Alien ice

Can we borrow your mass spectrometer?

Ever since the post about the devil on a snow-covered roof, the resident philosopher has kept a watchful eye on the garage roof.

With winter winding down, all the snow and ice melted, except this one patch. It is oval shaped and about six inches wide. It looks like plain old ice, white, a little sparkly when hit by the sun.

It refuses to go away.

We did not dare touch it.

After the rest of the roof had been clear and dry except this very annoying white pimple, as we affectionately called it, we began looking for a solution.

Take a torch to it, said one.

What if it's really alien, the energy from the torch might bring it to life?

That's all these bad horror movies speaking.

Then make a better suggestion!

We finally settled on a mass spectrometer. If they can use it in some TV crime show to figure out the lost recipe of grandma's hot sauce, surely we should be able to detect any alien properties of the ice patch?

[Tuesday, 2 April]
After several restless nights caused by the irritating icy pimple, or maybe also by all those hard boiled Easter eggs, the night was quiet.

This morning the ice had disappeared.

Great, said the non-philosopher.

What do you mean, great? Now I'm getting really worried. What if it heard us talk about running it through a mass spec and decided that would blow its cover?

Let's not talk about this any more. Instead, let's go and read the online version of the London Telegraph, where they are deeply committed to how the not-very-intelligent survive in an information-based free-market economy?