In the northernmost reaches of the Canadian Arctic, 500 miles (800 kilometers) away from the nearest human settlement, researchers discovered a literal message in a bottle, Halifax’s Herald News reports.
It begins just like the worst examples of cover letters on the Internet: “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN”. But the rest of it is pretty awesome. It turns out it’s a note buried by Paul Walker, an American geologist well known to those in his field today. (1)
Every field needs its heroes. And so does science. From the fake story of the “But it moves!” supposedly said by Galileo, to a story of a lost letter in a bottle by a “stranded ice explorer” (well, the truth is that he had a stroke, his partners returned him safely back and he died later in his parents’ house – with the letter having nothing to do with the whole story) over-exaggerating events for the sake of marketing is more and more in the agenda.
The simple story of a carpenter who died for his love of people does not sell much nowadays…
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