PhD Thesis Defended
I've been the (name of employer)-side mentor for a student working on her PhD.  Yesterday, she successfully defended her PhD thesis.  Not sure she wants to be named, so I won't for now.  But it's a lot of work to get to where she is, and I'll congratulate her.  She knows who she is :-)  Good job!

Where is the surface?
I just commented on my facebook status that I'm at a meeting about sea surface temperature.  That part was safe.  Rest of the comment was to observe that I'm now back to wondering whether the sea has a surface, where it is if it does, and if it does, whether it has a temperature.  That prompted a friend to comment 'Great ... this is going to bug me now.'  So for him, here's a longer version.This sort of question is very common to science.  Of course my musing for facebook is overstated.  But there is usually a real question about what exactly it is you've observed when you take an observation.  When you have very different observing methods, th

Veteran's Day
Veteran's Day or, in some other parts of the world, Remembrance Day today. My thanks to those who have served.  My daughter and son-in-law are among you.

Racing again
Saturday I got to meet a barn owl and a red shouldered hawk.  Both were amazingly calm for all the runners who were milling around.  The owl was looking around at all the dogs, deciding whether they were snack sized or not.  (Concluded 'not', though I think a couple of dogs caused some serious calculation.) Fun to watch an owl look around.  They were out as part of the parks and planning commission entertainment for the Jug Bay 10k (and 5k, and 3k walk). I and a fellow club member were out for the 10k, with our plan being to run 1 minute, walk 1 minute.  This being a much flatter course than last week's cross-country, I was able to follow the plan p

Experimental reading
I've been reading more general audience science books lately, which is part of the reason for relative quiet here.  But it makes for ideas later.The first book in the experimental line is geared for middle school to junior high students.  It's perfectly useful for older folks as well.  And it will probably be a good idea to have one at hand for some of the experiments if performed by the younger.  101 Incredible Experiments for the Weekend Scientist by Rob Beattie.  The experiments cover a range of things, from making slime to making a cloud.  Some weather and climate examples, but not especially aimed to that.  The experiment descriptio