Sun Over Antartica
The trek across the Antarctic ice sheet is a long, hazardous, and costly journey for scientific researchers working in the world’s most remote location. Astronomers, geologists, and biologists regularly spend much of their field season and over 70% of their hard-earned grant money on logistical support – an intricate choreography of supply planes, snowmobiles, and tractors meant to move gear to where it needs to be.
One of the most significant time sinks is the crevasse-detection process, which involves a massive snowcat tractor treading its way slowly across the ice. As Laura Ray, a Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College, describes it, a 6-meter long pole extends from the front of the vehicle with a ground penetrating radar (GPR) instrument at its end. As the driver inches forward, the system surveys the subsurface like a metal detector-wielding beachcomber tentatively looking for buried treasure. Sitting nearby is a technician, eyes glued to a screen that displays the GPR data in real time. Inch by inch, data streams across the monitor: if the look-out thinks it indicates a crevasse, she has two seconds to press an emergency stop button. Making the right choice could be the difference between smooth passage and a costly, time-consuming, dangerous crash.
It’s an important and likely life-saving program – one born from frightening mishaps – but it soaks up a lot of time. “It’s tedious and tiring,” says Ray, “and there are few people that do it well.”
Extreme conditions, long hours, and tedium: just the job for a robot. Ray and her colleagues have spent years developing such a tool, and the latest edition of the Yeti autonomous vehicle offers important financial and scientific benefits.
Not much Sun here today although it did hit 70 yesterday for the first time since last year. It’s starting to bloom everywhere with all the almond trees and others covered with pink flowers.
Rockets into space with Space X sending a ton of supplies to the Space Station. Last week I watched it cross the sky around 6PM, quite bright in the early evening sky.
Well it looks like I spoke too soon the clouds are breaking with blue sky peeking through. Mighty dry here, no significant rain since Dec.
Dieses Auto parkt sich
Nothing blooming here, that’s for sure. Wish it would warm up already. All that snow we got last week got drizzled on, giant hunks of ice coat roads that weren’t plowed, and wherever I walked in the snow. Sick of it, sun came out today but didn’t do much melting.
So sick of the talking heads Sunday mornings. Don’t I say that every week? Today I watched Chris Mathews, the only guy that I’ve ever heard mention raising the cap (I’m for deleting the cap) on FICA. He seems to forget he ever said that. He had his chance when his gang this morning talked about the biggest thing dragging this country down, the so-called “entitlements.” Dan Rather was the first to speak and he said they have to raise the retirement age to 70. That 70 is the new 30. WHAT THE FUCK!!!! Apparently, he’s as out of touch with normal people as the politicians and the regular rich people.
No one ever says, but who will keep people employed until they’re 70? How can a ditch digger keep digging ditches until he’s 70? What about all the employers out there that get rid of older employees, the ones in their 50s, to get the younger people in who will get less pay, benefits and retirement IF that employer ever offers a retirement?
One of them, maybe it was Chris Mathews, when talking about Medicare someone said everyone loves Medicare. He said, “because it’s free.” FREE, MY ASS! I have to pay $110 a month for it, plus I have to buy a supplemental PLUS I have deductibles, copays and denial of service like you get w/ insurance companies.
Not to mention to HIM $110 might seem cheap, but when you’re of the peasant class that is a lot of money to cough up every month, along with all the other things you have to cough up money for every month.
So, everyone that makes the laws doesn’t care to understand and help the people. Everyone that employs people doesn’t care to understand and do right by the people. Meanness and greed everywhere you look. Gawd, 70 is the new 30. >:O
Too bad so many citizens continue to think it’s ALL the Repugs’ fault — this was always part of the plan, the so-called Dems are complicit, too…
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON | Sun Mar 3, 2013 6:03pm EST
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama raised anew the issue of cutting entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security as a way out of damaging budget cuts, a White House official said on Sunday, as both sides in Washington tried to limit a fiscal crisis that may soon hit millions of Americans.
Signaling he might be ready to explore a compromise to end automatic spending cuts that began late Friday, Obama mentioned reforming these entitlement programs in calls with lawmakers from both parties on Saturday afternoon.
“He’s reaching out to Democrats who understand we have to make serious progress on long-term entitlement reform and Republicans who realize that if we had that type of entitlement reform, they’d be willing to have tax reform that raises revenues to lower the deficit,” White House senior economic official Gene Sperling said on Sunday on the CNN program “State of the Union.”
etc.
Replace repugs by progressives and all that will go away.
It’s unfathomable that anyone, and I mean ANYONE in our government thinks it’s ok to make changes that hurt all the vulnerable people in this country and NOT the rich! How dare any of them speak of, much less actually cut any of the programs we depend on IN OUR PURSUIT OF FUCKING HAPPINESS!
Every one of them that opens their yaps and says,”It’s the entitlements that need to be “reformed” should never, EVER get another vote. How dare them seek out ways to hurt us and not ways to make us feel better and do better!
A few snow flakes here just now.
And then with sun at the same time.
The Arab Spring and Climate Change
A Climate and Security Correlations Series
When people are hungry, revolutions begin and governments topple.
It can’t happen here? We’d better start learning from the mistakes of history.
Countries around the world are mired in financial/economic messes, but see austerity (and continued greed by/for the top dogs) as the way out. What foolishness!
(Rainy…no, sunny…no rainy…no cloudy…wait, then it’s sunny again. That was today in B’ham. S’posed to be in the upper 20s tonight.)