• Category Archives Minnesota

  • Snow Has Come. Will Stay At Least Through Christmas.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                       Waning Wolf  Moon

    We’ve had steady snow since about 10:30 a.m.  It began to pick up after dark and we now have a couple of inches or more; the leaves have disappeared.  The rocks have become snowy bulges as the wind whips what snow has fallen from place to place.  The warnings have expanded their scope and increased their estimation of snowfall amounts, here in Anoka County we may see 6-8 inches.

    (Armistice Day Blizzard, 1940.  MHS)

    Though these numbers may not fit the technical definition of a blizzard, falling/blowing snow with visibilities under 1/4 mile for at least 3 consecutive hours, sustained winds over 35 mph, but if you happen to get on a road filled with blowing  snow, as you well might, the difference will not mean much to you.  Translation, travel will be dangerous tomorrow.  If you  don’t have to go, stay put.

    Paul Douglas says he does not see above freezing weather between now and December 25th, so he’s predicting a white Christmas.

    The barometer has a steep downward trajectory having fallen .6 of an inch Hg since midnight, very near the mark for bombogenesis which I mentioned in a post early.  This is the equivalent of 20 millibars in just under 24 hours and the definition of bombogenesis is a drop of 24 millibars in 24 hours.  The winds have gusted here already to 24 mph and may go much higher, probably will go up to 35 mph or 40 mph.


    Minnesota Weather +Climate 📎and tagged

  • Let It Snow

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                    Waning Wolf Moon

    The snow began around 10:30 a.m., an hour and a half earlier than predicted.   Though the snow is light right now, the wind has stayed pretty steady around 9 mph, driving the snow at a 60 degree angle to the ground.  The wind has increased the windchill factor to 9 degrees, compared to a 17 degree air temperature.

    We have gas, groceries and chew toys for the puppies.  We should be set for a while.  I have my annual physical on December 10th, but the roads should be cleared by then.  If they’re not, I may take the Northstar, but that would leave me stranded in the city until 3 p.m., the first train north.

    When a large snow storm approaches, there is a mild hoarding frenzy that occurs.  Cars line up at gas stations, groceries line extend past their usual points.  People do last minute shopping so they can be done before the roads become difficult.  I did see a guy with two snowmobiles on a trailer hopefully gassing up his truck.

    Once finished with whatever errands and shopping are necessary, if we can, we hunker down and watch it snow.   Later, some of us will strap on snowshoes or cross-country skis and get out to enjoy the changed countryside.

    Right now, Kate and I will take our nap and see what the yard looks like after an hour or so of sleep.


    Minnesota Weather +Climate 📎and tagged

  • Logicomix

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                           Waning Wolf Moon

    Sigh.  The Vikings.  Going to the Cardinals for a big game has proved unhappy for us.  Again.  I don’t even know the final score because I turned it off with 6 minutes to go.  Not a pretty sight.

    Logicomix is a great read.  If you love philosophy and logic.  Which I do.  I had forgotten my passionate affair with logic until reading this graphic novel.  In my freshman year of college I took Symbolic Logic from Professor Larry Hackestaffe, most famous for wandering the main yard of Wabash College with a six-pack of Budweiser fastened to his belt through one of the plastic can holders.

    This was logic in the formal sense with proofs and theorems, logical symbols and head breaking chains of reasoning.  This was my second semester in college.  The first had been tough because German and I did not see eye to eye and I dropped it to avoid failing.  After my valedictory year at Alexandria-Monroe High School, that defeat stung.  The grammar and writing guy was also not impressed with my work, giving me a C for the first term.

    Symbolic Logic came along because philosophy was what had been missing in my life up till then, intellectual rigor, unafraid, thought seeking understanding at the most basic, essential levels, colorful characters like Heraclitus, Socrates, Aristotle, William of Occam bursting upon the stage, contradicting each other, going one step further or pulling others one step back.  God, it was exciting.  That was the first semester at Wabash, the same semester as Freshman English and German.

