Slashdot Mirror
Cracks Signal Massive Iceberg Forming In Antarctica
Several readers have submitted news (as covered by an AFP article carried by the Sydney Morning Herald) that a massive iceberg is forming in the Antarctic. The rift in the PIne Island Glacier "is widening at a rate of two metres a day, said NASA project scientist Michael Studinger. When the ice breaks apart, it will produce an iceberg more than 880 square kilometres, said Mr Studinger, who is part of the US space agency's IceBridge project. But the process is not a result of global warming, he said." Also at the BBC.
Not to feed the anonymous troll but this got me curious to do some research since I remember reading of Dennis Ritchies passing first here on Slashdot and later on other news sources. A search for "Ritchie" on Slashdot shows that the story of his passing was posted Thursday Oct 13. The initial Google+ post that the story linked to states that he passed away during the weekend, so up to four days earlier, could this troll actually be correct?
Going on to Google News I can't find any reports of his death before Oct 12. It lists only three sources on Oct 12 (although when clicking two of them they actually come up as Oct 13) and a large amount of sources from Oct 13 or later. In fact Wikipedia claims he passed away on the 12th, the source of that is possibly a New York Times article from Oct 13 which claims he was found dead in his home on the Wednesday. So aside from the difficult part of finding out when he actually died it is very obvious that Slashdot was not several days "after reports in mainstream". Instead it seems like 4 days before the Slashdot post either only his closest family knew of his death or he was even still alive.
If it's 880 square kilometers, it means it won't melt for a damn long time, and once it separates from Antarctica it won't be covered by all the treaties that forbid development there. It will just be a big chunk of ice in international waters. If it managed to float to a warmer place, it would actually make a pretty nice platform for a small country. I wouldn't move there, but that's because I don't like libertarians, not because I don't like ice.