It’s an odd day when I find myself agreeing with Benny Peiser on a climate change question, but his post Thursday to his CCNet list, in which he blasted media of coverage of the Nature paper on possible changes in the thermohaline circulation, seems on point. In fact, as I’ll point out below, there’s been …
Via Rich Burridge, an interesting experiment: how many Taco Bells within 10 miles of you? With their store locator, I found just 15. Rich found 23 around his house, but a little searching found as many as 51 (Hollywood and Manhattan). 15? That’s pathetic. Albuquerque can do better. All we need to become a world …
A great comment from James Annan on the meta-issues about yesterday’s Nature paper on the possibility that the thermohaline circulation may be slowing: Their(Nature’s) deliberate policy to select only the most “exciting” results, which are then picked up and amplified by the press, pretty much guarantees that the outliers are given a prominence that substantially …
Nora offers this helpful contribution to the discussion, a sort of visual aid: I told her I thought it bore a striking resemblance to Tracy Spenser. Though there are other possibilities.
The ever-thoughtful Michael Fumento is back at it, this time calling me a “a human sock puppet”. Thanks, Michael! I’d been at somewhat of a loss for an idea for next year’s Halloween costume. I was thinking of dressing up as Tracy Spenser, but this is much better.
I’m not sure I quite understand what the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is, but here’s a new paper suggesting it’s sort of nothing at all. Or, more precisely, that it’s really a combination of other things, not a thing in and of itself. (climate and drought wonks go ahead and click through – the rest of …
From the CLIMAS folks at the University of Arizona: Drought – Moderate drought to abnormally dry conditions persist in southeastern and northeastern Arizona, and have expanded eastward to include most of New Mexico. * Pasture and range land conditions continue to degrade in Arizona and improve slightly in New Mexico. * Drought conditions are much …
In which I get to dabble in the great issues of the day (sub. req.), involving aluminum tubes and the like: Wilson said in an interview that analysts from Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratory were part of a team of Department of Energy nuclear experts who concluded that a key piece of evidence— high-strength …
Favorite current searches: largest pineapple and man dinosaur coexist. As I’ve mentioned before, if one writes about a topic sufficiently obscure, Google stardom awaits.
We got our first dusting of the season overnight. Just rain at my house – 0.03 inch (0.76mm). But up in the foothills, there was enough snow to stick on the dirt bits at least through midday. Windy and cold, not the ideal day for a bike ride. Fortunately the wind was at our backs …