[jules' pics] Arches

Don't know how people survive without breakfast, but we didn't want to hang around waiting for service in the one open restaurant in Dustville Dinosaur. Next stop Moab is the opposite; very commercial with cappuccinos on every corner. It also badly needs a bypass, as it has a roaring road ripping it in two. It was quite hot for late September (low 90s F), so we spent the afternoon in the pool, and headed to Arches National Park for sunset.

The next morning we again left Pops in bed, and sprinted up to see Delicate Arch. I wasn't sure why it is such an icon of the region as it looks just another arch when portrayed pictorially. I think the answer is that it's not so much the arch itself as the location...

But of course, I had a go at taking its portrait too. I can't decide which picture I like best, so here are two. It should have been better light at sunset, but Pops wouldn't have enjoyed the climb (he's robust, but still 85, you know! ;-) ).

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 10/22/2015 02:38:00 PM

Steamboats and Dinosaurs

Steamboat Springs, in Colorado is probably where people go skiing. There wasn't much snow about when we were there, so instead I enjoyed the hot springs at dawn. They were actually quite cool compared to Japanese hot springs, but they did include a nice swimming pool, which is not something I've ever encountered at an onsen. Other differences - the bathers were less naked but more more mixed sex. It was too expensive for both of us to enjoy this luxury so James went for a dawn run instead, upon which he met a family of moose. 

The Yampa river botanical gardens exceeded expectations, and were very colourful. 

After enjoying all this alive stuff we skipped over to Dinosaur National Monument (which spans Colorado and Utah) to admire the long dead. There is a very impressive wall of real dinosaur fossils and a trail to go hunting for more. The layers of rock are tilted by practically 90 degrees, which makes it very easy to travel through time and admire the different fossils. I don't understand dinosaur fossils. Usually, in the geologic record, something the size of Stego's thigh bone would represent quite a long period of time. But Stego's thigh bone can only actually represent an instant... so how does that work then?

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 10/20/2015

[jules' pics] Rocky Mountains

James says I must start blogging pix from our recent trip to the USA.

Day 1: RMNP


View of mtns from Boulder.

Took Pops for a walk round Bear Lake and ate lunch half way round. No chance of seeing any bears as there were so many people. Day was overcast, but pleasant nevertheless. Americans on a day out come across as really quite strange because they seem unable to walk past without making a personal comment about the most extraordinary small details in the person walking towards them - aren't they supposed to be admiring the views? I think it must be because of the gun culture. As you approach their alien fear kicks in and they instinctively check to see whether the gun you are carrying is bigger than the one they are carrying (that's just a sandwich in his hand, but maybe his gun is under his hat), and then comes the personal comment as a kind of cover-up. 

Drove dutifully along trail ridge road admiring mtns and aspens. Onslaught of weird comments continued. One bloke, clearly panicked by James' knuckle duster of a wedding ring, asked James if it meant he was an engineer. Eh?! Others told me my camera was "real serious", but even so I managed to restrain myself from shooting them with it.

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 10/19/2015 03:37:00 PM

From the department of self-fulfilling prophecies

Amid junior doctor contract row, Observer/Opinium poll shows 35% of adults have delayed seeking medical help at weekend

Thus at a stroke ensuring that the death rate, for those who are admitted, is higher at weekends.

(Because people who are at death's door will go to hospital regardless, whereas those who aren't so ill will be more likely to delay to Monday.)

It is of course well-known that hospitals are dangerous places - lots of people die there. My advice is to stay out of them.

kittens, anyone?

Riley and Blackie found a home while we were away. Hurrah! This one looks much more straightforward, don't you think? His name is Alfie, and he weighs only half what Blackie did. Consequently, his poos are only half the size. Double Hurrah! The only thing is that there are two of him. His slightly smaller other half is called Archie. But that's still only half the poo of Riley and Blackie put together, so must still be a good thing. 

They are much calmer than Riley - purr at the slightest provocation, will come and sit on laps to be tickled, and have not ripped up any of the furniture, yet. On the other hand, they are less dormant than Blackie, spending quite a lot of their time playing. Also unlike Blackie, they happily pee in their litter box rather than against the nearest wall. I don't know if it is a kitten thing or a brother thing, but they will both chase after toys together - Riley and Blackie used to strictly take turns like there was some kind of gentlemancat's agreement of one-cat one-toy one-time.

[jules' pics] Columbians

People come from all over the world to live in New York. These ones are Columbians.

