News
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Climb THIS: Ice Climbing Competition Structures are Architecture From The Alterverse
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Crazy structures for the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup, including all sorts of overhanging, free floating barrels, and convoluted shapes. We got to see a few of these recently in Ouray, Colorado. Via Gizmodo: Ice-Climbing Structures Are Mind-Blowing Experimental Architecture
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Infographic: Major Icebreakers of the World
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Great infographic today thanks to the US Coast Guard – a comprehensive review of the world’s major icebreakers. My next task, sail on all of them! From the United States Naval Institute: “The Coast Guard Office of Waterways and Ocean Policy (CG-WWM) began producing the chart of major icebreakers of the world in July 2010.…
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Tinder Makes Its First Match in Antarctica
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Not like I wasn’t expecting it – popular social hookup app Tinder seems to be running full steam at both the Sochi Winter Olympics as well as McMurdo Station, Antarctica. From The Cut: On a lonely December night at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, an American scientist conducting research there decided to log on to Tinder —…
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InMyBag.Net – What’s In Photographer’s Daily Bags?
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My new website obsession is InMyBag.net, where photographers show off what’s in their photo kit bags. Endless entertainment. I especially love seeing Aaron Bates’ Adventure Travel Photography Bag. InMyBag.net.
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Learning to MIG Weld
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Last night I took a class through Denver’s new learning startup Dabble on MIG Welding. The class was taught by structural engineer Nick Geurts of Martino & Luth, Inc.. During the class, hosted in Nick’s backyard garage and workshop, we covered the very basics of welding techniques, and then some of the specifics of entry…
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The Coldest Place in the World: Dome Argus, East Antarctica
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NASA recently revealed that a spot in Antarctica just hit a record -135.3 degrees F below zero – that’s cold! In my time at the south pole, the coldest I experienced was -60F – not even close to the record. Fron NBC News: Ice scientist Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Center…
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National Geographic’s Incredible Historical Mapping, Now Explorable With Google Maps
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In an awesome move, National Geographic and Google Maps have teamed up to bring Nat Geo’s awesomely detailed, historical maps to the masses through Google’s tried-and-true maps engine. I already do a bunch of my travel planning with Google Maps, and being able to overlay Nat Geo maps on my trips seems like a great…
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Is Google Trying To Take Over the Travel Industry?
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Google is quickly developing products for presence in the Travel space, and with their existing scope and technology resources, I can see them making a significant impact if they want, giving emerging startups like BonVoyaging stiff competition. Here’s my rundown of some recent Google Travel projects… Top five travel items that make me think Google…
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Scientist Terry Benson Presents On “Innovations in Hot Water Drilling at the South Pole”
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Last Austral Summer, I spent 3.5 months living at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica. Among my many jobs on station, one of the most rewarding was the work I did with the Askaryan Radio Array drill and deployment teams. During my time working with the ARA, I got to spend some good time with…
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Dolby Atmos and the Sound Design in “Gravity”
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Gravity is definitely one of my favorite movies of the year, and I’ve seen it three times, in three different formats: Telluride Film Festival, Dolby 3D Image, Dolby 7.1 Channel Sound NYC AMC Loews Lincoln Square, IMAX Image, Dolby 7.1 Channel Sound NYC AMC Empire 25, RealD 3D Image, Dolby Atmos Sound The best presentation…
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How To Keep Your Bitcoins Safe As It Goes Mainstream
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When Bitcoin starts being accepted at major real world brick and mortar stores, how are you going to ensure that your Bitcoins stay safe? Bitcoin is not like a physical currency – it exists only in the digital world, and your ownership of your digital store of Bitcoins is dependent on you keeping, and keeping…
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Coin, The Electronic Credit Card Will Be Great, V2 Even Better
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Coin is going to be incredibly cool when it launches. An electronic credit card that stores all of your credit cards, and let’s you swipe any card just like normal. It’s not pushing the actual physics of credit transactions in a new direction, but rather giving consumers a tool to keep using existing card-swiping transaction…
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Government Shutdown Halts United States Antarctic Program – Save Science in Antarctica!
