Flumen

Posted on 2017-07-09 by arjaybe

Steve Willington – WMO

Cloud of the Day – Flumen

Flumen, from the Latin flumen, a noun meaning river, is another of the new cloud types included in the World Meteorological Organization’s fifth edition of their venerable Cloud Atlas, published in 2017. It’s the first new edition in thirty years so there aren’t many opportunities to get a new cloud in.

Flumen are described as bands of low clouds associated with a ‘supercell severe convective storm’ — a form of cumulonimbus — arranged parallel to the low level winds blowing toward the supercell. So the powerful convection of the supercell is drawing air into its base, and the high speed airflow causes a drop in air pressure with the concommitant drop in temperature, allowing condensation and cloud-forming. This explains why flumen form parallel to wind direction.

Kelvinsong – CC-BY-SA

Flumen are associated with supercells, a particularly vigorous form of thunderstorm featuring a mesocyclone, a rotating updraft. These are the clouds that spawn tornadoes. Flumen are very likely to be associated with precipitation, and then some.

rjb

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Using Copyright to Quash Criticism

Posted on 2017-06-30 by arjaybe

zillow-mcmansion-effElectronic Frontier Foundation

Kate Wagner runs an architecture criticism blog called McMansion Hell, where she posts pictures and opinions of examples of what she considers poor design. Mostly she criticizes big houses that are meant to appeal to buyers’ vanities. A company called the Zillow Group sent her a cease and desist order saying the pictures she was using were protected by copyright and couldn’t be used. She did what most people would do when threatened by the lawyers of a big corporation. She shut down her blog.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. The Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF) got wind of it and stepped in to defend Ms Wagner against the specious order. They sent a couple of strongly worded letters to Zillow’s lawyers and let them know they weren’t going to get away with their bullying.

EFF staff attorney Daniel Nazer said, “Our client has no obligation to, and thus will not, comply with Zillow’s demands. Zillow’s legal threats are not supported and plainly seek to interfere with protected speech.”

Zillow quickly changed its tune, claiming that they never had any intention of interfering with Ms Wagner’s freedom of expression. They just thought they were protecting the copyright of the owners of the images she was taking from Zillow’s website. The EFF let them know that they were wrong.

EFF’s response called Zillow’s legal complaints “baseless” and its allegations “unfounded and unsupportable” as it laid out a variety of legal arguments for why McMansion Hell and Wagner were not bound by Zillow’s terms of use and why her use of photographs sourced from Zillow are indeed protected by fair use.

The McMansion Hell blog is back up and running and Ms Wagner is breathing easily again. Chalk up another one for the EFF, those heroes who defend our freedoms.

via Zillow drops complaint against ‘McMansion Hell’ blog after backlash over copyright claim – GeekWire

rjb

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Volutus

Posted on 2017-06-25 by arjaybe

Mirostaw – World Meteorological Organization

Cloud of the Day – Volutus

Volutus, from the Latin volutus, which means rolled, is a species of cloud (yes, they actually come in species, and genera too) that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently added to the latest edition of its venerable cloud atlas (2017.) It’s described as

a long, horizontal, tube-shaped cloud mass, often appearing to roll about a horizontal axis. It usually occurs as a single line and seldom extends from horizon to horizon.

This species is usually found in the stratocumulus genera, and more rarely in the altocumulus genera. In either case, volutus is rare.

The more observant among you might notice a resemblance to a previous Green Comet Cloud of the Day: Roll cloud. You would be right. It’s the same cloud, only now the WMO has officially included it in the cloud atlas, and given it a Latin name in keeping with the rest of the clouds. The atlas has to have a consistent naming regimen if it’s to be useful for scientific research.

rjb

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