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Antarctic Climate Research Expedition Trapped In Sea Ice

First time accepted submitter Stinky Cheese Man writes "An Antarctic climate research expedition, led by climate researcher Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales, has become trapped in heavy ice near the coast of Antarctica. The captain has issued a distress call and three nearby icebreaker ships are on their way to the rescue. According to Turney's web site, the purpose of the expedition is 'to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south.'"

209 comments

  1. Re:First Pole! by Moblaster · · Score: 2

    It's not about being the frist pole. It's about being the first best poler who can spell.

  2. Mission accomplished by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    > the purpose of the expedition is 'to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south.

    Looks like they found some.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    1. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Global cooling confirmed!

    2. Re:Mission accomplished by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I had not intended to imply that. Only that, if there were an unusual amount of sea ice in what amounts to the peak of summer in the south, that would be interesting data.

      My point was more like "you can find interesting data even in failure". They did not get to their destination, but the reason why may yield data important to their project. Just sayin'.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    3. Re:Mission accomplished by OptimalCynic · · Score: 0

      It'll yield a lot more that's relevant to sarcastic climate denier blogs. Well done Dr Turney, another PR triumph!

    4. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      It may be just past the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere but like the northern hemisphere the sea ice minimum occurs closer to the autumnal equinox which will be in March. A ship getting trapped in sea ice like this is more a matter of luck and bad timing than any unusual amounts of sea ice. The wind shifts unexpectedly and moves the existing sea ice into a position that blocks the ship. It doesn't take all that much ice to block a ship.

      One interesting fact about Antarctica is that the sea ice essentially melts out completely every year so there is no carry over from one year to the next like there is in the Arctic.

    5. Re:Mission accomplished by WaxItYourself · · Score: 1

      Because a cooling Antarctic means the entire globe is cooling right?

    6. Re:Mission accomplished by bricko · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      How did this get past the Slashdot censors. They have been censoring any discussion of GW for some time. Must be run by the Reddit asshats now. Especially since the IPCC is now trying to figure out the lack of warming for the last 15 yrs. Or.....we could look at all the predictor models.....vs REALITY http://www.drroyspencer.com/2013/04/global-warming-slowdown-the-view-from-space/

    7. Re:Mission accomplished by war4peace · · Score: 0, Troll

      One interesting fact about Antarctica is that the sea ice essentially melts out completely every year so there is no carry over from one year to the next like there is in the Arctic.

      Another interesting fact is that what you're saying is essentially bullshit.

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

      Do you see the water levels rising by 70 meters each year? 'cause I sure as hell don't.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    8. Re:Mission accomplished by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      After the takeover of reddit by the AMA bunch, subsequent attempts at /. by redditors were dispensed with the evening meal's cutlery because no one believed they were actually 'going to try to land the plane'.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    9. Re:Mission accomplished by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Even more of an interesting fact is that sea ice is only part of the antarctic ice sheet and is often ignored when talking of the later.

      Seriously, he limited his comment to the ice in the sea and as we know, ice is equal to the amount of water it displaces so there will be no rise in sea level when "sea ice"melts.

    10. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You should learn the difference between Sea Ice an Ice Shelf and an Ice Sheet before spouting off showing your ignorance. I stand by my statement that Antarctic sea ice melts nearly completely every year. Regarding the Antarctic Ice Sheet which you cited it's a big chunk of ice and would take several thousand years to completely melt under any imaginable circumstances.

    11. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The story itself has nothing to do with global warming nor even the increase in Antarctic sea ice. It's about a ship that got caught by shifting winds closing existing ice around it and trapping it which is possible with nearly any amount of sea ice in the vicinity. But it was a sure thing that global warming would come into the conversation.

    12. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spencer, ha ha, a Creationist. God will create the clouds we need to stay cool! And this guy is tops for the Denialist crowd, too.

    13. Re:Mission accomplished by AndrewBuck · · Score: 0

      He wasn't showing off his ignorance, as I doubt you are the first person to correct him for such a nonsensical comment. What he was doing was spouting a political agenda that is about as much based in reality as the Lord of the Rings.

      Deniers don't base their position on facts because they don't have any facts to support their position. I forget who said it first but a relevant quote is that "you cannot reason someone out of a position that they were not reasoned into".

      -AndrewBuck

    14. Re:Mission accomplished by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Hm. It's comments like this that make me wonder if people like "war4peace" up there is really trying to push his (her? it?) argument or if he's deliberately serving as a straw man. My test is if the phrase "if this person didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him" might seem to apply.

      I suspect there are people like this on both sides of this issue. For instance, when someone says with a straight face that any unusual cold is weather but any unusual heat must be climate change, I wonder if they might secretly be working the other side.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    15. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      You're probably right but I usually give people the benefit of doubt if I don't know better already. At least he didn't cite something like ClimateDepot.

    16. Re:Mission accomplished by AndrewBuck · · Score: 1

      I used to give people the benefit of the doubt as well but I stopped that quite a while ago. After dealing with years of creationists pulling crap like this and then seeing people start to do the same with climate change I decided it was just better to admit that they don't have any interest in changing their position on the issue so why even waste my time.

      If others want to refute them that is fine with me, and maybe somewhat important so they don't "infect" people who see their unopposed statement and take it to be accurate, but I just don't have the desire to do that.

      -AndrewBuck

    17. Re:Mission accomplished by Charcharodon · · Score: 0
      This remindes me of the dumbasses protesting global warming in Washington.....during a snow storm.

      Karma (and Mother Nature) is a bitch ain't she?

    18. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      One interesting fact about Antarctica is that the sea ice essentially melts out completely every year so there is no carry over from one year to the next like there is in the Arctic.

      I have to admit I was a bit wrong on this. I've been saying that for a while and decided to check on it. I downloaded the monthly mean sea ice extent and area from the NSIDC*. The data covered from November 1978 to November 2013. The Antarctic sea ice minimum monthly extent always occurs in February and is around 3 million miles^2 varying mostly from about 2.5-3.5. The Antarctic sea ice maximum always occurs in September and is around 19 M mi^2 varying mostly from about 18.5-19.25 except it was a record 19.77 last September.

      So I was wrong that it melts out completely but it drops around 85% every year. In my defense that may be valid for some values of "essentially melts out completely". ) The remaining sea ice is mainly in the Weddell Sea (about half of it according to the Mk. 1 eyeball) which is protected from the prevailing currents and winds by the Antarctic Peninsula and along the Western Antarctic coast which is further south than most of the continent. One other interesting thing I discovered was that the sea ice extent drops precipitously from November to January every year from around 16.5 M mi^2 to around 5 M mi^2.

      I could do the area too but I've already spent too long on this research so I'll leave it there but it was fun.

      * Data cite: Fetterer, F., K. Knowles, W. Meier, and M. Savoie. 2002, updated 2009. Sea Ice Index. [indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. http://dx.doi.org/10.7265/N5QJ7F7W.

    19. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Yes, I reply as much for the sake of others reading the conversation as I do for the OP. It's just something I do.

    20. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go take a look at the actual data and you will discover that sea ice levels in antarctica has been steadily increasing for decades now and last few years have had record high amounts of sea ice.
      But sadly we only hear about the localized regions of ice loss and never about the total increase of sea ice at the south pole.
      Even global sea levels have recovered quite a bit and has been pretty much normal this year, which is something that has not happened since mid-late 90s.

      I really recommend you take a look at the actual satellite data found here: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

      It is not strange that people become "deniers" when the media coverage is so one sided and biased.

    21. Re:Mission accomplished by runeghost · · Score: 1

      The deniers are so desperate for "data" I'm surprised I didn't have a bunch of them at my house when my furnace went out, claiming it was evidence that global warming isn't happening.

    22. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      Well, interestingly enough I just did go look at actual data as mentioned in the reply to myself just above your reply. Based on the data I downloaded (monthly mean sea ice extent from November 1978 to November 2013) I don't think it's accurate to say the Antarctic sea ice has been steadily increasing over the past 3 decades. Maybe there is a bit of a trend but the maximum monthly extend varied mostly between around 18.5 million mi^2 to around 19.25 M mi^2 over most of that time although it's been exceptionally high the past two years. Just eyeballing it maybe there's been about a 200,000 mi^2 increase over 3+ decades. That's ignoring the past two years because it's too soon to tell if that's a change in trend or just an anomaly.

    23. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude was making a joke, ugh, you're so boring.

    24. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Yes, they pretty much jump on any piece of data that appears to support their position usually ignoring the context of it. They don't have much else to hang their hats on.

    25. Re:Mission accomplished by Optali · · Score: 1

      Indeed!
      here in Holland we call it "Winter",

      BTW, would it too much asking to you send us a bit of snow our way?
      It's friggin hot here with 12-15C, thanks a lot mates!
         

      --
      -- 29A the number of the Beast
    26. Re:Mission accomplished by Optali · · Score: 1

      Well, I assume that in Antartica you would expect to find ice, isn't it? Even in the summer.
      But maybe the Anticlimate Priesthood results to be more Roman than the Pope and assume that there is no ice in Antartica, LOL.

      Well, I wouldn't expect less from people who say that the earth is 6000 years old.

      --
      -- 29A the number of the Beast
    27. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is it possible to admit you are wrong on /.? this is my first observance, so i am quite proud of you.

    28. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      LOL. I've done it before when I was even more wrong than in this case. If you have a scientific bent like I do it's more important to me to get the science right than to be personally right all the time.

      And while I'm at it another correction, I should have said the Western Antarctic coast is further south than most of the Antarctic coast, not the continent itself.

    29. Re:Mission accomplished by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      I actually have some respect for Roy Spencer. Yeah, he may be a YEC but he does have scientific training relevant to climate science. He is able to talk the science with other climate scientists on their level and having a contrarian like that around looking for holes is probably a good thing. It helps keep things real because they can't just dismiss him out of hand like a run of the mill denier without the training.

    30. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Deniers don't base their position on facts because they don't have any facts to support their position."

      Now come on, man. This is the most ridiculous statement I've seen on /. today.

      Even creationists have some facts that support their position. Not enough to carry the day, but saying they don't exist is just another kind of denial.

    31. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have a scientific bent like I do it's more important to me to get the science right than to be personally right all the time.

      In one of his books, Dale Carnegie said he once asked a scientist what he was trying to prove. The scientist replied that a scientist never tries to prove anything. He (she) just tries to learn what the facts are. I love that attitude.

    32. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      What facts support the creationist position?

    33. Re:Mission accomplished by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the purpose was to 'retrace mawson's steps'.

      In which case getting stuck is on-target. They need to be there for at least another year.

    34. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Just one example:

      The fact that radiometric dating relies on certain assumptions has been one of their favorite talking points.

      Are those assumptions reasonable? I think so. But they ARE assumptions, and that is a fact.

      Therefore, there do exist facts that can be said to support (or at least not refute) the creationists' arguments.

