"New Priorities for Climate Change Research"

Apparently the new IPCC synthesis on climate change has provided ground that current climate change is largely anthropogenic. Although it may still take up to decades for the U.S. to put carbon emission control system into their legislation, the responsibility of *Homo Sapiens* cannot be easily exempted.

For the U.S., their research focus has been shifted from proving the responsibility to "the causes, the impacts, and solutions". From [Science](http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5833/1828b):

> [the budget bills] include more than half a billion dollars for new applied energy research, a novel $50 million climate research commission that would address regional impacts, and some $17 million to spread the message on climate change through education and public outreach....
>
> ...[A] draft spending bill would set aside $24.9 million for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to begin to develop two of the canceled sensors--both crucial for measuring Earth's heat balance--to bolt onto the crafts later if possible.

These priorities are, in fact, hardly anything new. The scientific society has called it for years. It is just at present that these budget requests are finally seen to. Of course such investment and prioritisation of climate-related research will surely accelerate the gain of understanding of climate trends and impacts. But the U.S. should not be boasting such late-bestowed attention to a pressing and significant problem.

Scientists in the blogosphere

This is an initiative of [Nature][1], providing a platform for scientists to write their opinions as blog entries. It can be seen from [this page](http://network.nature.com/blogs/list). Apparently there are already a number of researchers put their names on the Nature's list. However, if you take a closer look, you will find that most of them has only a handful of posts. Except for [this one](http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/U2929A0EA).

The causes of this gloomy appearance may include: a. established scientists are way too busy to write their blogs; b. few scientific blog writers like the templates and space provided by Nature Network; and c. there are scientific blogs out there but they are just like needles in a pile of stray that needs one to pay considerable effort to find.

By typing keywords "science" and "blog" into the search engine, it can be find that there is no serious and influencial blog space dedicated to the science community, which I think is a shame for both the Internet and scientists. I do believe that blogs can be a good place for scientific information and ideas to disseminate. While there are too many blogs which has virtually nothing meaningful on them, a scientific blog service provider may be helpful to counterbalance this trend.

****
[1]: http://www.nature.com

不许郁闷

>“主席，世界上啥子四情是最痛苦地哟？”

>“上自习。”

>“还有比上自习更痛苦地不得？”

>（烟）“天天上自习……”

在北京痛苦的找房过程终于结束。目前我寄居在某大学的防空洞改造的招待所里，冬暖夏凉，安静舒适，而且既没有手机信号也没有网线，适合隐居。

之前找的几个房，因为都拿不出靠谱的房产证，虽然居住方便一些，但终归是不放心。现在想来，虽然我对小岛上的房子有诸多的不满，但当时租房的过程毕竟比这次方便多了。

为了用手机与他人保持联络，就必须从招待所的地洞里钻出来。作为一个穷学生，钻出来也没有多的事可做，只有假装还是个本科生，然后跑到该大学的教学楼去上自习。除了8月份要再考一次雅思考试需要复习，其它大量的自习时间应当怎样度过呢？其实这段时间倒觉得上自习并不是一件难熬的事，天天上自习也没有什么，大概是没有什么考试压力的缘故吧。既然时间很多，那么决定好好复习一下吃饭必须的统计学知识，有空再复习一下微积分，然后看看能不能自学个数学分析或者离散数学啥的。

继续折腾

在为期一个月的折腾过后，终于还是被怀疑和官僚主义打败了。我必须承认当时这个用来保底的课题虽然确实看起来很有趣，但真正实施起来根本就是跟自己过不去，而且姥姥不疼，舅舅不爱，根本没有学校以外的人会把它当回事。

好在只投入了一年时间，及时割肉平仓还不至于损失太大。目前几个打算，按成本由低到高排列：换地点，换课题，换学校。不论哪个选择，9月前应该还有点时间，用来反思、充电，不过希望不要闲坏了才好。