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Canada Comet Lengthened the Ice Age

Iddo Genuth writes "Recent geological evidence gathered in Ohio and Indiana has been verified by a University of Cincinnati assistant professor as support of a comet theory, claiming a comet explosion over earth was the cause of drastic changes to life on our planet. This evidence strengthens initial data collected over a year ago. The explosion, which occurred over what is now Canada, caused the extinction of animals and cultures and lengthened the Ice Age nearly 13,000 years ago that should have been coming to an end."

66 comments

  1. new tag needed by spir0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    blamecanada

    --
    The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
    1. Re:new tag needed by LeafOnTheWind · · Score: 2, Funny

      seriously, what is it with you guys and ice?

  2. Blame Canada! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    They're not even a real country anyway.

    1. Re:Blame Canada! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course not; it's spelled Canadia.

    2. Re:Blame Canada! by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Of course not; it's spelled Canadia.

      I was taught to spell it Canaduh.

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    3. Re:Blame Canada! by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know why it's called Canada, eh?

      Originally it was the Commonwealth Northern Dominions, which they recognized as a mouthful, and abbreviated as C, eh, N, eh, D, eh.

    4. Re:Blame Canada! by Czarf · · Score: 1

      You know why it's called Canada, eh?

      It's because when the country was founded, whiskey came in cans. There was nothing else to do in the cold, so everyone wanted a "can a day".

    5. Re:Blame Canada! by LeafOnTheWind · · Score: 1

      g-eh

    6. Re:Blame Canada! by David+Gould · · Score: 1

      Of course not; it's spelled Canadia.

      I though "Canuckistan" was pretty funny. And for their currency, "NuckBucks".

      --
      David Gould
      main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
  3. Blame the Canadians, of course! by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not surprising. Americans are always blaming us for everything. Now they're blaming us for a poor environmental record, preventing the advancement of man, being a magnet for comets - a problem the Americans know our government won't fix so they'll have to do something.

    This story will surely convince the last bunch of skeptical Americans that we live in Igloos. My Core2Duo is overclocked to 10 GHz with "air" cooling. I have heat pipes on the CPU which are used to warming up my living space. Even though it might be a heat wave where you are, I know that shorts were not invented by a Canadian.

    Great country, eh? We're great story-tellers too!

    1. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by tgd · · Score: 1, Funny

      Don't forget: we blame you for not getting your dollar to fall in value along with ours.

      Now lap dances in Montreal are expensive.

    2. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      the mass extinction of many species caused by that massive comet impact allowed the rise of human life in the first place, we were the quickest to adapt to other climates by wearing the skins of other animals. something that we probably turned to even in africa, if the ice age was long enough and cold enough.

    3. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      So we can blame canadians for the lack of nudity in the world?
      Wait, this is slashdot. Home of the Roll packs...
      I for one welcome our Fur bearing Canuck overlords!

    4. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I dunno, you seen the Canadian Dollar lately? The US dollar had a head start, but Canadia ain't doing so hot either.

    5. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by WgT2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      "the" ice age?

    6. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Jerry+Rivers · · Score: 1

      So that says the there are fewer Euros to the loonie, which means the loonie has risen versus the Euro.

      Jan. 01, 1999: Euro = 1.8123 CDN$
      July 30, 2008: Euro = 1.5935 CDN$

      What was your point again?

      --
      The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
    7. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by SEWilco · · Score: 1

      And you can't have your diamonds back either. You didn't pick up your litter, so we had to do it.

    8. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by corychristison · · Score: 1

      Even though it might be a heat wave where you are, I know that shorts were not invented by a Canadian.

      Not invented by us... but certainly still utilized by us. I live in a small town Saskatchewan. A good portion of the population still wears shorts in the winter.

      I wear nothing more than undergarments, blue jeans, a t-shirt and a 'bunnyhug' (sask. term -- 'hoodie' everywhere else) during the winter... which can be as low as -40C.

      Last winter I dug my '91 Chrysler Daytona out of the snow (literally up to over a meter high) a few times (sometimes resorting to a neighbours help) wearing just that.

    9. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by John+Jamieson · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not totally to blame, partial public nudity (toplessness) is legal in Ontario. (Ontario, the largest province in Canada, home of Toronto)

    10. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by TheLink · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Last winter I dug my '91 Chrysler Daytona out of the snow (literally up to over a meter high) a few times "

      You left out "in a blizzard and you liked it" :).

      --
    11. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

      And that is why the first Monday of August is celebrated as "Gwen Jacob Day" in Ontario.

    12. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Nasajin · · Score: 1, Funny

      Give him a break, he's clearly Canadian.

    13. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by jonfr · · Score: 1

      America has super volcano, we can blame them for the near extincion of the human race next time around.

      (I don't live in Canada, but U.S should take some blame anyway)

    14. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      Actually that documentary Michael Moore did where he went to Canada asking about gun laws, and found that people didn't lock their doors and he tested this by randomly walking into peoples houses unannounced. They did walk up and question him, but the response from them was more curiosity than anything. In America that would get you shot.

