Saturday, November 05, 2011

Same planet, different worlds...

My roomie made mention of a story about a crack in an Antarctic glacier yesterday, so this morning I decided to google the story.

Paging through the first three links left me confused, however...
Maybe these people are talking about different glaciers? Nope, on a second reading, they're all referring to a "Pine Island Glacier" in Antarctica.

Well, maybe it's different Antarcticas, then. Like, maybe one of them is in my universe, another is in the universe where those time-travelers gave the Confederates AK-47s, and the third one is in that universe where Spock has a beard.

I figure if I add those stories up and divide by three, I should be getting closer to the truth...

10 comments:

Alan said...

I frequently have alternate universe moments when I'm reading the news.

Mark Alger said...

The Daily Kos is what we writers of fiction (i.e., professional liars), call an unreliable narrator. Yes, that is a real professional term of art and you may use it. Thank me.

M

Brad K. said...

Tam,

I think money is talking, here.

In reaction #1, the emphasis is on "What will this do to my daytrader account in the next week?" and the answer is likely, nothing at all.

In reaction #3, the emphasis is on "Where does this fit on the latest computer 'slippery slope to Utter Devastation' projection of global warming, um, climate change disaster scenario #14, paid for by the Union Green Jobs for Treehuggers environmental defense fund?" (I made that organization name up. I hope.)

I imagine that the gist of the report is about the same weight as finding out that it rained too much at the wrong times, and too little at other times, resulting in a mediocre to poor harvest in Indiana.

That is, the changes in glaciers in Antarctica are similar to what has been observed in Alaska and other places. Major changes on a global level are tough to understand, tough to change, and tougher to turn back. Just look at the progress in restoring the old-growth forest that used to cover the US east of the Mississippi. Well, except for leaving the private property alone, and the roads and communities, and airports. And national parks and other government properties. And other commercial and farm property.

Justthisguy said...

As y'all might imagine, I really enjoyed The Guns of the South. "Melvin" Bean is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. Has a heart of gold, even.

Dr. Rodney McKay said...

"Well, maybe it's different Antarcticas, then. Like, maybe one of them is in my universe".

Well it is theoretically possible if you can get your hands on a ZPM.

Thirdpower said...

Just as an aside, the Kos kids banned MikeB for being a nutjob. What does that tell you?

Borepatch said...

Well, Green hysteria is likely to get prominently featured in the NYT and the IPCC Assessment Reports. The Rosanne Rosannadanna "nevermind" bit will get buried on page 57.

Now if you were a typical, leftie, biased NYT reporter/editor (redundancy alert), how would you want to drive traffic to your site?

Cunningly subtle.

Firehand said...

And green hysteria leads to True Believers of the Church of AGW telling you things like "I want to prevent the world from being destroyed, why don't you care?" and other such "I am a good person" crap.(yes, someone actually threw that at me). Which they consider Good Things To Do.

WV=bilize, "I bilize these people are nuts."

Anonymous said...

I am not awake yet... I read the first sentence... a crack addict was on a glacier in Antartica... and nearly snarfed

elmo iscariot said...

A massive rift opening in an Antarctic glacier, and the panicking is about climate change instead of thawing shoggoths?

That's what's wrong with kids these days.