MT. Erebus and the valleys

Some more pictures of the Dry snowy continent.

Moonlight and Auroras

Nothing looks more beautiful than seeing auroras float across the sky during a full moon. The moonlight and the auroras blends together beautifully, making the moment surreal and peaceful.

THANKS TO ALL THE VETERANS....

A year after graduating high school I joined the United States Marine Corp. I Started out at the Marine corp depot in Parris Island, South Carolina. It was honestly the best thing I have ever done in my entire life. I truely believe that nothing i have Been through or have encountered since joining the Military can stand up to the experience and knowledge i've gain in booth camp and throughout my military career. From My travels to my Experiences there is absolutely nothing i regret about the military. I joined the Marine Corp at the age of 20. I've experienced duty in Norway, Chili, Panama, and have cross-trained with the Canadaian military, and served in 3 different units while in the military. I'm Proud of my military career and wouldn't change it for anything.

To All the veterans, and to All the People serving at this present time, I wish you god's speed and wish you well, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for serving and defending our country.

McMurdo Galley

This is a picture of the Mcmurdo Galley that one of my Friends, Jeff Kalinas, who works in the kitchen during the summer time drew. Jeff has drawn many pictures that are similar to this one, but I like this one best because it looks as real as it can get.

Arrival Heights

These are a couple of pictures of Arrival Heights. Arrival Heights was Named and used by the first explorers in antarctica to see the ships coming into the Mcmurdo sound. It is the best possible view of the open water as well as the best location to see the ship coming into mcmurdo.

Green Skies

Here are some really Beautiful pictures of Auroras moving across the sky. Wish you were here to see it.

The GREENDAY

Here is a picture of me putting away food on monday's food delivery day.
The pictures of the greens are from my latest harvest. The lettuce are crisp and beautiful, the tomatoes are red and juicy. The Cucumbers, thyme, parsley, Basil, Mint, Jalapeno peppers, Cilantro, Arugula, chives and Rosemary all make for tasty herbs for seasoning just about anything. Nothing like fresh garden greens in the land of ice and snow.

Antarctica Tax Petition

This is a copy of a petition that has been sent out for many years now in our program with the hopes of convincing the united states government/ united states IRS that people working in Antarctica should be exempt from taxes because they are not living in the united states while they are working in antarctica. While this is still an active case in court, i thought i'd post it here on my blog and help to bring it to more people's attention.

http://petitionspot.com/petitions/AntarcticaTax

Petition Statement: We are Taxpayers involved in a case against an IRS audit dealing with the earned income exclusion for persons working in Antarctica.
IRC § 911 provides an exclusion for persons working in a "foreign country." While the IRS website has changed to now include the "Antarctic region", this was not always so. Older case law in the United States Tax Court had established that Antarctica was not a foreign country for the purpose of this statute.
However, in recent years, the United States Supreme Court and the District Court in Massachusetts decided under other federal states, including the Federal Tort Claims Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, that Antarctica was a foreign country. David Smith, et al.
v. Raytheon Co., 297 F. Supp. 2d 399 (D. Mass. 2004); Smith v. U.S., 507 U.S. 197 (1993). The net effect of those opinions was to deny persons living and working in Antarctica any protection under these federal laws.
In the United States Tax Court, one of the taxpayers, David Arnett, Appellate Court No. 06-1934, who claimed the exclusion, was the lead case. The Tax Court ruled that Antarctica was not a foreign country for the purpose of the exclusion. This case was affirmed on appeal in the Seventh Circuit. The net effect of these cases is whereas while one is not entitled to any of the protections under federal law for employment related injuries or labor abuses, one is also not provided any tax relief; taxes that presumably help pay for benefits such as these. The courts took a technical approach to the question of whether or not the exclusion was available and avoided the underlying fairness issue and equities that are involved. The technical issues could have gone either way and credible legal arguments were made to support a position that Antarctica was a foreign country, thus allowing the exclusion. However, these arguments did not prevail, so the incongruity continues with the workers who are in Antarctica. Apparently, only legislative efforts will rectify the situation. All we ask for is fairness. If one is not entitled to any of the protections under federal law for employment related injuries or labor abuses, then one should be provided relief from the taxes that presumably help pay for benefits such as these protections. We ask for this relief.

It is for a good cause, so please take the time to visit the petition and support it by signing it.
Thank you.
Petition Spot Webmaster


You can promote this petition by doing as said below Gmail user please copy the code from PetitionSpot.Com
(http://petitionspot.com/petitions/AntarcticaTax?source=gmail)

Up late another saturday night........

These are some Random pictures I took after band practice saturday night around 2:30am. Getting up this morning was a bit hard but i made it. Brunch was tasty and very fulfilling. I do wish the YANKEES would get it together. Losing to the Mets is just not acceptable. The last picture, obviously a "far side" cartoon, I found on the wall. I just had to throw that one in, i thought it was funny.

This is today's weather forecast: Basically, blowing wind, drifting snow.

Hurray for Safety

Today is safety awareness day. Basically, everyone sits through a series of safety lectures and then go back to their work stations and try and fix any safety issues that they might find.
For those of you Who are not here in MCMurdo, this might not mean anything, but to us down here we believe in "SAFETY FIRST". With that being said, I must now go to my work center (a.k.a, the greenhouse) and fix any safety issues i might find.

Be safe out there kids, and remember--SAFETY FIRST.

JAYBIRD

no blogging on company time!

I know that RPSC has a very strict policy about using 'their' network to do personal computing. As i'm certain you can't access this blog from the kiosk, and i imagine the help desk is sick of your ass, where do you blog from and how do you stay under the radar?

hehehehe, you're missing a helluva spring here up north Jaybird

Here are a few pictures from here in Mcmurdo. This is what our days look like right now. Basically, it's going to stay this way until early august. I like to think of it as "our little ghost town".

More Greens from the land of white....

Nasturtium in blue bucket (far left). Green cherry tomatoes.
Lettuce bed (below left)

More Greens

This is a picture of the Nasturtium that i am growing, the flowers haven't bloomed on them yet, but i thought the leaves were neat looking.

HELLO FROM MY WORLD

Today i'm trying to post my first blog.

i hope it comes out the way i hope.

i'm going to try and put more interesting blogs from now on, but this being my first, i'm going to try and make it short. This is a pic of some of my tomatoes that i grow in the greenhouse at Mcmurdo station, Antarctica.