My car had its biennial emissions test today:
Right after I took this picture, I found out why the inspection guys were crawling all over my car – they couldn’t figure out how to open the gas tank cover. It’s a complicated maneuver. I stick my left arm in the trunk to pull on a plastic lever and use my right hand to push on the little door on the outside of the car. “You gotta do that every time you get gas?” one of the guys asked. I told him it’s one of the special features of my car. I think he was impressed. Or perhaps that look was pity. Anyway, my car passed.
Important tip: Go to the D.C. Vehicle Inspection Station the day after Christmas. I had a big pile of knitting to entertain me for an all-day wait in line, and I practically had the place to myself. I saw three other cars the whole time I was there.
To the driver I met while waiting for the inspection to finish: Hello! Great to meet you! This is the work I did in the Bering Sea.
Chris Linder, the photographer who took me to the Bering Sea, is on another adventure – in Antarctica on an Artists & Writers grant. He’s there to take pictures of south polar skuas, which means several weeks camping at Cape Crozier penguin colony. No blogging from the field this time, but you can follow him on twitter…if they get the internet setup at Cape Crozier fixed.
Yes…yes, I do wish he’d needed a writer this time. Sigh.
Astronauts and polar bears? In one place?!?!? Well, no, two places: New quizzes!
Project Gemini. Did you know what NASA project came between Mercury and Apollo? Yeah, neither did I. I wasn’t born yet, you see. But now I want to take a field trip down to the Air & Space Museum to check out the capsule they’ve got on display.
Polar Science. Ah, this one was fun. I like the poles. You will do better on this quiz if you have seen Encounters at the End of the World, the Werner Herzog documentary about Antarctica. It’s a great movie, so you should see it even if you don’t organize your life around doing better on my quizzes.
For all my Science Channel quizzes click here.
