Creative Methods

"Outside the Box" Perspective for Fundamental Issues

Welcome to Creative Methods, providing scientific analyses for fundamental issues of our world.  An introduction to the site is below.  Graphics, navigation, and image-enlarging links are to the left, and short synopses of the topics on the right.

[Clicking the picture allows a quick, full-size example of a presentation for that topic.  Use your browser’s “Back” arrow/button to return here.  Clicking the blue underlined title or “Go” button opens the topic.  Return links and navigation bars at the bottoms of pages facilitate movement throughout the site.]

US Air Quality Gradebook	US Air Quality Gradebook presents a composite view of air quality based on 21 measures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Maps and gradesheets grade US counties from A to F on 10 measures of ambient concentration and on emissions of 11 pollutants.  Each county then receives a composite grade based on these 21 individual measures.  Air quality in neighboring counties also influences a county's map grade.
Daily Temperature Cycle	Daily Temperature Cycle compares current temperatures to long-term normal temperatures and to record highs and lows. It shows hourly departures of today's temperatures from the normal diurnal cycle for U.S. and international airports, and 2-week running averages of those departures.
About Us	At Creative Methods, we examine fundamental issues with scientific analyses.  In this endeavor, we employ “outside the box” perspective to provide fresh understanding of our world and ourselves.  Always present is the scientific method, with its high standards of reproducable evidence.
E-mail	To correspond or provide feedback on Creative Methods or its scientific analyses of fundamental issues, as in US Air Quality Gradebook, you may click the “Go” button to bring up e-mail, or copy the address CreativeMethods@hotmail.com to your own e-mail.

We at Creative Methods hope our site shows you a fresh, scientific perspective on fundamental issues of our world.

Abstract: At Creative Methods, we try to “step outside the box” and look at fundamental issues in our world with new perspective.  Humans are adept at capitalizing on new ideas.  Consider, for example, harnessed electricity, the internal combustion engine, and the integrated circuit.  There is, however, a disinclination to ever revisit the fundamentals, to ask why we are doing things a certain way, or, in general, to ask why.  A child quickly learns that questions such as, “Why is the sky blue?” are irritating to adults and stops asking.  There is pressure to conform to “conventional wisdom” -- to do things the accepted way, and not ask uncomfortable questions.  At Creative Methods, we strive to ask those questions -- to look at things in fresh ways that bring insights into our world and our ideas about it and about ourselves.  Under the issue Air Quality, we present EPA data as maps and gradesheets that grade US counties A to F for 21 EPA measures of air quality.  The topics of air pollution and environmental health are serious issues in the US, and result in pollution health effects including headache, respiratory impairment, neurological impairment, mental impairment, asthma, lung disease, chronic fatigue, immune system dysfunction, premature aging, and reduced longevity.  Environmental science monitors air pollutant emissions, as well as

criteria air pollutant concentrations through ambient monitoring.  The US Air Quality Gradebook (“AirGrades”) grades both emissions and ambient concentrations on maps and gradesheets, and assigns resultant composite scores to US counties.  Air pollutants include carbon monoxide, CO; lead, Pb; nitrogen dioxide, NO2; nitrogen oxides, NOx; volatile organic compounds, VOC; ozone, O3; particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers in size, PM10; particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in size, PM2.5; ammonia, NH3; sulphur dioxide, SO2; hazardous air pollutants, HAP; diesel emissions; and acrolein.  Air pollution point sources include electric power generating facilities and industrial plants.  Area source emissions include wildfires, forest fires, open burning, permitted burning, structure fires, and fugitive dust.  Mobile sources include highway and off-road vehicles with internal combustion engines such as automobiles, trucks, trains, airplanes, snowmobiles, and all terrain vehicles (ATVs).  The maps, gradesheets, and source sheets demonstrate that clean air is at a premium in the US.  Sites presenting issues on health and the environment related to those presented under the topic Air Grades by Creative Methods at CreativeMethods.com are Scorecard at Scorecard.com and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, at EPA.gov.