Category: |…|
-
Lunch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Claypot Chicken and Rice
On my way back from Macau to Sydney, I had a quick 8 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As soon as I got to the airport, I took the train into the center of town, and spent an afternoon walking around, and grabbing lunch. Here’s my quick trip.
The outdoor mall in downtown Kuala Lumpur. I’d been here before, but since I only had a few hours and the airport train goes straight here, I decided to stop by.
Downtown Kuala Lumpur
I had just enough time for lunch, and decided to get the traditional Kuala Lumpur Street-Side Claypot Chicken and Rice. This dish is served all over KL, and is cooked fresh to order,
Clay pots are heated up on charcoal. Dry rice and water are put in first, and the rice is cooked up fresh.
Once the rice has been made in the clay pot, marinated bone-in chicken pieces, salted fish, and Chinese waxed sausage is added. Soy sauce, scallions, and a few other seasonings are added in too.
The entire mixture is cooked together in the clay pot.
The dish is served with a small bowl of chiles in oil, added to taste.
Overall, a super satisfying lunch in KL. -
Here’s Where China Makes Volkswagens – My Private Tour Of VW Car Plant #3
Lots of cars are made in China, including Volkswagen and Skoda. Showing up in a suit unannounced, I managed to talk my way into an unscheduled private tour of Volkswagen Shanghai Car Plant #3. Here’s how it all works:
More on my explorations of Shanghai: Modern Ghost Towns, Racecars, and Skyscrapers in Shanghai
-
Exploration of North Korea – Successfull, Covered by NBC News
After spending a week in the DPRK – North Korea, I’ve finally landed safely back in Beijing. I ran the Pyongyang Marathon (personal record – 3:36:55), visited the north side of the DMZ, and saw in person the bodies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, among many other amazing and weird experiences. Full report During my time in the north, NBC News ran a story on the marathon, and my trip:
Pyongyang Marathon: Americans Race to Run in North Korea
BY ERIC BACULINAO
BEIJING — North Korea has frequently run Americans out of the country — but a horde of U.S. nationals are racing in. Literally. Dozens of Americans are touching down and tying up their laces to compete in the Pyongyang Marathon, brushing off any bad blood between the U.S. and North Korea in search of adventure and cultural enlightenment. It was the “forbiddenness of the whole place” that drew Jeffrey Donenfeld to sign up for the race, the frequent marathoner told NBC News. -
Launching the WAIS AERIAL CAMP PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY INSTRUMENT (WACPSI)
During a down moment at WAIS, I built and aereal vehicle for my GoPro, with the hopes of getting aerial video of field camp. The WAIS Aerial Camp Photographic Survey Instrument (WACPSI) was made out of foam. Some of its design features:
- Lightweight, protective, and insulating foam body.
- Integrated aero-wedge frontal shock-absorbing nosecone.
- Vertical stabilizer with integrated trim tab and safety tear-away mechanism. The stabilizer counteracted torque from the ground tether and balloon, automatically keeping the vehicle oriented facing into the airflow.
- Protective and secure instrument bay, including a friction mount gopro attachment, with redundant parachute cord synching.
- Waterproof, shock resistant camera housing, with emergency pressure release membrane, and visual activity indication lighting.
- 2.4GHz air-ground command, control, telemetry and TV link, with wireless, battery operated, solar charged handheld ground station.
- Exothermic Fe-oxidative thermal control system located directly above instrument bay. Provided base thermal management to support battery and camera sensor performance.
- Interlocking ground tether and balloon tethers, ensuring payload is optimally and ideally positioned along lifting and recovery lines.
- 300G dual-balloon helium lifting package, including 1 100g and 1 2oog weather balloons. Pre-warmed before filling to ensure structural integrity, filled with gaseous helium-4.
- UV-stabilized nylon ziptie attachment for balloons, with freeze-proof, wax coated sisal line backup.
- Hybrid flat-webbing and mil-spec parachute cord recovery and lift line, with backup ground tether and radial-winding recovery winch
- LMR-based VHF radio system for launch-site personnel communication and safety/launch announcements.
-
Tracking Satellites in McMurdo at NASA’s Near Earth Network Ground Station
One of the more interesting facilities at McMurdo station is NASA’s NEar Earth Network Ground Station. The facility is comprised of a server and management office in McMurdo proper, as well as a large satellite dish, covered with a radome, on the edge of Arrival Heights, just outside of town. From NASA:
October 3, 2014 – Formerly known as the Ground Network, the Near Earth Network (NEN) provides telemetry, commanding, ground-based tracking, data and communications services to a wide range of customers. The NEN provides these services to customers with satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), geosynchronous orbit (GEO) highly elliptical orbit, Lunar orbit and missions with multiple frequency bands.
Customers are both national and international, government and commercial entities, NASA (Earth Science, Space Science, and Human Explorations missions) and non-NASA.
The Near Earth Network utilizes both NASA-owned and commercial stations around the world to ensure proper service to customers.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD Maryland manages the operations of the Near Earth Network.
