
Distributed Solar: The Democratizaton of Energy

Blogroll
- Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard on how businesses can help our collective environmental mess Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard set the standard for how a business can mitigate the ravages of capitalism on earth’s environment. At 81 years old, he’s just getting started.
- BioPython A collection of Python tools for quantitative Biology
- "Consider a Flat Pond" Invited talk introducing systems thinking, by Jan Galkowski, at First Parish in Needham, UU, via Zoom
- Peter Congdon's Bayesian statistical modeling Peter Congdon’s collection of links pertaining to his several books on Bayesian modeling
- "Perpetual Ocean" from NASA GSFC
- Ted Dunning
- James' Empty Blog
- Carl Safina's blog One of the wisest on Earth
- OOI Data Nuggets OOI Ocean Data Lab: The Data Nuggets
- Logistic curves in market disruption From DollarsPerBBL, about logistic or S-curves as models of product take-up rather than exponentials, with notes on EVs
- GeoEnergy Math Prof Paul Pukite’s Web site devoted to energy derived from geological and geophysical processes and categorized according to its originating source.
- The Alliance for Securing Democracy dashboard
- The Plastic Pick-Up: Discovering new sources of marine plastic pollution
- Bob Altemeyer on authoritarianism (via Dan Satterfield) The science behind the GOP civil war
- WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION, reviews Reviews of Cathy O’Neil’s new book
- What If
- Prediction vs Forecasting: Knaub “Unfortunately, ‘prediction,’ such as used in model-based survey estimation, is a term that is often subsumed under the term ‘forecasting,’ but here we show why it is important not to confuse these two terms.”
- Brian McGill's Dynamic Ecology blog Quantitative biology with pithy insights regarding applications of statistical methods
- Quotes by Nikola Tesla Quotes by Nikola Tesla, including some of others he greatly liked.
- Risk and Well-Being
- Tony Seba Solar energy, electric vehicle, energy storage, and business disruption professor and visionary
- All about models
- Hermann Scheer Hermann Scheer was a visionary, a major guy, who thought deep thoughts about energy, and its implications for humanity’s relationship with physical reality
- International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)
- The Mermaid's Tale A conversation about biological complexity and evolution, and the societal aspects of science
- "Impacts of Green New Deal energy plans on grid stability, costs, jobs, health, and climate in 143 countries" (Jacobson, Delucchi, Cameron, et al) Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the greatest problems facing humanity. To address these problems, we develop Green New Deal energy roadmaps for 143 countries.
- Earth Family Beta MIchael Osborne’s blog on Science and the like
- Rasmus Bååth's Research Blog Bayesian statistics and data analysis
- Tim Harford's “More or Less'' Tim Harford explains – and sometimes debunks – the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
- Earth Family Alpha Michael Osborne’s blog (former Executive at Austin Energy, now Chairman of the Electric Utility Commission for Austin, Texas)
- Subsidies for wind and solar versus subsidies for fossil fuels
- Mark Berliner's video lecture "Bayesian mechanistic-statistical modeling with examples in geophysical settings"
- Beautiful Weeds of New York City
- The Keeling Curve: its history History of the Keeling Curve and Charles David Keeling
- Simon Wood's must-read paper on dynamic modeling of complex systems I highlighted Professor Wood’s paper in https://hypergeometric.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/struggling-with-problems-already-attacked/
- London Review of Books
- Higgs from AIR describing NAO and EA Stephanie Higgs from AIR Worldwide gives a nice description of NAO and EA in the context of discussing “The Geographic Impact of Climate Signals on European Winter Storms”
- All about ENSO, and lunar tides (Paul Pukite) Historically, ENSO has been explained in terms of winds. But recently — and Dr Paul Pukite has insisted upon this for a long time — the oscillation of ENSO has been explained as a large-scale slosh due to lunar tidal forcing.
