Coldest Spot On Planet Earth Identified 182
Thorfinn.au sends this news from NASA:
"What is the coldest place on Earth? It is a high ridge in Antarctica on the East Antarctic Plateau where temperatures in several hollows can dip below minus 133.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 92 degrees Celsius) on a clear winter night. Scientists made the discovery while analyzing the most detailed global surface temperature maps to date, developed with data from remote sensing satellites including the new Landsat 8, a joint project of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., joined a team of researchers reporting the findings Monday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. Researchers analyzed 32 years' worth of data from several satellite instruments. They found temperatures plummeted to record lows dozens of times in clusters of pockets near a high ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two summits on the ice sheet known as the East Antarctic Plateau. The new record of minus 93.2 C was set Aug. 10, 2010."
I'm surprised... (Score:5, Funny)
I would have guessed "inside Dick Cheney's heart".
Re:I'm surprised... (Score:5, Funny)
That was the researchers' first thought too. But no matter how long they spent looking for it, they just could not find the damn thing, apparently it resides at a "secure undisclosed location".
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I would have guessed "inside Dick Cheney's heart".
Ah, but his burns with capitalism! Nothing, but nothing warmed the cockles of his heart like the 8 billion no-bid contract given to the company he was once CEO of.
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Nothing, but nothing warmed the cockles of his heart like the 8 billion no-bid contract given to the company he was once CEO of.
Name one other company that even offered (let alone could deliver - never mind competitively, price-wise) what Haliburton specialized in doing. Please, go ahead.
While you're hunting down that non-existent company, please also discuss on the no-bid contract awarded to the company that so gloriously just executed Healthcare.gov, despite there being all kinds of competition (to say nothing of companies with competent track records) willing and able to do the job.
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Nothing, but nothing warmed the cockles of his heart like the 8 billion no-bid contract given to the company he was once CEO of.
Name one other company that even offered (let alone could deliver - never mind competitively, price-wise) what Haliburton specialized in doing. Please, go ahead.
While you're hunting down that non-existent company, please also discuss on the no-bid contract awarded to the company that so gloriously just executed Healthcare.gov, despite there being all kinds of competition (to say nothing of companies with competent track records) willing and able to do the job.
And WHY do you think Haliburton was in a position to provide all of those services, hmmm? Former CEO is the power behind the throne and it has always looked to me like Dick passed them a note, upon being elected to the VP office, "You guys be ready. We'll find a reason to go in and had a very, very big order for services. I'll never believe they weren't positioned for the day they'd be called upon, with the understanding they would be called upon.
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I would have guessed "inside Dick Cheney's heart".
Which one? The bastard goes through 'em like Paul Reubens goes through Kleenex. [wikipedia.org]
Cool! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cool! (Score:5, Interesting)
Our data centers on snow covered mountains are the hardest to keep cool. Snow is an excellent insulator.
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Snow is an excellent insulator, but also really likes to keep things at 0 C or colder. So if you put your heat exchangers on the roof, you can basically guarantee that they will always be exchanging heat with an atmosphere that is 0 C or colder.
If you are more intelligent with your design and run your heat exchangers hot enough to melt any snow, you can then radiate directly into the antarctic air and really dump some serious heat quickly.
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That was a dumb response (Score:2, Funny)
What do you think will happen to all the runoff, Einstein?
It runs down the drains that double as the heat exchangers and off the building?
Are you really that dumb or do you beat yourself in the head with rocks every day to meet your personal goal?
Re:Cool! (Score:4, Informative)
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um... it doesn't stay winter forever.
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um... it doesn't stay winter forever.
except in pre-wardrobe Narnia, and quite possibly in Westeros, starting somewhere in Book 5.
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um... it doesn't stay winter forever.
It does in Antarctica, dufus.
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Is it the snow or the altitude that's causing your cooling woes (or maybe both)? Cooling performance will be negatively impacted with increased altitude and lower air pressure. Telecom equipment environmental operating requirements (like those defined in GR-63/NEBS, for example) often allow equipment to be derated when operated above certain altitudes (e.g. 1800m in the NEBS case).
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Our data centers on snow covered mountains are the hardest to keep cool. Snow is an excellent insulator.
Why do you have datacenters on snow covered mountains, do you work for a bond villain?