      I did not say that I support creationism or the young-Earthers. I merely stated that not ALL facts are on one side of the argument. However, most of them certainly are.

    35. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      No, isochron dating only relies on nuclear decay rates being constant, which has been confirmed by SN1987a, etc. Try again.

    36. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      Now that you've moved the goalpost to a fact that just doesn't refute the creationists' arguments, here's one: water is wet.

    37. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Okay, maybe it was a bad example. I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to find another. But the probability of ALL known facts supporting evolution is very close to zero.

      Obviously that does not mean that evolution is false.

    38. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      Again, water is wet, which doesn't support evolution. But your original claim before your goalpost moving was that there are some facts which support the creationist position. You can either find an example that isn't ridiculously wrong, retract your absurd claim, or pull a "Jane" by doing neither. Surprise us.

    39. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Oh, for fuck's sake. WILL you drop this seeming pathological Freudian need to prove me wrong about anything and everything you can?

      You have been behaving like a child for a long time now, and I am very, very weary of this.

    40. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      I will just say this:

      If you seriously dispute that statistically speaking, the likelihood that "NO facts of any kind support creationist arguments" has a probability close to zero (which is NOT moving the goalposts; it was the whole basis of my point), then I'd like to see a rigorous refutation. In order to win, I would only have to find one counter-example; for you to win, you would have to repudiate ALL possible examples. And I'm not even going to bother, because this is a silly thing to argue about and the likelihood that you would win also closely approaches zero.

      I am confident of my statement. However, and I repeat: I do NOT claim it is evidence that evolution itself is in any way refuted or that "young earth" theory has any validity. I am pretty sure we agree that the vast preponderance of evidence is on the side of evolution and of Earth being a few billion years old, give or take.

      But I will say again that it appears you have an ego-driven need to argue with me about just about everything that strikes your fancy, and I will say again -- in complete honesty -- that it appears to me to be extremely immature behavior.

    41. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      It's amusing that you have the time to write all that arrogant nonsense but don't have time to provide even one example of a fact that supports the creationist position. Again, you can either find an example that isn't ridiculously wrong, retract your absurd claim, or pull a "Jane" by doing neither. Surprise us.

    42. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Are you now going to try to claim that your original question was not bait, to draw me into an argument about creationism, in the vain hope I would say something that you could then try to use to claim I supported creationism?

      Go ahead and deny it if you like, but you'll never get me to believe it.

    43. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      I'm not the one who claimed that some facts support the creationist position. You did. Repeatedly. Again, you can either find an example that isn't ridiculously wrong, retract your absurd claim, or keep pulling a "Jane" by doing neither. Surprise us.

    44. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "I'm not the one who claimed that some facts support the creationist position."

      You know very well what my argument was about. You're either missing the whole point, or you're just trolling... again.

      Yes, or no. Do you deny that given the size of the body of evidence, the probability of ALL available evidence being against the ideas of creationism or "young Earth" is very close to zero?

      Do you deny that a corollary if this is that SOME evidence must almost certainly be supportive of creationism?

      Yes, or no? No more blathering. Just yes or no to these two questions. The latter one in particular, because it is more specifically on-topic.

      And I will state again that I am not a believer or a proponent of creationism, nor am I "young earther". I did not claim that either idea was sound, and I already stated that the vast majority of evidence is in favor of evolution.

      So make a damned argument already, if you're going to make one, and stop this childish baiting. I made mine, as you already know. What is YOURS?

    45. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Correction: "corollary if this" should be "corollary of this".

    46. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      Yes, or no. Do you deny that given the size of the body of evidence, the probability of ALL available evidence being against the ideas of creationism or "young Earth" is very close to zero? Do you deny that a corollary if this is that SOME evidence must almost certainly be supportive of creationism?

      Yes, I deny that any fact supports young earth or old earth creationism. Yes, I deny that there is any evidence supporting young earth or old earth creationism. I'm a denier.

      You've repeatedly claimed that some facts support the creationist position. Again, you can either find an example that isn't ridiculously wrong, retract your absurd claim, or keep pulling a "Jane" by doing neither. Since you probably won't surprise us on this account, perhaps lowered expectations are in order. Earlier, you claimed:

      Just one example: The fact that radiometric dating relies on certain assumptions has been one of their favorite talking points. Are those assumptions reasonable? I think so. But they ARE assumptions, and that is a fact. Therefore, there do exist facts that can be said to support (or at least not refute) the creationists' arguments. ...

      I replied by saying "No, isochron dating only relies on nuclear decay rates being constant, which has been confirmed by SN1987a, etc. Try again." and your response was "Okay, maybe it was a bad example."

      Any example may be a bad example, so that wasn't a retraction. Your example actually was a bad example, and anyone who understood my point would have the intellectual integrity to admit that without weasel words. So perhaps my website was down; here's the relevant part:

      Isochron dating results of old rocks depend only on nuclear decay rates being constant in time. Isochron dating isn’t dependent on initial quantities of elements, and the analysis method automatically produces error bars on the obtained age. The oldest rocks we have agree that the Earth is 4.55 billion years old, plus or minus 100 million years or so.

      Just to be clear, we can’t be sure that nuclear decay rates are exactly constant. But experiments have placed constraints on the size of any variation in decay rates:

      1. Supernovae produce many radioactive elements which slowly decay after the explosion. At first they shine brightly in a spectroscopically unique manner, but over the course of several weeks they fade to half their previous brightness. The amount of time it takes the brightness to fade is a direct measurement of the nuclear decay rate. The best example is supernova 1987A, which lies ~169,000 LY away. That means that when scientists looked at that light in 1987, they were measuring the nuclear decay rate as it was around 169,000 years ago. The results were experimentally indistinguishable from current decay rates, and have been confirmed by similar experiments on SN1991T, which is 60,000,000 light years away.
      2. The Oklo natural nuclear reactor left evidence that can be used to determine the fine structure constant and neutron capture rates, both intimately entwined with quantum mechanics’ predictions of nuclear decay rates. This experiment is more ambiguous and as a result the error bars are much larger than the SN1987A constraint, but it’s also consistent with a constant nuclear decay rate. Since the Oklo reactor was active 1.8 billion years ago, the Oklo evidence only supports a change in the fine structure constant of one part in 10 mil
    47. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      I replied by saying "No, isochron dating only relies on nuclear decay rates being constant, which has been confirmed by SN1987a, etc. Try again." and your response was "Okay, maybe it was a bad example."

      Yes, this is correct. It was apparently a bad example. And so, what is your point? I conceded that point. There is no argument here.

      Any example may be a bad example, so that wasn't a retraction.

      Well, it was a retraction of that example. I'm not going to retract my more general claim, because it is not incorrect. And you are already well aware that statistically speaking, it is almost certainly true.

      Here is an example I found. And I admit that it was difficult and actually a bit of fun trying to find one.

      All currently known life forms have structures based on DNA or RNA. This is a fact. Creationists argue that because we know of no actual examples of the evolution of DNA or RNA from simpler molecules, then DNA (or RNA at least) were created and did not evolve.

      NOTE: I do NOT claim it is evidence of creation, only that it is evidence that can reasonably be interpreted as supporting a creationist's arguments. (By the way: the claim of the existence of organisms that use arsenic rather than phosphorus has not been substantiated.)

      Now, let's be clear: I also did not and do not claim that this argument is sound. I am simply saying that it is not an inherently silly argument, it is based on genuine observable evidence, and I am not aware of counter-evidence. (Though I do not deny that some may exist. The very same evidence might be interpreted as supporting the argument for evolution, for all I know, but I am not sure how at this time.)

      Therefore I have found a bit of evidence that supports the creationism argument.

      Nor do I necessarily claim it is even a good argument. Only that here is evidence that plausibly supports such an argument. If you want to call that moving the goalposts, go ahead, and I'll just deny it because that was what I meant by my original comment, as I believe I have explained repeatedly.

      Standard disclaimer: As I stated before, I am neither a creationist or a young-Earther. I am a firm believer in evolution.

    48. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      Well, it was a retraction of that example. I'm not going to retract my more general claim, because it is not incorrect. And you are already well aware that statistically speaking, it is almost certainly true.

      Maybe that was a bad retraction, and maybe you're not retracting your more general claim even though it's absurdly incorrect, and maybe you're accusing me of being "well aware" that your more general claim is "almost certainly true" even though I've been emphatically denying your absurd claim.

      ... All currently known life forms have structures based on DNA or RNA. This is a fact. Creationists argue that because we know of no actual examples of the evolution of DNA or RNA from simpler molecules, then DNA (or RNA at least) were created and did not evolve. NOTE: I do NOT claim it is evidence of creation, only that it is evidence that can reasonably be interpreted as supporting a creationist's arguments. (By the way: the claim of the existence of organisms that use arsenic rather than phosphorus has not been substantiated.) Now, let's be clear: I also did not and do not claim that this argument is sound. I am simply saying that it is not an inherently silly argument, it is based on genuine observable evidence, and I am not aware of counter-evidence. (Though I do not deny that some may exist. The very same evidence might be interpreted as supporting the argument for evolution, for all I know, but I am not sure how at this time.) Therefore I have found a bit of evidence that supports the creationism argument.

      No, you haven't, and you obviously didn't read the link I just gave you:

      It's strange that all life we've studied uses the same DNA bases– a crucial requirement of common descent. However, a Creator who wanted to leave an indisputable proof of intelligent design could have given every species a unique biochemistry that couldn't possibly have arisen through common descent. This is why I was confused when Brett mentioned Message Theory. It seems like the Creator either used evolution to create life (Catholics take this position) or the Creator manually fine-tuned all life on Earth to look like it had evolved from a common ancestor even though it really didn't. Again, notice that intelligent design is compatible with any experimental outcome, whereas evolution would have been abandoned if every other creature we studied had different nucleic acids.

      Your second example was actually bad too, because it shows evolution is falsifiable science while creationism is just religion. Try again.

    49. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Your second example was actually bad too, because it shows evolution is falsifiable science while creationism is just religion. Try again."

      Not at all. The fact that you've argued about this in the past doesn't make you automatically correct. You restate your position here:

      Iâ(TM)m saying that the statement âoeGod created lifeâ is compatible with the evidence âoeall life uses the same DNAâ as well as the evidence âoeeach species has its unique DNA with different nucleic acids.â But, as I point out, evolution is only compatible with the evidence âoeall life uses the same DNA,â which means evolution is falsifiable science and creationism is theology instead.

      First, you are not using technically accurate terms. DNA is DNA. RNA is RNA. Different sequences of DNA are possible and have been observed. Same for RNA. To date, however, no substitutes for DNA or RNA have been confirmed.

      You say "all life uses the same DNA" ... apparently you are referring here to the same bases, AGT & C. Each known life form uses diferent sequences of it, however, making it difficult to tell what your argument is. If what you mean is that "a Creator could make creatures with something that is akin to DNA but isn't DNA", then I understand your argument.