- Darren Wilkinson's introduction to ABC Darren Wilkinson’s introduction to approximate Bayesian computation (“ABC”). See also his post about summary statistics for ABC https://darrenjw.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/summary-stats-for-abc/
- Thaddeus Stevens quotes As I get older, I admire this guy more and more
- Giant vertical monopolies for energy have stopped making sense
- Fear and Loathing in Data Science Cory Lesmeister’s savage journey to the heart of Big Data
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Los Alamos Center for Bayesian Methods
- Comprehensive Guide to Bayes Rule
- Brendon Brewer on Overfitting Important and insightful presentation by Brendon Brewer on overfitting
- Harvard's Project Implicit
- Survey Methodology, Prof Ron Fricker http://faculty.nps.edu/rdfricke/
- Flettner Rotor Bruce Yeany introduces the Flettner Rotor and related science
- Busting Myths About Heat Pumps Heat pumps are perhaps the most efficient heating and cooling systems available. Recent literature distributed by utilities hawking natural gas and other sources use performance figures from heat pumps as they were available 15 years ago. See today’s.
climate change
- The Carbon Cycle The Carbon Cycle, monitored by The Carbon Project
- Climate Communication Hassol, Somerville, Melillo, and Hussin site communicating climate to the public
- Sea Change Boston
- ATTP summarizes all that stuff about Committed Warming from AND THEN THERE’S PHYSICS
- Ricky Rood's “What would happen to climate if we (suddenly) stopped emitting GHGs today?
- Transitioning to fully renewable energy Professor Saul Griffiths talks to transitioning the customer journey, from a dependency upon fossil fuels to an electrified future
- Social Cost of Carbon
- The Sunlight Economy
- Climate impacts on retail and supply chains
- Non-linear feedbacks in climate (discussion of Bloch-Johnson, Pierrehumbert, Abbot paper) Discussion of http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/2015GL064240/abstract
- `The unchained goddess' 1958 Bell Telephone Science Hour broadcast regarding, among other things, climate change.
- Earth System Models
- "Warming Slowdown?" (part 1 of 2) The idea of a global warming slowdown or hiatus is critically examined, emphasizing the literature, the datasets, and means and methods for telling such. In two parts.
- US$165/tonne CO2: Sweden Sweden has a Carbon Dioxide tax of US$165 per tonne at present. CO2 tax was imposed in 1991. GDP has grown 60%.
- Climate Change Denying Organizations
- Warming slowdown discussion
- Dessler's 6 minute Greenhouse Effect video
- SOLAR PRODUCTION at Westwood Statistical Studios Generation charts for our home in Westwood, MA
- Spectra Energy exposed
- Simple box models and climate forcing IMO one of Tamino’s best posts illustrating climate forcing using simple box models
- "Climate science is setttled enough"
- Tell Utilities Solar Won't Be Killed Barry Goldwater, Jr’s campaign to push for solar expansion against monopolistic utilities, as a Republican
- Mrooijer's Global Temperature Explorer
- The great Michael Osborne's latest opinions Michael Osborne is a genius operative and champion of solar energy. I have learned never to disregard ANYTHING he says. He is mentor of Karl Ragabo, and the genius instigator of the Texas renewable energy miracle.
- Skeptical Science
- “The Irrelevance of Saturation: Why Carbon Dioxide Matters'' (Bart Levenson)
- Energy payback period for solar panels Considering everything, how long do solar panels have to operate to offset the energy used to produce them?
- Climate at a glance Current state of the climate, from NOAA
- Climate Change Reports By John and Mel Harte
- Grid parity map for Solar PV in United States
- James Hansen and granddaughter Sophie on moving forward with progress on climate
- "Getting to the Energy Future We Want," Dr Steven Chu
- `Who to believe on climate change': Simple checks By Bart Verheggen
- Steve Easterbrook's excellent climate blog: See his "The Internet: Saving Civilization or Trashing the Planet?" for example Heavy on data and computation, Easterbrook is a CS prof at UToronto, but is clearly familiar with climate science. I like his “The Internet: Saving Civilization or Trashing the Planet” very much.
- Professor Robert Strom's compendium of resources on climate change Truly excellent
- Anti—Anti-#ClimateEmergency Whether to declare a climate emergency is debatable. But some critics have gone way overboard.