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Pretty sure my basement is colder (Score:2)
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I may have to get a pair of wool socks.
Wigwams at CostCo. $12 for a set of 3 pair!
I do not work at CostCo, nor own stock, I merely worship there
Visit East Antarctic Plateau! (Score:1)
That is fucking cold. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Considering CO2 freezes at -78C... Yikes. That's cold...
Sounds like a good place to set up a mars simulator.
Re:That is fucking cold. (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow. So, what happens the atmospheric CO2 in that case? Would it precipitate as "dry ice" snow?
Surface temps - radiated temps. (Score:1)
Wow. So, what happens the atmospheric CO2 in that case? Would it precipitate as "dry ice" snow?
Ecellent question.
If it's atmospheric temps then "dry ice" shoud precipictate. Yes?
Then again, if it's radiated temps, that's differnet. Yes?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law
It is close to being able to create solid CO2, but the pressure at the altitude might have caused it to remain a cold gas. I'm also not sure how much CO2 is at that location. It isn't China bad down there.
Re:That is fucking cold. (Score:5, Informative)
Wow. So, what happens the atmospheric CO2 in that case? Would it precipitate as "dry ice" snow?
Vapor pressure of carbon dioxide at -100 C: 100 mm. Actual partial pressure of CO2 on average in Earth's lower atmosphere: 0.3 mm. Partial pressure of CO2 in exhaled breath: 38 mm. So no, no dry ice snow - the vapor pressure is still too high. At around -110 C the possibility of "dry ice frost breath" becomes possible. It would have to be near -140 C before CO2 would start condensing out of the air.
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What the hell is a "pound"?
It's what I do to the face of smartass AC's.
Re:That is fucking cold. (Score:5, Informative)
CO2 freezes at 78 C at a partial pressure of 1 atmosphere. That means that if the atmosphere were 100% CO2, and we were at sea level, but still at -93 C, then there would be CO2 snowing out of the atmosphere. However, the partial pressure of CO2 is much lower than 1 atmosphere simply because so little of the atmosphere is CO2. Since only 0.0397% of the air is CO2, and the local pressure (due to the high altitude) is about 0.65 atm, the partial pressure will be 2.6e-5 atmospheres. At that partial pressure the CO2 freezing temperature is less than -140 C [wordpress.com] (I couldn't find a diagram that went quite far enough down in pressure).
The physical reason for this is that there are two competing processes involved. CO2 molecules bumping into a solid speck of CO2 and getting stuck (freezing), and CO2 molecules shaking loose from a solid (sublimation). But the former process proceeds faster the more CO2 gas there is, i.e. the more often these collisions happen. Hence the dependence on the partial pressure.
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CO2 freezes at 78 C
I think you accidentally a -.
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But if you filled a balloon full of CO2, then would it start to freeze at this cold location?
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Yes. I think you would end up with the balloon shrinking until all the CO2 has been converted into a small lump of dry ice.
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I sense a kickstarter....
Typos (Score:2)
Oops, that was supposed to be "-78 C" and "2.6e-4 atmospheres".
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On the plus side: Free Dry Ice! (Score:2)
Well, as this is cold enough for Carbon Dioxide to freeze, I imagine it gets a cool witch's cauldron effect when it warms up for the summer...
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I too was wondering if it snows CO2 flakes.
How long can you survive there? (Score:1)
Re:How long can you survive there? (Score:5, Interesting)
At temperatures even warmer than that, people need special snorkels with heat exchangers to avoid freezing their lungs. Death would be by asphyxiation in mere minutes unless blood freezing in the skin caused some sort of high blood pressure event that triggers a heart attack first.
With or without (Score:3)
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With or without a woman present?
This pops into my mind a new sense for "frigid woman", one that I'm pretty sure I dislike more than the common one.
Coldest *Natural* Spot... (Score:2, Insightful)
Pretty sure we've made colder temperatures in labs...
correction. . . . (Score:2)
uh, you meant on a clear SUMMER night, right?
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Seasons are relative. Because it's summer where you live, it doesn't mean it's summer everywhere. August is winter in Antarctica.