      However, understanding it is not the same as agreeing with it. The notion that different molecules could be used as DNA analogs is certainly testable. In fact, if you recall, there was a recent claim that some bacteria used arsenic instead of phosphorus in their DNA... which would make it "not DNA". I am not aware of any reason to believe that "alternate DNA" would be any more or less susceptible to evolution than our known DNA. Therefore this hypothesis is just as testable as the other. The only difference is that it is not currently, actively testable given our state of technology, and we currently know of no examples.

      Just as, for years, there were no known methods to test for the existence of dark matter. Yet that did not stop many scientists from creating models based on it, nor did it get them ejected from the halls of science.

      Frankly I am not convinced that your argument "evolution is only compatible with 'all life uses the same DNA'", is any more plausible than the argument that "evolution is possible given a suitable alternative analog of DNA". The only difference I see is that only one of them is testable today.

      The flap over the "arsenic DNA" in Mono Lake shows that the other idea is at least plausible to many scientists.

    50. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      First, you are not using technically accurate terms. DNA is DNA. RNA is RNA. Different sequences of DNA are possible and have been observed. Same for RNA. To date, however, no substitutes for DNA or RNA have been confirmed.

      Your accusation is baseless; I haven't confused DNA and RNA. In fact, I've explained how different types of shadow biospheres might or might not keep the same RNA bases while using different DNA bases.

      The notion that different molecules could be used as DNA analogs is certainly testable.

      Yes, that's exactly my point. That's one reason why evolution is testable science, while creationism is religion.

      In fact, if you recall, there was a recent claim that some bacteria used arsenic instead of phosphorus in their DNA... which would make it "not DNA". I am not aware of any reason to believe that "alternate DNA" would be any more or less susceptible to evolution than our known DNA. Therefore this hypothesis is just as testable as the other. The only difference is that it is not currently, actively testable given our state of technology, and we currently know of no examples.

      Nobody's suggesting that alternate DNA would be any more or less susceptible to evolution. I'm just pointing out that we couldn't have evolved from creatures using alternative DNA bases. That's one reason why evolution is testable science, while creationism is religion. As I've explained:

      "You’re talking about a shadow biosphere. It’s possible that abiogenesis happened several times, so finding two types of DNA wouldn’t falsify evolution. What I’m talking about is the scenario where every species in existence has a different set of nucleic acids in their DNA. Millions of separate abiogenesis events would completely destroy evolution. Ergo, it’s possible to find evidence which would disprove evolution. Ergo, evolution is falsifiable science."

      Frankly I am not convinced that your argument "evolution is only compatible with 'all life uses the same DNA'", is any more plausible than the argument that "evolution is possible given a suitable alternative analog of DNA". The only difference I see is that only one of them is testable today. The flap over the "arsenic DNA" in Mono Lake shows that the other idea is at least plausible to many scientists.

      Of course it's plausible. That's what I've been saying for years, so you obviously didn't understand my point. If every species in existence had different DNA bases, life on Earth couldn't have had a common ancestor. Again, this is one reason why evolution is testable science, while creationism is religion. As I've tweeted:

      Creationism isn't even wrong. Evolution is science: it can be falsified by Precambrian apes, or if all species had different DNA bases, etc.

      Just as, for years, there were no known methods to test for the existence of dark matter. Yet that did not stop many scientists from creating models based on it, nor did it get them ejected from the halls of science.

      Here we go again. As I've repeatedly (and apparently pointlessly) explained to you, the first method of testing for the existence of dark matter was developed in 1933. I then tried to explain some of the following tests, but obviously I would've had better luck trying to educate my coffee table. At least it doesn't accuse me of being a

    51. Re:Mission accomplished by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Your accusation is baseless; I haven't confused DNA and RNA.

      I wasn't accusing you of confusing DNA and RNA. Although to be fair, I see how my statement could be interpreted that way. I was referring to your statements "all life uses the same DNA" and "each species has its unique DNA with different nucleic acids". My point was that this is imprecise, loose phraseology.

      First, it isn't clear whether you're referring to "all possible life" or "all known life". If the former, I don't believe we have any solid basis for making that claim. And if the latter, "all life uses the same DNA" is not necessarily accurate... some contains only RNA. Or at least, again, ambiguous because it does "use" DNA during replication, while not actually containing any.

      I'm not trying to nitpick here. I'm simply saying that the way you stated this leaves your meaning open to quite a bit of interpretation, and it is not entirely clear to me what that meaning is. I had to interpret in the way I thought you probably meant, without really knowing if that was correct.

      "I'm just pointing out that we couldn't have evolved from creatures using alternative DNA bases."

      Well, that does make your argument clearer. This much is almost certainly true.

      What Iâ(TM)m talking about is the scenario where every species in existence has a different set of nucleic acids in their DNA.

      Okay, and thanks for clearing that up as well. I am assuming here by "different set" you mean "different nucleic acids", as opposed to "a different sequence of nucleic acids". So if I understood you correctly, I would have to agree with this too.

      Millions of separate abiogenesis events would completely destroy evolution. Ergo, itâ(TM)s possible to find evidence which would disprove evolution. Ergo, evolution is falsifiable science.

      I haven't disputed that evolution is falsifiable science. It's the other part of your argument that I was not following.

      That's what I've been saying for years, so you obviously didn't understand my point.

      And that's what I've been saying. I wasn't sure I understood your point because I felt your explanations were ambiguous. Pardon me for not having read the whole page. But I did read quite a bit above and below the section you originally pointed me to, and it was still unclear to me. So I was probably arguing against something other than what you actually meant. It happens.

      Creationism isn't even wrong.

      And I agree with you that creationism isn't even science. At least what I've seen of it certainly has not been. But remember what my original comment was: "some facts exist that are evidence of creationism". (Or close enough as makes no difference.) But that was all I meant. I said or implied nothing else; only that some facts can support the argument of creationism... whether it is valid "science", or not. Something they can use to argue. I didn't even say that the argument had to hold up under scrutiny... only that there is evidence for it.

      So -- as I tried to get at earlier -- I think we are again discussing two different things. I wasn't trying to argue that creationism was falsifiable. Or any of those other things you have brought in to the conversation.

      As I've repeatedly (and apparently pointlessly) explained to you, the first method of testing for the existence of dark matter was developed in 1933.

      And I find this repeated assertion astounding. As I have explained to you several times, observational evidence of extra mass, and experimental testing of the "dark matter" hypothesis over alternative explanations for the "missing mass", are two different things. Any other claim is absurd. The latter did not come until much later. You are conflating observational evidence of extra mass with experimental testing of the dark matter

    52. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      ... I was probably arguing against something other than what you actually meant. ... I think we are again discussing two different things. I wasn't trying to argue that creationism was falsifiable. Or any of those other things you have brought in to the conversation. ... you have done an awful lot of arguing over things I have NOT said.

      No, I debunked these things you said:

      ... All currently known life forms have structures based on DNA or RNA. This is a fact. Creationists argue that because we know of no actual examples of the evolution of DNA or RNA from simpler molecules, then DNA (or RNA at least) were created and did not evolve. NOTE: I do NOT claim it is evidence of creation, only that it is evidence that can reasonably be interpreted as supporting a creationist's arguments. (By the way: the claim of the existence of organisms that use arsenic rather than phosphorus has not been substantiated.) Now, let's be clear: I also did not and do not claim that this argument is sound. I am simply saying that it is not an inherently silly argument, it is based on genuine observable evidence, and I am not aware of counter-evidence. (Though I do not deny that some may exist. The very same evidence might be interpreted as supporting the argument for evolution, for all I know, but I am not sure how at this time.) Therefore I have found a bit of evidence that supports the creationism argument. [Jane Q. Public, 201]

      You were wrong. Again. You didn't find "a bit of evidence that supports the creationism argument." As I explained, you found evidence that supports evolution.

      In the case of the evolution argument, I have nothing further to say after this. My original comment was clear and I stick by it for, as I explained to you very plainly before, statistical reasons. You may have misunderstood what I meant, and that happens. But getting into whether creationism is falsifiable, or what your arguments are for or against it, stray far from the mark. They have next to nothing to do with my original point, which was that very few areas of science (or any ideology, for that matter) have ALL of the evidence on their side.

      You were wrong. Again. You didn't find "a bit of evidence that supports the creationism argument." As I explained, you found evidence that supports evolution.

      ... my original comment was: "some facts exist that are evidence of creationism". (Or close enough as makes no difference.) But that was all I meant. I said or implied nothing else; only that some facts can support the argument of creationism... whether it is valid "science", or not. Something they can use to argue. I didn't even say that the argument had to hold up under scrutiny... only that there is evidence for it.

      Thanks for finally being honest. You're not interested in valid science, just something you can use to argue, even if it doesn't hold up under scrutiny. You've used this "principle of superficiality" to spread civilization-paralyzing misinformation which seems plausible at first glance to non-scientists, but doesn't hold up under scrutiny. In fact, I said as much last year:

      "... each contrarian is more effective at superficial "science communication" than the average scientist. ... Once you get a contrarian started, a stream of regurgitated-but-superficially-plausible nonsense spews forth. Just consider Jane Q. Public. ..."

      ... why you insist on continuing to bring these things [dark matter] up after they have been beaten into the ground baffles me.

    53. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      Jane Q. Public writes "Christ Turney, a climate researcher at University of New South Wales, and some other researchers chartered a ship to go to Antarctica to further their Anthropogenic Global Warming ("climate change") research. The expedition, consisting of 74 researchers and crew, radioed for help on Christmas day, stating that they are trapped in the ice. A chinese ice breaker called "Snow Dragon" came within a few miles of the stuck ship but had to turn back. The researchers and crew are now hoping that the ice breaker Aurora Australis, out of Australia, will be able to reach them." [Jane Q. Public, 2013-12-28]

      As Tom Curtis noted:

      "There is an irony about the various sailors, scientist, reporters and tourists currently being trapped in sea ice. They are not trapped because of the growth of Antarctic Sea Ice. Although the current Antarctic SI is 1.5 million square kilometers greater than 1979-2008 mean for this time of year, it is nonetheless melting rapidly, including just north of Commonwealth Bay where the Shokalskey is trapped. Rather, it is trapped as a consequence of portions of ice shelves breaking of the Antarctic coast line. Specifically, in 2010, Iceberg B-9B, a remnant of a calving event on the Ross Ice Shelf in 1987, collided with the tongue of the Metz Glacier, breaking it of. The debris from that collision, it appears, has remained more or less in situe for the last three years, until b winds shifted out from the terminus of the Metz Glacier towards Commonwealth Bay, trapping the Shokalskey. This is described in more detail on the mission blog."

      Tom also noted that the mission's 2nd goal was to "explore changes in ocean circulation caused by the growth of extensive fast ice and its impact on life in Commonwealth Bay."

      For some strange reason, the CFACT link Jane provided tells a different story.