- Nick Bower's "Scared Scientists"
- And Then There's Physics
- Risk and Well-Being
- The Green Plate Effect Eli Rabett’s “The Green Plate Effect”
- SolarLove
- Jacobson WWS literature index
- "Lessons of the Little Ice Age" (Farber) From Dan Farber, at LEGAL PLANET
- HotWhopper: It's excellent. Global warming and climate change. Eavesdropping on the deniosphere, its weird pseudo-science and crazy conspiracy whoppers.
- Ellenbogen: There is no Such Thing as Wind Turbine Syndrome
- Ray Pierrehumbert's site related to "Principles of Planetary Climate" THE book on climate science
- The Scientific Case for Modern Human-caused Global Warming
- Model state level energy policy for New Englad Bob Massie’s proposed energy policy for Massachusetts, an admirable model for energy policy anywhere in New England
- Wally Broecker on climate realism
- Climate model projections versus observations
Archives
Jan Galkowski
Category Archives: bryology
Dr Des Callaghan’s “Bryophytes around the world”
Dr Callaghan is a superb bryophyte photographer.
Posted in bryophyte, bryophytes, The British Bryological Society, zero carbon
Tagged bryophyte photography
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2026 March 14 [J 073.87] “Pi Day”
Geographic coordinates N42.227, W71.230, Westwood, MA, USA
Pohlia lescuriana
Posted in ABLS, blog, Botany, bryology, bryophyte, bryophytes, mosses, New England Botanical Society
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Climacium in Lawns
Posted in Botany, bryology, bryophytes, mosses
Tagged Botany, bryophytes, ecology, mosses
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2024Dec5J340 first snow Westwood: Full temperatures missing as yet
First snow: Cones specifying where sample temperatures etc will be taken described and illustrated in images below: This taken day before snowfall.
2024J281
Taken with 100mm Rokinon lens, OM-5 mirrorless OMD camera.
Posted in bryology, bryophytes, mosses
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Collection of Photos of Moss
As of 2024J266, with various cameras such as Google Pixel, Olympus TG-6 (of two of them), Olympus E-M1 Mark III, and OM Systems (Olympus) OM-5. Various lenses used in case of latter two. Which lenses should be recorded in metadata … Continue reading
Posted in bryology, bryophytes, mosses
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a variety of bryophyte macrophotographs
Posted in ABLS, amateur science, American Bryological and Lichenological Society, biology, Botany, bryology, bryophytes, citizen data, citizen science, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ecology, field biology, Hale Reservation, macrophotography, mosses, National Phenology Network, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, sampling algorithms, statistical ecology
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Adobe Lightroom for scientific photos
As some readers may know, now I’m retired, I am deeply invested in a multiyear longitudinal study of (primarily) mosses (Bryophyta) at 25 plots near my home. This has been running since end of November 2020, with the first month … Continue reading
Photo of the week: Repeatedly distressed Mnium hornum
This Mnium hornum community is located near a brook which occasionally overflows its banks and at a relative elevation lower than the brook floor. Because of unusual big rains in Dover, Massachusetts in 2021, this hornum community has been inundated … Continue reading
Cladonia coniocraea in a field of Polytrichum juniperinum
Cladonia coniocraea is a lichen. Polytrichum juniperinum is an acrocarp moss. In any case they are beautiful. Full size is available by right-clicking the image and electing “open image in new tab.” Try it. It’s worth it.
Posted in bryology, bryophytes, lichenology, lichens, macrophotography, mosses
Tagged mosses
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Moss Evolution
A lecture by Professor Ralf Reski.
Posted in biology, bryology, bryophytes, evolution, mosses
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Why I Retired
Today’s New York Times contains an article “For Some People, Working from Home Sped Up their Decision to Retire“, by Paul Sullivan. I also retired in 2020. But my motivation was quite different. Unlike many people, I had the option … Continue reading
Mosses of the Week, 4 June 2021
All photographs by Jan Galkowski, 2021.
Moss of the Week, 2021-05-31: Pohlia nutans
All photographs by Jan Galkowski, 2021.
