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Global warming: polar ice

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hawken polycounter lvl 19
As I was nodding off to sleep last night, I was thinking about whats gonna happen when the sea levels rise, as we are told all the time by the news media (at least in the UK anyhow).

Then it dawned on me like some great bulking Shambler who had his breakfast stolen: "hey, isn't the majority of the ice under sea level?". So the sea level will rise by a maximum of a 3rd of all the ice at the polar caps. "so what" I thought. Even though we are trapping more heat into the planet through destruction of the ozone layer, carbon monoxide / dioxide and all that jazz (which isn't all that great) - will it really effect the sea levels that badly? I doubt it, to be honest. So to that effect, whats with all this scare-mongery we get in the news? Did they really think that ice under the water once melted would make more... water?

Whichever way you look at it, Kevin Costner is not right.

After that I went to sleep and had dreams about sex.

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  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    actually the ozone layer is sealing up in many parts

    global warming = media bullshit
  • Prs-Phil
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    Prs-Phil polycounter lvl 18
    hahahaha

    thx for that great post there sonic.

    Actually the onzone layer is sealing up in many parts

    Actually the onzone layer isn't sealing up in many parts (just as random)

    I mean tell us where you have this knowlege from. Probably from the media eh ? or do you make youre own cauculations. So please, don't just put it off as media hype because it has been around for quite a while but I guess you are one of the people that say 9/11 was all goverment planned and media hyped.

    It isn't so hard to understand that these things take their time and don't just happen by the klick of a finger.
    "We will feel the consequences of pullution and global warning" - "ah it hasen't happen the puney 20 years I have lived so it probably won't anway so I might aswell keep on pumping poison into the air that I breathe everyday, shit I've been smoking for 15 years and haven't had cancer yet, so why on earth should it come anway, this smoking is bad shit is all media bullshit"
  • RazorBladder
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    RazorBladder polycounter lvl 18
    AFAIK, Global warming is still very much a theory and is yet to have been proven.
    A lot of scientists agree and just as many refuse to consider it to be what's in motion at present.
    There are many theories to what's going to happen and they're all pretty bleak but GW seems to be the most fashionable rite now.

    Personally I'd say climate change was happening without a doubt, but weather has only been accurately recorded for the past century. Many seem to be forgetting what's happened over the thousands and millions of years the earth has been here and how so many civilisations have been wiped out. Climate change is nothing new and is part of mother nature, weather cycles aren't so simplistic as yearly patterns, there are much bigger cycles at work such as ice ages and apocalyptic weather, which many have a theory to have been what wiped out the egyptians.

    We certainly aren't helping and as such I always do the best I can to recycle and be conscious of energy efficiency (for the sake of my bills), but I really don't hold much faith in the Global Warming theory due to the co2 emissions we contribute to the atmosphere being a minor fraction overall and the fact that natural disasters of grand extremes have been present long before any country was industrialised.

    I have no doubt we're heading forward to a nasty bit of a weather, but wheather humans really are a main factor.. I doubt in honesty.
  • KeyserSoze
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    KeyserSoze polycounter lvl 18
    Well, I'm sure the scientists making these hypotheses are a bit more qualified than you and have probably taken into consideration the fact that icebergs are mostly submerged.

    I agree with you about the sensationalized and scare-monger tactics used by the media to get ratings. It's shameless. I was watching the local news once shortly after the tsunami hit in South Asia, and they had a story on the possibility of a tsunami happing in Lake Tahoe. I guess it's on a fault line or something, but it's a fucking lake, how much damage and carnage could it possibly cause? icon15.gif
  • shotgun
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    shotgun polycounter lvl 19
    global warming or not, i hope there's a reason why its 90% humidity today with over 30c outside

    and i reckon it's not because of Sonic's farts
  • Mishra
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    Mishra polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    global warming or not, i hope there's a reason why its 90% humidity today with over 30c outside

    and i reckon it's not because of Sonic's farts

    [/ QUOTE ]

    my hypothesis: the sun is HOT
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/09/g8_global_snoring/

    I was waiting for a chance to post that. wink.gif

    Either way, most of the ice is actually on land, the antarctica is a continent that's covered in ice. The arctica is just floating ice and won't influence the sea levels much (except that it will lower the salinity of the ocean water) but all the ice on the antarctica, iceland, greenland, etc will raise the sea levels.