    54. Re:Mission accomplished by khayman80 · · Score: 1

      Lonny Eachus responds to a tweet using the acronym RWNJ with a rant about "Nut Jobs" (NJ):

      That is what ideologues do. They can't stand to even hear you disagree. THOSE are real NJ, and why they must not win. Another example: Reddit just banned any discussion that does not agree with "climate change" from their science forum. They claimed that "deniers" were rude, aggressive, and not actually discussing science. Funny, but I've seen exactly the opposite: THEIR "side" doing that. [Lonny Eachus, 2013-12-17]

      ... says Lonny Eachus, who is rude, aggressive, and doesn't actually discuss science. Perhaps Lonny Eachus refers to Jane Q. Public's rude, aggressive comments that don't actually discuss science. After all, Jane insists he's NOT a contrarian, so maybe Lonny Eachus wrongly thinks Jane Q. Public is on the side of mainstream science?

      Or maybe Lonny refers to my visit to WUWT, when David M. Hoffer suggested at 3:16pm that I should be referred to as "it". His suggestion obviously appealed to ATheoK, who agreed at 7:44pm that I don't deserve a human pronoun. Other WUWT commenters called me a corrupt lying Godless Anti-American murderer, which WUWT regular geronimo found so distasteful that he assumed Anthony Watts would apologize... until I pointed out that Watts already knew and had responded by banning me from WUWT. Maybe Lonny Eachus wrongly thinks Anthony Watts and WUWT commenters are on the side of mainstream science?

      Or maybe Lonny Eachus refers to Foxgoose whose egregious victimization rippled back in time. Or maybe Lonny Eachus refers to Geoff Chambers's blog, where commenters like Foxgoose called me and others lying borderline insane cult member guard dogs committing savage attacks. Maybe Lonny Eachus wrongly thinks Foxgoose and Geoff Chambers are on the side of mainstream science?

      Here's what Dr. Nathan Allen, reddit science forum moderator, actually said. My emphasis:

      ...no topic consistently evokes such rude, uninformed, and outspoken opinions as climate change.

      Instead of the reasoned and civil conversations that arise in most threads, when it came to climate change the comment sections became a battleground. Rather than making thoughtful arguments based on peer-reviewed science to refute man-made climate change, contrarians immediately resorted to aggressive behaviors. On one side, deniers accused any of the hard-working scientists whose research supported and furthered our understanding of man-made climate change of being bought by "Big Green." On the other side, deniers were frequently insulted and accused of being paid to comment on reddit by "Big Oil."

      After some time interacting with the regular denier posters, it became clear that they could not or would not improve their demeanor. These problematic users were not the common "internet trolls" looking to have a little fun upsetting people. Such users are practically the norm on reddit. These people were true believers, blind to the fact that their arguments were hopelessly flawed, the result of cherry-picked data and conspiratorial

  3. Re:First Pole! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (see GP title) Whoosh.

  4. Global Cooling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So liek .. ice is growing.. ship got trapped .. climate's doing well .. go home already!

  5. Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarctic by mc6809e · · Score: 5, Interesting
  6. It's summer down there now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't forget that south of the equator summer started about a week ago.

  7. Antarctica is Awesome... by DexterIsADog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...it's starkly beautiful, and nothing compares to hiking an extinct volcano and looking down on a colony of hundreds of penguins.

    But I don't recommend getting stuck there. No. Definitely not.

    1. Re:Antarctica is Awesome... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you guys see that horizon? It looks more like a peak you can almost see over, what a beautifully desolate place.

    2. Re:Antarctica is Awesome... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Here in my town is a small sailing club. Not really a club but a school.
      A few months ago we had a photo/film show about(by) a couple traveling through the arctica with a sailing ship.
      One very funny part of one photo show or movie (don't remember, I guess the camara man involved wanted to make a movie and his GF photographed him and we saw the photos).
      So the camara man is moving to a small snow hill with a dozen or so pinguins on top.
      Plants his camara in front of them, like 5 yards away.
      And while he watches them and wonders how to film them perfectly and was setting up his camera one pinguin jumped down. The pinguine made a big circle to the left to finally come up from behind the camera man standing to his right. The pinguin was watching its comrades and always was very agitated looking to the camera man, like he was saying: oki! Lets go! What is it you find so funny? Why are you filming us (erm them) ... the whole sequence with that pinguine was so hillarious!

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    3. Re:Antarctica is Awesome... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Der ver zwei peanuts, valking down der strasse, and von vas . . . assaulted! peanut.

  8. isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by alen · · Score: 0

    every summer there are stories of the ice melting and falling into the ocean and whatever and how there won't be any ice left soon

    1. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Such an intelligent comment! Can I please have my cheeseburger now, alen?

    2. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by alexander_686 · · Score: 1

      No, not yet.

      Climate science’s predictive powers are poor. Which is the nature of young science, using scant data and unable to run many experiments. The worst case dire predictions make headlines. The hashing out of the important but dull details does not.

      This is a good example. The scientist correctly predicted that the artic would warm, but they have tended to underestimate the speed that it has warmed. Asked scientists 10 years ago if the artic would be free of ice in 50 years you would have gotten a resounding “no”. Today? A tentative “yes”.

    3. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, Emperor Gore stated uncategorically that the polar ice caps would be gone. I guess he was hoping his house in Lebanon, Tennessee would be waterfront property by now and he could resell it for a profit. Sorry Prince Albert.

    4. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Asked scientists 10 years ago if the arctic would be free of ice in 50 years you would have gotten a resounding “no”. Today? A tentative “yes”. ... Will it happen? A definitive "no idea". :-D

    5. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, not yet.

      Climate science’s predictive powers are poor. Which is the nature of young science, using scant data and unable to run many experiments. The worst case dire predictions make headlines. The hashing out of the important but dull details does not.

      This is a good example. The scientist correctly predicted that the artic would warm, but they have tended to underestimate the speed that it has warmed. Asked scientists 10 years ago if the artic would be free of ice in 50 years you would have gotten a resounding “no”. Today? A tentative “yes”.

      This is a video of Al Gore in autumn 2008 quoting climate scientists saying the arctic would likely (80%) be ice free in five years:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hI5t3Uwfkk&t=26m58s

      Moving the goalposts after the fact isn't science.

    6. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by bussdriver · · Score: 1

      No their predictive powers are not poor; they are better than psychics, TV pundits, most political advisers, many investors...

      This is not weather forecasting, it's a long term science akin to geology. You can use geology to predict projections into the future too. It'll do about as well in the end but watching year by year to see how the century comes out is like complaining a rocket is off trajectory by meters... what matters is if it ends up within meters of the target and you are not going to know until it gets there.

      In this case, we are adjusting the whole model as the projection plays out which makes it impossible - even if you are 100% correct, the answer changes as you alter the problem. CA is going into the ocean, slowly - not a hard projection to make and we can't conceive of altering that course anytime soon-- but it may happen and it doesn't make that projection wrong. This is more like some sci-fi time travel story line where small probabilities can impact the outcome greatly.

      No the worst case projections were NOT reported, the average projected trend-line was. They figured we were too stupid to read a proper projection graph. The extreme disasters possible were reported... with each one trying to out shock the other, I'm surprised the Planetary Science people were not pulled into it with all the known extremes that happen on other planets... wrap those around implied connections to Earth by the "reporter" and they could have warped it even more. I remember the 80s stuff about how we only use 1% of the brain; which is still true, but they reported it inaccurately as if that was ALL the time when the science had different levels for different activities - setting up a strawman was setup against brain science.

    7. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by alexander_686 · · Score: 1

      You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that you have predictive power, that it is less than 100% (i.e. weather forecasting), but it is better than flipping a coin (i.e. psychics ). In short, you are not making any statement about its predictive powers. How about this – let’s say that the climate scientist with their models can get with 2 standard deviations – or be about right 5 to 10% of the time. Check out the top chart.

      http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21574461-climate-may-be-heating-up-less-response-greenhouse-gas-emissions

      I will point out that most investors and political advisors can get below 2 standard deviations.

      As you say, when the model diverges from reality you make adjustments. Or junk the model and try something else. This is something you do with science – in particular in a young and developing field. Not so much with older fields. I was taught Newtonian physics long after Einstein had debunked it.

      Personally, I would reference seismologists, not geologist. That is another subject where the science is making huge bounds but has low predicting power of when, and how big, the next earthquake will be. And just because seismologist have poor predictive powers does not mean one should not prepare for earthquakes.

    8. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by tmosley · · Score: 2

      Huh? Physicists have GREAT predictive power. You have to build multi-billion dollar devices to get unpredictable results these days.

      Don't care about the rest of your post. Don't drag physics down to the level of climate "science" and geology, you filthy dirt person.

    9. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      No, not yet.

      Climate science’s predictive powers are poor.

      Quackery and divination and spiritualism also have pretty poor predictive powers. We should weight the quality of the predictions of an "realm of research" based upon the quality of past predictions, not the dire nature of future, unproven predictions.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    10. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by bussdriver · · Score: 1

      READ: psychics. not physicists. big difference.

    11. Re:isn't the ice supposed to be melted by now? by bussdriver · · Score: 1

      How do you measure success in predictions? I would think if you are within the projected range then that is a success; while they did go outside of the projected range YEARS LATER it is after all a detailed simulation of a problem so complex you can never project that far in the future. So I would say their success was limited up to that point in time when the bounds were breached; guess I'm remembering something else... I was sure it was the high bound not the lower one... So next time, the projection will be for a shorter span of time (or they will just include a range so great that it is kind of useless after a few years.) They can make a projection that is almost impossible to be in error by extending the max/min projections and so then it can't be said to be a wrong prediction. Even then, they still had confidence levels so even in error one could say they were not incorrect. It's not like we can reboot the planet and see how many times out of 100 it falls outside the confidence level more than 5 times. You can do the odds for the lottery and say with high confidence nobody will win it (not absolutely but such a low number that it's nearer 0% than 1%)... but eventually somebody gets the numbers... and it's outside of your high confidence level.

      As they get better at simulations they might greatly improve but this is still a vastly more complicated system they are trying to model where even 100% knowledge can't solve for all the chaotic variables being simulated - all one can do at that point is know at what point the information is useless because the projected range (due to chaos) is too vast. One one side you have simulated models-- which are extremely limited and on the other side you have broad understanding that describes long term macro level behaviors that are kind of outside the realm of simulation.

      Fluid Dynamics may be something god doesn't understand (that's a reference to a physics joke,) but the macro level trends can be understood far better. Newtonian physics is macro level and works great but at the micro level it does not work anymore (lets not ruin the point by getting into other perspectives where it breaks as well.)

      seismologists: good point. predictive geology. The one I knew only ever seemed to crush various kinds of rocks. But there you still have two sides-- the one trying to do immediate predictions by constructing models and the other one looking at the plate tectonics and how over 1000s of years how much grinding is going to occur, how fast it moves, etc. the long term one is probably going to be easier but less useful.

