I mentioned before that there was a congressional delegation on our flight. They were mostly members of the House Science Committee and the Ways and Means Committee as well as the Deputy Director of the NSF. It’s funny how well these people get treated. They get shiny brand new bags, while ours are all faded and beat up. They don’t even have to carry their own bags (I think you can see someone picking up their bags in the photo above). They board at the last minute, and they get the nicest seats up front. They continued on to the South Pole with us, so we actually got to talk to them quite a bit. More on that below…
McMurdo was nice, but nowhere near as amazing as last time. First off, let me just get this out of the way. I didn’t see any penguins. Zero. Zilch. So there will be no penguin souvenirs. Maybe I'll be luckier on the way out. The chances are better then, since the icebreaker will have come in and cleared a channel already. So keep your fingers crossed for me. Second, the souvenir shop was closed. What the hell. I came all the way down to
Thursday morning we left for the Pole early. There were maybe 30 people on our flight, about half of them from this congressional delegation. Most of us got a chance to shoot the shit with them. Nogg, I spent some time talking to one of your representatives from the fair state of
It was funny though. A bunch of us had just been discussing how badly science fared in the recently passed budget. High energy physics (including Fermilab) got crushed, and they actually pulled the
Once again, I'm staying in a Korean-War-era tent (think MASH) a few minutes walk from the main station. I had a little trouble getting acclimated to the altitude (some lightheadedness, dizziness, etc.) but I already feel better acclimated than I ever did last year. At least I can walk up the stairs. And things are actually a little bit more relaxing this year than last. I have less to do, and I know what to expect. So I think I'll be able to get my Economist side projects done without arousing the suspicion of my bosses down here.
One last photo. It may be hard to see, but there's a beautiful rainbow around the sun from floating ice crystals:
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