Now where was it I first heard the term ‘Super’ to represent the superhero?
It may have been Marvel, way back when I had piles of their glossy dark publications in the corner of my room, chain reading for all my eyes were worth.
But on reflection, I think it was the Pixar-Disney animated film ‘The Incredibles’. I traipsed along one Sunday afternoon expecting some syrupy yawnfest and found myself utterly entranced by the idea of a whole family of superheroes: a Super gene.
It had borrowed some of the tongue-in-cheek style of the Bond film and married it with wisecracking wit.
And the characterisation: how wily of Pixar to include a family character with whom the average family was able to identify.
A Dad with a paunch and a frustrating job where his skills are not properly utilised; a little boy who is more able than his small-minded teachers; a shy teenager who just happens to have secret superpowers she is embarrassed to reveal; and the Mum.
Elastigirl. Once upon a time she beat her husband to bag the criminals with her razor-sharp technique and superlative powers. Now, she’s getting naff all thanks, for what seems like a far harder task: bringing up three kids.
Of course we bought into it, hook, line and sinker. They were us: give or take the odd superpower.
The Supers that steal our hearts are the ones that do the big things. Like flying backwards in time to alter its consequences irrevocably.
What a thing to do for the woman you love. Lois Lane dies when her car falls down a crack during an earthquake. And any of us watching the film in those battered cinema seats in 1978 can remember the feeling that it was all over for Lois. And then Superman looks up to the sky and yells something along the lines of “No!” and just gets up and spins time backwards so he can stop it happening.
Now that’s a significant superpower. You’ve got to love it.
Way back when Mount Olympus was in vogue, the Supers went by another name: Gods.
They weren’t necessarily good guys: there were heroes and villains all mixed up there on the mountain in the sky.
What do you do when someone marries your daughter off to a bad boy without asking? Demeter found the perfect solution. Goddess of fertility, she simply stopped plants growing across the globe.
Hercules’s feats were numerous: strong enough to kill a multi-headed hydra, charming enough to get a girdle off an Amazon queen.
And Hades controlled The Underworld itself.
Superpowers are no new thing. We’ve always loved them. And now, it seems, we may be coming close to having superhuman feats performed as a matter of course.
The world has a problem. There are parts of Africa starved of water: and yet the globe is covered in the stuff.
If we could get water to those who need it, might it be a beginning of a solution to some of the problems in parts of this most complex of continents?
French engineer, Georges Mougin, thinks so. And according to Innovation News Daily, he has come up with an audacious Super plan to end all plans: a global event which would redistribute water on a gargantuan scale.
He is interested in towing an iceberg from Greenland to the Canary Islands, thus providing enough water for the annual consumption of 35,000 people.
Clearly, one wouldn’t want to mosey up to the nearest polar icecap and lasso it.
No: perhaps it would be best to try it out in the virtual world first.
And this is where we are at present. Mougin has teamed up with French company Dassault Systemes to try out a superhuman feat on a cyberglobe, with cybersea and a cyberlasso.
And the simulations have shown, incredibly, that one little tug boat could make the trip with a seven million ton iceberg in 140 days.
They’ve thought of everything: projected ice-melt, consumption of tug-boat fuel: and they’ve designed a skirt, almost 40 feet high, to protect the edges of the iceberg from buffeting and erosion by the water.
Really, it could be done. Computer says yes. Real trials could happen as early as 2012.
One problem.
What if the iceberg fractures? Surely in a rough sea such a thing might be possible?
And there’s the rub. The computer takes a dim view of the whole thing. Total chaos, it says. Two hundred foot waves, the lot.
This has not rendered Mougin and his team downhearted. Plans are afoot to link the simulation to real-time ocean weather tracking. And the engineer has visions of rounding up and harvesting icebergs to solve global problems.
Now that’s what I call a modern-day Super.
Image source here
Kate Shrewsday 
R. Kelly said it best: if you can dream it, you can do it (I’ll win the lottery; I’ll be a famous writer; I won’t gain any more weight). I’ve heard this mooted before and it was said it couldn’t be done; let’s hope the nay-sayers are wrong.
Lets. Suffice to say I won’t be volunteering for any tug-boat piloting on this project, Tilly.
Playing about with nature and the planet is a risqué business. We know, for example, that the Arctic is melting through man-made global warming, Zebra mussels from Asia in ships’ ballast water are clogging up Power Stations in the Great Lakes and also now in the UK etc.
I’m inclined to agree with you, Rosemary. The consequences of anything on this scale could be huge: whether they are beneficial consequences of disastrous ones, it would need more than a computer simulation to ascertain.
Towing icebergs? Sorry, but my heathen heart immediately wondered if that wouldn’t make God a bit cross. I mean he built things the way he wanted them. Hope he doesn’t smite Mougin. (I have an excellent joke involving Thor and a Vestal Virgin, unfortunately it’s too ribald to share here.)
It’s just the Tower of Babel all over again, isn’t it Cindy?
And now I have an insatiable urge to hear that joke….
In the early 1880’s, an enterprising man, Frederic Tudor, who became known as the Ice King, devised a way to harvest ice from New England’s ponds, Walden being one of them. The ice was harvested in winter then transported to the tropics on boats for the well-healed to enjoy a pleasant, tropical life. What he really harnessed was refrigeration, becoming one of America’s first millionaires. He was laughed at and pooh-poohed, but, he did it, overcoming all sorts of obstacles.