  9. This Article is Denialist Propaganda by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone who would insinuate that there is any ice left anywhere on Earth after Global Warming must be an anti-science denialist and must be purged in the name of tolerance.

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    1. Re:This Article is Denialist Propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So much for global warming socialists. Wait! That's redundant!!!

    2. Re:This Article is Denialist Propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone who would insinuate that there is any ice left anywhere on Earth after Global Warming must be an anti-science denialist and must be purged in the name of tolerance.

      Says the derpTard with this in his signature:

      I'll buy that GW is dangerous when ALGORE sells his beach house and carbon-neutrally composts his $100*10^6 from Qatar.

      Yeah, the science is bad 'cause "AL GORE!!1!".

      You're not one to talk (or at least to be listened to).

    3. Re:This Article is Denialist Propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's just the freezers, the average global temperature is the same, but all the cold is in our appliances which have pushed the heat out to the atmosphere.

  10. Time to rename their expedition... by 14erCleaner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They can call it the "Endurance Centennial Reenactment".

    --
    Have you read my blog lately?
    1. Re:Time to rename their expedition... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn you man! You just reminded me of the digestive consequences of "seal hoosh".

  11. Thats what happens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When you actually ACT on if global warming is happening, "There is less ice there, so we will be find" They get there and like "we are totally surprised that we could get stuck in ice when we thought there was global warming!" Bet that research team don't believe in global warming anymore. lol

  12. Self-fulling prophecy? by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    They are in the artic measuring climate change and its affect on reduced sea ice levels yet are now trapped in ice and have called in ice-breaking ships to rescue them, which in turn will reduce the formation of sea ice.

    1. Re:Self-fulling prophecy? by SJHillman · · Score: 1

      Just more proof that you can't measure a system without affecting that system.

    2. Re:Self-fulling prophecy? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      They are in the artic

      That's a pretty noobish mistake for an Antarctic research team to make.

      now trapped in ice and have called in ice-breaking ships to rescue them, which in turn will reduce the formation of sea ice.

      By something on the order of 0.00001% - if at all, given the chaotic nature of climate interactions. For all I know ice breakers might increase the total amount of ice once they've been through.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  13. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    There's about 1.53 million more square km of ice than what is usual.

    This completely disproves the idea of Global warming.

    Perhaps not though, what it does prove is the complete intellecutual bankruptcy of the deniers. You cherry pick the data, and only choose what seems to allow you to take the Ancient Aliens approach of "Oooh, an anomaly - Ancient Aliens."

    And since you were dishonest enought to post only what you wanted, allow me to post the rest: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/

    So now do you try to discredit the people you were using as proof of your denialism? Or is everything they do wrong except for the stuff you like?

    Science is not like politics. Scientists allow things to be discussed that need further explanation, or do not fit. But when people are of a mind to get their science education from politicians, then everything that doesn't fit must be denied.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  14. cruise ship not scientific expedition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    These aren't all scientists on board, they are a mix of tourists with some scientist guides. Such is the sad state of funding these days that you have to hold bake sales to rent a cruise ship which used to be a proud part of the soviet science fleet before it was converted to an amusement park ride.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/231948/icebreaker-on-way-to-ship

    1. Re:cruise ship not scientific expedition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      funding for expeditions has been done this way for decades, part tourist, part research. It is a very good model for them that allows easy funding without constantly begging for funds.

  15. Boy Am I tired of this.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As you contemplate the likelihood of sea level rise, consider that just 20,000 years ago—a snap of the fingers in geologic time and well within the span of human existence—the North Sea didn’t even exist. Global sea levels were as much as 400 feet lower than today, Britain was part of Continental Europe and terra firma stretched from Scotland to southern Norway.

    Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Never-Heard-of-Doggerland-Blame-Climate-Change-From-Millennia-Ago-208341111.html#ixzz2ocNb29cW
    Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12!: http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
    Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

    1. Re:Boy Am I tired of this.... by mevets · · Score: 1

      The earth is a fascinating place, with all its changes over time.
      In that 20,000 years civilization has risen from nearly nothing to what we have today, despite us being virtually unchanged. The likely footing for this advancement is stability of food supply, which rests upon the stability of climate.

      Tiring, I am sure, but critical none the less.

  16. Al Gore says... by bhlowe · · Score: 0, Troll

    Al Gore said the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by now... What the Heck!? I didn't even bring a parka.

    1. Re:Al Gore says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Different ocean, genius.

    2. Re:Al Gore says... by TubeSteak · · Score: 1

      Some people would use this as an opportunity to take pot shots at climate change theory and Al Gore.
      Others would take it as an opportunity to wonder why the previous climate models failed us and how can we improve them.

      Only one of those two attitudes is of any use to the rest of us.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:Al Gore says... by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      I know some people have trouble with the concept, but Antarctica and the Arctic are different places. Also, Gore didn't predict that the Arctic would be ice free in the winter, FWIW.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Al Gore says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Others would take it as an opportunity to wonder why the previous climate models failed us and how can we improve them.

      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50316/abstract

      It's like no one ever thought of that.

    5. Re:Al Gore says... by bhlowe · · Score: 1

      Pot shots? The whole world was supposed to warm exponentially and all the sea ice was supposed to have melted by now. Al Gore was horribly wrong. There hasn't been significant warming in a decade. The "deniers" have been largely correct. And yet, the climate change promoters are just saying the models need to be adjusted. Al Gore is a buffoon.

    6. Re:Al Gore says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only are you wrong, but video evidence of Al Gore himself saying the arctic would be completely ice free by 2013.

      How many times do climate scientists and alarmists have to be wrong before people like you stop defending them? So far they have a PERFECT record of being wrong every single time, yet we still have people saying "Its science and you are not qualified to dispute it". Or in your case, you just deny what was said and hope someone like me doesn't come along with video evidence.

    7. Re:Al Gore says... by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      By now? Exponentially? All the sea ice?

      Citation needed.

    8. Re:Al Gore says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also Al Gore is fat. This alone disproves global warming.

    9. Re:Al Gore says... by bhlowe · · Score: 1

      He said Summer Ice. And its summer in the Antarctic. Where the ship got stuck. Apparently looking for global warming.

    10. Re:Al Gore says... by bhlowe · · Score: 1

      Al Gore's movie didn't mention "Climate change" once, instead only implies future warming, by showing the "hockey stick" graph, which implied exponential warming. Google Al Gore Hockey Stick for a reference. As far as the Summer Arctic Ice, you can google that too. You really need a citation to figure out that Global Warming did not happen as predicted by the quack who got a "D's and C's" in Natural History at Harvard?

    11. Re:Al Gore says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is BBC good enough?

      Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7139797.stm

  17. The news was already in europe 2 days ago by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

    Afaik, there are no ice breakers on the way to rescue but ordinary fright ships. But perhaps they are ice breaking and that fact never was told in germany. The likely closest one is: note, a chineese freighter that stopped unloading its freight and moved imediatly towards the hazardouse ship.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    1. Re:The news was already in europe 2 days ago by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      The owners of ice breakers are usually the nordic countries - Russia, Canada, Norway, etc. I don't think Argentina or South Africa even own an ice breaker.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:The news was already in europe 2 days ago by JWW · · Score: 1

      Does New Zealand have any?

    3. Re:The news was already in europe 2 days ago by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      I don't think Argentina or South Africa even own an ice breaker.

      Then you thought wrong. A few minutes in wikipedia reveals that Argentina does indeed have an ice breaker (and a second that is currently laid up for repairs). South Africa has two. Chile has three, and Australia has one.

    4. Re:The news was already in europe 2 days ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Does New Zealand have any?

      No, but it acts as the base for the US Antarctic program. Flights people and air cargo in and out of McMurdo all leave from Christchurch, NZ. The US's N. Palmer icebreaker research ship is a regular guest.

      Ice strengthening meant that the two new NZ navy patrol boats became too heavy and unseaworthy to get down to the ice. Beautiful SNAFU.

    5. Re:The news was already in europe 2 days ago by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      Argentina is a common launching point for expeditions to the Antarctic, it would be stunning if they had no ice breakers.

  18. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh dear god my eyes! A highly regarded institution like UIUC, and a webpage straight out of 1995 AOL.

    Totally agree with what you're saying though.

  19. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by djmurdoch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The GP posted a statement of fact, relevant to the story. Doesn't sound like a denialist to me.

  20. Counter Point by RocketChild · · Score: 2

    They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let'm crash.

  21. That sword cuts both ways buddy by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    what it does prove is the complete intellecutual bankruptcy of the deniers

    You AGW cultists are a real trip. When you say there will be less sea ice before you say there will be more, it means that the scientists arguing against your beliefs are the ones in intellectual bankruptcy?

    Have the stones to admit you don't actually understand what you thought you did. But then, a real cultist will die before undergoing change to deeply held beliefs...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:That sword cuts both ways buddy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hahahahahahahahahhahahahah
      Clive Best

    2. Re:That sword cuts both ways buddy by riverat1 · · Score: 1, Informative

      Have the stones to admit you don't actually understand what you thought you did.

      I would love it if the deniers took that to heart. It appears to me that most of them aren't willing to wade deeply enough into the real science necessary for understanding.

      As far as the increase in Antarctic sea ice goes the scientific explanation (as always subject to revision with new information) is that it's partially due to the ozone hole over Antarctic which cools down the atmosphere and increases the strength of the circumpolar winds which push the ice around opening up polynyas which subsequently freeze over increasing the sea ice area. Another factor is changes due to global warming in currents and precipitation lead to the water being fresher on the surface of the ocean and more easily frozen. There is no indication that it's simply due to colder temperatures.

    3. Re:That sword cuts both ways buddy by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Since the strongest part of my argument is based in how real science works, and you couldn't even cough up that much - well I think I have no need of further information.

      You are the one injecting all sorts of other political concepts, to distract from the utter failure of your cult.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    4. Re:That sword cuts both ways buddy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have the stones to admit you don't actually understand what you thought you did.

      I would love it if the deniers took that to heart. It appears to me that most of them aren't willing to wade deeply enough into the real science necessary for understanding.

      BFD. There is a lot I don't understand both about science and why jackholes use a term like "deniers" in a scientific context.

      To rectify, which do I study?

      a) climate - will take years ...
      b) how to dismiss jackholes - EASY TASK!

      Why would I wade into the science? Either I come to your exact same conclusion (whatever groupthink that is) or I'm dismissed as a billionaire oil shrill.

      Either way - barring some amazing and publishable scientific discoveries on my part completely outside my field - it is a complete waste of time (from a practical perspective, not the value of learning itself).

      As I see it, the bitchers have an easy task: predict climate caused deaths in 2014, 2015, 2016, ... , 2020, ..., 2050, ..., 2100. And another: be correct in those predictions. Tell us what will happen then remind us after the fact that you told us this would happen. Point to climate (AGW) caused deaths in the past and link those to the release of CO2.

