal reactions - I've put sodium in water for a science demonstration, but that seems rather tame compared to rubidium or cesium in water! Tacoma Narrows Bridge - the ultimate engineering mishap. Concrete and steel are flexible! Liquid metal - watch …
Sponge Moon
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is of Hyperion, one of Saturn's 34+ moons. Here is the APOD discription of this image: Explanation: What lies at the bottom of Hyperion's strange craters? Nobody knows. To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn swooped past the sponge-textured moon in late 2005 and took …
A wild world of a different sort
Back in October, I wrote a post about the idea of introducing large mammals (elephants, camels, lions, and so on) into the high plains of the United States (see Pleistocene mega-fauna -- coming to a drive-thru safari park near you). The idea is to somewhat restore the pre-human ecosystem by bringing in mammals that went …
Wild World
At the middle school and high school level, biology textbooks usually have a section on biomes, which are large regions of the Earth that have distinctive communities of plants and animals. Examples of biomes include desert, tropical rainforest, temperate grasslands, and tundra. These biomes can be subdivided into smaller ecoregions, which have more specific assemblages …
The Doomsday Clock
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved its famous "Doomsday Clock" to 5 minutes before midnight. This clock has moved forward and backwards depending on this ("liberal") group's perception of how close the world is to nuclear holocaust (timeline). It has been as close to midnight as 2 minutes during the 1950s, when the …
Knowing God – Chapter 4 Quotes
Chapter 4 of Knowing God is "The Only True God," and it has to do with the prohibition in the Ten Commandments against making idols. "Idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but also in the worship of the true God by images" (quoted from Charles Hodge). Just as it forbids us …
Knowing God – Chapter 3 Quotes
We continue to read Knowing God by J.I. Packer at the dinner table. Chapter three is "Knowing and Being Known." What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the 'eternal life' that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. 'This is life eternal, that …
World Population
Here is an interesting World Population animation from a biology class web site at the University of Western Kentucky, which calculates the population of the Earth when you were born.
Stellarium
For several years, I have been using Starry Night software in the classroom when teaching about the stars. The students love it, but at $49.95, they were unlikely to be able to do anything with it at home or in our computer lab. I found an excellent substitute for free on the internet: Stellarium. There …
Gas Prices, County by County
US gasoline prices, on a county-by-county basis, are portrayed on the US National Gas Temperature Map. Gas here in Europe ranges from around $4 per gallon (here in Romania) to over $6, so no complaining allowed. Grace and Peace
Church sign generator
A lot of church signs are goofy, or downright heretical. But you can make your own church signs at http://www.churchsigngenerator.com. Here's a few of my own: Grace and Peace ------------------------------------------- PS More generators: Official seal, concert ticket, etc... Street sign Warning signs
Romania in the EU
As of January 1, 2007, Romania is a member of the European Union. Living in Romania is different than any living anywhere else in the EU. Romanian culture is Latin, so being here is somewhat like living in Italy. For a little fun, watch Europe and Italy, and then remember that Italy is a rather …
GeoChristian 