Living in Calgary has taught me the fine art of love and hate when it comes to the chinook. During my time in E-town winter was oppressively cold, almost all the time. Once you hit about November you could count on the weather being cold enough to freeze water for the next 4 months or so. Those rare days of warm didn't melt much and at the end of the day it was the wind which controlled snow pack size (and shape). That northern wind could polish the tiniest piece of ice into something that even seasoned veterans of the frozen north pay attention to and fear.

However here in cowtown we get chinooks. All the time. At first I taught these were awesome. A couple warm days, a break from the constant -20C was initially a blessing. But I quickly learned that it was in fact a curse. Warm weather melts snow, and being as close to the mountains as we are snow isn't something that we regularly lack. So these chinooks come through and melt some (or all) of the snow. Well of course 2 days of +5 can melt a lot of snow, but the river's still frozen and the sewers are still frozen and at the end of the day what you're left with are some puddles on the sidewalks and roads.

Those puddles don't drain (of course!) and the next day when the temperature plunges back in to the minus tweens the entire city turns into a skating rink. It's terrifying to wake up in the morning and see a couple cms of snow on the ground. Because you just know that every step you take outside has the possibility of being 1 cm of snow underlain by 1 cm of solid ice. My sleep deprived body has no chance on the two blocks I have to walk from where I can park the car and where the entrance to work is.

Anyway, this all reminds me how happy I am that spring is finally beginning to show up and the season of uber cautious morning walks is almost coming to a close.

Of course now that I've put this in writing it'll snow a foot this week, melt and then re-freeze. That's just how things work in this city.

Let me put it this way. If I went to the owner of the company and said that I wanted an extended Christmas vacation because my employee review was coming up next week and I had just happened to anger all my fellow employees, I'd probably still have to go to that employee review and I'd probably still get my extended vacation, it'd just start right after that review…

vasyL and I had a conversation today. It is littered with spelling errors and grammar issues. I invite you to read the transcript and comment. Full conversation after the break Read the rest of this entry »

Today's long read comes to you from Scientific American and is on the subject of contaminating groundwater using hydraulic fracturing.

It raised the question in my mind. 'How far would you go to keep your job?'

Would you omit evidence that goes against what you want to prove? Would you write something that you know isn't true? Would you sugar coat it with words like "future monitoring" and "natural uncertainty"?

… I do that everyday, it's what I get paid to do…

Work on Monday, day off on Tuesday, back on Wednesday. This makes Wednesday feel like Monday and has my small brain working overtime on the idea that the week is already pretty much half over.

Ok, enough about that.

Today your long read comes care of the Design Observer, Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

A fascinating read if you have the time.