chris nelson dot ca

Ticket breakups are hard

The LA Times reports “Tensions between McCain and Palin camps come to light“. Might be interesting, let’s take a look:

“…aides to John McCain disclosed new details about her expensive wardrobe purchases and revealed that a Republican Party lawyer would be dispatched to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in her possession.”

That’s pretty damned funny.

“Fox News reported Wednesday that Palin’s lack of knowledge on some topics also strained relations. Carl Cameron reported that campaign sources told him Palin had resisted coaching before her faltering Katie Couric interviews; did not understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country; and could not name the three nations that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement — the United States, Canada and Mexico.”

That’s pretty damned sad.

Best of luck Obama

Best of luck, Obama. You are going to need it to deal with the mess that has been left for you.

Marketplace has some ideas on what will happen on the economic side when Obama comes into office.
Horizon had a program called the President’s Guide to Science. Worth a watch, but you might have to bend some rules to see it this side of the ocean.
The FT reminds us that expectations could not be higher.
The Telegraph believes Obama should be cautious. They remind that Clinton had a similar situation – bold mandates and control of the house and senate in ’92. But Clinton’s push failed – the reforms were too radical.
What the word expects, from BBC
Obama has started his presidential transition team, but won’t announce his cabinet until after thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to new secretaries and heads of agencies.

There was some epic visibility last week that I just caught the end of on Saturday, during a Scripps Canyon dive. The shallows were quite nice, but a little bit of a dead zone. Mistaking a crab trap for the new canyon line, we dropped in to find sheep crab tripping over each other to climb in. The canyon was bright and full of life as usual. I always forget how long the swim back to the pier underwater is (total run time for the dive was an hour, max 125′), but it definitely helps with off-gasing. I feel a lot better doing the long underwater swim back, rather than doing a slow accent, safety stop, and surface swim.

Hope for rain

I hope it is a wet winter for California. From KPBS:

The Department of Water Resources announced it will deliver just 15 percent of the amount that local water agencies throughout California request every year. That marks the second lowest projection since the first State Water Project deliveries were made in 1962… It could force farmers in the Central Valley to fallow fields and cities from the San Francisco Bay area to San Diego to impose mandatory water rationing.

Dams: not so bad for Salmon

A study tracking salmon in the Fraser and Columbia rivers has determined that dams are not the main cause of Salmon collapse.

“dam modifications to assist migrating salmon have led to much-improved survival rates since the 1970s, the study team suggests.”

In other words, the core issue with Salmon survival is in the open ocean. This does not bode well for an easy fix.

“Possible negative factors include ocean warming and changes to salmon prey distribution, increased salmon predation by seals and sea lions, and lethal parasite infestations of wild smolts spread by coastal salmon farms.”