jfleck at inkstain

A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico

Will Summer Never Come?

I am concerned that summer will never come here in Albuquerque. We hit a high of 94F (34C) May 20, and it has been cooler since. It’s increasingly clear that this “summer warming” thing is a myth.

Peak Women’s Tennis Shoes?

Lissa made a startling discovery yesterday at Costco. There were no women’s tennis shoes in stock. It was not just that they have become more expensive. There were none available at any price. This raises an interesting question: have we reached peak women’s tennis shoes? Will women have to start going barefoot? Or will they [...]

Coal to Liquids

I don’t understand the numbers well enough to know how significant news like this is, but it’s clear that we’re only going to see more of this in the five-to-ten year horizon as conventional oil stays expensive: South Africa’s Sasol (SOLJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research), the world’s biggest maker of motor fuel from coal, said on [...]

Shell Betting on US Wind

From the Financial Times: The growing importance of wind power originally drew Shell into what was set to be the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, the 1 gigawattLondon Array, that put the UK in line to be the world leader in building offshore wind farms. But on May 2 Shell said it was selling its [...]

Energy Tips

Lazyweb style, I’m looking for y’all’s favorite web sites with energy conservation tips. Comment away….

The Coming Natural Gas Price Train Wreck

Natural gas prices don’t have the “big sign on every corner” public awareness, but they’re up big time too, according to the EIA: Current prices in all parts of country exceed historical records for this time of year, when moderate temperatures lead to significantly lower aggregate demand and result in additional supplies injected into storage [...]

Food Still Stable

The Economist food price index this week is down a hair at 252.2, 0.7 percent below last week.

What is this?

fleck.com The web is the biggest source of information. We all know a tiny bit. Fleck combines the knowledge of your friends.

A Good Use of a Few Minutes of Your Time

If you love science, have a subscription or library access to Science magazine, and happen to have a few minutes to spare, I can think of few better ways to spend it than with Kerry Emanuel’s obituary of Edward Lorenz: Chaos is not merely about the practical problem of prediction. Lorenz and others showed that [...]

Nature Conservancy NM Climate Change Report

Carolyn Enquist and Dave Gori at The Nature Conservancy have done a nice analysis of climate change’s impact on New Mexico ecosystems. My ABQJournal story.

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