      I was really impressed with the overall attitude Canadians had, and it really changed my view of them. The only thing wrong with Canadians is there aren't enough in America, maybe if there were, we wouldn't want to shoot each other for getting cut off going to the cineplex.

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    15. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by DarenN · · Score: 2, Funny

      Typical Americans, claiming that their volcano is "Super"

      --
      Rational thought is the only true freedom
    16. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Synonymous+Bosch · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's convenient enough for Canadians to tell how they saved Americas Bacon during the war for Independence, but the second you blame them for Americas rise to world domination, they get all defensive...

    17. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by jonfr · · Score: 1

      I am not American, but it is a super volcano anyway.
      For the record, I do live in Europe.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

    18. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh! Git oot you! eh?!

      EH!

    19. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Brynath · · Score: 2, Funny
      Bahh, You Canucks can't take all the credit for that very warm winter Getup.

      Us Alaskans have been wearing that for just as long as you all.

      But then again most of the US doesn't believe we are part of the US, so uhhh can we stay with you?

    20. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by CaptainBruce · · Score: 1

      kudos on not translating your measurements and readings from metric.

    21. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      No, *the* Ice Age.

      Expect more sequels.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    22. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by Nos. · · Score: 1

      I would not call that typical in Canadian cities today. Maybe in small towns you may find it occasionally. Moore (like lots of film makers) picks abnormal situations and plays them as normal to make a point.

    23. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by mi · · Score: 1

      went to Canada asking about gun laws, and found that people didn't lock their doors

      A lot of Americans do not either.

      In America that would get you shot.

      Not if there is a filming crew outside — makes it fairly obvious, you aren't a criminal sneaking in.

      Unless, of course, someone recognizes Michael Moore — then all bets are off.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    24. Re:Blame the Canadians, of course! by corychristison · · Score: 1

      It was indeed in a blizzard... I didn't 'like it', per se, I knew it had to be done so I did it. :-P

  4. Playing the odds by symbolset · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Finally one of these articles that mentions both panspermia and periodicity of extinction events in TFA.

    Before the bookmakers get started let's get this out there: although the odds of an extinction level event occurring today or tomorrow or this year is exceedingly remote astronomers agree that in the fullness of time it's not just likely, it's certain.

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    1. Re:Playing the odds by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

      So what you're saying is that's a race between the end of mankind and Duke Nukem Forever?

    2. Re:Playing the odds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      do you really think Duke Nukem Forever is going to be good enough to be considered an extinction-level event?

    3. Re:Playing the odds by Jorophose · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes.

    4. Re:Playing the odds by symbolset · · Score: 2, Funny

      If I had modpoints and I hadn't posted in this thread, I'd mod your post +1 informative even though it was just one word.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    5. Re:Playing the odds by SIR_Taco · · Score: 0

      That is the funniest statement I've heard/read all week. Man I don't get out much

      --
      I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
  5. Really! by actionbastard · · Score: 1

    Canada? Comet? Ice Age?

    --
    Sig this!
    1. Re:Really! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Canada? Comet? Ice Age?

      I am a fundamental christian you insensitive clod!

      The world was created 6000 years ago.

  6. I can hear them now... by Adreno · · Score: 1, Funny

    ... cynical politicians all over the U.S., secretly planning to bring a comet to Earth to quickly solve our global warming crisis. Hey, it'd be easier than lessening our dependence on foreign oil, right?

  7. not new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
  8. We'll save the planet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... from global warming eh!

  9. Interesting ad placement by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is anyone else getting a banner ad on the side that is advertising the "Scientology Video Channel"? Rather amusing pairing, I suppose. Real science sharing my browser with a religion based on the writings of a third-rate science fiction author.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  10. Re:Behind the Power Curve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I wonder what they would've done to Al Gore in 700AD if he'd run "

    King Arthur: "you don't vote for Kings"

  11. Re:Behind the Power Curve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    your FP was shit, you can't count and you don't know science.

    Oh, and i think bringing up Al Gore in a climate change thread is becoming a Godwin-esque event.

    Tl;dr you can't read.

  12. Ice & Canada by nickthisname · · Score: 1

    Why does the word redundant keep bouncing around in my head.

  13. bungled phrase, and the fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    No; read the whole clause:

    [something] lengthened the Ice Age nearly 13,000 years ago that should have been coming to an end.

    The phrase "the ice age" is qualified; it's only talking about the ice age that [did something or other], which it specifies in the final clause. The misplaced adjective phrase does break standard English syntax (which is often order-sensitive), but not enough to change its meaning to a description of "the one and only" ice age. Of course, capitalizing "Ice Age" as if it were a proper noun does imply that the author was thinking this, even if he didn't manage to screw up the sentence badly enough to say actually say it.

    Obeying proper syntax, the phrase should either have been this:

    [something] lengthened the [i]ce [a]ge that should have been coming to an end nearly 13,000 years ago.

