Dust flux, Vostok ice core

Dust flux, Vostok ice core
Two dimensional phase space reconstruction of dust flux from the Vostok core over the period 186-4 ka using the time derivative method. Dust flux on the x-axis, rate of change is on the y-axis. From Gipp (2001).

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Odds and ends

The news cycle is slow here in Ghana, especially when travelling. We had a gruelling all-day trip yesterday in which the truck suffered some sort of significant, yet hidden injury, requiring us to dump in a couple of litres of oil   every 20 km or so. As we approached one of the few bright spots on the bleak road from Mankessim Circle to Winneba Circle, my adventurous driver decided he wanted to see if the oil on hand would be enough to reach Winneba. I convinced him otherwise, arguing that the expense of a few litres of oil was cheap compared to the costs of blowing up the engine on a long, deserted stretch of highway in the middle of the night.

So I make it back to the office and what do I find? The TV has been fixed in my absence! And what's this? Osama Bin Laden is dead?!? And what's this? Harper wins a majority government, while the Liberals retreat to Isengard to lick their wounds? Perhaps Saruman will be thrown from the tower.

My last observation was in driving through Buduburam, a small town about 40 km west of Accra. The UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has a very snazzy building that has just gone up in this town, in acute counterpoint to the grinding poverty around it. Pretty blue banners wave in the breeze. The building has something to do with the Ivoiran refugees in Ghana, have no doubt, but does look a little too nice for actually housing them. I suspect it is for storing bureaucrats.


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