Research Obsession
on Feb 14 in Beekeeping, Books, Research Obsession by Erica Firment
I haven’t mentioned this before, but I have a rather librarianish habit. I get on research kicks, usually to no end except my own edification.
For a month or so, I’ll just get on some topic and won’t let it go. I’ll read books on the topic, surf it when I’m supposed to be doing something else, and bore you with conversation about it.
In the past, I’ve become a mini-expert (knowing just enough to be dangerous) on the following:
- The Northern Cities Vowel Shift
- Beekeeping
- The use of scientific imagery in cosmetics advertising
- US Copyright law
- Yiddish and Zionism in the 1940s
- Japanese cooking
After watching An Inconvenient Truth, I’ve been in a state of semi-panic. I’ve researched hybrid cars, veggie cars, rentable solar panels, household wind energy, and biofuel. I’ve swapped out our lightbulbs with compact fluorescents, covered our windows with plastic, and turned down the thermostat. We bartered webwork with our friend Lexie, who does home efficiency evaluations (hire her!). But we still have a long way to go.
Point being, I thought I might start share some of the stuff I dig up. I’ll title the posts Research Obsession so you can skip ‘em if you don’t care about the Poetry of William B. Yeats or whatever it is I’m currently nuts about.
Related posts:
- Research Obsession: Climate change I challenge you to play the BBC’s online Climate Challenge game. It’s free, fun, and uses Flash, so you don’t...
- Research obsession: Medical Students for Choice I’m going to show my political underpants briefly (har har. briefly.) and write about Medical Students for Choice. Lately I’ve...
I do the same thing, my recent ones being:
The Electric Slide (dance)
Fake Bands (i.e. bands created but not real)
the Insane Clown Posse
the Bee Gees
Ah, vowel shifts. I just heard a radio ad in which some sweet young thing talks about “my mom and Dodd.” And then, no doubt, she sits down to do homework at her “dusk.”
Jenny: Give us an example of a fake band!
Bill: I knao! At’s tattaly all ahver the reddio hair en Niw Yark.
That compact fluorescent flickering here and there about your house is full of MERCURY!!!!!
It’s True! So make sure you recycle it properly when it dies an electromagnetic death!
I suggest researching not having a car. :-)
Compact Fluorescents Light (CFL) are so old school. Despite the fact that CFL consumes less than the ancestral incandescent light bulb (invented 150 years ago), CFL are still consuming.
Now, I propose the 150 LED bulb, which uses only 9W for an equivalent of 70 watt incandescent. Of course, at $65 each bulb, it might take you 150 years to see a return on investment… Oh, I forgot, we are trying to save our earth.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/led_bulb_replac.php
Giacino seems to think we can simply gloss over the point that LED bulbs are absurdly expensive. The room where I work has 15 light bulbs. With tax, that’s over $1000. I also have light bulbs in some other rooms in my house. Most people, myself included, are not able, prepared or willing to spend $5000 on light bulbs. A car, yes. Lightbulbs, no. So if you want to save our earth through LED lightbulb use, find a way to bring them to market at a price actual people can actually afford.
9w LED output: 308 or 594 lumens @ $65
75w Westinghouse 130v bulb 845 lumens @ $.70
75w Sylvania halogen 120v 1300 lumens @ $3
So calling the LED bulb a “70 watt replacement” could be considered misleading. Calling it “dim” would be more like it.
Beekeeping! That reminds me of a cool looking book that came into my library the other day…”Robbing the Bees. A Biography of Honey, the Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World.” (by Holly Bishop).
First off, it’s a great title. Secondly, I’d never really thought of book about honey before.
Maybe I’ll check it out when it comes back in…
Do you know what honey *is*? It’s bee barf. This is something you’d want to eat? To read about? For sure, if you want to eat it, you do not want to read about it. Bee barf! Yech!
Honey is not bee barf. Get a grip. Read “Clan Apis,” supercute practically non-fiction graphic novel.
Is too! ” In the hive the bees use their “honey stomachs” to ingest and regurgitate the nectar a number of times until it is partially digested.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey
“4. eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth; “After drinking too much, the students vomited”; “He purged continuously”; “The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night” [syn: vomit]”
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/regurgitate
Bee barf! Yuck!
I researched Giant Squids yesterday.
Okay, fine, here: http://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=32761
13 watts, 800 lumens, two bucks.
You certainly are not the only librarian to do this…I have done the same thing and researched some of the same topics (veggie cars and light bulbs to be exact). There is nothing wrong with knowing more on a topic!
I am fasinated and have a strange question to ask. I’m writing a book. Would you be interested in doing some research for me? or do you know of anyone who might be interested. Its a business book.
thanks, Marcia
Marcia: Thank you for the offer. I’m unable to help, but maybe someone reading this site would be interested?