Forced to write a daybook on account of ’cause I ran across a cool word of the day, which is:

word of the day: “apophenia” – “the experience of seeing patterns where none exist” – definition from Bob Park, writing in the 9 December New Scientist

reading: Acequia Culture, Jose Rivera’s book about the village-based irrigation culture of northern and central New Mexico (and a bit in Colorado), rooted in practices of old Spain and remarkable resilient to the climate variability that has caused a bit of havoc for some folks living in this arid landscape

paper of the day: While all the cool kids are at the AGU meeting in San Francisco, all I can do is read the organization’s journals from afar. Today’s entry in the “how screwed are we by global warming” derby comes from Marika Holland at NCAR, whose modeling work suggests a chance of an ice-free late summer arctic by as soon as 2040. Of course, in true media hype-mongering, I’ve picked the worst case example here. But hey, it’s just a blog.