Red is hot, and blue is cold. Seemingly everyone knows this. Even though blue light has a higher energy, and thus temperature, than red light. Watts has a recent post about Color and Temperature: Perception is everything. He questions, “Is it just me or does there appear to be a warm bias in the color temperature presentation of the majority of providers shown here?”

I have previously posted a couple thoughts on the use of color when presenting figures to the public; for example Using Color Contours to Improve Public Interpretation of the Temperature Record and Using Color to Visualize Decreases in Sea Ice Extent. Color is not just a way to make a boring figure pretty. The color has to add information. For instance, in his Color is Everything post, Watts shows current (at time of posting) national temperature figures from several sources.
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In a comment on a recent post, it was asked how one goes about getting monthly precipitation values. This post will offer a tutorial on one method of obtaining precipitation data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Note that this will only work for locations in the United States.

The first step is knowing where to find NCDC on the Internet. Then you need to locate a station using the Station Locator - this is a link the left panel on their home page.
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Just a quick link to a good post - Science After Sunclipse: What Science Blogs Can’t Do.

Via the Scientific American Observations blog comes news that during its 2009 season the American Le Mans Series will be introducing a Green Challenge. Details can be found on the ALMS website.

I must admit that I like racing. Not because I’m a fan of watching car drive in circles using internal combustion engines that produce unnecessary CO2. Or that the fuel they use could be used for many other more useful purposes. I don’t know why I like it; I imagine its for similar reasons that I like other sports such as baseball. It’s just fun to watch sometimes.
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