Well, folks: The Storm World talk in Grand Rapids went quite well--Ed Brayton was there, it was fantastic to meet him for the first time, and he's got a post up about my talk entitled "Hurricane Mooney." The oddness of giving a speech about hurricanes in Michigan was not lost upon me, but I had an attentive crowd of some 140 people, thanks to the great organizing of the Freethought Association of Michigan, which is a really stellar group. I was very impressed.
And just to make the talk locally relevant, I told them all about "Hurricane Huron" of 1996. Check it out. It really happened...but if you're going to call it a "hurricane," you have to preserve the scare quotes.
In any event, work now calls me to New York, but Sheril is around....more later.
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Around for now, yes. A few more days..
Then headed far away and southeast - several hours into the future - for an expedition of sorts along with several 'Extraordinary' folks from National Geographic. More on that soon as I'm planning to bring The Intersection along on our journey..
Although Michigan might might be in the direct path of hurricanes, it has caught the remnants of hurricanes in the past. Subtropical storms/depressions Cindy and Dennis threatened the 2005 MLB All-Stars game in Detroit, but either turned away or slowed down enough that the game went on (to the relief of many who saw the All-Stars Game and 2006 Super Bowl as major boons to the perpetually plagued Michigan economy).
Did anyone in the audience have questions about extensions of global warming effects to tornado outlooks? From recent reports, it looks like the jury is still out on tornadoes, but many of the conditions that contribute to hurricane formation are similar to those that contribute to other severe storms. For those of us from tornado alley, we worry just as much about tornadoes as those in the Southeast do about hurricanes. Or maybe more, since tornadoes pop up with much less warning.
Where are we going Sheril?
I'm pleased you've joined Mr. Mooney here. The blog is twice as nice now that you're writing too. I hope you'll expand on the way science might better influence politicians in Congress.
Chris, it was our pleasure to have you here in Michigan. It was a great presentation and I continue to hear rave reviews from our members. (If that was the "unpolished" version, it's going to be one helluva talk by the end of the book tour.)
Here's to you and Hurricane Huron. I hope to cross paths with you again soon.
Cheers! (And thanks.)
Chris,
Great to meet you. Great talk. I'm looking forward to reading "Storm World" for myself.
Also, interesting thoughts on the "new atheists" at the bar afterward.
CHEERS!