Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

Sorry no pic this time. This walk up computer's case was designed for StYle to the point that it won't allow me to fully engage my thumbdrive whose case was designed for StYle.

It was a calm day in the shop. Fixed a bunch o' stuff. It is a harsh continent ya know. That saying is pretty much a cliche' down here. No matter what happens, food complaints, vehicle problems, radio problems. It doesn't matter. The standard answer is that "It is a harsh Continent". I think I even saw a tee shirt that said that. I may be out in the fild tomorrow. My boss said a bunch of us are headed out, some by helo, some by Pisten Bully. My trip to Taylor Dome probably won't happen until the 4th.

I double checked my compass this morning. Yup. I am too close to the magnetic soth pole. One end of needle is pulled down to the point the needle won't spin. I am taking a high quality compass. What they did in the old days was to reweight the needle to compensate.

My drain swirl observations are consistent. No swirl. I thought maybe the other day I saw a little counter clockwise swirl but....

One of the things that makes it harsh hear is that the atmosphere is much thinner at the poles because of the spinning of the earth. The solid part of the earth is effected by this effect creating not a sphere but a ovate spheroid. The diameter is thinner on a polar axis rather than an equatorial axis. The atmosphere is even more affected so even at McMurdo appears to be at sea level we have a much thinner atmosphere than other coastal towns. In other words, the brometric pressure is always lower.