JAKOBSHAVN GLACIER, Greenland — Gripping a bottle of Jack Daniel's between his knees, Jay Zwally savored the warmth inside the tiny plane as it flew low across Greenland's biggest and fastest-moving outlet glacier.

Mile upon mile of the steep fjord was choked with icy rubble from the glacier's disintegrated leading edge. More than six miles of the Jakobshavn had simply crumbled into open water.

"My God!" Zwally shouted over the hornet whine of the engines.

From satellite sensors and seasons in the field, Zwally, 67, knew the ice sheet below in a way that few could match. Even after a lifetime of study, the raffish NASA glaciologist with a silver dolphin in one pierced ear was dismayed by how quickly the breakup had occurred. Wedged between boxes of scientific instruments, tent bags, duffels and survival gear, Zwally had no room to turn inside the cramped passenger compartment of the twin-engine Otter. He passed the whiskey bottle over his shoulder to geophysicist Jose Rial from the University of North Carolina, squeezed on a jump seat between a surveyor and a sleeping climatologist.

Homeward bound — windburned, bone-chilled and greasy after weeks on this immense ice cap tilted like a beret flopped across the top of the world — they all had been in a celebratory mood.

Somber now, Zwally and Rial shared a drink in silence as the shadow of the plane slipped across azure meltwater lakes, rust-red tundra and silver tongues of ice.

READ THE REST AT LATIMES.COM

Lonely caiman baby seeks Nazis to play with, must have own car and be willing to cook. Paid vacation time, travel possible, references will be checked.

I'm just posting this for some informative links. Feel free to respond in here.

I'm more inclined to go see Al "I created the internet and Love Story is about me and Tipper" Gore's movie now. I'll try and get to it this week (or weekend).

NASA: Mars is Melting

The south polar ice cap of Mars is receding, revealing frosty mountains, rifts and curious dark spots.

Space.com: Mars Ski Report: Snow is Hard, Dense, and Disappearing

Mars would make a lousy host for the Winter Olympics. Yes, there's the lack of air to consider. But more important, Martian snow turns out to be rock hard. Worse, it is melting away at an alarming rate.

In fact, Mars may be in the midst of a period of profound climate change, according to a new study that shows dramatic year-to-year losses of snow at the south pole.

BBC: Mars 'more active than suspected'

[NASA's] scientists also say that deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near the planet's south pole have shrunk for three summers in a row.

They say this is evidence to suggest climate change is in progress.

And look, the government isn't holding a gun to his head to do it.

Fortune: Warren Buffett gives away his fortune

As Al Gore says in An Inconvenient Truth: "This is no longer a political issue. This is a moral issue." That means continuing to play politics with the issue is to betray the human race, and life on this planet in general.

Some of the consequences of the melting of the Greenland Ice Shelf or Antartic Ice Cap:

• Disruption of North Atlantic Ocean currents.
• Europe enters an ice age. 300 million people need to live elsewhere.
• Ocean levels rise 21 ft.
• Lowlands including: Beijing, Shanghi, parts of India and Bangladesh, and all of Holland become submerged.
• Downtown Manhattan, San Francisco, & Olympia disappear.

I highly recommend that everyone sees this movie. Just go.

Go here to see what +7m change in sea level means for downtown Olympia.

I was in Hollywood Video on the Westside the other day and it struck me that it is one of the places where we should do some education about the nazi video games that are coming out. I'm thinking about a local flyer campaign that would put these hate games into perspective for a 14 year old.

I am not into shooter games, so I'm not sure how to frame the thing. Anybody have an idea? I spoke with Meta about it last night and she thought maybe some OlyBloggers could help -- Rob Richards in particular. Any thoughts, Rob?

Let's do something to inoculate the kids in town from this hateful stuff.