      Happily, I don't expect many climate caused deaths that will stand out from the noise of starvation (warlords/statists), war, bad dietary habits, normal disease (heart, cancer, lung, brain).

      Or do you think it will be 1 death in 2111 and 1 billion deaths in 2112??? What is the (reasonable and AGW) cause of that?

  22. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, because there are no James Hansens in the world. I'm super cereal.

  23. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by JWW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your post is unbelievable.

    The GP poster posted a subject of:

    Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarctic

    And then they posted a LINK to a graph that proved their subject.

    THIS IS ALL THEY POSTED!! No follow on sentences about global warming. No links to any other sites about global warming or to sites denying global warming for that matter.

    The post stated only facts, and made no arguments. Facts that seem to be backed up by the research vessel being stuck in the ice.

    YOU brought global warming into the discussion, YOU called the GP poster a denier (note: I am speaking only to evidence in the GP post, if mc6809e is a raging denier elsewhere I don't know it).

    This isn't really cherry picking of data, it is only presentation of data.

    If there is an increase in antarctic summer ice at the same time there is a decrease in arctic summer ice, we should study what is happening.

    There really wasn't a global warming argument being made in the GP. You just saw one there. Check your glasses.

  24. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Hilarious. Calling people "deniers".

    www.climatedepot.com

    Is that good enough for you? You alarmists crack me up. Self righteous idiots - 'useful idiots', as comrade Lenin would have called you...

  25. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science is a religion and religious zealots will defended Science Dogma to the dead.

    science is the observation of "stuff" and coming to some theory and then testing, testing, testing to reduce observation to fact. Observation and testing causes science to change.

  26. Re:First Pole! by Evil+Pete · · Score: 1

    Frist Ploe!

    Non-canonical. No karma for you!

    --
    Bitter and proud of it.
  27. Re:Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact is they(Climate Reseachers) will be breaking the ice, means they(Climate Scientists) should own it(Climate Change)!

  28. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    :-) welcome to climate "discussion". It is like talking to religious fanatic -- logic just doesn't work. I gave up trying to argue with them long ago and probably this is exactly what they want -- to control mass media (in this case chats/reddit/etc).

  29. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Teancum · · Score: 1, Troll

    You cherry pick the data, and only choose what seems to allow you to take the Ancient Aliens approach of "Oooh, an anomaly - Ancient Aliens."

    There is plenty of cherry picking of data by all sides of this argument, and far more money to be had for those who support the anthropological global warming hypothesis (especially for "reputable research groups").

    Science should not be as completely contaminated by politics as this particular issue has become, as it really is now a political issue and not a scientific issue as well. That scientists are being active in politics (to keep that money flowing if for no other reason) is one of many reasons why this whole debate is becoming very tiresome for me. Arguments at science conferences about the value of the Hubble Constant or the status of Pluto are one thing, but deciding the fate of entire industries, literally trillions of dollars and how the world's economy is going to reshaped to fit the consequences of this discussion is why so many people have such a huge stake in such a thing. If Pluto is demoted (or has been demoted), nobody really cares other than a bunch of science museums where curators need to rework their orrery and planetarium systems (tens or hundreds of dollars at most at stake). Well, I guess a bunch of school kids have spent a bit more money chewing out Neil DeGrasse Tyson, but it doesn't get even into the million dollar rages at the worst possible estimate of economic impact. More than a million dollars gets spent each time a climate scientist talks at a congressional hearing on AGW.

  30. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by s.petry · · Score: 1

    Which should make you question why we are continuing to argue Global Warming versus Climate damage by human causes which we can prove and know exists.

    In the early 1970s we all heard about how we were messing up the world with pollution. Ocean dead zones have grown by leaps and bounds since somehow the topic was diverted from "clean shit up" to "global warming". We could say the same for massive amounts of pollution on the land, water supplies, oceanic garbage pits, deforestation and destruction of terrain, uninhabitable zone increases, etc...

    It should also beg the question regarding geoengineering which has been happening without much public knowledge. But hey, you were right about that "Global Warming". Now can we get back to the real problem instead of yelling about how right we are?

    Science is not like politics.

    That is an arguable statement, because what gets published and gets attention _is_ political. I think I'd agree that long ago your statement was true, but certainly not within the last decade or so.

    And before you jump to an incorrect conclusion, I have never been an advocate for either Global Warming or it's counter. I have said for a very long time that it's the wrong argument to be having numerous times and numerous places including here. I'm glad you can believe you won an argument, but there is plenty left to debate and try to resolve.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  31. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by alexander_686 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Right – go the source. Artic air temp is the highest it has ever been, ice loss is at its highest in the past 50 years, etc.

    The GP then picks a single point of data that covers only 2 years and says “Ha!” At the very least he is cheery picking his data. He is probably misinterpreting the conclusions of the scientist. (Which is not to say that their pronouncements are perfect. Different people can look at the same data and come up with the different results. The problem is taking a single fact out of context.) The deeper problem is that the data actually may indicate a warming trend, not cooling. As it gets warmer the glaciers calf icebergs at a faster rate so you get more surface area covered with ice, not more ice - as this will last as long as the glaciers last.

  32. Well here is the proof..... by 3seas · · Score: 1

    ....chemtrails do work.

  33. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by bored_engineer · · Score: 1

    I started out intending to past a comment similar to yours, so I went through comments by mc6809e for about 20 minutes, and can't find any indications that mc6809e (McFhaie?) gives a fig one way or the other. I found one other post relating to climate (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3588831&cid=43296077) and one post indirectly discussing pollution (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3167773&cid=41568249).

  34. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny cause it also goes the same way with those that deny there is a God. You can give so much proof and how science proves it and yet it is dismissed as craziness.

  35. Re:First Pole! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right, because no one has _ever_ misspelled something after they've correctly spelled it once.

  36. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    grab an atlas, learn the difference between the arctic and Antarctic retard.

  37. No real adventurers left by Chemisor · · Score: 1

    That's a bit harsh, but perhaps more manly. These sissies are missing their chance to freeze to death studying global warming; how awesome that would have been! Back in the days of real men like Scott and Amundsen, if you got stuck in the ice, you stayed stuck in the ice until summer. These days people are such wimps; a little ice on the hull and they call for an icebreaker, "oh please save our poor souls! We did not bring any food or warm clothes, but don't hold that against us - we're adventurers!"

  38. The Greater Good by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Only one of those two attitudes is of any use to the rest of us.

    Actually, they are both useful.

    But far more useful is the person who points out that sometimes scientists are not really scientists, so that we ALL be be skeptical of scientific claims and not just believe it "because Science (bitch)".

    Science is only a useful tool to humanity when it's facilitating a conversation as to what we want to do. When Science is holding a virtual gun to our heads and making unreasonable demands based on questionable data and theories not proved by experimentation, then it's far more a danger than a help.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:The Greater Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At that point, it isn't really science. It's an agenda.

  39. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    I guess you're having a bad day.

    Me too, I have to work on Christmas week. But look on the bright side, Slashdot is a good work substitute!

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  40. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by djmurdoch · · Score: 2

    I don't see how Arctic air temperature is at all relevant to a story about a ship stuck in Antarctic ice.

    But you also seem to be reading things that just aren't there. The post *did not* say "Ha!". It was a statement of a fact. That's all.

  41. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Arctic sea ice extent in 2013 has increased from its unusually low value in 2012 to be within the normal range (within a 2 sigma band around the mean value). Antarctic sea ice extent is unusually large in 2013 (outside of the 2 sigma band). Global sea ice extent (Southern Hemisphere + Northern Hemisphere) is above average and trending higher.

  42. Where's the Irony tag? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot needs an Irony tag for stories like this one.

  43. Hm, maybe we shouldn't have rephrased it... by argStyopa · · Score: 1

    ...because right now we're wishing it was in fact "warming" going on...

    --
    -Styopa
  44. No No No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You see all the greenhouse gas is rising to the Top!!! leaving the bottom of the earth cold. Yeah thats the ticket all the green house gases are rising to the North pole.

  45. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 0

    I don't see how Arctic air temperature is at all relevant to a story about a ship stuck in Antarctic ice.

    I dunno, perhaps it's because the two places are on the same planet? Relevance depends on the argument. If it about summer versus winter, well it's summer in the Antarctic, and winter in the Arctic. If it is about how odd that a boat gets stuck in ice during the summer, then it starts getting relevant. But let us not kid ourselves.

    But you also seem to be reading things that just aren't there. The post *did not* say "Ha!". It was a statement of a fact. That's all.

    Oh, so this is like when Fox News has a story about how the Arctic is melting, and the talking head states "Some people would like to point out that there is more sea ice than ever!", then they show that graph? Then they say "We present the facts, and you decide".

    Regardless, the intellectual dishonesty lies in the presentation, in choosing the particular "facts' to present.

    And I just have to repeat this quote from your post

    But you also seem to be reading things that just aren't there.

    THIS! You are 100 percent correct, and unimpeachably so!

    I will swear in a court of law that I did read things that were not there, and were no where in his linked graph. I read the reports it came from. Guilty as charged, you have found me out.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  46. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by tompaulco · · Score: 1

    Science can't prove there is no God. It can only provide evidence that suggests that what people claim to have seen God do cannot have happened.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  47. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Beeftopia · · Score: 4, Interesting

    mc6809e wrote:
    There's about 1.53 million more square km of ice than what is usual.

    Ol Olsoc wrote:
    allow me to post the rest: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/

    mc6809e noted that in the SOUTHERN hemisphere, there is a +1.53 million square km ice anomaly.

    However, in the follow-on post, it shows that in the NORTHERN hemisphere, there is a -0.63 million square km ice anomaly.

    So, +1.53 - 0.63 = +0.9 net global ice difference over the past 3 years. And this is relative to the mean from 1978-2008.

    Personally, it does make sense to me that there is AGW, but these graphs indicate a net global sea ice increase over the past 3 years. Is it the last word in the discussion? No, but it is an interesting data point.

  48. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by hey! · · Score: 1

    Still not enough to merit an accusation of dishonesty. It's just an interesting fact, that people with working brains can take into account without hyperventilating.

    It actually *is* a quite interesting fact, because it shows how the relationship of antarctic ice to global temperatures is quite complicated, as are weather conditions in any one region of the Earth at any particular time. It's something to keep in mind, next time you look out your window and see a little unseasonable snow, or unseasonable sunshine for that matter.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  49. Re: First Pole! by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    Is that you, Phil?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  50. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by war4peace · · Score: 1
    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  51. South! by kurt555gs · · Score: 1

    I hope they brought a copy of Shackleton's book to read.

    --
    * Carthago Delenda Est *
  52. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Which should make you question why we are continuing to argue Global Warming versus Climate damage by human causes which we can prove and know exists.

    I just get annoyed with idiots. You post something that would appear to be a no brainer, and suddenly you become a liberal marxist socialist tool of the evil Kenyan Overlords. And that the intellectual heavyweights in the opposition's corner are Creationist politicians and people who stand to make profit who use the same techniques they use to deny evolution as they do to deny the Greenhouse gas effects, and the energy being put into the atmosphere via that effect.

