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You are browsing the archive for January 2009 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

28 January 2009

Gamma Ray Bursts and the End of The World

Anytime I find some great science lectures online, I try to write about them here. Well, I have found a new one and it gets an A+ from Dan! Alex Filippenko is an Astronomer and a Professor at the Univ. of California Berkely. He has been named Best Professor on Campus four years running, and after you watch his talks at Princeton, you will know why. He did three public …

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25 January 2009

A Salute to Stephen Fry

For those of you who read this journal from outside the USA (and thank you by the way!), you will pardon me while I explain to the rest who Stephen Fry is. In a world where most famous movie stars, and sports celebrities have an education level that is sadly lacking, it is refreshing to have a famous actor/comedian/writer/game show host, who is just the opposite! If you check out …

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21 January 2009

Big Climate News This Week

I was going to write this post tomorrow, since the news is embargoed until then. I had agreed to the embargo, but the BBC has beaten me to the punch, and one of the papers authors has also posted the info online…..so… A new Paper by Eric Steig, and others has shown that the Antarctic has warmed overall in the last 50 years. The Antarctic Peninsula area is warming very …

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19 January 2009

You Can Save Money, and help the Environment- Here's How!

The best way for this planet to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, is to come up with ways of making environmentally good energy, the CHEAPEST energy. Right now, the cheapest energy is the dirtiest. Coal to be exact. Oil is second. The best fossil fuel is Natural Gas. Since most of the electricity in the USA is produced with dirty coal (There is no such thing as clean coal!….remember that …

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16 January 2009

Arctic Sea Ice Update

With the very cold air over much of the nation, east of the Rockies, I expected to get some Climate Change questions from viewers. I had a very good one today and it is worthy of a blog post. The question was this:  Is all this cold air causing the Arctic ice pack to recover some from the near record low of last Summer and the all time record the …

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14 January 2009

The Misunderstood Wind Chill

Every time we get a big blast of cold in the Tennessee Valley, I get several requests for a wind chill chart. If I have reminded you of such a forgotten need, not to worry!  I am including one in this post. However, if you think that the wind chill is “How cold it feels”  then let me persuade you otherwise. It really is not. What wind chill IS, is …

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12 January 2009

The Dogs of Winter are Howling!

There have been large hints on the Numerical Weather Prediction Models (NWP) for the last two weeks that the warm, and wet weather over the Southeast USA was going to change. There is no longer any doubt, as all that frigid air bottled up in Canada, is headed into the Deep South. Below is the GFS temperatures at 5,000 feet (850 Hpa for my fellow weather nerds out there). It …

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11 January 2009

NCAR Climate Videos

The scientists who work at the National centers For Atmospheric Research (NOAA) have produced some excellent short movies about Climate Change. They are designed to answer some of the common questions that many people have. These are basic primers and teachers may find them of great use. Especially middle school and up. Not really suitable for elementary age. NCAR CLIMATE VIDEOS There continues to be almost no info on climate …

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6 January 2009

Turn Around..Don't Drown

If you ask any Synoptic forecaster like myself, what the number one weather killer is, you will likely get the same answer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a private TV Meteorologist like me, or a NOAA forecaster, or one from Environment Canada, the BBC, or the UK Met. Office. It’s not tornadoes or hurricanes. It’s heat. (You thought I was going to say flash flooding didn’t you!) At least in …

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4 January 2009

Nature: What We Know About Climate 2008

The folks at Nature (One of the top science journals on the planet), have written an excellent summary of the year’s new knowledge in Climate. It’s another of my must reads. (I admit there have been a few of these lately..sorry I can’t help it). You can see it HERE The other news of the day comes from the White City tube stop in London. The BBC has announced Matt …

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