Sunday Tabs
James Joyner
·
Sunday, July 21, 2024
·
3 comments
- SEMAFOR, “The only place Biden is winning: 538’s election model.” Team Biden is touting this model to show that he can win in November. Despite the name, it’s not the Nate Silver, poll-driven model of yore. Indeed, it largely ignores the polls.
- Joseph G. Allen, WaPo, “We need to change the way we think about outdoor temperatures.” A Harvard professor advocates for the “wet bulb” metric familiar to military personnel as a superior way to understand the impact of temperature and humidity on people.
- David Aldridge, The Athletic, “My front row seat on ‘Inside the NBA,’ the greatest studio show in sports TV history.” A very well-told story of an iconic program likely ending with TNT’s deal with the league.
- Pablo O’Hana, The Hill, “Ready for Round 2: Why we Need Hillary more than ever.” A columnist seriously proposes a rematch between the 2016 and 2020 losers. Because why the hell not.
Pablo, I don’t know what you’re smoking, but don’t pass that joint to me. No no no just bogart that joint.
Please, please let’s not try get the general public to think in terms wet bulb globe temperature. It’s fine as an index to standardize guidance for outdoor work intensity expectations and work-rest cycles, as used by the military. However, as number, the wet bulb globe temperature is kind of confusing and destined to misunderstood and misstated by most people, including the author of the opinion piece, who would have been well-advised to have a more sciency professor give it a quick look before publishing.
The terminology is hopelessly complicated, as it uses familiar words already used for other things, and it’s actually an index, sometimes referred to as the “wet bulb globe temperature index” (too many words). Wet bulb globe temperature is often confused with wet bulb temperature by other-than meteorology buffs; if the author can’t avoid that trap, then how can the rest of us? So what’s the difference?…a mid-80s (F) web bulb globe temperature would be in the moderate risk category for outdoor work, but a mid-80s wet bulb temperature would be stifling.
Maybe we should just stick with heat index, since it’s intuitively related to the ordinary dry bulb temperature. And leave it to the people to understand that more sunshine makes it hotter but more wind makes it cooler.
Biden’s out