U of C Student Writes to Cary Tennis?

How many people use Martin Buber for love advice? On the other hand, who else are you going to write to, the advice columnist for the CWN? Persis Elavia (who I see on a regular basis, she lives in the Shoreland), the dating columnist for the Maroon?

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It's Amazing What You Find On The Web

Nearly seventy years ago, A Student attended the University of Chicago, this is his story.

Warning: The author has a most interesting and often beautiful writing style. I think, however, he is a bit paranoid, to say the least.

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Herschel Platski?

That's the birth name listed for the Most High on IMDB. Or at least, it used to be. It appears that God's entry on IMDB was taken down.

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Know Thyself? I Haven't Even Read Myself

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

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Speaking of the New Fascism

It occurs to me that when I went to Italy in 2001, an election was about to take place. And there were these election posters for the mayoral elections in Rome that looked rather fascist. And the name of the party was Forza Italia. I just found out that Forza Italia is Berlusconi's party. Oh.

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The New Fascism

I was having a conversation this week in which we were considering the possibility of environmental fascism, "Democracy has failed. Let us save the trees by means of brutal, crushing force." It seemed funny. I mean, who would really want to be a fascist these days? Then I found this man. I especially like the part of his issues statement where he criticizes President Bush for taking out Saddam Hussein because it will lead to a regime that will pose a threat to the national security of Israel. We live in a most frightening world, and yet we would vote in it...

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What Happens If You Block Out The Sun For A Month? (Revised)

I have been reading far too many back issues of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society recently. There's a good reason. I'm doing research for my intellectual property course, but I have to say that it is entirely too much fun to be doing for a class.

One question asked in passing in the last part of the first issue ever of the journal is to ask what would happen if the Sun were blocked from the Earth by means of a screen. It's a good question, and since this blog supposedly treats of weather topics on occasion, I thought I would propose a very simplified solution, even though I know something about the techniques whereby a more accurate solution could be obtained.

First, one may ask, is this at all realistic? Well, no, but my friend Ayla likes to blame all of the odd geological features of the terrestrial planets on aliens. I, of course, act like a good disciple of Lyell and argue against aliens based on the principle of uniformitarianism. However, aliens are as good as any cause of placing a screen between the Sun and the Earth.

The first assumption we will make is that the Earth radiates as a blackbody with initial surface temperature T0=288 K. The next assumption we will make is that there are no greenhouse gases, so the heat leaves the ground and is not reabsorbed on the way up. So we need to set up a simple differential equation.

dT/dt= -(sigT^4)/Cp, where sig is Stefan-Boltzmann's Constant and Cp is the heat capacity.

implying that:

dT/T^4=-(sig/Cp)dt

(T^-3/3) + C=(sig/Cp)t

At time=0, C=-(T0^3/3)

implying that:

(1) T(t)=(((3sig*t/Cp)+T0^-3)^-1)^(1/3))

But the heat capacity here is in terms of J kg^-1 K^-1, not J m^-2 K^-1 and so does not match the other units. To resolve this, we will calculate the mass of air over a square meter of the Earth's surface, which happens to be the pressure at the surface multiplied by one square meter divided by the acceleration due to gravity or 10326.2 kg. Hence, Cp=1.0367304*10^7 J m^-2 K^-1.

After a month (30 days actually), therefore, the surface temperature of the Earth should be 228 K (or about 45 degrees Celsius below freezing). What larger consequences this would have for the weather and climate, I leave you to ponder, but please don't think that the greenhouse gases neglected in this model would have more than a modest effect.

However, note that greenhouse gases have not quite been neglected. If there were no greenhouse gases (or technically, if there was no infrared absorption by the atmosphere), the surface temperature of the Earth would be 255 K (Teff), its effective radiating temperature. However, it is possible to give a slightly fuller analysis of this situation without neglecting the first order effects of greenhouse gases either before or after the insertion of the screen (the beginning of the interruption in incident solar radiation, whatever). Hence, using the slab model of radiative transfer, we define an effective optical depth at the ground km s.t.