    As for my real thoughts on AGW, I am of the firm belief that we are giong to ride that bus until we run off the cliff. My own admittedly limited investigations lead me to believe that not only are we well past the point of stopping what is going to happen, but any country that tries to do anything will be more than offset by other countries.There is too much low hanging fruit fuel available.

    This roller coaster has left the ticket line.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  53. Re: Seems there's more ice than usual in the antar by djmurdoch · · Score: 1

    Anonymous cowards are nobodies. I'd expect you to be saying it!

  54. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    It cannot even prove that. All science can do is prove a supernatural power like God is not needed for something to have happened. Providing an alternative path does not mean it was taken or any other way didn't happen.

  55. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 0

    There is plenty of cherry picking of data by all sides of this argument, and far more money to be had for those who support the anthropological global warming hypothesis (especially for "reputable research groups")

    Huh, I must have been working with the wrong scientists. You must mean the ones who are making 7-8 figures, and bringing in billions of dollars every day for their pro AGW research. Then they have the marked ability to make sure that there is almost no disagreement.

    Man, I worked with scientists for the last 30 some years at a big research University. They are not even close to wealthy, and they all are looking for that breakthrough that will get them noticed. And yes, all the ones I know are convinced that CO2 in the atmosphere is heating us up. And if they need money for proving that Greenhouse gases don't actually warm up the earth, these guys http://www.kochind.com/Companies/ might just be able to provide them with all the money they need. Someone who comes up with a solid proof that CO2 doesn't warm up the planet is looking at Nobel status.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  56. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by djmurdoch · · Score: 1

    I will swear in a court of law that I did read things that were not there, and were no where in his linked graph. I read the reports it came from. Guilty as charged, you have found me out.

    And the error (or is it intellectual dishonesty? I can't tell) comes when you attribute those things you read to someone who didn't say them.

  57. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 0

    Personally, it does make sense to me that there is AGW, but these graphs indicate a net global sea ice increase over the past 3 years. Is it the last word in the discussion? No, but it is an interesting data point.

    Yes, it is very interesting stuff.

    I've always thought that the deniers are unwittingly doing evolutionary biologists and scientists and likewise scienteists that do cliimate research a big favor.

    Any time there is an anomaly, or some talking point, they scurry over it like ants, and pressure is put on the scientisets to "explain the discrepancy." We've seen this in so many cases, such as with the evolution of the eye, and many og the odd little things involved in GA, such as the anomolous temeperatures in the upper atmosphere.

    But we have to admit that it is difficult to convince some people that a higher average global temperature could mean that the melting glaciers in Greenland might disrupt the Gulf stream, which in turn will allow England to cool to a temperature more in keeping with it's latitude ( North Dakota type latitude). After all, many of these people look out their windows and see snow, and that proves to them that Greenhouse based Global warming is not possible.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  58. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure how it's really relevant to the story. The ship is trapped in sea ice at a time of year when there is normally some sea ice around in Antarctica. They just got caught by some shifting winds or something.

  59. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

    > I am of the firm belief that we are giong to ride that bus until we run off the cliff.

    Pretty much my conclusion too. Regardless of what the science shows there is no real political ability to alter the trajectory. So we are going to have an experiment.

    I'm old enough that I don't expect to be alive when the results are in.

    I wish you all good luck!

  60. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarctic

    You really should distinguish between the different kinds of ice (sea, shelf & sheet ice) when you talk about Antarctica because they are very different things. The sea ice, that is ice that forms on the ocean from freezing of the water, has increased it's maximum somewhat recently. However the sheet ice, that is ice that is grounded on land that has built up over thousands and millions of years from snowfall is still decreasing. I'm too lazy to look it up right now but I'd bet that more Antarctic sheet ice is lost than is gained in sea ice so it's still a net loss.

  61. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    If the shoe fits ...

  62. Yeah where is my global warming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Poor idiots..
    Wake up to the global warming scam..
    Perhaps it is clobal cooling?

  63. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by s.petry · · Score: 1

    So what do _you_ get by riding the proverbial bus off the cliff? Think about that long and hard, in parallel with what I mentioned about the real issue being derailed. It's not _you_ that benefits from the debate, and in fact society as a whole has no benefit. In reality a couple people with a whole lot of money benefit, and the rest of us end up suffering.

    It doesn't take running off the cliff to make changes, it takes enough intellectual people to say "enough is enough" and convince the masses to revolt.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  64. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by tmosley · · Score: 1

    "Science is not like politics."

    I see you have never applied for a grant. Sorry, that's "science", not science.

  65. Re: Seems there's more ice than usual in the antar by tmosley · · Score: 1

    Hey, douches are people too!

  66. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by tmosley · · Score: 1

    You'll get further with the claim that ground up babies cures AIDS, even if you have irrefutable proof.

    Climate denial is a litmus test. Deny that CO2 causes global warming as a scientist and you will lose EVERYTHING, no matter what your field is.

    CO2 will warm up a cold planet that doesn't have an earthlike atmosphere. But CO2's heat capacity is on average about the same as the remainder of the atmosphere, barring water vapor, and a good bit less when it is included. Assuming a constant atmospheric thickness, more CO2 doesn't do squat.

    That doesn't mean that increasing CO2 concentration isn't a problem. It's fucking catastrophic! The seas are boiling masses of carbonic acid now, with jellyfish taking over our fisheries. But hardly anyone talks about THAT. No, it's all about "climate change". Honestly, who gives a fuck about a couple of degrees of change when the ocean ecosystem is collapsing?

  67. Can't wait for this one by J'raxis · · Score: 0

    I can't wait to see how they fit this into the "climate change" theory. The ice is melting, it's climate change; the ice is not melting, it's climate change; more ice is forming, it'll be climate change.

    And of course the irony of a "climate change" research expedition getting stuck in sea ice will be entirely lost on them.

  68. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by djmurdoch · · Score: 2

    which in turn will allow England to cool to a temperature more in keeping with it's latitude ( North Dakota type latitude).

    North Dakota runs from about 46 to 49 degrees north. England is 99.9% north of 50 degrees. It would be more accurate to say it's "James Bay type latitude".
    You should be more careful when you're criticizing people for their ignorance.

  69. As Always by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    (as always subject to revision with new information)

    Shouldn't that be "As Never"? Because you never, ever change your CONCLUSION. You just change measured data until it fits the CONCLUSION you know is true.

    That's not science man. Even a guy who builds Vacuums understands this far better than you.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:As Always by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Well, I do change my conclusion because I just read something that indicates the ozone hole may not have as much to do with it as I thought. Now I'm sitting on the fence on that pending further information. As for the main conclusion that global warming is happening and increases in CO2 levels in the atmosphere primarily caused by human emissions are the main cause, there's so much evidence for it and so little against it that it would take something revolutionary to change my mind. But if someone comes up with a magic bullet I'm still willing to change my mind. Just waiting for solid scientific evidence.

    2. Re:As Always by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      ".. there's so much evidence for it and so little against it that it would take something revolutionary to change my mind..."

      Spoken like someone who truly does not know what he's talking about. There is LOTS of contrary evidence. You just haven't seen it, so you deny it exists. That's called "denial".

      Just for example, see here, where Dr. Roy Spencer explains how the greenhouse effect is supposed to work.

      Then see HERE, where this idea is soundly refuted.

      I'm not going to claim to you here that the greenhouse effect is disproved, but the fact is that the scientific basis for it is actually pretty thin.

      If you want to talk about the science, you have to read and talk about both sides, or you are not being honest.

  70. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 2

    Deny that CO2 causes global warming as a scientist and you will lose EVERYTHING, no matter what your field is.

    To deny that an increase in CO2 will cause warming goes against fundamental physics and the radiative absorption properties of CO2. Even such noted contrarians as Roy Spencer and Richard Lindzen will tell you the increase in CO2 will cause warming due to the physics. They just think there are other factors that cancel that warming.

    The heat capacity of CO2 and the atmosphere in general has very little to do with global warming. It's the radiative properties that cause the effect. Over 90% of global warming goes into the oceans.

    You are right that ocean acidification may turn out to be as big if not a bigger problem than global warming but when you say "who gives a fuck about a couple of degrees change" consider that the temperature difference between the depth of the Little Ice Age and the mid-20th century was only about 1 degree C. What difference will 2 C of further temperature rise make?

  71. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Goody · · Score: 1

    When that alternative path from science is more plausible than the theory that a supernatural being discovered by ancient desert goat herders who no one has seen for 2,000 years did it, it may not prove that the being didn't do it, but it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense.

    --
    Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
  72. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by tmosley · · Score: 1

    So if CO2 displaces an equal amount of, say, water vapor, the net effect will be warming? How about if it displaces the same volume of CFCs? Now, how about if it displaces an equal amount of the weighted average of the atmosphere? Anyone proclaiming AGW MUST peforme these thought exercises.

    Now, if you could tell me that climate scientists are actually concerned with the THICKENING of the atmosphere, rather than the increase of the average heat capacity, then I would be happy to listen. But from what I have heard, that is not the argument, and I have been on this tack for quite a long time, as you are probably aware, having gone into it with me before. I have mostly argued with idiots on the internet who never took a physical chemistry course, and thus are unable to understand the significance of an IR spectrum, and certainly not the significance of an IR+RAMAN spectrum.

    Rising temperatures help humanity up to a point. The vast tundra of Canada and Siberia turning into grain belts would greatly benefit humanity by any measure. But that won't happen because of CO2. Perhaps sustained water vapor emission, or a nice dose of CFCs would dot the trick. I'm not one to want to engineer the climate, though.

    I'm glad you acknowledge that ocean acidification is a major if not THE MAJOR problem going forward.

  73. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    There is nothing more plausible about any of it. It is either possible or not. The rest is only your belief or disbelief in that supernatural being and the amount of faith you keep in the possabilities you choose to believe in.

    I planted a tree in my front yard. Of course naturally some how the seed could have been burried in the front yard when the conditions were just right to sprout and i mowed around it until a sizable tree waz there. Which is more plausible. Which makes more sense? Either could be true, it is impossible for you to know whithout being told.

    The only difference between a scientific explaination and a supernatural one is the usefulness to the person using it. And even to that extent, both can be just as true as a scientific inderstanding can be the direct result a supernatural process/creation.

    It is unscientific to compare the two.you just use the one that is most usefull to you when you need it.

  74. Their most significant finding, though... by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Their most significant finding, though will be that "ice breaker ships are tearing up all the sea ice!".

    1. Re:Their most significant finding, though... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Their most significant finding, though will be that "ice breaker ships are tearing up all the sea ice!".

      Thanks, that was funny. Everyone seems to have lost their sense of humor around here.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  75. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    The Antarctic ice volume is about 10X that of the Arctic. A 10% change in Arctic ice is equivalent to a 1% change in the Arctic; we haven't seen a 10% change in the Arctic, but we're close to that change in the Antarctic. Which is more important?

