Exactly, Colin. I feel your media-driven pain. Working in the space and science fields I see a whole lot of poor reporting.

Given that most people you talk to when off the Ice tell you to look out for the polar bears and say "hi" to the Eskimoes, I wouldn't say your average person's knowledge of geography, let alone specifics concerning Antarctica, is very accurate. And, yes, a lot of people also assume South Pole means the same thing as Antarctica, but the continent is over twice the size of the contiguous U.S.

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Originally posted by colin:

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Originally posted by CuspTech:
In general, there is not light snow falling here at Pole. We only get ~20 cm of snow per year, and most of the accumulation is due to wind-blown drifting. The temperatures at Pole only got up to around -7F, and have since returned to the -15F to -20F range, which is certainly not anywhere near freezing.

Funny that. Almost every time I have personal knowledge of the subject of a newspaper (or these days... webpaper? Cyberpaper? Shudder.) article, the article gets something wrong. Often trivial little details like that, but it could almost make one distrust the media.

In this case, I suspect the writer used some reference to the "climate of Antarctica," as if Antarctica was a town and not a continent.

Maybe it was more a metaphor for the "psychosocial climate?"

OK, it wasn't, but still, it could have been.

Cusp, as fire brigade commander you were negfligent in not hosing down your coworkers. When I saw Girls Gone Wild: South of the Pole Edition that's what they did.

How you ever going to get your own GGW T-shirt now?

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Originally posted by CuspTech:
Exactly, Colin. I feel your media-driven pain. Working in the space and science fields I see a whole lot of poor reporting.

Given that most people you talk to when off the Ice tell you to look out for the polar bears and say "hi" to the Eskimoes, I wouldn't say your average person's knowledge of geography, let alone specifics concerning Antarctica, is very accurate. And, yes, a lot of people also assume South Pole means the same thing as Antarctica, but the continent is over twice the size of the contiguous U.S.

Do they aske you about the Mountains of Madness and the eldritch horrors therein?

Well, since we don't have any water-driven fire suppression devices, except for the sprinklers in the elevated station, I don't think folks would get as big a kick out of a dry-chemical extinguisher shirt contest. Everybody would just end up looking like a powdered donut.

No questions about the Mountains of Madness and the eldritch horrors therein. Lots of what do you eat, isn't it cold, what do you wear, did you see (dancing) penguins... It's actually fun to talk to kids about down here, and to see what sort of things they are curious about.

How much free time do you have and how do you fill it overall?

Well, we're contracted for 54-hour work weeks, but there's this rider in the contract about "Performs other duties as assigned" that makes pretty much anything game for you to be required to do. I have been averaging between 85 and 90 hours a week, so have almost another regular week's worth of overtime piled atop my contracted basic work week.

In my small amount of free time every day I have tried to get some sleep, but usually not nearly enough. I've been working out a lot to keep in shape for any instance should I have to do a patient extraction from a fire/emergency scene. It's tough work at 11,000 feet, believe me. I've been reading some, usually as I try to wind down before that illusive sleep I mentioned earlier. I have Rosetta Stone software for Russian that I'm trying to study on a regular basis. I also get in what seems to be a ridiculously small amount of socializing with other folks around the station.

In general, at least in the summer here, it can be pretty hectic and non-stop work. I gather that things slow down a lot once we close the station for winter.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CuspTech,

Hmmm...

That's a lot of working. I thought you would have more down time. Maybe, as you say, in winter.

Interesting.

Yeah, I had images of grizzled guys sitting around playing cards and waiting for the sun to come up, but that would be winter.

In general everybody is pretty busy down here. They try to get as much work out of people as possible during the summer while the station is accessible. My schedule is a bit of an exception to the rule, I guess.

You got blogged

Carhartt!

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If you look in the first picture there is a small pole with a brass top just to my left. That's the actual geographical pole marker.

Cool. It looks like a shovel stuck in the snow.

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The week before some Star Wars fans, including me, got together and took photos in a jedi robe and wielding a lightsaber. The pics all got photoshopped together, and the organizer is going to try and get it sent in to Star Wars Insider (or some such fan mag).

Nerds conquer Antarctica!

"Next time, you be the back end of the Taunton (sp?) costume!"

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Originally posted by UberDog:
And if so what does that say about the world, man!?!?

Tikkun olam , man, TO.

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Originally posted by CuspTech:
Let's see, motivations (in no particular order):

Remove myself from the rat race

Add my name to the list of <1,200 people who have spent a winter at SP

See the aurora australis

Feel what -100F is like

Work with science on the Ice

Get good long-duration isolation experience that is applicable to manned spaceflight

Leave the Ice again, find myself in the Antipodes, and get to take another great trip back to my side of the globe

Free room & board

Good food

Good company

Clean air

Why not?

Especially that Aurora Australis part. Yea mon.

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Sign me up for the nifty nanotech position next year!

Kama Sutra for Lilliputians.

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Everybody would just end up looking like a powdered donut.

With very hard nipples.

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Originally posted by CuspTech:
In general everybody is pretty busy down here. They try to get as much work out of people as possible during the summer while the station is accessible. My schedule is a bit of an exception to the rule, I guess.

THis is also the single best way to keep y'all sane, I think.

Yeah! I totally didn't expect to hear back anything, but being "blogged" completely made my morning, day, week, fortnight, season... Thanks Mr. Gibson!

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Originally posted by kenmeer livermaile:

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Originally posted by CuspTech:
In general everybody is pretty busy down here. They try to get as much work out of people as possible during the summer while the station is accessible. My schedule is a bit of an exception to the rule, I guess.

THis is also the single best way to keep y'all sane, I think.

Kenmeer, you're absolutely right on that account. Probably the biggest warning I got from the outgoing science techs was to keep busy and avoid boredom over the winter at all costs. They said it really was the best way to-as Ice lingo puts it-become "toasty", which doesn't go you or the station community any good.