[HN Gopher] Rare black iceberg spotted off Labrador coast could ...
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Rare black iceberg spotted off Labrador coast could be 100k years
old
Author : pseudolus
Score : 95 points
Date : 2025-06-05 16:21 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbc.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbc.ca)
| m3kw9 wrote:
| When are these going on sale in drinks?
| bee_rider wrote:
| Do black Labrador icebergs also have webbed feet, to swim better?
| bregma wrote:
| No, but golden Labrador icebergs are the friendliest of all the
| icebergs and can make a great addition to any family.
| morkalork wrote:
| Will the icebergs broken off get older and older?
| cess11 wrote:
| As long as we keep pushing CO2 into the atmosphere and don't
| run out of ice, yeah, most likely.
| tromp wrote:
| > He guesses the ice in the berg is at least 1,000 years old, but
| could also be exponentially more ancient -- even formed as many
| as 100,000 years ago.
|
| That's not exponentially more (which would be a preposterous
| 2^1000 or 10^1000 years old). It's just 100 times more. Should I
| stop being annoyed at how media use the word and just accept
| their alternative meaning of "a lot" ?
| jhrmnn wrote:
| This is how language develops, I'm afraid. But imagine that the
| age is 10^k where k is something like "age class". Then indeed
| the age grows exponentially :)
| serial_dev wrote:
| It still doesn't grow exponentially, it is just orders of
| magnitude older.
|
| Possibly, because if I read between the lines, their answer
| is "huh I dunno".
| parineum wrote:
| Orders of magnitude is an exponential measure.
|
| 1*10^n
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| 10^2 in exponential form...
|
| At least he didn't say logarithmically more
| Scarblac wrote:
| It's two numbers. It's a constant increase, you can fit a line
| between them, but also a degree 10 polynomial or an exponential
| curve.
|
| Yes, it just means "a lot".
| escapecharacter wrote:
| I agree, you can also say exponential if there's 4 or more
| numbers.
| mekoka wrote:
| If we want to express ourselves using exponents, consider that
| 1000 years (1x10^3) and 9000 years (9x10^3) would be of the
| same "degree" of ancestry, while 100,000 years (1x10^5) would
| be of completely different (exponential) significance.
| pestatije wrote:
| any exponential can reasonably be approximated to a linear in
| the right range
| ghssds wrote:
| 1.01158^1000 ~= 100000
|
| Exponentially more!
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| 1.0116^10000 [?] 100000
|
| Journalists tend to just think of it as "a lot more", but since
| they didn't specify the base of the exponential we can at least
| find a way to make the article technically correct. There are
| fun classes that admit incomparable values, such as the Surreal
| games. If they'd said "the game {1 | -1} is exponentially more
| than { | }" then it'd be impossible to find a base to make the
| statement true. There's lots of fun to be had with this sort of
| math, as you know.
| Frummy wrote:
| 1000^(5/3)=100 000
| fuzztester wrote:
| it's not only the media.
|
| it's just a figure of speech, (used like some people (ab)use
| "literally"), which I am sure you know, considering your
| profile, or even otherwise.
|
| other people than the media use it too:
|
| e.g. this Rob Pike post about Go (the programming language, not
| the game you like):
|
| Less is exponentially more
|
| https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2012/06/less-is-exponenti...
| 867-5309 wrote:
| 1000^1 2/3 =100000
| tantalor wrote:
| Check around it for Super Samples!
| dylan604 wrote:
| After reading, I'm less interested in a black iceberg as much as
| now wondering what a fish harvester is as it's not a term I've
| seen before. Have we changed the term to reflect the vast
| quantities of fish that fisherman is inadequate?
| dan-robertson wrote:
| I think it might be a gender-neutral version of _fisherman_.
| Not something like a factory ship.
| xeromal wrote:
| It's a horrible alternative lol
| blipvert wrote:
| Wait until you have to deal with the horror of gender
| specific icebergs!
|
| "It's not only that he is all black. He is almost ... in a
| diamond shape"
| BurningFrog wrote:
| At least they didn't write "African American iceberg"
| tanseydavid wrote:
| I am guessing that it is a translation artifact.
| creaturemachine wrote:
| Newfoundland is predominantly English-speaking, so it's
| unlikely this reporter used anything else when preparing this
| story.
| soperj wrote:
| >Newfoundland is predominantly English-speaking
|
| That's quite generous of you to say.
| margalabargala wrote:
| For anyone wondering, over 98% of Newfoundland's
| population speaks only English.
|
| https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/society/language.php
| maxerickson wrote:
| Seems to be in use in primarily English contexts.
|
| https://www.alaskasafetyalliance.org/explore-
| careers/maritim...
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| ohhh, I thought it was the boat
| ahazred8ta wrote:
| There's a union or collective bargaining guild that has
| trademarked the term Professional Fish Harvester in Canada.
| #PFHCB
| serial_dev wrote:
| It could be to make fishermen gender neutral, but I think it is
| to hide the fact that you are essentially killing the fish by
| the thousands, letting them suffocate. Fish harvesting sounds
| innocent and PG 13.
| kkylin wrote:
| Might one say fish harvesters capture "exponentially more
| fish"? (Sorry, couldn't resist...)
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Fisherman: catches fish
|
| Fish harvester: might catch fish, but might also be the one
| that cleans/processes them and isn't actually involved in
| pulling the fish out of the water
| throwup238 wrote:
| It's a local quirk of the Canadian fish industry more than
| anything. DFO uses the phrase in their fishery notices:
| https://www.nfl.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/en/node/2377
|
| The history page of the local union, they use the phrase "fish
| harvesters" rather interchangeably with "fishermen":
| https://ffaw.ca/about-us/history/
| scoot wrote:
| Is this just of passing interest, or something that "ists"
| (scientists, geologists, climatologists etc.) would gain
| potentially valuable data by taking samples from it?
| tickerticker wrote:
| The exposed portion of the berg is roughly spherical. The
| submerged portion must be enormous and approximately symmetrical
| to hold that sphere in such an upright position.
| Frummy wrote:
| So the tip of the iceberg is just the tip of the iceberg
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Wouldn't this melt "quickly" due to solar radiation based on how
| dark it is? That is to say, I wouldn't it most likely be closer
| to 100 years old than 100,000 years old?
| malfist wrote:
| I'm sure you know more about iceburg ages than the professor of
| oceanography that dated it.
| dotancohen wrote:
| To be fair, the guy who just dated it likey knows the least
| about it. It's the guy who broke up with it that knows the
| most.
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(page generated 2025-06-05 23:00 UTC)