    Or this, moving the temporal description into the previous clause so it describes the time of the event (like the phrase "over what is now Canada" describes the place of the event) and not the time of the end of the ice age in question (and of course getting out of the way of that qualification of which ice age we mean):

    The explosion, which occurred nearly 13,000 years ago over what is now Canada, caused the extinction of animals and cultures and lengthened the [i]ce [a]ge that should have been coming to an end.

    1. Re:bungled phrase, and the fix by WgT2 · · Score: 1

      The 'the' comment was both for the previous post AND for the title of the article, which, on Slashdot, are so often misleading about the actual nature of the story.

      I do appreciate the grammatical break down - one just does not see such thoroughness on a regular basis.

  14. It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dear lord, PLEASE let it be where Quebec is. When the US military gets a hold of this information, and starts the attack out of retaliation ("Them terrorist rocks is gonna try to kill us all! NINE-ELEVEN! EVERYBODY PANIC!"), we might be able to deal with 2 issues at once.

  15. Lengthened the Ice Age? by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 1

    Conversely, it may have delayed global warming.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  16. In an alternate reality by edittard · · Score: 1

    Ask not what you can blame on Canada - ask what Canada can blame on you.

    - J.F. Kennedeski

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  17. Re:Behind the Power Curve by Atrox666 · · Score: 1

    You Godwin nazi

  18. Priorities by Tabernaque86 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Look guys, we're sorry and all, but really, this was important to us. I mean, the beer was starting to get a little warm, and we still had a few thousand games of hockey to play. This ice age extension was really just the thing we needed.

  19. Damn Comet!!!! by jameskojiro · · Score: 2, Funny

    By lengthening the Ice Age we messed up the cycle and today we are entering in a warming period, if this comet hadn't hit us we would be running into another cooling trend around now and CO2 would be the bees knees and we could drive our SUVs and people would be a lot damn happier.

    I blame Canada too.

    --
    Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
  20. wake up call by Freeside1 · · Score: 1

    perhaps the people that think human byproducts have the biggest impact on the climate will wake up after more reports like this. That Earth isn't a closed system, that there are huge fucking things flying around this tiny blue marble that effect our climate much more than humans making some unpleasant gases.

    1. Re:wake up call by Ambitwistor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      perhaps the people that think human byproducts have the biggest impact on the climate will wake up after more reports like this. That Earth isn't a closed system, that there are huge fucking things flying around this tiny blue marble that effect our climate much more than humans making some unpleasant gases.

      You are very confused.

      The existence of large extra-terrestrial influences on climate doesn't somehow negate the possibility of large human influences on climate.

      Yes, if a giant comet or asteroid hit the planet tomorrow, that would seriously screw up the climate, moreso than human actions. That doesn't mean that humans aren't currently having a big impact on changes in climate, or that people who are concerned about this need to "wake up" from anything.

    2. Re:wake up call by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Sorry. It was the burritos.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  21. Oval Holes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't have time to read the article yet, but, does this explain the mysterious oval depressions found along the eastern seaboard and up through Kentucky? The ovals all have their long axis aligned with a point near the Indiana/Ohio border.

  22. The usual grain of salt by Ambitwistor · · Score: 1

    References: couldn't find the latest study, here and here for earlier comet-impact groundwork.

    Note that the latest research being reported here is just new evidence for a comet, not new evidence specifically for a comet-climate link.

    I know everyone likes a "big outer-space thing smashing the Earth" story, but there are certainly other theories of what caused the Younger Dryas cooling; the prevailing theory is a shutdown of the thermohaline circulation due to fresh water from Lake Aggasiz as the Laurentide ice sheet began to disintegrate. (Remember, this occurred just after substantial warming had already taken place.) There is a fair amount of evidence that this happened, although the clues are hard to piece together.

    This comet-cooling theory is new (less than a year old, although pieces were in place three years ago), and it will take years to settle amongst the paleoclimate community. My understanding from other reading is that they try to piggyback on the THC collapse idea instead of competing with it, since there is evidence for it and it's hard to explain a cold snap of such a long duration (1000-1500 years) with a comet alone. I think the idea is that the cometary impact was responsible for the freshwater flux by breaking up the ice sheet. That is, it wasn't the warming that dumped water into the Atlantic, it was a comet. I'm personally somewhat skeptical, given the extent of the ice sheet and the timing of the event (right after a large amount of warming). Then again, maybe a cometary strike at the right place could do it, or could finish off an already-weakened ice sheet. I'm not a geologist.

    Anyway, my point is that this is a very new result which has not yet had time to be thoroughly critiqued, and there are already existing hypotheses. This one isn't necessarily better, and it's also possible that a combination of factors were at work.

  23. Re:Behind the Power Curve by CorporateSuit · · Score: 1

    Well, Al Gore did invent the Earth-cooling comet, after all. "For the good of the world!"

    --
    I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.