Comments mduruss has made

  • Ooo, ooo -- NRDC!

    Umbra happened to mention one of my favorite organizations, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). I've supported them for years now, and they seem to be a lean & green organization with very effective results. They consist mainly of a highly skilled group of attorneys, scientific experts, and supporting staff who are able to accomplish amazing things, in many cases just by filing lawsuits, but also by negotiating and working with government officials at the local, state, national, and even international levels. You can tell them I sent you.  :-)On Umbra on green donations posted 1 year, 10 months ago 21 Responses

  • get tires with bigger nubs?

    In the past year or so I've been commuting about 8 miles to work about twice each week, so I may not be putting quite as much wear on my tires as other commuters, but one difference may be that I have mountain bike tires with lots of fat "nubs" or whatever you call the treads.  My commute is partly on rougher country roads and up & down some bigger hills, so I actually find the mountain bike tires very useful.  If they slow me down a bit on smoother/flatter roads, I don't really notice it.On Umbra on bicycle tires posted 2 years, 7 months ago 11 Responses

  • 'Warm & Worried' may be on to something

    Hi Umbra -- I love your witty columns.  Thanks for sharing links to the NOAA's official information about El Niño, and thanks also for trying to find a ray of sunshine in the scary news that you pontificate on.  Still, I can't help but think that the following page from NOAA looks like it's slightly more blue (cold) toward the top (50 years ago) and a little more red (warm) toward the bottom (present times):

    http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring...

    As such, I have a hunch that Warm & Worried in Connecticut may be correct in thinking that the NOAA scientist didn't say as much as he could have.  This is no fault of the scientist, who was respecting the scientific method even if this meant also toeing the government's party line.  But from a layman's point of view, it seems that Katrina was 2005's evidence of climate change, and the warm December was 2006's evidence.  I predict that 2007's evidence will simply be another hot summer.On Umbra on trusting scientists posted 2 years, 10 months ago 9 Responses