    Also, while global warming hasn't been proven neither has thermodynamics or gravity. Those are just scientific theories that happen to match all observations because the only thing that can be proven is math and its derivatives (e.g. computer science). You cannot prove theories about natural laws because proving means showing that your theory is applicable in all cases, no matter what happens. You cannot do that through experiments since you cannot test an infinite number of possible configurations and you cannot know whether you can even know all possible configurations. Noone can prove or disprove God because all you have are observations and observations are just sample data from which you can extrapolate likelihoods and form models that explain all observations but you can NOT prove that anything is true (you can however disprove a theory by finding one configuration where the theory/model predicts an outcome that differs from the observed one).

    In other words, no, global warming hasn't been proven and it never will be proven but it explains all observations.
  • Toomas
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    Toomas polycounter lvl 18
    WTF must the cavemen have done to end the last ice age, i bet they all ran 10liter engined cars and had huge coal burning factories...
  • ElysiumGX
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    ElysiumGX polycounter lvl 18
    i think the history of our planet shows a world that tries to maintain a balance. the hotter it gets, the sooner we'll see another ice age that will kill many of us. good. then we can start all over again, and maybe do things a little better.
  • pogonip
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    pogonip polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    actually the ozone layer is sealing up in many parts

    global warming = media bullshit

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Yes all the high altitude glaciers that have been around for 1000's of years decided to simutaniously melt around the globe this paticular last 100 years . I mean even though the Glacier at Mount Kilaminjaro has been there for 20,000 years it would have melted this century anyways regardless of human related pollution ..cause global warming is as mythical as a unicorn ... mad.gif
  • StrangeFate
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    StrangeFate polycounter lvl 18
    what KDR said.
    http://www.secretsoftheice.org/icecore/sealevel.html

    It's a lot easier to see a difference if you grew up in a place with snow.
    When i was a kid (5 years) there used to be as much snow in my town in switzerland as there is here in London/Canada now. It held for weeks and was about 20cm high. Traffic was in trouble... the usual stuff.

    Now (25 years later), there pretty much isn't any snow at all. It may snow 1 day and stay there for another (white 1mm sheet of snow), then it's gone. And that's all you get every year now, compared to entire consecutive weeks of 20cm snow.

    I've been told that it was the same here in London, people used to jump off the windows because the doors were barricated under 1 meter snow. Now there's only the 15-20 cm we used to have in switerland.

    That's very clear difference to me, i guess you have to witness it yourself to believe it, just like that God thing.
  • Thegodzero
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    Thegodzero polycounter lvl 18
    the ice that in the water isnt the problem, its the ice thats on the land that is. Both greenland and antartica are covered with ice. Where talking miles of ice. Then you have every ice capped mountain. The snow line have been raising a few feet each year. I'm not sure how many of you like to ski or snow board, but if you do youl know what i mean when i say that the seasons are getting shorter.

    The tempreture of the planet is based on the amount of co2 in the air. We pump out more CO2 than any point that we can see in the ice sheets. The ice sheets show highs and lows of CO2 coming and going. The thing is it always max's out and starts to drop at the point that we were in just before the industrial revolution. Sense them its sky rocketed, with it our temp have been raising.
  • ElysiumGX
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    ElysiumGX polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    It's a lot easier to see a difference if you grew up in a place with snow.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    The opposite is also true. How many of you have worked outside each day for the past two summers? *raises hand*
    It is fucking hot! I rememer I use to spend my summers where I currently live, and it was a comfortably warm climate. Now I've gone through about 3 AC units in the past 4 years. You're tempted to change shirts after walking to the street to check the mail. Back in my home town I remember 3 - 4 feet of snow. Now it's more like 3 - 4 inches...if you're lucky.

