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Wireless Sensors Monitor Glacier Behavior

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a world premiere, an interdisciplinary team of the University of Southampton, GlacsWeb, has deployed a network of wireless sensors inside a Norwegian glacier to record its behavior. This news release, "Sensor Technology Comes in from the Cold" says that the sensor probes, housed in 'electronic pebbles,' are buried 60 meters under the surface of the glacier. And they transmit wirelessly their observations about temperature, pressure or ice movement to a base station located on the surface, which relays the readings to a server in the UK by mobile phone. The researchers think that similar sensor webs will soon be deployed around the world to watch what is changing in our environment. You'll find more details and pictures in this overview."

14 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Heh. by Fjornir · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is great. Now I don't need to worry about being run over by a speeding glacier next time the ice age comes around.

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    I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
    1. Re:Heh. by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 2, Funny
      Now I don't need to worry about being run over by a speeding glacier next time the ice age comes around.

      Let me guess, you're one of the guys writing Duke Nukem Forever . . .

      --
      "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  2. New annoying cellphone calls by panurge · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, I'm in the glacier. Looks like we're sliding about three centimetres a year. I guess I might be late for the meeting...sorry, you're breaking up. That's better. Look, if I give you the readings could you turn them into a quick Powerpoint?

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    1. Re:New annoying cellphone calls by B3ryllium · · Score: 2, Funny

      *ahem*

      *brr*

      Can you hear me now? Good.

  3. Don't believe what you read!!! by nev4 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's all BS it's part of an extension to the Patriot Act that allows them to wiretap eskimos. They don't care about the glacier's, they are trying to spy on eskimoan extremists.

    1. Re:Don't believe what you read!!! by autiger · · Score: 3, Funny

      But of course. It's a well-known fact that the glacier is just a weapon of the Iceberg Liberation Front (ILF) used to target capitalist shipping fleets.

    2. Re:Don't believe what you read!!! by stratjakt · · Score: 2, Funny

      I was waiting for a stupid comment about the glaciers' "constitutional right to privacy".

      Yours will do, though.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  4. Re:Mars by Technonotice_Dom · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have a hard enough time getting mobile phone coverage where I am anyway, let alone Mars...

  5. Actually I'm glad ... by SuperDuG · · Score: 3, Funny
    ... Seeing as the icebergs could fall into the ocean, and then drift out to warmer sea, and then cause the ocean to desalinate.

    Thus then affecting the ocean current and temperatures of said currents. Then cause the climate to abruptly change.

    Then when you think it couldnt get any worse, super storms would emerge and cause hurricanes to form over land. The hurricanes would have such a strong force that they'd (bear with me here) ...

    That they'd cause the STRATOSPHERE to come to the surface of the earth. Causing instantaneous freezign of everything in the eye of said land based hurricanes.

    As if that wasn't bad enough I predict this would cause 3/4 of the north america, europe and asia's populations to be killed. Thus causing the rest of the populations to move to mexico.

    But alas, this can all be prevented if we stop burning fossil fuels, hug a tree, and act like RMS.

    Also note, in the event a land based hurricane does bring the STRATOSPHERE down to the earths surface immediately find the nearest library or wendy's and stay there. If you have a tent, be sure to set the tent up in the kitchen of wendy's.

    You know what, this whole plot seems like the story for a HORRIBLE movie, I better write it down and call 20th century fox.

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    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  6. Political Monitor by greyhoundofdeath · · Score: 2, Funny

    Great now they have a tool to measure progress in Congress.

  7. If Global Warming Gets to be Too Bad... by fcolari · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...can the sensors float?

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    "The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces." --Aldo Leopold (Paraphrased)
  8. That's a good joke ... what about a poem? by CemeteryWall · · Score: 2, Funny
    One performance only
    We'll fly you over burning forests
    We'll walk you through the starving hoardes
    We'll show you drowned and bloated corpses
    At a price you CAN afford

    You'll glide above the sky in comfort
    You'll sleep your nights in quiet hotels
    You'll sit and watch our views in comfort
    Of mankind in a thousand hells

    Arma G Heddon
    Alternatively we could really try to understand the science. It's a bit of a bore.
    But we could start with the BBC.
  9. "progress in Congress"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If "pro" is the opposite of "con"....

  10. Mobile phone connection? by markh1967 · · Score: 2, Funny

    How is it that they can get a mobile phone signal from ontop a glacier yet I can't get a signal from my house?

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