Work and play

I've been making good progress on my work, I've even started a new project, fixing something in the DAQ that's been bothering me for YEARS.

Last night there was an interesting talk by a cosmologist whose team is installing a Cosmic Microwave Background telescope in order to learn about the first 400,000 years of the universe.

After that, we adjourned to the B1 Lounge to engage in a South Pole ritual I had not yet experienced: watching the 1982 version of The Thing ... in Betamax!!! The South Pole has one of the few remaining Betamax players in the world, and for a long time it was a tradition to watch The Thing after all the non-winterovers had left and the station had closed.

If you haven't seen it, Kurt Russell plays a helicopter pilot stationed at an Antarctic station which is invaded by an alien being. It's quite an experience to watch a decades-old tape on a modern flat-screen T.V. When the movie finished, we actually had to REWIND it. It's probably been a decade since I've had to do that!

Tonight there'll be another lecture by Lt Col Henry Worsley of the Royal British Legion on British Antarctic history.