How to pick a halloween costume appropriate in Boulder

Take a costume you might wear anywhere else, and add “skanky” in front of it. It’s really easy; here’s some ideas:

- Skanky angel
- Skanky devil-creature-thing
- Skanky nurse
- Skanky dentist
- Skanky whale biologist
- Skanky garbage collector
- Skanky Dwight Shrute

Thanks.
Dan

sometimes in Boulder we have a climate

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecasts trend positive right now and deepen toward winter, suggesting an El Nino year brought on by warmer waters in the southern Pacific Ocean.  The effects of this on your weather vary with your location.

Here in Boulder, thanks to our high density of climate research scientists, we have a lot of different types of climate data available for our perusal online, if you look for a little bit.  What is the effect of El Nino in Boulder?  A good summary can be found here, I’m definitely not the first person to think about this.  The long and short of that article is that when El Nino comes around, our average temperatures don’t change much, but our average snowfall does.  On average, El Nino winters  are drier than other years, but then when March rolls around, the mean monthly snowfall rises from 17in to 23in.

Comparing historical temperature data for the ENSO phenomenon against historical snowfall data in Boulder gives a finer-grained picture.  Looking at our winters during strong El Nino (1957-58, 1963-64, 1965-66, 1972-73, 1982-83, 1986-87-88, 1991-92, 1994-95, 2002-2003), most had outlier months with unusual amounts of snow:  November (1972-73, 1986-87, 1991-92, 1994-95), December (1972-73, 1982-83, 1987-88), January (1986-87), February (1965-66, 1986-87, 2002-03), March (1963-64, 1982-83, 1986-87, 1987-88, 2002-03 right after spring break iirc ) and/or April (1957-58, 1963-64, 1972-73, 1982-83, 1994-95).

Moral of the story: I expect to get socked with at least one really wet month this winter.

I’d like to try some more proper statistics on this with less handwaving if I get an opportunity, hopefully I will.

et cetera

In case you’ve managed to avoid news recently, a “conservative” American president has authorized spending $100 billion so far to nationalize giant financial companies to avoid an economic disaster.  Powerful finance experts who work for him are openly discussing expanding the program to $0.7 to $1 trillion.

For as long as I’ve been alive, the Republican Party in the United States has disapproved of corporate regulation to prevent this sort of thing, because it preferred to minimize the size and scope of government, and feels that free markets can and should take care of themselves.  The most powerful member of the Republican Party of the United States has now abruptly decided that it’s cool to borrow half of the federal government’s yearly budget from foreign governments to finance a gigantic deprivatization program.  Am I missing some intermediate step here?  What’s going on with the Republican party?

Are there any Republicans out there who can explain this to me?  Perhaps I’m just not looking at this the correct way.

Arcane

adj Describes something the speaker doesn’t understand, and hopes nobody does for the sake of his/her ego

About solar energy

The world generated 2TW of electrical power on average in 2005 [1].  Each (unobstructed, clear) square meter of the earth’s surface is illuminated by around 1.4 kW of solar energy [2].  Replacing the world’s electrical generation with solar sources would then require at least 2TW / (1.4 kW/m^2) = 1.4 billion sq. m = 1400 sq. km (equivalent to a square 37km on a side) worth of ideally efficient solar panels with unobstructed solar light.

With realistic panel efficiency and atmospheric effects like clouds are taken into effect, this can still suggest a rough order of magnitude estimate.  A 50% efficient solar panel in a desert would need to be about the size of Rhode Island to supply enough power for the entire 2005 world.

As always, if my data or my calculations contain errors, please bring them to my attention

[1] http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/electricitygeneration.html
[2] http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1998/ManicaPiputbundit.shtml

Poetrie Numbre 2

Wickets!

POETRIE WAX

Meritorious fishes of the deep?

Evanescent taco splinges the air in a frock -

A gradual degradation of the deep

won’t keep Al Gore off the porch.

Twelve?  Today is the day of  government converter boxes!

Whyfor art thine fluxen over who?

Whither which talcum boat hoards howl?

Fiddlefart, for it is time for soup!

