Chat the Monsoon
Over where they pay me, I’ll be doing an on line chat tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. MDT on the science of the monsoon. If needed, I’m fully prepared to defend the ill-defined term.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Santa Ana Winds and Climate Change
Last February, Kit Stolz blogged about evidence that California’s fire-bringing Santa Ana winds (SAO is the acronymic jargon) were shifting later in the year. There’s a new paper in GRL suggesting a link between climate change and the shift: This initial analysis shows consistent shifts in SAO events from earlier (September–October) to later (November–December) in …
Water in the Desert
The always insightful* Coco offers some helpful backstory to the institutional arrangements responsible for sucking water out of Albuquerque’s low-lying neighborhoods: One of the strongest reasons behind having growth management is to plan public infrastructure investment to assure adequate funding for replacement and repair of things like aging infrastructure that serves existing neighborhoods – like …
Yet More on the Newspaper Story that Shall Not Die
More discussion over on the Fix about my July 23 story on climate science.
On The Joys of Technical Writing
For my friends who churn out words and wonder why, Aaron’s writerly observations on ambitions and life: I dream of writing the Next Great Marketing Brochure. I know exactly what it’s like: it’s about five hundred words long, and it’s printed on glossy cardstock. People line up at trade shows to get a copy, and …
Water in the Desert
animas_la_plata Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Calling Durango, Colorado, “the desert” is a bit of a cheat. Located on the edge of the San Juan Mountains, it averages 20 inches or so (50 cm) of precipitation a year, well above what might formally qualify as desert. But Durango sits at a fulcrum in the complex interplay …
What We Did on Our Summer Vacation
Animas Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Among other things, we took a boat trip down the Animas River through Durango.You know it’s an urban float trip when the boatman points out that we’ll be passing the new Home Depot, but it was great fun. We took the train, too. More photos on our Flickr page once …
Gender Issues
Over at Dave’s blog, some thoughtful comments from Malcolm regarding gender issues in the computer world: I’ve been using motherboards and daughterboards since I started playing with computer hardware. No fatherboard in sight, though. Come to think of it, most of the plugs on the back of my machine are female as well. I’m with …
Another Climate Change Threat
Nora sends along this, a climate change threat of which I was unaware: I can’t believe a company like Amazon would promote global warming by allowing those bastiches at Dole to continue to melt icebergs just to get the head of lettuce that lies at the center. Sure, it tastes like ambrosia, but look what …
Criticism of My Work
Today’s Journal letters page has some discussion of my climate science story from a couple of weeks back. I apparently don’t have many fans: John Fleck probably has a PR job on George W. Bush’s staff waiting for him after the spin he put on global warming science in the Journal. Hey, at least they’re …