National Ice Center - 12 October - Still Zero Chukchi Sea Ice; NW Passage Still Open

[hatrack]

Chukchi Sea - Zero sea ice - some two small onshore formations:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/west_arctic/Chukchi_Sea/2007/currentcolor.pdf

Canadian Arctic West - the southern route via King William Island still wide open - northern route finally closing up.
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/West_Arctic/Canadian_Arctic_West/2007/currentcolor.pdf

East Siberian Sea - some shore ice formation around islands, northern mainland -otherwise, 100% sea-ice free:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/West_Arctic/East_Siberian_Sea/2007/currentcolor.pdf

Baffin Bay - some shore ice formation, otherwise, clear all the way north to Cape Sabine/Kane Basin:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/East_Arctic/Baffin_Bay/Baffin_Bay/2007/currentcolor.pdf

Barents Sea NW - other than small concentrations of shore ice, Svalbard still 100% ice-free:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/East_Arctic/Barents_Sea/Barents_Sea_North/2007/Northwest/currentcolor.pdf

Barents Sea NE - soild formation around eastern end of island, but about half of the archipelago still 100% ice-free:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/East_Arctic/Barents_Sea/Barents_Sea_North/2007/Northeast/currentcolor.pdf

High Arctic West One: somewhere between 60% - 65% ice-free:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/West_Arctic/Hi_West/Hi_West_One/2007/currentcolor.pdf

Master Map:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/products/arctic/index.htm

[tom_paine]

1. Facsinating. We can watch the catstrophe unfold from the comfort of our own homes

I'll bet the dinosaurs never had the capacity to be entertained by their own demise!

Progress.

[hatrack]

2. Yeah, but T-Rex never got to enjoy the delights of Halo 3, I'll wager . .

For one thing, it's really hard to work the joystick with those stubby little claws.

[tom_paine]

3. You're telling me some bright young T-Rex engineer couldn't come up with Wii for dinos?

I don't buy it. T-Rexes were quite intelligent as well as good conversationalists...and damned fine engineers.

Don't believe me? Read Robert Scheckley's Dimension of Miracles.

http://www.amazon.com/Dimension-Miracles-Robert-Sheckley/dp/0441148603/ref=sr_1_2/104-3694312-9243143?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192216724&sr=8-2

It was WAAAAAY ahead of it's time (written in the late 60s) and is very smart, philospho-science fiction in a class by itself. Pretty wryly funny, too. Not many people read Sheckley, anyomore, and it's a damn shame.

I think you'd appreciate his absurdist view.

[phantom power]

4. But..... we invented digital watches.

[hatrack]

5. Yeah, and the first generation of digital watches required TWO HANDS!

So THERE!!

[tom_paine]

6. Two claws, you mean.

[hatrack]

7. Oh, damn! Of course!

My bad!