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  76. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure how it's really relevant to the story. The ship is trapped in sea ice at a time of year when there is normally some sea ice around in Antarctica. They just got caught by some shifting winds or something.

    Maybe the something is a growing Antarctic ice sheet?

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  77. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Did you even read the article you cited?

    First of all you need to get your terminology right. The article is talking about sea ice (ice that forms on the surface of the sea) not the Antarctic ice sheet (ice on land that's the result of over a million years of snowfall). The other term you should know is ice shelf (ice that's floated on to the ocean at the tongue of a glacier/ice sheet).

    Second, the article explains that about 80% of the increase can be explained by the strengthening and converging winds around the South Pole. It doesn't appear to have much to do with colder temperatures. In fact in spite of the record sea ice this year Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole set record highs for each month from June to September (winter in Antarctica).

  78. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    I don't think "displaces" is the right word to use here since the added CO2 is in addition to the already existing gases. It doesn't directly force anything out of the atmosphere. As for water vapor some places are very humid and some places are very dry. Since the absorption bands of CO2 and water vapor overlap somewhat the less humidity in the air the more significant the CO2 becomes as a greenhouse gas.

    Yes, I recall having gone into it with you before. I still don't think the specific heat of CO2 has anything to do with it. You'll have to enlighten me about what the IR+RAMAM spectrum has to do with it. I spent 15 minutes looking around and didn't find much. I guess the vibrational state of CO2 molecules must be what you're getting at but I don't make the connection. A CO2 molecule in the atmosphere doesn't hold on to the energy from an absorbed photon for long. As I understand it it either re-radiates it in a random direction or passes it along in collisions with other molecules in the atmosphere.

  79. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

    Logic is derived from observation of this world. It doesn't hold outside of it. Let's return to Plato's cave for a moment. I show a cylinder, it gets rendered as a rectangle first, then i rotate and it's rendered as a circle. If your universe is limited to the projection, and can't conceive 3d, you will say that whatever it was, it has morphed. I will say it hasn't. You will say that the law of non-contradiction states that a thing is either a square or a non square, either a circle or a non circle. Guess what, you are correct from your point of view, yet your POV is useless for me. Either you trust me or not. This has been correctly understood by the makers of some religions (if they were made up, if they aren't then we are not really having something to debate) 2000 years ago, yet can't enter the skull of "intelligent" people today?

    I don't care about what beliefs one has, one can be atheist. What I care about is that atheists realize they are the most inconsistent of the whole bunch every time they assume a randomly chosen logic system is able to determine anything about the hypothetical divine plane.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  80. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by tmosley · · Score: 1

    You said you don't get it, but you demonstrated that you do. It's not about being able to "hold" photons, it's about the number of different energies of photons it can absorb and re-emit. CO2 can only absorb a very specific few, like having a blanket that only holds in a specific wavelength of IR (heat). You'd get pretty cold pretty fast, even if you piled on more and more layers of that "blanket". Water vapor, however, has a very broad peak, meaning it can absorb and reemit almost ANY IR photon that comes into contact with it. A much thinner water vapor blanket will keep things much warmer than a much thicker CO2 blanket. Taking the metaphor a little further, on average, the water vapor "blanket" is much thicker than the CO2 blanket anyways, and the amount of heat forcing from the CO2 amounts to little more than noise as opposed to the signal from the water vapor.

    Water vapor is more significant to global warming, and human activity is a fairly minor source (compared to say, the oceans, or the rainforests), but significant enough to account for the warming we have seen. The CO2 blanket may be twice as thick as it was a hundred years ago, but a water vapor blanket that is 1% thicker than 100 years ago will cause much, much more warming. Even if you throw away said blanket every three days, that doesn't mean there is no more water vapor being pumped into the atmosphere from combustion, or from cooling towers, or from water that can't absorb into the ground because it is blocked by concrete or asphalt, or water that is being run across crop land. This theory matches fairly closely the profile of actual economic growth we have seen over the last century too. Humanity's real economic growth stalled starting about 15 years ago (the tech bubble), with China and other emerging markets growing while the west shrinks.

    My theory gives a testable prediction--warming will correlate with economic growth. If the world economy shrinks, we will get cooler. If it grows, we will get warmer. It also suggests that runaway warming is unlikely, as we can take measures to reduce atmospheric humidity fairly easily (better drainage systems, vapor traps on cooling towers and combustion-based plants, planting more trees, use of improved irrigation methods, etc).

  81. "Global Warming" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm confused how the argument "but it's actually getting colder" is in anyway a valid argument against global warming. Is it not supposed to mean that the climate is warming with respect to the current phase the earth's in? Or am I the wrong one?

  82. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    The level of water vapor in the atmosphere is strictly regulated by the atmosphere itself. It is a function of temperature and the availability of water to evaporate into it. Because of that water vapor can never force climate change but is strictly a feedback. If there is 1% more water vapor (really it's more like 4%) it's because the atmosphere is warmer.

  83. Can this ship withstand being ice bound? by Andover+Chick · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know the specs of whether this ship can withstand being ice bound? I know Shacklton's wooden ship was crushed like a match box by the encroaching ice. An ice ship's bow can break ice but what about the crushing forces from the sides. If so, and they need to camp out on the ice for months, do they have enough supplies? Do they have hard-tack (basically dog biscuits for humans) when the normal food runs out and enough fuel to burn?

  84. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And all the (+) temperature anomalies since the end of the last Ice Age are due to SUV driving soccer moms? Yeah, right...........
    AGW is just a mental masturbation exercise done by libtards because of their hubris on their import to this planet.

    http://tinyurl.com/9k2lqz

    If anything, the case can be made that the slope is headed back towards yet another Ice Age.

  85. Pinguine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's penguin and camera.

  86. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Linguistics can show that authors of books were charlatans. Examples: The new testament's foundation on a known translation error between Hebrew and Greek: born to a virgin. The Book of Mormon's inclusion of translation errors present in Joseph Smith's King James Bible. The Koran's inclusion of known period Abrahamic myths based on translation errors between Hebrew and Arabic.

    Knowing that the author of Mathew, Joseph Smith and Mohammed were scammers is not the same as disproving god.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  87. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Teancum · · Score: 1

    Huh, I must have been working with the wrong scientists. You must mean the ones who are making 7-8 figures, and bringing in billions of dollars every day for their pro AGW research. Then they have the marked ability to make sure that there is almost no disagreement.

    I am not suggesting that an individual scientist is necessarily getting a pile of money, but trillions of dollars are indeed at stake in terms of shifting the economic situation of the world based upon the political arguments that come from both skeptics and apologists for the research.... particularly the apologists. If you are insisting that there are no research budgets from government funds being used to support climate research with the specific goal of trying to identify causes of global warming, and that active advocacy of political positions based upon that research is not happening, I really think you have your head in a hole right now.

    I would love to see this issue settled in a calm manner that was just looking at the actual scientific rationale involved. Unfortunately those who are apologists just shout down anybody who even suggests that the emperor has no clothes.... just like the modding down of my above comment based only upon the idea of -1-- I don't agree with your politics. I've been on Slashdot long enough to know that sometimes things like this just strike a raw nerve, but unfortunately it isn't looking at the substance of the argument either.

  88. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Goody · · Score: 1

    The theory that came into being through science is most always much more plausible than any religiously derived one. Using your tree analogy with more apt examples: a human or animal planted the seed, or an invisible unicorn from one of the moons Pluto begat the tree magically one day. This is what scientific versus religious scenarios tend to resemble. To say that the religious one is just as plausible is nuts.

    --
    Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
  89. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    It is nothing of the sorts. You fail when you start making crap up while trying to be offensive instead of sticking to established concepts that have been around more the 3000 years which are to some degree understood and implemented on over 80% of the worlds religions.

    I too can make random shit up and claim something else is more plausible but it still doesn't mean it is or isn't correct. The example i gave was correct enough, the human being creation and animal being nature. The claim in comparison is about God which according to recent studies, 88% of the world's population belive in God. Do yoy want me to return in kind and cite some psudodcience then claim it makes the supernatural more plausible? It would be just as intelectually dishonest as what you did.

    Like i said, science doesn't prove or disprove a God or that any god did or did not do anything. It only proves that a God might not be needed for something to happen. Anything else you attempt to claim is nothing but your bias. People simply use whichever as it fits their needs at the time and noyhing is wrong with that.

  90. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by khallow · · Score: 1

    Translation errors != scamming. Even deliberately exaggerating or tailoring a story so it fits better the propaganda you're pushing != scamming.

  91. Climate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Climate warming researchers did not expect to find any ice. Obviously a self-deluded and self-hyphotised bunch - the more you repeat something the more you believe type researchers.

  92. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Claiming something came to you from god when you pulled it from your ass (god doesn't make translation errors) is scamming.

    Taking one example: Joe claimed to have translated the books common to the book of Morman and the Bible from 'reformed egyptian' with gods help. Those translations wound up with identical errors as the 19th century King James Bibles that Joe carried. Nonsense. Joe Smith was a scammer.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  93. Re: Seems there's more ice than usual in the antar by locke.th · · Score: 1

    Working at Kearl lake, the largest emission by far is steam....water vapor... and I'm sure there's likely chemicals in that steam, maybe even cfc's... Hmmmm....

  94. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by khallow · · Score: 1

    Claiming something came to you from god when you pulled it from your ass (god doesn't make translation errors) is scamming.

    We don't have to stay wrong on the internet about the meaning of words. There are online dictionaries and such which define words. Scam means to defraud or swindle.

    Those are intentional activities. Merely being wrong because of error, even if it is error that shouldn't be happening by your claimed belief system, is not scamming.

    Similarly, as I noted, even if they are deliberately changing those stories, it doesn't imply scamming. Exaggerating or changing a story isn't automatically fraud or swindling either.

  95. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    What? The translation error isn't the 'scam', it is incontrovertible evidence of the scam.

    The scam is claiming divine inspiration, while making some stuff up and copying some more from another respected source.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  96. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by khallow · · Score: 1

    The translation error isn't the 'scam', it is incontrovertible evidence of the scam.

    Not at all. Evidence distinguishes between one hypothesis and other. Since "translation error" doesn't distinguish between scamming and any of the other outcomes mentioned so far (honest mistake, sexing up a story to sound more impressive or more applicable to contemporary situations), it's not evidence of scamming.

  97. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

    "The GP posted a statement of fact, relevant to the story. Doesn't sound like a denialist to me."

    Thank you for this. I am so tired of seeing just about anything that doesn't toe the AGW line being called "denial". I don't get why THEY don't get that is just denial of another kind. Let's just stick to the science, please, and cease the name-calling.

  98. Re:Seems there's more ice than usual in the antarc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    mc6809e (McFhaie?)

    That's a Motorola!