Word: ice
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...drove back into Cambridge this past weekend, the river sparkled, glossed over with a sheet of ice. There seemed to be a firmness to the ice, a solidity that beckoned… But beware: DO NOT attempt to walk across the iced-over Charles. If you do so, YOU WILL DIE. (Not actually. That was hyperbole. But really, it’s actually unsafe...
...those of you looking for an explanation, the short version is that the river is moving water. So it freezes incrementally and not at all consistently. The ice may be thick in some places and not as thick in others. And it can change rapidly (during the day and overnight). So just because some idiot made it across, leaving his footprints, you might easily fall through following the same path a few hours or a day later...
...fall through the ice, you will die. The current will suck you under. And the extremely cold water will quickly immobilize you physically (and mentally) such that it is nearly impossible to pull yourself up and out even if you manage to not get sucked under right away...
...Some ice can be safe (see http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/recreation/ice_safety.htm). Frozen ponds are where hockey started. And some people enjoy ice fishing (no idea why). But that is for ponds and small lakes - iced over rivers are NEVER SAFE...
...talk about the average rise worldwide. But things can look very different when you zoom into specific stretches of coast. Ocean currents can make local sea level higher or lower than the world average. So can the continuing rebound of land from the weight of glaciers from the last ice age, even though they melted more than 10,000 years ago. Factors like the extraction of oil and gas, like in the Gulf of Mexico, can also make the shore slump...