Journal

These are all the components you need to successfully run this machine.
This complete set can be yours, if the price is right. And yes, that is a car battery in the tundra!

Let's think about the phrase "jumbo shrimp." How can something be jumbo (which means insanely large) and shrimpy (which means super small) - at exactly the same time? I always thought that never made sense.

Sherpa for the afternoon.
One thumbs up for man, one giant framepack for mankind! Kim is suited up with a greenhouse gas analyzer machine, AC adapter, and a CAR BATTERY!

Another thing that doesn't make sense is calling something "ultra portable" that clearly weighs 30 pounds and feels even heavier the longer you have to haul it into the tundra. In so another enigma eludes me as Kim and I work with the Ultra Portable LGR Greenhouse Gas Analyzer.

Portable? Yes? But they didn't say how portable……
Tablets in the tundra!! I eagerly show off the graph of greenhouse gas emissions.

The somewhat smaller little brother of the Fast Greenhouse Gas Analyzer, this adorable little guy does all the same measurements as his sibling, but is housed in a waterproof, handled briefcase, allowing it to be toted to several different sites in one day, making it quite the heavy hitter in gas emission readouts. The original model, weighing a hefty 60 pounds and requiring an electrical outlet, makes moving it to different basin sites quite impractical. So this smaller machine, while giving us a work out, is definitely worth its weight in (data collection) gold. Kim and I use this machine to take readings at 4 other secondary basin sites within the BEO.

BIG Night Out - Literally!

This movie features Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski.
Gray whales have baleen that they use to filter food. They are easily identified by their gray skin with white mottling and perhaps even more so by their characteristic encrusted barnacles.

If you thought researchers had no social life, you are completely wrong! Kim and I attended probably the biggest event going on that night at Barrow - a viewing of the movie "Big Miracle" - a movie about the ice-trapped California Gray whales in Barrow. The movie, "inspired by a true story," pays homage to a few of my favorite places in the Arctic - Pepe's (The Most Northern Mexican Restaurant), Point Barrow, and of course, hut living! The movie accurately portrays the local Inupiats as dedicated, hard working people who value culture, tradition, and history while progressively integrating living in 21st century western society.

Local youths flocked to watch movie based on their hometown of Barrow.
The biggest ticket in town that night, was watching a free viewing of the Barrow-based movie Big Miracle at the Tuzzy Consortium Library.

I was so hungry, I almost ate the paper bag. Almost.
Free popcorn, you had me at free.

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