Glacier Thief Arrested In Chile -- Believed To Be Selling Jorge Montt Ice For Designer Cocktails (from The Guardian, Feb. 1)

A chunk of the 5,200kg of ice, believed stolen from the Jorge Montt glacier, which was discovered by police in a refrigerated truck. Photo: Fiscalia Regional de Aysen/EPA

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 February 2012 18.25 EST

     Climate change sceptics have acquired a new explanation for why glaciers are retreating: it's not global warming, it's theft.

 

The Chilean General Prosecutor's Office displays bags of ice allegedly stolen from the Jorge Montt Glacier, more than 1,200 miles south of Santiago, Chile. 

     Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.

     Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago.

Jorge Montt glacier site seen from space

     Authorities have accused the driver of theft and are considering adding violation of national monuments to the charge sheet.

     Scientists say Jorge Montt, part of the Bernardo O'Higgins national park, is retreating by half a mile a year, making it one of the world's fastest shrinking glaciers.

 

Elevated view of Jorge Montt mooring, Bernardo O'Higgins State Park, Chile

     Environmentalists have cited it as evidence that man-made climate change is warming the planet. Sceptics have cited other explanations for retreating glaciers, but theft – until now – was not one of them. It may be the only case in which both sides agree human activity was to blame.

 

Beautiful photograph of Jorge Montt glacier

NOTE:    When Jane was in 4th grade, she created a rather sophisticated (for her age) audio-visual research project about Chile, which first made me aware of the Jorge Montt glacier.  Coincidentally, around the same time we also saw a terrific show on the Discovery Channel about Chile and the country became high on the list of places we would like to visit.  Santiago looked incredibly beautiful and sophisticated and Chile's collision of sea, sky,  ocean, deserts, mountains, and vineyards, not to mention the world's largest swimming pool (link), was astonishing to behold.  Friends and relatives who have spent time there have all returned with great reports and marvelous stories. 

This story, of course, is both a weird and pedestrian at the same time.  It's essentially petty theft of a lot of ice for small commercial gain.  

I'm not sure whether, if offered a glacier ice drink, I would trust the establishment making the claim to be telling the truth, but perhaps I'd be intrigued enough to want my Pisco Sour made that way. 

Anyway, I think I would be remiss in not offering here a recipe for Chile's signature cocktail.  This one emanates from  Ryan McGrale of No. 9 Park in Boston, a superb restaurant worth logging significant travel time to visit.  I have occasionally thought that I would be happy living at its bar.

Pisco Sour

 
1 egg white

2 1/2 ounces Pisco Capel (see note)

1/2 ounce simple syrup

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Angostura Bitters (see note, below)

In cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine egg white, Pisco, simple syrup, and lemon juice.

Cover, shake vigorously for 15 seconds, and strain into six-ounce cocktail glass. Top with a few drops of bitters.

Bartenders Note:

In this recipe, any Chilean Pisco will do, but be aware that Chilean and Peruvian Piscos are not interchangeable. Chilean Pisco is sweeter and has a slightly lower proof. So if you use the Peruvian stuff, adjust the amount of lemon juice and simple syrup accordingly. Both kinds are available at many good liquor stores.

Chilean Amargo bitters are virtually impossible to buy in the U.S., but easy-to-find Angostura Bitters make an acceptable substitute. Yet since, as Ryan McGrale says, they are "sharper and spicier, go a little lighter on the bitters if you're using Angostura."

 


Music Cue: Ice Fishing At Night -- John Paul Jones (wr. Jones-Blegvad), from The Thunder Thief

The world’s largest swimming pool, Algarrobo, Chile

Grade A -- ALMA Comes Online (Colliding Galaxies)

The ALMA radio telescope has taken its first photograph of the Antennae Galaxies from the observatory in Chile

          This is the remarkable first picture taken by the new $1.3 billion radio telescope sitting high in the Chilean Andes. 


             It shows two galaxies colliding in a view no other telescope on Earth or in space could capture.

           The shot is a teasing glimpse of the capabilities of the Atacama Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array telescope - this picture has been taken using only a quarter of the antennae it will have when it comes into full operation in 2013.

          But even now, this shot of the Antennae Galaxies is astonishing - showing off the telescope's exceptional power at detecting 'cold' matter using radio waves. The combined image shown would not be visible at all to visible-light and infrared telescopes.

          The radio telescope is the most expensive ground-based telescope ever built - and the highest-altitude, at 16,000ft. Chile's Atacama desert was chosen as its location for its dryness and clarity.

          As more of ALMA's antennae come online, its images will get sharper.
          
          ALMA is an international partnership project of Europe, North America and East Asia, with the cooperation of Chile, and is presently the largest astronomical project in the world.

FROM:  The Daily Mail, 10-4-11

Where Am I Going?

        Lately, I have been asking myself this (complex and confusing) question.

        To clarify my thinking, I begin by asking myself, "Where am I not going?"

        I don't think I will be returning to Washington, D.C.  I have a mixed-to-bad history there, the monuments generally leave me cold (not the personages memorialized, however), and I go around-and-around on the Beltway, invariably ending up in the Pentagon parking lot, shaking and sweating, on the verge of fear.

 


        Tripoli (see above and below) is fascinating and appeals greatly for many reasons, but at least for now seems to be out of the question.  (Tunis also; I have a friend who was on his way to spend the rest of this winter there, but now finds himself unable to do so.)  

        Philadelphia, a city I have loved, seems permanently afflicted with a weakened pulse.  One-party political rule over a prolonged period (it doesn't matter which party is ruling) will do that to a place.  So, while I am in Philadelphia at the moment, Philadelphia sometimes seems not to be here.

        Manhattan betrayed us all by becoming tres ordinaire -- just another big, ugly mall, but one with no free parking.   Contrary impressions, if any, are the result of the city's television omnipresence, the blinding agents the mayor adds to the water and, sadly, pre-9/11 nostalgia.  Science can disprove these. Keep away, I say.

        This "water hole" in Ottawa:

 is to be avoided unless you wish a one-way express ticket to:

     
        !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



         On a more positive note, I would very much like to journey with my family to:       

 

      Santiago (and the rest of Chile) and finally to --

        Crete.

        I am currently planning a trip to Los Angeles to visit old friends and familiar places, revive memories and show Jane the La Brea Tar Pits.

       

        

        I will always return to Los Cabos filled with Hope and Joy because Los Cabos has always given me such Hope and Joy.      

      Loch Ness is good, always.

        Xanadu (aka Shengdu, a possible future UNESCO World Heritage Site) sounds nice (on John Speed's 1626 map below, it is located near the Cathayan metropolis of Cambalu, in modern Inner Mongolia) and like a worthwhile destination.  ("Where did you go on your last vacation?  Oh -- Xanadu.  Yes, that one.)    We have wanted to visit Mongolia since 1998 when we read about it (specifically the Yurt Room lounge in the Ulan Batoor Holiday Inn) in Fodor's China.   The Yurt Room seems to have closed since then and Ulan Batoor has modernized to the extent that a very attractive Louis Vuitton store recently opened there.  Unfortunately, that decreases my interest in visiting.  I would hate to think of Ulan Batoor becoming another Manhattan.

        
            Kubla'i Khan (1215-1294)

        Street Scene  -- Ulan Batoor

               Eadward Muybridge, Camel Racking (Please click on image for animation.)