Another Strike Against Global Climate Change

I like severe weather. Studying radar maps and seeing bigger storms year after year. I like when the summer gets hotter than normal, and winter days drop into the negatives. That kind of global climate change, I must say, excited me.

However, I don't like bitter beer.

Researches in the Czeck Hydrometeorological Institute have concluded the quality of Saaz hops, a mild variety used in pilsner such as Pilsner Urquell, has decreased over the last fifty years. This decrease in quality (attributed to lower Alpha Acid percentage and lower yields) has led to a bitter brew, and decreasing yields.

The articles can be viewed here:
Czech Meteorological Institute: Climate Change Depresses Beer Drinkers
Edible Geography: The Taste of Climate Change

In case you were wondering: The image above, courtesy of Wikipedia, is a map of the Czech Republic. In beer caps.

A Lacuna is NOT a pore of a "various inverebrate"

So, I'm going to start posting geology photos every few days that I have taken (and maybe Rock Doctor Aucoin will as well) with sometimes brief explanations to them. Today - we fly up to Bering Glacier, AK and take a look at a (glacial) Lacuna.

A lacuna is defined in the geologic dictionary as follows:

1. A chronological stratigraphic unit representing a gap in the record. Syn: unconformity.

2. A pore, opening or hole, or gap in various invertebrate organisms.

For those looking to fill a gap in the stratigraphic/evolutionary record, please be advised that a glacial lacuna is not a "various invertebrate organism"...

No. Far from it. A glacial lacuna is actually, through a rough translation, a lake. Now, when I was standing in this particular lacuna, on the Piedmont lobe of Bering, I can certainly say the only liquid water here was a small ephemeral stream running from the top of the ice into this very deep void. 

It is thought that these formations are due to rapid wasting of ice in certain locations, but not through typical phase change. What makes the most sense to this particular, amateur glaciologist is sublimation, when solid water transitions to gaseous water. Believe it or not, the temperature on the top of the ice sheet this day was a comfortable 55F or so, while within the lacuna, out of the Chugach Range's strong adiabatic wind, was over 75F.