I very much liked Jared Diamond’s Collapse, but as a non-specialist in the fields he writes about, I approached this work (like Guns Germs and Steel) with a bit of trepidation. So I was pleased this morning to run across this collection of reviews from the latest issue of Current Anthropology.
weather: Looks like this morning’s overnight low of 40 set a record for Dec. 26 – 5 degrees F warmer than the old record of 35. It got down to 37 at my house, according to my new Christmas weather station. (update 10:19 a.m. – Doh! It’s the 27th, the record’s 40 set in 1923, …
Coco explains why Corrales et al. weren’t really suburbs of Albuquerque back in 1750. Suburban-style development grew around existing villages after the first and second world wars as agriculture declined and land was sold or lost to taxes.
My friend George, who commutes to work by bike very early in the morning, has seen beavers in the bosque a couple of times, at dawn on the west end of the Alameda Bridge where the Corrales drain empties into the river. I’ve never seen ’em, though I’ve seen gnawed tree trunks many times. But …
With help from Nora, the Easy-Do Parties lady wishes you and yours an electric Christmas.
There’s been much curiosity in our household about this Festival of Illumination thing. How will we certify that Albuquerque really has lit up 3 million (5 million?) luminarias to convince those Guiness World Record sticklers? Some sort of Santa-borne spy satellite? The honor system? Isabel Sanchez has the goods (sub. req.) in this morning’s paper: …
With Tania Soussan, the latest (sub. req.) on our meager snowpack and prospects for the future. The current conditions: The upper Rio Grande, Rio Chama, San Juan and Cimarron river basins have less than a third of the normal snow water equivalent for this time of year, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Snotel …
The question of whether global warming is bumping up hurricanes gets another good airing in today’s Nature, with two strong arguments against the suggestion that Kerry Emanuel made in August in Nature (sub. req. for the Nature links) of a global warming-hurricane link. Just as Emanuel’s initial work was seized upon by the left (“As …
From the “50 and 100 years ago” feature in this week’s Nature (sub. req): A recent survey shows that the study of physics in American public high schools has been declining for more than half a century… why [does our youth] turn away from a career in science? We can only grope for the answer. …
The holiday ritual of indeterminate origin returned to the Heineman-Fleck household over the weekend with the hanging of a small rubber chicken, at least two plastic bananas and other assorted traditional family remembrances. “Where’s the pickle,” Nora asked as soon as the lights went up. And so the pickle launched this year’s Yule festivity. I …