I'd not heard of Columbia University, and I wondered why they'd named a university after a space shuttle, but apparently this is all wrong and I should have known better. In fact it is so old and wealthy that the space shuttle was probably named after it!

Posted with Blogsy

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 9/19/2015 01:18:00 PM

Invitation to participate in a PhD research project on climate blogging

Posted at the request of Giorgos. Seems sane enough to me and I've already participated as a blogger. Further enquiries direct to him please.

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 My name is Giorgos Zoukas and I am a second-year PhD student in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS, http://www.stis.ed.ac.uk/) at the University of Edinburgh (http://www.ed.ac.uk/home). This guest post is an invitation to the readers and commenters of this blog to participate in my project.

This is a self-funded PhD research project that focuses on a small selection of scientist-produced climate blogs, exploring the way these blogs connect into, and form part of, broader climate science communication. The research method involves analysis of the blogs’ content, as well as semi-structured in-depth interviewing of both bloggers and readers/commenters.

Anyone who comments on this blog, on a regular basis or occasionally, or anyone who just reads this blog without posting any comments, is invited to participate as an interviewee. The interview will focus on the person’s experience as a climate blog reader/commenter.*

The participation of readers/commenters is very important to this study, one of the main purposes of which is to increase our understanding of climate blogs as online spaces of climate science communication.

If you are interested in getting involved, or if you have any questions, please contact me at: G.Zoukas -at- sms.ed.ac.uk (Replace the -at- with the @ sign) 

(Those who have already participated through my invitation on another climate blog do not need to contact me again.)

*The research complies with the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Sciences Ethics Policy and Procedures, and an informed consent form will have to be signed by both the potential participants (interviewees) and me.

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BlueSkiesResearch.org.uk: TANSTAAFL

Otherwise known as, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. At least, there isn't any longer in the Climate Division at NCAR.

 

It feels like a long time ago that we last dropped in to give seminars at NCAR. Well, perhaps that's not so surprising as it was during our previous careers :-) The origin of our current trip was actually jules being invited to NY for a workshop on monsoons and the ITCZ which she played a modest role in organising (from the paleo end of things). She also managed to drop in on GISS in the same week, and we decided that we ought to also fit in a holiday trip to Boulder within the same carbon footprint. Jules shoehorned dropped this into conversation with Bette several months ago who arranged for us to visit on Tuesday to give a seminar at NCAR, which is available on the web (my part and jules) for those who wish they were there. I rambled rather incoherently about independence in the context of climate model ensembles and constraints on climate sensitivity, and jules presented some hot new results based on simulations of the mid-Pliocene. Both ideas are scheduled for writing up before the end of the year (now there's a hostage to fortune).

It was all rather fun and we had some interesting discussions after lunch. The only disappointment was finding that this time we had to pay for said lunch ourselves! US taxpayers will no doubt be relieved that we did not add to your burgeoning national debt, else it might well have been the taco that finally broke the camel's back. It was probably worth it for the hour of ultra-fast wifi that enabled us to set up our new apple products.

Quite by chance I also spotted that there was a workshop at NCAR this week on Thursday and Friday on the topic of “Climate Informatics” so we arranged to go to that too. I've got myself accidentally roped in to a panel discussion on the topic of “Encoding climate knowledge into climate learning”. Yes, I also had to ask what that meant :-) If you tune in to the webcast from 2-3pm local time on Friday afternoon, you can find out for yourself!

The holiday proper starts on Saturday.

[jules' pics] NY pics #2

Walking is a bit frustrating in NY. On the streets there's a crossing every few feet. It is quite right than no pedestrians obey the signals as, if they did, making progress would be impossible. In some places there is the option of a park to walk through, but the routes are quite twisty so I'm not sure much time is saved. Then there's the roads alongside the park which should be fast, as there are fewer junctions, and fewer twists, but the one I tried around central park was a bit rubbish due to the roots of the trees making the surface very uneven. With all these hazards, I was almost late for the start of the workshop!
Anyway, here's some park.

Posted with Blogsy

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 9/16/2015 11:47:00 PM

[jules' pics] NY pics

Here to learn about rain in the past present and future, but the workshop didn't start until noon yesterday, so there was time for a bit of walking about and photographing. Photos with real camera but blogging from iPad so not sure how well these will work (anyone know a good photoblogging app?!).

Posted with Blogsy

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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 9/16/2015 01:15:00 PM