Message in a Bottle

My demeanor is generally upbeat, but occasionally I slip into a languid, sullen state from which, in Minnesota's winter, it's tough to escape. And no, it's not politics that drive me to Mad Dog & Zoloft - the current Democratic Enema of Enlightenment is shaping up to be quite amusing.

Sometimes a quick peek at the obituaries will remind me of what I have and how lucky I am. The 34 year-old pilot taken from her husband, the 30 year-old mother preceeded in death by her daughter and the 3 year-old baby girl whose parents are undoubtedly wrecked with grief are but three examples in yesterday's paper.

Then, I ran across Earl John Seagars. Earl was a meteorologist and instructor of marine weather at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa for years. He tracked the ocean's currents by setting wine bottles adrift to see where they'd land. According to the LA Times:

He put a note and his return address inside, asking the finder where and when the bottle was picked up. It was not unusual to wait three or four years for a response from China, northern Africa, New Guinea or other distant shores. One bottle traveled 21 months from the coast of Oregon, where Seagars set it afloat, to the Philippines, where a fisherman picked it up.

After I read about ol' Earl, I thought, "This dude had some fun with his life." It perked me up - maybe I'll take up BASE jumping tomorrow.

Continuing in the obit, I learned that studying ocean currents this way is "not entirely out of date". This also was heartening. If this is indeed a method by which a Meteorolgy Professor analyzed ocean currents in the recent past, how much do we really know about climate?

As dissent intensifies over Global Warming (currently labeled "Climate Change" to cover Chicken Little's ass), stories like this will help rupture the fragile "consensus" that now exists.

Global Warming Update - Twin Cities
02/13/07 Observed high temp - 19
02/13/06 Observed high temp - 31
02/13 Record high temp - 50 - 1921