some links you might find interesting....

The following links were provided to me by Mindy Piuk.  In addition to Raytheon being so organized, Mindy and her husband Reinhart have been a huge support and have provided me with lots of info and helpful hints.  Some of you are aware of my sailing adventures in '07.  That was with Mindy and Reinhart.

This is a link for the live web cam at the south pole.  When I figure out where the camera is and how the timing works with the available satillites I will let you know when I am standing in front of the camera. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/livecamera.html
North Carolina is 18 hours behind Antarctica.

This is one of my favorite links. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/index.html
Feel free to explore the intial website NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) as well as NSF (National Scienc Foundation) that you reach when you click the Amundsen-Scott Station under  "South Pole Life" , then click where it states "here".  You have to check this out.  You will get a cut away view of the Amundson-Scott South Pole Station.  Use your cursor to click on the different parts of the station and a description will pop up.  Really cool.  These websites are great resources to check into some of the studies going on, pictures of everything...

This link gives you lots of info about the "Ice Cube", no not a frozen piece of H2O that you might place in certain beverages.... but rather a type of telescope that looks at neutrinos.  Neutrinos are fascinating.  We  learned a little bit about them in my astronomy classes.  I expect I am going to learn a lot more.  http://icecube.wisc.edu/

Some of my friends have been asking me about how I prepared for all this.  I gotta tell you there is a lot of stuff you have to do even after you have applied and gotten the job.  Lots of paperwork, physicals, labwork....  If you don't "PQ" (physically qualify) then you don't get to go.  Here is a link to the participant quide.  This has been a excellant resource especially in reqards to trying to pack for six months.  http://www.usap.gov/usapgov/travelAndDeployment/contentHandler.cfm?id=541

A whole new vocabulary...
http://www.penguincentral.com/MCMslang.html