So, How many gigabites do you take on vacation?

So, How many gigabites do you take on vacation?

I used to take a ton of film on vacation.  Now it is about 32 gigs of flash memory AND a laptop to clear the cards and review the day's shoot!

I really like the chance to check my work in the field.  Economically, the cards are cheaper than film and processing.  But I do find myself taking a lot more pictures without that careful thought process that Kodachrome forced you into... is my composition really what I want?  Is the light really good for this shot?

What would Jim Brandenburg say?  (Chased By The Light)

Computers and technology really are everywhere.  How many gigs did you take on vacation?

Big Science in the Wilderness

There are amazing things happening in the Soudan Mine State Park.  

You can tour the "Cadillac of Iron Mines."  After the mine  tour, I can see why that might be considered a good (luxurious?) place to work for a miner, but it still would be back-breaking, dirty, dark and noisy work.  

If you happen to be there at the right time, you can catch the second tour of the Soudan High Energy Physics Lab.  This is a surprising place to find near the end of the road.  BIG SCIENCE and high tech experiments are happening here.

They are hunting for dark matter.  (There is a NOVA podcast here about dark matter.)  In another experiment, they are beaming neutrinos at a big detector (pictured) from the Fermi Lab to measure the neutrinos' mass and learn more about their oscillation. Pretty interesting stuff.

If you go, I hope you get a tour guide as enthusiastic and knowledgeable as the guide that showed my group around.  Chris really knew his stuff and I enjoyed his talk.  He is part of the intern program there.  I hope when he gets a "real" job in his future, there is teaching in some part of it.  I think he would be a good one.

Vacationeer returns

I have been out of town for a week on vacation.  Very relaxing.  

We spent some of the time in Ely, Minnesota.  The local radio station there, WELY, promotes itself as "End of the Road Radio."

We like to go there for the BWCAW canoeing experience.  The few motorboats you see there are piloted by people that actually do yield to non-motorized traffic.  Paddle on Lake Minnetonka on a weekend and you will know why that is important!

Ely may think of itself as the end of the road, but I think it has many 21st century things happening there.  I will be writing about them as I can get my thoughts organized.