Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Clouds

RifatAnkaraOnce in a blue moon, Facebook really pays off. A friend linked to The Verge net neutrality article. It was good. Then I had time to browse around The Verge. Almost immediately I found this cloud article - which led to The Cloud Appreciation Society. I LOVE clouds. I learned about the basic Cumulus, Nimbus, Stratus, Cirrus in Girl Scouts. And I've always wondered about them. 

So, I set off on a cloud search which led to The Royal Meteorological Society. Turns out, Brits take clouds rather more seriously than we do. But then there was NASA's The Importance of Understanding Clouds where I learned that the key ingredients of clouds are water vapor and aerosols. 

I thought aerosols were the enemy. So, I clicked on Atmospheric Aerosols: What Are They, and Why Are They So Important? As I had surmised from context in the Clouds article, they are minute particles in the atmosphere. And they're important because they interact directly and indirectly with the Earth's energy budget. 

I don't know why it had never occurred to me that the earth has an energy budget. Of the 340 watts per square meter of solar energy that falls on the Earth, 29% is reflected back into space, about 23% is absorbed in the atmosphere and the remaining 48% is absorbed at the surface of the Earth. NASA always capitalizes "Earth." I guess that's another thing I should have known.  


At this point I'm seriously nibbling at the edges of climate change and I'm adding links to my toolbar at an alarming rate. I paused to find something wrote about clouds a long time ago. I searched my blog for clouds and sure enough - there was this great picture of an iridescent cloud. As I was scanning the other articles the search listed, I realized I didn't remember most of the things I wrote here. And I remembered how much I used to enjoy writing them. And what a great place this is to collect links and ideas. 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Housekeeping 101

Funny thing about housekeeping: there's a surprisingly fine line between clean and obsessive. I dunno. I mopped the kitchen floor. But it's a bit filmy. I'd better rinse it. And rinse it again. Maybe I should buff it and wax it - not necessarily in that order. "Ah! That looks good," I think - as I bend over to pick up a wisp of cat hair.




Over the years, I've developed my own weird Gold Star Chart. Even shared it with my daughter. I like it 'cause I don't have to do everything on the list. But if I do most of them, I can more or less keep up. Here's another one. And another. And another. Oh, face it. There must be thousands.





Then there's the series of pictures I took to illustrate "clean" for my daughter. It's a wonder she hasn't disowned me. Still, I admit, I find these picture to be a useful reminder.

Okay. I suppose that's enough procrastinating. I should probably go take down the Christmas tree...