Please Read About the Environment Today

On blog action day, Oct 15, 2007, I encourage you to read about the environment. More than that, I encourage you to read articles that you do not agree with, or think you do not agree with. Challenge yourself to think from a fresh perspective, don't just inhabit familiar and safe territory. Only by understanding all sides of the discussion, at least at some level, can we make informed choices.

Science isn't a religion (at least in the normal sense), and if ideas can't hold up to scrutiny, they should be rejected. Of course, some contradictory arguments sound very convincing, but force of rhetoric is irrelevant to scientific argument in the long run, so let's not get trapped by rhetoric in the short term.

Express yourself by taking the multiple choice poll on the right, where you can give multiple answers (if you can see it- mine keeps becoming a comic book ad). Please see more on discussion, disagreement and trustworthiness of sources at my sister blogs: Chemistry for a sustainable world and my world headlines blog http://www.bloglines.com/blog/chemrat. Thanks! Jim

© James K. Bashkin, 2007

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A new site for science discussions

I have started a new site to separate my writing on Science & Society and Green Chemistry from my fiction site. That should make things less confusing.

© James K. Bashkin, 2007

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Books: Perez-Reverte; Guitar commentaries; chemistry

Literature: For those of you who arrived hoping to read about novels, I'll sneak in a mention of one of my favorite authors, Arturo Perez-Reverte. Click the link to see what Powell's has to offer by him. Reviews of individual books to appear later.

Music and guitars: for those waiting on guitar and equipment reviews, they are still under construction. zZounds offers the widest selection of name-brand instruments at guaranteed lowest prices. You can purchase over 125,000 different products from their website 24 hours a day. Click here to look!

I play a bunch of things: a Taylor Leo Kottke 12-string (great guitar, from Eddie's Guitars in Maplewood, MO), a bunch of Godins (love them), a Strat Plus (from Silver Strings, St. Louis- I have the most confidence soloing on this), two 1972 Tele Custom reissues (One nice Squire w/5 strings a la Keef, one gem made in Japan "not for export" w/brass bridge), a Fly deluxe (funny guitar- the volume knob placement and body resonances can drive me nuts, but the neck and frets are great) and Midi-fly (without the midi working yet, but this is a great guitar), a low end Brian Moore w/13-pin, and some nice, but not amazing, acoustics (Alvarez dreadnought, Ibanez larger body style, baby Taylor). I have to share all these with my son Jacob, who also has some Jacksons and classical instruments, and who plays rings around me at age 14. He doesn't share his guitars with me.

Just a quick note on Science: I referred briefly to Green Chemistry in my first post. Here are a few resources for the scientifically-inclined (click on the links to go to the resource pages):

A synopsis of work I was involved in

and the home page for the

Green Chemistry Resource Exchange

See also page 2 of my bookshelf at Powell's for related books. The theme is either "books on Green Chemistry" or books written by Green or Greene, plus one huge and comprehensive encyclopedia of catalysis put together by a friend. The books by Green and Greene were too good to keep off the list, though they are for transition metal organometallic chemistry and protecting group chemistry, respectively, which are just peripherally related to "Green Chemistry".

For more on Green Chemistry, don't forget to check out my links to the EPA's program from my earlier post!

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