JPW - since you just checked it out, and I could look it up, but I think McMurdo has about 1,000 people? Did they show the a shuttle bus named "Ivan the Terrabus"? :)

#36 - haha! that's great, GoNoles - and Brown Station, too. Fun find and post.

Here's a few things no one tells you about Antarctica that I found interesting:

1. It is ungodly dry there.
2. UV light is intense.
3. You need serious sunglasses.
4. Unless you are near penguins, there is no odor, smell as much as you want, there's nothing there.
5. Penguin guano is intense
6. Suncreen and skin lotion are not optional

#11 - that's what we're all hoping for I think, Boaz. That like other pandemics, this one will mutate to less and less virulent forms, and become a seasonal "flu" instead of what it is right now. So far these variants aren't going that way, though. Fingers crossed.

The cruise industry that DeSantis is worried about isn't the cream of the crop. These are (to me) garbage cruises. Like the ones that go out into international waters to gamble, full open bar, and open bar cruises to the Bahamas that are a constant party. The Cruise lines that are actually running Tourism cruises, even Disney's cruises are still trying to sort out their own rules and what they can do to keep people safe.

If Florida opened for cruises, it would make the United States the only country to resume cruising. So far there are only plans to resume some limited cruises in July in the UK, for instance, Canada's out until 2022. And here's the thing: All the cruise lines will require vaccine passports. Even the Cruise lines that are planning/hoping to start June/July around Florida (not from Florida, but from islands in the Caribbean) are requiring proof of vaccination.

DeSantis has already banned vaccine passports in Florida. So how's that going to work? Does DeSantis think he'll override the Cruise Industry's own requirements? So he can force the Cruise line industry to spread COVID-19?

DeSantis is painfully stupid and evil.

JPW, I don't mind talking about it generically.

I got to do a lot of hiking, spent a lot of time on Zodiacs, and lots of photography, documentation, and visiting the Argentine bases, Esperanza, Brown, Base Primavera.

Oh - and bingo on the sea ice vs ice volume. You clearly understand the ramifications and why surface ice is rather meaningless as a metric at this stage of things.

JPW - Yes. I have.

#10 - Sure you did. His "superiors" couldn't even agree on what he should do. Everyone on here of both parties agrees, even LEO here agree, but not you. Contrarian, or just a lover of authoritarianism?

(#8 - backing up the points made in #7, and also I wish your daughters safety)

#7 - Army Lt. Nazario had his hands up, eyes shut from the pain of being sprayed with pepper spray for no good reason, was still strapped into his vehicle - while the officers were screaming conflicting commands to him. Yet Army Lt. Nazario had the presence of mind to repeat commands, state what he was going to do "I am going to reach down to undo my seat belt. Is that OK?" and wait for responses from at least one officer. Step by step Army Lt. Nazario performed exceptionally well under these circumstances. The officers fell far, far short. Officer Crocker should be fired immediately.

As to this being racial, no escaping that fact when Officer Crocker yelled out that Nazario was "fixin' to ride the lightning."

Too funny, AU!
A beautiful part of the world, though, and an awesome opportunity. Too bad he was clueless about where he was going!

That place is always windy, too.

The plate was clearly visible in the back window when the police pulled him over.

This is ridiculous. I'm glad he's OK now.

Watching that video made me furious.

One more point to make, since someone was concerned about drilling in Antarctica - Antarctica is more than the size of the US and Mexico together, or if you prefer, Antarctica is the size of the entire United States including Alaska, and then add 2 and a half more Alaskas on, or just multiple the entire US plus just (just shy of) half again.

It is huge.

I'm going to dump a lot about Antarctica right here. It's a place I love.

Seasonal ice is due to changes in the Earth's tilt and the drop in temperatures. What freezes is the ocean, not fresh water on the Antarctic Continent. Antarctica is a desert, so what you're seeing is the little bit of snow that's built up over hundreds of thousands of years*. It doesn't get warm enough for any of that ice or snow to melt, so there is no fresh water melt to freeze in winter.

If you hear something referred to as an "ice shelf" that means that the ice and snow (not saline) have been around for a long, long time. Snow accumulation and glacial activity (perpetually frozen fresh water rivers) have extended these ice shelves out into the ocean - cantilevered out and/or suspended at multiple points.

What makes this so different for Antarctica from the Arctic is there is no continent, no land at all for the Arctic. In the Arctic there really aren't any ice shelves. If you ever hear someone talk about Arctic ice shelves, they're going to be talking about ice shelves extending from Canada's most northern land mass, or Greenland. Extremely small in comparison to the Antarctic.

Antarctica is also the highest continent on Earth. These massive ice shelves are attached to and supported by the continent itself, and by islands and other land masses. When these ice shelved break, they drop. The oceans rise. That does not happen in the Arctic**. The Arctic is like ice cubes in a glass. The water level doesn't change as they melt.

* True for the main continent, the peninsula extends into warmer water and further out, and accumulates snow and melts seasonally with summer temperatures sometimes reaching ~60F. The warmest parts of main Antarctic Continent have not historically gone above freezing.

**Arctic in comparison to Antarctic is the ice cap extending from the poles, and does not include Greenland for the Arctic, for obvious reasons.

It's a start.
Long way to go, though.

Listening to him it's like so many wacko right-wing nut jobs:

"We're gentlemen combatants, until it's time not to be and then we throw down and do what we gotta do."
"We're going to be facing some dark times with Biden and Kamalalala (sic) up there"
"They're coming for your guns."
"NATO's going to come get your guns."
"Biden's going to declare patriots domestic terrorists!"
"Blacks kill blacks, not us"
"Sure, there are bad cops, but there were what, 12 incidents? And out of those 12, 9 of them the blacks were fighting with cops! The Press focuses only on those and makes all of us look bad!"
"We're behind because of what happened in Georgia."
"Our freedoms are going to continue to be stripped."

yada yada yada.

#6 - Or the Trump administration and those he surrounded himself with are all criminals. Occam's Razor.

Portlandia was stupid.

Regarding homicides:

"The last time Portland recorded as many was in 1994, when there also were 55 homicides, according to police.

It remains to be seen if the trend will continue now as it did in the early 1990s, when there were 50 killings in 1991, 46 in 1992 and 54 in 1993. The 2020 count is still far below the peak of 70 that the city reached in 1987."

I hope you never change, MadScientist.
I have always thoroughly enjoyed you and am glad I get to read your posts here.

#338 - LOL! Excellent.

BTW - I was crushed I was left out of your post #187.

Do not elucidate. I'm fragile. Thank you.

:-)

Everyone's got to prove their (sic) smart

I have no idea what you are talking about.

#313 - so your idea it to let the lie be out there unchallenged? Why do you think so many showed up at the Capitol? Why did so many vote for Trump? Why do people follow Q-Anon?

Republicans built a world of lies. Pernicious lies and a network of media outlets to propagate those lies.

History can inform you how this happens and what the result can be. Strength, unity and preservation of American ideals come from not letting such lies and disinformation go unchallenged, no matter how many times it is brought up. Past Democratic Party Presidential campaigns have learned that lesson the hard way.

Reposting the links so they may be copied and pasted as a URL. Preface with https:
//www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00084-5/fulltext
//www.thelancet.com/cms/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00084-5/attachment/75bee329-bfe3-4ccc-95b0-
df8b16e6fa95/mmc1.pdf

Frankly, with so little direct connection, this article has the feel of researchers trying to angle for funding.

Read the actual study. You won't come away concluding that.