Author Archives: Brendan

Mmm… pie.

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Lemon meringue a la Becky. You know you want some. Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4. [Timestamp fixed. -ed.]

Becky’s garden: 12 days in 70 seconds or less

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Recently, Colorado Public Radio did a segment about the explosion in popularity of “backyard farming” — basically, people growing their own vegetables and whatnot. Becky is very much a part of this trend; one of her major projects of this spring and summer has been planting and tending a variety of vegetables in our yard, including a whole bunch in… Read more »

Hurricane Alex’s weird eyewall dynamics

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Hurricane Alex, the Atlantic Basin’s strongest June hurricane in 44 years, has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it moves over mountainous terrain, after “ripping off roofs, causing severe flooding and forcing thousands of people to flee coastal fishing villages” in northern Mexico. Meanwhile, Dr. Jeff Masters is looking back at some eyewall replacement weirdness that happened yesterday as… Read more »

Intensifying Alex

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I confess I haven’t had much time to read up on Hurricane Alex today, but just visually, it looks like it is spinning itself into a tighter, more intense form just as it prepares to come ashore. That’s never good. Intensifying hurricanes are more volatile; higher gusts and such. But I’m talking through my hat on the particulars; it just… Read more »

Quote of the day

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“It’s fine to go through life happy…but I suspect we also want to go through life without becoming big fat self-absorbed jackasses. Children really help in that regard. To be sure, there are too many parents who, despite their children, remain narcissistic nimrods. But the nature of parenting is to beat that out of you.” —Tony Woodlief [Bumped, because it… Read more »

Hurricane Alex strengthens, nears Mexican coast

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Landfall is expected early tomorrow morning. Winds are “conservatively” estimated at 80 mph, and expected to increase. From the 5am EDT discussion: VERTICAL SHEAR IS FORECAST TO REMAIN LIGHT UP UNTIL LANDFALL OCCURS IN ABOUT 24 HOURS. GIVEN THAT ALEX IS ALSO MOVING SLOWLY OVER SOME OF THE WARMEST UPPER-OCEAN HEAT CONTENT IN THAT REGION OF THE GULF OF MEXICO…STEADY… Read more »

New Senate forecast: a 55-45 baseline

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FiveThirtyEight’s updated Senate forecast is out, taking into account the results of various primaries — most significantly Nevada, where the victory of Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle has turned a likely GOP pickup into a tossup (and where “Harry Reid’s favorability/approval numbers have also improved some, and are now merely godawful rather than mind-bogglingly wretched”), and Arkansas, where choosing incumbent… Read more »