    In history and philosophy I did outstanding work, so I dove into them the next semester with a second course in the history of philosophy and the course in Symbolic Logic.  It was hell at first.  The kind of intellectual rigor required for logical reasoning can bring on headaches.  The night before the mid-term I stayed in the library past midnight, my book open, pencil working out proofs, scratching out false starts, feeling dismayed.  It was German all over again.  I didn’t get it, wouldn’t get it.  This was impossible stuff.

    I do not remember the problem, but I do remember the moment when, like a lightning bolt, it came to me.  Like Moses parting the Red Sea, the path to logical clarity opened up.   I did very well in that course and learned something about persisting in an academic area that at first seemed impenetrable.  Intuition was a part of my learning style.


    Humanities Minnesota 📎and tagged

  • Give Me a Good Balance Sheet

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                                    Waning Harvest Moon

    Back from a day of hard rock mining,  a lot of rock and little roll.  One of the criticisms of the environmental movement focuses on its obsession with chemistry, geology, climatology and animal living conditions to the exclusion of human concerns.   The session today on Polymet Mining’s proposal to put a copper mine near Minnesota’s Iron Range proved the point, though it would also have applied to the industry representatives who were there as well.

    This was a day of law, FeS2 and FeOS2.  A cascade of copper, nickel, palladium and platinum tinkled onto the audience.  This fight, and it is a fight, has clear sides and the sides have been at it long enough that they know each other by first names and recall each others data from meetings in the past.

    Not the cozy day, though, that might seem natural in a Minnesota nice crowd like the one gathered at the Northstar Ballroom in the St. Paul Campus Student Center.

    The information presented today may have been old news to many in the room, but it was new to me.  This is a complex issue for several reasons, the chemical reactions that lead to sulfuric acid in the groundwater being the cause celebre, but far from the only one.  There is, too, the tendency of mining companies to exhaust a resource, close the mine and go bankrupt after loading the assets onto another corporate entity.  The tax payers get stuck with the clean up bill.

    In addition the cyclical nature of metal prices accentuates the boom and bust nature of resource frontiers, giving the employment situation a roller coaster ride of high times segueing into desperation.

    In the end the information that impressed me the most came from a Montana economist named Thomas Powers.  He made the point first about benefits always being trotted out and high-fived while the costs associated with mining get set off to the side.  I came away convinced that if we could get a decent balance sheet for the life cycle of the Polymet plant, public costs and public benefits, that we would have a compelling argument for stopping this mine.

    Just another day in the education of a neophyte environmentalist.  But a good one.


    Great Work Minnesota Politics 📎and tagged

  • Hard Rock Mining and Minnesota

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                            Waning Harvest Moon

    Up for a bit then out of the house to chase down the wandering puppies.  Again.  Sigh.  This is a problem still in search of a solution.  Harnesses help but the one who needs them most, Rigel, slips out of hers with the ease of a banana escaping its peel.  We have other solutions on tap:  fence, microchip, tags, better harnesses, conversations with our vet and the breeder, but until we come up with something that works we have to alternate them inside and out.  That’s a pain and still requires surveillance.  Oh, well.  We wanted puppies.

    Today is a forum on non-ferrous mining in Minnesota.  In other parts of the country like Colorado, Montana and Nevada for example it’s called hard-rock mining.  The degradation caused by this mining includes sulfuric acid drainage into the watershed along with heavy metals.  There is no need to wonder about the devastation caused by this kind of mining.  All you have to do is visit sites in Colorado and Montana.  The question now is whether this kind of mining can be made safe and is the risk to Minnesota waters worth testing such a claim.

    This issue has a lot of complicated vectors:  geological, industrial, metallurgical, chemical, hydrological, environmental, political and economic.  My learning curve about it is still pretty steep so I’m looking forward to this forum as a place to advance my knowledge.


    Minnesota Our Land and Home Politics 📎and tagged