South Pole

The ComputerWorld magazine's latest edition carries an interview with the IT manager based out of South Pole. I am not referring to any city or town called South Pole. The reference here is to the geographic South Pole.

Here are some interesting details from the interview:

1. As the sheets of ice keep moving, they keep relocating the Pole (yes, there is a official Pole at the geo-South Pole).

2. All longitudes converge at the South Pole. So what time zone can a person at the South Pole follow ? They can follow any time zone. But for convenience, the researchers and the IT staff follow the New Zealand time.

3. The IT support people sometime had to walk in -100 degress F in pitch dark and fix their satellites.

4. They have a club called the 300 Club. They steam in a 200 degree sauna and then run naked around the pole in -100 degrees realizing a 300 degree temperature change.

5. The planes that land closer to the base in South Pole, have Skiis instead of tires.

6. The antenna's point nearly horizontally toward the horizon to pick up satellite signal. The sun always hangs in the horizon and doesn't go as high up as it does here.

My manager requests me in relocating to Minnesota, where the temperatures lure around 0 to 10F. I am afraid of Minnesota's cold; now South Pole will be a graveyard to me.