    I'm sure politicians in there icy cool summer homes, luxury cars, and private jets could care less. Besides, who needs snow. It's difficult enough for people to drive without it.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    So why don't they just blast all that extra ice into space? (or canada)
  • StrangeFate
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    StrangeFate polycounter lvl 18
    i'd be for that and would put some money into it even, but only if you agree to be shot into space with the water. If i'm putting money into such an enterprise i want someone there first hand that i know and can trust, to make sure the water really makes it into space!
  • acc
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    acc polycounter lvl 18
    "actually the ozone layer is sealing up in many parts
    global warming = media bullshit"

    Greenhouse gases are what lead to global warming, not a lack of ozone. Ozone protects from UV radiation.
  • JO420
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    JO420 polycounter lvl 18
    well any rise of ocean will not be noticed over the span of a few years, i personally do believe the climate is changing to extremer colds or heat, here in texas atm iit is hot as a bastard,when i first came here the summer was tolerable but now its intensely hot, in the winter we would get cold and the closest wwe ever got to snow was a few specks of snow one year,this year out of nowhere the city had its largest snow fall ever at about 5-7 inches in a town 30 miles from the gulf of mexico.


    i believe this sort of climate changeis occuring from what i have experienced and read,to say its media bullshit is an view its not like scientist are making this up,why would they? the data certainly points towards global warming being a reality.
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    global warming = media bullshit

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Anyone who is trying to claim it doesnt exist. Try again. Unless your trying to say science is bullshit. It has been proven. Where the arguement is what is causing it.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1489955,00.html

    I wish those of you who continue to think this would realize the truth instead of having your hands on your ears.
  • sundance
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    sundance polycounter lvl 18
    didn't anyone PAY ATTENTION to 'the day after tomorrow'? the icecaps melt, this causes more freshwater to be dumped into the oceans, disrupting the freshwater currents, playing merry hell with the weather systems, leading to the global super-storm AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    I mean tell us where you have this knowlege from. Probably from the media eh ?

    [/ QUOTE ]

    First, I'd like to ask you where you get your knowledge from? Do you have connections to the government and they feed you secret information?

    http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=10087&channel=6

    another interesting read: http://archives.thedaily.washington.edu/1997/120597/warm971205.html

    Instead of looking at progress from the past couple years or decades, look at progress over the past 1000 years. The theory that it's a cycle of nature has just as much validity as the theory that we fucked everything up. The earth has been through much worse than us (although soon we may be worse laugh.gif), and I doubt that we could put a dent in it.
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    i believe this sort of climate changeis occuring from what i have experienced and read,to say its media bullshit is an view its not like scientist are making this up,why would they? the data certainly points towards global warming being a reality.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    The really big lie about man-made global warming is that almost all scientists accept it. More than 4,000 scientists from 106 countries, including 72 Nobel prize winners, signed the Heidelberg Appeal (1992), calling for a rational scientific approach to environmental problems. Many senior scientists have also supported The Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming (1992), The Leipzig Declaration (1997) and finally the Oregon Petition (1998) which received the signatures of over 19,000 scientists.

    By the way, CO2 is a minor greenhouse gas, far behind H2O, and CO2 has little effect on the greenhouse effect.
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Anyone who is trying to claim it doesnt exist. Try again. Unless your trying to say science is bullshit. It has been proven. Where the arguement is what is causing it.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    That was pretty ignorant. That article proves nothing. It's the whole "we don't have an explanation for it, so it must be THIS!" idea. In fact, look at some real information and data.

    http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

    I love how everyone bit my head off, yet no one provided any actual data or evidence.
  • JO420
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    JO420 polycounter lvl 18
    ok if this is such a big lie and so many scientist believe it who is telling the lie? and for what benefit?

    here is the report on global warming by the national academy of sciences

    http://www4.nationalacademies.org/onpi/webextra.nsf/web/climate?OpenDocument


    again who is tellingthis lie about global warming and why?
    how are so many scientist so fooled??

    on the other hand i can see people who would not benefit from tighter regulation on pollution wanting to call this a big lie just like Exxon who pumps millions into skeptic groups


    http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html



    heres the full report

    http://books.nap.edu/html/climatechange/
  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    "actually the ozone layer is sealing up in many parts"

    tell that to people with skin cancer from areas over the largest holes like NZ and see If they feel any better.

    You seem to passionately believe in global warming being a myth Sonic, yet concur that scientists can't actually agree on the subject.

