Author Archives: gymnosperm

Explaining Milankovitch to a Barmaid.

Posted on April 10, 2012 by gymnosperm

I had been drinking. And thinking, and remembering Einstein once said no scientific theory was any good unless you could explain it to a barmaid. Well, Albert, good luck with special relativity on a napkin, but Milankovitch? A barmaid brought me … Continue reading →

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An exceptional walk across the Golden Gate Bridge

Posted on March 24, 2012 by gymnosperm

An exceptional walk required exceptional procedures. Picture ID, affidavit signed and cosigned, hard hats issued. Ancient key inserted, old bolts grudgingly lifted, a tiny passageway to the innards of the south tower. Three human sardines at a time, an elevator … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography | Tagged | 1 Comment

Skepticism

Posted on March 22, 2012 by gymnosperm

You know what skepticism is? Skepticism is doing yoga in your socks because it is cold and you didn’t start the fire soon enough. You know darned well it will be fine, you’ve even done it before when it was … Continue reading →

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Please Don’t Feed the Feedbacks

Posted on March 20, 2012 by gymnosperm

Feedback is central to the alarmist narrative on several levels. Negative feedback seven times more powerful for CO2 loss (from pre-industrial level, it is non-linear) than positive feedback for an equal gain is critical for the hypothesis that Milankovitch cycles … Continue reading →

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Reblogg

Posted on March 14, 2012 by gymnosperm

I’d actually written this as a reply on Dr. Roy Spencer’s Blog but there seemed some sort of enfarction and the beauty of having your own is I can just post it here… “And I still think a photon emitted … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Too Much on my Plate

Posted on March 13, 2012 by gymnosperm

I’ve been getting annoyed with the grade school conception of “plate” tectonics where everyone is identifying plates and their relative motions and saying stuff like the Japan Earthquake of 2011 was caused by the Pacific Plate sliding under Japan. It … Continue reading →

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Deeper Doo Doo for Dendrochronology

Posted on February 20, 2012 by gymnosperm

Indices of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation are in close agreement for the period of the last seventy years. The NASA Multivariate Index and the Mantua Index only go back a hundred or so and they correlate very closely. These shorter … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Geography, Oceanography, Paleoclimate, Paleogeography | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

What’s going on here? #…oh who’s counting

Posted on February 19, 2012 by gymnosperm

More data follies. Had to respond to a tenant complaining of poor retail sales. Took a notion to check retail sales for the area. Guess the rainfall data follies should have prepared me. But no, naive I guess, too ready to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Geography | Leave a comment

Not to change the subject or anything…

Posted on February 17, 2012 by gymnosperm

But I walked into the paint store the other day carrying a can of the paint I had bought there sometime within the last decade to paint my truck and was informed that the no longer carry that kind of paint. They further … Continue reading →

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Picturesque

Posted on February 12, 2012 by gymnosperm

So if the oceanic circulation looks like this: And the resulting 2500m (deep) ocean age looks tile this:  Then what does this mean? Why should a PDO index that basically describes which side of the Pacific Ocean the ancient deep water … Continue reading →

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