Coldest spot on earth is inside Dick Cheneys heart (Score:1, Troll)
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I take exception to this. As of 24 March 2012 we can state for a fact that Dick Cheney now has a normal human heart: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dick-cheney-receives-heart-transplant/ [cbsnews.com]
My ex-wife's heart (Score:5, Funny)
Certainly the coldest spot on earth... just saying.
No slashdot article can be complete... (Score:1)
Re:No slashdot article can be complete... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, it could be *warmer* before AGW.
AGW has an annoying effect of moving weather away from moderation to extremes. So the cold gets colder, the warms get hotter, the temperate drier or wetter (droughts/floods), etc.
That's the main effects of climate change - the weather starts hitting the extremes. You get drought, followed by extensive flooding, followed by drought, etc. Summers get hotter still, winters get even colder.
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Please exaplin "because all observable planets, besides earth, show the exact opposite happening" because as far as I can see Jupiter has one heck of a violent storm problem.
The center of the planet is molten. Space is cold. Air temperature is primarly affected by 1) solar input from ground heat and 2) radiative loss to space at altitude. More ground warming means more air rising, which means more cold air falling somewhere else. Making one spot hot is going to push more air up at that point, to balance tha
From a friend of someone down there (Score:2)
Re:From a friend of someone down there (Score:5, Interesting)
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Coldest spot on earth? (Score:2)
Maybe. But they need to take a measurement from the center of my ex-wife's heart before they put down any records.
meh (Score:2)
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Yes, I'm quite sure you would be fine. Why, in 100 years time, we could probably find your body in remarkable condition.
Celsius (Score:2)
> minus 133.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 92 degrees Celsius)
minus 92 degrees Celsius (minus 133.6 degrees Fahrenheit)
There i fixed that for you.
But they were most shocked... (Score:2)
...to find one of Dick Cheney's summer mansions built there. Apparently it's his favorite home away from home where he's free to let it all hang out. His tentacles, that is.
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But then the nerds would have nothing to argue about, and nerds love arguing about pedantry.
I'd guess that the units thing was deliberate, just to keep them happy that they've got some nits to pick.
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The forgot to check the hearts of the congresscritters voting to end unemployment benefits as a Christmas gift, after having to cut the school lunches and food stamps. They would find it way colder than Antarctica.
Well, yes, now Maggie Thatcher is gone. My, but her heart was cold as the depths of space itself.
Re:Epic Fail. (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder how Switzerland's guaranteed minimum income initiative is working out? Is everyone quitting their jobs to live in minimal-standards misery?
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I wonder how Switzerland's guaranteed minimum income initiative is working out? Is everyone quitting their jobs to live in minimal-standards misery?
If the guaranteed minimum initiative only results in minimal-standards misery, then what good is it really?
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Yet disproportionate number of UI recipients find jobs within 1 month prior or after their benefits end date.
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Yet disproportionate number of UI recipients find jobs within 1 month prior or after their benefits end date.
What exactly is a "disproportionate" number, and why is it disproportionate? Please, hard facts only, and none of this "well, just look at the number. It's obvious they were just sitting on their asses."
After all, "40% of all 'sick' days are taken on either a Monday or a Friday" sure looks like proof of sick day abuse. But once you realize that there are 5 working days in a week, and 2/5 == 40%, it actually makes perfect sense that, on average, 40% of all sick days will be taken on either a Monday or a
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You haven't raised a family with today's costs on $67k/ year. You could probably buy a house for less than that when you started a family. Now, that'd be a mobile home with no extras.
Shit, I make 3/4 of what my father did when he was working, but I'm a LOT poorer.
Re:Epic Fail. (Score:5, Insightful)
The solution is to pay attention to Demand-side economics, where we stop coddling the rich (the self proclaimed job creators) and tax them. If you believe in free markets, you should know that if this captialist won't create the job another capitalist will come along and create that job. They keep telling labor, "If A does not do the job, B will. No one is indispensable". Same thing is true for them too. If A is not willing to invest when there is a job to be done, B will. No single capitalist is indispensable. We have excess capital, and lack of demand. Create demand, jobs will follow.
Of course, all it takes is a few well placed media stories about "gun control" or "gay agenda" or "baby murders" and all the people who actually would stand to gain, gain a lot in fact, would vote against their own best economic interests.
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If companies can't invest in themselves, maybe they're not very good at what they're doing.
