i-eclectica.org

WorldCoolers/Gristmill have produced a long list of articles on “How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic,” a series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming. There are four separate taxonomies; arguments are divided by:

• Stages of Denial,
• Scientific Topics,
• Types of Argument, and
• Levels of Sophistication.

Individual articles will appear under multiple headings and may even appear in multiple subcategories in the same heading. An excellent resource dealing with many aspects of climate change.

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Now playing: Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things
via FoxyTunes

There aren’t too many situations where I want to download low-res video clips from YouTube, but they do exist. My good mate Harry found a simple way of doing just that. He discovered KissYouTube, which makes it about as easy as it can possibly be. You simply take the YouTube URL and put “kiss” in front of “youtube” … like this one is http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=9fohXBj2UEI (no need checking out the video though - it’s a boring maths video and I was too lazy replacing the url ).

You can download the video in its normal FLV (ie Flash Video) format or choose from most other video formats, including specific versions for various portable devices. Thanks buddy!

I just hope their online download is not down too often, as it was right now. Interestingly enough, they did offer a download tool for use in the meantime, supposedly tested on WinXP SP2 + IE7; I haven’t tried that one though.

An interesting list: the 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written, according to British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith. We all of course have our personal preferences; I certainly miss the Bhagavad Gita, but I’m glad ancient scriptures such as the Upanishads made it into the list in a prominent position. As a matter of fact, a lot spiritual collections of wisdom are represented, which might say a thing or two about Seymour-Smith.

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Now playing: Tarek Antabi - On the Radio!
via FoxyTunes

A fitting complement to Universcale, JST Virtual Science Centre’s ‘Earth Guide’ asks “How much do we understand about the planet we call home”? It answers that question in eight different flash animated sections, ranging from our location in the Milky Way and reflections on our solar system to land/water distribution and our planetary light, water and carbon circulation systems. The journey through the site presents data ranging from strictly scientific to some bordering on the world of trivia. I didn’t know, for example, that Saturn’s density is so low that it would float in water; and I had forgotten that the first so called astronauts were those US pilots between 1959 and 1968 who flew the supersonic X-15 up to 100km above sea level. Another interesting little detail are ‘noctilucent clouds‘, which form between 85-90km above sea level; the phenomenon apparently is not fully understood yet except that we know they are made up of water vapour and methane. Visit the ‘Earth Guide’ by clicking on the image below.

This a list of free resources for students and educators… and anyone else who’s hip to learning.

1. Books/Audio books
2. Calculators/Mathematics
3. Class Management/Worksheets
4. Collaboration/Social Networking
5. College/Student Loans
6. Dictionary/Thesaurus
7. Foreign Language
8. GPA Calculators
9. Graphs/Presentation
10. Highlighters/Web Annotation
11. History/Geography
12. Home Library
13. Lectures/Speeches
14. Memorization
15. Notes/Forms/Writing
16. Online Learning/Resources
17. Organization
18. Poetry
19. Reference/Research
20. Science/Space
21. Test Taking/Prep

Similar projects of interest:

FOSSwiki - A listing of Freeware and Open Source Software… free Web 2.0 sites too!
Librarian Chick’s Free Book Search
She Dreams In Digital - Librarian Chick’s blog
Tucows - Downloads and Reviews
56 Great Free Online Libraries - My blog