Get off my lawn Frog,

For some night is betwixt your face!

Some suave television characters

Anyone else have nominations for this category?

Beginner’s Guide to Science Fiction Appreciation

When I was but a freshman in college I wrote this.  Some friends remembered it recently, so I dug it up, cleaned it out a little bit, and here it is.

Andromeda
Kevin Sorbo strikes dramatic poses, wandering the galaxy teaching conservatives how to love again and building up a liberal government based on unicorns and rainbows and happy munchkins. Only, some people in the galaxy just don’t feel the love so he whacks them with a big metal stick. And his computer’s in love with him. Or something. What a guy.

Babylon 5
It is the year 2259.  Space liberals with spinning heads, who live in a spaceborn liberal cesspool, stick it to some mean old Space Republican who takes away their civil liberties.

Battlestar Galactica
If you’re like me, then you probably wonder what it would be like if you took the entire cast of West Wing, gave them a bucket of ‘shrooms and some blow, and reshot the whole series in space.  Guess what?  Our prayers were answered, and we call it Battlestar Galactica.

Blake’s 7
Robin Hood in space, with triangles. Lots and lots of big, green triangles. Features the diabolically evil Space Commander Travis and firefighting marshmallows.

Doctor Who
A doctor of questionable qualification in an ugly suit travels through time in a telephone box, battling wave after punishing wave of robots who wield terrifying spinning arms.

Earth: Final Conflict
So apparently there are these two races of aliens who are the flip side of the coin or opposite sides of the duct tape or something who duke it out on Earth for some reason, with only a soap opera star to fight for the forces of good.

MacGyver
Richard Dean Anderson foils bad guys using a nuke he built with only a flashlight, a paperclip and a gum wrapper.

Odyssey 5
The Earth explodes for no reason while a space shuttle crew is in space, so they go back in time and film nude scenes for Showtime ™.

The Outer Limits
A rotating cast teaches us dubious lessons about how time travel can really screw up your life and stuff.

Quantum Leap
Scott Bakula travels through time, righting wrongs and making out.

Sliders
An arrogant physics student, his girlfriend, a cranky college professor, and some random guy with an ugly car find new and completely different ways of getting themselves screwed over every week thanks to Science ™.

Space 1999
An intrepid crew of white men with flared pants and sideburns explore the galaxy on the moon after a nuclear accident causes earthquakes in Yugoslavia as their token minority and female underlings exchange dramatic looks.

Star Trek
Grown men, women and aliens travel the cosmos in pajamas searching for new terminology and new ethical conundra, boldly spreading equal opportunity across the galaxy.

Star Trek: the Animated Series
Grown men, women and aliens travel the cosmos in pajamas searching for new terminology and new ethical conundra, boldly spreading equal opportunity across the galaxy.

Star Trek: Deep Space 9
After sitting around for a few seasons doing nothing, grown men, women and aliens travel the cosmos in pajamas searching for new terminology and new ethical conundra, boldly spreading equal opportunity across the galaxy.

Star Trek: Enterprise
Grown men, women and aliens travel the cosmos in pajamas searching for new terminology and new ethical conundra, boldly spreading equal opportunity across the galaxy.

Star Trek: the Next Generation
Grown men, women and aliens travel the cosmos in pajamas searching for new terminology and new ethical conundra, boldly spreading equal opportunity across the galaxy.

Star Trek: Voyager (aka Star Trek: Lost in Space)
Grown men, women and aliens travel the cosmos in pajamas searching for new terminology and new ethical conundra, boldly spreading equal opportunity across the galaxy.

Stargate SG1
MacGyver, two geeks and a pro wrestler explore the universe using an elaborate system of squealing guinea pigs and sideways swimming pools, saving the Earth repeatedly in cliffhanger season finales.

The Twilight Zone
For the first time, William Shatner is allowed to appear on TV.  ‘Nuff said.

Mr. Darcy looked just as he had been used to look in Hertfordshire, paid his compliments, with his usual reserve, to Mrs. Collins; and whatever might be his feelings towards her friend, met her with every appearance of composure

Fig. 1
Source:  http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive accessed 31 Jan, 2008.