Posted in American Bryological and Lichenological Society, Botany, bryology, bryophytes, mosses
Tagged Botany, bryophytes, mosses
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Field survey update for 2021-03-03 and 2021-03-10: Bryophytes, lichens, and Lycopodia in winter (LoSoMaaCoF)
Online data from principally bryological the longitudinal field survey described here has been updated in its: spreadsheet Photos for Site 1 Photos for Site 2 Photos for Site 3 Photos for Site 4 with the photos and remarks from 2021-03-03 … Continue reading
New Meetup: Massachusetts Mosses and Lichens
I have started a new Meetup group: Massachusetts Mosses and Lichens. I am inviting anyone with an interest in mosses and lichens to join in, particularly if you live in the “greater Massachusetts area”. Because of pandemic, there’ll be no … Continue reading
Posted in ABLS, American Bryological and Lichenological Society, American Statistical Association, biology, Botany, Brent Mishler, bryology, bryophytes, citizen data, citizen science, ecology, field biology, field research, field science, Hale Reservation, Janice Glime, Jerry Jenkins, lichenology, lichens, longitudinal survey of mosses, macrophotography, maths, mesh models, mosses, Nancy G Slack, National Phenology Network, population biology, population dynamics, Ralph Pope, science, spatial statistics, statistical ecology, Sue Williams, the right to know, Westwood
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Field survey update for 2021-02-24: Bryophytes, lichens, and Lycopodia in winter (LoSoMaaCoF)
Online data from principally bryological the longitudinal field survey described here has been updated in its: spreadsheet Photos for Site 1 Photos for Site 2 Photos for Site 3 Photos for Site 4 with the photos and remarks from 2021-02-24. … Continue reading
Why I care about and study mosses
For a guy who has spent most of his professional career developing, studying, and improving engineered systems, software, and applying mathematics to them, the idea of devoting a substantial part of the rest of his life to the study of … Continue reading
Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, astrophysics, bryology, bryophytes, carbon dioxide, climate, Cosmos, Ecological Society of America, icesheets, longitudinal study of mosses, longitudinal survey of mosses, National Phenology Network, Neill deGrasse Tyson, science
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Moss of the Week, 2021-02-19
Actually, mosses of the week. This pair of communities are part of my longitudinal study of mosses, some Cladonia chlorophaea lichens, and a few Lycopodium obscurum individuals. This is Site 3, community instances A and B. Instance A is Mnium … Continue reading
Field survey update for 2021-02-17: Bryophytes, lichens, and Lycopodia in winter (LoSoMaaCoF)
(Updated, 2021-02-23) Online data from principally bryological the longitudinal field survey described here has been updated in its: spreadsheet. This post is simply a matter of record, as are the additional rows in the spreadsheet. There were no observations on … Continue reading
Field survey update for 2021-02-03 and 2021-02-10: Bryophytes, lichens, and Lycopodia in winter (LoSoMaaCoF)
(Updated, 2021-02-23) Online data from principally bryological the longitudinal field survey described here has been updated in its: spreadsheet This post is simply a matter of record, as are the additional rows in the spreadsheet. There were no observations on … Continue reading
Field survey update for 2021-01-26: Bryophytes, lichens, and Lycopodia in winter (LoSoMaaCoF)
(Updated, 2021-02-23) Online data from principally bryological the longitudinal field survey described here has been updated in its: spreadsheet Photos for Site 1 Photos for Site 2 Photos for Site 3 Photos for Site 4 with the photos and remarks … Continue reading
On storing and logging moss specimens
(Updated 2021-02-21) The standard way of storing moss specimens — at least that’s taught — is to press them, like most botanical specimens, or to store them, dessicated, in folders like these: That’s from Ralph Pope’s (2016) Guide, Pope, Ralph. … Continue reading
Posted in biology, bryology, bryophytes, data collection, field biology, field science
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Field survey update for 2021-01-20: Bryophytes, lichens, and Lycopodia in winter (LoSoMaaCoF)
(Updated, 2021-02-23) Online data from principally bryological the longitudinal field survey described here has been updated in its: spreadsheet Photos for Site 1 Photos for Site 2 Photos for Site 3 Photos for Site 4 with the photos and remarks … Continue reading