    So here's the thing, If we really *dont* know for sure, would you not agree that it is better to err on the side of caution and do as little harm to the planet as possible, rather than steadfastedly sticking to our guns and fucking it up?
  • sledgy
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    sledgy polycounter lvl 18
    We're overdue for an ice age - maybe global warming is keeping that from happening.

    On the water vapor angle: 87.2329% of all statistics are made up on the spot smile.gif

    However many doubts I have about that author's sources/methods of conclusion, water vapor is obviously contributive to the greenhouse effect. The "anthropogenic" (now there's a $5 word!) contribution could potentially be what starts the snowball: water melts covering more surface area of the globe therefore more evaporative action = more water vapor = more greenhouse effect.

    There's a million ways to argue it but I think it boils down to not enough data.
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    Hey Sonic, why dont you read my article and unsderstand it was two completely independant studies that reached the same conclusion. Its all theory yes. But thats what science is!. Why do you think its called "the theory of relativity"?

    BTW your webpage was created two years ago, and cites even older sources.
  • StrangeFate
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    StrangeFate polycounter lvl 18
    'Ozone layer holes are as big as ever, but there are indications they will close in coming years'

    That doesnt sounds like they're sealing up on many parts, and the 'indications' tat they will close, well... sounds more bogus to me than the warming theories supported by most scientists.

    Your other interesting read is not even worth reading after seeing it's 8(!!) years old. oh dear.
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    JO420: It's not a lie, but a scientific argument over who's right, just as people once upon a time argued whether the earth was flat or round. Each side is biased, and although they don't just make things up, the "facts" do occasionally get warped.

    Daz: I didn't say it was a myth. When I said it was bullshit it was like 4:30 am and I meant it to be in good spirits, yet everyone shit their pants over it. I'm not such a moron that I believe it doesn't exist whatsoever, it's the arguement of whether or not it's a problem and if we created and can resolve the problem. Also, I'm not arguing that we don't need less pollution. Hell, I'm all in favor of a clean environment, then I could breathe better in the big cities laugh.gif. I'm just saying I believe it's all overhyped and all the conclusions that we've came to are on data that's less than credible as we have limited information due to the time in which we've studied this.

    Oxy: my apologies, I didn't read the article past about the 3rd paragraph or so. I read the title "New proof that man has caused global warming", came to the conclusion that it's more amazing "proof" from the media and closed it. I'll give it a read and post about it when I'm done laugh.gif.

    http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1108742624.shtml

    Just because a scientist comes up with this groundbreaking theory doesn't mean its not full of flaws. Everyone believes scientists to be above us and extremely smart. They may be able to formulate a complex idea that we could not have developed, but that doesn't mean you can't examine it for yourself and put some of your own logic to it.

    There's another good and recent read (Feb 2005 I believe) that shows just how false scientists data can be:
    http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1108742624.shtml
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    well the more greenhouse gasses present, such as methane and cfc's, in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped in. The more heat, the more hot it's going to get.

    thats a fact. No-one can dispute it.

    As we are trapping more of these greenhouse gasses... work it out for yourself. The wee beggers can't escape!
  • Mark Dygert
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    It's time for a little Mr Wizard Take a glass, fill it with ice cubes, then fill it with water, Mark the water level. Let the ice melt and check the water level again. I don't know what it will prove but it's what Mr Wizard would do.

    in about 200 years they will be begging people to trade in thier electric cars for SUV's so they can thicken up the Ozone layer. "GLOBAL COOLING IS REAL! OUR HEAT IS ESCAPING INTO SPACE!"
  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    bullshit? myth? What's the difference? Of course people feel passionately about this subject for chrissakes! It'lll be the er, future of the planet for our kids we're talking about here. Calm down and know when you've been pwned Sonic ;-) You know as well as anyone you're making zero sense. If you're all for clean air and generally helping the enviornment, you should be for anything that can be done to reduce CFC's and help stem the reduction of the ozone layer too. Be that bullshit, myth, fact or fiction!
  • Thegodzero
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    Thegodzero polycounter lvl 18
    sonic id rip into your theory, but i dont see that you have one. It just seems that you dont want to belive what is obvious. The planet is getting warmer, were producing more greehouse gases than have ever been produced before. More than that were producing more of them at a faster rate each year. These are facts.
    The plantes tempreture changes alot over time due to slight chemical changes in the atmosphere. These changes are very abrupt, sometimes only taking 50 or so years to change the temp 50 degrees. This informtion comes from the polar ice. For the past few thousand years the tempreture has been very stable, more stable than they have ever seen. This doesnt mean that the temp isnt raising because it is. Over the past 50 years its been raising by a small fraction but stedly raising.

