Media West is coming... or "They have how many panels?"

The perpetual Media West topic signup angst has begun. It usually involves me printing out the list and poring over it during my lunch or my commute. Then I write what I would be interested in doing. Lather, rinse repeat as I cull it down to sane levels. I tried doing everything one year and had a hellish time. I also learned my lesson from last year to avoid being on sports panels. No offense to bktheirregular but being stuck on a panel in between two hardened Yankee fans is no fun, especially if you're a cynical Braves fan. I didn't mind the baseball talk, but I would have liked to expand the discussion and it invariably came back to "Well, the Yankees tried that and..." I waffled and angsted over the HL/PW panels, but honestly how much more can I offer? If I was more involved in the fandom, it'd be one thing, but I barely learn in time when stuff will be on.

( Current choices )

Dust Bowl explained

New research by NASA has come with explanations for the 1930s "Dust Bowl". They fed in surface sea temperatures into their computer models and apparently the Pacific was several tenths of a degree cooler than the Atlantic at the same period. The research appeared in Science magazine.

http://www.nature.com/nsu/040315/040315-12.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040319072053.htm