Carl Sagan, a person whom I believe was a true genius of our time, wrote a bit of text called "Reflections on a Mote of Dust." Someone put together a great video with that text and posted it to YouTube, which you can see here. I recommend it to everyone, and in fact I think the more people that see it the better! The actual text can be read here.
It really made me think about the world in a different sort of way. We are all so connected! It truly baffles me how much hatred and oppression exists when you realize that this is our one home in the entire, vast, expansive universe.
I like to be optimistic and say that it really looks like we are starting to head in the right direction. Maybe it's just because I live in an exceptionally liberal town, but people seem to be caring more and more about what our leaders are doing, and they see that change is needed. The environment around us, rational thought, and diplomacy appear to finally be inching their way into the minds of a growing number of people on this planet, and that is a Very Good Thing.
To quote a bumper sticker: "make coffee, not war." Fair trade coffee would be nice :-)
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Antarctic Lakes
I know this seems utterly random, but I've been thinking quite a bit lately about lakes in Antarctica. I really mean *in* Antarctica too, since of course it's way too cold for a lake to be liquid on the surface (as of 2007 anyway).
I'm thinking about it not because of global warming, but because of the story I'm writing for my game. Most of the story takes place inside a laboratory built on the shores of a lake beneath two miles of ice at the South Pole. Now, precisely why the lab is in that location I won't get into here: you'll have to wait for the story to be finished!
The real lakes that scientists have been finding these past few years have yet to even be directly studied. Here's a National Geographic article I found that outlines what's going on:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1101_041101_antarctic_lakes.html
Even AOL had a short article about it last week, so it's becoming somewhat mainstream.
Scientists say there probably isn't much life beyond bacteria and other really tiny organisms living in these sub-surface waters, but I imagined it a bit more like the bottom of the ocean around the volcanic vents. In my game/story there will be all kinds of creatures living in these waters - little white crabs, bio-luminescent fish, and other interesting things like that. The "official" word is that the lab was built to study these animals. They are extremely rare, having been isolated for millions of years and evolving independently from the rest of the world. Research opportunities abound!
Soon perhaps I'll post a bit about the story I'm writing, so those who care and who read this will get a taste of what the lab was really built for. :-)
I'm thinking about it not because of global warming, but because of the story I'm writing for my game. Most of the story takes place inside a laboratory built on the shores of a lake beneath two miles of ice at the South Pole. Now, precisely why the lab is in that location I won't get into here: you'll have to wait for the story to be finished!
The real lakes that scientists have been finding these past few years have yet to even be directly studied. Here's a National Geographic article I found that outlines what's going on:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1101_041101_antarctic_lakes.html
Even AOL had a short article about it last week, so it's becoming somewhat mainstream.
Scientists say there probably isn't much life beyond bacteria and other really tiny organisms living in these sub-surface waters, but I imagined it a bit more like the bottom of the ocean around the volcanic vents. In my game/story there will be all kinds of creatures living in these waters - little white crabs, bio-luminescent fish, and other interesting things like that. The "official" word is that the lab was built to study these animals. They are extremely rare, having been isolated for millions of years and evolving independently from the rest of the world. Research opportunities abound!
Soon perhaps I'll post a bit about the story I'm writing, so those who care and who read this will get a taste of what the lab was really built for. :-)
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