Picture(s) of the Day

Nice to know the scientists down here still have a sense of humor. I saw this on a tour of the lab building yesterday.

The laser helps scientists learn about Ozone depletion. On clear days it shoots 30+ miles up into the air to try and hit ice particles in the upper atmosphere. When it hits ice particles some of the laser beam bounces back and is collected in a telescope. The more laser that comes back the more ice is in the upper atmosphere. The ice clouds are important because they provide a place for ozone-depleting chemicals to react with the ozone. More ice clouds in theory means more ozone depletion.

So far the sun has been low enough behind the hills and I'm wearing enough clothes not to have to worry about wearing sunscreen. Give it another week, though and I'm going to be slathering it on my cheeks.

I spent Saturday evening over at Scott Base. (which is full of Kiwis, not Scotts) Our friends from New Zealand were hosting a "P" party where everyone supposedly showed up in a costume of something that began with the letter P. There were a couple of penguins, pirates, priests and princesses. My personal favorites were the Pringles can and the panda using earmuffs high on the head as ears. The most original was probably "partly cloudy with a chance of showers" who had cotton balls attached to a blue shirt and a spray bottle. Biggest cop-out was the "procrastinator" who showed up late without a costume. I used my leather-patch elbow sweater, reading glasses, and large brandy glass to be a professor.

The weather just went to condition 2 again which suspends travel off-station. The powerplant is only a couple minute walk down the hill here so I won't be getting any time off because of the condition 2; it will just give me a bit more adrenaline knowing the weather is quantitatively bad. It was condition 2 most of yesterday too which kept me from feeling guilty spending most of the morning in bed and the rest of the day watching a movie and reading.

I finished reading "Dune" so I decided to check the movie out of the film library. I can't say I liked the movie all that much but I should have expected strangeness since it was done by creepy-confusing director David Lynch and it was the beginning (and end?) of Sting's acting carreer. Sadly even Patrick Stewart could not save the over-the-top campy portrayal of a book which is quite subtle.

Back off to work. This afternoon's task is figuring out where all the heat recovery pipes in the new 16-cylinder generators go. Wish me luck.