On Graveyards
Sister Lisa should appreciate this: It’s a loss, I think, that we no longer have graveyards beside our houses of worship; it was a part of the sense of community we have lost in the American church.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Easy-Do Parties, Electrically
By popular demand*, the Easy-Do Parties lady has been returned to my blog rail. Her tip for the day: “Stay within the limitations of your home – don’t invite more guests than you can serve comfortably. Several small parties are usually more successful than one big whing ding. And remember – men are more at …
More Cheap Shit From China
As I’ve written before, my grasp on global economics is a bit uneven, but here’s another data point: The geometry of my neigbhorhood requires me, when riding my bike homeward from the northwest, to either brave ugly traffic, go the long way ’round, or cut through a network of alleys behind Wal-Mart and the furniture …
Sticker Wars
Johnny_Mango called it the best tree in Albuquerque. Up along the north diversion channel bike trail, it’s a sweet spot of shade with a lovely log bench. But for the last couple of years, it has been the site of a strange struggle. For a long time, the bench sprouted banana peel stickers. Someone was …
Sudden Transitions
I find myself scratching my head over the latest debate between the RealClimate crew and Roger Pielke Sr. regarding the definition and use of “chaos” (non-linear sensitive dependence on initial conditions) in weather and climate modelling. As often is the case in debates like this, both sides are correct in the point they’re making, differing …
Megadrought
While we’re on the subject of droughts, Ed Cook and his colleagues and Lamont-Doherty have a new review paper (preprint, 10 meg pdf) of North American drought that makes some relevant points about the differences between what happens here and the current African drought/famine I mentioned below. Point one is the distinction between the effects …
Drought and Its Impacts
Michael Wines had a terrific story in Wednesday’s New York Times on famine in Africa that evokes a point Mickey Glantz makes in his book Climate Affairs. First Glantz: Closer scrutiny of most famine situations uncovers a multistressed political environment, of which drought was but one factor. Now Wines: War wrecked Mozambique’s economy; socialism and …
Youth, Death and an Anthem to a Life I Never Lived
I’ve been listening to Lowell George off and on lately, and I keep flipping around to Willin’, which has always been an anthem of sorts to me. But of what? If anthems are defining sacred texts, then Willin’ must be about as far from my life as a text could be, the words of a …
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Boslough’s Pi
Albuquerque scientist Mark Boslough’s famous pi hoax resurfaces, this time morphed on OhmyNews: Crawford Texas – Mathematicians and educators across the nation were stunned and infuriated after President signed a bill into law yesterday redefining pi, a mathematical constant used around the world. The bill to change the value of pi to exactly three was …
An Albuquerque Weather Wonk Treasure
Here’s a fun little bit of business to warm a weather wonk’s heart: That’s from John Wesley Powell’s 1878-79 Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, and is the earliest climatic data from Albuquerque that I have ever run across. The data was collected by Charles Schott of the Smithsonian, …