South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences (SASAS) organizes an annual conference, and this year, the event precipitated on the deep outskirts of Pretoria over 21-22 September. What sets this year apart is that, although officially attached to University of Pretoria, it was organized by a cross-institutional organizing committee composed entirely of women. The conference is… Read more »
During a conversation last week, a fellow CSAG-er casually mentioned that the probability of precipitation depended on the day of the week. I found this to be puzzling – after all, what does the weather know of the days of the week? A search of the literature uncovered that this theory is plausible, and that… Read more »
Found this gem of a poem on the internet the other day, and thought that it perfectly captured the type of pondering we tend to do regarding the climate, weather, and life in general. The poem is entitled “Children’s Song” and it’s by Ford Madox Ford [1]. Sometimes wind and sometimes rain, Then the sun… Read more »
(The paradox of this post is that it is probably not purely objective) “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability… Read more »
Teaching, learning, and collaboration can be very challenging tasks, complicated by the fact that doing any of them well is often pretty much impossible if you aren’t attempting the other two at the same time. They also essentially define the job description for any project I’ve seen the research group be involved in. So in… Read more »
After Graduation, one feels a sense of accomplishment, yet at the same time, there are various questions one thinks about. Now what? Am I ready to enter the workforce? Do I have the qualifications to acquire an entry level job? These questions rushed around inside my head as I contemplated my next move. After I moved back home… Read more »
When did climate science research become about what the user wants? When did climate science start having an interested “user”? A quick google of the definition of “research”: the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Nowhere in that definition does it mention that… Read more »
It’s not about the climate. There I’ve said it. Whenever I speak to or read about farmers, it’s very clear – they know plenty about climate and they know plenty about weather…and it can be summed up by “it’s changeable”. Of course, they can’t accurately predict drought or wet years, but they know they will… Read more »
There have been some interesting conversations at CSAG lately about the importance of paying attention to the rhetoric and framing we use in some of our ongoing discussions and investigations, but balanced against the importance of doing this without getting trapped by our metaphors, and/or evaluating what we do/have by how well it maps to… Read more »