Letters
Write a letter to Big Dead Place.
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31 July 2003
F. Scott,
God bless you for the work you do. This was witnessed by several people this week. I'm sorry I must remain anonymous.
There is a window display as you walk into the galley where prizes are displayed for bi-weekly bingo games. Instead of bingo prizes this week, the Safety Girl has on display an extension cord that nearly contributed to the burning down of the coffee house.
The following message was slipped into her display during lunch. By the end of lunch, Safety Girl had hunted down [someone from] our recreation department and had the sign promptly removed from her extension cord display.
The sign said:
"This Week's Morale Boosting Window Display Brought to you by McMurdo Safety--'We Won't Help You Do Something Safe, But We'll Catch You When You Do It Wrong!' Tune in for next week's Morale Boosting Topic, 'Remember When you Thought Your Vote Counted' Or 'Why you Won't Get the One Extra Day Off You Voted For Earlier This Season' with guest Speaker Tom Yelvington (note: Tom Yelvington will not have the guts to address us personally on this issue, so to boost morale at this Town Meeting we will sing 'The Hokey Pokey' instead."
The extension cord display remains. What a sucky bingo prize.
Yours,
I'm Not [the Station Manager]
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31 July 2003
Dear [BDP],
Your question was referred to me. There is no specific code that identifies incense in the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), and our candle fire report (attached) does not mention incense at all in its statistics. Incidentally, home candle fires were up to 15,040 in 1999.
Unfortunately, I can't help you with any numbers on incense because we have no way of identifying or tracking these incidents.
Please let me know if I may be of any further assistance.
Sincerely,
[M.A.]
Fire Analysis Specialist
NFPA Fire Analysis and Research Division
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28 July 2003
Hello,
I'm a time traveler stuck here in 2003. Upon arriving here my dimensional warp generator stopped working. I trusted a company here by the name of LLC Lasers to repair my Generation 3 52 4350A watch unit, and they fled on me. I am going to need a new DWG unit, preferably the rechargeable AMD wrist watch model with the GRC79 induction motor, four I80200 warp stabilizers, 512GB of SRAM and the menu driven GUI with front panel XID display.
I will take whatever model you have in stock, as long as it's received certification for being safe on carbon-based life forms.
In terms of payment:
I dont have any Galactic Credits left. Payment can be made in platinum gold or 2003 currency upon safe delivery of unit. Please transport unit in either a brown paper bag or box to below coordinates on Sunday July 27th at (exactly 3:00pm) Eastern Stand Time. If you miss this timeframe please email me.
42.4845467 & Longitude -71.1576157 and the ground is 101.3' above sea level.
Although those coordinates are a secure guarded area, these channels through email are never secure. Unfortunately it is the only form of communication I have right now. There is a good chance that sombody will try to redirect the signal. The unit must be teleported directly in a way that nobody will be able to interfere with the transference.
After unit has been sent please email me at: info@federalfundingprogram.com with payment instructions. Do not reply directly back to this email.
Thank You
[Anonymous]
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27 July 2003
Three cheers to BDP! I only wish I'd known about it when I was wintering over. Then I could've been paid for the hours I pissed away reading it, rather than pissing away hours of my free time back in The World.
Keep up the good work!
FUeSPWO
(Fucked-up ex-South Pole Winterover)
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19 July 2003
All,
We continue to have problems with incense being burned in the dorms. As mentioned in prior emails, not everyone enjoys the smell of incense. Some people cannot tolerate the smoke and have had to leave their dorm room due to the excessive incense in the air from other rooms. This is simply unacceptable.
The rules prohibit burning incense. From here on out, I expect no one to burn incense. Anyone caught burning incense should expect swift disciplinary action to be taken.
Eric Hobday
RPSC McMurdo Winter Site Manager
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29 May 2003
Hello,
I was just reviewing your request to use several images from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Image Library on your website. I just went into your website and see that they are indeed being used. However, I do not see photo credits. None of the images in our library belong to NSF but we have permission to include them in our library provided we state how they should be credited and include special restrictions for use, if applicable. Some are even copyright.
Permission is granted to use images from the NSF Image Library website on the condition that (a) images are credit as stated on the image information screen (the screen containing caption, credit, etc.) and (b) any special restrictions that pertain to the image are adhered to.
Perhaps I am missing a credit page and if so, I apologize for troubling you. If the images are not credited however, you may not use them in any manner.
I've provided the appropriate credits below for the images you requested as well as restrictions that pertain to some of the images. I would appreciate a follow up e-mail letting me know how you proceed. Thanks very much.
