ocean

Getting warmer and faster: Antarctic glaciers

Time to re-write one little section in my Webster's Dictionary. That's an old-time thing, ink on paper, you remember? It gives the fifth definition of "glacial" as "as slow as the movement of a glacier." Need to change that to read "fast" in the future.

British researchers have found the movement of Antarctic's glaciers is speeding up. During the decade ending in 2003, these southern glaciers speed up by 12 percent. That means these huge rivers of ice are speeding toward the ocean. There three things can happen: the ice melts, … Read more

Does global warming equal shorter days?

Global warming likely will shorten the length of the day by about 120 millionths of a second during the next 200 years, according to scientists Felix Landerer, Johann Jungclaus and Jochem Marotzke from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany.

According to an article summary, warming water will transfer ocean mass from deep areas to shallower areas around continental shelves, a change that will mean more of the ocean's mass will be near the Earth's axis of rotation. And, because of the wonder that is conservation of angular momentum, that would speed up rotation--as in the … Read more

Geeky cake trend jumps into the Ocean

OK, I really want to know who has this kind of time to spend making these geeky cakes we've been seeing a lot of recently. Apparently, a GeekSugar reader made it for her boyfriend. (Is that the kind of domestic dedication required these days? If so, somebody please get me to a nunnery.) But as a Helio user myself, I acknowledge and appreciate the somewhat cult-like nature of our little MVNO. Cakes, apparently, are the cool way to express that these days.

More photos here.

My verdict: Nice effort. Beautiful, uh, cakesmanship. But I'll stick to my "… Read more

Wind-generated ocean swells not so swell

You may have missed this on your favorite blog site, and you definitely missed this if you looked at American TV news. Reunion Island got smashed on Saturday. Big waves. Lots of damage. It was not a tsunami this time. Certainly earthquakes can pack an enormous wallop, but the supporters of wind power surely have something going as well.

The European Space Agency (ESA) satellites were tracking the course of the big swells. Ocean swells, not rich guys with big heads. Big, really big waves. Some that slammed into Reunion without warning were over 35 feet high.

First, the satellite … Read more

Carbon, the atmosphere and our future

Carbon dioxide is known to be one of the greenhouse gases that can cause the Earth's atmosphere to retain heat. Today, two new scientific studies have been released that offer more insight into carbon and its dispersal into the air as carbon dioxide.

First, from Australia's CSIRO, the national science agency, comes a study on carbon contained within tropical forests that is thus not available to be released as CO2. This study says the current deforestation rate in the tropics releases 1.5 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually--about one-fifth of all carbon emissions caused … Read more

Helio Ocean launches today

Happy Helio Ocean day! Yep, the highly anticipated dual-slider phone from Helio has finally launched today, at $295 each. You can get one from Helio's online store or from any of its retail stores. You can also pick one up from EB Games or GameStop starting next week. We're still busy reviewing it over here, but until we unleash the full review unto you, here are a couple of our first impressions.

Helio Ocean is in the house

Even though we played around with the prototype of the Helio Ocean cell phone back in March (see our lengthy first impression here), we were still excited when we received the final product in our gadget-hungry hands.

Yes, we finally have the Helio Ocean right now in the house, and save for a few user-interface improvements, it feels pretty much the same as that earlier prototype. The triple-decker phone has a bit of heft to it, but we liked its smooth lines and soft-touch surface, and the 2.4-inch QVGA screen is simply a sight to behold. The QWERTY keyboard … Read more

New stars in new media: Is cute the killer app on YouTube?

Forget copyrighted comedy ripped off from some cable channel. Even forget the made-for-YouTube teen fantasy. This is real video of a real-life couple, laid bare before all the world. And the world, as reflected by YouTube, seems to love it.

You may be the last person on earth who hasn't already seen the hand-holding otters. The video is years old, but it wasn't posted until March. In less than two months, nearly 6 million viewings have been recorded.

Canadian TV reports the two otters have become big celebrities thanks to the video. Here you can learn the two … Read more

Helio Ocean may be days away

I don't know about you, but I'm more excited about the Helio Ocean than Apple's iPhone. Call me a heretic if you must, but I like a phone that has a QWERTY keyboard and 3G support but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So, I was stoked to see a rumor that the Ocean will be launched as early as May 21.

The Boy Genius Report said the Ocean will be in "general release on May 21" and "limited/internal/partner release is five to eight (days?) prior." I called Helio, … Read more

See Tuvalu while it lasts

Tuvalu is one of several Pacific island nations closely watching predictions about rising ocean levels. It's 700 miles north of Fiji. Residents there say the months of highest tides are already worse and wetter than historically. Homes and precious farm land have been lost. Well water is becoming salty. The CIA summary on Tuvalu states it succinctly. "Tuvalu is concerned about global increases in greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on rising sea levels, which threaten the country's underground water table."

Tuvalu and its 12,000 residents have been promised admission to New Zealand if the the nation's nine atolls become uninhabitable. … Read more