Weather: A few days of sunshine and no wind, then four days of 70-knot blizzard.
Cleaning out the tankhouse
The tankhouse was this week's site for heavy industrial work at Mawson with the yearly cleanout of one of the three water tanks. Built in the late 80s from prefabricated steel panels, bolted together on-site and then sealed, these three water tanks hold 90,000 litres each for both drinking and emergency fire supplies. In summer, they are filled from the sparkling meltwaters of thousands-of-years-old ice gushing down from the plateau and in winter by us melting a tiny corner of the glacier just behind the station.
Spence and Hotdog test out the Mawson flight suits prior to the upcoming satellite check
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The doc wonders how his laparoscopic bariatric surgical stapler ended up in water tank No. 3
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We can't believe we're getting paid to do this
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"It's dirty work cleaning out these things", said Dave "Hotdog" G today from deep within Tank No. 3, "but Spence and I – we just love this sort of stuff".
Fire-fighting Training
With the need to throw away 30,000 litres of water to clean out the tankhouse, and rivers of nice clean stuff running off the plateau, what better time is there than to conduct the annual summer cleaning of the Mawson rocks out the front of the Red Shed? For this, the traditional fire-fighting costume of Antarctica was donned and all on the Fire Team had a go at squirting that rock clean.
Fire Chief Lee sets out the dramatic rescue operation
Photo: expeditioner photo
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The quality of Aaron's work is even more astonishing given his vision is partially obscured by a large white sticker
Photo: expeditioner photo
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You don't mess with the man with no eyes
Photo: expeditioner photo
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Barry likes the fire hose
Photo: expeditioner photo
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Matt likes the fire hose too
Photo: expeditioner photo
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Tubby's 62nd birthday, supervised by the Fire Chief
Photo: expeditioner photo
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Zucchini Corner
If you thought last week's intensively-farmed zucchini was special, wait till you see the monster that came out of hydroponics this week. Quite what Gunny has been putting into the electrolyte mix he won't say, but together with the heat and light powered by our eco-friendly wind turbines, it is certainly setting new records.
In fact the zucchini was so large this week that the fleet-footed baton-relay approach for delivery into the kitchen (see last week's This week at Mawson, 9 January, 2009 ) had to be abandoned in favour of a more conservative Hagg-based traverse.
Field Training Officer Hully cancelled a day's search and rescue training in order to be on hand to guide the loading of the zucchini onto the Hagglunds, which he achieved with a network of cunningly-arranged rope pulleys and karabiners.
After being lashed to the Hagglunds, Gunny's Giant Zucchini was taken on a tour of the ice plateau
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"Slippage was a real risk however", said Hully afterwards. "Once those zucchinis get going, there's just no stopping them, so I had to make sure she was roped down good and proper".
Some interesting calculations.
From our in-house aficionado of this kind of thing
The definitional distinction between "fruit" and "vegetables" can often give rise to heated discussion, owing to the fact that "fruit" is a botanical term but "vegetable" is not. Thus tomatoes and zucchinis, being the ripened ovaries of the plant, are both fruit, whereas in culinary terms we think of them as vegetables. It is interesting to note that the United States Supreme Court however, decreed that the tomato was a vegetable, for the purposes of the 1883 Tariff Act on imported produce, while acknowledging that it was in fact a "fruit".
In the Dental Chair
From this week's guest "dentist":
The cusp of Carabelli, first described in 1842 by Georg Carabelli, a court dentist of the Austrian Emperor, is a small additional cusp at the mesiopalatal side of the maxillary first molars.
This cusp is absent in some individuals and present in others in a variety of forms. It is present in approximately 70% of people of European ancestry but interestingly, is found in only 40% of Pacific Islanders.