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Re:Epic Fail. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have tons of investments, not quite 1 percenter but quite high and getting there. And real long term viability of my investments, not next quarter or year or even decade depends on not screwing the economic base of this country.
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That's true even in the short term. Asset prices are quite high right now, and growth fairly low. All this points to likely lower than historical averages on returns over the next decade.
Obviously this means that lowering taxes on the wealthy or on corporations will do nothing. What needs to be done is raise taxes on the wealthy to fund things like infrastructure projects and increase the flow of money to lower and middle class people. This should result in an increased standard of living for all citizens.
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The notion that the business owners are the job creators is a myth. I run a business, and I want as *few people as possible* on my payroll - just enough to do the work for my clients, not one more - as every single one eats away my bottom line. In reality everyone does think this way - just check how share prices change after the announcement of layoffs.
The real job creaters are indeed the consumers who drive up demand so muc
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The money paid by the consumers are what is paying for the cost of production, profit of the investors and wages of the employees. If there is a profit to be made, somebody will. That is the f
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You might try having more than one person.
Try having a wife & two kids, thus 2 cars, saving for 2 colleges, and a wife who grew up poor and so wants to spoil her children. I live near enough to schools for my kids to walk to elementary, middle & high school. Thus housing is pricier than if I lived a few miles away.
But yeah, $67k/person would be fucking awesome. Our household income would be $268k! Sweet!
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" and a wife who grew up poor and so wants to spoil her children"
There is your problem, and is exactly what the parent poster was trying to point out. $67k is a fair amount of money to live on, even for a small family, in many areas - if you are fair with spending it.
The whole "kids are expensive" thing is really blown out of proportion also. If you take away most of the video games, ipods, ipads, laptops, cell phones, name brand fancy clothes, etc, they really aren't that expensive to tag along and mooch.
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Everything you want to take out?
Yeah, that's called life.
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These things represent enjoyment, and fun. If your life is about anything else, then you can keep it. No one cares about your superiority when you're dead.
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Well, let's see.
My older kid bought his own iPhone, pays for half his data plan, and pays for all his own games. Wears target brand clothes, pays extra if he wants name brand.
My younger kid is the same, but with his iPod.
Yeah, shocking that kids like playing with video games/computers.
But please presume to know me.
Oh, BTW, both my kids are grade accelerated while still getting As, top of their age groups in competitive AA hockey, and can have intelligent conversations with adults.
I'm guessing you didn't ha
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LOL at such bitterness or is it jealousy?
Re: Epic Fail. (Score:3)
Giving people a stipend like Sweden is one of the better ideas I've heard in a long time, instead of working to further a few individuals private interests, people would now have the time to dedicate to their own interests, which would be much more diverse and generally non-profit motivated. Myself, for instance, would use my time to further medical research in compounds that can't be patented.
Socialism isn't the answer, but at the same time capitalism isn't ether. We control the world at this point in our
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That might work well in small european states, but in the US that sort of thing would only result in the recipients having more children and in immigration fraud.
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One of the major r
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Hooray for Australia! It's discovered a hidden technique to suppress any innovation that a bureaucrat doesn't like.
Q: Coldest Spot On Planet Earth (Score:5, Funny)
A: Ex-Wife's Bedroom
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And we have suspicions as to why...
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You are a complete idiot.
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Quick! Call Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and tell him he's made a terrible mistake!
I mean, sure, it's possible that J. Random Slashdotter doesn't actually have anything more than a monkey's grasp of atmospheric science, and therefore no idea what he's talking about, but hey, what are the chances of that, amiright?
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The chances are about 10% that he's entirely wrong, and about 20% that he's a little wrong, for something like this. You'd probably be surprised if you ever actually gathered the success rate of these sorts of things. That's why the headline is incorrect. It's not conclusive. It's speculative. Good speculation, but still totally non-conclusive.
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Well, at least a few of us are wondering how much fanfare there would be if they discovered a record high.
Disclaimer: This is not the deep south. But with double-digits below zero F every night for the past week, some global warming would be kind of nice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUFTm6cJXM [youtube.com]
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Actually, they did the reverse... There was a record temperature reading from about 100 years ago in Libya. This wasn't convenient because we should be setting high temperature records now, not 100 years ago... so they found a way to discredit it and get a modern death valley reading in place. [wunderground.com]