Christina Whitcomb
Administrator, NSF Image Library
NSF Public Affairs Office
Hello Christina,
I have added credits to the photos in a more visible manner than they were credited previously, and will continue to do so in the future regarding any photos from the NSF library. Presently two photos from said library are posted on the Big Dead Place website.
It is convenient that you've contacted us, as I've recently spoken to a friend who is somewhat dismayed to find himself in one of the photos distributed via the NSF photo library. Looking through the employment contract for Antarctic workers I can find no model release clause that permits NSF to distribute promotional photos of workers engaged in the mandatory tasks of their daily employment.
Is the single photo perhaps an exception, or have all of the workers' permissions in this regard been deemed irrelevant for NSF purposes?
Of course, the matter is just a technicality. A trifling and nearly inconsequential detail that I would be embarrassed to address were we not already on the subject.
Regards,
F. Scott Robert
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23 May 2003
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18 April
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1 April
Fair play for the station manager. This past weekend he volunteered his time to help maintain the bouldering cave, a popular spot for climbing junkies and novices alike. He spent a couple hours removing and cleaning the holds with a toothbrush. Sure didn't see that from any summer managers. He's also been participating in community events, indicating he may retain many aspects of his humanity. (Don't let Raytheon know).
Equal Opportunity Critic
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29 March
Unlike the US programme, we only have to suffer the inadequacies of one management body to remotely control us during the winter season....This does not, however, mean we are exempt from the problems that your programme is infested with, [such as] people who are more concerned with enjoying boondoggles to various conferences overseas...at the taxpayers' expense to discuss things that could have taken place on the phone.
At present we have a new captain at the helm and there is some desperate hope that he might bring some positive changes to bear. At last count there were sixteen people at the Christchurch office in supervisory roles (they don't always use "manager", in an effort to hide the top-heavy nature of the department) compared with four mere underlings....Compare this to Scott Base winter numbers of twelve base staff supporting two science events over winter, as well as keeping the base operational, and you can begin to see the problem. I am not suggesting that we are understaffed, as we pride ourselves on being more than capable of fulfilling our assigned roles and still having time for a life, but it does make you wonder at the productivity of Christchurch.
One of the things the Kiwi programme seems to do well is to usually select a Scott Base crew who are dedicated to what they are doing, as well as looking out for ourselves and our fellow base staff. Unfortunately for Christchurch this also means employing people with intelligence and values and this must give them some sleepless nights. Imagine trying to go to sleep at night, knowing that there are people out there (down here) with the knowledge and perception to realise what a hash you are making of your job. I don't hesitate to add that this does not apply to all our Christchurch people, but those whom it does apply to know who they are.
We at Scott Base are rightly perceived by the US programme as having a greater degree of freedom for recreational travel than you enjoy. This is a result of being a much smaller programme compared with the assets available to us, and is also an encouragement to people who would not normally consider working in this environment for the abysmal pay they provide. Recently we had our chances for recreational travel over winter severely curtailed by an unthinking individual "grumping" about a previous trip to Cape Crozier, during which he saw only the inside of a polar tent or the inside of a broken down Hagglund....Our esteemed Board Of Directors who, incidentally, are another burden on Antarctic New Zealand's already stretched budget and have no in-depth experience of life here, decided that because of one whiner's bad experience, we were to be denied the opportunity to experience this particular joy. I am sure that all of them have visited Cape Crozier or other more exotic places, courtesy of a nice reliable helo ride during their "DV" visits, which generally occur each year for a Board Meeting that could easily have taken place in NZ. Anyway, I guess we should count ourselves lucky that three of the management- types who control our professional and private lives here have at least had the wonderful experience of wintering over at Scott Base.
Kindest Regards, possibly see you on a Thursday [when the Scott Base bar is open to American visitors from McMurdo].
A Kiwi Winterover
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19 Mar 2003
Dear Big Dead Place,
Dave Bresnahan didn't have time to send this review to you before he left so he asked me to send it in (but I kind of forgot about it till now). So, here's his long-promised review of Virus.
[Dave's assistant]
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17 Mar 2003
I noticed that the NZ sign (with the black cat) on the road to Scott Base was taken down mid-season. I later found out from some Kiwis that the USAP pressured them to take the sign down, even though a McMurdo Station sign has sprung up on the same road, positioned closer to Scott Base than the Scott Base sign! How unbelievably petty can these guys be?
I'm not sure who in particular told Scott Base to take the sign down, but within hours after the last flight left the Scott Base sign went right back up. [The NSF Rep] was on that last flight....
-Ashamed To Work For The USAP
Attention NSF Rep on the last flight: Did you pressure the Kiwis at Scott Base to take down their roadsign?
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