Othello
Playing Othello with Nora is pretty much a win-win for me. If I win, I get the visceral pleasure of victory. If she wins, I get the pride that comes with watching your child succeed. To be honest, I much prefer kicking her ass. She played white this evening, and of course I’m a very [...]
Drought Numbers
Not much chance of rain over the next week, which means we’ll end the month with 0.04 inch in Albuquerque for January. With 0.10 in December, that puts us (by my quick back of the envelope calculation) at the fifth-driest Dec.-Jan. in history. 1966-67 was the worst, with 0.02 inch. The Palmer Drought Index says [...]
More on 2005
Good discussion on Island of Doubt about the significance of the 2005 temperatures.
Peak Oil
I had a dream the other night about a shortage of jet fuel. Someone handed me a piece of paper with a list showing which flights were allowed to go, and which were grounded. I couldn’t figure out how they’d decided which was which.
Trying to Shut up Hansen
Andrew Revkin has a story on the New York Times web site about restrictions NASA is trying to place on outspoken climate scientist James Hansen: The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff [...]
Daybook
reading 1: Donald Wilhite’s “Drought: A Global Assessment”. Wilhite, in his introduction, clearly lays out the climate-societal vulnerability link: “Thus the incidence of drought could increase because of a change in the frequency of the physical event, a change in societal vulnerability to water shortages, or both.” reading 2: Via Roger Pielke the Younger, a [...]
Why I Love Cocoposts
I was feeling a little subversive yesterday morning when I posted Strunk and White’s advice for bloggers. It amused me. But since it drew such varied and amusing ripostes, it’s worth defending why I it struck me. At the risk of abusing S&W’s point, I do not think bloggers should not have and share opinions. [...]
Pundits for Hire
Paul D. Thacker, in a New Republic piece, tags Steven Milloy, the “Junk Science” king, with the paid-pundit spray can, that so recently smeared our old friend Michael Fumento: But, whereas Scripps Howard fired Fumento and apologized to its readers, Fox News continues to look the other way as Milloy accepts corporate handouts. And it’s [...]
Advice for Bloggers
Strunk and White offer this advice for bloggers: Unless there is a good reason for its being there, do not inject opinion into a piece of writing. We all have opinions about almost everything, and the temptation to toss them in is great. To air one’s views gratuitously, however, is to imply that the demand [...]
Listening to the Economists
Nature, in an editorial in tomorrow’s edition, argues that the IPCC is falling short in not including the lateste economists have to offer in it’s next assessment round: The inclusive nature of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is currently preparing its fourth assessment of global warming for publication late next year, has [...]
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