Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The sound of silence


Tuesday 25 November 2008

Hello?!? Reality check??? Challenges, crises, problem solving??? No way: disregard last transmission, blue sky is far from boring, nothing like a scientist on the speed of incoming data @ 169 m/µs J! And good data it was. Our radioglaciologist, Kenny, got us the first ice thickness profile across the Utsteinen ridge. Postponing the daily highlight of dinner, he analyzed it right away, thus showing a splendid radargram over lasagne… So we did measure the sound of silence after all. Today, our new team member was also recruited for her first round of field work. Which was right before she had to mend Denis's finger. Indeed, the "drill" part of the team, Denis, Jean-Louis and Bryn were still doing the mecano of putting the ice core drill together. Putting the cumulative equivalent of 45 years of academic education together for a bit of DYI can have some foreseeable consequences.

Apart from the first scientific breakthrough from the journey, the first metaphysical conversation also occurred at dinner, between chicken and pasta. What's the difference between morality and ethics? As all metaphysical issues, this one raised more questions than answers, and Alain himself cut short, by pointing out "da's een beeke moeilijk voor u hein menneke".

Jean-Louis just walked in, and we barely recognized him: you have to know the "bathroom" was finalized today. A spare container from last year's cargo, magically made over by our carpenters to allow for the washing facilities: cabins with a washing basin, which needs to be filled at the hot
water tank, a curtain to undress in privacy, and above all, the fantastic luxury of a mean temperature around 18°C. So our JayLo came in with a smooth baby face, rosy cheeks, and very oddly smelling of soap and cologne, in this environment where the team's modeller could easily come up with an equation describing body odour as a function of time, temperature, and energy
expenditure.

It's 23:49 and the sun just got up, or rather reappeared from behind the nunatak. Bright blue sky and shining daylight, time to go to bed

Nath

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