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It’s truly a sad day for Antarctica. Because of the government furlough, science operations in Antarctica is being shut down as funds dry up, as a “result of the absence of appropriation and the Antideficiency Act.”, according to the official USAP.gov website. Amidst all of the other shakeup and struggle operations in Antarctica have gone…
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An Intense Look at Consumerism.. In High Speed
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https://www.vimeo.com/57126054 From Vimeo: La surconsommation désigne un niveau de consommation situé au-dessus de celui des besoins normaux ou d’une consommation moyenne. Image provenant du film Samsara : Samsara est un mot tibétain qui signifie la roue de la vie, un concept à la fois intime et vaste, qui définit l’âme de chacun. La surconsommation from…
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A Tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
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After living and working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station during the summer 2012-2013 season, I’ve had the chance to see most parts of the station. Additionally, I also worked as a tour guide for the various tourist groups who visited the station. Here’s a brief narrated video tour of both the elevated station as…
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Search-And-Rescue In Progress For Airplane Lost In Transantarctic Mountains
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According to an NSF press release, early in the morning on January 21st, 2012 EST, contact was lost with a plane bound for the south pole, and the plane is believed to have crashed in the Transantarctic Mountains. Full press release from the NSF below. NSF press release: https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126676 January 23, 2013 Officials with the…
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Adventurer Aaron Linsdau Arrives At The South Pole
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Early on Tuesday morning, January 22nd 2013 NZDT, Expeditioner Aaron Linsdau successfully made it to the South Pole. Congratulations Aaron! Upon arrival, Aaron seemed to be in great spirits, and although a bit achy, had plenty of energy and good cheer after his long journey. Wednesday morning, January 23rd 2013 NZDT while he was awaiting…
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Building Electronics For Antarctica’s Automatic Geophysical Observatories Network
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Among the many science experiments taking place at South Pole one of the more interesting field experiments is AGO – the Automatic Geophysical Observatories Network. While Research Scientist Dr. Bob Melville and his team were stationed here at the South Pole Station, I had the opportunuty to help build various electronics, which were subsequently installed…
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An Astronaut at the South Pole: Dr. Scott Parazynski Visits The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
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Here at the south pole, we get lots of visitors – and many of them are extremely interesting. This past week I had the honor of meeting NASA Astronaut Scott E. Parazynski, MD. Dr. Parazynzki is now working as the Medical Director of the United States Antarctic Program. Having dinner with both Dr. Parazynzki as…
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The BLAST-Pol Balloon-Borne Submillimeter-Wave Telescope Launches From McMurdo Station, Antarctica
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Although this happened at McMurdo and I didn’t get to see it personally, it’s still cool – a high altitude weather balloon launch in Antarctica. BLAST-Pol is a balloon-borne submillimeter-wave telescope designed to study star formation in our galaxy. It was launched on its 2012 long-duration stratospheric balloon flight by the crew of NASA’s Columbia…
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Is It Really Snowing At The South Pole?
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Last week, amidst some interesting weather, blowing snow, and what looked like (to the untrained observer) real snow falling, I reported that we were actually getting snow at the South Pole. As it turns out, the precipitation we received here was actually “snow grains”, not real snow. To clear up a bit of the confusion,…
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Cryo Barn’s Last Liquid Helium Transfer
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The South Pole Cryogenics Laboratory, usually known as Cryo Barn, was originally established to service various telescopes and science experiments with cryogenic cooling liquids such as Liquid Helium and Liquid Nitrogen. However, in recent years, most new experiments which operate at cold temperatures have been of the “closed loop” variety – that is, they don’t…
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The Southern Pole Of Inaccessibility
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Since moving to the south pole, I’ve learned an incredible amount of new terms to describe the area around where I’m living. One such term is “Pole of Inaccessibility”. From Wikipedia: The southern pole of inaccessibility is the point on the Antarctic continent most distant from the Southern Ocean. A variety of coordinate locations have…