Maybe Mougin won’t be able to tug that berg, but, I imagine he has already set more than one head spinning about the possibilities. Here’s hoping these bring some relief to those suffering in Africa – and without tsunamis of Biblical proportions.
(I love to watch The Incredibles. My imagination is to big for me, I know, as I pretend to be Elastigirl. tee hee)
There’s a little bit of Elastigirl in many of us, Penny 😀 And who knows what will come of Mougin’s simulation? One has to dream.
That said, remind me to be on the other side of the globe if he tries it. Or maybe the moon.
I’m still trying to get my brain around the sense or nonsense of the expense and danger or towing an iceberg and wondering if there isn’t a simpler way….
When my sister’s family went to Disney World, they wore matching Disney shirts each day to help them stick together – they got LOTS of attention from folks at the park the day they wore their Incredibles t-shirts. She has four kids, so they had an extra Super, but no one seemed to mind.
You can never have too many Supers, Pseu 🙂 I think on balance, and considering the tsunami, it might just be nonsense: but they accused Brunel of that and look what happened….
“Now that’s what I call a modern-day Super” nice one.
😀 Cheers Sharon.
how wonderful, but once he gets the icebergs there, won’t they just melt into the sea very fast, leaving little fresh water for use on land. And then could all that fresh water arriving cnahge the coastal ecology, killing off stuff that people live off……
wonder if he had jacques costeau’s advice on all that stuff?
Not sure he has, Sidey 🙂 Time will tell whether he is allowed to transform his simulation into reality. I’m thinking, perhaps not…
Fascinating, but like other readers, I have reservations. But if he can make it work without the chaos, more power to him. With the Arctic melting, however, I have doubts about the longevity of the project.
That’s the rub, Kathy: ‘without the chaos’. Not convinced he can.
I just find the idea of someone planning to tow an iceberg across the world highly hilarious. We have a word for such engineers in the UK 😀
Incredible idea. It feels like an incredibly bad idea.
A thought which occurs to me is this (note I’m not a highly educated scientific bod so may be sliding down the wrong iceburg here…..) –
A seven million ton iceberg is a pretty large reserve of ‘cold’ – (we all have seen how a large accumulation of snow, in the form of a snow man for example, lasts days and days longer than that which falls on the ground….it is a sort of ‘self insulation’ effect) – and once this reserve is removed it will actually have the effect of warming the area from which it has been removed, by stopping it from being so cold…. if that makes sense? This would be hugely negative unwanted effect, surely?
Someone tell me I’m wrong
Nope, sounds like sense to me, Pseu. Maybe you should contact our Super French engineer. It would be interesting to see if he has the whole thing covered or not…
looks like Tom agrees! And he sounds more informed than me
I think a mass deputation to Dassault Systemes is in order. Prepare yourself, Monsieur Mougin. We’re hiring a Shrewsday coach and we’re on our way.
You know, Kate, I’m all for super heroes, and saving the world. We live on a fabulous planet, surrounded by everything we really need – in most cases, anyway. And then we come along, and try to do something that has the potential to cause more harm than good. I’m a firm believer in Natural Laws, the law of balance, karma, cause and effect and so on, but I can’t see dragging an iceberg around will help. According to the news, the ice caps are melting anyway, and that in itself is causing problems, and taking a chunk of it away will mean there is less ‘cold’ there for the natural balance to remain. I’m a bit negative on Georges Mougin’s idea I’m afraid to say, but his end thought is a noble one, and if he could think of a better way to get water to where it is needed I’m all for it. I have the same negative thoughts about the large Hadron Collider, where scientists are trying to recreate the Big Bang. But, anything to keep this world of ours great, and benefit all life on it, I won’t have a negative word to say. I don’t really like negatives…
I haven’t seen the Incredibles so I can’t comment on that part of your post, and I loved your references to the Gods. Great post, by the way! 😀
Thanks Tom 😀 Without doubt towing an icecap half way round the world is going to have unforeseen consequences. I have a feeling Mr Mougin’s big idea might not make it from simulation to reality, if only because of the 200 foot waves….not a good side-effect…
Whoever’s paying Mougin’s research grant must be crying into their gin right now. Having said that, though, sometimes utterly fanciful ideas lead to the right if not entirely different solution, so I’ll reserve judgement on this one. Fasincating stuff, Kate
😀 Thanks BB. Interesting thought, who funded all this: the costs run into millions.
It might be easier/cheaper/faster/safer to build a desalinization plant and turn sea water into fresh, no?
Yep 🙂
Interesting, Kate. If I understand it, the ice is melting slowly now, but this will speed up, and the water will be redistributed anyway. Maybe I’m wrong. Also, what about the weight redistribution – that will probably cause some headaches. If the Japan earthquake moved our axis – what about lighter polar ice?
Jolly good point, Denise 🙂 There’s probably a good reason the ice is at he ends of the earth.
Sorry – polar ice!
Wow, the mind boggles! Thanks for sharing this thought-provoking stuff, Kate. I’m also wondering about potential side effects, which humans are sometimes inept at foreseeing…
Oh, I think the side effects would be myriad, Naomi 🙂 I have a feeling this one simply can’t get from simulation to reality…
I love the image of a bossy little tugboat (I like tugboats) towing a huge iceberg behind it… all my other concerns have already been voiced above. Great post.
Thanks Earlybird 🙂 Poor little tugboat. I certainly wouldn’t like to be its pilot…