Interesting past few days 9 Feb 20094 Oct 2017 Well, on Thursday night I was incredulous at a lecture by Steve Jones. On Friday night I met the fascinating Richard Grant from Our Competitor Blog Network, Nature Network. On Saturday I had a lovely lunch with my new colleagues at Sydney, and then proceeded to nearly drown while skin diving (thirty five years of smoking tends to lessen your lung capacity, okay? I stopped over a year ago). My son returned from a trip to Victoria, which state then proceeded to burn down. And I still don’t have internet at home. Which is why none of these events received a measured and interesting blog post. Sorry. Administrative
Administrative Tempe AZ 3 Mar 2008 So I’m here, and after a long sleep I got to see some marvellous AZ scenery before the camera died. I’m staying with my mate Malte, who was a costudent of Gareth Nelson with me some years back, Tomorrow the Workshop begins. I must get around to writing my talk…… Read More
Administrative Back in the saddle 16 Jul 2009 So, my conferencing has finished, and I’ve even managed to catch up on some sleep. The Ish conference was amazing: I got to hear a lot of papers on topics I am working on and I got to meet some of the people whose work has strongly influenced me, especially… Read More
Administrative The ET Fund update 21 Mar 201221 Apr 2012 I continue to be humbled and my ego stroked by contributors to the Save ET from Extinction fund. I thought that it would be a good idea to maintain a list of contributors. So this is a post that will become a page later on. Thank you all! Recent contributors:… Read More
Heh, it was good meeting you John. You look just like your photo, so it was easy to recognize you. There’s still (counts) four more Fridays before I leave…
Heh, it was good meeting you John. You look just like your photo, so it was easy to recognize you. There’s still (counts) four more Fridays before I leave…
Yes, something to do with Mustafa the Incredibly Unpleasant having 8000 kids while kids these days don’t seem to have many kids. And he nicely defined actual evolutionary adaptation, like the spread of the lactose tolerance gene, as not being interesting.
Well, on Thursday night I was incredulous at a lecture by Steve Jones. Evolution in humans is still at a full stop, I take it.
I was thinking that myself. People should have fire shelters in their backyards: basically brick sheds covered in earth. We tend not to do basements here as a matter of course, but if I lived in firestorm territory, I’d have one (and a diesel pump for a water tank and hose). I was also wondering: could one make fireproof blankets for a house, out of fibreglass or something similar? If your roof is fireproof, then these things dropped down the sides and tied off to prevent embers entering their homes would be worth the few thousand dollars it cost to install…
Both of the Southeast Australian blogs I read have been all over the story. I live in wildfire country myself (the county as a whole is wildfire country) and I’m amazed that otherwise sensible Aussies aint got nothin’ in place whereto wildfires. Here’s a suggestion: Basements. Basements with a six foot layer of dirt between the surface and the basement’s ceiling. Stock it with drinks and munchies and wait out the firestorm down there.
Both of the Southeast Australian blogs I read have been all over the story. I live in wildfire country myself (the county as a whole is wildfire country) and I’m amazed that otherwise sensible Aussies aint got nothin’ in place whereto wildfires. Here’s a suggestion: Basements. Basements with a six foot layer of dirt between the surface and the basement’s ceiling. Stock it with drinks and munchies and wait out the firestorm down there.
Idle speculation about this leads me to wonder if there might be an air supply problem for an underground shelter, depending on what is burning above, and how long it takes to be consumed.
Idle speculation about this leads me to wonder if there might be an air supply problem for an underground shelter, depending on what is burning above, and how long it takes to be consumed.