A partial dental survey (n=5) has shown that the cusp is present in 40% of Mawson expeditioners, although because less than a quarter of the summering team have been examined, hopes are high that we may yet uncover further examples of this attractive variation.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to be involved in this survey down here at Mawson", said station doctor Peter S (not a real dentist). "Two days ago I didn't even know what a Carabelli cusp was, and here I am writing authoritatively on them".
The cusp may also be found in dogs and cats.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Nathan takes part in the Mawson Summer Carabelli cusp survey
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After successfully locating a Carabelli cusp, Peter celebrates with the traditional washing of the right ear
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Spence finds art in everyday things
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Mawson in the News
The much-googled fame of This Week at Mawson has led to several articles on Mawson expeditioners hitting the "old-media" papers:
Peter H cools down the sweltering readers of the Adelaide Advertiser
and Jasmine has hit the big time with the Sunshine Coast Daily
Meanwhile, closer to home, read Peter H's article on our very own mad genius Kym Newbery
On the Penguin Front
From our Special Correspondent on Bechervaise Island:
Dave and I kicked off our Beche darts competition. Dave got off to a flying start, and although my comeback was equally impressive, he won the game with a bulls-eye.
On a serious note, there are around 1700 penguin chicks on Beche (all individually counted), which is four times as many as this time last year.
Darren takes aim in the Bechervaise Island combination sports-centre/kitchen/bedroom/lounge/blizzard-survival-shelter and rubber-duck-display-area
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Kym basks in his recent celebrity status
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An Adelie poses for Kym's famous Penguin Cam
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Matt's Magical Mawson Nature Tour
Faced with the option of wasting a windless sunny Sunday afternoon installing his new network card, or leading a group of expeditioners on a search for hidden gems found in the historic diggings about the station, comms tech Matt L chose to venture into the tour-guide business to great acclaim and mild sunburn.
Wonder of Antarctica – when built in 1956 (the year television began in Australia) this hangar was the largest building in Antarctica
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Coat-hooks of past doggy expeditioners
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Jasmine checks out her home town on the horizon
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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"I've considered a change of career to tour-guiding many times", said Matt, "because I do like the outdoors, but programming computers is just such a great way to meet people".
Not actually a Cosray telescope at all, really
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Penguins admire the historic 1956 hangar – from afar
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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The end of another nature tour, from left Peter S, Barry, Jasmine, Bob, Half a Noodle, Andrew & Geoff
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Field Training with Hully
With the lost Mars bar still lost despite three searches around Rumdoodle hut, the final field training team widen their search area.
Aaron, Lee and Pete look for the lost Mars bar from altitude
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It's not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves
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Narrowing the Mars bar search down to the triangle of probability
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Art Corner
Mawson Expeditioners switch their digital camera controls to "Black & White Art Mode" this week for a more tonal rendering of their world.
Chick No. 1667
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In the background Aaron is wearing an Air Supply fan club member T-shirt
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Spence's empathic study of the dental patient reminds all of us of the importance of daily flossing
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A few photographs unrelated to anything else in this edition
No comment from Mike on the recent Angelina Jolie rumours*
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Still working on 'Magnum'
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Matt and Tubby with their new renewable-materials network card
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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* see last week's This week at Mawson, 9 January, 2009
And then there is COSRAY.
This week the cosmic fluxes aligned and intersected the Mawson Cosmic Ray Observatory in such a way as to allow the upgrading of the 20 year old electronics with the latest whiz-bang remotely tweakable Pulse Height Analyser (PHA) monitoring thingies. Bob, assisted by Kym, Peter and Barry managed to perform manual hand dis-assembly and re-assembly of the 48 tubes on telescope number P3 in near-record time.
Another Cosray tube gets operated on
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Bob checks Kym for Carabelli Cusps with the CosRay gun
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Good enough to eat
Photo: Expeditioner photo
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Now that all of the surface telescopes have been upgraded, they are pumping out 144 PHAs and untold millions of co-incidences each day.
Next step is to start on the four telescopes down in the vault - but that's a story for next week's edition of This Week At Mawson!!!
