Amit Patel

"Over 22 inches (550 mm) of rain fell on the Eel River basin in a span of two days. By December 23, 752,000 cubic feet per second (21,300 m3/s) of water rushed down the Eel River at Scotia (still upstream from the confluence of the Van Duzen River), 200,000 cubic feet per second (5,660 m3/s) more than the 1955 flood, and more than the average discharge of the entire Mississippi River basin." - Amit Patel

I looked this up because I saw a rogue forecast (GFS model) for this weekend saying up to **25 inches of rain** for northern california. Insane, right? Inconceivable, right? And yet … something similar happened not that long ago. - Amit Patel

Rogue forecast: https://twitter.com/NWSBayA... - Amit Patel

Good luck to that forecast - Louis Gray

"The Casiquiare river, also known as the Casiquiare canal is a distributary of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems." - Amit Patel

"Isa Lake in Yellowstone National Park is believed to be the only natural bifurcated lake in the world to drain backwards into two oceans. Its western drainage is to the Atlantic Ocean via the Firehole River, while its eastern drainage is to the Pacific Ocean via the Lewis River." - Amit Patel

I lived there, briefly, when I was a kid. I love that place! Way overdue for a trip back there. - vicster.

I was there for a week in the mid 80's it was a magical place - bic aka nanomelmoso

I hear Tahiti is a magical place. - Amit Patel

I hear Oz is magical too. - Todd Hoff

"The National Weather Service is currently in the process of transitioning its primary computer model, the Global Forecast System (GFS), from an old supercomputer to a brand new one.  However, before the switch can be approved, the GFS model on the new computer must generate forecasts indistinguishable from the forecasts on the old one." - Amit Patel

Todd: I'd probably add up a bunch of sine waves and see if that's good enough. If you add together lots of sines you can get unprectable-ish patterns (surprising jumps) http://www.wolframalpha.com/input... - Amit Patel

Gorgeous! - Jaclyn aka spamgirl

#sunset - Amit Patel

An excellent find, Amit. Golden. - Micah

Of course. - Amit Patel

"Google’s Material guidelines were created to develop a cohesive experience across devices and platforms. It’s anything but “flat design.” The guidelines are based in reality — using paper, ink, and shadows — without falling into the realm of skeuomorphism. They also emphasize the use of magical, smart, and intuitive interactions and animations. Interacting with an app using Material’s principles is more tangible and innate, yet has a touch of delight and whimsy." - Amit Patel

I still don't understand this "Material Design" thing. I can't tell any meaningful difference between the before and after screenshots. "Paper, ink, and shadows"?! - Amit Patel

"The Great Green Wall initiative is a pan-African proposal to “green” the continent from west to east in order to battle desertification.  It aims at tackling poverty and the degradation of soils in the Sahel-Saharan region, focusing on a strip of land of 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,500 km (4,750 mi) long from Dakar to Djibouti." - Amit Patel

"Progress is apparent especially in the Zinder region of Niger, where tree density has significantly improved since the mid-1980s. GEF CEO Monique Barbut attributes the success to working with farmers to find technical solutions, particularly long-term land and financial solutions, in order to save the trees. This form of natural regeneration benefits local communities and the global environment alike by increasing crop yield, improving soil fertility, reducing land erosion, improving fodder availability, diversifying income, cutting wood collection time for women, strengthening resilience to climate change, increasing biodiversity, and much more. " - Amit Patel

Did you visit the castle? - Todd Hoff

I didn't visit the castle … just the seals! :) I went to the seals, then spent the day in Morro Bay. - Amit Patel

Hehe - Stephen Mack

"I had long wondered what the difference is between a mandarin, clementine, satsuma and tangerine. It turns out that the answer is: ‘bad question’; clementines, satsumas and tangerines are all varieties of mandarin." - Amit Patel

Thank you! - bentley

No Etrog! - Steve and 4 other people

"Egads! What's that? Meet Octavian. He's part cat, part octopus, he's an octopuss! Octavian wonders why he's been given so many legs as he doesn't plan on actually using them to go anywhere. He prefers to just sleep in sunny spots." - Amit Patel

"The nictitating membrane may be clear or opaque, but always helps protect the eyes." - Amit Patel

One of my photos is on about.com. Whee! - Amit Patel

Also, I hope to go up and see more eagles and hawks this weekend. Weather looks nice up there (Klamath Falls area). It's usually too snowy/icy for me. - Amit Patel

I saw lots of bald eagles on this trip (around 40) but all of them were far away. - Amit Patel

Not sure what kind of duck is in the photo but most of them were northern shovelers, I think. - Amit Patel

The duck in the third photo is a Northern Pintail. - John (bird whisperer)

Thanks John! - Amit Patel

Ugh, sorry, I guess I had already posted this. :-/ - Amit Patel

Most of my posts are in parallel between Twitter and FF but the 140 sped limit means FF gets my longer posts #maybenotbetterjustlonger - WarLord

#biggerisbetter - Amit Patel

I'm on Twitter, except not really. - Stephen Mack

I usually cross-post automatically to Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook because I have no idea what will wind up being interesting to each group, and I want to talk to everyone regardless of their choice of social network. Sometimes things in different directions on different networks off of the same post. If it's something specific to someone who only resides on a specific network, I'll post it only there, though. - Mark Trapp

"Most car buyers aren’t in the habit of checking for a spare while they’re kicking tires. But if you’re in the market for a new car, it might be worth a peek in the trunk." - Amit Patel

The Volt I leased in June doesn't have a spare. It has a complicated 'tire inflation device' that includes 'green slime' puncture filler, and if that doesn't work it has OnStar 24/7. All that is fine for urban life, but I was a tad bit nervous this summer driving thru Nevada to get to Zion... Even the OnStar signal coverage was hard to come by out there. - Ken Gidley

Sample: (neat) https://twitter.com/redblob... and (messy) https://twitter.com/redblob... - Amit Patel

Your handwriting is great. :) - Jenny H.

They've been coming for months but this time I had my camera handy :) - Amit Patel

"Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest man-made excavation in the world, and is visible with the naked eye from space." - Amit Patel

"The EPA has estimated a 72 mile plume of contaminated groundwater has been created over the course of the mine due to multiple spills and runoff. Long term effects of the underground water supply contamination may include an increased demand for surface water solutions as the population of the Salt Lake valley grows since the county will not be able to tap into the groundwater supply." - Amit Patel

Ugh, I have forgotten how to post a flickr photo to get the thumbnail - Amit Patel

This is a diagram showing how features of emacs org-mode are related - Amit Patel

Sorcery. How could this work?! - Amit Patel

They've surrounded the house. - Amit Patel

...about this bird seed, Amit... - WoH: Professor MOTHRA