Luis reminded me the other day of one of the few smart insights I’ve ever had: the notion that in the free software world, a free-for-all of self-organizing social systems, “evolution” of a sort selects for nice people. Commenters at the time (rightly, I think) complained that “nice” was a bit “self-patting.” Jeff Waugh worked …
The back garden’s at a really nice place right now, with a modest hollyhock show underway and the first early sunflowers blooming. Last night, Lissa and I were sitting out at dusk enjoying it, and were treated to a visit by a pair of lesser goldfinches. They’re little birds, able to sit on the sunflower …
Nothing charismatic about this, but it’s what we’ve got: The Southwest has been much drier than average since the start of the water year, with many locations experiencing the driest winter and spring on record. That’s from the latest Southwest Outlook from the University of Arizona’s Climate Assessment for the Southwest project. If you’re looking …
Interesting comment from Kevin Vranes that’s worth pulling out onto the front page. The question is whether there’s really an “emerging consensus” on the hurricane-global warming link. Kevin’s privy to discussion not visible to us plebes: I still have to say that after watching the emails fly on the tropical cyclones email list over the …
As a student of drought, I can’t help but feel a little sheepishly overshadowed by hurricanes – I think it was Steve Bloom who coined the description “charismatic megaweather.”So I was happy to see none other than Jeff Masters, the Weather Underground hurricane guy, recognize drought’s importance in his review of the Al Gore movie, …
From Norris Hundley’s account of the November 1922 meeting of the Colorado River Commission at Bishop’s Lodge: Herbert Hoover and his fellow Colorado River commissioners approached the Santa Fe conference on November 9 with a mixture of seriousness and optimism. The chances of success seemed unusually favorable. The public also sensed that an agreement was …
From the AGU’s Conference of Experts report on hurricanes and the Gulf Coast: The observed trends in SST and hurricane intensity cannot be explained by natural variability alone.
The “consensus monster” again rears its ugly head.
reading: My goofball daughter gave me The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for Father’s Day. Way better than a barbecue, frankly. climate news: Sergey Zimov of the Russian Academy and colleagues have a paper in Friday’s Science arguing that the potential for carbon loss from permafrost has been underestimated. That’s another “plus” feedback: “Factors …
For the low, low price of a morning newspaper you also get my take on whether or not you can expect a good southwestern monsoon this year. The succinct answer? Dunno…. There are forecasters in the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office who have never seen a really juicy monsoon. You know the kind— towering late-afternoon …