My homeys at New Mexicans for Science and Reason have a great radio show on Saturday afternoons (2 p.m., 1350 a.m. in Albuquerque). But the only place I have an am radio is in the car, and I’m almost never in my car at the right time. Now, thanks to the magic of PodGoobers, you …
Inkstain Google search string of the day: are loading docks required on new commercial buildings (Here’s what they found. Hope it was useful.)
To the guy in the Wheaties jersey out on the bosque bike trail this morning: Dang that was fun! I was out by myself, but (as often happens) I ended up amidst a train of like-minded riders. In this case, our like minds involved going fast. There are so many families with strollers and kids …
Having recently read Richard Florida’s “The Rise of the Creative Class“, and having heard a great deal of rhetoric locally about the importance of creative class economy issues to Albuquerque’s future, it occurs to me that it will be interesting to see how our community’s leadership responds to Thursday’s fire that destroyed the Golden West …
A lovely bit of amateur climate science from Tim Haab: Follow the bouncing ball of logic. C02 concentrations and temperatures are correlated. Sunspot activity and temperatures are not and neither are CO2 concentrations and sunspot activity. Therefore, sunspots activities are not a causal factor in determining long-term temperature trends. Don’t worry. His work is easily …
On the pollen count: Unable to meet up in person, elm and juniper are among the many plants that have developed a decidedly unromantic reproductive strategy. They spew pollen into the air in search of a mate. A lot of pollen. “The pollen is basically sperm,” explained University of New Mexico biologist Felisa Smith. “The …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I wrote elsewhere: plant sex edition’ »
One of my old Gnome friends, Dave Mason, is in Rwanda working on a public health technology project. He told a great story today about what the Rwandans he is working with need from their software: I was very directly asked if we would develop our software in open source. They asked because two other …
At the risk of tarnishing whatever green cred I might possess, a confession: I have always wanted a riding mower. I sit in them when I’m in the garden department at Home Depot, making brrmm brrmm noises under my breath. I imagine myself king of my domain as I ride the mower this way and …
Last week, USA Today’s Doyle Rice wrote a story about a research project in which I was involved. Rice did what journalists do. He got wind of a topic that interested him, tracked down and interviewed the lead researcher, got and read the paper, interviewed others for perspective, and wrote a story. Four days later, …
We’ve got a standard joke around the office when it starts raining: “Drought’s over.” You’ve gotta love the picture on Arizona Republic water guy Shaun McKinnon’s blog today of water spilling over the dam in the middle of Tempe. To non-southwestern desert types: that’s a place where you don’t usually see water. But Shaun bids …