A strange possibility lurks out there

The sun is quiet. Too quiet.

The surface of the sun has been surprisingly calm of late—with fewer sunspots than anytime in in the last century—prompting curious scientists to wonder just what it might mean here on Earth.

The anomaly goes back even further than a century:

The number of spots counted since it kicked off in December 2008 is well below the average observed over the last 250 years. In fact, it's less than half.

And y'all remember what happened back then, right?

The last time that happened, during the so-called "Maunder Minimum" between 1650 and 1715, almost no sunspots were observed. During the same period, temperatures dropped sharply on Earth, sparking what is called the "Little Ice Age" in Europe and North America.

As the sunspot numbers continue to stay low, it's possible the Earth's climate is being affected again.

Wouldn't it be amazing if global warming came just in time to save us from an impending ice age? That would be totally bizarre.

And no, this doesn't mean we can forget about cutting our carbon footprint, though the GOP will certainly read it that way. Mindless scum are so predictable.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-calm-solar-prompts-impact-earth.html#jCp

Echoes of the Little Ice Age

While reading a story at physorg about dating the Little Ice Age and determining what caused it, my mind strayed.

The article mentioned:

" . . . famous paintings from the period depict people ice skating on the Thames River in London and canals in the Netherlands, waterways that were ice-free in winter before and after the Little Ice Age."

This made me wonder. Was the children's book "Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates" an echo of that frozen era? I haven't read the book since I was a boy but my impression is that it presented a world of solidly frozen canals.

The article says the beginning of the Little Ice Age was 1275 A.D. and it lasted through the late 19th century. I'll bet Mary Mapes Dodge, the American who wrote the book in 1865, turned her memories (or her father's or grandfather's memories) of those frozen days into the story of Hans Brinker, a boy who speed-skated over frozen canals in (then) Holland.

Heck, maybe the Little Ice Age had nothing to do with it. I see no mention of it in the Wikipedia article about the book. But I think it played a role. It just makes sense.