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Bad Gas Math

post from Good Math, Bad Math on 13 May 2008 09:59:59 PM. © Good Math, Bad Math

This has been mentioned elsewhere - like on the Machinist blog on Salon (where I first saw it) - but I can't resist saying something about it myself. And I'll also chip in a little bit of originality, by also criticizing some of the people that I've seen criticizing it.

The story is, there's a scammy company that sells a rather expensive device that allegedly increases your gas mileage. The way that it (supposedly) worksis that it uses electricity from the alternator to get hydrogen by splittingwater, and then adding that hydrogen to the air that gets mixed in the engine. The argument is that the hydrogen causes the gasoline to burn more completely and more cleanly, thus increasing the efficiently of the engine, which allows it to go further on a gallon of gasoline.

A local TV station in Florida claims to have tested the device. They tested the mileage of their news van using a dynamometer; then they mounted the device on the engine of their news van, and after giving it time to break in, put the van back on the dynamometer, and tested its mileage again.

Here's where the pathetic part comes in. They reported that before mounting the hydrogen generator on their van, they got an average mileage of 9.4 miles per gallon. After mounting it, they claim that they got 23.2 miles per gallon. Ok so far? Now, they go on to say that increasing their mileage from 9.4 to 23.2 mpg is a 61% improvement in mileage.

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West 86th Street Subway Art 2

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 13 May 2008 09:59:14 PM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: West 86th street subway art, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC

West 86th Street Subway Art #2
as seen at NYC's 86th Street stop at Broadway for the uptown 1 train.
(This piece was completed in 1989; it was mounted on 2 July 2006).

Artist: Nitza Tufino.

Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].

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What year is this again

post from Pharyngula on 13 May 2008 09:26:16 PM. © Pharyngula

I am stunned that this t-shirt could be proudly displayed anywhere anymore.

Now get this: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running an online poll that is asking, "What do you think of the Obama t-shirt?", with two choices: "It's racist" and "it's fine". You might be wondering why the newspaper would even have to ask…but here's the kicker.

"It's fine" is winning.

Do you think maybe we can shift the balance there? Or should we just let this indictment of Georgia's racism stand?

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DuPont To Enter Thin Film Amorphous Silicon
Market

post from The Energy Blog on 13 May 2008 07:40:00 PM. © The Energy Blog

Per DuPont press release: DuPont (NYSE: DD) announced that it will soon begin construction on a research center in Hong Kong and a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen to support the rapidly growing photovoltaic (PV) solar energy industry. . . . DuPont expects growth in the photovoltaic market to...

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Emily live!

post from Bad Astronomy Blog on 13 May 2008 07:00:50 PM. © Bad Astronomy Blog

Emily Lakdawalla, the blogger for The Planetary Society, has learned from the master. She will be hosting a live video chat Wednesday May 14 (tomorrow) at 3:00 p.m. Pacific time (22:00 UT) on her UStream channel. You can get more info on her blog.I’ll be there in the chat room, and I urge everyone else [...]

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Proposal is unacceptable. He wears red shoes.

post from Survival Blog for Scientists on 13 May 2008 06:47:23 PM. © Survival Blog for Scientists

A young scientist in his early thirties, with more than 40 publications and a permanent position at a European university, has gotten the following comment in the judgment of his research proposal: the candidate writes articles with many different[...]

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Unclear on the concept

post from Pharyngula on 13 May 2008 06:23:47 PM. © Pharyngula

Just what we need — another evangelical Christian theme park, this one in the planning stages in Tennessee. This one has one particular instance of blinkered blindness, though, that I thought was rather funny.

The Park is planned as an "edutainment" experience, combining education and entertainment. The Park is without a particular religious ideology or theology and does not promote specific religious beliefs of any kind; instead, it is designed to bring to life history of Biblical times and stories from the Holy Bible.

If you read the rest, you'll learn that this thing is taking fundamentalist, literalist reading of the Christian bible entirely for granted…how this translates into an absence of theology or specific religious beliefs is hard to understand, unless these people are so oblivious to the narrow theological domain of their beliefs that they are unable to imagine its grossly sectarian nature. Or unless they're really stupid.

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Hello Are you a skeptic

What the heck is a skeptic ring tone?I don’t know, but someone advertising on MySpace does. I went to check my page, and saw this:What would this sound like? Randi harumphing? The Skeptologists theme song? Ironically, I’m skeptical of the ad. But still… it would be useful for spam phone calls.

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Two down, one to go!

I'm getting there — I just gave my second final exam for this semester, will get them all graded up tomorrow, and then have one last exam to give on Thursday…then I'm free! Free!

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The angels have my phone award

Two Whoish things: 1) Catherine Tate was robbed! Of an award, that is. She won the popular vote for the People’s Choice at the British Comedy Awards, but a bit of back-stage shenanigans gave her award to someone who didn’t deserve it. She isn’t always my cup of tea, but she has done some [...]

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