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Last Monday was the hottest global average day according to estimates against the instrument record. Until Tuesday, which was hotter still. Wednesday decided to match Tuesday's value, and Thursday decided it could do even better. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday temperatures dipped slightly and increased again on Monday. But all have been above last Monday's record-breaking value. One can follow the trajectory at the University of Maine's "Climate Reanalyzer", which does area-weighted daily means from the surface, radiosonde, and satellite observations. This sudden increase has been pushed upwards by the natural warming phase of the El NiƱo-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), but of course, occurs on top of decades of greenhouse gas emissions and resulting temperature increases. Whilst I am extremely wary of making correlations between local temperature changes and global averages the mildness of Melbourne's winter this year led me to check the temperature record at BOM just as a quick comparison to last year; nine of the eleven days this year have had a higher maximum, and the minimums have been much higher - almost as high as last year's maximums.

Turn the clock back almost forty years to 1986 - I learn about the greenhouse effect for the first time and, by beautiful coincidence, I am living next door to a Perth punk band of the same name in Pakenham Street, Mount Lawley. Several years later, as I'm finishing my undergraduate degree, I would read in Habermas' 1971 social theory book "Legitimation Crisis" which stated that the environment's capacity to absorb heat from energy consumption was an absolute limit on industrial growth. More years pass and one day, on aus.politics on USENET, I encounter my first climate change denier. I am perplexed by their attempt to politicise a question that seemed obviously a matter of science. Of course, it's the practical policy implications that are of concern, not the truth. Shortly afterward I comment: "There will be a year when winter doesn't happen. That will be when people will finally believe that global warming is happening and by then, it will be too late". It is, after all, only in the past two decades that we've truly learned that carbon dioxide, once emitted, remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Now, as I increasingly dedicate my life to this concern, I rather suspect that my comment of some twenty years ago was optimistic. Locally, I rather suspect we've pretty much seen the end of winter already. Globally, we're in for some real scorchers over the next few years. I'd like to be wrong - I suspect I won't be.
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Have spent the last two days conducting training for researchers at the Australian Institute for Health Innovation, which is part of Macquarie University. The classes have been a little more difficult than usual, partially because of the diverse levels of skills involved in the group (some have never used Linux at all, others are full-time medical software engineers), but also because of the state of their small cluster - not much of the usual range of scientific software has been installed and there is need for some configuration improvements especially with their databases. Plus, for those who have experience, the cluster has changed from a Torque/Moab system to PBSPro. As a result, it has not been used as much as it should, however I am hoping that this should change now that training has been completed. Tomorrow I will finish the final session of training for researchers at the University of Sydney for their new HPC cluster.

Sydney has been suffering some particularly stormy weather, which has resulted in fatalities. It was pretty interesting taking the plane in on the evening of what was the strongest day for the inclement weather. Now with all due concern for the enormous financial cost and the loss of lives, I must admit that I really quite like wild weather like this - I took the opportunity to go out as much as I could (complete in at least the top-half of my Devo radiation suit). I find the howling winds and cold driving rain to be invigorating, and whilst I can also enjoy the quiet contemplation when communing with nature, it is in the midst of the maelstrom that I find she speaks most clearly (not to push the anthropomorphic metaphor too much).

But whilst on that topic of quiet contemplation and universities, I must also sing some praises of Macquarie University. It is the first time I had visited that campus and I must say it has many of the features that I have noticed from similar institutions of that period that I have spent time at (Murdoch University, La Trobe University, Deakin University at Waurn Ponds). These are campuses that are some distance from the CBD, with modern buildings and natural surrounds and even a modicum of wildlife. The combination really does provide a sense of being a sheltered workshop for the intellectually able, but maybe that's just what researchers need. The active participation of academia in society is certainly necessary, even if it is a thorn in the side of politicians and their allies, but passive contemplation also requires the right environment as well.

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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath

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