Signs of Fall

Not exactly phenology (is there such a thing as “cultural phenology”?), but Nora Friday noted another sign of fall: The mornings are getting brisker now; I need to wear my jacket when I walk to class in the mornings. Cold mornings mean hot air balloons, of course.

The Spinach Puzzle

As of Friday, according to the CDC, 166 people had been sickened by eating spinach contaminated with E. coli since late August. Eighty-eight have been hospitalized. There is one confirmed death and two additional possible deaths. Food-borne pathogens normally send 325,000 people to the hospital every year in this country, and cause 5,200 deaths, according …

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The Hurricane Story We All Missed

While we’ve all been palavering about whether there’s a legitimate hurricane-global warming link, we’ve apparently missed the real story about the way humans are causing more powerful hurricanes (this is from last October – my humble apologies for missing this vital story for so long): That, despite what experts tell us, the technlogy currently exists …

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Kyoto Doesn’t Seem to Help

Another reminder that, while we all try to furiously explain that the hockey stick doesn’t matter all that much, or that solar variability isn’t really a deal killer, or that we shouldn’t be too concerned that the ocean is actually cooling, out beyong the science skirmishes where people have ignored the climate wars, accepted the …

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