i picked up a kurt vonnegut book about a year ago and i found this quote from kurt vonnegut. i'll read it to you that i know you can read it. even as i speak to him in the very last polar bear may be dying of hunger on account of climate change, on account of life. and i will sure miss the polar bears. they are babies are so warm and cuddly and trusting, just like ours. thank you. [applause] [inaudible] >> there's going to be a microphone passed to the questionnaire because we want to be able to hear you on booktv. >> richard, is the decline of the ice cover and antarctica are matching the arctic or are they a different rates? >> i'll have to repeat the question. the rate is approximately the same, but the terrain -- not to rain, but it is different because antarctica the continent has an ice sheet that covers the entire continent virtually, whereas the arctic is the notion surrounded by land. there are glaciers in the arctic, glaciers in england, glaciers and iceland. there are glaciers in canada, glaciers in alaska. these glaciers are melting. the glaciers in the antarctic

>> guest: kurt vonnegut is a friend. and because he's written so brilliantly about world war ii, in fact was (unintelligible) and he was somebody i spoke to quite often when i was writing the book. he has a house in sagaponack, and i see him very often in long island during the summer. and he was tremendously supportive, so i sent him the book. i knew it would be of interest to him. ken auletta is a great friend. and because he writes about great corporate tycoons and figures for "the new yorker," we thought it would be appropriate. tim ferris and ambrose are two of the authors that my editor, alice mayhue, at simon and schuster, has nurtured along, and so that was her choice. c-span: who's in this picture right here? >> guest: that's a very famous photograph that was taken in berkeley, and that is when the group of physicists were meeting at lawrence and loomis's request, to discuss the financing of the big atom smasher. c-span: alfred loomis, all the way to the right. your grandfather in the middle, james conant? >> gu