Since Scumple Ain't Here

[L'Emmerdeur]

I'll step up and inform you all about our impending doom due to a speculative microbiological catastrophe.

'Ancient never-before-seen viruses discovered locked up in Tibetan glacier'

For the past 15,000 years, a glacier on the northwestern Tibetan Plateau of China has hosted a party for some unusual guests: an ensemble of frozen viruses, many of them unknown to modern science.

Scientists recently broke up this party after taking a look at two ice cores from this Tibetan glacier, revealing the existence of 28 never-before-seen virus groups.

Investigating these mysterious viruses could help scientists on two fronts: For one, these stowaways can teach researchers which viruses thrived in different climates and environments over time, the researchers wrote in a paper posted on the bioRxiv database on Jan. 7.

"However, in a worst-case scenario, this ice melt [from climate change] could release pathogens into the environment," the researchers wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. If this happens, it's best to know as much about these viruses as possible, the researchers wrote.

While it's true that scientists have been finding ancient microbes in ice for years, [Scumple]there is no doubt that soon one or more will prove to be deadly to humans and highly contagious[/Scumple].

[Sean Hayden]

The seeds he planted continue to produce. Surely he will be with us forever.

[Seabass]

It was "Scrumple", no?

[Brian Peacock]

[pErvinalia]

It was "Scrumple", no?

He dropped the 'r' at some point, for some known only to him reason.

[Brian Peacock]

He usually dropped his aitches as well.

[Hermit]

And 'n', as in "a hour from now".

[laklak]

Was he scrumple and then crumple, or crumple then scurmple? Cronos was in there somewhere.

[Seabass]

He was apparently Kevin, at first. He was Crumple when I joined. Then he became Atheist-lite, then Scrumple, followed by Scumple according to rEv, and finally Cronus, and then he eventually flounced.

He will always be Crumple, in my book...

[JimC]

Those who have had a Ratzian smilie named for them are very, very special...