Monthly Archives: July 2012

Last summer’s U.S. headlines were on the tornadoes; this year those here are focused instead on heat and drought. But the real world’s presentation of extremes and disasters is a bit more balanced.  Each prompts a thought. Let’s start with … Continue reading →

“Who cares about fixing the problem? We’re too busy fixing the blame.” – origin unknown. “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” – John Burroughs. Want a synonym for … Continue reading →

Andy Revkin has enriched our lives in many ways over the years….through his insightful reporting for the New York Times, and more recently his teaching at Pace University and his refreshing and wide-ranging blog, Dot Earth. He’s also a songwriter … Continue reading →

“There are three things that are too amazing for me,     four that I do not understand: 19 the way of an eagle in the sky,     the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high … Continue reading →

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.” – Robert Burns, in “To a Mouse“. Perhaps you know Of Mice and Men. It’s a 1937 novella written by John Steinbeck. Like his book The Grapes of … Continue reading →

“Get your facts first; then you can distort them as you please” – Mark Twain Or maybe not. Of course Mark Twain said this tongue-in-cheek. He was describing more a universal temptation we witness all around us (and not just … Continue reading →

The previous post focused on difficulties early-career bio-scientists face today in finding jobs that fully use and reward their training. I mentioned in passing that similar challenges might confront young scientists in other fields. A decade ago, the Bulletin of … Continue reading →

Sunday morning’s Washington Post featured an excellent article by Brian Vastag entitled “Scientists Heeded Call But Few Can Find Jobs.” [You can find the text here.] Mr. Vastag pointed out that the Obama administration and the National Science Foundation have … Continue reading →

Meteorologist-readers of this blog know all about fronts and cyclones. Are you a meteorologist? Then you also know about frontogenesis and cyclogenesis…the origin/development/generation of weather fronts and cyclones. [As in genesis=beginnings, origins.] The same root word or notion crops up … Continue reading →

Not really. Here’s a stream of consciousness prompted by this week’s power outages in the DC area, now in their fourth day for many people… The Capital Weather Gang and others tell us that nature’s trigger for the Friday night … Continue reading →