    Were changing the cemical balance in the atmosphere. Were cutting down the trees in the rainforests which are our number two co2 absorber. The oceans are getting poluted by our waste that we dump into it, which is killing off plant life in the affected areas.
    Global warming is true, we might not be the direct cause of it, but were not helping slow down any.
  • JO420
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    JO420 polycounter lvl 18
    part of the reason im not too much of a believer of the skeptics is because with a little investigation you will find out alot of them are paid by the petrochemical industry, like the article showed Exxon pumps millions into skeptics because it is in their best interest, but their best interest means fuck people and their health and well being, my father worked for many years for union carbide/dow,they were told constantly that exposure to these chemicals wont impact your health adversly, 25 years later and no history of cancer in my family my father was the first to be diagnosed with it. along with various other co workers,thankfully for my family he was one of the ones who survived.

    Here in the city im from Houston they have this "Dont mess with Texas" ad campaign encouraging people not to litter,well hat doesnt apply to the petrochemical industry , the mayor is investigating many of these companies for falsifying emission reports. We have the best cancer treatment centers in the nation but thats no wonder due to the cancer rates in this city and surrounding cities. They even have nicknames for some of the cities around like Texas city is nicknamed "cancer city" and Pasedena is nicknamed "Stinkadena"

    so afer years of seeingthe bullshit these companies spread when i read they are the major funders of the "skeptics" well im not too inclined to trust them.
  • blankslatejoe
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    blankslatejoe polycounter lvl 19
    What I don't understand: Why would the ice caps melting RAISE sea levels?

    Stick a cube of ice in a full glass of water and watch what happens. As the ice melts the water level goes DOWN.

    Ice is less dense and more volumous than water.
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    The ice caps rest on land.
  • blankslatejoe
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    blankslatejoe polycounter lvl 19
    ahh, that would make more sense.
  • Thermidor
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    Thermidor polycounter lvl 18
    I thought that when water frezes it gets smaller? wouldnt that make a difference to the huge areas ov ice underwater in the arctic circle.

    One thing that i do know is that the carbon levels in our atmosphere will do more than just boil our oceans. It will burn our trees and create massive global fires blocking out most of the suns rays for an "extended"period of time. This will in turn kill much of the things that rely on sunlight on this planet. But hey , if we are lucky , this might not happen for another 100 years , so we are ok , right?
  • arshlevon
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    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    well if all the ice melts and all hell breaks loose with chaos and mass destruction i hope it happens soon..i am tierd of all this speculation on the end and whats comming.. just come already..i would gladly give my life to see 90% of all these assholes die.. why are people so worried about it?? we are all going to die one day.. is it really that important how and by what circumstances? i see it as the best thing for everybody.. all you assholes who hug trees and shit can be happy knowing there will be no more people to throw trash on the ground and shop at walmart.. and all you other assholes who are obviously invincible and can crap on the environment and scarf down Mcdonalds while crashing your SUV into a school bus full of church kids can die happy knowing that once your dead no one can kill you and you really will be invincible..see everybody wins...
  • Enix
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    Enix polycounter lvl 18
    AHH! I KNOW! Remember how god said he would never flood the earth again after the great flood? I think he is trying to pull a quick one, he is pissed that we have fucked up the earth again and is slowly pulling us closer to the sun so the ice caps melt and the earth is flooded again. See, now he can say "I didn't do it, the sun did wink.gif". You sly devil you! [/family guy]
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    Thermidor: Floating objects displace water equivalent to their own mass, not volume (i.e. a one ton object would displace exactly one cubic metre of water, the rest will be above sea level as long as the object has a volume greater than one cubic metre, no matter how much larger it is). An iceberg floats because it has a lower density but it displaces exactly the same amount of water it would turn into when it melts since its mass will be retained.
  • Thermidor
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    Thermidor polycounter lvl 18
    gotya KDR, i never thought of that ...
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