Oct 02 2009

Say again?

Published under Humor, Science

It’s nine o’clock on a Friday,
The regular crowd shuffles in
With their buckets and mops, cleaners and socks
the nightly cleaning begins.

Yeah. I’m not a poet, but I am at work. T’was here until 2:00am “yesterday” night, and back in the chair by 10:00am “today”. So while everyone else is busy getting drunk tonight, I’m reading papers while enjoying a sandwich. Since you asked nicely, the one that caught my attention enough to write blog about it was Kiehl (1994).

This assumes that the clouds determining the cloud forcing are the optically thick cirrostratus clouds associated with deep convective cells. The tops of these clouds are indeed thought to be defined by the strong thermal stability directly above the tropical tropopause.

The strong thermal stability directly above the tropical tropopause? Perhaps caused by [[this phenomenon]]? That Wikipedia article is sadly typical of its dedication to quality. I suppose now that I’ve seen it I have an obligation to fix it. Since it was Kiehl’s paper that made me look it up, I’ll pass the buck to him.

* Kiehl, J., 1994: On the Observed Near Cancellation between Longwave and Shortwave Cloud Forcing in Tropical Regions. J. Climate, 7, 559–565.

5 responses so far

Sep 25 2009

You’re wrong

Published under Off Topic

Having worked in retail, I can tell you that the customer is not always right. In fact, they hardly ever are. Check out the colossal wrongness at notalwaysright.com.

One response so far

Sep 14 2009

Know your NASA Acronyms

Published under Off Topic, Science

NASA can find an acronym for anything. I’m sure some will recognize the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, but what about this one:

REVEAL

No cheating. First correct response gets nothing except bragging rights.
I particularly like what the L stands for. As if that matters… but it completes the acronym.

6 responses so far

Sep 01 2009

It’s that time of year again…

Published under Academia, Humor, Off Topic, Wikipedia

New undergrads on campus. Which means I get to hear all sorts of silly thing like:

Wombats are just like little kangaroos, right?

According to Le’ Wikipedia, they are both of the order Diprotodontia, and they both live on the Australian continent, but that’s as close as they get. Like comparing a fox and a polar bear because they’re both in the order Carnivora.

In other news, I’m looking for someone to help fix/update the blog software. He or she would be paid a modest fee. Leave your email in the comments and I’ll get back to you.

4 responses so far

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