T0=Teff(1+km)^(1/4), so km = 0.627.

Then we can insert the effective radiating temperature into (1) above, so that the effective radiating temperature (the temperature with which the Earth would radiate without the effects of greenhouse gases or the temperature the Earth has above the layer of effective IR atmospheric absorption.) We're assuming this model that the effective radiating temperature is achieved at the surface and then some slab of absorbing material is slapped over the surface very close to the ground to mimic greenhouse gases. It is quite a rough model, but it should illustrate the point. After 30 days, the effective radiating temperature decreases to 212 K, implying that that the surface temperature of the Earth is reduced to 239 K. Hence, the difference made by fully accounting for greenhouse gases is 11 K. Admittedly, this makes a great deal of difference in climate regimes when water is liquid and its equilibrium concentration of vapor is significant (it varies exponentially with temperature), but it makes little difference when the average temperature of the Earth is well below freezing.

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Valentine's Day

Contrary to popular belief, there is no feast on the church calendar for this day in honor of anyone named St. Valentine. On the other hand, it is the feast day of SS. Cyril and Methodius (among the Latins at least), the apostles to Eastern Europe and the inventors of Cyrilic script. I've been to the tomb of Cyril in Rome. Hence, all of those Hindu radicals in India complaining about some Christian saint should instead be blasting Hallmark or something.

My Life (At the Moment)

Yesterday, I was hired for the summer as an intern at NASA's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. My project has some relevance for the current Mars mission, and therefore I am expecting a very exciting summer. Yesterday, I also may have obtained a thesis adviser. Admittedly, the climatology of Israel might not seem to be a logical interest of mine, but Israel and California have some surprising similarities, and it's good to get back into the game again.

What are my Valentine's Day plans? I'm going out to dinner with my girlfriend this evening and then we're coming back to do homework. I have to prepare a presentation on the tropopause. This should be fun.

Yes, there is a word for me: Dorktacular!

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Ah, Freak, And In South Korea No Less, The Mining of Human Creatures

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Urgh!

I am in the Reg at 1:47 AM. I still have x hours of homework to do before tomorrow, where x is some real number less than y, where y is the number of hours until my first class, which is just a little more than 6.5. And why is this happening? I would like to blame it on procrastination. Unfortunately, I only am probably pulling an all-nighter tonight, because I have far too much work to do this week and if I delay it any further, I will be up all night until Valentine's Day, making me a very cranky boy. All I have to say is of surly Mr. Cosmochemist gives me any dirty looks tomorrow morning, I will have no energy to give him dirty looks back.

On the plus side: I have learned much about radiative transfer over the last week.

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Right Day, Wrong Holiday

Tomorrow is the great meteorological festival known as Groundhog Day. Frankly, I've always considered that particular holiday to be a load of bunk and sometimes feel concerned for the furry woodland creatures who are exploited by it. It does stimulate tourism, however. And I've always liked the movie starring Bill Murray for being humorous and sweetly romantic.

However, I've always associated February 2 with Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. There are many beautiful settings of the Song of Simeon which I remember in the liturgies of the day when I was little. This song usually referred to by its first two words in Latin, " nunc dimittis " (now you dismiss), "Now send forth your servant in peace, to go as you have promised, for my eyes have seen the Messiah whom you have prepared for the whole world to see, a light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel." It is the song of an old man who sees the fruition of his life in the face of a little baby. He then, being a prophet, demonstrates the typical tact of prophets, " This child is destined to be a sign that will be rejected ; and you too will be pierced to the heart. Many in Israel will stand or fall because of him; and so the secret thoughts of many will be laid bare."

Perhaps not surprisingly, Candlemas became a popular day to look for any sign that winter would be ending, a day to look for signs to accept or reject, a day when groundhogs become conflated with the Christ Child.

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