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Remedial reading: AI and faith.

My dad, the statistician, used to lecture my brother and me on the importance of population size. He would say “in a town of 800 people, serious crime is a rare thing, almost unheard of. But in a population of … Continue reading

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Problem formulation techniques applied to climate change.

Happy Earth Day 2024. Ask people worldwide “is climate change a problem?” and the answer is usually a clear “yes.”  But ask a follow-up, “what is the real nature of that problem?” and the picture is murkier. Answers might range … Continue reading

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What’s a thinker to think? What’s a thinker to do?

“Je pense, donc je suis…irrationnel” – (with apologies to both Rene Descartes and Daniel Kahneman) According to Psychology Today, …dreams are about events from our waking lives, including real events and modified ones. About 70% of dream content is based on events … Continue reading

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The AMS 2024 Annual Meeting: Schumpeter’s gale hits, this time from the user side.

The previous LOTRW post focused on the growth and importance of AI to the meteorology and to the AMS 2024 Annual Meeting. To recap: The rapid growth of AI’s capabilities and reach are transforming research and science-based services in meteorology, … Continue reading

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The real world. No place for wishful thinking. Part 5. Reparations (by any other name)? Money is just the start.

In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines. – Proverbs 18:17 When I posted Part 4 a week ago, I breathed a sigh of relief. I figured this string had run its course, … Continue reading

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The real world. No place for wishful thinking. Part 4. Climate (and other) reparations.

“Don’t fix the blame. Fix the problem.” – (origin unclear…) Happy Thanksgiving! Climate reparations are indeed no place for wishful thinking – but perhaps the topic could stand a bit of thankful thinking. And when better to acknowledge this than … Continue reading

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The real world. No place for wishful thinking. Part 3. (Water) Pollution.

Earlier LOTRW posts revisited the two of the three simultaneous challenges to living on the real world – building resilience to Earth’s hazards, and accessing Earth’s resources (with a focus on water). Today’s post returns to the third: minimizing the … Continue reading

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Remembering Richard E. Hallgren, 1932-2023.

On November 5th, the Nation and the world lost a towering figure. Only a relative handful may have known his name. But all eight billion people worldwide owe Richard Hallgren a debt of thanks every day for his contributions to … Continue reading

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The real world. No place for wishful thinking. Part 2. (Water) Resources.

Recent LOTRW posts noted that the real world punishes us if we fail to face hazards realistically. What does realism demand? That we do better than merely redistribute risk; that instead we actually reduce it. We need to go beyond … Continue reading

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The real world – no place for wishful thinking. Part 1. Hazards. An (extended) postscript.

(For starters, I hope that all of you who read the previous LOTRW post on hazards will revisit that post and read John Plodinec’s thoughtful comments). Here are just a few examples of articles published this past week that shed … Continue reading

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