Mt Evans

Took a trip to Colorado last week to visit family and commemorate the life of my brother. Grayson Pointer died last year from a scooter accident, and his ashes were scattered on Mt Evans on June 19, the first anniversary of his marriage to his wife Lauren. So it's been informally decided that we will make an annual pilgrimage to the Denver area to summit the peak and remember. Here are some choice photos of the trip.

Broeker on 'fixing' carbon

Nice interview in the Smithsonian with geochemist Wallace Broeker. I can't help but agree with him that proposed solutions such as alternative energy and carbon credits are, while great ideas to pursue, are too little, too late to stem the changes in climate due to increased CO₂ emissions. With the way our economy, political landscape, and infrastructure is laid out, a change to clean, greenhouse gas free, renewable energy is decades away. And with the recent testimony of NASA's Robert Hanson (PDF link) that we have merely a year to make drastic cuts in carbon emissions... yeah, this train's a-rollin. The interview is interesting and the book should be too.

Procrastination.. I know you.

Update: T-riffic Response:

New location, under same management

I've made the switch over to Blogger, and most of the old content has been transferred here, thanks to a clever script by zeaster. (Thanks!) My original intention of keeping a separate blogs for the kids and faint of heart was too complicated and not really a good idea anyway. There are worse things for a 14 year old to do on the internet than follow a link to an off-color video or see the word 'shit' printed on a screen. So here's where you'll find all of Brian's many colored brain droppings ('brain shit' for the teenagers..), Antarctica related or not. As usual, you'll find that this blog will have spurts of many posts over a short period of time, followed by months of silence. This is how I blog. Please do not become concerned if your incessant refreshes do not show any new material. RSS is a great invention. Google it if you don't know what it is. As for my life lately... I was crazy busy in the lab until the end of May. Have been slowly catching my breath and reflecting on the immensity and amaze-ity of my experiences and the underlying science as well. I'm starting to get a much better grasp on how I'm going to turn all this monkey-work into a working, meaningful thesis. At least that's the plan. The future holds a short backpacking trip, a trip to Denver to see some family and remember my very inspiring brother, and then off to Antarctica to freeze my nuts off on the 5th of July. w00t!!