Arctic Ice March 2011 - Update #1

Edited March 11 2011 - content added below ice prediction chart to address points raised in readers' comments.

The Arctic sea ice extent has grown a little recently.  Ice extent as of  March 10 2011 is  13749688 km² (as reported by IJIS).  Ice extent commonly grows until the end of March.  But any ice which forms now will still be very young, thin, salty ice when the temperatures begin to rise - not forgetting that temperatures are already anomalously high over much of the Arctic.

If you want to win the NCAA College Basketball Tournament office pool and know nothing about basketball, the good news is you have just as much chance as devoted college basketball fans unless you get all crazy about it.   

One solution is to try and play it safe by picking all the top seeds in the brackets to make it to the Final Four and then using a back-azimuth strategy to determine the winners among the early games.   But upsets are almost a guarantee in the NCAA Tournament.   So what is the optimum strategy for people without a clue?

José Marian, the author of this paper about sperm injection, very kindly and promptly provided me with a copy. I began reading with an enthusiasm which only increased as I proceeded through the article. It's short, clear, and tantalizing.