-
Exploring Christchurch, New Zealand
During transit to Antarctica, I had a brief afternoon of free time in Christchurch, New Zealand. Amidst a few errands, here are three shots taken from around town:
The central church, with repairs ongoing. 
Christchurch started recovery from their recent earthquake quickly, including by building a mall out of shipping containers. It’s actually pretty cool! 
Although it’s been moved a few times, the dance-o-mat is still there. -
Faust Wine Cellar, Budapest, Hungary
Faust Wine Cellar to your Budapest, Hungary – www.gbwine.eu
Thanks Amanda Lusty! -
The HAM Radio Shack – Talking To The World From KC4AAA At The South Pole
Buried deep within the B1 Emergency Pod at the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station is the emergency communications booth – inside, there is a complete set of backup comms equiptment, capable of operating completely independently from the rest of the station in the event of a catastrophic loss. In addition to backup gear, there is also the primary HAM radio set. The HAM radio, or HF radio, is used openly to talk with stations around the world. This season, it was operated by Boyd Brown, a seasoned polie. During a few Sunday mornings, I had the opportunity to sit in the shack with Boyd and talk on the radio with people from around the world, as well as all over Antarctica. Notably, I had a good conversation with the radio operator at Antarctica’s Palmer Station.
The South Pole Station’s callsign is KC4AAA, and mostly transmits on the 20 meter band at 14.243MHz. Here’s Boyd in the shack:
-
My Year In Blogging: 2012
Thanks to WordPress’ new Jetpack module, which helps connect self-hosted wordpress.org blogs to wordpress.com’s online services, I now have a complete set of stats for my blog. The stats were turned into an infographic, representing some interesting data about my site. Check out the report.
Too bad Antarctica isn’t represented on the map.:)
-
South Pole’s Plumbing Shop
On the ice at the South Pole, we’re as self sufficient as we possible can be. When something breaks, somebody’s gotta fix it. A few days ago I went with a few friends to check out the south pole’s plumbing supply shop – this place houses everything to fix all levels of plumbing disaster – from a jet fuel line break down to a simple pipefitting drip.
-
Going Out in South Pole Style
Yes, on weekends here at the south pole, we like to relax a bit, hang out with friends, and party. Often times party spots are at field camps, and to get there, we usually walk. Sparing most of the details, here’s a quick stop at the pole on my way out to the SuperDARN experiment utility barn with a few friends.
-
The Southern Pole Of Inaccessibility
Since moving to the south pole, I’ve learned an incredible amount of new terms to describe the area around where I’m living. One such term is “Pole of Inaccessibility”.
From Wikipedia: The old Soviet Pole of Inaccessibility Station, revisited by Team N2i on 19 January 2007 The southern pole of inaccessibility is the point on the Antarctic continent most distant from the Southern Ocean. A variety of coordinate locations have been given for this pole. The discrepancies are due to the question of whether the “coast” is measured to the grounding line or to the edges of ice shelves, the difficulty of determining the location of the “solid” coastline, the movement of ice sheets and improvements in the accuracy of survey data over the years, as well as possible typographical errors. The pole of inaccessibility commonly refers to the site of the Soviet Union research station mentioned below, which lies at 82°06?S 54°58?E[4] (though some sources give 83°06?S 54°58?E[5]). This lies 878 km (545 statute miles) from the South Pole, at an elevation of 3,718 m (12,198 ft). Using different criteria, the Scott Polar Research Institute locates the pole at 85°50?S 65°47?E.[6]
So, it seems like I’m not living at THE most inaccessibly place in Antarctica, but it’s darn close.
From Wikipedia: Map of distance to the nearest coastline[1] (including oceanic islands, but not lakes) with red spots marking the poles of inaccessibility of main landmasses, Great Britain, and the Iberian Peninsula. Thin isolines are 250 km apart; thick lines 1000 km. Mollweide projection. -
Hanging out in Boulder, CO
The past few weeks as I’ve prepared to depart for Antarctica, I’ve been hanging out with family in Boulder, Colorado. A few pics from our adventures..
Hiking the Mt. Sanitas Valley Trail
Sampling Chilis at the Boulder Farmers Market
Walking around CU Campus
-
The Donenfeld Siblings say hello from Loveland Pass!!
See this image in my Flickr Photostream. -
First Snow, North Boulder Park
The season’s first snow in Boulder, Colorado. Peaceful after midnight in the park, before morning tracks…
See this image in my Flickr Photostream. -
CU Buffs Charging Station
A sure sign of the times – CU has installed small charging station stands
all over campus. Now all they have to do is upgrade them with Lightening
connectors… -
Good Evening from The Gunks, NY
What a wonderful way to end a day of climbing… Sunset on the cliffband, now onto dinner by the campfire…
See this image in my Flickr Photostream. -
One Year Ago Today: Apple Picking
One year ago today, I was apple picking with friends at Minard Farms in Clindondale, NY. And in a few weeks, we’ll be doing it again. Look forward to a whole new set of apple picking photos!
-
Today, 9 years ago
On this day in 2003, I was mountain biking the Switzerland Trail outside of Boulder, Colorado.
-
We Choose To Go To The Moon
An epic speech.. absolutely inspiring.
