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Chinese Team Heading for Coldest Spot on Earth
LMCBoy writes "Dome A is the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau, and it has never been reached by humans. It is thought to be the coldest place on earth, and is certainly among the most remote. Yesterday, a team of Chinese explorers set out from Fremantle, Australia to reach Dome A and set up a robotic weather station which will monitor the local conditions for up to five years. The team is expected to arrive at Dome A in early 2005."
So what happens when the temperature (down to -90C) goes below the sublimation temperature of CO2 (-76C, if I recall correctly)? Does it just freeze out of the air? I'm sure these guys will be heating (and probably humidifying) their air supply anyway, but do they need to add CO2 to keep the breathing reflexes working right?
I've had this sig for three days.
China seem to be determined to push boundaries at the moment. Putting a man in orbit is no mean feat. Yes the US did it along time ago, but I don't see them doing it at all at the moment due to the shuttle grounding. Now pushing for the still unexplored regions of the world. I wonder if they have any deep sea missions planned for some time in the next few years. China has definitely decided that they have somethign to prove. The impressive part is that they aren't doing a bad job of proving it.
And this really ought to mildly concern people in the US. Yes the US already has done most of these things or something similar (they have a couple of Antarctic bases, one at the pole I believe). But that's the key point. The US has done such things, but doesn't seem to be expending quite the effort they use to on pushing boundaries of exploration and science. Increasingly it seems to be Chinese and Indians with the real fire to try and push ahead. And all the better I say. The US seemed to slacken off and grow complacent, so its about time there was some serious competition again.
Go China.
(Hopefully they can break new ground sorting out their political issues too)
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
I don't know if it's particularly the Chinese, but there are serious proposals to site major telescopes at Dome A in the not-so-far future. Thin, still cold dry air makes for excellent seeing in the visible and IR and the cold is a positive advantage for IR work, since it reduces thermal IR in the environment.
It's not the world's easiest spot to ship to (no FedEx service, even) or build at, but it's cheaper than the South pole of the moon, or Earth-Sun L2, which are suggested alternatives.
I'm an American businessman in the import- export business, so as you might guess, my frequent travels take me to many places around the world, on every continent. Anyhow, I wanted to share my experience in the "great" country of China.
;-)
:-P
;-)
Just to get it out of the way, I'm an American businessman too, that lives and works mainly in Tokyo Japan. I too travel all around the world, but so far business hasn't taken me to Antarctica yet. (Every continent, eh?) That said...
Anyways, when I stepped off the train from Hong Kong (which was no paradise itself, as that place has gone down the shitter since the Brits left) I was shocked. The whole place smelled like a combination of vomit and dog shit that had been left out in the sun for a day or so.
Reminds me of NYC.
And it was probably BECAUSE there was vomit and dog shit all over.
Yep, bingo, NYC! (Well, it's more vomit and urine, and less dog shit...)
People spit everywhere. Trash litters the streets. I found myself looking DOWNWARD much more than looking FORWARD when I walked.
Chill out, it's a cultural thing. If you're not used to it, the spitting can gross you out, but there are plenty of other things that we do that would gross out alot of other people. For example, not using a specialized tongue cleaner every day sorta grosses out the Indians. Using PAPER to wipe our asses is considered incredibly unhygenic (and in a sense it is) as far as most people in the middle east and asia are concerned. On the other hand, the thought of wiping our asses with water, USING OUR HANDS, grosses us out equally.
It doesn't help that their infernal language consists of abrupt rapid fire tones that is a cacophony for any human ear to bear. How do they speak and listen to that shit without going crazy all day long is beyond me.
If that's what you have to say about Chinese, you don't want to know what most people think of Yankee, Aussie and Kiwi English.
Anyways, Chinamen stink -- literally. There is no concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Meetings with even top officials were hourlong sessions of having to endure hot sweaty bodies and rancid breath eminating from mouths missing a few teeth. Geez, at least use deodorant for crying out loud.
Americans stink too. It's not that rare that you'll run into a white american manager that apparently has never heard of deoderant. Soggy, dark sweat stains under their pits. I know many Chinese, and just like us Americans, there are dirty ones and clean ones, and nationality seems to have little to do with it. That said, Europeans have a much higher rate of having really bad BO, than Asians. Even with the deoderant, the Japanese seem to be able to pick up this scent, and will gag and puke behind your back. Again, this is all relative.
The hypocrisy, corruption, and double-standards from the highest levels of government on over are the norm at the same time China opens up to the world. Foreigners get charged as much as five times for transportation, lodging, food, and everything else.
Okay, I have to agree with this. There are a lot of back-stabbing double-standard corrupt "high" officials in China. This certainly has room for improvement. However, it's not that unusual in developing countries. Ever been to Indonesia?
Traffic is horrible. Rules are non-existent except for at traffic lights: red means to go fast, green means to go REALLY REALLY fast.
Ever been to Rome?
The Chinese people themselve are pretty apathetic and everyone just wants to get out of that hell hole, so you see smuggling rings shipping people out hidden in truck beds and ships, all too often with tragic results.
As far as the apathy, I wouldn't count out our own country. I guess we don't have people smuggling themselves accross the border to Canada though. Yet.
The who