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Eli and Ethon have been enjoying the liver and beer at Oktoberfest and chewing over developments. Blurry as we are, there are some interesting things afoot in the world of climate.

Ethon thought it would be a good idea to move to London, so he suggested a new posting for Snack:

**Modelling extreme weather risk at RMS London**

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) is the world's leading provider of mathematical models and information related to the financial impact of natural catastrophes, under both present and future climates. We have a
team of twenty-five PhD scientists in London building mathematical models that predict the distributions of possible damage due to tropical storms, extra-tropical storms, thunderstorms, storm-surges and fluvial
floods. We use a combination of observed data, reanalysis data, numerical models and statistical models. Our clients include several hundred insurance and reinsurance companies, brokers, banks, hedge funds, regional and local governments, and multilateral agencies.

We have a number of open positions in this group, to work in areas related to tropical storms, extra-tropical storms and storm-surge. The ideal candidate would have (a) a strong background in physics, applied
mathematics or statistics, (b) a Doctorate in oceanic or atmospheric science, or related discipline and (c) Unix-based computing experience, including programming. Strong candidates with a different but equivalent
profile would also be considered. Industrial experience is not necessary.

To submit an application, please email a CV and covering letter to with the title '09Q1 climate hazards'. Appropriate candidates will be invited for interview in London.

An interesting conference on the issues of mitigation and adaptation

Lennart Olsson (Lund University, lennart.olsson@lucsus.lu.se) and I are organizing Session C-2 on Modelling Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies to Cope with Climate Change at the conference on Integrated Assessment of Agriculture and Sustainable Development: Setting the Agenda for Science and Policy (AgSAP), 10-12 March 2009, Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands .

Holger Meinke (Wageningen University) will give a keynote presentation, "Will Global Mitigation Policy Enhance or Undermine Local Adaptation?" We want to showcase innovations in system modelling to inform decisions that can reduce the vulnerability of agriculture to a changing climate, reduce the contribution of agriculture to climate change, or manage the tradeoffs and exploit the synergies between adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation. Examples of topics that we would like to see represented include:

* modelling approaches that span spatial scales and system levels;
* interventions that consider tradeoffs and synergies between immediate development goals and long-term sustainability or between environment and livelihood goals within agriculture;
* innovations for managing the uncertainty associated with climate change; and
* studies that consider climate change in the context of other global drivers of change.

If you are doing relevant work with a strong agricultural system modeling focus, we invite you to submit an abstract to this session. Please note that abstracts are due 15 October.

and for Stoat an urgent appeal from the BBC

Dear All,

I’m working on a major new BBC science project, a follow up to 2007’s "Earth: Power of the Planet". The aim of the new series is to reveal the influence of planetary forces (geology, climate, geomorphology) in shaping human history over the last 10,000 years. Like "Power of the Planet", the series needs to be visually spectacular, full of great ocations, and featuring cutting edge science.

As part of the planning for the series I'd like to ask for your help.

- We're looking for exciting science projects underway in remote or visually stunning parts of the world.

- Do you know of any major projects or expeditions of a geological / historical nature that might be happening over the next 12 months?

- And can you think of any spectacular locations that have been rarely or never filmed that we should be looking to visit?

If you know of anything and would be happy to share it with me or discuss it with me further I would be delighted to hear from you. My contact details are given below.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Best wishes,

Alex Hemingway
Series Associate Producer
How Earth Made Us / BBC

And so to bed

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